- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Checking CDR
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Those of us on cyberpass.net are not getting mail this morning so I've subbed to algebra and ssz to see if the x-posting is working.

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None
by Mr. Nobody 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: sameer <sameer(a)c2.org> > Cc: don(a)cs.byu.edu, cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 09:25:52 -0800 (PST) > > > I think that there are several. The one at CMU can be reached > > at http://anonymizer.cs.cmu.edu:8080/open.html. I thought that > > Sameer had one at c2.org, but a quick look at his web site didn't > > turn up anything. > > c2.org will be hosting the anonymizer shortly. We can't > exactly run it off of our T1 though, so we have to wait a little while > until we get T3 access. Is the source code for this anonymizer publicly available? Thanks.

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CAQ - Secret FISA Court Violates Rights (fwd)
by Brad Dolan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Subject: CAQ - Secret FISA Court Violates Rights C O V E R T A C T I O N I N F O R M A T I O N B U L L E T I N ========================================== CovertAction Quarterly has won numerous awards for investigative journalism. It is read around the world by investigative reporters, activists, scholars, intelligence buffs, news junkies, and anyone who wants to know the news and analysis behind the soundbites and headlines. Recommended by Noam Chomsky; targeted by the CIA. Each article in the 64-page magazine, which is in its 16th year of publication, is extensively footnoted and accompanied by photographs and graphics. ============================== For a single issues send $6. A one year subscription: US $22; / Canada/Mexico $27; Latin America/Europe $33; / Other areas $35. Please send check or money order in $US to: CAQ, 1500 Massachusetts Ave. #732 , Washington, DC 20005, USA Phone: 202-331-9763 / Fax: 202-331-9751 / E-mail: caq(a)igc.apc.org ================================================================= THE SECRET FISA COURT: RUBBER STAMPING ON RIGHTS by Philip Colangelo Part 1 of 3 SEVEN JUDGES ON A SECRET COURT HAVE AUTHORIZED ALL BUT ONE OF OVER 7,500 REQUESTS TO SPY IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY. THEY MEET IN SECRET, WITH NO PUBLISHED ORDERS, OPINIONS, OR PUBLIC RECORD. THOSE SPIED ON MAY NEVER KNOW OF THE INTRUSION. NOW, CLINTON HAS EXPANDED THE POWERS TO INCLUDE NOT ONLY ELECTRONIC, BUT PHYSICAL SEARCHES. The aftershock of the Oklahoma City bombing sent Congress scurrying to trade off civil liberties for an illusion of public safety. A good ten weeks before that terrible attack, however with a barely noticed pen stroke President Bill Clinton virtually killed off the Fourth Amendment when he approved a law to expand the already extraordinary powers of the strangest creation in the history of the federal judiciary. *2 Since its founding in 1978, a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA rhymes with ice -a) has received 7,539 applications to authorize electronic surveillance within the U.S. In the name of national security, the court has approved all but one of these requests from the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. *3 Each of these decisions was reached in secret, with no published orders, opinions, or public record. The people, organizations, or embassies spied on were not notified of either the hearing or the surveillance itself. The American Civil Liberties Union was not able to unearth a single instance in which the target of a FISA wiretap was allowed to review the initial application. Nor would the targets be offered any opportunity to see transcripts of the conversations taped by the government and explain their side of the story. Without access to such materials, said Kate Martin of the ACLU, targets of FISA searches are denied any meaningful opportunity to contest the basis for the execution of the FISA search. *4 ======================================== OPEN-ENDED SURVEILLANCE When Clinton signed Executive Order 12949 on February 9, the frightening mandate of the FISA, court was greatly expanded: It now has legal authority to approve black-bag operations to authorize Department of Justice (DoJ) requests to conduct physical as well as electronic searches, without obtaining a warrant in open court, without notifying the subject, without providing an inventory of items seized. The targets need not be under suspicion of committing a crime, but may be investigated when probable cause results solely from their associations or status: for example, belonging to, or aiding and abetting organizations deemed to pose a threat to U.S. national security. Furthermore, despite a lowered standard for applying the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure than is necessary in other U.S. courts,5 under the 1995 expansion, evidence gathered by the FISA court may now be used in criminal trials. Previously, evidence was collected and stockpiled solely for intelligence