Only wimps use tape backup: _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it;)
-- Linus Torvalds, about his failing hard drive on linux.cs.helsinki.fi
Just a thought
on
Patented Seeds
·
· Score: 2, Informative
This brings to mind somthing I saw on the news quite a while ago. Two farms were directly neighboring eachother, one farm grew geneticly altered designer crops, that were easily identifiable as such by color, Farmer2 grew normal crops. Well, it seems that Farmer1 let seeds (from grown and mature plants) drift/blow/migrate in to Farmer2's field. The company that designed the plants(so to speak) demanded Farmer2 pay royalties to them for using their stock! I don't remember if he had to or not, but now I'm sure he would be required to do so by law. Life spreads, unless they can make these patented seeds unable to reproduce, they will eventualy end up growing anywhere they can, with the property owner paying.
Since he already 'owns' the music, why not just find and download everything in mp3 format? I'm sure the quality would be better than ripping from LP's, and with an automated leeching tool you could save a lot of time too.
Just as long as you have broadband.
This strikes me as a very neet discovery. Technoligy modeled after nature could, in time, provide us with some nice toys because of this. 100% wireless, unpowered speakers is one thought that comes to mind, I'm sure there are many more uses. Of course, there would be some major problems involved in using this in everyday life, but history shows that nothing can stand in the way of progress.
You don't need 2 ethernet ports for that, an IP alias and the correct routing can work just as good in most cases. $50 linux firewall, now that's not a bad deal!
Indeed.. but ever try installing stuff by hand on a debian system? Perhaps I don't know it's system well enough.. but it *BREAKS*, bad. and overwrites what you install with it's own version the first chance it gets. I've had similer experiences with RedHat(though not as bad). In my experience, package managment and hand installs do not mix, especialy on systems where package-managment is taken to the extreme. Your milage may vary.
This is _EXACTLY_ why I use LinuxFromScratch. You do not HAVE to use the package managment system, you can install anything *just* the way *you* want it. X applications in/usr/bin? No way jose! (My appoligies to anyone named Jose, I'm sure you are sick of hearing that one),/usr/X11 it is! If you are not happy with the standards, make your own, it just takes a little time and in-depth knowledge.
Commercial SSH is open source, always has been from version 1, just under a propritary liscence. IMHO, commercial SSH3 just plain rocks. It has nice GUI features, and lots of other functionality that OpenSSH does not have. If your company has money to spend, Commercial SSH is the way to go.
Directly converting your ipchains rulesets to ipchains isn't such a good
idea. Iptables/netfilter is *much* more flexible, and chances are, you
can cut your ruleset in half *with* added security. Personaly, I find
it's stateful features, and ability to match "related" packets quite
useful. My firewall machine used to run 2.2/ipchains, and my ruleset was
about 60 lines long, with iptables/netfilter it is less than 20, and is
much easier to maintain.
Re:Work-around without rebooting (2.2 kernels)
on
Linux Kernel Bugs
·
· Score: 1
http://whacked.cosmic-cow.net/ptracekm.tar.gz - I wrote this to quickly "patch" all my systems when the last ptrace() vulneribility was announced.
Maybe you'll have better luck with it.:)
My ISP (earthlink/mindspring) does the same thing. You can't access port 25 except on their mail servers. What's worse, they block incoming port 25 so I can't run my own smtp. I got around this by setting up an IP tunnel. Now, I have a static IP, with the filters _I_ want. If you know anybody with some bandwidth, and an extra IP, this is the ultimate solution to ISP restrictions of any kind.
My remote also dims the lights. I am using a 2Mwatt IR laser tube controlled by a Cray 2 supercomputer. Average amp draw: 700. Perks: Goes right through walls(burns holes in them!), and with the proper telescopic aiming device, and those reflectors on the moon, you can change the channels on NY Cities jumbotron in Times Square!
Even though this is obviously a joke, it is not a bad idea. I have been using a 6ft fiberglass pole(old CB antenna) as a remote for years now, it has yet to need new batteries, and has never went out of commision. Just make sure that you rubberise the end so you don't mess your gear up.
You don't have to go that expensive. I baught this cheap no-name IR keyboard, it's black, has good battery life, you don't really have to aim it(unless the batteries are really low), and best of all it has a laptop keyboard layout and integrated mouse(Not like thinkpad).
The pointing stick is horrible for graphics work, and things like that, but with an extra (normal) mouse hooked up, no worries. It's more than adequate for zooming around your desktop and copy/paste.
As for the laptop style keyboard, well, alot of people hate them, but I love them. I consider them the most ergonomic keyboards made. Think about it, the keys are close together, and don't travel as far. This means you have to move less. My wrists havn't hurt since I started using it.
My only gripe about this thing is that it lacks a third button on it's pointing device. This can be worked around, of course..
You can get these things just about anywhere for ~$50(US). If you are hardcore(using computer for 10+hour days), 2 sets of rechargable batteries are also a good investment. Or you can just mod it and put a power jack in it.. sure it's not 100% cordless, but you can unplug and walk around any time:)
I agree, I also think mailing lists would be a good idea, a-la FreeBSD. If you are using a pre-rolled distro, or even somthing modified, mailing lists and security resources are a blessing. If you roll your own, well, you are on your own.. but you probably know enough to keep things secure anyway:)
Directly exploiting a remote vulnerability in the Linux kernel itself is highly improbable. I doubt the IP stack has any buffer overflows or string format problems, etc. If it did we'd be getting kernel panics more often than win95 BSOD's. This is a very good thing.
I am very concerned about UNIX/Linux worms. Not only is it possible, but it is probable. As much as I dislike Microsoft, they DO release security fixes for their products, usualy before a worm is written to exploit the vulneribilities. The same goes for Linux, BSD, and any other activly maintained operating system. So why are these worms causing so much trouble? Because the average user has no idea how their OS works, and no clue about security. With the recent advancements in user-friendlyness, the same thing goes for Linux too. For example, the statd worm family, which had rooted every insecure RedHat machine in 24.*.. With matters like this, it is not the OS that matters. It is the user/admin of the OS being clueless about security. Until users learn how to apply security patches, and learn to keep up with the latest security news, these things will be commonplace. I sincerely hope that this recent outbreak of particularly nasty worms will get more users and admins interested in keeping their machines secure.
It's not E-Mail that I encrypt, but rather my IP traffic, until it is in a differant country. Why do I care? Am I doing somthing illegal? Why yes I am!
All my CD's were stolen, and I still have the cases. I have been downloading copyrighted mp3 files and burning myself replacements. This is illegal, although I do not consider it immoral. I would be willing to bet that you yourself patricipate in SOME form of illegal activity online yourself. After they are done looking for terrorists(or, at least, when the search slows down), they will have an extensive network set up for monitering and analysing traffic. Do you think that they won't put it to use to catch us 'bad guys'?
This is why I have moved my IPsec tunnel endpoint to a location outside of the US. Now, all my personal traffic is encrypted until it reaches another country(In this case, Sweden). Perhaps things like this will become more commonplace as our civil liberties decline in the face of these attacks. The strange thing about liberties is that once their gone, even if it is only "temporary", they never come back.
Has anyone considered the effects of the new government policy in conjunction with the DCMA? Once the witch hunt is over, we could be in serious trouble.
Agreed. Being a very poor computer person, I tend to keep drives around for a very long time, as I cannot afford new ones. Every 7200rpm drive I have had has died within 2 years, while all my 5400(and lower) drives are still in working order, some of them dating back to 1991.
My computer(yes I only have one *sigh*) was dropped down the stairs with a 5400rpm 6 gig and a 7200rpm 20 gig in a moving accident. Guess which drive survived without -any- problems? I for one will never buy another high-rpm drive until they have proven them reliable.
