Slashdot Mirror

alphadogg writes "Rumors are swirling yet again that Oracle wants to get cozier with Linux and at least one financial analyst says customers can expect a tighter Linux-based appliance from the database and application vendor by the end of the month."

Bob Brown writes "Harvard University doesn't usually talk much about its internal network, but here, the guy overseeing it opens up about the homegrown and commercial tools used to manage the massive system." From the article: "Harvard, as of late, has been exhibiting another telco trait - considering the network as part of the university's critical infrastructure. As such, its construction is considered during the initial planning phases of building renovation, new construction and campus expansion projects. The data networks that are being built today, at Harvard and similar institutions, are being built to host a variety of IP-based traffic. Most every physical-plant control device, whether it be security cameras, chilled water-valve actuators or parking garage card readers, are being designed to work with the IP network"

An anonymous reader asks: "Since 2002, corporate executives have been held accountable through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) for their own internal IT security (with heavy fines and even prison terms when SOX isn't complied with) despite the fact that this level of accountability doesn't exist for some critical elements of the internet. Is it high time for industry to collaborate on a stringent security doctrine to hold organizations accountable for operating, providing and commercializing Internet service, in effect a Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the Internet?"

Autoversicherung writes "Transmeta, once the darling of Silicon Valley, employer of Linus Torvalds and heralded as the new Intel is facing bleak times. Having $53.7 million in cash and short-term investments in its coffers, enough for just under two quarter's worth of operations and a reported net loss of $28.1 million and revenues of $11.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2004 the company's future is everything but certain. Will the planned restructuring to a pure IP company help?"

obiwan2u writes "According to an article on WiMaxTrends, the metropolitan area wireless networking technology (MLAN) called WiMax could reach 90% of the mainland US population if about $3 billion was spent on infrastructure. The 802.16 standard specifies a max range of about 30 miles and a max speed of about 70 Mbits/sec, but typical ranges and speeds will typically be smaller. 802.16/WiMax specifies various licensed (3.5Ghz) and unlicensed (5Ghz) frequency ranges but the unlicensed ranges have Wi-Fi like transmitting power restrictions. More background on this technology can be seen at: WiMax starting to make its move and 802.16: Medium distance wireless networking that could change the world?"

Sam Pullara asks: "I got an IM from my Mom today telling me that she couldn't find her Roomba. It somehow had escaped the kitchen and she couldn't find it anywhere, all the doors that it could reach were shut and she checked under everything. She eventually found that it had gotten into a room and closed the door behind it. Once all household items are networked I wonder if a rich environment like a house will make strange behavior like this commonplace? Will the interactions between all the individual devices create something more than the sum of their parts?"

Joel Snyder writes "Just finished looking into the innards of 40+ anti-spam products at Network World. The biggest, ugliest, and most comprehensive look at this market that's ever been done. Conclusions: lots of great products to choose from at the top (a dozen or more); a few stinkers in the bunch; and it's basically impossible to review Spam Assassin, which is unfortunate."

scumbucket writes "Network World Fusion has an interesting article about an abuse investigator for ISP Earthlink and his job of tracking down spammers. It's nice to see that major ISP's are making an effort to shut spammers down and kick them off of their networks."

scumbucket writes "Network World Fusion has an interesting article about an abuse investigator for ISP Earthlink and his job of tracking down spammers. It's nice to see that major ISP's are making an effort to shut spammers down and kick them off of their networks."

An anonymous reader writes "Network World Fusion has an article about the Internet Storm Center's inner workings. The writer follows the ISC during the day of the MyDoom-O outbreak (the one that hit Google et al.). The article talks about running W2K in vmware on top of SuSe Linux. A practice very common in malware analysis to isolate yourself from various ill effects of the malware. Other open source software receiving a mention in the article is everybodies favorite packet analyzer Ethereal."

cswilly writes "Scott Bradner of Network World has an easy-to-read and pretty complete review of the the recent goings on with copyright issues in congress and the courts. He also points to the not to be missed Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examination of the trade-offs in this area. Both are worth reading." We did mention the CBO study before.

cswilly writes "Scott Bradner of Network World has an easy-to-read and pretty complete review of the the recent goings on with copyright issues in congress and the courts. He also points to the not to be missed Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examination of the trade-offs in this area. Both are worth reading." We did mention the CBO study before.

