persistence framework trial software / shareware for linux

Silent Wings Simulator game is a highly realistic flight simulator, designed to give high training value for soaring pilots as well as great fun for everyone interested in flight simulation.

The dynamic behavior is based on accurate models from computational aerodynamics, and new techniques for terrain modeling support sceneries of virtually unlimited size and detail.

Learn how to keep control during extreme maneuvers or climb the thermals into the fully volumetric cumulus clouds. Experience the excitement of low altitude hang-flying along spectacular mountain ridges, or simply load a GPS log to replay your own or your fellow pilot’s real life flight.

Aerodynamics

The aerodynamics in the simulator is governed by true physical principles in that the force field acting on the glider is computed from local air flow over the wing profiles as well as position and movement of the control surfaces (elevator, aileron, rudder). The force field is represented by a multitude of local force vectors giving rise to correct behavior, even in “asymmetric situations” like for example side-slip, stall, aero towing and entrance into thermals.

Sceneries

The sceneries in Silent Wings are based on a breakthrough in level-of-detail (LOD) technology that integrates triangulated topographic models, terrain textures, linear features and physical objects in a unified framework geared towards real time visualization. This technology scales almost perfectly with data sizes and allows in principle any resolution for real time rendering.

Weather

The weather model is constructed through realistic simulation of the physical systems for thermals and wind layers. Thermals are based on ground heat capacity models deduced from spectral analysis of certain satellite images. With this as a basis the complete thermal cycle, including rise of warm air, build-up of cumulus clouds, inflow of cool air, and evaporation of the cumulus clouds, is simulated to give high visual and physical realism.

In fact, the user can judge ground, wind and cloud characteristics in the same way as he does during real physical soaring, and find that the atmospheric properties behave as he would expect.

Aircraft

Silent Wings contains 4 flyable aircraft ranging from the sturdy G-103 Twin II trainer to the open class Antares self-launcher. All aircraft have animated moving parts and fully functional 3D cockpits. The wings are flexing naturally in respons to the aerodynamic situation.

