rPath’s rBuilder enables companies to build, maintain and deploy their own Linux-based software appliances. The 5.0 version of rBuilder adds support for multiple Linux distribution platforms, as well as a management console for launching software appliances on a handful of virtualization and cloud computing platforms. Check out these slides for a look at eWEEK Labs’ tests of the 5.2.1 rBuilder update.
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A closer look at some of the art forgeries and blunders bought by the National Gallery, to be exhibited next summer
Research in Motions latest smartphone #151the BlackBerry Tour 9630 #151fits sizewise between the BlackBerry Bold and the Curve. While not breaking any new ground in smartphone technology, the Tour features many features consumers want and slides easily into enterprise BlackBerry deployments. Available on the Verizon and Sprint networks, the Tour talks CMDA/EVDO Rev A. at home and GSM/EDGE/HSPA in international locations. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi connectivity was sacrificed for world coverage.
By Andrew Garcia
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Intel Parallel Studio, which works with Microsoft Visual Studio, is designed to inspect code for errors and help developers optimize programs for use with multicore processors. eWEEK Labs puts Parallel Studio through its paces, and finds that the platform simplifies the difficult task of writing parallel code that takes advantage of processors with multiple cores. By Jeff Cogswell
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If the news of a new auto dealership opening in the midst of hundreds of others around the country shutting their doors seems like odd timing, for Tesla it’s the perfect opportunity.
The host profiles feature is one of the most significant additions to the VMware vSphere 4 platform. A host profile can automatically configure network, storage, security and other features on a physical host system running ESX 4.0 or ESXi 4.0. The host profiles feature also enables IT staff to check host systems for configuration compliance, and to easily remedy systems that have drifted out of compliance. This feature should significantly reduce operations costs associated with large vSphere 4 installations, although it does not lessen the need for VMware expertise; crafting a host profile requires expert virtualization knowledge to ensure that hosts created using a host profile will operate as expected.
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Her 31st birthday is coming up, here’s a great gallery of one of the hottest models on the planet, Marisa Miller.
(AskMen)
With the recent release of Silverlight 3, Microsoft has continued to move quickly to try and catch up with Adobe Flash (and its AIR and Flex brethren) in the race to be the rich Internet application platform of choice. Silverlight 3 includes many welcome new features, including the ability to run offline and outside of a browser (a feature already found in Adobe AIR and other platforms). In this review, eWEEK Labs looks at the release candidate of Expression Blend 3, the main tool for designing and delivering Silverlight 3 applications– and, for some, even developing them (though serious developers will probably stick to Visual Studio).
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Five Nigerian government officials have been charged with stealing more than 1bn naira ($6.8m; £4.1m) of funds meant for the National Gallery of Art.
Anti-corruption police say gallery head Joe Musa and four colleagues took public money over the past three years for their own personal use.
All five deny the charges and a hearing has been set for 19-20 October.
President Umaru Yar’Adua made the fight against corruption a main priority of his administration.
The president pledged to crack down on corrupt practices, but critics say that the prosecution process is slow and few officials have so far been convicted.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The NetBeans 6.7 IDE is fully integrated with Project Kenai, Sun’s open-source collaboration site. In this slide show, eWEEK Labs explores a few of the integration features.
By Jeff Cogswell
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Version 5.5 of the no-cost Citrix XenServer provides improved backup and snapshot capabilities, as well as the ability to integrate with Microsoft Active Directory. However, while the no-cost version will be suitable for modest-size organizations, data centers that must ensure high performance will need to move up to the Essentials, which costs from $2,700 to more than $5,000 per server.
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This month’s top online tip features secret New York bars with in-house hot dogs, comedy sports in Chicago and cult LA record stores
Not For Tourists snared me with the simplest of ruses. Somebody says “don’t think about an antelope!” and within seconds you’re picturing one leaping across a grassy plain. A policeman cautions “nothing to see here… move along…” and yup, you’ve slowed to a standstill to gawp. And likewise, Not For Tourists instructed me that I wasn’t their intended audience, and two hours later I was knee-deep in their offerings.
