Slashdot Mirror
Reverse Engineered 802.11b+ Drivers
orv writes "When Andreas Mohr found that his new wireless networking card wasn't supported under Linux rather than returning the card and getting himself a supported one, he decided to set up a project to write his own drivers instead - http://acx100.sourceforge.net.
Companies such as D-Link had initially promised to release linux drivers for these cards but later backed down from that promise and announced that Linux would not be supported and that customers should not hold on to the cards in the hope of getting them working, as shown on their current FAQ.
Texas Instruments, the makers of the chipsets upon which these 802.11b+ cards are based refused to release code or specifications for the cards, no doubt for similar reasons that were recently discussed here.
The fact that the current alpha release is certainly as good, and in some areas better, than the binary drivers that escaped from one of the card manufactureres speaks volumes for the quality and determination of the team to create their own drivers."
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10595
US government "shafting working Americans"
CAFTA bill could lose jobs at home
By INQUIRER staff: Monday 21 July 2003, 11:51
A REPORT FROM ginger group ZaZona claims that a practically unnoticed agreement that will endorse free trade agreements with Singapore and Chile is the thin end of what could turn into an "Armageddon" for US workers.
According to the newsletter ZaZona distributes, the CAFTA agreements currently under discussion in Congress, with Chile and Singapore, mean that a "W" visa will allow nearly 7,000 people from these countries to work in the US indefinitely.
But, Zazonaeditor Rob Sanchez claims, in addition to the 5,400 visas Singapore will get under the deal, it will be able to send "unlimited" numbers of workers to the US.
The free trade agreement means that US employers no longer have to prove that jobs cannot be performed by an American citizen.
According to ZaZona, George W. Bush says on his web site that Singapore is working on free trade agreements with Japan, Canada, Australia, Mexico and India.
The editor of the newsletter claims that means Singapore will act like a virtual black hole, and its "immense gravity will pull people into a wormhole that ends at the United States".
He adds: "Bush is celebrating 'Christmas in July' by giving a huge present to his inner circle of power brokers and CEOs while shafting working Americans".
Sanchez told the INQUIRER that the whole problem is not being fairly discussed in the United States press.
He says that Dianne Feinstein, the doyenne of the sound bite, has hit out against the proposed free trade agreements on her web site, but, unusually, she's getting little press on the matter.
He added: "It appears that US politicians have decided not to discuss these two FTAs in public. They don't want the public to find out until it is approved. One day the American public will wake up and realize they have been hoodwinked - but they won't be able to change it".
The open source development model allows tremendous flexibility, allowing members of a development team to be dropped or added at a moment's notice. With the source readily available and GPLed, one can become familiar with a project's code and CC before applying to be given access to the CVS or equivalent repository. Gradual accretion may produce code in a style not unlike that of James A. A. Joyce's Ulysses manuscripts, but, like James A. A. Joyce, all of the core developers can easily jump from point to point in the code and comprehend the necessary sections and the C/PHP/Python/Java equivalent of their allusions. Unfortunately, as a result of this decentralised development system, commercial QA, support and RHQ are not as readily available. I'm a middle manager and my company has had a double-sided experience with the MySQL AB organization. They produce a fine product which is perfect for a medium sized corporation such as the one I work for (which shall remain nameless). MySQL worked very well for us, but unfortunately at one point we started receiving segmentation faults when there were more than 30 connections or if a query was greater than 2,048 characters in length. We have reported these bugs to MySQL AB but they have not yet fixed them in their latest gamma/production release. However, they have been very polite and are always willing to cooperate with us; even if small portions of the code are not yet fixable and have escaped the relatively poor QA of the EOD, their TOS have always been reasonable and our MD has always been able to CWT regarding the slight problems and BS our way around them.
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
C'est une conséquence normale des sociétés molles de nouveau promettant tout mais ne fournissant rien. Diable est-ce qu'elles comptent si elles réclament qu'elles vont mettent en évidence des modules de gestion de périphérique et puis rien? Ces personnes sont presque aussi mauvaises que des fabricants de winmodem. Pourquoi le matériel a-t-il besoin même de conducteurs? Quel est le problème avec de bons vieux appels mode d'ioctl()?
Je calme en bas d'un peu maintenant. Mais toujours, pourquoi ces compagnies ne produisent-elles pas des modules de gestion de périphérique pour des systèmes d'UNIX? Elles pensant qu'il n'est pas économiquement viable, mais elles sont aller juste perdre le part de marché et sembler mauvaises, en particulier car elles retournent sur ce qui est efficacement un accord avec une grande communauté. Il est senseless et n'atteint aucun objectif. Naturellement un intrus de grain avec d'la certaine heure disponible sur leurs mains va écrire un conducteur pour lui!
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
OK This is off topic - Feel free to moderate accordingly. However you must have a look at this
/.
http://www.unleadedonline.net/msfud
No it isn't a goatse.cx redirect or any form of crap, which is typical of
It is a CD produced my Microsoft (OK. Which could be considered 'crap') that was 'freely distributed' to people, which I took the liberty of uploading so a wider audience of people who would never run into such material, can have a look at the tactics Microsoft are using to 'combat' Linux.
I recently got my hands on a CD that was distributed at a MSDN gold partners meeting (Don't ask how I got it. I just walked in as a joke.) in my city, which was part of a small bag of typical Microsoft sales material - what was unexpected was the fact that this bag contained a CD about the tactics M$ resellers should use in order to undermine Linux.
IT IS APPALING/HALLERIOUS - You must have a look, and/or forward to other parties. We all know marketing is about lies, lies and more damn lies, but the tactics and 'facts' described (remember this CD is for 'Microsoft sales representatives' so I guess actual truth needn't exist) are ludicrous and just go to show how desperate M$ are.
Have a surf, laugh, and learn. You'll need a browser with flash 5 compatibility and a decent connection (it is all flash).
http://www.techsunite.org/news/techind/gao_study1. cfm
July 18, 2003
Reps Smith and Inslee Request GAO Study on Offshore Outsourcing
By David Beckman
WashTech News
___
'We need to know where jobs are
going to be.'
-- Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).
__
A Washington state congressman requested a federal study yesterday that would attempt to determine to what extent the rising trend of offshore outsourcing is affecting the loss of U.S. tech jobs.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash) delivered a written request late Thursday morning to General Accounting Office Comptroller General David Walker in Washington, D.C. Smith said in a news release yesterday that he wants the GAO to investigate the impact offshore outsourcing has on U.S. high-tech workers, aerospace engineers, and various levels of state and federal government workers whose jobs have been sent offshore. Fellow Washington state congressman Jay Inslee co-signed the request.
Smith said that in light of the nation's high unemployment rate, the United States needs to develop a new jobs and industrial plan and determine a focus for the "New Economy."
"We need to know where jobs are going to be," said Smith, who represents Washington's 9th District.
While government programs invest in retraining unemployed workers, it is not clear whether there will be jobs for those workers to fill, Smith said.
"Offshore outsourcing (of information technology services) has become increasingly common for U.S. organizations, generally because of the perceived cost savings and to enhance competitiveness in the global economy," Smith said.
But Smith said he is concerned that retraining and educational programs may be training people in the United States for jobs that are being sent overseas.
The recent practice of moving service and development work to countries such as India, Russia, and the Philippines has been employed ever more widely by companies such as Microsoft and Boeing in order to slash domestic labor costs. The magnitude of the effect on domestic jobs and on the U.S. economy has so far not been measured.
___
'Part of the problem with the issue is just tracking and understanding it.'
-- Stan Sorscher, research director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)
___
"Part of the problem with the issue is just tracking and understanding it," says Stan Sorscher, research director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). "We're analytical people by nature. Seeing the actual data would be much more helpful in understanding the impact."
The rate of unemployment in Washington state has concerned Smith for some time, said Smith's Communication Director Katharine Lister, especially when constituents complained that offshore outsourcing is responsible for the loss of many of the state's information technology jobs.
"We've been working the GAO (request) for a couple of months now," Lister says. She says the reason Smith assumed a low profile on the issue until now is that the congressman "tends to labor under the radar screen."
Inslee assumed a somewhat higher profile. He met with representatives from SPEEA and the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, on June 6 in Seattle. The groups asked to meet with Inslee to discuss remarks he reportedly made while on a visit to India. Press reports said Inslee told Indian government and tech industry officials that measures before Congress or state legislatures intended to curb offshore outsourcing "would not go anywhere."
They also asked Inslee to initiate a GAO study on the effects of offshore outsourcing. Inslee said he would investigate making such a request.
Two weeks later, however, Inslee said he was unsure whether he could build support for such a study.
"I'd like to say we could do that, but I don't have a tho
...so is tux a biped? does that count?
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota