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Slashback: Aptitude, Consolation, Security 154

Posted by timothy from the yes-I'm-fine-really dept.
A handful of updates and new nuggets await you below, on everything from Iraqi PlayStation purchases to package manager news of the week, in tonight's release of Slashback.

apt-get install common.sense According to this message from Pixel in the apt-rpm mailing list, Linux-Mandrake is the second RPM-based distro to use APT, after Conectiva's own distro. So, despite the existance of non-free similar products recently covered in /., APT is gaining acceptance to be the unified package manager front-end for Linux.

Can your parents install Debian?

Now there's some smidgeon of Justice for ya Foggy Tristan writes "

According to Wired news story, Uzi Nissan has won a battle, but not the war, against Nissan in a domain name dispute over nissan.com.

For now, however, Uzi Nissan must display a prominent banner on his site that tells people he has nothing to do with the car company and where people can find Nissan.

" You knew this was going to happen ... RobM9999 writes: "The BugTraq mailing list over at SecurityFocus is reporting what appears to be the first vulnerability in the NSA's Security-Enhanced Linux that was originally written about here. The original post to the BugTraq mailing list is here."

What would have been more surprising is if no security bugs were found when a project like this has its source opened to the world. Best to get that laundy clean, eh?

Could be they're just serious gamers tech81 writes "Here's an article on MSNBC that has an update to this story previously posted on Slashdot concerning Iraq possibly buying and stockpiling PS2's for military purposes. Looks like they weren't able to get an PS2's, so they grabbed the originals. . ."

So that's why the bidding on eBay went so high, eh?

Read 'em and weep The next part of our continuing reprint of Jon Katz' Hellmouth series is up.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: aptitude, consolation More

Slashback: aptitude, consolation

Comments Filter:
  • Mandrake Cooker (rpmfind link here) [rpmfind.net] tends to be right on top of all the latest software releases. They usually have an RPM within a week of a new release.

  • Re:Stupid question... (Score:3)

    by The Troll Catcher ( 220464 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:42PM (#532652)
    Both of the other replies are wrong (Advanced Packaging Technology and Another Package Tool).

    But both got it half right.

    According to 'man apt', it's "Advanced Package Tool".

  • The funniest line in the nissan story (Score:5)

    by morcheeba ( 260908 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:43PM (#532653) Journal
    "We registered nissancomputer.com and offered it to him for free," Schindler said. "But he has no interest in being Nissan Computer -- his real name -- because he wants to exploit the substantial confusion.... If Ui Nissan was using nissancomputer.com, there would not be a lawsuit."

    Ok, so Nissan Motor Co Ltd wants Nissan.Com, when it hasn't registered NissanMotorCoLtd.com and NissanMotor.com and NissanMotors.com isn't good enough? I think Uzi's got a good case.
  • > How do you know that someone else didn't spam on his behalf to discredit him.

    This is called a "Joe Job", and yes, it happens from time to time.

    Unfortunately, Uzi's spams come direct-to-MX from IP addresses and domains owned and operated by him (I've received copies of it myself), and the headers I got match the ones that have been posted to news.admin.net-abuse.* recently.

    That's conclusive proof that it's him behind the spams.

  • Why dont you read a fucking book

    A book such as "Nineteen eighty-four", by George Orwell would be highly elucidative for the case in point.
    --

  • The thing to remember about newbies is that everyone who uses Linux at some point was a newbie. You don't sit down, and all of a sudden are an expert at it.
    BigCat79
  • Like the above would involve any combination of intelligence and skill and not, as it turns out in real life, of selective patience applied to intolerably monotonous tasks and a huge amount of time to waste waiting for things to compile.
    --
  • cuba is not a dictatorship? And I suppose you belive joseph stalin was a humanitarian?

  • Re:The Iraq embargo is ridiculous (Score:3)

    by Throw Away Account ( 240185 ) on Thursday January 04, 2001 @08:04AM (#532659)
    Er, no. We just sold him arms when he was fighting Iran in the late Eighties. He seized power quite well on his own, and the Soviets provided him with arms and military advisors for his first fifteen years or so.
  • A little while ago I wrote for a slash based site about politics and social issues called www.wehavenoproduct.com. It was taken down due mainly to lack of interest. I liked it. Check www.slashcode.com for new slashsites.
  • as a user, i think i may have found a solution to the whole apt-get vs. rpm argument that has been boiling over for ever so long. this package management system could possibly change the world:

    *.tar.gz

    Oh, so just like Slackware [slackware.com] then?

    installpkg foo.tgz

    --

  • The lameness filter criteria need to be open sourced so we can prevent this kind of hoo-ha.

    Bingo Foo

    ---

  • Re:APT (Score:3)

    by DennisZeMenace ( 131127 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:48PM (#532663) Homepage
    > And the first person to bitch about GUI vs. Console get's slapped with a trout.

    Slapped with a talking Boogie Bass, actually.

  • I heard a piece on NPR this morning about the art galleries and sculpture, etc. flourishing in Baghdad since the embargo. Maybe they just want to start their own 3L337 D3M0 scene as well.

    Bingo Foo

    ---

  • Re:Playstation article (Score:5)

    by cpeterso ( 19082 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:53PM (#532665) Homepage
    People would assume from that article that Sadam could take a Gameboy, put the right cartridge in it and fly to the moon.


    He could if was playing Lunar Lander [serve.com] on his Gameboy!!

  • What I'd really like to know is what the hell Iraq would have done with a bunch of PS2s - much less what they'll do with the PS1. The machine are designed specifically for graphics rendering. Everything they render is pre-built into them...oh wait - yeah - physics...so now we're getting somewhere. OK, they want to use the PlayStations for physics modeling...

    Both PS/1 and PS/2 are general purpose computers, albeit with less open architectures than a PC. Everything they render is most certainly not pre-built into them, although the video hardware has a lot of iron streamlined for turning 3D abstractions into 2D views which would be wasted if you're doing something else.

    The physics in these games is always coded by the game programmer in the general-purpose CPU, because it's different for every game. While we may laugh at these consoles being used to control military hardware, it's no sillier than many of the impromptu hardware hacks which are performed during any war -- especially if you have a couple of talented hacker types who are familiar with the hardware and software environment.

    While I think the whole embargo is silly, it seems possible that there is some specific project for which the Iraqis may have adapted this cheap and importable hardware. I am sure I've read of Linux being booted on the Dreamcast and think I remember seeing that it had been ported to PS/1; this indicates that the specs are out there for anyone who wants to use these as general purpose computing engines.

  • What I'd really like to know is what the hell Iraq would have done with a bunch of PS2s - much less what they'll do with the PS1. The machine are designed specifically for graphics rendering. [...] They can now use them to map the trajectory of their missiles! Of course, it all has to fit on a PlayStation disk...

    Not if you take it apart. The PS and PS2 hardware, like that of most other game consoles, can easily be adapted to other uses; see, for example, Linux on the Dreamcast. Now, whether the Iraqis have enough smarts to reverse-engineer the hardware and wire it up for their own purposes, I don't know--but just because these are game machines, don't assume they can't do anything except graphics.

    --
    BACKNEXTFINISHCANCEL

  • The real kicker is:

    Furthermore, both Greenstein and Mr. Nissan are now looking into a 1992 lawsuit in which the shoe was on the other foot. They both noted that Nissan Motors was the defendant in a trademark lawsuit when the automaker introduced the Altima line of cars and an identically-named computer firm claimed infringement. If the car company's defense in 1992 was that Altima as a computer product and Altima as a brand of cars do not overlap, the defendants in Nissan v. Nissan can make a simple argument: As with "Altima," so with "Nissan."

    Yet the court records on this trial are mysteriously sealed. IMO Nissan Motors totally shot themselves in the foot. Heh heh heh.

  • all the United States has succeeded in doing is punishing the Iraqi people it says it's trying to protect.

    Er, no, we aren't trying to protect the Iraqi people. We are trying to keep Saddam from building up enough forces to threaten the regional balance of power again by cutting off his money. It's old-fashioned balance-of-power politics, and its working exactly as intended.

    Now, admittedly, U.S. politicians have been spouting lots of moralistic rhetoric about it. Hussein spouted lots of moralistic rhetoric about the justice of his invasion of Kuwait. In both cases, the rhetoric not only has nothing to do with what's happening, but never did and never will.

    Frankly, we want Hussein to remain in charge of Iraq. If he falls, there's a good chance that the Kurds break off into their own country in the north, destabilizing our long-time ally Turkey. And there's a good chance the Shi'ite south also breaks off and becomes part of or an ally of Iran, putting the Iranians on the Kuwait border. Democracy is nice, but democracy in Iraq carries a severe risk to several long-term U.S. allies and to the economies of the democracies in North America, East Asia, and Europe.

    Instead, the embargo leaves Saddam with enough power to keep his country united and defend itself from invasion, while rendering it unable to invade neighbors. Which is exactly what the U.S., EU, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Israel want.
  • even ignoring different trademark laws in different countries, its not nearly as clear as you seem to think.

    Thank you for including the "seem". I know it's not that simple, legally. But once upon a time, before the corporations discovered it, the web was a place of peace and harmony, or at least people didn't feel a need to shit all over each other so much. Now it's exploited and it's becoming a wasteland of assholishness with occasional oases of beauty.

  • Hrm...so you convert all the images from the drone, using insanely computational means, in real time, into polygons...just to convert them back. We're talking insane amount of processing here. There's a reason why it's so hard to teach computers to see.

    Perhaps, slightly less completely and utterly insanely, they could simple put up a video monitor and broadcast a live video feed? You know...like we do?

    -David T. C.

  • The effect of the embargo on Saddam Hussein has been to INCREASE his power. If you stop and think about it, you'll realize why... Saddam already has the wealth, power and contacts necessary to procure basically whatever he wants on the black market. The effect is, if you're an Iraqi and you want access to imported goods - i.e., the Good Life - you will be beholden to Saddam Hussein. If you are part of the middle-class group that Saddam provides for, then what's good for Saddam is good for you.

    If there were no embargo, the Good Life incentive to keep Saddam in power would be at least diluted.

    At the very, very least, it should be quite clear that if you want to get rid of Saddam, then the sanctions method is, uh, not exactly producing sparkling results yet. In fact, the sanctions only make the ruling class stronger while punishing everyone else.

    So ask yourself this... the US is not ignorant of these facts. Why do they work so hard to keep the embargo in place?

    There is a reason... but if you think it's all the propaganda you rattled off in your post, you're not using your head. The answer is in plain sight.

  • Re:new and improved package management. (Score:3)

    by fluxrad ( 125130 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @08:05PM (#532673)
    no. i was thinking more along the lines of

    #tar -zxf foo.tar.gz
    #cd foo
    #configure
    ...
    #make
    ...
    #make install
    ...
    #echo Precompiled binaries are for the weak.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • OK, Cogent and AC both:

    The purpose of the sanctions is not to prevent Saddam from projecting power. If that were the case, things would be quite different. The purpose of the sanctions is to try to remove Saddam from power, and that is, indeed, what most people who swallow the propaganda believe as well.

    Of course, either way, the sanctions' effects on Saddam are beside the point, as that isn't where their true value lies. However, you're thinking on the right track!

    I don't have any links handy, but I'm sure if you do a little digging you'll find some wire service articles from the few weeks leading up to the invasion of Kuwait. These are very interesting reading. In order to put them into context and understand the story, it'll be necessary to have a basic understanding of the major geopolitical events in the region for the past 50 years - nothing too in-depth, a simple timeline will probably be enough... although it'll be good to know something about general US policies in the region as well, like what happened with the Shah in Iran (or, as a CIA employee put it to me in 1988, y'ever wonder WHY those people are so mad at us?). Put it all together, check out the articles, and ask yourself why the US might tacitly encourage Iraq to invade Kuwait...
  • I maintain a list of web sites [pineight.com] that use the infamous right-click trap[?] [everything2.com]. Nissan.com goes into the shitlist in the next site update.
    Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo [pineight.com].
  • No, the sanction is in place to ensure that Saddam stays in power. As a bully, the sanction has given him more ammunition to feed to his people. It's the evil West that is doing this to you.

