Many fears where made about the quality of the backbone. Of course no backbone could handle tons of users each connected with 100 MBit who would leech the biggest downloads out of the web. But this is the common mistake, these services are not intended for this.
The main idea is to have a webpage loaded very fast with all images, and then you read the webpage, and stop transmitting data. So, you might use the 100 MBit, but you use it only for one or two seconds, and for the next minute dozens of other users can use this bandwidth.
If you look at the prices, you can clearly see, that this service can not be made for downloading tons of gigabytes. No company could afford such data volumes for such a low price. Of course this services will attract such people, too, but the companies either hope that the other customers will compensate this or they just set a maximum transfer limit into the contracts (eg. 1 GB per Month, which should be reasonably enough for "normal" users).
So these services actually can work - if the companies offering it have a clue and know how to keep the bandwidth grabbers away.
What i wonder: Does anyone have real proof that sealand has any hosting facilities and/or leased links? Do they really do host there, or is this all an giant bluff?
Lets take a look on the known servers (heavenco.com, sealandgov.com...). They all have assigned ARIN-based IP addresses. ARIN-assigned addresses are _NOT_ for the use in europe, so if they use these addresses on sealand, ARIN will call these addresses back. IP addresses in Europe are assigned by the RIPE.
And then: traceroutes to this servers all end somewhere in the US in big server housing farms _not_ operated by heavenco. Isn't it a little bizarre that a hosting / colo company which claims to have redundant links and their own location still relies for all of their servers on other hosters?
The idea is nice, but i doubt if they actually do any hosting there. Has anyone any evidence showing otherwise?
Remember we are taking about things napster may do, because they are enforced to do. So if the RIAA will force them to use for example audio fingerprinting, they can also enforce them to not accept files "which do not make sense". By doing some short analysis you can find out, if a file is actual music or only crypted data.
Don't take this too easy. Of course the RIAA will not be able to identify their songs on a name base, this will not work reliable. But audio fingerprinting techniques are on the way, and that might really work...
You still don't get the point. Lets assume a mere 300 Bytes per Message (it will be more taking all tcp/ip overhead, smtp overhead etc. into account), and 500000 Messages will already sum up to 150 MB.
All five letter accounts (and still using only lowercase - no uppercase letters, no numburs) will take 4 GB.
Read my lips: Your Idea WILL NOT WORK. This can't be done.
Even if you only take uppercase letters and no numbers into your scheme, all four letter combinations will sum to nearly fivehundredthousand addresses. And you really thought this could be done with 12 or 24 letter long accounts?
I don't get why people who write such nonsens always (ab-)use their +1 score bonus. Please: Only use your bonus if you are rock solid about what you wrote and if you think it is appropiate to use it.
Excuse me, but the american president was too already *on* *the* *way* out of his job before a new one was named. This is the usual way in the past and in the future.
Wichert will be debian leader until the new one is elected, so where is your problem? The transition period is always a problem in fields where people are elected.
And regarding non-free: What have you smoked? For the first there are debian maintainers who do package non-free software for use with debian. If you miss a software, just contact a friendly debian maintainer or post it on the list. Probably someone will help you. Some of the most popular non-free software is included within debian for years.
Of course debian can not package all software, but that holds true for free software as well. Debian currently has thousands of packages and its getting harder to keep the control.
If you like debian, ask the authors of said programs which are not included to build debian packages. Show your support for debian and demand such packages! Or if the software is important enough: Again: ask a debian maintainer or post to the appropiate debian lists. There are defined ways for requesting a package!
And whats about commercial software, debian can not package most of them regarding to license issues. But, hey, if you are paying for the software, its your right as a customer to demand a debian package from the manufacturer.
Show the world that debian is a highly demanded linux distribution, and the world will give you the packages. But DO something instead of whining and FUD.
Nonsense. The electrical part of the modem is certified, and software updates / drivers for winmodems are not certified seperate in most countries. So every update from your vendor would violate the certification too.
Of course some countries still have such strange laws written, but they aren't followed that close anymore. Noone will sue you, if you use your winmodem with your own software. And btw: The IBM driver isn't certified as well. So what?
