From LinuxPR: Not one, but two, Linux games will ship next week from Loki Software, Inc.

Tribes 2 for Linux will be hot on the heals of the Windows release by Sierra On-Line,
and the long-awaited Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack by Firaxis will
also make its Linux debut.

From missingmatter.net: “Today I realized that interpersonal human networks and Gnutella share
much in common in the way of architecture. We’ve all seen it happen in real
life: ‘let me introduce you to this guy.’ Through a constantly-updated list
of contacts, humans pass requests on to each other; when a match is
found, the requester and the provider make a direct connection. A larger
number of first-order contacts (connections) increases the chance that a
proper match will be found in the least number of ‘degrees of separation’.”

From PR Newswire: Responding to a challenge
from the Brazilian Government, National Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: NSM),
the world’s leading provider of information appliance (IA) technology, and
Samurai, a leading IA design house, have developed a complete system solution
to make Internet access available and affordable for all Brazilians.
The system, the Samurai 2000 IA, is based upon National’s industry-leading
Geode(TM) technology. The Samurai 2000 IA is a ready-to-build system that can
be turned into simple Internet access devices with built-in modems, or thin
clients for the school and enterprise environments, in a server-based
computing model via local area network (LAN). Using a Samurai FlashCard as a
personal storage and identification device and with no fans, disk drive,
floppy drive, CD-ROM drive or other moving components, the Samurai 2000 IA,
running the open-source Linux operating system, is a turnkey solution that
drives the device cost and power consumption down dramatically while
delivering high performance, reliability and enriched multimedia applications
for Web surfing.

Eye Control Technologies, Inc. announced on March 30 the launch of their revolutionary
trackIR cursor control system. The $99.00 web cam sized device lets users control a computer’s cursor by simply
turning their head or pointing with their fingers. The sleek looking trackIR sits on top of a computer monitor, or clips to a
laptop screen and uses infrared light and an embedded processor to track users physical motion to determine precise
cursor movement.

Spirits are high at the company’s Corvallis, OR, headquarters, where staff have been inundated with calls and e-mail from
curious computer users. “The NaturalPoint trackIR will revolutionize the way you interact with your computer,” predicts
Eye Control Technologies President, Jim Richardson. “Our vision is to give users another cursor control option by
introducing them to the concept of using natural motion rather than constantly reaching for the mouse, which hurts
productivity and can cause carpel-tunnel syndrome.”

The trackIR is software designed to allow developers to create alternate applications for the device. ECT has open
sourced all of the object tracking code which makes it practical for users to take on projects such as developing Linux
device drivers and creating low cost motion capture animation software. The company?s website,
www.naturalpoint.com has a large developer’s section where you can download object tracking software and discuss
projects with ECT engineers and fellow developers.

Eye Control Technologies Communications Director, Mike Vial expects the trackIR to be a big hit with computer gaming
enthusiasts as well. “First person shooter and role playing games will take on a whole new level of realism and
excitement. Instead of reaching for a mouse to control things like field of view or targeting you can just turn your head to
look, or point with your finger to shoot.”

For more information on the NaturalPoint trackIR, visit www.naturalpoint.com.

About Eye Control Technologies, Inc.
Based in Corvallis, OR, Eye Control Technologies, Inc. specializes in providing innovative control solutions for computers,
video games, LCD projectors, and television set-top boxes. For more information, visit: www.eyecontrol.com or
www.naturalpoint.com.

Anonymous Reader writes: “The movie opens on the premise that in the future MP3’s are illegal, all copies of Napster have been destroyed, and an MP3 task force has been created to seek out and arrest anyone caught with MP3 music on their computers.”

mp3newswire.net reviews the actual independent movie.

ZDNet UK reports that a PDA price war could be on the way because of the
slowing U.S. economy is hurting sales. “Palm Computing and Hewlett-Packard have
become the first to cut prices, reducing prices for their most popular
handhelds.”

Wired: “Diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow tried to hire a Russian hacker to break into Russia’s Federal Security Service’s network, according to a report
published in the a Russian newspaper Wednesday.

The 20-year-old hacker, identified only as “Vers,” said he was asked to hack into the Federal Security Service’s network to copy, alter and delete files. Vers
claims that four officials at the U.S. Embassy offered him $10,000 for the job.”

ZDNET.co.uk: “Microsoft and Seattle-based RealNetworks are working to subtly
wean consumers away from MP3 technology, encouraging them to
use proprietary software formats instead, the Journal said.

The technology companies, which have the music industry’s blessing,
are encouraging those who download music to use new proprietary
software formats that make the audio sound significantly better but
also make it harder to share copyright-protected songs, the paper
said.”

Mark Hatch writes: “Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. (ICS),
the leading supplier of Motif(r) products and support, today announced
that the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) chose Linux to host
the upgrade to their Electrification Display System.” This system tracks
the flow of electricity from the high voltage DC power lines of Pacific
Gas and Electric to the distribution of electricity via the third rail.
If an emergency required the evacuation of a train, this system would be
used to turn off the electricity to ensure the safety of passengers as
they exited the system.

BART also selected Open Motif for their GUI toolkit, ICS’ Builder Xcessory
PRO to build their application user interface and LOOX++ from LOOX Software
for the visualization aspects of the application. Open Motif was selected
because of developer knowledge, use by existing applications, and “rock
solid stability”. Builder Xcessory PRO was chosen because of its ability
to quickly build and tailor the user interface in response to user input.
BART selected LOOX++ to simplify the graphical display of the model of
the Electrification Display System.

In reviewing their decision, the BART implementation team estimated
that they saved between 15 to 20 percent of the total project budget through
the use of commodity PC hardware, not having to purchase software licenses
for the operating environment and the use of rapid development tools such
as ICS’ Builder Xcessory PRO.

Further Details
Further details of this Linux success can be read at http://www.ics.com/bart
. The April issue of the Linux Journal includes a summary of BART’s decision
and experience too.

About Integrated Computer Solutions
Founded in 1987, ICS (http://www.ics.com) was chartered to provide software
development tools and training for developers working with the then emerging
X Window System(tm). Prior to the widespread adoption of Motif by the UNIX
workstation vendors, ICS was the leading independent supplier of the Motif
toolkit. In 1998, The Open Group chose ICS to provide technical support
for its Motif source code licenses.

Today, ICS’ Builder Xcessory PRO (BX PRO) is the market leader in Motif
graphical user interface development tools. In its fifth major release
and representing over 100 person years of effort, BX PRO defines a level
of sophistication, functionality and ease of use that is unmatched in the
industry. In November of 1999, the combination of BX PRO from ICS and Code
Fusion from Red Hat software was awarded the Editor´s Choice award
for the Best New Application for Software Development by The Linux Journal.
Commenting on the importance of this alliance, The Linux Journal described
the software as “…the first Visual C/C++ equivalent for Linux.”

ICS sponsors the MotifZone (http://www.motifzone.net), a community site
for Motif developers to gather additional knowledge and request input on
technical problems from other engineers. The MotifZone also hosts the Public
CVS source code repository for Open Motif as well as the defect database.

# # #

UNIX and Motif are registered trademarks of The Open
Group in the US and other countries. The Open Group and the X Window System
are trademarks of The Open Group. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.

“

The Register: “AMD has an 800MHz Mobile Duron in the works – according to Sony.

The Japanese giant yesterday announced the latest additions to its Vaio notebook
line, one of which sports “the new 800MHz AMD Duron mobile processor” with a
200MHz frontside bus, 128KB L1 cache and 64KB of on-die L2 cache. The
machine contain the 800MHz part, the Vaio FX210, is due to ship early May.”