yppiz - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Conspiracy? (Score 1) 521

by Bruce Perens on Thursday October 15, 2009 @10:17PM (#29765203) Attached to: Doubts Raised About Legal Soundness of GPL2

would ever in their right mind touch anything released under it.

They said that about GPL 2 as well. Now it's getting difficult to buy some kinds of devices without GPL code in them.

My experience with the Sony DHG-HDD250 has been educational. I have two of these DVRs. They have the Busybox license (I created busybox) in the user manual. The user is not permitted to set the time. It can only be set by TV-Guide-On-Screen's signal. I guess that setting the time would allow circumvention of some DRM information somewhere. I suspect they planned to send DRM info over the TV-Guide-On-Screen signal. Or they do.

So, when the digital TV cut-over happened, SONY had not updated the unit to get the digital TV-Guide-On-Screen signal. So, the unit was effectively a brick. You couldn't set the time, and there was no program guide.

Sony finally did an update, some weeks after the cut-over. But they were under no obligation to do so, as by then all the units were out of warranty. I'd spent about $1000 to buy the pair and for a while they were useless.

Next time I'm buying open hardware. And I am licensing new code under GPL3 and AGPL3.

Comment Re:Googles playbook (Score 1) 367

by yppiz on Monday January 12, 2009 @05:09PM (#26423061) Attached to: Companies Using MS Word "Out of Habit," Says Forrester

I switched from MS Office to OpenOffice, and then from OpenOffice to Google Docs.

I now use Google Docs for 99% of my word processing.

The main draw for me is that I can share docs with co-authors more easily via Google Docs than with email. Essentially, Google Docs is a Wiki with a decent editor GUI and sharing controls.

Comment Re:Converter coupons are already sold-out (Score 1) 589

by yppiz on Thursday January 08, 2009 @10:28PM (#26381267) Attached to: Obama Recommends Delay In Digital TV Switch

Same here. I applied in January and got a note that they had run out of funding, and would notify me if any existing coupons expired. I doubt I'm going to receive the coupons before the changeover.

Which is OK with me, but it's also likely that, if I have to go without TV for a while, I'm going to switch over ever more to Youtube and the internet. If there are a lot of other people like this, it's going to really reduce the audience for broadcast TV.

Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released 117

Posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, 2008 @12:20AM from the no-blobs-here dept.

chrb writes "With the recent discussion here on proprietary blobs in the Linux kernel, it's nice to see that today Sam Leffler has released the source for the Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer under the ISC license, which is both GPL and BSD compatible. The Atheros chipset is used in many laptops, so this is another important step towards running a completely free distribution."

Linux Kernel Booting On the iPhone 115

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday November 29, 2008 @09:15AM from the there's-no-iphone-in-team dept.

mhm was one of many readers to note that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone. "Planetbeing, one of the iPhone devteam members, has been working on porting Linux to the iPhone (along with a custom bootloader called OpeniBoot). Today they managed to boot the kernel! Video showing the boot process has been posted. Instructions and binaries are available on the project blog."

ACLU Creates Map of US "Constitution-Free Zone" 979

Posted by kdawson on Friday October 24, 2008 @03:42PM from the stay-well-inland dept.

trackpick points out a recent ACLU initiative to publicize a recent expansion of authority claimed by the Border Patrol to stop and search individuals up to 100 miles from any US border. They have created a map of what they call the US Constitution-Free Zone. "Using data provided by the US Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders. The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This 'Constitution-Free Zone' includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.'"

Patient "Roused From Coma" By a Magnetic Therapy 123

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 15, 2008 @01:36PM from the this-is-why-pole-reversal's-a-good-thing dept.

missb writes "Could the gentle currents from a fluctuating magnetic field be used to reverse the effects of traumatic brain injury? New Scientist reports on a patient in the US who was in a coma-like state, but can now speak very simple words after being given transcranial magnetic stimulation. This is the first time TMS has been used as a therapy to try and rouse a patient out of a coma."

Neal Stephenson Returns with "Anathem" 248

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 31, 2008 @05:45PM from the hoping-for-a-hit-not-a-miss dept.

