User: The Dodger

Re:Is there a need for BSD?

On: BSDCon 2000: Oct. 14-20

Someone moderate this back up. It's not a troll and deserves a reply.

D.

Misuse of the term "Open Source"

On: Intel Opens Itanium Specs

Saying Intel is "open sourcing" Itantium because they are releasing architecture and programming info is like saying Black and Decker is "open sourcing" their toasters because they posted instructions on how to put the bread in.

I agree. I've noticed that Slashdot editors are falling over themselves to post stories which contain any sort of reference (however erroneous) to existing companies jumping on the open source bandwagon. Another example of this is in the Windows Source Code Proposal Confirmed story.

Editorial quality on Slashdot needs to improve, because if this trend continues, it'll end up not being much difference from any other tech news site, with stories written by people who don't actually have a clue what they're writing about.

At that point, someone else will get frustrated and set up a new site to fulfil the purpose which Slashdot used to, and Slashdot will wither on the vine, frequented by wannabe geeks, Katz-fans, VA/Andover groupies and AC first posters. The last visitors will be the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse as we^H^Hthey pass through on their journey of destruction... The demise of the 'Net will precipitate a stockmarket crash of incredible proportions as thousands of billions is wiped off the stock exchanges, as massively over-valued dot-coms go bust. A global economic downturn will result, with hundreds of millions dropping below the poverty line...

Wow, I didn't realise how pessimistic I am today! :-)

D.
..is for Destitute.

Other Authors? (addition to question above)

On: Ask Douglas Adams About...Everything

Other authors with whom DNA has been compared include include Kurt Vonnegut, Neal Stephenson (similar writing styles) and Iain M Banks (also British, also writes sci-fi).

What authors do you like and read for your own pleasure?

D.

DNA, the Individual? (Or, An Invasion Of Privacy)

On: Ask Douglas Adams About...Everything

I'm curious as to how you spend your time these days. We all know about TDV, H2G2 and that there's a movie in the offing, but in the evening, when you go home, what do you do?

Are you married, do you have children, what sort of television programmes do you watch, what authors do you read, et cetera?

Or is your diary as full as Genghis Khan's, and you have no time for such frivolities...?

D.

Don't forget that MS owes it's existence to...

On: Microsoft Break-Up To Be Proposed?

Don't forget that MS owes it's existence and success to IBM's anti-trust problems...

IBM were basically in a similar position to the one Microsoft find themselves in today, facing an anti-trust suit, and Microsoft just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the fact that IBM was looking for ways to avoid looking as if they were dominating the PC...

In fact, this might explain Microsoft's extreme reluctance to allow themselves to be placed under restrictions or broken up. They obviously saw what happened to IBM, as a direct result of the success of the IBM-compatible PC. If the measures currently under consideration are implemented, Microsoft will be facing the same situation that IBM did (i.e. competition), and in ten years, Microsoft will just be another software house, amongst a bunch of newcomers, in the same way that IBM now has to rub shoulders with companies like Sun and Compaq.

In fact, it's worth remembering that IBM is still doing pretty damned well for itself and that one of the main reasons for that is the fact that they Innovate (and note the capital i). IBM actively invents and develops new technologies. Microsoft doesn't. They rehash other people's ideas (often badly), and market them to death.

D.

Microsoft's Attitude & Punitive Action.

On: Microsoft Break-Up To Be Proposed?

Gates' and Ballmer's continuing assertion that Microsoft has done nothing wrong is absolutely incredible, in my opinion, and I don't think it bodes well for a speedy resolution of this case. Perhaps they believe that if they keep telling everyone that Microsoft is right, everyone will believe them. Similar to how they keep telling everyone that Windows is a stable, efficient operating environment, really...

I suspect that Microsoft intend to take advantage of the legal system in order to draw out this entire issue for as long as they can, by lodging appeals, raising minor issues and basically throwing as many lawyers at it as they can.

It makes me wonder if there isn't, perhaps, some form of punitive action the US Government can take immediately, to preempt MS's legal maneuvers and stop their predatory practices immediately. The "conduct remedies" being mooted are obviously a step in the right direction, but I can't help feeling that the very existence of a company which refuses point blank to acknowledge a judgement against it in such a case of this, and which is effectively refusing to recognise the authority of the Legislature and Government, is a problem in and of itself, and that they will continue to use underhand methods to circumvent the conduct remedies. In any case, these remedies can only really be applied to bad stuff that we already know about (e.g. Windows' pricing, the browser issues, etc.) and not to future issues which are sure to develop if Microsoft remains in one piece.

