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We already have a Gamer-module (by default filled with a large number of opensource games) with Enemy Territory, and also have Q3A and UT2k3-demo modules. They work, are fun at lan-parties, but besides that not a lot of people are going to reboot just to play a game (especially when booting could take a few minutes).

There are a few small retailers selling Morphix Game pre-installed, though. Comes close to having a console :)

• FLAC
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• FLAC
• Parchive

Use 10% of your CD space for PAR2 files. Then as long as you have semi-intact files and enought 'blocks' in your PAR2 files to repair them, its like having RAID 5 on a cd. What you could also do is for every 3-5 cds you burn, burn a cd that contains JUST redundancy data, a-la PAR2. This is like raid 3 on cd.

It depends on howmuch you care about your data, but this way, you could lose any one of those 3-5 cds and replace all the data, good as new.

Here is the PAR2 Spec for the many software nerds out there.

And here is Quickpar, a good PAR2 makeing tool.

Isn't that like having multiple nested User Mode Linux instances?

Storage machines are a good first step in the backup strategy, but you're still going to want a tiered system.

Tier1 - tape drive. Expensive, but the media is tiny and easy to move around / store. Keep at least one tape per month off-site.

Tier2 - external USB drive, or storage server. Good for near-line backups and quick single-file restores.

Tier3 - multiple external USB drives (usually 3 or 4), with 1 or 2 drives kept off-site. Look for a foam carrying case (where you remove pre-cut "blocks" to make a hole big enough to hold the USB drive).

Tier4 - periodic snapshots of important projects to CD-R/DVD-R. Toss them in sleeves and store them with the files, or put them in a dark cool constant-temp/humidyt closet. Use software like QuickPar to create parity data on the CD/DVD to allow you to recover from bad blocks (figure on using 10-25% of your disc space for parity data). Hopefully, you'll never need to pull from these discs.

Basically, don't put all of your eggs in one basket and use a parity / error-checking program to verify your backup data.

Look into some sort of parity software to protect your files on the CD/DVD. They add extra files (usually 5-25% more space) that allow you to recover files that have been corrupted by the media degrading. I also create parity files for files on my hard drive (in my archive tree) because there are command line tools that will walk the directory tree and verify that all files are still clean. Take a look at QuickPar for a parity tool. For a DVD, I'd recommend setting the percentage to 10-15% (will eat up around 15-20% of the DVD with parity data).

Now for professional data, I'd recommend a few methods. First, hook up a 250Gb USB 2.0 drive and get software like rsync or SecondCopy 2000 to mirror files off to that drive daily. (SecondCopy has the ability to move deleted files to a seperate folder on the external drive, plus keep multiple revisions of changed files.) An advanced option is to get (3) drives, swap them weekly or bi-weekly, keeping the latest backup at an off-site location. Might want to get one of those custom foam carrying cases to put the USB drive in. I'd recommend getting the USB drives that have built-in power supplies (take standard computer cords) which gives you one less thing to lose or carry around. Peer II sells a nice, compact USB 2.0 enclosure (CA-405U2) that supports large format drives (if you get the latest models).

Consider a tape backup that holds 50Gb native. Tapes are nice because they're small/portable. Downside is that tapes are expensive and backup software on Windows machines is usually proprietary.

You'll still want to do the DVD-R method as well, which is a very good way to take snapshots of projects. Protect it with parity files, but don't depend on it as your only backup method.

You can do this now at the file level using QuickPar. Can't do it across multiple CDs (well, you could put the parity files on another CD I guess).

Look for a tool called CDCheck CDCheck. Downside is that you have to manually manage the .CRC files. There's also a sourceforge projected calld CFV which is a command line tool.

Or, if you're burning a new CD, set aside 10-25% of the space for parity data using QuickPar. That way, even if a portion of the disk becomes unusable before you have time to copy it to a new disc, you have good odds of getting all of the data back off of the CD.

I check the quality of my CD's randomly using KProbe for Lite-On drives (sorry, no direct link - look for it on the net).
This tool can check the the error correction data (aka C1 or C2) stored on the CD, which is an important factor in 'how long a cd will last'. If this data contains errors, chances are high you will be left with a coaster after 2 years.
Nero's CD-speed, as mentioned in other replies, can only measure the C2 data. Plextor also released a tool that measures this data.

Other than that I now, by default, protect important data I store on CD's by redundancy. This can be acomplished by using various PAR-tools.
Depending on how much you love your data, increase the redundancy. Yes you can store less data on the disk, but with a 'simple' error you can at least hope to retrieve your data for 100%
It still doesn't hurt to burn 2 CD's though, and store them both in a safe place.

What is an acceptable digital archival media?

All media degrades. The trick is to use redundant data, and re-copy it before the media is expected to fail.

And don't forget to store archival media in an archive. That's right; cool (doesn't have to be freezing, but a consistent not-warm temperature), dark, low humidity.
Non-damp basements spring to mind (as long as you don't have heating equipment in there).

You might consider sealing off CD-R media in an airtight container, such as a (zip-lock) plastic baggy of suitable quality. If it's an opaque one that locks out light as well, all the better.

If you're in the archive (basement) and need light, take care not to hit your archive media with direct light, and take care that UV light is kept to a minimum (i.e. fluorescent lighting is usually better than incandescent lighting).

It also helps to use standard 650MB CD-R media with the ISO 9660 filesystem, in stead of the latest and greatest 818 MB overburned FooFS combination.

Don't burn at 52 speed. Use media that is specced for the lowest speed you can find, and burn it at that speed or lower. You need to drink coffee anyway.

Consider tape backups. Consider a regular archiving/back-up cycle, so that if a piece of media is a dud, you'll have a duplicate from the week before or after.

Store media before use under the same conditions as you would the written archival piece. Don't buy from stores that have humid, warm warehouses.

Index and catalogue your archive. Not only will it make it easier to find things, it will also help to find or sort out duplicates - handy if you switch to a different media and re-archive your old CD-Rs on DVD for example. Archive the index as well.

Use integrity checks, such as checksums. Use compression formats that are easy to fix if a few bits go bad (e.g. no spanning ZIP archives which are useless if the last disk goes missing).

Mix lots of media, unless you're sure that what you've got is a high quality. That way, if wednesday's backup is a dud because of crappy media, the backup from tuesday might at least be better.

Once in a time, randomly check media to see that it's still readable.

Another poster asked about CD-R based RAID; you can just use PAR files (of USENET fame).

You misspelled "Spoing". :)

But DON'T, for God's sake, tell fans of the products that they projects might benefit from name upgrades, nooo.

Agreed. One of my recient favorites is referred to as "DCL" at work. Calling it by it's full real name Double Choco Latte would not get any management sign off. DCL, though, sounds like a serious product. Though the logo for Double Choco Latte is nice, I've whipped up a replacement one; very booring, only text, in the corporate colors.

Recursive acronyms are great for geeky projects (geek is a positive, of course), though I hope fewer projects do this unless the users are only going to be geeks.

Here's my take on the names of the winning entries;

1. GNOME & KDE -- Both OK, but not great. The foot and gear logos are nice. That said, "Windows" and the "window" logo are pretty dumb. OSX and the Mac logos are damn nice.
2. OpenOffice -- Good and to the point; it's an office suite, and it's open.
3. Zope -- Cool; in a class like "Exxon". Zope is not a simple thing to explain, so it's OK that it's name does not mean anything intutitive.
4. GIMP -- Wilbur is a good logo/mascott, though the name requires explanation.
5. Plone -- Not cool like "Zope". Reminds me of "prone" (a sign of weakness) and "clone" (just another project).

SVG: XML based.

This is is a good thing. That way you can manipulate it with the DOM, parse it with SAX, transform it with XSLT, etc. You never need to write annother parser.

Humongous bloat.

If you're referring to features... SVG is only part of the standards you need, it's finely tuned to doing Scalable Vector Graphics, nothing else.

If you're referring to download speed, refer to this.

No decent tools.

1 2 3

Players are glacially slow.

Development of flash player for environments other than the latest version of MS Windows on x86 is glacially slow.

what's more, SVG is useful in settings other than web pages, such as desktop publishing.

bye, Dirk

// Ulf Harnhammar

erm...... you obviously haven't seen this.

Interesting, how often I will hear this, when I mention about my mouse... this is just some sort of anti-MS FUD (not that I like MS, but I neither like any kind of FUD). They didn't just make drivers for Macs, but the mouse itself does follow the BT spec - and it must follow, as their own BT dongle has a standard CSR chip onboard. I've actually used the dongle W2k with 3rd party drivers (but not with mouse - W2k does not support BT HID's), although MS itself only provides drivers for WXP.

