Slashback: Security, Telephony, Solicitude 255
A good oversight to correct. AndyMan! writes "Regarding yesterdays 'Building A Better Inbox,' I got the following email from support@mailblocks.com:
"'Our apologies, we picked up an old version of our TOS when we went live. We will NOT be allowing 3rd parties to send unsolicited email to our userbase. Please check the site this evening for the updated and correct TOS. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.'"
All the government you pay for. dunng808 writes "Despite frequent speculation to the contrary, Security Enhanced Linux is alive and well. Government Executive Magazine has a report from a conference on open-source software at which Peter Loscocco, a senior NSA scientist, revealed that the agency has continued to work on SE Linux despite efforts by Microsoft and the Initiative for Software Choice. "We spent a lot of time educating our managers, who accepted a lot of the flack that has come back to NSA about SE Linux," Loscocco said. For those readers trying to win acceptance of open-source software in the workplace, what effort have you undertaken to educate management, and what has worked?"
Also safe for now is GPS. As an anonymous reader writes, "Following last week's thread on GPS, and the possibility that the Pentagon might goof around with the civilian signal, Forbes checks in with the folks in charge and finds we have nothing to worry about."
OK, both of these things involve series of coherent vibrations in air ... A few months back, we mentioned that TheKompany was selling software to let Zaurus owners use Net2Phone for telephone service, and that they were working on a desktop version as well. Well, now it's ready. HeUnique writes "TheKompany just released tkcphone for the Linux desktop. This is the first product which lets Linux users to use their existing net2phone accounts to talk either through net2phone to net2phone or net2phone to standard POTS phone with the best audio quality (G.729 codec)."
And in almost-but-not-totally-unrelated news, jackjumper writes "Shawn Gordon of The Kompany fame has started his own record label, ProgRock Records. From the interview at Linux and Main: "The idea...is to provide progressive rock music to listeners at a low price while allowing more of that money to find its way to the artists' pockets than happens with conventional recording contracts and at the same time making a gesture -- you know the one -- to the established recording cartel." This sounds really cool."
A deadly pathogen by any other name. waytoomuchcoffee writes "The leading hypothesis for what is causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is now thought to be a coronavirus, one of the virii that can cause the common cold. The New York Times (archive version for those non-members) has a story here. The global toll is now more than 750 stricken and 22 dead. Singapore is quarantining hundreds of people in an effort to stop the outbreak, while the head of the city's hospitals has taken ill with symptoms consistent with SARS. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have pages up now, which include FAQs and progression information."
How many times do we have to go over this? Vajsvarana writes "The major free Desktop Environment GNOME and KDE has released a common open statement on recent XFree86 troubles. 'Innovation should happen in the open, with all affected parties able to participate early in the process' seems a clear and strong request to XFree86 people."
Mailblocks MAY Spam You (Score:5, Informative)
-Waldo Jaquith
Re:Mailblocks MAY Spam You (Score:2)
I'm hardly a neutral party,
but I wouldn't trust an anti-spam company that ever had such a spam friendly TOS,
even if the new TOS is "the truth".
-- this is not a
Re:Mailblocks MAY Spam You (Score:4, Insightful)
Even more disturbing to me is the following:
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME TO:
* Change the terms and conditions of this Agreement;
* Change the Services, including eliminating or discontinuing any Services; or
* Change any fees or charges for use of the Services.
Any changes we make will be effective automatically immediately after posting such changes on the Site. Your continued use of the Services following such changes will be deemed acceptance of such changes. Be sure to review this Agreement periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version. You can determine when this Agreement was last revised by checking the "Last revised" legend at the top of the Agreement.
Basically, they're saying that without notice, they can do whatever the hell they want with your information and it's up to you to go and find out. Even if you happen to check a few minutes after they change the TOS, they've probably already sold all your info to 3rd parties. Since this probably contains your home address and phone number, it could affect you even after you stop using the service.
If they wanted to be reasonable, they could change their policy to allow them to make changes only if they notify you one week in advance via a message to your mailblocks account.
Re:Mailblocks MAY Spam You (Score:2)
Re:And this is different because? (Score:2)
Subject, of course, to your notification to the changes on their privacy page which may or not be updated regularly.
This is exactly my problem with their TOS... they do not notify you of the changes. They simply state that they can change the TOS at their will and without notification. This makes the user blind to changes and can be easily used by MailBlocks to exploit their users.
SARS (Score:3, Interesting)
Now if they could actually confirm which bug it is and get a good test then we would be good shape...
SARS and chinese gov (Score:3, Informative)
Re:SARS and chinese gov (Score:2)
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/stor
"Uh oh."
=Smidge=
Re:SARS and chinese gov (Score:2)
Re:SARS and chinese gov (Score:2)
Remedy? (Score:2)
Re:Remedy? (Score:2)
"As soon as"? [sympatico.ca]
Re:Remedy? (Score:2)
But on a serious note, it is human nature to laugh in the face of impending death. It makes us feel better.
Or as a great philosopher once said "Humour is when someone else slips on the banana peel, Tragedy is when I slip on the banana peel" In either case someone is lying on the ground with a sore head.
Re:SARS and chinese gov (Score:2)
True, here's another resistant bug, which is freaky in itself, but it's no super-ebola. Unless you french kiss your spouce who's just contracted it by sucking on an infected persons mucus, you'll be fine.
Re:SARS and chinese gov (Score:2)
KDE and GNOME (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:KDE and GNOME (Score:2, Funny)
That would explain why LinuxCon is being held in Amsterdam....
Re:KDE and GNOME (Score:2)
I'm
Re:KDE and GNOME (Score:2)
There is no fight (Score:3, Informative)
I think not.
I want to get work done in a timely and cost effective manner not be part of a Jihad.
I'd be rather upset if the people contributing were all fucked up with "must beat Microsfot, must beat Microsoft" rather than "must write good code, must write good code"
Initiative for Software Choice (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems to me that every time it becomes politic to get somewhat more relaxed towards Microsoft, lest you draw mocking cries of 'Linux zealot! Stallman Fanboy!' that Microsoft turn around and prove to everyone just how justified the ire against them is.
Here are a few choice quotes:
"Policymakers should not make rigid intellectual property licensing choices a precondition for eligibility for procurement, nor should they discriminate between developers that choose to license their intellectual property on commercial terms, and developers that choose not to charge licensing fees...."
"Lately, concerns have emerged that policy makers, through government procurement policies, research funding or standards policies, may seek to favor one software development model over another."
I won't bother with any more.
The scary thing about this organization is that their party line appears to be quite subtle. Where they fail is that they appear to be up in arms about purchasing regimes which haven't happened yet.
They also use their contentions to subtly dig at the GPL... 'rigid intellectual property licensing' indeed. I wonder if anybody at the Initiative for Software Choice has ever tried to install Windows 2000 in Application Server mode. THAT is 'rigid licensing' at its best.
MH
This is where Microsoft executes extremely well (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:3, Interesting)
"Policymakers should not make rigid intellectual property licensing choices a precondition for eligibility for procurement, nor should they discriminate between developers that choose to license their intellectual property on commercial terms, and developers that choose not to charge licensing fees...."
"Lately, concerns have emerged that policy makers, through government procurement policies, research funding or standards policies, may seek to favor one software developmen
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:2, Informative)
Reading between the lines, doesn't it sound like more subtle versions of what Microsoft has been saying about the GPL the whole time?
Why even mention software development models unless they're trying to cast aspersions on the Open Source model?
Why even mention the poor abused software developers who 'choose to license their intellectual property on commercial terms'?
Someone has a beef, and it's neither the procurement de
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:2)
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:2)
Brave assertions. Any facts to back them up? Or even some reasoning?
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:2)
What assertions? Your quote includes two questions and an opinion. The opinion is based on the simple premise that more choices are better than fewer choices. No GPL and only proprietary sales to Gov't gives the Gov't fewer choices than both proprietary sales and GPL. Forcing the Gov't to use only GPL'd software gives the Gov't fewer choices than allowing both proprietary sales and GPL where appropriate.
Both extremes, the GPL onl
Re:Initiative for Software Choice (Score:2)
Yes they should! Have you *READ* the GPL? We are not talking about abstract whishywashy pieinthesky pseudo stuff here. When you PURCHASE MS Products (spending tax $), you are volunteering to comprimise your position. You place yourself in a position of servitude. When you choose to use GPL software you retain -- you provide a GREATER PUBLIC SERVICE -- because you keep the public free from being beholden to the ominious TOS M$ subjects you to.
I impl
Infection rate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Infection rate (Score:2)
check your decimal points (Score:2)
30% x 300 million = 90 million
2% of 90 million = 1.8 million
And of course, the current death rate is calculated across a sample who are (mstly) getting ICU care in well-equipped hospitals.
Once a real epidemic gets rolling, you'll be on your own, so the death rate can be expected to climb.
GPS is having problems (Score:5, Informative)
Right now you can see the problems on this map [af.mil] (mirrored here) [abnormal.com]. The black areas are where GPS isn't going to give a 3d position and the red areas are where it wont get a 4d (3d+time) fix. The dark blue will have issues if any part of the sky is blocked. I don't think I've seen the GPS status this bad for a long time. Maybe its time to launch a few new navstar sats.
Re:GPS is having problems (Score:2)
Re:GPS is having problems (Score:2)
My story (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I told the manager that it was free. He squinted. Then I told him there was no support, but if he opened a port to an IRC server we could get by. He squinted a little more. Then I told him it doesn't really run any of the software we use. He squinted even more. Finally I told him we'd have to use Java or something because .NET doesn't really run in Linux. It will soon, though! He was beginning to look like a japanese psycho on speed by then, so fearing for my job I backpedaled out of his office, bowing a few times and muttering something I heard on the Iron Chef the other day that sounded important. To this day he's not speaking to me.
That's my story. Anyone else?
Re:My story (Score:5, Insightful)
I told my manager Linux was free, and his eyes opened wide. I told my manager it was more stable than our NT 4 servers, and his eyes opened wider. I told my manager that I would have better, easier, remote management, and his eyes opened wider. I told my manager Linux would still run our Websphere software and that IBM provided a free migration path (no new licenses), and my bosses eyes finally popped out of their sockets.
I'm not being a Linux zealot. Everything there -- except for his eyes popping out -- is true. We just migrated 3 web servers to Redhat. It was an incredibly easy process and we're already seeing dramatic stability improvements despite a severe coding bug that cause us some downtime. I have never managed a Linux server before, but I'm not having any trouble learning it, with a bit of online help.
While your
Re:My story (Score:4, Interesting)
Only I like to come in with the "I need $1200 to purchase this commercial package - unless you want me to use this competing open source package, which IMHO is a better product anyway" angle.
Last project I was on, management was blown away by the stability of our Linux servers. Even the Windows guys were impressed. When I left the group, they were using Linux as a dedicated DB/2 server platform (wouldn't switch their web servers because of the VB/.NET thing).
Re:My story (Score:3, Funny)
"He wanted us to do what?!? XP on the desktops? They're P2s with 64M of memory! Replace the NT servers with 2K just for the new proxy server software? $16 grand?? Plus client licenses? He said he thought we might have overused our Windows 98 liscenses? How about I just snag a couple 486s from the junk bin, toss a copy of Debian on em, and we call it done? Oh, cost? You owe me a six pack of beer to drink when I'm doing it. Support? What do you hav
Re:My story (Score:2)
Doesn't that actually just say it all?
Re:My story (Score:2)
Ouch! That hurts!
My current assignment at work is to try and get this Java app working on Linux. Should be easy right? Wrong. It uses huge amounts of code via JNI to integrate with Windows, from embedding Internet Explorer to system tray icons. Does Java 1.4 work on Wine? Nope. Time to put on my debugging hat.
Ironi
Re:My story (Score:3, Insightful)
It's free, but you can pay for it.
You don't get support for free, but you can buy it, from RedHat for example.
Wine and vmware might be useful in *some* situations.
And, it's not a silver bullet. For example, I considered rewriting a VB app in PerlQt and running it on Linux. Turns out it wouldn't work because we'd have to migrate from SQL Server as well. So what to do? Very simple.
Tell your manager that while Linux is not currently a viable alternative for your business it's gro
Re:My story (Score:2)
I use FreeTDS and Python's Sybase module to get at SQL Server databases. I bet Perl has similar library too, but I haven't checked because I don't
do Perl.
Even if not, there are good reasons for preferring Python to VB, even if you would still rather use Perl given the chance.
Re:My story (Score:2)
Re:My story (Score:2)
It has worked, mostly (which reminds me - I have to send my firstborn to the people who wrote WinCVS). I'm currently trying to introduce Bugzilla.
I'm not trying to convert to open source completely, but rather to use the best tool for the job.
SARS predictions (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
Re:SARS predictions (Score:3, Informative)
Bullshit. I live in Hong Kong, so I think I have more of a clue about this than the sensationalist overseas reports.
Yes, it can kill. But so far, all those infected were in close physical contact with carriers -- mostly health workers who treated them, or members of family. Here people are crushed in close contact on public transport every day. If it spread like smallpox, we'd have a million dead already. It's risk, but nothing to obsess over.
Re:SARS predictions (Score:3, Informative)
As I said, I'm in Hong Kong, which is not Singapore.
The Straits Times itself is reporting how many parents are clamoring to close the schools for a while
People are panicking. Has little to do with the real risks. Recall the idiocy with which AIDS sufferers are treated in most places. Actually, my dusghter's school has just closed, which is a case of bureaucratic CYA rather than anything else.
SARS is highly contagious in close proximity, as
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
The figures I gave are for Hong Kong. As for whether it's scary or not; I live there, I'm not. My objection is to the general sensationalism and particularly to your equating it wih smallpox. It is much less lethal and much less contagious. As I've just repeated that for the third time, I think this is a good place to stop.
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
Sorry, I see that was the other guy who also thought Hong Kong was in Singapore.
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
SARS at best has a 3% fatality rate.
Smallpox has a 90%+ communicability rate.
SARS has at best a 25-30% communicability rate.
SARS is likely to be as bad as a smallpox epidemic?
'Yeah... right!'
-Bill Cosby
Re:SARS predictions (Score:4, Informative)
Hold on there nostradamus, how on earth could you have an rational basis for that kind of claim?
I predict that this virus will hit Silicon Valley hard; I've seen a lot of techies, especially foreign 'guests', just not practicing simple hygiene like washing hands coming out of the restrooms, sneezing widely into the air, etc.
Nice vague tinge of racism.
Also, the disease hit China, and so much manufacturing is now there, so there are plenty of chances for it to be contracted and brought back to the US. I think we have a real problem coming.
Except everything so far suggests this virus (if it is) requires close respiratory contact with infected people. Breathing on a tv that will be boxed, packaged, shipped and left on a ship for weeks hardly counts as close respiratory contact.
I suspect SARS is a two-component disease; first you are hit with the new mutant virus, which sets up your immune system to fail to handle certain things, then the second virus characterizing this disease attacks you unhampered.
Again, on what basis do you make these wild-ass statements? Do you work in a research lab studying SARS? When those researching this aren't even ready to make this kind of statement (they say it's possible, but by no means proven, and always stated as 'might,' 'could,' 'would be unusual,' &c. ), how are your prescient enough to?
We do not have any effective way to combat that.
True, just like we don't have any effective way to handle the vast majority of viral infections we get. We let our immune system go at it, and more often than not we get better.
-Ted
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
Re:SARS predictions (Score:2)
As for your references to foreign 'guests', in my experience the people who fail to wash their hands are as likely to be Yanks as anything else. Which is surprising, because a quick survey of American television commercials shows a near obsession with
The Difference Between Military and Civilian GPS (Score:4, Informative)
BTW, both military and civilian GPS can increase the accuracy of the signal by using differential GPS, which uses stationary ground stations to reduce uncertainty to well under an inch.
Re:The Difference Between Military and Civilian GP (Score:2)
Re:The Difference Between Military and Civilian GP (Score:2)
Re:The Difference Between Military and Civilian GP (Score:2)
However, to get an accurate fix while moving takes multi-band equipment.
Re:The Difference Between Military and Civilian GP (Score:2)
So something like the Topcon Odyssey [topcongps.com] can claim 15mm+2ppm accuracy in real time. All this depends on 2 recievers though, lose the radio link between the two and you're back to handheld GPS accuracy until you re-establish the link.
KDE Representation? (Score:2, Funny)
Net2phone blocked on attbi ? (Score:2)
Re:Net2phone blocked on attbi ? (Score:2)
How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:3, Informative)
The Washington Post reports [washingtonpost.com] that world wide there are now 42 million people living with HIV infection and by 2010 there will be between 50 million and 75 million cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in India, China, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia alone.
Why was AIDs not decleared a contagious disease back in 1981 and infected people quaratined? Were the rights of a few worth more than the rights of 75 million?
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:2)
Not to say anything against those who have died with AIDS (including my favorite high school teacher...), but very few of the people who have contacted AIDS or HIV did so in a way that they couldn't have prevented. I'm only aware of one case (I think there were a couple more that I can't remember) of someone getting it from a blood transfusion.
In particular, NOBODY has gotten HIV by touching a standard doorknob after an infected person touched it. The common cold often transmits in this way from person
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:2)
Didn't you get the memo? Please tell me you remember that AIDS is a threat to everyone, it's racist and homophobic to point out any behavioral aspects of its transmission, and the fact that it still exists at all is Ronald Reagan's fault. Sheesh. Now come on back to the bath-house for some barebacking, cupcake.
-ccm
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:2)
"Why was AIDs not decleared a contagious disease back in 1981 and infected people quaratined?
Which population was infected by AIDS first ?
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:2)
Re:How is SARs more dangerous than AIDs? (Score:2)
and, btw, the man contracted it from some african woman (or man).
SARS bug likely identified (Score:2)
Ok, so not the most trusted news source, but it was the first I could find quick, and it's been all over our local news for several days now. Why isn't anyone else reporting this? Bad news sells more eyeballs?
GLONASS and the EU system (Score:5, Interesting)
GLONASS, for those of you too lazy to Google it, is basically GPS-ski - it's the Russian answer to GPS. Same basic idea, but at a different frequency.
That's important. The biggest reason a military GPS receiver is still more accurate than a civilian rig is that the military rig uses 2 frequencies - the first is the frequency the civilian rigs use, the second is a military only frequency and is encrypted.
The reason this helps accuracy is that the ionosphere bends radio waves, including the GPS signal. Since the signal does not take a straight line path, it travels a bit farther. How much farther - aye, that's the rub. Unless you know what the ionosphere is doing you have no idea.
However, the amount of bend is propotional to frequency - if you use 2 different frequencies, you can determine the difference between them, and thus the amount of bending the ionosphere is adding.
Now, back to GLONASS - being on a different frequency, if you used it plus GPS, you could, in theory, get the same information about the behavior of the ionosphere, and reduce the error. (In practice you wouldn't get the same level of accuracy since the signals are not coming from the same birds, but...)
I've seen some chipsets in the trade journals that do both, but I've not seen any consumer units that do so.
And the
So, if we could only get a triple-threat system....
Re:GLONASS and the EU system (Score:2)
I don't think so.... (Score:2)
GPS still works on my iPAQ + Navman (Score:2)
Nuff said.
I was worried that the signal would degrade after the war started (like it did with the last war,) but I continue to use my Navman GPS sleeve on my iPAQ for a great deal of automated driving directions.
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Learn more [perl.com]"
STFU, not STFES.
Learn More." [reference.com]
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:3, Insightful)
Learn More." [reference.com]"
LOL! Burn!
Heh. That made my day. I'm tired of being corrected on stupid things like the difference between "viruses" and "virii". Normally I wouldn't mind, but once you've studied latin it's hard to avoid the urge to call it 'virii'. I wish people who use that term would be cut a little slack, it's not like we're all posting with spell and grammar checkers here. Afterall, this is just a forum. It's not a Scholastic Competition. When you correct some
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Well, sometimes grunts and moans are just as effective. Given that the best way to troll on
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
I can't say I care a whole lot about people who'd call me ignorant because of a simple typing mistake. Never mind that I might be fatigued, short of time, or injured. No no no, I'm ignorant because I said 'yur' instead of 'your'.
My point? I hope the people that are judging people based on how well they spell are being judged as well. I think the g
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Nonetheless, you're right in that you certainly shouldn't judge someone solely based on things like grammar and spelling; but the form of a message is going to be noticed before the content is absorbed, and if the form is too hard to read (or is harder to read than necessary), then the content might be ignored, even unjustly... and sometimes, that reality supersedes the "live and let live" mentality.
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2, Funny)
The proper form is gruntii and moanii. Sheesh.
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
And no, Virus is not the same declension as Annus!
Don't even get me started about "octopi."
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Virus is basically the Latin word for "slime" (I think it's distantly connected with whatever the Latin for the color green is), so there is no plural, nor any possibility of one. It's like saying "what's the plural of 'rust'?". You can't say one rust, two rusts, et cetera, or one slime, two slimes, and so on. They (ancient Latin speakers) never anticipated that the word would be used for discrete, countable th
Re:"Viruses," Not "Virii" (Score:2)
Re:degrade (Score:2)
Re:degrade (Score:2)
Re:GPS situation causes me to worry... (Score:2)
Don't worry. Even at the most inaccureate, a GPS would get you within 100 feet. That is still a lot of area to search, but you can do it, not normally a big deal. At least if you can get a signal, bring tree climbing gear if you are worried.
The reason for selective availbility is when on if an ICBM is launched and dpeneds on the signal, by the time it realizes that it is off course it will be so far off that it can't correct, and it explodes over an empty field instead of a city. (ie it kills a few far
gimmebrk (Score:2)
uh huh...except for that minefield your troops planted a few months ago...and that landing strip you need to find in the dark, and that ammo and water cache you buried in the middle of the desert and that river crossing you scouted a week ago and that bunker you are looking for at 3am, with the secret codes that are needed in the next 90 seconds....
Re:GPS situation causes me to worry... (Score:2)
Unfortunatly, No. That is NOT the case. It is quite possible for the GPS to give you a consistantly BAD signal that can be off by a considerable distance. It is generally easy to identify that a problem exists if your holding the GPS and checking it regularly. The human brain is quite good at throwing out the rediculous results. More than one person has seen a amximum speed of several hundred kilometers per hour while traveling by car, even
Re:GPS situation causes me to worry... (Score:2)
To become proficient at celestial nav takes a lot of shots. You also have to do a fair bit of math, looking stuff up etc. Lets carry all those nice big books, because those nasty nav computers might be flakey.
Most sailors rely on GPs and a compass. Three different brands of GPS and a box full of batterys. If the GPs fails it fails, point towars the nearest big land mass and sail until you get there. Sometime y
Re:The only prog rock band worth listening to is.. (Score:2)
Now if you'll excuse me I have some Circle II Circle to headbang to.
Re:How many times do we have to go over this? (Score:2)
Re:How many times do we have to go over this? (Score:2)
Re:OT: Slashdot Issues? (Score:2)
Re:OT: Slashdot Issues? (Score:2)
Re:OT: Slashdot Issues? (Score:2)
Re:What "SARS" really stands for (Score:2)
Re:How can they tell? (Score:2)
Of course, if it came from a sick Chinese professor, chances are China has a problem right now...