The new Lighthouse CMS product line from Opengear is an out-of-band management solution with both virtual and hardware platforms that is optimized for critical IT infrastructure and distributed networks. The vendor-neutral Opengear Lighthouse solution includes new hardware offerings and updates the previous CMS software to version 4.0. Opengear says that both software and hardware appliances may operate in standalone or in redundant configurations, a feature that allows customers to deploy the solution that best fits their environment. Another new feature is the upgraded centralized dial functionality that provides network engineers and administrators quick and easy connection to remote locations. This builds on Opengear's cellular Call Home technology to converge central management of remote sites whether they are connected in-band or out-of-band over the cellular network or legacy PSTN.
Just off the ticker at Linux Journal's Hollywood bureau and talent agency is entertainment-industry news from SilhouetteFX LLC, whose new Silhouette v5 represents this post-production software's “most significant upgrade in its history”. Silhouettefx, first launched in 2004, is a major player in high-end roto and paint for visual effects, as well as an important tool in the 2-D to 3-D conversion workflow. Four key upgrades found in version 5 include the raster/vector hybrid paint system dubbed Auto Paint, semi-automatic 2-D to 3-D conversion, a fresh look at shape-based warping and morphing, and the inclusion of Academy Award-winning planar tracking technology from Imagineer Systems' mocha Pro. In addition to these major advances, Silhouette v5 adds numerous features and changes, such as automatic stereo alignment, depth channel support, local disk caching for speedy playback, filled shapes, object searching, source transformations, an improved and more accurate planar tracker, and the ability to rotate the viewer for upside down and sideways shots. Silhouette is available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
“Long live the mainframe” trumpets Compuware, maker of the newly upgraded Workbench solution. Workbench is a standardized point-and-click mainframe application development interface that “future proofs” a company's mainframe assets. The need for Workbench is based on the fact that traditional mainframe environments underpin large volume transactions across a number of businesses, and these systems utilize a complex and antiquated mainframe development environment, with which many newer developers are not familiar. The Workbench gives new developers the tools to produce high-quality applications that drive business success, as well as prevent application outages and other business risks when experienced developers retire and take their knowledge with them. The upgraded Workbench now features faster and more efficient file and data management capabilities—including the ability to edit complex IMS databases—and more robust debugging functionality, all designed to boost developer productivity significantly.
The smacking most of us got in the recession should be the wake-up call to put your “career house” in order once and for all. You may find some useful ideas in the new 2nd edition of Matthew Moran's book Building Your I.T. Career: A Complete Toolkit for a Dynamic Career in Any Economy. Targeted at both current and aspiring IT pros, author Moran provides advice for career planning, goal setting and goal achievement, all with an eye on the latest trends in IT careers. Moran also explains career concepts most IT pros are never taught in school, and he presents actual examples showing how those concepts apply to real professionals and the decision-makers who hire them. Other selected topics in this IT career toolkit include identifying the most satisfying career path, mastering personal communication skills, resumes and cover letters, salary negotiation, networking, advancing with social media, moving into management and more.
Are you a foreign national seeking to work in IT in the US or an employer seeking to hire one? The ticket to entry is the H-1B visa, the gateway for the world's best and brightest to live and work in the United States. A new resource for navigating the maze of H-1B laws, policies and procedures is How to Secure Your H-1B Visa: A Practical Guide for International Professionals and Their U.S. Employers, new from Apress. Written by veteran Silicon Valley immigration lawyers, the book lays out the whole H-1B process from petition to visa to status maintenance to visa extension and, ultimately, to permanent residence in the US. It shows you step by step exactly how the H-1B process divides up between the employer and employee. Additional coverage areas include administrative and enforcement trends, special conditions that apply to nationals of particular countries, complementary visas for family members and H-1B substitute visas for professionals with particular skill sets or from particular countries, such as Australia and Canada.
Put the kibosh once and for all on incessant office whining (“It's too hot!” “It's too cold!”) with Onset's next-generation HOBO UX100 series of temperature/RH data loggers for building performance monitoring. These matchbox-sized devices, which can be deployed nearly anywhere, bridge the gap between traditional loggers, which typically don't have LCD displays and are limited in accuracy and memory, and larger, more expensive LCD loggers that require calibration. Building owners, facility managers, energy auditors and other users can collect indoor environmental data quickly and easily in a broad range of applications, such as monitoring occupant comfort in office buildings, tracking food storage conditions in warehouses, logging temperature trends in server rooms, and measuring humidity levels in museums. Onset's complementary HOBOware Pro software enables users to view, analyze and batch-configure the deployed data loggers for maximum benefit.
The big breakthrough in the new Krita 2.6 open-source painting application for professional (and wanna be) artists is support for the OpenColor IO color management system. A component of the Calligra graphic art and office suite for KDE, Krita is a robust, nimble and flexible painting application that makes creating art from scratch or existing resources a fun and productive experience. Krita is targeted at the needs of illustrators, concept artists, comic book artists, matte painters and VFX artists. The new version 2.6, besides hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements all over the place, struts integration of the Vc library, expanded compatibility with the Photoshop file format, improved keyboard interaction and an updated default set of brush presets. Linux and Windows versions of Krita are available; a Mac OS version is in development.
Skip the “garage stage” on your path to IT stardom with Game Editor, a free, open-source game creation application that lets you design and create exciting, interactive games for fun or profit. Game Editor runs under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows and lets users develop games for Linux, Android, iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X, Windows, Windows Mobile and Pocket PC platforms. Game types include 2-D arcade, puzzle, board, role-playing, shoot-em-up, jump and run, and side-scroller games. The simple, intuitive interface lets beginners design and create games that are fun and exciting. A power scripting language is included. Prototyping is easy, which prevents wasting time on making boring games. Because Game Editor is distributed under the GPL v3 license, advanced programmers can modify the game creation source code and create games with unique features. Game editor is developed and maintained by Makslane Rodrigues.
