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Re:What resources? by G27+Radio · 2000-01-20 04:56 · Score: 2 · on Please Die3: The Abuse of Freedom

First, I'd like to say everything that '/' said--but since he already said it I won't. Now I'd like to add a little...

One thing Jon mentioned that struck me as interesting was about mentors. I don't agree exactly with what he said, but I'm glad that he realizes that there must be talent lurking in Slashdot's -1 playpen. I think if he'd followed that train of thought a little farther he might realize that we already are mentoring. Slashdot is actually giving them a playground where they can act out at the same time as they are learning how others more effectively communicate in a public forum. This goes for those that aren't literally children as well.

Then there are the people that are being scared off by the hostility. The lurkers that Jon says should take responsibility and stand up to the 'hostiles.' I less than half-agree with what Jon is saying here. I get the impression that Jon is looking at it as joining together and fighting back. Definately the wrong way to deal with it. I'd say this to the lurkers instead: "If you have something to say, stand up and say it. If you fear repercussions then get a free hushmail account and use a psuedonym on Slashdot." I have a feeling though that people are more scared of getting nailed with a well-thought-out but not-so-friendly criticism by some 200 IQ mental bully. No matter what you do, you will be criticized eventually. Accept it, learn from it, deny it, or throw it away, the choice is yours. Just don't cry over it because it's not that big of a deal.

newsflash: The moderation system isn't perfect. Still, it works incredibly well despite its flaws. I think any attempt to abolish the offending posts will turn out to be a huge waste of time at best, but more likely it will fsck things up. Rob, I sincerely hope you aren't considering doing this.

numb

Do you want to rule the world and control it? I don't think it can ever be done. The world is sacred vessel and it can not be controlled. You will only it make it worse if you try. It may slip through your fingers and disappear. -- Lao-Tzu

Mirrors part 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-19 02:42 · Score: 0 · on Corel Draw 9 for Linux Needs Beta Testers

Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Wed, Jan 19, 12:13am EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

We apologize for the length of time between updates. This list has gotten quite large and thus more difficult to maintain.

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

Mirrors part 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-16 07:10 · Score: 0 · on New DVD Lawsuits Filed by the MPAA (UPDATED)

Note: This mirror list has been copied from http://www.humpin.org/decss/, on January 2nd 2000 13:13 GMT

Mirrors since 28-Dec-99 added by me.
To my main DVD page (containing list of lists of mirrors) Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.
If you need a REAL reason to host these files, try reading this. Truth has never been more purely distilled.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Fri, Dec 31, 8:18pm EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

Yay, high speed... by Dr.+Sp0ng · 2000-01-14 17:06 · Score: 1 · on High Speed Net Access Defining College Life

I go to the University of Maryland (as do a lot of other people here, I noticed...) and last year (my freshman year) I got addicted to the high-speed access as well... so when I moved off campus this year my roommates and I are paying almost $300/month for 1.1Mb SDSL (and boy, is it worth it... life would not be worth living if it were not for streaming porn :-)

Although I just got offered a job at an ISP which would give me the same speed access, only free :-) I love it.

"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
-Linus Torvalds

Tgif! by Lightstorm · 2000-01-03 01:26 · Score: 1 · on Category: Best Designed Interface in a Graphical App

I haven't used Sketch so I don't know how it compares, but Tgif has saved me many times. I tried lots of commercial vector graphics packages and found that it took ages to draw diagrams with any of them. Tgif may not look as impressive, but its no-nonsense design makes it orders of magnitude quicker to use. I like the way it concentrates on the features you actually need and puts them readily at hand.

-- Lightstorm.

OOPS - Trying Humpin list again by Anonymous Coward · 1999-12-30 11:08 · Score: 0 · on DVD Hearing Victory: We Won - For Now

You have one bat and there are 100 million holes Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.
If you need a REAL reason to host these files, try reading this. Truth has never been more purely distilled.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Thu, Dec 30, 2:55am EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

This site contains some good technical documentation as well as more source code that the DVD consorium's lawyers would rather you not see:
http://crypto.gq.nu/

Semi-broken Mirrors
(These mirrors sometimes work and sometimes don't)
http://joe.to/storage/files/decss.zip
ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/ DVD/
http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/D eCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/f iles/css-auth.tar.gz
http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-aut h_tar.gz and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz

Broken Mirrors
(These are listed here for the notification of the people who run them)
http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderman/css-auth.ta r.gz
ftp://mikpos.dyndns.org/pub/cssdvd.zip
ftp://195.115.63.44/pub/DeCSS.zip
http://home.c2i.net/buddha9/
http://frodo.campus.luth.se/~iocc/tip.html
http://home.t-online.de/home/skinner01/decss.zip
ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/business/avoiderman/
http://www.hack.b3.nu/

Mirrors shut down by The Man
(A moment of silence, please.)
http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/DeCSS.zip
http://dvdcracked.tvheaven.com/index.html
http://home.worldonline.dk/~andersa/download/DeCSS .zip
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10079-100-143 3209.html?tag=st.dl.10001_104_3.lst.titl edetail
http://www.theresistance.net/files.html
http://cryptome.org/dvd-css.htm
http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/
http://caspian.twu.net/dvd/
http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/
ftp://134.173.94.44

Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · 1999-12-29 06:42 · Score: 0 · on DVD Hearing Today - Are You Ready to Rumble?

You have one bat and there are 100 million holes Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Wed, Dec 29, 3:14pm EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.

