Slashdot Mirror

Stradivarius writes "CNN has an interesting article about the CIA's prediction that there will be serious Y2K issues around the globe. "

jeff sent us a link to the transcripts from the CNN Fortune special that was on wed. evening on Open Source, Linux, Red Hat, Linus, Microsoft, Operating Systems, and more. It was a pretty standard fluff piece, but hey, it was 10 minutes of CNN which never hurts.

Thank my mom for this one: tonight on CNN's CNN/Fortune program, there will be a story about Linux. You can read about the show here. For those of us on the east coast, it will air at 10PM. Don't know about other time zones. From the promo, it looks as though the piece will be positive, and possibly oriented a tad towards the (potential) investor.

Matthew Tebbens wrote in to tell us that Intel has gagged vendors from saying how fast the new P3 processors really are and the Preview Day in San Jose on Wed. What are they hiding? We all know that its performance sucks on most stuff.

shaldannon writes "This morning on National Public Radio there was a story about the ongoing Justice department case against Microsoft. Yesterday Justice Department attorney David Boies challenged Microsoft's Windows licensing policies, particulary the "verbal contracts" not to include Netscape on the desktop. He questioned a Mr. Rose of Compaq on this subject. Mr. Rose tried to distance himself from Microsoft by claiming that he'd never had close dealings with the company or Mr. Gates. Attorney Boies produced an email in which Bill Gates specifically thanks Mr. Rose for his assistance to Microsoft on the DoJ case. Boies then dropped a bombshell announcement: Compaq had been having secret negotiations with BeOS to do some development for them. At the same time, Compaq sent representatives to Microsoft for their blessing on the arrangement. Microsoft killed the deal. Compaq's attorney jumped to his feet, emotionally denying the charge and accusing David Boies of 'cheap courtroom tactics.' Attorney Boies then produced evidence from BeOS substantiating his announcement." ZD-net and PC-Week both also carry the story. Thanks to Rick Irvine (a Furious Be User) and BitMan. In related news,Matthew Tebbens tells us that CNN is reporting that Windows 2000 will need apps to be rebuilt or even rewritten to be compliant (whatever that means). Update: 02/19 06:02 by S : And to top the cake, Microsoft has been charged with monopoly pricing in a California Class Action suit. Thanks Dwight Johnson. Update: 02/20 12:57 by S : More on the Be Story: Alledgedly, Be is making an embedded OS that would have better media capabilities than WinCE for information appliances.

An anonymous reader submitted a link to a CNN article where you can read about some wacko that broke the world record for spinning. He spins in a 5 meter circle for hours on end. He gets to be on CNN. It takes all types to make the world go round.

NASA has flirted on and off again with the notion of a manned mission to Mars. It appears again that this may be a reality, with JPL physicist Mark Adler pushing ahead on this. Interesting stuff to read-and hopefully they won't make the same network mistake as the space station did.

Just Testing writes " Here is a story story by a guy who was testing pcANYWHERE and managed to connect to somebody else's PC and how he tried to tell the guy about it..." Kinda funny, but mostly just odd.

sidhi sent us a link to a CNN article where you can read that Jerry Falwell has declared that one of the Teletubbies is gay. You can read a bit on CNN about it. I'm amazed he managed to deduce that much from the show. I watched a whole episode and couldn't get that much out of it. But what is apparent that these teletubbies are dangerous. Between kids hugging their TVs and being crushed, to this blatant attempt to subvert our children's minds. I think the only thing more threatening then murderous homosexual teletubbies is Jerry Falwell.

SEWilco writes "This CNN story on VA Research mentions that Intuit is looking to port Quicken to Linux. They'll really clean up with that. (Pointed out in LWN Daily , and is a PC Week story, but the link which IDG.net came up with was too messy to submit here) " Update: 02/06 12:33 by S : Intuit's disputing this claim. Link from LT.

johnny the homicidal maniac wrote in with this story that a website which gives the names and addresses of Doctors who perform abortions, their staff and their patients has been found to amount to death-threats. What do you think?

Muad was the first, but this story was submitted many times: CNN is reporting on the space station's LAN . Check out those specs- 10base2? WinNT? Win95? Outlook? At least the stations vitals are controlled by Thinkpads running Solaris.

Absolutely Nobody writes "The Intel boycott is still on, even though they've backed off enabling identifier IDs by default, and has now been expanded to include any computer manufacturer that ships the PIII with the IDs, enabled OR disabled. "

Gentry writes "Researchers tout 125 MB throughput by applying chaos theory to fiberoptic data transmission. Certainly still a conceptual technology, but the article outlines some interesting potential. "

BadlandZ writes "CNN is carrying a SunWorld story that Unix lost in a big way to Windows NT last year. Which, seems to not include Linux, but my anti-Linux coworkers have already read it to say that it proves Unix is a dying dinosaur. " It's important to note that this is the workstation market-not actually the servers.

Fang wrote in to send us a link to a CNN article that talks about the MP3 coalition's new plan to WaterMark MP3s so that they can be better protected by the owners. Hopefully this is a step closer to online music distribution, but it doesn't look like a leap. Will someone leap already?

MikeM writes "Apparently a research group has demonstrated extremely fine control of quantum dots (artificial atoms created by creating quantum wells in semiconductors and then inserting electrons one by one). Since they are at the quantum level, are controlled by optical lasers, and are built up from silicon using existing semiconductor fabrication techniques, they provide perfect quantum logic gates for optical computers. "

Robert Flemming wrote in to say that KDE 1.1pre2 is out. I also noticed that GNOME has 0.99.3 RPMs available now if you're into that. LoCoPuff sent us a link to a CNN article about theWindows Refund that mentions Slashdot and quotes me (cough cough). Nate wrote in to say "Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" meet the Everything 2 code in The Oblique Strategies Garden. Indeterminacy=fun. " Robert Dale sent us a parody of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life called Lust For Linux (surprise) For todays Star Wars bits, Alan Shutko sent us a link to pictures of Official Star Wars Legos. And the todays flashback comes from The_Black_Macrame who sent a link to the complete errata list from the original Star Wars. It's an oldie, but a goodie. hangman got bored and decided to trash a DEC 2100 and post pictures. Check it out if you're into computer mutilation. An anonymous reader sent us a link to one image you don't want to see on an ATM. And lastly, jhack sent us a link to a nice little page on painting your mac black if you happen to think that blue color is a bit excessive. The final results are pretty sharp. Now stop reading quickies and go compile your 2.2 kernel.

thrusto writes "A story on CNN from the AP claims that Prodigy "classic" online service will soon shut down to avoid impending Y2K problems. Prodigy Internet customers will not be affected. "

Jason Chaw writes "@Home buys Excite in an all stock deal worth $6.7billion dollars. Hmm. portals are getting expensive these days. Let's see, AOL / Netcentre, @Home / Excite. hmm Maybe Microsoft / Yahoo?"

An anonymous reader sent us a link to another article on CNN about Linux. Talks about what is needed- mainly installation help (duh) to acheive mainstream success for a distribution. Talks about consolidation of distributions in the next few years. Nothing truly unique or insightful, but some things that are worth thinking about if you hadn't before.

CNN is currently running an article about the realities of human chip implant, and how soon it will come. Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading, had a chip implanted last Aug 24., and talks about the uses for chip implanting. Heck, I just want to be able to read my e-mail over my field of vision.

Ed Goodwin writes "CNN had an article about a 128 bit encryption program released under the Gnu license. Not alot of technical info but the developer comes across as a serious OpenSource advocate. "

Chase writes "Nation Public Radio reported this morning that the National Security Agency has deemed Furby's as a risk. The reason is each furby contains a microphone that records sound bytes from its environment and will play them back at any time. The NSA is concerned that a furby might over hear a classified conversation while in the building and then repeat it at a later time once it was removed from the building. As a response to the risk, the NSA has banned furbys from NSA buildings. " Update: 01/13 09:55 by B : Here's a CNN Story and a BBC Story for good measure.

Fang wrote in to send us a link to an interesting article talking about Denial of Service attacks and Cyber Vigilantes. The internet is turning into more of a warzone every day. This is an interesting summary article to read. Worth your time.

