Slashback: Film, Solaris, Contention

Slashback with a load of updates for you tonight on modchips for Xbox, Nigerian spam-scams, missing Mozilla hackers, Guillaume Laurent on Murray on Guillaume Laurent, and more. Read on for the details.

Sun giveth and taketh away. axehind writes: "This ZDNet article tells us StarOffice will no longer be free. The decision completes the transition of the StarOffice suite back to being a paid product, as it was when Sun bought the software along with its maker, Germany's Star Division, in 1999. Sun says it will stop free downloads of StarOffice 5.2 at midnight on Wednesday night."

On the other hand, The Pi-Guy writes: "It has been confirmed by Sun that Solaris 9 will be on Intel platforms - you can get it for free on DVD here. Quite surprising considering that a few months ago they were saying 'No S9 at all on x86!'"

Update: 05/29 03:03 GMT by T : As several readers have noticed, the page no longer indicates Solaris 9 once you've chosen x86 as your platform of choice -- looks like a case of mistaken identity.

Strong opinions tend to draw answers. Guillaume Laurent writes "Given that Murray mentions me in his interview, and that I disagree with most of what he says, I felt the need to reply. Enjoy."

Six seems a tad low. supafly613 writes: "Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous 'Nigerian' e-mail and letter fraud. Four of those detained were Nigerian, one was Cameroonian and the sixth was South African. Police in South Africa believe that the six are part of an international fraud and drug-dealing cartel, sending out thousands of e-mail and letters in an attempt to defraud."

Lost in cyberspace ... Mindphunk writes "Six hackers remain to be found so that Mozilla can be relicensed under the LGPL and GPL as well as the MPL original license. This is really important if Mozilla is going to interoperate readily with all kinds of free software. Perhaps the power of Slashdot can find them in time for the 1.0 release?? The missing hackers are:

• David Nebinger
• 'Uncle George'
• Sanjay Gupta
• Makoto Kato
• Thierry LeBouiland
• Jiwei Wang"

This is a followup to our earlier mention of the missing hackers.

Still waiting for NetBSD :) llordsmiff writes: "According to this, the world's first Xtender Xbox modchip preorders were shipped today (24 May). There are installation pictures also. "It plays back all import and backups on all worldwide sold Xbox machines." It's also supposed to play any DVD, regardless of region."

Wonder if this will be 'content protected.' neema writes: "Just a bit of an update to an older post, but Revolution OS will apparently be released on DVD (region free) in September for 20 dollars. Trailer and first 8 minutes can be found here. I, for one, welcome the chance to see it."

Comments

first fist

[Anonymous Coward]

first fist is when you fist someone first in quake 3 arena

The editors are morons!

[Anonymous Coward]

All these stories have been posted before!

Are you guys actually paying for this stuff?

Re:The editors are morons!

[NanoGator]

Funny, I haven't paid anything.

Cameroonian

[MisterBlister]

Heh, Cameroonian.

First Logged in Post

[Fecal Troll Matter]

Bask in my assholes tinted brown glow.

Surprised

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

Four of those detained were Nigerian, one was Cameroonian

I'm actually surprised that any of them were really Nigerian. I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

Re:Surprised

[cscx]

I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

I'd keep a lookout for newly-opening sanitation companies opening in Nigeria. Also be suspicious of the 4 stocky Italian guys meeting outside the pork store.

Re:Surprised

[Zurk]

not only are they nigerians but they have authentic material including stamped and signed letters, P.O's, contracts and other stuff. check out the pictures and read thru the stories here :
http://www.waronspam.com/cases/ibrahim/ibrahim. htm
http://thespamletters.com/letter.php?spamID=1 01&so rtBy=da&start=0&search=Nigerian

Re:Surprised

[Zeinfeld]

I'm actually surprised that any of them were really Nigerian. I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

The info I got on the scam was that there is a definite Nigerian connection. A number of people duped in the scheme have gone off to meet people in Nigeria, some have disappeared entirely.

Scams of that sort are much easier to conduct in a country where laws are not exactly diligently enforced so Nigeria would be a much more likely base than the US. Compared to the Nigerian mafia Tony Soprano is a real small time player, all he has is a garbage business and a strip joint, in Nigeria they run the country.

Re:Surprised

[Bingo Foo]

I'm actually surprised that "Cameroonian" is a real word.

Re:Surprised

[(outer-limits)]

As the inimitable WC Fields once said, 'You can't cheat an honest man."

Re:Surprised

[tedDancin]

Now for the FBI to bust the assses of the "Get your degree from a prestigous non-accredited university in the mail today!" spammers. Hold on a minute.. "prestigous AND non-accredited" - *wow*, I gotta get me one of those..

Re:Surprised

[rgmoore]

You might be surprised at which schools are not accredited. Accreditation is most useful for schools without great reputations. After all, everyone knows about Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and similarly presigious places. They know that those schools aren't just handing out degrees to anyone with a big enough stack of cash, so who cares what some agency says? Some of those schools, though, might not want to do everything that whatever accrediting group claims is important, so they may give up formal accreditation to maintain their academic independence. In fact, when I got my degree, Caltech was not accredited as an institution for exactly that reason. Individual departments and programs were accredited by appropriate professional groups, but not the school as a whole.

OTOH, the average man on the street has probably never heard of Backwater State and doesn't know if they have a real program there or not. The only thing they have to go on is what the accrediting agencies say. If they want anyone to take their degrees seriously, they need the accreditation.

Re:Surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

all he has is a garbage business and a strip joint

heh, haven't watched much, have you? Those are his legit cover busisnesses.

Re:Surprised

[arivanov]

Sifting through the headers of the 419's I have received over the last several months:

• one was from Nigeria
• one from Belgium
• five or so was from US, mostly East Coast and MidWest
• Rest was from South Africa

In the nigerian case I tried (with some success) to persuade the upstream ISP to act as per their AUP. In other words consider it as SPAM and disconnect them to hell and gone.

In all SA, US and BE cases I have asked the ISP in question to try to both apply their AUP and contact the local law enforcement. To the extent of my knowledge the law was got involved only in one of the SA cases. The US law ISPs usually drop the ball in these cases.

No wonder that the number of these SCAMs we all get in our mailbox steadily increases. If the ISPs were doing the right thing (TM) this would not have been a profitable business. Too high risk levels.

Re:Surprised

[oldCoder]

It WAS that guy Tony from New Jersy -- he just cracked into the South African police computers to set up his patsies...

Re:Surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmmmm... Seems as though the mafia runs this country (US) as well.

They arrested 6 people for the Nigerian Email?

[CitznFish]

They arrested 6 people already huh? Only took them several years.. Now who is going to testify as a victim?/ LOL! I'd hate to be the one who admits I fell for the poorly conceived and executed scam..

Re:They arrested 6 people for the Nigerian Email?

[JAVAC THE GREAT]

hate to be the one who admits I fell for the poorly conceived and executed scam..

You probably wouldn't have too, because you'd probably be dead.

LGPL and GPL

[rootlocus]

I dont understand how something can be licensed under both LGPL and GPL at the same time.. That seems like a contradiction.. Can someone explain it?.. TIA..

Re:LGPL and GPL

[MisterBlister]

By dual licencing under the LGPL and GPL (not to mention MPL) those who develop derivitive works can decide whether to use the LGPL, GPL or MPL for their project.

So say I create an offshoot of Mozilla called Boozila, I can pick the LGPL license for this project, which means anyone who derives from my work must abide by the LGPL (or they can go use the original Mozilla source minus my changes and use GPL, or MPL..up to them!).

In essence, it gives developers a bit of a choice over which licenses they want to support while using the codebase...They are free to choose GPL, LGPL or MPL.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

As the owner of copyrighted source code you can licence it in multiple ways. There is no overlap as each licence only applies to each release. You may have a GPL version and also decide to release a closed-source staticly linked binary. Or perhaps someone negociates new terms with the copyright holder. The GPL only applies to software released under the GPL.

People who aren't copyright holders do not have this right - they have to use it under the terms of the licence.

Dual licensing is means you can choose either licence and that these licences are acceptable for the copyright holder.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Cowrad]

The LGPL is for ladies, the GPL is for men.

Like the golf thing.

So you can only license it under both if you're a transvestite.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[amccall]

That sounds all well and good, but...

..doesn't the LGPL give the option of redistribution under the GPL? So, if you distribute your program under the LGPL, anyone can redistribute it under the terms of the GPL.

Which is to say, by LGPL'ing your software, you are effectively dual licensing it with the GPL anyway(it's implied).

So, what's the point?

Re:LGPL and GPL

[whovian]

Well, if C was any precedent, shouldn't Mozilla's child be called Nozilla or even Nuzilla, after that famously scrumptious chocolate nazelnut spread?

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

Acually the L is for lesbian.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

So say I create an offshoot of Mozilla called Boozila, I can pick the LGPL license for this project, which means anyone who derives from my work must abide by the LGPL (or they can go use the original Mozilla source minus my changes and use GPL, or MPL..up to them!). Wrong... you can fork Mozilla without them dual licencing anything. Any code you contribute to your OWN fork can be under any license you choose. Anybody who derives from YOUR work must abide by the LGPL (or whatever you choose). Anybody who derives from code you DIDN'T contribute, must abide by the license set forth by the owner.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Vanders]

doesn't the LGPL give the option of redistribution under the GPL?

No. No more than the GPL gives you the option to redistribute under the LGPL. If someone forked an LGPL project and changed it to the GPL, the original author would not be able to take the changes from the fork and fold them back into their own tree under the LGPL. Which is unfair, to say the least.

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Vanders]

Woops, O.K, fucked up. Section 3 of the LGPL clearly states you can fork the code under the GPL.

Dealing with all these different licencses is getting to be a PITA. GPL, LGPL, BSDL(-alikes), MPL...I give up these days!

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that mean you can only use both the GPL & the LGPL if you're the butch one?

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

...that famously scrumptious chocolate nazelnut spread?

I don't even want to THINK about nasal-nut spread, chocolate or not!

Re:LGPL and GPL

[ReelOddeeo]

I dont understand how something can be licensed under both LGPL and GPL at the same time.. That seems like a contradiction.

If I write a program, then I own the copyright on it. That is, I have the exclusive right to reproduce the program in any form. If you reproduce it, or even posess a copy, without the right to do so, then you are guilty of copyright infringement.

If I want to, I can grant you a license to my copyrighted work. Maybe I would do this in exchange for money, sex, or just because I'm a nice guy.

