Issue #91 / Jun 2008

PROGRAMMING: AJAX Workshop

Building efficient websites with AJAX

Books were the original model for website design. Navigation was similar to flipping the pages. Thanks to AJAX, many state-of-the-art websites now behave like desktop applications.

PROGRAMMING: Perl: Ptrace

Perl script uses Ptrace for process tracing

Linux lets users watch the kernel at work with a little help from Ptrace, a tool that both debuggers and malicious process kidnappers use. A CPAN module introduces this technology to Perl and, if this is not enough, C extensions add functionality.

LINUXUSER: Mozilla Lightning

Mozilla Thunderbird calendar add-on

The Lightning add-on lets users upgrade their Mozilla Thunderbird email client and turn it into a convenient, versatile groupware product.

LINUXUSER: FileZilla

FileZilla ftp client

High-performance GUI-based ftp clients for Linux are hard to find. The graphical FileZilla ftp client closes the gap.

LINUXUSER: Workspace: Laptop Tools

Must-have tools for the Linux laptop

Pack your Linux laptop with the right set of tools. We take a closer look at Adblock Plus, woof, Conky, TrueCrypt, rsync, and Grsync.

LINUXUSER: Command Line: Mailx

Mail at the command line

The simple mailx command-line mail client handles mail either interactively or via command-line options. Although it lacks the convenience of a GUI-based tool, mailx compares well in scripting.

COMMUNITY: Idlelo 3

Making the Knowledge Economy Work for Africa

The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa recently hosted the third Idlelo conference, which focused on "Making the Knowledge Economy Work for Africa."

COMMUNITY: Brainshare 2008

A view from Brainshare 2008

Novell vendors, developers, and users exchanged metaphors and business cards in Salt Lake City.

COMMUNITY: Free Software Projects

An up-to-date look at free software and its makers

Should free development be a part of free software, or is Apache pioneer Roy Fielding asking too much of Sun? Besides looking at the commercial side of free software, this month's column investigates synchronization of speech and text.