Slashdot Mirror

Doofus writes "A Reuters wire story announces that IBM has created 'flexible transistor' material 'that could one day be used to make, for instance, a computer screen that could be rolled up.' This material would not replace IC chips, but instead would substitute for amorphous silicon used for other tech-components." Read the story on Yahoo.

pants95 writes "It looks like Larry and the folks at Oracle are having another go at the world of Network Computers for $199 a pop. This time, they will run Linux and come with Navigator. Is it just me, or does the term `disposable' computer not sit right with you? I still get plenty of use out of a few old 486s!"

Anonymous Coward writes "Zona Research has polled a group of developers regarding their favorite development tools. Visual Basic is far more popular than I would have previously thought, given the amount of griping I hear about it. Not suprising that C is still quite popular. Java finishes third...due to its relative youth, or are developers simply not using it that much?" The story's from Yahoo.

Anonymous Coward writes "Zona Research has polled a group of developers regarding their favorite development tools. Visual Basic is far more popular than I would have previously thought, given the amount of griping I hear about it. Not suprising that C is still quite popular. Java finishes third...due to its relative youth, or are developers simply not using it that much?" The story's from Yahoo.

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that Sony is gonna release 10,000 more AIBOs onto the world. Orders will be taken early next month. No available in Black or Silver with some other subtle changes and huge pricetag. Someone at Sony needs to send me a demo model dammit! I have one of the originals, these things are crazy: they actually age and mature like those tamagotchi things that were so popular awhile back. Course Hemos keeps punishing mine for no reason so I think mine is mentally stunted from having an abused childhood.

Anonymous Freak writes "Well, it's finally official - Intel has released their "Coppermine" processors. Their press release page has a bunch of information, including the release of the OR840 board, and its accompanying i840 chipset. " 15 new processors, with the 733 Mhz going for $776 right now. Check out Yahoo's coverage of what Intel is hoping to get out of this (Hint: The word starts with a p, ends with a t, and has rofi in the middle).

Ender_Stonebender writes "Yahoo's Internet Report news page has an interesting article on why why media attention could be bad for Linux development. They have a byline saying it's from salon.com, but I can't find it there. "

Ender_Stonebender writes "I noticed on a link to a story about the World Chess Team resigning the game against Kasparov last night. "

Anonymous Coward writes "NASA has just released new images of Io taken by Galileo during a flyby several days ago. The images are far better than anything taken of Io before, and an article on the flyby is on ABCnews.com. Apparently NASA wasn't sure if Galileo would survive the radiation it would experience from passing that close to Jupiter, and put off the photo-flyby as long as possible-but it worked, and they're hoping to get one more set of pictures. " The all important question, now, though, is how to make some of these my background image. *grin*

snotty sent us linkage to a USA Today story talking about the results of Jam Echelon Day. We mentioned this a bit earlier. Sorta a depressing followup I guess, but worth a read.

Finally home long enough to compile some quickies. option8 sent us the MacCrate which probably isn't up to code. Course neither is this one (thanks pkr) Speaking of cases, Deega sent us a site where you can get air brushed cases. rafa noted that Propaganda Volume 12 is out. UM_Maverick has started YALS called Linuxtopia.com pq wrote in with a picture that proves that a spell checker is probably a good idea. RoLlEr_CoAsTeR found something on Brunching Shuttlecocks which lets you combine Advertising and Perl: its actually extremely clever. Speaking of perl, ThePixel noted Perl Toys, which I think we mentioned a year or so ago, but with Christmas coming up, it probably is worth checking out again. Especially if you want magnetic poetry. Speaking of stuff to buy, JbirdUAH noted that Copyleft has Slashdot frisbees! Just in time for Winter! jhopson sent us a retelling of beowulf starring people you know. Lexie (who should really ask CowboyNeal out) sent us Eunuch which I'm not gonna explain, but its definitely wierd. motardo noted that Dalnet is for sale on eBay. Ant noted that Google seems to have an interesting result if you search for 'More evil than satan himself'. Speaking of evil, jsfetzik sent us Sinux the Linux for sinners. And how about Captain Zion's link to FsckU-FsckMe(tm) which is not for children, but is pretty amusing. Maybe you'll find auto.pron.org a little more wholesome. Finally, jetpack pointed us to Forum2000, which I'd never seen before, but am glad I did. It was mentioned in a comment awhile ago, and then we were assimilated. Super wierd.

