The Standard reports on Deja.com selling its shopping service and returning to its Usenet roots. Old-school users like the move.

From CNET: “The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to clear the $109
billion merger of America Online and Time Warner, paving the way for final government
approval of one of the largest deals in corporate history.”

From BusinessWire: MSC.Software Corp. (NYSE:MNS), an established information technology
software and services provider helping companies worldwide develop better products faster, today announced the beta availability of MSC.Linux.
MSC.Linux, a version of the Linux operating system from MSC.Software, combines PCs into clusters, enabling them to address engineering problems
once only solved by expensive supercomputers. The operating system delivers many industrial-strength capabilities including substantial memory, large
files, high-performance data transfer and cluster tools in an easy-to-use, Web-based distribution.

From BusinessWire: Turbolinux, Inc., a leader in high-performance Linux for Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced at Oracle OpenWorld in Japan a global
OEM distribution agreement with Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) to provide Turbolinux as a bundled or factory-installed option with certain
models of Compaq ProLiant industry-standard servers. The agreement also permits Compaq to bundle and pre-install TurboLinux software on
AlphaServer and AlphaStation systems. More from The Register.

ZDNet reports on a Wall Street Journal report (confusing, eh?) saying America Online and Time-Warner signed an agreement Wednesday night with federal antitrust enforcers. The bottom line: The feds could approve the merger today.

From BusinessWire:
Dell today announced that DellHost, Dell’s integrated Web hosting service, is offering expanded custom, multi-tier solutions that include
firewall and load balancing servers.
DellHost today also announced a 1GHz configuration of its rack optimized 2U Dell) PowerEdge 2450 dedicated hosting server and a
complimentary 1U PowerApp Web server offer on select dedicated hosting packages.

DellHost is announcing the availability of 1GHz processing power to its customer base at competitive prices. In its D-3300 dedicated server solution,
DellHost offers a PowerEdge 2450 server featuring dual 1GHz Intel Pentium III processors, 1GB RAM, three 9GB(a) SCSI hard drives and Red
Hat Linux operating system for only $799 per month, plus set-up fees …

Slashdot readers talk about an announcement at NetBSD.org that plex86 now works on NetBSD.

zez.org: about code has an article by Luis Argerich which covers internationalization. As he says: “If you are a web developer using PHP from small web applications to large corporate portals with millions of page views, you may suddenly find that you need your site or application translated to another language. When your company opens www.company.com.br you need your application in Portuguese, then you’ll need it in Japanese and so on. You don’t have a ‘translation’ problem, you have an internationalization problem.” Thanks to reader pkej

Reuters reports on IBM’s z900 series, which ships with an open operating systems and prices intended to attract small-company buyers who need help with growing Web demands.

LinuxWorld reports: “Virginia Beach, Va., was forced to pay Microsoft $129,000 for software licenses, even though the city had
probably already paid for the software and did not receive due process. Some companies have suffered the
same fate; others likely will. Joe Barr explains the wherefores of Redmond’s scare tactics and suggests that open
software is the best defense.”