Slashdot Mirror

twitter writes "Many news organizations are reflecting the opinion of Pew Internet and American Life Project staffer Deborah Fallows that '...email users say they are receiving slightly more spam in their inboxes than before, but they are minding it less.' I think that's an odd conclusion to draw. You would expect the number of people using email less because of spam to decrease to zero quickly when 25% of the population say they avoid email! To their credit, they point out that CAN-SPAM has done nothing to help." The Reuters blurb about this study has a syopsis of their findings.

Canarock writes "First Monday runs a great article this month from Canadian law professor Michael Geist that dismantles the recording industry's claims about the peer-to-peer. Using actual data from Canada, Piercing the P2P Myths, demonstrates that the loss claims are greatly exaggerated and that P2P has had little, if any impact on the income of the artists themselves." From the article: "The Canadian government has been the target of intense lobbying for stronger copyright legislation in recent months. Led by the music industry, which claims that it has experienced significant financial losses due to music downloading, the campaign culminated in November 2004 with a lobby day on Parliament Hill."

Slicker writes "S. Korea and N. Korea (aka the ROK and DPRK, respectively) share the most heavily fortified border that has ever existed. Now the ROK is considering deployment of armed robots." Not expected until sometime in the 2010s. From the article: "Robots with weapons mounted on their frames are each expected to be able to observe from 2 and 1 kilometers during the day and night, respectively, and will have the capability to record voices and take pictures in a 180-degree circle."

ahowl asks: "At my previous employer, I signed a traditional NDA, and when I was laid off, I signed another agreement stating I wasn't taking anything with me that belonged to the company. This included all the scripts, stored procedures, and anything else that I had created while employed. However, most of the subsequent jobs that I was looking at wanted work samples. If this continues I could have a ton of work I've done that I can't show anyone, so what can I do?"

Despite the fact that the next generation of the Xbox console is expected out before the end of the year, via Evil Avatar a story stating that Microsoft is committed to the original Xbox through 2007. From the article: "A Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters that 2007 is not a hard stop, but rather a guideline for the last releases of new games developed for the Xbox. Microsoft has not said whether its next console will be compatible with the current Xbox."

wanker256 writes "If you were intrigued by the 4-story Pixellated Mario Mural, then here is an art gallery that you will be sure to enjoy. On April 19th through May 20th, the iam8-bit exhibit will be present the talents of over 100 of the world's top artists who have put their fond gaming memories to paper, canvas, wood, or somewhere in between. So if you ever wanted to analyze the crazed image of a Burger Time sausage gone ballistic or Space Invader doing disco, this is the art gallery to attend."

lbmouse writes "The AP is reporting that on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected an effort by the Jelly & Jam maker to patent its process for making pocket peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." While the company was only trying to patent the "crimping process" used to create a specific type of mass market sandwich, they had also "...asked Albie's Foods of Gaylord, Mich., to stop producing ready-made PB&J sandwiches for a school district".

Jamesday writes "Yahoo! Search will also be providing support for Wikipedia. Discussions, started at the same time as the aforementioned Google announcement, have been ongoing with both Yahoo! and Google but only the Google news leaked. It's now more clear why Wikipedia said there was no need to worry about undue influence from any single sponsor."

howman writes "Reuters is reporting that Sony has been granted 2 patents, both describing 'Method and system for generating sensory data onto the human neural cortex'. These are patents 6,729,337 and 6,536,440. The patents go on to 'describe a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce sensory experiences such as smells, sounds and images'. The story was first broken by New Scientist magazine." Commentary also available via Ars Technica.

Slashback is back after a long absence being devoured by gnomes. Read on below for updates on past Slashdot stories about the continuing Washington election brouhaha, the FBI's latest hunt for server logs, Photoshoppified GIMP, and more.

Let's get the politics out of the way.

