From Reuters on ZDNET: “Some of the top US technology companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, are
teaming up in a private alliance to share information about cyberattacks and
software and hardware vulnerabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported in its
online edition on Tuesday.”

– By Julie Bresnick –

Open Source people
Marius Aamodt
Eriksen
started the Open Source project Snoopy,
participates in several others and volunteers at Linux.com. He currently runs OpenBSD on
his
ThinkPad 560 and Debian “woody” on his desktop.

When I first phoned Eriksen, his roommate answered. He handed the
phone to
Aamodt who, considering his international upbringing, I was surprised
to
hear had barely an accent. He greeted me pleasantly and then took his
mouth
away from the phone to ask his roommate how much longer he anticipated
being
on the line. I could hear them speaking. The exchange sounded sort of
paused and awkward, like they had just quarreled or more likely, were
simply
two kids brought together from different worlds to share a tiny dorm
room
for their first year of college. When his roommate failed to offer an
estimate Eriksen added, “’cause they’re calling me for like an interview
or
something.” I was certain I had a bona fide teenager on my hands, but
by the
end of the conversation that one sample of graceless grammar would
prove,
besides his actual birth date, to be all that tethers him to his years.

As I waited to call back, I recalled sharing a room in college, one
of
those slightly rectangular cells with walls of cinderblocks softened
with a
thick coat of gray paint. I was forced to share a stage for growing pains
with
somebody else. I remember that room probably more than I remember
actually
being 19.

But Eriksen knows first hand what it’s like to be 19 because
that’s
how old is. He was born Oct. 10, 1981 in Porsgrunn, Norway. Nineteen is also about how many countries he’s been to. Born in Norway,
moved to
Hungary, then Greece, college in the United States, parents in Bangkok,
ski
vacations with his family overseas. And his exposure to new places
accelerated by the diversity of his classmates at the international
schools
he attended. He speaks English, Norwegian, and he “can carry on a
conversation but not write a book” in German.

His father is an electrical engineer and his mother has a degree in
business administration. They both work for a company called Telenor, which stationed them at such
varying locales to assist in the set up of telecommunications networks.
They spent a stint in Lillehammer to work under the contract Telenor
scored
with the 1994 Winter Olympics. And from there to Budapest and on to
Athens
where they stayed for the duration of Eriksen’s high school years.

In Athens, he attended the American
Community
School. He misses his friends there. Together they call themselves
the
Crocksters. There is excitement, nostalgia in his laugh when I ask him
what
that means. It sounds like he and his friends were trying to own a
little
mischief, give themselves a private identity under which to share
inside
jokes and other intimacies nourished by the intensities of youth.
Eriksen,
attempting to thwart the changes growth might otherwise force upon
their
loving circle, has built them a digital meeting place where they can minimize the
geographic distances now imposed by change.

He points me to a picture there of him and two of the other
Crocksters.
They are at a National Honor Society event. He says it is one of the
only
times he has and plans to ever wear a suit. All three of them are
handsome
and notable possessors of teenage traits. There postures and
expressions are
telling.

Though his friendships were clearly a priority, they did not
interfere
with his studies. He achieved honor roll every year at high school and
completed enough advanced placement courses to commence his college
career
with sufficient credits to rank as a second-year student. He chose the University of Michigan not for football, like so many of the other
attendants undoubtedly have, but for its Center of Information Technology
Integration. The work he does there, mostly centered around
security and
scalability, is so compelling that he can see himself staying on to
teach or
concentrate on research. His plan is to earn his bachelor’s in
computer
engineering in the next two years, go onto an accelerated master’s
program
and then stay on to do research and/or teach. Distraction, however, is
on
the horizon.

I don’t think that his lack of dating experience is telling of his
age at
all. Plenty of geeks are fully grown before they discover they’ve even
been
distributed a dance card. He says that he’s shy but his candidness
regarding the subject suggests potential. Most people I know profess
the
casual approach to dating — if it happens it happens — but Eriksen has
been
spending his spare change on computer manuals since he discovered
programming in seventh grade, why should dating be any different? The
strategy of non-strategy that resulted in his first relationship, he
understands, is unlikely to reoccur with any regularity. She had
approached
him. Though seemingly unperturbed by the distance that determined its
end,
he was encouraged by that relationship’s progress and seems excited
about
the prospect of repeating it. He pulls out his Dating for Dummies and we
commiserate
over our surprise that both sexes often date several people at the same
time
during the “casual dating” phase of things.

