Slashdot Mirror

Slashback tonight (read on below) has updates on next-generation aircraft, KDE user-interface improvements and suggestions, a special warning for those obsessed with Milton's stapler from Office Space, SmartFilter's attitude toward SourceForge, and more.

You've got to admit it's getting better all the time. Gentu writes: "In parallel to the KDE 3.1-alpha release today, OSNews published an interesting article discussing a number of User Interface issues found on KDE 3. The article suggests a number of changes, some small, some pretty drastic. Towards the end of the two-part article, the author discusses the 'integration' problem found in today's X11 desktop environments, and how fixing this issue would bring Unix closer to average Joe's desktop."

Yes, you're allowed to have more than one friend. A NuKeFaN writes: "Following the article titled Are you a Friend of GNOME I wanted to point you out that the most used GPL'd software for the Web, PHP-Nuke, also has a similar page/system for their friends. It's a Club (MandrakeClub like) where you can be a member for a little monthly fee and you can get some extra benefits. You can access the Club area to know more about it. This can be, maybe, another example of how to get some money to fund a free software project, the matter is if we, as users, will support those project's developers this way? I think we can."

Wait, the scam was to take just a few pennies from everyone! MrBlue VT writes "In reference to the previous Slashdot article about the red Swingline Staplers, I click on the add to cart button on the Swingline website, and it pops open an ordering window with a 4 staplers added to the shopping cart. Ok, I think it's a little strange, but change the quantity back to 1, and hit continue to checkout. Next thing I know, I'm looking at an order form with all the text boxes filled out with somebody else's personal information. He's from Bellvue, WA apparently (I'm in Virginia). It also has his credit card number and expiration date!

This has to be the worst security I've ever seen in an online shopping site. The company who apparently provides the online shopping service for Swingline appears to be an outfit called SureSource.

I just wanted to let anyone who happened to order from them know about this. Your credit card info could very well be compromised."

Please fasten your belts. hondo77 submitted this follow-up to this article about next-generation aircraft, writing "Boeing says that their blended-wing aircraft will be ready for test flights in 2006. The article also has a picture of a 3% scale model. See, it doesn't look like the B-2 at all."

But thanks anyhow. flonker writes "Smartfilter no longer lists sourceforge.net! Link for those who want to see for themselves."

Great at stealing them, too. MrDingusMcGee writes "After the recent posting about a study suggesting that video games decrease brain activity, I thought it would be interesting to read the results of another study which has shown that video game players score better on a range of attention tasks (mirror here)done by Shawn Green at the University of Rochester Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and that this could possibly rate video game players as better drivers. Worth seeing the other side of the argument and having some validation for those hours of gaming."

PDAJames writes "There's a new interview with Marcelo Tosatti online. He talks about what it's like to be kernel maintainer after nine months on the job and identifies the biggest problems with the kernel now. He also defends UnitedLinux against Mandrake's criticism. He would, since he works for Conectiva..."

QueueEhGuy writes "Yahoo News is running a Reuters story indicating that the United States will soon be testing a laser which "will either explode or evaporate the explosives in the device which can be up to 250 yards away.." It's about time, I was starting to think that we'd never blow stuff up with light." New Scientist has another story, complete with nifty graphic. The Zeus homepage has a few pictures and specs.

QueueEhGuy writes "Yahoo News is running a Reuters story indicating that the United States will soon be testing a laser which "will either explode or evaporate the explosives in the device which can be up to 250 yards away.." It's about time, I was starting to think that we'd never blow stuff up with light." New Scientist has another story, complete with nifty graphic. The Zeus homepage has a few pictures and specs.

vince writes "The Galileo spacecraft will fly by Jupiter's moon Amalthea on November 5th. This is the *only* close flyby of this moon Galileo will make, but (as currently planned) it will not return any images, in order to save a paltry $1m - $1.5m. Looks like a grassroots campaign is going to be necessary to save the flyby."

DavonZ asks: "Like many Linux users, I have installed Ximian's Gnome desktop. The biggest issue is that Ximian is still based on Gnome 1.4. With the release of Gnome 2.0, many users have looked into upgrading Ximian to Gnome 2.0, but there are different approaches to this. One, the 2.0 Developement Snapshot available in RedCarpet. Another, the Ximian RPM's that are available via the Gnome.org web pages. Has anyone used either approach? Which is the most stable? Which will allow RedCarpet to upgrade to Ximian's Gnome 2.0, when it becomes available?"

