O | S | D | N NEWSLETTER
August 26, 2002 DEVELOPER SERIES
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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
KPIG is Back - By Subscription Only
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/0120208
We've noted before that [0]KPIG, one of the oldest internet
broadcasters, was one of many to shut down their netcasts after the
recent CARP ruling on copyright royalties. Well, [1]they're back, but
128kbit mp3 streams have been replaced with with lower-quality Real
streams, and free has been replaced with subscription-only. Gotta do
what you gotta do, I guess.
Links
0. http://www.kpig.com/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56015-2002Aug24.html
Web Profits in the Gutter
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/0053201
The New York Times has an article about the web's one true growth
industry: [0]spam, fraud and porn. Societal meltdown or flourishing
ecosystem? The talking heads debate.
Links
0. http://nytimes.com/2002/08/26/technology/26CYBE.html
Still More Bionic Eyes
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/0041250
jeno writes "An Australian-invented '[0]bionic eye' device is about to
begin human trials. The device consists of a silicon chip inserted into
the eye, which is designed to act like a retina  receiving images
captured by a pair of glasses worn by the user."
Links
0. http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s653099.htm
Combined DVD Burners Coming Soon
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/2137240
MonMotha writes "Sony recently [0]announced plans to make a DVD burner
capable of supporting both the - (DVD-R and DVD-RW) as well as the +
(DVD+RW and DVD+R) standards for burnable DVD media. This move could
spur the adoption of DVD burners, which have been poor sellers so far,
partly due to the lack of a single standard for writable and rewritable
media. The drive will not support the older DVD-RAM due to it's plastic
casing."
Links
0. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,104372,00.asp
Electric Armor
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/2036234
Ch_Omega and others wrote in about a [0]new type of reactive armor in
development. As far as I can tell, what they're talking about is
essentially large capacitors on the outside of the vehicle, charged up
by the vehicle's electrical system. Anti-tank warheads use a shaped
charge to create a jet of molten copper that pierces armor, but in this
case, when the jet bridges the capacitor plates, it immediately becomes
a conductor for X coulombs of current, which effectively vaporizes and
disrupts it enough that it won't pierce the vehicle's armor.
(Conventional reactive armor does the same thing with explosives.)
Interesting idea, if it works.
Links
0. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54641,00.html
How Could TV Survive Without Commercials?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/24/1749231
[0]Milo_Mindbender asks: "I'm sure many of the readers of this site
know the joy of skipping commercials using a TiVO, Replay or other form
of PVR box. I'm sure it has occurred to a lot of us that if someone
produced a schedule of commercial stop/start times the PVR could easily
make all commercials instantly vanish from a recording. While this
would be really cool, if it got really popular it would KILL all the
local TV stations and TV networks who depend on ads to survive. Sure,
you could say it's their fault for having an outdated business model,
but there's a problem: these sources are where A LOT of the content for
your PVR comes from. If they die, there's nothing for your PVR to
record. My question for this crowd is: 'If the commercials stopped
tomorrow, what business models can you come up with that would keep TV
content flowing to your PVR?'"
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Interview with Battlebots Champion
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/170201
[0]Scoop writes "With the fifth season of BattleBots debuting a few
days ago on Comedy Central, UGO.com [1]chatted up contestant Jim
Smentowski, creator of champion BattleBot, Nightmare. Jim shared his
views on the hit show, his experience with Gary Coleman and robotics in
general. No word yet on the rumored love-child between Smentowski and
BB host, Carmen Electra."
Links
0. http://www.ugo.com
1. http://www.ugo.com/channels/tech/features/battlebots/
John Gilmore and Maddog Hall discuss .ORG bids
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/1332258
[0]TreyHarris writes "Over on [0]SAGEwire, we have posted [1]an email
exchange between John Gilmore (EFF cofounder) and Jon "maddog" Hall
(Executive Director, Linux International) about the .ORG bids. It's a
fascinating read, and goes much further into depth about the issues
than I've seen on any news site thus far."
Links
0. http://sagewire.sage.org/
1. http://sagewire.sage.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/23/1453236
HMV to Sell Digital Downloads
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/161226
An anonymous reader writes "Sales of digital music downloads on sites
like PressPlay and MusicNet have been a bust so far and for good
reason. They cost too much, have too many restrictions and the palette
of music you get to download is too limited. They have almost nothing
to offer over what the various P2P networks give you for free. So why
do record chains like HMV want to [0]get in the game? Simple, these
services cut out the middlemen and if they should ever succeed record
retailers would be left out in the cold. [1]Research shows there is a
percentage of consumers who will pay for digital tunes if the
conditions are right. They aren't now, but market forces will push them
to improve the terms or die. PressPlay has already [2]capitulated to
some of these limitations. To protect their interests in the long term,
retailers like HMV and Tower records have jumped on board and signed on
with [3]On Demand Distribution (OD2) - a company co-founded by Peter
Gabriel to be a wholesaler of digital music tunes - to provide the
music and the back end to their new services. HMV's service launches in
September at five pounds at month (about 7 bucks), a price point which
will mean nothing if the song selection sucks."
