LinuxWorld Expo: Unisys Smoking

Less than an hour after the show floor opened at the 2006 edition of the Boston LinuxWorld Expo today, fire alarms went off and a plume of smoke arose from the server cabinet in the Unisys display. "I knew we had a magician scheduled," said one rattled Unisys employee,"but this isn't what I expected." Indeed, this was an unexpected event. It was a real fire

Despite the strident strobes and braying mechanical whoop-whoops, few show attendees panicked. The alarm was soon rescinded

More of the story and pictures here

Ajax Book: Head Rush Ajax (O'Reilly Media)

Sick of creating web sites that reload every time a user moves the mouse? Tired of servers that wait around to respond to users' requests for movie tickets? It sounds like you need a little (or maybe a lot of) Ajax in your life. Asynchronous programming lets you turn your own websites into smooth, slick, responsive applications that make your users feel like they're back on the information superhighway, not stuck on a dial-up backroad.


But who wants to take on next-generation web programming with the last generation's instruction book? You need a learning experience that's as compelling and cutting-edge as the sites you want to design. That's where we come in. With Head Rush Ajax, in no time you'll be writing JavaScript code that fires off asynchronous requests to web servers...and having fun doing it. By the time you've taken your dynamic HTML, XML, JSON,
and DOM skills up a few notches, you'll have solved tons of puzzles, figured out how well snowboards sell in Vail, and even watched a boxing match. Sound interesting? Then what are you waiting for? Pick up Head Rush Ajax and learn Ajax and asynchronous programming the right way--the way that sticks.



If you've ever read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Head Rush ramps up the intensity with an even faster look and feel. Have your first working app before you finish Chapter 1, meet up with the nefarious PROJECT: CHAOS stealth team, and even settle the question of the Top 5 Blues CDs of all time. Leave boring, clunky websites behind with 8-tracks and hot pants--and get going with next-generation web programming.

The Amazon link is here

Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA)

The Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA) was approved by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee last week and could soon be cleared by the House of Representatives

The bill requires consumers to be told if their privacy has been violated because of a breach.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), ID theft cost American consumers $5 billion (US$6 billion) and businesses $48 billion (US$58 billion) last year.

The bill would allow the FTC to enforce standards on keeping data, and make companies appoint a head of security who would produce best practice and audits up to five years after an event.

GOOG: Google Launching Music Store

Last week Google met with a group of music industry executives and described the private event as merely for "networking." But Caris analyst Mark Stahlman suspects that Google is getting ready to launch a Music Store to rival Apple Computer iTunes.

"The music industry is broadly unhappy with the fixed pricing and lack of subscription options at the market-leading iTunes Music Store and likely to support alternative services," wrote the analyst in a recent report.

In addition to the potential Music Store, Google has expanded the availability of its experimental local AdWords to all customers in the U.S., Canada and Britain. Integrated into Google Maps, the service is expected to allow targeting ads based on the user’s location.

MSFT: Microsoft Buys ProClarity

Microsoft Agrees to Acquire ProClarity, Enhancing Business Intelligence Offering

Leader in advanced analytics adds to Microsoft’s comprehensive BI capabilities.

Microsoft Corp. today announced it has agreed to acquire ProClarity Corp., a software company based in Boise, Idaho, that develops advanced analysis and visualization technologies that work in association with Microsoft’s business intelligence (BI) platform, which includes Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, Microsoft Office Excel® and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server. The upcoming release of the 2007 Microsoft Office system significantly increases and broadens Microsoft’s investment in BI, and this acquisition deepens that investment, providing functionality that includes additional advanced analysis and visualization technologies as well as business-logic-driven “guided” analysis.

Microsoft’s BI strategy aims to broaden the reach of business intelligence by providing an easy and integrated user experience for accessing and working with business information so that 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. ProClarity’s technology and people will help accelerate Microsoft’s business intelligence strategy, provide increased BI functionality, increase customer value and enhance opportunities for industry partners to integrate BI into business applications.

“ProClarity has been a valued Microsoft partner for many years, with a strong R&D organization, more than 1,200 mutual customers and a sales force that already works closely with ours,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Business Division at Microsoft. “This acquisition advances our BI strategy and our ability to deliver performance management applications to customers.”

