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[osdn everything] January 27, 2003
Date: Mon Jan 27 2003 - 03:45:27 EST
O | S | D | N NEWSLETTER
January 27, 2003 EVERYTHING SERIES
The 'Everything Series' Newsletter is developed to bring Open Source
related content to a user with a focus for everything Open Source we
have to offer. If you'd like to receive more content relating to
Open Source subscribe at
http://www.osdn.com/newsletters/
==============================================================
Sponsored by Thinkgeek
http://www.ThinkGeek.com/
Slashdot
Using gzip As A Spam Filter
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/1314222
[0]captainclever writes "[1]Kuro5hin have an interesting [2]article on
detecting spam using gzip." Here's a sample: "Loosely speaking, the LZ
(Zip) and the related gzip compression algorithms look for repeated
strings within a text, and replace each repeat with a reference to the
first occurrence. The compression ratio achieved therefore measures how
many repeated fragments, words or phrases occur in the text."
Links
0.
http://rwj100 AT soton DOT ac DOT uk
1.
http://kuro5hin.org/
2.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/25/224415/367Oasis Forms "Lawful Intercept" XML Committ http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/0611201
An anonymous reader writes "[0]Oasis has announced the formation of the
[1]Lawful Intercept XML Technical Committee. The [2]announcement refers
to it as a "universal global framework for supporting rapid discovery
and sharing of suspected criminal and terrorist evidence by law
enforcement agencies." It's not really clear if this is supposed to aid
in information exchange about suspicious activities/individuals, or
'intercepting' in the sense of eavesdropping, or what exactly."
Links
0.
http://www.oasis-open.org/
1.
http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2003-01-23-a.html
2.
http://xml.coverpages.org/LawfulInterceptTC.html
Adopt a KDE Geek
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/0042256
sultanoslack writes "In an effort to bring together KDE hackers that are students, unemployed or by other means lacking in hardware and capital with users in that have spare goodies, [0]Adopt-a-Geek has been launched. [1]More details are available on [2]how to help out. Been wondering what you can do to help out? Here's your chance!" Links
0.
http://dot.kde.org/1043618134/
1.
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=kde-cafe&m=104361223225621&w=2
2.
http://devel-home.kde.org/~wheeler/adopt-a-geek/
Gibson to Embed Guitars with Ethernet
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/2351201
[0]caseyuw writes "Gibson is planning to roll out their [1]Magic this
year with the delivery of guitars using Cat 5 instead of analog cables
to connect instruments and amplifiers. The debate over the quality of
digital vs analog signal processing is not new, but using a 'Magic' Les
Paul would force you entirely into the digital domain." We mentioned
this [2]last year, but the above article has much more information.
Links
0. mailto:caseyh@u.washington.edu
1.
http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20030124S0035
2.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/04/1753259&tid=141Humankind Makes Last Stand Against Machine http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/2214233
[0]MrZeebo writes "According to this Financial Times story, Garry
Kasparov has [1]begun another match against a computer chess program on
Sunday, this time playing against the Israeli-developed [2]Deep Junior.
Kasparov is the highest-rated chess player of all time, and lost to
[3]Deep Blue in 1997. According to the article, Deep Junior, despite
evaluating less moves per minute than Deep Blue, is considered to be a
superior chess player. The match will span 6 games, the last one being
February 7th." Kasparov has [4]won the first game.
Links
0. mailto:greg@[ ]dberg.com ['lee' in gap]
1.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1042491215888
2.
http://www.x3dworld.com/Entertainment/CI_X3DEvnt_DeepJunior.html
3.
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/
4.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20030127/tc_nm/life_chess_kasparov_dc
Who Owns Your Digital Media?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/2317253
[0]Ren Bucholz writes "In what was designed to be a "safety valve," the
[1]Copyright Office is holding its tri-annual [2]search for exemptions
to the DMCA's prohibitions on circumventing access controls. The
[3]Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted [4]comments last December
that outlined four "classes of works" that should be exempt, including
copy-protected CDs, region-coded DVDs, DVDs with unskippable
promotional material, and public domain works that are only available
on DVD. They are asking people to [5] write in support of the four
exemptions that they have proposed. The Copyright Office is only
accepting comments until February 19th, so get on it!"
Links
0. mailto:ren@eff.org
1.
http://www.copyright.gov/
2.
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/comment_forms/index.html
3.
http://www.eff.org/
4.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20021218_eff_dmca_reply_comments.html
5.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/2003-DMCA-1201-comments.php
Superbowl XXXVII
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/2329246
So, if you're a good, patriotic American, you're certainly watching the
Superbowl right about now. The dot-com ads should be pretty much absent
this year, but perhaps there will be something more interesting than
[0]ads for recycled movies. Maybe even the game will be worth watching.
