199.99 Pentium CPU, 2.1G harddrive, 56K modem, no monitor.[June 23, 1999]
zPC $400. See evaluation at PC
Computing's, but be skeptical...
[June 23, 1999] IntelleSale.com . new and refurbished computers and accessories
PC $100 or less (pentium 90). You can make an excellent firewall out of any of
this PCs.
[June 21, 1999] Cumetrix Data Systems
-- The $300 PC includes and AMD K6-2 350-MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, a 36-speed CD-ROM drive, a 4.3GB hard drive, a floppy drive, a 56Kbps modem, and a one-year warranty. You can probably replace modem with
refurbished 14' monitor.
[June 20, 1999] Ars
Technica:
K7 benchmarks hit the wire
The data below are garnered from several different sources,
including the original post that made waves on USEnet, and the
post by Scumbria on SI:
| Benchmark |
PIII Xeon
@ 550 MHz |
K7 @ 550MH |
K7 @ 600MHz |
| SpecINT95 |
23.6 |
~ +5% |
~ +15% |
| SpecFPbase |
16.9 |
~ +36% |
~ +43% |
| 3D Winbench |
n/a |
~ +40% |
~ +50% |
If this data is even remotely accurate, AMD is due a round
of applause.
[June 14, 1999] Project Computer Bank
-- a very interesting Australian project for giving 386 to poor people.
[June 14, 1999] Bye Bye Cyrix
-- very interesting and insightful paper. Cyrix did a lot to provide a low cost
PC to the people and it deserve our gratitude for the achievements. it's a pity
that it gone.
[June 11, 1999] Curtain Call K7
K7 is a really interesting CPU. Could be useful for low cost servers...
[June 3, 1999] Linux Hardware Database
[May 20, 1999] 32BitsOnline.com - Best of Super 7 EPOX MVP3G-M [Feature ArticlesReviewsHardware]
[May 15, 1999] Linux Today Quad Xeon Processors Running NT Are A Weak Value Proposition
[May 2, 1999] http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?1241
ZDNet info on how to upgrade your CPU And Motherboard. Average quality,
but some staff can probably be useful...
[April 10, 1999] CNET Shopper.com Where to buy online
-- better than ZD www.computershopper.com
"A Philip Electronics offshoot named OnStream that has developed 30GB and 50GB
tapes, based on "Advanced Digital Recording", boasting
variable data rates of 1 or 2MB/second (3GB/hour). Parallel, SCSI and IDE/ATAPI
versions are available from $299" see also
Read More...
[April 5, 1999] What's New at Crucial Technology
The S Files -- Overall, upgrading your system with SDRAM will
perform up to 20% better over EDO in some applications. In addition, SDRAM is slowly becoming
a standard when it comes to memory upgrades...
Note: Algorithms section as
well as Compilers section were completely
reworked...
[June 17, 1999] Resources for University Teaching
-- very good list of courses on algorithms and Data structures
[June 17, 1999] A List of Courses in Principles and Implementation of Programming Languages
[June 17, 1999] Computer Science Education Links
Note: C section was significantly improved.
Java
[June 26, 1999] Bull, the leading French
Computer Systems Manufacturer, has just announced the open source release of its
full-featured Enterprise Java Beans
Framework. The announcement was made during the Europe
Japan Conference on Linux and Free Software which happened yesterday (June
23, 1999) in Tokyo. Bull is planning an MPL-type license.
The initiative was backed by AFUL, the
French Speaking Linux Association. Service will be provided by ExOffice,
a startup which specialises in Java and XML application servers and solutions.
[June 25, 1999] Java Certification FAQ
C/C++
[June 24, 1999] ISO C9X
-- info on the ISO C9X standard for the C language.
[June 22, 1999] C
Programming Language Information by J Blustein.
[June 11, 1999] StudyWeb:
programming in C
[May 15, 1999] The Standard C Library for Linux Part 6
-- one can find other parts from this link
[May 15, 1999] C and C++ tutorials
-- decent
Assembler
[June 25, 1999] Assembly Language (x86) Resources
by Michael Somos -- good
[June 7, 1999] assembly resources assembly, assembly language, assembler, machine language.
Note: PHP section was added, but still is pretty rudimentary
Perl
[June 22, 1999] EathWeb
Perl scripting tutorials resources and information -- very nice site.
Contains Perl journal
[June 18, 1999] Perlmonth, Just use Perl;
-- new e-zine. Good
[June 14, 1999] Perl
versus PHP for Web Design (part 1)
[May 27, 1999] web_log
processing scripts
[May 27, 1999] web_site_management
scripts
PHP
[June 24, 1999] Web mail in PHP
[Part 1]
[June 22, 1999] Two new books on PHP:
- Core
Php Programming : Using Php to Build Dynamic Web Sites (Prentice Hall Ptr
Core Series) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
- Leon Atkinson / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $31.99 ~ You Save: $8.00 (20%)
- Professional
Php Programming
- Castagnetto, et al / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $39.99 ~ You Save: $10.00 (20%)
(Not Yet Published -- On Order)
[June 20, 1999] .MySQl-PHP
club [.ru] -- in Russian
[June 14, 1999] Perl
versus PHP for Web Design (part 1)
[June 28, 1999] WIN32 development using free tools
[May 20, 1999] Linux vs. NT a counterpoint from WinInfo - Windows news & information
[May 20, 1999] GNU Software for Win 95 & Win NT
[May 20, 1999] Web66 Windows95 Internet Server Cookbook
[May 20, 1999] Web66 NT Home Page
[June 25, 1999] Red Hat Security Advisories Potential security problems have been found in the
nfs-server package of Red Hat 5.2 (a change to
32 bit uid_t's within glibc 2.0.x has opened a potential hole in root-squashing) and in the net-tools
package of Red Hat 6.0 (several potential buffer overruns have been corrected). Updated
packages are available from the http://updates.redhat.com
[June 24, 1999] Web security How much is enough (Datamation January 1997)
-- the paper is weak but the idea is important
[June 24, 1999] VPNs: Proceed with caution (Datamation, June 1999)
[June 17, 1999] http://www.bell-labs.com/projects/nsbd/
-- There is a tool from Bell Labs called NSBD (not-so-bad-distribution) that
claims to handle the problem of secure distribution over the internet ...
