Monthly Archive:: January 2005

Cell “analysis” a mixed bag; Rebuttals Available

Hannibal of Arstechnica writes "Last week, OS News published an analysis of IBM's Cell-related patents. This article presents some of the information in the patents in an easily digestible format, but it has some serious flaws, as well. And I'm not talking about Cell-specific flaws, though there are those, but what appear to be problems with the author's understanding of basic computer architecture." Read On.. In the meantime, Nicholas Blachford explained a bit more his points on a sixth Cell article, and also wrote a rebuttal on Ars' article.

Mandrakelinux 10.2 Beta 1 Available

Mandrakelinux 10.2 Beta is available and it includes Linux kernel 2.6.10, Glibc 2.3.4 and gcc 3.4.3, new KDE 3.3.2 is compiled with the '-fvisibility=hidden' option of gcc to accelerate the linkage step at the program start, Gnome 2.8.1, as well as GTK 2.6.1. New features during the installation procedure, including a new package-processing algorithm. Installation may boot from a USB key. Mozilla-firefox replaces Mozilla, Gimp 2.2, cdrecord 2.01.01a21 with DVD+R Dual Layers support, OpenOffice.org 1.1.4, Postgresql 8.0, MySQL 4.1.9.

Arch Linux 0.7-“Wombat” Hits the Torrents

Arch Linux 0.7 was finally released today after delays waiting for kernel 2.6.10 (waiting for Reiser4 support that didn't happen). There are mirrors, torrents, and also docs. For those who don't know, Arch is an advanced Linux distribution blending the simplicity of Slackware and package management of Debian in it's lean framework. This release uses the 2.6.10 kernel with the -as patchset and the new 4.2 release of the XFCE desktop environment among other current versions of well known apps. New Arch users can then edit /etc/pacman.conf to enable the -Current and -Extra trees and download them. Editor's Take: A fantastic distribution, but it requires a substantial initial involvement by semi-advanced users to bring the distro to the wished configuration. After this point is passed, Arch will not dissapoint.

Flame Wars, Forks and Freedom

In the news media, it is generally shown that flame wars and forks are detrimental to the growth of FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) But if we see the history of FOSS, both flame wars and forks have played a crucial role in determining both growth and direction of important projects. There are also arguments that this leads to fragmentation and marginalization. There is some truth in these arguments but there are a lot of benefits which are often overlooked. This article looks at some of the benefits of forking and flame wars through history.

Innovations in window management; WindowSizer 1.5 Released

When you have 20 or more windows open across nine virtual desktops, the complexity of window management can become overwhelming. A number of new tools are now available to facilitate effective window management. Elsewhere, you can tile your desktop windows in full screen no-gap layouts to simplify copy and paste, drag and drop, and visual comparisons. WindowSizer's window management engine will automatically resize neighboring windows to maintain a tiled layout.

The role of JNDI in J2EE

Mastering J2EE can be daunting, with an ever-growing list of technologies and acronyms. The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) has been at the core of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) from its inception, but it is often underutilized by novice J2EE developers. This article will help demystify the role of JNDI in J2EE applications and show how it can help decouple your application from the details of deployment.