I am on Telstra because there are no other options for broadband access where I live. Telstra can do whatever they like because I cannot get bandwidth from anyone else.
What annoys me is that Telstra would probably not let me change my cel-phone contract just because I decided it was costing me too much. Out and out double standards. Fair enough if my contract expired and they didn't offer the same terms again, but it seems my "contract" counts for squat unless Telstra wants to screw me.
This was suggested when Commodore first hit the ropes. Fans buy shares because they like the company/product, not because the management have sane or sustainable business model. Commodore went down the toilet anyway, though I don't think many people bought shares.
The problem? The management continues the do stupid things because they know the shareholders are not expecting to make a profit anyway. OK, maybe they won't, but I'd not be expecting any kind of returns if I bought shares.
One company here is having all sorts of problems because its shareholder base is too fragmented to shove the current board.
I'd much rather put my money into things like Debian donations than propping up someone's profit making concern.
How about setting up a mutual society? A publically listed corporation is not the only company model out there and I think some of the other ones might be better for Linux development.
So if I had a really funky G3 phone that could pull decent bandwidth, I could do voice over IP and run it through an encrypted PPP and be able to talk to other phones even if they weren't of the same brand? As a bonus, the encryption would be in software rather than on a chip.
And a bans on software implementations would a lot harder to enforce.
I had niggledy back problems until I turfed my shonky swivel chair and insisted on a proper typist's chair (high back, arm rests). If you can't get professional advice, read about properly setting up your computer (monitor height, how your arms hang, etc.). That was 5 years ago, and I haven't had a problem since (I also got a futon mattress at the same time).
You might also consider getting a giant inflatable ball to sit on. Yes, really. You can't just sit on it and you do a bit of exercise just keeping yourself upright.
So I am hoping that there is some external way of verifying that any changes that went in since the crack can be verified as bona-fide. Shouldn't contributed stuff in large projects be GPG signed or something? They can try insert code, but they'd have to fake/steal a key as well, at least that would narrow down what you would need to look at.
Xix.
P.S. I am largely ignorant of how it is all put together, so I am quite possibly asking some obvious/silly questions. I promise to go away and do some reading now.:o)
UseNet has grown to the point that smaller ISPs seem to offer quite sucky newsfeeds on account of the volume. A couple of years back, a group of us had problems with articles expirng before they made it off the ISPs news spool. The only way to reliably propagate articles was to go via Deja. This suited the ISPs because it was a lot less hassle to them than chewing more disk/bandwidth.
Now we already have the situation where UseNet is Deja (Google) for most people. Where does Google get its news from now? How about a year from now when (hypothetically) they have the lions share of traffic? Will they resist the urge to set up policies that cement their position?
For example, giving preference to articles originating from Google or affiliated ISPs (negating the need for ISPs to maintain their own spools)?
I am concerned that we'll see a UseNet where posting outside Google affiliated channels is as good as posting to/dev/null, and a public infrastructure becomes a private asset. Taking the cost of maintaining news spool from ISPs is a great way of achieving just that. Imagine if M$ then bought UseNet from Google and "enhanced" it.
NOTE: I am *NOT* saying that this is happening now, but I cannot see why it couldn't happen.
On a side note, can I set up a web-proxy that honours "no proxy" and claim that any Google traffic passing through it is using my faciltiies to improve their customer's enjoyment of the service, and therefore I get a non exclusive licence to Google/usenet too?
Well they are doomed to failure then, aren't they? After all everyone (M$) *knows* that you cannot make money or be viable if you use Open Source software.
Good luck to them, I think we need a few companies making extortionate profits from free software. I won't be queuing up to help them make a buck, but I will be expecting them to add to the software base.
Xix.
> Fourth, Grub will provide consulting services
> for companies wanting to set up their own Grub
> networks. Large corporate intranets could be
> quickly and efficiently indexed into a central
> database with the Grub client/server model.
> Consulting and coding for these proprietary
> installations is a common model in Open Source
> oriented businesses like Sendmail, MySQL and
> Apache.
