Monthly Archive:: April 2005

The Ins and Outs of USB

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-28 Hardware 15 Comments

In a world of serial and parallel, it would not be simple for a new device connection to make its mark. Follow the USB standards success story to witness how this meritorious technology carved a place for itself. USB provides many benefits to users and vendors, but also see where it missed the boat.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: A Review

David Adams 2005-04-28 macOS 120 Comments

OSNews reviews Apple's latest OS upgrade. Is it an overpriced, glorified point release or a truly worthy upgrade with major new functionality? Is it a Longhorn killer or just more of the same? We'll take a look, and try to see what's on the surface as well as what's under the hood.

Mandriva Linux 2005 (PPC) Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-28 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 6 Comments

The PPC edition of Mandriva Linux 2005 Limited edition has been released in the form of 3 ISO images.

Enforcing a Two Man Rule Using Solaris 10 RBAC

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-28 Solaris 22 Comments

The "two man rule" (also sometimes called the "four eyes rule") has its origins in military protocol although for quite some time it has been welcomed into the stockpile of IT security controls used by organizations around the world. The "two man rule" specifies that there must be two individuals that must act in concert in order to perform some action.

What can we do to make the Windows GUI more usable?

Guest post by Matthew Donofrio 2005-04-27 Windows 108 Comments

What can we do to make the Windows desktop GUI more efficient? I admit that I'm addicted to "tweaking", which is what I consider to be finding new ways to make myself most efficient with standard tools from Microsoft.

Terra Soft Releases 64-bit Yellow Dog Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-27 Linux 16 Comments

Terra Soft Solutions, Inc. is pleased to announce the immediate release of 64-bit Yellow Dog Linux.

Tiger’s Dashboard Brings Widgets to New Dimension

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-27 macOS 57 Comments

In the Windows world, dashboards became so popular that Microsoft decided to incorporate the concept into its OS as the task bar and task tray. With Tiger, though, Apple is taking dashboards and widgets to a new dimension. When activated, the service appears as a transparent layer over the desktop.

Is the Windows Market Saturated? Microsoft Says No

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-27 Microsoft 27 Comments

Microsoft has a number of ideas, which it is sharing with its hardware and software partners, as to how to ratchet up Windows desktop revenues by billions per year.

Ubuntu Linux: Free and Fabulous

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-27 Ubuntu 46 Comments

The 'Hoary Hedgehog' release of Ubuntu Linux is here, and the Free Agent likes what he sees.

A Critic of SWT

Submitted by ahmet 2005-04-27 Java 76 Comments

There is an in depth article about Java SWT GUI toolkit. Author discusses the pros-cons of Swing and SWT and myths surrounding them.

Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy

Submitted by Jono Bacon 2005-04-27 Open Source 43 Comments

In the second part of my Open Source advocacy series, Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy, the article covers the importance of trust and the potential risks of zeal in pushing Open Source forward and creating change.

What if you could add a GPS chip to anything?

David Adams 2005-04-27 Editorial 19 Comments

What's the easiest way to ensure that GPS tracking technology doesn't become the tool of an evil elite? Make sure everyone has access to it! For people already thinking along these lines, the availability of tracking technologies such as RFID tags and (GPS) chipsets is confirmation that we're all living in a Panopticon. The saving grace is that the CIA and the Trilateral Commission don't have a monopoly on these technologies -- maybe we can turn a world of mass observation to our benefit.

Review: Mandriva Limited Edition 2005

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-27 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 34 Comments

Shortly after announcing the merger of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva into Mandriva, the newly combined company released a transitional "limited edition" GNU/Linux distribution to bridge the gap between the two parent distributions. Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 may look a little different, but it's the same great Mandrakelinux desktop distribution that you're used to.

Fedora Core 4 Test 2–Plenty to Look Forward to in FC4

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-26 Fedora Core 62 Comments

"As a test release, Fedora Core 4 Test 2 shows just how good FC4 will be when it's officially releases. Should you punt FC3 and upgrade? Frankly, not on your primary system unless you don't need the guarantees of an official, complete release." Read the rest of the preview here.

Mozilla’s browsers global usage share is 8.69 percent

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-26 Mozilla, Gecko 51 Comments

OneStat.com today reported that Mozilla's browsers (all Gecko-based browsers except Netscape) have a total global usage share of 8.69 percent. The total usage share of Mozilla increased 0.24 percent since February 2005. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market with a global usage share of 86,63 percent which is 0.65 percent less as at the end of February.

Nickels and dimes

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-26 Gnome 19 Comments

Jono Bacon, Stuart Langridge (Aq), Ade Bradshaw, and Matt Revell talk about Linux and whatever else comes along, including The Seth, the Nickell, the Seth Nickell, on usability, interaction design, the Gnome project, and lots of other stuff.

Open Source Report Generator

Submitted by Ned 2005-04-26 General Development 16 Comments

OpenMFG, the makers of open source ERP software, have released OpenRPT, a report writer for ad-hoc Web-based reporting. It creates graphical, embeddable reports, similar to the commercial software Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access report designer, but runs on on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It supports graphs, integrated barcodes, label printing, and watermarks and report definitions can be stored in a PostgreSQL database as XML, or exported to individual files.

Review: Solaris 10 – Coming Along Nicely

Guest post by Will Senn 2005-04-26 Solaris 53 Comments

Wow! With Solaris 10, Sun Microsystems has done a marvelous job of bringing Solaris fully into the x86 world. Gone are the days when Solaris only runs on Sun hardware or when it only runs well on Sun hardware. Solaris 10 comes with greatly expanded off-the-shelf x86 hardware compatibility and a license that is hard to beat. It's a binary right to use and Open Solaris, the open source version is soon to come. IT Managers that have been wanting to bring a stable, scalable Operating Environment into their network infrastructures, but who have been unwilling to commit to the Sun hardware platform, for various reasons, are now free, pun intended, to bring Solaris on board and to run it on the hardware of their choice.

Microsoft to add ‘black box’ to Windows

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-26 Windows 61 Comments

In a move that could rankle privacy advocates, Microsoft said Monday that it is adding the PC equivalent of a flight data recorder to the next version of Windows, in an effort to better understand and prevent computer crashes.

Apple’s New Operating System Turns Up Heat on Microsoft

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-26 macOS 32 Comments

What makes Tiger innovative, rather than merely iterative, is that it breaks down the barriers between the self-contained computer and the Internet. It is the first operating system to incorporate and expand upon the intensive hard-drive search popularized by Google says MacNewsWorld.