This site contains some good technical documentation as well as more source code that the DVD consorium's lawyers would rather you not see:
http://crypto.gq.nu/

Semi-broken Mirrors
(These mirrors sometimes work and sometimes don't)
http://joe.to/storage/files/decss.zip
ftp://eris.giga.or.at/pub/hacker/crypt/ DVD/
http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/files/D eCSS.zip and http://gullii.stu.rpi.edu/dvd/f iles/css-auth.tar.gz
http://www.discordia.de/decss/DeCSS.zip and http://www.discordia.de/decss/css-aut h_tar.gz and http://www.discordia.de/decss/LiVid.tgz

Broken Mirrors
(These are listed here for the notification of the people who run them)
http://members.theglobe.com/avoiderman/css-auth.ta r.gz
ftp://mikpos.dyndns.org/pub/cssdvd.zip
ftp://195.115.63.44/pub/DeCSS.zip
http://home.c2i.net/buddha9/
http://frodo.campus.luth.se/~iocc/tip.html
http://home.t-online.de/home/skinner01/decss.zip
ftp://ftp.firehead.org/pub/
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/business/avoiderman/
http://www.hack.b3.nu/

Mirrors shut down by The Man
(A moment of silence, please.)
http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/css-auth.tar.gz and http://www.rhythm.cx/dvd/DeCSS.zip
http://dvdcracked.tvheaven.com/index.html
http://home.worldonline.dk/~andersa/download/DeCSS .zip
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10079-100-143 3209.html?tag=st.dl.10001_104_3.lst.titl edetail
http://www.theresistance.net/files.html
http://cryptome.org/dvd-css.htm
http://www.d.umn.edu/~dchan/css/
http://caspian.twu.net/dvd/
http://mclaughlin.orange.ca.us/~andrew/
ftp://134.173.94.44

OT: Now a new game by dsweet · 1999-12-27 01:46 · Score: 1 · on ESR on Quake 1 Open Source Troubles

OpenSource security issues aside, it sounds like it would be very cool to play Quake against people who have hacked at the source code (as long as I have, too). The game would be "Who hacks the best Quake client?" rather than a simple shoot-em-up video game. It would certainly offer a new type of challenge.

Dave
http://www.chaos.umd.edu/~dsweet

Re:Writing > Voice recognition by DJerman · 1999-12-24 20:55 · Score: 1 · on Linux Handwriting Recognition

This is cool, but it's probably a little different than OCR. Handwriting systems (like Jot, on which this is based) usually use movement as part of the interperetation, allowing a much wider range of characters to be recognized, but eliminating static character recognition. I for one would love to see a decent OCR packages on Linux.

A couple of free or semi-free efforts have been started, but they seem to have lost momentum. I'm still building up the gumption to start a project, but if anyone else is working on it, please drop me a line...

Hmm... time to check on the turkey.

Fixing dynamic IPs by Tom+Christiansen · 1999-12-18 06:28 · Score: 3 · on Unified Instant Messaging Clients?

3.Anyone have any idea how to fix the problem of dynamic IPs?

Either with IP splicing as used for mobile IP and web performance, or else via RBL-style DNS games. Here's a suggested reading list.

Read Bill LeFebvre's article on Internet Black Holes to learn how the Real-Time Black Hole system uses DNS creatively. You can also go write to the source if you prefer. Here's an excerpt:
The simplest way to get started using the MAPS RBL to protect your mail relay against theft of service by spammers is to arrange for it to make a DNS query (of a stylized name) whenever you receive an incoming mail message from a host whose spam status you do not know.
Here's the abstract for TCP Splicing for Application Layer Proxy Performance, by Pravin Bhagwat et al.:
Application layer proxies already play an important role in today's networks, serving as firewalls and HTTP caches -- and their role is being expanded to include encryption, compression, and mobility support services. Current application layer proxies suffer major performance penalties as they spend most of their time moving data back and forth between connections, context switching and crossing protection boundaries for each chunk of data they handle. We present a technique called TCP Splice that provides kernel support for data relaying operations which runs at near router speeds. In our lab testing, we find SOCKS firewalls using TCP Splice can sustain a data throughput twice that of normal firewalls, with an average packet forwarding latency 30 times less.
Here's the abstract for Improving HTTP Caching Proxy Performance with TCP Tap:
Application layer proxies are an extremely popular method for adding new services to existing network applications. They provide backwards compatibility, centralized administration, and the convenience of the application layer programming environment. Since proxies act as traffic concentrators, serving multiple clients at the same time, during peak load periods they often become performance bottlenecks. In this paper we present an extension of the TCP Splice technique called TCP Tap that promises to dramatically improve the performance of a HTTP caching proxy, just as TCP Splice doubled the throughput of an application layer firewall proxy.
Cohen, A., S. Rangarajan, and H. Slye. On the Performance of TCP Splicing for URL-aware Redirection. In: Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, pp. 117-125, October 1999.
Recently, the focus of the work on NEPPI applications was mostly on high performance URL-aware switching using TCP splicing. TCP splicing is a technique for bridging TCP connections at the IP level within the kernel, thus avoiding the overhead of application-level copying between sockets as performed by programs such as proxies. URL-aware switching with TCP splicing can be utilized in layer 7 switches to achieve high performance content-aware redirection of HTTP requests. We have developed of prototype of a layer 4/7 switch based on NEPPI.
A Mobile Networking System based on Internet Protocol(IP) Pravin Bhagwat, Charles Perkins. Proceedings of USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location Independent Computing, August, 1993, Cambridge, MA.
Due to advances in wireless communication technology there is a growing demand for providing continuous network access to the users of portable computers, regardless of their location. Existing network protocols cannot meet this requirement since they were designed with the assumption of a static network topology where hosts do not change their location over time. Based on IP's Loose Source Route option, we have developed a scheme for providing transparent network access to mobile hosts. Our scheme is easy to implement, requires no changes to the existing set of hosts and routers, and achieves optimal routing in most cases. An outline of the proposed scheme is presented and a reference implementation is described.
A Mobile Host Protocol Supporting Route Optimization and Authentication IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, special issue on "Mobile and Wireless Computing Networks," 13(5):839-849, June 1995. c IEEE. Andrew Myles Department of Electronics
Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Internet without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host. IMHP features route optimization and integrated authentication of all management packets. Route optimization allows a node to cache the location of a mobile host and to send future packets directly to that mobile host. By authenticating all management packets, IMHP guards against possible attacks on packet routing to mobile hosts, including the interception or ...
RFC 2230 has some words that might be relevant here:
Dial-Up Host Example
This example outlines a possible use of KX records with mobile hosts that dial into the network via PPP and are dynamically assigned an IP address and domain-name at dial-in time.
Consider the situation where each mobile node is dynamically assigned both a domain name and an IP address at the time that node dials into the network. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, it is important that dial-in nodes use addresses from one or more well known IP subnets or address pools dedicated to dial-in access. If that is true, then no KX record or other action is needed to ensure that each node will act as its own Key Exchanger because lack of a KX record indicates that the node is its own Key Exchanger.
Consider the situation where the mobile node's domain name remains constant but its IP address changes. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, there might be operational problems when another node attempts to perform a secure reverse DNS lookup on the IP address to determine the corresponding domain name. The authenticated DNS binding (in the form of a PTR record) between the mobile node's currently assigned IP address and its permanent domain name will need to be securely updated each time the node is assigned a new IP address. There are no mechanisms for accomplishing this that are both IETF-standard and widely deployed as of the time this note was written. Use of Dynamic
DNS Update without authentication is a significant security risk and hence is not recommended for this situation.

Happy reading. :-)

Fixing dynamic IPs by Tom+Christiansen · 1999-12-18 06:28 · Score: 3 · on Unified Instant Messaging Clients?

3.Anyone have any idea how to fix the problem of dynamic IPs?

Either with IP splicing as used for mobile IP and web performance, or else via RBL-style DNS games. Here's a suggested reading list.

Read Bill LeFebvre's article on Internet Black Holes to learn how the Real-Time Black Hole system uses DNS creatively. You can also go write to the source if you prefer. Here's an excerpt:
The simplest way to get started using the MAPS RBL to protect your mail relay against theft of service by spammers is to arrange for it to make a DNS query (of a stylized name) whenever you receive an incoming mail message from a host whose spam status you do not know.
Here's the abstract for TCP Splicing for Application Layer Proxy Performance, by Pravin Bhagwat et al.:
Application layer proxies already play an important role in today's networks, serving as firewalls and HTTP caches -- and their role is being expanded to include encryption, compression, and mobility support services. Current application layer proxies suffer major performance penalties as they spend most of their time moving data back and forth between connections, context switching and crossing protection boundaries for each chunk of data they handle. We present a technique called TCP Splice that provides kernel support for data relaying operations which runs at near router speeds. In our lab testing, we find SOCKS firewalls using TCP Splice can sustain a data throughput twice that of normal firewalls, with an average packet forwarding latency 30 times less.
Here's the abstract for Improving HTTP Caching Proxy Performance with TCP Tap:
Application layer proxies are an extremely popular method for adding new services to existing network applications. They provide backwards compatibility, centralized administration, and the convenience of the application layer programming environment. Since proxies act as traffic concentrators, serving multiple clients at the same time, during peak load periods they often become performance bottlenecks. In this paper we present an extension of the TCP Splice technique called TCP Tap that promises to dramatically improve the performance of a HTTP caching proxy, just as TCP Splice doubled the throughput of an application layer firewall proxy.
Cohen, A., S. Rangarajan, and H. Slye. On the Performance of TCP Splicing for URL-aware Redirection. In: Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, pp. 117-125, October 1999.
Recently, the focus of the work on NEPPI applications was mostly on high performance URL-aware switching using TCP splicing. TCP splicing is a technique for bridging TCP connections at the IP level within the kernel, thus avoiding the overhead of application-level copying between sockets as performed by programs such as proxies. URL-aware switching with TCP splicing can be utilized in layer 7 switches to achieve high performance content-aware redirection of HTTP requests. We have developed of prototype of a layer 4/7 switch based on NEPPI.
A Mobile Networking System based on Internet Protocol(IP) Pravin Bhagwat, Charles Perkins. Proceedings of USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location Independent Computing, August, 1993, Cambridge, MA.
Due to advances in wireless communication technology there is a growing demand for providing continuous network access to the users of portable computers, regardless of their location. Existing network protocols cannot meet this requirement since they were designed with the assumption of a static network topology where hosts do not change their location over time. Based on IP's Loose Source Route option, we have developed a scheme for providing transparent network access to mobile hosts. Our scheme is easy to implement, requires no changes to the existing set of hosts and routers, and achieves optimal routing in most cases. An outline of the proposed scheme is presented and a reference implementation is described.
A Mobile Host Protocol Supporting Route Optimization and Authentication IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, special issue on "Mobile and Wireless Computing Networks," 13(5):839-849, June 1995. c IEEE. Andrew Myles Department of Electronics
Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Internet without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host. IMHP features route optimization and integrated authentication of all management packets. Route optimization allows a node to cache the location of a mobile host and to send future packets directly to that mobile host. By authenticating all management packets, IMHP guards against possible attacks on packet routing to mobile hosts, including the interception or ...
RFC 2230 has some words that might be relevant here:
Dial-Up Host Example
This example outlines a possible use of KX records with mobile hosts that dial into the network via PPP and are dynamically assigned an IP address and domain-name at dial-in time.
Consider the situation where each mobile node is dynamically assigned both a domain name and an IP address at the time that node dials into the network. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, it is important that dial-in nodes use addresses from one or more well known IP subnets or address pools dedicated to dial-in access. If that is true, then no KX record or other action is needed to ensure that each node will act as its own Key Exchanger because lack of a KX record indicates that the node is its own Key Exchanger.
Consider the situation where the mobile node's domain name remains constant but its IP address changes. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, there might be operational problems when another node attempts to perform a secure reverse DNS lookup on the IP address to determine the corresponding domain name. The authenticated DNS binding (in the form of a PTR record) between the mobile node's currently assigned IP address and its permanent domain name will need to be securely updated each time the node is assigned a new IP address. There are no mechanisms for accomplishing this that are both IETF-standard and widely deployed as of the time this note was written. Use of Dynamic
DNS Update without authentication is a significant security risk and hence is not recommended for this situation.

Happy reading. :-)

Fixing dynamic IPs by Tom+Christiansen · 1999-12-18 06:28 · Score: 3 · on Unified Instant Messaging Clients?

3.Anyone have any idea how to fix the problem of dynamic IPs?

Either with IP splicing as used for mobile IP and web performance, or else via RBL-style DNS games. Here's a suggested reading list.

