“Well, it’s been a little over a year since the removal of the kde2-alpha list
that allowed users of what has since become kde 2, then 2.1, now 2.2 to
communicate, report bugs, and help each other work through problems. It was a
hell of a development cycle and that list helped a lot of additional people
test and provide input into the final product.”

New List! kde3alpha
From: Christopher Molnar 
To: kde-pim@kde.org,  kde@mail.kde.org,  koffice@master.kde.org,
kde-devel@kde.org,  kde-promo@kde.org,  kdenonlinux@kde.org, 
kde3alpha@kde.org
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 13:12:32 -0400


Hello,

I am sorry about the interuption.

Well, it's been a little over a year since the removal of the kde2-alpha list 
that allowed users of what has since become kde 2, then 2.1, now 2.2 to 
communicate, report bugs, and help each other work through problems. It was a 
hell of a development cycle and that list helped a lot of additional people 
test and provide input into the final product.

Now along comes the planning stages of KDE3. Already we are seeing some major 
enhancements to the HEAD branch of CVS. So, here we go again, it is time to 
create a new list!

I would like to announce the creation of the KDE3ALPHA mailing list and 
explain it's purpose:

Subscription is at: http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde3alpha or via 
email at:  kde3alpha-request@mail.kde.org

The kde3alpha list is created for the purpose of users (non-developer types) 
to communicate problems, sollutions, and bugs to each other and then in turn 
to developers who may be monitoring the list. The list is also being created 
with the hopes that a lot of the install/compile problems that end up in the 
bug database can be resolved on the list rather quickly between users. 

I would like to request that those people who build nightly or weekly builds 
of CVS HEAD branch and make them public consider joining this list so that 
you may answer questions regarding your builds. (You may also want to 
consider sending a note to the list telling where people can find your 
builds).

-Chris

John Leitch of Hertfordshire, U.K., is selling a real live, transferable UK tag that spells out L1NUX (or maybe it’s L7NUX, according to The Register) on EBay. The high bid so far is �8,100, with 67 bids that started at �5. His success could be encouraging other hopefuls to jump on the bandwagon.Australian Tom Piotrowski, webmaster at LinuxPlaza, is tossing his LINUX plate into the fray, in an auction with an opening bid of 5,000AUD and a 15,000AUD reserve. Piotrowski’s tag actually spells LINUX, with no numbers substituting for letters. “I am a great fan of Linux, and true believer that the OS will do well,” says Piotrowski. “I am kind of proud driving my car around Sydney with Linux number plates on it, but if someone is prepared to pay …”

Piotrowski thinks there may be a possibility of interest from the enemy camp. “Wouldn’t be sad if the highest bid comes
eventually from regional office of Microsoft? It must be hurting to
them to see my car passing by, especially that in Australia we have a
limit of six letters or digits on number plates, well too short for
anything else but ailing ‘WinNT.'”

Back in the states, a decorative LINUX plate for sale at eBay, complete with a “Live Free or Die” motto and a Compaq logo, has seven bids that have driven the price up from $2 to $23. “My husband found this tag in an ex-co workers pod at Sprint. When the guy resigned he left it behind. My husband brought it home and we have no use for it,” says Kansas City resident Stephanie Toppino, the auctioner. “I have never seen anything like this,” she says of the interest sparked by the eBay auction.

A search of the California DMV license plate database revealed that there are quite a few LINUX tag configurations that may be popping up on auction sites if this trend catches on. We found these existing LINUX variations already taken: EKLINUX, GOLINUX, HHLINUX, ILINUX, LINUX, LINUXGO, LINUXIT, LINUXOS, LINUXR, LINUXRX, LINUXTR, LINUXX, LINUX1, LINUX2, LINUX21, LINUX4U, LINUX64, LINUX77, LINUX95, LINUX98, MCLINUX, and VALINUX — not to mention BSD, BSDCODE, BSDUNIX, and a host of *UNIX variations. Plus, WINDOWS, WINDOW5, and OPENSRC.

If you really want your own LINUX tag and you can’t seem to get one, trying making your own, online, at Acme License Maker, where you choose your state and year and affix any combination of letters and numbers you like. All you get is a little .jpg and not the real thing — but it’s fun to play with.

ZDNet has a funny column comparing the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov to a small-town speed trap. “As Americans and scientists, we are embarrassed by this action by our nation. If the Department
of Justice wants a test case of the anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA, a quick search on
the Web using the term ‘password recovery’ will yield numerous firms that are located in the
United States and that appear to be engaging in far more serious abuses.”

The Associated Press (posted on CNN.com) reports that prosecutors and defense attorneys for Dmitry Sklyarov, the Russian computer
programmer charged with circumventing electronic book copyright protections, are negotiating a
possible plea bargain.

A little bird told us that a brand new, little-known edition of Windows has been leaked and is now available online. (Warning: this links directly to a Flash file.)

Wired: “Hacktivists, border activists and just plain folks gather in Tijuana, Mexico for Borderhack 2.0, where they’ll pointedly discuss the implications of borders in today’s globalized world.”

BBC: “Japanese game maker Nintendo has postponed the US launch of its
new GameCube console by nearly two weeks to 18 November.

The postponement means that the GameCube will now appear on
the crucial US market 10 days after the rival Xbox console,
produced by Microsoft.

Nintendo denied persistent rumours that technical problems were
behind the delay, insisting that the later launch was a more
appropriate timing.”

Wired: “When students at the University of Phoenix return to school this fall, many of them won’t be carrying books in their
backpacks. Instead, they will download digital textbooks, multimedia simulations and PowerPoint presentations from
portable e-book readers and desktop PCs.”

Anonymous Reader writes: “Taking a cue from GPL, Daniel James has applied this to the distribution of digital music files as a way of keeping artists in the loop monetarily. The Personal Music License (PML)allows artists to release digital music files on the Net without putting listeners into a legal grey area, but that reserves commercial exploitation of the music for the copyright holder. http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/pml.html“

The Register: “A man has been convicted of blackmail after he threatened to hack into the
computers of Barclays Bank unless he was paid £200 000.

Bungling blackmailer Stuart Kearns, 24, faces three years in prison after threatening
the collapse of the computer system in the Barclays branch in Beckenham High
Street and others in Barclays’ network unless the bank complied with his extortion
demands.”