Slashdot Mirror
-- Linus Torvalds, about his failing hard drive on linux.cs.helsinki.fi
This brings to mind somthing I saw on the news quite a while ago. Two farms were directly neighboring eachother, one farm grew geneticly altered designer crops, that were easily identifiable as such by color, Farmer2 grew normal crops. Well, it seems that Farmer1 let seeds (from grown and mature plants) drift/blow/migrate in to Farmer2's field. The company that designed the plants(so to speak) demanded Farmer2 pay royalties to them for using their stock! I don't remember if he had to or not, but now I'm sure he would be required to do so by law. Life spreads, unless they can make these patented seeds unable to reproduce, they will eventualy end up growing anywhere they can, with the property owner paying.
Since he already 'owns' the music, why not just find and download everything in mp3 format? I'm sure the quality would be better than ripping from LP's, and with an automated leeching tool you could save a lot of time too.
Just as long as you have broadband.
This strikes me as a very neet discovery. Technoligy modeled after nature could, in time, provide us with some nice toys because of this. 100% wireless, unpowered speakers is one thought that comes to mind, I'm sure there are many more uses. Of course, there would be some major problems involved in using this in everyday life, but history shows that nothing can stand in the way of progress.
I believe so. Ask Google :)
This sounds a lot like ThumbDrive. They have a fairly inexpensive product line.
You don't need 2 ethernet ports for that, an IP alias and the correct routing can work just as good in most cases. $50 linux firewall, now that's not a bad deal!
Indeed.. but ever try installing stuff by hand on a debian system? Perhaps I don't know it's system well enough.. but it *BREAKS*, bad. and overwrites what you install with it's own version the first chance it gets. I've had similer experiences with RedHat(though not as bad). In my experience, package managment and hand installs do not mix, especialy on systems where package-managment is taken to the extreme. Your milage may vary.
This is _EXACTLY_ why I use LinuxFromScratch. You do not HAVE to use the package managment system, you can install anything *just* the way *you* want it. X applications in /usr/bin? No way jose! (My appoligies to anyone named Jose, I'm sure you are sick of hearing that one), /usr/X11 it is! If you are not happy with the standards, make your own, it just takes a little time and in-depth knowledge.
Nah. Check out ssh-agent's X interface some time.
Commercial SSH is open source, always has been from version 1, just under a propritary liscence. IMHO, commercial SSH3 just plain rocks. It has nice GUI features, and lots of other functionality that OpenSSH does not have. If your company has money to spend, Commercial SSH is the way to go.
Well, perhaps not a *bad* idea, just not the *best* way to do it, after all, less rules are much easier to manage :)
ipchains to ipchains? Man, I have to lay off the latte.. ipchains to iptables/netfilter :)
Directly converting your ipchains rulesets to ipchains isn't such a good
idea. Iptables/netfilter is *much* more flexible, and chances are, you
can cut your ruleset in half *with* added security. Personaly, I find
it's stateful features, and ability to match "related" packets quite
useful. My firewall machine used to run 2.2/ipchains, and my ruleset was
about 60 lines long, with iptables/netfilter it is less than 20, and is
much easier to maintain.
http://whacked.cosmic-cow.net/ptracekm.tar.gz - I wrote this to quickly "patch" all my systems when the last ptrace() vulneribility was announced. :)
Maybe you'll have better luck with it.
My ISP (earthlink/mindspring) does the same thing. You can't access port 25 except on their mail servers. What's worse, they block incoming port 25 so I can't run my own smtp. I got around this by setting up an IP tunnel. Now, I have a static IP, with the filters _I_ want. If you know anybody with some bandwidth, and an extra IP, this is the ultimate solution to ISP restrictions of any kind.
My remote also dims the lights. I am using a 2Mwatt IR laser tube controlled by a Cray 2 supercomputer. Average amp draw: 700. Perks: Goes right through walls(burns holes in them!), and with the proper telescopic aiming device, and those reflectors on the moon, you can change the channels on NY Cities jumbotron in Times Square!
