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I've been using Vector linux as a workstation for a while, I'm quite impressed.

It's intended as a base for home-grown distributions, installs in under 200 megs, has X, GTK, Netscape, licq, spruce, nedit ... most everything you'd want in a basic workstation, including developement tools.

The install is VERY basic, the only real options you get are "Which partition?", but not a real problem in my mind.

Check out their homepage, http://metalab.unc.edu/vectorlinux/

"We don't like the term 'beaver'. We feel that it's pejorative. We prefer to be called 'vagina squirrels'".

May 17, 2000 Dr. Fun comic.

You mean like this?
--

The software industry has a lot of similarities - in some sense we're the Hollywood or rock star business of the 90s/00s, with a certain amount more solid real-world business but a lot of flash and entertainment and popular new waves followed by newer waves or retro version of older waves. And some folks get to be Mozillionares while other folks are just banging away in their garages, hopefully having fun in the process.
VCs put up a lot of risk money in return for large chunks of the startups they support, though the balance of power is different and even an unsuccessful startup usually pays its people a decent day-job wage before it tanks, unlike an unsuccessful record album.

I've recently been reading some biographies and histories of the late-60s San Francisco-area psychedelic bands - Jefferson Airplane/**, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin. One mistake that happened with several bands is that after early successful records, their labels told them they could have unlimited studio time to work on their next project, and the bands took them up on it. This may be ok for speed metal bands or edgy punk types who want to get done quickly so they can go back to loud crowded clubs consuming aggressive drugs, but it's a bad idea for acidheads ("We were trying to get a perfect recording of the sound of thick air, so the percussionists could alternate it with the sound of thin air that we got last week, which would be a really cool effect, sort of a John Cage thing .") Analogies to followon software projects by highly creative people are left as an exercise for the reader :-)

We are losing countless numbers of books each year simply because they were printed on acid paper, and I'd argue that loss is far more substantial in the long run than the loss of performace art, but that's simply because text has a much higher thought density. I dragged some books back from my mother-in-law's house last week, and there are a lot of things only 50-60 years old that are rapidly disintegrating.

Yeah, that's my point. 60+year copyrights are a relatively new thing. See When Works Pass Into the Public Domain-- I think it gives you rough dates of when the various legislation was enacted.

Also note that I said vastly exceed. If you're really careful with keeping books, even acidic paper will last you more than 60 years. You can't say the same for CDs -- 50 or 60 years, and you're most likely SOL no matter how careful you were. And the copyrights are now a LOT longer than 50 or 60 years. Try nearly 100, or possibly even more (see earlier link)!

I'm not talking about soley recorded performance art, either. A lot of materia go on CDs now that are more commonly associated with printed matter (encylopedias, novels, even some periodicals). Let's not forget software, either.

Some material is even more ephemeral -- for example, web pages. The reason my web site is licensed as a whole under the Open Publication license is so that if someone actually cares (well, unlikely for mysite, but...), they can (legally!) save material themselves, and preserve it, even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow and my account drops with nobody to pay the bills after I'm gone.

It would be nice if the Library of Congress or someplace else would archive everything, but that isn't likely to happen. (I'm not sure how things are *supposed* to get into the LoC - are publishers supposed to submit a copy? Are congressmen responsible? (For this, not in the general case, we know they're not generally responsible!)

It used to be, at least, the responsibility of the culture/civilization as a whole to preserve and pass on such things, not the mandate of particular organizations or individuals. The bigger the civilization, the more impossible a task it is for an individual or organization anyway.

So keep on to it untill the copyright has gone (thats after 30 years btw) and make sure you are the first one to claim the rights.

If the works were published in 1964, say, the earliest they would go out of copyright would be 2059. That's more than 30 years.

For works published more recently, it's generally is the lifetime of the author + 70 years. Works of corporate authorship are under copyright for the shorter of 120 years from creation, or 96 years from publication[1].

A work published today will most likely not enter the public domain until sometime in the mid-22nd century...

...that is, assuming copyright terms are not retroactively extended again as they have been consistently over the past few decades (c.f. The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act).

