I like that this is happening, but I can't see it making any difference in itself. Yahoo fought in secret courts to protect user data, and lost. Even if US companies are trying to do the right thing, we can't trust them because we can't trust the US government.
If companies had the right to come out and say "we only gave the US data this information because we had no choice", would you still want to deal with them? The company might win sympathy points, but that clearly doesn't mean we can trust it. This is particularly true for end users outside of the US.
Yes, this is my opinion exactly. I recently blogged about this exact issue, and why I think the FSF, RMS, Trisquel, etc. all treat it differently - and I don't think it's a good enough reason.
I'll point out for Slasdot readers that, in the case of the radeon driver, it loads microcode into the card - not a huge firmware blob. The FSF just refers to microcode as firmware, so does not distinguish between them. The microcode is between 2K and 31K, depending on the model of the device. If running Debian GNU/Linux with the firmware-linux-nonfree package installed, these microcode files should be located under/lib/firmware/radeon.
I've never heard of AmiPro, but I'd be surprised if any Windows 3.1 program (that wasn't driver-dependent) didn't run perfectly under Wine. Definitely worth a shot I'd say.
As for hardware and software support... when was the last time you called up Microsoft and they actually were able to help you solve your problem? I'm sure it happens on occasion, but every time I've reported a problem in their software (such as a ViewMaster monitor which was always detected incorrectly by Windows XP as a TV upon boot and made the screen low-res and all green), Microsoft's never done squat to fix it.
Contrast that to GNU/Linux. I ordered a Bryton GPS cycling computer, and assumed it would support GNU/Linux. It didn't, my bad. Fortunately, I found somebody who wrote a driver for a similar model. I gave them the specs of what I had, and they whipped up some driver modifications to get my device working perfectly - just to help a brother out.
Somebody got LightRoom working under a patched version of Wine and shared the details. If you upgrade to a new version of Windows 3 years down the road and LightRoom stops working, do you really expect Microsoft or Adobe to support you? I be the Wine community would. There is support, and then there is support.
I'm using Exetel which is a small ISP that relies on some of the much larger ISPs for infrastructure. My particular plan routes data via Optus, whereas the Exetel example given by the EEF blog post is by someone using a plan routed via AAPT. I can access the website without issue. iiNet at work is also fine.
I suspect this is not a request by the government to ISPs to block a particular site, mainly because I've read that Optus was happy to voluntarily block content - and they're not doing it. Not yet, at least.
I agree with you on the importance of backwards compatibility, but MS hasn't particularly cared about it in a long time.
For example, want to play old Windows games like C&C RA or Dark Reign over LAN? IPX hasn't been supported in Windows since Vista - but GNU/Linux still has it, so these games can only run perfectly over LAN (without unofficial game hacks) on a modern OS under Wine.
I actually agree with your concerns, but quit with the swearing, fix the 'S' key on your keyboard, and stop bashing people who don't agree with you. That's why you're marked as a troll.
"Used to"? I'm still rocking the N900, with Maemo and Debian GNU/Linux wheezy dual-boot.
There's also Arch, Ubuntu, etc. Many also run one of these distributions in a Maemo chroot. I bet it would have WebOS ported to it if only it had more power. Android is also ported via Nitdroid (although I hear newer versions such as ICS run too slowly).
HP laptops have the same problem, as I have discovered first-hand. Consequently, I will never buy a HP or ThinkPad (unless I'm certain the BIOS/UEFI is replaceable with coreboot or some such). My Sony Vaio (AMD E-350) runs Debian wheezy just fine and I even upgraded the old Atheros miniPCIe card to a newer Atheros AR9002WB-2NG that I found on eBay without issue.
Interestingly, the lspci -v output of the device actually says "Subsystem: Lenovo Device 31a4". I wonder if this was actually pulled from a recent Levono, or they just added that to try to trick Levono machines into working with it...
I have been pleasantly surprised how open the Sony laptop hardware has been actually, given the stupid stunts Sony has pulled in the past with their other devices and software.
I've tried about 5 games, and Unsealed looks the nicest so far (and the easiest to get working of the non-HTML5 entries). However, when I was able to start interacting with the game in Chapter1_3, I got:
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:139) Caused by: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at com.badlogic.gdx.utils.Array.get(Array.java:125)
at com.badlogic.gdx.scenes.scene2d.Actor.act(Actor.java:70)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleEntity.act(BattleEntity.java:94)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleEnemy.act(BattleEnemy.java:42)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.enemies.Dummy.act(Dummy.java:82)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleGrid.act(BattleGrid.java:167)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.screens.BattleScreen.render(BattleScreen.java:371)
at com.badlogic.gdx.Game.render(Game.java:46)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.Unsealed.render(Unsealed.java:131)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:214)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:136)
The password sharing functionality looks really interesting. I gave it a spin a few months back, but it had an annoying bug at the time (move a password out of a folder to the root level and it can disappear from the UI). I'm guessing a competent Ruby dev with a few spare hours could fork it on GitHub, fix it up and make it work real nice.
I'm a Firefox supporter because I'm a free software supporter. All the computers I use run GNU/Linux, including my N900.
I believe a number of distributions do not support h.264 libraries for fear of patent litigation. My distribution does (Debian), but I think the distribution my wife uses does not. That means that GNU/Linux users may now be expected to go and source some library just to play video - since after all H.264 will be the web standard since it would be the only format that can run on all browsers on the two most popular platforms.
But as I understand it, Mozilla will need to white-list specific h.264 libraries that they trust (so as to keep the browser stable), and if that's something that's done at compile time, perhaps distributions that don't include h.264 won't include that white-list (or libraries you compile won't be on the white-list), so you'll have more headaches and potentially need to grab a different non-distro-provided Firefox version to get this working at all.
Then what happens when the MPEG guys decide "okay, time to sue these GNU/Linux distros that are infringing on our patents"? GNU/Linux users won't be able to playback video on the web any more - unless they have sufficient technical skills to look at underground websites to find these libraries and build/install them themselves - assuming they have no objection to infringing on patents for personal use...
I don't care if Mozilla is the only supporter of WebM - they need to make a stand on this issue. It's been a major reason why I'm a Firefox user instead of a Chromium user, because people such as myself really care about stuff like this.
Install FDroid, K-9 Mail and Firefox (from the FDroid repositories of course). You can likely even use CyanogenMod without installing all the Android Marketplace if you want - I do this for my HP TouchPad. No need to sync anything with Google.
My answer: I already am doing something about it. There’s room for improvement, but I know I must be doing better than 99% of Australians. Here’s how:
* My wife and I don't have kids. I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but IMO there can be no greater selfishness. It may be said that the significance of all of our environmental problems are directly related to now 7 billion people on this planet. It's been known for decades that the Earth's population growth is unsustainable, and yet here we are.
* We don't own a car. Easily achievable. I know lots of people say "but I live in an area where there is no public transportation" or "I live too far away from work to ride" - but that's because they're selfish. They were not considering the environmental impact of their decision to live in such a location. My wife and I on the other hand have always expected we will not be relying on a car, and have planned our lifestyle accordingly. As such, it is no problem.
If more people chose such a lifestyle, maybe councils around the country and the world would better cater for the needs of people like ourselves who do not drive. For example, the detours I need to take to ride to work are ridiculous - just because my local council didn't pay any significant consideration to cyclists when planing and paving the roads.
* Don't rely on an air-conditioner or heater. Until the Australian summer heat wave of 2009, my wife and I had never owned an air-conditioner. We did buy a portable unit for those few weeks with over 40-degree heat since our apartment tends to get very hot as it is, but I don't think we've ever used it since. Under ordinary circumstances, we have no problem adapting by simply changing to lighter clothing. When it's cold, we wear a jumper and jacket, or dressing gown for night time. If that's still not enough, we'll just get a scarf or even a blanket until we're comfortable. Use thick curtains, keep the windows closed, etc. It's all common sense stuff - and it works.
