This is an interview with a young programmer and entrepreneur named Bill Gates, originally taped and transcribed in 1980. In it, Gates says, "There's nobody getting rich writing software that I know of." Gates also works hard to defend the idea of copyrighting software stored on magnetic media - mostly tape, back then - which the government didn't accept at the time, and talks at length about how no one will ever write software if they can't make money at it, why it's bad to share programs freely with friends, and generally makes it clear that 20 years ago Bill Gates was already well on his way to becoming what he is today. (More below -- including a special Slashdot audio bonus!)

The Internet has provided individuals with more freedom than they have ever had to express themselves. This is great. But not surprisingly, many people are abusing, thus endangering, their new power. The idea of taking responsibility for one's words has not taken hold. (More below.)

Online, hostile environments are driving almost every social group other than techno-savvy young white men away from coherent public discussion of technology. These men are invariably smart and skilled, but almost unable to communicate civilly or tolerate disagreement or difference. Are we breeding communities of impulsive and creative jerks?

E-communities mirror those in the outside world. As they grow, they face the same tensions, pressures, political differences. At the moment, hostile environments are a growing problem as newcomers flood onto the Web. This is the first of a three-part series about hostility on the Net and how it affects the rest of society. (More below.)

This afternoon, Robin Gross from the EFF called me with some disturbing new information for anyone interested in DVD litigation. The MPAA has filed two lawsuits against three defendants in two separate states for the "illegal hacking of the DVD encryption system 'CSS'." The plaintiffs in the case are Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros.. UPDATE: The complaints are available online. See below.

When Judge Elfving handed down the rejection of the DVD Copy Control Association's temporary restraining order on December 29th, the Open Source community knew that they had won a battle in the war. The preliminary injunction hearing on the DVD Copy Control Association case that was originally scheduled for this Friday has been pushed back to next Tuesday, January 18th, and the Free Software community will be there with bells on.

Yesterday was a historic day for the Net, for better and worse. AOL/Time-Warner plans to be the world's largest corporation and content provider (if Microsoft was an anti-trust threat, get a load of this one), and IBM adopted Linux. Why the merger should be stopped:

The United States loves to see itself as the cradle of liberty, but when it comes to sex, America mostly demonstrates its prudishness and hypocrisy. Sex is our national taboo.The Net, our new national taboo-buster, along with a spate of new laws and court rulings, have all taken this national phobia to meltdown. Are free speech and the online liberation of sexuality incompatible?

On November 10th 1999, Ramsey Electronics of Victor, New York, was raided by the United States Customs Service for allegedly manufacturing and distributing 'Electronic Surreptitious Intercept Devices' as defined by Title 18 USC, Section 2512. We spoke to both Ramsey Electronics President John Ramsey and Joel Violanti, the federal prosecutor on the case, to find out exactly what happened, and why. (Click below for more.)

The big Y2K news was that there wasn't any. What happened? Was this a catastrophe averted or invented? After several years of sustained computing industry, media and political hype, could anybody could have imagined that there would be no serious Y2K problems at all in the developed and non-developed worlds? That no city in the world turned dark, no bank shut down, no phones were cut off, no planes fell from the sky, no dearth of food or water cropped up anywhere? In fact, as of Monday no human being was known to have died or been injured - or truthfully, even significantly inconvenienced - as the result of any computer-related problem at the end of the century.

Who gets to define the future as technology becomes one of the most important social concerns in the world? In Tomorrowland, H.G. Wells, the father of science fiction, squares off against the Imagineers. (more)

Every year I pick a new years resolution and ever year it doesn't come true. This year I've opted to set my sights low so I can greatly increase the chance of suceeding for once. This year my resolution is to continue converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Read on to learn what resolutions RMS, ESR, Jon Katz, CowboyNeal, Mandrake and others have for the year 2000.

"Man In The Moon" may be the best holiday movie of the year so far, even though Jim Carrey is already much more of a comedic legend than Andy Kaufman, the man he portrays.

Here's Round One of the Holiday Movie Thread. First round: Oliver Stone's MTV-style look at the NFL, and Matt Damon's stylish and creepy portrait of outsiderness. Round Two: Man On The Moon, Magnolias, and Cradle Will Rock. This is open source reviewing -- join in.

Well its a slow day, and since I saw GalaxyQuest last night, I figured I'd pop up and write a quick review of the film. The quick summary is that it stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, and it is a sort of parody/lampoon of Star Trek, Trekkies, and the whole Trek phenomenon. The quick rating is that if you've got a sense of humor, you'll enjoy it. Read on for more stuff, and hopefully with minimal spoilers.

Thanks to a rather interesting string of e-mails (Thanks Evan!), today's feature writer is none other than David Brin. Brin's bio is after his piece, but suffice it to say he's one of the most interesting writers, IMHO, out there today. This piece, one of his essay's, deals with why George Marshall should be Man of the Century. (Another one of Brin's essays that many of you will remember is his work dealing with Star Wars, Episode One.)

This week, Time Magazine chose Amazon's Jeff Bezos as its "Man Of The Year," a choice that overflows with symbolism about the U.S. and the Internet - none of it good. I've made my own picks. Feel free to make yours. (more below)

Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there. (click below)

Robin William's "Bicentennial Man" is a rare Hollywood offering, a mainstream sci-fi romance. Syrupy and a bit circular, it's true to the Isaac Asimov story that inspired it, and is actually thoughtful about some of the issues humans may have to confront if -- as so many futurists predict -- AI machines evolve into some sort of species in the 21st Century. Like "Toy Story 2," this movie has an absurd plot, but is sometimes graphically dazzling, showing how computer animation is becoming an art form of it's own.

Corporatism isn't capitalism. It isn't old American can-do business savvy either. Since the late 80's, when de-regulation, marketing and technology fused to create a new kind of company, we're confronted with a virulent, greedy new kind of force that's pushing the individual to the margins. And responsible for the filing of patent injunctions all over the Net, from toys to one-click software. This is just one of the things the protesters in Seattle -- left and right -- were trying to point out. Get ready for the brawl of the 21st century.