HulkProtector1 writes "The latest version of KDE beta 3.3 has been released. This version has already received a lot of feedback and has been deemed stable enough for a public release candidate. The KDE team requests that all testers try and break this release as soon as possible, as the bug reports are invaluable to the developers. Please note that binary packages will not be available for this version. Then source code can be downloaded from download.kde.org (or alternately use the excellent Konstruct build tool). For a list of new features skim over the KDE 3.3 Feature Plan."

gavinroy writes "As announced in pgsql-announce, PostgreSQL 8.0 Beta is now available. New features include native win32 support, Point in Time Recovery, Tablespaces, and much more! here is the beta history if you want more information."

UnderScan writes "Linux.com is running an article on Linux kernel sound subsystems, OSS & ALSA, and their APIs. Insightful commentary from both users and the project's developers can be found at OSNews.com comments section."

aster_ken writes "The latest Slate compiler is finally able to compile itself. To quote the website: "Slate is a prototype-based object-oriented programming language based on Self, CLOS, and Smalltalk. Slate syntax is intended to be as familiar as possible to a Smalltalker, rather than engaging in divergent experiments in that respect.' The beta release is currently being written in Common LISP." The latest version of Slate, 0.3, is now available for download. It was previously mentioned in this Slashdot article."

TioHoltzman writes "There's a new 0-6-5 release available of the VCF, aka the Visual Component Framework. This release has a slew of new features, and it looks like it could become a real contender against Trolltech's Qt toolkit. It currently runs on Win32 platforms with an active Mac OS X port underway. There's still lots to do, but it can run some of the samples now on OS X. There are some screenshots here (1), here (2), and here (3)."

sympleko (Matthew Leingang) writes "In Volume I of The PHP Anthology, Harry Fuecks showed some of the basic PHP functionality to solve a few simple problems, including how to object-orient your code, how to use PHP's hundreds of built-in functions, and how to use well-developed existing classes, be they from PEAR or other sites. In Volume II, he intends to 'blow your socks off by tackling some traditionally complex problems with the same principles--to great effect.' It's summertime and I'm sandals-only for the time being, so my socks remain safely in the top drawer. But the volume is nonetheless exciting." (Read on for the rest of Leingang's review, and check out last week's review of Volume I.)

An anonymous reader writes "The July issue of the Syllable Development Newsletter is available, featuring updates and progress from Syllable, the open source desktop OS, over the past month. Highlights include a new 3DFX driver, major ATerm updates and UI principle discussions. Good progress is being made."

DevDude writes "A strangely interesting article is running on MSDN, entitled: The Case for Software Factories. It suggests creating 'development environments configured to support the rapid development of a specific type of application.' As a developer thrust into many an unsavory situation, I am constantly stepping in the remnants of some development methodology or other. Will super-specialization of software development teams help the industry to push out better software faster? Or are we hassled enough without being treated as an assembly line?"

rekt writes "The Debian crew has just announced the release of debian-installer RC1. You can find versions of it for 11 different architectures at the d-i page. This is one of the most flexible, modular installer architectures out there. As we near the release of sarge (debian 3.1) next month, it's important that we find and work out any bugs in the installer. Grab a copy and give it a shot!"

Cryofan writes "According to Information Week, the lastest Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that the number of Americans calling themselves IT professionals has decreased by nearly 160,000 in the last 3 years, and the number of programmers, analysts, and support specialists has fallen 15% since the first six months of 2004. According to IT World, the number of employed Software Engineers fell by 15% from April to July of 2004 (from 856,000 to 725,000)."

gtoomey writes "Australian Open Source lawyer Brendan Scott is claiming the USA/Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will damage all Australian software development. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald says that developers have probably built products which 'infringe' on U.S. software patents, while the FTA is forcing Australia to adopt DCMA laws."

maggeth writes "mozillaZine is spreading the word of a plan to have a mass migration of users from other email clients on this coming Tuesday in order to find any remaining bugs in the migration process. 'Bring your Outlook, Eudora, Mozilla, Outlook Express, and Communicator e-mail clients with you and join us on IRC for a day of testing the Thunderbird migration features. The goal is to get as many testing migrations performed on as many clients and as many operating systems as possible and to discuss and record all the problems in Bugzilla.' Read the full article for more details and for the IRC location."

Moochman writes "The recent Desktop Integration Bounty (funded by Novell) will surely please people who want Evolution to be part of GNOME. But the Ximian Evolution copyright assignment has stirred up concerns in the community about whether contributors will be able to maintain their Free Software mores. Essentially, contributors to Evolution must give Novell copyright over any code they submit; then Novell is allowed to include this code in a proprietary product. Is this a smart business move, or a violation of the GPL?" Since all contributions are only at the request of the contributing coder, and considering that the copyright assignment form says that "Ximian agrees to grant back to Developer, and does hereby grant, nonexclusive, royaltyfree and noncancelable rights to use the Works," and specifies that Novell/Ximian release the code under a license compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines (such as the GPL), it seems to protect the contributors rather well.

prostoalex writes "Longhorn libraries for UI will include Web-style UI widgets to be used in desktop applications. Michael Weinhardt talks about building inductive user interfaces and general UI guidelines in the MSDN article."

Ian Felton writes "PHP 5's official release occurred on July 13th, with a complete overhaul of object-oriented programming features and improved MySQL functions. These are sure to be great additions to the package for PHP developers. However, many of the changes to PHP are hinting at something that PHP developers might not necessarily like down the road." Read on for the rest of Felton's thoughts on the downside to corporate involvment in PHP's future.

Ratow writes "From Blender's site: 'Just in time for Siggraph 2004, the Blender 2.34 release! Packed with new features, from particle force fields and deflection, to advanced UV mapping, ramp shading and more. Read the full list of additions and changes in 2.34. Here you can download Blender 2.34 for all platforms.'"

desjerlaih writes "DevMaster.net is reporting that it has developed a comprehensive 3D Engines Database that provides detailed and organized information on current game engines. According to the site, the engine database is committed to providing the most accurate and up-to-date information on today's engines. Source (Half-life 2's engine), and Unreal 3 are already on the list, and their listed features are pretty impressive."

Doc Ruby writes "LinuxJournal has an intro to uCLinux by David McCullough, one of the project developers. Specific techniques are discussed for Linux programming on this version, that runs on devices without the MMU that the Linux VM usually requires. Developers can make Linux apps run on uCLinux devices, including PDAs like a Palm IIIx, routers, DVD players, and even a FPGA."

CowboyRobot writes "ACM Queue has Eric Allman (creator of Sendmail) interviewing James Gosling (creator of Java) and the conversation covers many aspects of computing today, including the state of security, comparisons of languages and OSs, and the future of virtual machines. 'At the lowest level, you have to know that the boundaries around the piece of software are completely known and contained. So, for example, in Java, you can't go outside the bounds of an array. Ever. Period. Turning off array subscripting is not an option.'"

sympleko (Matt Leingang) writes "What a beautiful world anthology is. It comes from the Greek for a gathering of flowers, and in literature means a collection of works. Harry Fuecks, a very frequent contributor to the SitePoint community PHP forums, has gathered a bouquet of PHP best practices in a new book. The book comes in two volumes. The audience for Volume I, "Foundations," is the advanced beginner who's done one or two things in PHP, but you wants to know how to do more. Volume II, "Applications," is a design volume, mainly, and is good for people who have lots of experience with PHP but want to be better programmers. It's nice that the two volumes are separate; if you already know the syntax and mechanics of PHP you can buy Volume II and maximize d!/d$.*" Read on for Leingang's review of Volume I, and watch for his followup on Volume II.