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Nokia has begun shipping its Linux-based Nokia 770, the so-called "Internet tablet", according to the Finnish giant's direct-sales website. The device lacks the usual Nokia mobile phone technology, relying instead on Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth to connect it to a broadband connectivity host. The 770 is pitched at consumers who want to access the Internet for emailing and web browsing anywhere in their home.

A small team of developers in California on Friday launched a cutting-edge Firefox-based Web browser dubbed Flock, which integrates next-generation Web technologies such as RSS content feeds, blogs and bookmark and photo sharing. The team of developers was spearheaded by Bart Decrem, who is well known in the open-source community due to his involvement in the Mozilla Foundation and his ill-fated start-up Eazel, which from 1999 until its demise in 2001 aimed to bring greater usability features to the Linux desktop. "Indeed the time is upon us," wrote Flock co-founder Geoffrey Arone on his blog shortly before the release. "We...

Like the exploits of 21st-century special operators – including U.S. Navy SEALs, Army Delta soldiers, Force Recon Marines, Air Force commandos, and CIA paramilitary operatives – stories of men like Ortiz are rarely gleaned from books, newspapers, and magazines. Their incredibly dangerous work often goes unseen and is thankless.

Japan aims to switch some government computers to the free Linux operating system and reduce its dependence on Microsoft Windows. Japan is drawing up guidelines for its ministries recommending open source software such as Linux as an "important option" in government procurement, said an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

When will Microsoft stake some of its resources on open-source software? When the product in question helps Windows sales and takes market share from IBM. That was the impetus behind a technical deal struck last week in which Microsoft will fly engineers from software company JBoss Inc. to Redmond, Wash., to make sure JBoss' open-source, Java-based middleware runs well on Windows, SQL Server, and other Microsoft products. JBoss sells its products under an open-source GNU Public License that Microsoft has criticized as a threat to intellectual-property ownership, and its technology is based on the Java 2 Enterprise standard that competes...

EU plan could put open sourcers in court By Ingrid Marson, ZDNet (UK) Published on ZDNet News: August 2, 2005, 11:51 AM PT The European Commission has proposed a law that could allow criminal charges to be pressed against a business using software believed to infringe upon another company's intellectual property. The proposed directive, which was adopted by the European Commission last month, would allow criminal sanctions against "all intentional infringements of an IP right on a commercial scale." Richard Penfold, a partner at law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, said last week that the proposed directive could "quite...

The final item in the Sept. 30, 1944 "Activity Report of Virginia Hall," American intelligence agent, was No. XV: "Were you decorated in the Field?" "No," she had typed, "nor any reason to be." The answer was typical of her matter-of-fact sense of duty. But William J. Donovan, known to a generation of spies as "Wild Bill," begged to differ. On May 12, 1945, Maj. Gen. Donovan, director of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, informed President Harry Truman that Hall was, for her extraordinary heroism, to receive the Distinguished Service Cross -- second only to the Medal of Honor....

Firefox Is Heading Towards Trouble Posted by: Mike Griffin on March 11, 2005 @ 10:45 AM FireFox may be in danger of "rotting from the inside out" according to industry experts including one of the developers on the FireFox review team. Lack of attention by developers and money from supporters may end the meteoric rise of the browser where it is today. Forget about Microsoft coming out with IE 7 to challenge Firefox. If Firefox rots from the inside out; the way so many other programs, like the original Netscape browser, did; then it's not going anywhere much beyond where...

An IT law expert predicts the threat of litigation over patent violations will seriously hamper Linux development in Europe if the CIID is passed. The European Commission's decision on Monday to reject demands to rewrite the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive could seriously damage open source software development in Europe, according to a legal expert. ---------snip------------ According to Malcolm, who admits to being against software patents, said there is 'no question' that Linux already violates a number of patents, which could lead to further litigation.

