Hee hee. I haven't looked at the source, but I'm guessing that this exploit just ignores your/etc/services file. (I think it'd be pretty funny for an exploit to be so well behaved that it'd check your/etc/services file before starting up an ftp server, though.;-) BTW I believe/etc/inet.conf is the proper place to disable daemons.
A Detail Oriented, Security Concious, Responsible SysAdmin is 90% of the equation.
Some organizations (esp. non-profit orgs.) simply don't have the resources to hire a qualified sysadmin, and some non-techie person in the office ends up administering the systems. The right default system configuration is very important in these cases... (or is security something that should only be available to those who have the money to spend??;)
And anyway, as a (hopefully) competent sysadmin myself, if I was given a choice between a system that came relatively secure and latched down "out of the box", and a system where security was lax and where I couldn't be certain that anything was properly secured, which do think I would choose?
Second, who's to say the aliens use the EM spectrum the way we do? Maybe on their planet light was the best way of communicating due to magnetic interference.
No one's really sure that E.T uses radio waves, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? I believe there is a project out there to monitor visual wavelengths too (don't have a URL or anything, sorry.) Btw, light waves are considered part of the EM spectrum.
Oh, then there's the problem of language.
Of course it will be difficult, likely impossible to translate. Does that mean we should stop looking???
Our EM signals probably don't reach far outside our solar system because they're not powerful enough to overcome all the natural noise out there.
Most of our signals (radio, tv, etc) are so weak that they fade out long before natural radio sources have a chance to drown them out. I think its much safer to quietly listen for signals than it is to actively "PING" the whole universe, anyway...;)
Here's another thought - try looking at ULTRA-LOW FREQUENCIES.
Current SETI projects already cover quite a bit of radio spectrum real estate...
I think most well-educated people these days lean to the left politically.
...let me guess! You lean to the politically left, and think you are well-educated? (I'm going out on a wild limb here.:)
As for the rest of your post - assuming SETI was successful in locating another Civilization, who is saying we need to transmit anything back to them? If any civilizations exist which are advanced enough to pose us any risk, they probably wouldn't need an active transmission from us to figure out we're here anyway.
And your assumption that any and all alien races which might be actively transmitting would, by nature, not be "ethically advanced" is, well, quite a stretch. Am I the only one that thinks this???
(sorry bout the spelling...) This comment is just a bunch of vague, anti-Gnome FUD.
He make s a bunch of comments about KDE picking up steam and GNOME being slow, etc. etc. He obviously hasn't used Gnome, recntly at least. His same comments would have applied well to KDE a year ago!
If anything, KDE is languishing - dragged down by petty license issues, and GNOME is rapidly eclipsing it. With Eazel, Helix Code, etc relentlessly improving, GNOME is probably in better long-term shape than the KDE project.
And you never replied when I asked specifically what you would do to trim down the GNOME libraries!! Waving your hands around a proclaiming that "GNOME is too big" isn't very constructive, IMO.
Thanks for the clarification. It seems that the main difference between BeOS and Linux is that lpd is (obviously!) not a microkernel component but instead runs as a system process (daemon). Maybe it's just me, but the 2 methods seem pretty equivalent to me.
X is much more that just a "framebuffer". Remember that X has network transparency built-in, something that BeOS doesn't have. X also has had years and years for applications to be written for it.
I don't know enough about BeOS architecture to speakw ith authority, but something doesn't quite seem to jive with your "server-based model" comments. It seemed to me that BeOS used separate server processes to provide system services (like the GUI and printing, your 2 examples). Guess what? Under UNIX, X and printing both are server processes as well! Could you clarify the distinction you are making? At first glance, it doesn't sound very valid...
I'm curious which parts of the GNOME libraries you think are superfluous and should be removed. As a developer, I personally *like* having a bunch of standard libraries available to me. I don't have to worry that the user doesn't have so-and-so library installed; if the user has GNOME installed, they can run my program.
Also, I don't understand your point about the circular dependencies. It seems to me, that in order to be circular, Gtk+ would have to depend on GtkHTML (GNOME dep. on gtk+, GtkHTML dep. on GNOME, gtk+ dep. on GtkHTML.) Well, gtk+ *certainly* doesn't depend on GtkHTML, and GtkHTML should probably jusrt be considered another GNOME stock widget anyway.
