Slashdot Mirror

Voorshwa and at least a dozen others wrote with this news: "Found this one over on ZDNet.com news. Turns out the security over at Egghead wasn't very good. Losing 3.1 million credit card numbers has got to put a damper on a lot of Christmas cheer!! Wish these big companies would learn a little ..." No yoke. It's too bad that this kind of theft will probably scare people away from online purchases even when it's a database that's cracked rather than their transactions. Reader insmod points to coverage at MSNBC as well which mentions that Egghead was not the only site hit this holiday season.

Masem writes: "Yahoo news is reporting that a legal challege to ICANN's control on the DNS system is going to be pushed by Atlantic Root, a group that has been controlling the .biz domain (as given to them by the Open Root Server Confederation) since May. When ICANN issued the 7 new TLDs, they did recognize that there were alternative DNS systems out there and tried to avoid obvious conflicts (one reason why .web wasn't granted). However, Atlantic Root argues that ICANN willing knew about the alternate .biz when they made their ruling, and are only representing big businesses in their practices."

kberkit asks: "I've just started as a Web designer/Swiss-army-knife, In the crash course of my travails, I've come across some nifty online tools: traceroute to find out what route and how long my Web pages are taking to load to outside servers; DNS lookup, to figure out what IP address a page is coming from; and online HTML validators to make sure my code is clean. I'm sure this is old hat to a lot of Slashdotters, but I'd be interested in knowing what other online tools others would suggest for us poor schleps who find ourselves expected to work miracles with little budget for proper software." For those of you who like traceroute and ping, may I recommend mtr as a supplement for your toolbox? What other small utilities have you all found useful in your day-to-day work lives?

Julius X writes: "This just came out, from Yahoo, 3dfx has announced that they will be sold to NVidia as soon as the deal is approved by its shareholders. From the release, "After aggressively pursuing a wide range of options that take into consideration the interests of our creditors, our shareholders, our employees and our customers," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO, 3dfx Interactive Inc., "we strongly believe that to reduce expenses, sell our assets and dissolve the company provides the highest return to our creditors, shareholders, and employees." I think we all saw this one coming. For more details, go to the press release." Actually, tossing in some details early is [hk]doogie, who writes: "Nvidia bought the patents, pending patent applications, trademarks, brand names, and chip inventory related to the graphics business of 3dfx. Get the full scoop [here]."

Julius X writes: "This just came out, from Yahoo, 3dfx has announced that they will be sold to NVidia as soon as the deal is approved by its shareholders. From the release, "After aggressively pursuing a wide range of options that take into consideration the interests of our creditors, our shareholders, our employees and our customers," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO, 3dfx Interactive Inc., "we strongly believe that to reduce expenses, sell our assets and dissolve the company provides the highest return to our creditors, shareholders, and employees." I think we all saw this one coming. For more details, go to the press release." Actually, tossing in some details early is [hk]doogie, who writes: "Nvidia bought the patents, pending patent applications, trademarks, brand names, and chip inventory related to the graphics business of 3dfx. Get the full scoop [here]."

Julius X writes: "This just came out, from Yahoo, 3dfx has announced that they will be sold to NVidia as soon as the deal is approved by its shareholders. From the release, "After aggressively pursuing a wide range of options that take into consideration the interests of our creditors, our shareholders, our employees and our customers," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO, 3dfx Interactive Inc., "we strongly believe that to reduce expenses, sell our assets and dissolve the company provides the highest return to our creditors, shareholders, and employees." I think we all saw this one coming. For more details, go to the press release." Actually, tossing in some details early is [hk]doogie, who writes: "Nvidia bought the patents, pending patent applications, trademarks, brand names, and chip inventory related to the graphics business of 3dfx. Get the full scoop [here]."

shyster writes "Be has created a prototype mp3 player that puts all other hack jobs to shame. Using an Intel 810E chipset with a Celeron-400MHz processor, and relying on BeOS's wonderful file system (where attributes are stored with the files) for database search capabilities, this thing really makes BeOS look good, as well as emphasizes it's audio/video capabilities. They don't plan on making this thing themselves, but rather customizing and branding the OS for OEM partners to place in their own hardware solutions. This kind of approach should allow for some differences between devices, such as having a CD-RW, DVD drive, touchscreen LCD display, etc. The other great thing about this is that it's networked. Check out the full story here."

Milktoast writes "Joystick101.org has posted a story predicting an upcoming gaming crash. They claim that a crowded marketplace in conjunction with the large number of ports will lead today's consoles down the same road as the Atari 2600. Will gaming consoles go out the window like before, or will we pull out of this?"

dmatos writes: "Yet another game show (YAGS?) is going to send people off into space for winning. This time, however, it will be to the international space station, not the crummy old fungus infected mir. Now all you need to get into space is a good knowlege of trivia, and fluency in German. How long will it be before this plan is canceled as well?"

thefullmonty writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Royal Dutch/Shell is going to install the world's largest Linux supercomputer. Shell's Exploration & Production unit will use the supercomputer, consisting of 1,024 IBM X-Series servers, to run seismic and other geophysical applications in its search for more oil and gas. The article goes on to talk about how larger companies are moving towards Linux and some of the advantages of making such a move. ."

thefullmonty writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Royal Dutch/Shell is going to install the world's largest Linux supercomputer. Shell's Exploration & Production unit will use the supercomputer, consisting of 1,024 IBM X-Series servers, to run seismic and other geophysical applications in its search for more oil and gas. The article goes on to talk about how larger companies are moving towards Linux and some of the advantages of making such a move. ."

O enrique asks: "Since digital video is becoming a popular issue, I wonder when would we put in practice the possibility to do file backup (non audiovisual data storage) into digital tapes using those firewire enabled cameras. Each 1 hour tape (less than 10$) stores more than 10 Gbytes of data! As far as I know, nowadays Linux is only able to grab data from such devices, but not to store into them. Well, it seems that some people already thought about it, but I've seen nothing complete. See the Web pages here and here. Is someone else interested on it?"

OCatenac writes: "This article at the Economist regarding the 100th anniversary of Max Planck's discovery of Quantum Physics is interesting. Thought other /. readers might find it interesting too."

Super_Frosty sighted (and cited) this story running on Yahoo! which says, in part, "U.S. space scientists put the odds at nearly 1 in 250 that debris from the proposed burn-up of the world's first global satellite telephone mesh would hit someone on Earth. The prospects of a casualty from the now-averted mass 'de-orbiting' of the system known as Iridium were spelled out in a previously secret study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." Isn't it nice that this has been put off for a little while? (Oh, and what were your favorite Lotto numbers again?)

Pinball Wizard asks: "I ran into a nice Web site while doing some research on the life of Nikola Tesla. Turns out PBS is doing a special on him, beginning Dec. 12. In case you're not familiar with the man, he invented alternating current and radio, as well as the basic concepts behind all of our wireless control and communication. Besides alerting the Slashdot population to the documentary, I thought I'd pose a question to the EE's in the crowd. Tesla was a bit of a rebel, and many of his inventions never came to light because they conflicted with the interests of corporations or wealthy people with more influence. The most interesting of these to me is the transmission of electricity through the upper atmosphere. Obviously that would make electricity much harder to meter and control by monopolistic interests. Was his idea feasible? After reading about Tesla, I seriously wonder how much we screwed ourselves by following the interests of money, rather than listening to this scientific giant."

ChrisKo writes: "Article on how IBM is going to start offering software for Linux" Specifically DB2 and WebSphere. Talks about other Linux related stuff too, and says that Linux is the #2 OS. Not sure who's #1.

cardhore links to this O'Reilly piece about Freenet, detailing what's actually on the anonymous data cloud these days. It reads, in part, "But if we were to indulge ourselves and construct a demographic of the average Freenet user from Freenet content, he'd be a crypto-anarchist Perl hacker with a taste for the classics of literature, political screeds, 1980s pop music, Adobe software, and lots of porn." I wonder what will be there (or in equivalently untraceable data pools) in five years.

Stu asks: "I've been thinking about giving my faithful old PowerMac 7600/120 a little boost, and also thought it would be nice to give Linux a go, especially to try out the GIMP as an alternative to Photoshop. I've noticed over the past year or so quite a lot of distibutions have popped up which install in an MSDOS partition and can be launched from within Win95/98 or MSDOS, like WinLinux and many others. I'm shying away from repartitioning my HD and installing LinuxPPC as of now, but I'd like to kinda dip my toes in the water before I take the full plunge, so my question is: Does anything similar to WinLinux and those other distros exist for the PowerPC platform, i.e. can install in an HFS+ partition alongside MacOS?"

