Michael Holve writes: "It seems the ISS (International Space Station) is slipping 1.5 miles per week closer to Earth. Seven astronauts are set to use the Atlantis to push it 19 miles back out into space until mid-July, when the Zvezda module arrives, which was meant to keep the ISS in orbit and provide living quarters for three astronauts."

SRMoore writes "Some good news from Congress today. Looks like the International Space Station will get its funding this year. (At least from Congress)" Well, there are plenty of bloody battles to be fought before next year's budget is finally passed, but according to the CNN article SRMoore pointed us to, the House vote in favor of funding the space station was 298 to 121, so construction will probably continue for at least another year.

The International Space Station will be launched Friday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, by the largest rocket in the world: the Russian Proton. The Space Station will be so large it will be visible from the ground. The lauch will be shown live on the internet at 6:40 GMT.H:As a quick update, the launch was succesful, and things are on track for the unmanned station to meet with the US shuttle Endeavour in two weeks time.

Joel Stone was the first to tell us "Stop the presses! Compaq has thrown it's weight behind Linux - For details see link " This follows on from Compaq's announcement back in September. However, this goes one step further: Compaq will help the Linux community get Linux working on Compaq hardware (as they did with with their donation of an Alpha to Debian), they will provide telephone support, and port Compaq software to Linux on the Alpha and x86/IA 64 platforms.

Tyler Allison was the first to tell us that ISS X-Force have broken Back Orifice and put a program online that detects, and puts an end to Back Orifice. Is it just me, or does this seem like it is going to turn into high tech tag?

David Hamm writes "Momentum for the Atlanta Linux Showcase is growing as October 23rd and 24th draw neer. Along with Adaptec, Corel, Corel Computer, ISS and many others Sun has committed to exhibit. Join the Linux community in this celebration of the success and future growth of Linux. Register on line "

John Lazzaro sent us a link to This Techweb Article about reverse engineering future Intel CPUs. Brian Dial sent us a link to a A Security Site that some of you might like. Anthony David sent us A piece he wrote discussing software development and the like. René Fichter wants to know if there is any demand for an Open Source Graphical MUD. He's been working on one called Daenor that he's considerring opening the source to. Henrik Abelsson sent us a link to Denounce, a hilarious site that runs fake Press Releases. Very cool. An anonymous read submitted Realaroma. Its moderately entertaining. Finally Darren Ginter sent us an article about Signing Bonus's and the computer industry for those of us who thought that only Sports stars get such things.

Bryan Mattern wrote in with a forward from the Windows NT bug track list that discusses a new version of the teardrop attack. This version apparently affects Linux as well as NT and 95. Keep reading to read the original message.