Contrast this to basically any workplace I've ever worked at. If somebody just came back from a jog, the air-conditioner gets cranked up. Same deal if the air feels 'mucky'. If it's a few degrees too cold, don't bother putting something on - with a couple of button presses it'll magically feel better. It's a sad thing to witness. I usually just bring in a jacket so I can wear it if I'm cold, but almost every day someone will still turn on an air-conditioner. And worse - leave it on when they leave! Meanwhile, I don't think there has ever been a time I have turned on the air-conditioner or heater at any of my workplaces - past or present.
* We're vegetarian (and speaking for myself, I've been vegetarian for around 8 years). That means, we eat a lot of food that isn't processed. My wife is always buying fresh vegetables to cook something for dinner from. Further - and more importantly, we are not contributing to the damage caused by extensive cattle farming - the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in places like Brazil, and it makes up about 17 per cent of Australia's emissions. Our choice to be vegetarian certainly isn't because we're religious or too poor - it's because it's unethical from a number of viewpoints not to be at least a strict vegetarian. Some would say the same thing about being vegan, although I haven't taken my diet to that level.
* Limit use of shopping bags and plastic bottles. I personally drink about 1 litre of soft drink each day at work - but I make it at home with
Slashdot Mirror
Smart move. Better to learn from Google Reader of the problems of relying on SaaS. People who switched to Old Reader clearly didn't.
I like that this is happening, but I can't see it making any difference in itself. Yahoo fought in secret courts to protect user data, and lost. Even if US companies are trying to do the right thing, we can't trust them because we can't trust the US government.
If companies had the right to come out and say "we only gave the US data this information because we had no choice", would you still want to deal with them? The company might win sympathy points, but that clearly doesn't mean we can trust it. This is particularly true for end users outside of the US.
Yes, this is my opinion exactly. I recently blogged about this exact issue, and why I think the FSF, RMS, Trisquel, etc. all treat it differently - and I don't think it's a good enough reason.
https://systemsaviour.com/2013/06/16/why-i-will-not-back-fsfs-guidelines-for-free-software-distributions/
I'll point out for Slasdot readers that, in the case of the radeon driver, it loads microcode into the card - not a huge firmware blob. The FSF just refers to microcode as firmware, so does not distinguish between them. The microcode is between 2K and 31K, depending on the model of the device. If running Debian GNU/Linux with the firmware-linux-nonfree package installed, these microcode files should be located under /lib/firmware/radeon.
I've never heard of AmiPro, but I'd be surprised if any Windows 3.1 program (that wasn't driver-dependent) didn't run perfectly under Wine. Definitely worth a shot I'd say.
As for hardware and software support... when was the last time you called up Microsoft and they actually were able to help you solve your problem? I'm sure it happens on occasion, but every time I've reported a problem in their software (such as a ViewMaster monitor which was always detected incorrectly by Windows XP as a TV upon boot and made the screen low-res and all green), Microsoft's never done squat to fix it.
Contrast that to GNU/Linux. I ordered a Bryton GPS cycling computer, and assumed it would support GNU/Linux. It didn't, my bad. Fortunately, I found somebody who wrote a driver for a similar model. I gave them the specs of what I had, and they whipped up some driver modifications to get my device working perfectly - just to help a brother out.
Somebody got LightRoom working under a patched version of Wine and shared the details. If you upgrade to a new version of Windows 3 years down the road and LightRoom stops working, do you really expect Microsoft or Adobe to support you? I be the Wine community would. There is support, and then there is support.
You get my point.
I'm using Exetel which is a small ISP that relies on some of the much larger ISPs for infrastructure. My particular plan routes data via Optus, whereas the Exetel example given by the EEF blog post is by someone using a plan routed via AAPT. I can access the website without issue. iiNet at work is also fine.
I suspect this is not a request by the government to ISPs to block a particular site, mainly because I've read that Optus was happy to voluntarily block content - and they're not doing it. Not yet, at least.
I agree with you on the importance of backwards compatibility, but MS hasn't particularly cared about it in a long time.
For example, want to play old Windows games like C&C RA or Dark Reign over LAN? IPX hasn't been supported in Windows since Vista - but GNU/Linux still has it, so these games can only run perfectly over LAN (without unofficial game hacks) on a modern OS under Wine.
Seems like the whole ordeal was about the right length for a movie.