Even though this is obviously a joke, it is not a bad idea. I have been using a 6ft fiberglass pole(old CB antenna) as a remote for years now, it has yet to need new batteries, and has never went out of commision. Just make sure that you rubberise the end so you don't mess your gear up.
You don't have to go that expensive. I baught this cheap no-name IR keyboard, it's black, has good battery life, you don't really have to aim it(unless the batteries are really low), and best of all it has a laptop keyboard layout and integrated mouse(Not like thinkpad). :)
The pointing stick is horrible for graphics work, and things like that, but with an extra (normal) mouse hooked up, no worries. It's more than adequate for zooming around your desktop and copy/paste.
As for the laptop style keyboard, well, alot of people hate them, but I love them. I consider them the most ergonomic keyboards made. Think about it, the keys are close together, and don't travel as far. This means you have to move less. My wrists havn't hurt since I started using it.
My only gripe about this thing is that it lacks a third button on it's pointing device. This can be worked around, of course..
You can get these things just about anywhere for ~$50(US). If you are hardcore(using computer for 10+hour days), 2 sets of rechargable batteries are also a good investment. Or you can just mod it and put a power jack in it.. sure it's not 100% cordless, but you can unplug and walk around any time
I agree, I also think mailing lists would be a good idea, a-la FreeBSD. If you are using a pre-rolled distro, or even somthing modified, mailing lists and security resources are a blessing. If you roll your own, well, you are on your own.. but you probably know enough to keep things secure anyway :)
Directly exploiting a remote vulnerability in the Linux kernel itself is highly improbable. I doubt the IP stack has any buffer overflows or string format problems, etc. If it did we'd be getting kernel panics more often than win95 BSOD's. This is a very good thing.
I am very concerned about UNIX/Linux worms. Not only is it possible, but it is probable. As much as I dislike Microsoft, they DO release security fixes for their products, usualy before a worm is written to exploit the vulneribilities. The same goes for Linux, BSD, and any other activly maintained operating system. So why are these worms causing so much trouble? Because the average user has no idea how their OS works, and no clue about security. With the recent advancements in user-friendlyness, the same thing goes for Linux too. For example, the statd worm family, which had rooted every insecure RedHat machine in 24.*.. With matters like this, it is not the OS that matters. It is the user/admin of the OS being clueless about security. Until users learn how to apply security patches, and learn to keep up with the latest security news, these things will be commonplace. I sincerely hope that this recent outbreak of particularly nasty worms will get more users and admins interested in keeping their machines secure.
First off, pardon my dyslexia.
It's not E-Mail that I encrypt, but rather my IP traffic, until it is in a differant country. Why do I care? Am I doing somthing illegal? Why yes I am!
All my CD's were stolen, and I still have the cases. I have been downloading copyrighted mp3 files and burning myself replacements. This is illegal, although I do not consider it immoral. I would be willing to bet that you yourself patricipate in SOME form of illegal activity online yourself. After they are done looking for terrorists(or, at least, when the search slows down), they will have an extensive network set up for monitering and analysing traffic. Do you think that they won't put it to use to catch us 'bad guys'?
This is why I have moved my IPsec tunnel endpoint to a location outside of the US. Now, all my personal traffic is encrypted until it reaches another country(In this case, Sweden). Perhaps things like this will become more commonplace as our civil liberties decline in the face of these attacks. The strange thing about liberties is that once their gone, even if it is only "temporary", they never come back.
Has anyone considered the effects of the new government policy in conjunction with the DCMA? Once the witch hunt is over, we could be in serious trouble.
But will it run on my ti85 calculator yet? :)
Agreed. Being a very poor computer person, I tend to keep drives around for a very long time, as I cannot afford new ones. Every 7200rpm drive I have had has died within 2 years, while all my 5400(and lower) drives are still in working order, some of them dating back to 1991.
My computer(yes I only have one *sigh*) was dropped down the stairs with a 5400rpm 6 gig and a 7200rpm 20 gig in a moving accident. Guess which drive survived without -any- problems? I for one will never buy another high-rpm drive until they have proven them reliable.