Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Facebook Un-Ban, Exploding Laptop, FFXI II
Kent State Facebook ban reversed. Corvaith writes "Just a few days after it was originally noted that Kent State University had banned athletes from posting on Facebook, the Kent Stater announced that the ban was reversed. From the article: 'The athletic department had previously expressed concern about athletes' personal information being available to the public, allowing for possible stalking situations. They were also concerned about athletes displaying inappropriate information on their profiles.' But, in the end, they 'had a change of heart after reviewing the privacy measures available on Facebook.' Athletes must now lock their profiles to friends only."
Exploding laptop old news to Dell? Anonymous writes "CRN is reporting that Dell had about a dozen reports of burned laptops before they announced last year's battery recall. The recall was launched in response to a exploding laptop caught on film at a Japanese conference. Dozens more cases popped up with apparently severe overheating, melted cases, etc., according to the report."
XM moves to dismiss RIAA suit. mikesd81 writes "Apparently, XM is asking a judge to dismiss a a copy right law suit brought by the recording industry. The law suit is over the ipod-like device that can store up to 50 hours of music. XM Satellite said the 1992 Home Recording Audio act protects it from being sued over its $400 handheld device. From the article: 'In a court filing, XM Satellite said the 1992 protections represent Congress' efforts to insure that the powerful recording industry would not be able to restrict the right of consumers to record songs that are broadcast over the radio or stifle innovation by chilling the development and use of the latest recording technologies.'"
J2EE death greatly exaggerated. Peter writes "A recent Burton Group report has stated that the Java Enterprise Edition platform is 'dying due to its complexity and lack of suitability for SOA.' Major vendors supporting JEE have responded with rebuttals, stating that the complexity has arisen due to customer needs and that it is well positioned for companies to build SOA solutions on."
Square's next MMOG not FFXI II. Despite some of the rumblings around the net, it appears that the next MMOG to come out of Square will not be a sequel to the popular FFXI. While Square may have shot down this rumor, the question still remains, what MMO are they working on?
Square's next MMOG not FFXI II.
Thank God. While I did play some of the MMOFF and enjoyed it this is not what Square does best. I hope they return to their roots and release a game with innovative game elements and a great story line. Oh, and for the love of God, NO DANCE SPHERES.
I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
Ironically enough, for the last few days Facebook.com would have been a good site to ban. One of their ad banners was loaded with a virus, and it took them quite a while to fix it. It was a trojan with a .wmf extension. Thankfully, my anti-virus caught it as Firefox attempted to auto-download it for some reason (I suspect FlashGot of being that reason).
I can tell you this: I don't program in Java, but I do have to install and support it as part of my job, and I can't think of a more odd set of install criteria than the Java installers.
./file and cross your fingers. Sometimes it's /usr/java/bin/java, sometimes, it's /usr/bin/java, sometimes it's /usr/local/java, sometimes it's /usr/local/bin/java, sometimes it's /opt/SUNWappserver/java/bin/java. Who knows? Good thing all Unix and Linux distro's use exactly the same order in their $PATH and the same file structure and organization. Not to mention, you kind of have to trust that it installs libraries and whatever else in all the correct spots, and is familiar with every linux distro from RHEL to Bob's Discount Linux to create a bazillion symlinks.
/etc/alternatives/java -> /usr/bin/java -> /usr/local/java/bin/java etc). Oh, and some of the installers are command line and some are X windows required. And I've had trouble with the J2EE 1.4 installer claiming it was out of diskspace on a partition with 60 GB free, aside from all that.
.... google. There's a file somewhere called libjavaplugin_oji.so, but it could be anywhere. Then you've got to find your firefox or mozilla installation, which could also be anywhere depending on whether you're using the default install, whether the user has run updates, whether the version is a self-compiled version, and what linux distro you're using. Then you have to symlink the object into the plugins folder. What? Come on. You've got to be kidding. There's not a "Download this 4 meg file and stick it here" option? Nope, it relys on 1500 libraries. Oh, and every time you run a full update that also catches firefox, it's going to break (thanks yum). And when you need to update java? Good luck. Here's hoping there's a binary update that knows what it's doing.
For one, we use primarialy redhat-based linux installs for desktop and server, including Fedora, RHEL, and Centos. Sun Java, for reasons that I've never fully understood (something to do with the licensing, and it makes my brain hurt to figure it out) cannot be distributed with Linux distros. Or, that's what I thought, but then I heard that Mepis comes with java installed and working. See? Wierd already. But, at any rate, when you install a RH-based Linux install, you get the gnu java. Since I support University professors, most of them have been using Sun's java, and the GNU has (appearantly) enough querks that they don't like using it (same with the g77 fortran, but that's a different story).
So, at that point, you need to install Java. Which one? Nobody knows. People want to be able to use java plugins in their web browser (more on that in a sec), they want to be able to compile java, and they want to be able to run java apps in some sort of java environment. I think. But which one do you install? Java_jdk, Java_Jre, or Java_j2ee? Some of them include functionality replicated in the others, but there's no like clear-cut FAQ on the java website to tell you which (like, a simple four-column by X row table with the distros across the top and the expected functionality down the left side, and X's or O's, or green and red squares, to indicate which versions include which functionality). If you independantly read the descriptions, it's a LOT of buzzwords, and very short on substance.
Then, there's the "where does it install" question. They distribute as binaries, so you just kind of chmod u+x file;
Then, you've got to figure out which one to run. "which java" can yeild any one of 50 outputs, and that's if you don't let users set their own shells and rc scripts. Not to mention, you may end up chasing symlinks down for an hour to find the exact binary (/usr/java ->
Then, you have to get it so the plugins run in the web browser. How do you do this? Well, you
ON TOP OF THAT, on o
sig?
I'm a Sirius customer. If the RIAA is "so up in arms" about potential copyright infringment from XM's device, why aren't they suing over the Sirius S50? The S50 also allows you to tote MP3s and record Sirius broadcasts. This seems to me like XM pissed of the RIAA somehow and the RIAA is just trying to extract a pound of flesh as "punishment."
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You could've stopped after the AdBlock comment. Flash animation is actually quite popular in its niche communities, and I'm certainly not uninstalling it, or fully disabling Java or JavaScript. I prevent JavaScript doing specific things (thanks Firefox), but small, useful Javascript widgets are just that: harmless.
This place is too paranoid...
We keep asking the same questions over and over about the RIAA. The facts remain - their adgenda is to make as much money as possible, and to stretch the definition of their areas of jurisdiction to do so. It's obvious to all of us on the outside that the RIAA, MPAA and the like all need a revamp of their business models, but you can akin their behavior to intolerance, racism and the like. Now before I get the flaming trolls being shot from catapults, let me explain - Every generation, we see improvements in how we as people behave toward each other. That's because (hopefully) we're learning more with each passing day. But this is a time process. It takes considerable time for a social weeding of anything to happen. Likewise, it will be a time process with the **AA groups, because they're still being led and influenced by the same groups who thought up these now-antiquated ideals. Young blood and new ideas are still shunned, because enough time has not passed for there to be no other option than change. Given time, things have to change. It is a simple rule that all of us potential consumers understand. The one saving grace (and comforting thought) is this - They are not free-thinking, sentient beings, the **AA groups are businesses. As such, they are subject to failure, bankruptcy and other downfalls that are realities to all businesses. If their models and ideas do not change, they will sue themselves out of existence.
I seem to remember a bitchfest in enthusiast circles when Sirius put major restrictions on the S50's recording capabilities, as well.
People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation