Eric Harlow writes: "Microsoft's newly released Internet Explorer 5.5 is trying to do something Microsoft was worried that Netscape might do -- make the browser a platform. Of course, now that IE has 86% of the market, it can lure developers into using flashy new tools that leave Netscape users out of the dust since the new IE has all kinds of 'IE only' features -- and they haven't managed to fix standard items as CSS." Here's the CNET story; a snippet reads: "Together, the proprietary innovation and the purported faults in standards compliance mean that Web pages created to work for IE--widely considered to be the dominant browser--won't work with browsers from Netscape, Opera Software and other providers."

After being purchased from Amiga earlier this year, former marketing execs Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss are back on the road to building Amiga into the multi-platform, multimedia-savvy company that the fans have been begging for. Well known for being an on-again, off-again brand name, it looks as though things may have settled down long enough for the new team to make a difference.

drnomad writes "Finally after months of waiting, the Norwegian company Opera has announced their 4th technology preview of Opera for linux available for download. " They've got a good list of what's going on - as well as a Deb of the preview.

The idea drives the intelligentsia nuts, but it's becoming clearer all the time that culture isn't being destroyed online but re-invented here. This sensibility is behind a new Web site that takes the culture of gaming as seriously as it deserves to be. (Read More)

We got a lot of (shall we say) slightly impertinent questions for Web Standards Project co-founder Jeffrey Zeldman, but that's okay. He reads Slashdot and knows the nature of the beast, and he's hard-core enough to give as good as he gets. So set your humor module to high, then sit back and enjoy Mr. Zeldman's (appropriately impertinent) answers to the 12 questions we forwarded to him.

_xeno_ writes "psx.ign.com has a story that includes screen shots about Final Fantasy IX. This game is the last Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation, as future FF games will be for the PlayStation2. Apparently FFIX will be going back to the older-school Final Fantasy - that means swords and sorcery, MP, shorter summons, and characters that are drawn anime-style as opposed to FFVIII's attempt at having 'realistic' characters." Hey, maybe this time we won't have a big soap opera, either. A guy can dream, can't he?

Brian De Palma can direct fun movies, even good movies, but never go into one of his movies expecting too much. Written by the brothers who gave us Predator and Wild Wild West, his awful latest Mission to Mars opened this weekend. YRO authors Michael and Jamie were so appalled by this piece of work that they insisted on panning it together, and Jon Katz added his own, slightly hopeful voice to the flaying. Read more for serious spoilers ...

We gathered questions for Jakob Nielsen Monday; here are the answers. Interesting, possibly even essential reading for anyone involved in software or Web site design.

A sequel to the original, Fantasia 2000, is a series of animated shorts based on eight works of classical music, including one segment from the original Fantasia: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Review by Joshua Marinacci.

Do any of you read newspapers regularly, or see a future for them? (This column was inspired by an e-mail from a newspaper editor, asking me if I knew what might make the people who read Slashdot want to read daily papers. I said I didn't know, but that I would ask.) I suspect a lot of newspaper people will read your answers. Read more on my thoughts and post your own below:

Senator and GOP presidential frontrunner of the week John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave a little talk this afternoon practically in the Geek Compound's back yard. Billed by a local group as a town meeting on censorware, with handouts on "Internet porn filters" passed around beforehand, this roving reporter was dying to find out what would be said. Click for more...

Mal_ writes "The first alpha version of Opera for Linux has been released. There are still a number of key features missing, but rendering of HTML 3.2 and 4.0, and CSS is apparently working. The release is binary only, and requires GLIBC 2.1 and kernel 2.2.*, although the team are working on several other Unix ports. You can get more info and download the binary at the Opera Web Site. " Update: 01/05 03:00 by N : Reports are coming in that this beta also works under FreeBSD's Linux ABI. Chris Piazza has made this screenshot available.

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.

Wil Mahan writes "According to the LWN daily updates page, a beta version of the Opera browser has been released for Linux, and is available at Metalab (1.9 MB). Looks like Opera fufilled its promise of a full public beta before Christmas."

Apparently the folks who make the Opera Web Browser have updated their status on the Linux version of Opera. They also have a screenshot in there and are hoping to get a version out before Christmas - barring any unforseen problems.

bigdan writes "A new interview with the lead programmer of the Linux team porting Opera has him (Darren Starr) stating that they hope to have a public beta by Christmas (of Opera 4.0). The interview also goes on to mention a Sparc version coming soon. "

We all know about Mozilla. It's one of the major 'poster children' for the entire Open Source concept. Build 9, Build 10, Build 11, and so on. Someday there will be a Mozilla that will run without crashing, and we'll love it. Someday. Then there's Opera's Linux - and BeOS, Mac, EPOC and OS/2 - ports. Over the last week we've had 100+ readers submit the news that (proprietary shareware) Opera for Linux is close to beta release. But there's another potentially exciting Linux browser in the works that has hardly gotten any publicity. (continued)

reformhead writes "Just found this article over at Canoe about how The Who's Pete Townshend is planning on releasing 3 box sets of his rock opera "Lifehouse". The third box set will be a limited edition that will include a software key you can use to import personal data about yourself that will in turn be used to generate an individual piece of music for you. " 1. Pete Townshend==God. 2. Generative Music==Cool. 3. The original Lifehouse was based on this same idea, but its pretty cool that its finally gonna happen. And if any of Townshend's PR people stumble on this, I wanna interview Pete for Slashdot.

S7 writes "Opera Software has indicated that it is currently diversifying its browser to accomodate a wider flavour of Linux distributions, not just RedHat and its derivatives. Hope they finish soon!" Yeah, I know Mozilla is going to have wonderful features like instant messenger and changeable themes and I don't know what-all else if and when it ever gets end user-usable, but Opera is a plenty good enough browser for the likes of me; it's fast, compact, simple, and reliable, all of which are software qualities I admire immensely. In fact, the only two things I really miss from Windows are Opera and NoteTab, which is IMO the worlds's finest text processing tool for online journalists. Now that Opera's on its way to Linux, all I need is a Linux version of NoteTab or something like it and I'll be in PC heaven!

There's been quite a bit of attention to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon as well as The Diamond Age. The Big U, reviewed here by Sebbo, is one of his earliest books. Click below to read more - and to try your hand at the questions at the end of the review.