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Quack writes "A federal Judge in Dallas say he plans to ban the sale of self-help legal software in Texas, claiming it amounts to the unauthorized practice of law! This is just a case of lawyers helping lawyers because too many people are writing wills for $20 instead of 150$/hr. "

Arto Stimms sent us a rather nice compilation of facts and tidbits about the G4 processor, aka Max. Main features: Altivec, MERSI SMP, 2Mb L2, and a 128 bit data path running at 100Mhz. At 1.8 Volts, a 400Mhz G4 will only consume 8 Watts.

John Keeton writes "Guys, This story talks about how NASA is moving its data from tapes as old as seven tracks to newer media, but then they get done, they have to start moving it again to new media, and how they are falling behind, and may have to lose TB's worth of data.. Really interesting.." It says it will take them 4 years to move all the data to tapes that have a 6 year life expectancy. Hmmm.

DP writes "Well, it is known known which game they will be porting. Civilization: Call to Power (CIV III, basically), will be fully ported to linux by Loki Software, all utilities and extras included. " How many hours did I lose to the original Civ? Man, this is great news.

Justin Cave writes "Intel states that they will change the PIII's unique ID feature in response to public pressure. They will disable the feature by default and provide software to permanently disable it. "

Johnny Taporg writes " I came across this article in today's Washington post, where Robert Young talks about Linux's chance of being competitive with Microsoft. He says wait a decade or so. " It's interesting he's saying this, will Microsoft is arguing that Linux is a present day competitor. How trials can so change people's opinions.

Norm writes "Corel has agreed to transfer ownership of Corel Computer NetWinder to Hardware Canada Computer (HCC) for a 25% stake in their company. The article is here. Does anyone know anything about HCC? I hope this is good news. Maybe they can make the Netwinders cheaper. " Update: 01/21 03:03 by S : This open letter to netwinder.org participants clarifies that netwinder.org is not part of the transaction.

Andrew Tannenbaum was the first to inform us that Archie Comics has dropped its threat of legal action against veronica.org In related news, Captain Ajax writes "Ajax.org, making good on its vow, is sponsoring an initiative that coordinates grass-roots efforts to stop domain-names from being wrongly usurped by well-monied corporations and other unethical individuals. " I hope Captain Ajax's initiative will put an end to this nonsense.

Scott Hutton writes "Yahoo has a Reuters article about how a man crashed his car when fifty newly-purchased pagers all went off at once. It's all marketing's fault, too... " See? that is why you shouldn't carry 50 beepers.

Scott Hutton writes "Yahoo has a Reuters article about how a man crashed his car when fifty newly-purchased pagers all went off at once. It's all marketing's fault, too... " See? that is why you shouldn't carry 50 beepers.

Zebulun writes "the New York Times reported today that Silicon Graphics Corp will sell its majority stake in MIPS Technologies Inc. which produces the RS5k and RS10k processors powering SGIs high-end workstations. This comes not long after SGI announced and began selling intel PII based "VisualStations". " Andrey gave us the link to this Associated Press report about it, commenting "What a sad day it is..."

Zebulun writes "the New York Times reported today that Silicon Graphics Corp will sell its majority stake in MIPS Technologies Inc. which produces the RS5k and RS10k processors powering SGIs high-end workstations. This comes not long after SGI announced and began selling intel PII based "VisualStations". " Andrey gave us the link to this Associated Press report about it, commenting "What a sad day it is..."

marcus writes "China has given its airline bosses the ultimate incentive to solve the "Millennium bomb" computer problem by ordering them to take a flight on New Year's day 2000. Update: 01/15 07:11 by S : Well apparently this was a joke which got misreported: Markus Peter writes "Zhang Qi, responsible for y2k problems in China, told the news that an employee of CAAC (chinese airlines) suggested this as a joke to her working group and it somehow leaked to the news" (translation of the german link above). Well, I don't know about you, but I thought that was a good example of really assuming full responsability... they can't chicken out now can they ? ;-)

Normally I don't post this sort of thing because it's major flamebait, but this one is just so funny so I'm gonna let it through. Jason Eric Pierce writes "The DOJ surprised Microsoft's computer "expert" by revealing that the survey he used as part of his testimony was actually ordered by Gates. Bill being the nice guy he is, he went ahead and specified what the results of the survey should be. " Read this one and laugh.

