Opera is the most ported application in history and it has _native_ support for Theora on all it's platforms/products; Opera Mobile, Opera Mini etc. Don't worry; it _WILL_ be possible to view open video content on all mobile devices.
It's a plugin to the windbg debugger. so that when it hits an access violation (which is MS speak for SIGSEG) you can do !expoitable and it will use some heuristics to guess whether this bug is an exploitable security vulnerability.
Since Microsoft receives millions of crash dumps every days for every single Windows app (including third-party apps) they need hardcore bug triaging tools.
For decades each crash they received went into the "!analyze -v" automatic bug triage tool which tries go figure out whether it's a Microsoft bug or a bug in the third-app. It also tries to classify the bug using advanced heuristics which has been refined over many years.
Now, they have decided to do the same for security bugs as well and thus they created the !expoitable windbg plugin. This plugin has been in production use inside Microsoft for over a year already. However, they know that it doesn't matter in what application the security hole is, if a box is owned Microsoft always get's bad press regardless.
Also note that this tool cannot easily be used to find security bugs in the linux kernel and not in linux-only apps either because you must run it inside windbg. Further, in order for windbg to be useful you just have debug symbols loaded from the proprietary debug symbol format PDB that Microsoft created, which in practice mean you must have compiled it with Visual Studio (and not mingw etc).
So you need not just a port to windows (using mingw or similar) but you actually need to port the app to compile under MS compiler if you want to use this.
Apps like Firefox will be able to use this tool though, they already have debug symbol server online that hosts PDB debug symbols for every single release build of Firefox.
I absolutely think the open source community should use this tool to scan cross-platform apps but in the long term, I hope there will be a gdb plugin with similar functionality which also has heuristics geared for *nix exploits.
I have a long C# background and I found that the Vala programming language has been a great learning experience for me. It's not a rock solid platform yet and there is also very few tools for it but if you look at the code for the Vala compiler itself, it's just an awesome project! It allows you to write comfortably in a syntax similar to C# but you still have 100% interop with C (you can use all the normal Linux libraries like GTK, libpng etc etc) and it compiles to native code. Since Vala is growing very fast right now, it's also an opportunity to be part of a new revolution. To be in it from the beginning. You have a chance to make a difference and impact this terrific new platform.
If you don't feel comfortable working without mature IDE tools you should just stick with C# for now and use Mono and MonoDevelop for instance. Long term you will not be able to make significant contributions to the open source community using Mono though because many users will reject the apps just based on the platform (which is silly in a way but it's a fact unfortunately).
Java rocks for server side but has been reject on the desktop due to the bloatiness of apps like Eclipse.
Python is great for scripting and small utilities.
On gnome Ubuntu you can go to System::Preferences::Appearence::Interface and then you check "Editable menu shortcut keys". After that close the dialog and go to any GNOME application. Try for instance gedit (the "Text Editor" application in GNOME). Now what you do is that you open the File menu, then you hover above the Open menu item and you press CTRL-A or whatever. This instantly rebinds the "Open" menu item with CTRL-A and so on.
It's a shame that GNOME had hidden this EXTREMELY useful functionality. GNOME was supposed to be easy and intuitive right? Yeah right:);)
I've used this a lot to fix the keybindings in GNOME which is very much broken. For example, I want CTRL-G for "Go to line" in gedit and I want to be able to open new tabs with CTRL-T like I do in the browser (which is now setting the standard because I spend so much time in the browser so that's what my brain in wired up for).
When you buy Windows a tiny fraction of the cost is actually forwarded to vendors from which Microsoft licenses codecs and what not. Since I've already paid for Windows I've also paid for all those patents so why pay again? How often should each person pay for the same codec? Perhaps MPEG-LA wants me to pay them again and again for every piece of MPEG software or hardware or whatever. Maybe MPEG-LA wants me to pay them every time I play an MPEG movie or maybe they should get some $$ every time I take a breath?
Seriously, we should gather outside of the MPEG-LA offices and just do a blockade or something.
Microsoft has distributed SFU for a long time to aid unix-to-win32 migrations. Because the old make, cc etc just plain sucks, what they have actually shipped is gmake, gcc (most of GNU really). A while back GNU switched to GPLv3 which has new wording relating to patents. This basically means that MS can no longer ship any GNU products. However, MS still needs a unix-to-win32 migration story.
