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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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USB Linux key targets netbooks
1 hour, 33 minutes ago
French mini-PC vendor Linutop announced a version of its Ubuntu 8.4-based Linux distribution on a USB key targeting Asus Eee PCs. The key (pictured) is based on its small-footprint Linutop 2.2 distro, which is designed for ultra-low-powered systems such as its own Linutop 2 mini-PC. -
World's smallest humanoid robot can run Linux
5 hours, 33 minutes ago
U.K.-based Mobisense is shipping a Linux-ready, robot-targeted "MBS270-520" single-board computer (SBC) that can control small robots such as Tomy's i-Sobot. The 6.5-inch-tall i-Sobot has been dubbed "the smallest humanoid robot in production" by Guinness World Records, says Tomy. -
Die-shrunk x86 SoC draws 2 Watts at 1GHz
9 hours, 33 minutes ago
DMP Electronics announced a 32-bit x86-compatible SoC (system on chip) claimed to run Linux using under two Watts. The Vortex86DX targets home gateways, thin clients, and industrial controllers, and offers an "embedded redundancy" feature that can link two boards, says DMP. -
Webinars explore RTOS-to-Linux driver migration
13 hours, 33 minutes ago
MontaVista Software announced two educational webinars on porting real-time operating system (RTOS) drivers to embedded Linux. Presented by Linuxpundit.com's Bill Weinberg (pictured) on Dec. 9, the webinars will show developers how to migrate their device interfaces from VxWorks to Linux, says MontaVista. -
Apple, AT&T Sued Again Over iPhone 3G Issues
15 hours, 33 minutes ago
A New York iPhone 3G user has filed a class action suit against Apple and AT&T Wireless, claiming the device does not deliver promised network capabilities and the smartphone's casing is prone to hairline cracks. -
Mandrake Linux Founder Back, Virtually
17 hours, 33 minutes ago
Why the founder of Mandriva Linux is back in the saddle at new open source startup that offers virtual desktops. -
Open Source 101: An Executive Guide to Open Source
18 hours, 3 minutes ago
The success of open-source software has been remarkable, forcing even the largest commercial software vendors such as IBM , Hewlett-Packard , Oracle and Microsoft to acknowledge its influence and, in some cases, adopt its methods. It seems likely that most companies with information technology departments of any size are familiar with — if not actively using — open-source products on a daily basis. -
Convoluted Column Arithmetic Examples Using Awk On Linux Or Unix
18 hours, 33 minutes ago
Today's going to be a "fun with awk" day. I figure we should have one now because we never had them in school when I was a kid... The topic, as the title suggests, has to do with columnar arithmetic or, less pompously put, performing arithmetic operations on columns or, even more accessibly, adding stuff up ;) It's somewhat like our older post on doing simple cumulative math with awk, but slightly more confusing. -
Building an OpenBSD Gateway
19 hours, 3 minutes ago
A gateway is a piece of equipment that performs various networking functions, like filtering IP packets ('firewalling'), Network Address Translation ('NAT'), routing of IP packets across one or more networks ('routing'), and serving up IP addresses to clients attached to the network ('DHCP'). Quite often gateways are called 'routers', although as we've just seen, gateways do more than just route network traffic. -
Creating a Daemon with Python
19 hours, 33 minutes ago
If you are an average internet user, then you interact with daemons every day. This article will describe what daemons do, how to create them in Python, and what you can use them for. -
USB devices spreading viruses
20 hours, 3 minutes ago
USB thumb drives are convenient, popular and often free--and they're spreading viruses like sailors on shore leave.* -
Install and Configure Cacti Monitoring tool in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Server
20 hours, 33 minutes ago
Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool’s data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box. All of this is wrapped in an intuitive, easy to use interface that makes sense for LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with hundreds of devices. -
Check Your Mysql Server Performance with MySQLTuner
21 hours, 3 minutes ago
MySQLTuner is a script written in Perl that will assist you with your MySQL configuration and make recommendations for increased performance and stability. Within seconds, it will display statistics about your MySQL installation and the areas where it can be improved. -
Simplifying MySQL Backups with Zmanda Recovery Manager
21 hours, 33 minutes ago
MySQL has become a core component of many data management solutions. Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) provides a comprehensive open-source solution for backup and recovery of MySQL databases. In this review, we've evaluated ZRM for MySQL Enterprise edition version 2.2. -
RedHat customers unswayed by Novell's pitch to switch
22 hours, 3 minutes ago
A Novell promotion promises to minimize the cost of switching to SUSE for Red Hat customers, but the economy and the effort involved in migrating remain obstacles. - More News
Linux.com : Features
Ask Linux.com: NAS, Find, Squid, and EFS
Gather round the table for a hearty feast of homemade dishes straight out of the Linux.com forums. All your favorites are here -- heartburn-inducing Windows-to-Linux file permission problems, savory search tips, and little bits of GNOME and Squid for those with an adventurous palate. And, of course, for dessert there's a fresh slice of grandma's old-fashioned unanswered questions.
