Slashdot Mirror

bitFliper writes: "This site has more information about IBM's Linux wristwatch, including a whole page of pictures here. Linux 2.2 OS with 8MB Flash memory and 8MB DRAM memory. It weigh's in at 44 gms (approximately 1.5 ounces), has a touch sensitive display, IrDA, radio frequency wireless connectivity, and a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Pretty cool."

bitFliper writes: "This site has more information about IBM's Linux wristwatch, including a whole page of pictures here. Linux 2.2 OS with 8MB Flash memory and 8MB DRAM memory. It weigh's in at 44 gms (approximately 1.5 ounces), has a touch sensitive display, IrDA, radio frequency wireless connectivity, and a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Pretty cool."

laci asks: "I'm sure many of you have used memory debuggers in the past. I have used Purify before, but now I need a memory debugger for Linux and/or AIX. My main concern is that the application I'm working on does a HUGE number of memory allocations (100s of millions). A constant factor slowdown is acceptable (even if it's a factor of 10), but the debugger should not slow down to a crawl. Also, I'd like to know which memory debuggers work on both platforms (I know of insure++ only)."

More below on what is surely one of the slowest patents ever granted (to our inquisitive friends with the radar domes, no less), and smidgeons of news on such various and sundry as Napster (perhaps you've heard of it?) and Iridium (perhaps you wish you'd never heard of it?), not to mention more on the destruction of the submarine Kursk.

The (cryptographic) wheels of government grind slowly. JOEL-V writes: "In August 2000, the United States Patent Office issued patent #6097812 to the National Security Agency, for 'Cryptographic System.' The patent application was filed in the year 1933, and this invention and patent are actually one version of the famous Enigma machine."

On a similar note, Paul Maud'Dib writes: "The Slashdot crew might be interested in checking out Enigmatic. They have java emulators for the Purple, Sigaba, Enigma, Russian Espionage Cipher and a public domain Bombe. They also have rather lucid descriptions of the various systems used. Interesting reads all."

That which does not kill him makes him stronger. You may recall that some maladjusted script kiddies threw a spanner in the works of the excellent kuro5hin a little while ago. Emmett told you more about the attack and its aftermath shortly thereafter. Looks like it's time for the (all volunteer, cool-content, graphically appealing) kuro5hin to emerge from a quick breather.

pope nihil writes: "kuro5hin.org has an update on their page. things should be back up (according to the update) by Sept 15 or so. check it out." Yes, Go there! Congratulations, guys.

88 bottles of bits on the wall, 88 bottles of bits ... NoWhere Man writes "The bankrupt Iridium venture has received another bid to save the wireless phone company's $5 billion satellite system from being pulled from space and destroyed. A California-based organization named CMC International is offering to pay $30 million to acquire Iridium's 88 satellites and other assets, according to a court filing submitted Friday."

It certainly would be nice if someone could eke out (even a meager) connection from Iridium rather than incinerating the satellites in the atmosphere, but honestly, the Will Burn / Will Fly status of these birds flip-flops enough to put a politician to shame. I'd like them to stay up, if only not to spook other folks from putting data-bouncing satellites up for our browsing pleasure.

In a nutshell, this is the problem with carrying around cavitation weapons. aleclee writes "It now appears that the Kursk was indeed carrying cavitation weapons and that she was sunk by a misfiring rocket. Supposedly, the rocket/torpedo can travel at 200 knots! Details can be found here."

Update: any port in a storm, and this one sounds nice. Patrick Ryan wrote: " Hello, I wanted you to know that CDSA [as mentioned in this slashdot story] has been updated at Intel and now includes a Linux port." Visit http://developer.intel.com/ial/security/ for more information about CDSA, and then the download site for your free-downloading pleasure.

ckotchey asks: "Being new to the Linux/GPL world over the last few months, I'm amazed at the lack of informative comments that I'd like to find at the begining of each source file, and within the code itself. At a minumum, I'd like to see summary lists of functions, parameters, return values (and their meanings), etc., that are within the file I'm trying to dissect, along with some descriptive comments within the code to help understand what is happening. Without such comments, it seems counter-productive to the whole open-source concept of allowing others to see the code, understand the code, and fix/enhance the code (at least, in a timely manner!). Should there be, at a minimum, some sort of 'commenting standard' to be (at least voluntarily) followed by developers in the Linux/Open Source community?"

IBM has released SashXB for the Open Source community. SashXB is Weblication Development Environment (a.k.a. the WDE), so you can use it to write "weblications". From the screenshots it looks pretty impressive, and there is a Lotus Notes Client included written with this tool. The license ig LGPL.

cllajoie asks: "Every programing language has a list a mile long of optimization tips ranging from the mundane to the cryptic. I was wondering if anyone has compiled a list of these tips and tricks for Java. Some things are fairly easy, like adding final to methods so that they get inlined by the compiler, but what other deeper, darker secrets does Java have for making code faster and what are their implications on code size and memory usage? For example, if I had an accessor method is it better to use the this "pointer" in the return statement or not, or does it make any difference at all in performance? I mean lets face it, Java isn't blazingly fast to begin with so every little bit in the area helps."

Erik from IBM wrote to us to confirm that IBM will be a "open sourcing" AFS. What's actually going is that they are forking the code, as not all of the code can be opened for "technical or licensing reason". So, there will be IBM AFS, which they will support, and Open AFS which will be the open code. The license is going to the be the IBM Public License which is an OSI approved license. Overall good news for a very scalable, secure file system.

Rand Race writes: "Lowend Mac is reporting here that Apple is considering dropping the G4 on most of its line in favor of IBM's Altivec-less G5. The G5 would appear in early 2001 at speeds from 700Mhz to 1Ghz in single, dual, and quad setups. Speeds up to 2Ghz should be reached by 2002. Updated G3s (750Cx/G3e) at 533-666Mhz will be used in iMacs and iBooks (maybe a 666Mhz G5 iMac SE), Dual and Quad G4-500s in midrange machines, and G5s in high end machines (733,866, & 1Ghz), Powerbooks (733 & 850), and Cubes (866 & 1Ghz). Disclaimer; this is a rumour and we all know about Apple rumors..." Update: 08/18 09:04 PM by CT : Several people noted that this is more then a rumor, its a blatant lie... they got very worked up about it too ;)

JSC writes: "IBM has developed a quantum computer consisting of five atoms that work as the processor and memory. It's a nice advance of the state of the art...unfortunately, we won't see them on the shelves for about 20 years." Update: 08/15 06:49 PM by H :Check out the official IBM release - thanks to netMonkey for the update.

Pahroza writes " Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President, Technology & Strategy IBM Enterprise Systems Group, discusses IBM's overview of Linux. The presentation will begin on August 8th, 2000, at 11:30 am EST, and will remain viewable afterwards." It's in Real or Windows Media Player - bleah.

Thanks to Bruce Schneier ^[?] of Counterpane fame for sending in this tidbit. The US Patent Office has granted William Friedman a patent for an Engima-like device - the catch is that he filed in 1933. Still it's a cool vintage piece of crypto - and I also noticed that a gallery copy of Bruce's new book is on eBay. 'Course, you could wait just a few weeks and buy a new one, but hey - if you gotta have it now, you gotta have it.

morton2002 writes: "I read an awesome interview of Amiga head honchos by IBM's developerWorks folks. (Linked to from a cool microprocessor news site, www.jc-news.com/pc.) They discuss Amiga's new technology and marketing tactics, suitably referred to as the 'new Amiga.' Instead of developing new Amiga hardware, they're using a code-morphing virtual-machine to run on existing platforms ... but most notably it will translate their 'VP' code into native instead of interpreting it, running blindingly fast! Not only that, they'll be bringing awesome hardware acceleration to OSes like Linux when they port their VP translators to various videocard processors, allowing the 'new Amiga' to run directly on graphics-intensive hardware ... just like it used to!"

Reader Upsilon points to the same interview, saying "I have to admit, some of the stuff sounds very interesting, but it is hard not to be skeptical." (Anyone holding your breath, please raise your right hand so you can be counted before you keel over.)

Wedman sent us a snippet from a newsletter from OpenSourceIT that starts off by saying that IBM will announce a new pricing scheme for Linux on the S/390 mainframes: Soon they'll cost $125k. For another $20k you can get virtual machine software to run multiple copies of Linux on the same box. David Boyes, a consultant who works with the S/390, managed to boot 41,500 Linux servers on one mainframe. Although he notes that you may not be able to run that many in real life. ;) (if someone can find an actual link for this, please post it) That just cracks me up: I mean, the debate about forking apache to handle requests is one thing, but hell, why not just boot your own OS for each request!

