nitecreep wrote to us about Tom's latest article: What happens to procs when the heatsinks fall off?. Having just had my brand new fan stop working on my computer, I can sympathize. I've found that it takes my 1.2 Ghz Athlon to reach 80 degrees Celsius in about 6 minutes, from time of starting machine. The results of running without a heatsink at all are....interesting.

Note: Troubled dot-commer Kurt Gray wrote this eloquent and tragic story -- a story all too typical in today's troubled tech market, when even the best ideas can be swept aside by a market that just isn't ready for them. Probably more than a handful of you can sympathize with the havoc that an economic downturn can wreak on what just a few months ago might have been wild success stories.

Ant sent us a Salon feature that talks about the (lack of) quality control in computer manufacturing, and then talks about it being "the American way of techno-capitalism". I've not had nearly the problems that people in this article allege, but I can sympathize.

The Net is killing off lines everywhere -- at banks, movie theaters, college bookstores. But government, one of the least progressive sectors of public life, is the last great frontier waiting to be digitized. And a lucrative one. Government collects more than $450 billion each year in fees and permits, most of which could be paid online. Imagine getting permits, licenses, renewals and deeds online. The Net can provide greater convenience, lower costs and digital democracy to citizens. And no lines.

This is an interview with a young programmer and entrepreneur named Bill Gates, originally taped and transcribed in 1980. In it, Gates says, "There's nobody getting rich writing software that I know of." Gates also works hard to defend the idea of copyrighting software stored on magnetic media - mostly tape, back then - which the government didn't accept at the time, and talks at length about how no one will ever write software if they can't make money at it, why it's bad to share programs freely with friends, and generally makes it clear that 20 years ago Bill Gates was already well on his way to becoming what he is today. (More below -- including a special Slashdot audio bonus!)

Robert Owens wrote in to tell us to check the Kirc Page for a rant by Aaron Granick, creator of Kirc, who is going through something to many of us have experienced. With a flood of email complaining about problems, and no chance to make any money back, sometimes an Open Source developer can get really burned out. (I wish I had more time to fix all of My Stuff, it really gets disheartening sometimes). He also talks about lack of standardization of X tool kits, as well as the downside of KDE. It's a heartfelt bit that a lot of us can sympathize witih.