Billy_D_Goat writes "Talk about control, Apple has now decided it can block users from recieving media passes at MacWorld Expo It blacklists these users by deciding if they run "rumor promoting" publications. This includs the webmasters of sites which have little to do with rumors or speculation such as Graphicpower.com/." Probably just bitter cuz Steve's thunder seems to get stolen at every show, and their lawyers can't seem to stop it ;)

tlcruiser writes: "The Arizona Daily Star reports that Budget Rent-A-Car companies in Arizona have used satellite tracking systems to track customers' use without notifying customers. They have used the tracking system to issue fines to their customers. Several customers are suing Budget for the invasion of privacy." When ACME Rent-a-Car did this in Connecticut, it was found improper by that state's Department of Consumer Protection. This time, the monitoring is not only of speed, but also of whether renters are staying within contractually allowed driving territories.

tlcruiser writes: "The Arizona Daily Star reports that Budget Rent-A-Car companies in Arizona have used satellite tracking systems to track customers' use without notifying customers. They have used the tracking system to issue fines to their customers. Several customers are suing Budget for the invasion of privacy." When ACME Rent-a-Car did this in Connecticut, it was found improper by that state's Department of Consumer Protection. This time, the monitoring is not only of speed, but also of whether renters are staying within contractually allowed driving territories.

guttentag writes: "The FDA has approved a new sugar substitute from the people who brought you NutraSweet. It's 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and unlike NutraSweet (aspartame), Neotame apparently doesn't give rats cancer and is safe for people with phenylkeotonuria."

joelav22 writes: "I've got to move to San Francisco! RCN has upgraded current customers to 3 megabits of bandwith for no extra charge. In the days of all the bandwith chopping and caps, this is definitely a welcome trend. I hope ATT and Comcast can take a hint."

Ethan writes: "A developer on the Yahoo Amiga One mailing list has successfully installed MacOS 9.2 using Mac On Linux. And it seems that adding OS X support is on the to-do horizon for the MOL developers. I think that it will be interesting to see the people at Apple lose some sleep now that a low cost, fast, off the shelf solution exists to run Mac OS, without any Apple hardware. If it doesn't do anything else, at least it will give the people buying the new Amiga One G3 PPC board an existing software base." Mind you, I've never even seen an Amiga One, but it would be a pretty silly thing to make up ;) Update: 07/05 07:03 GMT by T : Mike Bouma piped up with a link to a page featuring the same hardware, in this case running Debian, OpenOffice.org and Mozilla.

texchanchan writes: "It's from China, it's a predator, and it can live for DAYS out of water. And it's in Maryland as reported at Yahoo. 'They can survive for two to three days out of water, breathing air with a primitive lung, pushing themselves around with their pectoral fins.' Read about it at the Maryland Fishing Report site or just look at its picture. Maryland Fishing Report says: 'This fish was most likely introduced by an individual with an aquarium. Never release aquarium fish into ponds and lakes!' Those exotic species will get us yet."

ajaygautam asks: "For the past few months (on and off), I have been trying to locate Anime stores, rentals and theaters in and around Central New Jersey, but have not been able to find much. Only Blockbuster, which carries a very limited selection. I was wondering if there is a list of such things on the Internet somewhere. I propose that we create this 'Ask Slashdot' a comprehensive list of Anime stores, rental locations and theaters that do show Anime movies."

The World Cup final is over; some ludicrous number of people watched some team beat the other team. The next tournament will be held in Germany in 2006. If you haven't watched the game for whatever reason, obviously you might want to avoid clicking through (or reading any other news site, or talking to anyone...). Neither of those two links should be a spoiler, though.

And for those that did click through, the final standings are up, as are lots and lots of reports about the game.

The World Cup final is over; some ludicrous number of people watched some team beat the other team. The next tournament will be held in Germany in 2006. If you haven't watched the game for whatever reason, obviously you might want to avoid clicking through (or reading any other news site, or talking to anyone...). Neither of those two links should be a spoiler, though.

And for those that did click through, the final standings are up, as are lots and lots of reports about the game.

The World Cup final is over; some ludicrous number of people watched some team beat the other team. The next tournament will be held in Germany in 2006. If you haven't watched the game for whatever reason, obviously you might want to avoid clicking through (or reading any other news site, or talking to anyone...). Neither of those two links should be a spoiler, though.

And for those that did click through, the final standings are up, as are lots and lots of reports about the game.