Frank Carlos writes: "IBM released Linux-based applications technology based on the Bluetooth specification called BlueDrekar, which is a reference implementation of and a set of interfaces for the Bluetooth protocol stack. You can get the Transport Drivers for BlueDrekar(TM) Middleware at the developerWorks Open Source Zone."

Frank Carlos writes: "IBM released Linux-based applications technology based on the Bluetooth specification called BlueDrekar, which is a reference implementation of and a set of interfaces for the Bluetooth protocol stack. You can get the Transport Drivers for BlueDrekar(TM) Middleware at the developerWorks Open Source Zone."

Frank Carlos writes: "IBM released Linux-based applications technology based on the Bluetooth specification called BlueDrekar, which is a reference implementation of and a set of interfaces for the Bluetooth protocol stack. You can get the Transport Drivers for BlueDrekar(TM) Middleware at the developerWorks Open Source Zone."

scoobysnack writes "MSNBC is reporting that IBM has once again created the world's fastest computer -- it will be used for simulating real-world nuclear tests. With 12 teraflops it would still take it 3 months to simulate the first 1/100th of a second of a nuclear bomb explosion." There's coverage at CNET as well.

dcallaghan was among the many readers to write with news of IBM's announcement of new memory technology. The upshot seems to be on-the-fly compression in hardware, taking the tack of RamDoubler and other software compression utilities, but moving the actual data sqashing into dedicated (fast) chips. I hope this leaks out of "server only" land soon; I'd love to have 256MB for the price of 128 -- this would be especially nice with pricey notebook memory.

A nameless wonder snuck this query under my door: "As a fairly new developer, with plans to start making software of sufficient quality to share (i.e. a program whose code/distribution I need not be embarrassed of), I am trying to find good, useful information on how to use automake, autoconf, etc. The main pages are wonderful at telling me the command line options, but don't explain what they do and how they work. I have found a good starter in this article on IBM's Developer works, but where can I find more information? Would someone please (pretty please?) write a HOWTO for the LDP? is there a hidden walkthrough/introduction out there on the net that could shed some light on these tools?"

Several people noted that Red Hat is now partnering with Dell and offering Red Hat as one of its strategic operating systems, as well as shipping Linux web/proxy boxes to Lexus and Toyota dealerships. But thats not all... Big Blue apparently is now shipping T20 Thinkpads with Caldera and Star Office preloaded.

A number of people wrote in about the New York Times article regarding IBM's new storage breakthrough. They've been working on their microdrives for some time now, and it appears to be paying off. 1 gig in something the size of a pack of matches. Cool.Update: 06/20 04:58 by H :Check out the press release from IBM, thanks to Asbestosrush.

Bazzargh writes: "This article at nothingventured (annoying but free registration required) says that British Telecom have hired Scipher to enforce (in the US) an old patent -- predating the WWW -- that they hold on the concept of hyperlinking! Apparently they'll be seeking compensation from all ISPs. I've had a look on the IBM Patents Database but I can't see the patent referred to."

UncleJosh writes: "The latest issue of American Scientist has an interesting article "On the Teeth of Wheels" about the relationship between gears, computers and number theory." It's as much a well-meshed detective story (hunting for books and obscure references) as a historical and mathematical introduction to the science of gears. Prime numbers, watchmakers and the Fibonacci sequence all play a part.

Several folks wrote in with news that IBM has announced via mailing list its intention to release a Logical Volume Management (LVM) architecture for Linux. Here is the LVM white paper referred to below. Neither the note below nor the IBM Web site seem to declare what sort of license it will be released under, but the expressed hope "that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux" would fit logically with the GPL, wouldn't it? ;) (More)

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I found the following message posted to several Linux mailing lists:

************************* Begin Message **************

Hello! Since IBM has begun to publicly support Linux, many of our customers have started showing an interest in Linux. We have received many requests from our customers asking us to enhance certain areas of Linux (logical volume management in particular) in order to make Linux a more acceptable platform for their IT operations. Furthermore, we have been asked to provide a migration path from existing platforms (both IBM and non-IBM) to Linux. IBM has been moving to satisfy these requests by contributing developers and technology to the Linux Community. This is what drove IBM's decision to release JFS to the Linux Community, and it is driving the decision to release logical volume management technology to the Linux Community.

IBM is releasing one of its most advanced architectures for a Logical Volume Management System. This architecture is quite interesting as it completely integrates all disk and volume management into a single, highly extensible, easy to use entity. We hope that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux, one which satisfies the requirements of our customers as well as those of the Linux Community.