You shouldn't have used your +2 Bonus for posting this, does not give a good light on you.
Although this may be a nice day for some thinkpad owners, these drivers doesn't help the linux
community in general.
What we really would need is an opensourced/GPL'd implementation of all the dsp-like algorithms used by software modems. They are currently high valued property by some manufacturers and therefore only given out as binaries for linux drivers if given out at all.
IBM does it that way, and AVM (famous manufacturer of ISDN cards here in germany) did the same when releasing software modem / fax emulation.
I would really love to see one of the main linux players sponsoring an open source development of such an implementation. This would allow the support of many winmodems after all (just replace the modem specific interfacing stuff), fax / modem emulation with all isdn cards, usage with ham radios and much more nice possibilities.
There _are_ some opensource efforts (see www.linmodems.org for some pointers) but they are stuck in some main points and could probably need some financial support as well as development help by DSP specialists.
So Redhat, VA or whoever feels responsible: Put some of your money here. Many people of the linux community will be grateful
At least here in germany digital TV (using the afaik worldwide standard DVB - digital video broadcast) is gaining popularity.
You can already buy PCI-Cards for the reception of digital TV (arround $200-250). A Linux Video Disc Recorder for the storage of the digital MPEG2 stream from the satellite is available too.
It has all the features a decent satellite receiver needs and nice recording features. You want to record that weekly show? No problem. Or that other daily show? Cut out the commercials? Using a second card: Start recording when the movie starts, and make a break whenever you like, playing back the still recording stream when you return from your kitchen or whereever you have gone to.
For the software (under the GPL) see http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/
Never heard of eagle? I thought it was an very successfull pcb design software. As far as i know it has all the features a decent software package for pcb design needs.
They have linux versions available for years now, you can download a free or lite version for tryout as well as tons of component libraries from their webpage. See http://www.cadsoft.de
As already told, EPSON is currently the way to go.
I recently bought an Epson Stylus Color 880. I use it with gimp-print (very nice print plugin for gimp letting you choose the sort of paper, the resolution and other things just like under windows) and it gives fantastatic results. Of course like all the cheaper photo quality printers you need patience, a photo of the size of German DIN A4 (210 x 297 mm) needs about 15-20 Minutes.
I read in the docs that EPSON was very supportive to the guys from gimp-print and supplied them with docs. I recently read the same about EPSON scanners, giving out even not-yet-published docs. So EPSON seems to be very nice to the linux community, so give them back and buy EPSON! Show the other manufacturers that open support for linux can be very good for their revenue stream.
It seems that some others posted the same idea about minidisc at the same time like me.
So Sony see: There can really be a demand for it.
Who is going to tell Sony? Does anyone know the right persons inside Sony? I really want a MiniDisc Data Drive (USB preferred) and i would pay $100-$150 for it.
Does anyone know what happened to the MiniDisc Data Recorders? As far as i remember some years ago they were really available, but unfortunately Sony was a little too early as it seems and they disappeared.
I would bet that a relaunch of these devices would be a bestselling hardware. You know, MiniDisc could hold arround 120 MB of Data (afaik) and the Price of a MiniDisc is only $1.50. And it is very small too.
Dumb all that floppy disks, the overprized ZIP disks, the not much better LS120 and similar stuff.
MiniDisc could be a way to go. It seems MiniDisc Medias will be arround for a long time, and they are very cheap due to their usage for music.
I recently bought an USB Zip Drive, as it seems to be still a good idea. USB Zip Drives are getting very cheap (arround $80). The best about the USB Zip is in fact the USB. Many people nowadays have USB on their computer, so i can take my external USB ZIP and some ZIP disks with me to transport some data in a easy way without having to burn (and afterwards toss) a CD.
It also can make a good Backup Media for all that data that is greater than 1.44 MB but below 100 MB e.g. financial transaction data etc.
he only thing i dislike on my ZIP is the still high price for ZIP disks.
Oh yes, and of course all the potential members out there will handle their private keys absolutely secure? And of course the members are immune to other security bugs on their systems so that their systems cannot be cracked and the pgp binary cannot be replaced by a tempered-with one?
