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Slashback: Film, Solaris, Contention 215

Posted by timothy from the potlatch-is-the-way-to-eat dept.
Slashback with a load of updates for you tonight on modchips for Xbox, Nigerian spam-scams, missing Mozilla hackers, Guillaume Laurent on Murray on Guillaume Laurent, and more. Read on for the details.

Sun giveth and taketh away. axehind writes: "This ZDNet article tells us StarOffice will no longer be free. The decision completes the transition of the StarOffice suite back to being a paid product, as it was when Sun bought the software along with its maker, Germany's Star Division, in 1999. Sun says it will stop free downloads of StarOffice 5.2 at midnight on Wednesday night."

On the other hand, The Pi-Guy writes: "It has been confirmed by Sun that Solaris 9 will be on Intel platforms - you can get it for free on DVD here. Quite surprising considering that a few months ago they were saying 'No S9 at all on x86!'"

Update: 05/29 03:03 GMT by T : As several readers have noticed, the page no longer indicates Solaris 9 once you've chosen x86 as your platform of choice -- looks like a case of mistaken identity.

Strong opinions tend to draw answers. Guillaume Laurent writes "Given that Murray mentions me in his interview, and that I disagree with most of what he says, I felt the need to reply. Enjoy."

Six seems a tad low. supafly613 writes: "Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous 'Nigerian' e-mail and letter fraud. Four of those detained were Nigerian, one was Cameroonian and the sixth was South African. Police in South Africa believe that the six are part of an international fraud and drug-dealing cartel, sending out thousands of e-mail and letters in an attempt to defraud."

Lost in cyberspace ... Mindphunk writes "Six hackers remain to be found so that Mozilla can be relicensed under the LGPL and GPL as well as the MPL original license. This is really important if Mozilla is going to interoperate readily with all kinds of free software. Perhaps the power of Slashdot can find them in time for the 1.0 release?? The missing hackers are:

  • David Nebinger
  • 'Uncle George'
  • Sanjay Gupta
  • Makoto Kato
  • Thierry LeBouiland
  • Jiwei Wang"

This is a followup to our earlier mention of the missing hackers.

Still waiting for NetBSD :) llordsmiff writes: "According to this, the world's first Xtender Xbox modchip preorders were shipped today (24 May). There are installation pictures also. "It plays back all import and backups on all worldwide sold Xbox machines." It's also supposed to play any DVD, regardless of region."

Wonder if this will be 'content protected.' neema writes: "Just a bit of an update to an older post, but Revolution OS will apparently be released on DVD (region free) in September for 20 dollars. Trailer and first 8 minutes can be found here. I, for one, welcome the chance to see it."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: Film, Solaris, Contention More

Slashback: Film, Solaris, Contention

Comments Filter:
  • Heh, Cameroonian.
  • Four of those detained were Nigerian, one was Cameroonian

    I'm actually surprised that any of them were really Nigerian. I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

    • Re:Surprised (Score:2, Funny)

      by cscx ( 541332 )
      I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

      I'd keep a lookout for newly-opening sanitation companies opening in Nigeria. Also be suspicious of the 4 stocky Italian guys meeting outside the pork store.

    • Re:Surprised (Score:2, Informative)

      by Zurk ( 37028 )
      not only are they nigerians but they have authentic material including stamped and signed letters, P.O's, contracts and other stuff. check out the pictures and read thru the stories here :
      http://www.waronspam.com/cases/ibrahim/ibrahim. htm
      http://thespamletters.com/letter.php?spamID=1 01&so rtBy=da&start=0&search=Nigerian

    • Re:Surprised (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Zeinfeld ( 263942 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:24PM (#3599045) Homepage
      I'm actually surprised that any of them were really Nigerian. I would have expected the scam to be run by some guy named Tony living in New Jersey that had set up a psuedo-corporation in Nigeria.

      The info I got on the scam was that there is a definite Nigerian connection. A number of people duped in the scheme have gone off to meet people in Nigeria, some have disappeared entirely.

      Scams of that sort are much easier to conduct in a country where laws are not exactly diligently enforced so Nigeria would be a much more likely base than the US. Compared to the Nigerian mafia Tony Soprano is a real small time player, all he has is a garbage business and a strip joint, in Nigeria they run the country.

      • Sifting through the headers of the 419's I have received over the last several months:
        • one was from Nigeria
        • one from Belgium
        • five or so was from US, mostly East Coast and MidWest
        • Rest was from South Africa

        In the nigerian case I tried (with some success) to persuade the upstream ISP to act as per their AUP. In other words consider it as SPAM and disconnect them to hell and gone.

        In all SA, US and BE cases I have asked the ISP in question to try to both apply their AUP and contact the local law enforcement. To the extent of my knowledge the law was got involved only in one of the SA cases. The US law ISPs usually drop the ball in these cases.