PDG writes "Last nite, Legions of the Underground, or LoU, hosted an IRC press conference to dispell rumours regarding their recent statement on cyberwarfare against Iraq and China for human rights violations. They claim that their intentions were not cyber-terrorism or the destruction of network systems. This release came after the denouncing of their idea by a coalition of the 6 oldest US based hacking organizations (CDC, CCC, L0pht, etc) "

Anonymous Coward writes "According to this news, after iMac success, PC style is as improtant as megahertz. What do you guys (and gals) think? " I'd have to agree, as I've owned some nice computers, but they were all eyesores.

pavewrld sent in a couple of links. The first is over at MacWorld Online and announces the new PowerMac G3's, which look similar to the iMac. The second announces the new iMac's, which now come in a variety of colors. Also in Apple news, NikT wrote in to say that Mac OS X server was announced, and it will include Apache and BSD 4.4. Finally, Ethan Butterfield wrote in to let us know of Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld Expo. Apparently Apple has licensed OpenGL from SGI, and John Carmack demoed Quake 3 Arena on one of the new G3's. You can read more at Macintouch. Phew! With MacWorld Expo going on, the Apple news is nonstop.

Quite a few submissions have come in about parallel port scanners, but Quicker was the first to ask a question generic post (others were about specific scanners, but they neglected to include models and manufacturers) : "I'm looking for a scanner for my Linux box, and the only support I see is for various SCSI scanners, namely HP, which is fine, but they are expensive. I see all these less expensive (but lower quality) parallel port scanners and would like to get one, since they are good enough for what I do. Anyone working on support for these devices?" SANE supports Plustek Parallel Port scanners, but I don't know if there are any other parallel port drivers in that project. Can anyone shed more light on this subject?

CSD writes "As I was surfing for news bits this morning I noticed that the guys over at Ars Technica have an in-depth review of the new SGI NT box. Apparantly they got hold of a 320 model. I figured this was OK content for this site as well, since people are clammoring to know about Linux support, and from some of the hardware mentioned in this review, it leaves room for doubt about Linux working on it w/o some major tweaks. " If SGI is smart, they've got an army of hackers making sure these 'tweaks' are ready as soon after this bugger is announced. Update: 01/05 11:50 by CT : afniv writes "In an interview with SGI CEO Rick Belluzzo regarding the launch of the new "NT workstation", he discusses the new direction of SGI and the fact that he "can't go on a customer visit without somebody asking about Linux." "

Anonymous Coward writes " yahoo is saying that the US government has relaxed encryption export controls. " H: Granted, it's only "several key industry sectors after a one-time review by the Commerce Department" but at least it's something.

Ice writes "Geron, a small biotech company, has found a way to immortalize cells. Check out the Reuters news. " Basically, they have found that using telomerase, an enzyme, they can give a cell infinite reproductive capability without the debilitating effects of cancer. This will be useful for what the article calls "stem cells", basically cells which can be used to grow other things-like new livers for Rob and me.

Internet media will offer wireless T1 equivalent at 40% below market for business customer. The lower cost for residential market is slated for March 1999 launch. Unfortunately it is only for Santa Fe area. Ya know, I dream of wireless bandwidth, but I never leave my room except to get more coffee.

A writes "Of especial interest to all those in Norway: acording to Yahoo News, Norwegians can probe any machine on the internet. Not sure how this translates into international law, but it is a victory!"

Mr. Lament writes "I just found this article on CNN. China has just sentenced to hackers to death for a computerized bank theft. You can get the details here. "

Well, after yesterday's article about LinuxWorld and KDE, the facts have come to light-it wasn't LinuxWorld at all. The following is a letter from Bernd Wuebben, KDE contact in the USA: "A previously posted news bit on stated that the KDE project was asked to pay $1500 for a booth at Linux World. This statement is incorrect. The truth is that the KDE project was asked by a representative of the Linux _Expo_ (Note: NOT Linux World) whether we would like to have a booth at the Linux Expo. We communicated our interest and were told that Linux Expo would be happy to give us a booth for the price of $1500. While I do not know who 'leaked' internal information in distorted incorrect form to slashdot, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Linux World in the name of the KDE project. Linux World and its organizers have been very supportive of KDE and in particulare ask/invited us to attend Linux World.". Whew-that makes a whole lot more sense. (CT: the news bit from KDEs site has disappeared without explanation.)

