Schapht asks: "Not long ago, SourceForge.net started offering users and projects the ability to accept donations. But there doesn't seem to be much information on the legal implications of accepting donations. Should open source projects start registering themselves as businesses? Would there be fines if they didn't? Are there any options for a project that can't afford the processing fees involved in registering a business?"

comforteagle writes "The W3C has upgraded their markup validation service to include easier navigation, official bug tracking support, 'verbose' error messages, fixed output bugs, and improved documentation. Aside from simply using the W3C's site you can download your own version. Mmmm "banana flavor"."

Sebastian Biallas writes "We have finally released version 0.1 of our PowerPC architecture emulator: PearPC. The emulator itself is (prepared to be) architecture independent but only tested on x86s (here you go porters...). It also features a must faster just-in-time compilation unit for x86 hosts. This means that you can now run your favourite PowerPC-OS on x86: Mandrake Linux (9.1), Darwin (6 + 7) and Mac OS X (10.3)! And the best things is: it's GPL'd. But be warned: it's experimental.."

bakwas_internet writes "Konstantin Ryabitsev sent a funny message in form of a irc chat log, revealing how Fedora and the Community Interact, to the development discussions mailing list related to Fedora Core.The story also appeared at lwn.net and OSnews."

Paul Tinsley writes "After seeing the press releases from both Nvidia and ATI announcing their next generation video card offerings, it got me to thinking about what else could be done with that raw processing power. These new cards weigh in with transistor counts of 220 and 160 million (respectively) with the P4 EE core at a count of 29 million. What could my video card be doing for me while I am not playing the latest 3d games? A quick search brought me to some preliminary work done at the University of Washington with a GeForce4 TI 4600 pitted against a 1.5GHz P4. My Favorite excerpt from the paper: 'For a 1500x1500 matrix, the GPU outperforms the CPU by a factor of 3.2.' A PDF of the paper is available here."

globbe writes "3D Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark announced the winners of the second Annual International 3DAwards this Wednesday (5/5). Take a look at the nominees and winners! 3D Festival, Game Developers World and Architectural Visualization Conference is an annual joint conference/expo combining interests in 3D-graphics and visualization.""

sirshannon writes "CNET News.com.com.com.com is reporting that the Kodak vs. Sun trial date has been set for September 15. Kodak claims that Java infringes on 3 patents they hold and have been trying to "resolve" the issue for 4 years or so. More info here."

News for nerds writes "According to the internetnews.com report, Microsoft's technology evangelist Robert Scoble said in his blog and interview that while he is a user of Firefox it can be improved if Mozilla developers take advantage of Longhorn technologies such as XAML, Avalon and WinFS, instead of making it only within GNOME/Mozilla coalition."

An anonymous reader writes "VRizer was developed at the Ars Electronica Futurelab to utilize conventional OpenGL games or OpenGL software for virtual reality or virtual environment setups. This is done in Linux, by creating a library that, when preloaded, intercepts the proper OpenGL/SDL calls to create 2 stereoscopic views out of 1 single frame stream. So the original software (the game) is not altered in any way.
VRizer now works best for UT2003, but a few other games were tested succesfully: FooBillard, TuxRacer, Scorched3D, Neverball, Armagetron, Trackballs. For download (binary only for now) and screenshots see the project and the website"

josh asks: "For my next project, I've decided I want to do something related to x86 virtualization (the way VMware does it or Plex86 not Xen/Bochs/etc.) but I really don't know where to start. Googling hasn't been helpful (just look at the results if you don't believe me). Are there any resources for learning about this kind of x86 virtualization? I know virtual 8086 mode wouldn't work, but without that what advantage does something like VMware have over something like Bochs? Are there any F/OSS projects aimed at something along the lines of my thinking? Please enlighten me with any references and resources you might have. Thanks!"