Links
0. http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2002/hmv.html
1. http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?cat_nb=2
2. http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/788514.asp
3. http://www.ondemanddistribution.com/eng/home/home.asp
Voyagers Legacy in Pictures
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/1318246
[0]tanveer1979 writes "[1]Space.com has an interesting [2]photo feature
from the voyager craft. For the uninformed voyager is the most distant
man made object. For the first time we are recieving photos of distant
parts of the solar system. Currently voyager is about 12 light hours
away. Wonder how far is that? Well Sun is 8 light minutes away from
Earth. In case you are wondering what is this all about, check out the
[3]current location of voyager. The voyager spacecraft are about to
cross heliopause, which is the limit of the rule of the sun, after
which inter steller winds take over, and for the first time scientists
can get the feel of what lies outside the solar system."
Links
0. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. http://www.space.com/
2. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
3. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/Vgrlocations.pdf
Freshmeat
DBX 1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94944/
DBX works using XML files as its native format. The database can be
queried using standard SQL queries. DBX is the smallest, platform
independent DBMS, and is extremely easy to migrate to. For small
databases, it is a good substitute for MySQL, Oracle, etc. The added
advantage is that it saves the data as neat, readable, XML files,
allowing easy compatibility.
DCTC 0.83.3
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94975/
DCTC (Direct Connect Text Client) is a library that gives access to the
direct connect world, like IRC but more file-sharing oriented.
empy 1.3
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94963/
empy is a system for embedding Python expressions and statements in
template text; it takes empy source files, processes them, and produces
output. This is accomplished via expansions, which are special signals
to the empy system and are set off by a special prefix (by default the
at sign, '@'). empy can expand arbitrary Python expressions and
statements in this way, as well as a variety of special forms. Textual
data not explicitly delimited in this way is sent unaffected to the
output, allowing Python to be used in effect as a markup language. Also
supported are recording and playback via diversions, and dynamic and
chainable filters. The system is highly configurable via command line
options.
gentoo 0.11.32
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94979/
gentoo is a file manager written in C. It uses the GTK+ toolkit, and
the two-pane concept, somewhat inspired by DOpus. gentoo strives to be
very configurable, and also to let you do all configuration from a GUI
within the program itself. Using advanced file typing and styling
systems, gentoo determines how to display files in its listings, and
also how to act on them. The package includes a set of ~100 unique
handcrafted icons, for many different types of files.
GKrellM 2.0.0 (For GTK 2.0)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94970/
GKrellM is a GTK and Imlib-based stacked monitor program that charts
SMP CPUs, disk, load, active net interfaces, and internet connections.
There are also monitors for memory and swap, file system with
mount/umount feature, mailbox checking including POP3 and IMAP,
clock/calendar, APM laptop battery, CPU temperatures, and uptime. It
has LEDs for the net monitors and an on/off button and online timer for
PPP. There is a GUI popup for configuration, plugin extensions can be
installed, and many themes are available.
JBCcm 2.3.0 beta
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94939/
JBCcm is an Opentool that enables JBuilder (3.5 to 7.0) to integrate
with Continuus CM 5.x or Telelogic CM Synergy 6.x. It does not use the
JB version control OT API, and therefore works with all JB versions
(Fnd./Prs., Prf./SE, Ent.) on all platforms.
koalaXML 0.4.0
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94930/
koaLaXML is an extremely simple Java XML data type. It is very useful
as a parameter or return type, as well as a class property type. It is
object-oriented, and supports a varied range of type values (int,
double, dates, etc.) as well as attributes and nested tags.
OPENdj 1.0.4
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94977/
OPENdj is Internet radio station software that supports multiple,
geographically dispersed DJs, thus implementing public-access Internet
radio. OPENdj is not playlist software nor is it a streamer. Rather, it
is a a timeslot scheduling engine and a stream-access coordinator. Its
features include automatic archival of all broadcasts, searching of
archived broadcasts, and automatic rerun scheduling with a pluggable
rerun selection algorithm. The broadcasting software used by DJs to
relay their signal to OPENdj features listener monitoring and
real-time, text-based chatting with listeners.
Pebrot 0.3.3 (Stable)
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94982/
Pebrot is an MSN messenger text client implemented with Python. It also
has a pretty curses-based interface.
phpGB 1.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94925/
phpGB uses PHP4's session capabilities to authenticate the
administrators, the MySQL database system to store all its data in, and
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to configure the "look and
feel". Features include easy Web installation and configuration.
purepost 0.6
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94971/
purepost is an interface between Courier-MTA and Sophie for virus
scanning. You can have it check mail for all your users, or just a few.
Using courier's dot-courier functionality, this script intercepts an
email before it hits the mailbox, creates a temporary file, tells
sophie to scan that temporary file for viruses, and if it finds a
virus, denies delivery and notifies the sender (otherwise it allows the
message to be delivered).
Simple Instant Messenger 0.7
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94964/
Simple Instant Messanger is a simple ICQ client with v8 protocol
support (2001) for X.
Tux Paint 2002.08.23
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94941/
Tux Paint is a simple and entertaining drawing program geared towards
young children. It has a simple interface, sound effects, and a cartoon
character (Tux, the Linux penguin). Along with drawing brush strokes,
lines and shapes, you can also enter text and place "rubber
stamp" (or "sticker") images on the picture. Tux Paint
is extensible, and could be useful in an educational environment (such
as a grammar, elementary, or grade school). It's portable across
numerous platforms, and runs well even on slower systems like the
Pentium 133MHz.
web-chpass 1.1
http://freshmeat.net/releases/94972/
The web-chpass utility allows users to change their account password
through the Web. It was written with security and flexibility as the
primary concerns, and runs on systems that use PAM to manage user
authorizations.
Slashcode
Amateur Astronomy Site: m57.org
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/1643254
Just setup a new slash site for amateur astronomers: The Ring: m57.org.
Please visit! Thanks to Micah Yoder Internet Development for capable
hosting.
uCdot
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/23/058243
A new slash site http://www.ucdot.org/ for uClinux and Embedded linux
developers and users.
Only new headlines
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/22/0558213
I have two suggestions that I think would be really cool. I've listed
them after a short story of what prompted the ideas. I keep a mozilla
window with slashdot in it on one of my virtual desktops all the time.
I open interesting stories in their own tab leaving the first tab
solely for slashdot. Whenever I refersh the page I have to scroll down
to find the last headline that I read and start reading up from there.
Sound familiar? Sometimes it gets complicated when I don't find the
last headline I read and have to go back and look at the older stuff
for what I might have missed. My quick fix suggestion first then, my
really cool suggestion. 1) Previous 10 headlines button. 2) A
Last_Headline_Read field stored in my cookie. If the site remembers
that I'm logged in it should be able to remember the last headline that
I read. It would be cool if, when I refreshed the page, slashdot only
displayed the new headlines! Just a thought... Thanks
for the awesome work you guys do. --Tres
Saving user settings in the Slash DB: WHERE?
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/22/0555242
On the "Customize Homepage" page (users.pl?op=edithome) does anyone
know where it saves the exclusion filters (exclude by topic, section,
or author) in the database? I've figured out all the other settings
except these.
Exporting a Slash site between Machines?
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/19/0547211
I have a fully customized Slash site on one machine, and I need to
migrate it to a different machine. How can this be done? Do I just TAR
up the directories and move them over? And if so, what files/db entries
do I need to modify with the new machine/site name? Any help is
appreciated. Thanks, QWade
DiverseDVD
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/17/1822201
Its another Slash Site - http://www.DiverseDVD.com/ this time about
DVDs, VHS, and Cinema releases. It comes to you from the team which
produced http://news.DiverseBooks.com
Displaying Number of Comments in Storylink,Index,D
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/16/0544259
I've been trying to find the code that displays the number of comments
on a story. In looking at the template "storylink,index,default", I see
[% links.join(' | ') %] which I assume is the item that displays the
"(Read more | X comments...)" Where the heck to do find this?
RSS Source for QOTD
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/15/151241
I'm trying to implement a Quote Of The Day functionality in my site,
and I was wondering if anyone knows of any good source of RSS
syndication for Quotes?
Insurrection
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/14/0230202
Announcing Insurrection, a new Slashcode based site devoted to
geopolitical news and discussions. Help us enlighten the world.
Theme addition 'include_theme'
http://slashcode.com/article.pl?sid=02/08/09/0650236
In CVS there is a new addition to the THEME file syntax. You can now
choose to add an included theme. This allows you too easily create a
theme with just your changed templates (yet still pick up fixes to the
templates you don't customize). If you base your site off of the
"slashcode" theme just add to your theme file: include_theme=slashcode
If this is for a site that already exists make sure you add this
information to the site_info table.
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