New Products

Were you a LEGO-lover as a kid? If so, Radical Breeze thinks you'll find its new Illumination Software Creator 1.0, a visual software application builder, extremely intuitive. A user—even a non-programmer—can easily experiment with software building blocks, in a completely visual and understandable way, and create software that can be run on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows computers. The application converts visual concepts into source code. No virtual machine is involved. In addition, software built with Illumination Software Creator can be run as a rich Internet Web page or an Internet tablet application (for Nokia Internet Tablets). The languages utilized are Python and GTK for desktop and mobile applications, and JavaScript for Web applications.

www.radicalbreeze.com

Our old friend Robert Love, whose popular Kernel Korner column long graced these pages, has updated his classic book Linux Kernel Development to a new 3rd edition. Published by Addison-Wesley, this work details the design and implementation of the Linux kernel, presenting the content in a manner that is beneficial for those writing and developing kernel code, as well as for programmers seeking to better understand the operating system and become more efficient and productive in their coding. The book details the kernel's major subsystems and features, including its design, implementation and interfaces. It covers the Linux kernel with both a practical and theoretical eye, which is intended to appeal to readers with a variety of interests and needs. Updated content includes an all-new chapter on kernel data structures, details on interrupt handlers and bottom halves, extended coverage of virtual memory and memory allocation and more.

www.informit.com

Hosting service providers may want to read on about the new LVE Wrappers from CloudLinux, tools that let the server owner control the exact CPU usage for individual users and applications. LVE Wrappers are based on CloudLinux's Lightweight Virtual Environment technology that allows administrators to control CPU usage on a server at the tenant or application level. It does so by isolating specific hardware resources in a lightweight container and prevents one tenant on a shared server from affecting others. LVE Wrappers, which start individual applications and dæmons inside LVE environments, allow for control of resources for each application, which allows for greater flexibility and stability on the overall server infrastructure. The software is available to all CloudLinux subscribers.

www.cloudlinux.com

Authors Tony Mullen and Claudio Andaur have set out to prove that the amazing open-source 3-D animation software Blender isn't just for hobbying anymore. Their new book Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making, now out from Sybex, shows readers how to do on Blender what one typically has done with high-end (and high-priced) apps Maya and 3ds Max. Sybex bills the book as “a real-world, roll-up-your-sleeves guide that plunges straight into step-by-step instructions designed to help you build skills and create solid assets for film, video and games.” The companion DVD includes starter, intermediate and final files, as well as movie files to help you every step of the way.

www.sybex.com

Managing ERP apps can require the patience of Job, which is why CAST Software released its new Analysis and Measurement Software for SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft. The product's mission is to bring consistent and objective measurement of these platforms and eliminate costly customization errors in critical business applications. CAST's own studies of ERP installations showed a large percentage of issues that normally go undetected in functional testing and result in serious performance, stability and maintainability problems. For instance, 80% of database interactions in ERP installs are handled improperly, leading to significant business disruption. Environments like SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft, says CAST, require a deceptively high level of customization. Because manual measurement of quality is expensive and time consuming, automation is useful for exposing flaws that cause applications to perform erratically.

www.castsoftware.com