...and that's when you use something like BetterPrivacy (in Firefox at least). http://fixtracking.com/
TFA says Copyright. The issue is with the Slashdot heading.
Specifically here:
http://features.slashdot.org/story/13/01/06/163248/richard-stallman-answers-your-questions
It sounds like the article is just about copyright - not trademarks or patents or whatever else "Intellectual Property" is supposed to mean.
Didn't RMS just tell everyone off the other day for using that term? :)
I actually agree with your concerns, but quit with the swearing, fix the 'S' key on your keyboard, and stop bashing people who don't agree with you. That's why you're marked as a troll.
At my school, our TI-38 calculators had to be handed in prior to the examination for a factory reset.
Okay... Funny reading this after just playing some Crysis 2 under WINE on Debian GNU/Linux...
$ for i in `1 2 3 4 5 6 7`
> do
> echo ${1}
> done
1: command not found
$
Instead, try a Bash loop like this (which is also less typing):
for i in {1..7}
do
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=2M
done
I believe something like bs=2M (writing two mebibytes at a time) will significantly speed the process up in most cases.
"Used to"? I'm still rocking the N900, with Maemo and Debian GNU/Linux wheezy dual-boot.
There's also Arch, Ubuntu, etc. Many also run one of these distributions in a Maemo chroot. I bet it would have WebOS ported to it if only it had more power. Android is also ported via Nitdroid (although I hear newer versions such as ICS run too slowly).
HP laptops have the same problem, as I have discovered first-hand. Consequently, I will never buy a HP or ThinkPad (unless I'm certain the BIOS/UEFI is replaceable with coreboot or some such). My Sony Vaio (AMD E-350) runs Debian wheezy just fine and I even upgraded the old Atheros miniPCIe card to a newer Atheros AR9002WB-2NG that I found on eBay without issue.
Interestingly, the lspci -v output of the device actually says "Subsystem: Lenovo Device 31a4". I wonder if this was actually pulled from a recent Levono, or they just added that to try to trick Levono machines into working with it...
I have been pleasantly surprised how open the Sony laptop hardware has been actually, given the stupid stunts Sony has pulled in the past with their other devices and software.
I've tried about 5 games, and Unsealed looks the nicest so far (and the easiest to get working of the non-HTML5 entries). However, when I was able to start interacting with the game in Chapter1_3, I got:
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:139)
Caused by: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at com.badlogic.gdx.utils.Array.get(Array.java:125)
at com.badlogic.gdx.scenes.scene2d.Actor.act(Actor.java:70)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleEntity.act(BattleEntity.java:94)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleEnemy.act(BattleEnemy.java:42)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.enemies.Dummy.act(Dummy.java:82)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleGrid.act(BattleGrid.java:167)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.screens.BattleScreen.render(BattleScreen.java:371)
at com.badlogic.gdx.Game.render(Game.java:46)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.Unsealed.render(Unsealed.java:131)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:214)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:136)
They were careful to say that Macs are immune to Windows viruses.
Maybe in its factory default configuration, but it's not entirely true. Crossover makes WINE for Macs, and that allows Macs to run Windows viruses.
https://github.com/aiaio/mortimer
The password sharing functionality looks really interesting. I gave it a spin a few months back, but it had an annoying bug at the time (move a password out of a folder to the root level and it can disappear from the UI). I'm guessing a competent Ruby dev with a few spare hours could fork it on GitHub, fix it up and make it work real nice.
More information about it here:
http://www.alexanderinteractive.com/blog/2009/02/mortimer-a-rails-password-manager/
http://www.alexanderinteractive.com/blog/2009/08/mortimer-password-manager-redesigned-v1-2/
You could be correct. Not sure. However, supporting Chromium indirectly supports Chrome, which I'd rather not do if I can help it.
Yep. Debian gets them from the VLC website. I'm running Wheezy.
http://packages.debian.org/sid/libx264-118
I'm a Firefox supporter because I'm a free software supporter. All the computers I use run GNU/Linux, including my N900.