These treaties work because there aren't many people in antarctica or on the moon. The basic problem is that the internet circumvents many of the things that make it worthwhile to be a nation. To approve that is to approve the dilution of their powers (for example taxation). While I wouldn't discount the possibility of a selfless solution, I'm more inclined to think that there are many more nations with an interest in regulation than there are against.
As long as the police can confiscate your computer, they can jail you for breaking national laws. The kiddie pR0n issue alone is enough reason for most countries to want content control.
Now seriously, would *you* install a p2p client/server that comes from the same guys who do Back Oriface?
Sure you read the source...
Xix.
The USGS as a precedent of "walling it off"
on
MS VP Speech Online
·
· Score: 1
So according to MS, the government should not be returning anything to the public where it might be possible for a private company to make a quick buck out of it:
"Today, any government putting work under GPL is walling it (the work) off from commercial business,"
The USGS makes all of their very expensively collected data available for free at their website, http://www.usgs.gov. It is made freely available on the premise that the US tax payer has already paid for it once and shouldn't have to pay for it again. This is a policy decision that was reached very deliberately. Now the questions are:
Is there any difference between data as an IP assett and software as an IP assett?
If not, does the same principle (either way) hold? That is, government software must be provided to those who already paid for it (so that the return on their investment can be maximised) or, that government should never provide any service to its population when the potential exists for some company to make a quick buck off those who can afford it.
My point is that this is as much a challenge to the function of government, and it seems MS would prefer to see a marginalised government as seen in "Snowcrash". The assumption that this country exists for the benefit of private companies and not its citizens is only that and must be challenged.
"Now you know you should rotate your black holes every 5 billion years. I'm afraid it's all out of balance now and I'll have to do an entropy balance to get your event horizons right again..."
The SDMI hacking challenge will be back in 2002, bigger and better than ever!
How do I enter?
Simply send us a SASE with self inciminating details to SDMI Challenge, PO Box 123456, Circle 8, Hades 83911. Our courtesy baliffs will contact you shortly after.
What do I win?
Winners will receive 25 years, all expennses paid internment at a penitentiary of our discretion. This includes all accomodation and meals, along with complementary entertainment provided by fellow inmate Mr, Kaczynski.
Bonus offer!
Enclose the name and address of you friends, along with examples of their hacking prowess, and they could share you prize AT ABSOLUTELY NO EXTRA CHARGE!!!!!
"Friend Citizen, why have you not taken advantage of Friend Computer's facility for storing your medical records? We realise it is totally optional, but your decision to do this has increased your treason by five points, initiating a tax audit."
There's optional and there's "Optional". You want to live in something other than a cardboard box? Better play nice or we'll think you're suspicious...
A lot of the security we currently enjoy (in my country) stems from the fact that there is no easy way to get a compiled list of my person details without someone expending a considerable amount of effort to collect medical records from my doctor and to visit my bank. This has real potential to be a honeypot for opportunistic snooping and later ammendment, "of course you employer's insurer should be allowed to see your medical records to stamp out insurance fraud..."
By extension of the centremost carpal structure in the dexerous hemisphere of a member of the Homo sapiens species, Amazon is able to communicate an intent to undertake legal action from a distance in a single action.
Subsidiary to this is a patent on a client side response service where consumers grab their ankles and pucker their sphincter to accomodate the writ serving protocol.
1) Use a little extra.
It's so cheap, there's no point in stuffing around making everything exactly the right length. If you do that, you'll waste far more when you discover that each length is exactly n. inches too short to reach your wall plate.
I left at least a couple of feet inside each wall plate so I could do stuff like use it to pull down extra lengths as needed.
2) Plan
At the moment, two runs reach from the cable modem/hub to the two bedrooms and my machines are set up next to the modem. Both runs are cat-5 and pass under the hallway closet where there's about 6 feet extra bundled up on each run. Phase 2 will see the cloest turned into a network cabinet and a 100 MBit switch installed, at this stage, the runs will be cut into half to provide 2 runs into my room plus one to each bedroom.
Take some time to ponder where/how cables will run. My initial plan was to go up through internal walls, but a little exploration showed that I could get through the exterior wall cavity using nothing more than a craft knife.