Plutor writes "Applix has ported their office suite to LinuxPPC, and CNN has an article about it. It's always a nice thing to see main-stream press attention-I'd like my next box to be PPC. "

Plutor writes "Applix has ported their office suite to LinuxPPC, and CNN has an article about it. It's always a nice thing to see main-stream press attention-I'd like my next box to be PPC. "

Cerb writes "NASA seems to be in need of a few good names for soil-penetrating probes that they plan on launching Jan. 3rd." Unfortunately the pair of people need to be related and dead, which reduces means we can't name them Linus and Alan. In related news, humanity's only tried and tested space-station, which was to be decomissioned this June, will get a new lease of life: an anonymous international investor will provide funds for another 3 years of service. (subject to Russian Gov't approval) Some comments say Salyut and Skylab were first. True, but they aren't currently functionnal in Space.

lone writes " Mars lander will be launched by NASA on Sunday. It will carry the first microphone ever sent to outer space and will sample sounds of Mars surface. I bet we'll hear some ambient remixes featuring mars sounds." You've heard Deep Forest? This will be Deep Space. Betcha that when we get to the surface of the earth they hear lots of Who music.

cswiii writes "As CNN reports in this story, a federal judge has ruled that a school violated the civil rights of a student by suspending him due to a webpage he made with disparaging remarks about the school. To think a school even asserted that power! Wish we could find the webpage... " Glad to see Uncle Sam get one right.

Mr. Lament writes "I just found this article on CNN. China has just sentenced to hackers to death for a computerized bank theft. You can get the details here. "

The University of Texas Medical Branch is prepping to begin consturction on a new biohazard unit for the study of really cranky organisms. However, one other angle that they are pursuing is building the 5-7$US million facility to also handle possible Mars specimens that will be brought back from Mars around 2008. Roughly. Depending on the breaks.

An anonymous reader sent us a link to an article about Electronic Ink. Specifically, this talks about using it to create a sort of paper that can change its contents so that it could be used as a dynamic display. They talk about it for newspapers and signs, as well as using it for portable displays for huge chunks o data found on your typical CD-ROM.

zootsuite writes "Interesting article about the changes about to take place on the public telephone network. Also includes reference to a linux based telephone. Pretty interesting stuff. "

CNN has an article reporting that 58 +/- 10 % of IT executives would switch OS given the feeling that Microsoft is not delivering on promises. The poll was conducted on only 150 people reducing its certainty.

According to CNN, Just as House members were preparing for their vote on impeachment, constituent e-mail messages began dropping into a void. It seems that there was a bug in the Microsoft Exchange server. H: And I ask - isn't it time for a 10,000 users who uses e-mail, and uses it a LOT, to switch to a Unix solution? (from Linux Today )

Thorgal writes "Korean researches managed to create a human clone. The test has been terminated after the embryo divided into four cells, but in theory nothing should prevent it from further development, should it be implanted into a carrier. CNN has the story. "

Rumors are starting to surface about WebMate, the new portable that Apple is supposed to be bringing out. The machine, although the article states "early 99" will probably be mid 99. However, other rumors have a common thread: wireless. Mmm...no more CAT5. Radio stuff that Apple patented ten years ago-anyone know anything more about this? One of my fellow co-workers has provided me with a good write-up about the wireless support.

Kabby writes "I'm surprised it has yet to appear on Slashdot, but... Scientists announced Thursday that they have the first genetic blueprint of a multi-celled animal. Its DNA consists of 97 million chemical unitsand is expected to contain 19,099 genes. CNN has an article that i caught in the NY times this morning. Apparently, we are more closely related to worms than we'd like to be... See for yourself, but I am not convinced yet. " H: Interesting stuff-from what I've heard, the first complete de-coding of a genome. This one is actually cool because of the extent that this particular strand of nematode is used in experiments worldwide.