    Washington knows this, and is just fine. If you begin too look at the amount of "architecting" that the US does in the Middle East, it's just downright creepy.

    Consider this possibility: look at the enormous advantage the states is given if they have a "rogue state" who's dictator is impossible to shake because of sanctions, but also as a result of the sanctions can for the most part be kept under control. Tbe US loses a lot of credibility and public approval rating for it's Middle East actions if it doesn't have a readily available enemy.

    And that's what Saddam is, and the US government knows that as long as the sanctions stay in place, so does he. How is a citizenry supposed to reject a leader when they are cut off from the outside world? They have no access to foreign media, and for the most part they live in squalour and poverty.

    Here's two more meme's for y'all: 1. Why doesn't the principle of mutual destruction apply to Saddam? (and don't answer because he's crazy).

    And 2. Why was it not ok for Iraq to take over othe countries, but it was ok for Israel to do it? (and don't answer with jewish conspiracy shit on that one either)

  • OK, you got me.

    perhaps I meant "percieved dictatorships"... or what is identified as "rogue states" (ie. any state that could threaten the major western powers)

    however, I would be interested in how one-party democracy works... is it that the voters choose representatives within the party? It surely can't be that there is only one option, can it?

  • APT is A language designed for programming numerically controlled machine tools. blade
  • I only registered so I did not have see his name. Now your popping it into the quickies.
    I'm not usually given to sudden rises in blood pressure but his name triggers some sort of flight or fight response which I can't respond to.

    So please, please no more quickies for Jon ;-)
  • I agree that the statements about the computers' power are misleading.

    One possibility that might not occur to a citizen of a democracy is that Iraq is an effective monarchy, and monarchs have to give good presents to keep their subordinates happy. Maybe it's really the face-value explanation.

  • If you write your Occam's Razor[?] [everything2.com] essay, please post it on Everything 2 [everything2.com].

    I'm looking for a few good [noders [everything2.com]]
    Tetris on drugs, NES music, and GNOME vs. KDE Bingo [pineight.com].
  • You have obviously not been following the sanctions very closely over the past several years... otherwise you'd note that the majority of the industrial world, and even other Arab states, do not actually agree with or help the US stance. They did at first, but that support eroded away years ago.

    In fact, if you do the research - and it's not difficult, as there isn't anything secret about it - you may be surprised to learn exactly what has been in the US interest, and how US interest has been managed, and how the US media reports it.

    And by the way, Saddam hasn't been removed from power in one way or another not because of any laws (it didn't stop us from removing Noriega, if you recall)... Saddam hasn't been removed from power because we have no reason to WANT Saddam removed from power. In fact, Saddam is doing a damn fine job just where he is. If Saddam does leave power and is replaced with someone more overtly friendly to the US, here's a clue: start worrying.
  • This a nearly perfectly incorrect assessment of the geopolitical reality surrounding Iraq, and is a fine example of how the mass-market US media completely fails to educate people.

    The real story is fascinating, man. Take some time to educate yourself. Start with this question: what was the United States' chief concern in the Gulf in 1989-1990? What were they worried about?
  • http://news.openflows.org looks like it will be an excellent political/activist slash site, once it's completely up and running

  • Didn't you read the AMD/Transmeta story? It won't be long at all before you can do an apt-get *insert favorite processor instruction set*.

  • Sure, Saddam is living the good life, and sure, his subjects aren't.

    But Saddam's quality of life isn't at stake, here. Nobody especially cares how many palaces he has or the size of his harem. The important point is that he lacks the capability to threaten other nations, since he's proven that he'll use that ability if given the chance.

  • ...what does APT stand for? Or is just a random series of letters posing as a TLA ;)?

    Yu Suzuki

  • I of course don't think what Iraq's leadership did was right, but in no way is the embargo doing what it's PR claims it's meant to.

    If you're really interested in reading up on this stuff, here's an interesting article written by Noam Chomsky. It's at the very least an interesting read for opposing opinions: http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9804-rogue.h tml [zmag.org]

  • I'm sorry that a dissenting opinion is considered flamebait.

    There is a very clear distinction between the identity of the American people and their government, and most people know it. Generally, people are aware that often their governments are acting without their knowledge, or their approval.

    And I know I'm not wrong. I know the majority of Americans don't want their government overthrowing democratically elected presidents in Chile, or imposing poverty on the people of Cuba, or essentially veto-ing the first real steps towards implementing the Kyoto protocol.

    Not many Americans really want these things, but at the same time, not many Americans are plugged into what is really happening. And it's not their fault, it's the fault of the leadership class.

    But I'll stop here, cause it's not like anyone's going to be reading this. But perhaps a plea to not use moderation as a means to keep political opinions from the eyes of slashdot readers. I don't think that's what it's for.

  • Re:APT (Score:1)

    by Ig0r ( 154739 )
    between the actual files and apt should go rpm (the program) and dpkg, which actually do the work on the packages.

    --
  • >I think Uzi's got a good case.

    Ordinarily, I sympathize with cases like his... that was until I found out Mr. Nissan was a punk spamming thief. [deja.com]

    In fact, he's been a spammer [deja.com] since late October.

    And just like a punk spamming thief, he lies [deja.com] about his spamming too.

    Fuck Uzi "scumbag" Nissan and the car he drove in on. I hope Nissanmotors.com's landsharks turn his site into a greasy yellow stain on his ISP's server room floor.

  • Somebody's an idiot here (Score:4)

    by El ( 94934 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @04:04PM (#532692)
    Military experts say PlayStations could provide the kind of sophisticated graphics for missile guidance systems, or remote control of pilotless drones for surveillance or bombing runs.

