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  1. Re:Probably not on OpenSUSE 11.0 Released · · Score: 1

    The package management is much faster in 11.0, like a night and day difference. Maybe even faster than apt-get in some cases.

    I don't use YaST that much -- the command line tool 'zypper' is more my speed. libzypp (used by both YaST and zypper) was ungodly slow in 10.2, a bit better in 10.3, and is blazing fast in 11.0.

  2. cron on Sendmail Removed From NetBSD · · Score: 2, Informative

    The main reason an MTA is included is because of the daily (and weekly, monthly) cron jobs that email their output to root. As one of the daily jobs is /etc/security (which compares the checksum, permissions, and timestamps of a list of system files to known values, among other things), this is a good thing. (It's also a good idea to put audit-packages in security.local, and download-vulnerability-list in daily.)

    Just an FYI, on both NetBSD and OpenBSD (and also FreeBSD, AFAIK), the out-of-the-box configuration has sendmail listening only on 127.0.0.1 and ::1 -- you have to manually configure it (insert sendmail.cf snark) to listen on physical interfaces.

    While pkgsrc does make installation very easy, the stuff in base undergoes more throrough audits, and usually has {Net,Open,Free}BSD-specific patches to it. While pkgsrc includes patches as well, those are usually just what's sufficient to make it run on $platform.

  3. Re:Instant torque on Electric Car Faster Than A Ferrari or Porsche · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They have sold those for quite some time, and they're quite popular here in Texas. Don't be fooled by the "6-cylinder" Cummins Diesel engine -- its cylinders are rather massive -- the engine is 5.9L, and it generates massive amounts of torque. It's only available on 3/4-ton and 1-ton models though.

    What would be nice would be offering a 4-cylinder version of the Cummins (simple math gives 3.9L displacement for such a beast) in the 1/2-ton Ram and Dakota (their compact pickup). Such an engine would both outperform and get better gas mileage than the gas-powered V6 currently in the base models.

  4. Re:I may be mistaken... on The Mini-ITX Linux PVR Project · · Score: 1
    For the video card, it is quite handy if the card does xvmc - especially if you're still planning on going with a 1GHz CPU. It is essential that it does xv. This restricts it to a midrange geforce 4 or better. I really need to get around to checking if the 6150 does xvmc...

    I assume you meant xvmc there? Virtually all cards since the ATI Rage, nV TNT, Matrox G200, S3 Virge, etc. have XVideo (xv) support, which does stuff like overlay, colorspace conversion, and scaling in hardware, and is absolutely essential for playing a video full-screen (or any size larger than original). Try playing a video with 'mplayer -vo x11 ....' and see what I mean.

    Such is the only reason I put an S3 Virge in an old box instead of a Matrox Millenium, which is better in every other way.
  5. Re:Foreboding signs on TiVo to Drop Lifetime Service Plan · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is why I order from Jameco and Mouser more often than Digikey -- no handling fee for small orders. Plus Jameco can ship USPS which is cheaper than UPS or FedEx for small packages.

    And while there is a local electronics shop in this town, they're way on the other side of town, and usually more expensive than Radio Shack. They do have a much better selection however, so they're at least an option if I need something today.

  6. Re:Better questions for biblical literalists... on Christian Churches Celebrate Darwin's Birthday · · Score: 1
    The long answer can be found here. The short answer is: the RCC took pagan ideas, symbols, practices, and theology and put Christian names on it. The mother-and-child motif is from Ishtar and Tammuz, that was turned into Mary-and-the-infant-Jesus.


    This is straight out of Jack Chick tracts (many of which are decidedly unbiblical/extrabiblical), although I suspect you already know that, since you recommend a book by Hislop, published by Chick publications. (And BTW, he claims Semiramis, rather than Ishtar). I would recommend this book instead—Woodrow was originally one of Hislop's biggest proponents, writing his own book in support of Hislop, but later wrote this book, after discovering through much prayer and research that many of Hislop's claims are incorrect. Disclaimer: I have not read any of these books in question, but I think one should get both sides of a story before making their own judgment, and I would be interested in finding out why Woodrow did a 180 on the matter. Perhaps on my next trip to the library...

