Slashdot Mirror

I refreshed the web page once the countdown hit zero and a million slashdotters came out of the shadows it seems; the server destroyed by madness, starting hysterically downloading.

Oh well. Maybe later then. Now for food.

http://www.aigarius.com/ff3_countdown.html - download timer countdown.

I cann't claim to 100% understand the situation but after glancing trough the logs of the discussions and of the patches the conclusion I came to was this - OpenSSL used supposed randomness of the uninitialized memory as an added source of entropy (interesting hack, but not an example of good coding as such). Valgring caught that problem and the Debian maintainer during a cleanup fixed it. Making such a fix can be considered a preventive step against possible attack vectors by poisoning the uninitialized memory. He took it up to upstream, they did not raise red flags, but did not quite merge the âclean upâ(TM) patch either. It fell through the cracks.

The problem is that in the same file, in another function all other sources of entropy were being merged into the pool of randomness using exactly the same code line as the one code line flagged by Valgrind. The maintainer assumed that the second code line has a similar function to the first and commented that one as well. AFAIK that also did not show up in the emails to the upstream list.

So we have:

        * Upstream using clever hacks that rely on uninitialized memory having some randomness to it
        * Upstream using same code and same variable names to describe different things
        * Upstream having no comments in the code explaining the two things above
        * Maintainer slightly over-generalizing a change
        * A bug slipping trough the cracks in the review processes
        * Another Debian Developer discovering the bug and recognizing its significance despite all of the above
        * Debian project coming out and admitting all of the above and scrambling to get fixes out to its users ASAP

I am impressed by the swift action of the people involved in fixing this. And while I think everyone can find some lesson be learned here, I think this is another good example of free software in action. And I hope that in the aftermath of this we will find ways to prevent this from happening in the future without stifling our progress.

http://www.aigarius.com/blog/2008/05/14/too-similar-to-be-different/

If you happen to download a very popular torrent (such the latest Naruto or BSG episode) with 30000 seeds all over the world, then this would be a godsend.

As I described here: http://www.aigarius.com/blog/2006/08/12/bit-horizon/

If the torrent client chooses a peer at random and gets a peer across the world from you, then there will be bad traffic between you two. If all peers are such unlucky choices (which is a significant probability for high popularity torrents) then you will have low total download speed, underutilisation of you bandwidth and (most importantly) overutilisation of intercontinental cables.

I suggested enhancements such as this in 2006. http://www.aigarius.com/blog/2006/08/12/bit-horizon/

I was the one doing the interview. I must say that Ted was clearly trying to make his arguments look as reasonable as possible and was (barely) succseeding at it, but even I was dissappointed at his attitude at the conference itself. What should have been an event for him to show up as a resonable man that people can chat with and have fun with turned out to become a farce.
He managed to piss off enough people by almost everything he did or said. That is a rare talent. He actually managed to even piss me off which I considered to be impossible before that.
You can read my account of that day here: http://www.aigarius.com/2006/05/27/debconf6-day-5. html

Where do I begin, there is just so much wrong with what your saying.

  http://www.aigarius.com/2006/03/10/interview-with- ted.html Aigars interview with Ted, I think really clarifies his thought process.
  Aigars by the way is not a fan of Teds, but is honest and I have a lot of respect for him. He even told Ted to his face that "you're getting under my skin", but have respect for that.

Aigars article really explains the Debian woman situation, and having experienced first hand the clique around Amaya, that would talk behind every ones back and spread rumors and conjecture, and work them selves into a frenzy, as well as act as the PC police. Other than that I thought she was pretty cute.

1) Ted never asked for travel funding, I had already agreed to cover him. He was defending others who were having sponsorship problems, and who still are.

2) Again the context is missing. What he said that if what the organizers was telling him was true then, this must be a "second rate hotel in a third world country" where the cooks are "not worth their salt". , This is because their answers to him were deceptive and conflicting.

3) His documents were on his personal web site and not associated with Debian. And he is far from a racist and Nazi, if he were I'd beat his ass for you.

4) Tyrannically? What are you smoking?

5) Many people have contacted both myself and Ted, privately offering support, but seem to be afraid to come out publicly because of the climate of fear within the debian community. Ted is opposed to some of the things the leadership of debian are doing, and this is real reason for his being attacked and picked on at every turn.

From the Aigars interview about Debian:
Finally, a place free of affirmative action and limits on free speech; just a bunch of people doing their best to make something great. You stand or fall on your own merits. Freethinking and refusal to compromise with political correctness was the order of the day. I was in heaven.

It was this change away from these values and ideas that Ted was attempting to reverse. This change is a part of the new (current) debian leadership. I sense a group of SysAdmin type paranoid thinkers, certainly not kernel hackers.

It's where things are misrepresented, out of context, and done secretly behind peoples backs that I just can't tolerate. I have been though too much of this crap in the past.

Debian started as a democratic organization, and still pretends to be one, but clearly this only superficial now.

Joerg assured me after the fight that I would be include in the discussion of what transpired that evening before a decision was cast. But this never took place, 7am Ted was tossed out, and I left with him.

The leadership has no Honor, or Balls, It did things privately and in secret in a most undemocratic, closed, and totalitarian fashion. I had been keeping and open mind about the whole situation and really remaining unbiased until that point. I really lost all respect for these guys, and after hearing from many South and Central Americans how they where also upset with the way debian was being run, I am totally convinced it's all true and at least as bad as I was hearing.

How can Ted get a GR when he has been silenced and cut off from the community?

Ted may not be leadership material, but neither is Anthony. Ted is one of the most loyal hard working employees I have ever had, he has been thorough a lot with me over the years. He has a very deep sense of honor and speaks his mind when he feels something need to be said even when it's unpopular and might get him into trouble.

But I can respect it.

There's a pre-fight interview with Ted here. His straight-up opinions may have offended some of the political correctness proponents that seem to have infected Debian lately.

I wonder if the group that tried to attack him was made up of PC thugs?

Of course it may have nothing to do with that at all. For all I know the guys that attacked him may have been Muslims upset with his support of Judaism.

http://www.aigarius.com/2006/03/10/interview-with- ted.html So the people "running debian" are "lunatics" and Ted, Jonathan or whatever-his-name-is Walters, is what? I don't really see how you can spin this.

Doh .. you just do not have the right software.

And the right software to read ebooks in Palm is the GPL ReadThemAll with the killer spotlight autoscroll feature with which I read many ebooks on my Treo. I have blogged about that recently: http://www.aigarius.com/2006/03/11/readthemall-gpl -book.html

There was not so much a problem of referies trowing this specific game, but more of the game in general being so abitrary that I really wonder why anyone except lawyer still watch that sport!

More: http://www.aigarius.com/2006/02/08/superballbowl.h tml