C. Adam Kuether asks: "I like the concept of the open directory project and am considering joining the effort and contributing my bit to organizing the Web. I am concerned about the ownership rights to this compilation. The useage agreements seem reasonable enough now, but what assurance is there that this work will not become just another asset of the Time/Warner/AOL (read Netscape) media empire? Could this project convert to a legally enforceable open and free use license? Are the existing open content licenses practical? "

GrouchoMarx writes: "I was lucky enough to be at Comdex in Chicago the day Microsoft released the new PocketPC, aka WinCE 3.0. I spent about an hour playing with the new HP Jornada and Casio Cassiopeia. It's an improvement, but not a Palm killer by any means . " Good review if you're into small machines.

Well, as the title says - SuSE 6.4 Evaluation version is now available. Before you start using it seriously, take a look at some of the updates that SuSe already released for this version, such as the Netscape update which you need to install over your installation. Credits for this story goes to Linux Weekly News.

Andy Dodd asks: "OK, this problem is quite strange and I don't know what to make of it. I just replaced my K6-2/300 with a 500 MHz chip, and now my system's reliability has gone way down under Linux. My first thought was that I had a re-marked counterfeit chip, but the crashes are not the random ones I'd expect from a chip that can't handle its clock rate. Under Linux, when I do anything that stresses my SCSI controller in any way, my system is prone to locking up. Starting any application runs a risk of crashing the system (culprits so far include gkrellm, Netscape, and sshd, one offense per app)." (Read on for more info..)

[TWD]insomnia writes "Mozilla M15 is out on their FTP site. It seems already a bit faster than M14 and Netscape 6 PR1. " Not in woody yet (blatant hint ;)

ESR ^[?] sent a feature about the Microsoft Web Server Backdoor - interesting stuff, and makes some good points about Open Source.

beebware noted that as of today, the JenniCam is now four years old. I've been a fan of this thing for the majority of that time... all I can say is it sure beats the Netscape FishCam. It's nuts how Jenni's little cam became such a fixture on The Internet... congratulations to her.

There's a backdoor in Microsoft Webserver software. The Wall Street Journal article isn't very technical, so we don't know yet exactly which software is affected: IIS, FrontPage, or both. It apparently doesn't affect Windows 2000 or FrontPage 2000. The workaround Microsoft "urges" is to delete dvwssr.dll. And just to make your Friday a little more surreal, the secret backdoor password apparently has something to do with Netscape engineers being "weenies." Update: 04/14 09:02 by J : It's been a busy day for some programmers at Microsoft and elsewhere. The word as of 3:30 EDT, according to Russ Cooper, is that "there is NO VULNERABILITY IN DVWSSR.DLL. Yup, that's right, different again from what I said earlier, and even more different than what I said yesterday to WSJ." (more)

zoneranger asks: "I've recently been for an interview with part of a large global news company (naming no names)... I'd been sent for jobs in Linux Sysadmin, but found out shortly after arriving that they only used Solaris. Enquiring more deeply, they were basically using Netscape Web Server (mmm...) and Net Gravity, with an unnamed RDBMS in there as well. They also said that instead of taking out maintenance on the boxen, they would just buy another one if problems occurred, and roll it out. It occurred to me therefore that the only reason they weren't using Linux on whatever hardware was simply down to software availability, so my question is: Are there any CMS's for Web Development/etc. under Linux that the 'big boys' would use? Are people using Zope, etc., out there to enable just about everyone to submit content? "

Just over two years ago, the Mozilla project was launched, with the ambitious goal of creating an open-source, standards-compliant browser. The continual progress since then has resulted not just in impressive software for end users (both the Mozilla browser and the Mozilla-based Netscape 6.0) and a flexible base for some intriguing developments, but also in the forging of a hard-working, creative community of developers. Correspondent David Cassel sat in on the Mozilla Developer Meeting this weekend; here is his report.

kisrael writes: "Today's Suck.com talks about how the freedoms designers now have in UI appearance-- starting with the the Web, moving to Skins for WinAmp, ending with the latest versions of QuickTime and the preview release of Netscape 6-- are ignoring visual and interface standards that users have come to rely on." A lot to think about and discuss here: personally I'm a big fan of skins and themes, but it only takes seconds to find countless awful themes. There are exceptions, but they're rare.

