Slashdot Mirror

You can always run Bochs. It's free, and if you are messing around with the machine, it's probably better than real x86 hardware. When real x86 hardware crashes, you have to have messy debuggers or a two machine setup... when a virtual machine "crashes", you can probably step back through and see what happened.

The OpenHeX project aimed to do things like that and more (bots , tournaments, etc) with XBox Halo. Unfortunately, my XBox is in need of a mod so I can get it back to a working state, so that I can get back to development on it :P

I downgraded to GTK 2.2.4.2 revision C and went back to GIMP 1.25. I'll give GIMP 2.0 another try when GTK+ 2.4.1 is released.

I've got a headless Win2K box sitting under the desk at the office and use MS's Remote Desktop Client to connect to it from my Mac. It'll let you share you Mac's disk drives and printers with the remote machine although for security's sake you may want to use Samba instead.

From Linux I use rdesktop. There is a nice Gnome GUI available for it if that's your bag. rdesktop has proven to be very stable and usable. You can get rdesktop for the Mac via the Fink project if you want to avoid the MS client on Mac.

I've found both work well, even over dial-up connections.

http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/

There is a captainFTP with a free version, at least for educational purpose. And I am using Axy FTP via Fink

First off all, I have difficulties with their acclaimed 'stealing' of music. As far as I know, stealing implies that the one that has been stolen has been derived of something. When you take a copy, you do not take the original away, thus they have not 'lost' anything. They might claim that they loose money when ppl d/l music, but even that is far from certain. Not only is it not shown statistically to have had that effect (they didn't even show a correlation thusfar - see former aussie music-news - let alone a causality). Ofcourse they *claim* they are suffering, and that it's all due to online d/l, but it's far from being a scientific valid causility. And frankly, even if it were true, it is partly their own fault, and partly because their sort of business (as it is today) has simply become obsolete.

Furthermore, in an individual case, they would have to show they actually lost revenue. Which is far from said, because I sure know some guys who d/l music, but would NEVER have bought that music if they were unable to d/l it. So, how did the RIAA/IFPI loose revenue, exactly? And if they didn't lose anything, how can the term 'stealing' apply?

It would still be copyright-infringement, ofcourse, but that's another matter. I think maybe it's time we went beyond our current system of copyrights and walk into the era of cyberspace. With the industrial revolution, patents and copyrights knew a high flight, maybe it's time to let it leave and try something new? Maybe something in the lines of this: fairshare.

And don't worry, contrary to what the RIAA claims, musicians will not starve to death, and music-making will not stop. We had music long before we had copyrights, and we will have music long after copyrights have vanished from the scene.

And lastly, it's something that *can not* be stopped. P2P progs and their development act as organisms that follow the darwinian rules of survival. When Napster was 'killed' by the RIAA, immediately others (like kazaa) took over, being more resistent to attacks from the RIAA&co. Whenever kazaa will be shut down, others again will take over. When endusers are targeted, systems that protect the user will become dominant (like FreeNet).

It really is a lost cause. But then again, they are not truelly battling for the survival of musicians (as I said; they will survive, just as they used to do), it's for their OWN survival they are fighting. There is no way in hell they are going to keep the giant profits that they have been gathering for the last decades.

But ultimately, they will have to do what P2P systems are already doing: adapt to the new circumstances (and forget about the former levels of profit), or whither and die.

For Ultima IV, it might be possible to port the remake: xu4.sourceforge.net

Try Mutt or Elmo instead of pine. Good console mail clients.

Take a look at ESMTP, which just forwards mail to your ISP's SMTP server. And if it can't connect, it fails immediately (mail won't get stuck in your local queue and bounce a few hours later, like Sendmail would do). It can also be installed and configured without root privileges.

There's also a mutt patch for SMTP support, using the same library as the above program. If you try it and find it useful, ask your distro to include it by default.

OTOH, if the NSA has a good spam filter they use before reading my mail, i'd be happy if they could share the technology with the rest of the world.

Maybe they could use PopFile's Baysian filter. Make one bucket called "spam", one called "terrorist", and one called "everything else". Then start training the filter.

Slightly off-topic, but maybe interesting nevertheless: if you're into old-school games then check out ScummVM and play Beneath A Steel Sky and LOTS of otherse.

Slashdot has over 500 errors on the current frontpage. However it does look good in any browser, unlike this site.

