Slashdot Mirror

blaine writes: "There is an interesting article at CNN regarding the differing policies towards privacy that the United States and most of Europe have. It details some of the disputes between the United States and Europe with respects to the United States not being as strict in enforcing online privacy."

Whatever happened to those drives at Los Alamos? Is my Mattell software worse than Back Orifice? Have the French courts cowed Yahoo!? Did I or didn't I buy a license for Windows? These and other ponderables have been glued in place below for your leisurely weekend perusal.

Can't you just see this happening at your workplace? snowbike writes: "The missing hard drives at Los Alamos have been found. Apparently they fell behind a copy machine. It will probably be attributed to the closure and evacuation associated with the fires. Read all about it at CNN. Looks like there is still plenty of heat to go around regarding this--now the UC contract to run the lab is in danger." OK. So a little bit of data went missing. Are you perfect? Are you saying you've never misplaced a floppy, or left a few nuclear secrets behind the copy machine? More coverage can be found at ABC News, at The L.A. Times and at The Washington Post .

This is for your own good. In regards to Xday's discussion of privacy violations in Mattel software, Moses Lawn writes: "I'm an ex-Broderbund programmer that wrote all of the code for this, and I just posted a comment about exactly what it does, how, and why. It's actually pretty benign. (Hopefully my comment wound up in the right place - first-time posting and all.)"

Not a single Earth-destroying collision yet! People are pretty excited at Brookhaven National Laboratory, as RHIC (the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) just saw its first collisions. There are pictures and a press release here. That page also has links to some animations and more info on how RHIC and its component systems work. RHIC is the new particle accelerator at Brookhaven. Its main goal (among many) is to look for a quark-gluon plasma. This is the result of about 18 years of work, and it will be the premiere facility for high-energy physics research until about 2008.

Tell me again how this makes things easier? snoogans writes "I just received this from my Dell account rep. As deep a hole as Microsoft has dug, do they really need to do this? How can they force all OEM's to implement this BIOS lock thing?

'The contents of the OS media kits that are shipped with Dell systems for Windows 95, Windows 98SE, and Windows NT4 will be changed as of June 1,2000 (New OS media kits are already shipping for Windows 2000 Professional) Systems impacted: All OptiPlex, Dimension, Precision, Latitude, and Inspiron systems. Implementation will be worldwide and include all languages. Why? The changes to the OS media kits are required by Microsoft in an effort to reduce software piracy What is changing (exactly) Dell-branded OS media replaces the Microsoft-generic OS media. Artwork on CD will change from "Microsoft Windows X" to "Dell Product Recovery CD -- Windows XX" In addition to a copy of the OS, the OS media will include a BIOS lock that prevents the OS media from being installed on a non-Dell system. Microsoft requires the BIOS lock to help prevent software piracy. The set-up diskettes have been removed because customers can now boot directly from the CD The functionality of the OS media remains the same -- whenever the user is asked to insert the "Microsoft Windows XX" CD, such as when they are reinstalling the OS or when they are changing the configuration of their system -- they will use the Dell Product Recovery CD The Certificate of Authentication (COA) will no longer be attached to the front of the Product documentation. Instead, it will be on a label affixed to the outside of the system chassis. The COA label should not be removed from the chassis -- the label will tear into small pieces if there is an attempt to remove it and it will become unusable. The product key located on the COA label is a mechanism used by Microsoft to ensure that the operating system loaded on the system is legal - the product key cannot be used by other users to compromise the security of the system. Your ability to re-install the OS from CD has not changed, the Dell Product Recovery CD replaces the functionality available in the Microsoft OS media kits'"

It would be great if hordes of programmers and interface designers worlwide would come up with a freely distributable alternative that was more stable than Windows and obviated the need for such presumption.;)

Blowing their nose in the general direction. MissKitty writes: "Even though I deplore Naziism and have got to wonder about the people who collect this stuff as memorabilia, I was amused that someone had the guts to tell the French Court to push off. Under French law it is illegal to exhibit or sell objects with racist overtones. They were wanting for Yahoo to filter France's access to these things (that came up on their auction site). "Asking us to filter access to our sites according to the nationality of Web surfers is very naive," Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! said. Score one for political incorrectness."

beagle writes "CNN has an article about Liberty Bell 7, which was found last July after 38 years at the bottom of the sea. That's old news - what's new is that restoration of the capsule by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is complete, and the capsule will be on tour around the country for three years before being returned to the Cosmosphere for permanent display." Now this is pretty cool. I always thought that Gus Grissom never got the recognition he deserved... maybe this makes some small measure of amends.

