"I just want to say that you generally make informed posts that state your opinion clearly and tend to have a basis in fact"
Yhea, sorry about that, i just forget sometimes that this is post y2k/., i promisse i will try to improve my posts to fit the standard.
First Post!!!...
Shit, it's not as hard as i thought it was!;-) Thank for the compliment, it's nice to know that there are people out there that actually listents to what you have to say.
Reply under you user account so i can put you as a friend.
This is pretty interesting (sadly i can't access TFA) Google should have such a program, there should be a preference in you GMail account, where you can allow/deny google to take stats out of your email. Many interesting information can be collected, like, for example, Ammount of SPAM / Legitim E-mail, % of each kind of spam (viagra, drugs, porn, etc), spam by countrys, % of Text / HTML email, and even other interesting stats not e-mail related, for example, language analisys, frequent mispells, toppics of interest by age, etc,etc,etc. I Would gladly allow google to make such stats, it can be done in such a way that no personal / sensitive information would be leaked.
(Thinks about what has just said, and puts tinfoil hat on)
Stallman also wrote GCC and GDB, which, IMHO, are more important than Linux, since without them, we would be relying on propietary compilers to compile all the other software we use. All the software on the GNU system depends on GCC.
Also, without the work of RMS, Linux woudln't exist. The community that helped torvalds develope linux was created by RMS.
And, again, let me tell you that we had a fully operational set of utilities (besides linux) way before 1991, and also now, we have choices other than linux (BSDs, for example, and HURD, some day not so far away).
We don't ask too much, we don't want to take credit out of Torvalds, he did his part, just like everybody else. The point is, Linux is part of OSI, and OSI doesn't talk about Freedom, it's just a business model. But GNU, is about Freedom, it's a moral issue, not a technical one, and since most software in GNU is licensed under the GPL (and in the body of the license, it's clearly specified why it exists, and why the software licensed under it is created), and most developers that freed software under the GPL understand and agree with those ideas, so, calling the system GNU, makes that reference, while calling it "Linux" doesn't. I Think GNU/Linux is a fair alternative that talks about both worlds. We are small, we are less powerfull than them, so, we should stick together to be able to stand against the big guys.
"Seriously, folks, the current situation of Linux v. Microsoft is exactly what Marx and Engels were talking about."
Of course it is. Marx and Engels talked about man tools, and how, a man , in orther to be truly free, should have access to the tools he needs. If the tools he needs to work, are owned by the rich, they become their masters, and can have him dominated.
It's the same argument that Stallmans points out, about software, and, IMHO, it's a fundamental issue.
There is a serious misguided idea that most USA citizens have, which is that communism = URSS, and that's an utter bullshit. The URSS was a corrupt dictatorship fighting for world domination (And we had 2 corrupt dictatorships fighting for world domination in that years, now there is only one left). Communism is an economic and social system, that (just like Capitalism) can work ok if implemented by honest people, or be a terrible weapon if implemented by a corrupt government. This is true for both systems. The issue is in the society, not on the system.
"he only ever seems to garner attention from those who are already on his side"
That's true, it's our work to reach other people. Richard is out there to remind us what Free Software is all about, our task, is to understand it, and help develop and spread it. And do it the way it should be done, which is, by showing the real ethical reasons to use this system, and not just technical advantages.
Many of the news/. posts, are based on the work of RMS.
Many don't agree with him, i respect that. But even when you don't agree with many things he says, most of you are using an operating system that exists because of Richard's Work. You are also using thousands of lines of code that he wrote by himself. He has proved in the past to have been right, and the fact that he continued with his fight, even against what most others told him, has benefited the whole community.
So, don't agree with him if you don't want to, but at least hear what he has to say, you will learn a lot, and it's the least we can do to thank him for everything he has given us.
Hiring a sysadmin that browse the web with a browser and operating system which are known to have serious vulnerabilities, in the same machine where, say, he keeps rsa keys that are authorized to connect to the servers he manages, is NEGLIGENT. And it's the company's fault if something happends.
If i drive an Alfa Romeo, and take it periodically to the mechanic, the car is in perfect conditions, i drive carefully, and somehow, because of a mechanic failure on the car, i injure someone, it's NOT my fault. OTAH if i driver a low-end car, that hasn't been taken to the mechanic in years, and that is a car designed for family use, and i am using it to travel to another town, at 160 km/h, and something bad happends, then it's all my fault.
There are thousands of companys that DOESN'T get cracked every year, and they are just as exposed to the net as the others, The ones that get cracked are being obviously negligent.
It's easy to block H323 traffic, but try blocking SIP or IAX traffic, it's not that easy, it can go through proxys, and you may even use it over SSH. Absolutely undetectable. The only thing that may tell that you are using VoIP is the network activity, you can easily identify a voip conversation with ethercap (forget about open ports and/or content), it's usually a constant flow of packets, in both directions, using a somehow stable bitrate. But even that can be hidden under a ssh connection.
You will find yourself taking messures that in any other situations would be ridicoulous. This happends with copyright, it's an UNNATURAL law, and so, it's unenforceable. If you try to charge people for the air they breath, or for what they think about, you will find that this are basic freedoms of the human been, and that, because of their nature, it's allmost impossible to measure / control / quote them. But there is a HUGE bussines built arround copyright low, and the big boys making tons of money out of it won't just let it go, so, expecto more and more ridicolous ideas and restrictive methods in the future. They just won't stop.
The editor comments on a book about a network authentication and encryption protocol, i comment about an approach that i consider better and more modern.
I see OpenSSH as the best choice if you are in a Unix network. It's an incredible big, can-do-everything beast, so you can run just about any other service you want over it, from File transfers, to remote X11 displays. it's very flexible, and it integrates nicely in the unix environment. When you have to deal with non unix machines, it's not so easy or integrated, but then again, neither is kerberos, and there are a lot of good ssh implementations for Windows.
Nowdays, with all this "Get the facts" FUD, the Free Software comunity reacts trying to show that it's not true that migration is a nightmare, and that it's not true that it costs money. The true is, Migration from ANY system to ANY other system, is a nightmare, and it does cost money.
The point we should make clear is: Migrating from Windows to Unix Is a good decition (I Say Unix to make clear that i'm not talking about Freedom or ethical or monetary issues, just about the technical stuff) and it will make things just easier and safer in the long run. Technically, there is no possible discussion.
About non-technicall stuff: Microsoft insists in their "get the facts" bullshit that if you use windows you can hire incompetent sysadmins, and with Unix, you can't. It's just not a good idea to hire incompetent people. Hire a good sysadmin, and pay him well, what do you prefere, to pay thousands to a big monopoly for the right to copy, or pay a worker for actual honest work??
If 20 lines.vbs files written by 14 years old script-kiddies are the living hell of windows users, imagine what this evolving viruses would do to them!. Think of the children!!!;-)
A file format will _allways_ have to be involved, even what this people call "no format", will be a format, raw audio is also a file format, The point is that raw, uncompressed formats are not really very usefull to transfer over the net, compression is fundamental, unleast you want to remix it, or do some quality job over the audio, in which case, you need the full, uncompressed, high quality original, people will want a compressed, small format.
Many times, when people compares the GNU Operating System against the Windows Operating System, they make a misleading comparation, since they are comparing a FULL OS as GNU (That is, a kernel, basic system software, librarys, Graphic system, video and audio applications, office suits, browser, IM, compilers, editors, games, etc,etc,etc), With just a kernel, a graphic system and shell, basic system software, and the only 2 major apps that came with windows, which are windows media and ie.
Now, with microsoft trying to show that they are not a monopoly, they are striping down their OS, so, installing windows, only installs a kernel, librarys, a graphic shell, and a browser. That's it. While Free Software is going in the opposite directions. A Full install of Slackware gives you 2 gb of fully functional, quality software that you can start using. May be people will start noticing this limitations, and it will help people to switch.
But i just can't get used to this kind of stuff...
I have thought about getting out of qwerty many times, but, even when there are some input/control devices that are better and faster than the classic ones, so many years using the classic designs lets us type as fast with them as one could do with newer toys. Also, it's pretty hard to get used to that kind of changes.
