Slashdot readers discuss an article in the Wall Street Journal about crackers using 802.11 technology to create short-range wireless networks.

“P2P’s getting simpler by the minute, every day there are more users with more bandwidth to spare, and any time anybody anywhere comes up with some way of tracking what data people are sending each other and trying to figure out whether it’s legal or not, some happy hacker can come up with a new way of making the traffic look like something else. Like a random bit stream, for instance.” Australian IT comments on the peer-to-peer file sharing revolution.

SGI today announced the availability of the OpenGL Performer application and 3D visual programming interface upgrade for IRIX and Linux operating systems. This is the first version of OpenGL Performer for Linux that features multithreading for improved performance. The program can be downloaded free of charge directly from SGI’s Web site.

In a short press release at PR Newswire, Oracle boasts the results of a recent Zona Research study. A survey of 109 IT professionals with access to the corporate checkbook revealed that the Linux database of choice was, and will probably continue to be, Oracle8i.

PC Magazine’s Bill Machrone comments on WebQL: The idea is sheer simplicity: An interface that understands Web objects so that any site or group of sites can be queried like an SQL database. The implementation is a little harder, of course, which is why this product costs $499. But if you have data extraction or data analysis needs that go beyond the (usually lame) search or retrieval capabilities of most sites, this is the package you’ve been waiting for.

In a press release at PR Newswire, SCO announced two new supplemental features for UnixWare 7. The Data Center Feature Supplement provides improved support and reliability for large database systems. The Universal Development Kit is an improved one-stop resource for developers who wish to port applications to UnixWare 7 and other associated operating platforms.

“All told, IBM has a team of about 200 open source developers at
work in its hardware, software, services, and research divisions.
Company officials claim that IBM currently employs more
developers dedicated to open source than any corporation
anywhere. On Nov. 28 and 29, that core group, plus another 100
IBM developers and executives, will drill down on subjects such
as Windows 2000-Linux compatibility and just-in-time Java
compilers.” From ZDCOUK.

Bob Young: “Linux delivers what customers have wanted for 30 some-odd years: a continuous stream of
innovation without the annual cost and implementation to go with it.” Upside Today has the full interview with the CEO of Red Hat.

From ZDCOUK: “Enterprises grappling with rocketing end-user storage
requirements could soon benefit from 100GB DVD-sized optical
disks and 10GB credit card-sized drives, thanks to pioneering
fluorescent multi-layer disk (FMD) technology from Constellation
3D (C3D).”

Newsforge reader Michel Morelli submitted this link (destination is in the Italian language): “In this article the ZioBudda’s “Pensiero” (a thought) (ZioBudda is an Italian Linux Portal) about the controversy” between Germany and HP.