The only problem with this is, you have to have a very specific version of the winaim binary. You can't have 4.3.2229 (which is currently the only one I can find on AOL's webpage). You must have 3.5.1670. If you do not have that version it will not work.
Actually, that's been greatly misread. The correct reading of it is "AOL must open up their IM system IFF (if and only if) they add High-Bandwith features to AIM, specifically Video Conferencing. As long as they don't add that, they are not required to share AIM source code or specs with anyone.
Jabber. Jabber is *the* Open-Source IM platform. It's too bad there aren't more clients for it.
> This is designed to replace, not to coexist with those systems.
Jabber really is the best IM system going. It's XML-based, so it's inherently very extensible. It can be flexed to do virtually anything networked - I heard rumors at one point about a way to use telnet through Jabber. And of course, it's still very easy to use all the great things about instant messaging (online notification, chat, etc) through Jabber.
> Create it to be bug free and cross platform, of course.
On Windows? Use WinJab (or one of 10 other windows clients). On Linux? Use Gabber or Gaim. Or then there's the multi-platform clients - Jarl (Perl/TK), Jabberzilla (put in the Mozilla sidebar), etc.
> Then... add THE feature. Whatever feature will draw in the 90% of the users for whom it is a challenge locating the start button, like most MCSE's.
What would you like to add? Jabber is so extensible that virtually anything can be added. How about the ability to talk to anyone on any IM network? That's already there (except for when AOL gets pissy). How about the ability to join IRC channels while you're talking to all these people over IM? That's there. How about the ability to have one account sign on many times at once? From remote locations even. Using totally different Jabber clients. What about the ability to put this on a portable networked device, and have it connect using the same account you're connected with from your PC. The ability to do all of that is already there.
> The trick would be forcing open their system as well in the process, although I don't think the GPL can reach THAT far.:)
Unfortunately, it can't. There are actually several closed-source Jabber clients. But the open-source ones tend to be much better.
> the FCC has told AOL that they must allow any clients, not just their own
Actually, that's only partly true (look, I previewed this time! Yay!). temas (one of the Jabber developers) and I went through the document stating all the rules and regulations that AOL has to follow as a result of the merger. The part about IM has been greatly misread by a lot of people. AIM only has to make new "advanced, IM-based high speed services ('AIHS')" open. AIHS services include things such as video conferencing (which is pretty much the only example the document gives). So basically as long as AOL doesn't add video conferencing to AIM, they don't need to tell Jabber squat about how it works, or make any offer of interoperability. However, the moment they have a working implementation of video conferencing, they have to call Jabber and ask where they should send the protocol spec.
AOL does let people use TOC, yes, but that doesn't mean they support it. Over time TOC has steadily drifted away from what the original protocol spec says. Little changes here and there that have managed to break nearly every TOC client other than TiK at one point or another. Also, TOC keeps losing features. It used to have things like toc_dir_search to search by directory info and email address, but this only works in Oscar now. Also, there are things that will *only ever* work in Oscar - such as getting away messages or making File Transfer requests. AOL has stopped developing TOC, and left it in a rather sorry state. So while AOL *lets* us use TOC, they don't *support* TOC.
> when AOL created their Instant Messenger, they created it with the intentions of having AOL subscribers use it
Um, that's wrong. They created it with the intention of letting people without AOL accounts talk to people on AOL. Then hopefully they could convince them to use AOL as well... and so the cycle continues.
> These open source clients bypass all that gooey crap (which IMO is a good thing) so one should see clearly why AOL would want them banned.
Actually, your message is only half true. See, everyone that's connecting to AIM still needs an AIM account, and so AOL still needs to be able to handle the possibility of everyone connected from a legitimate client. It's not the cost that they're concerned about, in the grand scheme of things. What AOL's most afraid of is someone taking their IM stronghold from them. The only way that someone could do this (unless if you're MS and force it down people's throats) is to allow interoperability with AIM. You'll notice the target of these blocks wasn't gaim (a client) but Jabber (a service).
> Clients that use TOC/OSCAR to talk to the AIM servers (like Everybuddy [www.everybuddy.org]) continue to work fine.
Actually, TOC and Oscar are two very separate protocols. And Gaim can do them both, actually:) Which is good for Gaim; if one of them ever stops working (which happens more than AOL would probably like to admit) you can easily switch to the other one. Gaim's the only client that lets you choose between the two protocols.
> And rather than go whining about how a library that was just a reverse-engineering job was broken, reverse-engineer it again, or use the library that isn't broken.