An Anonymous Coward sends us this: "A friend sent me this link on Yahoo to a somewhat obscure court ruling which may have important consequences for patents, reverse engineering, and the like. I'm not a lawyer so I can't really assess the full impact of this ruling, but my friend (who is a law student) claims that it is a fairly big deal in the intellectual property realm." The article does a good job of explaining.

Ambiguo writes: "An article in today's LA Times is reporting today that tomorrow the FCC will begin considering switching to 10 digit phone numbers, starting as early as next month. There's a lot of opposition to it, especially since there was a large backlash when LA tried this a little while ago, but some say it's a stepping stone to the eventual 11 or 12 digit phone number of the future." Update: 12/06 4:33 PM by michael: The FCC is not going to switch us all to 10-digit numbers. Yet.

dcigary asks: "So, I'm visiting my local outlet mall, and strolling through the Sony Outlet store. At the entrance, they have a BIG stack of refurbished WebTV Plus boxes, with a price tag of $19.99 each. It also included a wireless keyboard! Being a sucker for a cheap price, I snatched up two of them, figuring I could at least set one up for my net-impared parents so they can surf the internet easily. What else can I do with one of these boxes? Are they hackable? I would really like to add an ethernet adapter to it and put it on my house LAN, and run out through the cable modem, but that would probably be asking too much. I've read through the specs and apparently they have a 1.2G drive in them as well? Any other ideas? Any sites out there dedicated to this?" $19.95 for a Web-TV box? That's not a bad price if these things can be enhanced in any way, shape or form.

jedipapi writes: "Dell will unveil on Monday that they'll have Gnome preloaded on selected business PCs along with a partnership with Eazel among others. ZDNet has the full story."

photozz writes "New from ZDNet about the coming of OSX and how some people see this as the rise of BSD, perhaps passing up Linux in numbers of users. " I'm still excited about OSX. I still am considering buying a mac to play with OSX... I mean, I can always install LinuxPPC if OSX sucks goat.

photozz writes "New from ZDNet about the coming of OSX and how some people see this as the rise of BSD, perhaps passing up Linux in numbers of users. " I'm still excited about OSX. I still am considering buying a mac to play with OSX... I mean, I can always install LinuxPPC if OSX sucks goat.

AngryFlute writes "This guy has built his own Ms. Pac-Man tabletop cabinet from scratch, and he generously shares the plans and pictures of his step-by-step work online. " Nate gave me an arkanoid tabletop for christmas last year, these things are just very cool (if only I had room for more ;). There are many excellent sites for building your own game boxes (tabletop and upright). I've seen variations that use a PC and MAME or some other emulator, as well as ones designed for easy replacing of old game boards. This stuff is a very cool hobby and I know many of you are into it. What are you guys experiences?

jbischof was the first to tell us that Transmeta has confirmed that they are recalling Crusoe, as we mentioned earlier. The statements says it's fewer then 300 NEC laptops, so it's not that huge of a deal after all. Of course the egg-on-face factor is still high.

vadim writes "Crusoe may have a bug as reported on yahoo." Not much there except that NEC is considering a recall because of a "Chip Failure-Paper" (huh?). It doesn't say what the problem is, but it mentions that Sony has also started looking into it.

James Salsman writes "Now that Yahoo delivers encrypted email, I would sure like to know what the Slashdot fray thinks of that, especially in light of Carnivore's vulnerability to some forms of encryption (but not this one?)." michael adds: You might also want to check out Cyber-Rights.net, which is a UK civil liberties group offering encrypted email through a deal with Hushmail.

December writes "This story says Australian company Nascomms claims to be the first in the world to go online with numeric addressing [CT:TCP/IP uses numbers too, just not ones with area code ;)], in which telephone numbers are used in replace of the ubiquitous dot-com address. Interesting idea, but in the business case, I could much more easily guess www.toyota.com then figuring out their phone number."

hyacinthus asks: "For some projects I'm working on, I'd like a system for acquiring data (as from the output of an instrumentation amplifier) from a module that would be separate from a PC, a maximum distance of perhaps several hundred feet at most, and the use of cable or wire is not an option. My bandwidth requirements are very small--perhaps a hundred 12-bit samples per second would do it. I would like the data acquisition module to be as small as possible. And I'd like the possibility of acquiring data from more than one module, rather like a multiple-channel data acquisition system." Are there any radio-based PC products that can be adapted to suit this sort of task?

