Releasing a hacking tool like Back
Orifice 2000 in the name of safeguarding computer privacy is a bit like the American Medical Association infecting cattle with the deadly e. coli bacteria to inspire food companies to sell healthier meats.
The correct analogy in this case would be the AMA infecting cattle with E. coli to make cattle owners produce cattle that are resistant to that bacteria. I'm not surprised he used an incorrect analogy: the right one would undermine the "popular" opinion that virii and hackers are universally bad, instead of good for flagrantly (and typically non-destructively) exploiting security flaws and shoddy programming.
So one thing I noticed a while back was that wmaker-gnome would try to do session management at the same time as gnome-session. This is unfortunate, because wmaker, upon exiting, would kill the panel and other display applications and session manage them instead of gnome-session, making things very interesting when you have more than one session running at once or when you change window managers. The fix is simple; add the following line to your WMWindowAttributes:
"*" = {DontSaveSession = Yes;};
which shuts off session management for every program. However, you'd think they would have thought to make this the default under gnome.
I don't know if this has been fixed recently, as the Netscape problems I have been encountering have forced me to move to E until I have a resolution.
I don't know if anyone else has encountered this problem, but I'm using WindowMaker-gnome 0.53.0-2 with the latest gnome unstable debs from www.debian.org/~jim/... My problem is that whenever I quit Netscape, WindowMaker crashes. It doesn't seem to happen with any other program, just Netscape (4.08, 4.5, and 4.6 all cause it).
That is not how the GPL works. What the GPL specifies is that IF you give the binary to a person, you must also make the source available to them. It does not specify that you _must_ redistribute the code. Therefore, it is still within the rights of an author (in the US outside the 9th circuit, say) to create or modify GPL'ed code that cannot be exported somewhere (cryptography software), as long as no one violates the law by exporting it.
This is a necessary practical limitation to the freedom specified by the GPL, as otherwise stupid countries' regulations (i.e., the cryptography=munitions BS in this country) would make all GPL'ed software illegal to create. RMS is not advocating breaking the law, at least not in this context. =)
I admit, it isn't very nice to set up at all. But once you figure out how to use it, it's the best mail client ever. Spam filtering? Much more intuitive than any other mail client. Inbox sorting? You can use basically any elisp expression possible to use to sort your mail. The flexibility is unbelievable.
Gnus has my vote for most functional mail client. As for ease of use, well... not. =) -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
This will probably wind up being the most important development in the US software industry ever, simply because people everywhere will now have easy, legal access to the same strong cryptography implementations. This is BIG. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Yeah, so, Star Wars isn't science fiction. You're absolutely right. It's a space opera. The distinction, at least for me, is that science is not central to the plotline of Star Wars, where it is for movies like Contact, the Terminator, and Blade Runner; Star Wars is simply executed in space, but isn't _about_ science, nor is science important to the execution of the story. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Just got the soundtrack to episode at Tower. Pretty sweet so far, though I'm not even half way through it. Definitely orth venturing out in the rain for. =) -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I always do stupid things when I'm drunk. "Yes, Billy, don't put parameters in ANGLE BRACKETS when the forum is HTML!!!!"
Line 3 should be
"In increasing order of version number, perform the following patch:
zcat [patch file] | patch -p2"
Useful additional content: The -p2 option tells the patch program how many/'s to discard in the filenames. In this case, it should discard the first two (and any preceeding non-/'s.) Man patch for more info. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Yeah, so, for the newbies who've never done a patch, here's the quick patch instruction:
Download the patch(es) -- starting at the version following the source tree you already have -- from the appropriate kernel mirror. Download the.gz version if you don't know whether you have bzip or not.
cd/usr/src/linux
In increasing order of version number, perform the following patch:
zcat | patch -p2
where you should replace zcat with bzcat if you downloaded the.bz2 versions.
For those of you not blessed with owning Signals... well, first of all, buy it -- it's a great album. Second of all, here are the lyrics, I think. (From memory, so it might not be perfect. You can probably find them elsewhere on the web.)
"Sprawling on the fringes of the city In geometric order, an insulated border In between the bright lights And the far unlit unknown.
"Growing up, it all seems so one-sided Opinions are provided, The future predecided, Detached and subdivided In the mass production zone. Nowhere is the dreamer Or the misfit so alone.