Basically, the GPLv3 could be the reason why MS created UNG. If UNG is not a hoax that is.
GPLv2 worked fine for Linux in the past . Why wouldn't it work fine for Linux now. Yes it clearly must be fine forever, because the world is static -- especially the IT industry is. Never mind the fact that software patents and DRM have entered the scene and are these days being used as weapons against digital freedom.
As you probably know, the "Server Core" edition comes without any GUI. This reduces the total amount of bits that needs to be patched later and this in turn needs to less reboot/hassle/downtime. The problem is that.NET depends on the GUI so.NET cannot run on Server Core. This in turns means that you cannot install MSSQL because it contains managed code (not only in stored procedures but in core product). It also means that while you could theoretically install IIS, why would you ever do that? You will not be able to run any dynamics content stuff (ASP.NET etc) on it. I've also heard (from an MS sales person!) that Exchange contains managed code. This means that to benefit from the lower footprint in Server Core, you better run only OSS software (because as you know, no open source server has hard dependencies on managed code). MySQL and what not will run just fine on Server Core. Then again, with no ssh the administration will be a pain in the ass; why not just use Linux instead? GUI is optional without massive loss of functionality.
"Any software that they write, irrespective of whether it is during or outside normal working hours, legally belongs to their employer."
Ehm.. yeah right.
If you're not going to use MySQL because of their business with SCO...
How about not using Eclipse because IBM's business with the freakin Nazis ??!?!? Yeah it's all on CNET too:
http://news.com.com/2009-1082-269157.html
Switching to PostgreSQL because of this is silly
on
MySQL and SCO Join Forces
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Some people saying talking about 'the open-source' community switching to PostgreSQL because of this; that's ridiculous seeing as PostgreSQL has already adopted it's product to SCO's OpenServer. They even have a FAQ about it on their site:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.FAQ_SCO.html
Besides, MySQL's code is still GPL and it's still more widely deployed on web hosting companies so it would be very inconvenient to drop MySQL support for PostgreSQL.
3D is faster than 2D because most 2D ops (except the final projection etc) are relagated to an old low-capacity legacy chip while the 3D ops are running with more super-fast RAM and CPU power than the primary system itself. 3D cards are BEASTS and they get naughtier every day!
I already know it's gonna be an order of magnitude worse because of the fees and hazzle associated with obtaining new versions. Besides, I know roughly what the unique features of Opera are...
I know quite a lot even before trying it. Just as I said, it's not free. That means paying for next upgrades/versions. This in turn rising from my chair and getting my VISA from my wallet. With that kind of work required... no thanks. Mozilla already knows my mind with outstanding stability and a slick interface.
My other point (besides Mozilla being easier to maintain in the long-run) is that the choice is not just about quality, it's about freedom too. Of course quality is is major issue, maybe the most important; but Mozilla is good enough for me to consider the licenses too (instead of just quality).
At times I've had that same feeling.. "hmm, I wonder if someone actually reads, let alone fixes these bugs". But just within the last three weeks I've had two bugs reported by me patched.
btw, i'm using suite because the "modern" theme looks so much better in suite compared to firefox.
So surfed to the registration button. Looked at it for a while and then I realized... I don't even want to try it, even if it's free, I really like Mozilla.
The thing is that if I pay for the content when I buy my iPod or empty-cdr or whatever, when why should I pay for records in the store? if I already paid for the music then I want the actual content for free, like downloading over internet etc.
These companies are just leeching every single buck you have without providing ANYTHING that the user wants.
Ok so if I pay this stupid tax will it be legal to download any kind of mp3 music from anywhere into the player? After all I *have* paid the industry what they wanted now.
No, the whole point is that Iraqis did not CHOOSE dictactorship so how can you be sure they wanted it?
If there was a democratic election in Iraq and they choose to have a one-man-rules-it-all kind of government then fine, THEN so be it.
The Chineese political leaders, legislators and judges where NOT elected, not one of them. They do not represent the people in any way, why should we respect THEIR will? The only reason we keep them in the UN is that it's be best we can do right now; however in the long-run we do not care about there particular persons, it's the will of the Chineese people that matter. Should they choose this system that they have today, then so be it; but the fact is that they did not choose anything.
No law, document or paper can take way (or give) you the fundamental human rights. You just HAVE them, they are intrinsic.
The form of democracy may be choosen, modified and improved but there is no choice between democracy and dictactorship.
Human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, opinion, the right to a fair trial etc are universal rights.
Slashdot Mirror
Luis Villa (lawyer who works for Mozilla) also wrote an important rebuttal to Thom's post: http://tieguy.org/blog/2010/03/26/more-patent-101-and-some-patent-licensing-201-advanced-class/
Opera is the most ported application in history and it has _native_ support for Theora on all it's platforms/products; Opera Mobile, Opera Mini etc. Don't worry; it _WILL_ be possible to view open video content on all mobile devices.
Since Microsoft receives millions of crash dumps every days for every single Windows app (including third-party apps) they need hardcore bug triaging tools.
For decades each crash they received went into the "!analyze -v" automatic bug triage tool which tries go figure out whether it's a Microsoft bug or a bug in the third-app. It also tries to classify the bug using advanced heuristics which has been refined over many years.
Now, they have decided to do the same for security bugs as well and thus they created the !expoitable windbg plugin. This plugin has been in production use inside Microsoft for over a year already. However, they know that it doesn't matter in what application the security hole is, if a box is owned Microsoft always get's bad press regardless.
Also note that this tool cannot easily be used to find security bugs in the linux kernel and not in linux-only apps either because you must run it inside windbg. Further, in order for windbg to be useful you just have debug symbols loaded from the proprietary debug symbol format PDB that Microsoft created, which in practice mean you must have compiled it with Visual Studio (and not mingw etc).
So you need not just a port to windows (using mingw or similar) but you actually need to port the app to compile under MS compiler if you want to use this.
Apps like Firefox will be able to use this tool though, they already have debug symbol server online that hosts PDB debug symbols for every single release build of Firefox.
I absolutely think the open source community should use this tool to scan cross-platform apps but in the long term, I hope there will be a gdb plugin with similar functionality which also has heuristics geared for *nix exploits.
I have a long C# background and I found that the Vala programming language has been a great learning experience for me. It's not a rock solid platform yet and there is also very few tools for it but if you look at the code for the Vala compiler itself, it's just an awesome project! It allows you to write comfortably in a syntax similar to C# but you still have 100% interop with C (you can use all the normal Linux libraries like GTK, libpng etc etc) and it compiles to native code. Since Vala is growing very fast right now, it's also an opportunity to be part of a new revolution. To be in it from the beginning. You have a chance to make a difference and impact this terrific new platform. If you don't feel comfortable working without mature IDE tools you should just stick with C# for now and use Mono and MonoDevelop for instance. Long term you will not be able to make significant contributions to the open source community using Mono though because many users will reject the apps just based on the platform (which is silly in a way but it's a fact unfortunately). Java rocks for server side but has been reject on the desktop due to the bloatiness of apps like Eclipse. Python is great for scripting and small utilities.
It's a shame that GNOME had hidden this EXTREMELY useful functionality. GNOME was supposed to be easy and intuitive right? Yeah right :) ;)
I've used this a lot to fix the keybindings in GNOME which is very much broken. For example, I want CTRL-G for "Go to line" in gedit and I want to be able to open new tabs with CTRL-T like I do in the browser (which is now setting the standard because I spend so much time in the browser so that's what my brain in wired up for).
When you buy Windows a tiny fraction of the cost is actually forwarded to vendors from which Microsoft licenses codecs and what not. Since I've already paid for Windows I've also paid for all those patents so why pay again? How often should each person pay for the same codec? Perhaps MPEG-LA wants me to pay them again and again for every piece of MPEG software or hardware or whatever. Maybe MPEG-LA wants me to pay them every time I play an MPEG movie or maybe they should get some $$ every time I take a breath? Seriously, we should gather outside of the MPEG-LA offices and just do a blockade or something.
The point is that Code Access Security (CAS) depends on the fact that there is no bugs in the MSIL verifier. Dowd has previously found exactly these type of bugs in the Flash bytecode verifier: http://www.matasano.com/log/1032/this-new-vulnerability-dowds-inhuman-flash-exploit/
Microsoft has distributed SFU for a long time to aid unix-to-win32 migrations. Because the old make, cc etc just plain sucks, what they have actually shipped is gmake, gcc (most of GNU really). A while back GNU switched to GPLv3 which has new wording relating to patents. This basically means that MS can no longer ship any GNU products. However, MS still needs a unix-to-win32 migration story. Basically, the GPLv3 could be the reason why MS created UNG. If UNG is not a hoax that is.
