Is it just me, or did Slashdot get a code update sometime today?
Things seem slightly different, even the comment posting box - it now says 'no karma bonus' instead of 'no +1 bonus' for me.
Isn't this newsworthy?.. I noticed one bug - in a story page there's a link to my homepage in the top right, the link is broken, it's prefixed with 'http://slashdot.org/'
Sorry for the interruption
If you like this idea..
on
Hacker's Delight
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Not quite that bad, but it's certainly getting worse. I've still got floppies from my early University days (in 95) that I can read.
Disks purchased more recently haven't survived for as long..
(I don't think I've bought any unformatted disks since at least 1988 - nowadays they all come pre-formatted, and I tend to leave them as MS-DOS floppies for the increased portability).
I guess there are free definitions of an open source success.
People recognise your project's name - Samba, Apache, Squid, Snort, etc.
People recognise you, Linus, RMS, Theo, etc
You have a decent sized userbase.
I'd be happy with number 3 on it's own if it came down to it.. Personally my project has a name which some people may recognise, (and is included in some distributions), my name probably isn't that (in)famous, but the userbase I have is enough to give me the fuzzy feeling..
I see the odd code-red/nimda attack in my logs too.
I'm think the worm itself is dead/dying, and the requests have been copied into some vulnerability scanner/script kiddie tool. (This seems to be supported, when I gently examine the machines which make these requests many of them don't appear to be running Windows!)
From what I remember the Code Red worm(s) would die down at the end of a month, and this doesn't match what I've seen over the past few months.
That sort of thing can already be done with jscript, or vbscript.
Opening processes, reading text from windows, interfacing with active directory and reading the registry - for example are all possible with the WSH (Windows Scripting Host).
Personally I use Perl for most scripting under Windows if I have to do any at all. The DOS batch file languages are seriously crippled.
I agree.. and with most of the people saying this isn't for them.
But I really like the task manager applet and the network status applet too - I'd download them seperately if I could, and run them on my IceWm Debian desktops..
Nope lets not - My ears are still ringing from the last time I suggested to an American that there just might, possibly, some kind of correlation of some kind between large numbers of guns and large numbers of gun deaths.
I suspect that I got lucky because my project has the magic term 'mp3' in it's title.
What I did was to start my project, post it to Freshmeat and SourceForge and make regular releases when new functionality was added - this is necessary to make your project known to random people.
All the time I was developing I was answering emails from users who needed help installing, or tweaking things, and that got fed back into future releases.
After a few releases it was getting obvious that one or two users were being helpful above and beyound that which I'd expect from a random user. These users were sending patches, playing around with the software in interesting new ways, and asking for very specific features which would be useful to other people - but which I'd not considered at all.
These were the people that ended up getting write access to my CVS repository, and these are now "my little helpers".
All of this happened naturally, the only things I really did were to publicise the project itself in my Advogato diary, freshmeat, and online. If people want software you want to make them find yours - then you want to have something which works well enough for them to use it. If people have a hard time using/installing/understanding your project they'll give up on it very quickly. (Sometimes they'll even refuse to use it again; thinking "Oh I tried that once - it sucked")
Finally I always asked for help on my projects page - making it clear to visitors that I'd be extremely greatful to recieve code, logos, themes, documentation, and suggestions from users. 99% of people won't give you anything - but the 1% really makes a big difference.
Three suggestions I'd make to writers of any new software:
Think of a 'plugin'/'extension' system early on. If people can add bits to your software, (even if they keep it to themselves) they'll be more likely to like it, and work on it.
Think about integrated bug reporting, like Emacs 'M-x report-bug', or Debians 'reportbug' package - that'll save you receiving email which says "Your software doesn't work" with no details.
Documentation, documentation, documentation.
Finally I guess this is a good point to say thank you to all the people that spared the time to contribute to my project - your contributions are much appreciated:)
Sorry I guess I wasn't being clear enough - I meant to ask "By default when you download PHP do you get documentation?".
Your reply suggests that you do not.
Having the documentation online with user feedback/comments is great - and being able to download docs seperately is also good enough for most people I guess.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope .. but I've looked at plenty of pictures of her - does that count?
From reading that link they sound quite similar to Greg Bear's constructs as used in Eon. But more throwaway - it's an interesting concept.
TheKompany is great - and Shaun always presents himself in a very good light.
If I were unemployed it's one of the first companies I'd try to approach.
Is it just me, or did Slashdot get a code update sometime today?
.. I noticed one bug - in a story page there's a link to my homepage in the top right, the link is broken, it's prefixed with 'http://slashdot.org/'
Things seem slightly different, even the comment posting box - it now says 'no karma bonus' instead of 'no +1 bonus' for me.
Isn't this newsworthy?
Sorry for the interruption
If you like this topic you may well appreciate this Assembly Language Gems Page
It's a little biased towards x86 assembly, but there are some neat tricks there, and some stunningly lovely code.
