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| Sunday is a Good Day for a Cartoon |
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Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:08 PM EDT
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I think you will enjoy UserFriendly's cartoon for today. It's "An Analysis of the 'Hardware is Free' Business Model" proposed by Sun/Microsoft. Or maybe you'd like to listen to Larry Lessig's book, "Free Culture", being read aloud by a group of volunteers who had a nice idea. I wish I'd heard about this earlier, because I surely would have loved to read a chapter. It'd make a nice break from all the legalbeagle fine print I get to read for Grokline. UPDATE: I just heard from Scott Matthews of Turnstyle, and he says it isn't too late, so I'm going to do one. I've seen a request for Chapter 4. Anybody else have a favorite? You can read one, too. Lessig says alternatives for chapters are fine. And you can get code for a "Free Culture" popup audiobook. Or...
Maybe you'd like to read about the new security patch for the Linux kernel: "Ingo Molnar has announced the availability of the following kernel patch, nx-2.6.7-rc2-bk2-AE, which makes use of the 'NX' x86 feature pioneered in AMD64 CPUs and for which support has also been announced by Intel. (other x86 CPU vendors, Transmeta and VIA announced support as well. Windows support for NX has also been announced by Microsoft, for their next service pack.) The NX feature is also being marketed as 'Enhanced Virus Protection'. This patch makes sure Linux has full support for this hardware feature on x86 too. . . . "The patch is based on a prototype NX patch written for 2.4 by Intel - special thanks go to Suresh Siddha and Jun Nakajima @ Intel. The existing NX support in the 64-bit x86_64 kernels has been written by Andi Kleen and this patch is modeled after his code.
"Arjan van de Ven has also provided lots of feedback and he has integrated the patch into the Fedora Core 2 kernel. Test rpms are available for download at:
http://redhat.com/~arjanv/2.6/RPMS.kernel/
"the kernel-2.6.6-1.411 rpms have the NX patch applied." You'll remember Jun Nakajima, because he used to work for oldSCO. And I note GNU/Linux beat Microsoft in providing this security capability. MS will provide it, this article says, in their next service pack. Red Hat has it now. A bit more on NX here and Stephen Shankland has this added detail: "In a discussion on the Linux kernel mailing list after Molnar posted the patch, Linux founder and leader Linus Torvalds asked how many programs wouldn't work using with NX enabled. On hearing the number was low, he then said, 'It sounds like we should just have NX on by default.'
"NX support is important enough that it's worth risking problems with some applications, Torvalds said. 'I think most people have seen the security disaster that causes most of the e-mails on the Net to be spam. So this should be trivial to explain to people when they complain about default behavior breaking their strange legacy app, Torvalds argued." Or maybe you'd just like to see a picture of BayStar's Lawrence Goldfarb in an article about the SEC looking into PIPE deals. I think you'll be surprised. He's not old and he's not ugly. The Picture of Dorian Gray was just a novel. In real life, people don't always look the way you expect. It seems the SEC would like some info on PIPE deals: "Some investors suspect that buyers of Pipes and related private offerings are manipulating stock prices to improve the terms of the deals. . . .
"Separately, the commission has requested information about trading in shares of companies before and after such financings are completed, according to people briefed on the matter." Of course, SCO is mentioned: "SCO's stock has fallen 75 percent since BayStar's investment, although Mr. Goldfarb said his loss was much smaller. 'This is a lesson in why a smart investor would hedge their Pipe investment,' he said." No. This is a lesson is why IBM would like to depose BayStar.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:15 PM EDT |
| HA! [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:22 PM EDT |
| *snicker, snicker...* [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: jaydee on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:24 PM EDT |
I'm in the wrong end of this business.
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Henry V: Act 4: Scene 3[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: inode_buddha on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:25 PM EDT |
Once again, Illiad hits the nail on the head. Kudos!
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"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." --
Richard M. Stallman[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Nick_UK on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:26 PM EDT |
On a somewhat different note, being a Sysadmin and after the blaster/sasser/klez
yah yah worms, I still don't understand why I have to agree to a EULA to apply
the FIXES to insecure M$ software.