Actually, the library got it comletely right, it's the clients using it that got it wrong. There's a particular string that the client decides that AOL is filtering on.
> TiK and other clients that use the TOC protocol
> are fully supported and allowed by AOL.
You're somewhat mistaken here. AOL stopped supporting TOC a long time ago. Since that time, they've changed the protocol without telling anyone (which has caused several other AIM clients to stop working, including EveryBuddy and Kaim); TOC has lost features (directory and email searches no longer work), and they just generally left it in a half-finished state. So don't say that TOC is fully supported. There's a good reason for trying to use Oscar - at least AOL still tries to keep that one working.
> I think Slashdot jumped the gun slightly, much
> like the last time this happened.
Actually, if anything, they *missed* it. Jabber's been blocked off an on for a couple days now. Gaim started having troubles this morning, and depending on who you are and where you're connecting from, you may still be having troubles. Jabber.org and Jabber.com are probably still fighting, and trying to anticipate AOL's next move. It's certainly not over.
Agreed, but speed performance isn't the only breakthrough that's come from the semiconductor field; Transmeta's Crusoe chip is very technologically innovative. Instead of following AMD in cloning the i86 architecture, they created their own architecture, and used dynamic translation to natively run i86 binaries. Doing this hurts performance slightly; but it allows the Crusoe to run with an impressively low power consumption. And when you're targeting things like a PDA or an Internet Appliance, you really don't need a 1.2GHz processor. You need something that can run on two AA batteries for several hours. Putting a significant portion of the processor into software is a pretty impressive innovation, if you ask me.
Also speaking about innovation in power consumption, there was an article a while back on the Honda Insight and all the innovative things that went into it.
I read an interesting discussion once (and I really wish I could remember where now) about the reverse happening. Rather than learning about AI by way of the human brain, we will learn more about the human brain because of AI.
A similar thing happened with other human organs. Take, for example, the heart. We knew little about how the heart actually worked until we had a physical model to represent it - a pump. Other organs we learned about in similar ways, by using physical models to learn from.
Windows 2001 - code named "HAL" - started being pirated today. Users have reported some violent tendencies and an inability to correctly respond to lies, deceit, and immorality. Many people have speculated at how such a product was ever able to come from Microsoft. Many suspect heads at Microsoft are once again kidnapping ideas that Apple rightfully stole - using Unix as the base.
I go to UCSB, and basically what happened is someone missed a security update on one of the lab computers. The person who got into the computer was "sloppy", but that doesn't mean that they're easily caught - if they were island hoping, they wouldn't have needed to be so careful, as it would be harder to trace it back to them.
The people responsible for the recent denial of service attacks against ecommerce web sites such as Yahoo and E*Trade came forward today, giving cause for and explanation of their attacks.
"We got a copy of [Windows 2000] Gold from one of our [elite hacking friends]. We immediately realized that there were [numerous] bugs, and in particular, they were very easily exploited to make the computer send out as much marketing information as it could to any Unix user. We simply told them that Yahoo runs FreeBSD. They did the rest on their own."
Market analysts have said that if this is true, it could be disastrous for both Microsoft and Unix users alike.
Security experts have confirmed that Windows2000 does, in fact, flood other operating systems with advertisements, consuming a large part of the resources available.
"It's probably the reason Windows2000 needs such a fast processor and so much memory. The machine overloads itself trying to create and send out as much propoganda as it can."
Microsoft denies the allegations, stating, "We do not flood people with marketing information, and even if our operating system did, it would be a feature. But our next release will have abolutely positively zero bugs."
I agree that OpenBSD is (by default) way more secure than Linux, and the article should have mentioned it. But, I think they were more promoting the OSS method, and just happened to pick Linux as the most prominent OSS OS to say "this is secure". If *BSD had as much press about it during the past few months that Linux has had, they probably would have picked that OS as the name to drop.
I also think it's great that "security through obscurity" is being attacked so dead-on, especally in ZDNet. The more people who know and realize that Windows cannot be secure because of its license, the better. (Not that they should necessarily switch to *nix because of this - security isn't #1 to everyone.) OSS will prevail, but advocacy that is as public and as direct as this is helps greatly. (Note that I didn't say "Linux will beat Windows", rather "everything will eventually be OSS, maybe even Windows".)
But only on Sundays? And in pockets? There's just too many things about this law that aren't explained by your response. True, it was a very different time, but that doesn't explain why the limit was only on one day, or the absurdity of putting the cone in a pocket.