Closed source licenses (often EULA's) may require you to agree to certian terms in exchange for the grant of a license. In other words, I may not choose to grant you a license unless you (A) pay me, (B) promise not to decompile the program, (C) promise to run through the streets in your underwear screaming at 3 AM, etc.

Once you are granted a license, you are entitled to a copy under the terms of that license. The license may or may not include the right to reproduce the program in either source or binary form.

As the exclusive copyright owner, I can license the program to as many as I would like under whatever terms I would like. I can license you the right to have one copy of the program, and 3 backup copies. But I can license Joe the right to give his 25 closest friends copies, because I like him better. I could (probably in exchange for $$) license Microsoft to reproduce the program in binary form only as part of their closed source product. Finally, I could still turn around and license the program under the GPL. (A commercial vendor might rather pay for an alternative license rather than use the GPL.)

Finally, back to your question. As the copyright holder, I can grant different licenses. In fact, if I am a really nice guy, I can put the program under several different open licenses. You choose which license you wish to agree to, and then you better abide by the terms of that license. Nothing, other than the grant of a license by the copyright owner, gives you any right whatsoever to the program! For instance, with the GPL, if you don't agree to it, then you are not granted a license, and nothing else gives you a right to the program, so you are guilty of copyright infringement.

Other software, such as Open Office, for instance, is dual licensed. I'm sure others can point out even more dual licensed software. One or more public licenses do not prevent the copyright owner from also offering closed source licenses to other parties.

Does that clarify things?

Re:LGPL and GPL

[Qrlx]

BSDL

There's a Blue Screen of Death License now?

Solaris 9

[MBCook]

I've never tried Solaris (to my knowledge), but I'd love to. It's a good thing that I found the page where they give it away for free before it got posted on here on Slashdot. Now I might actually have a chance to get a copy ;). Thanks, [H]ardOCP!

Re:Solaris 9

[cscx]

Solaris is very powerful. Judging from the link they are only releasing Sol 8 for x86 and Sol 9 for Sparc.

The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

BTW, I don't think Sun has a chance of being "Slashdotted" any time soon. They sit on one of the biggest pipes in the country. And just think of the purple server boxes their web servers sit on... (drool...)

Re:Solaris 9

[discstickers]

Never underestimate the power of a Slashdotting

Re:Solaris 9

[Anonymous Coward]

Look closely at the Link! Solaris on Itel is only version 9

Re:Solaris 9

[discstickers]

Damn slashdot... that should have been a

Re:Solaris 9

[fsmunoz]

The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

CDE almost certainly. GNOME 2 is not yet ready and they probably need more integration to include it. Anyway, as with Solaris 8, the "Bonus Software" CD pack that comes with the OS (or OE, whatever :) ) includes a CD "Exploring GNOME" that installs an "unsupported evaluation" of GNOME. Pretty slick, installed it at work, ppl are using the Sun boxen much more hapilly now.
BTW, that Bonus pack also includes the GNU utils, Emacs, even KDE. Also StarOffice (at least Solaris 8 did) and Netscape 6.

Regards,

fsmunoz

Re:Solaris 9

[stefanlasiewski]

The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

I believe Solaris 9 is initially shipping with CDE, but Sun no longer supports CDE. Sun will ship with and support Gnome2.0 later this year.

http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/gnome/events/i nd ex.html

I use Solaris and Gnome1.4 at work, and MAN is Gnome slow. I'm really looking forward to 2.0 , which is supposedly faster in many areas.

Re:Solaris 9

[Anonymous Coward]

Do the GNU utils on the cd include gcc? It was always a pain in the ass when someone didn't buy the developer pack and so had no C compiler to compile new software.

Re:Solaris 9

[Dicky]

AFAIK, S9, at this point, has the same thing w.r.t. CDE GRIN>), off the top of my head.

And no, there is currently noSolaris 9 for Intel. Again, believe me, I'd know if there were. :-)

Re:Solaris 9

[Bingo Foo]

I use Solaris and Gnome1.4 at work, and MAN is Gnome slow. I'm really looking forward to 2.0 , which is supposedly faster in many areas.

Gee, is Gnome region-encoded too?

Re:Solaris 9

[Tetravus]

I'm afraid there's a spelling error in your sig... thought you might want to know since I know that I hate it when I've got a big booger just hanging out in my nose and no one tells me.

repetitive!=repeditive

Re:Solaris 9

[drsmithy]

I use Solaris and Gnome1.4 at work, and MAN is Gnome slow. I'm really looking forward to 2.0 , which is supposedly faster in many areas.

Mate, *Solaris* is slow. The advantage it has is it tends not to get any *slower* as load increases :).

Re:Solaris 9

[Oinos]

BTW, I don't think Sun has a chance of being "Slashdotted" any time soon. They sit on one of the biggest pipes in the country.

Obviously you have never tried to upload a core file to Sun before.

And since we're on the subject of Solaris 9 for Intel, I'm confused as to where this rumor that Solaris for Intel was End of Life'd came from. It certainly didn't come from Sun. They've been saying "We've put it on hold for now," not "It's dead, Jim."

-O

Re:Solaris 9

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but Gnome 1.4 is notoriously slow on Solaris: it is not optimised for it (sorry i've forgotten most of the details).

Gnome 2.0 is a lot more "Solaris Ready(tm)" apparently.

Cheers
Andy

Re:Solaris 9

[morbid]

CDE? I don't know about you, but on my E4500 I don't run X. I use windowmaker on my Ultra60. I've seen GNOME run OK on an Ultra 5.
Just to clear up a few points for the uninitiated:
Solaris 8 (and 9) come with a GNOME CD in the media kit, and they also come with the Companion CD which has many Free and Open Source packages on it, including Afterstep, KDE, WindowMaker, GCC, pine, GIMP etc.

Re:Solaris 9

[arivanov]

Several corrections:

Solaris has many pluses like scheduler optimised for threading, working POSIX realtime priorities, etc but it also has a slow filesystem that is technologically inferior to anything else out there. It is also fairly buggy and ridden with security holes. The buggy bit is especially valid for x86. Bugs are of all varieties: non-working multicast on half of the network adapters, crashes, memory leaks, you name it. Neither ACPI nor APM are supported either which means that it will not work properly on laptops and many desktop class new machines. The range of supported hardware is also very small compared to what you get working with BSD or Linux. So it depends what you want it for, but you better get a proper server class system with SCSI to run it on.

Sun (the download section) got slashdotted to hell and gone when they released Soffice 5 for free for the first time.

Re:Solaris 9

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, gcc is included.

Sun's "Software Companion CD" download page lists the other software there as well.
(Here's a list of package checksums if you don't want to log in to see the descriptions.)

A thirty day eval version of the Sun compiler is also in the full CD/DVD pack (or downloadable)
if you want to build some of the software you're installing with good optimization.

Re:Solaris 9

[cscx]

Neither ACPI nor APM are supported either which means that it will not work properly on laptops and many desktop class new machines. The range of supported hardware is also very small compared to what you get working with BSD or Linux.

I think this is because Sun is like Apple in a way... they release Solaris only with SPARC in mind. They don't have to give a shit about support on Wintel/Lintel boxes cause that's not their main target audience. I mean, why waste their time if 90% of Solaris installations are on Sun hardware?

Six seems a bit low?

[Triskaidekaphobia]

Not really. You don't need much manpower to send spam, and the more people you have the more you have to split the profits.

Re:Six seems a bit low?

[Heironymus Coward]

it must be low, because I received the nigerian spam (first time in months) after this was posted to slashdot.

Solaris 9 really for intel?

[pythas]

Hmm. I looked at the sun link provided above, and it gives you 2 choices:

Solaris 9 for Sparc
Solaris 8 for Intel

Are you sure they're releasing 9 for intel?

Re:Solaris 9 really for intel?

[MisterBlister]

This is Slashdot...Just because something is mentioned in the article writeup doesn't mean anyone is sure of it.

Re:Solaris 9 really for intel?

[stefanlasiewski]

Great catch.

According to this page make reference to deferring and discontinuing Solaris for Intel...

Who knows why they say "We no long offer Solaris on Intel" on one page, and "yes, I want a free copy" on another page.

Developers: There is NO WAY IN HELL that we can develop or maintain Solaris Intel binaries. Not enought staff. We have enough work as it is! We should drop the whole projet.

Marketing translation: Coming in Q4, Solaris on Intel!

Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[tps12]

Well, what can I say...Solaris and linux finally running on the same platform (Intel). I guess this is the moment of truth for the scrappy band of open source programmers.

No longer will questions over Linux's bizarre VM and Solaris's baroque scheduler plague admins, keeping us always in the dark as to which OS is truly better.

It's cool, but it's scary, especially for me, as a long-time Linux "junkie" and hacker (programmer, not the illegal kind!).

I wonder who will be prompted into playing catch up...Linus and the Linux gang (you know who you are), Sun and its suits (we know who they are!), or both!!!!

I can't wait.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, Solaris has been running on i386 machines for years. And Linux was ported to the Sparc a while ago too. Head-to-head comparisons have been possible for a very long time. You just don't see many of them publicized on Slashdot for some reason.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[kabir]

Um.... Solaris has been available on Intel for quite a while now.

Mind, it's not always been great (hence the nickname "Slowaris"), but it's been there.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Phork]

umm, solaris and linux have ran on the same platforms for years. Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also, and linux runs on almost all sun hardware.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[honold]

wanna compare my ancient copy of 2.6 for intel to an equally ancient copy of linux? how about ancient solaris 2.6 sparc to equally ancient linux sparc? comparisons have been possible for MANY years.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

A previous version of Solaris was already available for Intel. I expect this version to be just as popular. Neat, but why bother when you can run Linux?

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[dru]

because, ummm... linux sucks?

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[PacMan]

umm, solaris and linux have ran on the same platforms for years. Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also, and linux runs on almost all sun hardware.

Well I personally ran Solaris 2.4 & 2.5 on x86 before I switched to Linux, and I think Solaris 2.3 was available on x86 as well.

Then there was Solaris 2.6 before they jumped the version number to just '7'.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[jbeamon]

Linux has been running on Sparc for years. Solaris has been available for Intel for years. Was this a joke?

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

I used Solaris 2.1 x86 :)

...but not for production.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also

Yes, there was. Nine years ago this month (May 1993), Solaris 2.1 for x86 was released. Interestingly, x86 support was apparently dropped after that and didn't reappear until Solaris 2.4.