Vandermar writes: "IBM's new production method uses an advanced insulation material -- a low-k dielectric -- that protects the millions of individual copper circuits on a chip." Apparently it works at sizes down to 0.13 micron and the insulation itself is primarily silk. IBM says it will be using this technology for its Power 4 processor, but with their technology sharing with Transmeta and AMD can we expect to see this enhancement in their chips?"

NoWhere Man asks: "For the longest time my friends and I have been arguing over which processor is better (Intel or AMD). I know this is an ongoing battle everywhere as well, but it took an interesting turn the other day. Which processor would be better for realtime, high end mathematical computations? AMD's Athlon? P3 Xeon? or Dual Processors? If anyone could recommend system specs, keeping it cost effective at the same time, it would help."

fremen was among the first to write with this news: "Yahoo is reporting the end of the mediation talks with Microsoft. Richard Posner has declared the discussions to be at an impasse, and the disagreements to be "too deep-seated to be bridged." The story can be found here." This is not an April Fools joke. Watch this space; we will update this story as more details become available. The outcome may be more dramatic than the strong hints of settlement had suggested. Updated 3:15GMT by timothy: Here's a more detailed article from The New York Times helpfully sent in by reader GenetixSW.

Vux writes "PBS is airing a show involving the Netscape team. Quoted off the PBS website sectio about the show: "The year is early 1998 and a small team of Netscape code writers frantically works to reconstruct the company's Internet browser. The fate of the entire company may well rest on their shoulders. Facing new competition, sales for Netscape's once world-changing browser have sunk to zero. If this gambit fails, their company, their community and their vision of the future might not survive. Welcome to the epicenter of the new American Dream. Welcome to Silicon Valley." I don't agree with some of the propaganda for the documentary, but it should be an interesting hour flick to watch. " The documentary, according to the PBS site, is airing this evening, through the US. Check local show times and such on the site.

An anonymous reader noted an article that showed up on PC World discussing Netscape 6. The beta is gonna start up on Tuesday ... ya know what the strangest part is? Calling it 'Netscape 6'. We've been thinking of it as 'Mozilla' for so long, thinking of it as 'Netscape' seems so ... boring.

Uri writes "A BBC article has just reported that Laurence Godfrey, a physicist, has won around $400,000 from Demon Internet, a leading UK ISP, over defamatory posting about him which appeared on usenet. Note that under English Law, ISPs are held responsible for defamatory material if they do not take reasonable care to ensure such material is not published, and if they do not remove such material when alerted to it. It was the latter that Demon refused to do, and which prompted the legal action. The case now threatens to put an huge strain on all English ISPs as they could be forced to monitor all material trafficking through their systems. Go England! "

AP writes: "Mozilla developers are contemplating disclosing Mozilla security bugs only to a limited group of people, unavailable to the public until a fix is found, as indicated in this news post and the discussion thread. Are Mozilla developers missing the point of open source (implying open security bugs) or are they under pressure from Netscape? Tell Mozilla developers what you think." Please read this post from MozillaZine, in which it is explained that there is mere open /discussion/ about security and disclosure in the mozilla security newsgroup. Thanks to Hard_Code for the hook-up.

liber wrote to us with the press release on Yahoo! regarding the upcoming release of Netscape 6, aka Mozilla. It's a beta, not a full release, but the piece does a good job of talking about consumer anticipation, as well as the big companies that are behind it. Don't wait until the crowd hits. Get started now.

Luminescent writes "Nullsoft, in their new company, "Gnullsoft", just released an open source Napster clone. It does mp3s, movies, and any other format you could want. " More details: Gnutella is currently at version .48. Presently, they are finishing the version on-hand and will be doing a release at 1, along with the source, which is *not* currently availible. In addition to releasing the source at version 1, they will be releasing the client for other OSes. Presently, it's a Windows-only thing. Despite all of these drawbacks, this is an interesting move from WinAmp->Netscape->AOL->Time-Warner. Or whatever they are today.