Read Bill LeFebvre's article on Internet Black Holes to learn how the Real-Time Black Hole system uses DNS creatively. You can also go write to the source if you prefer. Here's an excerpt:
The simplest way to get started using the MAPS RBL to protect your mail relay against theft of service by spammers is to arrange for it to make a DNS query (of a stylized name) whenever you receive an incoming mail message from a host whose spam status you do not know.
Here's the abstract for TCP Splicing for Application Layer Proxy Performance, by Pravin Bhagwat et al.:
Application layer proxies already play an important role in today's networks, serving as firewalls and HTTP caches -- and their role is being expanded to include encryption, compression, and mobility support services. Current application layer proxies suffer major performance penalties as they spend most of their time moving data back and forth between connections, context switching and crossing protection boundaries for each chunk of data they handle. We present a technique called TCP Splice that provides kernel support for data relaying operations which runs at near router speeds. In our lab testing, we find SOCKS firewalls using TCP Splice can sustain a data throughput twice that of normal firewalls, with an average packet forwarding latency 30 times less.
Here's the abstract for Improving HTTP Caching Proxy Performance with TCP Tap:
Application layer proxies are an extremely popular method for adding new services to existing network applications. They provide backwards compatibility, centralized administration, and the convenience of the application layer programming environment. Since proxies act as traffic concentrators, serving multiple clients at the same time, during peak load periods they often become performance bottlenecks. In this paper we present an extension of the TCP Splice technique called TCP Tap that promises to dramatically improve the performance of a HTTP caching proxy, just as TCP Splice doubled the throughput of an application layer firewall proxy.
Cohen, A., S. Rangarajan, and H. Slye. On the Performance of TCP Splicing for URL-aware Redirection. In: Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, pp. 117-125, October 1999.
Recently, the focus of the work on NEPPI applications was mostly on high performance URL-aware switching using TCP splicing. TCP splicing is a technique for bridging TCP connections at the IP level within the kernel, thus avoiding the overhead of application-level copying between sockets as performed by programs such as proxies. URL-aware switching with TCP splicing can be utilized in layer 7 switches to achieve high performance content-aware redirection of HTTP requests. We have developed of prototype of a layer 4/7 switch based on NEPPI.
A Mobile Networking System based on Internet Protocol(IP) Pravin Bhagwat, Charles Perkins. Proceedings of USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location Independent Computing, August, 1993, Cambridge, MA.
Due to advances in wireless communication technology there is a growing demand for providing continuous network access to the users of portable computers, regardless of their location. Existing network protocols cannot meet this requirement since they were designed with the assumption of a static network topology where hosts do not change their location over time. Based on IP's Loose Source Route option, we have developed a scheme for providing transparent network access to mobile hosts. Our scheme is easy to implement, requires no changes to the existing set of hosts and routers, and achieves optimal routing in most cases. An outline of the proposed scheme is presented and a reference implementation is described.
A Mobile Host Protocol Supporting Route Optimization and Authentication IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, special issue on "Mobile and Wireless Computing Networks," 13(5):839-849, June 1995. c IEEE. Andrew Myles Department of Electronics
Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Internet without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host. IMHP features route optimization and integrated authentication of all management packets. Route optimization allows a node to cache the location of a mobile host and to send future packets directly to that mobile host. By authenticating all management packets, IMHP guards against possible attacks on packet routing to mobile hosts, including the interception or ...
RFC 2230 has some words that might be relevant here:
Dial-Up Host Example
This example outlines a possible use of KX records with mobile hosts that dial into the network via PPP and are dynamically assigned an IP address and domain-name at dial-in time.
Consider the situation where each mobile node is dynamically assigned both a domain name and an IP address at the time that node dials into the network. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, it is important that dial-in nodes use addresses from one or more well known IP subnets or address pools dedicated to dial-in access. If that is true, then no KX record or other action is needed to ensure that each node will act as its own Key Exchanger because lack of a KX record indicates that the node is its own Key Exchanger.
Consider the situation where the mobile node's domain name remains constant but its IP address changes. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, there might be operational problems when another node attempts to perform a secure reverse DNS lookup on the IP address to determine the corresponding domain name. The authenticated DNS binding (in the form of a PTR record) between the mobile node's currently assigned IP address and its permanent domain name will need to be securely updated each time the node is assigned a new IP address. There are no mechanisms for accomplishing this that are both IETF-standard and widely deployed as of the time this note was written. Use of Dynamic
DNS Update without authentication is a significant security risk and hence is not recommended for this situation.

Happy reading. :-)

Fixing dynamic IPs by Tom+Christiansen · 1999-12-18 06:28 · Score: 3 · on Unified Instant Messaging Clients?

3.Anyone have any idea how to fix the problem of dynamic IPs?

Either with IP splicing as used for mobile IP and web performance, or else via RBL-style DNS games. Here's a suggested reading list.