NSG writes "Yahoo News is running this story about the Nimda virus infecting some Gamespy Arcade 1.09 installers. Approximately 3,100 infected files were served in a seven hour period. What responsibility does Gamespy have to the users who downloaded the infected file?"

pcolley writes "I love it when Science Fiction becomes reality. Boeing is nearly finished designing their super efficient Blended Wing Body (BWB) airplane. It looks like the BatJet." Boeing is considering both civilian and military roles.

payote writes "Security Update July 2002 includes the updated components, Apache v1.3.26, mod_ssl v2.8.9 and OpenSSH v3.4p1, which provide increased security to prevent unauthorized access to applications, servers, and the operating system." It's not in my Software Update window, because I'm still on 10.1.4 (having heard rumors that RtCW doesn't work on 10.1.5). But it is indeed out, and any Mac OS X machine whose webserver or ssh server is open to an untrusted network needs to upgrade.

LowellPorter writes "There's an article here about some reporters who check out the sewers in Vegas after a known criminal escapes a police dragnet through them. They expect to find lots of people living in there, but only end up interviewing a couple of bums."

crazyj was among several Slashdot readers who, knowing my obsession with the greatest band of all time, submitted that The Who's John Entwistle died. His death occured one day before the start of their summer tour. The Ox was an amazing bassist, and I'm glad I got to see him play. Those fingers would just fly up that fretboard. He'll be missed.

SharkaRockz writes "IBM recently donated the Web Service Invocation Framework (WSIF) to Apache.org. This article explains the WSIF donation and what it can do. WSIF is a simple Java API that allows both SOAP and non-SOAP services to be described and used in a common way thus allowing developers to make Web services without the constraints of SOAP."

ahertz writes: "If only it were this easy for geeks! CNN is reporting that officials at the China Giant Panda Breeding Center in Woolong, China are showing... err... panda pr0n to increase the sex drive of captive pandas. The program is apparently quite effective, as birth rates have risen dramatically."

rice_burners_suck asks: "For some reason beyond my comprehension, a whole bunch of family members are coming in to visit over the next month. The busiest weekend will take place when I'll have six guests to entertain, and I don't know where I'll take them or stay with them. I'd like to have a good time without breaking the piggy bank. Where, on the Internet, can I find good vacation places and compute a budget? I'm thinking of a service similar to AAA, but online. If something like this doesn't exist, how could I go about implementing one myself?"

An anonymous reader submits this well-linked blurb: "It appears the end may be near for Salon Media Group. Their auditors doubt the company can stay in business for very much longer. Despite recently reaching nearly 40,000 subscribers, they haven't been able to make up for lost ad revenue in a down market. As a result, they've accumulated a deficit of about $75 million. Their best known asset, besides Salon.com, may be The Well, one of the earliest and most influential online communities. I hope that it can survive if Salon does not."

An anonymous reader submits this well-linked blurb: "It appears the end may be near for Salon Media Group. Their auditors doubt the company can stay in business for very much longer. Despite recently reaching nearly 40,000 subscribers, they haven't been able to make up for lost ad revenue in a down market. As a result, they've accumulated a deficit of about $75 million. Their best known asset, besides Salon.com, may be The Well, one of the earliest and most influential online communities. I hope that it can survive if Salon does not."

An anonymous reader submits this well-linked blurb: "It appears the end may be near for Salon Media Group. Their auditors doubt the company can stay in business for very much longer. Despite recently reaching nearly 40,000 subscribers, they haven't been able to make up for lost ad revenue in a down market. As a result, they've accumulated a deficit of about $75 million. Their best known asset, besides Salon.com, may be The Well, one of the earliest and most influential online communities. I hope that it can survive if Salon does not."

Dejected @Work writes "A senior IBM developer has come out with a series of articles on high performance Linux programming techniques using pipes, sockets, threads, and processes. The series has been running for a while and juxtaposes these high performance technique with Linux and Windows. Guess who wins?"

debrain asks: "How does one access accent characters (such as tilde, grav, acute, etc.) over normal characters in XFree86? I am quite good with Linux, X, and the like, but I have never found a *good*, *simple* way to do this. Some programs have post-character keystrokes, such as 'a' followed by 'alt-g' or some such, but is there a consistent way to do this, without hacks such as 'dead keys' in XFree86?" A system-wide facility for entering such chars would be a nice thing, if it does exist, then please share the info. Most apps have their own handling for these special characters. What applications do have keystrokes that allow you to easily add character accents, and if you were to design a system-wide handler for such, how would you do it?

winter was among the first to point out that allegations of fraud have led to a massive stock drop at WorldCom. A flurry of stories have popped up on Yahoo!, none of them good news for WorldCom. CFO Scott Sullivan is accused of misstating the company's revenues, specifically its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (aka EBITDA), and the stock has slid more than 50% (as of this writing) in after-hours trading.

winter was among the first to point out that allegations of fraud have led to a massive stock drop at WorldCom. A flurry of stories have popped up on Yahoo!, none of them good news for WorldCom. CFO Scott Sullivan is accused of misstating the company's revenues, specifically its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (aka EBITDA), and the stock has slid more than 50% (as of this writing) in after-hours trading.