    I am not a Catholic and never have been, and indeed disagree with many of their teachings, but one should apply Occam's razor here—these massive conspiracy theories don't make any sense—especially the ones Chick espoused about the Catholic church being behind everything from the US Civil War to Hitler to Communism.
  7. Re:NetBSD over FreeBSD? on NetBSD 2.1 Released · · Score: 1

    While this is not a reason for most people, NetBSD has much better ext2 support (for mounting Linux disks). At least under FreeBSD 5.3, ext2fs partitions would not unmount properly upon shutdown, causing ALL partitions to be fsck'ed next boot (workaround: have the shutdown script manually unmount them earlier), and worse, they cannot be NFS-exported. This made my file server rather useless.

    NetBSD has no such problems, and so works better for me. My /home is on a separate disk that was originally created on a Linux box, and as all *BSDs can mount ext2, I thought reformatting wouldn't be necessary. With FreeBSD, I would have thought wrong...

    I've also grown to like pkgsrc, which like the rest of NetBSD, is quite portable, running on a bunch of other OS's. Its audit-packages functionality is quite nice, which can easily be set up to run as part of the daily security scan and email you if vulnerabilites have been found for any installed packages. Also, its release schedule is independent of NetBSD itself -- stable releases are done quarterly (with binary builds), but you can cvs update a specific package (or the whole tree) any time you like, to get newer versions, without having to deal with running the -current OS.

    Plus, it has a nice filesystem hierarchy -- stuff in base is in /usr/{bin,lib,sbin,share,...}; pkgsrc stuff in /usr/pkg/{bin,...}; and stuff in /usr/local/{bin,...} is stuff that you put there (what a novel concept!).

  8. Re:Can someone please explain to me... on Opera Free as in Beer · · Score: 1

    One feature of Firefox that I only recently discovered (because of someone's labeling it a mis-feature in their rant about five things wrong with IE and Firefox) is that the Go menu has the history for all tabs, even the ones that have been closed. It even survives browser crashes (I'm looking at you, QuickTime plugin!), which is a really nice feature.

    It's not quite the same as reopening that tab, but it does let you get back where you were quickly and easily.

  9. IE barfs on <script /> on Update on Standards and CSS in IE7 · · Score: 1

    For most things, it does.  However, for the script tag, like <script src="..." />, IE will barf and display a blank page if you don't break that up into <script><!--blah--></script>.

  10. Bilbo Baggins entry on Computer Analyst Wins Best Worst Writing Contest · · Score: 1
    I got a kick out of the LotR parody:

    Runner-Up
    When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday, his children packed his bags and drove him to Golden Pastures retirement complex just off Interstate 95.

    Stephen Farnsworth
    Manchester, U.K.
  11. Re:Linguistic note... on FreeBSD Ported to XBox · · Score: 1

    There is some variation among dialects, e.g. between British and American usage. In Standard American English, the initial sound is what determines the usage of a/an, i.e. "an honorable profession" or "a USB controller" (assuming you pronounce it U-S-B). I've seen "an" occur more often in British usage, but I'm not sure exactly what their rules are.

  12. Re:Remember lookupd? on Does launchd Beat cron? · · Score: 1
    lookup was not a new thing with 10.0. It definitely exists in OpenStep 4.2 (released 1997), and probably 4.0 from a couple years earlier.
    % grep lookupd /etc/rc
    # The lookup daemon, lookupd, provides information to client programs
    if [ -f /usr/etc/nibindd -a -f /usr/etc/lookupd ]; then
    /usr/etc/lookupd && (echo -n ' lookupd') >/dev/console
    While 4.2 didn't ship with a lookupd config in NetInfo under /locations, nidump'ing one from OS X, editing it appropriately, and niload'ing it into OpenStep does indeed work, as I used this method to get my OpenStep machine up to speed with my NIS domain.
  13. Re:XML plist configs are easy on Does launchd Beat cron? · · Score: 1
    Wow, your first example (block-level stuff) looks a lot like what nidump will give you when you dump part of NetInfo. That may just be a coincidence, but the resemblance is uncanny. Here's an example from OpenStep; the format may have changed somewhat under Darwin but I don't know.
    boxy> nidump -r /machines .
    name = machines;
    CHILDREN = ({
    name = localhost;
    ip_address = 127.0.0.1;
    serves = ./local;
    }, {
    name = broadcasthost;
    ip_address = 255.255.255.255;
    }, {
    name = boxy;
    ip_address = 192.168.2.123;
    });
    This obviously is the NetInfo equivalent of /etc/hosts. While there is an /etc/hosts file on NeXTStep, it is never consulted once the NetInfo daemon is running!

