User: pljones

Re:The real problem

On: Kernel.org Needs Some Help, Perl Foundation Got Some

"make realclean"? Eh? Who typed that where I meant "make mrproper"? Someone else, obviously...

Re:The real problem

On: Kernel.org Needs Some Help, Perl Foundation Got Some

You don't ever need to download the tar ball. You've got tar and patch installed. Brew your own:

mv $OLDKERNEL linux
cd linux
mv .config my-config
make realclean
cd ..
tar cjf linux $OLDKERNEL.tar.bz2
mv linux $OLDKERNEL
tar xjf $OLDKERNEL.tar.bz
cd linux
patch -p1 cd ..
mv linux $NEWKERNEL
ln -s $NEWKERNEL linux
cd linux
cp my-config .oldconfig
make oldconfig

Then "going back" is as simple as changing the symlink back.

Re:Distributions ???

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

IMHO, the entire purpose of a distro is to ensure I don't screw up installing software.

Every package the distro installs should default to being extremely secure and offer me options on how to make it less secure.

As a minimum a newly installed service should (a) not start until configured and (b) run a configure script (maybe on next reboot). Fiddling the RPM to make this happen is up to the distro maker (and will - hopefully - be adopted by the package producer).

This isn't rocket science.

Of course, you may feel the real burden here is on the application RPM-maker, not the distro maker... But (again), it's up to the distro maker to make up for deficiencies...

sigh

Source information

On: DNA Testing Of Deep Ancestry

/.ers might be interested in this abstract from The American Journal of Human Genetics: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?A JHG991049ABS, which contained too much genetics for my taste :-). The full text needs password access, unfortunately.

Why doesn't /. pick up that URL?

Performance

On: Ask Miguel de Icaza About Gnome

Which do you consider more important - architectural purity or raw performance? How do you guage where to balance the two, if there is a conflict?

Re:Reverse Engineer?

On: My.MP3.com releases Beam-it Beta for Linux

Ah, thanks for posting this - it's great (and wants moderating up). This helps with two things:

• it shows mp3.com have the CD in their collection;
• it's the same one that you have in your drive.

This substantially weakens the plaintiffs' case against mp3.com.

Of course, RIAA are still gonna complain that mp3.com don't have permission to stream (i.e. copy) this across the net to you...

By the way, is the connection they stream over SSL..?

My CD Collection or everyone's?

On: RIAA Sues MP3.com

Hmm, I was thinking about this.

1. Connect to CDDB and find a CD you want.
2. Concoct the magic cookie required by mp3.com.
3. Inject said cookie into mp3.com's new toy.
4. Listen to any CD you want.

Okay, I've not looked at their toy (in the UK it's not exactly an attractive idea to listen over the 'net) and I don't know how hard steps 2 and 3 are. But this was the first thing I thought of when I got their e-mail ad for the service. I can certainly understand the industry's concerns.

I think it's a great idea -- I just hope mp3.com know what they're doing...

What's it all about

On: Red Herring Looks at Corel's Linux Strategy

I have to echo the sentiments of others -- it's hard to fathom quite what the article's author intended, except to pour cold water on Corel's recent acquisitions. Any slight hint of upside was carefully skirted around. Whilst I understand that RedHerring is trying to cover stocks for investors, it didn't really help anyone wanting to know about Corel.

In fact, there was far more detail on the acquisitions -- presumably because the author still had the press releases to hand -- than on Corel and why they might be making these acquisitions.

The author also fails to comprehend what Linux is -- okay, Newlix "write software for x86" and Rebel.com are moving to StrongARM. So what?

mutter, mutter, grumble, grr... Now I've thought about it, I'm cross...