:)
Links
0. http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/25/superbowl.commercials.reut/
Review: Illegal Art
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1952245
An anonymous reader writes "I just got back from the Chicago opening of
[0]Illegal Art, Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age, January 25
- February 21 (See [0]the website for location, film screening dates, and information on the panel debate featuring [1] Lawrence Lessig) and quite enjoyed myself." The anonymous review follows. Links 0. http://www.illegal-art.org/
Warcraft III Expansion
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1928218
[0]Ultra Magnus writes "Looks like [1]Blizzard is releasing an [2]
expansion pack to WC3. I've always been pleased with their expansions
before, so I hope this lives up to expectations."
Links
0. mailto:tsavo3997@yahoo.com
1.
http://www.bnetd.org/
2.
http://www.blizzard.com/war3x/pressrelease.shtml
Web-based Road Monitoring
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1923201
[0]James Evans writes "The National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are testing a
[1]Web-based system for weather forecasting and winter road treatment
that could soon save lives, cut costs, and help keep millions of
drivers on the move. Highway officials and road crews in Des Moines and
Ames, Iowa, will test the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
February 3 to April 4. The MDSS uses several computer models to project
hour-by-hour weather and road conditions up to two days in advance,
with an update every three hours."
Links
0. mailto:james@paris.fr
Freshmeat
Largefile Support Problems
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/709
The Unix98 standard requires largefile support, and many of the latest operating systems provide it. However, some systems still chose not to make it the default, resulting in two models: Some parts of the system use the traditional 32bit off_t, while others are compiled with a largefile 64bit off_t. Mixing libraries and plugins is not a good idea.
amSynth 1.0-rc2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110729/
amSynth is a realtime polyphonic Analogue Modeling SYNTHesizer. It provides virtual analogue synthesis in the style of the classic Moog Minimoog/Roland Junos. It offers an easy-to-use interface and synth engine, while still creating varied sounds.
Angband 3.0.3
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110726/
Angband is a single-player rogue-like dungeon exploration game that runs on a wide variety of computer systems.
Blassic 0.5.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110758/
Blassic is a classic Basic interpreter. The line numbers are mandatory, and it has PEEK & POKE. The main goal is to execute programs written in old interpreters, but it can be used as a scripting language.
Busca 0.5
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110725/
Busca is based on a popular Italian card game similar to hearts. You may play against artificial intelligence or against your friends with network play.
CRM114 2003-01-26
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110756/
CRM114 is a Controllable Regex Mutilator and Smart Filter, designed for easy creation of filters for things like incoming mail, system logs, or monitoring processes. Filtering rules can be either hard-coded (such as regexes), soft-coded (calculated at runtime or read from an external file or process), or learned dynamically by phrase matching (by SBPH hashing). This makes it possible to create very accurate filters with very little actual work.
DCTC 0.84.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110714/
DCTC (Direct Connect Text Client) is a library that gives access to the direct connect world, like IRC but more file-sharing oriented.
Downloader for X 2.4.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110717/
Downloader for X is a tool for downloading files from the Internet via both HTTP and FTP with a powerful but userfriendly interface. It supports reconnecting and resuming on connection timeouts, has a download queue for multiple files, support for simultaneous downloads, and many other features for powerful downloading.
Eddi 1.1.1 (Development)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110752/
Eddi is a powerful and easy-to-use text editor for X. It can use macros and has syntax highlighting.
FLAC 1.1.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110715/
FLAC is a Free Lossless Audio Codec. The FLAC format supports streaming, seeking, and archival, and gives 25-75% compression on typical CD audio. Input plugins for Winamp and XMMS are also provided.
Gammu 0.67 (Development)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110749/
Gammu (formerly known as MyGnokii2) is cellular manager for various mobile phones and modems. It currently supports Nokia 3210, 33xx, 3410, 3510, 51xx, 5210, 5510, 61xx, 62xx, 63xx, 6510, 7110, 82xx, 8310, 9110, and 9210, and AT devices (such as Siemens, Alcatel, WaveCom, IPAQ, and other). It has a command line version with many functions for ringtones, phonebook, SMS, logos, WAP, date/time, alarm, calls, etc. It can also make full backups and restore them. It works on various Unix systems (like Linux) and Win32.
GSpeakers 0.9
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110735/
GSpeakers is a GNOME loudspeaker design program built with the Gtkmm 2.0 toolkit.
JGraphpad 1.3.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110724/
JGraphpad is a powerful diagram editor for Swing that offers XML, drag and drop, zoom, automatic layout, print support, and much more. With JGraphpad, you can create flow charts, maps, UML diagrams, and networks with thousands of nodes. JGraphpad is available with sourcecode, which may be used to develop new (commercial) applications.
kbarcode 1.1.3 (Development)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110733/
kbarcode is a KDE3-based program for creating, handling, managing, and printing barcodes for private or business purpose. kbarcode is able to handle all major types of barcodes, like UPC, EAN, CODE39, and ISBN. It comes with a label designer to create customized labels and a batch print function. It's designed to print several thousands barcodes in one pass, but also allows you to easily print a single label. kbarcode uses SQL to store all information about articles, barcodes, customers, etc.