Ice_Hole writes "Well, looks like the serious overclockers are going to have a few more options (that is, other than Kryotech) in terms of extreme CPU cooling. Better yet - it is a build it at home project."

Lawrence_Bird writes ... a group of scientists have extracted a wooly mammoth intact from a Siberian icefield. "They used a radar imaging technique to `see' the mammoth in its icy grave, then excavated a huge block of frozen dirt around it to preserve the 23,000-year-old creature." See the dailynews.yahoo story. Naturally, there's talk of cloning the thing. If the effort succeeds, will McDonald's sell McMammoth burgers?

hetairoi was one of the many people who wrote to us about ZDNet's coverage of "distributed coordinated attacks", a new style of denial of service attack. Rather then using just one machine, efforts are coordinated through multiple servers, making server-defense more difficult. Huh - does the Slashdot effect count? *grin*

idan writes "This ZDnet article article indicates that AMD is opening a fab that will produce 1GHz Athlon CPUs." I'm sure it's pure coincidence that AMD is making this announcement so soon after Intel announced their "real soon now" 1100 MHz "Athlon Killer". Do we get to call this one the "Athlon Killer Killer"?

ferret wrote to us with the final word from high at Apple about what's up with the G4 Orders. No, they are not cancelled. Yes, there's been a confusion. 400 and 450 Mhz machines will ship as originally promised, but the 500 Mhz machine will not ship until next year. This means that customer who ordered a 500 Mhz will be offered a 450 Mhz machine for now.

Alex T-B writes "The legendary Bruce Schneier has written an excellent essay on what it means to be a cryptographer, and what it's really all about, namely mathematics. This is a welcome throwback to the more academic aspect of CS, and covers such aspects as which school to go to, and what to specialize in. Schneier is a titan of cryptography, and clearly shows just how far away script kiddies and 'elite' crackers are from understanding the concepts behind data encoding and cryptography. Surprising snippet: The easiest way to become a cryptography master is to get a PhD in that field. Should be an article to go in every copy of The Cryptonomicon, if you ask me."

Alex T-B writes "Looks like Microsoft is taking the threat from CORBA and Java seriously. They've launched a network protocol suite [C-Net story] to embrace and extend the distributed business software market. SOAP, as it's called, is based on XML, and is supposed to move audiences away from UNIX and towards adopting Win2k and fully MS-ized software solutions. Interestingly, no MS software is needed to use SOAP, and it levels the playing field as 'proprietary' solutions can be replaced with a universal standard that enabled apps written in different languages to communicate with each other easily over the internet. Is MS actually doing the market a favour by removing vendors' 'lock-in' strategies to properietary solutions?"

M|U writes "Michael Cowpland, CEO of Corel, has been charged with three counts of violating securities law. CBC Newsworld has the story online, along with more details. Apparently trading of Corel stock was halted prior to the announcement. " The Corel booth at ALS has no comment at this time. The alleged current violations are insider trading, according to CBC. Update: 10/14 05:18 by H : Corel has responded in a press release. Dr. Cowpland is "looking forward to finally have the chance to clear his name..."