Eitan Shefer writes " I have a nice scoop. hehe.. so far no news source picked this one up.. back in the old days, of the pre-Jobs-intrim-headed Apple, Apple invested in a new CPU company called Exponential, which claimed to have made very fast Power-pc based CPU (up to 500mhz At 0.6 micron, which is amazing, if true.). Apple, under Jobs decided not to use Exponential's chips, a decision which pretty much killed exponential since very few potential clients for PPC desktop CPUs existed at that time (or still do). Exponential also wrote a few patents that were rather interesting to other CPU makers (X86 emulation in 64bit architecture, for example, which Intel would be interested in.). Exponential died, and, in the end the patents were bought by S3. The same S3 today has announced that they have entered into a 10-year cross license deal with Intel, giving Intel (and S3) access to each other's patents. Click below to read the press release. " S3 Announces 10-Year Cross Licensing Agreement With Intel Intel to Purchase Warrants for S3 Shares S3 to be an Intel AGP 4X Validation Partner SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1998--S3 Inc. (Nasdaq:SIII - news) today announced a long-term agreement with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) which includes a 10-year cross-license agreement for all S3 and Intel patents for development of certain semiconductor products, a bus license for current and future Intel general purpose processors, and the selection of S3 as an Intel AGP 4X validation partner.

Ted S. Warren writes " The Globe has a column by David Warsh that ran in Sunday's (12/13/98) Boston Globe about OSS, Tim O'Reilly, and Linux. Good press. " Sorta a PHB page, but still good.

The IETF has approved the WebDAV as an official internet standard for publishing to the web. WebDAV is already starting to see support in commercial applications and already has an Apache module. Check out the buzzword compliant press release.

When I put out my call for Geek Christmas Gift ideas, I had no idea what I was in for. But after the storm of email that followed was washed away, I was left with a list of toys that any geek would be excited to give or get this year for whatever holiday it is you celebrate this time of year. Hit the link below and read the list if you're curious. Random Stuff There were a few things that were suggested, that, well, I bet Santa won't come through for them. Hemos asks for Nanites. Thats all he wants. Nanites. Somebody smack him. Nima Negahban says "I would like the beowolf cluster avalon for christmas, dont worry about it fitting it under the tree. " david yates wrote in and simply said "Half naked Princess Leia ,as Jabba's prisoner, action figure." I'm sure his mother is proud. He can have the Action Figure, I want 1976 Carrie Fisher. Games Everyone and their brother wrote in to say that Nintendo 64's and Playstations are great. And the game of choice is definitely Zelda 64. I second that motion. I suggested it to my dad as a Christmas Present. Terrible idea- now I gotta wait until xmas to find out if he got it, and if he *didn't* I gotta buy in on Dec 26. Hard as hell to find. Folks suggested other things like the original Kings Quest or Leisure Suit Larry. Prince of Persia. Commander Keen. Ultima. All those games that aren't around any more, but with their original packaging. Finding a 5.25" drive to play them with might be a tad tricky tho. Clothing It's a well known fact that its better to be clothed at least part of the time. And no self respecting geek should be without a vast array of appropriately political t-shirts to pad out your closet full of suits, jackets, and ties (cough). Daniel suggested checking out the Free BSD Mall for BSD clothing. Jonathan Moore suggested the ever popular KMFMS t-shirts for your local microsoft hater. If thats a bit to exotic for you, how about the classic that Doug Boettcher sent us: the Hack Naked shirt. Since we're mentioning all these t-shirts, we ought to mention that CopyLeft has several shirts including my Don't Fear the Penguins ones, and Slashdot ones too. Software Several folks wrote in to say that they were buying Linux CDs from any of the various places that sell them, and giving them away to the needy. I tend towards Linux Central, and in addition to them Cheap Bytes OpenBsd.org and The Linux Mall were all suggested as places where you can buy the stuff we like. Hardware By far the largest catagory for gift ideas was of course Hardware:The Gift that Costs to much. Of course, anyone would want a a Palm III- it's hard to think of a better stocking stuffer. And besides, they're practically money in the bank now that you can use them to collect automobiles of the rich and famous. But if you've already got a Pilot, James A. Hillyerd suggests a GoType keyboard as the perfect accessory. If the pilot isn't your bag, but you want to read on the road, Mahlen Morris suggested A Rocket E-Book which is basically a tablet computer that is designed to replace books You can get them here. And apparently they have some sort of deal with Barnes & Nobles so you can get content to read on it. They're pretty sweet looking- someday we'll have a wireless version with net access, then we can forget paper. But for now, this'll do.

