Cryptography is rapidly becoming a critical part of our daily lives. However, the application of cryptographic technology adds a heavy computational burden to today's server platforms. More systems are beginning to use specialized hardware to offload the computations, as well as to help ensure the security of secret key material. (more…)

The ZapStation is an audio/video jukebox that digitally stores and plays music and video files transferred from CDs and the Internet, plays DVDs, allows for Internet surfing, and provides daily news from USAToday. The ZapStation connects directly to TVs and stereo receivers, and provides high quality multimedia playback at the touch of a remote control. (more…)

Santa Clara, CA — (press release excerpt) — Sun Microsystems today announced it is offering an enhanced version of the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) Wireless Toolkit. Live demonstrations of the toolkit, including the early access Japanese version will be at the JavaOne Conference in Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama, November 28-30, 2001. (more…)

As an organization adds applications and services, centralizing authentication and password services can increase security and decrease administrative and developer headaches. However, consolidating any service onto a single server creates reliability concerns. High-availability is especially critical for enterprise authentication services, because in many cases the entire enterprise will come to a stop… (more…)

Jericho, NY — (press release excerpt) — CRN, CMP Media's news weekly for builders of technology solutions, features a cover story in its Dec. 3 issue in which its CRN Test Center put together a Microsoft Windows-free network with a Linux server and five workstations at a 93 percent software cost savings to a comparable Windows solution. (more…)

Kevin Dankwardt submitted this brief report on the Embedded Linux Expo & Conference held this week in Milan Italy . . . (more…)

Salt Lake City, UT — (press release excerpt) — SnapGear Inc. has released a new general uClinux distribution based upon the Linux 2.4.10 kernel. The new source distribution includes multi-kernel build options, broad processor family support, libraries, network tools, user applications, and pre-canned configurations for numerous boards. (more…)

Santa Ana, CA — (press release excerpt) — REDSonic, Inc. today announced a strategic alliance with ChinaSoft Network Technology Co. Ltd., the largest software vendor in China. The two companies will work together to develop the embedded software and digital device market in China. (more…)

The previous article in this series at IBM's developerWorks website covered synchronization primitives and gave a reprise on pipes. This article takes a first look at communication using sockets. The author demonstrates some techniques for writing a sockets program and shows how his programming techniques perform in various operating system environments. (more…)

The success or failure of any software programming group depends largely on its ability to work together as a team. From manager to members, to well-conceived, yet dynamic guidelines, the team as a whole is defined by the unison of its parts. Shattering the myth of the faultless programmer, this column dismantles the uninspired software group and then builds it up again into a synchronized, energized… (more…)

Every UNIX administrator is familiar with inetd, the daemon that manages most incoming network connections through a centralized configuration file (inetd.conf). The xinetd daemon is a replacement for inetd that offers many improved or new features, and easier configuration. This article on IBM's developerWorks website explains the concepts behind inetd, and gives examples for setting up xinetd at your own… (more…)

Helsinki, Finland — (press release excerpt) — a group of leading Finnish companies in the construction, building automation and ICT areas have initiated a standardization effort called COBA (Connected Open Building Automation) to develop an OSGi-, Java-, and Linux-based open software architecture for a 'building operating system'. (more…)

Sharp USA has announced today that the “SL-5000D” (the developer versions of their upcoming StrongARM-based PDAs running Linux and Java) are shipping. They're taking orders from their USA website. (more…)

Our friends at Microsoft kindly sent along this note regarding the launch of Windows XP Embedded . . . (more…)

Lund, Sweden — (media advisory excerpt) — For a number of years, there has been a big buzz about the convergence of Internet and TV. Words like Interactive TV, IP-TV, and Video-on-Demand have been on everyone's lips. So far, there has been little sign of any real products outside of powerpoint presentations. (more…)