        No wonder that the number of these SCAMs we all get in our mailbox steadily increases. If the ISPs were doing the right thing (TM) this would not have been a profitable business. Too high risk levels.

  • LGPL and GPL (Score:2, Interesting)

    by rootlocus ( 82271 )
    I dont understand how something can be licensed under both LGPL and GPL at the same time.. That seems like a contradiction.. Can someone explain it?.. TIA..

    • Re:LGPL and GPL (Score:4, Informative)

      by MisterBlister ( 539957 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:07PM (#3598940) Homepage
      By dual licencing under the LGPL and GPL (not to mention MPL) those who develop derivitive works can decide whether to use the LGPL, GPL or MPL for their project.

      So say I create an offshoot of Mozilla called Boozila, I can pick the LGPL license for this project, which means anyone who derives from my work must abide by the LGPL (or they can go use the original Mozilla source minus my changes and use GPL, or MPL..up to them!).

      In essence, it gives developers a bit of a choice over which licenses they want to support while using the codebase...They are free to choose GPL, LGPL or MPL.

      • Re:LGPL and GPL (Score:4, Interesting)

        by amccall ( 24406 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @09:04PM (#3599250) Homepage
        That sounds all well and good, but...

        ..doesn't the LGPL give the option of redistribution under the GPL? So, if you distribute your program under the LGPL, anyone can redistribute it under the terms of the GPL.

        Which is to say, by LGPL'ing your software, you are effectively dual licensing it with the GPL anyway(it's implied).

        So, what's the point?

        • Re:LGPL and GPL (Score:2, Informative)

          by Vanders ( 110092 )
          doesn't the LGPL give the option of redistribution under the GPL?

          No. No more than the GPL gives you the option to redistribute under the LGPL. If someone forked an LGPL project and changed it to the GPL, the original author would not be able to take the changes from the fork and fold them back into their own tree under the LGPL. Which is unfair, to say the least.
    • I dont understand how something can be licensed under both LGPL and GPL at the same time.. That seems like a contradiction.

      If I write a program, then I own the copyright on it. That is, I have the exclusive right to reproduce the program in any form. If you reproduce it, or even posess a copy, without the right to do so, then you are guilty of copyright infringement.

      If I want to, I can grant you a license to my copyrighted work. Maybe I would do this in exchange for money, sex, or just because I'm a nice guy.

      Closed source licenses (often EULA's) may require you to agree to certian terms in exchange for the grant of a license. In other words, I may not choose to grant you a license unless you (A) pay me, (B) promise not to decompile the program, (C) promise to run through the streets in your underwear screaming at 3 AM, etc.

      Once you are granted a license, you are entitled to a copy under the terms of that license. The license may or may not include the right to reproduce the program in either source or binary form.

      As the exclusive copyright owner, I can license the program to as many as I would like under whatever terms I would like. I can license you the right to have one copy of the program, and 3 backup copies. But I can license Joe the right to give his 25 closest friends copies, because I like him better. I could (probably in exchange for $$) license Microsoft to reproduce the program in binary form only as part of their closed source product. Finally, I could still turn around and license the program under the GPL. (A commercial vendor might rather pay for an alternative license rather than use the GPL.)

      Finally, back to your question. As the copyright holder, I can grant different licenses. In fact, if I am a really nice guy, I can put the program under several different open licenses. You choose which license you wish to agree to, and then you better abide by the terms of that license. Nothing, other than the grant of a license by the copyright owner, gives you any right whatsoever to the program! For instance, with the GPL, if you don't agree to it, then you are not granted a license, and nothing else gives you a right to the program, so you are guilty of copyright infringement.

      Other software, such as Open Office, for instance, is dual licensed. I'm sure others can point out even more dual licensed software. One or more public licenses do not prevent the copyright owner from also offering closed source licenses to other parties.

      Does that clarify things?

  • Solaris 9 (Score:4, Funny)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:04PM (#3598916) Homepage
    I've never tried Solaris (to my knowledge), but I'd love to. It's a good thing that I found the page where they give it away for free before it got posted on here on Slashdot. Now I might actually have a chance to get a copy ;). Thanks, [H]ardOCP [hardocp.com]!
    • Solaris is very powerful. Judging from the link [sun.com] they are only releasing Sol 8 for x86 and Sol 9 for Sparc.

      The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

      BTW, I don't think Sun has a chance of being "Slashdotted" any time soon. They sit on one of the biggest pipes in the country. And just think of the purple server boxes their web servers sit on... (drool...)
      • Never underestimate the power of a Slashdotting

      • Re:Solaris 9 (Score:2, Informative)

        by fsmunoz ( 267297 )
        The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

        CDE almost certainly. GNOME 2 is not yet ready and they probably need more integration to include it. Anyway, as with Solaris 8, the "Bonus Software" CD pack that comes with the OS (or OE, whatever :) ) includes a CD "Exploring GNOME" that installs an "unsupported evaluation" of GNOME. Pretty slick, installed it at work, ppl are using the Sun boxen much more hapilly now.
        BTW, that Bonus pack also includes the GNU utils, Emacs, even KDE. Also StarOffice (at least Solaris 8 did) and Netscape 6.

