Slashdot Mirror

Darkfell wrote in to send us a great interview over at Ars with the South Park Sysadmins. Its pretty long, but its actually an excellent piece with lots of nuggets about the shows production, the hardware and software that gets used, and the video games they play. A quite excellent interview... highly recommended.

Rob sent us a New York Times article (this means you need a free registration) that talks about something we've addressed here in the past. Its tech unions. It talks about the struggle of the MS Temps, as well as the fact that techies are often paid well (cash, stock options and benefits) that the 70 hour work weeks just don't seem so bad.

ozium writes "Q3test 1.07 out for Linux. blah blah get it blah blah lose sleep. www.quake3arena.com " Finally! I've been dying, since all the different Q3's are incompatible. For the last week or so, Linux users have been unable to play on just about all the public servers out there. I wonder how much faster this one is...

KevinRemhof writes "MTV has signed a deal with Diamond Multimedia subsidiary RioPort. They are going to sell digital music on MTV.com, VH1.com, and other MTV sites. They will share profits with RioPort. " Additionally, MTV also gets a piece of RioPort-financial details not disclosed, of course.

KevinRemhof writes "MTV has signed a deal with Diamond Multimedia subsidiary RioPort. They are going to sell digital music on MTV.com, VH1.com, and other MTV sites. They will share profits with RioPort. " Additionally, MTV also gets a piece of RioPort-financial details not disclosed, of course.

IsleOfView wrote in with prove that there will never be a shortage of new distributions. This one is called stormix and its based on Debian, but has assorted advanced installation tools.

Rob sent us linkage to a wired article that talks about Tennis ball sized robots that will zip around working as assistants for astronauts. They are described as being like the training bots in Star Wars. They'd be cool as pets if we lived in zero-g...

KevinRemhof writes "National Semiconductor unveiled their Geode family of chips. The SC1400 chip has video and PC functions built in. The memory and other features require separate chips. The target audience is set-top boxes. Expect to see the first ones by next summer. This is a bold move shortly after selling off Cyrix to Via Technologies. " As other articles point out, they are trying to save themselves by moving into a less-competitive area of the market.

KevinRemhof writes "National Semiconductor unveiled their Geode family of chips. The SC1400 chip has video and PC functions built in. The memory and other features require separate chips. The target audience is set-top boxes. Expect to see the first ones by next summer. This is a bold move shortly after selling off Cyrix to Via Technologies. " As other articles point out, they are trying to save themselves by moving into a less-competitive area of the market.

malacai sent us a press release that finally gives some good details on Red Hat's impending IPO. 6 Million Shares. $10-$12/share. The Week of August 9 (no surprise that its during LinuxWorld). The symbol will be RHAT.

PerlDiver writes "Researchers for UCLA and Hewlett-Packard have announced the creation of molecular logic gates utilizing rotoxane. " Consider this to be my little touch of nanotechnology today.

Michael Crawford has written a feature on the recent trend towards integration and what it menas to us as the trend continue. Its a nice little summary piece of something that has been happening in the industry lately.

The following was written by Slashdot Reader Michael Crawford

Integration:Where is it Going?

One trend that has recently been gaining a great deal of momentum is integration. Odds are that if someone has invented a useful piece of hardware someone else has plans to build it into either a CPU, a motherboard or a graphics card. Recent motherboards have built in sound, graphics, modems and other useful components. While Graphics cards are trying desperately to differentiate their products by including options like duel monitors and TV-out capabilities and graphics chipsets are adding features as fast as the features can be conceived. The graphics chipsets are even moving into areas that have traditionally been the CPU^Òs job such as geometry and lighting effects. While CPU designers such as Cyrix are pushing new chips that will eventually contain all of the basic computer components, including large portions of the motherboard and graphics chipsets, on a single chip. The eventual goal of this processes is called PCOAC(PC On A Chip). A single chip that performs all of a computer^Òs basic functions. This is the ultimate goal of the current attempts at integration. Why is this important you ask? It is important because over the next three years the computer industry will be drastically changed as a result of integration. Entire segments of the market such as motherboard chipsets and networking devices will vanish as these components are integrated into other, larger components. Watch for more and more soon to be obsolete companies moving out of their traditional markets in an attempt to survive. An excellent example is VIA^Òs acquisition of Cyrix. As PCOAC becomes standard the vast majority of VIA^Òs current business(low-end chipsets) will be rendered a obsolete. Thus they are in effect trying to escape to high ground before the flood arrives that will spell the end of most of their current competitors. Now you might ask why integrate?

The integration has two primary intended effects. One, the card, board or CPU in question gains the added feature that makes it more attractive to customers. Two, the use of less chips saves on system cost and power consumption. This is why current highly integrated systems tend to be intended for either the low-end of the desktop market or the laptop market. These systems are selling well and there are already plans to further the process, but the benefits are not without risks.

The main risks include that the systems that are currently available tend to lack performance when compared to more traditional systems and they are also more difficult to customize or upgrade. Because many different components are contained within a single chip the possibility of upgrading or changing the components is non-existent. Manufacturers also tend to believe that because a particular piece of hardware is already in the system the manufacturer does not need to make provisions for that component to be upgraded later. This is seen in recent motherboards without AGP slots. This loss of upgradeability could lead to consumers being forced to buy more computers than before. Computers already become obsolete quickly, without upgradeability the situation could become much worse. What I expect each segment of the computer industry to do as PCOAC approaches.

Things to remember, these are predictions that may only become true over several years, most of these predictions apply to the low and mid-range computer market. As a general rule the high-end will be effected last and least.

Motherboards/chipsets

Expect more and more components being built into each board. In a market where being different is good, look for the trend towards integration to be strong. At first these boards will be intended for the low end but early signs of the trend continuing into mid-range systems are already apparent. Once the motherboard makers run out of features to add they will start trying to increase the quality of features. Within the year relatively high-performance graphics and sound cards will be built into many boards. eventually the motherboard makers will lose influence over the industry while the chipset makers all but disappear.

Commentary: In the long run the motherboard manufacturers will do fine, they will have less control over their boards but they make a component not easily replaced and thus will exist for the foreseeable future. The independent chipset designers have much bigger problems. For the short term they will follow the trend like everyone else but in the long run they may cease to exist in their current form. They face several main challenges. They are a small relatively cheaply produced component trying to integrate very complex and expensive components such as video cards. This is a situation that is very similar to a small fish trying to swallow a big fish. They are also being held behind the technology curve by Intel (still the dominate player in the industry). Intel wants control of the chipsets and uses its patents and industry clout to prevent others from making Intel compatible chipsets until years after the new CPU has become available. The combination of being relatively cheap and largely powerless within the industry may lead to the demise of the independent chipset design companies. The chipset^Òs traditional tasks are likely to be integrated into CPU^Òs.

Graphics Cards/chipsets I expect to see more graphics chipset companies buying or being bought by graphics card manufacturers. This gives more control over the use and capabilities of a particular card/chipset combination to the company owning the design. A single company will be able to carry out every step in development and manufacturing and would be capable of locking out competitors. The buyouts allow the company that designs a successful combination to reap all of the benefits without clones dragging prices down.

The independent graphics card companies will disappear as the larger companies that design their own chipsets stop selling graphics chipsets to their competitors and are capable of maintaining lower pricing due to entirely in house product development.

Expect the graphics chipset companies to rapidly move into areas that have traditionally been the realm of CPU^Òs as they search for newer and better features to improve performance and differentiate their product. I will not be surprised to see many aspects of the CPU^Òs FPU to be taken over by the graphics chipset. Some of us still remember debating about which math coprocessor (FPU) to add to our system. This could emerge as an option on a graphics card in the next couple years.

Commentary: The graphics chipset design companies will remain relatively safe in the short term but may be in jeopardy in the long term. In the short term the industry is newly emergent (how long ago since the voodoo?) and moving at an incredible pace. New generations of chipsets are coming out faster than one per year. As long as this pace continues upgradability will outweigh the cost savings given by integration. In the long run however the pace of advance is sure to slow rendering the chipset design companies vulnerable. The major CPU companies will eventually try to devoir the chipset design companies. The CPU manufacturers are easily the largest and most influential within the industry and they will probably succeed.

