I've been running dd-wrt on an e3000 and have been happy with it, great performance. After reading about tomato I think I'm going to reflash the router tonight and give it a try. My e3000 runs rather hot, I believe it was around 140F with a temp gun measured on the plastic case, perspective buyers be aware of that, I actually placed a netbook cooler under it as I was worried about burning it up on hot summer days. The dd-wrt forum I have not found to be friendly, I had general questions about issues with QoS policies that I think may have been firmware version related, but my thread kept getting deleted. Also, the update process for dd-wrt seems convoluted, where some articles explicitly state to flash with an initial flash firmware then the target firmware.
+1 recommendation for the e3000. I just recently purchased mine during an Amazon Black Friday lightning deal and am running TomatoUSB Ext on it. It's been working great for my Windows b/g/n laptop, a/b/g/n MacBook Pro, and b/g Wii (streaming Netflix and playing Mario Kart Wii).
I was initially worried about the numerous reports of the e3000 running hot, but I turned the Transmit Power setting down from a default of 42 mW to 24 mW on both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz radios. I haven't had any problems at all with heat since making the change and still get great coverage in both bands in my (small) house. The setting is under Advanced --> Wireless in TomatoUSB. Be sure to change it for both the 2.4 GHz/eth1 and the 5 GHz/eth2 interfaces. YMMV.
Your viewpoint is a little close-minded. Most software written is never even sold. It is mainly in-house custom apps in companies where it would be pointless to try to exploit it because there are easier ways to get the data. And how about the software that runs completely closed on microcontrollers that are in every single product sold today?? Think before you post.:)
Your viewpoint is a little close-minded. Just because an app/server/system/whatever doesn't have sensitive data, that doesn't make it pointless to try to exploit. Ever hear of chained exploits? You break into system X, from there break into system Y, from there break into system Z, etc. until you finally get to your true target. Some little homegrown app that nobody gives 2 cents about (especially in regard to software/system security) because it houses no sensitive data may provide just the perfect platform for an attacker to do an initial exploit against. Now that they have their foot in the door, they can utilize that compromised system to launch their real attack that may not have been feasible otherwise. I've seen countless companies where important systems are relatively well defended against the outside and user segments of the network, but are not well defended against other server segments. Hop into the server segment via a poorly coded homegrown app, and you've just bypassed a big layer of many companies' defenses.
However, if they wish to distribute it to end-users beyond themselves, then they must ensure that those end users are given the same amount of Freedom that the company received.
Does distributing said code to the company's employees count as distribution? I'm genuinely interested in this case as I used to work for a company that used and modified code licensed under the GPL to create an internal backup application that got distributed to all company employees.
I requested a copy of the source code because I wanted to tinker with the code in my own time off work and see what made the program tick. Management and the developers both refused my requests, citing some mumbo-jumbo about intellectual property rights. I didn't want to jeopardize my job at the time, so I didn't press the issue. Looking back though, can they legally do such a thing, refusing to offer up the source code to an employee to whom the program is distributed? Does the program have to be distributed outside of the company to count as real distribution?
For anyone that works with livestock, having long guns mounted in vehicles and handguns on one's person is absolutely normal, routine, and safe. Um.. I do occasional tech stuff on a farm and not ever have I seen any of the staff carry any kind of firearm.
Just saying, since you make it sound like every one working with animals is armed to the teeth.
Um.. I grew up on a farm and I wouldn't have ever been caught dead without a firearm, especially when I was out alone in some of the remote pastures checking on the cattle. Mountain lions, coyotes, badgers, rabid raccoons and other not so friendly critters were very common in my sparsely populated corner of South Dakota and even though I seldom ever had to use my firearm, I was dang glad that I had it for those few times that I truly needed it. I just thank $DIETY that I saw the light and went into tech work instead of following the family agriculture tradition.
Anyway, a bit more on topic...there were several times throughout my childhood that we had trespassers come onto our property and damage our gates, fences, steal livestock, etc. Now granted, it was probably a very small minority of the trespassers that caused that damage, but it's those few bad ones that give everyone else a bad name. They also did enough damage to make us a bit paranoid anytime someone came onto our property without asking. You have to understand that in rural American culture, setting foot on to someone else's property without explicit permission is a huge no-no. If people came to us and asked our permission though, 9 times out of 10 we were more than happy to oblige. So, I can definitely sympathize with the ranchers here -- they were (rightfully) suspicious because they've been burned in the past by a few bad guys. If these ranchers had guns mounted in their vehicle, I'm fairly certain that it wasn't with the specific intent of harming these Geohashers, it's just part of the rural culture and a necessary tool in their line of work.