One of the many Anonymous Cowards let me know that OpenBSD has received a donation of equipment worth $10,000 from Network Security Technologies and Network Security Wizards. This is obviously excellent news for the OpenBSD team, and is yet more evidence of the seriousness with which the wider commercial world is treating free software.

mookie_black asks this interesting question: "I have a Sony Digital Camcorder and an ADS firewire card. I am able to offload the tape information from my camcorder to my computer in the DV format and edit the video. My video editing software allows me to edit the DV format and then place it back on the tape in the camcorder. Since 40 minutes of tape takes up several gigs on my hard drive I thought it would be nice and cheap if I could back up my stuff to camcorder. I do not have a tape drive and was wondering if there is a way to backup my system into a DV format put the backup on the 8mm tape in my digital camcorder." What an interesting idea! Would such a hack work?!

jaydeekay writes "It looks like Amazon has patented the storing of credit-card and shipping info and then using it to facilate online purchasing via a single click. Check out this news release from Yahoo. Interesting to look at the actual patent - Amazon seems to have several patents which seem awfully 'generic' " Ah, yes, yet more dumb patents.

Violator writes that Loki announced that they will be continuing their partnership with Activision - Heretic II and Heavy Gear II will be ported to Linux. The beta-testing for Heretic II begins soon. While I'm on my soap box, check out WomenGamers.com. Cool site.

Lucius Lucanius writes "A recurrent theme of late, the NY Times describes an Intel researcher's paper on the possible end of Moore's law. Soon, 'transistors will be composed of fewer than 100 atoms, and statistical variations in this Lilliputian world are beyond the ability of semiconductor engineers to control.' Is it for real this time? "

Dredd13 writes "This time, it's really official. According to this story on Yahoo! News, VA Linux Systems is filing for its IPO. Wonder how they'll handle the IPO "Friends and Family" shares considering how the Red Hat fiasco went..."

Dave Brooks writes "It looks like a company called Network Security Technologies, Inc. will be providing commercial support for OpenBSD Integration. This is a huge step for the OpenBSD community." Good to see. Theo, in an impromptu interview, said that he is happy others believe in OpenBSD, and that the project has a much better financial situation these days, though it is still supported entirely by CD and shirt sales.

krp writes "Psion has lauched it's new Revo, a kind of cuter 5mx, but with better Internet/comms software and a free ISP specialising in content for handhelds called psion.net (see an article at Yahoo). Also Palm have released the Palm Vx, a Palm V with 8 meg memory and bundled with AvantGo. See a V series comparison and an article at Yahoo. Prices of older Palm models have dropped accordingly. " The Palm VII has also had a higher rollout, with the push on for more sales.

krp writes "Psion has lauched it's new Revo, a kind of cuter 5mx, but with better Internet/comms software and a free ISP specialising in content for handhelds called psion.net (see an article at Yahoo). Also Palm have released the Palm Vx, a Palm V with 8 meg memory and bundled with AvantGo. See a V series comparison and an article at Yahoo. Prices of older Palm models have dropped accordingly. " The Palm VII has also had a higher rollout, with the push on for more sales.

krp writes "Psion has lauched it's new Revo, a kind of cuter 5mx, but with better Internet/comms software and a free ISP specialising in content for handhelds called psion.net (see an article at Yahoo). Also Palm have released the Palm Vx, a Palm V with 8 meg memory and bundled with AvantGo. See a V series comparison and an article at Yahoo. Prices of older Palm models have dropped accordingly. " The Palm VII has also had a higher rollout, with the push on for more sales.

krp writes "Psion has lauched it's new Revo, a kind of cuter 5mx, but with better Internet/comms software and a free ISP specialising in content for handhelds called psion.net (see an article at Yahoo). Also Palm have released the Palm Vx, a Palm V with 8 meg memory and bundled with AvantGo. See a V series comparison and an article at Yahoo. Prices of older Palm models have dropped accordingly. " The Palm VII has also had a higher rollout, with the push on for more sales.

madHomer writes "I just read that Sun is going to be selling some Ultra 5's for less then $2,000. They did not include specs in the press release. I am very curious what the "base" model is. They say they are not going after the home market, but the developer market. "

angio wrote to us with the report about the test of an interceptor missle, in the Marshall Islands, was a success. The system shot down a modified Minuteman missle - for more coverage, check out the original article on the Exoatmospheric Kill Vechicle.

mvicuna writes "[according to a Yahoo News story] Scientists programmed a computer to use "evolutionary steps" to build a bridge made out of Legos. Is this a Lego story or an AI story? :> " A good question. Some of each, perhaps? And they apparently did it without 1000 Pentiums, too. Here's the home page of the project itself. Tres cool stuff!

mvicuna writes "[according to a Yahoo News story] Scientists programmed a computer to use "evolutionary steps" to build a bridge made out of Legos. Is this a Lego story or an AI story? :> " A good question. Some of each, perhaps? And they apparently did it without 1000 Pentiums, too. Here's the home page of the project itself. Tres cool stuff!