And I finally figured out how my sig works. I'm so happy.
It will be a good day when people can choose a kernel, independent of libraries, that suits their need, and recompile it to match their demands. GNU/Hurd is another step closer to this. I can't wait to see Debian's FreeBSD port.
Most of the things that I'm learning and have learned in my CS classes haven't exactly been cutting-edge things. Granted, it's useful to know that O(log N) is much better than O(N^2) performance, and reading about complex B-trees isn't exactly the highest on my reading list, but most of the information taught can be learned just as easily outside the classroom by people who are motivated to. 80% of what I've learned has been from online tutorials and HOWTOs, as well as reference books (I highly recommend Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden, btw). It seems like a lot of people are doing the same sort of thing.
People are going to end up going to where the jobs are. Australia doesn't need better colleges with higher-paid professors. They need more jobs where people can telecommute.
Wasn't it just last week or the week before that Posner was brought in to mediate between the two sides? And now the DoJ is looking to see what might happen if MS gets broken up. Sounds like MS is fscking up the negotiations almost as bad as they did the trial.
The greatest practical joke book of all time is If At All Possible, Involve A Cow by Neil Steinberg. One of the best that I read was by Caltech.
Apparently, there was a group of students who wanted to turn the HOLLYWOOD sign into a CALTECH sign. "Each of the 9 letters in the sign is 5 stories tall and 33 feet across. They are also surrounded by razor-sharp concertina wire, and patrolled by the park service."
They were originally going to cover it with burlap, but decided to go with plastic instead. They were given $200 by the University, by calling themselves the Prank Club and requesting club funds. They made giant templates to cover the H, part of the O, turn the L to an A (with white plastic), etc.
The job started at 1 a.m. and was finished by 5 a.m. In the morning, TV and media types had flocked to it. "One TV report featured a pair of German tourists asking how old the CALTECH sign was and trying to get directions to the HOLLYWOOD sign."
There's been a lot of speculation lately about what actions should be taken against Microsoft, and what would be the best for Linux overall. A lot of people feel that breaking up Microsoft would be the best, but some argue that this would lead to many mini-Microsofts (say that 5 times fast) and would actually *hurt* the Open Source movement. Some people have said that forcing Microsoft to go Open-source would be the best, but this has its opponents too. RMS wants Microsoft to be more active in publishing, not abuse patents (by not allowing people to implement them), and "not certify any hardware as working with Microsoft software". Of course, there are other actions that could be taken against Microsoft.
Which of these is the best for the Open Source movement (and Linux in particular) overall? Which would help promote Linux, encourage and ease its development, and overall make Linux better?
According to this definition, lpr and associated printer drivers are also part of the OS, since they "act as an intermediary between a user of a computer and the computer hardware." I'd argue that, since I rarely use my printer, and most of the time it sits silent under my desk without and power or connection to it.
Similarly, the X Windows System would be part of the OS, since it "acts as an intermediary" to the graphics card. But I don't agree with that, either, since I use the console more than I use X. Also, the console is more "convenient and efficient" for me, so X wouldn't qualify as part of the OS. (As for games, there are several console games, including solitaire.)
Therefore, the two definitions of an OS given are contradictory. I think the real definition of OS comes down to not what the programs are, but what it's called, and what that name refers to. I'm running Linux, and when I say that, it's referring to the kernel, the libraries, the daemons, X, and a slew of applications (Netscape, kwrite, gcc). I used to run Windows, and when I say that, I'm referring to the kernel, Explorer, the.dlls, and a slew of applications (Netscape, Office, minesweeper). It comes down to how it's used, rather than what it is.
Why should I care about what this man thinks? A man who has gone out of his way to see that a competitor (PacketStorm) with a better product (better info) is put out of business? This seems like a Microsoft tactic.
Slashdot Mirror
The only problem with this is, you have to have a very specific version of the winaim binary. You can't have 4.3.2229 (which is currently the only one I can find on AOL's webpage). You must have 3.5.1670. If you do not have that version it will not work.
Actually, that's been greatly misread. The correct reading of it is "AOL must open up their IM system IFF (if and only if) they add High-Bandwith features to AIM, specifically Video Conferencing. As long as they don't add that, they are not required to share AIM source code or specs with anyone.
Jabber. Jabber is *the* Open-Source IM platform. It's too bad there aren't more clients for it.
> This is designed to replace, not to coexist with those systems.
