Just because I'm an English (the language) geek, here's the lowdown on the name 'Beowulf':
The Beowulf poem is the oldest known epic in the Anglo-Saxon language (that's like, early english). It's about the life of a king of the "Geats" called Beowulf. It starts off as him as a young rash figher and follows through to his death after fighting a dragon.
Why am I not surprised that you somehow managed to include "Geatse" reference in your Beowulf cluster of those explanation?
Don't even get me started on the obvious connection of "oldest times" to cosmology and all that "big bang black hole" stuff.
24GHz?! Who the hell would need such a fast phone is beyond me! I have a 500MHz AMD in my desktop (Debian) and it works just fine, thank you.
ARE YOU NUTS? Obviously they left out a dot on the frequency.
The frequency your phone transmits on has nothing to do with speed like a processor. Get out of here.....
I know there are other important speed-wise factors as well, the most important one being not the clock frequency itself but whether the chip has 64 bits or not. Nevertheless, I don't think anyone would ever need more than 640MHz.
The point is that the general public doesn't know what happens behind the scene when they click on a button with their mouse.
And that is the very reason why they should question it in the first place, for God's sake! Anyone who is even remotely intelligent would never agree to use a voting method which she does not understand, or otherwise she does not deserve suffrage (or even the right to live in democracy, for that matter).
How about allowing subscribers to moderate stories before they hit the main site.
People who are really busy could browse at +5 "Don't do anything else until you read this !!!" while people with loads of time (or in college) could browse at normal levels.
Oh, and as a plus, you would eliminate dupes as well.
How about allowing subscribers to ignore stories which they don't want to read -- even when they hit the main site?
People who are really busy would not be forced to read dups and to participate in 200-comment threads writing that the article is a dupe, like they do now.
I, for one, would gladly pay for such a privilege.
This Human Powered Helicopter project is undoubtedly very interesting. What I would really like to see, though, is a Helicopter Powered Human. I've heard some rumors that scientists in Soviet Russia might be already working on it as we speak.
I am already sick of all of those so called Linux Desktop "Myths." Here I am, sitting in front of my Linux desktop. Does it make me some king of a mythical hero or what? (Oooh, I want to be just like Achilles! And get all of those chicks to! Not, that I don't-- ah, never mind.)
Leela: They say Zapp Brannigan single handedly saved the Octillian System from a horde of rampaging Killbots.
Fry: Wow!
Bender: A grim day for Robotkind. Eh, but we can always build more Killbots!
[...]
Fry: I heard that one time you single hadedly defeated a horde of rampaging somethings in the something something system.
Zapp: The Killbots? A trifle! It was simply a matter of outsmarting them.
Fry: Wow, I never would have thought of that!
Zapp: You see Killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them. Until they reached their limit and shutdown. Kif. Show them the medal I won.
[Kif sighs and points to a medal on Zapp's uniform.]
[Scene: Nimbus Dining Room. Leela, Zapp, Fry and Bender sit at a table, looking down at the rest of the crew who are eating. Kif is grating cheese over Zapp's food.]
Zapp: More please.[Kif grates.] A little more. [Kif grates.] More. [Kif grates.] Keep going.
Leela: Captain Brannigan we really need to talk to you about our mission.
Zapp: Whatever it is I'm willing to put wave after wave of men at your disposal. Right men?
[He raises his glass to the crew. No one acknowledges him.]
Now one way that you can make money out of your invention is to persuade a backer to lend you enough money so you can afford the tools and materials to start building it. But in order to do that, you need to convince your sponsor -- who is in all probability a banker or financier, not a scientist or an engineer -- that you can earn enough money by selling your invention to eventually pay them back, and that requires either an unparallelled degree of chutzpah or some kind of official document stating the worth of your invention.
I agree with you. The lack of any kind of official document stating the worth of invention didn't stop Luke Stewart, though.
booth babes links please
pretty please with sugar on top.
