Showing headlines posted by dcparris

<i>VOIP for Dummies</i> gets down to the nuts and bolts of VoIP, the hottest thing since the telephone. It is a good introduction for IT professonals and business people but don't expect too much for end-users.

"If you don't program, you may end up wondering why you should use free-software. Why not just buy Mac OSX and Microsoft word? Well, let us look at the potential negative consequences for choosing proprietary software. If you have used proprietary software at all, you have probably run into one or more of these problems that free software eliminates for you."

In a low-key announcement last week Microsoft South Africa launched Windows XP Starter Edition into the African market. Billed as a low-cost, "full-featured" alternative to XP, Starter Edition is little more than a stripped down version of XP with a smattering of marketing gloss. Alastair Otter suggests African-style wallpapers and bigger icons hardly make up for not being able to open more than three applications at once or the lack of networking capabilities.

[All I can say is, we don't treat people that way here (in the FOSS community). - dcparris]

A recent report by Russian cyber security outfit Kaspersky Labs says Linux saw the largest gains in malware, viruses and other malicious software targeting the operating system, compared to other non-Windows, Unix-based operating systems. Statistics from the report - titled "2005: *nix Malware Evolution" - show that there were 863 malicious programs targeting Linux in 2005, a jump from 422 in 2004.

Virtual Open Source Open-Xchange For Debian On VMware Can Lead To Fast And Easy Deployment

Almost everyone has heard about wardriving, the geek sport in which you drive around and see what wireless access points (WAP) you can find and access. Because of the ink wardriving has received over the years, many home and business users have wised up and added security to their WAPs. But how about the busy traveler, the exec at Marriott, or the slacker at Starbucks? Do they take that same level of care with wireless security while they're on the road and seduced by the easy availability of Wi-Fi hotspots? Probably not, but they should. Here are three simple assumptions you should make before taking your wireless laptop on the road.

The final release of Vim 7 is just around the corner, and it brings a number of new features to the venerable editor, including spell checking, omni completion for several programming and markup languages, tab pages, undo branches, and several other features that are worth upgrading for.

[Gee, why use Vim when you can have a complete OS (EMACS)? - just kidding. This sounds really nice. Time to ditch v6. - dcparris]

New Napster.com Allows Free, Legal Listening to Over Two Million Tracks; Offers Exclusive New Ways to Discover, Share and Experience Music Anywhere on the Web

[You knew there would be a catch, didn't you? - dcparris]

Open source software, and particularly Linux, is becoming a fundamental aspect of services portfolios for IBM Global Services, HP Services, Unisys, Novell and other major services providers.

Some say open source software is not worth using. Some say it will save the world. Setting aside the religious hype, open source software raises a serious technical question: Is it appropriate for enterprise use?

ApplTop Solutions, a provider of embedded productivity and compliance solutions for Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) announced today that it is to make its entire range of solutions free and open source.

Steve Marsh, director of the U.K. government’s Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA), has announced that IBM, and its partners Tresys Technology and Belmin Group, are working with the U.K. Cabinet Office to demonstrate one of the first mainstream mandatory access control (MAC) environments. The design is based upon Security Enhanced Linux and IBM WebSphere.

An acquisition by Google last month has led to yet another free bit of software from the company. In March, Google acquired @Last Software. The Boulder, Colorado-based company develops 3D software. Its flagship 3D software product is called SketchUp. A new free version of the software will now be offered by Google under the name Google SketchUp. A professional version of the software will be offered as SketchUp Pro.

Enea, and MontaVista Software, Linux supplier to the communications industry, announced that they have joined forces to create the industry’s most comprehensive, highly integrated software platform for distributed telecom applications. The new high-availability, fault tolerant platform, known as the Network Application Services Platform (NASP), provides a telecom-in-a-box solution for developing, deploying and managing distributed telecom applications spanning multiple operating systems, CPUs, DSPs, interconnects, and shelf architectures.

Kids these days, with their lo-fi iTunes and iPods and ringtones (that they pay money for!!) and mp3 collections. Why, I remember the early days of the Diamond Rio, one of the first portable digital music players, and even then I stuck my nose in the air and scoffed. If I want to listen to horrid low-quality low-fidelity tunes, I said to myself, I’ll go fire up the 8-track in my antique Datsun. Lossy formats and crappy little tiny speakers, bah.

Drupal core developer, Adrian Rossouw, is starting a local chapter for Drupal users in South Africa. He has also announced a training camp for web developers who want to build "really kick ass websites" using Drupal.

IT Directors Find APconnections Appliance Requires No Maintenance

Coverity Inc., which makes source code analysis software, announced May 2 that the biggest X Window System security vulnerability of the last six years has been identified and fixed, thanks to developers working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Thankfully, the hole was plugged within a week, according to the company.

The Asterisk Boot Camp will be held May 6 in Indianapolis.