The Federal Trade Commission will hold a two-day public forum Thursday
and Friday to determine whether existing laws governing traditional retail sales
should be extended to software, as well as intangible products such as
Internet downloads or online services, from CNET News.

Applied Information Systems
(AIS) announced today that it has released version 5.0 of the XESS spreadsheet products for Linux,
UNIX, VMS, and Windows NT systems. According to Business Wire, these products include the XESS spreadsheet, the xsBasic
Macro Option, and the XESS Software Developers Kit (SDK).

BrowseX is an Open Source, cross-platform Web Browser written primarily in Tcl. It now installs as a single standalone binary: nothing to compile. There are also several key new features, reports Linux PR: ZipView lets you view web content
contained in zip files, and Passman manages userid/passwords to give near
single signon capability within a web browser.

ZDNET reports: New figures from the semiconductor industry underscore a
potential slowdown in the chip industry, though observers say it is
too early to point to a slowdown in worldwide semiconductor
demand.

From Upside Today: Al Gore might not have invented the Internet, but George W. Bush has a track record of
completely misunderstanding the power of the Web. Bush’s ineptitude in this area emerged early in the
campaign, when Massachusetts resident Zack Exley posted a satirical website that, among other things,
contained a faked-up picture of Bush snorting cocaine.

From Linux.com: “These days, most computer peripherals are designed to work best in Microsoft
Windows (sigh). But the rise of Linux in the public lexicon means there may be a market
for Linux-specific computer hardware. This is the short list of hardware we here at
Linux.com would like to add to our collection. To appeal to the hardware manufacturers
of the world, I’ve drafted some sample advertisements.”

LinuxSecurity.com has interviewed the author of the AES algorithm. Vincent Rijmen talks about the development of the
Rijndael
algorithm, his selection as the NIST algorithm of choice for AES,
thoughts on Linux and security, and the future of Internet security.

X-Terminals are a great way to revive your old machine or make your
diskless workstation that much more productive. StarOffice 5.2 may not run
on your 486, but you can run it off another machine and export the display
to your monitor. From FreeOS.com.

When Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, finally deigned to show up to give his keynote address
he delivered what attendees described as ‘a 40-minute sales pitch’.
And in a surprising break with tradition, the Oracle boss also slated
Microsoft’s database offerings. From The Register.

Wired.com reports that websites preparing to do battle over ownership of domain names have new tools to help build their cases. Several groups are organizing the arbitration results so that arguments can be cited