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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* 2006 - The Year the FSF Reached Out
* Virtual Reality Getting its Own Network?
* What Will Happen in IT in 2007?
* Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year 2006
* Flexible, Plastic Sheets of Power
* China Heralds Year of the Fluorescent Green Pig
* Study Finds Linux 'Ready For Prime-time'
* 2007 in Security
* Darwin Awards 2006
* 2006's Bill of Wrongs
* Technology Vs. E.coli Outbreaks
* Post-Novell Interview With Jeremy Allison
* Review of 12 Vulnerability Scanners
* Fedora Legacy Shutting Down
* HD DVD's AACS Protection Bypassed
* The Science Behind the Bubbly

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2006 - The Year the FSF Reached Out |
| from the hugs-from-a-penguin dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday December 30, @19:59 (GNU is Not Unix) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/010221 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]nanday writes "Linux.com is running a story about how the Free
Software Foundation has [1]transformed itself into an activist
organization in the past year. From the story: 'At the start of 2006, the
Free Software Foundation (FSF) was largely inward-looking, focused on the
GNU Project and high-level strategic concerns such as licensing. Now,
without abandoning these issues, the FSF had transformed into an openly
activist organization, reaching out to its supporters and encouraging
their participation in civic campaigns often designed to enlist
non-hackers in their causes. Yet what happened seems to bemuse even FSF
employees.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/010221

Links:
0. mailto:bbyfield@axion.net
1. http://community.linux.com/community/06/12/21/2018224.shtml?tid=19


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Virtual Reality Getting its Own Network? |
| from the unlikely-methinks dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday December 30, @20:56 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/019214 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]loganrapp writes "We've all watched the Matrix, and regardless of how
we felt about them, the concept of plugging into a virtual reality
appeals greatly to us. It appears that a nonprofit group called the
[1]International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies plans to
[2]build a network purely for virtual reality. Its name? Neuronet, and
the first generation is planned for 2007, with "consumer applications"
planned for 2009. There is some fear, however, that [3]the whole thing is
a scam."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/019214

Links:
0. http://cryovaultcreative.com/logan
1. http://www.iavrt.org/
2. http://news.com.com/Virtual+reality+to+get+its+own+network/2100-1033_3-6146339.html
3. http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1137


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What Will Happen in IT in 2007? |
| from the exciting-times dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday December 30, @21:48 (IT) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/018218 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet's Paul Murphy has set out his [0]IT
predictions for 2007. Featured among the completely predictable,
OpenSolaris overtaking Linux is apparently inevitable within one year.
From the article: 'By the end of the year the OpenSolaris community will
be widely recognized as larger and more active than the Linux community.'
Is 2007 the year of the OpenSolaris desktop? Other 'inevitables' include
Microsoft's success with Vista, the continuing phase-out of Itanium, and
the Cell processor powering most of the world's super-computers."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/018218

Links:
0. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=763


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Game Tunnel's Indie Games of the Year 2006 |
| from the what-else-is-there-to-do-this-weekend? dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday December 30, @23:46 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/0414245 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]cyrus_zuo writes "Creating off-beat, original, and carefully crafted
games is the heritage of Independent Game developers, and the [1]Top 10
Independent Games of 2006 does its ancestry proud. Each of the 10 games
selected this year is a winner in its own right, an undiscovered gem just
waiting to be found. So dim the lights and warm up your modem, as Game
Tunnel presents The Top 10 Independent Games of 2006." The annual
Independent Games Festival will also be giving a nod to indie games from
2006, and via features you can have a look behind the scenes at some of
Game Tunnel's winners. Check out the entries on [2] Kudos , [3] Gumboy
Crazy Adventures , and [4] Virtual Villagers .

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/0414245

Links:
0. http://www.gametunnel.com/
1. http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=569
2. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11350
3. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11776
4. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11464


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Flexible, Plastic Sheets of Power |
| from the they-have-the-power dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday December 31, @01:35 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/0419232 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

bethr writes "Imagine never having to plug in an electronic device to get
power? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated prototype
plastic sheets with copper coils that [0]wirelessly supply power to any
device that touches its surface. You just put down your laptop and the
pad sends it power: 'An array of organic transistors that detect the
position of the gadget and direct current flow.' Apparently, the
researchers had enough time to create a spiffy video of their doll house
model, complete with a mini Christmas tree, showing off the technology."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/0419232

Links:
0. http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/17898/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| China Heralds Year of the Fluorescent Green Pig |
| from the please-avoid-the-green-eggs-and-ham-jokes dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday December 31, @03:25 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/0422226 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Apocalypse111 writes "Chinese scientists have [0]successfully bred
partially green fluorescent pigs which they hope will boost stem cell
research. A research team at the Northeast Agricultural University in
Harbin managed to breed three transgenic pigs by injecting fluorescent
green protein into embryonic pigs. Xinhua quoted Professor Liu Zhonghua
as saying. 'The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under
ultraviolet light'."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/0422226

Links:
0. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16385433/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Study Finds Linux 'Ready For Prime-time' |
| from the linux-to-replace-24-when-season-resumes dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday December 31, @06:07 (Linux Business) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/0430229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader tipped us to a Techworld article proclaiming [0]Linux
as the next big thing ... again. A study of IT directors, VPs and CIOs
has concluded that within five years the open-source OS will be running
more than half of all important business applications. From the article:
"In short, open source, especially Linux, is being legitimized by the
major enterprise vendors, and user executives are more than happy to
believe them ... Microsoft's thawing toward Linux is now easier to
understand when faced with such data - even as Windows continues to grow
as the other main server platform of choice."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/0430229

