www.slackware.com site down...

http://freenodeslack.blogspot.com/2009/07/slackwarecom-site-down-slackware-v130.html

Apparently, the official Slackware Linux website has been down since sunday july 5th.

I did not notice this until yesterday, and today I found out why...

The link above links to a slackware-dedicated blog, where the author describes the ordeal as a possible revamp of the site due to the release of Slackware v13. Interesting ;D

P.S. - Surfing the Slackware Linux Google Group seems to verify this as the reason for the takedown.

OS X utsatt for botnet-orm

http://www.itavisen.no/811025/forste-botnet-for-os-x

Nå er det i hvert fall ikke trygt å bruke Mac lenger...

Mac / Apple har siden 70-tallet vært trendsetter på data-markedet, så det var ikke et spørsmål om "hvordan" eller "hvis", men "når". Visste det bare var et tidsspørsmål. Og det har jeg sagt lenge, så lenge det finnes en merkbar markedsandel med folk som bruker visse typer systemer, vil disse da bli mål for cyber-kriminelle (crackere).

Botnets har lenge vært et problem med Windows-maskiner. Mac-folket har lenge ment at noe tilsvarende ikke kan skje med deres maskiner. Dels fordi de er en minoritet få virusmakere gidder å bry seg med, og dels på grunn av at Apples operativsystem OS X er bygget på Unix - en plattform som av mange regnes som sikrere enn Microsofts.

En nedlastbar fiks fra Apple, kalt "iWorksServices Trojan Removal Tool", kan hentes ned herfra.

For å videre beskytte Mac- / Apple-maskiner fra slike trusler, bør en installere anti-virus og evt. anti-spionvare programmer (og her gjelder KISS-prinsippet, mer enn ETT anti-virus eller anti-spionvare program på samme maskin byr på mer problemer enn nytte).

The "Conficker.C"-hype

I've read like tenfolds of articles both international and national about the suspected D-day, April 1st 2009. It is rumored that over 10 million computers will release a tidal-wave of DDoS-attacks on a global scale...

However, if you secured your home-setup earlier/today (like I have), you SHOULD be safe, for the time being...

Time will show.

But... to give you an idea about HOW malicious this worm is, Microsoft has promised a $250.000 reward for anyone able to provide information about it's creator(s). So, it's a serious issue.
Or...is it? ;P (April 1st 2009?? C'mon...)

---

For mine norske lesere, her er en ganske detaljert artikkel om "problemet": http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/03/31/kultur/tekno/internett/virus/5549841/

For å utfylle litt mer ut ifra det engelske innlegget ovenfor:
Er du sikret mot Botnets, som f.eks. ved å bruke OpenDNS istedenfor en lokal navnetjener (router, gateway, e.l. som cacher navnespørringer lokalt, utgjør en sikkerhetsrisiko på IP addressering mot Internett), så er du rimelig sikret i tilfelle noe av dette finner sted. Lite trolig, siden det dreier seg om 1. april...

Restrictions, copyright, modification

After watching the NUUG's webcast video of RMS's (Richard M. Stallman, FSF) 2009 Oslo copyright speech, I had a lot of ideas and opinions floating around.

What he said about proprietary software vendors implementing backdoors, malicious functions and spy-features did not surprise me, but what he said about Microsoft's latest systems DID.

I knew that they have always put in security-features making them able to update and/or fetch debug information about crashes and bugs.

But having the ability and non-authorized access to modify personal computer systems without the user knowing, pissed me off. You can definitely assume I'M not going to use neither Windows 7 or any of the Vista-flavours.

I use Windows XP Professional @ work, because I have to, not because I prefer to. That's it. My netbook runs Xandros (modified Debian), my server/desktop @ home runs Slackware Linux (-Current). And, as soon as it hits the electronics stores, I'm going for an Android-powered smartphone ;)

Flash memory

After getting my new Asus Eee 900 PC, I was curious to research flash memory, to see the current state of events surrounding this technology.

