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jamiefaye asks: "The San Jose Mercury News mentions that a digital signature bill has passed Congress by a lopsided margin of 426-4. Many states allow citizens to petition to pass laws through 'Citizens Initiatives' -- a process made difficult by the need to gather thousands of signatures on paper. Having digital signatures could make this much easier. What kind of legal changes can we expect if the somebody could throw up a Web page, attract attention, and pass a law? I would make telemarketers obey an 'opt-out list' for starters." Possibly, but this is one of the better ideas I've hear on the use of digital signatures. Thoughts? Update: 06/27 08:45 by C :Quite a number of you have pointed out that this bill is about Electric signatures and not Digital signatures as the story originally indicated. An electronic "signature" can be something as simple as clicking 'I agree' or pressing '1' on your phone. And now Congress wants such actions to be legally binding (Congress passed this unanimously, it was the House of Representatives that passed it by a vote of 426-4)? You can get more information by reading this analysis of the bill at Cryptome. This is not good. Also, the link to the above SJ Mercury article now seems to be invalid, but you can find more information on this from CNN. Thanks to all the folks who pointed this out, both in this discussion and by sending in submissions.

The Digital Divas are devoted to helping women get together to learn from each other in the world of Web design. More than that, the Divas organize Grey Day, an annual effort to spotlight the dangers of unlicensed copyright use and plagiarism on the Web. And, oh yes -- it appears that Microsoft has stolen their trademark.

Founded in 1997, the Digital Divas have grown to a membership of 71 women around the world. In addition to championing copyright enforcement, they also provide a free, member-written digital newsletter that provides Web-design help and advice.

In April, Microsoft launched a Web site at Digitaldiva.com that features a woman named Stacy Elliott giving advice to women on how to use the Internet and computer technology. This is all very corporate, and is not the community effort set up by the Digital Divas. For example, Microsoft provides marketing information on their target audience right off of the Digital Diva site.

The Digital Divas aren't rolling in cash. Thankfully, the lawyers at Moses & Singer wrote a pro bono cease and desist letter to Microsoft, but Microsoft's site still remains up and active.

Dana Whitmire, founder and 'Fearless Leader' of the Digital Divas, is mad as hell. "The whole thing makes me very angry, and it's frustrating. We've worked very hard to build a sound reputation and a good group, and I think we've done a good job. It's extremely infuriating that Microsoft comes along and takes the name with their power, money and PR machine behind them and the possibility that they can just run over us and undo everything we've done."

At first glance, it seems as if the problem could be purely accidental. However, research into the Digital Divas name shows a staggering number of Web sites and resources run by members of the Digital Divas. So, Dana, what are the chances that this could be a simple mistake? "We feel the chances are virtually nil. If anyone searched any search engine, there is no possible way they they could not have found us. We've grown steadily, and this is something that we've done with just elbow grease, pure and simple. It's all been very grassroots. We don't have a big publicity machine behind us. This has been the individual members pouring heart and soul into it."

Microsoft has responded to the cease and desist letter sent by the Digital Divas, informing the Divas that they didn't feel that 'Digital Diva' was a trademarkable term, according to Digital Diva and Attorney Faith Kaminski. "Our response to them has been showing them that we've had continuous use of the name dating from 1997, and it includes printouts from Network Solutions, and E-mails dating back to November of 1997."

Meanwhile, Microsoft is stepping up the appearance schedule of Stacy Elliott, their own Digital Diva. The 'original' Divas are angry not only for the alleged trademark violation, but also because of the way in which Stacy Elliott presents herself, and the name Digital Diva. Stacy Elliot's recent interview at siliconvalley.com got the Divas in an uproar. "She's just continuing her stance that women are such idiots when it comes to computers, that we're so afraid of them," Dana said in an interview yesterday, "It's really, really, condescending. ... The damage that we're suffering is that damage to our reputation. Our reputation is not for being a bunch of women who are idiots about computers. Our reputation is being people who are very computer-savvy, and this woman is trashing that by going around saying 'I'm a Digital Diva, and all women are morons.'"

