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JoshuaDFranklin writes "When confronted with the reality of Open Source, academics often ask what processes allow it to happen. In his new book The Success of Open Source, Berkeley professor Steven Weber answers that question. He presents a clear, logical picture of how Open Source development works in a variety of projects, and comes to the intriguing conclusion that the process may be generalizable to other areas of production. The results, he argues, would 'make the consequences of the first-generation Internet seem quaint.'" Read on for the rest of Franklin's review. The Success of Open Source author Steven Weber pages 320 pages, 5 line illustrations publisher Harvard University Press rating 9 reviewer Joshua Daniel Franklin ISBN 0674012925 summary Weber argues that the success of Open Source is due to a production process than may be generalizable to other arenas.

Weber is an academic and makes no apologies for it. He is not presenting an exciting new business plan, advocating a particular method of software development, or calling hackers to revolution. He is simply describing his findings after extensive research of the Open Source development process and drawing conclusions from them. As such, this book may not appeal to everyone in the Open Source community. However, Weber's ideas are timely and informative for anyone who wants to explain or advocate Open Source. He likens his work to The Machine that Changed the World, the story of Toyota's production method (224):

That book made two simple and profound points: The Toyota "system" was not a car, and it was not uniquely Japanese. The parallels are obvious. Open source is not a piece of software, and it is not unique to a group of hackers.

The first part of The Success of Open Source is a historical case study that examines the origins and social development of the Open Source community. It begins with Unix and hacker culture. For those who have read Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution and Peter Salus' A Quarter Century of UNIX, there is little new material here, but Weber offers a new and interesting perspective on the events. For example, he offers the insight that "hacker culture" existed before widespread network connectivity, drawing into question whether cheap bandwidth is really essential.

From there, he covers the development of the BSDs, Apache, and Linux, focusing again on social structures. He describes diverse events such as the messy expulsion of Theo de Raadt from the NetBSD core, the creation of Apache by an informal group of interested developers, and the establishment of Alan Cox as de facto Linux networking lieutenant. Weber draws from an impressive array of firsthand accounts, including mailing lists, websites, conference speeches, and personal interviews.

I get some interesting trivia out of this, such as Larry McVoy's original Unix is dying troll (98). Unfortunately, since Weber's narrative is mainly topical, it is occasionally redundant in telling one story from multiple social angles. Other claims are close to flamebait, such as suggesting that Richard Stallman is an example of a "failed leader." (168)

For the second half of the book, Weber moves on to Explaining Open Source in the terms of his discipline, political economy. He sees two broad categories of principles to the Open Source process: Microfoundations, including individual motivations and the economic logic of the collective good; and Macro-Organization, solving the problems of coordination and complexity. (133) While I doubt each reader will catch every academic nuance in these chapters, Weber is thankfully sparing in his use of specialized vocabulary and writes his overall argument in clear, easy-to-follow logic.

This section also contains the most insightful observations in The Success of Open Source. While there are too many to list here, one is the concept of Open Source Software as antirival. As more copies are made and put into use, value increases as a result of a larger market and the small percentage of users that contribute bug reports and possibly patches. This turns the traditional "free rider" problem into an advantage.

Though Weber does not mention this in the text, one can see part of this principle in proprietary vendors' providing free downloads or turning their backs on rampant piracy. It also does not take a great leap of logic to see application of the antirival model to other fields such as music or academic research.

As is customary in social science literature, Weber uses his conclusion to both recap his argument and to raise questions for future direction of research. What is the best organization method for property distribution, as opposed to the current methods based on exclusion? How can the Open Source production process be used effectively to improve prospects for the developing world? What is the best way for closed, hierarchical systems to interact with open, network-based ones? While some of the issues involved are offtopic for this book, hopefully future work will examine these questions in depth.

