Joseph DiLascio has written up a recent speech/interview with a Compaq engineer, dicussing their Linux plans. Given recent news about what's going over there, very interesting read.

Part Two: How to stave off the Coming Cyberclysm, to find some rational choice besides the backwards-looking Luddites and the Gee-Whiz Techno-Heads who dominate discussions about technology? Only the Gods can help, and I might have found one who will (one of the Fates, as it happens), with the help of AI computing advances and intuitive software.

It's not just the cranks and the Luddites sounding the alarm any more. There are hordes or serious-minded people insisting that runaway computing is driving us towards a Cyberclysm. The first of two parts.

Computing has overtaken Sci-Fi. The evolution of UltraIntelligent (UI), Artifical Intelligence (AI) machines that are themselves a new species is just a few years away, predicts Dr. Arthur Clarke in his great new essay collection as do others in their writings and research. Today's kids will clearly witness the evolution of a species that's part machine, part human, or both. Humans need to scramble and learn in order to hold their own, says Clarke.

Guess what? They aren't.

Kathleen Ellis, editor of the Privacy News Portal, attended yesterday's press briefing about a proposed loosening of export restrictions, and wrote the following feature article about the current situation. Click below for more.

Pundits in media and politics are already going into overdrive hyping 2000 as the year in which the Net will crash into the American political system like a tidal wave.

It's not going to happen. Washington is the last holdout against the wall-busting power of the Net. They'll go kicking and screaming, but not next year.

With the increasing momentum in the Linux world, more and more productivity applications have been coming out for Linux. Kurt DeMaagd, who's spent quite sometime in other IDEs, has reviwed Cygnus Solutions' "Code Fusion". Click below to read more about it.

Increasingly, Web information architecture may be the salvation for slow-to-change and older cultural institutions -- baseball, publishing, journalism -- trying clumsily to make the leap into the Digital Age and stay connected to their customers. Yankees.com, the new website of the New York Yankees, is a snazzy example of how this process can work.

C|Net talked with Marc, but we got hold of Red Hat's Donnie Barnes yesterday, and interrogated, er, asked him questions. Click below to learn more about what to do with IPO money (Hint: Think missle-toting Lear jets), software patents, open source licensing, and trademark issues.

Apple's G4, launched in a blizzard of savvy hype, heralds the second Age of Apple. Although this one is very different from the first (for one thing, Apple is a lot greedier), Apple's string of successes says a lot about the fact that individual creativity will beat out corporate marketers every single time.

mathowie writes "Here's my notes from the 30th Internet anniversary event that took place at UCLA on Thursday. This is a very long, very detailed piece, but worth your time to read if you're interested in learning where the Internet might be heading in the next 5 - 10 years.

Do computer professionals need a code of ethics? As the computing industry grows, argue two experts on the social aspects of computing, so do the many ethical dilemmas facing people who create, design and sell software and hardware. I'll second that idea: computing is getting some of the worst publicity around, and more and more of it is deserved. This is the second in a series of essays based on "Technology and the Future," edited by Albert Teich and published by Bedford/St.Martin's.

Thanks to Scott Elyard, who has returned and has written a "second chapter" to his original piece about SGI. Once again he's debunking mysteries, and discussing changes within SGI. Click below to read more.

Kathleen Ellis, editor of the Privacy News Portal, has written an excellent feature about how The President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC) has recommended dropping almost all export controls on strong crypto, and why it is unlikely that this group's recommendations will be acted on in any meaningful way. (More below)

While browsing through last week's discussion on GUI frameworks I noticed some discussion on the non-free nature of Troll Tech's Qt widget library. Frank Faubert wrote in with a similar question a while ago, so I figure it might be time to get your thoughts on this issue, and the larger question that encompases it: Is Open Source on Windows is less important than Open Source on Unix? Click below for Franks words on this subject.

Matt Welsh has written in to talk a bit about the future of a project that he is very familiar with. The LDP ^[?] has been essential to help newbies (and even experts) learn what they need on their quest to become gurus. Hit the link below to read what Matt has to say about where the project ought to head.

Albert Teich of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAA) has just published the eighth edition of his classic, "Technology And The Future." There's more smart thinking about technology in this book than a decade of Web-gassing and media hype. I'll be writing about several of the book's themes. One is a powerful essay by Timothy Jenkins warning that for many black Americans, the rise of the Digital Age isn't the stuff of euphoria but a possible doomsday scenario.

Occasionally someone submits a feature that really raises my eyebrow. Jack William Bell did just that by submitting 'Open Source as an Ant Farm'. Its a really interesting piece that talks about code as art, and much more. Its quite funny, and its got a lot to think about. Click now, you won't regret it.

Dave Gudeman has submitted a feature on the subject of Invasion of Privacy. Specifically its talking about the recent govt plans to allow the govt permission to have backdoors into encryption applications, and in general just do all sorts of stuff that will make your blood boil (or maybe its just me because I'm halfway through Cryptonomicon:Neal you Rock)

Kevin Remhof has submitted us a piece on an area of Linux that a lot of you might not be familiar with, but may wish to be: Linux and X-Ray Astronomy. Talks about some of the things you can do, as well as common applications to do them with. Check it out.