Monthly Archive:: January 2005

The PDA business has had many losers in the past twenty years, but not all of them merited that status. Here are the top ten PDA's or initiatives that should not have failed.

Shared libraries use version numbers to allow for upgrades to the libraries used by applications while preserving compatibility for older applications. This article reviews what's really going on under the book jacket and why there are so many symbolic links in /usr/lib on a normal Linux system.

A Java web developer takes a look at the Java IDE landscape and examines the major offerings. IntelliJ IDEA comes out on top, hands down, according to his measurements, and he includes a detailed review.

Along with the iWork productivity suite ("Pages", a word processor with style) and the Shuffle Flash-based iPod, Apple introduced the Mac Mini: a small Mac Cube: 1.25/1.42 GHz G4, combo drive, 40/80 GB drive, fw/usb/ethernet/modem ports. This is the most affordable Mac ever, starting at $499. My Take: Very nice product, but I am dissapointed because it does not have Line-In and Mic connectors! The Mac Mini web pages advertise the product in conjuction to iLife big time but GarageBand feels pretty useless without such connectors! There is always the iMic of course, but hey.

The brand new AvantGo version offers improved wireless synchronization; an integrated Internet browser; real-time searching of AvantGo channels; a redesigned user interface with tabbed navigation, customized channel layout and small-screen optimized navigation. Also, users will now be able to add and remove channels directly from their device. Please note that OSNews fully supports most mobile browsers, including AvantGo (just create a custom subscription on your my.avantgo.com). Additionally, the text-only version of OSNews has been now optimized to look a bit better (3 weeks of slow dial-up in Greece forced me to use Firefox without "image loading" and so I took the time to optimize the site's looks for low-bandwidth usage). Here is a screenshot (subscriber's OSNews version is shown).

I was asked by co-workers how to establish a RAID-1 (mirror) for the system disk partitions of a FreeBSD 5 system.

Steve Jobs will be the star attraction when the Macworld Conference and Expo opens to the public Tuesday, but many Mac fans might be just as interested in hearing from one of the Mac's original creators.

The SGI port of OpenBSD has been moved to officially supported status bringing the number of officially supported platforms to 15.

TuxMagazine posted a review of Libranet and here is its follow up article.

IBM has decided to let open-source developers use 500 software patents without fear of an infringement lawsuit, a new step in its encouragement of the collaborative programming philosophy.

IBM has updated its well known Reflexive User Interface Builder for constructing and rendering graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Java Swing and Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) based upon a descriptive XML document. Version 1.1 includes the capacity to validate Eclipse SWT GUIs, generate Java source for GUIs constructed by RIB, and embed Java source code in RIB documents. See new developer article on RIB that shows you how to Build Java GUIs simply and quickly.

Although it appears in a "Mainstream" (non-technical) publication, this lengthy indictment of Bill Gates and software patents from 'The Guardian' is another interesting indicator of how the public's view of the issue is shifting.

"The success of the iPod, Apple's biggest ever consumer hit, was bound to overshadow the company's mainstay business in 2004. In the numbers that really count: revenue, margins and profit, the Macintosh remains Apple's core business. So where did it go?" Read the editorial at TheRegister.

As a recent ACM Queue article observes the evolution of computer language is toward later and later binding and evaluation. So while one might quibble about the virtues of Java or the CLI (also known as microsoft.net) it seems inevitable that more and more software will be written for or at least compiled to virtual machines. While this trend has many virtues, not the least of which is compatibility, current implementations have several drawbacks. However, by cleverly incorporating these features into the OS, or at least including support for them, we can overcome these limitations and in some cases even turn them into strengths.