In effect, MS is big enough to take on the US Government and fight it to a stalemate. Now, I know that you Americans generally take a very dim view of your Government, but if I were in your shoes, I would ask myself whether it's really beneficial to the computer industry, your country and society as a whole to have a company which is this big and can exert that kind of power?

If it were up to me, I'd probably nationalise the damned corporation. ;-)

D.
...is for Dangerous!

Old Tech?

On: AirFiber Laser Networks: 622mbps

This reminds me of a system I tested a few years back when I was working with a TV station. We tried out an infra-red laser system which allowed us to beam a TV feed between two places which had line of sight.

It was quite a while ago, but I remember that the range wasn't very impressive, that it was a bastard to get set up (trying to align a laser over a kilometre distance isn't the easiest thing in the world to do) and that heavy rain, fog, waving your hand in front of it, etc. did have an adverse affect.

D.

I'll tell ya where it went!

On: Where Is The Wiretap Archive?

I stole it. It now resides under my bed, in a ZX-81, hooked up to an automatic audio tape changer. A big tape changer... ;-)

D.

High cost? Probably not, actually.

On: New Linux Supercomputer Forecasts Rain

Anyhoo 276 nodes, but its costed $15M?

$54k/node does appear rather expensive at first glance, but let's bear in mind here that this is a HPC installation. That's "high performance", kids. Also, let's remember what it's purpose is: to "help researchers improve forecasts of severe weather such as thunderstorms, tornadoes,and winter storms, and ultimately, to save lives and property".

Basically, this ain't a couple of 386's Beowulf'd together over 10BaseT in someone's bedroom and you can bet that this system ain't going to be using EIDE hard drives. In order to achieve the peformance, reliability and scalability which the NOAA would have specified for such a mission-critical syste, it doesn't surprise me that the cost per node is this high.

Furthermore, this amount undoubtedly includes the two upgrades and maintenance over the contract period (three years plus)and that good old 24/7 4-hour response don't come cheap!

All in all, I'd say that it's probably not that expensive after all.

D.

The Collision of Open Source and Capitalism.

On: Red Hat 'Piranha' Security Risk - And Fix

I find it quite interesting that, today, Red Hat has been criticised for it's poor quality control/assurance, not (I hasten to add), because I disagree with this criticism - I personally agree that the fault here lies entirely with RH. If ISS were able to discover this hole during a review of the source, RH's should also have been able to discover it and, to be honest, in light of this incident, I would actually query whether RH have in place any proper QA procedures in respect to the security of the software they package.

Anyway, *drags self back to the point* the reason I find it interesting that RH are under fire is because we've been slamming Microsoft for years for their poor Quality Control.

Now, five or six years ago, when Slakware was the dominant Linux distribution, nobody really cared that much if there were security flaws in the software they downloaded. It was acknowledged (at least, I acknowledged) that open source programmers wrote this stuff in their spare time, as a hobby, and that it wasn't subjected to the same QA as "normal", commercial software. Therefore, bugs were to be expected. But that was okay, because the source was open and once found, a bug would be quickly fixed, and the fix would probably be included in the next release of that software. Hell, even if it wasn't included in the "official" distribution, it didn't matter. The very nature of open source software meant that anyone could do anything they wanted to it. That's why so many people are attracted to it.

But now, things have changed. Open source software isn't just a hobby now. It's big business, and companies like RedHat are making money out of it. Therefore, our (well, at least my) attitudes have changed, and we expect a higher level of quality control from profit-orientated open source distributors.

I guess the point (such as it is), is that Open Source is changing. The values and ideals espoused by the FSF aren't always applicable to the commercial reality we find ourselves in, and I don't feel that all these changes are for the better. Sooner or later, we're going to start hearing horror stories, caused by the collision of open source and capitalist values. I've already heard an anecdote about one instance where a small 'Net startup employed a group of freelance open source web developers to build their website, only to be ripped off for thousands of dollars which the developers used to pay themselves for time spent writing new open source software.

I think it'll be interesting to see what the collision of Open Source and Capitalism produces.

D.
..is for Deranged!

D&D Movie

On: 'Dungeons and Dragons' Returns!

A D&D Movie is in production. See D&D's new owners' website.

It stars Jimmy, the young photographer from 'Lois & Clark', and one of the chicks from Sliders, as well as Jeremy Irons (obEvilBritActor, bad guy in 'Die Hard with a Vengeance').

D.

