syslog

One of the questions on our most recent reader survey asked how many of you subscribe to the Sys Admin email newsletters. We currently send out two newsletters a month -- one that previews the contents of the magazine and allows subscribers to read featured articles and columns, and one that provides a Web-exclusive article. Despite our healthy newsletter subscription numbers, only 14% of survey respondents said they subscribe, and that's actually up 10% from last year. This means that the majority of our newsletter subscribers are not print subscribers. So, in case you're part of that 86%, I thought I'd mention a few highlights from recent newsletters.

This summer, we featured a comparative review of instant messaging clients by Marcel Gagné, which is available at: http://www.samag.com/documents/s=8460/sam0306web/sam0306web.htm. Marcel writes, "If your enterprise is ready to wade into the IM waters, you will soon discover that IM is a many-headed beast with protocols galore." In his review, Marcel covers some of the multi-protocol IM clients available for the Linux desktop: Gaim, EveryBuddy, Ayttm and Eb-Lite, and Kopete.

In August, Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier contributed a review of BSI Computer's R9 PServer, a portable dual Intel Xeon server. Zonker says, "Of course, all servers are portable to some extent. But the R9 is actually designed to be mobile and easy to transport... It's great hardware for anyone who needs to take a server on the road." See http://www.samag.com/documents/s=8855/sam0308web2/ for Zonker's complete review.

Marcel Gagné also provided a review of sqlDESKTOP that we're reprinting in this issue of the magazine (see page 13). Marcel says, "By using sqlDESKTOP, you can arrange and organize disparate bits of information into related areas just as you would in the real world. The idea behind sqlDESKTOP is to allow you do organize all this related but scattered data ... using familiar office metaphors such as filing cabinets, stacks of binders, and loose documents of various stripes."

If you're interested in subscribing to the Sys Admin email newsletters, you can do so through our Web site at: http://www.sysadminmag.com/newsletters.

Other articles in this issue provide performance tuning tips. Dustin Puryear looks at several performance enhancements that can be achieved with sysctl, Frank Wiles describes a setup for load balancing email servers for better performance, and Thirumalainambi Murugesh shares some information about tuning NNM servers. If you're looking for additional performance analysis tips, next month's Solaris Administration Supplement will feature an article by Justin Buhler and Adrian Cockcroft. This article will describe key principles and tools, specifically Orca and the SE toolkit, for successful capacity planning.

Sincerely yours,

Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief