Google Relases Google SketchUp (free)

Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.

Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required.

Features
Click on a shape and simply push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
Interactive Sections.
"Sketchy Rendering".
Dimension & Annotation.

Adding a deck? Remodeling your kitchen? From simple to detailed, conceptual to realistic, Google SketchUp (free) lets you populate the world with true 3D objects. Want to build a fully dimensioned 3D model that can be used as the basis for your next do-it-yourself project? Google SketchUp's expanded feature lets you build in as much detail as your project requires.

Download Google SketchUp (free)

Caripca The Prequel To Battlestar Galactica Announced By Sci Fi Channel

SCI FI Channel announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica, in presentations to advertisers in New York on April 26. Caprica would come from Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, writer Remi Aubuchon (24) and NBC Universal Television Studio.

Caprica would take place more than half a century before the events that play out in Battlestar Galactica. The people of the Twelve Colonies are at peace and living in a society not unlike our own, but where high-technology has changed the lives of virtually everyone for the better.

Read the official announcement here

Ajax Amsterdam One Step Closer To Champions League Playoff

Ajax has almost made it to the UEFA Champions League playoff round
Last week Ajax has beaten Feyenoord Rotterdam twice in 3 days to make it to the final playoff game in Holland

It was 3 0 for Ajax in Amsterdam
[1 – 0] 27’ Rosales
[2 – 0] 79’ Heitinga
[3 – 0] 80’ Huntelaar

And it was 4-2 for Ajax in Rotterdam
[0 – 1] 34’ Rosales
[0 – 2] 40’ Huntelaar
[0 – 3] 50’ Boukhari
[1 – 3] 58’ Kuijt
[1 – 4] 81’ Mitea
[2 – 4] 87’ Kuijt


Today Ajax has beaten Groningen 2-0
[1 – 0] 9’ M. Rosenberg
[2 - 0] 69' A. Charisteas


This means Groningen has to win 3-0 to go on. That is mission impossible

Rape Accused 'had sex with wrong woman'

A MAN who claims he mistakenly had sex with "the wrong woman" after entering a dark bedroom at the home of a Sydney magazine editor was yesterday committed to stand trial for rape.

Paul John Chappell, 31, was invited back to the editor's Bondi flat after they met during a night out.
The pair went to bed and Mr Chappell later got up to use the bathroom.

But Mr Chappell claims he mistakenly returned to the wrong bedroom, where the editor's 23-year-old flatmate was asleep.

He got into bed with the flatmate and initiated sex, allegedly believing she was the other woman.

The flatmate participated because she thought it was her own boyfriend who had come to bed after falling asleep in the loungeroom.

When she turned on the light, the "hysterical" woman saw Mr Chappell in her bed and realised her boyfriend was still asleep on the couch.
Mr Chappell intends to plead not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent.

"The defence case is he made a mistake," barrister Wayne Flynn told the Downing Centre Court Local yesterday. "He went into the wrong room and had sex with the wrong person.

"He thought he was having sex with the person he went home with.

"The [alleged victim] says she believed she was having sex with her boyfriend. She made a mistake as to who she was having sex with and so did the defendant."

Read the rest here

18 Families Behind Multimillion-Dollar Deceptive Lobbying Campaign

The multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to repeal the federal estate tax has been aggressively led by 18 super-wealthy families, according to a report released today by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The report details for the first time the vast money, influence and deceptive marketing techniques behind the rhetoric in the campaign to repeal the tax.

It reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.

The report profiles the families and their businesses, which include the families behind Wal-Mart, Gallo wine, Campbell’s soup, and Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms. Collectively, the list includes the first- and third-largest privately held companies in the United States, the richest family in Alabama and the world’s largest retailer.

These families have sought to keep their activities anonymous by using associations to represent them and by forming a massive coalition of business and trade associations dedicated to pushing for estate tax repeal. The report details the groups they have hidden behind – the trade associations they have used, the lobbyists they have hired, and the anti-estate tax political action committees, 527s and organizations to which they have donated heavily.

In a massive public relations campaign, the families have also misled the country by giving the mistaken impression that the estate tax affects most Americans. In particular, they have used small businesses and family farms as poster children for repeal, saying that the estate tax destroys both of these groups. But just more than one-fourth of one percent of all estates will owe any estate taxes in 2006. And the American Farm Bureau, a member of the anti-estate tax coalition, was unable when asked by The New York Times to cite a single example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of estate tax liability.


Read the rest here

Mathematical LEGO Sculptures

There are some extremely impressive LEGO constructions on the web. There are people who build elaborate castles, people who make huge train layouts, people who make vehicle reproductions, and a few who specialize in large sculptures. Eric Harshbarger (http:/www.ericharshbarger.com) is the undisputed champion of this subgenre and has made life-size figures, a grandfather clock, and even a desk out of LEGO. Henry Lim (http://www.henrylim.org/LEGOSculptures.html) has made, among other things, a 14-foot stegosaurus and a full-size working harpsichord from LEGO bricks

Now here is a person who is building mathematical LEGO sculptures
Some of the things this person has build are
A LEGO Möbius band
The figure-eight knot
A hinged Klein bottle.
A Costa surface

Visit the site to see the LEGO pictures and read more about it

Oracle To Extend Support

When it comes to Oracle- bought software, 'lifetime support' used to mean just support for seven years, making "software support years" run even faster than dog years.

But no-longer. Oracle has had a rethink over its inherited Siebel, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards code-bases, today announcing it will release new versions into the foreseeable future. The company had previously defined lifetime to mean support ending in 2013.

So Oracle will continue to update the trio of applications it bought last year, long-after delivery of its planned Oracle Fusion Applications in 2008. Also on the table are full "customer-driven" roadmaps, development teams inside of Oracle who will continue to upgrade the acquired applications, and "no forced upgrades."

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell RC1 (for .NET Framework 2.0 RTM) x86

Windows PowerShell is a new task-based command line shell and intuitive scripting language for system administration that provides comprehensive control and automation for Windows administrators. Windows PowerShell makes administrators more productive by improving the manageability of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows. Exchange Server 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Microsoft Operations Manager “V3”) will be built upon Windows PowerShell.
The key features of Windows PowerShell include:

Over 130 standard utilities (called “cmdlets) for completing common system administration tasks such as working with the registry, services, processes, Windows Management Instrumentation, event logs, etc..

Intuitive, task-based scripting language and support for existing scripts and command line tools..

Designed for consistency so all tools and system data stores follow a common syntax, common naming conventions and information can be easily shared/piped between tools.

Simplified command-based navigation of the operating system (including drives, startup files, and registry).

Powerful object manipulation capabilities (objects can be directly manipulated or pipelined to other tools or databases).

Designed for extensibility so that independent software vendors and enterprise developers can easily build custom tools and utilities to administer their software.

Download it here

MSFT: Microsoft And Hyperion Collaborate On Business Intelligence Solutions

Microsoft Corp. MSFT and Hyperion HYSL today announced plans to integrate their respective business intelligence (BI) solutions to enable customers to make the most of their existing IT investments through improved interoperability between the companies' technologies. Collaboration plans include four initiatives that integrate Microsoft(R) SQL Server(TM) 2005 technologies -- including SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and SQL Server 2005 Integration Services -- with Hyperion System 9 BI+, a key part of Hyperion's business performance management (BPM) solution. The announcement was made at Solutions 2006, Hyperion's global BPM conference, taking place in Las Vegas April 23-26

"We continue to hear from customers that the need for increased interoperability is significant in making the most of existing IT investments," said Robert Bernard, general manager of the Global ISV Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to its expansive partner network building on the Microsoft platform and to continuing to form strong relationships with our global independent software vendors (ISVs) to benefit our mutual customers. Hyperion is a leader in BPM, and we're looking forward to the opportunities this collaboration will bring to enterprise customers."