He says he’d like a girl who shares, if not simply understands, his
love
of programming. He is fetching, well-spoken, armed with a charming
accent,
and even *sigh* plays a little guitar. It seems that his only obstacle
is
the guy-heavy ratio of male to female techies. That means there’s a
good
chance he’ll break a number of unsympathetic hearts before he finds the
right one, so I tell him not to follow the book’s procedures too
closely.

His budding romantic future is compelling but I try to get back on
track
and ask him about the future of technology. Where does he think
technology
will take him in the coming years? He is so steeped in it, so apt, he
will
undoubtedly be there to see the curves and sways of its process, but he
is
also so close that his perspective on it is less grand. Is there
something
he foresees that excites or even scares him? He is without awe. Not
that
he’s not excited about the technology but his wow factor is relatively
reduced. The innovations don’t pique his imagination as much as they
did
that of the generations preceding his, who grew up with mainframes about
as
big as his dorm room, not PCs.

The imagination, though certainly pertinent, does not play such a
central
role in innovation, because there is a precedent for the work.
Previously,
science fiction was an initiator because it was just that, fiction.
There
was not a lot of non-fiction to which the developers could refer. Ask
a
cutting-edge programmer over age 40 what his favorite book is
and
he will cite something by Isaac Asimov first.
But
Eriksen mentions this author second, after first professing his affection for
O’Reilly which publishes computer
text
books. Where previous geeks had few idols to model themselves
off
of, Eriksen can choose from several including Alan Cox and Theo Deradt.

Certainly things are different for this kid — ethernet access in his
dorm
room, a techno-centric society to grow up in — but the more things
change
the more they seem to stay the same. The boy, with all those brains
and
worldly exposure, went out to buy a book on dating. It’s good to know that
after
all, a geek is still a geek. Good.

Strange habits: Takes a short break after every hour of programming.

Favorite vacation: The week or two he spends each year at his family’s
cabin
in the woods in Norway. He leaves his laptop behind.

Fears: Litigious and bureaucratic tendencies in American society.

First computer: 386 AST.

New Year’s Resolution: Exercise.

Favorite music:Chick Corea, Miles Davis.

Favorite movies: Star Wars Trilogy, Sixth Sense, Twelve Monkeys.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

A computer security firm announced Monday a $50,000 prize to the first person who can crack its system
protection package, reports ZDNET.co.uk.

Argos Systems Group claims that a system running its PitBull
product is virtually impenetrable. The contest — known as
OpenHack III — is sponsored by eWeek magazine and gives
hackers two weeks to crack a PitBull-protected system.

Caldera Systems, Inc.
(Nasdaq: CALD), today
announced the release of Caldera Volution
(“Volution”), a comprehensive
Linux management solution that reduces the cost of
implementing and managing
Linux systems.
With Caldera Volution,
administrators can use policies and
profiles to manage thousands of Linux systems,
without having to
individually manage or touch each. Volution is
distribution-neutral –
designed to work with all major Linux distributions,
and provides broad
management functions. To read industry reaction and
what Volution users are
saying visit .
Volution will significantly benefit ASPs, ISPs,
hosting companies, systems
integrators and network administrators – anyone
needing to manage multiple
Linux servers and desktops.
“The lack of Linux management solutions has been a
barrier impeding Linux
adoption in enterprises,” said Bill Claybrook,
research director for Linux
and UNIX of Aberdeen Group. “Caldera Volution is a
significant entry into
the Linux management space because of its
comprehensiveness and Linux
neutrality. Enterprise administrators need a
Linux-neutral solution to help
them manage constantly changing Open Source
software.”
Caldera Volution is a Web-based remote management
solution that allows
administrators to manage Linux systems from anywhere
at anytime. It is
directory-based utilizing the inherent strengths of
LDAP directories.
Directories provide two major benefits: They give
administrators a place to
not only store information, but a logical and
intuitive way of managing
network resources. Volution supports three major
LDAP directories, Novell’s
eDirectory, OpenLDAP and iPlanet. OpenLDAP and
eDirectory ship with the
product.

“The strength of Caldera Volution is in its ability
to manage all the Linux
systems at a specific location as a discrete unit,”
said Patrick M Ebert,
manager of technical services and support at HON
Industries, one of the
world’s largest manufacturers of office furniture.
“We expect it to
significantly reduce the cost of managing the Linux
systems on our WAN. As
a beta site we felt that Caldera Volution would help
us successfully manage
our environment. We are implementing it throughout
our enterprise: a wide
area network with 300 Intermec 5055 wireless
industrial touch screen PCs
across 18 locations.”

Key Features
· Supports all major Linux distributions
· Secure Web-based management console
· Electronic software distribution – installs and
removes applications
on remote Linux systems
· Hardware and software inventory
· Health monitoring of Linux systems
· Linux printer configuration
· Scheduler/Global event system
· Policy-based management
· Customizable machine profiling
· Data repository based on an LDAP V3 directory

“In addition to its comprehensiveness, Caldera
Volution distinguishes itself
in other areas,” said Ransom Love, president and CEO
of Caldera Systems.
“Our model is to empower administrators. We believe
administrators want and
need control of their Linux systems. We’re also
shipping Volution in nine
additional languages which shows it’s ready for
deployment in small to large
businesses worldwide.”

Pricing, Availability and Support
The suggested list price for Caldera Volution is US
$2995. Volution
ships with the Volution software, Novell eDirectory
and OpenLDAP, a secure
Web server and licenses to manage up to 10 nodes.
Additional nodes are sold
separately.
All international versions of Caldera Volution will
be available
within 30 days. They include: Chinese – simplified
and traditional, French,
Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and
Portuguese.

To purchase Caldera Volution dial 1-888-GoLinux,
visit or e-mail
sales@calderasystems.com .
Multiple support options are available from Caldera
Systems or your
local reseller.

What they’re saying about Volution

Borland
Ted Shelton
Senior Vice President of Business Development

“Borland congratulates Caldera on the release of
their Volution systems
management solution. We firmly believe the
availability of enterprise-ready
applications like Caldera’s Volution will lead to
wider adoption for Linux,
and we look forward to working with Caldera to make
Linux a productive
development and deployment environment.”

Computer Associates
Allan Anderson
Vice President Brand Management

“CA and Caldera share a common goal to produce
viable solutions for
utilizing Linux in corporate environments. Through
Unicenter TNG and
Caldera’s Volution companies can rest assured that a
comprehensive
enterprise management solution is readily available.
We look forward to
providing management solutions to our mutual
customers.”

Georg-Simon-Ohm-University of Applied Sciences
Nuernberg
Thomas Ulrich
System Administration

“Caldera Volution currently is the only available
management solution for
Linux and perfectly fits our needs. Using the
software distribution and
other administration features (e.g.
hardware-alerts), this product enables us to manage
our large Linux computer
pools – doing so entirely Web-based and without the
need to take care of
every single system.”

Legend Computer, Ltd.
Chen Weiqiang
R&D Engineer

“Caldera Volution is a practical product with
extensive capabilities. A true
network management tool, it gives administrators
power over software
distribution, hardware and software inventory, and
system health monitoring.
We see that it will effectively reduce the total
cost of ownership for
implementing Linux networks.”

Novell, Inc.
Ed Anderson
Director of Product Management, Net Directory
business unit

“The integration of eDirectory with Caldera Volution
offers exceptional
value and performance to customers seeking secure
and flexible management of
their Linux networks. As the world’s most largely
deployed directory
service, eDirectory provides a solid foundation for
eBusiness. With the
ability to support all standard access protocols and
to work across all
leading operating systems, eDirectory is the only
directory that can
eliminate barriers between network resources,
enabling the Internet,
intranets and extranets to work together as one Net.
Novell is pleased to
partner with Caldera in delivering a secure,
powerful and cost-effective
tool for managing Linux networks.”

Caldera Systems, Inc.
Caldera Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALD) is a “Linux for
Business” technology
leader in developing and marketing successful
Linux-based business
solutions, including its award-winning OpenLinux,
NetWare for Linux, Linux
technical training, certification and support-with
free 30-day phone support
and on-site consulting. Caldera OpenLearning
Providers offer exceptional
distribution-neutral Linux training and
certification based on Linux
Professional Institute (LPIÔ) certification
standards. Caldera Systems
supports the open source community and is a leader
in, and advocate of Linux
Standard Base (LSBä) and LPIÔ.

Caldera, Inc. was co-founded in 1994 by Ransom Love.
Caldera Systems, Inc.
was founded by Ransom Love in 1998 to develop
Linux-based business
solutions. Based in Orem, UT, Caldera Systems has
offices and 1000+
resellers worldwide. For more information, see
www.calderasystems.com or in
the US call 888-GO-Linux (888-465-4689).

Caldera is a registered trademark of Caldera
Systems, Inc. All other
products, services, companies, events and
publications are trademarks,
registered trademarks or servicemarks of their
respective owners in the U.S.
and/or other countries.

LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Forward Looking Statements
The statements set forth above include
forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. The Company wishes
to advise readers that
a number of important factors could cause actual
results to differ
materially from those in the forward-looking
statements. Those factors
include the failure of the products described above
to operate as designed
due to incompatibility with some platforms or other
defects; our reliance on
developers in the open source community; new and
changing technologies and
customer acceptance of those technologies; the
Company’s ability to compete
effectively with other companies; failure of our
brand to achieve the broad
recognition necessary to succeed; unenforceability
of the GNU general public
license; our reliance on third party developers of
components of our
software offerings; claims of infringement of
third-party intellectual
property rights; and disruption in the Company’s
distribution sales channel.
These and other factors, which could cause actual
results to differ
materially, are also discussed in the Company’s
filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including its recent
filings on Form 10-Q.

“I used to be a complete SuSE fan. All my machines with the exception of one ran SuSE, it was a test
machine that ran whatever I happened to be experimenting with at the time. The reasons I was a huge
SuSE fan were many and not limited to only those outlined below…” From The LinuxGurus.org.

Netsnipe writes “In a few days time, DebianPlanet will be covering Linux Conference Australia (LCA) being hosted at the University of New South Wales by Linux Australia from January 17-20 in Sydney. The timing of this year’s LCA has been coincidentally close to the release of the 2.4 Linux kernel two weeks ago and it is the first major gathering of important Linux developers of the year including Alan Cox. In the spirit of the Debian project, we at DebianPlanet want to make our interviewing process as open as the Debian distribution is with its own reporting and processes. To further this aim we are inviting people to submit their own questions to our interviewees and share a major opportunity to learn where the Linux community is heading towards. Our question submission system is now open to all at http://lca.debianplanet.orgLCA will play host to speeches and presentations by the who’s who of the Linux development community, including Alan Cox and Dave Miller (Linux’s lead network code developer) who are key noting the conference. Other developers who have played a major role in 2.4 such as the firewall code (Rusty Russell), and DRI (Gareth Hughes) will also be a few among the many speaking about the major changes made in 2.4 as well as flaws that need to be addressed in 2.5. New features that will appear in the coming year will be presented by other speakers such as the Tux2 filesystem, improvements in hardware accelerated X, the IA64 platform and zero-copy networking.”

From Wired.com: “Consumer rights are in danger as copyright owners continue to push for restrictions on the use of digital content. Among other ideas, the U.S. Copyright Office is considering ways for content to be destroyed on hard drives after a secondary sale.”

Evan S writes “Want a root shell? The Openroot Project gives away root shells to anyone who needs or wants one. People can learn the UNIX operating system, experiment, or do whatever they want, for example, someone could start a community owned webserver by installing Apache. Openroot has been running for six weeks, and with generous donations from organizations such as the FSF, there has been hardly any downtime.”

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. has announced development
of a Linux-based tablet PC that boasts wireless LAN connectivity, reports Infoworld.

The Digital iPad is designed for applications such as basic e-mail
and Internet access and word processing, and as a multimedia
terminal, for which video and MP3 player software is installed.

CBS reports that NASA has ordered the space shuttle Atlantis to be removed from its launch pad, delaying its launch until the end of the week.