[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (11/27/2000)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Mon, 27 Nov 2000 11:00:04 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
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NetBSD 1.4.3 Released
A bsd article from the "insufficient-recognition" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/1330230
NetBSD 1.4.3 is out; read the announcement, the
changelog, or just start downloading.
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Paul Jones Webcast
A articles article from the "old-salt" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/1645247
Matt Knuppel writes: "There will be a discussion
with Paul Jones, Founder and Director of
ibiblio/MetaLab/SunSITE, on Red Hat Center's
Center Stage webcast on Tuesday, November 28th at
8:00 pm EST. It will be an hour long. Paul will be
discussing ibiblio, open source, and
contributor-run libraries. Questions for Paul can
be submitted to matt@metalab.unc.edu."
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Robodex 2000 Kicks Off In Japan
A articles article from the "real-doll-technology" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/1651233
Anne Marie writes: "Robodex 2000, an exhibition
of the world of robots, has kicked off in Japan.
Featured robots include Honda's humanoid Asimi
robot and Sony's aibo, as well as upcoming
challengers like Sony's SDR-3X humanoid. AP
Coverage is here, and we'd better pay attention,
because according to a ZDNET article, robots
killed at least five humans last year."
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Digital Movies and The Big Screen
A articles article from the "guess-you-could-call-it-a-bit-part" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/195223
Logic Bomb writes: "The New York Times has an
extensive article [free reg req] about the move
from film, invented in the 19th century, to
digital cameras and projection in the movie
business. It sounds like the shift is building a
lot of momentum, with a nice push from George
Lucas' decision to shoot Episode II of Star Wars
entirely using digital cameras. The article covers
both the technological developments making it
possible as well as the business alliances. One
neat detail is that if a distribution system based
on streaming (instead of data on DVDs, for
example) is set up, theaters could show things
like live concerts or other performances as they
happen. Sounds great to me." Rather neat the
impact that George Lucas is making in this area by
filming episode II all digital. Could theaters
gain back with exclusivity some of what they've
lost to Blockbuster and NetFlix? And how soon till
the equivalent of soundboard recordings are
squished onto MP4 before the credits are through?
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MS and the DOJ Return to the Ring
A articles article from the "stirring-things-up-again" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/2012218
Johan Jonasson writes "ZDNet reports that the
opening round in the appeals phase of the
Microsoft case gets under way Monday, when the
company is scheduled to fire the next salvos in
its battle to prevent a breakup. In a 150-page
document, the company will try to convince an
appeals court to overturn a lower court ruling
that would split the software giant into two
parts."
--------------------
Florida Election Votes Certified
A articles article from the "course-it-ain't-over-yet" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/27/0125214
Ravn0s noted that CNN has reported that Florida
has certified Bush as the winner, which of course
means that he'll get the 25 electoral votes, and
the presidency. We haven't had enough fun: Gore
still has the popular vote nationally, and there
are zillions of Florida ballots in question
(felons who voted, multi-punched ballots, dangling
chads and the list goes on). I wish I could say
it's over ... closure with a President with the
qualifications of a head of lettuce is still
closure, but I suspect the mainstream media will
continue to harp on this for awhile. But hopefully
this is the end of the issue on Slashdot.
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WebQL Turns the Web into a Giant Database
A articles article from the "select-*-from-internet" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/2245221
An anonymous reader says " This article was
posted on ZDNet by Bill Machrone on a new type of
query language for aggregating information from
the Web." Somewhat light on the details, but
definitely something to think about.
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High-Speed Wireless LANs Move Forward
A articles article from the "network-zip-11215-anyone?" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/27/0118255
GrokSoup writes: "Neat article from the WSJ (free
site) about European hackers using 802.11
technology to create limited-range, high-speed
outdoor networks. As you might expect, people are
messing with directed antennas to send signals up
to a kilometer. While I've tried this to get from
the house to the pool, the idea of banding
together in open-source fashion had never really
occurred to me. Nifty!" We've mentioned
consume.net before, but this piece mentions some
interesting possibilities, like how the same idea
may result in an approved-by-the-Man wireless
network in Sweden, and the golden hope that
multiple connection methods will let us switch
handily among several wireless protocols as the
occasion merits.
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Petreley On Microsoft And Linux
A articles article from the "stop-submitting-this" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/27/1238222
Quite a number of people have woken up early in
the morning to submit Nick Petreley's latest
column in Linuxworld. It's kinda a grab bag column
but he does reference a rumour that Microsoft has
rewritten portions of Linux for use in Windows. I
doubt anything like that has actually happened -
but it's a strange world out there.
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If ICANN Can't, Who Can?
A askslashdot article from the "digital-taxation-without-representation" department
sent by Cliff
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/26/208231
alanjstr asks: "After reading this article at The
Register, I no longer understand how domain
registration really works. Quite a few posts have
come across Slashdot about ICANN elections and
rights to domain names. It sounds to me like it
started off as a good thing but is struggling to
move to be autonomous. ICANN was created in an
attempt at who should run it and How should it be
paid for. Clearly the Who has become a problem
with many complaining about not being represented.
The How is a problem that is still unresolved. The
more I think about it, the more it seems like
we're setting up a new government to rule the land
of Domains. How should be go about fixing this
dilemma? The first thing that comes to mind is to
write a Constitution to lay the groundwork. How
would you complete the following: We the People of
the Digital Planet Earth...." It all boils down to
ICANN asking most of the ccTLDs to pay a third of
it's operating costs without allowing them
representation in ICANN itself. Now that doesn't
sound very fair, does it?
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Open Source Developer's Agreement
A articles article from the "keeping-it-in-retrospective-from-the-get-go" department
sent by Hemos
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/27/1244235
ajv writes: "We've just released our open source
developer's agreement. The OSDA allows companies
or employees to negotiate into their employment
contracts the certainty of owning IP they develop
under clear guidelines. This will help all the
people out there who develop open source software
but are afraid to release it, or more likely, are
afraid their boss will react and ask for it to be
taken down or ask for a cut of the (non-existent)
action. Get it on the main Web site, or on
SourceForge."
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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?