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Slashback: OpenSSH, Falwell, OpenDRM 302

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the calling-it-open-makes-it-cool dept.
Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories including the Supreme Court declines Falwell's appeal, GP2X now shipping in the US, a new version of Systrace released, Lessig and Stallman look back at Sun's OpenDRM, NASA jumps on the anti-matter propulsion bandwagon, GoDaddy donates $10,000 to OpenSSH, Ellison explains why he would NOT acquire Novell or Red Hat, and pictures of the Ball State wireless 'sculpture' -- Read on for details.

The Supreme Court declines Falwell's Appeal. yEvb0 writes "The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Jerry Falwell, who claims that "gripe site" http://www.fallwell.com/ infringes on his trademark by luring surfers away from his own site. Despite winning a case in federal court, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Falwell last year and said that operator Christopher Lamparello was free to operate his site about Falwell's views on gays because he 'clearly created his Web site intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers.'"

GP2X now shipping in the US. An anonymous reader writes "The Gamepark GP2X, a Linux-based handheld gaming platform that runs native and emulated games, is now shipping in the US, according to LinuxDevices. The device can reportedly run more than a thousand classic arcade games, through open-source console game emulators such as MAME, SNES, Genesis, and PC Engine. It has a 3.5-inch QVGA (320x240) color TFT LCD screen, and includes a media player supporting MPEG, JPEG, and MP3 formats."

New version of Systrace released. Niels writes "I just recently released a new version of Systrace that runs on Linux without requiring any kernel patches. I termed it the Phoenix release because it has been almost three years since I did any work on Systrace. However, I finally had the need to do some sandboxing on Linux without being able to change the kernel. So, voila, after a few late nights, here we go: Systrace for Linux using a ptrace back end."

Lessig and Stallman look back at Sun's OpenDRM. H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "The Register has an excellent article featuring Lessig and Stallman on 'Open Source' DRM. The spark for the article came from comments made about Sun's 'OpenDRM' by Lessig which were not wholly negative and were interpreted by some as an endorsement. Lessig clarifies: 'There's no disagreement about where we should end up - No DRM.'"

NASA jumps on the anti-matter propulsion bandwagon. steveo777 writes "NASA has an interesting read about creating yet another form of rocket propulsion. They plan on using Anti-electrons (positrons) combine with normal electrons to release enough energy to fuel the way to Mars and back. Its byproduct will be lower energy gamma radiation. From the article, '"Our advanced designs, like the gas core and the ablative engine concepts, could take astronauts to Mars in half that time, and perhaps even in as little as 45 days," said Kirby Meyer, an engineer with Positronics Research on the study.'"

GoDaddy donates $10,000 to OpenSSH. wcbrown writes "Go Daddy has donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH project, which is apparently used extensively within the company." This is another great donation in what hopefully will continue to be a trend within the community. No word on when the blinking will stop.

Ellison explains why he would NOT acquire Novell or Red Hat. Robert writes to tell us CBROnline is reporting that a recent statement by Larry Ellison covered so extensively in the news regarding speculation about why Oracle might be "planning to buy Novell or Red Hat" may have been a little off base. The full transcript of his interview with the FT is illuminating precisely because it reveals why the company would NOT acquire either Novell or Red Hat, and - apparently - why the company did not buy JBoss.

Pictures of the Ball State Wireless 'sculpture'. popeguilty writes "Slashdot readers may recall the story about the Wireless 'Sculpture' at Ball State University. The artwork is up and running, and I've got a few pictures posted for general consumption."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: OpenSSH, Falwell, OpenDRM More

Slashback: OpenSSH, Falwell, OpenDRM

Comments Filter:
  • So, maybe we are already stockpiling positrons.

  • Slashdot Jeopardy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:06PM (#15161484)
    Contestant: I'll take "Hole Truth" for $100, Alex.
    Trebek: OpenSSH, Falwell, OpenDRM
    Contestant: What are plugged, ass, and analog?
    Trebek: Congratulations, all are examples of different types of holes!

  • Space is the Place (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:21PM (#15161543) Homepage Journal
    According to TFA, positrons cost $25B:g to produce, though they project the cost will decrease with more R&D (more money). The Mars mission needs 10mg. The amount of energy, not dollars, required to produce the antimatter is not specified, but it's certainly larger than the amount that winds up in the produced antimatter. The antimatter will be produced at the Earth's surface, submerged in our atmosphere, where it can annihilate in contact with any of that matter it comes in contact with.