I have tried DVORAK, and even a crazy experimental layout that i found out there...
k , u y p w l m f c o a e i d r n t h s q . ' ; z x v g b j
Here is the link to experiment that created this layout: http://www.visi.com/~pmk/evolved.html
In conclussion, this devices might be very comfortable, but an old hacker just won't get used to them.
BTW: The site is slow, here is the google cache link: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:qO6W-dkdz4kJ: www.alphagrip.com/+&hl=es
And i'm to paranoid to put my rsa key in the trusted hosts file of all the servers y administrate, so, i type nearly 10 different passwords, and each of them is 10 characters in length, numbers + words, all with DIferENt CasES. I have to type them all the time, having such long passwords as sentences, would be tottally impractical.
I Shouldn't be replying to a troll, but here it goes anyway...
Free Software is not about technical improvement. Free Software is about FREEDOM. We want to be able to use software without being held hostages by the "owner" of the software. If we can create a better alternative to propietary software in the way, then we will be happier, but if our software is worse than propietary alternatives, we will still use it, 'cause it's free.
- The government is the one that allows the existance of propietary software, and the first to damage Free Software (For example, with software patents).
- The government profits from Free Software
- Instead of giving part of that profit to HELP FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, it's given to other government-dependant institutions.
No intention to flame, but, how is this a good thing?
ALMAFUERTE
For years it has been done by simple individuals
on
The Typo Millionaires
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The real problem is when an institution like Verisign does this kind of stuff. Many ISPs put some thing in their zones that shouldn't be there, the problem is when a root server does it.
Apple has itunes, and that's what they want people to use to feed their hungry ipods, sadly, in today's world, copyright makes people more money than real work and sales.
Slashdot Mirror
"I just want to say that you generally make informed posts that state your opinion clearly and tend to have a basis in fact"
/., i promisse i will try to improve my posts to fit the standard.
;-) Thank for the compliment, it's nice to know that there are people out there that actually listents to what you have to say.
Yhea, sorry about that, i just forget sometimes that this is post y2k
First Post!!!...
Shit, it's not as hard as i thought it was!
Reply under you user account so i can put you as a friend.
ALMAFUERTE
This is pretty interesting (sadly i can't access TFA) /deny google to take stats out of your email. Many interesting information can be collected, like, for example, Ammount of SPAM / Legitim E-mail, % of each kind of spam (viagra, drugs, porn, etc), spam by countrys, % of Text / HTML email, and even other interesting stats not e-mail related, for example, language analisys, frequent mispells, toppics of interest by age, etc,etc,etc. I Would gladly allow google to make such stats, it can be done in such a way that no personal / sensitive information would be leaked.
Google should have such a program, there should be a preference in you GMail account, where you can allow
(Thinks about what has just said, and puts tinfoil hat on)
ALMAFUERTE
Stallman also wrote GCC and GDB, which, IMHO, are more important than Linux, since without them, we would be relying on propietary compilers to compile all the other software we use. All the software on the GNU system depends on GCC.
Also, without the work of RMS, Linux woudln't exist. The community that helped torvalds develope linux was created by RMS.
And, again, let me tell you that we had a fully operational set of utilities (besides linux) way before 1991, and also now, we have choices other than linux (BSDs, for example, and HURD, some day not so far away).
We don't ask too much, we don't want to take credit out of Torvalds, he did his part, just like everybody else. The point is, Linux is part of OSI, and OSI doesn't talk about Freedom, it's just a business model. But GNU, is about Freedom, it's a moral issue, not a technical one, and since most software in GNU is licensed under the GPL (and in the body of the license, it's clearly specified why it exists, and why the software licensed under it is created), and most developers that freed software under the GPL understand and agree with those ideas, so, calling the system GNU, makes that reference, while calling it "Linux" doesn't. I Think GNU/Linux is a fair alternative that talks about both worlds. We are small, we are less powerfull than them, so, we should stick together to be able to stand against the big guys.
ALMAFUERTE
"Seriously, folks, the current situation of Linux v. Microsoft is exactly what Marx and Engels were talking about."
Of course it is. Marx and Engels talked about man tools, and how, a man , in orther to be truly free, should have access to the tools he needs. If the tools he needs to work, are owned by the rich, they become their masters, and can have him dominated.
