GaelenBurns asks: "I've got a project that I'd like the Slashdot community's opinion of. We have two distant office buildings and a passel of windows users that need to be able to access the files on either office's Debian server from either location through Samba shares. We tend to think that AFS would be the best choice for mounting a remote file system and keeping data synchronized, but we're having trouble finding documentation that coherently explains installing AFS. Furthermore, NFS doesn't seem like a good option, since I've read that it doesn't fail gracefully should the net connection ever drop. Others, such as Coda and Intermezzo, seem to be stuck in development, and therefore aren't sufficiently stable. I know tools for this must exist, please enlighten me."

News for nerds writes "Sony Corporation announced the new development of Sony's humanoid robot, enabling integrated motion control for walking, jumping and running on feet. By applying this technology Sony has created the world's first running humanoid robot 'QRIO'. Japanese PC watch has an article with pictures and movies of QRIO running at 14 meters per minute, sometimes with both feet leaving the floor (= running)."

City_Idiot asks: "I'm looking to upgrade my current P4 2.4Ghz and i'm giving serious thought to a Athlon64 3200+. The tests look good, and it gives a 3Ghz P4 a good run for its money but is the technology ready for end users?"

iiioxx writes "Cisco Systems announced on December 15, 2003 that new security holes have been found in the PIX firewall IOS. The vulnerabilities are in SNMP and VPNC functionality, and both allow for DOS attacks against an affected firewall. Vulnerable IOS versions are 6.3.1, 6.2.2 and earlier, 6.1.4 and earlier. 5.x.x and earlier. There are a couple of workarounds for the SNMP vulnerability, but the only way to correct the VPNC problem is to upgrade the IOS."

Dark Bard asks: "What is the best configuration for a rendering machine. Given the variety of chips and components what are the best options balancing cost verses speed. I've been running Lightwave and plan to shift soon to Maya. AMD chips seem to be rated as a bit faster for rendering and they cost less, as well. Given the number of types of RAM available, what are the advantages of each verses cost? Should ECC be considered? What about motherboards? Integrated video would be ideal but it would have to be adequate to run the software. Is there any advantage to running the new 64 bit processors? Should you consider dual chips? What about operating system? Lightwave won't run on Linux but Maya will. How well do the major operating systems compare when used for this purpose?"

SeattleGameboy writes "NY Times has an article about Intel's plan to produce low-cost liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) chips. This could result in high-resolution 7"-thick rear-projection TV costing around $1000 by next Christmas (not to mention cheap projectors). I guess I can put off buying a new TV for another year ..."

An anonymous reader writes "A new Java powered home entertainment audio device design promises to simplify sharing computer music files among computers and stereos in connected homes. Gloolabs's Gloo is Java middleware that puts an iPod-like interface on music files it "discovers" around the network. Gloo, which will be licensed to multiple device makers, is available now on one device that runs embedded Linux, and Gloolabs is currently bootstrapping a Gloo developer community. Gloolabs is currently taking orders for the $250 MacSense HomePod, the first Gloo-based device, which will ship in January 2004. A limited quantity of the $350 Developer Edition is available now."

William Ryan writes "SQL Server CE is Microsoft's preferred database backend for its Compact Framework initiative. Compact Framework is a cool technology, but it's still in its infancy. This book does a lot to help you get started using SQL Server CE." Read on for the rest of Ryan's review, or revisit his November review of a related book, The Definitive Guide to the Compact Framework .

securitas writes "The European Union has agreed to provide the US government with detailed airline passenger data. The agreement allows the collection of 34 pieces of data per person and limits storage of the data to three and a half years. 'The United States originally wanted to collect 60 pieces of data and keep it for 50 years.' Previously, the EU had objected to the plan because it violated EU privacy legislation, the data-protection directive. The plan is similar to the CAPPS II passenger profiling system. The data may be used for 'secondary purposes' other than anti-terrorism measures if requested from US Customs by other law enforcement agencies."

OttoMagick writes "I found an article called 'Many Systems on One Machine' over at Kernelthread.com that shows over 55 operating systems running on a 17inch Powerbook. The article includes screenshots and descriptions of each system, and also hacks and tips on getting the nasty ones installed. The author Amit Singh (the Hanoimania guy, covered earlier on Slashdot) explains his reasons for all this in a related FAAQ (frequently asked + anticipated questions) ... In all a very interesting read, specially the FAAQ, where he calls the setup "the iPod of operating systems". Now thats an Apple Power User! I wonder what Steve Jobs would say if he sees people doing such things to his machines!!"