    This is a perfect project to perform in space. The base lab should be on the Moon, using the vast incoming solar energy for power, lasered past the far side to power the reactor creating the antimatter. The antimatter industry is anticipating a large scale anyway, which justifies launching whatever equipment and personnel to the Moon is necessary. That should be small, because the Moon is made of materials useable for the project, including that abundant energy. And the minimization of risk of catastrophic antimatter "pollution" on (in) Earth is priceless. The launch of a new chapter in human industry in space, with specific immediate benefits including environmental protection and energy freedom, can transform our entire society for the better.

    • eerrr (Score:2, Informative)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      "A rough estimate to produce the 10 milligrams of positrons needed for a human Mars mission is about 250 million dollars using technology that is currently under development,"

      • Your point? Or are you just melting down?
        • My point is 250 million dollars is a lot less then the 25Bn dollars you claim.

          My apologies for being to obtuse for you.

          • I said "According to TFA, positrons cost $25B:g" and "The Mars mission needs 10mg." At $25B:g, 10mg costs $250M.

            My apologies for using the ":" character, commonly understood to mean a ratio [wikipedia.org]. You do understand the distinction between the "M" and "m" characters I used, right?
            • Ratios are usually used for like units, or non-united figures. You should have used "/" like EVERYONE ELSE elses, rather than trying to be clever (and failing). :)
              • When people use the "/" symbol, it's hard to distinguish from its "divided by" meaning. Especially when the ratio is being used in arithmetic, as it was in the conversion I used, the ":" symbol is more clear, less ambiguous. As I showed in the link, not "everyone" uses only the "/" symbol for ratios. And ratios are absolutely not necessarily between like units, as in MPG. Ratios and the ":" symbol are exactly the accurate way to describe the relationship I mentioned.

                If a reader can't understand the precise
                • That is an interesting use of the colon. I would have to disagree with you regarding it being precise language. Colons are, as your link states, commonly used to denote ratios (the model is 1:20 scale; mix the powder to the dry as 2.5:1; etc.), but it is never used (or at least, I should say, I have never seen it used in the physical sciences or engineering fields over the last 25 years, or even in decades-old textbooks or journal papers), in the units label. Units are usually labeled with the slash or r
                  • m-s can be pronounced "meters minus seconds". "m/s" can be pronounced "meters divided by seconds". "m:s" can be pronounced only "meters to seconds", "meters per second" or "meters by seconds", all of which indicate a product, not a dividend. I've been using the symbol in math and science for a couple of decades myself, and haven't had problems being understood. Until the poster who so obnoxiously attacked my post, who still can't grasp the basic concept - out of antipathy, not ambiguity.
          • I didn't read the article, but I do read: "$25B:g" in the original post and "10 milligrams of positrons needed for a human Mars mission is about 250 million" in the yours.

            Isn't $25 billion per gram the same as $250 million for 10 milligrams?
            Or is my math bad? Units. I'm guessing you missed the units.

            Now be a good boy and say your sorry.
    • This is a perfect project to perform in space.

      it's an impossible project to perform in space. Consider how huge particle accelerators are. The whole point is to make an incredibly concentrated fuel here, and use it to make a much lighter, faster spaceship. If you first have to launch megatonnes into orbit, forget it. Maybe in a couple of centuries this could be manufactured on the Moon.

      As for the risk; yes it could explode, but as TFA says, the blast would be similar to a chemical rocket, but less poisono

    • Re:Space is the Place (Score:3, Informative)

      by Malor ( 3658 )
      You can't have antimatter pollution. All you get is an explosion, of whatever size. Energy is released (and might kill some people), but there's no residual 'pollution' whatsoever.

      With reasonable care, it's not really any different than any other kind of explosives plant. Probably less dangerous, since there are no noxious chemicals involved, which CAN pollute the environment.

      Antimatter has so little weight per energy unit that it doesn't matter much where it's made. We need only ten milligrams to go to

  • ssh donation (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by Lord Ender ( 156273 )
    The donation from godaddy came out of which department within the company? If I had to guess, I would say it came our of Marketing... not that there's anything wrong with that.

    For-profit companies don't donate out of alturism.

    • Re:ssh donation (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Geekboy(Wizard) ( 87906 ) <[spambox] [at] [theapt.org]> on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:27PM (#15161574) Homepage Journal
      $10k from marketing is just as green as $10k from eng. besides, the ceo knows and approves it.
    • Yes, some actually do. No, they do not have to be greedy, and no they don't have to only do things for the bottom line.

    • For-profit companies don't donate out of alturism.

      If nothing else, there's always the deduction for charitable donations they get on their taxes.

    • Wow - to the moderator: How is that flamebait? Log in as AC to defend yourself, because I think your moderation is completely unfounded.

  • blinking? I don't see any blinking... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:26PM (#15161565)
    http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html [squarefree.com]

    'zap cheap effects' *bliss*

    I also like zap colors, zap plugins, restore context menu, and restore selecting. Lots of nice bookmarklets there. I put a small folder menu of those on my toolbar for easy access for dumb sites.

