Slashback: Dell, 800, Disclosure

Slashback this evening brings you an update on the (departed, or departing) Bleem; an open letter from Dell on Linux support for some of its line; another creative way to fight spam; and some gaming updates for everyone whose thumbs still function.

Spinning so had they can feel it in Ft. Worth. L-Wave writes: "This Story is running on linux.com. Apparently Dell has written an open letter toLinux users. 'Dell has published an open letter to its Linux customers "clarifying" its position as regards the insurgent OS. Actually, the letter is headed "Clarifying Dell and Linux," but either of these would be a massive task, and we think we know what they meant to say.'"

Please note that all Dell is saying here is that they will load customer-specified software at the factory -- it's probably convenient for some customers, but nothing new for Dell. In the case of software with expensive licenses, it means some simplified paperwork. With Free software, it just means convenience. The letter is therefore rather lukewarm, but at least a lot better than refusing to install software that doesn't include a licensing markup.

Brush up on your polite conversation skills. doublem writes: "This site lists the toll-free numbers of known Spammers, so they can be called, harassed and otherwise vented against for their crimes. Something tells me the ./ crowd will like this sort of thing as evidenced by this recent article. I'd like to add 1-888-288-9043 as the number for the well-known VORTEX SUPPLIES, a collection of jerks who refuse to take me off their mailing lists." I started doing the same a few months ago, but this guy has me beat by miles, even if he doesn't list Miss Cleo's number thanks to Psychic spam that knew I'd react with a call.

Yessir, our team goes into action right after the first fortnight. jeffy124 writes "Microsoft has admitted knowledge of an IE bug a full week before a security firm announced it. Turns out sec firm Online Solutions privately informed MS of the bug Nov. 1, but MS initially said they first heard of it Nov. 9 after Online made the find public the same day. MS claims standard procedure of allowing themselves two weeks in order to make sure someone's not cryin wolf and write a patch. They also claimed that no breaches occured during that wait. MS says that Online acted responsibly in their actions, and "'apologizes for innacurate statements.'"

You mean the lawsuits didn't kill it? Far from certain conpiracy theories advanced after Bleem published their own epitaph ShadeEagle writes: "Here we find out that Sony didn't know about Bleem's death until they were asked about it. Gamespot has more relevant information as to the possible (or impossible) future of Bleem." And another gaming note: mickeyreznor writes "According to this article on CNet, Sega appears to be in good financial shape despite the trouble they've had with the dreamcast. In addition, 60 games are being planned for X-box and PS2 over the next year. Sega's future looks bright, and that can only be a good thing for gamers."

Comments

Emulation

[r.suzuka]

It upsets me personally to see the death of various console emulators. I have a friend who did work on such a project while completeing a Math degree here at the University of Tokyo. This was in 1996/7 if I remember correctly.

He released some tools such as a disassembler which while of course not for emulations, Sony did not like so much. Sony sent him an unfriendly letter and unfortunately my friend removed his tools from public access ;_;

It is especially bad since he was simply trying to assist the hobbyist PlayStation programmer. It is too bad Sony does not realize their loss.

R. Suzuka

Re:Emulation

[George Walker Bush]

Doesn't the PS just use a basic MIPS R3000-derived processor? The MIPS instruction set is not exactly a trade secret.

If the disassembler was a generic one that just dumped the MIPS instructions out, and otherwise did not use Sony intellectual property, I don't see how Sony could have a legal leg to stand on?

Too late Dell ... too late....

[reaper20]

Nice Try Dell,

A buddy of mine bought 5 rackmount servers with cabinet and a kit to convert his company's current server to a rackmount.

We had to call Dell multiple times and sit through at least half a dozen nested menu options (the dead end ones that force you to hang up suck) trying to get the bundled Red Hat deal with them. Half of the reps didn't even know they offered linux, this is from the server people mind you. And then, come to find, the linux options are just as expensive as the windows options, if not more.

"No, I want Linux, I don't want you to email me information about win2k advanced server." Say that a few dozen times. sigh.

So, the poor wretch bought the Red Hat 7.1 package "specialy certified to run on Dell hardware" for $150.

When the servers arrrives he gets the cardboad box for RH7.1 (no cover, so you can't even put it on a shelf to look cool), and NO STICKERS. Oh yeah, a photocopied sheet of instructions for installing Redhat.

Dell buys Red Hat, and then jacks up the price, THEY COULD HAVE AT LEAST GIVEN US THE DAMN REDHAT STICKERS!!

Don't let any of these OEMs try to kiss up and say that they support linux, and they are doing everything they can to help the community blah blah ... This letter is a reaction to the bad karma that they got from "he Register Cable Select Debacle"

So far, IBM is the only large company that is doing a damn to help Linux. At least HP was smart enough to say "We don't know shit about Linux or their community, let's hire Bruce Perens...."

Re:Too late Dell ... too late....

[Crispy Critters]

Why does Dell bother to offer Linux at all if they are going to give it such lousy support? I think it is because of the deals that they have with businesses and institutions.

