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User: PatJensen

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  1. Re:Off-campus university accounts. on MSN Buys 500,000 Qwest.Net Customers · · Score: 2
    This is obviously not a very bright idea, and would definitely harm local business. I live in Fresno (CA) and we had our local university open up an ISP/NSP that is subsidized by taxpayer and/or tuition fees to compete against local businesses.

    They then slashed prices to approximentally HALF of what local ISPs were charing, which then seriously hurt local businesses. We have around a half-dozen local ISPs that support the San Joaquin Valley. The university has little cost to run the ISP as local university support staff ran the network. A real David and Goliath saga.

    So much for getting decent service for the mom-and-pop shops that can offer other features, like static IPs, dedicated and leased lines. They've just been quashed by a low-margin high profit university.

    -Pat

  2. A lot of 1U servers.. on Small Form SMP Boxen and Laptops - Where Are They? · · Score: 3
    If you are looking for Intel-based workstations or servers, I'd recommend taking a look at the offerings from IBM, Penguin Computing on Linux or Dell and Compaq for Windows NT. I like Penguin Computing's 1U server and word has it that IBM's reference design was based on Penguin's gear.

    Obviously, you are aware that once you purchase one of these you are locked into that motherboard and processor combination. You will eventually not see much in the way of return on investment, personally if I needed high performance gear in a small footprint - I would buy a custom 1U case and put an AMD Athlon/Thunderbird in it and switch to the dual motherboards when they are available.

    Once you find your perfect server, do not overlook heating and power requirements for your system. Heat is a huge problem, especially with AMD hardware. Look for the Orb fan products for use with AMD's processors, they are my favorite and increase system stability.

    -Pat

  3. Use software that supports filtering? on Instant Messaging Standards that Avoid SPAM? · · Score: 3
    A lot of IM and messaging software supports filtering - you can script your favorite IRC client to handle messages using the /ON command. You can discard messages, log them and even alert on them! IRCII, epic, BitchX and even mIRC support this.

    Also, try and make sure you are marked as invisible on IRC (/mode (yournick) +i) and you won't be able to be seen by spammers unless they join your channel explicitly.

    Most e-mail clients or add-ons (procmail for Linux) feature the capability to filter based on different options. Outlook has a built-in spam protector, which works -really- good and it can detect Adult and advertising spam. They hid it under the Organize->Junk Email option.

    You can then create a rule to move all your Junk Email to a certain folder. The accuracy is quite good and if something slips through you can tag it as spam and it will learn to detect its spam pattern.

    Hope it helps! -Pat

  4. Cool, but would it fly? on GNU and the General Public Employment Contract? · · Score: 1
    This is a great idea to encourage growth and the use of free software as well as the development of free software, but how many large corporations do you think would adopt it? I think the timing matters as well. It took almost 3 years for Linux to see market-inroads into large corporations, even being used as web servers and proxy servers.

    3 years in Internet time equated to 500 dot-bombs down the drain. That is a lot of products that could have been open sourced or brought to market. Where could the contract be applied to and at what level?

    Too vague.. too many questions to ask and I can imagine it would be hard pushing this to employers - "please give your companies' time and money away so that others can benefit". Don't get me wrong, I love what open source has offered and the great products that it has brought to market. Companies just aren't aware of how it can benefit them yet.

    -Pat

  5. Slashdot on WAP on Slashdot On Palm, No Wires Required · · Score: 1
    For those of you who don't know, you can access Slashdot from your WAP-enabled cell phone using the URL "http://slashdot.org". No other prefix is required. Slashdot uses WML and not HDML, so most European and US WAP browsers should work fine. I've tested it using Phone.com's 4.0 browser on my GSM Motorola Timeport.

    Gives you something to do when you're stuck in a hotel! Have fun.

    -Pat

  6. I'm sad on 3Com Drops Internet Appliances · · Score: 1
    It's real sad to see 3Com, who was poised to be one of the leaders in Internet Appliances, close up their toy shop. I was looking at Qubit's vaporware IAs last year when they were slated to launch in March, and they got pushed back a year and a half. They had originally planned to sell direct to consumers, but then changed their focus to sell to ISPs.

    The allure of a wireless broadband/ethernet connected appliance is nice. I'd like to be able to wake up in the morning, with my coffee and IA and sit in my recliner and check the stocks and news and Slashdot. Then click over to a POP mail client and see what I have waiting for me at work. 3Com's Audrey looked really cool, but when I last checked the price tag it was a nice balmy $600. Ouch! I could buy a nice Athlon on a cart for that much.

    The prices in this industry are weird these days. PDAs and cell phones and IAs cost more then decked out computers! Ah well, good luck to 3Com and may their investors keep their wallets fat.

    -Pat

  7. WaveLAN / Antenna Solution on Mesh Networks for Rural Connectivity? · · Score: 1
    If you are looking to provide a cool metro-area network solution, Lucent WaveLAN cards can be extended to some distances of up to 11 miles. It works great when you are in line of sight of your destination.

    There are a lot of people looking to build out MAN's in their cities, with some in Seattle and San Francisco already running. You can tap into them and get free Internet access and share files with your neighbors.

    Check out the following links:

    -Pat
  8. Dallas Semiconductor's Java-Powered iButton on Replacing Passwords With Other Security Gadgets? · · Score: 1
    I've posted this before I think, but Dallas Semiconductor makes a Java-Powered secure iButton, which can connect via a parallel or USB reader. The drivers support Windows 98, NT 4 and Windows 2000. It can store private key certificates, with a password. The built-in Java based PC can lock the iButton after 5 invalid logins as well.

    They are about $24/person and are quite indestructible. It also supports one touch Windows 2000 system logins too and they open source most of their development kit and have some good resources if you are designing a solution. Check out www.ibutton.com.

    -Pat

  9. California's a Pain on Open Source (e-File) Tax Return Software? · · Score: 1
    When you get ready to e-file in California, make sure to call the State Tax Board and get an ID number for your state tax return. They will want information like your SSN and your previous state tax return numbers before they will give it to you. Once you have it, it probably won't be a pain next year.

    It takes them about 3 days to process your e-filed return and they cut a check within a week. I did mine 3 weeks ago, it may get worse as a lot more people start submitting them.

    -Pat

  10. Re:Solutions Costs on Mexico City Adopting Linux; Software Rent Savings Go to Fight Poverty · · Score: 1
    Do you honestly think an entire government is going to run every server and workstation off of one CD that they bought and have some low paid labor burn copies? No. Get real. Believe me, they will probably end up striking a deal with a distribution vendor to supply services and software together, and more then likely installation help as well. This is how Red Hat makes their money...

    -Pat

  11. Solutions Costs on Mexico City Adopting Linux; Software Rent Savings Go to Fight Poverty · · Score: 1
    The money that gets rerouted from Windows licensing will more then likely not all go to poverty programs, but to solutions vendors for Linux-based support contracts as well as to whichever distribution vendor they choose.

    Keep in mind they will have to pay for those CDs still for the distributions, and it is not likely that their whole government is switching to a new platform without some extensive support contract.

    Also, they will probably outsource their server installations and workstation builds on a contract to meet deadlines. That is a nice chunk of change! (will make some consulting company happy)

    Such a large move to a great new platform doesn't come without quirks.. don't forget they will now have to (re)train their support technicians and administrators too. Ah well .. viva Mexico!

    -Pat

  12. DirecPC - What was cool on DirecPC USB Satellite Modems Available for Linux · · Score: 1
    I had DirecPC for about a year and enjoyed parts of its service. While in Fresno, cable, DSL and wireless broadband were being rolled out, I lived three blocks near the university (CSUF) and I was out of range of most of the services. I lived in a condo, so I thought I'd purchase DirecPC. It was an adventure installing it.

    I originally had a Sony single LNB DSS system, which I replaced with the DPC dish, which is quite bigger. It is about 25" and is oblong and oval shaped, not a standard DSS sized pizza dish. It has dual TV DSS LNBs and a special data LNB which transports your data signals. There is some signalling hardware inside of the data LNB that does filtering and stuff.

    It was very hard to aim myself, unlike the bird that you aim at to get DSS. I called an installer who brought an oscilloscope out and some other gear and was able to get it in a matter of seconds.

    The service was great to begin with. Pretty speedy, even though it was transmitting over a dial-up line. There was about 400ms RTT latency, and I saw about 40k/s throughput on average. Great for grabbing the latest distributions and stuff. They also had a sideband channel that multicasted Usenet news, and their software suite included software that would pull down any groups you wanted off that multicast feed. Your modem didn't need to be nailed up which rocked! Tunes, multimedia and software right to your desktop, all the time!

    Word has it now they have implemented a Fair Access Policy (FAP of doom) where they limit your bandwidth usage if you exceed some X amount that they have set. I never had that happen to me, but I consumed massive amounts of tunes and media and stuff - most of it was from Usenet.

    Anyhow, I liked the kit. It was nice knowing my data was going through the air and not over leased lines. Shortly thereafter, I moved into a new condo across town and got cable. I gave my dish to a friend.

    You can find cheap setup with all gear on eBay - that is where I bought mine. I think it's worth it if you are in a fringe area or in an RV.

    -Pat

  13. Re:Microprocessors != surfing bandwidth on A PlayStation In Deep Blue, Or Vice Versa? · · Score: 1
    Mod that up. I cracked up laughing when I read that.. seeing as I was waiting for a FedEx from Mexico..

    -Pat

  14. Detection Systems at NAPs on DDoS Detection Devices · · Score: 2
    I think the concept is a good one and the software has a market with network access providers. However, for these to work the systems need to communicate with each other, at rival companies access points by gleaning data from rival companies routers. How likely is this to happen? It isn't very valuable if only 5% of the NAP or transit authorities implement it either.

    What about slight modifications to DDoS attacks, whether it be in the signature, data encapsulation or size? How will the detection system know, and how could it detect it versus a large FTP transfer? What if I sent my DDoS to port 21 and made it look like simple FTP requests? Would it then throw up a quick packet filter for all FTP packets? Or it would it automagically recognize all 39 DDoS slaves?

    I gotta wonder about some of this stuff .. whether they are marketing a bandaid for a gunshot wound.

    -Pat

  15. Ensure Technologies on Sentient Computing Lab · · Score: 1
    Ensure Technologies makes a proximity based security and authentication system (similar to what Lucent was researching). It is also based on the Bluetooth technologies as well. It is available at www.ensuretech.com.

    It supports computer access control and tracking. XyLoc's full-time access control technology addresses the major vulnerability inherent in all existing security methods - they are gatekeepers that protect the information only at the point of entry: the initial logon process. Other security solutions are not "smart" enough to recognize that users are not in control of their computers at all times after logon After users have entered their password, inserted their token or placed their finger on the reader and they have been identified and authenticated, the gate is wide open and information assets are up for grabs the minute the user walks away from the PC.

    XyLoc's operation is easy, transparent and automatic. XyLoc consists of a lock that is an ultra low-power wireless transceiver that attaches to the PC's serial, keyboard or USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. The XyLoc key is a battery-operated ultra low-power transceiver with a unique, encrypted user identification code that is worn or carried by an authorized user. The XyLoc lock and key are in constant, encrypted two-way wireless communication with each other, with the lock scanning for the presence or absence of authorized users. As the user approaches the PC, XyLoc identifies and authenticates the user, and unlocks the PC as appropriate. Then, if the user moves out of the active zone, XyLoc will automatically blank the screen, lock the keyboard and disable the mouse. The PC is instantly secured and remains so until an authorized user moves back inside the active zone. However, background tasks, such as printing and downloading, may continue while the PC is locked.

    -Pat

  16. Bluetooth on Sentient Computing Lab · · Score: 1
    This is some pretty neat research being done with proximity-based computing with radios. There is a wireless standard currently in place today that allows for some of the same functionality, it's called Bluetooth. You can find out more looking at www.bluetooth.org.

    Bluetooth will let PCs, PDAs, phones, printers, headsets, sensors all interact with each other in a PicoNet, which is a small personal area network. There are currently two cards available which support the Bluetooth 1.0/1.1 stack on Windows and Linux. They are made by Motorola and IBM.

    Here is a manual for IBM's bluetooth card if you want to take a look at the software and what Bluetooth is capable of.

    Ericsson also makes a wireless Bluetooth headset that will attach itself as an audio device to your PC, cordless phone or mobile phone. You can leave your phone in your briefcase or in your living room and take a call in your office over your Piconet.

    Pretty cool stuff, hopefully we'll see more in the way of innovation of Bluetooth in the next year.

    -Pat

  17. Re:Hmmm, I'm sceptical on Distributed Network for Reverse-Tracerouting · · Score: 1
    Oops.. wonder where my mind was! That's traceroute and not tranceroute.

    /me takes another acid hit!

    -Pat

  18. Re:Hmmm, I'm sceptical on Distributed Network for Reverse-Tracerouting · · Score: 2
    Any Tier 2 or higher NSP will have multiple paths to multiple providers via transit peering at local and global Network Access Points. Each peer at those network access points will have traffic intended to the destination and will each use their own route to get there.

    During a Denial of Service attack, certain peers can be overwhelmed, while others are passing little or no traffic. This tool will let you bounce tranceroutes off of other starting points so that you can correctly verify your transit and peering operation. There is a lot of value in this tool. I can see larger ISPs paying a subscription to gain access to this type of service to help them develop their own Quality of Service with peering providers.

    Hopefully they add support for IPv6 and the 6bone, as for now we're restricted to using web pages with traceroute CGI's. For more information on BGP routing, take a look at http://www.landfield.com/rfcs/rfc1771.html. Have a nice day!

    -Pat

  19. Cipher on Does Cracking Encryption Involve Some Precognition? · · Score: 1
    As long as you know the cipher used to encrypt the contents, you have enough to get started. You can then look for points of vulnerability, level of encryption, type of encryption and apply whatever method to break that cipher.

    Long day....