"Commercial data acquisition products for personal computers all tend to be rather spendy, and none that I've seen make any provision for wireless telemetry. I've been considering designing and building something, probably using one of the commercial available USB development kits (see, for example, ActiveWire's USB board). But I'm no electrical engineer (a few digital design classes and some self-teaching from Horowitz and Hill, and that's it), so I'd like to ask if there's anything out there which does what I want."

heyetv asks: "AMD has finally proven itself strong in competition to Intel. For over a year now. Old story; read TomsHardware or Sharky's. For overclockers, hackers, and the rest of us, this is great, but what about high volume, mission critical environments with hundreds, or even thousands of machines? What about high-performance clusters? I'm in a growing University/College Intel house of several hundred and trying to figure out why we are still as such. Are AMD's fast, cheap Athlon processors ready for production situations where a lack of support or seemingly minor failure could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and reputations/careers? I'm sure some of you have rolled out Texas-style processors in large-scale corporate situations. Have you had positive or negative experiences in doing so? I'm not interested in a flamewar over which is the faster or more technically superior, but opinions on which one is a processor to base a professional reputation on and given that AMD has only been performing on par with Intel for a year now... is this long enough?"

crazyj writes: "According to this article, Digital Video Recorder maker ReplayTV is calling it quits in the hardware business. Instead, they plan to cut staff and license their technology. Apparently, the competition from TiVo was too much."

alanjstr asks: "After reading this article at The Register, I no longer understand how domain registration really works. Quite a few posts have come across Slashdot about ICANN elections and rights to domain names. It sounds to me like it started off as a good thing but is struggling to move to be autonomous. ICANN was created in an attempt at who should run it and How should it be paid for. Clearly the Who has become a problem with many complaining about not being represented. The How is a problem that is still unresolved. The more I think about it, the more it seems like we're setting up a new government to rule the land of Domains. How should be go about fixing this dilemma? The first thing that comes to mind is to write a Constitution to lay the groundwork. How would you complete the following: We the People of the Digital Planet Earth...." It all boils down to ICANN asking most of the ccTLDs to pay a third of it's operating costs without allowing them representation in ICANN itself. Now that doesn't sound very fair, does it?

cybermage asks: "With the cash crunch in the .com area, I'm wondering what will happen with companies like this. These guys are a local ISP that borrowed a lot of money to roll-up smaller ISPs and now has a mountain of debt and maybe not enough income to justify the debt. What's to become of their 15,000+ dial-up customers when the money stops. Given the lack of regulation in the industry will there be a lot of sudden ISP failures and what do people think the backlash will be?"

Anne Marie writes: "Robodex 2000, an exhibition of the world of robots, has kicked off in Japan. Featured robots include Honda's humanoid Asimi robot and Sony's aibo, as well as upcoming challengers like Sony's SDR-3X humanoid. AP Coverage is here, and we'd better pay attention, because according to a ZDNET article, robots killed at least five humans last year."

Anne Marie writes: "Robodex 2000, an exhibition of the world of robots, has kicked off in Japan. Featured robots include Honda's humanoid Asimi robot and Sony's aibo, as well as upcoming challengers like Sony's SDR-3X humanoid. AP Coverage is here, and we'd better pay attention, because according to a ZDNET article, robots killed at least five humans last year."

Anne Marie writes: "Robodex 2000, an exhibition of the world of robots, has kicked off in Japan. Featured robots include Honda's humanoid Asimi robot and Sony's aibo, as well as upcoming challengers like Sony's SDR-3X humanoid. AP Coverage is here, and we'd better pay attention, because according to a ZDNET article, robots killed at least five humans last year."

Contributed by readers FooBard and Scrymarch, the pair of reviews below ought to either bring back memories or spark some curiosity. Stranger In a Strange Land may not be everyone's favorite book -- even among Heinlein fans -- but it certainly strikes a chord. If you haven't read it, these reviews should give you a good idea of whether you'd like to.

