PCWorld.com reviews the Pentium 4. Unveiled this week, it is Intel’s first new microarchitecture since 1995 when the current
x86 architecture made its debut in the Pentium Pro. This new generation is designed to provide
blazing speed, especially in handling multimedia content.

Intel’s Pentium 4 processor, which ships today, represents the
biggest change in Intel’s processor technology since the Pentium
Pro launch five years ago ­- but IT Week tests show it may not be
suitable for mainstream business use, reports ZDCOUK.

PCWorld.com reports that this filtering software for businesses and schools can monitor Internet usage over a
network.

From MSNBC: “Even if Netscape Navigator is selected as the
default browser, clicking a hyperlink in an
HTML e-mail in Microsoft Outlook Express may
trigger Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows 98 SE,
2000, or Me to open.”

The Linux Loader or LILO is one of the most popular methods of booting into Linux. LILO also makes a highly flexible and effective boot manager:handy if you have multiple operating systems installed on your machine. This article at FreeOS.com will help you set up and configure LILO.
–Chandrashekhar Bhosle

TCI Announces Canada’s Most Comprehensive Linux Jobs Board

Teledynamics Communications Inc (TCI) has
launched a comprehensive Linux employment page as the latest addition
to the teledynamics communiqué
website. The TCI Linux Jobs Page
carries current contract and full-time Linux-related listings from all
three national newspapers, dozens of recruiters and direct listings
from employers. Using open source web-clipping technology, the Jobs
Page binds together the resources of Canada’s two largest
job sites, Workopolis and Monster.ca, pre-filtered for Linux
related postings.

Established in 1983, TeleDynamics Communications Inc (TCI)
specializes in business internet applications consulting using open
source systems. Involved with Linux since 1993, TCI is active in
global development through free software, the LDP, the Canadian Linux
Users Exchange, and is a contributor to several open source
projects. TCI clients include Sympatico (Medialinx), CBC New Media,
Macmillan Computer Publishing, InformIT, OpenCOLA and the Ontario
Government.

“Yes, Virginia, people really do make a full-time living on Linux
and open source software in Canada,” says Gary Lawrence Murphy, CEO of
TCI, “Listings on these pages run the gammut from high-level
applications architecture, sysadmin and e-business planning to the
entry level jobs coding Perl for small business websites. Listings
also come in across the country, from Vancouver Island to the Bona
Vista.”

“Serious deployment of Linux continues to surge across Canada,”
says Murphy, “and the resulting demand has opened hundreds of jobs for
the Linux savvy. Since communications is the classical problem of our
national psyche, it seemed reasonable to mirror the jobs listings as a
free public service under our Linux pages. This is our way of bringing
the employers and employees together so businesses can deploy Linux
and be assured of technical support.”

Linux Jobs: link

Teledynamics Communications Inc (TCI)
7 Forest Place RR#1

Sauble Beach, Ontario N0H 2G0

net: info@teledyn.com
url: www.teledyn.com
tel: 011-519-422-1150

fax: 011-519-422-2723

–garym

– by Dan Berkes –

If they build it, will you buy it? In the year to come, many computer manufacturers are pinning their hopes on a new wireless technology named Bluetooth. The amount of hype generated for this product is extraordinary, especially when you consider that this time around, it’s not a closed source-only party.There’s certainly no shortage of information on Bluetooth; at the recently concluded Fall Comdex show in Las Vegas, hardware and software manufacturers averaged at least one press release per day announcing their support for the wireless technology. Heavy on buzzwords but short on crucial information, most of these items failed to answer one very popular question: Exactly what is Bluetooth supposed to do?

According to Digianswer’s Bluetooth site, the protocol “provides a universal bridge to existing data networks, a peripheral interface, and a mechanism to form small private ad hoc groupings of connected devices away from fixed network infrastructures.”

Bluetooth is a local wireless radio protocol — a very fast, very limited (in terms of geographic range) protocol. It can transfer data at a zippy 752Kbits/second to other devices within a 30-foot radius, more than enough space for the average home or office setup.

Perhaps the most breathtaking aspect of Bluetooth is the fact that it isn’t some closed, proprietary protocol for Windows. Linux can and will run Bluetooth applications, and one of the most highly anticipated software releases of the year has been IBM’s suite of development tools for Linux and Bluetooth, dubbed BlueDrekar.

