Well, You'll see one coming shortly from Net Integration Technologies - we're currently in Beta for a product that allows Outlook, Webmail and Evolution to all talk to each other, exchange Calendaring information (including delegating user rights, etc.), assign Todo's, integrate contact lists, and pretty much all of the other commonly used features of Exchange.
(We're the same people who brought you WvDial, and a bunch of other stuff - check out open.nit.ca for more of the projects that we have done.
HTTP 1.1 allows for this - it's called a persistant connection.... and is exactly what Mozilla, Opera, IE, and every other browser is SUPPOSED to do...
The speed probably comes as a side effect of broadband and a well connected server... as a colleague of mine pointed out, Mozilla is just slow because they wait 1 second before they display the page, in case the layout changes...
Maybe the slashdot editors need to do a little bit of reading about a subject before they post them.
I agree, but CRL has been around longer, and the various standards groups are still trying to work out how OCSP works - AFAIK there are only a couple of working implementations, and none of them are available "In the wild"....
But you're right - OCSP is great for instantaneous checking, and that's where we're heading, but they're (Microsoft, Netscape, Verisign et al.)not even crawling, let alone running along the revocation checking path right now...
Ok...I hope this finally get's Microsoft and Verisign out of their complacent moods, and prompts them both to implement Certificate Revocation Lists capability that WORKS in all of thier offerings -
It is because they haven't bothered to do this yet that this is possible - think about it - if CRLs were implemented, and every application that used Certs checked the Revocation list of the issuing CA, this problem would have a trivial solution - Revoke the Cert, and this "fraudulent" issued cert becomes useless.
But since Microsoft, Netscape/AOL, and most other vendors of Certificate aware software haven't bothered until VERY recently to even think of the CRL, then this is now a rather large problem...
ame)
Anyways... I hope this causes them to go and actually implement RFC compliant CRL capabilities in all of their products - would make those of us who work with them VERY happy....
I think that the author of this paper get's it about 1/2 right - especially when he says that the current "standard" way of implementing the Registration Agent process is flawed - it is - most companies that offer Certificates do so with a great deal of show about the fact that you can now sign your e-mail, but with very little education and thought in the overall security chain process. What is worse, is that most Major PKI vendors don't have real Certificate Policies - instead, they publish Certification Practice Statements that wrap all of the various certificate type up in one bundle, without explaining in clear, consise language what the reasonable trust expectation would be out of any given certificate - thus leaving the certificate purchaser a very fake sense of security.
So, that said - I would have to disagree with the Article Author, when he says that we need to abandon X.509 based PKI's - I would say the exact opposite - we need to adopt them, but with a carefull eye to standards compliance, and with large amounts of user education. There needs to be some common criteria established that allows consumers to rate the various PKI's currently offered, and decide which ones actually can provide the trust levels that are required in their particular circumstances.
For the residants of New Brunswick (One of the Eastern Provinces of Canada for the Geographically Challenged), this has been a reality now for about 3 years - there, the government started in about 92 and decided to lay fiber to every door - now, not much has been done with it, in terms of broadband access, but NBTel (the provincial Telco) has had some of the best connectivity this side of ATT itself for a very long time now. The idea behind this massive outlay of fiber was to set up an environment where the only barrier to ultra-high speed access to the Internet would be only limited by the current Telco switch technology.
Well, enough rambling for now, but I thought that this might possibly have been relevant in some small way.
I think that the poster chose a particuallarily poor example when he chose to use Loreena McKennitt as an illustration. Loreena is her own production, copyright and distribution channel - she refused a long time ago to sign with any label, so, most of the price of the CD goes directly to her and her own company. The complaint that the artist isn't getting any of the real profits evaporates in the case of Ms. McKennitt. And I imagine that the reason that she allows her CD's to be charged at the same prices as the rest of the market, is just that - why leave money on the table when you don't have to?
"Inde" labels such as hers just play the game with the rest of the industry.
After having spent the better part of last weekend mezmerized by Heroes III, I started thinking about what I would like to see for Linux... and it popped into my head that Ultima (especially now that theirs a "reminiscing" pack out with the first 7 included...
