Azaka - Home: "This site keeps records of hardware that is and isn't compatible with Syllable.
"
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Azaka - Home
DeathRow OpenVMS Cluster
DeathRow OpenVMS Cluster
A Cluster of VAXen and Alpha's for general public (Non-Commercial) use. The idea here is to promote the OpenVMS operating system. People are welcome to test security features (On the cluster - Please, no DoS attacks!), port code (we've got lots of compilers and porting kits online), or use this cluster for learning the basic in-and-outs of the OpenVMS operating system.
This is NOT Unix/Linux/BSD/Etc!!!!
If you're not sure you want a account, or simply wish to play with OpenVMS first, try out our DEMO account. You get near full access to play with the system(s) (Some network objects are restricted). There are several ways to use this demonstration account. You can telnet to a member of the Cluster, and login with the username DEMO with a password of USER.
Old VMS Databases Never Die
Old VMS Databases Never Die: "November 29, 2004
By Drew Robb
Like old soldiers, it could be said that old databases never truly die.
But instead of fading away like their military counterparts, some databases conceived in the 1980s are still very much a part of the IT fabric of many large enterprises. Particularly on the OpenVMS platform, products such as Rdb, Ingres and even System 1032 still can be found in various nooks and crannies of the technology universe.
The Rdb database, for example, claims millions of users worldwide -- more than 2,000 companies are using it, some with more than 60,000 users, according to Jim Steiner, senior director of product management at Oracle Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. Oracle purchased Rdb from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) more than a decade ago. Many thought that would be the end of the popular database, which was then Oracle's major competitor. But Rdb survived and may now be set for a new lease on life, thanks to a renaissance in VMS via its impending port to Itanium 2-based servers.
''I have used SQL Server and Oracle 7 and 8, and there is nothing even close to Rdb,'' says John Creed, database manager at Kittles Home Furnishings Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana. ''There is one obvious disadvantage though -- you cannot run Rdb on any platform that OpenVMS doesn't support.''"
Be geek, watch a movie :: ppcnerds.org :: powerpc addicted guys
Be geek, watch a movie :: ppcnerds.org :: powerpc addicted guys: "Want to watch a movie in the geek way? Well, you might consider using Geexbox, then.
What is it?
It is a media player. Or better: it is an operating system that fits in a 6 MB ISO and based on the 2.6 Linux kernel (at least for version 0.98 I tested) and the great mplayer media player most of you know. You simply burn the ISO and you get a bootable CD that will recognize most of your hardware (in my case it recognized all of that): video card and its tv-out, sound card and cd/dvd-rom and hard disks. It does not supply a console, but just a menu (look at the screenshots we made and those provided on the project's homepage) with a good range of choices.
You can look to DivX-Xvid, DVD's, VCD's and SVCD's, listen to audio CD or to a mp3's playlist. You can navigate through the menu using your keyboard, as I did, or using a remote controller: as stated on the project's documentation ' GeeXboX can be controlled using a LIRC-compliant remote and receiver. The only officially supported remote is the Remote Wonder, provided by ATI. Many other brands sell exactly the same controller....'.
A LiveCD, but installable, as it often happens. At the boot prompt you can type install and the installation takes place in few steps and few seconds. Tested in both modes, working just fine in both modes.
"
Yamada Language Center: Self-Study Languages
Yamada Language Center: Self-Study Languages: "Self-Study Languages"
Monday, November 29, 2004
Geekzone, mobile forums
Geekzone,Intelsat Americas-7 satellite lost in space:
posted 29/11/2004 17:42:26 NZ
"Intelsat, Ltd. said that its Intelsat Americas-7 satellite experienced a sudden and unexpected electrical distribution anomaly that caused the permanent loss of the spacecraft on 28 November 2004 at approximately 2:30 am EST. Intelsat has made alternative capacity available to most of its IA-7 customers, many of whom have already had their services restored. The company is working with Space/Systems Loral, the manufacturer of the satellite, to identify the cause of the problem. "
Slashdot | Kazaa Trial In Australia Underway
Slashdot | Kazaa Trial In Australia UnderwayPosted by Hemos on Monday November 29, @10:30AM
from the attacking-on-all-fronts dept.
wadiwood writes "Five record companies are suing the makers of Kazaa. Sharman (moved to vanuatu in Feb 2004) say they are not responsible for what their users do with the software. Personally I don't get what Sony is doing selling MP3 players for all your "favourite tunes" and then selling music which they say you are not allowed to copy to their MP3 players, but that's another story."
Article: Mini nuclear reactor could power apartment blocks ?| New Scientist
Article: Mini nuclear reactor could power apartment blocks ?| New Scientist: "The Rapid-L reactor was conceived as a powerhouse for colonies on the Moon. But at six metres high and only two metres wide this 200-kilowatt reactor could relatively easily fit into the basement of an office building or apartment block, where it would have to be housed in a solid containment building."