The first of several white papers describing the LVMS architecture can be found at the IBM Linux Technology Center website:

link

Since we would like to have an honest, open discussion about this, I would suggest that all interested parties post their comments to the LVM mailing list (unless someone has a better suggestion!). All comments are welcome!

Thanks!

Ben Rafanello

IBM Linux Technology Center

PS - Information about the LVM mailing list can be found at:

link

***************** End Message *************************

Well, the message sounded interesting so I checked out their website. I found the specified white paper in the "Documents / White Papers" section. After giving it a quick read, I must say that this isn't like any other LVM I've ever heard of! The use of "plug-in modules" to control what devices the LVM sees, how it partitions those devices, and how it uses those partitions to create a volume is incredibly flexible. I also like the part about the LVM working with the filesystem on a volume so that a volume can be resized without any data loss (and without all of the manual steps that must currently be done on Linux). The paper discusses this LVM as an architecture, and it avoids discussing user interfaces and implementation issues. I wonder if this is some pie in the sky vision or if they have any code to back this up?"

Several folks wrote in with news that IBM has announced via mailing list its intention to release a Logical Volume Management (LVM) architecture for Linux. Here is the LVM white paper referred to below. Neither the note below nor the IBM Web site seem to declare what sort of license it will be released under, but the expressed hope "that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux" would fit logically with the GPL, wouldn't it? ;) (More)

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I found the following message posted to several Linux mailing lists:

************************* Begin Message **************

Hello! Since IBM has begun to publicly support Linux, many of our customers have started showing an interest in Linux. We have received many requests from our customers asking us to enhance certain areas of Linux (logical volume management in particular) in order to make Linux a more acceptable platform for their IT operations. Furthermore, we have been asked to provide a migration path from existing platforms (both IBM and non-IBM) to Linux. IBM has been moving to satisfy these requests by contributing developers and technology to the Linux Community. This is what drove IBM's decision to release JFS to the Linux Community, and it is driving the decision to release logical volume management technology to the Linux Community.

IBM is releasing one of its most advanced architectures for a Logical Volume Management System. This architecture is quite interesting as it completely integrates all disk and volume management into a single, highly extensible, easy to use entity. We hope that the release of this technology will lead to a world class logical volume management system for Linux, one which satisfies the requirements of our customers as well as those of the Linux Community.

The first of several white papers describing the LVMS architecture can be found at the IBM Linux Technology Center website:

link

Since we would like to have an honest, open discussion about this, I would suggest that all interested parties post their comments to the LVM mailing list (unless someone has a better suggestion!). All comments are welcome!

Thanks!

Ben Rafanello

IBM Linux Technology Center

PS - Information about the LVM mailing list can be found at:

link

***************** End Message *************************

Well, the message sounded interesting so I checked out their website. I found the specified white paper in the "Documents / White Papers" section. After giving it a quick read, I must say that this isn't like any other LVM I've ever heard of! The use of "plug-in modules" to control what devices the LVM sees, how it partitions those devices, and how it uses those partitions to create a volume is incredibly flexible. I also like the part about the LVM working with the filesystem on a volume so that a volume can be resized without any data loss (and without all of the manual steps that must currently be done on Linux). The paper discusses this LVM as an architecture, and it avoids discussing user interfaces and implementation issues. I wonder if this is some pie in the sky vision or if they have any code to back this up?"

Chris Brewer writes: "IBM announced today a new line of AS/400e servers powered by the world's first production chips made of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors and copper wiring. They say the addition of SOI adds a further 20-30% to performance beyond copper. They have a new high-end server that's 3.6x faster than before, entry level servers for running Domino (and presumably Linux), and all support XML. Further details can be found at IBM's AS/400 site. "

Chris Brewer writes: "IBM announced today a new line of AS/400e servers powered by the world's first production chips made of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors and copper wiring. They say the addition of SOI adds a further 20-30% to performance beyond copper. They have a new high-end server that's 3.6x faster than before, entry level servers for running Domino (and presumably Linux), and all support XML. Further details can be found at IBM's AS/400 site. "

Chris Brewer writes: "IBM announced today a new line of AS/400e servers powered by the world's first production chips made of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors and copper wiring. They say the addition of SOI adds a further 20-30% to performance beyond copper. They have a new high-end server that's 3.6x faster than before, entry level servers for running Domino (and presumably Linux), and all support XML. Further details can be found at IBM's AS/400 site. "