Among a few of my notations, I learned that non-volatile memory, is memory that can retain it's information even when power is cut. [ Thus SSDs (Solid State Drives) are non-volatile, because they are supposed to replace the now obsolete magnetic-disk storage format. ]

Another interesting fact about solid state memory, memory chips and programmable memory chips, is the little known fact about how they originated.., or, why they were developed in the first place.

What I found didn't really shock me at all. Like with everything else technology-related, the U.S. Air Force had it's cold, damp hands in the mix.

PROMs (Programmable Read Only Memory chips) were developed at American Bosch Arma Corporation in Garden City, New York as a request from the United States Air Force to serve as a flexible and more reliable way of storing targeting constants (ballistic targeting vectors / calculations) in ICBMs (or, InterContinental Ballistic Missiles).

PROMs are defined as "non-volatile permanent storage devices", as they are programmed after creation, by shorting fuses in the chip to state binary digit programming [1(on) or 0(off)]. Or, to be blunt: PROMs usually contain machine-level instruction-sets to execute pre-defined tasks.

But as with a lot of technology, permanent storage is not a preferred every day method for the average Joe. So, later years were dedicated to develop dynamic flash memory.

In modern flash memory, the chips should be/are able to re-write/delete data up to several times without any significant drops in performance.

Norsk film i spillmarkedsføring

Ein! Zwei! Die!

Kult å se at spillbransjen i USA faktisk følger med på internasjonal kultur :) Banner på at jeg kjenner en kompis med spillet som kommer til å bli ekstatisk for tilleggene ;P

Activision har nå besluttet seg for å markedsføre krigsspillet "Call of Duty: World at War" med den norske spille-/splatterfilmen "Død Snø" av Tommy Wirkola ;P

http://www.itavisen.no/807614/norsk-film-i-spillmarkedsforing

NAV / Jobb / Ledighet

"...venter doblet arbeidsledighet, nærmere 100.000 arbeidsledige ved utgangen av året..."

"...ikke siden 1988-90 har det vært registrert en like sterk ledighet som nå..."

http://www.dinside.no/807187/venter-doblet-arbeidsledighet

WHERE IS THE "ANY" BUTTON!?

...the most common problem with PCs today is between the monitor and the keyboard, aka Joe User.

Joe, you see, is dumb. You'd think that in the 21st century with no one under the age of 40 able to remember when there were no PCs and no one under the age of 30 who can recall when there was no Web, that we'd be over basic computer illiteracy. You'd be wrong.

While Windows is insecure by design, you can stop most of its security problems just by patching it on a regular basis and using an anti-viral program. So simple even a chimp could do it right? Well maybe a chimp could, but not Joe User.

[Joe User => not a geek/nerd.]

http://blogs.computerworld.com/its_time_to_start_issuing_pc_licenses

"An idiot's view of open source"

blogs.bomputerworld.com skrev:

"...Keen, forfatteren av boken, 'Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is killing our culture', argumenterer at 'En av de veldig få positive konsekvensene av den pågående finansielle smittsomheten vil være et skarpt kulturelt skifte i vår holdning mot den økonomiske verdien av vårt arbeid. Storbredt arbeidsløshet og en dyp økonomisk nedgangsperiode inbefatter den mest effektive motgiften mot de utopiske idealene til åpen kildekode radikalene.'

Og p.g.a. dette vil 'Historikere se tilbake på åpen kildekode manien mellom 2000 og 2008 med en miks av skepsis og fornøyelse. Hvordan kunne tusenvis av folk donert bort deres kunnskaper til Wikipedia eller blogosfæren gratis? Hva var det med Internett som gjorde så mange av oss irrasjonelle om vår økonomiske verdt?'

Problemet med dette argumentet er enkelt: det er et 'strå-mann argument'. Det finnes nesten ingen åpen kildekode radikaler, og av deer det meget få (hvis noen i det hele tatt) som jobber gratis.

