News in General
A higher standard [of security]
At the RSA2006 Security Conference, both Red Hat's Enterprise Linux 4
and Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 [on IBM eServers] were cited
for achieving the Controlled Access Protection Profile under the Common
Criteria for Information Security Evaluation, known as CAPP/EAL4+. Sun also
revealed plans to apply for CAPP/EAL4 and also for the Labeled Security
Protection Profile (LSPP).
Rather than release another Trusted Solaris compilation, Sun will
leverage its Solaris 10 OS with the release Solaris Trusted Extensions [a
beta is due in April or May], which enhance the security features of 10 to
EAL4 levels.
Scott McNealy to HP's Mark Hurd: Merge HP-UX with Solaris 10?
In a March 1st memo to HP CEO Mark Hurd [and sent by Sun to the media
and posted on its web site], Sun CEO Scott McNealy said HP should commit to
converging HP-UX with Sun's Solaris 10 Unix. This would allow HP customers
to use X86 servers with Intel's Xeon and AMD's Opteron processors.
HP currently uses Linux and Windows on its industry-standard X86 servers
but has only committed to supporting HP-UX on the 64-bit Itanium
architecture. McNealy pointed out that HP supports 64-bit Solaris 10 on
its Proliant servers.
McNealy called the move of HP-UX to Intel's Itanium system "...an
expensive and risky transition with an uncertain future."
See the full text at: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/converge.html.
DB Wars...
Oracle recently bought up its second Open Source DB engine by acquiring
the SleepCat Software and its Berkeley DB barely 3 months after snapping
up InnoDB, the innovative and highly touted transactional engine in MySQL
5. Broad reaction in the MySQL user community was down, dour, and
damning [see links].
In response, MySQL is closing a deal to purchase Netfrastructure, the
company behind the famed Firebird DB. This means DB guru Jim Starkey,
creater and developer of Interbase and co-creator of Firebird, will become
a MySQL employee. MySQL will continue to support Netfrastructure customers
during a transition period. Prior to this, Oracle held purchase discussions
with MySQL officials. [specifics were not released]
The Oracle purchase deftly controls key components of MySQL's offerings and
introduces uncertainty about future offerings from MySQL. The InnoDB
transaction engine was important because it is ACID-compliant. Hiring Jim
Starkey means MySQL will probably create a new transaction engine, perhaps
forking from the existing InnoDB source code.
Rumors abound that Oracle is also considering purchasing JBoss and Zend
Technologies. PHP-developer Zend featured prominently at the Oracle World
mega-conference this fall and Oracle held sessions at the much smaller PHP
Conference, clearly positioning itself as a major DB in the LAMP [or
LA-Or-P] stack. This is consistent with Oracle's pursuit of Linux and LAMP
as a platform independent of its competitors, especially Microsoft.
MySQL announced on Feb. 27 its hiring of Starkey, and also the hiring of
a new chief technology officer, Taneli Otala, the former CTO of SenSage.
Coming Soon -- Oracle rootkits??
"It's not about the infrastructure; it's about the data", says a worried Shlomo Kramer,
CEO of Imperva, a database security company in California, about threats to DBs and data integrity.
Alexander Kornbrust, of Red Database Security GmbH, is developing rootkit-like technology that uses the
DB's system functions to mask and manipulate processes and data changes. Worse still, such DB rootkits
would be OS independent.
Check this link for more details: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1914465,00.asp
OpenVZ Project Introduces Virtualization Website
The OpenVZ project now hosts a website
to freely distribute its OpenVZ virtualization software, provide
installation instructions, plus additional documentation as well as access
to different support options, including online chat. OpenVZ.org also
provides a participation platform for feedback, shared experiences, bug
fixes, feature requests and knowledge-sharing with other users.
OpenVZ is operating system level virtualization technology, built on
Linux, that creates isolated, secure virtual private servers (VPS) on a
single physical server. OpenVZ, supported by SWsoft, is a subset of the
Virtuozzo virtualization software product.
Open-Xchange Offers Free Live-CD
Open-Xchange, Inc., the vendor of open source collaboration software,
made news in several ways this January.
Open-Xchange, Inc. now offers a free, fully functional 'Live-CD' of
Open-Xchange Server 5 that gives users a cost-free way to test all the
attributes of the Open Source alternative to Microsoft Exchange.
