Slashdot has pasted about solar-powered PCs designed by a British company. “A new ruggedised RISCOS computer, the Solo is intended for use within Third-world countries where its ultra-low-power design enables it to be used indefinitely away from sources of mains electricity.”

use Perl;: ” Perl 5.7.2 can be considered to be the virtual Release Candidate Zero for the Perl 5.8.0, it is just not called a Release Candidate. It is in pretty good shape, it is just that it is not *quite* yet ready to be a major release. No large changes are expected between now and 5.8.0.”

Linux has begun to make inroads at serious computer-based animation studios, as reported on Slashdot, to replace legacy SGI systems..

Gary Lawrence Murphy writes: “Rebel.com has gone into receivership and its officials have resigned, according to reports at Globe and Mail and National Post. Now, can someone tell me where I can buy one of their edge-servers from the receivers really cheap?”

C|Net: “Microsoft will provide the resources for ripping MP3 files in Windows XP after all. But there is a catch: Consumers will pay extra for it.”

Slashdot: “Axis, maker of the ETRAX system-on-chip, has just announced a multi-chip module that has the same pinout as their ETRAX SOC but which contains over 50 components. According to this article at linuxdevices.com, all you need to add is an external 20MHz crystal and power, to end up with a fully functional networked Linux system.”

At KDE dot News, they’ve posted about the HTML version of a presentation given at Linuxtag, covering the KDE printing subsystem.

The Hindu has a story about the impact Free Software could have on a country like India. It includes a long list of positives, including security and cost. “… the ethos of Free Software fits in well with Indian aspirations — of independence, and
self-reliance.”

As we all know, if you can’t see something, it doesn’t exist. Following this impeccable logic, the Taliban has outlawed internet access (as posted to Kuro5hin). Slashdot also has a discussion about the decision.

“As part of a larger plan to spread the use of the Linux operating system throughout its retail stores, Burlington Coat Factory has begun a two-year effort to switch over to Linux-based point-of-sale terminals.” Full details at internetweek.com.