You may call it paranoid, i call it realistic. Take one person and you have 100% security. Take two persons and the security will be half. Now imagine how much people will be on that mailinglist. You simply cannot trust everyone.
It seems you are not understanding, not me. Of course BIND is open source, and of course we all can go out to hunt that bugs and holes ourselves. But we will likely miss some of them.
Now imagine a list where new found holes are described in secret. No one else knows about it, no one else will fix it, before these guys decide, that the poor rest is now ready to get the news.
This is fine until some cracker finds his way into this list. That would be dreamland for him: Unpublished exploits, fearless targets out in the whole world.
Its a bit like security by obscurity. After all its just a damn dumb idea. Hiding the bugs or delaying the information about them will not fix them.
I can not see any positive thing is this, not a little bit.
Some Crackers will crack there way into the mail spool of one of the authorized members of the list and will get access to exclusive cracking instructions while the rest of the world is without fear.
Just another reason the kick BIND finally from my system.
In the new c't William Gibson was interviewed. The article is not online, but i'm citing (and translating) the interesting parts:
[about the copyright in the web]
It's complicated but no serious threat for me. If i would be a pop musician i would have to think how to stick with the new reality. You see, the great thing about a printed book is, taht it is much easier to move and use than everything you can produce from a download. If i would put the whole text into the web, somebody could download it and print it out. But such a printout would be rather primitive. Somebody elso could download the text, and use much effort to create it with typography as a book as we have it here now. Thats not too complicated. But he would need the paper, the ink and just too much time. That would make no sense, if he could buy the ready book for a few bucks in the bookstore. So, why should i be afraid?
[about opposite thought from others]
Since the 16th century text is best delivered in a book. The easiest way to get something readable is to buy a book produced from wood and ink in a bookstore. To copy the text from a book is very easy, but if you clone a whole book, you have stolen a whole book, a media. Thats something pretty different and it's unlawfull since the 19th century. If someone just wants to read the text, he could have it for free. Thats fine with me, i don't care.
[about his texts in the web]
If i would learn, that an unauthorized chinese translation would be sold as printed books in china i would immediate try to stop that. But if the same translation would be available in the web, i won't do anything. I would think: Hey, thats cool, what a fine thing.
This kind of serial number is implemented with a new ATA command. All you need is a little device between your controller and your harddisks, which replaces the serial number given by the harddisk with another one or even return an error. Such device should not be too complicated to build and i see huge demands for it:-)
At least here in germany i have read several times about companies which recycle CDRs. They have collection stations in big computer shops where you can destroy your data (by scratching on the data layer) and then left the CDR there.
The CDR will be cut up into very little piece and then the metallic components and the plastic components will be seperated. The plastic is used for various new products (i don't know if they even can produce new CDRs from it); for the metallic part i have forgotten what they use it for (but afair it is reused 100% too).
A shared cost number is a number where the total price for the call is shared between the calling and the called party.
This made sense some years ago when we had very high prices for long distance phone calls, you could have three types of numbers which were somewhat lower than the normal price. The called party paid the remainder. You had one type which had a tariff somewhat similar to long distance (slightly lower), one with a tariff for medium distance calls and one with a tariff for local calls (yes, we actually have to pay for local phone calls). And there are two types which costs the calling party a fixed amount for the whole call.
Nowadays the prices of phone calls dropped dramatically, the price of a long distance call beeing near (or even _below_) a local call, so these numbers lost there original use.
But these numbers can also be routed to different destination regarding the area the call came from, or regarding the time of the day and other criteria. So these numbers are still used for ordering, hotlines etc. where you route the traffic to different call centers.
At least you can have one fixed number per service already. E.g. in the USA you can use a tollfree-type number, here in Germany we have tollfree-numbers (0800), shared-cost-numbers (0180) and personal numbers (0700).
Of course this is not nearly as nice as your idea, but you can try to get several subsequent numbers of this type.
Slashdot Mirror
Many fears where made about the quality of the backbone. Of course no backbone could handle tons of users each connected with 100 MBit who would leech the biggest downloads out of the web. But this is the common mistake, these services are not intended for this.
The main idea is to have a webpage loaded very fast with all images, and then you read the webpage, and stop transmitting data. So, you might use the 100 MBit, but you use it only for one or two seconds, and for the next minute dozens of other users can use this bandwidth.
If you look at the prices, you can clearly see, that this service can not be made for downloading tons of gigabytes. No company could afford such data volumes for such a low price. Of course this services will attract such people, too, but the companies either hope that the other customers will compensate this or they just set a maximum transfer limit into the contracts (eg. 1 GB per Month, which should be reasonably enough for "normal" users).
So these services actually can work - if the companies offering it have a clue and know how to keep the bandwidth grabbers away.
should read havenco.com of course. sorry for that.
What i wonder: Does anyone have real proof that sealand has any hosting facilities and/or leased links? Do they really do host there, or is this all an giant bluff?
...). They all have assigned ARIN-based IP addresses. ARIN-assigned addresses are _NOT_ for the use in europe, so if they use these addresses on sealand, ARIN will call these addresses back. IP addresses in Europe are assigned by the RIPE.
Lets take a look on the known servers (heavenco.com, sealandgov.com
And then: traceroutes to this servers all end somewhere in the US in big server housing farms _not_ operated by heavenco. Isn't it a little bizarre that a hosting / colo company which claims to have redundant links and their own location still relies for all of their servers on other hosters?
The idea is nice, but i doubt if they actually do any hosting there. Has anyone any evidence showing otherwise?
Remember we are taking about things napster may do, because they are enforced to do. So if the RIAA will force them to use for example audio fingerprinting, they can also enforce them to not accept files "which do not make sense". By doing some short analysis you can find out, if a file is actual music or only crypted data.
Don't take this too easy. Of course the RIAA will not be able to identify their songs on a name base, this will not work reliable. But audio fingerprinting techniques are on the way, and that might really work...
You still don't get the point. Lets assume a mere 300 Bytes per Message (it will be more taking all tcp/ip overhead, smtp overhead etc. into account), and 500000 Messages will already sum up to 150 MB.
All five letter accounts (and still using only lowercase - no uppercase letters, no numburs) will take 4 GB.
Read my lips: Your Idea WILL NOT WORK. This can't be done.
Please take some time and read the documentation which comes with the assembler. It got some points why the assembler was written and possible usages.
Please: Think before you post.
Even if you only take uppercase letters and no numbers into your scheme, all four letter combinations will sum to nearly fivehundredthousand addresses. And you really thought this could be done with 12 or 24 letter long accounts?
I don't get why people who write such nonsens always (ab-)use their +1 score bonus. Please: Only use your bonus if you are rock solid about what you wrote and if you think it is appropiate to use it.
Excuse me, but the american president was too already *on* *the* *way* out of his job before a new one was named. This is the usual way in the past and in the future.
Wichert will be debian leader until the new one is elected, so where is your problem? The transition period is always a problem in fields where people are elected.
And regarding non-free: What have you smoked? For the first there are debian maintainers who do package non-free software for use with debian. If you miss a software, just contact a friendly debian maintainer or post it on the list. Probably someone will help you. Some of the most popular non-free software is included within debian for years.
Of course debian can not package all software, but that holds true for free software as well. Debian currently has thousands of packages and its getting harder to keep the control.
If you like debian, ask the authors of said programs which are not included to build debian packages. Show your support for debian and demand such packages! Or if the software is important enough: Again: ask a debian maintainer or post to the appropiate debian lists. There are defined ways for requesting a package!
And whats about commercial software, debian can not package most of them regarding to license issues. But, hey, if you are paying for the software, its your right as a customer to demand a debian package from the manufacturer.
Show the world that debian is a highly demanded linux distribution, and the world will give you the packages. But DO something instead of whining and FUD.
Nonsense. The electrical part of the modem is certified, and software updates / drivers for winmodems are not certified seperate in most countries. So every update from your vendor would violate the certification too.