CPUs For the short term the major CPU companies are preoccupied with the current struggle for dominance. They will try to gain the support of the graphics and motherboard makers and will not encroach into other markets until the CPU market stabilizes. The CPU will continue to advance as it has before with an ever increasing influence on FPU performance.

In the slightly longer term special CPU^Òs designed for the low end computer market, unlike the K6 which was intended as a top of the line chip but failed in that role or the celeron which for all practical purposes is a P2, will bring integration to new levels. Both Cyrix and Intel have publicly announced plans for a PCOAC design.

Eventually (2 or more years) the CPU will become a single giant conglomeration of components including the motherboard chipset and graphics chipset. It will be in effect the only portion of a computer with any significant control over performance. AKA :PCOAC

Commentary: Many people will say that this will never happen because of the lack of upgradability and that the consumer will not buy it. The problem is that this really will be Much cheaper and Much higher performance. It may never make its way into some markets but it will become the standard. I suspect that the companies that will eventually be left in control are the CPU companies. This is because they are the biggest and are in the best situation to carryout the integration. Two excellent examples are Intel and Cyrix. Intel is just huge, they are already in every market discussed above. Intel makes chips, chipsets, graphics chipset, motherboards (including highly integrated ones) and numerous other networking and specialty devices. They have publicly stated that they are developing PCOAC designs and they have the money and designers to do it. This is a perfect situation for Intel. If successful they would have almost Complete control of their computer. (we all know Intel would like that). Cyrix is in almost as good a situation as Intel. Cyrix has recently been bought by VIA. Giving them a new shot at the CPU market with new tools. Between VIA and Cyrix, Cyrix has access to almost everything it needs to pull of the ultimate feat of integration first. Via makes chipsets (including highly integrated ones) Cyrix makes CPUs (including highly integrated ones) the only thing lacking is a competitive graphics chipset program but that could be acquired. Where PCOAC is concerned Cyrix has the lead in both time and technology. It already has chips like the MediaGX that are the current best examples of integrated CPU^Òs (it contains many memory and graphics functions) and they have more on the way. Only time will tell if Cyrix will be able to stay ahead of Intel in this department. It might pull it off assuming Intel is too distracted with AMD to develop PCOAC seriously. AMD might be the exception where integration is concerned. They have excellent CPU designs and have expressed some interest in PCOAC but lack the experience. They only recently began chipset and motherboard design and have no graphics or other programs to speak of. They might be able to pull it off but will need to either invest in some new companies (see my AMD predictions) or form some partnerships within the industry (something AMD has done a lot of). It is unlikely AMD will be the first or second to make a PCOAC. Don^Òt forget that there may be others out there working on PCOAC besides the big three CPU manufacturers. Recent rumors imply that both Transmeta and ATI are moving in that direction and it is a safe bet that IDT and Rise will make a go at it. As more and more companies try to get in on the CPU business expect the market to change drastically. Only time will tell.

The Rest For the foreseeable future RAM and hard drives will be unaffected. Networking components will become just another feature on either a motherboard or a CPU. Most other components will be integrated

Commentary: If it is small and a chip it will as a general rule be integrated. If it is not a chip (ex: Hard drives) it is probably impossible to integrate. Many little companies will vanish when they are rendered obsolete by highly integrated components

You can read more of Michael's writing at his homepage.

Michael Crawford has written a feature on the recent trend towards integration and what it menas to us as the trend continue. Its a nice little summary piece of something that has been happening in the industry lately.

The following was written by Slashdot Reader Michael Crawford

Integration:Where is it Going?

