O | S | D | N NEWSLETTER
June 05, 2002 DEVELOPER SERIES
The 'Developer Series' Newsletter is developed to bring Open Source
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Thinkgeek
Cube Fodder: Tangle Desktop Toy
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/5a38.shtml
Gadgets: Sharp Zaurus Linux PDA
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/gadgets/5a3c.shtml
Gadgets: Key Katcher
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/gadgets/5a05.shtml
Tshirts: Kids: newbie
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/apparel/59cc.shtml
Caffeine: Energy Gum
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/caffeine/5a35.shtml
Gadgets: Super Bright GREEN Laser Pointer!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/gadgets/5a1d.shtml
Gadgets: SoundBug - Turns Glossy Surfaces Into Speakers!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/computing/5a15.shtml
Tshirts: It Must Be User Error
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/apparel/59fe.shtml
Gadgets: Key Katcher Privacy Device
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/gadgets/5a05.shtml
Gadgets: Mini Wireless Color Video Cam (for RC rovers)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/59eb.shtml
Cube Goodies: Levitron Desktop Levitation Toy
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/59a9.shtml
Tshirts: Bug Off, I'm On My Break
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/apparel/5a00.shtml
Watches: onHand PC Watch
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/gadgets/5a1a.shtml
Caffeine: Hyperglow Caffeinated Beer
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/beer.shtml
Gadgets: Desktop Zero Point Infinite Power Generator
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/zero.shtml
Cube Fodder: New Desktop Mini Fridge/Warmer
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/5991.shtml
Mods: New Lian-LIi Cases
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/computing/cases-mods.shtml
Cube Fodder: LED Binary Clock
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/59e0.shtml
Cube Fodder: Rogers Connection Magnetic Set
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/59b4.shtml
Caffeine: Warp Mints In Cinnamon Flavor
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/caffeine/59de.shtml
Sourceforge
Automated Security Tools
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=51027
Release Candidate 1
phpLotto
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=53340
phpLotto 1st Release
Legend of the Wonderer TCG
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=44698
battle system in the project Docs
Advanced Simlulation Toolkit
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=48818
Recruiting
PHPortal
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=28568
PHPortal version 0.1.9 released!
PCGen -- A d20 Character Generator
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25576
PCGen 2.6.3 is available
MySQL Objective C API for Cocoa
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=42424
SMySQL version 0.7.0
i810 Framebuffer Device Driver
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=39579
Video Overlay Support for the Intel 810 and 815 Framebuffer
'Just For Fun' Network Management System
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46041
JFF Network Management System 0.6.4
VietPad
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=46758
VietPad 1.0.2 Release
Slashdot
LOTR Special Effects at OSCON
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1413245
[0]gnat writes "The IT Director for [1]Weta Digital, Peter Jackson's
company doing the digital effects for the Lord of the Rings movies, is
[2]keynoting at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. They use a ton of
Linux and Perl." FWIW I believe Hemos and I are speaking too, but I'm
much more interested in seeing this LotR thing.
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.wetafx.co.nz/
2. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2002/view/e_sess/3118
'Think Tank' Issues Microsoft-Funded Troll
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/228240
dlur (among many others) writes: "According to this [0]ZDNet article, a
Washington think tank known as the [1]Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
is soon to release a study stating that Open Source Software allows
[2]terrorists an easy time hacking into our systems. It's little
suprise that this group takes money from Microsoft." [3]The Register's
story is good too. All the whoring reports in the world won't make open
source any less secure. This same institute backed destabilizing,
unworkable '80s [4]missile defense and thinks Alexis de Tocqueville
would have wanted the [5]V-22 Osprey deathplane. Also, see what their
coin-operated policy dispenser spat out for [6]internet privacy (eat
what you're fed) and [7]antitrust (advantage of Microsoft monopoly:
"manufacturers of computer hardware need to provide only one driver").
We weren't going to run this, but there were a lot of submissions, so
...
Links
0. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-929669.html
1. http://www.adti.net/
2. http://project.honeynet.org/papers/enemy/
3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25569.html
4. http://www.adti.net/html_files/defense/nunnsshield.htm
5. http://www.adti.net/html_files/defair/V22MARNE.html
6. http://www.adti.net/html_files/technology/jclp_kbrown030801.html
7. http://www.adti.net/html_files/technology/punishing_winners_hurts.html
Slashback: Gnoogle, PlayStation, Assault
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/03/1521230
Grab a cuppa joe, or whatever you drink at this time of day, and read
on for this edition of Slashback, with updates and additional
information on the strange (but statistically iffy) dangers of
microbiology, Google's contest winner, and Sony's Linux kit for the
PS2.
RTFM = Read the Funny Manual?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/2233251
[0]coronaride writes: "[1]This article over on Wired discusses the
issue near and dear to every sysadmin and support tech's heart. I,
myself, never read any manuals that accompany the products I buy (but
when does cheese-whiz really need instructions anyways?) unless
something majorly goes wrong! The article talks about how some
countries, including Japan, try to spice up their product manuals in
order to entice the users to read them. Is this just too much work for
our lazy American manufacturers to do?"