Of course some countries still have such strange laws written, but they aren't followed that close anymore. Noone will sue you, if you use your winmodem with your own software. And btw: The IBM driver isn't certified as well. So what?
You shouldn't have used your +2 Bonus for posting this, does not give a good light on you.
Although this may be a nice day for some thinkpad owners, these drivers doesn't help the linux
community in general.
What we really would need is an opensourced/GPL'd implementation of all the dsp-like algorithms used by software modems. They are currently high valued property by some manufacturers and therefore only given out as binaries for linux drivers if given out at all.
IBM does it that way, and AVM (famous manufacturer of ISDN cards here in germany) did the same when releasing software modem / fax emulation.
I would really love to see one of the main linux players sponsoring an open source development of such an implementation. This would allow the support of many winmodems after all (just replace the modem specific interfacing stuff), fax / modem emulation with all isdn cards, usage with ham radios and much more nice possibilities.
There _are_ some opensource efforts (see www.linmodems.org for some pointers) but they are stuck in some main points and could probably need some financial support as well as development help by DSP specialists.
So Redhat, VA or whoever feels responsible: Put some of your money here. Many people of the linux community will be grateful
At least here in germany digital TV (using the afaik worldwide standard DVB - digital video broadcast) is gaining popularity.
You can already buy PCI-Cards for the reception of digital TV (arround $200-250). A Linux Video Disc Recorder for the storage of the digital MPEG2 stream from the satellite is available too.
It has all the features a decent satellite receiver needs and nice recording features. You want to record that weekly show? No problem. Or that other daily show? Cut out the commercials? Using a second card: Start recording when the movie starts, and make a break whenever you like, playing back the still recording stream when you return from your kitchen or whereever you have gone to.
For the software (under the GPL) see http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/
Never heard of eagle? I thought it was an very successfull pcb design software. As far as i know it has all the features a decent software package for pcb design needs.
They have linux versions available for years now, you can download a free or lite version for tryout as well as tons of component libraries from their webpage. See http://www.cadsoft.de
As already told, EPSON is currently the way to go.
I recently bought an Epson Stylus Color 880. I use it with gimp-print (very nice print plugin for gimp letting you choose the sort of paper, the resolution and other things just like under windows) and it gives fantastatic results. Of course like all the cheaper photo quality printers you need patience, a photo of the size of German DIN A4 (210 x 297 mm) needs about 15-20 Minutes.
I read in the docs that EPSON was very supportive to the guys from gimp-print and supplied them with docs. I recently read the same about EPSON scanners, giving out even not-yet-published docs. So EPSON seems to be very nice to the linux community, so give them back and buy EPSON! Show the other manufacturers that open support for linux can be very good for their revenue stream.
It seems that some others posted the same idea about minidisc at the same time like me.
So Sony see: There can really be a demand for it.
Who is going to tell Sony? Does anyone know the right persons inside Sony? I really want a MiniDisc Data Drive (USB preferred) and i would pay $100-$150 for it.
Does anyone know what happened to the MiniDisc Data Recorders? As far as i remember some years ago they were really available, but unfortunately Sony was a little too early as it seems and they disappeared.
I would bet that a relaunch of these devices would be a bestselling hardware. You know, MiniDisc could hold arround 120 MB of Data (afaik) and the Price of a MiniDisc is only $1.50. And it is very small too.
Dumb all that floppy disks, the overprized ZIP disks, the not much better LS120 and similar stuff.
MiniDisc could be a way to go. It seems MiniDisc Medias will be arround for a long time, and they are very cheap due to their usage for music.
So Sony are you listening?
I recently bought an USB Zip Drive, as it seems to be still a good idea. USB Zip Drives are getting very cheap (arround $80). The best about the USB Zip is in fact the USB. Many people nowadays have USB on their computer, so i can take my external USB ZIP and some ZIP disks with me to transport some data in a easy way without having to burn (and afterwards toss) a CD. It also can make a good Backup Media for all that data that is greater than 1.44 MB but below 100 MB e.g. financial transaction data etc. he only thing i dislike on my ZIP is the still high price for ZIP disks.