"Subdivisions In the high school halls, In the shopping malls. Conform or be cast out. Subdivisions In the basement bars, In the backs of cars. Be cool or be cast out.
"Any escape might help to smooth The unattractive truth. But the suburbs have no charms to soothe The restless dreams of youth.
"Drawn like moths we drift into the city The timeless old attraction, Cruising for the action, Lit up like a firefly, Just to feel the living night.
"Some will sell their dreams for small desires Or lose the race to rats Get caught in ticking traps, And start to dream of somewhere To relax their restless flight, Somewhere out of a memory Of lighted streets and quiet nights..."
Okay, everyone's been talking about the problems addressed in the articles, but no one has offered a way to solve them. I fear that these problems may be insoluble in the short term, but certainly are tractable in the long term.
The real question here is, how do you get kids to respect one another? Well, I think that the best way to do this is for parents to raise their kids that way. Parents set the most prominent examples for their kids in their early years, and a good model will go a long way toward keeping the jocks and popular kids from picking on the geeks and outcasts. (Of course, this has to go the other way too; I was a "bossy" kid, even at 5 years old, because I was smarter than all the other kids and I _knew_ it. Not helpful.)
But what about kids today? Is there any way to drive the culture out of the kids who are in school today? You can't allow the culture to fester, because the older kids just indoctrinate the younger ones by example. I'm not sure there's a good answer to this.
Oh, and as a result of this little trip, I have made up my mind that my kids will be going to a selective private school so they don't have to put up with the crap from the stupid kids. Private school might be less "real-world" than public school; but if what I had to go through in middle school and high school is "real-world," then my kids can do without it. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
This is unbelievable. Thanks, Jon. I never thought so many people felt the same way I did when I was in high school. Thankfully, things have changed for me in recent years (as they usually do), but that doesn't make the high school and middle school (worse for me) years any better.
Thankfully, I'm an adult and can't have my net access taken away by mommy and daddy. =) -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I run the Weitek P9000 server, and have had this problem for years. Just don't move the mouse when switching from console to X, and actually wait a second or two before moving it, and everything will be fine. It doesn't have anything to do with KDE. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
People confuse the right to speak with a "right" to be heard. You have every right to say whatever you want, within bounds; however, no one has to listen to you.
Typically I enjoy Katz' articles, but I found this one to have a rather "whiny" tone. Perhaps he should feel proud that so many people dislike his opinions enough to filter them out.
At any rate, it is my right to filter out whatever I want. The only difference between doing what the/. software does and the reader simply skipping anything with "JonKatz" at the top is that the software removes the tedium of the latter option. Sounds good to me. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
...during the LCS 35th anniversary celebration that word processors, spreadsheets, and personal databases will likely become commoditized within the next two years. This suggests that MS is going to have to move into other markets that aren't as ripe for development by the free software community.
There will always be a place for proprietary software (whether that's good or not is another story), because there will always be markets for which there does not exist a critical mass of free-minded people to development a replacement application. I'm guessing this is where MS and similar companies are going to move if Linux et al. win out. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
No, the Statas get a complex, where Gates gets a building _within_ the complex. In my opinion, the Statas are the ones getting screwed, because the new LCS will be called either "Gates Hall" or "Building 69," but there is no chance of it being called "The Stata Complex." -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Er, intend to imply. Must use preview... n/t
on
Quickielanche
·
· Score: 1
. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Met with Bill Gates at the LCS 35th reception...
on
Quickielanche
·
· Score: 2
Well, I'm not interested in spreading rumors. As much as I disagree with his stance on various issues and his general ideology, I don't hate the man -- I don't know him personally, and therefore cannot come to that conclusion. For all I know, he could be a great guy outside the office.
I did not therefore imply to imply an ad hominem attack by describing my impression of his appearance. I was simply providing the facts and letting people draw their own conclusions. However, since you asked, I will offer my own conclusions.
I think the man is under a lot of pressure: the DOJ trial, trying to raise a family, competitors -- including free software -- nipping at his heels, etc. I think it has taken its toll on him physically. Not being facetious at all, I would recommend that he take a couple of billion dollars, transfer control of the company completely to someone else, and go retire somewhere peaceful. Not doing so might literally kill him.
In the end, it just doesn't matter -- he is one man, where computer users make up a community of hundreds of millions. While I wish him no personal ill, I do hope that Microsoft either starts producing better (read: more reliable, with less feature-creep) software, or gets out of the way and lets free software do what it eventually will.
