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  1. Re:It astounds me on Traffic-Flow Algorithm Can Reduce Fuel Consumption · · Score: 1

    Love it. This is our worst (Victoria, BC Canada)

  2. Re:Great! on Google Wave Reviewed · · Score: 1

    This is rather more than groove, actually. I use groove at work, and while it's nice, it doesn't allow the kind of real-time collaboration on documents that wave will. Both people can be editing a document simultaneously, and both see the changes each other is making appear in the doc in real-ish time (if the demo can be believed, It'll be interesting to see how high latency links play with this).

    That aspect is what excites me about this tech. It's been done before (as a plugin for word, even), but not in such an accessible way.

  3. Re:Roms! \o/ on Wii Internet Connection Reverse Engineered · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is exactly what client certs were invented for. Using https with client & server certs allows the client to authenticate the server, and vice versa. It would be pretty easy for Nintendo to issue a cert for every Wii.

    The only issue might be the extra CPU involved in using SSL, but if they're going to be preventing loss of revenue I can see the accountants springing for the extra hardware :)

  4. Re:Workaround for DRI: on XFree86 4.3.0 in Debian Unstable · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thanks for the info. I'm at work right now so can't try it out, but thought I'd mention an easy way to downgrade (seen elsewhere in this article, and somewhere in the docs) for others who might read this.

    apt-get install xlibmesa-dri/experimental

    I'm pretty sure you've got to have a line in /etc/apt/sources.list for experimental as well
    (deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main contrib non-free)

  5. Re:Holding out for debs on Mono 0.30 Released · · Score: 1

    While you're busy holding out for the debs, you can try this neat program I found that keeps things nice & tidy.

    It's called stow (package name is the same). It works to keep source installations in their own happy directory where they can't screw with anything else (eg /usr/local/stow/mono-0.30).

    So, the incantation for installing from source goes something like:

    download a package
    unpack the archive
    cd $archivedir
    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/stow/$package-$ver
    make
    sudo make install
    cd /usr/local/stow
    sudo stow $package-$ver

    If you do it this way, you'll need to add something like MONO_PATH=/usr/local/lib to your environment if you want to use things like gtk#

    Hope this helps.

  6. Reasonably well, for now on How Well are Your Servers Handling MyDoom? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Our main virus/spam scanning machines are handling it pretty well. We're seeing some increased processor utilisation, but... This is for a site that serves probably 70,000 users, many of whom are, uh, less than careful with their addresses. On a typical day, we process somewhere around 300,000 messages (depending on how frisky the spammers are feeling).

    In the first 24 hours we blocked about 66,000 instances of this beast, and were continuing to recieve them at about 3000 - 5000 per hour as of 1700 PST.

    Our virus statistics machine wasn't handling things so well, though ;) I think "drinking from the firehose" about sums it up. It's got 24000 virus notification sitting in the mail queue waiting to have their little snippits of info entered into the database ATM.

  7. Re:"from the Y2***-is-the-year-of-desktop-linux de on Review Of LinuxWorld 2004 · · Score: 1

    Well, except that 2??? is at once more optimistic and realistic than 2*. 'Cause it's definitely not going to happen in year 2, or year 248, and I certainly hope it's not going to happen in 20482...

  8. patch applies to old versions of sendmail on Buffer Overflow in Sendmail · · Score: 2, Informative

    In case anyone is forced (by legacy apps & shit) to be running old versions of sendmail, the patch supplied applies nicely to version 8.9.x of sendmail. It even continues to work after it's patched.

    Not like anyone is going to find this comment so late in the discussion, but...

  9. OT: Your Sig... on Building Rich-Client-Like Web Apps With Echo · · Score: 1

    Love it.

    That's a pet peeve of mine too (you know you're anal when you have a pet peeve about language usage ;). I've been thinking about siggifying it, but haven't gotten around to being witty.

    Kudos to you, sir!

  10. Re:In Canada... on RIAA Sales Compared to Download Statistics · · Score: 1

    Well, except that you're not avoiding the levy, you're merely paying a smaller levy on the Data CDs.

    The higher levy for Audio CDs is based on the fact that the copyright board (whatever they're called) assume that every one of the audio cds will be used to copy music, where a (presumably) much smaller percentage of Data CDs will be used to copy music.

    So, the great thing is that if you're using CDRs to back up your programs, you pay the music industry...

  11. Re:huh on SoBig: Worst is Yet to Come · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hmm, here's my numbers... this on a site that pushes about 9,000,000 messages/month. Oh, these numbers are since the 18th, and only include the ones for which any significant numbers have been recieved.

    91673 | W32/Sobig-F
    1460 | Bad File Pattern
    1062 | Very Bad Header Pattern
    1039 | W32/Sircam-A
    960 | W32/Yaha-P
    365 | W32/Bugbear-B
    280 | W32/Klez-H
    240 | W32/Mimail-A
    223 | W32/Yaha-K
    124 | W32/Bugbear-Dam
    122 | W32/Dumaru-A
    14 | W32/Magistr-B
    9 | W32/Yaha-A

  12. Re:This is stupid on Gentoo Package Accused of Violating DMCA · · Score: 4, Informative

    I seem to recall, from a post on yet another DMCA article here on slashdot, a lawyer (who was definitely not offering advice, naturally) saying that the "under penalty of perjury" part doesn't apply to the claim of copyright infringement. It applies, instead, to the assertion by the sender of the letter of said sender's right to represent the owner of the copyrighted material.

    In fact, I believe that it was the interview with the IP lawyers from the DOJ...

    So, you can't punish the company sending frivolous claims unless they don't have the right to be making silly claims about that particular material.

