Slashdot Mirror

John F.X. Sundman is the author of Acts of the Apostles , an independently published, computer science, science fiction-attach-whatever-label-you-want-but-it's-good book, which we've reviewed on Slashdot before. Recently, he's taken his other work Cheap Complex Devices, updated, edited, and put together a package with Acts, available in PDF and dead tree version. I had the pleasure of reading both of them again -- read more to see my thoughts.Update: 09/09 16:11 GMT by T : Oops -- that should have read (as it now does) "Cheap Complex Devices" rather than "Cheap Computing Devices." That is all. Acts of the Apostles/Cheap Complex Devices author John F.X. Sundman pages 400 publisher Rosalita Associates rating 9 reviewer Hemos ISBN (see website for each) summary Two Sundman books combined for even greater power.

First of all, I'm not going to be doing another review of Acts, as I've already done that once. It is worth noting, however, that this is the first time both CCD and Acts have been brought together in an omnibus edition. I've got two different copies of Acts, but greatly enjoyed reading the two together again. Why? Because they fit together like two sides of the same coin -- or better yet, like Walther Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Cheap Complex Devices's backdrop is that of being (supposedly) machine-written. (The foreword and descriptors of the book itself are greatly entertaining. It's that kind of writing that flows over into Acts.) While the scene may (or may not) have not even the slightest passing resemblance to reality, it's still something that grips your mind. You believe that the "Hofstader Prize for Machine Written Narration" could exist, and that the Society for Analytical Engines sounds pretty reasonable. Heck, it sounds at least as reasonable as the ACM.

BTW, if you can't be bothered to read Acts of the Apostles, take my advice and do it. I believe my standing quote on the book is that it's what Tom Clancy would write if he wasn't dumb. Essentially, it's a great techno-thriller, except the technology is something that a geek would appreciate -- but it's also written well enough that non-geeks will enjoy it. The hero of that book makes an apperance in CCD as one of the heroes in one of the automata written texts.

The actual text of the stories in CCD are just as amusing as the commentary about them, although oddly enough I think I actually like the commentary more then the stories. "Bees" is a commentary on what it means to be human, albiet with a peculiar focus on Gatorade. And the Bonehead Computer - well, just doing a little Googling for it.

I'm not sure what else to say about these books, other then read 'em. If you liked Naked Lunch, or any sort of thrillers, or thought GEB was an amazing work, or just like to read, these books will thrill ya.

To get them, John has a website to purchase CCD. He takes Paypal or checks in the mail. You can buy them in PDF or have dead tree versions sent, or both. Whatever -- you do what want. One caveat though: "Final 'truth in advertising' note: the version of CCD on my website is 87.9842% the same as the final book form (the book is better). I'll reconcile them soon. " (note from John)

Enjoy.

Hiawatha writes "Years after losing its grip on the consumer VCR market, Sony has announced that it will discontinue the Betamax format. "With digital machines and other new recording formats taking hold in the market, demand has continued to decline and it has become difficult to secure parts," Sony said in a statement." Finally. Although this is the prototypical example of good technology outdone by better marketing, it's an example of a company being stupidly obstinate about wanting to own a system, and shooting themselves in the foot. Update: 08/27 17:52 GMT by H : Yes, they were successful in broadcast, and to some degree overseas - but the commercial success was still severely limited to, say, VHS.

10,9,8,7... Count Down Aborted writes "The BBC brings some perspective to the manned mission to Mars debate recently reinvigorated by the discovery of vast H2O ice reserves on Mars. Basically, they list many of the reasons (e.g. psychological, political, monetary, and technological) why we must proceed very carefully and slowly despite the significance of such a mission if it were successful. They also raised the interesting question, "Who should be the members of such a crew if it were to be launched?"" Update: 05/28 14:28 GMT by H : Another good link is on USA Today.

I found an article (Yes, the article is now 404) in the CNN Space section this morning, talking about a recent report at a UN Conference on space. The author of the reporter alleges that programs like Star Wars and the like would basically turn LEO ^? into a "wasteland" for satellites for decades or even centuries. And the wonderful part is that NASA's Off ice for Orbital Debris will close in October, due to budget cuts, despite 10s of thousands of already existing debris. Yah. Have fun with space tourism!Update: 04/23 19:14 GMT by H : It appears that the CNN article was pulled - I can't seem to find it - but Space.com had another report on the subject. And Space.com has also the updated story that CNN was linking to - and the update may be why it was pulled, because it appears that the Office for Space Debris may have some salvation yet.

dextr0us writes "The apocalypse has come. Neverwinter Nights beat Duke Nukem Forever to the release floor. According to Neverwinter Nights Official Site it seems that they are taking pre orders, and the official date for the pre orders is 6/25/02. As a fan of pen-n-paper, without the geekiness, Neverwinter Nights solves my dilemma!" Update: 03/25 12:38 GMT by Hemos :Just a small note: I'm still available for beta-testing. *grin* CT: Hemos is not available for beta-testing. He has work to do first ;)

Robo writes: "Slashdot was lucky enough to get a beta copy of Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. So, CmdrTaco and Hemos locked me up inside a closet and forced me to play for the last week. The beta of Warcraft III is impressive, to say the least. Blizzard is going to outdo themselves again when Warcraft III hits the selves in June 2002. Read on for my review."

Warcraft III runs on Windows 95/98/2000/NT and Mac OS. My setup was easy as pie, which was surprising since I run WinXP. And, on a side note, I was running it on a LCD screen and had no problem. Blizzard has an effective video setup that allows you to customize the game to match your hardware by changing the resolution, model detail, animation quality, texture quality, particles, and lights. This is especially helpful if you're running on an older machine and still want your game to run fast. The sound setup even allows you to have Dolby Surround!

I'm always disappointed that Blizzard's betas only let you play multiplayer, but that's life. In multiplayer mode, I found my abilities only let me get about 30 minutes into the game before I was demolished by the hard-core players. Maybe it was me, but Warcraft III seemed to have a faster pace than the previous two releases. The pace is a double-edged sword, because some players like their video games to be fast paced while others like to take their time. I think Warcraft II is somewhere in between Urban Terror and Civilization III. So, until I can take it low and play in a single player campaign mode, I'm counting the days until Blizzard releases Warcraft III 1.0.

Most important, if you're looking forward to the game, be assured: the gameplay is cool. This time you have a choice between four races: Human, Undead, Orc, or Dark Elf. Your race really doesn't matter in multiplayer mode; winning basically comes down to building everything up quickly and creating a massive army with which to crush your opponents. Or in my case, getting crushed.

