For at least 5 years I've heard of computers automagically counterattacking a mailicious person. Personally, I think that this is not the idea to go about things. As stated in a post above, chances are, the computer that is attacking you is one of someone innocent that has had their computer compromised as well.
But that still isn't the thing that irritates me. This method is completely childish. It is equivalent to a youngster kicking down someone's sand castle and then the victim runs and kicks the little punk's sand castle down. Okay, I'm rambling. But seriously, there are other solutions.
This morning my boss sent me this url in an email and told me to 'investigate.' I'm really hoping that he doesn't think that this is a decent security method, because it is completely unethical and illogical. I've got to figure out a way to talk him out of this -- soon. -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
This is good to hear, but I still don't think we are going to see anything drastic for a long while. I can wait, but there are others that can't.... -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
Right now the only way to achieve something like this in X is through a hack. The Java X Server is merely a hack. Yes, things like EFM, Eterm, and the like are able to do stunning effects such as this, but in the end, it is actually faked. Until someone writes a protocol for X to allow this, we aren't going to see it. And writing an extension for alpha rendering is MUCH easier said then done.
Yes, there are a few projects going on to do this, and there have been a few projects going on for _years_ now to add this to X. Don't get your hopes up, because you aren't going to see true translucency/alpha rendering on X anytime soon. -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
yes, but a window manager and an actually X server are two completely different animals. I really dont see how it would be possible to create an actual X server with perl.
a window manager is merely managing the windows, the X server is actually handling the display, the color mapping, etc. -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
No, enlightenemtn does not do any type of translucency at the moment. however, EFM does have translucent menus. and to achieve this it is making use of backing stores inside the X server. It is grabbing the data under the menu (iirc, menus arent parented), then imlib2 renders the menu image over that image. if the menu image has an alpha channel, you will be able to peek through. imlib2 allows for translucency since it renders things in RGBA format (A for alpha, of course). -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
looks more like its grabbing each individual window, toning down the opacity and then displaying it. notice on the gimp screenshots how some parts of each window are a bit more opaque than others (such as the menus and labels and buttons, etc). this is because that is another window over a window and the two translucent windows over each other are causing those parts to be more opaque than each other. so, all in all, it looks like nothing more than a crazy hack. i dont think i would like having every window translucent, anyway. -- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
Actually, you must be talking about EFM - not E. EFM and Enlightenment haven't actually merged together yet. If you don't know what EFM is, it is the Enlightenment File Manager, closely modeled after the Amiga Workbench and MacOS FM's.
EFM is using SGI's fam mainly because it is an excellent library for file management type tasks. EFM's development is quite stunning, if you watch the E CVS mailing lists you know what I mean:)
I've noticed some FUD floating around about EFM as of late, mainly by people who obviously haven't used it. There are no toolbars, html viewers, and other things like that. You have windows with icons and menus (translucent menus at that) and a typebuffer with glob matching and other fun stuff. If you would like to see several shots of EFM in action, please go to my site at http://saturn5.locnet.net/dphase. There are several shots of EFM there showing exactly what it can do.
-- Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net) UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
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For at least 5 years I've heard of computers automagically counterattacking a mailicious person. Personally, I think that this is not the idea to go about things. As stated in a post above, chances are, the computer that is attacking you is one of someone innocent that has had their computer compromised as well.
But that still isn't the thing that irritates me. This method is completely childish. It is equivalent to a youngster kicking down someone's sand castle and then the victim runs and kicks the little punk's sand castle down. Okay, I'm rambling. But seriously, there are other solutions.
This morning my boss sent me this url in an email and told me to 'investigate.' I'm really hoping that he doesn't think that this is a decent security method, because it is completely unethical and illogical. I've got to figure out a way to talk him out of this -- soon.
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
This is good to hear, but I still don't think we are going to see anything drastic for a long while. I can wait, but there are others that can't....
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
Right now the only way to achieve something like this in X is through a hack. The Java X Server is merely a hack. Yes, things like EFM, Eterm, and the like are able to do stunning effects such as this, but in the end, it is actually faked. Until someone writes a protocol for X to allow this, we aren't going to see it. And writing an extension for alpha rendering is MUCH easier said then done.
Yes, there are a few projects going on to do this, and there have been a few projects going on for _years_ now to add this to X. Don't get your hopes up, because you aren't going to see true translucency/alpha rendering on X anytime soon.
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
yes, but a window manager and an actually X server are two completely different animals. I really dont see how it would be possible to create an actual X server with perl.
a window manager is merely managing the windows, the X server is actually handling the display, the color mapping, etc.
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
No, enlightenemtn does not do any type of translucency at the moment. however, EFM does have translucent menus. and to achieve this it is making use of backing stores inside the X server. It is grabbing the data under the menu (iirc, menus arent parented), then imlib2 renders the menu image over that image. if the menu image has an alpha channel, you will be able to peek through. imlib2 allows for translucency since it renders things in RGBA format (A for alpha, of course).
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
looks more like its grabbing each individual window, toning down the opacity and then displaying it. notice on the gimp screenshots how some parts of each window are a bit more opaque than others (such as the menus and labels and buttons, etc). this is because that is another window over a window and the two translucent windows over each other are causing those parts to be more opaque than each other. so, all in all, it looks like nothing more than a crazy hack. i dont think i would like having every window translucent, anyway.
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services
EFM is using SGI's fam mainly because it is an excellent library for file management type tasks. EFM's development is quite stunning, if you watch the E CVS mailing lists you know what I mean
I've noticed some FUD floating around about EFM as of late, mainly by people who obviously haven't used it. There are no toolbars, html viewers, and other things like that. You have windows with icons and menus (translucent menus at that) and a typebuffer with glob matching and other fun stuff.
If you would like to see several shots of EFM in action, please go to my site at http://saturn5.locnet.net/dphase. There are several shots of EFM there showing exactly what it can do.
--
Joshua Deere (dphase@locnet.net)
UNIX Systems Administrator, LOCNET Internet Services