Posts by Andraž Levstik

Worthy of a prize

/me checks day... hmm still not Friday... This is worthy of a BOFH award... high powered catle prod where the sun don't shine ;)

Would be nice to see this enacted in BOFH...

Erm...

Would be nice if they wouldn't rip off stuff... SDL stands for Simple Direct Layer and is meant for easily coding in OpenGL and other things...

But then they wouldn't be microshaft if they didn't rip off something or other

So..

Why not have SCADA monitor it's network or whatever and if it detects abnormal activity just turn of remote access and completly isolate itself. So basically you have remote access but if there's anything weird it locks it down until it's investigated or until the monkey hits the button to turn it back on.

As for public facing interface... Use VPNs and so forth and always require both parties have this on a non public facing machine.

Sony this kindle that...

...what about Jinke and their really sweet E-ink readers...

Hmmm

where's the 3G option...

Oh well^2

Seems like most lost the idea about a SCC completly...

What I want...

A bit more rugged design, 4/8/16gb ssd storage and ability to add my own internal usb storage(even if I have to mod it to do so), 8h+ runtime, 7-10" touchscreen display,

tablet form factor with an attachable keyboard(physical connections) and cheap 300eur is the max...

Droooollll

Dear mr Santa... I'd like one Getac B300 and E100 TYVM

@Anonymous Coward

It's called fair use... no matter what copyright and how restrictive fair use would cover this...

@Damien Jorgensen

I'll still moan at you... if it can't be done easily with html+js then redo it... Not produce something that's useless... I'll ALWAYS moan about flash only or other such crap sites...

What do security researches and admining a system securely in common

Nothing... They are capable in their own field which is finding flaws and finding ways to work around them etc... In general security... They can recommend best practises etc... But I doubt a lot of them would be able to run secure no relay smtp servers, imap/pop3 servers and web servers and keep on top of it all.

I'm not saying that they couldn't do this if they set their minds to it it's not that hard but it's a different area than looking through code, trying to crack passwords, trying to work around security issues. I'm a sysadmin by trade and a bit of a paranoid one at that so I do go to an extra trouble of trying to workaround any more obvious security issues but this doesn't involve delving into code or trying to crack passwords.

Security is a process it's not a state. A lapse in such a process can be harmless or devastating.

The best way about security is to be aware of the entire process from start to end and any flaws that are inbetween. If you are aware you can expect it.

So yes most security researchers/consultants will only advise people on what a best practice is

the sysadmins and others more knowledgable in the field of implementation will actually have to update their processes.

Banks are well known for...

...sticking fingers in their ears and going LALALALALALALA!!! every time there's an issue about their security.

A few years ago some hacker(the proper kind) found a flaw in one of the banks online system.

He went to them discussed it with them(wanting to sell them the info).

First they agreed, then they reported him to the police who promptly arrested him and siezed his gear. The guy later supposedly commited suicide(which I highly doubt it).

So here's their system today:

Said issue still exists, their online passwords are simple(they don't allow things such as . , () etc... only alphanumerics), they do provide an optional password which you get asked 2 letters from at certain transactions(but I'm guessing this is another liability scam like P&C).

Banks should be leading the security field not simply catching up decades afterwards...

@Thrice Upon a Time

Each time a story about LHC came up this is the book I remembered. Good read... but as I recall there was not a time machine but ability to send messages back into the past and it was severely limited in that regard...

I'm stumped...

So here I stole this interestingly protected usb stick... but I can't plug it in do I

a) give up on it

b) take a screwdriver to it and dismantle it, desolder the original connector and

solder on a new one

I'll go with option b...

5 minutes later

Ahh so this is what the government has been up to...

@A road shared with their neighbours

All the cases you are pointing to have one thing in common:

The people there have either an implicit or explicit permission to come and go.

I.e. pizza deliver I ordere a pizza so you have the right and obligation to come and deliver it to

the agreed destination. FedEx etc... here it's implicit... they need to deliver it to the location BUT

they could always ring up before hand and thus get the permission...

Googlecars have neither an implicit or explicit permission to come...

Why would anyone want...

...to use a digital restrictions management crippled interface to get pics or video or etc... from his own devices...

Insanity...

Nothing wrong

with taking pics of public places... but I do oppose this being done on such a vast scale... Now what would be interesting is take the pics... digitize them into a virtual world and then have that as streetview...

Why this service fails...