Though Open Source has been mentioned in many recent works, The Success of Open Source is the first academic book that focuses on the Open Source community as its object of study. It gives a readable, thought-provoking, and occasionally funny account of what Open Source is and means, making it an extremely valuable resource for those who want to engage and discuss these issues on an intellectual level. As Weber states, his positive, constructive outlook "may not be fully satisfying, but it's not a bad place to start." (272)

Joshua Daniel Franklin is a graduate student at the University of Washington's Information School. This review may be redistributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. You can read the table of contents, preface, and an excerpt of the first chapter of The Success of Open Source at the Harvard University Press website. The reviewer's website has an list of errata. You can purchase the The Success of Open Source from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

chimpo13 writes "I'm riding a 40-year-old, Italian made 250cc motorcycle round the world and doing a journal with pictures (avoiding the 'blog' word). Small bike, not much room, and I'm doing this on the cheap. There is no laptop because you can't trickle charge one. I'm looking for a flashcard to CD burner so I can post digital pictures. I need reliability, battery power, and hopefully someone makes one with an option to 'save for web' to speed up uploads in Internet cafés. Unless someone else has a better idea. I leave from Sydney Australia in 4 months if anyone world wide wants to give me a tour of their town, email me."

greg_barton writes "At first I thought this was a joke, but this article from Microsoft Watch confirms it: 'Microsoft is expected to recommend that the 'average' Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.'"

maxdamage asks: "After reading an earlier Ask Slashdot article and the responses, I am very worried about my future career plans. This fall I am going into CET, which is essentially a cross between a CS and an Electrical Engineering degree. According to these responses, CS majors are doomed to spend their lives waiting tables. Does a computer related engineering degree give hope or should I change to a more general engineering program, before its too late?"

AaronW writes "While checking the GCC website I saw that GCC version 3.4 was officially released on April 18th. Version 3.4 includes numerous changes and enhancements, including better optimization, and the ability to build a profiled version of gcc which is 7.5-11% faster on i386 hardware. Be kind and please use one of the mirror sites."

mateub writes "Philips gave PC Magazine an exclusive demo of the KEY019 USB camera/camcorder etc. Sez PCMag: 'You can use the 128MB of internal memory for 2.0-megapixel still shots, digital video, MP3 files, and document storage.' How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?"

Mashiki writes "In Canada, we can download Mp3's and their assorted goodness without too much of a hassle, recently the CRIA and their friends lost the court case. Well, it would appear that the new Federal Heritage Minister Helene Scherre, has spoken and those words were: 'As minister of Canadian Heritage, I will, as quickly as possible, make changes to our copyright law.'"

coupland writes "Bob Cringely has posted this week's column and has made some interesting comments. He says that regardless of what happens in the EU, DOJ, and class-action proceedings, Microsoft can't lose. Why? Because they make more money by paying lip-service to the law and accepting the occasional fine than by complying. He even does some simple math to prove his point. Fascinating stuff."

manavendra asks: "I'm currently working for a solution provider for telcos, and as part of product migration the entire API has to be 'internationalized'. Owing to a legacy architecture, most (if not all) application logic is still embedded in PL/SQL stored packages. My job: find hard coded strings, and replace with calls to the globalization API. Yes there is a script written to handle most tasks, but its quite primitive (not to mention fears of automating 'too much'). Boredom is at all time high. Have tried all means of whittling away the time, and hence this question to other Slashdot users: What's the worst ever job you had to do in the name of 'software development' (or as a software developer)?"

gaurab writes "Anti-Spammers would love this. In this news piece, the BBC reports that AOL is putting up a Porsche it seized from a spammer last year in a sweepstakes. What next -- 'Spammer's House' in another sweepstakes? Is this the sign of things to come? From the story: 'Internet giant AOL has ratcheted up the war against unsolicited e-mail with a publicity-grabbing coup -- an online raffle of a spammer's seized Porsche. AOL won the car -- a $47,000 Boxster S -- as part of a court settlement against an unnamed e-mailer last year.'"

KingOfBLASH asks: "Recently, when I was in the local City Court to protest a parking ticket, I noticed that all of the computers were running Windows (some as old as Windows 95!), and there were definitely network cables snaked around them. The City Hall suffers from the same affliction. Given that some of these computers have passed the End of Life for support, and there are a number of known exploits, how safe our government computers? What damage could be done if they were attacked?" It would be interesting to note if it's just local governments that may be running lower-than-expected tech or regional governments, as well. It would also be worthwhile to hear how governments outside the US compare to their American counterparts.