[June 10, 1999] Security
Watch (InfoWorld) -- useful collection of article of widely different
quality
[June 8, 1999] Unix SysAdm Resources Firewalls & Unix Security
-- good collection of links
[June 8, 1999] Securing Linux Part 1
-- Elementary security for your Linux box. Michael H. Warfield
[June 7, 1999] Performance Computing - Top Open-Source Security Tools For UNIX
**** [June 7, 1999] Experts question "attacks" on DOD computers
***+ [June 5, 1999] SecurityPortal.com/Linux
-- good Linux security links
**** [June 1, 1999] Linux Administrators Security Guide
(LASG) -- good
[May 29, 1999] Securing Your Linux Box
[May 29, 1999] Breaking Into Your Own System
*** UNIX Security Resources
-- good
Building Satan on Linux
Linux Today linux.com TCP Wrappers for Security
Miscellaneous Code, Inc.
-- contains check.pl
Programs To Help Keep Your System Safe
Network and Network Monitoring Software
-- nih collection Good
[May 26, 1999] SecuriTeam.com
[May 20, 1999] NETSYS.COM TECHNICAL LIBRARY
[May 17, 1999]LinuxPlanet - Tutorials - Linux network security - Network Services
[June 18, 1999] Java maven says Windows is uniquely virus susceptible (InfoWorld)
- James Gosling is an evangelist so please be skeptical, but there is some
advantage of using Unix as for "natural" virus protection:
Java co-author and Sun Microsystems evangelist James Gosling
said Tuesday that the recent spate of viruses and worms affecting corporations
worldwide is a result of Windows' and Windows NT's structure, and that Unix,
Linux, and Java environments are almost entirely immune.
Talking with reporters at the JavaOne conference here,
Gosling said that Microsoft's operating systems were not initially designed
with networks in mind. That makes it easier for malicious hackers, like the
author of Friday's worm attack, to enter those systems with nefarious
intentions. Many users have lost files from the recent, e-mail-distributed
assault, which is under investigation by the FBI.
The original Microsoft object linking and embedding (OLE)
technology used to swap information in and out of Windows 3.x applications on
a single desktop was adapted for use on networks and in later operating
systems, and has left it easier for viruses, such as the Melissa culprit
earlier this spring, to infect Windows desktops and file servers, Gosling
said.
"Windows NT is a little bit better, but not where it
needs to be," said Gosling, adding that Unix, Linux, and Java platforms
are built with an emphasis on security from the get-go. "We have an
iron-clad history," he said.
Microsoft employees themselves were hit by last week's worm,
even though the Redmond, Wash.-based network that supports the company's
17,000 campus users is up and running on the Beta 3 release of the new,
vaunted Windows 2000 operating system, said Microsoft officials.
[June 14, 1999] Wired- Worm Zeroes In On Microsoft
The latest Internet virus to cause turmoil on desktops around
the world highlights a unique security problem: users' dependence on
Microsoft products.
...If macros are a security risk, then many customers
would rather be without them, said Jim Hurley, managing director of
information security at the Aberdeen Group in Boston. The firm's
market-research interviews found that users don't think the functionality is
worth the risk.
"Any 12-year-old who's a computer geek can turn
something on and off at will, he said.
Since Microsoft's products dominate office desktops, said
Hurley, they get targeted. "In their infinite wisdom, they say their
users are asking for macro capability."
Microsoft's Canadian competitors at Corel aren't worried
about the worm -- it doesn't affect WordPerfect. A spokeswoman for the
company said she was not aware of any attacks against Corel products.
The worm was a source of amusement for Microsoft critic
James Love, director of the Consumer
Project on Technology in Washington. Someone sent him the virus, but it
didn't affect his Linux-based machine running WordPerfect. If there were
more diversity in the marketplace, he remarked, such disasters wouldn't
happen.
"If everybody in the world was only growing one kind
of corn and some sort of disease wiped it out, then people would go
hungry," Love said.
[May 6, 1999] Office
2000 Macro Security
[June 25, 1999] Linux File Associations in Linux
-- important news
You are no longer restricted to native executable file formats (ELF, a.out, etc), in Linux. With kernel 2.2 onwards,
there’s support for multiple file formats, that is, you can make the kernel recognize any file format provided
you’ve an interpreter for it. These files can then be run just by typing their name at the prompt, like any pure
executable. You could, for instance, associate all text files with the vi editor. Whenever you type the name of a
text file on the shell prompt, the vi editor will automatically load with this file.
[June 24, 1999] open source IT - Tutorials Using RPM
[June 23, 1999] sysads.com.ph Unix System Administration
[May 16, 1999] Unix SysAdm Resources FAQs, Patches and Other Info [A-M]
[April 21, 1999] Linux Administration Made Easy
by Steve Frampton, <3srf@qlink.queensu.ca>
v0.99u.01 (PRE-RELEASE), 21 April 1999. A new LDP book.
[April 21, 1999] System and Network Performance Tuning, Hal Stern, Sun Microsystems
[April 10, 1999]
The
Sys Admin. -- a nice tale about sysadmins
[June 26, 1999] Mandrake has issued a set of security fixes for the 6.0 distribution; affected
packages are printtool, kdenetwork, kdebase, and net-tools.
[June 26, 1999] dkrud
-- KRUD (Kevin's Red Hat Uber Distribution) distribution. KRUD is the
substription-baed distribution($36 a year) of the latest Red Hat with all of the latest errata (currently well over 100mb) applied and a set of extra
packages added. Monthly subscription makes it easy to keep up with the updates.
