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User: umoto

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  1. Re:For kids on Interesting Uses For a USB LED Screen? · · Score: 1

    I provided you no information that could allow you to logically reach such a conclusion.

    Merry Christmas!

  2. For kids on Interesting Uses For a USB LED Screen? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been thinking it would be cool to get a sign like that and post it in a visible place at home, then use it to post announcements about my kids' accomplishments. I'd set it up so my wife could change it as well. We'd post things like "John did the dishes every day this week", "Mary aced her math test", etc.

    The intent would be to show them we care and to give them positive reinforcement.

  3. Alternate Install Method on Major Security Hole In Samsung Linux Drivers · · Score: 1

    The problem is entirely in the installer, not the driver.

    After I bought an SCX-4100 a couple of years ago, I ran the installer. I saw right away that most of what the installer did was worthless. It installed some GUI that was simply inferior to CUPS+KDE. That made me mad, so I undid the effects of the installer and dissected it until I figured out what actually needed to be installed to just print and scan. The list of files required turns out to be pretty simple, as long as you connect via USB instead of the parallel port:

    - /usr/lib/cups/backend/mfp

    - /usr/lib/cups/filter/rastertosamsung{pcl,spl,splc}

    - /usr/lib/libmfp.so*

    - /usr/share/ppd/Samsung/scx4100.ppd.gz

    - /usr/lib/sane/libsane-smfp.so*

    - /etc/sane.d/smfp.conf

    You can get all of these files out of the driver package. None of them need to be installed suid root or anything out of the ordinary. All you need is read/write access to /dev/usb/lp0 (provided by the usblp kernel module), which you can usually gain by being a member of group "lp" or whatever your distribution calls it. Also, you need a line in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf that contains "smfp" so that sane will look for libsane-smfp.so .

    Use the normal CUPS and SANE configuration steps to set it up. If you're lucky, you can use http://localhost:631/ , unless your distribution has disabled that method of configuration.

    I blogged about this two years ago:

        http://hathawaymix.org/Weblog/2005-07-15

    Note that many of the details have changed. This post is more correct.

    Even though I've avoided the setuid security hole by installing by hand, I'm still very irritated that I have to use proprietary binaries with who knows how many security holes. Next time I'm not going to settle for a proprietary driver. Samsung advertised Linux support and that's half the reason I bought the printer, but I didn't realize the driver was proprietary until I already had the printer.

    Samsung, if you read this, listen up: I am happy with the speed and reliability of this printer (I've gone through 5-6 reams of paper and only 1 cartridge), and I am happy that you have added x86_64 support. However, if I had known that I would spend about 40 hours messing with your drivers just to get the printer to work, I would have bought an HP printer instead, even if it cost twice as much. I will not be a repeat customer and I will not recommend any of your printers to anyone else unless you open your drivers.

  4. Disclosure on Statically Charged Man Ignites Office · · Score: 1

    See, this is why immediate disclosure isn't a great idea. Now the terrorists have a new weapon. Run for your lives! And don't buy synthetic nylon and wool on the same day, or the feds will lock you up for terrorism!

  5. Senseless Slashdot on ACLU to Challenge Utah Porn-Blocking Law · · Score: 1

    In Utah, the majority want their Internet connection censored. Most of them don't know how to set up a censor, or don't know what software they can trust. So they effectively *don't have the choice* to censor.

    The government wishes to ensure that everyone has the choice to censor. The government is not advocating censorship; it is only ensuring that censorship is one of the choices available to ISP customers.

    I believe in the right to choose such things, don't you?

  6. The editors must like flamebait on Graphical Gentoo Installer In The Works · · Score: 1

    There must have been several submissions about this news (which is great news, BTW), but the Slashdot editor picked the inflammatory one. I'm quite happy with Gentoo, but I'm not aware of any real speed advantage. The story would have received a very different reaction if the line about speed had been left out.