A political satire channel? If they start beaming out 24-hour marathons of the "Capitol Steps", might I suggest using some of those US missile shield anit-satellite rockets to shoot those mothers down.
I think anyone who's heard them will agree with me on this one...;)
First, let me ask you a question: if you make your living by selling service on software, what's the motivation to make the software as easy to operate and maintain as possible? The answer? Well - not much. And so we have Linux. Very powerful. Very flexible. Very hard for average computer users to configure and maintain.
Motivation to make software easy to use? How about "Nobody will use my software if it's too hard to operate?"
I was hoping for some genuine insights into views of Open Source from a Mac vantage, but I don't think it's a terribly insightful (or even realistic) view of the situation...
Shouldn't this story have a BSD icon? Some people might like to filter out BSD stories, but it's kinda hard when none of the BSD articles use the "BSD" subject category...
Uh, on my "pre 3d card" system, I had a Xfree86.rpm, and a Mesa.rpm installed. When I got my 3d card, I simply erased the old Mesa.rpm and installed the glxMesa.rpm. Isn't this exactly what you are suggesting?
> (OpenGL drivers simply can't, they need to install > library files.)
Uhh... don't you have to install the OpenGL libs when you setup a new 3d card under windows, too? I don't see your point.
> Linux has no such symantics for managing drivers > and updating drivers, or drivers that don't > follow that modrobe norm.
Not sure what you're getting at. Examples, please!! modprobe and friends seem to be more than adequate for adding, removing drivers from the kernel.
> Is that nVidia's fault? I think not.
When I installed the linux drivers for my (*gag*) s3 virge card, all I had to do was install the glxMesa rpm, and add 'load "glx.so"' to my XF86Config file. No reboot required;) When I installed the drivers for my voodoo2, all i had to do was install the glide and Mesa rpms. No reboot required.;) Now why couldn't nVidia make it this easy?
Granted, these didn't come bundled in a happy little self-installing.exe. I kinda like that; I've been burned by those self-installing drivers on windows once too many times. I don't think installing RPMs is *that* much harder than running an.exe and clicking "Next" repeatedly. Plus, if someone wanted, writing a Loki "setup" type driver install wizard would be trivial; I'd just rather see those resources go towards fixing other drivers that *don't* install so easily...
You are absolutely right. Windows NT's new anti-aliased Blue Screens look so much more crisp and professional than the old, non-anti-aliased ones. Linux is obviously being left in dust here, people!
> All it seems to be is a file browser/desktop > shell along the lines of gmc on steriods.
Nautilus is actualy going to be pretty innovative (or at least will combine innovative features from other systems;) It has a "zoom" feature; zoom in and more details about each file appear, zoom out and the icons show less info. The icons for text files actually show a small snippet of the file's contents; rest the mouse pointer over a.wav file, and a sample of the file plays. It also has an MP3 directory view I am itching to try out... Just a few examples of what it'll do.
> Take the new nVidia kernel driver.
Take my new nVidia kernel driver. Please.;) Seriously. If nVidia makes it that hard to install their hardware, shame on them, and shame on you for buying their stuff. I don't think it's really fair to blame Linux as a platform for a vendor's packaging problems. Normally all it takes to load drivers is a "modprobe driverfile", right? Personally, if a vendor makes it hard for me to install their crap, I won't buy it.
As far as system configuration is concerned, Nautilus is going to have some sort of a GUI-driven interface for viewing (and editing?) a system's hardware configuration. It looks kinda like Windows' system device tree on steroids, but I haven't personally played with it, so I'll shut up know.
> They just don't get it.
