One of the most veteran CAD apps on the Linux platform, VariCAD, recently was upgraded to version 2012-1.0. The application is a 3-D/2-D CAD system for mechanical-engineering design, whose core features include tools for 3-D modeling and 2-D drafting and dimensioning; libraries of standard mechanical parts (ANSI, DIN); calculations of standard mechanical components; and tools for working with bills of materials (BOM) and blocks. Enhancements in version 2012-1.0 include significant improvements to the GUI, improved and rebuilt 2-D printing dialog, new 2-D dimensioning and editing of dimensions, improvements to DWG/DXF and STEP interfaces, a batch printing module and a better 3-D modeling kernel. Also included in the new update is VariCAD Viewer, a free combination viewer/converter/printing software for working with 2-D DWG, DXF, 3-D STEP and 2-D/3-D VariCAD file formats.
The SecPoint Penetrator, upgraded to version 9.9, is a vulnerability-scanning appliance that recently was beefed up with new applications to boost corporate security. The product helps companies prevent hackers from entering their servers and networks, as well as understand their vulnerabilities. The new version 9.9 now includes the Google Hacking Database to identify whether sensitive company information or files have been indexed by search engines, improved word lists for cracking (now more than 1.1 billion entries) and a tool to show whether a Wi-Fi network is vulnerable. SecPoint Penetrator has no limit on the amount of auditing nor a limit on the number of IP addresses.
This one is for all of you recent comp sci grads! Think of Josh Carter's new book—New Programmer's Survival Manual: Navigate Your Workplace, Cube Farm, or Startup—like job insurance. The book is intended to introduce novice programmers to practices they'll find while working on large-scale, long-lived programs at a professional level of quality. They will find out how to work most efficiently with current tools and discover essential new ones. Other aspects include learning “street smarts”, navigating the corporate working environment, collaborating with colleagues, fitting into the big picture and contributing to company success—thus, increasing one's job security. Finally, the title helps readers look ahead to the years to come to make plans for their long-term success as programming professionals, regardless of their area of focus.
In her new book, Slave to Happiness: Why Having an Interesting Life is the New American Dream, author Penelope Trunk posits a societal trend that Linux folk can relate to. The new American dream, she says, is not based on the acquisition of more stuff, more money, more happiness or the like. Instead, a powerful new motivator replacing “more” for a new generation of Americans is the goal of an interesting life. Publisher Que calls Trunk's book a “powerful, revelatory book [that] captures a radical shift that's been taking place just below the surface of American culture: one that is about to explode across the American landscape”. Some of her revelations include why Americans will increasingly choose interest over contentment, how to make choices when all of the world's knowledge is at your fingertips and how collaboration and connection are gaining a central place in the new American dream. Sound familiar? It will be interesting to see greater society adopt a philosophy that Linux community has embraced for nearly a generation.
Beside providing a delightfully psychedelic mental picture, JetBrains' PhpStorm, which is now in version 3.0, offers software developers an intelligent, productivity-enhancing, code-centric PHP IDE. The most noteworthy features of the new version include UML for quick view of the entire code structure plus the changes in the recent VCS commits, Smart Duplicated Code Detector to remove similar blocks of code without losing intended functionality, and a new PHPUnit test runner and JSTestDriver to make code run faster than ever. Other new functionality includes support for cutting-edge technologies, such as CoffeeScript and XSLT 2.0, an integrated XSLT debugger, PHP UML roundtrip diagrams, streamlined UI across all operating systems and Mac OS X Lin support, among others.
The case that MetaCase makes for its new MetaEdit+ Plug-in for Eclipse is that now development teams can combine the use of models and code—that is, modeling tools and programming environments—in the Eclipse environment. Until now, teams have utilized the MetaEdit+ domain-specific modeling environment on its own. The new MetaEdit+ Plug-in allows users to work with MetaEdit+ models directly from Eclipse, and it automatically imports source code generated from the MetaEdit+ models into Eclipse and builds and runs it there. Traditionally, development teams have found it difficult to combine the use of models and code due to the modeling languages used and the programming environments. Now, with the plugin, however, the domain-specific models—expressed as diagrams, matrices or tables in MetaEdit+—can be browsed and used directly from Eclipse.
The Opengear team capped a productive 2011 with the release of Opengear IM4216-34, a high-capacity infrastructure management gateway that proactively monitors and maintains the health of all the IT equipment in data centers and remote locations. The IM4216-34 provides one point of control for managing all the servers, networking and power equipment in a rack. Provided are 16 serial ports for advanced console management, a 32-port Ethernet gateway for SNMP device management, three USB ports and 16GB of internal Flash memory. Product highlights include myriad enterprise-grade security technologies, Automated Remote Management and Support (ARMS) and remote rack-level management capabilities. Opengear says that the IM4216-34 allows overstretched IT and security organizations to get more results with fewer resources.
The target market for the new Paragon Universal File System Driver (UFSD) is OEMs of consumer multimedia devices that are seeking cross-platform filesystem support. The software's creator, Paragon Software Group, says that if its Paragon UFSD, which supports all popular filesystems, is built in to digital devices, consumers can enjoy issue-free compatibility between filesystems used on all of their devices including those found not just in media centers, digital televisions and set-top boxes, but also various storage media. Key features include full read-write access, easy mounting of any NTFS, HFS+ or exFAT partition like a native one, non-Roman character support, low system requirements and no limitation on maximum file/partition size.