Remember, it costs nothing to join the Digital Divas. It's a free organization. There's not a lot of money lying around to support a legal fight. Dana Whitmire has a day job. The organization exists because of the goodwill and volunteerism of talented people, not as the fruit of a vast payroll account. The good news is that Friends of Ed, Ltd., a division of Wrox Press, is publishing 'The Digital Divas Design Guide,' a real-world book with Web-design advice. Wrox Press heard about the legal issues that the Divas are involved in, and offered them a $10,000 advance to pay for legal fees. Moses & Singer agreed to match that amount with services, and will be fighting for the Divas all the way up through a preliminary injunction hearing against Microsoft.

Well, what's next? The Digital Divas have written back to Microsoft with a mountain of evidence that they've been around since 1997, and expect to see a response from Microsoft by noon today, Wednesday, May 31st. Thanks to the dynamic nature of the Web, expect to see this story updated with new information about this legal battle.

dan of the north was the first to write in with the Supreme Court Ruling outcome that ruled that ISPs (in this case, Prodigy), are not liable for the content of e-mail messages sent through them. The details of the circumstance are availible in the above link. Yes, this was a big "duh", but it's good to see this stand.

scm alerted us to a story in the San Jose Mercury News about some new technology which uses the reflected signals from cell phones to map traffic patterns. But it also seems to be able to track individual users as well by mapping those reflections to their physical location. Wonder which use will be the most "valuable"?

scm alerted us to a story in the San Jose Mercury News about some new technology which uses the reflected signals from cell phones to map traffic patterns. But it also seems to be able to track individual users as well by mapping those reflections to their physical location. Wonder which use will be the most "valuable"?

Willie_the_Wimp writes "A venture capitalist is turning Mir into a vacation getaway. I thought this story was really interesting. With all the Silicon Valley millionaires sprouting like poppies, I bet they will have a waiting list a mile long. I know the risks, but sign me up! "

djneko writes "Looks like it was the real deal with the MSN instant rebate thing, because Microsoft pulled the deal in California and Oregon today after approximately half the state flocked to Best Buy and Office Depot to get their free toys. " I did hear from several people who got it, and others who didn't.

Several people have submitted links to several stories about China banning the use of Win2k in government to encourage indigenous software. Here is a story from The San Jose Mercury, and one from South China Ministry. They will instead be required to use Red Flag Linux, which is being developed by Chinese Researchers.

You've almost certainly heard that the DVD CCA [Copyright Control Association] is trying to get a restraining order that would force hundreds of Web sites to remove all links to information about DeCSS. Slashdot is one of the named sites. The hearing is today, in San Jose, California. If you can get there, we urge you to go and help "show the flag." You won't be alone. If you can't make it in person, stay tuned. We'll have updates throughout the day. Meanwhile, click below now for news, opinions from various members of the Slashdot crew, and a long list of links to other resources and stories elsewhere about the DVD CCA's attempt to not only stop DeCSS, but to stifle anyone who publishes or links to information about DeCSS. Update at 1:20 p.m. EST. (Please see bottom of the story.)

Leading up to Today's Hearing
- by Emmett Plant
Emmett Plant is Slashdot's newest author.

Monday, DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. filed for a restraining order in a California court. The targets of this cease-and-desist order were individuals and organizations who had made DVD decryption source code freely available on the net, by hosting the code themselves or linking to a website that did. Commmunity response has been fast and furious, with a deluge of Slashdot comments and submissions, and the immediate organization of Open Source community members to attend the hearing this morning.

Technically, the argument boils down to the issue of reverse engineering. Ideologically, the argument challenges the ideals of free speech, freedom of information, and the ability to innovate on behalf of computer users, hardware engineers and software developers all over the planet.

On Monday night, I spoke to a gentleman who had received the order just minutes prior, and although he didn't want his name mentioned, he provided with me with his thoughts.

"It should be legal when you've got people reverse engineering this kind of stuff. But a small minority in the business community want to lock down the information, citing that it's a trade secret. It's sort of like being busted in math class for passing answers around. [The code] is basically a mathematical equation that decrypts poorly encrypted DVD data. I support the free human right to freedom of thought. That's how civilization has gotten to where it is today, without lawyers heading innovators off at the pass."