And, of course, as a pilot, a flight simulator of somekind (and yes, I know about the Free Sim project, but while it looks good, it also looks like it won't be out for a while)
OpenH.323, I believe, can act as a netmeeting server, and serve up H.323 voice, and soon video-conference(they may already have it) capabilities to Linux and Netmeeting hosts.
This is rather off topic, but in some ways not, as video-conferencing is a bit different, and has a few other problems than straight streaming video (you don't have to handle someone interrupting you in the middle of a sentence in a straight 1-way streaming world).
The discussion on free codecs has come up on the OpenH323 mailing list, and there are apparently a few out there that can be used, but as other posters have said, most of the REALLY good ones have some form of patent protection on them.
Although both of these projects (an OSS Streaming Video Server/Client, and OpenH323 VideoConferencing) would benefit from the development of a really good Video Codec, until we can find a hardware manufacturer to put it in a DSP, we won't have an optimum solution (anyone who has done serious Videoconferencing work will tell you that for best results do you CODEC in hardware.
Hmmmm.... now that you mention it... this might be a good way for them to get a wake up call... if they get overloaded with calls asking if people are OK for their patent, then they might get a clue and stop this non-sense. Of course, the other ways of getting them to stop it are to feed a few news hounds a headline like "Unisys to enforce patent on the Net", and let their PR people try to spin that away;)
Although I do admit one thing - if several thousand people start calling Unisys, then some really clueless PHB type might just see that as several thousand X 5K, and decide to keep it too.
This whole thing is rediculous, and in my view (IANAL) unenforceable - if you figure that there are several million sites in the US alone that use GIF images (GEOCities, AOL, @HOME to name just a few), does even a VERY large company like Unisys have enough resources to make this meaningful?
The problem that you are talking about is not a Linux problem, it's a problem with the Intel/IDE BIOS "Standard", which specifies that IDE drives may contain no more than 4 "primary" partitions. AFAIK, SCSI is un-encumbered by this restriction, which is why none of the other UNIces suffer from this apparent "bug". (they all run on hardware where SCSI is the standard way of doing Disk Storage)
I'm not really qualified to comment on the boot manager issue, but it begs the question, why wouldn't you want to use a boot manager, it makes life so much easier than toggling active partitions in fdisk.
The importance of Programming computers to the average user is the same as car mechanics to the average driver... if everyone knew a bit about car mechanics, how to fix a rad leak, how to change an air filter, how to change their own oil, then we would end up with fewer breakdowns, and the cost of maintaining a vehicle would go down for the average user... same thing with programming.. if the schools tought everyone what goes on in behind the flashy gui, then a lot fewer people would be intimidated by computers, and people would be able to solve simple problems for themselves. And besides, in the end, what programming teaches people is not really how to write code (although that is one of the side effects).. if properly tought, it teaches people logical thinking and problem solving. (Two topics that are much in need in todays world, and which it appears that most people are lacking).
It doesn't take any more effort to teach someone the rudiments of Pascal, and general computer use, and then, teach them word and excel in a couple of weeks (because with their newfound problem solving skills, they will not have to memorize everything about the program, but will be able to think and say "If I don't know how to do that, I will check the online help".
Well, normally, I just stay back, but this could potentially have an impact on things that we hold near and dear - OpenSource (or whatever the PC moniker is for today).
Think about it: If the Labour department says that AOL must compensate volunteers for work that Aids their business, or performs some business function, what does that do for the non Netscape/AOL Mozilla developers? I don't think that projects like Linux would be affected in any significant way, because there is no company, but any project that has corporate sponsorship and support might be impacted by a negative verdict in this case.
It is sad to see that people are always out to ruin something that I think that we all treasure here... The online community, doing things for "The big picture", and helping to improve and extend the technology that makes the Internet work. I, for one, hope that the Labour department decides to keep out of this, and decide that Internet related volunteering is "out of scope".