It's the same argument that Stallmans points out, about software, and, IMHO, it's a fundamental issue.
There is a serious misguided idea that most USA citizens have, which is that communism = URSS, and that's an utter bullshit. The URSS was a corrupt dictatorship fighting for world domination (And we had 2 corrupt dictatorships fighting for world domination in that years, now there is only one left). Communism is an economic and social system, that (just like Capitalism) can work ok if implemented by honest people, or be a terrible weapon if implemented by a corrupt government. This is true for both systems. The issue is in the society, not on the system.
ALMAFUERTE
An "opinion" is one thing, and a fundamental ethical rule is a completely different one.
Opinions can change, But some basic ethical rules CAN'T and SHOUDLN'T change.
ALMAFUERTE
"he only ever seems to garner attention from those who are already on his side"
That's true, it's our work to reach other people. Richard is out there to remind us what Free Software is all about, our task, is to understand it, and help develop and spread it. And do it the way it should be done, which is, by showing the real ethical reasons to use this system, and not just technical advantages.
Many of the news /. posts, are based on the work of RMS.
Many don't agree with him, i respect that. But even when you don't agree with many things he says, most of you are using an operating system that exists because of Richard's Work. You are also using thousands of lines of code that he wrote by himself. He has proved in the past to have been right, and the fact that he continued with his fight, even against what most others told him, has benefited the whole community.
So, don't agree with him if you don't want to, but at least hear what he has to say, you will learn a lot, and it's the least we can do to thank him for everything he has given us.
ALMAFUERTE
Hiring a sysadmin that browse the web with a browser and operating system which are known to have serious vulnerabilities, in the same machine where, say, he keeps rsa keys that are authorized to connect to the servers he manages, is NEGLIGENT. And it's the company's fault if something happends.
Yup, i agree with you, but the point is:
If i drive an Alfa Romeo, and take it periodically to the mechanic, the car is in perfect conditions, i drive carefully, and somehow, because of a mechanic failure on the car, i injure someone, it's NOT my fault. OTAH if i driver a low-end car, that hasn't been taken to the mechanic in years, and that is a car designed for family use, and i am using it to travel to another town, at 160 km/h, and something bad happends, then it's all my fault.
There are thousands of companys that DOESN'T get cracked every year, and they are just as exposed to the net as the others, The ones that get cracked are being obviously negligent.
ALMAFUERTE
Run over someone with my car, i am responsable, and it's a crime. Even if i didn't mean to.
Companys should be held responsable for the data they hold.
It's easy to block H323 traffic, but try blocking SIP or IAX traffic, it's not that easy, it can go through proxys, and you may even use it over SSH. Absolutely undetectable. The only thing that may tell that you are using VoIP is the network activity, you can easily identify a voip conversation with ethercap (forget about open ports and/or content), it's usually a constant flow of packets, in both directions, using a somehow stable bitrate. But even that can be hidden under a ssh connection.
ALMAFUERTE
You will find yourself taking messures that in any other situations would be ridicoulous. This happends with copyright, it's an UNNATURAL law, and so, it's unenforceable. If you try to charge people for the air they breath, or for what they think about, you will find that this are basic freedoms of the human been, and that, because of their nature, it's allmost impossible to measure / control / quote them. But there is a HUGE bussines built arround copyright low, and the big boys making tons of money out of it won't just let it go, so, expecto more and more ridicolous ideas and restrictive methods in the future. They just won't stop.
ALMAFUERTE
May someone explain why is this OFFTOPIC???.
The editor comments on a book about a network authentication and encryption protocol, i comment about an approach that i consider better and more modern.
I see OpenSSH as the best choice if you are in a Unix network. It's an incredible big, can-do-everything beast, so you can run just about any other service you want over it, from File transfers, to remote X11 displays. it's very flexible, and it integrates nicely in the unix environment. When you have to deal with non unix machines, it's not so easy or integrated, but then again, neither is kerberos, and there are a lot of good ssh implementations for Windows.
ALMAFUERTE
Nowdays, with all this "Get the facts" FUD, the Free Software comunity reacts trying to show that it's not true that migration is a nightmare, and that it's not true that it costs money. The true is, Migration from ANY system to ANY other system, is a nightmare, and it does cost money.