Adam Blake writes "CNN reports that NASA has designed a robotic spacewalker called the Robonaut which will perform satellite repairs and other duties typically performed by spacewalking astronauts. It is controlled remotely via a virtual reality interface and bears a small, apparently 'coincidental' resemblance (in the face) to intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett."

LightSaber writes: "Here we go again. This time it is computers and hard disks with nuclear weapons data that are missing from the lab vaults. This is really becoming pretty much a regular feature by now." Similarly, bapya writes: "CNN reports a secret nuclear information leak from Los Alamos lab. Apparently, the disappearance of the records was reported on June 1. One official said part of the problem in tracking down the missing data is that the record keeping is so unorganized it is difficult to tell who had access to the lab and who could have legitimately signed out the material. How can we manage our critical information???" Oscarfish points out coverage of same on Excite News.

Dram writes "In this article at CNN.com they talk about how the UN is handling cybersquatting cases. The news in itself is nothing big but does this set up a precedent for the UN to handle other internet related cases? Will the UN soon be the ruling body on things like deep-linking and Napster? Will we soon have to worry about our rights online in a legal system outside of the United States?" WIPO stands for World Intellectual Property Organization, and they're a United Nations trademark and copyright agency.

Dram writes "In this article at CNN.com they talk about how the UN is handling cybersquatting cases. The news in itself is nothing big but does this set up a precedent for the UN to handle other internet related cases? Will the UN soon be the ruling body on things like deep-linking and Napster? Will we soon have to worry about our rights online in a legal system outside of the United States?" WIPO stands for World Intellectual Property Organization, and they're a United Nations trademark and copyright agency.

Tirelessly flogging the dead horses of industry, crunching gravel where Angels fear to tread past sundown, gathering wool that no sheep has ever known, and shooting nanodarts packed with moss spores deep into any stones which happen to roll by, here's another helping -- Large but not SuperSized -- of assorted errata and addenda. Even some lizards.

Igor, throw that switch, would you? It's getting drafty in here. After all the attention that the various projects working to codify the the Human Genome have gotten in the past few years, the audacity of what Celera and the Human Genome Project itself are doing has seemingly faded into the commonplace. That may change soon, as first drafts of the genetic sequence of a human being are expected both from Celera and the HGP.

Phasers back on stun, and bring us back to DefCon 3. Turn down that klaxon, ensign. According to this CNN story, that darn Serbian Badman Trojan may not have been much of a threat; despite dire predictions otherwise by NetSec echoed by everyone from CNN to Slashdot. At least, the FBI doesn't seem too concerned. Thanks to ghoti, who alerted us to the downgrade.

All I want is friggin' sharks with friggin' lasers on their heads ... If you enjoyed reading Time-Digital's recent Neal Stephenson interview, you may be intrigued by the article contributed by The Original Bobski, pondering questions like ""How can the future-fiction business hope to compete against our reality of humanoids who wear life-altering computers and elongate their lives with superdrugs and genetic mutation? How is it possible for any self-respecting science fiction writer to hope to stay ahead of the headlines?" Neal himself is quoted, along with a passel of SciFi writers who might be familiar to regular readers of the Slashdot Book Reviews section. Seems that The Future just keeps on arriving ...

iCrave TV: OK for Sasketchewanians, not Pittsburgers. julez writes "Back in April www.icravetv.com was taken offline because of numerous lawsuits. This article on CBC online says that they are set to relaunch their service in the fall on a subscription basis. Some stations will remain free, but, like cable, "specialty channel packages" will cost you $8-$9 a month. And of course, it will only be availble to Canadians via some unnamed security software." From the article: "The privately held Internet company showed 17 Canadian and U.S. stations when its site started last November. The service drew more than 800,000 viewers in its first month." That's a market, folks. ("Quick, shut it down! Somebody might make some money if we're not careful!") Read more about iCrave on Slashdot.

