jeffy124 submitted to us his review of World War 3.0 Microsoft and Its Enemies. For those of you who just can't get enough of the seemingly endless saga of legal move and countermove, this book follows this case from the beginning. It's about eight months out of date now, but has decent background.

dbolger writes: "azcentral.com has this article about how scientists in Boston have found the enzyme that causes fat cells to cluster around the stomach. The hope is that this discovery will eventually lead to a "cure" for the male beer belly. Good news for those "activity challenged" geeks among us, especially at this time of year :)"

GospelHead821 writes "According to this article in Popular Science, a chemistry student at the University of Tulsa is driving research into use of toxin-munching "sulfate-reducing bacteria" (SRBs) to help cleanup toxic, solid effluent from abandoned zinc and lead mines near her home. Where does the beer come in? Apparently, it has proved an excellent food source for the bacteria and helps to extend the lifespan of the normally short-lived SRBs by several months. Currently, the procedure is in the testing phase, with models being employed to simulate the conditions that would be present in a large-scale detoxification plant, which in turn, is based on the natural wetlands from which these bacteria hail."

durval asks: "I'm surveying token-based (2-factor) user authentication systems,and one of my prerequisites is that it must offer good support for open-source software (i.e, apart from any code that runs in the tokens themselves, all other software must either be standard open-source code --- like the RADIUS server -- or provided in source-code form, preferably under a GPL or BSD-like license). The other atribute is that it must integrate with RADIUS authentication."

nettdata asks: "So I'm a 'Sun' guy who's looking to build a Linux server. I've got everything picked out except the motherboard, and I need help. I've gone through some hardware sites (Tom's, etc.) but I can't seem to find a 'top 10' list for what I need, so I was hoping some experienced people in the Slashdot forum can help me cut to the chase. This will be my home server, so I want it to be as inexpensive as possible while still being something that will perform well. (Champagne taste on a beer budget). It will be a headless box, so more than anything I want the ability to do command line boot/BIOS control via the serial port to a VT100 session like I can with my Sun boxes. (This will be done via my handy dandy PortMaster). Lights Out Management (LOM) would be an added bonus. Google, Slashdot, and ExtremeTech searches haven't turned up anything usefull. Any thoughts or sites?"

WhyPanic writes "XOSL, the Extended Operating System Loader, is a free (as in beer and as in GPL), full featured, graphical boot loader that can work in conjunction with Lilo or separately to boot all varieties of Windows, Linux, and many other OS's." Nifty looking.

AllInOne writes: "Despite Apple's claims to the contrary, Mac OS X runs just fine on older Apple hardware. Thanks to the Open Source nature of Apple's underlying Darwin system serveral clueful folks have written kernel extensions that allow "Old World" machines such as the 7300, 7600, 8500 etc to run OS X. They even support G3 & G4 processor upgrades cards as well. The best release (and free as in beer) is by Ryan Rempel. I just installed his Version 2.0b3 of Unsupported UtilityX on my old 8550 with a Newer G3 upgrade card along along with 10.1 and performance is quite respectable." And elsewhere along the OS price/performance front, Cinematique writes: "I was surfing around and came across this useful little tidbit for mac os x users. Apparently, apple included a way to compress the memory-hungry finder window buffer images, but didn't turn it on at the last minute due to a debuging issue. this turns the compression on, thus saving a sh*tload of memory."

Saint Aardvark writes: "Check it out...NASA recently sent up an experiment to see how well beer could be brewed in space. The result? One millilitre of space brew. Can orbital microbrew be far behind?" They've been making great strides since our first Beer in Space article.

Boli writes: "Ran across this broadband phone today. It appears to be based on the Virtual Network Computing work done at AT&T Labs Cambridge. The most interesting feature is that all apps run on a server while the phone is only a display and I/O device. This opens the possibility for a variety of devices to display the same stuff. Imagine transferring a call from the phone to your browser display to paste a graphics file, then transfer again to a cordless. The VNC tools are free (as-in-beer) today." AT&T says they even have a working wireless prototype working in their building. (And VNC is Free as in GPL as well, according to their front page.) How long till conventional phones are obsolete?

gobbles writes: "Intel has just announced free (as in beer) C/C++ and FORTRAN compilers for Linux. With support for OpenMP and Pentium 3, 4 and Itanium optimizations, this is a winner - suddenly Intel hardware becomes a whole lot more attractive for Linux developers. For those with Pentium 4 or Itanium systems, performance gains of 50% or more are just waiting to be had! Grab the compilers here and take 'em for a spin! Athlon owners need not apply."

Rednerd asks: "I just moved into a new apartment and I'm almost done painting and running the cat 5. I have been looking at office furniture for a new desk to become the new home for all of my misc. computer gadgetry, but I haven't been able to find anything that really fits. (No one seems to sell a desk with room for two 19" monitors, seven computers, a beer fridge, coffee maker, and a small compartment to serve as a shrine for my little plush penguin - Potelé) I'm leaning toward building a custom desk for my computers. With all the talk on Slashdot about creating an ultra-efficient cubicle, I was wondering what other slashdotters have created in the way of DIY home offices?"

murger burger writes: "You have forgotten to report the linux beer wanderung, it has been taking place this week in Bouillon in Belgium. We just did a tour around the villages of Apach, Perl and Borg."

Last week you asked Bradley Kuhn, VP of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) questions about working with RMS, his views on software freedom, and much more. He's answered at length below, on everything from becoming a saint to the "web app loophole," perl, and the next iteration of the GPL.

dereferenced writes: "Walter Bright, author of the original Zortech C++ Compiler and the free (as in beer) Digital Mars C/C++ Compiler, has posted a draft specification for a new programming language that he describes as "a successor to C and C++". It seems to me that most of the "new" programming languages fall into one of two categories: Those from academia with radical new paradigms and those from large corporations with a focus on RAD and the web. Maybe its time for a new language born out of practical experience implementing compilers."

banuaba writes: "I am a Windows user. I've tried a couple of distros of Linux, and a BSD or two, but they aren't what I need in an OS. Sometimes in my job and my personal 'life' I need something with a little more power than Windows can give me, and when that time comes, I use Cygwin and have been wholly satisfied and enamored with the product they put out. My question for all you Slashdotters out there is this: I would like to 'reward' the Cygwin people for giving me a great product that fits my needs, but aside from an 'attaboy' email, I don't see how I could compensate them, preferrably financially. I don't have any coding skills of significance, and am not inclined to learn, I'd just like a way to let them know that I like what they've done. In the non-free (as in beer) software world, I would buy their next release. Is there any way to financially help them along? Should I just mail them a check? Would that be insulting to OSS developers, as a general rule? How or would you slashdotters who work on GPL'd code like to be compensated for your time and effort?"

dlesko writes "The historic Trojan Room coffee pot at The University of Cambridge has gone to the highest bidder on ebay for £3,350.00 (that's about $5,055.20 USD based on the currency rates as of 8/12/01). You can see the results for about 90days. Now they just have to hope that the person actually comes through with the dough..." A fitting end to a net.legend. If I could figure out where Arial, my old DEC Alpha Multia that was the original Slashdot, I would auction that off and give the cash to the EFF (minus shipping a cost of a case of beer ;) Dave? Rosie? Where did that thing go? I know it was finally retired as the SMTP server... I probably should get it back someday ;)

Slashback tonight with another assortment of corrections, amplifications, looks backward (and even looks forward to looks backward). In this last case, it looks like you may even get fed.

rabalde writes: "You can order now and free of charge the CD-ROM "SAP DB 7.3, SAP's Open Source Database" from the SAP Shop. It contains the content of the SAP DB web site, all SAP DB software for all platforms supported by SAP DB (a lot of platforms), all SAP DB sources and the development environment and all SAP DB documentation. I've already ordered mine, so now all of you can go there and /. them. There's also some SAP DB Logos available for download."

night_flyer writes: "Stale Beer may be used to clean up one of the worst superfund sites in the U.S. ... Now the question is, who leaves beer in the fridge long enough to go stale?" The site in question is a former zinc mine in Oklahoma which is full of toxic leavings, and has been on the EPA's Superfund hotlist for a few decades. A University of Tulsa professor named Tom Harris, who originally considered mollasses, is quoted as saying that "a wetlands treated with beer would be more effective in removing zinc and lead from runoff water than an untreated wetlands."

An Anonymous Coward writes: "For those who liked the jet-engine beer cooler, here's another back-yard inventor from New Zealand who likes playing around with jets - he's not looking at the more common turbojet, but instead seeing how he can improve the long-neglected pulse-jet engine. For some background, see his homepage or just look at the go-kart he built to try out his jet." Pulse jets are an inefficient design that has been entirely superceded by other engines - but wow.