Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Taplight, Handheld, Samba
Click on through for some impressive graphs ... . bramcohen writes "Since RedHat 9 got /.'ed last week there have been over ten thousand complete downloads using BitTorrent. Initial traffic got very high, transferring over a gibibit a second. All throughout the BitTorrent servers, run by volunteers using stock tools, held up just fine. Meanwhile downloads from RedHat Network, only available to subscribers, transferred at a crawl. The third Animatrix also got quite a few downloads. Thanks to everyone who left their downloaders running, and David Stutz and Eike Frost for setting things up."
If you exaggerate enough the first time, subsequent revisions sound like concessions. Russell McOrmond writes "An article in ITBusiness.ca includes references to the methodology of the BSA studies, and how it confuses Free/Libre and Open Source Software with piracy. There are some related articles talking about CAAST/BSA on my work weblog from the past."
Tap, Tap, Tap. feagle814 writes "Recently, I saw a question on Ask Slashdot that intrigued me. The person was asking for ideas relating to building your own glowing and color-changing ball. Being the kind of person to take such a general request for comments and turn it into a personal reason for living, I quickly skimmed the description on ThinkGeek and came up with these requirements for my project:
- It must meet the generic description of the Ambient Orb,
- It must cost less than $50 to make,
- It must be wireless, with at least a 30-foot range, and
- It must be controllable by home computer.
After much deliberation, I came up with the following solution. I've included pictures and instructions, as well as a recounting of my experiences."
Not just a simulation. Olmy's Jart writes "This is a followup to yesterday's article on "Samba Exploit Discovered, Fixed". Digital Defense has posted an apology to the Samba Team for posting a complete live working exploit (not even a mere "proof of concept", but a zero day rooter) on their site for this vulnerability. The exploit has been taken down, for what that's worth now. This is being reported in an article on ZDNet AU. Digital Defense now claims that this was done without the approval of their management."
Funny, CompUSA is finally selling duplicators, too. Unominous Coward writes "According to this article, the man who planned to install CD copying machines around Australia has withdrawn from the idea. Not surprisingly, this was after a lawsuit by the music industry."
Anyone who would like to buy me one is free to do so. prostoalex writes "Sharp Zaurus deal is back at Home Shopping Network. Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 is $199, but a coupon code HSN4897 knocks the price down by 15%. With standard shipping the order comes to around $173."
We need both more Korean food and more Korean electronics. Jo "directhex" Shields writes "HEXUS.net has completed its extensive messing around with GamePark's GP32 Handheld, which recieved a mention a couple of days ago on Slashdot (and recieved the usual thrashing from members too busy to read the article but not too busy to post trashy ill-informed comments about it).
It should help to clear up a few myths about what the unit is, what it tries to do, and what it succeeds at doing. Read the review, and pass mighty Slashdot Judgement."
We're sorry, this product has sold out and is no longer available. To find a similar item, use our search box located in the top left of your screen or browse our departments displayed on the left.
damn, and I was going to get one this time...
I know of a very simple way that takes just a small amount of skin-safe glow-in-the-dark paint.
The coolest voice ever.
hopefully this will never spread to america, even for debate.
This post was brought to you by the number 584811 and the characters / and .
FYI, You can get the Zaurus over at TigerDirect for $199. It is recertified and Tiger has kind of a dubious image although I have bought from them a few times with no problem.
Help fight continental drift.
Initial traffic got very high, transferring over a gibibit a second.
They using the Fat Albert network protocols over there?
I was glad to see Digital Defense owning up to their mistake. It's a testament to the strength of a sense of courtesy in the security community. People f*ck up, but they feel bad afterwards.
See ma, even blackhats have emotions!
Recursive (adj.): see 'Recursive'
Hello,
Recently I've been introduced to an operating system known as Linux.
Lured by its low cost, I replaced Windows 98 on my computer with Linux. Unfortunately the more I use it the more I fear that this "Linux" may be an insidious way for the Dark One to gain a stronger foothold here on Earth. I know this may be a shocking claim, but I have evidence to back it up!
To begin with, Linux is based off of an older, obsolete OS called "BSD Unix". The child-indoctrinatingly-cute cartoon mascot of this OS is a devil holding a pitchfork. This OS -- and its Linux offspring -- extensively use what are unsettingly called "daemons" (which is how Pagans write "demon" -- they are notoriously poor spellers: magick, vampyre, etc.) which is a program that hides in the background, doing things without the user's notice. If you are using a computer running Linux then you probably have these "demons" on your computer, hardly something a good Christian would want! Furthermore in order to start or stop these "demons" a user must execute a command called "finger". By "fingering" a "demon" one excercises an unholy power, much the same way that the Lord of Flies controls his black minions.
