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VonGuard asks: "Not all of you live on ramen and coffee. At some point, you have to cook, and the Internet should be a great place to find recipes. Is there a Google for recipes. And why isn't there a larger open cookbook on the net? So, is anyone working on this, or is there something the rest of us don't know about yet?"

Peacefire writes "Thomas Shaddack spotted this on http://www.root.cz/ (in Czech) -- if you go to http://search.msn.com/ and search for 'XFree86', it tells you that you've 'entered a search term that is likely to return adult content', and directs you to the porn search engine NightSurf.com, which lists a bunch of porn sites that ostensibly match the term 'XFree86'. If you search for 'XFree86' on Google, however, it's clear that the top matching terms returned by a normal search, are XFree86 sites, are not a bunch of porn sites. MSN is apparently blocking the specific term 'XFree86' and not just filtering on something stupid like the 'X' or the 'Free', since you can search for 'XFree85' and 'XFree87' with no problem. And search terms like 'Linux', 'AOL' and 'Macintosh' are allowed, so at least MSN hasn't simply blacklisted all competitors' keywords as 'porn', but why would they be blocking 'XFree86'?"

snoofy writes "Zones, as people from SUN Microsystems have talked about for some time are now available in solaris express (the pre-release of Solaris 10). This will let you virtualize Solaris so that processes run in isolation from other activity on the system... A system can then be configured to run several zones which will make it look like different systems on the network Some info from a posting to comp.unix.solaris. The cool stuff is that it works on both SPARC and x86."

Suhas writes "The New Zealand Herald and many others such as Yahoo/AP are reporting that Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King has swept the Oscars by winning in all the 11 categories it was nominated in. Good to see Peter Jackson finally got the Best Director award! The official Oscar site has a full list of the winners."

Anonymous CodeCon Attendee writes "Update live from the CodeCon conference in San Francisco: live audio streaming of the presentations is live on Brandon Wiley's site, presentations are being discussed on irc.oftc.net:#codecon, and attendance is very impressive this year." (Read on for more.)

"Yesterday's talks included several version control system improvements including a new merge algorithm invented by BitTorrent's Bram Cohen, the Xerblin multi-language compiler, zeroconf/Rendesvouz services for Apache, and an obfuscated C decompiler written by a Navy researcher.

The FunFS NFS replacement is being presented now, to be followed by the long-awaited anonymous IP Onion Router, the Shmoo Group's tripwire replacement, some anti-spam technology, and the zero-UI PGP Universal system. CodeCon's main sponsors this year are Anonymizer who provided attendees with discounted anonymous Internet access accounts, and Google who sponsored the large reception/party at the W hotel last night. The highlight of the night occurred when Donald Knuth crashed the party, in full academic robes.

The Internet developer scene is alive and well in San Francisco!

CodeCon continues through the weekend, and people are still showing up and registering. If you're local, this conference is a must-see -- come out and join us at Club NV! (If you're not local, there's always next year!)"

blastedtokyo asks: "With all the talk of offshoring and outsourcing, it seems that taking an entrepreneurial route is a great way to take your life out of the hands of overpaid goons and put it squarely in the hands of an underpaid one. Without an organized team of coders, testers, and designers it seems very tough for a single person to get started in anything other than consulting, or selling stuff on eBay. With my background in product design, and my knowledge that my coding skills aren't the greatest, I'd like to find a vendor or team to help develop some software ideas that I've been stewing over for a while. In other words, I've got the business plan, some credit-cards ready to be maxed out, the bitmap-demo and the specs for a few possible projects, but would like to get a team to code up a working prototype suitable to get some initial customer evaluations. Does anyone have experience sourcing such a vendor? How would you interview a firm to know that their staff is easy to work with and competent? Is it possible to do something like this without delays, excessive mis-communications and cost overruns, or is it better to just start hiring contractors, one at a time?"