The releases of Solaris that have existed are 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7, 8, and (now) 9. Of these, 2.1, 2.4. 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7, and 8 have been available for Intel. 2.5.1 (and maybe 2.5?) was available for PowerPC as well. And Sun was the very first vendor to announce they had an operating system (that would be Solaris) running on an Itanium simulator. BTW, more Solaris version info can be found by going to google.com, typing in "Solaris FAQ", and hitting the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Also, as long as I'm clearing things up, Sun's statement about Solaris 9 and Intel availability was fairly ambiguous. Essentially, it said that when Solaris 9 was released, there wouldn't be a version for Intel. But Sun releases updates about every quarter, and it wasn't really said AFAIK that one of those wouldn't have Intel support. Probably it won't happen, but I'm just trying to say that "we will make the Intel version a lower priority and release it at our leisure" may be a valid interpretation of Sun's statements.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never run Slowaris on x86 I see

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[jo42]

Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

The correct answer is FreeBSD.

Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim

[Anonymous Coward]

no the correct answer is openBSD
or Gentoo linux ....... unless you can afford a high end sparc box (whats say a sun blade 2000 running for 20k ?) ...... then slowlaris blows away anything else ......... but it depends on the kind of hardware has far as solaris vs linux. as i dont think linus originally intended linux to be used on multi-million dollar servers (its getting there thanx to some larger pro-linux companies) whereas that is solaris's main purpose. but in the same respect to this point solaris really sucks on x86

cause x86 is to damn slow for the big bloated OS known has slowlaris

Will it be piracy to copy Staroffice after midnite

[CitznFish]

Since I got it for free (legally) can I make copies and pass them out? I never did read the EULA.... but then again who really does?

For News Stories...

[gvonk]

FROM THE DESK OF: MR. WORGEE G. SHUB
Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
United Political Parties of America,
Contract Award Committee,
Washington DC USA

Dear Esteemed Nigerian Sir:

I am the Chairman of the Contract Award committee and my committee is solely responsible for awarding and payment of contracts on behalf of the United Political Parties of America. My Committee has received payments from Enron, Microsoft, Walt Disney, and many other large American companies that we then disbursed in accordance with United States law to the intended politicians in return for government services rendered to The Corporations. We overshot the contracted sum by USD35 Million. We have paid the politicians and withholding the balance of Thirty-Five Million United States Dollars. Since the existing domestic laws forbid civil servants from opening, operating and maintaining foreign accounts, we do not have the expertise to transfer this balance of funds to a foreign account.

Due to the salubrious investment and taxation climate in Nigeria, as outlined in FMF A26 Unit 3B paragraph "D" of the Auditor General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Report of NOV. 1999 about annual estimated petroleum revenues of 28billion US Dollars, and especially opportunities relateed to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha who died on 8th June 1998, which we have become aware of through various emails we have received from your countrymen about the supply of Agricultural Machines and spare parts to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, we have prepared to pay a commission to a worthy individual like yourself equal to 25% of the total sum transfered while 5% will be reserved for incidental expenses that both parties will incur in the course of actualizing this transaction and the balance of 70% will be kept for the Committee members.

If you know you are capable of helping us actualize our life's dream, you should send to me immediately the details of your bank particulars or open a new account where we can transfer the money(US$35M)which you will hold in trust for us until we come over there for our own share.

As soon as you open the account, send by e-mail to me immediately the details of the account viz: Name of bank, address, routing number, telex number, Account number, Tel and Fax number.You should also include the name of your company, your personal address, Tel and Fax numbers for further communication.

Note that this transaction will be concluded within 10 working days from the day you give your consent.

Sincerely yours,

Worgee G. Shub
Chairman of Disbursements,
Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
United Political Parties of America,
Contract Award Committee,
Washington DC USA

tel: 1-900-CON-4YOU

NOTE THAT FOR THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF THIS TRANSACTION, WHEN YOU CALL ME THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS FOR YOU TO ASK ME WHAT IS THE CODE, AND MY RESPONSE WILL BE (055).IF I DO NOT TELL YOU (055) THEN KNOW YOU ARE NOT
TALKING TO ME. DROP THE PHONE IMMEDIATELY AND CALL ME BACK TILL I GIVE YOU THE CODE WORD. THIS IS DUE TO JAMMING TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES IN YOUR COUNTRY AS A RESULT OF THE BOMB EXPLOSION IN A LAGOS MILITARY BASE.

(Thanks to RobLimo)

Re:For News Stories...

[perky]

scamorama for lots more amusing advance fee frauds.

Solaris 9 on x86?

[jscott]

It sure looks like it reads "Solaris 8 on Intel" to me.

Remeber this is slashdot.

[glrotate]

They can't figure out how to make money with huge intrusive ads and only serving up text with minimal graphics.

Yay Sun

[Anonymous Coward]

On both counts. Solaris is a dog on x86 but it is a decent way to learn Solaris for those without the Sparc gear. Star Office is worth paying for and it should cost something. No where near what MS Office costs, but some token amount is appropriate if you need an office suite and Open or KDE Office don't meet your needs.

Correction: Solaris 9 on Intel

[jeffphil]

The page says Solaris 8 on Intel and Solaris 9 for Sparc. Guess it was just wishful thinking.

Re:Correction: Solaris 9 on Intel

[rvr]

Well, something funny going on - the site I went to (see.sun.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/mcp?q=STNdTTEqcdpGc)
which says:

Which version of the new Solaris 9 Operating Environment would you prefer?
SPARC(TM) platform
Intel

But when I submitted the page I got this msg:

The following required questions were left blank:
* Which version of the Solaris Operating Environment would you prefer?

Please fill out all of the required fields and re-submit.

And of course it was *not* blank. And when I went back - i didn't have the option for Solaris 9 but then it was " Solaris 8 on Intel". Guess you gotta be quick...

Solaris 8 on Intel, not 9

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

It has been confirmed by Sun that Solaris 9 will be on Intel platforms - you can get it for free on DVD.

If you follow the link, you will notice that Sun is giving away Solaris 9 on the SPARC(TM) platform and Solaris 8 on Intel. There is no mention of Solaris 9 on Intel.

Solaris 9 on x86? I don't think so...

[Cutriss]

From the website...

"Which version of the Solaris Operating Environment would you prefer?
Solaris 9 on SPARC(TM) platform, Solaris 8 on Intel

Re:Solaris 9 on x86? I don't think so...

[Cutriss]

Oh wait...Maybe it was a typo...

From the confirmation page:
"Thank You! You will receive your FREE copy of the Solaris 9 Operating Environment on a DVD (while quanitities last) and be contacted by our sales organization shortly."

Re:Solaris 9 on x86? I don't think so...

[troels]

Either you picked the sparc version or they changed the thank you message or something, because i just got this message:

Thank You! You will receive your FREE copy of the Solaris Operating Environment on a DVD (while quanitities last) and be contacted by our sales organization shortly.

No number in there...

hi!

[Anonymous Coward]

uh, yeah, i'm uncle george!

*BSD is dying

[Anonymous Coward]

It is official; Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

Fact: *BSD is dying

Coincidence?

[NickRob]

6 Mozilla hackers missing.... 6 People arrested for the 'Nigerian' email.

Juxtaposition saves the day.

What is Solaris?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this "Solaris" support Beowulf clustering? TIA.

Re:What is Solaris?

[wwwillem]

Does this "Solaris" support Beowulf clustering?

Solaris supports either Sun Cluster for high-availability purposes. Or for HPC, you can use Sun Grid computing. And, compared to Linux, Solaris scales to a much higher amount of CPUs "within the box".

So to answer your question, no it doesn't do Beowulf, but there are many, many other ways to scale your system.

Prison Defense Fund

[Kelerain]

Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous 'Nigerian' e-mail and letter fraud, and they need your help! See they have a rich uncle who has some ill goten gains, and wants to give it to them for thier defense fun, but he cant do it legaly. If you would just let them use your bank account to launder they moeny they will give you 20%! just email inmates@prison.ng with your bank acount number and pin..

Modchips? Pah.

[Anonymous Coward]

Modchips for Xbox? Hah! The clowns running Amiga Inc are trying to beat MS at their own game - Amiga wants to install "modchips" in POP mobos from other companies. Way to kill an independent POP/PPC market, morons.
Too bad that you're killing AmigaOS, LinuxPPC and committing suicide at the same time. That's where you differ from MS, they are smarter and don't mess with hardware distributors nearly as much.

Diary Excerpt of a CMU CS Student

[Anonymous Coward]

This past year, I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. It has been a remarkable experience that I would like to share with the Slashdot community. Here's an account of my experience.

Week 1, Sunday: I moved in today. My roommate, a sophomore CS student, had already moved in two days before me. The floor is already completely covered with garbage. He also smells. I think he might be gay too. He's already asked me if I like the color he painted his toenails. This should be interesting. I am almost completely settled in. Techno music is playing in every room in every floor of my dorm. There are computers and other types of trash out in the common areas. What a mess. Tomorrow, I am going to go sign up to get my network connection.

Week 1, Monday: I got hooked up to the CMU network today! I jacked into the network, only to find that the hostname and address assigned to me were colliding with another system. I'll just increment the network numbers a few times. I am really eager to get on.

Week 1, Tuesday: I am still looking for a free IP address. Can't anybody here properly configure their systems?

Week 1, Friday: I finally found a free IP! It's mine! You sons of bitches can't have it, I found it, I keep it, it's mine! To hell with all of you! Head hurts really bad. I've slowly been developing a headache since I first arrived. Everywhere I look there are these Lucent Technologies wireless access points. I wonder if that's the problem.

Week 1, Saturday: I sat down at my computer today. My desktop wall paper is now the goatse.cx guy. Pleasant. Scattered over every directory on my C: drive are thousands, possibly millions, of files titled "J00AR30WN3DBITCH-phj33r-" and then some random hacker's name. Don't these people have lives? Maybe they need laid or something. It'd take days to clean this out. I mentioned to my roommate that I needed to reinstall Windows, and immediately he jumped up and shouted: "NO! Do NOT use Windows!" Suddenly, two dozen other guys (all of them possibly homosexuals) appeared at the door, each touting an operating system called Linux. Half of them got into a fight over which was better, Debian, RedHat, Slackware, and a bunch of others I couldn't recognize. Some kid who appeared to not have showered since he was born was touting "Linux From Scratch", saying that only losers used pre-made distros. A crowd of people in the back kept quiet about how I'd be sorry if I used Linux instead of BSD on the network. Who the fuck are these people? Classes start next week. Hope I have my computer working so I can do my assignments.

