Slashback: Membership, Quarkiness, Audioggogy

Slashback this fine tax-day evening (you did remember, right?) brings you updates on Gentoo Linux, Mike Myer's brush with the Humor Police, Microsoft's spin on the waning Hailstorm, and more. Read on for the details.

A tornado's worth of spin control. telstar writes "The Code Report is reporting that last week's story from the New York Times concerning the death of Hailstorm was not entirely accurate. A Microsoft spokesperson has stated that Microsoft is shifting from a model in which MSN was the sole operator to a model where the operation of these services is available to multiple operators."

Onan Meets Midas. daoine writes: "Reversing the outcome of an earlier argument, boston.com is reporting that MGM and New Line Cinema have reached an agreement that permits New Line to continue with the Goldmember name. It also stipulates that further satirical names must be approved by MGM."

Does dishes, saves gas, freshens your breath, cleans your pets ... Apparently, Gentoo Linux is contagious. JigSaw writes: "OSNews features an interesting review of Gentoo Linux 1.0 and they call it 'the fastest loading, fastest-operating Linux distribution to date.' Gentoo may be the fastest Linux for a workstation today, but according to the review, it still has some problems, most notably, annoying bugs. However, it still manages to score a glowing 8.2 out of 10 overall."

Reader sckevyn also points to the Gentoo PowerPC page for those equipped different.

First steps always seem small. camusflage writes "Yahoo has a story from ZDNet about TheKompany's recent release of tkcPlayer for the Zaurus, which is being billed as the first portable Ogg Vorbis player. A player for a format not many people are using on a platform even fewer people are using. Admirable, but not likely to be a commercial success."

Honey, your quark is showing. ngrier writes "As a quick follow-up to the story posted here a few days ago regarding the potential quark star, the NASA APOD today is a picture of the aforementioned star."

Comments

Oops...

[Anonymous Coward]

this fine tax-day evening (you did remember, right?)

Oh shit...

Re:Oops...

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife will be driving west to the next timezone while I do our taxes in the car. That should buy us one extra hour. Anyone else doing this, or are we completely crazy?

Re:Oops...

[red5]

You know you can do what I did.
Take the maximum you can posibly owe write a check and file an extention.
Refile later and get some money back.
In the mean time Uncle Sam hold on to your money.
He's good for it don't worry.

Re:Oops...

[Jeffery McGrew]

If you did forget, and you've got all your w-2 and such on hand, then just go to www.turbotax.com - here: http://www.quicken.com/taxes/products/#web_product s

It lets you fill out your taxes via an interactive online form that asks all the right questions and then 'E-files' a finished form for a small fee without having to leave your computer or find an all-night post office.

I have nothing to do with Quicken, i just used the service and it's great.

get crackin, geeks!

Re:Oops...

[spoonist]

Geez... I had SO much fun this morning filling out my Schedule D with the details of my huge amounts of Enron stock.

Re:Oops...

[emag]

Why not give me the check instead? Since you seem to be willing to give someone an interest-free loan, make it someone who can use it and benefit from it. :-)

Re:Oops...

[IvyMike]

Will you look at those morons! I payed my taxes over a year ago! --Homer Simpson

Re:Oops...

[dr_eaerth]

I didn't make enough money last year to have to file a return. Wheee! Thank you, George W!

Re:Oops...

[Micah]

well I just filed an extension so I can do it late at night on August 14 or 15th. :)

Re:Oops...

[Anonymous Coward]

I did make enough money, and I got a check for $300 last year for no real reason. Thank you, George W! It's not the president's fault if you are a lazy, unemployed piece of shit.

Re:Oops...

[Skuld-Chan]

No worries - I saw tax software for sale - dirt cheap down at the grocery store this evening :).

Re:Oops...

[Carnivorous Carrot]

I paid enough taxes yesterday such that if that was someone else's salary last year, they would have to pay taxes on it.

You lazy sack of shit. I feel your lazy weight on my back. Prolly some lazy socialist who wants high taxes -- for other people -- to drive society along while they sit back on welfare with a free PC and free Internet surfing for pr0n. Hey, you're not that guy who tried to get on social security disability for agoraphobia who wanted to play EverQuest all day long, eh? Eh, comrade?

Re:Oops...

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

Signed, sealed, delivered, and refunds, by January 31. 1040EZ, and 540EZ (CA). One job, no deductions, nothing special, claimed S 0 on my W-4, claimed S 1 on my forms, both refunded. =)

Re:Oops...

[Chalex]

And the small fee is waived if your income is under $25k.

AC

Re:Oops...

[rark]

or you could telefile an extension, if you do it by phone it's free (though you're supposed to estimate how much tax you'll owe and pay it, which you can do via credit card for some nominal fee. I think it's a buck. If that's significant digits to the amount you think you owe less the amount you've already paid then you can probably get away with saying you estimated lower, but hey, IANA(T)L)

Info on irs.gov

Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day...

[darkbuns]

Good luck!

Last link is f'ed up

[Anonymous Coward]

doesn't even look remotely like a valid URL.

APOD [Quark Star] URL

[jsled]

That's: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020414.html.

Attention Timothy poster of article

[Beliskner]

Honey, your quark is showing. ngrier writes "As a quick follow-up to the story posted here a few days ago regarding the potential quark star, the NASA APOD today is a picture of the aforementioned star.

Attention LINK DOES NOT WORK. Please update.

Re:Attention Timothy poster of article

[56ker]

Is this the right link?

Re:Attention Timothy poster of article

[Anonymous Coward]

clearly, you didnt try it for yourself.

the link you give has the same condition as your brain.

It's only tax day..

[56ker]

in the U.S. - ah no it isn't! *cue wailing and gnashing of teeth*

Re:It's only tax day..

[interiot]

Just curious... who else has taxes due today?

Re:It's only tax day..

[robkore]

in the U.S. - ah no it isn't! *cue wailing and gnashing of teeth*

Wow, two of my biggest pet peeves in one post. First of all, Slashdot is an American site. Deal with it, or start a slashdot.(your country code here). And damn, can't you people use the subject line for a subject and not for the first half of your first sentence? At the very least, repeat your pseudo subject in the message body. Moderate me down for being off topic or flamebait or whatever, I don't care.

Re:It's only tax day..

[(outer-limits)]

Then let's move it either to Antarctica, or space. Whoops, space won't work, thats been claimed for the US.

Re:It's only tax day..

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehe.

"Well, would you like to know what you'd be without us, the good ol' U.S. of A. to protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest fucking province in the Russian Empire, that's what."

Re:It's only tax day..

[Anonymous Coward]

> Whoops, space won't work, thats been claimed for the US.

Damned straight, and no Injuns to get in the way this time.

right URL for quark star is...