I am Jack's username writes "A newly discovered planetoid (Google news cluster) 2004 DW in the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, where some think objects larger than Pluto exist, may be larger than Quaoar - making it the second largest known trans-Neptunian object and 18th largest object in the solar system."

swordboy writes "A federal judge just threw out the FTC lawsuit against Rambus. This has been discussed at length here before but this changes the landscape yet again. An interesting, possibly coincidental item is that Intel just today announced a new and very powerful DRAM interface that bypasses Rambus IP altogether."

WebGangsta writes "Google Inc. today announced it expanded the breadth of its web index to more than 6 billion items. This innovation represents a milestone for Internet users, enabling quick and easy access to the world's largest collection of online information."

shystershep writes "It's official. Microsoft admits that 'portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet.' No more details, although it seems clear that it is only a portion of the code. Microsoft is, naturally, downplaying its impact, while everyone else is busy speculating about how serious this could get." A lot of you apparently haven't read yesterday's story. An investigation of the code is already underway.

An Ignorant American writes "Perusing an Air & Space magazine the other day, I came across an article about Russian Moon Rovers during the space-race era. Thanks to my American science education, I had never heard of this feat. I asked around (friends and coworkers) and nobody else I've talked to has heard of them either. They were called 'lunokhod', and were the first of their kind. Unmanned, remotely operated rovers with basic instrumentation. Two were successfully landed on the Moon, each driving for many miles on the Moon's surface, returning tens of thousands of pictures. You can do a Google Search to start your education, or read what they have to say at Wikipedia on the subject (Wikipedia also has some external links.)"

Rican writes "MSNBC has an interesting article about how 'Googledorks' are using the powerful search engine to do searches across the web for sensitive and/or private information. Some of this information includes 'Medical records, bank account numbers, students' grades, and the docking locations of 804 U.S. Navy ships, submarines and destroyers.'"

Rican writes "MSNBC has an interesting article about how 'Googledorks' are using the powerful search engine to do searches across the web for sensitive and/or private information. Some of this information includes 'Medical records, bank account numbers, students' grades, and the docking locations of 804 U.S. Navy ships, submarines and destroyers.'"

kudyadi writes "Technology Review has an interesting article on, as the title suggests, ten technologies that we continue using despite advances made in the same. The best example is that of analog watches, "Compared to today's digital timepieces, old-fashioned, sweep-hand watches are pathetic one-trick ponies. Digital-watch wearers can check temperature, altitude, and the time in Tokyo, play tunes and games, and send messages. Can wristwatch videoconferencing, Web surfing, and tarot readings be far off? But what digital watches can't do, according to sweep-hand proponents, is display the time and context as elegantly and intuitively as an analog model."" Interesting counterpoint to this post from a few years back about technologies that didn't manage to hang on. And Bruce Sterling has a short list of ones he'd like to see go away, too ;)

bigmush asks: "I have an old pair of speakers, and they had been working fine until recently. I took off the covers, and saw that the foam surround had started to wear out on both of the woofers. After 15 years of service, this was a sad discovery (though also an opportunity to justify an upgrade!). I found a few foam surround repair kits available online. How well do these work? What experiences have you had with them?"

n3k5 writes "EU competition commissioner Mario Monti has been in the news a lot lately, following "[...] a preliminary decision that Microsoft is breaking European law by abusing its dominant position in the personal computers' market. However, [the Commission] needs to carry out a series of consultations before finalising its verdict, due by May 1." (Financial Times article) The latest articles all cite German magazine FOCUS, which reports in its current issue that, according to "informed" EU sources, the Commission is considering imposing a record fine of EUR 100,000,000 (USD 123,840,000) on Microsoft. "Amelia Torries, a spokeswoman for Monti, dismissed the report as 'pure and utter speculation.'" (Channel NewsAsia article)"

pgrote writes "So you're a guy on the run - you decide to switch towns, put down some roots and start dating again. But if your special new friend happens to be someone who checks her potential dates by searching on Google, you're in trouble. Seems that LaShawn Pettus-Brown was caught by his date's discovery of him on an FBI site of fugitives, even after local Cincinnati news media couldn't find him. Score one for the Internet."