Paula Wirth, Web Tinker writes "Scientists from IBM Research, Altavista and Compaq collaborated to conduct the most intensive research study of the Web. The result is the development of the "Bow Tie" Theory. One of the initial discoveries of this ongoing study shatters the number one myth about the Web ... in truth, the Web is less connected than previously thought. You can read more about it "

Paula Wirth, Web Tinker writes "Scientists from IBM Research, Altavista and Compaq collaborated to conduct the most intensive research study of the Web. The result is the development of the "Bow Tie" Theory. One of the initial discoveries of this ongoing study shatters the number one myth about the Web ... in truth, the Web is less connected than previously thought. You can read more about it "

Kailden asks: "I've run across several references to Ruby, a scripting language that claims to be a hybrid of Perl and Python. Supposedly, this language has taken Japan by storm. I'm looking for Slashdot's verdict before jumping in. Has anyone outside the Ruby site used this language? What advantages/disadvantages have you found?"

Lionfire writes "Recently, Microsoft aquired a patent for a "Method and system for installing and updating program module components"." Read the description and replace a few key words, and you have a very nice description of *cough* Debian's apt. Neat!

scode writes: "IBM's has finally released a preview of their JDK 1.3 for Linux, and it's just as fast as their 1.1.8! This is great news for Java on Linux, because it's the first Java 2 compliant Linux JVM that's really fast. "

Does the Digital Millennium Copyright Act cover electrical religious artifacts? Apparently the Church of Scientology thinks so. eBay has been yanking auctions of e-meters because of complaints by the CoS. In response to queries by a collector, eBay said "the Church of Scientology is giving us Notices of Infringement, which we are legally required to honor. These items are being ended for that reason." Does the DMCA really prohibit the sale of these boxes? (more)

The short answer is: "No" -- as far as I can tell -- I'm not a lawyer. But this is just one more data point in the disturbing trend of the DMCA being used as an all-purpose club to remove material from the Internet.

On hearing of this, my first thought was that perhaps the devices in question are actually licensed somehow, instead of being sold outright. But I spoke to two former members and the spouse of a current member of the CoS, each of whom assured me categorically that the devices were purchased outright, with no license required to be signed. A staffer at the Lisa McPherson Trust found a catalog where anyone can buy an e-meter; the "public price" is a little higher than the price to CoS members, but there are no apparent limitations to the purchase. A credit card is all you'll need.

The device itself is just an electrical mechanism, somewhat like a fancy multimeter or oscilloscope. It's patented, but of course thousands of patented items are sold on eBay every day.

To members of the Church of Scientology, however, it's more than just an electrical device. It's used in "auditing," which apparently helps new members advance in the program. Members of the CoS who have become experienced in this process are licensed by the CoS to audit others (but, again, the purchase of the items themselves is not under license).

Some e-meters apparently have Intel Inside (an 8-bit microprocessor which performs some rudimentary functions). But ever since a 1963 raid in which the FDA took exception to the marketing of the device as medically beneficial, e-meters have carried a disclaimer which begins: "By itself, this meter does nothing. It is solely for the guide of Ministers of the Church in Confessionals and pastoral counselling."

I'd hard-pressed to think of why copyright could apply to a piece of electronic gadgetry which "does nothing." So why is eBay refusing to allow its sale?

Because DMCA is such an effective club.

Rod Keller, a Scientology critic, noticed that e-meter auctions were being taken down, and wrote eBay to ask why. The response was:

Hello,

These items are not prohibited due to their nature, but the Church of Scientology is giving us Notices of Infringement, which we are legally required to honor. These items are being ended for that reason.

Regards,

[...]
eBay Community Watch Supervisor

(Emphasis added.) That explanation, by the way, is a little facile: eBay is "legally required to honor" such notices if it wants to remain lawsuit-proof about the item. They would be well within their legal rights to leave the auctions up. More on this later.

When Mr. Keller expressed surprise at this, the next message went into a little more detail:

Hello,

There is a procedure under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act whereby someone who claims to be an owner of Intellectual property can send a notice sworn under penalty of perjury that an item is infringing. The internet provider must then remove the item. The seller of the item (not a third party) can request and fill out a counter notice. If he/she does so, the complaining party who filled out the original notice has a limited period of time to file suit, or the provider can go ahead and relist the item.