PS: Some (many?) of them don't, but enough of them do. I think we'll learn not to underestimate these folks...:)
Based on what I've seen on the Nautilus mailing list, this is going to be a *very* fun piece of software to use. There are more great screenshots at this site. I just asked on the Gnome news site, and I'll ask here, too; does anyone have a ETA on an official Nautilus preview release? I'd love to try out Nautilus and give some feedback to the developers, but I tried building all the required packages from CVS and just don't have the time or perserverance to work out all the macro build problems. Heck, I'd settle some tarballs or RPMs that someone could throw together for us unwashed, CVS-impaired masses.;)
Yes, you do not have access to the same number of titles as windows users. Know what? 98% of those Windows titles are crap I'd never touch anyway. So I can't play Daikatana, so I'll never be able to run Tomb Raider 5; I think I'll be able to cope with that. Loki has IMO been extremely smart in selling only *quality* titles that "Linux people" will be interested in (Civ:CTP, Q3A, SimCity2000, Alpha Centauri, etc, etc.)
Yes, the hardware support is not as extensive as windows 98. People who complain about this really irritate me. If you want a 3D card and you run Linux, then take 30 freaking seconds and check if the card you're going to buy is going to work or not. Sheesh! I always research before a purchase to make sure a device is going to work well on my linux box and I have NEVER been DISAPPOINTED.
Linux is also by far the most stable gaming platform. One of the reasons I switch to linux was cause TeamFortress didn't crash the system like it was prone to do under Win95. With linux, I can minimize all my work programs and fire up Q3Arena for a quick 10 minute frag-break. I don't have to worry about my box crashing, and my work apps are always there waiting for me when I exit, safe, sound and still executing.
What RPMs specifically are you having problems with? Maybe I could give you some help.
In my personal experience, if an RPM is built correctly, and installed with a simple "rpm -Uhv file.rpm", it will work just fine. Whenever an RPM hasn't worked "out of the box", the problem has always been in an error made by the RPM creator.
RPM is a great system, but like with any system, if someone doesn't set it up right, it isn't going to work right.
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Hee hee. I haven't looked at the source, but I'm guessing that this exploit just ignores your /etc/services file. (I think it'd be pretty funny for an exploit to be so well behaved that it'd check your /etc/services file before starting up an ftp server, though. ;-) BTW I believe /etc/inet.conf is the proper place to disable daemons.
Some organizations (esp. non-profit orgs.) simply don't have the resources to hire a qualified sysadmin, and some non-techie person in the office ends up administering the systems. The right default system configuration is very important in these cases... (or is security something that should only be available to those who have the money to spend?? ;)
And anyway, as a (hopefully) competent sysadmin myself, if I was given a choice between a system that came relatively secure and latched down "out of the box", and a system where security was lax and where I couldn't be certain that anything was properly secured, which do think I would choose?
No, I was just trying to offer some helpful clarifications...
No one's really sure that E.T uses radio waves, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? I believe there is a project out there to monitor visual wavelengths too (don't have a URL or anything, sorry.) Btw, light waves are considered part of the EM spectrum.
Oh, then there's the problem of language.
Of course it will be difficult, likely impossible to translate. Does that mean we should stop looking???
Our EM signals probably don't reach far outside our solar system because they're not powerful enough to overcome all the natural noise out there.
Most of our signals (radio, tv, etc) are so weak that they fade out long before natural radio sources have a chance to drown them out. I think its much safer to quietly listen for signals than it is to actively "PING" the whole universe, anyway... ;)
Here's another thought - try looking at ULTRA-LOW FREQUENCIES.
Current SETI projects already cover quite a bit of radio spectrum real estate...
I think most well-educated people these days lean to the left politically.
...let me guess! You lean to the politically left, and think you are well-educated? (I'm going out on a wild limb here. :)
As for the rest of your post - assuming SETI was successful in locating another Civilization, who is saying we need to transmit anything back to them? If any civilizations exist which are advanced enough to pose us any risk, they probably wouldn't need an active transmission from us to figure out we're here anyway.
And your assumption that any and all alien races which might be actively transmitting would, by nature, not be "ethically advanced" is, well, quite a stretch. Am I the only one that thinks this???
(sorry bout the spelling...) This comment is just a bunch of vague, anti-Gnome FUD.
He make s a bunch of comments about KDE picking up
steam and GNOME being slow, etc. etc. He obviously
hasn't used Gnome, recntly at least. His same comments
would have applied well to KDE a year ago!