This is where one of my favorite features comes into play. When enemies are attacking you (or your allies), the map flashes, letting you know that there is a throwdown and you should send in backup. Features I'm looking forward to in the upcoming release include: LAN games (five laptops, five six-packs, you know the drill), the single-player campaign, map editors, and polished cinematics. I realize that cinematics may not really be a game feature, but I can down a tub of popcorn when I'm watching Blizzard's cinematics, they're just that cool.

Warcraft III gives new meaning to strategy RPGs. If you like to play pure strategy games where your only goal is to be the last one standing, this game is for you. If you like games where you can take a character, build him up, and watch the character grow over the life of the game, this game is for you. Warcraft III is a successful cross between the two genres. You can build your basic Orc Grunts and go fight the enemy, but you can also build Heroes. Each class has different Heroes with which you can gain experience, attain new levels, and learn new skills. Warcraft III even lets you carry around an inventory!

I think the biggest improvement that Warcraft III has over its predecessors is Blizzard's ever more impressive graphics. With a decent video card, the graphics are crisp and clear. Nowadays, 3D is the name of the game, and Blizzard again comes a step closer to reality with this strategy role-playing game.

For some time now we have been developing a unique subscription system that we hope will make our users and advertisers happy. Please hit the link below to read an explanation about how the system works, and why it works that way. Also you will learn what a subscription will give you, and what our future plans are for it.Update: 03/01 16:38 GMT by Hemos : A lot of people are asking about the only Paypal option. In answer to everyone: Yes, we are aware of the problems with PayPal.. And, yes, we're currently working on other solutions - read the full copy below, as Rob already states that.

To understand why the system works like it does, you need to first understand that Slashdot is about to start accepting new ad formats. The large ads that you see on many other sites are coming here. We really don't have an option: these are what advertisers want, and if we don't provide them, we won't be around much longer. But we want to give you an option to see Slashdot without these ads. Second, you need to understand that Slashdot readers fall into a variety of types, and charging the same flat fee just isn't possible.

Slashdot subscriptions will essentially let you buy a thousand pages to be viewed without banner ads. And you will have some flexibility to decide what types of pages (Comments, Articles, The Homepage) you want ads removed from, and what types of pages you just want to see the ads.

The rates are currently set at $5 per 1000 pages. To put this into perspective, $20 (typical magazine subscription) will be enough pages for 82% of our readers to view Slashdot without ads for a year. Another 15% will need to spend $5 a month to accomplish the same thing. 3% of our readers would need to spend more than $5 a month- but they could choose to see ads on comments and in almost every case, still pay around $5 a month. (As an aside, it's also worth noting that more than half of all comment posters fall into this 3%)

We realize that this system is more complex, but Slashdot has a third of a million readers per day with different reading habits, and this is the best way to accomodate everyone fairly.

Currently we only accept payment via paypal. It was simply easy and fast. We intend to offer other options as time permits and readers request.

Eventually we intend to offer additional features to subscribers. Exactly what those plums are remains to be decided: Access to the rejected submissions bin? A 'Gold Star' in your comments header? Karma? (I think that would be hilarious) We really don't know. We'll decide and implement what makes sense as we have time to do it.

We are doing our best to learn from the mistakes made by other sites that have started charging for subscriptions. We won't create subscriber only features that cost more to maintain than they generate. But we do need support from you if we are to continue. So anyway, here's that link again if you forgot it ;)

mr lee writes "Today CodeWeavers released CrossOver plugin 1.1 which now supports Windows Media Player 6.4 under Linux. As much I would not like to see or support sites that use Windows Media shite, its still really nice to have this option. Not too mention kick ass QuickTime playing." Update: 02/27 18:30 GMT by H : I've actually been using this - it's done really really well. I'm planning on doing a fuller review soon, but it's very well done.

Mr.Intel writes: "CNN released a story reviewing LinuxWorld and Linux's progress since last year. They mention new hardware and market niches coming to light in 2001. Mike Balma, a Linux strategist at HP, said 'The move to an increased array of outsourcing, migration and porting services that have been traditionally available to Unix customers is part of the continued rollout of the operating system within HP's product line. Previously, HP had informally offered such integral service and support only to its best Linux customers. But as the operating system gains momentum, more customers are seeking more services.' I hope this means as installed customer base increases, companies like RedHat will start making real money." Archie Steel writes "Interesting news for the Linux Desktop: Open For Business have an article on the partnership by HP and MandrakeSoft announced at the current Linux World Expo." Update: 01/30 16:56 GMT by H : Just a quick note: Rob is gonna be in the Golden Penguin Bowl, while I'm going to be doing a presentation with the Boston Consulting Group about the demographics of open source developers - if you are interested, it's tomorrow (Thursday) from 4:00 - 5:15.

Jordon Hubbard writes: "The latest release in the FreeBSD 4.X branch has been released after an extensive release engineering process. Important bugfixes for the TCP stack and NFS are included in this release. You can view the release notes and find a mirror here." Update: 01/24 21:42 GMT by Hemos :Fake submissions, not really released. Yah. Comedic value provided for the day.

bugbear writes "I just got permission from the author (Carl de Marcken of ITA Software) to publish this email, which describes the inner workings of Sabre, the flight search software that the airlines and travel agencies use. It is a case study in cheap Linux/Intel, NT/Intel and Hpux boxes replacing mainframes, and also the use of lisp and other languages in a server-based app. Update: 01/16 13:45 GMT by H :RawDigits writes "Common Lisp: Inside Sabre - correction. The Lisp engine is used by Orbitz, and not Sabre. Sabre still maintains mainframe systems for their booking. I should know, I am sitting in the Orbitz NOC right now ;)"

This note came in from Director Totsuka to the press and other scientists. Hemos and I felt it deserved more than just a regular SlashBack reference, as we feel that this is an important project. (I belive this comes form a translation from japanese, so forgive the errors) this is an update to the original post on the Super-K malfunction.

As a director of the Kamioka Observatory, which owns and is responsible to operate and maintain the Super-Kamiokande detector, it is really sad that I have to announce the severe accident that occurred on November 12 and damaged the significant part of the detector. The cause and how to deal with the lo ss in future will be discussed by newly found committees. However, even before discussing with my colleagues of the Super-K and K2K collaborations, I have decided to express my intension on behalf of the staff of the Kamioka Observatory.

We will rebuild the detector. There is no question. The strategy may be the following two steps, which will be proposed and discussed by my colleagues.

• 1. Quick restart of the K2K experiment.
  • (1) We will clear the safety measures which may be suggested by the committees.
  • (2) reduce the number density of the photomultiplier tubes by about a half.
  • (3) use the existing resources.
  • (4) resume the K2K experiment as soon as possible; the goal may be within one year.
  2. Preparation for the JHF-Kamioka experiment.
  • (1) Restore the full Super-Kamiokande detector armed with the state-of-the-art techniques.
  • (2) The detector will be ready by the time of the commissioning of the JHF machine.

To achieve our objective is formidable but we are determined to do so. But we certainly need your encouragement, advice and help. I should appreciate it very much if you could support our effort as you have kindly done so before.

Best regards,
Yoji Totsuka
director, Kamioka Observatory
On behalf of the Kamioka Observatory staff

Sarcasmo writes: "Hillary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA ^? , spoke at length (PDF of Speech) yesterday, during the 'O'Reilly Peer to Peer and Web Services conference'. " Update: 11/08 02:15 GMT by H : Yeah, I removed the Rosen text. Sorry.

twistedfuck writes: "An Irish Time article reports that the size of the hole in the antartican ozone layer is levelling off and should begin reducing in size. It seems like it should be welcome news but it is tempered by the fact that more UV radiation will reach the southern hemisphere this year because the hole will persist longer. Unfortunately I can not find any details regarding the NOAA report on their website." Update: 11/06 17:31 GMT by H :Thanks to Isaac Lewis, NOAA Sysadmin and Slashdot reader, for pointing out more information, as well as pointing out the ozonelayer site.

A reader writes "Not too long ago, Tom's Hardware posted a video of the grisly events that take place when the heatsink is removed on an AMD Athlon MP 1.2GHz in an attempt to show that the chip has inadequate thermal protection unlike the Pentium 4. Apparently, this is not the case. This new video, which looks like was done by AMD, shows the system continuing to work when the heatsink is removed. Even 9 minutes of Quake3 without the fan operating wasn't enough to destroy the processor. So who is right? It's in AMD's best interest to show that their product doesn't disintigrate under extreme conditions. " Update: 10/30 14:11 GMT by H : Note that it was Terry 'quad3d' Wang that actually did the video - not AMDZone.

bkuhn writes "The FSF has issued an official statement on the GPL violation by RTLinux." nothign surprising here, basically they say that RTLinux is violating the GPL by not releasing the source to their Linux kernel mods, but since the FSF isn't the copyright holder, they can't do much about it. Now it's up to RTLinux to decide if they are gonna do the right thing or not.Update: 09/16 00:48 AM GMT by H : Please check out these comments for more information - it's not a source code violation, but a patent issue.

I'm trying to get stuff together, and post an update: The Pentagon, which evidently has partly collapsed with a chasm 200-300 feet across, and fires on six stories, has ordered the USS JFK and George Washington into NYC. PLEASE GIVE BLOOD. Over 200 firemen are reported missing, and reports of 50,000 dead in the WTC collapse are being bandied about. Dick Cheney has assumed control of the White House, and is in the situation room there. GWB is not returning to the White House until things have calmed down -- and has gone evidently to an undisclosed location. The [CDC] in Atlanta has largely evacuated but has activated their bioterrorism units. American Airlines flight 11, the first to crash into the WTC, was going from BOS -> LAX. There are rumors of Akamai's founder being onboard on Flight 11, As well, the rumor is that the pilot of United Flight 193 flew it in into the ground, outside Pittsburgh, rather then fly into the USX building, which if true, makes him a better person then I -- but there are also rumors that it was shot down by a F-16. United Flight 175 also crashed into the WTC, according to Boston.com, and originated from Boston -- so the WTC was both Boston flights. Reports of a car bomb that was supposed to have gone off int front the State Department have been denied. In a statement, the Taliban government of Afghanistan has denied any involvement, and Yassar Arafat has denounced the attack. Remember: No one knows who did this yet, so don't make any assumptions -- remember what people first thought about the OKC attack. In other news, the US - Mexico/Canada borders are being heavily screened; all air traffic has been grounded; nationwide federal buildings are being evacuated; NATO personnel in Brussells have been sent home, Israeli embassies worldwide have been evacuated, all U.S. Disney parks shut down; major parts of European cities, Britain in particular, are being shut down; stock trading is shut down in all major European and American exchanges. There are 50 flights still in the air, with 2 international flights that have yet to respond. F16s from the US Air Force has been instructed to shoot down flights in a no fly zone over NYC & DC - an AVI of the WTC plane or mpeg here. More as we know.Update: 09/11 18:10 PM GMT by H :I've heard on NPR that all flights and planes are now accounted for -- but that a fifth crash has occurred in an undisclosed location. As well, a car bomb did go off in front of the State Department, and there was a crash near Camp David. There's a well done timeline - we also had a report from someone who lives 3 miles away from the PA crash. Evidently the plane veered several times, and then smashed into an abandoned strip mine - which was luckily not near any people or anything.

Da Schmiz writes: "Security firm Qualys discovered a new Linux trojan on Saturday ... details can be found on their website.. Vnunet picked up the story earlier today, and then followed up with more details. They're comparing the potential impact to Code Red or worse, since more servers run Linux / Apache than NT / IIS. I don't think it's that bad, since the infection can be easily detected, but it certainly isn't good." Update: 09/08 11:58 AM GMT by H : Of course, as Kurt Siefried pointed out in e-mail: "The trojan has nothing to do with Apache. The virus attaches itself to an executable, which you must run to infect other binaries (i.e. you must run this as root). This means that infection vectors include, but are not limited to email attachments, but you must of course save the binary, then set it executable, and then run it, as root, to do any real damage. Alternatively you must download binary software and run it (again as root to do any real damage). In other words someone must run binaries of unknown origin as root, and if this is common practice then you have larger policy and education problems to deal with." So - comparing it to Code Red is a bit dubious.

SilentTone writes: "PCWorld is reporting that USB 2.0 or high speed USB will be hitting Linux first half 2002. Intel is already providing space on its Pentium 4 motherboard for the USB 2.0 controller. With a transfer rate of 480Mbps (more than firewire's 400Mbps) it seems promising." Update: 09/04 23:02 PM GMT by H : So, somewhere between my preview and going live, I seem to have "lost" the link - if you find it, please post below. I'm looking - in the meantime, this is a good Linux and USB tutorial, and Blue Cat Linux is supporting USB 2.0. HA! Found it - story updated.

A reader writes: "Berlin ^? testing packages for Debian are available from the Debian website and should soon be moved to unstable, according to their the Berlin consortium website." The Berlin website (which looks great, IMHO) has an excellent architecture FAQ - the Berlin vs. X is very well done.Update: 09/01 12:41 PM GMT by H : A number of people have e-mailed me about some....wonkiness...if you view the Berlin vs X page using Internet Explorer. I'd advise using something else.

