New Products
May 1st, 2008 by James Gray in
SpectSoft LLC has long provided its high-end, uncompressed video solution RaveHD to the big Hollywood studios. Now, the company aims to reach smaller studios with a number of lower-cost solutions in its new RaveHD Basic product line. RaveHD, says SpectSoft, is a “solid deck replacement”—that is, a Linux-based turnkey solution that offers the storage and tools needed to “bridge the film, video and data gap”, with source code available to its users for integration. Some key features include uncompressed capture and playout of frame-based sequences (DPX), native database and configurable metadata, configuration for SAN support, batch capture and more.
With its new Web Gateway, a line of all-in-one Web security appliances, Astaro further simplifies the task of Web security for small- and medium-size businesses. Web Gateway enables organizations to limit Internet use for business purposes, protect networks from malicious content and prevent virus and spyware infections, thus reducing legal risk. The products provide integrated URL filtering, malware detection, instant messaging and peer-to-peer application control, as well as bandwidth optimization to secure and control Web access completely. It also may be deployed as either a hardware or virtualized appliance and managed through a single browser-based GUI.
Eclipse users keep getting more treats, the latest being SlickEdit Core Version 3.3. The product is a plugin for Eclipse that allows developers to use the SlickEdit code editor as the default within Eclipse. SlickEdit Core consists of the SlickEdit editor, seven additional views and the DIFFzilla differencing engine. The combined functionality is said to “offer greater editing power and better speed in navigating code, allowing even the most accomplished power programmers to be more productive”. The new version is for Eclipse 3.3 and CDT 4.0.
Protecode has unveiled the Protecode plugin, a software development tool that unobtrusively manages IP by detecting and logging 100% of the content entering a software project. Protecode logs, identifies and reports pedigree and licensing information associated with external content in any stage of software development projects. Protecode automatically creates a software “bill of materials” and manages compliance with an organization's IP policies, offering a clean pedigree that ensures developers/contributors are using licenses accurately. Protecoding (coding with the Protecode plugin as part of the development environment) frees developers from having to understand open-source rules and licenses. Initially launched for Eclipse with Java and C/C++, the plugin will expand later into other languages and infrastructures.
Illustrating how everyone can use a little open source, XAware announced a new plugin for Salesforce.com users that enables additional control over customer data and extension of capabilities of the popular SaaS platform. One can “migrate, manage, share and mashup data from various systems”, says XAware. XAware also features an Eclipse-based design environment and an Eclipse plugin to the many developers who use it as their standard development environment. The XAware plugin is available at the company's Web site or from Salesforce.com's AppExchange.
Michael Johnson and Erik Troan have spiffed up their book Linux Application Development enough to warrant this new, second edition. Published by Addison-Wesley, the book presents key APIs and techniques one needs to create robust, secure, efficient software or to port existing code to Linux. It further offers “deep coverage of Linux-specific extensions and features”. The new edition has been updated for the Linux 2.6 kernel, the GNU C library version 2.3, the latest POSIX standards and the Single Unix Specification, Issue 6.
Suddenly Charles River Media is on a tear to get out more Linux and open-source book titles worthy of your attention. Case in point is Allen Sherrod's Game Graphics Programming, which the publisher claims is the only book that teaches the fundamentals of game graphics programming. The title covers topics such as an overview of game graphics, 2-D and 3-D through shaders, software rendering, ray tracing, mapping surfaces, reflections and refractions, lighting, global illumination, optimization, shadows, high-dynamic range and other special effects. A software rendering system and ray tracer are included, allowing users to work through the projects and demos in each chapter. All demos (except DirectX) have Linux, Mac and Windows versions.
Okay, game geeks, you're getting your wish. CodeWeavers is now shipping CrossOver Games, a download-only application that allows you to play tons of popular Windows-based games on either a Linux or Mac OS without the need for a Windows license. Some of the titles you can play include Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft, Civilization 4, Guild Wars, EVE Online, Peggle, Counterstrike Source and others. CodeWeavers is one of the lead sponsors of the Wine Project, on which the company's products are based. The purchase price includes 12 months of free product support and software updates.
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September 2008, #173
Feeling a bit like a Thermian? Never give up, never surrender! Someday, you could go from underdog to top dog. Just take a look at a few of the underdogs we highlight in this issue: Mutt, djbdns, Nginix, Gentoo, Xara and the program voted mostly likely to fail just a few years back—Firefox. If Firefox not radical enough for you, check out Chef Marcel's column for some more alternatives. Having trouble mapping your program data to your relational database? If so, Rueven Lerner shows you some tricks in his At The Forge column.
Need to run GUI applications on your server in the next state? In his Paranoid Penguin column, Mick Bauer shows you how to do it securely. Kyle Rankin keeps hacking and slashing and shows you a few split screen secrets you may not be familiar with. Finally, we all know what happens next February, but only Doc knows what happens afterward.
