[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (11/7/2000)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Tue, 7 Nov 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
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Is The PS2 Your Next DVD Player?
A articles article from the "its-not-all-roses" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1338250
Si V reader writes "In the Sony PlayStation2 as a
DVD Player, SE tells how to get a DVD system when
you buy a PS2. They think that the DVD
functionality of the PS2 is the one brilliant move
Sony made in this otherwise unimpressive launch.
In Japan I heard that most of the purchases were
because people wanted a cheap full featured DVD."
The article discusses the elitism in every
industry (but specifically in home audio) and
talks about the practical problems (controlling
your DVD player with a remote on a wire?) to
video/audio quality compared with a more expensive
DVD player.
--------------------
Greenspun on Managing Software Engineers
A articles article from the "crack-the-whip" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1448235
Cryofan writes "Very interesting story on
managing programmers. Lays bare the dynamics
behind what is happening to the software
industry." I think Greenspun has it right about
the distribution of talent in software
engineering, but I'm not sure I agree with his
concept that it is necessary to work 70-hour weeks
(though for unreasonably long hours, they do pay
unreasonably large salaries).
--------------------
IDSA Goes After Abandonware
A articles article from the "information-wants-to-be-free" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1559240
unicron writes "IDSA is trying to shutdown Home
of the Underdogs, the biggest and oldest
Abandonware site 'round. I personally run an
Abandonware site and I'd like to see how this will
end. People, talk to and its members with messages
that they should pick on 0-day warez sites, not on
Abandonware sites! Long live classic gaming!"
--------------------
Do Techies Care For Daycare?
A askslashdot article from the "keep-the-rugrats-out-of-the-server-room-please" department
sent by Cliff
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/02/2325227
DeICQLady writes "After browsing this, I
remembered numerous days on my co-op when my
mentor and other engineers had to come up with
ways to entertain their children (when they had to
be out of school, snowstorm, et al.) and had to do
this instead of concentrating on work. I have not
heard of many companies wanting to do anything
about it. Is it that techies don't want (need?)
it? Would it be to our advantage if companies were
concerned about providing this for us? Why or why
not?" The majority of "techies" are still young,
male and single so daycare really isn't a factor
for them until they are well into their careers.
However, this majority is quickly dwindling and it
may due to think about other 'perks' that the
workplace can offer other than free cell phones
and Internet access. What do you all think?
--------------------
Election-Day's Effect on the Net
A articles article from the "zillions-of-clicks-per-second" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1645259
eastMike writes "ABC News has an article that
tells of how "a good chunk of the Internet crashed
? spectacularly" during the election in 1996. I
wouldn't have thought this would be much of a
concern, but if it had that much of an effect in
'96, then who knows. The internet has come a long
way since then, but there are also a lot more
people using it now." Sort of like the old
Victoria's Secret/Super Bowl problem, over the
whole net. I doubt we'll see much this year, but
it still will be interesting.
--------------------
Technology Issues by Candidate
A articles article from the "coming-to-the-deadline" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1939209
An anonymous reader sent in a good story listing
the tech issues and breaking them down by
candidate. Of course to me, the best part is the
huge percentage of questions where yes/no wasn't
good enough and a little asterick denotes "but" so
you really don't know what half the candidates
think of half the issues anyway. Regardless,
tomorrow is the day. No matter what you believe,
get out and vote tomorrow.
--------------------
Indrema Developer's Network Site Comes Up
A articles article from the "all-in-your-hand" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/2035236
Sam "Criswell" Hart writes "Just checked out the
Indrema Developer's Network website and saw they
have a lot of new content. You can now get the
IESDK here (which is of course a bunch of things
already available like OpenAL and Mesa3D, and
includes the Linux kernel 2.4-pre10). You can
check out what's "Under The Hood" of the L600
(which is really just information that's been
available for a little while now). While it does
look very kewl, and I am stoked to try my hand at
coding for the thing, I am wondering why the IESDK
doesn't include any 2D graphic libraries (such as
SDL)... since not all games are 3D ;)"
--------------------
The Politics Guillotine Descends
A articles article from the "chop-chop-now-kids-chop-chop" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/04/1859201
A final pre-election assemblage of political news
for voters, conscientious objectors, felons,
minors, and non-U.S. citizens. Philom points to an
interesting analysis of NaderTrading by UCB grad
student
<HREF="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~aaronson/">Scott
Aaronson. Cheshyre sent in an interesting tidbit
that may affect the odds of George Bush sneaking
north for some subsidized health care. Of course,
if that's embarrassing, so is trading cigarettes
for Gore Votes, as pointed out by photozz. flimpy
points to another tech-centric voter's guide.
Finally, Mike McCune allleges that "About 90% of
the national elections use use a device called the
'Shouptronic' to count the votes. The Shouptronic
is a closed system that isn't open for inspection.
Several groups argue that it has been used to fix
the vote in elections. This is a good argument to
use an open system for election counting." He
points to this wacky but intriguing book by the
equally wacky but intriguing Collier family. I'm
convinced.
--------------------
Lord of the Terabytes
A articles article from the "rendering-middle-earth" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/1647213
Dracos writes "TheOneRing.net has an article from
OnLine (a New Zealand film mag), in which Jon
LaBrie, CTO of WETA Digital, discusses the
hardware and software WETA is using to produce the
sfx in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy."
