Slackware is one of the oldest, stablist, and yet easily configured distributions around (IMNSHO).
I have been using Slackware off and on since 1994. Every linux distribution that I have otherwise tried, I have always found to be either more difficult to install or maintain, or too slow to adopt newer technologies.
There are very few distributions that I have found that can take a new stock kernel release (from www.kernel.org), build on the system and have it work as advertised. Slackware does that. I am running Slackware 9.1 with OpenLDAP, Samba, PostgreSQL, RAID, XFS, and kernel 2.6.11. And as soon as I get my test system rebuilt, I will be doing the same, with confidence, using Slackware 10.1.
My first experience with Gnome was with RedHat 7.0, and then as a replacement for CDE on Solaris. I kept hoping that Gnome would improve faster than KDE, but KDE does have a distinct advantage -- a commercially available development environment. Both funding and developer focus have been good for KDE. With better packaging, I hope to try Gnome on a future Slackware release, even if not part of the standard distribution.
You mean, of course, before MSFT bought a controlling interest in the company. Now MSFT is battling for "hearts & minds" at the game consoles, which is the only way that the XBox would beat PS/PS2 in market share.
Not to be an OnT/OffT nazi or anything, but it is
one of the other 3 letter alphabet soup government
entities that is (yet again) screwing with the
Bill of Rights -- the FEC (Fed. Election Comm),
not the FCC (Fed. Communications Comm) this time.
The FEC has apparently decided that since public
opinion is now being formed on the internet, instead
of through those multimedia conglomerates that
control much of the printed press, TV news, and
talk-show radio that are already "on-message"
with the Dubya regime, they will try and control
the blogsphere as well. This has nothing directly
to do with the GOP's attempts to apply the same
standards to cable TV and satellite radio that has
largely crushed free speech "over-the-air". It's
the same players, and the same agenda, just a bit
different venue.
In basketball terms, the neo-con Nazis in charge
are engaging in a "full-court press" to crush or
obscure the opposition (to things like Dubya's
Social Security reform.) So besides having the
Bush administration spending millions of government
dollars on "public education of the issues", we
have the very same TX Swift Boat "crew" after AARP,
as well as trying to muzzle the internet blogs.
The very same level of propaganda campaign aimed
at getting the American people (and the UN on-board
for the invasion of Iraq, or the multi-year massive
tax breaks to the fat cats and corporate contributors,
and the Pharacutical Industry Welfare Act of 2004,
aka the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.
When this regime is finally out of power (assuming
that they will actually leave after 2008), expect
to see some rather serious prosecutions (and
convictions) of these politicians and co-conspirators,
including the International Criminal Court at the
Hague. (Unless they all escape to that mecca of
Nazi warlords, Saudi Arabia (just like Idi Amin).)
As broadband technology extends down into every aspect of our lives (video streams on cell phones and internet-enabled toasters inclusive), the malware (and undesirable commercialization) can ONLY GET WORSE.
With the exception of enough technical advances along this line to enable very very small cell phones, what is the point?
Unless it is the precursor to a cell phone/PDA with a projected viewing screen and keyboard?
Exactly how much more unsafe will it be to use your cell phone while driving, with the keypad (, or display & keyboard) projected up onto the interior of the windshield?
When I first read this/. article, I had a flashback to, shortly before the 2004 elections, the FEC "floating trial balloons" in the press regarding postponing the national elections.
Even the contemplation of such an action should be grounds for impeachment & conviction -- even during the US Civil War no such restraint upon national elections was ever proposed.
I recollect the news feeds about the recent meetings between Dubya and Putin, during which Dubya chided Putin over non-democratic actions. It has become clear that the only real difference between Dubya and Putin is hippocracy & hubrous, of which Dubya has an endless supply.
As a patriotic American, Dubya&Co make me want to puke.
This may be more of an indication of just how deep the staffing/cash flow problems that the SCO Group now finds itself in.
Doesn't the acquisition of most court documents incur (1) a service fee for copies made, or (2) the personnel/go-for to go to the courthouse to obtain said documents, or (3) both of the above?
IANAL, and IANALA (IANA Legal Aide), but I think that there "would" be some costs associated with obtaining court documents, regardless of direct involvement in the case at hand.
Also, while the original court documents would be considered to be "public property", the act of digitizing (scanning) those documents, OCRing them, and indexing them for a digital (PDF) version "should" have imparted some additional value-added which could earn a separate copyright notice from GrokLaw.
If GrokLaw wanted to press this issue, I would think that they would have a sound basis for legal action. But like I said before, IANAL.
No doubt MSFT is in something of a quandry, being a (primarily) software company reliant upon others (hardware manufacturers) for their platform.
MSFT cannot actually demonstrate a "more secure" OS as Longhorn is alleged to be, without the widespread adoption of DRM-enabled "Palladium" servers and workstations by corporations and the public. Without that platform, MSFT only has a "gold plated turd" upgrade from XP. And without widespread adoption of their new "vision" of what a secure computing environment can be, their cash cow will have run out of "milk".
Anyone care to place bets on some IT industry association pressing the government to mandate the use of their DRM-enabled technology?
Or on this same IT industry's ultimate success
with passing enabling legislation from the regime currently in power?
A quick visit to the website reveals that their "Mac Virus Contest" is a totally bogus bit of showmanship. ( From the: "Even bad publicity is still publicity" Department ):
DVForge Virus Prize 2005 The Contest That, Sadly, WIll Never Be
Contest goal: To lay to rest, once and for all, the myths surrounding the lack of spreading computer virii on the Macintosh OS X operating system, by sponsoring a contest that challenges virus writers to actually prove that they can introduce a harmless virus into two modern OS X Macs.
