OT: but I think Spain is the European country which has concurrent police agencies which is causing some confusion in the Basque region. IIRC, there are three agencies: the national police, an anti-ETA police, and a counter-terrorism arm of the national intelligence group.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
Isn't the possibility of industrial sabotage between competing space firms enough concern to prevent this idea coming to light, especially in an area where the lives of astronauts are placed into a delicate balance on a routine basis?
The military industrial complex that had come to prominence in the space and aeronautical industries during the cold war and in the process giving them enormous political leverage should be allowed to come to dominate the direction of humanity's exploration in space. That direction should be made with a scientific mentality.
Though far-fetched in light of humanity's current position, but do we really want the interests of a profit-driven corporation be placed before the scientific and diplomatic interests of a government agency if humanity encounters alien life in future?
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
In the wake of commercialisation of the emerging wearable computers industry, it's nice to know that there are projects out there working on designing wearable computing systems that won't lock you into using proprietary software.
One project that comes to my mind is the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales's'Pleb' project. About the length of two Australian fifty cent coins lined up next to each other, it contains a StrongARM processor and can use a number of different kernels and OSes, but most importantly Linux. I was recently lucky enough to see a demonstration of the system where a stripped down version of Debian GNU/Linux being booted off it at the university's last open day.
The main goal of Pleb is produce a "Flexible, Low-Power system for use in Portable and Embedded applications which is capable of a high level of processing power." However, more impressive is that the project's guidelines even states:
"Where possible GNU tools should be used as much as possible since both the multi-platform availability and the GPL licensing insure accessibility to all interested parties. Software requiring tools which are prohibitive to most developers (through pricing or lack of platform support) is discouraged"
Pleb's different foundation does much to boost this project's credibility as a viable competitor to Charmed. Charmed appears to be more focused on becoming the next easy-to-use consumer toy for those on the richer side of the digital divide. Pleb on the other hand has the potential to become a more widely supported and of course, open-source wearable computing platform, and hopefully if it does become a commercial enterprise be much more affordable for people in all societies.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
Perhaps I sounded a little too much like a cult indoctrinator or a documercial presenter, but not all of us are that idealistic, it's just that some take it's ideals further than others. For example, those who avoid non-free at all costs.
The point that I'm trying to get across is that most other distributions have appeared to have lost the true spirit of the open-source movement and instead of helping you with technical support with open arms reach for your credit card first.
Try Debian and you'll understand the point I'm trying to make.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
One aspect that most reviewers when they approach Debian GNU/Linux is that they tend to forget to cover is that Debian is really more then a Linux distribution and a philosophy. Throughout my few years of Linux experience, one aspect of Debian that I have noticed really shining through is the community aspect of Debian. More reviewers need to emphasise that Debian has a large helpful community.
This community isn't just tight-knit between the developers who work on the project, but it's also a tight-knit community that exists between users and developers (remember back to our collective sorrow when Joel died). Go onto any major IRC server and see how many people populate channels named #mandrake or #redhat and you'll notice that their numbers pale in comparison with #debian 's population.
The non-profit nature of Debian tends to attract the most humanitarian (and perhaps more socialistic) of Linux users, and this no more apparent then in #debian on irc.debian.org (part of the irc.openprojects.net network). This channel is always filled with over 50 friendly people at any given time willing to help you with any problems no matter how large, and most of the regulars there will keep an eye out on people who can help you later if they can't immediately.
To those consider Debian, I'd like to point out that despite the apparent difficulties involved with installing, configuring, and using Debian GNU/Linux, please remember that there will always be a very co-operative IRC channel and comprehensive mailing list willing and ready to help you through to appreciate Debian. If you're wondering if it's really difficult to keep Debian on the cutting edge, it's not. Just pop into the official #debian channel on irc.debian.org and type in:
/msg apt helix or/msg apt xf4 and so on...
And xk's bot, named apt, will tell you the single line you need to add to/etc/sources.list for apt-get to install and configure new software for you. Hang around and you'll see you a few Debian developers and even CowboyNeal who frequents it too. So give Debian a go and the Debian community will help you never look back.
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It'll probably do nothing to change the current landscape. Mozilla will hopefully stay desktop environment neutral, while the KDE camp will continue to champion Konquerer and the GNOME camp will continue to champion Galeon.
What I'd like to know is why would Konquerer wish to depart with there current engine and replace it with Gecko. From my understanding, tearing out Konquerer would probably requre the KDE team to rewrite a substantial amount of code to employ Gecko for rendering remote (i.e. FTP) and local file management (e.g. graphic preview and thumbnail) display. This seems to be part of the growing trend by both camps (in emulating Microsoft) to embed HTML engines into filemanagement and the GUI shell. Where is this going towards?
What will the any advantage of porting Mozilla to QT be? Perhaps Corel, who is quite short in cash at the moment, should follow Galeon's lead and attempt to strip down Mozilla for KDE instead.
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Just a tip from a guy who spends way too much time on #debian on irc.debian.org handing out free technical support for the Debian community (something most other distributions don't have):
Alien is a program by Joey Hess (the same guy who writes the Debian Weekly News) that converts packages between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. Note that installed 'alienised' packages are classified by dselect and frontends such as gnome-apt and aptitude under a separate 'alien' section.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
Maybe I should have explained this concept better for those who don't know how Google works by "democracy".