3) Punchdown blocks and solid core
Much easier than mucking around with soldering irons. Strip the cable and push it in. Done.
4)Stick to the rules
While you don't *have* to use the assigned pins/colours, you be glad you did after you stop for lunch and can't remember where you got to.
5) Test somewhere discrete first
Do the lounge room wall last so it'll be the neatest. Do the closet first in case you make a mess of it.
Arc until about rev7 was great, but ESRI are progressively turning their product line into crap. They are also comitted to tying their product line inexorably into COM/DCOM.
There are far better people to be courting, people who are actually doing more than lip service to OpenGIS standards (AFAIK ArcIMS *still* doesn't do OGC compliant queries and Geography Network looks like their own duplicated "standard" for the same funtionality).
And let's not start on the Shape file format, that thing is an abomination compared to GML and should not become a defacto standard a spatial data format.
Xix.
P.S. WTF was this posted over Easter when I was away from net access??? Will anyone actually read a/. article more than 12 hours old???
File and application sizes have never been a concern to Microsoft. Look at the size of downloads for a) a web browser, b) Real Player and c) a messaging client.
I'd never consider shifting to a proprietary format that is owned and controlled by an entity that can be sued by the RIAA.
Scenario:
1. People say boo about XP because they can just not use the approved player and wma works fine anyway.
2. MP3 declines into disuse since it sounds like crap comapred to wma.
3. Some distant release of Windows locks down the audio drivers so that only authenticated applications can use them at anything above 78 rpm.
4. MP3 players that do not conform to RIAA desires are locked out.
5. Someone is sued under DCMA for publishing a registry hack that circumvents these safeguards.
6. The next release of Windows "repairs" itself or finks to MS if anyone tampers with it. "I'm sorry, your driver checksum has failed, formatting drive c:"
The argument "this is not too bad" just doesn't wash in the longer term.
Helpdesk: "Carrier helpdesk, how can I help you enjoy your day?"
User: "Hi, I can't seem to switch on my air conditioning. I used to be able to hit a switch marked 'on' and set the temperature using a dial"
Helpdesk: "OK, have you re-booted your computer?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: Have you tried rebooting the air conditioner?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have you installed the Carrier CD-ROM supplied by IBM?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have you tired reconfiguring your TCP/IP stack and re-installing your network card?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have I tried to blame it on your ISP?"
<time passes>
Helpdesk: "Now navigate to the widget marked "temperature" and enter the temperature of the room in degree Kelvin, *please* make sure you set a value greater than 270 as freezing your lounge room to absolute zero will invalidate your warranty".
<time passes>
Helpdesk: "Can I get you to open the folder marked 'windows' and scroll down until you find a file called "CARRIER.DLL", when you find it, right mouse on it and select properties.
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "What version does it say it is?"
User: "version 3.11.09b"
Helpdesk: "OK, that should work with your version of air conditioner and your version of WindowsYQ. Let's try resetting the parameters in 'aircondpnl.ini' to match your hot keys"
User: "But it's hot here already..."
<time passes>
Help desk: "Oh, I see. You have installed the Southern hemisphere application. Our more recent automatic software update would have set the correct cooling program for you. But because you installed the incorrect application, this new feature is not going to function correctly in your hemispehere. If you un-install your air conditioner and re-install it with the Northern hemispehere application, it will stop heating your house. Have a nice summer Sir."
Part of the reason to go with a dedicate server from an ISP is to outsource system administration. No one amongst us is a full time computer security officer
If the original agreement with the ISP was that the ISP would admin the box and keep it secure, it doesn't matter how hard up they are. If a company promises something and does not deliver, they should either do it properly or refund. We have our firewalling and hosting outsourced, it's not cheap, but the agreement is that we do not need to do "weekly or even daily checking for new holes, fixing old holes, testing for weaknesses, logging everything, searching the logs for the unknown, etc, etc". That is why we pay them rather than fdisk a PC somewhere and hope package maintainers are reasonably prompt in fixing stuff. It works well because the same security can be applied to a truck load of other sites who also use the service and we pay less for a lot more security than we could afford to do on our own.