[dummkopf]

... http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020414.html

Re:Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day

[greenfly]

Eh, even if you forgot it's tax day, you can at least file for an extension which will buy you some more time. So all is not lost.

Interesting URL

[carrier lost]

http://antwrpgsfcnasagov/

Should be:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/

APOD Quark Star picture

[Plutor]

That last link should be here, and it was yesterday's picture.

Errr, what happened to the law?

[NanoGator]

"It also stipulates that further satirical names must be approved by MGM."

Since when do they need permission to use a parodized name? I thought that parody law not only allowed one to use a similar name ('Goldmember' is not THAT similar...), but also their original artwork could be closely mimicked.

Anybody remember reading about that guy who put up an 'aolsucks.com' site? AOL attempted to sue him because he used their artwork to parodize him. His lawyer said he was well within his rights because it was a pardoy/criticism of the company.

Question: Wouldn't the same logic be applied as it was for this guy, or is there a variable I'm not considering?

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[werm]

You are correct about the "Fair Use" clause of copyright law; however, I feel this agreement is more a function of time (as in conservation therein). Imagine how long MGM could delay the release of this movie tying this up in court.

WERM

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[outlier]

Keep in mind that this is not a decision that involved the legal system. The original decision was made by the MPAA, which both studios are members of. Essentially, the industry is policing itself, and both groups agreed to be bound by those decisions.

They could sue each other if they wanted, but they've settled in this way.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[Otter]

My IANAL-ish understanding is that the movie is in the gray area where parody ends and copying begins. If Mad does a "Goldmember" parody, that's clearly protected. A straight-up James Bond knock-off called "Goldmember" would be infringement. Austin Powers movies strike me as being on the parody side of the fence but the fact that they're movies, and that they're not unrelenting satires like Spaceballs or American Jedi might put them too close to the edge to take chances.

That, by the way, is why the "It's a parody!" claims you always see here, when an open-source project blatantly infringes on the name of the commercial product it clones, are nonsense.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[Kierthos]

In other words, they gave up rights they would normally have as well.

Kierthos

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't the same logic be applied as it was for this guy, or is there a variable I'm not considering?

Yes, two:

• Expense of lawsuit.
• Inter-corporate relations.

The suit had no real merit in law but it would have cost New Line money both for the lawyers and for the delay in release of the movie. The latter was probably the larger incentive for MGM to file suit and for New Line to give in. As reading articles on Slashdot for the past few years can teach you, lawsuits (from patent, copyright, et al) are a powerful weapon regardless of their merit. Also, entertainment corporations generally like to maintain some semblance of good relations with each other in case of future collaboration.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[outlier]

Sort of... MGM and New Line joined a club (MPAA). One of the rules of the club is that you can sort out disagreements within the club.

MGM convinced the club to rule against New Line. However, MGM also said that wouldn't have a problem with New Line if New Line would do MGM some favors.

At any point, New Line could've said "Screw you, these are our rights. You're not the boss of me." and refused to abide by the MPAAs initial ruling. At that point, MGM could have sued New Line (And probably lost), wasting valuable $$, raising anamosity within the industry, and possibly establishing a(nother) precedent that could come back and bite New Line on the ass when someone else tried to use a New Line-like title for their film. Instead, New Line (probably) agreed to show some MGM trailers before the film, and MGM agreed to let them use the title.

On one hand we have an industry group making the Wrong Decision (TM) initially in supporting MGM's petition against New Line. That's bad.

But on the other hand, we have an industry group policing itself -- not relying on the legal system to resolve disputes. That's not that bad.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[Kierthos]

True, anything that keeps the bloodsucking lawyers from making yet another buck is a good thing. It's a sad tendency when the first reaction in damn near any potential conflict (at least here in the States) is to call the lawyers.

Kierthos

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[HD Webdev]

Yes, AOL went after David Cassell 5 or so years ago. Since Mr Cassell wasn't trying to pass of his pages as official AOL ones, the logos stayed...for a while (most are gone now)

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[Servo5678]

Sort of... MGM and New Line joined a club (MPAA). One of the rules of the club is that you can sort out disagreements within the club.

First rule of Film Club: Do not talk about Film Club.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[pisdtal]

--Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.--

Yeah what he said

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[JosefK]

Who do you think negotiated the agreement between the studios? Lawyers, that's who.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[RedWizzard]

My understanding (and this is all rumor - I have no supporting evidence) is that MGM and New Line restarted talks over "Goldmember" after New Line got MPAA approval for four other titles:

• "Live and Let Shag",
• "You Only Shag Thrice",
• "License to Shag", and my personal favourite:
• "Never Say Member Again".

It's also possible that the success of Fellowship of the Ring has made MGM much more receptive to the proposed trailer swap deal.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[meggito]

Or, you have one media group sueing hte other right as their movie is coming out, and forcing them to accept their agreement, or that movie will not be coming out as Goldmember. The choice was settle with something reasonable, delay the movie, or go in and change a shitload of good material. Yes, its good that they can come to an understanding, no, its bad that MGM used timing to FORCE them into an agreement.

Re:Errr, what happened to the law?

[youngerpants]

I think its terrible... would be like calling an open source OS Lindows :)

.NET

[Supa Mentat]

When I first read about .NET and MS's philosophy with it (i.e. what hailstorm was supposed to be and what it's acceptance would accomplish) it terrified me. Now hailstorm is dead as we knew it and the threat it posed is (seemingly) gone. My question is: now that Hailstorm is not a factor, are there still any risks for the internet and software communities(both open and closed) assossiated with taking up the .NET framework (barring the fact that it _is_ MS we're talking about here, obviously they've screwed people before)? I think that the idea behind the framework of .NET and what it's effects on the way things are coded (from a purely programming point of view) could be very interesting and improve software; I am also very suspiscious of any big "ideas" coming out of MS. Any thoughts?

Re:.NET

[ebyrob]

are there still any risks for the internet and software communities assossiated with taking up the .NET framework?

Yep. Security and reliability. Passport isn't so great either.

Re:.NET

[BurritoWarrior]

From the article:
"Don't confuse an expansion of the operator strategy with any kind of de-commitment from the idea of user-centric web services that help create a more personalized, more consistent experience across the different technologies in an individual's life."

Let me paraphrase the MicroSpeak:
"We are still committed to the idea of controlling all aspects of people's lives beyond the PC. Once we get widespread adoption of .net technologies with the many varied devices out there, we will introduce subtle incompatibilities into the .net product line so that competing companies' products will break or function less efficiently.

Since users have already committed too much time and effort (much like word .doc's), they will then be forced to dump their for the competing MS one. This is how we will leverage our way out from just making the servers to trying to make every single device you use a Microsoft one."

If I am wrong, I will eat my shoes.

