From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Mon, 1 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/1/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New Ender Sequel A articles article from the "wiggin-out" department sent by jamie http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/30/1018246 CMU_Nort writes "Orson Scott Card is at it again. Hot on the tail of Ender's Shadow, he's writing another sequel to the Ender's Game story. This one seems to cover the story of the immediate history following the original story when all of the children return home. Called Shadow of the Hegemon, it should give us some of the story of what happened to Peter. The first five chapters are already available online." The rest of his website looks interesting too. -------------------- Credit-card sized Linux system A articles article from the "smarter-card" department sent by CowboyNeal http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/30/1248200 FnH writes "Swiss startup Smartdata unveiled a credit-card sized embedded Linux computer called µ-computer Chipslice. The tiny device, which runs uClinux, is intended to be used in a wide range of mobile, portable, and wearable computing applications. Read more about it here " I can already dream of several possibilities of one of these combined with wireless internet access. -------------------- The Eroded Self A yro article from the "clearcutting-of-privacy" department sent by michael http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/30/1723212 The New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy story today titled The Eroded Self. The author chronicles a wide assortment of privacy abuses, and has a very thoughtful treatment of the harm that is caused when every move you make is scanned, analyzed and permanently recorded. -------------------- Who Owns Dmoz? A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-think-about" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/24/1352259 C. Adam Kuether asks: "I like the concept of the open directory project and am considering joining the effort and contributing my bit to organizing the Web. I am concerned about the ownership rights to this compilation. The useage agreements seem reasonable enough now, but what assurance is there that this work will not become just another asset of the Time/Warner/AOL (read Netscape) media empire? Could this project convert to a legally enforceable open and free use license? Are the existing open content licenses practical? " -------------------- Linux Game Tome Returns! A articles article from the "ka-pow" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/30/2020225 amccall writes: "After a long outage, The Linux Game Tome has been updated and is now back in action!" Congratulations to Bob for getting the Tome back up, and mad props to Tony Guntharp and the crew at SourceForge for hosting the new site. -------------------- GPL Violation - Nvidia A features article from the "miss-manners-saves-the-world" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/0047219 The General Public License is a powerful license with a powerful ideology. The GPL forbids use of GPL'ed code in closed-source, proprietary software. The model has already proven itself, but sometimes mistakes happen. GPL'ed code found its way into a closed-source kernel module; NVIDIA's proprietary beta Xfree86 driver. This is the story about how mistakes happen, and how they can be fixed with polite communication. Ralph Metzler is just another one of those 'thousands of developers' you hear about developing software for Linux. Ralph was checking out the sources for the Linux 2.3 kernel, and he noticed that a chunk of memory conversion routines were copied line for line out of his bttv.c video driver source into NVIDIA's code. Tony Bennett at NVIDIA grabbed a small amount of bttv.c and integrated it into the Xfree86 driver, without realizing that the code was GPL'ed. Nvidia was contacted about this oversight, and politely responded in a positive way to Ralph. I got to talk to Ralph to see how it all worked out. Ralph Metzler: I received E-mail by Tony Bennett, and he also said he would fix it and they apologized for any possible infringement or any violations, and it was an oversight and they would remove it as soon as possible. Slashdot: Are you happy with that? Ralph Metzler: Yes, of course. Of course, it would have been better if it had never happened. I wasn't especially happy about seeing that they released binary-only drivers now, and I just wanted to try them out, and then I see that they re-used GPL'ed code. Slashdot: ... and then they threw in a credit for someone else who wasn't even you. Ralph Metzler: All right, I think that was David M[iller] or something. He made some patches to this code, and while he was mentioned in the bttv code before those routines, they probably thought it was all his code, but it was originally mine. He made some patches so it works with newer kernels. They probably thought it was all his original code. It was also probably just a mistake. I learned from Rich Black, PR manager for NVIDIA, that they are currently changing the code for the next revision of the Xfree86 driver, and the GPL'ed code will be removed from the driver within the next one to two weeks. I got to talk to him, too. Slashdot: The way it stands right now on the Web site, people are able to download [the driver], and it's not GPL'ed. Rich Black: I think it's one of those things where our corporate rule is that we do not open up our code, and we do not have open code, and we will not do that. Slashdot: That's fine, and that's understandable, but you're in the position that you're either going to have to open it up completely, or not use it at all. Waiting until next revision and then saying, 'Oh, well, it's fixed now' is a bit of a problem, because right now you're in violation. Rich Black: Right, which we understand, and it will be taken care of within the next one to two weeks. I understand we're in violation of that now, and it was something that was done strictly as a mistake on our part, and somebody was going through writing some code, and it was completely done on accident. It was not a known violation at the time, it was something that he is aware of now, and is seeking to alleviate the situation and take care of it. I guess I can't change anything about how we are in violation of the GPL right now, but it's something we are going to take care of as soon as possible. With the next version of the software, we'll take care of that, and we'll no longer be in violation. Slashdot: Would you be willing to open source the one kernel module that uses that code? Rich Black: From what I understand, that is something that might be opened, but I cannot state as 100% fact that I know for sure that that it is the direction, because it is our general rule that none of it is going to be open sourced, but from what I understand is that one [module] might be made available. So, that's the story. Big company makes a mistake, developer notices mistake and politely informs big company, big company recognizes mistake, apologizes and makes efforts to correct the problem. Wouldn't it be great if it were always this easy? The open nature of the GPL makes 'borrowing' source code extremely easy, and sometimes mistakes do happen. With any luck, polite messages and open communication will save the -------------------- 50 Dollar Hackable "WebSurfer" A articles article from the "but-it-doesn't-travel-through-time" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/0935221 evilviper pointed us to a new hack on LinuxHacker. Last time it was the i-opener, but this time its the WebSurfer. It's 50 bucks and can be had at CompUSA. They show it booting Linux among other things. Has a wireless keyboard, a real (non win) modem, and a Cyrix CPU. Looks perfect for voiding warranties. -------------------- Will This Genie Ever Go Back In The Bottle? A features article from the "analysis:-the-music-industry-wins-a-whopper" department sent by JonKatz http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/28/177215 -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Tue, 2 May 2000 11:00:07 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 11:00:07 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/2/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thus Spake Stallman A interviews article from the "prophets-don't-mince-words" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/1052216 -------------------- Supreme Court Rules ISPs Not Liable for E-mail Content A articles article from the "well-duh" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/1154225 dan of the north was the first to write in with the Supreme Court Ruling outcome that ruled that ISPs (in this case, Prodigy), are not liable for the content of e-mail messages sent through them. The details of the circumstance are availible in the above link. Yes, this was a big "duh", but it's good to see this stand. -------------------- GPS Civilian Signal Degradation Turned Off A articles article from the "good-news-for-location-buffs" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/130250 Brian Demsky wrote to us regarding the release from the White House stating that the United States government will no longer purposely degrade civilian-use GPS signals. This mean more accurate data for people working with GPS, as "national defense concerns" had kept civilian results less accurate for years. -------------------- Compaq's PJB-100 MP3 Player Open-Sourced A articles article from the "more-music-for-the-ears" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/104223 spludge writes: "Remember the PJB-100? The portable 4.6 gig hard-drive MP3 player -- the one that did not have support for Linux? Compaq just released all the code to communicate and control it under the GPL! All the code and documentation is available for linux and for windows. Read about the details and what you'll need online. Lots of information about how the PJB works and how to communicate with it via USB." -------------------- Turtle Beach Network Audio Appliance A articles article from the "devices-I-could-happily-live-with" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/0053228 Polo writes: "I always though it would be cool to create something like this. Here is a look at the 'Audiotron,' a standalone device you hook to your stereo system and that networks with your PC to play MP3 files. This version uses that strange HPNA network standard (sends network data over copper phone wiring without interfering with the phone calls). Future versions will support ethernet and USB. Now if someone got this working with Linux, you could serve your MP3 library to multiple rooms in the house as separate streams. Obsolesence nears for my 200-disk CD changers ... " Hmm. What happens if you already have HPNA networking? That aside, this looks like a good toy for the MPAA as well. -------------------- Forget the Pentium. Hack the 68k. A articles article from the "why-upgrade-when-you-can-go-retro?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/209248 Mr. Groove writes: "Hey foo, think your PIII is killer? Imagine running Photoshop on one of these!" Frugal or insane -- only you can decide. -------------------- Physicists Find More Precise Gravity Number A articles article from the "this-is-the-pants" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/2232209 -------------------- Your (Australian) Criminal Record Online A articles article from the "time-to-start-a-penal-colony?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/0319254 An unknown assailant submitted the following: "A new web site calling itself CrimeNet is causing a bit of a controversy in Australia. For as little as $6, you can look up anyone's criminal record and perhaps even become your very own vigilante. The Age had an interesting story on the topic. Now where did I put those pitchforks and flaming torches?" And what if you happen to share the name of a heinous criminal? This sort of site seems inevitable, but ripe for abuse. -------------------- Attacking Open Source A articles article from the "must-read-clue-train" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/0752211 -------------------- Konqueror.org Launched - KDE2 Web Browser A articles article from the "cool-new-browser-technology" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/0753232 -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Wed, 3 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/3/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Metallica Wants To Ban 335,435 Napster Users A articles article from the "we're-gonna-get-those-listeners" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/0948200 charper writes: "News.com is reporting that a firm hired by Metallica has fingered more than 335,000 Napster users (who were allegedly) trading their music. They're seeking to have them banned from Napster. " Check out our original piece, and remember - you can always PayLars! -------------------- Ask Douglas Adams About...Everything A interviews article from the "decks-of-the-Starship-Titanic" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/099243 Who could possibly know more about Life, the Universe, and Everything than Douglas Adams? Who, despite being Mostly Harmless, could give a better anwer to almost any question you could ask? Could you please post your questions -- one per post -- below? Could we pick 10 of the highest-moderated ones and send them to Mr. Adams by e-mail? Might we allow Mr. Adams a week or more to answer, since he's as busy as RMS but has kindly consented to talk with us anyway? -------------------- Can XML Replace Proprietary Document Formats? A askslashdot article from the "buhbye-.doc!" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/26/1155222 Pauly asks: "My former profession of Technical Writer was made very painful by my customers' requirement to have their documents delivered in MS Office formats. PDF/FrameMaker was not acceptable, as they needed to be able to edit the documents as well. Let me tell you, it is painful watching a 3,000+ page Word97 manuscript, the fruit of weeks of hard labor, rendered into rubbish by my customer's Word95. I've missed deadlines, lost money, and will never forgive Microsoft for their abuse of me and my kind. My question: is it possible that XML-based standard file formats suitable for word processor, spreadsheets, etc. could be created that forever do away with proprietary binary formats and inadequate file conversion routines? This notion seems to be working for the graphics crowd in the form of SVG. The benefits are obvious, what are the drawbacks?" -------------------- Kerberos, PAC's, and Microsoft's Dirty Tricks A articles article from the "read-more-about-it" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/158204 Chris DiBona wrote to us with something that Ted and Jeremy (Samba Boys) wrote: "Microsoft, after getting beat up in the press for making propietary extensions to the Kerberos protocol, has released the specifications on the web -- but in order to get it, you have to run a Windows .exe file which forces you agree to a click-through license agreement where you agree to treat it as a trade secret, before it will give you the .pdf file. Who would have thought that you could publish a trade secret on the web?" Read more from the Samba Team below. -------------------- Forget The Pentium, Hack The 68K A articles article from the "why-upgrade-when-you-can-go-retro?