    And yes, in plaintext view, this is definitely more readable than XML. With syntax highlighting XML does become more readable, but you don't always have that (vim is not as universal as vi!).
  14. Re:wait.. on Next Generation X11 · · Score: 1

    It should be pointed out that the "XFree86" in OpenBSD 3.6 was 4.3.99.something forked before the license change, much like Debian has done. This was actually something the OpenBSD devs made a big deal of, and I think it's referenced in the 3.6 song.

    NetBSD 2.0 shipped with XFree86 4.4 (they were one of the few distros that didn't have issues with the new license), but I believe even they plan to eventually transition to Xorg. I know it's possible to build NetBSD with Xorg now, and while I haven't been tracking -current, it's quite possible Xorg is now the default. If not yet, it will be.

    I was disappointed to see that DragonFly is still using XFree in the 1.2 release they just made. At least, the package repositories/ports tree it references are.

  15. Re:everyone is an apple fan at some point. on Windows Journalist Takes On Tiger · · Score: 1
    An example as proof - I am a huge fan of the Detroit Tigers - and you should have heard me bitch when they traded half the team away for one season of Juan Gonzales (who mailed in his performance when he wasn't milking a debilitating pinky injury), when they hired Phil Garner to manage (ugh)


    Phil Garner hasn't been doing too bad managing the Astros -- certainly better than Jimy Williams, at least. Of course having Clemens and Beltran helped his success last year, but still, he was runner-up for NL Manager of the year.
    </Astros-fanboi>
  16. Re:Let's examine your post on EDS: Linux is Insecure, Unscalable · · Score: 2

    You're mistaken. Remember that GDI+ vulnerability a few months back? Besides patching the system library, you had to patch Office XP, Visual Studio .NET, etc., because they all used their own versions of the library.

    I can't seem to find it now, but I've seen a screenshot illustrating this even more drastically: Office 97 running under NT 3.51. The title bar has the Windows 3.1-style look that NT 3.51 had, but everything inside the window -- menus, buttons, etc. had the Win95 look.

  17. NeXTStep & BSD on Interview With Matt Dillon of DragonFlyBSD · · Score: 1

    NeXT is no more BSD Unix based or descended from then OS X is based or descended from FreeBSD.

    No more than, perhaps, but both statements are true to a certain extent. NeXTStep was the Mach microkernel with a 4.3 BSD userland (plus some GNU software, like gnutar and gcc) and NeXT's proprietary GUI (DisplayPostcript, etc.). OS X is the Darwin kernel with a (mostly) FreeBSD userland plus some GNU software and Apple's proprietary GUI (some parts of which are quite similar to DisplayPostscript, but PS is no longer used to due to Adobe's expensive licensing fees).

  18. Re:True life story . . . on Firefox In Print · · Score: 1

    The problem is that many spyware, (IE) browser hijacks, etc. get through the Windows security screen, using stuff like DSO exploits, etc., so that it doesn't matter that Machine\Joe_User can't install stuff, as the installer runs as NTAUTHORITY\SYSTEM (or something similar) and then not only did it get installed, Joe User couldn't remove it he knew how.

    This is why IE is bad, mmkay?

