Slashback: Quiesence, Jazz, RAND

Welcome to Slashback for 20011018 -- read below for an update on Code Red (is Red Dead?), RAND patents in Web standards (some semi-good news on that front), the sad death of some MIDI software, and an upgrade for Thailand.

Please write your elected W3C representative. haplo21112 writes "The W3C has posted a next-steps comment on the mailing list for the Patent Policy Frame Work proposal.

It announces among other things that two Open Source People have been added to the working group as Invited experts, Eben Moglen (General Counsel, Free Software Foundation) and Bruce Perens (Co-Founder of the Open Source Initiative). They have also announced a home page for the Working Group at: http://www.w3.org/2001/ppwg/

Especially interesting is the Second Objection noted on the page from IBM, where basically they are revealed as one of the drivers of the proposal. They grumble about RF and pretty much say they would vastly prefer RAND."

You'd like to think so, eh? ColaMan writes: "Is CodeRed finally dead? I've had a counter on my webserver (yay apache!) that tracks attempts, but since the start of the month only 1 lone attempt has been logged on our permanent IP dialup connection (and that was just overnight). This compares to 2490 attempts for August and 931 for September. Nimda still seems to be plodding along though - I've had 159 unique ip's so far this month and 466 for September. Knowing that my IP address is in some bandwidth-forsaken backwater of the internet, I was wondering how things were going CodeRed-wise in the Real Internet?"

I forget -- does the M stand for "Microsoft," or "Macintosh"? An Anonymous Coward writes: "Remember this story from last Tuesday asking about audio applications on linux? Today the Jazz++ mailinglist declared jazz++ dead (find the message here). While not the perfect midi sequencer, jazz++ is robust and GPL'd. Since jazz++ only appeared twice in the postings (each moderated at +1 ...) related to the earlier story, it would seem this fine product has low visibility among the /. crowd. The only viable GNU/Linux midi solution died the same week ./ had a call for audio solutions on Linux. Gotta love irony..."

From Bundesrat to Bangkok Germany may be considering it, but Thailand is doing them one better. TheMMaster writes "According to this article on newsbytes, the Thai government will switch to open-source software, linux on the desktop, StarOffice. This is a nice example of OSS, and probably why a lot of people contribute, to help people (OK and for fun)"

As usual, the actual developers float high above the flames on their behalf. Yep, KDE is 5 years old -- and fm6 writes: "A nice contrast to the usual GNOME-versus-KDE flamage: the users of news.gnome.org wish KDE a happy 5th birthday." Remember, the flame wars you see about these two projects have little to do with the fact that both have already created killer desktops, and are continuing to do so faster than human beings should be allowed to travel.

Comments

Code Red

[ogesII]

Over the last 3 days my site has been receiving one Code Red hit per day. The interesting this is that the original 'N' padding is being used again similar to CR1. Prior to this I hadn't had a hit since Sep. 30th.

Nimda is still going like made but at a much reduced pace. 8 unique hosts 423 hits today. I sure wish it would give up after the first GET and it realizes I'm not running IIS. I'm about to start dynamically updating my IPTables

Re:Code Red

[jsveiga]

Code Red II killed (sterilized?) himself on September 30.

I've submitted an "ask Slashdot" by October 4 asking everybody to check their logs, but I was rejected.

Because Code Red I doesn't have the suicide code, it may show up again (CR2 had displaced it, but now it may come back. This is why you get NNNNNN again).

Although it stopped spawning, it does leave the backdoor installed. Unfortunately it does not "announce" it anymore.

Just when I was having fun... I hope CR1 gets back in the top parade.

jazz is not dead, and its not the only or best

[paulbd]

MusE is a more powerful, more appealing, more actively developed MIDI editor and sequencer than Jazz or Jazz++ ever was. And besides, Jazz is not dead. The message is simply one user expressing their concerns, which although they may be realistic, are not definitive.

Re:jazz is not dead, and its not the only or best

[Anonymous Coward]

http://freshmeat.net/ pointed me to http://muse.seh.de/

The 'M'

[sheetsda]

I forget -- does the M stand for "Microsoft," or "Macintosh"?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this question, but the M in MIDI stands for "Musical". Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

Re:die MIDI die

[awful]

MIDI is a standard for getting electronic instruments (hardware e.g. samplers, synths, sequencers, sound modules, drum machines etcetera) to talk to each other.

MIDI is one of the best things to happen to music in years - a couple of decades ago the manufacturers all sat down and agreed to standards, so that you can buy a Roland synth, drive it with a Yamaha sequencer, and hook up a Korg sampler, and make music. The file sizes are tiny, but powerful.

If you think MIDI is just the rinky dink tunes you sometimes hear on websites/PC's, you are probably confusing their/your poor hardware (soundcard) with MIDI.

IBM objections not that nasty...

[Jetifi]

...comparatively speaking. For those of you who didn't read it, one of their objections is that while anyone involved in making the standard might potentially be forced to declare RF licensing, someone who keeps quiet during the standard's formulation but owns a patent on essential parts of the standard, can license under RAND or whatever else, as they didn't take part in the process.

While that is a problem, it doesn't negate the idea of RF. There were three other objections - but they're half legalese, and IANAL... :-)

Obviously you arent a musician..

[hebertrich]

MIDI is a most important tool for composers
Yeah i know if you use a sound card in a comp the sound stinls.But that's not what it's for either.Normally the sequencer is but a part of the whole.Samplers,keyboards and up to date drum machines are plugged in and produce very realistic sound.Enough for the composer to
make a classic symphony at home and to know what it sounds before he's with the whole orchestra for the first repetition.
A m shame such an important tool wasn't known Then should the community be more verbose and go ..." new cool app ...check it out .. "

Re:Recording Industry go Linux?

[stux]

You might not realise this, but Windows is only used by the majority of audio people in the amateur space.

Once you move into the professional space its almost totally Mac based (and VERY expensive :().

Re:Recording Industry go Linux?

[Phroggy]

As a professional musician I need to use windows because that is where all the best sequencing/recording/processing technology is (yes, windows is far superior to mac for digital audio).

That's very strange, and contrary to everything I've heard from people who work in that industry. Are you saying Windows in superior to Mac for digital audio because of the applications available, or the hardware, or the operating system itself? I know that many apps that were formerly Mac-only have now been ported to additionally run on Windows, but what's not available for the Mac? As for hardware, the same hardware should work with either platform; all you need is drivers, and any company selling professional audio peripherals without Mac drivers is pretty stupid. Finally, the OS. Windows. I don't think I have to explain why Windows sucks ass.