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Software

Submission + - Personal Firewall for Windows now on SourceForge (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by
Florian Eichelberger
Florian Eichelberger writes: "Usec.at , a small Austrian platform of security software developers
decided to open-source an usable alpha version of their windows personal
firewall named ZID.

As of now it seems to be the only, readily usable open-source Windows Personal
Firewall around already featuring a basic set of functions and a GUI
usable even for not-so-savvy-users and some ideas we would like to get
help developing them.
We hope to lay a modular foundation for windows personal firewall
software and
protection as the netfilter framework does for linux.

You need to protect the weary , not the strong and as for a firewall, an
open-source firewall with decent functionality for all the existing
Windows XP, Windows 2000 , and maybe a lot others comes in handy."
Editorial

Submission + - The History of Gaming's Big 5 Console Makers (gameplayer.com.au)

Submitted by
SlappingOysters
SlappingOysters writes: "Gameplayer presents at the turn of a new year a thorough history of the big five console makers. A super detailed analysis of all the massive highs and crushing lows of the five companies (Atari, Nintendo, SEGA, Sony and Microsoft) which have played the biggest roles in bringing console, handheld and PC gaming to the dizzying heights that they are at today. For ease of use, the article is broken down into parts, one for each of the five companies."
User Journal

Journal Journal: I was Rick-Rolled at the Dunkin' Donuts 1

Journal by Daengbo
I was waiting in line at a Dunkin and listening to a whiny, acoustic song over the sound system sung by someone I assumed was Korean. Since the song was in English, I listened more carefully than I would otherwise have, and I kept thinking "That song is familiar -- where have I heard it before? It's a cover. Who sang it originally?"
Biotech

Submission + - The Chemistry of Beer 1

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Good beer is made with spicy hops. For years, food scientists have been trying to identify chemicals in hops that give them a fantastic aroma. Using analytical chemistry equipment, three scientists from Australia and New Zealand have identified five chemicals that are partially responsible for the desirable odor. They used gas chromatography-olfactometry, which separates out each chemical from the hops and allows them to be smelled individually. When the test results came in, five chemicals stood out from the others. All of them are terpenes. Geraniol, which is named after geranium flowers and obviously has a floral scent. Linalool, has a floral and spicy scent. It is also found in mint, cinnamon, and rosewood. Eugeneol has a spicy, clove-like aroma. Beta-ionone has a complex woody and fruity scent. Caryophyllene is found in black pepper.The Wired Science blog has the full story and a bizzare picture of a researcher with her nose pressed against the output tube of the beige tabletop gas chromatograph.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Best Linux virtualization platform?

Submitted by tji
tji writes: I've been trying several Linux distributions, trying to find the best free software platform for virtualization on my home Linux server. There are a lot of interesting possibilities, but it seems like most of the available solutions are a bit immature. XenSource's XenExpress is semi-free, and has good management tools, but is functionality limited. The latest Fedora Core or Ubuntu version have claimed virtualization support, but were weak at best in terms of the complete solution usability, documentation, and management apps. KVM is another option, but it's not as far along as Xen, and I haven't seen any good management apps for it. Then, there are the "jail" virtualization solutions, like OpenVZ and VServer. Can any Xen hosts also support these?

There are almost too many options. Do any Slashdotters have recommendations for a good host OS for virtualization, and good management apps to control the VM structure?
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple embeds account info in DRM-free music

Submitted by Cardiff
Cardiff writes: Apple may have removed the DRM but they didn't remove tracking information from DRM-free music. With embedded account names and email information, which can be viewed only by searching the files for strings, Apple (or a record label) could easily determine the origin of a file shared on P2P. Ars speculates that Apple wants to keep an eye on casual file trading among friends.
Linux Business

Submission + - MS can sue SUSE users for using OOO, Wine

Submitted by El_Oscuro
El_Oscuro writes: There is an article on arstechnica about the MS/Novell agreement. The deal specifically excludes patent protection for "clone products." In the agreement, a clone product is broadly defined as "a product (or major component thereof) of a Party that has the same or substantially the same features and functionality as a then-existing product (or major component thereof) of the other Party ... and that has the same or substantially the same user interface, or implements all or substantially all of the Application Programming Interfaces of the Prior Product." The text of the clone product definition subsections is very cumbersome to read, but it specifically mentions OpenOffice, Wine, and OpenXchange by name without asserting that they are necessarily clone products.
Programming

Why Is "Design by Contract" Not More Popular? 178

Posted by Cliff from the puzzling-outcomes dept.
Coryoth writes "Design by Contract, writing pre- and post-conditions on functions, seemed like straightforward common sense to me. Such conditions, in the form of executable code, not only provide more exacting API documentation, but also provide a test harness. Having easy to write unit tests, that are automatically integrated into the inheritance hierarchy in OO languages, 'just made sense'. However, despite being available (to varying degrees of completeness) for many languages other than Eiffel, including Java, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby, Ada, and even Haskell and Ocaml, the concept has never gained significant traction, particularly in comparison to unit testing frameworks (which DbC complements nicely), and hype like 'Extreme Programming'. So why did Design by Contract fail to take off?"
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - New Mail Boxes Pay Tribute to Star Wars

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the 30th anniversary of Star Wars this year, the Postal Service has come up with a unique tribute: R2D2 mail boxes. Pictures of legions of them lined up can be found here.

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