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duffbeer703 wrote to us with a ZD story regarding Transmeta's Crusoe speed and benchmarking. As we've heard the benchmarks haven't overwhemled people - but are we measuring things the wrong way? Of course emulation is slower then native chipsets - that's a given - but are the other elements of Crusoe enough to make up for it?

n8willis writes "ZDnet is reporting that Microsoft is now threatening to sue Larry Ellison if he doesn't stop saying that Microsoft SQL Server only performs well on benchmarks, not real apps. The meaty part of this story is MS's claim that Ellison's comments violate the SQL Server license agreement, which requires permission before publishing any benchmarks. A dubious term to begin with, if you ask me, but in this case, Ellison is demonstrating the software head-to-head in his speeches, not publishing anything." Frankly, I don't care about it being Microsoft or not - any company deciding that any like this is proprietary is ridiculous. I mean, if I wanted to publish database results, does this mean I can't write a report about it?

kaizen asks: "How much processor time is lost to the lower levels of the protocol stack and not running your code? According to Akamba, by offloading the Transport and Network layers to their PCI cards, your server can get a x4 boost to throughput and x20 in response time. Check out the press release about Velobahn on ZDnet. How well does a starting price of $3,000USD compare with other options?"

Masem writes "ZDNet is reporting on two products that are based off the peer-to-peer sharing idea that Napster made popular to release two useful tools to the community. First, "Rumor" is a p2p program that helps to spread the updates to virus protections programs by having each client on an intranet act as a p2p node, reducing the load on servers and speeding the distrubtion of the update. The second new program called "Groove Transceiver", designed by Ray Ozzie of Lotus Notes fame, acts like an extended AIM client, allowing large groups of people to communicate as a whole, but without the need for something like an IRC server. It's good to see potentally useful programs attributing their success to the Napster model - hopefully they will help with further defence of it. "

Masem writes "ZDNet is reporting on two products that are based off the peer-to-peer sharing idea that Napster made popular to release two useful tools to the community. First, "Rumor" is a p2p program that helps to spread the updates to virus protections programs by having each client on an intranet act as a p2p node, reducing the load on servers and speeding the distrubtion of the update. The second new program called "Groove Transceiver", designed by Ray Ozzie of Lotus Notes fame, acts like an extended AIM client, allowing large groups of people to communicate as a whole, but without the need for something like an IRC server. It's good to see potentally useful programs attributing their success to the Napster model - hopefully they will help with further defence of it. "

Masem writes "At the recent CMJ Music Marathon, there was a large discussion about the effects of Napster on not-so-mainstream recording artists by the artists themselves. Some for, some against, but an interesting opinion was given by John Flansburgh of TMBG, in that Napster comes between the direct connection of the band and the music listener in cases where the band already had a strong net presence."

Rannos sent us a somewhat strange ZD story talking about chilliware and their "100 Linux Applications" that they are releasing to retail this year. They claim to be releasing a Linux office suite, too. All closed source. Also talks about the Corel/Microsoft thing a bit.

Here's an interview with Gore that seems blandly catering to Slashdot readers. Billionaires for Bush or Gore makes a good point. Open Secrets is tracking campaign donations. Last up is a really good article about Dick Cheney, The Only Hope which trashes lots of candidates. Also I've attached a note about politics story submissions on politics between now and the election.

• Don't bother submitting candidates official websites. They essentially are just press releases spouting bland dogma. We want some real content (although you should read Al Gore's "Open Source Website" bit and laugh your ass if you missed it when we posted it on slashdot nearly a year ago).
• We're trying to be impartial, but Nader's supporters don't seem to submit much more then links to the official website, and Bush supporters are nearly silent. We want a diverse story selection here, but a lot of folks would rather bitch in the comments that we're oppressing them then take 3 seconds to submit a story.
• There's lots of good stuff going on in these stories, but I'm sure gonna be happier when the election is over and the flames can stop. I suck, I know. Slashdot is trying to keep you down. I know. Of course I'm trying to force my political viewpoints on everyone (as I've said before I hate all the candidates, but I hate GWB most of all, so I'll vote for Gore 'cuz its gonna be to close of an election to risk wasting my vote making a "Statement" on a 3rd party candidate). Fortunately this is is America, and I'm entitled to believe this. And you may believe whatever you want as well! And none of us are evil or wrong: we just have different political beliefs. And since this is Slashdot, we can talk about these differences in a mature manner: debate the issues. Try to make rational convincing arguments to back up what we believe, and perhaps try to convince others. Or we could bicker and fight and complain and flame about the various shadow organizations and conspirators trying to keep whatever viewpoint you have down. Its really your choice.
• And stop emailing me stories! Use the submissions form!