NFT started off as a series of guidebooks – you know, the paper things. But their website has supersized their content, tapping into a network of expertise in nine US cities, and, recently, London. In each city, the NFT “radar” churns out restaurant tips, bar reviews, gallery openings and the like … as reported by a handful of savvy local writers. The site breaks down the tips into districts, plugs tips into maps, and has even begun melding them into iPhone apps. Mod cons aside, at NFT’s core is that most important of things … good taste.
We’ve pilfered their cabinet for some recent best bits.
Every now and then there comes a boozy late-night hour when a smoked, deep-fried hotdog spiralled in bacon sounds like your ticket to heaven. And this St Mark’s Place dugout will probably be aglow and waiting for you and everyone else with gluttony on the brain. Fans of Gray’s Papaya Recession Special may grumble about Crif Dogs’ $2.75-$5 per dog prices, but the bacon wrapping alone adds a salty kick that’s worth lightening your wallet a little. Then there are the toppings – avocado and sour cream, fried egg and cheese, chilli and jalapenos, and virtually any other combination you can dream up. Note the secret door through the telephone booth against the wall. This is the entrance to PDT, a swanky lounge that serves up serious cocktails, where you can order in hot dogs and tater tots from next door.
Extract and photo: NFT/Sara Bogush
• 113 St Marks Place, pdtnyc.com
As regular folks shift to iPods and MP3s, hardcore music fetishists are resurrecting the vinyl LP – it’s been a “trend” for the last 20 years or so – and artists such as Bob Mould are offering free downloads to anyone who buys the 12-inch physical object. Origami Vinyl sells nothing but new analog reprint LPs. They’re sealed, and they’re pricey. The selection is lovably erratic, ranging from the rock canon through the electronic underground. But OV also styles itself as something of a social centre, hosting parties and live performances and getting damned crowded on weekends. Compared to the experience of using a file-sharing service, it’s a pop-art gallery.
Extract and photo: NFT/Emerson Dameron
• 1816 W Sunset Blvd, origamiorigami.com
This tiny studio-sized gallery proves once again that size doesn’t matter. FF Gallery is the physical counterpart to the culture and art community website fecalface.com. Open Wednesday through Saturday, this art space boasts monthly and, during some summer months, weekly installations from artists who are inspired from the underground, urban, skateboard, and graffiti counterculture. On reception nights, the gallery explodes on to the street with people who’ve come by to see what new art FF has to showcase. You can often find folk, comic and graffiti art, photography and mixed media pieces. The cozy space enhances the opportunity to mingle with guests and featured artists. So it’s time to stop judging the gallery name and head over to what is easily one of the most vibrant art spaces in the city.
Extract and photo: NFT/Cristian Cartes
• 66 Gough St, fecalface.com
On your mark, get set, go … to ComedySportz, yet another one of Chicago’s big improv establishments. This one differentiates itself from other comedy houses by making the improv games a competition between two rival teams of players all vying for a trophy and the title of winners (for that evening!) ComedySportz has a no swearing, no dirty topics rule for both the actors and its audience. If anyone gets naughty, a brown paper bag is placed on their head by a referee who is the MC for the event and keeps the performers and audience in line. The audience is included in all the night’s proceedings from determining which team wins each game with clapping measured by an applause meter to offering suggestions for almost every game played.
Extract and photo: NFT/Lisa Siciliano
• 29 W Belmont Ave, comedysportschicago.com
By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News
The battle over Wikipedia’s use of images from a British art gallery’s website has intensified.
The online encyclopaedia has accused the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) of betraying its public service mission.
But the gallery has said it needs to recoup the £1m cost of its digitisation programme and claims Wikipedia has misrepresented its position.
The NPG is threatening legal action after 3,300 images from its website were uploaded to Wikipedia.
The high-resolution images were uploaded by Wikipedia volunteer David Coetzee.
Now Erik Moeller, the deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation which runs the online encyclopaedia, has laid out the organisation’s stance in a blog post.
