Like the late Romans, says author Margaret Wertheim, our civics are no longer sustained by a firm belief in our society; we are no longer sure of its purpose. This is clear enough from the presidential campaign to date. Cyberspace, she writes, will fill the void. The Net, she says, is the New Jerusalem, our new common and profoundly spiritual space. (First of two parts.)

Jon's Hellmouth series stands as one of the most important things that have ever appeared on Slashdot. When the dust settled following its original posting, we started talking about ways to get its message to those outside of the Slashdot community. Read on to see what we decided, what happened, and finally the first chapter of the Hellmouth book.

Thanks to Mike Bouma who put together a paper with the help from a number of the Phoenix project members which gives more information regarding what's going on with QNX and why it matters.

William Gibson's paranoid fantasy of a world ravaged by ruthless, greedy, competing multinationals is becoming a reality. One result is that politics and political issues - especially those relating to technology - have never been more important, despite our increasing alienation for what most of us call politics. Talk about "consensual hallucination." If you care about politics -- or don't -- let fly here.

Yes, Mandrake 7.2 is ready for download. It hasn't been officially announced or spread to all the usual mirrors yet, but word crept out yesterday on mandrakeforum.com. Be patient if you can't get through at first; you know how these things go; and keep an eye on the official Mandrake site for further news. This release is nice advance over Mandrake 7.1 or 7.0, worth downloading and installing (if you're a Mandrake user) for KDE 2 and KDE Office alone, both of which are incorporated into it. I got a small head start and played with 7.2 a bit last night, and found both some neat stuff and a few small but interesting usability gaps.

In America's early days, the public sphere -- the crossroads where citizens gathered to conduct civics -- meant town halls, taverns and churches. Media, especially TV, became the common civic sphere a generation ago. Soon, the country's new public sphere will be the Net, ironically more like the taverns and town halls than people might think.

Relax -- You're human. A UCLA study has seriously debunked concerns that the Net has dehumanized America. Nearly two-thirds of Americans have ventured online, and a significant majority deny that the Net creates social isolation. Parents say their Net-using kids don't suffer poorer grades, and almost everybody says the Net connects them to family and friends in a "positive" way. The study has other interesting findings about Net use. You might want to commit it to memory.

There's a widespread belief in the tech world, inspired perhaps by the growing interaction between technology and politics, that citizens ought to vote, even in an elitist, irrational system they feel disconnected from. This point has been made to me lots of times this past week. Yet two-thirds of Americans disenfranchised themselves four years ago. Since non-voters never get on Washington talk shows, we aren't sure what they think, but their messages may be the most important ones. If you've got such a message, here's a place to put it, and check out an inspiring e-mail from a tech-spawned pol of the future.

In Take 1 of this two-part series, I described some of the current technology in wearable computing as seen at ISWC 2000, this year's just-finished iteration of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, from head-mounted displays to intelligent jackets. In this round, a little more speculation about where the future of wearability lies, with a peek in the door at some of the things being done in top university labs. What forces will shape the future of wearable computing? Hint: GeForce 2's are still hard to carry, and there's never enough power.

George Bush's suggestion last week that the Net can turn a child's heart dark and murderous sparked a ton of comments and e-mail, much of it about whether people will vote in the presidential election or stay home. Frankly, I was surprised at the level of interest from the tech world -- including the many passionate pleas to vote. This is one of those conversations that ought to move beyond e-mail and into the open. A number said statements like Bush's -- and other Luddite, exploit-parental-fears posturing by Gore, Cheney and Lieberman about violence, "cultural pollution" and other dangers emanating from TV, Hollywood, the Net, and gaming -- were inspiring them to participate. Others said they would sit out the election to protest a process that seems irrelevant. So far, I haven't found my candidate. But if you've decided to vote and care to say why, here's your chance. People are definitely listening.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about "The Last Days of Politics," particularly the surreal, archaic vibes coming off the presidential campaign. I said I'd be posting some responses. Here are a very few excerpts, reprinted with permission, and thanks for them. (Make sure to check out "The Internet Dog" proposal for a virtual George Washington) If you want to keep the e-mail coming, I'll keep the discussion going.

To all but a handful of a handful, a perfect filesystem would be boring: files would be where you expect them to be, corrupt files would never be an issue, and a power outage would result in nothing more than a few moments of darkness rather than minutes or hours of lost work. Even so -- perhaps a clue that the perfect example is far, far away -- the news on the Linux filesystem front is pretty exciting of late. In a low-key technical session Friday morning at ALS, kernel hacker Daniel Philips announced to the world the minor revolution he's planning -- which could end up replacing Linux's old standby ext2fs (and it's coming replacement ext3fs) with his Tux2 filesystem. Though Tux2 is an ext2 cousin in many ways, it carries at least one crucial improvement: according to Philips, you can literally pull the plug on a system running Tux2 and expect not to lose files or spend minutes watching fsck crawl by.

If you didn't see the original post, go ahead and check it out. Today we list the winners, carefully chosen from among over 900 submissions, wise-ass comments, trolls, and assorted other chain-yankers.

Over the next few years, says a new book, the sales of software and video game consoles could top $17 billion. Video games already generate more revenue than films. Video games are becoming one of the world's most popular entertainment forms, affecting TV, education, Hollywood, even the Pentagon and the way we view and conduct high-tech, game-like, remote-control military conflicts.

During Wednesday's presidential debate, George Bush connected the Net and youth violence -- demonstrating a deep misunderstanding of the reality of techno-culture. It was also a profound political blunder: there are more Americans turning 18 than ever before, and they now know that at least one presidential candidate is an idiot. There are real issues involving kids and technology which will never be raised in this kind of exhausted and irrational political system. [Second in a series begun with "The Last Days of Politcs."]

Bob Young, Chairman of the Board for Red Hat has written an open letter to the Community, in response to some of the recent criticism of Red Hat 7. If you've been following these stories at all, or the Linux scene, this is worth checking out.

Choosing the kind of work we do is one of the biggest decisions in anybody's life, especially for tech workers plunging into the new economy. But few make it carefully or well, argues a new book. Dilbert is the most accurate view of what many Americans really think about work. Workers are often betrayed by companies demanding higher productivity in exchange for less security. CEO salaries and managerial ranks mushroom; people work longer hours for less, thanks to technology; idiots get promoted all over the place. Work increasingly dominates rather than satisfies us, argues author Joanne B. Ciulla. You might want the take her short meaningful work quiz.

We've all read about some of the dumber patents issued recently by the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO]. The Slashdot community is full of talent and creativity, so why not come up with our own stupid patent ideas instead of waiting for Amazon or Priceline or some other company to come up with something amusing? First prize is a $50 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate that I am paying for out of my own pocket, and will personally sign. The winner will be chosen on the basis of originality, believability, and humor value. To start things off, I will describe my own personal contribution to the Stupid Patent Pool: Zero Click Shopping.

So, as today is a somewhat slow day, and I've had the galling experience of dealing with the phone system today, I thought I'd give a small piece of my mind about that wonderful practice known as phone slamming, and what wonderful practices Big Business likes to engage in.

Berkeley scholar Joseph Lockard (a doctoral candidate in English Literature) claims the idea of the virtual community is a Ponzi scheme, promoted by benighted utopians and elitists who equate access to the Net and the Web with social and democratic enlightenment. This myth has been virtually unchallenged for years, he says, and in a provocative and interesting essay called Progressive Politics, Electronic Individualism, and the Myth of Virtual Community, Lockard claims that it's nothing more than a bunch of hooey. Does anybody out there think virtual communities are real?