Lev Grossman writes to tell us that Neal Stephenson, author of greats like Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, has another novel due for release in September. The catalogue copy gives us a small glimpse at what may be in store: "Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians--sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable 'saecular' world that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides that only these cloistered scholars have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his cohorts are summoned forth without warning into the Unknown."

Feds Have a High-Speed Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier 229

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 05, 2008 @08:32PM from the all-the-better-to-snoop-with dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An unnamed U.S. wireless carrier maintains an unfiltered, unmonitored DS-3 line from its internal network to a facility in Quantico, Virginia, according to Babak Pasdar, a computer security consultant who did work for the company in 2003. Customer voice calls, billing records, location information and data traffic are all allegedly exposed. A similar claim was leveled against Verizon Wireless in a 2006 lawsuit."

Jimmy Wales Faces Allegations of Corruption 289

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday March 05, 2008 @02:44PM from the he's-no-jimmy-james dept.

eldavojohn writes "The SFGate site has up an article noting that Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is facing allegations from multiple quarters accusing him of abusing his power. Several people apparently claim he used the foundation to pay for personal expenses, including reimbursement for a $1,300 dinner for four at a Florida steakhouse. Accusations have also been made indicating that he edited the Wikipedia entry of political commentator Rachel Marsden, a woman he was seeing, at her request. In the case of that allegation, Wales replied that 'I acted completely consistently with Wikipedia policy. I did the right thing: I passed along my work to date for other editors to deal with, and I recused myself from the case.'"

Journal SPAM: 5-Year-Old Boy Detained as US National Security Threat 1

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday January 09, 2008 @10:33PM

It's a case of a mistaken identity for a 5-year-old boy from Normandy Park. He had trouble boarding a plane because someone with the same name is wanted by the federal government. "When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dilling

Submission + - Nintendo Wii Fully Exploited

Submitted by Croakyvoice on Sunday December 30, 2007 @07:55AM

Croakyvoice writes: The 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress was the launchpad for the unveiling of the hacking of the Nintendo Wii via an exploit to allow homebrew to run in native Wii mode ( previously only Gamecube Homebrew was available on the Wii) which will allow access to the Wiimote, WiFi and SD Cart Slot. Tehskeen a Wii scene site has today posted an interview with the author of the exploit who has discussed the release to the public and linux amongst other things.

Submission + - Shareaza.com Turned Into A Scam Site (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by

Neglacio

on Monday December 24, 2007 @12:22PM

Neglacio writes: "The ex-official shareaza-site got stolen by scammers and are offering a bearshare clone with spyware, still claiming it's Shareaza. More info at http://torrentfreak.com/shareazacom-hijacked-and-turned-into-a-scam-site-071224/"

Submission + - Anonimizing browser built-into bittorrent client (deluge-torrent.org)

Submitted by

markybob

on Sunday December 23, 2007 @02:29AM

markybob writes: "An open-source bittorrent client, Deluge, now provides an internal, anonimizing browser to protect its users from overzealous ISPs. The client runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. From the site: "Everyone knows that it is common practice for ISPs to do their best to either block or throttle bittorrent users. We believe that this is wrong and unethical, as there are many legal uses for bittorrent. If an ISP is throttling or blocking bittorrent traffic, you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." Their forum has more info"

Flash Vulnerabilities Affect Thousands of Sites 214

Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 23, 2007 @01:26AM from the waves-of-shock dept.

An anonymous reader sends us to The Register for this security news. The problem is compounded by the fact that some of the most popular Web development tools for generating SWF produce files containing the recently disclosed vulnerabilities. "Researchers from Google have documented serious vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash content which leave thousands of websites susceptible to attacks that steal the personal details of visitors. A web search reveals more than 500,000 vulnerable applets on major corporate, government and media sites. Removing the vulnerable content will require combing through website directories for SWF files and then testing them one by one. Updates in the Adobe software that renders SWF files in browsers are also likely, but they probably wouldn't quell the threat completely... No patch in sight from Adobe, that's the price to pay for depending on proprietary solutions."

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