Fluffy Spider Technologies (FST) and Open Kernel Labs (OKL) are readying a jointly-developed software stack that targets Linux-based embedded systems and devices. Due for release by year end, the combined stack integrates the former's "FancyPants" lightweight GUI (graphical user interface) platform with the latter's "OKL4" microkernel and virtualization technology.

Examine how to use the Network Information Service (NIS) to share core databases between Linux® and UNIX®, and how to use the Network File System (NFS) to share file systems, both with direct links and through the automounter.

This is not exactly news but here's a nice tutorial on installing Debian GNU/kfreebsd in QEMU. Finally you can reply to questions like "Do you run linux?" with a proud "No, I run debian" :-) I'm still waiting for the day I can "apt-get install freebsd-image" to replace only the kernel and run my userland with freebsd's linux syscall support.

Levelstar used embedded Linux to create a PDA (personal digital assistant) for visually impaired users. The "Icon" has a custom hardware design with built-in 30GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB, and comes with a full complement of "life managing software," much of it written from scratch for blind users.

Last week, the all-knowing Mako inspired me to give zsh a shot. He started me off with a .zshrc file, and now a week later, I’ve been spreading the word to as many people as I can. But let’s rewind a bit.

There is currently a lot of spam where the spam "information" is attached as .pdf or .xls files, sometime also hidden inside a .zip file. While these spam mails are not easy to catch with e.g. SpamAssassin or a Bayes filter, the ClamAV virus scanner can catch them easily when it is fed with the correct signatures as ClamAV is built to scan mail attachments.

You need to run a job at midnight when system usage is low, or you need to run jobs daily or weekly, but you would rather be sleeping, or enjoying life in some other way. Other good reasons for scheduling jobs include letting routine tasks happen automatically, or ensuring tasks are handled the same way every time.