Slashdot Mirror

It's quite a bit of fun to play with.

Does Python have any equivalence of Java servlets? What support is there in the Python standard libraries for writing web applications?

If you can still get your hands on one, the HiEbook (by some Korean manufacturer) is fairly decent device. I've been using mine for 10 months now, and my friend and his wife have theirs for at least twice as long. It's mainly designed just for reading ebooks, and is about A6 in size.

It can use html, doc (if you have MS Word to autoconvert) and its own format. Upload via small USB cable with (windows only) software; or via a card reader if you get a SmartMedia card for it (only up to 128MB though).

It also has some minimal PDA functions, although the CPU is underpowered, and the touch screen a little insensitive. It can, however, play mp3s through the headphone port; and has an inbuilt microphone for voice recording (can't vouch for the quality, never used it).

It comes with a few apps such as text/draw memo (no graphiti input), calendar, address, schedule; and 4 games: othello, omok, sokoban and puzzle. There is a version of minesweeper available, and my friend is wrighting Taipei for it.

It also has a decent backlight (which unfortunately has a soft whine, so there are contraindications for using it in a quiet room), and a nice pleather holder with wrist strap; and if you do get one, use the strap, as the screen can crack if you drop it from a metre or so.

Pros:

• Decent sized (touch-)screen
• Doesn't require proprietary formats
• 3 font sizes
• Pretty pleather holder
• Pretty green backlight
• SDK available
• Charge lasts quite a while if just reading without backlight

Cons:

• Backlight whines slightly
• Contrast changes when environment is hot (have to jump to system to change it)
• Hard to find (there were only 2 left in my small city when I got mine)

Overall, although the design is a few years old now, it's the best ebook reader I've managed to find that doesn't have bad DRM. (I really wanted the sony LibrIe when I read about it, mmm e-ink, but the DRM was horrible so I didn't bother spending all that money.)

Free, Open Source .rb format creator: http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/

Have your promo pack on the site. Only one of my Clients does, but that gives them an advantage over the competition. Make sure the promoters know who you are, what you play, and what you need on stage for plugs and boards.

And photos! Fans love em. Promoters need em. Find yourself a good PHP type package like yappa-ng and smile for the birdie!

My $0.05 about music online: consider it your radio play. Release a few "singles" to your website (and wherever else you can) and don't skimp on the quality. The promoters are listing to a dozen MP3s a day and if yours doesn't stand out, then you won't be on stage.

-AD
Shameless link to my own template

XP x64 has also completely dropped 16bit support. No more old DOS programs. No more Win3.1 programs.

If you are really running 16-bit applications (isn't it about time you perform a fscking upgrade?), just use Bochs. It'll be plenty fast on an AMD 64-bit processor.

I think that for Elks (embeddable linux kernel) one target was z80, though i don't know did it actually never run on it, but least one unix port named Uzi is running on it.

True, but teh Lunix does run on Commodore 64 computers.

but on my 10.2.x at home doesn't have spell available for Firefox like it does Safari

I recall there was a plug-in for Firefox and did a quick google, and apparently there's one called Spellbound that does the same thing.

This isn't an April Fools joke.

Gentoo for NT actually does exist:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gentoocygwin/

You typed all that and yet you couldn't type "GIMP binaries for Windows" into Google...

Well in case those fingers are still broken, here's a link, you lazy SOB. :)

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

The MacGIMP web site has the download link for the MacOSX disk image here.
The issue some may have with MacGIMP is that it costs money. ($29.95 download, $79.95 with media)
Gimp.app is just a port to X11 on MacOS X, but it does have the advantage of being free.

The worldwind.arc.nasa.gov link for the World Wind 1.3 download appears to be slashdoted. Here's a list of mirrors on SourceForge:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/nasa-exp/World_ Wind_1.3_Full.exe?use_mirror=cogent

http://kolourpaint.sourceforge.net/, dude :)

[quote]As a OS X user, I would also say anything that requires X11 is not a native OS X application. [/quote]

I agree..that's why this project merge with seashore is pure heaven. In a nutshell it's Gimp on cocoa beans.

Seashore is an open source image editor for Cocoa. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMP's technology and uses the same native file format.

