Comment This... (Score 1) 113
... is derp.
Seriously. What the PTO needs to do is throw out any patent on a software implementation on anything. MPEG-4 for example.
Viva la GNU!
Penumbra: Overture Goes Open Source 74
As promised when the Humble Indie Bundle hit $1 million in donations the other day, indie developer Frictional Games has released Penumbra: Overture's source code. "The code for Penumbra: Overture is a continuation of the one used for the tech demo + some addition for the not so long lived Robo Hatch project. It also contains some code from Unbirth, giving it quite some history." The release also includes the HPL1 engine. "This is engine that has powered all of the Penumbra games and it even includes the stuff used to create the 2D platformer Energetic. The engine code was started in December 2004 and was actively developed until early 2008." The repositories are available at github.
Comment Re:linux on the thumb drive. (Score 1) 18
try looking into one of the CompactFlash to IDE/SATA bridges. Solid State and non-USB
If you're willing to really dive into something more, try actually going for an SBC
Comment Re:This is why I dislike much of Linux (Score 1) 18
Because Its Not Quite As Bad As Debian(tm).
I'm sorry but I cant for the damned life of me get Debian plian and clear to work on this box because they outright refuse to consider that the people using it might not want all their software running 100% FOSS stuff.
Ubuntu when you get down to it is getting
However the award for the worse linux distro ever has to go to... Linux Mint. Anyone who uses a fucking init daemon to keep you from NOT using their bastard redheaded version of Google needs to go die in a fire.
Comment This is why I dislike much of Linux (Score 1) 18
I'll say this now: I use linux for quite a bit of astronomy work. It does its job beautifully and without any hesitation. The problem is that the Linux Children have decided that they must know everything and their users are clueless shitheads that dont know what they're doing.
Take for example my own prediciment: a light powerful linux laptop.
I wanted 3 things: GDM, a *Box window manager, some dockapps and fbpanel.
GDM: Botched because I cant configure it. No really, *I CANT CONFIGURE IT* leaving ALL gdm themes OUT THE DOOR. I liked my gdm themes. So I went with xdm
*box window manager:I flipped between WindowMaker/GNUStep, fluxbox, hackedbox and openbox, and eventually settled on OpenBox. Okay this was somewhat hard to get working with xdm, but I got it going. It still dislikes me because I dont use
fbpanel: Replaced with pypanel now because every time xscreensaver would kick on fbpanel would *crash*. thanks guys.
Other applications that were a bitch to deal with were URxvt (Had to sit and futz with some Xdefaults) as well as cursor stuff.
Wharf/Dock applications were easier: They simply required being killed off and brought back to life in an appropriate manner.
I've at the same time had to write a full set of scripts that do something damned simple: set the root window.
(I've archived the trials and tribulations on my personal wiki http://sonof.bandit.name/doku/doku.php/contrib/mrootwin )
By far the biggest problem was the most simplest to solve: X11 configuration. I chose a Dell Latitude C600. If you arent familiar it runs a 1400x1050 TFT LCD on an ATI M3 8MB card custom made for dell. This not only creates a painful configuration (hacks and kludges abound) but Ubuntu Did Not Autoconfig. It worked one rev and then the autoconfig broke and we all looked at Ubuntu and went "WTF?".
Sound was slightly easier; a Maestro card simply required ALSA firmware, and the b43 drivers for my wifi card were easy enough to espy.
Linux is ready for
If you're wondering this is how it came out:
http://sonof.bandit.name/files/morestuff/more_pictures/images/scrn-25_Apr_10-180435.png
Journal Journal: THIS is why linux is not ready for primetime. 18
So Ben (el Husband) is building/has built a CNC router using Ubuntu and a couple of pieces of software, a CAD program (for which he paid), a CNC controller program (which I can't remember if it was free as in beer or not), a tiny motherboard, and a couple of other pieces of actual hardware for which he paid a decent amount of money (but not enough to justify actually buying a mill the size he needs). Motors, threaded rod, etc. If you want to see, he's got a video on youtube linked from the
Journal Journal: I was reading somebody's very old journal 1
An interesting discovery has prompted me to ask,
Do battleships have first class cabins?
Man Put On "No-Fly List" While In Air To NYC 300
An unnamed man flying from Nigeria to New York City found out he was added to a no-fly list somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, when the plane stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Officials won't say what he did or why he was added to the list after he had already boarded a flight. He was not immediately charged with a crime and Customs and Border Protection will only say that he is a "potential person of interest." From the article: "The man, a citizen of Gambia, was not on the no-fly list when he boarded the aircraft in Dakar, Senegal, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly."
Comment it depends on what you're doing. (Score 1) 414
Some firewalls are shit: see, anything relating to SonicWALL or PepLINK (trust me, its a combination that *sucks*
Others are useful once you have the basic idea. Anything is good when configured nicely; even iptables has a reasonable idea of how to do firewall stuff.
