Posts by Andrew Wigglesworth 31 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jan 2008
"The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information."
- UK head of Public Sector Sales, Google, wroting on Linkedin.
You don't in fact seem to be lacking in imagination. You imagined a whole scenario of "pretty switched on people", rather than the reality of a craven government intent on more and more privatisation and damn the consequesnces.
Github used to go on about how they were treading the line between "open source" and "non-open source", that the core would be non-free but "open source" etc and other nonsense in order to enforce a charge for the editor.
They've changed their mind, I suspect that after coming under some serious fire from many quarters.
It'll now be proper free software using an MIT style licence.
Congratulations Github. You know it was the right thing to do.
Hmm, I'd be a little careful with your statements if you "don't want to start a war" and you seem pretty set in your views for someone who who is "genuinely curious".
Still, I'll try to take you at your word :-)
What do I do with my Debian GNU/Linux box?
Good grief, many things including all the ones that you suggest have no "decent software."
Just because you don't recognise the name of a piece of software or it's not a supposed "industry standard" (what a loaded and misleading phrase) does not mean it is not "decent".
I record and edit audio and edit video using some very powerful and easy to use software.
I edit images using some very powerful and easy to use software.
I don't personally use "office suites" but I know people who do use Libre Office, including in businesses on systems I support.
I also do all that usual web browsing, email, IRC, messaging etc. I play just about any video or audio file (I haven't had one that doesn't play for years), I watch Youtube with free software (ie. Gnash and HTML 5 not Adobe Flash), I run servers for websites, I build run and maintain websites ... and more.
Actually, for what I do on networks, servers, version control, bits of scripting and code to do jobs, a tiling window manager, Emacs ... I could go on and on. When I see a non-modular non-free system like Windows or a another proprietary system like OSX, I really do wonder how I could do it all and am glad that I don't havbe to.
Most of all, GNU/Linux gives you a system that is truly discoverable. You can happily stay on the GUI (and many do), or you can start learning more about the system and setting it up to do what you want it to. There is nothing off limits, no "End User Licences" and secret software and codes. It is a free software (as in free speech) system that can be shared and adapted by everyone.
With a new Debian Stable release I don't "wait for bugs to be sorted out". This is because Debian is different from most other software projects, ie. it releases when ready, not according to a strict timetable.
Therefore, Debian Stable should have as many bugs in it now (just released) as in 6 months or a years time. ie. none.
Of course no software is bug free, but the point is that Debian does not release and then let things get reported and settle down over a perion. It is meant to be installed right away as it is "ready".
So, read the release notes, and if that's OK, get upgrading :-)
Not quite right.
Testing is not a "rolling release", it is where the next release of Debian (ie. stable) is developed. Therefore, early in the development cycle it will get lots of software version upgrades and latr on much, much fewer. Its purpose is to be gradually developed into a new stable release.
Unstable is what you may call a "rolling release" if you like. It gets the newest software packaged for Debian, from where it may be accepted into Debian Testing depending on the development cycle etc.
If something goes wrong in Testing then it can take a while for fixes to be made since it is the testing arena for new releases. In Unstable fixes are pretty fast.
Testing now has a security team, Unstable does not, but then again, fixes are pretty quick since they come through software updates.
I run Unstable (also called Sid) on my desktop and have never had a real problem with it. I run Debian Stable on my servers as that's the version severs should be running if possible.
Patent exchanges and deals go on all the time between these companies. Are Microsoft going to release the *full* details of the deals that they've made or just give out propaganda statements detailing cherry picked parts?
What's the phrase? Being "economical with the truth".
In any case, so many of these patents are utter garbage handed out by the US patent office. They harm innovation and are simply used as tools to try to maintain or create harmful monopolies.
Software should not be patented.
What an utterly bizarre article. Hopping around like some mad grasshopper between unrelated subjects and not understanding them.
Linux isn't an operating system (it's an operating system kernel), so what the fate or direction of Linux on smartphone operating systems has to do directly and with the fate of the GNU/Linux operating system on servers and desktop computers is beyond me.
Someone may have forked Linux?
Well butter my backside and call me a scone ... what on earth are you on? Of course someone's forked Linux. Just about every GNU/Linux distribution patches and effectively forks Linux. The GNU/GPL licence allows people to do this, it's something they are supposed to be able to do. It's not a problem, it's the whole point!
And btw., read the GNU GPL, it's easy, it's not very long and you may start to understand it's provisions for sharing code when you distribute software covered by the GNU GPL.
I once thought that the Register might have a few reporters who had a clue.
Well, RMS is proven right again, we should be saying GNU/Linux when talking about the operating system.
GNU is an operating system that can use Linux as it's kernel.
To other posters (just a couple of them) ...
No, you can't do rm -rf, that would require the GNU operating system and GNU rm. Look it up.
