To make this work, and to allow for "anything" to be a TLD, and to finally get NSI out of everyone's hair, we have to decentralize the DNS system.
I suggest that something like the GNUtella approach be applied to domain names. You could search for "Microsoft" and get not only Microsoft,.com but 3712 MSCE's personal home pages, 38 pages of Microsoft jokes, "Windows Millennium Annoyances" and 7253098 Linux sites...
Hm, then DNS would become the search engine, which didn't occur to me when this idea popped into my head... Maybe this idea is way out there, but there it is. ---
You're not going to tell me that if Linux offered similar functionalities of Outlook and WSH, that there wouldn't be a problem?
Yes, I am. I use Pine. I have perl and python installed. If someone E-mails me a perl or python script, Pine will allow me to select attachment, press V (or ENTER), and wow, the text of the script pops up on my screen. Oh, wait, I wanted to run it! That means I have to choose R for Run (because E for Exit Viewer was taken) and, oh wait, Pine doesn't have a Run command and doesn't "run" attachments.
If I really wanted to run it, I'd have to save it to disk, and then run it.
And pine lets me view HTML mail and images just fine. I do it all the time.
The thing is, people send me perl and python scripts all the time. Usually they do things like process text, write web pages, or whatever. And they have subject lines like "CGI for guestbook." They don't have subject lines like "Check this out" or "This is sooooo cute!"
And exactly one person sent me the virus - by posting the code to my slashcode server... ---
Re:On the Washington Post Article - /. Power?
on
Hump Day Quickies
·
· Score: 2
(This will teach me to check the homepage before submitting a story. Oops! Sorry guys. Then again, I don't think this should have been in the quickies...)
Anyway, I wonder how many people are trying to find slashdot.com right about now...?
As long as CmdrTaco is running the show, I don't have any doubt that/. will remain the "success" it is. Now if he loses editorial control... it's all downhill. ---
Aren't you aware that Linux uses any free RAM as disk cache? Now unless the new/. box gets/.ed it probably has some free RAM to cache all those cute little icons. ---
The anonymous coward is right that open source projects should release early and often. Unfortunately, as CmdrTaco said, that isn't always so easy.
Now I don't know what's going on over at SourceForge with regard to the code and documentation getting out of sync with themselves, but if that stuff is true, then it's pretty bad moves on the part of SourceForge, and it's certainly no way to run an "open source" project!
And this post adds no additional insight whatsoever. It's eseentially a "me too." Whatever. ---
To be honest, they should license the design to another company--VA? Point of Sale? Hello?--and let them deal with the hassles of the product market, while they sell their service for $99 and $20 a month.
This is easily the most intelligent thing I've seen posted so far. If NPLI is supposed to be focusing so hard on delivering a service, they should outsource the hardware and OS development. Of course, the execs there realize this already! That is why they are so interested in open source.
Now if there were some kind of open hardware development, then maybe we could build a similar box.
But the best move in this regard would be for NPLI to go find some hardware manufacturer to build these i-openers so NPLI can focus on what it should be focusing on.
The side benefit of such a move is that we geeks could get our hands on such a box for a fair market price without jeopardizing NPLI's business. ---
I've done programming for Motif, Qt/KDE and a bit of Gtk+/GNOME. Motif is just an absolute nightmare to deal with. Half of what you want to do, has to be done through Xlib or Xt calls anyway! Motif isn't much of an "environment" in the sense that Qt/KDE and Gtk+/GNOME are.
At the same time, Qt/KDE programming for me has been a breeze, while I am still trying to figure out Gtk+/GNOME and getting nowhere. I'll probably abandon it entirely, which is a shame since a lot of valuable work has gone into that environment.
If every single person on the Internet can access that information (even if they have to click on a license), can that really still be considered secret?
I am NOT a lawyer. However, I don't understand how Microsoft can claim they took reasonable steps to keep this information confidential when they have NO IDEA WHO downloaded, or possesses, the information.
It seems to me that Microsoft did not take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of its "trade secret," by not requiring user registration to access the file. Unfortunately for them, it's too late now.
This is M$. I seem to recall that they make people SIGN PHYSICAL PIECES OF PAPER called non-disclosure agreements before giving them access to confidential information. So what the hell is this? Looks to me like M$'s legal department royally fucked up.
