Actually, yes I do. English speakers, whether or not that was the mother tongue of all the individuals involved, after all, developed practically all the technology involved. English is the lingua franca of international commerce. Air traffic control and hotel concierges all over the world speak English.
Keep in mind that English is a very hard language to learn for fornigners for two reasons:
English has nearly 200 phonetic sounds, which can not be learned unless one learns the sounds as a little kid.
English has horrible spelling
My experience is that, while many people in fornign countries are taking English classes, they usually have an accent too thick to be readily understandable, and are, generally speaking, nowhere fluent in English.
For example, in the town am in right now, it is nearly impossible (if not impossible) to purchase an English-language newspaper.
While tourist areas currently have people who can speak something which resembles English, once one gets off the beaten path in a foreign country, one needs to have a working knowledge of the language.
Another thing: Those statistics that say "XXX million people in the world speak English" are based on the assumption that someone who has taken a single English course in a night school "speaks English". It would be like saying that sql*kitten speaks Esperanto.
Finally, Esperanto is alive and well, thank you very much.
Those miningco.com statistics are wrong. The most populated city in the world is actually Mexico city, with about 30 million people. I don't know where miningco got that 18.1 million number from.
In more detail, Mexico City officially has 25 million people, but there are 5 million or more native Americans who live in Mexico city, but aren't "officially" there.
And, about the flame war, some thoughts:
Don't get overly emotional when posting here.
I think having a web not dominated by English would be a good thing.
Like all the Linux boxen running pretty much any version of wu-ftpd and vulnerable versions of BIND (and there are A LOT) are safe.
Then again, Linux boxes running VSftpd
and any DNS server besides BIND 4/8 (like This one, or this rather shameless plug) are safe from remote root exploits.
In general I agree that bugs are a fact of life, like death and taxes. However, there are coding styles that can minimize the number of buffer overflows in code:
One can create a special string library which is resistant to buffer overflows (strings being structures which a "maximum length" value). For example, my DNS server uses such code to minimize buffer overflows (the string library is documented in man pages).
One can write code in a style where the possibility of the code being placed in an "unknown state" is minimized.
One can avoid strings wherever possible
Now, the reson I feel that Solaris had these kind of buffer overflow is because Solaris just has too much #%$ old, crufty code. The original/bin/login was developed at a time when people just wanted the code to work, and in a day an age where today's exploits did not exist.
It is possible, with today's knowledge of security issues, to code in a style which makes these kinds of security holes very unlikely. Look at Dan Bernstien's code. Look at Chris Ferret's VsFtpd.
This is why I feel that Solaris is slowly dying: Becuase Solaris has, for whatever reason, lost the motivation to replace their codebase with the features that a modern Linux system has. Some Solaris administrators are so afraid of change that they don't want to replace the Solaris userspace with the vastly superior Linux userspace. Like Eric Raymond said to the idiots that think making Python a requirment to build the kernel is a bad thing, progress happens.
Unlike proprietary software development (Amokscience appears to be a proprietary software developer who does not understand how the bazaar model of open source development works), where companies go through extensive SQA before making a release available, open-source development releases a pre-1.0 release, which the public SQAs.
If AbiWord was a proprietary software product, the only people who would be using AbiWord right now would be SQA testers. Thankfully, AbiWord is open-source, which allows people like me to use it before its formal 1.0 release.
If a person were to want to get abiword and downloaded their redhat 7.1 rpm, they'd be instantly ranting on the mailing list as it does not work for any possible install of redhat 7.1.
Over here, the GTK versions of the Abiword RPMs install and run like a charm on this RedHat 7.1 box.
I would like to take a moment to thank the AbiWord development team for the termendous effort they have put in to making a truly open-source word processor. I use AbiWord to write papers for my Spanish classes, and have seen AbiWord go from being a good to a great word processor.
There were three bugs which were annoying me in 0.9.4, and all but one of them was fixed on 0.9.5. The one they didn't fix I was able to fix myself--an option that I would not have had if AbiWord was a proprietary product.