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com reports on a new Samsung smartphone shipping in China. According to the article, the Samsung SCH-i519 smartphone supports both Chinese and English, and works with the CDMA2000 1x network of China's #2 wireless provider, Unicom. The device features voice control, a powerful 400MHz XScale PXA255 processor, and a software suite from Mizi Research. Add this to other recent news (a Linux-powered smartphone from China's E28, Japan's NTT DoCoMo has adopted Linux for its new 3G phones, and, of course, Motorola announced the Linux-powered A760 earlier this year), and it starts to look like Linux is picking up steam in the mobile phone market." Update: 12/17 06:16 GMT by S : We previously covered the E28 phone yesterday, though not this new Samsung model.

ExCEPTION writes "This Japanese guy upgraded his Mac Cube to G5 all by himself. Well, not really an upgrade, just the case." Apple should pay (or hire) this guy.

andrebsd asks: "I'd like to make myself some sort of webpage where I could startup my system with 'Wake on Lan', and once it is started, use VNC to login. Once I'm done doing what I need the system for I would then like to shut it down again. I'm wondering how one might go about putting something like this together. VNC has various scripts for making that part work, but I haven't seen any scripts that can function as a 'Power on/Power off' button for a webpage. Thanks to anyone with any way of doing this." While there are helpful reference for Wake-on-LAN tools, how would you integrate all of these into a coherent system? How might one keep such a system (relatively) secure?

An anonymous reader submits "Four (4) compressors cooling one PC! Yes, it's big, yes it's heavy, yes it's loud and yes it does get your CPU and GPU cold, very cold. Is -100C cold enough for you? Cascade cooling is yet another chapter in a Finnish overclocker's neverending quest for optimal PC performance. Those things go down to -80 to -100C and can maintain the temperature. See here for the whole article with the pictures of the project."

JigSaw writes "A few moths ago Robert Minvielle put to test AMD's Opteron regarding its 64-bit Linux compatibility. The results back then were not very positive but he is now back testing more 64-bit updated distros: Gentoo, SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat and Fedora. And this time the results are more positive with Linux offering good Opteron support where Windows-64 doesn't seem to. FreeBSD also lists the AMD64 platform as a tier-1 architecture."

virtualXTC writes "The Japanese phone company NTT DoCoMo and electronics giant Sony will begin a trial of cell phones with embedded smart cards with speed pass-like capabilities that will allow the user to purchase anything from travel passes to movie tickets just by placing their cell phone near an electronic reader. Potentially the smart card 'can serve as an ID card, travel pass, or login for a corporate computer network, all at the same time'. If they'd just attach a money clip to it, I could get rid of my wallet entirely."

rborek writes "According to CNet News.com, Roxio is being sued by Optima Technology over Patent 5,666,531 which covers 'Recordable CDROM accessing system'. It looks as though the patent describes DirectCD and its packet writing technique. Many different programs and operating systems use this - including Linux, which opens the door for widespread patent licensing issues if the suit is valid and the patent upheld."

seigniory asks: "I'm looking to put about 20 touchscreen displays into operation as information kiosks in low-traffic areas (i.e. private waiting rooms, not malls). The application is written, but is mouse-driven, so a conversion to touch screen is necessary. At present, I'm imagining a 12-15" LDC with active-matrix, but will entertain other suggestions. Without much experience with the quality and durability of most touchscreen solutions, or the 'gotcha's' of converting an existing app to touchscreen, I'm at a loss as to where I should begin. I can't start the touchscreen w/o the actual screen, and I don't have a ton of money to play with yet, so I can't afford to waste money trying to find my ideal solution. Searches for 'LCD Touchscreen Display Reviews' has turned up not much more than ads. What experiences or advice can Slashdot offer?"

An anonymous reader writes "This news item at LinuxDevices provides photos and specs of a new Linux-based smartphone being launched today in China. The device, called the E2800, sells for about $600, and targets business users, offering PDA functions, touch-screen, handwriting recognition, a camera, and memory expansion to 512MB through an SD memory card, the article says. The device's manufacturer is a Shanghai company named E28. The E2800 is a 900/1800MHz, GSM/GPRS class 10 device based on dual ARM9 processors, running embedded Linux with a 2.4-series kernel. Other recent Linux-based mobile phone announcements have been Japan's NTT DoCoMo's 3G phones and Motorola's A760."

onebuttonmouse writes "Toshiba have set a new record for the world's smallest hard disk at a tiny 0.85". Surely this will have some great applications in mobile devices, although the article does not mention power consumption. It'd be great if this made it into the iPod like the 1.5" Toshiba drive that resides in the current models."