Slashdot Mirror

SEWilco writes "As Slashdot readers know, today's date abbreviated as 9999 may cause problems in some older computers. So far only one report of a Tandy problem. 9s-day no problem in New Zealand and Hong Kong, Guam OK and USA still has electric power on 9/9/99. But seriously, folks, today is a big day for numerologists, pagans, and Nostradamus. So far today the NASA Near-Earth Object Program has not seen a comet coming to hit us. But what is so special about the Era of Alexandria 7491 anyway?"

vectro writes "This article from the San Jose Mercury News says there is a new ruling that you need more than a trademark to force someone to give up a domain name. The actual domain names in question were avery.net and dennison.net (Trademarks of Avery Dennison, the label company but also common last names), but this is a great precedent."

vectro writes "This article from the San Jose Mercury News says there is a new ruling that you need more than a trademark to force someone to give up a domain name. The actual domain names in question were avery.net and dennison.net (Trademarks of Avery Dennison, the label company but also common last names), but this is a great precedent."

Hobbes_ sent us an amusing little story that talks about some MS Employee forging some email to some guy trying to raise heat against AOL. Just read the article, its more than just a little bizarre.

Here is some more info about the live penguins which appeared at Linux World. Some participants complained about the penguins' small cage and stress due to the number of people around.

toe bee writes "An article at the Merc claims that some social scientists believe that folks like slashdotters, the geeks of yore, are going to be the social elite of the next century and that the 'geek/nerd' facade is quickly fading. There is justice... or is there?" Uh, oh. I can see heads starting to swell already. Well, at least it's easier to become a member of the meritocracy-based "Net Set" mentioned in the article than it was to make it into the old-fashioned "Jet Set," and (IMO) the average 21st Century Net-Setter is more likely to be worth knowing than most Jet-Setters ever were.

Tony Garcia writes "Apparently, LucasFilms was not happy to find out that PM videos were being distributed over the 'net; they hired a mean team of badass lawyers to take care. The story at SiliconValley News. "

untulis writes "HP Labs and UCLA researchers have apparently been able to produce logic gates via chemical processes rarher than standard lithography, making gates only a few atoms in size, according to Saturday's San Jose Mercury News. The article describes the gates as being a thousand times smaller than current gates. Mass production is at least a decade away, if the process turns out to be commerically feasible. "

Blorgo wrote in with the news that Pacific HiTech has announced the bundling of IBM's DB2 Universal Database with TurboLinux. IBM is just rolling in the news today. It also appears that the companies have also agreed to work on future editions of both work together more smoothly.

Normally I reserve stories about Slashdot to the quickies bin, but this article is getting submitted so many times that if I don't post it, I'll spend the rest of the day deleting it from the submissions box. Bill Longabaugh wrote in to send us a piece by Dan Gillmor over at the San Jose Mercury News about Slashdot. It's a nice little 'Slashdot as a weblog' piece apparently designed to stroke my ego. Update: 05/25 03:42 by CT : I've begun rewriting the Moderator Guidelines, so if you're interested, please check them out and submit comments (or diffs :)

Mr. Slurpee writes "The San Jose Mercury News has a good article on LAN parties (bunch of gamers get together with their computers, and frag away on LAN games - Quake, Starcraft, etc.). Puts gamers in a positive light, disputes that gaming causes violence, and talks about the growing international gaming leages. Well written, clear, and unbiased. "

Cjoh writes "Apparently Slashdot users aren't the only ones ticked off at the new Internic.net site change. The government is pretty ticked off too." I'd say that NSI recognizes their time is ending, as the switchover to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers draws near. Mmm...I just love crass commercialism!

Skeezix sent us a San Jose Mercury article that reports on a $299 PC being sold by Microworkz. For the first time I guess, PCs cost about as much as TV. The computer in every home dream is getting closer to reality. " Update: 03/16 03:29 by S : In related news, PC Free is to ship Linux-based computers for $40 a month including Internet-Access, initially as a trial run. Link from LinuxToday

Igor wrote in with a link to a San Jose Mercury article about the discovery of the "Windows ID", and claims it "has been quietly used to create a vast database of personal information about computer users." It seems Windows 98 and other programs, like Office, embed a unique ID based on a MAC address into every document created (Office), or even submit an ID unique to a user during Windows Update (where it specifically says Microsoft will not send any information like that). The Intel thing never bothered me too much, but I'm not so sure about this...