Now take a look behind your computer at the jungle of wire back there, and imagine it reduced by 90%. Imagine adding new peripherals to your computer without having to worry about open ports or switching boxes: Just place the thing on the nearest surface and turn it on.

This is more revolutionary than it sounds. Computers spit out an extraordinary amount of radio frequency interference, making all but a very small group of current hardware products available as wireless solutions. Bluetooth utilizes a system of fast “talking” and frequency hopping to make its instructions known while avoiding traditional broadcast interference.

For smaller networks, Bluetooth could spell the end for miniature scale Ethernet — simply use the airspace in your home to connect to a single Internet gateway. Anyone who has ever battled with laptop hookups will undoubtedly appreciate this aspect of Bluetooth.

Many industry prognosticators have said that eventually computers and communication will become transparent aspects of our daily lives. Bluetooth may be the protocol that hurtles the world in that direction.

Imagine hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock, which in turn informs the coffee maker to delay brewing for another 15 minutes. When you’re ready to face the world for that first cup of coffee, you reach into the refrigerator and pour the last precious drops of milk into your cup. The refrigerator automatically adds a gallon of milk to the weekly grocery order, to be delivered later in the day.

Before life can get to that point of convenience, people actually have to be able to use Bluetooth. There have been quite a few false starts and broken promises made over the last 18 months, as security problems and other issues were worked out among Bluetooth participants.

Some devices have already been released, most of them along the lines of demonstration tools and components that aren’t quite ready for home use — yet. The lone exception is a headset developed by wireless giant Ericsson for use with its mobile phones. Most consumer-ready devices are slated to be released in the first and second quarters of 2001.

With thousands of manufacturers signed on to make the most out of Bluetooth, chances are that it will, eventually, make its way into the home user market. With most delivery dates only now being tentatively penciled in, figuring out when it will arrive will be the most perplexing part for consumers.

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

Net-security.org has a brief article describing how to recompile the Linux kernel. As a bonus, it has a short description of iptables, the new firewalling subsystem in Linux 2.4.x.

Slashdot has a discussion of the future of Linux, looking to 2.4.0 and beyond. It also includes a link to a techweb article describing Linus’ plans for a December release of 2.4.0.

– By Grant Gross–

The huge technology marketing extravaganza Comdex, the fall version, brought thousands of geeks and businesspeople to Las Vegas this week, along with the Linux Business Expo held in conjunction with Comdex. In the true fashion of a trade show, there were a lot of words written and some actual news that broke out.

Perhaps the biggest news was the latest volley in what the media sees as a war to control the Linux desktop. Backers of the KDE desktop environment announced the coporate-backed KDE League at least partially in response to the Gnome Foundation formed earlier this year. Among the more interesting coverage: a LinuxPlanet opinion piece accuses KDE of earlier lying about the League, saying it’d never happen. Upside.com also weighed in with a comparison of the two competing marketing boards.

There were a ton of other announcements at the Linux Business Expo. EE Times rounds up a bunch of them, including public premiers of the Linux-run iRobot and a rehash of IBM’s installation of 15,000 Linux servers for the Lawson convenience store chain in Japan. CNN.com called the iRobot “the closest thing yet to a personal R2 D2.”

Microsoft and Linux: Partnerships and FUD

In other news this week, new Microsoft partner Corel floated a rumor that it may sell its Linux operations. Corel, for it’s part, says it’s still going full-speed ahead with its Linux products.

Speaking of everyone’s favorite software monopoly, Microsoft senior v.p. Craig Mundie ripped on Linux at Comdex, saying the problem with the Open Source model is it can’t produce software fast enough to keep up with consumer demand.

NewsForge news editor Tina Gasperson also looked at the relationship between Microsoft and Open Source, with developers of Open Source projects for Windows asking, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Linus interviewed … again

If you’re curious whether Linux creator Linus Torvalds can be asked anything he hasn’t been asked before, The Register published a wide-ranging two-part interview with him. The second part focuses on version 2.4 of the Linux kernel, and how soon it’ll be ready for release.

New in NewsForge this week

Columnist Jack Bryar challenges Open Source developers to come up with a solution for faulty ballot problems plaguing the U.S. election, and several others recently.

News editor Tina Gasperson finds a couple of free software or Open Source advocates who like Microsoft’s Whistler, because it may be a tool for the community to turn users against Microsoft.

News editor Dan Berkes looks at a couple of soon-to-be-released Linux palmtops.

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