Vine Linux is a Japanese, RPM-based, multi-purpose distribution. It is developed and maintained by Vinecaves, and it’s based on an earlier version of Fedora. It is one of those distributions that excludes non-free (proprietary) applications from its default installation. Unlike similar distributions, however, it has developed a smart method to make installing non-free applications very easy. This is a review of version 5.1, which was released last week. This also marks the first listing of Vine Linux on this site.
Installation – Vine Linux uses the Anaconda installation program. The installation process is very similar to that of older versions of Fedora. There is support for setting up RAID and LVM. LVM is the default disk partitioning scheme, with ext3 as the default journaling file system. Actually, ext3 is the only journaling file system supported. GRUB Legacy (version 0.97) is the only bootloader option.
PC-BSD is a desktop-centric distribution based on FreeBSD. The latest stable version, released just this week, is PC-BSD 8. On most Linux, desktop distributions, a connected printer is automatically configured. On PC-BSD 8, however, getting a printer to work requires manual configuration. To simplify that task, a number of printer management utilities are available. You may access the main printer management interface from System Settings > Printer Configuration, or just launch a browser and type http://localhost:631 into the address bar to access the CUPS Web (management) Interface. If you have an HP printer, the HP Device Manager is also available, accessible from Applications > Utilities > HP Device Manager.
You may also find the following articles useful: PC-BSD 8 review and PC-BSD 8 installation guide.
Computer scientists at Rutgers University have shown how a familiar type of personal computer security threat can now attack new generations of smart mobile phones, with the potential to cause more serious consequences.
The researchers, who are presenting their findings at a mobile computing workshop this week in Maryland, demonstrated how such a software attack could cause a smart phone to eavesdrop on a meeting, track its owner’s travels, or rapidly drain its battery to render the phone useless. These actions could happen without the owner being aware of what happened or what caused them.
Armies of networked computers that have been compromised by malicious software are commonly known as Botnets. Such Botnets are usually used to carry out fraudulent and criminal activity on the Internet. Now, writing in the International Journal of Information and Computer Security, US computer scientists reveal that the honeypot trap designed to protect computers from Botnets are now vulnerable to attack because of advances in Botnet malware.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, viruses and worms were the main problems facing computer security experts, with the likes of Melissa, Love Letter, W32/Sircam, MyDoom, Netsky and Bagle familiar to anyone reading the computer press during that period.
Box2D is an Open Source rigid body 2D physics engine for C++. It’s currently (2.0.1) released under the MIT license, which is quite permissive. Box2D is used by, among other things, Gluon (http://gluon.tuxfamily.org/), which is a game library from KDE in-the-making.
Integrating Box2D into your Qt application is quite easy, and this blog shows you how to get started. First of all:
- Step 1: Download Box2D from Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/box2d/
- Step 2: Build it (I had to insert a few #include <cstring> to get it to build)
- Step 3: Build and try the test bed application: Box2D/Examples/TestBed/
- Step 4: Read the manual: http://www.box2d.org/manual.html
- Step 5: Continue reading this blog to hook up the two frameworks…
PC-BSD is a FreeBSD-based desktop distribution, with KDE as the default desktop environment. It is the most actively developed of the BSD, desktop distributions listed on this site. This review is of PC-BSD 8, the latest stable edition, which was released earlier this week.
Installation – PC-BSD 8 sports a redesigned graphical installation program. It is one of the better graphical installation programs available on any distribution – Linux or BSD. It features a very clean and intuitive interface. Aside from providing a means to install a complete desktop system, the installer also allows for the installation of a FreeBSD server.
What if there were widely accepted standards for cloud security and, better yet, a universally recognized designation for “trusted” cloud providers?
The basic promise of cloud computing is undeniably appealing: Increase efficiency and reduce cost by taking advantage of flexibly pooled computing resources managed by somebody else.
Indeed, as Bill Brenner of CSO put it, “Given how expensive it is to maintain in-house hardware and software, the idea of putting one’s IT infrastructure in the cloud sounds downright heavenly.”
