Luca Gambetta reviews at ZioBudda two italian PHP portal sites: PhpCenter (1) and PhpItalia(2). The response is not so good.

From LinuxPR: As part of its continuing efforts to
support the rapidly growing Embedded Linux Market, LinuxDevices.com (“the
Embedded Linux Portal”) is pleased to announce the online 2001 Embedded
Linux Market Survey. The survey asks developers of Linux-based embedded
systems and intelligent devices to anonymously provide information about their
applications, their embedded Linux OS requirements and preferences, and the
perceived advantages and disadvantages of using Linux in embedded
applications.

ZDNet UK reports that Cambridge Silicon Radio, a company manufacturing
Bluetooth solutions, received an investment from Sony.

“The investment will be used to develop BlueCore, its single chip
Bluetooth semiconductor based on a commonly-used microchip
technology called CMOS. CSR says that this makes it simple for
manufacturers to include their technology in their products.”

From PR Web: UnxSoft Ltd. announced today a new version of its Webswift Compressing Web Proxy.Version 1.2 of Webswift now includes compression of images in addition to to the
text and HTML compression that was available in previous versions. Webswift can
be installed at ISPs or at web sites, wherever there is a bottleneck.
Evaluation versions for Linux and Solarisare downloadable from the UnxSoft
website at
http://www.unxsoft.com/webswift.

SFGate.com reviews the current state of patent law: “Disturbingly, however, an increasing number of
patents are being issued that seem to stretch the
definition of “unique, specific and non-obvious.”
Amazon.com, for example, claims through its patents
the exclusive right to let customers buy products from
its Web site with a single click. Other sites must require
two clicks or more.”

– by Tina Gasperson –
If you’re into graphic design, image manipulation, photo-retouching, and the like, you already know that the GIMP is a godsend for visually creative Linuxers. It’s got all the best features of Photoshop, and it’s free. Now, you don’t even have to buy a book to learn how to use it, thanks to Carey Bunks, the author of Grokking the GIMP.Grokking the GIMP is a full text, published on real paper and available through Amazon.com or at your local bookstore. But in the spirit of Open Source, the author and friends have graciously published the tome in its entirety at Gimp-savvy. In some ways, the online version of the book is better than the print. Most notably, the ability to click through on hyperlinked cross-references is fabulous whether you’re boning up on a particular topic, or following a train of thought through the text.

“Grokking” goes deep into the subject matter, leaving little to the imagination. If you read the whole thing, you’re going to learn cool stuff, like optimal video RAM, working with layers and “floats,” selection tools, paths, masks, color blending, composites, rendering, and Web-centricity.

To boot, there’s a short section devoted to other GIMP resources, and one containing a full set of keyboard shortcuts in case you’ve an aversion to using the mechanical rodent.

The book by itself makes the site more than worthwhile. But Gimp-savvy doesn’t stop there. Equally as impressive is the reallllly beeg collection of public domain photographic images available for download. I’ve learned not to be immediately impressed by free graphics collections — seems you get what you pay for most of the time. But these images are good enough to pay for — shhh, don’t tell.

They come from places like NASA, NOAA, and the FWS. The images are clear, bright, and interesting. You could really do something with these. Most of them are indexed according to keyword, but there are also quite a few random images that need indexing — and if you feel froggy and have some free time, you can jump in and help with the job by providing keywords for them.

Before you leave, there’s one more great resource. It’s a collection of book recommendations for further learning about GIMP, and about image manipulation in general. There are annotated links to 34 books, including studies of Photoshop, airbrushing techniques, Web page design, and color harmony.

Go check out Gimp-savvy and let me know what you think. I’m always looking for other sites worthy of the weekly spotlight, so send me your suggestions, too, or post them on the discussion page.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

At Businesswire: LinuxWizardry Systems, Inc. (OTCBB:LNXWF) is pleased to announce that it has
signed an agreement with EBIZ Enterprises Inc. (OTCBB:EBIZ) to market LinuxWizardry’s Magic Passage line of products through the
www.TheLinuxStore.com, EBIZ’s Linux B2B web resale company.

Our last update was in December, and I would like to thank you for your interest, here is our current status. Our kernel is almost completed, just some minor finishing touches need to be made. If you are interested in helping with the KyroLinux Project please email dolonen@msn.com today! We will need some ftp server space, but any help you can give will be appreciated. If you are interested in KyroLinux, please visit our Web page or email us for more information. – Submitted by the KyroSoft KyroLinux Team

From PR Newswire: SGI (NYSE: SGI), a leading
provider of solutions for the digital media industry, today announced that the
source code for its digital media software development kit (dmSDK) for the
Linux(R) operating environment is now available to the open source community.
The dmSDK toolkit shortens the time required to create digital media
applications across the SGI(TM) product line by allowing SGI software partners
to write to a single application programming interface (API). The dmSDK source
code is now available for download from SGI’s open source developer Web site
at http://www.sgi.com/developers/oss/.

CNet reports on the consumer electronics show coming up in Las Vegas by saying the PC giants are betting on smaller, cheaper devices: “Nokia plans to announce that it is bringing its advanced set-top box, which uses an Intel chip and the Linux operating system, to the United
States. The Nokia Media Terminal, as the set-top is known, receives digital TV and video-on-demand, can play and store MP3 files, and can
connect to a printer as well as other devices such as a digital camera. The device will also offer high-speed Internet access.”