Slashback: Matrix, Terminology, Topology

Slashback is back from a Thanksgiving hiatus with a bigger-than-usual collection of updates, corrections and followups to previous Slashdot stories, including pretty maps of the Internet, spammers' OS choices, stupidity in the wild, and more. Read on for the details.

Of course, Red Hat didn't claim to be the first ... cmeyer writes in response to the news that Red Hat is expected to attain Common Criteria certification. "Linux achieved the first Common Criteria certification back in the beginning of August. It was a joint effort of IBM and SUSE." He points to this August Slashdot posting about the news and to a press release on SUSE's site.

Well, it's robust, stable and handy for networking tasks ... Linux and Unix users may be justifiably smug about our machines' resistance to viruses and trogans (including ones that send spam), since most of these things are aimed at Microsoft Windows. Maybe it should be no surprise that spammers like Linux, too:

Niels Provos writes "You might remember Honeyd? I have been using it since June to capture spam emails in an attempt to better understand how spammers operate. A recent feature in Honeyd is passive fingerprinting which allows Honeyd to passively identify the operating system that contacts it. For spammers, it turns out that about 43% seem to be running Linux. And mostly Unix, Windows ranks at around 0.7%. The unknown fraction is 52%, so there might be surprises lurking there."

Apple products must be ripened before consumption. Ipodlounge.com editor Dennis Lloyd was one of several readers to note that, rather than the November date named in the recent 2-year iPod retrospective in the New York Times, the device came out just a bit earlier. "The iPod's anniversary was in October ;) The iPod was officially launched on Oct. 23, 2001. The NYT article is incorrect."

May the tide be with you. Doc Searls writes: "Thought I'd direct your attention to the first half of a transcription of the talk Linus gave on the September Geek Cruise that got Slashdotted a few weeks ago. Can't find the link to the Slashdot item, but as i recall it didn't have the benefit of a real transcription." (Here's the Slashdot post about the cruise.) "This one is not only a full transcription (by yours truly, all disclaimers apply), but features pix of his slides and demos as well."

Searls also has up the second part: "That's the Q&A, which is even longer than the prepared part of the talk," as well as the third: "The third part is a transcription of a talk Linus and others gave to the Victoria Linux Users Group. Shorter than the first two."

Searls' three-part report on the cruise itself ran in Linux Journal.

This way to the Egress! Rick Chapman, author of the recently reviewed In Search of Stupidity , writes to point out that book excerpts are available at insearchofstupdity.com, along with some of the book's illustrations.

"Also, I recently was interviewed live on a local CT business show and I've had the session digitized and am mounting on the site today. It runs about 45 minutes and I discuss a lot of the stuff in the book as well as other issues revolving around software marketing and development. ... I have a lot of samples of really bad things I brought to the taping and I think you'll get a kick out of the session."

They should sell nice prints to buy bandwidth. An anonymous reader writes "From the New Scientist article: A project to create a comprehensive graphical representation of the Internet in just one day and using only a single computer has already produced some eye-catching images."

Back pedal, back pedal, baker's man, cover that label with tape if you can. Mr. Slippery writes "According to this Yahoo! News story, L.A. County did not ban the use of 'master' and 'slave' in labeling, but made more of a polite request to vendors. A subtle but important distinction.

'"I do understand that this term has been an industry standard for years and years and this is nothing more than a plea to vendors to see what they can do," said Joe Sandoval, division manager of purchasing and contract services. "It appears that some folks have taken this a little too literally."' (As, perhaps, did those who got offended in the first place...)"

The original memo called Master and Slave labels "not acceptable" -- how non-literally can that be taken? -- and as further news stories have reported, was prompted by an employee's workplace discrimination complaint against the city. That sounds to me like more than a polite request. At least the city has found that a little tape is enough to make the world safe from misinterpreted words.

I bet Bill is a better actor than Keanu. Karma Sucks writes "After some embarrassing PR backlash it seems as if Microsoft is clamping down on distribution of pictures or videos related to the Matrix Spoof that featured Linux and Windows at COMDEX. Even more interesting are the reports that Microsoft is systematically scouting Open Source desktop technology."

And this is what percentage of the industry's profits? dlh writes "Boston.com is reporting that a federal judge Thursday approved a $143 million settlement of a lawsuit that accused major record companies and large music retailers of conspiring to set minimum music prices."

Time to get a new watch. Krellis writes "DynDNS.org, a major dynamic DNS provider, has announced that they will shut off access to any customers using the Linksys WRT54G wireless router to update their service on December 8th unless the router is patched. See the story on ExtremeTech and the DynDNS Press Release for more details. Updated firmware can be downloaded from Linksys."

Linux and Spammers

[rf0]

Well taking that things like sendmail can send 1,000,000 mails and hour with the right spec its not overally surprising as they platform is quick and stable. Of course all spammers should be spit roasted.

Hmm spitroastedspammers.com

Rus

Spam

[Kelz]

"For spammers, it turns out that about 43% seem to be running Linux. And mostly Unix, Windows ranks at around 0.7%. The unknown fraction is 52%, so there might be surprises lurking there."

Windows=more anonymous then?

Re:Don't ban the Matrix!

[Tumbleweed]

You know, this has been modded as 'funny,' but I think 'insightful' would've been more accurate, sadly. :(

Re:Political correctness

[techno-vampire]

Being Politically Correct is bending over backwards to avoid offending people who are buisy manipulating you by being creatively thin skinned.

Re:Internet Pic.

[techno-vampire]

I wonder at their use of a sphere to represent the internet, as the sphere has definite boundries.

If I remember my math correctly, a sphere, although it has a finite surface, has no boundries.

Re:My money's on misconfigured sendmail installati

[t0ny]

I don't think the spammers are installing linux that much. (At least not the BIG ones, and they may be knowledgable/paranoid enough to go with OpenBSD or something) The majority probably got some Alienware rig bought off a stolen CC, running a cracked 2003 server. It's just that they offload the mail to some other cracked Unix host to do the work. That doesn't surprise me.

I doubt that. Spammers hire very tech-savy people, and I would imagine they also pay them very well. The 'dark side', indeed.

Honestly, it doesnt surprise me that spammers are using Linux; they dont have to concern themselves with licensing issues, it gives them better profit margins, better remote management (especially when most spammer's have their operations outside the USA), etc.

Also, I find it curious that you claim the majority of Linux servers which are doing the spam are 'compromised' systems. That would basically make MS machines the safest ones on the net, if we go by the article's statistics...

Where's the "embarrassing PR backlash"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, if that isn't an overstatement!

Someone's blog and an article in linuxworld can hardly, HARDLY be called an embarrassing backlash.

Please, just because a couple of linux nerds got their knickers up in a bunch doesn't mean there was even an inkling of a backlash.

Please, let's not engage in stupid hyperbole... it just makes us real Linux supporters look like overreacting assholes.

Re:Embarrassing PR backlash ?

[shaitand]

Actually I've found that 90% of slashdots population is composed of Microsoft supporting fantatics who run around claiming that Microsoft is a beautiful archangel from above and that they are oppressed by the anti-microsoft fantatics.

So in the meantime, they mod up these posts about their complaints and mod those who have had a better experience with other operating systems like linux and BSD (granted, that's pretty much everyone who has used them for more than a year) into a mudhole.

Slashdot articles in general are basically a mix, some pro microsoft, some against, pretty unbiased reporting... it's just that there is more to report that is negative about microsoft than positive.

Re:Does MS have the right?

[skotte]

do you have even a fFundamental understanding of the material? MS owns the spoof. that's quite legal. they now own the copyright on that work. some guy took some photos of the work. the guy didnt have a strong leg to stand on, as the photos were of copyrighted material. And the owner of said copyright was asking the photos to be removed.

i have no idea what all this other nonsense of which you speak pertains to.