Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes "I just saw a rather interesting article over at LANParty.com about breaking into the world of Dance Dance Revolution. The article has a humourous story about going from DDR mocker to DDR fanatic thanks to a seven-year-old kid. Also, it has reviews of some home DDR equipment for those too timid to play in public. The article is written from a beginner's perspective, and has some good resources for newbies! If you've ever thought of hopping up and 'busting a move', be sure to check it out."

pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.

Last week we noted that Senator Hollings had introduced a privacy bill and that there were likely to be more introduced. Now Salon has a piece critical of Hollings' bill. EPIC wrote about it as well, and they seem to think it's not too bad, all things considered. Read Hollings' bill yourself and decide who's right. Also of note is a bill introduced in the House that would require all Federal agencies to prepare privacy impact statements (the ACLU has a summary) akin to the environmental impact statements now required for actions adversely affecting the environment. Seems like a good idea to me.

Sabalon writes: "If you live almost anywhere in the U.S. then you have probably seen tons of the 'Make thousands working at home' signs tacked up almost everywhere. Cockeyed.com has an interesting story of one persons quest to uncover the source behind all this money just waiting to be made, the company behind it (or not behind it for legal reasons), and an oversaturated market." Spam, just another medium.

A reader writes: "Icrontic.com has a new article up called 'All You Need To know About IT Certifications.' It talks about several of the major Microsoft certifications, and of course, a few of the Linux certs, including Linux+ and RHCE. "

Little-Fat-Sheep writes: "Lots of talk on Slashdot and elsewhere lately about the future of Operating Systems being massively distributed. Well, the technology exists for years now in the two operating systems offered by Vita Nuova: Plan9 and Inferno. OSNews features today an interview with Vita Nuova's CEO, Michael Jeffrey."

eyefish asks: "Is Microsoft's Common Language Runtime CLR (document in PDF form) really a way for Microsoft to slowly stop depending on hardware vendors like Intel to drive the Windows platform, and in the long run as a way to build a hardware-independent Windows platform to fight Java? I'd like to ask the Slashdot community what their thoughts are on this matter. Is there something preventing the CLR from being truly platform independent, now or in the future? How does it compare to the Java Virtual Machine?"

"It seems to me that once the CLR has matured enough, there won't be a need for Microsoft to wait for others to innovate on the hardware front and start offering its own hardware (and charge whatever it wants for it) to go with future versions of Windows.Net. Worst still, 99.99% of the population will not be able to say no to this strategy since they'll have no choice but continue using the Windows monopoly in order to run their favorite apps."

Jamie comments: I don't think it's about hardware innovation, or beating Java. It's about absolute control.

The big money over the next decade will be in transforming the computer into an entertainment device. AOL Time-Warner sees a computer as a revenue producer, with the unfortunate ability to copy digital works. They and the other five media giants want to put a stop to it; Microsoft and Intel will find it very profitable to help them.

One good step along the way is to give the computer a common interpreted language to run everything. We're there already. And when developers have to code to a virtual machine, not the actual bare iron, then whoever writes the virtual machine holds all the cards. And since the authors of the virtual machine will make a lot of money by enforcing intellectual property rights, the arms races are all over: copy protection is absolute, DeCSS won't compile, unauthorized MP3s won't play.

Of course developers rarely write on the bare metal anyway: we write to APIs, we write scripts, we write code that doesn't (need to) run in the CPU's supervisor mode. We're used to surrendering the ultimate control over the machine to the operating system, or to be more precise, to the BIOS that decides how and which operating system to run.

If we surrender this control, though, we'll find ourselves with a monopoly operating system that makes it impossible freely to write code for. (And it's not hard to cut off Linux and every other rogue free OS at the knees. The day that every motherboard's BIOS uses strong crypto to demand the master boot record be signed with a secret key known only to Microsoft is the day that Linux becomes a thing of the past.)

Naturally, to prevent you from firing up GCC and doing a rogue compilation of DeCSS or Lame or other unauthorized code, the operating system will have to stop you from running anything that isn't written in its language for its virtual machine. Requiring code to be signed by a central authority will make its first appearance as virus-prevention but its real purpose too will be control. Universities will be able to buy special licensed exemptions, at least until corporations decide universities are hotbeds of piracy and theft. At which point your alma mater begins teaching Computer Science 101 (and 201, and 301, and 401) in C#.

My prediction is that, unless antitrust legislation in the U.S. gets some teeth between now and then, the PC will become a Gameboy within fifteen years. Enjoy computers while they last.

connect4 writes: "An article from the bulletin explaining a plan to erect a 1km high solar convection wind turbine in outback Victoria - the worlds tallest construction. Projected output per tower: 200MW. Cost to build: A$670m. Footprint of tower: 20sq km ."