        Regards,

        fsmunoz
      • The downside is that is ships with CDE by default, which is an eyesore (it can be changed, provided you have root access). I wonder if Sol 9 is shipping with CDE or Gnome?

        I believe Solaris 9 is initially shipping with CDE, but Sun no longer supports CDE. Sun will ship with and support Gnome2.0 later this year.

        http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/gnome/events/i nd ex.html

        I use Solaris and Gnome1.4 at work, and MAN is Gnome slow. I'm really looking forward to 2.0 , which is supposedly faster in many areas.
        • I use Solaris and Gnome1.4 at work, and MAN is Gnome slow. I'm really looking forward to 2.0 , which is supposedly faster in many areas.



          Gee, is Gnome region-encoded too?

      • AFAIK, S9, at this point, has the same thing w.r.t. CDE GRIN>), off the top of my head.

        And no, there is currently noSolaris 9 for Intel. Again, believe me, I'd know if there were. :-)

      • Re:Solaris 9 (Score:3, Informative)

        by arivanov ( 12034 )
        Several corrections:

        Solaris has many pluses like scheduler optimised for threading, working POSIX realtime priorities, etc but it also has a slow filesystem that is technologically inferior to anything else out there. It is also fairly buggy and ridden with security holes. The buggy bit is especially valid for x86. Bugs are of all varieties: non-working multicast on half of the network adapters, crashes, memory leaks, you name it. Neither ACPI nor APM are supported either which means that it will not work properly on laptops and many desktop class new machines. The range of supported hardware is also very small compared to what you get working with BSD or Linux. So it depends what you want it for, but you better get a proper server class system with SCSI to run it on.

        Sun (the download section) got slashdotted to hell and gone when they released Soffice 5 for free for the first time.

        • Neither ACPI nor APM are supported either which means that it will not work properly on laptops and many desktop class new machines. The range of supported hardware is also very small compared to what you get working with BSD or Linux.

          I think this is because Sun is like Apple in a way... they release Solaris only with SPARC in mind. They don't have to give a shit about support on Wintel/Lintel boxes cause that's not their main target audience. I mean, why waste their time if 90% of Solaris installations are on Sun hardware?

  • Not really. You don't need much manpower to send spam, and the more people you have the more you have to split the profits.
    • that might not take many people.

      My mom (strangely) has gotten at least 2 handwritten, snail-mail letters in the Greater Nigerian Spam family. One of them referred to her as "The President." She found it pretty amusing ...

      Over the phone, it took me a while to comprehend that she didn't mean email spam ;)

      They must have more than 6 people copying those bizarrely worded letters ;)

      timothy

  • Solaris 9 really for intel? (Score:5, Informative)

    by pythas ( 75383 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:05PM (#3598922)
    Hmm. I looked at the sun link provided above, and it gives you 2 choices:

    Solaris 9 for Sparc
    Solaris 8 for Intel

    Are you sure they're releasing 9 for intel?
    • This is Slashdot...Just because something is mentioned in the article writeup doesn't mean anyone is sure of it.
    • Great catch.

      According to this page [sun.com] make reference to deferring and discontinuing Solaris for Intel...

      Who knows why they say "We no long offer Solaris on Intel" on one page, and "yes, I want a free copy" on another page.

      Developers: There is NO WAY IN HELL that we can develop or maintain Solaris Intel binaries. Not enought staff. We have enough work as it is! We should drop the whole projet.

      Marketing translation: Coming in Q4, Solaris on Intel!
  • Well, what can I say...Solaris and linux finally running on the same platform (Intel). I guess this is the moment of truth for the scrappy band of open source programmers.

    No longer will questions over Linux's bizarre VM and Solaris's baroque scheduler plague admins, keeping us always in the dark as to which OS is truly better.

    It's cool, but it's scary, especially for me, as a long-time Linux "junkie" and hacker (programmer, not the illegal kind!).

    I wonder who will be prompted into playing catch up...Linus and the Linux gang (you know who you are), Sun and its suits (we know who they are!), or both!!!!

    I can't wait.

    • Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Umm, Solaris has been running on i386 machines for years. And Linux was ported to the Sparc a while ago too. Head-to-head comparisons have been possible for a very long time. You just don't see many of them publicized on Slashdot for some reason.
    • Um.... Solaris has been available on Intel for quite a while now.

      Mind, it's not always been great (hence the nickname "Slowaris"), but it's been there.
    • umm, solaris and linux have ran on the same platforms for years. Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also, and linux runs on almost all sun hardware.
      • umm, solaris and linux have ran on the same platforms for years. Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also, and linux runs on almost all sun hardware.