‘Empire building’
He said most observers would think the two sides should be "allies not adversaries" and that museums and other cultural institutions should not pursue extra revenue at the expense of limiting public access to their material.
"It is hard to see a plausible argument that excluding public domain content from a free, non-profit encyclopaedia serves any public interest whatsoever," he wrote.
He points out that two German photographic archives donated 350,000 copyrighted images for use on Wikipedia, and other institutions in the United States and the UK have seen benefits in making material available for use.
Another Wikipedia volunteer David Gerard has blogged about the row, claiming that the National Portrait Gallery makes only £10-15,000 a year from web licensing, less than it makes "selling food in the cafe".
But the gallery insists that its case has been misrepresented.
A spokeswoman said the issue was not about web licensing.
Instead, she said, the income from reproduction of its images in books and magazines could be damaged if the high-resolution pictures were freely available online.
She also said that the two German archives mentioned in Erik Moeller’s blog had in fact supplied medium resolution images to Wikipedia, and insisted that the National Portrait Gallery had been willing to offer similar material.
The gallery has claimed that David Coetzee’s actions have breached English copyright laws, which protect copies of original works even when they themselves are out of copyright.
The British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies has backed the National Portrait Gallery’s stance.
"If owners of out of copyright material are not going to have the derivative works they have created protected, which will result in anyone being able to use then for free, they will cease to invest in the digitisation of works, and everyone will be the poorer," it wrote in an email to its members.
But the Wikipedia volunteer David Gerard accuses the gallery of bureaucratic empire building.
"They honestly think the paintings belong to them rather than to us," he wrote. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Xobni July 15 rolled out a paid version of its Xobni mailbox search and management tool. Current users of the free Xobni plug-in would do well to ask, Why buy what I can get for free? For a one-time fee of $29.95, users get several advanced search features that improve the process of sifting for e-mail needles in their in-box haystacks.
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A London art gallery has refused to end a sale of prints by ex-South African leader Nelson Mandela, despite a long-running legal dispute.
Lawyers for Mr Mandela say he did not sign the works on display. They are taking legal action against Mr Mandela’s former lawyer.
But Belgravia Gallery owner Anna Hunter said the prints were signed.
She said the legal case had nothing to do with the gallery and the show, which opened on Sunday, would continue.
"The matter is one between Mr Mandela and his former lawyer and has nothing to do with the gallery," she told the BBC.
Signature dispute
The gallery previously planned an exhibition of Mr Mandela’s artwork in 2005, but because of the legal furore in South Africa they decided to take the artworks down.
"Four years later it still hasn’t been resolved," said Ms Hunter.
"We put them back up on Sunday. There has been an incredible response to them. We are honoured to have Mr Mandela’s artworks here."
She insisted the prints were authorised, saying she was present when Mr Mandela, now 90, signed the works.
But Mr Mandela’s lawyer Bally Chuene told the Associated Press the pictures were unauthorised reproductions and the gallery was being "opportunistic".
"Mandela did not sign the artworks, it is important for the public to know that are being deceived," he said.
The lawyer said he had written to the gallery last week asking for them to halt the sale – but Ms Hunter said she had received no letter.
Fifteen works are currently on display at the gallery, including lithograph prints and copies of his autobiography Long Walk To Freedom.
The original signed works were sold in 2003 and the proceeds reportedly went to charities associated with Mr Mandela.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Just when Windows users started to become accustomed to seeing .docx extensions and to finding their way around on the infamous Office 2007 Ribbon, Microsoft is shaking things up again with a brand new version of its omnipresent productivity suite, Office 2010. eWEEK Labs has been trying out the Technical Preview version of the new suite, and we’ve encountered a raft of really useful new features, particularly around data visualization in Excel. What’s more, Office 2010 is mercifully devoid of major file format or interface metaphor shifts.
This Technical Preview will be accessible to a limited group of testers, but you can try to get added to the list by signing up at www.office2010themovie.com. Expect to see a broad public beta later this year. Until then, check out the screen gallery below for our take on Office 2010 so far.
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