burgburgburg writes "According to USATODAY.com, the iPod mini is virtually sold out after two weeks. As we know, it had 100,000 on pre-order. It's the top seller at the Apple Store, where they advise people that there will be a one to three week wait. And it isn't a component shortage that's causing the delays. It's the huge demand amongst teens (for the colors) and athletes who like exercising with the ultralight device. While many here on /. felt that the mini was overpriced and pointed out that for $50 extra, you could buy a regular iPod with 15GB of storage instead of the 4 GB of the mini, Apple seems to have correctly identified the price point and the market they were going after. The space has become so hot that Creative's MuVo2 has also been selling well, but also for a slightly different reason. The MuVo2, which also has 4 GB of capacity, uses a CompactFlash card (which can be used in a digital camera). People have been buying the MP3 player and taking it apart for the card, which would cost more than the $200 dollars for the MuVo2."

mshiltonj writes "The NYTimes has a story called "Report Raises Questions About Fighting Online Piracy" that talks about how the stringent enforcement of current Intellectual Property laws (see: RIAA) may acutally be bad for business. It's the not EFF or FSF saying this, it's professors at Harvard Business School and Cardozo Law School. The professors say, "The ideas of copy-left, or of a more liberal regime of copyright, are receiving wider and wider support, It's no longer a wacky idea cloistered in the ivory tower; it's become a more mainstream idea that we need a different kind of copyright regime to support the wide range of activities in cyberspace." and "Bits are not the same as atoms. We need to reframe the legal discussion to treat the differences of bits and atoms in a more thoughtful way.""

ptorrone writes "Using "off the shelf parts" I have constructed another pretty good mobile robot for my home. A Tablet PC is the brain and the Roomba robot vac is the locomotion. I'm currently working on sending the IR commands from the pc to the Roomba and having the robot "do a tour" and post photos / video automatically to the "roblog" (my robot photo blog). So yah, the Tablet PC sucks ;-]"

amitupadhyay7 writes "The NYTimes is running a story on Video Phones. ...more than 30 percent of American homes now have much faster 'pipes' coming into their homes: broadband Internet. Apple exploited this situation, for example, with its $140 iSight camera, a pocketcam that clips onto a Macintosh screen for free, high-quality Internet video calls. Now a company called Viseon has taken the next step by creating an actual video telephone called the VisiFone... in a related news Cisco is adding video to their IP phones. Telcos' response so far seems constructive."

Gudlyf writes "According to CNN Money, Valve's director of marketing Doug Lombardi announced that the company is 'currently targeting this summer for the completion of Half-Life 2'. From the article: 'Valve does not plan to reveal any additional information until the time surrounding the E3 trade show, where the game will once again be shown this year. E3 will be held in Los Angeles May 12-14.'" The game was delayed following a previously covered code leak, and the article also notes: "Arkane Studios, an independent French developer that created the critically-acclaimed role-playing game 'Arx Fatalis,' has licensed [Half-Life 2's Source engine] for a forthcoming title [as has Troika's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines]."

rhetoric writes "Earlier today at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in New York, nonprofit Open Source Development Labs announced the creation of a "Desktop Linux Working Group initiative focused on greater use of Linux on desktops throughout the enterprise." A press release is available on OSDL's website, in addition to this Register article." It's all part of their non-secret plan.

scubacuda writes "DRMwatch reports that technologists acting on behalf of porn publisher Titan Media reported to Congress that P2P networks could (if they wanted to) use "fingerprinting" (aka "hashing") to detect copyrighted works and then filter them with the "spyware" installed on all nodes in the network."

purduephotog writes "You may remember the infamous poll on glowing pets posted in response to the marketing of GloFish. The Center for Food Safety has filed a lawsuit asking to halt all sales of said fish until the government can properly regulate it. More information at ABCNews.com."

scubacuda writes "News.com et al report that The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday found Playboy Enterprises can pursue charges that Excite and Netscape Communications violated its trademark by selling banner advertisements triggered by the terms 'playboy' and 'playmate.' The decision reverses a district court ruling that dismissed the suit without a trial in 2000. Playboy 'clearly holds the marks in question, and defendants used the marks in commerce without (its) permission,' a split three-judge panel wrote in its majority decision." This is a shame, because the first judge to look at this case seems to have pretty much gotten it right: "Although the trademark terms and the English language words are undisputedly identical, which, presumably, leads plaintiff to believe that the use of the English words is akin to use of the trademarks, the holder of a trademark may not remove a word from the English language merely by acquiring trademark rights in it."

atkulp writes "According to this Wired article, a private company, Cyberkinetics is seeking permission from the FDA to test a product called BrainGate that implants in the brain and can control actions on a computer. So far it works for monkeys and they'd like to see it as viable for quadriplegics and others in need. How soon until anyone can become the ultimate expansion card? Sign me up!"

purduephotog writes "Xiaochun Li of The University of Wisconsin-Madison has come up with the ultimate gift for those high-tech wine and cheese connoisseurs: A cheese slicing laser. More detailed information is available at Optics.Org."

