Is this in the errata? How easy is this to fix? Is there an updated package to fix this exploit, and where can we get it? If someone knows, please list the steps to find and get the fix for this particular exploit. I'd like to think the information wouldn't be hard to find and PCWeek dropped the ball again. They apparently blocked the IIS hack, so any standard RedHat bugfix should have been blocked too. Right?
There are a couple of companies that seem to "get it" and a couple that don't. I'd (and, of course, at least 50% will disagree with me, but that's Slashdot) put SGI and IBM in the group of companies that "get it" and Sun and Compaq in the group that doesn't. The latter two are treating Linux as the little brother to the OS they produce. Linux will never be sold by Sun as a solution by itself. They'd rather it be the "helper OS" to Solaris. Same with Compaq. Tru64 and VMS are always going to be the main NOS's they want to sell. Linux? Oh, it's that "low end" operating system we support on our smaller machines. At least SGI is contributing code to help Linux scale better, have a journalling file system, and be optimized for a UMA architecture. IBM seems to want Apache to be a good solution for everything and also seems to be more OS agnostic. It's too bad that Linux is in coopetition with Compaq and Sun because they could potentially be strong allies. As of yet, they are only half-hearted helpers. If either of them concentrated on making their platform the friendliest, most optimized platform for Linux, they would be in a strong position when all the optimization comes together to make Linux the strongest server OS bar none.
Intel has egg on its face yet again because one of its products has a bug in it. This is the best indication that AMD is doing well. Intel will not lose market share so they put out parts as quickly as they can make them and don't test properly. This reminds me of a certain company in Redmond. Let's hope that processor's microcode does not become field upgradable or Intel will start releasing processors that have bugs (not show-stoppers, but minor flaws) are released to the public and we have to wait for the first processor service pack to play the newest version of Quake. Or Intel could just start competing with AMD honestly and consumers could benifit greatly. Of course, that doesn't help Intel's stockholders, does it?
I'm pretty sure we all want this. A decent Real Audio player for Linux. Here's what we do: No matter how unstable this one is, we download it anyway. Real Audio sees the demand and gets cracking on the beta. The beta is better than the alpha, and we all download it. All of the sudden, Real Networks has a damn good reason to release another version. They have momentum! I'm going to get it at work and at home and download it directly to/dev/null.
I don't know about y'all, but our connection doesn't seem to be any slower here. That poor bastard with the backhoe is luck he didn't cut that line around these here parts. We'd have his hide! Hell, Billy Bob'd probably string him up! Imagine not being able to get on EBay to see if he won the auction for the entire video tape library of the Dukes of Hazard. The horror!
All opinions expressed with tongue firmly in cheek between the skoal and the ceegar.
Actually, either the CNN guy was a moron, or just doesn't know how to count:
My daylong effort to install Caldera's Linux 1.3 on a PC
Why was he installing such an old version? Is that even a version of Caldera Openlinux? I installed 2.3 and it didn't ask me much at all. In fact, it started up in KDE. Since the guy didn't mention Tetris, I'll assume he was, in fact, installing the older version. That, to me, doesn't count for anything. Wow, big deal. An old version of Linux doesn't install easily. Look at the newest versions. They install fine. (except Slackware and Debian, but I've only installed each one twice.)
When a Windows system gets hosed for unspecified reasons, many customers call in to the company they purchased their computer from for support with reinstalling it. A customer rarely has to go through the reinstall without someone to hold their hand over the phone. The Windows reinstall (by the time you've installed whatever drivers, service packs, applications, etc) can take more than two hours. RedHat will install in 20 minutes max with all apps already installed. You just can't beat that!
Is there any danger that Linux is going to be talked to death? Every tech magazine and radio show is talking Linux Linux Linux and none of them have too much to say. Is there a chance that Linux is going to be thought of as overhyped? I know that frenzied work is being done on many levels, and all the big releases are right around the corner, but there doesn't seem to be enough happening right now to justify all this press. I'm just really concerned that we're going to suffer from excess hyperbole and build up expectations a little too much. As of yet, I don't believe that Linux/X/GNU, etc is ready for John Q Public. It's not going to be long, but with the current browser, Linux isn't as stable or dependable as your average Windows 98 system. NOTE: I do not blame this on Linux, X, GNU, GNOME, KDE, sendmail, fetchmail, Emacs, etc. Netscape is the reason why Linux is unstable for me on multiple systems. Yet, I use it all the time at home, and here at work. Currently, there aren't enough reasons for the average Joe to put up with Netscape and its bad attitude. Nor should they. If consumers as a whole jumped on the Linux bandwagon tomorrow and started mass installing Linux, the one place they'd get really hung (literally) is with Netscape. Mozilla or Opera need to be released before we have something we can install on Grandma's machine. Sorry for the rant. I'll behave now.
Does anyone know why the US government is allowed to own part of a private company? Is there any way in hell this is ethical, moral, or even legal? (Of course, they're the government. Nothing's really illegal for them.) Does this not represent a conflict of interest?
This would be useful if you follow both paths of a branch statement. Once it is determined which branch was supposed to be taken, that data gets posted, while the data generated by taking the wrong branch gets tossed.
This is the same method Merced/McKinley uses, isn't it? Does that count as prior art?
"circuitry for permanently storing memory stores temporarily stored when a determination is made that a sequence of translated instructions will execute without exception or error on the host processor"
I vote for it being the random patent generator. My favorite part of the whole solliloquy is
you can't beat that! Maybe they're really working on an optical processor and wanting us to think they're working on a universal processor that'll run any other processor's code. Good one, Linus (and others), but what's it really do
It really takes guts for a company as big and entrenched as IBM to do something like this. I really respect what they've done for the Linux community. When we dominate the world, IBM will be with us! >;) I'd almost like to see IBM in an even more prominent role in hardware and software. I'm not talking about a monopoly, but as an equal to both Intel and MS. It'll take a very large hardware company to take Intel down to the notch they deserve to be in. As for MS, they're on their way out and Linux is on its way in. IBM has seen the writing on the wall. It's a good time to be involved in Open Source.
There are a few tiny ads on the front page. I've never actually been any deeper than that, and the front page was just for a little bit of research for my post. I thought for sure they'd advertise. Oh well.
EBay is doing this for number of reasons IMHO. 1. Brand recognition - They don't want to be one of a number of auction sites. They feel they are the biggest, original, and baddest, so why put yourself in the first of a long list of auction sites. 2. Full site searches are slow on their 8088 - They have problems enough handling their users. Someone searching their full site 24 times a day or so is going to cause system slowdowns. 3. Not their pretty little ads - They want users to see their ads. Not some schmuck who's getting a "free ride"
Of course, this isn't in the best interest of users, but it's actually probably in the best interest of EBay.
Nope. This technology has been hyped like the convergence between computers and TV. Neither of those technologies is going to be anywhere near as popular as everyone has said they will be. Can you imagine how fast your batteries would be drained? Even if there's a breakthrough in battery tech, can you imagine how much bandwidth you'd use? I can't see wasting that much bandwidth just to see the person you're talking to. In fact, the only place I see this being useful is before a blind date. Other than that, it's a little too frivolous to become standard, and without it being standard, you can only do the "vid thing" with other people with your kind of phone. Can you say vaporware?
Doesn't this just establish retail outlets for domain names that NSI will sell wholesale? Therefor, isn't NSI still in control? Will the "retail chains" have to be licensed? If NSI is going to remain in charge of the central database, I'd like to see anyone be able to sell domain names wholesale rather than having a select few who have to bow and scrape to NSI (which will still be a competitor) lest NSI makes it more difficult for them to operate. This is not a good thing yet. We're closer to something, but I hope it doesn't take another five years to get there.
So Harald Ohrn "invented" selling things over the interet? He'll go down in history as "The Man Who Invented Selling Things Over The Internet". Without this great man, nobody would have ever been able to sell anything on EBay, buy a book from Amazon.com, shop for a trip at Expedia.com, or look at Carpoint. Without Harold, the internet would just be a plaything for scientists and students. Harold is truly the "Father of the Internet"! Good job Harold! If not for you, who would have thought of selling things using the Internet? Harold, you are truly an innovator, and are far ahead of your time. Harold, you're the man.
Also, the BSD license gives Apple more control over when or if they release their source code. If it was the GPL they'd have to release whatevere they changed. Personally, that's one of the Good Things about having so many different licenses. If Apple is more comfortable having that control, good. At least they've released much of their source code.
This is like ASCAP and the music unions. I'll bet we're going to see the freelancers form a union and require that to put their article in a database you have to pay the union. The union will then distribute the funds to the writers after taking a little off the top for "expenses". That would end up with the freelancers making a little less money, but they'd have a lot more power. Then again, I could be way off.
ESR asserting that RMS could be a better spokesman, but isn't because he doesn't bathe often enough (an assertion that RMS calls exaggeration).
But that's great! It gives us a personality and a real sense of community. People with dysfunctional families always have the best stories to tell, and the one about RMS's hygeine will be a classic in 5 years. Hell, it's pretty good now! The Free Software thing is way overblown. The difference is a philosophical one, and one that if ever decided would result in the community becoming more complacent. As it is, the Open Source people are as resolved to keep things free just to prove to the FSF people that they're really just as commited to free software, and the FSF people are more resolute because they feel the Open Source contingency is right around the corner from corrupting the whole thing. It's a perfect balance.
No, it's I who am sorry. "Skillz" is a reference to the "mine's bigger than yours" mentality displayed in the previous post. In other words, I'm mocking the previous poster. It looked obvious to me, but again, I guess you didn't grok it, huh? As for the taste in clothes, there are those who have it, and those who don't. There are those who leave the house looking like a slob, and those who practice proper hygeine. The stereotype geek exists, but if you think you have to conform to it to be a geek you're way off. This kind of reminds me of black people who are derided for being too "white". "You're no geek. You're clean shaven!" "You're no geek. You have short hair!" "Real geeks are autistic, so I guess you fail the test." Please! You're missing the whole point!
Sorry junior, but you're off the mark on that one by a long shot. Believe it or not, there's not a direct relationship between autism and skillz. In fact, I think there's no relationship. I can focus on problems for a long amount of time, read only computer magazines and web sites, have impeccible taste in clothes, am extroverted, and can condense fact from vapor of nuance. Geeky? Hell yes. Wanna-bee? Watch your mouth, buster. We need some scientific studies on the autism thing before you start drawing paralells. I know you identify with this story and all the qualities talked about in the article are near and dear to your heart and all, but really, it's possible to be a geek and still be social. No lie.
Slashdot Mirror
To reply to my own post (I actually did some research) there is a buffer overflow in chron. Here's the info:
Package vixie-cron
Synopsis Buffer overflow in cron daemon
Advisory ID RHSA-1999:030-02
Issue Date 1999-08-25
Updated on 1999-08-27
Keywords vixie-cron crond MAILTO
Chron buffer overflow errata page at RedHat
Is this in the errata? How easy is this to fix? Is there an updated package to fix this exploit, and where can we get it? If someone knows, please list the steps to find and get the fix for this particular exploit. I'd like to think the information wouldn't be hard to find and PCWeek dropped the ball again. They apparently blocked the IIS hack, so any standard RedHat bugfix should have been blocked too. Right?
There are a couple of companies that seem to "get it" and a couple that don't. I'd (and, of course, at least 50% will disagree with me, but that's Slashdot) put SGI and IBM in the group of companies that "get it" and Sun and Compaq in the group that doesn't. The latter two are treating Linux as the little brother to the OS they produce. Linux will never be sold by Sun as a solution by itself. They'd rather it be the "helper OS" to Solaris. Same with Compaq. Tru64 and VMS are always going to be the main NOS's they want to sell. Linux? Oh, it's that "low end" operating system we support on our smaller machines.
At least SGI is contributing code to help Linux scale better, have a journalling file system, and be optimized for a UMA architecture. IBM seems to want Apache to be a good solution for everything and also seems to be more OS agnostic. It's too bad that Linux is in coopetition with Compaq and Sun because they could potentially be strong allies. As of yet, they are only half-hearted helpers. If either of them concentrated on making their platform the friendliest, most optimized platform for Linux, they would be in a strong position when all the optimization comes together to make Linux the strongest server OS bar none.
Intel has egg on its face yet again because one of its products has a bug in it. This is the best indication that AMD is doing well. Intel will not lose market share so they put out parts as quickly as they can make them and don't test properly. This reminds me of a certain company in Redmond. Let's hope that processor's microcode does not become field upgradable or Intel will start releasing processors that have bugs (not show-stoppers, but minor flaws) are released to the public and we have to wait for the first processor service pack to play the newest version of Quake.