The source code to AbiWord is clean and readily readable, the user interface to AbiWord is very professional-looking, and it is perfect for my Spanish-language compositions.
Speaking of which, I really should get off Slashdot and start working on tonight's paper.
One of the engineering problems w.r.t. trenary computing is how to have a crypto algoritm for trenary computing, since all of the modern crypto schemes assume binary computing.
One of the nice things about the Rijndael crypto algorithm is that, becuase of its "wide trail strategy" design, it is easy to adopt to different environments, including trenary computing.
I am sure that a variant of Rijndael which does everyting in "trits" instead of "bits" would have the same security features as the current Rijndael algorithm. The only thing that would have to be re-invented is the sbox. The rest (changing the galois field to a 3-base instead of a 2-base galois field, and chainging the MDS matrix used) could be simply adopted.
- Sam
Re:Spelling/Grammer Nazis...
on
Looking At Gobe
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Slashdot is really going downhill.
When a spelling flame, using hate-filled language like "basic grammer skills", gets modded up, you know it's time to find some other site which isn't such an asshole magnet.
VHS isn't used (to my limited knowledge of these things) as a media for storing binary data
Actually, the Alesis ADAT uses VHS (OK, SVHS) tapes to store digital audio, which is a form of binary data.
- Sam
We would have to come up with new crypto
on
Ternary Computing
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
Ternary systems, of course, would have to use new crypto systems, since all of the current block ciphers assume binary data.
I actually have been thinking that it should not be too hard to come up with a Rijndael variant which uses a tenary system (using a 3^n instead of a 2^8 galois field, of course), since Rijndael is an incredibly easy to understand and very flexible cipher.
The question comes to mind, of course, if whether the galois field should use the elements (-1,0,1) or use (0,1,2) to represent a single tenary bit.
Sounds like a fun project, actually.
- Sam (who only uses crypto for https and ssh, since I, as much as I enjoy the math of crypto, have a "you are as sick as you secrets" point of view)
(Sorry about the blank comment. The new Slashdot code is still really buggy)
A lot of people who are ignorant of computers have this belief that anyone who knows what they are doing can hack any computer easily. They do not believe that any form of computer security can exist.
The FBI, in particular, is very ignorant about computers and securty. Read this Month's crypto-gram (one link from the page I lined to) for a story on how sensitive FBI documents were passed on to the internet at large via SirCam.
About a year ago, there was an (mumble mumble) on-line community that I was a part of. They had a number of mailing lists. Discovering that they had a Majordomo-style interface, I proceeded to send the list-request address a LIST request.
Instead of just listing the mailing lists that exists, the program gave me a list of all mailing lists, and all people subscribed to the lists.
Later on, someone on one of the lists wondered out loud how many people were on a mailing list. I told them.
At this point, the people freked out. They though I had broken in to their system or some such. I explained how I got the information, and then said that I was going to leave. I knew that this was something that could get me in to trouble.
Thankfully, the moderator of the mailing list was a member of out family's church. I wonder what could have happened if we were not on friendly terms with these people.
A lot of people who are ignorant of computers have this belief that anyone who knows what they are doing can hack any computer easily. They do not believe that any form of computer security can exist.
The FBI, in particular, is very ignorant about computers and securty. Read this Month's crypto-gram (one link from the page I lined to) for a story on how sensitive FBI documents were passed on to the internet at large via SirCam.
About a year ago, there was an (mumble mumble) on-line community that I was a part of. They had a number of mailing lists. Discovering that they had a Majordomo-style interface, I proceeded to send the list-request address a LIST request.
Instead of just listing the mailing lists that exists, the program gave me a list of all mailing lists, and all people subscribed to the lists.
Later on, someone on one of the lists wondered out loud how many people were on a mailing list. I told them.
At this point, the people freked out. They though I had broken in to their system or some such. I explained how I got the information, and then said that I was going to leave. I knew that this was something that could get me in to trouble.
Thankfully, the moderator of the mailing list was a member of out family's church. I wonder what could have happened if we were not on friendly terms with these people.