"Brett Winterford travelled to Redmond as a guest of Microsoft." from TFA.
As you probably know, the "Server Core" edition comes without any GUI. This reduces the total amount of bits that needs to be patched later and this in turn needs to less reboot/hassle/downtime. The problem is that .NET depends on the GUI so .NET cannot run on Server Core. This in turns means that you cannot install MSSQL because it contains managed code (not only in stored procedures but in core product). It also means that while you could theoretically install IIS, why would you ever do that? You will not be able to run any dynamics content stuff (ASP.NET etc) on it. I've also heard (from an MS sales person!) that Exchange contains managed code. This means that to benefit from the lower footprint in Server Core, you better run only OSS software (because as you know, no open source server has hard dependencies on managed code). MySQL and what not will run just fine on Server Core. Then again, with no ssh the administration will be a pain in the ass; why not just use Linux instead? GUI is optional without massive loss of functionality.
"Any software that they write, irrespective of whether it is during or outside normal working hours, legally belongs to their employer." Ehm.. yeah right.
How about not using Eclipse because IBM's business with the freakin Nazis ??!?!? Yeah it's all on CNET too:
http://news.com.com/2009-1082-269157.html
Some people saying talking about 'the open-source' community switching to PostgreSQL because of this; that's ridiculous seeing as PostgreSQL has already adopted it's product to SCO's OpenServer. They even have a FAQ about it on their site: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.FAQ_SCO.html Besides, MySQL's code is still GPL and it's still more widely deployed on web hosting companies so it would be very inconvenient to drop MySQL support for PostgreSQL.
3D is faster than 2D because most 2D ops (except the final projection etc) are relagated to an old low-capacity legacy chip while the 3D ops are running with more super-fast RAM and CPU power than the primary system itself. 3D cards are BEASTS and they get naughtier every day!
I already know it's gonna be an order of magnitude worse because of the fees and hazzle associated with obtaining new versions. Besides, I know roughly what the unique features of Opera are...
I know quite a lot even before trying it. Just as I said, it's not free. That means paying for next upgrades/versions. This in turn rising from my chair and getting my VISA from my wallet. With that kind of work required... no thanks. Mozilla already knows my mind with outstanding stability and a slick interface. My other point (besides Mozilla being easier to maintain in the long-run) is that the choice is not just about quality, it's about freedom too. Of course quality is is major issue, maybe the most important; but Mozilla is good enough for me to consider the licenses too (instead of just quality).
At times I've had that same feeling.. "hmm, I wonder if someone actually reads, let alone fixes these bugs". But just within the last three weeks I've had two bugs reported by me patched. btw, i'm using suite because the "modern" theme looks so much better in suite compared to firefox.
So surfed to the registration button. Looked at it for a while and then I realized... I don't even want to try it, even if it's free, I really like Mozilla.
First comment.
The thing is that if I pay for the content when I buy my iPod or empty-cdr or whatever, when why should I pay for records in the store? if I already paid for the music then I want the actual content for free, like downloading over internet etc. These companies are just leeching every single buck you have without providing ANYTHING that the user wants.
Ok so if I pay this stupid tax will it be legal to download any kind of mp3 music from anywhere into the player? After all I *have* paid the industry what they wanted now.
Have you ever taken part in an OSS project? If yes, which one? If no, how can you truely understand the merits of this development model?
No, the whole point is that Iraqis did not CHOOSE dictactorship so how can you be sure they wanted it? If there was a democratic election in Iraq and they choose to have a one-man-rules-it-all kind of government then fine, THEN so be it.
The Chineese political leaders, legislators and judges where NOT elected, not one of them. They do not represent the people in any way, why should we respect THEIR will? The only reason we keep them in the UN is that it's be best we can do right now; however in the long-run we do not care about there particular persons, it's the will of the Chineese people that matter. Should they choose this system that they have today, then so be it; but the fact is that they did not choose anything.
No law, document or paper can take way (or give) you the fundamental human rights. You just HAVE them, they are intrinsic.
The form of democracy may be choosen, modified and improved but there is no choice between democracy and dictactorship.
Human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, opinion, the right to a fair trial etc are universal rights.