News items of casual interest…
…from around the web:
- Marc pointed us to
 Warbline, an open source web
 sites’ directory where it is easy to find information and good
 links but, also, where you can discover new open source in a lot of
 domains : internet, networking, programming, etc…
- Ext2 seeks staff writer for scripting section. Rob Kennedy says, “We’re looking for
 someone to write 2 articles/month for the scripting section of
 Ext2.org. They must be high quality
 articles, and there must be 2 per month 🙂 Email me for details on
 this, using the subject line ‘[Ext2 Scripting]'”
Foreign (Not U.S.):
- Haisam K. Ido pointed us in
 the direction of the Arab Hackers
 Association. Shrug.
- Rajiv wanted us to
 mention BaratBhasha.org:
 Indian Languages for Linux. Indian Languages capability for Linux
 may be had in the following languages: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati,
 Gurmukhi and Bangla.
- IBM, OS/2 and Open Source (In Spanish). Francisco Burzi (of NCC) wrote in about a feature
 article on the NCC news site that talks about a proposal to IBM
 to release the source code for OS/2 Warp. The article explains why
 this option is viable, and what kind of response they might see
 from developers if they did this.
- Rildo Pragana says: “The
 University of Pernambuco is presenting it’s 2nd. university week,
 featuring panels, meetings, seminars. We will have also a new Linux
 InstallFest for 2 days and a short Linux presentation (by myself).
 Please check it at 2a. Semana
 Universitária (in portuguese).
Fun Stuff:
- CodeZ pointed us to
 iPic – A
 Match Head Sized Web-Server. Not really any Linux content here,
 but amusing nonetheless.
- Linux MusicStations…
 Anonymous writes: “What is
 MusicStation? It’s a place for Linux music news and software info,
 tips, opinions and anything else that comes to mind – maybe even a
 Linux music distribution. Anyways, please send us news, your tips,
 opinions, setups. Also an
 interview with Dev Mazumdar of 4Front Technologies, a
 commercial supplier of Linux/Unix sound drivers to companies and
 individuals. The driver set is quite easy to install on Linux and
 enables features such as full-duplex use of your soundcard (which
 you won’t get with the OSSfree drivers)”
- Art Cancro
 says, “This is perhaps kind of tasteless, but it’s too funny for
 any Linux fan to pass up. KIM Special Agent (requires
 Macromedia Flash player).” As I don’t have MacroMedia in my
 browser, I have no idea what this is.
Miscellaneous:
- Ajay Shah writes:
I’d like to draw your attention to “The Linux Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux” 
 by James G. MacKinnon
 Journal of Applied Econometrics
 volume 14, page 443-452, 1999.It’s very nicely written, and explains the strengths and 
 weaknesses of using Linux in doing Econometrics. MacKinnon is a
 well respected top scholar.
- SSL
 means bad news for Linux, according to Glenn
 Mullikin.
- Business 2.0 Linux poll Randy pointed us to a poll on
 the homepage of Business
 2.0.The right frame of their home page has poll asking the reason 
 for Linux’s “continuing popularity.” The results look fairly
 positive so far.
- FrankenLinux lives, according to a Network World
 Fusion article. Art Smith
 notes that ZD Net has also used the name FrankenLinux. He suspects
 the name will become a generic label for what I call “Dumpster
 PCs”, 486s and old Pentiums that are too obselete for the
 desktop.
- Donald A. Sime mentioned that the August 25th Robert Bennin
 IPO Edge Report
 contained an entry for Red Hat Software. “…And while Red Hat only
 places 9th with around a 300% first day return, it does rank first
 on another very important all-star list … only issue that was
 able to fight market gravity … Red Hat was not only the number
 one all time performer, but with a 500+% return it couldn’t even be
 seen by its closest competitor.”diva writes: “In 
 a follow-up to my Diva Review: On Bill, His Mini-Me’s and the Linux
 Alternative, I interview Gary
 Rivlin, author of The Plot to Get Bill Gates, and ask him his
 thoughts on the Linux community…”
Ports:
- Essbase on Linux Rich was excited to show us
 a press
 release about Essbase. Rich wrote: “Probably not a big deal to
 most people, but as an Essbase developer I was thrilled to hear
 that they’re finally going to port to Linux (towards the bottom of
 the article).”