cswilly writes "Scott Bradner of Network World has an easy-to-read and pretty complete review of the the recent goings on with copyright issues in congress and the courts. He also points to the not to be missed Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examination of the trade-offs in this area. Both are worth reading." We did mention the CBO study before.

sevej writes "Keith Shaw, in his weekly column "Wireless Computing Devices" (Network World Fusion), reported on a recent entry in AKMA's Random Thoughts where AKMA was using a public WiFi network outside of a library. A policeman approached him and asked that he only access the Internet from within the Library and hinted that Federal Laws against "signal theft" were applicable. Oh, and btw, we're not talking about a person that looked like your stereotypical 'hacker'; AKMA is an ordained priest."

sevej writes "Keith Shaw, in his weekly column "Wireless Computing Devices" (Network World Fusion), reported on a recent entry in AKMA's Random Thoughts where AKMA was using a public WiFi network outside of a library. A policeman approached him and asked that he only access the Internet from within the Library and hinted that Federal Laws against "signal theft" were applicable. Oh, and btw, we're not talking about a person that looked like your stereotypical 'hacker'; AKMA is an ordained priest."

prostoalex writes "Konstantin Gavrilenko from British security firm Arhont, co-author of Wi-Foo: Secrets of Wireless Hacking, recentlly reviewed on Slashdot, answered some of my questions on the current state of wireless security, market conditions for security experts and future trends, such as upcoming 802.1x and 802.11i standards."

TheSync writes "NetworkWorldFusion has a report that the majority of US Internet users now connect using broadband, according to NetRatings. There are 63 million broadband users (51%) and 61 million (49%) dial-up users in the US. Broadband was most prevalent among people ages 18 to 20."

bingbong writes "According to Network World: 'Amid growing worries that Windows-based medical systems will endanger patients if Microsoft-issued security patches are not applied, hospitals are rebelling against restrictions from device manufacturers that have delayed or prevented such updates. Device makers such as GE Medical Systems, Philips Medical Systems and Agfa say it typically takes months to test Microsoft patches because they could break the medical systems to which they're applied. In some instances, vendors won't authorize patch updates at all.' This is the typical patch vs. crash problem. Unfortunately, the stakes here could be human lives."

i_r_sensitive writes "NetworkWorldFusion has an article on the interaction between multi-core processors and software licensed and charged on a per-processor basis. Interesting to see how/if Oracle and others using this pricing model react. Can multi-core processors put the final nail in per-processor licensing?"

Tarantolato writes "A Sun spokesman and James Gosling now say that there are no set plans to distribute Java under an open-source license. According to Gosling, 'the debate is still going on, fast and furious'. Concerns about forking are cited, as usual."

prostoalex writes "A flashback to 5 years ago reveals 3Com as a global multi-billion dollar company, respected and revered around the world. Today Bob Metcalfe's creation is a money-losing $2 billion dollar operation trying to find its niche. The 3Com Saga from Network World magazine takes a look at the history of 3Com Corp."

prostoalex writes "Why are networked computing environments so insecure? You've heard the story before - early computers were not designed to work in the network environment, and even most software written later was designed to work on benevolent networks. As Bruce Schneier says in the preface to Building Secure Software: How to Break Code, 'We wouldn't have to spend so much time, money and effort on network security if we didn't have such bad software security.'" Read on for prostoalex's review of Exploiting Software, which aims to balance that situation somewhat. Exploiting Software: How to Break Code author Greg Hoglund, Gary McGraw pages 512 publisher Addison Wesley Professional rating 8 reviewer Alex Moskalyuk ISBN 0201786958 summary Techniques and software used to attack applications.

What kind of secure are you after? There are many published titles on the topic of software security are numerous, but most of them follow certain patterns. Building Secure Software by Viega and McGraw was mainly concerned with proper techniques and general software engineering mindset without going into specifics. Then there was Writing Secure Code , by Howard and LeBlanc, which provided concrete examples and showed the "right way" to do secure coding. I heard the title instantly became a required reading at world's largest software corporation. It's currently in its second edition.

Secure Programming Cookbook for C/C++ by Viega and Messier, was the hands-on title for those developing C/C++ application with security in mind, as the cookbook recipes generally gave examples of good code, with each chapter providing some general background information on the topic discussed (I reviewed it on Slashdot in September last year).

Just in case you were wondering, the list above wasn't just retrieved by a quick search at Amazon. My Master's degree, completed last summer, dealt with the topic of software security, and those are the titles I've read preparing to write the theoretical part.