Hvem som helst som virkelig følger åpen kildekode utviklingen vet at majoriteten av koden som blir bidratt er skrevet av betalte profesjonelle utviklere. Som ofte påpekt tidligere i artikler på nett, er det mest populære åpen kildekode prosjektet, Linux, skrevet av industri-Amerika.

I Linux kjerne versjon 2.6.24, for eksempel, vet vi at, minst, 74.2% er skrevet av betalte utviklere. Vi kan til og med koke det ned så langt at vi kan navngi de ti øverste på utviklingslisten, i rekkefølge: Red Hat 11.2%; Novell 8.9%; IBM 8.3%; Intel 4.1%; Linux Foundation 2.6%; uavhengige linux konsulenter 2.5%; SGI 2.0%; MIPS Technology 1.6%; Oracle 1.3% og MontaVista 1.2% med Google følgende etter mot toppen av topp ti med 1.1%.

Utviklerne i disse selskapene jobber ikke gratis, og aksjeholderne deres forventer å se en sunn profitt. Nå, finnes et ideal her. Er ikke sikker på om jeg ville kalt det "Utopisk" da. Jeg ville kalt det ytterst pragmatisk og praktisk. Hovedidéen i åpen kildekode og dens noe heller radikale forgjenger 'free software' (gratis programvare), er at det er bedre å dele informasjon enn å låse det inn i proprietær mykvare (software).Eller, for å sette det i lys på en måte de fleste vil forstå, i stedenfor å prøve å spise en liten kake hel, den proprietære fremgangen, mener åpen kildekode utviklere at det er bedre å lage en større, bedre kake slik at alles stykker blir like store. Dette er ikke en form for 'pie-in-the-sky' idé. Det virker.Linux Foundation slapp nettopp en studie som viste at Linux-varianten 'Fedora Core 9' ville ha kostet, i form av konvensjonell utviklingskostnad, rett i overkant av 11.75 billioner dollars. Den kombinerte markeds-korken, i denne fiaskoen av et aksjemarked, av topp-selskapene som jobber på Linux, var rett over 400 billioner dollars denne morgenen (23/10/08). Dette høres ikke akkurat ut som Keens sultne og kalde arbeidsløse masser som gir vekk "deres intellektuelle arbeid over Internett i det spekulative håp om å få noe 'bakroms-profitt' igjen" for meg. Microsofts markeds-kork, forresten, var 198 billioner.

Linux er ikke noen form for spesial-tilfelle. Mozilla Corp., selskapet bak Firefox, har en nett-verdi på over $60 millioner per år. Det meste av dette kommer fra deres reklamepartnerskap med Google. OpenOffice er bundet til Sun og IBM. Selskapene investerer i åpen kildekode fordi det er bra for geskjeften, ikke fordi det får dem til å føle seg varme og gode. Individer kan jobbe for åpen kildekode prosjekter fordi det får dem til å føle seg bra, men det holder også et tak over hodet på dem.

Nå finnes det åpen kildekode idealister. Ta, for eksempel, vennen min og topp Samba utvikler, Jeremy Allison. Allison sluttet i Novell fordi han protesterte mot Novells partnerskap med Microsoft. Idealistisk? Ja. Latterlig idealistisk? Nei. Et par uker senere jobbet Allison for Google.

Poenget, hvis en bryr seg med å lete, er like enkelt som nesen i ansiktet ditt. Åpen kildekode er ikke bare en hvilken som helst dum idé. Det er en helt fornuftig måte å utvikle mykvare (software) og tjene penger. Hvis du tenker i andre retningen, vel, beklager, men du har egentlig ikke tatt deg tid eller giddet å virkelig tenke eller se på det 22. århundrets business realiteter.

