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Comment No (Score 1) 734

In a nutshell.

Let them choose when they are of age. I think the key bit is the IRS stuff. The London Mayor Boris Johnson has fallen foul of this, having dual American and British citizenship. He's trying to revoke his Amercian citizenship "so he can be more pure if he stands for PM" or something like that. Personally I think he's fed up with the IRS crap.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot - Private-cloud file hosting software for linux, like Google Drive?

TarpaKungs writes: I'm Asking Slashdot because I *know* this is a growing problem, but I have failed to find a suitable soution. Here's hoping the collective intelligence of Slashdot will prevail :)

OK — you have lots of android devices and maybe a several Chromebooks: Google Drive is great — it works well, it has user selectable offline caching ("Keep on device") — and most importantly, it handles updates from multiple clients gracefully. The main problem with this is reliability (will the service stay there), security, privacy and cost.

"Cost" because I have several terabytes of data (mostly photos, but a lot of other important files and documents) on an existing linux infrastructure which is well maintained, raid-ed and backed up. A small fraction of this it would be nice to replicate to all my client devices. The rest would be nice just to have on demand, subject to a network connection.

"Privacy and security" because I have lots of data that I don't want to lose control of.

I have been searching for a long time and have yet to find any self hosted software that has the technical abilities of Google Drive or Dropbox. Adding to that, the ability to maintain a secondary sync'd full copy of specific shares on linux (eg on my laptop) would be cool — but not crucial. However a general access linux client is a must.

I'm not looking for the all singing all dancing features of Google Drive such as live spreadsheets in my browser or any of the ancillary features like email and calendars. Simply good honest robust file serving with client offline mode (aka local cached copy, user selectable file by file or folder by folder) and no issues with multiple clients updating files.

I've tried Tonido and Owncloud and neither play nice with POSIX user permissions — they seem to want to own the files and manage access at a server level. Owncloud free seems also to be limited to a single share and enterprise pricing on both products is very high (3 to 4 figures) with no hobbyist/home licensing tier.

Simpler scenarios like SFTP and SMB of course do play nice with the local user permissions, but are not so bright on the client side — ie no offline mode. I did look down the WebDAV route but again, I have failed to find any client apps that are smart about offline mode. I suspect Google and Dropbox add some additional stuff to their protocols to push notifications of changes to other connected clients and also to manage the concept of "who has the latest copy".

So I guess what I am looking for is either a whole server/client suite that works or at least an SFTP/SMB/WebDAV client that is a bit smarter. Here's hoping the collective intelligence of Slashdot will prevail :)

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Replicated filesystem for linux - disconnected use

TarpaKungs writes: There are many clustered filesystems for linux — most seem to have HPC clustering or failover in mind and assume there is relatively continuous network connectivity between the hosts.

I'm after one that would suit multiple clients (laptops typically) in a "business/home" usage scenario with very intermittent connectivity.

Right now, I have a central fileserver at home which is backed up properly and similar at work. I work mostly on a laptop (which is the way everyone in my family and most of my work colleagues are going. I occasionally sync back to my home server and work servers with unison over ssh, which is a great tool.

I'm not looking for a caching solution that depends on the network being there — I'm after a full on replicated (at the file level, not the block) filesystem preferably with no concept of a master (unison handles this quite well).

So there seem to be a couple of directions I could take:

1) Run unison as root from a script with a carefully chosen config file per FS area. Write a script runs when (say) at-home WiFi is detected, so as to avoid syncing over a mobile link. Email errors to me for manual fixing (unison generally "does the right thing" and baulks before doing something that is not provably correct).

Or

2) Find a more elegant solution that works at the kernel or daemon level.

So:

1 — Anyone done this and did it work out?

2 — Are there any well maintained linux network filesystems worth looking at that would behave well in a WAN-with-intermittent-connectivity context?

Cheers

Tim

Comment Re:Passwords (Score 1) 144

IME most kerberos servers store the database key in what they term a "stash file". That's current practise too.