Run "Linux" and then Firefox and then load Linux etc recursively. No, because that would take the GNU/Linux operating system at each level.
Sorry to get annoyed about this but how are we supposed to have any sort of sensible conversation about the very interesting thing that this guy has done when people's understanding has been so corrupted.
Well, an epic fail on the part of almost every poster and the writer of the article.
Unity is *not* a replacement for Gnome. Unity runs on Gnome. It is a shell that Canonical have developed because they don't like the Gnome shell. Want the Gnome shell? Use that instead.
This should be rather embarrassing for a "tech website", but sadly seems par for the course.
The one thing that I was most aware of when I was setting up dedicated servers was... don't let anyone else in.
Personally, I don't use FTP, all ports are blocked except 80 and a non-typical port for ssh. I use a ssh fingerprint (whatever it's called, I no "Guru") that means that only my computers are allowed in on ssh. Also I took time to limit/disable anything that I didn't need and chose a good strong password for when I want to su to root.
For me, that's all rather obvious. there's basically only me going onto the systems and *no-one* can get on with a simple username/password or chose their own stupid passwords.
Sadly, the world is not all that simple and as Michael Fremlins rightly points out, users can and will choose stupid passwords letting the bad guys into logins (ie. ordinary users) where they can run stuff like PHP, Ruby etc which are perfectly capable of running a web server.
How is this stopped on large multi-user systems? I'm not sure, but I suspect that it is possible... then again, as a "one man band" non-guru that's why I only run a small amount of my own stuff.
Moral. Read, learn, take advice and maintain your web server and know your limits, oh, and write down your good strong passwords :-)
The point of the research was not "lets prove that it's not a good idea to put an unpatched Widows computer on the net". After all, these computers were *meant* to invite infection.
This experiment demonstrated in a simple (headline grabbing) manner that despite over ten years of the Windows security industry and many fixes by Microsoft there are still so many *already* compromised Windows computers on the net that that a honeypot computer will be infected extraordinarily quickly.
Look at the research, these attacks weren't being made from some bunker in Siberia, the vast, vast majority were from the same net block that the computer was connected to. ie. ordinary peoples computers connected to the same ISP.
So forget about how great your computer practice is, or how you think people "ought" to use computers, it's not about *you*.
This is a peek into the real world of millions of Windows systems herded into botnets, spreading worms, compromising peoples privacy and security, degrading peoples experience on computers and the internet, and a certain part of the computer industry that seems either unwilling or incapable of solving it.
Obviously the Union does, representing the interests of it's members.
Considering the evidence so far (inconclusive as it is) it would be irresponsible for the Union not to be concerned and want further study. In fact if they did not do anything then the Union full-timers could legitimately be taken to task by their membership.
I am not saying that IBM, Intel, AMD et al are the equivalent of Turner and Newall but the Union obviously sees the dangers.
Turner and Newall were the company that wheedled and lied about the dangers of asbestos; which the government also knew about, but did nothing to protect the workers for decades.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwest/series2/asbestos_victims_asbestosis_rochdale_turner_newall.shtml
http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/community/rochdale_150/work/s/510/510671_global_empire_of_crown_jewel_left_town_bitter_legacy.html
http://www.lkaz.demon.co.uk/ban37.htm
Compensation after the fact is all very well (if it can be won or the victims do not die first), but it is far better not to have peoples lives destroyed in the first place.
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The Unions, the people who gave you the weekend.
You can pay just about any utility bill at the Post Office. You even get a receipt which is better than some banks...
I have internet with Zen who seem to accept payment by almost any method, though I don't see any mention of Flainian Pobble Beads on their website.
I do have a bank account (with the Co-op/Smile) but to I avoid Credit/Debit cards and Direct Debits. I don't go as far as AC above as I do pretty much trust the Co-op to look after my money.
going up to the school computer room (this was 1982 or so) and playing Elite.
Our school also had a Cambridge Machines computer with a z80 chip and a FLOPPY DISK DRIVE!!!
It was all black, on it's own trolly, we thought it the coolest thing we'd ever seen :-D
We used to play around with it using turtle.
going up to the school computer room (this was 1982 or so) and playing Elite.
Our school also had a Cambridge Machines computer with a z80 chip and a FLOPPY DISK DRIVE!!!
It was all black, on it's own trolly, we thought it the coolest thing we'd ever seen :-D
We used to play around with it using turtle.
"The article doesn't say "Open Source" (note the capitalizations). The article uses lower-case references to "open source" throughout.
Contrary to increasingly popular belief, Stallman & Co. did _NOT_ invent the concept of opening up the source code to one's applications. I regret to inform you that "Open Source" is not a f*cking registered trademark"
<sarcasm> You really don't know what you're talking about do you?</sarcasm>
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