Stranger in a Strange Land author Robert A. Heinlein pages 438 publisher Ace Books rating n/a reviewer FooBard, Scrymarch ISBN 0441790348 summary Undeniably intriguing, by turns illuminating and infuriating story of life on earth as viewed by a visitor with a special interest.

FooBard writes: "Review of Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger In a Strange Land, unabridged version.

I have read a lot, although not all, of Heinlein's work. Stranger is clearly his crown jewel, and for reasons that transcend science fiction. All great art transcends its genre, and this book is no exception. The story is not merely "robots and rocketships", but uses science fiction for a truly creative look at the human condition: religion, love, sex, money, power, government, relationships... what more could you want?

Footnote: This book is also the origin of the term "grok" (loosely meaning: to have a very deep understanding of), which is used so frequently in computer circles.

The Scenario

The story is based on Valentine Michael Smith (no relation), usually called Mike, or the Man From Mars. Mike is the son of two crewmembers of the first manned flight to Mars, and was born on Mars after that flight crash-landed. His parents died shortly after his birth, and he was raised by Martians.

"Martians?" you might say. "How quaint." Keep in mind that this was written a while ago (when Martians were still trendy), and suspend your disbelief. Just as in all good "classic" sci-fi, Heinlein's methods and situation aren't as important as his goals and ideas. Sci-fi isn't about the "sci" or the "fi", but about what it means to be human.

Mike struggles in adapting to life on Earth, first physically, then mentally. He grapples with his integration into the human race in his own unique way. His journey is sort of a coming of age, yet he really is of age in another society -- a society whose values are often polar opposites to those value that define our humanness. Throughout Mike's process, Heinlein reflects on what it means to be human, which is one of the best and richest themes used in literature.

In a historical context, the book itself also has an interesting history. Back when it was originally published, Heinlein was forced to cut quite a bit of the book, especially the racier parts. This version reflects the manuscript that Heinlein originally wanted. I have previously read the abridged version, although I must admit that I don't remember all the finer points. This version does seem to have a bit more sex and more material that makes fun of the Fosterite church, etc., so it packs more of a punch than I remember from the abridged version.

What's Good

Heinlein makes very interesting choices in his portrayal of Martian society, and specifically contrasts them to what is most human. Religion, love, sex, money, etc. are all missing in Martian society, and this contrast allows for wonderful parody and analysis. We watch Mike stumble through learning such basics as male vs. female, love, communication, why we have religion, how we use humor, death and how we fear it, money, privacy... Each time, Mike's character forces us to question the "why" behind those ideas in society that we take for granted. Religion (in our form) doesn't seem natural to him. He doesn't laugh. He doesn't understand the wonder of sex, nor why we have property. Heinlein deconstructs those ideas through his plot and the character of Mike, and creates a consistent philosophical view of the world. (Whether you agree with Heinlein's ideas and philosophies is a different matter. I happen to agree with most.)

To watch a character struggle through this discovery for an entire book would be painful; no one wants to see that much struggle without a bit of redemption. So Heinlein makes Mike into a very powerful figure, showing the strengths of Martian society: no money, complete power of mind over body (Mike grows muscles by "thinking them", and has strong telepathic and telekenetic abilities), and he has an unquestioning belief and tangible proof of the afterlife. His human friends learn as much from him as he does from them, and, by the end of the book, Mike seeks to remake Earth society with his new viewpoint.

Religion plays a central role in this book. Organized religion is roasted (especially through the device of the Fosterite church), while religion itself is held as uniquely human -- an answer to our mortality and a reflection of our need to understand our world. Towards the end of the book, Mike creates his own religion (in a sense) and actually follows through, in true literary fashion, to his logical ending: Mike is a clear Christ allegory. Mike is the human- who- is- more- than- and- not- quite- human, and comes to Earth to redeem our society, to challenge how we see ourselves in the universe, and eventually to die for our redemption.

Other characters also are mouthpieces for Heinlein. Jubal Harshaw (strikingly and too blatantly similar to Lazarus Long, from "Time Enough for Love") is the older, yet very open-minded mentor to Mike. Jill helps him explore the male/female relationships, and Ben Caxton works to act as a foil to both Jubal and Mike, allowing Heinlein to use those characters to clarify his points. Several other characters interplay with the main character to strengthen Heinlein's philosophical arguments.

