Monthly Archive:: November 2006

High Performance Timing Under Windows

"If you're doing any kind of animation or running a process that needs to poll another process or a particular piece of hardware on a regular basis, you need an accurate timer. Depending on your application, the timer might need to be accurate to within one second, or within a fraction of a millisecond. If your timer's resolution is too coarse or its margin of error is too large, your animations will appear jerky or uneven, and your program that's collecting data from custom hardware will miss data or will fail altogether. Windows has two primary methods of measuring elapsed time, and two ways to provide periodic events."

PC-BSD 1.3 Beta 2 Released

After much hard work, the PC-BSD team is pleased to announce that version 1.3 BETA2 is now available for download. This version adds support for installing in languages other than English, and addresses many numerous bugs found in BETA1. 1.3 BETA2 can be downloaded from the beta download page. You will also need to download 1.3 CD2 if you wish to install in languages other than English. Please report any and all unreported bugs on the BugsDB or the forums.

Calmira XP Is No More

Calmira XP is no more. "After almost 15 years of Windows 3.1 and 5 years of Calmira XP this is the time to say goodbye to this great project. I had a great time developing this, and I hope you enjoyed using it. As a farewell-gift I made a last version which includes all the graphical enhancements of Calmira XP 4.0, but without the experimental LFN-support; so this is a stable version. Now it's time to search for a new, fresh project."

RISC OS 6 Select 4 Preview Released

RISCOS Ltd has released a preview build of RISC OS 6 Select 4 for Select subscribers to download. The release came just in time for the Midlands 2006 show this weekend after the company pulled out all the stops to finish the preview package. Copies of the operating system were available on CD from the event in Wolverhampton. The preview version is expected to be the forerunner to a full bug fixed Select 4 release, which will only be available to users who have continued to renew their Select subscriptions. An announcement sent out on Friday evening read: "RISCOS Ltd are pleased to announce the immediate availability of RISC OS 6 Preview for Select subscribers. The RISC OS 6 Preview release gives RiscPC, A7000 and VirtualRPC-Adjust users an opportunity to experience recent developments within RISC OS through the Select scheme."

Mark Shuttleworth Entices OpenSUSE Developers

Mark Shuttleworth is trying to entice OpenSUSE developers to join Ubuntu. "Novell's decision to go to great lengths to circumvent the patent framework clearly articulated in the GPL has sent shockwaves through the community. If you are an OpenSUSE developer who is concerned about the long term consequences of this pact, you may be interested in some of the events happening next week as part of the Ubuntu Open Week."

Proof-of-Concept Adware Program for OS X?

On Thursday, antivirus firm F-Secure published a brief analysis of a proof-of-concept adware program for the Mac OS X that could theoretically hook into any application to run attacker-specified code. The program, dubbed IAdware by F-Secure, could be silently installed in a user's account without requiring administrator rights. "We won't disclose the exact technique used here - it's a feature not a bug - but let's just say that installing a System Library shouldn't be allowed without prompting the user," stated F-Secure in the blog post. "Especially as it only requires copy permissions." My take: I'd say, hand over the code, then we'll talk.

Microsoft’s Documentation Finally Gets a oui/ja/yes from Europe

"It's been a good week for Microsoft's documentation efforts as the company achieved important milestones with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. US antitrust authorities signed off on Vista and IE7 and announced that Microsoft was making good progress in its efforts to document certain server protocols in Windows. In Europe, where Microsoft has encountered more problems and increased fines over the state of its documentation, the company got a rare bit of good news as the European Commission completed its initial review of the revised documents."

Tabos: New Operating System

"Tabos is a new operating system, at this stage of development aimed to run on Intel's x86 platform. Although it is our first try in creating a runable, modern OS, it seems that we are on the right way. We decided to develop a modular monolithic kernel with module loading support, using x86 platform features to achieve this goal: multitasking, paging, virtual memory, dma, pci, acpi are yet to be implemented."

Microsoft Beats Oracle in Security Showdown

Microsoft is beating Oracle hands down with the security of its database, according to a new report. David Litchfield, a security researcher with NGS Software, published a whitepaper entitled Which database is more secure? Oracle vs. Microsoft on 21 November comparing the number of software vulnerabilities patched by both vendors in their respective products in the past six years.

Xandros To Debut New Business Desktop on Friday

On the day after Thanksgiving, Xandros will be giving business Linux users an early holiday present: Xandros Desktop Professional version 4.0. This new version of this well-regarded Debian-based desktop is designed to work in both Linux- and Windows-based office networks. It comes ready for use on NT domain, Active Directory, and Linux/Unix NIS-based LANs. This new version also comes with a fancy 3D effect desktop. Expect a review here on OSNews soon.

GNOME 2.16.2 Released

"The latest release of GNOME is here: GNOME 2.16.2! This is the second release in a series of point releases for the 2.16 branch. Come and see all the bug fixing, all the new translations and all the updated documentations brought to you by the wonderful team of GNOME contributors! While development continues on the GNOME 2.17/2.18 road, we didn't forget about making a new release that is rock solid. And simply better than the previous one."