Can anyone explain that?
Nick[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: tangomike on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 04:57 PM EDT |
Cute, friendly, great nose for leads... watch the teeth!
The cartoon is a fun break from SCOstration. Thanks.
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To The SCO Group - please come back when you pass a Turing test.
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| Authored by: ubi on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 05:32 PM EDT |
PJ,
You wrote:
Or maybe you'd like to listen to Larry
Lessig's book, Free Culture,
being read aloud by a group of volunteers.
I wish I'd heard about this earlier,
because I surely would have loved to read
a chapter. It'd make a nice break
from all the legalbeagle fine print I get to
read for Grokline.
It's not too late. At least one of the
chapters has two MP3 versions. I
personally like to hear books being read at a
relatively quick pace. It'd be
great to hear you read, e.g., Chapter 4. I'm
listening to it now, and the
contributor, while a good speaker, is a bit too
slow for my taste. And I'm sure
a lot of Groksters would like to hear you
orate.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: beast on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 05:44 PM EDT |
This feature was available on IBM mainframes (and, I'm sure, other systems) at
least 20 years ago. More recently on Sparc and Alpha processors, too.
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Delay is the deadliest form of denial. - J. Northcote Parkinson[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: phrostie on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 06:18 PM EDT |
what exactly does this NX hardware do?
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=====
phrostie
Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of DOS
and danced the skies on Linux silvered wings.
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/snafuu[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: sjgibbs on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 06:23 PM EDT |
Sorry to spoil the party but is this announcement relevant to end users - yet?
Will applications need to be recompiled to support the NX function? Would the
installed base be protected merely by updating their Kernel or applying a simple
RPM update?
Indeed, unless RH backport this to 2.4.x then it will only impact the (smaller)
2.6.x install base. No?
My take, bases on assumed answers to the above, is that the distro teams will
probably need to do some work to get real benefits out to the installed base,
Windows Update and its Monopoly status could still win this race for Microsoft
:-(
Do any friendly kernel hackers have any thoughts?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 06:33 PM EDT |
>He's not old and he's not ugly.
Well, you're half right.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 07:55 PM EDT |
It's been a near-month now since the hearing.. how long until we get a ruling on
the motions? Any news on this?
(And given that the motions were submitted far before that, it seems to me the
judge should've had more than ample time to read up on cited and relevant cases.
Sheesh. The US legal system sure is slow.)
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 08:01 PM EDT |
NX in control of your linux box ?. Is this not much like Microsoft's
"Trusted Computing" thing ?. A chip based + operating system supported
control; the very technology that could be used to tell your computer not to run
a program, or not run at all. If applications are made to "look like"
viruses, the chip+OS system can be used for control of future proprietary
drivers for example, that give the function that desktop users want. To remove
the drivers, when video cards & devices, audio cards & devices, cd/dvd
devices depend on them, with there will be no other replacement opensource
drivers; will have desktop linux users in a license mess.
Is ( knowing RedHat, maybe not ) 'NX' opensource.[ Reply to This | # ]
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- On 'NX' - Authored by: sef on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 08:14 PM EDT
- On 'NX' - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 08:15 PM EDT
- On 'NX' - Authored by: arch_dude on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 08:38 PM EDT
- On 'NX' Thanks from OP. - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 10:04 PM EDT
- On 'NX' - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 12:15 AM EDT
- On 'NX' - Authored by: scott_R on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 01:45 AM EDT
- On 'NX' - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 03:20 AM EDT
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 08:29 PM EDT |
| Grammatical error on that last sentence. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: hbo on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 10:26 PM EDT |
And I doubt Sun will load it on their "free" servers. 8)
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"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there"
- Will Rogers[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: edumarest on Sunday, June 06 2004 @ 11:48 PM EDT |
Privyet,
The people at userfriendly.com graciously direct people to userfriendly.org.
UF.org is the first web site I visit each day with Groklaw the second. Illiad
and PJ are two people I hope to meet someday.