Now if those ranchers jumped out with firearms in hand, ready to deal out some indiscriminate lead poisoning, then well...shame on them. It seems to be a law of nature that in every line of work, there seem to be the few people that are the vocal boneheaded minority who give everyone else a bad name, and farmers/ranchers are not immune to this law.
I find it interesting that they call hacking the game itself "cheating."
Reminds me of when I was in college and us CS people used to get together and play a computerized version of capture the flag. The premise of the game was simple enough -- players were divided into 4 teams of 2-3 people each, and each team got a machine that came pre-loaded with an older unpatched version of Linux that had well known and published security vulnerabilities (something like Red Hat 7.3). Each machine had 4 services running on it -- typically SSH, Bind, Apache, and telnet (yeah...*sigh*). Each of those services came configured to return a certain string (the so-called flag) when queried by a master scoring server that ran a fairly simple Python script. The script ran once every minute and then displayed up to date team scores on a video projector. The rules of the game stated that we could not patch the machine or use IPtables to lock down the machine. Anything else was fair game. The machines and the scoring server were all networked together on small private network, and each team was given one additional network drop to do with as they pleased.
Anyway, one night we got together to play CTF and there were only enough people for 3 teams of two. Since that doesn't make for such an interesting game, one of our professors who was just supposed to be observing decided to join in and be on his own team. As soon as the game started, everyone went to work furiously trying to defend their boxen and then the real fun -- the attacking -- began.
We were all quite surprised when the first round of results came in and our professor hadn't had anyone hijack his machine. He also evidently hadn't attacked anyone else. The night went on and each of the student teams went back and forth, attacking and defending, but our professor stayed the same -- he neither had anyone successfully compromise his box, nor successfully compromised anyone elses.
The last few minutes of the game saw my team dead last, our professor in third place, and two other teams above us. 5 seconds from the end, our professor's score suddenly increased to an ungodly high (and according to the rules unattainable) score, with the rest of our scores getting set to zero. As the clock ticked down and the game came to an end, we were befuddled as to what happened.
Suddenly it dawned on us -- our professor had spent the entire time hacking the scoring server (which was supposed to have been an up to date, secure Linux install) and replacing the Python scoring script with one of his own, all to his advantage. At some point during the game, he had actually replaced the running script with his own, without any of us ever noticing. We were all in awe and amazement at his creativity -- the idea to do such a thing had not even occurred to any of us. We learned several valuable lessons that night, one of which was that the mind of a creative attacker may not be confined solely within the nice little security box that you place it in. That, and never mess with your professors!
What the GPL says, is that if you give someone a binary copy of the software, the source must either come with it, or be readily available. Now, the giving of that binary copy is still subject to normal copyright laws. If I for instance create a boxed software product, GPL it, and then put it on the shelves of Best Buy (with source on the CD), you still wouldn't necessarily be able to copy it and give it to friends, because you have no distribution rights on the binary, and therefore whether or not you must include the source with it becomes moot.
You got a source for that claim?
According to the Free Software Foundation's GPL FAQ:
Does the GPL allow me to require that anyone who receives the software must pay me a fee and/or notify me?
No. In fact, a requirement like that would make the program non-free. If people have to pay when they get a copy of a program, or if they have to notify anyone in particular, then the program is not free. See the definition of free software.
The GPL is a free software license, and therefore it permits people to use and even redistribute the software without being required to pay anyone a fee for doing so.
source: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGP LAllowRequireFee
If I distribute GPL'd software for a fee, am I required to also make it available to the public without a charge?
No. However, if someone pays your fee and gets a copy, the GPL gives them the freedom to release it to the public, with or without a fee. For example, someone could pay your fee, and then put her copy on a web site for the general public.
source: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGP LRequireAvailabilityToPublic
There are several other FAQs on there that I think are applicable, but I think most everyone here is capable of reading for themselves.
My university just began a Tablet PC program at the beginning of this academic year and while I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, I've become a believer in the power of Tablet PCs. The students and faculty have been issued the M275 Gateway Tablets and while it may not be the best of the best in terms of hardware, I still wouldn't trade it for a top of the line laptop.
So what's so great about these Tablet PCs? Portability comes to mind right away. Sure, the wireless internet access is great, but this thing's also incredibly lightweight compared to all the books I used to carry around, which leads me to another point -- consolidation. Despite having only started this Tablet PC program this past fall, several of my books for my classes were either online or in an electronic format of some kind. My chemistry lab manual was in PDF form and (unfortunately at times) specifically prohibited printing so as to comply with the goal of making our school a paperless campus. Every single professor I had this past semester told my classmates and me to leave our books at home because we wouldn't need them. All of my assignments were submitted electronically and returned electronically. Students and professors alike could search for information in class in real time. Want to find the electronegativity of Francium? Go Google it!
