Reuters reports this strang item: “Computer and printer maker HP said Friday that one of its employees
is missing, apparently having been sucked out of an airplane in
mid-flight Thursday.

The accident was confirmed Friday by Bruce Nelson, an operations
officer with the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles.
‘About five miles southeast of Sacramento, at 2,000 feet, a female
reportedly jumped or fell from the aircraft,’ Nelson said.”

This update is on ZDNet UK : “Linux creator, Linus Torvalds, is preparing the 2.4 Linux kernel for
final release later this month, as testing and bug fixing near completion.

The kernel will include enhancements to improve the open-source
operating system’s robustness and go some way to prove its suitability
for enterprise-level applications.”

From The Register: “”A Microsoft Web site has been defaced in the latest of a string of attacks that have
called into question the ability of IT companies to keep their systems secure.
The software giant’s Slovenian site, www.microsoft.si, was sprayed with pro-Linux
graffiti by a hacker who gained control of the site, which is hosted in the former
Yugoslavian country. In a reference to Mark Renton’s famous speech at the
beginning of the film Trainspotting, the site was changed to feature a tirade that
equated choosing Microsoft software to being a moron.”

The BBC reports: BT is going to court to enforce its claim to have invented hyperlinks.
This week, the company filed a lawsuit in a New York court seeking damages
from a U.S. Internet provider over its use of hyperlink
technology.

CNet reports that metal-rap band Rage Against The Machine is “offering an olive branch to fans angry
about being booted from Napster last week, posting a long list of otherwise
unavailable songs and videos to its Web site.

Many fans of the band found themselves barred from Napster last week after the band’s
management and record label gave the song-swapping service a list of usernames of people
suspected of trading unauthorized songs.”

Slashdotters discuss an announcement for Vitanuova.com that the company’s Unix-inspired Inferno plugin makes it possible to run an OS in a browser. It’s now available for IE, but other versions are coming.

From CNet: “The motion picture industry’s effort to ban computer code that subverts its DVD encryption scheme has suffered a setback in
California, with the state’s high court issuing an order that could see many of the defendants dropped from the closely watched
case.

The California Supreme Court on Thursday effectively ordered a lower court to show why defendant Matthew Pavlovich should remain in
the case even though he is not a California resident.”

NewsForge reader Cristian R. Arroyo writes: “At last, Argentina has it’s first local-developed Linux distribution ever! GNU/Linux UTUTO is based on SuSE 6.4 and Debian, and is ment to boot and run from its own CD-ROM, thus avoyding the hassle of hard disk partitioning. It includes KDE, StarOffice 5.2 and WebMin for system-wide configuration, including dial-up Internet access. It’s aimed towards the Linux newbie and for Linux presentations. You can read a full review of GNU/Linux UTUTO at Planeta Linux Argentina (in Spanish).”

From an anonymous reader: “Although its name may seem to be unrelated to its field in the infinite space
of the Web, ZioBudda.net is simply one of the most important Italian vertical
portals devoted to the best open-source operating system, thanks to the work of
webmaster and portal coordinator Michel Morelli, who devotes a lot of his spare
time to provide help and a meeting place for all Italian Linux users.”

Anandtech: “It is that time of the week again when AnandTech takes that hard work out of holiday shopping and presents you with the lowest prices on CPUs and video cards around. Take a look to see what should end up on your holiday wish list and what is still too expensive for this season.”