DeadVulcan writes "The Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious book of uncertain age, is widely believed to be written either in an unknown language or a long-lost encryption scheme. Nature reports that computer scientist Gordon Rugg has demonstrated that it's possible to generate a text like the Voynich manuscript -- containing language-like regularities, despite being potentially meaningless -- using cryptographic techniques of the time. This lends some support to those who claim that the book is a hoax."

SkywalkerOS8 writes "The folks at Tom's Hardware have an article up about their attempt to overclock a Pentium 4 over 5 GHz using liquid nitrogen as cooling. A DivX video is available along with pictures of the custom copper cooling head they made."

gsperling asks: "As Windows licensing costs are gradually increasing, and options for those licenses are decreasing, I am forced to investigate Windows alternatives. I am trying to begin rolling out Linux as an alternative desktop solution to my enterprise. I am an IT Manager for a company of approximately 65 users. We are incorporating a second company into ours in the next six months, and that 65 number will grow to well over 150. This is a solution that I need to start working on TODAY. We currently have a Windows 2000 Server. It is primarily used as a file and printer sharing server, along with maintaining all of the user accounts domain-wide. I would like to know how it is possible to get a Linux Workstation to authenticate against the user database in our Windows 2000 Server. I have exhaustively Google'd, read thousands of mailing list archives, and have still come up short. After I receive my results, I plan on publishing a whitepaper on how this is done, of course giving credit where credit is due." For those of you using Linux in the Enterprise, how have you managed to get Windows to play nice with any Linux boxen in your domain?

SafariShane asks: "Yesterday I was fired from my position as 'Network Security Analyst' from a financial institution. I was pushed out by a 3rd party vendor, who labeled me the major security risk, after performing a 'vulnerability assessment.' At the time, I thought a vulnerability assessment of our network was a good idea, but in retrospect, it occurs to me that this company, who's other product is 'Outsourced Network Monitoring and Intrusion Detection' may pull this little trick everywhere they go. Has this happened to any other network security folks out there. Does anyone know if this is a common practice, and what's a geek to do if they find out a 3rd party assessment is on the way? If this happens again at another institution, should I just start polishing my resume right away?" Here's a question I always wish I could ask managers, whenever the topic of 'outsourcing' comes up: if dealing with programmers overseas is more appealing to the bottom line, why not let your programmers work from home for 50-80% of their current in-office pay? For those of you who feel the threat of Outsourcing breathing down your neck, what are you doing to try and stay in your current job, or even in this current market?

"Here comes the obligatory South Park reference:

1. Perform Network Vulnerability Assessment
2. ?
3. Profit! (Sell Outsourced product)

Looks like they came up with an actual step 2:

Label anyone who is responsible for network security as the risk, and get them fired.

I wouldn't even dream up the above situation, except that when the assessment was done, all results were hidden from me. The company presented the results not to the geeks that can interpret them, but directly to the executives that still think 'Clippy' is a great product.

I'll also note, because people will ask me anyway, if there were other problems. In my year on the job, there was only 1 network intrusion: Welchia, which was contained in twenty minutes. Anyone familiar with Welchia will know that it is no easy task. I was never reprimanded for anything. In fact, I received a 12.5% raise only two months ago for job performance.

I doubt what they did was illegal, but it's bad business at best. Here is a group of network security geeks, who get other network security geeks fired, so they can increase their bottom line.

I'd like to hear comments from folks this has happened to, and what did you do as a result?"

seigniory asks: "I'm looking to put about 20 touchscreen displays into operation as information kiosks in low-traffic areas (i.e. private waiting rooms, not malls). The application is written, but is mouse-driven, so a conversion to touch screen is necessary. At present, I'm imagining a 12-15" LDC with active-matrix, but will entertain other suggestions. Without much experience with the quality and durability of most touchscreen solutions, or the 'gotcha's' of converting an existing app to touchscreen, I'm at a loss as to where I should begin. I can't start the touchscreen w/o the actual screen, and I don't have a ton of money to play with yet, so I can't afford to waste money trying to find my ideal solution. Searches for 'LCD Touchscreen Display Reviews' has turned up not much more than ads. What experiences or advice can Slashdot offer?"

