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SGI just announced a Linux porting effort for IRIS Performer. Performer is an OpenGL-based scene graph library optimized for visual simulation; it's used in areas like military and commercial flight simulation, as well as the rides at DisneyQuest. Release is expected before the end of 1999. Performer is designed to drive the fastest graphics hardware and run the most demanding graphics apps in existence, so this is very good news.

We've been working on this for awhile and we're excited to announce that the premiere broadcast of Slashdot Radio: Geeks in Space is officially online. We plan to do this weekly at first and pick up steam depending on demand. Essentially, hemos, nate & I sit in a bedroom at the Geek Compound and babble about whatever we think is interesting on Slashdot. Its available in Real Audio or as an MP3. Thanks to The Sync for setting us up with this. The link below has a few comments about what we're planning on doing.

• We can't currently do real time. We're getting a faster connection run to the Geek Compound (Rock on Andover ;) and then we might consider it.
• We can do call-ins, and will probably do it soon
• Too long? Too short? We don't have any real limits here, so my guess is that in the future we'll talk until we run out of things to say. I'd rather do daily 5 minute broadcasts than a weekly half hour tho- I think the rapid nature of Slashdot lends itself more towards short bits anyway.
• We didn't simply want to read Slashdot, so we go off a bit on tangents. We think it's fun, we hope you do too.
• So anyway, you can email us with questions, comments, and suggestions, we're open to constructive criticisms. And we promise next week will suck less.

Borland is currently running a poll to test the demand from the Linux community for porting their development tools. What with the Code Warrior folks, and all the IDEs coming around, it's a good signal of interest in the community. As well, Inprise is looking to hire a Seniuor R&D Engineer (for porting Delphi), as well as a Linux Developer Relations Mgr.

Zarn writes "In Tuesday's Slate edition Andrew Shuman, in his article The Love Bloat, argues that the problem with bloated software is that it isn't bloated enough and that we, the customers, are the ones demanding bloat! " Heh. I'm wiping a tear off of my check from laughing so hard - Jonathan Swift, here we come.

EvilNight asks: "How do you get an IDE CD-ROM changer to work with Linux? I know the kernel has support for these devices but I have tried to use them in the past and have had no luck (with the NEC 6x4). I am planning a fileserver which needs to have the ability to serve up 20 CD-ROM discs and I really want to use Linux for it. SCSI changers are easy to set up (increment LUNs). The cost of SCSI changers is a bit high though (about $190). The IDE changers are very cheap ($85). I was looking at the Nakamichi 16x5 IDE changer. Has anyone had any luck getting it to work under Linux? Will the discs switch on demand or do you need to switch them by running a command? How does it handle an access conflict such as trying to read discs 2 and 5 at the same time? I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give me."

We break the week barrier, and tons of people email to gloat that they've seen screenings. The rest of us will have to settle for massive media hype including mantid's note from harper's that proclaims that Reagan's Star Wars project costed $4.166 billion, but Star Wars merchandise costed $4.5 billion. mattdm noted that Moviefone blew up under the ticket demand yesterday. ZD-Net has a report. DH1 sent us a really top notch interview at Salon with Empire Director Irvin Kershner- kinda nice to read something cool about the original movies after all this gas over the new one. Lastly Jethro73 sent us a George Lucas's take on piracy of Star Wars. Basically, he will be very angry and fight very hard (big surprise) against pirates. Update: 05/14 01:59 by CT : My ticket plans haven't happened, so if anyone has bright ideas on getting tickets for the Slashdot crew while we're at LinuxExpo, lemme know...

Ant wrote in to sent us a Wired story about engineers forsale on ebay. The summary is that 16 guys are willing to quit their jobs at a major valley ISP and work for you. And the bidding starts at over $3 million. It looks interesting, and with techies in demand these days, it might work, although I don't think thats how I would try to get a job (well, maybe if you guys started bidding like crazy *grin*)

TreeRat writes "Here is a CNN article covering the possible career prospects for IT professionals knowing Unix vs. Linux. It concludes (surprise surprise) that most Linux professionsals are using other forms of Unix at work as their primary OS, but that demand for Linux people should be much higher in the future. "

The Dodger sent us a link to a story at Silicon.com that tells us that 3com will bow to user demands, and officially begin supporting linux (requires free login to read) after surveying delagates at a 3com User Group Conference and learning that over 50% of them were planning to use Linux.