Built on KNOPPIX Linux, the Live-CD contains a complete edition of
Open-Xchange Server 5 that boots directly from the CD-ROM, ensuring that
the host computer is not modified in any way. Frank Hoberg, CEO,
Open-Xchange Inc, explained, "This is not a polished, pre-run demo, but the
real live product that will give everyone who uses it a good idea of what
we offer."
It also announced hiring former IDC System Software Vice President
Daniel Kusnetzky as Executive Vice President for Marketing Strategy.
Kusnetzky is a noted expert on the Open Source industry, and has been a
staple as a keynote speaker at industry trade shows. He spent 11 years at
IDC doing research on the worldwide market for operating environments and
virtualization software and, previous to that, 15 years with the Digital
Equipment Corporation.
Finally, Open-Xchange announced that Systems Solutions Inc. of New York,
has joined them as a strategic system integration partner. Systems
Solutions helped in developing the SUSE Linux OpenExchange collaboration
platform for the Americas.
Open-Xchange Server 5 was launched in April 2005 as a commercial
product, and supports both Red Hat and SUSE Linux. The GPL version of
Open-Xchange Server is downloaded more than 9,000 times each month. The
Live-CD can be downloaded from www.open-xchange.com/live.
AppArmor Now Open-Source
Novell announced the creation of the AppArmor security project early
this year, a new GPL Open Source project dedicated to advancing Linux
application security. AppArmor is an intrusion-prevention system that
protects Linux and applications from viruses and malware. Novell acquired
the technology in 2005 from Immunix, a leading provider of Linux security
solutions.
AppArmor limits the interactions between applications and users by
watching for possible security violations from a tree of allowed
interactions. Unexpected behaviors are blocked. AppArmor builds its
application profiles by working with a system administrator; another
version includes predefined profiles for applications such as Apache,
MySQL, and Postfix and Sendmail email servers.
Novell AppArmor is already being shipped and deployed on SUSE Linux
10.0, Novell's community Linux distribution and its SLES (SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server) 9 Service Pack 3.
FireFox wins Technical Excellence Award
CNET has awarded Firefox 1.5 its Editor's Choice award, and Firefox has
received two awards from PC Magazine: the Technical Excellence Award for
Software and the Best of 2005 Award. Firefox also garnered international
recognition from UK-based PC Pro and received the publication's Real World
Computing Award, and was chosen as the "Editor's Choice" by German-basedPC
Professionell magazine.
And, to accelerate adoption of Firefox, Mozilla has recently unveiled
the second phase of "Firefox Flicks," its community-driven marketing
campaign for the browser. The Firefox Flicks Ad Contest encourages
professionals, students, and aspiring creatives in film and TV production,
Web design, advertising and animation to submit high-quality 30-second ads
about the browser. This new contest builds on the first phase of the
campaign, which encouraged Firefox users worldwide to submit video
testimonials about their experience with Firefox. More information about
Firefox Flicks is available at www.firefoxflicks.com.
Conferences and Events
-
==> All LinuxWorld Expos <==
- http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/media/SN787380
- RSA Security Conference -- Feb 12-17, 2006 (just finished)
TechTarget summary:
-
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/general/0,295582,sid14_gci1165948,00.html
- OSBC San Francisco 2006 -- Feb 14-15, 2006 (just finished)
Presentations [Username: conference / Password: attendee]:
- http://www.osbc.com/live/13/events/13SFO06A/conference/CC579381
- O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
- March 6-9, 2006, San Diego, California
- Semantic Web Technology Conference 2006
- March 6-9, 2006, San Jose, California
- TelecomNEXT
- 2006 March 19-23, 2006, Las Vegas, NV
- EclipseCon 2006
- March 20-23, 2006
Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, California
- Gartner Wireless Mobile Summit
- March 27-29, 2006, Detroit, Michigan
- LinuxWorld Conference & Expo
- April 3-6, 2006, Boston MA
- MySQL Users Conference 2006
- April 24-27, 2006, Santa Clara, California
http://www.mysqluc.com/
MySQL Certification is offered at $75 (a $200 value) if pre-registered
- Desktop Linux Summit
- April 24-25, 2006, San Diego, CA
- JavaOne Conference
- May 16-19, Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA
- Red Hat Summit
- May 30 - June 2, 2006, Nashville, TN
- 21st Int'l Supercomputer Conference
- June 27 - 30, Dresden, Germany
- O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2006
- July 24-28, 2006, Portland, OR
- LinuxWorld Conference & Expo
- August 14-17, 2006 -- in foggy San Francisco, dress warmly!!