I have a number of Loki games that I have purchased, including Heroes of Might and Magic III (one of the few games I was willing to dual-boot to play) which I was delighted to see ported to Linux, and RailRoad Tycoon II.
Loki has always done a wonderful job in porting games to Linux. While, of course, the actual games had to be proprietary, they made a number of contributions to the Linux community, including the SDK kit.
I don't know how to say this politely, so I will sa it bluntly: The average game player is the ultimate addict of the consumer culture. They want someone else to hand them entertainment on a silver platter. I can see why many gamers do not have the willingness nor patience to learn how to use Linux as a desktop operating system.
Which is a shame, because a lot of those same gamers become the corporate IT department, and end up responding to the word "Linux" with great hostility.
Anyway, enough of my rant. I hope a miracle happens and Loki is able to pull out of this one.
I will make sure to purchase every Loki game I can see at Fry's later on this week.
Can anyone tell me if the 7.0 release has Spanish language support?
I know that RedHat 7.1 has Spanish support, though RH7.1 assumes you are in Spain when installing in Spanish--a strange assumption to make, considering how big Latin America is. Note: RH7.1 doesn't support Portugese.
I would assume that Conectiva has Spanish support, but it would be nice to know this for a fact.
- Sam
People are becoming consumers, not content creater
on
Broadband Crackdown
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I can understand the thinking behind this move. The sort of people who make a decision are thinking in terms of traditional big media thinking, which goes like this:
The average American is a mere couch potato which the corporations feed information to the unwashed masses the same way the inhabinents of Huxley's Brave New World were fed soma. The average consumer has nothing to say unless what they have to say is under corporate control. While people running web servers were tolerated when what they did was not attracting the attention of the corporate suits, they are being cut off by those who feel that people really shouldn't be running personal web servers.
I am also annoyed that, while Apache and other UNIX web servers are able make a web server without countless remote root exploits, all UNIX users on these cable modems suffer because Microsoft did not make a secure web server.
Thankfully, this is easy enough to work around. E.G:
In my experience with setting up Spam filters, I have found that RBL-filtering email was very ineffective in blocking spam.
I have a fairly complicated spam filter set up for my clients, which works something like this:
BCC filter -> MAPS rbl filter -> regex filter
Until fairly recently, the BCC filter was the most effective filter for getting rid of spam. Lately, with the proliferation of DSL, spammers now have the bandwidth to send out one email per recipient, making the BCC filter less effective.
The RBL filter is very ineffective (and yes, it includes the DUL and other lists). Spammers know that a large number of sites use these filters, so they perform "hit and run" spamming, finding open mail relays to rape.
The regex filter is becoming the most effective spam filter.
That is very interesting, considering that the vowel used in "look" does not have an equivalent in Spanish. The closest one can get with Spanish vowels is either "loke" (rymes with "Coke"), or "Luke".
In a similiar vein, Mexicans pronounce the English word "Jeep" the same way Americans do, even though the "j" sound (the "soft g") in "Jeep" does not exist in Spanish.
Back when I started getting on the net, Usenet was the internet, just as the Web is the internet today. When magazine articles talked about the internet, they would list various Usenet groups and describe what people talked about on various groups.
Looking at Usenet today, I am not happy with what I see. I see petty little turf wars, where the regulars bully anyone they consider to be a newcomer. For example, in alt.usage.english, someone had a question about the passive voice. One regular basically told the person that they were an idiot for not knowing what the passive voice is, since any Junior high school textbook on grammer can tell you what the passive voice is. When the original poster, in a rather gentle manner, tried to defend himself, he was flamed by other regulars on the newsgroup. It was a professional linguist who explained that the stuff those junior high school textbooks teach kids is very innaccurace, and, in his words "based on mythology".
The problem with Usenet is that there is no moderation. As imperfect as the moderation system is, it is an effective way to moderate the people who want to play "king of the hill" with an online community by bullying anyone who threatens their turf down to the level of the goatse links. In fact, I can argue that a large number of people trool Slashdot because of their frustration at not being able to engage in the usual Usenet bullying tactics.
Another traditional online exchange which encourages bullying turf wars is IRC.