Google is unlike other search engines that rank sites as being relevant to a user's search request by counting how many times a keyword is used within a page, or by domain names. This system can be commonly abused, and it has been demonstrated time and time again by pornographic and celebrity fan sites.
Google on the other hand, works on the principle of democracy, not in political terms, but by the definition derived from "the majority of the people". Google ranks sites as being relevant by counting how many other sites link to it.
It is a democratic search engine because it counts each external link to a page as a vote by other users who have linked to it because they think it is important and or useful. Hence a popularly linked site, in Google's eyes must be also relevant because it has been judged to be so by the Internet community as a whole.
This is what is so unique and revolutionary about Google and hence why it has an almost uncanny ability in providing search results containing both the official sites and the most popular/relevant third party ones at the same time.
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In a recent article and interview with Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, in Time Magazine they freely admit that:
"The whole point of Google is to get you on and off the site as soon as possible."
Considering that Google has introduced the concept of democracy to ranking the prominence (or relevance) of sites is revolutionary thinking, and they deserve to reap the rewards of their thinking. Google know that by refusing to offer the top-heavy extras of other sites, they too will rule supreme on the democracy of the Internet as one of the most popular search engines.
Google will continue to offer speedy search engine results, and they will probably do all they can to preserve their unique status. By cutting down on advertisements and extras, combined with their Linux-operated rack systems of off-the-shelf motherboards and spaghetti wiring, Google is also making enormous savings compared to conventional search engines.
Sure Google is going public next year, but they won't need massive ads and extras to draw in revenue. Unlike conventional search engines, Google doesn't charge a flat rate, but based on per search basis when other sites link it to, and the revenue will keep pouring in, without killing both the principle and advantages of Google.
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Re:GNOME vs KDE Episode 18: Pointlessness
on
KDE Strikes Back
·
· Score: 4
This article is a troll and a banner count generator - Simple as that. It's easy to see that there are not many factual references. All I see from the editorial is an exaggeration of the "war" between the two camps.
Trolls like this are only going to add fuel to the fears of people outside the open source community that Linux is fragmentating, which is totally untrue, and a myth we don't want to see happening for real or have people believe in.
Sure the competition can be intense, and probably beneficial to both sides, but the way it is being publicised is much more damaging to the community as a whole.
On another point Powell loses all journalistic integrity when writes the following:
"This time it isn't because of anything Miguel has said; he seems to be busy alienating opposing forces within the Gnome community itself through his new company, Helix Code, which plans to make money from Gnome."
The motives of the Gnome community with the formation of Helixcode have been take totally out of proportion in my opinion. Dennis E. Powell might as well attack commercial Linux distributions at the same time if he wishes to take this viewpoint. In his view, commercial Linux-focused corporations would also be hypocritical for "pretending" to support open source for the benefit of society, but at the same time earning a profit from it! This attack is very unjustified.
Any organization or corporation has the right to sell their open-sourced products at any price they choose fit as long as the purchaser has the same right to do so, and Helixcode is no exception. It's a fundamental cornerstone of the GNU Public License that Powell seems to totally ignore in blatantly attacking Gnome while sidestepping the issue of Troll Tech's QT licensing.
Gnome and KDE was originally about bringing about standards to the Linux desktop, but unfortunately it seems destined to become mere cannon fodder for endless flame wars and giving the false impression that Linux will suffer the same failures of fragmentation as Unix did.
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I hope this doesn't sound like a troll because I mention "Beowulf Clusters", but wouldn't optical wireless communications systems be better employed in indoor and predictable environments to provide high speed communications in examples such as clusters then in the outdoors?
The abandoning of wires would save hours of diagnosing faults within wire connections for network administrators, and a laser data transmitter could be physically repointed at a different reciever with ease without even having to unplug cables and reconnecting them. With so much potential for this market, why is Air Fiber focusing on the outdoor market when they could perfect this technology for indoor usage with much less cost?
This idea also reminds me of the concept, which has been purported for years, that wireless optical could become the next medium for data transfer within a computer's processors once silicon had reached it's the height of potential. Whatever happened to those projects?
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Just a correction:
Just rechecking some of my information, it's not the fourth law, but the Zeroth law which was published in 1985 in Prelude to Foundation. The law is as below:
Zeroth Law:
A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Laws one to three are to be obeyed except "where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth Law". An AI guard robot would be perfect for a situation such as guarding deadly viruses in a reseach facility or plutonium in a nuclear arms depot. It could be told that to let this sample be stolen would "allow humanity to come to harm." Hence, like Daniel from Prelude, the robot will do all it can, including use lethal force, and continue operating in order to carry out these instructions. Of course, if a robot becomes "too protective" of humanity, it'd be wise enough to destroy the whatever deadly sample it was guarding.
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"But you cannot allow a human to come to harm through any inaction."
A smart robot with properly programmed AI would disarm the intruder, restrain him or her and then contact the police. Now that's action, not inaction or letting the intruder in.