“Our focus at ProClarity is to give organizations a simple, powerful and adaptable interface to insight, expanding on the power of the Microsoft business intelligence platform. We share Microsoft’s enthusiasm for making BI accessible to all decision-makers within an organization,” said Bob Lokken, CEO of ProClarity. “We look forward to applying our people and our technology to have even greater customer impact as an integrated, strategic asset within Microsoft.”

The acquisition builds on Microsoft’s recent progress expanding its BI offerings, from the fall introductions of SQL Server 2005 and Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 to the forthcoming BI capabilities within the 2007 Office system releases of Excel and SharePoint.

About ProClarity

Founded in 1995, ProClarity is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has been a leading provider of third-party analytics tools based on Microsoft’s BI platform since 1999. ProClarity gives organizations a simple, powerful and adaptable interface to insight, expanding on the power of the Microsoft business intelligence platform. ProClarity’s solution includes ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS), which augments Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services and works in association with Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager, Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Today, more than 1,200 customers use ProClarity solutions with Microsoft’s comprehensive, enterprise-class, business intelligence platform. With this acquisition, ProClarity becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft and will remain located in Idaho, USA.

Cell Phone Raises Brain Tumor Risk

The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk for brain tumors, a new Swedish study said on Friday, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers. researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life said they looked at the mobile phone use of 905 people between the age of 20 and 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and found a link.

"A total 85 of these 905 cases were so-called high users of mobile phones, that is they began early to use mobile and/or wireless telephones and used them a lot," the study said.

"The study also shows that the rise in risk is noticeable for tumors on the side of the head where the phone was said to be used," it added.

Kjell Mild, who led the study, said the figures meant that heavy users of mobile phones, for instance of who make mobile phone calls for 2,000 hours or more in their life, had a 240 percent increased risk for a malignant tumor on the side of the head the phone is used.

"The way to get the risk down is to use hands-free," he told Reuters.

He said his study was the biggest yet to look at long-term users of the wireless phone, which has been around in Sweden in a portable form since 1984, longer than in many other countries.

Wine 0.9.11 Has Been Released

Wine 0.9.11 Has Been Released
The more notable changes include:
Fake dll files created in the system directory to help installers.
Desktop mode now properly supports multiple processes.
Better type parsing in dbghelp.
Several OpenGL fixes.
A bunch of Unicode functions in advpack.
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.

Cheney 2008, Gates Buys Linux, NeXT Buys Disney

Cheney 2008
Gates Buys Linux
NeXT Buys Disney
Bush preps historic Third Term

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the office of the White House Counsel are preparing a draft document laying out the President's wartime authority to remain in office past 2008

The scheme is described as an emergency "continuity presidency," made necessary by the extraordinary circumstances and unique challenges of protecting the United States from the threat of international terrorism

Read the rest of the April Fool Memo: Bush preps historic Third Term

April Fool has started people, lots of activity already

Apple Market Share Declined Over 50% During Jobs' Current Reign

Apple's share of the worldwide PC market has tumbled from 4.6 percent in 1996, the year before Jobs returned, to just 2.2 percent in 2005... Gartner puts Apple's 1996 share at 4.6 percent, IDC at 5.1 percent. Market share in 2005 was 2.2 percent from Gartner and 2.3 percent from IDC... Apple's market share peaked at 15.8 percent in 1980

``It's a puzzle for sure, to the average Mac user,'' says Leander Kahney, author of the 2004 book ``The Cult of Mac'' and an editor at Wired News in San Francisco. ``They are baffled that more people don't use the Mac.''

Apple is somewhat stronger in U.S. consumer market share, with Gartner giving Apple 5.8 percent in 2005 and IDC at 2.9 percent.

It's also worth noting that Apple's worldwide market share did move up slightly last year from 1.9 percent in 2004, according to Gartner, or 2.0 percent, according to IDC.

That's because Mac sales are exceeding industry growth rates. Apple shipped 38 percent more Macs in the fiscal year ended Sept. 24, 2005, than in the prior year, and shipments were up 20 percent in the last three months of 2005.

The Mac mini, introduced last year at $499 and now starting at $599, is no doubt stoking the trend by giving newcomers an inexpensive way to join the faithful.