Re:.NET

[borgboy]

Yep. Security and reliability.
How so?

Passport isn't so great either
Same question, though I'll stipulate that I didnt get far when I tried to set up a passport site

Re:.NET

[Bodrius]

Hmmm... shoes.

Re:.NET

[ebyrob]

Passport - As a developer with an MSDN license I'm required to have one, even if I don't want it.

Security and Reliability - .NOT's job is to make things easier and more interconnected between Microsoft products. What Microsoft calls "integration", I tend to think of as "interface creep".

With no solid interface two problems arise:
1) A bug in one place can be exploited or manifested from lots of other places.
2) When problems do occur, it's difficult to nail down exactly where they occured. Making it even tougher to fix them.

As an example, when's the last time you met a 5000 line function you liked? How about a million line program with tons of global variables?

Re:.NET

[borgboy]

Passport - As a developer with an MSDN license I'm required to have one, even if I don't want it.

I guess I dont understand why that is so onerous. It's just another web registration. Create a hotmail account if you gotta.

With no solid interface two problems arise:

You do cite valid reasons that software products can develop problems. Despite my familiarity with the .Net framework, however, I am unable to fathom exactly which pieces are actually falling prey to these problems. Could you perhaps point some out for me?

Re:.NET

[ebyrob]

Passport:
It's a principal thing with me. When I go out and solicit some service on the web, I get to make a decision whether I want to step through a company's hoops in order to do business with them. In many cases I've found other vendors because I didn't like the hoops offered. In the MSDN case, I have the choice of finding another job, or jumping through the hoops. It's even worse, when I consider the hoops are likely to get a lot worse in the near term.

No solid interface:
It's not the individual pieces that are a problem. It is general trends. In this case, we see Microsoft creating a virtual machine (not unlike Java) and basing as much future development on it as possible. However, different than Java, Microsoft will be using their win32 libraries behind the scenes to get much of the work done.

From what I've seen of Microsoft efforts in the past, I'd have to guess they aren't going to do a very good job of creating a good isolated "sandbox" to run untrusted or semitrusted code in. How can they if the "sandbox" is running win32 calls under the hood? So, the goal is to have code that can run anywhere and on any machine, or across several machines, but security (and reliability to some degree) is essentially left up to application developers. This leaves the field wide open for malicious (or just plain foolish) applications to cause all sorts of grief.

I'm not all that familiar with the C# and .NET implementation. Then again, how familiar is anyone, considering the source is closed. I look at the track record of the past. Tons of exploits in VBScript, very few in JavaScript, especially non-MS variants. Many macro and other exploits and bugs in the Office suite. In fact, Office (through outlook) is the largest carrier of computer viruses today.

I'm not saying it can't be done, or that Microsoft can't do it. But if Microsoft comes up with a secure reliable development environment with more features and integration than ever before, you'll be able to bowl me over with a toothpick.

Re:.NET

[borgboy]

Passport: It's a principal thing with me.
You mean IPrincipal or GenericPrincipal? I think Passport uses GenericPrincipal.
OK, karma whoring and kidding aside, thats cool. I understand, if I don't agree.

However, different than Java, Microsoft will be using their win32 libraries behind the scenes to get much of the work done.

Newsflash: the JVM uses Win32 behind the scenes to get things done. It IS the API for the OS, after all. Its not like the JVM uses the BIOS for file IO, is it?

From what I've seen of Microsoft efforts in the past, I'd have to guess they aren't going to do a very good job of creating a good isolated "sandbox" to run untrusted or semitrusted code in.
From what I've seen in the past, I'd agree. So far, MS has been financially rewarded for leaving security by the wayside. However, there are two new issues which make predicting MS' ability to create secure systems pretty murky:
1. The are now trying to enter the datacenter/Enterprise space. Buzzword hell, blah blah, they want that market, and that market does NOT reward shoddy security.
2. By outward appearances, MS is making a general focus on security in much the same way they made a focus on the internet a few years ago. That seems to have been successful for them.

It's not like Sun wouldnt wanna have Sparcs on every desktop running Java(tm) applications everywhere.

Re:.NET

[ebyrob]

Newsflash: the JVM uses Win32 behind the scenes to get things done. It IS the API for the OS, after all. Its not like the JVM uses the BIOS for file IO, is it?

Wow, that makes it so amazing that Java runs on Linux and solaris. I never knew it used Wine.

When I write an application, I can write reliability and security in regardless of how well the OS is put together. However, doing this takes a lot of effort, and many developers get lazy or foolish or both. Sun (with Java) certainly seemed to do a good job.

Murky Issues:
You're right some of those issues are murky and the jury isn't all in. However, based on the feature set they're after and the security model they are following, I simply don't think they can do it. Not in this iteration at least.

It's not like Sun wouldnt wanna have Sparcs on every desktop running Java(tm) applications everywhere.

Actually, they'd like all software running on Sparcs, but they'd rather have them managed at a central location while all lusers get is a terminal.

P.S. - Way to make me pay for silly off the cuff remarks!!

Re:.NET

[borgboy]

Newsflash: the JVM uses Win32 behind the scenes to get things done. It IS the API for the OS, after all. Its not like the JVM uses the BIOS for file IO, is it?

Wow, that makes it so amazing that Java runs on Linux and solaris. I never knew it used Wine.


Sorry.
What I was (poorly) trying to imply was that for each platform the JVM (tm?) is implemented on, that virtual machine does make use of the OS APIs, not that it uses Win32/Whine on every platform.

Thank you very much for mentioning that security and reliability is ultimately in the hands of the developer. I cannot agree with you more there.

Except in good ol Taxachusettes

[Anonymous Coward]

It being Marathon monday (aka Patriots Day) and all.
So we gotta wait till tomorrow night for the free dunkin donuts at the PO.

Surprise, Surprise

[GeekLife.com]

MGM pulled the same shenanigans with The Spy Who Shagged Me. Threaten to sue (even though you'd almost certainly lose under parody protection), and force some trailers to be shown before the film.

Yawn, I hope they put all of that in the agreement this time, so we don't have to hear about it in future installments.

Re:Surprise, Surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Hm. Actually, I'm happy about the agreement. For one thing, when (if) I go see Goldmember, then I'll have a trailer for LotR waiting for me. I wouldn't mind seeing the upcoming Bond trailer either.

NY Times was wrong on hailstorm, move on

[Ars-Fartsica]

People I know who are close to this product were puzzled the day these reports came out.

They're moving to a federated model, meaning MS will not be the only one providing the services.

Nothing to add - the original article was just wrong.

Re:NY Times was wrong on hailstorm, move on

[_Sprocket_]

They're moving to a federated model, meaning MS will not be the only one providing the services.

