Linux Snickers at Microsoft’s Victory Declaration
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"Who is Microsoft fooling? Other than on the desktop, Linux is eating its lunch, and it's only going to get worse for Microsoft."
How Linux mastered Wall Street
When it comes to the fast-moving business of trading stocks, bonds and derivatives, the world's financial exchanges are finding an ally in Linux. As late as 2007, Wall Street exchanges were still largely run on Unix . . . Over the past few years however, Linux has crept into this market, showing up first in ancillary systems and then running a few core exchanges.
11 Hard Truths About HTML5
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InfoWorld's Peter Wayner discusses the 11 hard truths Web developers must accept in making the most of HTML5 -- especially those who are looking to leverage HTML5 in hopes of unseating native apps. 'The truth is, despite its powerful capabilities, HTML5 isn't the solution for every problem. Its additional features are compelling and will help make Web apps formidable competitors for native apps, but security issues, limitations of local data storage, synchonization challenges, and politics should have us all scaling back our expectations for the spec.'
Search Engine Hack Innovation
Hackers armed with a browser and specially crafted search queries are using botnets to generate more than 80,000 daily queries, identify potential attack targets and build an accurate picture of the resources within that server that are potentially exposed. By automating the query and result parsing, the attacker can carry out a large number of search queries, examine the returned results and get a filtered list of potentially exploitable sites in a very short time and with minimal effort. Because searches are conducted using botnets, and not the hacker's IP address, the attacker's identity remains concealed.
Two Years With Linux BFS
This month marks the two-year anniversary of the release of BFS, the Brain Fuck Scheduler, for the Linux kernel. While BFS has not been merged into the mainline Linux kernel, the scheduler is still actively maintained by Con Kolivas and patches are updated for new kernel releases. The BFS scheduler has also reached mild success and adoption over the past two years. In this article is a fresh look at the Brain Fuck Scheduler along with a fresh round of benchmarks from the Linux 3.0 kernel.
IE 9 Best Option Against Web-Based Malware Attacks
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 has proved once again to be the best choice when it comes to catching attacks aimed at making the user download Web-based malware. This claim was made by NSS Labs in the recently released results of a test conducted globally from May 27 through June 10 of the current year, which saw five of the most popular Web browsers pitted against each other. Windows Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), Google Chrome 12, Mozilla Firefox 4, Apple Safari 5 and Opera 11 were tested with 1,188 malicious URLs - links that lead to a download that delivers a malicious payload or to a website hosting malware links.
Integrated Circuit That Doesn’t Require a Battery
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Researchers at the Virginia Commonwleth University have come up with . . . a circuit that requires such little power all it needs is the ambient energy in an environment to run. In other words, it can run without need of a power lead or battery, relying instead on some energy constant in the environment in which it functions e.g. the human body. In order to create something that can run on such low, ambient energy, you need to use electronics that require next to no power to function. So instead of the typical charge-based electronic switches used today, the researchers turned to spin transport electronics, more commonly known as spintronics.
Apple Tampered with Evidence in German Apple v Samsung Case
Dutch news website WebWereld.nl investigated the claim that Apple supplied the German court with tampered evidence, and their research is pretty self-explanatory. I don't have the time to translate the article for you, but the images speak about ten thousands words; Apple has changed the aspect ratio of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a side-by-side comparison (while also showing Android's application drawer open instead of showing the home screen, but the article doesn't mention that). Come on, Apple. Update: As Gusar notes, Apple also Photoshopped the Samsung logo off the bezel. Real classy, Apple.
BREAKING: GOOGLE ACQUIRES MOTOROLA
Okay once again I'm breaking my own one-week time-off from OSNews due to, you know, taking a break and being too busy with other things, but this one is big - very big. Also, only the second time in OSNews history we've used the 'breaking'-tag. Google has just announced it is going to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion (more here). While providing Google with a dedicated mobile phone business, it also gives Google ownership of one of the most valuable mobile technology patent portfolios in existence. Update: Responses from the Android ecosystem are positive. HTC: "We welcome the news of today's acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem." Sony Ericsson & LG: "We welcome Google's commitment to defending Android and its partners."
C++0x Is Unanimously Approved
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The final ISO ballot on C++0x closed on Wednesday, and we just received the results: Unanimous approval. The next revision of C++ that we've been calling "C++0x" is now an International Standard! Geneva will take several months to publish it, but we hope it will be published well within the year, and then we'll be able to call it "C++11."