The thing for me which sets the Tablet head and shoulders above just a plain old laptop, though, is the writing feature. I take all of my notes on my Tablet (using Microsoft OneNote). I did all of my calculations for Chemistry, Economics, and Math in OneNote as well. I printed professor's powerpoint lecture notes to the Windows Journal and wrote right onto the PowerPoint presentations. My Economics professor created lecture note templates for each chapter and allowed us to fill them in as he taught. In just one semester, notebooks and paper essentially became obsolete, and instead of dragging 3 several hundred page books, 3 notebooks, and 3 folders to class, I only took my Tablet, stylus, and maybe a calculator (though the Tablet even has that, and I even have a TI-89 emulator on my Tablet). The Tablet made my schoolwork so much more consolidated.
The one thing I do long for, however, is to run GNU/Linux on my Tablet. We're allowed to install pretty much whatever we want to as far as software on our machines, and I looked for a distro that would match XP Tablet Edition, but I couldn't find anything that came close. I dislike Microsoft just as much as the next guy (or gal), but I have to admit that when it comes to Tablet PCs, the free software camp is really trailing behind. I considered Xandros and also Lycoris' Tablet PC distro, but they're in their infancy at best. I'd miss being able to write in red ink all over a word processing document, writing notes and then having the program convert them into typed text, and the amazing handwriting recognition (especially with XP Tablet Edition 2005). I long for free software to catch up, and as a Computer Science major I hope that perhaps soon I may be able to begin contributing toward that goal, but for now Microsoft has the power and unfortunately that's the way things are. I really welcome this article's news of developers taking an interest in the Tablet PC and sincerely hope it's just the tip of the iceberg with respect to free software growing to serve the Tablet PC market.
They won the presidency, they emasculated the democrats (won key senate seats, tom daschle, etc).
I happen to live and vote in South Dakota, and while I don't like the Diebold machines any more than most people on Slashdot, you cannot blame Daschle's loss to them. (well you could, but you'd be wrong) Guess what we used for voting? Good old number 2 pencils and paper. They showed the counting machines on the news the night of the elections and they're essentially the same type of machines that ACT uses to score results on their tests. The precincts send their paper ballots in to the central counting location (in my case the county courthouse), the workers put the ballots in the counter, and voila! As for Daschle losing, I can't explain that one to you. You'd have to ask the other voters...
Slashdot Mirror
Personal use:
Mandrake 8.0 --> SuSE 9.1 --> Red Hat 8.0 --> Red Hat 9 --> Fedora Core 1 --> Slackware [multiple versions] --> Ubuntu [multiple versions]
Professional use:
Slackware --> OpenSUSE --> Ubuntu --> Red Hat Enterprise Linux --> CentOS
I've been running dd-wrt on an e3000 and have been happy with it, great performance. After reading about tomato I think I'm going to reflash the router tonight and give it a try. My e3000 runs rather hot, I believe it was around 140F with a temp gun measured on the plastic case, perspective buyers be aware of that, I actually placed a netbook cooler under it as I was worried about burning it up on hot summer days. The dd-wrt forum I have not found to be friendly, I had general questions about issues with QoS policies that I think may have been firmware version related, but my thread kept getting deleted. Also, the update process for dd-wrt seems convoluted, where some articles explicitly state to flash with an initial flash firmware then the target firmware.
+1 recommendation for the e3000. I just recently purchased mine during an Amazon Black Friday lightning deal and am running TomatoUSB Ext on it. It's been working great for my Windows b/g/n laptop, a/b/g/n MacBook Pro, and b/g Wii (streaming Netflix and playing Mario Kart Wii).
I was initially worried about the numerous reports of the e3000 running hot, but I turned the Transmit Power setting down from a default of 42 mW to 24 mW on both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz radios. I haven't had any problems at all with heat since making the change and still get great coverage in both bands in my (small) house. The setting is under Advanced --> Wireless in TomatoUSB. Be sure to change it for both the 2.4 GHz/eth1 and the 5 GHz/eth2 interfaces. YMMV.