FREE Commercial Events of Interest
- BEA Dev2DevDays
- March-April, 2006, US/Asia/Europe
http://www.bea.com/dev2devdays/index.jsp?PC=26TU2GXXEVD2
- Sun Participation Age Tour
- March 30 - April 11, 2006, visiting Phoenix, Seattle, Santa Clara, Los Angeles
Distro News
Linux Kernel
User Download [ 2.6.15.4 ]: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.15.4.tar.gz
Dev Download [ 2.6.16-rc5 ]: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.16-rc5.tar.gz
Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Linux 2006.0, the first release this year, came out in February
and boasts many improvements since the 2005.1 version. Major highlights
include KDE 3.4.3, GNOME 2.12.2, XFCE 4.2.2, GCC 3.4.4, and a 2.6.15 kernel.
SUSE Linux
SUSE Linux 10.1 Beta 5 was released in February. Check here for downloads:
http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org
LFS 6.1.1 Released
The Linux From Scratch community has announced the release of LFS 6.1.1.
This release includes fixes for all known errata since LFS-6.1 was
released. A new branch was created to test the removal of hotplug. This
branch requires a newer kernel and a newer udev than what is currently in
the development branch. Anyone who would like to help test this branch can
read the book online, or download to read locally. If you prefer, you can
check out the book's XML source from the Subversion repository and render
it yourself:
svn co svn://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/LFS/branches/udev_update/BOOK/
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/index.html
Novell - XGL and hardware acceleration
ZDNET reported that Novell is releasing a new graphics package for its
SUSE Linux distro into the Open Source world. The package makes fuller use
of advanced computer graphics chips to manage desktop windows and the use
of 3D and semi-transparent objects. Based on the widely used OpenGL
libraries, XGL updates the interactions between XWindows software and
modern graphics hardware.
XGL makes better use of video memory for overlaps and screen redraws
and also supports vector graphics, which could replace many of the font
bitmaps used in most Linux distros. The source code was originally released
in January, but Novell is also adding a development framework for graphics
plugins. [The Fedora project has a similar effort underway called AIGLX
for 'Accelerated Indirect GL X'.]
The code and future releases will become part of the X.Org source tree
and thus could be used by any *nix in the future. It will premier in the
next release of SUSE, expected in the early summer.
This link shows XGL in action --
http://news.zdnet.com/i/ne/p/2006/transparency1_400x250.jpg
Software and Product News
JBoss Acquires and Open Sources ArjunaTS Transaction Monitor
JBoss(R) Inc. has acquired the distributed transaction monitor and web
services technologies owned by Arjuna Technologies and HP and will Open
Source them for the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite (JEMS(TM)). This
allows enterprise-quality middleware to be freely available to the mass
market.
The acquisition includes Arjuna Transaction Service Suite (ArjunaTS),
one of the most advanced and widely deployed transaction engines in the
world with a 20-year pedigree, and Arjuna's Web Services Transaction
implementation, the market's only implementation supporting both leading
web services specifications -- Web Services Transaction (WS-TX) and Web
Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF). This implementation is
also one of the few that has demonstrated interoperability with other
industry leaders such as Microsoft and IBM. The core Arjuna transaction
engine will be the foundation of JBoss Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).
As a co-author of the WS-TX and WS-CAF specifications, Arjuna has
developed an industrial-strength web services implementation that uniquely
supports both specs. In the web services area, a line is being drawn
between the specifications, with WS-TX supported by companies like Arjuna,
Microsoft, and IBM and WS-CAF supported by Arjuna, Oracle, and Sun among
others. With Arjuna's Web Services Transaction implementation as a core
product, JEMS bridges the gap between these two camps and remains
platform-independent.
JBoss expects to release ArjunaTS and Arjuna's Web Services Transaction
implementation as open source JEMS offerings in Q1 2006 backed by JBoss
Subscription services, training, and consulting. Like all JEMS products,
these offerings will run independently as free-standing products or on any
J2EE application server. For more information, visit www.jboss.com/products/transactions.
IBM Readies 9-way compiler for SPS-3
IBM is readying a special compiler for the new Cell Broadband Engine
chip in the forthcoming Sony Play Station 3. That chip has a 64-bit PPC
core and 8 additional synergistic processor elements, or SPEs, for real
time processing of gameplay. Each SPE has 256 KB of local cache and can
read data into a 128-bit register, for single instruction, multiple data
tasks.