Jacek Fedorynski writes "This Yahoo article says that the new ThinkPads will have swappable snap-on covers - something like Nokia 5110 meets the iBook. :) Initially there will be seven colors to choose from, they will probably introduce more later. Another company realized that many people are more interested in how the machine looks that what it has inside. " Slashdot Green please. The interesting thing is that PCs have reached a point where most PCs are "Good Enough" and manufacturers need to get mindshare by doing something, anything special. Pre-Install Linux? Multi-Colors? Internal Wireless Networking?

OrigamiSlayer asks: "Mr. Fantasy and I were talking about the article a while back on low power radio station licenses. We were wondering what would need to be done logisticly to get a bunch of these licenses across a wide geographic area and then syndicate a broadcast to them via the internet. That would give someone half a chance to compete with corporate radio and might almost be possible. Any ideas?" Aside from security, what other things would one need to worry about?

Joseph DiLascio has written up a recent speech/interview with a Compaq engineer, dicussing their Linux plans. Given recent news about what's going over there, very interesting read. According to Compaq Joseph DiLascio
11 Sep 99


At the last FLUX (Florida Linux Users' Exchange) meeting, the guest speaker was an engineer from Compaq who came to discuss the company's support of Linux on the Alpha processor. With all the discussion on Slashdot recently I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions brought up, because I think the people inside Compaq pushing Linux on Alpha are doing good things.. despite what anyone may think of the company as a whole.

1. What's Compaq's "OS plan"? (Are they dropping Tru64 and moving to Linux.. etc.) In the server area, at least, they're focusing on three:

• Tru64 on Alpha for high-end, high-performance, high-etc. applications
• Linux on Alpha for not-as-high-end-etc.-etc.
• SCO on x86 for.. well.. the x86 market

In their role as a hardware vendor, they are officially "OS Agnostic", though.

1a. What about Linux on x86? Not likely to be really supported by them any time soon. They make good money with SCO and that's what they'll keep trying to do.

2. What's the deal with this new C/Fortran compiler? (Are they using glibc.. Is it GPLd.. etc.) A number of customers liked the idea of Linux on the Alpha, but didn't like the performance and/or lack of source-compatibility with other Unices in the area of threading, etc. of GCC and the standard libs[1]. So Compaq figured it would be a good idea to make the development tools consistent between Tru64 and Linux... so they undertook the task of porting their Tru64 compiler and runtimes (no, not glibc) which is what that story on Slashdot was all about. The result is code that more fully exploits the power of the Alpha processor. As far as the GPL... the Alpha people tend to prefer BSD-ish licenses; as far as opening up the compiler and libs.. not right now, but maybe someday.

3. Does Compaq really give a damn about freedom and openness.. or are they just jumping on the bandwagon in the hopes of quick profit? The impression I got was a bit of both. They've already released source and hardware specifications to get Linux running onAlpha... but they can't necessarily do that for every component of their systems (i.e. video controllers which aren't Compaq's, but come from other companies). Yes, they're out to make money... but, like many of the other big players who have been getting into the Linux game (IBM, etc.), there are people inside the company that like Linux and free/open software for what it is, not just because it'll make them a buck.

3a. Isn't Compaq a slave to MS like so many other hardware vendors? Not when it comes to servers (see #1). I don't think they're looking at putting Linux on desktops at the moment (like Dell seems to be). Compaq and Microsoft do go a long way back, and the relationship apparently is a great one for both of them.

4. Will they kill Alpha if/when IA-64 becomes viable? The three main goals of the Alpha are:

• Speed
• Performance
• Going Fast

That said, Alpha will be around as long as it's the quickest thing out there... which it probably will be for the foreseeable future.

4a. Will the loss of NT on Alpha affect the viability of the Alpha platform? Not likely. NT on Alpha wasn't selling very well (but that isn't all the fault of the Alpha people *ahem*MS*cough*).

So it looks like Compaq's support is a pretty good thing for the Linux community on the whole (at least, for the adoption of Linux at the high end... those who value freedom (open code, etc.) above all else may not be satisfied). That doesn't mean I'll be buying a desktop PC from them any time soon... but the Alpha is a neat processor and Linux can do neat things on it. Advancing the development of 64-bit Linux programs and Linux in general is something I personally can respect and appreciate.
Final note: The above information may or may not be completely accurate. I base all this on my impressions of the talk and Q&A session with a representative of Compaq who spoke at the last FLUX meeting. If you know of any errors, please let me know.
Also, thanks to the other FLUXers on the mailing list for their thoughts. [1] - One of the more interesting parts of the presentation was a historical view of the development of "Unix". I personally learned quite a bit about what makes up the thing we call "Linux" today. One thing Linux currently lacks is a 100% complete kernel threads implementation. Pthreads are mostly there but they don't work the same way as on other Unices, and Solaris threads (arguably more "standard" than pthreads among many software vendors) aren't there at all.

Joseph, all Slashdot contributors now receive *free t-shirts* from Copyleft. To get yours, please send your shipping address and shirt size to roblimo@slashdot.org.

Joseph DiLascio has written up a recent speech/interview with a Compaq engineer, dicussing their Linux plans. Given recent news about what's going over there, very interesting read. According to Compaq Joseph DiLascio
11 Sep 99


At the last FLUX (Florida Linux Users' Exchange) meeting, the guest speaker was an engineer from Compaq who came to discuss the company's support of Linux on the Alpha processor. With all the discussion on Slashdot recently I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions brought up, because I think the people inside Compaq pushing Linux on Alpha are doing good things.. despite what anyone may think of the company as a whole.

1. What's Compaq's "OS plan"? (Are they dropping Tru64 and moving to Linux.. etc.) In the server area, at least, they're focusing on three:

• Tru64 on Alpha for high-end, high-performance, high-etc. applications
• Linux on Alpha for not-as-high-end-etc.-etc.
• SCO on x86 for.. well.. the x86 market

In their role as a hardware vendor, they are officially "OS Agnostic", though.

1a. What about Linux on x86? Not likely to be really supported by them any time soon. They make good money with SCO and that's what they'll keep trying to do.

2. What's the deal with this new C/Fortran compiler? (Are they using glibc.. Is it GPLd.. etc.) A number of customers liked the idea of Linux on the Alpha, but didn't like the performance and/or lack of source-compatibility with other Unices in the area of threading, etc. of GCC and the standard libs[1]. So Compaq figured it would be a good idea to make the development tools consistent between Tru64 and Linux... so they undertook the task of porting their Tru64 compiler and runtimes (no, not glibc) which is what that story on Slashdot was all about. The result is code that more fully exploits the power of the Alpha processor. As far as the GPL... the Alpha people tend to prefer BSD-ish licenses; as far as opening up the compiler and libs.. not right now, but maybe someday.

3. Does Compaq really give a damn about freedom and openness.. or are they just jumping on the bandwagon in the hopes of quick profit? The impression I got was a bit of both. They've already released source and hardware specifications to get Linux running onAlpha... but they can't necessarily do that for every component of their systems (i.e. video controllers which aren't Compaq's, but come from other companies). Yes, they're out to make money... but, like many of the other big players who have been getting into the Linux game (IBM, etc.), there are people inside the company that like Linux and free/open software for what it is, not just because it'll make them a buck.