purposes. ========================================================== LEGALIZING THE AMES SEARCH Granting new powers to the FISA court was accomplished quietly and treated as a non-event in the national media. The lack of reporting was somehow fitting, though, following as it did the silent debate last year when Congress rubberstamped the annual Intelligence Authorization Act. *6 Some legal minds found the whole exercise positively refreshing. The fact that this was done with a minimum of fuss and posturing on both sides, and without having to have a debate that tries to roll up the corners of classified information is very impressive, cheered former NSA General Counsel Stewart Baker. *7 Reportedly, the Clinton administration had not always been enthusiastic about expanding the court's powers. Like its predecessors, it operated under the assumption that the executive already had inherent authority to exempt itself from Fourth Amendment constraints and could order warrantless searches to protect national security. Nonetheless, the government avoided allowing this inherent authority to be tested in the courts. *8 Then along came Aldrich Ames. The spy case proved a convenient vehicle on which to hitch expansion of state power. It also offered a glimpse at the state-of-the-art domestic counterintelligence techniques that might well be turned on an activist group near you. Following months of electronic and physical surveillance which included a break-in of Ames' car and searches through his office and family trash FBI agents were finally turned loose in the early morning hours of October 9, 1993. They didn't `pick' locks like in the movies; they made their own keys. Among other agents in the FBI, the consensus was unanimous: The tech agents were geniuses. *9 Thanks to a warrant authorized by Attorney General Janet Reno, a team of agents from the sprawling National Security Division had permission to enter the Ames home in Arlington, Va.10 There was only one minor problem. The attorney general of the United States does not have the authority to order a warrantless physical search of a citizen's home, argued Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University National Law Center. The Aldrich Ames search in my view was obviously and egregiously unconstitutional. 11 Other civil liberties lawyers agree with this evaluation, and the Justice Department itself was concerned enough about the question to refer to this problem when it negotiated a deal with Ames in order to avoid trial. While Ames was sentenced to life in prison, his wife Rosario received five years. We didn't get to the point of litigation, I regret to say, said Ames' lawyer Plato Cacheris. The problem was that Ames very much wanted to see that his wife was treated a little more softly than he was being treated. *12 Now eager to put a stamp of judicial impartiality on the hazy executive branch doctrine of inherent authority, the Justice Department immediately got behind the bill to expand the FISA court's power. Soon after Ames pleaded guilty last year to spying, administration officials began arguing that adherence to traditional Fourth Amendment protections for American citizens would unduly frustrate counterintelligence efforts against spies operating in the U.S.13 Physical searches to gather foreign intelligence depend on secrecy, argued Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. If the existence of these searches were known to the foreign power targets, they would alter their activities to render the information useless. 14 Gorelick went on to explain that A [traditional] search can only be made when there's probable cause to believe a crime is involved, whereas a national-security search can be made at a substantially earlier stage. We often don't know what we're looking for when we go in, she observed.15 ======================================================

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Re: Phil Z getting through customs
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:21 AM 1/15/96 -0800, Simon Spero wrote: >When I was a student and had long hair, I used to always get questioned >when going throught customs. After graduating, and having normal length >hair, I had a lot less trouble. This seems odd. Logically (okay, I know logic doesn't work with the government) any smuggler is going to try to be as innocuous as possible. He's cut his hair, and shave, and probably wear a tie, etc. Which means the government should pay more attention to.... Oh, never mind! >The strictest customs I've been through is at Lod (Tel Aviv); there the >assumption is that everybody is going to try and bring in at least >some sort of radio/fax machine to avoid the high taxes, so they check all >baggage. They do have the best security team in general though, so it >balances out. Some comedian 15 years or so ago (David Brenner, maybe?) had a joke which went something like this: "The odds of there being a bomb on a commercial airliner is one in a million. The odds of there being TWO bombs on a commercial airliner are one in a _million_million_. Therefore, if you are taking an airplane flight and want to feel REALLY safe....Take a bomb!"