    I'm no military expert, but it seems to me that hardware optimized for converting data into 3D images (console games) is NOT the best harware to use for converting 3D images into models of the real world (optical recognition/computer vision systems mentioned above). What good is rapid pixel fill rates, texel rates, polygon rates etc. when you're not trying to generate pictures, but rather decompose pictures into atomic components, which is pretty much the reverse process. So either a) I'm an idiot. b) The "miltary experts" are idiots, or c) Jim Miklaszewski and the MSNBC editorial staff are idiots. Which is it?

  • For now, however, Uzi Nissan must display a prominent banner on his site that tells people he has nothing to do with the car company and where people can find Nissan.

    I approve of this, personally. Nissan's a trademark, and it was registered before the guy registered the domain name. It seems to make sense to have a link to Nissan motors. I mean, who knows who this Uzi guy is? As far as I'm concerned, Uzi Nissan indicates a drive-by shooting.

  • umm... i track sid (unstable) on 4 boxes (since mid-december) and # apt-get update&&apt-get upgrade obsessive/compulsively (at least once per day) and have yet to see anything break.

    definitely a degree of uncertainty though with the knowledge that any weirdness could be either fucked configuration or a broken package.
  • Last time I tried (and this was XFree83 3.something, not 4!) it gave me a scrolling list of monitor types. I even found my monitor last time, though earlier installs I had to pick "generic multisync monitor".

    Last time I looked the amazingly user-friendly Windoze also presented an identical list, but when I tried to pick my monitor it insisted I insert a disk which I did not have (I then picked generic and it worked).

  • Well, I too am no military expert, but I do know that the sort of thing you want to do if you are going to do simulations is finite element analysis. This comes down to lots of matrix math. 3D viewing also comes down to lots of matrix math. I suppose it would help a lot if you had an array of PS2 chips do run your simulation on to check whether the Lithium deuteride was receiving the proper dose of gamma rays and starting into fusion mode before the shock wave from the atomic explosion blows the thing to atoms.
  • Heh. And let's not forget "slipstreaming", the entertaining practice of providing updated code in DLLs and not changing the version number. We once had some code that wouldn't work on a user's machine because he hadn't installed the latest version of Excel, even though he had the right version of the DLLs. And of course the "improved" version was only a couple hundred bytes larger, so since Windows Explorer displays file sizes to the nearest K, they looked identical. Not that I'm frustrated and bitter, mind you...

  • Not content to have their parade rained on, the Iraqis systematically set fire to many of the oil fields in Kuwait. These require explosives to quench -- not a simple task.

    They used water to extinguish the fires, not explosives. There was a PBS special or something on it and the quote I remember was "throw enough water at ANY fire and it will eventually go out."

  • Yeah, I want to sit on my Pentium 75 and wait HOURS for things to compile.
  • In regards to some of the replies to this, I'd like to say that while the PS2 has the power to be an decent regular computer, it's not so much as other people have said. Its only general processor is a 128 bit 300 Mhz chip, all the coprocessors are meant for graphics (that's where the REALLY stuning visuals come from). It's also proprietary and was meant only for that machine. They'd be better off to grab some G4s instead - easier to use, more generalized, already has accompanying parts...

    Like Karma doesn't matter...
    Moderators: -1, nested, oldest first!
  • Wasn't it the U.S. that put Sadam in power to start with.
  • heh. actually, to compile things "correctly" takes a good deal of knowledge about the system you're working on and what features of the package you want to install.

    it comes down to this. a computer is a tool. i've often tried to reflect on why i feel a bit of disdain for products like MS Windows and MacOS. Or online services like AOL and the MSN. It's simply a matter of the laziness of the user. People are inherently lazy. they use products like the aformentioned because they don't want to know what makes their computer tick. they just want to get their little beige box on that internet they've heard so much about and look for porn, or how to make a fluffier quiche.

    that just doesn't cut it in my book. and i realize, the disdain i feel is for those people that are supporting these services because they don't have a ravenous desire to learn anything and everything they can. They don't care what is going on in their computer. And that usually translates into almost every facet of their lives. that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in my species.

    ok. anyway....end of rant. rpm and apt-get a poor utilities because they isolate the user from the machine that much more. It's the same as the GNOME vs. KDE argument. there are other, more intelligent and elegant choices, it's just that no one talks about them because they're not for the lazy (default install) people in this world.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • 2. Why was it not ok for Iraq to take over othe countries, but it was ok for Israel to do it?

    'cause the Palestinians don't sell the US any oil...

  • what were the profits for shell/texaco, exxon, chevron, bp/amaco last year?

  • Re:The Iraq embargo is ridiculous (Score:3)

    by dgoodman ( 51656 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @08:53PM (#532705) Homepage
    I DO want my government imposing strict protocols with regards to rogue nations. Embargos DO have an affect, and it is NOT just on the poor common people of those nations.

    Define for me please what a rogue nation is exactly. One that does not abide by U.S. desires? Technically, all nations are "rogue" in that they are all sovereign...rogue implies that there is some international government dictating thier actions. (The U.N. doesn't count, because it rules by consent: you don't /have/ to be a member).

    Iraq, lest you forget, invaded another sovereign nation with every intention of keeping it. Overwhelming force from a large coalition of nations forced them to abandon Kuwait. Not content to have their parade rained on, the Iraqis systematically set fire to many of the oil fields in Kuwait. These require explosives to quench -- not a simple task.

    But then, you also forget that Iraq didn't always used to be the "bad guys". Prior to the whole Kuwait thing, we had actually told (our close ally) Saddam Hussein that we (the U.S.) would look the other way when Iraq moved to retake the disputed territory that Kuwait held at the time. We told them to go ahead and take it. This was taken, however, by Saddam Hussein to mean we wouldn't care if he took /all/ of Kuwait...which was a mistake. If Hussein had bothered to notice that Bush's ranking in the opinion polls in the U.S. had been slipping, he might have forseen that his actions provided a convienent excuse for Bush to try to make himself look good...