3a. Isn't Compaq a slave to MS like so many other hardware vendors? Not when it comes to servers (see #1). I don't think they're looking at putting Linux on desktops at the moment (like Dell seems to be). Compaq and Microsoft do go a long way back, and the relationship apparently is a great one for both of them.

4. Will they kill Alpha if/when IA-64 becomes viable? The three main goals of the Alpha are:

• Speed
• Performance
• Going Fast

That said, Alpha will be around as long as it's the quickest thing out there... which it probably will be for the foreseeable future.

4a. Will the loss of NT on Alpha affect the viability of the Alpha platform? Not likely. NT on Alpha wasn't selling very well (but that isn't all the fault of the Alpha people *ahem*MS*cough*).

So it looks like Compaq's support is a pretty good thing for the Linux community on the whole (at least, for the adoption of Linux at the high end... those who value freedom (open code, etc.) above all else may not be satisfied). That doesn't mean I'll be buying a desktop PC from them any time soon... but the Alpha is a neat processor and Linux can do neat things on it. Advancing the development of 64-bit Linux programs and Linux in general is something I personally can respect and appreciate.
Final note: The above information may or may not be completely accurate. I base all this on my impressions of the talk and Q&A session with a representative of Compaq who spoke at the last FLUX meeting. If you know of any errors, please let me know.
Also, thanks to the other FLUXers on the mailing list for their thoughts. [1] - One of the more interesting parts of the presentation was a historical view of the development of "Unix". I personally learned quite a bit about what makes up the thing we call "Linux" today. One thing Linux currently lacks is a 100% complete kernel threads implementation. Pthreads are mostly there but they don't work the same way as on other Unices, and Solaris threads (arguably more "standard" than pthreads among many software vendors) aren't there at all.

Joseph, all Slashdot contributors now receive *free t-shirts* from Copyleft. To get yours, please send your shipping address and shirt size to roblimo@slashdot.org.

Switch writes "This article from CNN introduces the latest and greatest wireless technology. NEC is going to produce a "viewer" that includes a CCD camera, microphone, and 2" LCD display for wireless communication with video. And to make it cooler, the communication takes place via a radio link to your cell phone which could be in your pocket, briefcase, etc... " I don't even own a cell phone yet, but these look pretty cool.

Finnish law was amended last Wednesday, adding a two-year sentence for the catch-all crime "Causing danger to data processing systems." Is keeping sample virus code intended for anti-virus authors on your FTP site a violation?

A Michigan hospital may be only the first of many: a digital dictation system used by doctors for private medical notes has been cracked. 2600 magazine published a sample audio file, which got people's attention. Yahoo and ZDNet's CyberCrime have good coverage.

And, the Defense Department is very proud of its Defense Computer Forensics Lab. They fit broken disks together, read deleted files, "trace hackers across the internet," and use some doohickey called a "Beowulf cluster" to analyze captured computers. Can someone tell me why the FBI gets a lab in this building which was deliberately located near the National Security Agency? Isn't there some conflict of interest?

wesmills writes "In case you haven't heard, Yahoo! Bills is the newest way to pay your bills online. Considering my bank's online abilities are somewhat limited, I decided to look at Yahoo!'s offering. On their signup page, you must enter the requisite name, address, phone number, bank routing information...and SSN? My question was, and is, why does Yahoo! need my SSN to mail checks for me?" Click below for more...

"Would it be possible, as has been discussed on Slashdot before to not enter a number (I entered all zeroes), or to bypass this restriction? I posed that question, to their feedback form, and here's what I got back:

To: wesmills@telebot.net
From: customer_service@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Feedback Form Inquiry

Unfortunately, there is no way to bypass the SSN requirement.

