The Concorde is history. Despite its entirely clean state of duty, the accident of 2 years ago had an immense impact on the popularity of these highspeed aircrafts. Today the last Concorde flight landed on London Heathrow Airport. The wheels hitting the concrete underneath never emotionally touched me this much. This happens on the same day MacOS 10.3, also known as "Panther", is hitting the stores. According to OSNews people already started the queues outside the Apple Stores in US for this follow-up of "Jaguar". OSNews has announced to do a report about the Panther release party in Palo Alto, so keep that one in mind if you're interested.

Intel meanwhile [still] has a hard time convincing Steve Jobs he should be basing Macintosh computers on Intel chips, and on a different note Britney Spears is still not sure how to shake off Masahiko Shizawa, the wealthy Japanese coder who has a hard time of not stalking her. Masahiko sued her for hurting his feelings over a "cultural misunderstanding". (He drives her) Crazy!

In case this news was all too don't-worry-be-happy and do you rather feel more connected to the less fortunate on this planet, for only 50 bucks you can torture yourself with WiFi-SM, a device available from Unbehagen.com (that's German for discomfort). This device search over 4,500 news sources for specific keywords (death, distruction, torture, war, ...). If it finds an article matching the keywords, it generates a calibrated electric impulse, which does not endanger one's health. To read some suggestive uses of possible newer types of WiFi, go here!
I would like to hear constructive comments on whether the following idea is cool or bull. Suggestions are welcome too.

Currently there is only one auction website I have found where BeOS-related articles can be bought; eBay. If you know of any more, do not hesitate to contribute it in the comments.

Below you'll see the first overview of the highlights from what is offered for sale. If the idea is being well-received, I'm thinking of posting an update like this once every other week.

Product Category Price $* Bids* Comments
Official Be, Inc. shirt Clothing 41.00
6
Seller Mike Popovic
Be vinyl transfer sticker Merch 4.50
0
BeOS Advanced Progr. Book 0,99
0
Easy money!
O'Reilly BeOS Progr. Book 10.99
0
Unopened, w/ CD-ROM
BeBox dual-133MHz Geek toys 500.00
1

* - Price and number of bids can vary. The information as shown with it is based upon the current state when the table was created and is therefore only for indicatory purposes. No claims can be made upon this information.
Yesterday, Dane Scott posted an article on his website LeBuzz, suggesting to complete SampleStudio. In only one day, today's update mentions, there has been so much positive response on his suggestion that the project could get organised and head for SampleStudio 1.0-FINAL.

Frans van Nispen, the original developer of SampleStudio, has already said to be willing to provide help and insight into the code where needed, LeBuzz tells us. Frans also mentioned three main areas to Dane that need of work badly:
  • Virtual Memory - A known issue on the BeOS platform is the Virtual Memory, which also causes a barrier for SampleStudio. Buffering should be enhanced to solve among others the ticks that the latest version shows.
  • Paste code bug - For some reason, SampleStudio sometimes adds info when pasting that isn't there. Artificial Intelligence can't be the cause.
  • Mixing paste - This is the feature that SampleStudio still lacks most, and it should really be implemented.
In the comments of LeBuzz's article, someone called "Mat", I'm not sure which one, announced to be porting SampleStudio for the PowerPC. That's wonderful to hear, and I would rock to see some status updates on it some time.
One of the most promising projects in the history of BeOS (and believe me, there have been many), used to be SampleStudio. It was last developed on several months ago, after which it was opensourced. Ever since, nobody has taken on the project.

Dane Scott, radio host of BeOS Radio, has now shouted for action on his BeOS Audio site LeBuzz. He suggest starting a campaign to get SampleStudio finished, and have at least one decent and complete audio suite on the BeOS platform.

Australia is going opensource as well. In an interview with The Australian at the Microsoft Office System launch in New York, Mr Gates replied that any such moves by government were wrongheaded and would result in a reduction in public sector productivity.

Dropping Microsoft software a reduction of productivity? Is he kidding?!?!

Keep an eye out on The BeOS Stockholder Gathering. Jeanmarc is doing a terrific job in keeping us up to date about these kinds of things. Feel free to discuss these governmental decisions.
Part of this story has been dereived from NewsFactor: Europe Slaps Microsoft Again.

"Many [European] governments are frustrated by the fact that Microsoft has evaded punishment for its monopolistic behavior," says Charles Homs, an Amsterdam-based analyst with Forrester Research.

After some time of considering what to do exactly, Choulth decided to write all updates of his Zeta review in both English and German. Future updates on the review - he is planning to publish one every day - can be read on Zetablog.de. To get the English version, you'll just need to click on weiter.../english... every time.

So I suggest adding Zetablog to your bookmarks and check it every day for a continuously growing thorough Zeta RC1 review by a normal user like you and me. It'll be definitely worth keeping an eye out on, mark my words.
Here's an overview of photos and reviews of BeGeistert. I plan on updating this article with all links till they are listed on the BeGeistert website.

Newly added are the review by Fran?ois Revol and the pictures by Marcus Overhagen. I did not manage staying out of the images this time, he caught me on 3 of them (one full-frontal which I actually kinda like, but my hair could have been better on that one).

Photos by Choulth (Olivier)
- Small and a bit blurry, but cool
- Larger and sharper images from the event
- Two pictures he made of D?sseldorf, nearby where the event is held

Photos by Marcus Overhagen
- Thumbnail list
- Cool pic of Bernd, who kept the cap on all the time

Review by Fran?ois mmu_man Revol
- Review (English)
- Review (French)
Choulth has posted the first part of his own user-side Zeta review on his Zetablog. Unfortunately it's only in German, so that's why for everyone's pleasure I have attempted to translate the review at the best of my abilities. Check read more for the entire scoop.

Talking about reviews anyway, Fran?ois mmu_man Revol wrote a BeGeistert review in English, which you can read over here.

I think it's a great thing to see the inactive usergroups returning to the scene. Check this out:

Apart from announcements here and there that Dutch BeOS users are trying to get DuBeUS (Dutch BeOS User Group) up and running again, now it's time for Sweden to recover BUGS (BeOS User Group Sweden).

Fanskapet, a Swedish BeOS user, posted a message about it here. If you're from Sweden and also want BUGS back in business, drop him a line at fanskapet at php-coders dot net.