If anything, KDE is languishing - dragged down by petty
license issues, and GNOME is rapidly eclipsing it.
With Eazel, Helix Code, etc relentlessly improving, GNOME is probably in better long-term shape than the KDE project.
And you never replied when I asked specifically what you would do to trim down the GNOME libraries!! Waving your hands around a proclaiming that "GNOME is too big" isn't very constructive, IMO.
GtkHTML is a GNOME widget. It does not depend on GNOME, it will be (is?) part of it.
:)
If you feel you have to slam the GNOME developers because they dared to give a UI widget a MISLEADING NAME, that's your issue.
Thanks for the clarification. It seems that the main difference between BeOS and Linux is that lpd is (obviously!) not a microkernel component but instead runs as a system process (daemon). Maybe it's just me, but the 2 methods seem pretty equivalent to me.
X is much more that just a "framebuffer". Remember that X has network transparency built-in, something that BeOS doesn't have. X also has had years and years for applications to be written for it.
I don't know enough about BeOS architecture to speakw ith authority, but something doesn't quite seem to jive with your "server-based model" comments. It seemed to me that BeOS used separate server processes to provide system services (like the GUI and printing, your 2 examples). Guess what? Under UNIX, X and printing both are server processes as well! Could you clarify the distinction you are making? At first glance, it doesn't sound very valid...
I'm curious which parts of the GNOME libraries you think are superfluous and should be removed. As a developer, I personally *like* having a bunch of standard libraries available to me. I don't have to worry that the user doesn't have so-and-so library installed; if the user has GNOME installed, they can run my program.
Also, I don't understand your point about the circular dependencies. It seems to me, that in order to be circular, Gtk+ would have to depend on GtkHTML (GNOME dep. on gtk+, GtkHTML dep. on GNOME, gtk+ dep. on GtkHTML.) Well, gtk+ *certainly* doesn't depend on GtkHTML, and GtkHTML should probably jusrt be considered another GNOME stock widget anyway.
A political satire channel? If they start beaming out 24-hour marathons of the "Capitol Steps", might I suggest using some of those US missile shield anit-satellite rockets to shoot those mothers down.
I think anyone who's heard them will agree with me on this one... ;)
First, let me ask you a question: if you make your living by selling service on software, what's the motivation to make the software as easy to operate and maintain as possible? The answer? Well - not much. And so we have Linux. Very powerful. Very flexible. Very hard for average computer users to configure and maintain.
Motivation to make software easy to use? How about "Nobody will use my software if it's too hard to operate?"
I was hoping for some genuine insights into views of Open Source from a Mac vantage, but I don't think it's a terribly insightful (or even realistic) view of the situation...
Are there plans to use these new ground-based telescopes (the ESO's VLT and OWL) to search for extra-solar, terrestrial-sized (non-gas giant) planets?
If so, will these new facilities have the capacity to take spectra of the planets' atmospheres when :) they are found?
And would the presence of free oxygen (O^2) be a clear sign of life? Or are there other elements or compounds you would be looking for?
Shouldn't this story have a BSD icon? Some people might like to filter out BSD stories, but it's kinda hard when none of the BSD articles use the "BSD" subject category...
Just a thought!
Uh, on my "pre 3d card" system, I had a Xfree86 .rpm, and a Mesa.rpm installed. When I got my 3d card, I simply erased the old Mesa.rpm and installed the glxMesa.rpm. Isn't this exactly what you are suggesting?
> (OpenGL drivers simply can't, they need to install
;) When I installed the drivers for my voodoo2, all i had to do was install the glide and Mesa rpms. No reboot required. ;) Now why couldn't nVidia make it this easy?
.exe. I kinda like that; I've been burned by those self-installing drivers on windows once too many times. I don't think installing RPMs is *that* much harder than running an .exe and clicking "Next" repeatedly. Plus, if someone wanted, writing a Loki "setup" type driver install wizard would be trivial; I'd just rather see those resources go towards fixing other drivers that *don't* install so easily...
> library files.)
Uhh... don't you have to install the OpenGL libs when you setup a new 3d card under windows, too? I don't see your point.
> Linux has no such symantics for managing drivers
> and updating drivers, or drivers that don't
> follow that modrobe norm.