The Cell BE chip was developed in partnership with Sony and Toshiba
and is well adapted to running immersive simulations and also in scientific
and signal processing applications. IBM is offering the Cell as a
processor option on its BladeCenter H chassis later this year.
The Cell compiler currently runs on Fedora Linux installations on 64-bit
x86 computers. Porting Linux to Cell based computers is an unconfirmed
option.
The Cell BE compiler implements SPE-specific optimizations, including
support for compiler-assisted memory realignment, branch prediction, and
instruction fetching. It addresses fine-grained SIMD parallelization as
well as the more general OpenMP task-level parallelization. The goal is to
provide near super-computer performance in commercial and consumer
computers.
A report on the compiler and benchmarking the Cell is at this link : http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/451/eichenberger.html
and information on the project is at http://www.research.ibm.com/cell/.
Next generation open-source XML parser
XimpleWare recently announced the availability of version 1.5 of
VTD-XML, for both C and Java. This is a next generation open-source XML
parser that goes beyond DOM and SAX in terms of performance, memory usage
and ease of use.
XimpleWare claims VTD-XML is the world's fastest XML parser, 5x-10x
faster than DOM, and 1.5-3x faster than SAX, using a variety of file sizes.
VTD-SML features random access with built-in XPath support. Its also uses a
third of the memory of a DOM parser. This allows for support of large
documents, up to 2 GB.
For demos, latest benchmarks, and software downloads, please visit http://vtd-xml.sf.net.
AJAX IDE Released As Open Source
ClearNova's AJAX-enabled ThinkCAP JX™ rapid application
development platform is now available as Open Source under GPL license for
non-commercial distribution. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a
set of programming techniques that allow Web applications to be much more
responsive and provide usability on par with traditional client/server
applications.
At the core of ThinkCAP's AJAX framework are two popular Open Source
AJAX projects: prototype and script.aculo.us. These
libraries provide excellent base functionality and are the two projects
driving the AJAX functionality of the Ruby-On-Rails project.
ThinkCAP JX allows 4GL developers to rapidly build web-based
applications without having to become JAVA, XML and JavaScript experts.
ThinkCAP JX is available for download at the www.thinkcap.org.
ThinkCAP JX runs on any operating system and Java application servers
such as IBM WebSphere, BEA Weblogic, JBoss, Tomcat, Jetty, and Resin, among
others.
Lexar and Google Offer USB Flash Drives with Web Applications
Lexar Media, Inc., is bringing Google applications directly to customers
by including Picasa, Google Toolbar and Google Desktop Search applications
on its line of popular USB flash drives. The offering is the first time
consumers will be able to install Google applications from a USB flash
drive directly to their desktop.
Customers purchasing a Lexar JumpDrive simply have to plug the device
into the USB port and be prompted with instructions to easily install the
free applications. If the user accepts installation, Google products
automatically install to their computer and are then removed from the USB
flash drive.
First WiMAX products get certified
In January, the WiMAX Forum began issuing certifications for products
meeting the 802.16-2004 IEEE standard. If fully implemented, WiMax supports
a range of several miles and speeds of up to 40Mbps. The standard for
mobile WiMax is 802.16e and was ratified in December of 2005.
Some last minute changes to the standard in late 2005 delayed these
first certifications for products in the European-designated 3.5GHz radio
frequency band. Certifications for the 2.5GHz radio frequency band used in
the US will start in the middle of 2006. Equipment makers seeking
certification include Redline Communications, Sequans Communications, and
Wavesat. Find more WiMAX info here: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1912528,00.asp
Also See: Silicon Valley eyes wireless network - Partnership sets goal:
1,500 square miles of broadband access
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/28/BUG4FGUPFQ1.DTL&hw=Wireless+bids&sn=005&sc=829
Magical Realism... (non-Linux news of general interest)
Quantum Computation is... no computation?
[from:
www.physorg.com/]
By combining quantum computation and quantum interrogation, scientists
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found an exotic way
of determining an answer to an algorithm... without ever running the
algorithm.
Using an optical-based quantum computer, a research team led by
physicist Paul Kwiat has presented the first demonstration of
"counterfactual computation," inferring information about an answer, even
though the computer did not run. The researchers reported their work in the
Feb. 23 issue of Nature.