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/209248 Mr. Groove writes: "Hey foo, think your PIII is killer? Imagine running Photoshop on one of these!" Frugal or insane -- only you can decide. -------------------- Kerberos, PACs And Microsoft's Dirty Tricks A articles article from the "read-more-about-it" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/158204 Chris DiBona wrote to us with something that Ted and Jeremy (Samba Boys) wrote: "Microsoft, after getting beat up in the press for making propietary extensions to the Kerberos protocol, has released the specifications on the web -- but in order to get it, you have to run a Windows .exe file which forces you agree to a click-through license agreement where you agree to treat it as a trade secret, before it will give you the .pdf file. Who would have thought that you could publish a trade secret on the web?" Read more from the Samba Team below. -------------------- Motif's Not Dead A articles article from the "i'm-not-dead-yet" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/175206 Kailden writes: "O'Reilly has an interview with Antony Fountain, co-author of Volume 6B: Motif Reference Manual, 2nd Edition, in which he claims that both QT for KDE and GTK+ for GNOME don't compare to Motif (and mentions that Java is the only thing that comes close). " The interview's old -- but the response from user comments adds more to it. Yeah, I know the article's a couple of weeks old -- but it's a good one. -------------------- Quickies Rock! A articles article from the "i'm-afraid-you're-just-too-darn-loud" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/1913252 Phexro extended our congratulations to Bruce and Valerie on the birth of Bruce 2.0, otherwise known as Stanley Charles Perens. this is jimmy asked us all to compete in the great Beltsander Races. Need to send crazy Aunt JoAnne some E-mail? Try something from the Great Spam Archive, sent in by Jones. Nezumi-chan wasn't the only one to write in with this one, but all I can say is Oh, yes. ahaning wrote in to tell us about the Obsolete Computer Museum. Want something to plug them into? blizzard shared Electricity from Giant Artichokes. Also, check out the Ultracade, which is cool unless you're a video game purist like me. Dropkick wrote in about a cyber-riffic washing machine. Last but not least, Penguin_99 writes in about cool photos from Galileo. That's it, folks. Thanks to AfterY2K for the title inspiration. -------------------- Software Carpentry Project's First-Round Winners A articles article from the "forging-better-hammers,-brewing-better-glue" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/1740213 GenericBoy writes: "The four first round winners for each category of the Software Carpentry competition have been announced. It's really exciting to see all these potential replacements for tools that are in such wide-spread use. If you haven't heard of Software Carpentry yet, they're hosting a competition (for BIG $$$) for developing Free tools in the Configure, Build, Bug-tracking and Testing categories." As source code becomes less and less an obscure concept, it's good to see that some people are working to make its construction less obscure as well. -------------------- Horribly Bad Game Designs A articles article from the "really-really-bad-ideas" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/02/1536240 A reader writes: "WomenGamers.Com takes a stab at coming up with some horribly bad game designs. Check out their latest editorial, "What if? ... No Scratch That..." This article made me laugh -- the driving game inebriation was a great idea. What's your worst game design idea? -------------------- 20th Century's Greatest Engineering Achievements A articles article from the "what-have-we-learned-charlie-brown" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/0839206 dgw1 writes "The National Academy of Engineering has produced an ordered list of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. I thought the articles about all of the entries were very interesting, even if I didn't agree with the order that some of the achievements were placed in. " -------------------- Advertising in Your Boot Sequence? A articles article from the "that's-a-little-odd" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/0843228 negaPLuCK writes: "i just mounted my first reiserfs partition. When the reiserfs.o module loaded into the kernel what popped out but ads for SuSE, MP3.com and Ecila.com." I've attached the exact text in the read more: it's more like sponsorship than ads, which on one hand is a cool way to finance development, but where is this gonna end? -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Thu, 4 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/4/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bob Young Blasts Recent Anti-Open Source Article A articles article from the "response-==-good" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/0911241 buzzcutbuddha writes "Bob Young from Red Hat issued his rebuttal to John Taschek's Anti-Open Source Article on ZDNet. Well written and articulate, and to the point ... He shoots, he scores!" Check out the original article blasting the open-source idea. Good rebuttal, Bob. -------------------- Linux Core Kernel Commentary A books article from the "even-Alan-Cox-had-to-start-somewhere" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/17/1037249 -------------------- ArsTechnica Espresso PC Review A articles article from the "super-sweet" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/0941205 Hannibal from ArsTechnica gave the head's-up of their review of the Espresso PC. We had an article on this super-sweet little machine recently. This little machine weighs .99 pounds, has USB, Celeron, 3D Sound, built in touchpad - and Hannibal covers putting Linux on the puppy as well. /me wants. -------------------- Shut Down Metallica, Not Napster A features article from the "time-to-fight-back" department sent by JonKatz http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/1110232 -------------------- ICMP_HOST_BELOW_HORIZON - TCP/IP Into Orbit A articles article from the "packets-in-spaaacceee!" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/0935219 Christopher Neufeld writes "As reported on ScienceDaily today, on April 10 of this year, some standard IP modules were uploaded to UoSAT-12, and got it answering pings. " -------------------- Interfaces For The Handicapped? A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-read" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/26/1231212 heller asks: "I'm wondering about ideas for different methods intefacing with the computer for the physically handicapped. I've got a family friend that has very limited motor control, and while he can peck away at a computer, it really is hard and time consuming. Plus, he can't control almost anything else around his house, TV, front door, phone, microwave. My current thoughts are that if we can get him to interface with the computer, we can make it so he can control everything else he needs to." We have basic voice recognition, and technologies like X10: could these technologies and others help make living for the handicapped any easier without costing lots of money? (Read on...) "Pete, a long time family friend and founder of Pedal with Pete, was born with cerebral palsy (check the Web site for more information). This greatly inhibits his motor control. He enjoys bike riding but last June, was in serious bike accident (once again, more info on the Web site) and this only reduced his motor control. The man has incredible spirit and wants to live on his own, though he has to have home care nurses stop by every day to help him perform most of his daily activities. He used to do lots of work on his computer pecking away with sticks strapped to both hands. Since his accident he has virtually lost control of one side of his body and has seriously reduced control on the other side, so this is no longer possible. My current line of thinking is that if we can get him to be able to control a computer, we might be able to automate many of the other parts of his life so he doesn't have to rely on so much help from other people. While I definitely have several ideas on how to go about this, I'ld really like some other input. Does anyone have any ideas or new products they can point me to?" -------------------- IBM JDK 1.3 For Linux A articles article from the "it's-new-it's-fast" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/118248 -------------------- Handmade Encryption Challenge A articles article from the "ifye-kunk-raek-itye-rsma-ert" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/1843215 -------------------- Silicon Hell A articles article from the "how-capitalism-protects-the-environment" department sent by michael http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/2155236 ferlatte writes: "There's a great piece on the effects of the tech industry in Silicon Valley on the environment and their workers. Pretty scary stuff, and sort of unsettling to think about how many toxic substances went into that shiny new laptop. The story is available at http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/30/siliconhell.html." Maybe the industry needs to set up "PolluteE", a "watchdog" agency to make sure companies post their pollution policies prominently on their Web sites...Update: 05/04 11:08 by michael: A good link from the comments: the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. -------------------- Linux 2.2.15 Released A articles article from the "waiting-for-2.4" department sent by CowboyNeal http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/2248255 Fluid Donkey was the first of many to let us know that kernel 2.2.15 has come down the wire. It's a fairly large patch (just over a meg), but it contains many updates, including support for Intelligent Input/Output (I20) devices. You can find it in the usual places. (ftp..kernel.org if you forgot) -------------------- KDevelop 1.2 is out A articles article from the "excellent-program-if-I-may-say-so" department sent by HeUnique http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0458238 As the title says - KDevelop 1.2 is out. From the announcement: This version contains many new translations, support for GNOME application development, several improvements in the doc browser and integrated debugger and many bugfixes. You might want to check also the KDE Development Kit if you're using C/C++ (and QT Libs) to write KDE Applications. Great work guys! -------------------- Ensuring Permanence Of Online Scientific Journals A articles article from the "honey-have-you-seen-my-SciAm-collection?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/03/1434247 wtpooh writes: "Many librarians and archivists are concerned about the impermanence of online scientific journals. They are accustomed to saving the paper journals for decades and do not have faith that the online versions will still be accessible in the future (What happens when a publisher goes out of business and shuts down its Web site, for example)." (Read more.) -------------------- Meeting with Netpliance A articles article from the "Big-Gay-Al's-Big-Gay-Animal-Farm" department sent by nik http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0453208 Kalin Harvey writes: A while ago I posted an announcement on Slashdot asking for feedback to take to Netpliance regarding the i-opener and their relationship with the hacker community.  Since then I have met with Netpliance and basically concluded that a lot of the dialogue we were having about the company was missing the mark. Netpliance is a different company than many of us thought and basically don't have the ability to sell vast quantities of i-openers to the hacker community; their whole focus is the service, on many devices, not just the i-opener hardware. However, they also are big fans of open standards, and would love help to contribute to an open development model and see the embedded linux appliance market grow. They are also already making commitments to working with the open source community. You can read my full account on linuxpower.org -------------------- The Village Voice on The DVD Wars A articles article from the "when-johnny-comes-marchin'-home" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0810236 Phantom writes: "The Village Voice has great story (here) about DeCSS, 2600.com, and the legal battle about to ensue. Looks like the MPAA may be in some trouble. " Well written piece - things have been quiet here for a while, but I think both sides have been lining up necessary support. The lawyer, Martin Garbus, is going to be defending Eric Corley aka Emmanuel Goldstein, and is a /very sharp/ cookie. -------------------- Linuxcare Withdraws IPO, Cuts Staff A articles article from the "getting-back-to-basics" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0856253 Eupolis writes "Reuters reports that Linuxcare has withdrawn its IPO filings, and is now cutting staff to try to keep from running out of money. " As well as the report from Reuters, News.com has an analysis of the situation as well. -------------------- I Love You "Virus" Hates Everyone A articles article from the "just-when-the-last-rash-cleared-up" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0938227 Loquis was the first of seven billion readers to submit this story about the I Love You Virus and the UK. Its not really a virus: its a trojan that proclaims its love for the recipient and requests that you open its attachment. On a first date even! It then loves you so much that it sends copies of itself to everyone in your addressbook (slut!) and starts destorying files on your drive. Course they estimate that it's infected 10% of the UK. Pine/Elm/Mutt users as always laugh maniacally as the trojan shuffles countless wasted packets over saturated backbones filling overworked SMTP servers everywhere. Sysadmins are seen weeping in the alleys. Update: 05/04 03:12 by CT: My Roommate Kurt "The Pope" DeMaagd has written a better summary of the trojan and more importantly a HOWTO fix it. Windows users only ;) Requires registry hacking, so its not for everyone. -------------------- Controlling Your Computer with Your Brain A science article from the "not-sure-how-to-title-this" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0816244 -------------------- The Corporate Republic A features article from the "birth-of-a-nation" department sent by JonKatz http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/26/108242 -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Fri, 5 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/5/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ask Metallica About Napster A interviews article from the "feeling-misunderstood" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0821200 Members of the band Metallica have agreed, through their publicist, to answer questions from Slashdot readers about their recent legal actions against Napster and Napster users. They did a live chat interview Tuesday on the subject with a crowd rounded up by artistdirect.com and Yahoo!. Now it's our turn, so let's give them a fine, thorough, Slashdot-style grilling. (more) -------------------- Employers Logging Keystrokes-What Can You Do? A askslashdot article from the "what-rights-do-employees-really-have?" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/24/1028251 daqman asks: "I work for a 'national lab' which is code for, 'we are funded by the Department of Energy'. Recently there was a big scare over a DoE employee at a weapons lab who has been accused of spying. Now we are very far from weapons research. If were any closer I would quit right away. Anyway, as part of the security flap we have been asked to put a notice on all of our machines. A part of the message is: 'By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the discretion of authorized site or Department of Energy personnel. LOG OFF IMMEDIATELY if you do not agree to the conditions stated in this warning.' What is the legality of this statement?" (There's more...) -------------------- Gnutella's Wall Of Shame? A articles article from the "ah-yes-a-distributed-system" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/1130215 Sleen pointed us to a ZD story about ZeroPaid.com's Wall of Shame. Its pretty amusing actually: since gnutella is truly distributed, you know the IP of people who download things from you. ZeroPaid is posting the IPs of people who try to download their faked kiddie porn. This is an obvious side effect of using a totally distributed application to distribute information: the information can be distributed like wildfire, but the privacy concerns are significant. -------------------- MassMultiples LCD Screen A articles article from the "this-will-be-great-in-my-batcave" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/100220 Rackemup writes: "For those days when you're thinking to yourself, 'Y'know, one monitor just doesn't cut it anymore... I wish there was a way to hook up a bunch of LCD screens to my computer. Check out the MassMultiples website. Now you can hook up two, three, four or more 18" lcd screens to your pc! Custom configurations, low footprint, and not a price to be found anywhere on the web site. Like anyone cares how much they would cost ..." Update: 05/04 02:17 by H: I actually saw their quad system last week -- it looks really, really good -- quality work. -------------------- Hyperlinks In The Meat World A articles article from the "i-wanna-click-on-my-eye-ball" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/1327208 Once&FutureRocketman writes "The New York Times has this article (no login required) about a technology that allows publishers of paper media to embed hyperlinks directly in the article in machine-readable format. The system is a little clumsy at this point, but the intent is clear: a seamless integration of the Internet and Real Life." -------------------- Sega Supports Emulation A articles article from the "going-old-school" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0940245 rapett0 writes "Sega of Japan has decided to take a much welcomed step and support downloading and playing of Genesis/Mega Drive and PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 games on the Dreamcast via a service called DreamLibrary. Apparently they will cost $1.50 per download/per day and you lose the game after you turn off your system, but can redownload if you still have rental time left on the game that day. The same article makes mention that Bleem! might be released for Dreamcast as well. " Granted, this is only for Japan right now - but it's a cool step. -------------------- Hubble Spots Long-Sought Intergalactic Gas A articles article from the "left-over-hindenburg" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/0946250 hubie writes: "NASA is announcing that Hubble has indirectly detected the long-expected existence of intergalactic hydrogen gas. This is important because it confirms some of the Big Bang models that predict how much hydrogen should have been created. Hubble used a quasar as a light source for spectroscopic measurements. " -------------------- First Ever Radar Images Of Main-Belt Asteroid A articles article from the "looks-like-a-scooby-snack" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/2154242 Phrogman writes: "NASA and astronomers at Cornell have collected the first ever radar images of a main-belt asteroid, a metallic, dog-bone shaped rock the size of New Jersey named Asteroid 216 Kleopatra. There is an article here with more information and a small image." -------------------- Minibosses Rock Nostalgic A articles article from the "insert-coin-to-continue" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/1943244 skia writes "Chock full of yummie old-school NES goodness and metal guitar/drum beats, The Minibosses play your favorite songs from Metroid, Castlevania, and even Contra!" I've been listening to this for the past hour or so, and it's very cool. They've been around for a while. My friend Erik says he heard of them on Zophar's Domain. -------------------- More News On Dune Miniseries A articles article from the "i-will-not-fear" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/200242 Yodel_Spoogenshortz write:s "Here is an update on the Dune Miniseries being produced by New Amsterdam Entertainment to be shown in December of this year on the Sci-Fi Channel. The site has more photos and press releases. Earlier Slashdot articles on the upcoming series can be found here and here. For information on the Dune book series look at the Official Dune Web Site." Dune is an absolute classic, and probably my favorite book of all time. I'm hoping they don't screw it up. -------------------- Why Not MySQL? A articles article from the "interesting-discussion" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/0920247 Deepak Jagannath wrote to us with a piece that talks about why a Web site shouldn't use MySQL for critical RDBMS. Do people agree or disagree? -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Sat, 6 May 2000 11:00:06 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 11:00:06 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/6/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Patents Package Management A articles article from the "you-gotta-be-kidding-me" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/1033208 Lionfire writes "Recently, Microsoft aquired a patent for a "Method and system for installing and updating program module components"." Read the description and replace a few key words, and you have a very nice description of *cough* Debian's apt. Neat! -------------------- SCO Answers Questions About Linux A interviews article from the "we-may-be-slow-but-we-get-there" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/0713234 Our original interview with two SCO Presidents somehow turned into responses from just one, returned long after they were promised. Anyway, here are answers to your questions about SCO from David McCrabb, President of their Server Division. -------------------- Judge Rakoff Explains MP3.com Ruling A articles article from the "finally-something-to-post" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/148228 Saint Aardvark writes "Wired News reports here that Judge Rakoff explained his ruling on MP3.com. According to him, MP3.com was "simply repackaging" the recordings, adding nothing, and therefore unable to claim fair use. " -------------------- Which CGI Language For Which Purpose? A askslashdot article from the "share-your-experiences" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/0137201 zpengo asks: "The blessing and curse of CGI is that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ways to accomplish any given task. All languages have certain strengths and weaknesses, and there is no "best" CGI scripting language. I'm wondering what the community has learned about CGI languages through their experiences. Which languages go best with which tasks? (Also, are there any less-known languages that work well for particular circumstances?)" -------------------- Philips VCR Records MPEG On (D-)VHS tape A articles article from the "twisty-little-standards-all-different" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/1817209 wfberg writes: "This Philips VCR records and reads normal VHS tapes, but also records MPEG 2 video digitally on tape. You need 'special' tape for this though (presumably to boost philips tape sales). It sports digital-input and since it's RW and digital, this should piss off the DVD people. Since Philips owns a stake in TiVo, maybe TiVos will make tape-backups in the future? ;-)" The flip-down edit panel looks cool. I wonder how hard it would be to get FireWire out as well as in ... -------------------- Washington Supreme Court Upholds Shrinkwrap Licensing A yro article from the "teeny-tiny-print" department sent by michael http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/2031212 rudedog writes: "According to this Seattle Times article, the Washington Supreme Court has upheld a shrinkwrap license limiting recovery of damages due to buggy software. Apparently, the software manufacturer agreed that there was a bug that cost the plaintiff $1.95 million, but asked the court to dismiss the claim based on the license agreement [which disclaimed all liability]. Kinda answers the old open source FUD question 'who you gonna sue if something goes wrong?'. According to the WA courts, nobody." The opinion is available here, and a dissenting opinion by two of the judges is also available. -------------------- Get Your Palm On The Network A articles article from the "feel-the-pulse-of-the-planet-prescribe-aspirin" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/0218256 Anonymous Coward writes: "There's a cool article over on O'Reilly network showing how to set up a network connection between a Linux box and Palm Pilot, and then run a Web server on the Palm to access the documents. There's also a VNC client which I'm downloading now. Wild!" -------------------- Quantum Project A articles article from the "ziggy-says-you're-a-kernel-hacker" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/0835256 Percible writes: "BBC News is reporting that John Cleese, star of Monty Python's Flying Circus, is starring alongside Stephen Dorff in the first major film produced exclusively for downloading over the Internet. The film cost $3 million to make, and lasts 32 minutes. Cost to you: $3.95 to purchase the file for download from sightsound.com." There have been quite a few films produced for Internet distribution, but this looks like the first professional approach with known actors. -------------------- Smuggling Open Source Past The Boss A articles article from the "how-*dare*-you-extend-my-budget?" department sent by nik http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/0713223 Saint Aardvark writes: "CNN has an article on software engineers sneaking open source software past the boss -- and how the smart boss doesn't look too closely." A nicely balanced article (originally from Computer World). -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Sun, 7 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 7 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/7/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Slashback: Feathers, Worms, Happy Returns A articles article from the "hit-me-again-sir-but-harder" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/006250 Welcome to the 2nd edition of Slashback, upgrading your Slashdot experience with another week's worth of additions, updates, new links and new thoughts, all for the same low cost. (Read more.) Like the end credits on a short, short film. gi_wrighty pointed out that "the winners from the 5K web page contest (announced a while back ) have now been announced." Here are the welterweight web winners. A different kind of Apache Con From Slashdot's own jimjag: "Are you interested in the details concerning how www.apache.org was defaced, as reported right here? Here's how it was done from the definitive source. It just goes to remind all of us that sometimes the obvious things are the ones we don't see, and the ones that come back and bite us in the arse. I can imagine quite a few SysAdmins making some changes over the last 36 hours." ... because the old ones were invidious. Remember the flap over GPL code in non-GPL drivers released by NVidia? Well, happily, the company kept its promises. Kheldar_522 writes "LinuxGames.com is reporting that the new NVIDIA XFree86 4.0 drivers released tonight have had all the GPL code removed." May the circle be unbroken. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, instead of subtracting code, Samsung is hoping to make sure some gets added. iKev contributed the news that "Last Sunday, Gmate, the creators of the [Linux-based PDA]Yopy, released a very preliminary SDK for the Yopy. You can check it out here (click on the Developer image). I haven't had a chance to try it (it's only for x86 linux)." iKev wondered whether the terms of the download violate the GPL, which is used for some parts of the SDK. Any takers? You are near area 51. Leave. BenTheDewpendent wrote: "I was at gpspilot.com and found instructions on how to connect almost any GPS to a Pilot [including the construction of a null-modem cable if you need one - t] and I thought it could be handy for things like a nav system in a car or bike ... especially now that Clinton has ordered down selective avalability." Coupled with some decent mapping software, this might even help me get less lost, more often. Be warned, though -- this is not the only purveyor of Palm maps, and they do want to sell you some. We han Cardly wait! For those who read paper books, this should be good news, contributed by Anonymous Coward after reading about the new Ender's Game sequel: "In a recent interview on otherview.com, OSC mentioned that he is also working on two more sequels to Ender's Game. Shadow of Death, the "final volume about Bean," and an unnamed Petra-and-Peter book. He mentions this on the third page of this article. Also interesting, OSC apparently is all in favor of e-books, though his publisher won't let him do it." "Biting into some software and finding half a worm!" It's been a quiet couple of days for the administrators of Windows networks -- unless they have MS Outlook e-mail, in which case they don't feel Loved and it isn't Very Funny. Østergaard writes with "this piece, mainly as a reflection on the current worm mania filling the news (and mail-servers ;) around the world. I'd like to see what you people think." It's good reading, and very sobering if you're running the user agents at fault, or ones that could be, next time -------------------- Classic Arcade Games Online A articles article from the "but-ya-gotta-play-shockwave" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/1147217 Ant writes "Midway Games and shockwave.com announced today that ten classic Midway arcade games are now available for free on the internet. " The games released include Defender, Joust, Spy Hunter and Rampage, but as you might expect, you need Shockwave in order to play them. -------------------- Alpha 21264 And Athlon 850 Review A articles article from the "zoom" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/05/0837251 Arg! writes: "Hi. There's a comparison review of an Alpha DS10 with a 466 MHz chip running AlphaLinux up at this link on Ace's Hardware. The system is compared against an 850 MHz Athlon box (also running Linux) and there are a lot of different benchmarks also showing some memory comparisons with some other PC chips, like the Celerons, as well as some Sun Ultra benchmarks. The config tested was $5500, but a base DS10 is supposed to be around $3500 ... maybe not too bad for a nice 64-bit box. ;)" -------------------- Aiwa car CD-MP3 player A articles article from the "now-we're-getting-somewhere" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/1149231 conraduno writes "Looks like Aiwa is releasing a car stereo MP3 player which loads tracks from a CD. Called the CDC-MP3, it plays CD's, CD-R's, and CD-RW's. Now all I need is a burner. " Here's a few more details from mp3.com. -------------------- Intel FDIV bug vs ILUVYOU A articles article from the "stuff-to-read" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/127214 geophile sent us a really interesting comparison of the similarities and differences between Intel's notorious FDIV bug of ages past (well, at least it seems like ages) and the recent ILUVYOU macro virus. Its amusing, but at the same time it really gives an interesting perspective on the whole deal. Hit the link to read it -------------------- Portable Translator Devices? A askslashdot article from the "the-universal-translators-of-tomorrow?" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/1221233 Roger Binns asks: "I've been looking for an electronic language translator device (like a personal organiser form factor) that can do English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Unfortunately, they are extremely difficult to find on the Web, and the ones I have seen at airports are very expensive and tend to only do one non-English language." Cool idea. Where can one buy something like this? If I ever get the time to go to Europe, I would love to take along something like this. The potential for such a device is staggering. -------------------- 24/7 Sues DoubleClick Over Patent A articles article from the "isn't-it-ironic" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/1456231 whitefox writes "Another ZDNet article states that advertising network 24/7 has sued Double -------------------- NASA Snake-Bots A articles article from the "please-don't-gain-consciousness" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/200224 faqBastard writes: "NASA's been working on some pretty cool snake-bots for exploring outer space. All kinds of neat features and capabilities ... " Robotic snakes certainly seem to be slithering into our future. OK, they look practical and intriguing -- but they give me the willies. -------------------- Windows Source Code Proposal Confirmed A articles article from the "note-the-source-please" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/0129230 ChipX86 writes: "We've all heard the rumors about Microsoft proposing to open source Windows. Now it appears to be confirmed. This article on MSNBC says that Microsoft would '... provide open, timely and complete access to the parts of the Windows operating system code used by independent software companies to design their software applications to run on Windows.'" From the sound of it, this seems like more of a delay tactic than a straight proposal, but interesting nonetheless. (How open is "open," by the way? What about "Timely"?) -------------------- Effectiveness of Online User Databases Questioned A articles article from the "information-wants-to-be-cheap" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/0733245 Aleatoric writes: "According to this article from the NY Times, advertisers aren't exactly buying into the claimed effectiveness of targeted online user databases. Not to get complacent, though, it also includes comments from many sites that gather user information concerning their efforts to try and change this attitude." Amusing. It seems Web advertisers are just now learning lessons direct mail and print advertisers learned long ago. -------------------- Effectiveness Of Online User Databases Questioned A articles article from the "information-wants-to-be-cheap" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/0733245 Aleatoric writes: "According to this article from the NY Times, advertisers aren't exactly buying into the claimed effectiveness of targeted online user databases. Not to get complacent, though, it also includes comments from many sites that gather user information concerning their efforts to try and change this attitude." Amusing. It seems Web advertisers are just now learning lessons direct mail and print advertisers learned long ago. -------------------- iMovie For Free A articles article from the "go-and-grab-it" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/1011200 Graymalkin writes: "Apple has finally released iMovie (the really easy video editor) for the non-iMac DV customers; the best part is that it's free. You can get it over at iMovie's Web site. I've used demos of this package and compared to professional packages like Premiere it really packs a punch. You need OS 9 and at least 64 megs of RAM (unless you want to do Web quality video, then 64 is fine). It's nice to see Apple responding to their customers (like myself) who wanted iMovie but didn't want to go out and buy an iMac to get it. fnord. " -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Mon, 8 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 11:00:05 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/8/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Open-Sourcing Discontinued Hardware A askslashdot article from the "immortality-through-free-software" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/28/1910214 LinuxWhore asks: "I work for a company that recently accquired two 3Com/USR TOTALswitch units. It seemed as though we had I nice product by the price that they were going for online ($1500-$3000). However, further research had revealed to me that 3Com had decided to discontinue all work on the line shortly after their merger. All updates to the product have thus ceased. Now I am left in a situation where the product has little documentation and no chance of future security/bugfixes. If companies like 3Com were petitioned to release the souce and hardware specs to their dicontinued products, how much interest would there be in the community to write updates to code for these types of products so that they remain useful, instead of becoming a $3000 doorstop?" It's a good idea. Convincing the hardware makers will be the difficult part. -------------------- More Fun With "For Dummies" Trademarks A articles article from the "jeez-lousie" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/1019231 tonescope wrote to us with a fun narrative from Oz about Corporate Standover Tactics for Dummies in which Octapod, a small non-profit arts group has done a fun job of cataloging the dialogue between them and IDG Books. In the same vein, check out our first story about this as well. -------------------- 101 Keys Soaking Wet: The Flexboard A articles article from the "yes-I-was-actually-*in*-the-tub" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/2247209 What's 19.5 inches long, bright yellow, flexible, and rubber? Wait, don't answer that. To be be more precise, let me rephrase: what's 19.5 inches long, bright yellow, flexible, rubber, and equipped with a 7-foot PS/2 cable? (Read more.) There may be other answers to that eternal, burning question, but the only one of which I am aware is the strange and intriguing keyboard (hooked to an Amnet laptop on loan from Roblimo) on which I type ths review. It's called the Flexboard, available in the U.S. from Man & Machine. And yes, it works fine with Linux -- in this case, with a semi-functional installation of Corel Linux 2.4. Nothing unusual about it, in fact, except that it's banana yellow, has no moving parts, can be rolled to the approximate dimensions of a stromboli, smells a bit like a paint store, and can droop becomingly around a user's naked thighs. Other than that, just your run-of-the-mill PS/2 keyboard. With a design straight out of '70s Sweden, or perhaps the personal computer division of Fisher-Price (but actually manufactured in Germany by a company called Kota Technologies, this is not a keyboard you're likely to to find around the office. First of all, most offices do not need keyboards that cost as much as a passable 15" monitor -- and at $129 for the standard Home / Office version (the one I'm bumping away at), it's pretty close. (In case you're wondering, it is available in other colors, including neutral grey.) Your $129, though, gets you an interesting, very specialized piece of equipment. This keyboard can withstand treatment that standard mechanical ones cannot, to put it lightly. (Turns on spigot -- not too hot, but not too cold.) Add $100 for the even tougher "Industrial" version, and you can happily drench your keyboard in oil and many chemicals; the Industrial version also features a 2-year warranty vs. the standard edition's single year, and will withstand a wider range of storage and operating temperatures. For factories, laboratories, workshops and such it seems like just the ticket. Even the standard one, though, shrugs off both water and hot chocolate at point-blank range just fine. Rinse off, towel dry -- no need to wring. The sensors which enable the keys are hidden beneath flat-topped projections in the one-molded-piece-of-rubber which is the keyboard. The letters, numbers and functon keys are perfectly round, while space bar, enter, and other special characters are elongated ovals. (Lower drain plug.) The keys are adequately labeled; the printing is a little lighter than I would expect -- grey-brown rather than black -- but in practical use provides plenty of contrast. (Adjusts water.) Not that I'm giving it any practical use right now. How well does it work? In short, a) better than I expected and, b) not bad. It takes some getting used to the feel of a rubber keyboard (and adjusting your typing style to its response), but it's not the awful, toothgrinding experience of "typing" on the flat-membrane surface of the old family Sinclair Z-80; it's really possible to type at a decent clip on this thing. Slower than my regular keyboard, but OK. Even combination keystrokes (shift-plus, alt-plus) work fine. However, if you're used to clacking along on a mechanical keyboard, especially if you crave the audio and tactile feedback of an IBM desk-dominator, the feel of this one will come as a surprise, though not necessarily a rude one. The loudest you can make this keyboard roar, in fact, is closer to a Sunday School whisper than to, say, normal conversation. Unless you really want to swing your fingers, it is utterly silent. (A little more Hot, please.) A gentle squeezing motion is all it takes to actuate the keys. Even after acclimating myself to it for a few days, though, I find that a few keys (F, J, and a few others in the bottom row) simply do not work as well as others. Disconcertingly, the key which causes me the most trouble is the spacebar. I am generally a right-thumb spacebar thumper; I find that by switching to my left thumb my success is much improved. Overall, the engineers did an admirable job balancing sensitivity with oversensivity. I end up hitting backspace more than I'd like, but less than I feared I would have to. So who would want one of these? With not a sharp angle or hard surface to be found, I can think of various institutions which might order it for those characteristics alone, and of which I know only by thorough reading. (Ouch! Too hot!) Any environment that could be wetter or messier than you'd subject an ordinary keyboard to (anyone who's gotten cat hair or soda in their keyboard will know what I mean) might be well-served with the Flexboard. Office klutzes everywhere -- we know who we are -- still would have to go through quite a few $30 keyboards from the local office supply before one of these makes sense for that reason alone. It does seem like this would be a great keyboard for children, since not only are there no pieces to break off and chew on or swallow, but more importantly it cannot be used as a bludgeon against other children. And for anyone in a situtation which truly requires a spillproof, particle-proof keyboard, the generous cable allows you to better protect the PC itself, placing it in a cabinet, say, or otherwise out of your particular "splash zone." For situations where quiet is more important than input speed, this board would shine. Having typed this review from the comfort of my bathtub, I can also attest to the Flexboard's resistance to Freeman Botanicals Apple Nectar shampoo as well as Dove moisturizing soap. Better close before I find out what it can't shrug off and get myself into even more hot water. -------------------- Product Placement A radio article from the "sponsored-in-part-by" department sent by CowboyNeal http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/1328257 In this week's show we talk about mp3.com's legal losses, Metallica vs. Napster, bad games, and, and more. If you think you can stand it, give it a listen. -------------------- Tampered Athlons Hit Oz A articles article from the "intensive-purposes-down-under" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/1731227 Lucien Wells writes "I have some bad news to spoil your weekend -- it seems like fake Athlons have hit Australia, and at least one of TechWatch's readers has personally recieved a fake. More worrying is the fact that the reader only very recently purchased their Athlon." (Read more below.) "This is some very bad news -- thanks to Tim for alerting us. Rather than paraphrase, I will just quote his email: 'Well it looks like they [fake Athlons] have hit Australia I just recieved my K700 from [an undisclosed source] in perth and have opened it up to put the cold plate