I believe a number of distributions do not support h.264 libraries for fear of patent litigation. My distribution does (Debian), but I think the distribution my wife uses does not. That means that GNU/Linux users may now be expected to go and source some library just to play video - since after all H.264 will be the web standard since it would be the only format that can run on all browsers on the two most popular platforms.
But as I understand it, Mozilla will need to white-list specific h.264 libraries that they trust (so as to keep the browser stable), and if that's something that's done at compile time, perhaps distributions that don't include h.264 won't include that white-list (or libraries you compile won't be on the white-list), so you'll have more headaches and potentially need to grab a different non-distro-provided Firefox version to get this working at all.
Then what happens when the MPEG guys decide "okay, time to sue these GNU/Linux distros that are infringing on our patents"? GNU/Linux users won't be able to playback video on the web any more - unless they have sufficient technical skills to look at underground websites to find these libraries and build/install them themselves - assuming they have no objection to infringing on patents for personal use...
I don't care if Mozilla is the only supporter of WebM - they need to make a stand on this issue. It's been a major reason why I'm a Firefox user instead of a Chromium user, because people such as myself really care about stuff like this.
Install FDroid, K-9 Mail and Firefox (from the FDroid repositories of course). You can likely even use CyanogenMod without installing all the Android Marketplace if you want - I do this for my HP TouchPad. No need to sync anything with Google.
I wrote about your excellent question on my blog.
http://systemsaviour.com/2011/11/11/slashdot-iea-warns-of-irreversible-climate-change-in-5-years/
My answer: I already am doing something about it. There’s room for improvement, but I know I must be doing better than 99% of Australians. Here’s how:
* My wife and I don't have kids. I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but IMO there can be no greater selfishness. It may be said that the significance of all of our environmental problems are directly related to now 7 billion people on this planet. It's been known for decades that the Earth's population growth is unsustainable, and yet here we are.
* We don't own a car. Easily achievable. I know lots of people say "but I live in an area where there is no public transportation" or "I live too far away from work to ride" - but that's because they're selfish. They were not considering the environmental impact of their decision to live in such a location. My wife and I on the other hand have always expected we will not be relying on a car, and have planned our lifestyle accordingly. As such, it is no problem.
If more people chose such a lifestyle, maybe councils around the country and the world would better cater for the needs of people like ourselves who do not drive. For example, the detours I need to take to ride to work are ridiculous - just because my local council didn't pay any significant consideration to cyclists when planing and paving the roads.
* Don't rely on an air-conditioner or heater. Until the Australian summer heat wave of 2009, my wife and I had never owned an air-conditioner. We did buy a portable unit for those few weeks with over 40-degree heat since our apartment tends to get very hot as it is, but I don't think we've ever used it since. Under ordinary circumstances, we have no problem adapting by simply changing to lighter clothing. When it's cold, we wear a jumper and jacket, or dressing gown for night time. If that's still not enough, we'll just get a scarf or even a blanket until we're comfortable. Use thick curtains, keep the windows closed, etc. It's all common sense stuff - and it works.
Contrast this to basically any workplace I've ever worked at. If somebody just came back from a jog, the air-conditioner gets cranked up. Same deal if the air feels 'mucky'. If it's a few degrees too cold, don't bother putting something on - with a couple of button presses it'll magically feel better. It's a sad thing to witness. I usually just bring in a jacket so I can wear it if I'm cold, but almost every day someone will still turn on an air-conditioner. And worse - leave it on when they leave! Meanwhile, I don't think there has ever been a time I have turned on the air-conditioner or heater at any of my workplaces - past or present.
* We're vegetarian (and speaking for myself, I've been vegetarian for around 8 years). That means, we eat a lot of food that isn't processed. My wife is always buying fresh vegetables to cook something for dinner from. Further - and more importantly, we are not contributing to the damage caused by extensive cattle farming - the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in places like Brazil, and it makes up about 17 per cent of Australia's emissions. Our choice to be vegetarian certainly isn't because we're religious or too poor - it's because it's unethical from a number of viewpoints not to be at least a strict vegetarian. Some would say the same thing about being vegan, although I haven't taken my diet to that level.
* Limit use of shopping bags and plastic bottles. I personally drink about 1 litre of soft drink each day at work - but I make it at home with