Kabby writes "I'm surprised it has yet to appear on Slashdot, but... Scientists announced Thursday that they have the first genetic blueprint of a multi-celled animal. Its DNA consists of 97 million chemical unitsand is expected to contain 19,099 genes. CNN has an article that i caught in the NY times this morning. Apparently, we are more closely related to worms than we'd like to be... See for yourself, but I am not convinced yet. " H: Interesting stuff-from what I've heard, the first complete de-coding of a genome. This one is actually cool because of the extent that this particular strand of nematode is used in experiments worldwide.

Kabby writes "I'm surprised it has yet to appear on Slashdot, but... Scientists announced Thursday that they have the first genetic blueprint of a multi-celled animal. Its DNA consists of 97 million chemical unitsand is expected to contain 19,099 genes. CNN has an article that i caught in the NY times this morning. Apparently, we are more closely related to worms than we'd like to be... See for yourself, but I am not convinced yet. " H: Interesting stuff-from what I've heard, the first complete de-coding of a genome. This one is actually cool because of the extent that this particular strand of nematode is used in experiments worldwide.

Vertigo_b writes "NASA launched another robot to Mars, this robot will orbit the planet and collect weather data for one Martian year, somewhere around 650 days or so. It should reach the planet by September of 99. January 3rd, NASA is launching another robot, this one will land on the south pole of Mars and check some things out, examining soil and whatnot. The weather orbiter is supposed to transmit the information that the polar bot recieves, kind of interesting. " Check this out for more information.

Thanks to the few of you who sent this, and nate for making me watch the quicktime movie. In South Africa, it is legal to buy a car alarm that is actually a FLAME THROWER. Darn it, someone send me that system for Christmas.

When I put out my call for Geek Christmas Gift ideas, I had no idea what I was in for. But after the storm of email that followed was washed away, I was left with a list of toys that any geek would be excited to give or get this year for whatever holiday it is you celebrate this time of year. Hit the link below and read the list if you're curious. Random Stuff There were a few things that were suggested, that, well, I bet Santa won't come through for them. Hemos asks for Nanites. Thats all he wants. Nanites. Somebody smack him. Nima Negahban says "I would like the beowolf cluster avalon for christmas, dont worry about it fitting it under the tree. " david yates wrote in and simply said "Half naked Princess Leia ,as Jabba's prisoner, action figure." I'm sure his mother is proud. He can have the Action Figure, I want 1976 Carrie Fisher. Games Everyone and their brother wrote in to say that Nintendo 64's and Playstations are great. And the game of choice is definitely Zelda 64. I second that motion. I suggested it to my dad as a Christmas Present. Terrible idea- now I gotta wait until xmas to find out if he got it, and if he *didn't* I gotta buy in on Dec 26. Hard as hell to find. Folks suggested other things like the original Kings Quest or Leisure Suit Larry. Prince of Persia. Commander Keen. Ultima. All those games that aren't around any more, but with their original packaging. Finding a 5.25" drive to play them with might be a tad tricky tho. Clothing It's a well known fact that its better to be clothed at least part of the time. And no self respecting geek should be without a vast array of appropriately political t-shirts to pad out your closet full of suits, jackets, and ties (cough). Daniel suggested checking out the Free BSD Mall for BSD clothing. Jonathan Moore suggested the ever popular KMFMS t-shirts for your local microsoft hater. If thats a bit to exotic for you, how about the classic that Doug Boettcher sent us: the Hack Naked shirt. Since we're mentioning all these t-shirts, we ought to mention that CopyLeft has several shirts including my Don't Fear the Penguins ones, and Slashdot ones too. Software Several folks wrote in to say that they were buying Linux CDs from any of the various places that sell them, and giving them away to the needy. I tend towards Linux Central, and in addition to them Cheap Bytes OpenBsd.org and The Linux Mall were all suggested as places where you can buy the stuff we like. Hardware By far the largest catagory for gift ideas was of course Hardware:The Gift that Costs to much. Of course, anyone would want a a Palm III- it's hard to think of a better stocking stuffer. And besides, they're practically money in the bank now that you can use them to collect automobiles of the rich and famous. But if you've already got a Pilot, James A. Hillyerd suggests a GoType keyboard as the perfect accessory. If the pilot isn't your bag, but you want to read on the road, Mahlen Morris suggested A Rocket E-Book which is basically a tablet computer that is designed to replace books You can get them here. And apparently they have some sort of deal with Barnes & Nobles so you can get content to read on it. They're pretty sweet looking- someday we'll have a wireless version with net access, then we can forget paper. But for now, this'll do.

