From a ZDNet story about Frontpath’s new ProGear Net appliance: “The tablet will cost about $1,500 with premium options such as a 1,024×768 10.4-inch display, 128MB of RAM, 6.4GB hard disk drive and a lithium-ion battery. The ProGear will run the Linux OS, use a 400MHz Transmeta TM3200 processor and browse the Web with Netscape Navigator version 4.74 for Linux.”

Slashdot readers discuss a Linux Magagine interview with IBM’s chief Linux strategist, Irving
Wladawksy-Berger, about IBM and Linux. From Slashdot: “IBM sees Linux as
a disrupting technology of the same class as the Internet: an OS that can run on many
platforms and that nobody owns: something that can fundamentally change the
landscape of computing.”

Researchers at Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory in France have succeeded in creating a version of the company’s robot dog AIBO capable of speaking, reports ZDNet UK News.

MacWeek proclaims, Mac OS X, through its Unix-derived 4.4BSD foundation, brings Mac users a feature that some might regard as heretical: the ability to control the system by means of a command line interface (CLI).

Eslit.com has launched a collection of 101 multimedia web special effect Java applets to provide 101 ways to jazz up anybody’s web site, from Internet Wire.

CoolLinuxAE is intended to provide a relatively hardware-agnostic approach to powering Internet appliances based on a small-footprint version of Linux that runs on machines put together from relatively ubiquitous hardware, and follows this up with a service plan that allows for flash updates of the embedded OS, reports All Linux Devices.

The October meeting of The Internet Society, DC Area Chapter, will bring together four distinguished authorities to address the
U.S. Patent Office and its attempts to keep in step with the increasing pace of technology, a topic that has significant short and
long term impacts on the Internet, submitted by Gene Gaines. The October meeting of The Internet Society, DC Area Chapter will bring together four distinguished authorities to address the
U.S. Patent Office and its attempts to keep in step with the increasing pace of technology, a topic that has significant short and
long term impacts on the Internet.

Are patents being granted for old ideas in “new clothing”; how easy is it to determine “prior art” vs uniqueness? Hear why patents
for Internet related business processes and software have generated so much controversy. Listen to what these experts have to
say; ask your questions; do some networking.

SPEAKERS

Q. TODD DICKINSON — Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent
and Trademark Office.

TIM O’REILLY — Founder and president of O’Reilly &
Associates, a pioneer in the popularization of the Internet, and
an activist for Internet standards and for Open Source software.

LAWRENCE LESSIG — One of the nation’s leading authorities
on Internet law, author (Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace),
and Professor of Law at the Stanford Law School.

MODERATOR

VINT CERF — Senior VP of Internet Architecture and Technology
at WorldCom, founding president of the Internet Society,
chairman of the newly created Internet Societal Task Force.

LOCATION

Booz-Allen Hamilton at Tysons Corner, Allen Building
8283 Greensboro Drive, McLean, Virginia Tel. 703-902-5000
Directions and map, seet: link

WHEN

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Refreshment and networking.
7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Panel discussion, questions and answers.

No charge to attend this event, open to the public.

More information Terry Weigler tweigler@dcisoc.org 703-326-9880 x112
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to tweigler@dcisoc.org.

PRNewswire reports, by combining the two development teams from i-data and Eicon, i-data will
gain significant development synergies, including benefits from both
companies’ strong competence within Linux-based development.

LinuxPlanet complains, sometimes tech support for Linux can be downright hellish and inaccurate.

According to The Register, a new bill has been introduced in California that will allow harsher penalties to
be handed out to people who intentionally distribute computer viruses or carry
out denial of service attacks on commercial Websites.