Daetrin writes "Red Herring reports in this article that Microsoft is planing on combining the XBox with their UltimateTV Recorder with a projected final cost of about $500. The article also talks in some detail about the massive (though partially expected) losses that the XBox is costing Microsoft. There's also another article on Yahoo that sums up what Red Herring said."

coronaride writes "This article over on Wired discusses the current topic of the FCC's regulation of UHF's (ultra-high frequencies). Apparently, UHF channels 52 through 69 are in danger of being taken over by wireless networking!" Insert your Conan the Librarian or Wheel of Fish joke here.

jalefkowit writes: "Launch is reporting that Moby explains the recent slide in sales for his newest album, "18", by describing what he calls the 'Pearl Jam Effect': bands and artists with more tech-savvy fans sell fewer albums than those with less tech-savvy fans, as the techies will disproportionately get their copies of the album from friends with CD burners or P2P services rather than from record stores. What do you think, are we putting our favorite bands in a bind?"

donnacha writes "Yahoo News are currently running a story, Tablet PCs gaining momentum, describing a renewed enthusiam among computer manufacturers for Tablet PCs, in the face of skeptics who are, apparently, abounding. The skeptics insist, between bounds, that Joe Public just won't pay the extra $150 that touch screens add. Having spent much time lusting over Wacom's $3,500 Cintiq 18sx, a combined graphics tablet / 18" LCD screen and one of the few pieces of hardware that I would consider starting a family with, I beg to differ. Combined Graphic Tablets/LCD screens are a dream come true for artists and the rise of the Tablet PC might be exactly what's needed to drag that magical match down to reasonable, commodity-level pricing. Question is, will the screens used come anywhere near the Cintiq's 512 levels of pressure sensitivity?"

RevHead asks: "Although after-market performance modification of cars is a discipline which claims a significant following all over the world, most of the information available on the topic tends to be more of anecdotal nature. To add to this and the plethora of conflicting information out there, most of the tips and techniques tend to be of 'do it and see if it works' type of experimentation. I am interested in the simulation approach prior to actual experimentation to get a decent picture of what to expect during the experimentation phase, which IMHO should be safer and more cost-effective. Has anyone resorted to this approach (successfully) when it comes to engine modification, suspension design, aerodynamic performance and emission control? If so what software is available for these tasks? Which are the most popular/most effective? Does anyone know of any public-domain automotive engine models available for CAE applications such as Catia and ADAMS?"

randomErr writes "NY Times wrote that two teams of scientists on Thursday announced they had made important strides towards coaxing stem cells -- the raw material for the "miracle" transplants of the future -- into growing into fresh, healthy tissue."

Slashback's updates tonight (below) bring you more information on chemically interesting furniture, old-school electronics in new-tech devices, and Brigham Young's ultra-strong building materials. Welcome to the home, car and wind-farm of the future, please mind your step.

Bratty kids get to sit near the volatile elements. Theodore Gray writes: "About a month ago there was a slashdot lively discussion about my wooden Periodic Table Table. A bunch of slashdot readers sent me elements for it: Thank you slashdot! Two people actually sent me free Ag and Pd, contrary to the jokes in the discussion. I decided the world could stand another periodic table website. Since all the eight dozen other periodic tables on the web have better reference information than mine, I used some Mathematica programs to generate links to many of them for each element. But my site is more beautiful. I'm going for science as art. Mine also has by far the best quality sample photos: High resolution, high quality macro shots of 89 samples so far."

Starts with a crank, too. ripaway writes "With all the recent stories about vaccuum tubes, I find it ironic that I stumbled on this today. Sterephile reports about the Panasonic CQ-TX5500D(link to Japanese site) car stereo that uses a vaccuum tube, with analog vu-meters. It also plays mp3 files 8-) Naturally, this is for the Japan market only."

Sounds like material for a Burning Man tent ... nm1m writes "A superstrong composite developed by Brigham Young University scientists and students has received financing for its first practical application -- mammoth wind turbine towers able to more than triple the electrical output of existing steel models. Read the story here."

