– by Tina Gasperson –
LinuxIsland, the company that sprung up from the ashes of Linuxgruven, is
unreachable by phone, email, even by foot. Are they bunkered in, hiding from the latest anthrax threat?
LinuxIsland sells Linux certification training courses at $3,995 each, promising network admin jobs to students who pass the SAIR examinations, and soliciting Chicago area companies who want to make the switch to Linux networks.

Early last month, NewsForge reported that LinuxIsland was going through some
tough times financially. CEO Rob Walther even funded the payroll out of his
own pocket, for the employees who didn’t get laid off. At that time, Walther
sounded optimistic about securing additional financing based on what he called the company’s
solid business plan, saying, “We’ve told everyone to hold on, there’s a bump
in the road, but we’re not going to shut the doors. Just hang in there —
we’re gonna get through this.”

NewsForge has since received an anonymous tip that both offices in Illinois
were locked up; and our own calls to the Chicago and Lombard locations netted
a phone company recording stating that the lines had been disconnected, and no alternate number was given.

NewsForge has been unable to contact Rob Walther or his partner Ted Petersen,
either by email or telephone, to find out what is going on with LinuxIsland.
As of today, the company has not filed for bankruptcy, according to the records department of the Illinois bankruptcy court.

bryam writes: “Here is the news at Yahoo.” (VA Linux is the corporate parent of NewsForge.)

Anonymous Reader writes: “All I have to say is WOW! To date this has been the best database I have worked with yet. It was extremely easy to install, and easy to work with too. I’d have to say that it can rival even the very expensive commercial database software. This particular distribution of PostgreSQL can be downloaded from the GreatBridge website, along with their tools and documentation in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. I was lucky enough to get my grubby hands a hold of a “boxed” version. Inside were the CD and all of the documentation. This is really nice as I personally still like to read from an actual book. Not having to download it was….LinuxLookUp“

Wired: “Practically all software in China is pirated, and the government is announcing steps to crack the black market. But those who engage in the practice don’t think much will change.”

ZDNET: “Use of e-mail could skyrocket as an ever-widening anthrax investigation turns “snail mail” into a suspicious
and potentially lethal form of communication.

From corporate America to Congress, executives and regulators concerned about the growing number of letters
infected with the deadly bacterium are urging people to communicate through e-mail instead of sending letters
through the U.S. Postal Service.

On Tuesday, the Arizona Daily Star announced that the Tucson newspaper would no longer accept regular postal
mail addressed to “Letters to the Editor” and other popular feedback forums. Instead, editor and publisher Jane
Amari told readers, the paper is asking people to send all correspondence by e-mail, fax or through an online
calendar.”

The Register: “If Intel won’t give us a Pentium 4 bus licence, we’ll make our own Pentium 4. That, in effect, is what
VIA told attendees at the Microprocessor Forum yesterday.

The chip – described in an interview with EBN as a “Pentium 4 clone” – is codenamed CZA and will
run at 2GHz, utilise an 18-stage pipeline to get it there, and employ a “Pentium 4 bus” and P4 design
concepts. It will be fabbed at 0.10 micron, but won’t ship before 2003-2004.”

The Register: “A computer forensics specialist warns that default security features in Windows-XP might bring
civilization to its knees at the hands of pedophiles, tax cheats, and, of course, international terrorists.

Forensics outfit New Technologies’ President, Michael Anderson, a former Fed himself, is claiming
that the secure file-wipe feature in Win-XP Pro is going to “make it impossible for federal agents and
law enforcement to find and reconstruct digital evidence buried on computers, particularly those
seized from terrorists,” according to an article by Network World.”

BBC: “Security experts have warned that the secure computer network
planned by the US Government could be undermined by careless
users.

The Bush administration, newly focused on security since the 11
September attacks, wants to create a network, called Govnet, to
provide protected data and voice communications.”

The Register: “Transmeta has replaced its president and CEO, Mark Allen, after barely six-and-a-half months on the
job – just two days ahead of the publication of its Q3 results.

We’ve yet to hear a more sinister harbinger of trouble ahead – doubly so when the chairman has to
stress his confidence in the company: “I remain extremely positive about Transmeta’s technology,
business model and the very strong team of over four hundred employees.” It doesn’t sound to us
like he’s confident at all.”

Wired: “A senator changes his mind after calling for a prohibition on data-scrambling products without backdoors for government surveillance. Now, he “has no intentions” of working on such an encryption bill.”