For those looking for instructions on building a linux floppy take a look at some documentation I made up while working on my own.
I had not found any good linux floppy firewall distributions running 2.4 the kernel so I figured out how to do it myself. This document doesn't include the instructions on how to include iptables but I will be adding that soon (it isn't too difficult).
For more information on the ability to accomplish complicated tasks with simple rules take a look at this book The Computational Beauty of Nature.
Very informative book, lots of good explanations, diagrams, and the code for his software is available on the website. As a plus he seems to have written the book using free software which he acknowledges at the end of the book). His programs run under linux. He has some very well done graphics (even some dual-image stereograms) which were created with gunplot. I highly recommend this book.
For my family I have three computers configured the same way. They each boot to XDM. From there each family member has a username and password to take them to a blackbox desktop. The program menu consists of the following
Write a Document (which starts AbiWord)
Browse the Web (Galeon)
Listen to Music (XMMS)
Instant Message (Gabber)
Exit (logout)
Also some machines have different hardware so they may also have the following depending on their config
Watch TV (Xawtv)
Watch DVD (Videolan Client)
Also I have a link in the blackbox menu file to each home directory to a personal blackbox menu file (e.g. ~/.bbmenu) which I put programs specific to certain family members (e.g. Play Quake) for my brother.
Also I have the Advanced submenu which includes Xterm and options to change styles and workspace settings.
My family seems to have little problem picking this configuration up.
I hope the first thing a developer gets working on this is the 802.11 CF card. The PDA has a CF slot and runs kernel 2.4 so hopefully with a little tweaking and a some help from this project we'll have a wireless internet PDA running linux soon. It's all I want to for Christmas.
Aside from the debate on leaders I don't see why there is this great need to sell the Open Source Image to users. The only situation I can think of which closely relates to this push towards enlightening the masses is the vaporware of companies such as Microsoft. It is as if the open source movement is trying to sell the best, most user friendly OS without it existing yet. Except, of course, in our case we don't have the excuse for our behavior as needing to make a profit.
I am completely content letting the Open Source movement continue as a force creating good software. I prefer when projects take their time, not making outrageous claims about the stability and usability of their software, only to have it blow up in a new users face. I prefer the atmosphere surrounding the development and releasing of AbiWord as opposed to something like Evolution (which may one day be a great program)
Regardless of what some companies may try and do with their hardware, software, licenses, and whatever to control the market, open source computer programmers will still have their computers and still enjoy programming for the sake of making stable and sometimes even user friendly software. As for me this is enough and maybe someday it will even be enough for my mom or anyone else who is still stuck using Windows.
Don't try to force Open Source software onto the rest of the world unless it is ready. Install linux on a server at work, maybe even make a linux web console for you family; but don't expect to convert the world right now, with or without great leaders.
I also figure on getting a Pentium III 800 and underclocking to 700Mhz to have it run a little cooler. My aim is to make a family computer that I can close the case to and not have to worry about. ( Also its so small that hopefully I won't be tempted to keep switching hardware in and out every week.) As far as I can tell all the hardware on this maniboard is supported to some extent by Linux, QNX, and BeOS so I should have an easy time making a thin client for my family.
Why is it assumed that the computer industry will ever belong to any one company or technology. Geeks will still have the computers they have now, they will still be able to write free code on them, and they will still be able to create free networks around the world. Even if all new computer hardware has mechanisms in place to limit your use or applications which must contact their creator to see if you are licensed does not mean that we can not continue without them.
Just like RMS wrote free software to combat the those who began selling their programs we can always continure without being stuck. You may need to use closed, licensed software at work for a while and you mom might not be convinced into trying linux because the marketing of giants such as Microsoft keeps her away. That shouldn't matter in the long run. As long as we write good programs people will eventually see the beauty of free/open software.
There is nothing in the corporate, closed source world that we can not duplicate and surpass in due time. I see no rush in fearing and trying to overthrow these corporations when in the long run I see us winning out because the strength of our message will overshadow any corporation's limiting of freedom.
Hopefully people will see both sides of this issue; more than one party may be to blame.
It is disturbing that this kid may become viewed as a martyr among certain computer geeks. Here on slashdot it is not uncommon for readers to be all too quick in chastising "the system" for their actions in matters which affect geeks. If he did in fact hack maliciously then I have little sympathy for him receiving a fair punishment.