The German branch of Microsoft has demanded that our collegues at the German Linux Web site remove their slogan "Where do you want to go tomorrow?". They have complied by blacking out their slogan, but Microsoft's legal position appears tenuous: A search on Altavista for that phrase produced over 400 hits, and ... this trademark is pending for Cybernet Systems Corporation of Michigan anyway..

TroyD sent us a link to a WSJ Article on Linux that Says Linux is Good, but that it lags behind its rivals. Troy also sent a choice quote from the article: "...Linux currently lacks some of the features demanded by corporations. [...] Among them are the ability to run simultaneously on many processors in a single computer and to keep a log of what the computer has done." Cool. I can save a lot of diskspace: rm -rf /var/log.

jocknerd writes "The RIAA is reporting that MP3 is the reason for declining CD sales. " God I hope so. Do you guys realize how convenient it is to have all audio on demand? I've ripped all my CDs- its just so wonderful. Why won't the music industry give me that? I don't think the music industry is totally doomed- it just needs to change. The radio industry has more to fear. Why would I listen to WXYZ when I can select my own music mix for the the same cost as cable? Thats where I hope this ends.

Blank Space wrote in stating "Someone claiming to be representing a corporation has demanded that Segfault and UserFriendly remove parodies using its trademarked name from their sites." Anyone know which corporation? In other nonsense today, Niels Provos writes "Theo de Raadt, OpenBSD Project leader, is being threatened with legal action if he does not turn over his domain theos.com to the Theos Software Corporation (the proud makers of a new 32-bit OS that can support more than 200 users at the same time!). The said company only needed about three years to find out about it and are so gracious to offer $35 as compensation, so that he can register another domain." Theo de Raadt provides contact information on his website.

At the end of this interview with Michael Dell: Where is [alternative operating system] Linux going? A: I've been surprised. We had a commercial customer order 250 machines with Linux on them to run a retail network of stores. There is growing demand there. We're going to start selling Linux to single-party users very soon. Q: It's going to be on the menu? A: Yes. You'll go to Dell, pull down "operating system," and click "Linux."

Xmas writes "Early breaking news? British officials report the seizing of a "military" satellite and a subsequent demand for money. At least the British government can admit to being cracked... and blackmailed...even if it took them two weeks to release the story. " The news story has no comment from the British Ministry of Defense, while Police refused to comment because of the sensitivty at this stage of the game. What is known is that the Brits have 4 such satellites, and the crackers reportedly "altered its course". I'll be watching to see if anything more develops with this-like more then an anonymous cow...er-source is cited.

Mondays Linux-organized demonstrations demanding refunds for pre-installed Windows operating systems drew a small number of people. And none of them got refunds. But the protests got enormous media coverage all over the country and has a lot of symbolism. Why? Because the marchers touched a much deeper chord than the few bucks they were seeking. The Penguin is about to become much more famous.

The pictures on TV and in the papers were on the shocking side, evoking an old, not a new culture or political ethic.

Small, chanting bands of nerdy looking people parading outside of Microsoft offices in different parts of the company were photographed on TV and in papers waving Linux Penguin banners around and demanding refunds for Microsoft's Windows OS that had been pre-installed on their computers.

There were very few demonstrators, and none were known to have gotten refunds. But there was the definite sense that something dramatic had happened, that some corner had been turned.

"It's not a lot of money," one protestor, wearing a faded Atari T-shirt and black Keds sneakers to the Manhattan demonstration told The New York Times, "it's just the idea that you're forced to buy Windows when there are better alternatives out there."

According to the Times, more than "100 self-proclaimed computer geeks" showed up at MS sales offices in several cities to make noise about their wish to reject Windows. The demos were organized by Linux advocates.

The Linux movement is definitely gaining steam and making noise. This week, Business Week wrote that Linux might turn out to be Microsoft's "Vietnam," and raised the spectre of a "guerrilla army" of OSS advocates giving the behemoth fits.

Almost the very next day, the demonstrators popped up outside of Microsoft offices in California, New York, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan, to ask for their money back for operating systems they don't want or need.

Whoever organized the protests understands modern journalism well. The protests were widely covered in newspapers and on TV.

Linux has grown by nearly 40 per cent a year over the past few years, and its users number more than seven million worldwide. This rapid growth has been largely ignored by media, which favors stories that burn, scream or explode.