Unless you need the level of security that you have to go upto the console and present a key when the system reboots or the KDC service restarts, there isn't any other way. Essentially, for most real world systems, the kerberos primary and slaves need to be regarded as machines to be kept highly secure or it's game over.

Is AD any different?

Comment Re:Just the tanks? (Score 1) 114

You mean like garage forecourt (petrol station) tanks that are invariably underground?

Those are usually a sealed tank with filling and vent pipes above ground. Now, as the filling pipes are capped when not in use, only the vent pipes would be at risk from flooding - and those can be taken up as many storeys as required and vented to the open air (away from windows and aircon intakes obviously).

The pumps could be located above the flood zone feeding generators also above the floodzone.

Comment Re:Maybe they like it that way? (Score 1) 138

Don't you think it's more likely that requiring plumbing be done by expensive card carrying professionals will actually cause more leaks not to be fixed as the householder will now have to pay, what, $50-$100 for a plumber to come and fix that dripping tap or overflowing toilet cistern vs a few dollars in parts to do it themselves?

Besides, how many DIY plumbers would actually leave a leaking joint in place?

Comment Re:Maybe they like it that way? (Score 1) 138

Knowing about how Australia likes to regulate home electrical work and even plumbing (I'm talking water, not gas here) I would say the average Australian is either very much asleep or very much likes being cared for by Nanny.

Not quite what I would expect from the children of pioneering emigrants looking to forge a new life...

I rest my case...

Comment Re:Maybe they like it that way? (Score 1) 138

Do you mean you have no problem with there being "regulations" (eg IEE/IET wiring regs for the UK, NEC for the USA, VDE etc)?

Or are you saying you approve of running plumbing and wiring as a closed shop, artisan style?

The former is necessary - but I have not problems making my wiring IEE 17th compliant. OTOH I detest closed shop practices and I'm surprised and slightly disappointed the Australians put up with it.

In which case I can see how they might like Nanny watching "the Internet" to keep the bad men away...

Comment Re:Maybe they like it that way? (Score 1) 138

I do not think DIY should be regulated beyond requiring that the person doing the work "is competent" (which is what the laws pertaining to UK gas plumbing state[1])

England and Wales went through this in 2005 with the introduction of "Part P" of the Building Regulations. Basically anyone doing electrical work that is notifiable (most major work) must either be registered or must report the work to the Building Control dept of the local council for a fee. The councils generally don;t know how to handle this so mostly just get an electrician in afterwards to perform a full system test for another fee making, say adding a new circuit cost around £200-300 in fees alone.

Prior to the introduction of Part P the government's own stats for England and Wales stated there were around 5 deaths per year from fixed electrical wiring. It notes a further 25 possible deaths due to fires where the fire was due to an electrical source of ignition but that does not break down into fixed wiring vs appliances and extension leads. Most informed sources estimate the number of deaths from fixed wiring directly or by resulting fire to be around 10 per year.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CFsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stockport.gov.uk%2F2013%2F2994%2Fdevelopmentcontrol%2F14406%2F41351%2Fpartpelectricalsafety&ei=QvU1UJaYHe210QW8mIDoBQ&usg=AFQjCNGZgEjqrIWPIGTCIWqii5Metf20jw&sig2=2aV0bfyQw0v8RUIUotcsTg

The number of deaths on the road in the GB was 1901 in 2011. Scale that back a bit to remove Scotland.

Do I think limiting who can do electrical work is a waste of resources? Yes I do. The resources would be far better spend on road safety.

To require being a member of an accredited institution to do water plumbing (with the possible exception of sealed heating systems) is even more laughable.

There is a difference between regulation and limiting electrical and plumbing work to members of a closed shop artisan/union style which seems to be the case in Australia and becoming the case in the UK.

[1] I am legally allowed to do my own gas work in England, provided it is "not for hire or reward".

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