Under no circumstances does any GPLed project have to accept any changes, you moron! And you moron moderators!

The GPL works the other way around: if you want to ship binaries, you must also ship the source. This means that anyone is free to fork the GIMP. However, with one notable exception, you're all too lazy.

If you're using OS X Mail there are alternatives to setting up a ton of manual rules in the prefs.

Junkmatcher is a good spam matching plugin and SpamSieve is a great Bayesian filter that does any amazingly good job -- even with otherwise legitimately looking mail.

Maybe a littel off-topic... The Ur-Quan Masters, I think, is the best space faring game. Ever (Not that I've played any other...). The latest updates (must be installed manually) even include the PC version intro and ending.

improving the GTK wimp theme engine would be a much better way to spend developer time.
http://gtk-wimp.sourceforge.net/

DOSBox

I will begin by making the assumption that you know what you are asking for, and that whatever your mothers condition you already know that you need memory software. In my experience there are two good systems for this. The first is SuperMemo. SuperMemo is proprietary but it not expensive and it is good for three main reasons.

1. It tracks progress and has sophisticated algorithums for determining the display of memory items (which is the main variable in how well these programs work)
2. It has a relatively simple import format so that you can easily make your own courses. This is a great way to relearn phone numbers/names/accounting info
3. It has a Huge library of both free and not free memory courses. This is really good if you want to learn something new.

In a shameless plug I wrote a CISSP course for supermemo.

However, despite my obvious bias I actually prefer the FLOSS alternative which is Pauker. Pauker is java and works on windows, the only problem is that it does not have a goog library of courses. I wrote a perl script which will convert SuperMemo courses to Pauker, contact me if you would like it.

HTH
Fred Trotter

On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to specify a maximum bandwidth to use for prefetching as another option. However, perhaps a proxy-cache (like Apache or Squid) could recognize the

X-moz: prefetch

Or you can download The Ur-Quan Masters which is based on the open sourced code of Star Control 2. They have binaries for Windows, OSX, Linux, as well as the source code available to download. It's the exact same game, only with a different name.

Starflight rocked. This was one of the first computer games I ever played, and it was responsible for many sleepless nights duing summer vacation. If you're still looking to play the original, might I suggest DOSBox. If makes nearly all of the old games playable on a new system, without the timing issues.

Zangband is the Zelany varient of Angband, which is descended from Rouge - a common ancestor of Nethack. There are a bunch of different developement versions available on the Sourceforge site.

Zangband is one of those weird projects on Sourceforge which is not OSS. There's an explainer there about it...

Back in September, my sister had a stroke (she's in her late 40s). She suffers from expressive aphasia and a very mild receptive aphasia. She has trouble speaking and reading. She understands virtually everything spoken to her but she gets confused when numbers are spoken -- but she can READ and WRITE numbers fine with full understanding. Her reading weakness is with regards to syntax/grammer. Simple sentences she's OK with, but toss in more than Subject-Verb and she struggles. Read it out loud and she understand perfectly.

I've found the following bits of software helpful:

Sayzme -- simple text-to-speech software. Anything copied to the clipboard gets read outloud. It takes a little getting used to highlighting/cont-c, but she adapted quickly. She uses it for reading email, internet news sites, and she even types in her own SNAILMAIL and has the PC read it back to her.

Bungalow Software - There are many worksheets and excercizes available. Download the "shareware" versions and see which ones will best direct your mother's therapy.

Wizcom - They have a number of handheld scanner/text-to-speech gizmos. I've yet to get one for my sister, but I will shortly.

The BEST advice I can give is talk to your mother OFTEN. Get her to excercize her weaknesses EVERYDAY in REAL WORLD situations. My sister is just over 6 months past her stroke and the recovery is amazing. She want from being able to only say 3 or 4 words to being able to communicate with some dificulty (like a stutter). The words she cant "remember" how to say, she can mostly WRITE. It's amazing how she's adapted. She talks -- with a notepad with her. When she hits a word she cant say, she WRITES the word, then READS it out loud.

If you want to contact me directly, try jhonryan at gmail dot com. I'll be happy to share my experiences with you.

... Star Control 2. THE best story and gameplay. There is an open source Windows remake, btw: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

The best thing about Star Control II is that you can download and play it for free right now. It's been open-sourced and is even available on Linux and Mac OS X as well as Windows.