SirTimbly writes about QNX: "This little OS is making a big stir lately with big companies. The QNX operating system (pronounced Q-nux) has been rumored lately to be in favor of such companies as CISCO and Palm. This is an embedded OS currently used in Netpliance's i-Opener; it was developed by 3Com and is being used in their latest Internet appliance as well. Read more about this non open-source OS in a ZDNet story here."

QNX might not be new, but SirTimbly is right about it making a stir. Max von H. writes: "Audrey, the household net appliance from 3Com/ergo has been officially released, and there's even an official site on which you can smile at the design. The beast runs QNX/Neutrino, as stated in this ZDNet story. The sweet thing is it can sync with two PalmOS devices, which can make a geek couple's life much easier without having to fumble with a real PC. Say what you want, but Audrey could possibly be successful since anybody can use it, and 3Com has shown a simple system rules when it comes to do simple things."

And no mention of QNX is complete without a reference to the QNX demo disk, which packs a pretty amazing set of features onto a floppy. Here too, it's free, but not Free.

Technik~ writes: "An Editorial at Unixreview.com discusses David. K. Every's of Macweek assertion in his column that Unix isn't an OS. Read the original MacWeek editorial here."

Deskpoet writes "This article on ZDnet details how the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, based in Europe, is rising up to create awareness of this perfidy-in-action. There's also info about how it's really US law enforcement that's driving this thing. Your tax dollars at work."

Private Essayist writes: "In this ZDNet story, it points out the ironic news that just as Congress is about to require all libraries and schools to install antiporn filters, a commision created by Congress to study ways to protect children online is about to decline recommending mandatory use of filters. The commission says, 'no particular technology yet offers an ideal solution.'"

yet another coward writes: "According to a story in Internet Week, Deja.com is for sale. The company plans to sell the Usenet archive and the buying guide separately. This move might mean a comeback for the archive." So what's the going rate for 1,000,000 MMF posts?

Polo writes "Sony has a new small-sized transmeta powered PCG-GT1 laptop with a stronger focus on video. The lcd screen reverses and [swivels] for easier shooting. With so much hardware support required, I wonder if linux drivers will be difficult to implement. Interesting camera/pc convergence stuff (besides that, with hard drive costs coming down so far, its probably a good idea. Definitely looks like fun. Here's a ZD Net Review where they aren't so hot on a slightly different transmeta vaio. (not the one with the crazy sidemounted video camera)

Mike_K writes: "According to this interview, Mitnick supports the idea of creating a federal DNA database. He says that today's technology makes identity theft really easy, and we need a way to make sure you are who you say you are. A summary of the interview can be found here." That's not really the central point of the interview, but it is an intriguing one. Think what you will of Mitnick, his court-imposed computer deprivation hasn't stopped him from peering and poking at the technological world.

Mike_K writes: "According to this interview, Mitnick supports the idea of creating a federal DNA database. He says that today's technology makes identity theft really easy, and we need a way to make sure you are who you say you are. A summary of the interview can be found here." That's not really the central point of the interview, but it is an intriguing one. Think what you will of Mitnick, his court-imposed computer deprivation hasn't stopped him from peering and poking at the technological world.

Simone submits this article about two different visions of peer-to-peer computing - one from Tim O'Reilly, and one from the Intel corporation. (O'Reilly expounds further in his column). Watch and cheer from the sidelines as the mega-corps jockey to control the buzzword standards process, turn it into a useless mush, and are surpassed by protocols that work.

bl968 writes: "Zdnet has an article entitled "Why the world needs reverse engineers." The article covers among many things the Cuecat barcode scanner and some of the reason the hardware or software manufacturers dislike reverse engineering of their products. Privacy violating serial numbers anyone? Security problems and the DMCA are also touched upon."

bl968 writes: "Zdnet has an article entitled "Why the world needs reverse engineers." The article covers among many things the Cuecat barcode scanner and some of the reason the hardware or software manufacturers dislike reverse engineering of their products. Privacy violating serial numbers anyone? Security problems and the DMCA are also touched upon."