At the same time the boy may have been treated improperly by the school board. I have been involved in situations involving school administrators acting rash and grossly misunderstanding the situation. If they behaved too harshly then the school should take some blame for this incident.
Perhaps the boy had psychological problems or the school board had it in for him, maybe both. I'm sure there are many side to this issue (like any other) and I just hope people will remember to take everything into account before passing judgement on any one party.
Take a look at the book Computational Beauty of Nature (website here www-mitpress.mit.edu/books/FLAOH/cbnhtml/ ) by Gary Williams. It contains a few nice examples of complex behavior in autonomous creatures arising from simple rules.
For example termites can organize sawdust in seemingly complicated ways with a rule stating once you run into a piece of sawdust if you are carrying a piece drop it and if not then pick up the new piece and walk some more. There are ways to make a large number of small robots handle complicated functions without an explicit need to coordinate their actions.
Try to research and follow standards as closely as practically possible. Also don't try to tackle all parts of the project at once. Write a server backend like mysqld or openldap which have PHP api's and push others to work on different clients. This way a developer could write a windows, mac, linux, java, etc client and you can focus on getting the server backend as secure, feature rich and stable as possible.
Integrate some known mechanisms for security and storage perhaps using openssl for security aspects and mysql for storing the actual data.
and each of these directories typically has its own distinct structure of subdirectories. Note the obsessive use of abbreviations and avoidance of capital letters; this is a system invented by people to whom repetitive stress disorder is what black lung is to miners. Long names get worn down to three-letter nubbins, like stones smoothed by a river."
I was saying you could make one of the little box computers a server if you just give it a HD. From there the clients could be set up the way you suggested, although I'd use an embedded Linux in all the machines and just have the clients mount the server for apps. And the USB would give you the possibility to expand the desktops to do just about anything. Need a graphics workstation just put on a USB color printer and USB scanner.
Why doesn't someone manufacture a cigarette box sized computer with just a processor, memory, and a USB port. From that you could plug in a monitor, keyboard and whatever else you needed for the task. Your server would then just be a little box with a external HD plugged and a network interface plugged into it. A client machine would just be a little box with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a nic interface.
Maybe, even, dare I say it you could string a bunch of them together and make some sort of cluster.
Re:The true spirit of mass human communication?
on
Geek Flavor
·
· Score: 1
I agree, privacy and anonymity are useful goals but there are too many people out there looking for a cheap thrill. All I can say is that it is always easier to detroy something than it is to create.
Does this mean we can start making our own DVD movies without encryption? Are there any DVD movies now that don't use encryption to "protect" the disc? Also how much of the resources of a computer goes into decrypting data from DVDs; wouldn't unencrypted DVD's require less memory and cpu usage?
You may want to check out tagfiles with Slackware. With them you can create lists of the packages you want installed. The only problem is that Slackware does not include a network install. You may need to create your own network installation based on slackwares installation disks.
I hate proprietary extension to things which don't need them. The web is a medium to transfer information, a function which it perform pretty well right now. Sure we should continue upgrading our standards and increase the amount of information which can be transfered but not at the cost of incompatability.
I don't care which company tries to create these extensions but when Microsoft does it, given there large market share, it is almost sure to catch on. And if a Microsoft extension (closed protocols, et al.) catch on then you know other vendors will be playing catch up for a long time. The internet does not need to progress so quickly that it breaks compatability. Do we really need to have pages which feature only Flash plugins, which I can't see in Lynx for example. That is not what the internet is about.
Companies and organizations should decide upon standards (at least a general outline) before they implement them in their internet client. This way they won't force users to believe that things must be done a certain way. For example if Microsoft came out with MHTML (Microsoft HTML) which is exactly like HTML except every tag begins with '$', they could use there large market share to convince a large number of users that what renders in IE is correct and all other pages are broken. This would leave all other vendors playing catch-up and make the internet full of pages which rendor correctly in some browsers and not in others.
Keep the focus of the internet on open standards which allow information to flow easily and of course SLOW DOWN in the pushing of new extensions; were not running a race towards multimedia nirvana, I for one just want to be able to read my slashdot.
The internet is about sharing information. Because of it's digital structure information can be transmitted and reproduced at amazing speeds and without any loss of the original information. This is a great thing for many reasons yet...
