Linux.com features an excerpt from David Cross’ new book, Data Munging with Perl. The excerpt covers processes for munging data, data structure designs, encapsulating business rules, the UNIX filter model, and writing audit trails.

From David Mason, at Red Hat: “Since returning from Copenhagen I have been a bit underwhelmed by the
coverage of what went on at GUADEC II this year. I felt strong enough
about the positive steps taken that I thought I would write up a quick
impression about one of the areas I observed. To me some of the most
important talks we had revolved around the work we are taking to make
sure that GNOME and KDE interoperate. To that end, here are my
impressions of the situation and what we did at GUADEC to work on the
problems.”

All Linux Devices: “The wild Linux buzz of a couple of years ago has quieted and the operating system has
become established as a server platform and, to a lesser extent, on the desktop. However,
the imminent release the Linux-based Agenda VR3 handheld raises the question: Can
Linux handhelds succeed?”

Zack Brown posts the latest summary of posts to the linux-kernel mailing list. Hot topics in this issue include: “64-Bit Major/Minor Device Numbers And PID Allocations” … “Cleaning Up The Kernel…Developers” … “Some discussion of binary-only drivers.”

Consdering that Dubya had to give up his e-mail address for the sake of presidential confidentiality, it’s a little surprising that his administration has decided to ignore the issue of online privacy. And it’s more than a little disturbing that the American Commerce and Treasury departments are showing the first signs of opposing the stringent privacy guidelines adopted by the European Union. Read the ZDNet editorial.

From Help Net Security: “Updated pine packages are now available for Red Hat Linux 7.0, 6.2, and 5.2. These new updated packages fix
temporary file creation issues in the pine mail client and the pico text editor that comes with pine.”

From Help Net Security: “A combination of bugs found in the ISADMIN service that would allow an attacker to remotely compromise a system running Trend Micro Interscan Viruswall 3.01.”

A short three weeks after the release of Mac OS X, Apple Computer has released an update for its new operating system. The new code adds some juice to USB connections, stabilizes older applications, and fixes what Apple called “minor glitches.” There’s also a new optimization tool included to improve overall system performance. Full story at ZDNet News.

Info World: “Targeting the mobile workforce, NEC Computers on Monday introduced two lightweight notebook computers powered by Transmeta’s low-power Crusoe processor, the NEC Versa DayLite and Versa UltraLite. Using a combination of the low-power chip and a non-illuminated screen, the Versa DayLite can run what NEC officials called “everyday applications” for up to eight hours on one battery.”

“VIA users should test this kernel carefully. It has what are supposed to be
the right fixes for the VIA hardware bugs. Obviously the right fixes are not
as tested as the deduced ones.” More details from Alan Cox in a post at LWN.net.