Of course, you should consult your own lawyer before you go reading the PDF file... ---
Somebody's gotta respond to this troll. I don't have any mod points so I guess it's my turn.
OK, I'm sick of/.ers assuming that everyone who reads/. must be some kind of American, white, male Linux user without a life.
I am a white, male, American, Linux user. And I have a life. I know there are others on/. who have different attributes, either they're not white, or not male, or not American. You aren't a Linux user.
And as the title says, "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters". There's nothing about open source in there at all.
So what matters to you? How come you haven't submitted any stories about it? I occasionally submit a story I think people on here will be interested in. And I maybe read 1/3 or less of the articles that do get posted. Not everything on here is going to appeal to everybody. The idea is you can choose what you're interested in!
I do not represent the open source community. I do not run Linux. In fact, I was curious about it before I came here, but a year's worth of zealotry and bigoted postings have pretty much put me off of ever running Linux at all. Why should I associate myself with such a narrow-minded group of people? Trust me, zealots do nothing but put people off. Linux could do without them, and/. certainly could.
If you were curious about Linux,/. is the wrong place to go. Nobody here knows anything about Linux.:) All joking aside, there are lots of compelling reasons to take a good hard look at Linux besides the zealots, trolls, and OOG THE CAVEMAN.
It's a rapidly developing yet stable Unix-like platform easily competitive with Windows NT (2000).
It runs on cheap commodity PC (and Macintosh, and lots of other) hardware like the box that you're probably using right now.
You don't have to reboot every time you change a setting or install some software.
The graphic user interfaces are a lot nicer than Windows.
You can actually get work done with it.
It pours 48% hotter grits down your pants than Windows.
That said, there are a few reasons you might not want to use it exclusively: for instance, incomplete hardware support for such things a nVIDIA cards, incomplete applications and file format support for such things as MS Office documents. But these things are being worked on with all deliberate speed.
So if you want to be ahead of the game when Linux emerges as a REAL market force, and have no doubt that it will (yeah, I'm one of the zealots, I guess), then you'd do well to learn your way around it now.
In fact, I'm sick of every single "open source" project getting a whole story here with every release, even when it's 2.999a 0.6pre3 or some other incomprehensible version number.
Yes and no. Sure there's a place for hardware. But there's also a place for: (take your pick) The Almighty Buck, AMD, Amiga, Announcements, America Online, Apache, Apple, Be, Beanies, BSD, Bugs, Caldera, CDA, Censorship, Christmas Cheer, Comdex, Compaq, Corel, Debian, Digital, Department of Justice, Education, Encryption, Enlightenment, ePlus, Games, The Gimp, GNOME, GNU is Not Unix, GNUStep, Graphics, Hardware, It's funny. Laugh., IBM, Internet Explorer, Intel, The Internet, Java, KDE, Links, Linux, Linux Business, Linuxcare, Linux Mandrake, The Media, Microsoft, Movies, Mozilla, Music, Netscape, News, Patents, Perl, PalmPilot, Privacy, Programming, Quake, Quickies, Red Hat Software, Science, Silicon Graphics, Slashdot.org, Space, Spam, Star Wars Prequels, Sun Microsystems, SuSE, Technology, Toys, Transmeta, Television, Unix, Upgrades, United States, VA, Wine, and X. So if you don't like what you see, quit whining and submit a story. ---
In two years, one of the more high-profile open-source projects--Mozilla.org--has released exactly zero legitimate copies of its browser.
Maybe true, but at least they've been able to stay more-or-less on schedule with development.
In fact, the best parts of Netscape 6 have nothing to do with openness. The most important part of the browser is not its unique blue interface. It's AOL's obvious attempt to tie in the browser to a bunch of for-profit proprietary services.
Huh? This guy apparently never heard of NGLayout (which, unfortunately, AOL's marketing people keep calling gecko).
But open-source advocates should face the facts: Put up some goods or your establishment will be ripped apart, too.
This is so obviously a troll that I am beginning to think we should apply/. moderation to ZDNet. ---
Unless you read the proposed final judgment VERY carefully, you might not realize that it actually proposes THREE companies.
The first company would be the Operating System Business, which does Windows.
The second company would be the Applications Business, which does IE, Office, SQL Server, MSNBC, Hotmail, etc.