        Well I personally ran Solaris 2.4 & 2.5 on x86 before I switched to Linux, and I think Solaris 2.3 was available on x86 as well.

        Then there was Solaris 2.6 before they jumped the version number to just '7'.

      • Re:Linux vs. Solaris: sink or swim (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Solaris 7 was released for x86, and i think a version prior to that was also

        Yes, there was. Nine years ago this month (May 1993), Solaris 2.1 for x86 was released. Interestingly, x86 support was apparently dropped after that and didn't reappear until Solaris 2.4.

        The releases of Solaris that have existed are 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7, 8, and (now) 9. Of these, 2.1, 2.4. 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7, and 8 have been available for Intel. 2.5.1 (and maybe 2.5?) was available for PowerPC as well. And Sun was the very first vendor to announce they had an operating system (that would be Solaris) running on an Itanium simulator. BTW, more Solaris version info can be found by going to google.com, typing in "Solaris FAQ", and hitting the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

        Also, as long as I'm clearing things up, Sun's statement about Solaris 9 and Intel availability was fairly ambiguous. Essentially, it said that when Solaris 9 was released, there wouldn't be a version for Intel. But Sun releases updates about every quarter, and it wasn't really said AFAIK that one of those wouldn't have Intel support. Probably it won't happen, but I'm just trying to say that "we will make the Intel version a lower priority and release it at our leisure" may be a valid interpretation of Sun's statements.

    • Umm. (Score:3, Informative)

      by mindstrm ( 20013 )
      Solaris has been running on the x86 since before linux existed.
    • Linux has been running on Sparc for years. Solaris has been available for Intel for years. Was this a joke?
  • Since I got it for free (legally) can I make copies and pass them out? I never did read the EULA.... but then again who really does?

  • For News Stories... (Score:5, Funny)

    by gvonk ( 107719 ) <slashdot@NOsPAm.garrettvonk.com> on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:06PM (#3598931) Homepage
    FROM THE DESK OF: MR. WORGEE G. SHUB
    Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
    United Political Parties of America,
    Contract Award Committee,
    Washington DC USA

    Dear Esteemed Nigerian Sir:

    I am the Chairman of the Contract Award committee and my committee is solely responsible for awarding and payment of contracts on behalf of the United Political Parties of America. My Committee has received payments from Enron, Microsoft, Walt Disney, and many other large American companies that we then disbursed in accordance with United States law to the intended politicians in return for government services rendered to The Corporations. We overshot the contracted sum by USD35 Million. We have paid the politicians and withholding the balance of Thirty-Five Million United States Dollars. Since the existing domestic laws forbid civil servants from opening, operating and maintaining foreign accounts, we do not have the expertise to transfer this balance of funds to a foreign account.

    Due to the salubrious investment and taxation climate in Nigeria, as outlined in FMF A26 Unit 3B paragraph "D" of the Auditor General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Report of NOV. 1999 about annual estimated petroleum revenues of 28billion US Dollars, and especially opportunities relateed to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha who died on 8th June 1998, which we have become aware of through various emails we have received from your countrymen about the supply of Agricultural Machines and spare parts to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, we have prepared to pay a commission to a worthy individual like yourself equal to 25% of the total sum transfered while 5% will be reserved for incidental expenses that both parties will incur in the course of actualizing this transaction and the balance of 70% will be kept for the Committee members.

    If you know you are capable of helping us actualize our life's dream, you should send to me immediately the details of your bank particulars or open a new account where we can transfer the money(US$35M)which you will hold in trust for us until we come over there for our own share.

    As soon as you open the account, send by e-mail to me immediately the details of the account viz: Name of bank, address, routing number, telex number, Account number, Tel and Fax number.You should also include the name of your company, your personal address, Tel and Fax numbers for further communication.

    Note that this transaction will be concluded within 10 working days from the day you give your consent.

    Sincerely yours,

    Worgee G. Shub
    Chairman of Disbursements,
    Corporate (Special) Trust Fund,
    United Political Parties of America,
    Contract Award Committee,
    Washington DC USA

    tel: 1-900-CON-4YOU

    NOTE THAT FOR THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF THIS TRANSACTION, WHEN YOU CALL ME THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS FOR YOU TO ASK ME WHAT IS THE CODE, AND MY RESPONSE WILL BE (055).IF I DO NOT TELL YOU (055) THEN KNOW YOU ARE NOT
    TALKING TO ME. DROP THE PHONE IMMEDIATELY AND CALL ME BACK TILL I GIVE YOU THE CODE WORD. THIS IS DUE TO JAMMING TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES IN YOUR COUNTRY AS A RESULT OF THE BOMB EXPLOSION IN A LAGOS MILITARY BASE.

