Linux News for Feb 20, 2009

• Add a Binary Payload to your Shell Scripts (Feb 20, 2009, 23:31)
  Linux Journal: "Generally when we think of shell scripts we think of editable text, but it's possible to add binary data to your shell script as well. In this case we're going to talk about adding a binary payload to the end of your shell script."


• ACCESS Linux Platform 3.0 unveiled (Feb 20, 2009, 23:01)
  ars Technica: "ACCESS has unveiled the next major version of its Linux-based mobile software platform. The ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP) 3.0 brings a significant user interface overhaul with support for rich visual effects. It also boosts interoperability by delivering LiMo compliance."


• A Review of the ASUS Eee PC with Xandros Linux pre-installed (Feb 20, 2009, 22:31)
  Another day in development...: "Yesterday I finally received my ASUS Eee PC 901 pre-installed with Xandros Linux. Note that Xandros is a Debian-based distribution. I was really excited to start playing with this new toy. Almost from the beginning I was experiencing problems and after doing some Internet searching, I realized I was not the only one. All problems though were related to the operating system and not the hardware."


• The Perfect Server - Debian Lenny (Debian 5.0) [ISPConfig 2] (Feb 20, 2009, 22:01)
  HowtoForge: "This tutorial shows how to set up a Debian Lenny (Debian 5.0) server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Courier POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig 2 (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box)."


• Connecting to Windows servers from GNU/Linux using pyNeighborhood (Feb 20, 2009, 21:31)
  Free Software Magazine: "Need to connect to a Windows server from a computer running GNU/Linux? pyNeighborhood gives you an easy and graphical way to do just that."


• HP Mini 1000 Mi Comes With Friendly Linux Distro (Feb 20, 2009, 21:01)
  eNews: "HP has recently announced a sought-after Linux version of its popular Mini 1000 consumer netbook. Basically, much of the internals are similar to the other versions of the Mini 1000. However, the selling point of the Mi version, which stands for Mobile internet, is the Linux OS dressed up in nice clothes by HP."


• 25 Tutorials To Get You Started With Blender (Feb 20, 2009, 20:31)
  LinuxHaxor: "If you are an aspiring Graphic designer you should be already familiar with blender by now, but if you are thinking about being a game developer or a graphic designer you should know that Blender is not only the best free and open source choice but also rivals all commercial 3d applications out there."


• Ubuntu 9.10: Karmic Koala (Feb 20, 2009, 20:01)
  The Fridge: "Mark Shuttleworth has announced Ubuntu 9.10: Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the Karmic Koala, the newest member of our alliterative menagerie."


• An open letter to the openSUSE Community (Feb 20, 2009, 19:31)
  LWN.net: "As you may know, recently Novell made the decision to reduce the workforce in their organization in the wake of our current economic outlook which is affecting everyone globally in all sectors of life. Unfortunately, this has also impacted some members of the openSUSE Community who were employed by Novell when, earlier this week, they were laid off."


• Announcing: Keryx 0.92, the Dubious Dingo! (Feb 20, 2009, 19:01)
  keryx Forums: "Introducing Keryx 0.92, the Dubious Dingo! Do not let the name scare you away from testing this release. Though there have been a very small number of fatal Dingo attacks on humans, they are mostly shy and aloof around us bipeds."


• Take Windows 7 for a spin with VirtualBox (Feb 20, 2009, 18:31)
  Computerworld: "Everyone likes to try new and shiny technology toys like the Windows 7 beta, but when the price is having to replace your existing operating system, that's too much for most people. That's when being able to use a virtualization program can come in darn handy."


• The ugly side of Apple (Feb 20, 2009, 18:01)
  IT Wire: "Another is taking recourse to draconian legislation like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in order to prevent others from competing. When companies do this, it is generally because there is always an underlying fear that, no matter how good their product is, someone else may cut into their marketshare."


• Sun Studio 12 vs. GCC3 vs. GCC4 Benchmarks (Feb 20, 2009, 17:31)
  Phoronix: "Following that article being published, Sun Microsystems had requested some compiler tests since they were confident the results would be different had their Sun Studio compiler been used. Well, in this article we now have some OpenSolaris benchmarks from the same AMD setup using GCC 3.4, GCC 4.0, and Sun Studio 12."


• Knoppix: live CD par excellence (Feb 20, 2009, 17:01)
  IT Wire: "While the bigger and better-known Linux distributions tend to get more than their fair share of publicity, there are other bright stars that light up the FOSS firmament and rarely get a mention."


• Washington Times releases open source projects (Feb 20, 2009, 16:31)
  Washington Times: "The Washington Times has always focused on content. After careful review, we determined that the best way to have the top tools to produce and publish that content is to release the source code of our in-house tools and encourage collaboration."


• The tanner's ugly daughter - or - Musings about a modern GTK+ theming (Feb 20, 2009, 16:01)
  Federkiel: "But there's one thing almost everyone would agree to: that GTK+ isn't pretty."


• 10 iptables rules to help secure your Linux box (Feb 20, 2009, 15:31)
  10 Things: "Even after you gain a solid understanding of the command structure and know what to lock down and how to lock it down, iptables can be confusing. But the nice thing about iptables is that it's fairly universal in its protection. So having a few iptables rules to put together into a script can make this job much easier."


• Windows 7 Vs. Linux: The Battle For Your Desktop (Feb 20, 2009, 15:01)
  Information Week: "There's fierce debate in the air about what 7 means for both Windows and Linux. Microsoft's last gasp? Linux's formidable new enemy? Closer inspection shows us it's not really either of those things. Linux has made strides of its own on the desktop and made it possible to build netbooks at low cost--and while Windows 7 will almost certainly take a bite out of that market and impress existing Windows users all the more, Linux has also become its own animal"


• Hulu's Hollywood overlords force Boxee block (Feb 20, 2009, 14:31)
  The Register: "I cannot watch them on a box. I cannot watch them without Fox"


• Do you have an itch? Scratch it! (Feb 20, 2009, 14:01)
  Toolbox for IT: "How many times have you used a program that does almost all that you want but there is just a single maddening missing function? If you have ever felt any of these things then you have felt the "itch"."


• Can Cellphones Grow Up to Rival PCs? (Feb 20, 2009, 13:31)
  New York Times: "Cellphones are growing up, and they just might pose a new threat to the Intel-Microsoft based personal computers. Coming by the end of this year are a new crop of small inexpensive notebook computers, known as netbooks, based on the ARM microprocessor design and running one of several versions of Linux, including perhaps Google's Android cellphone operating system."


• Has IE lost the hearts of IT people? (Feb 20, 2009, 13:01)
  W3Schools.com: I have been tracking one site that's devoted to web subjects and that's not inclined towards one browser or another. It's www.w3schools.com and the statistics from it are... well, very different from hitslink's.


• Linux comes to Windows users' rescue (Feb 20, 2009, 12:01)
  Cyber Cynic: ""Meanwhile, I discovered a great tool called Unison and I've mounted my Windows drive and I am using Unison to back up everything to a 300-gig external hard drive before I start tearing Windows apart... just in case. I guess I have my afternoon's plans made.""


• Getting Girls Into Tech (Feb 20, 2009, 10:31)
  Linux Today Blog: "The number of women entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers is declining. There are programs at the college and professional levels that try to attract women and racial minorities into these fields, but they're not all that successful. I think it's because college is too late. What sort of future do you want for your own girls-- a wide-open future full of possibilities? Or more of the same old "you can't do that"?"


• The Follow-Up: Absorption Of Knowledge In The Computer Age (Feb 20, 2009, 09:01)
  The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "Just for the record, I prefer to read books on paper. Not because reading online makes me lose control like Patty Duke in the presence of a hot dog, but I find that reading a computer screen is generally either uncomfortable or outright painful"
  Either you are a Nickelodeon addict, Mr. Mike, or an old geezer-- ed.


• Make Vim as Your Bash-IDE Using bash-support Plugin (Feb 20, 2009, 07:31)
  The Geek Stuff: "sc will insert the case statements and places the cursor next to the case statement in INSERT mode as shown in figure 5. Like this you can use all the mentioned short cut keystrokes to get the appropriate statement in the table 1."


• Alternative to dos2unix, unix2dos - linux flip command (Feb 20, 2009, 06:01)
  UNIX BASH scripting: "I was struggling to install unix2dos and dos2unix(debian tofrodos package) on my debian box, then I came across "flip" command which does the same thing."


• Userful and ThinNetworks Announce World's Largest Desktop Virtualization Deployment - 356,800 (Feb 20, 2009, 04:31)
  Press release: "Userful and ThinNetworks today announce that they have been selected to supply 356,800 virtualized desktops to schools in all of Brazil's 5,560 municipalities."


• Video: Mark Shuttleworth - We are our own worst enemy - Interview (Parts One and Two) (Feb 20, 2009, 03:01)
  golem.de: "Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth thinks that Linux needs to get more beautiful. His company Canonical works on that task. In an interview with Golem.de Shuttleworth talks about MacOS X as a role model and problems of the Linux desktop."


• Libre Graphics Meeting launches community fundraising campaign (Feb 20, 2009, 01:31)
  Press Release: The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is an annual workshop for developers and users of free software graphics applications to collaborate and advance the cause of high-quality free graphics software. From now until April 22, you can help support this event by making a donation to the LGM 2009 community pledge drive.


• DragonFly Release 2.2 - 17 February 2009 (Feb 20, 2009, 00:01)
  DragonFly BSD: "The DragonFly 2.2 release is here! The HAMMER filesystem is considered production-ready in this release; It was first released in July 2008. The 2.2 release represents major stability improvements across the board, new drivers, much better pkgsrc support and integration, and a brand new release infrastructure with multiple target options."