An anonymous reader writes "This article by two developers at Intel provides an introduction and overview to Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), a standards-based technology for transparent network device connectivity that allows devices from various vendors to "just work" when plugged into the network, eliminating the administrative hassle typically associated with networking devices and making them programmable entities that can be controlled across the network. Intel has been a strong supporter of UPnP, and has released an open-source SDK for the development of Linux-based UPnP devices, hosted at SourceForge, which has been used in a number of UPnP products that will soon show up on the market."

Dr. Zowie writes "Perl Data Language 2.4.0 was just released; get it here. This release includes even more powerful array slicing, a complete GIS cartography package, API access to the Gnu Scientific Library, and a host of other goodies. Between PDL and its less-mature siblings Numeric Python and Octave, the established commercial languages' days appear numbered."

Suppafly writes "As reported at boingboing, iCommune creator Jim Speth whipped up a little application called 401(ok) that combines a few hacks to restore internet-wide sharing to iTunes 4.0.1. You can download the app from SF.net." As one might expect, it is basically a port redirector.

tizo writes "Robert Britt wrote an interesting article about the discovery of three Earth-sized planets confirmed after ten years of controversy. They orbit a pulsar, a neutron stars spinning very rapidly. Researchers pinned down the masses by watching how the planets affect pulses of energy coming from the star. All other known planets around other stars are much bigger (like Jupiter) and were found using other techniques (Doppler effect of main star moving in a close circle because of influence of the planet or direct transit over line of sight)."

DasZweiten writes "Being a minimalist, I have run across a window manager by the name of EvilWM in which finally my standards have been completely met. Being an ex-fvwm addict, after the recent slashdot post about the ten year birthday of fvwm, I felt the need to share my overwhelming joy of my discovery of EvilWM with the rest of slashdot. The manager is small, efficient, beautifully coded, decorated with one pixel borders - all one needs or could ask for. The authors say it best on the EvilWM main site with "'Minimalist' here doesn't mean it's too bare to be usable - it just means it omits a lot of the stuff that make other window managers unusable." I frankly, could not have said it better myself. It lacks the unnecessary features, memory, and total bloating that most other window managers unfortunately contain. All of you die hard fvwm fans will love it. I'll never go back to anything else."

eval writes "Ever wanted secure access to your files at work or school, but didn't have the necessary permissions or were thwarted by a firewall that allowed ssh access only? The SHFS kernel module allows you to mount directories from machines to which you have shell access. File operations are executed as shell commands on the server via SSH (or rsh). Caching keeps it reasonably fast, and remote commands are optimized based on the server's OS."

sommere writes "We have added application layer (layer-7) filtering to Linux. That means that you can set up your linux-router/linux-switch to prioritize mail over the web over kazaa or gnutella regardless of what port each program is using. Colleges have been paying thousands of dollars for packet shapers to prioritize their networks, now you can do it for free. Get your kernel patch at l7-filter.sourceforge.net."

You asked nmap creator Fyodor many excellent questions, and his answers (below) are just as excellent. You'll want to set aside significant time to read and digest this interview, because Fyodor didn't just toss off a few words, but put some real time and energy into his answers.

j0atz writes "The New York Times is running a story today that, while it's a bit redundant in the beginning and a bit short on technical details later, gives a rundown the newest features for ReplayTV (numbered 4000 or above) and TiVO (Series2); basically, you can program your favorite DVR to record a show from a remote computer or from another (same-brand) DVR. Along with that, you can stream MP3's and pictures with TiVo now. Still...I'd much rather use something like FreeVo or MythTV and actually burn my shows to cd, stream whatever I want, etc, etc."

