Slashback: Reviews, Resources, Pogo

As usual, updates and tangents from previous stories in tonight's Slashback. Read on for more on toys from Pittsburgh, the newest iteration of the Magician-named distro, open source directory entries, and everyone's favorite trademark dispute. So hit the button.

For better, for worse, for what it's worth. Thanks to the people who pointed out reviews of Mandrake 8.0 after I complained about a dearth of these when posting a couple of other reviews

Chris "soup" Campbell, for instance, points to his 8.0 review at Binary Freedom, and the_rev_matt writes: "Timothy was bemoaning the lack of Mandrake 8.0 reviews, so here is one." There's also a pctalk.org review discussed at the excellent Mandrakeforum site, as well as quite a few harsher comments when the release was announced. (I wish other distros would put comments in a forum like this, too.)

You know, 'bouncy bouncy'! Illah Nourbakhsh of CMU's CS lab (the same folks who brought your the Palm Pilot robot kit) writes: "... So here is the newest thing we've done. We make one-legged hopping robots that use an unusual spring system. We wondered what would happen if we scale the hopping robot up so it's much larger than 6 inches-- big enough to carry a human being. Then we can throw away the computer and the human can do the control. The result, the BowGo, enables ordinary humans to jump very, very high into the air and over obstacles. It is a far more powerful Pogo stick. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bowgo - there are both pictures and videos available from there. This is from the Toy Robots Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University."

Please give these people your venture capital, because I want to ride one of these! Mountain pogo-ing looks fun.

How can a jump rope be "open"? An unnamed reader contributes: "I've kept my eye on the guys over at the open source directory since I saw them take a good tongue lashing on /. a few weeks ago. They aren't doing too bad getting some listings, but the ones they have gotten seem to be making some waves. By my math, it looks like they've somehow gotten *two* new open source licenses passed through the boys at OSI (open source initiative) since they started three weeks ago."

Well, my tongue is out of lashing practice, but queries for "nano," "bluefish," "gimp" and "python" all return zero matches, so it doesn't seem like the first place I would go "to find Open-Source applications that are stable." The site still looks like a good idea, but is it eclipsed by existing resources? Maybe if enough people go visit it and add entries ...

A high-security remote terminal app by any other name nodvin writes: "In a Slashdot story on Mar. 22, 2001, it was stated Secure Shell Will Remain 'SSH'. However, the draft documents
now start with the title "draft-ietf-secsh-" rather than "draft-ietf-ssh". The charter is now found at: http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/secsh-charter.ht ml and the mail archive is now at:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/ietf-mail-archive/secsh/ "

Say it ain't so.

SECSH because SSH was already taken...

... by the "Site Security Handbook" working group when SECSH was formed. It's been this way since the beginning, and way before the whole trademark debate.

Re:ibm trackpoint mouse in mandrake

to be more precise, current 2.4 kernel in LM is troublesome on Thinkpads. There is also an issue with some ADAPTED SCSI controllers, but that would be it, as far as "big" problems go.

If only people would try to install with 2.2 kernel instead of default 2.4 kernel (bunch of floppy images with 2.2 kernel is available on install CD), most of these problems would suddenly become a non-issue, and world would be a better place.

Btw, Mandrake will have to issue the kernel update before packs hit the shops because of problems with firewall code in 2.4.3 kernels, and I bet Thinkpads will work fine once the update comes out. .-)

My terrible experiences with Mandrake 8 final

To begin, I can't update rpmdrake so I can't fix any of the problems. Any sites I add vanish the next time the program reloads. I've notices others complaining about this too. In fact I'm having many, many problems with 8.0 final. For example, unlike the last beta, I find that the final is less stable than even MS-Windows 9x! The stupid thing crashes on me 6 or more times a day! Various other problems with stability and graphics glitches when switching between X and console are annoying too. Anti-aliasing fonts *do not work* for me anymore with final. This blows and I'm not sure why this is.
My friend and I have both installed 8final and have the same problems. It makes me mad that all the reviews rave over the mighty wonders of Mandrake 8. I think it has something to do with non recom. install. I like to go in and actually know what I'm installing, but Mandrake 8 final seems to be broken terribly because of this.
I think it's sad when a beta is more useful and stable than a final release and I was hoping this wouldn't happen with Mandrake 8. To be honest, this was rushed. I don't know why they release finals so fast but Mandrake-Soft has to take a deep breath and learn something from other software developers... even Microsoft.
I'm running a beta of Windows XP right now because *it* is much more stable and usable than my mandrake partition. That's just crazy..
We need better QA.. and much longer beta, rc cycles.
I'm dissapointed.

The IETF SSH working group.....

was the Site Security Handbook.
When the SSH standardization effort came along, the "ssh" name wasn't available. Thus - SECSH.

Re:Secsh vs. SSH

Yes, this is just more proof that the editors never read the site. It was pointed back then that there was a URL http://www.ietf.org/ids.by.wg/secsh.html that refers SSH (and all IETF URLs refer to "secsh". This is because http://www.ietf.org/ids.by.wg/ssh.html is the "Site Security Handbook".

The working group has ALWAYS been "secsh"

The name of the working group, and the filenames of the drafts have ALWAYS been "secsh". On the other hand the protocol itself has always been referred to as SSH in all the documents, and still is. If you want proof check the mailing list archives or the IETF working group webpage [ietf.org]. Check your facts before you cry wolf.

I see late-night TV commercials in the future...

• 
  Q: Is riding the BOWGO good exercise?
  
  A: Subjectively speaking, we find that 20-30 minutes with the BOWGO provides an entertaining and invigorating workout for the whole body. Like skiing or skate-boarding, the BOWGO introduces and element of control that challenges balance skill and involves whole-body motion. We have noted improved strength and endurance in bicycling after training with the BowGo. There is evidence that the repeated, sustained periods of acceleration and free-fall provide general strengthening of the body tissues.
  
  

Am I the only one who thinks of late-night exercise "device" infomercials when reading this question and answer?

Secsh and the Single Sysadmin

Will now take giant leaps forward employing the Bowgo!

Secsh vs. SSH

The name "Secsh" refers ONLY the NAME of the IETF Working Group. The protocol will still be called SSH. The dispute was over the protocol name not the IETF Working Group name.

From the charter on http://www.ietf.org:
"The goal of the working group is to update and standardize the popular SSH protocol. SSH provides support for secure remote login, secure file transfer, and secure TCP/IP and X11 forwardings. It can automatically encrypt, authenticate, and compress transmitted data."

Please read a little more closely before posting. Thanks.

Re:OSD, GPL, oh my

Wow, that's an easy one.

The benefit of the GPL over, say, Sun's "open" license or simply putting your code in the public domain is that it requires people who use your code to play by your rules.

So, for instance, if I spend a bazillion man hours doing grunt work on some project, and want to share it with the world, some company (or person) can't add one "killer" feature and refuse to share under the same terms.

So why should something be licensed if no one is making money off of it, is it to be geek-chic or something?

If your only motivator is money, I suppose it doesn't make sense. But in the final analysis it really comes down to the same reason that proprietary software is licensed: whoever writes the code, makes the rules. Don't come to the party if you don't like the way the host plays.

-Peter

Eight, please

-- 2 front mountain bike Bowgo (tm) kits
-- 2 back mountain bike Bowgo (tm) kits
-- 4 truck mount Bowgo (tm) kits

Oh, hell, throw in a kit for my sweet little old neighbor lady's walker

Robo-Pogo?

Cool. Sounds like a great new end-segment for 'The Man Show'. Girls on pogosprings!!

Powerskip for better bouncy bouncy

If you want extreem bouncy, then check this [entertainfla.com] out. After watching some of the video's on this site [entertainfla.com] I decided that I am not ever going to be THAT crazy. We are talking 6 foot jumps and leeps. The videos have this cute little disclaimer: "PLEASE, don't try this at home".

---------------------------------

pogo shoes? bah!

I remember seeing this sort of thing in Popular Mechanics a while ago (or some mag), but it was using gasoline powered shoes. I found some interesting things on them however, they are gasoline powered shoes that allow you to get about 4 meters to the stride and allow people to run about 40km/hour (or so the article says) It comes from a russian design.

Daily radar has an article about them here [dailyradar.com] and another article about the gaspowered shoes is available here [canoe.ca] I want a pair of these!

ibm trackpoint mouse in mandrake

The one reviewer that tried to install mandrake on a thinkpad noted that Mandrake doesn't work with the trackpoint, which is a generic ps/2 mouse

He dimisses this as an issue saying he prefers a USB mouse!!!

This is inexcusable, it ought to work with the hardware (esp. when 7.2 did), and making me drag a mouse around to plug into my 802.11b equipped laptop sucks big rocks.

It even worked right in redhat 5.1-7.0 dammit.

A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close

Re:Helmets?

Yeah, and laws forbidding us from using our cell phones on them. As if our legislators don't have anything better to do!

Re:pogo shoes? bah!

All you need to know about these, from the second article, emphasis added:

Kunikov said there have not been any accidents so far.

Helmets?

As soon as possible, helmet laws should be enacted to prevent head injuries as a result of misuse of the mega-pogo stick. Laws requiring neck braces should probably be enacted also, but seeing as how neck braces are not as commonly available as helmets we can put off passing that law for a while.

But eventually...

Dancin Santa