See http://linuxmce.com/. Disclaimer: I've never used any of these. I am however thinking of building a media center box and noticed the LinuxMCE freshmeat announcement a few days back.
Because Netscape 1.0 truly revolutionized the web. I have used both Mosaic and Netscape 1.0. While Mosaic definitely deserves a mention because it was the first GUI browser for all practical purposes, it's no comparision to Netscape. No source, but it was cross platform. Excellent user interface, excellent rendering. To me Netscape 1.0 was the software that showed the real power of the web.
Well the problem with most governments is one of incredible inconsistency. I can sympathize with the view that this $10 laptop is a pipe dream. I know for a fact how things turn out when you give high tech electronics in the hands of the public sector enterprise "Bharat Electronics". Remember the Simputer project? After years of development the first commercial devices that were manufactured by this behemoth were blocks of chunky plastic. The UI was slick, the features were amazing - my friend worked on it. I was impressed. But as a PDA it sucked. There is a project called Light Combat Aircraft which is going on for 20 years with nothing to show for it. The parliament recently censured the project.
On the other hand, ISRO has been phenomenally successful - now doing commercial space launches. Bharat Electronics designed the Electronic Voting Machine that has been used successfully in several Indian public elections while US debates on Diebold (granted Indian EVMs and Diebold machines are in a different category altogether, but sometimes extreme simplicity is what's needed). One or two such successes like this don't justify the incredible waste that goes into Govt funded projects with no accountability.
This $10 laptop without any accountability will just end up lining up some corrupt policitians pocket. I am reminded of the joke. Visiting Indian Minister asks US congressman how he makes money. "See that bridge across the river?", "Yup", "10%". Visiting US congressman asks Indian minister how he makes money. "See _that_ bridge across our river?", "What bridge?", "100%".
I just wanted to add my own nostalgic bit. I ownded a ZX Spectrum 48K+ (plastic keyboard instead of the membrane one). 8088 based IBM PCs were already in the scene but this one was my first home computer. Paid 3850 INR (Indian Rupees) to Computer Point in GN Chetty Road, Chennai and waited for about 4 months to get it in hand. Lots of great addictive games were Jetpack, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Matchpoint (Tennis), Full Throttle, Sabre Wulf and a lot more that I don't remember off hand.
Tape loading was a bit finicky; I bought a Philips variable speed player/recorder where I could slightly increase the speed for faster loading. Oh those were the days! I learnt my assembly programming on the spectrum; manually poking in hex opcodes before I managed to buy an assembler. This was in high school. 2 years later in my CS Engineering course, I had a course on 8080 assembly programming and remember thinking wow, they actually teach stuff what I did for fun.
I can't say the Spectrum was very popular in India. It was released quite late and was still out of reach of most people. While I didn't have access to user clubs or other ways to talk to other owners, what I did have was access to very cheap Spectrum related books from the UK available in book sales. I still have most of them somewhere in the attic:-).
I am an atheist. My parents are believers. So are my grand parents on both sides. So is my sister. So is my brother. If my entire family is hard-wired to believe, then why am I different? No, I know I am not adopted:-).
> If the **AA would price recorded CDs and DVDs at less than the > cost of blank media, then there would be very little unauthorized > copying!
I don't know if that will ever happen in the US but something like this is already happening here in India. A blank media maker is buying a library of Indian movies and selling them at prices (about 75c per DVD) below the the cost of a DVD-R. I know you get blank media a lot cheaper than that in bulk, but in India a single (good quality) DVD-R will cost you about $1 in retail. See Moser Baer Home Entertainment for details.
> my Solaris box is nicer than any Linux machine I've used (although > I really don't like the Solaris userland)
Then you should really give Nexenta a shot. Some debian folks have legitimate trouble with the licensing (mixing GPL software with CDDL libc). However, barring this niggling issue I think the Nexenta team has done an amazing job. I've tried it out myself. dtrace and zones work, so you should be at home.
Thanks for the link. What do you mean by "the std libraries are GPL with the classpath extension"? I didn't see any information about the class libraries in the linux devices site.