We mentioned this interesting lattice-looking material a few weeks ago.

Sucking requires a context to be good or bad. Sun Tzu writes "After the recent discussion on bad software, how about a different reason for why software sucks? Maybe we programmers and users don't have it quite so bad after all."

That dadburn whippersnapper, why when I was a boy ... Junks Jerzey writes "I remember reading about Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers five years ago in Wired News. Pretty cool stuff, with an introduction by some guy called John Romero. It was available for a long time as a commercial product that used HTML for formatting, but it's now completely online, as reported by the author."

prostoalex writes "Apparently an Israeli company figured out the way to put a 376x296 digital camera into cell phones for less than $15." We've done previous stories about a PDA/phone with included camera, but this could be integrated into a regular phone so that your conversation partner could get a nice real-time view of your ear.

Dejected @Work writes "If you think "Hello World" is always simple and boring try building it with a entity/session EJBs, a servlet, a JSP page, and a HTML home page on Linux. This tutorial shows you how to develop, test, run, and debug a complete J2EE application using Linux and WebSphere(trial download)."

A Happy Plague writes "I work at a hedge fund and one of the nice ammenities are real time news tickers. At 11:34 EDT, a nice red line scrolled on my screen.."FTC Alleges Rambus Violates Antitrust Laws". The headlines followed..."...Anticompetitive Acts... Deceived standard setting organization...never acknowledged patents... deceptive conduct..." Too bad it takes a long time fo bureacracies to work, but they usually come around. Yahoo News has the story." Of course all rambus has to do now is buy a president to get out from under this. In related news, Tricot writes "Over at Salon, there is a newswire article claiming that the justice department is investigating memory chip maker Micron for anti-competitive practices. Wow, if it's a monopoly, then it certainly hasn't hurt prices."

joel_archer writes "According to this Yahoo! article, Red Hat will begin selling an Itanium version of its Advanced Server Linux in partnership with HP. This is one of partnerships currently underway between these two companies. HP is a key partner for anything Itanium-related, the company invented the design underlying Itanium before handing it off to Intel to develop and manufacture. Bolstering that effort, Red Hat and HP have signed a deal under which Advanced Server will be certified on and available with all of HP's Intel-based ProLiant servers--not just Itanium systems, but also lower-end Xeon and Pentium versions and superthin 'blade' systems."

UCRowerG writes "From CNET News on Yahoo!: "Conceived by Napster co-founder Jordan Ritter and open-source developer Vipul Ved Prakash, the company is touting the benefits of democracy, networking and collaboration in the war against unscrupulous e-mail marketers." " Since Prakesh is responsible for Razor, hopefully there will be Linux support as well, but once again I gotta throw my props at Spamassassin which catches over a hundred spam for me each day.

Slashback's amplifications and updates tonight include more on Best Buy's worst practices for data security, how the proposed Federal government restructuring will affect Lawrence Livermore labs,a long-overdue Maglev for those of us outside France or Japan, and even more on building Nixie-tube toys. Read on for the details.

Fancy titles attract bigger budgets. SeanAhern writes: "Following up on last week's Slashdot article about LLNL's role in the new Department of Homeland Security, it turns out that LLNL will not change its role or change hands. Instead, LLNL may become a 'center for excellence,' essentially taking on a research role for the new Department. More information can be found in a couple of articles around the press."

Why not just shout it cashier-to-cashier? jqcoffey writes: "A while ago it was discovered that Best Buy was using wireless LANs to transmit cash register data back to accounting servers. The problem was it was UN-encrypted data. They turned them off for a while and now, according to this Computerworld story, they are back on."

Maglev for the Maglevians! LighthouseJ writes: "The Hampton Roads Virginia paper, the Pilot recently reported that my current school, Old Dominion University, recently installed the very first maglev train in the United States on the elevated track already built the previous school year. This train won't go that fast (40 mph) compared to the bullet trains that travel at 300 mph, but at the same token, it won't be traveling that far. The service has been scheduled to start September 1st.

There is some information I have about the maglev that's not mentioned. First, the school is in a rectangle, with the maglev built in the center length-wise. It connects the main campus with the new construction happening across the major road, Hampton Rd and has 3 stations planned now with more to come as the track may extend in the future. They are building more housing, education and meeting places, and the maglev will facilitate safe transportation across that road for students and faculty."

Can this really be the first Mag-lev train in the U.S.? A nifty project regardless.

