Crocodile wrote in to say that x11amp 0.9 alpha2 is out for those of you MP3 junkies out there. Remember that article awhile back about the pictures from Pi? JHoyt sent us a link to a script fu script that will do it. Neato. Infinite background possibilities. Jeff Davis sent us a link to Beowulf Underground, a new news site for those interested in news revolving around Beowulf Linux Clusters. From the random Slashdot Mainstream References box, we've got a bit Stephen Horne sent at ABC News article on the Windows Refunds. Yippee. Now that the boring old serious stuff is out of the way, let's take a break.

Ok, that's enough. Now some funny stuff to help end your day on a good note. The Cunctator sent us link that can only be described as the hamster dance. GloiDemon sent us a link to DrZaius.com, a new humor site. How can you resist Dr Zaius? Phil Gregory sent us a link to a Segfaultstory called the Gospel of Tux. Check it out. Rishi Hemrajani sent us a link to a book that everyone should own. I think we posted this a few months ago, but it warrants a rerun.

Loic Dachary wrote in to say that catalog, a GPLd perl script to create your own Yahoo style directory is up for download. ja wrote in to say that LyX, TeX a frontend for dummies has officially hit v1.0 From my own blatant self promotion department, I actually registered CmdrTaco.net and have moved most of my non-slashdot stuff there- as well as cleaning up some design issues and making pages smaller and faster and prettier. Update your links, the old stuff will go away in the not so distant future. David Carver noted that the March 1999 issue of (What? Paper?) Performance Computing magazine mentions Slashdot on Page 13 regarding last Novembers reports on Cheap Alphas. For something truly strange, we have something Blaxthos sent: The Church of the Quivering Otter. It's actually even wierder than it sounds. An anonymous reader sent us a link to a CNN article about the Victoria's Secret commercial during the superbowl: Apparently the website got a million hits in the following hour. Was the game boring or do we just really like Stephenie Seymour? The answer to both of these is probably yes. Somewhat related is another patent following the one we mentioned yesterday. Rosmo sent us (Not for the ultra moral!) a patent that might be even scarier that that one.

VinceV sent us a link to a new site he's started up called Control-Escape.com which aims to be a help site for novice linux users making the migration from those less known alternative OSs from Redmond. jedgar wrote in to announce the Feb. Edition of DaemonNews and FreeBSD 'zine, and Squeezer wrote in to say that the feb. issue of Ext2 is out. (Mention one, ya gotta mention 9 more. Sheesh *grin*) Several other folks wrote in to note that The GNOME Project has released 0.99.5. Justin Clarke wrote in to show us Rioport.com which is Diamond's new site to connect Rio owners with legal MP3s. danmil noted another Slashdot reference in the mainstream- this one is in a NY times story. Now we have a few funny bits not for the Moral and Pure: the_gimp sent us a link to what is probably the most amusing patent in recent memory. Glad that's patented. Don't want that technology uncontrolled. Somewhat related, behhl sent us a site that was bound to happen- AdultLinux. You can guess what it's for. And lastly, for the strangest bit of the day, Hans sent us a link to Furniture Porn. Fear. And hide your children.

Ed Bailey wrote in to say that the Linux-7K project to get Linux on the Psion has started Bearing Fruit Fict sent in a link to LinuxApps which recently got a recamp. Looks strangely familiar GVeloper wrote in to say that gdev has been revamped (to use Slash) as well as containing some comments about glide and glade possibly merging. Lincoln sent us a link to a CG short parody of the politics of sfx which will be of interest to Star Wars fans. my copy of xanim won't play it, but several people told me it's really excellent. freejack wrote in to say that the Star Tribune rated Slashdot in top sites for geek gossip mongers. Whatever that means. Shave sent in a link to Jerry Pournelle's web site a where he talks about Refund Day and Slashdot (and neither in particularly cheerful terms) And finally, for the gamers out there, mgix sent a link to a N64 Emulator that can do Zelda64. That game has been a staple in the Geekhouse for weeks now. Addictive.

Couple of web sites worth mentioning: gman wrote in to plug LinuxHardware.net, a new "driverbase" that aims to make it easily to find drivers. Gman says it already has over 250 submissions. Need more help? Sure we all do, well Patrick wrote in to plug his new site, dotfiles.com. Guess what it's for? The first 2 tries don't count. And Some fun bits to keep you entertained for the evening, Evelyn Mitchell sent us a link where you can read the tummy.com 2.2 pool results and find how who predicted when 2.2 would be released. A similiar pool is upcoming for 2.4 CaseyB sent us an entertaining rumor from BeDope that Be will reincarnate the BeBox- building it out of Legos. Don't I wish. And finally, Hans sent us another funny one ls.themes.org where you can theme ls. I can't decide if its a parody or not- but it made my day.