N8F8 asks: "I would like to come up with an inexpensive reading assist device for the visually impaired. Something that would give them a close-up view of things without having to stoop over. For under $500. What I would like is a method to connect a USB/Firewire webcam to a CDMA phone or PDA and display the picture in real-time. Or replace the PDA with an inexpensive eyeglass mounted display. Are there better options?"

"Over 1.2 million Americans are in the advanced stages of Macular Degeneration. People with very poor vision have a hard time reading everyday items like food labels, grocery store signs and newspapers. Many have resorted to carrying around large magnifying glasses and other tools so they can stoop over or pull things close enough to read. As you might imagine, this can make everyday chores rather cumbersome.

Initially, two ideas came to mind:

• A coherent fiber optic cable with a taper end to magnify the image
• A portable video camera connected to a tiny LCD monitor

A quick posting to the sci.optics newsgroup killed the first approach. Price, performance and reliability tip the scales in favor of the second option.

The second option brought several possibilities to mind. Tiny cameras are cheap and plentiful- from USB/Firewire webcams to tiny spy cams. The ideal device would have built-in auto focus. The Apple iSight is the only webcam I've found with built in auto focus, are there others?

Tiny monitors are another matter. Many articles covering 'near eye displays', 'heads up displays' and 'head mounted displays' have been published. There are even a few interesting products on the market. Unfortunately they are all extremely expensive.

Nearly every new PDA, CDMA phone, digital camera and digital video camera contains a nice little LCD screen. Perhaps using one of these devices could help keep the cost down?"

N8F8 asks: "I would like to come up with an inexpensive reading assist device for the visually impaired. Something that would give them a close-up view of things without having to stoop over. For under $500. What I would like is a method to connect a USB/Firewire webcam to a CDMA phone or PDA and display the picture in real-time. Or replace the PDA with an inexpensive eyeglass mounted display. Are there better options?"

"Over 1.2 million Americans are in the advanced stages of Macular Degeneration. People with very poor vision have a hard time reading everyday items like food labels, grocery store signs and newspapers. Many have resorted to carrying around large magnifying glasses and other tools so they can stoop over or pull things close enough to read. As you might imagine, this can make everyday chores rather cumbersome.

Initially, two ideas came to mind:

• A coherent fiber optic cable with a taper end to magnify the image
• A portable video camera connected to a tiny LCD monitor

A quick posting to the sci.optics newsgroup killed the first approach. Price, performance and reliability tip the scales in favor of the second option.

The second option brought several possibilities to mind. Tiny cameras are cheap and plentiful- from USB/Firewire webcams to tiny spy cams. The ideal device would have built-in auto focus. The Apple iSight is the only webcam I've found with built in auto focus, are there others?

Tiny monitors are another matter. Many articles covering 'near eye displays', 'heads up displays' and 'head mounted displays' have been published. There are even a few interesting products on the market. Unfortunately they are all extremely expensive.

Nearly every new PDA, CDMA phone, digital camera and digital video camera contains a nice little LCD screen. Perhaps using one of these devices could help keep the cost down?"

N8F8 asks: "I would like to come up with an inexpensive reading assist device for the visually impaired. Something that would give them a close-up view of things without having to stoop over. For under $500. What I would like is a method to connect a USB/Firewire webcam to a CDMA phone or PDA and display the picture in real-time. Or replace the PDA with an inexpensive eyeglass mounted display. Are there better options?"

"Over 1.2 million Americans are in the advanced stages of Macular Degeneration. People with very poor vision have a hard time reading everyday items like food labels, grocery store signs and newspapers. Many have resorted to carrying around large magnifying glasses and other tools so they can stoop over or pull things close enough to read. As you might imagine, this can make everyday chores rather cumbersome.

