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JACK uses a callback based API much like Core Audio.

Basically every high-end (e.g. ardour, JAMin, Rosegarden, Hydrogen, etc.) uses it.

You can get really low latency using it if you have good sound hardware (e.g. RME Hammerfall for extremely low latency or even an M-Audio Delta 1010). Something like an SBLive! (what I have) will need a period size of 2048 bytes with two periods to avoid underrunning (I have a Dual AthlonMP 2800+ so I'm pretty sure it's the sound card...). Stuff like QJackCtl and Jack-Rack make controlling Jack easy.

Getting realtime mode working for a normal user can be tricky, but Debian makes it really easy. Just install the realtime-lsm package and build the realtime-lsm-source package for your kernel and all users in the audio group gain the ability to run applications realtime (at least with the default config). It could be made easier (mainly by prebuilding the realtime-lsm modules for the stock kernels) but GNU/Linux pro-audio is still mostly for hackers and adventurous people right now. Stuff like PlanetCCRMA and AGNULA are aiming to make everything work out of the box. I have yet to try either (I use Debian so PlanetCCRMA is useless for me) but it looks like DeMuDi has everything set up for recording out of the box.

I see no metion of Windows Gaim there.

TerraIM

My little pet project ;-) It has a pretty complete OSCAR implementation, skinnable GUI, logging, talking while away, and runs straight from the binary (no install).

Probably not of interest to you, but certainly worth mentioning is phpPgAdmin, a web based PostgreSQL administration tool. Works well for me.

Gaim works great on windows too!

Being a Gentoo user, I've been running ALSA for some time. While ALSA has an OSS compat API that you can load, it doesn't allow you to have the full control of more advance cards. (Like the EMU10k1/2 chipsets)

While oss-compat-api will give you basic sound, mixer controls, etc. sometimes you want to do more advanced things. For example, I use a tvtuner app and wanted to be able to control detailed mixer channels (Analog Capture Volume and Analog Playback Volume) that just couldn't be done with OSS. Looking at my app, tvtime, I found it only had OSS mixer controls. So I just took a weekend to learned/wrote the ALSA API version for it. Wasn't too bad and the app works great now. I can configure any control (mixer channel) on any card I want. Hopefully the dev will include the patch I sent it in the 1.0 release this month.

I know that this isn't an option for everyone. But I think as time goes on, more and more apps should have support for ALSA. Especially since it's in the 1.0.x range and the API has become more stable.

Heard of FreeNet? http://freenet.sourceforge.net/

While it is true that the PostgreSQL project doesn't include full text searching there is a full text searching engine for PostgreSQL. The "problem" is that it is licensed under the GPL, not a BSD-style license, and so it is not included in the official distribution. Here's the link.

OpenFTS has been around for quite a while, and is used pretty heavily, so there really is very little reason to put up with MySQL's many shortcomings.

I guessed you missed OpenFTS, which has been out for a couple years now.

i cant call Screen a window manager since i've been using TWIN (text mode window manager) from twin.sourceforge.net

it has the same basic functions (detach,etc) but it lets you have many terminals open in an X like text mode. move them around, roll up, upper/lower, etc. ive been using it for years, i love it.

On January 15, gaim development was emailed patches for all 11 existing bugs. A patch was added to CVS that evening, but there was no 0.76 release and no public disclosure by gaim dev (at least on their Sourceforge page - there may have been something sent to the mailing list). On January 23, e-matters let gaim dev know that they would release the bug report on January 26. On January 25, gaim dev replies that there is no timeframe for a 0.76 or bug-fix release. On January 26, e-matters publishes the bug report.

On January 28, gaim dev responds with a note saying they are far from a 0.76 release and provides a link to the FreeBSD source patch. Not much use to your average teenage Windows IMer. There may have been an executable patch, but I can't find any evidence of one.