Week 3, Friday: People are still trying to get Linux to work on my system. They keep telling my that my hardware sucks. We go through about four or five distributions a day. Every now and then, I notice a little devil on my screen. Stickers for every of these distributions have been plastered on my case. Suddenly, my room stinks a lot more with these people in here. I ask them why they never shower, and the usual response is something along the lines of "showering is like rebooting" and "I don't want to lose my uptime."

Week 3, Saturday: There's a troop of men running naked in a circle around McGill Hall. I am not even going to ask.

Week 4, Wednesday: Linux is FINALLY working on my computer! I have a pretty slick desktop too. I think I might like this. I can finally work in my room instead of the labs, although considering the every increasing layer of garbage on the floor...

Week 4, Thursday: My computer flashes messages about how I am "0WNX0RED" and how I should "PHJ33R" whoever and how "L4MEX0R" I am for having an insecure box. A kid suggests we reinstall Linux after discovering about 17 rootkits.

Week 5, Friday: Someone got BSD working on my computer. I wonder if this will last. The stress has been building and I forgot to take a shower this morning.

Week 6, Tuesday: Seems I have been "0WNX0R3D" again. Took longer this time. Minutes later, someone comes in with a "Bastile Linux" install CD. He gets started installing. I am feeling very suspicious of these guys.

Week 6, Thursday: Everyone seems to know more about my system than I do. It's a bit unnerving. I guess anyone could feel upset from this sort of treatment. They hack my box, trash it, then reinstall everything. I guess they think they're being funny. My dirty clothes are piling up and I am out of clean ones. I don't have time to do laundry, I'll have to wear something out of the pile.

Week 6, Friday: I got up this morning, sat at my machine, and stared at it blankly. An icon appeared on my desktop for Quake III. I suppose it couldn't hurt to play some. I have been very stressed lately.

Week 6, Sunday: I lost track of time! I started playing Quake III on the network with some other CMU students (who killed me hundreds of times in the course of 10 minutes) and completely lost myself. There's a bag of chips that has been sitting here for a few weeks. I think I'll finish those off for breakfast and then go to sleep.

Week 7, Wednesday: I masturbate every day now. Not a single girl comes near me. This is so depressing. Do I really smell? Oh well, I have the task of learning how to secure my Linux box to keep me busy. Who has time for the opposite sex after all?

Week 8, Tuesday: I got into a fight with this little shit who kept telling me RedHat was great. What a fucking moron! Anybody who knows Linux knows that Debian kicks its sorry little ass. I'll be getting my judiciary papers for the incident in the mail. Doesn't this school get it? I can't let someone go around converting people to RedHat! WtF!?

Week 8, Friday: My roommate squeezed my ass today! At first I was shocked and appauled, and I told him off for it. Thinking about it later though, there was just something that seemed too strong about my reaction. I'll talk to him later and appologize for getting so upset, it wasn't really so bad.

/em holds hands *this* far apart

[realgone]

According to this, the world's first Xtender Xbox modchip preorders were shipped today

Whoa, whoa, whoa there sonny. Did you say "Xtender"? You mean they're making the damned thing even bigger?

*sigh* Someone save me a spot in line at IKEA; I'm gonna need a larger entertainment center.

P.S. - I kid, I kid. I swear. I love my XBox. I'm actually dying to slot Morrowind in it... whenever that game gets around to releasing itself. =)

Re:/em holds hands *this* far apart

[Steveftoth]

if they could patch x-box games, morrowind would be out by now. ;)

"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[Papineau]

I juste tried to download the trailer of Revolution OS, and since I use Mozilla 1.0rc2 (yes, I know 1.0rc3 has been released) on Linux, I'm not able to view it. It seems to be offered in Real, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and Flash(?, probably for surfing the site and not the actual film). So I'm not sure who's targetted by this... but I know I'm not able to view it easily (could fire up Mplayer, but still need a copy of the actual file). Not very good for a film of this nature.

Anybody had more luck than me?

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not just view the source and extract the url, then wget? If for some reason you can't do that, you could always install plugger, which allows you to use pretty much any program as a plug-in for your browser (although admittedly the result is less polished as what you would get with something like Crossover).

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[Papineau]

My point is they did a documentary on something, then market it to those same people (region free DVD, etc), but fail to address one of the needs of those same people by not allowing free software to play the trailer and/or the first 8 minutes. I was looking forward to maybe buy it, but since I can't see either the trailer nor the preview on the exact platform they based the movie on, I won't.

An mpeg would be really difficult to produce... right?

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an mpeg of the first minute or so of the movie, featuring ESR... Revolution OS Clip

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[superpeach]

Not me...

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[m3000]

Realplayer is avaliable for Linux. Get it here.

And here are the direct links to the Real Player movies, since Mozilla just tells me to download the plugin and so I have to search through the source:

Trailer

First 8 Minutes

Re:"Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"...

[rbeattie]

Flash may be able to play the quicktime video. Apple is suing Sorenson for licensing the codec to Macromedia.

But I have no idea if this is true or not, just a suposition.

-Russ

Re:Will it be piracy to copy Staroffice after midn

[Triskaidekaphobia]

The EULA says

1. License to Use. Sun grants to you a non-exclusive and
non-transferable license for the internal use only of the
accompanying software and documentation and any error
corrections provided by Sun (collectively "Software"). You
have no right to distribute the Software.

so the answer is no.

(This assumes the EULA hasn't changed since the time you didn't read it.

StarOffice no longer free after Wednesday???

[Anonymous Crowhead]

See you guys later, I'm off to download at least hundred copies of it.

Re:from the register....

[Anonymous Coward]

here's more stuff :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/25446.h tml

Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[The Ape With No Name]

potlatch-is-the-way-to-eat

If you are still in Knoxville, then it is a "pot luck." And, by Gawd, any carbonated drink is a Coke irregardless of flavor or manufacturer.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[John_Booty]

is "irregardless" a word there, too? :)

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[cryosis]

is "irregardless" a word there, too?

Why not? It's a word here and here as well.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[caca_phony]

potlatch-is-the-way-to-eat

If you are still in Knoxville, then it is a "pot luck." And, by Gawd, any carbonated drink is a Coke irregardless of flavor or manufacturer.

Don't mean to be a nerd, but a potlatch was an orgy of a social festival from what is now the Pacific Northwest USA / Southwest CA in which the chieftan who gave away the most stuff to his opponents and killed the most of his own slaves was officially the most important chief for the next year. Sounds like quite the party to me, they probably ate better during the potlatch than otherwise.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[John_Booty]

well, it's a word, yes, but not a very proper or one. first, it's redundant. "irr" and "less" are both negative, which is just silly.

secondly, it's hardly ever used correctly. as in the original post, it's often used in place of "regardless", but "irregardless" should have the opposite meaning, since it's "regardless" with an "irr-" prefix.

those links you provided contain their own mini-diatribes against this retarded word.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[The Ape With No Name]

Interesting. And would probably be quite an acceptible party here in Knoxville.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[The Ape With No Name]

So are "ain't", "you'uns" and "nabs." Irrespective of the fact that irregardless is bad usage, usage rules, and the practice of pointing them out, are for the particulary Pecksniffian. This is not unlike the odd fallacy monger who tosses out post hoc, ergo propter hoc whenever someone mentions the time.

Re:Tsk. Tsk. Tim....

[cryosis]

Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty useless word in and of itself. But it is a word. I was just answering the parent poster's question.

Mozilla == eew && Revolution OS == wee

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally like the idea of an open browser like this getting the attention it is. The problem? It's buggy as HELL. It's nice but even Netscape Communicator was more stable.

I caught Revolution OS on tv a while ago (Sundance was it?) and i really liked it. Explains alot that many people seem to miss. Oh, and Eric S. Raymond really does look that weird in person, if not weirder.

Solaris, the film.

[Lemmy Caution]

Coincidentally, the book "Solaris" by Stansislas Lem is being made into a film (for the second time, first time around was by the brilliant, late Andrei Tarkovsky) by Steven Soderbergh. And that's what I thought this slashback was about, at first glance. Oops.

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Cryptnotic]

Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is an amazing film, by the way, for the 99.999% of you who haven't seen it.

Re:Solaris, the film.

[great throwdini]

Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is an amazing film, by the way, for the 99.999% of you who haven't seen it.

I'm in your 1 in 100,000 club. I've seen Solyaris three times. Still think it's an overrated film. And I tend to be forgiving in my estimation of films. :p

...feeling smarmy because you insist on posting with your (hard-earned, I'm sure) +1 privilege...

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Lemmy Caution]

I think it's a good but flawed film. Tarkovsky for his own part didn't like it - he made the movie to make the Powers That Be happy, but he wasn't fond of the film. Stalker is a better movie. However, the original story by Lem is a great novel, and I believe Soderbergh, with his sensitivity to the contradictions and conflicts in human relationships and the poignancy of regret, will do it justice.

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Cryptnotic]

Overrated? Do people rate it enough for it to be considered overrated?

The film is interesting because it is a very "heady" sci-film. It is a film in which takes place far into the future and in futuristic settings, but portrays its characters as being conventional humans. There were no special effects at all used in the making of the film. But it still captures all of the confusion and complexity associated with sci-fi.

The only other film I can think of right now with a similar feel is Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville". Wait, that's not true, there is also David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ", another excellent heady sci-fi film.

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Chasuk]

This isn't a flame or a troll or a personal attack, but I do have to ask you this question:

Why would you watch a film three times that you consider overrated?!?

Re:Solaris, the film.

[great throwdini]

Why would you watch a film three times that you consider overrated?!?

Good question. I periodically (every few years) rewatch films that I consider to be 'borderline' in terms of my tastes. Solyaris is just one of those films that I talk myself in viewing again, "just in case I might want to change my opinion." Maybe I should give it one more chance...

Re:Solaris, the film.

[great throwdini]

Do people rate it enough for it to be considered overrated?

In certain circles, yes. I know a number of people who have viewed the film multiple times that might challenge your 1 in 100,000 claim. :p

It's not that I think it's a poor film. Just that it isn't all that great ... I don't think I would ever recommend Solyaris to anyone as "must-see" viewing. I'm trying to recall whether I've ever recommended it as anything to anyone.

The only other film I can think of right now with a similar feel is Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville".

Well, see, now you're just asking for trouble. I'd place the adventures of Lemmy C. ahead of Solyaris, should push come to shove.

[T]here is also David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ", another excellent heady sci-fi film.

Heady? Sure. Excellent? Ummm... Much as I love Cronenberg's work, eXistenZ isn't (again, in my opinion) an excellent film. Somewhere between Alphaville abd Solyaris, perhaps.

