Intel Corp. on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for
Rambus Inc.’s Rambus direct RAM memory
technology for high-end PCs after a trade journal
on Monday said the chip maker would phase out
support for the technology in favor of less
expensive alternatives, says ZDNET.

CNET reports: “Due to the credible threat of terrorist acts in the Middle East region, and the conduct of these Web
attacks, (Internet users) should exercise increased vigilance to the possibility that U.S. government and
private sector Web sites may become potential targets,” said a recent advisory from the FBI’s cybercrime
unit, the National Infrastructure Protection Center.

By Emmett Plant
NewsForge Columnist
Speaking of GNU/Linux

Happy Halloween! Oh, alright, it probably will have already been
Halloween
by the time you get this, but you’re still hip-deep in candy. Isn’t
Halloween great? You run around the neighborhood dressed like a maniac,
and you grab candy from willing donors. It’s fantastic. They want to
give
you candy, you want to take candy. You want to hoard, they want to let
you
do it. If you don’t hoard the candy, you’re thought of as
strange. What a great business model!

Open Source is like Halloween for geeks. The only strange dynamic is
that
the kids grabbing the candy and the adults distributing the candy are
the
same group of people, and you’re expected to let anyone eat from your
bottomless pillowcase of candy. No problem, right? It’s wonderful! It’s
fantastic! It’s giving! It’s freedom!

Until you realize that sometime, somewhere, someone’s got to pay for
the
candy. Oh, we’ve advanced beyond the concept of spending cash for a bag
of
“fun size” Snickers bars. It’s all about time and interest. Time
actually
isn’t the hard part. Sure, a lot of developers are super-busy, but
you’ll
find that getting a program written takes more than just time. It’s got
to
be interesting.

That’s right, it’s got to be interesting. Want to know why there’s no
fantastic small-business financial management tools for Linux? Because
small-business financial management software is only slightly more
interesting than watching a full evening of “The Brady Brides”
reruns. It’s boring! It’s stupid! It’s painful! They need something
more
to get them involved. Here are some tips to getting your application
written.

On Halloween, the silliest thing you could do is to be one of those
people
that just leaves a basket full of candy on the doorstep with a little
sign
that says “please take one.” Are you mad? The first kid that comes to
that
door is gonna bolt up there, dump the basket into his or her bag, turn
around and say, “It’s empty!” Duh. Want kids to share? Supervise. What
does this mean for Open Source developers? Get involved. Help them. Make them feel wanted and stay
on board so you can get what you really want.

Want the kids to come to your house again and again and again? Be the guy
who
gives out entire, regular-sized candy bars. Oh, yes. They will flock to your house.
They
will come by your house many times, sometimes in different costumes. I
know this because I did this when I was a kid. The kids need something to come back for. Give them a
huge
Snickers bar. I’m not saying the king size, but certainly bigger than
the standard Halloween fun size. Get the big candy bars.

What does
this
mean in terms of Open Source developers? Support them! It’s not enough just to be around. You’ve got to
give
them the good stuff. Definitely time, maybe some money, maybe some
equipment. Anything you can spare, but make sure you’re giving the best
you can.

“For all those who use Linux in their office and have been frustrated with faxing under their favorite OS, life may
have just become easier. Joe was able to install and configure the PMfax software and send a fax, all in just 15
minutes.” From LinuxWorld.

IBM Corp. said Thursday that a
leading Japanese convenience store chain will install
more than 15,000 IBM computers running Linux to
allow for Web access in stores. From TechWeb.

From MaximumLinux.com: “Even with the exponential growth in Linux’s popularity over the past few years, the Big Box stores truly have been the sleeping giants when
it comes to getting on the Linux bandwagon, to their detriment. The independent retailers are more than happy to pick up the slack, and as
long as the “little guy” continues to stock, promote and support Linux to the extent they do, you’ll see them do well in business. And Linux’s
popularity will continue to grow.”

ComputerWorld.com reports that Truste, a nonprofit organization that previously created a set of data-privacy guidelines for Web sites, now plans to certify companies for compliance with the U.S.-European safe harbor agreement that went into effect today.

A Texas company is suing ICANN and one of its top
officials, claiming it is intimidating registrars not to sign
agreements with the company, which offers customers
the chance to get a jump start on registering names
among the new groups of domains expected to be
announced by ICANN later this month. From ZDNET.

CNET.com reports that Torvalds originally wanted to release the 2.4.0 version of the Linux “kernel” in 1999, but cramming in a host of new features took longer
than expected. The 2.4 kernel improves Linux’s ability to run on high-end servers with several CPUs and adds support for desktop
features such as universal serial bus.

From ZDNet: How about an e-mail worm that can
automatically upgrade itself with each
new infection? The Sonic worm
(W32.Sonic.Worm) hails from
Germany, spreads via e-mail, and
consists of two parts: a loader and a
payload.