CNet follows up on the Napster merger Tuesday: “More people may be window-shopping at online music retailer CDNow since they started
using software from file-swapping service Napster, but fewer people are buying, according to
a new report.

PC Data found that new Napster users are just as likely to purchase music at Bertelsmann-owned
CDNow in the first month after downloading Napster software as they were before becoming members of
the file-swapping service. But those consumers’ purchases decreased after 90 days, even though they
visited online music retailers more frequently.”

From Technocrat.net: We all know that the leading cause of burn-out in computing is stress. But where is this stress
materializing from? You get idiot bosses, wherever you go, and nowhere is completely immune to the
Clueless Newbie Customer Syndrome. Sure, technology is advancing all the time, but that impacts
everything from washing machines to VCR’s.

From InfoWorld: “The U.S. Library of Congress has posted a rule saying only two types of digitized works are exempt from the 2-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition against cracking access codes designed to protect movies, software, books, and other digitally recorded material from illegal use. The rule is seen as a victory for the entertainment industry, which uses access codes to protect the copyrights of digital recordings of films and music, but a defeat for software developers who ‘reverse engineer’ some software code in order to customize it …”

From LinuxPR: The Centre aims to foster development for Linux professionals and promote
the use of Linux in Asia.

Sun Wah Hi-Tech Group and The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University officially held a signing ceremony on the PolyU campus
October 30 for the establishment of the Sun Wah VPolyU Linux
Training & Development Centre.

From LinxPR: Dr. Marilyn Davis, who invented,
designed and implemented eVote has joined FreeDevelopers as the
project leader for its e-Democracy software development project.

The Linux Documentation Project reports on its progress, from a post on LWN.net, including a recent summit at UNC-Chapel Hill, at the facilities of ibiblio.org, a longtime LDP supporter, which has ”
resulted in several new initiatives that will help the LDP evolve.”

From ZDNet: “Linux godfather Linus Torvalds has posted to kernel.org the near-final release of the Linux 2.4 kernel. In making available to developers the so-called 2.4.0 Test10-Final release, Torvalds noted that this beta has no known ‘showstopper’ bugs. If no serious bugs are discovered by testers, Torvalds could release the final 2.4 kernel in the coming month.”

IDG News Service reports that Compaq has released enhanced products and new services
for businesses that use Unix servers.

“Enhancements to Tru64 Unix and TruCluster Server will include
extended clustering and performance powers, along with Internet and
management capabilities.”

From IDG News Service: “The Italian state administration is excessively
dependent on Microsoft’s software and the country
could achieve significant budget savings if it switched
to open source software, according to an open letter
which a group of information technology professionals
is preparing to deliver to Public Administration
Minister Franco Bassanini.”

Here’s a quote from the story at eWeek: “”The view that all open-source software is vulnerable and that the open-source movement can only benefit by paying more attention to security is incorrect.” Huh? Read more, it might make sense.