I note that both Usenet and IRC are online forums largely dominated by men. It would not surprise me if one of the reasons women do not use these exchanges is because the petty turf wars turn the women off.
"If it doesn't work, there is a reason; something is wrong. Rebooting will not fix the problem."
Not always true. I used to admin JSP-based web servers. My experience is that the Java virtuals machines that server jsp pages have a way of starting to act funny. Stopping and restarting the services fixes the problem.
If I was ever building a network, I would not allow JSP to be a part of the network for this very reason.
Then again, if a JSP guru knows what can cause a JSP engine to act wonky, or how to set up a JSP engine so it is stable and doesn't need reboots, please post a follow up describing how to do this.
Slashdot Mirror
That is what they said about French 100 years ago.
- Sam
Keep in mind that English is a very hard language to learn for fornigners for two reasons:
- English has nearly 200 phonetic sounds, which can not be learned unless one learns the sounds as a little kid.
- English has horrible spelling
My experience is that, while many people in fornign countries are taking English classes, they usually have an accent too thick to be readily understandable, and are, generally speaking, nowhere fluent in English.For example, in the town am in right now, it is nearly impossible (if not impossible) to purchase an English-language newspaper.
While tourist areas currently have people who can speak something which resembles English, once one gets off the beaten path in a foreign country, one needs to have a working knowledge of the language.
Another thing: Those statistics that say "XXX million people in the world speak English" are based on the assumption that someone who has taken a single English course in a night school "speaks English". It would be like saying that sql*kitten speaks Esperanto.
Finally, Esperanto is alive and well, thank you very much.
- Sam
In more detail, Mexico City officially has 25 million people, but there are 5 million or more native Americans who live in Mexico city, but aren't "officially" there.
And, about the flame war, some thoughts:
- Don't get overly emotional when posting here.
- I think having a web not dominated by English would be a good thing.
- SamThen again, Linux boxes running VSftpd and any DNS server besides BIND 4/8 (like This one, or this rather shameless plug) are safe from remote root exploits.
- Sam
It is obvious that you have some serious emotional problems that posting to slashdot will not solve.
Seriously: See a doctor or other mental health professional. The sooner, the better.
I hope that you get better soon. It is obvious that you are very miserable.
- Sam
In general I agree that bugs are a fact of life, like death and taxes. However, there are coding styles that can minimize the number of buffer overflows in code:
- One can create a special string library which is resistant to buffer overflows (strings being structures which a "maximum length" value). For example, my DNS server uses such code to minimize buffer overflows (the string library is documented in man pages).
- One can write code in a style where the possibility of the code being placed in an "unknown state" is minimized.
- One can avoid strings wherever possible
Now, the reson I feel that Solaris had these kind of buffer overflow is because Solaris just has too much #%$ old, crufty code. The originalIt is possible, with today's knowledge of security issues, to code in a style which makes these kinds of security holes very unlikely. Look at Dan Bernstien's code. Look at Chris Ferret's VsFtpd.
This is why I feel that Solaris is slowly dying: Becuase Solaris has, for whatever reason, lost the motivation to replace their codebase with the features that a modern Linux system has. Some Solaris administrators are so afraid of change that they don't want to replace the Solaris userspace with the vastly superior Linux userspace. Like Eric Raymond said to the idiots that think making Python a requirment to build the kernel is a bad thing, progress happens.
- Sam
If AbiWord was a proprietary software product, the only people who would be using AbiWord right now would be SQA testers. Thankfully, AbiWord is open-source, which allows people like me to use it before its formal 1.0 release.
- Sam
Over here, the GTK versions of the Abiword RPMs install and run like a charm on this RedHat 7.1 box.
- Sam
There were three bugs which were annoying me in 0.9.4, and all but one of them was fixed on 0.9.5. The one they didn't fix I was able to fix myself--an option that I would not have had if AbiWord was a proprietary product.
The source code to AbiWord is clean and readily readable, the user interface to AbiWord is very professional-looking, and it is perfect for my Spanish-language compositions.
Speaking of which, I really should get off Slashdot and start working on tonight's paper.
