David Adams Archive

Open Source: New Religion or Viable Business Model?

Submitted by UWTV 2005-06-26 Open Source 61 Comments

If you're tired of all the reading, reading, reading, here's a chance to kick back and watch some TV. University of Washington TV recently ran a show produced by its computer science department called "Open Source: New Religion or Viable Business Model?" Their web site carries streams in various formats.

History of the Amiga

Submitted by Saad 2005-06-26 Amiga & AROS 34 Comments

MLAgazine has a detailed history of the Amiga, from its beginnings as the pipe dream of a frustrated Atari engineer to it's beginnings as a revolutionary gaming console, through the mini-collapse of the gaming industry, and into the early days of the personal computer.

Windows Longhorn 5087

Submitted by Hart 2005-06-26 Windows 33 Comments

Apart from showing off IE7 at Gnomedex this year, spy-shots of Longhorn also show its current build: 5087. It is not known whether this build will be the Beta build that will be released to testers this summer.

Looking for a Job in OS Development?

Submitted by Franxico 2005-06-25 Zeta 45 Comments

YellowTab recently announced the opening of a "job centre" on its web site, with three jobs listed: Bug hunter, Builder Engineer and RAD GUI. You'd need to move to Germany and know German, but there are few actual jobs in alternative OS development these days, so bust out those "Learn German in Three Days Under Hypnosis" tapes, and get going!

Interview with Lycoris’ Joseph Cheek

Submitted by Tim 2005-06-25 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 8 Comments

DesktopOS.com did a short interview with Lycoris CEO Joseph Cheek regarding the recent acquisition of Lycoris by Mandriva.

Microsoft Rivals Bristle at High Price for Protocol Licenses

David Adams 2005-06-25 Legal 43 Comments

Microsoft is obliged to open up its protocols as a result of an anti-trust settlement, but with fees for protocol licensing starting at $50,000 for any hardware or software that wants to connect with the Microsoft file system, competitors complain that Microsoft is treating its obligation to open up as a lucrative revenue stream rather than the punishment that it was intended to be. They note that "the general practice in the industry is to license protocols for free.''

Microsoft’s Longhorn RSS Plans

David Adams 2005-06-25 Windows 11 Comments

Microsoft is planning for tight integration of RSS in Longhorn. Many potential users are surely happy at the idea of good, free tools for managing syndicated content, but others fear that Microsoft's embrace of the fledgling standard might signal an "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" strategy in the works.

NASA Develops Trek-Like Speaking Computer

Submitted by Eugenia 2005-06-25 Geek stuff 30 Comments

NASA will soon be installing a new voice-activated computer system on the International Space Station that bears a striking resemblance to Star Trek's computer system. Called Clarissa, the system will initially be able to support about 75 individual commands, which can be accessed using a vocabulary of some 260 words.

Red Hat India Sponsors “Scholarships”

David Adams 2005-06-25 Red Hat 30 Comments

Red Hat Scholarships is a coding contest for Indian college students whose aim is to "speed up the adoption of open source software in India and make India a proud contributor to the global open source community." Contest organizers have posted eight challenges, such as "Development of open source Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) frameworks," and individuals or teams will recive support during their creation of the new software, and the best contribution will win a cash prize. All sumbissions must be licensed under an Open Source license.

Outlook Express Vulnerability Affects Windows

Submitted by jayson knight 2005-06-25 Privacy, Security 15 Comments

Versions of Outlook Express in Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 contain a flaw that would allow malicous code to take control of their machines. Launching Outlook Express is not necessary, apparently. Luckily, only users who visit particular malicious newsgroups are vulunerable. A patch is available.

Roomba Gets an Upgrade

David Adams 2005-06-24 Hardware 16 Comments

Roomba manufacturer iRobot has released a new, programmable vacuuming robot with a "virtual walls" feature to keep the little guy penned in to a particular area. A $60 software/hardware upgrade is also available to late-model Roomba owners. Also from iRobot comes PackBot, a small reconnaissance robot for military use.

Fuel Cells for Mobile Computing Devices

David Adams 2005-06-24 Wireless 6 Comments

The Intel-backed Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group has published guidelines for vendors keen to create fuel cells to power portable PCs. The document is intended to provide fuel-cell developers will details of the devices their products will have to power, whether the cells will sit inside the devices in place of regular rechargeable batteries, or operate as an alternative to an external AC adaptor. Essentially, it defines the problem the fuel cell developers have to solve.

Wikimedia / KDE Collaboration Announced

Submitted by Mark Williamson 2005-06-24 KDE 37 Comments

At LinuxTag, Wikimedia Foundation chairman Jimmy Wales has announced plans for a co-operation with KDE to create "The knowledge-integrated desktop". This will comprise two components 1) a Wikipedia web services API (applicable to any application / desktop environment) and 2) KDE APIs for easy integration of applications with Wikipedia / Wiktionary. This announcement follows news that the next release of the Amarok media player will incorporate Wikipedia lookup for instant access to band biographies.

Linux Filesystems and Partitioning: A Primer

Submitted by Martin 2005-06-24 Linux 34 Comments

In a follow-up to last week's Linux distro roundup, TipMonkies has published an article introducing users to partitioning and filesystems, and explains how to set up a dual-boot environment.

Why I Teach Eclipse

David Adams 2005-06-23 General Development 39 Comments

Given the rapid rate of technological change, how much can I -- or should I -- teach my students about specific tools? Professor Gary Pollice discusses the virtues of Eclipse technology and explains why he and other instructors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute use it in their courses.

Microsoft’s Anti-piracy Program Cracked

Submitted by JCooper 2005-06-23 Privacy, Security 45 Comments

A Bangalore programmer has managed to break Microsoft’s anti-counterfeiting system called Windows Genuine Advantage.

OpenPKG Foundation Established

Submitted by Ralf S. Engelschall 2005-06-21 Open Source 10 Comments

The Open Source software project OpenPKG has established the OpenPKG Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing the ideational, financial, material and manned support of OpenPKG. OpenPKG is an "instrument for deployment and maintenance of Open Source Unix software when administration crosses platform boundaries."

Extended Attributes for Better File Management

David Adams 2005-06-21 Linux 26 Comments

Extended attributes are name/value pairs that can be assigned to any file and directory. They allow for more infomation to be embedded in the filesystem when file and directory names aren't enough, like ID3 tags on mp3s. Most Linux distributions and filesystems support it, and you just need to turn it on. Linux.com has more.

Firefox on RISC OS

Submitted by Ian Chamberlain 2005-06-20 RISC OS 25 Comments

RISC OS users have crowed for years about the intuitiveness of their operating system's GUI. But that vaunted usability is of little utility in this modern world without a modern web browser to go with it. So you'll understand the importance of the RISC OS Firefox port released today.

Sun’s Federated ID Management

David Adams 2005-06-20 Privacy, Security No Comments

Sun Microsystems unwrapped two new identity management products this week, designed to ease the process of federating identity across multiple partners and customers.