Norman at Davis writes "Space.com is reporting on new "sensors designed to pinpoint potential damage from falling debris or other objects [which] will be installed into the wings of NASA's remaining shuttle fleet...." Unfortunately, the sensors won't be too sophisticated, MSNBC reports that 'the extent of damage would still have to be determined by an inspection by astronauts in orbit, using an extension boom equipped with cameras and lasers.' Apparently NASA is in the process of developing three techniques which will allow astronauts to spacewalk and repair holes up to fourteen inches in diameter. Finally... the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is also running an article on the topic, stating that "not only will computers provide state-of-the-art imaging, but Defence Department satellites will supplement inspections made by the shuttle astronauts themselves and photographs taken from the International Space Station." 'NASA's efforts to improve its ability to detect whether the shuttle has been struck during flight have evolved remarkably since Columbia's January launch, when engineers watched loops of film sent to Miami for development and projected against a wall by a noisy old projector.' Hopefully this new technology will prevent another Columbia-like disaster, as a space shuttle replacement is looking less likely by the day."

Norman at Davis writes "ZDNet is running a story on a new security flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer which could let hackers use a technique to display a false Web address on a fake site according to an advisory from the Danish security company Secunia. The Danes report that 'the vulnerability is caused due to an input validation error, which can be exploited by including the "%01" URL encoded representation after the username and right before the "@" character in an URL.' PC World reports that 'Microsoft says it is investigating reports of the vulnerability. When that inquiry is complete, the company will take whatever steps it deems necessary, such as issuing a new patch, a spokesperson says.' And for good measure, here's what Google news is covering on it right now."

PlainBlack writes "Once upon a time, I was the Chief Engineer at a small TV station, but got out of that line of work about the time that people were talking about replacing video tapes with hard drives. Now I'm looking to build myself a professional grade editing suite using only open source tools so that I can dump as much money as possible into the hardware. My question to Slashdot is, what are the best open source tools for such a suite? I'll need both video and audio editing; a bank of wipes, fades, and other effects; a great paint program; and a titler (text overlays)."

Obiwan Kenobi writes "I know we've done LEGO links to death, but The Brick Apple is in a class all by itself. Between the 5 foot tall Empire State Building, the 50,000 piece Greenwich village or perhaps the best of all: the World Trade Center, from which this quote was taken: 'Actually, sticking together all those little 1x1 and 1x2 pieces would get VERY tedious, and after a while they would really hurt my thumbs. Each floor had over 500 little 1x1 and 1x2 pieces.' Wow."

OldHawk777 asks: "Does anyone know of a source for a lightweight wearable video headset system for vision impaired people? Are there vision degeneration diseases that such a vision system would be specifically useful to the vision impaired person? Would USA Medicare and/or private insurance pay for such a medical device?"

"I have searched a few times over the past few years for a lightweight wearable video system for vision impaired people (Legally Blind). I am looking for a hardware and software configuration that allows people full mobility around home and for short walks. Considering that, I am only talking about a good quality digital camera, video card, video-headset, external power/batter and maybe some firmware on the video circuitry for personal preference configuration (I figure, maybe $300 to $800). The system would not be for replacing the seeing-eye-dog or cane-navigation, but neither can read and it is hard learning Braille at age 65.

A small good quality digital camera as input, to video circuitry with firmware, allowing adjustments/configuration (contrast, color, magnification, etc) and flash-save of user requirements, with output to a good quality video headset (providing adjustable viewing maybe about 125cm@1.5m to 250cm@1m).

So, who has one ready? Please share their website with us, so I can pass the information to the friends, children, and grandchildren of some folks that I know. All of the websites I have visited show only NTSC/PAL/HDTV/camcorder systems for television, airline movies in first-class, virtual environments, military simulations/games, and so on. Most configurations were structured around existing entertainment centers and VE generators, none were appropriate for reading and looking at reality and/or for vision impaired people.

Thanks in advance, for all your helpful comments and directions."

tempest303 writes "In order to help improve integration between apps on the Gnome desktop, Gnome.org is offering bounties for the completion of a variety of integration tasks. Bounties range from $15, for submitting new .ical files for Evolution 2.0's multiple calendar view, to $2500 for allowing synchronization between Evolution's addressbook with Gaim's buddy list!"

bgood writes "A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that a univeral remote garage door opener does not violate the DMCA. "Consumers have a reasonable expectation that they can replace the original product with a competing universal product without violating federal law," Judge Rebecca M. Pallmeyer said. "This was an attempt to expand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to where it had never gone before," said Andrea B. Greene, attorney for privately held Skylink, the manufacture of the garage door opener in question. "[This is] very good news for consumers." Additional coverage at Wired and Security Focus."

schnarff writes "Users of OpenBSD have been asking the Folding@Home team for a port of their distributed computing client since at least May of 2002; I've helped out by figuring out how to run F@H under Linux emulation (mirror of instructions). Note that this procedure should work for NetBSD as well with some minor modifications."

ZuperDee writes "It looks like Microsoft is now looking for another search engine to buy. They are looking at Ask Jeeves and Looksmart, but they recently dumped Looksmart, after deciding that its results don't stack up well. So would anyone be surprised if they bought Ask Jeeves? It can't hurt that according to Netcraft, they already run Microsoft IIS."

ZeDanimal writes "The Simpsons' pooh-bah Matt Groening said in an NPR interview this week that the Fox News Channel considered legal action against the show for its parody of the station's news ticker. Broadcast, of course, by Fox Entertainment, the episode that raised the ire of the "Fair and Balanced" Fox News crew was Krusty For Congress, which mocked the perceived rightward-leanings of the channel with pseudo-news items such as "Do Democrats cause cancer?" and "Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple" scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Guess the powers-that-be learned something from the Al Franken affair... or maybe they just feared getting into a popularity contest with the likes of the inanimate carbon rod."

OrenWolf writes "CNET is running an article on the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, which is Red Hat's shiny new 'enterprise' version of Linux. Major changes include more IBM Mainframe support, support for AMD64 (x86_64) processors (aka Opteron, Athlon64 and AthlonFX), changes to support options, integration of Stronghold Apache, and much more."

Digital Dharma writes "News.com has an article about a new P2P war just getting underway in congress. With Senator Hollings retiring, the RIAA and MPAA have found suitable replacement hosts in three key members of the House of Representatives. Lamar Smith, R-Texas; Howard Berman, D-Calif; and John Conyers, D-Mich are taking up arms against P2P networks with a bizarre new bill that would require companies that create certain types of software such as web browsers, instant messaging clients and e-mail utilities to add a warning that it 'could create a security and privacy risk.' How this would deter P2P activity is a bit of a mystery. The article also talks about putting software company executives in jail for failing to correctly label said software, empowering the FBI to release anti-P2P propaganda and other typical RIAA/MPAA sponsored oddities." A network application can create a security risk? Best firewall off every port!

pipingguy writes "Troy Hurtubise, of bear suit fame, claims to have invented a physics-defying substance called fire paste. "I could coat the belly of the NASA space shuttle with fire paste for $25,000 (US), instead of the $60 million it costs for them to put tiles on it," Hurtubise said. "It can stand up to the heat of re-entry to the earth's atmosphere, and then they can simply wash it off.""

PrimeNumber writes "Forbes has this story about the Free Software Foundation and its quest for Cisco and Broadcom to release the source of GPL'ed linux source used in routers. Forewarning: The open source community is not portrayed in positive light so you might want to skip reading this. However it did help me gain insight into software from a PHB and suit perspective."

daitengu writes "ShackNews is reporting that PC FPS Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will be going gold this Friday. The targeted release date is then November 18 [possibly to match the Xbox Counter-Strike's street date?] The game is a single-player focused version of the insanely popular First Person Shooter, Counter-Strike. CS:CZ includes in-game bots and many updated models, textures and skins. Love it or hate it, Valve is milking the original Half-Life engine for all it's worth, and this one should sell quite nicely." If you're confused about what this title is, CS-Nation has a good webpage on CS:CZ, including information about the checkered history of the title, which has been through at least 4 developers, including Valve themselves.

Dark Paladin writes "I just got done watching Bubba Ho-Tep . Lucky for the viewers, the actor, Bruce Campbell was there afterwards answering questions. He was quick of wit, rather forgiving of the fans who kept wanting to ask Evil Dead questions, and even made fun of his own career (such as big budget movies like Congo that flopped -- not his fault, in my humble opinion)." Read on for the rest of Dark Paladin's review.

Someone asked Campbell whether he expected an Oscar nomination, something he joked off. As I stepped out, I happened to find myself right next to the actor for a good 10 seconds, and I thought about telling him how Thursday morning, the same time that I first heard about the movie, National Public Radio's review mentioned that he did deserve an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Elvis Presley as an old man. I'm actually regretting I didn't mention that in passing, but who knows -- maybe someone will encourage him to go for it, because it's a better performance than some of the butt-kissing, self-important, Oscar-begging performances we've been seeing from so-called "artists." And dang, but it would be great to see the words "Bubba" mentioned even once at the Academy Awards.

But, the movie. Check out the website if you need to (and give them a slashdotting they won't forget). The story sounds stupid, but it's actually incredibly clever.

The story revolves around Elvis. No, the real Elvis. Seems that he didn't die -- back in the 1970's, he traded places with an Elvis impersonator, and that was the guy who died on a toilet of a drug overdose. The real Elvis went on as an impersonator of himself, carefree until a hip injury landed him a hospital, in a coma, and now into old age.

So the real Elvis is now an old man in a retirement home with a cancerous growth on his penis at the age of 80, still wearing those shades (prescription glasses now). Laughed at by nurses, treated like a child, and played expertly by Bruce Campbell.

Yes, Mr. Campbell pulls of an incredible performance. He could have played the role of Elvis trying to save a retirement home like many of his other characters -- a hammed-up, cocky action hero. Or taken the Austin Powers route and just made fun of it with a wink and a nudge.

No, Mr. Campbell plays it straight. This Elvis is old, sometimes suffers from dementia, moves slowly and painfully, and is regretting throwing away his fame, fortune, and family. He's going to die all alone, and all of his accomplishments are going to be for squat. He was a fake, and he has no one to blame but himself for his problems.

But he's not going to let some Egyptian mummy suck his soul out of his ass, like the other members of the retirement home he lives in might. Nor that of his best friend, John F. Kennedy (played by Ossie Davis with class and energy) who was dyed black by the CIA after they replaced bits of his missing brain with a bag of sand.

It sounds like a funny movie, and it is. There are some one-liners that could only be delivered by Bruce Campbell himself. But the biggest jokes come in directions you don't see coming at all, and unlike most of your Hollywood movies, you don't see them telegraphed a mile off, because the filmmakers in this case don't assume the audience is stupid. Yes, there are some Elvis comments as jokes (such as the trademark "Thank you very much"), but you don't feel like they were put out there with gigantic neon signs to remind you "Hey, it's Elvis!". If the audience catches them (and most of the time, they did), great -- if not, the movie is just as funny and spooky.

At the same time, there is an element of a true horror movie. Mummies aren't anything to be afraid of, according to the old stereotype of them moving in slow, shambling steps: anyone even close to young ought would have to be incredibly slow to even fear getting caught.

But how about a geriatric with a broken hip, confined to a wheelchair or inflected by dementia? Bubba Ho-Tep uses its situation -- the retirement home, full of slow-moving people who aren't listened to or believed by the figures of authority, treated like they were less than children. Some of them can't even defend themselves or comprehend the danger they are in until it's too late, and when they die, no one is surprised -- after all, they were old, right? When you have a man who's claiming to be Elvis who saw a mummy sucking the soul out of someone's ass: well, he's got a credibility issue to start with.

An old man in a walker trying to escape a slow-moving mummy, it's not only credible, but makes for some of the most inventive action and horror scenes I've seen in some time. Nearly all the effects are done simply, just makeup and lighting, but used to wonderful effect. Not bad for a movie that, according to Campbell, was shot in only six weeks. The editing is probably the best special effect used in the movie, for moments such as Elvis meeting his impersonator self, or the encounters with the dreaded Bubba Ho-Tep. Don Coscarelli, the film's director, uses the cameras without flash, just correct camera angles and cuts like an expert painter uses a brush.

Bruce Campbell performance as Elvis is nothing short of incredible. The makeup is so wonderfully applied, most of the time you don't see Mr. Campbell, you see the King, now old and defeated by age (though it's hard sometimes to cover up that trademark square jaw). Elvis hasn't had an erection in years thanks to the pus on his pecker, he's got cancer, and nobody cares -- but as you see him start to fill up with life and that gleam come back in his eye as he fights for his soul, you can't root but cheer for this underdog.