I have a Dell on my desk which was bought with Linux on it (actually, they sent it to me with a blank hard drive, but that is a different story). Why? Because if I had bought a machine from one of the many vendors that sell Linux boxes, I would have had to file Selection of Source paperwork, get references for the vendors, et cetera. With Dell, all I had to do was get a web quote and send it to purchasing. Their mediocre Linux support was just barely sufficient to not drive me to another vendor.

Note that they flat-out refuse to sell hardware with Linux installed to an individual consumer. Why? They charge more for Linux than for Windoze, so the profit margin is higher. The only possible reason is (dare I say it?) anti-competitive marketing agreements with MS. Pure speculation on my part, of course.

Re:Too late Dell ... too late....

[TheLinuxWarrior]

I have to throw in my .02 cents on this one. I've bought many Dell servers with Redhat preloaded on them. All I got was the OS CDs, but that was all that I needed. I blew them away and reinstalled fresh anyway.

I think you're missing the bigger picture here. Where this counts is that you can call and get server support from someone who is trained on Dell servers running linux. You don't get that when you're running build your own crap at some mom and pop company.

And finally, if it really bothers you THAT much that you didn't get stickers, mail Redhat and ask for them, or get an eBay account and buy a Redhat box for $5 and toss everything but the stickers.

reverse engineering

[Doppler00]

I never understand why companies would discourage university students reverse engineering and learning about there product. If anything, Sony should make technical documents more public so that people could learn more about there systems and be more inclined to program on Sony's platform than a competitors.

The most noble thing for Bleem to do...

[George Walker Bush]

It would be to freely release Bleem source code and contribute it to the public, or at least one of the many open-source PS emulation projects, since none of the open-source ones out there are in any sort of viable state now, for the most part.

pre-paid toll free lines

[rabbits77]

My understanding is that spammers usually pre-pay for their 1-800 lines with a flat fee. That way they can get any number of calls for a finite period of time and not worry about anti-spammers ringing them constantly and driving up their bill. Any substantiation/refutation of this?

PSU/MIPS CPU and emulation thereof

[i_am_nitrogen]

This has been said many times before, but yes. The Playstation does have a MIPS-based CPU. It uses the mipsel instruction set (iirc) to be exact. PS-One's CPU is 33MHz, while the PS2's CPU is 297MHz. Numerous MIPS emulators exist, as do numerous PS-One emulators. The main challenge in emluating a Playstation is probably the sound and graphics processors. The PS2 GFX/CPU/sound system, called the Emotion Engine, is really a collection of different stock SGI CPUs, with a little Sony tweaking, all wrapped up into one. MIPS CPUs are faster than x86 CPUs of two or three times the clock speed, which is why the PlayStation2 at 297MHz is faster than the X-Box at 733MHz.

As for the disassembler question, if it in fact simply dumped MIPS instructions of hobbyists programs there would be no way for Sony to pursue legal action because the MIPS/mipsel instruction set is open. However, if the tool could be used to reverse-engineer games written for the console, Sony could have grounds for a lawsuit.

Re:why anti-MS?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a kernel developer at the world's largest computer company. (No, not MS.) If a customer has a showstopper bug, that thing flies through tech support and lands on my desk. I fix it NOW. Overtime? Holiday? Too freakin' bad. Now means NOW. If one of my customers' big retail backend databases crashes on black Friday due to my networking code, I won't be sleeping off the Thanksgiving triptophan. I'll be at work, hacking. The only way it might take a while is if it isn't easily traceable to a particular component.

In the case of a well-documented application security hole, there's no excuse for not passing it to the owner immediately.

"Vortex Supplies"

[mrsam]

This one is actually the latest sock puppet of scumbag Sam Khuri, the "Benchmark Print Supply" spambag.

As "Benchmark Print Supply", Khuri nearly went to jail for spewing out of his spamhole, and is really under a court order that prohibits him from spamming. He's just hoping that nobody would notice that it's really him.

So Dell will ship boxes with Linux?

[Guppy06]

That's nice. Now if only they let consumers have the option of not having to have one of those damned crappy Conexant winmodems. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if those machines with Linux installed still have said winmodems in them...

one more idea how to hit those spamming idiots

[dee why]

The problem as I see it: many people hate spam (especially sysadmin types like myself), but lack the time to hunt down and kill those idiots one-by-one.

The proposal: make a central database of 800 numbers,e-mail addresses and websites advertised through spam (rather big I figure). Then, anytime you get annoyed (about 10 times per day probably) by a spammer, first report the contact details and then run a script that randomly grabs say 100 email addresses from the database and sends loads of crap to them. Do the same with 800 numbers and website forms. If we get 10000 angry sysadmins sending loads of random crap or just angry letters to poor souls who decided to advertise through spam we may quickly make them get some clue and stop annoying us.

Of course, reasonable filters are mandatory - e.g. an 800 number gets added to the database only after 10 people from different subnets report it.