Wow! Despite all the rumours, I never really believed Sun would release Java under GPL instead of CDDL. Hats off to Sun. I assume the class libraries are also under GPL. The question I now have is, have they explicitly given a GPL linking exception for the class libraries to avoid GPL tainting Java code? Rather than implicitly saying there's no problem, I hope they make an explicit exception similar to the one given for FSF's libgcc or libstdc++.
The enabling software pam_ldap and nss_ldap have been around for years. I worked on a project in Novell implementing similar functionality using NDS six years back.
OpenSSL Module Certification Number 642: back on again...
To: OSSI From: DOMUS IT Labs RE: Status of OpenSSL Module (Certification #642)
I received a call this afternoon (Tuesday, July 18, 2006) from the NIST side from the CMVP. They have indicated that certificate #642 had incorrectly been marked as "revoked" during the web site update on Friday 14-Jul-2006. The CMVP has returned the certificate to its "not available" status and posted the following explanation regarding the terminology:
If a validation certificate is marked not available, the module is no longer available for procurement, but may still be retained and used to demonstrate compliance to FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2.
If a validation certificate is marked as revoked, the module validation is no longer valid and may not be referenced to demonstrate compliance to FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2.
Also from Xen FAQ,
"Xen runs unmodified guests such as Windows, on "the bare metal" at native processor speed on Intel VT enabled hardware.". See answer to Question "How does Xen differ from other virtualization technologies?
You probably have some insider information but everything I read so far suggested that with hardware virtualization support Xen can run unmodified Windows. See
Xen passes Windows milestone for example. Another example, Novell follows Red Hat with Xen announcement which says "But with hardware features in Intel processors today and AMD processors due in coming months, Xen will be able to run other operating systems as well, including Microsoft Windows.".
The latest processors from Intel and AMD have hardware virtualization technology that would enable Xen to run Windoze without any OS modifications. Xen doesn't really need Microsoft's "support" to get Windoze and Linux running together.
The new socket AM2 processors from AMD (you know, the ones with DDR2 support) will come with Pacifica Virtualization technology. I don't remember where I read it, so sorry, no links:-(.
> But you'd rather they didn't add it at all, is that it? > The fact is that whenever Microsoft adds some unix-like > feature, it's one less thing for you guys to trash > Windows about, and that stings like a bitch!! LOL
Hmm, are you sure you're jumping on the right guy? I prefer Linux but I am happy when Microsoft adds Unix like features because I need to work with Windows platforms at work. I am happy if Microsoft introduces a powerful new shell (monad) instead of the crappy cmd.exe. I am happy Microsoft is adding NFS in Windows 2003 Server. It makes my life a bit more simpler.
What's there to be scared about Microsoft copying Unix features? If some thing does scare the "anti-MS crowd", it has to be new innovations not easily available in Unix. Personally I'd be happy if Microsoft copied Unix features sooner. And if Microsoft innovates I'd be happy if Unix/Linux copied them sooner.
The problem with that is Mollywood (M for Madras) was originally the Tamil Cinema world. Of course, now the Tamil Cinema world is Chennai since Madras was officially renamed as Chennai. Still, calling Bollywood as Mollywood would be too confusing.
But would they license it? Looks like a Robson's choice to me:-).
Re:Screensavers, music, and Unicode?
on
State of the Onion 9
·
· Score: 2, Informative
> Wrote a program in Python yesterday? It's outdated, they no > longer use that function, you gotta re-code it. Should you do > it today? Nahhh, it's nearly five o'clock, better wait for > tomorrow's edition of Python so we get a whole day's use out > of it.
What are you talking about? Can you name any changes that required you re-code your python program? Python major versions have fairly regular and introduce some major features (type unification, generators, decorators etc) but I can't imagine any thing that broke older python programs. Most of my old python 1.5.2 still run without any issues.
Slashdot Mirror
See http://linuxmce.com/. Disclaimer: I've never used any of these. I am however thinking of building a media center box and noticed the LinuxMCE freshmeat announcement a few days back.
Check out Minimo. Granted it's targeted for mobile devices, but would be the right starting point than scaling down Firefox.
Because Netscape 1.0 truly revolutionized the web. I have used both Mosaic and Netscape 1.0. While Mosaic definitely deserves a mention because it was the first GUI browser for all practical purposes, it's no comparision to Netscape. No source, but it was cross platform. Excellent user interface, excellent rendering. To me Netscape 1.0 was the software that showed the real power of the web.
Well the problem with most governments is one of incredible inconsistency. I can sympathize with the view that this $10 laptop is a pipe dream. I know for a fact how things turn out when you give high tech electronics in the hands of the public sector enterprise "Bharat Electronics". Remember the Simputer project? After years of development the first commercial devices that were manufactured by this behemoth were blocks of chunky plastic. The UI was slick, the features were amazing - my friend worked on it. I was impressed. But as a PDA it sucked. There is a project called Light Combat Aircraft which is going on for 20 years with nothing to show for it. The parliament recently censured the project.
On the other hand, ISRO has been phenomenally successful - now doing commercial space launches. Bharat Electronics designed the Electronic Voting Machine that has been used successfully in several Indian public elections while US debates on Diebold (granted Indian EVMs and Diebold machines are in a different category altogether, but sometimes extreme simplicity is what's needed). One or two such successes like this don't justify the incredible waste that goes into Govt funded projects with no accountability.
This $10 laptop without any accountability will just end up lining up some corrupt policitians pocket. I am reminded of the joke. Visiting Indian Minister asks US congressman how he makes money. "See that bridge across the river?", "Yup", "10%". Visiting US congressman asks Indian minister how he makes money. "See _that_ bridge across our river?", "What bridge?", "100%".
I just wanted to add my own nostalgic bit. I ownded a ZX Spectrum 48K+ (plastic keyboard instead of the membrane one). 8088 based IBM PCs were already in the scene but this one was my first home computer. Paid 3850 INR (Indian Rupees) to Computer Point in GN Chetty Road, Chennai and waited for about 4 months to get it in hand. Lots of great addictive games were Jetpack, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Matchpoint (Tennis), Full Throttle, Sabre Wulf and a lot more that I don't remember off hand.
:-).
Tape loading was a bit finicky; I bought a Philips variable speed player/recorder where I could slightly increase the speed for faster loading. Oh those were the days! I learnt my assembly programming on the spectrum; manually poking in hex opcodes before I managed to buy an assembler. This was in high school. 2 years later in my CS Engineering course, I had a course on 8080 assembly programming and remember thinking wow, they actually teach stuff what I did for fun.
I can't say the Spectrum was very popular in India. It was released quite late and was still out of reach of most people. While I didn't have access to user clubs or other ways to talk to other owners, what I did have was access to very cheap Spectrum related books from the UK available in book sales. I still have most of them somewhere in the attic
I am an atheist. My parents are believers. So are my grand parents on both sides. So is my sister. So is my brother. If my entire family is hard-wired to believe, then why am I different? No, I know I am not adopted :-).
> If the **AA would price recorded CDs and DVDs at less than the
> cost of blank media, then there would be very little unauthorized
> copying!
I don't know if that will ever happen in the US but something like this is already happening here in India. A blank media maker is buying a library of Indian movies and selling them at prices (about 75c per DVD) below the the cost of a DVD-R. I know you get blank media a lot cheaper than that in bulk, but in India a single (good quality) DVD-R will cost you about $1 in retail. See Moser Baer Home Entertainment for details.
When I saw this post on slashdot, the top Freshmeat item is coincidentally a python based Text UI library called .
I hate it the way the same vendor changes connectors for different phones. Nokia gets the credit for using the same connector for all it's phones.
> my Solaris box is nicer than any Linux machine I've used (although
> I really don't like the Solaris userland)
Then you should really give Nexenta a shot. Some debian folks have legitimate trouble with the licensing (mixing GPL software with CDDL libc). However, barring this niggling issue I think the Nexenta team has done an amazing job. I've tried it out myself. dtrace and zones work, so you should be at home.
Thanks for the link. What do you mean by "the std libraries are GPL with the classpath extension"? I didn't see any information about the class libraries in the linux devices site.
Wow! Despite all the rumours, I never really believed Sun would release Java under GPL instead of CDDL. Hats off to Sun. I assume the class libraries are also under GPL. The question I now have is, have they explicitly given a GPL linking exception for the class libraries to avoid GPL tainting Java code? Rather than implicitly saying there's no problem, I hope they make an explicit exception similar to the one given for FSF's libgcc or libstdc++.
So, telling your wife that you're in a busy meeting while you're sitting in a pub at the other end of the town is not going to work ;-).
