David Adams Archive

Bank ATM Security Not So Secure

David Adams 2003-02-22 Bugs & Viruses 16 Comments

Two Cambridge University researchers have discovered serious flaws in the security that many banks use in Auomatic Teller Machines around the world. The researchers, Mike Bond and Piotr Zielinski, released their findings in a paper, but various powers-that-be in the banking industry are not happy.

Living in an Alternative OS World

David Adams 2003-02-19 Office 80 Comments

As the Microsoft Windows monopoly becomes ever more entrenched, the world seems to be becoming an increasingly more difficult place for a new operating system, or even some that have been around for a long time but have a limited share of the desktop PC market. Proponents of alternative operating systems seem to spend their time alternately griping about Windows' grip on the desktop and asserting that it doesn't matter all that much because they can get their work done with their OS of choice.

You Think You’re Serious About the Mac vs. PC War?

David Adams 2003-02-18 Rumors 130 Comments

John Droz is a Macintosh-using consultant and software developer who lives in North Carolina. When he and some other members of the community learned that the local school board was planning to scrap its Macs and standardize on Windows PCs, he decided to catalog as much information as he could on why the switch would be a bad idea. It's the kind of treasure trove that could fuel a flamewar of epic proportions. It makes for an interesting read, and is useful for ammunition for any Mac proponents that would be interested in launching their own holy war on this issue. See it all at macvspc.info.

Motorola Places a Bet On Linux for Smartphones

David Adams 2003-02-18 Wireless 13 Comments

Motorola, who has seen its fortunes in the phone market decline a bit thanks to nimble European and Asian competition, is hoping that the Linux operating system and Chinese manufacturing and engineering talent can turn the tide, according to an article in The Register. These phones will run Linux but most of the applications that run on top will be Java.

OSNews’ Support for Konfabulator on OS X and Mobile Devices

David Adams 2003-02-12 OS News 26 Comments

There's a cool little app called Konfabulator for Mac OS X that allows you to display, build, and modify little "widgets" for your desktop, like the weather, a clock, or the OSNews top stories, updated continuously! Screenshot here. Thanks to Adam Pearson for the source sample. Additionally, we added support for a truckload of mobile devices and we would need your help testing them.

The OSNews Powerbook Wars: Continued — Dave’s Review

David Adams 2003-02-11 Apple 107 Comments

We've had quite the Powerbook-fest here on OS News over the past few days. I also ordered a 12" Powerbook, and I would have received it several days before Eugenia if Airborne hadn't sent it to the wrong state and then lost it somewhere between Ohio and my house. But it finally arrived, and mine is the hot commodity, a 12" Powerbook with Superdrive (DVD Burner), 640 MB RAM, Airport Extreme (802.11g), and a 60 gig HD. My impression is a little different than Eugenia's and I'm approaching from a different angle.

More FOSDEM Interviews With Open Source People

David Adams 2003-02-06 In the News 10 Comments

The Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting is this weekend in Brussels, and they're published several more interviews with event contributors: Harald Welte about netfilter/iptables, Solar Designer about Openwall GNU/*/Linux, Yoann Vandoorselaere about Prelude IDS, Thomas Vander Stichele about GStreamer, and Damien Sandras about GnomeMeeting.

AOL Reports First-ever Drop In Subscriber Base

David Adams 2003-02-03 Internet 22 Comments

Mega-ISP America Online reported that it lost 170,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2002, after of years of steady growth. Still, more people access the internet through AOL than any other source, but several factors have made AOL less relevant and more susceptible to competition in the past few years.

NEC and Samsung Plan for New, Smaller Devices

David Adams 2003-02-03 Wireless No Comments

NEC and Samsung, two Asian electronics giants, have each announced new hardware components that will help them make smaller, cheaper, and more-functional devices, particularly, "smart" mobile phones. NEC has developed a new small display with a serial interface that requires fewer connecting wires and uses less power than older displays. Samsung has designed a small chip that contains a 206 MHz ARM920T processor core, 32MB of NAND flash memory, and 32MB of SDRAM on a chip measuring .7" square and .05" thick. Read more at PC World.

Booting your Mac Into OS 9

David Adams 2003-01-31 Apple 28 Comments

Apple has posted a chart in its Applecare Knowledge Base that outlines which Mac will support which releases of Mac OS 9, all the way up to the current machines which will not boot into OS 9 at all.