Oh really?

If Debian's packaging system is somehow going to resolve all this, let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably stick to Windows and Mac packages at the moment, both of which are simple to put together and just work.

Obscenity cases came to a standstill under Janet Reno, President Bill Clinton's attorney general, who focused on child pornography, which is considered child abuse and comes under different criminal statutes. The ensuing years saw an explosion of porn, so much so that critics say that Americans' tolerance for sexually explicit material rivals that of Europeans.

Counterpoint: sex is an obsession to the USA. But many people fear it and want to see it stamped out. For this reason, many Europeans see the USA as a nation of seriously strung-out, hung-up, sexually deprived people ready to go postal at a moment's notice.

The tone of the paragraph suggests that not only are those Americans insufficiently intolerant of it, but so are many Europeans!!

The strategy in the 1980s resulted in a lot of extreme pornography - dealing in urination, violence or bestiality - going underground. Today, with the Internet, international producers and a substantial market, industry officials say there is no underground.

*cough*FREENET*cough*

Of course, knowing how some Republicans are with computers, someone could take out the domain http://www.barelylegalteenagegirlswearingskidmarke dboxers.com/, and they'd think that was somehow hidden too.

Here's to hoping that Ashcroft gets his ass... well, I'm not going to say "kicked." Let the punishment fit the crime, I say

you are very lucky... There's no way for me to see the video under Linux.

Try mplayerplug-in or konqueror.

The whole thing works fine in moz here. Vids and all.

They are a public station, and they aren't even considering Ogg Vorbis, and/or Icecast?

If we can't get even the public stations on board with free and open standards, how will we ever get those standards to spread?

Anyone who lives in the area served by that public station, please write them a letter, and ask them to look into using Ogg/Icecast. Then, instead of providing a link to the Real player, they can provide a link to Winamp. Or even Zinf.

Or maybe even Real's player. I found a bunch of old news items (from 2002) saying that Real was on board with Ogg Vorbis, and the RealOne player would play Ogg Vorbis. And it looks like the new Helix player supports Vorbis. Does Real do a good job now of playing Ogg streams? (The icecast.org web site does not list the Real players as an option, but I suppose it's possible that the web site is out of date.)

And if Real is smart, they will make their player work to play Icecast streams. I'd say the same about Microsoft and Windows Media Player, but I'll bet they can't resist the urge to try to throw roadblocks in the way of the competition.

steveha

I use a Windows desktop because after all the years of using Linux, despite knowing all these subtle little nuances, I found it more trouble than it's worth to use Linux/FreeBSD as my desktop when it's a lot less hassle to just use Windows.

You are basing this on three years worth of using Linux IN THE MID 90'S????

I first installed Linux in the mid 90's. It was hell. Half the hardware didn't work. The other had to coaxed into working. The desktops, KDE in it's ugly duckling infancy and gnome far from mature. The desktop applications were not much to cheer for - stuck with lousy closed sourced Netscape 4 and after a while there was a half-assed port of WordPerfect. When I finally got sound working, there was maybe a console mp3 player and not much more.

Things could not possibly be more different today. The last computer I bought, everything worked right out of the box: granted, I had bought the hardware knowing I was going to run Linux, but even things I had thought were write-offs (like the MB built in sound) worked immediately. The install programs are beautiful, helpful, and make installing Linux considerably easier then Windows (and with Knoppix, not even necessary!)

KDE and Gnome have both matured into completely usable desktops, and they look & feel just as state of the art as one would expect. Today we have browsers like FireFox with are best available on any platform, and OpenOffice 1.1 and beyond which is a perfectly good (and now decently fast) office suite. The Gimp now does everything I ever used Photoshop for. MPlayer and even Xine run circles around any of the media players my windows using friends have.

Today my digital carmera works with Linux. My PDA works with Linux. My iPod works with Linux.

Less hassle to run Windows? When I want a new application, I click on the Synaptic icon, find the application and press the install button. In Windows, one had to wade through crap on some shareware site, and then finally end up with a crippled and time limited program (even for the most trivial things!) that then needs more hassle to either register or the endless hassle that of trying to crack or find a serial (immoral, whatever: I'll never do it again because it is such a bitch, yet all windows users I know do it).

In Linux, I never have any trouble with viruses or worms. I can keep my software up to date with a single click in GUI app, and that really means up to date: I never have to purchase and install a newer version. I don't ever have to bother with hassle like product activation, whatever new hardware I buy. The software I run obeys me, and never has alterior motives to control me.

A lot less hassle? Ok, have your own little world, it might be cosy in there.

As for the guys mother, I think we can all be glad she won't be able to run the cute little program (read trojan horse or worm) that her friends sent her. And as for the genealogy application, I would come over, install one of the many available and explain to her that she does not need to open her wallet for software again.

(The real problem with mother's and Linux, and the reason my moth doesn't use it, is the fact that "guy next door who knows computers" typically doesn't know it. If my mother didn't like ten thousand kilometer's from here, I could see no downside to moving her.)

I use a Windows desktop because after all the years of using Linux, despite knowing all these subtle little nuances, I found it more trouble than it's worth to use Linux/FreeBSD as my desktop when it's a lot less hassle to just use Windows.

You are basing this on three years worth of using Linux IN THE MID 90'S????

I first installed Linux in the mid 90's. It was hell. Half the hardware didn't work. The other had to coaxed into working. The desktops, KDE in it's ugly duckling infancy and gnome far from mature. The desktop applications were not much to cheer for - stuck with lousy closed sourced Netscape 4 and after a while there was a half-assed port of WordPerfect. When I finally got sound working, there was maybe a console mp3 player and not much more.

Things could not possibly be more different today. The last computer I bought, everything worked right out of the box: granted, I had bought the hardware knowing I was going to run Linux, but even things I had thought were write-offs (like the MB built in sound) worked immediately. The install programs are beautiful, helpful, and make installing Linux considerably easier then Windows (and with Knoppix, not even necessary!)

KDE and Gnome have both matured into completely usable desktops, and they look & feel just as state of the art as one would expect. Today we have browsers like FireFox with are best available on any platform, and OpenOffice 1.1 and beyond which is a perfectly good (and now decently fast) office suite. The Gimp now does everything I ever used Photoshop for. MPlayer and even Xine run circles around any of the media players my windows using friends have.

Today my digital carmera works with Linux. My PDA works with Linux. My iPod works with Linux.

Less hassle to run Windows? When I want a new application, I click on the Synaptic icon, find the application and press the install button. In Windows, one had to wade through crap on some shareware site, and then finally end up with a crippled and time limited program (even for the most trivial things!) that then needs more hassle to either register or the endless hassle that of trying to crack or find a serial (immoral, whatever: I'll never do it again because it is such a bitch, yet all windows users I know do it).

In Linux, I never have any trouble with viruses or worms. I can keep my software up to date with a single click in GUI app, and that really means up to date: I never have to purchase and install a newer version. I don't ever have to bother with hassle like product activation, whatever new hardware I buy. The software I run obeys me, and never has alterior motives to control me.

A lot less hassle? Ok, have your own little world, it might be cosy in there.

As for the guys mother, I think we can all be glad she won't be able to run the cute little program (read trojan horse or worm) that her friends sent her. And as for the genealogy application, I would come over, install one of the many available and explain to her that she does not need to open her wallet for software again.

(The real problem with mother's and Linux, and the reason my moth doesn't use it, is the fact that "guy next door who knows computers" typically doesn't know it. If my mother didn't like ten thousand kilometer's from here, I could see no downside to moving her.)

You can fix it. There's a kernel patch that allows you to use a fixed ACPI DSDT rather than the original one, and there are fixed versions of the DSDT available, put up by people who've fixed it. You can even do it yourself using Intel ACPI tools.

I did this on a Compaq Presario 2100 laptop. Lookup The ACPI4Linux project.

Er... Its real simple to setup your own web-based mail access:

1. Go to Ilohamail, and download the latest verison
2. .
3. Uncompress in your webroot
4. Go to http://localhost/ilohamail/ and login.

For what its worth, I will be givng the new Gmail a shot. We'll see how good it is (I expect it to be great) before I start to decide how I feel about the privacy issue.

But do we need all the Unix-like mechanisms...?

Short answer: yes

Medium answer: yes, but they can be hidden from the user.

Long answer:
The "Unix-like" fs is what all of the currently availible apps for *nix understand and expect. Yes, it could be restructured, but there just isn't much benefit to anyone in doing so.

If you look at the screenshot, the file browser is simply the last option in the UI. If the Linux-on-iPod features like mp3, ogg, etc playback get up to snuff enough for a "common user", then the unix-like nature of the firmware could be easily hidden by removing options that show it from the UI.

At the same time, without Linux (or some other documented OS) underneath the UI, writing apps to run on the iPod is next to impossible. Apple doesn't release the nessisary information to allow us to write for the existing firmware, so someone must replace that with a system we can write for.

...although, as the announcement says, "Most things seem to be working but there are still some problems with IDE & the framebuffer."

Wired has an article on this, too.

One more thing...you're wrong about where it was developed.
Here is the posting proclaiming that it is, in fact, an official internally developed Microsoft product.

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

" Sourceforge has actually already pulled it."

Uh, huh, sure they have...

So you hypothetically want to run a proprietary app for Linux/x86 on another platform: A working subset of any GNU/Linux distribution is free software. An emulator is free software but may not run in real time because it doesn't yet dynamically recompile. Publishers of proprietary applications that have considered Linux-based systems on x86 have likely also considered Mac OS X or any of several UNIX brand systems. Even if not, Microsoft publishes a fast but proprietary x86 PC emulator for Mac OS X.

Give it some time. Someone will write somthing to snag your e-mails for you.

Right now one of the best programs for hotmail (my spam e-mail box) is "Hotwayd".

I installed it and set it up and it acts like a transparent Pop3 server which you connect to via Thunderbird or whatever client you use. It even will delete the mail server side if you delete it locally. I was truely amazed.

What's Stopping people from doing such a thing on google's e-mail ?

Hotwayd -- Check it out if you use hotmail and want to manage it via thunderbird or just about any pop3 client.

Instructions (If you need anything besides the link to the patch, so help you god):

download and extract playfair-0.2.tar.gz

Download the patch file at: playfair.0.2.rename.patch

Extract playfair-0.2.tar.gz and put file playfair.0.2.rename.patch into the directory playfair-0.2/src

Apply the patch by doing the following:

# gzip -d -c playfair-0.2.tar.gz | tar xvf -
# cd playfair-0.2/src/
# patch -p1 < playfair.0.2.rename.patch
# cd ..
# ./configure && make install

NOTE: You need to be root to do the "make install"

Instructions (If you need anything besides the link to the patch, so help you god):

download and extract playfair-0.2.tar.gz

Download the patch file at: playfair.0.2.rename.patch

Extract playfair-0.2.tar.gz and put file playfair.0.2.rename.patch into the directory playfair-0.2/src

Apply the patch by doing the following:

# gzip -d -c playfair-0.2.tar.gz | tar xvf -
# cd playfair-0.2/src/
# patch -p1 < playfair.0.2.rename.patch
# cd ..
# ./configure && make install

NOTE: You need to be root to do the "make install"

Direct link to the actual FairPlay code.

> It's DeCSS all over again...

You can say that again. Check the copyright header of drms.c:

* drms.c : DRMS
* Copyright (C) 2004 VideoLAN
* $Id: drms.c,v 1.2 2004/04/01 19:48:01 play_fair Exp $
*
* Author: Jon Lech Johansen

Parent: What if the next version of WMA encryption were as secure as AES?

It's funny you asked that question. FairPlay uses AES. Check the code yourself. It's the same code which has been available for several months from the VideoLAN project.

Unlike what some people believe, DRM and crypto is not magic.

You have the encrypted data, and you have the key. If you know the algorihtm, you can decrypt the data. It's that simple. It doesn't matter if the algorithm uses 4 million bit keys.

Yes, well, I'm sure the aristocracy that had been exploiting the populace for centuries thought the same when the poor masses rebelled. Or maybe not, because they used the term 'revolutionary' as if it meant 'criminal'. In any way, it's all in the eye of the beholder, it would seem. But we can safely say that it's a good thing their rights were trampled on and disgarded and abolished, or most of us would still be serfs.

The IFPI/RIAA is fighting a lost cause. And I think they know it.

First off all, I have difficulties with their acclaimed 'stealing' of music. As far as I know, stealing implies that the one that has been stolen has been derived of something. When you take a copy, you do not take the original away, thus they have not 'lost' anything. They might claim that they loose money when ppl d/l music, but even that is far from certain. Not only is it not shown statistically to have had that effect (they didn't even show a correlation thusfar - see aussie music-news - let alone a causality).