Initially, two ideas came to mind:

• A coherent fiber optic cable with a taper end to magnify the image
• A portable video camera connected to a tiny LCD monitor

A quick posting to the sci.optics newsgroup killed the first approach. Price, performance and reliability tip the scales in favor of the second option.

The second option brought several possibilities to mind. Tiny cameras are cheap and plentiful- from USB/Firewire webcams to tiny spy cams. The ideal device would have built-in auto focus. The Apple iSight is the only webcam I've found with built in auto focus, are there others?

Tiny monitors are another matter. Many articles covering 'near eye displays', 'heads up displays' and 'head mounted displays' have been published. There are even a few interesting products on the market. Unfortunately they are all extremely expensive.

Nearly every new PDA, CDMA phone, digital camera and digital video camera contains a nice little LCD screen. Perhaps using one of these devices could help keep the cost down?"

shelleymonster writes "According to CNET, Google has quietly released its own version of Friendster, called Orkut. About 3 months ago, Google entered into talks to acquire Friendster, but was turned down. Named after one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten, the new social network looks even tougher to get into than Friendster. An initial 12,000 invitations were sent out, and new users can only join through an existing user. Someone want to invite me?"

Tonight's Slashback brings updates on Microsoft's softened stance on MikeRoweSoft.com, good news on the thankfully exaggerated demise of Niue's wireless network, and an update on Windows 98's revised appointment with fate. Read on below for the details.

You have until April 15 ... quickenman writes "I used TurboTax for many years but used TaxCut last year (2002) after they Put C-Dilla spyware into the program. TaxCut worked well (it lacked 1 form I needed) but TurboTax seemed to be a little more user friendly. I publish several free internet newsletters, "Dr M's Computer Tip List" and also "Dr M's Computer Tips"and have told my subscribers that the link to eliminate that C-Dilla spyware is still available even though Intuit no longer lists it on their web site. Go to: support.turbotax.com/kb/ViewDocument.asp?do cumentId=491&categoryId=80068"

All publicity is probably good publicity ... for Mike Rowe. bwhaley writes "Microsoft has eased is reins after the an unexpected battle from teenager Mike Rowe in defense of his "trademark infringing" domain, mikerowesoft.com. According to a Reuters article, 'Microsoft has indicated it may have overreacted to the Web site' run by Microsoft's namesake. Thanks to this Slashdot story and lots of others like it, Mike Rowe may be able to keep his domain after all."

I doubt that Mike Rowe is Microsoft's namesake ;)

Niue free wi-fi is not gone freitasm writes "In a previous Slashdot article the author said "The world's first free national wireless grid is no longer with us, after waves from Cyclone Heta swept over Niue's thirty metre cliffs, destroying everything." This turned now not to be what actually happened there. It is now known that the The Niue Internet Users Society stored everything in water proof containers before the cyclone hit the island" "Most of the equipment survived," said IUS-N technical manager, Richard St. Clair. "That's because we stored it all in a water-tight metal shipping container before the cyclone hit." "Some WiFi antennas were lost," said Emani Lui, who originally installed and tuned the antennas for the WiFi service. "But many have now been repaired or replaced and are functioning normally." Since then Telecom New Zealand has restored communications with the island."

CosmacVIP writes "The .nu domain manager says anyone who wants to help should make donations to the New Zealand Red Cross's Pacific Cyclone Relief Fund (www.redcross.org.nz), instead of registering .nu domain names, so the aid will go directly to those who need it most."

All depends on whom you ask. Greedo writes "This article at Wired contradicts earlier news that HP was working on getting WMA support built into their branded iPod. "We're not going to be supporting WMA for now," said Muffi Ghadiali, product marketing manager for HP's digital entertainment products group. However, one analyst said that between now and summer, HP may come up with a way to convert WMA to AAC, or an equivalent technical fix. I guess we wait and see."