Audio CDs have a lifetime of about 50 years. If people don't start making their own copies of things after they go out of distribution, very large chunks of our culture will begin dissapearing.

Excessively long copyright terms are producing the cultural equivalent of slash-and-burn agriculture[2].

[1] Gasaway, Lolly. When Works pass into the Public Domain. University of North Carolina. 1999.

[2] I am seriously considering voluntarily releasing my own works into the public domain after 14 years (the original term for copyrights) to combat this.

Good thing I'm using my trusty rusty ipchains firewalling gateway to prevent direct access to my browsing system. Vern, Vern, Vern, when will you learn, Netscape has more holes than swiss cheese?

Anyone even thinking of sending mail should read the Advocacy HOWTO, particularly the part about canons of conduct, before doing it. Moody made a lot of hay in a previous column about how rude and abusive the Linux crowd can be when he defends Microsoft.

Don't make the bad press even worse by giving him a mailbox full of fresh bile, which he can then turn into next week's column.

A thoughtful, well-reasoned response to a posting will not only provide insight for your readers, but will also increase their respect for your knowledge and abilities. - Linux Advocacy HOWTO

I taught a bit of introductory OpenGL to grad students at UNC-CH, and now I'm recycling the lessons for a 14-year-old who I'm tutoring. He is a beginning programmer.

Most introductory programming books use console I/O because it's universally available. OpenGL is pretty nearly universally available, and lets kids jump straight into graphics (2D or 3D) and animation with a minimum of fuss.

Hopefully you could buy copies of the OpenGL Programming Guide to supplement whatever textbook you are using. It's an excellent tutorial for OpenGL specifically and 3D graphics generally.

Setting up OpenGL

opengl.org

This guy is a well known Microsoft fan. He wrote a book about a year inside MS with the incredible and unironic title
I Sing the Body Electronic: A Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier . His partisan pro-MS credentials are impeccable.

This would be a good time to check out the Linux Advocacy HOWTO, before lighting up those flamethrowers.

Probably the same inbred clueless moderator that marked it as over rated.

Probably marked it as over-rated because (s)he didn't want to get marked down in meta-moderation. Although I haven't looked hard for it, this is probably a copy-and-paste, and the proper moderation could be argued to be "Redundant". (Probably afraid of "inbred clueless meta-moderators".)

Anyway, the metalab link was wrong. It can actually be found at htt p://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat /redhat-7.0beta/pinstripe/.

--

With the support of volunteers ftp site administrators, Pinstripe is available from several mirrors. The following have complete copies of Pinstripe, please use a mirror close to you:

North Carolina, USA:
ftp://metalab. unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/
http://metala b.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/beta/pins tripe/

California, USA:
ftp://ftp.sourc eforge.net/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstrip e/
http://ftp.sou rceforge.net/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/

California, USA:
ftp://ftp.kernel.org /pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://www.kernel.o rg/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Connecticut, USA:
ftp://ftp.uselinux.org/pub/redhat /beta/pinstripe/

Indiana, USA:
ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn .purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://csociety-ftp.e cn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Michigan, USA: ftp://mrhankey.bizserve.com/pub/linux/redhat/ftp.r edhat.com/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

New York, USA: ftp://ftp.ee.cornell.edu/p ub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe

Pennsylvania, USA: ftp ://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/red hat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Pennsylvania, USA: ftp://cronus.res. cmu.edu/pub/linux/ftp.redhat.com/beta/pinstripe/

Tennessee, USA: ftp://sunsite.utk.edu /pub/linux/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://sunsite.u tk.edu/ftp/pub/linux/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Australia: ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pu b/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Germany: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/mirrors /redhat.com/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Germany:
ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.d e/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://ftp.uni-bayreuth .de/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Norway: (ISO images only) ftp ://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/red hat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Peru: ftp://sajino.terra.com.p e/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Japan: ftp://ftp.kddl abs.co.jp/Linux/packages/RedHat/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/

With the support of volunteers ftp site administrators, Pinstripe is available from several mirrors. The following have complete copies of Pinstripe, please use a mirror close to you:

North Carolina, USA:
ftp://metalab. unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/
http://metala b.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/beta/pins tripe/