One trend that has recently been gaining a great deal of momentum is integration. Odds are that if someone has invented a useful piece of hardware someone else has plans to build it into either a CPU, a motherboard or a graphics card. Recent motherboards have built in sound, graphics, modems and other useful components. While Graphics cards are trying desperately to differentiate their products by including options like duel monitors and TV-out capabilities and graphics chipsets are adding features as fast as the features can be conceived. The graphics chipsets are even moving into areas that have traditionally been the CPU^Òs job such as geometry and lighting effects. While CPU designers such as Cyrix are pushing new chips that will eventually contain all of the basic computer components, including large portions of the motherboard and graphics chipsets, on a single chip. The eventual goal of this processes is called PCOAC(PC On A Chip). A single chip that performs all of a computer^Òs basic functions. This is the ultimate goal of the current attempts at integration. Why is this important you ask? It is important because over the next three years the computer industry will be drastically changed as a result of integration. Entire segments of the market such as motherboard chipsets and networking devices will vanish as these components are integrated into other, larger components. Watch for more and more soon to be obsolete companies moving out of their traditional markets in an attempt to survive. An excellent example is VIA^Òs acquisition of Cyrix. As PCOAC becomes standard the vast majority of VIA^Òs current business(low-end chipsets) will be rendered a obsolete. Thus they are in effect trying to escape to high ground before the flood arrives that will spell the end of most of their current competitors. Now you might ask why integrate?

The integration has two primary intended effects. One, the card, board or CPU in question gains the added feature that makes it more attractive to customers. Two, the use of less chips saves on system cost and power consumption. This is why current highly integrated systems tend to be intended for either the low-end of the desktop market or the laptop market. These systems are selling well and there are already plans to further the process, but the benefits are not without risks.

The main risks include that the systems that are currently available tend to lack performance when compared to more traditional systems and they are also more difficult to customize or upgrade. Because many different components are contained within a single chip the possibility of upgrading or changing the components is non-existent. Manufacturers also tend to believe that because a particular piece of hardware is already in the system the manufacturer does not need to make provisions for that component to be upgraded later. This is seen in recent motherboards without AGP slots. This loss of upgradeability could lead to consumers being forced to buy more computers than before. Computers already become obsolete quickly, without upgradeability the situation could become much worse. What I expect each segment of the computer industry to do as PCOAC approaches.

Things to remember, these are predictions that may only become true over several years, most of these predictions apply to the low and mid-range computer market. As a general rule the high-end will be effected last and least.

Motherboards/chipsets

Expect more and more components being built into each board. In a market where being different is good, look for the trend towards integration to be strong. At first these boards will be intended for the low end but early signs of the trend continuing into mid-range systems are already apparent. Once the motherboard makers run out of features to add they will start trying to increase the quality of features. Within the year relatively high-performance graphics and sound cards will be built into many boards. eventually the motherboard makers will lose influence over the industry while the chipset makers all but disappear.

Commentary: In the long run the motherboard manufacturers will do fine, they will have less control over their boards but they make a component not easily replaced and thus will exist for the foreseeable future. The independent chipset designers have much bigger problems. For the short term they will follow the trend like everyone else but in the long run they may cease to exist in their current form. They face several main challenges. They are a small relatively cheaply produced component trying to integrate very complex and expensive components such as video cards. This is a situation that is very similar to a small fish trying to swallow a big fish. They are also being held behind the technology curve by Intel (still the dominate player in the industry). Intel wants control of the chipsets and uses its patents and industry clout to prevent others from making Intel compatible chipsets until years after the new CPU has become available. The combination of being relatively cheap and largely powerless within the industry may lead to the demise of the independent chipset design companies. The chipset^Òs traditional tasks are likely to be integrated into CPU^Òs.

Graphics Cards/chipsets I expect to see more graphics chipset companies buying or being bought by graphics card manufacturers. This gives more control over the use and capabilities of a particular card/chipset combination to the company owning the design. A single company will be able to carry out every step in development and manufacturing and would be capable of locking out competitors. The buyouts allow the company that designs a successful combination to reap all of the benefits without clones dragging prices down.

The independent graphics card companies will disappear as the larger companies that design their own chipsets stop selling graphics chipsets to their competitors and are capable of maintaining lower pricing due to entirely in house product development.