Would he be willing to go to court to defend himself?

"Probably not. There are a lot of sites that are mirroring [the code], and they'll keep the program alive. I'll sleep easy at night knowing I did my part."

In many ways, the cease-and-desist only made it easier for people to get their hands on the code. As soon as the community heard about the order, many people posted the code on their websites as a sign of protest. Many community members have made the code available on overseas servers that don't face the possible legal repercussions associated with sites located in the United States.

Another interesting point of this case is that anyone who linked to a site that contained the information is also being held liable in the case. This is particularly frightening. This means that in the spirit of the cease-and-desist order, almost everyone on the web with a site that links to anywhere else falls into the legal maelstrom, as long as it eventually leads to a site with the code posted on it.

The legal ramifications of the case are extremely influential. The DVD CCA lawyers are fighting a battle against reverse engineering, an engineering process that enables the computer industry to utilize powerful tools like the IBM-compatible personal computer and countless hardware device drivers.

The hearing will take place this morning at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California.

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Funny and Sad at the Same Time
- by Hemos

The particularly humorous section of the lawsuit, at least for me, is that what they are trying to do is make linking illegal. That's right. Linking. Is. Illegal. Once we cross the the bridge of dictating what can and cannot be linked to, than we open ourselves up to a world of people being able to sue whenever something they don't want linked is linked. Without linking, the Web is dead.

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Shaky Legal Grounds
- by Michael Sims

The legal standing for the DVD companies is so shaky it's not even funny. The danger is that they can effectively paint the opposition as a bunch of crooks and the judge will feel that *justice* requires a ruling in their favor despite the law - that can be averted if the defense makes a strong competent showing tomorrow, presumably. The second danger is that they will inflict sufficient costs on the defendants that others will be dissuaded from doing even perfectly legal things. That can't be prevented.

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Planning to Join the Protest in Person?

The best source of information on how to help out at the Santa Clara County Courthouse is this page from Chris DiBona's Web site. It tells you where and when to be, what to wear, and what to expect. Worth reading even if you can't make it. Nice to know that Chris and others, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are doing a great job for all of us on this!

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Update by Emmett @ 1:20 p.m. EST:

Chris DiBona called me at 8:30 a.m. PST from right outside the courtroom, letting me in on the scene. The Open Source community has about 25 people there, as well as a lawyer or two of their own. The community members present are busy distributing the DeCSS source code on floppy disk as well as leaflet hard copy. No pictures will be taken of the interior of the courtroom, and there wasn't enough time to apply for the permit to record what happens inside.

Chris will be calling me as soon as they let out with up-to-the-minute information and notes from the community members inside the courtroom.

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Links to Other DVD CCA Stories and Sites

Boston Globe
Washington Post
Wired News
ZDNet
siliconvalley.com
Chris DiBona's excellent page
PZ Communications DeCSS Resource Site
CNN.com
Lemuria.org DeCSS Defense page
Dan Gillmor (SV.com columnist)
Santa Clara County Superior Court info
OpenDVD.org
EFF to the Rescue!

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Please send additional links to roblimo@slashdot.org so we can add them to the list. Thanks.

JChris writes "Apparently Apple is ending its tradition of allowing team members to take named credit for products." It also talks about the end of easter eggs and changes in the Apple corporate with Jobs back at the helm. Its an interesting bit. Makes me kinda sad. Easter eggs are one of those things that I always enjoyed, and just seeings credits... well, it only seems fair.

GoBears writes "A "high-placed" AC within the federal government leaked the news. The Merc says: Exporters of the strongest encryption products, which generally have keys of 128 bits or more, will no longer need to license each shipment. Instead, they will in most instances only need to have a one-time technical review of the product. " At least its a step in the right direction. Of course, the real end is no restrictions on any kind of software, but we can dream, right?