That is interesting that you have mentioned booths. Every time I visit a computer expo, I have a strong urge to switch from Linux to
BSD. It is a very strange feeling which I absolutely cannot explain. I never have this feeling in my basement, though, so when I'm back in front of my computer, I usually forget about it and keep using Debian, but during every expo that urge comes back and keeps getting stronger and stronger. It is nearly irresistible, yet completely subconscious, beyond any reason and understanding. It would almost be mystical, if only my thoughts were pure and innocent... Could someone please explain it to me? Could that be Satan's temptations? With all of those daemons around, I'm not sure...
Isn't it strange how Slashdot's outsourcing stories are always about India and China?
I totally agree. If one would take Slashdot outsourcing stories seriously, one could conclude that half of the damn world lives in India and China!
They're never talking about shocking evidence of contracts with e.g. Canadian or Irish technology vendors.
This is very true. I think I hear at least 600 times more frequently about outsourcing to India and China than to Irenland. Why, are ask you? I'm sure there are as many competent people in Irenland as in India and China.
Not that I'm suggesting that this is barely veiled racism. You can get modded down for being honest about that.
I think it is racism. What else? As a sidenote I might add that I have never read any Slashdot story about outsourcing any software work to USA. Interesting, is it not?
Until a true open source alternative to BIND appears, we're stuck with it.
By "true alternative" do you mean it has to be GPLable?
Not necessarily. Being distributable wouln't hurt, though.
Being compatible with the DNS standard would also be a plus.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for alternatives to BIND, but djbdns cannot even be distributed as a simple rpm or deb package not messing the whole bloody filesystem, for God's sake.
If you want a name server with such a strong emphasis on security, use MaraDNS--at least it's free software. Unfortunately, like djbdns, it is not RFC-compatible, but at least it can be made so, with no strings attached.
$100,000 is probably more money than djb makes in a year. If he offered to sacrifice a year's salary to someone who found a security flaw in software he wrote in his spare time and gives away for free, I would hardly call that laughable.
Daniel Bernstein's salary is completely irrelevant. $500 is not any less miserable (or laughable, for that matter) if it is given by someone who is poor.
Note also that Schneier's essay is pretty much irrelevant to this situation.
It is hardly irrelevant in my opinion:
"Contests are a terrible way to demonstrate security. A product/system/protocol/algorithm that has survived a contest unbroken is not obviously more trustworthy than one that has not been the subject of a contest. The best products/systems/protocols/algorithms available today have not been the subjects of any contests, and probably never will be."
I use portsentry for protection against scans. The result is that all my ISP scanners are now in hosts.deny and consequenlty I can run any server I want and they will never know and can't complain about it...
They will never know.
Unless... they see their logs.
Your ISP may not be able to directly open your ports but they have to receive, handle and send every single inbound and outbound IP packet of yours, each of them containing source and destination port numbers.
If they don't know the easiest way to see whether you run any servers by just observing port numbers in your traffic, then, if I were you, I wouldn't want such imbeciles for my ISP.
You miss my point -- the whole "Open Source" movement clouds the definitions. OSI embraced the original APSL, which in many ways was more restrictive than the DJB licenses.
There are many things that are open source and not free. DJB's stuff. Quite a bit of UW mail software, etc. etc. You can't distribute a patched version of pine, either, without UW's permission.
OSI obfuscates these issue because the trolls don't get along with RMS.
Actually, the definition of "open source" used by OSI (launched by Eric S. Raymond, President, on November 22nd, 1998) is remarkably similar to "free software" definition used by Debian (officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993) and GNU (initially announced by Richard M. Stallman on September 27th, 1983).
Please let me quote The Debian Free Software Guidelines from Debian Social Contract, Version 1.0, ratified on July 5, 1997:
Free Redistribution
The license of a Debian component may not restrict any
party from selling or giving away the software as a
component of an aggregate software distribution containing
programs from several different sources. The license may not
require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow
distribution in source code as well as compiled
form.
Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and
must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as
the license of the original software.
Integrity of The Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed
in modified form _only_ if the license allows
the distribution of "patch files" with the source
code for the purpose of modifying the program at build
time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of
software built from modified source code. The license may
require derived works to carry a different name or version
number from the original software. (This is a
compromise. The Debian group encourages all authors not to
restrict any files, source or binary, from being
modified.)
No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or
group of persons.
No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the
program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may
not restrict the program from being used in a business, or
from being used for genetic research.
Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to
whom the program is redistributed without the need for
execution of an additional license by those
parties.
License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the
program's being part of a Debian system. If the program is
extracted from Debian and used or distributed without Debian
but otherwise within the terms of the program's license, all
parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the
same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with
the Debian system.
License Must Not Contaminate Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software
that is distributed along with the licensed
software. For example, the license must not insist that all
other programs distributed on the same medium must be free
software.
I still can hardly calm down. Please tell me, when GNU's Now Unix, I should send my cheques directly to Darl, shouldn't I? Or to SCO? Maybe Caldera? Or was it Tarantella? I am confused... Is it in Santa Cruz or Utah? Redmont, you say? You mean, I should pay the pimp Bill directly instead of using Darl, his bitch? What was the brothel called again? Caldera? SCO? Canopy? Microsoft? "Open" Linux my bloody arse... This is outrageously frightening. Please, let GNU continue being Not Unix. Thank you.
The $500 security guarantee is utterly irrelevant.
I not only have seen script kiddies trading private exploits for sums at least an order of magnitude greater than that, but they were selling it to multiple buyers. I am talking about script kiddies, not professionals, mind you. Even $100,000 would be laughable. $1,000,000 might start looking interesting for people not willing to make any serious usage (industrial espionage, etc.) of their exploits. But $500? Please don't mind if I die laughing. See also The Fallacy of Cracking Contests essay written by Bruce Schneier in bloody 1998.
Slashdot Mirror
A judge does not want a convicted money falsifier to pay his fine using falsified $100 bills. Film at 11!
Why am I not surprised that you somehow managed to include "Geatse" reference in your Beowulf cluster of those explanation? Don't even get me started on the obvious connection of "oldest times" to cosmology and all that "big bang black hole" stuff.
I just imagined it...
I know there are other important speed-wise factors as well, the most important one being not the clock frequency itself but whether the chip has 64 bits or not. Nevertheless, I don't think anyone would ever need more than 640MHz.
24GHz?! Who the hell would need such a fast phone is beyond me! I have a 500MHz AMD in my desktop (Debian) and it works just fine, thank you.
Wow. That's 96 more errors than I got last time.
And that is the very reason why they should question it in the first place, for God's sake! Anyone who is even remotely intelligent would never agree to use a voting method which she does not understand, or otherwise she does not deserve suffrage (or even the right to live in democracy, for that matter).
How about allowing subscribers to ignore stories which they don't want to read -- even when they hit the main site?
People who are really busy would not be forced to read dups and to participate in 200-comment threads writing that the article is a dupe, like they do now.
I, for one, would gladly pay for such a privilege.
Well, I cannot speak for the whole Universe, but I am.
This Human Powered Helicopter project is undoubtedly very interesting. What I would really like to see, though, is a Helicopter Powered Human. I've heard some rumors that scientists in Soviet Russia might be already working on it as we speak.
I am already sick of all of those so called Linux Desktop "Myths." Here I am, sitting in front of my Linux desktop. Does it make me some king of a mythical hero or what? (Oooh, I want to be just like Achilles! And get all of those chicks to! Not, that I don't-- ah, never mind.)
Leela: They say Zapp Brannigan single handedly saved the Octillian System from a horde of rampaging Killbots.
Fry: Wow!
Bender: A grim day for Robotkind. Eh, but we can always build more Killbots!
[...]
Fry: I heard that one time you single hadedly defeated a horde of rampaging somethings in the something something system.
Zapp: The Killbots? A trifle! It was simply a matter of outsmarting them.
Fry: Wow, I never would have thought of that!
Zapp: You see Killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them. Until they reached their limit and shutdown. Kif. Show them the medal I won.
[Kif sighs and points to a medal on Zapp's uniform.]
[Scene: Nimbus Dining Room. Leela, Zapp, Fry and Bender sit at a table, looking down at the rest of the crew who are eating. Kif is grating cheese over Zapp's food.]
Zapp: More please.[Kif grates.] A little more. [Kif grates.] More. [Kif grates.] Keep going.
Leela: Captain Brannigan we really need to talk to you about our mission.
