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Tech News: Lets Talk UNIX and DVD

China readies DVD rival format

Chinese DVD player makers plan to switch to EVD to avoid paying patent royalties on DVD format
by Steven Schwankert.

Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits
Break bad UNIX usage patterns

Adopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX® command line efficiency – – and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step–by–step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command–line operations. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, so you can learn exactly why these UNIX habits are worth picking up.
by Michael Stutz.

System Administration Toolkit: Get the most out of bash

Ease your system administration tasks by taking advantage of key parts of the Bourne-again shell (bash) and its features. Bash is a popular alternative to the original Bourne and Korn shells. It provides an impressive range of additional functionality that includes improvements to the scripting environment, extensive aliasing techniques, and improved methods for automatically completing different commands, files, and paths.
by Martin Brown.

Speaking UNIX, Part 5: Data, data everywhere
Move and manage files stored across multiple systems

Take a look at several techniques that illustrate how to move files among systems and how to keep such far-flung data in sync.
by Martin Streicher.

Assembly language for Power Architecture, Part 2: The art of loading and storing on PowerPC
Techniques for putting data in memory exactly where you want it

The previous article in this series introduced assembly language programming using the 64-bit PowerPC® instruction set on POWER5 and other processors that use these instructions. This article drills down and discusses the specifics of 64-bit PowerPC assembly language programming on Linux® and UNIX®–like operating systems, focusing on data access methods and position–independent code.
by Jonathan Bartlett.

Wireless robotics: Bayesian networks

In this installment of the Wireless robotics column, discover one important way in which you can add intelligence to a mobile robot or any other software-driven entity. Bayesian networks let you represent an interconnected set of beliefs about the world. They form a good platform for learning, enabling your robot to become smarter based on experience.
by Erik Zoltan.