    (Thanks to RobLimo)

  • Solaris 9 on x86? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jscott ( 11965 )
    It sure looks like it reads "Solaris 8 on Intel" to me.
  • The page [sun.com] says Solaris 8 on Intel and Solaris 9 for Sparc. Guess it was just wishful thinking.

    • Well, something funny going on - the site I went to (see.sun.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/mcp?q=STNdTTEqcdpGc)
      which says:

      Which version of the new Solaris 9 Operating Environment would you prefer?
      SPARC(TM) platform
      Intel

      But when I submitted the page I got this msg:

      The following required questions were left blank:
      * Which version of the Solaris Operating Environment would you prefer?

      Please fill out all of the required fields and re-submit.

      And of course it was *not* blank. And when I went back - i didn't have the option for Solaris 9 but then it was " Solaris 8 on Intel". Guess you gotta be quick...
  • It has been confirmed by Sun that Solaris 9 will be on Intel platforms - you can get it for free on DVD.

    If you follow the link, you will notice that Sun is giving away Solaris 9 on the SPARC(TM) platform and Solaris 8 on Intel. There is no mention of Solaris 9 on Intel.

  • From the website...

    "Which version of the Solaris Operating Environment would you prefer?
    Solaris 9 on SPARC(TM) platform, Solaris 8 on Intel
    • Oh wait...Maybe it was a typo...

      From the confirmation page:
      "Thank You! You will receive your FREE copy of the Solaris 9 Operating Environment on a DVD (while quanitities last) and be contacted by our sales organization shortly."
      • Either you picked the sparc version or they changed the thank you message or something, because i just got this message:

        Thank You! You will receive your FREE copy of the Solaris Operating Environment on a DVD (while quanitities last) and be contacted by our sales organization shortly.

        No number in there...

  • Coincidence? (Score:5, Funny)

    by NickRob ( 575331 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:09PM (#3598961)
    6 Mozilla hackers missing.... 6 People arrested for the 'Nigerian' email.

    Juxtaposition saves the day.
  • Six people were arrested in South Africa over the weekend on suspicion of being involved in the infamous 'Nigerian' e-mail and letter fraud, and they need your help! See they have a rich uncle who has some ill goten gains, and wants to give it to them for thier defense fun, but he cant do it legaly. If you would just let them use your bank account to launder they moeny they will give you 20%! just email inmates@prison.ng with your bank acount number and pin..

  • /em holds hands *this* far apart (Score:4, Funny)

    by realgone ( 147744 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:11PM (#3598977)
    According to this, the world's first Xtender Xbox modchip preorders were shipped today

    Whoa, whoa, whoa there sonny. Did you say "Xtender"? You mean they're making the damned thing even bigger?

    *sigh* Someone save me a spot in line at IKEA; I'm gonna need a larger entertainment center.

    P.S. - I kid, I kid. I swear. I love my XBox. I'm actually dying to slot Morrowind in it... whenever that game gets around to releasing itself. =)

  • "Revolution OS", not "Revolution codec"... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Papineau ( 527159 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:12PM (#3598982) Homepage
    I juste tried to download the trailer of Revolution OS, and since I use Mozilla 1.0rc2 (yes, I know 1.0rc3 has been released) on Linux, I'm not able to view it. It seems to be offered in Real, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and Flash(?, probably for surfing the site and not the actual film). So I'm not sure who's targetted by this... but I know I'm not able to view it easily (could fire up Mplayer, but still need a copy of the actual file). Not very good for a film of this nature.

    Anybody had more luck than me?

  • See you guys later, I'm off to download at least hundred copies of it.
  • potlatch-is-the-way-to-eat

    If you are still in Knoxville, then it is a "pot luck." And, by Gawd, any carbonated drink is a Coke irregardless of flavor or manufacturer.
    • is "irregardless" a word there, too? :)
      • So are "ain't", "you'uns" and "nabs." Irrespective of the fact that irregardless is bad usage, usage rules, and the practice of pointing them out, are for the particulary Pecksniffian. [m-w.com] This is not unlike the odd fallacy monger who tosses out post hoc, ergo propter hoc whenever someone mentions the time.
    • potlatch-is-the-way-to-eat

      If you are still in Knoxville, then it is a "pot luck." And, by Gawd, any carbonated drink is a Coke irregardless of flavor or manufacturer.

      Don't mean to be a nerd, but a potlatch was an orgy of a social festival from what is now the Pacific Northwest USA / Southwest CA in which the chieftan who gave away the most stuff to his opponents and killed the most of his own slaves was officially the most important chief for the next year. Sounds like quite the party to me, they probably ate better during the potlatch than otherwise.