This is set up under the statute so that the interested parties will be the ones doing any litigating.

Regards,

eBay Customer Support

In response to my requests for more detail on exactly how the DMCA was being invoked by the CoS, an eBay representative promised that someone would get in touch with me. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from them by press time.

Here's what I think happened, based on the above -- feel free to follow along in the full text of the DMCA if you like.

The DMCA is an unusual regulation in that it principally protects service providers from litigation and then rigidly defines the steps they must follow to stay under its umbrella. It puts eBay in a position a little bit like Bart Simpson's, when Sideshow Bob announces:

"The following people will not be killed by me: Homer Simpson, Marge Simpson, Lisa Simpson, that little baby Simpson.... That is all."

Title II of the DMCA, otherwise known as the "Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act," is what seems to be relevant. It describes under what conditions a service provider is not liable "for infringement of copyright." My guess is that eBay is looking at section 202(c): "Information Residing On Systems Or Networks At Direction Of Users." The system is ebay.com; the users are the sellers; presumably the information is, in this case, the item being auctioned. Or the text and graphics used to describe the auction? I'm not sure.

Section 202(c)(1)(C) indicates that eBay will not be subject to liability as long as it, "upon notification of claimed infringement as described in paragraph (3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity."

Paragraph (3) describes the elements which must be present in a notification, including: "A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

Based on eBay's statements, the Church of Scientology has sworn under penalty of perjury that it has an "exclusive right" to copyright on the material that was posted in the auction.

To me, that seems obviously wrong. An e-meter is an electrical device, or a religious artifact, depending on how you look at it. Either way, it's sold to customers who may or may not be members of the Church. Once they've bought the items, they should be able to do with them what they wish, including reselling them to whoever they wish.

But to enjoy the protections of the DMCA, service providers must remove any material as soon as they're told it infringes on copyright. Once material has been challenged, the service provider must act "expeditiously" to remove it. Only when the material is gone can the accused user make a case to defend it.

The carrot for service providers becomes a stick for users.

Meanwhile, I'd like to see the statement that the Church of Scientology made, under penalty of perjury, that an auction of an e-meter infringes on their copyright in some way. Any spokespeople for the CoS reading this are welcome to contact me to discuss it.

But, as Declan McCullagh wrote in an unrelated DMCA story yesterday, we are moving toward a two-tier copyright system on the internet -- at least in this country. If you don't host your own content, the DMCA's censor-first, ask-questions-later mandate effectively strips you of your rights.

As this release explains, BSDI are about to start providing support contracts for FreeBSD. Support options will include options from per-incident to 24x7 support. Linux already has a number of high profile companies providing support contracts, such as Red Hat, and IBM. It'll be interesting to see how much of an issue the availability of BSD support turns out to be.

An anonymous reader writes: "The basic idea is that an electronic device that produces random static noise may be affected by an observer if that static noise is based on the state of subatomic particles. This interaction of the user with the device can be measured and used as a form of input. An interesting aspect of quantum physics is that when a subatomic particle is observed its state changes (its wave function collapses), and the new state that it assumes cannot be predicted. Various theories exist as to why a particle assumes whatever state it does when its wave function collapses. One theory is that the observer is somehow interacting with the particle, causing it to assume its new state. Researchers at Princeton's Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab have amassed statistically significant data that says that an observer affects the new state of the observed particles. In some way, our mind interacts with these particles, and this interaction can be measured. IBM wants to use this measurement to create a new type of input device that basically reads your mind, no wires attached. IBMs Patent, PEARs Website. Incidentally, the inventors of this patent are a who's-who of the members of PEAR. Particularly Jahn and Dunne."

Bushwacker writes: "Recently, the OS/2 SuperSite has announced some big (somewhat unfortunate) news about the Warp Client v.4. There's both good and bad news here: First the bad news -- Contrary to hopeful rumours spreading around, A Warp version 5 will not come out this year, if ever. IBM will instead release 'Convenience Packs' which are like FixPacks, but cost you money. The good news -- Unlike the free FixPacks, Convenience Packs will provide more important upgrades which cover a larger field than their lesser cousins. Maybe one of them will include the fabled Project Odin? At least XFree86 is still free ..."