From the other side With the variety of books on how to write secure software, and what techniques to use to make existing software more secure, there was a niche for a book targeted specifically to those who wanted to break software. Black hat or white hat, the network security experts always had titles like Hacking Exposed to give them an idea of what was available in terms of techniques and methodologies used out there. For software security most of the articles and books generally would tell you something in the terms "do not use strcpy(), as it introduces buffer overruns".

Great, so I won't use strcpy(), did it make my application more secure? Is it more or less hack-proof? What if I am a tester and required to play with this aspect of the application to ensure the application's security before the product ships? Theoretically hanging out at proper IRC rooms and getting lifetime Phrack and 2600 subscriptions should be enough to cover you at the beginning, however, the learning curve here leaves much to be desired, let alone the fact you will probably be kicked out of the IRC rooms for asking n00b questions. Another path would be to take an expensive training course by someone with a name in the industry, but the price tag for those generally leaves out self-learners and those operating on limited budgets, which adds up to about 99% of software engineers and testers out there.

Exploiting Software to the rescue.

Exploiting Software fills the void that existed in this market. Eight chapters take you through the basics and some advanced techniques of attacking software applications with the purpose of executing arbitrary code supplied by an attacker (you).

The book mainly deals with Windows applications for x86 platforms, and some knowledge of C/C++ and Win32 API is required to go through the example applications. To automate some processes and demonstrate possible attacks the authors use Perl, so knowledge of that would help the reader, too. Some chapters, (e.g. the buffer overflow one) show disassembler output, and while you're not expected to read x86 ASM code as if it were English, knowledge of how the registers work and how the subprocedure calls are handled on this Intel architecture are required. After all, if potential attackers know it, you better familiarize yourself with some low-level code, too.

While discussing various possible attacks, the authors post different attack patterns. The patterns themselves usually appear in gray textboxes and talk about the possible exploit in general terms. After that, a series of attack examples follow, with specific descriptions on what can be done, and how. For example, the attack pattern on page 165 is titled "Leverage executable code in non-executable files." The following attack example is "Executable fonts," and it talks how the font files are generally treated by the Windows systems (they are a special form of DLLs). Thus it's possible to embed some executable code into a font library you're creating, for which the authors provide an example in Microsoft Visual Studio.

What's cool is that all the attack patterns are listed in a separate table of contents (alas, not on the Web site table of contents, which just lists the chapters and subchapters), so you can browse to the attack pattern you decide to learn about, read some general info about it and then study specific examples. The examples themselves are not in the table of contents, which I think is a mistake, as it would make searching for possible patterns much easier. After all, how are you supposed to know that "Informix database file system" (p. 189) is under "Relative path traversal" pattern? Well, unless you know specifically that the line http://[Informix database host]/ifx/?LO=../../../etc/ is the one discussed in the example, you would have to either go through the index hoping no omissions were made, or read the chapter in its entirety.

One of the best chapters of the book, Reverse Engineering and Program Understanding, which provides a good introduction into techniques used throughout the book, is available online from Addison Wesley. By having a free chapter you already have 1/8th of the book, but don't think that the low number of chapters makes this 512-page title an introductory book.

Target Audience

Looks like there are two major audiences and reading patterns for this book: those wanting to fix their systems ASAP and thus using Exploiting Software as a reference, and those using it as a text book to learn about security. I've discussed the organization of the book above, and the reference types will probably be more interested in patterns and examples. For a casual reader (although casual readers wouldn't generally pick up a title with C++, Perl, ASM and hex dumps spread around the chapters) this is a book with great educational value, from two authors who have discovered numerous security vulnerabilities themselves.

Exploiting Software is not an easy title to read. Addison-Wesley shipped me the manuscript copy a month before it hit the bookshelves in its final version, and I found myself going through about two pages an hour. The authors bring up sometimes unfamiliar Win32 APIs and occasionally use ready-made tools available on the Web, so generally I found myself visiting MSDN and Google a lot to read through available documentation and download the latest version of the tools used. The book doesn't come with a CD. Some of the stuff, like inserting a malicious BGP packet to exploit a Cisco router (p. 281) is not really testable at home, and I have some reservations about verifying the example with my employer's routers.