AMD Eschews Smartphones, Tiptoes Towards Tablets
Last week, Rick Bergman, general manager of AMD's Product Group, noted that while AMD was excited about the growth opportunities it saw within the tablet market, it had no plans to enter the smartphone space. Bergman's comments are a reassuring indication that the company hasn't concocted a harebrained scheme to charge off into a market it can't currently compete in. The emerging tablet market is a different matter.
Chrome 14 Brings Native Code to the Web
Google has released Chrome 14 to the Chrome beta testing channel, which includes, among other new features, the initial beta release of Google's "Native Client" technology, first announced in 2010 . . . Native Client is a set of open source tools that allow Chrome to run compiled C and C++ code the same way the browser currently runs JavaScript or other common web programming languages. Native Code offers both a security sandbox and a set of interfaces that provide C and C++ bindings to the capabilities of HTML5. That means web application developers will be able to tap into desktop libraries to create faster, more powerful web apps.
Android Is Not Open Source And Why That’s Good
Google has finally acknowledged that its characterization of Android as open source is false and, in the end, this can only make the mobile platform stronger, InfoWorld's Galen Gruman argues. 'It's hard for believers to accept that open source brings with it difficulties, but look at the consistent failure of the other open source mobile platforms -- Moblin, Maemo, and MeeGo -- that all devolved into grad-student-like thought experiments and personal pet projects. Users don't want that, and ultimately products are sold to users.' Instead, Google has been quietly taking parts of Android back in house to develop them purposefully and deeply, and as Google has asserted more control over Android, it's improved.
Tech Survivors: Still Thriving After 25 Years
InfoWorld's Galen Gruman highlights 18 technologies that remain core to the computing experience for IT, engineers, and developers 25 to 50 years since their inception. From Cobol, to the IBM mainframe, to C, to x86, these high-tech senior citizens not only keep kicking but provide the foundations for many vital systems that keep IT humming.
Fedora Postpones Btrfs Filesystem Switch To Fedora 17
The Fedora developers have decided that Fedora 16 will not use Btrfs by default. The announcement was made by Josef Bacik, Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat. Instead the switch to Btrfs filesystem has now been postponed to Fedora 17.
Google’s Chrome Operating System Gets a Much Needed Update
I quite like Google's Chrome operating system (OS)--a Linux variant that use the Chrome Web browser as its interface--but as it's being shipping today, Chrome OS has problems. Fortunately, in the latest Chrome OS stable channel release, Google is finally addressing some of these rough spots.
Microsoft Downgrades Linux To Threat Level Green
Microsoft no longer thinks Linux poses a threat to its desktop Windows business.
Directions on Microsoft's Wes Miller pointed out via Twitter how Microsoft has changed the boilerplate "Competition" section in its last two annual financial filings with the SEC.
Apple v. Samsung in The Netherlands, Day 2
Day 2 is underway in the Apple v. Samsung case in The Netherlands, a microcosm of what would have happened in Germany, had Germany implemented the concept of due process. Most interesting bit so far? Samsung is using the Knight Ridder tablet from 1994 as a case of prior art. I was unaware of this device, but be sure to watch the video - this is an iPad. Amazing. This doesn't actually surprise me though - my father worked at a large newspaper company his entire life until he retired a few years ago, and in the early '90s, he already attended demonstrations of devices like this, taking home promotional material that amazed my child brain. This was supposed to be the future of newspapers, until development on these kinds of devices suddenly halted - my father never understood why. Update: Forgot to mention that like yesterday, Andreas Udo de Haes, editor at WebWereld.nl, present in the court room, is covering this. This time, in English. Update II: Samsung has presented 20 cases of prior art for both tablets and smartphones. Update III: I'm liking Samsung's lawyers.
The Community Design: …and you Thought the USPTO Was Bad
Earlier this week, we were introduced to a new concept in intellectual property law: the European 'Community Design'. The Community Design is a sort of trademark on design, and sits halfway between a trademark and a patent. I decided to investigate what, exactly, the laws and regulations around Community Designs are, and what I found was shocking. Think the USPTO is bad? Wait until you learn about the Community Design.
Apple’s Mac OS X helps BSD overtake Linux for development
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The lure of shiny toys has helped Apple's BSD-based Mac OS X operating system overtake Linux to become the operating system that is the second most used by developers, according to Evans Data.