Slashback: Facebook Un-Ban, Exploding Laptop, FFXI II

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories including, Kent State Facebook ban reversed, exploding laptop old news to Dell, XM moves to dismiss RIAA suit, J2EE death greatly exaggerated, and Square's next MMOG not FFXI II -- Read on for details.

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?

Comments

J2EE

[zerocool^]

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.

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; ./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.

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 -> /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.

Then, you have to get it so the plugins run in the web browser. How do you do this? Well, you .... 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.

ON TOP OF THAT, on o

Re:XM??

[Svet-Am]

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."

Re:Square and MMOs

[Durrok]

My apologies AC, I know you are omnipotent (and sure post a lot!) and would never make such a typo. I have played the game and all that dancing that made me not wanting to play it around my friends for fear of my sexuality coming into play came back to haunt me. It is Dress sphere's I meant to say, although I think I'm still justified in keeping the rest of the sentence the way it is.

Re:XM??

[Anonymous Coward]

According to today's Wash post, Sirius agreed to pay the RIAA $15 per device. XM asked for the same deal and was sued instead.