Sunday, November 28, 2004
[FSFE PR][EN] FSFE becomes WIPO observer
[FSFE PR][EN] FSFE becomes WIPO observer: "Currently there are many threats to the freedom of our society and our economy in a knowledge based society -- from the European Copyright Directive (EUCD) to the expansion of patentability -- originating at least ideologically at UN level and beyond discussion when they are finally passed as national laws. This leaves very little room to attempt to limit the harm and damaging effects. For that reason, FSFE has requested to be granted observer status at the WIPO in 2003, which was confirmed by the Assembly of the Member States of WIPO from 27 September to 5 October, 2004. In the scope of the FSFE WIPO project team [1], the FSFE will work with other players to change WIPO from an organisation that is solely oriented towards monopolisation of knowledge to one that is aimed at increasing the intellectual wealth of all of humankind through a more flexible, sustainable and effective tool set. [2]"
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
angrycoffee.com - Ogg Vorbis tutorial | home
angrycoffee.com - Ogg Vorbis tutorial | home: "Ogg Vorbis isn't just a pretty name. The 'Ogg' part refers to the Ogg Project, an Open Source multimedia initiative; 'Vorbis' is the name of the actual audio compression format. Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format that sounds better than MP3, and, you guessed it, it's Open Source. We'll get to the significance of a freely developed audio format in a moment. For now suffice it to say that Ogg Vorbis is comparable to compression formats such as AAC, TwinVQ, PAC and MPEG-4."
We discover a record label that isn't evil
We discover a record label that isn't evil: "WHEN MUSICIAN and composer Jan Hanford was signed to an independent record label, she and husband John Buckman were delighted. But despite glowing reviews, Jan's CD ran into a brick wall when the small label tried to bring her music to a wider audience.
'The label got screwed at every turn,' recalls Buckman, 'distributors refused to carry their CDs unless they spent thousands on useless print ads, record stores demanded graft in order to stock the albums, and in general, all forces colluded to prevent this small, progressive label from succeeding... In the end, she sold 1000 CDs, lost all rights to her music for 7 years... and earned a total of $137 in royalties paid.'
Buckman realized there had to be a better way of doing things, for Jan and for other artists who didn't fit in a music industry dominated by giant corporations. So he founded his own record label."
Microsoft doesn't own Excel, it appears
Microsoft doesn't own Excel, it appears: "Excel Software told NewsFactor hacks that it received a cease-and-desist letter about 15 years ago. But it replied by informing Microsoft it had the name first, and it has never heard from the lair of the Vole since. ?"
Xerox tracks your photocopies
Xerox tracks your photocopies: "GIANT PHOTOCOPYING firm Xerox has admitted designing its colour photocopiers so that they put a hidden code on your copy that will help the US government identify you"
the scene server
the scene serverWelcome to the Swiss Scene Server. It's nice to see your interest in art and computer creations of an unofficial union of computer freaks in Switzerland.
This homepage tries to be a central point for all scene related stuff in Switzerland. A point where you can exchange your art stuff, find old and new creations, publish your own creations, find other scene related homepages and exchange news in a modern news database.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
Custom Car Stereo - Main Page
Custom Car Stereo - Main Page Site has basic info on working with fiberglass.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Saturday, November 13, 2004
YellowBites - News
YellowBites - News: "Welcome to the cyberspace home of YellowBites and the cool stuff they make. To navigate this site, use the bar to your left.
YellowBites is a small company producing native software titles for the BeOS/Zeta platform. Our products will not run on any version of Windows, MacOS, Linux or any other operating system."
java.net: Through the Looking Glass
java.net: Through the Looking Glass: "Having heard a few rumors about Project Looking Glass, I was still unprepared for the difference of this desktop: a translucent 3D space that looked like it had come out of a virtual reality 'playback' experience from Strange Days (Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Tom Sizemore, 1995), an amazing sci-fi thriller that both predates and smokes The Matrix. Looking Glass has been scoffed at as 'eye candy' by technologists, pundits, and users who don't value the emotion of user interface design or the power of word of mouth among the gamer demographic in creating hit software. Looking Glass is dependent upon processor speed and graphics card and system advancements, as well as on the coming of Java 3D. What follows is my interview with Hideya Kawahara, creator of Project Looking Glass."
Lexmark accused of installing spyware - ZDNet UK News
Lexmark accused of installing spyware - ZDNet UK News: "Reports on the comp.periphs.printers Usenet newsgroup claim that Lexmark has been planting spyware on its customers' PCs in the form of undocumented software that monitors the use of its printers and silently reports back to a Lexmark-owned company Web site."
