That’s the question posed to Slashdot readers. “The reason I am asking is that I
really want to be a UNIX admin but don’t know how to get from
here to there. What kind of education did you have(CS or other)? How did you start
out (as a junior admin or moving laterally from another position)? What certifications
are useful?”

Reuters reports that two graduate students have found a way to hack into
IBM security systems that protect many banking and e-commerce
transactions

Discussed at Advogato.org: “Well. I would like to say a little about the Effort Linux. It is another Linux distribution, that follows GPL and has as objective the security and stability for servers.”

– By Dan Berkes –
The markets closed on an up note this Friday, responding favorably to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 10th rate cut this year. Borland sends out Kylix 2, Red Hat and IBM vie for favorite auntie status, and Apple
gets its iPod ready for consumption. Also: What do B2B, anthrax, and fine Italian dining have in common?The Nasdaq composite closed Friday at 1,828.48, nearly flat from Thursday’s close at 1,827 but besting last Friday’s close by 23 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,608 points, rising 285 points from the close of last week’s business.

It was a small but important step: The Dow managed to wipe out the last remains of its post-Sept. 11 slump today, quite a feat for a market that tumbled more than 1,300 points in the days and weeks following the terrorist attack.

Stocks gained this week after the Fed cut interest rates for a 10th time. With rates so low, equity traders are predicting the markets will continue to rise over the next few weeks.

Borland updates Kylix, hangs on to Java
On Tuesday, Borland announced that Kylix 2 was now available for purchase. Kylix is the company’s rapid application development framework for Linux and, according to recent surveys (at least the ones quoted by its maker), it now ranks among the most popular of development tools for that operating system. Pricing ranges from $1,999 for the Enterprise edition to free of charge for the development of GPLed and Open Source software.

The following day, Borland was re-elected to the executive committee of the Java Community Process (JCP). The JCP bills itself as an “open organization” formed to coordinate the development and approval process of Java technical specifications. Provided, of course, that Java owner Sun Microsystems approves of every single step the JCP makes.

IBM: $40M for Open Source
Big Blue kicked off the week by announcing a $40 million software donation to an Open Source community effort. Code-named Eclipse, the Java-based software aims to let developers use software tools from multiple suppliers within a single environment.

Red Hat: Software for schools
Red Hat played the part of software fairy this week, bestowing gifts of its Red Hat Linux operating system to selected universities. About 40 schools will receive the software as part of a program started by Hewlett-Packard and Intel’s Itanium System Grants Program, a $2.5 million joint effort between HP and Intel in which HP servers and workstations based on the Itanium processor are donated to universities.

HP: Family matters
The family members and foundation of Hewlett-Packard co-founder William Hewlett said that they will vote against the proposed takeover of Compaq. Walter Hewlett, Hewlett’s son and a member of the HP board, believes the company can increase value for its shareholders without swallowing Compaq. Hewlett’s foundation owns 5 percent of the company’s stock.

The Hewlett-Packard board of directors promptly issued a short statement saying that they stood behind the deal no matter what the Hewletts may think of it.

After consulting with trustees of the Packard Humanities Institute and following the board’s announcement, David Packard said that his foundation will likely vote against the merger as well. Packard Humanities holds a 1.7 percent stake in the company.

Then there’s The Packard Foundation, the largest single investor in Hewlett-Packard, with 10.4 percent of the company’s shares. On late Wednesday, that particular family foundation decided to wait until after HP reports its earnings and detailed merger plans next week before it makes a decision to support or reject a plan.

Apple: iPod to debut this weekend
If you’re one of those folks who can’t wait to snare an iPod, head on over to your favorite Apple retailer on Saturday. The MP3 player, capable of holding up to 1,000 songs on its 5GB microdrive, carries a price tag of $399.

But what if they combined all three?
In non-Open Source news, but nonetheless amusing, we learn that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended trading in 2DoTrade after that company claimed it was gearing up to distribute an anthrax decontamination kit. You can’t blame the SEC for being just a bit skeptical that a company on a mission to develop a B2B platform for Africa is suddenly dabbling in the biotech field.

Of course, biotech and B2B have very little to do with the company’s original mission. Back when it first filed with the SEC, 2DoTrade wanted to start a chain of high-end Italian restaurants around the world.

Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this week:

Company Name	Symbol	11/09 Close	11/02 Close
Apple	AAPL	18.71	18.57
Borland Software Int’l	BORL	13.52	11.16
Caldera International	CALD	0.30	0.28
Hewlett Packard	HWP	18.99	16.92
IBM	IBM	114.08	109.50
MandrakeSoft	4477.PA	e3.70	e2.75
Red Hat	RHAT	5.40	4.40
Sun Microsystems	SUNW	12.92	11.44
TiVo	TIVO	5.98	5.35
VA Linux Systems	LNUX	1.73	1.26
Wind River Systems	WIND	16.95	14.23

– by Eric S. Raymond –
In remarks at a Microsoft stockholders’ meeting, Bill Gates recently
claimed that Microsoft was responsible for the success of open source.