Expect the graphics chipset companies to rapidly move into areas that have traditionally been the realm of CPU^Òs as they search for newer and better features to improve performance and differentiate their product. I will not be surprised to see many aspects of the CPU^Òs FPU to be taken over by the graphics chipset. Some of us still remember debating about which math coprocessor (FPU) to add to our system. This could emerge as an option on a graphics card in the next couple years.

Commentary: The graphics chipset design companies will remain relatively safe in the short term but may be in jeopardy in the long term. In the short term the industry is newly emergent (how long ago since the voodoo?) and moving at an incredible pace. New generations of chipsets are coming out faster than one per year. As long as this pace continues upgradability will outweigh the cost savings given by integration. In the long run however the pace of advance is sure to slow rendering the chipset design companies vulnerable. The major CPU companies will eventually try to devoir the chipset design companies. The CPU manufacturers are easily the largest and most influential within the industry and they will probably succeed.

CPUs For the short term the major CPU companies are preoccupied with the current struggle for dominance. They will try to gain the support of the graphics and motherboard makers and will not encroach into other markets until the CPU market stabilizes. The CPU will continue to advance as it has before with an ever increasing influence on FPU performance.

In the slightly longer term special CPU^Òs designed for the low end computer market, unlike the K6 which was intended as a top of the line chip but failed in that role or the celeron which for all practical purposes is a P2, will bring integration to new levels. Both Cyrix and Intel have publicly announced plans for a PCOAC design.

Eventually (2 or more years) the CPU will become a single giant conglomeration of components including the motherboard chipset and graphics chipset. It will be in effect the only portion of a computer with any significant control over performance. AKA :PCOAC

Commentary: Many people will say that this will never happen because of the lack of upgradability and that the consumer will not buy it. The problem is that this really will be Much cheaper and Much higher performance. It may never make its way into some markets but it will become the standard. I suspect that the companies that will eventually be left in control are the CPU companies. This is because they are the biggest and are in the best situation to carryout the integration. Two excellent examples are Intel and Cyrix. Intel is just huge, they are already in every market discussed above. Intel makes chips, chipsets, graphics chipset, motherboards (including highly integrated ones) and numerous other networking and specialty devices. They have publicly stated that they are developing PCOAC designs and they have the money and designers to do it. This is a perfect situation for Intel. If successful they would have almost Complete control of their computer. (we all know Intel would like that). Cyrix is in almost as good a situation as Intel. Cyrix has recently been bought by VIA. Giving them a new shot at the CPU market with new tools. Between VIA and Cyrix, Cyrix has access to almost everything it needs to pull of the ultimate feat of integration first. Via makes chipsets (including highly integrated ones) Cyrix makes CPUs (including highly integrated ones) the only thing lacking is a competitive graphics chipset program but that could be acquired. Where PCOAC is concerned Cyrix has the lead in both time and technology. It already has chips like the MediaGX that are the current best examples of integrated CPU^Òs (it contains many memory and graphics functions) and they have more on the way. Only time will tell if Cyrix will be able to stay ahead of Intel in this department. It might pull it off assuming Intel is too distracted with AMD to develop PCOAC seriously. AMD might be the exception where integration is concerned. They have excellent CPU designs and have expressed some interest in PCOAC but lack the experience. They only recently began chipset and motherboard design and have no graphics or other programs to speak of. They might be able to pull it off but will need to either invest in some new companies (see my AMD predictions) or form some partnerships within the industry (something AMD has done a lot of). It is unlikely AMD will be the first or second to make a PCOAC. Don^Òt forget that there may be others out there working on PCOAC besides the big three CPU manufacturers. Recent rumors imply that both Transmeta and ATI are moving in that direction and it is a safe bet that IDT and Rise will make a go at it. As more and more companies try to get in on the CPU business expect the market to change drastically. Only time will tell.

The Rest For the foreseeable future RAM and hard drives will be unaffected. Networking components will become just another feature on either a motherboard or a CPU. Most other components will be integrated

Commentary: If it is small and a chip it will as a general rule be integrated. If it is not a chip (ex: Hard drives) it is probably impossible to integrate. Many little companies will vanish when they are rendered obsolete by highly integrated components

You can read more of Michael's writing at his homepage.

Darren wrote in to blatantly plug his 'Darren's Penguin Habitat' which aims to be a newbie Linux site. g8orade wrote in to say that Applix has Applix Anywhere which is apparently a Java compatible suite of mail, word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet software. jimw wrote in to tell us about Vintage Computer Festival if you're into that old stuff, and near Santa Clara. yack0 warned us that Elijah Wood will be Frodo Baggins in the upcoming Lord of the Rings Trilogy of movies. Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer is also rumored to have a part. rawlink sent us a URL with some Hi Res Fractals that prove Rob' First Law of Art: All art is better if you can use it as your background image. An anonymous reader wrote in to plug these Y2k Posters which actually look surprisingly sweet if you're into those classic movie type posters. I dig 'em. Abe Zuckerman sent us pictures of the new Rios (hint: Butt ugly) Randy Rathbun wrote in to note that several new pictures of the empeg have appeared on their website. Mikey LeBeau us pix of a metallic hand-crafted aluminum Palm case for those of us who are entertained by shiny objects. Scooter sent us a report on how offensive South Park the Movie is. Absolutely Hilarious. Finally, matthewg pointed us to After Y2K which pokes some fun at Hemos, Martha Stewert, and Me.

amiga_dude sent us an article that has a ton of information about the confussion and questions surrounding the recent Linux Amiga QNX news that has been sprouting up. This one is a pretty good catch all piece with some Linux words as well.

Anonymous Coward writes "Trumpet Software, the company well known for its Trumpet Winsock package has been quoted in the press as having their own version of a Win32 platform operating system, called PetrOS. They are working out if they can release it without affecting MS's API intellectual property, from the " They claim to have a 100kb microkernel, and run native NT executables. Anyone have more details?

Neuromorph writes "In Telluride, at the The Telluride 1999 NSF Workshop on Neuromorphic Engineering, in the middle of the Rockies, 50 neuromorphic engineers from across the world will spend the next few weeks developing ground-breaking neurologically inspired technology. The projects include silicon aVLSI retinas and cochleas, autonomous flying blimps, robotic legs and hands, electronic cortical models and synthetic epistemology. " Alright. Someone's gonna have to inflitrate and get pictures and updates-send over my way.

Dr. Tom was the first to send us the Be Inc. IPO announcement from E-Trade. Very cool OS, and I hope the sale goes well. E-Trade will be accepting apps for distribution to members, and also notes that while the registration statement has been filed, it's not been accepted by the SEC. Check out the Yahoo Biz story for more details.

Jareth writes "In their revised terms of service, Yahoo is trying to make it clear that they do not own content that you submit. They still haven't taken out the sections about 'modify, adapt, ... create derivative works from'. So while they don't own your web page, they can still do anything they want to it. The story is over at Wired. "

Kodi wrote in to tell us that MozillaZine is holding a vote for the new Mozilla throbber (free membership required). Also the LinuxWorld Expo call for papers deadline is July 6. They're also doing a $25k award for a community program at the show. hzo wrote in to note that you can now hack furby with your Palm V. cpfeifer has noted a Yoda Got Milk parody. rhet sent us a web based jar-jar-gonizer if you aren't overloaded with the wretched beast. Kurt Weinschenker wrote in to tell us that the 99 Darwin Awards nominees are online. S|ack noted that you can now get adminspotting t-shirts. Scorpeye sent us an article about Bachelors in the Silicon Valley and comments about eligible bachelorettes in NY and LA... hmmm... Finally, some articles about the Andover.Net acquisition of Slashdot: Here's Upside, wired (thanks Evro) Salon (thanks Super_Oogie). There were a few more too, but after I've read two I realize I say pretty much the same stuff each time anyway, so its hardly interesting ;)

Ristoril writes "Scientists in the Kinki (I'm not making this up) University Hospital in Osaka, Japan, have created artificial fingers in cooperation with Harvard Med School in Boston, Mass. Read the whole story about artificial cow fingers from Yahoo! News. "