Bushed
Bushed: "You've probably already seen the reports of things like the voting machines whose memory cartridges began counting backwards once they'd reached a certain number of votes, the 800-voter Ohio precinct that recorded nearly 4,000 votes for Bush, or the Florida counties where high percentages of registered Democrats nonetheless translated into low percentages of votes for Kerry."
Wired News: House Dems Seek Election Inquiry
Wired News: House Dems Seek Election Inquiry: "Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accountability Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections.
The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards."
Bushed
BushedIn the 2000 election, the problem was that the numbers in Florida (not the only such state but the most obvious) were within the margin for error. This time round, there seem to have been at least two such states – Ohio and New Mexico. This seems to me the key issue: probably no system we ever devise will be perfectly accurate down to a single vote, so there will always be a percentage difference below which the count is unreliable.
Slashdot has been collecting reports, of course, but the central clearinghouse is the Election Incident Reporting System site, where more than 31,000 incidents were logged and counted. The raw numbers don't tell you anything, of course. Many of the logged incidents are minor-league stuff, like people who have been issued with absentee ballots wanting to vote in person instead, or people unable to find their polling places. What matters, and will take much more lengthy analysis, is the pattern of these incidents.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
CJR November/December 2004: Blinded by Science
CJR November/December 2004: Blinded by ScienceHow ‘Balanced’ Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality
By Chris Mooney
On May 22, 2003, the Los Angeles Times printed a front-page story by Scott Gold, its respected Houston bureau chief, about the passage of a law in Texas requiring abortion doctors to warn women that the procedure might cause breast cancer. Virtually no mainstream scientist believes that the so-called ABC link actually exists — only anti-abortion activists do. Accordingly, Gold’s article noted right off the bat that the American Cancer Society discounts the “alleged link” and that anti-abortionists have pushed for “so-called counseling” laws only after failing in their attempts to have abortion banned. Gold also reported that the National Cancer Institute had convened “more than a hundred of the world’s experts” to assess the ABC theory, which they rejected. In comparison to these scientists, Gold noted, the author of the Texas counseling bill — who called the ABC issue “still disputed” — had “a professional background in property management.”
Schneier on Security: The Problem with Electronic Voting Machines
Schneier on Security: The Problem with Electronic Voting MachinesIn the aftermath of the U.S.’s 2004 election, electronic voting machines are again in the news. Computerized machines lost votes, subtracted votes instead of adding them, and doubled votes. Because many of these machines have no paper audit trails, a large number of votes will never be counted. And while it is unlikely that deliberate voting-machine fraud changed the result of the presidential election, the Internet is buzzing with rumors and allegations of fraud in a number of different jurisdictions and races. It is still too early to tell if any of these problems affected any individual elections. Over the next several weeks we'll see whether any of the information crystallizes into something significant.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Big green energy machines - The Industrial Physicist
Big green energy machines - The Industrial Physicist: "A more developed design might circulate oxygen and add methane when needed by local injection to make expansion almost isothermic. Dual cycles, maximum capacity, and changes in temperature in the regenerator with such dense gases all need to be imaginatively considered by physicists and engineers in a grand concourse of designs.
Fortunately for transmitting mechanical power, the high pressures shrink the machinery in a revolutionary way and so permit the turbine to rotate very fast. The generator could then also turn very fast, operating at high frequency, and appropriate power electronics would slow the generated electricity to 60 cycles."
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Monday, November 08, 2004
Is Microsoft Ready to Assert IP Rights over the Internet?
Is Microsoft Ready to Assert IP Rights over the Internet?: "Some of the RFC protocols that Microsoft asserts that it may have IP rights over, such as the TCP/IP protocols and the DNS (Domain Name System), form the very bedrock of the Internet's network infrastructure.
'Microsoft does not specify how this list of protocols was derived and to what extent they have investigated their possible rights holdings over these protocols,' Blunk said. 'The list appears to be a near but not completely exhaustive list of public protocols implemented in Microsoft products."
...
44
"Further, because Microsoft provides no reference to any proof of applicable rights holdings [such as patent numbers], it is impossible to ascertain whether Microsoft indeed has legitimate rights holdings."
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Friday, November 05, 2004
Computer Laboratory - Xen virtual machine monitor
Computer Laboratory - Xen virtual machine monitor: "Modern computers are sufficiently powerful to use virtualization to present the illusion of many smaller virtual machines (VMs), each running a separate operating system instance. Successful partitioning of a machine to support the concurrent execution of multiple operating systems poses several challenges. Firstly, virtual machines must be isolated from one another: it is not acceptable for the execution of one to adversely affect the performance of another. This is particularly true when virtual machines are owned by mutually untrusting users. Secondly, it is necessary to support a variety of different operating systems to accommodate the heterogeneity of popular applications. Thirdly, the performance overhead introduced by virtualization should be small.