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52901,00.html
NSA/U.S. Navy Working to Intercept Fiber Optic Cables
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/205216
[0]Jeff Robertson writes: "Fiber optic cables have advantage of being
difficult to wiretap. As optical amplifiers replace electro-optical
regenerators in undersea routes, it gets even harder. Lightwave
Magazine has an article quoting the Washington Post as claiming the
National Security Agency 'is known to be hard at work [1]trying to gain
access to fiber optic cables' and the U.S. Navy will spend '$1 billion
to retrofit its premier spy submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter' to get
access to deep-sea fiber routes. They also assert that the U.S.
government is bailing out Global Crossing to prevent its undersea
routes falling into foreign hands."
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1.
http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=143012&KEYWORD=surveillance=
Will Digital Cinema Wipe-Out Today's Movie Theaters?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1857207
[0]Phantoman asks: "I work for the Campus Cinema at University of
California Davis and we are looking into getting a [1]Christie or
[2]Barco DLP system for Digital Cinema projection. Now if this is the
wave of the future I ask you all to compare 35mm to Digital. The price
tag on a digital setup is roughly $140,000. Without content. 35mm isn't
all that cheap, but if my old Century 35mm projectors break I can get
replacement parts for usually less than $100-300. If something goes
wrong with the DMD (digital micromirror device) I have a feeling those
digital projector parts are going to cost me big. Are the movie theater
chains going to get stuck with big costs down the road because
Hollywood producers want to save money and have tighter control over
distribution? As if they didn't a monopoly already: it costs us between
$500-1000 (or half of our profits, whichever is more) for each night we
show a movie!" At those prices it doesn't sound like digital theaters
will overtake 35mm theaters anytime soon, but what would happen if
Hollywood suddenly got the "bright" idea to limit 35mm reel
distribution within the next few years?
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.christiedigital.com/
2. http://www.barco.com/projection_systems/digital_cinema/
Bernstein's NFS analyzed by Lenstra and Shamir
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1936239
[0]kousik writes "The [1]analysis of Bernstein's NFS by Arjen Lenstra,
Adi Shamir, Jim Tomlinson, Eran Tromer has been put up on
[2]cryptosavvy. Seems interesting it comes from Lenstra and Shamir.
Lenstra lead the 1994 factorisation of RSA 129. From the abstract: ...
We also propose an improved circuit design based on a new mesh routing
algorithm, and show that for factorization of 1024-bit integers the
matrix step can, under an optimistic assumption about the matrix size,
be completed within a day by a device that costs a few thousand
dollars..."
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] minus caffeine
1. http://www.cryptosavvy.com/mesh.pdf
2. http://www.cryptosavvy.com/
ICANN Releases Reform Plan
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1652254
[0]JCallery writes "CNN is reporting on the [1]plan drawn up by ICANN's
restructuring committee after ICANN decided to abandon direct
elections." We had a [2]earlier story about the restructuring plan with
some [3]notes from one of the board members who attended. ICANN's
[4]plan is online and a must-read for anyone interested in internet
governance issues. Below, I have some notes about why this
restructuring would be terrible idea for regular internet users.
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/03/icann.reut/index.html
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/28/1417233
3. http://www.ccc.de/~andy/ICANN/reports/2002/20020525/
4. http://www.icann.org/committees/evol-reform/recommendations-31may02.htm
Taking Issue With The Outer Space Treaty
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1747240
tekan writes: "The [0]National Review has an [1]interesting article
about the challenges ahead for the settlement of Mars (or the Moon), as
well as how Law and sovereignty issues factor into colonizing these
bodies." Perhaps most interesting are the reasons cited for entering
into the treaty at all -- which had little to do with keeping space a
peaceful utopia.
Links
0. http://www.nationalreview.com/
1. http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel060402.asp
U.S. Asked to Put Purchasing Power to Good Use
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/04/1640257
[0]James Love writes "Today Ralph Nader and I wrote U.S. Office of
Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels to [1]ask the federal
government to use its power as a big consumer to address competition
issues in the market for PC client software. These are some of the
practices we want OMB to examine: OMB is asked to provide information
on federal expenditures for Microsoft products, determine if a software
"monoculture" makes the federal government more vulnerable to computer
viruses or unauthorized access to federal computers, and to consider a
number of strategies to use the US government's purchasing power to
promote competition and make Microsoft behave; OMB is asked to consider
if Microsoft should be required (as a matter of procurement policy) to
fully disclose the file formats of its office productivity and
multimedia programs, so that the data created in such programs could be
reliably read by non-Microsoft software; OMB is asked to consider if it
should place a cap of the market share for any one vendor of PC client
software, and have the size of the cap depend upon Microsoft's
willingness to open up its interface information, or port its MS Office
products to additional platforms; OMB is also asked to consider if it
would be more efficient to buy code for office productivity products
(and release into the public domain), rather than spend billions to
lease software."
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.cptech.org/at/ms/omb4jun02ms.html
Software.linux.com
GFlame
http://software.linux.com/articles/view/1463/
What can I say, it's the truth. Some like it hot... and some sweet when
the heat is on. If you happen to fit into the first category, then
you're simply gonna love today's program. Yep, can heat things up for
you in mere moments.
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