[June 18, 1999] Macmillan Introduces Enhanced Linux Operating
System; Market Leader in Linux Software & Books is 'Complete' Linux Provider
--
"Macmillan Computer Publishing USA (MCP) today announced the release of "The
Complete Linux(TM) Operating System 6.0" featuring Linux-Mandrake(TM), an enhanced version of the popular Red
Hat(R) Linux(TM). "Macmillan has also released a Deluxe edition, featuring the "Star Office 5.1" productivity suite, and a Secure Server edition."
"These three products are part of our strategy to make Linux mainstream and maintain our position as the leading provider of all things Linux: from operating systems, to software, to books and online resources," says Doug Bennett, president."
...includes special versions of PartitionMagic®
and BootMagic(TM) so Linux can be easily installed alongside Windows for
dual-boot options. It offers a preconfigured KDE desktop. The ``Complete''
edition comes bundled with numerous desktop applications including word
processing, graphics editing, financial and personal information management.
From slashdot:
I was in CompUSA yesterday and was going to buy a copy of RedHat 6.0 but it was sold out. I saw the
above mentioned distro and picked it up to check it out. To my pleasant surprise
it actually comes with a copy of Partition Magic so I can easily indoctrinate
my windows friends with a quick repartition and install. I am looking forward to trying it out.
SlashdotNew Macmillan Linux distro
[another reader wrote] The reason they say they're the #3 OS supplier (or whatever) is because up until very recently they were
distributing RH (in an agreement with RH).
Recently, RH withdrew its interest in this relationship because they wanted to vend their own product all by
themselves.
So MCP went with another relationship. Don't ask me the details about how Mandrake happened (over
Caldera or Debian or whoever else).
If you want to know how long that company has been doing Linux-related stuff, why don't you check out their
website for their product catalog. Search on 'linux'. Find that they mirror the LDP on their servers, find that
they recently are putting out a Quake product for Linux. Check out the fact that they have Linux-related
e-books online for FREE at pbs.mcp.com.
Check what you say before you say it, find your real friends and find out who the real corporate villains are
before ASSUMING.
...[another reader wrote]What is Bob Young going to do other than put his foot in his mouth. Macmillan is a publisher
of *documentation*. They pride themselves on their documentation being right while RedHat
just prides itself on declairing soul ownership of it's documentation (right or wrong). While
RedHat web hosts Marc Ewing's statements on why the Linux Community should not be
accepting of the Qt license (for modifablity reasons), they sneaked the
Donnie Barnes
non-modifiablity license into the LDP while the majority of the LDP is covered (and usually
assumed to be covered) by the LDP license. And, anyone who has provided patches to both
Troll Tech and Donnie Barnes knows that if the patch is sound that Troll Tech accepts the
modification into the offical package and that keeping RH documentation maintained is done
at Donnie Barnes whim. So, lets not be accepting of non-modifablity licensing just as Mr.
Ewing suggested. Hence, lets not be accepting of RedHat! If Macmillan thinks it can publish
(and document) a distribution better than the RedHat closed documentation distribution, then
more power to them! Go Macmillan, down with the Donnie Barnes/RedHat license which is
under conditions that even RedHat's Ewing wouldn't support!
[May 15, 1999] You can buy Red Hat Linux from Macmillan Publishing
( www.macmillanusa.com ) for the same price Red Hat charges, but
you get an electronic version of four Linux books rather than sample applications on the third CD-ROM.
[May 10, 1999] Corel distribution will compete with
RedHat and will be Debian-based. See. A new distribution, eh:
...At the recent LinuxWorld conference, company president
Michael Cowpland used the soapbox of his keynote to announce the latest of a
number of initiatives Corel has made in the past year:
- After inventing the NetWinder and giving it some
momentum, Corel wisely gave control of the project to a hardware company, Rebel.com
(formerly known as Hardware Canada Computing).
- Cowpland committed resources to the Wine
project. Wine serves the dual purpose of running Microsoft Windows
binaries under Linux, as well as making Windows code easier to port to
Linux.
- Based on the Wine work, Corel has committed to porting
all of its major desktop software to Linux, including the flagship
CorelDRAW.
- Corel has hired what seems to be all the Linux talent in
Ottawa, including the president of the area's staggeringly successful Ottawa
Carleton Linux Users Group.
- The most recent initiative is Corel's announcement to
produce its own Linux distribution.
The company is one of the first to have really got the
concept of free software. And, much to the chagrin of the
everything-should-be-free advocates, Corel has discovered how commercial
software and the free stuff can complement each other.
Of all the above Linux work Corel has done, the prospect of
a new distribution appears to have generated the most buzz, especially now
that Corel has announced that the product will be based on the Debian
distribution and KDE desktop.
... The choice of starting with Debian's
distribution, in some ways, makes a lot of sense. It's certainly easier
than starting from scratch, and the Debian development group is a large and
widespread committee that poses no commercial threat to Corel. For some users,
in fact, Corel could be the corporate face that Debian has always lacked.
Corel's choice will certainly give Debian a bigger audience
by dispensing with some of Debian's political agenda. Corel is making an
ideological break with the Debian group's near allergic attitude towards
non-free software by integrating commercial software with free Linux code. On
top of that, Corel is sidestepping the
politics that keep Debian from including KDE at all.
Corel's choice of KDE is also significant in that it joins
Caldera and SuSE in making KDE its default (if not its only) desktop. Even Red
Hat, while still using GNOME as its default, also ships
with KDE. While the nature of free software precludes the necessity for a
VHS-Betamax-style war of attrition, Corel's choice cements KDE's status as the
front-runner for those who need to make a choice.
... Debian is alone among distributions in supporting the dpkg
system, when most of the other commercial Linux system and software vendors
support the Red Hat-developed RPM format.
Until now, commercial developers were generally ignoring the dpkg system, but
the Corel entry is likely to at least disturb this peaceful balance.
Corel's Forler said he considered dpkg to be technically
superior to RPM, but said he's hoping that the Linux
Standard Base (LSB) committee will help resolve the differences between
the two and develop a single standardized packaging format. "From our
perspective, we'd like to see just one format," Forler said. But, he
added, Corel's Linux applications will still be delivered in RPM format
because that's where the current market lies.