Read Bill LeFebvre's article on Internet Black Holes to learn how the Real-Time Black Hole system uses DNS creatively. You can also go write to the source if you prefer. Here's an excerpt:
The simplest way to get started using the MAPS RBL to protect your mail relay against theft of service by spammers is to arrange for it to make a DNS query (of a stylized name) whenever you receive an incoming mail message from a host whose spam status you do not know.
Here's the abstract for TCP Splicing for Application Layer Proxy Performance, by Pravin Bhagwat et al.:
Application layer proxies already play an important role in today's networks, serving as firewalls and HTTP caches -- and their role is being expanded to include encryption, compression, and mobility support services. Current application layer proxies suffer major performance penalties as they spend most of their time moving data back and forth between connections, context switching and crossing protection boundaries for each chunk of data they handle. We present a technique called TCP Splice that provides kernel support for data relaying operations which runs at near router speeds. In our lab testing, we find SOCKS firewalls using TCP Splice can sustain a data throughput twice that of normal firewalls, with an average packet forwarding latency 30 times less.
Here's the abstract for Improving HTTP Caching Proxy Performance with TCP Tap:
Application layer proxies are an extremely popular method for adding new services to existing network applications. They provide backwards compatibility, centralized administration, and the convenience of the application layer programming environment. Since proxies act as traffic concentrators, serving multiple clients at the same time, during peak load periods they often become performance bottlenecks. In this paper we present an extension of the TCP Splice technique called TCP Tap that promises to dramatically improve the performance of a HTTP caching proxy, just as TCP Splice doubled the throughput of an application layer firewall proxy.
Cohen, A., S. Rangarajan, and H. Slye. On the Performance of TCP Splicing for URL-aware Redirection. In: Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, pp. 117-125, October 1999.
Recently, the focus of the work on NEPPI applications was mostly on high performance URL-aware switching using TCP splicing. TCP splicing is a technique for bridging TCP connections at the IP level within the kernel, thus avoiding the overhead of application-level copying between sockets as performed by programs such as proxies. URL-aware switching with TCP splicing can be utilized in layer 7 switches to achieve high performance content-aware redirection of HTTP requests. We have developed of prototype of a layer 4/7 switch based on NEPPI.
A Mobile Networking System based on Internet Protocol(IP) Pravin Bhagwat, Charles Perkins. Proceedings of USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location Independent Computing, August, 1993, Cambridge, MA.
Due to advances in wireless communication technology there is a growing demand for providing continuous network access to the users of portable computers, regardless of their location. Existing network protocols cannot meet this requirement since they were designed with the assumption of a static network topology where hosts do not change their location over time. Based on IP's Loose Source Route option, we have developed a scheme for providing transparent network access to mobile hosts. Our scheme is easy to implement, requires no changes to the existing set of hosts and routers, and achieves optimal routing in most cases. An outline of the proposed scheme is presented and a reference implementation is described.
A Mobile Host Protocol Supporting Route Optimization and Authentication IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, special issue on "Mobile and Wireless Computing Networks," 13(5):839-849, June 1995. c IEEE. Andrew Myles Department of Electronics
Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Internet without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host. IMHP features route optimization and integrated authentication of all management packets. Route optimization allows a node to cache the location of a mobile host and to send future packets directly to that mobile host. By authenticating all management packets, IMHP guards against possible attacks on packet routing to mobile hosts, including the interception or ...
RFC 2230 has some words that might be relevant here:
Dial-Up Host Example
This example outlines a possible use of KX records with mobile hosts that dial into the network via PPP and are dynamically assigned an IP address and domain-name at dial-in time.
Consider the situation where each mobile node is dynamically assigned both a domain name and an IP address at the time that node dials into the network. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, it is important that dial-in nodes use addresses from one or more well known IP subnets or address pools dedicated to dial-in access. If that is true, then no KX record or other action is needed to ensure that each node will act as its own Key Exchanger because lack of a KX record indicates that the node is its own Key Exchanger.
Consider the situation where the mobile node's domain name remains constant but its IP address changes. Let the policy require that each mobile node act as its own Key Exchanger. In this case, there might be operational problems when another node attempts to perform a secure reverse DNS lookup on the IP address to determine the corresponding domain name. The authenticated DNS binding (in the form of a PTR record) between the mobile node's currently assigned IP address and its permanent domain name will need to be securely updated each time the node is assigned a new IP address. There are no mechanisms for accomplishing this that are both IETF-standard and widely deployed as of the time this note was written. Use of Dynamic
DNS Update without authentication is a significant security risk and hence is not recommended for this situation.

Happy reading. :-)

Re:hrm. by gomi · 1999-12-03 04:25 · Score: 2 · on The Message from Seattle

I have to point people, again, to Simon's The Ultimate Resource, where many of these issues of finite vs. infinite resources are addressed. Resources aren't limited in any way significant enough to affect policy decisions in the here-and-now, and won't be for the foreseeable future. The fundamental constraints on resources (energy and mass) abound throughout the solar system, and even if you confine yourself strictly to Earth, material sources have been, in the long run, becoming more and more abundant (as measured by price, the only really meaningful indicator), rather than less.

gomi

The Capitalism Tango (Was Re:Uhhhh......) by gomi · 1999-12-01 06:58 · Score: 1 · on Americans and the 21st Century

As Simon notes in Th e Ultimate Resource, the central truth of capitalism is that all voluntary exchanges create wealth. When I voluntarily give someone five bucks for a holofoil Charizard Pokemon card (I don't know how much the damn thing is going for these days, bear with me), I clearly want the holofoil Charizard more than I want the five bucks, or I would have kept my five bucks.

Contrariwise, the seller clearly wants the five bucks more than the card, or he/she/it wouldn't have parted with it. At the end of the exchange, we both have a greater percentage of our desires satisfied than we did before the exchange, and the exchange has therefore created wealth where none was before.

Violence, theft, and fraud circumvent the essential ingredient of 'voluntary' in 'voluntary exchange.' Involuntary exchanges don't create wealth, and monopolies remove a great deal of volition, since there are no alternate sources for what you want. These among the few legitimate places where government should interfere in the market -- the police take care of violence, theft, and fraud at the individual-citizen scale, and the SEC/DOJ do the same at the corporate-entity scale.

When they're doing their jobs, that is, which is more often than not, to set aside cynicism briefly.

gomi

Pak-free mirror by Dr.+Sp0ng · 1999-11-21 04:00 · Score: 2 · on Quake III Arena Demo Test for Linux

I've posted a tarball of the Demo without the Pak files included for all of you who requested it. It is located at http://www.glue. umd.edu/~spong/q3demoTEST-1.10-5-NOPAK.i386.tar.gz . I don't know if this is violating any kind of license, so Id Software: let me know if it is and I'll take it down.

"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
-Linus Torvalds

Re:The UN is wasting their time and money by Hiro_Protaganist · 1999-10-25 01:03 · Score: 1 · on Global Population Implosion?

Yes, Julian Simon was a visionary. I am surprised that you didn't bring up his bet with Ehrlich. In 1980, Ehrlich held that we were running out of natural resources, which, following supply and demand, should lead to an increase in their prices. The Simon made this wager: the price of any materials, for any length of time that Ehrlich chose would decline, adjusted for inflation(real terms). Ehrlich picked 10 materials for a decade. The loser would pay the difference calculated on a $1000 original basket. In 1990, not only had the prices fallen when adjusted for inflation, the had fallen in nominal terms! I believe the difference was $527.