Have trouble remembering passwords? Digital Persona sells sweet hardware that that you can use to do finger print identification. Suggested by Andrew Lepisto. The pdQ was suggested by Adam D. McKenna. Its a cel phone with an integrated Pilot. Another fairly common suggestion for geek gifts was cel service from your local provider, and a cel modem for the laptop equipped gift getter. Sean McPherson suggested a Kodak DC210+ digital camera. Saves big bucks on film, and is supposed to be supported by SANE. I'm actually planning on getting a Digital Camera before the upcoming string of conferences, and I'll probably look at this one (unless Santa already has one in his bag for me, although at $400 a pop, I highly doubt it) Steven McDonald suggests that we look at DVD RAM Drives as a new huge backup device for storing your MP3s and Porn. Oh, and legit data too.

Mike Miller sent us several suggestions including the Happy Hacking Keyboard. I played with one at ALS- they're not bad. Just as cool are the new Color Gamesboys. I suppose tetris wouldn't be vastly improved by color, but its still pretty sweet. For those with a hugeass budget, How about your very own Alpha Cluster? Obviously Jakob is a lot more hopeful for Saint Nick than I am this year *grin*. How about a vt320 Terminal? Daniel Morrison suggested it, and I think it sounds pretty cool. I had a terminal attached to one of my Linux boxes for awhile. I Let it tail log files and stuff. Kinda fun for reading documentation and stuff too. Can't afford a Multi-Head X-Server, video card, and spare monitor anyway. Plus you can run them into another room and check your email from your kitchen/dining room/bathroom.

Matthew J. Allen sent us a pricey one, but its oh so sweet: Remember those Huge Flat LCD Screens from SGI? I sure do. I wake up after erotic dreams about them. (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE:Hey SGI: Give Rob one of those things for banner ads. You've got a spare one just sitting around, right?). Matthew also suggested an Iomega Clik Drive if you're on a more reasonable budget. Those things do look pretty sweet. Do cables piss you off? How about the gift of a tangle free workspace? Scott Donovan sent us a link to Cordless Mice and Keyboards from Logitech that will free you up for spinning on your swivel chair really fast until you fall over from getting dizzy instead of getting tangled up in your keyboard cable.

Toys By far the single most suggested toy of all was the Lego Mindstorms. The robotic legos are quite possibly the coolest toy in the history of toys. They aren't cheap, but they are oh so sweet. Else you could consider X-Files Action Figures suggested by E. Waugh. Home Entertainment and Audio Gear The Panasonic Portable DVD Theater was sent in by Joel Telling. Its a tiny portable DVD player obviously designed to make me froth at the mouth like a rabid dog. Several folks wrote in to suggest something I would like, but I wouldn't want to froth on. The Empeg Car CD Player. We've mentioned this before, and although they won't be ready for christmas, they are pretty amazing. 2.1 gigs of MP3s in a car stereo. They need a 9 gig version mounted in a home stereo component too.

Jon Jones (is that a real name? *grin*) wrote in to send a link to ADB I/O which you can use to automate your home for the ultimate in comfort and/or laziness. For the true audio junkie, how about the THX Speakers sent in by Chad R. Henry. Sure, they cost more than my car, but I bet they sound amazing. If you're on a more modest budget Cambridge SoundWorks has some slightly more reasonably priced speakers that I'm told sound awesome. Andrew Hobgood suggests checking out Panasonic SJ-MJ70 MiniDisc Player (portable). Pretty sweet if you aren't willing to chance it on the Diamond Rio (which was also one of the most common suggestions). Frankly any geek should be excited to get either. Rob Sheehy pointed out that Philips has 42 inch widescreen flat TVs that you could hang on your wall if you happen to be rich and wanna watch letterbox movies. This one has a VGA input too.

Random Terry A. Braun suggests that geeks need to get into making our own beer. Sounds like a great idea to me, although I tend to screw up toast. But if you're man enough to try it, you can get Your Own Grain Mill. Alan Mathews wrote in to suggest a A dilbert M&M dispensor McPhee's has some strange stuff, including a Punching Nun suggested by Glen Lipka Tom Berger suggested A VI Command Set Mug STriker RedWolf sent us a link to a chocolate bar shaped like a Pentuim II Chip.

Jason Grundy suggests the $6 card game Kill Dr. Lucky and a Card both from the aptly titled Cheapass.com. Rob Pelkey sent in a pair of gift ideas that are a world apart. The first is An Authentic Moon Rock and the second is a Jesse Ventura T-Shirt or Bumper Sticker. One is probably worth a little more than the other. The concept kitchen has this wierd Finger Stylus Thingee that you can use instead of a pen for some pen machines. Kinda wacky. Sent to us by Wyatt Earp.

Justin Higgins suggests that geeks should all own a copy of the Star Wars Radio Drama. Sure, it costs almost a hundred bucks, but at 15 CDs, it balances out to almost be a bargain. They ought to package it on 1 CD full of MP3s, throw a copy of the script on the disc and sell it for $20. I'd never heard of the Leatherman Wave before, but several folks emailed me to say they are cool. And then I noticed that they were actually advertising here. Shows how much attention I pay to who advertises on my own site I guess. But still several people raved about them, claiming that they're ideal for mucking around inside computer cases with. And Traci Earl sent a link to a site that makes nice Leather Cases for them.

Do you think stuffed animals are stupid? Well how about a Stuffed Plush Space Shuttle? Dave Brunberg sent us that gem. Stirling Westrup sent in a link to something called the Hoberman Sphere which basically is a crazily designed sphere thingee that expands from 9.5" to 30". Crazy looking. If you're looking for something caffienated that you can put in your mouth, several folks reminded us about caffienated penguin mints.

Wrap Up Well this was fun guys. Spending hours looking at crazy things that I can't afford has convinced me to take up cracking banks as an evening hobby. But what is quite obvious is that 1998 is a good year to be a geek. And maybe in 1999 Hemos can have his nanites. Nah.

And lastly, with all the commercial hub bub that tends to go on during this season, don't forget the true meaning of Christmas: Ham.

BOredAtWork writes "CNN.com is running a feature on goodnoise.com, mp3, the rio, and how they make it possible for independant labels and small artists to reach a wider audience, and mention how mp3 might revolutionize music distribution. Could it be... mainstream media acceptance of mp3? " Somewhat related, Solid Audio is a hardware VQF (MP3 Competitor) player that you might be interested in. Sent to us by David Weekly

axg writes "Loki Software is planning to port top selling games to Linux. Read about it here " Loki games is brought to you by the same guys that made the SDK toolkit. (AFAIR) Slashdot wishes them well... What games are you thinking of porting first?

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Someone has made an IR comm protocol for mindstorm robots to a linux communications daemon or something" Update: 12/06 05:16 by CT : Apparently Yahoo had something of a problem as they have since announced that the Lego IR story was a hoax put in their system but someone exploiting it. Nifty.

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Someone has made an IR comm protocol for mindstorm robots to a linux communications daemon or something" Update: 12/06 05:16 by CT : Apparently Yahoo had something of a problem as they have since announced that the Lego IR story was a hoax put in their system but someone exploiting it. Nifty.

shanelenagh wrote in with good news at Yahoo: Sun will be supporting Linux on their machines soon. I hope this means more Linux ports! On a similar note, the JDK 1.2 was recently released. Update: Chris Gori sent us a link to the actual article. Seems as thugh it won't be too end-usery. A funny quote at the end, as well.

azdolt asks "I hope I can get some help on this: I have been trying to get xdm to run on all the virtual consoles, but I have no success so far and I read the man page for xdm and anything that I can find about xdm." This isn't difficult at all, but there's a note in /etc/inittab that worries me - Click below to find out what it is... I know Linux can do this, but according to comments from my /etc/inittab (from Slackware 2.0, I think):

# Runlevel 4 used to be for an X-window only system, until we discovered
# that it throws init into a loop that keeps your load avg at least 1 all
# the time. Thus, there is now one getty opened on tty6. Hopefully no one
# will notice. ;^)

Now, I realize it's probably been a LONG time since that was written. Does anyone know if it's still a problem?

After a long night in the darkroom working on photography projects, nothing will make me happier than cleaning out the submissions box. So hit the link below and read the huge flood of stuff that has been accumulating while I've been trying to vanquish my end-of-the-semester projects. There is a ton of cool stuff in there worth checking out. Realcosmo commented that OpenBios Project Is looking for a logo. Visit their page for info. James Keller wrote in to send us an entertaining article about using Microsoft Manuals as Targets . Idan Shoham wrote in to say that the The Linux in business reference page has grown to 300 entries of companies that use Linux in a mission-critical setting. Good PHB data.

jahn wrote in to send us a link to Linus and RMS in a techno remix of Join us Now and Share the Software. I think we mentioned this a few months ago, but probably bears repeating anyway. I'm on a total MP3 craze again (4.5 gigs and growing) so this is entertaining me all over again.

[-SwM-] wrote in to send us a link to an online version of Rock Paper Scissors. Goofy. DaveWhitinger from Linux Today wrote in to say that Linux Mandrake 5.2 is available. Gordon Delp sent a link to a new FreeBSD news site called (appropriately enough) FreeBSD Rocks

acb wrote in to send us an entertaining parody of O'Reilly book covers. Several folks commented that WindowMaker v0.20.3 is now out, and several other folks commented that it has a new logo "Well, as you can see the new official logo has been put in place, and the logo contest is officially over. We appreciate all the logo submissions and the people who took time to vote. You can read about the winning entries here." LynXmaN wrote in to send us a link to Sololinux.com, a Spanish Linux News site. have opened. Ant wrote in to send us a link to Quake 2 Penguin Models for you penguin nuts. YogSothoth writes "I've always been interested in fractals, but what I always thought would be fun would be a scripting language-based approach that would give you a lot flexibility (with regard to choosing equations, bailout conditions, coloring techniques) without requiring a math degree to enjoy. Its hot off the presses but works quite well." you can check out Samples or Source Code. Vorx wrote in to warn everyone that this weeks User Friendly has been featuring a strange Star Wars/Linux/ESR takeoff that folks might enjoy reading. Bain wrote in to send us a link to a company that is selling Tux Stuffed Animals that actually look like tux.

Nate, My roommate and all around swell guy, has put a bunch of his Gimp Artwork online if you're interested in that sorta stuff. Its pretty excellent. Chris DiBona wrote in to send us a link to Chick Magnet which has some cool essays including one that explains that the best place for women to pick up guys is at Linux User Group Meetings. Quite funny. J. David Eisenberg wrote in to send us A response to his article on Linux and the Consumer Market. This addresses comments made by Slashdot Readers. Also, his opinions on the KDE thing which probably isn't all that relevant anymore.

See? Lots of good stuff! Anyway, I'm gonna get some sleep so I can get up nice and early and get back on the grind. The zany thing is that in 340 or so hours, I'm ton. Forever. No more school. Then I can finally finish Slash v0.3, fix the rest of the bugs in Slashdot, and actually start working on all the new stuff thats coming. Yee haw. In the meantime, I just wanna beg folks to go easy on the email. Don't hesitate if its important, but please read FAQ first and save us all some time.

The master hacker Raph Levien sent me a Reuters press release regarding the signing of the Wassenaar arrangement by 33 countries, including Germany, Japan, Finland, Canada, Ireland, and Britain. One of the reasons cited was that firms including Intel and Microsoft "have complained that the lack of restrictons in other countries hampered their ability to compete abroad". Interestingly enough, products which use encryption to protect "intellectual property" are exempt. This should show up on all the major news sites soon. For those who haven't figured it out yet, the agreement is not exactly a laissez faire sorta thing. Update: Read the Reuters Article, or check the Wassenaar Arrangment web site for more info.

bjacques writes "Adaptec has decided to provide development support to Red Hat for Ultra2 drivers. This is pretty cool, even more support for Linux by a large industry leader!"

jmpvm wanted some help with this problem: "I recently recieved an HP 9000 D2x00 series system minus CPU/Memory board or a disk. I want to get my introduction to the non-intel world with this machine, but I need to build this thing and get an OS on it. I am in the process of trying to get the CPU/RAM board, (If anyone knows a cheap source for used/refurb CPU/RAM boards let me know) but then I need an OS. There is an ongoing NetBSD port, but it is barely in the booting stages, and the Linux port site is down so I can't get any info there. Does anyone have any experience on this platform? What OSs other than HP-UX can I run?"

MSisEvil writes "According to CNet, Microsoft has dropped support for Java in IE for the Mac and Unix." So what do ya think folks? Is the DOJ thing gonna kill Java, Microsoft, or neither?

Well, we've received a ton of Comdex Reports. Firstly there's Linux World reporting that IBM may be porting Linux to the AS/400. Then there's a Linux Today report, discussing Linux' success in France, a new French Linux Magazine France, and the presence of an HP representative in Red Hat's Booth demonstrating an apparently impressive Firehunter.Jedi Mind Trick wrote in about a demo of 500 Mhz K7 silicon. And finally many of you told us that Novell is claiming Comdex Novell-network traffic is being sniffed.

getafix writes "www.newhoo.com (was gnuhoo - featured on slashdot) has been bought by netscape. The newhoo folks owned the database, although the contents of the database were submitted by volunteers." Financial terms were not released, but the boys in charge now have offices at Netscape.

David Sifry writes "SuSE and LinuxCare just announced a new Corporate Support and Training Program for Linux. The press release can be found here. SuSE also announced a partnership with Muster Learning Architects to provide corporate training programs. "

latneM writes "On their latest Press Release 3Dfx unveils their latest video card. On top of "world's fastest 2D core" and twice the 3D power of Voodoo 2's in SLI, the PR says, "The Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 support both SGRAM and SDRAM memory, as well as the Windows 95/98/2000, MAC OS, Unix, and Linux operating systems." " Oh man that looks sweet. And they even mention Linux by name!

PDG sent us a link to a zd article where you can read about the new Supercomputer that SGI is announcing. The article is thin on details. Presumably more will be released soon. Update: 11/10 03:45 by CT : SGI has released more information- you can read their little Press Release about BlueMountain- their beast that has taken the top spot on the big list of super computers.

PDG sent us a link to a zd article where you can read about the new Supercomputer that SGI is announcing. The article is thin on details. Presumably more will be released soon. Update: 11/10 03:45 by CT : SGI has released more information- you can read their little Press Release about BlueMountain- their beast that has taken the top spot on the big list of super computers.

Yoz sent us a series of press releases that you'll find amusing. It starts with A statement from Amazon about B&N acquiring the Ingram Book Group. Barnes and Nobles then responded, shooting down Amazons initial statement. Finally Amazon finishes it off with the most efficient press release I've ever seen. What a world.

Yoz sent us a series of press releases that you'll find amusing. It starts with A statement from Amazon about B&N acquiring the Ingram Book Group. Barnes and Nobles then responded, shooting down Amazons initial statement. Finally Amazon finishes it off with the most efficient press release I've ever seen. What a world.

Yoz sent us a series of press releases that you'll find amusing. It starts with A statement from Amazon about B&N acquiring the Ingram Book Group. Barnes and Nobles then responded, shooting down Amazons initial statement. Finally Amazon finishes it off with the most efficient press release I've ever seen. What a world.

After an episode of Babylon 5 with a nice twist, Allan Doyle's contribution was somewhat spooky... Mindsong Inc (notice the Psi Corps sign on their page) has received U.S. Patent No. 5830064... the first patent for a device that can assess the influence of a person's mental intentions on the outcome of a random event. S: As Allan says "Gotta wonder what kind of range they claim to get...". If you take this to be true, should it be patented? If you take it to be false, it's another fine example that anything can be patented. They've got some paper abstracts online. They are a spin-off from Princeton University's Pear Program which has had some pretty interesting results. The beginning of their book is available online. Princeton's experiment goes like this: Take a quantum device that produces a true random binary output (not like a the rand() function). Create a plot such that every time the device outputs a one, the line goes up, otherwise it goes down. Sit a human in front of the screen and ask it to mentally will the line up or down. It has an effect. Consciousness is misunderstood by Western Science, and this experiment is one of the first serious attempts at looking into it. My take is that I've seen this quite a few places over a few years, and have not heard much counter-evidence, but it's still hard to believe. However, coming from an AI background, the only difference I can see between my mental processing and what a computer can do is complexity (which I am sure we will master) and that I am conscious... and I don't see in what way consciousness helps me survive versus your average Zombie/Computer.

Remember that getting a patent does not mean very much. There is a possibly apocryphal story of a British inventor who wanted to prove that anything could be patented. So he patented a foolproof method to kill a fly: hit it with a large heavy object such as a hammer. He duly received his patent.

Finally this article is obviously controversial, being on the margins of modern science. It's very easy to flame, so don't bother. If you have some criticism of their method, some knowledge of value to the others, please contribute. But mindless flames waste everybody's time, and reflect poorly on you.