Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
A reorganization at the Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative has put out a press release describing a fairly major organizational thrashup. Eric Raymond leaves as president, to be replaced by Russell Nelson. A number of new initiatives are in the works, including "the establishment of principles of Open Source development and best practices" and the maintenance of a registry of projects which are deemed to follow those principles.Organizations ask for renegotiation of the software patent directive
CCOO, Proinnova, Hispalinux, AI, Libro Blanco and Caliu have asked for renegotiation of the software patents directive in the Council and expressed their solidarity with ThankPoland.info. "In the 40 days between 2004-12-21 and today, over 40 000 citizens (over 28 000 verified signatures [1]) thanked the Polish Information Minister for his position at the Council of the EU. The signatures may be handed to the authorities this week. Poland twice delayed the formal adoption of a document for the software patents directive [2] that, without defining restrictive criteria, left the door open for software patents in the EU. In recent years, Eurolinux has gathered more than 380.000 signatures against software patents [3]." (Thanks to Xavi Drudis Ferran)
PDPC 2005 Fundraiser
The PDPC 2005 Fundraiser has been announced. "Peer-Directed Projects Center, the IRS 501(c)(03) not-for-profit org which runs the Freenode network, has begun its 2005 fundraiser. We're soliciting funds for PDPC's 2005-2006 fiscal year, which begins July 1."
The PHP Security Consortium Announced
A new organization called the PHP Security Consortium has been launched. "The PHP Security Consortium (PHPSC) is an international group of PHP experts dedicated to promoting secure programming practices within the PHP community."
Software Freedom Law Center founded
The Software Freedom Law Center has announced its existence. This center, headed by Eben Moglen, will provide pro-bono legal services to non-profit developers of free software. "The Law Center will initially have two full-time intellectual property attorneys on staff and expects to expand to four attorneys later this year. Initial clients for the Law Center include the Free Software Foundation and the Samba Project." OSDL is putting up some of the initial cash to get it going; click below for the press release.
Commercial announcements
ActiveGrid joins OSDL
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced that ActiveGrid, Inc. has joined OSDL and will participate in the lab's Data Center Linux (DCL) working group.Appgen releases MyBooks Professional for Linux
Appgen's accounting solutions has announced availability of MyBooks Professional. "Appgen general business and accounting applications are Linux-native, and have been since 1997."
EMS PostgreSQL Manager 2.8 Released
Version 2.8 of the EMS PostgreSQL Manager, a commercial PostgreSQL database administration and development tool has been announced. A freeware version is available for download.Hyundai Deploys SGI Altix Supercomputers running Linux
SGI has announced a deployment of their Altix Supercomputers by the Hyundai Motor Company. "A subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI), SGI Korea has delivered four SGI(R) Altix(R) servers and an SGI(R) InfiniteStorage solution. These new servers, powered by a total of 148 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors and running Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux(R) operating system, were installed in November and will be used for full car analysis, engine analysis, drag test and the prediction of airborne noise."
IRMA to Deliver Complete Translations of Linux in 78 Languages by 2006
Linspire has announced its online IRMA translation site. "Linspire, Inc. today announced the release of a new Web-based translating application that will allow volunteers to easily translate leading Linux applications into nearly 80 different languages. Dubbed the International Resource Management Application, or IRMA, the project calls on users who speak English and another language to volunteer to translate parts of the operating system. Currently, 24 languages are supported through the system, with 54 additional languages to be added over the next few weeks."
Jybe Beta Released (MozillaZine)
MozillaZine covers Jybe, a Firefox extension. "Jack Mott writes: "Our company, Advanced Reality, recently released a new product as an open beta. Jybe is an extension for Firefox that allows you to link your browser together to one or more friends' browsers and allows you to chat and browse the web together. Initial features included full frames support, chat, and a powerpoint presentation system, with more to come."
Levanta Joins Open Source Development Labs
Open Source Development Labs has announced the latest new member, Levanta. "The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise, today announced that Levanta, Inc., a leader in Linux configuration management, systems provisioning and software deployment, has joined OSDL and will participate in the Lab's Data Center Linux and Desktop Linux working groups."
Maguma Workbench PHP IDE 2.2
Release 2.2 of Maguma Workbench, an IDE for PHP, has been released. "Maguma has published the newest version of Maguma Workbench. Maguma Workbench 2.2 has new features, more stability and a new pricing concept. During the same period Maguma will also publish the Maguma Workbench SDK, for more independence to create new modules for your "Workbench". For this reason Maguma has created a competition for developers, to create new plugins."
Hack your Nokia phone in Python
Nokia has announced the availability of a development kit enabling applications to be written for its Series 60 phones in Python.PatentCafe Launches New Open Source Software Patent Search Engine
PatentCafe has announced the opening of its Open Source Software (OSS) Patent Search Engine devoted entirely to worldwide search access to OSS patents. Click below to see the press release.Skype 1.0 available
Skype Technologies has announced that version 1.0 of its voice-over-IP application for Linux is available for free (beer) download. "Skype for Linux 1.0 has been successfully been tested on many recent distributions, including, but not limited to: SuSE 9, Gentoo 1.4, Debian 'unstable', Fedora Core 2, Sun Java Desktop System Release 2 and Xandros."
New TiVo Application Platform Opens Its Doors to Third Party Developers
TiVo Inc. has announced the availability of an early-access software development kit (SDK) that allows third parties to create entertainment and information applications that extend the TiVo service. "As part of the launch of the early-access SDK, TiVo is also announcing a developers contest. Developers are encouraged to submit their applications to be judged by a panel of industry luminaries that includes James Gosling, CTO of Sun Microsystems' developer products group, and Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine. Complete contest rules and prizes can be found online at http://www.tivo.com/challenge."
New Books
"Buffer Overflow Attacks: Detect, Exploit, Prevent" Released by Syngress
Syngress has published the book Buffer Overflow Attacks: Detect, Exploit, Prevent by James C. Foster.ThoughtWorks publishes Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion
ThoughtWorks has announced the publication of the book Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion by Mike Mason."Linux Server Security" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Linux Server Security by Michael D. Bauer.
Resources
openEHR Foundation News (LinuxMedNews)
LinuxMedNews has published the latest openEHR Foundation News. "Thomas Beale, Chair of the openEHR ARB posts an openEHR status review and progress outlook for 2005 to the openEHR mailing lists."
User Documentation for OpenEMR (LinuxMedNews)
LinuxMedNews mentions the availability of new documentation for OpenEMR, an open-source electronic medical records system. "The OpenEMR community received a 25 page User Documentation Manual for OpenEMR. The OpenEMR community thanks Dr. Bowen for his gracious contribution of a 25 page user manual for OpenEMR version 2.6."
Contests and Awards
KDE Edu Applications Strike in Qt Contest (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the QtForum.org programming contest award winners. "Today QtForum.org, a site dedicated to Qt development discussions, presented the winners of the QtForum.org programming contest award, sponsored by Trolltech. The contest selected the best educational software written with the Qt libraries, and these two programs from the KDE Edutainment Project took first and second prize, while third place was shared among two also KDE-based applications."
OO.o Splashscreen Vote - take two
The OpenOffice.org spashscreen contest is again underway. "Voting is once again open for the OpenOffice.org 2.0 splashscreen. This screen will be seen by tens of millions. If you voted last month, please vote again; all votes cast that time were thrown out as invalid."
Upcoming Events
O'Reilly Open Source Convention CFP
O'Reilly has sent out a call for participation for the 2005 Open Source Convention (OSCON). The event will be held in Portland, Oregon on August 1-5, 2005, proposals are due by February 13.Free Linux Certification at 2005 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo
IDG World Expo has announced a free LPI certification testing program at the Boston Linux World Conference & Expo event. "Each day of the conference at 1:00 p.m., LPI will be conducting the LPI 101 exam in Room 205. The proctored exams are free to all conference delegates, and a special discounted price of $25 is also offered to all exhibitors and exhibit hall attendees."
6th Annual Libre Software Meeting CFP (LinuxMedNews)
The 6th annual LSM 2005 Libre Software Meeting for Medicine has been announced. The event will be held on July 5-9, 2005 in Dijon, France. "LSM is the annual international meeting of experts (prividers and users) on new developments in free software medical systems (open source) and their applications. An important objective of the LSM/2005 is to open contacts between people from different domains mainly IT (Information Technology) and Medicine."
Golden Penguin Bowl at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo
IDG World Expo has announced the next Golden Penguin Bowl, an event that pits media agains analysts. The bowl will take place on February 15 at 4:30 PM as part of the World Conference & Expo 2005 in Boston.Malaga Named as Location for 2005 KDE Conference (KDE.News)
KDE.News has announced the location selection for the 2005 KDE Conference. "After an evaluation process of several possible locations, Malaga in southern Spain has been chosen as the location of the 2005 KDE conference by the KDE e.V. membership in a recent vote. The conference will be held by KDE e.V. in cooperation with different sponsors."
WFS 2005 - Call for Papers
The 6th International Workshop on Free Software will be held on June 1-4, 2005 in Rio Grande do Su, Brazil. Papers are due by March 14.Events: February 3 - March 31, 2005
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| February 3, 2005 | Solutions Linux 2004 | (CNIT, Paris la Défense)Paris, France |
| February 3 - 4, 2005 | Asia Source | (Visthar training venue)Bangalore, India |
| February 4 - 6, 2005 | ShmooCon 2005 | (Wardman Park Marriott Hotel)Washington, DC |
| February 7 - 11, 2005 | GlobusWORLD | (Sheraton Boston Hotel)Boston, MA |
| February 9 - 11, 2005 | German Perl-Workshop 2005 | Dresden, Germany |
| February 9 - 11, 2005 | Third-Annual Desktop Linux Summit | (Del Mar Fairgrounds)San Diego, CA |
| February 9, 2005 | OOo RegiCon North America | (Del Mar Fairgrounds)San Diego, CA |
| February 11 - 13, 2005 | CodeCon 2005 | San Francisco, CA |
| February 12 - 13, 2005 | Southern California Linux Expo 2005(SCALE) | (Los Angeles Convention Center)Los Angeles, CA |
| February 14 - 17, 2005 | Linux World Conference and Expo | (Hynes Convention Center)Boston, MA |
| February 18, 2005 | Fedora Users and Developers Conference(FUDcon1) | (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Boston, Massachusetts |
| February 24 - 25, 2005 | UKUUG LISA/Winter Conference | Birmingham, UK |
| February 25, 2005 | Dutch Perl Workshop | Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| February 26 - 27, 2005 | Free and Open Source Developers' European Meeting(FOSDEM 2005) | Brussels, Belgium |
| February 28 - March 3, 2005 | EclipseCon 2005 | (Hyatt Regency)Burlingame, CA |
| February 28 - March 1, 2005 | Asia Debian Mini-Conf 2005 | Beijing, China |
| March 1 - 2, 2005 | JBoss World 2005 User Conference | (Omni/CNN Center)Atlanta, GA |
| March 2 - 4, 2005 | Security-Enhanced Linux Symposium | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| March 2 - 3, 2005 | Asia CodeFest 2005 | Beijing, China |
| March 2 - 4, 2005 | The 5th Asia Open Source Software Symposium | Beijing, China |
| March 2 - 4, 2005 | The Free and Open Source Software Workshop | (Al Assad National Library)Damascus, Syria |
| March 10 - 16, 2005 | CeBIT 2005 | Hannover, Germany |
| March 12, 2005 | Gentoo UK 2005 | (University of Salford)Manchester, UK |
| March 12, 2005 | Third Hungarian PHP Conference | Budapest, Hungary |
| March 14 - 17, 2005 | Emerging Technology Conference(ETech) | (Westin Horton Plaza)San Diego, CA |
| March 21 - 24, 2005 | Bellua Cyber Security Asia 2005 | (Hotel Borobudur)Jakarta, Indonesia |
| March 21 - 24, 2005 | Open Source Modeling and IDEs Workshop | (Caribe Royale All Suites Resort & Convention Center)Orlando, FL |
| March 23 - 25, 2005 | PyCon DC 2005 | (GWU Cafritz Conference Center)Washington, DC |
| March 26 - 27, 2005 | YAPC::Taipei 2005 | Taipei |
| March 30 - April 1, 2005 | PHP Quebec | (Crowne Plaza Hotel)Montreal, Canada |
| March 31 - April 1, 2005 | Black Hat Briefings Europe 2005 | Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
Web sites
The GCC Wiki
A new Wiki Site has been launched for discussion of GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection.The Open Skills Site
OpenSkills 2 is a new site for the discussion of various Linux issues: "Welcome to OpenSkills 2 (Beta 2), a Collaborative Knowledge Portal, an Insane Experiment of System Exposure Just Another Linux-and-More WebSite for SysAdmin". The site is also available in Italian.
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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