It lacks the latest and greatest TV shows.. That's the main thing I download...

As I already pay quite a hefty amount for a cable subscription+local tv tax(which I don't mind paying at all) I consider this to simply be a different way to watch TV and I'd be willing to pay a download tax(up to some 20-30 eur though that's streching it) as well if it would mean I could use any online service

be it legal or illegal to get my content the way I want it....

I don't have vast collections... infact I have 0 shows or movies stored in any permanent form... Why bother...

I was looking at such services a while ago but they all lack in that one major field...

No fresh content only old content and even there primarily movies which come as it may

I don't care to watch...

@Blackadder

Not until freenet actually gets a C/C++ implementation... That's what I'm waiting for... No way am I running a blackbox like java on any of my machines...

GNU+Linux it's here it's now and it's usable

First a disclaimer: I'm a developer of a GNU+Linux Distribution(and no it's non of the common ones) but I have to deal with normal(those who are used to windows) users of GNU+Linux

often(family,friends)

Well as Linux is ONLY the kernel of the entire OS it really shouldn't have any pretty interfaces etc...

Now a GNU+Linux system that one actually has things to use as a desktop.

I tried a few things for my mom(50+, can actually use a computer) over the years for her use.

It ranged from:

GNOME, KDE, XFCE4, Enlightenment to more simple solutions IceWM, Fluxbox etc...

I gave her such setups and let her use them. There was always something missing. I.e. not enough

glue to make it all seamless etc...

So I recently tried the same using ubuntu/kubuntu/xubuntu..

Suffice it to say she is now a very happy user of xubuntu and is more than capable of doing

99% of the operations herself(hell she even updates the system herself).

I asked her every so often if she has any problems or such. And most often the response is

no and at times(which actually suprises me) is this actually works better than on Windows.

There might be a I would like an app that does this or that question so I install that for her

since I tend to know more apps then her.

So I belive GNU+Linux on the desktop is there. What needs to be done is only to improve on it.

I seriously like the way it asks when a certain codec or such is needed to play a file on how to install it.

To this whole notion of common releases etc...

It would make projects stagnate since they would only release like once a year in a staggered release fashion and bugs would increase. The only way to reduce the bug count is as ESR(and no I don't like the guy much) says Release early, release often...

To the make vendors provide GNU+Linux binaries for their apps(i.e. Adobe&co)...

They are free to do so.. infact they could just work with WINE to provide nice easy wrappers around their tools(that is what wino basically is, it's a windows toolkit) or have a common core then just provide Free Software wrappers around that core to compile a launcher for it.(similar to what the nvidia guys do with the drivers they have a common core and wrappers around it to fit into the kernel). This would solve most incompatibilities almost at once.

To the we want a windows type installer thing...

Well there are a few projects in that regard but why bother... Most binary distros nowdays have it setup so that if you double-click the .rpm/.deb/.whatever it will install it automagicaly. Why bother with paths the filesystem is hiearchical... if you need more space distros should provide tools to migrate a certain hiearchy from one disk to the other and then mount it for you automagicaly.

To the should follow common standards for various things:

a) directory locations

it's called FHS - http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

it specifies most directories on a GNU+Linux system and explanations what they should

be used for

b) device naming

it's been standard for a long time... only with udev people have started to botch with it

all my devices are always the same on all machines and that's the standard names they have

c) window managers fents etc... etc...

There is http://www.freedesktop.org - they are working on common standards for the desktop

and have for quite a while. This includes fonts and even RAW file handling from digital cameras.

d) backward compatibility

actually quite a few projects try to work that out but there are inevitable changes with it

even microsoft has that... Just think of all the msvb4,5,6 etc... runtimes one needed.

But as on windows it's the same on GNU+Linux just install the older library along the new one

and you're done.

So as you can see there are things that are being worked on or specifically that have existed for years. I still use what I use out of my own personal choice(that would be fvwm, a handfull of terminal apps and a graphical browser that actually behaves consistently(kazehakase) unlike other browsers that get changed by JS/plugins/etc...).

I'm fed up with all the crap people post... If you are incapable of using a computer don't use it.

If you want Joe Average the technophobe to use a computer give him something like a minimal 3 app computer like the EeePC.

General computing for the average user is dead... They need specialised computers that do only what they want with the ability to upgrade when needed... But of course this isn't in the interest of vendors that then can't flog pricey kit onto computer iliterates then sell them classes, support, software etc...

