Free video archives of Usenix '08 are now online at: http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/usenix08. Archived sessions from the live streaming include companion conference slides. No registration required!
Although a couple of scratches are visible, you can read from the backup CD. The question is, for how long? Cdck measures the sector access times to give you an idea. Have you overwritten the bootloader on your disk? Super Grub Disk to the rescue!
The people behind Wikipedia have launched the Search Wikia project, which hopes to compete with the major search engines through a mixture of large community and sound financial backing.
Jono Bacon recently announced that the LugRadio Live UK show will be the final show. In his announcement, Jono said, "I am massively proud of what we have managed to achieve. Over 100 shows, 7 full-time presenters and countless guest presenters, 200+ hours of audio, 100+ guests, 2million+ downloads, 1000+ forums members, 40000+ forums posts, 5 live events in two countries, 5000+ emails to the show and an incredible community."
If you can't make it to USENIX next week, you can still participate online. Linux New Media will be broadcasting all talks of the "Invited Talks" track on USENIX '08 via live streaming from June 25 to June 27.