Microsoft and Hyperion are committed to broadening the reach of business intelligence by providing an easy and integrated user experience for accessing and working with business information so decision-makers at all levels in an organization can make more-informed decisions and drive better performance. The goal is to reach every individual, add value to every decision, and help organizations align people and initiatives to business strategy. This strategic alliance continues the collaboration between Hyperion and Microsoft to provide increased value to their extensive joint customer base. Users will benefit by combining reports and data from both Hyperion and Microsoft data sources into a unified enterprise view that leverages their preferred delivery and analysis tools.

"We share with Microsoft a passion to provide our customers with the easiest possible access to the information they need to do their jobs," said Howard Dresner, chief strategy officer for Hyperion. "By integrating our leading BPM technology with Microsoft technology, we accelerate our ability to help our customers achieve information democracy -- a state in which actionable insight is in the hands of all -- across their enterprises."

The collaboration will ultimately enable broader deployment of complementary BI solutions from Hyperion and Microsoft to customers that have adopted components of each. Specifically, Hyperion customers will be able to use SQL Server Reporting Services to access Hyperion System 9 BI+ Essbase Analytics, and also will be able to display Microsoft reports in the Hyperion System 9 Workspace environment. In addition, Microsoft customers will be able to access SQL Server Analysis Services data using Hyperion System 9 BI+. Also, Hyperion System 9 will leverage SQL Server Integration Services for data access.

The 59 Ingredients In A Fast-Food Strawberry Milkshake

Do you ever order a milkshake at a fast-food joint? It is pretty tasty right?
Do you know what is in a strawberry milkshake? Well here is a partial list:
amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.

Sounds delicious right?

The full article can be read here

Xfire Bought By Viacom For $102 Million

Viacom Inc. announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Xfire, the fastest-growing online gaming community in the world, for $102 million in cash.

The acquisition brings Viacom and its MTV Networks unit the premier community that connects online gamers. Xfire and its users fit squarely into the Company’s multiplatform strategy to build an engaging universe of music, gaming, entertainment, news, networking and interactivity for focused audiences. As part of MTV Networks, Xfire will be better able to maximize its advertising revenues through more aggressive marketing, greater global penetration and comprehensive integration with the Company’s other digital and cable properties that address the gaming demographic.

Launched in 2004, Xfire has four million registered members who use its software. Its one million active users average 91 hours per month, with an average session length of over three hours. The robust, ad-supported Xfire application supports hundreds of the latest PC games and provides social networking, instant messaging and information for online gamers. In addition, the Xfire application provides traffic to its popular website, featuring forums and gaming downloads.

Read the rest here

IBM Raises Dividend By 50%

International Business Machines Corp. Tuesday raised its quarterly cash dividend 50 percent and authorized $4 billion in additional funds for use in its stock repurchase program.

The 30 cent per share dividend, payable on June 10 to stockholders of record on May 10, represents an increase of 10 cents from the prior quarterly dividend of 20 cents. The percentage increase is the largest in the history of IBM.

The extra $4 billion for stock repurchase is in addition to $2.5 billion for buybacks remaining from a prior authorization.

SUNW:Scott McNealy Steps Down As CEO At Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy has stepped down as chief executive, and has been replaced by President Jonathan Schwartz, the company said Monday.

McNealy who will stay on as chairman, was one of four co-founders of Sun 24 years ago and has been CEO for the last 22 of those. Since then, he has been a strong and often contrarian voice for change in the computing industry, but in recent years his vision hasn't translated into financial success.

"Jonathan has risen to the top of the class, and he is ready," McNealy, 51, said in a conference call. The move was planned, he added: "It's part of our ongoing succession process we've been working on since my days at the (General Electric) board."

So far on April 25th at 11:43AM ET the stock is at 5.04 +0.06 (1.20%)

eBay Express Launched

eBay Express Launched has launched

With eBay Express it's faster and easier than ever to breeze through all your shopping. Find the best deals on everything from designer jeans to a complete home theater system.

Get it new: Shop our vast inventory of brand new, brand name, and hard-to-find products.


Get it now: Everything on eBay Express is offered at a fixed price by top eBay sellers. Get what you want now — no bidding, no waiting.


Fill your shopping cart: Buy from multiple eBay Express merchants. Pay for everything — including shipping—in a single, secure payment using PayPal or your credit card.


Buy with confidence. Every transaction is safe, secure, and fully covered by free Buyer Protection

Check it out: http://www.express.ebay.com/

TWiT 51: Digg This

Kevin Rose explains how digg works in this TWiT episode. For all you people of digg community, this podcast episode will answer quite a lot of questions. It's definitely worth checking out (and subscribe to TWiT podcasts!)

64Kbps MP3 feed direct feed available, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, and 32Kbps and 64 Kbps MP3 versions are also available

Get the podcast here

Floss 3: cmdrTaco (Rob Malda) Of Slashdot

The latest FLOSS podcast is available on This Week In Tech
In this episode Chris DiBona travels to Dexter, Michigan to speak with Slashdot founder, Rob Malda, aka CmdrTaco about standards compliance, Slashdot's new commenting system, dorks, Star Trek, Mentos, and old shoes.

Get the podcast here

Apple Nano 8GB and 10GB This Summer?

Apple will be launching new 8GB and 10GB iPod nanos in the summer. At least that’s what Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is saying.

Apple itself has hinted that iPod prices are due for a spot of pruning. “We expect [the average iPod selling price] to be down a little bit in the June quarter,” said CFO Peter Oppenheimer recently. Reading between the lines, this doesn’t necessarily mean that iPod prices will drop, but that Apple could be predicting increased sales of the cheaper Shuffle and nano models


Read the rest here

MySQL To Show Falcon

Open-source database company MySQL plans to provide technical details next week on its homegrown storage engine and upcoming administration tools.

The database engine, code-named Falcon and due for completion later this year, will be built specifically for running transactions, said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing at the company. A beta version is due out this summer, he said.

MySQL executives will detail Falcon and other upcoming tools at its user conference, which take place Monday through Thursday in Santa Clara, Calif.

Read the rest here

Anti-Google Cartel In The Making?

Ebay is in talks with both Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) to determine which of them might be a good ally against a common threat: Google (GOOG)
Google is attacking ebay with multiple products.
Gbuy is a competitor to PayPal
GoogleBase is a competitor to Ebay
Google Talk is a competitor to Skype
Of course some of these Google products are not as mature as the Ebay products but who knows what Google has in their labs?

The Wall Street Journal has the complete article

Sudoku Web 2.0 Version

Sudoku Craving has launched a Web 2.0 Sudoku site
From the site: "Sudoku Craving has been developed to offer a free Sudoku challenge every day. Each day a new Sudoku challange will be randomly generated. You can play the latest challenge or you can browse through existing ones.

Every time you play on Sudoku Craving you notice that your time and attempts are automatically recorded. When you log in you will also notice that this information is used to rank your progress and skill on each of the challenges.

When a registered member finishes a challenge they are asked to rate its difficulty level. The difficulty level of the game is the average rating given by all of the members. This means that real people have rated the difficulty of a game, not a computer!

Registered members can also post comments about challenge once they have finished it. When you are playing you can browse through the comments in an attempt to find hints, tips or pointers.
"

The URL is http://www.sudokucraving.com/game.php

Seagate Leaks 750GB Barracuda Details

Seagate Leaks 750GB Barracuda Details, like other Barracuda drives, the 7200.10 series are based on 7,200RPM spindles.

