If users on your network are working on more than one machine you will need to
create a login/password pair for them on each machine. A more elegant solution i
s to maintain a centralized database that client machines refer to for authentication.
NIS is one way to do that and this article shows you how.–Chandrashekhar Bhosle

“Sun Microsystems published details on Monday of two new interfaces to link its Java programming language to XML (Extensible Markup Language). The two new Java APIs (application programming interfaces) — Java API for XML Messaging (JAXM) and Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP) — and a slew of supporting acronyms dealing with messaging and parsing of XML.” Full report at IDG News.

eWEEK’s John Taschek comments on the latest Intel processor: “I used to think my demands for faster performance really mattered. Now, the only reason I or anyone else, for that matter want a faster processor is for hobbying. Therefore, the P4 can’t have nearly the corporate impact that any of Intel’s previous processors have had.”

Sun’s central place for developers to learn about new Java technology will launch an e-mail newsletter for developers of consumer and embedded applications on December 18th. Also available: Learn how to use simple logging features in Java security, and discover the basics of generic connection frameworks in MIDP.

PCWorld reports: “Eazel, one of the shining hopes for establishing Linux on corporate desktops, will show off the latest version of its Nautilus graphical/network environment this week and announce a partnership with Dell, which is claiming a stake in the company.”

“Call it the “free-network movement”: Grass-roots hardware hackers are creating a wireless wonderland with megabits of connectivity for all.” Complete story at Salon.

In a special column for ZDNet, BMI Managing Director Janet Fisher asserts that the Internal Revenue Service should punish Napster users for tax evasion.

eWEEK’s David Thompson takes a trip to the Mandrake home page: “I was unable to determine if this patch (for preventing a certain type of DoS attack) is available for the Mandrake version of Linux. The site was filled with self-congratulatory rhetoric and an equal amount of anti-Microsoft propaganda, but very little in the way of technical support and not a single phone number.”

“OpenBSD, whose new version 2.8 was announced last Friday, is the one entry in the panoply of open source operating systems that currently doesn’t seem to be on too many radar screens. However, I suspect that will change sooner rather than later, since OpenBSD has been focusing on one particular set of features that other OSes — open source and otherwise — are frantically working to add.” More at ZDNet News.

Salon profiles Berkeley’s eXperimental Computing Club, the organization responsible for the GTK toolkit, the GIMP, a few of the early Web browsers, and the possibility that it may have put itself out of business: “By helping to create software that made the virtual world rich and robust, it may have paved the way for its own real-world demise. The Internet now facilitates a vastly larger community of cooperating programmers than any single club can provide.” Slashdot readers discuss the article.