[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (11/20/2000)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Mon, 20 Nov 2000 11:00:02 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
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Stolen Enigma Machine Recovered In Style
A articles article from the "leisurely-sunday-morning-reading" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/19/1545216
glomph writes: "A priceless Enigma crypto device
(only three exist) was stolen this spring from a
museum in the UK. The Sunday Times describe in
fascinating detail how they fully recovered the
item. Codewords hidden in the newspaper, buried
video tapes, meetings in dark misty cemeteries and
other cloak-n-dagger stuff were used. The Bad Guy
was also nabbed. A must-read tale."
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C`t Throws Athlons And P4s In The Gladiator Pit
A articles article from the "but-they-canna-take-our-*freedom!*" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/19/1610202
An unnamed correspondent writes: "In the most
recent C`T "Computer technik" there is a great
benchmark with a pentium 4 (1,5 and 1,4 ghz)vs a
athlon thunderbird (1,2 ghz and 1,2 ghz ddr memory
with the 760 chipset). If you think that that
isn`t a fair race ... then read it now here and
here in English. You should get a copy of the
German paper version anyway -- great magazine,
even beter benchmark. Now does anyone know where
to get a 760 mainboard ;-)" Unnamed's cousin
Noname also contributes a link to GamePC, which
reviews in grand 13-page SE-style the 1.4 and 1.5
GHz P4 chips.
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It's Official: MS Office 10 Subscription Version
A articles article from the "free-virus-if-you-order-now!" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/19/2348258
F.Prefect writes: "Microsoft is going to be
releasing a 'subscription version' of Office 10.
This version will actually stop allowing a user to
create new documents after the subscription period
ends. Read their press release. Although they will
still offer a non-subscription version for more
money, I can't help but think that Office 11 or
some subsequent software package will do away with
non-subscription versions entirely ..." Seeding of
the .NET "cloud of services" has officially begun,
it looks like. Press releases, of course, try to
make you want to buy the products they're pushing,
but this one is a head-scratcher. It boils down to
"It works like the regular version, but you get to
pay for it again this time next year, too, or it
breaks!" Won't IT manager types get tired of this?
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Living-Donor Nerve Transplant
A articles article from the "with-extra-nerves-i'd-meet-girl-X-in-the-bookstore" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/20/0634217
Over at CNN there is an AP report which might
remind you alternately of stories by William
Gibson and Mary Shelley: Doctors in Texas have
just transplanted nerves from a living donor (in
this case the mother of the recipient, an 8-month
old baby) to replace ones damaged at birth. The
operation itself was successful, but whether the
nerve will successfully carry signals between the
infant's arms and brain won't be known for a
while. Seems like we can now transplant just about
everything short of the brain in one form or other
-- skin, bone marrow, major organs.
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Intel RoadMap with P4 Stats To Boot
A articles article from the "bad-puns-all-around" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/20/1239211
Anand reader writes "In the Intel Desktop CPU &
Chipset Roadmap, AnandTech details the Intel
roadmap before the Pentium 4 hits the streets next
week. The article includes the desktop CPU and
chipset strategy. They discuss and answer the
questions. Does the Pentium 4 have a chance or is
it doomed from the start? What will become of the
Pentium III? And will Intel ever speed up the
Celeron's FSB? and more including analysis of
Intel's current 2000/2001 roadmap." Also see their
official P4 stats and benchmarks.
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Taxing Free Software
A articles article from the "we-can't-make-this-stuff-up" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/20/144211
Jarek Sygitowicz writes "Lets look backward:
nearly a month ago. One officer taxed 6 GNU/Linux
boxes and two Star Offices at the price of 6
Microsoft Windows and 2 Microsoft Offices. The
affair was widely commented and stirred a wave of
protests. We heard from various sources that the
Government, trying to patch a big hole, is
preparing for the impossible: a tax on using Free
Software." Sounds crazy? For now this is true only
in Poland (which, btw, has the coolest tld, even
if they have a messed up tax system ;)
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Gnutella's Challange
A articles article from the "bandwidth-is-only-the-beginning" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/20/1413204
Gnutella News sent in an excerpt from a clip2 DSS
report about gnutella's evolution and condition.
"the network has neither smoothly scaled nor
catastrophically collapsed since average traffic
grew to regularly exceed dial-up modem bandwidth
in August 2000. Instead, the network persists in a
fragmented state comprised of numerous
continuously evolving responsive segments, the
largest of which typically contains hundreds of
hosts. We estimate at present that unique Gnutella
users per day number no less than 10,000 and may
range as high as 30,000. We suggest that further
technical innovation and wide adoption of this
innovation are necessary for the Gnutella network
to scale beyond its present state."" Read this if
you're interested in p2p[?].
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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?