Frank writes "This paper documents the test results and analysis of the Linux kernel and other core OS components, including everything from libraries and device drivers to file systems and networking, all under some fairly adverse conditions, and over lengthy durations. The IBM Linux Technology Center has just finished this comprehensive testing over a period of more than three months and shares the results of their LTP (Linux Test Project) testing."

WillOutPower writes "Sun is inviting Cray (of supercomputer fame) and IBM (needs no introduction...) to join and create a new intermediate run-time language for high-performance computing. Java's bytecode, Java Grande, and Microsoft's IL language for the Common Language Runtime, it seems a natural progression. I wonder if the format will be in XML? Does this mean ubiquitous grid computing? Maybe now I won't have to write my neural network in C for performance :-)"

Makarand writes "According to this article in The Economic Times (India) Software companies in India are embracing the trend where source code for the software being bought or sold is kept safe with an escrow agent with carefully drafted agreements. This allows the buyer to get hold of the source code in cases where software was licensed from a start-up which has now folded or a breach of contract regarding the maintenance services that were agreed upon can be proven. The source code is automatically released upon the occurrence of any of the events mentioned in the escrow agreement and the buyer will be able to study the source code and continue to provide support services for the software bought without relying on the employees of the software supplier."

geogeek writes "The recent release of Linux's 2.6 kernel introduces a number sweeping improvements. These can be hard to understand without a background in programming. This week's Linux.ars examines the improved scheduler for an enthusiast audience, concisely explaining its nuances and the practical effects of an O(1) design."

depesz writes "As we can read here, savannah is back online. After several weeks of downtime, all security problems are resolved, and the service is again operational."

dozek writes "Perhaps another rung for the Open Source model of software development, eWeek reports that an independent study of the MySQL source code found it to be "in fact six times better than that of comparable commercial, proprietary code." You can read the eWeek write-up or the actual research paper (reg. required)."

Simon P. Chappell writes "Security is not just for the paranoid anymore. There is plenty of documented evidence to show that there are people that are out to get you (and your information). Sun's J2EE framework brings a work-chest with many powerful tools in it, but with power there is always complexity, and many of these tools, especially the security-oriented tools, are under-used because of this. Pankaj Kumar's book J2EE Security is a guide to using these tools when building security into your Servlets, EJBs, web services and web applications." Read on for the rest of Chappell's review.

An anonymous reader writes "This article presents a collection of papers and presentations on the use of embedded Linux in the "real world" that was assembled by the Industrial Embedded Systems (INES) organization, a project to promote the adoption of Open Source software funded by the European Union. The papers show some of the exciting and esoteric applications that the industrial world finds for embedded Linum. From vibration health monitoring systems to crane scales to giant LED signs at sports stadiums, that little penguin (a.k.a. Tux) shows up in the darnedest places."

Quirk writes "NewScientist is reporting on..."Software to be launched in January will let PC users run as many "distributed computing" projects as they like. The program will let PC users search for aliens, help predict climate change and perform advanced biological research - all at the same time."'It is called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). BOINC acts like a software platform that can run a number of screen-saver style applications on top of the PC's own operating system.'"

An anonymous reader writes: "In Software glitch brings Y2K deja vu, CNET points out a small wave of Y2K-like bugs may soon hit, though it gets the explanation wrong. It will soon be about 2^30 (1 billion, not 2 billion) seconds since 1970 (do the arithmetic). Systems that use only 29 bits of a word for unsigned/positive integers, or store time as seconds since 1970 in this format, may roll back to 1970. (Many systems that do not need full 32 bit integers may reserve some bits for other uses, such as boolean flags, or for type information to distinguish integers from booleans and pointers.)"