Doofuswrote to us about Sun's release of their newest effort to knock the PC off the corporate desktop. The Sun Ray is essentially "a juiced-up monitor", and is a thin-client solution. Cost is 10$ per month for 5 years, or 30$ per month for a more powerful client. Not much technical details in the article, but we'll update with more links as these appear.Update: 09/08 01:15 by H :Thanks to Paul Tomblin for a huge PDF file with the tech specs.

Since the NDA was lifted early this morning, several sites have released reviews of AMD's new Athlon chip (coming in 500, 550, 600, and 650MHz versions). The first was Bill Henning's CPUReview site. He reviewed the Athlon 600 and has several nice things to say about it. Next up is The Upgrade Center's review, and two more submitted by kimmo, the first at Ace's Hardware, and the second at AGN Hardware. Next, Magnetism submitted a link to Tom's review. Finally, as submitted by pmmay, the ZDNet review. To finish, an article at the SJ Mercury that discusses AMD's strategy for the chip market (thanks to Greg Miller for that one). Update: 08/09 12:31 by J : Thanks to The Evil Dwarf from Hell for links to the AMD Benchmark Page, which even has SPECint and SPECfp scores, and to an anonymous reader for the Ars Technica review.

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. "

Nocturna writes "SiliconValley.com reports scientists at Bell Labs claim to have found a new limit on how small they can make chips, doubling the life left in silicon technology. " Essentially, what Bell Labs is saying that you can't go any smaller then 5 atoms of silicon dioxide at the heart of the machine. As before, they are saying that this the limit-although this time it may veryw ell be true, with current materials.

Mike McCune writes "News.com is reporting that a committee advising the Department of Justice is considering forcing Microsoft to license the source code to it's operating systems." Another alternative is to block Microsoft from adding features to the OS. In related news, Frédéric writes "Maybe you know Microsoft is trying to use Be to prove it does not have a monopoly on OS's. The SJ Mercury news speculates that Be's CEO Jean-Louis Gassée may join the antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp.". This transcript of this interview with JLG gives his position."

AnandTech and Sharky Extreme have published the first K6-3 evaluations with alpha-silicon... and the K6-3 screams at around 10% faster than the equivalent frequency Pentium II. It includes an on-board 256 Kb L2 cache while making the L2 on your motherboard become an L3 cache running at 100Mhz (improving performance by an additional 5%). An additional CXT write combination mode should also increase performance. With a total of 64+256+512 = 832Kb of cache, I expect kernel compilations will fly. Looks like Intel will find it difficult to knock AMD out of the sub-$1000 market, although the pricing pressure should keep buyers happy. Nevertheless initial K6-3 prices are rumoured to be around $350.

Dan Gilmore of the San Jose Mercury News is suggesting that IBM should port SmartSuite and Lotus Notes to Linux, and make it open source instead of leaving it to lose market share by not aggressively marketing it. Link courtesy of Linux Today. Despite the previous report by Infoworld, I have had confirmation that as of this time there is no official such strategy at IBM to make SmartSuite or Lotus Notes open source.

Mark -Hex- Hershberger writes "SJ Mercury News reported that the creator of Tetris was found dead Tuesday at his Palo Alto home." Update to this would be that it is not actually the creator who died, but his business partner. So perhaps we can look forward to being addicted again.

Wesley Felter writes "Sun has released a draft of their Jini(TM) Technology Public License (JTPL). I'm not sure if it meets the Open Source(TM) Definition or not. Also, Sun's Alan Baratz says that even though Java is not Open Source, it is open enough, because any company with piles of money can suggest changes. RMS is qutoed as as saying that it's too late for Sun to fix their mistake." You know, I fear the whole NPL/MPL deal has brought about a new dillemma - a plethora of different but similar identical licenses that all meet the Debian Free Software Guidlines (DFSG) definition (also the Open Source guidlines).