That was the goal of a contest announced recently by DVForge, but, due to a variety of influencing factors was cancelled shortly after having been announced.
A Statement About The Contest Cancellation "In response to the statements put forth this past week by Symantec Corporation suggesting that Mac users are at substantial risk to infections from viruses, our company crafted and announced a contest that would have paid a $25,000 prize for the successful creation of such a virus," said Jack Campbell, DVForge, Inc. CEO, "During the first several hours after making the public announcement, I was contacted by a large number of Mac users, and Mac software professionals who shared their thinking with me about the contest. A few of these people are extremely well-regarded experts in the field of Mac OS X security. So, I have taken their advice very seriously, and have made the difficult decision to cancel our contest.
I have been convinced that the risk of a virus on the OS X platform is not zero, although it is remarkably close to zero. More importantly, I have been convinced that there may be legality issues stemming from such a contest, beyond those terminated by our own legal counsel, prior to announcing the contest. So, despite my personal distaste for what some companies have done to take advantage of virus fears among the Mac community, and my own inclination to make a bold statement in response to those fears, I have responsible choice but to retract the contest, effective immediately."
DVForge, Inc. supports honesty and integrity by manufacturers in all public communication. And, we strongly discourage the use of exaggeration, innuendo, or loosely stated claims in an effort to increase sales of a company's products. We believe in accurate, fair marketing statements, and in allowing an accurately informed public to then make its own decisions about purchasing, or not purchasing, a company's products or services. We implore all Mac industry businesses to support these same values.
We do not endorse the creation or distribution of computer viruses. U.S. and international law, as well as simple good judgment forbid the transmission of computer viruses.
I certainly don't mean to let MSFT off the hook for such brazen (and repeatedly brazen) self- promotion. MSFT is a convicted (but yet to truly be punished) monopolist corporation that cannot be trusted to build a secure OS or Apps Suite, let alone to "play fairly" in the marketplace.
But, hey folks, the 800 pound gorilla from Redmond is not alone in these tactics. The pharmacutical industry pulls the same kinds of tactics when it comes to testing (and promoting) their drugs, and they have (apparently) far more pull with the government than MSFT does. How else to explain their pricing structure in the USA (vs everywhere else), let alone the "Pharamacutical Industry Welfare Act of 2004" AKA the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan? Pretty neat. The drug companies pay the FDA for acceptance, and the government gives them huge tax breaks for the flood of advertising directed not at the doctors, but at the patients in order to build demand for their product.
Then we also have the current regime in power that is spending millions of taxpayer dollars for "public education" regarding the "crisis" in Social Security. It is nothing less than propaganda; it is illegal; and they are getting away with it. Who, exactly, will be the real beneficiaries of pension privatization? The financial institutions on Wall Street that will dictate where Trillions of dollars will be invested, and like today, they will not be on the hook for bad investment decisions, because they will still get their management fees and commissions. But John Q. Public and Joe Sixpack will be living in cardboard boxes if the rosy projections go south.
There is no chance in Hades that the regime now in power will recind their lame excuse for a penalty against the Redmond monopolist, just like there is no chance in Hades that Dubya will turn into a populist, let alone a real "compassionate" conservative. He has effectively exposed the neo-cons true agenda, which is to "starve the beast" called the social safety net, no matter what the cost.
I subscribe to the opinion best expressed by:
"I would rather be tried by 12 (jury)
than be carried by 6 (pall bearers)".
Protecting mere property by means of lethal force is never a good idea. The destinction between when a crisis crosses the line from "protection of property" and "self-defense" can get pretty damn hazy these days. Far too many car-jackings result in the death of the owner, regardless of willingly giving up the vehicle. Even purse-snatching victims have the (albeit small) probability of getting shot or stabbed in the process of giving up her purse. And in the good old days, most fights involved fisticuffs, not knives and guns. A sad statement upon the times in which we now live (and die).
Your graphic description of octopi pulling fishermen overboard has stirred up the battle between species that rages within me.
I will have to help avenge that poor fisherman's horrible fate, and visit the local fish market tomorrow. Cleaned, sliced, marinaided, breaded, and gently pan fried callimari.
Not EDS, the contractor that trashed 60,000 MSFT computers at Britain's Health Services earlier this year?
Not EDS, the contractor that is nearly 2 years behind schedule in the deployment of new MSFT servers and desktops to the US Marine Corps?
I cannot help but wonder if these problems are what has led up to this OSS initiative. Glad to see that the US military is not quite as pig-headed as the DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) who have spent/committed over $6 Billion USD (multi-year contract) for MSFT's products as the basis for their unified IT infrastructure.
There is a solution that I subscribe to regarding the prevalence of body armor among violent criminals these days -- I have yet to see criminals wear bullet-proof hats.
Go to the shooting range at least once a week. Practice the Weaver (or modified Weaver stance). Get in the habit of using the double-tap (2 shots in rapid succession). And practice those head shots. I do.
If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where there is a firing range with shooting competition, try to get involved if you can. Nothing beats IPSC (International Practical Shooting Congress) competition to hone your shooting skills. The gun club I was a member of had the honor of hosting numerous IPSC (pistol, shotgun, and rifle) competitions.
Alright! A voice of reason from the wilderness! (BTW, this from a future "Mountaineer" fan.) I want you on the jury prosecuting these criminals.