    Gentoo is all about customization. On my server, I have lots of server-oriented software, but no X11 support. On my desktop, I have a hundreds of zany packages installed, and all of it actually works together. I've tried configuring similar systems with binary distributions, but I ended up spending hours fiddling with package management. Maybe the difference is that Gentoo acknowledges the need for fiddling and thus optimizes for fiddling.

  7. Re:Words of Wisdom on Linus on All Sorts of Stuff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I agree with the spirit of what you're saying. Reuse is progress. However, except when the reusable bits are obvious, it is cumbersome and risky to try to write code for a specific project and simultaneously make it reusable for other projects. Premature generalization is a subtle enemy.

    The 3D engine is a great example. Let's say you're a game company creating two 3D games at once. One game is a board game with a few 3D animations, the other is an immersive 3D experience. Do you develop an engine capable of handling both scenarios before you start work on either game? The board game might need nothing but OpenGL. The 3D engine would probably only be complicated by that scenario. Recognize that the only relevant reuse is already done (since OpenGL is common to both) and ship the board game early by not using your engine.

    Modularity is the key principle of OO design, but the true benefit of modularity is not reuse. Modularity enables you to make complex things simpler. If your 3D game has a networked multiplayer mode, you should modularize the networking so that you don't have to think about networking while you're working on other things. That doesn't mean you should create a network layer that's compatible with other games! Just make a layer that removes details from your focus. Discover reusable bits later.

  8. Re:FP? on A Working, Quantum-Encrypted Intranet · · Score: 1

    Thanks for a good explanation. However, I've researched this as much as I can and am still aware of no reason why a man-in-the-middle attack is not possible. I'd sure like some help.

    It's easy to see why Eve can't perform a passive attack, but what prevents her from performing an active attack? That is, she connects herself in series with Alice and Bob. Eve makes a connection to Alice and another to Bob, then forwards packets between the two independent connections. Without strong encryption, Alice can't tell the difference between Bob and Eve impersonating Bob.

    Therefore, if strong encryption is required anyway, what justifies the expense of quantum transmission?

  9. Re:Hopefully this fixed the bugs in 2004.1 on Gentoo 2004.2 Released · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can use the "quickpkg" tool (it's part of Portage) to generate binary packages, then have your friend use "emerge -k".

    Like another poster said, it would be hard to get strangers to trust your binary packages. But for a network of friends like a Linux user group, your workplace, or a school lab, building binary Gentoo packages would be really cool.

  10. Nonsense on A Six-Step Plan for Apple · · Score: 1

    Every time I suggest to friends that they should use a Mac, they ask if it will run their special-purpose Windows applications. Of course I have to answer no. They have legitimate needs for which there is no parallel on any Unix-like system. Their needs are much more sophisticated than browsing the web and reading email. They really don't lack money, and they appreciate good design. It's just that Macs don't run the special-purpose Windows apps out there.

    Apple should get involved in the Wine project. I don't mean that Macs should emulate X86 (not again!), I mean that Apple should make it possible for software vendors to port their software to Mac OS X just by compiling Windows apps using winelib on a Mac. With some work, I bet you could run winelib applications without emulating! Apple should give developers incentives to create a Mac version, too. Apple might feature new ports on TV commercials, for example.

    It could be a tremendous breakthrough. It's ambitious, but the transition to a Unix core was more ambitious and look how well that turned out. What say you, Apple?

  11. Spawn a new process on GTK 2.3, And The Emerging File Selector · · Score: 1

    The concept of a file dialog is simple, yet it's apparently hard to write a good file dialog. Solution: delegate dialogs to child processes. Let end users replace dialogs they don't like with something better by changing things around in /usr/X11R6/bin.

    GTK should install its versions of dialogs in /usr/lib/gtk/dialogs, KDE should install its versions in /usr/lib/kde/dialogs, etc. Then a symlink at /usr/X11R6/bin/choosefile should point to an executable called /usr/lib/???/dialogs/choosefile. A bonus would be that scripts can easily use these dialogs as well.