Bushwacker writes: "Recently, the OS/2 SuperSite has announced some big (somewhat unfortunate) news about the Warp Client v.4. There's both good and bad news here: First the bad news -- Contrary to hopeful rumours spreading around, A Warp version 5 will not come out this year, if ever. IBM will instead release 'Convenience Packs' which are like FixPacks, but cost you money. The good news -- Unlike the free FixPacks, Convenience Packs will provide more important upgrades which cover a larger field than their lesser cousins. Maybe one of them will include the fabled Project Odin? At least XFree86 is still free ..."

ejbst25 writes: "I haven't seen it mentioned ... but check out this IBM site about GNOME and MS similiarities if you haven't seen it." There's no secret that for good or for ill, "acts like Microsoft" is the standard by which many desktops are judged. The GNOME project, derided by some as "too idealistic," is notably pragmatic on this point: "I didn't know much about spreadsheets, I just copied every single thing from [Microsoft] Excel," says Miguel of the look of the spreadsheet he's added to GNOME. It's a well-written article, and includes a list of handy links at the bottom if you're interested in programming GNOME aps. It raises the question, though, how long till GNOME or another open-source desktop is the recognized leader?

Thomas Holme writes, "The Deskstar 75GXP sets a new standard in disk drive performance with a maximum media data rate of 444 megabits per second (Mb/s) and 8.5 milliseconds (ms) average seek time, delivering optimal multimedia performance and video playback." You can read more about it at IBM's hard drive page. I can't believe I bought a 40g just two weeks ago! Bah. Course 75 gigs is like 1500 hours worth of MP3s, but for some reason going two months without listening to the same song twice seems like an admirable goal.

Thomas Holme writes, "The Deskstar 75GXP sets a new standard in disk drive performance with a maximum media data rate of 444 megabits per second (Mb/s) and 8.5 milliseconds (ms) average seek time, delivering optimal multimedia performance and video playback." You can read more about it at IBM's hard drive page. I can't believe I bought a 40g just two weeks ago! Bah. Course 75 gigs is like 1500 hours worth of MP3s, but for some reason going two months without listening to the same song twice seems like an admirable goal.

Faw writes "Someone has filed a patent for a wormhole generator. It says it is a hyper-light speed antenna, but to me it looks like a wormhole. What do you think?" Here's the abstract: "A method to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves which comprises generating opposing magnetic fields having a plane of maximum force running perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the magnetic field; generating a heat source along an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the magnetic field; generating an accelerator parallel to and in close proximity to the heat source, thereby creating an input and output port; and generating a communications signal into the input and output port, thereby sending the signal at a speed faster than light. "

cgi-bin writes, "IBM has reportedly developed technology to create "tens of billions" of transistors on a single chip. Intel's pentiums only have 27 million or so. The technique uses electron beams instead of the traditional optical lithography. "

This week's Linux Weekly News is reporting that Victor Yodaiken, the developer of RT-Linux (Real Time linux) has been granted a patent on method used by RT-linux. He intends that Linux users be granted a no royalty license, users of closed OS' may have to. It's unclear whether Hurd or *BSD would be granted a royalty-free license. While this could be heralded as the beginning of a new defensive patent trust for free software, it also jars somewhat with the hacker ethic. What do you think? Is Victor's idea one which is technically original, and which would not have been published had the author not had the protection afforded by a patent? Was RT-Linux's status as prior art not sufficient to keep RT-Linux free from other patent claims?

mr was one of the folks who wrote about some IBM scientists who have discovered a way to transport information on the atomic scale that uses the wave nature of electrons instead of conventional wiring. The new phenomenon, called the "quantum mirage" effect, may enable data transfer within future nanoscale electronic circuits too small to use wires. Big Blue also unveiled some new chip technology, called "Interlocked Pipelined CMOS" that starts at 1 GHz, and will be able to deliver between 3.3 - 4.5 Ghz.

Christopher Pereda sends us a LA Times story about IBM demonstrating atomic scale circuitry. Or see IBM's press release. Who needs Coppermine?

PinAngel writes "IBM has released its JFS source code for Linux to the GPL. You can read more at the IBM website. " JFS is their Journaling File System - you can grab the latest tarball from their Web site.

PinAngel writes "IBM has released its JFS source code for Linux to the GPL. You can read more at the IBM website. " JFS is their Journaling File System - you can grab the latest tarball from their Web site.

PinAngel writes "IBM has released its JFS source code for Linux to the GPL. You can read more at the IBM website. " JFS is their Journaling File System - you can grab the latest tarball from their Web site.