Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
EFF: Supreme Court Tackles Dangerous Patent Ruling
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced effort to overturn a patent ruling. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the United States Supreme Court Thursday, asking justices to overturn a court ruling in a patent case with dangerous implications for free speech and consumers' rights. The Public Patent Foundation, the American Library Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the Special Library Association joined EFF on the brief. At issue is a case involving online auctioneer eBay and a company called MercExchange."
iPods for Senators
After seeing how getting an iPod from his daughter made U.S. Senator Stevens more aware of fair use rights, the folks at IPac came up with an idea: give each Senator an iPod. "Plus, we're going to pre-load each one with examples of the cultural richness made possible by sharing and collaboration - public domain content, Creative Commons content, and audio messages about the importance of balanced copyright policy. It will be engraved with the words 'listen to the people.'" Needless to say, they are looking for donations to make this happen.
Nevada Court Rules Google Cache is Fair Use
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent out a press release concerning Google's Cache feature and copyrights. "A federal district court in Nevada has ruled that Google does not violate copyright law when it copies websites, stores the copies, and transmits them to Internet users as part of its Google Cache feature. The ruling clarifies the legal status of several common search engine practices and could influence future court cases, including the lawsuits brought by book publishers against the Google Library Project."
Open Voting Consortium
The Open Voting Consortium seeks to make U.S. elections open and transparent. From a recent news item: "The Open Voting Consortium and California Clean Money campaign sponsored a highly successful Open House acquainting rank and file California Democrats with Open Voting and consolidating support for the already well known Clean Money issue. The event was held at the Manhattan Beach Marriot where the California Democratic Party held its Executive Committee meeting on January 27th and 28th." (Thanks to Jay R. Ashworth)
Patent activist starts campaign against Microsoft-sponsored award
Norbert Bollow, founder of the Truth50 campaign against software patents, is challenging the legitimacy of the Microsoft-sponsored EV50 European of the Year award. "Norbert Bollow launched www.truth50.com, a Web site on which people can sign a bundle of open letters (http://www.truth50.com/en/open-letters.html) to European political leaders and others involved with an EU-related award, including Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer. Truth50 will at a future point in time deliver those letters along with lists of the names of the people who signed. The campaign demands a verification or a retaking of the Microsoft-sponsored public poll in which the "EV50 European of the Year 2005" was elected."
Commercial announcements
Larry Augustin Joins Fonality's Board of Directors
Fonality has announced the joining of its board by Larry Augustin. "Fonality, the leader in affordable IP-PBX systems for small businesses, today announced that Open Source pioneer Larry Augustin has joined its board of directors and will assist the company with its corporate strategy in the Open Source IP telephony market. Fonality's PBXtra IP-PBX is based on the Open Source Asterisk platform and, since it began shipping in October 2004, has placed millions of calls and has been deployed by hundreds of businesses with thousands of lines."
Nokia to Release Python for S60 Source Code
Nokia has announced that the company will release the source code for its Python for S60 Platform software package. The source code for Python for S60 Platform will be posted by Nokia to SourceForge.net. Further information and a link to the project can be found here.Novell Delivers Comprehensive Bundled Linux Solution for Mid-sized Enterprises
Novell has announced it will bundle support and training offerings with its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. "With this new offering, Novell(R) solution provider partners, the company's primary channel to the mid-market, can now deliver a comprehensive Linux solution, including 24x7 support and online assistance, to their customers."
OpenVZ Project Releases Beta for Latest Linux Kernel
The OpenVZ project has announced improved features and performance of its operating system level server virtualization software technology with availability of beta level software based on the Linux kernel 2.6.15.Open-Xchange OXtender Enables Replacement of Windows Server
Beginning in March, customers of Open-Xchange, Inc. will have full access to and seamless integration with Linux-based Logon, File and Print services for Microsoft Windows workstations through Open-Xchange Server 5 giving customers the option to fully replace Microsoft Exchange as well as Microsoft Windows Server.Oracle Database 10g Achieves Record Performance
Oracle Corporation has announced the achievement of a new database speed record running on a Linux system. "Running on NEC's Express5800/1160Xe Server, corresponding to "NX7700i/3040H-16" server in the Japanese market, with 8 Intel(R) Itanium 2 1.6 GHz processors, Oracle Database 10g on Red Hat Enterprise Linux v4 operating system, achieved 254,471 tpmC (transactions per minute) with a price-performance ratio of $5.32/tpmC."
ARINC 653 for RTLinuxPro Released
FSMLabs has announced the availability of ARINC 653 for its RT Linux Pro embedded platform. "Designed for avionics control and advanced hardware-in-loop simulation, ARINC 653 provides a fully protected and partitioned scheduling environment configured using a standard XML format. The ARINC scheduler has been added to FSMLabs' industry leading Process Space Development Domain (PSDD) product which executes real-time threads in the address space of Linux or BSD processes."
samba4WINS: cooperation creates free software innovation
The samba4WINS project aims to improve the standalone capabilities of Samba. "Until now Samba3 offers the possibility to start a WINS server but it cannot synchronize in a ring with other WINS servers, an ability that is requested in many complex networks. Even after complete migration to Linux/Unix/Samba Windows servers are still inevitable in those networks. This remarkable cost factor will be abolished with samba4WINS."
Sleepycat Software Releases New Berkeley DB Java Edition
Sleepycat Software, Inc. has announced version 2.1 of its Berkeley DB Java Edition database. "The new version of Sleepycat's pure Java, transactional database features multi-key secondary databases, multi-threaded performance improvements, and new controls for optimizing concurrency."
TimeSys Introduces LinuxLink Subscriptions for MIPS32
TimeSys has announced the availability of LinuxLink Subscriptions for the MIPS32(R) 24KE(TM) Core Family. "Licensees of a MIPS32 24KE core can choose among a number of flexible LinuxLink subscription options to receive continuous access to the latest MIPS Technologies-developed Linux, hundreds of cross-compiled packages, a processor-optimized cross-development environment, alerts to relevant updates and Developer Exchange access to interactive support from TimeSys, MIPS Technologies and the Open Source community."
New Books
Google Maps Hacks--O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book Google Maps Hacks by Rich Gibson and Schuyler Erle.Pearson publishes How to Break Web Software
Pearson has published the book How to Break Web Software by Mike Andrews and James Whittaker.PSP Hacks-More Than Just Games--O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book PSP Hacks by C.K. Sample, III.RFID Essentials - O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book RFID Essentials by Bill Glover and Himanshu Bhatt.No Starch Press releases "Wicked Cool Perl Scripts"
No Starch Press has published the book Wicked Cool Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline.
Contests and Awards
Firefox Flicks Ad Contest (MozillaZine)
MozillaZine covers the latest from the Firefox Flicks Ad Contest. "Asa Dotzler writes: "The Firefox Flicks Ad Contest is starting to gain some serious momentum. The latest developments are the addition of some great new rewards for Ad Contest winners. We've been working with some friends in the indy film world to get more outreach going and along the way we've been able to expand those relationships to include some major visibility opportunities for the winners. In addition to having your ad included in our world-wide marketing campaign for Firefox and the prizes we've already talked about, we're now able to offer some great exposure for entrants with a screening of top entries at the Vail Film Festival which had more than 10,000 attendees last year. Firefox Flicks first place winner will automatically qualify as a Shortlist finalist in the 2006 New York Festivals of Advertising (NYFA) competition.""
Andrew Tridgell wins 2005 Free Software Award
Samba project's Andrew Tridgell has been awarded a 2005 Free Software Award from the FSF. "Andrew Tridge Tridgell was recognized for his work as originator and developer of the Samba project. Samba reverse-engineered Microsoft's version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which is used for file-sharing and print services. This software enables free operating systems to fit into Microsoft-based environments, encouraging greater use and adoption of free software. Samba has been implemented on millions of servers throughout the world. Tridge also released rsync, a highly respected remote file-distribution system, and contributed code to the Linux kernel."
Voting open for 2005 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards
LinuxQuestions.org has announced that voting is open for its 2005 Members Choice Awards. "The Members Choice Awards allow the Linux community to select their favorite products in a variety of categories. Awards will be given out in 20 categories, including Distribution of the Year, Browser of the Year, Office Suite of the Year, Desktop Environment of the Year and Database of the Year. The polls will close on March 16th and winners will have the option of receiving their award at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston."
The OpenOffice.org Developer Article Contest
The OpenOffice.org Developer Article Contest has begun. "OpenOffice.org, with the support of Team OpenOffice.org e.V. and extra sponsorship from Sun Microsystems, announces its first Developer Contest starting February 1, 2006. The goal of the developer contest is to generate more developer documentation. We are also interested in promoting OpenOffice.org to developers at the same time."