...Corel, with its global brand-awareness and distribution
channels, will make an immediate impact on the Linux industry when its product
hits the market later this year. Several Linux vendors I've spoken with about
Corel's distribution said that the Linux marketplace was more than big enough
to handle another vendor, especially if Corel's presence gives Linux an
entrance into markets that hadn't considered it before.
[May 17, 1999] CPU Review
-- RedHat 6.0: A First Look by William
Henning
[May 17, 1999] Caldera comments by Anthony Moulen (ZDNet Linux)
My general comments on Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 is that it
isn't bad for very basic setups. It came up just fine for me, after playing
around a bit with the kernel modules I was able to get sound to work, get my
zip drive running, and see my scanner (although not use it). The windows
looked crisper than RedHat. I am not sure if this was because of a different
font used or just the luck of getting my installation to work correctly this
time with my unsupported graphics card (an i740 chipset, not a bad card but
not that good either). At anyrate the OS looked nice, had a nice feel but was
a little clunky. I didn't like that it felt so much like a windows system in
that the windowed stuff worked okay but a lot of the underlying standard UNIX
stuff just didn't fly right.
Recompiling the kernel and keeping their nice display at
boot up seems very difficult. They opted to include every possible module and
use every option in compiling the kernel, this makes the kernel large,
sluggish, and incorrect for several applications including one they included
in the K menu - XCDRoast, which was unable to use my ATAPI CDRom because
IDE-SCSI detected each of my CD Drives 8 times. This put the recorder at ID 8
making it unreachable for the cdrecord program. The scanner software had
problems (also apparently because of the multiple LUN support in the kernel).
Although I was able to compile a new kernel, the lisa software disabled a
bunch of stuff, and the graphical startup interface was gone.
I was also unable to compile SSH which I consider to be a
staple for computers on the net. I was able to get a patch that worked but I
worry about patching security software.
The final straw was that it doesn't seem to have a neat
Printer setup tool like RedHat does. So I opted to return the software to the
store and stick with the RedHat 6.0 CD I already had.
For the new user (if you are) I would currently suggest
Mandrake 5.3 and upgrade everything with their RPMs. I only recommend this if
you don't have a laptop. Mandrake is based on RedHat 5.2 and is rather stable
and settled. RedHat 6.0 has several bugs in it and the version they released
to the net had an annoying problem with Java within Netscape (which I heard
rumor was fixed before the CD actually was released). If you want the latest
though I would still recommend RedHat 6.0 as long as you are willing to play
around with fixing a few of the things that crept out the door with the
package. I have a machine that has been up straight for 2 weeks one RedHat 6.0
without a problem yet, and if the previous uptime for this machine is any
indication, I suspect it will be up till almost the end of the year (baring
security fixes that may need to be installed).
I hope this is what you were looking for. Good luck.
(for the list of the latest versions of Open Source
Software and news please consult news.freshmeat.net)
Note: this section was just created
...[LPI] it's not a Caldera show. It's an independent
effort, which Caldera wholeheartedly supports because it "will lead to
the best possible certification program, because its not specific to
any one distribution."
According to Leibovitch, the LPI is now working with an
advisory board that includes representatives form all the major Linux reseller
distributors. These include Allan Smart, Caldera's director of education
services; Lonn Johnston, Pacific HiTech's VP
North American operations; Donnie Barnes, Red Hat's director of technical
programs and Marc Torres, SuSE
Inc.'s president.
...The first certification, naturally enough, will be the
Basic with others to quickly follow. There will also be, later in the game,
specific certifications for the major distributions.
But, what will participants be tested on? Plans are,
unsurprisingly, sketchy at this point. But, what can be safely said is that
someone with the basic level will be able to serve on a Linux helpdesk or work
as a system administration assistant. At the next level, Standard, graduates
will be system administrator ready. At the top, the Advanced level, graduates
will be able, depending on their specializations, to work as a senior system
administrator, database system administrator or cross-network system
integrator.
Training, however, isn't in the LPI's current plans. For
that, resellers will need to turn to still nascent Linux training companies
and the existing training programs of Caldera, which are geared to generic
Linux, or Red Hat with its Red Hat specific courses.
The LPI still doesn't have its ducks in a row on how the
tests will be delivered. Although, LPI has had preliminary contact with such
old pros of the testing world as Sylvan
Prometric and Virtual University Enterprises,
LPI may well try an entirely different approach.
The Linux certification's real value will only be seen when
resellers have certificates on their walls and can determine whether they
result in more business and/or higher rates. With the support of all the major
Linux reseller vendors and a vendor neutral approach, though, this is one
certification that should pay for itself.
[June 28, 1999] Windows Commander 4.0 is now available for download
from http://www.ghisler.com/
The new release adds more than 20 new features, so it's certainly worth to update - especially since the
update is still free for all registered users. Simply download the new (Shareware) version, and install it
to the same directory as the registered version.
[June 20, 1999]
X WinCommander
[June 11, 1999] Norton Commander 2.0
-- Symantec implementation -- seems to be not so much different that v. 1.0,
but cheaper ($56)...
[June 9, 1999] ZDNet Software Library - FAR
[June 9, 1999] Change: there is now an Official RarSoft RAR WinRAR and FAR product support site
[May 16, 1999] DOS Navigator is free now.
See my OFM paper for details about DOS
Navigator...
[May 16, 1999] DISCO
Commander (Neosoft Russia) -- yet another classic OFM
[June 26, 1999] Motion Picture Films and Copyright Extension, by John McDonough
[June 26, 1999] No Cense - Copyright Reform Campaign
[June 26, 1999] CYBERSPACE LAWS Periodicals and Other Resources
[June 26, 1999] Liber Free the Books Campaign
[June 25, 1999] Ten European industry leaders raise
concerns about software patents is the title of this
communiqué issued last week. Linus Torvalds is on the list of those
worried about European software patents. " According to pioneers of
the software industry, the use of patents to protect software may actually
lead to less innovation, less competition and eventually job cuts in the
European Software Industry instead of generating new businesses and
stimulating innovation as it is often believed."
[June 24, 1999] Free
software licenses -- by Paul Fisher. Discusses copyleft, open
source definition, licensing compatibility, and binary bundling.
[June 23, 1999] Slashdot:
GPL vs BSD
[June 17, 1999] GPL and BSD explication and comparison
by Rob Bos -- an pretty interesting comparison of BSD license and GPL.
Probably the most insightful that I aver read. He tries to address the
problem of incompatibilities between GPL and BSD:
The Berkeley
Software Distribution license can be summarised thusly: As minimally
restricted as humanly possible. All BSD'd code has one restriction,
besides the usual "we will not take responsibility over what you do
with this code" -- the copyright notice must be retained, and
therefore the copyright of the authours over their code.
That's it. You can distribute it as either binary,
source, or either, even under a different license (provided that the terms
of the above are met). You can take BSD code, polish it up a bit, and sell
it. It is, of course, not in your best interests to ignore the core
development community. There are several instances of companies giving
large segments of code back to the Free software community -- voluntarily,
and not at the request of a legal clause.
This lends itself quite well to the
"embrace-and-extend" model of co-opting a market; however, BSD's
inbuilt protection is a lot more subtle -- simply the fact that it is
extremely expensive to maintain a code fork, especially when the competing
code is undergoing the constant revision that free software usually does.
Certainly the company could integrate patches from the original, but over
time this is not practical. Maintaining a proprietary version of a free
project is well-nigh impossible.
The BSD license is attractive to corporations because it
allows them to maintain greater control over the code; however, over time
it allows an Open Source development community to form, and take over
administration of that code. As such, it is superior to GPL in that it
greatly eases transition and allows a compromise between proprietary and
open development, with decided advantages to both -- corporations can
still pretend that the free version doesn't exist, integrate patches, and
sell for obscene prices to the end user, but the free version still does
exist in the form of the core development community. Code forks can not be
maintained, since as you integrate more and more of the patches of the
free version, your product ends up approximating the free version anyway,
which will do 90% of what yours does -- and for free.
BSD is simple, streamlined, and it works very well in
real-life situations. It has been tested in a court of law, it's been
around for years, and the bottom line is, it produces good software. The
existence of BSD-licensed software such as Apache, XFree, and the larger {Free|Open}BSD
software distributions and the community around them is testimony to this.
...
GPL makes far fewer assumptions than any other Free
software license does. It assumes that the people will tend to make their
software un-free, if left to themselves. This has historically been true
-- an individual occasionally crops up in the hacker community that tends
to exploit the common code to their advantage. Take Gates, for instance.
It's only a matter of time in any community where someone tries to use
Free software to their personal advantage. GPL tries its best to prevent
this eventual occurance, be it the integration of GPL code into a
proprietary product, or the requirement that any derivative products be
licensed under the GPL.
The GPL works best only when you have a basic program
framework to build from, getting to a slower start but producing more
free, user-community-restricted software. The existence of several hundred
of these programs is a testimony to the singular effectiveness of GPL
towards producing small, efficient, and interoperative software.
...in the opinion of many people, the single most
glaring deficiency -- and the greatest strength -- of GPL-licensed
products; that is, its habit of excluding proprietary code and applying
itself across the superset of code that it is integrated into.
On the other hand, BSD tends to spread its legs to
whoever wants to use it; any one can do what they like with it, even if it
is at the behest of the development community.
This is why I feel that GPL's proliferation will not
hold for large companies as they open source their products.. it's simply
not practical for them to do so.
On the other hand, as development shifts away from
monothilic software packages packed to the brim with bloat towards small,
efficient software packages that do one thing and do it well, involving
many more people directly in the development process, GPL will take a
firmer grasp in the market. Projects working from the bottom up have no
such baggage; no installed base of code to deal with, and most
importantly, they can pick and choose techniques and code from other
sources.
So, which one? Which will survive, to dominate the
computer marketplace?
Neither. Just like all the other holy-war dualities that
show up all over the place in the Free software world -- vi and emacs, KDE
and GNOME, proprietary and free -- the old BSD vs. GPL holy war will spur
the ignorant legions to battle, producing better and better software.
Softpanorama recommends using Macmillan Computer Publishing Personal
Bookshelf -- the leading Unix/Internet Computer-related public library (free
registration required).
LDP
[June 1, 1999] Linux Administrators Security Guide
(LASG)
Linux:
A Network Solution For Your Office Betabook
Author: Viktor Toth; Sams Publishing
Scheduled to be available in bookstores: July 23, 1999
Red
Hat Linux 6 Unleashed Betabook
Authors: David Pitts Billy Ball; Sams Publishing
Scheduled to be available in bookstores: August 20, 1999
Sams
Teach Yourself Emacs in 24 Hours Betabook
Author: Jesper Pedersen, Sams Publishing
Scheduled to be available in bookstores: April 23, 1999
Linux:
The Complete Reference (Third Edition)
by Richard Petersen ($39.99)
Available in Bookstores August 1999
Softpanorama Bookshelf / Perl Books
- Unix
Shell Programming Tools (Unix Tools) ~ Usually
ships in 24 hours
- David Medinets / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $31.99 ~ You Save: $8.00 (20%)
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
- Perl
Cd Bookshelf -- 6 books including Cookbook
- O'Reilly, Inc. Associates (Editor) / Software / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $47.96 ~ You Save: $11.99 (20%)
(Not Yet Published -- On Order)
Six O'Reilly books on one CD-ROM in HTML format. Only one book is really good (cookbook) though. CD includes:
Perl programmer alert! Six bestselling O'Reilly Animal
Guides are now available on CD-ROM, easily accessible with your favorite Web
browser: Perl in a Nutshell; Programming Perl, 2nd Edition; Perl
Cookbook; Advanced Perl Programming; Learning Perl; and Learning
Perl on Win32 Sytems. As a bonus, the new hardcopy version of Perl in
a Nutshell is also included.
