From IBM developerWorks: “As the volume of information grows, effective means of locating specific information become ever more crucial. This column discusses
the field of full-text indexing, with a focus on the author’s public-domain indexer module.”

On Slashdot: “IEEE Spectrum has an opinion piece this month on Open-source Biology and
Its Impact on Industry. The article speculates about advancements in biology and
biological-based manufacturing and how it is likely impossible for anyone to keep control of
the Intellectual Property around genetic engineering. If software was as easy to produce and
prevalent as DNA, then it would be similarly impossible to control software as IP.”

Shares of chip designer Transmeta dropped sharply today, after the company’s lockup restrictrions expired. The restrictions prohibited sales of the stock in the first few months after Transmeta’s IPO. Full story at Upside.

Computerworld (via CNN) reports: “Six months after the tumultuous presidential balloting in Florida, a
nonprofit technical consortium announced that it has formed a committee to
develop a specialized XML standard aimed at improving the accuracy and
efficiency of elections.”

KDE’s Tink continues with the people behind KDE series. This week’s interviewee: Werner Trobin, the current maintainer of KPresenter.

LinuxSecurity.com: “There are a number of security scanners out there. Most of them are vendor specific, and each boasts a number of
vulnerability checks to determine what is secure on your system and what is not. So what if you are a hardcore open source
paranoid like myself who wouldn’t think to spend a dime on the latest commercial security scanner from CyberSlueths or
CrackerCops? Well there is a superior alternative that is regularly updated, free, and open source. It’s called Nessus, and it is
by far the best scanner available.”

EE Times has a piece about Calabasas, Calif. company Ixia Communications’ new rack-mounted multilayer router tester. Answering to the name of Optixia, the system’s carrier cards use Linux as a “local OS.” Ixia plans to show off a prototype of its new baby at this week’s Networld+Interop show in Las Vegas.

The date has been set and the invitations have been delivered for the grand opening of Apple’s first brick-and-mortar retail outlet. Located in Mclean, Virginia, the world will get its first peek of the store at a special sneak preview session on May 15; the store will officially open for business on May 19. Read the story at ZDNet.

Joe Average Wintroll writes “Linux Magazine’s Sr. Tech Editor Jason Perlow moonlighting on his Windows 2000 column on ZDNet discusses the reasons why AD hasn’t gotten such a warm welcome by large enterprises.”

Roberto Zicari writes: “In view of the recent attack of Microsoft to the Open Source
Software movement, the organizers of Linux@work Europe, LogOn
Technology Transfer, decided to change the original title of the
two panel discussions “Linux in the Public Administration” to be
held at Linux@work Oslo, May 9 and Stockholm, May 10 to: “Is Open Source Software threatening intellectual property?””The panels with new focus 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 creates security risks?

Does Open Souce creates software instability?

Panelists will include:
Robert J Chassel, Founding Director of the Free Software
Foundation, and representatives from Borland, Compaq,
Datarespons, Hewlett-Packard, Lotus Development, Novell,
Peregrine Systems, and SGI.

Linux@work Oslo will be held on May 9
http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/oslo.shtml

Linux@work Stockholm will be held on May 10
http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/stockholm.shtml“