News Linux News for Aug 08, 2008:

Gentoo 2008.0: Return to greatness?
(2008-08-08 00:06:06)
Linux.com: "When the long-awaited Gentoo 2008.0 release finally hit mirrors last month, the two largest groups of users found themselves out of luck: x86 users discovered that their live CD wouldn't copy the kernel during install, and the AMD64 image wouldn't fit onto a standard CD-ROM. This was not a great start for a distribution whose comeback may rest upon this release. Updated ISOs were released two days later, though, and those work well for getting a quick Gentoo install ready to customize."

LinuxWorld 2008: News, Notes and a Rant
(2008-08-08 01:30:06)
LXer: "I got in early today because I wanted to help out with installing Linux onto computers for some local schools here in the bay area and to take a long slow walk through the .org pavillion, meet some people I had made arrangements to meet and also to get the scoop on things before the crowds hit. I was successful at installing Linux on two out of three machines, those old Dell machines are a bear to do anything with."

Linux Foundation Launches Killer Development Tool
(2008-08-08 03:00:06)
Linux.com: "Ask any independent software vendor what he hates most about developing for Linux and he'll tell you that it's having to develop for SUSE and for Red Hat and for Ubuntu and ... you get the idea. The Linux Foundation has just released a beta of a new program, Linux Application Checker (AppChecker), that's going to make ISVs and other programmers start to love developing for Linux."

Java Run-time Monitoring, Part 1: Run-time Performance
(2008-08-08 04:30:06)
IBM Developerworks: "Run-time performance monitoring is critical to achieving and maintaining a well-performing system. In this article, the first in a three-part series, Nicholas Whitehead explains how to do low-level granular monitoring of Java™ performance efficiently. The data you generate can provide valuable insights into system operation and reveal constraints and influences that affect an environment's stability and performance."

Internationalizing Web Applications Using Dojo
(2008-08-08 06:00:06)
IBM Developerworks: "The mother tongue of most of the people in the world is not English. It might be a widely used language like Chinese or French, or a rarely used language like the Bask language or Yiddish. These people, regardless of their English skills, may be potential clients; the only problem is how to reach them...In this article, discover a way to perform native language support in the context of Web sites and Web applications using the i18n feature of the Dojo toolkit."

TrueCrypt - Free Opensource on the Fly Disk Encryption Tool
(2008-08-08 08:00:06)
SUSE & OpenSUSE: "TrueCrypt is a free opensource software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume http://newsadmin.linuxtoday.com/(data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys."

Lightweight GNOME Alternative Emerges
(2008-08-08 12:00:06)
Desktop Linux: "A fast, fast-booting, implementation of GNOME aimed at netbooks and older hardware has emerged, and shows "a lot of promise." LXDE has already stacked up a heap of distribution partners."

Some Pictures Worth a Thousand Words - Caldera OpenLinux Lite
(2008-08-08 12:30:07)
Groklaw: "I have some screenshots from an old Caldera OpenLinux Lite CD that a member still had in his possession to show you. They disprove certain allegations SCO has made regarding Linux, I think, in the IBM litigation. For example, SCO claimed that it never released anything under the GPL. And it tried to allege that some headers and other features were their property and that Linux infringes them. I will show you differently."

Portrait: Michelle Murrain Lives the Open Source Lifestyle
(2008-08-08 13:00:07)
Linux.com: "Michelle Murrain is a great example of what the FOSS community is all about. She's complicated: she calls herself a "scientist turned technologist turned theologian turned writer," all blended into one person. She's also an active supporter of and contributor to open source software projects. She's not a developer, however, and Murrain would really like to see more space for people like her, with different gifts to share, in the open source community."

Lightweight Linux Desktop Proves Popular with Netbooks
(2008-08-08 13:00:07)
Monkey Bites: "Perhaps the most interesting part of the new gOS is that the distro has adopted the newer, lightweight LXDE (which stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), giving the old Enlightenment desktop the heave-ho in the process."

Researchers: Online Geegaws Can Open Door to Flimflammery
(2008-08-08 13:30:07)
LinuxInsider: "One of the biggest problems with the so-called Web 2.0 movement has been its encouragement of oversharing -- which often means underestimating security risks. Adding doodads of varying quality to a home page can add a lot of pizazz, but can also be fraught with danger, since they can open a door for hackers."

Lessons Learned, Again
(2008-08-08 14:00:07)
Linux Magazine: "For example, consider an GigE switch. They all do the same thing right? You just plug in the cables and everything just works. That is unless you bought the switch that makes a carrier pigeon network look fast when all the ports are running at full speed. I often make the statement, “You can’t build a cluster by consulting those glossy data sheets..."

Where Are All the Dangerous DNS Exploits? Nowhere and Everywhere
(2008-08-08 14:30:07)
LinuxInsider: "f security researcher Dan Kaminsky is right about the dangers threatening DNS security, how come nobody's drawn attention to any specific, massively mobilized exploits of the vulnerability? It's because of the nature of DNS -- servers are indeed being continuously poisoned, according to admins, but it's hard to tell exactly who's being exploited and how."

We Don't Need Another Linux Hater
(2008-08-08 15:00:07)
Tech Source From Bohol: "While going over Linux Hater's Blog, I can best describe it as Béranger on anabolic steroids."

A Penguin with an Egg: Growing the Open-Source Community
(2008-08-08 15:30:07)
CIO: "The open-source community is no longer the sole province of technology geeks. The mood is shifting. As the mistress of ceremonies at OSCON (the Open Source Convention) commented: instead of open source trying to figure out its place in the enterprise, today the enterprise is seeking its place in open source. And that, among other trends, is causing changes in the community."

Linux is a Platform, Not an OS
(2008-08-08 16:00:07)
Raiden's Realm: "There is one thing that many people have yet failed to realize, and that is that Linux is a platform, not an OS. Now as bizarre as that may sound, if you truly think about it, you'll realize that I'm right. It's true that Linux does indeed describe an operating system, but that's only a minor part of the overall experience."

Black Hat USA 2008: A report from Day 1
(2008-08-08 16:30:07)
InfoWorld: "The number one presentation of the conference was IOActive's Dan Kaminsky's talk on his recent DNS exploit find. There was some question if there would still be any interest in the topic since the details of Dan's exploit leaked out two weeks ago. The question was answered by a standing room-only crowd of thousands that filled the largest conference room long before the scheduled start time."

Creating Wealth With Free Software
(2008-08-08 17:00:07)
Free Software Magazine: "A report by the Standish Group indicates that adoption of ‘open source’ has caused a drop in revenue to the proprietary software industry by about $60 billion per year. That’s not a huge amount of money compared to what has been lost though the misselling of mortgages, but it is still a lot."

Being Debian Leader Can be 'Scary at Times'
(2008-08-08 17:30:07)
IT Wire: ""We do have our occasional heated discussions, we have 1000+ developers and that sometimes means on any given topic, we may have 2000 opinions.""

Vyatta Linux Router, Pt 2.
(2008-08-08 18:00:07)
Technical Mercenary: "Well I'm a sell out, it's official. I've had such an overwhelming response, according to my stats, on the Vyatta router story that I had to do another. So let's grab some documentation and get started."

Calif. Supreme Court Finds Noncompete Clauses Invalid
(2008-08-08 18:30:07)
CNet: "The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a long-standing state law ruling that employers can't restrict employees from working for a competitor or soliciting former clients when they leave the company."

Desktop Search Comparison: Beagle vs. Tracker, part 2
(2008-08-08 19:00:07)
Linux.com: "I was surprised at the different results I got searching for the word "ethernet." Although it is obviously only a single search, Tracker returned what might be the most relevant result as the top item. Beagle showed the networking HOWTO as the fifth result (shown as "Networking" in the results), with the HOWTO indexes scoring higher than the individual HOWTOs. The Ethernet HOWTO that Tracker offered as it's top hit is much more applicable to the search term."

