[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (11/22/2000)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:00:03 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
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Embedded Linux at COMDEX
A articles article from the "stuff-to-hack-on" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/151257
discovercomics sent us a nifty report from MSNBC
telling the tale of the Embedded Linux Devices
that were present at COMDEX. They talk about the
IPAQ, The Yopy, the Axis 2100 network camera
(which is cool, but expensive), and more.
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Linux Routers
A books article from the "pitter-patter-of-little-packets" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/01/2317241
Sitting at your average Linux box is becoming
simpler by the day, but the complexity and volume
of information that that machine is likely to
transmit and recieve is only getting greater.
Reader Martin Barry contributed this review of
Linux Routers. This book promises to unravel that
complexity for the reader willing to trade some
time and effort for a custom solution to their own
routing requirements. [TABLE NOT SHOWN]
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Europe Starts Debate On Patents
A articles article from the "blow-open-the-talks" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/1325231
Anonymous Coward writes "According to this paper
on Wired News, a tremendous battle between pro-
and anti-patents in starting this week in Europe.
Countries that seem to be ready to vote for
software patents include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus,
Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Lichtenstein, Monaco
and the Netherlands, and countries opposing them
are currently: Denmark, Germany, Spain, France,
Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden and the U.K."
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European Software Patent Horror Gallery
A articles article from the "now-thats-pretty-funny" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/1513257
siggifiggi writes "Heise has a news-item about a
list of trivial and stupid patents already granted
in Europe. The list was created by the Association
for the Promotion of a Free Informational
Infrastructure." The best one is the patent on
controlling one computer from another (which would
technically include controlling your computer with
a keyboard that had a microchip in it, to say
nothing of telnet!
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New Baby in the Torvalds Home
A articles article from the "congratulations-linus!" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/1711236
Celeste Amanda Torvalds was born at last night,
at 8:25pm pacific time. She weighs in at 7lbs 5
oz. Congrats to Linus, Tove, Patricia and the fam.
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Nattering Nabobs Of NASA Negativity
A science article from the "alliteration-is-amazing" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2015215
code_rage writes "IEEE Spectrum Magazine has an
article by James Oberg which enumerates some of
the problems which have cropped up and will crop
up during assembly of Space Station Alpha (or
whatever it is called this week). The article
lists many software problems, including safety
related issues. Also a problem which was news to
me: the U.S.-supplied Solar Arrays operate at a
high voltage, which would place astronauts at risk
of a potentially deadly plasma discharge during
EVA. The workarounds include some Catch-22's."
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Whistler vs. KDE/Gnome
A articles article from the "interesting-differentation" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2044234
Goatbert writes "I just posted a comparison of
Windows Whistler to KDE, Gnome and Mandrake Update
on NewsForge. It tries to compare Whistler's User
Interface/Update feature to KDE and Gnome."
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New All-In-One Nokia
A articles article from the "Hemos" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2054242
blirp writes: "Nokia today anounced the new 9210
Communicator. " Just dual-band support, so it
won't work in North America, but great standby and
talk time, and just 244 grams in weight. Mmm...
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Black and White Screenshot Jamboree
A articles article from the "the-grandfather-of-god-games" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2030241
Niceguy writes: "Lionhead Studios released 51
screenshots for your viewing pleasure, which you
can see at Liongames.com. Although not being
released until February of next year, now is a
good time to start salivating and putting aside
that spare change. All Bow Before Peter!"
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Sleeplessness Impairs Memory
A articles article from the "plus-you-can't-remember-your-dreams" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/0159244
Anne Marie writes: "According to a new study on
the interaction between memory and lack of sleep
has yielded tantalizing results: not only is sleep
necessary for the chemistry of laying down
memories, but periods of extra sleep cannot "make
up" for lost sleep. The implications for the IT
industry where sleeplessness is a constant reality
of employment are manifest." By morning, I will
probably have no idea I ever posted this.
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Company Gains Research Rights To Tongan Genome
A articles article from the "shouldn't-that-be-the-tongans'-not-'tonga's'?" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/0523255
spam_it_to_me_baby writes: "An Australian listed
company, Autogen, has acquired research rights to
the Kingdom of Tonga's gene pool. The Pacific
island's 108,000 residents will be used by the
company to identify genes that cause common
diseases. Autogen says serum or DNA samples
collected in Tonga shall remain the property of
Tonga, while Autogen will build the genetic
database on which the research will be based. More
here." Similar to research going to collect the
genetic information of everyone in Iceland,
another place with a winning combination of low
population and historical isolation. A single
company (Decode) also won the "rights" to that
information, for a mere $200 million.
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A New Web Image Format
A articles article from the "just-what-we-need" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2312220
MrP- writes: "BetaNews is reporting that a
company called LizardTech has developed a new
image format for the Web called DjVu." Apparently,
it differentiates between forground and background
components of an image, and compresses each
appropriately. Good idea, but I'm skeptical of
improvements (especially because they say it's "20
times faster then gifs" -- which measure
compression in terms of speed? And they also say
it compresses faster then pdf, but pdf isn't
really an image format). No Linux support. And I
don't see any source code on the format, so don't
expect it to get a lot of support on any major Web
sites, regardless of the compression.
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Emusic Tracking MP3s On Napster
A articles article from the "of-this'll-get-fun" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/21/2315229
Nice Geek sent us a wired story talking about
EMusic tracking MP3s on Napster. Several issues:
mainly the flaws of using MD5 checksums to
determine the source of the MP3, but also the
problem that using a bot violates Napster's terms
of service. I don't really have any problems with
this, but it'll be interesting to see what the
next step will be.
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Europe Votes Against Software Patents
A articles article from the "good-news-for-smart-people" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/1337203
BrightIce writes "It seems like things are
getting better in Europe regarding software
patents." The text of that article is in German,
but thanks to Sebastian Bunka of Austria for
providing me this translation: "On the CONVENTION
ON THE GRANT OF EUROPEAN PATENTS all 20
memberstates have decided to not change the
regulations to the patentability of software and
to allow by this basically no patents on
software." Else, you can check the fish, but the
above is a better translation.
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On Asteroid Mining
A science article from the "good-heavy-metal" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/1327224
There's an article out in Feed Magazine that pans
the Space Station, but then gets into some
actually interesting matter, like the increasing
ability to actually do asteroid mining. Asteroid
mining has long been a staple of hard science
fiction, but the benefits of being able to
/really/ do it are immense - less pollution,
really clean metals. There's just that nasty
get-the-material to the factory issue. But that's
why we need a space elevator, right?
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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
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As such, I'll either be moving this service to another server or
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Then again, when was the last time I changed the MOTD? And when was
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