RealNetworks has released an alpha preview version of RealPlayer 9 for Linux, which now seems to go by the name of RealOne. There are a few things you need to do in order to get your hands on the latest release, and in a message originally posted by RealNetworks’ core developer Greg Wright, you’ll find out everything you need to know.

Here is how to get it:

                   1) Goto http://scopes.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html

                   2) Fill in the form and Choose Linux 2.x (libc6 i386).

                   3) click on "Download Community Supported Player"

                   4) Don't click on the normal download links. Go look at the very
                   bottom of the page. You will see

                   "RealOne Player for Unix - Preview Release"

                   If you would like to try the alpha version of RealOne Player for
                   Linux 2.2 x86, use the button below."

                   5) Click on that button and download.

                   Hope you all get a chance to try it and give us feedback. I think you
                   will all find a much improved UI and user experience.

                   --greg.

                   --------------------------
                   Greg Wright
                   Core Dev.
                   RealNetworks Inc.

A Reuters report on Yahoo celebrates the 30th anniversary of the invention of e-mail. The article is chock-full of amusing and informative quotes from Ray Tomlinson, who created e-mail while working for BBN, the company responsible for creating (D)ARPAnet in the 60’s and 70’s. Also amusing (and perhaps somewhat confusing) is the article’s reference to the “now famous “+” symbol.” Erm, okay.

From The Register: “In response to Gartner’s recommendation that businesses investigate alternatives to
Microsoft’s Internet Information Server, the Beast sent its sales staff a crib sheet with
the theme: “all web servers are vulnerable – but some are more vulnerable others,”.
Several dozen of you have written to point out that Microsoft’s list of vulnerabilities
in Apache, PHP and MySQL misses the point.”

From Debian Planet: “Aah, Progeny. The dream. The saviour. The best, easiest, install Debian’s ever seen.
Debian++. Right? Well, uh … maybe with a little work. If I had to sum up Progeny in one word, I’m sure it’d be “niggling”. Or maybe
“unpolished”. Whatever that word would be, it’s not quite ready to save us all.”

MIT’s TechReview.com has a story about MIT bringing the OpenSource software sensibility to hgher education by offeringn free curricula and courseware by the Web.

From Internetwk.com: “Revived efforts to restrict software encryption in the
wake of the recent terrorist attacks could have an
adverse impact on e-commerce, IT managers and
security experts say, but it’s unlikely the
government will succeed in curtailing encryption.”

LinuxFocus.org has a story about using “lire to analyze log files of internet server applications. This is not limited
to one service, e.g. Apache, but is an integrated analyzer for many different services.”

At LWN.net: “Shane Hathaway recently identified a potential security issue in
Zope that could affect sites that let untrusted users write DTML
code. The issue affects Zope versions 2.2.0 through 2.4.1.

The issue involves the ‘fmt’ attribute of dtml-var tags. Without
this correction, Zope does not check security access to methods
invoked through ‘fmt’.”

From The Dot: “Normally a new beta wouldn’t be dot news, but the new Qt 3.0.0 beta6
release is notable for one reason: QCom is gone.”

From TheRegister: “Microsoft claiming Novell products have an expiration date will have prompted
gales of laughter in IT departments throughout the world. Redmond itself is home of
the expiration date, habitually unleashes a ‘new’ operating system on us every
year, and deploys a battery of weapons — retirement of MCP (Microsoft Certified
Professional) qualifications, price juggling, withholding of handy widgets, menacing
new licensing regimes — in order to achieve de facto expiration of the old ones.”