If Nike builds sneakers like this, we'd happily worship the swoosh. After the wall-climbing robot tech that hemos pointed out a few days ago, ABCNews.com serendipitously featured some more information about the Real Thing. Real Geckos, that is. How do they stick to walls? Well, here are some hints: no glue, no suction cups, no bubble gum and no special effects.

Quite a number of people wrote in with the news that CNN is reporting that a Back Orifice-like program masquerading as a movie clip is infecting thousands of computers worldwide. The prediction is that it's being setup for a DDos - but the technical details, are shall we say, "sketchy".

More information below -- for your edification and amusement -- on black holes (if they exist), Napster (a happy outcome for once), comparitive computer languages (after Chris Rijk's Java / C comparison) and more. Even a (gasp) positive statement about Microsoft. Hope you enjoy it.

What goes up must go SPLOOSH. Detritus writes: "The BBC is reporting that GRO has reentered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific ocean, as predicted." So just what is the space equivalent of Davy Jones' Locker?

Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Esperanto. After many spirited comments regarding Chris Rijk's Java / C shootout, Nilsson writes: "John Pierce has done some interesting language performance tests. Instead of benchmarking how a problem can be solved in the fastest possible way he tries to benchmark how an average programmer would have solved the problem in various languages. C, Awk, Java, Perl, Pike and Tcl are tested. You can probably start religious wars with this document." Tools for the job, tools for the job ...

Just like an after-school special. Landaras writes "NYC pointed out in a thread that The Offspring and Napster have reached a very amicable settlement over the whole t-shirt issue link Since you clarified that Napster wasn't suing (it was a cease and decist) you might want to again clarify that the cease and decist has been dropped. In fact, Napster is now helping The Offspring create new products." Writing in with more detail, mishaco pointed out this link to an NME story noting that " Napster have now backed down, allowing the band to sell the material, but only if the proceeds are donated to charity."

If it exists, it blows. Which doesn't suck, necessarily. dthor writes: "The Hubble Space Telescope finds more freaks of space: a black hole that's been switched from suck to blow. Apparently, a black hole in the Virgo cluster has begun to emit largish bubbles of colourful nebula gas (or rather...began to emit hundreds of years ago, but CNN is just now catching up). Read the article, complete with an "interactive" Anatomy of a Black Hole (the regular sucking kind). Neato." [Updated 8 June 12:05GMT by timothy] Note that, as readers like daVinci1980 point out below, this is entirely consistent with current black hole theory and observations. There's not really a "suck / blow" switch on black holes' control panels. That we know of.

How the suits saw it. Duncan Lawie penned -- err, "tapped" -- his account of the UK Linux Expo 2000 in London, and it was at least partly about code, distributions and drinking beer. On the other side of the aisle, meanwhile ... Xolution writes "There's a small article on CNN.com about Linux starting to come into the mainstream."

Out of the goodness of their 8-chambered hearts? Kaufmann writes: "Bruce reports: they've received email from a MS product manager, promising to fix the Interix GPL violation (recently reported on Slashdot as well). That's a relief." Nice to hear; thanks for Bruce and company for the sharp eye and persistence.

More information below -- for your edification and amusement -- on black holes (if they exist), Napster (a happy outcome for once), comparitive computer languages (after Chris Rijk's Java / C comparison) and more. Even a (gasp) positive statement about Microsoft. Hope you enjoy it.

What goes up must go SPLOOSH. Detritus writes: "The BBC is reporting that GRO has reentered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific ocean, as predicted." So just what is the space equivalent of Davy Jones' Locker?

Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Esperanto. After many spirited comments regarding Chris Rijk's Java / C shootout, Nilsson writes: "John Pierce has done some interesting language performance tests. Instead of benchmarking how a problem can be solved in the fastest possible way he tries to benchmark how an average programmer would have solved the problem in various languages. C, Awk, Java, Perl, Pike and Tcl are tested. You can probably start religious wars with this document." Tools for the job, tools for the job ...

Just like an after-school special. Landaras writes "NYC pointed out in a thread that The Offspring and Napster have reached a very amicable settlement over the whole t-shirt issue link Since you clarified that Napster wasn't suing (it was a cease and decist) you might want to again clarify that the cease and decist has been dropped. In fact, Napster is now helping The Offspring create new products." Writing in with more detail, mishaco pointed out this link to an NME story noting that " Napster have now backed down, allowing the band to sell the material, but only if the proceeds are donated to charity."

If it exists, it blows. Which doesn't suck, necessarily. dthor writes: "The Hubble Space Telescope finds more freaks of space: a black hole that's been switched from suck to blow. Apparently, a black hole in the Virgo cluster has begun to emit largish bubbles of colourful nebula gas (or rather...began to emit hundreds of years ago, but CNN is just now catching up). Read the article, complete with an "interactive" Anatomy of a Black Hole (the regular sucking kind). Neato." [Updated 8 June 12:05GMT by timothy] Note that, as readers like daVinci1980 point out below, this is entirely consistent with current black hole theory and observations. There's not really a "suck / blow" switch on black holes' control panels. That we know of.

How the suits saw it. Duncan Lawie penned -- err, "tapped" -- his account of the UK Linux Expo 2000 in London, and it was at least partly about code, distributions and drinking beer. On the other side of the aisle, meanwhile ... Xolution writes "There's a small article on CNN.com about Linux starting to come into the mainstream."

Out of the goodness of their 8-chambered hearts? Kaufmann writes: "Bruce reports: they've received email from a MS product manager, promising to fix the Interix GPL violation (recently reported on Slashdot as well). That's a relief." Nice to hear; thanks for Bruce and company for the sharp eye and persistence.

Ghost-in-the-shell writes "I just read this article on CNN stating that spreading a virus in the state of Pennsylvania is now illegal. The bill signed in to Law on May 26th, by Governor Tom Ridge states that the spreading of a virus can land you 7 years in jail, a $15,000 fine, and possible restitution to the person(s) damaged by the virus. My only question is what happens in the cases of a virus like the famed "Melissa" who automatically passes it's self around? "

Ghost-in-the-shell writes "I just read this article on CNN stating that spreading a virus in the state of Pennsylvania is now illegal. The bill signed in to Law on May 26th, by Governor Tom Ridge states that the spreading of a virus can land you 7 years in jail, a $15,000 fine, and possible restitution to the person(s) damaged by the virus. My only question is what happens in the cases of a virus like the famed "Melissa" who automatically passes it's self around? "

dboothe writes: "CNN.COM has a somewhat interesting article on whether or not it is okay to fight back when being hacked. In the scenario they bring up with the WTO website, it seems pretty clear that they likely should have steered clear, working on the probable assumption that the IP address used was just a dummy machine that had been cracked previously. But what about other situations where it's more of a grey area?"

dboothe writes: "CNN.COM has a somewhat interesting article on whether or not it is okay to fight back when being hacked. In the scenario they bring up with the WTO website, it seems pretty clear that they likely should have steered clear, working on the probable assumption that the IP address used was just a dummy machine that had been cracked previously. But what about other situations where it's more of a grey area?"

tebubaga writes: "Now that jamming has been turned off and GPS has gotten that much more accurate, CNN posted this story describing how advertisers are drooling over the ability to deliver ads in real time to your cell phone, pager or PDA based on your location as reported by GPS."

cbull writes: "Yahoo! has an article that indicates the judge in the Microsoft case thinks splitting Microsoft into three companies is attractive to him. This is based on a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Software and Information Industry Association." And mfinke wrote: "Just saw the CNN article here about Judge Jackson's ruling that DOJ's proposal to split the company will still be considered when he rules. " Finally, mizhi pointed out this ZDNet coverage of the proceedings, saying "Basically, the government says that instead of splitting Microsoft into an operating system company and applications company, it should also split it into a third independent company for Internet Explorer."

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Have a look at this Businessweek article: a site was partly censored for 15 days because of a post uncomfortable to the Chinese government, and this Mercury Center article that proposes a more global view of the China/Taiwan issue. Surprisingly, both articles suggest that things are going better and better." Very topical; the U.S. vote on permanent normalized trade relations is scheduled for today.

frinsore, John Leeming and several other readers passed on word of the decision of a French court that Yahoo is responsible for making it impossible for French citizens to access auctions featuring Nazi-related items. As John writes, "It appears France is now defining censorship on U.S. Web sites; in particular, Yahoo! and its auction sites. For all those who have in the past believed immunity of action exists because you live in a different country or under different laws, this CNN/Reuters article is an interesting glimpse into future international jurisdiction problems for the Internet, and why we need to watch for the manner in which governments decide to deal with it." Here's NewsBytes' coverage of the same story.

iritant writes "CNN reports here that The Supremes have once again rejected congressional attempts to protect us from ourselves. Ruling in favor of Playboy, they agreed with the lower court who said that since there were less draconian ways to protect children, Congress could not limit hours or specify blocking methods of cable channels. This is clearly relevant to the Internet, as this decision may keep Congress from causing content providers much grief. The scary part is that it was only 5-4, with a peculiar split of Thomas in the majority and Scalia and Breyer in the minority. Scalia's opinion was particularly appalling, since he claimed that protection was allowed, not just for children, but for adults. The thought police are coming. Here is the decision. " It's actually quite an interesting decision. Congress was attempting to ban sexually-explicit cable channels during daytime hours, using the excuse that even though they were scrambled for non-subscribers, the scrambling wasn't 100% perfect and kiddies could still turn on the scrambled channels. It's not directly applicable to the internet, but it's related to many other free speech cases in its use of the least restrictive means test - although Congress might have an interest in coming between kids and porn, so too does Playboy have a right to speak, and since individual subscribers could, if they wished, contact the cable company and have the Playboy channel entirely blocked, that that would be a way of accomplishing the goal of keeping kids from porn without entirely banning the Playboy channel.

An article this week in the journal Science , as reported in this CNN story, reveals that in addition to volcanos, Io is also home to vast mountain ranges, lakes of lava and sulfuric geysers up to 50 miles high. Photographs and thermal measurements from the keep-on-chuggin' Galileo enabled the discoveries. See the NASA press release for slightly more detail, as well as for newly released images (May 18th) from Galileo. (You can read the full Science article here, but it requires either a subscription or a fee.)

bigstripes sent us a couple of websites that game chairs: The RocknRide and the Simcraft for people for whom strapping a subwoofer to your chest just isn't enough. Curious what the MST3k guys are doing? bill notes that most of the guys are working on a website Timmy Bighands, although Joel is doing his own thing. QuasEye sent us a link to a review of The Matrix: The Musical. I need footage of this, but it sounds frightening beyond measure. Frank Martini pointed us to a VinylVideo who are hawking a kit that lets your old record player play video. Sun Tzu pointed us to a list of milestones in a programmers life, while jamesoutlaw sent in a site that caricatures common discussion group personalities in Usenet ... and surprisingly enough Many of the stereotypes apply just as well to Slashdot. Schmam notes that Stevie Case, one of the designers for Quake II, now working with Ion Storm, famous for being Romero's GF, and for beating him at Quake, as well as being hot ... well she's in playboy, but you're only allowed to read the article or else I'm telling your mom. Hey, its nice to note that Slashdot took 2 People's Voice Webby Awards one in the Print & Zines and the other in Community. I'm not exactly sure what it proves tho (besides the fact that you guys like us enough to fill out a form) but thanks to those who voted us. May peace and prosperity follow you (and may the Webbies not sell your e-mail address to people bent on selling you toner). And now for the strang(er) part of the quickies, HelLfiRe leads us towards The Stinkymeat Project which is, well, a photo documentary of a plate of rotting meat. Read only on a settled stomach. Richard Stevens sent us an Amazingly Strange cartoon strip: This guy draws inane pictures based on the idiotic titles people send him. If you want something slightly better drawn, mkoscica sent us plif which is really twisted, but funny.

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.

nodvin writes: "CNN is reporting Linux users unscathed by ILOVEYOU. It is interesting that none of the multiple e-mail accounts on my Linux IMAP-POP servers seems to have encountered the virus. The mail server that I use is Communigate Pro from Stalker Software running under either Red Hat 6.2 or Linux-Mandrake 7.0. Perhaps the fact that I have Communigate Pro enabled for the MAPS Realtime Blackhole List (RBL) helped prevent ILOVEYOU from getting through. " It's a Petreley piece from LinuxWorld, but kinda cool seeing it on CNN.

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).

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).

po_boy asks: "given the recent law passed in Massachusetts, which prevents people from just throwing away old computers and monitors, I was wondering what some of the alternative ways of disposing old hardware are. Ideally, I'd like to be able to help an organization by giving them my old hardware, but I understand that I hold on to my hardware so long and cannibalize it so much that often it is of no use to anyone when I no longer want it. What, then, is the best way to dispose of my hardware in order to ensure that it will be at least recycled if not re-used?"

Roughly 199 million miles from where you sit, NASA's NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Shoemaker has been zeroing in on the asteroid Eros for a little while, taking pictures as well as readings with six on-board instrument systems. Four movies of Eros (QuickTime only) are also available through CNN. From the CNN article: "The performance of the other instruments should improve as well as NEAR Shoemaker moves in closer to the 21-mile-long (34-km-long) rotating space rock. Later in the year, the spacecraft could move in even closer and briefly touch down to conclude its primary mission, scientists said." [Updated 1:30GMT by timothy] Oops -- make that 119 million miles, not 199. I'm always trying to help out NASA.

jpowell writes: "CNN had a story about Kevin Mitnick being ordered off of the lecture circuits. The federal probation office has said that he can no longer write or speak about technology issues." Normally I don't post Mitnick stories here, but, well, huh?

frinsore writes "Hubble turns 10! Seems like just yesterday that there was a flaw in the mirror, and it couldn't see. Now it's seen black holes, birth of stars, shoemaker-levy and the surface of Pluto. NASA can come back from mistakes." Not only that, but it survived a crash with the Satellite of Love in Mystery Science Theater 3000 : The Movie. Update: 04/25 01:30 by E : Hey, check out HubbleSite, too.

dakfu writes: "NSI is suggesting two new TLDs, .banc and .shop." I want .rob and .dot please. Is that too much to ask for? I think .god would be fun too, but I think there really ought to be a .sex just to help me (ummm) avoid it. Yeah. Avoid it.

Patrixmyth wrote to us with the CNN story about the U.S. Army's attempt to build Jedi Soldiers. Yes, they're going to dress up Sir Alec Guinness...er, rather Jedi is Joint Expeditionary Digital Information, which, essentially, is the Wired Soldier of Tomorrow. Palmtops, GPS, satellite up-links, oh my!

JCallery writes: "CNN has a story about recent photographs of Area 51 that were shot by a satellite launched by a private company (Aerial Images Inc.) and the Russian Space Agency. They are of great quality, showing everything from buses and hangars to an aircraft covered with a tarp. See the images for yourself!" (UFO conspiracy buffs may also want to check this BBC story sent in by Rafael.)

drwiii writes: "This article over at CNN talks about a deal between Nielsen and ReplayTV to develop technology to track time-shifted viewing habits. The ReplayTV unit doesn't have software to track viewing choices, but it looks like it'll be getting it now. The article also touches on Nielsen's relations with TiVo and Microsoft (WebTV)." Fantastic. Now I'll expect junk mail every time I linger a little too long over Buffy . I think that if these machines are going to be used for market research, the networks should pay the bill, and they should be free to everyone.

cybrthng asks: "With prices of gas hitting above $2.00 a gallon in many areas and projected to rise more yet, how should we look at our commuting and travel needs? With OPEC limiting the supply, people traveling more and all this technology advancement wouldn't you think we would be able to come up with alternate ways to get around? How about public transportation? Safer places to keep your bike? Smarter drivers so people on motorized and non-motorized vehicles are not at such a risk. What would be the technological or even ethical solution to today's costs and problems with transportation? Let's unite and strategize for a few minutes on what is a huge part of daily life." Interesting question. I find that too many people drive in overcongested metropolitan areas due to the fact that the public transportation system just isn't sufficient for their needs. PT systems in many areas are nice, but it just plain sucks when you have to wait 30 minutes for the next train. Quite personally, I would just prefer to telecommute.

Lets start this off with some homework: we were nominated for a 2000 Webby in Community. Please go vote for us (requires annoying login, but please do it anyway! I want a crappy little trophy!) Now with the 'biz outta the way, brainsik pointed us to the Brainshaker: a headmounted subwoofer that looks like it would make Quake a bit to real. Plastik noted a web filter guaranteed to offend the conservative and humorless. But it makes reading Slashdot damn entertaining. And if you're interesting in violating most religions, vkulkarn found an "Escort" who apparently reads Slashdot (will she go out with CowboyNeal?) Speaking of religion, Zippy noted that I am apparently a prophet in the Church of The Enlightenment , along with Jay Stile of Stileproject . Illiad, from Userfriendly.org is a bard. webword sent us CalculusGirls.com which combines 2 of the many things I don't understand. Andy Lester noted that Brunching Shuttlecocks has a book on "Fuzzy Logic Functions", in the style of O'Reilly. yek401 noted that his english professor builds barbie doll cyborgs: god bless tenure ;) Trenchcoat Steve warned us about Moon Land Registry which claims to be selling land on the moon for $10/acre: you even get a deed and mineral rights... and it might be legal! Gravey noted that their are two new Reboot movies going into production. For you conspiracy theorists, backtick noted that everyone's favorite software monopoly might be getting into the furniture biz along with Lazyboy. SgtPepper pointed us to RFC 2795 which "describes a protocol suite which supports an infinite number of monkeys that sit at an infinite number of typewriters" ucsimon noted that LegoLand in California just gota liquor license. Mind you after a few shots of vodka, finding a 2x2 blue block takes a lot longer. Let's wrap up with jyuter's note that Comedy Central has vid clips of the south park kids doing Python's parrot sketch in Quicktime or Real.

strider415 asks: "After reading yet another article about WebPads, this time from Ericsson and running Linux, I have to wonder WHERE ARE THEY?! It's been years since I started to hear about the various WebPads in development and just around the corner. Have any of them been brought to market?" These devices sound really cool! Imagine making a phone call and browsing the Web all from the comfort of your sofa.

The Federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Junger v. Daley Tuesday, finding that source code is expressive speech. PeterD.Junger had sued in 1997 to allow posting of some crypto code on the Internet, on the grounds that it is expressive and not merely functional. The court found in his favor: "Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment." Read on for an excerpt from the ruling (or go read the whole thing yourself, lazy!).

See also the Wired article. And may I just say how delightful it is that the court compared source code to written music -- and to the works of JacksonPollack!

Excerpt from the court opinion:

The issue of whether or not the First Amendment protects encryption source code is a difficult one because source code has both an expressive feature and a functional feature. The United States does not dispute that it is possible to use encryption source code to represent and convey information and ideas about cryptography and that encryption source code can be used by programmers and scholars for such informational purposes. Much like a mathematical or scientific formula, one can describe the function and design of encryption software by a prose explanation; however, for individuals fluent in a computer programming language, source code is the most efficient and precise means by which to communicate ideas about cryptography.

The district court concluded that the functional characteristics of source code overshadow its simultaneously expressive nature. The fact that a medium of expression has a functional capacity should not preclude constitutional protection. Rather, the appropriate consideration of the medium's functional capacity is in the analysis of permitted government regulation.

The Supreme Court has explained that "all ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance," including those concerning "the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts" have the full protection of the First Amendment. ... This protection is not reserved for purely expressive communication. The Supreme Court has recognized First Amendment protection for symbolic conduct, such as draft-card burning, that has both functional and expressive features. ...

The Supreme Court has expressed the versatile scope of the First Amendment by labeling as "unquestionably shielded" the artwork of Jackson Pollack, the music of Arnold Schoenberg, or the Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll. ... Though unquestionably expressive, these things identified by the Court are not traditional speech. Particularly, a musical score cannot be read by the majority of the public but can be used as a means of communication among musicians. Likewise, computer source code, though unintelligible to many, is the preferred method of communication among computer programers.

Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment.

Ragetech writes "CNN.com has a story about two Russian astronuts (yes, I say nuts) blasting off to dock with the Mir station to evaluate it, rescue and possibly operate it for profit. What I'm wondering, really, is why they don't pick up a few Iridum satellites while they're up there and really pick up the profits. I mean, that stuff is salvagable now, isn't it? "