Gambit Thirty-Two writes "Old news, but Sendmail has ported their MTA to Linux390." And in other news: sitz writes "It would appear as though some madman has port apache to WinCE <Insert witty beowulf comment here>. It's only been tested on a couple of platforms (including the Jornada 720, and is 'based on the WinNT port, with lots of dirty modifications'. That's still pretty swanky. I've also set up a mirror of this site, which will be up for a couple of weeks." Update: 08/27 15:19 PM GMT by H : Yes, the Sendmail story is a dupe - somebody didn't read my story before posting his. *grin*

There's been a lot of rumours swirling around an imminent buyout of Be's IP given their current cash situation. But I wouldn't have thought of Palm as a potential suitor - but a story in the subscription only area of today's WSJ indicates it to be true. Hopefully a non-pay service will get the story soon - but looks like Palm is trying to beef up its software side, and wants to get some Be's engineers.Update: 08/16 02:16 PM by H :Looks like C|Net has the details - 11 million USD in Palm stock for the purchase of Be.

Hiro_Later writes "Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked state prosecutors to seek an injunction blocking the launch of Windows XP. His reasoning? "Without 'significant changes,' new technologies might never get the opportunity to compete." Microsoft of course disagrees arguing instead that XP will bring more choices and content to consumers not less. What I find interesting is Schumer was formerly a skeptic of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft, perhaps he has seen the light. Judge for yourselves here." Update: 07/25 01:41 AM by H :So, based on the e-mail I've been getting, evidently people have forgotten that what submittors type is in italics. Like this. Notice how when I type here that is in normal type - if you've got other questions, please check out the FAQ. There's lots of fun information in there. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

A number of people have sent in the e-mail that just crossed the free-sklyarov mailing list, that essentially states that the EFF and Adobe will have a meeting July 23rd. They are putting planned protest on hold. Click below for more information.Update: 07/20 11:25 PM by H : Thanks to all the folks who e-mailed me; the EFF is asking for the protests to be put on hold, but from what I've seen in my inbox, the protests are still being planned. To reinforce this: The EFF is asking to hold off on the protests, but planners are still moving ahead with this.

h-=-

Congratulations folks!

The pressure we all have put on Adobe has resulted in an agreement to meet with representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this Monday morning, July 23.

For that reason, EFF has decided to:

PUT THE JULY 23 PROTEST ON HOLD

Please help us act in good faith and postpone the protest until we have a chance to negotiate with Adobe.

Of course, we can always rekindle the protest if Adobe does not agree to withdraw their complaint to the US Department of Justice regarding Dmitry Sklyarov and to refuse to pursue further prosecutions under the DMCA for cases that should be prevented under fair use provisions of US copyright law.

And also, if the US Attorney's office insists on prosecuting Dmitry without a current complaint from Adobe, then we will continue protests directed at them rather than at Adobe.

If you still feel that you have to protest on Monday, you are of course free to do so. However, it may be a more effective use of our collective energies to act in a coordinated way to get Dmitry out of jail.

I am writing a media release to this effect as soon as I sent this email to you... wanted you all to know first.

Free Dmitry,

Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org

EnnaH writes "An article on the Times web-site stated that the popular energy drink Red Bull is under investigation in Sweden, after three people died shortly after consuming the drink. I thought that this may interest the Slashdot community, as I'm sure many of us drink a lot of these hyper-caffinated products and Red Bull is available on the ThinkGeek site." From the article itself, it appears that the problem isn't so much the Red Bull as people overdrinking with it and such. Ah, the wonders of nanny states.Update: 07/14 11:36 PM by H :So, for those of you who didn't pick it out - my comment about nanny states isn't one about Sweden - it's about system that try too hard to protect people from themselves. By all accounts, Sweden's a very nice place. *grin*

erroneus writes "There's been a lot of talk about pager spamming. I've got to hand it to the spammers. Their combination of low conscience and creativity makes them the continual annoyances they are today. But many people are charged for each page they recieve. " Update: 07/10 06:22 PM by H : I apologize to the people who were mislead about by the summary - I had assumed that it read one way, and did not. Here's a summary from nategasser: "...when in fact they're sending regular email offering an off-brand pager and calling it a Motorola."

It just so happened that both Nate and Hemos were back in town, and the result was yet another show. We talk about TiVo, Napster, and CmdrTaco and Hemos' recent trip to Japan.

The subject pretty much says it. You can read the announcement over at Yahoo, but the short and long of it is that VA, the company that owns OSDN which owns Slashdot, Freshmeat, and assorted other Linux web sites, has announced that it is leaving the Hardware Business to focus on SourceForge OnSite, OSDN, and Linux development and consulting. Slashdot should be unaffected.Update: 06/27 08:43 PM by H :It's also relevant to point out this statement from Richard French, the General Manager of OSDN, which is a message to the Community.

yaba was one of many who noted that Intel is apparently buying alpha from compaq. They also plan to move to their servers to Itanium. There will be at least one more generation of the Alpha chips, but you can imagine how much that'll matter. I still like alpha chips. Behold! Consolidation!Update: 06/25 02:19 PM by H :Check out my recent story about this as well.

xpccx writes: "There's an article over at CNN about the possibility that early man hunted large animals ( like mammoths ) into extinction. "New work by American and Australian researchers is adding weight to the theory, while undercutting the notion that climate change and not human influence was the cause."" Update: 06/14 03:32 PM by H : This is touched on in Guns, Germs and Steel, which I highly recommend. This has been the going theory with many (most?) historians as to why the megafauna in Australia, the Americas all disappeared within a couple thousand years of the appearance of humans. Considering they had survived countless millenia before our arrival, I'm inclined to think that the two events might just kinda be linked.

Dare Obasanjo contributed this piece about a subject that probably only a very few people have ever taken the time to consider, or had to. Below he asks the musical question "Why aren't you using an Object Oriented Database Management System?"Update: 05/04 02:11 PM by H :This is also running on K5 - yes, that's on purpose, and yes, Dare, myself and Rusty all know. *grin*

Why Aren't You Using An Object Oriented Database Management System?

In today's world, Client-Server applications that rely on a database on the server as a data store while servicing requests from multiple clients are quite commonplace. Most of these applications use a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) as their data store while using an object oriented programming language for development. This causes a certain inefficency as objects must be mapped to tuples in the database and vice versa instead of the data being stored in a way that is consistent with the programming model. The "impedance mismatch" caused by having to map objects to tables and vice versa has long been accepted as a necessary performance penalty. This paper is aimed at seeking out an alternative that avoids this penalty.

What follows is a condensed version of the following paper; An Exploration of Object Oriented Database Management Systems, which I wrote as part of my independent study project under Dr. Sham Navathe.

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to provide answers to the following questions

• What is an Object Oriented Database Management System (OODBMS)?
• Is an OODBMS a viable alternative to an RDBMS?
• What are the tradeoffs and benefits of using an OODBMS over an RDBMS?
• What does code that interacts with an OODBMS look like?