-----snip------- "Linus is a good developer, but is a terrible engineer," said Cox. "I'm sure he would agree with that." -----snip------- Cox said that Torvalds does not always let people know when he has fixed a security bug in the kernel. This can be a problem as the patch will take a while to make it to production, which means that hackers can exploit the vulnerability before it is made available to individuals and enterprises running Linux. "Linus has this bad habit of fixing security holes quietly," said Cox. "This is a bad idea as some people read all the...

Cabir virus spreads in US cell phones Cabir, the first ever cell phone virus, spreads hitting US. Mobile phone virus spotted on a smartphones combining both phone and computer functions which were displayed in a store in Santa Monica, California last week.   Infected handsets display the message “Caribe” when turned on. The worm scans for other phones using Bluetooth wireless connection and sends the spotted file spreading the virus.   Cabir, which mainly targets mobile operating systems Symbian, Windows Mobile and the one used by Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, also damages files and data and drains the cell...

Gartner urges caution before downloading Firefox The Web browser may not be an unstoppable juggernaut News Story by Matthew Broersma FEBRUARY 10, 2005 (TECHWORLD.COM) - Companies should think twice before jumping on the Firefox bandwagon, according to research firm Gartner Inc. The open-source browser has been gaining market share steadily over the past few months, helped by industry support and user enthusiasm, but Firefox isn't the unstoppable juggernaut it might seem. Browser switching is taking place at the level of individual users, rather than organizations, and some of the factors that make Firefox more appealing than Internet Explorer are likely...

Notwithstanding former President Jimmy Carter's recent statement to the contrary, Undersecretary of State John Bolton's remarks about Cuba's biological weapons capabilities underscore lingering concerns with the rogue island only 90 miles from the United States. Bolton, on May 6, told an audience at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation that the U.S. is suspicious about Cuban biomedical laboratories and their ability to transfer biological weapons technology to Iraq, Syria and Libya, all countries that Cuban President Fidel Castro visited last year. Bolton also made remarks, which may be interpreted as a clear signal of hardening State Department policy toward Cuba, faulting...

Reports from Iraqi security services indicate many in the hastily assembled security forces are actually informants or insurgent sympathizers. They have begun using their own selection methods as opposed to the civil service type selection process the US military was applying to new recruits for security service positions.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

With the US Presidential Election coming up, we've had a lot of story submissions that we would like to post, but they don't fit very well on the Slashdot main page. To address this, we'll be running special political coverage between now and the election in our new Politics subsection of Slashdot. Please submit stories directly to the section for consideration. As with all sections on Slashdot, there will be stories available within that section that don't get posted to the main page, so please visit the section if you are interested in more coverage. We'll do our best to...

"Based on our analysis, Microsoft Windows has one half the Total Cost of 0wnership (TC0) of modern Fedora Core Linux based technologies." [Source link is a PDF, Adobe Reader required.]

Software groups warn of FTA dangers By Online Staff August 6, 2004 The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement poses a grave threat to the entire Australian software development industry due to the legal framework on intellectual property which is required upon adoption of the pact, the Open Source Industry Association and Linux Australia have warned. In a statement issued in Melbourne today, both organisations said the FTA would hamper Australia's ability to efficiently compete in global markets. "Much like the introduction of a flawed patenting regime for pharmaceuticals, adoption of a flawed patent regime for software is not in Australia's interests,"...

Munich puts Linux project on ice because of the software patents The city Munich have their consider project LiMux , which plan, the city administration on Linux change over, on ice put. The German Federal Government, that occurs in the European Union for the disputed software patents and thus against open SOURCE often commodity and the middle class, is jointly responsible is called it in a report SWM software marketing GmbH. In the evening of yesterday the highest EDP responsible person of the city communicated Munich, Wihelm Hoegner, on a mailing list that could not for the time being start...

Linux potentially infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft but none that have been validated by court judgments, according to a group that sells insurance to protect those using or selling Linux against intellectual-property litigation. Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, conducted the analysis for Open Source Risk Management. OSRM is like an insurance company, selling legal protection against Linux copyright-infringement claims. It plans to expand the program to patent protections.