Ragetech writes "CNN.com has a story about two Russian astronuts (yes, I say nuts) blasting off to dock with the Mir station to evaluate it, rescue and possibly operate it for profit. What I'm wondering, really, is why they don't pick up a few Iridum satellites while they're up there and really pick up the profits. I mean, that stuff is salvagable now, isn't it? "

veldrane asks: "I saw this article on CNN.com about there being authorized DVD players on the market for Linux. Of course, the article is vague about Mark Litvak's claim so I'd like to know is this for real or is it just a statement to take credibility from the LUG protesters in DC?" After reading the article, I found it odd that Mr. Litvak didn't mention any company names that were working on DVD Players for Linux. If anyone knows anything more, I'd be interested in finding out if such a thing exists or is actually just more vapourware expressly for the purpose of discrediting the DeCSS supporters as veldrane suggests. Updated: 04/03 05:51 by C

Oops! I posted this story late on the 28th (with it scheduled to show up today) and had missed the LinDVD announcement. However, contrary to some of the comments that mention this point, this player is not yet on the market. It will be released "soon", but until it appears, it is still vapourware. It would be very cool if InterVideo would release a beta versions of their players so that we can see for ourselves how far along they are and how far they have to go. However this remains their decision. I wish them luck in their work, and am glad to see at least one company step up to the plate like this (even if it is only a binary player).

veldrane wanted to know if there was an actual player that he could go out and buy now, and according to Mark Litvak's comment in the original article, there should be one available.

I'm still wondering why he didn't mention any names if such an animal did exist.

Bob Kopp writes "A team of astronomers using Keck Observatory has discovered the smallest extrasolar planets yet: one with 80% of Saturn's mass, orbiting HD46375, and one with 70% of Saturn's mass, orbiting 79 Ceti. These are the first extrasolar planets discovered with masses less than that of Jupiter. Both are, however, quite close to their parent stars; the HD46375 planet has a period of 3 days, while the 79 Ceti planet has a period of 75 days. CNN has coverage. "

latcarf writes, "The lead article on NASA today is about the report on the Mars exploration program - a program that hasn't gotten much exploring done recently. It concludes that the loss of the Mars Polar Lander is most likely due to premature engine shutdown and that the cure to such problems is less "faster and cheaper" and more time spent testing systems at greater cost. The article about this report on CNN includes an interview with Tom Young, formerly with NASA, who relates problems with tests on the Polar Lander."

RobertPearse noted that the winners are on CNN. No surprise that American Beauty cleaned up (I watched it again on saturday: Wow). But The Matrix took Editing, Sound and FX (Edging out Phantom Menace). Sleepy Hollow took Art Direction. Update by nik: "Not a lot of people know that" many of the effects for The Matrix were generated on FreeBSD systems.

No cookies with offsite GIFs: that's the privacy solution implemented by IDcide (take a moment to register the pun, OK, there ya go). Here's technical background on offsite cookies; here's the CNNstory; here's the software FAQ (it's only available for Windows/MSIE). If you're not sure why offsite cookies matter, you must read this. And, not to rain on IDcide's revenue model -- their product does other stuff too -- but why isn't offsite cookie rejection built into all browsers? Anyone from Mozilla want to talk about this?

Kenneth Ng was one of the folks who wrote to us about an article CNN is running, courtesy of Federal Computer Weekly. The piece talks about scenarios that have caused the Army some consternation -- namely, crackers being able to take the wheel of remote-controlled military weapons systems like tanks, ships and planes. I dunno -- I kinda like the idea of being able to play Grand Theft Auto ^[?] with an M-1 Abrams tank.

Phizzy writes, "According to this CNN Story, President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair have announced that the information gathered in the Human Genome Project will be released to the public. Maybe we can ease our fears about the Genome being controlled by one party. " Good. This is one of the smartest things I've seen this year.

adpowers writes, "According to this CNN story, NASA was forced to use many outside contractors for safety inspections because of a lower budget. Shuttle inspectors found numerous wiring defects like this one which caused a dangerous short-circuit on Columbia."

adpowers writes, "According to this CNN story, NASA was forced to use many outside contractors for safety inspections because of a lower budget. Shuttle inspectors found numerous wiring defects like this one which caused a dangerous short-circuit on Columbia."

Carey Frey writes " CNN reported today that 'NASA scientists have uncovered evidence of wide, ancient channels that could have formed from the flow of enormous volumes of water.' The movie Mission to Mars opens tonight. I suppose this is all just a coincidence?"

Yeah, right. The production crew spent literally weeks planning the trip, getting to Mars and digging all those channels. "Coincidence," indeed!