Of course some responsibility needs to fall on the buyer. If someone offers you a Porsche for $29.95, you shouldn't be suprised if it is not what you expected.
Xix.
I want Exceed on my Windows Terminal Server!
on
TCP/IP Over HTTP
·
· Score: 1
So I can run Java VM on NT on Solaris on Linux on NT on Solaris. Then I symlink/dev/random to a cron script that submits stories to/.
Slashdot Mirror
I am on Telstra because there are no other options for broadband access where I live. Telstra can do whatever they like because I cannot get bandwidth from anyone else.
What annoys me is that Telstra would probably not let me change my cel-phone contract just because I decided it was costing me too much. Out and out double standards. Fair enough if my contract expired and they didn't offer the same terms again, but it seems my "contract" counts for squat unless Telstra wants to screw me.
Xix.
This was suggested when Commodore first hit the ropes. Fans buy shares because they like the company/product, not because the management have sane or sustainable business model. Commodore went down the toilet anyway, though I don't think many people bought shares.
The problem? The management continues the do stupid things because they know the shareholders are not expecting to make a profit anyway. OK, maybe they won't, but I'd not be expecting any kind of returns if I bought shares.
One company here is having all sorts of problems because its shareholder base is too fragmented to shove the current board.
I'd much rather put my money into things like Debian donations than propping up someone's profit making concern.
How about setting up a mutual society? A publically listed corporation is not the only company model out there and I think some of the other ones might be better for Linux development.
Xix.
So if I had a really funky G3 phone that could pull decent bandwidth, I could do voice over IP and run it through an encrypted PPP and be able to talk to other phones even if they weren't of the same brand? As a bonus, the encryption would be in software rather than on a chip.
And a bans on software implementations would a lot harder to enforce.
Xix.
I had niggledy back problems until I turfed my shonky swivel chair and insisted on a proper typist's chair (high back, arm rests). If you can't get professional advice, read about properly setting up your computer (monitor height, how your arms hang, etc.). That was 5 years ago, and I haven't had a problem since (I also got a futon mattress at the same time).
You might also consider getting a giant inflatable ball to sit on. Yes, really. You can't just sit on it and you do a bit of exercise just keeping yourself upright.
Xix.
So I am hoping that there is some external way of verifying that any changes that went in since the crack can be verified as bona-fide. Shouldn't contributed stuff in large projects be GPG signed or something? They can try insert code, but they'd have to fake/steal a key as well, at least that would narrow down what you would need to look at.
:o)
Xix.
P.S. I am largely ignorant of how it is all put together, so I am quite possibly asking some obvious/silly questions. I promise to go away and do some reading now.
Xix.
UseNet has grown to the point that smaller ISPs seem to offer quite sucky newsfeeds on account of the volume. A couple of years back, a group of us had problems with articles expirng before they made it off the ISPs news spool. The only way to reliably propagate articles was to go via Deja. This suited the ISPs because it was a lot less hassle to them than chewing more disk/bandwidth.
/dev/null, and a public infrastructure becomes a private asset. Taking the cost of maintaining news spool from ISPs is a great way of achieving just that. Imagine if M$ then bought UseNet from Google and "enhanced" it.
Now we already have the situation where UseNet is Deja (Google) for most people. Where does Google get its news from now? How about a year from now when (hypothetically) they have the lions share of traffic? Will they resist the urge to set up policies that cement their position?
For example, giving preference to articles originating from Google or affiliated ISPs (negating the need for ISPs to maintain their own spools)?
I am concerned that we'll see a UseNet where posting outside Google affiliated channels is as good as posting to
NOTE: I am *NOT* saying that this is happening now, but I cannot see why it couldn't happen.
On a side note, can I set up a web-proxy that honours "no proxy" and claim that any Google traffic passing through it is using my faciltiies to improve their customer's enjoyment of the service, and therefore I get a non exclusive licence to Google/usenet too?
Xix.
And Jobs begat Gassee who begat Geiselbrecht who begat...