Robert Flemming wrote in to say that KDE 1.1pre2 is out. I also noticed that GNOME has 0.99.3 RPMs available now if you're into that. LoCoPuff sent us a link to a CNN article about theWindows Refund that mentions Slashdot and quotes me (cough cough). Nate wrote in to say "Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" meet the Everything 2 code in The Oblique Strategies Garden. Indeterminacy=fun. " Robert Dale sent us a parody of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life called Lust For Linux (surprise) For todays Star Wars bits, Alan Shutko sent us a link to pictures of Official Star Wars Legos. And the todays flashback comes from The_Black_Macrame who sent a link to the complete errata list from the original Star Wars. It's an oldie, but a goodie. hangman got bored and decided to trash a DEC 2100 and post pictures. Check it out if you're into computer mutilation. An anonymous reader sent us a link to one image you don't want to see on an ATM. And lastly, jhack sent us a link to a nice little page on painting your mac black if you happen to think that blue color is a bit excessive. The final results are pretty sharp. Now stop reading quickies and go compile your 2.2 kernel.

Greyfox wrote in to say that a chunk of gnew gnome stuff is up. Full set of 0.99.3 tar balls for those livin' on the edge. In a related bit, GVeloper wrote in to mention the new cross referenced gtk documentation at GTK Dev Central Several other folks have commented that yet another Linux Kernel 2.2 prerelease is out. Hit the mirrors if you want it. My favorite BSD Equal Time activist, Jesse Shrieve wrote in to tell us that you can get metal FreeBSD squares to attach to your cases. maphew sent us a link to milo which claims to be a telnetable TRS-80. "I remember when" yada yada. That was my first programming experience. Next, a few Slashdot bits: Epitaph sent us a interesting little piece of Evidence of the Slashdot Effect in Effect: The results of a Petition against Canadian CD-R Tax. rive submitted a simple perl script that converts Slashdot Headlines to Window Maker Menus. Clever. DGibson wrote in to tell us that Slashdot rated Coolest site at Planet Click. Last of all, insanity never stops:An anonymous joker sent us a link to The All Squirrels Must Die page. and William Tanksley sent us a link to the shrunken heads HOWTO. Be afraid.

gman has started a new site, linuxhardware.net in an effort to create help newbies learn and share information about Linux and Hardware. nickm an insane link designed to bring arts and culture to the Unix community. Apparently Dogman has created a hilarious page entitled "Installing a network PostScript printer on a Sun workstation running SunOS As illustrated through interpretive dance. Whoever said learning can't be fun never saw this. Or maybe they did and just created a mental block so they didn't have to think about that guy dancing. Jerome ALET sent us a link to the Linux Slogans Database Matthew Astley wrote in to where you can buy 25x25mm self-adhesive domed plastic badges featuring Tux to attach to your computer case in that little logo spot. The Phly sent in links to a new Bible for Linux page is up. jgalun wrote in to send us a link to a Washington Post that comapres Sys Admin Salaries average system admin salaries, in which they note that Mac sys admins seem to make very little. Hmm, wonder why...Also noted is that Linux sys admins had the greatest pay raises last year. More to come, hopefully! darius sent us a link to the new apple ad campaign which features the one, the only, HAL 9000. BigZaphod wriote in to announce a new games site:Legions. And rounding in to the more tasteless part of the quickies, kweiheri sent us an great parody of realdoll.com- except this one is (ahem) realhamster.com. What is this world coming to? GraZZ wrote in to send us an amusing parody of Star Wars and the Starr Thing.

cyril sent this cartoon over with an interesting take on world domination, while no-s sent an interesting picture high-lighting some of the problems with X Proliferation. President John F. Kennedy has announced volume 1 of PROPAGANDA-check it out for Desktop enhancements. It also appears that X11.org needs some assistance with news updating. If you can help out send mail to xteam@x11.org. Finally, I got one of the most interesting pleas from Eric Savage. If you are living in the Boston area, and want high-bandwidth living, click below for his plea.

Weld Pond sent us a link to Hacker News Network, a new web mag that covers computer security and the computer underground. Joseph McDonald wrote in to inform us that someone has been registering typos of our Domain name. I'm flattered. I guess we're big now. An anonymous reader sent us a link to Da French Linux Page which looks strangely familiar. Contrary to what you may read elsewhere, it does not use any of my code, but the design is (ahem) borrowed (and uncredited). Lastly for the evening Star Wars news wrap up, derf wrote in to say that Entertainment Tonight will be showing the Prequel Trailer on TV in its entirety tomorrow evening for those who couldn't download the mpeg, were annoyed by the quality of the net version, don't live anywhere where they showed it in the theater yesterday, or just can't wait until friday. And ToiletDuk (who definitely wins Most Amusing Email of the Day) put together a wallpaper package (.Z) or a BMP. It's pretty good. I downloaded my copy of the trailer, watched the first few seconds, and as xanim chewed it to shreads, I decided to just abort and wait until friday. It'll be much inspiring on the big screen then on my piece of crap laptop. I can hold out for 48 hours (shake shake shake) really I can.

frokost writes "After searching for "Linus Torvalds" on AltaVistas Photo Finder, I ended up with links to several pictures of, well.. Linus Torvalds. I clicked a "Visually Similar"-link, and ended up with this page. It seems like Bill and Linus aren't that different after all ;-) " Someone whose name got lost by my Netscape 4.04 crashing again came across this support incident today. And finally, the denizens of Castle Slashdot are slowly recovering after an angry peasant mob stormed their home by surprise yesterday.