A virtual flood of people wrote in about the Microsoft-Intel incident with Tsk being the first in the gate, by a nose. A new report has come out that Microsoft allegedly told Intel to stay out of the Internet software business. This may come in the Sept 23 trial, but it that trial is focusing more on the browser wars, and marketing of IE. The investigators are particularly interested in a 1995 meeting between top execs from both companies, including both Grove and Gates. In it, Gates is supposed to have talked about how Intel's multimedia efforts and Internet software development were counter to what Microsoft's plan was, and made vague statements about supporting Intel rivals. Whew-now there's a way to start my day.

The Famous Brett Watson writes "Dan Gillmor's latest column is about Larry Wall's "State of the Onion" address at the Perl Conference 2.0 in San Jose. Suitable if you want to see Perl/Larry/Free Software mentioned in the press with positive spin, but not exactly a meaty article. Larry mentions that he thinks free and commercial software can coexist peacefully. "

The Famous Brett Watson writes "Dan Gillmor's latest column is about Larry Wall's "State of the Onion" address at the Perl Conference 2.0 in San Jose. Suitable if you want to see Perl/Larry/Free Software mentioned in the press with positive spin, but not exactly a meaty article. Larry mentions that he thinks free and commercial software can coexist peacefully. "

Christoph Lameter sent us Linux Apocalypse, written by he and one of the funnier things I have read in a while, and Matt Sergeant sent us this parody of the upcoming DOJ-MS Battle o' the Titans.

John Lazzaro writes "Mercury News reports Microsoft PR firm tracks reporters who write "bad things" about microsoft, does things like send email from supposed "normal readers" complaining about anti-MS statements. See second half of this story. "

Kevin Postlewaite writes "The San Jose Mercury News has an article about a web site that estimates your chance of being murdered. The assessment at the end is kinda lame (I was hoping for a percentage, to maybe the nearest tenth of a percent), but you've gotta love questions like "Are all of your family members trained and do you have a loaded firearm within 15 feet of your person?" " What a world.

Kevin Postlewaite writes "The San Jose Mercury News has an article about a web site that estimates your chance of being murdered. The assessment at the end is kinda lame (I was hoping for a percentage, to maybe the nearest tenth of a percent), but you've gotta love questions like "Are all of your family members trained and do you have a loaded firearm within 15 feet of your person?" " What a world.

The Famous Brett Watson writes "Due to a lack of frankness and candor in the news generally, Dan Gillmor of San Jose Mercury News has opted to make up some news to fill the gap. This article is the best laugh I've had in a while. "

Kevin writes "This was reported in the San Jose Mercury , The Clinton administration, in a small concession to the American software and financial industries, Tuesday said it would ease requirements in some cases that software makers get an export license for each sale of strong encryption software. The loosened rules apply to deals with foreign banks and financial institutions in 45 nations that have acceptable money-laundering laws." Read about it here.

Kevin writes "This was reported in the San Jose Mercury , The Clinton administration, in a small concession to the American software and financial industries, Tuesday said it would ease requirements in some cases that software makers get an export license for each sale of strong encryption software. The loosened rules apply to deals with foreign banks and financial institutions in 45 nations that have acceptable money-laundering laws." Read about it here.

Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky will leave 3Com on Monday, the San Jose Mercury reports. Apparently, the two are leaving on good terms, and are going to found a new company that will eventually license PalmOS. Hmm, more PalmOS clones. Also of interest to PalmPilot lovers like myself is the long-awaited PalmPilot Pager, which upgrades your PalmPilot to 2MB of RAM, and PalmOS 3, too. It's finally here.

Job Seeker writes " This is a story on the intense lobbying effort mounted by Silicon Valley to increase the legal immigration quota via the Senate bill and the opposition they face led by Rep. Lamar Smith, whose competing bill while still increasing the quota will also add provisions that protect the American worker. Industry leaders that include the CEOs of Microsoft and Intel opposed Smith's bill on the grounds that it adds needless red tape and makes the whole skilled immigration process unworkable for them. Also, have a look at: link which describes Silicon Valley's growing influence in Washington politics. "

Josh Lucas sent us an article called Red Hat software takes on the big guys. It's a pretty entertaining piece actually... fairly generalized (and rightfully so considering where it comes from), but it definately is a nice strong example of how far Linux has come in the last year.

