...does the unique identifier make it "personally identifiable" information? (I'd say yes -- a Social Security Number is a unique (well, almost) identifier, for example.)
In the UK at least someone's IP address in your apache logs is considered personal information. This makes it quite inconvenient as a sysadmin, because over here there are really strict rules about what you can do with those.
In fact, I think that this might be illegal in the UK at least - under the Data Protection Act. Unfortunately, I don't think the states has an equivalent
The conference that Alan Cox spoke at yesterday was organised by the Campaign for Digital Rights - we are trying to do something about this, and other similar laws. Anyone in the UK, or Europe in general, who wants to help fight this, should consider at least signing up to our mailing list.
We have about 6 months before the EUCD becomes law in this country to try and mitigate it as miuch as possible, and try and stop all the massive loopholes that the media industry is going to exploit in it. Any help we can get is alway appreciated!
How about a database filesystem, like MySQLFS (mentioned on slashdot along with BeOS filesystem).
The only problem is, this project appears dead in the water. If anyone knows of an equivelant system, for this or another database, I'd like to know. It makes a neat way of being able to do queries, and still access the files directly through the FS. You can even end up with dirs containing all the files in your query, then just use that directory to input to whatever program you like - nice.
Let's be honest. Your average sysadmin doesn't want to have to deal with package management and keeping a system up-to-date.
This is why I use Debian. Being able to just type apt-get update; apt-get upgrade, and all the packages and dependencies are upgraded, security patches applied etc, is just fantastic. Of course, its because of the way debian manages its packaging as a whole, not just the tools.
I don't know what the problem you had with this was, I have a Promise IDE card (not raid) and the same 3com card. Which netboot were you using? the potato one? download the woody netinst CD iso if you were - that should work fine. Woody is very nearly the stable version, and unless there is a reason you *really* need to go with debian/stable, woody is the best bet. More stuff supported anyway, although it still has 2.2.19 as the default kernel, theres a copy of 2.4.something there too.
I promise you, when you've played with apt - you will *not* want to use anything else.
The claim that installation or copying into RAM to run software represents some sort of restricted copying is as silly as claiming that making a tape copy of a CD to listen to in the car is restricted. So why is computer software somehow different?
Thats actually a bad analogy, and rather interesting. In the UK it is illegal to make a tape copy of your CD to play in the car - no fair use over here. You would be allowed to use the software, except for the fact that it makes a copy to install / a transient copy in memory. Your aren't licensed to do that, unless you agree to their license. This is why its legal to play import videos, but not DVDs. You don't have a license to make any copy, since it wasn't sold in this country, and that includes the transient one a DVD player makes. The fact that you are allowed to watch the same thing on VHS, because the technology doesn't involve transient copies
Actually, the document is worded such that it may well apply to all of them. Bottom of page 6:
Recordable Compact Discs (CD-R, CD-RW, CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio or any other type of recordable or rewritable compact disc) of 100 megabytyes or more of storage capacity
Ditto for DVD's. Note however, that they only include non-removable hard-drives and micro-drives for devices that are intended for use primarily to record or play music The microdrives and flash cards apply whatever. You don't want to argue here about independent artists, or backing up your data, but about digital cameras and PDAs. I would be willing to bet that there are significanly more people using flash and microdrives in them than in mp3 players.
If theres slashdotters in the UK / Europe who haven't already seen this, and want to do something about the EU Copyright Directive (our DMCA) and now this, have a look at
The Campaign For Digital Rights (in the UK) and The Eurorights Movement
There may be something we can do about this one, but we have to get reasonably organised to do it. Sign up to the mailing lists, and join in - before they take all our rights
I've been trying exactly this about a month ago. I stuck in a spare PCI graphics card - all I wanted was to send a 640x480 video stream to it, so it didn't need to be good - and my new usb mouse/keyboard.
Everything appeared to be working separately fine, in about every combination, and using Xinerama to combine the two displays to spread the desktop accross them, so I started a second X session, on the other KVM setting. The first screen goes blank. I can only get one VT actually running at a time
I spoke to people on irc.linux.org, and the verdict was that linux can only have one VT active at a time, and hence it wasn't displaying it.
I don't know how correct this was, but I certainly couldn't get the second X session diplaying, when I was using the first - it didn't need input devices configured for it anyway, all I wanted was to send a fullscreen video to it, and not loose the ability to see my work / IM clients.
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In the UK at least someone's IP address in your apache logs is considered personal information. This makes it quite inconvenient as a sysadmin, because over here there are really strict rules about what you can do with those.
In fact, I think that this might be illegal in the UK at least - under the Data Protection Act. Unfortunately, I don't think the states has an equivalent
http://uk.eurorights.org/
We have about 6 months before the EUCD becomes law in this country to try and mitigate it as miuch as possible, and try and stop all the massive loopholes that the media industry is going to exploit in it. Any help we can get is alway appreciated!
The only problem is, this project appears dead in the water. If anyone knows of an equivelant system, for this or another database, I'd like to know. It makes a neat way of being able to do queries, and still access the files directly through the FS. You can even end up with dirs containing all the files in your query, then just use that directory to input to whatever program you like - nice.
Of course, the bible is probably heavier too....
(disclaimer: I am an evangelical Christian, and I agree with the above post)
This is why I use Debian. Being able to just type apt-get update; apt-get upgrade, and all the packages and dependencies are upgraded, security patches applied etc, is just fantastic. Of course, its because of the way debian manages its packaging as a whole, not just the tools.
I promise you, when you've played with apt - you will *not* want to use anything else.
Thats actually a bad analogy, and rather interesting. In the UK it is illegal to make a tape copy of your CD to play in the car - no fair use over here. You would be allowed to use the software, except for the fact that it makes a copy to install / a transient copy in memory. Your aren't licensed to do that, unless you agree to their license. This is why its legal to play import videos, but not DVDs. You don't have a license to make any copy, since it wasn't sold in this country, and that includes the transient one a DVD player makes. The fact that you are allowed to watch the same thing on VHS, because the technology doesn't involve transient copies
Recordable Compact Discs (CD-R, CD-RW, CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio or any other type of recordable or rewritable compact disc) of 100 megabytyes or more of storage capacity
Ditto for DVD's. Note however, that they only include non-removable hard-drives and micro-drives for devices that are intended for use primarily to record or play music The microdrives and flash cards apply whatever. You don't want to argue here about independent artists, or backing up your data, but about digital cameras and PDAs. I would be willing to bet that there are significanly more people using flash and microdrives in them than in mp3 players.
If theres slashdotters in the UK / Europe who haven't already seen this, and want to do something about the EU Copyright Directive (our DMCA) and now this, have a look at The Campaign For Digital Rights (in the UK) and The Eurorights Movement There may be something we can do about this one, but we have to get reasonably organised to do it. Sign up to the mailing lists, and join in - before they take all our rights
I've been trying exactly this about a month ago. I stuck in a spare PCI graphics card - all I wanted was to send a 640x480 video stream to it, so it didn't need to be good - and my new usb mouse/keyboard. Everything appeared to be working separately fine, in about every combination, and using Xinerama to combine the two displays to spread the desktop accross them, so I started a second X session, on the other KVM setting. The first screen goes blank. I can only get one VT actually running at a time I spoke to people on irc.linux.org, and the verdict was that linux can only have one VT active at a time, and hence it wasn't displaying it. I don't know how correct this was, but I certainly couldn't get the second X session diplaying, when I was using the first - it didn't need input devices configured for it anyway, all I wanted was to send a fullscreen video to it, and not loose the ability to see my work / IM clients.