  • Solaris, the film. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:24PM (#3599039) Homepage
    Coincidentally, the book "Solaris" by Stansislas Lem is being made into a film [imdb.com] (for the second time, first time around [imdb.com] was by the brilliant, late Andrei Tarkovsky) by Steven Soderbergh. And that's what I thought this slashback was about, at first glance. Oops.
    • Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is an amazing film, by the way, for the 99.999% of you who haven't seen it.

      • Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris is an amazing film, by the way, for the 99.999% of you who haven't seen it.

        I'm in your 1 in 100,000 club. I've seen Solyaris three times. Still think it's an overrated film. And I tend to be forgiving in my estimation of films. :p

        ...feeling smarmy because you insist on posting with your (hard-earned, I'm sure) +1 privilege...

        • I think it's a good but flawed film. Tarkovsky for his own part didn't like it - he made the movie to make the Powers That Be happy, but he wasn't fond of the film. Stalker [imdb.com] is a better movie. However, the original story by Lem is a great novel, and I believe Soderbergh, with his sensitivity to the contradictions and conflicts in human relationships and the poignancy of regret, will do it justice.
        • Overrated? Do people rate it enough for it to be considered overrated?

          The film is interesting because it is a very "heady" sci-film. It is a film in which takes place far into the future and in futuristic settings, but portrays its characters as being conventional humans. There were no special effects at all used in the making of the film. But it still captures all of the confusion and complexity associated with sci-fi.

          The only other film I can think of right now with a similar feel is Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville". Wait, that's not true, there is also David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ", another excellent heady sci-fi film.

        • This isn't a flame or a troll or a personal attack, but I do have to ask you this question:

          Why would you watch a film three times that you consider overrated?!?

  • StarOffice Free (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grahamsz ( 150076 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:25PM (#3599047) Homepage Journal
    StarOffice may no longer be free but Open Office [openoffice.org] will remain free.

    I think this is part of some master plan to conquer the problem of corporations who dont like free software because nobody is acountable.

    Seems like a win-win situation - we get openoffice, corps get staroffice, microsoft get less sales.

  • "Whoops." (Score:2, Funny)

    by The Pi-Guy ( 529892 )
    HUH?? I coulda sworn when I ordered, it was S9. I already got S8 - "Anyone want a free S9 DVD?"

    (a very humble) Pi
  • So if Sun catches you with a copy of it after then, will the burden of proving to a judge that you downloaded it before now be on you, or Sun's?
  • Sanjay Gupta is a pretty common name. Any other distinguishing information?
  • But has anyone tried to reach Dr. Wang (heh heh) at jiwei@taralnetworks.com?

  • "Uncle George" (Score:3, Funny)

    by pgrote ( 68235 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @08:47PM (#3599151) Homepage
    Died last year. He left the still to me and the pickup to my sister.

    Ma got the coffee makers while Pa got the coon hound.
  • Meanwhile, Six hackers uncovered in a fraud scheme in Nigeria are apparently needed for Mozilla to be able to relicense its product....

    17 more and this would be one HELL of a conspiracy theory...
  • So what sort of medical advice [cnn.com] did Mozilla need from CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta?

    I KNEW I recognized that name.

  • Region-free: bad tactical idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @09:19PM (#3599328)
    It would be better if they released it for region 2 only instead, at least for a while. People could then complain to them about how they can't view it in the USA. Then, they could make an official statement that they as the copyright holders do not mind if viewers in region 1 use any other player or process (including DeCSS) to play their own legitimately purchased DVDs.

    Voilla! Now DeCSS has substantial non-infringing uses and since they have the explicit authorization of the copyright-holder, the DMCA can no longer be used against it.

    Sure, it might cost them a few sales at the beginning. But the free press would more than make up for it when they quietly release region 1 disks a few months later.

  • Qt, rosegarden, etc. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @09:53PM (#3599473) Homepage
    Some random thoughts and questions about the Qt-Gtkmm debate:
    1. Qt turns me off because you can't do cross-platform without paying big licensing fees. GTK turns me off because in the only examples I've seen, the code just looked like an untracked wilderness: hundreds and hundreds of unreadable toolkit calls, one after the next. I like Perl/Tk, but it doesn't make a nice double-clickable GUI. Are there better alternatives? How do people like wxWindows?
    2. This is kinda OT, but since a bunch of the article used Rosegarden as an example, I'm curious: does anyone have comments on Rosegarden as opposed to GNU Lilypond?
    3. I've been using Unix more or less continuously for 20 years, but I've only started using Linux within the fast few months, and although my impression is pretty favorable overall, I'm shocked at how hard it is to install applications, partly because of how the use shared libraries, and all the hassles associated with having the wrong version of the libraries, having them in the wrong place, etc. This seems to be an argument in favor of Qt, since it has more built in, so there's less need to link in a lot of extra crap. The article is all about the programmer's point of view, but does it actually help from the user's point of view?
    • Assuming the only GTK code you've seen is the C code (which I agree looks incredibly rowdy) you might want to have a look at the Gtk-Perl [gtkperl.org] or PyGtk [daa.com.au]. I've used both and they make writing gnome/gtk applications tolerable. Also, learn how to use the Glade feature of Gtk. You design your interface in the Glade wyswyg UI editor, which generates an xml file describing the layout of the interface. You can have any number of scripting languages with Gtk bindings (Perl, Python, Ruby etc) at runtime load up the Glade xml file to build the GUI. Once you get Glade under your belt you'll be surprised how amazingly fast you can bang out workable GUI program.
    • You don't want to compare lilypond to rosegarden.