The basic problem with CC fraud, and with ID theft, is enforcement of the law, and then the penalties involved. Victims of CC fraud and ID theft feel just as violated as a rape victim or a burgled homeowner. Lazy police departments, even lazier district attornies, and financial institutions that consider these to be little more than petty crimes, are all at much greater fault than even the most dim-witted victim.
Much tougher penalties, with the DAs and judges that are willing to impose them, are the longer term solution to these crimes. In the old West, horse thieves and cattle rustlers rarely saw the inside of a courthouse -- they got swift justice at the end of a rope. (Hehe, maybe the "old way" is the solution to the GTA/carjacking problem we face these days. It wouldn't hurt my feelings to bring back some "old time" justice.)
Unfortunately, most of the credit card holders, and users, are south of the northern border. Population differences (32 VS 375 Million) also make a big difference. ID theft is so very popular here in the USA just because it is so easy to get away with: first the criminal has to be caught, then the criminal has to be prosecuted, and then the criminal has to be convicted, and then the punishment has to be adequate to deter such criminal activity.
Figures for the number of illegal aliens in the USA range from 8 million (official figures that have been massaged by political correctness) to an estimated 28 million, based upon percentage captured. Imagine a Canada whose population were to double within a decade not being noticed.
Even the 8 million (low-ball) figure for illegal aliens in the USA puts a severe strain on the social safety net, and on crime fighting. Those who have been able to successfully remain within the USA the longest have done so by using the best false identities, or backed up with the help of government officials (at every level of government).
It has only been post 9-11-2001 that pressure has been applied to law enforcement and prosecutors to actually enforce the law. It doesn't help that the POTUS is the poster child for amnesty for illegal aliens in the USA. So the taxpayers of America are subjected to SS employees that sell lists of SS numbers to the highest bidder, DMV employees that earn an extra 2 to 5 thousand USD per month under the table by creating good IDs from bad basic documents, and everyone with a computer, a scanner, and a laser color printer tempted to suppliment their income by becoming a fake ID provider.
Having CC companies monitoring "unusual" usage of CC isn't enough by far. The punishment should fit the crime, which in this case should be 2 years of hard (breaking big rocks into gravel) labor PER INCIDENT. Even this penalty is less that what I would impose (, so I guess it's a good thing that I am not the judge in court.)
While using a separate partition for the pagefile comes under the heading of "good housekeeping", putting it on a separate disk (SCSI) or on a separate channel (IDE) would be far better.
BTW, all that you read about MSFT's OS being smart enough to manage the pagefile itself is pure BS. The OS will, left on its own, create a very fragmented filesystem, both data files and page.
I have found that forcing the creation of a single
pagefile that is 1-1/2 to 2 times the size of
physical memory works best. The caviat here is that you should have enough physical memory in your system to begin with -- pagefile is no proper substitute for adequate system RAM, ever. 512MB of RAM is an absolute MINIMUM for any of MSFT's OSes, from NT4 onward. MSFT's claim of 256MB "minimum" requirements is entirely bogus, unless the only things you run is the OS and the browser.
Of course, YMMV, dependent upon the OS and the applications that you use.
WTF does "partially open" actually mean? MSFT has embraced/extended/extinguished the meaning of the word "open" (as in "open" standard).
MSFT would like the public to believe that they own/invented the XML standard -- but what they really did was embrace/extend/patent(/extinguish) what was an open standard with open specifications and close the standard. Any/all governments all over the world should take note of Microsoft's continued monopolistic behaviour, and punish them in the only manner MSFT can comprehend -- bar them and their products from use in government, and tax/tariff their products into oblivion for any commercial use.
Why would any self-respecting company continue to buy MSFT Office products when the very nature of every software upgrade is designed to render unfit every previous Office version, excepting bugs and vulnerabilities?
Hopefully, the Massachussett's government is on the clue-train, and will not let MSFT get away with these tactics. (And so where IS the US DoJ anti-monopoly task force when we need them? Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, perhaps, twiddling their thumbs while looking so "butch" in their orange jumpsuits?)
Just because a law has been passed doesn't mean that it will be enforced, right?
Isn't it amazing that there is such a stark contrast between one 2 term President and the next 2 term President? One that united with NATO allies to
bring peace to the Balkans, that honored the rule
of law (international law), and was a good stewart of the American taxpayers' money (with a $500M surplus, versus a President that has fragmented the NATO alliance over Iraq, breaks international law as a matter of course, and has virtually bankrupted our children and grandchildren with debt.
The process has been called (by conservatives within the Bush administration) "starving the beast". The one truly effective way to destroy 75 years of populist government's social safety net (SS and Medicare) is to bankrupt the country, effectively forcing the government to abandon that safety net.
At a time when more and more jobs are shipping overseas, the Bush administration's plan for the destruction of the USA's labor unions, and of the Middle Class could not be complete without importing more cheap labor into the USA -- L1-A & H1-B visas are up more than 300% since Clinton's regime, and in spite of perceived domestic terrorist threats, illegal immigration into the USA has increased by 50% since 9-11-2001. Prosecution of employers hiring illegal aliens is down, except for a few PR-related prosecutions like WalMart (the $11M USD fine represented what percentage of the labor costs saved by WalMart, perhaps 25%?)
Dubya is spending more than $200 Billion on a non- working "Star Wars" missile defense program, while unwilling to add 2000 US Border Patrol, or to effectively secure our seaports and air cargo. Actions speak louder than words, and the Dubya regime has used "terrorism" as a patriotic ruse.