For a long time there have been businesses which made money delivering information to the public, the movie industry, book and periodical publishing houses, and even software companies. These businesses rely on the fact that with their resources they can deliver something to you which you could not get without them. For instance the movie industry could deliver a full length movie onto a big screen at your local theater. Before VCR's this was the only way to see a movie and the movie industry was happy. But consumers have always wanted more options and more control, so soon came the VCR. Now this obviously made the movie industry frightened, people could watch movies any time they wanted. The commoners gained some control; the movie industry lost some control and and with it there profits fell. Yet the movie industry found ways to cope, they release movies into the theaters first before making them availiable on VHS, they try to enhance the theater experience with digital sound and soon digital video. But sure enough consumers are on their tail again with DVD's and surround sound systems at home.
The movie industry has created a business model in which they control the access to information, yet now the internet offers a way around the industry. This is happening to a number of companies and they are frightened. They are losing their liveyhood.
I've seen Jabber mentioned a few times already but I think it deserves to be be recognized. A GPLed instant messaging client/server is a good thing. I think they have a good design using XML and an email like postoffice system. I plan on starting up my own public jabber server as soon as I get a dedicated Internet connection.
People need to start using Jabber. The have a few clients up already and are working on more, it seems this projects only problem is a shortage of users and testers.
Fast booting: This is the point I best noted. Just think being able to replace all major A/V equipment in your house with linux boxes. Once they boot as fast as normal equiptment and we can already have them mount a ro filesystem for quick shutdown, my god it will be beautiful. I can't wait to be able to telnet to any A/V in my house. Use TCP/IP to create a electorinic system which can talk to each other. I.E. when my computer starts playing a CD or mp3 automatically mute my TV and turn on CC.
Slashdot Mirror
For those looking for instructions on building a linux floppy take a look at some documentation I made up while working on my own.
I had not found any good linux floppy firewall distributions running 2.4 the kernel so I figured out how to do it myself. This document doesn't include the instructions on how to include iptables but I will be adding that soon (it isn't too difficult).
For more information on the ability to accomplish complicated tasks with simple rules take a look at this book The Computational Beauty of Nature.
Very informative book, lots of good explanations, diagrams, and the code for his software is available on the website. As a plus he seems to have written the book using free software which he acknowledges at the end of the book). His programs run under linux. He has some very well done graphics (even some dual-image stereograms) which were created with gunplot. I highly recommend this book.
I'm posting this from the best computer I have right now, my home build mini-computer.
I used an Intel D810EMO mainboard. (legacy free).
In a Elan Vital MF-1
And a Maxtor 531dx hard drive.
with a USB Microsoft Natural keyboard and a USB Optical Logitech it is one nice machine. And it even looks good sitting on my desktop.
The Linux support for this hardware is excellent, also BeOS runs beautifully.
For my family I have three computers configured the same way. They each boot to XDM. From there each family member has a username and password to take them to a blackbox desktop. The program menu consists of the following
Write a Document (which starts AbiWord)
Browse the Web (Galeon)
Listen to Music (XMMS)
Instant Message (Gabber)
Exit (logout)
Also some machines have different hardware so they may also have the following depending on their config
Watch TV (Xawtv)
Watch DVD (Videolan Client)
Also I have a link in the blackbox menu file to each home directory to a personal blackbox menu file (e.g. ~/.bbmenu) which I put programs specific to certain family members (e.g. Play Quake) for my brother.
Also I have the Advanced submenu which includes Xterm and options to change styles and workspace settings.
My family seems to have little problem picking this configuration up.
Not sure if this is exactly what your looking for, but supposedly BlueFish is pretty nice html editor.
I hope the first thing a developer gets working on this is the 802.11 CF card. The PDA has a CF slot and runs kernel 2.4 so hopefully with a little tweaking and a some help from this project we'll have a wireless internet PDA running linux soon. It's all I want to for Christmas.
Aside from the debate on leaders I don't see why there is this great need to sell the Open Source Image to users. The only situation I can think of which closely relates to this push towards enlightening the masses is the vaporware of companies such as Microsoft. It is as if the open source movement is trying to sell the best, most user friendly OS without it existing yet. Except, of course, in our case we don't have the excuse for our behavior as needing to make a profit.
I am completely content letting the Open Source movement continue as a force creating good software. I prefer when projects take their time, not making outrageous claims about the stability and usability of their software, only to have it blow up in a new users face. I prefer the atmosphere surrounding the development and releasing of AbiWord as opposed to something like Evolution (which may one day be a great program)
Regardless of what some companies may try and do with their hardware, software, licenses, and whatever to control the market, open source computer programmers will still have their computers and still enjoy programming for the sake of making stable and sometimes even user friendly software. As for me this is enough and maybe someday it will even be enough for my mom or anyone else who is still stuck using Windows.