Not sure what you're getting at. Examples, please!! modprobe and friends seem to be more than adequate for adding, removing drivers from the kernel.
> Is that nVidia's fault? I think not.
When I installed the linux drivers for my (*gag*) s3 virge card, all I had to do was install the glxMesa rpm, and add 'load "glx.so"' to my XF86Config file. No reboot required
Granted, these didn't come bundled in a happy little self-installing
...bah!
You are absolutely right. Windows NT's new anti-aliased Blue Screens look so much more crisp and professional than the old, non-anti-aliased ones. Linux is obviously being left in dust here, people!
> All it seems to be is a file browser/desktop
;) It has a "zoom" feature; zoom in and more details about each file appear, zoom out and the icons show less info. The icons for text files actually show a small snippet of the file's contents; rest the mouse pointer over a .wav file, and a sample of the file plays. It also has an MP3 directory view I am itching to try out... Just a few examples of what it'll do.
;)
:)
> shell along the lines of gmc on steriods.
Nautilus is actualy going to be pretty innovative (or at least will combine innovative features from other systems
> Take the new nVidia kernel driver.
Take my new nVidia kernel driver. Please.
Seriously. If nVidia makes it that hard to install their hardware, shame on them, and shame on you for buying their stuff. I don't think it's really fair to blame Linux as a platform for a vendor's packaging problems. Normally all it takes to load drivers is a "modprobe driverfile", right? Personally, if a vendor makes it hard for me to install their crap, I won't buy it.
As far as system configuration is concerned, Nautilus is going to have some sort of a GUI-driven interface for viewing (and editing?) a system's hardware configuration. It looks kinda like Windows' system device tree on steroids, but I haven't personally played with it, so I'll shut up know.
> They just don't get it.
PS: Some (many?) of them don't, but enough of them do. I think we'll learn not to underestimate these folks...
Based on what I've seen on the Nautilus mailing list, this is going to be a *very* fun piece of software to use. There are more great screenshots at this site. ;)
I just asked on the Gnome news site, and I'll ask here, too; does anyone have a ETA on an official Nautilus preview release?
I'd love to try out Nautilus and give some feedback to the developers, but I tried building all the required packages from CVS and just don't have the time or perserverance to work out all the macro build problems.
Heck, I'd settle some tarballs or RPMs that someone could throw together for us unwashed, CVS-impaired masses.
...correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Debian a non-profit org? Non-profits aren't bought out by corporations too often, heh!
Would it kill Nik to use the BSD Icon for these stories? Isn't that why its there for?
Just something I've noticed which I find irritating. Sorry to be so anal...
...for some people. ;) Myself included.
Yes, you do not have access to the same number of titles as windows users. Know what? 98% of those Windows titles are crap I'd never touch anyway. So I can't play Daikatana, so I'll never be able to run Tomb Raider 5; I think I'll be able to cope with that. Loki has IMO been extremely smart in selling only *quality* titles that "Linux people" will be interested in (Civ:CTP, Q3A, SimCity2000, Alpha Centauri, etc, etc.)
Yes, the hardware support is not as extensive as windows 98. People who complain about this really irritate me. If you want a 3D card and you run Linux, then take 30 freaking seconds and check if the card you're going to buy is going to work or not. Sheesh! I always research before a purchase to make sure a device is going to work well on my linux box and I have NEVER been DISAPPOINTED.
Linux is also by far the most stable gaming platform. One of the reasons I switch to linux was cause TeamFortress didn't crash the system like it was prone to do under Win95. With linux, I can minimize all my work programs and fire up Q3Arena for a quick 10 minute frag-break. I don't have to worry about my box crashing, and my work apps are always there waiting for me when I exit, safe, sound and still executing.
Bah!
In my personal experience, if an RPM is built correctly, and installed with a simple "rpm -Uhv file.rpm", it will work just fine. Whenever an RPM hasn't worked "out of the box", the problem has always been in an error made by the RPM creator.
RPM is a great system, but like with any system, if someone doesn't set it up right, it isn't going to work right.
...I hear it's endorsed by Fred McGriff. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)