- Sam
The reason to use Debian is not APT anymore -- it
is QA
I will second this. Debian devlopers have provided invaluable assistance with finding bugs in my particular free software project.
- Sam
One of the engineering problems w.r.t. trenary computing is how to have a crypto algoritm for trenary computing, since all of the modern crypto schemes assume binary computing.
One of the nice things about the Rijndael crypto algorithm is that, becuase of its "wide trail strategy" design, it is easy to adopt to different environments, including trenary computing.
I am sure that a variant of Rijndael which does everyting in "trits" instead of "bits" would have the same security features as the current Rijndael algorithm. The only thing that would have to be re-invented is the sbox. The rest (changing the galois field to a 3-base instead of a 2-base galois field, and chainging the MDS matrix used) could be simply adopted.
- Sam
When a spelling flame, using hate-filled language like "basic grammer skills", gets modded up, you know it's time to find some other site which isn't such an asshole magnet.
Actually, the Alesis ADAT uses VHS (OK, SVHS) tapes to store digital audio, which is a form of binary data.
- Sam
I actually have been thinking that it should not be too hard to come up with a Rijndael variant which uses a tenary system (using a 3^n instead of a 2^8 galois field, of course), since Rijndael is an incredibly easy to understand and very flexible cipher.
The question comes to mind, of course, if whether the galois field should use the elements (-1,0,1) or use (0,1,2) to represent a single tenary bit.
Sounds like a fun project, actually.
- Sam (who only uses crypto for https and ssh, since I, as much as I enjoy the math of crypto, have a "you are as sick as you secrets" point of view)
For those that cant read Spanish, "BlowCat" is saying that Debian has to have a better name.
- Sam
The bug is that, when a comment is newly submitted, it appears blank for a minute or two, and will intermittently go from being blank to unblank.
- Sam
A lot of people who are ignorant of computers have this belief that anyone who knows what they are doing can hack any computer easily. They do not believe that any form of computer security can exist.
The FBI, in particular, is very ignorant about computers and securty. Read this Month's crypto-gram (one link from the page I lined to) for a story on how sensitive FBI documents were passed on to the internet at large via SirCam.
About a year ago, there was an (mumble mumble) on-line community that I was a part of. They had a number of mailing lists. Discovering that they had a Majordomo-style interface, I proceeded to send the list-request address a LIST request.
Instead of just listing the mailing lists that exists, the program gave me a list of all mailing lists, and all people subscribed to the lists.
Later on, someone on one of the lists wondered out loud how many people were on a mailing list. I told them.
At this point, the people freked out. They though I had broken in to their system or some such. I explained how I got the information, and then said that I was going to leave. I knew that this was something that could get me in to trouble.
Thankfully, the moderator of the mailing list was a member of out family's church. I wonder what could have happened if we were not on friendly terms with these people.
Finally, I wonder why the FBI persues crap like this, and not stuff like legitimate problems where the FBI could really help (scrool down to the section where he describes his dealing with the FBI).
- Sam
The FBI, in particular, is very ignorant about computers and securty. Read this Month's crypto-gram (one link from the page I lined to) for a story on how sensitive FBI documents were passed on to the internet at large via SirCam.
About a year ago, there was an (mumble mumble) on-line community that I was a part of. They had a number of mailing lists. Discovering that they had a Majordomo-style interface, I proceeded to send the list-request address a LIST request.
Instead of just listing the mailing lists that exists, the program gave me a list of all mailing lists, and all people subscribed to the lists.
Later on, someone on one of the lists wondered out loud how many people were on a mailing list. I told them.
At this point, the people freked out. They though I had broken in to their system or some such. I explained how I got the information, and then said that I was going to leave. I knew that this was something that could get me in to trouble.
Thankfully, the moderator of the mailing list was a member of out family's church. I wonder what could have happened if we were not on friendly terms with these people.
Finally, I wonder why the FBI persues crap like this, and not stuff like legitimate problems where the FBI could really help (scrool down to the section where he describes his dealing with the FBI).