...which means the same stellar history of secure code, but with more people to blame for individual incidents!

More or less the same business model present in the current IT Industry.

Gentooizing Debian?

[reaper20]

I'm pretty comfortable with Debian, and I am putting trying Gentoo on my to-do list, but I was wondering if anyone knows if there is some interest in bringing some of the source-based distro goodness to Debian.

'apt-build install kde3' or something, mmmm ....

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[greenfly]

Generally if you want to build a deb from source, the one-liner is apt-get --compile source

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[devnullify]

I'm now running Gentoo (installed it this weekend). Was running Debian 2.2r5. Gentoo is markedly faster, and definitely more up to date (how long was it gonna take Debian to release KDE3 packages, even in unstable). I'm now running an entirely source based, KDE3 workstation, and it only took about 24 hours to compile everything *laugh*. If you've got time, and are comfortable with a command line, Gentoo seems to be a very nice distro so far. The portage utility is superb, though most of the setup of the machine is done by hand (read: know what you're doing first), it's well worth it. The only beef I had was that it doesn't use the SysV /etc/init.d/rc.d for startup, so VMWare was kinda a pain to get working. Overall, a very well done distro, but it does have some issues, and you really do need to know your way around to get it going. A word of advice, make sure /var has lots of space, as portage uses /var/tmp for compiling. I made the mistake of not making a seperate partition for /var, and making / only 300MB. Bombed about halfway through compiling XFree, and I had to start from scratch again. If you must make /var small, use the PORTAGE_TMPDIR variable to specify where you want it to compile in, otherwise you'll run into problems. Bleeding edge is nice, but I'd still consider Debian my distro of choice for anything other than my home machine which I don't really care about. Too much potential for problems. Good Luck

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[JSD]

What's wrong with:
apt-get --build source <some-package>?

It will act just like 'apt-get install <some-package>' except that now it downloads the source and builds it.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[Anonymous Coward]

I too installed Gentoo as of a week ago. I think it's pretty good but it could use a more automated installation option. The "by hand" way is cool once ... but I definately wouldn't look forward to installing it on several machines.

Personally I can't say I noticed any speed improvements over my Debian 2.2r5/3.0 unstable system. And yes I compiled everything including the bootstrap and yes I optimized it for my CPU. I like the "emerge" system. It seems to be more advanced than apt-get. That's just my opinion though.

As the last guy pointed out, the packages are very up to date. Whether or not that is important is a matter of opinion.

Over all I think it is a good distro that does NOT fall into the "Yet another borring distribution" category. My only gripe is that it protects "su" by default and I can't figure out how to allow my "normal" user account to su over to root. :) So I have to ALT+F2 to another terminal to logon as root which I find quite annoying.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[devnullify]

su is protected in the same way as with BSD distros. You must be a member of the "wheel" group to use the su utility. Simply edit /etc/group and include yourself in this group, and all will be well again :) Same goes for audio, cdrw drives etc, you must be a member of the appropriate group to write to the device.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[Jerf]

Gentoo automatically configures the source download, and uses your preferred optimizations. IIRC, Debian does not; that requires manual intervention, which is the whole point of Gentoo.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be a member of the "wheel" group to use the su utility.

"wheel"? Hmm... didn't think of that. I did try to add myself to the "root" group thinking that might be what was preventing it. But actually I was releaved when that wasn't the proper fix.

Why "wheel" and is there a way to change it? Some config file? /etc/root.allow? /etc/suath? Something like that?

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[JSD]

No doubt this could be argued forever. Personally I think the ``preferred optimizations'' argument is a poor one. There seems to be little, if any, real benefit to doing it. No doubt you feel different.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[tkdack]

VMWare was kinda a pain to get working

Did you try emerge vmware?

If that doesn't work, hit bugs.gentoo.org, there is an .ebuild there for VMWare 3.1 that works fine.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[devnullify]

After having a quick look at the man pages myself, you appear to be correct. /etc/suauth has a manpage that documents the format. Here's a oneliner to do what you want:

root:ALL EXCEPT GROUP root:DENY

This will deny anyone except people in group "root" from su-ing to root. This file is alot more robust, you should probably read the manpage for (man 5 suauth) it.
As for the "wheel" group, that's a BSDism, and is simply the way things are done in the *BSD distros, I have no idea where the name comes from.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[devnullify]

root@quark bin # emerge vmware
Calculating dependencies !!! Couldn't find match for vmware; aborting.
apparently it's not in the rsync yet, thanks for the info I'll check it out now.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole KDE3 thing is really pissing me off. If you go to #debian on openprojects.net and ask when KDE3 will be in unstable you get a response like "When its ready and FUCK YOU for asking."

How many weeks has it been? The main problem with Debian is that it seems to be the OS of choice for ARROGANT FUCKS.

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[Anonymous Coward]

After having a quick look at the man pages myself, you appear to be correct. /etc/suauth has a manpage that documents the format. Here's a oneliner to do what you want:

root:ALL EXCEPT GROUP root:DENY

I tried something similar to that line in my /etc/suath but it didn't seem to make a difference. I added myself to the wheel group though and that worked... so good enough I guess.

As for the "wheel" group, that's a BSDism, and is simply the way things are done in the *BSD distros, I have no idea where the name comes from.

One of those weird legacy things...

Re:Gentooizing Debian?

[devnullify]

For anyone interested, the ebuild mentioned on bugs.gentoo.org does work fine, though for some reason it doesn't install VMWare 3.1 as it says, but rather VMWare 3.0. My only beef with it is that it uses the /opt tree, which from the Gentoo developers docs it's not supposed to do.

samuel jackson hat on

[Anonymous Coward]

where is my flying car? i was promised a flying car when i was a kid

in that light, where the #!&% is my $300 tax relief check from y2k? i was promised a $300 tax relief check when i was in y2k

--m
chicks dig eunuchs

Re:samuel jackson hat on

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought that was Avery Brooks...

Re:samuel jackson hat on

[/dev/trash]

in that light, where the #!&% is my $300 tax relief check from y2k? i was promised a $300 tax relief check when i was in y2k

You mean the ones from 2001?

Re:samuel jackson hat on

[Anonymous Coward]

yea ... but they (the $300/$600 checks) are for your income for 2000.

look at your w2 that you just used ... it's your income for 2001, not from Apr 2001 - Apr 2002

Re: Slashback

[rmohr02]

HOMER: Would you look at those morons... I paid my taxes over a year ago!

LISA: You have to do your taxes every year, dad.

Homer: Ahh! Marge! How many kids do we have? Oh, no time to count, I'll just estimate! Uh...nine!

Marge: Homer, you know we don't h--

Homer: Shut up, shut up! If I don't hear you it's not illegal! OK, I need some deductions, deductions... ah!! Business gifts!

