Open Source Security: Still a Myth -- Open source may have many benefits over closed systems, but don't count security among them--yet. This article by John Viega looks at why open source software may currently be less secure than its commercial counterparts. John is a coauthor of Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++.
The GNU Free Documentation Licenses -- The principles that apply to open source licenses also apply to licenses for documentation and works other than software. In this article, Andrew St. Laurent looks at the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), reviewing it section by section and raising some minor problems and ambiguities in definitions. Andrew is the author of Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing.
Book Review: Just a Geek
-- In this Applelust book review, Dr. Neale Monks
discusses Wil Wheaton's three distinct writing styles: the informal and
intimate autobiographical mode that carries through most of his book;
his early, often bullish, and entertaining weblogs, which he
deconstructs in Just a Geek; and the wistful, subtly detailed
recollections of his youth, essays that lead the reviewer to suggest,
"Wheaton could easily become the Garrison Keillor of Generation X."
Check out the poet of geeks: Just a Geek.
A Conversation Between Dan Gillmor and Jay Rosen -- Jay Rosen talks to Dan Gillmor about the current state of journalism and the impact technology is having on traditional media. For a full exposé on the deep shift in how we make and consume the news, see Dan's recently released We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People.
Ruby on Rails Project -- Rails is a new open source web-application framework that provides everything needed to build real-world applications, using fewer lines of code than other development environments. It's a full-stack framework, so all layers are built to work seamlessly together and you can use a single language from top to bottom. Everything from templates to control flow to business logic is written in Ruby. For more on Ruby, see the upcoming book by the Pragmatic Programmers, contributors to the Rails Identity Project, Programming Ruby, 2nd Edition.
Call for Participation: Emerging Technology Conference -- What alpha geeks do today can radically alter the future of technology for everyone tomorrow. O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference (ETech) frames the ideas, projects, and technologies that the alpha geeks are thinking about, hacking on, and inventing right now into a coherent picture that we can build upon. If you've got your eye on nascent technological transformations, send us a proposal (due September 27), and join us in San Diego, California March 14 - 17 for ETech 2005.
We the Media: One Book You Should Read This Year -- In this MediaDailyNews review, Chris Schroeder writes, "Gillmor's artistry is in writing in a language that the digerati will find technical enough, but will never lose us regular civilians. There is little or no hyperbole here, few talk of 'revolutions.' With his keen reporter's eye, but with no polemic, there is a clear description of worlds that are playing out with inevitable ramifications to the future of news and information and elsewhere." Publishers, citizens, and marketers would all do well to get a copy of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People.
Ernest Miller on What's Wrong with the Induce Act -- U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch has sponsored a bill before Congress called the Induce Act, which would leave people who haven't directly infringed copyright, but who provide tools or
support for people who do infringe copyright, to be open to lawsuits
for the infringement. Ernest Miller talks to Richard Koman about what's
wrong with the Induce Act and its potentially debilitating impact on
technological innovation, in this article on the Policy DevCenter.
Building a Unix Server -- Building a new server is always a little exciting--you have the chance to make a fresh start. Dru Lavigne explains how to optimize servers for both performance and security, some common pitfalls to be wary of, and the logical approach to getting the job done right. For everything else you need to create functional and secure servers, see O'Reilly's The Complete FreeBSD, 4th Edition.
Interview with Paul Graham -- How are hackers and painters different from architects and engineers? Hackers and painters figure out both the what and the how. In this IT Conversations interview, author Paul Graham talks about the need for empathy in a computer programmer, the use of C and Lisp in creating Viaweb, a new language called Arc, a simple algorithm for filtering spam, and so much more. Listen to the interview or read the transcript, then buy the book: Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age.
Technical Writing Using OpenOffice.org Writer -- If you're in the business of writing technical documents, you could benefit from using OpenOffice.org Writer. In this article, Jean Hollis Weber reviews Writer's many features, including a customizable interface, support for styles, advanced page layout capabilities, and a full macro language. Jean is the author of OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word.
