Letters

I'm a regular reader of your magazine here in the UK. I would really like to see a good, well-researched story on IP SANs, iSCSI and Linux. I've been noticing lots of activities in this area, and it looks like Linux is playing a big role in this. I got involved in the subject because I'm on a committee that should (supposedly) decide on network storage strategies at our place (News International, big corporation). There are a couple of small companies already offering iSCSI targets, and all of them appear to be Linux-based. See for instance www.pyxtechnologies.com (this is Andre Hedrick) or technomagesinc.com. The subject is pretty hairy. If you want more information or links, let me know.

—Antonio Cordova, Pre-Press Consultant, News International

I saw, in the September 2002 issue of LJ [“What Has 1.1 Terabytes, 9,503 BogoMips and Flies?”], a project system that listed the CPU performance in BogoMips. What is a BogoMip, and how is it measured?

—Frank Jansen

BogoMips are a measurement of how fast the kernel runs a simple delay loop. See the BogoMips Mini-HOWTO at www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/BogoMips.html.

—Editor

What font are you now using in the headlines on the cover of your magazine? I know this is a strange question, but I rather like that font, and being a graphic designer, I would like to use it.

—Tiago Oliveira

Lydia Kinata replies: We use the DaxWide font family on the cover and for article titles and headers within the magazine. DaxWide comes in several weights, from very light to “Extra Black”. It's a very useful font.

I read your article on secure PHP applications in Linux Journal, October 2002, and I thought it was quite useful. An additional source of information on the subject is the “The OWASP Guide to Building Secure Web Applications and Web Services” (www.owasp.org/guide). A lot of “good practices” are combined in a single document.

—Peter Fokker

I know some people think the “battle” between Linux and Microsoft is a religious quest, but the letter from Renato Carrara is just plain silly. [See the “Don't Run Microsoft Ads” letter in LJ, November 2002]. A magazine is a business proposition, and ads pay for the magazine. As long as they don't flagrantly violate good taste, magazines should run whatever ads are proffered. Microsoft is probably astute enough to understand it would not find a receptive market here.

—Gary W. Nickerson, Director, Information Technology, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

In the November 2002 issue, “2002 Readers' Choice Awards” (page 72), the number of voters given in the first paragraph is incorrect. It should read “Almost 6,000 voters...”.