Links:
0. http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=7681


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007 in Security |
| from the something-to-think-about dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 31, @09:22 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1344251 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that "Heise Security did a year end
review ?€? for the upcoming year 2007. In [0]their crystal ball they see
P2P bots, (almost) crashing stock exchanges, dropping prices for zero day
exploits and private mails of gmail users published on the google search
engine." Speculatory and amusing.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1344251

Links:
0. http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/83058


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Darwin Awards 2006 |
| from the natural-selection-in-action dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 31, @10:23 (It's funny. La|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1354255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

ms1234 writes "The year is coming to and end so it is time to see how our
genepool is doing. [0]Darwin Awards 2006 includes everything from
whacking RPGs with hammers to recreating experiments by Franklin."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1354255

Links:
0. http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2006's Bill of Wrongs |
| from the that-time-of-year dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 31, @11:37 (Your Rights Onl|
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1520217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Jamie continued the never ending flow of year-end recap stories, this one
is the [0]Bill of Wrongs which lists the 10 most outrageous civil
liberties violations of the year, according to Slate. Several of these
aren't news to Slashdot readers, but it's still worth a read.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1520217

Links:
0. http://www.slate.com/id/2156397/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Technology Vs. E.coli Outbreaks |
| from the its-a-dirty-subject dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 31, @12:42 (Databases) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1526240 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

jcatcw writes "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found
[0]the patterns of illness in both of the recent E. coli outbreaks ?€?
packaged spinach and Taco Bell ?€? using PulseNet, which uses a customized
version of BioNumerics to conduct comparisons and analysis of samples in
a SQL Server database. PulseNet holds the DNA fingerprints provided by
pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). It operates at a national level
and can link small, localized cases in a nationwide pattern. 'We can now
see the connections you would not have seen before, which has
revolutionized the world of food safety,' according to John Besser,
clinical laboratory manager at the Minnesota Department of Health and a
member of the Association of Public Health Laboratories."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1526240

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9006680


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Post-Novell Interview With Jeremy Allison |
| from the worth-paying-attention-to dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @13:55 (Novell) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1715215 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]schestowitz notes an [1]interview with Jeremy Allison, of Samba fame,
after he had [2]left Novell in protest over the company's deal with
Microsoft. From the interview: "My guess is that the negotiations for the
useful parts of the agreement (the virtualization part and the federated
directory interoperability part) had, as Ron [Hovsepian] says, been going
on for months and just before Novell wanted to seal the deal Microsoft
turned up with 'there's just this one more thing we want you to sign...'
and in desperation to get the other parts of the deal done they rushed it
through."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1715215

Links:
0. http://schestowitz.com/
1. http://boycottnovell.com/2006/12/31/jeremy-allison-interview/
2. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/21/167258&tid=223


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Review of 12 Vulnerability Scanners |
| from the poking-for-holes dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @15:02 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1746211 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]produke points us to a [1]review of security vulnerability scanners.
It's light on detail and not terribly well organized, but might provide a
starting point for more research. From the article: "A few months back I
did some intense testing of all the best vulnerability scanners out
there... I had a couple nix boxes hooked up, as well as some dozers, and
figured I could add clients to a 'once-a-week' scanning contract. So
naturally, I wanted to use the scanner that was the best for my
purpose... Better to use firewalk, hping3 (now with scripting!), nmap,
etc., and leave these crutch-like tools alone."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1746211

Links:
0. http://www.htaccesselite.com/
1. http://www.askapache.com/2006/security/vulnerability-scanners-review.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fedora Legacy Shutting Down |
| from the yum-update-and-pray dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @16:08 (Red Hat Software|
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1837253 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes to pass on the news that the [0]Fedora Legacy
project is going away. The project has been providing security updates
and critical bugfixes to end-of-life Red Hat and Fedora Core releases.
From the article: "In case any of you are not aware, the [1]Fedora Legacy
project is in the process of shutting down. The current model for
supporting maintenance distributions is being re-examined. In the
meantime, we are unable to extend support to older Fedora Core releases
as we had planned. As of now, Fedora Core 4 and earlier distributions are
no longer being maintained. Discussions... on the #Fedora-Legacy channel
have brought to light the fact that certain Fedora Legacy properties
(servers) may be going away soon, such as the repository at
http://download.fedoralegacy.org and the build server."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1837253

Links:
0. http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/2320
1. http://fedoralegacy.org/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HD DVD's AACS Protection Bypassed |
| from the 8-days-to-a-crack dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @17:11 (Encryption) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1929250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Mr. BS writes "Playfuls.com is running a story how [0]HD DVD's AACS
protection has been compromised. Although the [1]video of the hack leaves
much to be desired, the [2]source code has already been made available.
Feel free to start backing up your HD DVD's whenever you feel the need."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1929250

Links:
0. http://www.playfuls.com/news_05648_HD_DVDs_AACS_Protection_Bypassed_In_Only_8_Days.html
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZGYb92isE
2. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119871


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Science Behind the Bubbly |
| from the happy-new-years dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday December 31, @18:14 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/149244 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

isabotage3 writes "Here is [0]everything you need to know about champagne
in time for New Year's ?€? From how to maximize your bubbles to why bubbles
follow certain patterns and then suddenly change, to when the time is
right to stop studying your bubbly and drink up."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/149244

Links:
0. http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articleArchive/dec2006/champagnescience.php



Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.

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