The Associated Press reports: “Struggling with privacy concerns, a panel that oversees federal judges
decided Wednesday that jurists and court employees should have some Internet activities
monitored–but not their e-mail.”

But not before The Register’s swiftly observant readers were able to see the additions, which pretty much confirmed the specs leaked late last month.

Federal Computer Week observes that while many U.S. government offices have adopted Linux, “…concerns about security have kept many agencies at bay, especially the Defense Department. Incidentally, the efforts of an agency famous for its suspicious nature may eventually help the rest of government put aside its fears. This spring, the National Security Agency released a prototype of a security-enhanced Linux system and released it to the public.”

Federal Computer Week has a story about the ever-increasing role of Linux in the U.S. federal government. Two years ago, you might have found this Open Source operating system churning out results for complex scientific tasks. These days, you’ll find it serving up just about anything computer and/or Internet-related from the Census Bureau to the White House. While there are plenty of reasons for these agencies to choose Linux, the departmental bottom line seems to be one of the biggest factors. The Bureau of the Public Debt, for example, saved over $330,000 in startup costs when it went with the penguin for a key Web publishing project.

CNET News.com (via MSNBC) reports that Microsoft will ship Office v.X for Mac OS X in November, and will be priced between $149 and $499: ” No other Mac product released this year could be more
important to Apple than Office v. X, say some Mac users. With
other major Mac developers-such as Adobe-lagging behind in
getting out OS X products, Microsoft’s support could be crucial
to driving upgrades of the operating system. Apple released its
next-generation Mac OS in March, although many important
applications had not yet been written for the operating system.”

Reported at CBC: “The worm that has slowed the Internet to
a crawl has put New Brunswick’s government computer
system out of business. Computer experts warn that the Nimda – which is
“admin” spelled backwards – might be the beginning of
more worms and viruses. The impact of Nimda on New Brunswick has shut down
such services as vehicle licence registration.”

:LinuxCertified, Inc., a leading provider of Linux training, has announced the
availability of first in a new family of distance learning products: the Linux system
administration distance learning program.

This new program is based on the study material that has been developed and
used in highly successful LinuxCertified System Administration bootcamps. This
new product creates a comprehensive learning environment for IT professionals to
learn at their own pace. Whether the professional is learning in corporate LAN
environment or at home, they will find learning using this innovative product to be
highly effective and useful in real life Linux environments.” Read the full press release at LinuxPR.

From a press release at LinuxPR: “Mainline Information Systems,
IBM’s largest solution provider, and Bynari, Inc. IBM’s first Linux Influencer
Partner, announced today that they have formed a strategic alliance partnership to
deliver comprehensive Linux solutions for the IBM product line. Bynari Inc., a
leader in the Linux community, began delivering Linux solutions on IBM eServers
in October 1998 and started the first “pure” Linux per incident help desk and
professional service group in April 1999. Mainline will offer a set of
comprehensive Linux service and support solutions as a result of the alliance.”

Open Source Directory announces that MandrakeSoft is a new sponsor, and will provide OSD with a server at the MandrakeSoft datacenter. Also: OSD and Ibiblio have partnered to offer FTP and archiving services for the Open Source software collection at OSD. Read the full text of both announcements at LinuxPR.

Posted at Canada News Wire: “Alta Terra Ventures Corp. (CDNX:ATT), an
aggressively growing full-service Linux provider, announced today that it has
signed an agreement with the major shareholders of Univolve Corporation to
purchase the company. Univolve is a private Alberta-based software company
whose major thrust is reactive keyboard and compression technology with
text-prediction software that is built on a Linux platform.
Univolve’s reactive keyboard and compression technology is expected to
enable significantly improved functionality in embedded operating systems.
This has direct implications in the wireless communications markets, where
data entry is difficult or compromised – such as in PDAs, cellphones and other
computing devices.”