Slashdot Mirror

JoeD writes "This story on Yahoo lists the 50 most net-connected cities in the US. San Francisco is #1. Austin, TX is #2. Interesting reading. "

ibbey writes "According to a study released today, breaking up MS will cost consumers $30 Billion dollars due to development, marketing and support costs required for third parties to adapt their software to "new Windows descendants," and by fracturing the market resulting in higher retail costs."

theGEEK writes "An internet 'watchdog' discovered that Deja News is actually logging their users e-mail traffic." Is this related to the recent thing about them tracking every click through redirector scripts? Personally I'm not threatened, but I'm not a privacy nut either. What do you think?

Megaweapon writes "As a MediaOne customer (who is without cable modem access), this scares the scat out of me. First Comcast, then AT&T, now these two. " I hate MediaOne. I'm moving (all next week, so be gentle on the email!) and the 23 best things about moving are 1. No rats 2. No leaky ceiling 3. No more MediaOne- I'll actually be able to get a few channels I want. Oh well, watch the amazing expanding empire.

Things have been a bit crazy: server troubles, spent some quality time in the ER after the gf got in accident (she's fine), and unusually stressful 'biz stuff (note:in utopia everyone pays their bills ontime instead of leaving us with a nearly empty checking account, a massive looming bandwidth bill, and all these unpaid invoices? I seem to be balding at an accelerated rate :) As for the images on port 81 of flotsam, I'm sorry about that- those of you behind firewalls will be glad to know that the new server will be in soon and hopefully the dust can settle. Allright, some quickies already: Toddius Maximus wrote in to tell us that Performance Computing has started a bi-monthly Linux Section Anthony Fuentes sent us an Interview with John Carmack webslacker sent us a nice little article on Pixar if you're curious what Steve Jobs' other company is up to. Wouldn't be quickies without Star Wars: James McP sent us linkage to a wired story about a Star Wars fan site featuring toy based mini movies, webslacker noted the new 12" Star Wars figures, and Dave Lowe sent us Star Wars Parody Music More cool movie stuff: patowic noted that Bruce Cambell (of Army of Darkness/Evil Dead fame) has his own web page, which features a sound bite archive And some Slashdot media sightings: Duke of URL noted that the recent Katz/Littleton stories got a mention on Suck. RKemp noted that The Economist noticed too. nene noted that an article about Slashdot appeared in Der Standard (although, with a name like that, its no surprise that it ain't English :)

Two separate batches of Microsoft legal information have been released. The first, which was sent in by tbird, is about Caldera releasing a "statement of facts" relating to the MS/Caldera trial.
The second, from Thaddeus, is about ZDNet having information released about the "other" big MS trial (MS vs. DOJ) - you can read it here. I'll refrain from comment since IANAL :)

Richard Finney sent us a Lengthy article on Red Hat. It's called 'Inside Red hat's Bunker'. There's a trip to their offices, articles about growth and interviews with Bob Young. Pretty impressive.

Erbo writes "No, that's not a misprint--Hewlett-Packard is now giving its most powerful hardware away. But there's a catch, of course...they'll be wanting "a piece of the action" in return. Could this be the next step after the "free PC" business model? Will it carry HP by leaps and bounds into the 21st century? ZDnet has the details. "

Richard Finney writes ""JPEG 2000 might be the graphics file format that even dazzles the pros": at a ZD article entitled JPEG 2000 to give the Web a new image. JPEG 2K will have multiple channels, metadata, variable decompression levels and progressive decompression. "

jht writes "According to this article in MacWeek, a judge has dropped the proverbial 10-ton weight on Connectix' head, freezing all shipments of Virtual GameStation. Hopefully the next judge in this series of appeals will understand the nature of emulation and reverse the decision. If it stands, it doesn't look good for Bleem, either. " Connectix has indicated that they are continuing on with development, as well as supporting and upgrading older versions of the boxes.

i0n wrote in to send us a Chicago Tribune article about Linus and Bill at Comdex. Has anyone rummaged up transcripts of either speech? I've seen several articles on each, but no transcripts. Update: 04/20 02:07 by CT : Knish sent us a PC Week Story on the keynotes. Update: 04/20 03:17 by CT : Ign0rance sent us Bill's Speech. Update: 04/20 03:34 by CT : BitMan sent us an MSNBC article.