PROPRIETARY IS BAD!!!!

On: Neal Stephenson on Digital Village

How about a transcript for those among us who are bandwidth-challenged, or who don't damned well want to listen to a proprietary audio format?

Another advantage would be that if Allen and Barings (sp?) actually had to write out what they say, they might realise how much crap they actually talk! ;-)

D.

This shit is a real pain in the ass to get rid of.

On: Pollution Lowers Intelligence?

As the US Military recently discovered.

PCBs really are toxic waste - they can't be broken up easily using chemical methods and because they are so incredibly toxic, they're just as bad as radioactive waste to dispose of. Worse, in fact - at least radioactive waste has a half-life and is less bio-accumulative than PCBs...

D.

IMB starter? WARNING, Contains Inversions Spoiler!

On: Inversions

Use of Weapons is his best book.

However, I would say that Consider Phlebas is a better introduction to the Culture...

When it boils down to it, actually, all of his books are pretty damned good. UoW, CP, Player of Games, Excession, Feersum Endjinn, State of the Art, Against a Dark Background... All terrific.

Another Iain Banks (i.e. without the M; non-scifi) book worth reading is 'The Business'. check it out, v.good.

Inversions spoiler!
A lot of people don't realise that the Doctor is a Culture operative, and the bodyguard is ex-Culture (kind of going it on his own in the same way as Zakalwe tried to do at the start of UoW) and had a relationship in the past.

D.

EM.TV ain't German, kids.

On: Muppets Sold

Check out this article about the hoopla over the television rights to Formula One... It mentions that EM.TV "is really not German at all but part of a Dutch company called Wavery Productions BV which has vast holdings in the world of licensing, merchandising, television rights sales, syndication and so on. Among the brands which it markets in Europe are Popeye the Sailor Man, the Pink Panther, James Bond, Woody Woodpecker, Elvis Presley, Betty Boop and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles."

D.

This is long overdue.

On: More DoS Attacks: CNN, Amazon, eBay, Buy.com...

This is long overdue and comes as no surprise.

The Internet's infrastructure has a number of flaws, and the way the Internet has developed and grown over the years, coupled with the fact that the individual nodes which make up the 'Net are, no the whole, not as secure as they should be, means that an individual or group of people, with the right knowledge, the right skills, and the right opportunity, could cause the 'Net some serious damage.

I'm not even going to hint at how to do it, because that would be pretty damned irresponsible.

Why hasn't this happened yet? Well, firstly, the 'Net is so large now, the resources which would be required, in terms of man-hours, is not insignificant. It isn't something that could be done in a single night.

Secondly, the knowledge and skills required aren't common and they're generally accompanied by intelligence. Therefore the people who possess the knowledge and skills are more likely to spend their time making shedloads of money working in the Internet industry, instead of attempting to destroy it.

Everyone hears about hackers and thinks "Well, they don't really cause much damage...", but that's a misperception. The hackers you hear about are the stupid ones and the ones who get caught. The really good hackers don't deface webpages or ransom lists of credit card numbers, for one of two reasons - either they're too busy carrying out hacks which don't get detected, or they've decided that the Risk:Reward ration isn't good enough, so they stick to legal pursuits.

However, there is a caveat. There's a risk that the knowledge and skills will end up in the brain of someone who, for whatever irrational reason (anti-capitalism, religious, whatever) decides that the world is better off without the Internet, and decides to use his skills to bring the whole thing crashing down.

I've got an anarchist streak in me, and every so often, I fantasise about instigating Infocalypse and watching the stock markets crash as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Internet companies suddenly become worthless.

Sometimes, when I'm being REALLY evil, I think about how the world's economy is shifting more and more towards an Information Economy, and how that could be rendered invalid, totally changing the way we live our lives...

But then I think about life without Slashdot, and that kind of tips the balance in favour of my allowing the world to continue as normal. ;-)

But, seriously, I've been expecting something like this for a long time. I've drafted plans and scenarios on how to do it, and, from those models formulated methods of defending against and preventing such an attack. It's basically an information warfare scenario, and, at the moment, there are few defences.

The Dodger

Compiling a Business Plan.

On: Geek's Startup Business Experiences

When compiling a business plan, I would advise using either gcc or egcs. I'd also make sure that you haven't left any buffer overflows in the code, because the last thing you want is some hacker coming along.... ;-)

D.

Ideas want to be free!

On: CMU Sphinx Open Sourced

If I want to profit from something that I developed, why shouldn't I?

Because some big corp. has already developed that idea and patented it, that's why!