The third company is called the "Remaining Business" and keeps the Microsoft name. As far as I can tell, all it will be making is keyboards, joysticks and mice, i.e. the hardware. As I understand, it also keeps Bill Gates.:) ---
Re:Privacy is dead: welcome to the Internet
on
The Eroded Self
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· Score: 2
Remember, it was us, the geeks, who wanted free information.
Speak for yourself. All I wanted was source code and better quality programs than the infinite monkeys at infinite compilers are generating up in Redmond.
This is our reward.
If this is a reward, I don't even want to think about the punishment! ---
Re:Perfect strategy for tic-tac-toe
on
Solving Chess?
·
· Score: 2
Move 5 is wrong in your example. X needs to block O at left center, then O blocks X at right center, and from there nobody can force a win.
You're right. It took me almost 20 minutes to get that formatted inside this small box, some 15 previews, and a lot of pain. I was bound to make a mistake. Thanks for catching it. ---
Perfect strategy for tic-tac-toe
on
Solving Chess?
·
· Score: 2
Yes, there is a perfect strategy. It goes something like this:
Re:I don't understand the question.
on
Solving Chess?
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· Score: 2
AFAIK 'solving' the game of chess means finding a perfect strategy for both players, a strategy which would have to work out all the possible cominations in advance and plays the best move. If both players did this and neither made a mistake, what would the outcome be?
I dare say the fastest way to solve this is rather low-tech: stick all the grandmasters in a room with a bunch of chess boards and a truckload of Jolt...
After all, if you're looking for a strategy to win every time if you are (white|black), this is quite different than a sequence of moves. The aforementioned grandmasters could probably provide a lot of insight into this.
But if we're talking about a "perfect" sequence of moves made by white, played against a "perfect" sequence of moves made by black, with neither player making a "mistake," then a computer might be able to solve this.
The major stumbling block is defining what a "mistake" is. After all, there are numerous points in a game where one might make an unorthodox move. I believe these are called gambits. A computer might rate one of these gambits as a mistake, when in fact it is the key to winning the game. Some of these gambits might even involve sacrificing a piece, which a computer might rate as a "mistake."
So now I'm down to the question: what is a "mistake"? ---
I don't understand the question.
on
Solving Chess?
·
· Score: 2
Seems to me that if you want white to win, you just have black make extraordinarily bad moves. Vice versa for vice versa.
What exactly does it mean to "solve" the game of chess? After all, there are widely published sequences of chess moves which lead to a given outcome. Any chess book will illustrate a number of them.
Does it mean that before you start playing you can mathematically prove what the outcome will be? I suppose if both players are computer programs with their source code published, this could be done. But then you're analyzing computer programs rather than the game...
If you look through history you will find that more often than not cryptanalysts have had the edge on cryptographers. More often than not, said cryptanalysts were employed by governments, and more often than not, they kept secret the fact that they could decrypt messages.
I'm sufficiently paranoid that I think it's possible that the reason the DoJ stopped harassing Phil Zimmerman is that the NSA finally cracked RSA, or perhaps IDEA, and therefore, there was no reason to prosecute him or stop the free flow of PGP across borders.
In such a scenario, the NSA would want people to use PGP, believing it was truly secure, and they could still decrypt the messages.
It'll be twenty years before we find out if this has actually happened... ---
This nominal privacy of option 3 is not something that exists at the present time. Why not?
Because encryption doesn't work like that.
Any public-key cryptosystem is going to have roughly the same amount of complexity in the user interface regardless of how few or how many bits you use. So you may as well go with more bits.
Any "normal" cryptography has a huge problem: how to securely transmit the key! And you still run into user interface issues.
What we should be focusing on is making the user interface to strong crypto easier to use, rather than trying to make the crypto weaker. You brought up the passphrase issue. Perhaps the passphrase could be stored in RAM for the duration of your E-mail session at your option? (You'd have to do some work to get it to not be swapped out to disk, but that's easy enough to solve.)
People who really didn't care too much could have the passphrase stored on disk. This would solve the problem of unencrypted data on the network, but you're hosed if your computer gets seized by MI5 or the FBI. Of course, if all you have is E-mail from Mom with her recipe for chocolate chip cookies... but if you're seriously worried about that kind of thing, you DO want to type the passphrase in every time.