Skrevet av: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Oversatt av: pizslacker

Original artikkel: http://blogs.computerworld.com/an_idiots_view_of_open_source

Application checker

AppCheck is a testing-application for programs made for linux to check for cross-system portability. AppCheck tests the ELFs, scripts, libraries and more. As a testing framework, it doesn't seem to differentiate itself much from the forerunner of all checking programs: lint. The first program to flag suspicious and non-portable contructs, first appeared in System V Unix version 7 (outside of Bell Labs) in 1979.

But it's what AppCheck does after these checks that makes it stand out. It checks all the components of the program against the Linux Standard Base, AND different distributions listed in the LSB Database. It then displays all of this information on a webpage to make the report more intuitive and structured, and even gives you the opportunity to submit the program directly from the test-program for LSB certification!

After reading about this wonderful piece of software, I was inspired to do more C/C++ programming in my spare time, since AppCheck will spare me a lot of time when it comes to testing.

AppCheck is in no way a perfect checker, it's still in beta, and it cannot check libraries, binaries, and other components that aren't listed in the LSB. But it is a significant step forward for portability development.

** Note however that AppCheck is in no way a debugger **

http://www.linux.com/feature/144170

Anti-Piracy?

Think Free

Richard's Dream

An open book on the subject of freedom.

The book is entitled "Free as in Freedom", and is an interesting read about the hacker who started it all; computer ethics, software freedom, freedom of choice, open standards, open sharing of computer knowledge...

 RMS (Internet alias) is both loved and hated in the open source and free software camps. He has strong beliefs, and does not compromise about his 'freedom'.

MIT AI lab hacker; Richard M. Stallmann's crusade for free software. http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/

"Unquestionably, one of the great seminal figures of the hacker culture" -- Eric Raymond, open source evangelist and author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

Upgrading to Slackware-12.1

A linux.com article reviewing the new Slackware release, click the post title to read.

Linux-Live: Pocket Operating Systems

I've tried a lot of different flavours (Knoppix,Belenix,CentOS,Linux Mint,etc...). And I've always gone back to my favourite every time I've tried a new one, mainly: Slax.

Since it's based on Slackware (of course), it basically gives me all the superuser functionality I demand from my computer systems, while also providing a simple (non-hardware-accelerated) KDE desktop and basic built-in applications.

I've used Slax before, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the storage mounting system not being fully configured in v5, to allow mounting of USB storage devices automatically (yes, I prefer _some_ automation for basic tasks). Version 5 also incorporated a package system (much like Slackware), only, the packages were built as modules, to be easily added/removed on-the-go. This was also one of the features I did not favour very much, as it would lock up the system at times as i was removing package-modules while the system was actively running X, but this also seems to have been fixed in v6.

Features:

• distribution has reached a more stable level compared with earlier releases.
  
• it is based on Slackware Linux 12.1 (running the 2.6.24.5 Linux kernel).
  
• system size is now reduced to a mere 195 MegaBytes, thanks to the merging of 7Zip-compression (LZMA) into the squashfs filesystem.
• it now has the ability to determine if it is running from a writable or unwritable media, and saves system configs accordingly.
  
• it includes an X Window System and a collection of general network-enabled applications (browser,mail,chat,ftp,games,utilities,etc.), all ready to be used out-of-the-box.
  
• it now includes gcc out-of-the-box, giving the ability to compile third party software, which can then be packaged into software-modules afterwards for quick installation/removal.
• software-packages do not occupy a lot of space thanks to 7Zip-compression (modules now has the '.lzm' file extension).
  
• installation of additional software is easy using the new 'Slax Module Manager', grabbing software-modules from online software repositories, or local media.
• it has procured a large user community, useful for third party support.
  
• and it can be burned onto a CD-R or copied to a USB memory dongle like most other linux-live distros, but apart from other distros, it includes very intuitive installers for these tasks as well.
  

A definate must for OS techies, and Linux followers. I'm building a USB-key version to carry around, keeping my favourite OS of choice close on my person at all times to be easily deployed on a system running other OSes I don't usually favour that much... ;P

It is also a very powerful rescue-tool, allthough you CAN use the Slackware install-disc to do the same tasks, Slax lets you boot into an X environment whereas Slackware restricts to the command line.