MacOS, NeXT, BeOS, NewOS...
Xix.
Well they are doomed to failure then, aren't they? After all everyone (M$) *knows* that you cannot make money or be viable if you use Open Source software.
Good luck to them, I think we need a few companies making extortionate profits from free software. I won't be queuing up to help them make a buck, but I will be expecting them to add to the software base.
Xix.
> Fourth, Grub will provide consulting services
> for companies wanting to set up their own Grub
> networks. Large corporate intranets could be
> quickly and efficiently indexed into a central
> database with the Grub client/server model.
> Consulting and coding for these proprietary
> installations is a common model in Open Source
> oriented businesses like Sendmail, MySQL and
> Apache.
As long as the police can confiscate your computer, they can jail you for breaking national laws. The kiddie pR0n issue alone is enough reason for most countries to want content control.
Xix.
Now seriously, would *you* install a p2p client/server that comes from the same guys who do Back Oriface?
Sure you read the source...
Xix.
"Today, any government putting work under GPL is walling it (the work) off from commercial business,"
The USGS makes all of their very expensively collected data available for free at their website, http://www.usgs.gov. It is made freely available on the premise that the US tax payer has already paid for it once and shouldn't have to pay for it again. This is a policy decision that was reached very deliberately. Now the questions are:
My point is that this is as much a challenge to the function of government, and it seems MS would prefer to see a marginalised government as seen in "Snowcrash". The assumption that this country exists for the benefit of private companies and not its citizens is only that and must be challenged.
Xix.
"Now you know you should rotate your black holes every 5 billion years. I'm afraid it's all out of balance now and I'll have to do an entropy balance to get your event horizons right again..."
Xix.
The SDMI hacking challenge will be back in 2002, bigger and better than ever!
How do I enter?
Simply send us a SASE with self inciminating details to SDMI Challenge, PO Box 123456, Circle 8, Hades 83911. Our courtesy baliffs will contact you shortly after.
What do I win?
Winners will receive 25 years, all expennses paid internment at a penitentiary of our discretion. This includes all accomodation and meals, along with complementary entertainment provided by fellow inmate Mr, Kaczynski.
Bonus offer!
Enclose the name and address of you friends, along with examples of their hacking prowess, and they could share you prize AT ABSOLUTELY NO EXTRA CHARGE!!!!!
There's optional and there's "Optional". You want to live in something other than a cardboard box? Better play nice or we'll think you're suspicious...
A lot of the security we currently enjoy (in my country) stems from the fact that there is no easy way to get a compiled list of my person details without someone expending a considerable amount of effort to collect medical records from my doctor and to visit my bank. This has real potential to be a honeypot for opportunistic snooping and later ammendment, "of course you employer's insurer should be allowed to see your medical records to stamp out insurance fraud..."
Xix.
By extension of the centremost carpal structure in the dexerous hemisphere of a member of the Homo sapiens species, Amazon is able to communicate an intent to undertake legal action from a distance in a single action.
Subsidiary to this is a patent on a client side response service where consumers grab their ankles and pucker their sphincter to accomodate the writ serving protocol.
Xix.
It's so cheap, there's no point in stuffing around making everything exactly the right length. If you do that, you'll waste far more when you discover that each length is exactly n. inches too short to reach your wall plate.
I left at least a couple of feet inside each wall plate so I could do stuff like use it to pull down extra lengths as needed.
2) Plan
At the moment, two runs reach from the cable modem/hub to the two bedrooms and my machines are set up next to the modem. Both runs are cat-5 and pass under the hallway closet where there's about 6 feet extra bundled up on each run. Phase 2 will see the cloest turned into a network cabinet and a 100 MBit switch installed, at this stage, the runs will be cut into half to provide 2 runs into my room plus one to each bedroom.
Take some time to ponder where/how cables will run. My initial plan was to go up through internal walls, but a little exploration showed that I could get through the exterior wall cavity using nothing more than a craft knife.
3) Punchdown blocks and solid core
Much easier than mucking around with soldering irons. Strip the cable and push it in. Done.