The Dubya propaganda machine is now working at full tilt (including hiring shills in the press, and generating TV ads for the networks) in order to convince the American people that SS is failing at the very same time that Bush is proposing the granting of SS pensions to millions of illegal aliens. All while the real "crisis" is with Medicare, not SS, which has been sandbagged by this very same regime with the Medicare Rx plan - a plan that would never have passed Congress had the administration been truthful about the costs to begin with. (How does a $385 B USD plan turn into a $675 B USD plan in the course of 1 year?) The insiders who knew the truth before the vote were muzzled with threats to their jobs.
Let's see exactly how much longer this regime continues to blame either (1) the Clinton administration, or (2) terrorist threats from militant religious fundamentalists for their misdeeds, mismanagement, and corruption.
The Bush administration has effectively turned what was once considered to be a civil case (copyright infringement) into a criminal case.
Of course, since Federal prosecution under the auspecies of the USA Patriot Act (I) may not be permitted to be publicized, the full value of the impact upon P2P file sharers (to change their ways) might get lost. Publicity, especially very bad publicity, can go a long way toward influencing change in behaviour (beneficial to **AA).
When a recent case (that should have been "civil" only) of the webmaster of a P2P server was charged under criminal law, the charge was "conspiracy". "Conspiracy" is a bit like "prayer" -- two or more people united together in the purpose of communion. A very handy catch-all charge for an administration bent upon total police state power and world domination. The defendant pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge, no doubt largely because he didn't have a prayer of a chance to beat the rap. Good lawyers cost big money, which is the only way to get justice in the USA any more.
The Swedish government and their minions in the prosecutor's office have found that the threat of a prison term can be an effective deterent, even without the USA Patriot Act (I) or Guantanamo Bay as their "sticks". Dubya is a good teacher, yes?
Considering the number of "hired guns", and the amount of resources poured into various 3 letter alphabet soup government organizations, any reliance upon the "next big thing" in ciphers, like ellipse curve encryption, is likely to end badly. AES-1 was supposed to have been the hot new encryption, but has been found vulnerable. I don't expect much better long term security with a number of other encryption methods, particularly with the "seal of approval" of those same 3 letter alphabet soup organizations.
A CD-R chock full of books in ANSI text or XML or even PDF format could easily provide the basis for a lifetime's worth of OTP (One Time Pad) encryption. Perhaps it is time to revisit older methods married to newer technology, instead of newer methods with bleeding edge technology. I seem to recall an awful lot of problems with pseudo-random number generators and the seeding methods they used, not so very long ago.
Fortunately (or not), the continuing trend of global warming means that Canada (even Northern Canada) will be prime, undeveloped real estate for the next 200 years. At least, that portion not already owned by Canada's "native peoples", who never got screwed over the way the USA did with theirs.
The Canadian constitution doesn't offer the same level of personal rights guarantees that the USA constitution does. Emigrating to Canada would lose all its appeal if, once there, I couldn't arm myself (to the teeth) in preparation for resistance to the inevitable invasion from the south. (Anyway, who needs royalty when the USA has greedy monopolists and their minions in the government? Queen Camilla? Bah! Humbug!)
But anti-DMCA legislation AND universal health care AND the Canadian film industry are some real pluses to consider. How is Canadian satellite broadband internet, price wise?
Unfortunately, most of the products (4 of 5) involve "enhancements" to Apple's iPod. These "enhancements" might (or might not) have a market, but they certainly don't have the simple elegance of Apple's iPod. Apple would do well to pass on these designs.
The cable companies are generally granted limited monopoly status regulated by a local (eg. county) government, as opposed to the telcos falling under Federal and (generally lenient) state regulatory commissions.
The cable companies have additional incentive to "build-out" their infrastructure for widespread broadband access -- failure to meet (local) government access requirements might lose them their local monopoly. On the other hand, the telcos "talk the talk" when it comes to widespread broadband access (like FTTP), but they will not "walk the walk" (for infrastructure improvements).
DSL technology is based upon the old Ma Bell POTS infrastructure, as well as being limited to a certain distance from the local CO (Central Office). POTS service that is underground, or is too far away from that CO means no DSL service, and maybe not even ADSL service. Areas with modern high density residential construction gets the DSL service, not less profitable areas.
Ma Bell, as the national telephone monopoly, was broken up too soon for the "digital" revolution. A Federal monopoly could have been compelled to provide equal access to more rural areas, which is definately not the case today. Back in the day, the Federal government induced competition to bring electricity into rural areas. There is no such populist sentiment today in regard to broadband internet access. In fact, the regional telcos are using state legislatures to mark out "future" captive markets for municipal WiFi, which will never happen in many juridictions.
Cable will never saturate rural markets, due to the shear expense of the final mile. Unfortunately there is little competition for the only rural alternative for broadband internet access, by way of bidirectional satellite, which is bloody expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
Is LFS a new fork of Slackware? (Just kidding!)
Slackware is one of the oldest, stablist, and
yet easily configured distributions around (IMNSHO).
I have been using Slackware off and on since
1994. Every linux distribution that I have
otherwise tried, I have always found to be
either more difficult to install or maintain,
or too slow to adopt newer technologies.
There are very few distributions that I have
found that can take a new stock kernel release
(from www.kernel.org), build on the system and
have it work as advertised. Slackware does that.
I am running Slackware 9.1 with OpenLDAP, Samba,
PostgreSQL, RAID, XFS, and kernel 2.6.11. And
as soon as I get my test system rebuilt, I will
be doing the same, with confidence, using Slackware
10.1.
My first experience with Gnome was with RedHat
7.0, and then as a replacement for CDE on Solaris.