    One thing I didn't take into account is the possibility that two users of a single box prefer a different set of dialogs. Even so, the core of the suggestion stands.

  12. Re:Lets play IP-Infringment Mad-Libs! on SCO Prepares To Sue Linux End Users · · Score: 0

    You're obviously not reading the right Slashdot. ;-)

    http://bbspot.com/toys/slashtitle/index.html

  13. Re:Why I think the ACLU is a good thing. on Joining the ACLU? · · Score: 1

    This debate will never end. :-)

    Note that it's not actually possible to escape religion (unless you're dead. ;-) ) Empiricism is a form of religion: empiricists believe that only observable things are important. That is a very large, unprovable belief. It is an organized religion.

    Therefore, the attempt to separate church and state is futile. If the state is responsible for educating kids, it must choose a religion to teach them. That's tricky, so schools try to teach only the things we agree on. But that is also futile, since diverse opinions increasingly prevent anyone from agreeing on anything important. So kids receive a watered-down education that includes nothing of morality.

    I wonder if the answer to all of this is to replace public schools with private schools. I suspect that is also a naive solution.

    What a tough problem.

  14. Re:Why I think the ACLU is a good thing. on Joining the ACLU? · · Score: 1

    Think back to when you were in grade school. In my case, and I think almost everyone else's, the teacher was in control of every minute of my time. I had to pay attention or risk getting in trouble. Prayer was never an option, except at recess, when I felt I would have been ridiculed by other students for praying--even though the majority of other students were of the same religion.

    Although I technically had the right to pray any time I wanted to, I did not know about that right, and I feared punishment even if I did. Therefore I could not exercise my right.

    The ACLU is ignoring its moral responsibility. At the same time it works to prevent abuse of power by teachers, the ACLU should be actively educating students how to pray without offending others. Yet I would be surprised to see the ACLU do anything like this.

  15. Re:Why I think the ACLU is a good thing. on Joining the ACLU? · · Score: 1

    What I'd like to know is why every American doesn't support the ACLU.

    Simple. The ACLU's policy on prayer disagrees with all Americans who have even minimal religious beliefs. Their policy makes no sense: the Constitution guarantees the right to freely exercise religion in prison, but not on public school grounds?!

  16. Re:Restrictions on PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code · · Score: 1

    bah, gimme a modern day C64 dammit!

    Ask, and ye shall receive.

    Commodore One

  17. Re:Something fishy in his goodbye message on Guido van Rossum Leaves Zope.com · · Score: 1

    No, there is certainly no disagreement behind the scenes. Guido sent a private announcement to an internal list. He expressed much appreciation for Zope corp. and everyone here.

    He's only changing his email address because he no longer works here. His email will probably be forwarded anyway.

  18. Absurdity draw public attention on Sen Hatch Would Like To Destroy Filetraders' PCs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Senator Hatch made an absurd suggestion. He knows quite well that such vigilante justice is illegal in numerous ways. Why would he make such a suggestion?

    I think he actually intends to send the opposite message. He wants to get the public excited about the issue. When people read this, they will be infuriated. He wants people to realize that excessive copyright legislation has been slipping into law over the past few years. He's hoping that once the public is aware of it, they will lobby to reverse the trend toward excessive copyright enforcement.

    He sponsored the DMCA, but perhaps he couldn't get it passed without the ambiguous language in section 1201. Perhaps he's now trying to fix that section, but he can't do it without public support.

    I know this seems a bit of a stretch, but his suggestion is so crazy that it is quite unreasonable to take him literally. This could be a clever way to meet his real goals.

    OTOH, perhaps the insanity of DC traffic has driven him mad. I hear it's a common phenomenon. ;-)

  19. Re:Complex Codes! on Universal Alphanumeric Postal Code Proposed · · Score: 1

    For example, NAC Geographic Products' address in Toronto would be ***** *****.

