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Comment Re:Wow just how wrong can one be. (Score 1) 351

by cras (#34018724) Attached to: Why Mozilla Needs To Pick a New Fight

1. An Echange replacement. Not 8 things I can lash up to work but a single system that is easy to install that offers all the features of Exchange with none of the pain. Oh and it must work with Outlook and should have a good client that does everything Outlook does plus a good web interface.

Fully open source Exchange replacement is finally available, thanks to SOGo and Openchange people: http://www.sogo.nu/english.html

It's also awesome that it can use your existing IMAP server for mail storage rather than reimplementing its own. Also if you don't want to lash up 8 things together, they have all-in-one package you can install.

Submission + - The real Free and Open Source Exchange Replacement (www.sogo.nu) 2

Submitted by extrafu
extrafu writes: Recently, the SOGo developers at Inverse developed together with the OpenChange team a storage provider that reuses much of the SOGo code. This means Microsoft Outlook can talk to SOGo just like if it was an Exchange server. This is a major step in the FOSS groupware world as costly MAPI connectors can now be avoided for Microsoft Outlook users and they can benefit from a modern groupware server to handle all their needs. A video demonstrating Outlook connected to SOGo through OpenChange server is available from the SOGo website. And yes, everything is available under the GNU GPL and is under active development.

Comment Re:Symbian sure try hard to prevent you developing (Score 1) 423

by ccr (#32805334) Attached to: Symbian, the Biggest Mobile OS No One Talks About

I remember the "process", or rather the pain, of using Symbian SDK being on about the same level nearly 9 years ago. Which is exactly why Symbian is shit, and how Nokia in general sucks -- they've had a headstart of 10 years to make Symbian development experience better, but it's still the same piece of pigeon poop it was nearly decade ago.

Google and Apple have done better in way lesser time, and seemingly had the sense to avoid at least some of Symbian's mistakes (albeit they seem to have problems of their own, of course), but Nokia hasn't had the sensibility to improve their primary platform. I guess they finally did admit Symbian's inferiority by the partial move to Maemo/Meego.

I'm not even going to start with the often confusing mess that Symbian platform itself is...

Comment Re:Explanation / apology (Score 1) 465

by cras (#31197136) Attached to: Distance, in multiples of my height, from my birthplace:

The space for poll questions is limited; I chopped out "x1000" in the question so it would fit in the box, but failed to add "k"

I first thought about that, but it wouldn't make much sense either. Multiplying by 1000 would put pretty much everyone to the 1-3000 option. Even with distance between US and Europe you won't get past the second option, and maybe not even into the second option.

Comment Re:Somewhat unrelated, but (Score 1) 251

by cras (#30986958) Attached to: Nokia N900 Linux Smartphone Running OS X

By default sudo gives just an error about "switch your device to R&D mode if you want to break your device". You have to install a separate gainroot package to do it without R&D mode. Anyone who does either of those should be experienced enough to realize what the consequences are.

Of course, allowing ALL users rather than just the normal "user" to get root privileges is worse. And yes, a quick look at /etc/sudoers does look as if any user could simply do that. But I just tried:

1. start xterm
2. sudo gainroot
3. su (some other user than "user")
4. sudo gainroot -> it asks for password!
5. su user
6. sudo gainroot -> it works (just as in step 2)

So the user named "user" apparently is checked in (all? of) those scripts that sudo is allowed to execute. It's perfect. Just what you'd expect.

Comment Ads with movement (Score 5, Interesting) 507

by cras (#30868548) Attached to: Of the following online annoyances, I most despise ...