Xen is a virtual machine monitor for x86 that supports execution of multiple guest operating systems with unprecedented levels of performance and resource isolation. Xen is Open Source software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. We have a fully functional ports of Linux 2.4 and 2.6 running over Xen, and regularly use it for running demanding applications like MySQL, Apache and PostgreSQL. Any Linux distribution (RedHat, SuSE, Debian, Mandrake) should run unmodified over the ported OS.
In addition to Linux, members of Xen's user community have contributed or are working on ports to other operating systems such as NetBSD (Christian Limpach), FreeBSD (Kip Macy) and Plan 9 (Ron Minnich). A port of Windows XP was developed for an earlier version of Xen, but is not available for release due to licensce restrictions."
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...: "It. Is. A. Federal. Crime.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000871----000-.html:
'Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.'
In the legal application of that rule on a similar case, where the threat was clearly not an actual threat, see here:
Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969).
Point is, she's clearly innocent of any real attempt to kill the president. But what she did was enough to warrant an investigation."
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...: "They can harass a blogger but they couldn't stop Sept 11th? WTF?"
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...
Screenshots...: If you talk bad about President Bush...: "In the so-called 'Land of the Free', the Secret Service can even harass a blogger who pokes fun at President Bush in a weblog or in a satire. This is how she-blogger Annie pleads, and how she mitigates the unenviable situation by erasing all that she has said that 'offended' the-power-that-be in USA (but Google cache remains):"
anniesj: a word to the wise
anniesj: a word to the wise: "For all my LJ-loving friends, this is a word of warning, a word to the wise, and a word of utter exhaustion after the wringer I've been put through in the last twenty-four hours.
A couple of weeks ago, following the last presidential debate, I said some rather inflammatory things about George W. Bush in a public post in my LJ, done in a satirical style. We laughed, we ranted, we all said some things. I thought it was a fairly harmless (and rather obvious) attempt at humor in the face of annoyance, and while a couple of people were offended, as is typical behavior from me, I saw something shiny and forgot about it, thinking that the whole thing was over and done and nothing else would come of what I said.
I was wrong.
At 9:45 last night, the Secret Service showed up on my mother's front door to talk to me about what I said about the President, as what I said could apparently be misconstrued as a threat to his life. After about ten minutes of talking to me and my family, they quickly came to the conclusion that I was not a threat to national security (mostly because we are the least threatening people in the entire world) and told me that they would not recommend that any further action be taken with my case. However, I do now have a file with the FBI that includes my photograph, my e-mail address, and the location of my LJ. This will follow me around for the rest of my life, regardless of the fact that the Secret Service knows that I am not a threat.
Obviously, I cannot link to the original LJ post that I made, because I have removed it from my LJ to protect myself and those who commented in that thread from receiving any further visits from the FBI. I apologized for the miscommunication, though I did *not* apologize for voicing my opinion of George W. Bush. I will never apologize for speaking my mind. I will, however, apologize when I say something wrong way and for unintentionally offending/threatening someone, because I am an extremely nonviolent person.
"
Blogger gets night visit from US Secret Service
Blogger gets night visit from US Secret Service: "Secret Service came a-knockin' on Annie at 9:45 PM, but arrived quickly at the conclusion that she wasn't a threat to National Security, more a chick living at home with her mum. Nonetheless, they made sure she got a file at the FBI including her photo, email, and medical records. I guess those boys really like to give the full service.
Agents told her that they had received a report (presumably saying that someone had dared to question the motives, sanity or intellectual capacity of The War President) from another blogger who had been reading Annie's site, and therefore followed up. Achtung!
The tale is a lesson to us all. Number one lesson is that what happens on the internet can and will bite you on the ass in real life. We've seen it time and time again with internet affairs and sordid emails - now, you'd better watch where you put your political commentating toes. Number two is that no matter how cool and geeky the community - and LiveJournal is both - there will always be someone that ruins it for everyone else. And they will probably be Republican."
Australian software checks US voter fraud
Australian software checks US voter fraud:
PHPSurveyor, a PHP based online survey tool is being used by Verified Voting Foundation, a non-partisan body which was set up after the 2000 US elections, as part of their Election Incident Reporting System.
Jason Cleeland, the developer of the application told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was really excited that his application was being used to monitor electronic voting machines which are being used have no paper trail.
The unbearable Internet Explorerness of configuration
The unbearable Internet Explorerness of configurationLose the JavaScript, Active-X, VB Script, applets…and make the damn thing so simple any browser can read it. This cannot be impossible, given that – again – it's not so long since you could do the whole thing with Telnet and text.
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• Key Players in the Plame Affair