[Link] Gentoo Pleas For Help

Donnie Berkholz (September 14, 2011)

<LWN.net : The state of Gentoo>

Linux Version Number Bumped to 3.0

Linux 3.0 was committed July 22, 2011. The version numbering was bumped up from 2.6.xx to 3.0 in honor of 20 years of Linux, without the large changes a major version number change would normally imply.

InfoWorld (July 22, 2011)

<InfoWorld - Linux 3.0 a steady step forward>

Microsoft Extends Windows 7 Beta Download Availability

  Microsoft Extends Windows 7 Beta download availability until February 10th. If you start your download on the 10th, then you have until the 12th to finish downloading.

<Windows 7 Team Blog - General availability for the Windows 7 Beta to end>

<Download Windows 7 Beta>

Unlimited Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Downloads

“Windows 7” by <xkcd>

  You've probably heard that <Microsoft> was allowing 2.5 million downloads of the Windows 7 Beta, which already started on January 9th and only lasts until January 24th, 2009. You may also have heard of the problems Microsoft's site had providing downloads to the massive surge of people interested in the beta.

  Because of the previous download issues, <Microsoft is removing the 2.5 million download limit.> So, if you think you may want to give Windows 7 a try sometime before the beta test period runs out on August 1, 2009, then you better go <download Windows 7 Beta> before January 24th.

  There is a 32 and 64 bit beta download, with 5 and 4 different languages to choose from respectively. Apparently Hindi speakers aren't expected to be running 64 bit machines. In general, the Windows 7 Beta requires a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of ram, 16 GB of available disk space, to be burnt to a DVD for installation, and 128 MB DirectX 9 graphics to enable the Aero theme.

  You should remember that the Windows 7 Beta will stop working on August 1, 2009. It's also been mentioned that the Beta version being released is an upgrade version, that can only be installed on top of Vista. (EDIT: reported incorrect) Although, there's not a single mention of that on the download page and its tabs, unless it's hidden very well.

<Download Windows 7 Beta>

Zune Bug Source Code

A bug in 30GB Zunes caused them to freeze on December 31st became the <big news of the holidays> (Gizmodo Dec 31 2008). This was dubbed the 'Z2K9' bug while Zune users flooded <Zune support forums> with pleas for help.

It was quickly realized that by disconnecting both the battery and the hard drive that the time/date would be reset unfreezing your Zune. Microsoft's response to the bug was that it is a leap year handling bug and their official fix was to wait until New Years, for the bug to resolve it's self.

Source code of the bug has apparently been been released. A hardware component manufacturer, <Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.>, is apparently the manufacturer of the <RTC (Real Time Clock)> used in these Zunes. Source code for the Freescale RTC driver module has turned up online. This code has an obvious bug related to line #263, in the 'ConvertDays' function.

Multiple source code mirrors for rtc.c:

http://paste.exstatica.net/7 - (Line #'s + Highlighting)

http://pastie.org/349916 - (Line #'s)

http://tinypaste.com/pre.php?id=53c3996 - (Neither)

The problem appears to be with the date December 31st, on leap year, being day 366. You can see on line #263, an if statement testing 'days > 366' inside a while loop testing 'days > 365'. It seems apparent that if days was 366 this would be and endless loop, at least until the next day.

Update: <The official Zune workaround instructions>

[Link] Slackware 12.2 Released

Slackware 12.2 Released (Dec 10, 2008)

A quick look at what Slackware 12.2 ships with:

• Linux kernel  2.6.27.7


• Xorg X server  1.4.2


• Xfce  4.4.3


• KDE  3.5.10 (4.1 is in /testing directory)


• HAL

<Slackware 12.2 Release Announcement>

Py3k: Python 3.0 Officially Released

Py3k

<Python 3.0 (a.k.a. Python 3000) was officially released> on Dec 2, 2008. You can find <a nice long rundown> describing the many changes. The lack of backwards capability caused by the changes has been noted in the news for quite awhile.

In case you your not aware, the home of Python is .ORG. If you accidentally go to .COM = Pr0n you will find High Def teen pr0n with explicit flash video playing on load as well as plenty of explicit pictures, nice! That would suck to load up at work while people are around!

Ubuntu Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Advisory

Ubuntu

Ubuntu has released a security advisory (below), detailing 9 potential kernel vulnerabilities. The advisory appears to encompass all Ubuntu's and suggests a kernel image upgrade. This will require a reboot and require a reinstall of all third party kernel modules that are installed.

<Ubuntu: USN-679-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities> (Nov 27, 2008)

Assembly Programming in Python!

CorePy

CorePy 1.0 Officially Released! (Nov 17, 2008)

  <CorePy> is a <Python> package that allows executing assembly instructions for x86, Cell BE, and PowerPC processors (32 and 64 bit) from within Python. It is an open source project available under a BSD license

  CorePy's usage is comparable to inline assembly in other languages, but provides much more control than most provide.

"high-performance applications that take advantage of advanced processor features, including multiple cores and vector instruction sets (SSE, VMX, SPU), usually inaccessible from high-level languages."

  CorePy works by using an ISA, a library of architecture instruction sets, to build a list of instructions in a InstructionStream. This is called a synthetic program and is converted to a stream of reusable processor instructions. These synthetic programs can be executed by the processor synchronously or asynchronously, passing parameters to and from other synthetic programs.

  A print function is built in that supports plugins for printing the instruction stream out to assembly. Nasm seems to be ready, but GAS-compatible output seems to be incomplete.

