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usurper_ii excerpts from a brief story at ComputerUser: 'Consumer electronics hardware makers, including computer manufacturers, would be required to develop anti-piracy technology to be included in their products under proposed legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C.'" From the sound of it, not even Hollings is sure what his own proposal would cover. Hey, even the DMCA had to start somewhere.

stitzman writes: "Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ and Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY have co-sponsored a bill that would make it possible to investigate cyber-crime without all those pesky search warrants. Here's the San Francisco Chronicle story." Frightening quote: "law enforcers would no longer need to obtain a search warrant in every jurisdiction through which a cyber-attack traveled." And in a vaguely related story, jkujawa passes along this ComputerUser article in which the National Infrastructure Protection Center frets about (but offers no answers to) the ease of launching anonymous electronic attacks.

jd writes "In this article, Linux and Solaris were blamed for the DoS attacks. The claim was that rogue code could be inserted onto these systems, causing them to attack other machines. The article also claims that this cannot happen with Windows machines. Microsoft is trying to turn this entire DoS affair into one gigantic media coup. Is it possible it orchestrated the entire thing? " Update: 02/11 07:36 by CT : the article has been pulled due to 'flagrant inaccuracies.'

One commonly quoted reason for the resistance of commercial companies towards open source technology, such as Linux or Apache, is the lack of support. Unless there is a mortar-and-brick establishment behind the product, it's said, companies will not use open source.
Of course, this ignores the fact that there are companies out there whose business model is to provide just that kind of support. There's a short article in the Nov 9 issue of Computer Current Magazine that mentions just two.

One commonly quoted reason for the resistance of commercial companies towards open source technology, such as Linux or Apache, is the lack of support. Unless there is a mortar-and-brick establishment behind the product, it's said, companies will not use open source.
Of course, this ignores the fact that there are companies out there whose business model is to provide just that kind of support. There's a short article in the Nov 9 issue of Computer Current Magazine that mentions just two.

Mambo from Africa writes "What happend to the 1 million dollar challenge that Larry Ellison put to users of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. Did Microsoft who seemed to have taken on the challenge get it, or anyone else for that matter?" Good question. I remember reading about this when it first came out, then the whole matter died. Anyone heard anything about it lately?

Mambo from Africa writes "What happend to the 1 million dollar challenge that Larry Ellison put to users of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. Did Microsoft who seemed to have taken on the challenge get it, or anyone else for that matter?" Good question. I remember reading about this when it first came out, then the whole matter died. Anyone heard anything about it lately?

Bathmat wrote in to send us a story on new Linux Telephony. I'm sure most of you realize that this is an area where Linux still tends to lag behind certain other OSs. This one is about White Pine who is apparently hooking up with Red Hat to provide this stuff under Linux.

Anonymous Coward writes "Microsoft has replied to Larry Ellison's challenge made at Comdex earlier. I wonder how this will work out. " H: For those of you who missed out on that one, Ellison made a 1 million dollar wager that MSSQL7.0 wouldn't do what it claims to.

Anonymous Coward writes "Microsoft has replied to Larry Ellison's challenge made at Comdex earlier. I wonder how this will work out. " H: For those of you who missed out on that one, Ellison made a 1 million dollar wager that MSSQL7.0 wouldn't do what it claims to.

Johan Van Gompel writes ""Have you ever heard of Linux?" he asked, producing a gold cigarette case and pulling out a sardine. "Of course. It's a free version of Unix." "Someone's preventing it from gaining mass acceptance. I want you to find out who it is. We believe his initials are B. G."" Excerpt from The Maltese Penguin.

The Economic Times have an in-depth look at Linux, first throughout the world, and then in India. The articles are full of interesting tidbits, for instance that the largest UK ISP runs Linux, or that Suse is 40% of the German market. One less certain fact is their statement that Intel will help port Linux to Merced. IsdMag is covering Linux from the EDA perspective. This is their third article on the subject. Some of the surveyed engineers go so far as to state they'll quit if put in front of an NT box. With that kind of resistance, lots of little fabless companies seem likely to me to back down.

Technetcast reveals the truth behind the Beowulf coverup at NASA. Over at News Observer you can find out what Robert Young and Marc Ewing of Redhat fame look like in red hats. And Betamag shows that Linux reverses obsolescence. After so much positive press, there is however one rotten apple.

These links were first reported by Linux Reviews and Articles, and Linux Resources.

Remember all the hoopla over studies that showed a serious technical expertise shortage in the near future? Well Eugenio Sanchez sent in this story which challenges that claim. Mike Trinastich sent in this article on the same subject.

here is a review of RedHat 5 compared with NT. As an intelligent observer of Slashdot might have already guessed, this article, like so many others shows which OS is superior. Thanks to Marcelo Magallon for sending this our way.