The book is probably apt for 2nd or 3rd year computer science students and above. Besides the variety of languages that I mentioned above, you need to be familiar with the basics of Intel architecture, and generally be fluent with terminology like "buffer," "stack," "syscall," "rootkit," etc., as this is not an "Introduction to..." title. From my experience, you probably won't read it from page 1 to page 512 understanding everything perfectly, but for anyone interested in security and those making a career in software development it looks like a bookshelf must-have.

I interviewed Gary McGraw on the current state of software security, the relevance of the topic to the issues beyond C/C++ and improper buffer usage, and future directions in security. Network World magazine also ran an interview with the McGraw in which he talks about the reception of the book at the RSA Conference, whether the economics is right to invest in building secure systems, and whether his book does more harm by providing a compendium of known exploits.

Alex has written numerous reviews of other software and security titles. You can read more of his opinions at his Web site. You can purchase Exploiting Software: How to Break Code from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

sammy baby writes "Software missing its ship date is commonplace enough that it's usually only mentioned for yuks. However, subscribers to Microsoft's Software Assurance program are discovering that it can have some very real repercussions. According to NetworkWorld, many licencees are discovering that due to slipping release dates, many thousands of dollars spent on these contracts have brought them zero return."

securitas writes "Products using the emerging IEEE 802.16 WiMax wireless broadband standard should be available early in 2005. WiMax's hundreds of megabits per second bandwidth looks promising to many vendors and service providers who met in San Jose at last week's Wireless Communications Association (WCA) International Technical Symposium & Business Expo. The point-to-multipoint 802.16d standard, with a 50-kilometre range, is expected to be complete by February, ratified in March and deployed in the first quarter of 2005." (Read on for more.)

"The IEEE 802.16e spec, which will support mobile applications, is expected to be complete by early 2005. Nextel, Sprint and BellSouth are all interested in the technology to deploy services like streaming video and TV, wireless phones, and high-speed Internet service in unserved, low-density areas near high-density ones. Mobile operators in developing countries like Brazil's NEOTEC group have already successfully tested an 802.16 wireless broadband deployment. Intel communications group executive VP and GM, Sean Maloney, is banking on it. From the article: 'We believe that WiMax can happen, and be widely deployed, and be a big deal in the next three years the same way Wi-Fi has been a big deal the last two years.' Mirrors at Network World Fusion, Techworld and PCWorld. What happens when techies start to build their own 802.16x WiMax VoIP systems?"

Lownewulf writes "This NetworkWorldFusion article describes the release of the GB15629.11-2003 wireless networking standard in China, a wireless standard similar to 802.11, but with better security. The IEEE is worried that this may lead to the need to support two different standards in wireless networking hardware." ziggyboy adds a link to CNET's article, noting that "all wireless devices sold in China are required to comply to this standard from December 1."

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft last week published a document on its Web site that describes how the company manages security on its own 300,000 node corporate network. The document is basically a dry discussion of IT risk management strategy, with lots of references to 'asset classes' and 'stakeholders,' and about five, nearly identical 'cycle of life' type diagrams showing how one risk management strategy leads to the next and so on, in a never-ending process. However, the document does open a window on how the biggest, richest software company in the world does security: from the deployment of 65,000 smart cards (let's see, at $50 a piece, that comes to....?), to MS's admission that 'there is a medium to high probability that within the next year, a successful attack will occur that could compromise the High Value and/or Highest Value data class.' According to the document, that includes things such as source code or human resources data."

john82 writes "In an interesting and insightful article, NetworkWorld Fusion discusses how lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting the RIAA's attempts to monitor their customers. As we've heard before, RIAA wants the telcos to report when users download any copyrighted material. Lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting back. They also claim that the RIAA is trying to grant themselves powers that are outside of even the Patriot Act. Now where have heard that before? NWFusion also points out that RIAAs handwaving, threats, tantrums have less to do with protecting the rights of musicians, than with protecting the revenue stream created by an out-of-date distribution system." In other RIAA news, taped2thedesk writes "According to the Washington Post and Ars Technica, the RIAA will now contact P2P users before suing them." The RIAA's not so bad, they'll settle out of court over the phone, if you don't mind paying up instead of getting a lawyer.