  • Fallwell a church or a store? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:30PM (#15161585)
    "he 'clearly created his Web site intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers.'"

    Customers? Sounds more like a store to me than a church. I say cede the domain to Fallwell and start taxing the bejeezus out of him. :)
  • Has any one played with or written anything for the GP2X? What do you think?

    I like playing and writing games. I think I might get one.

    -geekd

    • Re:Hands on GP2X experience? (Score:5, Informative)

      by vga_init ( 589198 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @09:04PM (#15161723) Journal
      I've owned one since they were first released, and it's a wonderful little handheld. It works well, is very programmable, and has an active development community.

      It's not without its issues; you can learn more by checking out the wiki [gp2x.org] and also visiting #gp2xdev and #gp2x on EFNet.

    • I've had one for a few months now, and I love it. The various emulator projects are coming along very nicely (MAME especially), and there's a fairly decent library of homebrew titles. If you like 2D shooters, there's more than a few of those :).

      A few complaints:
      • It can be sometimes be difficult doing firmware upgrades with just the FW file itself. While people end up writing installers to solve this, the GP2X can be very picky about which SD card you're using and how it's formatted. But if you're p
  • Put this in your userContent.css file:
    blink {
      text-decoration: none !important;
    }

  • What app made these call traces maps? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=311 [zdnet.com]

    What app made the graphics in the above story. They display all the systems calls in a graphical map like format that are used during the process of serving a web page.

  • Respect for RMS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wall0159 ( 881759 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @08:58PM (#15161700)
    I know it's kinda cool to be oh-so-cynical and mock Stallman, but he's really an incredibly important person. Sure, he's a stickler for details, and I'm not sure I'd want him at a dinner party - but we really need people like him. They can remind us of the potential consequences of decisions - consequences that we are typically *very* bad at predicting.

    I think this issue is similar to trade-unions. Sure, they can be corrupt (and full of nepotism), but criticising the _concept_ based on the _implementation_ is crazy. People died fighting for workers rights, and now we are notchalently throwing them away.

    Similarly (though not to quite the same extreme) people have sacrificed lots of time to produce free (libre) software tools for everybody. Yes, it's an idealistic goal. Yes, Stallman is an idealist, and can be a PITA. But freedom is lost incrementally. Just look at Naz...

    Oops! Almost did a Godwin! ;-)

    Anyway Ritchie, I've got a lot of respect for you - please keep being a stickler on our behalf! :-)

    Cheers.
    • Just look at Naz...

      That's a strange way to write "the Soviet Union."

    • Agreed... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cloricus ( 691063 )
      Movements always need a strong leader or they fail. In the free software group it is a god send to have one or two (or three) people that, while people don't always agree with/die listening to via boredom, toe a very specific and non changing line; they provide focus and direction. So for all of the horror of hardcore idealist dullness and jokes I will happily lay on RMS (and the like) I still hold a great deal of respect for him and as a member of the movement roughly follow his guidance on issues. ...Ke
  • Straight from the home office in Redwood Shores, CA here's the top 5 reasons why Larry won't buy RedHat or Novell [sfgate.com]:

    5. RedHat won't take an I.O.U.
    4. To pay for Novell he'd have to have "Golden Palace" tattooed on his face.
    3. "Buy an island near Japan? Shit, get two."
    2. Excessive ATM fees finally broke him.
    1. Just blew $100k on that shirt from Brokeback Mountain

  • Falwell?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @09:09PM (#15161742)
    Why wasn't the guy who owned PETA.org (people eating tasty animals) allowed to keep his domain? Mr. Falwell, you have bad attorneys that don't know how to railroad the little guy. I'd ask for your money back.

    • Re:Falwell?? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Darby ( 84953 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @11:52PM (#15162398)
      Why wasn't the guy who owned PETA.org (people eating tasty animals) allowed to keep his domain?

      Because Jerry Fallwell is a hate mongering bigot who likes to tell people how to live their lives and PETA is...uhhh....

      Hmmmm, good question.

  • Oh LARRY Ellison (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gojira Shipi-Taro ( 465802 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @09:22PM (#15161805) Homepage
    For a second I thought you were talking about Harlan, and we were in for an explitive-filled tirade about how he hates computers and would never buy a software company, capped with a threat to sue anyone that reprinted, quoted, or even linked to said tirade.

  • Stallman quote from the article (concerning the open source philosophy)

    "It agrees with the conventional attitude that what matters about software is what job it does, and how much money it costs. That's exactly the same attitude Microsoft wants you to take."

    Does Stallman really think that if you run a graphic design firm, you should use the GIMP, rather than Photoshop? If so, I'm scared that this guy is so prominent in the Linux community

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