Zapp: Whatever it is I'm willing to put wave after wave of men at your disposal. Right men?
[He raises his glass to the crew. No one acknowledges him.]
Crewman: You suck!
Love's Labours Lost in Space -- From The Neutral Planet
I agree with you. The lack of any kind of official document stating the worth of invention didn't stop Luke Stewart, though.
Actually, the Release Update is much more futuristic that you might think:
It surely sounds like science fiction, does it not?
As a more serious sidenote:
Oh yeah, that's my Debian Stable desktop. Who laughs now?!
No, of course not. What an absurd. My employer is so great that I coudn't even think of-- wait a minute!
That is interesting that you have mentioned booths. Every time I visit a computer expo, I have a strong urge to switch from Linux to BSD. It is a very strange feeling which I absolutely cannot explain. I never have this feeling in my basement, though, so when I'm back in front of my computer, I usually forget about it and keep using Debian, but during every expo that urge comes back and keeps getting stronger and stronger. It is nearly irresistible, yet completely subconscious, beyond any reason and understanding. It would almost be mystical, if only my thoughts were pure and innocent... Could someone please explain it to me? Could that be Satan's temptations? With all of those daemons around, I'm not sure...
I totally agree. If one would take Slashdot outsourcing stories seriously, one could conclude that half of the damn world lives in India and China!
This is very true. I think I hear at least 600 times more frequently about outsourcing to India and China than to Irenland. Why, are ask you? I'm sure there are as many competent people in Irenland as in India and China.
I think it is racism. What else? As a sidenote I might add that I have never read any Slashdot story about outsourcing any software work to USA. Interesting, is it not?
I hate to break it to you but I think you might have misunderstood the concept of "rubber-hose cryptanalysis."
I have no idea. I keep mine in my secret lab in the basement. Works fine. The basement--just like my computer network--has no windows, though.
Not necessarily. Being distributable wouln't hurt, though. Being compatible with the DNS standard would also be a plus. Don't get me wrong, I am all for alternatives to BIND, but djbdns cannot even be distributed as a simple rpm or deb package not messing the whole bloody filesystem, for God's sake.
If you want a name server with such a strong emphasis on security, use MaraDNS--at least it's free software. Unfortunately, like djbdns, it is not RFC-compatible, but at least it can be made so, with no strings attached.
Daniel Bernstein's salary is completely irrelevant. $500 is not any less miserable (or laughable, for that matter) if it is given by someone who is poor.
It is hardly irrelevant in my opinion:
They will never know.
Unless... they see their logs.
Your ISP may not be able to directly open your ports but they have to receive, handle and send every single inbound and outbound IP packet of yours, each of them containing source and destination port numbers.
If they don't know the easiest way to see whether you run any servers by just observing port numbers in your traffic, then, if I were you, I wouldn't want such imbeciles for my ISP.
Actually, the definition of "open source" used by OSI (launched by Eric S. Raymond, President, on November 22nd, 1998) is remarkably similar to "free software" definition used by Debian (officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993) and GNU (initially announced by Richard M. Stallman on September 27th, 1983).
Please let me quote The Debian Free Software Guidelines from Debian Social Contract, Version 1.0, ratified on July 5, 1997:
I still can hardly calm down. Please tell me, when GNU's Now Unix, I should send my cheques directly to Darl, shouldn't I? Or to SCO? Maybe Caldera? Or was it Tarantella? I am confused... Is it in Santa Cruz or Utah? Redmont, you say? You mean, I should pay the pimp Bill directly instead of using Darl, his bitch? What was the brothel called again? Caldera? SCO? Canopy? Microsoft? "Open" Linux my bloody arse... This is outrageously frightening. Please, let GNU continue being Not Unix. Thank you.
I not only have seen script kiddies trading private exploits for sums at least an order of magnitude greater than that, but they were selling it to multiple buyers. I am talking about script kiddies, not professionals, mind you. Even $100,000 would be laughable. $1,000,000 might start looking interesting for people not willing to make any serious usage (industrial espionage, etc.) of their exploits. But $500? Please don't mind if I die laughing. See also The Fallacy of Cracking Contests essay written by Bruce Schneier in bloody 1998.