Most people seem to be saying that Asimov's laws would stop guard robots from carrying out their task. Guarding something doesn't necessarily have to mean killing any potential thieves. I admit that injury would be inevitable in this task, but like the Police, appropriate levels of force should be assigned. A limit should be set so that if an error occurs, as say when the robot comes to believe that the whole world is a threat to the object of its protection (ala Skynet-style from Terminator), then the robot could only cause so little injury/death before it'd crash. What I am saying is that with the proper implementation of Asimov's laws into a robot's ROM would possibly prevent the robot from going berserk and injuring/killing innocent people.
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I didn't change the laws, because they are Asimov's original writings, but you do have a point about the "pistol toting" part. However, do these robots need to shoot to kill in order to guard? Do the rounds have to be lethal? Beanbag rounds are quite effective in disabling people. Surely, there are other just as effective weapon to stop intruders.
Maybe I've seen too much Robocop (TV series) where the robot (cyborg really) seems to shoot to disable instead of killing criminals. The gun should only be used as a last resort in stopping the intruder, and then only to injure first to disable.
The laws when hardwired are still useful if a robot is hacked. If you've ever read Asimov's novels, you'd notice that as the Robots are hardwired with the above laws, they automatically "crash" or halt when they are about to break these laws preventing them from executing anymore illegal actions either incidental or accidental, and thus in the process avoid causing more damage, injury or loss of life.
I'm not saying that Asimov's theories are perfect, but after over half a century of debate and analysis, long before the dawn of AI in computers, the Internet, or robotics, they are still the most definitive rules to guiding any robot's actions. It's no wonder why so many regard him as one of the best ever visionaries and science fiction writers the world has ever seen.
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A lot of people have raised the concerns of these Internet controlled guard robots being hacked and or turning against their human masters, and I would have to agree. However, another major problem comes to mind when I consider the problem with these robots - Artificial Intelligence. How would these robots judge the intentions of a potential intruder, and say a maintenance worker? The field of AI in computing is not even close enough to be as advanced as to predict a person's actions by judging from their emotional expression (facial, body language, voice).
Until AI in robotics are advanced enough to comprehend the author Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics from 1940, independent robots should not be placed in positions where their actions could jeopardise the lives of other human beings. Even if hacked, a robot hardwired to follow the three rules below would be severely limited from injuring innocent people. The three rules are:
First Law:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law:
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law:
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
And of course, there is a fourth rule that Asimov brings up in Prelude to Foundation, in which the robot Daniel is programmed to over the first three laws in order to ensure the survival of the human race, but that law in itself is a little too far for a guard robot! For an interesting look into the implications that Asimov's laws introduce into artificial intelligence in computing and robotics, then you look at this article by Roger Clarke at the Australian National University.
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This is Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau from the MashPotato/B> Project,currently being hosted at LinuxGiant until Raja is well enough to move it over to SourceForge, who is hosting our project. Thanks semis for getting the post in early. Most of the crew are volunteers from the official #debian IRC channel at irc.debian.org. MashPotato's aim is to provide all users of Debian with comprehensive live IRC support and an ongoing website. Over the upcoming months, the MashPotato site will be loaded with the latest tips, guides and Debian news, but currently our priority is to help out new and old Debian GNU/Linux users getting a hang of Potato and Woody as well.
Here's an excerpt from a post that was made on the Debian-user mailing list:
We here at #debian, the official IRC channel of Debian have decided that
when Potato 2.2 does officially become stable, that we will provide the
most comprehensive Debian GNU/Linux support service that we can to users
both new and old. However, being the official IRC room, #debian will be
overwhelmed with literally hundreds of users seeking installation and
configuration help. The task would be quite daunting for regulars there as
we already handle several dozen help requests a day.
Hence, the Potato release now has a dedicated IRC tech support crew
nicknamed the Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato (MashPotato) which
serve around the clock for users around the world. To make things easier,
we will also divert users to different channels from #debian to for example
#mashpotato and #mashpotato-X, #mashpotato-sound, #mashpotato-gnome. However, we
will be lacking in numbers of people to answer the multitudes of help.
To sign up for the roster list for MashPotato, just come into #debian and
type in "apt roster" for further details, and return over the next few days
for more details. You don't need to be using Potato, but any Debian-based
help provided will be greatly appreciated.
Please excuse me for reposting the following passage again, but I do believe that Phil Zimmermann's analogy is one of the best ways for people to realise why we should use encryption and protect it's availability:
What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail? If a nonconformist tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he's hiding. Fortunately, we don't live in that kind of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no one draws suspicion by asserting their privacy with an envelope. There's safety in numbers. Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used encryption for all their email, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion by asserting their email privacy with encryption. Think of it as a form of solidarity.
---From "An Introduction to Cryptography" by Phil Zimmermann, the programmer of PGP himself.
This is an analogy I remind myself each time one of my friends at high school ridicules me for being a paranoid "conspiracy nut" in using encryption. It concerns me greatly that most of the general public of my country, Australia seems to take a laissez-faire approach to their online Internet rights. For example, Australians have already lost their right to unmonitored and uncensored (but not yet implemented) Internet usage and our intelligence agency, ASIO now has the legal right to actually crack our computers and monitor communications without a warrant all for the sake of so-called "national security".