Ristoril writes "Scientists in the Kinki (I'm not making this up) University Hospital in Osaka, Japan, have created artificial fingers in cooperation with Harvard Med School in Boston, Mass. Read the whole story about artificial cow fingers from Yahoo! News. "

Veck was the first to send us the word that Via Technology (lately of partnership with Intel, as well as being sued by them) has purchased the Cyrix x86 line from National Semiconductor. Despite the huge parity in size, Via Tech seems eager to take on Intel. Update: 06/30 04:10 by S : To clarify: Via Tech will be purchasing the Texas division of Cyrix which makes standalone PC processors fitting into standard sockets (7, 370, and the like). The Colorado division which makes integrated processors (MediaGX) will be absorbed into National Semiconductor to address the Information Appliance market. Interestingly it appears that Via will also offer integrated products, therefore possibly competing with National.

Kewlname writes "Namesys released Reiserfs for GNU/Linux. The specs and the press release " To think - we get this and beta journaling code in the same week (I hope!). Anyway, I don't know how applicable it is to Reiserfs, but Theodore Ts'o has a paper in the 1998 Linux Expo proceedings about how one might go about introducing B-trees into ext2. It might be interesting to compare this to the design of Reiserfs.

Doug Muth writes "There's an article in Wired about Yahoo taking over Geocities and how they now claim to own the intellectual rights to all webpages that users have on there. That's scary, since under this contract, anyone who has a page on Geocities no longer has the rights to what they have created. "

A Big Gnu Thrush writes "This Wired article discusses Presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole's "technology platform," which includes a call to withhold funds from public libraries which don't filter Internet content. Finally someone with the guts to put a lid on these hothouses of porn. " Thanks liz. I'm glad somebody thought of the children *cough cough*

Danny Rathjens writes "David Brady of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues combined two kinds of technology -- computed tomography (CT), which is used to scan the inside of the body, and interferometry, which makes it possible to see an image without focusing on it, to make 3D pictures using visible light. "

Anonymous Cowboy wrote in to tell us that S3 has aquired Diamond Multimedia. "Why" is still sorta up in the air, but hey, consolidation is all the rage these days. Maybe they'll bundle Rio's with video cards or something.

EmmaLouise99 pointed us over to an article in which scientists have gotten rats to control a simple robot arm through the activity of brain cells. The report comes in this month of Nature Neuroscience, and the obvious applications are for paralyzed people. I remember reading in Discover as well about a similar situation with little go-karts and insect brains-hooking up the sections that controlled wing movement, and letting them they think they were flying, but actually controlling the karts movement.

fremen writes "Yahoo has an article about VA Research starting a new round of fund raising. It mentions that it has gained funding from SGI among other companies. "

fremen writes "Yahoo has an article about VA Research starting a new round of fund raising. It mentions that it has gained funding from SGI among other companies. "

fremen writes "Yahoo has an article about VA Research starting a new round of fund raising. It mentions that it has gained funding from SGI among other companies. "

KilgourTrout writes "The original story was released earlier this month, but IBM has put a new spin on things - From an IBM newsletter: "Now, it's time to vote with your mouse finger. Download the code today and you'll do your part to convince us that there is a market for this product."" You can visit the web site and download it if you're interested in that whole Java thing.

Kevin Remhof writes "Researchers at SunLabs have come up with a new theoretical interface for handheld computers. As stated in the abstract: "The key idea of the proposed model is that the display can be compressed and expanded by moving objects radially farther away or closer to an event horizon in the middle of the screen." It's tailor-made for small screens. "

diabloii writes "SCO will license its System Activity Reporter (SAR) source code to the open source community in cooperation with Starnix, Inc. SAR is currently used to retrieve data for administering the UnixWare 7 System V Release 5 (SVR5) kernel. SCO is hoping that the release of SAR will help standardize kernel administrative. Read the press release here. Also more info at freshmeat. " SAR will be released under the Mozilla license, under the 2nd phase of the release. In the first phase, it will be ported to *BSD and Linux, with the help of Starnix.