john82 writes "In an interesting and insightful article, NetworkWorld Fusion discusses how lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting the RIAA's attempts to monitor their customers. As we've heard before, RIAA wants the telcos to report when users download any copyrighted material. Lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting back. They also claim that the RIAA is trying to grant themselves powers that are outside of even the Patriot Act. Now where have heard that before? NWFusion also points out that RIAAs handwaving, threats, tantrums have less to do with protecting the rights of musicians, than with protecting the revenue stream created by an out-of-date distribution system." In other RIAA news, taped2thedesk writes "According to the Washington Post and Ars Technica, the RIAA will now contact P2P users before suing them." The RIAA's not so bad, they'll settle out of court over the phone, if you don't mind paying up instead of getting a lawyer.

john82 writes "In an interesting and insightful article, NetworkWorld Fusion discusses how lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting the RIAA's attempts to monitor their customers. As we've heard before, RIAA wants the telcos to report when users download any copyrighted material. Lawyers for SBC and Verizon are fighting back. They also claim that the RIAA is trying to grant themselves powers that are outside of even the Patriot Act. Now where have heard that before? NWFusion also points out that RIAAs handwaving, threats, tantrums have less to do with protecting the rights of musicians, than with protecting the revenue stream created by an out-of-date distribution system." In other RIAA news, taped2thedesk writes "According to the Washington Post and Ars Technica, the RIAA will now contact P2P users before suing them." The RIAA's not so bad, they'll settle out of court over the phone, if you don't mind paying up instead of getting a lawyer.

What Can You Expect From A University Named "UH?" writes "Eric S. Raymond responds to Darl McBride's charge that he's drinking IBM's Kool-Aid in SCO's fight against Linux. The main thrust: Yes, there is an alliance against SCO, but, like the Open Source movement itself, it arises from lots of folks spontaneously striving for a common goal. 'It's beyond me how [you] can have the gall to talk as though we need funding or marching orders from IBM to mobilize against you. IBM couldn't stop us from mobilizing!' "

Anonymous Coward writes "Finally, a much awaited review of enterprise OSes. The guys from NW Test Alliance pitted Red Hat, UnitedLinux, and Windows against each other and rated them on several rubrics. Red Hat won by a slight margin on the basis of its high hardware compatibility and strong security integration."

Anonymous Coward writes "Finally, a much awaited review of enterprise OSes. The guys from NW Test Alliance pitted Red Hat, UnitedLinux, and Windows against each other and rated them on several rubrics. Red Hat won by a slight margin on the basis of its high hardware compatibility and strong security integration."

k-hell writes "It seems like Apple's QuickTime 6 is becoming standard on some 44 million Japanese mobile phones. Apple and many other companies are pressuring hard to make MPEG-4 the industry standard for video-on-demand services in 3G cellular networks, and to keep Microsoft and its proprietary Windows Media out of the mobile phones market."

BugNuker writes "If your CD/MP3 player wasn't enough, you have to check this out. Sony has released this all in one media device that can play mp3's, wma's, cd's, and DVD's... yes, DVD's. It can be hooked up to your computer, and be used as a CD-RW and then hooked up to your TV, and play your favorite DVD's. But can it play my mp3's recorded on my DVD? Ultimate media device I would say, same size as a personal cd player. Comes with a Memory Stick expansion slot, a rechargeable battery and a USB 2.0/1.1 interface." There's a picture. It's cute. And expensive.

TheBongPipe writes "I'm reading a nice test here about 7 commercial IDSs. Who won the prize? Nobody..." They also looked at Snort, but found that all the products generated way too many false alarms.

Steve Hamlin writes "In reading on Slashdot about the increasing cost of cable broadband (and DSL is no cheaper), I ran across this article about a neighborhood that put together a co-op for DSL broadband. From a DSLAM housed in a barn to microwave relays, a frame relay T-1, and problems with Qwest, the whole deal."

Steve Hamlin writes "In reading on Slashdot about the increasing cost of cable broadband (and DSL is no cheaper), I ran across this article about a neighborhood that put together a co-op for DSL broadband. From a DSLAM housed in a barn to microwave relays, a frame relay T-1, and problems with Qwest, the whole deal."

duckygator writes: "I just came across this article on NetworkWorld discussing Time Warner's announcement that they will begin charging users a fee for exceeding a monthly download limit. The actual limits and associated fees aren't discussed. Guess I knew this would be coming sooner or later ... Now I guess I'll just have to guess where the threshold will be. Anything more than email? Active gamer? Graphic artist?"