When a Rolex just isn't good enough. fixitsan2 writes: "I know this thread has been gone over before, when it appeared at the start of February, but ironically, about the same time as the thread ended a group was started on Yahoo!. Not only was it a fast-growing newsgroup, but the technical standard is extremely high. Covering all aspects of building nixie tube clocks as well as other nixie devices including safe power generation, and all display methods from direct drive to multiplexing, as well as lots of circuits and tube sources.

A quick look at the welcome page will give you a fuller idea of what gets discussed."

Slashback's amplifications and updates tonight include more on Best Buy's worst practices for data security, how the proposed Federal government restructuring will affect Lawrence Livermore labs,a long-overdue Maglev for those of us outside France or Japan, and even more on building Nixie-tube toys. Read on for the details.

Fancy titles attract bigger budgets. SeanAhern writes: "Following up on last week's Slashdot article about LLNL's role in the new Department of Homeland Security, it turns out that LLNL will not change its role or change hands. Instead, LLNL may become a 'center for excellence,' essentially taking on a research role for the new Department. More information can be found in a couple of articles around the press."

Why not just shout it cashier-to-cashier? jqcoffey writes: "A while ago it was discovered that Best Buy was using wireless LANs to transmit cash register data back to accounting servers. The problem was it was UN-encrypted data. They turned them off for a while and now, according to this Computerworld story, they are back on."

Maglev for the Maglevians! LighthouseJ writes: "The Hampton Roads Virginia paper, the Pilot recently reported that my current school, Old Dominion University, recently installed the very first maglev train in the United States on the elevated track already built the previous school year. This train won't go that fast (40 mph) compared to the bullet trains that travel at 300 mph, but at the same token, it won't be traveling that far. The service has been scheduled to start September 1st.

There is some information I have about the maglev that's not mentioned. First, the school is in a rectangle, with the maglev built in the center length-wise. It connects the main campus with the new construction happening across the major road, Hampton Rd and has 3 stations planned now with more to come as the track may extend in the future. They are building more housing, education and meeting places, and the maglev will facilitate safe transportation across that road for students and faculty."

Can this really be the first Mag-lev train in the U.S.? A nifty project regardless.

When a Rolex just isn't good enough. fixitsan2 writes: "I know this thread has been gone over before, when it appeared at the start of February, but ironically, about the same time as the thread ended a group was started on Yahoo!. Not only was it a fast-growing newsgroup, but the technical standard is extremely high. Covering all aspects of building nixie tube clocks as well as other nixie devices including safe power generation, and all display methods from direct drive to multiplexing, as well as lots of circuits and tube sources.

A quick look at the welcome page will give you a fuller idea of what gets discussed."

Jay writes "This article on Yahoo talks about the FCC looking into licencing the 70 - 95GHz bandwidth spectrum. Which would provide "12.5 gigabyte Internet access to homes or businesses as many as 12 miles away from an antenna." Another option for bringing bandwidth over that last mile?" And we could see products based on this during my grandchildrens lifetimes.

soulctcher writes: "Archaeologists in Egypt have found what looks to be the oldest intact sarcophagus. To give an idea of how old, this particular sarcophagus is believed to be about 1100 years older than King Tut. You can read the full story over at Yahoo!

Aaron writes "Versions of the Apache HTTP Server up to and including 1.3.24 and 2.0 up to and including 2.0.36 contain a bug in the routines which deal with invalid requests which are encoded using chunked encoding. In some cases it may be possible to cause a child process to terminate and restart, which consumes a non-trivial amount of resources. See the official announcement and stay tuned here for updated versions." This is in response to the rather uninformed and questionable security notice by ISS X-Force, about a bug that has already been mentioned on the public mailing lists for Apache and is fixed in CVS for Apache 2.0. I am also told that their patch doesn't fully solve the problem. I am sure though that by awaking us to the problem they will get a lot of great press just like any of the other companies currently using useless bug announcements as press releases.

ben writes "Reuters just ran a story about the increasing number of calls for liability on the part of software developers, with a not-too-suprising focus on Microsoft and its uber-fallible IIS webserver. Given that many other engineering disciplines have some sort of accreditation and licensing body to enforce codes of professional ethics, I'm curious what impact the demand for such a creature in the software industry could have on Open Source developers, especially the part-time hobbyist ones. That is, establishment of some sort of Software Developer's license means the developer is potentially liable for whatever havoc his bugs may wreak, and traditionally the only environment with legal resources adequate to deal with such liability has been the megalithic corporate one."