Jabber really is the best IM system going. It's XML-based, so it's inherently very extensible. It can be flexed to do virtually anything networked - I heard rumors at one point about a way to use telnet through Jabber. And of course, it's still very easy to use all the great things about instant messaging (online notification, chat, etc) through Jabber.
> Create it to be bug free and cross platform, of course.
On Windows? Use WinJab (or one of 10 other windows clients). On Linux? Use Gabber or Gaim. Or then there's the multi-platform clients - Jarl (Perl/TK), Jabberzilla (put in the Mozilla sidebar), etc.
> Then... add THE feature. Whatever feature will draw in the 90% of the users for whom it is a challenge locating the start button, like most MCSE's.
What would you like to add? Jabber is so extensible that virtually anything can be added. How about the ability to talk to anyone on any IM network? That's already there (except for when AOL gets pissy). How about the ability to join IRC channels while you're talking to all these people over IM? That's there. How about the ability to have one account sign on many times at once? From remote locations even. Using totally different Jabber clients. What about the ability to put this on a portable networked device, and have it connect using the same account you're connected with from your PC. The ability to do all of that is already there.
> The trick would be forcing open their system as well in the process, although I don't think the GPL can reach THAT far. :)
Unfortunately, it can't. There are actually several closed-source Jabber clients. But the open-source ones tend to be much better.
Actually, that's only partly true (look, I previewed this time! Yay!). temas (one of the Jabber developers) and I went through the document stating all the rules and regulations that AOL has to follow as a result of the merger. The part about IM has been greatly misread by a lot of people. AIM only has to make new "advanced, IM-based high speed services ('AIHS')" open. AIHS services include things such as video conferencing (which is pretty much the only example the document gives). So basically as long as AOL doesn't add video conferencing to AIM, they don't need to tell Jabber squat about how it works, or make any offer of interoperability. However, the moment they have a working implementation of video conferencing, they have to call Jabber and ask where they should send the protocol spec.
You can read a copy of the deal at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Public_Notices/20 01/fcc01011.pdf. Note especially page 3-4, where it talks about the IM service. It's one long sentence so beware.
AOL does let people use TOC, yes, but that doesn't mean they support it. Over time TOC has steadily drifted away from what the original protocol spec says. Little changes here and there that have managed to break nearly every TOC client other than TiK at one point or another. Also, TOC keeps losing features. It used to have things like toc_dir_search to search by directory info and email address, but this only works in Oscar now. Also, there are things that will *only ever* work in Oscar - such as getting away messages or making File Transfer requests. AOL has stopped developing TOC, and left it in a rather sorry state. So while AOL *lets* us use TOC, they don't *support* TOC.
Um, that's wrong. They created it with the intention of letting people without AOL accounts talk to people on AOL. Then hopefully they could convince them to use AOL as well... and so the cycle continues.
> These open source clients bypass all that gooey crap (which IMO is a good thing) so one should see clearly why AOL would want them banned.
Actually, your message is only half true. See, everyone that's connecting to AIM still needs an AIM account, and so AOL still needs to be able to handle the possibility of everyone connected from a legitimate client. It's not the cost that they're concerned about, in the grand scheme of things. What AOL's most afraid of is someone taking their IM stronghold from them. The only way that someone could do this (unless if you're MS and force it down people's throats) is to allow interoperability with AIM. You'll notice the target of these blocks wasn't gaim (a client) but Jabber (a service).
Actually, TOC and Oscar are two very separate protocols. And Gaim can do them both, actually :) Which is good for Gaim; if one of them ever stops working (which happens more than AOL would probably like to admit) you can easily switch to the other one. Gaim's the only client that lets you choose between the two protocols.
> And rather than go whining about how a library that was just a reverse-engineering job was broken, reverse-engineer it again, or use the library that isn't broken.
Actually, the library got it comletely right, it's the clients using it that got it wrong. There's a particular string that the client decides that AOL is filtering on.
Preview... I know. :-P
> TiK and other clients that use the TOC protocol > are fully supported and allowed by AOL. You're somewhat mistaken here. AOL stopped supporting TOC a long time ago. Since that time, they've changed the protocol without telling anyone (which has caused several other AIM clients to stop working, including EveryBuddy and Kaim); TOC has lost features (directory and email searches no longer work), and they just generally left it in a half-finished state. So don't say that TOC is fully supported. There's a good reason for trying to use Oscar - at least AOL still tries to keep that one working. > I think Slashdot jumped the gun slightly, much > like the last time this happened. Actually, if anything, they *missed* it. Jabber's been blocked off an on for a couple days now. Gaim started having troubles this morning, and depending on who you are and where you're connecting from, you may still be having troubles. Jabber.org and Jabber.com are probably still fighting, and trying to anticipate AOL's next move. It's certainly not over.