I use GB-pvr in Belgium, works great (plus it run's in win2000, unlike others that only run on XP)
Sorry for being less uber-geek than the Myth & Freevo people, but some of us like to have the thing running rather than spend all there time recompiling to get this '#@#{@#{ soundcard to run
Closed source != bad (and for donations, I made one to Sub, even if he doesn't open it up)

Did you ever take a look at Firebird?
http://firebird.sourceforge.net/

Might have the features you need, and stands up well against Postgres.

Go here, SSL is insecure if the key exchange is sniffed. Ettercap does this and ssh1 in real time as it sniffs. Its a fun program to play with. There is an option to just leave it on and let it log all passwords to a file. I was amazed when I first found it and have spent a ton of time in the source figuring out how it works. Cool stuff.

Fact of the matter is this is just going to happen more and more often. University networks are wide open, first there are computer labs where any one can sit down and pop in a knoppix std cd. then they can fire up ettercap and go to town on everything getting passed on the switch. When campuses use SSL protected systems for grades it is just asking for trouble. Its just a matter of time before Joe Blow will have eery profs passwords. Once that happens it can be tempting to change a couple grades here and there. And grades are nothing compared to the other information that can be obtained, SSN's of the entire campus for instance... Basicly ARP needs to get secure because there is really no way for a college (that has to have an open network to function) can be a safe place to send important data back and forth. Maybe the solution is a private network for profs with the important info on it. Good lesson though.

Absolutely! Here's a link to a program that will do that for you.

> You claim to have "solved" AI. What, in one paragraph,
> is the problem you have "solved"? Have other subjects,
> such as mathematics, been "solved"?

The Decision-Tree of Mind-Design shows what Mentifex has solved -- how to integrate sensory input with the conceptual mindgrid.

AI is a large, to-be-solved monolithic problem; mathematics is not.

"Anonymous cowards" who attack new ideas without bothering to read and understand them are intellectually dishonest. If people want to refute the Mentifex AI proposal, let them counter it with ideas and logic, not with flaming and name-calling.

> You claim to have "solved" AI. What, in one paragraph,
> is the problem you have "solved"? Have other subjects,
> such as mathematics, been "solved"?

The Decision-Tree of Mind-Design shows what Mentifex has solved -- how to integrate sensory input with the conceptual mindgrid.

AI is a large, to-be-solved monolithic problem; mathematics is not.

"Anonymous cowards" who attack new ideas without bothering to read and understand them are intellectually dishonest. If people want to refute the Mentifex AI proposal, let them counter it with ideas and logic, not with flaming and name-calling.

You could use Autoclave, but since it's being end-of-lifed, you could follow the Autoclave author's recommendation and use Darik's Boot and Nuke instead.

Why not actually erase the data:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

If microsoft implemented this sort of thing it would immediately become too easy to screw yourself. And as someone else pointed out, as soon as they include this sort of functionality in the API, someone is going to exploit it.

• First, run DBAN (also included with Eraser) to completely erase the hard drive.
• Then, reinstall the operating system of your choice, if necessary.

rm -rf / isn't good enough against the FBI; you need something like wipe, and you need to wipe the whole partition/hard drive. That will take some serious time, possibly on the order of weeks for a large modern hard drive.

I don't think there's any practical way to prevent the FBI from reading your computers based purely on commands you can issue to your computer, if you wait until they are smashing down your door. Hard drives are surpringly hard to completely destroy, and partially destroying them is just waving a red flag in front of a bull, if the FBI is busting down your door. Short of large quantites of thermite being used to literally completely melt all the platters, I wouldn't care to bet that all the data will be destroyed.

If you know in advance you might have trouble, I'd suggest encrypted partitions with a large passphrase requested at every boot up. Even so, if they manage to possess the machine without shutting off the power you might be out of luck, so work on that angle too.

I'd still not bet on being safe. I prefer to stay legal and hope for the best. (Y'all do secure your wireless connections, right?)

import psyco
psyco.full()

See here, then look for "3c90x" on this page.

I am looking over PearPC's documentation and it appears that in order that the client OS may network, PearPC emulates a virtual 3c90x ethernet card visible to the client OS, packets sent to which are available to the host operating system by way of a special network interface.

This virtual ethernet card has a MAC address, configurable from the second link above.

Therefore, PearPC is in fact a MAC emulator!

See here, then look for "3c90x" on this page.

I am looking over PearPC's documentation and it appears that in order that the client OS may network, PearPC emulates a virtual 3c90x ethernet card visible to the client OS, packets sent to which are available to the host operating system by way of a special network interface.

This virtual ethernet card has a MAC address, configurable from the second link above.

Therefore, PearPC is in fact a MAC emulator!

PearPC
CherryOS

Mind.Forth for Robots is free AI source code that high-schoolers may download, play around with, and possibly get a leg up on outdoing MIT and all the other minds-wide-shut adult AI enterprises. (There is an implicit contest involved here of who can keep the date-stamped robot AI Mind running the longest, as if for the Guiness Book of World Records.)

The Theory of Cognitivity is the basis of the free source code for artificial intelligence. Any high-schooler interested in an AI or robotics career may start working on AI theory immediately.

Dr. Ben Goertzel of the Novamente AI project has evaluated the AI theory offered here.

ACM Sigplan Notices 33(12):25-31 "Mind.Forth: Thoughts on AI and Forth" was a 1998 evaluation by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

ACM Sigplan Notices 39(12):11-16 "Forth and AI Revisited: BRAIN.FORTH" is a more recent (December 2004) follow-up by the ACM on the robot AI project.

There is another open project called Scuttle which brings social bookarking to your own server. It is built around MySQL, PHP and JS and so far very simple to tweak and use for a personal sharing site. Bookmarks can be public, private, or shared with certain members. Neat.

The del.icio.us API was just integrated and you can import from del.icio.us as well. The fellow who started it has a blog at http://www.tecknik.net/poke/.

bfilter
Just works.

Is just engrish or something? What amount of spam propagation is necessary? Can't the last two words there just be dropped?

Another option is Scuttle.

One of the reasons I've been wanting to run my own version of del.ico.us is that the site has had quite a bit of downtime and issues with bandwidth. I'd much rather run my own version for myself and perhaps family and friends in order to ensure that we don't lose our data and can access it however/whenever we wish. I'd also like to imrpove upon some of the things that interest me in regards to the interface and such.

The Eclipse plugin model is a really nice one.

First, it is really generic : you are not constrained to a particular subset of an API, like the "old-school" Netscape plugin API for example. Some would argue its over-generic : it does not provide a pre-built organization of extension points and extension for you, so you have to adapt one for your own needs.

It is also a proven base layer for a community development platform. Read: Eclipse has shown that thousands of independent developers and vendors can cooperate on this ground without stepping on others toes.

Finally, the plugin descriptors are really close to the IoC/code injection pattern. All this leads to a great toolbox for building componentized systems.

This is what decided me to port it to Perl for use in my console project. So Perl hackers will be interested to hear about PXP (Perl eXtensions and Plugins), recently uploaded on CPAN : http://search.cpan.org/~dbarth/PXP-0.1.2/

This library implements most of the Eclipse model and configuration syntax. Of course, it does not force you to derive your components from a particular, "fragile", base class : the library can work without any object dependency between the framework runtime and your program.

I'm trying to improve the configuration of the extension components, so that it is more compatible with code injection and "standard" Perl init() sub-routines, ie, not tied to a particular XML parser. This way, you'll be able to compose _and_ configure a program with regular Perl objects.

PXP has been use successfully in IMC, my other web management console project : see http://imc.sourceforge.net/ for more details.

You can discuss PXP on the IMC mailing list for now.

Open Source Projects:
BSD Ports http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/
APTGET http://fink.sourceforge.net/
X11 http://www.xdarwin.org/
A lot of OS X and cross-platform projects http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php? form_cat=309
Gentoo anyone? http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/
Freshmeat has a lot of OS X and cross-platform projects http://freshmeat.net/browse/839/
http://www.opendarwin.org/
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/

As you can see, contributing the OS X platform does not mean abandoning OSS or cross-platform software development.

You can contribute to Open Darwin or to the many cross-platform software projects on freshment or sourceforge.