And this film may be an underdog too, with nothing but fan word of mouth working for it, but it certainly deserves its fair chance on the big screen.

If there's one problem with the movie, there is a little bit of a slowdown about three-quarters of the way through, and an important plot device is gone over nearly three times -- but the pacing is otherwise nearly perfect. Especially when dealing with life inside a retirement home, where time itself can sometimes seem to be slow and almost forgetful of where it's going.

Bubba Ho-Tep is one of the funniest and most enjoyable movies I've seen this year. I wouldn't use the words "Triumph" (as, according to Mr. Campbell, that's a sure sign a movie should be ran from), but I would say it was worth the $8 I paid for the ticket. It's playing in limited theaters, and you can find the details at the film's website. In a summer full of too many sequels, big-budget special effects and explosions that offer mere flash in the pans, Bubba Ho-Tep is as satisfying as a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Do yourself, and independent films a favor and go see it.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

And thanks to Dark Paladin for this review.

dan_linder writes "According to an article on CNet News, THX are starting to certify the audio produced for video games. Good, now all I need are something better than my Labtec speakers on my PC..." According to the piece, "When a company signs up as a licensee... THX sends them specifications on what the company's audio and video production rooms should look like, down to the types of desks people sit at when they are working."

Cheffo Jeffo asks: "After receiving a number of (repeated and irritating) voicemail spams in the past week, I starting investigating what my options were for blocking these pre-recorded messages that are eating up my mailbox and costing me money when I check my messages using a cellphone. While it appears that I can do nothing at this point in time (I am Canadian and the CRTC hasn't had the wisdom to make this stupidity illegal yet), I was wondering if there is a technical measure that I can use to stop the insanity (other than reverting to a regular answering machine). In my particular case, the telemousketeer autodialer dials into the telco's voicemail backdoor (xxx-210-0yyy) and punches in the phone number xxx-yyy-zzzz. If they find that there is no mailbox, then they hang up and remove the number from the call list. Otherwise, they leave their obnoxious solicitation.How do they determine whether a mailbox exists (as you can tell, I am no expert)?" Might there be some tone that you can record at the start of the outgoing message that will fool the autodialer into marking the number as "disconnected"?

"If I were to record the 'I'm sorry, <some-phony-number> is not a valid mailbox, please try again' message as my mailbox identifier, would that work?

Any other ideas (other than the providing Slashdot with the URLs for the offending companies to punish their web servers)?"

torpor writes "An interesting article being published in Science magazine discusses the ways tribes in the Xinguano region cultivated and integrated the Amazon rainforest into their culture by building 'networks of towns and cities, geometrically structured' to accomodate better use of the surrounding forest region. From an article at agriculture.com: "Brazil's northern Amazon region, once thought to have been pristine until modern development began encroaching, actually hosted sophisticated networks of towns and villages hundreds of years ago, researchers said on Thursday." ... When I saw some of the satellite pictures, I couldn't help thinking it would make a very interesting software model ... Starcraft, Xinguano-mod, anyone?"

troc writes "Finally that age-old myth of the duck's quack has been overturned. It has long been thought that the duck's quack did not produce an echo, so some boffins with spare time and a duck did some experiments. "

Henry V .009 writes "The FBI will be arresting an 18 year-old in connection with MS Blaster, reports The Washington Post." According to the article, the teen was witnessed testing the worm, and then turned in by a bystander. It's also worth noting that this is merely one of the Blaster variations. Hope whoever it was had fun, because a world of pain is waiting in store now.

swordsaintzero asks: "I am not happy with the options presented to me in the laptop market. The system that comes closest, Alienware, costs more than my last car, and still doesn't have exactly what I need! Even Google didn't seem to come across any sites detailing anyone who had built a laptop from scratch. Does someone out there know of such a site? If not, does anyone know the motherboard brand being used in the Alienware Exteme series? If I can get some decent leads, I will post the ensuing mayhem, as I attempt to build my own."

MikeCapone writes "Heavy coffee-drinking Mozilla fans take notice, MozillaZine has a story on how some coffee company has dedicated a selection of gourmet coffees to helping the Mozilla foundation. Only half the profits go to Mozilla, but the coffee seems good..."