Your viewpoint is a little close-minded. Most software written is never even sold. It is mainly in-house custom apps in companies where it would be pointless to try to exploit it because there are easier ways to get the data. And how about the software that runs completely closed on microcontrollers that are in every single product sold today?? Think before you post. :)
Your viewpoint is a little close-minded. Just because an app/server/system/whatever doesn't have sensitive data, that doesn't make it pointless to try to exploit. Ever hear of chained exploits? You break into system X, from there break into system Y, from there break into system Z, etc. until you finally get to your true target. Some little homegrown app that nobody gives 2 cents about (especially in regard to software/system security) because it houses no sensitive data may provide just the perfect platform for an attacker to do an initial exploit against. Now that they have their foot in the door, they can utilize that compromised system to launch their real attack that may not have been feasible otherwise. I've seen countless companies where important systems are relatively well defended against the outside and user segments of the network, but are not well defended against other server segments. Hop into the server segment via a poorly coded homegrown app, and you've just bypassed a big layer of many companies' defenses.
Does distributing said code to the company's employees count as distribution? I'm genuinely interested in this case as I used to work for a company that used and modified code licensed under the GPL to create an internal backup application that got distributed to all company employees.
I requested a copy of the source code because I wanted to tinker with the code in my own time off work and see what made the program tick. Management and the developers both refused my requests, citing some mumbo-jumbo about intellectual property rights. I didn't want to jeopardize my job at the time, so I didn't press the issue. Looking back though, can they legally do such a thing, refusing to offer up the source code to an employee to whom the program is distributed? Does the program have to be distributed outside of the company to count as real distribution?
Um.. I grew up on a farm and I wouldn't have ever been caught dead without a firearm, especially when I was out alone in some of the remote pastures checking on the cattle. Mountain lions, coyotes, badgers, rabid raccoons and other not so friendly critters were very common in my sparsely populated corner of South Dakota and even though I seldom ever had to use my firearm, I was dang glad that I had it for those few times that I truly needed it. I just thank $DIETY that I saw the light and went into tech work instead of following the family agriculture tradition.
Anyway, a bit more on topic...there were several times throughout my childhood that we had trespassers come onto our property and damage our gates, fences, steal livestock, etc. Now granted, it was probably a very small minority of the trespassers that caused that damage, but it's those few bad ones that give everyone else a bad name. They also did enough damage to make us a bit paranoid anytime someone came onto our property without asking. You have to understand that in rural American culture, setting foot on to someone else's property without explicit permission is a huge no-no. If people came to us and asked our permission though, 9 times out of 10 we were more than happy to oblige. So, I can definitely sympathize with the ranchers here -- they were (rightfully) suspicious because they've been burned in the past by a few bad guys. If these ranchers had guns mounted in their vehicle, I'm fairly certain that it wasn't with the specific intent of harming these Geohashers, it's just part of the rural culture and a necessary tool in their line of work.
Now if those ranchers jumped out with firearms in hand, ready to deal out some indiscriminate lead poisoning, then well...shame on them. It seems to be a law of nature that in every line of work, there seem to be the few people that are the vocal boneheaded minority who give everyone else a bad name, and farmers/ranchers are not immune to this law.
I find it interesting that they call hacking the game itself "cheating."
Reminds me of when I was in college and us CS people used to get together and play a computerized version of capture the flag. The premise of the game was simple enough -- players were divided into 4 teams of 2-3 people each, and each team got a machine that came pre-loaded with an older unpatched version of Linux that had well known and published security vulnerabilities (something like Red Hat 7.3). Each machine had 4 services running on it -- typically SSH, Bind, Apache, and telnet (yeah...*sigh*). Each of those services came configured to return a certain string (the so-called flag) when queried by a master scoring server that ran a fairly simple Python script. The script ran once every minute and then displayed up to date team scores on a video projector. The rules of the game stated that we could not patch the machine or use IPtables to lock down the machine. Anything else was fair game. The machines and the scoring server were all networked together on small private network, and each team was given one additional network drop to do with as they pleased.
Anyway, one night we got together to play CTF and there were only enough people for 3 teams of two. Since that doesn't make for such an interesting game, one of our professors who was just supposed to be observing decided to join in and be on his own team. As soon as the game started, everyone went to work furiously trying to defend their boxen and then the real fun -- the attacking -- began.
We were all quite surprised when the first round of results came in and our professor hadn't had anyone hijack his machine. He also evidently hadn't attacked anyone else. The night went on and each of the student teams went back and forth, attacking and defending, but our professor stayed the same -- he neither had anyone successfully compromise his box, nor successfully compromised anyone elses.
The last few minutes of the game saw my team dead last, our professor in third place, and two other teams above us. 5 seconds from the end, our professor's score suddenly increased to an ungodly high (and according to the rules unattainable) score, with the rest of our scores getting set to zero. As the clock ticked down and the game came to an end, we were befuddled as to what happened.