I guess 'heady' only gets so far in my book, when it comes to film. Headiness aside, I tend to value other aspects of a film more, or at least to an extent where 'headiness' isn't enough to pass muster. Now, to think of a counter-example...

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Lemmy Caution]

Well, see, now you're just asking for trouble. I'd place the adventures of Lemmy C. ahead of Solyaris, should push come to shove.

Thanks!

Responding to your parent poster, there are those of us who like cerebral films who find Solyaris flawed as a cerebral film - and the director himself was one of them. Again, Stalker is far better. Solyaris loses focus, it does get tedious (and I like good slow films - I like Tarkvosky, I liked Gattaca). It was made partially as a sort of cinematic space-race to show that the Soviet film industry could produce a 2001. Alphaville is an infintely better film - daring, innovative, funny, a little absurd, avant-garde yet still citing tradition film narrative techniques, ahead of its time, and the quirky plot was completely redeemed by the lack of affect of thein the last scene - great Verfremdungseffekt.

I think Cronenberg as an auteur is better than most of his works. Dead Ringers is his best movie - I like eXistenZ, but it wasn't half as clever as it liked to think it was. Actually, I've always thought Naked Lunch got a bum rap, and was a better film than a lot of people gave it credit for.

Re:Solaris, the film.

[Lemmy Caution]

Tarkovsky is important. His failures are more illuminating than George Lucas' successes.

StarOffice Free

[grahamsz]

StarOffice may no longer be free but Open Office will remain free.

I think this is part of some master plan to conquer the problem of corporations who dont like free software because nobody is acountable.

Seems like a win-win situation - we get openoffice, corps get staroffice, microsoft get less sales.

Re:StarOffice Free

[Jahf]

True, but how many different times does this need to be sorted out on /.? The "Star Office isn't free anymore" and "Open Office is free and open source and is 99% the same as Star Office" discussions have been covered for literally months. Seems like every 2 weeks or so something gets posted about it.

Re:StarOffice Free

[haggar]

I think this is part of some master plan to conquer the problem of corporations who dont like free software because nobody is acountable

I think this was already discussed ad nauseam, but I still like to point out that StarOffice DOES have a few features that make it money-worth for some companies. One that I can think of off the top of my head: WordPerfect filters.

iFilm has ads. Boycott.

[Anonymous Coward]

When I went to the iFilm web site, I was subjected to the entire preeview for the movie "Enough" (a piece of Hollywood dreck that I would not see, due to my ongoing boycott of the MPAA). Furthermore, when I was starting to view the preview in my choice of several non-Free media players, an additional advertisement played.

Due to my ongoing boycott of advertising on the Internet, I will now be forced to boycott Revolution OS. Sorry. Maybe I'll download the DivX rip of the movie someday, but I surely won't buy it on DVD.

"Whoops."

[The Pi-Guy]

HUH?? I coulda sworn when I ordered, it was S9. I already got S8 - "Anyone want a free S9 DVD?"

(a very humble) Pi

Umm.

[mindstrm]

Solaris has been running on the x86 since before linux existed.

Re:Umm.

[OzPixel]

Not really, since it was named SunOS back in those days. See the SunOS & Solaris Version History . Also, x86 support dropped out for a long time between SunOS 4.0.2 and Solaris 2.1. -- David.

Re:Umm.

[mindstrm]

Wow. Nitpick or what.

I should have said "The Unix operating system that Sun Microsystems Inc. Produces" and you would have been happy.

So they changed the name for marketing reasons. Whee.

Yes, I know that there were other changes as well.

Re:iFilm has ads. Boycott.

[Anonymous Coward]

I consider your message to be completely irrelevant. This is due to the fact that you misspelled the word "preview." As a result of your poor attention to spelling, I will now disregard all so-called "opinions" which you display.

Re:Is it really cross platform?

[theplaidranger]

You know mplayer can play streams, right? Just pass the url to the file as an argument. I've used it before with Windows Media - not sure about Real, though, as mplayer's support for that is flaky at best.

StarOffice no longer free after Wednesday???

[Letch]

So if Sun catches you with a copy of it after then, will the burden of proving to a judge that you downloaded it before now be on you, or Sun's?

Wanted Moz contributors

[tedd]

Sanjay Gupta is a pretty common name. Any other distinguishing information?

Re:Wanted Moz contributors

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm...he was one of the contributers to Mozilla.

=D

missing developers

[Anonymous Coward]

I like to post the following:

Enlightenment original developers

Rasterman, nutty coder from Aussie
Mandrake, professional french maid

Wanted in the connection of yet to be released E 17..if found please contact ck in germany.....

Re:missing developers

[Anonymous Coward]

it actually should read...

Missing E DR 17.

last developed by

Rasterman, the coder from penal coloney
Ausse

Mandrake, Professional french maid

wanted for trying to create a desktoop shell...

Jisms are best when people lest expected it

-overheard at IRC #E just tell them that Kainx sent ya.....

Solaris the Film

[Anonymous Coward]

I understand that there has been a film made about a planet-sized bloated globular mass which drives humans insane at first contact. For some reason, they are calling it "Solaris".

I know it's probably been tried

[GigsVT]

But has anyone tried to reach Dr. Wang (heh heh) at jiwei@taralnetworks.com?

"Uncle George"

[pgrote]

Died last year. He left the still to me and the pickup to my sister.

Ma got the coffee makers while Pa got the coon hound.

Re:iFilm has ads. Boycott.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please moderate the parent comment to "insightful." We need more of this insight on our Slashdot.

As a subscriber, it gives me great pain to see spelling errors in comments. Comments are the lifeblood of Slashdot, and they should be free of all spelling errors.

Solaris etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!

(This post is guaranteed by me, Anonymous Coward, to be a 100% authentic beowulf post. Go in peace, knowing with full confidence that you have been trolled by me, personally, the AC beowulf troll poster. Many imitate, none will ever equal. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES OR IMITATIONS!)

Re:Solaris etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear:
[X] Clueless Newbie [X] Lamer [X] AOLer
[ ] "Me too" er [ ] Pervert [ ] Geek
[X] Spammer [ ] Nerd [ ] Elvis
[ ] Fed [ ] Freak [ ] Cryogenic
[ ] Scammer [X] Troller [ ] Pre-teen

You Are Being Flamed Because:
[ ] You posted MODs in pieces LESS than 5000 lines
[ ] You posted something asking for warez sites
[ ] You quoted an ENTIRE post in your reply
[ ] You continued a long, stupid thread
[ ] You started an off-topic thread
[ ] You posted a "YOU ALL SUCK" message
[ ] You posted a blatently obvious troll
[X] You posted pretending to be someone famous (See "troll" above)
[ ] You replied to the above message type believing it was someone famous
[ ] You said "me too" to something
[ ] You make no sense
[ ] Your sig/alias/server is dreadful
[ ] You posted a phone-sex ad
[X] You posted a first post/beowolf/case mod
[ ] You posted a stupid pyramid money making scheme and claimed it was legal
[ ] I think you might be a fed
[ ] You posted in ElItE CaPiTaLs because you think that makes you cool
[ ] You didn't do anything specific, but appear to be so generally
worthless that you are being flamed anyway

To Repent, You Must:
[X] Stop masterbating for a week
[X] Give up your AOL account
[X] Bust up your modem with a hammer and eat it
[ ] Tell your Mommy to up your medication
[X] Jump into a bathtub while holding your monitor
[X] Actually post something relevant
[ ] Read the FAQ
[ ] Be the guest of honor in alt.flame for a month

In Closing, I'd Like to Say:
[ ] Get Wrecked
[X] Get a life
[ ] Never post again
[X] Age 10 more years before you post again
[X] I pity your dog
[ ] Go tell your mother/father/test tube they failed
[ ] Yer momma's so fat/stupid/ugly that etc...
[X] Take your gibberish somewhere else
[ ] Get a clue, you pathetic loser
[ ] Learn to post or get off the usenet
[ ] All of the above

Conspiracy's all around...

[ebbomega]

Meanwhile, Six hackers uncovered in a fraud scheme in Nigeria are apparently needed for Mozilla to be able to relicense its product....

17 more and this would be one HELL of a conspiracy theory...

Re:Conspiracy's all around...

[Glytch]

It's close enough. There are only five proper names on that list, and "Uncle George" is obviously a code word for George Dorn.

Solaris 9 on Intel

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think I'd call that a "confirmation" that
Sun's going to release Solaris 9 on Intel.
But it's a good sign that somethings happening
at Sun Quentin.

Re:Is it really cross platform?

[lunatik17]

MPlayer only supports RealMedia version 1, which no one uses. So their Real support is pretty much useless, and no, you can't watch Real streams with it.

Missing Mozilla Hacker on CNN?

[rherbert]

So what sort of medical advice did Mozilla need from CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta?

I KNEW I recognized that name.

Region-free: bad tactical idea

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be better if they released it for region 2 only instead, at least for a while. People could then complain to them about how they can't view it in the USA. Then, they could make an official statement that they as the copyright holders do not mind if viewers in region 1 use any other player or process (including DeCSS) to play their own legitimately purchased DVDs.

Voilla! Now DeCSS has substantial non-infringing uses and since they have the explicit authorization of the copyright-holder, the DMCA can no longer be used against it.

Sure, it might cost them a few sales at the beginning. But the free press would more than make up for it when they quietly release region 1 disks a few months later.

Re:Region-free: bad tactical idea

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a really funny idea.

Mod it up!

well, for the email part maybe ...

[timothy]

that might not take many people.

My mom (strangely) has gotten at least 2 handwritten, snail-mail letters in the Greater Nigerian Spam family. One of them referred to her as "The President." She found it pretty amusing ...

Over the phone, it took me a while to comprehend that she didn't mean email spam ;)

They must have more than 6 people copying those bizarrely worded letters ;)

timothy

Re:well, for the email part maybe ...

[Triskaidekaphobia]

True, but the people doing the copying are probably being underpaid and exploited - a sweatshop type situation. It benefits no-one to arrest them. The ones who run the scheme, and get the cash, are the ones really breaking laws.

Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[bcrowell]

Some random thoughts and questions about the Qt-Gtkmm debate:

1. Qt turns me off because you can't do cross-platform without paying big licensing fees. GTK turns me off because in the only examples I've seen, the code just looked like an untracked wilderness: hundreds and hundreds of unreadable toolkit calls, one after the next. I like Perl/Tk, but it doesn't make a nice double-clickable GUI. Are there better alternatives? How do people like wxWindows?
2. This is kinda OT, but since a bunch of the article used Rosegarden as an example, I'm curious: does anyone have comments on Rosegarden as opposed to GNU Lilypond?
3. I've been using Unix more or less continuously for 20 years, but I've only started using Linux within the fast few months, and although my impression is pretty favorable overall, I'm shocked at how hard it is to install applications, partly because of how the use shared libraries, and all the hassles associated with having the wrong version of the libraries, having them in the wrong place, etc. This seems to be an argument in favor of Qt, since it has more built in, so there's less need to link in a lot of extra crap. The article is all about the programmer's point of view, but does it actually help from the user's point of view?

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re. 2, Rosegarden is a GUI for typesetting music. It can export to LilyPond, MusiXTeX etc. Lilypond is like LaTeX, just a programming language for writing (very beautiful) music scores.

Re. 3, try Debian (next version, 3.0/Woody) is due shortly - I'd wait for that). It's vastly easier than any other distribution for installing software.

apt-get install prog

will install prog plus all dependencies. Can suck packages down from the net or from CD. Visit www.debian.org for the details.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Have you tried Java? It is easy to create applications with Swing in Java, and the code is easy to read too (at least to me anyway). Also it is automatically cross-platform.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Yohahn]

You don't want to compare lilypond to rosegarden.

Perhaps you could compare Denemo, for a gtk vs. qt kinda thing (denemo is further behind).

Denemo is focused on typesetting though. Staffs are just one of the things rosegarden can do.

All that said, I like gtk+, but notice qt audio apps getting ahead of gtk ones (with the very significant exception of Ardour

Ardour is only half done, but it rocks!

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[dvdeug]

I'm shocked at how hard it is to install applications, partly because of how the use shared libraries, and all the hassles associated with having the wrong version of the libraries, having them in the wrong place, etc.

What distribution are you using? I use Debian, wherein apt just downloads whatever versions of the various libraries I need along with the program. Whenever this comes up, RPM people claim their various systems use apt or some other system to solve the problem just as elegantly.

What are you doing on Linux that you weren't doing on Unix? As far as I can tell, the same problems should pop up with add-on packages and Unix.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Arandir]

Crossplatform licensing fees: Yeah, it's a bitch. Are you writing Free Software? If so, it doesn't matter much, because qt-win32 is free beer. Are you writing proprietary software? If so, how can you expect your users to pay for your software if you don't want to pay for Trolltech's?

It would be fantastic if there were QPL/GPL versions of Qt for Windows and Mac. It would also be fantastic if I got a 25% raise. But I don't expect either to happen tomorrow.

Shared libraries: I'm not sure I understand your concern. Shared libraries may be relatively new to Unix, but all modern unices (except some embedded ones) have them. You problems with Linux are going to be identical under Solaris, AIX, HPUX, etc. Try installing Gnome from scratch under IRIX without going mad...

But perhaps you're using a distro/OS that's a bit too rigid when it comes to package management. My suggestion would be to try Debian or FreeBSD.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[WWWWolf]

This is kinda OT, but since a bunch of the article used Rosegarden as an example, I'm curious: does anyone have comments on Rosegarden as opposed to GNU Lilypond?

Rosegarden is a music sequencer/notation thing. It works in X11. It can export to variety of typesetting formats.

Lilypond is, on the other hand, just a music typesetting system - but it can, if so desired, also produce MIDI files.

Rosegarden's weakness is that it lets you actually put notes on staves (click click!) and export to MIDI beautifully, but it doesn't really do adequeate job at typesetting.

Lilypond's weakness is that it doesn't have a GUI - it just reads text file and produces a DVI file through TeX (than can then be dvips'ed or dvipdf'ed). However, the textual format brings its advantages, such as that it's mostly human-readable =)

I'm not a professional musician, or even an amateur one (I don't have a Vast Knowledge of the music theory, and the only instrument I can play well is my throat - hey, wolves are supposed to know how to sing =) but I found that using Rosegarden to notate, then midi2ly'ing and editing the produced source, is a wonderful way of making beautiful expressions of melody - and it's immediately fit to be included in E2.

PS. GTK+ isn't so bad - especially with Glade. I use Glade with Perl, and it just rocks - The thing produces the GUI (bare GTK+ or with GNOME), all I need to provide are the signal handler functions... The reason GTK+ looks cryptic is that C wasn't really designed for OO and some macros are required =)

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

If so, it doesn't matter much, because qt-win32 is free beer.

If you have a GPL Qt apps under Linux, how can you port it to Windows, given that linking it with Win-Qt would violate the license?

If so, how can you expect your users to pay for your software if you don't want to pay for Trolltech's?

This is, was, and shall ever be, a bullshit argument. If you apply it fairly then everything under Linux should be paid for if you write commerical software. Qt is a very *very* minor part.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[bcrowell]

Are you writing Free Software? If so, it doesn't matter much, because qt-win32 is free beer
Huh? I checked pretty recently, and the only Qt I saw that was free as in anything was Linux. Both the Windows version and the Mac version are $1000 licenses. Has this changed within the last month? Did I miss something on Trolltech's web page?

It would be fantastic if there were QPL/GPL versions of Qt for Windows and Mac.
It is fantastic that there's a GPL'd version of GTK for Windos.

You problems with Linux are going to be identical under Solaris, AIX, HPUX, etc. Try installing Gnome from scratch under IRIX without going mad...
Well, let's compare with the OS that constitutes 90% of the desktop Unix market: MacOS X. To install a MacOS X app: (1) drag it to the Applications folder, (2) double-click on it. That's the way it should be. The heavy use of shared libraries in Linux is just one of the many design decisions that makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[HydroCarbon10]

Well, let's compare with the OS that constitutes 90% of the desktop Unix market: MacOS X. To install a MacOS X app: (1) drag it to the Applications folder, (2) double-click on it. That's the way it should be. The heavy use of shared libraries in Linux is just one of the many design decisions that makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.


No, the heavy use of shared libraries that break binary compatibility between every freakin' release makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.

Re:Qt, rosegarden, etc.

[Arandir]

1) There is a "free beer" non-commercial Qt for Windows. You must release your code as Open Source, but you don't have to pay for it, and it's fully operational. The only difference I've seen between it and the "real" version is that it sticks a "Freeware" in the title bar.

2) Maybe the Windoze GTK has improved, but the last time I used a WinGTK application it stuck out like a sore thumb. It rather resembled a Unix app ported to Windows (duh!) rather than a native app. That's not what you want for a crossplatform toolkit.

Interoperation with free software

[Anonymous Coward]

Six hackers remain to be found so that Mozilla can be relicensed under the LGPL and GPL as well as the MPL original license. This is really important if Mozilla is going to interoperate readily with all kinds of free software.

If the goal is to have the software be 'free software' compatible, then why not ask for it to be re-licensed under the BSD licence. Then EVERYONE can play.

Perhaps the power of Slashdot can find them in time for the 1.0 release?? The missing hackers are:

Hopefully these people (and the rest) will want to have the software interoperate with ALL the free software and pick a BSD license.

Laurent is a fool

[Anonymous Coward]

And just let everyone know his real motivations:

As I said, I think it's more likely that Inti died because its maintainer stopped working on it. As for Qt, indeed it is not developed publicly, and guess what : that's good.

Really? Just how much whoring with those who defend Trolltech actually do. How low will they go... let's see

You seem to imply that public development means quality. This is an old Free Software myth. Emails exchanged in their spare time by people who think they know what they're talking about (and I certainly was one of them) doesn't guarantee anything.

What a lot of shite. Closed development doesn't guarantee anything either. There are no guarantees... what's your fucking point? Software developed openly reflects the needs of the developers... software developed in a closed manner reflects the needs of the company. This is painfully obvious with Qt, which is rapidly becoming a bloated and slow platform of its own, rather than a graphics toolkit. It is the corporate customers of TrollTech who control (via the money) the direction of Qt - if you can't see why this is a problem for a toolkit which sits at the very heart of the KDE desktop, then... well... there really isn't much to discuss. You may as well use Windows.

But a small team of skilled people who work every day on the problem, receive user feedback, and who can discuss around a table stands a fairly good chance to achieve something good.

This is moronic, and pisses away just about everything to do with Free Software. Not only is Laurent a tool, he is also trying to perpetuate the myth that Free software is a bunch of clueless bedroom hackers throwing stuff togther.

I'd like to say a big FUCK YOU, to Laurent but I doubt it would even make a dent on his monstrous ego.

Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

No doubt this will be modded as a troll by some stupid moderator, but:

I keep hearing TrollTech/Qt supporters saying that it makes writing software easier - and yet, all the best and most advanced apps are available for GTK and GNOME. There's a pretty big conceptual break here, either there are better hackers writing GTK/Gnome stuff, or it's simply not true that writing quality apps is easier with Qt. It may be easier to write a 4 lines "Click me" demo, but like Visual Basic it's claims of being easier are hollow when faced with *real* programs.

My opinion is that Qt and GTK divide pretty strictly along language lines (which is why the front lines like gtkmm are such battlegrounds) - C++ and-nothing-else zealots go with Qt. Anyone who realises that multiple languages are important goes with GTK/Gnome. Me? I'm a multiple language man... the bindings that have been hacked together for Qt are extremely low quality and very fragile (not surprising given the mess that is the C++ ABI). Gtk/GNOME gives me a huge choice of lanugages and lots of flexiblity... and it is this that I think has fostered so many of the excellent applications.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you justify a comment like "all the best and most advanced apps are available for GTK and GNOME". Can you cite examples to back this up where there is nothing of equal complexity written with Qt? There are some pretty advanced programs written with Qt and I'm not just talking about KDE apps like Konqueror, KMail KOrganiser, KDevelop etc.

Re:Qt

[Arandir]

I like feeding trolls, so sue me...

You are right that Qt and GTK+ are divided along language lines. For the most part, those who prefer C prefer GTK+ while those who prefer C++ prefer Qt. User interfaces are naturally object oriented, so in my opinion it makes sense to use a language that does OO well, like C++. Thus, everything else being equal, Qt is the better choice for writing GUI applications. Yes, I know you can do OO in C. So what? You can do OO in assembly, but I don't know anyone who does.

Okay, to the meat of the issue: the best and most advanced apps. Since most old time Unix hackers are C fanatics, they tend to use GTK+. But that doesn't rule out the multitude of fantastic advanced applications for Qt such as KOffice, KDevelop, Doxygen, QCad, etc.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

No, C++ is a poor language for user interfaces - hence the reason TrollTech have to extend it with their pre-processor.