webslacker writes "According to Macintouch, several Apple sources are denying that Quicktime will actually be opensourced. It could just end up being a simple confusion of Quicktime viewers and Quicktime server, seeing as how news.com made it sound as if all of Quicktime is going to be opensource. " Here is Yesterday's Story on the subject. Update: 04/19 06:17 by H :Apple has said, however, that the newly unveiled QuickTime Streaming Server will be included under the Apple Public Source License.

NullPointer wrote in to tell us that ZDTV is will broadcast Linus' speech today. 4:15 to 5:15 Eastern, broadcast live from the keynote address at the Linux Global Summit in conjunction with Comdex.

gmezero writes "Well, well, well, it looks like we might finally start seeing an end to the craptacular websites that can only be viewed with "Web Browser v9.5 beta 3". Acording to an article on ZDNet, the Fed will begin forcing all federal sites and those of companies doing business with the government to be handicapped friendly. Gee maybe now we can finally seperate the "real" HTML coders from the (insert ANY page builder tool name here) loosers! " Interesting idea-it seems heavy-handed, but the article itself does a good job of explaining why this would be a good thing.

James Renken writes "Ziff-Davis has announced the "Open Source Forum", a two-day "IT executive conference focused on Linux and other emerging open source software and the implications of this new software on 'mainstream' business applications development and the enterprise s oftware industry." The event will be in Palmer Auditorium in Austin, Texas, on June 30th and July 1st."

SFraser sent us a link to a pretty decent critique of Mindcraft's benchmark which claimed NT was faster. Monday's story about the tests here on Slashdot about the report was one of the most active Slashdot stories ever.

Keith Russell writes "Caught this on ZDNet. RealNetworks is buying the Xing Corp. for ~$75M in stock. Looks like Real and IBM are gearing up for a fight with Microsoft over digital audio. " True-combine this with the IBM partnership and Microsoft's announcements about digital vidoe-things are about to get messy.

ToasT writes "ICANN is set to name five new domain registrars -- Sprint and AOL are rumored to be in the running. Experts agree that domain names will be less than $15, but more than $2 according to this article on ZDNet. "

jgalun sent us a ZDNet article about Linux Hackers going from the underground to Linux Day Jobs. They talk about VA Research, SGI, LinuxCare and assorted other companies that many of us lust for employment at. They don't mention BSI though *grin*.

DaBuzz sent us a fascinating little article where you can read that Microsoft is exempt from trademark law. Talks about Open Source having a variety of meanings, and how MSs definition differs from Linux.

Enucite writes "ZDNet has an article entitled "Gore's 'open source' blasphemy". It talks about the Gore 2000 website, then goes on to talk about the response on Slashdot" I wish articles referring to Slashdot comments would link the comment so that their readers could read the whole thread and not just the 2 sentances the story writer felt like sharing. And I wish they could figure out who "Anonymous Coward" really is. Ah well, nice to see we made some waves, but the offending passage still apears on the web site.

Ant sent us an amusing little story that guesstimates how many people will skip work to watch Star Wars this May. I'll be at LinuxExpo. If we don't have some sort of organized Star-Wars-Event at the Expo, I'll probably simply combust.

SEWilco writes "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists described Tuesday producing fusion with a mere million-dollar machine. It was described at this APS Centennial session. Bursts of neutrons are detected, the hallmark of fusion that `cold fusion' was missing" Update: 03/27 02:27 by S : In somewhat related news, muggs wrote in about a new laser-based method for watching atoms bond. It relies on using X-ray diffraction patterns to locate the moving atoms.