LordNimon was the first to write with "ZDNet has an article on how Motorola is demanding all of the private consumer data from each of its dealers, or the dealer will no longer be able to sell Motorola products. The article is unusually thorough for ZDNet. It includes comments from big Motorola customers who consider this data to be confidential and are furious over the plan. It also mentions that Motorola refuses to comment on the privacy aspect of the plan, or even acknowledge that there's anything wrong with it!" A very thorough look at behind-the-scenes marketing forces.

Saberwind asks: "Fed up with flicker problems when viewing 1600x1200 and 1920x1440 resolutions on even some high-end CRTs, and wanting a perfect image that I can hang on my wall, I'm ready to switch to LCD. I almost plunked down nearly $3000 for a 18.1-inch Viewsonic VP181. The ideal LCD would have a digital input, be at least 20" diagonal, be wall-mountable, have an orthagonal shape, and of course square pixels (regardless of the aspect ratio). Does anyone know where such holy grails might be procured?"

"I did some digging and found that while the VP181 is advertised as having a maximum resolution of 1600x1200, its native resolution is a piddly 1280x1024 (every image I've seen so far is intended to be displayed on a device with square pixels, and 1280x1024 crams a 5:4 resolution into a 4:3 space resulting in squished pixels) and the higher res is just emulated. Then there's the 17.3-inch SGI 1600SW, which does 1600x1024, but I understand it locks you into a specific video card and the product is no longer supported. Every once in a while we hear about new flat panel technologies being developed (IBM developed the QX20, a 20.8-inch, 2048x1536 LCD (this was last year. Where is it now?). Then there's the 22" Apple Cinema Display, which can do 1600x1024, but it's made by Apple, and I'm not quite so sure about that one."

slaytanic killer writes: "Bruce Schneier addresses the "Third Wave of Computer Attacks" in a recent ZDnet article. Another step in his evolution towards looking at the human side of computer weaknesses; analyzing the dangers which come into life when humans translate syntax into meaning. Complete with links at the bottom about rigorous military analysis and Penn&Teller's exploding Swedish Lemon Angels."

Non-Newtonian Fluid writes "Hilary Rosen, CEO and el presidente of the RIAA, has a guest editorial over on ZDNet. Go tell 'em what you think in the talk back section!"

Non-Newtonian Fluid writes "Hilary Rosen, CEO and el presidente of the RIAA, has a guest editorial over on ZDNet. Go tell 'em what you think in the talk back section!"

Boone^ writes: "ZDNet is running an article on the future of Linux when used on Big Iron. Just a bit ago we read about running Linux on a large scale Alpha box, and SGI wants NUMA support in Linux so it can support their hardware configuration. The article talks about how memory algorithms used with 256GB machines would hamper performance on 386s with 8MB ram. So far Linus et al have been rejecting kernel patches that provide solutions for Big Iron scaling problems. How soon before a Big Iron company forks the kernel?"

judges1617 writes: "Microsoft is now testing a beta version of their MSN Explorer that sends e-mails to everyone in your Outlook Address, informing them that your e-mail address has changed and invites them to to try MSN. Even the people who use MSN are complaining, but M$ refuses to acknowledge it is doing anything wrong. Read the whole story here" The best part of this article is the MS reps argument about why this isn't spam "The e-mail you received was an invitation from MSN Explorer, sent on behalf of an existing user who changed their e-mail address and wants you to try MSN Explorer." I guess we can add "Spamming" as another "Business" where Microsoft can use its monopoly status to its advantage.

Several folks noted a blurb running over at ZD about Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's questionable position on Microsoft. Apparently his son is representing Microsoft in antitrust matters. Here's a longer story with a bit more information. Since they decided not to advance the case directly to the Supreme Court, this may have a significant effect on the case.

LennyDotCom points to this ZDNet story which should interest anyone with a hankering to build his own linux-based router, dedicated file server, MP3 jukebox, or whatever else you can fit in a 13" x 10" x 2.5" box pre-equipped with nearly everything but a hard drive. The author of this piece tells you how to get Linux booting on the optional disk-on-chip, too, so you can create one-off, totally silent machines. The price seems reasonable, too.

plashdoy writes: "Oh what a tangled Web we weave: ZDNN article on Typosquatting. Don't you hate it when stuff like this is more profitable than your honest efforts?" I have no problem with typo squatting as a whole, but there are a dozen Slashdot typo sites, one of which frames Slashdot with a 2nd banner ad. Now I don't care ... but this fools about 1 person every 2-3 days, and they flame me for selling out and doing something so horrible as framing Slashdot for extra ad space. So I guess typo sites that frame the site are pretty slimey, but as long as the typo site provides a link to the correct site, I'm totally cool with 'em.

cbull writes "ZDNet Music has an article that makes an argument that "Gnutella is Going Down in Flames". Basically, the argument is that Gnutella isn't as scalable as Napster."

cbull writes "ZDNet Music has an article that makes an argument that "Gnutella is Going Down in Flames". Basically, the argument is that Gnutella isn't as scalable as Napster."

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Trinition writes "Justin Frankel from Nullsoft, the creators of WinAmp, as gone and hacked away at his new Parent Company's popular AIM service. He's remove the ads. Read the ZDNet article for details." Apparently AOL yanked it from the firehose page, but it's on Zeropaid.Update: 09/22 02:40 AM by H :Thanks to a couple people who pointed out that it is still on firehose.

JWhitlock writes " ZDNet reports that Yggdrasil Computing has released a Linux DVD Archive. It's a DVD9-ROM with the FTP archives of Metalab.org and GNU.org. It's all freeware source, no binaries, 8.3GB compressed, over 23 GB uncompressed. It has no distributions on it, so you have to have Linux first. From the website: "...you must be running Linux kernel 2.2.14, 2.3.28 or later in order to access files located more than four gigabytes into the DVD. Aside from that, your standard CD-ROM and iso9660 ("isofs") filesystem support that you use for accessing CD's will be sufficient to access this DVD. " You can only get it direct from their website" Remember the old infomagic set? That thing blew me away thinking "A whole gig!", but thats nothing compared to this stuff.

Fervent writes: "Hoping to up-end Palm company's supremacy in the color department for Palm OS, Handspring plans to release a Palm device with support for 65,536 colors. " Also, they're gonna offer a version integrated with a cell phone.

Anonymous Coward writes: "Greg Knauss, a UNIX guy from way back and a contributor to Suck, TeeVee, creator of Metababy, etc., has written a piece for Macworld.com. He looked at the Unix underneath the new Mac OS X Public Beta and has generally positive things to say, with a few caveats." Among these shortcomings are the lack of the GNU tools, about which Knauss says "... [W]hile the arrival of the GNU tool set -- the mainstay of Unix development -- is inevitable, it's a shame that Apple didn't see fit to include it in the Mac OS X beta."

lythari writes "ZDNet is reporting that Apple's advertising agency is threatening several publications carrying Apple ads to stop printing Apple rumours or else Apple will stop advertising with them. " Hmmm...can you say "Bad Karma"?

underwhelm writes "According to ZDNet, Creative Labs is boycotting CeBit because the trade show has banned all MP3-related devices, presumably at the behest of the 'content industry.'"

Boone^ writes "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks that will allows users to update/retrieve information on their Palm PDAs via telephone when they don't have them with them. Eventually the entire Palm would be voice activated. "

Boone^ writes "ZDNet is reporting that they've licensed technology from SpeechWorks that will allows users to update/retrieve information on their Palm PDAs via telephone when they don't have them with them. Eventually the entire Palm would be voice activated. "

Ruddy writes: "ZDNet has screenshots and a preview of Mac OSX beta being released Wednesday at the Apple Expo in Paris, as well as a list of some apps and utils that will ship on the beta CD (apparently no download). Some of the leaking details are a very NeXt-ish file browser, No Airport support yet, only partial USB and only partial Firewire; Full Java 2, Full OpenGL, Full SMP; Choice of Aqua or Graphite eye candies; New Dock choices; installing on G3 & G4s only--requiring the OEM video cards (no Voodoos or 3DFX) and single monitor systems only; installs alongside OS9 with no major speed hits for Classic apps. The screenshots look fab and it all sounds pretty heady except for the connectivity shortage, but will it look and feel? And will it plug and ...play? Highlights from the rollout will be webcast here starting Wednesday."