It's basically a tradeoff of security vs. convenience. The user interface should provide for all three options, and this is fairly simple programming. ---
I might hate driving through your state (nothing to see but corn for miles)
Goodbye +1 bonus... this is completely off-topic.
I hate driving through Chicago, nothing but glass and steel and concrete for miles (and hours, depending on traffic)!
The real interesting sights, natural formations, etc., are in eastern Iowa. But if you can't get off I-80 to go looking around, consider taking US 6 instead. It's a much more interesting drive, since you get to see actual towns every so often...then again, if you're driving 90, you won't be in Iowa long anyway.:) ---
Re:What about VA/MD residents?
on
Fighting UCITA
·
· Score: 2
Say I run a web server on my DSL line (which is true), and I do something like host a mirror of controversial material. Who is the service provider in this case, me or my ISP?
Slashdot Mirror
I suggest that something like the GNUtella approach be applied to domain names. You could search for "Microsoft" and get not only Microsoft,.com but 3712 MSCE's personal home pages, 38 pages of Microsoft jokes, "Windows Millennium Annoyances" and 7253098 Linux sites...
Hm, then DNS would become the search engine, which didn't occur to me when this idea popped into my head... Maybe this idea is way out there, but there it is.
---
5. Jon 'maddog' Katz
---
Yes, I am. I use Pine. I have perl and python installed. If someone E-mails me a perl or python script, Pine will allow me to select attachment, press V (or ENTER), and wow, the text of the script pops up on my screen. Oh, wait, I wanted to run it! That means I have to choose R for Run (because E for Exit Viewer was taken) and, oh wait, Pine doesn't have a Run command and doesn't "run" attachments.
If I really wanted to run it, I'd have to save it to disk, and then run it.
And pine lets me view HTML mail and images just fine. I do it all the time.
The thing is, people send me perl and python scripts all the time. Usually they do things like process text, write web pages, or whatever. And they have subject lines like "CGI for guestbook." They don't have subject lines like "Check this out" or "This is sooooo cute!"
And exactly one person sent me the virus - by posting the code to my slashcode server...
---
Er, that was all 60K of http://cnn.com/index.html.
---
Anyway, I wonder how many people are trying to find slashdot.com right about now...?
As long as CmdrTaco is running the show, I don't have any doubt that /. will remain the "success" it is. Now if he loses editorial control... it's all downhill.
---
Aren't you aware that Linux uses any free RAM as disk cache? Now unless the new /. box gets /.ed it probably has some free RAM to cache all those cute little icons.
---
Now I don't know what's going on over at SourceForge with regard to the code and documentation getting out of sync with themselves, but if that stuff is true, then it's pretty bad moves on the part of SourceForge, and it's certainly no way to run an "open source" project!
And this post adds no additional insight whatsoever. It's eseentially a "me too." Whatever.
---
This is easily the most intelligent thing I've seen posted so far. If NPLI is supposed to be focusing so hard on delivering a service, they should outsource the hardware and OS development. Of course, the execs there realize this already! That is why they are so interested in open source.
Now if there were some kind of open hardware development, then maybe we could build a similar box.
But the best move in this regard would be for NPLI to go find some hardware manufacturer to build these i-openers so NPLI can focus on what it should be focusing on.
The side benefit of such a move is that we geeks could get our hands on such a box for a fair market price without jeopardizing NPLI's business.
---
I've done programming for Motif, Qt/KDE and a bit of Gtk+/GNOME. Motif is just an absolute nightmare to deal with. Half of what you want to do, has to be done through Xlib or Xt calls anyway! Motif isn't much of an "environment" in the sense that Qt/KDE and Gtk+/GNOME are.
At the same time, Qt/KDE programming for me has been a breeze, while I am still trying to figure out Gtk+/GNOME and getting nowhere. I'll probably abandon it entirely, which is a shame since a lot of valuable work has gone into that environment.
That and I just plain like KDE a lot better.
---
I am NOT a lawyer. However, I don't understand how Microsoft can claim they took reasonable steps to keep this information confidential when they have NO IDEA WHO downloaded, or possesses, the information.
It seems to me that Microsoft did not take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of its "trade secret," by not requiring user registration to access the file. Unfortunately for them, it's too late now.
