Drupal 5.0 Released

The Drupal team has just released a new version of the popular CMS.

Read the full story here and check out what's new on Drupal.

Open Source Office Suite Solution

It's never enough to say that the open source community offers a huge amount of software that can make your life easier and, even better. ;-)

You don't need to pay hundreds of dollars for an Office Suite pack. The is an open source alternative that is up to fulfill all your needs. OpenOffice is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. OpenOffice can read documents saved in several file formats including Microsoft Office. And, OpenOffice can save your documents in several file formats, as well. Therefore, you can create a presentation and save it in Microsoft Powerpoint format (*.ppt) and, send it to your friend that doesn't have OpenOffice installed yet, to read it on MS Powerpoint.

It's multiplatfom: Currently OpenOffice support includes Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux ("Linux"), Sun Solaris, Mac OS X (under X11), and FreeBSD.

It's very easy to install. Download OpenOffice from here, for your specific platform.

To install it on Windows XP follow these short steps:

1. Download and install Java JRE if you need the features that are Java
   dependent. More information on Java & OpenOffice.org.
2. As you have already downloaded OpenOffice from www.openoffice.org.
3. Open to Windows Explorer find the file and double-click to launch the unpacking and installation program.
4. The Welcome window is displayed to note that you have downloaded OpenOffice.org 2.1. Click Next to continue.
5. The Select Folder window is displayed. Accept the folder name displayed in the text box or enter the name of the folder in which to save the unpacked files, and click Unpack.
6. Once the files are unpacked, the OpenOffice.org 2.1 Installation Wizard is displayed. Click Next to continue installing OpenOffice.org 2.1.Follow the prompts, and OpenOffice.org will be installed on your system, ready for use.
7. Read the information in the Welcome window and then click Next.The License Agreement window appears.Note: You will need to use the scroll bar to view all of the license text If you do not wish to accept the license, you will be prompted to confirm this before the installation programme closes.
8. Read the license, select "I accept the terms in the license agreement", and click Next.The Customer Information window appears.You may leave this form blank, or enter your User Name and if applicable, Organisation.Note: If you logged in as administrator you will be prompted to install for all users.
9. Complete Customer Information form and click Next.The Setup Type window appears.
10. Select a setup type (we recommend Complete) and click Next.The File Type window is displayed.
11. Select the file types that you wish to open with the OpenOffice.org program.The default configuration is that all the file types are selected. This means that the OpenOffice.org programme will start when these file types are opened. De-select (click on the ticks) to view, edit and print these file types with your existing word processing, spreadsheet or presentation program.Note: If you change your mind, returning to the prior state is tedious. You will need to reassociate all word processing, spreadsheet or presentation files with the appropriate file type. To read more, please see the file associations FAQ on the OpenOffice.org web site.You can use file types not associated with OpenOffice.org, by starting Openoffice.org then open the file by choosing Open from the File menu.
12. Once you have selected the file types click Next.The Ready to Install the Program window is displayed.
13. Click the Back button to return to previous windows to change your installation options, otherwise click Install to begin the installation process.
14. Click the Finish button when the Installation Wizard Finished window is displayed.
15. If you logged in as administrator, logout. Each user can then invoke OpenOffice.org from the program menu which will allow the user to configure OpenOffice.org as a workstation copy with no further effort on the part of the user.

A more extensive (which covers a wider variety of operating systems in great depth) setup guide is available in PDF format here: Extensive setup guide.

• Windows
  • File Associations
• Linux
  • Packages for Linux Distributions
• Apple

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Run OpenOffice.org to ensure that the installation was successful.
When you first run OpenOffice.org after a successfully installing the program, you will be prompted to accept the license, enter your user name and register your copy.

1. Login using your user account, and if you installed OpenOffice.org successfully it will appear on the Programs sub-menu of the Start menu.
2. Click on one of the OpenOffice.org components (we recommend Writer). The Welcome window is displayed.
3. Click Next to display the License Agreement window.
4. Scroll to read the license and click Accept to continue. The Transfer personal data window is displayed.If you wish to reuse personal data from a previous installation click NextIf you do not wish to reuse any settings from a previous installed version, unmark the checkbox and click Next.
5. The user information window is displayed.You are prompted to enter your name. This is used in the document properties, templates and when you record changes made to documents. This is useful if you are working on a document with others, but you don't need to complete this information in order to proceed. This information can also be entered later when using the program.
6. Complete the form and click Next to display the Registration window.You will need to be connected to the internet if you select "I want to register now" and click Finish. Your browser will display a welcome message on the OpenOffice.org web site and then redirect you to a user survey page.If you are not connected to the internet, you can choose to register later.Registration of OpenOffice.org and completion of the user survey is optional and is not required for you to ensure full use of OpenOffice.org.Note: Registration of the OpenOffice.org programme is completely separate to subscribing to various OpenOffice.org mailing lists and registering yourself with the www.openoffice.org site to submit bugs, enhancement requests and contribute to projects.

Remark: The installation steps above is a citation to http://download.openoffice.org/2.1.0/instructions.html

Once you have OpenOffice installed and running, we can read some tutorials online. Here is the link to some good ones:

http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/

http://documentation.openoffice.org/

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education Inpics has placed several tutorials for OpenOffice.org online:

Writer , Calc, Base database tool and Impress, the presentation tool.

Bounty offered for Vista, IE flaws

VeriSign's security arm iDefense announced this week that the company would pay independent flaw finders $8,000 for each remotely exploitable flaw found in Microsoft's Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 7.

"Both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Windows dominate their respective markets, and it is not surprising that the decision to update to the current release of Internet Explorer 7.0 and/or Windows Vista is fraught with uncertainty," the company said in the statement announcing the program. "Primary in the minds of IT security professionals is the question of vulnerabilities that may be present in these two groundbreaking products."

Anyone ?

Linux is Everywhere!

"FSMLabs (http://www.fsmlabs.com) announced today that its flagship RTLinux real-time software is now being used in Cablecam flying cameras used to film NFL and other sporting events. Cablecam is a provider of footage for NFL and NCAA football games as well as for the motion picture industry."

“Flying expensive cameras 12-50 feet in the air above football stars on live TV is a mission critical application” explained Cablecam founder Jim Rudnusky. “RTLinux was chosen for its reliability: it keeps personnel safe and ensures that the camera keeps flying when the game is on the air. The deterministic timing available from RTLinux is crucial to achieving smooth motor motion at high torque. The Cablecam application could not be achieved by anything less than a hard real-time OS.”

Full story can be read here.

So, starts the FSMLab newsletter I'm used to receive monthly. Reading the news in that letter was no surprise to me. I have worked with Linux for 14 (fourteen) years and, I have taken part in many interesting projects with Linux, from big to very small devices.Watching Linux reaching mission critical devices, such as NASA rover on Mars (http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1157697,00.html), gives me satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment by taking part of the open source community.