      Perhaps you could compare Denemo [sourceforge.net], for a gtk vs. qt kinda thing (denemo is further behind).

      Denemo is focused on typesetting though. Staffs are just one of the things rosegarden can do.

      All that said, I like gtk+, but notice qt audio apps getting ahead of gtk ones (with the very significant exception of Ardour [sf.net]

      Ardour [sf.net] is only half done, but it rocks!
    • I'm shocked at how hard it is to install applications, partly because of how the use shared libraries, and all the hassles associated with having the wrong version of the libraries, having them in the wrong place, etc.

      What distribution are you using? I use Debian, wherein apt just downloads whatever versions of the various libraries I need along with the program. Whenever this comes up, RPM people claim their various systems use apt or some other system to solve the problem just as elegantly.

      What are you doing on Linux that you weren't doing on Unix? As far as I can tell, the same problems should pop up with add-on packages and Unix.
    • Crossplatform licensing fees: Yeah, it's a bitch. Are you writing Free Software? If so, it doesn't matter much, because qt-win32 is free beer. Are you writing proprietary software? If so, how can you expect your users to pay for your software if you don't want to pay for Trolltech's?

      It would be fantastic if there were QPL/GPL versions of Qt for Windows and Mac. It would also be fantastic if I got a 25% raise. But I don't expect either to happen tomorrow.

      Shared libraries: I'm not sure I understand your concern. Shared libraries may be relatively new to Unix, but all modern unices (except some embedded ones) have them. You problems with Linux are going to be identical under Solaris, AIX, HPUX, etc. Try installing Gnome from scratch under IRIX without going mad...

      But perhaps you're using a distro/OS that's a bit too rigid when it comes to package management. My suggestion would be to try Debian or FreeBSD.
      • Are you writing Free Software? If so, it doesn't matter much, because qt-win32 is free beer
        Huh? I checked pretty recently, and the only Qt I saw that was free as in anything was Linux. Both the Windows version and the Mac version are $1000 licenses. Has this changed within the last month? Did I miss something on Trolltech's web page?

        It would be fantastic if there were QPL/GPL versions of Qt for Windows and Mac.
        It is fantastic that there's a GPL'd version of GTK for Windos.

        You problems with Linux are going to be identical under Solaris, AIX, HPUX, etc. Try installing Gnome from scratch under IRIX without going mad...
        Well, let's compare with the OS that constitutes 90% of the desktop Unix market: MacOS X. To install a MacOS X app: (1) drag it to the Applications folder, (2) double-click on it. That's the way it should be. The heavy use of shared libraries in Linux is just one of the many design decisions that makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.

        • Well, let's compare with the OS that constitutes 90% of the desktop Unix market: MacOS X. To install a MacOS X app: (1) drag it to the Applications folder, (2) double-click on it. That's the way it should be. The heavy use of shared libraries in Linux is just one of the many design decisions that makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.

          No, the heavy use of shared libraries that break binary compatibility between every freakin' release makes it too hard to use for most desktop users.
        • 1) There is a "free beer" non-commercial Qt for Windows. You must release your code as Open Source, but you don't have to pay for it, and it's fully operational. The only difference I've seen between it and the "real" version is that it sticks a "Freeware" in the title bar.

          2) Maybe the Windoze GTK has improved, but the last time I used a WinGTK application it stuck out like a sore thumb. It rather resembled a Unix app ported to Windows (duh!) rather than a native app. That's not what you want for a crossplatform toolkit.
    • This is kinda OT, but since a bunch of the article used Rosegarden as an example, I'm curious: does anyone have comments on Rosegarden as opposed to GNU Lilypond?

      Rosegarden is a music sequencer/notation thing. It works in X11. It can export to variety of typesetting formats.

      Lilypond is, on the other hand, just a music typesetting system - but it can, if so desired, also produce MIDI files.

      Rosegarden's weakness is that it lets you actually put notes on staves (click click!) and export to MIDI beautifully, but it doesn't really do adequeate job at typesetting.