Don't try to force Open Source software onto the rest of the world unless it is ready. Install linux on a server at work, maybe even make a linux web console for you family; but don't expect to convert the world right now, with or without great leaders.
Edit
Notepad
Wordpad
Word
and some olders ones
Write
Works Wordprocessor
It's amazing how many people will tell me spell-checker wasn't installed on their Word only to find they are running Wordpad
- an Intel D810EMO mainboard.
- a Maxtor 531dx hard drive. (slim and durable)
- I am considering at this Elan Vital MF-1 case.
I also figure on getting a Pentium III 800 and underclocking to 700Mhz to have it run a little cooler. My aim is to make a family computer that I can close the case to and not have to worry about. ( Also its so small that hopefully I won't be tempted to keep switching hardware in and out every week.) As far as I can tell all the hardware on this maniboard is supported to some extent by Linux, QNX, and BeOS so I should have an easy time making a thin client for my family.For those that are interested here are a few other links to small case manufacturers.
Case Manufacturer listing
Morex/ProCase
In Win
Yeong Yang
Why is it assumed that the computer industry will ever belong to any one company or technology. Geeks will still have the computers they have now, they will still be able to write free code on them, and they will still be able to create free networks around the world. Even if all new computer hardware has mechanisms in place to limit your use or applications which must contact their creator to see if you are licensed does not mean that we can not continue without them.
Just like RMS wrote free software to combat the those who began selling their programs we can always continure without being stuck. You may need to use closed, licensed software at work for a while and you mom might not be convinced into trying linux because the marketing of giants such as Microsoft keeps her away. That shouldn't matter in the long run. As long as we write good programs people will eventually see the beauty of free/open software.
There is nothing in the corporate, closed source world that we can not duplicate and surpass in due time. I see no rush in fearing and trying to overthrow these corporations when in the long run I see us winning out because the strength of our message will overshadow any corporation's limiting of freedom.
Hopefully people will see both sides of this issue; more than one party may be to blame.
It is disturbing that this kid may become viewed as a martyr among certain computer geeks. Here on slashdot it is not uncommon for readers to be all too quick in chastising "the system" for their actions in matters which affect geeks. If he did in fact hack maliciously then I have little sympathy for him receiving a fair punishment.
At the same time the boy may have been treated improperly by the school board. I have been involved in situations involving school administrators acting rash and grossly misunderstanding the situation. If they behaved too harshly then the school should take some blame for this incident.
Perhaps the boy had psychological problems or the school board had it in for him, maybe both. I'm sure there are many side to this issue (like any other) and I just hope people will remember to take everything into account before passing judgement on any one party.
Take a look at the book Computational Beauty of Nature (website here www-mitpress.mit.edu/books/FLAOH/cbnhtml/ ) by Gary Williams. It contains a few nice examples of complex behavior in autonomous creatures arising from simple rules.
For example termites can organize sawdust in seemingly complicated ways with a rule stating once you run into a piece of sawdust if you are carrying a piece drop it and if not then pick up the new piece and walk some more. There are ways to make a large number of small robots handle complicated functions without an explicit need to coordinate their actions.
Try to research and follow standards as closely as practically possible. Also don't try to tackle all parts of the project at once. Write a server backend like mysqld or openldap which have PHP api's and push others to work on different clients. This way a developer could write a windows, mac, linux, java, etc client and you can focus on getting the server backend as secure, feature rich and stable as possible.
Integrate some known mechanisms for security and storage perhaps using openssl for security aspects and mysql for storing the actual data.
Reminds me of something in "In the Beginning was the Comand Line" By Neal Stephenson about the use of short directory names in unix i.e,"
/usr
/etc
/var
/bin
/home
/root
/sbin
/dev
/lib
/tmp
and each of these directories typically has its own distinct structure of subdirectories. Note the obsessive use of abbreviations and avoidance of capital letters; this is a system invented by people to whom repetitive stress disorder is what black lung is to miners. Long names get worn down to three-letter nubbins, like stones smoothed by a river."
Shorter names = more efficient.
Actually I think the DVD copies of MST3K do it this way. They have the crew's comments as a separate track.