Yet -- and yes, this is turing into a bit of a diatribe -- I am in somewhat of a quandry with that last statement. There will always be those of us to whom freedom and openness are important. I, for one, will never again run a closed operating system. (My system is certified Microsoft-free!) But I don't really care what the guy down the street runs. It just doesn't matter to me. Sure, I want any computer that I interact with to respond properly, and I want any services I use on the internet to work well, so I don't want Microsoft operating systems running bank services, or the military, or so forth. But Joe Sixpack can keep upgrading to the newest service pack of Windows, for all I care.
So, I guess choice is the most important thing I care about. The choice to run proprietary software, or to run free software. I do think that free software will eventually win out in most markets just on technical merits, but I don't think that all software should be forced to be free.
Okay, diatribe off. I'll try to make this a bit more lucid tomorrow. I'm off to bed -- rise and shine at 6:30 EDT tomorrow. (Ugh...)
-- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Met with Bill Gates at the LCS 35th reception...
on
Quickielanche
·
· Score: 2
After Bill and some other dignitaries spoke for a few minutes (including Frank Gehry, the architect of the new LCS and AI complex), everyone crowded around Mr. Gates. After a few minutes, I got closer to him and noticed that he looked really old, or weary. His skin was parched, his pores were really big, and his hair was graying; this is certainly not what I expected of the world's richest man in his early-40's.
When I finally got to speak to him, I said exactly one thing: "I disagree with your stance on proprietary software, but we appreciate the donation of a new building." He rolled his eyes and gave no verbal response. That certainly made my night. =) I managed to tell him exactly what I thought of his empire without embarrassing myself, the LCS, or MIT in the process.
Incidentally, I was wearing a suit and not an Obi-wan Kenobi costume.
If anyone has any questions, I might be able to tell you more; it was an interesting experience, considering how I expected him to be very impressive and very professional. I was quite surprised. -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Looks like IIS can't handle being slashdotted. Let's all take this moment to thank Bill Gates personally for his crappy software. Incidentally, he's coming to the LCS at MIT tonight and tomorrow to meet with faculty, students, and administrators and to give a keynote address, and probably to announce the donation of a new building to CS.
I like the irony in helping to develop the future of practical computing _without_ Microsoft, working from inside "Gates Hall." Fascinating possibilities there.
To a real OO programmer, multiple inheritance separates the Javas and ObjC's of the world from the C++'s of the world. C++ is simply superior for this reason. =)
I'm serious in concept, but joking in tone. Java has it's place, too. ("I sort glass. Don't throw me away.") -- Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Slashdot Mirror
The correct analogy in this case would be the AMA infecting cattle with E. coli to make cattle owners produce cattle that are resistant to that bacteria. I'm not surprised he used an incorrect analogy: the right one would undermine the "popular" opinion that virii and hackers are universally bad, instead of good for flagrantly (and typically non-destructively) exploiting security flaws and shoddy programming.
Kyle
NP: Arkhe, S/T
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
So one thing I noticed a while back was that wmaker-gnome would try to do session management at the same time as gnome-session. This is unfortunate, because wmaker, upon exiting, would kill the panel and other display applications and session manage them instead of gnome-session, making things very interesting when you have more than one session running at once or when you change window managers. The fix is simple; add the following line to your WMWindowAttributes:
"*" = {DontSaveSession = Yes;};
which shuts off session management for every program. However, you'd think they would have thought to make this the default under gnome.
I don't know if this has been fixed recently, as the Netscape problems I have been encountering have forced me to move to E until I have a resolution.
Kyle
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I don't know if anyone else has encountered this problem, but I'm using WindowMaker-gnome 0.53.0-2 with the latest gnome unstable debs from www.debian.org/~jim/... My problem is that whenever I quit Netscape, WindowMaker crashes. It doesn't seem to happen with any other program, just Netscape (4.08, 4.5, and 4.6 all cause it).
Any ideas?
Kyle
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
That is not how the GPL works. What the GPL specifies is that IF you give the binary to a person, you must also make the source available to them. It does not specify that you _must_ redistribute the code. Therefore, it is still within the rights of an author (in the US outside the 9th circuit, say) to create or modify GPL'ed code that cannot be exported somewhere (cryptography software), as long as no one violates the law by exporting it.