Well, we have a new Guest Tiler up for the past week. Its The AfterStep head developer. Also, we have a new Joe Linux User up. Joe Linux User is a celebration of the "Average" Guy out there making a page for Linux As well, we are proud to present fvwm.themes.org! So swing on over to Themes.org and check things out.

arielb wrote in to plug a website that will focus on Mozilla Skins. Wayne Schlitt wrote in to send us a link to a page of spoofs on O'Reilly books. Features "How to pronounce Linux", "Practical cp", and "Managing ls". BOredAtWork wrote in to tell us about a new site called Linux Game Breeding. The site aims to focus on creating new games. Finally someone from linuxpower.org wrote in to announce the opening of their site. The site will feature documention, tutorials etc. to help everyone coax more out of their Linux boxes.

Over the course of the last month or so, I've been collecting Laptop questions and have been holding onto them trying to figure out the best way to post them. I've now decided that the way to do this that would be the most effective would be to ask a real generic question and then post the individual problems separately in the article proper. The topic this time is: "Linux on Laptop's" If you've had problems installing Linux on Laptops, or weird Linux problems on laptops, then this one's for you! Click below.

James Renken wrote in to tell us about a humorous ZD articles revolving around the destruction of those annoying office assistants. Death to Clippy! Brett Taylor wrote in to say that the October issue of Daemon News, a BSD based ezine, is now out. Bill Kilgallon sent in a link to what is unquestionably the Ultimate PalmPilot Case. And lastly, several folks wrote in to tell us that ZD now has something they call "the ultimate linux resource". Hit the link to read some notes about moderation as well as comments about future direction of Slashdot content)

the secret asian man sent us an image that could only have been inspired by the iMac. GRR wrote in to tell us that Symantec is retireing it's Norton Utilities in favor of it's new Bigman Utilities. I found that one extremely amusing. Lastly Jaro wrote in to announce yet another Unix GUI project. This one is called the Unix Desktop Project.

We have a batch of strange stuff tonight kids. First Patrik Grip-Jansson wrote in to send us this story where you can read about frozen dog poop being used for DNA testing. Hell. It's friday. bluGill sent us a link to this page full of jpegs of messy equipment. I'm not sure why I'm posting it, except that its much more interesting than the Next story: Ed wrote in to send us a nice quick mirror of the Starr Report. Every site on the net has this as front page news, I guess the least I can do is post it as a quickie :) Finally rise wrote in to send us an entertaing cartoon featuring penguins.

Gary William Flake has written a book entitled ``The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation.'' The book's companion website is located at here. Art & Math can work so well together sometimes. Tom Murphy sent us a link to Chris Wenham os OS/2 E-zine's rant on Conspiracy Theories anf the FSF. Mentions Slashdot for some reason too. alank sent us an article on free software that you might enjoy. Gunfighter wrote in to say that recent User Friendly strips will be of interest to Red Hat users, Finally W. O. Frobozz sent us a link to an article about Gary Kildall of CP/M and DRI fame. Worthwhile read.

Alex Prestin sent us This Link to a strange picture of the iMac, and what appears to be its long lost little brother. Ewan Leith wrote in to tell the world that "PC Plus in the UK goes on sale tomorrow (the 27th) with Suse 5.2 on the cover CD, along with another CD full of linux programs." Donovan was the first to warn the world that the 2.1.119 kernel is now out. I compiled my 2.1.118 kernel a wopping half hour before the 119 release. Sigh. Colin Walls sent us a link to the latest Spencer F. Kat cartoon thingee. There's another piece of aftermath from last weeks standards hoopla. icetrey wrote in to say "OctobrX and Bishop have chosen me, icetrey, to be the new blackbox themes webmaster. It has a new look, as well as a few new themes for 40.x."

Don Antonio sent us a link to a site where you can *cough* club a seal. I love this world. Lee Maguire writes "According to a recent usenet post from their Director od Communications, Mainframe are to announce a deal with The Cartoon Network to show all episodes of the CGI cartoon ReBoot (quite popular with computer/sci-fi geeks like me..) - this includes the eagerly awaited third season. " Mark Ashton wrote in to tell us about a Student-run conference in Champaign, Illinois. Speakers include Bjarne Stroustrup and Theo de Raat. Mike Miller wrote in to mention that The Linux Mall now has a floatable 'Linux Headline News Stories' window which updates every 5 minutes. Is it worth adding something like that here or not? Lastly, everybody and their mother wrote in to tell me that Linux 2.1.118 is now available in the usual places.