Oh yes, and of course all the potential members out there will handle their private keys absolutely secure? And of course the members are immune to other security bugs on their systems so that their systems cannot be cracked and the pgp binary cannot be replaced by a tempered-with one?
You may call it paranoid, i call it realistic. Take one person and you have 100% security. Take two persons and the security will be half. Now imagine how much people will be on that mailinglist. You simply cannot trust everyone.
It seems you are not understanding, not me. Of course BIND is open source, and of course we all can go out to hunt that bugs and holes ourselves. But we will likely miss some of them.
Now imagine a list where new found holes are described in secret. No one else knows about it, no one else will fix it, before these guys decide, that the poor rest is now ready to get the news.
This is fine until some cracker finds his way into this list. That would be dreamland for him: Unpublished exploits, fearless targets out in the whole world.
Its a bit like security by obscurity. After all its just a damn dumb idea. Hiding the bugs or delaying the information about them will not fix them.
I can not see any positive thing is this, not a little bit.
I can see it through my virtual eye...
Some Crackers will crack there way into the mail spool of one of the authorized members of the list and will get access to exclusive cracking instructions while the rest of the world is without fear.
Just another reason the kick BIND finally from my system.
In the new c't William Gibson was interviewed. The article is not online, but i'm citing (and translating) the interesting parts:
[about the copyright in the web]
It's complicated but no serious threat for me. If i would be a pop musician i would have to think how to stick with the new reality. You see, the great thing about a printed book is, taht it is much easier to move and use than everything you can produce from a download. If i would put the whole text into the web, somebody could download it and print it out. But such a printout would be rather primitive. Somebody elso could download the text, and use much effort to create it with typography as a book as we have it here now. Thats not too complicated. But he would need the paper, the ink and just too much time. That would make no sense, if he could buy the ready book for a few bucks in the bookstore. So, why should i be afraid?
[about opposite thought from others]
Since the 16th century text is best delivered in a book. The easiest way to get something readable is to buy a book produced from wood and ink in a bookstore. To copy the text from a book is very easy, but if you clone a whole book, you have stolen a whole book, a media. Thats something pretty different and it's unlawfull since the 19th century. If someone just wants to read the text, he could have it for free. Thats fine with me, i don't care.
[about his texts in the web]
If i would learn, that an unauthorized chinese translation would be sold as printed books in china i would immediate try to stop that. But if the same translation would be available in the web, i won't do anything. I would think: Hey, thats cool, what a fine thing.
This kind of serial number is implemented with a new ATA command. All you need is a little device between your controller and your harddisks, which replaces the serial number given by the harddisk with another one or even return an error. Such device should not be too complicated to build and i see huge demands for it :-)
At least here in germany i have read several times about companies which recycle CDRs. They have collection stations in big computer shops where you can destroy your data (by scratching on the data layer) and then left the CDR there.
The CDR will be cut up into very little piece and then the metallic components and the plastic components will be seperated. The plastic is used for various new products (i don't know if they even can produce new CDRs from it); for the metallic part i have forgotten what they use it for (but afair it is reused 100% too).
A shared cost number is a number where the total price for the call is shared between the calling and the called party.
This made sense some years ago when we had very high prices for long distance phone calls, you could have three types of numbers which were somewhat lower than the normal price. The called party paid the remainder. You had one type which had a tariff somewhat similar to long distance (slightly lower), one with a tariff for medium distance calls and one with a tariff for local calls (yes, we actually have to pay for local phone calls). And there are two types which costs the calling party a fixed amount for the whole call.
Nowadays the prices of phone calls dropped dramatically, the price of a long distance call beeing near (or even _below_) a local call, so these numbers lost there original use.
But these numbers can also be routed to different destination regarding the area the call came from, or regarding the time of the day and other criteria. So these numbers are still used for ordering, hotlines etc. where you route the traffic to different call centers.
At least you can have one fixed number per service already. E.g. in the USA you can use a tollfree-type number, here in Germany we have tollfree-numbers (0800), shared-cost-numbers (0180) and personal numbers (0700).
Of course this is not nearly as nice as your idea, but you can try to get several subsequent numbers of this type.