"I have a Pentium 3 866MHZ CPU. After reading the freshmeat article on optimizing GCC a few days ago, it got me thinking. So I posed the following question: How much faster would gcc compile the kernel if gcc itself was optimized? I chose to benchmark kernel compilation times, because I think it is a good benchmark, and many other people also use it to benchmark system performance. Also, at one point or another, most Linux users will have to take the step and compile the kernel, so I thought I'd benchmark something that is useful and something that people have a general idea of how long it takes to compile without optimizations."

( Permalink: Optimizing GCC      Submitted by Noel Wed Mar 5, 2003 )

"Billed as the "World's Greatest Crossover Product!", Win4Lin is a Linux application that allows you to install a Microsoft operating system directly into your Linux environment. Once you've done this, you can open the second operating system whenever you want and run Windows-based programs at native speeds without having to leave Linux, dual boot, or add additional hardware."

( Permalink: Exploring Win4Lin 4.0      Submitted by Noel Wed Mar 5, 2003 )

"Now that Linux boasts full-featured office suites, there's no reason it can't become a boon for small- and home-offices. Joe Barr compares two Optical Character Recognition packages -- Kooka & Gocr (free software) and OCR Shop (proprietary) -- that may be of special value in the legal and medical fields. While Joe finds one of the packages to be clearly superior in terms of performance, his personal pick of the two applications might surprise you."

( Permalink: Two OCR Packages for Linux Compared      Submitted by Noel Wed Mar 5, 2003 )

"Fortunately there is now a method of simulating a SMP system with a single CPU Linux system. Fantastically, it requires no financial investment. The tool is Jeff Dike's User Mode Linux (UML). UML was developed as a new Linux architecture, although it doesn't have any associated hardware. It will eventually run on any physical platform. An instance of Linux--a full Linux kernel running with its own complete directory tree, device nodes, filesystems, etc., as needed--runs in non-privileged user mode as an application."

( Permalink: Testing SMP Kernel Modules with UML      Submitted by Noel Wed Mar 5, 2003 )

"But, it can soon become very routine just examining the output from the IDS. And, this is where you have to challenge yourself to be curious and explore or become a screen watcher. Some IDS' have advanced features, rules languages, and optional configurations that will allow you to finely tune the rules, correlate events, and more accurately analyze traffic. So, study the IDS and learn to get the most out of it."

( Permalink: Interview with Judy Novak      Submitted by LogError Tue Mar 4, 2003 )

"The primary difference between this second edition and the original Hack Attacks Revealed, aside from some rectified errata, is approximately 300 pages of over 170 new exploits, advanced discovery techniques, malicious code coverage of Myparty, Goner, Sircam, BadTrans, Nimda, Code Red I/II and more ..."

( Permalink: Hack Attacks Revealed, Second Edition      Submitted by Noel Tue Mar 4, 2003 )

"You blended your IDS with my firewall! No, you blended your firewall with my IDS! Either way, when you combine the blocking capabilities of a firewall with the deep packet inspection of an IDS, you get the new kid on the block: intrusion prevention systems or IPS."

( Permalink: The Next Step in the Evolution of IDS      Submitted by Noel Tue Mar 4, 2003 )

"In this walkthrough, I will attempt to describe the process of updating and compiling a Linux kernel under Debian. I will try to explain the necessary steps in a way that will dispel all mystery and fear. My hope is that somebody new to Linux will be able to go through this comfortably and end up with an updated system when they are done."

( Permalink: The Very Verbose Guide to Compiling the Kernel      Submitted by Gentu Tue Mar 4, 2003 )

"So memory management tends to be caught in the middle of all these different things, which means that it ends up being one of the most complex pieces, and at the same time, the most fundamental. It needs to be 100 percent stable, and at the same time, there are many different people who have different things they want to do with it."

( Permalink: The Great Dictator      Submitted by Noel Tue Mar 4, 2003 )

"This particular web site is a demonstration from the new edition of Apache: The Definitive Guide; the page references are to this book (A:TDG, ED 3). Like most web sites I'm asked to create, this one, which offers a notional postcard business to the world, has a public face and a private face. Like a big store, in fact, it has a public entrance, which anyone can enter or exit from, and a private entrance, which can only be passed through with a key."

( Permalink: An Apache Site with Public and Secure Access      Submitted by Noel Mon Mar 3, 2003 )

"KDE is delivering a better version of what GNOME's goal has apparently morphed into: becoming a great component framework that you can write to in multiple languages. Nicholas Petreley rebuffs the common GNOME battle slogans and explains why the window-manager's name needs reworking. Part 2 in a series."

( Permalink: KDE 3.1 vs. GNOME 2.2: How GNOME became LAME      Submitted by Noel Mon Mar 3, 2003 )

"In the last article, we examined basic systrace policies. This time we're going to learn how to create and use systrace policies. In a true paranoid's ideal world, sysadmins would read the source code for every application on their system and be able to build system call access policies by hand, relying only on their ultimate understanding of every feature of the application. Most system administrators don't have that sort of time and would have better things to do with that sort of time if they did."

( Permalink: Creating Systrace Policies      Submitted by Noel Mon Mar 3, 2003 )

"My Mac never crashes. All of my Unix tools and my research prototypes work on it, and all of my office documents work just fine. I enjoy having an xterm running right next to a Word document. I also like the fact that when a new release of the OS comes out, things actually improve. It's basically Unix with a great GUI."

( Permalink: Interview with Aviel Rubin      Submitted by LogError Mon Mar 3, 2003 )

"CollegeLinux keeps ease, fun and learning altogether. Some users may prefer a GUI graphical interface like the excellent option proposed by RedHat, SuSE and Mandrake. The only problem is that with a windows-like installer, users will expect a Windows-like system in terms of adding applications etc. In other words, CollegeLinux has an easy installer with hardware auto detection and a ready to run system for both novice and expert."

( Permalink: CollegeLinux: Learning the Linux Way      Submitted by Noel Mon Mar 3, 2003 )

"Python is a computing language whose popularity appears to be expanding rapidly. While it's not as well known as Java and C, for example, it seems to have "turned the corner" in that hiring departments now spell it correctly and mid-level managers have largely stopped saying "No way!" when presented with a decision about Python."

( Permalink: Making Use of Python      Submitted by Noel Thu Feb 27, 2003 )

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