saridder writes "In an increasing attempt to regulate the Internet like the current PSTN, the US Government has asked the IETF to come up with a system to prioritize government and emergency worker traffic in the event of another disaster, much like the GETS system already in place for the PSTN. It's interesting to follow, because it's only an RFC, so you don't have to follow it. I probably won't be prioritizing government traffic on any of my routers." The story has a link to the ieprep working group if you want to get involved or comment. Perhaps this is a better way than GOVNET.

nakhla writes: "I came across this article which states that Network Associates has given up the search for a buyer for its PGP division. The company has laid off 18 workers, and plans to continue to maintain the product for one year. It's a good thing that there are still products like GnuPG and others out there for people who need cheap, reliable encryption."

ennuiner writes: "NetworkWorld is running a story this week about the IETF's efforts to help create a universal standard for multimedia messaging. According to the article, a new protocol is needed because the volume of mp3 traffic on AOL could reach the point "to either swamp out the rest of the Internet or to require major engineering.""

ennuiner writes: "NetworkWorld is running a story this week about the IETF's efforts to help create a universal standard for multimedia messaging. According to the article, a new protocol is needed because the volume of mp3 traffic on AOL could reach the point "to either swamp out the rest of the Internet or to require major engineering.""

mutantcamel writes: "A report on NetworkFusion states that SuSE has avoided insolvency thanks to a fresh round of investment that raised $45.5 million for the ailing company. IBM and Intel are among the players that have announced their support for the company. The rescue package comes after quite a turbulent time at SuSE HQ, but the company seems optimistic about the future."

A reader writes "MPLS, or Multi-protocol Label Switching, seems to be a popular choice for router vendors nowadays until two AT&T researchers argue it differently. They "say MPLS create serious network management challenges for Internet backbone providers." "Even more dire are their warnings about potential security and privacy problems for companies that deploy MPLS-based VPNs." This issue will be discussed on an IETF meeting held this week in London. More details here ." Related to the IETF ^[?] , this submission came in: The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is now meeting in London for IETF-51. You can watch multicast sessions. "

SpunOne writes: "According to this article, the Internet is growing faster than today's routers can handle. After years of predictable growth, the size of the routing table and traffic in it exploded during the past six months, topping 104,000 entries in March, compared with 75,000 a year ago. Even more troubling is evidence that frequent updates to the routing table entries by network managers are causing instability in the Internet's backbone routing infrastructure."

Xanni writes "Intellectual property claims have blindsided the Internet Engineering Task Force and could derail the group's efforts to develop a common scheme for supporting foreign-language domain names across the Internet. NWFusion is carrying the story."

cdlu sent in a follow-up to the SSH dispute - the IETF has rejected a request from SSH, the company, to change the name of SSH, the protocol. This will save a lot of people from typing 'ln -s /usr/bin/secsh /usr/bin/ssh'.

If you want to get muddy without paying huge corporations for the privilege, you may be interested in an Open Source MUD Engine some whippernappers have put together. If the idea of a WAP browser for the VIC20 is just a bit too obscure (and you don't have an spare PC to use as a proxy for it), have no fear. More on "enterprise level" features (take 2 buzzwords and call me in the morning), and how DigitalConvergence is being beaten with a Cue stick. All this and more, below.

More information to slip anonymously under Big Boss' door. digitaleopard writes: "Hey, the last posted story doesn't tell the whole scoop on the NWFusion articles. They are actually a group of stories in their 'technology Insider' banner, including pieces on the new enterprise level features in the latest kernels and their testing of these versions The main link page for all the stories is here."

Clearer thinking requires MUDdy vision. Sony / Verant may not like you to use servers other than the ones they provide for their multi-user games. Not everyone feels that way, so you can choose if you'd like to use a Free game in the first place. captaint writes: "The Open Source Graphical MUD Dusk has just gone into version 1.5. For those who haven't seen it yet, which should be just about everyone, it's just what it says it is. It's a fully functional OS G-MUD, which is open to anyone who wants to play, contribute, or start their own world."

In the 15 countries which have signed the Schengen agreement. An informant too shy to be named writes:"I saw a story on Slashdot about electronic ID cards in Hong Kong, so I wanted to let you know (if you didn't know yet) that there are already electronic ID cards in use in Finland. I don't yet know much about what you can do with one, but the official page explains: official page explains.=)"

And yes, it's short, but in English;)

Anyone else addicted to "Aztec" as a child? OK, ok, so a VIC20 as a WAP browser is of limited usefulness. These guys have some more important, utilitarian things to do, like ... browse the Web on a C64.

