I saw recently that FreeBSD 8 was in BETA state. I ran 7-CURRENT for a while, because it had features I wanted to test (improvements to the OSS implementation mainly), so I thought I'd give it a try.

This time, rather than doing my usual source install, I tried a binary upgrade using freebsd-update. What a disaster. While the source upgrade procedure uses mergemaster to update configuration files, letting you just keep the new version of files you haven't modified, freebsd-update makes you merge them all by hand where there is a conflict. This wouldn't be a problem, except that all of the config files have a version line at the top, which conflicts between the two versions.

Inevitably, when manually handling the merge for a few dozen files, I missed an important bit so my first boot failed with an error complaining about the diff lines still being in the file. I fixed that, and rebooted.

My next boot failed because one of the startup scripts had replaced an if statement with a case. Unfortunately, this hadn't shown up as a conflict, so it had just taken the start of the case statement and the end of the if, giving nonsense. Fortunately, I was able to find the correct version in CVS and copy it out.

Next boot, my network interfaces weren't working. Actually, this was a problem I'd found earlier. When you update FreeBSD, you update the kernel, reboot, then update the userland (the new kernel is guaranteed to support the old userland, but the converse is not true). The em driver for Intel GigE cards complained that they both had invalid MAC addresses. Not a huge problem; it's a VM so I could just change the kind of virtual network card it was providing to the machine, but checking the bugs database I discovered that it's giving the same error for people with ThinkPads that actually do have this kind of hardware built in. Great.

Finally, my system decided to fail to boot with the error:

mounting /etc/fstab failed, startup aborted

Strange, I thought, I wonder which disk is failing to mount. A quick check in single-user mode showed that everything in fstab had mounted correctly. I eventually tracked this down to a bug in /etc/rc.d/mountcritlocal. This is not present in CVS, so it's probably introduced by the merge process. The value of $? (the exit value from the last command) is stored in $err, another command is run, and then there is supposed to be a switch statement branching on $err, which instead is branching on $?.

I've run betas, release candidates, and even the development branch of FreeBSD before, but 8-BETA2 is the first time I've ever had a FreeBSD install that feels like a beta. The merging done by freebsd-update seems completely broken; it prompted me for things it could have trivially done automatically, but failed to prompt me when it broke random system files. My system is now working again, but it's irritating to have to spend this much effort on an update.

Does anyone remember Frontier, a space trading game from the '90s? No, not that one, but a much lesser-known top-down game that only ran on Windows NT. It was released back in '95 and I found it a couple of years later when I was running NT 4 on my PC.

The game was incredibly addictive, but it was unfinished. The version I had was 0.5, and Altavista (this was a few years before Google) was unable to find a newer version. The gameplay owed a lot to games like Nethack. You started off in one solar system and then got to the next through a jump gate (analogous to descending to the next dungeon level). Over time, you'd upgrade your ship, with better shields and weapons, and progress further. Being a 0.5 release, there were a few things missing. The lack of sound was a shame, but the real killer was that there was no save system. You could play for an hour, then get hit by a stray nuclear warhead and have to start from the beginning. A game with so much potential, but it never went anywhere...

...or so I though. Over the weekend, some random googling turned up the author's web site and it turns out that he has recycled a lot of the ideas into a brand new game: Transcendence. This has a improved graphics, sound, and working savegames (nicely integrated into the game so they aren't a crutch). The story line is much expanded on Frontier (which was basically 'you are in space. Have fun') and the universe is much richer. Things I liked in the original, like the randomly-generated solar systems, the black market and the different possible gameplay styles are all still there, but now there is a rich backdrop and the player can choose to help the military, fight pirates, provide comet-grown food for expensive restaurants, or any combination.

There's one down side: It's still Windows-only, and I don't have a Windows machine anymore. Fortunately, it runs very well in WINE. I've playing it on the Mac in the free version of CrossOver Games that was released last year.

Oh, and if anyone's interested, you can still download Frontier 0.5. It does have one advantage over the newer game; the AI didn't have any sensible friendly-fire logic, so you could easily destroy (and loot) friendly space stations by getting one of the ships defending it to fire while docked. This was easy to do: just get the pirates to chase you there and when their stray shots hit the station all of the docked ships will launch firing. This works really well for the black market outpost, which is protected by very powerful ships and is full of fun technology to steal.

For a while now I have been maintaining a Google Calendar that keeps track of various FOSS release schedules. The currently monitored projects are:

• KDE
• Gnome
• Firefox
• Ubuntu
• openSUSE
• Fedora

Other projects that I don't follow as closely or don't have well-defined dates (End of November isn't specific enough, OpenOffice) may occasionally be added if I check (KOffice & OpenOffice have a few entries ATM). I update the calendar on the first Saturday of the month.

If there are other projects with a good schedule page that you would like to see tracked on this calendar, let me know.

So, a while back, I got my hands on a Wavemate Jupiter II. Vintage 1975, wire-wrap cardcage construction in a 4u rackmount case. Unfortunately, I am now moving, and don't have the space or time to hang onto this rather charming object.

I feel really bad throwing away a computer older than I am, so I'm looking for a good home for it. System includes the Jupiter II, the external dual 8 inch floppy drive, and a whole bunch of system schematics and documentation. Both pieces of hardware power up; but only one of the power supplies is good(the power supplies are interchangeable). It is heavy and probably a bit fragile, so local(Boston, MA area) pickup would be best.

If you are interested, leave a comment. If you know anybody who might be interested, have them leave a comment. If you aren't local; but are just that interested, we might be able to work some sort of shipping out, though it isn't my preference(a "no Nigerian princes who need my help to get US 20 Million out of the country" rule is naturally in effect).

It's been more than 30 years since I took a stats course. Any recommendations for a good, not overly dumbed-down intro stats book that uses R?

After enacting the most comprehensive legislation to date, regarding the controversial cow menace in Haryana, India, it is being reported that the one year milestone can claim more than 20,000 cows have been successfully removed from the streets. The legislation required a yearly registration of all animals within municipal limits, proof of diseaselessness, heavy fines for violators, and selling off of all captured animals, that were neither branded nor tokened, to the highest bidder.

In this part of the world, opinions regarding cows are complex and diverse. Positive viewpoints include seeing the cow as a symbol of motherhood and as a giver of life. In rural areas cows provide milk, pull carts, and even their dung can be put to use as a slow-burning cooking fuel. Negative viewpoints include traffic jams, scavenging through refuse and defecating everywhere, producing greenhouse gases like methane, and giving diseased milk (tuberculosis causes 300,000 deaths a year in India).

A new diet is being introduced, to cattle in Britain, that has been developed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their digestive process. The specific gas being reduced is Methane, which has over 20 times the heat trapping effect of carbon dioxide. Farmers participating in the trial have also reported a 15% higher milk yield.

Globally, livestock are the largest human related source of methane, producing about 80 million metric tons annually, 28% of total. Comparatively, wetlands are the largest natural related source of methane, producing about 144 million metric tons annually, 76% of total. Humans also emit methane as part of their digestive process, but the amount isn't notable. (Statistics derived from EPA.gov)

Over-the-air analog TV is free to be received, and is considered an appropriate method to disseminate news and entertainment to prisoners in order to keep them informed of current events, to keep peace within a very stressful and often violent environment, and to reward and encourage civilized behavior for the day when they are reintegrated into society.

But some prison officials are struggling with how to pay for the upgrade, brought on by the mandatory digital TV conversion, and others face additional legal hurdles that ban upgrades, because it was assumed there would always be free analog broadcasts available. Read more about - Why U.S. prisons want their digital television.

With the rising wave of abductions, as seen earlier on Slashdot's Idle section (our offtopic humor/meme/viral video/pictures section), Mexicans have marched (Saturday video) down Mexico City's main street to bring attention to just how serious they consider this issue, and to call upon President Felipe Calderon to carry out promises to crack down on crime.

Notable facts:

• For those able to afford $4000 USD, with an annual $2200 USD fee, they can have a microchip injected into their body, for use with an external 'panic button' device, that will alert authorities of their location via satellite.
• Between January and June of this year, Mexico has reported 194 kidnappings compared to 172 in Colombia, and 169 in Brazil, which for this time frame makes Mexico the new world leader in kidnappings.
• This protest was sparked in part because of a recent abduction of a 14 year old boy, Fernando Marti. Kidnapped on June 4th, by men dressed in Federal Agency of Investigations uniforms, and after negotiations of a ransom thought to be around $2 million, he was killed.

McCain and Biden have both been around a long time, and are known factors, and thus boring. So after watching too many speeches that were so vague that either side could have read them, I decided a Q&A between Obama and Palin could be very interesting.

Obama: What did you think of my acceptance speech, where I spoke of my vision for America based on my "belief that I am my brother's keeper"? (1)
Palin: I can't say that appeals to me, thinking of Americans living in 2 by 3 meter shacks, and living off only a dollar a day.

Palin: You are only 40 something, and the Junior Senator of Illinois, do you really think you have the experience to be President?
Obama: You too are only 40 something, and the Governor of Alaska, but do you really think a woman should even be considered for vice-president? (2)

Obama: I heard you're a NRA member, could you show me how to load a gun? Just kidding, I don't believe in the 2cd Amendment.
Palin: I read your voting record, could you tell me how you could possibly support infanticide? Just kidding, I couldn't even consider feticide. (3)

(1) Yes, Obama actually used that metaphor in his nomination acceptance speech, August 28th 2008.
(2) Obama didn't even have the courtesy to vet Hillary Clinton as a possible vice-president, ouch.
(3) Palin's 5th child, in the womb, was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome, but she kept him anyway.

I noticed a while ago that my spam filter was 100% accurate on all plain-text emails. Spammers are now forced to use obfuscation techniques like embedded images and HTML. It seems to me that this provides an easy way of totally eliminating spam:

1. Bounce anything that is not from a whitelisted sender and contains an non-plain-text MIME section.
2. Auto-whitelist anyone I send a mail to.

This means that anyone I email is free to send me whatever they want. Anyone can still contact me, but they are restricted to sending me plain text for the first email, until I reply to them.

Of course, spammers could start sending out messages saying 'I tried to send you some spam but your filter blocked it, please email me.' These will be caught in grey-traps for 8 hours, and by the end of the 8 hours there's a very good chance that the email will have been caught and the sender added to an RBL.

I'll probably try implementing this when I have time, but if anyone has time before me then please do and let me know how well it works.

While some may consider defending the integrity of our democratic vote to be a racist act, that label hasn't discouraged one 67 year old grandmother from speaking out and making a difference. Jane Balogh, in the Federal Way, Washington area, single-handedly began a campaign of letter writing and phone calls to elected officials, in order to bring attention to just how easy voter fraud has become.

As a result of her efforts, officials were able to identify and foil a single case of a dog registered to vote. An Australian shepherd-terrier mix to be exact, that had signed all required forms with his own paw print, and had gotten an absentee-ballot to mail in. To ensure that no good deed goes unpunished, grandma was charged $240 for court costs, sentenced to 10 hours of community-service, and at the courts urging, pay an attorney $1000 to represent her.

The article fails to mention if the dog was registered Democrat or Republican, so for those of you that require that information to determine if this voter fraud situation, was ethical or not, I'm sorry.

The IRS has announced the continuation of its very popular plan of tax exemptions for hybrid cars. Traditionally, poor people whom travel by walking, biking, or bus, have been unable to help the environment because they cannot afford a hybrid car with insurance, gas, and maintenance. But now, with help from the IRS, they will be able to subsidize those rich enough to afford hybrid cars. Tax breaks for the rich, and the poor can help save the environment, it's a win-win situation.

Low Voter Turn Out == Higher Quality
Get Out The Vote campaigns are disingenuous at best, and voter fraud at worst. In fact, countries should take pride in having a low voter turn out, because that means they have a more concentrated percentage of concerned citizens, that are doing the voting. Think of the quality difference of Slashdot stories on the firehose (all 100%) when compared to the choosen few on the frontpage (1%).
"Don't even get me started on the frickin' Firehose." - Captain Splendid

Coercion vs Choice
Countries with near 100% voter turn-out often have widespread ballot-stuffing (hollow appearance of choice), or use threats of violence (coerced choice) to maintain their hold on power, but in a free country you have free choice, and that includes choosing not to vote.
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." - Rush

Funny Exception To The Rule
Australia is an exception with their mandatory turn-out laws (not mandatory vote), which can be explained by the fact that they are down-under. It also explains why, when it's winter here, that it's summer down-under, and why their toilets drain water clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. (Corilis Effect) Not to mention they look kind of tough, so it's probably not wise telling them what to do.
"Where does an Aussie croc crash? Anywhere he wants to." - Mate

As I'm writing this, the front page has an Idle story about Mexicans getting chips implanted because abductions are up over 40%. Is this funny because many abductees are never seen again (the subject matter), or is it funny to /. editors because it's happening to Mexicans?

Earlier I submitted this story, of the National Federation of the Blind asking for help, along with an article about developing technical solutions, and along with an article about growing government involvement. But I see it just ended up rewritten by Samzenpus to be a joke in Slashdots new Idle section. (our offtopic humor/meme/viral video/pictures section)

Here is an example of something that is actually funny, without being racist or belittling the blind. Polish actors hired to stand in line for iPhones. It's not funny because of Poland, but because the subject matter is about a company that hired actors, to pretend to stand in line, in order to manufacture hype, for an already over-priced product. So, is this Slashdot:Idle section really a good idea?