“Really,” he said “the reason you see open source there at all is
because we came in and said there should be a platform that’s
identical with millions and millions of machines.”

As an exercise in retroactive imperialism, this is little short of
breathtaking. It ignores the fact that though the open-source culture
wouldn’t get public visibility until after 1993, or a name for itself
until 1998, it already existed well before the foundation of Microsoft
in 1975. Many of today’s most active hackers can readily remember a
time when the typical response to the word “Microsoft” was “Who are
they?” — and some of our most important work (such as the Berkeley
TCP/IP stack that Microsoft itself copied and used) was written years
before the computing landscape flattened into PCs as far as the eye
can see.

But there is one smidgen of truth in this; yes, Mr. Gates, recently you have
helped open source succeed — in much the same way Osama bin Laden has
helped beef up airport security lately.

Microsoft’s monopolistic, price-gouging, bullying behavior is making
open source more attractive every day. We’d thank you, except that
you’re only accelerating a process that would have happened anyway.
You’re a serviceable villain, but not a necessary one; the dedication
to excellence and the sense of worldwide community that are behind the
open-source movement were here long before Microsoft, and will still be here
long after Microsoft is gone.

— Eric S. Raymond

Editor’s note: This is an email Raymond sent to several news organizations Friday.

Bluetooth will be a huge success, selling over 100 million handhelds in 2003 when 3G networks start working on larger scales. That’s just part of a report issued by the ARC Group, and The Register has a few things to say about it.

Reported at BBC News: “Musicians and artists will now be paid directly for broadcasts of their work in the US on cable, satellite and the internet – rather than the cash going to their recording companies.”

“Supercomputing leader IBM on Friday announced that it has begun assembling a colossal supercomputer called Blue Sky for The National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado.

Capable of predicting atmospheric climate changes, heating oil prices, and global warming, Blue Sky will be equipped with IBM’s ELiza technology by the end of next year. The goal of IBM’s ELiza program is to give a computer the ability to repair itself, and keep itself running without human intervention.” From PC World.

LinuxCertified, Inc. a leading provider of Linux training, will offer weekend system administration bootcamp on December 8-9, 2001 in San Francisco bay area (south bay). This workshop is designed for busy information technology professionals and is designed to cover the most important Linux administration areas.

In addition to carefully designed lecture material delivered by experienced Linux professionals, there is a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning. The training starts two weeks before the actual class, with access to an online Linux server, where students complete few challenging pre-class activities. Attendees get a powerful Linux laptop on their arrival, along with other class materials. They load Linux on their laptop during the class, and use it for all the class activities and assignments. At the end of the class they take this laptop with them to further enhance their Linux expertise. Absolute beginners with no UNIX experience can first come to the popular “Linux for Beginners” class and subsequently join the system
administration bootcamp.

Rapid growth of Linux into corporate and government IT environments is fueling the need for Linux certified professionals. CIOs and managers are eager to have Linux experts in their organizations. A certification provides a tangible mechanism for their hiring evaluation, as well as a means to market the prowess of organizations.

“As an independent IT consultant I am always on my toes to learn new technologies, without much free time to devote to classes. The LinuxCertified.com bootcamp was a perfect way for me to jump start my Linux knowledge. I can now use Linux as a valuable tool in my career,” said Taylor Cottam, an independent consultant who joined one of the LinuxCertified, Inc weekend bootcamps.

This weekend bootcamp is specially designed to prepare the attendees for the objectives of Level 1 certification exams offered by Linux Professional Institute (LPI). The workshop also meets the objectives of the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam and Sair Linux & GNU certification (LCA).

Our attendees build a strong sense of community with our instructors, fellow students, and our network of recruiters
and companies looking for Linux consultants.

About LinuxCertified, Inc.

The mission of LinuxCertified, Inc is to bring Linux to mainstream IT usage. We firmly believe that Linux has an enormous potential, once it crosses over from the early adopters to the more mainstream users. Our goal is to help this transition by providing:

– Linux trained and certified professionals

– Linux certified products that cater to mainstream users rather than early adopters.

Contact:

info@linuxcertified.com

http://www.linuxcertified.com/
tel: 1-877-800-6873 / 1-408-314-6700
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.”

“IBM’s HTTP Server on the AS/400 platform is vulnerable to an attack that will show the source code of the page — such as an .html or .jsp page — by attaching an ‘/’ to the end of a URL. I was told it was a bug but not a security vulnerability. When I explained that Microsoft had a similar bug (asp dot bug) they told me that “they did not share the same source code base.” I replied to this ludicrous reply: “Isn’t it possible that since you developed servers that function in a similar manner you have the same logical bug?” To this they were speechless.” Help Net Security