    The only reason Hussein was ever vilified was because the Bush family was getting antsy about thier chances for re-election.

    We won't even go into the Bush family's ties with the Texas (vs. Iraqi) oil industry...

    Since Saddam was, unfortunately, not removed from power during the war, it is not unreasonable to assume he might be a little bitter. Imposing an embargo helps contain him and his ability to threaten other nations. No it isn't perfect, but it is certainly better than letting him freely buy any military hardware he needs.

    He wasn't removed from power because of treaties the U.S. is party to that prevent us from directly interfering with another /sovereign/ nation's government.

    Iraq has shown the capacity to use weapons of mass destruction (nuclear / biological / chemical), just ask some of their own people. Additionally, it has shown it has, and is willing to use missiles to attack other nations (Scuds on Israel during the Gulf War).

    Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Don't forget the U.S. is the only nation to have ever used atomics on another nation. Don't see any embargoes being put on us...because we won. These embargoes have nothing to do with Hussein or what he's done: they are not punishment; they are poltics. Cheap Oil. Texas versus OPEC. We are trying to force Iraq's oil prices down, at the expense of the civilian population.

    enough rambling. I await your repsonse. =)

    have fun
    dongoodman

  • dogs, sheep, cats, and knot holes in trees do not count!
    Then again neither does rosie ;)
    By the way what do you use to see.
    Your 5 cent hoe Mom told she had to use a microscope.
  • Some people enjoy mucking around with the internals of their system all day, but I just want mine to work with as little fuss as possible, so I can use it to get my work done.

    Amen. I really love linux, but the one thing I really miss from Windoze is not having to deal with all the library dependencies like I do under linux. Anyone who says the DLL hell under Windoze is worse is a few cards short of a deck.

    Now that the rant is out... I have a question. Does the RPM apt really solve all the dependency issues? I installed KDE2 recently, and there was two ways to go as far as I could tell.

    rpm -i --force or --nodeps every package

    uninstall every KDE 1.x package I had ,and anything that depended on them(like kpackage) and then install the new version.

    I ended up doing the latter. Would apt automate all of this? If so, would it auto-replace all of the packages that depended on the old packages it had to get rid of (like the aforementioned kpackage)? I'm doubtful (but hopeful ;-)

  • Military experts say PlayStations could provide the kind of sophisticated graphics for missile guidance systems, or remote control of pilotless drones for surveillance or bombing runs.

    A PS/PS2 could be used on the controller end to graphically view data sent back from missiles or pilotless drones in a 3D manner. They're not total idiots, but the true meaning is left to the reader.
  • I gotta say Slacks limited package management is a blessing and curse at the same time. While making RPMs can be a bitch, thought I never tried the perl scripts that automate the task, Its easy to do ./configure --profix=/foo/usr && make && make install && cd /foo && installpkg -m package-name. Althought I personally find myself never reusing binary packages I make myself because my SLKack boxes are modded to the point of being built from scratc and every time I upgrade Glibc or GCC I damn neafr recompile everything just to make sure everything is optimixed to hell. Well minus the kernel which has its own library and the like so I only do that with new GCC releases. Every once in a while though I like to check out pgcc. But then again I'm just a nutjob.

  • new and improved package management. (Score:5)

    by fluxrad ( 125130 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @04:34PM (#532710)
    as a user, i think i may have found a solution to the whole apt-get vs. rpm argument that has been boiling over for ever so long. this package management system could possibly change the world:

    *.tar.gz


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • So does this mean Mandrake uses Apt and RPM?
    becasue that would just kick A$$!!!!
    I tried 7.2, but my soundcard couldn't seem to be installed right, but I want to try a newer version and see if the problem cleared up, as it we probably something simple. Becasue I'm no Linux Guru (I still haven't figured out exactly what cat does and similar other commands, I'm just lost.)
    I just use it becasue its "Cool" and I enjoy tinkering with stuff, but don't have the most up to date computer equipment.
  • People would assume from that article that Sadam could take a Gameboy, put the right cartridge in it and fly to the moon

    I just.. don't see ANYONE on here being quite THAT stupid.

    (although, it would make for a nifty short story or comic book)

    Poor little no puppy toe!

  • NSA Linux bug (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Oh my god, a 1 byte buffer overflow!!! How devastating. To make it even worse its when reading a variable from /etc/security/default_type. So lets see.. to make an exploit all we need to do is get root and modify that /etc/security file, then figure out a way of forcing a root process to do something nasty when faced with a single byte of arbitrary data on the heap. It all sounds a little too easy...
  • I agree. The ports system takes all the hard work out of installing/removing programs. It seems that just about every program in ports is available for Linux.
  • The way you beat a bully is you knock him down, wait for him to stand up, knock him down again and keep at it till he stays down and cries uncle. That means you kick him out of kuwait and say don't do it again. You ever trained an animal? Same thing. If you beat a dog the day after he pees on the carpet, he forgets what it was for, and eventually will bite. ps. he never made a nuke. But its really easy to put an embargo on enriched uranium and atari 2600s without restricting food and medicine.
  • There are way more palistinians in Israeli occupied territory than there was in 1968. & in Israel proper.
  • tar -xvzf foo.i386.tar.gz
    ln -s /dir/to/foo /usr/local/bin/foo
  • The average news story always dumbs down to talk to the people. It is an insult to our collective intelligence, but it keeps us dumb, fat, and happy, ya know?

    Plus there may be security issues here, and they are forbidden from telling more. Then again, what more could they say? You can tell to what audience a given article is intended by the title.

    "Report on Gaming-Related US Exports to Foreign Countries in Violation of Operation Exodus"

    is intended for a different audience than

    "War Games" (snort! snort!)

    Puns, the lowest form of humor is all too often the device of choice for headline editors.

    Anyway, the customs dept may have to revise its guidelines contained in its Gemini literature contained here

    http://www.customs.gov/enforcem/gemini/pdf/gemin i. pdf#xml=http://search.atomz.com/search/pdfhelper.t k?sp-o=3,100000,0

    Someday I'm a gonna learn me how to make that there linky thing blue and clickable...
  • The problem isn't the the tarball, its the failure of standards. I'm not talking microsoftization, its simple things like proper versioning (DLL anyone?) and a fscking regular filesystem (excuse the pun).

    Does anyone remember what networking was like before TCP/IP gained acceptance. RFCs, open specs, and agreement between vendors.

    Sooner or later someone is going to have to #define constants

  • Professor: "We need to calculate this trajectory/cipher/matrix/3D model/statistic/weather pattern/communication pattern/DNA sequence. Can you do it?"

    Daemon: "Maybe. As long as the numbers aren't very big."

    Professor: "That shouldn't be a problem for this instance. "When can you have it done?"

    Daemon: "Well, um..."

    Professor: "Nevermind. What's critical is that you can process large amounts of data."

    Daemon: "I can serve up small amounts as fast as you can ask for them."

    Professor: "Moreover, it is vital that this information not fall into the wrong hands."

    Daemon: "You can count on me there."

    Professor: "Got any games?"

  • >I like the last recommendation, give him the domain but toss him in jail for spamming. :-) Then he could sell the domain to Nissan Motors to pay his attorney fees for the spamming charges. That would be poetic justice...

    Y'know, I gotta admit I like that recommendation too.

    In fairness to the scumbag, the right solution (and this meets the criterion) would separate the fact that he's spamming from the otherwise-valid issue he has with him being the guy with first claim to Nissan.com.

    Like I said in the original post - if he hadn't spammed to promote his cause, I'd likely be a hell of a lot more sympathetic to his cause. Rule #3 - spammers are stupid. Sucks to be him.

    I say he should retain the rights to the domain, but lose all IP connectivity under the terms of his AUP (which he's no doubt violated). If he wants to set up his web site with a new provider, and subsequently not spam for it, I'll cease to have a beef with him. Hell, Spamford Wallace went straight after a few years, why can't Uzi Nissan after a few months? What matters is that he stops spamming, not why he stops spamming.

    Of course, until he stops spamming... well, fuck him and the car (presumably not a Nissan) he rode in on, but I've already been there and got modded down for it ;-)

  • shouldn't that be tar.gz + reading the web page / README to determine what other crap you have to have installed before some trivial util you download will work? Most of us who use apt-get and rpm actually have a reason for doing so, because it includes dependancy information.

  • Can your parents install Debian? (Score:3)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 ) <qg@biodome.org> on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @10:10PM (#532730) Homepage Journal
    of course not. But they could give it a good go. Unfortunately they would be stuck on a command line because when the question comes up "What are the vrefresh and vsync rates for your monitor?" they would have no clue. Am I the only one who doesn't immediately scramble for the monitor manual on the first day that I buy a new monitor and write these numbers above the screen? WTF is with that?
  • Granted, I only tried cooker quite a while ago, but it seemed to me to be incredibly broken.

    As I recall, dependancies were often very innacurate, packages had not been completely compiled(as in they didn't have all the binaries/libraries the package should have), and three out of every ten moderately complex programs segfaulted.

    Now, that was quite a while ago :)

    Right now I'm using the bleeding edge version of Debian. Called Sid, standing for Still In Development, it's not suggested for casual users. It's not even suggested for enthusiastic users. It's only for people who are familiar with system recovery :) Even so, I've only had one major break since I've started running it. Lemme see if I can remember what broke ...

    Damn, can't remember. Something to do with KDE2, though, I'm pretty sure.

    Ah well :)

    Dave

    Barclay family motto:
    Aut agere aut mori.
    (Either action or death.)

  • Re:The Iraq embargo is ridiculous (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @05:55PM (#532735)
    I DO want my government imposing strict protocols with regards to rogue nations. Embargos DO have an affect, and it is NOT just on the poor common people of those nations.

    Iraq, lest you forget, invaded another sovereign nation with every intention of keeping it. Overwhelming force from a large coalition of nations forced them to abandon Kuwait. Not content to have their parade rained on, the Iraqis systematically set fire to many of the oil fields in Kuwait. These require explosives to quench -- not a simple task.

    Iraq has shown the capacity to use weapons of mass destruction (nuclear / biological / chemical), just ask some of their own people. Additionally, it has shown it has, and is willing to use missiles to attack other nations (Scuds on Israel during the Gulf War).

    Since Saddam was, unfortunately, not removed from power during the war, it is not unreasonable to assume he might be a little bitter. Imposing an embargo helps contain him and his ability to threaten other nations. No it isn't perfect, but it is certainly better than letting him freely buy any military hardware he needs.

    One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the Iraqi people are starving -- the oil for food program doesn't work. On closer examination you'll find that Iraq is rarely selling up to its capacity under this program because Saddam refuses to rebuild / upgrade / maintain his oil refineries. He would rather redirect this money to his elite forces. So don't you dare accuse Americans of "starving poor Iraqis". Their own government got them into this situation and keeps them in it.

    Don't get me wrong - in no way am I condoning the actions of loose cannons like Oliver North or other corrupt individuals who were in power positions in the U.S. Criminals should be punished. But you are trying to make an embargo sound criminal, when in fact it IS the punishment. Don't confuse the two.

  • Those people who moderated posts up must be in the majority. It probably wasn't obvious to them, because they modded it up. Since they're a good crossection of the majority, that probably means that the majority doesn't think it's obvious, and it then became worth saying :)

    Dave

    P.S.: I don't mind constructive critisism - no need to post anonymously when replying to one of my posts.

    Barclay family motto:
    Aut agere aut mori.
    (Either action or death.)

  • Actually, that looks a lot like the BSD ports system. Except with BSD ports all you do is something like this:

    cd /usr/ports/category/program
    make install

    The fetch/extract/configure/build is all handled automatically.

  • selinux bug already fixed (Score:3)

    by Barbarian ( 9467 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @10:46PM (#532749)
    That SELINUX bug is already fixed ... go to http://www.nsa.gov/selinux, go to download page, and there's new stuff...