A simple example from the website:

  # Load the x86_64 instructions and environment
  >>> import corepy.arch.x86_64.isa as x86
  >>> import corepy.arch.x86_64.platform as x86_env
  Platform: linux.spre_linux_x86_64_64
 
  # Create a simple synthetic program
  >>> code = x86_env.InstructionStream()
  >>> code.add(x86.mov(code.gp_return, 12))
 
  # Execute the synthetic program 
  >>> proc = x86_env.Processor()
  >>> result = proc.execute(code, mode='int')
  >>> print result
  12

<CorePy>

<Download Page>

Fedora 10 is Here!

Fedora 10 is here!

<Get Fedora KDE> <Get Fedora GNOME>

<Fedora Torrents>

Major new features at a glance:

• Wireless connection sharing enables ad hoc network sharing


• Better setup and use of printers


• Virtualization storage simplified


• SecTool intrusion detection system


• RPM 4.6 is a major update


• Rewrite of the PulseAudio sound server


• Improved webcam support


• Better support for infrared remote controls

<Full release notes>

[Link] Windows 7 is , You Guessed it, Vista Rebranded

Kernel process profiling shows it looks like a Vista; performance testing shows is walks like a Vista; claims of being a high performing Linux-laptop-killer falling flat on it's face, make it sound like a just another disappointing Vista.

InfoWorld 5 pages (Nov 10, 2008)

<InfoWorld - Test Center benchmarks: Windows 7 unmasked>

[Release] OpenBSD 4.4 Released

OpenBSD

Free, Functional & Secure

"Only two remote holes in the default install, in more than 10 years!"

OpenBSD 4.4 released Nov 1, 2008:

<(Wiki)OpenBSD>

<OpenBSD 4.4 Release Details>

<OpenBSD Download Page>

Almost Every Music Video Now Availible Free

  Video giant <YouTube> has been making lots of music videos available among their other user submitted videos. Using <Fire Fox> browser <add-ons> like <Fast Video Download> and automated web sites like <VideoDownloadX.com> (formerly YouTubeX.com), you can download a nice video/music collection from YouTube.

  The once popular music video cable TV station <MTV> has replied to YouTube by opening it's own video site which is likely to host most every music video produced, <MTV Music>. YouTube does host remixed and modified videos, user posted music videos, and home made videos that you wouldn't expect to find on MTV Music, but MTV is likely to have a consistent quality collection. MTV doesn't appear to openly allow downloading, but like with YouTube; if there is a will, there is a way.

Microsoft's open source multi-touch SDK

  Microsoft released (Oct 6 2008) <Microsoft Office Labs: Touchless>. Touchless is a multitouch software that uses a regular webcam to track color based markers (like on a dry erase marker board). It's sort of a low-end version of <Microsoft's Touchwall technology> you may have seen <demo videos> of.

  The project has <4 demos and the SDK>. The project is open source (at quick glance it looks to be mostly C#) and isn't a revenue-bearing product. This is a significant change of pace for the maker of proprietary software solutions, although Microsoft has been expressing interest in open source recently. Some people argue that the term 'open source' implies more than just the availability of source code which isn't consistent with the restrictive nature of the <Microsoft Public License> it's released under.

SoCo Software Releases C++ Yahoo Source Code

  <SoCo Software> has released <XLibrary>, a C++ repository of source code modules. Included are Windows sockets, Yahoo chat, and Yahoo captcha modules. This library is released under a custom license similar to the <OS-CPL> which doesn't force adoption of open source licenses.

  SoCo Software has provided free tools, scripts, and applications with source code, for a few years now. It is one of the few places where you can find a <free proxy tester> with source code. Most free proxy testers are released by proxy list sites, so you can help them find fast proxies, while getting the bottom of the barrel.

  The software site is using this library release as the beginning in a line of additions of source code libraries and snippets, including embedded (ASM and Dynamic C) and web application (JavaScript and PHP) source code.

New PHP Features Coming v5.3

<Skip to the run down>

  PHP(Wiki) is becoming a popular web development language with the recent boom of LAMP(Wiki) servers.

  In general, PHP is a script language with very similar syntax to C/C++. It uses type safe(Wiki) variables that support arrays and tuples(Wiki)(associative arrays), much like Perl and Python.

  PHP is typically embedded into HTML pages (with the .php extension) on a web server. When a PHP page is requested, the PHP content is parsed server-side and only the resulting HTML is replied to the requesting browser.

  PHP 5.3 alpha <was released>(Aug 1, 2008). Version 5.2.6 was recently released in May and was the first release in a couple years. Version 5.2.6 was mostly security and bug fixes. Version 5.3 sports the most new features and improvements seen in a long time. The expected date for a stable PHP 5.3 is mid October 2008.



A quick rundown of some new features in PHP 5.3 Alpha:

 Namespaces(Wiki) - This should allow much shorter class names and grouping flexibility.

 Late Static Binding(Example) - For some more robust class inheritance.

 __callStatic(PHP.net) -  __call is a built in class member function that allows you to define behavior for calls to non-existent member functions. __callStatic extends this functionality to static member calls.

 Lambda Functions(PHP.net) - Quick, throw away, inline functions.

 Closures(PHP.net) - Associate a list of the parent scope's variables to be imported into a function. This also make Lambda functions much more useful.

 __DIR__ - This constant will replace the commonly used dirname(__FILE__) statement to retrieve the current script's directory.

 Phar - A PHAR file is a compressed archive and can contain a complete PHP application. Similar to a Java's JAR files, a Phar file could allow large multi-file PHP scripts to be distributed and used as one, compressed, file.

 PHP goes Windows 2000 and up only

<PHP.NET 5.3 Alpha1 Release announcement>(Aug 1, 2008)