Sun Releases Guidelines for Java-based Phones

David Adams 2003-01-31 Java No Comments

Until now, Sun Microsystems had a hands-off approach to the implementation of Java on mobile phones, which resulted in a chaotic and fractured Java implementation industry-wide, as different companies went their own way. Sun has taken the reigns and had proposed a road map, called "Java Technology for the Wireless Industry" or JTWI.

Notebooks with Built-in Wireless Becoming More Common

David Adams 2003-01-30 Hardware 28 Comments

According to a PC World article, not only is built-in 802.11b wireless capability becoming the must-have feature for higher-end notebook computers, but vendors are starting to use dual-band chipsets that support both the widespread 802.11b standard and the faster 802.11a. 802.11a operates at 5GHz with maximum throughput of up to 54 mbps, compared to 802.11b's 2.4 GHz/11 mbps.

FOSDEM Publishes Interviews with OSS Luminaries

David Adams 2003-01-29 In the News 19 Comments

In preparation for the Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting (FOSDEM), to be held in Brussels next week, the event organizers have published interviews with several people who will be speaking at the conference. This week, they interviewed Jon Maddog Hall, who discusses Linux and the role of Linux International, and Havoc Pennington, who covers free standards and platform interoperability.

Gates Reports on Progress in “Trustworthy Computing”

David Adams 2003-01-24 Microsoft 27 Comments

In a Microsoft mailing list posting sent yesterday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates reports that the company is making progress on its initiative to make its products more secure, though he also notes that the demand for security has risen since Microsoft began the initiative. New versions of Windows Server 2003, SQL Server, and Exchange Server will have all passed the new, more stringent, testing, and users will notice that vulnerable services will be turned off by default. Gates also promoted the use of smart cards for authentication in the email. Read more in this PC World article.

Sneak Peek: Second Update to Solaris 9

David Adams 2003-01-21 Solaris 23 Comments

We spoke with Bill Moffitt, Product Line Manager for Solaris at Sun Microsystems. The second update to Solaris, called Solaris 9 12/02, was released this month. (Sun puts the month and year of the release date after the version number. Apparently, it was "released" in December, but don't ask why it was only made available a few days ago). In addition to bug fixes and updates that you would expect in a release like this, Sun has included a couple of big extras for capability and performance.

Excuse Me While I Reboot My Dishwasher

David Adams 2003-01-21 General Development 72 Comments

An article in Baseline covers the increasing reliance that everyday appliances have on complex software, and the potentially disastrous results when that software fails. One prominent example of this is the BMW 745i, which has a sort of uber-control joystick that controls a WindowsCE-based system. This system was so buggy that BMW has done two recalls. The software was too ambitious and too poorly tested, so things like the brake lights not working and the units suddenly changing to metric are the result.

Linux World Opens In New York

David Adams 2003-01-20 Linux 16 Comments

A ZDNet article covering the opening of the Linux World trade show also has a thorough "state of Linux business" overview. Some highlights: Big firms like HP, IBM, and Microsoft(!) will have a big presence; it seems like Linux willl continue its rapid rise in adoption, though it will still be difficult for firms to make the huge profits that companies like Microsoft have made because Linux resists lock-in; enterprise software vendors like BEA will continue to support Linux; and hardware vendors are embracing it more.

Handspring Courts RIM

David Adams 2003-01-10 Wireless 3 Comments

Infoworld is reporting that Handspring, who has been an exclusive Palm OS licensee, is interested in the RIM email software. The RIM Blackberry devices have proven very popular among business users, but the Blackberry units have limited PDA capabilities. Palm-based wireless messaging devices have been less popular. Presumably, Handspring is interested in producing a "best of both worlds" solution.

Inside the Intel Compiler

David Adams 2003-01-10 Intel 6 Comments

The folks at Linux Journal used a time machine to post an article from the future about Intel's compiler for Linux, and specifically about the optimizations they used to beat gcc on benchmarks. The increasing acceptance of Linux among developers and researchers has yet to be matched by a similar increase in the number of available development tools. The recently released Intel C++ and Fortran compilers for Linux aim to bridge this gap by providing application developers with highly optimizable compilers for the Intel IA-32 and Itanium processor families.

Linux in Mobile Phones

David Adams 2003-01-08 Linux 10 Comments

In more Linux consumer electronics news, Computerworld has a short article outlining the latest inroads that the open source OS is making in the already crowded phone-OS space. NEC Corp. said today that it's working on the development of Linux-based cell phones with MontaVista Software Inc., and an executive of the Sunnyvale, Calif., software company said it's in talks with other major cellular handset makers on similar projects.