Ben Martin writes: “A
paper detailing some new ways to use Ferris. Abstract: The selection of information from a relational database using both SQL and XSLT for delivery on the web. Focus is on the use of Ferris to bring the relational database into the world of XML by mounting either a table or query and presenting that data as parsed XML in the form of a Document Object Model (DOM). The DOM is then transformed into HTML using XSL.”

PCWorld: “On the negative side, Palm will not leverage the multimedia
capabilities of its recently purchased Be operating system, meaning
things such as MP3 will not be available. Perhaps most aggravating
to Palm users is that utilities written by third parties to expand the
capabilities of the current OS, called “hacks,” will not be supported
in OS 5. For example, it is a hack utility that allows users to touch
the title bar and get a dropdown menu.

“We were told that every single hack will not work in the future,”
said a developer.”

The Register: “Microsoft founder Bill Gates has finally noodled out the fact that his precious .NET
initiative is never going to fly if the company continues turning out insecure
products. Therefore, in a long-winded bull to all Microserfs issued Wednesday,
Billg finally admits that the company has wrongly emphasized whistles and bells
over security, and decrees that this shall change.”

CNET: “Linux PDAs also have the disadvantage of having few third-party applications available,
while the Palm community offers more than 1,000–and the Pocket PC application list is
growing rapidly. On the plus side, Linux offers a stable operating system with many of the
features that corporations need for the custom applications they want to develop for mobile or
“pervasive computing,” including the ability to run Java programs on a Java Virtual Machine
(JVM).”

IntnsRed write: “An interesting bug report was filed today by Florian Weimer against Debian GNU/Linux. Florian claims that the Debian practice of holding back security fixes until other GNU/Linux distributions get them is wrong, adding, “I do think that it is conflicting with the third item of the Social Contract: The promise, “We Won’t Hide Problems”, is not held.””

Wired: “Open Source backers lash out at Borland after the software maker accidentally attaches a more restrictive license than the open-sourcers are used to. Borland moves quickly to quell the unrest.”

“For desktops, the 2.4 version of the kernel is just fine. If you have heavy-duty processing needs, 2.4
has been a series of disappointments. Sysadmins of big iron have two choices — go back in time or play
upgrade hopscotch. Both have problems.” More at LinuxWorld.com.

NewsFactor Network writes: “Microsoft has sued Lindows.com, alleging that the company’s name and the name of its operating system are too similar in name to Microsoft’s own operating systems sold under the trademark Windows. Although Lindows appears to be riding the coattails of Microsoft’s brand, there are many other software applications that use parts of the Windows name that have not been subject to similar lawsuits. The decision to sue Lindows and not the others shows that Microsoft is trying to squash yet another competing product.”

Open Source Schools writes: “Patrick Bryant is a rare hybrid: Software programmer and American Lit scholar. He’s putting both of his traits to good work in his dissertation which will not only use free and open source software, which he will author, but also, going a step beyond venerable Project Gutenberg, Bryant will publish (on the Web) not only the original letters containing many of Emily Dickenson’s poems (as images), but also the original transcriptions (images), their transcriptions in text and their concordance in sgml or xml, with links to other scholarly sources.

By carrying out this project, Bryant hopes “to establish a loose set of recommendations and protocols for how to create similar editions and make them inter-operable.””

ZDNet reports that Penguin Computing has released two new rack-mounted Linux servers and a new Linux workstation.