Television and Computer Convergence: Not when but if

Hardware 39 Comments
At Genesi we do more than just alternative computers, we also have interests in the field of Digital Media and Digital Television, you'll see products targeted to these segments arriving in the future. Most people appear to think that the future of Digital Media is convergence, that it is inevitable that TVs and Computers are going to converge and become a single device. Some people however think that this will not happen, they may have good reason for thinking so.
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Qt 3.3.0-b1 Info Released

  Submitted by Andrewb Qt 20 Comments
TrollTech recently Qt 3.3 introduces many new features as well as many improvements over the 3.2.x series. The Qt version 3.3 series is binary compatible with the 3.2.x series. Qt 3.3 is .NET enabled, it supports IPv6 in addition to IPv4 and it now includes a new tool class called QLocale among other new goodies. Its Qt/Embedded version has added support for SNAP graphics drivers from SciTech Software. This gives access to accelerated drivers for more than 150 graphics chipsets (new SciTech DDK here).
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LKML Debate: Linux 2.6 and the ide-scsi Module

Linux 31 Comments
A debate has started in the Linux kernel mailing list about the ide-scsi module. The cdrecord guys want it up while Linus points out that the module is "bad" and it imposes a number of problems to users. Our take: I've been hit by most of Linus' points: from the 'silly CD numbering' confusion, to the need to have two LILO entries to load ide-scsi or not in order to either burn a CD or be able to watch DVD.
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Editorial: The Future of Linux

Linux 109 Comments
Linux news is getting more and more exciting, and somehow, managing to get less and less interesting. Why? Because the speed of development is getting so rapid that it's hard to get excited for each upcoming release, keep your system completely up to date, and even remember what the current version of your favorite distributions are. This breakneck pace of development means good and bad things, but I have a few ideas about how I expect it to turn out.
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GTK+OSX in Search of Developers for Native GTK+ Port to Mac OS X

GTK+ 20 Comments
GTK+OSX's project manager, Robin Rowe, is now in search of Mac/Unix developers to help him out with a native port of GTK+ for Mac OS X, based on Carbon and without the aid of X11. The port is already usable (CinePaint can run on it) but there is a lot of work still to be done. A stable native GTK+ port could enrich significantly the OSX application base with free open source like Gimp, Bluefish or Anjuta and add to the elegance without the use of X11 (Robin said the port will use an OSX theme by default).
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OpenVMS Clusters Give Windows, Unix Thorough Thrashing

OS News 15 Comments
"Everyone is talking about Windows clusters, Unix clusters and Linux cluster. But all we are saying, is that the 20 year-old architecture of clustered OpenVMS can teach these whippersnappers a thing or two. At OpenVMS.org there's a report about an OpenVMS cluster which handles the major processing for the Greater Amsterdam Police and naturally is required 24/7." Read the story at TheInquirer.
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JDS Goes to Wal-Mart and then to UK

Oracle and SUN 55 Comments
Sun is challenging Microsoft on a new front: the consumer market. Believing its Java Desktop System is "a more effective home and retail solution," the company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart and Office Depot to include the desktop on consumer PCs. Elsewhere, Sun strikes software deal with the United Kingdom: Government to implement Java Desktop, application infrastructure in public sector.
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Future Computing, Part II: Unix vs. the world

Unix 22 Comments
A 20-year IT consulting veteran and author of "The Unix Guide to Defenestration" offers the second in a series of four articles that examine the state of computing as he imagines it will be five years from now. Last week's article was on Microsoft's vision for its future software. This week, he looks at where the Unix and open source alternative is likely to go and, next week, at the hardware both groups can expect to have available to run their software. The last of the series will look at the impact these changes are likely to have on the IT industry itself.
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Generating Database Server-Side Cross Tabulations

Databases 9 Comments
If you are a DBA or a database programmer, your manager may have asked you to prepare a breakdown of employees by location and department, or a breakdown of products by category and provider. If your boss is a techie, instead of a breakdown she might have mentioned a pivot table, or, if she likes to use "the right words," a cross-tabulation, Giuseppe Maxia writes. Elsewhere on OnLamp.com another article advises on "Quick and Dirty RDBMS Tuning".
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Tutorial: “Message Passing for Intertask Communication”

  Submitted by David Kalinsky General Development 8 Comments
"This online training lesson contains material taken from our introductory courses. This particular section presents the basic approaches to message passing for communication between concurrent tasks. In an actual training course, this section would be preceded by introductory sessions covering the fundamental definitions of embedded and real-time systems, as well as the fundamentals of multi-tasking (priority-based pre-emptive task scheduling)." Read it here.
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