I was saying you could make one of the little box computers a server if you just give it a HD. From there the clients could be set up the way you suggested, although I'd use an embedded Linux in all the machines and just have the clients mount the server for apps. And the USB would give you the possibility to expand the desktops to do just about anything. Need a graphics workstation just put on a USB color printer and USB scanner.
Why doesn't someone manufacture a cigarette box sized computer with just a processor, memory, and a USB port. From that you could plug in a monitor, keyboard and whatever else you needed for the task. Your server would then just be a little box with a external HD plugged and a network interface plugged into it. A client machine would just be a little box with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a nic interface.
Maybe, even, dare I say it you could string a bunch of them together and make some sort of cluster.
I agree, privacy and anonymity are useful goals but there are too many people out there looking for a cheap thrill. All I can say is that it is always easier to detroy something than it is to create.
Does this mean we can start making our own DVD movies without encryption? Are there any DVD movies now that don't use encryption to "protect" the disc? Also how much of the resources of a computer goes into decrypting data from DVDs; wouldn't unencrypted DVD's require less memory and cpu usage?
You may want to check out tagfiles with Slackware. With them you can create lists of the packages you want installed. The only problem is that Slackware does not include a network install. You may need to create your own network installation based on slackwares installation disks.
I hate proprietary extension to things which don't need them. The web is a medium to transfer information, a function which it perform pretty well right now. Sure we should continue upgrading our standards and increase the amount of information which can be transfered but not at the cost of incompatability.
I don't care which company tries to create these extensions but when Microsoft does it, given there large market share, it is almost sure to catch on. And if a Microsoft extension (closed protocols, et al.) catch on then you know other vendors will be playing catch up for a long time. The internet does not need to progress so quickly that it breaks compatability. Do we really need to have pages which feature only Flash plugins, which I can't see in Lynx for example. That is not what the internet is about.
Companies and organizations should decide upon standards (at least a general outline) before they
implement them in their internet client. This way they won't force users to believe that things must be done a certain way. For example if Microsoft came out with MHTML (Microsoft HTML) which is exactly like HTML except every tag begins with '$', they could use there large market share to convince a large number of users that what renders in IE is correct and all other pages are broken. This would leave all other vendors playing catch-up and make the internet full of pages which rendor correctly in some browsers and not in others.
Keep the focus of the internet on open standards which allow information to flow easily and of course SLOW DOWN in the pushing of new extensions; were not running a race towards multimedia nirvana, I for one just want to be able to read my slashdot.
The internet is about sharing information. Because of it's digital structure information can be transmitted and reproduced at amazing speeds and without any loss of the original information. This is a great thing for many reasons yet...
For a long time there have been businesses which made money delivering information to the public, the movie industry, book and periodical publishing houses, and even software companies. These businesses rely on the fact that with their resources they can deliver something to you which you could not get without them. For instance the movie industry could deliver a full length movie onto a big screen at your local theater. Before VCR's this was the only way to see a movie and the movie industry was happy. But consumers have always wanted more options and more control, so soon came the VCR. Now this obviously made the movie industry frightened, people could watch movies any time they wanted. The commoners gained some control; the movie industry lost some control and and with it there profits fell. Yet the movie industry found ways to cope, they release movies into the theaters first before making them availiable on VHS, they try to enhance the theater experience with digital sound and soon digital video. But sure enough consumers are on their tail again with DVD's and surround sound systems at home.
The movie industry has created a business model in which they control the access to information, yet now the internet offers a way around the industry. This is happening to a number of companies and they are frightened. They are losing their liveyhood.
I've seen Jabber mentioned a few times already but I think it deserves to be be recognized. A GPLed instant messaging client/server is a good thing. I think they have a good design using XML and an email like postoffice system. I plan on starting up my own public jabber server as soon as I get a dedicated Internet connection.
People need to start using Jabber. The have a few clients up already and are working on more, it seems this projects only problem is a shortage of users and testers.
I don't even want to think about it, can you imagine the price for licences.
Fast booting: This is the point I best noted. Just think being able to replace all major A/V equipment in your house with linux boxes. Once they boot as fast as normal equiptment and we can already have them mount a ro filesystem for quick shutdown, my god it will be beautiful. I can't wait to be able to telnet to any A/V in my house. Use TCP/IP to create a electorinic system which can talk to each other. I.E. when my computer starts playing a CD or mp3 automatically mute my TV and turn on CC.
I can hardly wait.