Millions around the world were united in protest against going to war in Iraq.
Hamburg, February 2003
Combating HIV/AIDS in developing countries
“Combating HIV/AIDS requires more than prevention and treatment. It requires improving the conditions under which people are free to choose safer life strategies and conditions.” Editorial reflecting on what changes are necessary to prevent AIDS from spreading further among those most at risk.
www.bmj.com
OpenOffice.org: the great escape
“It’s just powerful and sophisticated software at everyone’s favourite price.” Geoff Palmer highlights the benefits of using OpenOffice.org.
www.pcworld.co.nz
The hidden dangers of documents
“The UK government has now largely abandoned Microsoft Word for documents that become public”, writes Mark Ward. If only they had used OpenOffice.org’s one-click PDF export…
news.bbc.co.uk
The real reasons Bush went to war
“Oil and the dollar were the real reasons for the attack on Iraq, with weapons of mass destruction as the public reason now exposed as woefully inadequate.” A disturbingly coherent explanation put forward by John Chapman.
www.guardian.co.uk
10 truths about trade
“Is globalisation sending the best American jobs overseas? If you get your news from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, the answer is ‘of course’.” Brink Lindsey puts some commonly made assumptions about the US American economy to the test. Useful reading even if, like me, you do not live in North America.
www.reason.com
Slackware 10: first impressions
“Above all, I am impressed by Slackware’s stability, clean layout, easy customisation, and excellent package management system.” Michael Hall gives his opinion on Slackware.
www.osnews.com
A cloud over civilisation
“Wars are a major threat to civilised existence, and a corporate commitment to weapons procurement nurtures this threat.” Economist John Kenneth Galbraith argues that companies control the state.
www.guardian.co.uk
Compact cranks and gearing
“Human power output is a bit like a modern high performance engine, but with tiny amounts of power.” Simon Butterworth discusses the pros and cons of different types of cranks and gearing ratios.
www.slowtwitch.com
Microsoft’s sacred cash cow
“Recently, I’ve had a crisis of faith. Perhaps I’ve rebooted Windows one too many times.” Former Microsoft employee Jeff Reifman tells on why addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could spell doom for the software giant.
www.seattleweekly.com
Browser innovation, Gecko and the Mozilla Project
“The more people who use browsers based on open, standards-compliant technologies, the better the chances we will all enjoy viable choices in the way we conduct digital transactions.” Mitchell Baker puts Mozilla, Gecko, Safari and other emerging browser technologies into context.
www-archive.mozilla.org
Monitoring hard disks with SMART
“Many users and system administrators don’t know that SMART systems are built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks.” Bruce Allen explains how to use Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) to monitor the health of your hard disks and preempt catastrophic failures.
www.linuxjournal.com