Either way, firewalls *are* pretty much entirely shit. There is no "drop-in" security
Submission + - What is the Future of Firewalls? 1
jlmale0 writes: When I mess with my WAP/router at home or coordinate with the network team at work, it seems like I'm stuck in 1995. We're still manually listing IP address/port combinations for our firewall rules. There's a certain simplicity to this when dealing with a single system, but there are firewalls everywhere these days. What's available for managing complex firewall arrangements? What's being developed? Can I take a visio diagram, run it through a script and get a list of firewall rules? What about a gui that illustrates the current system configuration and then lets me drag and drop systems across firewalls, and have the individual firewall ports automatically configured? What about tying a firewall into an authentication system so that when jdoe logs in, only then are the firewalls opened to pass her traffic? What about managing distributed firewalls so that one repository of rules opens up your system's firewalls, the DMZ firewall, and the public firewall all at once?
Let's get a conversation started. What cool projects do I need to know about? What cool management features would you like to see? What's next for firewall management?
Let's get a conversation started. What cool projects do I need to know about? What cool management features would you like to see? What's next for firewall management?
Submission + - Google funds Theora codec for ARM (arstechnica.com)
Tor Klingberg writes: Google has provided funding to TheorARM, a project that produces an ARM-optimized implementation of the free Ogg Theora video codec. TheorARM has now been released under a BSD license, allowing makers of mobile devices to freely integrate Theora support. While it is unlikely that H.264 will be defeated, widespread Theora support will hopefully give web publishers the choice of which codec to use.
Submission + - Why is it 9:41 (or 9:42) in Apple product shots? (technologizer.com) 1
harrymcc writes: A blogger ran into iPhone software honcho Scott Forstall at an Apple Store. The blogger reports that Forstall explained to him that Apple always unveils major products about 40 minutes into a keynote--and syncs the time shown on images of the device to match. It's a great story, and several other blogs ran with it. Too bad it's not true. I went back and watched video of Apple product announcements, and came up with a more plausible theory.
What Advice For a Single Parent As Server Admin? 618
Dragon_Eater, with "lots of experience setting up PCs and a passable knowledge of Linux but severely lacking in the server/client department,"
writes with a situation that probably faces a lot of parents:
I want to set up three kids, 12, 14, and 15, with newer computers so they will stop fighting for time on the one ten-year-old Dell they share now. I can get the individual computers and a server put together without any problems, but the computer-handicapped single parent needs to be able to do the following via an simple application/web page: View client computer status, On/off, sleeping etc.; Deny Internet access, not LAN, just the web; Schedule time usage of computer, ex. 7 am to 10 pm on school nights etc.; Force log-out and/or shutdown of clients, for grounding purposes; and Apply some kind of firewall filter for blocking undesired web content. And as the administrator for this network I would like the following options: Remote virus scanning of client machines, or scheduled task; Some kind of hardware monitor, high temp / fan speed low etc.; and Email alerts for various log files / alarms.
Given the lists above I am thinking about a Linux-based router/server machine and running Windows on the clients for game compatibility. I also know that a server and network boot client is possible but not sure where to start on that one."
Submission + - Unconstitutional? 1
tekgoblin writes: You guys let me know if I have a case.
I live in a 4 bedroom apartment, all individual leases, not a single lease. So, I was sleeping the other day before work, all of a sudden police burst into my room and cuffed me. They said they were looking for my roomate because he was accused of a crime that involved pictures (no more detail for now). They had a search warrant that included my roomates name, (NOT MY NAME). Well I was cuffed and taken down to the station and read my rights....(I am not the guy they are looking for). They made me give a statement, like I had a choice. Then after all of the crap we went back to the apartment and they were taking all of our computers to the police station to search, (so I was illegally searched and seized) now I thought I would have to be on the search warrant for them to search my computer hardware when it is actually a different lease and technically a different address. They took all of our computers all 4 roomates, 1 being just and the rest unjust. And I was arrested for a short time.... What do you guys think?
I live in a 4 bedroom apartment, all individual leases, not a single lease. So, I was sleeping the other day before work, all of a sudden police burst into my room and cuffed me. They said they were looking for my roomate because he was accused of a crime that involved pictures (no more detail for now). They had a search warrant that included my roomates name, (NOT MY NAME). Well I was cuffed and taken down to the station and read my rights....(I am not the guy they are looking for). They made me give a statement, like I had a choice. Then after all of the crap we went back to the apartment and they were taking all of our computers to the police station to search, (so I was illegally searched and seized) now I thought I would have to be on the search warrant for them to search my computer hardware when it is actually a different lease and technically a different address. They took all of our computers all 4 roomates, 1 being just and the rest unjust. And I was arrested for a short time.... What do you guys think?
Submission + - OSM-Russia wants to remove all military entries (openstreetmap.org)
nroets writes: OpenStreetMap is considering removing all entries for Russian military assets from its database. Apparently Russian law is unclear on the subject. Some users residing outside the Russion federation has vowed to reinstate any entries that are deleted.