California, USA:
ftp://ftp.sourc eforge.net/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstrip e/
http://ftp.sou rceforge.net/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/

California, USA:
ftp://ftp.kernel.org /pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://www.kernel.o rg/pub/mirrors/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Connecticut, USA:
ftp://ftp.uselinux.org/pub/redhat /beta/pinstripe/

Indiana, USA:
ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn .purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://csociety-ftp.e cn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Michigan, USA: ftp://mrhankey.bizserve.com/pub/linux/redhat/ftp.r edhat.com/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

New York, USA: ftp://ftp.ee.cornell.edu/p ub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe

Pennsylvania, USA: ftp ://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/red hat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Pennsylvania, USA: ftp://cronus.res. cmu.edu/pub/linux/ftp.redhat.com/beta/pinstripe/

Tennessee, USA: ftp://sunsite.utk.edu /pub/linux/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://sunsite.u tk.edu/ftp/pub/linux/redhat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Australia: ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pu b/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ pub/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Germany: ftp://ftp.gmd.de/mirrors /redhat.com/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Germany:
ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.d e/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/
http://ftp.uni-bayreuth .de/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Norway: (ISO images only) ftp ://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/red hat/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Peru: ftp://sajino.terra.com.p e/pub/linux/redhat/beta/pinstripe/

Japan: ftp://ftp.kddl abs.co.jp/Linux/packages/RedHat/redhat/beta/pinstr ipe/

http://metalab.un c.edu/fplan/Aviation-HOWTO/Aviation-HOWTO-8.html

Wow. A double-dose of stupidity! :)

A) "And I see you got yourself thrown off Metalab"? Dumbass, propaganda.tilez.org just redirects to metalab.unc.edu/propaganda. We're still there, and have no intention of ever leaving. Dislodge your head from your ass and you might notice it next time you visit. From the sound of it, i'd say you visit it often.

B) You forgot to mention a link. Here's two.

PROPAGANDA (MetaLab)

PROPAGANDA (Tilez.org)

Have a nice day!


Bowie J. Poag

I know the feeling. The most important thing you can do, as the previous poster said, is disable everything network-related that you don't need right now. Comment everything out in /etc/inetd.conf, add a line "ALL: ALL" to /etc/hosts.deny (thus denying access to many network services by default), and turn off every daemon that you don't know what it is (don't worry, you most likely won't break anything), probably by removing entries from /etc/rc.d/. Then, check out Mandrake's updates regularly for reports of any software with security holes, and upgrade or remove that software.

That's the easy (and most important) part. Then, you can install a kernel-level packet filter (ipchains, iptables) to block all suspicious packets, and install and use ssh rather than telnet and ftp, which are incredibly insecure (anybody nearby with a packet sniffer can compromise your system). Finally, 'chmod 755' all suid root programs (their permissions start with "-rws", and they are often used to gain root from a normal account) from /usr/bin and /usr/sbin, though this is not really so important for a single-user machine.

Once you've done all that, your system is rather tight. Always stay paranoid, though, and regularly install security patches and read your logs as often as possible. You can then re-enable services as you learn how to configure them properly. Also check out the linux security HOWTO, though it mostly says what I just said (but is much more wordy :).

That said, the Project Gutenberg link for this book is here.

Always thought it would make a comeback....

[NOT]

If you lack the alphanumeric knowledge to type like a script kiddie, you can now summon the vast powers of the Internet to immediately transform yourself into one of the chosen few.

Ah, there it is....

Enjoy. And use your powers wisely. :)

w/m

The last thing I need to have to deal with is coming home from the lab only to find the parrot, that I plan on buying, has downloaded 1 gig worth of parrot porn.

You mean like this?

In my other work-life, I decided that I could help to contribute to a more focused news site myself. Thanks to the wonders of the Linux-led revolution, I now do.

The greatest benefit of this type of new media is really the ability to exclude all sorts of information that you don't want to hear/know about/care about. Of course, relying on this media source also means that you are running some risk of not getting news that is otherwise important to you but that you excluded based on your chosen filter, but that's a risk regardless.