KCDLabel 2.11-KDE3
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110751/
KCDLabel is a program to create labels, covers, and booklets for CD cases. It can include text, bitmapped images, and directory content recursively read from a directory. KCDlabel can print and output postscript files. It can also create round labels to stick on CDs. KCDLabel can access CDDB to retrieve information about a CD.
KMovisto 0.5.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110757/
KMovisto is a free molecule viewer which reads GAUSSIAN files, exports POV-Ray scripts for high quality presentations, and VRML files for creating 3D molecule sceneries for the Web.
KSocrat 3.1.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110728/
KSocrat is the simple English/Russian and Russian/English dictionary for the K Desktop Environment.
Lace2000 2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110743/
Lace2000 is a theme based on a lace pattern from Lace CD 2000 and some bobbin images taken from VanDieren (bobbinmaker.com).
LibSDBI 0.9.10
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110745/
LibSDBI is a very simple SQL database interface, for multiple types of SQL databases. Its aim is to be able to manage multiple database types with a single interface, and it follows the KISS theory. It loads the database dependent codes from shared object(.so). In the basic tarball the PostgreSQL module is included.
maildrop 1.5.2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110753/
Maildrop is a powerful email filter/delivery agent. It supports mbox-style mailboxes and maildirs (a mail storage format used by Qmail). Its mail filtering language supports RFC822 parsing and GDBM/Berkeley DB database files. The maildrop package also includes a command-line tool to perform various operations on MIME messages.
man-pages-ja 20030115
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110718/
man-pages-ja is a comprehensive collection of Japanese man pages for Linux. It contains Japanese version of LDP man-pages, man pages for GNU tools, and ones for various opensource applications.
Mango 0.24
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110747/
Mango is recipe management software. The main motivation of the project is to provide an open source Mealmaster compatible application.
MiddleMan 1.3.4
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110727/
Middleman is a fast HTTP/HTTPS proxy server with features designed to remove unwanted content and increase privacy. It features an XML-like configuration file and an intuitive Web interface. It can be used to filter HTTP headers, block certain files or mime types, block cookies to and from certain sites, redirect requests, forward requests through another proxy using NTLM or Basic authentication, block inappropiate content using a keyword scoring system, and manipulate the contents of files using either its builtin rewrite feature or an external program or script. It fully implements the HTTP/1.1 protocol, including persistent connections and gzip encoding.
Modeling Framework 0.8.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110754/
Modeling Framework fills the gap between the Python object world and relational databases in that it allows users to transparently create, retrieve, update, or delete Python objects from a database without having to write a single line of SQL. Main features include generation of database schema, generation of Python code templates ready to be used, support for transparent mapping of (class) inheritance in relational databases, object-oriented query language, use of standard Python getters to traverse relationships (the related objects are automatically fetched when needed and when appropriate), and automatic checking for referential-integrity constraints, etc. Supported databases are PostgreSQL and MySQL.
MP3Gain 1.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110740/
MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume. It does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.
mxflat 0.7.3
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110759/
mxflat is a theme that was made to match the GTK[1|2]-flat engine. It is quite customizable, but also works very well if you do not adjust anything.
Nuxeo Collaborative Portal Server 2.2 beta2 http://freshmeat.net/releases/110739/
Nuxeo CPS is the collaborative web content management solution for Zope. Users create and manage content in Workgroups and publish them in Publications spaces (Hierarchies) through a dedicated workflow. Managers can easily set global and local roles for users (Workgroup Managers, Members, Visitors, Reviewers, and Readers). All actions are available through simple Web interfaces. Nuxeo CPS also features office document integration, indexing, and conversion to HTML format; versioning; attached comments; interactive services (e.g. mailing-lists); and skinning of hierarchies.
Odin Plus Plus 0.3a
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110738/
OPP (Odin Plus Plus) is an open source C++ class library intended to provide functionality surpassing that of the Rogue Wave class libraries. It includes basic object components, a solid thread library, and an excellent set of advanced internet components. It also has template collection classes, an I/O library, and the beginnings of an object database.
Python/XML 0.8.2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110720/
The Python XML package contains parsers, SAX and DOM interfaces, sample programs, and documentation. It is currently in beta.
QTParted 0.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110742/
QTParted is a Partition Magic clone. It uses libparted for raw disk access, so you need parted installed to use it. The goal of QTParted is to fully wrap all function of parted and create a user friendly PM clone for Linux.
Quadromania 0.01 alpha
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110722/
Quadromania is a board game. The computer is your partner here. It scrambles the playing field following defined rules. The task of the player is to restore the original state of the playfield by applying the same rules. The game is written in C and uses SDL and SDL_image for graphics and input.
RivaTV 0.8.2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110762/
The RivaTV project is trying to produce Linux drivers for graphics boards with nVidia chips that have a video-in feature.
saCASH 0.6.1 alpha
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110748/
saCash is a Quicken-like financial account manager. It handles multiple accounts, account transfers, and reconciles information.
searchtool 0.4.4 (Development)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110723/
searchtool is a server browser for Internet games. It features the ability to ping servers, download a new serverlist, search for player(s), manage your favourite servers, connect to server of choice, and more. Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, and Unreal Tournament 2003 are supported.
Steel Bank Common Lisp 0.7.12
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110730/
Steel Bank Common Lisp is a development environment for Common Lisp, with support for almost all of the ANSI standard: garbage collection, lexical closures, powerful macros, strong dynamic typing, incremental compilation, and the Common Lisp object system (multimethods and all). It also includes some extensions, such as an interface to call out to C. These are all available through an integrated native compiler, plus the usual Lispy integrated interpreter and high level debugging support.
TCP Re-engineering Tool 1.2.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110719/
TCP Re-engineering Tool monitors and analyzes data transmitted between a client and a server via a TCP connection. It focuses on the data stream (software layer), not on the lower level transmission protocol (as packet sniffers do).
UnixODBC.pm 0.19
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110731/
UnixODBC.pm provides Perl programs with a subset of the X/Open ODBC API to the EasySoft unixODBC DBMS libraries, as well as a peer to peer API for querying ODBC data sources on networked systems. In addition, it provides peer client and server scripts and configuration files, sample clients that perform ODBC queries on local and networked systems, and two multi-host data managers: one that uses Apache and CGI to provide a Web browser interface, and another that uses Perl/Tk.
UrlGet 0.5
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110737/
UrlGet is a download manager that uses GTK+2, libxml2, and libcurl. It allows you to classify URLs before downloading them, and allows you to import URLs from .html files. Every category has an independent configuration that can be inherited by each download in that category.
Velocity editor plugin for Eclipse 0.9.3 http://freshmeat.net/releases/110750/
Velocity editor plugin for Eclipse provides an editor for the scripting language of Jakarta's template engine Velocity. The editor is implemented as an plugin for the Eclipse platform.
Video4Linux Grab 0.2.2
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110741/
The v4lgrab project is real-time capturing software for a Video4Linux device.
Webcpp 0.8.0 pre2 (Preview)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110721/
Webcpp (Web C Plus Plus) is a command line utility that takes your source code and converts it into an HTML file, using a fully customizable syntax highlighting engine and stylesheets. Webcpp currently supports Ada95, Assembler, ASP, Basic, C, C#, C++, Cg, CLIPS, DOS Batch, EMF, Fortran, Haskell, Java, Javascript, Markup, Modula2, Objective C, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Power Builder, Python, RenderMan, Ruby, SQL, Tcl, Unix shell, and VHDL highlighting.
Webtop web-based email system 1.40
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110736/
Webtop is a Web-based POP3 email client that includes many filter options, spam fighting features, custom folders, email import/export, and email-to-PDF generation. The Webtop also includes a calendar, notepad, Webdrive, automated email reminders, contacts, mailing lists, and Web-based administration. One installation can support multiple users and each user can set up as many POP3 accounts as they need.
WorDoG 0.6 beta
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110746/
WorDoG (World Domination Game) is basically a derivate from Risk, the popular board game. The project aims to provide this strategical multiplayer game on a HTML-only basis. All necessary calculations are done serverside by PHP, and data is stored in a database (it can use ADOdb).
Writemime 1.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110716/
Writemime is a simple C++ package that makes it easy to create and send MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) messages in a C++ program. It also includes a driver program which allows access to most of the functionality from the Unix command line. Creating a message is trivially easy and it will handle all encoding issues internally.
ZoneMinder 0.9.8
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110744/
ZoneMinder is a set of applications which support capture, analysis, recording, and monitoring of video data coming from cameras attached to a Linux system. It features a user-friendly Web interface which allows viewing, archival, review, and deletion of images and movies captured by the cameras. The image analysis system is highly configurable, permitting retention of specific events, while eliminating false positives. ZoneMinder is built around the definition of a set of individual 'zones' of varying sensitivity and functionality for each camera. This allows the elimination of regions which should be ignored or the definition of areas which will alarm if various thresholds are exceeded in conjunction with other zones. All management, control, and other functions are supported through the Web interface.
ZorbIPtraffic 0.05
http://freshmeat.net/releases/110734/
ZorbIPtraffic shows the IP traffic on a network interface in real time. It can display traffic statistics for each IP on your internal network, and it summarizes the total traffic for each IP per year, per month, and per day. All information is stored in a MySQL database, which makes it easy to search the traffic measurements for a specific day. ZorbIPtraffic only works if you use iptables.
