The mention of Microsoft POSIX brought back nightmares. When I head MS NT was POSIX compliant, I tried it out. What a joke--it's a complete sham. For example, if you set the time, the call works, but doesn't do anything! The time is the same. Other calls are similar. It's nice that valid POSIX system calls don't fail, but it would be better if an implementation actually does something!
The only reason they did this POSIX sham, I understand, is because of US Government requirements for POSIX. Nobody could use it though.
The Common Criterial Security (CCS) Certification is good, but not great. It's equivalent to Entry-level certification. Yes, it's the highest Entry-level certification, but other Operating Systems, such as Linux, Solaris, and other UNIX flavors have long had it.
What's important is CCS Profiles, which allow one to tune the OS to the security level you need ("one size does not fit all"). AFAIK, MS Windows does not have profiles.
That's said, it's great that Microsoft is starting to get serious about security.
Disregarding whether the man actually uploaded or a drive-by uploaded, it's another reason to secure your wireless connection (preferably with WPA, not with (broken WEP)).
Can reconfigure without restart NOW
on
Apache 2.2.0 Released
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· Score: 4, Informative
You can re-configure without restarting Apache 2.0 now (maybe even Apache 1.0, but I don't use that) by sending SIGHUP to the Apache process. The parent Apache process re-reads the config file.
A datacenter is not 1 computer or even 1 rack. It's BIG--it takes MEGAwatts of power. You can't supply power for a datacenter on 3.3V, or even 52v. You need high-voltage to power thousands of cards. The high voltage of DC is dangerous to control and hard to regulate.
And like all the other clueless folk, you neglect to realize that
computers are not high voltage. Nay, they run on 12, 5 and 3.3V
Stick your hand in the power supply and tell me if it's "not high voltage". Of course, the internal components are not high voltage, but you can't have a city-wide delivery system based on 12/5/3.3v, let alone a datacenter.
Hold on there! DC power is dangerous. Not the 3v or 9. batteries, but high voltage DC. It can't be easily switched off like AC power. The problem is if you use a regular switch, the DC power arcs, because it's constant.
Once the voltage is stepped down for computers with a well-sealed power supply, it's safe. However, you still don't want to go in and mess around with the insides of a computer power supply. Not unless you know someone you don't like who is willing to help:-).
Scanning of old books isn't done with a consumer-grade (or even business grade) flat-bed scanner. That's too expensive and too damaging to old books.
"Scanning" of old books is typically done with a camera photographing a book lying in a cradle (to not split the binding). One image is taken of each page or every two pages (the latter is faster, but has focus problems).
Once photographed, OCR software grinds away. There are errors. Some projects proof-read the errors (this is very expensive), but with Google's volume they cannot. Even when not proof-read, however, the OCR'ed text has high value in search engines.
New, in-print books can be scanned destructively. That is, saw off the binding and feed into a sheet feed scanner. This works with publishers who have extra copies they can expend.
Bill Gates reminds me of John D. Rockefeller. Both Rockefeller and Gates were despised when they were creating monopolies. Rockefeller is best remembered now for his generous donations for National Parks, libraries, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
I think Gates will be remembered likewise for his good works in reducing the worst misery in poor countries. I think we owe a lot to Gate's wife, Melinda. He didn't do this stuff before he was married. OTOH, we wouldn't do it if he felt strongly for this also.
I still don't like the Microsoft monopoly, but not all Computer billionaires are so generous and he doesn't have to do this. Thanks Bill!
SBC used to be called Southwestern Bell
on
Ma Bell is Back
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· Score: 4, Informative
SBC was originally called Southwestern Bell. It covered the Southwest United States (except for California and Nevada). It was one of the regional "baby Bells" created when ATT was split in the 1980s.
SBC merged with two other baby Bells: Pacific Bell in 1997, and Ameritech in 1999.
The source is my personal experience with the UCSD, UCI, and UCLA libraries. I assume the other UCs have the same or similar policy against digitizing books.
Gutenburg is not a corporation, it's private individuals (volunteers). It's usually one guy (or gal) with a scanner, OCR software, and a little bit of time to proofread.
would not surprise me to learn that a campus counsel or some such wouldn't let a library give away rights to content that UC held the rights to (like a library's special collections holdings)
So in other words, the public domain is locked away. The PD consists of OLD books, which are largely in special collections.