Vive la revolucion!
--

It's worse than that. Almost nothing has expired since 1923. See WHEN WORKS PASS INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN at http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Please read the post directly above yours or go to " hello operator -- at anonymous ftp site".
:)

http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/pea nut/pkgs /OFFICE-SUITES/STAR-OFFICE-SUITE/Star-Office-5.2.t ar.bz2

I just love 1337 W4R3Z!

Enjoy.

-----

Another recon report from the Troll Patrol.

Heh, you mean we might actually see this? ;-)

I really don't care for their choices at all. A lot of them are more like general approaches than algorthms, and I'm not at all sure they are the most influential. I think they are supposed to be "the cleverest of the common fancy methods"

Simple algorithms for common problems are much more widely used, and have far more impact and influence, but try telling *them* that!

I hope these links help. (Warning: many are technical) If anyone has personal favorites that are less dry than many of these, please post!.

10. 1987: Fast Multipole Method. A breakthrough in dealing with the complexity of n-body calculations, applied in problems ranging from celestial mechanics to protein folding. [Overview] [A math/visual approach]

9. 1977: Integer Relation Detection. A fast method for spotting simple equations satisfied by collections of seemingly unrelated numbers. [Nice article with links]

8. 1965: Fast Fourier Transform. Perhaps the most ubiquitous algorithm in use today, it breaks down waveforms (like sound) into periodic components. Everyone knows this one (or should) [Part II of my personal favorite FFT and wavelet tutorial]

7. 1962: Quicksort Algorithms for Sorting. For the efficient handling of large databases. [Definition][Basic Method][Mathworld][More technical explanation][A lecture with animations and simulations]

6. 1959: QR Algorithm for Computing Eigenvalues. Another crucial matrix operation made swift and practical. [Math] [Algorithm

5. 1957: The Fortran Optimizing Compiler. Turns high-level code into efficient computer-readable code. (pretty much self-explanatory) [History and lots of info]

4. 1951: The Decompositional Approach to Matrix Computations. A suite of techniques for numerical linear algebra. [matrix decomposition theorem] [Strategies]

3. 1950: Krylov Subspace Iteration Method. A technique for rapidly solving the linear equations that abound in scientific computation. [History] [various Krylov subspace iterative methods]

2. 1947: Simplex Method for Linear Programming. An elegant solution to a common problem in planning and decision-making. [English} [Explanation with Java simulator] [An interactive teaching tool

1. 1946: The Metropolis Algorithm for Monte Carlo. Through the use of random processes, this algorithm offers an efficient way to stumble toward answers to problems that are too complicated to solve exactly. [English] [Code and Math] [Math explained]

I really don't care for their choices at all. A lot of them are more like general approaches than algorthms, and I'm not at all sure they are the most influential. I think they are supposed to be "the cleverest of the common fancy methods"

Simple algorithms for common problems are much more widely used, and have far more impact and influence, but try telling *them* that!

I hope these links help. (Warning: many are technical) If anyone has personal favorites that are less dry than many of these, please post!.

10. 1987: Fast Multipole Method. A breakthrough in dealing with the complexity of n-body calculations, applied in problems ranging from celestial mechanics to protein folding. [Overview] [A math/visual approach]

9. 1977: Integer Relation Detection. A fast method for spotting simple equations satisfied by collections of seemingly unrelated numbers. [Nice article with links]

8. 1965: Fast Fourier Transform. Perhaps the most ubiquitous algorithm in use today, it breaks down waveforms (like sound) into periodic components. Everyone knows this one (or should) [Part II of my personal favorite FFT and wavelet tutorial]

7. 1962: Quicksort Algorithms for Sorting. For the efficient handling of large databases. [Definition][Basic Method][Mathworld][More technical explanation][A lecture with animations and simulations]

6. 1959: QR Algorithm for Computing Eigenvalues. Another crucial matrix operation made swift and practical. [Math] [Algorithm

5. 1957: The Fortran Optimizing Compiler. Turns high-level code into efficient computer-readable code. (pretty much self-explanatory) [History and lots of info]

4. 1951: The Decompositional Approach to Matrix Computations. A suite of techniques for numerical linear algebra. [matrix decomposition theorem] [Strategies]