Newsforge Reports
Open Source and the Art of First Programming
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1834204
- By Dan Razzell - In recent years, I've seen an increasing tendency for computers to be presented, not only to the public but within the industry, as if they were appliances. I recognize the mindset: the sizes and shapes are about right, and you plug them into the wall. Just another kind of television, really. User manuals are seen as intimidating, so the solution is to eliminate them. What does a consumer need to know anyway, except where to ...
LinuxWorld wrapup: The futility of trying to see it all http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/25/167242
- By Robin 'Roblimo' Miller - No one person can see everything at a show like LinuxWorld. I was on the go every second the show was open, and I didn't meet even a fraction of the 150+ exhibitors. And I barely had time to do more than poke my head into a few of the many conference sessions, even though they were at least as important as the goings-on in the exhibit hall.
Linux is a natural for India
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/21/1423219
- By Prakash Advani - Today India is a hot topic for discussion as far as Linux is concerned. Many users around the world want to understand the mindset of Indians regarding Linux. This article attempts to give some insight to the market dynamics here, and how they make Linux a natural fit for India.
Newsforge Newsvac
Webglimpse 2.6.2 shareware
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/1016238
iwork writes " Webglimpse is a fast, flexible search engine for indexing individual websites or categories of information across the web."
What will it take?
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/1015250
Anonymous Reader writes "In an editorial, Linux and Main wonders, in light of this weekend's SQL Server worm, just how severe one of the recurring exploits of Microsoft software will have to be before people notice."
OpenBSD's Battle For UltraSparc III Documentation http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/1015227
Jeremy Andrews writes "In late November of 2002, OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt announced on the project's mailing lists that after over a year of attempting to obtain useful UltraSparc III documentation, they had still not made much headway. I attempted to discuss this issue with Danese Cooper who works in Sun's Open Source Programs Office, with as of yet limited results."
Developers turn to Linux, stunt Microsoft growth http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/27/1014224
A.Guru prasadh writes "NEW YORK: Developers who have been dedicated Microsoft users for more than a decade, are so fed up with the high prices and unreliable systems that they are switching to Linux."
Introducing ServerBeach and the PersonalServer http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1845232
SAN ANTONIO - ServerBeach, a discount dedicated hosting company, is a new alternative for technology hobbyists seeking the flexibility and reliability of dedicated servers without the high cost.
Open source needs political muscle
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1734228
Deployment of Linux in US government institutions could be stunted if the open source community does not learn better lobbying skills, a leading US academic has warned.
Sun Microsystems in good shape for 2003: CEO http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1558259
DAVOS: The head of Sun Microsystems said on Saturday the US computer and software maker is in good shape for 2003, although he declined to make any forecasts for the year.
Microsoft finds it's business as usual
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1556255
2002 was a good year for Microsoft --Â certainly more so than 2001 And the optimism continues, with a distinctly Microsoft-friendly administration in power in the US that has as good as declared itself uninterested in pursuing the company through the courts for any corporate misdeeds it may or may not have committed in the past.
IBM releases 2003 Linux Software Evaluation Kit http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1551216
Anonymous Reader writes "IBM has released its new 2003 Linux Software Evaluation Kit. It has been expanded to 4 CDs for 2003. In addition to the newest levels of DB2 Universal Database, WebSphere Application Server, and Lotus Domino, the 2003 SEK will also include WebSphere Studio Site Developer, WebSphere MQ, Tivoli Access Manager, and more. Sign-up here and get the Linux Software Evaluation Kit mailed to you at no charge. ."
Europarl to discuss ban of all software patents http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/01/26/1550234
guerby writes: Michel Rocard (ex France Prime Minister) now on the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport is proposing an amendment (pdf link) to explicitely rule out patentability on information (processing, ...) at the european parliament. The rationale is beautifuly written. Let's hope it has some influence on the outcome of the ongoing battle to stay free of software patents in Europe.
Thinkgeek
Caffeine: XTZ Energy Truffles
http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/5c54/
Interests: Megatokyo Graphic Novel
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/megatokyo/coolthings/5c2a/
Gadgets: SureFire Z2 Combat Light
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5c40/
Computing: DVD X Copy
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/5c7f/
Gadgets: Snap Digital Mini Camera
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5c79/
Gadgets: LED Mini Headlamp
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5c7d/
Cube Goodies: The Binary Clock
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/lights/2982/
Gadgets: Forever Flashlight
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a9f/
Tshirts: Geek Invaders
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/gaming/5c34/
Interests: Linux French
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/oreilly/tshirts/5bc4/
Interests: O'Reilly 2003 Calendar
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/oreilly/other/5c55/
Interests: Perl Gerl
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/oreilly/tshirts/5bcb/
Interests: I dig Mac OS X
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/oreilly/tshirts/5bcf/
Interests: Ninj4 Hooded Sweatshirt
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/megatokyo/altware/5c4e/
Interests: Megatokyo Blanket
http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/megatokyo/coolthings/5b59/
Cube Goodies: Smart Mass Thinking Putty
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/5ac8/
Electronics: Archos Jukebox Studio 20/ Radio FM 20 MP3 Players http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/5784/
Computing: Auravision EluminX Illuminated Keyboard http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/keyboards/5c3f/
Electronics: Universal System Selector
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/video/5c1b/
Other Apparel: Power Golf Shirt
http://www.thinkgeek.com/apparel/golfshirts/5b8f/
Sourceforge
Video4Linux Grab 0.2.2 released
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=246947
The v4lgrab project is a realtime capturing software for a Video4Linux device into an AVI file. This release fixes the errors and problems reported (audio/video sync problems) from the old version 0.2.1. This release also includes feature enhancements.
Gimp-Print 4.2.5 released
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=246974
Gimp-Print 4.2.5, released January 24, 2003, is a stable release in the
Gimp-Print 4.2 series. Gimp-Print is a suite of printer drivers that
may be used with most common UNIX print spooling systems, including
CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality
printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2 and newer) and Linux
systems in many cases equal to or better than proprietary
vendor-supplied drivers, and can be used for many of the most demanding
printing tasks. This software includes the Print plug-in for the Gimp,
and GhostScript and CUPS drivers, including Foomatic data. The Print
plug-in for the GIMP requires the Gimp 1.2. The CUPS driver requires
CUPS 1.1.9 or higher. 1.1.14 or above is highly recommended, as certain
translation-related bugs are fixed and it is possible to print true
CMYK. The Ghostscript driver requires GNU Ghostscript 5.10, 5.50, 6.51,
or any later GNU Ghostscript release based on 6.51 (e. g. 6.52). It may
also be used with GNU Ghostscript 7.05, or with ESP Ghostscript 7.05.
The IJS GhostScript plugin driver requires GNU Ghostscript 6.53 or
later, ESP Ghostscript 7.05 or later, or APFL GhostScript 7.04 or
later. Users of Macintosh OS X 10.2 and above can use this package, as
the printing system is based on CUPS, which is supported by Gimp-print.
Note that Macintosh OS X 10.0 and 10.1 (including 10.1.5) cannot use
this package. We recommend that Macintosh OS X users download the
precompiled installer package from
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 rather than attempt to
build this package from source, as using the installer is much simpler.
We further recommend that Macintosh OS X users install ESP GhostScript,
to permit printing from Carbon applications (such as most Adobe
applications) that generate PostScript rather than PDF output.
Directions for that are also available at
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3. Please read the README
file for full instructions on installing this package from source code.
Gimp-Print 4.2.5 contains the following major changes over Gimp-Print
4.2.4: * Major bugs fixed: 1) (bug 625780) The Epson Stylus Pro 5000
now prints. 2) (bug 645895) The Epson Stylus Color 640 now prints
properly at all resolutions in color, grayscale, and monochrome. 3)
(bug 639356) The version of libtool used in building the release
package has been upgraded to 1.4.3, which fixes compile problems on a
few platforms (this is primarily of interest to packagers). 4) (bug
659543) escputil now reports the ink levels correctly on the Stylus
Photo 950/960 and 2100/2200. 5) (bug 672692) A buffer overflow in
escputil, which permitted a local privilege escalation if it is
installed setuid, has been fixed. Note that Gimp-print does not install
escputil setuid, and we do not recommend explicitly setting the setuid
bit. 6) (bug 672846) A problem compiling rastertoprinter on Solaris
with the gcc compiler has been fixed. 7) (bug 672850) The Epson back
end in CUPS will no longer hang attempting to read back ink levels
under some circumstances, and it will also compute the ink levels
correctly. 8) (bug 646158) DESTDIR now works correctly with make
install (this is primarily of interest to packagers). * New
Functionality: 1) If Foomatic 2.9.x is installed, the Foomatic data
will be generated with additional features: Once the options are put
into groups ("General", "PrintoutMode", "Adjustment") and a new
"PrintoutMode" option will be added, which lets the user choose
pre-configurations for common printing tasks, but still adjust the
individual options. If an older version of Foomatic is installed, the
Foomatic data will stay as before. 2) (bug 596538) The automatic paper
cutter is now functional on the Epson Stylus Photo 925, 950/960, and
2100/2200. * Quality Improvements: 1) The Epson Stylus Photo
950/960/PM-950C and 2100/2200 are now tuned. The 950 and 960 are fully
tuned, while the 2100 and 2200 are fully tuned with Photographic Black
ink. Matte Black ink on the 2100/2200, and dark yellow ink on the
PM-950C, are not tuned at this point. 2) The Epson Stylus Photo
950/960/PM-950C and 2100/2200 now support double speed printing at 360
DPI in Four Color Standard mode (in color, grayscale, and monochrome).
