From CNET News.com: “America Online is looking into a problem with its Web e-mail service that is giving new life to retired passwords, the company said Friday. AOL said that a sporadic technical glitch was affecting an “extremely small” number of people using its Web-based e-mail program, part of its “AOL Anywhere” plan for accessing AOL services from various outlets.”

“Educators fear that a proposal to help accommodate spiffy new
Web-surfing cell phones and other hand-held devices could
end up displacing instructional-television operations at more
than a thousand colleges, schools, and other educational
institutions.” Story at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

USA Today profiles incoming ICANN chairman and “father of the Internet” Vint Cerf.

CNET News.com reports: “Sony said it will double production of its PlayStation 2 in the next three months after parts shortages left many would-be buyers
empty-handed after the video game console was introduced in Europe and the U.S.”

From UnixReview: “The Linux Professional Institute has plans for three levels of certification, with each level consisting of two exams that
you must pass. Last month, I looked at exam 101, the first test in the first level (the upper two levels are still in
development). This month, I’ll focus on exam 102 (full name known by VUE is 117-102). The following list of fifty key
points to know is excerpted from the upcoming book, LPI General Linux 1 Exam Cram (Exam 102).”

David Dittrich outlines the goals of the Honeynet Forensic Challenge: “One of the primary goals of the Honeynet Project is to find order in chaos by letting the attackers do their thing, and allowing the defenders to learn from the experience and improve. The latest challenge, inspired by the Honeynet Project’s founder Lance Spitzner, is the Forensic Challenge. Only this time, we’re opening it up to anyone who wants to join in. Only one entry per household, please. Must be sentient to enter. Sorry, no Ginsu Knives come with this offer!”

The December 2000 – January 2001 edition of LinuxUser is now available online, in PDF format. Articles include a guest editorial on software patents, a look at Linux deployment within the Consume commercial wireless project, and a review of Linux-related books.

From a review at LinuxPlanet: “There is, or ought to be, a rule for application developers: Don’t break other stuff on the computer or, if you must break some things, make it clear ahead of time that you’re going to do this, so that prospective users can reconsider. Physicians are bound by the rule that it’s better to do nothing than to do harm. Developers ought to embrace that notion. The developers of HamcomOffice, a suite of applications from Korea, haven’t.”

“As part of an industry competition to test the security of a digital music copyright protection system developed by a group of entertainment and technology companies, Professor (Edward W.) Felten was part of a group that says it successfully disabled the system. But he said he was reluctant to make public the details of how it was done because the 1998 law made it a crime to manufacture or “offer to the public” a way to gain unauthorizedaccess to any copyright-protected work that has been secured by a technology like encryption.” Story at New York Times(Free registration required).

From Linux.com: “Linux.com Live! recently had the privilege of speaking with the staff of Themes.org about the role of theming
and interface enhancement in the future of Linux. With the release of kernel 2.4 and its emphasis on
improving the end user’s system, the role of the desktop in Linux is more important than ever.”