Sales could get another boost later this year when Apple is expected to introduce an upgrade of its aging iBook consumer notebook computer, and from Microsoft's decision last week to delay the launch of the consumer version of its new Windows Vista operating system into early 2007.

Read the whole article here

MSFT: Xbox Live Gold Free This Weekend

Microsoft will offer free access to its Xbox Live Gold service from March 31 through April 2, the company said Thursday.

The company already offers full-time free access to a lower, silver level of its live service. Users there can create player profiles, maintain lists of friends, access the Xbox Live marketplace, play multiplayer online games, and send and receive voice and text messages.

Gold-level users, who usually pay $49.99 a year, get all those features, plus enhanced gamer feedback, better friends list management, access to more sophisticated online game play and more.


Top Weekend EventsSpeaking of things you don't want to miss, here are just a few of the hot weekend events headed your way:
Beat Ubisoft: You’ve got two opportunities to take on the Ubi-dudes who brought you Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Own them and you could win some Ubi-schwag. Get the details…

Game with Fame: The Roots. Play NBA 2K6 with Kamal from the Roots on Friday, March 31 starting at 3:00 pm Eastern/noon Pacific. Look for the gamertag: RootsGWF.

Lucky 7 Play & Win: You could win simply for playing! Play a total of at least seven hours over the weekend to be entered into a drawing for sweet Xbox Live gear. Find out more.

Frag Doll Friday: Take on Ubisoft's fierce gaming crew on Sunday, April 2, starting at 6 P.M. Eastern (3 P.M. Pacific) in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™. Get the details.

Beat the Xbox® Team: Challenge Xbox insiders to College Hoops® 2K6, Marble Blast Ultra, and EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3. Earn bragging rights and win awesome Xbox prizes!


Go to the Xbox site for more details

F-Secure Discovers Hackers Serve Rootkits With Bagle Worms

Malicious hackers have fitted rootkit features into the newest mutants of the Bagle worm, adding a stealthy new danger to an already virulent threat.

According to virus hunters at F-Secure, of Helsinki, Finland, the latest Bagle.GE variant loads a kernel-mode driver to hide the processes and registry keys of itself and other Bagle-related malware from security scanners.

The use of offensive rootkits in existing virus threats signals an aggressive push by attackers to get around existing anti-virus software and maintain a persistent and undetectable presence on infected machines.

Rootkits are typically used by attackers to open a backdoor into Windows systems, collect information on other systems on the network and mask the fact that the system is compromised.

In the case of the Bagle.GE rootkit, F-Secure researcher Jarkko Turkulainen said the rootkit successfully hides processes, files and directories, registry keys and values and contains code that will prevent certain security related processes and kernel-mode modules from running.

It also contains commands to disable security software and delete security-related files whenever they are opened.

F-Secure also found evidence of a rootkit in Gurong.A, a new worm that is based on the Mydoom code.

Both Mydoom and Bagle are considered "heavy hitters" in the world of malware research.


Read the rest here

GOOG: Google To Buy Facebook?

Facebook, the Web site where students around the world socialize and swap information, has put itself on the block, The owners of the privately held company have turned down a $750 million offer and hope to fetch as much as $2 billion in a sale.

Google Inc. (GOOG) may periodically sell up to 5.3 million shares of stock according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

At its current share price of $394.98 a share, a sale of 5.3 million shares would raise nearly $2.1 billion for the Mountain View, California-based Internet powerhouse.

Now what would Google do with that 2.1 billion dollar?

GMail Chat In Opera TP2

Cybernet Technology News has posted a 5 step 'tutorial' describing how to enable Gmail in Opera 9 Preview (build 5326)

To see how this is done click on the link below

Using GMail Chat In The Latest Version Of Opera TP2

Autism: Asperger's Syndrome Or Just A Geek?

A much higher than average percentage of computer workers are diagnosed with a mild form of autism called "Asperger's Syndrome". This test allow you to filter yourself out as just Geeky or maybe having something to actually worry about

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.


Take The AQ Test

JBoss Announces JBoss Messaging 1.0

JBoss is ramping up its challenge to closed-source web servers and messaging middleware with updated editions of its software for enterprise IT infrastructures.

The company today announced JBoss Messaging 1.0 - a version of JBoss MQ re-engineered to deliver a modular messaging engine capable of shipping with or without JBoss' application server and delivering a four-fold improvement in throughput.

