ZDNet reports on a new study out studying the income gap between the sexes. It finds experienced women are generally less well paid than experienced men.

Kelly McNeill writes “When established firms shy away from new technologies to avoid undercutting their core businesses, they leave the market open for a new player to implement the disruptive technology, then slowly march up the food chain, overthrowing the old market leader. Minicomputer manufacturers in the 1980s, for instance, diligently followed their customers’ demands to invest only in faster minis, while ignoring the PC market.” The story’s at OS Opinion.

Computer Weekly reports on a Linux Plug Fest to take place in California at the end of January.

ZDNet reviews Gateway’s new Connected Touch Pad. The device runs Linux and connects to America Online’s Internet service.

ZDNet reports: “Stocks are back on the rise after bottoming out at
New Year’s. The 2.4 kernel stream has been
released, which means that we should start
seeing production-quality versions seeping into
the enterprise before summertime. Necessary
consolidations are taking place, such as the
planned merger of Linuxcare and Turbolinux. Even
Microsoft, most open sourcers’ primary nemesis,
is unwittingly making life easier for Linux
advocates.”

“I have developed shopping carts in the past, but they have always been for a specific product line, and therefore not very flexible. I prefer
to use PHP and PostgreSQL. The Zelerate AllCommerce software can create a flexible, database-independent solution, using only Perl.
AllCommerce provides more than just a shopping cart; it offers inventory control, order tracking, site management, and complete
Web-based management support for your e-commerce site.” Story at LinuxWorld.

Info World reports: “Linux system management software received a boost on Tuesday,
with Caldera Systems debuting what company officials believe is the first
such package for that market capable of managing thousands of
distributed systems.”

Info World reports: “Sun Microsystems on Tuesday will throw a coming-out party for
J2EE (Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition) in San Francisco to detail the
latest dot release of the Java-based programming environment for
enterprise applications.”

ZDNet reports: “Palm CEO Carl Yankowski wrote in a companywide
e-mail Monday that Bill Maggs, the chief technology
officer, will be leaving the company.

Maggs is resigning to “pursue outside opportunities
related to the next phase of the Internet,” according to the
e-mail obtained from a source close to the company.”

From a message posted to LWN.net: “If I were you, I’d worry more about the blk-patches from Jens, but
they’ve been around for a long time, and Alan also put them in his tree.
Which makes them as safe as any patch we’ve seen. So I took the
approach that “we’ll obviously have to put this _somewhere_ in 2.4.x”.
But that is, at least to me, a potentially bigger worry than reiserfs.”