ZDNN reports that Larry Ellison doesn't want to pay the $1 million bet when he challange MS last comdex regarding Oracle 8 (each company accused the other of misrepresentations), and if you're looking for a job, then Apple is looking for Linux Technology Manager (Credit goes to Linux Today)

Non-Newtonian Fluid writes "There's an article over at ZDNN that claims RMS is "immature politically" and "insists on a reward for [himself]" for claiming Linux should be called GNU/Linux. Furthermore, in a lengthy talkback article, Slashdot and the Linux community as a whole are accused of the same arrogance. Perhaps this merits a discussion of the way our community deals with outsiders.... " Now, before everyone turns on the flamethrowers, let's think about the matter-is this true? The problem with most of these situations is that they do have some inherent truth to them. The question, of course, is how much?

Non-Newtonian Fluid writes "There's an article over at ZDNN that claims RMS is "immature politically" and "insists on a reward for [himself]" for claiming Linux should be called GNU/Linux. Furthermore, in a lengthy talkback article, Slashdot and the Linux community as a whole are accused of the same arrogance. Perhaps this merits a discussion of the way our community deals with outsiders.... " Now, before everyone turns on the flamethrowers, let's think about the matter-is this true? The problem with most of these situations is that they do have some inherent truth to them. The question, of course, is how much?

Non-Newtonian Fluid writes "There's an article over at ZDNN that claims RMS is "immature politically" and "insists on a reward for [himself]" for claiming Linux should be called GNU/Linux. Furthermore, in a lengthy talkback article, Slashdot and the Linux community as a whole are accused of the same arrogance. Perhaps this merits a discussion of the way our community deals with outsiders.... " Now, before everyone turns on the flamethrowers, let's think about the matter-is this true? The problem with most of these situations is that they do have some inherent truth to them. The question, of course, is how much?

Jerky McNaughty writes "The ZDNet review of Gates' new book is pretty harsh. Noteable quotes: "he can't write worth a lick" and "Faced with the prospect of rereading this book, I would rather have my brains ripped out by a plastic fork." Ouch. " Well, combine that with the asking price and you've got a winner, ladies and gentlemen. Update: 03/24 11:13 by H : Yeah, yeah, the price is for a 24 pack of books. But it's funny, anyway.

Patrick Dunn writes "On ZDNET's Smart Reseller they have a story about Red Hat maybe being a mini-Microsoft by it's business practices." I'd guess that the 2 most common conspiracy theories that pop into my mail box are 1. MS-Linux and 2. Red Hat becoming the next MS. What do you think?

joshmathis writes "ZDNET is reporting that a US federal judge has ruled that Network Solutions, Inc. has antitrust protection for their monopoly on domain name registration. It may be short-lived, though. "

Roast Beef hooked us up to a ZDNet article that proclaims that Kevin Mitnick will Plead Guilty to computer-related crimes. After four years in prison waiting for a trial, he might be out by the end of the year.

Alejo sent us a link to a zdnet article about Intel going after overclockers. Not kids in the basement, but commercial vendors selling systems with overclocked chips sold to unknowing customers. But they've got software now to detect if you're overclocking. Neato.

An anonymous reader sent us linkage to a fairly lengthy ZD Net story on Amiga and its "Comeback" (if you're keeping count, this is approximately the 293 thousanth time someone has suggested an Amiga comeback). They talk about Amiga 'net appliances and low cost Amiga PCs.

bob_jones writes "Zdnet is reporting that in an interview with Mark Cuban President of brodcast.com that MP3 is doomed because no one has an economic interest to keep it alive. He also compares it to disco. " Mark has an interesting point, but I think he basically misses the point-economic interest isn't everything. He thinks Real Networks or MS will absorb MP3. Odd.

MindStalker sent us linkage to an article from an upcoming PC Magazine that covers Linux in a Major Way. Distribution comparisons, an installation guide, and tips.

emag writes "ZDNet is reporting that it's likely Congress will allow state & local governments to tax e-commerce, just like buying from a storefront. "

An anonymous reader wrote in to say "ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft is going to announce next week that it is splitting into four separate groups. Maybe we'll see Office for Linux after all..."

webslacker was the first to write in a ZD-Net article that claims that Microsoft might be porting Office to Linux. This is not as outlandish as it might at first appear since a Java port of Office was underway at one point. On the one-hand the availability of Office might increase the use of Linux in businesses -- like its availability on Macs did for Macs. On the other hand, it might reduce long-term quality if smaller vendors are squeezed out of the market. What do you think?