I am dismayed when my friends exclaim that the CIA, MI5, or ASIO will never read my email, because I am not important, nor have I done anything wrong or have something to hide. I wish that they could see that if they we don't start fighting for our rights online now, such as the right to uncensored access, encryption, and online self-security then a time will come when it will be too late for everyone to start voicing their opinions without fear from those seeking to impose their wills upon us.
Not too long ago I sent out an email to everyone on my email list telling them about the fact that you they should start using encryption in their email and use it in their correspondence with me. No one has started sending me encrypted email. All that I've received are questions such as "Why bother?" and "Who cares?" I was even more surprised that a few of my friends have even told me that too much privacy is abuse of power and even a threat to democracy! Banning encryption will not stop terrorists from gaining access to it. Like fighting disinformation with information, the best weapon against encryption is encryption. An enemy cannot attack you if he cannot find your weaknesses. Another has even said that he does not care if corporations or a government can monitor his communication because he naively believes that any information they gather about him can only used to serve (in a commercial sense) and protect him (in a political sense.)
In ever more Western democracies, governments seem to be intent on limiting people from having access to encryption and electronic privacy. The United States has Carnivore watching its people with Echelon watching the world; the United Kingdom has Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill; and Australia now has The Telecommunications (Interception) Legislation Amendment Bill.
Where is the democracy of the future heading? Is the banning of encryption an attempt to silence future attempts to make free speech when it would otherwise be contrary to the status quo or decree of the government; and thus an attack on the very foundations of our free societies? I fear for the future, and George Orwell's nightmare doesn't become a reality.
I didn't talk to Espy when he was in, but nevertheless, I've appreciated the work he did for the Debian community and I'd like to pass on condolences to his family on behalf of all the guys and gals in #Debian on irc.debian.org. If you're reading Slashdot from heaven, Espy, take note that I've fixed up a few of the factoids on the apt bot for you.
Your factoid entry "espy" no longer reads that colourful quote of yours (but I've moved it to espy_quote)
"meddle not in the affairs of the glibc maintainer, for your system is crunchy and tastes good with ketchup"
It now reads:
"This factoid is dedicated to the sacred memory of Joel "Espy" Klecker who passed away July 11, 2000, aged 21 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We shall be ever grateful for his work as a Debian developer (glibc maintainer) since 1997 and his priceless help provided on IRC. Hence Debian 2.2 is dedicated to his memory. Rest in Peace. Official dedication: ftp://ftp.debian.org/doc/dedication-2.2.txt", or check espy_quote"
God bless your soul and rest in peace, Espy. You help and work shall be sorely missed around here.
Anyway, anyone who hasn't used Debian...don't let this article turn you off to it. I don't think Kurt has really used Debian very much. I don't see how he could disregard it like that if he had. disappointing from someone who writes the LASG.
Kurt Seifried has always disregarded the Debian/GNU Linux and Slackware distributions for as long as I've started reading his material. Just digging up a past hard-copy of the Linux Administrator's Security Guide from last year, it is interesting to note he provides the following distribution notes in his guide:
Debian
Debian 2.1
Not tested yet.
Slackware
Slackware Linux 4.0
Not tested yet
Seifried still hasn't gotten around to writing any information for either of them for his now fully online version of the guide. Speaking as a Debian user (note: I'm still outraged by how Seifried has brushed Slackware aside) and a person who frequents irc.debian.org's #Debian a lot; the philosophy of Debian is that the latest does not equal the greatest unlike most commercial distributions. These long release cycles are there so that when you get a stable copy of Debian, you're assured that months of testing have ironed out bugs and security holes that would otherwise bring down essential services you may be providing. Debian's apt-get is still one of the best and easiest to use tools out there for keeping a system up to date and secure. Remember that Debian also takes a three-pronged approach to releasing new versions as well. Stable for those who the utmost reliability. Frozen (i.e. beta) for those who wanting new releases that are close to becoming stable. And of course, Unstable (i.e. alpha) for those wanting to be cutting edge. Debian has release cycles that can suit anyone.
So please don't let Seifried's lack of experience (and credibility) in dealing with Debian and Slackware be influential in your decision to use them.
I'm just wondering whether Sony will again attempt to make another secret deal with the Japanese government so that the GScube will be classed under the same paranoid export laws that was initially enforced on the Playstation2 because it may be "reversed engineered by terrorists into a weapons launch/flight control platform".
It is believed by many that Sony had in fact asked it's government to do this in order to:
Create enormous media hype. This of course happened very successfully and even had its own Slashdot story!
Prevent people from legally exporting amounts (larger than 2?) of PS2 from Japan and into a foreign market where Sony hadn't officially launched the product. Most notably, the United States.
On the other hand, considering that:
"The GScube prototypes are powered by 16 Emotion Engines and 16 Graphics Synthesizers. Yes, this is 16 PlayStation2s rolled into one."
and thus has considerable processing muscle, wouldn't it be extremely ironic if the GScube is placed under strict export laws by the Japanese government because it is a mini-supercomputer that can become a "threat to world peace by 'rogue states'." Now wouldn't that be a hilarious thought?