After that, if it breaks, you get both pieces. Ieshan writes "Microsoft has just decided to resume support for Windows 98 and apparently other product lines, as mentioned in this CNN article. Well, I guess it didn't die for long. They say customers in developing countries weren't made aware of the changes. I say they probably realized that people in developing countries couldn't afford to upgrade entire networks, and might pursue alternatives."

linuxbaby writes "Rolling Stone has an excellent feature on Justin Frankel, the creator of Winamp, Gnutella, Shoutcast, Waste, and other projects. The article calls him 'the world's most dangerous geek', and after years of being muzzled by AOL for igniting the pirate nation, Frankel is breaking his silence." The article ends by asking: "In many ways, Frankel's future encapsulates the debate over the future of the Internet itself. Does it become just a distribution system for corporate product or more of a way to subvert that corporate control?"

scubacuda writes "ZDnet and others report that Red Hat now offers the 'Open Source Assurance Program' as protection for customers if they get hit with a copyright infringement case from the SCO Group. From their website: 'A key feature of the Open Source Assurance Program is an Intellectual Property Warranty. The warranty ensures, that in the event that an infringement issue is identified in Red Hat Enterprise Linux software code, Red Hat will replace the infringing code. Red Hat's warranty assures customers that they can use Red Hat Enterprise Linux and related solutions without interruption. The warranty is available for all customers having a valid registered subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux or related solutions.'" Following close behind Novell and Hewlett-Packard, but it looks like Red Hat is not actually indemnifying their customers like Novell and HP, but rather is simply promising to fix any real copyright problems moving forward, which is something I think we would assume they would do in any case.

glinden writes "Yahoo! issued a press release today announcing their creation of Yahoo! Research Labs. Although there's not much there yet, it's clearly targeting Google and Google Labs. The battle between MSN, Yahoo, and Google in the "Year of Search" is heating up. And it's still only January."

glinden writes "Yahoo! issued a press release today announcing their creation of Yahoo! Research Labs. Although there's not much there yet, it's clearly targeting Google and Google Labs. The battle between MSN, Yahoo, and Google in the "Year of Search" is heating up. And it's still only January."

GillBates0 writes "According to a CNN/Reuters story, Google is developing a service to attach its lucrative keyword-based advertising to email: ''I'm sure Google is getting more and more concerned about locking in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated with e-mail,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who tracks the industry.' Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a full-fledged portal, with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like features like Froogle."

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."

ScottSpeaks! writes "CNN , ABC, and others are reporting that Microsoft has agreed to fix Windows XP so that it no longer launches IE (instead of the user's chosen default browser) when the user selects the "Shop for Music Online" option in Windows XP. MS isn't admitting that it's a violation of the consent decree they signed to get the DoJ to drop the anti-trust suit against them, but threats to take them to court over it are what prompted the move."

uctbruce writes "Following the June press release from Brookhaven National Lab, nuclear physicists from around the world are discussing the results of the 4 RHIC experiments (PHOBOS, STAR, PHENIX and BRAHMS), the New York Times ran an article on the Quark Matter conference in Oakland. Have we re-created the first microseconds of the big bang in the lab? (Have a look at the Google cluster of stories)"

rcn asks: "I am looking at online backup solutions for a variety of small and medium sized businesses. I read the most recent Slashdot discussion on online backup but there wasn't much talk about specific providers. The DIY methods of online backup (i.e. backup to a server in another office) aren't really practical in these cases. Security is more important than cost. They want their data secure under a mountain or 3000 miles away. I am overwhelmed by the variety of choices but am looking at Iron Mountain, LiveVault, and SwapDrive. Does anyone have experience with these providers, or others like them? What do pricing structures look like in the 30 to 100 gig range? How easy do they make it to manage backups? Can you backup from more than one machine to the same account?"

newsdee asks: "An enormous controversy is going on at the X1000 forums over laptop parts. Some Centrino-based laptops bear a label advertising the Mobility Radeon 9200 brand, but users have found out that the laptop actually contains the 9000 chip. The list of affected machines is as follows: Compaq Presario X1000, HP Pavilion ZT3000 and the HP Compaq NX7000. ATI's and HP's response have been that the label is promising performance and not a specific chip. Yet users seem to not like this at all, apparently because most of them define 'brand' as equating to product. According to reviews, there are no differences (same scores, same clock speed) between the chips other than AGP 8x support, which the Centrino chipset does not provide. I seem to remember that this is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened in PC hardware. Can anybody share insights of whether this is right or wrong? Should I complain about my 9000 chip that delivers what the 9200 brand promises, knowing it has not been overclocked?"

scubacuda writes "Could casinos be the next Gillette or Wal-Mart? New Scientist and others report that casinos could soon start using RFID tags to spot counterfeits and thefts, and also to monitor the behaviour of gamblers. Embedded RFID tags should make the chips much harder to counterfeit, and placing tag readers at staff exits could cut down on theft by employees. (With companies like Infosys helping clients identify and plan pilot RFID projects, we'll no doubt be seeing more and more companies dabbling in this area. Those interested in reading objections to RFID use should check out the position paper issued by CASPIAN, EPIC, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Junkbusters, ACLU, Meyda Online, EFF, and PrivacyActivism.)"

Phosphor writes "A visitor to the Adobe Photoshop-for-Windows Forum (registration required to post, can log in as guest) has described a curious 'feature' with Photoshop 8 (also known as 'CS'). Seems this latest version of Adobe's flagship product has the built-in ability to detect that an image is of American currency. Something has been built into Photoshop's core coding that can detect something in images of currency and will prevent the user from opening the file. Apparently it will also do this with Euro notes; info on other currency is pending." According to other online reports, the latest version of Paint Shop Pro has similar restrictions, also known about since late last year.

billstewart writes "Transmeta announced their new 5900 and 5700 CPUs. They're 50% smaller than the 5800, intended for low-power, low-heat, high-speed applications, and contain an integrated Northbridge. They're sampling now, production in January 2004, and expect to have a mini-ITX board out in 1Q04. The core chip is a 128-bit VLIW hidden by x86 emulation (as opposed to their new Efficeon, which is 256-bit VLIW.) The difference between the 5900 and 5700 seems to be L2 cache size. There are several other stories on Google News."

billstewart writes "Transmeta announced their new 5900 and 5700 CPUs. They're 50% smaller than the 5800, intended for low-power, low-heat, high-speed applications, and contain an integrated Northbridge. They're sampling now, production in January 2004, and expect to have a mini-ITX board out in 1Q04. The core chip is a 128-bit VLIW hidden by x86 emulation (as opposed to their new Efficeon, which is 256-bit VLIW.) The difference between the 5900 and 5700 seems to be L2 cache size. There are several other stories on Google News."

Via_Patrino writes "According to Microsoft on january 16, MS Windows 98 and 98se will end Extended Support Phase, that means they'll became obsolete and assisted support will no longer be available from Microsoft, affecting about 27% of the internet users. That means even if 98 is working well for your needs (and especially computer specifications) and you want to pay for support (because that might cost less than switching hardware) you can't, because who will be able to patch eventual new bugs (security related or not) besides Microsoft? So if you're not planning a switch it might be your last opportunity to update MS Windows 98, after that some software might disappear from MS website (just like MSIE 5.5 for 95 did)."

ethanms writes "I'm pretty sure that I'm addicted to caffeine... I get nasty headaches if I skip coffee and soda for a day. If I go even longer, then the headaches get worse and I start to become (even more of) a pain in the ass to those around me. Within five or ten minutes of a cup of joe or can of Mountain Dew the headache is gone and I feel fine... There's plenty of advice out there for dealing with addiction, but I'm really interested in how other /. users have managed and controlled their own caffeine intake, especially considering how heavily it is pushed by many development / engineering communities. 'Just drink more' isn't really the answer I'm after either."

Shockmaster writes "Yahoo! has released their top searches of 2003. Google also has a year-end Zeitgeist wrap-up for popular search queries." Elsewhere, TheFairElf writes "The Miami Herald has Dave Barry's annual roundup of the year's main events titled 2003: A Dave Odyssey. The most significant events include the release of the fifth Harry Potter book 'Harry Potter Reaches Puberty and Starts Taking Really Long Showers' and the discovery of large quantities of sugar in Iraq which the CIA claimed 'is a leading cause of tooth decay'." Finally, wideangle writes "'Calling all metrosexuals: Get rid of that bling-bling - or at least find another word for it. In its annual compilation of language irritants, Lake Superior State University singled out 17 words and phrases that it says ought to be banned as overused, trite, euphemistic or just plain inaccurate." LOL, we wish everyone an Xtreme New Year from Slashdot, OMG.

Stanislav Shalunov writes "Jean-Luc Cooke posted a Usenet article describing a distributed webpage-based effort (Chinese Lottery) to find a collision in the MD5 function. All you need to do to participate in the effort is visit the URL that loads the code. The author comments: 'What is interesting about this approach - when we reach final release stage - is that any website that adds this small snippet of code to their pages will have their visitors working on the problem for the duration of their visit to the site'."

Chronic Infection writes "Google is beta testing a book search service called Google Print. Here is a list of books included to date." Quick spot checking turned up excerpts like this one for The DaVinci Code, a great book if you haven't read it.

Chronic Infection writes "Google is beta testing a book search service called Google Print. Here is a list of books included to date." Quick spot checking turned up excerpts like this one for The DaVinci Code, a great book if you haven't read it.

Chronic Infection writes "Google is beta testing a book search service called Google Print. Here is a list of books included to date." Quick spot checking turned up excerpts like this one for The DaVinci Code, a great book if you haven't read it.

daltonlp writes with the review below of John Gall's 1977 work Systemantics, writing "Most of the systems described by the author are societal or economic systems (governments, corporations, universities). Computer programs are mentioned, but they aren't the primary focus. But Systemantics doesn't distinguish between types of systems. In fact, its theories and arguments seem especially applicable to computer systems." (Read more below.) Systemantics author John Gall pages 111 publisher Quadrangle / The New York Times Book Company (1977) rating Insightful +5 reviewer Lloyd Dalton ISBN 0812906748 summary "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works." Years ago, I saw this quote and committed it to memory. I've finally had the pleasure of reading the book it comes from. I was amazed that Systemantics was written in 1977. It's far more relevant today than it was then, because more people write more software today.

That means theories like
Systems in general work poorly or not at all.

Some might question whether this is really true for computer systems built with modern technology. After all, for a computer to function, millions of microscopic parts must act in perfect synchronicity at superhuman speed.

But in reality, computers fail much more frequently than we notice. A large chunk of their innards are dedicated to failing gracefully. There's ecc in just about every piece of hardware. Without it, computer hardware would fail too often to be usable. Software is no different--it can fail sooner or later, gracefully or catastrophically, but it's going to fail. Overall, computers work poorly, but they work.

Complex systems usually operate in failure mode.

In other words, something's always broken at any point in time. The measure of a complex system's quality is how drastically a particular failure impacts the rest of the system.

Loose systems last longer and work better.

Most Slashdot readers probably read the above and think either "Hallelujah!" or "Duh." But it's a small example of something I liked a lot about Systemantics. Buried under several layers of satire and pessimism is a genuine desire to help the reader avoid the mistakes of past systems designers and managers. There's more to this book than just pessimism.

What's Bad: Systemantics suffers a little from being a quarter-century old. Several references to Watergate and a few other cultural nods may be a bit lost on anyone under 40.

But the book's only real flaw is the author's occasional condescending tone. Every dozen pages or so, Gall takes the opportunity to criticize a real-world example. Some of these anecdotes serve as supporting evidence for an argument. Others are genuinely entertaining (the section on Job Goals and and Objectives is outstanding). But the author sometimes tries too hard to be satirical, and comes across as flat or patronizing, or departs on tangents unrelated to the book's central ideas.