"become a bit maniacal"

I guess he got the BOFH upgrade recently :)

Screw the lot...

Who cares about ads... I block them and I'm guessing anyone a bit more tech savvy does so as well...

As for google... Screw them... they are the biggest data mining project in the world and nobody can touch them. I'm guessing they have more dirt on most people than most intelligence agencies have on

only a few people. Centralised search engines need to die already...

As the net gets bigger and bigger a central search engine will get less and less usefull since there's way to much data to index. Bring on the more powerfull semi-AI capable boxes that one could launch a dedicated AI search droid to find info for you... And actually make that data count for something... Not just piles and piles of the same sites/same articles/same blog links over and over and over...

Download tracking...

Use the webservers log... or anything that doesn't make it damn near impossible to automate the downloading easily...

EPIC FAIL

@The 1.50 markup

The markup is payed by the seller but as they so love to pass the buck you get the privlege of

paying it. I know this from experience. The banks around here tend to charge 4% for card payments.

So any time I see a discount of 4% cash-only it means the seller is passing the buck to me for other payment methods... Lucky for me I prefer cash only transfers...

Shaft them all I say

They should all get shafted(the cellcos). They should be brought down to offer a service at reasonable prices... I'm planing on visiting germany next month and am looking into getting either

data roaming(it'll be like 5day trip and there will be some wifi around(and am lucky enough to live in a lpace where unlimited means unlimited(though the speed is still in question but I'm not picky))) or getting a local sim for the time I'm there...

Amusing and sad...

@Adrian

I guess you seem to fail the idiot test as well... The reason it's asking you for your credentials is

because it needs to install stuff as root which you don't have as a normal user. Big diff between

"Do you want to run this" and "Enter your password to run this"

C'mon folks... if my mom(50+) can use this without me actually helping her out at all most younger

people should be more than capable of using it...

@Jim Halfpenny

Lol... good joke... here's your coat with a complementary ubuntu boxed set in the pocket

Hmm 116...

Could it be the votes are from their own members actually... to sweeten the numbers... anyway 116 out of 8bil or so is just a joke...

Amend it

"where he reiterated that the legislation has more innocent intentions, and promised to amend the text before the final vote in September if enough people found it misleading."

So please amend it... consider this an official request...

Maybe el-reg could forward this and other such to him so he knows it :)

On a side note... unclear laws should be made illegal by a new law...

@Haviland

So now they know a) where you work b) where you live c) where your kids go to school/whatever

And then people wonder what is wrong with this...

I don't want the whole world knowing where I live, work etc...

Tehehe

According to Microsoft, the Commission made a "manifest error" in deciding its prices were unreasonable saying the prices were "intended to facilitate negotiations between Microsoft and the prospective licensees."

What negotiations... microsoft is a take it or leave it type system...

Among other claims, Microsoft said the Commission had ignored evidence from patent experts on the subject of whether Microsoft's trade secrets were innovative.

Guess what... EU doesn't and hopefully will NEVER have swpats... so there is no innovation there...

I so hope microsoft looses again... and they should be given a bonus fine for being unreasonable...

Optical media...

...should be commited to the mighty /dev/null

@Out of touch

If you need an archive device with a long life span and proven track record, then a Blu-ray jukebox should be on your list.

You really seem to be... There's absolutely NOTHING proven about blu ray or about it having a long

life span. The ONLY optical media I'd trust for any long term storage would be CDs.(gasp shock etc...)

Why? because I have 10+ years old CDs that have been badly treated that still work fine and can

still retrieve them fully in this day and age. Also a scratch doesn't nuke a couple of hundred MB(like on DVD) or a couple of GB(on bluray and such).

@Hard drives get bigger and cheaper

It's not a bad idea per-se... But consider this... Unless you have redundancy those two drives will fail

eventually(which kinda doesn't make sense for backups now does it?) And the bigger the drive the

more you will lose in a single failure. I'm getting 2 500gb sata II drives and a sata II hw raid controler...

They'll be mirrored so if one goes I can still retrieve the data. But I also have backups of the most important things and they get offsited to a remote server(we're talking ~5gb) via scp. They are also encrypted so I could even put them onto P2P as omg_big_boobies_naked_chix.zip and I'd have it

distributetly backed up... :)

Anyway whatever one can get from the net is not worth backing up. Everything else... well depends on how much you value your data.