Slashdot Mirror
Well, You'll see one coming shortly from Net Integration Technologies - we're currently in Beta for a product that allows Outlook, Webmail and Evolution to all talk to each other, exchange Calendaring information (including delegating user rights, etc.), assign Todo's, integrate contact lists, and pretty much all of the other commonly used features of Exchange.
(We're the same people who brought you WvDial, and a bunch of other stuff - check out open.nit.ca for more of the projects that we have done.
HTTP 1.1 allows for this - it's called a persistant connection.... and is exactly what Mozilla, Opera, IE, and every other browser is SUPPOSED to do...
The speed probably comes as a side effect of broadband and a well connected server... as a colleague of mine pointed out, Mozilla is just slow because they wait 1 second before they display the page, in case the layout changes...
Maybe the slashdot editors need to do a little bit of reading about a subject before they post them.
I agree, but CRL has been around longer, and the various standards groups are still trying to work out how OCSP works - AFAIK there are only a couple of working implementations, and none of them are available "In the wild"....
But you're right - OCSP is great for instantaneous checking, and that's where we're heading, but they're (Microsoft, Netscape, Verisign et al.)not even crawling, let alone running along the revocation checking path right now...
McAlister
Ok...I hope this finally get's Microsoft and Verisign out of their complacent moods, and prompts them both to implement Certificate Revocation Lists capability that WORKS in all of thier offerings -
It is because they haven't bothered to do this yet that this is possible - think about it - if CRLs were implemented, and every application that used Certs checked the Revocation list of the issuing CA, this problem would have a trivial solution - Revoke the Cert, and this "fraudulent" issued cert becomes useless.
But since Microsoft, Netscape/AOL, and most other vendors of Certificate aware software haven't bothered until VERY recently to even think of the CRL, then this is now a rather large problem...
ame)
Anyways... I hope this causes them to go and actually implement RFC compliant CRL capabilities in all of their products - would make those of us who work with them VERY happy....
McAlister
I think that the author of this paper get's it about 1/2 right - especially when he says that the current "standard" way of implementing the Registration Agent process is flawed - it is - most companies that offer Certificates do so with a great deal of show about the fact that you can now sign your e-mail, but with very little education and thought in the overall security chain process. What is worse, is that most Major PKI vendors don't have real Certificate Policies - instead, they publish Certification Practice Statements that wrap all of the various certificate type up in one bundle, without explaining in clear, consise language what the reasonable trust expectation would be out of any given certificate - thus leaving the certificate purchaser a very fake sense of security. So, that said - I would have to disagree with the Article Author, when he says that we need to abandon X.509 based PKI's - I would say the exact opposite - we need to adopt them, but with a carefull eye to standards compliance, and with large amounts of user education. There needs to be some common criteria established that allows consumers to rate the various PKI's currently offered, and decide which ones actually can provide the trust levels that are required in their particular circumstances.
For the residants of New Brunswick (One of the Eastern Provinces of Canada for the Geographically Challenged), this has been a reality now for about 3 years - there, the government started in about 92 and decided to lay fiber to every door - now, not much has been done with it, in terms of broadband access, but NBTel (the provincial Telco) has had some of the best connectivity this side of ATT itself for a very long time now. The idea behind this massive outlay of fiber was to set up an environment where the only barrier to ultra-high speed access to the Internet would be only limited by the current Telco switch technology.
Well, enough rambling for now, but I thought that this might possibly have been relevant in some small way.
I think that the poster chose a particuallarily poor example when he chose to use Loreena McKennitt as an illustration. Loreena is her own production, copyright and distribution channel - she refused a long time ago to sign with any label, so, most of the price of the CD goes directly to her and her own company. The complaint that the artist isn't getting any of the real profits evaporates in the case of Ms. McKennitt. And I imagine that the reason that she allows her CD's to be charged at the same prices as the rest of the market, is just that - why leave money on the table when you don't have to?
"Inde" labels such as hers just play the game with the rest of the industry.
After having spent the better part of last weekend mezmerized by Heroes III, I started thinking about what I would like to see for Linux... and it popped into my head that Ultima (especially now that theirs a "reminiscing" pack out with the first 7 included...
And, of course, as a pilot, a flight simulator of somekind (and yes, I know about the Free Sim project, but while it looks good, it also looks like it won't be out for a while)
OpenH.323, I believe, can act as a netmeeting server, and serve up H.323 voice, and soon video-conference(they may already have it) capabilities to Linux and Netmeeting hosts.
This is rather off topic, but in some ways not, as video-conferencing is a bit different, and has a few other problems than straight streaming video (you don't have to handle someone interrupting you in the middle of a sentence in a straight 1-way streaming world).
The discussion on free codecs has come up on the OpenH323 mailing list, and there are apparently a few out there that can be used, but as other posters have said, most of the REALLY good ones have some form of patent protection on them.
Although both of these projects (an OSS Streaming Video Server/Client, and OpenH323 VideoConferencing) would benefit from the development of a really good Video Codec, until we can find a hardware manufacturer to put it in a DSP, we won't have an optimum solution (anyone who has done serious Videoconferencing work will tell you that for best results do you CODEC in hardware.
McA
Hmmmm.... now that you mention it... this might be a good way for them to get a wake up call... if they get overloaded with calls asking if people are OK for their patent, then they might get a clue and stop this non-sense. Of course, the other ways of getting them to stop it are to feed a few news hounds a headline like "Unisys to enforce patent on the Net", and let their PR people try to spin that away ;)
Although I do admit one thing - if several thousand people start calling Unisys, then some really clueless PHB type might just see that as several thousand X 5K, and decide to keep it too.
This whole thing is rediculous, and in my view (IANAL) unenforceable - if you figure that there are several million sites in the US alone that use GIF images (GEOCities, AOL, @HOME to name just a few), does even a VERY large company like Unisys have enough resources to make this meaningful?
The problem that you are talking about is not a Linux problem, it's a problem with the Intel/IDE BIOS "Standard", which specifies that IDE drives may contain no more than 4 "primary" partitions. AFAIK, SCSI is un-encumbered by this restriction, which is why none of the other UNIces suffer from this apparent "bug". (they all run on hardware where SCSI is the standard way of doing Disk Storage)
I'm not really qualified to comment on the boot manager issue, but it begs the question, why wouldn't you want to use a boot manager, it makes life so much easier than toggling active partitions in fdisk.
McA
The importance of Programming computers to the average user is the same as car mechanics to the average driver... if everyone knew a bit about car mechanics, how to fix a rad leak, how to change an air filter, how to change their own oil, then we would end up with fewer breakdowns, and the cost of maintaining a vehicle would go down for the average user... same thing with programming.. if the schools tought everyone what goes on in behind the flashy gui, then a lot fewer people would be intimidated by computers, and people would be able to solve simple problems for themselves. And besides, in the end, what programming teaches people is not really how to write code (although that is one of the side effects).. if properly tought, it teaches people logical thinking and problem solving. (Two topics that are much in need in todays world, and which it appears that most people are lacking).
It doesn't take any more effort to teach someone the rudiments of Pascal, and general computer use, and then, teach them word and excel in a couple of weeks (because with their newfound problem solving skills, they will not have to memorize everything about the program, but will be able to think and say "If I don't know how to do that, I will check the online help".
just my 0.02
Pat.
Well, normally, I just stay back, but this could potentially have an impact on things that we hold near and dear - OpenSource (or whatever the PC moniker is for today).
Think about it: If the Labour department says that AOL must compensate volunteers for work that Aids their business, or performs some business function, what does that do for the non Netscape/AOL Mozilla developers? I don't think that projects like Linux would be affected in any significant way, because there is no company, but any project that has corporate sponsorship and support might be impacted by a negative verdict in this case.
It is sad to see that people are always out to ruin something that I think that we all treasure here... The online community, doing things for "The big picture", and helping to improve and extend the technology that makes the Internet work. I, for one, hope that the Labour department decides to keep out of this, and decide that Internet related volunteering is "out of scope".
Just my $0.02
McAlister