The Real Joe Faith asks: "The O'Reilly book 'Java in a Nutshell' used to include a really handy introduction to Java specifically aimed at C++ programmers. It meant an experienced programmer could re-use their knowledge and get up to speed quickly. But what about going the other way? I know a fair amount of Java but, for my sins, have always avoided C++. Now I need to learn it. Fast. Not just the syntax, but also about the various standard libraries out there. Now that Java is the standard language on most computer science courses I guess there will be a few people in the same boat. Can anyone recommend a good book (or any other information source)?" For those Java programmers among us who have gone this route, what books did you use to assist you in the transition to C++? How well did these books work for you?

dangerz asks: "I'm in a class right now that gives you a client and you must design a site for them for free. My class was split up into a group, and I am the Project Manager / Lead Programmer in the group. Our client is a group for Disabled and Elderly People. Basically, what we need to do is create a site for them to sell their art work. We had a meeting with the board of the organization today where we explained the basics of a website and what we'd need from them to move on. They learned pretty quick, but there are some things they want that we think aren't aesthetically pleasing. Has anyone ever had to do a site where the target audience was elderly or disabled people, and if so, what steps did you take to make sure everything was simple and accessible?"

philipp_at_bridges_dot_org writes "Bridges.org has just released an essay about FOSS issues in Africa, Straight from the Source: Perspectives from the African Free and Open Source Software Movement. It highlights a perspective that is often overlooked in the discussion of how FOSS can benefit developing countries: that of software developers themselves. The essay describes the conditions African FOSS developers work in and the difficulties they face, mostly letting quotes and personal impressions speak for themselves. The issues are very different from what I am reading in the typical slashdot discussions. It maybe an interesting perspective for your audience to see what others, who share the believe in freedom of source code are struggling with - hopefully to encourage thinking around solutions for these problems."

Fabrice Mous writes "The Xandros Desktop OS is known for their intuitive graphical environment that works right out of the box. Their polished desktop product is based on KDE. The KDE News website had the privilege to talk to Rick Berenstein, Xandros Chairman and CTO and Ming Poon, Vice President for Software Development about Xandros and their products and the relationship between Xandros and the KDE project. Without further ado ... enjoy the interview!"

Tasha Jessup writes "The fourth edition of the OpenGL Reference Manual, edited by Dave Shreiner, provides an official command reference for the OpenGL graphics library version 1.4. Published by Addison Wesley, the text is approximately 760 pages and has a suggested retail price of $59.99." Read on for the rest of Jessup's brief review to see how well it justifies that pricetag, and for whom.

Junks Jerzey writes "Saw the essay 'Programming as if Performance Mattered', by James Hague, mentioned at the Lambda the Ultimate programming language weblog. This is the first modern and sensible spin on how optimization has changed over the years. The big 'gotcha' in the middle caught me by surprise. An inspiring read." Hague begins: "Are particular performance problems perennial? Can we never escape them? This essay is an attempt to look at things from a different point of view, to put performance into proper perspective."

BlindSpy writes "Yesterday, Tuesday May 4th, high-school students all over the U.S. took the first-ever Advanced Placement Computer Science College Board exam based on Java. The exam is given as an opportunity for high-school students to earn college credit in programming. The test is based on whichever language colleges are looking for, which signifies a significant step for Java. In past years, the exam has been based on C++ (1 year) and Pascal (around 10 years)." If you took the exam, what were your impressions?

An anonymous reader writes "Today version 7.6 of the Swedish programming language Pike was released. Some of the noteworthy additions are support for the Bittorrent protocol, the OBEX protocol (to communicate with cellular phones), IPv6, PGP and Bz2. If you want to beat the crap out of your Python/Perl program speedwise, try porting it to Pike..."

Daniel Ashbrook writes "The Eigth IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) is now accepting submissions for papers, posters, demos and more! Slashdot has covered ISWC several times before, but here's your chance to participate! The submission deadline is May 23, so get those Twiddlers chording!"

An anonymous reader writes "What sort of math are CS majors expected to take? Why are these classes useful? Does programming really have that much to do with math? Lineman.Net has published an article that answers these questions and more. If you are considering a CS degree, be sure to give it a look and make sure you are taking steps to prepare for your college career."