Two 750GB models have already shown up on the Seagate website. The Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640A (PATA) and the ST3750640SA (SATA) will be two new models we can look forward to seeing this year. The Seagate webpage reveals dozens of other NCQ-ready 7200.10 based products ranging from 200GB on up. Cache information was not available via the website yet, but the official Seagate PDF claims the Barracuda 7200.10 series will come with 16MB and 8MB buffers. Considering these two drives will be the best of breed for Seagate, it is fairly safe to assume these drives will have 16MB caches

Read the rest at dailytech.com

gTranslate: Translate Any Text Firefox Extension

With gTranslate you can translate any text in a webpage just by selecting and right-clicking over it. The extension uses the Google translation services to translate the text

Get the latest version from http://www.menjatallarins.com/extensions/#gtranslate

Digg vs Slashdot (Digg vs Dot)

What is digg vs dot?
digg vs dot is a simple website that was put together to highlight the act of crossposting articles among two very popular sites, digg.com and Slashdot.org.

As of now the score is 22-15 in the favor of Digg

Check the site http://diggvsdot.com/ to see current results

technopedia has also an interesting article

I will just list the Feature part form that article here:
"If I go deeper in this topic, I would require more than 1 page to analyze each feature. I will try to be brief and stick to the major features on both websites.

In slashdot, there are a number of user features which are quite attractive. Any user can maintain his/her journal. A user can have friends and foes on slashdot which raises some eyebrows. It is a nice feature to possess for an interactive website. The messaging system, although not a two way communication is still weighty.

Slashdot features different subdomains which carry different topics. Some examples are apple, book reviews, games etc. This is a very important part of segregating the news according to our interests. My favorite one is the ask slashdot. It is a forum in which you would ask a question and people would answer your question/discuss on it. It is similar in nature to Google Scholar. Slashdot is popular for the polls it runs as well.

Slashdot not only brings the news but they know how to transform the traffic monetarily. Slashdot (OSTG) owns several services which are advertised on slashdot and it is a good smart strategy. I don’t blame them.

Digg may not be abundant in features compared to slashdot but they have some unique features as well. You could segregate your dugg articles, submitted articles and commented articles. You can view the same three sections for all other users. This is annoying at times. Digg tends to be more Christian in making friends and not foes. The articles that your friends digg are marked to distinguish from others. There is a section which displays your personal profile along with your ranking on digg and interestingly enough, the number of times people have viewed your personal profile.

The feature that I like the most on digg is the Digg Spy. If you want to know what is currently hot on digg and what is getting dugg a lot, you need to check this out. It is like a stock market screen which keeps moving with the number of diggs and the article names. It even shows you if an article has been reported or not."

You can read the rest at technopedia

Visual Google PageRank For Every Link On Your Site

This is a pretty impressive tool. It will show you the Google PageRank for every link on your site visually (like you can see on the image) My homepage has a rank of 5 and blogger has 10 of course ;-)

The link to this tool is here

NASA Achieves Breakthrough In Black Hole Simulation

NASA scientists have reached a breakthrough in computer modeling that allows them to simulate what gravitational waves from merging black holes look like. The three-dimensional simulations, the largest astrophysical calculations ever performed on a NASA supercomputer, provide the foundation to explore the universe in an entirely new way.

According to Einstein's math, when two massive black holes merge, all of space jiggles like a bowl of Jell-O as gravitational waves race out from the collision at light speed.

Previous simulations had been plagued by computer crashes. The necessary equations, based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, were far too complex. But scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have found a method to translate Einstein's math in a way that computers can understand.

"These mergers are by far the most powerful events occurring in the universe, with each one generating more energy than all of the stars in the universe combined. Now we have realistic simulations to guide gravitational wave detectors coming online," said Joan Centrella, head of the Gravitational Astrophysics Laboratory at Goddard.

The simulations were performed on the Columbia supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center near Mountain View, Calif. This work appears in the March 26 issue of Physical Review Letters and will appear in an upcoming issue of Physical Review D. The lead author is John Baker of Goddard.

Similar to ripples on a pond, gravitational waves are ripples in space and time, a four-dimensional concept that Einstein called spacetime. They haven't yet been directly detected.

Gravitational waves hardly interact with matter and thus can penetrate the dust and gas that blocks our view of black holes and other objects. They offer a new window to explore the universe and provide a precise test for Einstein's theory of general relativity. The National Science Foundation's ground-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a joint NASA - European Space Agency project, hope to detect these subtle waves, which would alter the shape of a human from head to toe by far less than the width of an atom.

Black hole mergers produce copious gravitational waves, sometimes for years, as the black holes approach each other and collide. Black holes are regions where gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light, can escape their pull. They alter spacetime. Therein lies the difficulty in creating black hole models: space and time shift, density becomes infinite and time can come to a standstill. Such variables cause computer simulations to crash.

These massive, colliding objects produce gravitational waves of differing wavelengths and strengths, depending on the masses involved. The Goddard team has perfected the simulation of merging, equal-mass, non-spinning black holes starting at various positions corresponding to the last two to five orbits before their merger.

With each simulation run, regardless of the starting point, the black holes orbited stably and produced identical waveforms during the collision and its aftermath. This unprecedented combination of stability and reproducibility assured the scientists that the simulations were true to Einstein's equations. The team has since moved on to simulating mergers of non-equal-mass black holes.

Einstein's theory of general relativity employs a type of mathematics called tensor calculus, which cannot be turned into computer instructions easily. The equations need to be translated, which greatly expands them. The simplest tensor calculus equations require thousands of lines of computer code. The expansions, called formulations, can be written in many ways. Through mathematical intuition, the Goddard team found the appropriate formulations that led to suitable simulations.

Progress also has been made independently by several groups, including researchers at the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Texas, Brownsville, which is supported by the NASA Minority University Research and Education Program.

Visit the NASA site to play the animated simulations

CSCO:Cisco Engineer Gets Prize For Longest Commute

Mariposa resident Dave Givens makes a 186-mile drive -- each way -- five days a week to his job in San Jose.
The electrical engineer has been doing that commute since 1989, spending seven hours every day getting to and from work at Cisco Systems Inc

Givens is the "ultimate road warrior," according to Midas Inc. (MDS) and drove home with its first-place prize in the nationwide search for "America's Longest Commute.

Read the rest here

Suri And Grier Hammond Henchy

Actor Tom Cruise and his fiance, actress Katie Holmes, welcomed the birth of a daughter on Tuesday, according to Cruise's publicist.
They named the girl Suri, which "has its origins in Hebrew, meaning 'princess,' or in Persian, meaning 'red rose,' " Cruise spokesman Paul Bloch said in a statement.
The baby weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, he said, and was 20 inches long. Both mother and daughter were doing well, Bloch said.

Actress Brooke Shields also gave birth Tuesday to a daughter, Grier Hammond Henchy, The Associated Press reported. Last year, Shields and Cruise had a public tiff after he criticized the actress for taking antidepressant medication after the birth of her first child.

Tivo Ripe for Buyout?

The patent infringement lawsuit against EchoStar (parent company of Dish Network) ended on Friday, resulting in the jury awarding US$74 million to TiVo as compensation for lost royalties and profits. Echostar was found to have used technology covered by TiVo patents to power its own DVR boxes.

The outcome of this lawsuit is likely to set a precedent for other legal actions, and to "encourage" other DVR providers such as DirecTV (whose agreement to provide TiVo-branded services was recently extended) and Time Warner Cable to adopt true blue TiVo technology


Barron's published an article over the weekend where TiVo was portrayed as a desirable buyout candidate. The article says that "the product's technology, which the company continually improves, could make TiVo a buyout candidate for a computer maker interested in enforcing the patents, or a cable operator looking for an edge." The one-two punch of the patent suit and the takeover speculation pushed the stock 12 percent higher today over Friday's closing price.

Of course, takeover speculation is nothing new for TiVo. The company has been rumored to have lined up interested buyers many times in the past, but what makes this round interesting is the timing of this supposition. The stock is hitting price points higher than at any time since early 2004, so it's certainly not the discounted sale item of the week. Companies trading at historically cheap prices are usually seen as better targets for a buyout.

But the patent victory certainly increased the value of TiVo, and now the market needs to figure out exactly how much it's worth nowadays. Not only does the lawsuit payout suggest that TiVo could see its first profitable year of operation, but the result should lead to an increase in patent licensing revenue. And the "moat," TiVo's competitive advantage over its competitors, was just widened a smidgeon as well. Even in the face of appeals, court victories are worth something because each appeal must overcome another precedent set by the lower court.

Read the complete ars-technica article

SUNW: Sun Secure Global Desktop Software 4.2 Released

Sun Secure Global Desktop Software provides secure access to server-based applications running on Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Mainframe and Midrange systems from a wide variety of client platforms and devices. The software web-enables legacy applications quickly without costly re-writes and delivers those applications side-by-side with modern server-based applications. This allows for consolidation of critical applications and data onto highly reliable, centrally maintained servers and off individual desktop and laptop computers, improving manageability while increasing flexibility. Sun Secure Global Desktop Software allows you to:

-Access applications from nearly any location on the internet over a secure connection without specialized hardware
-Reduce costs by centralizing management of users and applications
-Enable auditing of application usage
-Dramatically reduce the time to securely deliver applications
-Ensure users can access only applications they are authorized to use
-Increase resiliency by housing application sessions at the data center and not on individual PCs

System Requirements
Installation Platforms

Solaris 8, 9, and 10 OS (SPARC Platform Edition)
Solaris 10 OS (x86 Platform Edition)
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server (Intel x86) 8, 9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Intel x86) 2.1, 3.0, 4.0
Fedora Linux (Intel x86) Core 1, Core 2 and Core 3

Supported Application Types
Microsoft Windows
Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, and AIX (character and graphical)
IBM mainframe or AS/400
HTML, Java

Supported Protocols
Microsoft RDP
X11
HTTP, HTTPS
SSH
Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)
Telnet VT, American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
TN3270E
TN5250

Client Requirements
Leading Java technology-enabled clients, including Microsoft Windows, Java Desktop System, Linux, and Mac OS X
Sun Secure Global Desktop Native Client-enabled devices including thin clients, wireless PDAs, and pocket PCs

Server Requirements
200 MB disk space, depending on platform
512 RAM recommended
10 MB of RAM per active user on the Sun Secure Global Desktop server, in addition to above (typical usage)

Supported Authentication Mechanisms
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) v3
Microsoft Active Directory
RSA SecurID
Network Information Service (NIS)
Microsoft Windows Domains
HTTP, HTTPS including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based client certificates

Download the software here

Ubuntu Linux 6.06

Ubuntu is a pretty interesting Linux distribution isn't it? I mean, no other take on Linux has shot so high so fast. Nobody has single-handedly turned the desktop Linux world over on its ear like Ubuntu has. Nobody. What makes it so special? What sets it apart from the hundreds of other distros on the market today?

Features
Linux kernel 2.6.15-18 PREEMPT
X.org 7.0
gcc 4.0.3/glibc 2.3.6
GNOME 2.13.94
Firefox 1.5.0.1 web browser
Evolution 2.5.92 email/groupware client
OpenOffice 2.0.2 productivity suite
Gaim 1.5.0 instant messenger
Gimp 2.2.10 image editor

Read the rest of the article at Mad Penguin

Oracle Buying Novell To Use For Linux Distro?

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is considering launching a version of the Linux operating system and has looked at buying one of the two firms dominating the technology, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday.

The report, citing an interview with Oracle's chief executive officer Larry Ellison, said the move would redraw the software landscape and open a new front in Oracle's long rivalry with U.S. rival Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).

Ellison told the newspaper that Oracle had considered buying Novell Inc. (NOVL), which after Red Hat Inc. (RHAT) is the biggest distributor of Linux.

Read the whole story here

Pro PHP-GTK

Pro PHP-GTK
By Scott Mattocks, 392 pp.
Apress has published their latest PHP book.
PHP is gaining positive reputation for its system administration and client-side application development capabilities. This administration and development is accomplished using the PHP-GTK extension. You can take advantage of client-side applications by implementing language bindings for the GTK—the GIMP Toolkit—a library for creating cross-platform graphical user interfaces.

Pro PHP-GTK acts as both a definitive reference and a hands-on tutorial to the PHP-GTK extension. The book couples the extension's key topics with practical examples to guide you through a real-world project: developing a database-driven client-side inventory manager. You’ll also learn how to integrate this feature with other emerging technologies like SOAP and RSS, and how to generate XML-based interfaces.

Below is the table of contents

CHAPTER 1 Introducing PHP-GTK
CHAPTER 2 Installing PHP-GTK
CHAPTER 3 Understanding PHP-GTK Basics
CHAPTER 4 Handling Events and Signals
CHAPTER 5 Getting an Application Up and Running
CHAPTER 6 Laying Out Applications
CHAPTER 7 Displaying and Collecting Simple Data
CHAPTER 8 Using Multiline Text
CHAPTER 9 Working with Trees and Lists
CHAPTER 10 Scrolling
CHAPTER 11 Adding Menus and Toolbars
CHAPTER 12 Adding Images
CHAPTER 13 Drag-and-Drop
CHAPTER 14 Using Selectors & Dialogs
CHAPTER 15 Doing Background Work
CHAPTER 16 Changing the Look and Feel
CHAPTER 17 Distributing PHP-GTK Applications
INDEX


Sample chapter 3 can be found here

The Amazon link is here

Ben Goodger, Lead Engineer For Firefox Podcast

This Week In Tech has a cool podcast with Ben Goodger, lead engineer for Firefox. He is being interviewed by Chris DiBona.
They talk about Firefox 2.0 and "3.0," XUL, the infamous "memory leak," and Ben offers his favorite secret Firefox tip. It's a good one!

FLOSS Weekly Episode 2: Ben Goodger

Apple Bootcamp TripleBoot

OnMac.net Has a wiki on how to do a triple boot with Apple BootCamp
There is also a quick note on disk partitioning and an explanation of the science of chainloading


Before you begin you will need the following:

An intel Mac
OSX install DVD(s)
A non-upgrade windows XP cd with SP2 slipstreamed
An x86 linux live cd/dvd (They used the gentoo 2006.0 live cd)
The Intel Mac firmware update (early 2006 models only)
Apple BootCamp
OSX 10.4.6 combo update


read the instructions here

GoDaddy Going Public

According to reports released late Wednesday, domain registrar and Web hosting provider Go Daddy Group (godaddy.com) is preparing plans for an initial public offering.

Sources with knowledge of the company's plans reportedly say Go Daddy has hired Lehman Brothers to manage the offering. It is not yet clear when the offering would take place. Neither company has offered comment on the reported deal.

Read the rest here

Wine 0.9.12 Released

Wine 0.9.12 Has Been Released

Notable improvements include:

New Winelib Internet Explorer application (all 5 lines of it).
Several improvements to the font support.
More work on the IDL compiler.
Faster drawing of the cards in Solitaire (very important feature).
A number of fixes for issues found by the Coverity code cheker


Binary packages are in the process of being built, but the source is available now. You can find out more about this release in the announcement. Check out our download page for packages for your favorite distribution. Currently official Fedora packages lag behind, but you can get Wine-0.9.10 by running yum install wine from Fedora Extras.

MSFT: Microsoft To Sponsor World Cyber Games

The World Cyber Games, one of the major organizations of professional video game competition, has announced that Microsoft has agreed to serve as the official sponsor through 2008, providing hardware, software, Xbox Live online service, peripheral equipment, and marketing support for all WCG events.

The deal also asserts that Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 will be the exclusive gaming platforms for the PC and console for the events, meaning that other console titles for Sony or Nintendo platforms will not figure in the competitions.


Read the rest here

Google Calendar

It's finally here-->http://www.google.com/calendar/render

Ajax Saved By K.J. Huntelaar And A. Charisteas

Ajax struck twice in the final two minutes to beat Vitesse Arnhem 2-1 and climb to fourth with 57 points.

Youssouf Hersi opened the scoring for the visitors after 62 minutes but one minute before time Klaas-Jan Huntelaar equalised with his 31st goal this season.

Three minutes into stoppage time Greek striker Angelos Haristeas sealed the win for Ajax.

SUNW: Sun Opens Up NetBeans Enterprise Pack, Eclipse Not Good Enough

Tools for UML, XML and service orchestrated architectures (SOAs) will become the latest features in Sun Microsystems Java Studio Enterprise suite to be open sourced.

Sun is to release its two-way Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeler, XML infrastructure and visual editing tools, and tools to design and orchestrate business processes using Business Execution Process Language (BPEL), and build composite applications. The software, part of the planned Java Studio Enterprise 9.0, will made available for download as part of Sun's NetBeans Enterprise Pack.

By open sourcing its UML tools Sun is continuing its push against the rival Eclipse open source tools framework. The Eclipse Foundation has pushed UML and model-driven architectures for some time via the Eclipse Tools Project. The project encompasses an open source implementation of UML, called UML2, and a modeling framework and code-generation facility to build tools and applications that use a structured data model - called the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF).

Read the rest here

KOffice 1.5 Has Been Released

KDE Ships New Release of Major Enhancements to Free Integrated Office Suite
OpenDocument as Default File Format, Accessibility, New Project Planning Tool, Professional Color Support and Adjustment Layers in Krita and Final Kexi 1.0 Version Highlight KOffice Release for Linux and Other UNIXes

April 11, 2006 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the final release of KOffice 1.5.

KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes free and open standards for its document formats, component communication and component embedding.

This release includes:

a frame-based, full-featured word processor (KWord);
a spreadsheet application (KSpread);
a presentation application (KPresenter);
a flowchart application (Kivio);
an integrated database application (Kexi);
a pixel based image editing and paint application (Krita);
a vector-drawing application (Karbon14).
a technology preview of a new project management application (KPlato).

Additionally, KOffice includes robust embeddable objects:
report generator (Kugar)
Note: Kugar is deprecated in this release will be replaced with another solution. It's only included since there are users that are already using it.
full-featured charting engine (KChart)
mathematical formula handling (KFormula)

as well as a built-in thesaurus (KThesaurus) and support for many different file formats.
KOffice 1.5 is a subproject within KDE, a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. Together, KDE and KOffice constitute the only Free Software project to provide a complete desktop and productivity environment for Linux/UNIX.
KOffice and all its components (including KDE) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE http and ftp mirrors.

The principal improvements over KOffice 1.4 are:

General:

OASIS OpenDocument as the Default File Format
KOffice now uses OASIS OpenDocument as the default file format for the productivity applications KWord, KSpread, and KPresenter. The supporting applications KChart and KFormula also support OpenDocument, although not yet fully.

The spread of the OpenDocument file format is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the whole IT industry right now. It will give users world-wide the possibility to control their own documents and also ensure that all documents can be read at any time in the future.

KOffice was the first office suite that announced support for OpenDocument and now the second to announce it as the default file format after OpenOffice.org. This makes KOffice a member of a very select group and will lead to new deployment opportunities. Great care has been taken to ensure interoperability with other office software that also use OpenDocument.

Enhanced Accessibility for Users with Disabilities
The decision of the Commonwealth of Massachussetts to base its future document format on open standards started a great debate with many different people and organization taking part. The start of it was Microsoft's assertion that programs using the OpenDocument file format could not be used by handicapped people.

The direct outcome of this debate was that OpenOffice.org, KOffice and vendors of other office software started to work hard on rectifying this situation. This version of KOffice has support for enhanced accessibility through the means of mouseless operation and text-to-speech functionality.

It is therefore our hope that KOffice can in future be used even by handicapped users, and we are very interested in feedback on this.

Start of a Unified Scripting Approach
This version of KOffice features a start of a unified scripting solution called Kross. Kross provides cross-language support for scripting (thus its name) and at present supports Python and Ruby.

Kross is easy to include into programs previously lacking scripting abilities, and is included in this version as a technology preview. So far, only Krita and Kexi are improved by means of the Kross engine. We would also like to point out that the API might change in the future and expect Kross to be fully integrated into KOffice version 2.0.

First Major Release of Kexi (1.0)
KOffice 1.5 contains the much expected final 1.0 version of Kexi - data management application that is the KOffice counterpart to MS Access or FileMaker. It is designed from the ground up as a standard KDE database application.

Using Kexi, a new database project can be set up in less than one minute as a single efficient file, without a need for administering servers. When needed, MySQL server can be used for storage or existing project can be imported from MySQL server of MS Access file. The final version focuses on the data exchangeability and server support.

Technology Preview of a New Project Management and Planning Application: KPlato
KOffice 1.5 is the first official release to include KPlato. KPlato is a project management application that allows users to control project schedules and resource use. It is included in KOffice 1.5 as a technology preview and full functionality is expected for version 2.0.

With this release, KPlato already offers various charts (gantt, pert), scheduling capabilities, calendars, resources, tasks and subtasks, detecting critical paths and resources as well as generating a work breakdown structure. KPlato can also be embedded into other KOffice applications.

The KPlato team is also involved in the OPMEF project (Open Project Management Exchange Format) which aims at creating a standard file format for project management applications. People from other projects such as TaskJuggler and various individuals are also involved. You are welcome to join, too.

For a list of features supported by KPlato, see the changelog.

Common (All Applications):

a new common startup dialog with better usability than the old one from KOffice 1.4 and before.
a set of common modifiers (shift, meta, ctrl) for scaling, dragging and similar.
accessibility improvements include enhanced keyboard access (mouseless operation) and Text-to-Speech capabilities. See the handbooks for further details.

KWord (Word Processor):
OpenDocument is now the default file format.
new internals that will remove most of the problems with tables from KOffice 1.4.

KSpread (Spreadsheet):
OpenDocument is now the default file format
support for non-contiguous selections
a new faster and better formula engine
a much improved Microsoft Excel import filter.

KPresenter (Presentation Tool):
OpenDocument is now the default file format
New PowerPoint import filter
Export slides as images
automatic guide lines
autoscroll
many, many bugfixes.

Kivio (Flow-charting application):
Automatic guidelines
New dockers, shared with Krita and Karbon (now called palettes)
New object list that can be used to mark objects on the page
New stencils for ER diagrams

Kexi (Database application):
Data-aware forms, more widget types and embedded images
Import data from MS Access projects (packaged separately)
Much improved GUI for database connectivity (MySQL)
Much improved Project Import Wizard
Scripting using Kross in Python and Ruby. (beta). Kross is a cross-language component that makes it easy to add extensive scripting capabilities to KDE applications.
Simple printouts

Krita (Pixel based graphics editor):
8 and 16 bit grayscale, CMYK and RGB colormodels, 16 and 32 bit float RGB colormodels, watercolor colormodel, 16 bit L*a*b colormodel, 32 bit float LMS colormodel. Many colormodels fully support colormanagement using lcms.
Group, object and adjustment layers and a new layerbox with thumbnails and tooltips
Scripting using Kross in Python and Ruby.
Histograms
Creating and saving of brushes and patterns
Show image in center of window
Show a grid
OpenGL mode that speeds up certain operations a lot.
New filters, e.g. shadow, round corners, wavelet noise reduction, bumpmap, tiles and sobel filter.
Color adjustment dialog works with most colormodels

Karbon (Vector based graphics editor):
OASIS file format support (incomplete)
new color selectors
improved selection handling
improved stability and rendering
improved SVG compatibility
Better toolbox

KChart (Graph and chart drawing tool):
OpenDocument is now the default file format (incomplete)
new chart type: combined bars and lines
support for first row or column as labels

A more complete list of changes is available at the KOffice web site.

MSFT:Microsoft Helped With Oklahoma Computer Law

people of Oklahoma asked Microsoft to help the State write a new law banning spyware, and the results are amazing.
Apparently the state was so impressed with Vole’s work on the law it plans to bring it before its government for debate under the fairly harmless title "Computer Spyware Protection Act House" Bill 2083


The law is amazing, not only because it is probably the first written overtly by a major company without bothering with the tedious problem of lobbying, but because… well it is written by Microsoft, what do you think could go wrong?

The problem is that if you agree, you give the company you bought upgradable software the freedom to come onto your computer for "detection or prevention of the unauthorized use of or fraudulent or other illegal activities in connection with a network, service, or computer software, including scanning for and removing computer software prescribed under this act."

In other words if you install Vista, Microsoft can come in, snoop around your computer see if you are doing anything illegal and delete it.

Read more here

Ingres Targets Software Firms

Database company Ingres is creating a package of its namesake open-source database and a version of Linux, a combination it hopes will appeal to hosted application providers.

Ingres, which was spun off from Computer Associates International last November, is working with rPath, a company that is developing software for assembling and updating hosted software, said Dave Dargo, chief technology officer of Ingres. The rPath software is based on its own distribution of Linux.

The goal of the bundle is to simplify installation and maintenance of applications built on Ingres and make the open-source database an appealing choice for independent software vendors (ISVs) that write custom applications.

Read the rest here

Ebay: Skype Buys Sonorit

eBay's Skype unit said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire a San Francisco-based speech-processing start-up for roughly $27 million in stock.

eBay will issue 700,000 shares of stock to buy Sonorit and its subsidiary, Camino Networks. Skype said it bought the company for its engineering team, which should help Skype build new voice products for the future.

Luxembourg-based Skype, founded in 2002 by Scandinavian entrepreneurs, offers free computer-to-computer voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and low-cost connectivity between computer and landline or mobile phones. Skype was bought last year by eBay in a deal valued between $2.5 billion and $4 billion and has more than 70 million registered users.

Ruby On Rails: Canada On Rails

Ruby On Rails: Canada On Rails
The Canada On Rails Conference is starting this week (April 13 until April 16 This is the first ever Ruby on Rails conference in the world, showcasing keynote speakers as - David Hanssson, creator of Ruby on Rails; Thomas Fuchs, creator of script.aculo.us; Dave Astels, author of Jolt Award winning "Test-driven Development: A Practical Guide"; David Black, Ph.D., future author of "Ruby for Rails: Ruby techniques for Rails developers"; Joe O'Brien, an agile developer with ThoughtWorks; James Adams, Ph.D., creator of the highly successful Engines framework for Ruby on Rails

In addition to the six keynotes, nine other speakers will present during this two-day, single track event, at the BCIT Downtown Campus.

David Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails
Thomas Fuchs, creator of script.aculo.us
Dave Astels, published author on Test Driven Development
David Black, Ph.D, creator of SCANF.rb, RCRArchive
Joe O'Brien, developer with ThoughtWorks
James Adam, creator of Rails-Engines
Steven Baker, creator of RSPEC
Michael Buffington, cofounder of Price.com, co-architect of MeasureMap.com
Robby Russell, founder of Planet Argon
Geoffrey Grosenbach, host of Ruby on Rails Podcast
Kyle Shank, lead developer of RadRails and Rubish
Jeremy Voorhis, lead architect at Planet Argon
Alex Bunardzic, founder of Jooto
Sebastian Kanthak, creator of FileColumn plugin
Amy Hoy, upcoming author of a "Right-Brained Guide" to Ruby on Rails

Workshops

Riding the Rails
Presenter
Alex Bunardzic is a Java veteran, who joined the Java craze 10 years ago. Since the creation of Rails, Alex has been increasingly more involved within the community. Giving the first presentation at the Vancouver Ruby Association which hosted over 60 attendees, all very interested to hear what this framework is all about. He will also be speaking among the major Ruby on Rails superstars at the Canada on Rails conference. His area of expertise includes goal driven design, focusing on end-user experience

Summary
What is Ruby? And why is it on Rails?

Starting at the beginning, Alex will demystify the world of Ruby on Rails. During the two days, attendees will be guided through the basic understanding of Rails, including the MVC architecture, object relationships, and giving you a glimpse of the extremely broad Web 2.0 feature set inclusive in Ruby on Rails.

This course is meant for those who have not yet worked with Rails, and want to get comfortable with the basic functionality.

These core areas will be covered in this workshop:

Comprehensive list of Ruby and Rails resources
Installing and configuring your first Ruby on Rails application
Ruby on Rails Opinions
Using the code generators
Understanding Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture
Customizing your Rails MVC
Introduction to Gems, Plugin’s, and Engines
Outline

Day 1
On Saturday, you will be provided with an introduction to the principles behind Rails during an interactive discussion. During which, attendees will see sample code, and be guided through how everything ties into each other.

Overview
-History of Ruby on Rails
-Benefits of Rails
-Introduction to Ruby
Setting up your environment
Models, Views, and Controllers
-Understanding the concept
-How does MVC work in Rails?
The magic of code generators
Rails Opinions
-Pluralization
-Convention over Configuration
Gems, Plugin’s, and Engines

Day 2
During the second day in this workshop. Alex will get you hands on working with Rails. Starting with getting your own development environment setup, generating your first Rails project, and inspecting all the magic under the hood.

After the basics have been covered, and everyone is up to speed with inner workings that is included in the default development environment – students will get their hands dirty and begin with generating some code using some very simple commands.

Once the foundation has been laid, Alex will guide students through the process of doing several customizations to the scaffolding code, producing a unique application for everyone.

During the second day, students will learn to leverage the existing resources available on the net, and lay the ground work for continuing to learn on their own once they have completed the workshop

Books
Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas
Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, Second Edition


Agile Development with Rails
Presenter
Steven Baker is the one of the key figures in the Ruby community when it comes to Test-Driven development. Having created RSpec, the Behavior Driven Development framework for Ruby, Steven has studied and worked with some of the largest contributors in the Agile Development community. He has trained teams managing over 7 million community members how to adopt Test-Driven techniques, greatly enhancing their productivity and development focus.

Summary
During this intensive two day workshop Steven Baker, the creator of RSPEC (the Behavior Driven Development test suite for Ruby) will give you with the tools you need to deliver test driven software using agile tactics with the Ruby on Rails web application framework.

These core areas will be covered in this workshop:
Gaining a foundation of Test Driven Development (TDD)
The differences between TDD and Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
Test first philosophy
TDD/BDD as one of the foundations for agile development
How agile development applies to developing in Rails
Outlining the step b y step process to develop a test driven application
Hands on practice using agile tactics creating your own Rails application
Outline
Day 1
On Saturday, you will be provided with an introduction to the principles behind agile software development, and how these principles align with the Rails framework.