Furthermore, in an individual case, they would have to show they actually lost revenue. Which is far from said, because I sure know some guys who d/l music, but would NEVER have bought that music if they were unable to d/l it. So, how did the RIAA/IFPI loose revenue, exactly? And if they didn't lose anything, how can the term 'stealing' apply?

It would still be copyright-infringement, ofcourse, but that's another matter. I think maybe it's time we went beyond our current system of copyrights and walk into the era of cyberspace. With the industrial revolution, patents and copyrights knew a high flight, maybe it's time to let it leave and try something new? Maybe something in the lines of this: fairshare.

And don't worry, contrary to what the RIAA claims, musicians will not starve to death, and music-making will not stop. We had music long before we had copyrights, and we will have music long after copyrights have vanished from the scene.

And lastly, it's something that *can not* be stopped. P2P progs and their development act as organisms that follow the darwinian rules of survival. When Napster was 'killed' by the RIAA, immediately others (like kazaa) took over, being more resistent to attacks from the RIAA&co. Whenever kazaa will be shut down, others again will take over. When endusers are targeted, systems that protect the user will become dominant (like FreeNet).

It really is a lost cause. But then again, they are not truelly battling for the survival of musicians (as I said; they will survive, just as they used to do), it's for their OWN survival they are fighting. There is no way in hell they are going to keep the giant profits that they have been gathering for the last decades.

But ultimately, they will have to do what P2P systems are already doing: adapt to the new circumstances (and forget about the former levels of profit), or whither and die.

Exactly. Mod parent up!

This is just a command line front end to FAAD2, which uses the FairPlay code from VideoLAN. See for yourself.

The FairPlay code has been available for several months from the VideoLAN project.

Exactly. The actual crypto code in this utility comes from the VideoLAN Client (a multimedia player).

Code is still at SourceForge.

This link works for download. Most mirrors seem to have the file removed :(

I agree.

Keep in mind that the only thing new here is the frontend. playfair uses the several months old FairPlay code from VideoLAN.

They did?

Damn mirrors then..

playfair-0.2.tar.gz

Also modplug plays more formats and is better, although is win32 only

There's a port to XMMS. Works for me.

-Stephen

Have you heard of the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System or Inno Setup? I've made a few installers using Inno Setup and installed a few programs that use NSIS. They're both very powerful, easy to use, and free.

It's really too bad that nobody else uses MSIs properly. Lots of fugly "InstallSheild" bastardized MSIs and still lots of random custom crap. MS Office's use of MSIs are fairly good, not perfect because you still need a custom tool to make any changes, but at least they provide the tool so you can deploy Office without pulling teeth.

Adobe on the other hand (except for Acrobat) can burn in hell for their stupid bastardized nested install shields, in zip files. I've spent the last couple days trying to get a script, unattended install going for the Adobe Creative Suite. It's something like 5 programs using 6 different installers, I swear. I think I've got the base kludged together using AutoIt to click through the installer (have to use the suite installer instead of the individual app installers which might be scriptable because the app installers don't recognized the license key for the whole suite). Silently installing the patches (since it's imposible to make a pre-patched installer, as I've done with Office) is even more exciting.

I'm using to install the system, and thank god for it.

- RustyTaco

The source is in CVS. For example, check here.

For Media Player's replacement, use Media Player Classic.

• As I said, there's no way a similar restriction can exist in the linux world, because the players are open-source.

• My point was that having open source drivers on a closed-source OS will only just begin to solve the problems. Chances are, in a near-future version of windows, it won't accept unsigned drivers anyhow, so open source drivers won't even be an option. Hence the point that just drivers won't solve the problem. Windows IS the problem.

• Don't bother calling me ignorant just because you don't understand something.

• First off, I don't believe the driver is open-source at all. You are still stuck with using some firmware you need to take from the Hauppauge driver CD.

• Second, and perhaps more important, I want MPEG1/2 playback, but I don't want to be limited to only that. I also want to be able to display the desktop, and videos in other formats (MPEG4, Theora/VP3, Quicktime, etc), and I don't believe the PVR-350 supports that. (The newer 250s don't have TV-out, I have one myself)

• This is one of the things I hate most... Complaining about problems without solutions. If you think the binary-only driver is bad, why aren't you doing something about it?