- [June 11, 1999]??? Perl
for UNIX System Administration
- Brian T. O'Neill / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $31.96 ~ You Save: $7.99 (20%)
(Not Yet Published -- On Order)
- Should be an interesting and
useful book
- [June 5, 1999] Programming
Web Graphics With Perl and Gnu Software ~ Usually
ships in 24 hours
- Shawn P. Wallace, Richard Koman (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $23.96 ~ You Save: $5.99 (20%)
Great advanced book in a very interesting area
- [June 1, 1999]Mastering
Perl 5 (Mastering) ~ Usually ships in
24 hours
- Eric C. Herrmann / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $31.99 ~ You Save: $8.00 (20%)
Several positive reviews on amazon.com
- Perl
Power! : A Jumpstart Guide to Programming in Perl 5
~ Usually ships in 24 hours
- Michael Schilli / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $29.56 ~ You Save: $7.39 (20%)
-
- Perl
Core Language Little Black Book ~ Usually
ships in 24 hours
- Steven Holzner, Steve Holzner / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $19.99 ~ You Save: $5.00 (20%)
- Perl
Power! : A Jumpstart Guide to Programming in Perl 5 ~ Usually
ships in 24 hours
- Michael Schilli / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $29.56 ~ You Save: $7.39 (20%)
-
- Sams
Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days ~ Usually
ships in 24 hours
- Laura Lemay / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price: $23.99 ~ You Save: $6.00 (20%)
- [May 27, 1999] Book Review Website Automation Toolkit
-
- ***+ Perl
Cookbook (no e-text)
- Tom Christiansen, et al / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon Price: $31.96(20%
off)
Good book. Recommended as a useful reference or
second book on Perl. No e-text.
- Perl
from the Ground Up (contains one chapter on the Web -- see smartbooks.com
website)
- Michael McMillan / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon Price: $27.99(20%
off)
- Perl/Tk
Pocket Reference ~ Usually ships in 24
hours
- Steve Lidie, Stephen Lidie / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon Price: $7.96
(20% off)
-
- Learning
Perl/Tk ~ Usually ships in 24
hours
- Nancy Walsh, Linda Mui (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon Price:
$26.36 (20% off)
****+ ERCB The Practice Of Programming
by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike
(Addison-Wesley http://www.awl.com/, 1999 ISBN
0-201-61586-X 267 pages; $24.95. ERCB Review:
The Practice of Programming is a great candidate to fill this widely perceived lack in the literature that I commonly refer to as "for the
industry." Authored by two experienced researchers of the Computing Science Research Center at the well-known Bell Labs (the
name Brian Kernighan will ring a bell to the millions of C programmers), this manageable text conveys a fantastic quantity of
suggestions and guidelines that will come in useful to all the neophytes of programming, and at the same time provides some sound tips
and principles to the more seasoned among us. The first chapter approaches the delicate topic of good coding style; while the
opinions on this are always subjective, those expressed by the authors seem generally acceptable and worth following.
Subsequent chapters touch on design principles, testing practices, common algorithms (this chapter is too short to be of any real
usefulness, I would have left it out), debugging (very good chapter), performance tuning, general portability hints, and a glance at
notations. Nothing really new, but a remarkable collection of the rules typically taught by experience (the hard way). Most of the code
samples are written in C, accompanied by a few others in C++ and Java, but by its very nature all the contents are absolutely
language independent.
IDG/Linus
Torvalds Community Award
scoop - June 23rd 1999, 20:47
EST
This is an open call to high school and college students everywhere! Enter
the Linux programming contest. To enter, you must write a program that adds to
the ease of use of Linux. The program must have begun no earlier than January 1,
1999 and must be complete by July 12, 1999. One winner will be chosen to receive
the prestigious IDG/Linus Torvalds Community Award of $25,000! The programs will
be judged by well respected Linux evangelists. The presentation of the award
will immediately follow Linus Torvalds' keynote presentation, Tuesday, August
10, 1999. For additional details go here.
[June 30, 1999] Slashdot:
Cringely's take on Pirates of Silicon Valley (See also additional links Steve
Wozniak Comments on the Pirates of the Silicon Valley and Robert X. Cringely.
Please note that all paragraphs cited below are taken from different contibutors
to the Shashdot and represent view of different people):
...What I have heard from most people who I would not think
of as in-depth computer enthusiasts, geeks, nerds, or the like, is that Bill
Gates came off looking like a sociopathic theif, and Steve Jobs a big jerk.
...One thing that Woz and agree on: the portrayal of
Steve Jobs was good. In fact, Woz said that Jobs' tyrades and abuse of his
employees was much worse than in the movie. The movie makes him out to be a
real asshole with a messiah complex. Maybe it was all of the acid he dropped,
I dunno....
... I can't take anything this man[Cringely]
says seriously. Here is a liar and a fraud. Triumph of the Nerds misrepresents
stuff just as badly as "Pirates of Silicon Valley" did. For example,
did you know that Xerox had a huge investment in apple. That is why apple was
brought to Xerox. Steve jobs didn't even want to go. Also, the lisa interface
was taken from the mac project before steve jobs even started working on the
mac. Somewhere on Cringely's site there is a letter from the origional mac
creator (not steve jobs) where he writes something to the effect of: oh well,
fake man, fake history.
...I think for this movie, the atmosphere was much more
important than the facts. The producers seemed to be trying to capture the
mentality and competitiveness that surrounded these two icons of the computer
industry, and I think they did a good job of it. So what if a few of the
events were slightly askew or out of order. My mother actually commented to me
after watching that movie that she would love to destroy her computer after
realizing how much of an asshole both Gates and Jobs are. Although that is
obviously overkill, I think it is a important attitude. A lot of people in
American society idolize Gates and Jobs (and many others), and to be honest,
these guys really are not very good ideals. This movie helps show that.