An anonymous reader writes " BrookGPU is a compiler and runtime system that provides an easy, C-like programming environment (read: No GPU programming experience needed) for today's GPUs. A shader program running on the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra achieves over 20 GFLOPS, roughly equivalent to a 10 GHz Pentium 4. Combine this with the increased memory bandwidth, 25.3 GB/sec peak compared to the Pentium 4's 5.96 GB/sec peak, and you've got a seriously fast compute engine but programming them has been a real pain. BrookGPU adds simple data parallel language additions to C which allow programmers to specify certain parts of their code to run on the GPU. The compiler and runtime takes care of the rest. Here is the Project Page and Sourceforge page."

ram writes "Famed hacker and master social engineer Kevin Mitnick has been commissioned to write a new book following the success of his first text The Art of Deception. The new book, tentatively titled 'The Art of Intrusion' will tell the stories of real hacks, with the names of attackers obscured to protect them from the authorities and their victims. Mitnick has called on retired hackers to come forward with their stories, offering a $500 (283) prize for the best story that makes it into the book, and a $200 payment for all stories that make the final draft."

surflorida writes "Perl turned sweet 16 yesterday. 'Larry Wall released Perl 1 on this day in 1987, so today Perl is 16 years old. Happy birthday Perl! You can read more about the timeline of Perl releases in perlhist.pod and at history.perl.org.' Happy birthday Perl! You are now old enough to get a US drivers license."

Java Coward writes "Eric Herman and MySQL's Brian "Krow" Aker have released code to allow the DBMS MySQL to run Java natively inside of the database. The code allows users to write functions inside of the database that can be then used in SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE statements. So when will someone do Ruby?"

Irish writes "Problems with memory, such as leaks and memory-greedy applications can cause many problems for application developers; more so for wireless applications due to the prevalence of memory-constrained devices as platforms. This article shows you how to avoid memory problems and it shows how to use Perl script to analyze memory issues for later repair. It offers three progressively more sophisticated solutions to demonstrate the concept."

RonMcMahon writes "According to a CNN Money article, Forrester Research is predicting that there will be 235,396 fewer Computer Programmers and Software Engineers employed in 2015 than there are today in America. This is a 25% reduction in the number of positions from today's depressed numbers. This sucks. I know that many companies are moving work off-shore, but wow, that's half the population of Wyoming!"

iumacboy writes "Hot on the heels of yesterdays Panther 10.3.2 update and today's QuickTime 6.5 and iTunes 4.2 updates, Apple has released Xcode 1.1, Apple's free suite of developer tools for Mac OS X. 'The Xcode 1.1 Update provides overall stability and performance enhancements to Xcode IDE, as well as improvements to debugging, workflow, the Xcode build system, and CodeSense. It is recommended that all Xcode users install this update.' Available via Software Update." Well, earlier today it was available via Software Update; it has since disappeared. However, if you are a Final Cut Pro user, you can get FCP 4.1.1 and LiveType 1.1.1 while you wait for Xcode 1.1 to return. Also, iTunes 4.2 has now appeared in Software Update, too.

An anonymous reader writes "Tim Bray who's known for XML and has been /.'ed once or twice for that kind of stuff, actually seems to be a search geek and has been writing this endless series of essays on search technology since summer. He says he's finished now - it's like a textbook on searching."

iiioxx writes "Cisco Systems announced on December 15, 2003 that new security holes have been found in the PIX firewall IOS. The vulnerabilities are in SNMP and VPNC functionality, and both allow for DOS attacks against an affected firewall. Vulnerable IOS versions are 6.3.1, 6.2.2 and earlier, 6.1.4 and earlier. 5.x.x and earlier. There are a couple of workarounds for the SNMP vulnerability, but the only way to correct the VPNC problem is to upgrade the IOS."

apatrick writes "An article in UsabilityNews.com describes an experiment where Internet users' eyes were tracked while they searched for information on WWW pages from three well-known newspapers. The findings indicated that people learn very quickly where ads are usually placed on web pages, and then they no longer look there. The results also show that users look to the left hand side for navigation menus, and they scan from the middle of the page outward. Such results may be useful for developers wanting to make their pages more usable, or to attract the users' attention."