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Re: school filter legislation
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Filtering sex off the Net in schools By Reuters NEWS.COM February 10, 1998, 5:55 a.m. PT URL: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,19002,00.html WASHINGTON--Senate Commerce Committee chairman John McCain (R-Arizona) and Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina), the ranking Democrat on the panel, introduced a bill yesterday to protect children from sexually explicit materials on the Internet at school and in the library. The Commerce committee will hold a hearing on indecency on the Internet today. The legislation would force schools and libraries to filter or block access to some Internet sites in order to qualify for billions of dollars of federal subsidies aimed at bringing more computers into classrooms and public libraries. Under the legislation, schools would have to certify with the Federal Communications Commission that they are using or will use a filtering device on computers with Internet access so that students will not be able to access sexually explicit or other materials deemed "harmful." A school would not be eligible to receive government subsidies for universal access to the Internet unless it met those conditions. To qualify for the subsidies, libraries would be required to use a filtering system on one or more of their computers so that at least one computer would be "suitable for minors' use," McCain's office said. "The prevention lies not in censoring what goes on the Internet, but rather in filtering what comes out of it onto the computers our children use outside the home," McCain said. In a speech on the Senate floor introducing the measure, McCain noted that when the word "teen" was typed into a Web search engine, a site about teen sex was the first search result to appear. Civil liberties groups have criticized efforts to filter access to materials available on the Internet, saying that such technologies often block out data that children need to learn about AIDS prevention and find support for depression and issues related to their sexuality. Hollings said the legislation gave schools and libraries "an added financial incentive to filter children's access to the Internet," adding, "We must tackle this problem of children innocently stumbling onto indecent material while using the Web for legitimate research purposes or face dire consequences." Under the legislation, school and library administrators would be free to choose any filtering or blocking system that would best fit their community standards and local needs. The bill forbids the federal government from making "qualitative judgments about the system a school or library has chosen to implement," according to a summary. Sen. Dan Coats (R-Indiana) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) are also sponsoring the legislation. Story Copyright ® 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Go to Front Door | The Net | Search | Short takes | One Week View Copyright ® 1995-98 CNET, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Re: Spiderspace
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:22 PM 1/16/96, Mike McNally wrote: >Ed Carp writes: > > ... I was under the impression that the only documents that most web >crawlers > > will search are documents that are link-accessible. Are you saying >that this > > isn't true? Are you saying that Alta-Vista will search EVERYTHING that's > > publicly accessible, whether by anonymous FTP or web? > >Ah, but if it hits a site that's set up with a top-level directory >which *does* contain an "index" page but whose server *doesn't* >recognize the index page name, then when you hit the site you >(probably) get one of those server-generated indices. Those things >generally have *everything* in the directory visible (except those >files blocked by the server configuration, usually stuff like emacs >temp files), and so there you go... What I've found are a lot of files which are sitting in directories. I'm not sure I have the terminology down perfectly, but the Alta Vista search reveals a link, I click on it, and I'm in the fairly common "Web access to a file system" situation, where I can click on files, directories, move up and down the directory structure, etc. The files are not "Web documents" in the sense of having been prepared for the Web (with fancy fonts, pictures, etc.), but they are certainly fully accessible via the Web. --Tim We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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[NOISE] Re: Eggs at Customs