This is a necessary practical limitation to the freedom specified by the GPL, as otherwise stupid countries' regulations (i.e., the cryptography=munitions BS in this country) would make all GPL'ed software illegal to create. RMS is not advocating breaking the law, at least not in this context. =)
Kyle
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
...it damn well better be, because of the GPL.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I admit, it isn't very nice to set up at all. But once you figure out how to use it, it's the best mail client ever. Spam filtering? Much more intuitive than any other mail client. Inbox sorting? You can use basically any elisp expression possible to use to sort your mail. The flexibility is unbelievable.
Gnus has my vote for most functional mail client. As for ease of use, well... not. =)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
ROAR!!!!!!!
Just had to let loose a bit..
This will probably wind up being the most important development in the US software industry ever, simply because people everywhere will now have easy, legal access to the same strong cryptography implementations. This is BIG.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Yeah, so, Star Wars isn't science fiction. You're absolutely right. It's a space opera. The distinction, at least for me, is that science is not central to the plotline of Star Wars, where it is for movies like Contact, the Terminator, and Blade Runner; Star Wars is simply executed in space, but isn't _about_ science, nor is science important to the execution of the story.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Just got the soundtrack to episode at Tower. Pretty sweet so far, though I'm not even half way through it. Definitely orth venturing out in the rain for. =)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I guess I should get with the program. I don't think that script existed when I started compiling kernels.
It took me almost a year after the appearance of "menuconfig" to start using it instead of "config". =)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I always do stupid things when I'm drunk. "Yes, Billy, don't put parameters in ANGLE BRACKETS when the forum is HTML!!!!"
/'s to discard in the filenames. In this case, it should discard the first two (and any preceeding non-/'s.) Man patch for more info.
Line 3 should be
"In increasing order of version number, perform the following patch:
zcat [patch file] | patch -p2"
Useful additional content: The -p2 option tells the patch program how many
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
That 2 always annoyed me. =)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
where you should replace zcat with bzcat if you downloaded the
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
For those of you not blessed with owning Signals... well, first of all, buy it -- it's a great album. Second of all, here are the lyrics, I think. (From memory, so it might not be perfect. You can probably find them elsewhere on the web.)
"Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order, an insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown.
"Growing up, it all seems so one-sided
Opinions are provided,
The future predecided,
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone.
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone.
"Subdivisions
In the high school halls,
In the shopping malls.
Conform or be cast out.
Subdivisions
In the basement bars,
In the backs of cars.
Be cool or be cast out.
"Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth.
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth.
"Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction,
Cruising for the action,
Lit up like a firefly,
Just to feel the living night.
"Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps,
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight,
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets and quiet nights..."
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Okay, everyone's been talking about the problems addressed in the articles, but no one has offered a way to solve them. I fear that these problems may be insoluble in the short term, but certainly are tractable in the long term.
The real question here is, how do you get kids to respect one another? Well, I think that the best way to do this is for parents to raise their kids that way. Parents set the most prominent examples for their kids in their early years, and a good model will go a long way toward keeping the jocks and popular kids from picking on the geeks and outcasts. (Of course, this has to go the other way too; I was a "bossy" kid, even at 5 years old, because I was smarter than all the other kids and I _knew_ it. Not helpful.)
But what about kids today? Is there any way to drive the culture out of the kids who are in school today? You can't allow the culture to fester, because the older kids just indoctrinate the younger ones by example. I'm not sure there's a good answer to this.
Oh, and as a result of this little trip, I have made up my mind that my kids will be going to a selective private school so they don't have to put up with the crap from the stupid kids. Private school might be less "real-world" than public school; but if what I had to go through in middle school and high school is "real-world," then my kids can do without it.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
This is unbelievable. Thanks, Jon. I never thought so many people felt the same way I did when I was in high school. Thankfully, things have changed for me in recent years (as they usually do), but that doesn't make the high school and middle school (worse for me) years any better.
Thankfully, I'm an adult and can't have my net access taken away by mommy and daddy. =)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
I run the Weitek P9000 server, and have had this problem for years. Just don't move the mouse when switching from console to X, and actually wait a second or two before moving it, and everything will be fine. It doesn't have anything to do with KDE.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
People confuse the right to speak with a "right" to be heard. You have every right to say whatever you want, within bounds; however, no one has to listen to you.
/. software does and the reader simply skipping anything with "JonKatz" at the top is that the software removes the tedium of the latter option. Sounds good to me.
