IBM has published the following new technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks and AlphaWorks websites. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . !

• Master Boot Record Guided Tour — This article explores the Linux boot process from the initial bootstrap to the start of the first user-space application. Along the way, learn about other boot-related topics such as the boot loaders, kernel decompression, and the initial RAM disk.
• Set up remote access in UNIX through OpenSSH — Use OpenSSH to provide a secure environment for running a remote terminal. The basics of OpenSSH and terminal usage are quite simple but, in this article, examine additional elements that allow automatic login to remote hosts, methods for running remote applications, and how to securely copy files between hosts.
• Create Fancy On-Screen Displays with Ghosd and Perl — With recent advances in frameless transparent windows for Linux desktop now you can use Perl, Ghosd, and some network programming to display on-screen overlays of text and graphics based on messages from your local system and remote computers. Define custom images, font sizes, and colors to convey information integrated with your desktop.
• Portland Improves Linux Desktop Portability — Portland is a new open source project that promises to simplify the deployment and commercialization of Linux applications by helping them run on multiple desktop environments, including Gnome and KDE. Get started using the XdgUtils toolset in Portland 1.0.
• Print DVI Files with CUPS for Linux — Have you ever tried to print DVI or other files in Linux and gotten an “unsupported format” message? This tip shows you how to combine existing tools to make a Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) print filter for printing DVI files.
• Mash Apache Derby with a new OpenOffice 2.0 feature — Document storage is hot, hot, hot! There has been an explosion of methodologies and tool sets — both open source and proprietary — to fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents. Mash Apache Derby with a new OpenOffice 2.0 feature to create a repository that lets you store, search, and extract ODF documents in a standards-based manner.
• Ten predictions for XML in 2007 — 2007 is shaping up to be the most exciting year since the community drove off the XML highway into the Web services swamp half a decade ago. XQuery, Atom, Atom Publishing Protocol (APP), XProc, and GRRDL are all promising new power. Some slightly older technologies like XForms and XSLT are having new life breathed into them. 2007 will be a very good year to work with XML. See what's in store for XML this year.
• Zero-config object persistence with Simple Persistence for Java — Simple Persistence for Java is an open source object-relational persistence library that uses a custom query language and built-in database support to simplify object persistence in Java applications. In this article, software architect Sami Salkosuo introduces the library and walks you through its zero-admin, zero-config approach to object persistence.
• The right way to read files with PHP — One of the joys of dealing with modern programming languages like PHP is the amount of options available. PHP could easily steal the Perl motto, “There's more than one way to do it,” especially when it comes to file processing. Learn how to use the different file functions of PHP. Review basic file functions, such as fopen, fclose, and feof; learn reading functions, such as fgets, fgetss, and fscanf. And discover functions that process entire files in one or two lines of code.
• Build Ajax apps using Google Web Toolkit, Apache Derby, and Eclipse, Part 3 — In this third article, find out how to get the client and server talking to each other. You'll use the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework within GWT to make getting data off the server almost as simple as making a Java method call.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.