Overview of Object Oriented Database Management Systems

An OODBMS is the result of combining object oriented programming principles with database management principles. Object oriented programming concepts such as encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance are enforced as well as database management concepts such as the ACID properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) which lead to system integrity, support for an ad hoc query language and secondary storage management systems which allow for managing very large amounts of data. The Object Oriented Database Manifesto [Atk 89] specifically lists the following features as mandatory for a system to support before it can be called an OODBMS; Complex objects, Object identity, Encapsulation , Types and Classes ,Class or Type Hierarchies, Overriding,overloading and late binding, Computational completeness , Extensibility, Persistence , Secondary storage management, Concurrency, Recovery and an Ad Hoc Query Facility.

>From the aforementioned description, an OODBMS should be able to store objects that are nearly indistinguishable from the kind of objects supported by the target programming language with as little limitation as possible. Persistent objects should belong to a class and can have one or more atomic types or other objects as attributes. The normal rules of inheritance should apply with all their benefits including polymorphism, overridding inherited methods and dynamic binding. Each object has an object identifier (OID) which used as a way of uniquely identifying a particuler object. OIDs are permanent, system generated and not based on any of the member data within the object. OIDs make storing references to other objects in the database simpler but may cause referential intergrity problems if an object is deleted while other objects still have references to its OID. An OODBMS is thus a full scale object oriented development environment as well as a database management system. Features that are common in the RDBMS world such as transactions, the ability to handle large amounts of data, indexes, deadlock detection, backup and restoration features and data recovery mechanisms also exist in the OODBMS world.

A primary feature of an OODBMS is that accessing objects in the database is done in a transparent manner such that interaction with persistent objects is no different from interacting with in-memory objects. This is very different from using an RDBMSs in that there is no need to interact via a query sub-language like SQL nor is there a reason to use a Call Level Interface such as ODBC, ADO or JDBC. Database operations typically involve obtaining a database root from the the OODBMS which is usually a data structure like a graph, vector, hash table, or set and traversing it to obtain objects to create, update or delete from the database. When a client requests an object from the database, the object is transferred from the database into the application's cache where it can be used either as a transient value that is disconnected from its representation in the database (updates to the cached object do not affect the object in the database) or it can be used as a mirror of the version in the database in that updates to the object are reflected in the database and changes to object in the database require that the object is refetched from the OODBMS.

Comparisons of OODBMSs to RDBMSs

There are concepts in the relational database model that are similar to those in the object database model. A relation or table in a relational database can be considered to be analogous to a class in an object database. A tuple is similar to an instance of a class but is different in that it has attributes but no behaviors. A column in a tuple is similar to a class attribute except that a column can hold only primitive data types while a class attribute can hold data of any type. Finally classes have methods which are computationally complete (meaning that general purpose control and computational structures are provided [McF 99]) while relational databases typically do not have computationally complete programming capabilities although some stored procedure languages come close.

Below is a list of advantages and disadvantages of using an OODBMS over an RDBMS with an object oriented programming language.

Advantages

1. Composite Objects and Relationships: Objects in an OODBMS can store an arbitrary number of atomic types as well as other objects. It is thus possible to have a large class which holds many medium sized classes which themselves hold many smaller classes, ad infinitum. In a relational database this has to be done either by having one huge table with lots of null fields or via a number of smaller, normalized tables which are linked via foreign keys. Having lots of smaller tables is still a problem since a join has to be performed every time one wants to query data based on the "Has-a" relationship between the entities. Also an object is a better model of the real world entity than the relational tuples with regards to complex objects. The fact that an OODBMS is better suited to handling complex,interrelated data than an RDBMS means that an OODBMS can outperform an RDBMS by ten to a thousand times depending on the complexity of the data being handled.
   
   
2. Class Hierarchy: Data in the real world is usually has hierarchical characteristics. The ever popular Employee example used in most RDBMS texts is easier to describe in an OODBMS than in an RDBMS. An Employee can be a Manager or not, this is usually done in an RDBMS by having a type identifier field or creating another table which uses foreign keys to indicate the relationship between Managers and Employees. In an OODBMS, the Employee class is simply a parent class of the Manager class.
   
   
3. Circumventing the Need for a Query Language: A query language is not necessary for accessing data from an OODBMS unlike an RDBMS since interaction with the database is done by transparently accessing objects. It is still possible to use queries in an OODBMS however.
   
   
4. No Impedence Mismatch: In a typical application that uses an object oriented programming language and an RDBMS, a signifcant amount of time is usually spent mapping tables to objects and back. There are also various problems that can occur when the atomic types in the database do not map cleanly to the atomic types in the programming language and vice versa. This "impedance mismatch" is completely avoided when using an OODBMS.
   
   
5. No Primary Keys: The user of an RDBMS has to worry about uniquely identifying tuples by their values and making sure that no two tuples have the same primary key values to avoid error conditions. In an OODBMS, the unique identification of objects is done behind the scenes via OIDs and is completely invisible to the user. Thus there is no limitation on the values that can be stored in an object.
   
   
6. One Data Model: A data model typically should model entities and their relationships, constraints and operations that change the states of the data in the system. With an RDBMS it is not possible to model the dynamic operations or rules that change the state of the data in the system because this is beyond the scope of the database. Thus applications that use RDBMS systems usually have an Entity Relationship diagram to model the static parts of the system and a seperate model for the operations and behaviors of entities in the application. With an OODBMS there is no disconnect between the database model and the application model because the entities are just other objects in the system. An entire application can thus be comprehensively modelled in one UML diagram.
   
   

Disadvantages

1. Schema Changes: In an RDBMS modifying the database schema either by creating, updating or deleting tables is typically independent of the actual application. In an OODBMS based application modifying the schema by creating, updating or modifying a persistent class typically means that changes have to be made to the other classes in the application that interact with instances of that class. This typically means that all schema changes in an OODBMS will involve a system wide recompile. Also updating all the instance objects within the database can take an extended period of time depending on the size of the database.
   
   

Who is currently using an OODBMS to handle mission critical data

The following information was gleaned from the ODBMS Facts website.

• The Chicago Stock Exchange manages stock trades via a Versant ODBMS.
  
  
• Radio Computing Services is the world's largest radio software company. Its product, Selector, automates the needs of the entire radio station -- from the music library, to the newsroom, to the sales department. RCS uses the POET ODBMS because it enabled RCS to integrate and organize various elements, regardless of data types, in a single program environment.
  
  
• The Objectivity/DB ODBMS is used as a data repository for system component naming, satellite mission planning data, and orbital management data deployed by Motorola in The Iridium System.
  
  
• The ObjectStore ODBMS is used in SouthWest Airline's Home Gate to provide self-service to travelers through the Internet.
  
  
• Ajou University Medical Center in South Korea uses InterSystems' Cachè ODBMS to support all hospital functions including mission-critical departments such as pathology, laboratory, blood bank, pharmacy, and X-ray.
  
