Shell writers: "IBM recently shipped an enhancement to the DB2 Web services object runtime framework (WORF) to enable interoperability with .NET. This article showns you how to create a .NET C# client to consume a DB2 DADX Web service. The latest WORF improves the interoperability between DB2 DADX Web services and the Microsoft .NET platform."

"Reid Ellison is a 15-year-old high school hacker who, for a time, had complete control over his school's computer system. A hack attack from a smart kid is just about any school's worst nightmare. But Ellison got a pat on the back for his exploits, rather than a slap on the wrist. This is actually a good news story about a kid who used his hacking talents for good rather than evil." Read the full story at ABC News.

A clash among engineers who want to use Unix apps and bureaucratic dictates that they use Windows is resolved.

Although Mandrake 9.0 is a breeze to install, there are a few important things that Debian does better. Nicholas Petreley lists the pros and cons of Mandrake when compared to Debian and sets the record straight about his first Xoops column and his opinion of Britney Spears.

The order to carry Java with Windows will remain in force pending the final outcome of Sun Microsystem's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. According to Sun, Microsoft tried to marginalise Java by unfair usage of its software monopoly position, making Windows incompatible with its platform independent programming language. More info at CBSNews.com and CNET News.com.

dave_sn alerted us to the news first reported by Distrowatch, "Just in time to interfere with our last-minute Christmas shopping - an unexpected new beta release from Red Hat, code-named "Phoebe" and numbered as 8.0.92 has hit the mirrors." Release notes can be found here.

"I have a vision of an application which provides me with an idea of the sort of features I would like Syllable to have. Its time I wrote it down so that you can all see where I'm going with Syllable. If I compare my fantasy application with the current abilities of Syllable, then it gives me a set of features which we still need to implement, so it sort of serves as a roadmap and a high level design all in one." Read the article at Syllable's web site.

The major PostgreSQL news this week is the upcoming release of 7.3.1, which will provide some fixes for early adopters of 7.3. In other SQL news, the Firebird team is pleased to announce the release of the Firebird v1.0.2 update for Win32 and Linux.

LinuxDevices.com is pleased to publish the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation.

In an article for OSOpinion, Mike Berman has a thing or two to say about the past, present, and future of the BeOS. Although he makes some acute observations in an effort to generate discussion, he doesn't mention any of the developing BeOS replacements, Zeta, OpenBeOS, or BlueEyedOS. Read the article here.

Bochs 2.0 x86 emulator was released today with many new features and support for MMX/SSE/SSE2 and more modern operating systems in graphics mode.

The stable version of GTK+ 2.2 was released today, along with GLib2 2.2.0 and Pango 1.2.0. This version of the GTK+ libraries will be used in the upcoming Gnome 2.2 release, which is the first version truly geared towards end-users.

The new version of Virtual PC has speed improvements up to 25% faster on Mac OS X, Mac OS X Dock integration, enhanced back-up support in Mac OS X, improved USB printing support for increased compatibility, video support for Apple's monitors, including the 23" Cinema Display Self-contained configurations; makes installation on several machines a snap. According to Connectix test, optimal performance requires Mac OS X - version 10.2.3 (Jaguar), L3 cache, NVIDIA Ge Force or ATI Radeon video card.

Apple released the December 2002 Developer tools update today, available for download for ADC Members. Among the list of updates is Project Builder 2.1 with "better CVS support".