gOS Gadgets, from the company Good OS, has been upgraded to Version 3. gOS Gadgets utilizes the diminutive and open-source Google Gadgets for the Linux platform to help PC OEMs make more affordable, consumer-friendly Netbooks and Nettops. New in the upgraded gOS Gadgets is an expanded, more stable release of Google Gadgets for Linux that offers users access to more than 100,000 Google and iGoogle Gadgets that decorate the desktop with live, personalized Internet content. It also features a unique user interface with big icons that launch Google applications in Mozilla Prism, a browser that makes Web applications feel more like desktop applications. gOS Gadgets is available for free download from Good OS's Web site.
Promise Technology stresses comprehensive Linux support on its new 16-Port RAID Controller, the SuperTrak EX16650. The EX16650 and the rest of the SuperTrak EX RAID controller family now officially supports more than 15 different Linux kernel distributions in addition to the company's open-source Linux drivers. The devices also now have native “inbox” driver support in all major Linux distributions. The EX16650 provides 16 ports of SAS/SATA connectivity, eliminating the requirement for a separate expander in most applications. Promise says the controllers are ideal for enterprise data solutions, such as enterprise storage servers, network backup, disk-to-disk backup, security and surveillance, video editing and digital content creation.
The open-source Java clustering solution Terracotta has added a tick to the tenths column, landing at Version 2.7. The makers of Terracotta claim their application lowers costs and simplifies Web application deployment by reducing development effort and easing the load on application servers and databases, making it a solution well suited for scaling critical applications. Because Terracotta offers “the performance of local memory with the high availability of a database”, it eliminates the “unyielding performance and reliability trade-offs that constrain many Java applications today”. Version 2.7 also extends support of the Spring framework and the Glassfish application server, plus features that enhance scalability, performance and operational visibility.
In telecom news, Fonality recently announced it will provide its HUD 3.0 unified communications software to the open-source trixbox Community Edition (CE) platform. Trixbox is the world's largest free and open-source telephony project. As a result, trixbox CE users will enjoy presence management and detection in a single interface for all types of office communications, including SMS, instant message, land-line calling, mobile calling, chat, voice mail, e-mail, conferencing, recording and barging. They also will have a “secure and affordable way to support remote and home-based workers”, says Fonality. Fonality adds that its contributions will “bring the polish of the HUD 3.0 unified communications platform, which is in use by more than 100,000 paid users, to the trixbox community”.
Apress is venturing into the under-published topic of geospatial data management with its new book Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g, by authors Ravi Kothuri and Albert Godfrind. The book is targeted at software developers who want to develop applications using Oracle's extensive built-in support for working with spatial, or geocoded, data. The book addresses issues such as the special nature of spatial data and its role in professional and consumer applications; the modeling, storing, accessing and analyzing of spatial data; the Oracle Spatial solution and the integration of spatial data into enterprise databases; and how spatial information is used to understand business and support decisions. Other topics include the SDO_GEOMETRY data type, geocoding of data, map creation, network modeling and optimizing analysis of spatial data.
The Cell processor is the linchpin that enables the world's fastest supercomputer, IBM's Roadrunner, so it likely will add wings to your application too. Matthew Scarpino's new book Programming the Cell Processor, published by Prentice-Hall, shows how to create applications that harness the power of IBM's powerful Cell processor. Oriented toward game developers, graphics programmers and engineers, the book covers everything from the Cell's advanced architecture to its tools and libraries, presenting code examples that help you gain a deep understanding of Cell development. Topics include mastering the Cell SDK, understanding Cell's PPU, programming the Synergistic Processor Unit and more.
If your next mission is to bump off YouTube with your own video-hosting site, Sothink hopes you'll choose its new solution, Video Encoder Engine for Adobe Flash, to do so. This Linux-based encoder can convert nearly any popular video format to FLV and can be utilized on Web servers, blogs, forums and other interactive sites. The product also enables advanced video editing, batch conversion, quality control and other tasks with CGI or any other server-side scripting language. A demo video hosting site, complete with source code and written in PHP, is included. Other functions include full control of video and audio quality and characteristics.
Astaro offers that its new Mail Gateway appliance trumps its competitors by being “the only security vendor that provides e-mail encryption free with its mail gateway solution”. Targeted at small- to medium-size businesses, the Mail Gateway also features virus protection and remote exchange access and runs transparently at the gateway to eliminate need for employee action. Removing individual employees from the encryption process, says Astaro, significantly lowers the chance that confidential data may be sent accidentally in plain text across the Internet. Astaro's encryption is based on standards, such as S/MIME, OpenPGP and TLS, and allows for scanning of encrypted e-mail for malware. In addition, Astaro's solution complements traditional antispam technologies with reputation-based filtering.