I got a C&D letter from my ISP, who got one from AOL TimeWarner. My kid downloaded a movie via Bittorrent, and my account was at risk. It wasn't a legal thing other than my TOS with my ISP forbids downloading copyright protected works. Plus, I'm not convinced that trading of copyrighted works without some form of payment to the copyright holder is a good thing. Basically, what you're doing is showing them how large a market there is for thier crap. I'd rather everyone just boycott the crappy content (I gave the kid hell for risking my connection for "The Butterfly Effect") so they get the idea to produce better stuff, not try and suck all the downloaders into paying.
I now only allow bittorrent when I need an ISO of ubuntu or fedora or something.
Congrats to you and the grandparent poster for being able to kick the habit.
However, there is nothing worse than a sanctimonious ex-smoker.
You were an addict once, and I don't think it was as easy to quit as simply throwing away your smokes. There are studies that show that Nicotine is as addictive as heroin.
Again, Congradulations on being able to do this, but show a little compasion to those of us who have been unable as yet to become ex-smokers.
(BTW, if you've been a Nicotine addict and don't smoke now, you are not a non-smoker. You are an ex-smoker, and the addiction is but one smoke away. Don't ever think "Ah, just one cigarette - it won't make me start again...")
those of you that are at UCLA can go to the engineering library (Boelter Hall, 4th? floor) and see the IMP (interface message processor). it's a green refrigerator-sized metal box with some switches on the front.
UCLAd00d1: Dude, there's this funky green fridge thing on the 4th floor, but there's no beer inside, man! UCLAd00d2: No way, mon. Let me grab my uber-1337 peltier and water c00ling system and fix it up, d00d. UCLAd00d1: sw33t!!!
Linux is like Walmart.... it is a race to the bottom on cost. Yes their are benefits like Walmart to the pocketbook but long term are they good??
You are _so_ wrong, I have to go get my cluebat.
I use the most expensive platform on earth and the most closed (ie hardware, software), Apple's Macintosh and find it to be far more useful than Linux.
Expensive to acquire, yes, but expensive to run and use? Think again. I don't use Macs myself, but like them a lot.
The main problem I have is Linux doesn't innovate, it copies what Apple and MS do so it is always in catch up mode.
This is kind of the whole point in open source. We build on the successes of others, or get ideas on how to do it better from what other people have done. It's a collaborative, iterative process and it works wonders. Most worth while things did not just magically spring from someone's 'Eureka!' moment - they are built on previous ideas from previous 'innovators'. Software is unique in that is information that allows information to be copied and transmitted - often resulting in better information. Recursive algorithms rock.
One can't make money doing that unless you rape people on the service contracts....
And here's where the cluebat comes into play. Money is sometimes not directly involved in somethings value, you narrow minded twit. RTFA, bud - you'll find that the Brazillians want freedom, not free. Linux is actually a race to owning thier own digital future with zero regard to monetary issues. Myself, I want no gate keepers between me and my fellow humans - I want to communicate my ideas to them, so we all can learn and grow that much faster. We'll just have to make money some other way than trying to be toll collectors on communications channels.
Linux costs plenty, but when I sign up for it, I know that I'm usually Standards Compliant, I can look for back doors, add new stuff, do whatever I like with my systems. This is not so with proprietary systems - and that means that part of my systems aren't truly mine.
BTW, I think you mean "One can't make the same amount of money as Microsoft or Oracle doing that unless you rape people on the service contracts....". Some of us don't want another William H. Gates III or *shudder* Larry Ellison in this world, thank you very much.
... especially when dealing with the evil AFP and OS9 gods.
1.6.4 has a nasty habit of b0rking the CNID database (A berkely DB that contains all of those wonderful resource forks for the Mac files). You have to shut down the AFP service, repair the DB, then connect one Mac so you can fix permissions in the.AppleDB directory - even if you set the dir 2775.
I haven't played too much with version 2 yet, but it does seem faster and more stable. I'm hoping that the DB will stay unscrambled for more than 2 weeks at a time, and that the DB daemon will honour the directory permissions.
I compiled it from source, and the included SPEC file didn't want to let me create an RPM - if anyone has one of netatalk 2 for FC2, I would appreciate it.
The success of Linux has a lot to do with Linus Torvalds absolute lack of pride, except when it came to the code in his kernel tree. No pride, except where others have - by thier own opinions and devices - granted him authority.
