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Slashback: Exactitude, Fortitude, Picnic

Posted by timothy on from the sanchitha dept.

Slashback tonight with another assortment of corrections, amplifications, looks backward (and even looks forward to looks backward). In this last case, it looks like you may even get fed.

You mean we have to reprint all the invitations? Reader Ian Cowley wrote with a slight correction about the end of an era:

"Your article on slashdot.org about the billionth second of the epoch is sort of (but not entirely) flawed.

Yes, UNIX systems will report 1000000000 seconds at 01:46:40 on 9th September. Which of course means the 1 billionth number will be 01:46:39.

But, these systems do not account for leap seconds. According to TAI (international atomic time), the 1 billionth second since the beginning of January 1st 1970 will occur at 01:46:17 on 9th September 2001, as 22 leap seconds have been inserted since 1970 (the first was 1972, the last 1999).

So celebrations of the 1000000000th second should be at 01:46:17, whilst 01:46:40 can be reserved for celebrating 1000000000 displayed on UNIX system clocks."

Errr ... thanks. We'll just have to start at "Unix Day, Observed."

What price the capture and humiliation of virus spreaders? JayHerrick writes: "We have posted a small bit of JSP that reports the number of times our server has been queried for a 'default.ida' page. It's stylish, it's cool, and it'll probably get Pepsi all mad at us because we ripped the Code Red logo off one of the bottles." Equally stylish, despite the name, is a small tool named codeRedNeck, described by reader mindriot thus: "As CodeRed probes port 80 of a machine, CodeRedNeck first answers on that port and then goes silent, thus forcing the worm to wait until the connection times out." He advises: "Read the original idea by Tom Liston. Heise also has more on this."

Even More Auspicious dates. No matter which date you choose to mark it, Linus' little kernel-that-could is about to mark its tenth birthday. ikluft writes:

"The "Linux10" Linux 10th anniversary picnic and BBQ will be held on Saturday, August 25 from 11AM to 6PM at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, California. Details and directions can be found at Linux10.org. If you can attend, please use the RSVP form so the organizers know how much food and soft drinks to provide (only provided if you RSVP.)

Linux10 is being organized as a family event -- bring the kids. In support of that goal, it is also a no-media event. Linux and Open Source enthusiasts who work for the media may attend and participate while off-duty.

Linux10 will gladly link to other Linux 10th anniversary events. Let us know the URLs for those events."

Reader big_drew adds: "The event is free (food, softdrinks, cds -- sorry, no free beer, but byo is ok)" and says "If you can't make it out to CA, you can still get the t-shirt (profits will be used to fund the picnic)."

Anyone want to organize a picnic in the vicinity of Knoxville, TN? :) I can bring some pasta salad and watermelon.

Ten candles all around here, too. Simon Spero writes: "As noted in http://www.w3.org/History.html, today, August 6th, is the 10th anniversary of the first public release of the CERN Web Software."

10 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How Code Red uses sockets... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    according to incidents.org and other virus websites, Code Red uses non-blocking socket connections "uses a nonblocking socket to connect to each target

    I knew we should've listened to Steve Gibson on the dangers of non-blocking sockets!

    Anonymous cowards couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

  2. Party! by genkael · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think this event dictates a party with much beer.

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    GeneralKael -- Slacker Extraordinaire
    1. Re:Party! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That would have been funnier as: "Party as in beer, or party as in Republican." -1, US Centric.

  3. Free as in speech, not beer by Swaffs · · Score: 5, Funny

    How could you have a free Linux party without free beer? Or is this just another attempt to get people to understand what the "free" in Free Software really means?

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    --
    "Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." - Homer Simpson [1F10]

  4. Re:JSP Garbage by ralmeida · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd second that -- I've now had almost 14000 attacks on my server in the last 7 days. Apart from blowing out all the logs, it has cost me about $40 in bandwidth as well. Where can I send the bill?

    Send Bill Gates to that place...

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  5. Exactitude, Fortitude, Picnic... by Nightpaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did anyone else read that as the Slashdot-endorsed opposite of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt?

    Or am I on drugs?

  6. Re:Visualizing a billion units of time... by blang · · Score: 4, Funny

    Extrapolating on that, we must expect something big to happen within the next billion milliseconds. Which is roughly 10 days from now. Anyone care to make a guess? And a billion my, micro, or microseconds after that(about 15 minutes), another major event will occur.

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    -- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
  7. Another bash ? by Fruny · · Score: 2, Funny

    So it's Mel-Bourne again, right ?

  8. I send you this bill... by Scratch-O-Matic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hi! How are you?

    I send you this bill in order to have your advice.

    See you later. Thanks.

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    Evil is the money of root.
  9. Re:Visualizing a billion units of time... by Sloppy · · Score: 4, Funny

    And about billion clock cycles ago, I was typing the word "typing."

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    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.