4)Stick to the rules
While you don't *have* to use the assigned pins/colours, you be glad you did after you stop for lunch and can't remember where you got to.
5) Test somewhere discrete first
Do the lounge room wall last so it'll be the neatest. Do the closet first in case you make a mess of it.
Xix.
Arc until about rev7 was great, but ESRI are progressively turning their product line into crap. They are also comitted to tying their product line inexorably into COM/DCOM.
/. article more than 12 hours old???
There are far better people to be courting, people who are actually doing more than lip service to OpenGIS standards (AFAIK ArcIMS *still* doesn't do OGC compliant queries and Geography Network looks like their own duplicated "standard" for the same funtionality).
And let's not start on the Shape file format, that thing is an abomination compared to GML and should not become a defacto standard a spatial data format.
Xix.
P.S. WTF was this posted over Easter when I was away from net access??? Will anyone actually read a
File and application sizes have never been a concern to Microsoft. Look at the size of downloads for a) a web browser, b) Real Player and c) a messaging client.
I'd never consider shifting to a proprietary format that is owned and controlled by an entity that can be sued by the RIAA.
Scenario:
1. People say boo about XP because they can just not use the approved player and wma works fine anyway.
2. MP3 declines into disuse since it sounds like crap comapred to wma.
3. Some distant release of Windows locks down the audio drivers so that only authenticated applications can use them at anything above 78 rpm.
4. MP3 players that do not conform to RIAA desires are locked out.
5. Someone is sued under DCMA for publishing a registry hack that circumvents these safeguards.
6. The next release of Windows "repairs" itself or finks to MS if anyone tampers with it. "I'm sorry, your driver checksum has failed, formatting drive c:"
The argument "this is not too bad" just doesn't wash in the longer term.
Xix.
"I will return, only larger and more annoying!"
Muahahaaaahaa....
Helpdesk: "Carrier helpdesk, how can I help you enjoy your day?"
User: "Hi, I can't seem to switch on my air conditioning. I used to be able to hit a switch marked 'on' and set the temperature using a dial"
Helpdesk: "OK, have you re-booted your computer?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: Have you tried rebooting the air conditioner?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have you installed the Carrier CD-ROM supplied by IBM?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have you tired reconfiguring your TCP/IP stack and re-installing your network card?"
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "Have I tried to blame it on your ISP?"
<time passes>
Helpdesk: "Now navigate to the widget marked "temperature" and enter the temperature of the room in degree Kelvin, *please* make sure you set a value greater than 270 as freezing your lounge room to absolute zero will invalidate your warranty".
<time passes>
Helpdesk: "Can I get you to open the folder marked 'windows' and scroll down until you find a file called "CARRIER.DLL", when you find it, right mouse on it and select properties.
User: "Uh-huh"
Helpdesk: "What version does it say it is?"
User: "version 3.11.09b"
Helpdesk: "OK, that should work with your version of air conditioner and your version of WindowsYQ. Let's try resetting the parameters in 'aircondpnl.ini' to match your hot keys"
User: "But it's hot here already..."
<time passes>
Help desk: "Oh, I see. You have installed the Southern hemisphere application. Our more recent automatic software update would have set the correct cooling program for you. But because you installed the incorrect application, this new feature is not going to function correctly in your hemispehere. If you un-install your air conditioner and re-install it with the Northern hemispehere application, it will stop heating your house. Have a nice summer Sir."
&AT&F ~~~~ NO CARRIER...
Because he could have achieved exactly the same effect with:
:o)
$_ =~ s/foo/bar/;
And not closed/opened/closed/opened file handles and lots of other pointless stuff.
I am still waiting for Micro$oft to release ActiveAwk and IntelliSed
Xix.
P.S. Line from fave braindead contracted Perl program I have seen this year:
system("sed -f $sedfile < $infile > $outfile");
Of course some responsibility needs to fall on the buyer. If someone offers you a Porsche for $29.95, you shouldn't be suprised if it is not what you expected.
Xix.
So I can run Java VM on NT on Solaris on Linux on NT on Solaris. Then I symlink /dev/random to a cron script that submits stories to /.