Paul Emsley has posted the latest edition at kt.zork.net. Topics include the removal of string functions from GNU Mach, xmalloac, xrealloc, and friends, a new patch for gtkfind, and GNU/Hurd’s $46 million development cost (or possibly not).

From Network World Fusion: “Forbes magazine, which calculates an annual
ranking of the 400 richest people in America,
has recalculated its list based on closing stock
prices on Sept. 24, six trading days after
markets reopened in the wake of the attacks. It
then compared the new numbers to the previous
list, which was calculated on Aug. 27.

The new ranking shows that no one has lost
more money than Bill Gates, Microsoft’s
chairman and chief software architect. His net
worth fell $7.2 billion over the period although,
as America’s richest man, even a fall of that
size accounts for just 13.3% of his net worth,
now estimated at $46.8 billion.”

ZDNet’s David Coursey comments on Sun’s new Liberty Alliance, a plan that aims to create an open standard alternative to Microsoft’s .NET: “If there is a fight, Sun will lose. Given that Sun has never been a builder of great coalitions, I
almost wonder why they are trying again. Jini and Jxta seem to be down for the count, and even
Java didn’t come close to the hype. I have no expectation of Sun being able to make this happen
without support that only Microsoft (or a court of competent jurisdiction) can provide.”

Slashdotters discuss Apple’s continuing offensive against GUIs that look like their trademark.

The Register: “One month to go and customers can’t wait for Windows XP! Thanks Microsoft for letting us – the
public – have a try before we buy!” So shrieks the latest excitable press release from the Microsoft UK
spinmeisters at Augusto Ne. “Thousands of people,” it says here, “both technical as well as those
who wanted to get a look at the latest home PC operating system from Microsoft, who have signed
up to the Windows XP preview programme have been posting their comments up on the MSN user
group site over the past couple of weeks – and the good news is, they like it.”

This, you’ll probably agree with the cynics at The Reg, sounds like a very strange user group.
Thousands of them? All fired-up and raring to go? Positive comments? Absolutely no embittered
abuse about Bill and his merry men? This has got to be the Stepford New Group, and we’ve got to
take a look.”

Kelly McNeill writes: “In the fervor surrounding the nation’s desire to pinpoint, track and hunt terrorists, laws are being drafted to allow greater access to Americans’ personal data, including their cellular-phone conversations, e-mail messages and Internet use. In addition, efforts continue to create enhanced video monitoring in public places — recording people’s faces to match against databases of who did what, when and where. Today, as the nation mourns those lost in the terrorist attacks, these measures feel right to some. They make the country seem safer, many agree.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “Now that Vivendi Universal has officially taken over the reigns of MP3.com this week, their first order of duty was to strip down the payouts to artists on the site’s Payback for Playback service. Included in this article are the earnings of a dozen or so MP3.com artists from the present plan, and what they will expect to earn after the new plan takes effect Oct. 1st.

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/p4p.html“

Christoph Wille writes: “It is almost two months after the last release – we finally got SharpDevelop .80 on the road (GPL’ed C# IDE)! It sports a major UI overhaul, more Java support, DOC.NET, a Toolbar, cool project options and more. See for yourself in the feature tour, and then download it.”

MSNBC: “In 1995, a Saudi exchange student named Abdulaziz Alomari at the University of Colorado
reported a common burglary. Thieves broke into his apartment and made off with Alomari’s briefcase,
his passport tucked inside. Six years later, that passport was quite possibly carried by a hijacker onto
American Airlines Flight 11, the first to slam into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. In an age where
marketing companies can track your every click on the Internet, how could a passport reported stolen
six years ago be used to gain entry into the United States?”

Kelly McNeill writes: >”A coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups are stressing the need to preserve individual rights and limit government authority as officials seek broadened powers to fight terrorism. But legislation saying that hackers and spammers can be punished as though they were terrorists has so far aroused little negative reaction. Lawmakers have acknowledged the need to balance new terror-fighting tools with existing civil liberties, but the inclusion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the terrorism crackdown could result in harsh penalties — ranging up to life in prison — for hackers and senders of unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam.”