Hell, a friend of mine who is a BlueZ developer made it work under Debian with his iBook, and he said it was not any great hassle. The mouse is just in undiscoverable mode by default - you have to press the connect channel button at the bottom of the mouse to make it to be discoverable for a moment to pair it with your box. What MS has crippled, is the setup of the mouse under WXP, which does not require pressing that button, but still finds the mouse.

The support was added in OS 10.2.5, and Apple also has an article how to make it work (and another for keyboard).

Ok, Its Gambas, and there it is. Appears to be coming along well.

better yet, use bochs

It's a shame about Kylix. Fortunately there's an open source alternative.

The Lazarus IDE has made a lot of progress over the last year. It's built on the cross platform and self contained Free Pascal Compiler... so all a Lazarus app needs to install and run is GTK and a Linux kernel with elf support. This makes writing and packaging trans-distro apps a relatively easy process. Lazarus and FPC can currently produce full featured graphical apps on Linux and FreeBSD. A The Win32 version is also progressing nicely, for those who are interested.

The Lazarus IDE and Free Pascal Compiler are written in Object Pascal and compile themselves. The latest RPM's and source tarballs can be found at http://lazarus-ccr.sourceforge.net.

Engauge, a digitizer for maps and images.
Apparently it can follow a line and emit coordinates.

Collaborative, voluntary creation works for software, it works on wikis

Who will pay to host the wikis? Who will pay to host the free software once VA Software dies and Savannah becomes too overloaded after the mass migration from SF to be usable?

I agree.

A lot of the bashing is legitimate annoyance at the Truly Evil practice of the "flash intro" to sites, and at putting content in Flash that would be much better handled in HTML.

However, for the things it is better at, Flash isn't just better than HTML, it's better than anything else that's widely accepted. Of course there are things Java can do that Flash can't, but my own experience has been that few of those things add value to average users, while the bugginess of different Java implementations has always irked me.

Oh wait, now I'm bashing Java. Sorry.

Anyway, the sites that use Flash well are really amazing, and you can pack more interesting rich media into 10K of tightly-written Flash/Actionsript than into just about anything else.

For anyone interested in checking out the Flash world, I highly recommend Flashkit, a community site with very good forums and howtos.

(And yes, I do sometimes surf with lynx and links.)

I copied from here...

http://wepattack.sourceforge.net/

Takes about two minutes to check one network against their dictionary list, slightly longer for more, so you can really do both. Dictionary while you're waiting for airsnort, just in case.

The stock python client has had 6999 as the default for --maxport for almost 9 months now.

I haven't seen any Linux distribution use an approach like that yet. (They allow Gnome/KDE to start esound/arts, of course. But those don't work with legacy /dev/dsp apps, and neither has great audio quality)

I think the conclusion was that software mixing is a user-space job,

Clearly software mixing falls under the category of "hardware abstraction", which is a job for the OS. Whether it happen in kernel or userspace is up to the implementors.

However, the Linux developers strongly support backwards compatibility. And existing software (like quake1) expects to open /dev/dsp to make noise. This means a kernel-based interface to software mixing is the only way to go. (I suppose the kernel could use a trick to feed data sent to /dev/dsp into userspace code, then back down into the real sound driver)

PS. The thing is called JACK (or jackit ?). The Jacks project is something completely different.

5) I'm not sure that my backlit keyboard works.

Have you tried it in a dark room? It refuses to light up if there is too much ambient lighting. A feature, I suppose.

6) I have yet to figure out where the graphical FTP client is

In the Finder, hit command-K and then type in ftp://server.name.com. In fact, this is how Safari handles ftp urls too. There are also plenty of third party tools - check out Version Tracker for all kinds of useful stuff. Personally, though, I prefer the command line ftp the best.

8) The trackpad is not responsive - it is almost like accelaration is turned on, but I didn't see anything that would indicate that in any mouse menu.

So I assume you've already played with the settings in the Keyboard & Mouse preferences? Other than that I'm not sure what to tell you. Works great on my 15" PB. I do agree about the button though - it's easy to accidentally "let go" while dragging something because you were clicking on the corner instead of the middle. My iBook is much better in that regard.

Other than that, have fun, and don't forget to install Fink!

And this is exactly why I started my SourceForge project at https://sourceforge.net/projects/kbvote/. My voting system is going well, I'm working on interface refinements now. Screenshots are at herrvinny.com. Any UW-Madison people here, feel free to email me. I'd like some feedback too; I'm only an undergrad :-). And yes, I did submit it as a story, but it was rejected...

one word: ploticus

i use it here

If that's his point he's not looking very hard.

While there are a few others listed here, such as this little one, many applications do require customization though typically they aren't bare generic web services like Apache.

PeopleSoft don't sell pre-made applications that require no configuration changes, and document creators don't write your content, so expecting that open source project should is highly unrealistic.

If that's his point he's not looking very hard.

While there are a few others listed here, such as this little one, many applications do require customization though typically they aren't bare generic web services like Apache.

PeopleSoft don't sell pre-made applications that require no configuration changes, and document creators don't write your content, so expecting that open source project should is highly unrealistic.

I live in Chennai, India (just a few hours from Bangalore). I'm finishing school in about 6 months, and I'd kill to get this job! I've been developing gtkboard for a while, so I think I'm not a n00b and I can qualify. So, are you still hiring? If yes could you tell me whom I can contact to put myself through the selection process?
Thanks
Arvind

Linux sucks with multimedia compared to windows. Windows I can play a DVD with any number of easily installable and functioning programs. Linux I killed myself getting 2 different programs to work.

Have you tried MoviX, the self booting Linux multimedia player? Don't even need an OS installed on the computer to play movies with Linux. I know, that was not your real point but MoviX is very cool and works with various media mounted from various locations.

I wasn't aware that it was possible to contribute, especially since the actual code that does anything worthwhile (ie, the wrapping) is distributed as binary only.

Or did you refer to ndiswrapper?

Better yet, get the Ur Quan Masters. Heck, that game could be played on a hand-held if they had the story for the voices.

"VNC is so bad that recommending it is not a
solution but the introduction of crap."

[ Disclaimer: I have used Xvnc for a long time (because an in-house application required 8 bit colordepth) and the Win version only for a short time after that when I had to use a Win and a Linux machine at the same time (finally synergy came to the rescuse) ]

Well, I find your position a little bit extreme - at least if one considers Xvnc only. The Windows version is glitchy (or you could say horrible - I had the impression that it takes screenshots of the windows and transmits that) but Xvnc is very different - it gives you a completely working X server so no graphical glitches.
There IS a lot of overhead - but in my experience that caused no real problems.

"The only solution in this case is to extend X to
allow one to move an application from one
display to another."

Well, this would be the ideal solution, but in the meantime we can use something less ideal, can't we?

Heh. For a moment there, I thought you meant FreeDesktop.org's X would be getting Scale2x support. :P

Fixed link to AROS

I also like what freedestop is doing with dbus, as it reminds me of the Amiga IPC usage that AREXX makes use of.

Its definately an FCC problem. The newest a/b/g chipset drivers are what's called "software defined radios". SDR is a major regulartory nightmare for the FCC because they can be reprogrammed by the user (more or less). Hence, the FCC wants to see infrastructure on the card to authenticate the code that runs there [kernel discussion]. Annoyingly.

The madwifi project is developing drivers for the Atheros a/b/g chipset. I've been using them and they appear to be reasonably good, for the moment. But, the distribute with a uuencoded binary blob that unpacks into a kernel module... I hear there are access points on the market that are basically Atheros a/b/g mini-PCI cards inside a plastic casing.

On the flip side, at least Intel sees the need to convince the FCC to open spectrums [quote]:

A third major challenge facing SDR technology is convincing the FCC to open the radio spectrum. In the past, the FCC has regulated specific radio bands for different types of communications. A radio device is then licensed for use in only a specific frequency range. Intel and other industry leaders would like to see devices licensed for multiple radio spectra, rather than for only one communications band. This would allow manufacturers to make a single device that could broadcast and/or receive at any appropriate frequency. The frequency used for a specific type of communication could then depend on the device or user identification, such as for National Guard, police, fire, Air-Sea Rescue, animal control, border patrol, road construction, clean-water works, and so on.

Why (potentially) pay LinuxAnt for something when you can be a part of helping the community developing it's own equivalent.

Try ndiswrapper .. Works with the broadcom 4301 chipset (for the moment).

Apple didn't change the APSL because of you. Hell, Apple can't possibly think much of your project, considering they've since founded OpenDarwin, and are paying people to create DarwinPorts.

It's kind of sad you need to write these articles yourself. I mean, if people actually liked your distribution, they'd be writing these crappy articles for you! You don't see Linus submitting stories to Slashdot about Linux, do you?