Linux contains another Satanic holdover from the "BSD Unix" OS mentioned above; to open up certain locked files one has to run a program much like the DOS prompt in Microsoft Windows and type in a secret code: "chmod 666". What other horrors lurk in this thing?
Consider some of these other Linux commands: "sleep", "mount", "unzip", "strip" and "touch". All highly suggestive in a sexual nature. I know that our Lord cannot approve of these, and I urge them to be renamed to something appropriate to the Christian community. Interestingly "CONTROL-G" (the sixth key from the left of the keyboard) does an abort. To write files a "VI" editor is included. All these are to ensnare the unsuspecting christian who could get tempted by typing "VIVIVI" all day long.
Fourth, Linux uses a flavor of DOS known as Bash. Bash is an acronym for "Bourne Again Shell". On the surface this would appear to be supportive of the Lord. However, remember that even Satan can quote the bible for his own purposes! While I believe Linux may be born-again, its obvious by the misspelling of "born" that its not born-again in an Christian church. Will the lies ever cease?
Additionally, one of the main long-haired hippies involved with the GNU Free Software Foundation supports communism, contraception and abortion. He has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values", and his web site even advocates government support of contraception. He also wears fake halos, and has quips about his made-up church that relates to his free software. I find such blasphemy to be extremely unsettling.
One must also remember that the creator of Linux, a college student named Linux Torvaldis, comes from Finland. I'm sure all the followers of Christ are aware of the heritical nature of the Finnish: from necrophilia to human sacrifice, Finnish culture is awash in sin. I find little reason to believe anything good and holy could arise from this evil land.
Finally, let us remember that there is an alternative to using the Satan-powered Linux. I think history has shown us that Microsoft is quite holy. I'm told that its founder, William Gates is a strong supporter of our Lord and I encourage my fellow Christians to buy only his products to help keep the Devil at bay.
I wish I had more time to expound upon my findings. Unfortunately a family of Jews has moved in across the street and I must go speak to them of Jesus Christ before they are condemned to eternal hellfire.
Please investigate this as you see fit and I'm sure you'll reach the same conclusions that I have.
and recieved the usual thrashing from members too busy to read the article but not too busy to post trashy ill-informed comments about it
It also received its fair share of unfair support by people who had never tried it, but 'Oooh'ed and 'Aaah'ed over it because of the theoretical possibilities of the thing. Hell...there's not been a public release of a GBA emulator for the thing yet, and in the last article, edrugtrader got modded through the roof because he claimed to have one that *did* play GBA games, though there's absolutely no proof of this.
SmartMedia has been out of the public spotlight for quite some time now, and if memory serves, limitations in the standard prevent it from ever going beyond 128 MB in size. Furthermore, its very thin and flimsy, thus easily broken or lost.
The size and layout does lend itself to the idea of running GameBoy/GBC/GBA emulation, but from what I've read (on the pages of the emulator authors themselves), the emulation isn't even up to par yet...most games run at about 50% framerate. Forget SNES emulation...even if the unit gets fast enough, you're lacking in the buttons department.
No Afterburner or backlighting kit is available for it yet. Furthermore, it's not compatible with GB/GBC/GBA 3rd party accessories, so no lighting options exist unless someone creates a side-lighting kit. In the last article, someone did mention it, but provided no links, and I can't turn up anything.
Finally, I just really have to point out that it's designed to run *downloaded* ROM images, DivX movies, and MP3s. Yes, you can run homebrewed ROMs, DivX rips of your own DVDs, and MP3 rips of your own CDs, but do you *really* think that's the point? Ignore the movies and the music for the time being - It's a *game console*. It's designed for games. More specifically, it's designed for *emulated* games. There's only a tiny handful of actual 1st/2nd/3rd-party Korean software support for the unit excepting the emulation community...and though there have been some good releases in the homebrew ROM community, you're kidding yourself if everyone's talking about how this thing can run GBA games, even though there's not even a GBA emulator out yet.
I think the reviews from sites like Hexus and GamersHell are a total farce. Rating this thing so highly because it *could* stomp the hell out of the GBA is like giving the SiS Xabre a 10/10 because, with enough driver improvements, it *could* beat the GeForceFX, two years down the road...
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
http://www.ambientdevices.com/developer/
-Tommy
"I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
Bram Cohen the author of bittorrent is also the main codecon organisner. The audio recording of the talks and panels at codecon can be downloaded with bittorrent. It maxed my downstream at 50KB/sec, someone else reported 200KB/s down.