on it and to my horror the cpu is a 650 ... the resistor has been changed and serial numbers do not match ...' We managed to get some pictures of the Athlon in question, and all the pictures are posted, including a summary with each picture, and help for those interested in finding out if their CPU has been tampered with. More details are available on our frontpage. We are working on finding an easy way (ie, for 'general' consumption) for those possibly affected to test their processor, and any updates will be posted, again, on our main page :) Kind Regards, Lucien Wells. --- Lucien Wells Editor/Assistant Reviewer & HTML Developer, TechWatch" The well-labeled pictures also serve as a primer to understanding the cryptic labels on the side of your processor. But as Lucien points out, checking this out will void your -------------------- A New Rendering Model For X A articles article from the "heart-renderin-soul-barin'" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/07/2316257 horst writes: "I found this proposal by Keith Packard at mosfet.org. a good article, very interesting." Although it's more than a month old, if you are interested in the state of X, how it got to be that way, and where it's likely to head next, this is essential reading. In fact, you'll practically have to read it to find out why Packard concludes that "[a] new rendering model, designed to solve specific performance and network transparency issues of these new toolkits, has the promise of significantly increasing the power of the X desktop environment." -------------------- Black Hole Search Begins In Austrailian Outback A articles article from the "they-are-looking-up-not-around" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/0831239 Sandeater writes: "BBC news is reporting that an new telescope has just been completed to search out black holes from the Australian outback. The astronomers using the telescope will be looking for huge black holes at the centres of galaxies, as well as seeing how they evolve. The Cangaroo II will be offically opened tomorrow. The BBC link can be found here." -------------------- Black Hole Search Begins In Australian Outback A articles article from the "they-are-looking-up-not-around" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/0831239 Sandeater writes: "BBC news is reporting that an new telescope has just been completed to search out black holes from the Australian outback. The astronomers using the telescope will be looking for huge black holes at the centres of galaxies, as well as seeing how they evolve. The Cangaroo II will be offically opened tomorrow. The BBC link can be found here." -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Tue, 9 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/9/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Irrational Exuberance A features article from the "Is-technology-driving-economic-markets-nuts?" department sent by JonKatz http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/01/1151240 -------------------- On Usage of "Hacker vs. Cracker" A articles article from the "po'-white-folks-that-hack" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/110225 rcp writes "The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for those of you not from The Great White North) has an article on why the media use the term hacker versus cracker. " Well, at least it's an understanding of why they use the terms incorrectly. -------------------- Arrest In The ILOVEYOU Case A articles article from the "make-macro-virus-and-do-time" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1037205 jacobm writes "All the news sources- CNN, ABC News, Security Focus, CNET news, and everyone else on the planet- are reporting that a man in the Phillipines has been arrested in the ILOVEYOU virus case. It appears that the virus had identifying information all over it, which makes me a bit suspicious that this could be a set-up, but on the other hand, you should never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." Update: 05/08 12:50 by J: Because you haven't yet read enough about ILOVEYOU, read this (Gates opines that breaking up MS will lead to more viruses). -------------------- Why Should I Sign Copyrights To The FSF? A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-discuss" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/28/0140207 Honza Jirousek asks: "The issue of signing copyright for patches to GNU software or even whole new GPL-ed programs to the FSF came up several times in various dicussions, last time in recent cphack threads and in this Wired article on the same topic. Some indicate this may even be a requirement for accepting larger patches for some GNU programs, such as emacs. I never managed to find more specific information on that. Can someone explain this practice and point to more information? I understand the positive effects of this (FSF being better positioned to defend the copyleft, possibility to change the licence to newer versions of GPL etc), but I can also see an interesting side-effect - in some cases it effectively puts the FSF in the privileged position of sole copyright holder, who can re-license the code. This is similar to special provisions of 'original author' in licences such as NPL, often criticized exactly for this. Or am I getting it wrong? Contrast this to programs such as Linux kernel, where the copyright is so distributed, that re-licensing will never be possible." (Read on...) -------------------- Company Claims To Have Workable Draft of Human Genome A science article from the "possibly-" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1325246 cybaea writes "The BBC reports that the human genome is now completely mapped. A largely unknown company beat all the others to it. " The company in question isn't Celera, or any of the other companies everyone's been talking about. It's a company called Doubletwist (Get it?) that claims to have a first "working draft" of the genes in question. Details are still sketchy - if you see more, please post links in the story below. -------------------- RIAA Claims Intial Legal Win vs. Napster A articles article from the "things-don't-look-good-for-our-hero" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1354255 A number of people have written in with the initial news blurb that the RIAA[?] has won the initial battle against Napster. The US District Court in San Fransico has ruled that Napster is not just a "mere conduit" for files, but that it is actually liable for material transfered by the program. This comes on the heels of MP3.com's recent loss to the RIAA as well. Ouch. -------------------- The Linux I18N and Standard Base Merge A articles article from the "standardization-consolidation" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1311257 Leo Comitale writes "According to this press release the Linux Standard Base and the Linux Internationalization (I18N) project have merged and are calling themselves the Free Standards Group. I think it is really important for Linux to have a basic, low level standard for file system layout and support for international languages. These areas are critical to keeping Linux from splintering into a bunch of incompatible variants, and it seems these efforts are not getting as much support as they probably should be." -------------------- NetPD, Metallica's Mysterious Tracker A articles article from the "how'd-they-do-that?" department sent by jamie http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/107227 Akilesh Rajan writes: "An article at Forbes talks about the firm that supplied Metallica with the software it needed to capture 335,000 users. It 'works like 5,000 humans sitting in a room doing Web searches' to identify user names. Demand for their services is enormous, especially since they also plan to expand into the videogame and movie protection businesses." This NetPD company is unrelated to the shareware program NetPD, which, ironically, helps protect user privacy. -------------------- AOL & NSI To Team Up A articles article from the "scary-stuff" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1314226 kettch wrote to us with a recent story on CNet about AOL and NSI teaming-up to offer "co-branded service". If I remember correctly, at one point AOL was going to compete with NSI in offering domain registrations, so it's interesting to note that they have decided to play nice with each other. -------------------- Rumors Of MP PowerMac G4 Flying! A articles article from the "with-sufficient-thrust-naturally" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/1726248 Maktoo writes: "Well, this has been a favorite rumour in the Mac world for quite some time, but with the approach of WWDC (next Monday) things are starting to heat up. MacOSRumors, AppleInsider, and Go2Mac are all predicting MP G4s soon ... with Go2Mac actually claiming that CompUSA has SKUs for the systems. The keynote on Monday should be interesting. I don't see why Apple would release MP machines before MacOS X ... but we might get a demo at least. I'm excited enough that I'll be getting a copy of MacOS X Beta when I walk in the door ... but an MP G4 would be nice too." -------------------- Print From Your TV Set, Says HP A articles article from the "imagine-the-new-face-of-spam" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/08/2029230 futile.com writes: "Looks like the fine folks at HP are working on getting a printing system developed for your TV set. Seems like they're joining forces with AT&T to do so. I could see some interesting uses with this and Bay Watch." I can think of a few situations where this would be handy, but it looks like Idiot Box-printing (bane of WebTV users) may soon be the bane of everyone with a television. Think "solicitation." -------------------- DivX Codec Port Contest A articles article from the "ka'ching-sosumi" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0827225 mr.e@home.com writes: "Flashingyellow.com has started up a contest to port the DivX MPEG-4 codec to the Macintosh platform. The goal is a completely open-sourced, cross-platform codec for use with Quicktime (hoping the Linux port of Quicktime ever gets completed). Prize is $5000 and an iMac DV Special Edition." -------------------- SourceForge Fails To Forge Source? A articles article from the "stuff-to-think-about" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0853201 I've attached a rather feisty rant from an anonymous coward criticizing the SourceForge project for releasing a tarball, but failing to be much of an open source project. 'Course since it took me a year between Slashcode releases, I'm a tad more forgiving on the subject, but the guy makes a lot of good points. -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Wed, 10 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/10/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PostgreSQL - Oracle/DB2 Killer? A articles article from the "open-source-rising-up" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0927203 dagnabit writes "At Yahoo News, there's a story about a company which is investing in/supporting the PostgreSQL crew. Ultimate goals include "a planned expansion to 120 employees and the ultimate possibility of going public." So that enterprise-class open-source RDBMS may not be too far off after all... " -------------------- Samba Administrator's Handbook A books article from the "airport-best-seller" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/12/1634237 chromatic returns with a book tuned for anyone whose answer to heterogeneous networks is SAMBA, and wants 500 pages of practical advice (and answers to common problems) distilled from the fountain of SAMBA knowlege. [TABLE NOT SHOWN] -------------------- On Leading vs. Following In The NOS World A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-think-about" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/25/1415230 This Anonymous Coward wishes to put this question before you all: "All of us know how well the Linux community can follow other technologies, case in point, Samba. I have to wonder when Linux will reach the point where it begins to lead the way vs. follow. A technology such as Linux Directory Services could be such a opportunity. Could Linux developers create a client/server based NOS that does not have to be bent, twisted, patched, or hacked to work with the leading OS's? Could we develop a new set of server processes which communicate with workstations through a custom built client?" -------------------- IPv6 Over OpenBSD A bsd article from the "Is-Mr-Freely-there?" department sent by nik http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/053244 darkuncle writes: "While doing some research into setting up an OpenBSD box as a firewall/NAT box/DHCP server for my home network, I ran across a cool writeup at 2600 Australia about how to implement IPv6 on OpenBSD. For anybody that's been thinking about exploring IPv6, this article (along with the FAQ linked above) provides some good starting points. " -------------------- Red Hat Ventures To Fund Open Source A articles article from the "putting-more-money-into-the-world" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1357221 joel_archer writes "According to this article on C|Net Red Hat Ventures division will take $500,000 to $2 million stakes in new companies specializing in open-source software and Internet infrastructure technology. Red Hat said it hopes to identify new business opportunities through the funding of start-ups. " -------------------- Dreadling Released A articles article from the "rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0837204 halxd2 writes: "Dreadling has finally been released. It's like Quake for Palm. The site says Handspring is not working yet, but they promise to work on it. This is really fun. The shareware version plays very well on my Palm III. I think I'll be buying more batteries." -------------------- Statistics On Free Software projects A articles article from the "cool-bunch-of-stats" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0941256 GenericBoy writes: "The first edition of The Orbiten Free Software Survey is out online. Some of the stats are number of authors and projects, the top 10 contributing authors, how many MB are in all of the free software projects put together (!) and a bunch more. " Now, as they themselves point out in the their Scope and Method, the methodology is crude, and I don't think Orbiten could quite submit it to Nature yet or anything, but it's an interesting bunch of stats. -------------------- Slashdot Prepares for a Server Move A articles article from the "everything-goes-better-with-whiskey" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1720204 At about 10pm Eastern Time tonight, the overworked and mentally deranged Slashdot crew will make the transition from our current overburdened setup to our brand spanking new hardware over at Exodus. It'll take a few minutes for us to dump the existing data over there, and a second story will announce when this actually occurs, but at that moment, any comments posted here will be lost. We've tested the new metal pretty extensively, but none of us are planning on sleeping much. Bug reports can go to CowboyNeal (who plans to not sleep until friday anyway ;) Don't say we didn't warn ya ;) Update: 05/09 09:48 by CN: You can also post bugs at our SourceForge bugs page so that you can see what's already been filed, and make the transition that much smoother. -------------------- Larry Ellison's Next NC -- But Not Yet For You A articles article from the "can-I-have-one-if-I-home-school?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1342225 An Anonymous Coward (and numerous others -- thanks) have written with news of Larry Ellison's (not Oracle's) new venture. "$199 for Network PC (w/o monitor). Local storage in flash memory, operating system on CD only. (No HD). 64M ram, 266Mhz Pentium-Class. Small Footprint." Added to which, cr@ckwhore added this link to ZDNet coverage of the device and pointed out " This thing costs $199, and has more power than the i-opener or that other websurfer thing ... get the tools back out ... this one is coming apart soon!!" The gimmick is that for now, no one can buy one for personal use (must wait till later in the year) -- but you can pay to contribute a NIC machine to a public school. -------------------- John Cash Leaves id Software for Blizzard A articles article from the "but-I-still-can't-play-diablo-2" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1811213 Jacek Fedorynski writes "John Cash has left id Software to work on a yet unannounced project at Blizzard. Here's Graeme Devine's .plan update on the subject." -------------------- Mozilla Junkbuster-like Feature Removed A articles article from the "at-whose-request?" department sent by jamie http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1410222 The source code for this news story is the bugzilla report, so read the source if you really want to know what's going on. Mozilla's M15 build has a feature to block webpage images that come from another site: it blocks banner ads. The feature's a little buggy, but it could probably be worked out. Four weeks ago, the feature was removed: "it went the way of management decree" says a Netscape employee. It sounds like AOL-Time-Warner-Netscape didn't want an ad-unfriendly feature in the web browser they're financing. But Mozilla contributors say this has been misinterpreted. What's the real story? "Please don't jump to conclusions." That's the advice from the developer whose bugzilla postings got people concerned in the first place. OK, so let's take this slow. Oh, and - this is the second story on Slashdot today that puts generous, overworked open-source contributors under the microscope, and I feel a little bad about that. I hope they understand we're not denigrating their efforts, and that we are grateful for their work. The feature at issue here lets you block images from a webpage if they come from a foreign site. If you're reading www.slashdot.org, any images from www.foreignsite.net will simply not be loaded. Say, hypothetically, www.doubleclick.net. That would be one example. Is this the most important feature in the world? Not really. But is it important? Yes. Not just because it blocks most ad banners. It also eliminates what Richard Smith calls web bugs: a technique which can track you across the net without your knowing. The extra privacy is probably a good thing. (On the bright side, the feature that blocks foreign-site cookies is still in place; this is a very good idea.) One thing that complicates the issue is that the image-blocking feature was having a few problems. The example given was that, on AltaVista's homepage, the "submit" button graphic comes from a domain owned by the same parent company - but because the domain name is different, the button does not appear. There was concern that users might not understand this. A proposed alternative was to add a dialog warning of such unexpected behavior, and/or to give users more options for how graphics would be blocked. My thinking is that the problems could have been solved. The person in charge of UI design issues suggested a design workaround that probably would have made the feature quite usable. I should point out that just because this bug has been marked as WONTFIX, that doesn't mean it won't be reopened; this has happened thousands of times. Actually, now the bug has been marked INVALID, indicating the removal of the feature from the menu is not considered a bug but ... a feature. Well, OK, so its removal was intentional; will the feature be re-added later? Possibly. But why was this feature removed? In mid-April, shortly after it had disappeared from the current build, one volunteer spoke to a Netscape employee and summarized events as "management had told them to strip the feature." This sounded uncomfortably like AOL influencing the browser design to suit their needs. I suspect that the Time-Warner media empire might take in a few dollars from banner ads. I suspect they might not like giving users a way to block almost all banner ads with just a few clicks. They don't mind a small percentage of us using a squid proxy, Junkbusters, or creative /etc/hostsing. But to turn that power over to everyone would seriously threaten their revenue stream. As one might expect, the preview release of Netscape 6, the "AOL version" of the browser that was spun off of the Mozilla project, has a preferences dialog that looks a lot like Mozilla's except when it comes to this feature. The foreign-cookie blocker is in place; the foreign-image blocker is not. (But they spun it off an earlier release - maybe the feature wasn't written then; I don't know.) One of the volunteer developers, at least, has been loudly protesting the implication that anything is wrong. On kuro5hin.org, they are free to state their case and there's some good discussion. And this morning, the same volunteer who originally logged the "went the way of management decree" message appended another log entry, worth reading in full: "This has gotten a little out of control. The only thing Steve Morse informed me was that as of now, the image blocking prefs have been *publicly* removed from the build. This means that though you CAN still retrieve the feature if you so desire, the menu options and interface are not -- by default -- accessible. This is done often for testing purposes; if something you're working on seems to be conflicting with the image blocking module, you can simply opt to turn it off to complete your work. Who the heck said anything about it being removed permanently? Admittedly, my note wasn't clear, but I think blaming AOL for the supposed 'removal' of this feature is absurd and a little conspiracist, don't you think? To the news sites carrying this: I'm sorry, but what we have here is a nonissue. [...] "To clarify: the ONLY piece of information Steve gave me was that the feature, as of now, did not appear to be in the latest builds, but really was. His words that the feature 'went the way of management' decree simply refer to the fact that 'management' (NOT AOL management or even AOL-related, mind you) told him to turn the image blocking preference off by default in the latest nightly builds (probably so some technical issues that the feature's causing can be ironed out). That's it - I apologize for the ambiguity of my original words, but they never meant to imply the removal of this feature. Nor did Steve's." I'm a little skeptical of what would be accomplished by removing this feature from the menu and dialog, but then I'm not the one who's working on the source, am I? I'm less skeptical about all this now than I was this morning. Part of what worried me was this same volunteer's earlier comment on kuro5hin.org: "...there's still quite a easy way to get the image blocking preferences back (IMHO, I believe they were removed in the first place because it is ads that heavily supports Netcenter), by adding a certain line in your prefs.js file." But in email today, he said that this was just a guess and he no longer believes it's true. Fair enough. Getting any developers to talk about this bug has been like pulling teeth. Only one of the developers I contacted (repeatedly) even bothered to return my email. What's important to understand is that having to restore the preferences by editing a Javascript preferences text file isn't the same as having it in the right-click menu. If people could block ads with a right-click and just a little poking around, the nature of the web would change drastically. Finally, here's the same volunteer, again on kuro5hin.org: "This has been blown way out of proportion. "I am now hearing from other NSCP employees that this feature has only been taken out temporarily due to complications with the PSM module. "Furthermore, can you all _please_ stop assuming things from Steve's statement? Steve said it went the way of management decree. This means whatever happened to the image prefs, it came by way of a couple people labeled 'management' (not AOL management, nor AOL-related in any way, mind you). _I_ was the one who suggested the feature was stripped. In reality, this feature may be being improved on, may have been removed temporarily (this happens often to many commonly used features in testing), or a number of other things that would explain its current disappearance. "Please don't jump to conclusions." OK. And those are nice hypotheticals for what could be something perfectly ordinary. If the explanation is that simple, though, I wish that someone else had just answered my email to say so. The nice thing about an open-source web browser is that, even if M16 comes out with a NoPrivacy(tm) feature that uploads everything you do directly to whitehouse.gov, we're all free to fork our own project with the M15 source. We can include this feature or any other. Conversely, Mozilla is not Netscape 6; AOL is free to add or remove whatever features they like when they release 6.0.1. But, the official release of Mozilla will be widely distributed. I hope its functionality will be all it could be. If you want the Mozilla development team to make this feature work, and keep it in the next builds, post a comment below to let them know it's important to you. And be nice. They work hard. -------------------- Welcome to the New Slashdot Server A articles article from the "HELLO-MY-NAME-IS-BRAK" department sent by CmdrTaco /articles/00/05/10/0345206.shtml -------------------- Does Open Source Separate Business from Technology? A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-think-about" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/00/05/02/2357247.shtml hornerj asks: "I've noticed quite a few pundits commenting on how the Open Source movement goes against the standard business model. I've come to believe that it not only goes against it, it rewrites it. Could it be possible that, with the shift from marketing software to marketing services, the business suits are being forced out of the technology pipeline? If IT businesses shift to providing services, will the suits, which historically make software releases buggy, bloated, and premature, be taken out of the decision process? Without a suit forcing an unready software release, it only makes sense that software will get better and better." -------------------- Intel Open Sources Itanium A articles article from the "open-the-spec-brudda" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/articles/00/05/10/1224222.shtml Quite a number of people have recognized the power of open source development - Intel definitely has by opening the specs for Itanium. They've got major blueprints up on the Web. Good sign of the success of open development - but I wonder if AMD's resurgence has anything to do with this. -------------------- Napster Bans Metallica Fans A articles article from the "i-never-got-my-nick-anyway" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/articles/00/05/10/1246256.shtml W00dDuCK noted that Napster has banned the 300,000 users that Metallica reported were pirating copyrighted music. Moments later, all 300,000 created new accounts. This isn't over yet. -------------------- ESA Scans SF Books For Ideas A science article from the "recognize-the-skillz" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/science/00/05/10/1227245.shtml cyberm writes: "The European Space Agency has started a project to scan science fiction books for new ideas and technologies. " I like this idea - and not just because I have a massive science fiction book collection. If you look at the past, science fiction authors have routinely come up with the inventions of tomorrow - Jules Verne is a great example of classical science fiction that did so, but today's hard science fiction authors, like Kim Stanley Robinson, or David Brin are building tomorrow, IMHO. -------------------- BSDCon 2000: Oct. 14-20 A bsd article from the "NP:-When-doves-cry" department sent by nik http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/10/108215 Should you be anywhere near the Hyatt Regency in Monterey, Calif. in mid-October then you'll be perfectly placed to attend this year's BSD Conference. More details can be had from the Conference Web site, or from the precis you'll see if you read on. -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Fri, 12 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/12/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Playstation Emulation On The Dreamcast A articles article from the "now-that's-a-trick" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/10/179207 -------------------- EU Ministers Approve ".eu" Top-Level Domain A articles article from the "eh-tu-eh-yoo" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/10/228219 -------------------- FreshPorts A bsd article from the "I-love-the-smell-of-fresh-ports-in-the-morning" department sent by nik http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/10/1014226 -------------------- Sony Playstation 2 North America Launch A articles article from the "that's-a-base-price-ma'am-" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/0519234 -------------------- FTC Settles With Big CD Makers-Cheaper CDs Coming? A articles article from the "could-be-maybe" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/1322231 -------------------- Microsoft Asks Slashdot To Remove Readers' Posts A features article from the "DMCA-is-about-more-than-music-and-video-" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/0153247 -------------------- The Perl Black Book A books article from the "not-that-kind-of-black-book" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/04/17/1310207 -------------------- An MP3 Update A articles article from the "too-legit-to-quit!" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/1346241 -------------------- A For-Profit Trip To The Moon A science article from the "where's-jules-verne?" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/1325230 -------------------- MSIE's Cookies Are Public A articles article from the "who-else-has-known-about-this?" department sent by jamie http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/173257 -------------------- Is HTML Copyrightable? A askslashdot article from the "stuff-to-think-about" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/0131249 -------------------- Co-Evolving Robots At Brandeis A articles article from the "nutty-nutty-neato-nutty" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/0316230 -------------------- Preview Helix Code's "Evolution" A articles article from the "getting-it-rolled-out" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/11/2223203 -------------------- Material From Solar System's Earliest Moments? A articles article from the "why-the-last-time-I-saw-*that*-chunk-of-metal" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/031234 -------------------- How Much Manpower Is Behind Your Help Desk? A askslashdot article from the "how-much-support-is-enough?" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/06/1512219 -------------------- KDE 1.90 (2.0 Beta) A articles article from the "I-got-GUI-all-over-my-CLI" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/1248244 -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Sat, 13 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/13/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Information As A Global Public Good A articles article from the "freedom" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/1246239 -------------------- Media On MS Asking Slashdot To Remove Comments A articles article from the "other-opinions" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/136223 -------------------- China Mountain Zhang A books article from the "no-pollyanna-story" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/1455204 -------------------- Censorship != Innovation A features article from the "angry-young-man" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/1421258 -------------------- ACLU Launches Privacy Lawsuit Against Yahoo! A articles article from the "going-after-the-big-ones" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/130215 -------------------- Mirsky Makes "Open Business Plans" A articles article from the "i-love-this-idea" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/138233 -------------------- Network Solutions "Owns" Your Domain Name! A articles article from the "you-gotta-be-kidding-me" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/12/2141250 -------------------- Cisco's IP Phones - Seven Digits And Cat5 A articles article from the "what-took-you-guys-so-long?!" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/005203 -------------------- Gun Sales Halted By FBI Computer Glitch A articles article from the "errrr-can-we-redact-this-"shall-not"-business-yet?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/0314204 -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Sun, 14 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/14/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Playstation2 Low-Down A articles article from the "get-ready-to-tekken" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1120249 Boofo writes "The skinny on what will be in the playstation 2 Firewire, USB, PCMCIA, a fill rate of 2.4 billion pixels a second and draw 20 million polygons a second....blows the doors off a pentium III with a Voodoo III." -------------------- Redhat's New Web Site A articles article from the "hey-look-at-that" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1128220 Jonathan Ocab wrote in to tell us that Red Hat has redone their site. You'll notice a summary of both Freshmeat and Slashdot stories on the page, linkage to User Friendly, as well as lots of javascript mouseovers to consume bandwidth. -------------------- IBM and Dell Announce $16 billion Technology Pact A articles article from the "not-so-strange-bedfellows" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1133218 Jason Spangler writes "IBM and Dell announced a technology pact in which Dell will buy storage, microelectronics, networking, and display technology from IBM. The deal also includes patent cross-licensing and collaboration in future product development." -------------------- 70,000 copies of Linux hit India A articles article from the "flood-the-country" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1145229 Tom writes "Just saw this on Linux Weekly News: A magazine in India (called "PC Quest") apparently just carried RedHat 5.2++ on their March cover CD. Claims the focus of the issue is corporate (whatever that means), and that the articles would be available on their website RSN. Apparently they do it every year - accompanying press release claims quarter of a million Linux CDs so far." -------------------- Mozilla-dot-party 2.0 A articles article from the "shake-your-groove-thang" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1149238 Ludvig A. Norin writes "Mozilla.org is throwing the one year anniversary party at the Sound Factory in San Francisco. If it gets even remotely as fun as last year, I'll be happy to travel from Sweden, like I did last year! " Gotta wait until April, but they're gonna have EBN live. -------------------- Feature:A Brave New World A features article from the "from-grand-master-hackers" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/121242 Alan Cox has once again given us an essay that is worth your time to read. he talks about something that is all to often on the front of my mind- especially here at LinuxWorld. He writes about "The Suits", money, Linux, why you should care, and what to do about it. -------------------- Slashdot LinuxWorld Awards A articles article from the "and-the-award-goes-to" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/143225 You've been waiting all week for the most hotly contested Slashdot/LinuxWorld Awards (which we created this morning while nate was in the shower). The nominees were submitted by anyone who happened to pass our booth this morning, and the winners were selected by our impartial (cough) judges. Hit the link to see what you missed at LWCE. -------------------- Perfect tie knot mathematically found A articles article from the "what-geek-wears-a-suit?" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/1518245 An anonymous reader writes "Thomas Fink and Yong Mao of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory have discovered six new "aesthetically pleasing" tie knots. Now that the perfect tie knot has been mathematically proven, will geeks everywhere flock to ties?" No. -------------------- Microsoft claims Linux provides weak value A articles article from the "NT-total-cost-of-ownership-lower???" department sent by sengan http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/236243 Microsoft's Ed Muth (him again) is claiming that Linux offers little value since it has fewer off-the-shelf apps, and no long term development road map. Moreover it suffers from a lack of integration between the OS and the apps, which is needed so that users can drag barcharts between Excel and Word. (Heard of Corba? No I guess not). Indeed Ed claims Linux usage figures are inflated. Finally, it must be obvious that good programmers won't code for free so they can't be good -- just like Van Gogh could not have been a good artist. If nothing else, Ed's good at rhetoric -- "Let's say, for discussion, they are equally scalable" implies nicely that NT is obviously more scalable. But his outburst is somewhat odd given that Microsoft's trial is not over, and the SIIA is recomending it be broken up. Thanks Alex Prestin for this link. -------------------- JDK 1.2, Toshiba-IRDA, LJ, Fast Math libs, A articles article from the "nice-stuff" department sent by sengan http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/03/04/2332246 jdesbonnet writes "Java 2 SDK preview is available". There is a bzipped file on his site, but I did not download it. edgy writes "According to LinuxHQ, Toshiba has relented and has released specifications for IrDA so that Toshiba laptops can use their built-in infrared ports." 3fer writes " The site interactive.linuxjournal.com is now open. Anybody who subscribes to LJ can now search all previous issues via the site. " It's really worth a visit. Tramm Hudson writes "After quite a long time, Digital (now Compaq) has released fast math libraries for Linux. Many people have been using DU's (now Tru-64) compilers to take advantage of the faster routines, but this runs afoul of the rather restrictive licensing on the output of the compiler. The hope is that this signals a possible first step towards releasing the DU compilers for Linux. Possibly one of the most discussed topics on comp.os.linux.alpha is the lack of high performance compilers for Alpha Linux. There is so much computational horsepower in these chips, but egcs just isn't harnessing it... " Finally ASUGeek writes "Reuters has retracted the satellite crack story." Update: 03/05 05:55 by S: Now AntiOnline says Reuters did not retract the story, and NASA's records indicate the satellite drifted by an abnormally high amount. Thanks to Kythe. -------------------- What GUIs Came Before X11? A askslashdot article from the "knowing-your-history" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/04/1321234 Avi Bercovich asks: "We all know the base facts about X11. Built by Scheifler and Gettys et al at MIT and DEC, for look 'n feel impaired, networked bitmap displays. But what about the details? Now it would seem from what I've read that it has roots in X10 and something called W. But I've had a hard time finding out anything online about these ancestral systems. Where are there articles published on these systems? So who's got the lowdown, URL-pointers or juicy personal stories on our GUI/Windowing pre-history?" (There's more...) -------------------- Slashback: Taxes, Fraudulence, Woodland Creatures A articles article from the "dritte-mal" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/0557259 Skipping, hopping (and bumbling amd wheezing) toward inevitable perfection, we're pleased to bring you another handful of updates, re-instatements, "that is no longer the operative statement" disclaimers and at least one general thought provoker. After francokleptomania, restoring GNOME dignity. Bob Smith writes: "KDE beta was anounced but GNOME beta wasn't." Well, GNOME's latest freeze stage on the way to 1.2 was announced back in January, and Miguel answered questions about the state of GNOME in March, but point taken. With all the developments in GNOME, neither Miguel or his programs are likely to hurt for Slashdot coverage. You can grab the beta Bob mentions here. Now, gentlemen, is there a way to perhaps merely maim this Golden Goose? Misch writes to point out this item on "ABCNews [which]reports that the House of Representatives has passed an extension of the Internet Tax Moratorium. Looks like it's tax free time on the Internet (depending on where you shop)." Barely enough for a coven ... nullstar writes: "The NTIA has posted its report to Congress concerning the comments it received in regard to section 1201(g) of the DMCA, which deals with exceptions to the prohibition on circumventing encryption techniques intended to protect access to copyrighted materials. They basically claim, 'it's too soon to tell what effects the restriction will have on encryption research, etc., as the exception doesn't go into effect until October, so we're not yet recommending changes in the wording of the law.' Only 13 people submitted comments. " Conflict of interest is an interesting term here ... full_tide writes "2600 has posted some news about how the MPAA is trying to get Martin Garbus (2600's hot-shot defense attorney) disqualified for a conflict of interest. Cryptome has posted a very long, but equally interesting, reply brief Mr. Garbus has writting in response to the injunction (damn, he's good). Also, the MPAA's web site is back up after a DDOS attack a few weeks back, and much downtime since. They appear to have added some fresh, juicy propaganda concerning the case." Yessir, the gen-yoo-ine article, you betcha, mate. Jai From Insane Hardware writes: "Well, you may have heard all the rumours and whatnot about the Australian Fake Athlon deal and I confirm that it is true. But we have more info on the subject like on how they came about arriving in Oz and how they leaked thru the channel. This issue is very "close to home" for me so it's worthwhile reading for all the Aussies that go to your site. We also have exactly how the chips were modded. link " Meanwhile, Netsnipe wrote to point out that "Lucien Wells has updated his Web site Techwatch's coverage of the AMD Athlon tampering scandal. "Techwatch has now received press releases from two distributors involved, DMA and RTV Computers which claim that 'Neither RTV Computers Pty Ltd nor DMA (Direct Memory Access Pty Ltd) whom have their stickers on the CPU's knowingly at fault in this situation. At present legal action is underway to find the source of this problem.' At this stage AMD has not yet responded to Techwatch's requests for more information, says Lucien." -------------------- SpamRecycle.com Prosecutes Spammers A articles article from the "hey-thats-a-great-idea" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/1847242 relyt writes "If you get spam, check out Spam Recycle. Forward them your spam, and they will prosecute the spammers for you, giving you time to do other things. It is also is supported by CAUCE! Send them your spam, and their trained monkeys will poke it, prod it, and kill it. " Somehow I'm skeptical, but hey, I get spammed every 48 hours to buy toner and I don't even own a printer. Sure would be nice if it would stop ;) -------------------- Cable Industry backs Mpeg-4 for Streaming Video A articles article from the "standardization-time" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/1856207 Greyfox writes "This techweb story informs us that the Cable Industry has thrown their chips in with Mpeg4 and will probably want to tweak the codec for streaming video. I'm all for it, I'm sick of QuickTime movies I can't view in Linux and RealVideo movies I'd prefer not to download the player for. " -------------------- Microsoft vs. Slashdot Update A features article from the "headaches-and-more-headaches" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/2038233 I spent some of yesterday and part of today (Saturday) on the phone with our law firm's intellectual property specialist dicussing Microsoft's attempt to get us to remove reader posts about Kerberos. We're lucky to have a lawyer who "gets it." We're also lucky to have gotten some very favorable press about all of this. -------------------- Black And White: Open Source? A articles article from the "woudn't-it-be-nice" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/13/2055243 RP writes "It will be if Peter Molyneux (the designer) has his way. I noted this link over on thecitadel.net where he is quoted as saying: "The first thing is my ambition to make the whole of Black & White, the AI engine, the 3D engine, the physics engine, open-source. Then anybody can download and use that stuff. To use it in a commercial product, you have to pay us a royalty, but, you know, absolutely free for enthusiasts to use." If you've seen any screenshots of Black and White, you know this could be exciting. " Very impressive looking stuff. -------------------- Las Alamos Lab: We're OK, You're OK A articles article from the "sir-please-step-*away*-from-the-plutonium-bin" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/0143228 The fires which have been burning as a result of what was intended to be a controlled burn hit Los Alamos, site of the renowned National Laboratory, especially hard. Some have questioned the safety of the lab after this trauma; In addition to being the research site for the first atomic bomb, Los Alamos has remained an important lab for top-secret technology. It's also the site of the nation's 'only active plutonium facility.' According to an AP story, the lab thought that letting reporters tour the facility was the best way to defuse fears that the fires had brought a risk to public health. Hope they're right. -------------------- Los Alamos Lab: We're OK, You're OK A articles article from the "sir-please-step-*away*-from-the-plutonium-bin" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/0143228 The fires which have been burning as a result of what was intended to be a controlled burn hit Los Alamos, site of the renowned National Laboratory, especially hard. Some have questioned the safety of the lab after this trauma; In addition to being the research site for the first atomic bomb, Los Alamos has remained an important lab for top-secret technology. It's also the site of the nation's 'only active plutonium facility.' According to an AP story, the lab thought that letting reporters tour the facility was the best way to defuse fears that the fires had brought a risk to public health. Hope they're right. -------------------- Black Holes Don't Exist??? A articles article from the "pop-science-can-be-fun" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/1339252 OldSoldier writes: "Here is an article that was first published in the April issue of a small SciFi magazine called Analog. The author, John Cramer, is one of two columnists for the Alternate View column and his columns are very thoughtful and more grounded in science than most. In particular, this article states that there is a small but growing group of physicists who have come up with an alternate formulation to Einstein's General Relativity equations that do two rather stunning things. One is that they allow super massive non-black hole objects and the other is that they are able to be quantized. If you like this article, I suggest you go to his index and read some of his previous articles." -------------------- What Happens When Open Source And Work Collide? A askslashdot article from the "sticky-situations" department sent by Cliff http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/09/016208 Rob Kaper asks: "When being assigned to make changes to the Web site statistics program for one of the sites our company hosts, I was suprised to find that the site was using my own (open source and GPL-ed) program, which I had written long before I started to work at the company. Between my employment and the assignment to update the program for work I have been working on a new, improved version in my spare time. Many of the changes I am implementing or have planned to implement are the same as the ones the company would like as well. I am kind of puzzled and not sure how to continue. What will happen to the copyrights when I start working on the program during work time? Could I include those changes into my open source project? Would I have to reimplement them in my spare time?" (Read on ...) -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Mon, 15 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/15/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - QuakeForge And QuakeWorld Forever Merge A articles article from the "and-then-there-was-one" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/1447248 knghtbrd writes: "QuakeForge and QuakeWorld Forever, two of the largest projects based on Id Software's GPL'd Quake source, are teaming up to bring the world what we believe is the best Quake1 engine on the planet. The result for die-hard Quake players? QWF's cryptographic cheat prevention (which stop speed cheaters and auto-aimers cold) combined with QF's support for a zillion different operating systems. Here's a look at what can be expected along with press release. " -------------------- Pioneer Introduces 1st DVD Recorder (In Japan) A articles article from the "steam-rising-from-the-riaas-forhead" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/152210 sanemind noted that Pioneer has announced the world's first consumer level DVD Recorder. Although they are only available in Japan, and the blanks will cost 30-plus bucks, it's still pretty sweet. -------------------- No More Unreal Ports For Linux? A articles article from the "one-web-one-program-happy-mothers-day" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/1439224 Ant was among the first to write with a link to this article on Blue's News claiming that Epic's new game engine is Direct 3D only, based on statements made at an E3 demo yesterday. Check that link to read the full article, but consider this excerpt: "A major side effect of this is that any future ports of Unreal-engine titles that use the new technology will need to have a completely rewritten rendering system, making Mac and Linux ports significantly more difficult." DoenerMord also wrote, saying "This kind of puts some perspective on recent comments from Tim Sweeney (the man behind the Unreal engine) on Microsoft's breakup ..." -------------------- Google Releases WAP Search Tool A articles article from the "wireless" department sent by emmett http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/1240252 ChrisUK writes "Google seem to have single-handedly brought html to WAP devices. WAP/Palm users can log on to www.google.com on their devices, and search through Google's web database. Furthermore, the pages that are linked to can be jumped to, and will be converted to wml on the fly. More details can be found here." -------------------- New Internet VCR Service A articles article from the "this-is-cool-but-can-they-do-that?" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/2048217 owillis writes: "Recordtv.com allows you to choose what TV shows you want it to record, then come back and play them in realplayer. Legally, they're probably screwed ... but it's cool regardless." The site isn't very slick, but claims to have 50,000 regular users. Their FAQ also says they have a grand total of eight (8) "VCRS" (video-capturing PCs), so that's the limit on what can be recorded at one time right now. This seems even more primed for a lawsuit than iCrave TV. -------------------- Linuxcare Responds To Tim O'Reilly's Article A articles article from the "consider-source-horses-mouth-grain-of-salt" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/0254252 Dave Sifry writes: "I wanted to let you guys know that my response to Tim O'Reilly's recent column about Linuxcare. Things really aren't as bad as some in the press have made it appear. I feel it is important to get a dose of facts into the conversation -- now that we're out of our quiet period and we can talk about what's going on, and all of the neat stuff we've been working on." After all that's been said about LinuxCare, it's good to hear info straight from the top, and that Tim O'Reilly is an active listener. Just remember who's speaking. -------------------- NASA Proposes Launch Solar Sail Vehicle For 2010 A articles article from the "ralph-nader-will-have-to-hire-a-chase-car" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/058238 outcast341 writes: "Apparently, NASA plans to launch a solar sail spacecraft in the year 2010, according to this press release. The the first trip will take about 15 years, traveling about 58 miles per second. The sail will be 440 yards in width, and will be constructed of a reflective carbon-fiber material. 'This will be humankind's first planned venture outside our solar system,' said Les Johnson, manager of Interstellar Propulsion Research at the Marshall Center. 'This is a stretch goal that is among the most audacious things we've ever undertaken.'" (Read more.) -------------------- Motif Released to the Open Source Community A articles article from the "open-group-starts-being-open" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1229207 Mark Hatch writes: "The Open Group has released the source code of Motif to the Open Source community. The Open Group Public license will allow the release of the Motif source code for use, reproduction and distribution on Open Source platforms such as Linux and FreeBSD, without the payment of royalties. The source of Open Motif is available now now available." -------------------- Unreal Engine Linux Ports Not Dead? A articles article from the "i'm-not-dead-yet" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1246201 CookieMnstr|PuF writes: "Brandon Reinhart, programmer at Epic, has updated his .plan file in response to the fear that no more Unreal Engine-based games will be ported to Linux. He faults the Linux community for jumping to the conclusion that Unreal Engine games will not be a reality for the Mac and Linux. Maybe he should read beyond the headlines. " -------------------- The US Had Plan To Nuke The Moon A articles article from the "stupid-use-of-technology" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1238219 Jeffy was one several people this weekend who writes: "According to this article, The U.S. planned on detonating a nuclear bomb on the moon in the fifties to 'one up' the USSR and sway public opinion on the States' military might. An interesting twist to the story is that Carl Sagan was hired to help do the math to make sure the explosion was big enough to see from earth." Well, this isn't really news for nerds, but the whole idea behind nuking the moon strikes me as such a sad commentary on the Cold War that I had to post. The thinking behind this was such a pissing match it astounds me -- but here it is. -------------------- Pioneer Introduces 1st DVD Recorder (In Japan) A articles article from the "steam-rising-from-the-riaas-forehead" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/14/152210 sanemind noted that Pioneer has announced the world's first consumer level DVD Recorder. Although they are only available in Japan, and the blanks will cost 30-plus bucks, it's still pretty sweet. -------------------- Linuxcare Responds To Tim O'Reilly's Article A articles article from the "consider-source-horse's-mouth-grain-of-salt" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/0254252 Dave Sifry writes: "I wanted to let you guys know that my response to Tim O'Reilly's recent column about Linuxcare. Things really aren't as bad as some in the press have made it appear. I feel it is important to get a dose of facts into the conversation -- now that we're out of our quiet period and we can talk about what's going on, and all of the neat stuff we've been working on." After all that's been said about LinuxCare, it's good to hear info straight from the top, and that Tim O'Reilly is an active listener. Just remember who's speaking. -------------------- NASA Proposes Launch Of Solar Sail Vehicle For 2010 A articles article from the "ralph-nader-will-have-to-hire-a-chase-car" department sent by timothy http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/058238 outcast341 writes: "Apparently, NASA plans to launch a solar sail spacecraft in the year 2010, according to this press release. The the first trip will take about 15 years, traveling about 58 miles per second. The sail will be 440 yards in width, and will be constructed of a reflective carbon-fiber material. 'This will be humankind's first planned venture outside our solar system,' said Les Johnson, manager of Interstellar Propulsion Research at the Marshall Center. 'This is a stretch goal that is among the most audacious things we've ever undertaken.'" (Read more.) -------------------- Motif Released To The Open Source Community A articles article from the "open-group-starts-being-open" department sent by CmdrTaco http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1229207 Mark Hatch writes: "The Open Group has released the source code of Motif to the Open Source community. The Open Group Public license will allow the release of the Motif source code for use, reproduction and distribution on Open Source platforms such as Linux and FreeBSD, without the payment of royalties. The source of Open Motif is available now now available." -------------------- U.S. Had Plan To Nuke The Moon A articles article from the "stupid-use-of-technology" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1238219 Jeffy was one several people this weekend who writes: "According to this article, The U.S. planned on detonating a nuclear bomb on the moon in the fifties to 'one up' the USSR and sway public opinion on the States' military might. An interesting twist to the story is that Carl Sagan was hired to help do the math to make sure the explosion was big enough to see from earth." Well, this isn't really news for nerds, but the whole idea behind nuking the moon strikes me as such a sad commentary on the Cold War that I had to post. The thinking behind this was such a pissing match it astounds me -- but here it is. -------------------- The info is Rob Malda's The code is mine MOTD: ----------------------------------- Open Source Forever! From jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Tue, 16 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: David Jacoby jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (5/16/2000) Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ ) News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Self-Timed ARM Provides Low Power Consumption A articles article from the "making-chips-better" department sent by Hemos http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/05/15/1314252 hardcorebit writes: "The Amulet Group at the University of Manchester is working on a 'self-timed' or 'asynchronous logic' chip which uses the ARM architecture and instruction set. The benefits? Much lower power consumption, lower EMF emissions, and it works with everything written for the ARM. Their latest effort is 'broadly equivalent' to an ARM9. Anyone had a chance to get their hands on one of these beasts?" -------------------- Web Design Luminary Jeff Zeldman A interviews article from the "too-many-awards-to-count" department sent by Roblimo http://slashdo