The tanking economy and OSS
The economy is falling as fast as temperatures in November. Recession seems certain, if it's not already here. The stock market's performance resembles Disney World's Space Mountain roller coaster. And every open source vendor, every Linux project, will be touched in one way or another.
SimplyMEPIS: The best desktop Linux you haven't tried
Nowadays, everyone uses Ubuntu, most people have used Fedora, and many folks have tried openSUSE. SimplyMEPIS ... not so many. That's a shame, because this relatively obscure Debian-based desktop distribution from Morgantown, WV, is an outstanding desktop operating system. With SimplyMEPIS 8 at beta 5 and closing in on release, I tested the distribution and found it to be a keeper.
A graphical way to MySQL mastery
MySQL GUI Tools is a suite of graphical desktop applications for working with and administering MySQL servers. The suite consists of three tools: MySQL Query Browser, MySQL Administrator, and MySQL Migration Assistant (available only on Windows). We'll look at the first two to see how well they let us manage MySQL without using the command line.
Using external commands in Nagios
System monitoring tool Nagios offers a powerful mechanism for receiving events and commands from external applications. External commands are usually sent from event handlers or from the Nagios Web interface. You will find external commands most useful when writing event handlers for your system, or when writing an external application that interacts with Nagios.
SoftMaker Office 2008 focuses on compatibility with Microsoft Office
The free and open source office suite OpenOffice.org might be a killer app for many, but its inability to properly display documents created in the proprietary Microsoft Office formats hinders its widespread acceptance in multi-OS business environments with many legacy .doc and .xls files. If changing over to an open document format is not an option, try SoftMaker Office. It's no OpenOffice.org-killer, but it's a full featured office suite that has great compatibility with Microsoft Office. Sure, it costs $80, but you can increase your karma by running it on Linux.
Speed up your Internet access using Squid's refresh patterns
Bandwidth limitation is still a problem for a lot of people who connect to the Internet. You can improve your available bandwidth by installing Squid caching proxy server on your network with configuration parameters that will increase your byte hit rate, giving you about 30-60% more bandwidth.
Sun wrestles itself with StarOffice 9
StarOffice 9 reminds me of the classic Monty Python skit in which Graham Chapman wrestles himself. Although StarOffice is being aggressively presented as an alternative to Microsoft Office, it seems to be equally marketed and bundled to compete against OpenOffice.org, the free software project that is sponsored by Sun and that shares a common code base with StarOffice. The trouble is, the differences between the two have diminished with each release, until, with StarOffice 9, you have to wonder who the potential customers might be.
Manage your music with ID3 tag editors
The Linux desktop comes with a variety of multimedia players, such as Xine, MPlayer, and Amarok. Yet all digital media players are only as good as the files they have to work with, and preparing those files requires the best tag editor you can find. I checked out half a dozen of the more popular and stable graphical ID3 tag editors available for Linux. I found that going from no tags to great tags requires keeping more than one of these editors on hand.
Doing a diff without touching the command line
With diff-ext, GNOME users can compare and merge files from within Nautilus. If, instead, you use KDE 3, try out kdiff-ext from the same site, which works with Konqueror. Each utility handles paths to files and directories and invokes an external diff tool to perform the grunt work. With diff-ext you can easily compare two files with different names, from different directories, or whole directory trees.
iPhone applications for the Linux user
The iPhone and iPod Touch haven taken the mobile market by storm. Apple's AppStore is full of interesting applications that take advantage of the two devices's capabilities. But what's in there for Linux users? Sadly, GTKPod and Amarok cannot yet transfer files on an iPhone with the 2.x firmware upgrade, but there are other interesting ways your iPhone can interact with your Linux desktop and even servers.
sK1 vector in on good illustrations
From its name, you'd never know that sK1 is a good vector graphics drawing program, in the same category as better-known names like Inkscape, Dia, and OpenOffice.org Draw. Moreover, sK1 includes a feature that other Linux applications lack: it can read CorelDraw's CDR files and convert them to Linux-friendly formats.
Treat your C code like scripts with C Cod
C Cod is a front end to your C, C++, or Objective-C compiler that lets you treat C more like a scripting language. C Cod comes with C Server Pages, which provides support for CGI so you can write Web applications in C or C++ and have them automatically compiled on demand.
Slumberland rests easy after move away from proprietary Unix
In 2005, when Slumberland faced end-of-lifecycle replacements of its proprietary Unix platform, its warehouse management system (WMS) vendor suggested a move to Red Hat Linux and commodity x86 servers. Seth Mitchell, the infrastructure team manager at the large furniture retailer, gladly agreed. Upper management wasn't quite as quick to jump on the open source bandwagon, but once the cost savings started rolling in, everyone agreed that it was a profitable decision.
Crafting offers and invoice documents with Kraft
Kraft helps you keep track of business offers and invoices and can generate PDF files to help you easily issue these routine documents to third parties. Since Kraft is a KDE application, it can draw contact information directly from your KDE address book, so you don't have to duplicate or sync your contacts in order to generate an invoice.
Enrich your Joomla! site with image extensions
Several extensions can help you work with photographic images on your Joomla! content management system. Here are some of the best.
Bug Labs creates open source Lego for software engineers
Most of the new breed of open source hardware centers on specific products. Bug Labs is taking a different approach. Instead of developing particular devices, Bug Labs' goal is to provide a Lego-like collection of open source hardware and software that customers can use to build their own devices. According to CEO Peter Semmelhack, the result should be not only a higher degree of innovation, but also a forerunner of the hardware business of the future.
Set Mantis to track your bugs
Mantis is that rare bug-tracking program for small projects that is neither too bloated nor too featureless. It's an excellent choice for developers who need a bug tracker that the average computer user can use. Its clean interface and numerous features make bug tracking fast and easy.
Back-of-the-napkin calculations with Frink
Linux users have a myriad of calculators and unit conversion tools at their disposal. To set itself apart, Frink aims to track units for you and give you a way to quickly perform little conversions and real-world calculations without burdening you with needless details.
Ace Suares: A big Linux advocate on a small island (video)
The word "big" has two meanings here. Ace Suares is not only a big-time GNU/Linux and FOSS advocate, but he is close to 2.5 meters tall and built like a football lineman. He lives on the island of Curacao in the Netherland Antilles, where he and his wife run a small Web design and hosting firm that (of course) runs Linux servers. But trying to convert other IT people on Curacao to the FOSS cause has not been easy, and has caused Ace plenty of frustration over the years. Somehow, he keeps going; arranging conferences, holding LPI Certification classes, and generally talking up Linux to his clients, friends, and even to strangers whose businesses or government agencies might be made more efficient by using FOSS instead of proprietary software. Now we'll get out of the way and let Ace tell his story directly to you in the following video. (It's about 13:20 long.)