Overview
-Introduction to Agile
-Agile Principles
-Introducing Test-Driven Development
-Why Agile and Rails fit together well
-The Rails testing framework
Setting up your environment
Test-Driving the Rails
-No More Generators
-Unit testing
-Functional testing
-Semantic Markup
-External testing frameworks
Continuous Integration
-Writing tests
-Running your tests
-Writing the code
-Refactor your code
Deployment with SwitchTower

Day 2
On Sunday, this will be the day you are entirely hands on. You will first start with a guided walk through by Steven Test-Driving the development of an application in Rails.

After the guided development, you will be paired up and given time to Test-Drive a simple application together.

During the last half of the day, you are on your own to Test-Drive what you have learned and iron out any confusion you may have about any of the topics covered. This self development will be done while Test-Driving an application of your choice.


Books
Test-Driven Development by David Astels
Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas


Canada On Rails site is here

Xandros Server To Be Released May 1 2006

What does Xandros Server offer?
Xandros Server – Standard Edition combines the power, features and functionality of Linux services with the simplicity of Windows Server Administration. This unique combination delivers unrivaled value and is a clear choice for any server administrator, regardless of Linux experience. Compatible with existing Windows Domain and networking infrastructure, Xandros servers seamlessly deliver the benefits of Linux.

Powerful Linux Services
Xandros Server combines a vast suite of powerful Linux services, which meet the demands of the enterprise and deliver ease-of-use, essential to small and medium businesses.

Xandros Managed Community
The Xandros Managed Community revolutionizes server management, automating many tasks and presenting a simplified, centralized approach to administering a server environment. Creating an integrated environment where each service is aware of the others, the Xandros Managed Community’s graphical wizards notify the administrator when a change to one service impacts others, prompting configuration as needed.

Simplified Administration
The Xandros Management Console (xMC) provides a graphical interface/control panel for easy access and configuration of services. Similar to the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) in both look and feel, but superior in usability, xMC ensures a seamless transition for Windows Server Administrators, without having to develop any new skills.

Complete Groupware Solution
Included in the Xandros Server is a groupware solution that provides advanced email, calendaring, full-function MS Outlook support, wireless email/PIM, and group scheduling. Combined with the Xandros Managed Community, the integrated service delivers a more powerful groupware solution than Microsoft Exchange alone.

Protect Critical Data
Integrated with the Xandros Server is a powerful, enterprise-class backup solution. Through the Xandros Management Console, administrators can protect and backup critical data on both server and desktop computers with ease.

Windows Interoperability
Xandros has applied its award-wining Windows interoperability to the Server. Seamlessly integrating with Windows environments, Xandros Server can be a member of a Windows Domain, or serve as a Windows Domain controller, providing services to all computers on the network.

Autism Spectrum Disorders Explained

The difficulties people with autism have in relating to others could be due to poor communication between brain areas, scientists suggest.
It may explain why they do not interact well, as the weak links mean they benefit less from social situations.

It had been thought that their lack of social skills was due to abnormalities in particular brain areas.

The study in Neuroimage, carried out by University of London researchers, compared brain scans of 32 people

The researchers took brain scans of 16 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and above-average IQs, as well as those of 16 unaffected volunteers.

They were shown four images on the screen - two of houses and two of faces. They were then asked to concentrate on either the faces or houses and decide if they were identical.

Scans showed there were marked differences in the brain activity of the two groups.

In the control group, paying attention to pictures of faces caused a significant increase in brain activity.

But for people with ASD, paying attention to faces made no impact at all on the brain, explaining their lack of interest in faces.

Both groups had the same reaction to houses.

Read the rest here

RHAT: Red Hat Buys JBoss

Linux distributor Red Hat said on Monday that it signed an agreement to buy open-source company JBoss for at least $350 million, a move that expands Red Hat's product line and adds to its growth potential.

The transaction is 40 percent cash and 60 percent Red Hat stock, with an additional $70 million owed, subject to financial performance. Red Hat said the deal, which is expected to close next month, will add to the company's earnings next year.

In a statement, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said the two companies' business models and beliefs are "fully aligned." Both Red Hat and JBoss charge customers a subsciption fee for products and ongoing support, rather than an up-front license fee.

Red Hat's move ends months of speculation over a possible acquirer for JBoss, which has seen rapid growth in the past two years and had become a likely takeover candidate.

Two weeks ago, JBoss founder and CEO Marc Fleury said that given the company's strong finances, the next step for the company "will probably be equity for an IPO or the right M&A."

For a growing number of open-source start-ups and their investors, the $350 million acquisition number is a validation of the open-source business model and an attractive payout. JBoss was largely self-funded and took in $10 million in venture investment in 2004.

Firefox 3 Available For Download

Firefox 3 is available for download

You can get it from here http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/?C=M;O=D

But be warned; Firefox 2 and 3 are being built at the same time. In other words 3.0 is 2.0, plus some additional features which won't be finished in time for the 2.0 release.

Clockless Asynchronous Processor Announced By ARM And Handshake

ARM Holdings plc and Handshake Solutions NV, a Royal Philips Electronics subsidiary, have developed an asynchronous processor based on the ARM9 core. The ARM996HS is thought to be the first commercial clockless processor and is being described as particular suited to use as an automotive microcontroller.

ARM and Handshake (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) announced they were developing the processor back in October 2004, along with an unnamed lead customer, which it appears could be Philips.

The processor was designed to use Handshake Solutions’ clockless IC design technology and is said to be suitable for automotive, medical and deeply embedded control applications. Although reduced power consumption, due to the lack of clock circuitry, is one benefit the clockless design also produces a low electromagnetic signature because of the diffuse nature of digital transitions within the chip.

The ARM996HS processor can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous system-on-chip designs, ARM said. The lack of clock-edge driven current peaks should enable easier integration with analog components, in mixed-signal SOCs.

Read the rest here

Nanotechnology: Spray Containing Nanoparticles May Cause Medical Problems

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) issued a warning against using a household product containing nanoparticles that has led to what is apparently the first recall of a nanotechnology-based product. In a period of less than two weeks, regional poison control centers in Germany received about 80 reports of people coughing or complaining of fever and headache, and several people were hospitalized with pulmonary edema, after using "Magic Nano" surface-sealing sprays.

Cleaning-roduct manufacturer Kleinmann GmbH, which packages and sells the sprays, quickly withdrew aerosol formulations that also contain a propellant and warned against their further use. The company has sold the products in pump bottles for more than two years and has had no reports of problems. The sprays are designed for treating glass and ceramic surfaces to make them water- and dirt-repellant for easier cleaning.

Magic Nano products contain silica and silicone nanoparticles as well as ethanol, water, and other ingredients, according to the poison control center GIZ-Nord. Although Kleinmann did not name specific suppliers involved, it has partnered with nanomaterial producer Nanopool, along with companies spun off from the Institute for New Materials in Saarbrucken.

The Washington Post has this to say:

As the U.S. economy strides into the age of nanotechnology, thousands of workers like these are participants in a seat-of-the-pants occupational health experiment.

No state or federal worker-protection rules address the specific risks of nanomaterials, even though many laboratory and animal studies have shown that nano-size particles -- those on the order of a millionth of a millimeter -- spur peculiar biological reactions and can be far more toxic than larger granules of the same chemicals.