diabloii writes "SCO will license its System Activity Reporter (SAR) source code to the open source community in cooperation with Starnix, Inc. SAR is currently used to retrieve data for administering the UnixWare 7 System V Release 5 (SVR5) kernel. SCO is hoping that the release of SAR will help standardize kernel administrative. Read the press release here. Also more info at freshmeat. " SAR will be released under the Mozilla license, under the 2nd phase of the release. In the first phase, it will be ported to *BSD and Linux, with the help of Starnix.

zaks writes "I found this ZDNet article on Yahoo, saying that Apple may soon be sold. They attribute the story to "third-party sources close to Apple and its Interim CEO, Steve Jobs". The potential buyers discussed in the article are Disney, TimeWarner, and Viacom. "

PigAlien writes "Move over, Jon Katz, Helen Virginia Leidenmeyer's here with a stunning and inspirational essay, courtesy of The Onion about our children's future... the future of robots. " I think it's the Whitney Houston (?) song that's quoted throughout that really gladdens my heart.

javac writes "Scientists and engineers from Bell Labs have demonstrated a prototype long-distance optical-transmission system that quadruples the capacity of today's commercial systems to 1.6 terabits. Read the full story"

Wonko42 writes "Microsoft and AOL have put aside their bickering for a moment and teamed up to fund a research project that will examine the effects of the Internet on modern society. " The results of will be quite interesting-they are looking at not only the effects of usage, but also non-usage, which is equally important, IMHO. It looks like UCLA will be the key institution, and the time span is "at least a generation".

Hos writes "Saw this press release this morning. Looks like they have an interesting list of members (Linus, Larry Augustine, Bob Young), though it doesn't say whether thy will be speaking or not. "

Echoloc8 writes "This article from Yahoo! News reports that NASA will be smashing the Lunar Prospector probe into the moon near the probable ice deposit discovered recently, trying to send a water-vapor plume high enough to be detected. They claim a 10% chance of success." It's a pretty cool idea-the probe has just about served all of it's usefulness, and while not finding liquid doesn't mean that it is not present, I like the notion of using every last dollar they can.

Anonymous writes "Sun just announced that they are open sourcing their high-performance clustering software." The announcement is on Yahoo. Sun will be releasing it under their Sun Community Source Licensing, which is different then XFS, which was truly Open Sourced.

kriston writes "AOL has just acquired the MP3 ^[?] player WinAmp, the Spinner Networks online music service, and SHOUTcast streaming audio software." Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

Wonko42 writes "Everyone's favorite cloned sheep, Dolly, is showing signs of premature aging. Even though she's only three years old, her cells are acting like they're six years old. Scientists think this is because she was cloned using cells from an older sheep. "

the_tsi writes "Dell has a contest to find the oldest PC still in service at a small business. The winner gets $15K worth of new computers, and their old PC donated to the Computer Museum of America. " Cute idea actually.

Bocephus writes "CNET news.com reports in this story that the RIAA, despite its Secure Digital Music Initiative project, will allow MP3 to continue to exist so that portables like the Rio or Nomad may play MP3s. However, MP3s ripped from new CDs will be unusable if downloaded from the Net. " Yeah, essentially the RIAA is saying that current players can still play ones, even the existing illegal ones, once specs from the recording industry has been made. I wonder how long it's going to take them to figure out that they lost.

Foley writes "The Australian Senate passed legislation today that requires ISPs to block any web site in the world that is classified as offensive by an Australian film board. The law is set to go into effect January 2000. Check out the news and even more news. "

fremen writes "Spencer F. Katt has a few lines in his weekly column about Microsoft vs. Linux, including a comment about Microsoft forming a team to write a version of Internet Explorer for Linux. He indicates that Redmond is afraid, very afraid. "

ZDNet is reporting that IBM is forming a "$29M research institute". The assigned scientists will focus on using supercomputers to model real-life scenarios. Apparently, they plan to release some software for visual data representation in the near future under an open source license. Update: 05/25 09:40 by J : IBM is forming an alliance with Pacific HiTech where PHT will support IBM's DB2 under Linux. It also seems DB2 will ship with a special version of PHT in the future.