OSSPACK

Looking to turn your Android smartphone into a handy stimulation device? There's an app for that, thanks to a Seattle-based startup that's offering developers and consumers an X-rated version of a smartphone app store. MiKandi launched a developer's portal last week with the express purpose of using the Open Handset Alliance to crack open the doors for what may be a very lucrative market for adult content on mobile devices. The company will soon open a Web-based portal for users to browse and download free apps or buy paid applications.

The Linux Blog Safari "Tech Turkeys" column may have come and gone, but there's one more story to share that could almost have been included. What else can you call it, after all, when a Linux professional is apparently fired for using Linux? Sound too strange to be true? Better read on. The story involves an American principal, an Indian contracting company, a "large computer/server company with three letters in their name" and a "large credit card company with four letters in their name," as HeliOS's Ken Starks discreetly put it.

With the new year right around the corner, it's worth thinking about where you can get the biggest bang for your buck--quite literally. In a lot of organizations, budgeting is a funny exercise that requires you to "use it or lose it" at the end of the year while also having surprisingly detailed plans for next year's money.

Digg.com 90° rotated.

The team is proud to announce the stable release of Linux Mint 8 Helena.

Charbax writes "While Archos' current 'Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android' is a 4.8" WVGA tablet that runs Android 1.5 (and perhaps 2.0 soon with the full Google Marketplace Experience), users of last year's 4.8" and 7" Archos Linux tablets have been complaining that Archos' firmware updates to its proprietary, embedded Linux OS were too infrequent, and added too little of the requested functionality. Under pressure from hackers demonstrating jailbreak methods, Archos has just now officially released (PDF) the open-source Special Developer Edition firmware based on Angstrom Linux, generated from a customized, open embedded build for last year's Archos 5 and 7 Internet Media tablets. If many talented developers join the community of Archos hackers to make software for this new Archos SDE firmware, then Android, Angstrom Linux, Maemo Mer, Qt and Ubuntu Linux could be expected to run smoothly on it soon. That could make it the ultimate pocket Linux Internet tablet for Linux hackers. Installing Archos' new SDE firmware permanently disables DRM playback and voids the warranty."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

cuttheredwire writes "Evidence on the Gizmo5 forum (login required) confirms that since Google's takeover of Gizmo5, only the Windows, Mac, and iPhone clients are available for download from the official Web page. The Linux download link no longer works. This is a potential problem for happy Linux users with paid-up credit in their Gizmo5 accounts if they need to reinstall the software. A back-door download is still available, although it is speculated on the forums that it will go away soon. Does this mean that (as with other Google projects such as Google Talk) Linux will be the poor relation for Google Voice also?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

LAMP is short for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. This tutorial shows how you can install an Apache2 webserver on an Ubuntu 9.10 server with PHP5 support (mod_php) and MySQL support.

Linux Journal reports that the U.S. Senate is now involved in the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. "Despite having issued it's formal objections, the European Commission continues to investigate the matter, and according to Oracle officials, it's costing Sun some $100 million per month. Given that Sun is a sizable employer, concern has grown that layoffs and possibly worse may be on the horizon, leading US officials to step in. Following the lead of high-profile senators Orrin Hatch and John Kerry, some fifty-nine members of the Untied States Senate — more than half — joined in sending a letter to the European Commission, asking that it complete its investigation ASAP. Citing the threat to American jobs, Senator Kerry told reporters that the senators "felt compelled to ask for a speedy resolution" to the seven-month saga."

Chrome OS is Google's a direct attack against bitter rival Microsoft, but this time it may have bitten off more than it can chew.