by Brad Shantz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May wrote: > Me: "Yes, I have green eggs, and ham, too. The eggs in Paris are especially > fresh this time of year." I would like to announce that from all of the mail I've received about the egg question, Tim receives the special award for the best answer. I would like to say though that at the time I was in Ottawa, it was right during the Quebec Referendum vote. Making a joke about the French (i.e. Parisian eggs) could have stuck me in a little room with a customs officer for much, much longer. Who knows, maybe I was a French Canadian spy!!! hmmmm.... Brad

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Eureka! Wed Feb 11 '98
by eureka＠eureka.abc-web.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Open Source Software - Proposal (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: >From ravage(a)ssz.com Tue Feb 10 10:35:27 1998 From: Jim Choate <ravage(a)ssz.com> Message-Id: <199802101635.KAA02425(a)einstein.ssz.com> Subject: Open Source Software - Proposal To: users(a)ssz.com (SSZ User Mail List) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:35:25 -0600 (CST) Cc: friends(a)ssz.com (Ravage's Friends), stugreen(a)realtime.net X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 3835 Forwarded message: > X-within-URL: http://earthspace.net/~esr/open-source.html > > GOODBYE, "FREE SOFTWARE"; HELLO, "OPEN SOURCE" > > After the Netscape announcement broke in February early 1998 I did a > lot of thinking about the next phase -- the serious push to get "free > software" accepted in mainstream corporate America. And I realized we > have a serious problem with "free software" itself. > > Specifically, we have a problem with the term "free software", itself, > not the concept. I've become convinced that the term has to go. > > The problem with it is twofold. First, it's confusing; the term "free" > is very ambiguous (something the Free Software Foundation's propaganda > has to wrestle with constantly). Does "free" mean "no money charged?" > or does it mean "free to be modified by anyone", or something else? > > Second, the term makes a lot of corporate types nervous. While this > does not intrinsically bother me in the least, we now have a pragmatic > interest in converting these people rather than thumbing our noses at > them. There's now a chance we can make serious gains in the mainstream > business world without compromising our ideals and commitment to > technical excellence -- so it's time to reposition. We need a new and > better label. > > I brainstormed this with some Silicon Valley fans of Linux the day > after my meeting with Netscape (Feb 5th). We kicked around and > discarded several alternatives, and we came up with a replacement > label we all liked: "open source". > > John "maddog" Hall and Larry Augustin, both of the Linux International > Board of Directors, were in on the brainstorming session (though > interestingly enough the term "open source" was suggested by > non-hacker Chris Peterson, observing for the Foresight Institute). > Linus Torvalds himself approved it the following day. And it isn't a > Linux-only thing; Keith Bostic likes it and says he thinks the BSD > community can be brought on board. > > We suggest that everywhere we as a culture have previously talked > about "free software", the label should be changed to "open source". > Open-source software. The open-source model. The open source culture. > The Debian Open Source Guidelines. (In pitching this to corporate > America I'm also going to be invoking the idea of "peer review" a > lot.) > > Bruce Perens has volunteered to register "open source" as a trademark > and hold it through Software in the Public Interest. And RMS himself > has said he'll use the term (though not exclusively) as long as the > Open Source Definition Bruce is working up isn't weaker than the > Debian Free Software Guidelines. > > And, we should explain publicly the reason for the change. Linus has > been saying in "World Domination 101" that the open-source culture > needs to make a serious effort to take the desktop and engage the > corporate mainstream. Of course he's right -- and this re-labeling, as > Linus agrees, is part of the process. It says we're willing to work > with and co-opt the market for our own purposes, rather than remaining > stuck in a marginal, adversarial position. > > It's crunch time, people. The Netscape announcement changes > everything. We've broken out of the little corner we've been in for > twenty years. We're in a whole new game now, a bigger and more > exciting one -- and one I think we can win. > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Back to Eric's Home Page Up to Site Map $Date: 1998/02/10 03:55:36 $ > > > Eric S. Raymond <esr(a)snark.thyrsus.com> >

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New: Linux Weekly News (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: >From ravage(a)ssz.com Tue Feb 10 10:34:50 1998 From: Jim Choate <ravage(a)ssz.com> Message-Id: <199802101634.KAA02399(a)einstein.ssz.com> Subject: New: Linux Weekly News To: users(a)ssz.com (SSZ User Mail List) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:34:40 -0600 (CST) Cc: friends(a)ssz.com (Ravage's Friends), stugreen(a)realtime.net X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 19324 Forwarded message: > X-within-URL: http://www.eklektix.com/lwn/ > LINUX WEEKLY NEWS > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > --> > > Linux Weekly News > > > > Bringing you the latest news from the Linux World. > Dedicated to keeping Linux users up-to-date, with concise news for all > interests > Published February 5, 1998 > > Sections: > Linux articles > Security > Kernel news > Distributions > Ports > Software Development > Tips and tricks > Announcements > > > Leading items > > This is going to be the year of free software. I have honestly come to > believe that. The free software movement is about to make tremendous > gains in respect and mindshare in realms where it has long been > ignored. Big software firms may want to start worrying, because the > world is changing around them. > > Anybody who didn't read Eric S. Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar > paper should go and do so now. It describes the Linux development > model nicely, as well as the reasons for the success of that model. > Netscape has credited this paper with being a crucial influence in > their decision to free the source to their browser. > > As of this writing, Eric is evidently in Silicon Valley discussing > licensing terms with Netscape. The word is that he is also meeting > with several other "leading Silicon Valley CEO's" to discuss the free > software model. One wonders who else may decide to adopt the bazaar > model of development. > > Whether or not other firms follow Netscape in the near future, free > software now has a visibility that was lacking before. Peruse the set > of articles listed below, and you'll see what we mean. This can only > be good for the Linux world, as the validity of its model of > development gains the recognition it deserves. It's looking like > interesting times. > > David Miller, the force behind the Sparc and SGI ports, finally > resurfaced after a longish, low-profile period. To see what he has > been doing, check out the Cobalt Micro page. I don't know anybody who > has actually run one of these cool, blue Linux boxes, but they look > like a fun toy... > > Does unix need to be rescued from the hackers?. This item isn't > particularly new, but Michael Hoffman's article on the need for a > seamless graphical user interface for unix systems is still good food > for thought. Another person, Perry Harrington, would like to replace > the X window system with something better, and which would include a > serious user interface policy. See his page if you would like to > participate. > > Peruse the LWN Archives. > > Our obligatory Linux links page. > > Got some feedback, some news to publish, or something else you would > like to tell us? lwn(a)eklektix.com is our address. > > Or would you like to be notified when new editions of the Linux Weekly > News are published? Click here and send a blank message. > > Please see our contact page for other contact information. > > The permanent site for this page is here. [Articles] > > Linux in the news > > Wired news ran an article on free software last week. The obvious > point of interest was Netscape, but Linux rated some favorable mention > as well. It's a reasonable discussion of the merits of free software > in general. > > Accolades from the Emerald Isle. An article in the Irish Times > financial section is also favorable toward Linux, explicitly as an > alternative to NT. I assume that "Linux remains at the coalface > technologically [...]" is a positive thing... > > There is a four-part series on free software in news.com this week. > It's a reasonably good and sympathetic series, despite its title: > "Socialist Software." > > Many of us have heard the old argument: "There is no technical support > for Linux." Well, then, why has Infoworld awarded its 1997 technical > support award to the Linux community? It's a great bit of recognition > that just because software is free doesn't mean that it's unsupported. > Show this one to your boss. > > Ah yes, and their award for operating systems went to Red Hat 5.0... > > Two other articles in Infoworld: Nicolas Petreley thinks that > Netscape's move could be a winning strategy, while Mark Tebbe talks of > the model used by "a renegade OS such as Linux" and raises, you > guessed it, the spectre of support. > > "[Linux] is emerging as a viable competitor to Microsoft's Windows NT" > according to an article in the New York Times. Note that this site > requires registration now... The old convention of using 'cypherpunks' > for the username and password will get you in, if you don't wish to > register separately. > > The folks at TBTF ran a couple of Linux-related articles this week. > One, dedicated to estimating the size of the Linux community, comes up > with 5-7 million installed Linux systems in the world. > > We are told January's issue of Sky & Telescope has a nice Linux > article in it. We haven't seen it, though; check your local newsstand. > > > CNN's article on top selling software for January includes a reference > to Red Hat Linux. It's number three in the "Business Software > (MS-DOS/OS/2)" section. "Business software" can almost make sense, but > "MS-DOS"??? [Security] A serious X-windows security problem has > been reported in XKB, depending on X11 version and environment, which > can allow local users to exploit a "feature" XDB to execute arbitrary > programs with extra privileges. Quick vulnerability check and fix are > provided in the posting to linux-alert. You can also see Red Hat's > advisory on this bug. > > The AT&T Crowds project has chosen linux for their next target. Crowds > is intended to protect a person's anonymity as they browse the web and > already runs under SunOS, Solaris and Irix. > > The filter program that comes as part of the elm-2.4 package contains > two vulnerabilities, one of which could be remotely exploited. Details > here. > > Michal Zalewski reported a problem with gzexe, part of the gzip > package. Seems it uses predictable filenames in /tmp, which may allow > users to destroy the contents of files on your system. Use of gzexe is > not widespread, but Red Hat recommends upgrading your version of gzip. > [Kernel] The current development kernel version is 2.1.85. It > includes the ability to boot off of MD striped disks, a bunch of SCSI > changes for machines with the IBM MCA bus, bug fixes, and > documentation updates. Thus far, reported problems are few, though > there are evidently some build problems with the MCA SCSI stuff. > > Alan Cox states that TCP is "somewhat broken" in the 2.1.8x series, > "and will remain so until it's fixed." As always with development > kernels, be careful out there. Patches continue to roll in towards a > (still somewhat distant) 2.2 release. > > A stated goal, once development starts on 2.3, is reworking and > cleaning up the sound driver code. Some of you may have noticed that > it can be a bit, um, difficult to configure and make work right. It's > not clear how that development will proceed, but Colin Plumb posted a > good, concise article on some of the issues involved. > > Richard Gooch continues to update his enhancements. The MTRR patch > (MTRR stands for Memory Type Range Registers - now we all understand, > right?), which greatly speeds frame buffer access, is up to rev 1.8 > (against kernel 2.1.84). His "devfs" patch (runtime creation of the > /dev tree) is up to version 18. Both are available from his patch > page. Still no word on when (or if) these patches will go into the > 2.1 kernel. > > Unless you have a multiprocessor machine, be sure not to compile your > kernels with SMP enabled. Recent development kernels seem to be even > less than usually forgiving in this regard; SMP kernels on a > uniprocessor machine can die in weird and unpleasant ways. > Unfortunately, SMP is still the default, and is not a configuration > option; you need to edit the Makefile and comment out the SMP = 1 line > near the beginning. Believe me (voice of experience here) it's an easy > thing to forget... > > Also in the SMP arena is a flurry of activity around IO-APIC use. The > IO-APIC is an interrupt controller on multiprocessor systems which is > able to route interrupts to any CPU, thus helping to create a true > symmetric multiprocessing system. However, each motherboard seems to > do it a little different, leading to one of those bits of hardware > obnoxiousness that takes a long time to sort out. The 2.1.85 kernel > added a document describing IO-APIC for those interested in the > details. > > Is the Linux Maintenance Project dead? The question was raised this > week, since the web pages have not been updated in recent times. The > answer is that the maintainer is busy, and some new ways of running > the web pages are being worked out. Expect some activity there in the > not-too-distant future. > > William Stearns is working on a program to automate the process of > building a new kernel. Check out his web page for more info. Since > we're a weekly publication, chances are we'll be behind a rev or two > on the kernel release by the time you read this page. Up-to-the-second > information can always be found at LinuxHQ. [DISTRIBUTIONS] > > Debian > > Yes, it's true! Debian is dumping dselect! From the recent mention on > debian-announce, the new package manager meant to replace dselect is > now being demonstrated and will probably appear in 2.1 or one of the > early point releases. > > Mentioned recently on debian-announce, a Debian system was used to > develop the AMSAT Phase 3-D satellite, one of the series of Ham Radio > Satellites. Check it out here. > > A reminder to frustrated Debian users who are only finding their > favorite software in RPM format: "alien" can be used instead. If you > have trouble with alien, try upgrading to debianutils 1.6. > > The January issue of the German magazine CHIP Extra comes with a > CD-ROM containing Debian 1.3.1 and the Beta version of StarOffice 4.0 > for Linux. Review from debian-user indicates that the issue is very > well done, with a lot of useful info for both novices and users. > Here's CHIP's Web site, primarily in German. > > Red Hat > > Red Hat reports recent turn-over in their support staff which has hurt > the Red Hat installation support they provide via e-mail to people who > purchase their $50 set. They "have been working to midnight and > beyond" to catch up with the backload and have hired new staff. Robert > Hart (Red Hat's support manager) assured people on redhat-list that > Red Hat installation support will not be terminated at 30 days if a > delay on their part caused the time to run out. > > Red Hat 5.0 users have also been griping a bit about how the errata > pages are handled. Complaints include slow updates, and Red Hat's > tendency to update existing entries, making it very hard to notice a > second update for a given package. A call was made for public > announcements from Red Hat whenever updates go out. > > Users on redhat-list have been poking at > http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/IE4mk/, finding that > accessing it from Netscape 4.04 crashes some Xservers, and not others, > depending on your Xserver and Linux version. No direct link is > provided, on-purpose, but feel free to check it out!. > > Off-topic, but on the redhat-list, Dave Wreski compiled and posted a > list of free ssh-clients for Windows. He would like to see people > choose one, try it out and post a review, since interest in them is so > high. > > Slackware > > Reported on bugtraq: Imapd/ipop3d problems in slackware 3.4 if you > install the pine package. When fed an unknown username, imapd and > ipop3d will dump core. Details here. Patrick Volkerding [maintainer of > Slackware] has already responded and will put out a repaired package. > > S.u.S.E > > For the Linux trivia buffs, S.u.S.E stands for 'Software und System > Entwicklung', which means software and system development. If you're > interested in S.u.S.E's history, check out this post from Bodo Bauer. > > How do you pronounce S.u.S.E? A popular Americanism is "Suzie", but if > you ask in Germany, the pronunciation will be closer to "Seuss-eh" (as > in Doctor Seuss) or "Souss-uh". Boy was it fun to watch people try and > describe a sound in an e-mail message! > > There are a lot of converts from various Unix flavors on the > suse-linux-e list (of course!). If you're interested in comments from > one person who recently installed the distribution, check it out. > [Ports] > > Alpha > > At least one Linux system vendor (Net Express) has stopped selling > Alpha-based systems as a result of the Compaq takeover of Digital. See > their Alpha systems page for details on their reasoning. On the other > hand, most other vendors and the Alpha discussion lists remain > relatively calm on this subject, suggesting that not everybody is > worried. > > There is an article in SunWorld Online about the Compaq takeover. No > real conclusions, but they raise some concerns. > > Sparc > > People are already asking whether SPARC/Linux will run on the new, > PCI-based Ultra workstations. No definitive answer has been posted, > but it seems awfully unlikely. The new bus, new video, and (oh joy) > IDE disks are all stuff that SPARC/Linux has never had to deal with > before. /td> [Software Development] Almost overnight, the > linux-ha (linux high-availability list) has