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Phil Zimmerman and PGP at CNN.com
rick_campbell writes "CNN is carrying an article about Phil Zimmerman and the fact that Network Associates is dropping support for the commercial version of Pretty Good Privacy. The article includes a little bit of Phil's take on the situation, a little history and some discussion of why this happened and what alternatives exist."
Linux only:
fixed sound crash, going around memset bug in glibc i586/i686
Wondering how a bug could exist in such a fundamental basic function such as memset, we contacted Heinous Turdballs of Linux fame, and he was kind enough to give a few minutes of his time.
Q: Thanks for your time in answering some questions for us
A: No problem. As you know, I am umemployed and have no life, which is of course how I got involved in Linux in the first place.
Q: OK, Mr. Turdballs. By the way, do you mind if I call you 'Dirty GNU Hippie'?
A: I would rather you didn't. I prefer the term 'Dirty Linux Hippie'. As you know, my ratty and nasty hairdo, my rancid steaming armpits and my putrid stench of body odor makes me qualified, I think.
Q: I quite agree. Can you tell us about the memset bug?
A: Sure. We dont really know who is responsible for the bug. We don't know who is making changes, why they make them, or when.
Q: Hmm.. sounds chaotic!
A: It sure is. But Linux is free!!! We are dirty smelly GNU hippies with natty greasy long hair, enjoying the FREE LOVE of GNU software!
Q: Come to think of it, Linux sure does crash alot.
A: Yeah, but that will be fixed in the service pack - er, I mean kernel release. We also have support for some new device drivers that came out 2 years ago. You just have to recompile your kernel with the correct command line switches, after configuring your make file and making the correct edits to /etc/fstab. By the way, if you screw that up, you are really fucked.
Q: Sounds good. So, how do you organize who is working on Linux?
A: Mostly we don't. We pretty much let anyone have at it with the code base. We figure at some point, someone who actually knows something about operating systems will do some work on it. It has to happen eventually, its like a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters. Literally.
Q: That's great. What normally happens?
A: Normally someone comes in and fucks everything up completely, but we don't know who they are because we never actually talk to anyone who is making changes to the code. We assume that if you are capable of signing up for a Hotmail account, you must be pretty good at computers and you should be a tech lead in a major open sores project.
Q: Open sores?
A: Yes, I am sure you have heard of it. Its free, therefore its good. Check out sourceforge.net, where bad project ideas go to a quiet and lonely death when the developers realize that 12 year old kids should not be SQA leads when they are constantly getting atomic wedgies because they wear shirts saying "Put Linux Anywhere".
Q: OK, Back to the topic. Whats a typical day in the life of a Linux developer?
A: Usually his mom wakes him up in time to catch the school bus, like 8:00. We encourage this because we want the developers to be well edumacted.
By the time he gets home at 2:00 (the Linux enthusiast does not participate in socalled "extra cirricular" activities, or worry about being "well rounded" and does not have a "social identity" or "play well with others") he has been beaten up a few times for wearing a "I GNU SPOCK" tshirt.
Then, to take out his frustration, he hammers away at the keyboard for a few hours. If the resultant code compiles, he will go ahead and check it in. Then mommy tucks him in for the night.
Q: Interesting. So who will be in charge of resolving the memset bug?
A: We have a nice prospect in mind. He has a strong background in manual labor and performing menial tasks. I'm not sure what his name is but he has a hotmail account, dAsUpAhZillAZ99@hotmail.com.
Q: Sounds great. I'm looking forward to it!
A: Just keep reading $lashdot, where are the pimply nerds congregate. You may get assaulted by some homosexual linux zealots, but you will learn to like it.
Q: Sounds like fun!
A: Also hang out at sourceforge.net, where bad project ideas go to a quiet and lonely death among the other dirty GNU hippie projects.
Q: Thanks for your time!
A: Tell commander tuna taco I said I will pay in full after I get a real job. Then I will be back for another taco-snotting.
The loss could mean a huge increase in terrorism against loyal American citizens.
Your Trolling Community Needs YOU! Update and re-post this article, and get the message out to the Free (as in Cheap) Software World!
This FAQ is designed to give tips on trolling on Slashdot, created in celebration of Blackout Week. It is dedicated to all hard-working trolls and crapflooders.
What are some good trolling tips?
Trolling is all about making people think you care, and so winding up those who care for real. Think of it like shooting a deer in front of an anti-hunt protester, or eating a Big Mac in front of a vegan. Here are some ideas for making your troll work:
How do I crapflood?
A crapflood is an (intentionally) content-free post. Here are some suggestions for the source of your crapflood -- remember to take care with repetition, odd characters, or repetition, to get past the lameness filter:
How do I widen pages?
A method is known and delivered to us by the beautiful Klerck which currently works in Internet Explorer alone. This will therefore ruin the browsing experience of by far the majority of Slashdot readers. Start with the text:
http://www.eveeieyhfgfcdoosammgwsnboivvbsczxlzgabc /
then repeat /ooieiabdcdjsvbkeldfogjhiyeeejkagclmieooionoepdk /
several times, remembering to avoid the compression filter trap by using different random characters.How do I karma whore?
"Karma whoring" is the practice of gaining moderation points for their own sake. It is particularly useful in techniques for defeating the moderation system. Some tips for karma whoring are:
How do I defeat the moderation system?
The moderation system is far from flawless. Here are some ways to devalue it:
How do I defeat authentication?
Don't. The FBI will arrest you for being a terrorist. Instead, make an authoritative nick like CmdrTaco (editor). The majority of people are easily fooled, and will be likely to take notice of and respond to your post, and even moderate it up. Think of it like Lunix Turvalds walking into the room -- people listen to what he has to say, and don't dare disagree.
How do I defeat the goatse link early warning system?
Simple -- use one of the many foolishly implemented redirector URLs hosted on well-known sites. Here's an innocuous recent example which pretends to link to the highly informative about.com, but in fact links to a site of the popular 90's lesbian band The Spice Girls: Informative link which will get me karma
What are some excellent sites to sneakily link to?
Mostly, you should link to gay porn. If you are reading this FAQ, you already know the URLs, so I don't need to supply them, except to say that it's almost an initiation ceremony in Slashdot trolling to link to goatse.
Administrativa
How do I justify the existence of this FAQ?
Slashdot is full of people who support unlicensed weapons ownership and dissemination of bomb creation documents -- in short, they support freedom, even when that freedom could cause harm. This document should be considered as that very freedom in action. Indeed, to disparage or moderate down this document would be un-American, and the FBI are likely to arrest you for being a terrorist.
How do I add to or change this FAQ?
Simply re-post the FAQ on Slashdot, adding an appropriate question, and incrementing the version number by 1. Before doing so, please try to ensure you have the latest version, and remember to keep this post W3C compliant!
How else can I help with the Troll and Crapflooding Cause?
Moderate this post up, re-post it, put it in your journal, and upload it on your website. Thanks!
heh heh heh i love it when coksuking karma whores like you get the redundant shaft
Oh well