The Washington state Republican Party has been working to prove that the election of November 2, between Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi, was too fraudulent to be trusted, given the small margin of victory by Gregoire (129 votes), and they want a new election. Hundreds of alleged fraudulent votes (mostly felons, but also out-of-state, duplicate, and deceased voters), uncounted ballots, unaccounted-for absentee ballots, and illegally counted provisional ballots comprise the bulk of the GOP's case. The trial begins May 23, and the judge expects it to last two weeks. The hearing to decide the burden of proof standard will be May 2.

Unctuous politicians relive their student-council glory days:

Jackson West writes "As it stands, two versions of the Electronic Engineering bill (discussed earlier on Slashdot) presented to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have passed their 'first reading.' This means both the first, unamended piece of legislation, and an amended version that will "specifically exclude web logs, forums, opt-in email lists and postings on general web pages." The Rules Committee will consider the amended bill on Monday, with a final vote on both bills on Tuesday."

How to get attention, part IIVVIVIVM.

SanLouBlues writes "On March 30th, Slashdot reported on the FBI request for the logs of several radical-leaning sites. The Washington Post has an article about the man who was responsible for the posts which resulted in the FBI request. He claimed to have killed a cop in several forum posts."

Now on to the fun stuff!

Matt Omori writes to say that GimpShop, the recently mentioned version of The GIMP hacked to feel more familiar to users of Photoshop, isn't just for Linux and Mac OS X. "Yes, it's finally been coded for Windows XP. After lots of hard work, some people devoted to a website, plasticbugs.com, have coded GimpShop for Windows."

To use it, you'll need Windows XP, GTK+, and a reboot. However, I'd also like to point out a BigSven's comment about the themeability of The GIMP; it would be great to see GIMPersonalities of all sorts -- and it sounds like this can be accomplished with some XML editing.

Still looks actionable to me.

MrToast writes "The iPodLounge is reporting that LuxPro's Super Shuffle is back, but this time with slight alterations. The Super Tangent, as it is being called, has a slightly different button area and also has new headphones. Otherwise it appears to be identical to the iPod shuffle."

(The SuperShuffle disappeared from the Web site, and was reported as a hoax, shortly after it was mentioned in mid-March.)

Let's close on some uplifting news. Vaeske writes with more on my favorite futuristic means of broadband delivery, region-covering airships. "GlobeTel Communications Corp announced that they will be showing their prototype of the Sanswire One on April 12th. This "Stratalite" as they call it, will float in the stratosphere at 65,000 feet and provide line of sight communications to approximately 300,000 square miles, providing two-way high-sped communication. This project has attracted many high-profile NASA engineers to leave their posts for a position with GlobeTel. The military has also shown interest and was present at the GlobeTel Summit."

The Hobo writes "The CBC is reporting that starting in 2007, most Canadians will require a passport to cross into the United States and by 2008 Americans who crossed freely into Canada will be unable to return to the United States without a passport. The tougher new rules still allow Canadians to cross without being fingerprinted, but every person from any other country will be required to submit to fingerprinting." From the article: "Currently, Canadians and Americans are able to enter the United States with little more identification than a driver's licence or a birth certificate, though a passport has sometimes made it simpler to satisfy immigration officers at the border."

prostoalex writes "A new survey by Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio shows Windows and Linux are viewed as equal by U.S. businesses. In the eternal OS wars, '88 percent of respondents said that the quality, performance and reliability of Windows was equal to or better than Linux.' Companies were also asked to rank the operating systems on security. On a scale of 1 to 10 'companies rated Microsoft's security at 7.6, double the rating in a similar survey conducted last year. Linux's rating was mostly the same at 8.3.' Conclusion? 'DiDio said that most companies -- whether large or small -- rarely take the huge step of replacing one operating system with another. Instead, they usually add a mix of Windows and Linux server software to expand functionality.' Microsoft used last year's Yankee Group survey results in their Get the facts campaign."

prostoalex writes "Reuters Plugged In article (usually syndicated to your local paper's Technology section) talks about the real impact of open source in the technology world -- cutting down startup costs for other developers. New ventures are coming out, where the startup costs range in five-digit numbers, not seven-digit figures, where venture capital financing would be required. The article talks about Project for Open Source Media, Blogger.com, Odeo and Asterisk telephone system."