  13. Re:Shameless plug on Fan-Made Space Quest Prequel Released · · Score: 1

    No worries. Sorry if it sounded like I was ragging on your project. I appreciate the work you've done to let me play this cool game.

    Enjoy the hacking ;)

  14. Re:Shameless plug on Fan-Made Space Quest Prequel Released · · Score: 1

    No, I'm using the debian supplied v0.7.0. Huh. Sound and playability would be nice, but I think I'll stick with just playability ;)

  15. Re:Shameless plug on Fan-Made Space Quest Prequel Released · · Score: 1

    At the risk of looking silly by replying to myself, it seems to work just fine on nagi (mentioned previously).

    The sound, though, on nagi isn't exactly good. Like, not at all.

  16. Re:Shameless plug on Fan-Made Space Quest Prequel Released · · Score: 1

    It certainly loads up in sarien, and everythin up until the escape pod runs fine.

    I do the appropriate things in the pod, including removing the virus, but it won't do anything after that. Something appears to not quite work right. I've tried all of the different interpreter versions, and it still doesn't work. I've even tried not removing the virus, and retrieving (and not retrieving) the money from the char.

    Symptom: roger's hand doesn't fully retract after pulling the throttle. The doors in front of the pod never open, and it never launches. Just sits there.

  17. We're moving to redhat's enterprise version on Which Red Hat Should Be Worn in the Enterprise? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I work for a branch of a Canadian provincial gov't. We're moving from the consumer versions to the enterprise ones.

    One simple reason: I (the sole admin for 30+ servers, with development work to do on top of that) don't have the time to run around every year upgrading the systems as the version of redhat they're running gets end-of-lifed. The lack of security patches that can be quickly rolled out means that we need the longer support & release cycles.

    We have several custom applications that are a real pain to install -- there is no install script. The procedure goes something like:
    - install package foo
    - install package bar from source
    - customise the following 10 config files
    - repeat for each of 10 - 20 dependencies
    - grab the custom code from cvs
    - compile & install
    - test
    - migrate user data
    - no downtime allowed.

    Repeat that for 30 servers with different apps, and you're starting to get the picture. Believe it or not, I'm actually a competent admin (RHCE even ;) I just don't have time for that shit. A bit of money (and it is really only a little, when you're spending corporate $$) for less hassle? Sure...

    Now, I did think about moving to debian stable, or freebsd, or something, but for the people left when I bugger off in a year or so, I decided to have mercy and keep the environment they're used to.

  18. Re:Theres a buck to be made here... on SCO Might Sue Linus for Patent Infringement? · · Score: 1

    There is actually a band from Victoria, BC (Canada...) who are called "The Special Guests."

    So you're too late ;)

  19. Re:First problem with this solution: on Lessig Wagers His Job On Anti-Spam Theory · · Score: 1
    One little project will fix the main problem with white lists. It automatically updates your whitelist for you. TMDA. When someone you don't have on your whitelist sends you mail, TMDA sends them back an email telling them to reply to it. When they do (and spammers dont' generally have a valid reply address so they have a hard time doing this) the original mail will be released & sent to the original recipient. No further action is required on the sender's part.

    Of course, it requires some fiddling with MTA setups, but it could probably be done without if it got popular enough...

  20. Re:The more I think about it.... on Another Millionaire Spammer Story · · Score: 1

    I know this loses me the argument via a reference to the Nazis, but...

    What about the job "Gas Chamber Pikeman?" You know, the guy whose job it was to make sure that frightened people went into the gas chamber & packed themselves as tighyly as possible for their shower? I figure that job is more purely evil than mega-spammer... but maybe that's just me.

  21. Re:links on Browse All You Want At Work · · Score: 1

    You can run an ssh server as a plain old user. It'll only let you authenticate as yourself, though I don't see that being a problem. I did it for quite a while at my school. You just gotta get the disk space for the compile (/tmp is your friend) and unlimit the cpu time so that your daemon doesn't die unexpectedly on you mid-session.

  22. Re:increasing irrelevance of bad beer on Molson Slapped in Domain Hijacking Attempt · · Score: 1

    The way I figure it is this. It's a combination of marketing (the micros do none of it on TV), and the fact that pepole want to be beer drinkers. You know, real men don't drink pansy girly drinks.

    Problem is that most people don't actually like beer. It's a taste that takes some getting used to, and most people can't be bothered. So they take the most inoffensive shite they can find (canadian, blue, coors lite, ad nauseum) and drink that so they can be "manly men" or "cool chicks."

    That and people just don't know any different. Give a molson drinker a GOOD lager instead of that horse piss, and most of the time they'll like it. Then it's a swift downhill slide from there to the more flavourful stuff. MMMM, BEER!

  23. Re:email on Another Side-Effect of Spam · · Score: 1

    Oh, except you have to agree to their TOS to even use your self-written client with their central servers. And your very client might just be against those Terms of Service...

    Thank you, come again.

  24. Re:Exactly on Nomad Jukebox 3 Officially Out · · Score: 1
    One of the problems is that the present decoder requires a floating point unit to be present (or to use the horribly slow emulation). Apparently, there is/will be a integer decoder available for sale from the creators of Vorbis that will fix this situation. Apparently, there's even been interest in said decoder. Maybe soonish we'll see some hardware players supporting Vorbis... that will be sweet.

    See this thread for details.

  25. Re:I've changed my mind on Wu-ftpd Remote Root Hole · · Score: 1

    Hmm, what if I'm running the software in a configuration that hasn't been tested already? Do I blindly wait for someone to hold my hand and tell me that everything is alright?

    I'd rather be able to make the assessment of whether I'm vulnerable myself, so that I don't have to wait for some corporation to evaluate it for me. If I know how it works, I might even be able to fix it myself...