Also speaking about innovation in power consumption, there was an article a while back on the Honda Insight and all the innovative things that went into it.
Run ./configure --help, and take a look at some of the options:
--disable-debug
--disable-dtd-debug
--enable-strip-libs
--disable-mailnews (!!)
--disable-tests
--enable-optimize(=flag)
etc. etc. Don't tell me how big it is, use your options to make it smaller. You *do* have the source, after all.
A similar thing happened with other human organs. Take, for example, the heart. We knew little about how the heart actually worked until we had a physical model to represent it - a pump. Other organs we learned about in similar ways, by using physical models to learn from.
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I go to UCSB, and basically what happened is someone missed a security update on one of the lab computers. The person who got into the computer was "sloppy", but that doesn't mean that they're easily caught - if they were island hoping, they wouldn't have needed to be so careful, as it would be harder to trace it back to them.
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"We got a copy of [Windows 2000] Gold from one of our [elite hacking friends]. We immediately realized that there were [numerous] bugs, and in particular, they were very easily exploited to make the computer send out as much marketing information as it could to any Unix user. We simply told them that Yahoo runs FreeBSD. They did the rest on their own."
Market analysts have said that if this is true, it could be disastrous for both Microsoft and Unix users alike.
Security experts have confirmed that Windows2000 does, in fact, flood other operating systems with advertisements, consuming a large part of the resources available.
"It's probably the reason Windows2000 needs such a fast processor and so much memory. The machine overloads itself trying to create and send out as much propoganda as it can."
Microsoft denies the allegations, stating, "We do not flood people with marketing information, and even if our operating system did, it would be a feature. But our next release will have abolutely positively zero bugs."
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I also think it's great that "security through obscurity" is being attacked so dead-on, especally in ZDNet. The more people who know and realize that Windows cannot be secure because of its license, the better. (Not that they should necessarily switch to *nix because of this - security isn't #1 to everyone.) OSS will prevail, but advocacy that is as public and as direct as this is helps greatly. (Note that I didn't say "Linux will beat Windows", rather "everything will eventually be OSS, maybe even Windows".)
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And I finally figured out how my sig works. I'm so happy.
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People are going to end up going to where the jobs are. Australia doesn't need better colleges with higher-paid professors. They need more jobs where people can telecommute.
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If the world's a stage, I want to work the sound booth.
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Apparently, there was a group of students who wanted to turn the HOLLYWOOD sign into a CALTECH sign. "Each of the 9 letters in the sign is 5 stories tall and 33 feet across. They are also surrounded by razor-sharp concertina wire, and patrolled by the park service."
They were originally going to cover it with burlap, but decided to go with plastic instead. They were given $200 by the University, by calling themselves the Prank Club and requesting club funds. They made giant templates to cover the H, part of the O, turn the L to an A (with white plastic), etc.
The job started at 1 a.m. and was finished by 5 a.m. In the morning, TV and media types had flocked to it. "One TV report featured a pair of German tourists asking how old the CALTECH sign was and trying to get directions to the HOLLYWOOD sign."
Now that is a great hack.
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Which of these is the best for the Open Source movement (and Linux in particular) overall? Which would help promote Linux, encourage and ease its development, and overall make Linux better?
Similarly, the X Windows System would be part of the OS, since it "acts as an intermediary" to the graphics card. But I don't agree with that, either, since I use the console more than I use X. Also, the console is more "convenient and efficient" for me, so X wouldn't qualify as part of the OS. (As for games, there are several console games, including solitaire.)
Therefore, the two definitions of an OS given are contradictory. I think the real definition of OS comes down to not what the programs are, but what it's called, and what that name refers to. I'm running Linux, and when I say that, it's referring to the kernel, the libraries, the daemons, X, and a slew of applications (Netscape, kwrite, gcc). I used to run Windows, and when I say that, I'm referring to the kernel, Explorer, the .dlls, and a slew of applications (Netscape, Office, minesweeper). It comes down to how it's used, rather than what it is.
Why should I care about what this man thinks? A man who has gone out of his way to see that a competitor (PacketStorm) with a better product (better info) is put out of business? This seems like a Microsoft tactic.