NetBSD 4: A Force to Be Reckoned With?

NetBSD 4 is finally out, boasting a long list of feature and speed improvements in the open source operating system. The NetBSD 4.0 comes nearly two years after NetBSD 3.0 was released. As with earlier versions, NetBSD 4 continues to competitively position its BSD variant against its BSD, Linux and Unix peers.

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Security Researcher Promotes Concept of 'Safe' and 'Promiscuous' Web Browsers

But Jeremiah Grossman, CTO at Whitehat Security and one of the country’s most prominent application security researchers, has a workaround he uses to protect himself online. It involves having two browsers: One, which he calls the “promiscuous” browser, is the one he uses for ordinary browsing. A second browser is used only for security-critical tasks such as online banking. When Grossman wants to do online banking, he closes his promiscous browser, opens the more prudish one, and does only what he has to do before closing it and going back to his insecure browser.

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The crossover LAN

You have probably heard that a two-node LAN can be configured by stringing a crossover cable between the network ports on two systems. Not only is this true, but it's not all that hard to do provided you have a few tools, a length of CAT 5 cable and a couple RJ45 connectors. Using a crossover cable has one decided advantage over a traditional network hookup -- it avoids the requirement that a hub be used to connect the two systems, saving both money and rack space.

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Using a guardian to ensure your lamp site is always up

"to guarantee maximum uptime for your site, it's a good idea to periodically check the health of your system and restart failing components. you can use a simple program to do this automatically. i like to call this type of program, a "guardian"."

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NetBSD 4.0 Released

The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that release 4.0 of the NetBSD operating system is now available. NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection.

Perl 5.10.0 is now available

Perl 5.10.0 is now out, the first in the 5.10.x major version series, after a five year long development process. It's currently being mirrored on CPAN.

The FreeBSD Foundation Semi-Annual Newsletter Announcement

Dear FreeBSD Community,

I am pleased to announce the publication of The FreeBSD Foundation's
Semi-Annual Newsletter. Go to
http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/press/2007Dec-newsletter.shtml
to find out what we've been doing to help the FreeBSD project and community.

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PC-BSD

PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD. It is an easy to use solution which saves time and energy. Think of PC-BSD as a port. Someone made a port for FreeBSD, KDE, mail, IRC, office suite, and scores of other applications. If you want FreeBSD and lots of extras, it is available as a nice little package in the form of PC-BSD. They've figured out all the dependencies, twists, and turns, and packaged it all up for you in one easy ISO. Well, two ISO actually, but you get my point. But it's not a port. Included is a fantastic installer. Time to upgrade? PC-BSD will download the upgrade and install it for you.

It all just works.

You might call PC-BSD a distro of FreeBSD. I call it a big time saver. Plus, it solved a couple of problems for me and allowed me to get on to solving bigger and more important problems.

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IMAP - getting Dovecot running

If you're reading this, you use email. You probably have more than one email address. I do. I have many. I run 13 domains, plus some more for friends off my two mail servers. If you're like me, you use POP to download your mail to your computer and read it there. POP works best when you use just one computer.

In this article, I will show you how I installed Dovecot and configured it so I could securely get my email. This involves setting up the certificates and configuring Dovecot.

PC-BSD Version 1.4 to be carried in all Micro Center stores

iXsystems announced today a distribution agreement with Micro Center, a leading edge provider of computer products, whereby all Micro Center stores nationwide will carry PC-BSD Version 1.4, Da Vinci Edition. The agreement marks the first time that the PC-BSD operating system is made available for purchase at Micro Center.

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Access Linux Files from Windows with Linux Reader

Dual-booters have long been able to get at their Windows-formatted files, but Windows certainly doesn't make it easy to go the other way 'round. Enter Linux Reader, a free Windows application that emulates the look and feel of the Windows XP Explorer and allows read-only access to ext2 and ext3-formatted drives, the most common formats for Linux installations.

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Choosing Optimal MySQL Data Types

It is too often that web developers use the wrong data types in their databases. I have compiled a list of tips to make sure you choose the optimal MySQL Data Types.

My Top 5 Favorite New C# 3.0/.NET 3.5 Framework Features

Partial Methods, Automatic Properties, Extension Methods, Object Initializers and System.TimeZoneInfo Class.

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Vista SP1 Release Candidate Available

Informationweek points out white papers telling business users that if they were waiting for SP1 to solve application compatibility issues, they needn't bother waiting: SP1 won't solve them, and in fact might cause applications to break that were running under Vista.

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FreeBSD with MySQL 6.0

I have been wanting to run MySQL 6.0 on my FreeBSD System, since I read about the new Falcon engine to see how well it works on FreeBSD when compared to other Systems. I will be running benchmark testing in the next few days so say tuned. For now I'm going to explain how I setup MySQL 6.0 on FreeBSD.

Mono 1.2.6 released, supports Silverlight 1.1 development

The Mono development team has announced the official release of Mono 1.2.6, the latest version of Novell's open source .NET implementation. Mono 1.2.6 includes numerous improvements to both the Mono runtime engine and development components.