      Lilypond's weakness is that it doesn't have a GUI - it just reads text file and produces a DVI file through TeX (than can then be dvips'ed or dvipdf'ed). However, the textual format brings its advantages, such as that it's mostly human-readable =)

      I'm not a professional musician, or even an amateur one (I don't have a Vast Knowledge of the music theory, and the only instrument I can play well is my throat - hey, wolves are supposed to know how to sing =) but I found that using Rosegarden to notate, then midi2ly'ing and editing the produced source, is a wonderful way of making beautiful expressions of melody - and it's immediately fit to be included in E2 [everything2.com].

      PS. GTK+ isn't so bad - especially with Glade. I use Glade with Perl, and it just rocks - The thing produces the GUI (bare GTK+ or with GNOME), all I need to provide are the signal handler functions... The reason GTK+ looks cryptic is that C wasn't really designed for OO and some macros are required =)

  • How fight the Nigerian Spammers (Score:4, Funny)

    by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2002 @10:54PM (#3599720)
    This is a denial of service attack on the spammers:

    If you get a lot of the Nigerian spam, here's a cute way to fight them. All it takes is two or more spams. Set your email client to forge the address of the first spammer and use that to reply to the second spammer, then switch addresses and reply to the first spammer. Make the replies good, but not identical. Tell them how excited/honor/glad/etc you are to help them in their important/meaningful/lucrative venture.

    You will never see the result of this, but you can count on each spammer trying real hard to con the other spammer for at least a couple of messages back and forth (these guys really are tenacious, I've been baiting them regularly and sometimes they just don't give up unless you out and out call them con men).

    This attack wastes there time and energy on their like-minded fellow con-men rather than on the suckers that are their true marks. If even 10% of the people who got Nigerian spam did something like this, they would be overwhelmed and crushed by the weight of their own greed.
  • Damn... I could have swore it said (_) sparc (_) intel when I did my order earlier today. No mention of version 8.

    Anyhow, one of the reasons I was excited about trying rev 9 on x86 is Sun is bundling a J2EE app server with Solaris 9. Yes, I could use Jboss - but if Sun released something that even comes close to what I can do with Weblogic and it is free - I can use it for personal use. Alas, no x86 rev9.... No bundled app server.... Not quite sure what is going to be part of the Platform Edition [sun.com], but it looks interesting...

    • The Platform Edition of the Sun ONE Application Server is integrated into the Solaris 9 OE. The licensing terms are for NO COST, evaluation, development and deployment of this J2EE 1.3 compliant application server. The license allows a single administration server for each application server instance, which means that centralized management of multiple application servers is not provided with this product.

  • Xtender will not play back any region DVD (Score:3, Informative)

    by Namarrgon ( 105036 ) on Wednesday May 29, 2002 @12:05AM (#3600051) Homepage
    "It's also supposed to play any DVD, regardless of region."

    Actually, that's incorrect. According to the table here [xboxhackz.com], and similar info elsewhere, it will reset the region code that the DVD dongle writes to your Xbox, but you still require dongles from different regions to play import DVDs. Playback of any region DVDs may require modding the dongle, not just the Xbox itself.

    However, the mod will of course allow you to play import games (great for me - if I move back to Australia, I'd prefer to take my Xbox & games with me, rather than selling the lot & buying it all over again in a new region).

    Even more interesting, it will allow the Xbox to run unsigned code. This opens up the box completely to developers - for example, an ISO has already been released to switch the Xbox between PAL & NTSC (excellent :-) and the Enigmah-X group are rumoured to be working on a DivX player. Add an Ethernet-streaming MP3 player to that & you have a very versatile entertainment appliance. Not to mention that it'll give the Xbox Linux Project [sourceforge.net] a huge boost, and may even make that old MAME port [slashdot.org] useful :-)

    This could give Xbox sales a significant boost. I'm sure Microsoft would be delighted - if they were actually making money on each sale.

  • Revolution OS on DVD (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ncc74656 ( 45571 ) <scott@alfter.us> on Wednesday May 29, 2002 @01:22AM (#3600321) Homepage Journal
    I just checked the website, and the only mention of DVD availability is this page [revolution-os.com] where you can tell them you're interested. A Google search turned up this page [kanga.nu] on why it's not on DVD already.

    As for the possibility that the DVD will be region-free, I was at the screening in Pasadena three weeks ago. J.T.S. Moore did a little Q&A at the end of the film; in response to a question, he did mention that a region-free, CSS-free release is a possibility that's being considered. From what I gathered, the decision isn't yet final. I also gathered that he doesn't have much love for the movie cartel [mpaa.org]. Neither the movie site nor iFilm mentioned specific release dates or prices.

    (If it becomes available, I'd buy it. I liked it, and I'm not the open-source zealot that some people around here are (I tend to use whatever's appropriate for the task at hand). If a large enough number of copies get sold and it doesn't turn up on Gnutella, maybe it'll be a small lesson to the movie cartel about treating your customers right.)

  • What with 'Film, Solaris', I thought the post was going to be talking about a certain obscure Russian science-fiction movie...

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