JBoss said JBoss Messaging 1.0 represented the foundation layer for the company's planned Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) due later this year, and has been improved to support enterprise-level Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs).

JBoss Messaging 1.0 is also designed to help JBoss continue to close the gap on more mature messaging software from vendors like BEA Systems and IBM.

Last year, JBoss bought Arjuna Technologies in a move to take on BEA and IBM. Like BEA's Tuxedo and IBM's MQ, Arjuna allows reliable delivery of messages in distributed environments. JBoss has announced plans to integrate Arjuna with its own middleware and release Arjuna's technology to the open source community

JBoss Web Server 1.0 Community Release is built on Apache Tomcat, the Apache Portable Runtime and a native Tomcat layer, with the JK connector and processor hops usually used to execute in multiple tier environments removed. Fricke said JBoss wasn't "forking" the Tomcat server only "adding value" with this configuration.

Other features included support for http, https, Apache JServ Protocol, OpenSSL and in- and out- of process of CGI and PHP scripts and Microsoft's ASP.NET. Expanded support for Microsoft is apparently not a result of a technology co-operation agreement signed between Microsoft and JBoss last year

RHAT: Red Hat Beats The Street

Red Hat claimed to beat out an already healthy Linux market as it reported fourth-quarter sales figures that saw net income more than double.

The Linux distributor reported a 130 per cent increase in net income to $27.3m on revenue that grew 37 per cent to hit $78.7m during it fourth quarter. Red Hat was also happy to report earnings per diluted share up seven cents to $0.13.

Wall St analysts had forecast $78.4m revenue and EPS of $0.12.

For the company's full fiscal year 2006, Red Hat's net income grew 75.4 per cent to $79.6m on total revenue of $278.3m, an increase of 41.6 per cent over the previous year. EPS hit $0.41 compared to $0.21.

OS X Brain Avie Tevanian Quitting Apple

One of the men who helped set Apple Computer's software development efforts since 1997 is leaving the company to "take some personal time."

Chief software technology officer Avie Tevanian is quitting Apple, having acted as the prime inspiration for the highly successful OS X operating system.

A company spokesperson reportedly said Tevanian is leaving to "take some time off in the interim." It is not clear what Tevanian's next move will be. His last day with Apple will be on March 31 having joined in February 1997 as senior vice president of software engineering

Ruby On Rails 1.1 Has Been Released

The biggest upgrade in Rails history has finally arrived. Rails 1.1 boasts more than 500 fixes, tweaks, and features from more than 100 contributors. Most of the updates just make everyday life a little smoother, a little rounder, and a little more joyful.



From the Ruby On Rails Site:


But of course we also have an impressive line of blockbuster features that will make you an even happier programmer. Especially if you’re into Ajax, web services, and strong domain models — and who isn’t these funky days?

The star of our one-one show is RJS: JavaScript written in Ruby. It’s the perfect antidote for your JavaScript blues. The way to get all Ajaxified without leaving the comfort of your beloved Ruby. It’s the brainchild of JavaScript and Ruby mastermind Sam Stephenson and an ode to the dynamic nature of Ruby.

Here goes a few sample rjs calls:

# First buy appears the cart, subsequent buys highlight it
page[:cart].visual_effect(@cart.size == 1 ? :appear : :highlight)

# Replace the cart with a refresh rendering of the cart partial
page[:cart].replace_html :partial => "cart"

# Highlight all the DOM elements of class "product"
page.select(".product").each do |element|
element.visual_effect :highlight
end

# Call the custom JavaScript class/method AddressBook.cancel()
page.address_book.cancel

# 4 seconds after rendering, set the font-style of all company
# spans inside tds to normal
page.delay(4) do
page.select("td span.company").each do |column|
column.set_style :fontStyle => "normal"
end
end
And that’s just a tiny taste of what RJS is capable of. It takes the Ajax on Rails experience far above and beyond the great support we already had. Bringing us even closer to the goal of “as easy as not to”. Read more about RJS in the docs or in Cody Fauser’s tutorial about element and collection proxies and his introduction to RJS (it shouldn’t surprise you that Cody is writing about book about RJS for O’Reilly).