Or Intel could just start competing with AMD honestly and consumers could benifit greatly. Of course, that doesn't help Intel's stockholders, does it?
I'm pretty sure we all want this. A decent Real Audio player for Linux. Here's what we do: /dev/null.
No matter how unstable this one is, we download it anyway. Real Audio sees the demand and gets cracking on the beta. The beta is better than the alpha, and we all download it. All of the sudden, Real Networks has a damn good reason to release another version. They have momentum! I'm going to get it at work and at home and download it directly to
I don't know about y'all, but our connection doesn't seem to be any slower here. That poor bastard with the backhoe is luck he didn't cut that line around these here parts. We'd have his hide! Hell, Billy Bob'd probably string him up! Imagine not being able to get on EBay to see if he won the auction for the entire video tape library of the Dukes of Hazard. The horror!
All opinions expressed with tongue firmly in cheek between the skoal and the ceegar.
Can anyone mirror this? I wouldn't mind doubling the size of all the monitors in my house, but I need to know how first.
Why was he installing such an old version? Is that even a version of Caldera Openlinux? I installed 2.3 and it didn't ask me much at all. In fact, it started up in KDE. Since the guy didn't mention Tetris, I'll assume he was, in fact, installing the older version. That, to me, doesn't count for anything. Wow, big deal. An old version of Linux doesn't install easily. Look at the newest versions. They install fine. (except Slackware and Debian, but I've only installed each one twice.)
When a Windows system gets hosed for unspecified reasons, many customers call in to the company they purchased their computer from for support with reinstalling it. A customer rarely has to go through the reinstall without someone to hold their hand over the phone. The Windows reinstall (by the time you've installed whatever drivers, service packs, applications, etc) can take more than two hours. RedHat will install in 20 minutes max with all apps already installed. You just can't beat that!
Can someone post some links about the "Happy Hacker"? Who is she and how did she get bodily ejected? What's the scoop?
Is there any danger that Linux is going to be talked to death? Every tech magazine and radio show is talking Linux Linux Linux and none of them have too much to say. Is there a chance that Linux is going to be thought of as overhyped? I know that frenzied work is being done on many levels, and all the big releases are right around the corner, but there doesn't seem to be enough happening right now to justify all this press. I'm just really concerned that we're going to suffer from excess hyperbole and build up expectations a little too much. As of yet, I don't believe that Linux/X/GNU, etc is ready for John Q Public. It's not going to be long, but with the current browser, Linux isn't as stable or dependable as your average Windows 98 system.
NOTE: I do not blame this on Linux, X, GNU, GNOME, KDE, sendmail, fetchmail, Emacs, etc. Netscape is the reason why Linux is unstable for me on multiple systems. Yet, I use it all the time at home, and here at work.
Currently, there aren't enough reasons for the average Joe to put up with Netscape and its bad attitude. Nor should they. If consumers as a whole jumped on the Linux bandwagon tomorrow and started mass installing Linux, the one place they'd get really hung (literally) is with Netscape. Mozilla or Opera need to be released before we have something we can install on Grandma's machine.
Sorry for the rant. I'll behave now.
Does anyone know why the US government is allowed to own part of a private company? Is there any way in hell this is ethical, moral, or even legal? (Of course, they're the government. Nothing's really illegal for them.) Does this not represent a conflict of interest?
This is the same method Merced/McKinley uses, isn't it? Does that count as prior art?
I vote for it being the random patent generator. My favorite part of the whole solliloquy is
you can't beat that! Maybe they're really working on an optical processor and wanting us to think they're working on a universal processor that'll run any other processor's code. Good one, Linus (and others), but what's it really do
It really takes guts for a company as big and entrenched as IBM to do something like this. I really respect what they've done for the Linux community. When we dominate the world, IBM will be with us! >;)
I'd almost like to see IBM in an even more prominent role in hardware and software. I'm not talking about a monopoly, but as an equal to both Intel and MS. It'll take a very large hardware company to take Intel down to the notch they deserve to be in. As for MS, they're on their way out and Linux is on its way in. IBM has seen the writing on the wall. It's a good time to be involved in Open Source.
There are a few tiny ads on the front page. I've never actually been any deeper than that, and the front page was just for a little bit of research for my post. I thought for sure they'd advertise. Oh well.
EBay is doing this for number of reasons IMHO.
1. Brand recognition - They don't want to be one of a number of auction sites. They feel they are the biggest, original, and baddest, so why put yourself in the first of a long list of auction sites.
2. Full site searches are slow on their 8088 - They have problems enough handling their users. Someone searching their full site 24 times a day or so is going to cause system slowdowns.
3. Not their pretty little ads - They want users to see their ads. Not some schmuck who's getting a "free ride"
Of course, this isn't in the best interest of users, but it's actually probably in the best interest of EBay.
Nope. This technology has been hyped like the convergence between computers and TV. Neither of those technologies is going to be anywhere near as popular as everyone has said they will be. Can you imagine how fast your batteries would be drained? Even if there's a breakthrough in battery tech, can you imagine how much bandwidth you'd use? I can't see wasting that much bandwidth just to see the person you're talking to. In fact, the only place I see this being useful is before a blind date. Other than that, it's a little too frivolous to become standard, and without it being standard, you can only do the "vid thing" with other people with your kind of phone.
Can you say vaporware?
Doesn't this just establish retail outlets for domain names that NSI will sell wholesale? Therefor, isn't NSI still in control? Will the "retail chains" have to be licensed? If NSI is going to remain in charge of the central database, I'd like to see anyone be able to sell domain names wholesale rather than having a select few who have to bow and scrape to NSI (which will still be a competitor) lest NSI makes it more difficult for them to operate. This is not a good thing yet. We're closer to something, but I hope it doesn't take another five years to get there.
So Harald Ohrn "invented" selling things over the interet? He'll go down in history as "The Man Who Invented Selling Things Over The Internet". Without this great man, nobody would have ever been able to sell anything on EBay, buy a book from Amazon.com, shop for a trip at Expedia.com, or look at Carpoint. Without Harold, the internet would just be a plaything for scientists and students. Harold is truly the "Father of the Internet"! Good job Harold! If not for you, who would have thought of selling things using the Internet? Harold, you are truly an innovator, and
are far ahead of your time. Harold, you're the man.
Also, the BSD license gives Apple more control over when or if they release their source code. If it was the GPL they'd have to release whatevere they changed. Personally, that's one of the Good Things about having so many different licenses. If Apple is more comfortable having that control, good. At least they've released much of their source code.
This is like ASCAP and the music unions. I'll bet we're going to see the freelancers form a union and require that to put their article in a database you have to pay the union. The union will then distribute the funds to the writers after taking a little off the top for "expenses". That would end up with the freelancers making a little less money, but they'd have a lot more power.
Then again, I could be way off.
But that's great! It gives us a personality and a real sense of community. People with dysfunctional families always have the best stories to tell, and the one about RMS's hygeine will be a classic in 5 years. Hell, it's pretty good now!
The Free Software thing is way overblown. The difference is a philosophical one, and one that if ever decided would result in the community becoming more complacent. As it is, the Open Source people are as resolved to keep things free just to prove to the FSF people that they're really just as commited to free software, and the FSF people are more resolute because they feel the Open Source contingency is right around the corner from corrupting the whole thing. It's a perfect balance.
No, it's I who am sorry. "Skillz" is a reference to the "mine's bigger than yours" mentality displayed in the previous post. In other words, I'm mocking the previous poster. It looked obvious to me, but again, I guess you didn't grok it, huh?
As for the taste in clothes, there are those who have it, and those who don't. There are those who leave the house looking like a slob, and those who practice proper hygeine. The stereotype geek exists, but if you think you have to conform to it to be a geek you're way off.
This kind of reminds me of black people who are derided for being too "white". "You're no geek. You're clean shaven!" "You're no geek. You have short hair!" "Real geeks are autistic, so I guess you fail the test." Please! You're missing the whole point!
Sorry junior, but you're off the mark on that one by a long shot. Believe it or not, there's not a direct relationship between autism and skillz. In fact, I think there's no relationship. I can focus on problems for a long amount of time, read only computer magazines and web sites, have impeccible taste in clothes, am extroverted, and can condense fact from vapor of nuance. Geeky? Hell yes. Wanna-bee? Watch your mouth, buster.
We need some scientific studies on the autism thing before you start drawing paralells.
I know you identify with this story and all the qualities talked about in the article are near and dear to your heart and all, but really, it's possible to be a geek and still be social. No lie.