I don't like patents. Apart from the fact that they imply that an idea can be owned, they're mostly used as a means of allowing the rich to get richer.

If I come up with an idea off my own back, then I think I should be allowed to profit from it if I like. If I've copied it from someone else, then fair enough, it's not my idea to begin with, I'm a plagiarist and I shouldn't be allowed to profit from it in the same way.

D.

Overpopulation

On: Technologies That Shaped the Last Century?

I've heard it suggested (and am tempted to agree with) that the development of nuclear weapons has effectively prevented any large wars from taking place.

Thus removing the single most effective population control mechanism, resulting in the ever-worsening overpopulation problem we are now experiencing.

D.

The Big Picture.

On: Technologies That Shaped the Last Century?

..what technologies have shaped the way the 20th century developed..

I reckon that the car and the telephone are kind of fundamental to the way we live our lives today.

On the global stage, the development of nuclear weapons is no doubt significant - without 'em the Cold War could have been very different.

D.

Nothing's changed...

On: B. Gates Rants About Software Copyrights - in 1980

Bill Gates comes across constantly as very aggressive and arrogant.

So nothing's really changed, then - see my analysis of Gates' BBC interview last year.

D.

Legal boundary?

On: Kevin Mitnick Free Today

What happens if he goes to a different country? Will he be allowed to travel outside the US? What happens if he uses a computer in, say, the UK, and then returns to the United States?

I want to offer him a job. ;-)

D.
..is for Dodging the Law!

Skeptical

On: Affordable Supercomputers

I did a bit of looking into using Linux and new technologies like fibre channel, etc., to create high performance, high availability load-balanced, infinitely-scalable systems, as an idea for a company. Unfortunately, the venture capitalists I approached didn't seem to like the idea that there was no Intellectual Property involved. Perhaps it's something unique to British and Irish VCs...

Anyway, my point is I'm not a virgin when it comes to using this sort of technology for these sort of purposes. I've had a quick look at the Patmos website, but detailed information seems to be in pretty sort supply. They should definitely have some form of benchmarks available for viewing if they're describing this thing as a supercomputer, but they don't appear to have any.

In fact, I'm trying to figure out why they're describing this as a supercomputer, because it seems to me that, the way they've set it up is more like a HA cluster.

I've got to admit that, when I see a company selling what they're describing as supercomputers, but which are really just Linux clusters, with little or no technical details forthcmoing, I get skeptical.

YMMV. Any HPC/HA/Clustering experts care to give an informed opinion?

The Dodger

Closed Source Linux Drivers

On: Aureal 3D Developing Linux Drivers

On the one hand, this is good news, because it's an indication that hardware companies are finally taking Linux seriously, and the ol' hardware compatibility list is gonna start getting longer and longer.

However, I'm concerned that some of these hardware companies aren't releasing the source of the drivers they're providing. I'm not sure why they want to keep their source closed, because I personally can't see any disadvantage in opening the source for a hardware driver - after all, it's ni selling the piece of kit that they make their money, not selling the driver, surely.

Having said that, I'm not too worried by it all, because I think that, just as companies are beginning to provide drivers for Linux today, because it gives them a competitive advantage, other companies will seek to extend that advantage tomorrow, by releasing the source for their drivers, thereby making their product more attractive, over products frmo competitors who don't release the source.

D.
..is for Dynamic!

Media Ignorance => Hype.

On: Schneier Discusses Ethics of Crypto PR Tactics

Basically what these companies are doing is taking advantage of the fact that the media, as a rule, are pretty clueless when it comes to technology in general, and security in particular.

Many, many media outlets simply rehash the press releases they receive, either because they're ignorant and are trusting that the companies who produced them aren't being misleading, or through simple laziness. Unfortunately, companies like nCipher have begun to realise this, and that, by putting the right spin on a pres release, they can achieve media exposure.

It basically amounts to free advertising, and as long as media outlets (i.e. publications, websites, etc.) don't bother checking out the stories they print, it will continue.

The way I've tried to deal with this is to offer media outlets the opportunity to bounce stories off me, before they print them. When I used to see a story like this, I would email the writer/journo and his editor, setting out what was wrong with the story and how they had been mislead, quoting independent sources of information, etc. The key thing is to avoid flames. They just get deleted. Just be civil and polite, and offer to help them out.

The only problem I've found is that you can end up getting quoted, so be sure to tell them that you don't want to be quoted, and point them towards other "experts" who can supply quotes.

D.
..is for Debauched.