Første Linux-innlegg denne mnd, ;P

Kom på at jeg har skrevet relativt lite om Linux i det siste...til å være meg, er dette heller unormalt XD Men etter å ha lest artikkel på hardware.no om den første Linux kjernen som kom ut i år, ble jeg ivrig igjen.

http://www.hardware.no/artikler/aarets_forste_linux-kjerne/47816

Artikkelen trekker frem punkter som at 2.6.24-kjernen nå har bedre støtte for flere forskjellige prosessorer, og at koden for 32- og 64-bit databehandling nå er forent i samme kildekode.

Til sammen ble kodeendringene i denne utgivelsen på rundt 300.000 linjer, laget av 950 forskjellige utviklere fra 130 forskjellige selskaper rundt om i verden. ^_^

Extending your laptop battery life on Linux

Phoronix has an interesting article on using PowerTOP from Intel and your graphics card control-panel utility to extend the battery-power lifespan. PowerTOP analyzes the system it runs on, and from the results, it recommends and even configures the system-changes and power consumption features needed to utilize the battery-capacity in an optimized fashion, like avoiding idle wake-up calls in hardware and such.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_battery_life&num=1

My notebook's battery has already seen it's last days. But I'll be buying a new one soon, and then I'll be experimenting with this to see if I can extend beyond the 2 hours specified in the manual (that is to say: running the machine with Windows XP with all features turned on).

NOC: Non-Official Cover (espionage)

I was actually looking for normal operation information on a Network Operation Central (NOC). But I came across this article explaining the espionage aspect of 'NOC'. Interesting stuff.

It is reserved for the situation where agents assume covert roles in an organization without ties to the government for which they work. Such operatives are named in espionage linguo as a NOC (pronounced "knock").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-official_cover

"...a catch 22..."

Catch-22 is a term coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, describing a paradox in a law, regulation or practice in which one is a victim regardless of the choice one makes. Just wanted to find out where the expression "Catch 22" originated from.

I knew the basis, like in a "hopeless" situation, any choices made would generate a negative lunge on oneself.

Og på Norsk: Catch-22 er en betegnelse fremstilt av Joseph Heller i novellen "Catch-22", som beskriver et paradoks i en lov, regulasjon eller praksis hvor en blir offer uavhengig av hvilke beslutninger en tar.

Ville bare finne ut hvor uttrykket "Catch 22" kom fra. Visste egentlig at det handlet om f.eks. en "håpløs" situasjon, hvor alle alternativer ville gi et negativt utfall.

Men da jeg leste litt mer om dette, viste det seg at det finnes allerede, mange fastsatte beskrivelser for mange logiske situasjoner. Ble enda mer engasjert når jeg så uttrykket "Høna eller egget?", det fortalte en del om dette engelske uttrykket.

Vi har vel mange uttrykker om slike situasjoner i det Norske språk? Ikke vet jeg.

Det jeg ble mest interessert i var data-avsnittet om "Deadlock" (dødlås) i data-terminologi, oversatt fra engelsk:

I data vitenskap, er en deadlock (dødlås) en situasjon hvor to konkurrerende prosesser venter på en ressurs den andre har kontroll over. Hver prosess vil bare frigi ressursen den har kontroll over dersom den mottar kontroll over ressursen den venter på. Derfor, vil en ressurs bare bli tilgjengelig for en av prosessene dersom den andre frigir sin ressurs - som ingen vil gjøre, inntil den mottar kontroll over ressursen den andre har.

For eksempel, la oss si prosess A har en minneblokk, og trenger disk-aksess. Imens, har prosess B kontroll over disk-aksessen, og trenger å legge sin informasjon i minnet - spesifikt, trenger den minneblokken prosess A kontrollerer. Prosess A vil holde på minneblokken og vente på at disk-aksess blir tilgjengelig. Begge prosesser er avhengig av hverandre, og vil derfor vente på hverandre uendelig inntil datamaskinen legger merke til deadlocken, velger et deadlock-offer og tvinger offeret til å frigi ressursene sine.