3. 1950: Krylov Subspace Iteration Method. A technique for rapidly solving the linear equations that abound in scientific computation. [History] [various Krylov subspace iterative methods]

2. 1947: Simplex Method for Linear Programming. An elegant solution to a common problem in planning and decision-making. [English} [Explanation with Java simulator] [An interactive teaching tool

1. 1946: The Metropolis Algorithm for Monte Carlo. Through the use of random processes, this algorithm offers an efficient way to stumble toward answers to problems that are too complicated to solve exactly. [English] [Code and Math] [Math explained]

You're not forced to repartition your drive in order to have a runing linux. See Loopback Root FS Mini Howto. I don't pretend it's easy, but it's even technically feasible to have a distro installing that way.

After doing a quick web search on his name, Mr. Konrad seems rather interested in patents and copyright in general. Here is a posting that I found interesting: http://www.metalab.unc.edu/patent s/txt/111593.txt

I don't know what this patent is that he wrote in about, but maybe he was inspred and set out to file an equally obvious patent...
From the posting: "The most likely reaction is going to be disbelief -- 'How could anyone patent something like that?' "

zsazsa

Take a look at
Small Linux: http://smalllinux.netpedia.net
Vector Linux: http://metalab.unc.edu/vectorlinux/
Green Frog Linux: http://members.linuxstart.com/~aus tin/GreenFrog/
muLinux: http://sunsite.auc.dk/mulinux/
ThinLinux: http://www.ThinLinux.org/
But there's at least one additional project to provide a Linux distro to the 3rd world. If I could only recall the name right now... (oldering sucks)

SWTPc

UniFlex

Lemonade Stand!!

Apple ][ history

I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it friend.

Folks, mod this guy up another for me!

More detail: Python is an object-oriented language built as such from the ground up, un like C++ which is none the less derived from C and has less syntactical conformity (and I say this where my only difference with the above statement is that I perfer C++ slightly over Python, though Python is a close second.) Not only that, but Python is a great numeric language with native Ultra-Long integer type and a complex number module build in. With the LLNL PyNum Numeric Extensions. Couldn't find a good implementation of the Gamma function over the set of Complex numbers, but I guess your youngins' ern't inta that yet. :)

Another possility if you wanna get retro is do what I and doubtless you did: teach them on the C64! That is, get one of the variety of C64 emulators on the net and let them programme their hearts out in Basic. The great thing about the C64 is that because it uses PET/ASCII with all those graphics character in the characters with the MSB high so it's pretty easy to use graphics without having to use MoveTo, LineTo and the DC (if you do go the Windows route -- though so far all I've suggested exists in Linux-port form and I don't recommend teaching X-Motif just yet! :) The point is, it's much more WYSIWYG and really easy to come up with some cool stuff. For instance, I wrote a character editor for the C64 which was quite a fun project. The advantage is that the entire operating system is Basic so you have to be a programmer from the beginning just to use it. :) Disadvantage: it's a Proceedural, not on OOP language.

A good list of available emulators can be found at http://commodore64.net/emulators/

The other thing I would strongly recomend is Logo. Logo is graphics and geometry application in which the user controls a 'turtle' by simple geometric commands. This is a great tool for learning the [most] basic principals of Graphics which I'm sure your kids will be most interested in because of their love for games. They can use it to draw their own pictures using basic proceedural programming techniques such as loops and recursion.

You can get an MS Windows version of Logo at: http://www.softronix.com/logo.html.

You could also download a Linux port of the Berkley Logo Software from this University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill software archive though you may need to check out Steve Bakers' Software Page if you have any problems with the port.

Anyway, Python DOES have a pretty good graphics library and with TCL/TK you could even teach them a bit about interface design and with PIL you've got Graphics so that's just about everything. Anyway, at least I would choose one or more of those three options and make sure in time they should try to learn them all.

One last note I should make is it's you be very helpful to their overall understanding of programming and logic if they could learn at least one rule-based language down the road, such as Scheme (thank you Professor Romanik! :).

Be Seeing You,

Jeffrey.

