Slashback: Hatred, Glass, Identification

Slashback brings you another source for the Unix Haters' Handbook, along with more news on the Caldera v. IBM lawsuit and other updates on topics from XPde to creating a stained-glass computer. Read on below for the details.

Why Yes, you can sell the Free books. ProteusQ writes "Project Gutenberg has released a 'Best Of' CD, April 2003 Edition. The CD compilation is copyrighted and licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows unlimited non-commercial duplication and distribution. You can even sell it, provided that you share 20% of the gross profits with Project Gutenberg. It contains almost 500 books, and the 'Best Of' project itself based on the Open Source model. All of the work was performed by volunteers (mostly by me, in this case), with the goal of building a volunteer base to create about three editions per year."

Welcome to the American legal system, mind your footing. An anonymous reader submits: "In an e-mail discussion that took place 24 and 25 April, SCO-Caldera Senior Vice President Chris Sontag told MozillaQuest Magazine that there is SCO-owned code in Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions. He also told MozillaQuest Magazine that the tainted code is not in the Linux kernel that Linus [Torvalds] and others have helped develop. We're talking about what's on the periphery of the Linux kernel."

On this topic, Random BedHead Ed writes "IBM has released its denial of SCO Group's charges that it borrowed proprietary UNIX code in its development of the GNU/Linux system. Story at News.com.com.com.etc. The battle continues.

Also, check out PCLinuxOnline.com for a good summary of the events thus far. They also have a Boycott SCO page if you're interested."

The height of practicality. Jerami Campbell writes "I just saw your article in Slashdot 'Building a stained glass computer case?' I have made several stained glass computer cases, I thought you might be interested in checking them out. You can see all of my cases at lucentrigs.com. I will have a new one finished in a couple of days. It is black glass with a red lava lamp mounted in the front."

Gun buffs have well-adjusted sights. In regards to the MP3-player-in-a-rifle-magazine posted the other day, Mat S. writes "I would be reaaaaally surprised if this fit a standard AK-47, as it is an SVD (Russian infantry rifle, as opposed to the AK, which is in fact a carbine, although called an assault rifle) mag. It accommodates much more powerful ammo, and the cartridges are about 50% longer than the AK's. Thank you for your attention. I still WANT this player. Might be a bit on the heavy side, though. this case is stamped steel, about 3 mm thick :)"

Fair and balanced, naturally. An anonymous reader writes "For those of you who were unable to obtain the Microsoft propaganda about Unix, it's up at MIT."

Note for the humorless: the UHH is not "Microsoft propaganda."

The best Congress money can buy. If you thought Hilary Rosen writing Iraq's copyright law was an isolated incident, don't worry, she's not alone. theodp writes "The RIAA paid $18,000 for the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to travel to Taiwan and Thailand to make it clear to government officials that the pressure to enforce U.S. laws against pirating of music and movies 'is a unified message coming from all levels of the U.S. government.' Watchdog groups say the trip may have violated House ethics rules, and one is calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he could have used committee funds to pay for the trip but, 'I thought I would save the taxpayers some money on this.'"

Thanks a bundle.

A considerate way to fool your friends and family. We've mentioned the blink-twice Trompe L'Oeil Windows-looking desktop XPde a few times before; now xexen writes "On April 26th 2003, I received an email. The XPde Team released XPde 0.3.5, a major upgrade to the XPde desktop environment and window manager. Check out the announcement, view the screenshots, or read the detailed ChangeLog."

Build up your frequent flyer miles. A few weeks ago we mentioned that the proceedings of the most recent linux.conf.au (a Linux gathering Down Under) were available as an ISO; hemos, who was on hand at the conference, passes on word that the CDs have been sent out, and points to some more info on the next LCA.

Comments

Just in case MIT gets slashdotted...

[baximus]

PlanetMirror has the UHH here.

Enjoy (yeah, second time i've posted this - the last time got deleted - thanks guys)

Microsoft propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

Note for the humorless: the UHH is not "Microsoft propaganda."

I note that since the original story was posted, a disclaimer has been put up at the site (no doubt in response to the humorless):

Due to being announced on Slashdot.org, the book has gotten a lot of fresh attention. I've added this page so that those downloading the book can be aware of some history before starting their read.

• This book is ten years old . I started work on it in 1992 (maybe even 1991) while I was a professor at Stanford. My co-editors took over after I started work at Microsoft. (So no, it's not a Microsoft conspiracy.) A lot has happened in the intervening decade.
• This book's target audience was people who themselves have noticed certain weaknesses in Unix at that time and could relate to our stories. Our goal was humor. Many readers have told us we succeeded in this. Even Eric Raymond liked it (his name is in the acknowledgements).
• The book is not meant to be balanced, it is a screed, pure and simple. Is it over the top? Yes.
• We wrote the contract with our publisher to have the copyright revert to us once the book went out of print. So yes, we have the right to publish it online. Feel free to mirror it where ever you want, print it out, and bind it.
• Do I have any regrets? Yes, that the funniest item in the book probably isn't anything we wrote, but is Dennis Ritchie's anti-forword. (We had asked Dennis to write a forword, thinking that since he was doing Plan 9 at that time, it would give him an opportunity to talk about how he had moved on from Unix and fixed its flaws in his next OS. (We were young and had a lot chutzpah then.) He read the Preface, and then sent back his essay. We thought it was great and tremendously funny, so we added it in (with permission). To this day, I don't know if he expected us to publish it.)
• If you enjoyed reading this book and felt it was worth the price of a least a movie and popcorn, send a $10 check to your favorite charity.

Re:Affirmative action for a right

[Cyberdyne]

I don't exactly know what the u.s. equivalent is, but in Germany there is something called negative Feststellungsklage which means that Suse could apply for a court order declaring that SCOs claims are false and prohibits them to repeat their allegations. If SCO seeks to achieve a precedent by sueing Suse this might be the appropriate backfire.

There's a similar mechanism in the US (nothing to do with "affirmative action", at least in the US sense): you can petition the court for a "Declaratory Judgement". Effectively, winning such a judgement in your favor would mean SCO had already lost the first court case - they'd have to start off by appealing an existing ruling in your favor, instead of starting a new case against you. Definition here.

Re:carbine? assault rifle?

[bobbozzo]

A carbine is a short rifle (barrel length under 20").

"assault rifle" is a general term some anti-gun activists and politicians and media have created.
In the People's Republic of California, it is (defined by law as) a semiautomatic centerfire rifle with any of the following characterics:
a pistol grip
a flash suppressor
magazines holding more than 10 rounds
folding or collapsible butt stock ...
See here or here for more exact PRC legal info.

XPDE

[zzxc]

I noticed that the XPDE screenshots use mozilla/netscape with the classic skin. There is an Internet Explorer skin at mozdev.org they could be using. (if they want to copy windows explorer, this would be a must)

Re:carbine? assault rifle?

[Zirnike]

Just to be clear, until about 1990 or so, any dictionary and encyclopedia (as people have been missing the obvious lately, I feel the need to say 'that I was able to get my hands on to look at') defined assault rifle with the additional charactaristic 'Must be capable of burst fire and fully automatic fire'.

Re:carbine? assault rifle?

[JimmytheGeek]

the term was in use circa WWII to denote automatic weapons firing cartridges more powerful than pistol ammunition (used in submachine guns), but less powerful than a typical rifle bullet. The rationale is that most infantry combat took place at shorter range than what made a regular rifle necessary, and it's difficult to fire an automatic rifle using the more powerful cartridges.

Germany had a couple in WWII, the Russians had one too, I think. The U.S. went with the M14 (looks a lot like the M1, but has a detachable magazine and automatic fire) for a while, which was an automatic rifle by this definition. Then the M16.

More clarification

[FFtrDale]

A carbine is called that because carbines were originally used by cavalry, and they had a D-ring or snap-link (just like a mountain climber's carabiner) for attaching it to the saddle by means of a lanyard. If dropped while a trooper was on horseback, the rifle could be retrieved rather than being lost entirely. It was short so it wasn't too awkward to fire while mounted, and so it would fit in a scabbard attached to the saddle. Before long, many armies found that short, handy rifles were useful for many kinds of troops (artillery and mortar crews, tank crews, infantry officers who wanted more than just a pistol), and the historical term "carbine" remained after the lanyard ring was gone.

As has been said, the original (and for me, the "true") definition of an assault rifle is that it can fire like a machine gun, and is typically smaller than a "main battle rifle" like the M1 of World War II. Legislators in the U.S. have used the term for semiautomatic (= "self-loading") rifles; these fire 1 shot each time you pull the trigger. Legislators in various places use the term for any "scary-looking" rifle, especially those with a pistol grip, a flash hider, a metal lug for attaching a bayonet, a removeable magazine that holds a lot of cartridges, & on, & on...

Imagine that you're a WWII German soldier assaulting a position outside Stalingrad. You're a lot happier when you get issued something that fires like a machine gun. Also, its cartridges are less powerful than standard rifle cartridges of the era, and that makes these weapons more controllable in fully-automatic fire than if they'd used the usual rifle ammunition. The ammunition is lighter, as well, so you can carry more ammunition than before with an equivalent amount of fatigue. The Allies had enough M1s, Enfields, Mosin-Nagants, guys, tanks, ships, aircraft, etc., etc., etc., that a nifty infantry weapon wasn't enough to help the Wehrmacht much. Still, the concept has been adopted all over the world. The AK-47 and M16 (especially in its current M4 (yes - carbine!) variant) both act like assault rifles, though I think the US military calls the M16 a main battle rifle. Maybe somewhat redundant, but HTH.

Re:Case not hot enough?

[Ulalume]

I'm actually overclocking a 1.2ghz t-bird to 1.4 in it right now. The lava has no effect on the computer once it gets up two speed. The two 40-watt bulbs are only used to heat it in a hurry. otherwise it take several hours to heat it up. It's been running for a week solid now and I havn't had any stability issues. I am changing the system in it back to the xp 2200+ for a LAN party later this month. I'm playing with it now to get a feel for how things will work with it. cooling isn't a problem though.