Quantum computers have the potential for solving certain types of
problems much faster than classical computers. Speed and efficiency are
gained because quantum bits can be placed in superpositions of one and
zero, as opposed to classical bits, which are either one or zero. Moreover,
the logic behind the coherent nature of quantum information processing
often deviates from intuitive reasoning, leading to some surprising
effects.
"It seems absolutely bizarre that counterfactual computation - using
information that is counter to what must have actually happened - could
find an answer without running the entire quantum computer," said Kwiat, a
John Bardeen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics
at Illinois. "But the nature of quantum interrogation makes this amazing
feat possible."
"In a sense, it is the possibility that the algorithm could run which
prevents the algorithm from running," Kwiat said. "That is at the heart of
quantum interrogation schemes, and to my mind, quantum mechanics doesn't
get any more mysterious than this."
Paul G. Allen Launches PDPplanet.com Site
Investor, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft Paul G. Allen
unveiled a new Web site, www.PDPplanet.com,
as a resource for computer history fans and those interested in Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) systems and XKL systems. From a PDP-8/S to a
DECSYSTEM-20 to a Toad 1, Allen's collection of systems from the late 1960s
to the mid-1990s preserves the significant software created on these early
computers.
Via the new Web site, registered users from around the world can telnet
into a working DECsystem-10 or an XKL Toad-1, create or upload programs,
and run them -- essentially stepping back in time to access an "antique"
mainframe, and getting a sense of how it felt to be an early programmer.
Along with Allen's Microcomputer Gallery being at the New Mexico Museum
of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque (opening later this year),
and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, PDP Planet
provides an important exploration of early computer technology.
Bounty on MS Windows critical flaws
Its MS bug season! IDefense has offered a bounty of $10,000 for
uncovering major Windows flaws, but only if MS will identify them as
critical. Previously, TippingPoint offered bug 'bonuses' of $1,000-20,000
as part of its Zero Day Initiative [http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/benefits.html].
In an email made public, MS was critical of offering any compensation
for efforts now undertaken by computer security companies. "Microsoft
believes that responsible disclosure, which involves making sure that an
update is available from software vendors the same day the vulnerability is
first broadly known, is the best way to protect the end user."
How to Build WIMAX Networks
NetworkAnatomy, a Northern California wireless communications company,
has taken the lead, on-line, in providing a low-cost [USD$175] reality
engineering education series via its monthly OnLine-CTO emagazine. The goal
is to overcome the lack of practical WiMax training in the US, where very
few WiMax projects have been initiated and there is only a small pool of
experienced engineers.
NetworkAnatomy's effort offers "how to" installments, with reference
material and skill tests. Click the blinking "New Service -- OnLine-CTO",
at the www.networkanatomy.com
website, subscribe, and dive into the WIMAX engineering series.
NetworkAnatomy can also be contacted by email through onlinecto@networkanatomy.com.
I, Robot....
Robotics Trends and IDG World Expo announced in January that Carnegie
Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame will hold its 2006 induction
ceremony at the 3rd annual RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition, the
international business development event for mobile robotics and
intelligent systems.
The conference and exposition will be held in Pittsburgh, PA on June
20-21, 2006. The event website is http://www.robobusiness2006.com
According to Dan Kara, conference chairman and President of Robotics
Trends, Inc., "We are extremely pleased to announce that the 2006 Robot
Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be part of the RoboBusiness Conference
and Exposition. The Robot Hall of Fame induction adds a great deal of
excitement, energy, prestige and glamour to the RoboBusiness event. Past
inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame include some of the most significant
and well known robots in the world including Honda's Asimo, NASA's Mars
Pathfinder and Unimate, the first industrial robot arm that worked on the
assembly line. The Robot Hall of Fame jurors are an equally distinguished
collection of international scholars, researchers, writers, and designers
including Gordon Bell, Arthur C. Clarke, Steve Wozniak, Rodney Brooks and
others. With the addition of the Robot Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the
RoboBusiness event becomes even more impactful, and certainly more
entertaining."
![[BIO]](../gx/authors/dyckoff.jpg)
Howard Dyckoff is a long term IT professional with primary experience at
Fortune 100 and 200 firms. Before his IT career, he worked for Aviation
Week and Space Technology magazine and before that used to edit SkyCom, a
newsletter for astronomers and rocketeers. He hails from the Republic of
Brooklyn [and Polytechnic Institute] and now, after several trips to
Himalayan mountain tops, resides in the SF Bay Area with a large book
collection and several pet rocks.