WebWord writes "The title says it all. This really is the best damn guide to setting up a LAN party I have ever seen. They cover all the details from equipment to food to network protocols. Excellent!"

Milktoast writes "Joystick101.org has posted their interview with gaming legend Nolan Bushnell. The arcade guru who founded Atari, invented Pong, and started Chuck E. Cheese talks about the decline of the arcade, education, robotics, and gaming as a narrative. "

Laserfuzz writes: "Remember LaserMAME? Well this isn't new but Pangolin has a plug-in for 3D Studio MAX to convert 3D objects and scenes into laser outlines. Opens laser show programing to a larger group of people." I s'pose not everyone has that kind of hardware sitting around, but you sure could light up a party.

hwestiii writes: "Geek identification methods have waxed and waned over the years. Back in the years when it was still not cool to be a geek, they were identified by their pocket protectors and calculators hanging from their belts. And way back in the mists of time, before most of the Slashdot crowd were even an item on their parent's life-project-plan, they were identified by possession of ... slide rules. I'm clearly dating myself by submitting this, but I owned and used slide rules as a teen, just as microelectronics was making cheap calculators possible. Nando times has an interesting link to a community of people around the country trying to keep the memory and spirit of the slide rule alive. Some may be wistful, some may think 'What the hell...?' Take a look." A quick look at Google's image search yielded some cool photos of both slide rules and the classic HP-35 calculator -- I wonder where the HP-35 my dad used to use has gotten to. Does anyone still use slide rules on a regular basis?

ilsa writes "And so it turns out that members of the Slashdot community weren't the only folks bothered by Bess collecting and selling information. Rejoice Oh Protesting Students, and read this story. Bess will still filter the 'net in school (albeit badly from all accounts), but the company will no longer sell information about what sites you visit. The decision was billed as a "mutual agreement."" See also the FOIA request filed by EPIC for information about the DOD's involvement with N2H2. Here's our previous story on the subject.

Bottomquark writes "Tonight NASA scientist Charley Kohlhase, who has led trip-planning efforts for NASA missions to most of the planets in the solar system, will give a live webcast presentation called 'From Ellipses to Gravity Assists'. He'll explain how to choose the best routes for getting to destinations such as Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and describe how spacecraft can use the gravity of one planet to gain a "slingshot" boost toward a more distant destination. The 90 minute presentation takes place February 13, 2001 4:30-6:00 PM (PST) (24:30 GMT - 02:00 GMT), and will be broacast through LiveOntheNet.com (free registration required)."

LWN has an interview with Jason Haas where he talks about LinuxPPC and going non-profit. He raises some good points and says some interesting things. Good luck to ya Jason! Someday I shall acquire a titanium powerbook, I shall bask in the glory of your toil. I hope LinuxPPC stays around for a long time.

A reader wrote to us with the news that Linuxworld is currently running an interview with Dennis Ritchie, Unix guy, C author, and Plan 9 ^[?] proponent.

mirko writes "After some time with almost no news about it, Doctor Dobb's journal finally choosed to break the silence and to deliver quite a comprehensive article (also available here) about the forthcoming Debian Hurd ^[?] operating system."

jmallett asks: "I was wondering about setting up local meets of Slashdot readers... I think it would be a good way to meet active people in the technical field, talk over recent news, and discuss what is going on in our fields. Is there interest in this?" Not a bad idea and it could be fun. If any of you are interested in organizing or attending meets of Slashdot readers in your area, drop your e-mail address and your location in the comments and let's see if we can get a few of these organized!

TOTKChief writes "Aviation Now is reporting that NASA will use the Structural Test Article for the new Propulsion Module design for the International Space Station. NASA Watch is carrying a good rendering of the concept as well as a rendering of what the Prop Module would look like attached to ISS. FWIW, this is called the "Mickey Option" because of the resemblance to Mickey Mouse. Only the Feds would choose the Mickey Mouse route, right?"

Spiral Man writes: "There has been a lot of talk lately about Linux on handheld and embeded device. One interest of particular interest to me is in-dash computers for cars. Probably the most important app for one of these (aside from the CD player) would be a navigation and trip planing package such as DeLorme's Street Atlas, and Microsoft's Streets USA. My question is: Are there any apps, or even plans to write apps like this for Linux. Preferably these would use a commercial, or at least well updated, street database, and would have to be able to track you current location with a GPS." Especially considering the coming flood of GNU/Linux-based handhelds and dashboard computers, this question will be one of the toughies for folks who want to use Free software wherever possible, but who also want the capabilities in applications like Streets USA. Are there any competitors out there in the Free world?