  
• The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland uses an Objectivity DB. The database is currently being tested in the hundreds of terabytes at data rates up to 35 MB/second.
  
  
• As of November, 2000, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) stored 169 terabytes of production data using Objectivity/DB. The production data is distributed across several hundred processing nodes and over 30 on-line servers.

Interacting With An OODBMS

Below are Java code samples for accessing a relational database and accessing an object database. Compare the size of the code in both examples. The examples are for an instant messaging application.

1. Validating a user.
   
   Java code accessing an ObjectStore(TM) database
   
import COM.odi.*;
import COM.odi.util.query.*;
import COM.odi.util.*;
import java.util.*;

try {

//start database session
Session session = Session.create(null, null);
session.join();

//open database and start transaction
Database db = Database.open("IMdatabase", ObjectStore.UPDATE);
Transaction tr = Transaction.begin(ObjectStore.READONLY);

//get hashtable of user objects from DB
OSHashMap users = (OSHashMap) db.getRoot("IMusers");

//get password and username from user
String username = getUserNameFromUser();
String passwd = getPasswordFromUser();


//get user object from database and see if it exists and whether password is correct
UserObject user = (UserObject) users.get(username);

if(user == null)
System.out.println("Non-existent user");
else
if(user.getPassword().equals(passwd))
System.out.println("Successful login");
else
System.out.println("Invalid Password");

//end transaction, close database and retain terminate session
tr.commit();
db.close();
session.termnate();
}
//exception handling would go here ...


   Java JDBC code accessing an IBM's DB2 Database(TM)
   
   import java.sql.*;
import sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver;
import java.util.*;


try {

//Launch instance of database driver.
Class.forName("COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.app.DB2Driver").newInstance();

//create database connection
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:db2:IMdatabase");

//get password and username from user
String username = getUserNameFromUser();
String passwd = getPasswordFromUser();

//perform SQL query
Statement sqlQry = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rset = sqlQry.executeQuery("SELECT password from user_table WHERE username='" + username +"'");


if(rset.next()){
if(rset.getString(1).equals(passwd))
System.out.println("Successful login");
else
System.out.println("Invalid Password");
}else{
System.out.println("Non-existent user");
}

//close database connection
sqlQry.close();
conn.close();

}
//exception handling would go here ...

   There isn't much difference in the above examples although it does seem a lot clearer to perform operations on a UserObject instead of a ResultSet when validating the user.
   
   
2. Getting the user's contact list.
   
   Java code accessing an ObjectStore(TM) database
   
   import COM.odi.*;
import COM.odi.util.query.*;
import COM.odi.util.*;
import java.util.*;


try {

/* start session and open DB, same as in section 1a */

//get hashmap of users from the DB
OSHashMap users = (OSHashMap) db.getRoot("IMusers");

//get user object from database
UserObject c4l = (UserObject) users.get("Carnage4Life");
UserObject[] contactList = c4l.getContactList();

System.out.println("This are the people on Carnage4Life's contact list");

for(int i=0; i <contactList.length; i++)
System.out.println(contactList[i].toString()); //toString() prints fullname, username, online status and webpage URL

/* close session and close DB, same as in section 1a */
}//exception handling code
   
   Java JDBC code accessing an IBM's DB2 Database(TM)
   
   import java.sql.*;
import sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver;
import java.util.*;


try {

/* open DB connection, same as in section 1b */
//perform SQL query
Statement sqlQry = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rset = sqlQry.executeQuery("SELECT fname, lname, user_name, online_status, webpage FROM contact_list, user_table" + "WHERE contact_list.owner_name='Carnage4Life' and contact_list.buddy_name=user_table.user_name");

System.out.println("This are the people on Carnage4Life's contact list");


while(rset.next())
System.out.println("Full Name:" + rset.getString(1) + " " + rset.getString(2) + " User Name:" + rset.getString(3) + " OnlineStatus:" + rset.getString(4) + " HomePage URL:" + rset.getString(5));

/* close DB connection, same as in section 1b*/
}//exception handling code

   
   The benefits of using an OODBMS over an RDBMS in Java slowly becomes obvious. Consider also that if the data from the select needs to be returned to another method then all the data from the result set has to be mapped to another object (UserObject).
   
   
3. Get all the users that are online.
   
   Java code accessing an ObjectStore(TM) database
   
   import COM.odi.*;
import COM.odi.util.query.*;
import COM.odi.util.*;
import java.util.*;

try{
/* same as above */

//use a OODBMS query to locate all the users whose status is 'online'
Query q = new Query (UserObject.class, "onlineStatus.equals(\"online\"");
Collection users = db.getRoot("IMusers");
Set onlineUsers = q.select(users);

Iterator iter = onlineUsers.iterator();

// iterate over the results
while ( iter.hasNext() )
{
UserObject user = (UserObject) iter.next();

// send each person some announcement
sendAnnouncement(user);

}

/* same as above */

}//exception handling goes here

   
   Java JDBC code accessing an IBM's DB2 Database(TM)
   import java.sql.*;
import sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver;
import java.util.*;

try{
/* same as above */

//perform SQL query
Statement sqlQry = conn.createStatement
();
ResultSet rset = sqlQry.executeQuery
("SELECT fname, lname, user_name, online_status,
webpage FROM user_table WHERE
online_status='online'");

while(rset.next()){

UserObject user = new UserObject
(rset.getString(1),rset.getString
(2),rset.getString(3),rset.getString
(4),rset.getString(5));
sendAnnouncement(user);

}


/* same as above */
}//exception handling goes here



List of Object Oriented Database Management Systems
Proprietary

• Object Store
• O2
• Gemstone
• Versant
• Ontos
• DB/Explorer ODBMS
• Ontos
• Poet
• Objectivity/DB
• EyeDB
  
  Open Source
• Ozone
• Zope
• FramerD
• XL2

Conclusion

The gains from using an OODBMS while developing an application using an OO programming language are many. The savings in development time by not having to worry about separate data models as well as the fact that there is less code to write due to the lack of impedance mismatch is very attractive. In my opinion, there is little reason to pick an RDBMS over an OODBMS system for newapplication development unless there are legacy issues that have to be dealt with.

