Posted at gnome.org: “On behalf of the services engineering team at Eazel, I’d like to
announce Reef, our next-generation architecture for delivering online
services.

It is based around the concept of Service View Bundles (SVBs),
downloadable self-contained bundles of script code, images, and other
resources (for example html or glade files). The Reef/SVB idea is a
about making it possible to deliver “live content” over the network,
creating a platform for web services that are easier to deploy than
compiled native code, but richer than HTML.”

The Register follows up on reports of the Adore worm. “The worm replaces an Internet service, known as ICMP (Internet Control Message
Protocol), with a version containing a back door feature that allows a hacker
access to systems whenever a properly formatted command sequence is received
over the Internet. Adore also attempt to send sensitive system information to four
different email addresses.”

From a column at ZDNet: “To my complete lack of surprise, Linux 2.4.x includes basic support for FireWire and the addition
of SBP-2 drivers to the kernel source is evidently not far off. Clearly, someone is paying
attention over there. Windows also apparently has decent SBP-2 support today, though I
confess I am unable to try this out since I don’t have a FireWire-capable Windows box.”

ZDNet has a short item commenting on Wind River Systems’ purchase of Berkeley Software Design’s version of Unix. The Register mentions that the sale could impact Slackware Linux, because BSDi was acting as Slackware’s storefront.

tjhanson writes: “VNU Network News via Lexis-nexis has this story: “John Safa, a former cracker and CTO of security vendor BitArts, said: ‘The cracking community now has a C GBP decompiler, which unravels
application code. If you got on the inside of a network using this tool, you could do anything.'”

Wired: “Responding to heavy criticism, Microsoft says the terms of use on its Passport service are outdated, to be ignored, and will soon be changed. But does that mean the software company doesn’t want to own you?”

The Register: “Napster usage is on the increase again after its post-filter dip, online entertainment
market watcher Webnoize has reported.”

NetworkWorldFusion: “IBM is adding an online assessment tool, Linux support and a
second competency center for IBM non-uniform access
memory (NUMA) systems to its ASP Prime Program.”

MSNBC: “Installing and running the original release of Corel
WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux requires the system script
called “run-parts” for smooth sailing. Some Linux distributions
(including Caldera, SuSE, and Mandrake) lack the script. In
response, Corel created a downloadable install script that
doesn’t require run-parts.”

This week, LWN is reporting on the Singapore Linux Conference, Comdex 2000, and more.