Linux News for Jul 31, 2008

• Dog the Spammer Hunter (Jul 31, 2008, 23:00)
  Linux Today Blog: "...I am always sad and disappointed that it's SpamAssassin, rather than SpammerAssassin."


• Howto Setup DHCP Server and Dynamic DNS with BIND in Debian (Jul 31, 2008, 22:30)
  Debian Admin: "This tutorial will explain Howto setup DHCP Server and Dynamic DNS with BIND in Debian."


• Intel GMA X4500HD Review (Jul 31, 2008, 22:00)
  Phoronix: "Earlier this month Intel had announced the GMA X4500 series, which is their latest and greatest when it comes to integrated graphics processors. These IGPs were greeted by same-day Linux support..."


• Handling Kernel Security Problems (Jul 31, 2008, 21:30)
  LWN: "Even the most casual observer of the linux-kernel mailing must have noticed that, in the shadow of the firmware flame war, there is also a heated discussion over the management of security issues."


• Networking 101: Understanding Subnets and CIDR (Jul 31, 2008, 21:00)
  Linux Planet: "Calculating subnets is an essential skill for network administrators, and even home users with small LANs will benefit from understanding how they work. This installment of Networking 101 offers some tips and practice exercises to get you started."


• US Connectivity: Where's the Wideband? (Jul 31, 2008, 20:30)
  Enterprise Networking Planet: " In Japan, 85 percent of households have access to fiber and 100 Mb/s service costs about a fourth the price Americans pay for 8 Mb/s service. In fact, the US ranks 14th among other countries with broadband access when it comes to available speeds."


• GIMP Tricks: Fake Fill Flash (Jul 31, 2008, 20:00)
  Polish Linux: "Today I’m going to teach you a method I use to fake a fill flash. The objective is to lighten the dark areas without blowing out the highlights."


• Sam Ramji, the Man Who Wants to Politely Steal from GNU/Linux (Jul 31, 2008, 19:30)
  Boycott Novell: "Gavin Clarke is at it again. He does yet another Ramji/Microsoft glorification piece."


• Itches You Shouldn't Scratch (Jul 31, 2008, 19:00)
  OStatic: "The problem is that an awful lot of developers have the same itch - and they don't always look around before they scratch it."


• H D Moore has NOT been owned (Jul 31, 2008, 18:30)
  Netstat -vat: "The story is not true - at least according to H D Moore who claims he was misquoted by the journalist in question."


• Can Apple Break Through China's Great Wall of Counterfeits? (Jul 31, 2008, 18:00)
  LinuxInsider: "To say that Apple takes intellectual property theft seriously is a little like saying iPods are somewhat popular; the company is willing to take young bloggers to court for leaking news about future products."


• Linux User Here (Jul 31, 2008, 17:30)
  Practical Technology: "Color me surprised. Dana Blankenhorn, a well-known writer about Linux and open source recently asked for someone—anyone–to send him a loaner Linux laptop to replace his now dead Windows laptop. What, he didn't already have one?"


• Interview: Red Hat's new CEO (Jul 31, 2008, 17:00)
  ZDNet: ""The clouds will all run Linux," Whitehurst said in an interview."


• Who Polices Virtual Worlds? (Jul 31, 2008, 16:30)
  LinuxInsiders: "...in the digital world, who lays down the law? As virtual worlds such as Second Life and Eve Online continue to grow, attracting more and more residents -- and often for vastly different reasons -- who decides what goes and what doesn't? What constitutes a crime in these worlds? Do real-world laws apply, or is up to the creators of these fantasy lands to police their own environments?"


• Robot Software Shootout -- the Sequel! (Jul 31, 2008, 16:00)
  Linux Devices: "Today's nascent robotics market has engendered nearly two dozen general-purpose software development frameworks, nearly all of which run on Linux. This article reviews ten, and briefly describes a few others, before concluding with an analysis of which platforms are best-suited to which uses."


• Intuit Joins the Linux Revolution (Jul 31, 2008, 15:30)
  The Open Road: "Yes, that Intuit. Promoting Linux and open source."


• Ex-inmates Apply Open Source to Rehabilitation (Jul 31, 2008, 15:00)
  LinuxWorld: "Ric Moore and Dennis Gaddy met in prison, and started to discuss how Open Source software and methods could help other inmates to avoid further mistakes and get better chance to start over after their term. In this interview, Ric explains how they are doing it through the NuOAR program and why."


• Microsoft Applauds Victory Over Linux and Open Source (Jul 31, 2008, 14:30)
  Softpedia: "...the way we compete against Linux is very simple: we build a better product and we have a great value proposition. Today our customers know Linux isn't free and the overall cost of the solution is in fact in most cases quite a bit higher than a Windows-based solution."