Capitalism...

...good idea... bad implementation... A free market will eventually end up in monopolys... simply because that's it's natural state. A properly regulated free market would provide more competition

thus ensuring better innovation and better turnover and would be beneficial to all parties involved.

Bring in the regulators!!!

or...

grow crops that actually yield in the environment they are growing in...

Sarkozy...

...go shaft.self

Pah...

But we’re against preference policies,” said Müller before concluding: “Some attention should be paid to open source as long as it does not lead to discrimination.”

So it's OK for you to discriminate but not for them... Get the hell out of the EU...

I'm so happy that the EC has so many teeth and is NOT afraid to use them!!! GO EC!!!

"I presume you never play MP3 audio or MPEG-2 movies."

There are better alternatives... namely:

Vorbis(packaged in Ogg) and Theora(packaged in Ogg) there's also FLAC so yeah...

It is actually possible to live without those...

Tehehehe

I had(my non google(I don't like their invasion of privacy)/non ms job(I don't like their busnisess practises))

email

basicaly sent the CV and got invited for an interview

face-to-face with CTO

more or less a nice talk about how I would solve some of the problems they had or have

and the regular what do you expect your pay to be etc...

face-to-face with the boss

about the same as the CTO

and the regular what do you expect your pay to be etc...

Of course both interviews where in the the 1 hour+ range(from what I hear it's mostly in the 15-45 minute range other places) but in the end I got the job.

sharing

"But until the vast IT community comes to understand that file "sharing" other people's work is wrong, this problem will continue."

Please go stick your nose back to scoring brownies... There's nothing wrong with sharing...

People do it all the time. We share the air we breath we share the planet we live on etc...

And yes we even share other peoples work... before p2p and the internet and now as well...

The only difference is internet made sharing easier and global... Before it was a smaller

circle of people. But still with the small worlds theory a group of 6 people should be enough to share anything they share with the rest of the world.

I share... yes other peoples work and my own. It's called Free Software and Open Source.

I don't even bother sharing proprietary/commercial software since it goes against my

philosophy. My audio media is all freely shareable(http://www.jamend.com and others).

I don't share movies since I don't actually watch them and care much about. I do share(read get via p2p and seed) TV shows and Anime though but then I do pay my local cabelco for TV and internet so I don't consider that to be really bad since people do get payed for it in the end. The only reasons I do this are

a) I don't have a PVR/DVR to record them all

b) most shows are unavailable in their original language

c) most shows tend to come around here 2-3 years AFTER they are released on DVD

I belive p2p will be the next TV and that we will be paying our ISPs for the premium of getting

TV shows off the net(in any way we want(that's the IMPORTANT BIT)).

Don't force me to run DRM crapware, don't force me to use YOUR software to get it. Just

make it possible for the current crews that provide TV rips on torrents to do so legaly(hell

hire them with all the extra dough you'll be getting there).

You could have an all-you-can-eat flatrate, a N-shows per week/month/3 months/6 months/year rate etc... Just incorporate that into the ISPs billing and make sure it goes to the right people.

@By Anonymous Hero

It was designed by Asus not the people you so lovingly call "freetards"

"Give 'regular' users a bit more credit regarding their intelligence and tastes in UI."

Like you? Seriously... I worked with regular users... Most panic when their mail icon changes from

location A to location B(even if that is just the right next position on the left(yes I have been called out for such reasons a few times))

I'll assume you are not a regular user and that your father actually likes using his brain

to discover new things and doesn't just give up at the first sign of trouble(my mom is the same

but she is using a gnu+linux box at home) She can do everything and more that she could do

before on windows. And seriously has no issues.

In the end it's all up to the end user. My aunt is somewhat technofobic so she has trouble using even the simplest cell phone(no extra crap.. just calls and SMS) but she did slowly learn how to use it

in the end(she still has probs now and then). So you see it depends on people.

"anything better in Gnome/KDE space (look at all the OSX/XP look alikes/wannabe's). God forbid they're let loose customising 'simpler' interfaces for the eee."

I won't even comment on the GNOME/KDE crap it's not worth the time(since I actually agree with you on that)

But for example look at enlightenment e17 it's a lot different to regular GUIs look wise. That's what you can get from the so called "freetards" but I would have a hard time calling anyone on the enlightenment team any type of 'tard.

The OSX/XP look-alikes I tend to hate since they just bring back the same crap.

Btw did you look at the ubuntu mobile edition? It actually has an interesting UI design... Simple yet

complex. That's the type of UI I'd like to see more on mobile devices.

Anyway hope this brings some light into your obviously boring life...

ow ow

I know... let's call it OpenID http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openid

@TimM

Only if it's on you router/firewall :)

me I prefer ushare as my UPnP server of choice...

What about

What about all the Free Software games one can get without actually buying them...

This horse bolted a long time ago.

I agree that there should be some advisory on games but the people to

rely on this is the PARENTS(say what? what's that a magic word?) not the people

who sell this.

I'm opposed to parents monitoring their child' PC in any way since that just gives the

child the idea that it is OK to give up their privacy and such like a child like an adult like any human being has the right to privacy.

But if little Timmy wants a video game chances are:

a) parents will need to buy it for them

In which case they should actually do the PARENTing(there's that magic word again)

thing and verify that said game is actually okay for 'lil Timmy

b) Timmy will save for it through allowance

Can't really do much here unless you actually take your PARENTing(ow looky... magic word) responsibilities seriously and actually have a DIALOG(NOT a MONOLOGUE) with your child about things and he might actually tell you about such things.

c) Timmy will get it from "other" sources

Same as step (b) though Timmy should be informed about what he is doing:

infringing copyright(NOT STEALING) and what this MIGHT(there's no say he will buy it and keep even if he likes it) mean.

So yes... PARENTS(magic word!) should be doing PARENTing(magic word!) and

work WITH their children to make them productive NON-SHEEP-LIKE creatures of

society. Anything else would be gross incompetence on their part.

Erm 2009?

Did el-reg get a time machine they haven't told us about??? C'mon share it....

"Strong sales helped Red Hat's first fiscal quarter 2009 get a healthy increase"

Nokia and UIs

I always found nokias UIs consistent... Unlike other phones brands where it changed from

one instance to the other. They have good UI design ideas for the most part. But as anything

I can't wait for the Eclipse Public licensed symbian code and the UI so that it can get

customized to fit the user directly.

@Simon Aspinall

Of course it's not... Linux is only the kernel... It can run other apps on top but it's only the

kernel. Now a GNU+Linux system That would be the answer.

This reads like a dream...

sheesh takl about an odd day...

Maybe he should resign first... does he have any ties with y! could do well with this:

http://yahoorezinr.com/

Interesting idea but...

... a slight improvment:

a) go from looking at the dash to a HUD overlay that would highlight such things along

with other traffic etc and calculate their vectors of movement etc...

b) provide an audio warning: "approaching 30 mph zone" "approaching traffic lights"

c) detect traffic around the car and warn on a HUD overlay with a warning for that area

Yes I am a driver, I have been one for 3 years(I belive exactly to the day) and yes I would find such a tool helpful even though I drive more carefully than most.

@Justin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

"The cipher was developed by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, and submitted to the AES selection process under the name "Rijndael""

FYI

genmodding

Main issue I see with this is:

you say yes:

multinationals start genmodding everything possible

they tag their own genmods for trademark/copyright/patent issues(no I won't use the completly undefined intellectual property meaning, since they are 3 distinct sections not a single one)

they then release viruses to kill off anything not gentagged by them... And there you go...

The end of natural life... And a new master-slave system is born.

(taken from a book(though sadly can't recall the title).

So yes genmodding should be outlawed.

How to make farmers more profitable? kill off their subsidies for growing unprofitable

crop etc... Have a bit of a mix in with the companies that buy from farmers to make it

an even playing field. Free market is an illusion... If you have a free market you get

mono- or duopolys since that's what a fully Free market strives for. A proper market that

benefits all is one that is regulated by authorities(or one). Giving farmers more subsidies

for growing unprofitable crop makes no business sense at all. Forcing just one side to

do something won't make a difference. This has to be tackled in all areas at once.

Cute

But not all that brilliant :(

A hint...

Shove it where the sun don't shine

The only way I'll ever turn of privoxy is when there's something better or when they pry it from my cold dead hands...

So the UK is nearing the 1984 classic...

"The European Union proposed last year that greater sharing of this data be undertaken between countries, but the UK has proposed that the framework be greatly expanded to increase the powers of data collection and the number of purposes for which it can be used."

Of course... the little big brother would love to get the whole world into their own hands...

What next? a CCTV in every loo and newspeak...