All Articles

Joel R. Williams Issue #66, October 1999 A look at embedded systems and what it takes to build one. Most Linux systems run on PC platforms; however, Linux can also be a reliable workhorse for embedded systems. This article gives an overview of embedded systems and demonstrates what is involved in using Linux in a commercial embedded system. Embedded Systems—Older ...

Juergen Kahrs Issue #66, October 1999 “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.” –Richard Hamming, 1915-1998 In today’s visual world of data processing, many people think solving problems with computers means implementing graphical user interfaces (GUIs). From this point of view, writing real-time applications means writing GUIs while at the same time mastering the system-dependent functions that ensure predictable ...

Larry Hoff Issue #65, September 1999 Extending Netscape’s ability to handle additional file formats. Plug-ins are a powerful mechanism for extending the capabilities of Netscape’s web browser. Using plug-ins, the browser can display files in formats that were not even conceived of when the browser was developed, such as multimedia files embedded within larger web pages. This allows web pages ...

 George E. author) Issue #65, September 1999 MLPPP gives network managers the power to deliver WAN bandwidth on demand using an array of services. Network management is a little like alchemy: take a dash or two of ISDN, add some frame relay, throw in a couple of routers, mix them all together, and somehow, some way, the result is bandwidth ...

Travis Metcalfe Ed Nather Issue #65, September 1999 Astronomers at the University of Texas-Austin are using the ideas of Charles Darwin to learn about the interior of white dwarf stars—using a minimal parallel Linux cluster tailored specifically to their application. Astronomers worry about how stars work. Our current models describe stars as huge, hot gasballs, bloated and made luminous by ...

Marcel Gagné Issue #65, September 1999 Mr. Gagné provides us with several recipes from his famed French restaurant. Allo, and welcome to Chez Marcel, home of fine French Linux cooking. Please take a seat. If you have not already done so, I would like you to read this article with a somewhat exaggerated French accent since that is the way ...

Roman Melnyk Issue #64, August 1999 A look at Linux in the Aerospace Training Industry. Have you ever wondered how full-flight simulators and CATS (computer-aided training systems, Figure 1) are made? The answer, as one might expect, is that they are made with a lot of high-tech hardware and a million lines of code. It is a true marvel of ...

Jeff Wall Issue #64, August 1999 A printing company finds Linux servers speed up their pre-press work. Recent testing of high-performance file-sharing tools for the Graphic Arts industry has shown Linux to be the top performer. We tested Linux against the Macintosh OS X Server, the Sun Solaris and the Windows NT server. Linux came out on top, yielding a ...

Glen Wiley Issue #64, August 1999 A tutorial designed to help you build your own GUI. This article is directed toward those who have spent their time in the pleasant arena of development and are finding it harder and harder to ignore the growth of graphical front-ends. My perspective is that of a developer of commercial UNIX applications distributed largely ...

Michael J. Hammel Issue #64, August 1999 A talk with the company who brings you the computer game Civilization: Call To Power. The sound of marching soldiers thunders through the cobbled streets as citizens bask in the glory of their triumphant leaders. No, this isn’t a post-election day Republican fantasy, it is just one of many scenes from the animated ...