Linus has never attempted to exert authority over anything related to Linux except the code tree that he maintains. Dammit, he is even willing to listen to others when it comes to that.
IOW, he has lead by example, never by coersion or force. He has made tough choices (the VM wars is an example) and recanted when necessary. He has settled flame wars, turned his back on very powerful alies (namely, IB-fucking-M, in the aforementioned VM wars), and still had the humilty to change his mind - when presented compelling evidence why he should change his mind - and continue on like he was right all along to listen to others.
That suspiciously smakcs of democracy. That, IMVHO, is someone to look up to.
Friend, if I could mod you up I would. Rules being what they are - and the fact I have no mod points - I cannnot do so.
I will try your distro at some point, I'm sure, and $DIETY bless you for providing a service to us forlorn systems admins - even though !=$DIETY keeps on giving us Windows machines to take care of.
Again, thank you, from the bottom of a BOFH's cold, dark heart.
Not excatly. It a) requires privileged access to the file and b) Windows will bitch about overwriting a read-only file before doing so.
Yes, most viruses get in because the user is running with admin privs, but the above should be enough for someone who assumes that he's entering a hostile environemt to recieve enough warning, allowing him to avoid any trouble. As well, most viruses in the wild don't take this into account and will not infect the binary.
BTW, making the whole damned USB key read-only - including the dynamic stuff (like your Bookmarks) - is a good idea too. That reduces the chance that one of the nasty critters could hitch a ride to your home machine too. If you want a new bookmark, e-mail it to yourself or write it down, and put it into your bookmarks where you know you're safe.
What's to stop a spyware/virus-laden school PC (those have to be the worst) from infecting your your Firefox.exe, and then having you bring that home with you?
Ahem...
C:\>attrib +r D:\*.exe C:\>attrib +r D:\*.dll
...assuming D:\ is the USB key, before you plug it into a Windows machine. You can also set the read-only attribute via right clicking on the file in Explorer and going to properties (obviously, on your own, hopefully clean, Windows machine) There, all better now.
To the grandparent: Thank you for pointing that project out. It truly shows that having the source code to software open and available can lead to all sorts of interesting - and very useful - things.
NT Alpha was not 64 bit. No 64 bit address space as far as the OS was concerned, no 64 bit pointers, no 64 bit integers inside the CPU, nothing to indicate you were running on a (at the time) kick-ass, hotrod 64 bit CPU. The OS basically took away most of the CPUs power, in the interest of keeping the NT code base 32 bit and sane.
Why did I deploy NT Alpha machines? Motherboard bandwidth, reliability and redundancy - to a lesser extent CPU speed. At the time, Intel servers were just too lame to handle the loads we were throwing at them. That changed when Compaq, IBM et.al. started putting real server features in their x86 machines - about when the Pentium III Xeons were released. Compaq was loathe to compete against themselves by marketing both architectures. That's what killed the Alpha - marketing, not technology.
It's why pond-scum rates better in my book than Marketing droids.
Sorry about that ladies and gentelmen, the moderators responsible for that have been sacked. Now for the News.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SlashdotTV's News, I'm Timothy^WCmdrTaco, your host. If you have moderation points or metamoderation you may use them <ouch> at anytime during the <ouch> netcast. Please use res<ouch>ponsibly. *Aside* - What do you mean by 'dupe', CowboyNeal? Later we'll broadcast a slashpoll with CowboyNeal somehow worked <ouch> into the final option.<ouch><ouch><ouch><ouch>
Dupe?<ouch><ouc h> What do <ouch>you<ouch> mean dupe? Dammit! <ouch><ouch>Who's fscking idea <ouch>was<ouch><ouch><yeeowch>th is anyway? You <ouch>moderators are going to be sacke<bzzzzzzt>
"Computer code is simply the expression of inate human ideas in a different language - the difference being that the language spoken is one that a machine understands, not other humans."
(Perl jokes aside...)
IMHO, the expression of ideas in any language is covered by copyright law, not patent law. Ergo, software patents should not be allowed, since there's already plenty of protection under copyright.
The USPTO isn't just clueless about prior art - they have no idea what-so-ever about what is an obvious/overly broad patent when it comes to software. Either that, or they're looking the other way for some reason. Who knows - I can't make heads or tails of how/why they grant the patents they do.