Have trouble remembering passwords? Digital Persona sells sweet hardware that that you can use to do finger print identification. Suggested by Andrew Lepisto. The pdQ was suggested by Adam D. McKenna. Its a cel phone with an integrated Pilot. Another fairly common suggestion for geek gifts was cel service from your local provider, and a cel modem for the laptop equipped gift getter. Sean McPherson suggested a Kodak DC210+ digital camera. Saves big bucks on film, and is supposed to be supported by SANE. I'm actually planning on getting a Digital Camera before the upcoming string of conferences, and I'll probably look at this one (unless Santa already has one in his bag for me, although at $400 a pop, I highly doubt it) Steven McDonald suggests that we look at DVD RAM Drives as a new huge backup device for storing your MP3s and Porn. Oh, and legit data too.

Mike Miller sent us several suggestions including the Happy Hacking Keyboard. I played with one at ALS- they're not bad. Just as cool are the new Color Gamesboys. I suppose tetris wouldn't be vastly improved by color, but its still pretty sweet. For those with a hugeass budget, How about your very own Alpha Cluster? Obviously Jakob is a lot more hopeful for Saint Nick than I am this year *grin*. How about a vt320 Terminal? Daniel Morrison suggested it, and I think it sounds pretty cool. I had a terminal attached to one of my Linux boxes for awhile. I Let it tail log files and stuff. Kinda fun for reading documentation and stuff too. Can't afford a Multi-Head X-Server, video card, and spare monitor anyway. Plus you can run them into another room and check your email from your kitchen/dining room/bathroom.

Matthew J. Allen sent us a pricey one, but its oh so sweet: Remember those Huge Flat LCD Screens from SGI? I sure do. I wake up after erotic dreams about them. (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE:Hey SGI: Give Rob one of those things for banner ads. You've got a spare one just sitting around, right?). Matthew also suggested an Iomega Clik Drive if you're on a more reasonable budget. Those things do look pretty sweet. Do cables piss you off? How about the gift of a tangle free workspace? Scott Donovan sent us a link to Cordless Mice and Keyboards from Logitech that will free you up for spinning on your swivel chair really fast until you fall over from getting dizzy instead of getting tangled up in your keyboard cable.

Toys By far the single most suggested toy of all was the Lego Mindstorms. The robotic legos are quite possibly the coolest toy in the history of toys. They aren't cheap, but they are oh so sweet. Else you could consider X-Files Action Figures suggested by E. Waugh. Home Entertainment and Audio Gear The Panasonic Portable DVD Theater was sent in by Joel Telling. Its a tiny portable DVD player obviously designed to make me froth at the mouth like a rabid dog. Several folks wrote in to suggest something I would like, but I wouldn't want to froth on. The Empeg Car CD Player. We've mentioned this before, and although they won't be ready for christmas, they are pretty amazing. 2.1 gigs of MP3s in a car stereo. They need a 9 gig version mounted in a home stereo component too.

Jon Jones (is that a real name? *grin*) wrote in to send a link to ADB I/O which you can use to automate your home for the ultimate in comfort and/or laziness. For the true audio junkie, how about the THX Speakers sent in by Chad R. Henry. Sure, they cost more than my car, but I bet they sound amazing. If you're on a more modest budget Cambridge SoundWorks has some slightly more reasonably priced speakers that I'm told sound awesome. Andrew Hobgood suggests checking out Panasonic SJ-MJ70 MiniDisc Player (portable). Pretty sweet if you aren't willing to chance it on the Diamond Rio (which was also one of the most common suggestions). Frankly any geek should be excited to get either. Rob Sheehy pointed out that Philips has 42 inch widescreen flat TVs that you could hang on your wall if you happen to be rich and wanna watch letterbox movies. This one has a VGA input too.

