Microsoft has taken the wraps off of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. It addresses security concerns, fixes previous security issues, and implements new security features. In case you are slow on the uptake, Windows XP Service Pack 2 is all about security, says ArsTechnica.

OK, so you want to create a windows service and you're not a .NET guru? This is exactly what got me in trouble with my wife. It started off easy enough, but before the weekend was through, my wife was getting on to me for spending so much time at the computer. She thought that I should be spending quality time with our family, imagine that. I told her that I was doing some 'personal' research, that, "no, it's not work honey" and "I'm trying to learn some new technology", "think of it as reading a book, only on the computer..." Inanities like that, she wasn't having any of it, of course. Regardless, I am glad to report, I figured it out and just in the nick of time, too.

Richard Stallman wrote a short editorial on the 20th anniversary of GNU. It's a summary of what he considers needs to be done now.

This article is the fifth and final installment of my series on Debian-based commercial distros in a Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) environment. It has been a wild ride (see OSNews' archives under the "Features" menu for the previous articles of the series), and I would rather eat my weight in jelly beans than go through that again. But I think it was worth it. We will see in this article Xandros being reviewed and compared to all previous distros I used and reviewed the past 2-3 months.

"Do you rely on legacy DOS apps. that are critical to the survival of your business? Me neither - I just want to play Frogger again... One way of running those old favourites under Linux is to use the DOSBox software package." Read the tutorial here.

Here is a great new, innovative product: a very intelligent 800-pound robot to help you at home, named NS-5. At least this is what the firm "3 Laws Safe" is promising for July 16th this year. The OS used in the humanoid robot is named "Teresa" and the version shipped "will be the 2.1.2. Future OS updates will be available for wireless download 24/7. All NS-5 owners shall receive free OS updates for the lifetime of their personal domestic assistant" their site claims.

In this artile, at Consulting Times, they discuss the costs in the terms of lives and dollars when local governments do not deploy open standards based software for data sharing. Can local governments afford to create redundant applications to meet new Federal standards for first responder alerts, emergency services, law enforcement, broadcasters? Open Source collaborative initiatives may provide the only solution for the US if the people want to create a safer environment.

Read the Fedora review article at LinuxBeginner.org.

This whitepaper by a veteran real-time trainer David Kalinsky provides an introduction to the subject of Priority Inversions and Mutexes, from the perspective of embedded systems software developers using a real-time operating system. It discusses unbounded priority inversions, including a detailed example. Then it surveys the differences between mutexes and “classic” semaphores, and the use of priority promotion, priority inheritance and priority ceiling protocols. More articles here.

When your computer resides on another planet, service calls aren't an option. So when BAE Systems North America Inc. needed an extremely reliable operating system for the computational subsystem it was supplying for NASA's Mars rovers, it chose an industrial-strength, real-time operating system from Wind River Systems Inc., Alameda, Calif, VXWorks.

Syllable 0.5.2 has been released and is now available for download. Some of the changes include new graphics card drivers for the nVidia GeForceFX and the Savage IX/MX chipsets. The media framework has also been updated, so now Syllable works with multiple soundcards. A full list of changes can be found on the Syllable website.

We've all heard about the iPod lawsuits and the recent 15" Powerbook issue, but it's not the only apple related lawsuit brewing. Apple's iBook appears to have a little issue.

There are several tasks to which we must attend before actually making use of our freshly installed FreeBSD system. Immediately upon reboot, you will find yourself in the console. While it is possible to setup and use the graphical login managers -- kdm, gdm or others -- it is important to note that this uses extra resources. One of our assumptions is that you might not have all that excess horsepower, so we'll stick with the console login for now. Read more at OfB.biz.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to install SuSE Linux 9.0 from FTP without buying the retail CDs.