[Homer grabs the boat painting from above the couch and hands it to Marge.]

Here you go, keep using nuclear power!

Marge: Homer! I painted that for you!

Homer: OK, Marge, if anyone asks, you require twenty four hour nursing care, Lisa's a clergyman, Maggie is seven people, and Bart was wounded in Vietnam!

Bart: Cool!

It's not tax day where I live

[srichman]

Not for me.

(The relevant part of the page is under "News & Updates" on the left.)

Membership?

[chrysrobyn]

Yes, that's right, a Slashback featuring the title of "membership" says nothing about using a non-paypal method of subscribing to Slashdot.

Love it or leave it, subscribership seems to me to be a way of supporting the site to which so many of us devote our time.

Yet, they're not rushing to pacify their most zealous "PayPal Hating Credit Card Wielding" fans. Maybe it's difficult to set up a relationship with the local bank that allows a computer to accept a credit card number, spew out a hard copy receipt and then /dev/null the number. Or have one of the editors take some of his "Grammar Is Irrelevant" time and sit down with his e-mail reader of choice and one of those merchant credit card readers.

I don't expect Slashdot will ever favor the most vocal Slashdot minority, the "Tin Foil Wearing Small Unmarked Bills" wielding folk.

Re:Membership?

[Anonymous Coward]

Membership... as in GoldMEMBER

Portable(ish) flac

[srichman]

...which is being billed as the first portable Ogg Vorbis player.

Yeah, but these guys had flac support two months ago.

Re:Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day

[Rude Turnip]

If you owe taxes, an extension won't help you too much. You only get an extension on filing the paperwork. If you owe anything, it must still be postmarked by the 15th of April.

Hey!

[Anonymous Coward]

Reader sckevyn also points to the Gentoo PowerPC page for those equipped different.

I don't like others to think of me "equipped different", I prefer "RISC enhanced".

Gentoo is cool, if it works..

[Anonymous Coward]

I downloaded and tried Gentoo...

After wating two hours for the compiler to compile itself, I went to go to the next step, which was "emerge --pretend system" (I think it was "system", it was the first emerge command with a --pretend on it). It said to me:

Error!!! couldn't find match for sys-devel/patch in syscreate1

I tried things like "emerge patch" and "emerge sys-devel" and even "emerge sys-devel/patch" but to no avail.

So I couldn't go any further in the install process.

I tried "emerge links" and it downloaded ncurses and installed it, then downloaded links and installed it, and links worked. I was rather impressed. Still, with the above command not working, I'm stuck with a system that can't properly start up. Makes it kind of useless.

I looked in their bug list, there was no mention of it, and I really couldn't figure out how to use it (or what the bug would be classified under) so I didn't leave a bug report.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Re:Gentoo is cool, if it works..

[socratic method]

This has been fixed today. It was apparently a problem with the portage database. Re-run "emerge rsync" and your problem should be solved.

sm

Gentoo Linux

[delta407]

I'm using Gentoo Linux right now, and it certainly is fast. I'm on a dual-P3 system, so running KDE3 (which is da bomb), reading Slashdot, checking my mail, and compiling KDevelop in the background isn't too bad. Things have gotten a bit easier with the addition of stage 2/3 tarballs, meaning that the build gcc/glibc rebuild binutils/gcc/glibc cycle is eliminated, cutting down the installation time a lot.

Gentoo is a lean distro, to be sure. Everything uses MMX/SSE, which is nice, though the performance gain of that is probably marginal. What really gives it a good kick is that the base install contains only a handful of apps (the *bare* minimum) and everything else is installed as necessary. That's certainly not unique to Gentoo, but it's a plus. (Why have eject if you don't have a CD-ROM?)

The only downside, though, is the lengthy compiles; a dual-P3 box is decent, but a full recompile of XFree86 still takes time. But hey, in my opinion, it's worth it.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

I still don't get why it's "fast" compared to any other distro on your hardware. It installs less apps, so maybe it's takes up less space. But that wouldn't affect speed unless it was running (or you ran directory traversals all the time). Fast? How?

Re:Gentoo Linux

[devnullify]

One of the first steps is configuring the flags your C or C++ compiler will get when it compiles the packages. Adding the -march=i686 flag to every source file compiled makes the compiler use Intel's extended instruction set or more recent CPUs. Most binary distrobutions are compiled for vanilla i386 hardware, and will run on 486s and older Pentiums that don't have MMX/SSE enhancments. Yes, it doesn't make all that much of a difference, but it does allow you to squeeze a little more out of the system, and in some cases leads to smaller binaries. The other factor, as you mentioned, is that unlike RH, MDK and the like, it doesn't install loads of services that eat up your resources that you never use. The very last point, is that aside from LFS, it's probably the only distro I'm aware of where you *don't* have an install program do everything for you, so it's all done Your Way. Yeah compiling takes a loooonnng time, but it's an interesting experience, and I find it to be more stable and faster than a comparable Debian install, of course for many, the 24hr+ compile time to set up a decent X workstation may make it out of the question.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, you can't compile a "vanilla i386" binary on Linux's gcc -- it defaults to i486.

Besides, I see claims like this all the time with no benchmarks to back them up. I think by using the (not as well tested) optimizations, you're mostly setting yourself up for stability problems.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're not using the services, how can they "eat up your resources"? It's not like inetd is some huge program. I think you Gentoo zealots are just imagining things. After all of that effort getting everything compiled, you just KNOW it's gonna be faster. Otherwise you just wasted a week of your life for nothing.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Just to be clear I'm not rude guy #3347674

Re:Gentoo Linux

[TRACK-YOUR-POSITION]

Yeah, that's about how Gentoo linux is treating me too. (Why, oh why must it compile X servers for every video card? ;)) It's got to be one of the easiest ways of getting KDE3. I wish I could get through to the review site to see what the bugs are that I haven't noticed yet.

What I'm not sure of now is whether portage has an equivalent to RPM dependency hell. My suspicion is that it should be less of a problem, just because source compatibility seems more common than binary compatibility, and because so far portage has been really good at figuring out dependencies on it's own. But ask me again in six months.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[global_diffusion]

I'm with you on this. I thought that I'd try out Gentoo because it sounded cool, but I was fully expecting to install Debian the next day. I was wrong. Gentoo blew my socks off. It really has what all the other distros lack: Speed, extreme customization and ease of use. The install takes some guts for a newbie because it's all command-line, but it's definitely doable.