From what the Kasnoconv website, it would seem that the SETI@home card is purely a hardware accelerator and as long as the card does not employ mathematical calculations differently from those dictated by the SETI institute, then there the team should have no qualms about its usage and may even officially support it. Read the following from the SETI@home README:
"SETI@home is, after all, a scientific research project. While we will eventually screen out bogus results by reprocessing the interesting work units ourselves, this form of hacking hurts our project in many ways.
In addition, some persons have altered the SETI@home client software to use faster math routines. While their intentions may be honourable (faster computing means more data processed), the scientific integrity of this project requires that the same processing be applied to all data uniformly. Since we can not verify that the results of these altered versions match those of the originals, they are a cause for significant concern.
As you can see, SETI is not requiring that the @home clients to be run on the same platforms as illustrated by it's already massive list of hardware and software platforms supported; they are only requiring that the clients process data using the same procedures for scientific control and validity.
Others may be considering about what type of person would consider purchasing the $US89 and or $129 cards. Well take a look at the results of the official SETI@home survery which states that 59.09%of those running it are doing so for the reason of "finding ET for the good of humanity." As one AC has already pointed out, this type of valuable work is by "many people taken quite seriously." I suspect that many of those willing to buy will this card will consider it as a indirect donation to the SETI@home project by providing more processed data with a side possibility of fame for their efforts. Others, like myself take pride in helping humanity answer one of it's most serious questions, and don't seek gratification or fame. I don't care if I personally find anything - it's the effort that counts.
I'm also just wondering how long before someone starts over clocking these suckers to the extreme to make them even faster. Silicon Graphics (World Rank:1) has babies that can do one work unit in 2.5 hours!
PS: On another side note, I've had this signature for a month now, because I'd like to see Team Slashdot beat Microsoft (7) and MacAddict (8)!
I posted the following background on the Monterey Alliance when SCO had announced it was for sale when I too asked of its fate; but I'll repost here for the sake of my answer.
Monterey, as you may or may not know, is the recently formed alliance between several Unix distributors, who having faced the prospect of rewriting their operating systems for the 64-bit Itanium processor decided to pool their resources. Monterey was to have been a combination of IBM's AIX, Sequent's Dynix and SCO's Unixware with technical support from other companies such as Compaq and would run on the IA-64 and PowerPC chips (support for AMD's 64-bit chips have yet to be announced).
Monterey was to have a signified a shot in the arm for Unix vendors who are being beset by not only the growing market share of Linux and Windows NT. Industry momentum is building and commitment is growing for Monterey on IA-64, which will be "a leading, high volume, channel-ready, shrink-wrapped, UNIX operating system" as trumpeted by its developers."
Apparently, IBM had bought out Sequent in recent times and on the day that SCO went up for sale rumours went around that IBM would buy out SCO as well, but surprise, Caldera has beat IBM to it. IBM?s original strategy on the Unix/Linux front was always that it would continue supporting Linux as a choice for low to mid end servers, while supporting the Monterey project to develop a Unix distribution for its high end servers and for clients want a "supported" OS. I guess that Monterey is also IBM's attempt to retain costs that would otherwise by cannibalised by Linux.
Caldera, being a Linux distributor would also follow this same strategy as SCO's current contributions to the Monterey are to valuable at the moment to ignore and left out to rot; and now seeing that one of the aims of Monterey is to provide Linux emulation/binary support(?), as well as a native Linux IA32/PPC code tree, Caldera would surely capitalise on their expertise and experience and would surely be a worthy addition to the alliance in there own right.
Slashdot Mirror
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The military industrial complex that had come to prominence in the space and aeronautical industries during the cold war and in the process giving them enormous political leverage should be allowed to come to dominate the direction of humanity's exploration in space. That direction should be made with a scientific mentality.
Though far-fetched in light of humanity's current position, but do we really want the interests of a profit-driven corporation be placed before the scientific and diplomatic interests of a government agency if humanity encounters alien life in future?
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
One project that comes to my mind is the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales's 'Pleb' project. About the length of two Australian fifty cent coins lined up next to each other, it contains a StrongARM processor and can use a number of different kernels and OSes, but most importantly Linux. I was recently lucky enough to see a demonstration of the system where a stripped down version of Debian GNU/Linux being booted off it at the university's last open day.
The main goal of Pleb is produce a "Flexible, Low-Power system for use in Portable and Embedded applications which is capable of a high level of processing power." However, more impressive is that the project's guidelines even states:
Pleb's different foundation does much to boost this project's credibility as a viable competitor to Charmed. Charmed appears to be more focused on becoming the next easy-to-use consumer toy for those on the richer side of the digital divide. Pleb on the other hand has the potential to become a more widely supported and of course, open-source wearable computing platform, and hopefully if it does become a commercial enterprise be much more affordable for people in all societies.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
The point that I'm trying to get across is that most other distributions have appeared to have lost the true spirit of the open-source movement and instead of helping you with technical support with open arms reach for your credit card first.
Try Debian and you'll understand the point I'm trying to make.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
This community isn't just tight-knit between the developers who work on the project, but it's also a tight-knit community that exists between users and developers (remember back to our collective sorrow when Joel died). Go onto any major IRC server and see how many people populate channels named #mandrake or #redhat and you'll notice that their numbers pale in comparison with #debian 's population.
The non-profit nature of Debian tends to attract the most humanitarian (and perhaps more socialistic) of Linux users, and this no more apparent then in #debian on irc.debian.org (part of the irc.openprojects.net network). This channel is always filled with over 50 friendly people at any given time willing to help you with any problems no matter how large, and most of the regulars there will keep an eye out on people who can help you later if they can't immediately.
To those consider Debian, I'd like to point out that despite the apparent difficulties involved with installing, configuring, and using Debian GNU/Linux, please remember that there will always be a very co-operative IRC channel and comprehensive mailing list willing and ready to help you through to appreciate Debian. If you're wondering if it's really difficult to keep Debian on the cutting edge, it's not. Just pop into the official #debian channel on irc.debian.org and type in:
And xk's bot, named apt, will tell you the single line you need to add to /etc/sources.list for apt-get to install and configure new software for you. Hang around and you'll see you a few Debian developers and even CowboyNeal who frequents it too. So give Debian a go and the Debian community will help you never look back.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
What I'd like to know is why would Konquerer wish to depart with there current engine and replace it with Gecko. From my understanding, tearing out Konquerer would probably requre the KDE team to rewrite a substantial amount of code to employ Gecko for rendering remote (i.e. FTP) and local file management (e.g. graphic preview and thumbnail) display. This seems to be part of the growing trend by both camps (in emulating Microsoft) to embed HTML engines into filemanagement and the GUI shell. Where is this going towards?
What will the any advantage of porting Mozilla to QT be? Perhaps Corel, who is quite short in cash at the moment, should follow Galeon's lead and attempt to strip down Mozilla for KDE instead.
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Alien is a program by Joey Hess (the same guy who writes the Debian Weekly News) that converts packages between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. Note that installed 'alienised' packages are classified by dselect and frontends such as gnome-apt and aptitude under a separate 'alien' section.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
Google is unlike other search engines that rank sites as being relevant to a user's search request by counting how many times a keyword is used within a page, or by domain names. This system can be commonly abused, and it has been demonstrated time and time again by pornographic and celebrity fan sites.
Google on the other hand, works on the principle of democracy, not in political terms, but by the definition derived from "the majority of the people". Google ranks sites as being relevant by counting how many other sites link to it.
It is a democratic search engine because it counts each external link to a page as a vote by other users who have linked to it because they think it is important and or useful. Hence a popularly linked site, in Google's eyes must be also relevant because it has been judged to be so by the Internet community as a whole.
This is what is so unique and revolutionary about Google and hence why it has an almost uncanny ability in providing search results containing both the official sites and the most popular/relevant third party ones at the same time.
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Considering that Google has introduced the concept of democracy to ranking the prominence (or relevance) of sites is revolutionary thinking, and they deserve to reap the rewards of their thinking. Google know that by refusing to offer the top-heavy extras of other sites, they too will rule supreme on the democracy of the Internet as one of the most popular search engines.
Google will continue to offer speedy search engine results, and they will probably do all they can to preserve their unique status. By cutting down on advertisements and extras, combined with their Linux-operated rack systems of off-the-shelf motherboards and spaghetti wiring, Google is also making enormous savings compared to conventional search engines.
Sure Google is going public next year, but they won't need massive ads and extras to draw in revenue. Unlike conventional search engines, Google doesn't charge a flat rate, but based on per search basis when other sites link it to, and the revenue will keep pouring in, without killing both the principle and advantages of Google.
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Trolls like this are only going to add fuel to the fears of people outside the open source community that Linux is fragmentating, which is totally untrue, and a myth we don't want to see happening for real or have people believe in.
Sure the competition can be intense, and probably beneficial to both sides, but the way it is being publicised is much more damaging to the community as a whole.
On another point Powell loses all journalistic integrity when writes the following:
The motives of the Gnome community with the formation of Helixcode have been take totally out of proportion in my opinion. Dennis E. Powell might as well attack commercial Linux distributions at the same time if he wishes to take this viewpoint. In his view, commercial Linux-focused corporations would also be hypocritical for "pretending" to support open source for the benefit of society, but at the same time earning a profit from it! This attack is very unjustified.
Any organization or corporation has the right to sell their open-sourced products at any price they choose fit as long as the purchaser has the same right to do so, and Helixcode is no exception. It's a fundamental cornerstone of the GNU Public License that Powell seems to totally ignore in blatantly attacking Gnome while sidestepping the issue of Troll Tech's QT licensing.
Gnome and KDE was originally about bringing about standards to the Linux desktop, but unfortunately it seems destined to become mere cannon fodder for endless flame wars and giving the false impression that Linux will suffer the same failures of fragmentation as Unix did.
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The abandoning of wires would save hours of diagnosing faults within wire connections for network administrators, and a laser data transmitter could be physically repointed at a different reciever with ease without even having to unplug cables and reconnecting them. With so much potential for this market, why is Air Fiber focusing on the outdoor market when they could perfect this technology for indoor usage with much less cost?
This idea also reminds me of the concept, which has been purported for years, that wireless optical could become the next medium for data transfer within a computer's processors once silicon had reached it's the height of potential. Whatever happened to those projects?
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Just rechecking some of my information, it's not the fourth law, but the Zeroth law which was published in 1985 in Prelude to Foundation. The law is as below: Laws one to three are to be obeyed except "where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth Law". An AI guard robot would be perfect for a situation such as guarding deadly viruses in a reseach facility or plutonium in a nuclear arms depot. It could be told that to let this sample be stolen would "allow humanity to come to harm." Hence, like Daniel from Prelude, the robot will do all it can, including use lethal force, and continue operating in order to carry out these instructions. Of course, if a robot becomes "too protective" of humanity, it'd be wise enough to destroy the whatever deadly sample it was guarding.
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A smart robot with properly programmed AI would disarm the intruder, restrain him or her and then contact the police. Now that's action, not inaction or letting the intruder in.
Most people seem to be saying that Asimov's laws would stop guard robots from carrying out their task. Guarding something doesn't necessarily have to mean killing any potential thieves. I admit that injury would be inevitable in this task, but like the Police, appropriate levels of force should be assigned. A limit should be set so that if an error occurs, as say when the robot comes to believe that the whole world is a threat to the object of its protection (ala Skynet-style from Terminator), then the robot could only cause so little injury/death before it'd crash. What I am saying is that with the proper implementation of Asimov's laws into a robot's ROM would possibly prevent the robot from going berserk and injuring/killing innocent people.
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Maybe I've seen too much Robocop (TV series) where the robot (cyborg really) seems to shoot to disable instead of killing criminals. The gun should only be used as a last resort in stopping the intruder, and then only to injure first to disable.
The laws when hardwired are still useful if a robot is hacked. If you've ever read Asimov's novels, you'd notice that as the Robots are hardwired with the above laws, they automatically "crash" or halt when they are about to break these laws preventing them from executing anymore illegal actions either incidental or accidental, and thus in the process avoid causing more damage, injury or loss of life.
I'm not saying that Asimov's theories are perfect, but after over half a century of debate and analysis, long before the dawn of AI in computers, the Internet, or robotics, they are still the most definitive rules to guiding any robot's actions. It's no wonder why so many regard him as one of the best ever visionaries and science fiction writers the world has ever seen.
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Until AI in robotics are advanced enough to comprehend the author Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics from 1940, independent robots should not be placed in positions where their actions could jeopardise the lives of other human beings. Even if hacked, a robot hardwired to follow the three rules below would be severely limited from injuring innocent people. The three rules are: And of course, there is a fourth rule that Asimov brings up in Prelude to Foundation, in which the robot Daniel is programmed to over the first three laws in order to ensure the survival of the human race, but that law in itself is a little too far for a guard robot! For an interesting look into the implications that Asimov's laws introduce into artificial intelligence in computing and robotics, then you look at this article by Roger Clarke at the Australian National University.
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This is Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau from the MashPotato/B> Project,currently being hosted at LinuxGiant until Raja is well enough to move it over to SourceForge, who is hosting our project. Thanks semis for getting the post in early. Most of the crew are volunteers from the official #debian IRC channel at irc.debian.org. MashPotato's aim is to provide all users of Debian with comprehensive live IRC support and an ongoing website. Over the upcoming months, the MashPotato site will be loaded with the latest tips, guides and Debian news, but currently our priority is to help out new and old Debian GNU/Linux users getting a hang of Potato and Woody as well.
Here's an excerpt from a post that was made on the Debian-user mailing list:
So if you've got any troubles whatsoever with Debian GNU/Linux, Potato or Woody, then hop into #debian or #mashpotato hosted on any IRC server that's part of the OpenProject IRC Network> and we'll be glad to help you.
MashPotato - Mobile Array of Support Helpers for Potato
This is an analogy I remind myself each time one of my friends at high school ridicules me for being a paranoid "conspiracy nut" in using encryption. It concerns me greatly that most of the general public of my country, Australia seems to take a laissez-faire approach to their online Internet rights. For example, Australians have already lost their right to unmonitored and uncensored (but not yet implemented) Internet usage and our intelligence agency, ASIO now has the legal right to actually crack our computers and monitor communications without a warrant all for the sake of so-called "national security".
I am dismayed when my friends exclaim that the CIA, MI5, or ASIO will never read my email, because I am not important, nor have I done anything wrong or have something to hide. I wish that they could see that if they we don't start fighting for our rights online now, such as the right to uncensored access, encryption, and online self-security then a time will come when it will be too late for everyone to start voicing their opinions without fear from those seeking to impose their wills upon us.
