[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (1/28/2001)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Sun, 28 Jan 2001 11:00:07 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Is Linus Killing Linux?
A articles article from the "people-of-the-world-join-the-fud-train" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1348241
halbritt writes: "An article over at TechWeb asks
the question, 'Is Linus Killing Linux?' The story
outlines an interesting perspective with regard to
Linus having complete control over the kernel and
how that may not be in the best interests of the
$2 billion industry looking to exploit Linux for
fun and profit. It goes on to describe how a
non-profit, industry funded organization should
take control of kernel development so that kernel
development would better suit the interests of
said $2 billion industry." Actually this story
amused me, since its essentially the same story
that some genius journalist writes every few
months. Linus is killing Linux just as horribly as
I'm killing Slashdot.
--------------------
Stormix Bankruptcy
A articles article from the "for-whom-the-bill-tolls" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1539218
An Anonymous Coward writes: "So has the news that
Stormix has filed for bankruptcy been covered? I
was surprised to get a form letter in the mail
today from Deloitte & Touche saying they filed for
bankruptcy on Jan. 17. And they owe me $20." The
Stormix users mailing list has some information,
and Newsforge has a summary. I'm typing this on a
Stormix system right now, so I hope someone picks
it up and maintains the distro.
--------------------
(Well Written) Essay Against Copyright
A articles article from the "saturday-morning-coffee-and-reading" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1444228
rts writes "A well written article about how
copyrights and patents are anti-free market is
running in the Canadian paper "The National
Post"." The backdrop to the story is, perhaps
inevitably, the Napster case - but it's much
better written then most of the other bazillion
Napster editorials.
--------------------
How Qwest Runs Things
A bsd article from the "what-goes-into-being-big" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1440226
Brew Bird writes "Qwest explains how they handle
the various issues that crop up being a large
ISP/Backbone Provider. They've got the
presentations setup in a nice little website."
It's very *BSD focused, since I believe that's
mostly what Qwest runs but the presentations are
interesting in the scaling issue - what do you do
with that much data and that many machines?
--------------------
Cross Platform Packaging: A Dream Or Something More?
A articles article from the "try-to-get-it-to-work" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1432231
stevenl writes "A new project on sourceforge has
just been set up for a cross-platform packaging
standard. Whilst there isn't much there at the
moment, plans are to produce a standard that will
allow people to use it even if they have no binary
utilities or a compiler to compile one with, and
it's expected to be platform independent whilst
still being lightweight. What's people's opinions
of the cross-platform aspect taking off, or will
we see another situation like we have with DPKG -
great packaging sysetm, but not widely used due to
the inferior (but still good) RPM and proprietary
things like installshield?" Frankly, apt-get[?]
does just about everything that I need - but I'm
curious as to what people about something like
this actually working - is it a pipe dream? Or
possible?
--------------------
Ask What You Will Of Some Slashfolks, In Person
A articles article from the "no-throwing-cabbage,you-could-put-an-eye-out-son" department
sent by Krow
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/12/2253222
So, ever had a question you wanted to ask the
various folks behind Slash and/or Slashdot? A
healthy assortment of Slashdot coders and authors
(like krow, cliff, roblimo, jellicle and timothy)
will be on hand for a BOF session at the Linux
World Expo on Wednesday, January 31, 2001, Room
1E11, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. So, if you happen to be
around, feel free to join us and have your
questions answered. And of course, the Slash and
Slashdot folks will also be at random times in the
OSDN booth on the show floor, so please stop by.
Hope to see you there!Update: 01/15 12:55 PM by H:
Rob and I won't be able to make itto the BOF --
outstanding plans -- but you can catch us on
February 15th at the O'Reilly P2P conference in
San Fransico. We speak at something like 11:30 AM
or so, on a panel - but we'll be at LWCE as well.
--------------------
Paul Guyot Releases ATA driver for NewtonOS
A articles article from the "dear-lord" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1531205
Dorian Gray writes "For a long time everyone,
including Apple, said it couldn't be done...mainly
because NOS linear soup storage is so completely
unlike conventional filesystems. But Newton users
have refused to let the platform die, no matter
how the manufacturer mis-managed (or ultimately
killed) it."
--------------------
Everquesters Suing Sony Over Virtual Ownership
A articles article from the "it-was-going-to-happen-eventually" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/1835242
Thomas Charron writes: " A group of Everquest
players that have had their accounts yanked, etc.,
is filing a class action law suit against Sony
Interactive. They belive they have the right to
sell 'virtual items' in real life, including the
buying, selling, and trading of actual online
accounts. They have set up a home page at
Gravityspot. Kinda fringe, but as an EverQuest
player myself, I humbly submit that they do have
the rights they claim. You be the judge.."
--------------------
Rice Genome Mapped
A science article from the "now-you're-cooking" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/27/2042207
rampant_gerbil writes: "Apparently a company
called Syngenta has sequenced the entire genome of
the rice plant. Here is a link to the corporate
press release. As the story points out, "Rice is
the model for the other grasses, including corn
and wheat," so this sounds like quite a milestone.
Now if only they would engineer some nacho cheese
flavor into those rice cakes..."
--------------------
Pushing the Postal Envelope
A articles article from the "*my*-letter-carrier-doesn't-show-after-an-inch-of-snow" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/28/0016203
Alexander Burke writes: "The Annals of Improbable
Research has a sidesplitting account of their
research into exactly what the USPS will tolerate.
They mailed various items -- ranging from the
absurd to the grotesque, usually without packaging
-- to various real domestic addresses. Said items
include a hammer, a rose, a ski (!), a tooth, a
brick, a helium balloon, a bottle of water, and
many more. It's pure craziness, and definitely
worth a read!"
--------------------
FASA Dies
A articles article from the "taking-a-PPC-in-the-cockpit" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/28/0619203
To0n writes "Thought all you Mechwarrior fans
would like to know. FASA, after 20 years of being
in the Role Playing Game Business, has decided to
close up shop. Instead of just stopping all the
lines, FASA has decided to hand over the reigns to
WizKids LLC and Ral Partha Enterprises. Offical
press release is here. Sad to see them go,
especially after the launch of two new systems,
VOR and Crimson Skies."
--------------------
The info is Rob Malda's
The code is mine
MOTD: -----------------------------------
I am no longer associated with Purdue, except for being a former
student, former employee, and active member of the Linux Users Group.
As such, I'll either be moving this service to another server or
killing it entirely. Your input is requested as to what you'd like.
Then again, when was the last time I changed the MOTD? And when was
last time it was read?