For this reason, we recommend use of Four Color Standard for printing
text and low-resolution graphics on plain paper with these printers. 3)
Translations for Danish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, and UK English
have been updated. * Exceptions and Workarounds: 1) There have been a
number of reports that printing to a Windows-hosted printer from
Macintosh OS X results in only the first page of the job being printed
(see bugs 668342 and 672692). In at least some cases, connecting the
printer directly to the Macintosh results in correct prints. There is
no known workaround short of connecting the printer directly to the
Macintosh. Investigation is continuing on this problem. 2) There are
longstanding reports of problems printing with certain USB-parallel
adapters on Macintosh OS X. In particular, many users have reported
problems with the Keyspan adapter; we recommend that users having
problems try different brands of adapters, and avoid using USB hubs.
Please check our web site
(http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3) for a link to a user
feedback forum regarding these cables. 3) Mac OS X users who use the
Epson Printer Utility (provided by Epson with their standard driver
set) to check ink levels and perform maintenance tasks, such as head
cleaning or head alignment, may encounter print job failures when
attempting to print with the Gimp-Print driver after using the Epson
utility. The cause for this failure is currently unknown, but the
workaround is to completely power-cycle the printer, after which the
Gimp-Print driver should again print normally. Another option is to
disable the Epson Printer Utility. 4) The Mac OS X print dialog may
offer an "Autoselect" option as the default media source (input slot)
on some printers. This option may not be valid and can result in
nothing being printed. The workaround is to choose a different setting
(explicitly select the input slot you wish to use). 5) The new HP
DesignJets have not been fully tuned. In particular, there are reports
that they print too light. This can be corrected with the Density
adjustment (try 1.5~1.7 or thereabouts). 6) The list of compatible and
potentially compatible Hewlett-Packard printers has been updated with
the latest available information. If a particular printer does not work
with the recommended driver, we recommend that you try other similar
drivers, check the Feature Requests at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=101537&group_id=1537&func=browse,
and if the printer is not listed please file a feature request (via the
Submit New button). 7) Borderless (full-bleed) printing is not quite
correct on the Epson Stylus Photo printers that support it (see bug
621668). Typically, the left or right margin is off by 1 mm or less,
resulting in a very fine white strip on that edge. This will not be
fixed in 4.2; it is expected to be fixed in 4.3 and beyond. There is no
workaround other than trimming the page. 8) Many Canon printers do not
print correctly at 720x360 DPI. The workaround is to use 360 or 720
DPI. The following bugs have been fixed in Gimp-Print 4.2.5: 596538
Epson Stylus Photo 925 etc. paper cutter is not functional 599029
Epson: Maximum speed printing not supported on 950, 960 625780 Epson
Stylus Pro 5000 does not print 639356 Build system: libtool 1.4.2 does
not work on all platforms 641628 QUALITY: Epson Stylus 2200 print
quality is low in 7-color 645895 Epson stc640 does not print at 720dpi
and above 646158 Build:DESTDIR broken in make install in print plugin
649253 QUALITY - Epson 950/960 problems in all resolutions 659543
escputil Epson Photo 950 Ink level wrong 672845 Buffer overflow in
escputil 672846 rastertoprinter does not compile on Solaris with gcc
672850 Epson back end in CUPS driver can lock up The following bugs are
currently open: 409612 Epson: Minor positioning problem on 4x6 glossy
470049 CUPS PPD files not translated on all systems 538097
QUALITY-Canon S400 dark and yellow cast 549677 Canon BJC-1000 functions
incorrectly at 720x360 DPI 557868 QUALITY-HP DeskJet 560 is washed out
581168 Canon BJC 250 just spits out pages 601767 Mac OS X: Canon BJC
2100 does not print multiple pages 602933 QUALITY-Canon S800 dark and
grainy 613054 Mac OS X: Printing from InDesign 2.0 on OS 10.2.1 614882
QUALITY - Canon BJC-55 is too pale and desaturated 621668 Epson Stylus
full bleed prints have slight margin 627266 Mac OS X: Autoselect option
incorrectly offered 627978 QUALITY: Canon BJC-6500 has magenta cast.