The full text of his seminal work, Th e Ultimate Resourse II is available online. I think that that site has his other writings too.

BTW, did you know that the entire population of the world could fit comfortably into an area the size of Texas with room to spare?

_________
Sometimes, when I'm feelin' bored, I like to take a necrotic equine and assault it physically.

Updated Mirror List (mov+mpg+rm) by Slash+Mirror · 1999-10-20 13:45 · Score: 1 · on Home Cookin': The Electric CD Acid Test

MOV (11.3MB):
ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin.mov
http://athena.student.umd.edu/HomeCook in.mov
http://house.ofdoom.com/~hun gerf3/video/HomeCookin.mov

low quality MPG (7.23MB):
ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin-low.mpg
http://house.ofdoom.com/ ~hungerf3/video/HomeCookin-low.mpg

RM:
128k / 5MB ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin-128k.rm
70k / 1.6MB ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin-70k.rm
56k / 2.8MB ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin-56k.rm

SlashMirror: Where to put files for fellow /.'ers

Mirror List by Slash+Mirror · 1999-10-20 08:35 · Score: 3 · on Home Cookin': The Electric CD Acid Test

http://athena.student.umd.edu/HomeCook in.mov

ftp://128.253.254.56/homecookin.mov

http://dibona.com/slashmir

SlashMirror: Where to put files for fellow /.'ers

Re:I mirrored it for everyone. by Lord+of+the+Files · 1999-10-20 08:03 · Score: 2 · on Home Cookin': The Electric CD Acid Test

I've also mirrored it here. I don't know how much bandwidth you have, but another mirror never hurts.

Should be "Bionics" by AJWM · 1999-10-11 03:53 · Score: 1 · on Solar Powered Chemical Processing

Benyus's book isn't bad, but she needlessly invents a new term, biomimicry, when the perfectly good "bionics" (original meaning) has been around for decades.

(And yes, the less-complete dictionaries only list the definition of bionics popularized by "The Six Million Dollar Man", i.e. machinery replacing/augmenting the organism, but the original definition was the study of biological systems. To quote Martin Caidin's "Cyborg" (which inspired the TV show):

"The term itself, bionics, still found ready understanding within only a limited area. Originally it was coined by Major Jack E. Steele, who had been a research psychiatrist at the Aerospace Research Laboratory in Ohio. . . . He created the word bionics as a combination of the Greek bios, meaning life, and the suffix ics, meaning after the manner of, or resembling. Steele taught his coworkers that the scientific goal of bionics was to acquire specific biological knowledge, then reduce that knowledge to mathematical terms (again with the indispensable computers) that would be meaningful to an engineer, who would then produce what the doctors, or the bionicists, if the term was preferred, requested."

(I happen to know all this since Dr. Steele (now Colonel, retired) is my father-in-law.)

(And a rev iew of "Cyborg" suggests Martin Caidin may be the first user of term cyborg -- from which word of course derives the name of the Star Trek Borg.)

Mmmm... fvwm by Dr.+Sp0ng · 1999-10-10 22:28 · Score: 1 · on KDE Looks Ahead

I love fvwm2... none of this kay dee ee / guhnome crap... mmmmm.... old school stuff rules. Give me a Athlon with 2gb of RAM, and all I'd use it for would be fvwm2 and vi.

On a completely unrelated note, I tried to install KDE 2 from CVS on my Debian Slink system the other day (upgraded to glibc2.1 with some deb's from the potato distro) and while compiling mico I got an error saying that idl had Segfaulted on me! Anybody else have a problem like this (it was mico 1.3.0 or something, whatever the one they have in ftp.us.kde.org/unstable/required4KDE or whatever the hell the directory is) (ignore my non-use of grammar, I haven't slept in 2 days... but y'all will like what I'm working on when it's released!)

Anyway, back to the point here. Is there a problem with mico here, or what? I haven't had any problems with anything else on my system (even Mozilla M10 worked, BOTH times it was posted on slashdot! :-) Can I use a different CORBA Orb here instead (or whatever the fuck they're called)? If anybody knows the answer to these questions and would like to help out a poor starving college student with too much free time and too many cigarettes for his own good, please email me at spong@glue.umd.edu

Thanks y'all

Oh yeah, and no bitchin' about my language, either. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm bored, and I have to go to class in 15 minutes. Ugghhhh my life sucks.

Oh yeah, and I'm not a hick. Ignore my blatant misuse of y'all in this posting (which, I just found out, is actually grammatically correct!)

"Software is like sex- the best is for free"

Re:ESR should go out sometimes by Mr.+Slippery · 1999-10-08 21:32 · Score: 2 · on ESR Responds to Nikolai Bezroukov

Socialism is a form of government which runs most essential industries such as medicine, power, and telecommunucations; controls the people's access to these industries; and charges high taxes. Wealth is redistributed by a central government.

No. See this, or this, or this, for views on socialism with and without strong government control of the economy.

Communism is an _economic_ system where the workers own the means of production and the wealth created is shared by all. Any form of government can be involved in a communist economy but it is usually socialist' this is why many people get the two confused.

You might try reading the Communist Manifesto, which explicitly calls for "conquest of political power by the proletariat" and

to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.

That's a pretty clean plan for a government (a bad plan, but a plan), and there's more details in the Manifesto.

Chaos with Christmas ornaments by dsweet · 1999-09-29 22:16 · Score: 1 · on Improving Wireless Networks

If you stack four Christmas balls in a pyramid (like cannonballs) you can "see the Chaos" inside them in the form of a fractal basin boundary.

This boundary has the "Wada property" which makes the IR beam spread throughout the room. To demonstrate: (1) take a laser pointer and sight over the top of it to aim the beam at the fractal: the beam will be visible through all of the openings (2) aim so that you miss the fractal pattern but still hit the balls and the beam on exits through only one opening.

For more see: http://www.chaos.umd.edu/~dsweet/Spheres

Dave

Re:I don't get it by Mr.+Slippery · 1999-09-26 23:31 · Score: 1 · on The Coming Cyberclysm - Part One

People, for the most part don't buy useless gadgets. People value their time and money and generally spend both on things that add value to their life.

