Reviews of MGM’s new Open Source-centric film are rolling in. Penguinista calls it “too predictable, and just a bit too unbelievable,” and MaximumLinux says “I should have listened to my friends who were telling me that this movie was going to be a real wanker. They were right.”

Bradley M. Kuhn writes “Richard M. Stallman will deliver a speech entitled, The Free Software Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System, on Friday 19 January 2001 from 18:30 until 21:00 at UANL (Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon) in Monterrey, Mexico. This speech will be delivered in English. The speech will be held at UANL (Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon) in the FIME (Facultad de Ingenieria Mecanica) Department. The speech will be hosted in the conference room located in the second floor.”

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.”