I'm sure you'll be seeing huge crocodile tears shed by the Nevada state government for having to host one of the richest companies in the world.
In that context, you are correct.
My case, a lowly Sysadmin, just sheltering and feeding my family doesn't leave me with any means what-so-ever of avoiding paying any tax at all on my paltry salary. Put into that context, MS is getting away with blue murder.
Any competent Systems Administrator knows that lusers lack any real clue what-so-ever, and therefore cannot be trusted with dangerous system level tools. If there is no Sysadmin that will be present, there should be no such tools within a 5 mile radius of any given luser.
I blame Microsoft for providing a toolkit that makes my lusers able to mess up my systems before I can LART them dead in thier tracks.
Oh, fsck, another one looking to see what this JPEG exploit code looks like. *Clickety-Click*
I think of Him as a master programmer, who can write autonomous programs that can adjust and adapt in order to fulfill His purpose. They can't change thier purpose, only how they fulfill it.
Much easier and logical to have something take care of itself than to need constant attention.
There are some issues with the lp module b0rking up Dell and IBM laptops, so that may be the cause of the wireless trouble that ExtremeTech had. It is with my Dell Latitude and it's IPW2100 wireless chip - see bug 1254 on bugzilla.ubuntu.org.
That being said, they have released an evaluation install, not a final. That's scheduled for mid October, IIRC. It's therefore not suprising to see some things - especially wireless - flaky or non-functional in the eval release. The final is supposed to be a lot better - point, click, configure, done. Here's hoping.
That's assuming that people actually patch thier machines with the fix. And that fix doesn't break anything else./devils_advocate
We need to be on our toes. As more people deploy and get better at anti-spam measures, our internet connected Linux machines make very tempting targets for spammers.
Don't get smug, watch your logs and keep your stuff patched.
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong.
I got a C&D letter from my ISP, who got one from AOL TimeWarner. My kid downloaded a movie via Bittorrent, and my account was at risk. It wasn't a legal thing other than my TOS with my ISP forbids downloading copyright protected works. Plus, I'm not convinced that trading of copyrighted works without some form of payment to the copyright holder is a good thing. Basically, what you're doing is showing them how large a market there is for thier crap. I'd rather everyone just boycott the crappy content (I gave the kid hell for risking my connection for "The Butterfly Effect") so they get the idea to produce better stuff, not try and suck all the downloaders into paying.
I now only allow bittorrent when I need an ISO of ubuntu or fedora or something.
If you're Canadian, be careful.
Soko
Congrats to you and the grandparent poster for being able to kick the habit.
However, there is nothing worse than a sanctimonious ex-smoker.
You were an addict once, and I don't think it was as easy to quit as simply throwing away your smokes. There are studies that show that Nicotine is as addictive as heroin.
Again, Congradulations on being able to do this, but show a little compasion to those of us who have been unable as yet to become ex-smokers.
(BTW, if you've been a Nicotine addict and don't smoke now, you are not a non-smoker. You are an ex-smoker, and the addiction is but one smoke away. Don't ever think "Ah, just one cigarette - it won't make me start again...")
Soko
Thanks, friend.
;-} ) when he's been enjoying some of the better things aboot his homeland.
Ubuntu is difficult for a Canoodian to speel (
Apologies to the ubuntu developers.
Soko
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
What I saw when I first clicked the story.
Statistics aside, not a promising begining to "Making the 'Best' Desktop Linux System", is it?
(BTW, ubuntu is the best desktop distro I've had the pleasure of using so far. It's even Debian based, which is icing on the cake.)
Soko
those of you that are at UCLA can go to the engineering library (Boelter Hall, 4th? floor) and see the IMP (interface message processor). it's a green refrigerator-sized metal box with some switches on the front.
UCLAd00d1: Dude, there's this funky green fridge thing on the 4th floor, but there's no beer inside, man!
UCLAd00d2: No way, mon. Let me grab my uber-1337 peltier and water c00ling system and fix it up, d00d.
UCLAd00d1: sw33t!!!
Soko
Linux is like Walmart....
it is a race to the bottom on cost. Yes their are benefits like Walmart to the pocketbook but long term are they good??
You are _so_ wrong, I have to go get my cluebat.
I use the most expensive platform on earth and the most closed (ie hardware, software), Apple's Macintosh and find it to be far more useful than Linux.
Expensive to acquire, yes, but expensive to run and use? Think again. I don't use Macs myself, but like them a lot.
The main problem I have is Linux doesn't innovate, it copies what Apple and MS do so it is always in catch up mode.
This is kind of the whole point in open source. We build on the successes of others, or get ideas on how to do it better from what other people have done. It's a collaborative, iterative process and it works wonders. Most worth while things did not just magically spring from someone's 'Eureka!' moment - they are built on previous ideas from previous 'innovators'. Software is unique in that is information that allows information to be copied and transmitted - often resulting in better information. Recursive algorithms rock.
One can't make money doing that unless you rape people on the service contracts....
And here's where the cluebat comes into play. Money is sometimes not directly involved in somethings value, you narrow minded twit. RTFA, bud - you'll find that the Brazillians want freedom, not free. Linux is actually a race to owning thier own digital future with zero regard to monetary issues. Myself, I want no gate keepers between me and my fellow humans - I want to communicate my ideas to them, so we all can learn and grow that much faster. We'll just have to make money some other way than trying to be toll collectors on communications channels.
Linux costs plenty, but when I sign up for it, I know that I'm usually Standards Compliant, I can look for back doors, add new stuff, do whatever I like with my systems. This is not so with proprietary systems - and that means that part of my systems aren't truly mine.
BTW, I think you mean "One can't make the same amount of money as Microsoft or Oracle doing that unless you rape people on the service contracts....". Some of us don't want another William H. Gates III or *shudder* Larry Ellison in this world, thank you very much.
Soko
... especially when dealing with the evil AFP and OS9 gods.
.AppleDB directory - even if you set the dir 2775.
1.6.4 has a nasty habit of b0rking the CNID database (A berkely DB that contains all of those wonderful resource forks for the Mac files). You have to shut down the AFP service, repair the DB, then connect one Mac so you can fix permissions in the
I haven't played too much with version 2 yet, but it does seem faster and more stable. I'm hoping that the DB will stay unscrambled for more than 2 weeks at a time, and that the DB daemon will honour the directory permissions.
I compiled it from source, and the included SPEC file didn't want to let me create an RPM - if anyone has one of netatalk 2 for FC2, I would appreciate it.
Soko
The success of Linux has a lot to do with Linus Torvalds absolute lack of pride, except when it came to the code in his kernel tree. No pride, except where others have - by thier own opinions and devices - granted him authority.
Linus has never attempted to exert authority over anything related to Linux except the code tree that he maintains. Dammit, he is even willing to listen to others when it comes to that.
IOW, he has lead by example, never by coersion or force. He has made tough choices (the VM wars is an example) and recanted when necessary. He has settled flame wars, turned his back on very powerful alies (namely, IB-fucking-M, in the aforementioned VM wars), and still had the humilty to change his mind - when presented compelling evidence why he should change his mind - and continue on like he was right all along to listen to others.
That suspiciously smakcs of democracy. That, IMVHO, is someone to look up to.
I pray that God continues to be with him.
Soko
Friend, if I could mod you up I would. Rules being what they are - and the fact I have no mod points - I cannnot do so.
I will try your distro at some point, I'm sure, and $DIETY bless you for providing a service to us forlorn systems admins - even though !=$DIETY keeps on giving us Windows machines to take care of.
Again, thank you, from the bottom of a BOFH's cold, dark heart.
Soko
Even better, go get this book:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/
I know the author - he is what IMHO most would call an "uber hacker", when it comes to Linux in general.
Highly reccomended.
Soko
Not excatly. It a) requires privileged access to the file and b) Windows will bitch about overwriting a read-only file before doing so.
Yes, most viruses get in because the user is running with admin privs, but the above should be enough for someone who assumes that he's entering a hostile environemt to recieve enough warning, allowing him to avoid any trouble. As well, most viruses in the wild don't take this into account and will not infect the binary.
BTW, making the whole damned USB key read-only - including the dynamic stuff (like your Bookmarks) - is a good idea too. That reduces the chance that one of the nasty critters could hitch a ride to your home machine too. If you want a new bookmark, e-mail it to yourself or write it down, and put it into your bookmarks where you know you're safe.
Soko
Ahem......assuming D:\ is the USB key, before you plug it into a Windows machine. You can also set the read-only attribute via right clicking on the file in Explorer and going to properties (obviously, on your own, hopefully clean, Windows machine) There, all better now.
To the grandparent: Thank you for pointing that project out. It truly shows that having the source code to software open and available can lead to all sorts of interesting - and very useful - things.
Soko
NT Alpha was not 64 bit. No 64 bit address space as far as the OS was concerned, no 64 bit pointers, no 64 bit integers inside the CPU, nothing to indicate you were running on a (at the time) kick-ass, hotrod 64 bit CPU. The OS basically took away most of the CPUs power, in the interest of keeping the NT code base 32 bit and sane.
Why did I deploy NT Alpha machines? Motherboard bandwidth, reliability and redundancy - to a lesser extent CPU speed. At the time, Intel servers were just too lame to handle the loads we were throwing at them. That changed when Compaq, IBM et.al. started putting real server features in their x86 machines - about when the Pentium III Xeons were released. Compaq was loathe to compete against themselves by marketing both architectures. That's what killed the Alpha - marketing, not technology.
It's why pond-scum rates better in my book than Marketing droids.
Soko
ive read it like: "Build your own solar system". wouldnt that be great?
/troll
IMHO, Schwartz and McNealy are already "communicating" from outside our solar system, so why the hell not?
Soko
Ya, so Ben Grimm can finally pount his little tin-can-smart ass into scrap.
Man, I hated that blathering contraption.
<troll>Bet Herbie was run on Windows Embedded. He was more irritating than fucking Clippy</troll>
Soko
"Computer code is simply the expression of inate human ideas in a different language - the difference being that the language spoken is one that a machine understands, not other humans."
(Perl jokes aside...)
IMHO, the expression of ideas in any language is covered by copyright law, not patent law. Ergo, software patents should not be allowed, since there's already plenty of protection under copyright.
Soko
The USPTO isn't just clueless about prior art - they have no idea what-so-ever about what is an obvious/overly broad patent when it comes to software. Either that, or they're looking the other way for some reason. Who knows - I can't make heads or tails of how/why they grant the patents they do.
Soko
I'm sure you'll be seeing huge crocodile tears shed by the Nevada state government for having to host one of the richest companies in the world.
In that context, you are correct.
My case, a lowly Sysadmin, just sheltering and feeding my family doesn't leave me with any means what-so-ever of avoiding paying any tax at all on my paltry salary. Put into that context, MS is getting away with blue murder.
And as they say, context is everything.
Soko
"That makes us think this is the end of the eruption," Qamar said. "All this buildup was leading to that relatively small eruption."
My wife read that over my shoulder, patted my head and snickered. Then I read your response, with her still there.
There's a sexual joke to be made there, but I just can't get the bat off my shoulder.
*Snicker* The smack in the head was worth it.
Soko
No. I do not blame the luser.
Any competent Systems Administrator knows that lusers lack any real clue what-so-ever, and therefore cannot be trusted with dangerous system level tools. If there is no Sysadmin that will be present, there should be no such tools within a 5 mile radius of any given luser.
I blame Microsoft for providing a toolkit that makes my lusers able to mess up my systems before I can LART them dead in thier tracks.
Oh, fsck, another one looking to see what this JPEG exploit code looks like. *Clickety-Click*
Soko
Can they implant something that house trains my puppy? Two weeks now and he still shits and pisses on my computer...
:-p
Lemme guess his name...
BillGates?
Soko
I don't think God is a puppet master.
I think of Him as a master programmer, who can write autonomous programs that can adjust and adapt in order to fulfill His purpose. They can't change thier purpose, only how they fulfill it.
Much easier and logical to have something take care of itself than to need constant attention.
Soko
There are some issues with the lp module b0rking up Dell and IBM laptops, so that may be the cause of the wireless trouble that ExtremeTech had. It is with my Dell Latitude and it's IPW2100 wireless chip - see bug 1254 on bugzilla.ubuntu.org.
That being said, they have released an evaluation install, not a final. That's scheduled for mid October, IIRC. It's therefore not suprising to see some things - especially wireless - flaky or non-functional in the eval release. The final is supposed to be a lot better - point, click, configure, done. Here's hoping.
Soko
That's assuming that people actually patch thier machines with the fix. And that fix doesn't break anything else. /devils_advocate
We need to be on our toes. As more people deploy and get better at anti-spam measures, our internet connected Linux machines make very tempting targets for spammers.
Don't get smug, watch your logs and keep your stuff patched.
Soko