Denne situasjonen blir derfor en ond sirkel og er derfor et godt eksempel på en Catch-22. Denne typen situasjon har også blitt referert til som en "deadly embrace" (dødelig omfavnelse). En deadlock er, selvfølgelig, en uønsket situasjon i et datasystem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic)

Everex "Cloudbook" running gOS ("Google Linux")

Everex Cloudbook:

gOS:

From the Everex website:

Think CloudBook

Experience the Ultimate in Mobility 9 Inches, 2 pounds, 5 hours of battery life. Surf, email, blog, IM, Skype, compute. Cloud computing makes it simple and easy for everyone.

Based on the latest gOS Rocket operating system, the ultra-mobile Everex PC comes with popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype, OpenOffice.org and more.

Find your $399 CloudBook at Walmart.com and ZaReason.com.

Additional Preinstalled and Linked Software
Mozilla Firefox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xing Movie Player, RythemBox, Faqly, Facebook and OpenOffice.org 2.3 (includes WRITER, IMPRESS, DRAW, CALC, BASE)

Hardware Specifications
1.2GHz, VIA C7®-M Processor ULV, 512MB DDR2 533MHz, SDRAM, 30GB Hard Disk Drive, 7" WVGA TFT Display (800 x 480), VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics, VIA High-Definition Audio, 802.11b/g, (1) 10/100 Ethernet Port, (1) DVI-I Port, (2) USB 2.0 Ports, (1) 4-in1 Media Card Reader, (1) .3MP Webcam, (1) Headphone/Line-Out Port, (1) Microphone/Line-In Port, (1) Set of Stereo Speaker, (1) Touchpad, (1) 4-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

http://www.everex.com/

Specifications:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8245470#Specifications

What's even more exciting about Everex, is their desktop computer featuring gOS, the "gPC".

I think "free computing" is becoming more and more attractive to a lot of users in the US. It's always been an accepted principal to use open source software in Norway, authorities are even considering "open formats" for official state documents nowadays. We've even seen groups and initiatives form as a result of open source software being more and more talked about in the media, etc.

I think this is all really encouraging.

Since I use all-Google web-apps for my daily 'webbing', this wouldn't be a bad choice, despite the extra $200 compared to the OLPC. This unit actually CAN do computer tasks, as well as basic gaming and emulation. Worth mentioning is also the 5 hour battery life expectancy, this really won my vote.

"gOS" on the web:
http://www.thinkgos.com/

gOS mezmerizes me. It is a complete platform to do basic computing, as well as development! ;) Includes desktop-shortcuts to well-known online resources and web-applications, from Google online apps, to web-based instant messaging services like meebo.com, and a lot more. Native, locally installed applications and environments include: Openoffice.org for office tasks, Enlightenment as a window manager giving the GUI a really updated and fresh look, the standardized web-suite from Mozilla; Firefox (browsing) and Thunderbird (mail), Pidgin and Skype for P2P instant messaging and the GIMP for image manipulation.

gOS provides a complete desktop environment for general use, without overloading the system with unnecessary overbloated software-packages.

gOS IS considered beta-software, but computer-manufacturers dispatching systems with gOS have all given positive feedback from customers, and the first stock at Walmart were sold out at launch and over 2000+ developers downloaded the distribution in the first 48 hours of launch. All good notions about this system. And using gOS, gives you freely available system updates, nice ;-) open source at it's best!

Allthough I'm still waiting for Acer's contribution to the Ultra Mobile-scene, this candidate has won my attention for the time being... and sporting all this hardware for under 2200 NOK, not bad at all ;P

In comparison, my Playstation 3 40GB cost almost double that.