Slashback: Journaling, Batting, Securing

Slashback tonight with stuff to chew on re: XFS, the baseball-Everquest connection, and whether it's safe to login at SourceForge. Oh, and yet more on the state of HAL. Please read safely.

XFS on track Have no fear for XFS at present! Thanks to Steve Lord, Principal Engineer, Filesystem Software at SGI (no relation), for the following positive news about journaling file systems for GNU/Linux systems:

splord writes "I just became aware of the slashdot posting based on email I send to the XFS linux list yesterday and I want to clarify a couple of points.

1. Linuxcare was not 'sponsoring' the port, SGI was paying Linuxcare for work on the port. This contract was terminated by SGI and Linuxcare management, all the technical people involved wanted it to continue. I believe it was financial considerations on the part of both companies which resulted in the termination of the contract.

2. SGI is not stopping work on the port, but reduced headcount will change how fast we can respond to questions and problems.

I personally remain committed to working on the port, even if at some point SGI does not. Martin Peterson of Linuxcare has also stated he will continue doing XFS work on his own time. For now however, SGI does remain committed to the port, and work will continue."

Strike Two! OakLEE writes "Following up on last weeks article about the Everquest grudge between baseball players Curt Schilling and Doug Glanville, ESPN put this article in which Schilling accused Glanville of "slanderous lies being spewn, about the kind-hearted (computer) dwarf of mine. Stout and strong, yet gentle is he. But he will not allow his good name to be dragged through the mud by a reckless goof of a Paladin." They plan a "re-match" later online this week."

It's back for a hopefully not-too-limited time! After being compromised not long ago, everyone's favorite all-in-one Open Source development site SourceForge is back up. Interesting account of how it was compromised, too. Small comfort that it had to do with a stolen password rather than a code exploit, but even small comforts feel good.

Quick, only 7 months left! mvw writes "Two interesting features on the state of AI:

• Hal's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality is an article by Douglas B. Lenant, who is working on project cyc (pronounced psyche), a huge database of common knowledge with inference system, and gives his profound opinion and critique on 2001's HAL computer and how real intelligent computers should behave.

• It's 2001. Where Is HAL? is a lecture from AI legend Marvin Minsky (formats: video, mp3, transcript), who next to giving lots of funny annecdotes (e.g. what robotics and ESP have in common and why building physical robots is a stupid idea for students) talks about the state of present AI and some interesting ideas how to move on, that will be explained in detail in his upcoming book The Emotion Machine.

  His prior book Society of the Mind was about Minsky's view of the mind being the result of the workings of a lot of different mental processes. This time he focusess on the question of knowledge representation and the need to keep a bag of different ones around to be able to understand and solve problems (great dissing of neural nets, genetic algorithms and statistical methods :-)

Regards,
Marc"

Comments

j00 have been h4x0r3d

[Mike Schiraldi]

Oh well, at least i don't have to worry about things like that.

Wanna bet?

--

Stone Age insults in modern sports

[devphil]

ESPN put this article in which Schilling accused Glanville of "slanderous lies being spewn, about the kind-hearted (computer) dwarf of mine. Stout and strong, yet gentle is he. But he will not allow his good name to be dragged through the mud by a reckless goof of a Paladin."

My respect for the average ESPN baseball player just went up a very small notch.

I've just finished reading the Warlord trilogy by Bernard Cornwell. While it's set in a period (4th and 5th century) considerably older than medieval times, this article immediately reminded me of the trilogy.

One of my favorite things about the books? The insults that the (native) British and Saxon warriors trade before a battle. One of them insults an enemy's mother, and his response was, "At this moment my mother is heating cauldrons for your bones. We are in need of glue, and the bones of sheep, we are told, make the best glue."

Beats the crap outa the typical trash talk found on modern battlefields. :-)

Under Appreciated AskSlashdot

[webword]

This is your second chance, boys and girls:

What Would We Do Without SourceForge? We should really talk about this. It is no joke. If SourceForge took a dive, many folks would be screwed in a major way. What are your backup plans? I'm not joking here. Take a look at VA Linux's stock price. It doesn't look good. Sourceforge is a cost for VA Linux, no matter what they say. While it does promote Linux in general, which is good for them, it eats cash.

Oh, still don't beleive me? VA Linux posts Q3 loss, revenues down 41%. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. What happens if VA Linux takes a dive? SourceForge dies. However, beforeVA dies, it will kill SourceForge to save money. That's no FUD, child.

Money makes the software world go around and around. Microsoft continues to dominate. Bill Gates and Microsoft have had an amazing decade and plenty of good fortune, and there is no sign their joy ride will stop. A viable financial model for Open Source must rise. Someone needs to figure out how OpenSource and capitalism can catalyze each other.

Forget about Micro$oft in all of this. What is the business model for the entire movement? Forget about Linux or BSD or Apache. What can the OpenSource movement do that will generate gobs and gobs of cash?

I keep bringing this topic up, and I still am left wanting more. No good answers come from my questions. OpenSource just feels too much like socialism and brotherly love and sharing. Forget about the group hug, people! Where is the cash? Where are the OpenSource Capitalist Pigs?