Karim sent us a link to a sweet little article on Douglas Engelbart, best known as being the who invented that mouse thing that has completely changed the landscape of the computing world. The article is interesting- about research, and finance, and the industry as a whole. Worth a read.

Nothing I like better than post X-Files quickies. Oh wait. That came out wrong. (rimshot) I should post some links quick to cover up my terrible joke: Eduardo Silva sent us a link to the online version of At RMSs Essay from Open Sources. It's on the past, present and future of the FSF. Jaws sent us a link to a Katz article at Mercury Center called The End of the Microsoft Age. Dan Guisinger sent us a link to some new Rio Accessories including a remote control that plugs into the headphone jack. Andy King sent us a link to the Web Reference entry for the Slashdot Effect Elphin sent us a link to a nifty poster of the Netscape color palette. GtHS sent us a link to an article that the trillions of you who continue to submit the hamster dance will like: It's the Penguin Dance. Pete Rijks sent us a link to the Scary Squirrels for all you conspiracy nuts. GTM writes The Net Wars Trilogy, a strange net parody of a certain trilogy you might like. baegucb sent us a link to another site on the hot topic of furby mutiliation. This time with a microwave. jchildress@netspeak.com sent us a link to another scary patent. How does this stuff get in the system?

There are lots of stories about Windows Refund Day. As I predicted, nobody got refunds, as referenced in this ZDNet Story. Chris is quoted near the end. Here's a Nando Times story, a wired story, an MSNBC Story, a San Jose Mercury Story, and a Washington Post story. (All sent in by anonymous readers). Macerick sent us A front Pager from the NY times. And finally, Marc Merlin sent us his own report which features the Story and Pictures.

Unix' server market share is growing faster than NT's Unix grew 6.7% while NT grew 6.5% from 9.7% to 16.2%. At the moment other OS's are losing ground. It'd be interesting to know what share of the Unix market Linux/*BSD now have. This link was also found at Linux Preview.

The San Jose Mercury news is suggesting that Sun may be thinking of making the JDK open-source. Ed: Had they done this earlier their "write-once, run-everywhere" motto might now be true. Trying to keep everything proprietary probably cost them an early victory. Sharing and letting everyone participate may have resulted in lower expected profits but also in some profits. Right now IBM has more people working on Java than Sun, while HP has more experience in some fields Sun is trying to develop definitive APIs for. Although late, openness could restore Java's momentum.

Larry Augustin writes "A friend and fellow Linux advocate Charles Booher faces the grand jury today on charges that he violated federal export laws by making encryption software available on the Internet. I haven't talked to Charles since this started, but I'm sure he could use your help and support. I've pledged a donation from VA Research. I'd encourage others who can help him to do so in any way they can. I'll post more info on how people can help once I talk to Charles."

Nick Moffitt writes " Industry giant Microsoft just opened their new 32-acre Silicon Valley campus one block away from Penguin Computing. We at Penguin have received intelligence that this was not accidental, and that the legacy OS manufacturer is attempting to squash our innovation. As a retaliatory measure, we plan to announce construction of our 64-acre Redmond campus, with satellite buildings in Seattle, Factoria, Bothell, and Tukwilla, effectively surrounding our competition. "

Joe Larkin writes "Dave Barry examines the Microsoft Situation in his latest column " Gotta dig Dave Barry. I think I have like 12 of his books now. He's definately a cool geek...

One of the best ideas I've heard of in a long idea is to use ICBMs for Millenium Fireworks! Dave (the most Pyromaniac of my roommates) fully endorses this and wishes to be a part of it in any way possible. It's crazy. It's fun. But it also is thursday, so enjoy *grin*. Thanks to Mark 'Hex' Hershberger for sending this our way.