Sinabro

Slashdot has a story on newly discovered (but ever-present) Linux bug which could allow local users to gain root privileges.

I guess it’s re-install time for many of my servers, or at least one of them. I am currently keeping … a vigilant log to check that nothing out of ordinary is happening, but I am considering the machine compromised and in line for re-install as soon as I can find the time.

Aww … crap.

/etc/cron.monthly/vrms:
Non-free packages installed on plato

sun-java5-bin Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 (architectu
sun-java5-jre Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 (architectu

Contrib packages installed on plato

java-package utility for building Java(TM) 2 related Debian package

That’s not true! Java is free now! It’s even GPL’d.

Oh, well. I guess it’ll take some time for license change to trickle in, even into Debian testing (although, since it was a big news when that happened … I would be very surprised if Debian doesn’t eventually put sun-java into the main depository, rather than letting it sit in nonfree).

Aww… crap.

One of my routine upgrades (the usual aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade) upgraded my browser into Iceweasel (a.k.a. Firefox) 3.0.

I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about this new version, but I guess it’s time I made up my own opinions.

So, I tracked down the problem with plotting. It turns out it’s my configuration file, or rather, more precisely, one of my custom functions.

The problem persisted even when I compiled GNU Octave by hand (and the gnuplot, to be sure), but when I removed .octaverc, everything worked fine.

Working backward from that fact, all I know is that some script in my ~/octave must be clobbering a system function, possibly used by plot command.

I suppose the most mysterious thing is … I have another computer that has nearly identical setup (even the same ~/octave!) and everything works fine there, too! Figures …

I think I’ll be switching to Python for scientific computing anyways. I think I finally found a way to do least-squares fit in Python (http://linuxgazette.net/115/andreasen.html) relatively quickly (no, the version in ScientificPython is way too slow, compared to, e.g. GNU Octave). In a way, the main limitation I see for GNU Octave is its MATLAB compatibility, because MATLAB compatibility means both the lack of object-oriented programming and its brain-dead syntax.

Damn. I’m doing it again.

That is, I’m building Octave (v3.0) myself. For mysterious reasons, octave3.0 in Debian testing (or is it in unstable?) doesn’t work with gnuplot for plotting. I mean, if I use __gnuplot_plot__ with raw gnuplot commands, it seems to work fine, but I’m not using deprecated commands in my scripts.

Hopefully this time, I won’t run into problem building the octave-forge.

Guess who’s losing a viewer because their Flash player isn’t supported by Gnash?

The Onion. I am even willing to watch their ad (their ad breaks my privoxy-proxied connection, so I view their videos (when ads are run) through a direct connection that allows the ad through), but because their own Flash player doesn’t work in Gnash, I simply watch their videos through YouTube (there’s some lag, especially when a new video is out).

Well, Onion, I hope you are getting a good deal out of whatever functionality you are using that breaks the Gnash support. Because, until your Flash player plays O.K. in Gnash, I am not watching videos on your site.

novakyu@plato:~$ vrms
No non-free packages installed on plato! rms would be proud.

Sigh. Only if that were true.

Oh, it is true, as in, because my /etc/apt/sources.list only lists the main repository and not the nonfree or the contrib sections, as far as the installed .debs go, there are no non-free softwares on my system.

But, of course, I know my system better than a piece of software, and it so happens that my system has two discrete pieces of non-free software. The first is ATI’s proprietary driver for Radeon (fglrx driver, as they are called). The second is the firmware I need for my internal wireless (yeah, the same problem I had with the ipw2200).

Part of this … compromise is a result of poor research on the hardware I was buying—when I chose the miniPCI wireless card, I should’ve done better research than looking up “linux compatibility”—damn those ndiswrapper users listing a hardware as “linux compatible” because you can trick the hardware into thinking that it’s running under Windows.

But another part was … well, especially for the graphics, I simply didn’t have a choice. Supposing I had free choice of the graphics chipset separately from the CPU (an absurd assumption, but let’s suspend our sense of reality for the moment), I could choose from ATI or nVidia (Intel having been eliminated by the boycott I started recently). Here, my impression was that ATI had better record of working with free driver developers.

But of course, such discussion is academic, since, given my choice of AMD for the CPU, it would have been rather silly to get a system with nVidia graphics. AMD CPU, ATI chipset simply has to mean ATI integrated graphics.

