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  1. Re:beginner friendly on A Better Installer for Debian? · · Score: 2, Informative

    no, he was correct.

    it is: apt-get dist-upgrade

    this is the same backup strategy that i have.

    i would also recommend archiving the output of "COLUMNS=150 dpkg -l" because get-selections only tells you what the desired state of a package is, not it's current state. for example, if a package is on hold, get-selections will tell you that it is on hold, but not tell you what version it is currently (which is the version you will probably want/need to reinstall). the COLUMNS bash variable (other shells?) tells dpkg to print its output using 150 char width. otherwise some of your name and version strings may be cut short.

  2. Re:Maybe next . . . on AvantGo Gets a Patent · · Score: 1

    yeah, AC, we can tell you didn't take the 60 seconds to read the patent. but, i don't expect anything more from an AC. (though, honestly, it's a little bit difficult to follow, with "in reference to claim 1, while not negating claim 12, but presenting an alternative to claim 3...". they should display it as a tree graph or something.)

    i just bought a handspring visor deluxe ($100, brand new at tigerdirect.com) and mainly just want to use it as an organizer (to replace my several-year-old user-UNfriendly sharp), but wouldn't mind being able to view documents with it.

    to my delight i found two opensource apps: plucker, and also sitescooper (though the site file for slashdot doesn't seem to be right; probably out of date). haven't spent much time with either (just downloaded it yesterday and played with it last night), but plucker seems most helpful.

    when i first saw this story i thought, "dang it, i just found plucker, and now it's going to be eradicated by corporate america" (though, yes, as the source is out there, and the "genie is out of the bottle" like DeCSS, it won't every disappear). then i speed-read the patent (for ideas, not content, so i might have missed some small details).

    the patent is (as others have already commented) quite specific. it appears avantgo patented their entire business, from a single request ("avantgo, send me all my regular sites"), to hashing the pages (i assume to see if they have actually changed; can't rely on time-stamps any longer as most popular sites are dynamically generated), to sending the results back to the user.

    the closest plucker gets to infringing on that process is if it is used in cooperation with sitescooper. plucker just converts specified html (and txt) to plucker-format. and even then the process is still manual, or at least user-crafted (ie you scripted it).

    so, i guess if you wrote a script that gets initiated by the handheld, runs sitescooper (which runs plucker), and puts the stuff on your handheld (which sitescooper does but i can't get it to work), then plucker, sitescooper, and you will all get sued for patent infringement. ;-)