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Education

Submission + - One-Laptop-Per-Child application development

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This OLPC (One-Laptop-Per-Child) tutorial teaches you how to develop Python activities for the XO laptop. It covers the ins and outs of Sugar (the XO user interface, or UI) and the details behind activity development. You will also learn about Python programming, Sugar application program interfaces (APIs) for Python, and platform emulation with QEMU. Learn OLPC application development and help the worlds children.
Education

Submission + - OLPC XO Review (bioslevel.com) 1

Submitted by
BIOS_LEVEL
BIOS_LEVEL writes: "The XO is the laptop produced by the One Laptop Per Child program (OLPC) headed by Mr. Nicholas Negroponte. The goal of OLPC is to provide every child a laptop which they can use to experience technology and the Internet. Through the Give One Get One program (G1G1), residents of North America are able donate $400 to the OLPC foundation, $200 of which finances a laptop for a child, and $200 of which pays for the cost of delivering one to the donor. Colin Dean was one of the first to participate in G1G1, and this is his review of it."
Portables

Submission + - XOgiving OLPCs to work without mesh, over jabber (laptop.org)

Submitted by
Dave Crossland
Dave Crossland writes: "One Laptop Per Child is running its "Give One Get One" (G1G1) sale for North Americans — only 6 days left! — and one of the most widely touted innovations in the XO laptop is the mesh networking which is integrated into all the applications. Since people buying XOs in the G1G1 scheme will only get ONE, it was announced on the sugar mailing today that "for G1G1, there is a Jabber server preconfigured. When you have internet access, [the mesh features] will "Just Work". The Neighborhood screen does show all those on that server currently.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - The dumber Android is, the better say experts (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by
ZDOne
ZDOne writes: "ZDNet UK is reporting that it will not be known until the Android software development kit comes out on Monday whether the Gphone will be strictly Java-based but security experts claim that the less smart a phone is, the less vulnerable it is. Android developers should stick to a semi-smartphone platform because the Java sandbox can protect against the normal kinds of attacks, experts claim."
OS X

Submission + - Massive Data Loss Bug in Leopard (tomkarpik.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Leopard's Finder has a glaring bug in its directory-moving code, leading to horrendous data loss if a destination volume disappears while a move operation is in action. This author first came across it when Samba crashed while he was moving a directory from his desktop over to a Samba mount on his FreeBSD server.
Technology (Apple)

Apple to Allow Virtual Mac OS X Server Instances 167

Posted by Zonk from the server-in-a-server-in-a-server dept.
Glenn Fleishman writes "Apple has changed its license for Mac OS X Server 10.5 (Leopard Server) to allow virtualized instances. VMware and Parallels are poised to offer support. This probably presages a thoroughly overhauled Xserve product with greater capability for acting as a virtual machine server, too. 'Ben Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications for Parallels, told me, "Enabling Leopard Server to run in a virtual machine may take some time, but we're working closely with Apple on it and will make it public as quickly as possible." Pat Lee, Product Manager at VMware, concurred, saying "We applaud Apple for the exciting licensing changes implemented in Leopard Server. Apple customers can now run Mac OS X Server, Windows, Linux and other x86 operating systems simultaneously on Apple hardware so we are excited about the possibilities this change presents." Although neither company committed to specific features or timetables, it appears as though we should be seeing virtualization products from both that will enable an Xserve to run multiple copies of Leopard Server in virtual machines.'"
Linux Business

Submission + - Pre-installed Ubuntu on servers 'reasonably soon' (techtarget.com)

Submitted by OSS_ilation
OSS_ilation writes: As Canonical readies another major release for its Ubuntu Linux operating system (code-named Gutsy Gibbon), one executive hinted that a pre-installed server initiative would arrive soon if customer demand remains high. Gerry Carr, marketing manager for Canonical, said Canonical was exploring deals with Dell Inc. and other unnamed hardware manufacturers to bring Ubuntu pre-installed on x86 commodity servers in the near future. Carr said that while the deal will "hopefully be with Dell," Canonical is also considering server vendors other than Dell. "This doesn't mean a deal is imminent, but those who want and require Ubuntu on the server will have something available reasonably soon," he said.
Software

Submission + - Harvard releases disruptive P2P file sharing code (harvard.edu)

Submitted by Instant_Harvard_Groupie
Instant_Harvard_Groupie writes: Today Harvard released a program what they hope is a first peek at a new generation of P2P file sharing. Their P2P software demonstrates a 'deft trick'. It turns Internet bandwidth into a global currency.
They explore the generation of P2P beyond Bittorrent tit-fot-tat by creating a leak-free economy. They also fully integrated TOR into their software to demonstrate the fundamental flaws in tit-for-tat incentives. Quite disruptive for Youtube as they integrated video website search and you will never have visit such sites separately anymore. Features: keyword search, Bittorrent downloads, Youtube access, TOR integration, and LGPL. Platforms: Ubuntu, Mac, W95, Vista. May an army of law professors protect them from harm now and in the future because they have some serious P2P research plans..
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - NJ teen unlocks iPhone from AT&T network (yahoo.com)

Submitted by splatter
splatter writes: A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones. George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile's network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology. The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software.The modification leaves the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks, intact. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature. what you need: http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-you-ne ed.html Hotz' blog: http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/ 2nd one's on sale on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =230164884672
Software

Submission + - Idle Scripting Language (thomaslauer.com)

Submitted by
Thomas Lauer
Thomas Lauer writes: "Idle is a scripting language based on Lua
(see http://www.lua.org/ ).

Lua is a mature and efficient language, sporting an easy-to-understand
syntax and extraordinary extensibility. Idle inherits these features
and includes some extensions to the Lua core language of its own.
However, the main difference to Lua is the integration of an extensive
runtime library and the included compiler.

The project is focused on producing a small but powerful scripting
language that is easy to deploy and easy to use and that can produce
small, portable executable files. (Of course, it is always possible to
run Idle scripts through the interpreter.)
To this end the Idle compiler creates .exe files which only depend on
the Idle runtime DLL (which currently weighs in at less than 160 KB). A
script of, say, 50 KB will produce an executable of roundabout 35 to 40
KB that can be run on other machines without the need of installing
anything.

Idle supports the following features out of the box:
* full Perl-compatible regular expressions
* many operating system additions like file locking, directory walking,
    pipes, process creation, ...
* networking and sockets
* simple macro processing
* fully transparent reading of files and Idle code from inside archives
    (.zip and .7z archive types)
* dynamic call facility allows arbitrary calls into external DLLs
* embedding interface to Perl and Tiny C
* multi-threading allows multiple Idle tasks to execute in parallel
* Win32 API functions (clipboard, registry, ...)
* and more.

Some of the functionality is based on existing products and libraries
(mostly Lua itself, the PCRE regular expression library, LuaSocket and
PhysicsFS).

This pre-alpha release is only available for systems running Windows
2000 and later versions. Later versions may support Linux and similar
systems.

More information, downloads and preliminary documentation:
http://idle.thomaslauer.com/"
Portables

Submission + - Linux free phone project Openmoko in troubles?

Submitted by
bain_online
bain_online writes: "The lead developer at Openmoko project Herald Welte has this blog entry to show the status of the project.
From the entry "If you want a status update on OpenMoko: I'm at a point where I won't go to the office again because I know the agression inside myself will tusufrn into physically hurting someone there."
His previous post was little more optimistic though. The project is apparently suffering from a lot of managerial problems.Progress on technical fronts, especially the software aspect of OpenMoko is slow.
OpenMoko is a first free software mobile stack being developed under sponsership from FIC. The first device it is suppose to support, is Neo1973, which some people compare to iPhone."
Businesses

Submission + - Marketing yourself as an IT "jack-of-all-trade

Submitted by ultimatemonty
ultimatemonty writes: As an IT professional looking for a new job, I'm trying to figure out how to market myself as a "jack-of-all-trades" IT worker. I'm currently employed at a medium sized university as a video conferencing specialist. I'm good (competent) at many IT related tasks (Linux server management, programming, Windows/Linux desktop support, video conferencing support, etc...), but specialize or excel in none of them, sort of like the lone IT manager in a small shop. What kinds of jobs would the Slashdot community look for with this kind of work experience, and how would you market yourself (design your resume, cover letter, etc) to prospective employers so they get the full-breadth of your capabilities without over-stating your abilities?
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Standard Linux Now Runs on DSPs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The just-released 2.6.22 Linux kernel adds Analog Devices Blackfin DSPs (digital signal processors) to the list of architectures it can run on. What's a Blackfin? According to the 2.6.22 kernel changelog, 'The Blackfin architecture was jointly developed by Intel and Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) as the Micro Signal Architecture (MSA) core and introduced in December of 2000. Since then ADI has put this core into its Blackfin processor family of devices. The Blackfin core has the advantages of a clean, orthogonal, RISC-like microprocessor instruction set. It combines a dual-MAC (multiply/accumulate), state-of-the-art signal processing engine, and single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) multimedia capabilities into a single instruction-set architecture.'
Power

Submission + - Very Short Duration UPS 1

Submitted by Tau Neutrino
Tau Neutrino writes: Anybody know about a high-wattage, short-time UPS? I've got a bunch of boxen (5 or so) in my office, and would like to keep them running through the occasional one-or-two-second power outage. Like today's. Anything over say, five seconds, is a real power failure, and I don't expect my systems to survive that. But a second or two? It sure would be nice to weather that storm, and not have to reboot everything and then get it all back to where it was before the power glitch.

Any ideas?

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