    Off the mailing list:

    Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 17:28:48 -0500 (EST)
    From: pal@epoch.ncsc.mil (Pete Loscocco)
    To: selinux@tycho.ncsc.mil
    Subject: Updated release
    Sender: owner-selinux@tycho.nsa.gov

    An updated release of Security-enhanced Linux that corrects some of the minor problems in the original release has been posted on the NSA web site (www.nsa.gov/selinux).

    Changes include:

    - moving the numbers of the new system calls to avoid conflicts
    - fixing the buffer overflow problem discovered in the find_default_type function in libsecure
    - removed extra ';' in policy grammar
    - minor adjustments in kernel/flask/Makefile

    ...
  • Hey, so if someone wants to take a domain name from you, all they have to do is spam for your site and then you're hitler? How do you know that someone else didn't spam on his behalf to discredit him.
  • that's right.. god forbid. I want to install it now. I don't want to spend three days doing it. Why is that so hard to comprehend?

  • Why ACs don't run SecurityFocus (Score:3)

    by srichman ( 231122 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @05:10PM (#532756)
    Oh my god, a 1 byte buffer overflow!!! How devastating.

    "Buffers can be overflowed, and by overwriting critical data stored in the target process's address space, we can modify its execution flow. This is old news. This article is not much about how to exploit buffer overflows, nor does it explain the vulnerability itself. It just demonstrates it is possible to exploit such a vulnerability even under the worst conditions, like when the target buffer can only be overflowed by one byte."

    -- first four sentences of The Frame Pointer Overwrite [infonexus.com], Phrack 55

    So lets see.. to make an exploit all we need to do is get root and modify that /etc/security file...

    You don't need to write the file. In theory, if you can read that byte, you know the know the incorrect address at which code will be executed. When the program that you're exploiting takes input from you, give it input that puts the code you want executed in the location in the buffer that will be jumped to.

    So, no, it's not trivially exploitable. But, no, it's probably not something to be summarily ignored.

  • Re:On package management (Score:4)

    by Raleel ( 30913 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @05:11PM (#532757)
    Mandrake is very up to date, as said above, but another thing that should be noted is that apt-rpm has the ability to only install packages that are signed. this should cut down in the bad quality issue substiantially.

  • Re:On package management (Score:3)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @05:21PM (#532758)
    Mandrake is up-to-date in Cooker. Would they release Cooker? Will Cooker eventually be on CD as Mandrake 8 or somesuch? That's the question.

    The entire point of 'apt' is two things:

    1) Easy installation of package x.
    2) Easy upgrade of package x to the latest version.

    In order for the easy installation of package x, it has to be available in a place where 'apt' can find it. You mentioned that you'll only be able to download packages that are signed? Does that mean Mandrake will devote 3-4 developers, full time, to package all the various 10000+ utilities/applications/etc that are available for Linux? That's where my doubts lie. Debian's package maintainers do have the time an efforts - there are hundreds of them, all working on their own little packages. So, sure, if you can only download signed packages the quality can have some guarantee, but that's only if the package you want is available from a certified source(like your distribution maker's computers). But as soon as they don't have something packaged, all that guarantee goes out the window. If it was there in the first place.

    As far as easy upgrades, it doesn't matter that Mandrake has Cooker. Ever tried to get a Cooker RPM to work on a regularily installed Mandrake 7.1 distribution? Never went well for me. So not only do they have to have it packaged, but it has to be packaged for all the various versions of their distributions.

    A lot of work.

    Dave

    Barclay family motto:
    Aut agere aut mori.
    (Either action or death.)
  • Thanks, you hit the nail on the head with that one :)

    And Eazel will eventually be charging for their services, keep in mind. Of course you're willing to pay, so that's all right :) I'd rather contribute my fair share of effort than pay. Feels better that way :)

    Dave

    Barclay family motto:
    Aut agere aut mori.
    (Either action or death.)
  • Guilty myself as well. Tsk, tsk. Here it is:

    Hellmouth Part 7 [slashdot.org]

  • Regardless of whether this guy is a scumbag or not, if he loses this case, it could set a precedent that will harm many non-scumbags as well. I have to hope he wins... then gets tossed in jail for 2 years for spamming ;)

  • I've been using Debian for too long. Somebody told me to get a life, so in my infinite* wisdom, I tried the following:

    apt-get install life

    and then it told me that it couldn't find one. So I thought that any life could do, so I tried:

    apt-get install .*life

    and it gave me two options (calife and xlife). I couldn't decide what kind of life I wanted, so I just forgot about it. It's too hard to get this life. (Oh wait. Maybe they meant like a LIFE not as in a program called 'life'). Hmm. Odd.

    * Infinite = limited.
    ----
  • There must be an Iraqi moderator on the loose tonight...

  • On package management (Score:5)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:16PM (#532769)
    Just a bit of background:

    Four/five years ago I installed Linux on a *huge* 730MB hard drive(yeah, nifty, eh? ;). Well, that's a lie. I got to the "fdisk" part of the install, and promptly lost 230M that I never got back :)

    A year or two ago, I installed Caldera 1.3. Then I installed Caldera 2.2. Then I installed RedHat version 5.2, then Mandrake 6.2, then Red Hat 6.2, and now Debian. In each case, I had the distribution installed for a minimum of a month or two.

    So, while I'm no guru, I have used a reasonable number of Linux distributions(and I'm not counting the dozens of "mini-distributions" that I've tried out and tweaked[plug: ramf, available at ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/recovery , is my current favorite]).

    Anyways, you can add all the automation to package management you want, but it all comes down the the package maintainers. Generally, when you're using Debian packages made by Debian maintainers, a certain quality can be expected. Packages will be dependant on what they need - and they will suggest packages that allow for full functionality. You can be reasonably sure that you'll get a man page for most commands, even if it's a simple "please refer to online documentation available at: http://www.foobar.com/foo/bar.html".