Ah, would that that were true! But people (USAmericans, at least) buy a tremendious amount of useless crap. Furbies, shoes with lights in them, Chia pets, designer jeans, those $19.95 "As Seen On TV!" gizmos...things that are of no use, whose novelty wears off after a week and are then consigned to the attic or the landfill.

Our economy is based on ever-expanding production, which requires ever-expanding consumption; there's a lot of social and economic pressure to keep that consumption going. But most of what is produced is crap, and its consumption gives no satisfation. I'm sure that the same will be true of the emerging "information economy".

On the personal level, the solution is the same: intelligent choice about what to buy and use. But, just as the high level of crap consumption in the economy of physical goods affects you - through polution, consumption of limited resources, competition for shelf space in retail outlets, etcetera - no matter what your personal choice is, it might come about that crap consumption by the masses will affect the infomation available to you. (It's already true of television - for example, see what TNT's desire to pander to folks who like wrestling and westerns did to Bablyon 5: Crusade. )

More info, critique of Rambus by LinuxParanoid · 1999-09-23 23:47 · Score: 2 · on Major Problems with Rambus

Anyone looking for other technical critiques might try:

Analysis from InQuest, including Dell Office+Rambus benchmarks

A performance comparison of contemporary DRAM architectures. Vinodh Cuppu, Bruce Jacob, Brian Davis, and Trevor Mudge. Proc. 26th International Symposium on Computer Architecture
(ISCA-26), pp. 222-233. Atlanta GA, May 1999.

Or here to pick up Intel documentation on it here and here.

--LP

TGIF is better by Anonymous Coward · 1999-09-14 18:24 · Score: 0 · on Visio to be bought by Microsoft

Forget Visio, get TGIF

The interface sucks a little, but it is programmable and web-friendly! Maybe this program doesn't get the attention it deserves because of the name. (it has nothing to do with gifs)

http://bourbon.cs.umd.edu:8001/tgif/

IR interference by Mr.+Slippery · 1999-09-13 21:53 · Score: 1 · on Lego robots in volleyball tournament

I participated in the first robot competition at the University of Maryland, College Park. Our robots were made of Lego and run by a controller board from MIT (the name escapes me at the moment). Our 'bot was working perfectly in the lab. But come the day of the competition - which (important plot point!) was televised on the campus's cable channel - it went into total failure mode.

We were using a toothed gear wheel on an axle to break an IR beam to measure the distance we moved. Turned out that the lighting for the TV broadcast was blinding the sensor! Didn't figure it out until afterwards, though. B-(

Re:Hmmm. by SEWilco · 1999-09-13 20:32 · Score: 2 · on Lego robots in volleyball tournament

Polaroid OEM also sells the sonar rangefinder modules because they have a number of uses. See the Robotics Sonar FAQ. I also found a page which describes robotic sonar uses, and another ultrasonic robotics page.

There are also other devices which could be used for position sensing, such as wireless joysticks or electronic whiteboard devices.

Re:Versatility of the Palm by Xthlc · 1999-09-13 16:47 · Score: 1 · on Lego Mindstorms Controlled by Pilot Via JINI

The thing about XWindows being extremely high bandwidth, etc. over a network environment - this is surely true of ANY program that tries to control windows. If not - then this means that an extension to XWindows would be possible that DID cut down on the bandwidth.

mmm-hmmm. Here is one solution our company is hoping to use: Jazz.
Jazz is a 2D scenegraph rendering API in java. If you've ever done any 3d work, you'll know that a scenegraph is basically a bunch of primitives (polygons, text, curves) organized in a tree structure with linear matrix transforms between nodes. This lets you scale, flip, stretch, etc. any portion of your scene simply by tweaking the values in a single transform node. More importantly, this lets you ship an arbitrarily complex user interface over the netwerk merely through specifying your initial scenegraph (with the addition of some serialized callback objects + wiring) followed by commands that mutate various nodes on the scenegraph.

But - it is fast. Very fast. And a lot of Java is based on C (syntax, etc) - a cut-down, partially redisgned version of C++ could look very similar to Java and be one heck_of_a_lot faster - even a Java-To-C++ translator that gave you C++ code to compile would probably end up faster than the native Java!

Well, the language design by itself isn't necessarily slow (although all the reflection APIs would definitely drag down any implementation). It really is the VM that makes Java annoyingly sludgy. There are a few competing efforts for a native Java compiler, the most prominent being GCJ.

Oh well. Will nothing ever be done Right??? :-(

nope.

Re:TNT & Emacs by Dr.+Sp0ng · 1999-09-01 09:15 · Score: 1 · on XFree86 3.3.5 released

The release notes say that this fixes a spurious underline problem with the TNT cards. Has anyone tried it out yet? Does it fix the emacs problem where you can't see the cursor?

YES! Finally, it does. I'm getting sick of using emacs -nw in order to run it in an xterm... I hate not being able to use my mouse :-p

On another note, does anybody know if I need to download all the files on the mirror, or can I just download the server? I just downloaded the server, and it seems to be working fine, but I don't know for sure. Please let me know at spong@glue.umd.edu

thanks
Matt

"Software is like sex- the best is for free"

Re:dya happen to have... by Yohahn · 1999-08-31 23:46 · Score: 2 · on Duchovny to Quit X-Files

A better link (IMHO) about what's happening is at
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~fleming/

U. of Maryland by cpfeifer · 1999-08-28 22:36 · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Comp-Sci Graduate Schools

I've read lots of good things about the U of Maryland CS grad program, anyone have any first hand knowledge?

Or are we going to be strictly midwestern (UofI, Purdue, CMU...) and left-coast (CalTech, Stanford, UCB...) biased?