C is poor too. The difference is that it make the lanugage bindings better and more flexible so you can use GTK/GNOME with lots of *really* useful user-interface languages.

Why is this so difficult for the Qt zealots to understand?

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

There's a pretty big conceptual break here, either there are better hackers writing GTK/Gnome stuff, or it's simply not true that writing quality apps is easier with Qt.

Have you tried comparing the respective ressources involved in the making of these apps ? Say Nautilus vs. Konq, Evolution vs. KMail. Check how many people worked on each of these, then match that against the apps features.

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

Why is this so difficult for the Qt zealots to understand?

Have you extensively used these bindings yourself ? I hereby challenge anyone to port Rosegarden to a GTK+ binding (any binding, Python, Perl, C++, pick one). Or even to write an app which has half of the features Rosegarden currently has.

See this for more details on the problem.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Check how many people worked on each of these, then match that against the apps features.

Well that's a nice bullshit get-out-clause excuse. Waaaahhh... they had more people than we did. Even if that was true, did you think that the reason most GTK project have more people is because C++ puts a lot of people off... except for lamers straight from VB who are no good for anything anyway?

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Take an app that's been written for Qt and port it... what exactly do you think that would prove?

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

Even if that was true

Evolution : 17 full-time people during 2 years.
KMail : I think the core team is about 2 or 3 people, spare time.

Nautilus : 13 full-time devs, 1 year
Konq : around 4 people, 1 full-time, others spare time.

did you think that the reason most GTK project have more people is because C++ puts a lot of people off

Oh my god, no I never had thought of that. Gee, what a fool I was. Thank you so much for letting me see the light. I bow to your incredible debating skills.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Evolution - most the work there is nothing to the with interface. It's all dealing with the complexities and quirks of the mail standard. Most of that work is available to the KMail team - in fact, I do believe they've used a great deal of it... to rather poor effect judging by the shocking IMAP implementation in KMail.

Nautilus - has made most of its progress since Eazel vanished and the team is down 3 or so core members. What does this prove? It sure as shit ain't that Qt is easier.

You are also quite happy to ignore stuff like X-Chat, Pan, Anjuta...

Oh my god, no I never had thought of that. Gee, what a fool I was. Thank you so much for letting me see the light. I bow to your incredible debating skills.

Fuck off. Yes, what a fool you are. Most of your ranting is simple bad loser moaning. You don't like C; worked on a C++ binding for GTK/GNome and had your lack of coding skills bared for all to see. Now you spend you ample free time bitching about everything related to your previous failure.

Couple of other things: According to your article, wanting to manage your own memory use is a bad thing... and yet you use C++ rather than Java. Your Gnome languages rant is barely comprehenisble shite that simply doesn't tally with the facts. So yes, you are a fool.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my god, no I never had thought of that. Gee, what a fool I was. Thank you so much for letting me see the light. I bow to your incredible debating skills.

Hmmm... what an ass. Let's look at your debating skills. On one hand there is considerable evidence that GTK and GNOME are better because the apps are substanially superior. Your only response has been to challenge people to port your crappy Rosegarden app to GTk (proving what, exactly) and lame whines that a couple of the higher profile GTK/GNOME apps had more resource (which doesn't explain the quality of the other apps).

Debate? This isn't a debate pal, you've been slaughtered and now you're just whining pitifully whilst backing into a corner.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

It would prove that the ported app would be twice as large because GTK+ provides only half the functionality of qt!

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

Yes, yes, I confess, I'm a loser bad coder whiner and everything. I'm also paid by Microsoft and the KDE League to undermine the efforts of Gnome with my silly writings. There, I've said it. Ah, I feel better already.

Now, since you're so obviously a code master of skills way above mines, will you please further enlighten me ? Can you point me at the numerous incredible contributions which you doubtlessly have made to Gnome, so I can learn from them ? Please, pretty please ?

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

This isn't a debate pal, you've been slaughtered and now you're just whining pitifully whilst backing into a corner.

Absolutely. No really, the best one was "you say that memory management is bad, so why don't you use Java instead of C++ ?" Did you like this one too ? Such brilliant analysis of the problem, such in-depth grasp of all the issues...

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

You're still whining...

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, GTK is a widget toolkit. It's not a platform. GTK/GNOME is a platform... shithead. Qt is a bloated mess that tries to merge every platform into a generic monstrosity - it's like having all the bad parts of Java and none of the good.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

"you say that memory management is bad, so why don't you use Java instead of C++ ?

No, turdwit, that's not what I said.

Re:Qt

[Arandir]

Why don't you actually go use Qt. I don't mean use it for a day or two, but actually do a real project with it.

Qt is smaller than GTK/GNOME. Really. Go measure it sometime. If it were just GTK+, you would be right, but an application is much more than its interface. Once you start adding in XML, Unicode, SQL, genuine crossplatform capabilities, and decent C++ strings, to name a few, Qt starts to look very attractive.

Programming in Qt for a C++ programmer is very intuitive. Once you understand the simple signal/slot paradigm (which is the same paradigm in gtkmm), and the parent-child relationship of widgets, everything else is automatic. No, hardcore Generic Programming fans won't like it, but for real world C++ programmers, it's a natural fit.

Qt applications are easy to read, and thus easy to maintain. The stereotypical old school Unix hacker doesn't believe in easy to read or maintain code. That's a shame. But everyone else does. Go look at the typical GTK+ code and it's incomprehensible without first knowing the pseudo-OO model GTK+ uses. Look at the typical Qt program and you can understand it without even knowing Qt.

Qt does NOT try to merge every platform into it's code. Go look at it sometime. It's very clean, well documented, and nearly free of the compatibility hacks that litter other toolkits.

Re:Qt

[Anonymous Coward]

Qt is smaller than GTK/GNOME. Really. Go measure it sometime.

Eh? What the fuck are you banging on about. The point I am making is that comparing GTK and Qt is apples and oranges. Comparing the sizes of Qt and GTK/GNOME is more realistic, but so what... GTK/GNOME offers *massively* more features - many of those extras are supplied by KDE. This is an entirely pointless discussion.

Programming in Qt for a C++ programmer is very intuitive.

Yes, of course it is. Just like suckling at your mother's teat. Do be quiet... you know nothing of intuitive. It's a marketing buzzword - when you hear it in a discussion of programming lanugages you know the user is a clueless twat. Esecially when you hear things like: Once you understand the simple signal/slot paradigm (which is the same paradigm in gtkmm), and the parent-child relationship of widgets, everything else is automatic.

Qt applications are easy to read, and thus easy to maintain.

Opinion, nothing more. So are gtkmm programs. So are Visual Basic. The only people I've ever heard say anything different are APL programmers and some Perl losers.

Go look at the typical GTK+ code and it's incomprehensible without first knowing the pseudo-OO model GTK+ uses. Look at the typical Qt program and you can understand it without even knowing Qt

You fucking half-wit. Go look at some Qt code, and it's incomprehensible without knowing C++... what's your point? As for GTK being pseudo OO - give me a break. If anything C++ code is pseudo object oriented. The way loud-mouthed fuckheads like you and Laurent bang on about it, anyone would think C++ was the be all and end all of OO instead of a messy bastardized version of C.

Qt does NOT try to merge every platform into it's code. Go look at it sometime. It's very clean, well documented, and nearly free of the compatibility hacks that litter other toolkits.

? Yes, it does. Qt is an attempt to make all the platforms it supports look the same (don't bother mentioning plugins, that's just a get-out clause). It has all the bad points of Java, and none of the good.

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

Yes master, sorry master. Please explain again then. And, master, about those pointers to your valuable contributions to Gnome, so I can see how lousy a coder I am ? Please ?

Re:Qt

[Guillaume Laurent]

Yes. Could I have some examples of your code too ?

How fight the Nigerian Spammers

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

This is a denial of service attack on the spammers:

If you get a lot of the Nigerian spam, here's a cute way to fight them. All it takes is two or more spams. Set your email client to forge the address of the first spammer and use that to reply to the second spammer, then switch addresses and reply to the first spammer. Make the replies good, but not identical. Tell them how excited/honor/glad/etc you are to help them in their important/meaningful/lucrative venture.

You will never see the result of this, but you can count on each spammer trying real hard to con the other spammer for at least a couple of messages back and forth (these guys really are tenacious, I've been baiting them regularly and sometimes they just don't give up unless you out and out call them con men).

This attack wastes there time and energy on their like-minded fellow con-men rather than on the suckers that are their true marks. If even 10% of the people who got Nigerian spam did something like this, they would be overwhelmed and crushed by the weight of their own greed.

Re:How fight the Nigerian Spammers

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you missed the boat buddy. Spoofing the "Mail from:" field is trivial, and can be done by anyone as simply changing the "Email Address" field in outlook express to "jahwren@hotmail.com".

I thought slashdot readers had at least a basis of computer related knowledge that they could work from, but you proved me wrong.

Re:How fight the Nigerian Spammers

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

And how is "set[ting] your email client to forge the address..." NOT spoofing both the SMTP "MAIL FROM" command and the "Reply-To:/From:" line?

Of course you are just an AC who obviously couldn't even comprehend what I wrote in the first place and probably doesn't even know what RFC821 is, fucking retard.

Re:How fight the Nigerian Spammers

[Anne Thwacks]

The Nigerian ISPs are fighting this most effectively by offering maximum download speeds of 55 baud, and contention ratios of 9000:1 for modems.

Nitel (The national Telco) is assisting by ensuring that only one call in 10 connects to anything at all, and its normally the wrong number.This probably explains why most of these scams no longer originate from Nigeria.

Perhaps if ISPs and Telcos in other countries followed their example, there would be a massive decrease in spam.

StarOffice 6.0 NO TRIAL VERSION?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, so dissapointing to find out that Sun is not offering a test drive of the suite! I know is pretty much openoffice, but I would like to test the database module.

Well, I guess I will have to check warez

Solaris 9, no more free SMP

[Anonymous Coward]

IMO, much bigger news than whether or not Solaris 9 will run on Intel or not is the change in licensing - Solaris 9 is no longer free for multiprocessor systems. That's a real drag for the hobbyist.

Nigerians v. the Russian Mob?

[Anonymous Coward]

I always wondered what would happen if these Nigerian scammers accidentally did this to the wrong people, like, say the Mafia or the Russian mob.

It seems to me if you're advertising easy money, at some point you're likely to attract an element that might be pissed they got scammed, and might decide to take you out, along with your family, your pets, your neighbors, and a few innocent bystanders with similar sounding names.

