Thursday, February 19, 2009

Byte Into It - 18 Feb 09

http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214


Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" adds support for Marvell's Orion platform
which is used in many storage devices. Supported storage devices include
the QNAP Turbo Station series, HP Media Vault mv2120, and Buffalo Kurobox
Pro. Additionally, "Lenny" now supports several Netbooks, in particular
the Eee PC by Asus. "Lenny" also contains the build tools for Emdebian
which allow Debian source packages to be cross-built and shrunk to suit
embedded ARM systems.


Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" includes the new ARM EABI port, "armel".
This new port provides a more efficient use of both modern and future ARM
processors. As a result, the old ARM port (arm) has now been deprecated.


This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as the K
Desktop Environment 3.5.10 (KDE), an updated version of the GNOME desktop
environment 2.22.2, the Xfce 4.4.2 desktop environment, LXDE 0.3.2.1, the
GNUstep desktop 7.3, X.Org 7.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7,
Iceweasel 3.0.6 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Firefox), Icedove
2.0.0.19 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird), PostgreSQL 8.3.6,
MySQL 5.0.51a, GNU Compiler Collection 4.3.2, Linux kernel
version 2.6.26, Apache 2.2.9, Samba 3.2.5, Python 2.5.2 and 2.4.6, Perl
5.10.0, PHP 5.2.6, Asterisk 1.4.21.2, Emacs 22, Inkscape 0.46, Nagios
3.06, Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1 (dom0 as well as domU support), OpenJDK 6b11,
and more than 23,000 other ready-to-use software packages (built from
over 12,000 source packages).


With the integration of X.Org 7.3 the X server autoconfigures itself with
most hardware. Newly introduced packages allow the full support of NTFS
filesystems and the use of most multimedia keys out of the box. Support
for Adobe(R) Flash(R) format files is available via the swfdec or Gnash
plugins. Overall improvements for notebooks have been introduced, such
as out of the box support of CPU frequency scaling. For leisure time
several new games have been added, including puzzle games as well as
first-person shooters. Also notable is the introduction of "goplay", a
graphical games browser offering filters, search, screenshots and
descriptions for games in Debian.


Mozilla Labs Introduces Bespin For Collaborative Coding -- Open Source Developers


Mozilla Labs on Thursday released a technology preview of a new browser-based collaborative code editor called Bespin. Mozilla's focus on the Web as a platform echoes Google's focus on data as the foundation of its business. Just as the creation of new content increases the need for Google's search service, the expansion of what can be done on the Web makes browsers like Mozilla's Firefox more essential.


Bespin is being released as a 0.1 project and is decidedly alpha code, with bugs aplenty. It's being released in a primitive state to get user feedback and to encourage community participation in the development process.


Like any good code editor, Bespin includes text-editing capabilities and productivity enhancements like syntax highlighting, importing and exporting, large file size support, undo and redo, and browser previews. Its main focus at the moment is performance, meaning that it can handle tens of thousands of lines of code without scrolling or typing slowdowns.


Windows 7 Vs. Linux: The Battle For Your Desktop -- operating systems -- InformationWeek


There's fierce debate in the air about what 7 means for both Windows and Linux. Microsoft's last gasp? Linux's formidable new enemy? Closer inspection shows us it's not really either of those things. Linux has made strides of its own on the desktop and made it possible to build netbooks at low cost--and while Windows 7 will almost certainly take a bite out of that market and impress existing Windows users all the more, Linux has also become its own animal.


In this article I'm going to look at how Windows 7 and desktop breeds of Linux shape up against each other, mainly in the light of what's come before on both sides. This is not a formal review. In the first place, Windows 7 won't be released until the end of the year. Secondly, the goal here is not to award either Windows 7 or Linux top ranking. This is an exercise in which the two are compared side by side, to see what each one does in particular categories and why.


9 Dirty Tricks: Social Engineers' Favorite Pick-Up Lines - Network World


What the average guy might call a con is known in the security world as social engineering. Social engineering is the criminal art of scamming a person into doing something or divulging sensitive information. These days, there are thousands of ways for con artists to pull off their tricks (See: Social Engineering: Eight Common Tactics). Here we look at some of the most common lines these people are using to fool their victims..


Telstra's 21Mbps plan to lure you to wireless - News - PC Authority


The first 21Mbps modems (the Telstra Turbo 21) will be available for Next G business customers on February 23, but everyone else gets to join the fun in April. No, there's no pricing yet, and yes, we're expecting it to be pants wettingly expensive.


But that's not the point. The move to 21Mbps is so far ahead of wireless speeds we've seen so far, that for the first time mobile broadband is starting to look less like the flaky cousin of ADSL, than the future (well, perhaps not for gaming).


The important factor will be real life download speeds - Telstra is predicting you'll see anywhere up to 8Mbps. Telstra's current 7.2Mbps network performs well compared to the competition - it was the fastest in our mobile broadband group test, with downloads averaging more than 4Mbps.


Telstra's 21Mbps network - is actually 1Mbps for uploads - News - PC Authority


the new 21Mbps modems are rated at 1.9Mbps uplink speeds.


And you're not likely to hit 1.9Mbps, with Telstra saying typical upload speeds average 300kbps to 1Mbps, bursting to 1.3Mbps. If you're sending a lot of data on the road as well as receiving, especially if it's for business, then it's worth keeping this in mind.


The good news is Telstra says peak uplink speeds will increase in 2009 to 5.8Mbps, which is better than what many people get now in terms of average download speeds.


Other things you should know:


* Not everyone gets the full speed at first - selected metro and regional areas get the full speeds (up to 8Mbps typical downloads), while up to 3Mbps elsewhere. "But it is coming to the bush," David Thodey, Telstra's Group Managing Director Enterprise and Government, said today.
* The new 21mbps speeds will be available to Next G business users on February 23, and consumers in April
* NetComm is also planning 3G devices compatible with Telstra's 21Mbps wireless
* Speeds will eventually increase to 42Mbps, and in the longer term, other vendors are talking 100Mbps+
* Upload speeds of 5.8Mbps are planned, but for the moment, typical upload speeds are in the range of 300kbps to 1Mbps
* No Mac compatibility for Telstra's Mobile Broadband Turbo 21 Modem and BigPond Wireless Broadband 21 USB Modem
* The Turbo 21 USB modem will cost $299 with a 24 month $39 data pack. For BigPond customers, the new BigPond 21 USB Mobile Card will cost $399 with a 12 month plan.
* Telstra tells us 21Mbps smartphones won't be available for three or four months


Mobile industry agrees on standard charger - News - PC Authority


The GSM Association (GSMA) has revealed that the majority of mobile manufacturers and operators have agreed on a standard energy efficient Universal Charging Solution (UCS) to power all future devices.


GSMA chief executive Rob Conway said during the opening keynote of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that 17 leading operators and manufacturers had reached an agreement on Friday to adopt a common format for energy efficient mobile phone connections and chargers.


In what has been described as an unprecedented display of unity, the agreement on a specification is expected to cut standby energy consumption in half, and eliminate up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.


By 1 January 2012 the majority of all new mobile phones will support a universal charging connector based on micro-USB, and the majority of new chargers will meet the high-efficiency targets set out by the Open Mobile Terminal Platform.

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