The enabling software pam_ldap and nss_ldap have been around for years. I worked on a project in Novell implementing similar functionality using NDS six years back.
3:00 pm -- Tuesday, July 18, 2006
& task=view&id=166&Itemid=
http://oss-institute.org/index.php?option=content
OpenSSL Module Certification Number 642: back on again...
To: OSSI
From: DOMUS IT Labs
RE: Status of OpenSSL Module (Certification #642)
I received a call this afternoon (Tuesday, July 18, 2006) from the NIST side from the CMVP. They have indicated that certificate #642 had incorrectly been marked as "revoked" during the web site update on Friday 14-Jul-2006. The CMVP has returned the certificate to its "not available" status and posted the following explanation regarding the terminology:
If a validation certificate is marked not available, the module is no longer available for procurement, but may still be retained and used to demonstrate compliance to FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2.
If a validation certificate is marked as revoked, the module validation is no longer valid and may not be referenced to demonstrate compliance to FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2.
Refer to http://csrc.nist.gov/cryptval/140-1/1401val.htm
Updated and resubmission continues on previous schedule.
----
it's never boring, that I can promise you.
stay tuned.
jmw
--
John M. Weathersby, Jr.
Executive Director
Open Source Software Institute
www.oss-institute.org
tel: 601.427.0152
Ad maiorem dei gloriam (AMDG)
Audentes fortuna juvat
Also from Xen FAQ, "Xen runs unmodified guests such as Windows, on "the bare metal" at native processor speed on Intel VT enabled hardware.". See answer to Question "How does Xen differ from other virtualization technologies?
You probably have some insider information but everything I read so far suggested that with hardware virtualization support Xen can run unmodified Windows. See Xen passes Windows milestone for example. Another example, Novell follows Red Hat with Xen announcement which says "But with hardware features in Intel processors today and AMD processors due in coming months, Xen will be able to run other operating systems as well, including Microsoft Windows.".
The latest processors from Intel and AMD have hardware virtualization technology that would enable Xen to run Windoze without any OS modifications. Xen doesn't really need Microsoft's "support" to get Windoze and Linux running together.
The new socket AM2 processors from AMD (you know, the ones with DDR2 support) will come with Pacifica Virtualization technology. I don't remember where I read it, so sorry, no links :-(.
> But you'd rather they didn't add it at all, is that it?
> The fact is that whenever Microsoft adds some unix-like
> feature, it's one less thing for you guys to trash
> Windows about, and that stings like a bitch!! LOL
Hmm, are you sure you're jumping on the right guy? I prefer Linux but I am happy when Microsoft adds Unix like features because I need to work with Windows platforms at work. I am happy if Microsoft introduces a powerful new shell (monad) instead of the crappy cmd.exe. I am happy Microsoft is adding NFS in Windows 2003 Server. It makes my life a bit more simpler.
What's there to be scared about Microsoft copying Unix features? If some thing does scare the "anti-MS crowd", it has to be new innovations not easily available in Unix. Personally I'd be happy if Microsoft copied Unix features sooner. And if Microsoft innovates I'd be happy if Unix/Linux copied them sooner.
> It's not like Linux never copied an idea from another OS, yet it
> seems MS is not allowed to add a feature unless they thought of it
> themselves.
Who's stopping MS from adding the feature? My complaint is not that MS copied the idea, but that they took so long to do it.
The problem with that is Mollywood (M for Madras) was originally the Tamil Cinema world. Of course, now the Tamil Cinema world is Chennai since Madras was officially renamed as Chennai. Still, calling Bollywood as Mollywood would be too confusing.
But would they license it? Looks like a Robson's choice to me :-).
> Wrote a program in Python yesterday? It's outdated, they no
> longer use that function, you gotta re-code it. Should you do
> it today? Nahhh, it's nearly five o'clock, better wait for
> tomorrow's edition of Python so we get a whole day's use out
> of it.
What are you talking about? Can you name any changes that required you re-code your python program? Python major versions have fairly regular and introduce some major features (type unification, generators, decorators etc) but I can't imagine any thing that broke older python programs. Most of my old python 1.5.2 still run without any issues.
Okay, I stand corrected. You seem to have insider knowledge about MySQL 5.0.