Arachne GPL 1.73 WWW Browser (glennmcc) - Free internet suite for DOS
sysadmin - 16.9.2004 - 21.11.2004
ONLamp.com: Introducing Slony - Slony is an asynchronous replication solution for PostgreSQL
Microsoft: Alleged Soundforge Crack a "Placeholder"
Microsoft software must be warned against before use. It violates too many laws.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Gopher: offlineimap - IMAP4 synchronization tool
Microsoft chief warns Asian governments against using Linux
A new wave of lies and slander from Microsoft.
At heise online news there is the original article.
Y2K Problems with Lotus Agenda and Think Tank
I recently (P2982) had the case where Lotus Agenda catapulted the date on my HP 200 LX back to 1985. I've now figured out what caused it. The funny thing about it: I had the same problem with Think Tank. In both cases, the date in the settings file was to blame - it didn't have a valid date and the PDA simply assumed 1985. And apparently when accessing such a file, the HP has a problem and resets the system date. After I updated the Think Tank options file and the environment file in Lotus Agenda with touch to a current date, everything works. Finally got an organizer with really sensible software. Really, I'm only missing Word 5.0 (the only truly good program from Microsoft) and the organizer would be pretty much perfect. Okay, Microsoft Works 1.0 is also acceptable, but a bit lean on features.
I'll see if I tackle some installation attempts of Visual Basic for DOS this evening, another crazy piece of software I have lying around here (I think I still have DBase IV somewhere too, while we're talking about crazy stuff).
Firefox 1.0
I know everyone is thrilled about it as if it were the invention of sliced white bread. But I'm anything but happy with the new version of Firefox. Two annoying bugs are massively spoiling its use for me.
The first is an incompatibility with Codetek Virtual Desktop. Basically, it manages virtual screens where it hides windows and displays those of the new screen. To do this, it sends a redraw to the applications. Firefox then nicely paints its main window, but that's it. Only by changing the size can you get Firefox to redraw its content.
The second bug is even more annoying: every time I start it, the top menu is completely missing. It's simply empty. I have to send Firefox to the background and bring it back to the foreground to activate the main menu.
If you imagine how I work — multiple virtual screens, one for each important application, constantly switching between screens — then you can perhaps understand why I'd rather stick with Camino until Firefox becomes something stable and usable.
Even though it bothers me a bit that all the practical extensions are closed off to me because of this. On the other hand, that was already the case before — the prereleases never really worked well with the Web Developers Toolbar for me on OS X. Under Linux, Firefox is definitely my favorite browser, but the OS X version is a bit too buggy.
Microsoft in Licensing Frenzy
Microsoft grants a free license for a mountain of network protocols - provided that signatories commit to never working on Open Source projects. The tricky part: Microsoft grants licenses to protocols that don't even belong to them - such as TCP/IP, AppleTalk and ZModem. A subtle hint in the description text points out that you should get other licenses for the protocols that Microsoft doesn't own. Sorry, Microsoft, but the license isn't even worth using as toilet paper.
Pro-Linux: DNS streamlined - Nameserver for normal zone delivery only (not resolving)
HP 100LX/200LX Technical Information - Technical information about the HP 100LX/200LX - also includes links to other HP Palmtops there
ITU will assume regulation
If you want to get really spooked: read the interview with the ITU guy in the current CT on page 64. Just reading that arrogant attitude that oozes out of every sentence makes me feel sick. Yes, the ITU would very much like to regulate the Internet - sure, because right now it has no say in the Internet. And that's a very good thing. The ITU is a bunch of bureaucrats, participation comes with high costs and accordingly is dominated by large corporations. Open source projects and standards from the free software community wouldn't stand a chance at the ITU - but both at IETF and ICANN there are opportunities for influence for organizations that aren't big corporations. RFCs are created in a way that is open to almost everyone - you just have to be willing to take on the organization, but a working group isn't bound to a mountain of money like at the ITU.
No, I don't want the ITU as a regulator on the Internet - because an Internet run by the ITU would no longer be any fun.
Condor Project Homepage - Multi-system batch queue with load monitoring
SCO vs. Linux: Novell presents further evidence
And another nail in the coffin of SCO's great lawsuit?
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Confidential! - Confidential?
Funny what you can find on Google. I looked to see if someone had already ported Frontier to Linux. In doing so, I stumbled across the linked page where it apparently was already discussed at some point — making Frontier open source back in 2001, probably under the Apache License. The pages have something on them that says "Confidential" — with a fake red stamp. No idea if that's an internal discussion site of Userland.
There's also a download area with old source code — it still contains an NDA for access to the sources.
Google finds everything.
Frontier Kernel - Sourceforge project for the Open Source Frontier Kernel
CRN | Breaking News | Shadows Loom Over Sun's Open Source Plans
SUN's egg dance continues. Will the managers ever realize that all this fussing around just makes them look ridiculous and that such nonsense at best makes SUN itself obsolete at some point? I mean, at some point even the most ardent SUN supporter can't take the place seriously anymore. IBM will be happy - as the last major provider of large Unix machines (yeah, yeah, SGI still exists - but they're also disappearing more and more into oblivion).
Gap in Internet Explorer enables full system access
Please, people, just throw IE off your hard drive. That thing is unacceptable. Take one of the many better alternatives, for example Firefox. But finally dump this garbage heap where it belongs.
And another note, because the Heise article doesn't make this clear: this exploit is much worse because it doesn't directly affect JavaScript, etc., but only indirectly. And with that it can come into play everywhere the IE is also used internally (e.g. with the various nice tools that constantly fetch and display HTML from the internet for you!). The capabilities of this exploit seem to be quite serious.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Useful VIM features - Nice little tips about VIM
Planet Planet! - Web-based aggregator in Python
Python ipqueue
Anyone who has always wanted to tinker with the TCP/IP stack in Linux, but doesn't like C and prefers to use Python instead: the linked project offers an elegant solution for that. It allows you to hook Python scripts into Linux's Netfilter. Transparent proxies and similar things can be accomplished with just a few lines of code.
freshmeat.net: Project details for Kernel TCP Virtual Server - Virtual servers (performance or failsafe clusters) based on protocol content directly in the Linux kernel
freshmeat.net: Project details for ProxSMTP - SMTP proxy with hooks for external filters etc.
Backbone - a GNUstep-based desktop environment - Desktop environment for GNUstep
Index of /data/gnustep/ - GNUstep live CD - similar to Knoppix, but a decent desktop
OpenPsion - Linux for Psion Computers - Linux on Psion Series 5 and Netbook
OpenZaurus 3.5.1 is released! :: OpenZaurus ::
A new version of OpenZaurus - the alternative to the Sharp ROM - is out. And now available in three variants. Without GUI (interesting for those who use the Zaurus as a small mobile control computer and don't need a GUI), an Opie version (the familiar environment that also comes with the Sharp ROM in an older version) and a GPE version. The latter is particularly cool because it's based on an X server and can therefore run normal X programs.
PhpWiki - Open Zaurus Collie Install Guide - Installation of OpenZaurus on SL5500
Slashdot | IP Tunneling Through Nameservers
For people who still believe that a firewall could control traffic from inside to outside and back. IP over DNS is not just a pipe dream, but a valid concept with working example code. This way — provided you control a nameserver somewhere outside (which is nowadays possible for anyone with a cheap root server and a domain registration) — you can get through every firewall, as long as name resolution is allowed in the local network — even if the computer in question otherwise has no access to the outside (i.e. can neither send/receive mail nor surf the web — because if it can do that, it already has a trivial channel to the outside).
A good reason why you should implement nameservers on the firewall so that only internal hosts are resolved towards the inside, and resolution of external hosts should only be done on the proxy server. Or why in some areas you might simply need to cut the cable to the outside for security reasons.
Photo Matt - Bizarre Windows Behavior
Matt Mullenweg is really having fun with Windows: an automatic security update just rebooted his computer and ate a few hours of his work. Somehow I understand why I prefer Apple's method much more, which just tells me that something is available instead of automatically pushing it to disk. Above all, it's absolutely stupid that an automatic update bypasses all application dialogs for saving open files. But all the Windows advocates will now surely provide a thousand reasons why this was all the user's fault. By the way, Matt is no novice or anything like that - he's the programmer of WordPress and normally you can assume he has a reasonable level of computer competence. If even he has his system eat his data just like that, then this feature probably isn't that easy or obvious to disable or document. Here's the original article.
SCO vs. Linux: Form Your Own Opinion
Freely following the motto: don't believe any news report you haven't faked yourself?
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Laszlo - Products
Laszlo is the premier open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications on the World Wide Web. - what? This thing just got put under an open source license and is already supposed to be the "premier open source platform"? Zope, Drupal, Mambo, Typo3, Plone, Brickolage, Scoop, Xoom, Slash and all the others - are those all figments of imagination? Apart from that, LAMP is probably (unfortunately - I like neither MySQL nor PHP) the leading platform if you interpret platform in the usual sense.
Marketing hype has moved in with the companies into open source as well.
SCO vs. Linux: Motions Rejected, Deadline Extended
Well, let's see if they finally have something to show for it in 30 days - but I wouldn't bet on it
At heise online news you can find the original article.
US Government Shows Little Interest in Computer Security
Fits right in that the energy ministry gets hacked every two days
At NETZEITUNG.DE Internet you can find the original article.
US Department hacked every other day
Ouch. But they're really doing everything wrong that can possibly be done wrong either.
At NETZEITUNG.DE Internet you can find the original article.
Janus Software - Patch to make Firebird Oracle-compatible
pcp - replicating cluster filesystem
SFTP Chroot Howto - Explanation of how to set up ssh so that sftp runs chrooted
Security vulnerability was known to eBay for a long time
Look, the cause is obvious: the eBay managers are simply incompetent. Otherwise they would have banned and filtered foreign JavaScript long ago. Any dummy adds something like that to his software after a friendly visitor has left behind a JavaScript bomb. But for eBay, that's only a theoretical problem. Yeah, those great experts. The original article is at heise online news with the full story.
Embedding Gallery Into An Existing Community - How to embed Gallery into other PHP pages
Gallery :: your photos on your website - PHP image gallery
GROKLAW - SCO never compared current sources
Well, that's really embarrassing when you have to admit in court that you haven't actually compared the current sources, but instead rely on an internal study from 1999 - not a bunch of experts constantly combing through the sources. All that time wasted and in the end you had to admit you did nothing. Embarrassing, very embarrassing. But the "we need help" from SCO is really amusing. Sorry folks, but nobody can help you anymore
Also amusing is the fact that Kernel 2.4, which SCO was particularly targeting, was only started in 1999 - and wasn't available until 2001. In 1999, 2.2 had just been released, so SCO could hardly have had access to the 2.4 kernel back then. Yet they claim that precisely 2.4 and 2.6 are problematic - even though according to their own statement they never compared the sources.
heise online - IETF's anti-spam working group MARID strikes its sails
Since there is no prospect of consensus and achieving the stated goal -- a standard proposal by August 2004 -- he and the MARID chiefs decided to close the group. - yes, sorry, but if it's not until the end of September that one realizes the deadline in August can no longer be met, then perhaps one should put a calendar on the desk.
Otherwise, the whole procedure is an absolute debacle. I agree with the voices that the prevention of discussion about patent problems is a reason for the debacle. Patent claims on IETF algorithms should be cleared up early - because especially with such important infrastructure decisions, one must not hand over the reins to corporations that can then exploit it. And anyone who believes that Microsoft wouldn't have used such leverage to hinder the GPL is someone who puts on their pants with pliers...
And yes, it is a serious problem that there will now be no IETF proposal for the foreseeable future. Because this opens the door wide for Microsoft's unilateral action. Let's hope that spam prevention doesn't become the crowbar with which Microsoft cracks open the server market on the Internet.
Clean Corpus - Cleaning the Popfile (from 0.20) corpus to remove unnecessarily recorded words
:: radiant data :: - replicating file system on P2P basis for Linux
Microsoft: No License - No Patches
Great. Millions of pirated Windows junk systems will soon become even more junky. And the garbage heap won't be cleaned up. Sure, Microsoft is annoyed by the pirated copies - but do we really have to suffer on the entire net because Microsoft can't produce decent software and then also refuses to repair the damage? Honestly, I don't care whether someone paid for their Windows, I only care whether the computer is yet another virus and spam launcher, or whether it at least gets supplied with the necessary patches. Not that those help much ...
At das Netzbuch you can find the original article.
Edgewall | Trac - Project tool with web interface - Subversion, Wiki, Timeline, Bug tracking
Ian Bickings Wiki - Interesting wiki in Python and Webware based on reStructuredText
Playboys Open Source Mirror
Weird. Playboy (yeah, the magazine with too little money for clothes for their models) also operates servers. And they're run by admins. And they thank the Open Source Community with a mirror of various projects.
The mirror server has a pretty bare-bones design, by the way.
Microsoft's Patent Still Threatens Potential Anti-Spam Standard
That's cool. Software patents are rubbish.
At heise online news there's the original article.
TNPI - Homemade (Do It Yourself) .mac using mod_dav and Apache - How to simulate a .MAC account with a private machine and still be able to access Apple's pages