Perhaps the coolest thing about gentoo is that while it is easy to use and to maintain, it somehow teaches you all the fundamentals of running a linux machine at the same time. Portage, the packaging system is totally rad and ... I better stop ranting before somebody calls me a narc, but Gentoo rocks. If you like using linux, or have ever thought about trying linux, you need to use Gentoo. Period.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[devnullify]

Do you not consider disk space a resource. In my world it is quite limited, and expensive. I'd rather not have an extra 200MB of stuff I'll never use installed. As an aside, I don't need sendmail running on my workstation, nor do I need any of the RPC services that alot of distros *still* install by default. LPR also comes to mind, and is horribly insecure. Apache is another popular one, though not as bad. I realize that RH is targeted towards servers (and yeah I'm biased, I've only ever spent time on other people's RH boxen, found the experience horrifying), but there are workstation options in the install program, these should install a minimal set of tools, and a decent X package manager for adding more stuff, rather than filling up your HD with a bunch of fud.
Yeah I realize you're a troll, but I need to counter your point.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Damned right. It's all willy-waving bullshit. Compiling the kernel and XFree86 as i686 makes a difference. It makes fuck all difference for anything else - or at least, so little that you can't measure it.

This is the reason only some packages are i686 in Redhat.

Re:Gentoo Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

The original, not the rude guy, here,

Yes, hdd is a resource but in these days of 40G harddrives it's not much to have 200MB difference. So you save 200MB. That doesn't get you speed, which is what I hear a lot from Gentoo users.

Yay for Gentoo but I haven't heard any reason why it's faster, and therefore why I should change (200MB isn't anything to me).

re: Gentoo I've said it before...

[ctar]

I am not a linux newbie, but I don't read source code, and can't troubleshoot compilation problems when I encounter errors compiling packages from source. With that said, I am finally getting work done on my gentoo box, and I'm almost completely Windows free. After 4 years of on and off w/ Red Hat, and struggling w/ RPM and compiling from source, I've finally gotten all the deskstop apps I need running, and running well under Gentoo with no major problems. This includes DVD, MPlayer, CDR, OpenGL with nvidia's drivers and a TV Tuner card w/ xawtv.

which really means ....

[Anonymous Coward]

no one trusts MS to run the thing by themselves ... just like verisign

Hailstorm

[estes_grover]

"A Microsoft spokesperson has stated that Microsoft is shifting from a model in which MSN was the sole operator to a model where the operation of these services is available to multiple operators."

Bleep! That is to say rumours of Hailstorm's death have been greatly exagerated? Curses!

Pay your taxes!

[Anonymous Coward]

The DMCA needs money to support a special 'copyright enforcement agency' to crack down on you evildoers!

Re: globalization and websites

[Abreu]

Slashdot.org is a global site, and although we are all capable of tolerating a certain level of US-centricness, stupid gringos* like you believe that only "roman citizens" should enjoy its benefits.

If that were the case, using your own argument, the site would be named slashdot.org.us, wouldnt it?

* Disclaimer, not all US-citizens are gringos, only the stupid, prejudiced, egotistical jerks that seem to plague the world.

Re:check this out....

[ebyrob]

Npghnyyl, urer'f bar fvgr jvgu n wninfpevcg irefvba:

uggc://jjj.cynarg-fbhepr-pbqr.pbz/io/fpevcgf/Fub jP bqr.nfc?gkgPbqrVq=246&yatJVq=2

Vg'f gura nf fvzcyr nf cnfgvat vagb n jro-cntr. Gb zr n jro cntr fhccbegvat phg naq cnfgr frrzf zhpu rnfvre guna hfvat n pbzznaq yvar crey fpevcg be fbzr fhpu...

Rot-13, Its the future!

[emkman]

This message brought to you by the we're-too-lazy-write-good-encryption-but-it-doesn' t-matter-because-the-DMCA-will-protect-us department.

Re: globalization and websites

[DavittJPotter]

And it's the US-bashing jerks(1) like you that prompt us to tell you to start your own slashdot.

(1) With your "disclaimer", you prove to be just as stupid, prejudiced, and egotistical.

Cheers!

tax day sucks double time for me...

[banka]

because its my birthday too...my presents range from extra W2s to ass whoopins!!

Re:Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day

[X-Nc]

The company that does both my business and my personal taxes knows to file the first round of extensions automatically. This year I am hoping to break a trend I've had for the last three years... I intend to fill my taxes before October 15th! (You all do know that you can get two extensions, right?)

Misc. Dept.: Finally, an honest Spam Subject!

[ackthpt]

Got two spams, with the following subject:

ATTENTION: I WANT YOUR MONEY!!!

It then goes on with some stupid con about huge potentials, etc., all written with less thought and care than the average slashtroll post (You'd think someone who was going to engender the ire of thousands would at least put some effort into it, see sample below)

All you guys out there in Internet land get your fingers in gear and go directly to this website and do this
simple...YES I SAID SIMPLE (AND CHEAP!) program right NOW!

Click Here:
http://LearnTo.at/CollectCash


WE ARE ALL HERE TO MAKE MONEY (yes, I want your money - I'm not gonna lie) and this is one of the easiest
routes WE ALL can take to build some revenue without interupting any other ventures you are undergoing.
>>>>SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????

DON'T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE!
THE POTENTIAL IS INSANE!!! IF YOU DON'T SEE IT YOUR BLIND!
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE AND EVERYTHING TO GAIN! TAKE ACTION! ...DO IT! ...JUMP!
DON'T JUST SIT THERE LIKE A BUMP ON A LOG! GIVE YOURSELF WHAT YOU DESERVE! YOU ARE WORTH IT!!! YOU WILL BE REWARDED BEYOND YOUR HIGHEST EXPECTATIONS!
( VERY IMPORTANT...Don't forget to give at least 10% to a good charity after you collect!)

Pathetic.

V jebgr zl bja

[yerricde]

/* ROT.C by Damian Yerrick

Rotates the ASCII letters in foo.txt forward by n letters.
Copyright (C) 2000 Damian Yerrick

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You can find a copy of the GNU General Public License at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

You can reach Damian Yerrick at d_yerrick@hotmail.com
Visit his web site at http://come.to/yerrick

Use examples:
rot 13 < foo.txt
echo HAL | rot 1

*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int chrrotate(int letter, int rot)
{
if(letter >= 'A' && letter <= 'Z')
{
letter += rot;
if(letter > 'Z')
letter -= 26;
}
else if(letter >= 'a' && letter <= 'z')
{
letter += rot;
if(letter > 'z')
letter -= 26;
}

return letter;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int rotn = 13;

if(argc >= 2)
rotn = atoi(argv[1]);

/* get rotn above 0 but under 26 */
rotn = (rotn + 26 * (rotn / 26 + 1)) % 26;
/*
printf("rot%d\n", rotn);
*/

while(!feof(stdin))
putchar(chrrotate(getchar(), rotn));

return 0;
}

/*
<O Rabhtu cravf oveqf
( \ Urer'f n abezny oveq
X
*/

Re:V jebgr zl bja

[Anonymous Coward]

rotn = (rotn + 26 * (rotn / 26 + 1)) % 26;

Would you care to explain what that line does? Looks like the goal is to map any rotation number to the range 0..25, but your complicated formula doesn't work for integers < -26. Probably what you want is something like this:

rotn = (rotn % 26 + 26) % 26;

Interstellar ping

[Lupus Rufus]

This supposed quark star is 450 light years away, and ultracompact, which according to NASA's site would allow light to orbit. So here's an idea: Concoct a message for future human societies (probably not too different from the messages now designed for extraterrestrial civilizations), and send it in a wad towards RX J185635-375, so that it might get there, orbit a few times, then come shooting back to earth 900 years from now to be picked up by whatever remnants of our civilization are still around.