revived and is generating > good discussion! If you are interested in high-availability Linux > solutions, now is the time to get involved! You can subscribe to > linux-ha on the Linux Mailing Lists page. > > [Articles] Some folks are discovering they can no longer access > hosts with underscores in their names. Host names with underscores > have always been against the rules, but many systems have let them > work anyway. However, the new GNU C library, shipping with the latest > Linux distributions, enforces this rule. If you have host names with > _underscores_, you might want to consider renaming them soon. > > Want to run Oracle 7.3.3 under Linux? Jan Andersen posted a detailed > howto describing the path to there using the IBCS package. > > If you see these errors from Netscape Communicator 4.04: > > sh: -c line 1: missing closing `)' for arthmetic expression sh: -1 > line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `;' sh: -c line 1: > `((/usr/local/bin/rvplayer /tmp/MO34B2F4B209B0136.ram); rm /tmp/\ > MO34B2F4B209B0136.ram )&' > > your problem is actually probably your version of bash. Try upgrading > to the latest version (2.01) to fix the problem. > [Announcements] > > Software and documents > > Package Version Description accton 4.0 Driver for Accton pocket > ethernet adaptor buslogic 2.0.11 Leonard Zubkoff's outstanding > BusLogic SCSI adaptor driver CD patch Patch to 2.0 33 kernel to > support new CD formats datapult 2.02 Scripting language for web > servers ddd 2.2.2 Graphical front end to gdb (very nice) FireMyst 0.8 > Small, UMSDOS-based system (for recovery diskettes) fnorb 0.4 CORBA > object request broker for Python. One of the best-named packages out > there, in your editor's opinion. freetype 1.0 TrueType font rendering > engine ImageMagick 4.0 Amazing image manipulation/conversion system > KDEbeta 3 K desktop environment lftp 0.14.0 Command-line FTP client > lilo-color Patch to Lilo 20 to display boot messages in color linbot > 0.3 Web site management tool mat 0.15 System administration tool plor > 0.3.2 Offline mail and news reader secure-linux Patch to kernel 2.0.33 > to add a number of security features. SMS client 2.0.5 Send SMS > messages to mobile phones snipix 2.12 Run SNA (and talk to your old > IBM mainframes) on your Linux box. Free for Linux, commercial for > other OS's. Software Building mini-HOWTO 1.52 HOWTO on building > software from source StarOffice 4.0 Office suite, free for private use > TkInfo 2.4 Tcl/Tk-based info browser TtH 1.1 Translate TeX to HTML > webalizer beta WWW server log analysis xbomb 2.1 X-based minesweeper > game LLNL XDIR 2.1 Motif-based graphical FTP client xtc 0005 X toolkit > in Java zed 1.0.1 "Fast, powerful, simple, configurable" text editor. > --> > > Projects > > A bunch of ambitious folks have announced the Java/Linux NC project. > They want to provide a complete network computer implementation, with > a full set of Microsoft-type applications, for free. Java and Linux > are their tools. It's a big project, and I wish them luck; check out > their announcement for more info, or to join up. > > Other folks want to clone Userland's "Frontier" scripting environment. > See their announcement for more. > > A volunteer-supported (commercial) Webzine, 32 Bits Online is looking > for LINUX writers to share with the world why Linux is their operating > system of choice. If you're interested in an audience for your > opinions, send e-mail to Ronny Ko. > > The Virtuoso project seeks to put together a fancy 3d graphics package > for Linux. See their announcement if you would like to help. > > The folks with the amazing samba project are setting out to create a > free NT domain controller. > > The Linux Clothing Project moves into a new phase of Linux fashion. > Heaven forbid we have any naked Linuxes out there... > > Web Sites > > The LSDB (Linux Software Database), a cgi searchable database of linux > software has moved. The new address is http://www.egypt.pca.net. > > Events > > 1998 Atlanta Linux Showcase, October 23 - 24, 1998, Atlanta, Georgia. > > Asia and Pacific Rim Internet Conference on Operational Technologies > (APRICOT). Manila, Philippines, February 16-20, 1998. > > On the lighter side > > A native returning "down under" after a year and a half gives a note > on Linux' increased popularity in Australia. > > Some fear that the joke announcement that Linus was going to integrate > Netscape into the Linux Operating System may have the same lifespan as > the Good Times Virus ... Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! This > page is produced by Eklektix, Inc. >

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