TX433 module $6.02
RX433 module $6.02
Shipping (Qkits) $9.17
2 Red LEDs $1.20
2 Green LEDs $2.76
2 Blue LEDs $2.60
Shipping (SuperbrightLEDs) $5.00
PIC16F84A $5.63
Shipping (Digikey) $6.00
Total $44.00
Note: Things like the Taplight, the PIC programmer, the circuit board, and the miscellaneous electronic parts have been omitted because they would have brought the total above $50
"Omitted because the would have brought the total above $50"?? Can I do that with my taxes? You know, I only made $nnnn this year... because any more would nock me into the next tax bracket! :)
Blockwars: a multiplayer, head to head game similar to Tetris
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Every once in a while, I'm really motivated by a Slashdot post, and explore the problem further with some quick and light research and writing. By the time I've finished, most readers and moderators have long since left the post for fresher news and I'm left with a relatively small audience. In the spirit of Slashback I thought I could reincarnate those old posts for a second viewing.
While risking my Karma for something that could be seen as off topic, I do think it adds value to Slashdot and really doesn't fit anywhere else.
Ecosystem and Economy: In response to the standard environmentalist-versus-economist arguments that were flying about in a previous Slashdot post in reference to a Daily Telegraph article, I sought out a fresh viewpoint based on reductionism and the conservation of energy.
Social Network Theory: A Slashdot post led to a Register article, which was steeped in an unusual amount conspiracy theory. Suggesting that Google was gamed by a group of A-list bloggers, perhaps it is all simply just a result of social networks. This is a new topic to me, so if you know anything about social network theory, I'd love it if someone could take me to school.
First-Generation TiVo: In a discussion concerning second-generation TiVos I thought I'd whip up a quick script that would allow people to see what I'm currently watching as proof that my house wields the mighty sword of TiVo modding.
Mystery Treasure: I also put a not-so-well hidden page on my site to see if anyone would gravitate towards it, but it as of yet remains undiscovered. Hint: MSIE users will not get far. Consider it pay back for not doing PNG transparency.
Michael.
Linux : Mac
Yet another signature that refers to itself. The irony and humor is dead.
Unfortunaly, the BSA results are flawed in more ways that the one mentioned in the article. For instance how many of the users who are being listed as pirtates, actually are, but simply would make due without either: a) the pirated software (zero economic gain for piracy reduction) or b) the computer system, useing someone elses (net economic loss). Also what are the economic gains being contributed by people who are using pirated software and who otherwise would, by doing something less productive, or having less money to do other productive things, contributing to the economy. I'm sure others could find many other issues; like what would the price reduction in the pirated software that would convience 10% of pirates to pay.
I'm not saying piracy is "right", although it often is treated as typical theft; that is if I steal a car from a car dealership, not only did I not pay for the car, no one else can buy that particular car. With software piracy you aren't paying, but you don't take away the ablity of someone else to pay, because you don't destroy, or physically make unavailable the original. Again this doesn't mean it isn't wrong, just that it is different, and needs to be discussed with those differences in mind.
I looked at the specs for Bittorrent (thanks to the author who provides full specs!) and from that and what I saw when downloading Animatrix, it's easy to see what happens.
/.'d at the start. (I'm assuming each BT client tries to download segments in random order)
The system is designed to talk with other peers trying to download the same torrent file, and checks around to establish a list of best (fastest) providers. He's got a lot of nice adjustments in the protocol to favor swapping of parts too, which is a nice touch. (I'll give you block 25 if you give me block 18)
If the mesh has enough people that have already downloaded some blocks, (should happen almost immediately?) then the host basically does nothing besides help hook new downloaders into the mesh. This is why the host doesn't get
As for the client's view of things... I was quite impressed with Bittorrent's ability to saturate my line as soon as it got moving. (it took a couple minutes to get its bearings in the mesh before it started) Once it was on its feet, it had my 768kbit line doing a solid 80+k/sec download. Very nice.
NOTE, there is a penalty. Iirc, Bittorrent forms up to 20 connections (download) at a time. This effect was very apparent in that two other file transfers that I had going at the time got the rug pulled out from under them. Instead of my "three" downloads getting an even split at say 25,25,25 k/sec, it was more like 80,3,2 k/sec. Bittorrent's use of many pipes, combined with the network and OS "sharing" the bandwidth between the pipes (instead of the applications) caused some nasty starvation on my other non-BT downloads.
Overall, I like it. I wish more big things were available via BT. I left Animatrix up for about six hours after it completed, and the mesh was only drawing between 0-4 k/sec from me during that time. Surely a fair trade! The author has a paypal link at his site, think about tossing him a couple bucks and lets see this evolve even farther.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.