What's Bad

I have only a few issues with the book. The story ends in a typically Heinleinian fashion, with all the characters in some kind of group marriage, where free love amongst highly intellectual people conquers all. Nuh-uh. I'm not buying it again -- especially after rereading "Time Enough for Love" not too long ago. His exploration of such a life is just a bit too drawn-out and idyllic.

Also, in Stranger, Heinlein tries to examine almost all of what it means to be human. Few books, even the classics, attempt such a grandiose exploration of the human condition and all that it encompasses. It's a bit too large of an undertaking, even for the unabridged version. At the end of the book, you feel like you've explored a lot of territory, but you don't quite "grok" it all.

What's In it for me?

Heinlein does a wonderful job in giving himself the situations in which to explore those themes, however, and he must be commended in his success in surpassing the "robots and rocketships" so prevalent among his peers. Heinlein is a master of taking sci-fi beyond the plots, and his character of Mike was his best medium for his talent. This book changed science fiction forever, and it's still among the best. Even if you have read this book before (as I had), this book forces an examination of what it means to be human, especially in a world where technology itself -- not the humanity behind it -- drives much of literature, not to mention the very fundamentals of our lives."

Another point of view, from Scrymarch: Thou art God - I mean Hi. If someone had said that phrase once more to me by the time I finished this book, I think I would have struck them. It is bandied about with a smug bantering style that characterizes the problems I have with the novel and I suspect the author himself.

It is the story of a human raised on Mars by Martians. He then comes to Earth and experiences American society, and the resultant culture-shock on the part of both the main character and the reader is the main point of book. Indeed, by the accounts of the cover it is supposed to upset every background assumption that underlies my existence. Why it fails, and the way it fails, I think is a peculiar result of the interaction between when it was written, the ?60s, and R.A. Heinlen.

The 21st or 22nd century, when the book is set, bears a remarkable resemblance to a certain decade in the 20th century. Some extra gizmos like flying cars are about; there is an obligatory world government; but Western society is essentially the same when it comes to things like the sexism that permeates every printed word on every page.

Sexism is in fact one of the themes of the book. Humanity is blessed with our division into opposite and complementary genders apparently, and we should get on with doin? what our sex does best. Sex is another major theme. It?s enjoyable, you see, and by allowing us to "grow closer" to one another all human tragedy and hunger will be able to be solved.

Martian culture, a meditative one which interacts with spirits as its main leaders, is not much of a shock. It is essentially a convenient mix of Eastern cultures and religions, with some interesting embellishments, such as cannibalism (the only idea which really gave me much of a start). The Martians are at least not humanoid in shape. It revolves around a concept of "grokking" which roughly translates as completely interacting or understanding something. After one has grokked, one can act, and waiting for the right moment to act is also fundamental. This approach to existence makes Martians unbelievably wise, of course, and so they have in turn gained tremendous psychic powers. One of these powers includes routinely making objects (usually clothes) disappear completely, which explains where all those Martian cities got to.

Anyway, the grand revelation Mars-boy receives drives him to found a cult (the rise of specious alien cults is one of the few prophetic aspects of the book). The cult hangs around and has sex with one another a lot, while telling each other they art God. Perhaps this was the appeal of the novel 40-ish years ago. It was a little too flippant for me.

Stranger in a Strange Land is a silly, dated book and the first I have ever seriously considered throwing against a wall.

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Noryungi writes "The BBC is reporting about bacteria-propelled nano-subs that can be used to deliver drugs in the bloodstream. Interesting part is that (a) salmonella bacteria are ideal for this and (b) that prototypes could be just one year away. Nano-VaporWare?" Somehow, I think the one-year estimate seems a bit optimistic.