So if you can get 100 protestors to picket some offices and yell for the TV cameras, then - miraculously -- Linux is on the way to becoming a household word.

The OSS and free software movements are among the most political technological movements in media. The collective manufacture, improvement and free distribution of information software is a radical departure from the recent sorry history of media, which has been gobbled up and homogenized by giant, soulless corporations that hate free speech and love only power, money and market share.

The Internet is becoming a battleground for what is clearly a growing political struggle between companies like Microsoft and the millions of individuals who have grown up in the freeest information culture in history.

Linux, OSS and the free software movements are quickly becoming the symbol of political opposition to the looming corporatization of the Net, under siege from some of the wealthiest companies on the planet, from Disney to Microsoft.

Monday's demonstrations were ironic in that they invoked the 60's much more than the Millenium. Chanting and placard waving are traditional symbols of old, not new, politics. But they obviously still work.

"I'm interested in the whole idea of not having any one company control the operating system market," Peter Lehrer, a 39-year-old accountant who drove into Manhattan from New Jersey to join in the demonstrations yesterday. "I just wanted to see what this was all about."

Lehrer's curiousity and enterprise are more significant than even he imagined. Essayist John Ralston Saul wrote in "The Unconscious Civilization" that the epic political battle of the 21st century will be between dehumanizing corporatization and individuals.

Finding some equilibrium in this struggle, Saul wrote, is dependent not just on criticizing, but on the individual's willingness to be a non-conformist in the public place: precisely what the Penguin stands for.

To take on the corporatization of culture, from Wal-Mart to Microsoft, the individual will need common sense, creativity, ethics, intuition, memory and reason. These can be exploited individually, says Saul. "Or they can be applied together, in some sort of equilibrium, as the filters of public action."

However tiny the demonstrations were, that's precisely what happened at a handful of Microsoft offices on Monday, exactly what Peter Lehrer was doing when he took the trouble to drive into New York City.

In our time, corporatization represents greed, exploitation, lack of knowledge and choice and loss of freedom. Movements like open source and free software signify the opposite. They are about generousity and openness. They require knowledge, offer choice, and guarantee freedom. That's why a tiny handful of demonstrators made such a big noise.

Mail-to: jonkatz@slashdot.org

Tramm Hudson writes "In this Reuters article, Diamond Multimedia states that they are making 10,000 units a week and are still behind demand. Otherwise a fairly standard news report -- "Users love MP3, industry hates it". " I've found that they skip terribly at 128kbits, but less then that and they are tolerable. The first portable mp3 player than can store 5+ hours of music at 128kbits and not skip will do well. Until then, the Rio is a beta test for the real revolution. When the real deal is here though, the Rio will have made sure that we have lots of MP3s to choose from.

Charles Bronson sent us a link to a ZDNet story with an Update to the story we posted yesterday about Sighsound.com claiming a patent on the sale of downloadable music, and demanding a 1% royalty from mp3.com. Apparently Goodnoise is actually complying!

Neuroprophet writes "It appears a company named SIGHTSOUND.COM is claiming to have patents on the selling of audio content over the internet as downloadable files. This letter was sent to MP3.com telling them they need to pay a 1% royalty or stop selling downloadable music." Look people- you can't patent selling a download just because it's a new data type. The letter claims that they have a patent on downloadable video as well. People have been selling downloadable data online for years.Just because its sound and not sight doesn't make it different. It's all just 1's and 0's! I'll be ecstatic when this joke is thrown out.

turnerjh writes "Another hardware manufacturer has joined the ranks of Hewlett-Packard, SGI, VA Research, and Compaq. Dell Computers has announced they will begin bundling Linux soon. Is Microsoft finally losing their strangle hold on the hardware industry? This is a step up from Dell just passively installing Linux on demand. It seems they will be actively pursuing our favorite OSS OS." Be careful with this one-Dell hasn't actually said they will be shipping with it-just expetected to announce it. But, this is a step-up (if true), and it sounds like it won't just be on servers, but work-stations as well. Additionally, Tom Jenkins wrote to tell us that Hewlett-Packard has announced they will be selling some of their server line with Linux pre-install/bundle as well. Let's keep making inroads, folks-this Dell thing has been in the air for a while, but a commitment is always a good thing to see.