Here's some policies I digged up. It's worse than the policy though. They say write a letter explaining your needs and they ignore you.
The physical owner of a PD book (library) can prohibit scanning or even viewing. For modern books, it's not a problem--just go to another library. For some books it is a problem. Few copies exist, and they are scattered around the world.
The library can require a legal agreement to view or scan the book, and that is where a lawsuit can occur. Of course, the legal agreement doesn't apply to 3rd parties that haven't signed. It's another example of the erosion of the public domain--it's not just Disney and the music industry that's doing it folks--it's the University of California and other libraries.
This is possible if the book is rare and the owner has physical custody. For libraries, this is usually through a controlled-access "special collection" area. They can and do prohibit scanning or transcribing of books, even if PD. They can require signing a legal agreement (license) with any terms they like, such as requiring royalities or restricting further distribution.
I find it funny (in an ironic way only) that the University of California is allowing its public domain books to be scanned by Yahoo. At the same time, UC libraries prohibit scanning for Project Gutenberg or other true "open" content projects unless they receive $$$$ in royalities.
I hate to see a University pander to commercial interests, while at the same time, welcome commercial interests such as Yahoo. Money talks, and I'm sure UC is being paid a lot, but libraries are supposed to be public resources too, not exclusive profit-centers:-(.
Do you need forensic tests to work out that a new OS is on there?
Yes, because you don't know a priori what happened—whether it's a new OS or if a few files were removed or what. Once you boot the HD, you stomp on files and write over possibly valuable erased files. Forensic tests require looking at the drive read-only and also recovering previoulsy-erased files (which are often a gold mine)
USB is for consumer use (cameras, mice, etc.). You can't have external USBs hanging off rack mounted servers. The Galaxy series have SATA hard drives, up to 2, that are hot-pluggable and RAID-ed for reliability and replacement.
To verify a stream of random numbers is truely random, pump the random stream (/dev/random) into gzip and look at the byte distribution. If the count of each byte value (0x00 - 0xff) is even, it should be random. If it is not "even", there may be a problemo.
For example, Linux has a good PRNG distribution based, but *BSD has (or used to have last year--hopefully it is fixed) a poor distribution. The high 2 bytes of are god, but the 2 low bytes are not good (not evenly distributed).
For NICs I have the best luck with Intel (e.g., EEPRO 100 or 1000). For video and DVDs, get name-brand stuff, no cheap barely-working on Windows junk.
Personally, I think the best of Solaris 10 are Zones (partitioning sw), a faster TCP/IP stack, 64-bit X86 support (SPARC 64 has been around forever), and DTRACE scripting (useful performance tuning).
ZFS is promising for a filesystem and volume management, but it won't come out until the next update sometime "real soon."
5.5GB is the MAXIMUM, not minimum install--that is if you throw every standard package in there, including all the GNU and Open Source stuff from the "Sun Freeware" CD, GNOME, and zillions of fonts.
It's easy to get it down to 1GB, and with work, 500MB. Getting it on a CD, let alone a DVD is not a real problem at all.
Slashdot Mirror
The only reason they did this POSIX sham, I understand, is because of US Government requirements for POSIX. Nobody could use it though.
What's important is CCS Profiles, which allow one to tune the OS to the security level you need ("one size does not fit all"). AFAIK, MS Windows does not have profiles.
That's said, it's great that Microsoft is starting to get serious about security.
Disregarding whether the man actually uploaded or a drive-by uploaded, it's another reason to secure your wireless connection (preferably with WPA, not with (broken WEP)).
You can also do this: apachectl -k restart
A datacenter is not 1 computer or even 1 rack. It's BIG--it takes MEGAwatts of power. You can't supply power for a datacenter on 3.3V, or even 52v. You need high-voltage to power thousands of cards. The high voltage of DC is dangerous to control and hard to regulate.
Stick your hand in the power supply and tell me if it's "not high voltage". Of course, the internal components are not high voltage, but you can't have a city-wide delivery system based on 12/5/3.3v, let alone a datacenter.
