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Source: DistroWatch.com: News

Adonay Sanz Alsina has announced the release of K-DEMar 4.7, a Debian-based distribution and live CD designed primarily for Catalan and Spanish speakers. The biggest change is the switch to Linux-Live scripts for building the CD image, with the "copy to RAM" support and improved speed of loading .

Source: Linux Today

Linux.com: "For a long time, I recorded a basic list of all the backups I made of my movie collection in a scruffy notebook. In due time, I found that relying on a simple piece of paper was wishful thinking. I then endured the laborious process of migrating my list to a spreadsheet on my computer -- but that still wasn't enough. Eventually I found Griffith, a movie collection manager, and was pleasantly surprised to discover what it was capable of."

Source: Linux Today

OStatic: "Here is a very interesting little Firefox extension that caught my attention: GPhotoSpace. It requires Firefox 3 and leverages the 7GB+ of storage space that you currently get with a Gmail account for an online photo storage repository"

Source: Linux Today

The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "home # ssh sweatshop
The integrity of the workplace 'sweatshop (10.99.99.99)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is e3:6e:86:58:cd:38:dd:71:70:60:ea:ea:82:92:fb:72.
Are you sure you really can't find a better way to spend your day (yes/no)? yes"

Source: Linux Today

Field Commander Wieers: "Currently RHbz is not indexed by Google and in my opinion this is hurting the Red Hat, Fedora, but also the CentOS community."

Source: Linux Today

CNet: "A Microsoft spokesman said he could not say when a fix would come. The next Patch Tuesday is scheduled for January 13."

Source: Linux Today

HowtoForge: "This article describes how you can shrink and grow existing software RAID partitions. I have tested this with non-LVM RAID1 partitions that use ext3 as the file system. I will describe this procedure for an intact RAID array and also a degraded RAID array"

Source: Linux Today

steaming open cup: "Two days ago, CNET came up with its list of what it considered as the best cell phones of this year. Out of the six, two of them run on Linux."

Source: Linux Today

WorksWithU: "If you're in the market for a low-end PC, put aside about $300 for the ZaReason Breeze, a small desktop computer that runs Ubuntu Linux. Based on our testing, we see some clear market segments where the Breeze is an ideal option for today's consumers and small businesses."

Source: Linux Today

IBM Developerworks: "In this article, learn how to integrate an x86-based IBM BladeCenter server and external IBM BladeCenter Boot Disk System (DS3200) SAS storage, as a critical prerequisite for a reliable Linux/blade server environment. Some Linux Volume Manager "hot-add" features designed to meet the increasing demand on storage systems are covered as well."

Source: Slashdot: Linux

Trepidity writes "In its roundup of how to choose a netbook, The Economist suggests that users 'avoid the temptation' to go for a Windows-based netbook, and in particular to treat them as mini laptops on which you'll install a range of apps. In their view, by the time you add the specs needed to run Windows and Windows apps effectively, you might as well have just bought a smallish laptop. Instead, they suggest the sweet spot is ultra-lite, Linux-based netbooks, with a focus on pre-installed software that caters to common tasks. They particularly like OpenOffice, which they rate as easier to use than MS Word and having "no compatibility problems", as well as various photo-management software." Besides which, does Windows offer spinning cubes for coffee-shop demos?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot: Linux

Sarah Sharp writes "Intel's Open Source Technology Center is working on USB 3.0 support for Linux. USB 3.0 has wire speeds of 5Gbps and promises to be 10 times faster than USB 2.0. A recent video demo shows speeds that are 3.5 times faster than USB 2.0. The USB 3.0 drivers will be submitted to the mainline kernel when the eXtensible host controller interface (xHCI) specification reaches a 1.0 release."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot: Linux

ruphus13 writes "HP finally begins to actively push open source in its products. From the post, 'HP has been quirky over the years when it comes to open source. It has been, traditionally, a company that supports open source — especially in larger enterprises Wednesday, it announced two new open source products, geared to small businesses and educational institutions. HP plans on including its 'Mozilla Firefox for HP Virtual Solution' on more of its business class desktop PCs (to a total of seven models between the HP Compaq dc/dx lines in the US, eight models worldwide). Come December 15th, HP will also offer Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on its HP Compaq dc5850 model. The base SLED-equipped model will cost $519, and features the usual open source suspects for the small business setting — OpenOffice, and mail clients such as Evolution.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Security DevCenter

Like most of us, I have been in the cloud longer than I have thought about being "in the cloud". But it took the need for a significant capital investment in hardware to drive Valtira into cloud computing using Amazon Web Services like Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Our journey into the cloud began with a new product offering and an attempt to avoiding shelling out huge up-front cash on hardware. Today, we have a complex infrastructure that saves us money over other options and provides greater flexibility.

Source: Security DevCenter

Forums have become an integral part of many communities over the years - as a webmaster on a number of different social sites, I found that the sites tended to live or die on the strength of their forums more than on any other component of the site. They provide a way for people to express their feelings, to communicate with one another, to explore deep concepts (and silly ones) and to learn, and as such they often form the vibrant backbone of communities regardless of the subject matter expressed.

Source: Security DevCenter

This book teaches test managers what they need to know to achieve advanced skills in test estimation, test planning, test monitoring, and test control. Readers will learn how to define the overall testing goals and strategies for the systems being tested. This hands-on, exercise-rich book provides experience with planning, scheduling, and tracking these tasks. You'll be able to describe and organize the necessary activities as well as learn to select, acquire, and assign adequate resources for testing tasks. Learn how to form, organize, and lead testing teams Master the organizing of communication among the members of the testing teams, and between the testing teams and all the other stakeholders. Additionally, you ll learn how to justify decisions and provide adequate reporting information where applicable.

Source: Security DevCenter

CMMI is a well-known and standardized model for assessing and improving software and systems development processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI was developed at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The current version, 1.2, was published in 2006 and is being adopted worldwide. This book provides hands-on experience and will help the reader to gain an understanding of CMMI. It is an introduction to the model and its fundamental ideas. Through numerous examples, it helps the reader to get started with CMMI and to understand the interrelationship among model components (practices, goals, and process areas). The book covers the following topics: Model-based process improvement Overview of CMMI components History of CMMI and comparison to CMM Process areas of CMMI models Application, potential, and limitations of CMMI