I somewhat understand Pitr (one of Illiad's characters) as I am married to a
Russian lady. FYI, single gentlemen, Russian women are not obedient, docile
creatures. You have been warned!
A number of years ago Bill Gates spoke at a convention in Moscow, RU (Russia).
He spoke at length about how bad software piracy was and everybody should pay
for the software that they use. Someone in the audience spoke up and said,
"but we cannot afford your software." This might help ecplain why so
many countries are considering open-source software.
Geeze, how many lawsuits has m$ lost because they stole software from someone?
Anybody remember DOS 6.2, then 6.21, then 6.22? By 6.22 DOS lost a lawsuit over
its disk compression utility because they stole it from Stac Elecronics. It cost
them about $120 million.
There are more lawsuits that they have lost over the years. Does anybody have a
website with a list of the lawsuits that m$ has lost?
Poka.
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...if you cannot measure it then you cannot troubleshoot it, you can only
guess...
SuSE 9.0 on hp pavilion ze 4560us[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Pogue Mahone on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 06:25 AM EDT |
| ...the 'NX' x86 feature pioneered in AMD64 CPUs ...
"Pioneered"?
Hah! Execute permission has been around for years on real grown-up processors. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Maple Syrup on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 11:34 AM EDT |
Found on the web, without authorship credit, it's ...
MICROSOFT TV DINNER PRODUCT INSTRUCTIONS
You must first remove the plastic cover. By doing so you agree to accept and
honor Microsoft rights to all TV dinners. You may not give anyone else a bite of
your dinner (which would constitute an infringement of Microsoft's rights). You
may, however, let others smell and look at your dinner and are encouraged to
tell them how good it is.
If you have a PC microwave oven, insert the dinner into the oven. Set the oven
using these keystrokes: <mstv.dinn.//08.5min@50%heat//> Then enter:
<ms//start.cook_dindin/yummy|/yum~yum:-)gohot#cookme>.
If you have a Mac oven, insert the dinner and press start. The oven will set
itself and cook the dinner. If you have
a Linux oven, you are not licensed to use Microsoft Dinner.
Be forewarned that Microsoft dinners may crash, in which case your oven must be
restarted. This is a simple procedure. Remove the dinner from the oven and enter
<ms.nodamn.goodtryagainagainagain.crap>. This process may have to be
repeated. Try unplugging the microwave and then doing a cold reboot. If this
doesn't work, contact your hardware vendor.
Many users have reported that the dinner tray is far too big, larger than the
dinner itself, having many useless compartments, most of which are empty. These
are for future menu items. If the tray is too large to fit in your oven you will
need to upgrade your equipment.
Dinners are only available from registered outlets, and only the chicken variety
is currently produced. If you want another variety, call Microsoft Help and they
will explain that Microsoft Chicken is all you really need.
Microsoft has disclosed plans to discontinue all smaller versions of their
chicken dinners. Future releases will only be in the larger family size. Excess
chicken may be stored for future use, but must be saved only in Microsoft
approved packaging or the warranty is invalidated.
Microsoft promises a dessert with every Chicken ME dinner. However, that version
has yet to be released.
Microsoft dinners may be incompatible with other dinners in the freezer, causing
your freezer to self-defrost. This is a feature, not a bug, as your freezer
should be defrosted periodically anyway.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 07 2004 @ 04:38 PM EDT |
As I expected, Goldfarb implies that he hedged his position in SCO. I.e., he
shorted stock up at $16 before the deal was announced. Thus, he is out almost
nothing according to the article in the NYTimes. Instead of thinking of
Goldfarb as in investor in SCO, think of him as a corporate finance prostitute
who was willing to sell SCO stock as agent (without a formal public offering) so
that SCO could receive financing. His fee for this was the discount he received
on the PIPE convertable preferred. He did this all for a guaranteed fee. A
prostitute, because like many, he would do anything for money without regard to
the moral issues, i.e. he would prostitute himself for a 15% discount on buying
SCO stock.
As far as his appearance, he looks to me like inveterate evil, dirty hair,
barely shaven, like the evil character in any number of drug dealer movies.[ Reply to This | # ]
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