Brian Aker (AKA Krow) sends word that the mod_layout Apache mod has arrived after a long beta period at version 3.0. From the project's page: "By allowing you to cache static components and build sites in pieces, it gives you the tools for creating large custom portal sites. If you are looking for more information you can look at its faq."

ApacheCon Chair Ken Coar sent out the following notice today: "Due to financial considerations beyond our control and unrelated to past ApacheCon conferences, our conference producer has decided that they are unable to produce the upcoming ApacheCon Europe 2001 in Dublin. With only three months left before the conference was scheduled to begin, The Apache Software Foundation has decided that it is in the best interests of attendees to cancel the show now rather than attempt to find another conference organizer for the Dublin event."

cygnusx writes "This Apache mod is great for laughs -- but given the number of people who use IE, I can't see too many webmasters adopting it."

A reader writes "There's a retest story on ZD-Net about an upgraded Apache system. Apache 1.3.19 running on a Red Hat Linux 7.1 system upgraded to the 2.4.5 kernel was able to process at peak throughput 4,602 Web requests per second. The last time eWEEK Labs did a big round of Web server benchmarking on Linux was two years ago this month, when we did a retest of Linux and Windows performance numbers as an audit of the Mindcraft Inc. tests. "

yuck72 writes: "According to an article http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/News/2001-06-15.0 1.html on Stepwise, Apple has apparently open-sourced their mod_hfs (and others) for Apache which provides a fix for the HFS security hole that was discovered last week." Source code for the Apple-created modules is released under the APSL, while the other fixes are under the GPL.

dam_ned writes: "O'reilly has put a nice introduction to mod_mp3 online. Mod_mp3 is an apache module that offers shoutcast/icecast like mp3 and Ogg Vorbis streaming, and allows for playlists via frontends like ampache. The project is only a few months old, but it's quite stable, and has far more features than shoutcast/icecast." Heh. You might recognize Brian Aker, aka "krow", from his work on Slash.

cloudscout writes: "This Report at SecurityFocus.com warns of a problem with the Apache webserver running under Apple's new MacOS X operating system with the case-insensitive HFS+ filesystem. HFS+ is the default (and recommended) filesystem for MacOS X, yet its case-insensitive nature circumvents directory-based security in the Apache webserver that comes with the operating system. The Server version of MacOS X ships with a module that fixes this problem, but this module isn't available unless you purchase MacOS X Server. So much for Apple's boast about 'giving back to the open-source community.'"
From looking through SecurityFocus, this doesn't appear to be the only problem.

dthor writes "An exploit was discovered that allows a malicious user to terminate the Apache server 1.3.x running on Win32 or OS2. Apache has released a patch. 'Users of older versions of Apache on Win32 and OS2 platforms are cautioned to to upgrade to 1.3.19 and apply this fix. All Win32 and OS2 users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to 1.3.20 once it is released.'"

Ellen writes "Apache's Jakarta-Tomcat server is an open source, Java-based Web application container that was created to run Servlet and JavaServer Page (JSP) web applications. In O'Reilly Network's "Using Tomcat" series, author James Goodwill previously has explained how to install and configure Tomcat. His latest article provides in-depth information about how to deploy it. Read "Deploying Web Appliactions to Tomcat"

Long time sysadmins who are accustom to using Tripwire might find this interesting. Tripwire and Covalent have released a version of Tripwire's intrusion detection software product integreated into Apache.

Covalent is doing a webcast with Ryan Bloom giving a talk on Apache 2.0. I have heard Bloom's talk a few times now, and if you are interested in learning a bit more about 2.0 you might want to listen in. There is more information here, and a sign-up form here.

ballpoint writes: "Yahoo has this story suggesting the Xbox as a cheap platform for a web server, by packaging Apache as a game. The article was written by Adam Barr, an ex-Microsoft employee who previously suggested running Linux on the Xbox. I suppose there are still more 'games' for the Xbox in the pipeline." With all the talk about making Dreamcasts into rendering farms, perhaps that would be a good application as well.

From the list of odd things you can do with your Apache web server, how about an Apache module to turn your Apache webserver into your basic RIAA hating, but every college student loving, MP3 streaming server? Supports Icecast/Shoutcast protocols. It's an early beta, but it does work.

Great news from the Apache Conference. A new version of Apache 2.0 has been released as a beta. You can find more information in their announcement. In other news according to Roy Fieldling's talk on the state of Apache, as of their next fiscal year individuals should be able to make tax deductible contributions to the Apache Foundation.

PerlStalker writes: "Information Week has an interesting article about the Apache XML project's role in E-commerce. From the article: 'An important open-source tool for XML parsing and generation is called Xerces, which is being written by the Apache Group, creators of the Apache open-source Web server with input from IBM and other vendors. "Xerces could be very important, because it would provide a readily available set of XML tools that could spread throughout the industry very quickly," [John] Rymer says.'"

Geir Magnusson Jr. writes "The Velocity project is pleased to announce the release of Version 1.0 beta 1 of the Velocity template engine. Velocity is a powerful template engine written in Java and released as open source software under the Apache Software License. Ideal for web development, it's a great alternative to JSP, ASP, PHP and other dynamic server-side web technologies. For more information, including the v1.0 beta 1 release of Velocity, please visit the Velocity home page."

pixel_bc asks: "I got a bit of a kick out of the registry page for ApacheCon - where it says Open Source developers should attend, and then goes on to list a $1200 dollar price tag. Most of us aren't funded, thanks. Are there any Apache conferences that are more financially accessable? Should there be?" And for those of you who are actually forking out the $moolah$, where might one find affordable accomodations to make that cost-of-admission a little less painful?

Anonymous Coward writes "Chromium Communications has an Apache-based web server that is nearly three times as fast as standard Apache. You can see their claims on their site."

manichawk writes "Apache 1.3.19 was released yesterday (so by today the mirrors should have been updated). It's another bugfix release, largely for the Win9x/2k versions, but a few security holes have been plugged too. Check out the changelog for more details, or just download it..."

Xose writes: "Oss.sgi.com has a note from the project coordinator: Due to the Apache Software Foundation's disinterest in adopting any substantive parts of the work presented here, SGI has decided that I should no longer actively contribute to this project or to the Apache HTTP server project. I will continue to port the patches to new versions of Apache/1.3 (but not 2.0) in my spare time and to accept bug fixes and enhancements contributed by folks like you. I'm glad that many people found my work useful and I'm sorry to see it end this way."