Typically I enjoy Katz' articles, but I found this one to have a rather "whiny" tone. Perhaps he should feel proud that so many people dislike his opinions enough to filter them out.
At any rate, it is my right to filter out whatever I want. The only difference between doing what the
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
...during the LCS 35th anniversary celebration that word processors, spreadsheets, and personal databases will likely become commoditized within the next two years. This suggests that MS is going to have to move into other markets that aren't as ripe for development by the free software community.
There will always be a place for proprietary software (whether that's good or not is another story), because there will always be markets for which there does not exist a critical mass of free-minded people to development a replacement application. I'm guessing this is where MS and similar companies are going to move if Linux et al. win out.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
No, the Statas get a complex, where Gates gets a building _within_ the complex. In my opinion, the Statas are the ones getting screwed, because the new LCS will be called either "Gates Hall" or "Building 69," but there is no chance of it being called "The Stata Complex."
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Well, I'm not interested in spreading rumors. As much as I disagree with his stance on various issues and his general ideology, I don't hate the man -- I don't know him personally, and therefore cannot come to that conclusion. For all I know, he could be a great guy outside the office.
I did not therefore imply to imply an ad hominem attack by describing my impression of his appearance. I was simply providing the facts and letting people draw their own conclusions. However, since you asked, I will offer my own conclusions.
I think the man is under a lot of pressure: the DOJ trial, trying to raise a family, competitors -- including free software -- nipping at his heels, etc. I think it has taken its toll on him physically. Not being facetious at all, I would recommend that he take a couple of billion dollars, transfer control of the company completely to someone else, and go retire somewhere peaceful. Not doing so might literally kill him.
In the end, it just doesn't matter -- he is one man, where computer users make up a community of hundreds of millions. While I wish him no personal ill, I do hope that Microsoft either starts producing better (read: more reliable, with less feature-creep) software, or gets out of the way and lets free software do what it eventually will.
Yet -- and yes, this is turing into a bit of a diatribe -- I am in somewhat of a quandry with that last statement. There will always be those of us to whom freedom and openness are important. I, for one, will never again run a closed operating system. (My system is certified Microsoft-free!) But I don't really care what the guy down the street runs. It just doesn't matter to me. Sure, I want any computer that I interact with to respond properly, and I want any services I use on the internet to work well, so I don't want Microsoft operating systems running bank services, or the military, or so forth. But Joe Sixpack can keep upgrading to the newest service pack of Windows, for all I care.
So, I guess choice is the most important thing I care about. The choice to run proprietary software, or to run free software. I do think that free software will eventually win out in most markets just on technical merits, but I don't think that all software should be forced to be free.
Okay, diatribe off. I'll try to make this a bit more lucid tomorrow. I'm off to bed -- rise and shine at 6:30 EDT tomorrow. (Ugh...)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
After Bill and some other dignitaries spoke for a few minutes (including Frank Gehry, the architect of the new LCS and AI complex), everyone crowded around Mr. Gates. After a few minutes, I got closer to him and noticed that he looked really old, or weary. His skin was parched, his pores were really big, and his hair was graying; this is certainly not what I expected of the world's richest man in his early-40's.
When I finally got to speak to him, I said exactly one thing: "I disagree with your stance on proprietary software, but we appreciate the donation of a new building." He rolled his eyes and gave no verbal response. That certainly made my night. =) I managed to tell him exactly what I thought of his empire without embarrassing myself, the LCS, or MIT in the process.
Incidentally, I was wearing a suit and not an Obi-wan Kenobi costume.
If anyone has any questions, I might be able to tell you more; it was an interesting experience, considering how I expected him to be very impressive and very professional. I was quite surprised.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
Looks like IIS can't handle being slashdotted. Let's all take this moment to thank Bill Gates personally for his crappy software. Incidentally, he's coming to the LCS at MIT tonight and tomorrow to meet with faculty, students, and administrators and to give a keynote address, and probably to announce the donation of a new building to CS.
I like the irony in helping to develop the future of practical computing _without_ Microsoft, working from inside "Gates Hall." Fascinating possibilities there.
Kyle
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
To a real OO programmer, multiple inheritance separates the Javas and ObjC's of the world from the C++'s of the world. C++ is simply superior for this reason. =)
I'm serious in concept, but joking in tone. Java has it's place, too. ("I sort glass. Don't throw me away.")
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS