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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."