Aaron Denney writes "Some scientists in Japan found quite a bit of evidence that neutrinos do have mass. This has quite a few implications to cosmology and the evolution of the universe, as well as requiring some revisions to the currently accepted particle physics models. "

Keith Calder sent us a link to an interesting article on Generative Music. This one specifically is a Mac program that generates music like Bach, Mozart and Joplin. The article claims the music can fool experts. I totally dig this stuff. I can't wait for the day when all forms of music can be generated this way. Anyway, this article actually is pretty good- it addresses a lot of the issues about music, technology and creativity.

Sven Heinicke writes "Ok, as an exHotWired employee I find it interesting that San Jose Mercery News reported that Wired might be sold, but I expect nobody else cares. " Actually I care. I've enjoyed Wired's online stuff for many years. They really impressed me early on by making a strong web presence before any other real magazine. That sealed their position as a leader in the tech subculture. Wired isn't what it once was, but it still is better than most alternatives. Hopefully if they are sold, the new management won't screw things up to much.

Leper writes "Using a varient of MRI a team of researchers have turned molecules of chloroform into a quantum computer. Diamond Age anyone? "

David Cloud wrote in to hook us up with this very cool little little article where you can read about the definition of a geek (Sideshow attraction that bites the head off chickens!) and the definition that it has grown to encompass in the last few decades (and the one that Slashdot users probably prefer :) It isn't important to the future of humanity, but it is pretty interesting.

Microsoft presented its next salvo in its war against Java: AVAJ, a language which looks like Java, but has two extra keywords, making it incompatible with Java. Simultaneously, it has announced that Windows Foundation Classes will be included in Visual J++ 6.0. (J as in avaJ) The great thing about Avaj, is that it will probably have a set of classes for building server-side applications that won't run on other machines. Of course, real hackers are not best pleased. (A name has been changed to protect the innocent)

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

In what can only be described as a huge advance in quantum transitior technolgy, The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have demonstrated a method of making these devices stable enough for potential use in computing applications.

The Sandia quantum transistor is not the first to use a quantum mechanical effect called ``tunneling'' to compute. Experimental quantum tunneling devices were first made nearly a decade ago.

But Sandia's is the first to be made using common manufacturing techniques that would allow many of the devices to be strung together to compute en masse, said physicist Jerry Simmons, leader of the Sandia development team.

And you know what the coolest part of this story is? Jerry Simmons is my brother! Go man, go! I can only hope that he'll remember the little people in his life when he sells this technology to chipmakers world-wide! *wink*

In what can only be described as a huge advance in quantum transitior technolgy, The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have demonstrated a method of making these devices stable enough for potential use in computing applications.

The Sandia quantum transistor is not the first to use a quantum mechanical effect called ``tunneling'' to compute. Experimental quantum tunneling devices were first made nearly a decade ago.

But Sandia's is the first to be made using common manufacturing techniques that would allow many of the devices to be strung together to compute en masse, said physicist Jerry Simmons, leader of the Sandia development team.

And you know what the coolest part of this story is? Jerry Simmons is my brother! Go man, go! I can only hope that he'll remember the little people in his life when he sells this technology to chipmakers world-wide! *wink*

This Story was first sent in by Webster, and then sent by 30 or 40 more people. Basically Bill Gates took a cream pie in the face.

Wirehead writes "This article, found over at the San Jose Mercury compares how Microsofts present woes closely compare to how IBM was changed in the 60's and 70's by the DOJ as well. An interesting read, since it compares much of how IBM the and Microsoft now companies have and are reacting under the presure by the DOJ investigation(s). Perhaps Microsoft will end up alot like IBM? The Article can be read here."

Netscape was the second major company (after Sun) to go crazy with Java. According to this story though they are now one of the first to back out. Escalating development costs and the huge number of platforms are the reasons. The real question is now what the Free Software guys are going to do about it. If Java is more than a web widget maker, then it will be back.

Galen Hancock wrote in to give us this story about the recent Microsoft Allegations that the judge was biased in their case. Basically it looks like their evidence was basically an email. Interesting.