Regulators say they need more data before setting standards. But of the $1.2 billion the government has proposed spending on its National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2007 -- a research funding program to help jump-start the promising sector -- only about two-tenths of 1 percent is earmarked to study workplace safety issues

BIGGU: Big In Japan Web2.0 Toolkit Site

I stumbled upon this great Web2.0 toolkit site named Big In Japan (www.biggu.com)
What is Big In Japan?
Big in Japan is an integrated toolkit for prosumer bloggers. Say your own social media projects are taking off, but you're overwhelmed with the mechanics of running, tracking and promoting your sites

From their site: "We started off by building little widgets that helped us in our daily Web lives (for our consultancy Weblogs Work and our own blog projects). We built a URL shortener with Web 2.0 features called elfURL. And some other things. Then we decided that it would be even better to have an integrated workbench so we could mash up widget functionality as we liked. Enter Big in Japan is a set of Ruby on Rails apps touched up with with Ajaxian gee whiz-ardry. Built to mash."

The tools that are offered:

PodServe
The simplest way to create, host & list your podcast with Odeo & iTunes. Special, super sexy features included. Check it out.

FrankenFeed
Mash up a monster feed. FrankenFeed makes it so easy to combine multiple feeds, it's scary.

elfURL
A big idea for small URL's. Shrink giant URL's (think Amazon), tag them, get stats, take control. Web2.0 version of tinyurl

InstantFeed
Let your readers take your feeds to go -- RSS delivered to Instant Messengers!

QwikPing
Push one button to update multiple ping servers, letting everyone know about your latest content. Supports RSS Ping 1.0 standard.

And coming soon:

FeedVault
Save and/or share your OPML files. You work hard putting those reading lists together, so keep them safe with Feedvault.

MailFeed
Some people are so about the email. Maybe they don't know RSS from Atom. Keep them up to date via MailFeed.

MailFeed
Some people are so about the email. Maybe they don't know RSS from Atom. Keep them up to date via MailFeed. (Launch Pending)

StatsTool
Roll all your key stats into one central location. Feedburner, Google Adwords, Overture, Amazon Associates, Blogging Tools, in addition to all your Big In Japan stats.

So give them a try by clicking here

Google And EarthLink Win San Francisco Wi-Fi Bid

San Francisco on Wednesday selected a joint bid by EarthLink and Google to provide San Francisco with a wireless network.

Under the joint proposal, which the two companies submitted to the city in February, free and paid wireless service would be available throughout the city.


San Francisco will mark the fourth municipal Wi-Fi deal for EarthLink. It currently operates Wi-Fi networks in Philadelphia, as well as in California cities Anaheim and Milpitas. Google is providing Wi-Fi access in the city of Mountain View, Calif.

Read the rest here

MSFT: Microsoft Buys Lionhead Studios

Microsoft on Thursday said its in-house video game studio acquired Lionhead Studios, the British developer started by the famed game maker Peter Molyneux
Most recently, Lionhead was responsible for "Fable." Released on Microsoft's Xbox platform, the game has sold more than 2 million units worldwide.

Molyneux is also known for innovative "God games" like "Black & White" that give players omnipotent power over a world.

Microsoft Game Studios said Lionhead plan to develop exclusively for the Xbox 360 and Windows-based PCs.

EiffelStudio IDE Available Under Open Source license

Eiffel Software to Offer Dual Licensing for EiffelStudio

Eiffel Software announced that the latest version of its cross-platform IDE EiffelStudio™ is now available under Dual Licensing, enabling users to choose between a license for commercial development and a license for Open Source development.

Eiffel Software's Dual Licensing model is based on the principle of fair exchange. Users who write commercial proprietary software must purchase the corresponding licenses and may freely choose how to distribute their software. Users who donate their source code to the Open Source community can use the Open Source version and must distribute their software under the same license.

"With our new licensing model, our current customers will maintain full control of their applications, while newcomers from the Open Source community will be able to take advantage of EiffelStudio as well," says Larry Miller, director of business development at Eiffel Software. "We have always worked in very close cooperation with our users to shape our technology and the possibility of working more closely with the Open Source community is exciting."

EiffelStudio is the cornerstone of the Eiffel Development Framework™, a simple and powerful system for developing bug-free software applications at a fraction of the cost of other tools. It is based on the ECMA International standard for the widely acclaimed Eiffel analysis, design and programming language. Thanks to the power of the language and the tools of the environment, EiffelStudio's users continuously demonstrate that they can produce 2 to 10 times as much software in the same amount of time as can be achieved using other languages and toolsets. Eiffel has gained prominence in recent years among developers and design team leaders in challenging enterprise environments in the financial, insurance and government sectors as well as among independent development teams.

"We have envisioned a release of EiffelStudio under a Dual Licensing model including Open Source for a long time," says Emmanuel Stapf, head of the compiler team at Eiffel Software, "but we did not want to rush the process and decided to first standardize the technology through ECMA to give the programming community the guarantee of a solid base for Open Source developments. Everything is now complete and we are thrilled to enter the Open Source world with our technology. With the success reported by our commercial customers we expect amazing developments from the Open Source community, which will give EiffelStudio unprecedented visibility."

EiffelStudio is the best IDE to create robust, reusable object-oriented applications and libraries that run on a wide variety of platforms including, Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS and embedded systems. Eiffel's unique Design by Contract™ feature makes it especially easy to produce high-quality code that developers can safely and reliably use in business-critical applications.

Features of EiffelStudio include:

Seamless coverage of the entire software lifecycle
Cross-platform availability (Windows, .NET, Linux, Unix, MacOS, VMS and others)
Full support for Design by Contract
Automatic documentation generation
Diagramming support (BON and UML) with full reversibility between diagram and code views
Extensive browsing, debugging and refactoring capabilities
Thousands of reusable library classes from Eiffel Software and other providers
Numerous reference sites for large, mission-critical projects in major industries
Guarantee of quality and productivity gains

The Eiffel language is among the easiest to learn of all programming languages. Extensive support for new users is available at http://www.eiffel.com/developers.

Availability:
EiffelStudio under Dual Licensing agreement is available immediately via the company's website, http://www.eiffel.com/

AAPL: Apple Introduces Boot Camp

Apple Computer introduces "Boot Camp" software that allows Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP

"Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple's superior hardware now that we use Intel processors," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement.

"We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch."

Boot Camp will let users with a Microsoft (MSFT) Windows XP installation disc install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac computer. Once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS X or Windows.

Boot Camp is available as a download beginning today.

The public beta of Boot Camp is available immediately as a download at www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp, and is preview software licensed for use on a trial basis for a limited time. The final version of Boot Camp will be available as a feature in the upcoming Mac OS X version 10.5 “Leopard.” Apple does not provide support for installing or running Boot Camp and does not sell or support Microsoft Windows software

System Requirements Boot Camp requires an Intel-based Mac with a USB keyboard and mouse, or a built-in keyboard and TrackPad; Mac OS X version 10.4.6 or later; the latest firmware update; at least 10GB of free space on the startup disk; a blank recordable CD or DVD; and single-disc version of Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later.

Netflix (NFLX) Is Suing Blockbuster (BBI) for Patent Infringement

Netflix Accuses Blockbuster of Illegally Copying Its Ideas in Patent Infringement Lawsuit.
Netflix holds two U.S. patents for its business methodology, which calls for subscribers to pay a monthly fee to select and rent DVDs from the company's Web site and to maintain a list of titles telling Netflix in which order to ship the films, according to the patents, which were included as exhibits in the lawsuit. The first patent, granted in 2003, covers the method by which Netflix customers select and receive a certain number of movies at a time, and return them for more titles.

The second patent, issued on Tuesday, "covers a method for subscription-based online rental that allows subscribers to keep the DVDs they rent for as long as they wish without incurring any late fees, to obtain new DVDs without incurring additional charges and to prioritize and reprioritize their own personal dynamic queue -- of DVDs to be rented," the lawsuit said."