Summary: Despite small imperfections, there's a wealth of real knowledge in this small volume. The author helpfully outlines the main points at the book's end (some of which I've bulleted above). The book's overall message couldn't be more clear if it summarized itself. Which it nicely does:

It is hardly necessary to state that the very first principle of Systems design is a negative one: Do it without a system if you can.

Systems are seductive. They promise to do a hard job faster, better, and more easily than you could do it by yourself. But if you set up a system, you are likely to find your time and effort now being consumed in the care and feeding of the system itself.

• New problems are created by its very presence.
• Once set up, it won't go away, it grows and encroaches.
• It begins to do strange and wonderful things.
• It breaks down in ways you never thought possible.
• It kicks back, gets in the way, and opposes its own proper function.
• Your own perspective becomes distorted by being in the system.
• You become anxious and push on it to make it work.

Eventually you come to believe that the misbegotten product it so grudgingly delivers is what you really wanted all the time. You are now a Systems-person.

You can find used copies of Systemantics from bn.com and other online sources, though good-condition copies fetch high prices. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Kethinov asks: "Following up on the question asked in this story, I have a similar problem as he did except my late night coding (typing) sessions, not my clicking, seem to generating excess noise for the people I'm living with. I, as he did, checked out this possible solution, but to be honest, I can't type on anything but a standard-layout keyboard. Now, I too can search Google, but just looking at a possible solution doesn't help much. Does anyone on Slashdot have experience in this matter, from which I could better narrow my choices?"

Kethinov asks: "Following up on the question asked in this story, I have a similar problem as he did except my late night coding (typing) sessions, not my clicking, seem to generating excess noise for the people I'm living with. I, as he did, checked out this possible solution, but to be honest, I can't type on anything but a standard-layout keyboard. Now, I too can search Google, but just looking at a possible solution doesn't help much. Does anyone on Slashdot have experience in this matter, from which I could better narrow my choices?"

An anonymous reader writes "On the occasion of this year's Chaos Communication Congress some hackers of the German CCC have set up another Blinkenlights installation in Berlin (they use the glass facade of a house as a giant computer screen). It is on the same house as from September 2001 till February 2002 but with similar capabilities to the installation in Paris in September/October 2002. Heise has a story about this (German, here's the Google translation), but actually there's better information on the project website itself."

scottfi writes "The shopping season is just about over and I'm always on the lookout for the cool geek gadget to get friends and family (or myself). What cool items are on your list this year or you have wrapped up for others? There are a ton of gift guides online, but I always like to see what the slashdot crowd would like under their tree." I recommend the Harmony Remote, an iPod, and of course a Slashdot Subscription ;)

Thanks to GameSpy for their interview with the creators of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, as the long-in-development survival horror PC FPS, based on the Chaosium RPG, in turn based on HP Lovecraft's 'weird fiction' writings, discusses its setting ("The majority of the action takes place in the sea port of Innsmouth, the setting for the famous Lovecraft story 'The Shadow over Innsmouth'"), and uniquely Lovecraftian gameplay traits: ("The concept of Jack's mental health and its slow degradation is one of the core concepts in Dark Corners of the Earth. This loss in sanity will risk the development of specific mental conditions; these include shaking, blurred vision, hallucinations, dizziness, and panic.") As for its previous videogame heritage, Lovecraftian influences seem particularly noticeable in id's Quake series - but if in doubt, you can always Cthuugle for it.

An anonymous reader writes "The topic of pigeons and modern technology has come up a number of times now. For instance, we have the Google pigeon rank method, and there have been several April fools hoaxes like this previous story and RFC 2549. Now the Waikato Times is reporting in this story about how pigeons are being used to transfer large amounts of data in a short amount of time. The pigeons have proven to be faster and more relieable than electronic means. However, as you will see from the story there is still the occasional packet loss. This is definitely a case of high bandwidth wireless networking."