Darwin already has a mature, GPL-licensed, Stallman-compatible software distribution: Fink. Hell, it' even uses apt, the favourite software management tool of people everywhere. There's also the aforementioned DarwinPorts project, for people that wish to use modern, ports-like system on Darwin.

Maybe GNU-Darwin should be focusing on important things: It's not part of MetaPKG, the massive collaborative Darwin software effort, which Fink and DarwinPorts primary members. Even the newcomer Gentoo has been invited to take part. But GNU-Darwin has not.

The future of Darwin software is setting sail, yet GNU-Darwin isn't on the boat. This can't possibly bode well for GNU-Darwin's future relevance on the platform. Maybe they should be working to become a part of that, instead of submitting rubbish to Kuro5hin, Slashdot and OSNews.

Right now, GNU-Darwin is totally irrelevant, and there's nothing on the horizon to change that. If it disappeared tomorrow, no-one would notice. Instead of trolling here at Slashdot, go do something!

I want to know when I can use Clippy in native Linux.

There's Vigor, which is probably the closest you'll get.

i think you are mean and i think you should not be telling me to go in your dick. also i do not stink.

also u r wrong, lunix exists and is an operating system for teh comodore 64 (sory! i was wrong last post it is 46)

anyway i think yhou are mean and will send my brother to teach you a lesson

in teh meantime, pupa-ma-n cur!

I'm having to reboot back to 2.4 for the Cisco vpn driver

Though MPPE (weak Microsoft encryption) is not available for 2.6 *yet*, you might want to look into pptpclient. The web page tells you exactly how to set up ppp and everything. It'll connect to pretty much any Windows-ish (i.e., Cisco) VPN, and it's free. MPPE support needs a kernel patch for 2.4 and is on its way for 2.6.

Advantages: GPL, better documentation, the primary developer is very helpful on the mailing list. Disadvantage: maybe harder to set up (not sure, never tried the Cisco one).

I'll bet 2.6 will have MPPE support built in before Cisco releases a 2.6 version of its VPN client.

This whole article is one giant piece of flamebait...GNU-Darwin is clearly crap, doing nothing that can't be accomplished with either FreeBSD or OpenDarwin and Fink. There is nothing newsworthy here, 5 years of an OS that has made significant inroads would be something...Linux certainly developed into something notable in five years beyond a curious *NIX-like OS...and BSD has been around for ages, powering Yahoo and Google et al.
Darwin has not managed managed to achieve anything other than curiousity status, IMO. I mean it's great when it's under OS X and it's cool that Apple is trying to provide an Open Source alternative for its hardware (ever think maybe all those G3s and G4s need to do something and it's easier to sell a G5 when that old computer can become a web server/firewall/mail server/file server for nothing and still use all the Apple hardware? Or let all those switchers do something with that x86 they now have collecting dust?) Plus, ya know, if the hardware market ever goes bust, Apple can always sell this nifty OS as an enterprise/opensource/consumer alternative depending on what they put in or take out...
(Posted from an iBook running Jaguar)

http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net

Regards,
proclus

No it's not. Read about this asinine move here.

I'll reply to this AC because it's OT.
"By the time the source for Doom3 Is out, I dont think anybody will REMEMBER Bush . . . . or the next 10 presidents."

From what Bush and his war on terrorism has done to the world, I think his name will live in infamy for decades to come. You should all try this little Flash game to get an idea about what I mean.

DooM 3 is coming sooner than you think. Early Q2 2004, likely. That's my guess. Who knows, maybe sooner or later. What's important is that they perfect the engine and make a really good game. I don't care when it comes out, really. The longer I have to wait for it, the better it'll be.

However, our project isn't just about the Bush dynasty, but you can read our documentation to become more informed about it.

I'll reply to this AC because it's OT.
"By the time the source for Doom3 Is out, I dont think anybody will REMEMBER Bush . . . . or the next 10 presidents."

From what Bush and his war on terrorism has done to the world, I think his name will live in infamy for decades to come. You should all try this little Flash game to get an idea about what I mean.

DooM 3 is coming sooner than you think. Early Q2 2004, likely. That's my guess. Who knows, maybe sooner or later. What's important is that they perfect the engine and make a really good game. I don't care when it comes out, really. The longer I have to wait for it, the better it'll be.

However, our project isn't just about the Bush dynasty, but you can read our documentation to become more informed about it.