August 19, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments
Digital Gadgets, the manufacturer and distributor of SYLVANIA brand computers, announced on August 19th that its shipping the SYLVANIA g netbook MESO with Ubuntu 8.04 Netbook Remix inside.
Ubuntu 8.04 Netbook Remix is based on standard Ubuntu. In addition it include a ‘Launcher’ that allows users to get on-line more quickly and have faster access to their favorite PC-based and online applications.
August 19, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments
Gizmodo is reporting that they’ve laid their hands on the specifications sheets for Dell’s forthcoming Inspiron 910. While I haven’t seen these documents myself, what Gizmodo reports is pretty much what my sources at Dell have been telling to expect from their UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC).
In short, the approximately two-pound Insprion 910 will run both Ubuntu Linux 8.04 and Windows XP Home SP2. It’s worth noting that Ubuntu Linux is actually friendlier with Windows-based business networks than XP Home, which is limited to peer-to-peer networking. So, if you’re thinking about using the Inspiron 910 for office use, you’ll actually want to use Ubuntu.
August 19, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments
Running virtual machines is easy. It’s managing and securing them that’s the problem, according to both users and analysts. Check Point Software Technologies thinks it has an answer: the VPN-1 VE (Virtual Edition).
The VPN-1 VE is a VMware-certified virtual application, which is designed to secure VMware virtual servers and applications by making them act as if they were on separate physical servers. While Check Point claims that it’s the “first company to provide unified security management for both physical networks and virtual applications,” the concept is used by other vendors in the still new field of virtualization security. For example, Apani’s EpiForce VM takes a similar approach.
Check Point’s VPN-1 VE will, however, integrate with pre-existing Check Point security infrastructure. This should result with in a significant management saving since administrators will be able to run both virtual and the more usual server and network security tasks from one interface.
August 19, 2008
by sjvn01
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Just when you thought it was safe to look in your in-box again, a new wave of malware spam has arrived. Lucky us.
This morning I found my Gmail spam box stuffed with “BREAKING NEWS” purporting to be from MSNBC. Headlines have range from the semi-plausible: “McCain Plans Vietnam Campaign Tour;” to the unlikely, “Nation Morns the Tragic Loss of Britney Spears;” to the utterly unbelievable: “Paris Hilton Lectures on Dickens and Dostoevsky.” For more, much more, you can see a listing of spam subjects used to date on the MSNBC.com Spam page.
If this sounds familiar, it should. In early August, a flood of similar spam messages poured out. These pretended to be from CNN and also had over-the-top headlines with links to bogus sites. Once there, you’d get a message telling you that you had to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player. If you’d had gone that far your only choice was to either download the “Flash Player,” which was actually one of several malware packages or quit your browser.
This is a replay of the same malicious spam game. As a Linux user, it doesn’t do anything to me except fill up my inbox with junk. For naïve Windows users, though, it’s a real threat.
August 18, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments
When I was a kid, I used to make crude little animated cartoons in my notebooks using the flipbook technique. Walt Disney had nothing to worry about. I was awful even by the 3rd grade standards of White Pine elementary. Today, I could be great, because almost all top animation and special effects artists are Linux users.
My colleague Eric Lai discovered recently that while top animation and FX (special effects) programs are run on Macs and some of them, like RenderMan Pro Server are being ported to Windows, it’s on Linux clusters that the really serious movie and television visual effects are created. As Robin Rowe writes at LinuxMovies.org, “In the film industry, Linux has won. It’s running on practically all servers and desktops used for feature animation and visual effects.”
Rowe’s not just being a Linux booster. It’s the Gospel truth. The animation and FX for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Star Wars: The Clone Wars; WALL-E; 300; The Golden Compass; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; and I Am Legend, to name but a few recent movies, were all created using Pixar’s RenderMan and Autodesk Maya running on Linux clusters.
August 15, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment
I see my buddy in technology writing, Preston Gralla, is having trouble getting his new Wubi-based Ubuntu 8.04 system to work with his Windows file systems and vice-versa. While some Linuxes, like Xandros and SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) come Windows network ready, most, like Ubuntu, require some Samba work.
Samba is an open-source program that provides file and print services to SMB (Server Message Block) and CIFS (Common Internet File System) clients and servers. What that means in English is that a Samba-equipped Linux system can both use and provide file and printer services for all three basic kinds of Windows LANs: P2P (peer-to-peer), NT Domain, and AD (Active Directory).
Of course to do any of that you have to have Samba installed in the first place. In Ubuntu, like any Linux, you can install and setup Samba with command-line tools. Most documentation assumes you’re going to use Linux shell commands and manually edit configuration files, but you don’t need to bother with all that. You can set up basic Windows file and print sharing with Samba in Linux as easily in Windows. Actually, more easily since, Vista, for example, by default fails with Samba-powered NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. You can fix that problem, by the way, by following my notes on how to get Vista to work and play with Samba and NAS hardware.