--------------------
Two-way Satellite Internet Is Here!
A articles article from the "100Mbps-to-my-arctic-base-station" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/2317256
spectro writes: "Wired is reporting the first
two-way satellite Internet service has been
launched by StarBand. The service promises speeds
up to 500Kbps down and 150Kbps up, but a ping
latency of about 400ms, so gamers are out of the
question. Anyway a nice alternative for those of
us who cannot get DSL yet, but watch out... The
Evil Empire is part of the joint venture." It's
nice to know that someone has finally made the
leap, after years of promises and millions of R&D
dollars. Check out the article for information on
some of the competition, too.
--------------------
Netscape 6 Fails to Support Web Standards
A articles article from the "stupid-stupid-stupid" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/0253219
Steve Chapel writes: "JavaScript: The Definitive
Guide author David Flanagan has posted an article
and a petition requesting that the final release
of the Netscape 6 browser based on the Mozilla
open-source project be delayed until it fixes the
problems with support for current Web standards."
It seems clear to me that Netscape cares a lot
more about shopping tabs and similar deadwood -
things that bring immediate profit to the Netscape
Corporation but absolutely no value to the user -
than they do about putting out a decent browser.
Personally, I'd recommend beta-testing IE 6, since
IE not only has won the browser wars, it's clearly
a better browser - and will remain so.
--------------------
Open Source Programming On The UK PSX2
A articles article from the "3D-nethack" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/0333227
Anonymous Coward writes: "According to this
article at www.ComputerandVideogames.com the demo
disc included with PS2 in Europe will come with a
fun programming utility called YABASIC (Yet
Another BASIC). YABASIC is an open source language
that allows for the creation of simple routines,
including rudimentary 3D. The programs created
will be saved on memory cards. Isn't the purpose
of buying a PSX2 so you don't have to play old-
looking games?"
--------------------
MP3s in Foreign Countries
A yro article from the "note-heard-round-the-world" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/0516254
KirTakat writes: "We see lots of links to
information about MP3s in America (by this I mean
most English speaking countries, which seems to be
the major readership on Slashdot), and how they
are being handled legally and the such, but how
are they affecting other countries? Are they even
mentioned in the news, or is the legal aspect of
MP3s pretty much an American thing?" Maybe some
readers can describe how the "music on the
internet" debate has gone in other areas of the
world.
--------------------
Two-Way Satellite Internet Is Here!
A articles article from the "100Mbps-to-my-arctic-base-station" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/06/2317256
spectro writes: "Wired is reporting the first
two-way satellite Internet service has been
launched by StarBand. The service promises speeds
up to 500Kbps down and 150Kbps up, but a ping
latency of about 400ms, so gamers are out of the
question. Anyway a nice alternative for those of
us who cannot get DSL yet, but watch out... The
Evil Empire is part of the joint venture." It's
nice to know that someone has finally made the
leap, after years of promises and millions of R&D
dollars. Check out the article for information on
some of the competition, too.
--------------------
Netscape 6 Fails To Support Web Standards
A articles article from the "stupid-stupid-stupid" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/0253219
Steve Chapel writes: "JavaScript: The Definitive
Guide author David Flanagan has posted an article
and a petition requesting that the final release
of the Netscape 6 browser based on the Mozilla
open-source project be delayed until it fixes the
problems with support for current Web standards."
It seems clear to me that Netscape cares a lot
more about shopping tabs and similar deadwood -
things that bring immediate profit to the Netscape
Corporation but absolutely no value to the user -
than they do about putting out a decent browser.
Personally, I'd recommend beta-testing IE 6, since
IE not only has won the browser wars, it's clearly
a better browser - and will remain so.
--------------------
MP3s In Foreign Countries
A yro article from the "note-heard-round-the-world" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/0516254
KirTakat writes: "We see lots of links to
information about MP3s in America (by this I mean
most English speaking countries, which seems to be
the major readership on Slashdot), and how they
are being handled legally and the such, but how
are they affecting other countries? Are they even
mentioned in the news, or is the legal aspect of
MP3s pretty much an American thing?" Maybe some
readers can describe how the "music on the
internet" debate has gone in other areas of the
world.
--------------------
Mega-ISPs And Spam Support
A articles article from the "bad-business" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/1236219
WH writes: "Over at CNET there's an article about
how PSINet and other huge ISPs have been secretly
signing deals to provide spammers with internet
connections." The other one I've seen is AT&T
signing a contract with someone -- there were
restrictions, but it's still troubling to see
people's appetites for money overwhelming their
ability to discern good vs. bad business
practices.
--------------------
640 Gig HD in 1U Of Rack Space
A articles article from the "oh-yeah-baby" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/07/1344230
--------------------
The info is Rob Malda's
The code is mine
MOTD: -----------------------------------
I am no longer associated with Purdue, except for being a former
student, former employee, and active member of the Linux Users Group.
As such, I'll either be moving this service to another server or
killing it entirely. Your input is requested as to what you'd like.
Then again, when was the last time I changed the MOTD? And when was
last time it was read?