September 2007 - KCLUG

How do you feel about Windows piracy?
by feba thatl 04 Oct '07

04 Oct '07

I'm curious as to what some of you think of Windows piracy. Do you think it's alright if it's only done to run software that only works on Windows due to MS's monopolistic tactics? Do you think it's alright if it replaces the purchase of a legit copy, as it hurt's MS's profit margin? Do you think it's always bad? Do you think that software should always be free anyway? Are your decisions about this based on law or morals? Personally, I don't pirate software anymore, and it pisses me off to see my friends downloading *yet another copy of windows* to reinstall with *again*, instead of trying linux, but that's more about their lack of a brain than it is piracy.

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Speaking of Desktops
by leenix 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

I've been looking at Beryl and Now Compiz Fusion. Both look very fun on You Tube, but I was wondering who on the list has used them and could give an opinion on which is better. Obviously, noone NEEDS fancy 3d desktops and flipping cubes, but it is fun! TIA ~Lee

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The drifted SCO thread has opened a new arena. "IS there a place for a de facto IP freedom realm"
by Oren Beck 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

All the rhetoric which has been beaten like dead horses aside, there is a new angle seemingly lacking intelligent discussion. It was claimed IIRC by Stewart Brand that "Information wants to be free" Then you know who introduced the Beer Vs Freedom meme. Yet what the hell is meant by those in our mundane world? Want in one hand and wish in the other if you want two empty hands was what I'd been told all my life. AkA "TANSTAAFL" So who pays the bills if all is free? Ah, there's the problem. Sadly one not answerable by 42. Allegedly the term "Copyleft" at one time literally was found on buttons at cons proclaiming "all rights reversed" Then again,in the DRM ethos all rights are denied absent the de minimus and even those are dubious. See the real purpose of HDMI for example. Or read most EULA of closed source origin. All this IS heading to a point. The succession of GPL versions have made varying approaches to rational handling of the disparate interests involved. I humbly offer a radically simpler reboot of the gaming.. Can we function under a guideline of honor as a bond? That means a declaration of mutual self respect for declared IP rights including their inalienable repudiation from another' profit? Yes, the applied fiction of repudiation is arguably incorrect legal semantics but it spotlights a gap I feel needs attention. Currently all the Diverse IP statues seem lacking in an instrumentality where an IP creator can declare their work as property of all while denying commercial interests from privatising in a restrictive manner such works. One proposal is for granting works their own incarnation. There is legal precedent for chattels being of limited yet real court standing. My closing example for now is a proposal for one symbol possible as denoting such . A circle surrounding a F. Simply put that denotes in a better future than we deserve an IP item could be used but not sold or profited from in a manner that would diminish it's freedom to others. DO please try to pick apart this concept but be mindful that history is trending to a fork. Either the F in the circle or another emblem in a circle of more grim history.

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Re: Say "Bye-Bye SCO!"
by lerninlinux＠comcast.net 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "David Nicol" <davidnicol(a)gmail.com> > but they do have a microsoft linux; it's called "Interix" and it is now > a free download, called "Microsoft Services for Unix" > I am wondering how long that stays. Part of what was in it, at least at one time was GPL. Now with GPL3 and it's Patent protection parts (that's argued, but hasn't been tried), I wonder how long Microsoft will distribute it. As for SCO, I DO want them to face the judge, get declaratory statements about things like they did contribute (shown in court), and distribute Linux, despite what their current SCO "allegedly" thinks. I do want them declared in VIOLATION of the GPL, on IBM's account (as well as others whose works are in there). And I do want them to have judgments against them and face the SEC for fraud investigations.

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P2P Package Manager
by Billy Crook 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

Has anyone ever heard of a package manager that 'scans' other machines within its subnet or within specified subnets for updates before using the official repositories? There would either have to be some service advertisement protocol lime MDNS or each machine would literally have to scan for a designated port number listening for these requests on all machines. Once they locate each other, the idea would be ome machine downloads 500MB of updates from the repo, and from there on, every other machine (with the same distro and arch) just pulls from the faster local machine, rather than using up inet bandwidth. Any suggestions (Other than a dedicated local repository mirror)?

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logwatch question
by Jonathan Hutchins 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

I have not been able to fathom the logwatch documentation, which appears to be targeted at building custom log-parsing filters as opposed to basic control of the program. The package distributed by Mandriva is configured to report httpd errors. Our site gets way more than 10,000 hits per day, and has been up for more than ten years. The error log is several megabytes long, and logwatch doesn't even summarize, it reports EVERY ERROR. I don't really need it to scan the httpd logs, how can I turn that off?

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Re: ITEC-potential FUD or facts worth sharing?
by Oren Beck 30 Sep '07

30 Sep '07

http://badvista.fsf.org/ If we *REALLY* wanted to play the mindgaming edge that could do it.

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Re: ITEC
by Leo Mauler 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

Last year I stuck a video on "FOSS adoption in developing countries" on the demo Linux PC. This year I ran across a site which served up Creative Commons video for download, and have a number of new videos to choose from. I'm considering trying to scrounge up a 1.4Ghz or 1.5Ghz machine as the demo PC, since apparently Ubuntu's "Beryl" desktop runs comfortably at that speed. It would be nice to be able to demonstrate a Linux desktop which offered more eye candy than Vista on systems which won't run Vista. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/

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Re: ITEC
by cragos＠gmail.com 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

From: Leo Mauler <webgiant(a)yahoo.com> >I'd love to man the booth again this year. I can >bring in a demonstration Linux PC again this year, and >I can still print off a couple hundred of the nifty >non-confrontational "Five Reasons To Use Linux" >brochures I brought last year. Non-confrontational.... Does that mean we shouldn't print out copies of "Is MS Windows ready for the desktop?" http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/47221/index.html Hone it down to its essence, and it'd make an attention getting banner. Some of the attention might even be positive. - Sean Crago

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ITEC
by Christopher A. Bier 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi All, I finally got into contact with the correct people at ITEC and should receive the contract for the free both today or tomorrow. For some reason, our info was handled by the people who normally do businesses. Who will be able to man the booth? Which CDs and other stuff will we give out? What cool tech do we want to display? KC ITEC Nov 7-8th OP Convention Center http://pages.crosstechmedia.com/WebSite/Index.aspx?C=70000087&S=50000093 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFG+/t5E5xXU3JS1mQRAlpxAJ9AzWXY7B5pFdj0huuZ59Yscx+iAACaAjeH GiBu0Ptm9b9m2k/0Q10pPaY= =wIkX -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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