Ruddy writes: "ZDNet has screenshots and a preview of Mac OSX beta being released Wednesday at the Apple Expo in Paris, as well as a list of some apps and utils that will ship on the beta CD (apparently no download). Some of the leaking details are a very NeXt-ish file browser, No Airport support yet, only partial USB and only partial Firewire; Full Java 2, Full OpenGL, Full SMP; Choice of Aqua or Graphite eye candies; New Dock choices; installing on G3 & G4s only--requiring the OEM video cards (no Voodoos or 3DFX) and single monitor systems only; installs alongside OS9 with no major speed hits for Classic apps. The screenshots look fab and it all sounds pretty heady except for the connectivity shortage, but will it look and feel? And will it plug and ...play? Highlights from the rollout will be webcast here starting Wednesday."

Ruddy writes: "ZDNet has screenshots and a preview of Mac OSX beta being released Wednesday at the Apple Expo in Paris, as well as a list of some apps and utils that will ship on the beta CD (apparently no download). Some of the leaking details are a very NeXt-ish file browser, No Airport support yet, only partial USB and only partial Firewire; Full Java 2, Full OpenGL, Full SMP; Choice of Aqua or Graphite eye candies; New Dock choices; installing on G3 & G4s only--requiring the OEM video cards (no Voodoos or 3DFX) and single monitor systems only; installs alongside OS9 with no major speed hits for Classic apps. The screenshots look fab and it all sounds pretty heady except for the connectivity shortage, but will it look and feel? And will it plug and ...play? Highlights from the rollout will be webcast here starting Wednesday."

Reality Master 101 writes "ZDNet has an arti cle about a new start-up claiming they have a new CMOS-based sensor for digital cameras that produces 16.8 million pixels -- and cheaper than CCD, too. If you're like me and you've been disappointed with the performance of digital cameras compared to film, this sounds exciting! The only question is whether the color and shadow sensitivity will be as good as film, which has also been a limitation of digital cameras."

Reality Master 101 writes "ZDNet has an arti cle about a new start-up claiming they have a new CMOS-based sensor for digital cameras that produces 16.8 million pixels -- and cheaper than CCD, too. If you're like me and you've been disappointed with the performance of digital cameras compared to film, this sounds exciting! The only question is whether the color and shadow sensitivity will be as good as film, which has also been a limitation of digital cameras."

q2k and many others sent it in, and the original Inter@ctive Week story has been republished all over the place. The deal is that the MPAA and other copyrithg holders want copy protection built into VCRs and other recording devices that will keep users from recordings some shows broadcast in digital format over cable. On the other side, the Home Recording Rights Coalition, made up of consumer electronics manufacturers, wants people to be able to tape shows for later viewing (or whatever). The FCC is accepting comments on this matter through Sept. 7, and may issue a ruling as early as Sept. 14.

BulletValentine writes "ZDNet is reporting that approximately 400 machines have been found to be running Trinity v3, a DDoS attack program. Supposedly Trinity can set up to eight different types of flood attacks. ZDNet referred readers to Internet Security Solutions for more information about the attack and precautions to take."

BulletValentine writes "ZDNet is reporting that approximately 400 machines have been found to be running Trinity v3, a DDoS attack program. Supposedly Trinity can set up to eight different types of flood attacks. ZDNet referred readers to Internet Security Solutions for more information about the attack and precautions to take."

suwalski writes "ZDNet is running a sneak-preview of the upcoming FreePad, as announced on Slashdot awhile ago. The FreePad is a wireless device that can be used as a wireless phone and as a web browser. The technology appears to be finished, and the FreePad looks like a toy that could be in your house pretty soon." Provided you live in scandanavia ;) Its a lengthy article with lots of good stuff: standards in open source, certification, wireless protocols in europe vs the US.

suwalski writes "ZDNet is running a sneak-preview of the upcoming FreePad, as announced on Slashdot awhile ago. The FreePad is a wireless device that can be used as a wireless phone and as a web browser. The technology appears to be finished, and the FreePad looks like a toy that could be in your house pretty soon." Provided you live in scandanavia ;) Its a lengthy article with lots of good stuff: standards in open source, certification, wireless protocols in europe vs the US.