Anne Marie writes: "According to a new study on the interaction between memory and lack of sleep has yielded tantalizing results: not only is sleep necessary for the chemistry of laying down memories, but periods of extra sleep cannot "make up" for lost sleep. The implications for the IT industry where sleeplessness is a constant reality of employment are manifest." By morning, I will probably have no idea I ever posted this.

xcaster asks: "I've been working with Lotus Notes for several years. Although Lotus Notes is horrible software, it wins in one feature: replication. I've researching all major RDBMS for a while, and found that even though they offer replication support, none provides easy-to-use, flexible support for disconnected-user-oriented replication. Do real solutions for replication for disconnected users exist out there?" It would be interesting to see how well the major free RDBMS engines stack up when it comes to replication. Which RDBMS software can support replication out of the box, and for the ones that do not, what changes would they need to make to support it?

davejhiggins writes: "In this ruling a French judge has upheld an earlier ruling ordering Yahoo! to ban French users from buying Nazi memorabilia from its auction site. Even though the content is not accessible from www.yahoo.fr/ the ruling insists that even "the visualization in France of these objects" on the www.yahoo.com auction site constitutes a breach of French law and orders Yahoo to bar all French IPs from accessing it despite Yahoo's assertions that this would not guarantee that nobody in France would be able to see it." This kind of stuff annoys the hell out of me.

LHOOQtius_ov_Borg writes: "A CNet article discusses Yahoo! considering more subscription-fee based premium services. The article points out that other sites, such as TheStreet.Com, have not had success with this. It also mentions that Yahoo has stated that less than 10% of their current revenue comes from 'pure play' Internet companies and 'financially questionable' advertisers.'" Added to which, ABetterRoss writes, "Submitting to some Yahoo categories is no longer free. from the FAQ: "In our ongoing effort to 1) build a useful, comprehensive Web directory and 2) address the needs of people submitting sites to the directory, we have expanded our fee-based Business Express program to cover all submissions to our main commercial categories: 'Business and Economy/Business to Business' and 'Business and Economy/Shopping and Services.'"

MaggieL -- KB3DXS writes: "The amateur radio satellite Phase 3D (now officially AMSAT-Oscar 40 ) was launched [Wednesday] night on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is now safely in its intended original orbit. AO-40 is the culmination of a ten-year long project to orbit a sophisticated, highly programmable communications platform for amateur radio use. Over the next 270 days engines on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit. I received some of the initial transmissions from the satellite this morning at my station ... this is *way* cool. Amateur radio is still thriving, despite fears among the old-school hams who think that the Internet has killed ham radio." Added to which, as btbuzzard advises, you can now get your very own personal communications satellite carried by a device which would have been a lot scarier launching 10 or so years ago.

Ekeron writes: "Spaceflightnow.com reports that: 'The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York today approved the bid of Iridium Satellite LLC to purchase the operating assets of Iridium LLC and its subsidiaries. Iridium Satellite LLC will continue to provide commercial satellite communications to the U.S. Government and plans to re-launch affordable satellite communications services to those industry segments that have a particular need for satellite communications (government, military, humanitarian, heavy industry, maritime, aviation, adventure) within 60 days.' Get the full story at: Spaceflightnow."

blackage sends us news about how the Egyptians may have aligned their pyramids. The craziest part seems to be that their accuracy was good enough in aligning with these stars that the pyramids can be dated to within five years! Nature has a nice description of the theory.

blackage sends us news about how the Egyptians may have aligned their pyramids. The craziest part seems to be that their accuracy was good enough in aligning with these stars that the pyramids can be dated to within five years! Nature has a nice description of the theory.

kishi asks: "My office needs to ditch 7 dedicated phone lines and 7 dial-up ISP accounts. Roadrunner (which I use at home) isn't available and two different DSL networks have told us 'yesnomaybe'. It has been 'yesnomaybe' for 11 weeks and we're still paying $175 for dial-up access. Hyperoam offers wireless broadband. Do any of you Slashdotters out there have any experiences (good, bad or indifferent) with it? I need more information on wireless broadband before I take the plunge and get rid of something that works for something that might not."

Desdinova77 writes "OSHA has announced rules for proper ergonomics to prevent RSI type injuries On their site (I had trouble gtting to this site but it is the 'official' link on the OSHA site. There is also a story about it on Yahoo " Is this going to have an affect on any of your offices? I doubt my broken couch meets the specs.

Rob Pascual writes: "I thought this article was interesting. It's a review of software that analyzes pictures in email to see if they are porn. Not that it works too well, but it's interesting how it works, and has a lot of cool info on image recognition." See also this earlier Slashdot story about the same concept embodied in software from Exotrope and Eye-T, which seems mostly to illustrate how absurd it is.