A straight denial is saying something like:
That way everybody knows exactly where you stand - and can admire your openness and honesty.
;)
In itself it is not - but it's certainly not a setup I'd recommend.
I have seen db's out, unprotected on the internet - they're just asking for somebody to try bruteforcing passwords.
(Especially given that this typically won't be logged in the same way that ssh/ftp bruteforcing attempts would be).
To that I'd add:
11. Storing things needlessly upon the server, eg credit cards numbers.
12. Running a database on the same machine, not in a DMZ - and having it remotely connectable.
12. Source code disclosure errors which allow attackers to study your application for flaws.
13. Improper filtering of user input, eg javascript. (Kinda xss I guess).
No he didn't. That was you pushing the cage.
Not quite that bad, but it's certainly getting worse. I've still got floppies from my early University days (in 95) that I can read.
Disks purchased more recently haven't survived for as long..
(I don't think I've bought any unformatted disks since at least 1988 - nowadays they all come pre-formatted, and I tend to leave them as MS-DOS floppies for the increased portability).
Yeah. The Whitehouse.
I guess there are free definitions of an open source success.
I'd be happy with number 3 on it's own if it came down to it.. Personally my project has a name which some people may recognise, (and is included in some distributions), my name probably isn't that (in)famous, but the userbase I have is enough to give me the fuzzy feeling..
That would be the 'xv' program - it was good in it's day, but now it's completely succeeded by qiv, the gimp, and ImageMagick, etc.
GET
One hopes this wasn't a mistake made in the book itself.
Natural selection in action.
Hey, and for an added bonus the kid could be the youngest winner of a Darwin Award known to date - think of the prestige for his family!
<ObSimpsons>The real number is 912</ObSimpsons>
I see the odd code-red/nimda attack in my logs too.
I'm think the worm itself is dead/dying, and the requests have been copied into some vulnerability scanner/script kiddie tool. (This seems to be supported, when I gently examine the machines which make these requests many of them don't appear to be running Windows!)
From what I remember the Code Red worm(s) would die down at the end of a month, and this doesn't match what I've seen over the past few months.
That sort of thing can already be done with jscript, or vbscript.
Opening processes, reading text from windows, interfacing with active directory and reading the registry - for example are all possible with the WSH (Windows Scripting Host).
Personally I use Perl for most scripting under Windows if I have to do any at all. The DOS batch file languages are seriously crippled.
Oh how very true - getting a nice Swedish girlfriend was the only thing that inspired me to learn the language...
Frustrating how I couldn't even cheat and use the babelfish to read her emails - it doesn't do Swedish!
I agree .. and with most of the people saying this isn't for them.
But I really like the task manager applet and the network status applet too - I'd download them seperately if I could, and run them on my IceWm Debian desktops..
OK then - normally I wouldn't - but if you're running Debian try this for fun:
It scrolls a cool animation across your screen if you make a typo running 'ls'.
Nope lets not - My ears are still ringing from the last time I suggested to an American that there just might, possibly, some kind of correlation of some kind between large numbers of guns and large numbers of gun deaths.
I'm with you on banning the other things though!
I suspect that I got lucky because my project has the magic term 'mp3' in it's title.
What I did was to start my project, post it to Freshmeat and SourceForge and make regular releases when new functionality was added - this is necessary to make your project known to random people.
All the time I was developing I was answering emails from users who needed help installing, or tweaking things, and that got fed back into future releases.
After a few releases it was getting obvious that one or two users were being helpful above and beyound that which I'd expect from a random user. These users were sending patches, playing around with the software in interesting new ways, and asking for very specific features which would be useful to other people - but which I'd not considered at all.
These were the people that ended up getting write access to my CVS repository, and these are now "my little helpers".
All of this happened naturally, the only things I really did were to publicise the project itself in my Advogato diary, freshmeat, and online. If people want software you want to make them find yours - then you want to have something which works well enough for them to use it. If people have a hard time using/installing/understanding your project they'll give up on it very quickly. (Sometimes they'll even refuse to use it again; thinking "Oh I tried that once - it sucked")
Finally I always asked for help on my projects page - making it clear to visitors that I'd be extremely greatful to recieve code, logos, themes, documentation, and suggestions from users. 99% of people won't give you anything - but the 1% really makes a big difference.
Three suggestions I'd make to writers of any new software:
Finally I guess this is a good point to say thank you to all the people that spared the time to contribute to my project - your contributions are much appreciated :)
Have you thought about going on the game? It's the worlds oldest profession after all.
It actually fits in with a geek lifestyle fairly well too, you do most of the 'work' at night, and it's all about networking...
Sorry I guess I wasn't being clear enough - I meant to ask "By default when you download PHP do you get documentation?".
Your reply suggests that you do not.
Having the documentation online with user feedback/comments is great - and being able to download docs seperately is also good enough for most people I guess.