Hi, I am Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. I am honored to have been appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve in this new position created by Congress in the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008. Given the unique nature of this job, I’d like to describe what I’m doing in my office and how we want to engage the public to get input on what we, as a government, should be doing.
While talking about our global competitive advantage at a recent town hall meeting in Ohio, the President said, “One of the problems that we have had is insufficient protection for intellectual property rights”–and it is important that our ideas are protected. In December 2009, the Vice President, joined by Cabinet members and other senior government officials, held a roundtable discussion to emphasize the Administration’s commitment to enforcing laws against intellectual property theft.
PC-BSD 8 is the latest edition of PC-BSD, a desktop distribution based on FreeBSD, with KDE as its default desktop environment. It features a graphical installation program that should be easy enough for anybody to use. However, some sections of the installer could pose some difficulty to those new to the this distribution (and to the BSDs). If you belong to that user group, this installation guide is for you.
The screen shot shows all the options available for installation. You may choose to boot into the live environment, or just install straight to your PC’s hard drive. If you take no action, the default is to install to hard drive. For this tutorial, we want to install to hard drive.
It has now been almost exactly five years since kernel development community tentatively started using the git source code management system with the 2.6.12-rc2 commit. That was an uncertain time; nobody really knew how long it would take the development process to get back up to speed after an abrupt core-tool change. As it turned out, git was almost immediately useful, and has only become more so since. Making the development process work is git’s main claim to fame, but, as a side benefit, git also makes it possible to learn a lot about how our kernel is developed. And that, as it turns out, includes taking a look at the code which is not changed.
The speed of the development process is impressive; the nearly-released 2.6.33 kernel is the product of nearly 11,000 individual changes affecting nearly a million lines of code (look here for more 2.6.33 statistics). Those numbers are boringly normal for a three-month development cycle; things are always moving that fast.
By Richard M. Stallman: The Public Domain Manifesto (http://www.publicdomainmanifesto.org/node/8) has its heart in the right place as it objects to some of the unjust extensions of copyright power, so I wish I could support it. However, it falls far short of what is needed.
Some flaws are at the level of implicit assumptions. The manifesto frequently uses propaganda terms of the copyright industry, such as “copyright protection”. These terms were chosen to lead people to sympathize with the copyright industry and its demands for power.
With its purchase of the On2 video compression technology company having been completed on Wednesday February 16, 2010, Google now has the opportunity to make free video formats the standard, freeing the web from both Flash and the proprietary H.264 codec.
Dear Google,
With your purchase of On2, you now own both the world’s largest video site (YouTube) and all the patents behind a new high performance video codec — VP8. Just think what you can achieve by releasing the VP8 codec under an irrevocable royalty-free license and pushing it out to users on YouTube? You can end the web’s dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and proprietary software (Flash).
Public Safety is not a matter of Private Concern
In a recent article, Slate’s Farhad Manjoo attempts to play down fears of faulty software in car braking systems as a potential cause of traffic accidents. Citing numerous studies which conclude that “the overwhelming reason we get in crashes is driver error,” Manjoo reasons that “the less driving people do, the fewer people will die on the roads.”
While it may certainly be true that most crashes occur because of intoxication, distraction, or driver fatigue, and that computer controlled cars may decrease driver error, Manjoo doesn’t seem to see the obvious implication of his own assumptions — “opaque” and “inherently buggy” software which could endanger public safety should be subject to review.
Cloud computing is all the rage these days. But while the idea of using your browser to access your applications and documents sounds like a great idea on paper, in practice there are all kinds of reasons to stick to your desktop software. Take OpenOffice.org, for example. None of the available Web-based word processors can compete with Writer when it comes to features and flexibility. But even if you don’t subscribe to the idea of ditching OpenOffice.org in favor of a Web-based productivity suite like Google Docs or Zoho Docs, you can still put some useful Web-based services to some practical use.