Not too long ago I sent out an email to everyone on my email list telling them about the fact that you they should start using encryption in their email and use it in their correspondence with me. No one has started sending me encrypted email. All that I've received are questions such as "Why bother?" and "Who cares?" I was even more surprised that a few of my friends have even told me that too much privacy is abuse of power and even a threat to democracy! Banning encryption will not stop terrorists from gaining access to it. Like fighting disinformation with information, the best weapon against encryption is encryption. An enemy cannot attack you if he cannot find your weaknesses. Another has even said that he does not care if corporations or a government can monitor his communication because he naively believes that any information they gather about him can only used to serve (in a commercial sense) and protect him (in a political sense.)
In ever more Western democracies, governments seem to be intent on limiting people from having access to encryption and electronic privacy. The United States has Carnivore watching its people with Echelon watching the world; the United Kingdom has Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill; and Australia now has The Telecommunications (Interception) Legislation Amendment Bill.
Where is the democracy of the future heading? Is the banning of encryption an attempt to silence future attempts to make free speech when it would otherwise be contrary to the status quo or decree of the government; and thus an attack on the very foundations of our free societies? I fear for the future, and George Orwell's nightmare doesn't become a reality.
Your factoid entry "espy" no longer reads that colourful quote of yours (but I've moved it to espy_quote)
It now reads:
God bless your soul and rest in peace, Espy. You help and work shall be sorely missed around here.
Kurt Seifried has always disregarded the Debian/GNU Linux and Slackware distributions for as long as I've started reading his material. Just digging up a past hard-copy of the Linux Administrator's Security Guide from last year, it is interesting to note he provides the following distribution notes in his guide:
Seifried still hasn't gotten around to writing any information for either of them for his now fully online version of the guide. Speaking as a Debian user (note: I'm still outraged by how Seifried has brushed Slackware aside) and a person who frequents irc.debian.org's #Debian a lot; the philosophy of Debian is that the latest does not equal the greatest unlike most commercial distributions. These long release cycles are there so that when you get a stable copy of Debian, you're assured that months of testing have ironed out bugs and security holes that would otherwise bring down essential services you may be providing. Debian's apt-get is still one of the best and easiest to use tools out there for keeping a system up to date and secure. Remember that Debian also takes a three-pronged approach to releasing new versions as well. Stable for those who the utmost reliability. Frozen (i.e. beta) for those who wanting new releases that are close to becoming stable. And of course, Unstable (i.e. alpha) for those wanting to be cutting edge. Debian has release cycles that can suit anyone.So please don't let Seifried's lack of experience (and credibility) in dealing with Debian and Slackware be influential in your decision to use them.
It is believed by many that Sony had in fact asked it's government to do this in order to:
- Create enormous media hype. This of course happened very successfully and even had its own Slashdot story!
- Prevent people from legally exporting amounts (larger than 2?) of PS2 from Japan and into a foreign market where Sony hadn't officially launched the product. Most notably, the United States.
On the other hand, considering that:and thus has considerable processing muscle, wouldn't it be extremely ironic if the GScube is placed under strict export laws by the Japanese government because it is a mini-supercomputer that can become a "threat to world peace by 'rogue states'." Now wouldn't that be a hilarious thought?
As you can see, SETI is not requiring that the @home clients to be run on the same platforms as illustrated by it's already massive list of hardware and software platforms supported; they are only requiring that the clients process data using the same procedures for scientific control and validity.
Others may be considering about what type of person would consider purchasing the $US89 and or $129 cards. Well take a look at the results of the official SETI@home survery which states that 59.09%of those running it are doing so for the reason of "finding ET for the good of humanity." As one AC has already pointed out, this type of valuable work is by "many people taken quite seriously." I suspect that many of those willing to buy will this card will consider it as a indirect donation to the SETI@home project by providing more processed data with a side possibility of fame for their efforts. Others, like myself take pride in helping humanity answer one of it's most serious questions, and don't seek gratification or fame. I don't care if I personally find anything - it's the effort that counts.
I'm also just wondering how long before someone starts over clocking these suckers to the extreme to make them even faster. Silicon Graphics (World Rank:1) has babies that can do one work unit in 2.5 hours!
PS: On another side note, I've had this signature for a month now, because I'd like to see Team Slashdot beat Microsoft (7) and MacAddict (8)!
Apparently, IBM had bought out Sequent in recent times and on the day that SCO went up for sale rumours went around that IBM would buy out SCO as well, but surprise, Caldera has beat IBM to it. IBM?s original strategy on the Unix/Linux front was always that it would continue supporting Linux as a choice for low to mid end servers, while supporting the Monterey project to develop a Unix distribution for its high end servers and for clients want a "supported" OS. I guess that Monterey is also IBM's attempt to retain costs that would otherwise by cannibalised by Linux.
Caldera, being a Linux distributor would also follow this same strategy as SCO's current contributions to the Monterey are to valuable at the moment to ignore and left out to rot; and now seeing that one of the aims of Monterey is to provide Linux emulation/binary support(?), as well as a native Linux IA32/PPC code tree, Caldera would surely capitalise on their expertise and experience and would surely be a worthy addition to the alliance in there own right.
Talk about irony, why don't you? = ) The GIF is here and you may have to reload it a few times to get the version listed above, but all of them share the same concept anyway.
If you haven't noticed, Slashdot's FAQ has reached version 2. The -2 or 6 is actually a bug