Of course, the chances of this working are a million to one, and the arrival date might be off by a few hundred years, but if it did work I think it would be an great archeological find for the 4th millenium or so.

btw, anyone else read Interstellar Pig back in the day? William Sleator is a GOD.

Re:Interstellar ping

[Bob of Dole]

William sleator isn't god. William sleator is Jesus. RAH is god.

Re:Interstellar ping

[The_dev0]

Did both you guys misspell Shatner on purpose?

How is parent offtopic?

[Anonymous Coward]

(S)He posted this code in response to a thread about writing your own Caesar cipher (ROT13) implementation. Does every comment have to refer directly to the article?

Re: globalization and websites

[Anonymous Coward]

Whacky stupid foreigners.. they have lots of popular websites... like.. hmm.. none.

The whole rest of the world is not as productive as this one, young country.. how fucking sad.

neat movies

[Alien54]

One of the links on the Nasa page goes to some neat animations on orbitiung black holes, nuetron stars, etc.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html

good stuff

watch out for the time dialation.

Re:Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day

[eyez]

Eh, even if you forgot it's tax day, you can at least file for an extension which will buy you some more time. So all is not lost.

And a lot of people don't know that the april 15th deadline is only important if YOU'RE paying THEM. If you're getting a nice sum back on your return, It works even up to a year late, and if you don't file, oh well, they keep your money.

Tiny visible star, huge X-ray star

[ChrisCampbell47]

That image of the quark star (arrow pointing to something tiny / invisible) is misleading.

I actually saw the video press release go out on NASA TV last week (woohoo, I get to watch NASA TV at work). They did a fade FROM that picture to another one done in the X-ray spectrum (Chandra) where that virtually invisible star turned into a shining beacon of quark.

• Visible light: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_op tical.jpg
• X-rays: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_xr ay.jpg

Re: globalization and websites

[Anonymous Coward]

stupid american fsckwad

Parody porn-movie titles.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it's hard to believe that 'Goldmember' was blasted when there's so many trademark name takeoffs out there in the porn industry:

Muffy The Vampire Layer
Missionary Position: Impossible
The Flintbones
Mikeys Python and the Meaning of Length

;-)

and mike myers?

[atropa]

seeing as "mike myer's brush with the humor police" is mentioned in the summary, you may want to at least mention his name somewhere.. you possibly even wish to go so far as to explain just what sort of brush this happened to be.

was it bristley? pokey? does he have grounds to sue for brutality?

Re:and mike myers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mike Myer's brush related to goldmember, the next Austin Powers movie. Originally the name was rejected by the studio, however it has apparently been accepted now.

There is no need to mention his name -- any decent movie-going person should have seen a trailer for goldmember a long time ago (yes, before the title was originally vetoed...

Re:and mike myers?

[mazur]

any decent movie-going person should have seen a trailer for goldmember a long time ago

Oh, goody! I'm an indecent movie-going person!

Stefan.

Re:oh shit!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a fucking laugh riot.

Sharp Zaurus

[jred]

A player for a format not many people are using on a platform even fewer people are using. Admirable, but not likely to be a commercial success.

Ok, everyone who keeps saying that they refuse to buy a player that doesn't support Ogg Vorbis needs to step up to the plate. Heck, you get the added bonus of it running on Linux. If *you* don't, who will? Then when it fails, everyone will say it's because the people *want* closed source, proprietary products...

Re:Sharp Zaurus

[larryj]

I did my part. I bought one this past weekend.

Die, Hailstorm! You and your little dog pTiVo!

[ediron2]

So, instead of Microsoft wanting to have all my personal information, it'll be lots of companies sharing it.

Man, I need advice here: Do I crack jokes about how much safer I feel now that Microsoft is planning to share it's hoard of all my info? Or do I ask how is this an improvement on everyone sharing my info now?

Between this and the WinXE-Tivo story (a few hundred bucks worth of buggy software and a $1000 computer to replace a $300 appliance in a still-tepid market), I can't decide which is more of a product without a need. Ah, well, lets all sit back and enjoy the warm glow as Microsoft burns another billion of that massive war chest. Microsoft cell phones, XBox blues, a legal case based on "Security By Obscurity"... and now these techno-misfires.

IEEE Reconsiders DMCA Restriction

[Captn Pepe]

A note that I think should have gotten into today's Slashback -- the New Scientist is reporting that the IEEE has rescinded its decision to make all paper submitters agree not to violate the DMCA in their articles, amid a storm of protest.

"The plan is to remove the reference to the DCMA," says Bill Hagen, intellectual property rights manager for the IEEE. "It's controversial to say the least. We've been getting a lot of correspondence, comment and opinion and have been forced to reconsider it."

This is even better than preserving the status quo, because in this case the hooplah got the problems of the DMCA out in front of the IEEE membership, which is very large and includes some extremely influential people. Score one for the good guys.

Re:IEEE Reconsiders DMCA Restriction

[Anonymous Coward]

I notice the IEEE still doesn't know the correct name! DMCA! DMCA!

Re:IEEE Reconsiders DMCA Restriction

[rmstar]

DCMA = Digital Content Monopolization Act

Re: globalization and websites

[Abreu]

Thank you, DavittJPotter and thank you, anonymous coward, for proving my point so succintly.

Getting a merchant account requires good credit

[Anonymous Coward]

How much credit would you extend to VAWhatever? Why do you think they don't (can't) accept credit cards?

Re:Feeling sorry for those who forgot it's tax day

[mrdogi]

Eh, even if you forgot it's tax day, you can at least file for an extension which will buy you some more time. So all is not lost.

I actually just did this... quite painless. Note, however, that if you end up owing taxes, you will at least have to pay interest on them, if you don't pay them now. Kinda weird: "I don't know how much I'll finally need to pay, but here is what I owe." At any rate, for those who need to do so, go here and grab form 4868.