Mac_Daddy writes "Stan Gibson with PC Week Online magazine gives a short editorial about the many flavors of *nix. It talks mostly about SCO OpenServer, and also mentions NT. "

Kodi writes "According to an article on ZDNN, Privacy International is accepting nominations for its Big Brother Awards, designed to recognize the US companies that have done the most to invade our privacy. " I can think of (intel) a few companies that (intel) could conceivably (intel) be nominated. Gimme a minute to think about it.

Kodi writes "According to an article on ZDNN, Privacy International is accepting nominations for its Big Brother Awards, designed to recognize the US companies that have done the most to invade our privacy. " I can think of (intel) a few companies that (intel) could conceivably (intel) be nominated. Gimme a minute to think about it.

Microsoft's Ed Muth (him again) is claiming that Linux offers little value since it has fewer off-the-shelf apps, and no long term development road map. Moreover it suffers from a lack of integration between the OS and the apps, which is needed so that users can drag barcharts between Excel and Word. (Heard of Corba? No I guess not). Indeed Ed claims Linux usage figures are inflated. Finally, it must be obvious that good programmers won't code for free so they can't be good -- just like Van Gogh could not have been a good artist. If nothing else, Ed's good at rhetoric -- "Let's say, for discussion, they are equally scalable" implies nicely that NT is obviously more scalable. But his outburst is somewhat odd given that Microsoft's trial is not over, and the SIIA is recomending it be broken up. Thanks Alex Prestin for this link.

C|Net Radio is at Linuxworld Expo, and they have now the keynotes in Real Audio. First is Dr. Michael Cowpland, President & CEO, Corel Corporation, who talks about Wine and Quattro, Word Perfect, and the Second is Mark Jarvis, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Oracle, who speaks about Oracle 8i and Linux. The third Real Audio clip will be Linus speaking about Linux on past, present and future and it will be at 6:30 PM (clip will be posted a bit later, and information can be found here. I hope ZDNet will have clips with higher sound quality (and maybe Video), but currently they don't have anything yet (you can check it here for updates). Enjoy. Update: 03/03 12:08 by CT : Linus also broke the keynote attendance record- it was Steve Jobs with 6,000. Linus had 7,000.

abcess writes "Here's a link to the story. link It seems to me like they're starting to try the same stuff they did when other OSes started challenging MS, saying good stuff about them, but then saying, 'but they really have no chance'. "

Mark Lipson wrote in to tell us that Michael Cowpland of Corel will give a speech about Commercial Software and Hardware in the Open Source Marketplace and a demo of the Quattro Pro spreadsheet running under Linux, at LinuxWorld on March 2, 9:30-10:15 AM. The speech will be webcast on Wednesday. In related news, Eugene Lacey wrote in with an article claiming that IBM is dissing Corel's Wine plans.

ZDNN has published an article titled: "Major Unix flaw emerges". It talks about "a new denial-of-service attack". They also running news special about Linux world (cute logo) and a poll: will MS squash Linux (guess the results..)

ZDNN has published an article titled: "Major Unix flaw emerges". It talks about "a new denial-of-service attack". They also running news special about Linux world (cute logo) and a poll: will MS squash Linux (guess the results..)

Ransom Love from Caldera has published a positional paper about Linux Standard Base and what he thinks about if the Linux community won't adopt it. I think it's a "must read" (thanks to Linux Weekly News). Update: 03/01 03:23 by S : Seems like that LSB needs a boost: now Intel is talking of setting up a new initiative... (see half way down the page)

theGEEK wrote in to send us a link to a story where you can read that in January, AMD accounted for 43.9% of unit sales, to Intel's 40.3%. For the first time, Intel is #2. Update: 02/26 12:44 by H :It should be noted that this is only *retail*, and does not include corporate. Still, I bet things are happy at AMD today.

In an update to Rob's report, ZD-Net is reporting that Sun will Community License Solaris. Basically you can get the source at zero-cost, but you must return bug fixes to Sun, you must pass Sun's compatability tests, and pay Sun if you ship binaries commercially.