Thank you,
Yahoo! Support

OK, so what's the deal here, and are there any ways to get companies like Yahoo! and so forth to lighten up? It really galls me to see them requesting information that they (should) know they don't need! Never have I needed my SSN to mail a check to my VISA company. Heck, they don't care if my sister or mother does it. So, what's your take on this? "

My take is pretty simple. Yahoo does not need your SSN to pay bills for you (electronic funds transfers can be done solely with your account number and bank's routing number). Yahoo probably wants your SSN so that they can compare your online profile with your credit history, then give your address to targeted advertisers, who will send you junk mail to your home address, depending on what kind of bills you are paying through Yahoo's service. Being able to link your bill-paying to a specific SSN should allow much higher rates when advertising to you. Yahoo has no legal inhibitions against disclosing your SSN to anyone it feels like, "privacy policy" or no "privacy policy", so if you don't want your SSN being passed around the internet, don't give it out. -- michael

Quetzalcoatl sent in a link to a BBC story about new genetically modified plants from Monsanto that grow biodegradable plastic. Apparently the next step is to get the plants to produce enough plastic to be worth growing commercially, which may not be possible. But hey! You never know until you try, right?

Twid writes " Reuters is reporting that IBM is duplicating Intel with the Pentium III and stamping their new PC's with a "watermark" chip to allow for "secure transactions". Just like Intel, no mention is made of how to turn the feature off or how to ensure consumer privacy."

IBM may not have grasped Intel's failure here. Attention IBM: I have been a religious Intel owner. Just the other day I bought several computers with AMD chips instead of Intel P-III's, because I don't want to be tracked - so as long as Intel wants to track me and there's anybody else in the chip-making business, Intel won't be getting my business. You just don't realize that people take their computers seriously - they don't want it ratting on them to every website they visit, they don't want it informing on them behind their back, they don't want Clipper chips performing insecure e-commerce "encryption" for them. It sounds (and of course IBM is releasing this tomorrow, so this is preliminary) like IBM has created a proprietary, closed system, which very probably includes a back-door in it for U.S. law-enforcement access, because otherwise IBM would have trouble exporting it worldwide. Only pointy-haired bosses are going to want to purchase such things. -- michael

While I was unaware that this was even a problem, Cygnus Solutions announced EL/IX API which is "...a major step to pre-empt the fragmentation of embdedded Linux..." Essentially, it's an open source, configurable API that lets developers create software for embedded devices running Linux or Cygnus "eCos" OS. Standardization is a good idea, I suppose, and embedded seems to be the way the wind is blowing.

bee writes "Yet another ISP merger-- Earthlink and Mindspring this time. The new company will keep the Earthlink name, and will apparently be the 2nd largest ISP in the country. Yahoo has the story here." Together, they'll have over 3 million members. Not exactly AOL, but enough to have some serious clout in the ISP business.

terrified writes "This little blurb on Yahoo news this morning says that Linus is hinting at an announcement from Transmeta at the November Comdex in Las Vegas. " We need to set up some pools: When the secret will be revealed, and maybe some sort of pools for what the secret is. Transmeta employees who leak data to me will be given a cut if I win ;)

Roman writes "Here's an article about Hilton looking into a space hotel. It says they want it to look like the depiction of a Hilton in 2001 and it mentions the 'romantic possibilities of zero gravity.' I'd love to be the first on my block to steal a robe from that baby!" I've been hearing this dream for most of my life. Sure hope it comes true for some of you under-thirties someday, but I've given up hope of seeing space hotels in *my* lifetime.

ColPanek writes "Surprise: The newest planned Linux-related IPO is not VA Linux Systems or LinuxCare, but a company called LinuxOne, which apparently has been shipping its own distro since way back in September 1999 ... This summary of their preliminary prospectus says LinuxOne didn't disclose any underwriters for the proposed offering."

Booker writes "Red Hat, Inc. has released their 2nd quarter financial results. You can see the press release here. Operating at a loss, but then we all knew that would happen for a while. Revenues up 95% over last year. Kinda ironic that an Open Source company has to join The Man on Wall Street before their balance sheet becomes publicly available. :)

asdren writes "WinLinux 2000 has entered the final beta stage. This sounds like an interesting option for current Windows users who are interested in taking the Linux plunge but don't have the time/patience/guts to partition drives and configure drivers. " has anyone tried this yet? I'd be curious as to how the installation/running of the system is.