...I gave up submitting new Cringely columns a while back
'cause it either never got posted or it was posted several days late from
somebody else, but he's had quite a few worth reading in the past few months.
I thought the interesting thing about this one (which will probably be
superseded within 24 hours, they usually come out late on Thursdays)was the
part at the end about AOL getting in bed with Hughes instead of some other
satellite company. Cringely comes across like a Steve Thomas standard generic
preppy PBS host clone on TV but his columns are often interesting and
insightful observations and theories about where the computer biz and culture
is heading and why.
...What I found interesting was the part where he unplugged
that guy's computer in the middle of the night. From what i understand it's
essentially true, except i think the circumstances were a bit different. I
think he pulled the plug on someone's computer who was working on the Liza (or
is it lisa?) after he came up with the idea for the mac, killing hours of
work, all because he had just come up with the next insanely great thing. IMHO
the man is a complete and total nut, who gets a lot of credit for being a
revolutionary which he really doesn't deserve. I think the only reason people
like jobs and hate gates is because gates won and jobs lost. If things had
turned out the other way i'm sure we'd have steve jobus of borg, and the
revolutionary bill gates who got cheated out of his work by that big bad apple
company. As far as I can tell, woz is one of the few people who actually did
anything of importance regarding the technical details, and he gets virtually
no credit for his accomplishments.
As for cringely, i think he's just mad that triumph gets no recognition beyond
geeks, where pirates was aparently popular among those "normal
people." He's just jealous, that's all. And with regards to the
historical inacuracies, it's a movie, not a documentary, you know "base
on a true story," those types of things are never perfectly accurate.
Real life seldom makes a good story, or atleast a good story that can be
compressed into a 2 hour (probally more like 1 when you factor out the
commercials) period.
-matt
Two books to read:
(1) "Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing" by Randall E. Stross
(2) "Apple (The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business
Blunders)" by Jim Carlton
[June 28, 1999] NH Guide to the Internet Are you a Gadget Grabber or a Cyber-Snob
Manufacturers and advertisers need ways to segment consumers
according to motivation, desire and ability to invest in technology products.
A new study lists 12 distinct groups of technology consumers based on three
variables: Why they purchase technologies; how they feel about technologies in
general; and how much money they can afford to spend on the latest gizmos.
Country clubbers: High-income, status-driven consumers
indifferent to technology. Would rather own a luxury car than a PC.
Cyber-snobs: High-income, status-oriented technology lovers.
Attracted to big-ticket electronic "toys."
Fast-forwards: Career-oriented technology enthusiasts. Most
likely to be time-strapped and to use business-oriented technologies to
improve productivity.
Gadget grabbers: Lower-income consumers of electronic
entertainment; will buy low-cost, high-tech toys.
Handshakers: Successful professionals who value
relationships above technology.
Media junkies: High-income, entertainment-driven consumers;
addicted more to TVs than PCs.
Mouse potatoes: High-income, entertainment-focused PC
buyers; interested in interactive computer entertainment and Web surfing.
Neo-hearthminders: Avid believers in technology for
self-improvement, family and education. Highest potential group of future
technology consumers.
Sidelined citizens: Low-income technophobes; technology
laggards. Least likely to purchase any technology.
Techno-strivers: Up-and-coming professionals looking for
technologies to advance their careers; students or young professionals, most
likely of low-income groups to own computers.
Traditionalists: Family-oriented, high-income individuals
suspicious of technology; unlikely to consume anything higher tech than VCRs.
X-Techs: Tech-loving, status-conscious individuals of
limited means; young, flashy cyber-cafe denizens attracted to low-cost,
high-visibility items such as cell phones and pagers.
[June 23, 1999] A Case
for Government Promotion of Open Source Software
- Computers and the Internet have changed the way we
work, study, and interact, yet there are many things about computers and
software which we find dissatisfying. Proprietary software is
increasingly expensive and memory-hungry. Bugs, security flaws, and
other errors appear in even the most trusted programs. Microsoft's
monopoly control of the operating system market stifles innovation. Many
computer systems are not equipped to handle the upcoming turn of the
century, creating a multi billion-dollar problem and dire predictions of
a global electronics breakdown.
An alternative method of software development exists,
called open source software, which offers a very low cost solution to
all of these problems. Open source is not a technology, but rather a
different way of thinking about and organizing the software development
process. Whereas traditional proprietary software development (which
created most of the programs we use daily) adheres to the principle of
strict protection of intellectual property found in the publishing
industry, open source software (OSS) development is more of a
collaborative process that has evolved along with the Internet.
Open source software is growing its market share in a
few key areas because of its natural strengths of reliability, security,
and low cost. However, open source has advantages on a broader level as
well: it eliminates economic waste caused by the duplication of work,
and it presents a challenge to harmful monopoly power in the software
industry, such as the anticompetitive practices which are under scrutiny
now in the Justice Department's antitrust case against Microsoft. It
also provides a cost-effective solution to the Year 2000 problem. For
these reasons, increased use of open source software serves more than
private economic gain -- it serves a public good as well.
This paper will describe open
source software, including a brief history
of the idea, discuss its inherent
strengths as both a private and a public good, explain why the
government should be involved in promoting open source software
development, and offer some recommendations
for government action.
[June 8, 1999] Libre Contra Gratis
-- The need for free software in poorer countries.
Many in the Open Source and free software communities are
quick to point out that the important definition of "free" is
"free as in free speech", as opposed to "free as in no monetary
cost". While this distinction is very important in North America and
Europe, especially to those of us who are developers, we should not lose sight
of the importance of no-cost software to the rest of the world.
In particular, the Spanish-speaking nations of the Western
Hemisphere come to mind. The $80 sticker price for Red Hat 6.0 and the $90
price for MS Windows 98 are both prohibitive to the average user in many
poorer nations. Yet citizens of those countries need software ... and they are
a goldmine of untapped future talent for Open Source development.