Upgrading from 1.0

So with such a massive update, upgrading is going to be hell, right? Wrong! We’ve gone to painstaking lengths to ensure that upgrading from 1.0 will be as easy as pie. Here goes the steps:

Update to Rails 1.1:
gem install rails --include-dependencies
Update JavaScripts for RJS:
rake rails:update
That’s pretty much it! If you’re seeing any nastiness after upgrading, it’s most likely due to a plugin that’s incompatible with 1.1. See if the author hasn’t updated it and otherwise force him to do so.

If you’re on Ruby 1.8.2 with Windows, though, you’ll want to upgrade to the 1.8.4 (or the script/console will fail). And even if you’re on another platform, it’s a good idea to upgrade to Ruby 1.8.4. We still support 1.8.2, but might not in the next major release. So may as well get the upgrading with over with now.


Some Ruby On Rails books:
Agile Web Development with Rails
Ruby On Rails
Ruby For Rails
Beginning Ruby On Rails
Ruby In A Nutshell

Go to the the Ruby On Rails site

Solaris Author Stanislaw Lem Dies In Krakow Poland

Stanislaw Lem (September 12, 1921 – March 27, 2006) was a Polish science fiction, philosophical, and satirical writer. His books have been translated into 41 languages and sold over 27 million copies. At one point he was the most widely read non-English language science fiction author in the world

Stanislaw Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), the son of a physician. Although Lem was ethnically Jewish, he was raised a Catholic and later became an atheist "for moral reasons". He studied medicine at Lwów University, but World War II interrupted his studies. During the war and Nazi occupation Lem was able to survive with false papers working as a car mechanic and welder, and was a member of the resistance fighting against the Germans. In 1946 Lem "repatriated" from the territory annexed by the Soviet Union to Kraków and started medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. After finishing his studies Stanislaw Lem opted not to take final exams to avoid a career as a military doctor, and received only a certificate of completion of studies. He worked as a research assistant in a scientific institution and started to write stories in his spare time. In 1981 he received an honorary degree from the Wrocław Polytechnic, later from Opole University, University of Lwów, and finally from the Jagiellonian University. Lem died in Kraków on March 27, 2006 at the age of 84 after a long illness.
He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of short stories from a mechanical world ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. Perhaps his most famous novel is Solaris, published in 1961 and set on an isolated space station. This book was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and into a 2002 Hollywood remake shot by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney.

Python: wxPython in Action

If you add the powerful wxWidgets toolkit to Python, you get wxPython: an open source GUI framework with a well-deserved reputation for simplicity and ease of use. wxPython lets you build cross-platform applications that have robust, highly functional graphical user interfaces.

The first book on the subject, wxPython in Action offers a friendly tutorial to get you started, a detailed guide to best practices, and an extensive reference for wxPython’s large widget library. It covers an impressive amount of information delivered at a measured pace, encouraging experimentation and learning by doing.

The book’s direct, no-nonsense style makes for an easy introduction to the concepts. It offers a complete discussion of when, why, and how to use the many widgets in the toolkit. And it includes dozens of handy reference tables so you can easily look up object properties, methods, and events. Co-authored by wxPython creator Robin Dunn, wxPython in Action is the authoritative book on the subject

What's inside?
Create professional GUIs with wxPython
Program in an event-oriented framework
Use wxPython sizers for your layout
Refactor and unit test to improve your programs
A reference to wxPython’s powerful widget set

Chapters
Chapter 1 Welcome to wxPython
Chapter 2 Giving your wxPython program a solid foundation
Chapter 3 Working in an event-driven environment
Chapter 4 Making wxPython easier to handle with PyCrust
Chapter 5 Creating your blueprint
Chapter 6 Working with the basic building blocks
Chapter 7 Working with the basic controls
Chapter 8 Putting widgets in frames
Chapter 9 Giving users choices with dialogs
Chapter 10 Creating and using wxPython menus
Chapter 11 Placing widgets with sizers
Chapter 12 Manipulating basic graphical images
Chapter 13 Building list controls and managing items
Chapter 14 Coordinating the grid control
Chapter 15 Climbing the tree control
Chapter 16 Incorporating HTML into your application
Chapter 17 The wxPython printing framework
Chapter 18 Using other wxPython functionality


The Amazon link is here