Like WineX.

[waferhead]

Yeah, so people can rip off everyones work, and contribute nothing. Yeah, that's free. For the thief.

Did you even read the website?

[Anonymous Coward]

The radio buttons on the sun website allow you to choose between Solaris 9 for Sparc and Solars 8 for Intel not 9 ... Please pay more attention before making stupid posts.

App server bundled with Solaris 9

[(H)elix1]

Damn... I could have swore it said (_) sparc (_) intel when I did my order earlier today. No mention of version 8.

Anyhow, one of the reasons I was excited about trying rev 9 on x86 is Sun is bundling a J2EE app server with Solaris 9. Yes, I could use Jboss - but if Sun released something that even comes close to what I can do with Weblogic and it is free - I can use it for personal use. Alas, no x86 rev9.... No bundled app server.... Not quite sure what is going to be part of the Platform Edition, but it looks interesting...

• 
  The Platform Edition of the Sun ONE Application Server is integrated into the Solaris 9 OE. The licensing terms are for NO COST, evaluation, development and deployment of this J2EE 1.3 compliant application server. The license allows a single administration server for each application server instance, which means that centralized management of multiple application servers is not provided with this product.

Re:App server bundled with Solaris 9

[core_blimey]

Not exactly sure what version is included in the Solaris 9 "package" but when it was still all called iPlanet Application server there were 3 (well 4 kinda) different levels.

Standard, Enterprise,Enterprise Pro, and a Testing & Staging licence. Basically Standard only allowed a single KJS (Java Server), The enterprise allowed multiple KJS and clustering. The Pro was Enterprise plus some added goodness like workflow and universal adapter stub.

I would guess the bundled version is pretty much the standard version of iPlanet Application Server. Perfectly fine for testing, maintenance and even development purposes, but not really meant for large scale deployment.

Just my thoughts anyway.

Xtender will not play back any region DVD

[Namarrgon]

"It's also supposed to play any DVD, regardless of region."

Actually, that's incorrect. According to the table here, and similar info elsewhere, it will reset the region code that the DVD dongle writes to your Xbox, but you still require dongles from different regions to play import DVDs. Playback of any region DVDs may require modding the dongle, not just the Xbox itself.

However, the mod will of course allow you to play import games (great for me - if I move back to Australia, I'd prefer to take my Xbox & games with me, rather than selling the lot & buying it all over again in a new region).

Even more interesting, it will allow the Xbox to run unsigned code. This opens up the box completely to developers - for example, an ISO has already been released to switch the Xbox between PAL & NTSC (excellent :-) and the Enigmah-X group are rumoured to be working on a DivX player. Add an Ethernet-streaming MP3 player to that & you have a very versatile entertainment appliance. Not to mention that it'll give the Xbox Linux Project a huge boost, and may even make that old MAME port useful :-)

This could give Xbox sales a significant boost. I'm sure Microsoft would be delighted - if they were actually making money on each sale.

Gnome is so fucked

[Anonymous Coward]

Gnome is such a joke -- is anybody using it anymore? Why don't they just write it in assembly language!

Oh yeah, and why is Sun supporting them when Gnome's fearless leader faggotboy Miguel spends all his time trying to copy Microsoft languages. You'd think Sun would have enough talent to make their own desktop environment (or just use KDE).

Gtk alternatives to Gtk

[Ilan Volow]

Assuming the only GTK code you've seen is the C code (which I agree looks incredibly rowdy) you might want to have a look at the Gtk-Perl or PyGtk. I've used both and they make writing gnome/gtk applications tolerable. Also, learn how to use the Glade feature of Gtk. You design your interface in the Glade wyswyg UI editor, which generates an xml file describing the layout of the interface. You can have any number of scripting languages with Gtk bindings (Perl, Python, Ruby etc) at runtime load up the Glade xml file to build the GUI. Once you get Glade under your belt you'll be surprised how amazingly fast you can bang out workable GUI program.

You deserve to be marked as a troll by a moderator

[Anonymous Coward]

You deserve to be marked as a troll by a moderator, because you made the comment "all the best and most advanced apps are available for GTK and GNOME" without backing it up with anything.

You will be modded down, and you will deserve it.

Revolution OS on DVD

[ncc74656]

I just checked the website, and the only mention of DVD availability is this page where you can tell them you're interested. A Google search turned up this page on why it's not on DVD already.

As for the possibility that the DVD will be region-free, I was at the screening in Pasadena three weeks ago. J.T.S. Moore did a little Q&A at the end of the film; in response to a question, he did mention that a region-free, CSS-free release is a possibility that's being considered. From what I gathered, the decision isn't yet final. I also gathered that he doesn't have much love for the movie cartel. Neither the movie site nor iFilm mentioned specific release dates or prices.

(If it becomes available, I'd buy it. I liked it, and I'm not the open-source zealot that some people around here are (I tend to use whatever's appropriate for the task at hand). If a large enough number of copies get sold and it doesn't turn up on Gnutella, maybe it'll be a small lesson to the movie cartel about treating your customers right.)

text of African spam scam

[Jucius Maximus]

Here is the text of an actual spam from this scam. In this case it refers to the Congo and not Nigeria. It was all in caps but I changed the case so the lameness filter won't kill it. And yes, I Spamcop'd it.

Return-Path:
Received: from rly-na05.mx.aol.com (rly-na05.mail.aol.com [172.18.151.234]) by air-na04.mail.aol.com (v84.16) with ESMTP id MAILINNA41-0511183720; Sat, 11 May 2002 18:37:20 -0400
Received: from web20204.mail.yahoo.com (web20204.mail.yahoo.com [216.136.226.59]) by rly-na05.mx.aol.com (v86.6) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINNA55-0511183650; Sat, 11 May 2002 18:36:50 -0400
Message-ID:
Received: from [209.39.118.108] by web20204.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 11 May 2002 15:36:49 PDT
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 15:36:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: samel sahel
Subject: Transaction
To: j13moh]netscape[net
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear sir/madam

It is my pleasure to contact you today at this point
Intime for an urgent business relationship/investment.

I am samel the son of major targbo sahel, the late
Personal aide to late president mobutu sese seko of
The democratic republic of congo. My father died some
Years ago in a military detention where he was
Incarcerated by late president laurent kabila after
His arrest with other late president mobutu?s cabinet
Members in 1998.

Prior to his death he disclosed to my mother
Underground safe where he kept all his classified
Documents and other family treasures. Among these
Documents is a certificate of deposit of two trunk
Silver boxes as family treasures kept in a security
Vault in accra, ghana, which i just came over
To confirm few weeks ago.

Attached with the document is an instruction that the
Actual contents of the boxes are us dollars
$40,000,000.00 (forty million dollars) in cash. But
Not to the knowledge of the security company. The
Security company was told that the boxes contained
Family treasures.
These funds have overstayed in the security company?s
Vaults and have incurred demurrage. I want your
Assistance to come to accra-ghana and secure the
Release of these boxes.
We have agreed to part with 20% as yours, of the total
Funds and also to assist in the following ways.

1. That we shall required you to provide a good bank
Account to deposit the funds without attracting much
Taxation.
2. To assist in providing my family and i a permanent
Resident permit in your country after the successful
Transfer of the funds into your account.
3. That you shall serve as the general overseer and
Gaurdian to these funds and investment thereafter and
20% shall always be yours on every investment.

Please treat this as highly confidential. Thanks for
Your anticipated co-operation.

Yours faithfully,

Samel targbo

Why isn't Revolution OS Open Source?

[Mr. Pibb]

For a movie (or at least it seems like from the first 8 mins) that lambasts traditional IP sentiments, why are they charging for the finished product? You need only to hear the tone of the narrator's voice reading Gates' open letter to see what I mean.
Shouldn't we be able to get a hold of all of the footage and roll-our own edits? Why isn't it released as an OpenDivx?
Just a few questions.
P.S. Even with the above questions, I think I'll try to organize a screening of this on my college campus next year.

StarOffice Download URL

[Anonymous Coward]

Since it's not yet Wednesday midnight (it's Wednesday morning), I plan on downloading StarOffice, but I can't find the URL anywhere on the StarOffice Webpage. Can anyone please help? Thanks!

Re:StarOffice Download URL

[Anonymous Coward]

Here you go, leech away!

More info on Nigerian scams

[scrm]

Here.

Region free

[Anonymous Coward]

but Revolution OS will apparently be released on DVD (region free)

It would have been ironic to release it region locked.

Don't waste your time

[Anne Thwacks]

Unless you are desperate to reproduce conditions at work or something, don't bother.

I tried it, and after a couple of weeks, I went to NetBSD. Much better in every way.Except for SMP.

Damn!

[david.given]

What with 'Film, Solaris', I thought the post was going to be talking about a certain obscure Russian science-fiction movie...

Wow, thanks!

[WWWWolf]

Denemo looks promising and it produces Lilypond directly. Very nice; another project with High Hopes From. =)

Re:LGPL and GPL - what's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

The point is a pragmatic one. If someone converted from LGPL to GPL, she would have to change all those pesky little license files all over the codebase. As things are now, she doesn't have to.

Re:Solaris - It sucks

[lukegalea1234]

Personally.. I hate solaris. I have heard all the arguments like.. it's great if you spend all this time tweaking it, etc.. but the fact is it comes out of the box unusable.. almost nothing but vi installed.. Fine for a server environment but you pretty much need either a bunch of time to install and customize it to make it usable or just use linux for development and pop it over onto solaris at the last minute. Which pretty much makes the x86 offering useless. I can see why they cancelled it.

Re:Will it be piracy to copy Staroffice after midn

[Anonymous Coward]

1. License to Use. Sun grants to you a non-exclusive and non-transferable license for the internal use only of the accompanying software and documentation

Internal use only? They expect you to eat the software?

Re:Solaris - It sucks

[DevNull Ogre]

Solaris 8 ships with a companion CD that has a lot of the toys (GCC, Emacs, GDB, even KDE2) you'd get with a Linux distro. Of course, you can also just download the CD.

I don't know what they're planning with Solaris 9. I know they talked about including a lot more of the GNU tools by default. And, since it ships on DVD, there should be plenty of room for all the fun stuff we miss from out Linux distros.

You deserve to marked Offtopic by a moderator

[Anonymous Coward]

You deserve to be marked Offtopic by a moderator, because you made the comment "You will be modded down, and you will deserve it." without backing it up with anything.

You will be modded down, and you will deserve it. Then I will suck your cock.