This is M$. I seem to recall that they make people SIGN PHYSICAL PIECES OF PAPER called non-disclosure agreements before giving them access to confidential information. So what the hell is this? Looks to me like M$'s legal department royally fucked up.
Of course, you should consult your own lawyer before you go reading the PDF file...
---
OK, I'm sick of /.ers assuming that everyone who reads /. must be some kind of American, white, male Linux user without a life.
I am a white, male, American, Linux user. And I have a life. I know there are others on /. who have different attributes, either they're not white, or not male, or not American. You aren't a Linux user.
And as the title says, "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters". There's nothing about open source in there at all.
So what matters to you? How come you haven't submitted any stories about it? I occasionally submit a story I think people on here will be interested in. And I maybe read 1/3 or less of the articles that do get posted. Not everything on here is going to appeal to everybody. The idea is you can choose what you're interested in!
I do not represent the open source community. I do not run Linux. In fact, I was curious about it before I came here, but a year's worth of zealotry and bigoted postings have pretty much put me off of ever running Linux at all. Why should I associate myself with such a narrow-minded group of people? Trust me, zealots do nothing but put people off. Linux could do without them, and /. certainly could.
If you were curious about Linux, /. is the wrong place to go. Nobody here knows anything about Linux. :) All joking aside, there are lots of compelling reasons to take a good hard look at Linux besides the zealots, trolls, and OOG THE CAVEMAN.
- It's a rapidly developing yet stable Unix-like platform easily competitive with Windows NT (2000).
- It runs on cheap commodity PC (and Macintosh, and lots of other) hardware like the box that you're probably using right now.
- You don't have to reboot every time you change a setting or install some software.
- The graphic user interfaces are a lot nicer than Windows.
- You can actually get work done with it.
- It pours 48% hotter grits down your pants than Windows.
That said, there are a few reasons you might not want to use it exclusively: for instance, incomplete hardware support for such things a nVIDIA cards, incomplete applications and file format support for such things as MS Office documents. But these things are being worked on with all deliberate speed.So if you want to be ahead of the game when Linux emerges as a REAL market force, and have no doubt that it will (yeah, I'm one of the zealots, I guess), then you'd do well to learn your way around it now.
In fact, I'm sick of every single "open source" project getting a whole story here with every release, even when it's 2.999a 0.6pre3 or some other incomprehensible version number.
I think you're confusing /. with freshmeat.net.
This isn't a hardware site is it?
Yes and no. Sure there's a place for hardware. But there's also a place for: (take your pick) The Almighty Buck, AMD, Amiga, Announcements, America Online, Apache, Apple, Be, Beanies, BSD, Bugs, Caldera, CDA, Censorship, Christmas Cheer, Comdex, Compaq, Corel, Debian, Digital, Department of Justice, Education, Encryption, Enlightenment, ePlus, Games, The Gimp, GNOME, GNU is Not Unix, GNUStep, Graphics, Hardware, It's funny. Laugh., IBM, Internet Explorer, Intel, The Internet, Java, KDE, Links, Linux, Linux Business, Linuxcare, Linux Mandrake, The Media, Microsoft, Movies, Mozilla, Music, Netscape, News, Patents, Perl, PalmPilot, Privacy, Programming, Quake, Quickies, Red Hat Software, Science, Silicon Graphics, Slashdot.org, Space, Spam, Star Wars Prequels, Sun Microsystems, SuSE, Technology, Toys, Transmeta, Television, Unix, Upgrades, United States, VA, Wine, and X. So if you don't like what you see, quit whining and submit a story.
---
Maybe true, but at least they've been able to stay more-or-less on schedule with development.
In fact, the best parts of Netscape 6 have nothing to do with openness. The most important part of the browser is not its unique blue interface. It's AOL's obvious attempt to tie in the browser to a bunch of for-profit proprietary services.
Huh? This guy apparently never heard of NGLayout (which, unfortunately, AOL's marketing people keep calling gecko).
But open-source advocates should face the facts: Put up some goods or your establishment will be ripped apart, too.
This is so obviously a troll that I am beginning to think we should apply /. moderation to ZDNet.
---
The first company would be the Operating System Business, which does Windows.
The second company would be the Applications Business, which does IE, Office, SQL Server, MSNBC, Hotmail, etc.