I probably never would have bothered to install adblock if ads were just still images. Maybe once in a while I might even see some interesting ad. Facebook and Google ads are like that, they've never bothered me. But pretty much all other ads are animated, so they keep trying to distract me from reading the actual page. Wonder if advertisers could be encouraged switch to still images by having adblock implement a mode where they're not filtered.
Science

How To Build a Quantum Propulsion Machine 392

Posted by kdawson from the magnetoelectric-quantum-wheel dept.
KentuckyFC writes "According to quantum mechanics, a vacuum will be filled with electromagnetic waves leaping in and out of existence. It turns out that these waves can have various measurable effects, such as the Casimir-Polder force, which was first measured accurately in 1997. Just how to exploit this force is still not clear. Now, however, a researcher at an Israeli government lab suggests how it could be possible to generate propulsion using the quantum vacuum. The basic idea is that pushing on the electromagnetic fields in the vacuum should generate an equal and opposite force. The suggestion is that this can be done using nanoparticles that interact with the vacuum's electric and magnetic fields, generating the well-known Lorentz force. In most cases, the sum of Lorentz forces adds up to zero. But today's breakthrough is the discovery of various ways to break this symmetry and so use the quantum vacuum to generate a force. The simplest of these is simply to rotate the particles. So the blueprint for a quantum propulsion machine described in the paper is an array of addressable nanoparticles that can be rotated in the required way. Although such a machine will need a source of energy, it generates propulsion without any change in mass. As the research puts it with magesterial understatement, this might have practical implications."
Censorship

Swedish Regulators Ban Word "Bank" In Domain Names For Non-Banks 175

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nanny-state-to-the-rescue dept.
It seems that Swedish regulators have decided to extend the requirement of not calling yourself a bank to the registration of domain names. Now anyone that tries to register a .SE domain name with the word "bank" in it will need to prove they are a legitimate bank. Hopefully there are no blood banks or anyone with the last name of "Banks" that might want a .SE domain. Here is a Google translation of the demand issued by the authorities to the .SE registry.

Comment Re:Better solution: read only media (Score 3, Insightful) 264

by ccr (#28744901) Attached to: Security Threats 3 Levels Beyond Kernel Rootkits

And what about those BIOS/EFI[1] firmware-based hypervisor rootkits? If someone is able to gain root access in a given system that is somehow "vulnerable" in such way that a permanent EFI (or similar) rootkit can installed, then you'll be fucked even with the read-only media and all.

Speaking of which, I don't understand why manufacturers are so eagerly adding all this new intelligence into the firmware. What do we need it for anyway? IMO it would be so much simpler from security perspective, if the OS would be at the bottom of it all. Added complexity adds new possibilities for exploitation.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface
The Internet

Submission + - French 3 strikes law returns with judicial oversig (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: French "3 strikes" law returns, now with judicial oversight!

The French Senate has once again approved a reworked version of the country's controversial "three strikes" bill designed to appease the Constitutional Council. Instead of a state-appointed agency cutting off those accused of being repeat offenders, judges will have the final say over punishment.

The approval comes exactly one month after the country's Constitutional Council ripped apart the previous version of the Création et Internet law.

Bring in the judges

Not content to let the idea die, President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration reworked the law in hopes of making it amenable to the Council--instead of HADOPI deciding on its own to cut off users on the third strike, it will now report offenders to the courts. A judge can then choose to ban the user from the Internet, fine him or her 300,000 (according to the AFP), or hand over a two-year prison sentence.

Those who are merely providing an Internet connection to dirty pirates can be fined 1,500 and/or receive a month-long temp ban from the online world. (A group of French hackers has already begun to work on software that cracks the passwords on locked WiFi networks so that there's an element of plausible deniability when law enforcement tries to go after home network owners.)

The Senate approved this version of the bill with a vote of 189-142 this week, sending it to the National Assembly for final passage.

ARS Technica : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/its-baack-french-3-strikes-law-gets-another-go-from-senate.ars

Comment Re:He makes one excellent and crucial point (Score 4, Informative) 427

by cras (#28396957) Attached to: State of Sound Development On Linux Not So Sorry After All

Is there any document out there which explains why /dev/dsp doesn't get mixing with ALSA? And why nobody tried to patch that yet?

Yeah, TFA explains it.. Here's it in short: /dev/dsp goes to kernelspace, while ALSA does mixing in userspace. I've no idea how difficult it would be to make ALSA do sound mixing in kernelspace.

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