Well, this is getting long-winded, but my only hope is this: Ralink (the chipset manufacturer for both my wireless devices) and ATI are still known to cooperate well with free software developers. For these hardwares, the developers do not need to reverse engineer existing proprietary drivers to get the specs—ATI and Ralink will release what they need. So, one day (perhaps a year from now), there will be a free implementation that provides what I need (which isn’t much—just wireless connectivity and 1280×800 resolution), and I’ll be rid myself of this shame.

But, until then, if I have to commit sin, I’ll do my own dirty work. Using non-free or contrib repositories would make me feel like I am adding to my sin of using non-free software … the sin of having others prepare those non-free software for me. Like committing murder and being an accessory to murder at the same time.

Sigh. I am evermore waiting for lenny to get released. Hopefully when lenny gets released (and, no, I am not dist-upgrading to lenny) I won’t have to compile my own custom kernel, and hopefully I can go back to uswsusp.

Something from the talk page on GNU/Linux naming controversy:

...Second, since the FSF owns the copyright on most of the GNU code, it
could freely change the license tomorrow to require any operating system
distributed with GNU code to be called "GNU/something".

That’s an interesting possibility to consider. Of course, the probability of that happening is almost as small as Windows ever being released under GPL 3, but if we suppose it happened, will the free software community fork all GNU projects?

That did happen with X and the fork of Xorg, but this is GNU (and, in connection, FSF) we are talking about here, not X consortium. It would be almost like comparing possibility of a coup in the U.S. against the possibility of a coup in Serbia.

A request that I sent to Amazon came back with a response. While their response time was fairly quick, I am actually distressed to see that it seems to have been answered by a person—it sounded like an automated system’s answer. Well, Amazon went down a notch in my esteem of it … although, that’s probably still higher than a lot of other places. Anyways. Here’s the anonymized/redacted version of the e-mail.

Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:03:56 -0800 (PST)
From: "Amazon.com Customer Service"
To: "novakyu@xxxxxxxxx"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com. 

I'm very sorry, but I was unable to determine the exact item name
from the content of your e-mail message. 

Please click the following link to write back to us with the exact
name of the item or the ASIN, so that we will able to assist you
better in this regard. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html

When we receive an email from you using the form above, we will
assist you as soon as possible.

Please be assured that all of us here are working very hard to
provide a thorough, personal reply to each of our customers as
quickly as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for shopping at
Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here: 

http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If not, click here: 

http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail. 

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help
section of our web site.

Best regards,

XxxxxxxxxXXxx X.
Amazon.com Customer Service

http://www.amazon.com

==============================
Check your order and more: http://www.amazon.com/your-account

> Date: Wed Jan 23 03:01:03 UTC 2008
> Subject: Other Services
> From: novakyu@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> ---------------
> 01/22/08 19:01:03
> Your Name:Andrzej Novak
> Comments:To Whom It May Concern:
>
> I am currently in the market for a good AMD notebook to replace
> my old and failing one. As I have had pleasant experience with
> Amazon in the past, both in buying new and old books and
> electronics, I was very interested in purchasing my future notebook
> from Amazon, and indeed, I found a great selection of good AMD
> notebooks.
>
> However, I must ask: Do you offer any notebooks without Windows
> bundled? As a Debian GNU/Linux user, I have no intention of using
> Windows or paying for it in the first place. I did see two notebooks
> listed under "Unix", but it looked like one was mislabeled (it
> clearly said on the product page that Windows was bundled with it),
> and the other was somewhat ambiguous (it says it's "Unix platform",
> but these days, everything runs GNU/Linux---I would like to know for
> sure that it will not come with Windows).
>
> Given that other large retailers/manufacturer as Dell and Lenovo
> are starting to offer notebooks with GNU/Linux installed, does
> Amazon have any plans for offering notebooks with GNU/Linux, or, for
> a compromise, does not include Windows or the so-called "Microsoft
> tax" in the price?
>
> As I hope my new notebook will last me longer than my old one (it
> will have lasted 3 years by the time I replace it), I am giving a
> lot of thought to its purchase, and if you could let me know if
> Amazon might offer notebooks without Windows bundled (and on which
> models, etc.) in near future (in a few months is "near" enough for
> me), I would very much appreciate it.
>
> Thank you,
> ---------------