    -Pat

  20. BSD on Sparc on Want a Sparc Workstation for $995? · · Score: 2
    I ran OpenBSD 2.7 on a Sparc 20 with IPv6 and multicasting and a mostly standard GENERIC kernel with options MROUTING (multicast routing) turned on and every time I ran GNU configure on the mrouted package, it would cause a kernel panic. This happened repeatedly.

    Using the stock mrouted that shipped with OpenBSD 2.7 would render multicast transit useless. I screwed with it for like 3 weeks running tcpdump, etc, trying to figure out if my routes were screwed, whatever. Then I look on their web site and they listed "to do: fix multicast bugs"

    And on another project I had 26 IPv6 tunnels setup using a Sparc20 running OpenBSD 2.7 as a tunnel broker router and after compiling GNU/Zebra the damn thing would randomly crash after probing the routing tables before starting a BGP session. I CVS'd 4 different patch builds too and they all did the same thing.

    Now seeing as Solaris 8 has Mobile IP for cross network roaming using a single IP address, native IPv6 (a commercial stack) and DVMRP multicast routing built in - I'd sure as hell pick Solaris 8 over a free OS for my next research project. You can even configure IPv6 network interfaces during the Solaris install. And you can get a free license for up to 8 processors from sun.com - and thats for both Intel and Sparc platforms. The media kit for like 4 CDs is only $80 or you can download the ISOs off their web site.

    For me there is no question on what OS to run on a Sparc for doing real work, you don't buy a Ferrari, soup it up and put a one-eyed midget in it that can't see over the steering wheel.

    Mad,
    Pat

  21. Re:Releasing on Linux on Carmack on D3 on Linux, and 3D Cards · · Score: 1
    Incorrect, it is not a fault of the distribution. It is a fault of the device manufacturer for not having easy to install drivers. For instance, Red Hat doesn't build drivers for every piece of hardware on every platform. Debian does not have their own proprietary drivers for devices either.

    However, Debian's method of installation might be easier to use. Just my .2.

    -Pat

  22. Re:Releasing on Linux on Carmack on D3 on Linux, and 3D Cards · · Score: 1
    Trolling for apples? Just because you have a Matrox (aren't they considered not part of the big 2 manufacturers now?) that works doesn't mean every other 3D card is supported and working on Linux or your distribution. I was actually quoting my experiences with my Nvidia Riva TNT 2 board, with its commercialized proprietary non-open source X11 server. I wasn't generalizing and saying all cards.

    "And as XFree4 becomes more stable" more manufacturers will hopefully create drivers for their devices, like my original post said. Just because they release drivers also doesn't mean they are tuned and provide adequate performance either. Read the post ya fuckin whackjob.

    -Pat

  23. Sun created NFS on Sun, or Linux 2.4.x As An NFS Server? · · Score: 1
    Seeing as Sun Microsystems built NFS and commercially deployed it in SunOS and created and released the standards, I would not hesitate to pick Sun as my NFS vendor. Almost every OS product they've made since SunOS supports it. Solaris has a very strong and time-tested RPC implementation which lays the foundation for their NFS stack. It also cooperates with other vendors' NFS stacks well, provided they are not broken. I remember NeXTSTEP and Linux having issues using Solaris NFS servers back in the early days.

    Also, seeing that Sun's hardware scales quite well for storage area networks makes their NFS solution a smart choice if you are looking to build a scalable Storage Area Network.

    -Pat

  24. Qualities on What Qualities Make Good Technicians? · · Score: 1
    I've worked in the Systems industry for almost 8 years now, and I've had the opportunity to work with other technicians, consultants, trainers and administrators. I've seen good and bad hardware and software and support technicians. I think one of the biggest problems that you can find with hiring technicians is that they are not consistent in performing job functions. You may not need a genius to swap out boards and plug in cards, but you do want someone that can follow through with his tasks and can perform regularly.

    I've met a lot of younger techs that are really sharp, but have a lot of attitude and do not follow through on tasks. I would look for professional technicians with open attitudes that can work well in team environments with little leadership and that are consistent in performing their jobs' functions.

    -Pat

  25. Re:Releasing on Linux on Carmack on D3 on Linux, and 3D Cards · · Score: 1
    I think that you are incorrect in recognizing it as an intellectual property issue. I think the real problem that stems Linux and UNIX game development in general is the lack of solid video driver support for high-performance 3D cards, and vendor backing for those cards on alternate operating systems once they have been released.

    Once we have good 3D cards with good feature sets that don't need 14 shared libraries, two driver packs, and an XFree86 version that is 2 years old and a kernel recompile - we will start seeing developers flock to UNIX variants to develop decent games.

    p.s. ALL YOUR LINUX GAMES ARE BELONG TO US

    -Pat