[June 28, 1999] Open
directory: Reference Knowledge Management Information Overload
[June 28, 1999] The Clever Project
The tremendous growth in the price-performance of
networking and storage has fueled the explosive growth of the web. The amount of
information easily accessible from the desktop has dramatically increased by
several orders of magnitude in the last few years, and shows no signs of
abating. Users of the web are being confronted with the consequent information
overload problem. It can be exceedingly difficult to locate resources that
are both high-quality and relevant to their information needs. Traditional
automated methods for locating information are easily overwhelmed by low-quality
and unrelated content. Thus, the second generation of search engines will have
to have effective methods for focusing on the most authoritative among
these documents. The rich structure implicit in the hyperlinks among Web
documents offers a simple, and effective, means to deal with many of these
problems. The CLEVER search engine incorporates several algorithms that
make use of hyperlink structure for discovering high-quality information on the
Web.
[June 28, 1999] Coping with Information overload
This presentation looks at the reasons for information
overload, gives advice on coping with overload and shows how Mailbase can help
you to manage overload from mailing lists. It concentrates on e-mail and
mailing lists, though the problems and solutions can be applicable to other
media such as the web.
The presentation should last about twenty to thirty minutes,
includes speaker's notes and covers
- The causes and results of Information overload
- How e-mail and mailing lists can both add to and reduce
overload
- How you can cope with overload:
- manage your time
- know your e-mail
- use the appropriate tool
- How Mailbase can help
- Further reading
Although this is a general presentation, it may be tailored
to an individual audience providing the copyright Mailbase notice is retained.
It is available in the following formats:
[PowerPoint
7] [PowerPoint 4]
[HTML]
[June 26, 1999] Alexander Gorlach homepage
this program is like "Network Neighbourhood" but shows the IP- and
MAC- addresses of the LAN's computers
[June 25, 1999] George's Home Page
See also: THE FREEWARE PUBLISHING SITE TEXT EDITORS
The program TextViewer is intended for fast viewing of textual files in DOS , Windows, KOI8, Mac, ISO
encodings, as well as in RTF. The association of this program in Windows with opening of
any types of textual files (for example with exensions TXT, EXC, DIC, INI, CFG, SCP, LOG, DIZ and
others) will allow you quickly and conveniently to look through and to edit these files, not use of the
editors of a type WordPad, NotePad etc. Other features: a) unlimited text size b) opportunity anyone a
combination of a font of the text, colour of a background, coding of the Russian text by default, sizes and
position of a window of the program on the screen c) drag and Drop with file managers d) search,
replacement, print preview and printing of text e) Russian or
English interface
X WinCommander
Call Graph Drawing Interface -
Vadim Engelson
For any program consisting of more than 10-15 functions it becomes difficult to keep track of calling
relations between them. Programmers draw a call graph when they design their code, and they do this with
paper and pen. But such call graph helps you a lot when you modify, test, document, explain and maintain
your code or read other's code. This call graph can easily be generated automatically.
Call graph drawing utilities can be found in various commercial CASE tools and programming
environments. But if you work without any CASE tools, and use just traditional compilers, you can find a
simple and cheap solution here.
to always log the IP address of an incoming connection by Nikita
Borisov -
TCP wrappers patch
WebMaker is a GUI HTML Editor for Unix. Main features include a nice GUI
interface, menus, toolbar and dialogs for tag editing, multiple windows support,
HTML 4.0 support, color syntax highlighting, preview with external browser,
ability to filter editor content through any external program that supports
stdin/stdout and KDE integration.
**** NH Guide to the Internet Out-Geeking the Geeks
At the American Bar Association Techshow, a couple of years ago, gathered all the lawyer
techies from around the country. This is the lawyer's "Super Bowl" of technology, and it is blood
sport to see who can "out-geek" the others. The winner is the one with the best gadgets.
Attorney Dan Coolidge and I plotted carefully to press the limits of what we could make them
believe. We took Dan's miniature tape recorder and advanced the blank tape for about ten
minutes. We then recorded the electronic beeping sound from the hotel alarm clock for about six
seconds and rewound the tape. Next we fired up the portable computer and printer and printed —
in really tiny type as if a message had been sent to the tape recorder — "SatLink 12-A Msg.
Conneer 1256Zulu Cust Coolidge." It was all numbers and gibberish including names of existing
satellites in orbit around the earth.
Then we made up a series of messages from purported clients and printed them out on a narrow
sheet of paper, looking rather like a cash register tape. We slipped the paper strip between the
tape recorder and its case and we were ready!
Just before we entered the room where all of our techie friends were gathered, Dan started the
tape rolling and dropped the player in his pocket. About ten minutes later, it started beeping. Dan
feigned deafness. I hollered, "Dan, your blasted fax is going off again!" He reached into his
pocket and stopped the beeping. He reached to the edge of the recorder and proceeded to pull the
strip of paper out as if it were slowly being printed. No one had seen a satellite fax before! The
room was silent; jaws dropped; envy was rampant.
Since the tape was so small he asked someone else to read it to him. The hushed room waited
while the fax was read. Everyone thought Dan had acquired the ultimate in portable satellite fax
tools. Only when the text was read aloud did the smiles start to appear. It began, "From Captain
Jean Luc Picard, Starship Enterprise, to Captain Daniel Coolidge, Starfleet Headquarters..."
Need I say more? The room erupted into laughter and they all knew they'd been out-geeked.
**** Tao_Of_Programming
***+ Programming Eagles
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
And they showed me the way
There were salesmen down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to Mountain View California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely place (backgrounded)
Such a lovely trace(1)
Plenty of jobs at Mountain View California
Any time of year
Any time of year (backgrounded)
You can find one here
You can find one here
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
*** [ June 6, 1999] The Sysadmin Price List
*** [ June 6, 1999] Fyodor's Good Reading List/UNIX Wars
***+ [ June 6, 1999] Lighter Side Contents
-- good collection
[June 7, 1999] Experts question "attacks" on DOD computers
[June 7, 1999] What They're Not Telling You About Speech Recognition
[June 7, 1999] PC Magazine Speech Recognition
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