I kept hoping that Gnome would improve faster than
KDE, but KDE does have a distinct advantage -- a
commercially available development environment.
Both funding and developer focus have been good
for KDE. With better packaging, I hope to try
Gnome on a future Slackware release, even if not
part of the standard distribution.
You mean, of course, before MSFT bought a
controlling interest in the company. Now
MSFT is battling for "hearts & minds" at the
game consoles, which is the only way that the
XBox would beat PS/PS2 in market share.
Not to be an OnT/OffT nazi or anything, but it is one of the other 3 letter alphabet soup government entities that is (yet again) screwing with the Bill of Rights -- the FEC (Fed. Election Comm), not the FCC (Fed. Communications Comm) this time. The FEC has apparently decided that since public opinion is now being formed on the internet, instead of through those multimedia conglomerates that control much of the printed press, TV news, and talk-show radio that are already "on-message" with the Dubya regime, they will try and control the blogsphere as well. This has nothing directly to do with the GOP's attempts to apply the same standards to cable TV and satellite radio that has largely crushed free speech "over-the-air". It's the same players, and the same agenda, just a bit different venue. In basketball terms, the neo-con Nazis in charge are engaging in a "full-court press" to crush or obscure the opposition (to things like Dubya's Social Security reform.) So besides having the Bush administration spending millions of government dollars on "public education of the issues", we have the very same TX Swift Boat "crew" after AARP, as well as trying to muzzle the internet blogs. The very same level of propaganda campaign aimed at getting the American people (and the UN on-board for the invasion of Iraq, or the multi-year massive tax breaks to the fat cats and corporate contributors, and the Pharacutical Industry Welfare Act of 2004, aka the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. When this regime is finally out of power (assuming that they will actually leave after 2008), expect to see some rather serious prosecutions (and convictions) of these politicians and co-conspirators, including the International Criminal Court at the Hague. (Unless they all escape to that mecca of Nazi warlords, Saudi Arabia (just like Idi Amin).)
Absolutely... NOT!
As broadband technology extends down into every
aspect of our lives (video streams on cell phones
and internet-enabled toasters inclusive), the
malware (and undesirable commercialization) can
ONLY GET WORSE.
With the exception of enough technical advances
along this line to enable very very small cell
phones, what is the point?
Unless it is the precursor to a cell phone/PDA
with a projected viewing screen and keyboard?
Exactly how much more unsafe will it be to use
your cell phone while driving, with the keypad
(, or display & keyboard) projected up onto
the interior of the windshield?
Whoa, Nelly!
/. article, I had a
When I first read this
flashback to, shortly before the 2004 elections,
the FEC "floating trial balloons" in the press
regarding postponing the national elections.
Even the contemplation of such an action should
be grounds for impeachment & conviction -- even
during the US Civil War no such restraint upon
national elections was ever proposed.
I recollect the news feeds about the recent
meetings between Dubya and Putin, during which
Dubya chided Putin over non-democratic actions.
It has become clear that the only real difference
between Dubya and Putin is hippocracy & hubrous,
of which Dubya has an endless supply.
As a patriotic American, Dubya&Co make me want
to puke.
This may be more of an indication of just how
deep the staffing/cash flow problems that the
SCO Group now finds itself in.
Doesn't the acquisition of most court documents
incur (1) a service fee for copies made, or (2)
the personnel/go-for to go to the courthouse to
obtain said documents, or (3) both of the above?
IANAL, and IANALA (IANA Legal Aide), but I think
that there "would" be some costs associated with
obtaining court documents, regardless of direct
involvement in the case at hand.
Also, while the original court documents would
be considered to be "public property", the act
of digitizing (scanning) those documents, OCRing
them, and indexing them for a digital (PDF) version
"should" have imparted some additional value-added
which could earn a separate copyright notice from
GrokLaw.
If GrokLaw wanted to press this issue, I would
think that they would have a sound basis for
legal action. But like I said before, IANAL.
No doubt MSFT is in something of a quandry,
being a (primarily) software company reliant
upon others (hardware manufacturers) for their
platform.
MSFT cannot actually demonstrate a "more secure"
OS as Longhorn is alleged to be, without the
widespread adoption of DRM-enabled "Palladium"
servers and workstations by corporations and
the public. Without that platform, MSFT only
has a "gold plated turd" upgrade from XP. And
without widespread adoption of their new "vision"
of what a secure computing environment can be,
their cash cow will have run out of "milk".
Anyone care to place bets on some IT industry
association pressing the government to mandate
the use of their DRM-enabled technology?
Or on this same IT industry's ultimate success
with passing enabling legislation from the
regime currently in power?
A quick visit to the website reveals that their
"Mac Virus Contest" is a totally bogus bit of
showmanship. ( From the: "Even bad publicity
is still publicity" Department ):
DVForge Virus Prize 2005
The Contest That, Sadly, WIll Never Be
Contest goal: To lay to rest, once and
for all, the myths surrounding the lack
of spreading computer virii on the
Macintosh OS X operating system, by
sponsoring a contest that challenges
virus writers to actually prove that
they can introduce a harmless virus
into two modern OS X Macs.
That was the goal of a contest
announced recently by DVForge, but,
due to a variety of influencing factors
was cancelled shortly after having been
announced.
A Statement About The Contest Cancellation
"In response to the statements put forth
this past week by Symantec Corporation
suggesting that Mac users are at
substantial risk to infections from viruses,
our company crafted and announced a contest
that would have paid a $25,000 prize for
the successful creation of such a virus,"
said Jack Campbell, DVForge, Inc. CEO,
"During the first several hours after making
the public announcement, I was contacted by
a large number of Mac users, and Mac software
professionals who shared their thinking with
me about the contest. A few of these people
are extremely well-regarded experts in the
field of Mac OS X security. So, I have taken
their advice very seriously, and have made
the difficult decision to cancel our contest.
I have been convinced that the risk of a virus
on the OS X platform is not zero, although it
is remarkably close to zero. More importantly,
I have been convinced that there may be legality
issues stemming from such a contest, beyond
those terminated by our own legal counsel,
prior to announcing the contest. So, despite
my personal distaste for what some companies
have done to take advantage of virus fears
among the Mac community, and my own inclination
to make a bold statement in response to those
fears, I have responsible choice but to retract
the contest, effective immediately."
DVForge, Inc. supports honesty and integrity by
manufacturers in all public communication. And,
we strongly discourage the use of exaggeration,
innuendo, or loosely stated claims in an effort
to increase sales of a company's products. We
believe in accurate, fair marketing statements,
and in allowing an accurately informed public to
then make its own decisions about purchasing,
or not purchasing, a company's products or
services. We implore all Mac industry businesses
to support these same values.
We do not endorse the creation or distribution
of computer viruses. U.S. and international law,
as well as simple good judgment forbid the
transmission of computer viruses.
I certainly don't mean to let MSFT off the hook
for such brazen (and repeatedly brazen) self-
promotion. MSFT is a convicted (but yet to truly
be punished) monopolist corporation that cannot
be trusted to build a secure OS or Apps Suite,
let alone to "play fairly" in the marketplace.
But, hey folks, the 800 pound gorilla from Redmond
is not alone in these tactics. The pharmacutical
industry pulls the same kinds of tactics when it
comes to testing (and promoting) their drugs, and
they have (apparently) far more pull with the
government than MSFT does. How else to explain
their pricing structure in the USA (vs everywhere
else), let alone the "Pharamacutical Industry
Welfare Act of 2004" AKA the Medicare Prescription
Drug Plan? Pretty neat. The drug companies pay
the FDA for acceptance, and the government gives
them huge tax breaks for the flood of advertising
directed not at the doctors, but at the patients
in order to build demand for their product.
Then we also have the current regime in power that
is spending millions of taxpayer dollars for "public
education" regarding the "crisis" in Social Security.
It is nothing less than propaganda; it is illegal;
and they are getting away with it. Who, exactly,
will be the real beneficiaries of pension privatization?
The financial institutions on Wall Street that will
dictate where Trillions of dollars will be invested,
and like today, they will not be on the hook for
bad investment decisions, because they will still
get their management fees and commissions. But
John Q. Public and Joe Sixpack will be living in
cardboard boxes if the rosy projections go south.
There is no chance in Hades that the regime now
in power will recind their lame excuse for a
penalty against the Redmond monopolist, just like
there is no chance in Hades that Dubya will turn
into a populist, let alone a real "compassionate"
conservative. He has effectively exposed the
neo-cons true agenda, which is to "starve the beast"
called the social safety net, no matter what the cost.
You are, of course, quite correct.
I subscribe to the opinion best expressed by:
"I would rather be tried by 12 (jury)
than be carried by 6 (pall bearers)".
Protecting mere property by means of lethal
force is never a good idea. The destinction
between when a crisis crosses the line from
"protection of property" and "self-defense"
can get pretty damn hazy these days. Far too
many car-jackings result in the death of the
owner, regardless of willingly giving up the
vehicle. Even purse-snatching victims have
the (albeit small) probability of getting
shot or stabbed in the process of giving up
her purse. And in the good old days, most
fights involved fisticuffs, not knives and
guns. A sad statement upon the times in which
we now live (and die).
Congratulations!
Your graphic description of octopi pulling
fishermen overboard has stirred up the
battle between species that rages within me.
I will have to help avenge that poor fisherman's
horrible fate, and visit the local fish market
tomorrow. Cleaned, sliced, marinaided, breaded,
and gently pan fried callimari.
Ummmm! Octopussy! Gooood!
EDS?
Not EDS, the contractor that trashed 60,000 MSFT
computers at Britain's Health Services earlier
this year?
Not EDS, the contractor that is nearly 2 years
behind schedule in the deployment of new MSFT
servers and desktops to the US Marine Corps?
I cannot help but wonder if these problems are
what has led up to this OSS initiative. Glad
to see that the US military is not quite as
pig-headed as the DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security)
who have spent/committed over $6 Billion USD
(multi-year contract) for MSFT's products as the
basis for their unified IT infrastructure.
Sorry to hear about the passing of Mark Wilson.
There is a solution that I subscribe to regarding
the prevalence of body armor among violent criminals
these days -- I have yet to see criminals wear
bullet-proof hats.
Go to the shooting range at least once a week. Practice
the Weaver (or modified Weaver stance). Get in the
habit of using the double-tap (2 shots in rapid
succession). And practice those head shots. I do.
If you are fortunate enough to live in an area
where there is a firing range with shooting
competition, try to get involved if you can.
Nothing beats IPSC (International Practical
Shooting Congress) competition to hone your
shooting skills. The gun club I was a member
of had the honor of hosting numerous IPSC
(pistol, shotgun, and rifle) competitions.
Alright! A voice of reason from the wilderness!
(BTW, this from a future "Mountaineer" fan.) I
want you on the jury prosecuting these criminals.
The basic problem with CC fraud, and with ID
theft, is enforcement of the law, and then the
penalties involved. Victims of CC fraud and
ID theft feel just as violated as a rape victim
or a burgled homeowner. Lazy police departments,
even lazier district attornies, and financial
institutions that consider these to be little
more than petty crimes, are all at much greater
fault than even the most dim-witted victim.
Much tougher penalties, with the DAs and judges
that are willing to impose them, are the longer
term solution to these crimes. In the old West,
horse thieves and cattle rustlers rarely saw
the inside of a courthouse -- they got swift
justice at the end of a rope. (Hehe, maybe the
"old way" is the solution to the GTA/carjacking
problem we face these days. It wouldn't hurt my
feelings to bring back some "old time" justice.)
I would say that those RCMPs are great!
Unfortunately, most of the credit card holders,
and users, are south of the northern border.
Population differences (32 VS 375 Million)
also make a big difference. ID theft is so
very popular here in the USA just because it
is so easy to get away with: first the criminal
has to be caught, then the criminal has to be
prosecuted, and then the criminal has to be
convicted, and then the punishment has to be
adequate to deter such criminal activity.
Figures for the number of illegal aliens in the
USA range from 8 million (official figures that
have been massaged by political correctness) to
an estimated 28 million, based upon percentage
captured. Imagine a Canada whose population
were to double within a decade not being noticed.
Even the 8 million (low-ball) figure for illegal
aliens in the USA puts a severe strain on the
social safety net, and on crime fighting. Those
who have been able to successfully remain within
the USA the longest have done so by using the
best false identities, or backed up with the
help of government officials (at every level of
government).
It has only been post 9-11-2001 that pressure has
been applied to law enforcement and prosecutors
to actually enforce the law. It doesn't help
that the POTUS is the poster child for amnesty
for illegal aliens in the USA. So the taxpayers
of America are subjected to SS employees that
sell lists of SS numbers to the highest bidder,
DMV employees that earn an extra 2 to 5 thousand
USD per month under the table by creating good
IDs from bad basic documents, and everyone with
a computer, a scanner, and a laser color printer
tempted to suppliment their income by becoming
a fake ID provider.
Having CC companies monitoring "unusual" usage
of CC isn't enough by far. The punishment should
fit the crime, which in this case should be 2
years of hard (breaking big rocks into gravel)
labor PER INCIDENT. Even this penalty is less
that what I would impose (, so I guess it's a
good thing that I am not the judge in court.)
Nothing short of total world domination by a
confederation of corporate interests (and the
governments they own).
See also: "Corporate National Socialism"
An economic and political entity that is "by
the corporation, for the corporation, of the
people".
While using a separate partition for the pagefile
comes under the heading of "good housekeeping",
putting it on a separate disk (SCSI) or on a
separate channel (IDE) would be far better.
BTW, all that you read about MSFT's OS being smart
enough to manage the pagefile itself is pure BS.
The OS will, left on its own, create a very
fragmented filesystem, both data files and page.
I have found that forcing the creation of a single
pagefile that is 1-1/2 to 2 times the size of
physical memory works best. The caviat here is
that you should have enough physical memory in
your system to begin with -- pagefile is no proper
substitute for adequate system RAM, ever. 512MB
of RAM is an absolute MINIMUM for any of MSFT's
OSes, from NT4 onward. MSFT's claim of 256MB
"minimum" requirements is entirely bogus, unless
the only things you run is the OS and the browser.
Of course, YMMV, dependent upon the OS and the
applications that you use.
WTF does "partially open" actually mean? MSFT
has embraced/extended/extinguished the meaning
of the word "open" (as in "open" standard).
MSFT would like the public to believe that they
own/invented the XML standard -- but what they
really did was embrace/extend/patent(/extinguish)
what was an open standard with open specifications
and close the standard. Any/all governments all
over the world should take note of Microsoft's
continued monopolistic behaviour, and punish them
in the only manner MSFT can comprehend -- bar them
and their products from use in government, and
tax/tariff their products into oblivion for any
commercial use.
Why would any self-respecting company continue to
buy MSFT Office products when the very nature of
every software upgrade is designed to render
unfit every previous Office version, excepting
bugs and vulnerabilities?
Hopefully, the Massachussett's government is on
the clue-train, and will not let MSFT get away
with these tactics. (And so where IS the US
DoJ anti-monopoly task force when we need them?
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, perhaps, twiddling their
thumbs while looking so "butch" in their orange
jumpsuits?)
Just because a law has been passed doesn't mean
that it will be enforced, right?
Isn't it amazing that there is such a stark contrast
between one 2 term President and the next 2 term
President? One that united with NATO allies to
bring peace to the Balkans, that honored the rule
of law (international law), and was a good stewart
of the American taxpayers' money (with a $500M
surplus, versus a President that has fragmented
the NATO alliance over Iraq, breaks international
law as a matter of course, and has virtually
bankrupted our children and grandchildren with
debt.
The process has been called (by conservatives
within the Bush administration) "starving the beast".
The one truly effective way to destroy 75 years
of populist government's social safety net (SS
and Medicare) is to bankrupt the country, effectively
forcing the government to abandon that safety net.
At a time when more and more jobs are shipping
overseas, the Bush administration's plan for the
destruction of the USA's labor unions, and of the
Middle Class could not be complete without importing
more cheap labor into the USA -- L1-A & H1-B visas
are up more than 300% since Clinton's regime, and
in spite of perceived domestic terrorist threats,
illegal immigration into the USA has increased by
50% since 9-11-2001. Prosecution of employers
hiring illegal aliens is down, except for a few
PR-related prosecutions like WalMart (the $11M
USD fine represented what percentage of the labor
costs saved by WalMart, perhaps 25%?)
Dubya is spending more than $200 Billion on a non-
working "Star Wars" missile defense program, while
unwilling to add 2000 US Border Patrol, or to
effectively secure our seaports and air cargo.
Actions speak louder than words, and the Dubya
regime has used "terrorism" as a patriotic ruse.
The Dubya propaganda machine is now working at
full tilt (including hiring shills in the press,
and generating TV ads for the networks) in order
to convince the American people that SS is failing
at the very same time that Bush is proposing the
granting of SS pensions to millions of illegal
aliens. All while the real "crisis" is with
Medicare, not SS, which has been sandbagged by
this very same regime with the Medicare Rx plan -
a plan that would never have passed Congress had
the administration been truthful about the costs
to begin with. (How does a $385 B USD plan turn
into a $675 B USD plan in the course of 1 year?)
The insiders who knew the truth before the vote
were muzzled with threats to their jobs.
Let's see exactly how much longer this regime
continues to blame either (1) the Clinton
administration, or (2) terrorist threats from
militant religious fundamentalists for their
misdeeds, mismanagement, and corruption.
The Bush administration has effectively turned
what was once considered to be a civil case
(copyright infringement) into a criminal case.
Of course, since Federal prosecution under the
auspecies of the USA Patriot Act (I) may not be
permitted to be publicized, the full value of the
impact upon P2P file sharers (to change their ways)
might get lost. Publicity, especially very bad
publicity, can go a long way toward influencing
change in behaviour (beneficial to **AA).
When a recent case (that should have been "civil"
only) of the webmaster of a P2P server was charged
under criminal law, the charge was "conspiracy".
"Conspiracy" is a bit like "prayer" -- two or
more people united together in the purpose of
communion. A very handy catch-all charge for an
administration bent upon total police state power
and world domination. The defendant pleaded guilty
to the conspiracy charge, no doubt largely because
he didn't have a prayer of a chance to beat the
rap. Good lawyers cost big money, which is the
only way to get justice in the USA any more.
The Swedish government and their minions in the
prosecutor's office have found that the threat of
a prison term can be an effective deterent, even
without the USA Patriot Act (I) or Guantanamo Bay
as their "sticks". Dubya is a good teacher, yes?
Considering the number of "hired guns", and
the amount of resources poured into various
3 letter alphabet soup government organizations,
any reliance upon the "next big thing" in ciphers,
like ellipse curve encryption, is likely to end
badly. AES-1 was supposed to have been the hot
new encryption, but has been found vulnerable.
I don't expect much better long term security
with a number of other encryption methods,
particularly with the "seal of approval" of those
same 3 letter alphabet soup organizations.
A CD-R chock full of books in ANSI text or XML
or even PDF format could easily provide the basis
for a lifetime's worth of OTP (One Time Pad)
encryption. Perhaps it is time to revisit older
methods married to newer technology, instead of
newer methods with bleeding edge technology.
I seem to recall an awful lot of problems with
pseudo-random number generators and the seeding
methods they used, not so very long ago.
Fortunately (or not), the continuing trend of
global warming means that Canada (even Northern
Canada) will be prime, undeveloped real estate
for the next 200 years. At least, that portion
not already owned by Canada's "native peoples",
who never got screwed over the way the USA did
with theirs.
The Canadian constitution doesn't offer the same
level of personal rights guarantees that the USA
constitution does. Emigrating to Canada would
lose all its appeal if, once there, I couldn't
arm myself (to the teeth) in preparation for
resistance to the inevitable invasion from the
south. (Anyway, who needs royalty when the USA
has greedy monopolists and their minions in the
government? Queen Camilla? Bah! Humbug!)
But anti-DMCA legislation AND universal health
care AND the Canadian film industry are some real
pluses to consider. How is Canadian satellite
broadband internet, price wise?
Unfortunately, most of the products (4 of 5)
involve "enhancements" to Apple's iPod. These
"enhancements" might (or might not) have a
market, but they certainly don't have the
simple elegance of Apple's iPod. Apple would
do well to pass on these designs.
The cable companies are generally granted limited
monopoly status regulated by a local (eg. county)
government, as opposed to the telcos falling under
Federal and (generally lenient) state regulatory
commissions.
The cable companies have additional incentive to
"build-out" their infrastructure for widespread
broadband access -- failure to meet (local)
government access requirements might lose them
their local monopoly. On the other hand, the
telcos "talk the talk" when it comes to widespread
broadband access (like FTTP), but they will not
"walk the walk" (for infrastructure improvements).
DSL technology is based upon the old Ma Bell POTS
infrastructure, as well as being limited to a
certain distance from the local CO (Central Office).
POTS service that is underground, or
is too far away from that CO means no DSL service,
and maybe not even ADSL service. Areas with
modern high density residential construction
gets the DSL service, not less profitable areas.
Ma Bell, as the national telephone monopoly, was
broken up too soon for the "digital" revolution.
A Federal monopoly could have been compelled to
provide equal access to more rural areas, which
is definately not the case today. Back in the
day, the Federal government induced competition
to bring electricity into rural areas. There is
no such populist sentiment today in regard to
broadband internet access. In fact, the regional
telcos are using state legislatures to mark out
"future" captive markets for municipal WiFi,
which will never happen in many juridictions.
Cable will never saturate rural markets, due to
the shear expense of the final mile. Unfortunately
there is little competition for the only rural
alternative for broadband internet access, by
way of bidirectional satellite, which is bloody
expensive.