Monthly Archive:: April 2006

Cross-Platform Sample Virus Targets Windows, Linux

Bugs & Viruses 64 Comments
Virus researchers at Kaspersky Lab have found proof-of-concept code for a cross-platform virus capable of infecting both Windows and Linux systems. In an alert posted to Viruslist, Kaspersky said the sample virus has been given a dual name - Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a - and highlighted the way attackers are targeting multiple platforms in malware attacks. "The virus doesn't have any practical application," the company said in the alert. "It's classic proof-of-concept code, written to show that it is possible to create a cross-platform virus."
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Vista on Intel iMac; Boot Camp Passes Muster in Speed Tests

  Submitted by grabberslasher Apple 9 Comments
Windows Vista is now running on the new Intel-based Macs. "Managed to get Windows Vista installed today, with a bit of creative thinking. You see, Vista does not support Boot Camp's partitioning. There are some complex ways around this, but just to prove it can be done I booted from an XP CD, deleted the existing partitions and formatted the entire internal HD with NTFS. Once that's done, you can reset the iMac and insert your Vista DVD before the XP setup starts installing XP." In the meantime, CNet performed some tests, and concluded that Apple hardware is just as good at running Windows as any other x86 system. Ars reviews Boot Camp as well.
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Microsoft Makes Gains in Server Share

  Submitted by gubol123 Microsoft 33 Comments
"Microsoft gained nearly five percent market share in the Web server market, however still lags well behind market leader Apache, research and security firm Netcraft said Friday. Nonetheless, it was the biggest one-month swing in the history of the industry. With more than 80 million Web sites on the Internet, Microsoft now claims a 25.2 percent share, up 4.7 percent from March. Apache still leads by a wide margin, however it was down close to 6 percent to 62.7 percent. Sun remained a distant third, down slightly to 2.36 percent."
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New Sun hardware: Sunray 2 Pictures

  Submitted by jamesd Oracle and SUN 15 Comments
"Sun is preparing to release new Sunrays. The first is SunRay 2, it has one DVI connector for monitors, with the USB ports on the front, a much needed improvement, and an integrated stand. The second looks much like the first but comes with dual DVI outputs for dual headed setups." On a related note, Sun has laid off seven per cent of its SPARC processor and server group, as it pares back projects in an effort to save costs.
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O’Grady on Apple vs. Does

Legal 24 Comments
Jason O'Grady, who runs PowerPage.org, one of the websites Apple is forcing to disclose sources, has reacted to all of it at ZDNet. "My position on the Asteroid postings is that I didn't steal the information and I didn't ask for it. Someone volunteered it to me and it looked credible, so I posted it. It wasn't marked confidential, trade secret or any such thing but it looked legit to me, so I ran it. When Apple later asked me to remove it, I complied. Apple feels that independent online journalists are not protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that a journalist's confidential communications and sources should be exposed to them or any large corporation that doesn't like what they publish - at will. I think that this is completely wrong on several levels."
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Kubuntu in Trouble: Storm in a Teacup

  Submitted by dumbkiwi Ubuntu 49 Comments
As many already said yesterday, the Kubuntu.de story seems to be a classic example of a storm in a teacup. "Their article makes everything sound much worse than it is. The problem was that when kubuntu.org moved to a new host the sysadmin request to recreate Amu's account never got answered. Amu makes the cool Live CDs that get published along with KDE releases so it's obviously very useful for him to have an account. I should have poked Canonical's sysadmin to remind him but the account has now been added so problem solved. This doesn't mean, as some people seem to have suggested, that Canonical is in any way dropping support for Kubuntu, they continue to be wonderfully supportive, both to the community of developers and commercially if you want to buy a support contract off them."
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Debian Has a New Leader

  Submitted by george Debian 11 Comments
The widely-used Debian GNU/Linux distribution has a new project leader, Australian Anthony Towns, following an election process spanning several weeks. Australian Anthony Towns won the poll from a field of several candidates after 421 votes - from 43 percent of the eligible community of Debian developers - were cast. He will take up the post for one year from Monday 17 April, taking over from incumbent Branden Robinson.
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NeXT Information Archive Is Back

  Submitted by Kim Bergholtz OS News 12 Comments
The NeXT Information Archive is back. "NIA has evolved from being an information place to being the actual place for ALL NeXT related material; We provide you with information, guides, articles - yes, all the classic stuff, that you know us for - but we've also started to bring you software directly on our site. Help you on your way with learning programming and in general just bring resources to you – everything needed for being able to use NeXT as your daily operating system and of course thereby using NeXT software."
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Dealer in Secondhand Microsoft Licenses Sees Success

  Submitted by Zealux Microsoft 4 Comments
A company that began trading in secondhand licenses for Microsoft software last autumn has been attracting business from within the UK and internationally selling more than 2500 secondhand software licenses from insolvent or downsizing companies to other businesses through discount-licensing.com. "As long as we stick to Microsoft terms and conditions, we can pretty much do what we want," Disclic director Noel Unwin told ZDNet UK. "We've had interest from America, Australia, India - which is quite surprising as we've specifically focused our marketing in the UK."
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C++ Inheritance and Polymorphism

General Development 10 Comments
Good news! Inheritance and polymorphism can facilitate more concise code, which reduces waste throughout the lifecycle of a C++ product. By pushing more generic code into base classes, you can help reduce application code clutter as well as cutting down on code duplication. In this article, software consultant Stephen Morris insists that less code means less testing, lower maintenance costs, and easier upgrades.
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Document Level Parameters Using Core Data: A Dev Cocoa Guide

macOS No Comments
Core Data is one of Apple's latest technologies that allows the developer to effortlessly develop applications with a very complex data store. By utilizing Core Data your Cocoa application can instantly have access to a full database for storing the applications data. All without a single line of code. But what if you want or need to store parameters that may be file specific but not application specific? In this article InformIT will walk through one solution that allows for elegant access to document specific parameters in a Core Data application.
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Kubuntu in Trouble?

  Submitted by Jack Dawson Ubuntu 72 Comments
Troubles for the Kubuntu project: a number of Kubuntu developers are complaining that Canonical is not answering their requests. They state: "We all from the kubuntu.de-team have pursued this aim together, but most of the work has been done by Andreas Mueller (amu). He is not only co-founder and unpayed developer of the Kubuntu-project, but he's also hosting this website and he's taking over all the arising expenses. During our endeavours for Kubuntu, there were made several requests to Canonical. All those requests are unanswered 'till today! Up to now, there is only one payed developer. Since Canonical ignores all our personal and partly financial engagement until now we have to assume that Canonical is not willing to make Kubuntu a '1st class distribution'."
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Boot Camp: Review, Hurting Mac Developers?

Apple 32 Comments
In case you did not get tired of it yet, here are some more articles on Apple's Boot Camp. Firstly, everybody's favourite Microsoft zealot Microsoft user Paul Thurrot has reviewed Boot Camp: "While Boot Camp isn't perfect, it's still a semi-miraculous solution that lets you dual boot between Mac OS X and Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. That, folks, is what's known as the best of both worlds in these parts, and I'm personally very excited at the prospect of, or at the opportunity to, purchase Apple notebooks and desktops in the future." Secondly, "while the lower barrier for Apple users to run Windows applications will lead to growth in the share of users running Apple hardware, overall the effect on Mac developers will probably be negative. The reason? In a word: competition."
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Debugging Code Using ptrace

  Submitted by Techno General Development 1 Comment
"Nobody can write perfect code, since errors can creep in from anywhere. Hence we need some way to debug the programs. One such way is to use ptrace() system call. Debugging programs like gdb are dependent on this system call. This call gives one process control over another process. The process under control can be run step-by-step and its contents can be read and modified, i.e. you can change the core image of it."
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Traditional DNS Howto

  Submitted by Falko Timme Internet 3 Comments
"Linux system administrators should learn traditional DNS. Front-ends and quick templates to setup domain records have a place in managing sites. When confronted with DNS configurations already in existence, nothing can substitute for knowing and using the fundamentals. The vast majority of users on the Internet have no clue about DNS. They may have seen the term when they set up their ISP connection, but they do not realize its connection to their lives. Simply put, DNS servers allow you to use friendly names in your browser, email or other Internet applications to perform tasks which require IP addresses."
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