Boban Acimovic writes "New Mandrake 8.0 is finally out. Official announcement will come today, but new ISO files are already on some of mirrors. Main improvements are kernel =2.4.3, KDE =2.1.1, GNOME 1.4, Nautilus 1.0, Evolution 0.9, XFree86 =4.0.3, RPM 4.0, improved installer with pictures and other nice stuff. Enjoy!" Thanks to Gael Duval, from Mandrake for letting me know - the main features are listed as well as the new features page. But one of the cooler parts is a new part with Mandrake-Linux that will let you donate to the Free Software project of your choice in Mandrake - that's at at Linux-Mandrake.com. Update: 04/19 12:27 PM by H :Newsforge has got a article with more mirrors as well.

ezln23 writes: "I have been a regular user of Grip for CD Ripping and MP3 encoding for quite a few months now. Today when I attempted to rip a new CD I bought, I received this message. "Your CD player application is either not licensed to use the Gracenote(tm) CDDB(tm) service or its license has expired. If you are unsure what this means, please see our web site at http://www.cddb.com/lic/Grip. If you are a developer and feel you have received this message in error or wish to get your application licensed, please contact support for assistance." I guess the predictions in this article were correct." We've also received submissions about kscd and other applications that query CDDB, so it looks like CDDB has cut off everyone who didn't pay up.Update: 03/10 02:28 PM by H : It looks like it was a short-lived thing - I can connect fine to it this morning - and I can assure you, I haven't paid.

7213 noted that the Tradewars site has announced "Tradewars, Dark Millennium", which presumably will be a MMORPG ^[?] RTS based on the terrifyingly addictive game that I used to write scripts to play my turns for me in middle school. Screenshots and descriptions are available, but its gonna be vapor for a long time I'm sure. TW2002 is really where I met Hemos, Nate, and Kurt The Pope. God I loved that game.

assbarn writes: "The title pretty much says it all, but LWN daily is reporting that SuSE is laying off almost all of its US staff. What does this mean for their English distribution? The details are short (and sketchy), but the link is at LWN. " I've tried reaching both the U.S. and German branches: SuSE has yet to return a call placed to the U.S. office, and at the German branch it won't be business hours for a while. I've left that message at the SuSE American office, though, and will update with any confirmation/denial. Update: 02/08 12:03 AM by H :A couple people have sent in the LinuxToday piece. SuSE's PR agency has denied it, but LWN is standing by it, and several other readers have substantiated it to LinuxToday and LWN, including the original source on LWN. As well, SuSE did say that a number of positions were being relocated. We'll keep the story updated. Update: 02/08 04:38 AM by T : LinuxGram has some great information -- with real details! Skeleton crew of 12 to remain in the U.S. What's also interesting is that it confirms that the PR agency had "bad communication," which is an interesting statement to say the least.

TJ6581 writes "C|Net news has an article up about Intel's new competitor(s) to the Crusoe Processor. Apparently the new chip uses half a watt of power and did not require a major re-design. Also mentions in the article that IBM will be using this processor in the notebook originally designed for Transmeta's processor." Update: 01/30 06:48 PM by H : This is the update to the story I posted last October - Intel has come through.

So, I'm sitting here half-watching the Super Bowl and admiring some of the new commericials. So far, I think that the E*trade Monkey with Horse ad has been really good, as has the Kasparov vs. The Machines - the accenture and cingular ads have been, IMHO, as bland as Wonder bread. That, and the Cingular icon looks like a bold color version of the X icon, or something. The E*Trade Matrix rip-off ad was good as well - but with one quarter left, I'm not as impressed as in past years. What do you folks think?Update: 01/29 06:29 PM by H :Check out AdCritic's Superbowl site.

So, ever had a question you wanted to ask the various folks behind Slash and/or Slashdot? A healthy assortment of Slashdot coders and authors (like krow, cliff, roblimo, jellicle and timothy) will be on hand for a BOF session at the Linux World Expo on Wednesday, January 31, 2001, Room 1E11, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. So, if you happen to be around, feel free to join us and have your questions answered. And of course, the Slash and Slashdot folks will also be at random times in the OSDN booth on the show floor, so please stop by. Hope to see you there!Update: 01/15 12:55 PM by H : Rob and I won't be able to make itto the BOF -- outstanding plans -- but you can catch us on February 15th at the O'Reilly P2P conference in San Fransico. We speak at something like 11:30 AM or so, on a panel - but we'll be at LWCE as well.

Calle Ballz writes "According to an article on Despair's Website, they are suing 7,000,000 email users over trademark infringment for using the :-( 'emoticon'. I can't tell if it is a joke or not, I would like for it to be. The trademark registration is valid and is listed here. *sigh*" I would just like to say that our use of :-) is covered by fair usage. And that this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.Update: 01/26 04:18 PM by H :Check out the press release about it - that's one of the best pieces of satire I've seen in a while. Kudos to Despair for making a mockery of trademarks. Update: 01/29 04:52 PM by CT : Apparently a bunch of retarded Slashdot readers couldn't discern that this was parody and mailed despair to complain. Little itchy on the flaming finger guys? Here's the NY Times story

palo0019 writes "These are tough times for Sega fans, with rampant rumors of buyouts, sellouts, and every other scenario under the sun. The latest one actually makes sense, Microsoft needs a hot developer, and Sega needs a machine to call home. Gamers.com is reporting that the Xbox will be compatible with Dreamcast games. They are also reporting that that Sega is developing "a" Virta Fighter game, that may or may not be the new Virtua Fighter X. " Interesting rumor - I tried calling both Microsoft and Sega and got a firm "No Comment" from people. Update: 01/26 12:20 PM by H :Microsoft has apparently denied the rumor once more.

JimRay writes "According to this C|Net article, the DivX program will soon be open source. NOTE, this is not Circuit City's failed out DVD rental plan, but a set of programs for lossy compression of digital video. Is this the mp3 for video or what?" DivX is based on MPG4 - and contrary to earlier submissions, Project Mayo has stated they own all copyrights to the code - it is not a knocked off version of Microsoft's MPG4.Update: 01/17 02:52 PM by H :Thanks to paradigm from Mayo for sending this update/correction: "This is a release of our codebase as it stands now, we have cvs, mailing lists, bug tracking, everything set up. We are working towards our current goal of releasing Divx ;-) Deux which will, of course, rock. This code works, but we are making it better. We are developing this code still, not just throwing it to the open source world for the hype, we just thought others would want in...all of our developers are on the mailing lists and activly post in our forums."

Yahoo has a story up now about a class action Lawsuit against VA, which is my employer, and owns Slashdot, so of course I'm biased blah blah. Of course, I have no clue about any of the stuff in the article because it's about stock allocation by Credit Suisse during the IPO, and that sort of stuff is way outside the realm of things I have any understanding of. Update: 01/11 09:58 PM by H : The Milberg people have a website with more info and PDFs about it -- and I just tried VA, who have "categorically no comment."

LordXarph writes: "AP reports that on new year's day 2001, a 6 foot tall monolith has appeared in seattle. If Monolith Software weren't based in Seattle, I would be worried." Anyone have pictures of this thing? It makes me want to hum Particle Man by They Might Be Giants. Oh wait- Wrong song.Update: 01/03 04:39 AM by H :Check out the picture that a number of people sent in.