The point we should make clear is: Migrating from Windows to Unix Is a good decition (I Say Unix to make clear that i'm not talking about Freedom or ethical or monetary issues, just about the technical stuff) and it will make things just easier and safer in the long run. Technically, there is no possible discussion.
About non-technicall stuff: Microsoft insists in their "get the facts" bullshit that if you use windows you can hire incompetent sysadmins, and with Unix, you can't. It's just not a good idea to hire incompetent people. Hire a good sysadmin, and pay him well, what do you prefere, to pay thousands to a big monopoly for the right to copy, or pay a worker for actual honest work??
ALMAFUERTE
If 20 lines .vbs files written by 14 years old script-kiddies are the living hell of windows users, imagine what this evolving viruses would do to them!. ;-)
Think of the children!!!
A file format will _allways_ have to be involved, even what this people call "no format", will be a format, raw audio is also a file format, The point is that raw, uncompressed formats are not really very usefull to transfer over the net, compression is fundamental, unleast you want to remix it, or do some quality job over the audio, in which case, you need the full, uncompressed, high quality original, people will want a compressed, small format.
ALMAFUERTE
Many times, when people compares the GNU Operating System against the Windows Operating System, they make a misleading comparation, since they are comparing a FULL OS as GNU (That is, a kernel, basic system software, librarys, Graphic system, video and audio applications, office suits, browser, IM, compilers, editors, games, etc,etc,etc), With just a kernel, a graphic system and shell, basic system software, and the only 2 major apps that came with windows, which are windows media and ie.
Now, with microsoft trying to show that they are not a monopoly, they are striping down their OS, so, installing windows, only installs a kernel, librarys, a graphic shell, and a browser. That's it. While Free Software is going in the opposite directions. A Full install of Slackware gives you 2 gb of fully functional, quality software that you can start using. May be people will start noticing this limitations, and it will help people to switch.
ALMAFUERTE
But i just can't get used to this kind of stuff ...
...
: www.alphagrip.com/+&hl=es
I have thought about getting out of qwerty many times, but, even when there are some input/control devices that are better and faster than the classic ones, so many years using the classic designs lets us type as fast with them as one could do with newer toys. Also, it's pretty hard to get used to that kind of changes.
I have tried DVORAK, and even a crazy experimental layout that i found out there
k , u y p w l m f c
o a e i d r n t h s
q . ' ; z x v g b j
Here is the link to experiment that created this layout: http://www.visi.com/~pmk/evolved.html
In conclussion, this devices might be very comfortable, but an old hacker just won't get used to them.
BTW: The site is slow, here is the google cache link: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:qO6W-dkdz4kJ
"Let's learn to live with it and see what we can do with unpredictability"
dejavu!, I said this years ago when my ex-boss decided to buy a w2k server!!
And i'm to paranoid to put my rsa key in the trusted hosts file of all the servers y administrate, so, i type nearly 10 different passwords, and each of them is 10 characters in length, numbers + words, all with DIferENt CasES. I have to type them all the time, having such long passwords as sentences, would be tottally impractical.
ALMAFUERTE
I Shouldn't be replying to a troll, but here it goes anyway ...
Free Software is not about technical improvement. Free Software is about FREEDOM. We want to be able to use software without being held hostages by the "owner" of the software. If we can create a better alternative to propietary software in the way, then we will be happier, but if our software is worse than propietary alternatives, we will still use it, 'cause it's free.
ALMAFUERTE
- The government is the one that allows the existance of propietary software, and the first to damage Free Software (For example, with software patents).
- The government profits from Free Software
- Instead of giving part of that profit to HELP FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, it's given to other government-dependant institutions.
No intention to flame, but, how is this a good thing?
ALMAFUERTE
The real problem is when an institution like Verisign does this kind of stuff. Many ISPs put some thing in their zones that shouldn't be there, the problem is when a root server does it.
ICANN Should put his pants on and take action.
ALMAFUERTE
Apple has itunes, and that's what they want people to use to feed their hungry ipods, sadly, in today's world, copyright makes people more money than real work and sales.
ALMAFUERTE