Upcoming Events
FOSDEM 2006
The folks at FOSDEM have sent out a reminder for the upcoming event. "FOSDEM 2006 is approaching. The event will take place on the 25th and 26th of February in Brussels, Belgium. The FOSDEM is a free and non-commercial event for the community and organised by the community. FOSDEM 's goal is to provide Free and Open Source developers and communities a place to go over the latest developments in the Free and Open Source arena and to promote the development and the benefits of Free and Open Source solutions."
LISA 2006 CFP
A call for papers has gone out for the 2006 Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference. The event takes place on December 38, 2006 in Washington, D.C., proposals are due by May 23.rPath to introduce technology at NOVALUG
rPath has announced the company has been invited to present at an upcoming Northern Virginia Linux Users Group (NOVALUG) meeting. Matt Wilson, rPath founding engineer and former OS engineering lead for Red Hat, will represent rPath to discuss the company's rBuilder and Conary technology to the group of Linux professionals.ClearHealth at SCALE '06 (LinuxMedNews)
LinuxMedNews covers events relating to the ClearHealth electronic medical record system at the SCALE conference. "Uversa will offering ClearHealth training and new feature demonstrations in our booth (#38) at the upcoming Southern California Linux Exposition (SCALE) February 11 & 12 at February 11-12, 2006, at The Radisson Los Angeles Airport."
2006 USENIX Annual Technical Conference
The 2006 USENIX Annual Technical Conference will take place in Boston, Massachusetts from May 30 to June 3, 2006.Events: February 2 - March 30, 2006
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| February 6 - 7, 2006 | ICMCC Conference on EHR Standards and Interoperability | (World Forum Convention Center, The Hague)The Netherlands |
| February 7 - 9, 2006 | OSCMS Summit | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| February 8 - 10, 2006 | X Developer's Conference(XDevConf) | (Sun Campus)Santa Clara, CA |
| February 8 - 10, 2006 | LinuxAsia Conference and Expo 2006 | (India Habitat Centre)New Delhi, India |
| February 10 - 12, 2006 | CodeCon 2006 | San Francisco, CA |
| February 10, 2006 | SCALE Workshop On Open Standards For Government Organizations | (Airport Radisson)Los Angeles, CA |
| February 10, 2006 | PHP Conference UK 2006 | (Keyworth Centre)London, England |
| February 11 - 12, 2006 | Southern California Linux Expo(SCALE 4x) | (Airport Radisson)Los Angeles, California |
| February 20 - 21, 2006 | EuSecWest/core06 conference | London, England |
| February 24 - 26, 2006 | PyCon 2006 | (Dallas/Addison Marriott Quorum hotel)Addison, TX |
| February 25 - 26, 2006 | FOSDEM 2006 | (ULB Campus)Brussels, Belgium |
| February 26 - 28, 2006 | OSDC::Israel::2006 | (Netanya Academic College)Netanya, Israel |
| February 27 - March 3, 2006 | SELinux Symposium and Developer Summit | (Wyndham Hotel)Baltimore, MD |
| February 28 - March 3, 2006 | Black Hat Europe Briefings and Training 2006 | (Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky)Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| March 3 - 4, 2006 | LinuxForum 2006 | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| March 6 - 9, 2006 | O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference(ETech) | (Manchester Grand Hyatt)San Diego, CA |
| March 17 - 19, 2006 | Libre Graphics Meeting 2006 | (Ecole d'Ingénieurs CPE)Lyon, France |
| March 19 - 24, 2006 | Novell BrainShare 2006 | (Salt Palace Convention Center)Salt Lake City, UT |
| March 21 - 23, 2006 | UKUUG Spring Conference 2006 | Durham, UK |
| March 25, 2006 | Penguin Day | Seattle, WA |
| March 29 - 31, 2006 | PHP Quebec 2006 | (Plaza Montreal Hotel)Montreal, Canada |
Web sites
Launch of SpreadKDE.org Promotional Community Site (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the launch of the new SpreadKDE.org site. "The KDE marketing group is pleased to announce the release of SpreadKDE.org, the new home for KDE's promotional activities. Such a hub for marketing activities has been sorely lacking in KDE until now, and we consider this site a to be a key milestone in establishing a solid foundation in growing KDE's promotional activity."
Page editor: Forrest Cook