Lolly Gassaway's chart "When Works Pass into the Public Domain" can be found in several places on the web. One of these is:

http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

The text filters you're thinking about probably come from the GNU Talkfilters package. You can get them here.

The 'guts' of the Dialectizer sound very much like the GNU Talkfilters package.

Basically, the Talkfilters process standard input, translating it into Jive, Chef, ValleyGirl, Redneck, etc. by doing string substitution. The whole thing is built using flex, so it shouldn't be too hard to add other dialects as needed.

Build a web-based form, use a CGI script and wget to download the requested page, then pipe it through the appropriate filter.

You might need to add a bit of intelligence so that you don't accidentally dialectize the HTML tags, and handle frames (etc). Also, don't forget: security security security.

Most of the bits and pieces are already written--all that's needed is for somebody to tie it all together and host it.

The 'guts' of the Dialectizer sound very much like the GNU Talkfilters package.

Basically, the Talkfilters process standard input, translating it into Jive, Chef, ValleyGirl, Redneck, etc. by doing string substitution. The whole thing is built using flex, so it shouldn't be too hard to add other dialects as needed.

Build a web-based form, use a CGI script and wget to download the requested page, then pipe it through the appropriate filter.

You might need to add a bit of intelligence so that you don't accidentally dialectize the HTML tags, and handle frames (etc). Also, don't forget: security security security.

Most of the bits and pieces are already written--all that's needed is for somebody to tie it all together and host it.

The 'guts' of the Dialectizer sound very much like the GNU Talkfilters package.

Basically, the Talkfilters process standard input, translating it into Jive, Chef, ValleyGirl, Redneck, etc. by doing string substitution. The whole thing is built using flex, so it shouldn't be too hard to add other dialects as needed.

Build a web-based form, use a CGI script and wget to download the requested page, then pipe it through the appropriate filter.

You might need to add a bit of intelligence so that you don't accidentally dialectize the HTML tags, and handle frames (etc). Also, don't forget: security security security.

Most of the bits and pieces are already written--all that's needed is for somebody to tie it all together and host it.

What the librarian is saying is that there is absolutely no privacy - they keep a casual eye on whatever a patron happens to be doing at the computer.

Think about it. This is like someone wandering around after you in the library, monitoring what books you're interested in. This is a crummy policy. Most libraries have policies that are quite different - specifically saying they do NOT monitor and will NOT give out any identifying information about what people are doing with the Internet.

You can come up with your own ideas about the risks of having a easily visible screen on your Internet terminal (even if you're not doing anything questionable). Or, if you want some help, check out my paper: Information Security in Libraries (sorry, it's in RTF format so you need to download and convert).

• Greg (teaches librarians in the gentle arts of geekdom)

What the librarian is saying is that there is absolutely no privacy - they keep a casual eye on whatever a patron happens to be doing at the computer.

Think about it. This is like someone wandering around after you in the library, monitoring what books you're interested in. This is a crummy policy. Most libraries have policies that are quite different - specifically saying they do NOT monitor and will NOT give out any identifying information about what people are doing with the Internet.

You can come up with your own ideas about the risks of having a easily visible screen on your Internet terminal (even if you're not doing anything questionable). Or, if you want some help, check out my paper: Information Security in Libraries (sorry, it's in RTF format so you need to download and convert).

• Greg (teaches librarians in the gentle arts of geekdom)

• pooling of very unlike data - that is mixing apple and oranges of communites in such a way that individual creators of smaller projects are mixed with sophistocated complex projects like Apache and the kernel
  
• inconsistant data gathering - as pointed out in other messages, whilst claiming to represent everything a collection of over 4K projects is missing (LSM projects which we looked at)
  
• gross analysis of data - that is not trying to understand what data means what as that licenses are mixed with authors
  
• more is more fallacy. that is saying that "we counted a lot, so we learned a lot" smart and focused sampling is always better and tells you more
  
• gotta read more to tell you more
  

on the other hand, the collection of the data -- if it can be arranged in some meaningful manner and then processed in a reasonable way that will yield thoughtful conclusions -- is no small task and rishab and his associates should be applauded for the hard work they did on that portion of the project. i, for one, would be glad to work with them to try to pull out some meaningful reports from their well-meaning but, i think, misfiring project.