The current library of aircraft is planned to be extended, not only with sailplanes, but also other types of flying vehichles.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4, released in February 2005, provides significant technology enhancements over the v.3 release. Areas of specific development include improvements in security capabilities, increased server performance and scalability, and enhanced desktop capabilities?all while ensuring a high level of compatibility with prior releases.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux supports a wide range hardware and software applications, and is the worlds leading enterprise-focused Linux environment.
The following section outlines a few of the major new features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4:
Linux 2.6 kernel infrastructure
Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 provides the most stable and robust commercial product based on the Linux communitys 2.6.9 kernel. Open source projects such as Fedora provided an environment for the Linux 2.6 kernel to mature significantly during 2004.
As a result, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 kernel offers numerous improvements over earlier kernels, including many enhanced algorithms and features:
- Generic logical CPU scheduler: Handles multi-core and hyperthreaded CPUs.
- Object-based Reverse Mapping VM: Improved performance in memory constrained systems.
- Read Copy Update: SMP algorithm optimization for operating system data structures.
- Multiple I/O schedulers: Selectable based on the application environment.
- Enhanced SMP & NUMA support: Improved performance and scalability for large servers.
- Network interrupt mitigation (NAPI): Improved performance for heavy network loads.
Improved storage and file system capabilities
Numerous enhancements have been incorporated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 that improve the scalability and performance of the data storage subsystems, including:
- Ext3 performance: Block Reservations and Hash Tree Directories improve the performance of read/write I/O and directory scanning operations.
- Ext3 scalability: Dynamic file system expansion and file system sizes up to 8TB are now supported.
- Logical Volume Management: A comprehensive update to the LVM provides new features such as read/write snapshots and transactional metadata updates, along with a flexible new management GUI. Mirroring and enhanced multipathing are scheduled for delivery by mid 2005.
- Scalability: Enhanced storage LUN management makes it possible to configure much larger storage subsystems.
- Automounting: The inclusion of AutoFSv4 provides sophisticated device access control, supporting features such as browsable mounts and replicated servers.
- Cost reduction: Support for Serial ATA disk storage provides increased performance, higher densities, and reduced cost per megabyte over traditional IDE devices.
New security capabilities
Provision of sophisticated security capabilities has been a specific development focus of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 release. New features:
- Mandatory Access Control: Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) provides a MAC infrastructure that complements the existing Discretionary Access Control security features provided by the standard Linux environment. In a MAC-based environment, application capabilities and privileges are set by predefined policies and enforced by the kernel. This prevents errant applications from compromising system security.
- Memory management enhancements: Several features, including Exec Shield and Position Independent Executables, combine to prevent applications from being exploited by attacks such as buffer overflows.
- Compile and runtime consistency checking: New buffer validation techniques in the GCC compiler and Glibc library greatly reduce the risk of faulty applications being compromised.
Improved desktop capabilities
Significant emphasis has been placed on providing a feature-rich, easy-to-use, desktop environment for all Red Hat Enterprise Linux family members (including Red Hat Desktop). A brief summary of new features:
- Personal productivity: Advanced user capabilities are provided by the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, the Firefox web browser and Evolution email client
- Plug-and-play device support: Easy handling of devices such as USB disks and digital cameras (as well as photo management applications such as gThumb)
- Multimedia: Applications for audio, video, and streaming content such as RhythmBox, HelixPlayer, Totem, and SoundJuicer
- User environment: GNOME 2.8 provides numerous enhancements for a more consistent graphical look and feel. Comprehensive management tools (e.g. printer and network management and VNC-based application session sharing) and utilities (e.g. Gaim instant messaging, and GIMP image processing) combine to provide a complete and highly functional user experience.
- Interoperability: Technologies that allow user login authentication with Microsoft Active Directory, NTLM authentication for web-based applications, Evolution mail client access to Windows Exchange Servers
- IIIMF: The Internet/Intranet Input Method framework provides the next-generation multilingual Unicode input method framework. It offers many features, such as full Unicode support and the ability to run multiple concurrent language engines.
Miscellaneous features
As a major new release, almost every aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been enhanced. Some of the more important improvements:
- Compatibility with prior releases: Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 includes compatibility libraries that enable most v.3 and v.2.1 applications to continue to run without modification.
- Languages: Focused on international standards, such as OpenI18N and GB18030, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has documentation and software available in 15 languages: English, Japanese, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Italian, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Devnagari, Bangla, Punjabi, Tamil, Gujarati.
- Auditing: In an update planned for mid-2005, a new auditing facility will be available that provides an open, bidirectional socket interface that can be used by auditing applications. It provides comprehensive auditing capabilities for SELinux and standard Linux events.
- File serving: Provision of NFSv4 provides features such improved security, operation coalescing and integrated file locking, while Samba provides easy access to Microsoft Windows printers and file shares.
- Software development: The latest GCC 3.4 compiler toolchain, and a technology preview of the forthcoming GCC 4.0 toolchain, are provided. These offer standards-compliant C/C++ and Fortran 95 development environments.
- Advanced configuration and power interface: Support for the ACPI standard enables a wide range of power management capabilities (battery monitoring, automated power down, suspend), and provides a foundation for increasingly sophisticated features in the future.
- Extras: Optional software is provided on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extras CD and Red Hat Network channel. This includes features such as additional desktop applications (e.g. Adobe Reader, Macromedia Flash), Java environments, and printroom-quality Agfa/Monotype fonts.
Main features:
Server features summary
- Databases - Leading open source databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL
- Development - Environments for C, C++, Java, Fortran with Perl, Python, CVS and Emacs
- Engineering - Computational tools including blas, pvm, and lam
- File servers - FTP, NFS, and Samba (CIFS)
- Mail server - IMAP/POP servers with Cyrus, Sendmail, spamassassin
- Networking - Complete suite of network servers and firewall
- Printing - CUPS/lpr printing systems
- Security - Extensive features including SSL, IpSec, MAC/DAC
- Web server - Apache server with numerous mod/php plugins
Client features summary
- Document preparation - OpenOffice.org office suite 1
- Extensive Microsoft interoperability
- Laptop power management - APM/ACPI
- Mail - several clients including Evolution
- Multimedia support - applications for multiple audio/video formats
- Plug-and-play device support
- RDP terminal services
- Remote desktop sharing/collaboration
- User interface - GNOME-based with optional KDE
- Web browsing - Firefox
- Wireless support
- X Windows system

Test management is a complex and time consuming task. In the U.S. alone, software errors cost the U.S. economy 59.5 billion dollars a year. A robust test management strategy can save you a fortune, poor test management can cost even more.
Test teams gather information from a variety of sources and need to share it between various parties. However, this task is often hindered since testers typically have little time and resources. They need a simple test management system to quickly capture product features, write tests and publish results.
Currently many companies resort to homegrown test management solutions based on generic office products. These systems can be error prone and rely on the test teams discipline to ensure all test information is recorded accurately and analysed fully. Much time is wasted tracking down inconsistencies between documents and collating results into reports. Many companies are now realizing the benefits of using a test management system.
DigitalTester provides an intuitive test management framework with which to capture requirements, write tests and generally organize testing. The project is completely web based and all information is held centrally on the DigitalTester server allowing information to be shared easily.
DigitalTesters reports and charts make it easy for management to judge a products market readiness. DigitalTester encourages structured test management by enabling testers to categorize a products features using a familiar tree structure. This familiar interface allows even new users to become productive in just a short time.
Main features:
- capture requirements
- write tests
- organize testing into logical units of work
- schedule testing tasks
- track results
- publish reports
Version restrictions:
- 30 days trial