News Bytes #22

#### "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

| ### Contents: News in General Software Announcements

### News in General

### BLINUX Documentation and Development Project

The purpose of The BLINUX Documentation and Development Project is to serve as a catalyst which will both spur and speed the development of software and documentation which will enable the blind user to run his or her own Linux workstation.

Their web site is at:
http://leb.net/blinux/
It contains information about documenting Linux for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the BLINUX FTP Archive, and where to find Linux Software for the Blind User.

### Linux "class" via the Internet

There is a Linux "class" being offered on the internet! It's a beginners class that's using Matt Welsh's "Running Linux" as the textbook. Lessons are posted to the site, with links to Linux related urls and reading from the text as additional assignments. I just checked out the first lesson (history of Linux), looks pretty good.

If anyone's interested (it's free), the url is: http://www.vu.org/channel25/today/

### WindowMaker and AfterStep themes

Give your X-windows a whole new look with one of the WindowMaker or AfterStep themes. There are almost 30 different themes for the WindowMaker and another 30 for AfterStep window manager available at: http://x.unicom.net/themes

### Software Announcements

### TCD 1.0: New curses-based CD player

TCD is a new curses based CD player for Linux. Here are some of it's distinct features:

* Nice-looking color (if supported) curses interface.
* Simple, sensible, one-keystroke control. (No more mapping little icons to your keypad!) :)
* Repeat track, continuous play control.
* Track name database.
* Uses little CPU time while running.

It should still be at
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/tcd-1.0.tar.gz

But by the time you read this is may have moved to /pub/Linux/apps/sound/cdrom/curses/

### urlmon -- The URL Monitor

urlmon reports changes to web sites (and ftp sites, too).

urlmon makes a connection to a web site and records the last_modified time for that url. Upon subsequent calls, it will check the url again, this time comparing the information to the previously recorded times. Since the last_modified data is not required to be given by HTTP (it's optional) and is non-existent for ftp, urlmon will then take an MD5 checksum.

It's real utilitity is evident when running it periodically (from cron, for example) in batch mode, so as to keep tabs on many different web pages, reporting on those that have recently changed.

New with 2.1, it can monitor muliple URLs in parallel. It also has user settable proxy server ability, and user settable timeout lengths. A few algorithm improvements have been made.

It can be found at

http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/www/mirroring/urlmon-21.tgz

http://web.syr.edu/~jdimpson/proj/urlmon-21.tgz

ftp://camelot.syr.edu/pub/web/urlmon-21.tgz

urlmon requires perl 5, the LWP perl modules, the MD5 module, all available at any CPAN archive http://www.perl.com/perl/CPAN/

### New Netscape Version for Linux

Netscape Communicator 4.03 (Standard and Professional editions) is now available for Linux.

To download it, go to http://www.netscape.com

### TeamWave Workplace 2.0

TeamWave Workplace is an Internet groupware product that lets you work together with colleagues in shared Internet rooms using Windows, Macintosh or Unix platforms.

TeamWave's rooms are customized with shared tools like whiteboards, chat, calendars, bulletin boards, documents, brainstorming and voting, so you can fit the rooms to your team's tasks. Team members can work together in rooms any-time, whether meeting in real-time or leaving information for others to pick up or add to later.

The support for any-time collaboration and easy customization, combined with its rich cross-platform support and modest infrastructure needs, make TeamWave Workplace an ideal communication solution for telecommuters, branch offices, business teams, road warriors -- any teams whose members sometimes work apart.

System Requirements: TeamWave Workplace runs on both Windows 95/NT and Macintosh platforms, as well as SunOS, Solaris, SGI, AIX and Linux. A network connection (LAN or modem) is also required.

Availability and Pricing

TeamWave Workplace 2.0 is available now. A demonstration version may be downloaded from TeamWave's web site at http://www.teamwave.com/. A demo license key, necessary to activate the software, can also be requested from the web site.

Regular licenses are US$50 per team member, with quantity discounts available. Licenses can be purchased via postal mail, fax, email or secure web server. We are making free licenses available for qualified educational use. Please see our web site for additional information.

Published in Linux Gazette Issue 22, October 1997

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