Paul Jones

• pooling of very unlike data - that is mixing apple and oranges of communites in such a way that individual creators of smaller projects are mixed with sophistocated complex projects like Apache and the kernel
  
• inconsistant data gathering - as pointed out in other messages, whilst claiming to represent everything a collection of over 4K projects is missing (LSM projects which we looked at)
  
• gross analysis of data - that is not trying to understand what data means what as that licenses are mixed with authors
  
• more is more fallacy. that is saying that "we counted a lot, so we learned a lot" smart and focused sampling is always better and tells you more
  
• gotta read more to tell you more
  

on the other hand, the collection of the data -- if it can be arranged in some meaningful manner and then processed in a reasonable way that will yield thoughtful conclusions -- is no small task and rishab and his associates should be applauded for the hard work they did on that portion of the project. i, for one, would be glad to work with them to try to pull out some meaningful reports from their well-meaning but, i think, misfiring project.

Paul Jones

Very unfair. The term "lie" indicates that I was deliberately misinforming people. That is certainly not true. I was using the term that the people I've seen talk about this Linux feature use. I will admit I have not spent the time to really understand "capabilities" or "privileges".

You are welcome to cite references to your distinction between "privileges" and "capabilities".

A few links:

Pavel's capabilities page

Linux Weekly News listing of Linux capabilities as of 2.2.13.

Secure-programs-how to contains a lot of security related information, including references to the POSIX standards. The POSIX information looks a little dated though.

This link from kernel-traffic indicates that there are several different concepts of what "capabilites" are, and gives some details about what each style consists of.

Let me be clear, I don't know much about capabilities, but I know that they are talked a LOT about on lkml. Simply calling me a liar and saying that it's "privileges" not "caps" doesn't really help educate anyone.

Link Here.

Heh, on a related topic anyone read today's (Monday's) Dr. Fun?

Noam Chomsky Political Texts Online: Noam Chomsky's a professor of linguistics at MIT, and has been writing about the effects of capitalism on democracy for over 20 years.

The Left Business Observer: A hard look at the messages of capitalism's cheerleaders, from an analytical economist's point of view. Plenty of charts and graphs.

Stay Free! Magazine: A zine focusing on commercialism and consumer culture. Slashdot readers will probably enjoy the mean iMac ad parody on the front page.

Francis Hwang

But it didn't get changed since 1996 it seems.
Something like that would be very useful,
with some more basic theory explained.

-- chrisse

Is the user "Deven" so stone cold stupid that he falls for the "IT Consultant" troll bait?

It doesn't matter one bit that it was troll bait. Adding irrelevant stuff to the kernel is a bad idea, and even a troll could get other people thinking that maybe it's a good idea. The last thing we need is thousands of people clamoring to put every application into the kernel. (Sure, they wouldn't be heeded, but it would be a distraction nonetheless.)

Or is the user "Deven" actually a sophisticated troll herself?

Bzzt. Wrong on both counts: (1) I'm not trolling, and (2) I'm male.

On \., who can tell?

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." (Or a program that can pass a Turing test?)

It occurs to me that CoS is really just a big ongoing science fiction MUD that will eventually incorporate XENU. Perhaps we could help increase CoS enjoyment by screwing the flying saucer attachment on a laser pointer and shining it in the window during a meeting,then wearing a "Bob" mask,enter the meeting declaring"I,J.R.Bob Dobbs have bargained with Xenu and have been subcontracted to save your asses from the Xists.From now on You will funnel all donations to The Subgenius Foundation". Then we'd all have donuts and i could show them my L.Ron Hubbard whoopee cushon.I bet Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson would get moist if i kept the Bob mask on and I allways wanted to do her.

I noticed in the comments section there is a claim that GNU GRUB never had that problem. Has anyone used GRUB? I am interested in knowing if LILO has any advantages over it. I'm not trying to start a flame war, but I have noticed that LILO and loadlin seem to be the boot loaders of choice among the HOWTOS.

According to the grub page, grub isn't publicly available. Only alphas are--can an alpha bootloader really be better than LILO? (which is more established) Is there any meat to this guys comment?