    Nevertheless, it is better to run Windows (if you must) as a limited user, not an admin, and use "RunAs" like you would "sudo". Of course, their is some stuff that doesn't work correctly with RunAs (e.g.: launch a cmd admin shell with runas, then "start c:\", and the explorer window that pops up still only has user permissions), and even for stuff that does, it can be a huge PITA... which is why I like *NIX better.

  19. Re:Let's get this one out of the way on Lean Mean Grilling PC Mod · · Score: 1

    Actually... in one of the detail pages he noted that the motherboard did die back in November, and he had it replaced.

    So I guess you could say his mobo did fry... just not because of /. (that would be his DSL connection!).

  20. Re:There will always been room for the underdog on High School Dropout, Self-Taught Chip Designer · · Score: 1

    If not 100%, Ford owns a majority stake in Mazda.

    GM owns 49% of Isuzu, and they have done some sharing -- the (no longer made) Isuzu Hombre pickup was an S-10 clone, and the Duramax Diesel engine in the Chevy pickups is an Isuzu design.

  21. OpenBSD's had it for a while on NetBSD 2.0 Released · · Score: 1

    The Linux-style Shift+PgUp/PgDn has been in OpenBSD (and enabled by default, too) at least since 3.4, if not prior to that (3.4 was the oldest release I'd used).

    Nevertheless, it is an annoyance that NetBSD doesn't have that supported OOB. I installed NetBSD (on an old i386 box) to play around with and promptly ditched it after I found I couldn't scroll the console. Good to know you can enable it though.

    Funny that OBSD has it (in the default conf) and NetBSD doesn't. Usually code flows Net->Open rather than the other way around (although I don't know the particular history of this feature; it is entirely possible that OpenBSD got the code from NetBSD, and just enabled it first).

  22. Re:Bah on Netscape Reborn? · · Score: 1

    Windows NT4 Workstation (prior to any service packs) shipped with IE 4.40 (according to its about box). This was a prior version to IE 3.0, however, and didn't support stuff like frames, java, etc, and I suppose was roughly the same version as the "4.950" on Windows 95.

    Besides being a useless browser, it also choked on downloads over a certain size (about 6MB IIRC). I seem to recall that was one of the reason Netscape introduced a minimal install/download manager for some version of Netscape 4.x, so IE (< 3.0) users could download it. Personally I just opened up a DOS box and did "ftp ftp.netscape.com" to get the full version.

  23. Yes (since 3.5) on OpenBSD 3.6 Released! · · Score: 1

    It has since 3.5 (assuming BIOS support of course -- you still need to have your root filesystem in the first 504MB on that old 386 that can't address more, but any modern system is fine), so the 8GB limitation is long gone.

  24. Re:Screenshots are dated on 10 Years of OpenStep · · Score: 1

    Low-res monochrome NeXT monitor??

    The NeXT monitors (both "mono" and color) ran at 1120x832, which isn't that high a resolution in today's era of 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 displays, but it's not exactly low-res, either, as it's still larger than 1024x768. For its time (1988), it was a very high resolution, as PCs used 640x480 (lucky to have that in 16 colors, or 256 if you're rich!); likewise for Macs (if they weren't at 512x342 or 512x384). Only some workstations like Sun at 1152x900 equalled it, but that was often black/white.

    NeXT's "mono" was actually 2-bit grey, with a light and dark grey in addition to black and white. This doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it makes a huge difference, as it means there is virtually no halftoning, and widgets can have a "3D" look without being uglified. Aside from color icons, the NeXT's GUI (menus, windows, dialogs, etc.) was identical on mono and color displays.

  25. OpenBSD has it on i386 (W^X) on Microsoft Releases Changelist for Upcoming XP SP2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    That's read as "write XOR execute". If a page is writable it cannot be executed, and vice versa, so even if there was a buffer overrun bug in a daemon, the arbitrary code you insert couldn't be executed.

    From http://www.openbsd.org/34.html#new :

    Further W^X improvements, including support for the i386 architecture. Native i386 binaries have their executable segments rearranged to support isolating code from data, and the cpu CS limit is used to impose a best effort limit on code execution.
    It's a bit of a kludge on i386 (unlike amd64 or ppc), but it can still be done.