An Anonymous Coward writes: "According to News.com, Bill Gates announced a new software development architecture with a pretty low key name - the Global XML Web Services Architecture. According to the story Microsoft previewed four new specifications that it claims it will submit to standards bodies after a review period. The specs go by the names WS-Routing, WS-Referral, WS-Security, and WS-License. If Microsoft really discloses the way future Microsoft web services will work it should be possible for open source solutions to use them. Kind of makes you wonder where the catch is?"

Jacek Fedorynski writes: "Version 4.0 of the Mesa 3D Graphics Library has been released. The first thing in the changelog says "Mesa 4.0 implements the OpenGL 1.3 specification"." That was quick. Perhaps the next revision of the OpenGL specification will say "Now fully compliant with the Mesa 3D vision."

Dre writes: "Richard Dale recently announced that he has committed C bindings for the KDE3/Qt3 libraries to KDE's CVS. According to him, "The bindings wrap about 800 classes [and] 13,000 methods, with 200k [lines of code] of C/C++ generated." The same tool used to generate these C bindings can also generate Objective C and Java bindings, and Richard hopes to be able to consolidate the generation of these various KDE bindings (Java/Objective C/C) with one tool. In addition, pending the resolution of a dynamic linking problem with the Objective C bindings, both C and Objective C bindings for KDE 2.2.x/Qt 2.3.x will also be available from KDE CVS."

darksmurf writes: "In answer to repeated requests for an easy way to test linux kernel releases the OSDL has developed an automated testing framework called the Scalable Test Platform. The LK posting with examples is here and the main page is here. The system can do regression testing, benchmarking full environment documentation and various other goodies."

pjdepasq asks: "For my PhD work, I've developing a programming environment for novice users. It basically interprets the C programming language, plus or minus a few things as we teach the novice programming course here at Virginia Tech. In doing so, I'd like to have one of the students working with me use a compiler validation guideline to validate we're covering the key bases. For example, initially, I'd like them to ensure that the operator precendence is working correctly. My advisor tells me that NIST used to have a software product for doing this, but I don't see it there any longer for C. I'd really just be happy with some type of guide that the student can work from. Does anyone know of some type of free/cheap guideline we can utilize? It would likely need to include other types of validation, since we'll expand this effort later in the semester."

AxsDeny writes: "It looks like Macslash is also reporting this, but Trolltech is now offering Qt for OS X. Long live cross platform development." Doesn't look like there's a Free version, but there is a non-commerical license called the "Qt Academic License," which "Allows schools and universities to acquire and use Qt for free in relevant courses."

jjustice writes: "About a month ago, Richard Miller, CEO of VM Labs, announced that "In the near future (I don't want to commit to a date until we are sure of it), we will release to the open development community the tools and documentation that were used to develop these titles - both the games and the movie enhancements. We will also release a few sample applications that can be freely downloaded from the Internet, burned onto CD-R discs, and run on NUON DVD players that can read CD-Rs. Currently only the N501 has this capability, but we anticipate that all future NUON based DVD players will read CD-R and DVD-R media." It's not Linux, but unlike Indrema, the boxes are available. And the technology may not rival PS2 or XBox, but he also says the latest version of the chip is 2-3 times the power of the existing model and cheaper to produce. Besides, I'll support any platform with games from Jeff Minter." No use for all those electronics going to waste, eh?

Captain_Frisk asks: "My buddy and I have recently received approval to teach a programming course at our Alma Mater. We have pretty much free reign over what we teach, so we've elected to teach 'An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming,' to fill a void at a school where the only programming languages taught are C and Matlab. Can anyone out there recommend some good books for the course, not just for the students, but for us to read as preparation material? We've never taught a class before, and as graduates of this school, we've never had any formal training in OOP. I read a few books at work a few years back, but I don't remember their names, nor did they strike me as particularly memorable. So far I've looked at An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Object-Oriented Software Construction, 2nd Edition (a book reviewed at Slashdot 3 years ago), but have not invested in either."

camusflage queries: "I recently was transitioned into an architectural role by my employer. I had been splitting time with development and architecture, in that order. It appears my new duties put me as an architect first, and a coder second, with the coding being at my request. At not even 28 years old, I'm already a lead developer and have people with twenty years more experience looking to me for coding hints and tips. Over that past year with my employer, I've expended much effort on developing credible relationships with other groups in the organization, sure to carry me far as an architect. Since I've already resolved that management is not a track I want to get into, is architecture my most logical next step? What do I need to do to make sure my skills still remain sharp, as I'll be spending less time in the bits and bytes? Any tips from those who have made the transition from development to architecture (both successfully and unsuccessfully) are appreciated."

mattski asks: "I am currently working on a project that generates network maps within a GUI, running on Solaris, which then needs to be exported somehow. What would you want to see as an export format for network maps and why? Take into account that the user must be able to manipulate the 'map' after it has been exported. I guess some options include XML or maybe even VRML but have you got any other thoughts?"

Gunder123 writes: "A new (open source in the past, but not anymore) operating system, SkyOS, in its latest version can run Linux binaries unmodified, without the need of a recompilation, enriching its own application base this way. Their Linux emulation layer lies inside the SkyOS kernel, I wonder if there are any GPL violations going on here. Their future plans involve also an emulation layer for Windows applications, pretty much what ReactOS tries to do for the last few years for the WindowsNT model."

rob_99 writes: "Cool new mod_perl article at perl.com documents building a large scale ecommerce solution w/ mod_perl & apache!" Pretty cool stuff - it's kind of funny to think how ephemeral their work turned out to be.

A reader writes "System Toolbox just started a new computer history section in an effort to get us geeks in touch with our "roots." The current article in the monthly column focuses on Charles Babbage. The editor and author hope to raise awareness of our past so that scenes like this won't continue to take place. A big hill to climb, but worth the effort."

An Anonymous Coward writes: "The W3C upgraded XSL 1.0 to the status of a recomendation today, as they reported in a press release." From that release: "XSLT 1.0 makes it possible to significantly change the original structure of an XML document (automatic generation of tables of contents, cross-references, indexes, etc.), while XSL 1.0 makes complex document formatting possible through the use of formatting objects and properties."

breadbot writes: "AMD has released details (PDF) of their 64-bit xHammer (for values of x such as Claw and Sledge) line of x86-compatible processors. Extreme Tech has some commentary as well. Glueless SMP, integrated memory controller -- risky, exciting stuff, but it leaves VIA only a South Bridge to build. Oh, and I wonder who will make the HyperTransport/Integrated AGP 8x chips ..."

egerlach writes "All you DB admins out there might be interested to know that MySQL 4.0 has finally been released! It's only 4.0.0 alpha, but you can download it here. You can also check out a full list of changes."

pHaze writes: "Michael 'Monty' Wideneus has just released MySQL 4.0 Alpha. Downloadable here. This has got some really cool new features -- my favourites being built-in InnoDB support and better support for MATCH/AGAINST queries on fulltext indexes (really fast if you're writing a search engine)." And corz writes: "The Samba Team announced the release of Samba 2.2.2 on Saturday. Among the new features include the winbind daemon, which "allows UNIX systems that implement the name service switch (nss) to be entered into a Windows NT/2000 domain and use the Domain controller for all user and group enumeration. This allows a Samba server added to a Windows domain to serve file and print services with *NO* local users needed in /etc/passwd and /etc/group - all users and groups are read directly from the Windows domain controller." Sounds great to me. Jump to the mirrors and grab it now."

dahoba writes: "'The xsbrowser (XML Schema browser) aims at creating a human readable XML document model from a given DTD (REC-xml-19980210) or XML schema (REC-xmlschema-1-20010502) by means of an HTML browser. The user needn't understand the DTD or XML Schema syntax.' A very interesting approach which may lead to a wider acceptence for XML."

An Anonymous Coward writes: "In this product review at linuxdevices.com, Jerry Epplin takes a closeup look (from an embedded system developer's perspective) at MontaVista Software's "Hard Hat Linux" SDK, and makes some interesting observations -- some positive, and some negative. The article provides some excellent insight into the issues and challenges of creating a commercial embedded linux distro and toolkit that meets the needs of embedded system developers -- who may or may not know anything about linux, and who may or may not be used to the "traditional" RTOS model for development. An interesting, well-written article. Epplin pulls no punches, and offers some astute advice to MontaVista and others willing to listen. The article is part of a new series at linuxdevices.com on the most popular embedded linux SDKs."

led_belly writes: "I came across this interesting page from the #alt.linux IRC chat room topic (irc.keystreams.com). It is an interesting read for all those who have ever been baffled by why/how some people do things. The Yahoo! Webring listing of similar topics is here."