    So, while I'm glad that other distributions are adopting 'apt', and the ability to automatically install packages and automatically update ones available, it will all come down to maintainer commitment. Commitment to quality, commitment of time. Red Hat, Mandrake, and friends usually don't update packages after a distribution has released. Sure, if there's a security bug found, they'll release an update, but that's pretty much it. I was never able to go to Red Hat's site and download the latest set of GNOME packages for my Red Hat 6.2 install.

    However, when you run the Debian 'testing' or 'unstable' distributions(neither are as bad as their names suggest), when a new app is released, it'll generally be packaged and available through regular Debian mirrors within a few weeks. The Debian 'stable' distribution is targetted at a different audience, and is updated much less frequently.

    Ok, so, enough of this. My point is that unless these distribution makers are willing to invest considerable time and money in keeping their packages up-to-date and well done, then 'apt' is probably just overkill.

    Dave

    Barclay family motto:
    Aut agere aut mori.
    (Either action or death.)
  • The article say there are no export controls on toys. Anyone know the details on this law? Just seems kinda strange. Does this include software?

    Maybe a couple years ago before the relaxed controls on encryption a PGP game should have been marketed.

    Jason

  • apt-get (Score:5)

    by XoXus ( 12014 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:21PM (#532772)
    apt-get install common.sense

    Well, I'm still waiting for

    apt-get install athlon-1GHz

    Hmmm... doesn't seem to work - Must be a bug. I'll see what I can do... look out for my patch (any day now...)
  • I have seen people buy other such stories on slashdot (some that didn't even have real articles ;) ).
    I am more woried about soccer moms and deadbeat dads that vote than the geeky slashdot users (some or most of which are to young to vote or maybe just too apathetic... or... all of that could just be my view of things...)

    I think it would make an interesting game... maybe a quake mod.

  • Stockpiling the PS2 (Score:3)

    by durstann ( 215048 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @06:39PM (#532783) Homepage
    As a friend of mine pointed out, the funniest thing about the U.S. government wanting to put export control on PS2s, is that the machine is Japanese.

  • Playstation article (Score:4)

    by tolldog ( 1571 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:30PM (#532787) Homepage Journal
    I found the article to be poorly worded. The author, I assume, intended to express that the PS2 is more powerfull than many home computers, not the Playstation.
    Also, telling people that a Gameboy has more computing ability than all of what sent the Astronauts to the moon is a bad example. It is apples and oranges.
    People would assume from that article that Sadam could take a Gameboy, put the right cartridge in it and fly to the moon.

  • The Iraq embargo is ridiculous (Score:4)

    by influensa ( 267570 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2001 @03:30PM (#532788) Homepage
    And for that matter, counter-productive. By cutting Iraq (or any country run by a dictator for that matter, including Cuba) out of the global economic loop, all the United States has succeeded in doing is punishing the Iraqi people it says it's trying to protect.

    Hussein does not suffer due to lack of food, medicine, or a real economy. In fact, embargoes like this only serve to make the dictator stronger. It's very easy to point a finger of blame at the US for all of Iraq's problems. Creating an embargo weakens the public and allows the dictator to villify the developed nations (read USA), further securing his base of power.

    If free-trade is supposed to lead to the democratization of the whole world, then what's wrong with Iraq?

  • Apt Apt, a. F. apte, L. aptus, fr. obsolete apere to fasten, to join, to fit, akin to apisci to reach, attain: cf. Gr. ? to fasten, Skr. =apta fit, fr. =ap to reach attain.
    1. Fit or fitted; suited; suitable; appropriate.

    - - - - -
  • Are you serious? The Communist party is the only legal party. Castro is president for life. So they held local elections...big deal. There were local elections in the Soviet Union, too. Check out the Amnesty International annual report on Cuba [amnesty.org]
  • > but in no way is the embargo doing what it's PR claims it's meant to. [mumble mumble Noam Chomsky mumble mumble]

    Waaaaaaaaitaminit, dude, just you don't get off that easy. When Saddam invaded Kuwait and Bush Sr. said "Hey, let's blow this fux0r off the map", weren't you humanitarian/peacenik types saying "no blood for oil, sanctions are the way to handle this"?

    When it was a choice between bombing and sanctions, sanctions were great. Now that bombing him is off the table, it's a choice between sanctions (and what, a stern rebuke from his High School teacher?) and something less than sanctions, you presumably favor something less than sanctions?

    This guy is building nukes fer chrissakes, and he may be crazy enough to use 'em.

    Indeed, the only reason I'm saying "may" instead of "is" is because he didn't use chemical weapons when he lobbed a pile of Scuds at Israel and Saudi Arabia, and while he's quite content nerve-gas his own citizens, he knew the Israelis, Americans, and Saudis wouldn't take that kinda shit.

    (And for all I know, the reason he didn't go chemo is because his chemo warheads wouldn't have given him range with the Scuds, and he *couldn't*, rather than *wisely chose not to*, go chemo.)

    Ender's Game taught me everything I need to know about dealing with bullies. (And anyone who's "strong" enough to nerve gas his own citizens when there's no fear of retaliation, but won't nerve-gas his enemies in war is just that - a bully, albeit a smart one). You don't just beat them, you beat the hell out of them (which we chose not to do in 1991), and you make sure they can never do it again.

    Remember, the purpose of sanctions is not "to help the Iraqi people". It's to make sure Saddam cannot develop WMD capability. I'm not saying it's working as well as it should, and in an age where anyone with an antistatic bag can shove an Athlon up their ass (I'd like to see 'em try it with a motherboard :-) and walk across the border, I'm not even saying it can work in terms of denying him access to technology. But unless you've got something better in mind...

  • i think you boys forgot something.... (Score:3)

    by happystink ( 204158 ) on Thursday January 04, 2001 @06:34AM (#532799)
    Uh, where is the discussion of the Apple suing Freetype magic missing link? If you're going to have a Slashback, for god's sake actually discuss the biggest screwup of the week. It's the story which generated the most discussion of slashdot already.

    sig:

  • Re:Stupid question... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    APT stands for "APT's not a Packaging Tool"

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