• Open Source vs. Proprietary Intranet Software, Part 1 (Jul 31, 2008, 14:00)
  Intranet Journal: "At first glance it might seem like a no-brainer: Get your intranet software and its source code for free or pay big bucks for proprietary, closed source software. But deciding to adopt either open source or proprietary software must go beyond the issue of money."


• DNS Attack Writer a Victim of His Own Creation (Jul 31, 2008, 13:30)
  Network World: "HD Moore has been owned. That's hacker talk, meaning that Moore, the creator of the popular Metasploit hacking toolkit, has become the victim of a computer attack."


• Dog the Spammer Hunter (Jul 31, 2008, 13:12)
  I received a rude awakening when I did some work for an old client- more spam than I ever dreamed existed in the whole world. On my private domains I have a good working SpamAssassin setup, though I can't lock it down too tightly because I get email from strangers all over the world. I could spend my days fiddling with fine-tuning SpamAssassin, but letting a few spams slip through to avoid false negatives, and still having a life is OK with me.
  
  But this poor man has a small business and no idea how to erect spam shields. He's doing all the right things that a Windows user is supposed to do-
  
  


• Vista SP1 Won't Install on Dual-boot Systems: Microsoft (Jul 31, 2008, 13:00)
  APC Magazine: "Are you currently running Windows and Linux in a dual-boot setup? You're going to have major headaches with Vista SP1, Microsoft has admitted.


• BIOS Merger Targets ‘Billions of Devices’ (Jul 31, 2008, 12:30)
  DeviceGuru: "Long-time PC BIOS leader Phoenix Technologies is acquiring embedded BIOS specialist General Software. The companies expect the acquisition to help Phoenix tap into a market consisting of billions of mobile and embedded devices."


• Blizzard Asks Judge to Forbid Open Source (Jul 31, 2008, 12:00)
  OStatic: "Now that I've got your attention, don't worry too much: Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the popular World of Warcraft online game, isn't trying to shut down open source software entirely. But in a recent legal filing (reported by the Virtually Blind weblog), they are asking a judge to take an unusual move: prohibiting a developer from releasing a particular bit of code as open source."


• Eight Ways VARs Can Profit From Linux and Open Source (Jul 31, 2008, 11:00)
  The VAR Guy: "During a meeting earlier this week in New Orleans, a solution provider told The VAR Guy he just didn’t understand how to profit from open source. Didn’t we put this issue to rest a long ago? Perhaps not. Here are eight ways VARs can profit from Linux and Open Source."


• Revving up once:radix for RAD Web Apps (Jul 31, 2008, 09:30)
  Techworld: "Need to do forms development sans Access or Filemaker? Want rapid Web apps without Ruby on Rails? Want a rich Internet interface and abhor Ajax? Need PostgreSQL development, but don't do PHP? Just want a Java application without the, well, Java? Why not check out the once:radix Web-based RAD environment from once:technologies. And, by the way, did I mention it's open source?"


• Howto Install VirtualBox 1.6 in Ubuntu 8.04(Hardy Heron) including USB Support (Jul 31, 2008, 08:00)
  Ubuntugeek: "VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."


• Cloud Computing With Amazon Web Services, Part 1: Introduction (Jul 31, 2008, 06:30)
  IBM Developerworks: "Cloud computing can be loosely defined as using scalable computing resources provided as a service from outside your environment on a pay-per-use basis. You use only what you need, and pay for only what you use. You can access any of the resources that live in the "cloud" at any time, and from anywhere across the Internet. You don't have to care about how things are being maintained behind the scenes in the cloud."


• Feedback Needed on New DeveloperWorks Layout (Jul 31, 2008, 05:00)
  IBM Developerworks: "You're looking at the beta release of the new look for developerWorks articles. This new design is more streamlined and lets you interact with developerWorks and other users. It also provides the most up-to-date resources within the articles to save you time and energy. Using this article, learn how these new features integrate related developerWorks and community-generated content in a dynamic and context-sensitive manner. And then, tell us what you think."


• Is Linux Currently at a Fundamental Disadvantage Owing to How Computers Are Set (Jul 31, 2008, 03:30)
  Greg Laden's Blog: "one might assume that the engineers at Dell or Gateway or Computertown can throw a Windows system or a Linux system, with impunity, on any old pile of hardware they happen to put together. Right?"


• 10 Cool Open Source Easter Eggs (Jul 31, 2008, 02:00)
  Royal HeHe2-ness: "Curse Words in The Linux Source Code -- grep -r [word] /usr/src/linux[TAB]/*"


• Firefox 3.0 and its XML and XSLT Big Boost (Jul 31, 2008, 00:30)
  IBM Developerworks: "The XML space includes a huge stack of technologies, but it still all begins with the parser; Firefox 3 introduces one huge improvement to basic XML parsing. In the past on Mozilla browsers, parsing an XML document was synchronous, blocking all operations on the document until it was fully loaded...the user saw nothing at all until it was completely parsed. "