Connecting Ubuntu Linux to a Networked Printer
(2008-08-08 19:30:07)
IT Wire: "When I first connected an HP Inkjet 3550 printer to my laptop, it was easier to get it working than in Windows! The driver for the printer was already available in Linux, so all I had to do was select it and the printer worked."

AMD Moves to Woo Overclockers
(2008-08-08 20:00:07)
Internet News: "The downside to any tweaking, however, is that pushing components beyond their rated limits can make a system unstable -- but enthusiasts feel it's worth the risks. "They feel like they are getting something for free. That's why they do it,""

Using Grep To Streamline Your Shell And Command Line Scripting
(2008-08-08 20:30:07)
The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "For today's post, we're going to look at using grep to reduce script-bloat. Of course, we won't be covering every possible way this can be done, because I have yet to finish perfecting the art of using editor tricks to reinforce bad habits."

32GB Flash Chips Target Mobile Devices
(2008-08-08 21:00:07)
Linux Devices: "Toshiba has announced new NAND flash memory devices said to offer the highest densities ever. The 32GB devices use chips built on 43 nanometer process technology, integrate controllers for standard interfaces, and target mobile phones, handhelds, and PNDs (personal navigation devices)."

From a Pile of Components to Ubuntu Linux in 25 Minutes
(2008-08-08 21:30:07)
ZTrek: "When my teenager learned that I was heading to LinuxWorld this week, he said, "I'd like to try Linux." Good for him; he's already bilingual, with a MacBook for schoolwork and a buffed-up Dell desktop for gaming. Why not Linux too?"

Windows Vista Security 'Rendered Useless' by Researchers
(2008-08-08 21:44:07)
SearchEnterpriseLinux: "Two security researchers have developed a new technique that essentially bypasses all of the memory protection safeguards in the Windows Vista operating system..."

Inkscape Tutorial: Creating a Simple Ribbon
(2008-08-08 22:00:07)
Free Software Magazine: "Inkscape is one of the most popular free software vector drawing applications. With minimal effort you can achieve some excellent results. However, for the inexperienced it can be a bit hard to find out how to get those results. In this tutorial I’ll look at creating a simple ribbon effect which will hopefully introduce some of the key Inkscape features along the way."

The A-Z of Programming Languages: Python
(2008-08-08 22:30:07)
TechWorld: "Being youthful at the time I figured I could design and implement a language "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike" ABC, improving upon ABC's deficiencies, and solve our support applications problem, so around Christmas 1989, I started hacking. For various reasons, soon after Python was complete enough to be used, that particular project was no longer as relevant, but Python proved useful to other projects at CWI, and in early 1991 (i.e. a little over a year after I started) we did the first open source release (well before the term open source had even been invented)."

Editor's Note: Open Source Is Not Going To Sue You
(2008-08-08 23:00:07)
It painted a picture of Open Source software as being a minefield of grumpy litigious geeks who want to cash in with fat lawsuits, and no clear guidance for how to stay out of trouble. Oddly, this all seemed to come from a most unlikely source, the director of the Gnome Foundation, Stormy Peters. Even unlikelier, it was from her talk at LinuxWorld, which hardly seems a good venue for spreading misinformation of any kind...

Linux World 2008/Streets of San Francisco
(2008-08-08 23:30:07)
Standards Blog: "The latest edition of Linux World ground to a halt in San Francisco today. I made it into town just last night for a VIP party hosted by the Linux Foundation where I caught up with lots of the true believer friends (developers, journalists and corporate supporters), and for the Board meeting today. I never made it to the show this year, opting instead to arrive early but then head out of town for some bouts of hiking in the hills south of town..."

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