The Register: “The World Wide Web’s days are numbered, Forrester Research claims. The Internet
may have taken off, mostly around the Web, but the next step of its evolution will
see expansion beyond the browser, the company reckons.

The Web’s replacement is an executable Net with throwaway code downloaded as
and when you want to use it as well as millions of every day devices connected to
the Internet (the old more-Barbies-than-PCs linked to Net idea). So long and thanks for all the clicks.”

LinuxSecurity: “Despite this preponderance of information, advice and technology solutions, only a fraction of corporate and consumer
‘Netizens actually use some type of e-mail security. Problems with protocol and product interoperability, scalability and
usability have left many users wondering if protecting their e-mail is really worth the headache. That’s the bad news.”

InformationWeek: “The worm doesn’t offer a really compelling reason to click the
attachment. The subject line reads “!!!” and the body of the E-mail
reads “: – ) MuCuX…” and carries the attachment echelon.vbs. Most
Internet users may be unaware that the National Security Agency
runs project Echelon, which purportedly aims to eavesdrop on
phone calls, fax transmissions, and E-mails containing certain key
words, and people whose computers are infected with this virus
won’t see the slew of text hidden within the executable.”

ZDNET: “In April, a devastating bug was found in shopping cart software called “PDG” that
exposed all customer records on about 4,000 Web sites. The FBI issued a public
warning directed at the software’s customers, but a small e-commerce Web site
named SawyerDesign.com didn’t notice.”

OnLamp: “In the last article, I had successfully blocked all IP packets from entering or leaving my FreeBSD computer by
installing ipfw with a default policy to deny all packets. This week, I want to create a ruleset to be read by
ipfw that will allow the IP packets I wish to leave and enter my computer.”

LinuxSecurity: “This week, advisories were released for gftp, zope, cups, cron, netfilter, samba, pine, kerberos, and gnupg. The vendors
include Mandrake, Progeny, Red Hat, and SuSE. If you are using any of these distributions, we highly recommend you update
all vulnerable packages. Also, take a look at the newsletter from May 11th. 2001. Many advisories have been released and it is
critical that you update.”

KG Kumar writes: “Techies, hackers and rebel coders, alert! Richard Stallman, legendary
hacker, founder of the project to launch the free operating system GNU,and president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), will tour India in mid-July 2001.”

Stallman`s main agenda will be to launch the Indian chapter of FSF and lecture on the purpose, goals, philosophy, methods, status and future prospects of the GNU operating system, which, in combination with the Linux kernel, is now used by an estimated 17 to 20 million users worldwide.

Stallman`s trip is being organized by the Free Software Foundation of
India (FSF-I), founded in Trivandrum, Kerala by a group of dedicated users of free software. Free software is defined by the FSF in the sense of freedom as in `free speech`, not gratis, as in `free beer`.

Stallman founded FSF in 1985, dedicating it to promote computer users` rights to use, study, copy, modify and redistribute computer programs. In particular, FSF promotes the GNU operating system (GNU is a recursive acronym for `GNU`s Not Unix`), used widely today in its GNU/Linux variant, often mistakenly called just `Linux`.

FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. The FSF believes that free software is a matter of freedom, not price.

The GNU General Public Licence (GNU GPL) gives each user the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software, based on unfettered access to the source code Being free to do this means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.

While granting the user these freedoms, the GNU GPL defends them by saying that no one is allowed to take them away from anyone else. Any published program, which incorporates all or a substantial part of a GPL-covered program, must itself be released under the GNU GPL. The GPL ensures that no person or community can privatize the community?s free software.

According to FSF-I, a developing country like India should promote and encourage the use of free software not only because India is economically backward and cannot afford expensive, proprietary solutions, but also because of the `digital divide` resulting from the country`s diversity in language and literacy levels, as well as access to computers and bandwidth. Free software can help bridge this divide by encouraging solidarity, collaboration and voluntary community work amongst programmers and computer users, says FSF-I.

Stallman`s visit to India will come on the heels of the recent attack on GPL by Microsoft, which feels threatened by the fast growth of the free software movement. (Stallman and FSF take pain to distinguish `free software` from `open source`, which is a term that, since 1998, has been used by another group rallying around another celebrated hacker, Eric Raymond.)

Stallman`s itinerary in India will include a talk at NCST, Bombay, the launch of FSF-I in Trivandrum, lectures at engineering colleges in Trivandrum and Cochin, a session at Technopark and a trip to Baroda.

FSF-I expects the Stallman visit to position Kerala as the Free Software capital of India and to launch FSF-I`s activities within the country on issues relating to training, support, and distribution and dissemination of free software.

I first posted this story at http://www.myiris.com/NewsCentre/index.php“

Mclight writes: “NE20000 is an Open Air Network Event. This means that the event will take place in the open air. Everyone is welcome to take his computer and to join us on our campsite. NE2000 is in the first place a big party, a party for everyone who enjoys spending his free time behind a computer.”On the NE2000 campsite, everyone is invited to help building a big intertent network. This network will be connected to the internet so it will be possible to use the internet from your tent.

Next to the building of the network there will be lots of activities. These activities include a lot of presentations and workshops (ipv6, Linux, security, networking).

NE2000 is meant for social and nice people. Especialy people who enjoy meeting other people. NE2000 is NOT meant for people that come to lock themselves up in a tent of caravan to play Quake during the whole day, It’s meant to explore new things together with other people.

The event will take place from 19 t/m 25 July in the netherlands, please visit http://www.ne2000.nl for more information.”

Roberto Zicari writes: “A Keynote panel on the topic
“Is Open Source Software threatening intellectual property?”
will be held at Linux@work in Paris on June 13, 2001. The panel will address the following questions:”

- DOES OPEN SOURCE THREATEN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ? 
- What is the difference between GPL and Microsoft Shared Source strategy?
- Does Open Source create security risks? 
- Does Open Souce create software instability? 

Panelists will include: 

Jon 'maddog' Hall, Executive Director, Linux International
Bernard Lang, Directeur de Recherche, INRIA, Secrétaire de l'AFUL --
Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres,
and representatives from Borland, Compaq, Intel, Quadratec, SGI, SuSE, and Xybernaut.  

The panel is open to all.

Details:

Linux@work Paris, June 13, 2001
http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/paris.shtml
##"

Kelly McNeill writes,
“osOpinion published a very interesting speculative piece which
quotes bits and pieces of an internal AOL memo suggesting that the
company may by entering the OS market. Earlier this week, Sony
announced a partnership with AOL to provide Net access for its
PlayStation 2 game console. The partnership was established to help
each other fight its battles in the way of MS’s upcoming Xbox, MSN —
and quite possibly .Net. Most interesting to the story is the fact
that Sony is also preparing a hard drive, XGA LCD panel, mouse and
keyboard for the PS2 all of which will help turn the game console
into a legit computer. All that’s missing is an operating system.
Hmmm… Who out there has an easy to use OS for sale? Well, recent Be
announcement suggest that the company is in fact considering buy-out
scenarios. This lead the author to conclude that Be may in fact be
the most likely contender in this arena. Further fueling the theory
is the fact that Sony is already using BeIA for an upcoming Internet
appliance project. Could Be have a
strong future after all? This editorial seems to think so.”