On April 1, gaim release 0.76, the first release with the bug fixes is released. This has taken so long because:

Well, life has struck hard on the Gaim camp and we've been too busy with other things to provide with prompt Gaim releases.

This is no slam on gaim - the devs have lives outside of gaim and I'm glad they're providing a great OSS client. But like anything, there are pros and cons to both OSS and commercially developed software. Assuming that OSS is always more responsive, more bugfree, and better in every other way is naive. There are tradeoffs involved in libre software - most are well worth it, but there can be downsides occassionally too.

On January 15, gaim development was emailed patches for all 11 existing bugs. A patch was added to CVS that evening, but there was no 0.76 release and no public disclosure by gaim dev (at least on their Sourceforge page - there may have been something sent to the mailing list). On January 23, e-matters let gaim dev know that they would release the bug report on January 26. On January 25, gaim dev replies that there is no timeframe for a 0.76 or bug-fix release. On January 26, e-matters publishes the bug report.

On January 28, gaim dev responds with a note saying they are far from a 0.76 release and provides a link to the FreeBSD source patch. Not much use to your average teenage Windows IMer. There may have been an executable patch, but I can't find any evidence of one.

On April 1, gaim release 0.76, the first release with the bug fixes is released. This has taken so long because:

Well, life has struck hard on the Gaim camp and we've been too busy with other things to provide with prompt Gaim releases.

This is no slam on gaim - the devs have lives outside of gaim and I'm glad they're providing a great OSS client. But like anything, there are pros and cons to both OSS and commercially developed software. Assuming that OSS is always more responsive, more bugfree, and better in every other way is naive. There are tradeoffs involved in libre software - most are well worth it, but there can be downsides occassionally too.

You can, check out brickOS or NQC. Of course, your school is probably trying to keep things simple for the non-programmers. High school is like that, the slow kids don't care about learning anyway, and the advanced people are bored out of their gourd.

You can, check out brickOS or NQC. Of course, your school is probably trying to keep things simple for the non-programmers. High school is like that, the slow kids don't care about learning anyway, and the advanced people are bored out of their gourd.

• version 0.11.0-pre5 (02/26/2001) -- Rewritten file transfer for TOC
• version 0.75 (01/09/2004) -- Yahoo! file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- Jabber file transfer
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- IRC file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Added MSN file transfer (Felipe Contreras)
• version 0.80 (07/15/2004) -- Drag a file into the buddy list or a conversation to send it to that buddy

• version 0.11.0-pre12 (05/29/2001) -- Can receive buddy icons in Oscar
• version 0.45 (10/04/2001) -- Can choose buddy icon to send (for Oscar)
• version 0.63 (05/16/2003) -- MSN protocol plugin was rewritten, has experimental buddy icon support, and MSN Mobile support.
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Yahoo buddy icon support
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Dragging an image file into the Modify Account dialog will set that as a buddy icon.

• version 0.11.0-pre5 (02/26/2001) -- Rewritten file transfer for TOC
• version 0.75 (01/09/2004) -- Yahoo! file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- Jabber file transfer
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- IRC file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Added MSN file transfer (Felipe Contreras)
• version 0.80 (07/15/2004) -- Drag a file into the buddy list or a conversation to send it to that buddy

• version 0.11.0-pre12 (05/29/2001) -- Can receive buddy icons in Oscar
• version 0.45 (10/04/2001) -- Can choose buddy icon to send (for Oscar)
• version 0.63 (05/16/2003) -- MSN protocol plugin was rewritten, has experimental buddy icon support, and MSN Mobile support.
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Yahoo buddy icon support
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Dragging an image file into the Modify Account dialog will set that as a buddy icon.

• version 0.11.0-pre5 (02/26/2001) -- Rewritten file transfer for TOC
• version 0.75 (01/09/2004) -- Yahoo! file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- Jabber file transfer
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- IRC file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Added MSN file transfer (Felipe Contreras)
• version 0.80 (07/15/2004) -- Drag a file into the buddy list or a conversation to send it to that buddy

• version 0.11.0-pre12 (05/29/2001) -- Can receive buddy icons in Oscar
• version 0.45 (10/04/2001) -- Can choose buddy icon to send (for Oscar)
• version 0.63 (05/16/2003) -- MSN protocol plugin was rewritten, has experimental buddy icon support, and MSN Mobile support.
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Yahoo buddy icon support
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Dragging an image file into the Modify Account dialog will set that as a buddy icon.

• version 0.11.0-pre5 (02/26/2001) -- Rewritten file transfer for TOC
• version 0.75 (01/09/2004) -- Yahoo! file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- Jabber file transfer
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- IRC file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Added MSN file transfer (Felipe Contreras)
• version 0.80 (07/15/2004) -- Drag a file into the buddy list or a conversation to send it to that buddy

• version 0.11.0-pre12 (05/29/2001) -- Can receive buddy icons in Oscar
• version 0.45 (10/04/2001) -- Can choose buddy icon to send (for Oscar)
• version 0.63 (05/16/2003) -- MSN protocol plugin was rewritten, has experimental buddy icon support, and MSN Mobile support.
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Yahoo buddy icon support
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Dragging an image file into the Modify Account dialog will set that as a buddy icon.

• version 0.11.0-pre5 (02/26/2001) -- Rewritten file transfer for TOC
• version 0.75 (01/09/2004) -- Yahoo! file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- Jabber file transfer
• version 0.76 (04/01/2004) -- IRC file transfer (Tim Ringenbach)
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Added MSN file transfer (Felipe Contreras)
• version 0.80 (07/15/2004) -- Drag a file into the buddy list or a conversation to send it to that buddy

• version 0.11.0-pre12 (05/29/2001) -- Can receive buddy icons in Oscar
• version 0.45 (10/04/2001) -- Can choose buddy icon to send (for Oscar)
• version 0.63 (05/16/2003) -- MSN protocol plugin was rewritten, has experimental buddy icon support, and MSN Mobile support.
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Yahoo buddy icon support
• version 0.79 (06/24/2004) -- Dragging an image file into the Modify Account dialog will set that as a buddy icon.

Syllable looks nice, but it's still too Unixy for most people. You said that the GUI is an important aspect; by the same token, lumping all programs together in a directory with a cryptic name like /bin is not a smart move. It's not critical, but it doesn't make a good impression.

Eh, Trillian is shareware trash for newbies who don't know any better.

Paying someone for a client to access a free service seems about as silly as paying for IE or Netscape.

Visit SourceForge and download GAIM or one of the many open source IM solutions.

Eh, Trillian is shareware trash for newbies who don't know any better.

Paying someone for a client to access a free service seems about as silly as paying for IE or Netscape.

Visit SourceForge and download GAIM or one of the many open source IM solutions.

Wow, just wow, I'm amazed by these "new" features. It's innovations like these that will allow MS to pull ahead of Linux. I mean:

ssh -l root@myremoteserver init 0

and

Wake-on-LAN

obviously both infringe on MS patents for these pioneering technological advancements. *GRIN*

This bug has been around since the 0.76 and I've reported it already. The workaround is SocksCap or runsocks (depending on your OS).

I'm sure they'll get around to fixing it, that's a fairly low priorty issue. I'd rather see full protocol support added first.

I'm sure you already know this, but gaim-vv is a friendly fork concentrating on the video and voice stuff, so at least they're making an attempt to catch up.

As an aside, I can think of many features where the official clients are/have been behind. When logging was big, the official clients couldn't do that! Another good example is buddy pouncing. Not to mention all the plugins...

I'm sure you already know this, but gaim-vv is a friendly fork concentrating on the video and voice stuff, so at least they're making an attempt to catch up.

As an aside, I can think of many features where the official clients are/have been behind. When logging was big, the official clients couldn't do that! Another good example is buddy pouncing. Not to mention all the plugins...

Here, I would think that the usual case, where an active open source program at 0.x is better than a commercial product at 6.x, holds true. Gaim v0.81 has over 250+ bug fixes, a few big, many small, and that product is VERY stable and logs into everything. I know 20+ people all on various ports of Gaim and no complaints. Prior to 0.6, it's been a bit hellish, but 0.7+ has been simply sweet. Remember you can install new versions of Gaim on top of old ones, and you won't loose your settings. Also, Gaim can run along the "real" IM programs, so if you don't like Gaim it's a 30 second uninstall. THe benefits are worth the "risk" of trying it out.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

A quick search reveals a fork of the Gaim project here, which, err, aims to add video functionality. Looks good from the shots, though I haven't tried it myself.

The point of this is that people should think things through before just spouting off the top of their head. It doesn't help to have people say "yeah, use this free alternative!" and then have people turn round and say it doesn't work. I'd love to recommend a non-AOL AIM client to people, but until AV is handled I simply can't. Same for MSN -all very nice for text and file transfer, but not up to scratch for the advanced functions yet.

Cheers,
Ian

they do release solaris binaries, but not as often

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gaim/gaim-0.71- sparc-solaris.tar.gz?download

Windows user may also use gaim Win32 port.
It works fine.

My personal preference:

screen + aterm + irssi + bitlbee

Screen is a full screen window manager, keep something running on a server and detach/attach from anywayere

aterm is a nice terminal for X11.

irssi is a CLI irc client. Since Bitlbee acts as a normal IRC server, any IRC client can be used. Even CGI::IRC, there are several sites that allow you to use MSN/ICQ/JABBER/AIM/etc from a web page.

Bitlbee is a IRC gateway server. Basically it's a irc server where you can add IM accounts. The gateway gives you a "irc channel" with ALL your contacts, whatever they are using.

More: BitlBee Guide - Talk to msn, icq and jabber contacts using any IRC client.

NOTE: The setup has TWO flaws:
1) You can not exchange files (no filetransfer).
2) Bitlbee does not support GPG encryption for secure commuciation (available in jabber clients like gjabber and psi).

Rule of thumb: Original IM providers clients are never the best choice.

Looks like the Mac version is not vulnerable to this specific bug, as it deals with the way Windows has pluggable protocols for URLs. (Which is not to say that I'm confident the official Mac client has no security problems. I'm not.)

Also, as long as we're mentioning IM clients for the Mac: my favorite is Adium. I'm a little biased, but it has a great UI. (See the About page for screenshots.) libgaim backend, so support for many protocols.

Looks like the Mac version is not vulnerable to this specific bug, as it deals with the way Windows has pluggable protocols for URLs. (Which is not to say that I'm confident the official Mac client has no security problems. I'm not.)

Also, as long as we're mentioning IM clients for the Mac: my favorite is Adium. I'm a little biased, but it has a great UI. (See the About page for screenshots.) libgaim backend, so support for many protocols.

While maybe not shown in any screenshot, they do seem to be available. From the Features page:
A complete set of powerful GUI classes, including a common set of base classes enabling advanced custom control creation. Some of the control classes include tree controls, list controls, check box and radio controls, push buttons, single line and multi line text controls, and many others.

For Mac users there is Fire which since going 1.0 is quite nice and polished.

"Cannot" is a big word, but you can go a long way with, say, Freenet or MUTE.

Both work differently, and MUTE is the one that's more like current P2P, except that all traffic is multi-hop, IP addresses of the actual content providers are hidden, and all network traffic is encrypted.

Maybe you'd prefer this:
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=28
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=26
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=27
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=30

Maybe you'd prefer this:
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=28
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=26
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=27
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=30

Maybe you'd prefer this:
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=28
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=26
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=27
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=30

Maybe you'd prefer this:
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=28
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=26
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=27
http://vcf.sourceforge.net/ssview.php?ss_id=30

When a UI toolkit has ugly screenshots, you know it has to be bad. Even the developers couldn't make it look slick! They should get their own house in order (and buy a book on interaction design) before they complain about someone else's application.

After looking at the sample code here:

http://vcf.sourceforge.net/docs/ref_manual/ch02.ht ml

I have to say it looks similar to Delphi.
I don't mind. I think its cool.

Actually, some 3DLabs workstation cards let you do this. They have an external connector so that you can join a load of them (in different machines) together to make a rendering cluster. Of course, if you want to use commodity hardware (and don't mind a 2 frame latency) you could always use Chromium.

I've been reading through this, wondering when someone who's been paying attention to recent password attacking research would post this. I've used the opensource rainbow tables stuff, and now @Stake is selling their latest version of L0phtCrack (renamed LC5 for political correctness purposes) with rainbow tables included. This technology does work as described.

Static passwords are no longer acceptable. Period. If you have a resource worth authenticating for, then strong auth (PKI, SecurID, one-time pads, etc.) should be manditory. If you can't, STOP USING UNENCRYPTED PROTOCOLS! It astounds me that companies that have bought in on firewalls, IDS, antivirus, SSL certs for web servers, etc. are still using telnet and FTP for critical business data! Saying that you can't sniff on a switch is a lie, just check out ettercap, which allows an attacker to poison ARP caches to force traffic to run through a system of the attackers choice.

BTW, IAACSA (I Am A Computer Security Analyst)

Linked from the Stripe Snoop page:

An article I wrote that is being published in the Summer 2004 issue of 2600 that is all about magstripe interfacing. This provided the basis for Stripe Snoop. Another application is this homebrew coke machine I built.

That's funny: I am a 'good'[1][2] person and I am bothered by these developments.

Anyway, I can't continue on this topic at the moment (work), although I'd love to. Just wanted to prove you wrong on that statement.

[1] Except for the occasional mp3 download. (The drugs I use are 'legal' where I live, thank god.)
[2] What the hell is good anyway? Please define. Is it people who don't break laws? Is it people who are 'moral'[3].
[3] I'd have to define that :) We're getting into recursion here. Bring your favourite CL implementation!

When I am thinking of games of old, I can find you examples of both electronical music and orchestral music used to greatly enliven the atmosphere. That is, even then there were two approaches (Im speaking about the pc games of the beginning of 90s).

Anyone remembers Betrayal at Krondor? The cd version with awesome music? Thats one of the best examples of 'old school' archestral pieces that is far above a lot of I ever heard in a game (the floppy version has music that is not as good, but on other hand it does not have a full cd for music).

On other hand, I have to do the obligatory StarControl plug (and not to forget Ur-Quan Masters, remake with cool remixed music). Thats one of the better examples of the really good electro music.

Still, there are very good pieces in both old arcade, nes, genesis games and such like. Get the NSF Winamp plugins, and you can listen to the really cool sound of old nes games. Do a google search on NSF files, and there are quite a few places where you can get them. My very personal favorite is music Dragon Fighter.

Hmm, too bad that I have to get back to work. There's still a lot of ground to be covered. It is so unfortunate, that Soviet Russia started with Speccy and did not have anything before it. So many great games that we (russians) did not get to play. :>

The dilemma is between passwords that are easy to remember, and hence crack, or too hard to remember, resulting in them being written down.

An alternative solution is Password Safe, a well-regarded application that "allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords". The main version is for Windows, but Linux variants (as well as an older PocketPC version) are also available.
Full disclosure - I'm the project administrator.

Keyring for Palm OS is a program that allows you to store passwords securely on a Palm OS handheld. It is released under the GPL.

The program can also generate passwords.

You'd be surprised. Still if you're a little more modern you can use the Radeon or maybe GeForceFX driver with your hardware instead..Maybe some other card?