- Sam
Loki has always done a wonderful job in porting games to Linux. While, of course, the actual games had to be proprietary, they made a number of contributions to the Linux community, including the SDK kit.
I don't know how to say this politely, so I will sa it bluntly: The average game player is the ultimate addict of the consumer culture. They want someone else to hand them entertainment on a silver platter. I can see why many gamers do not have the willingness nor patience to learn how to use Linux as a desktop operating system.
Which is a shame, because a lot of those same gamers become the corporate IT department, and end up responding to the word "Linux" with great hostility.
Anyway, enough of my rant. I hope a miracle happens and Loki is able to pull out of this one. I will make sure to purchase every Loki game I can see at Fry's later on this week.
- Sam
I know that RedHat 7.1 has Spanish support, though RH7.1 assumes you are in Spain when installing in Spanish--a strange assumption to make, considering how big Latin America is. Note: RH7.1 doesn't support Portugese.
I would assume that Conectiva has Spanish support, but it would be nice to know this for a fact.
- Sam
The average American is a mere couch potato which the corporations feed information to the unwashed masses the same way the inhabinents of Huxley's Brave New World were fed soma. The average consumer has nothing to say unless what they have to say is under corporate control. While people running web servers were tolerated when what they did was not attracting the attention of the corporate suits, they are being cut off by those who feel that people really shouldn't be running personal web servers.
I am also annoyed that, while Apache and other UNIX web servers are able make a web server without countless remote root exploits, all UNIX users on these cable modems suffer because Microsoft did not make a secure web server.
Thankfully, this is easy enough to work around. E.G:
- Sam
I have a fairly complicated spam filter set up for my clients, which works something like this:
BCC filter -> MAPS rbl filter -> regex filter
Until fairly recently, the BCC filter was the most effective filter for getting rid of spam. Lately, with the proliferation of DSL, spammers now have the bandwidth to send out one email per recipient, making the BCC filter less effective.
The RBL filter is very ineffective (and yes, it includes the DUL and other lists). Spammers know that a large number of sites use these filters, so they perform "hit and run" spamming, finding open mail relays to rape.
The regex filter is becoming the most effective spam filter.
Not to mention a software package I wrote.
- Sam
In a similiar vein, Mexicans pronounce the English word "Jeep" the same way Americans do, even though the "j" sound (the "soft g") in "Jeep" does not exist in Spanish.
- Sam
Looking at Usenet today, I am not happy with what I see. I see petty little turf wars, where the regulars bully anyone they consider to be a newcomer. For example, in alt.usage.english, someone had a question about the passive voice. One regular basically told the person that they were an idiot for not knowing what the passive voice is, since any Junior high school textbook on grammer can tell you what the passive voice is. When the original poster, in a rather gentle manner, tried to defend himself, he was flamed by other regulars on the newsgroup. It was a professional linguist who explained that the stuff those junior high school textbooks teach kids is very innaccurace, and, in his words "based on mythology".
For people who are interested, the thread is at http://groups.google.com/groups?safe=off&ic=1&th=a 286df8ce2d0dc9e,72
.
The problem with Usenet is that there is no moderation. As imperfect as the moderation system is, it is an effective way to moderate the people who want to play "king of the hill" with an online community by bullying anyone who threatens their turf down to the level of the goatse links. In fact, I can argue that a large number of people trool Slashdot because of their frustration at not being able to engage in the usual Usenet bullying tactics.
Another traditional online exchange which encourages bullying turf wars is IRC.
I note that both Usenet and IRC are online forums largely dominated by men. It would not surprise me if one of the reasons women do not use these exchanges is because the petty turf wars turn the women off.
- Sam
Not always true. I used to admin JSP-based web servers. My experience is that the Java virtuals machines that server jsp pages have a way of starting to act funny. Stopping and restarting the services fixes the problem.
If I was ever building a network, I would not allow JSP to be a part of the network for this very reason.
Then again, if a JSP guru knows what can cause a JSP engine to act wonky, or how to set up a JSP engine so it is stable and doesn't need reboots, please post a follow up describing how to do this.
- Sam