Quimbly asks: "I'm an avid reader, and I find that downloading books is much more convenient that trying to get them from the bookstore or library. However, I'm tired of sitting in front of a monitor to do my reading. I'm looking for a hand-held device to do my reading on, and I'm hoping the community has some suggestions. It seems to me that most PDAs have too small of a screen for convenient reading, and a notebook / tablet computer is too big and bulky for this simple task. So, I've been looking at a few devices designed specifically for eBook reading (e.g. the RCA REB1100, the eBookwise-1150, etc.). These look more promising, but I was disappointed to discover that the RCA device ONLY reads an encrypted, propriety eBook format, making it essentially useless. (Has anyone ever hacked one of these?) Similarly, I believe both of these devices have been discontinued by their manufacturers. I want a device that can read a variety of file formats, especially scanned, non-text PDFs. A large screen, long battery life, and good interface are other attributes I'm looking for."

Ant writes "This Yahoo! News story is amusing and cute: "Emperor penguins looked up in awe as Tokyo's main zoo unveiled its latest addition -- a giant penguin said to be suspiciously close in height and weight to a human... As the cameras rolled, the real penguins rose their beaks and gazed up at the purported Lord -- but then walked away disinterested when he took off his penguin face to reveal himself to be zoo director Teruyuki Komiya."

asgeirn writes "From reliable sources, I've been informed that Yahoo! and Google will announce a merger later this day. "-The new service, named YaGoohoo!gle, will give great synergies in search results and customer value," says an unnamed representative from one of the companies. It has yet to be decided where the new company's headquarters will reside."

Oculus Habent writes "In an attempt to increase Apple's market share in the home sector, Steve Jobs announced today that he would personally fund prizes for ports of popular gaming titles to the Macintosh platform. Citing the common complaint of lack of game availability for Mac OS X, Jobs suggests that work in this area could seriously improve Macintosh acceptance. Said Jobs, "We've got incredible, stylish computers and an insanely great operating system. The Mac mini made has a huge impact, but it is only the tip of the iceberg." Prizes include Steve's yearly salary for the first ten ports, and twice that amount for "hot new titles" with a simultaneous release." Update: 04/02 18:02 GMT by Z : April 1st hoax story.

An anonymous reader noted that COMDEX has been cancelled for the second year in a row. And meanwhile, thousands of IT professionals rejoice that they won't be again exposed to strange strains of viruses that their immune system can't handle.

Doofus writes "Apparently aggregate data are no longer enough for the trusty US Dept. of Education, as we can read in this opinion piece Alma Mater as Big Brother in today's Washington Post. As the author, a college president tells us, the governement would require schools "to report all their students' Social Security numbers and other information about each individual -- including credits earned, degree plan, race and ethnicity, and grants and loans received -- to a national databank". And the author counters by pointing out the obvious but real threat of such aggregation: "The creation of a gigantic database containing educational records and other personal data on millions would be a costly and troubling assault on privacy. This information could all too easily be shared with other government agencies or even with the private sector.""

yakitori writes "Today, the law firm of Schatz & Nobel, P.C. filed a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts on behalf of shareholders. The complaint basically alleges that EA issued false financial projections to shareholders. Shares have dropped from $66 on March 21 to $53 on March 29." Gamasutra has commentary on the suit as well.

aendeuryu asks: "My default search engine of choice is, like most of you I assume, Google. That said, some complaints about Google over the years do seem to have some merit -- basically, that sometimes the indices aren't always updated, that it's too easy to manipulate via googlebombing or legislation, and that maybe too many of its featured services never get out of beta stage. Maybe the fact that Google has gone so long without significant competition is enough to make one at least begin to ask questions about it possibly becoming stagnant. Personally, I'm so used to doing things the Google way (and achieving acceptable results quickly) that I'm not really interested in switching -- case in point, all the above links referenced were quickly found via Google. However, what am I missing out on by not giving (for example) Yahoo search a shot? Or, more to the point, how would one go about trying to effectively and objectively compare competing search engines? In what areas have people found Google to have become obsolete for their purposes? Have less ignorant people than myself figured out ways to test a competing search engine's efficacy for themselves?"

ChipGuy writes "Om Malik has a great analysis of how Yahoo is fighting back the Google assault. 'A handful of blog-evangelists, a couple of key buys - (Odd Post and Flickr) have turned Yahoo from a dot.has.been to the new darling of the chattering classes.' Yahoo's new initiatives like Yahoo 360 are even apprently making Yahoo Web 2.0 compliant."

OnePragmatist writes "Cyberinfrastructure Technology Watch is reporting that BlueGene/L has nearly doubled its performance to 135.3 Teraflops by doubling its processors. That seems likely to keep it at no. 1 on the Top500 when the next round comes out in June. But it will be interesting to see how it does when they finally get around to testing it against the HPC Challenge benchmark, which has gained adherents as being more indicative of how a HPC system will peform with various different types of applicatoins."

P Starrson writes " The Canadian government has reportedly said no to the DMCA. It released its plans for copyright reform today with a limited anti-circumvention provision that would not cover the likes of DeCSS. It even avoided the U.S. "notice and takedown system" that has caused a big headache for U.S. ISPs. A good summary is available from Canadian law professor Michael Geist. "

douglips writes "Reuters is running a story about a shocking development in paleontology: A T-Rex thigh bone fossil was reluctantly broken to fit in a transport helicopter, and inside soft tissue was found. It appears to include blood vessels and bone cells. Scientists hope to isolate proteins, and perhaps even DNA."

MudButt writes "Linguists say not to worry too much about Netspeak, otherwise known as the language of choice in chat rooms and IM clients. According to this Yahoo! article, linguists say that terms like "cya", "brb", "afk" are a healthy way of exploring the power of the written language. They went on to say "FYI, RTFA"!"

BlakeCaldwell writes "Yahoo has added the ability to search specifically for content with unconventional copyright arrangements. The search tool was produced in order to help promote Creative Commons' efforts to advocate the use of nontraditional copyright arrangements between digital content developers and people interested in licensing those individuals' work. The group said that most of the content available through the Yahoo search can be licensed for free under required attribution or noncommercial usage guidelines." Commentary on Lawrence Lessig's Blog.

BlakeCaldwell writes "Yahoo has added the ability to search specifically for content with unconventional copyright arrangements. The search tool was produced in order to help promote Creative Commons' efforts to advocate the use of nontraditional copyright arrangements between digital content developers and people interested in licensing those individuals' work. The group said that most of the content available through the Yahoo search can be licensed for free under required attribution or noncommercial usage guidelines." Commentary on Lawrence Lessig's Blog.

The Hobo writes "CNet is carrying a story about Apple reaching a settlement with one of the Tiger leakers, 22-year-old Doug Steigerwald. The terms of the settlement were not released, but it was said that money will be paid to Apple. To quote Doug, 'As a member of Apple's Developer Connection program I received a pre-release version of Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' software, which I promised to keep confidential, instead, I disseminated it over the Internet, and thousands of unauthorized copies of Apple's software were illegally distributed to the public'"

SteveBlink writes "The National Arbitration Forum announced today that a ruling has been issued in favor of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding rights to the Internet domain name hillaryclinton.com. A quick search of the Yahoo! phone book reveals at least 3 other people sharing the name Hillary Clinton living Ohio, California, and Delaware, respectively. It's curious to note that Sen. Clinton's full legal name isn't "Hillary Clinton," and the website itself is a generic link farm that makes no overt reference to the senator."

Bruce Young writes "Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes. The expanded storage which will be available in mid-April will enable Yahoo to catch up with online search engine leader Google. "

Bruce Young writes "Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes. The expanded storage which will be available in mid-April will enable Yahoo to catch up with online search engine leader Google. "

Pokinatcha Punk writes "Forget breakthroughs in biotech. According to Yahoo! News maggot's may make their way back into popular medicine. According to the article 'maggots are remarkably efficient at cleaning up infected wounds by eating dead tissue and killing off bacteria that could block the healing process.'"

Pokinatcha Punk writes "Forget breakthroughs in biotech. According to Yahoo! News maggot's may make their way back into popular medicine. According to the article 'maggots are remarkably efficient at cleaning up infected wounds by eating dead tissue and killing off bacteria that could block the healing process.'"

nighthawk127127 writes "According to the Fresco Pictures website, David Benioff (writer of the screenplay for Troy) has been signed on by Warner Brothers to write the script for the movie adaptation of Ender's Game. Rumors of the Ender's Game movie have been circulating for a long time now, but this is the first time in a while we've gotten some definite information. The movie will be a combination of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card." Well, gosh, with Troy under his belt, all my concerns about the movie sucking are straight out! *cough*

RMX writes "CNet's reporting that Ask Jeeves is being bought by InterActive Corp for $2 billion. Ask Jeeves (ask.com, excite.com, iwon.com) and InterActive Corp (expedia, ticketmaster, match.com, citysearch). This marks a nice comeback for Ask Jeeves, whose stock was quite a roller coaster ride during the 2000-2003 .com crash. Are the good times back?"

Ghettoimp asks: "I'm a grad student considering an offer for a summer internship with a large software company. The offer is appealing but has a horrible IP agreement which gives them the rights to work I create while I'm there, *and* rights to work I've created in the past. I proposed a counter-agreement but it seems quite clear that the terms are non-negotiable, and I have little reason to believe that this situation is different anywhere else that would be interested in hiring me (e.g., defense contractors, research labs). The agreement does let me list explicit items to exclude from this, and gives me space for four items. I am thinking about instead attaching a list of every program I have ever worked on at all. I know this won't give me any control over what I work on while I'm there, but could this be a viable strategy for keeping ownership of the programs I have already written? I just want to know that I will be able to use, distribute, and talk about my own work in the future without worrying about some ridiculous lawsuit."

Silent_E writes "Always wanted to see your words in print? The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Lawrence Lessig is revising his book 'Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace' using a wiki-based, public discussion. The proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated. . All royalties are going to Creative Commons, plus the advance. "

indiejade writes "Yahoo! recently launched its take on the virtual fantasy-prediction game market. The Tech Buzz Game allows players to invest in what they think will be the "next big thing" RE high-tech products, trends, or concepts. CNet reported that the game was announced at the now-in-progress Emerging Technologies Conference in San Diego. The players with the three highest scores accumulated in the game between now and July 29th will win one of various Apple products."

Alascom writes "According to this AP report, Microsoft is raising privacy concerns by allowing search advertisers to use personal information. Yusuf Mehdi, a corporate vice president with the MSN unit, said Microsoft has gathered this personal information by tracking users who have logged into its Hotmail e-mail program or other Microsoft Web sites in order to allow advertisers to target their ads to a specific audience."

aarthi_r writes "The social networking wars have finally begun, with Yahoo! coming out with it's very own Yahoo! 360, which combines blogging, social networking, music, mobile connectivity, local searches (for restaurants and businesses) as well as photo-sharing. With stiff competition from the early starters like Orkut it will be interesting to see if Yahoo! will succeed." If you want to log in, don't hold your breath- they aren't opening until the end of the month.

aarthi_r writes "The social networking wars have finally begun, with Yahoo! coming out with it's very own Yahoo! 360, which combines blogging, social networking, music, mobile connectivity, local searches (for restaurants and businesses) as well as photo-sharing. With stiff competition from the early starters like Orkut it will be interesting to see if Yahoo! will succeed." If you want to log in, don't hold your breath- they aren't opening until the end of the month.