Once the voltage is stepped down for computers with a well-sealed power supply, it's safe. However, you still don't want to go in and mess around with the insides of a computer power supply. Not unless you know someone you don't like who is willing to help :-).
The difference back then was neither the US or the UK recognized each other's copyright laws back then.
Here's the corrected, live link: http://www.rod-neep.co.uk/books/production/scan/sc anning.htm
"Scanning" of old books is typically done with a camera photographing a book lying in a cradle (to not split the binding). One image is taken of each page or every two pages (the latter is faster, but has focus problems).
Once photographed, OCR software grinds away. There are errors. Some projects proof-read the errors (this is very expensive), but with Google's volume they cannot. Even when not proof-read, however, the OCR'ed text has high value in search engines.
For examples of the resulting product, see U of Michigan's Making of America or the Library of Congress American Memory.
New, in-print books can be scanned destructively. That is, saw off the binding and feed into a sheet feed scanner. This works with publishers who have extra copies they can expend.
I think Gates will be remembered likewise for his good works in reducing the worst misery in poor countries. I think we owe a lot to Gate's wife, Melinda. He didn't do this stuff before he was married. OTOH, we wouldn't do it if he felt strongly for this also.
I still don't like the Microsoft monopoly, but not all Computer billionaires are so generous and he doesn't have to do this. Thanks Bill!
SBC merged with two other baby Bells: Pacific Bell in 1997, and Ameritech in 1999.
would not surprise me to learn that a campus counsel or some such wouldn't let a library give away rights to content that UC held the rights to (like a library's special collections holdings)
So in other words, the public domain is locked away. The PD consists of OLD books, which are largely in special collections.
Here's some policies I digged up. It's worse than the policy though. They say write a letter explaining your needs and they ignore you.
The library can require a legal agreement to view or scan the book, and that is where a lawsuit can occur. Of course, the legal agreement doesn't apply to 3rd parties that haven't signed. It's another example of the erosion of the public domain--it's not just Disney and the music industry that's doing it folks--it's the University of California and other libraries.
This is possible if the book is rare and the owner has physical custody. For libraries, this is usually through a controlled-access "special collection" area. They can and do prohibit scanning or transcribing of books, even if PD. They can require signing a legal agreement (license) with any terms they like, such as requiring royalities or restricting further distribution.
I hate to see a University pander to commercial interests, while at the same time, welcome commercial interests such as Yahoo. Money talks, and I'm sure UC is being paid a lot, but libraries are supposed to be public resources too, not exclusive profit-centers :-(.
Yes, because you don't know a priori what happened—whether it's a new OS or if a few files were removed or what. Once you boot the HD, you stomp on files and write over possibly valuable erased files. Forensic tests require looking at the drive read-only and also recovering previoulsy-erased files (which are often a gold mine)
I have a photo on my blog (photo is not from Sun) of a plane buzzing Dell HQ that says: "Sun's got a x64 server. Watch out Dell!"
USB is for consumer use (cameras, mice, etc.). You can't have external USBs hanging off rack mounted servers. The Galaxy series have SATA hard drives, up to 2, that are hot-pluggable and RAID-ed for reliability and replacement.
A Netcraft survey shows most Fortune 100 companies use Solaris, not MS Windows. Also, remember, one Solaris server typically equals several MS Windows servers (a server farm or farms).
For example, Linux has a good PRNG distribution based, but *BSD has (or used to have last year--hopefully it is fixed) a poor distribution. The high 2 bytes of are god, but the 2 low bytes are not good (not evenly distributed).
I used to use Corel and WordPerfect Presentations, which has a propriety vector graphics format, WPG.
For NICs I have the best luck with Intel (e.g., EEPRO 100 or 1000). For video and DVDs, get name-brand stuff, no cheap barely-working on Windows junk.
Personally, I think the best of Solaris 10 are Zones (partitioning sw), a faster TCP/IP stack, 64-bit X86 support (SPARC 64 has been around forever), and DTRACE scripting (useful performance tuning).
ZFS is promising for a filesystem and volume management, but it won't come out until the next update sometime "real soon."
It's easy to get it down to 1GB, and with work, 500MB. Getting it on a CD, let alone a DVD is not a real problem at all.