Re: globalization and websites

[(outer-limits)]

You appear to be ignorant of the fact that half the articles on /. refer to non US sites, eg, the register, Toms, Linux Distros, etc.

Now I have more problems.

[Anonymous Coward]

After doing "emerge rsync" I did another "emerge system". This one stopped after a configure script determined that gcc couldn't create executables. So I did "emerge gcc" and then "emerge system" and this worked.

Then I went to set up the time zone, but the files it told me to look at wern't there. I tried a few emerge things, but I couldn't figure out any way to get them.

I skipped that step and went on. After compiling the kernel, I skipped the GRUB thing since I like my lilo just fine. I finished up everything else, rebooted to my slackware, set up lilo so it could boot Gentoo, and rebooted. After the kernel gets done loading, I get a shell prompt that says "init-???#" although the ?'s were something else. I couldn't figure out what to do from here. I only had that one console, the disk is still mounted read only, I don't have a /proc, I couldn't figure out how to make init start the system like it should.

I get the feeling all of this trouble is because the portage dependencies downloaded are always the latest version, and there's no 'stable' version I can choose to download, so as long as the dependiencies are being modified, there will always be something getting broken when something else is added or fixed, and I'll always have problems.

Re:Now I have more problems.

[socratic method]

I doubt you will get this, but:

Most likely, you didn't compile the kernel with devfs support. This is in the filesystems menu if you have "prompt for development packages" selected. No devfs = major mounting problems.

I have had no real problems with portage installing software that is too "bleeding edge", as they tend to stick with offical releases rather than alphas, betas, and cvs snapshots. If you have problems with this, you can probably edit the ebuilds to include an (earlier) version number. I wish that the ebuild maintiners would always use the lowest compatable version as dependencies, as they do sometimes.

sm

New Hailstorm nothing but damage control.

[Alsee]

Another case of over eager media looking to see the worst in tech companies. Or maybe just the worst in Microsoft.

Nope, Hailstorm is dead dead dead. A key feature of Hailstorm was that Microsoft wants to be the "gatekeeper" of the internet. In order collect a toll requires a monopoly. People are NOT going to pay at a toll booth when there's a free street to the same place.

The "new and improved" version of hailstorm is nothing but a glorified version of a standard username/password database. I doubt many companies are going to buy the software, and even if they do the proffits of selling the software are nothing compared to OWNING the identity of everyone on the net and selling the service.

The "new and improved" hailstorm is a desperate attempt to keep a colossal failure from sinking .NET with it. Hailstorm was .NET's flag-ship product. Saying "Hailstorm is alive and well" is nothing but a damage control spin.

-

My delusion that lawyers are rational human beings

[Alsee]

MGM was negotiating to place an ad for the upcoming Bond adventure "Die Another Day" before the "Austin Powers" film

That really sums up the value of MGM's case against Goldmember. If they genuinely felt that the name tarnished their James Bond property then why the hell would they want to use it to advertize a Bond film?!

It also stipulates that further satirical names must be approved by MGM.

Ok, maybe I'm having delusions that lawyers are actually rational human beings, but you *could* read that to mean MGM realized it was a frivolous lawsuit and to avoid a countersuit they stipulated they would approve any and all satirical names in the future. :)

-

Re: globalization and websites

[_Dhamon_]

Maybe you should go here and read this, actually, I'll cut and paste for the lazy.

Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?

Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.

Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 10/28/00

Re:MGM and New Line haven't solved the real proble

[Anonymous Coward]

I only watch Voyager to wank off to Seven of Nine.

In the UK we get Voyager every fucking day at 5pm on Sky One. Tonight's episode: 11:59 - a special episode set on new year's eve. What an almighty shit-fest.

Re: globalization and websites

[Carnivorous Carrot]

> you believe that only "roman citizens" should
> enjoy its benefits.

All roads lead to Rome. All huge fucking lines to get into a country lead into the US.

It's better to be a citizen of Rome than to be the Queen of Toronto.

Re: globalization and websites

[mazur]

I think you missed the point, which is, that while people in the rest of the world are readily aware there are countries beside their own, this truth seems to be happily neglected by many citizens of the USA. So we furriners just occasionally point out that fact, in the faint hope, that one day the realisation will hit and not go away. If you get annoyed by being reminded, that you're not alone on this our little, soiled planet, think of how annoying it would be if everyone stopped paying any attention at all to you. Read it as you like. Stefan.

Re:check this out....

[Anonymous Coward]

V whfg unq gb jevgr vg va DOnfvp. Jung? V'z ng jbex, yrnir zr nybar....

Re:fucking /.

[Anonymous Coward]

From here on in, I am redefining the word irony to mean "Thing that is made of cheesesticks"

It will stop people mis-using it, and shut up little whiney bitches such as yourself.

Re:check this out....

[Anonymous Coward]

Qrpbqre? Ner lbh wbxvat? Vg'f n bar-yvare, ge n-mN-M a-mn-zA-MN-Z

Re:check this out....

[Anonymous Coward]

yes

What is it with you people?

[gnalre]

A player for a format not many people are using on a platform even fewer people are using. Admirable, but not likely to be a commercial success.

Ever since the zaurus has come out, it seems everyone has been against. When it came out everyone complained the website could not be accessed from mozilla, you complained there were not enough applications and now you doing it again.

It runs linux, a development model was produced to encourage, not beat the open source community. The first fruits of that is already coming through. What do you people want!!!!

I've had a development model since March. It is wonderfully usable, has everyting I could want and I am now writing apps for it. I had a windows CE machine for years before that and never did much more than read the address book.

Seesh, no wonder microsoft are winning, they don't have to listen to you lot winging.

Re:My delusion that lawyers are rational human bei

[geekoid]

yes, its a delusion.
I'll wager what happened is something like this:

MGM said, "we want you to advertise a bond file"
NLC says "mmmmNo"

MGM brings its 'CASE' to the MPAA.
MPAA says "You can't do that"
NLC says "we're protected under the parody law"
MPAA says "This is about the agreement you have with us, and we're arbitrating and we say NO. If you take it to court, we'll toss you out of the MPAA and sue you for breech of contract"
NLC "you bastards!"
MPAA "yes?"
MGM "you know, we don't want to be an ass, so we'll let you keep the name, if you advertise are next JB film. Oh yeah, here is an approved list of parody names, feel free to use those. If you use something else, we'll go through this again."
NLC "stupid MPAA"

Clearly, because MGM acted first and put NLC into a defence position, they won.

Re: globalization and websites

[Abreu]

I am not. If I were, I wouldnt be reading slashdot.

Point is (one more time, with feeling!) that some posters here feel slashdot services only US citizens. Not everybody here, of course, but a few annoying dimwits.

You, however, seem an intelligent person, so I feel nothing else needs to be said on this matter.