631937 HP DesignJet Sheet Cutter Problem 641981 QUALITY: HP DesignJet
455 too light 645116 QUALITY: HP DeskJet regression from 4.1.7 647035
QUALITY: Colors don't match OEM drivers 662988 HP DeskJet 970Cxi page
horizontally squeezed 668342 Canon S-450 prints only one page of a job
672692 Epson photo 700 single page of multi page job
New release 0.5.5 of tn5250j is available http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=244952
tn5250J is an AS400 Telnet 5250 written in java. This will provide some of the more advance functions of the 5250 datastream such as edit masks, graphical windows, continued editing fields, etc. This release includes numerous feature enhancements, including improved file transfer capability, Jython scripting support, and the ability to export spool files to PDF or text file. Changes - wow where to start. There have been a lot since the last release. I will try to put a release out sooner from now on as there are so many changes it is impossible to keep up. This release features the following new functionality/fixes: 1. Scripting support via jython. See web page for details There is a script running indicator as well. You can define a script to run on connection This uses the jython project from http://www.jython.org 2. Reworked file transfer from host screen with the following: - Main screen has been reworked to make it less confusing - New filters have been added - Delimited and Fixed Width - Interaction with the Java Toolbox for AS400. See website for more details under file transfers. - A new sql query wizard has been implemented so you can graphically select and form your sql point and click with mouse. - E-mail your transferred file directly from the transfer screen 3. New SpoolFile export function to PDF or Text. You can also e-mail the exported file directly from the screen. This uses the itext project from http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/itext When you download the itext-0xxx.jar make sure you rename it to itext.jar or it will not work 4. SSL socket support for users of JDK 1.4 and greater. 5. New applet support. Take the test drive with the live applet test from the website 6. Keyboard buffering fixes 7. New interaction of the popup menu with short cut keys automatically defined from you remapping. 8. Able to map keys to macros and scripts. See website for more information on macros and scripting in jython. 9. Printing fixes. 10. Better performance Lots and Lots of bug fixes. Thanks to all for helping with the testing of this release Enjoy Kenneth
Open For Business 2.0.0 released
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=245533
The Open For Business Project released version 2.0.0 of its business automation tools, components, and applications on Monday the 20th of January 2003. This is the first stable release of the project and offers a new option for organizations of all types that have asked the question of Build vs. Buy. More information about Open For Business can be found on the web site at http://www.ofbiz.org Organizations using OFBiz can shorten enterprise information project cycles by months through a well designed architecture and corresponding framework and through pre-built components and applications. The goal of the Open For Business project is to provide useful, standards compliant tools and applications. These standards will include: XML; J2EE; WfMC; BPML; ebXML; UNSPSC; GAAP & FASB; OMG's GL, Party, Workflow, etc; ArapXML; OAGIS; and many others. The OFBiz Core Framework consists of the following tools: Entity Engine, Service Engine, Workflow Engine, Rule Engine, XML Mini-Languages, and a web application framework. Applications and application components (including entities and services) in the project cover the following business areas: e-commerce, products, orders, parties, facilities, work efforts, content, marketing, accounting, human resources, and so forth. The most mature and deployed application in the suite is the e-commerce application with functionality that measures up to the largest available commercial alternatives and many live sites, including the award-winning ReturnBuy.com site (see http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=8137 ) Other OFBiz applications and components are stable and being used by various organizations and in various commercial products. More details are available on the website. OFBiz has received great attention in the open source and IT communities. The project has been featured on SourceForge and release notices have appeared on FreshMeat.net, TheServerSide.com, and JavaLobby.org. The SourceForge project site shows around 100,000 downloads and 700,000 page views. Dozens of users of the project have contributed feedback, new ideas and even code and designs. Special thanks to the many users who have contributed to the project. Without user contributions the project could not be what it is today. QUESTION: What is the scope of the OFBiz applications, and how will vertical markets be targeted? ANSWER: We realize that we cannot target all functionality that will be needed by all organizations, or even all markets or industries. Our goal for the applications and application components is to include as much generic functionality as possible. This will allow many medium and large size organizations to get something useful running quickly and make it possible to concentrate resources on organization specific customizations. Software companies will be able to affordably create products for narrowly targeted markets or industries and spend time and effort on the needs of that market or industry instead of all of the generic functionality and framework components that can be generalized among all users of the software. QUESTION: If there are no licensing fees or corporate backing for OFBiz, how is the development and support of the project financed? ANSWER: The project is financed by providing for the needs of users of the project. This is done by offering services such as analysis, design, implementation, customization, training, mentoring, support and even prioritization of planned features. Much of the functionality in the project has been paid for by commercial adopters of the project and the rest has been contributed by generous developers from their own personal time. For more information on services offered, see the OFBiz.org Services Page at http://www.ofbiz.org/services.html QUESTION: This seems like a pretty big project, how much of it is actually done, or rather how far along are the various components and applications? ANSWER: At this point all of the framework components are very stable, and many of the applications are too. This is why we have chosen to do the 2.0.0 final release. From here on out releases will be done more incrementally as the current framework and applications are improved. The e-commerce and related applications such as the Party, Order, and Catalog managers are the most stable and mature. Following close behind is the Facility Manager which handles all aspects of warehouse and inventory management. The Work Effort Manager has many useful pieces in place, but there is still a lot of work to do there. Other applications such as Accounting and Content Management have only recently been started. The Data Model is very complete and mature. It has been reviewed and improved dozens of times and by many different people. It is cleaner in the areas where corresponding applications and components are implemented, but we have put a great deal of effort into making sure that there was a master plan for the data model that would not have to change much as applications are added or improved.
Vorbis Encoder Plugin for LameFE released