An anonymous reader writes "Never one to have his thirst for 'free beer' quenched, LinuxDevices.com contributing editor Kevin Dankwardt sets off on a quest to determine just how much freely downloadable embedded Linux software flows from the taps of commercial embedded Linux vendors' websites -- and discovers that there's a lot more available than you might realize. Read Dankwardt's guide to 'free beer' (well, uhm, free embedded Linux, that is)."

John Sokol writes "IPv6 is the 'next-generation' protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 ('IPv4'). This years big conference on it will be in San Diego from June 24-27. See the North American Global IPV6 Summit site. I hear rumor DARPA will be making a big announcement there."

An anonymous reader writes "This tutorial shows how to combine Samba and GRUB to build a compact, highly adaptable, cross-platform test network, capable of booting and networking a large number of operating systems on a small number of machines. Though Samba and GRUB can manage many different operating systems, this tutorial focuses on Linux and Windows." Reg required on the story.

The Great Jack Schitt writes "I've always heard that you couldn't decompile a program written with C++. This article describes how to do it. It's a bit lengthy and it doesn't seem like the author usually writes in English, but it might just work (haven't tried it, but will when I have time)."

Roland Piquepaille writes "How many phone calls, emails, voicemails, memos or stories do you have to go through every day? Probably more than last year. And probably too much. This article from the Sydney Morning Herald looks at this problem of information overload and how to deal with it. Here is a quick and not well-known fact: Website content management author Gerry McGovern says that something like 70 per cent of most websites goes unread. Despite that, when putting content on the web, "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?" Good point. Check this column for a summary if you don't have time -- and who has? -- to read the original article."

Qbertino writes "The universal GPLd 3D tool Blender that was bought free by the Blender community not so long ago, has gotten audio sequencing added to its feature set. This has been missing ever since the integrated Video NL (Non-Linear) Editor/Sequencer was introduced. The only other 3D package known for its integrated Video NLE is the proprietary Houdini, which also runs under Linux but comes at something like $3000 for its small featureset. This finally gives the OSS community a lightweight alternative to this and eases syncing 3D animation and audio a great deal. Audio sequencing will be integrated in the upcoming 2.28 release of Blender. Early adopters can download here."

mcbridematt writes "Many of the long time Slashdot readers will remember the Jazilla project to rewrite the Mozilla browser in Java. It went into hibernation in 2000 and I took it over last August. I have completely rewrote the browser which now follows a more Mozilla-like architecture. The Result: Jazilla Milestone 1 has been released. Download it from here. No prizes for guessing that it's Alpha software." Read on below for a list of what Jazilla can do, so far.

cyb97 writes "kerneltrap.org is reporting that Mel Gorman has finished his project to document the ins and outs of the Linux 2.4 VM. Available in PDF/HTML/TXT at his webpage."

An anonymous reader writes "Heise Online is reporting that SAP and MySQL are going to cooperate (German article, you may want to use Google's translation). Short summary: MySQL and SAP are going to develop a new database server. 'The primary responsibility for the development and product management is with MySQL' says SAP spokesperson Karl-Heinz Hess. Until the new database is released, SAP will continue to develop its own free database system SAP DB, however it will now use the MySQL brand name." On a related note, IBM is introducing a low-end version of DB2.

robyn217 writes "There's a new language being formed in the bowels of Microsoft. Recently I got word that the language F# (pronounced F Sharp) is nearing workable stages at Microsoft Research. So, I went in for a look-see. What I found was an interesting blend of imperative (Java, C#) and functional languages(it's ML-based, too!). It looks pretty enticing to me from a computer science perspective, but I'm not sure it would fly in the professional market. I can see the ease of development that a language loosely based on ML would bring, but I can't see coders switching over in droves since it's a tough learning curve." Our previous story on F#.

khendron writes "An article in the New York Times, describes how the number of students majoring in computer science in university has dropped off with the rest of the hi-tech economy. The bright side: the students who are enrolling are doing so because they love computers. Not like a few years ago when students were enrolling because they wanted to make a quick buck. I'll take quality over quantity."

An anonymous reader writes "NewsFactor Network recently asked: Where Are All the Cool Embedded-Linux Gadgets? Well, LinuxDevices.com has just updated its answer to that question. The Embedded Linux "Cool Devices" Quick Reference Guide now encompasses 123 Linux-based gadgets and devices in 7 categories, including PDAs, mobile-phones, IP-phones, audio/video entertainment, tablet computers, gateways/routers, servers, wireless access points, robots, web-enabled cameras, telematics, industrial controllers, wrist watches, and last but not least, a DIY category: little Linux systems for projects and products. Lots of great pictures, too."

morcheeba writes "Kernel Traffic is reporting (mirror mirror list) that 'Some WLAN Chip Specs Secret To Protect Military Communications.' While this is stretching it a bit -- these radios are generally limited to a narrow frequency range and few modulation types -- software can cause illegal radio operation, especially when the laws vary by country. Is Linux support for 802.11g and Centrino chipsets going to be delayed by manufacturers afraid of FCC harassment? An interesting discussion on the future of Openness in radio chipsets." Interesting comments from Alan Cox in here about just how flexible some of these chips are.

Matt Solnit writes "What can I say - Dan Appleman never fails to please. In this e-book, he takes a look at 'hijacking' .NET by accessing private members in .NET classes. Private members are, in essence, pieces of code that you don't want other programmers to access. You use them to support your own code, and you make public the pieces that you want to make available to other developers. Typically, a language ensures that a member marked as private is hidden from anyone who doesn't have your source code, but Appleman shows how in .NET it's not so." Read on for more of Matt's review of this guide to tricking private members to do your bidding.

An anonymous reader writes "Performance Inspector puts your finger on the pulse of your C/C++ and Java code, helping you nail down performance bottlenecks and problems with Linux kernel interaction. The suite of tools includes sample-based profiling, monitoring at the thread level, and more."

commanderfoxtrot writes "Ghostscript 7.07 has been released. However, this is the last GNU release. They will continue to make releases under the GNU GPL, but because of disagreements over censorship of the AFPL releases and the development model in the GNU release their development process has become incompatible with the goals of the GNU project as interpreted by Richard Stallman."

Michael Palmer writes "OK, how well you know HTTP? Here's a pop quiz: QUESTION: Did you know that the Keep-Alive header was valid in HTTP 1.0, but has been deprecated in HTTP 1.1? A) What does "deprecated" mean? B) What is the "Keep-Alive header?" C) That's too bad - I kind of thought Keep-Alive was handy! D) Get with the program... HTTP 1.1 came out in 1999. The Internet boom is over already! Persistent connections are the default in HTTP 1.1 anyway." Answer (not necessarily your answer) and the rest of Palmer's review follows.

Carlos Finque writes "After much consideration, this year's theme of the annual MacHack conference was unveiled today: 'MacHack 18: Unstoppable'. Read the press statement and don't forget to register while you can. Mindful of the inevitability of their own conference and the unstoppability of it all, the committee looked for a suitable symbol for things that keep moving no matter what. It turned out that the committee needed look no further than their own Mac screen. Apple's own busy cursor -- the SPoD or 'Spinning Pizza of Death' -- is the inspiration for this year's MacHack theme element."

An anonymous reader writes "A number of IBM's computers have been available with an "embedded security subsystem (ESS)" for some time now. This site lists three research papers regarding the new TCPA (Trusted Computing Platform Initiative) security chip developed by IBM, including the full GPL-ed source code to a Linux driver for this chip. In particular, the 'Why TCPA?' paper claims that IBM's TCPA chip is in fact of extremely limited use for DRM, as it contains no tamper resistance; the chip is designed to fend off software attacks, not physical attacks. An interesting take from a company with very solid products."

JohnKFisher writes "For anyone who has ever put together a .deb package, but didn't want to bother with the hassle of setting up their own repository, or trying to get your package added to the official one, the Public Package Repository is up and running. I wonder if this means someone can finally add a version of KDE not dating from late in the Carter administration."