The third company is called the "Remaining Business" and keeps the Microsoft name. As far as I can tell, all it will be making is keyboards, joysticks and mice, i.e. the hardware. As I understand, it also keeps Bill Gates. :)
---
Speak for yourself. All I wanted was source code and better quality programs than the infinite monkeys at infinite compilers are generating up in Redmond.
This is our reward.
If this is a reward, I don't even want to think about the punishment!
---
You're right. It took me almost 20 minutes to get that formatted inside this small box, some 15 previews, and a lot of pain. I was bound to make a mistake. Thanks for catching it.
---
---
I dare say the fastest way to solve this is rather low-tech: stick all the grandmasters in a room with a bunch of chess boards and a truckload of Jolt...
After all, if you're looking for a strategy to win every time if you are (white|black), this is quite different than a sequence of moves. The aforementioned grandmasters could probably provide a lot of insight into this.
But if we're talking about a "perfect" sequence of moves made by white, played against a "perfect" sequence of moves made by black, with neither player making a "mistake," then a computer might be able to solve this.
The major stumbling block is defining what a "mistake" is. After all, there are numerous points in a game where one might make an unorthodox move. I believe these are called gambits. A computer might rate one of these gambits as a mistake, when in fact it is the key to winning the game. Some of these gambits might even involve sacrificing a piece, which a computer might rate as a "mistake."
So now I'm down to the question: what is a "mistake"?
---
What exactly does it mean to "solve" the game of chess? After all, there are widely published sequences of chess moves which lead to a given outcome. Any chess book will illustrate a number of them.
Does it mean that before you start playing you can mathematically prove what the outcome will be? I suppose if both players are computer programs with their source code published, this could be done. But then you're analyzing computer programs rather than the game...
So I guess I don't understand the question.
---
I'm sufficiently paranoid that I think it's possible that the reason the DoJ stopped harassing Phil Zimmerman is that the NSA finally cracked RSA, or perhaps IDEA, and therefore, there was no reason to prosecute him or stop the free flow of PGP across borders.
In such a scenario, the NSA would want people to use PGP, believing it was truly secure, and they could still decrypt the messages.
It'll be twenty years before we find out if this has actually happened...
---
Because encryption doesn't work like that.
Any public-key cryptosystem is going to have roughly the same amount of complexity in the user interface regardless of how few or how many bits you use. So you may as well go with more bits.
Any "normal" cryptography has a huge problem: how to securely transmit the key! And you still run into user interface issues.
What we should be focusing on is making the user interface to strong crypto easier to use, rather than trying to make the crypto weaker. You brought up the passphrase issue. Perhaps the passphrase could be stored in RAM for the duration of your E-mail session at your option? (You'd have to do some work to get it to not be swapped out to disk, but that's easy enough to solve.)
People who really didn't care too much could have the passphrase stored on disk. This would solve the problem of unencrypted data on the network, but you're hosed if your computer gets seized by MI5 or the FBI. Of course, if all you have is E-mail from Mom with her recipe for chocolate chip cookies... but if you're seriously worried about that kind of thing, you DO want to type the passphrase in every time.
It's basically a tradeoff of security vs. convenience. The user interface should provide for all three options, and this is fairly simple programming.
---
Hous e File 2205 Passed the House on April 20, 95-1, Passed the Senate on April 19, 46-2, we're now waiting on Governor Vilsack to sign it.
---
Goodbye +1 bonus... this is completely off-topic.
I hate driving through Chicago, nothing but glass and steel and concrete for miles (and hours, depending on traffic)!
The real interesting sights, natural formations, etc., are in eastern Iowa. But if you can't get off I-80 to go looking around, consider taking US 6 instead. It's a much more interesting drive, since you get to see actual towns every so often...then again, if you're driving 90, you won't be in Iowa long anyway. :)
---
- Iowa Homepage
- Moving or starting a business in Iowa
- Iowa Department of Economic Development
- Iowa Small Business Resource Office
- And there's lots more, just look around...
Oh, and feel free to visit Iowa sometime.---
We're also looking for a few good sysadmins, a few good network engineers, and more bandwidth!
Move your startup to Iowa City! We'll be waiting with open DS-3s.
---
I am the service provider. Come and get me. The Associated Pricks can take the DMCA and shove it. Hey Elian! Wassup!
The DMCA must die. Now. Do not let them kill fair use!
---