CS grad school by Anonymous Coward · 1999-08-28 08:26 · Score: 0 · on Ask Slashdot: Comp-Sci Graduate Schools

I highly recommend going to New Mexico Tech for CS grad school. Sure, we're a little school in a little town stuck in the middle of nowhere, but it's an excellent school. And if you don't believe me, just look up Cort Dougan on the Net. For his thesis, he ported the Linux kernel to the PowerPC processor. And now he's working on his Ph.D. Plus there's only around 1500 people here. And it's way cheap. Here's the Web site. Oh, and another page I found on graduate schools in the CS and Math areas.

Re:Table widths? by tonyj · 1999-07-26 03:49 · Score: 1 · on redhat.com Site Redesigned

Slashdot is not exactly a paragon of virtue in regards to web design--it's got its strong points (good use of contrast, consistent positioning of navigation, etc.) and weaknesses (smallish type in some spots, addiction to embedded tables...bad Slashdot, no cookie...and lack of polish on the graphics).

Forgive me for being confused, but why exactly are embedded tables bad? (Please respond by normal e-mail tonyj@cs.umd.edu)

Re:GUI by AMK · 1999-07-07 21:02 · Score: 1 · on PetrOS - NT alternative?

Pad++ was a zoomable user interface written in Tcl/Tk. It grew and grew and got unmaintainable, so its successor is a Java library called Jazz, which looks very promising. It's alpha work at the moment, though, requires Java 2, and still needs more optimization work.

XEmacs by mikpos · 1999-04-20 03:35 · Score: 1 · on egcs to become gcc

That's not entirely true. z00m over to here and read the part where he talks about merging Emacs and XEmacs.

Also: Ultrawideband Wireless Communications @ UMD by agarcia · 1999-04-12 05:27 · Score: 1 · on Wireless "Pulse" Technology

http://www.ee.umd.edu/~yag/

-Anthony

Re:Mirror by gavinhall · 1999-03-10 21:57 · Score: 1 · on Star Wars Trailer on Entertainment Tonight

Posted by Forward The Light Brigade:

sorry no slashot effect... BUT
this system just had a clean install/upgrade
(from a highly overhauled RH5.1 to a DEB2.1)

and so I was compiling WMINET (which is a wm dock app that monitors various services) when I noticed a very high number for FTP... wondering if I had set it up wrong I opened an Eterm and typed ftpwho

take a look

this is by no means the peak... just a random sample.... sheesh...

Mirror by gavinhall · 1999-03-10 21:06 · Score: 1 · on Star Wars Trailer on Entertainment Tonight

Posted by Forward The Light Brigade:

thought I may as well post here as well

I am mirroring the trailer at
ftp://sparky.student.umd.edu/starwars

A mirror by gavinhall · 1999-03-10 21:03 · Score: 1 · on Prequel Trailer #2. Get it.

Posted by Forward The Light Brigade:

it is up
it is here

E DOES maximize windows that way ! by Anonymous Coward · 1999-03-04 09:13 · Score: 0 · on GNOME 1.0 Released

E is a very good window manager, except for the default theme, which is terrible. The buttons get in the way of ABSOLUTELY everything. I'm glad that people have taken the initiative of writing better themes (the eMac theme is GREAT... even though I can't stand using a Mac, the interface is very nice looking) that don't have those goddam buttons.

Matt Spong
spong@wam.umd.edu

http://deadzone.student.umd.edu/

E DOES maximize windows that way ! by Anonymous Coward · 1999-03-04 09:13 · Score: 0 · on GNOME 1.0 Released

E is a very good window manager, except for the default theme, which is terrible. The buttons get in the way of ABSOLUTELY everything. I'm glad that people have taken the initiative of writing better themes (the eMac theme is GREAT... even though I can't stand using a Mac, the interface is very nice looking) that don't have those goddam buttons.

Matt Spong
spong@wam.umd.edu

http://deadzone.student.umd.edu/

I agree, Open Source is doomed in mass public by Anonymous Coward · 1999-02-10 20:29 · Score: 0 · on Does Open Source Fail the Acid Test?

Bullshit... anybody who knows the source code and the operating system well enough to be able to stick a virus in there just WOULDN'T DO IT. Have you ever heard anybody who's gotten past the initial "gee, this is kinda hard to use" aspect of Linux and actually used it for a significant period of time complain about it, other than say what features they want in it? Personally, I've never heard of anybody running Linux for a significant amount of time and realizing that Windows was better and switching back (well... except maybe a long time ago because of hardware support.) Anybody who uses Linux for any amount of time gains a respect for the operating system and wouldn't code a virus into it. And they also wouldn't want a virus in code that they run themselves...

Matt Spong
spong@wam.umd.edu

Regarding half-lives by GlenRaphael · 1999-02-05 09:08 · Score: 1 · on Review:Year 2000 In A Nutshell

If something has a half-life of 10,000 years it's not decomposing very quickly, which means it's not producing very much radiation per unit time. The stuff which is actually worth _worrying about_ has a half-life of weeks or months or days.

Look at it another way: at least it is decomposing! We use chlorine to clean our pools and protect our drinking water but chlorine gas (and chlorine bleach, for that matter) stays poisonous just about forever.

Three Mile Island was just about the worst accident imaginable and yet no civilians were ever endangered by it. I deny the "could devastate an entire eastern state" claim; what are your assumptions there? And while you're considering worst case scenarios, compare it to a big hydroelectric dam breaking...

Check out Th e Ultimate Resource by Julian Simon. Especially the nuclear power chapter.

Regarding half-lives by GlenRaphael · 1999-02-05 09:08 · Score: 1 · on Review:Year 2000 In A Nutshell

If something has a half-life of 10,000 years it's not decomposing very quickly, which means it's not producing very much radiation per unit time. The stuff which is actually worth _worrying about_ has a half-life of weeks or months or days.

Look at it another way: at least it is decomposing! We use chlorine to clean our pools and protect our drinking water but chlorine gas (and chlorine bleach, for that matter) stays poisonous just about forever.

Three Mile Island was just about the worst accident imaginable and yet no civilians were ever endangered by it. I deny the "could devastate an entire eastern state" claim; what are your assumptions there? And while you're considering worst case scenarios, compare it to a big hydroelectric dam breaking...

Check out Th e Ultimate Resource by Julian Simon. Especially the nuclear power chapter.

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