Faw writes "In an interview at Stomped Bioware's CEO Ray Muzyka mentioned that its next game Neverwinter Nights will be available for the PC, Mac, Linux and BeOS. I think this is the first time I have heard BeOS mentioned by a mayor game company. You can check the interview out as well." For those of you who don't know, Neverwinter is supposed to be the sequel to Baldur's Gate II ^[?] - and will have functions that allow DMs to make dungeons, and much better multiplayer support. Update: 12/29 06:53 PM by H :I've been corrected - NN doesn't have anything to do with the BG2 storyline. Must have been wishful thinking on my part. *grin*

Well, the United States Supreme Court has given their "ruling" concerning the Florida Supreme Court. They've asked for more information fromthe Florida Supreme Court. Update: 12/04 06:01 PM by H : You can read the the actual ruling as well. Update: 12/04 07:59 PM by H :Thanks to Mr. Sturkel for this much better analysis: "In today's posting of the Supreme Court ruling on the Florida ballot case you state that the Supreme Court over turned the Florida State Supreme Court case on manual recounts; this is incorrect. The High Court "set aside" the case, not over turned it which is two different things. In setting aside the case the Supreme Court asked the Florida Supreme Court to re-examine the case and to explain and clarify further the basis of their ruling, In a nutshell, The Supreme Court wants to know why the Florida Supreme Court did what they did before issuing a final ruling on the case."

Well, the United States Supreme Court has given their "ruling" concerning the Florida Supreme Court. They've asked for more information fromthe Florida Supreme Court. Update: 12/04 06:01 PM by H : You can read the the actual ruling as well. Update: 12/04 07:59 PM by H :Thanks to Mr. Sturkel for this much better analysis: "In today's posting of the Supreme Court ruling on the Florida ballot case you state that the Supreme Court over turned the Florida State Supreme Court case on manual recounts; this is incorrect. The High Court "set aside" the case, not over turned it which is two different things. In setting aside the case the Supreme Court asked the Florida Supreme Court to re-examine the case and to explain and clarify further the basis of their ruling, In a nutshell, The Supreme Court wants to know why the Florida Supreme Court did what they did before issuing a final ruling on the case."

So Hemos decided he should stop back in Holland to visit some family, pick up some comic books, and eventually visit the Blockstackers office. We felt that was reason enough to record a new episode. We talk about TiVo hacks, the Napster/BMG agreement, and I ask everyone for Bloody Mary recipes.

Azog, joined by a bevy of like-mindeds, wrote with the news: "ICANN has selected several proposals for new TLDs for further negotiation. The selected entries, and their proposed TLDs, are: JVTeam (.biz), Afilias (.info), Global Name Registry (.name), RegistryPro (.pro), MDMA (.museum), SITA (.aero), and NCBA (.coop)." Here is the unanimously accepted resolution. cyrdog points to Wired's coverage, and pavelivanov points to the story at CNET. And as several people have pointed out, .web is conspicously absent, even though it seems like a shoo-in. Someone, somewhere is going to get that one day ... Update: 11/17 09:48 PM by H :Check out SatireWire's coverage as well *grin*.

Patrick Griffiths gets the first annual Slashdot prize for doomed but spectacular acts of heroism in a warped educational environment. As a self-described member of his school's geeky and "down-trodden" community, Griffiths, a senior at Mira Costa High School in California, wanted to make a statement about high school values. To his surprise, he was voted Homecoming King. He refused to accept. School officials suspended him.. Honest. Update: 11/03 07:03 PM by H : Several readers have called attention to the similaries between the first three grafs and the Daily Breeze story -- I've put the attribution in, which should have been there in the beginning. Note from timothy: Please see a few additional words from Jon below as well.

From the Daily Breeze:

"Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Jerry Davis said school and district officials stand behind the suspension. 'There's always consequences for actions," Davis said. "We believe it disrupted homecoming activities ..." (It would be interesting to know if the Unified School District knows that George Washington refused the offer of the Contintental Congress to be the first American King.)

"Suspension papers signed by Griffiths and the school principal charged that the 17-year-old Griffiths 'disrupted school activities or otherwise willfully defied the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties.' Other offenses that warrant suspension include gun possession, drug use, theft or destruction of school property, and physical violence."

"Griffiths was a member of one of the six couples who lined up with their parents during halftime of last Friday's football game to hear the royal announcements. When his name was called as homecoming king, he placed his crown on the field and walked away. He later said he had planned all along to make some sort of statement about the warped value system in schools like his (Mira Costa High School) if he was elected king, but he never dreamed he would win. 'The idea of winning was so far-fetched,' he said. 'I knew I'd have a fair amount of support from the downtrodden, my friends. I'm just trying to get more people to think about and re-evaluate what we value and if [contests like] homecoming should be encouraged.'" says the Daily Breeze story.

He returned to school this week. His parents are considering legal action to force the school to expunge the suspension from his academic record. Griffiths isn't a classic victim. He was definitely poking the bear, but in a good cause. He said he welcomed any and all media attention because he wants to use the spotlight to encourage people to think about the way schools promote popularity contests and pit students against one another. "They martyred me," he said. "Which was a great thing."

Instead of a suspension, Griffiths ought to get an award for challenging the insane culture facing so many individualistic kids in American schools. Students like Griffiths have few if any Constitutional rights. They have no privacy or right to due process, and are routinely sent home, suspended, or forced into "special education" programs for dressing oddly, speaking honestly, or playing the wrong kind of computer games. As he was trying to point out, the pressure to conform, be normal and popular is enormous -- creating environments that are hostile and alienating to people outside the mainstream. This ethos has hit bright, idiosyncratic and creative kids especially hard, as the volumes of Hellmouth messages testify so eloquently.

So here's to Patrick Griffiths, who deserves better than his own school. He's a hero in the classic American sense, and in the country's best traditions of thinking freely, daring to be different, and willing to pay the price.

Author's Note: The source material for this column was the Daily Breeze paper linked to above, a wire story, and about 20 e-mails, including two from local reporters urgingme to write about this. Reading over this now I can see there is a paragraph that should have quotes from the Daily Breeze [note: since corrected -- t]. I didn't do it because I probably used material from the wire story and/or because it was linked. The comments, opinions and language about the story are obviously mine, since the point was to write about the issues he raised and the conformity question, which the paper and the others didn't raise.

jbc writes: "As discussed over at use Perl, the Perl community is attempting to raise US$55K in donations to support Perl überhacker Damian Conway for a year so he can devote himself to worthwhile pursuits related to Perl development. Thanks to a large donation from an as-yet-unnamed corporate donor, they're apparently already more than halfway there." Update: 10/15 11:31 PM by H : To actually give, go to the YAPC site.