gollum123 writes "There is an article on washignton post on bittorrent where the author discusses why BitTorrent is here to stay. According to the author it is being increasingly used to distribute software and entertainment legally. It also mentions that in BitTorrent, unlike many other file-sharing programs, legitimate use doesn't amount to a token minority. It's central to this program's existence. It concludes by saying that the MPAA may be able to drive BitTorrent movie downloads into what Green called "the dark corners of the Internet," but this program isn't going to go away. It might, however, be just what movie studios and record labels need to market and distribute their own content efficiently on the Web."

smerdyakov writes "In this story posted by Andrew Orlowski of the Register Debian Release manager Steve Langasek has announced that support will be dropped for all but four computer architectures. Among the reasons cited for doing this are improving testing coordination, 'a more limber release process' and ultimately a ('hopefully') shorter release cyle. The main architectures to survive will be Intel x86, AMD64, PowerPC and IA-64." Actually, the story says clearly that this is only a proposal at this point, but it's definitely something to watch.

valdean writes "Sony, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic have created and launched a new technology to transport Internet and media signals around the home via the electricity network at speeds 3x that of Wi-Fi. It's even fast enough for HDTV. The introduction is only dependent on government authorization."

ceasol writes "The German company Nero, developers of the award-winning Nero Burning ROM suite for Windows, now release a free version for Linux called NeroLINUX a CD/DVD Burning Software, and include many features from the Windows version. This software is proprietary but free if you registered." The OEM versions of Nero that come with many CD burners aren't sufficient, though; NeroLINUX is free-as-in-beer only if you've registered "a full version of Nero software version 6 or higher," or a "retail version or downloaded version."

fahrv asks: "I use a MythTV-based Linux PVR. I'd like to see if there are ways to implement automatic Tivo-like program recordings based on personal preferences (and Amazon-like analysis of what other people recorded based on what you've recorded.) I know that the Amazon patent on 'Other people who bought XX also bought YY' could be an issue, but then Tivo is able to record shows opportunistically as well. I don't see any technical hurdles to doing this by analyzing people's MythTV viewing habits in an opt-in kind of system; I'd be interested in building one. Might any of you have some thoughts on this subject?"

Deinhard writes "NewsFactor is running a story on the exodus of women from the I.T. field. According to the article, women made up 41% of the I.T workforce in 1996. That number dropped to 35% by 2002 and that "the downward spiral is gaining momentum." While this is certainly a concern, what are the overall effects of such a mass departure?"

LE UI Guy writes "Reuters is currently running a story regarding LexisNexis being tapped into by identity thieves who accessed up to 32,000 customer profiles. Information hit included names, addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers. This comes on the heels of rival ChoicePoint being breached for 145,000 profiles last month in a similar case. Better check yourself." Update: 03/10 02:40 GMT by J : ChoicePoint's name corrected (and, it may be more than 145,000, they don't know).

r3lody (Raymond Lodato) writes "Anyone who has been working on the *nix platform has had a brush with Perl, the scripting language whose acronym (depending on who you ask) could mean Practical Extraction and Report Language, or Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. In either case, there is a distinct difference between learning to use Perl, and learning to use it well. In my opinion, the best way to learn any language well is to see how others have used it to solve problems. One of the foremost experts in the use of Perl, Randal L. Schwartz, has been writing columns since March of 1995 on the use of Perl in the real world, and has provided us with 6 books and over 200 columns with many examples on how Perl is used." Read on for the rest of Lodato's review. Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom author Randal L. Schwartz pages 350 publisher Apress rating 7/10 reviewer Raymond Lodato (rlodato AT yahoo DOT com) ISBN 1590593235 summary A dated compendium of the best of Randal's Perl columns

Perls of Wisdom is a collection of 65 selected columns from Linux Magazine, Unix Review, and the now-defunct Web Techniques magazines, written between May 1995 and July 2004. In each column, Randal discusses some problem that he had to solve, or that someone else needed help in solving. He carefully discusses the problem, and then shows the Perl code needed to resolve it. Many of the columns are complete applications that can be run (with minor modifications) by the reader. (The listings are also available from the apress.com web site.) Each column has been reproduced as it was written in the original magazine, with "Randal's Note" prepended. Therein lies this book's best feature and greatest flaw. Allow me to explain.