    Dear sir:

    You have illegally copied a postal code. Redistribution of copyrighted material is in violation of United States law. Immediately cease violating Microsoft's copyright on all postal codes or legal action may be necessary. Consider this your final warning.

    Sincerely,

    Darl McBride Microsoft Intellectual Property Office
  20. Re:what wrong with the original? on Universal Alphanumeric Postal Code Proposed · · Score: 1

    Like another poster explained, they are cartesian coordinates from the center. Salt Lake's center is the temple. Other cities use different centers. One nice advantage is that you rarely need a street-level map in Utah.

    It works very well except when the streets curve or follow diagonal paths, therefore, city planners try to make roads follow N/S or E/W lines. Roads usually have names too, but it's not usually necessary to remember the names. So you can think of "1460 W" as the name of a street.

    Washington DC does something similar, but it doesn't extend very far. When I left Utah I was actually a little surprised to discover that other cities *don't* use this system.

  21. Why not Python? on Interview Responses From BitTorrent's Bram Cohen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This application is highly I/O-bound, not CPU-bound, so raw processing speed is not a factor. It only has to be "fast enough", which it is. The things that do matter are things Python is good at:

    - Security. This is a server, so buffer overflows and memory allocation errors are not acceptable.

    - Readability. Bram expressed a strong interest in getting more developers involved, making readability essential.

    - Platform neutrality.

    Other languages cover some of these requirements too, of course. But Python is a great choice.

    As for reducing the slashdot effect using a distributed mechanism, I'd like to see something like this: Slashdot runs a BitTorrent server and provides a "package" for every story. Users run a small local HTTP server that fetches web pages from Slashdot story packages, downloaded via BitTorrent. Slashdot lets users set a preference that converts all front page URLs to fetch from the local HTTP server instead of the real site.

    The net effect is Slashdot provides a "cache" without actually using up bandwidth. We wouldn't even have to change the BitTorrent protocol. Slashdotters unite! ;-)

  22. DVD RAID? on Preserving VHS Recordings For Another 20 Years? · · Score: 1

    Here's a thought: RAID technology uses redundant hard drives to restore the original data even in the event of partial failure. Could the same idea be applied to DVDs? Could this fellow just make two or three DVDs containing precisely the same video and hope that a technology comes along in a few years that can resolve the errors that arise in the bits?

    Or does the DVD format make this difficult in some way? Built-in error correction might create a problem unless there was a way for software to circumvent it. (It would be nice if someone knew. ;-) )

  23. Video game exercise bike on Highlights From Embedded Systems Conference · · Score: 1

    I want a bike like the one on the finalists page, but did you notice who the bike exhibitor was? Hint: resistance is futile. ;-)

    It seems like it would be easy to build a bike like that and tie it into a few Linux games. The only connection you'd need between the bike and the game would be a speed sensor. (You might add force feedback later.) Has anyone tried enhancing your exercise program like this? Did it motivate you to exercise as often as you hoped?

  24. Re:Supportless Linux on Lycoris Build 71 Beckons For Your Desktop · · Score: 1

    To avoid the need for your customer to leave the modem connected all the time (and to get through firewalls, etc), you need to get the customer's computer to originate a TCP connection that lets you tunnel an SSH connection from your system back to the customer. I haven't heard of anyone doing this, but it should be possible.

    Now, I doubt you really want to perform upgrades without the customers' knowledge. The mysterious nature of that arrangement could lead them to blame anything out of the ordinary on you. Instead, send them an email requesting that they leave the modem connected for a certain period. If you have to connect frequently, ask that they allow the computer to phone home on a regular basis, but make sure they know exactly what your schedule is.

  25. Re:overtime issues on Are Coders Exempt From California's Overtime Laws? · · Score: 1

    Wow. I took a glance at your resume, and you seem like an excellent candidate for a wide variety of jobs. Your experience is short, but you can make up for that by tailoring your resume for each position you apply for. You have plenty of reasons to be confident. Keep trying--something will surely land.