Random Terry A. Braun suggests that geeks need to get into making our own beer. Sounds like a great idea to me, although I tend to screw up toast. But if you're man enough to try it, you can get Your Own Grain Mill. Alan Mathews wrote in to suggest a A dilbert M&M dispensor McPhee's has some strange stuff, including a Punching Nun suggested by Glen Lipka Tom Berger suggested A VI Command Set Mug STriker RedWolf sent us a link to a chocolate bar shaped like a Pentuim II Chip.

Jason Grundy suggests the $6 card game Kill Dr. Lucky and a Card both from the aptly titled Cheapass.com. Rob Pelkey sent in a pair of gift ideas that are a world apart. The first is An Authentic Moon Rock and the second is a Jesse Ventura T-Shirt or Bumper Sticker. One is probably worth a little more than the other. The concept kitchen has this wierd Finger Stylus Thingee that you can use instead of a pen for some pen machines. Kinda wacky. Sent to us by Wyatt Earp.

Justin Higgins suggests that geeks should all own a copy of the Star Wars Radio Drama. Sure, it costs almost a hundred bucks, but at 15 CDs, it balances out to almost be a bargain. They ought to package it on 1 CD full of MP3s, throw a copy of the script on the disc and sell it for $20. I'd never heard of the Leatherman Wave before, but several folks emailed me to say they are cool. And then I noticed that they were actually advertising here. Shows how much attention I pay to who advertises on my own site I guess. But still several people raved about them, claiming that they're ideal for mucking around inside computer cases with. And Traci Earl sent a link to a site that makes nice Leather Cases for them.

Do you think stuffed animals are stupid? Well how about a Stuffed Plush Space Shuttle? Dave Brunberg sent us that gem. Stirling Westrup sent in a link to something called the Hoberman Sphere which basically is a crazily designed sphere thingee that expands from 9.5" to 30". Crazy looking. If you're looking for something caffienated that you can put in your mouth, several folks reminded us about caffienated penguin mints.

Wrap Up Well this was fun guys. Spending hours looking at crazy things that I can't afford has convinced me to take up cracking banks as an evening hobby. But what is quite obvious is that 1998 is a good year to be a geek. And maybe in 1999 Hemos can have his nanites. Nah.

And lastly, with all the commercial hub bub that tends to go on during this season, don't forget the true meaning of Christmas: Ham.

BOredAtWork writes "CNN.com is running a feature on goodnoise.com, mp3, the rio, and how they make it possible for independant labels and small artists to reach a wider audience, and mention how mp3 might revolutionize music distribution. Could it be... mainstream media acceptance of mp3? " Somewhat related, Solid Audio is a hardware VQF (MP3 Competitor) player that you might be interested in. Sent to us by David Weekly

kenzoid writes "CNN describes a very positive reception for Gecko, the new version of Netscape's rendering engine. Apparently, it's speed is VERY impressive, and the engine's size is only 900K; including support for HTML 4.0, CSS1, and XML. The article goes on to describe Netscape's praise for how fast Gecko progressed at Mozilla.org. Another score for OSS! "

te wrote in to tell us that penguins are being threatened by oil spills, habitat destruction, the overfishing of their food supplies and even the weather. For those that do not know why the Linux mascot is a penguin, read the latest Linus interview. (It also tells us what he thinks of the DOJ-Microsoft trial). Since the ocean is far away (from me in Colorado at least), does anyone know of any organisations set up to help our favorite feathered friends?

Troy Baer writes "There's a good article on CNN.com about the Linux Doc Project and getting help for Linux. It's honest and largely positive." This is excellent mainstream coverage.

LogicStorm writes "Looks like 3Com is going to give us a waterred down wireless Palm Pilot before we get full interet connectivity. I havne't actually heard of the Eleven though, only the Razor, which isn't mentioned. Could they be the same thing? Also, future plans for the Palm V are mentioned as well. (Looks like they may need to go to something smaller than a AAA battery). Click here for the whole story. "

EngrBohn writes "I ran across an (ahem) article about Operation Desert Slash which describes how Pentagon planners want to use the Slashdot Effect to disable the Iraqi defense systems in preparation for the anticipated air strikes against Iraq." All this time I thought I was just running a web site.