When I first picked up this book, I had only read a couple of Randal's columns (from Web Techniques), and saw that he wrote tutorials of proper Perl usage. He also relies on the wealth of modules submitted to CPAN to leverage a solution. After all, why reinvent the wheel? I expected to see more commentary on the reasons behind choosing one solution over another, or insights into the inner workings of Perl itself. I more or less got what I expected. For example, the first column reproduced in the book (It's All About Context) explains why, when someone used my ($f) = 'fortune'; instead of my $f = 'fortune'; he got in trouble with the law (see the book to understand the legal issue). The first form only retrieves the first line of the output of the fortune program, while the second form retrieves the entire output. Little items such as scalar versus list context can trip many Perl coders.

The first chapter (Advanced Perl Techniques) does give you many tips and insights like the example I just gave. All but two of the twenty columns are little tutorials on the ins and outs of handling the commonplace day-to-day issues that Perl can address with ease. Some delve into more obscure topics, such as the difference between shallow and deep copies of structures, and Perl's Taint mode. Two columns contain complete programs. One extracts the text from the man pages and determines their "fog" index (a measure of readability). The other creates a mirror of files needed by CPAN.pm to install new modules. For each program, Randal gives the entire listing as well as an almost line-by-line description of how it works. Each column is written in a conversational style that is easy to read, yet doesn't talk down to you.

The following chapter is comprised of seven tutorials on the various aspects of searching, sorting, and formatting text. In addition to describing the creation and compilation of regular expressions, Randal also discusses formatting and the nifty "Schwartzian Transform" (Perl's map-sort-map idiom for sorting on almost anything) which was named for him, but not by him. While some of the information is a little long-in-the-tooth (the column on Text-Processing was written shortly after Perl 5 was released), it's all interesting and educational nonetheless.

Chapter 3 starts refocusing the use of Perl to web sites. This chapter discusses HTML and XML processing in six little columns. He shows how to generate a web page index, producing a web page calendar from a file of events, and parsing XML to retrieve the data within. He also includes a lesson on how to use Perl to compare two arrays to create an HTML-formatted difference table.

The next chapter demonstrates that Randal has spent a lot of time working out ways to update and improve his web site. It covers the intricacies of CGI programming in Perl. All but one of the fifteen columns are complete programs (again, available from apress.com) with line-by-line commentary. The programs do implement mostly worthwhile functionality, but each column was pretty much "I had this problem, so I wrote this program. Lines 1-3 do this; lines 4-5 do that, etc." Granted, some of the programs are pretty nifty (check out how he automatically keeps track of the "What's New?" pages), but the reading of one program after another started to become stale.

The final chapter is titled "The Webmaster's Toolkit," consisting of fourteen programs and three tutorials. Randal covers diverse web server background topics such as creating a light-weight load balancer, random links, and forcing users to enter through the "front door." There are also instructive techniques for throttling your web server's usage of the processor (a necessity at the time for Randal, as his web site was co-resident on a server with others), and calculating download times.

In its entirety, Perls of Wisdom contains 65 columns, split roughly half-and-half between tutorials and fully commented programs. More than half of the columns show that Randal uses Perl for web processing more than for general scripting, data reduction and reporting. His tutorial articles are top-notch, but I have a quibble over his program articles, which are somewhat dated. There were a number of prefaced notes to the effect that today he'd do it differently with some new feature or CPAN module. I really wish he had actually updated the column to show the new coding techniques. The original code is interesting in the historical sense, but I wanted to see nuggets of Perl wisdom for me to use in my daily job. The writing style is fine; the bits of insight are useful, but many of the programs are too specific to problems you or I may never see, and were solved in code that's showing its age. I'm glad I got to read the book, but I think it only rates a 7 out of 10.

You can purchase Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.