Gaelyne writes: "A story about the WAVE was posted at heise online earlier this year, but since then the software has had it's first public release and is Open Source - a direct result of the author having been influenced by Linux and other open source projects. Screen shots of the Web browser are also available."

And never one to give up hope, an unnamed correspondent writes:"Further to the news that Wine runs Excel and Word 2000, I'd like to report that OS/2 can run Photoshop 5.0. Seen here at http://os2.ru/soft/odin/gallery.phtml are the screenshots of the some of the programs that OS/2 now runs with Odin, the Win32 binary 'converter'. Functionality and reliability of Photoshop will increase as work continues. Odin has really begun to move forward in recent months, with the number of apps you can run increasing as more of the Wine code is brought in. Other apps such as Lotus Notes and RealPlayer 7 having been working for ages..."

Your host this evening will be Mr. Alan Cox. Paul Maragakis writes: "The European Commission has launched consultations via the Internet on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. As is mentioned in this announcement, enterprises favouring the "open source community" have raised concerns about software patents. You can all contribute until December 15 to help them reach a rational decision on what and why software concepts should or should not be patentable."

Someone is laughing all the way to the bank ... An anonymous reader writes: "http://www.paperclick.com/press/oct1900.htm Digital Convergence has agreed to pay NeoMedia $100 million (including $8 million in cash the first year) to license their patent, which basically covers using a printed ID to link back to content on the Web (sounds suspiciously like using a printed URL to reference a Web page, but oh well)."

This being a press-release, the tone is downright cheery, and this is described as a "win=win" situation for all involved. Can you imagine the boardroom conversations this must have inspired, though? "Y'know, Bob, I think it would be a real win to pay another company one hundred million dollars, don't you?" "You're right, Pete -- that sounds great to me."

If you want to get muddy without paying huge corporations for the privilege, you may be interested in an Open Source MUD Engine some whippernappers have put together. If the idea of a WAP browser for the VIC20 is just a bit too obscure (and you don't have an spare PC to use as a proxy for it), have no fear. More on "enterprise level" features (take 2 buzzwords and call me in the morning), and how DigitalConvergence is being beaten with a Cue stick. All this and more, below.

More information to slip anonymously under Big Boss' door. digitaleopard writes: "Hey, the last posted story doesn't tell the whole scoop on the NWFusion articles. They are actually a group of stories in their 'technology Insider' banner, including pieces on the new enterprise level features in the latest kernels and their testing of these versions The main link page for all the stories is here."

Clearer thinking requires MUDdy vision. Sony / Verant may not like you to use servers other than the ones they provide for their multi-user games. Not everyone feels that way, so you can choose if you'd like to use a Free game in the first place. captaint writes: "The Open Source Graphical MUD Dusk has just gone into version 1.5. For those who haven't seen it yet, which should be just about everyone, it's just what it says it is. It's a fully functional OS G-MUD, which is open to anyone who wants to play, contribute, or start their own world."

In the 15 countries which have signed the Schengen agreement. An informant too shy to be named writes:"I saw a story on Slashdot about electronic ID cards in Hong Kong, so I wanted to let you know (if you didn't know yet) that there are already electronic ID cards in use in Finland. I don't yet know much about what you can do with one, but the official page explains: official page explains.=)"

And yes, it's short, but in English;)

Anyone else addicted to "Aztec" as a child? OK, ok, so a VIC20 as a WAP browser is of limited usefulness. These guys have some more important, utilitarian things to do, like ... browse the Web on a C64.

Gaelyne writes: "A story about the WAVE was posted at heise online earlier this year, but since then the software has had it's first public release and is Open Source - a direct result of the author having been influenced by Linux and other open source projects. Screen shots of the Web browser are also available."

And never one to give up hope, an unnamed correspondent writes:"Further to the news that Wine runs Excel and Word 2000, I'd like to report that OS/2 can run Photoshop 5.0. Seen here at http://os2.ru/soft/odin/gallery.phtml are the screenshots of the some of the programs that OS/2 now runs with Odin, the Win32 binary 'converter'. Functionality and reliability of Photoshop will increase as work continues. Odin has really begun to move forward in recent months, with the number of apps you can run increasing as more of the Wine code is brought in. Other apps such as Lotus Notes and RealPlayer 7 having been working for ages..."