Eric Stats writes: "At one point in the not so distant past, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) were network security applications reserved for Fortune 500 companies with enough IT budget to fork up the Big Dollar, or hard core packetheads willing to grep through tcpdump or shadow output. Over the past few years, a new pig on the block, Snort, has put that notion to rest. Instead of having to spring for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a feature-rich, state-of-the-art, IDS; open source fans now have an IDS that meets and beats most of the performance benchmarks and features of commercial, closed source IDSs. Jack Koziol's new book, Intrusion Detection with Snort, presents a comprehensive guide that those either novice to, or richly experienced with, the field of Intrusion Detection can use to get up to speed quickly on Snort." Read on for Eric's review.

chronicon writes "Knoppix is the ultimate live CD. No geek-kit should be without it. Now Wim Vandersmissen has taken it a step futher by adding openMosix functionality. Drop the clusterKnoppix CD in your "server", boot up... boot up some networked clients... Knoppix built in LTSP magic kicks in and ta-da--instant cluster!"

An anonymous reader writes "Just noticed over at Boob! that Duke Nukem 3D has had its first non-x86 port - for the Sega Dreamcast. Downloads and other info are available at the SDL-DC Sourceforge page." This port, which was made possible by the Duke 3D sourcecode release we reported a while back, is based on a Linux port using SDL, and requires a Dreamcast keyboard in order to play.

mcbridematt writes "Many of the long time Slashdot readers will remember the Jazilla project to rewrite the Mozilla browser in Java. It went into hibernation in 2000 and I took it over last August. I have completely rewrote the browser which now follows a more Mozilla-like architecture. The Result: Jazilla Milestone 1 has been released. Download it from here. No prizes for guessing that it's Alpha software." Read on below for a list of what Jazilla can do, so far.

meonkeys writes "What if you could securely subscribe to a trusted P2P file broadcaster? Check out konspire! An interesting concept; implemented in C++ and controllable via a cool Web interface ala Mutella."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for communicating that the Famicompo Nintendo NES music competition is underway. The entry period lasts until the 15th June, and recommended composition tools include the Nerdtracker II 'tracker' for DOS, or even the text-based MCK system. This is pretty arcane but interesting stuff - to check out some more recent NES music (in .NSF format), try The Sounds Of 2A03 page and a player like Festalon.

Dan writes "Stacy Olivas has put together a hack of PicoBSD .500 using the FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE-p7 source tree. After seeing WarLinux and how it used an embedded version of Linux to get the job done, he started wondering if PicoBSD could be used for the same thing. He calls it WarBSD. Its main intended use is for systems administrators that want to audit and evaluate thier wireless network installations."

falzbro writes "Now Xbox owners (well, modded Xbox owners) can do what the Playstation people have been able to do for years; play PSX games on your console! PCSX has been ported to the Xbox. It's unfortunate that the homebrew Xbox development scene is stuck in a world of pseudo-legality, due to the lack of a usable Legal XDK. A compatibility list is currently being hammered out, and it's limited to only playing games stored on your Xbox HDD."

AltGrendel writes "Bored during those rush-hour traffic jams? An enterprising UK geek has installed an Xbox/Linux system in his car. With a mod chip, Freevo, a LogiTech Wingman, and a 40 gig hard drive, he has access to music, video, and games during drive time. Details and pictures are here."

Adrian writes "I have written a new file system for Linux - to read and write files on the Sega Dreamcast's visual memory unit (VMU)- a small slab of flash memory used by the console to save game files. To see it in action - and see a DC serve some html, go to the Landslide test server - though I have no doubt that micro_http, the web server I am using (said to be the world's smallest), will result in the quickest Slashdotting in history :)" Gentlemen, start your mirrors now.

Roadmaster asks: "Usually, the most effective spam filtering techniques are somewhat resource intensive. Heuristic checkers like Spamassassin, or bayesian filters like spamprobe are processor and storage hungry. This is fine for small setups; I've been using spamprobe to filter spam for 3 users with great results. I'm now however faced with a big challenge: a mail server that will eventually be handling mail for over 50,000 users and needs to have some sort of anti-spam measures. What are some good and computationally cheap spam prevention measures?"