Suddenly it dawned on us -- our professor had spent the entire time hacking the scoring server (which was supposed to have been an up to date, secure Linux install) and replacing the Python scoring script with one of his own, all to his advantage. At some point during the game, he had actually replaced the running script with his own, without any of us ever noticing. We were all in awe and amazement at his creativity -- the idea to do such a thing had not even occurred to any of us. We learned several valuable lessons that night, one of which was that the mind of a creative attacker may not be confined solely within the nice little security box that you place it in. That, and never mess with your professors!
You got a source for that claim?
According to the Free Software Foundation's GPL FAQ:
Does the GPL allow me to require that anyone who receives the software must pay me a fee and/or notify me?
No. In fact, a requirement like that would make the program non-free. If people have to pay when they get a copy of a program, or if they have to notify anyone in particular, then the program is not free. See the definition of free software.
The GPL is a free software license, and therefore it permits people to use and even redistribute the software without being required to pay anyone a fee for doing so.
source: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheG
If I distribute GPL'd software for a fee, am I required to also make it available to the public without a charge?
No. However, if someone pays your fee and gets a copy, the GPL gives them the freedom to release it to the public, with or without a fee. For example, someone could pay your fee, and then put her copy on a web site for the general public.
source: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheG
There are several other FAQs on there that I think are applicable, but I think most everyone here is capable of reading for themselves.
There's a good resource here on how to install the packages that are missing from the OSS version:
Hacking OpenSuSE
My university just began a Tablet PC program at the beginning of this academic year and while I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, I've become a believer in the power of Tablet PCs. The students and faculty have been issued the M275 Gateway Tablets and while it may not be the best of the best in terms of hardware, I still wouldn't trade it for a top of the line laptop.
So what's so great about these Tablet PCs? Portability comes to mind right away. Sure, the wireless internet access is great, but this thing's also incredibly lightweight compared to all the books I used to carry around, which leads me to another point -- consolidation. Despite having only started this Tablet PC program this past fall, several of my books for my classes were either online or in an electronic format of some kind. My chemistry lab manual was in PDF form and (unfortunately at times) specifically prohibited printing so as to comply with the goal of making our school a paperless campus. Every single professor I had this past semester told my classmates and me to leave our books at home because we wouldn't need them. All of my assignments were submitted electronically and returned electronically. Students and professors alike could search for information in class in real time. Want to find the electronegativity of Francium? Go Google it!
The thing for me which sets the Tablet head and shoulders above just a plain old laptop, though, is the writing feature. I take all of my notes on my Tablet (using Microsoft OneNote). I did all of my calculations for Chemistry, Economics, and Math in OneNote as well. I printed professor's powerpoint lecture notes to the Windows Journal and wrote right onto the PowerPoint presentations. My Economics professor created lecture note templates for each chapter and allowed us to fill them in as he taught. In just one semester, notebooks and paper essentially became obsolete, and instead of dragging 3 several hundred page books, 3 notebooks, and 3 folders to class, I only took my Tablet, stylus, and maybe a calculator (though the Tablet even has that, and I even have a TI-89 emulator on my Tablet). The Tablet made my schoolwork so much more consolidated.
The one thing I do long for, however, is to run GNU/Linux on my Tablet. We're allowed to install pretty much whatever we want to as far as software on our machines, and I looked for a distro that would match XP Tablet Edition, but I couldn't find anything that came close. I dislike Microsoft just as much as the next guy (or gal), but I have to admit that when it comes to Tablet PCs, the free software camp is really trailing behind. I considered Xandros and also Lycoris' Tablet PC distro, but they're in their infancy at best. I'd miss being able to write in red ink all over a word processing document, writing notes and then having the program convert them into typed text, and the amazing handwriting recognition (especially with XP Tablet Edition 2005). I long for free software to catch up, and as a Computer Science major I hope that perhaps soon I may be able to begin contributing toward that goal, but for now Microsoft has the power and unfortunately that's the way things are. I really welcome this article's news of developers taking an interest in the Tablet PC and sincerely hope it's just the tip of the iceberg with respect to free software growing to serve the Tablet PC market.
They won the presidency, they emasculated the democrats (won key senate seats, tom daschle, etc).
I happen to live and vote in South Dakota, and while I don't like the Diebold machines any more than most people on Slashdot, you cannot blame Daschle's loss to them. (well you could, but you'd be wrong) Guess what we used for voting? Good old number 2 pencils and paper. They showed the counting machines on the news the night of the elections and they're essentially the same type of machines that ACT uses to score results on their tests. The precincts send their paper ballots in to the central counting location (in my case the county courthouse), the workers put the ballots in the counter, and voila! As for Daschle losing, I can't explain that one to you. You'd have to ask the other voters...