Your host this evening will be Mr. Alan Cox. Paul Maragakis writes: "The European Commission has launched consultations via the Internet on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. As is mentioned in this announcement, enterprises favouring the "open source community" have raised concerns about software patents. You can all contribute until December 15 to help them reach a rational decision on what and why software concepts should or should not be patentable."

Someone is laughing all the way to the bank ... An anonymous reader writes: "http://www.paperclick.com/press/oct1900.htm Digital Convergence has agreed to pay NeoMedia $100 million (including $8 million in cash the first year) to license their patent, which basically covers using a printed ID to link back to content on the Web (sounds suspiciously like using a printed URL to reference a Web page, but oh well)."

This being a press-release, the tone is downright cheery, and this is described as a "win=win" situation for all involved. Can you imagine the boardroom conversations this must have inspired, though? "Y'know, Bob, I think it would be a real win to pay another company one hundred million dollars, don't you?" "You're right, Pete -- that sounds great to me."

If you want to get muddy without paying huge corporations for the privilege, you may be interested in an Open Source MUD Engine some whippernappers have put together. If the idea of a WAP browser for the VIC20 is just a bit too obscure (and you don't have an spare PC to use as a proxy for it), have no fear. More on "enterprise level" features (take 2 buzzwords and call me in the morning), and how DigitalConvergence is being beaten with a Cue stick. All this and more, below.

More information to slip anonymously under Big Boss' door. digitaleopard writes: "Hey, the last posted story doesn't tell the whole scoop on the NWFusion articles. They are actually a group of stories in their 'technology Insider' banner, including pieces on the new enterprise level features in the latest kernels and their testing of these versions The main link page for all the stories is here."

Clearer thinking requires MUDdy vision. Sony / Verant may not like you to use servers other than the ones they provide for their multi-user games. Not everyone feels that way, so you can choose if you'd like to use a Free game in the first place. captaint writes: "The Open Source Graphical MUD Dusk has just gone into version 1.5. For those who haven't seen it yet, which should be just about everyone, it's just what it says it is. It's a fully functional OS G-MUD, which is open to anyone who wants to play, contribute, or start their own world."

In the 15 countries which have signed the Schengen agreement. An informant too shy to be named writes:"I saw a story on Slashdot about electronic ID cards in Hong Kong, so I wanted to let you know (if you didn't know yet) that there are already electronic ID cards in use in Finland. I don't yet know much about what you can do with one, but the official page explains: official page explains.=)"

And yes, it's short, but in English;)

Anyone else addicted to "Aztec" as a child? OK, ok, so a VIC20 as a WAP browser is of limited usefulness. These guys have some more important, utilitarian things to do, like ... browse the Web on a C64.

Gaelyne writes: "A story about the WAVE was posted at heise online earlier this year, but since then the software has had it's first public release and is Open Source - a direct result of the author having been influenced by Linux and other open source projects. Screen shots of the Web browser are also available."

And never one to give up hope, an unnamed correspondent writes:"Further to the news that Wine runs Excel and Word 2000, I'd like to report that OS/2 can run Photoshop 5.0. Seen here at http://os2.ru/soft/odin/gallery.phtml are the screenshots of the some of the programs that OS/2 now runs with Odin, the Win32 binary 'converter'. Functionality and reliability of Photoshop will increase as work continues. Odin has really begun to move forward in recent months, with the number of apps you can run increasing as more of the Wine code is brought in. Other apps such as Lotus Notes and RealPlayer 7 having been working for ages..."

Your host this evening will be Mr. Alan Cox. Paul Maragakis writes: "The European Commission has launched consultations via the Internet on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. As is mentioned in this announcement, enterprises favouring the "open source community" have raised concerns about software patents. You can all contribute until December 15 to help them reach a rational decision on what and why software concepts should or should not be patentable."

Someone is laughing all the way to the bank ... An anonymous reader writes: "http://www.paperclick.com/press/oct1900.htm Digital Convergence has agreed to pay NeoMedia $100 million (including $8 million in cash the first year) to license their patent, which basically covers using a printed ID to link back to content on the Web (sounds suspiciously like using a printed URL to reference a Web page, but oh well)."

This being a press-release, the tone is downright cheery, and this is described as a "win=win" situation for all involved. Can you imagine the boardroom conversations this must have inspired, though? "Y'know, Bob, I think it would be a real win to pay another company one hundred million dollars, don't you?" "You're right, Pete -- that sounds great to me."