Slashback: Security, Telephony, Solicitude

Slashback with more on Linux telephony, Mailblocks' terms of service, the scary disease known as SARS, the status of civilian GPS accuracy and more -- read on for the details.

A good oversight to correct. AndyMan! writes "Regarding yesterdays 'Building A Better Inbox,' I got the following email from support@mailblocks.com:

"'Our apologies, we picked up an old version of our TOS when we went live. We will NOT be allowing 3rd parties to send unsolicited email to our userbase. Please check the site this evening for the updated and correct TOS. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.'"

All the government you pay for. dunng808 writes "Despite frequent speculation to the contrary, Security Enhanced Linux is alive and well. Government Executive Magazine has a report from a conference on open-source software at which Peter Loscocco, a senior NSA scientist, revealed that the agency has continued to work on SE Linux despite efforts by Microsoft and the Initiative for Software Choice. "We spent a lot of time educating our managers, who accepted a lot of the flack that has come back to NSA about SE Linux," Loscocco said. For those readers trying to win acceptance of open-source software in the workplace, what effort have you undertaken to educate management, and what has worked?"

Also safe for now is GPS. As an anonymous reader writes, "Following last week's thread on GPS, and the possibility that the Pentagon might goof around with the civilian signal, Forbes checks in with the folks in charge and finds we have nothing to worry about."

OK, both of these things involve series of coherent vibrations in air ... A few months back, we mentioned that TheKompany was selling software to let Zaurus owners use Net2Phone for telephone service, and that they were working on a desktop version as well. Well, now it's ready. HeUnique writes "TheKompany just released tkcphone for the Linux desktop. This is the first product which lets Linux users to use their existing net2phone accounts to talk either through net2phone to net2phone or net2phone to standard POTS phone with the best audio quality (G.729 codec)."

And in almost-but-not-totally-unrelated news, jackjumper writes "Shawn Gordon of The Kompany fame has started his own record label, ProgRock Records. From the interview at Linux and Main: "The idea...is to provide progressive rock music to listeners at a low price while allowing more of that money to find its way to the artists' pockets than happens with conventional recording contracts and at the same time making a gesture -- you know the one -- to the established recording cartel." This sounds really cool."

A deadly pathogen by any other name. waytoomuchcoffee writes "The leading hypothesis for what is causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is now thought to be a coronavirus, one of the virii that can cause the common cold. The New York Times (archive version for those non-members) has a story here. The global toll is now more than 750 stricken and 22 dead. Singapore is quarantining hundreds of people in an effort to stop the outbreak, while the head of the city's hospitals has taken ill with symptoms consistent with SARS. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have pages up now, which include FAQs and progression information."

How many times do we have to go over this? Vajsvarana writes "The major free Desktop Environment GNOME and KDE has released a common open statement on recent XFree86 troubles. 'Innovation should happen in the open, with all affected parties able to participate early in the process' seems a clear and strong request to XFree86 people."

Comments

Re:OT: Slashdot Issues?

[gsmb]

yes i can confirm th unstability. couldnt get http://www.slashdot.org to load AT ALL but plain http://slashdot.org works anyone know why????

Funny, I saw him at the airport too.

[RonBarr]

It was a scary moment - some terrorist almost killed him! Fortunately, some Homeland Security guys took out the nutcase. It could have been a disaster.

Re:SARS and chinese gov

[gsmb]

dammit there is a space between the 0 and , but i cant remove it
could you help by telling me how to post a clickable link??

RE: Your Sig

[scotch]

Score: -1, Pro-Microsoft
Karma: Crappy (see above)

For a suitably loose definition of crappy, perhaps. For you lurkers out there, notice that the Bungi has such "crappy" Karma that he has the +1 bonus. Look at his posting history - he frequently gets 4s and 5s.

The above post suggests that his karma is fine when he is merely "Pro-Microsoft". It's when he turns into a drooling anti-linux schill that he runs into Karma trouble.

It was pretty funny, though. Of course, If I was your manager and you fed me that misinformtion, I'd fire your ass.

Re: Your Sig

[scotch]

You have nothing better to do than to reply to people who have nothing better to do than to "make stupid offtopic comments about other people's sigs"? Wow, I knew I was pathetic, but you really take the cake.

Sigs are my new slashdot hobby. Your sig is a great source of amusement. I think I may cash in my userid for "sig cop".

If I was you manager, when I moved you to the parking garage, I'd take away your keys to the main floor. Also, I'd probably punch you in your throat