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Software Patents
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 22 Sep '04

22 Sep '04

Hi Folks, This morning's "You and Yours" on Radio 4 had quite an interesting item on the US "patent piracy" scam, and the considerations which the EU are applying to the issue. Though not primarily about software patenting, this topic did come up. What was interesting was the indication that the EU is considering applying more of a "real technological invention needed" criterion as compared with the US practice whereby a firm can apparently slap a patent on anything provided only that no-one has thought of doing that before. While US lawyers do seem to regard this as a joke, none the less the lack of proper investigation by the Patent Authorities means that it happens, with the result that it's simply not possible in the US for people without million-dollar funding to fight a patent and it's more in their interests to accept a costly but affordable licensing agreement with the "patent" holder. The program is not yet up for "Listen Again", but should be by tomorrow. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/ Best wishes tgo all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 22-Sep-04 Time: 13:17:57 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Security, what does one need in reality?
by Chris Green 21 Sep '04

21 Sep '04

Since we are soon to get an 'always on' broadband connection with a fixed IP address (it's not ADSL, it's wireless but that doesn't affect things really) I'm looking into what new things I will be able to do and the security thereof. I have already resurrected an old machine and have installed ipCop on it, that's fine and will block most external access. However I do want to allow *some* access, in particular I want:- ssh access to the ipcop box, this will allow some administration and will also allow access (via another ssh connection) to my Linux server machine on the GREEN side. Access to an IMAP server on the Linux server on the GREEN side by port mapping through the ipCop box. (I know a separate ORANGE subnet is really the way to go but that means yet another machine I have to administer etc. which I want to avoid) In the real world how vulnerable will these two be? Will I get incessant hacking at the open SSH port on the ipCop box trying to guess the password or will it just be the occasional port scan? Assuming the password is secure enough (i.e. unguessable enough and not published on the internet somewhere) will I be basically OK? I may be able to limit the SSH access in particular to only certain client IP addresses but I want the IMAP to be accessible from anywhere. The IMAP server will probably only have two or three accounts on it and I will have control over passwords (though not where they're kept maybe). Does anyone here have any experience of how vulnerable in reality such systems are? I'm not after Fort Knox, I just want things to be reasonably safe. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Graphical 'diff' with proper X cut and paste
by Chris Green 21 Sep '04

21 Sep '04

I'm looking for a graphical (GUI/X) diff command which allows proper X cut and paste. I've found xdiff (well, one of them, there are a couple) and mgdiff but neither allows one to select lines from the display and to paste them elsewhere. They both expect you're trying to merge the diff'ed files into an output file so the select actions only decide whether what you have selected goes into the output file or not. What I need to do is to be able to see differences between two files and paste them into a third file which is (probably) open in a different window. I can't find a diff utility which allows me to do this. Does anyone have any recommendations? It needs to be fairly 'generic unix' as I want it to run on a Solaris box. I'm quite happy to compile stuff but I'm not happy if the program needs lots of specialist libraries. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk)

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FIPS and Windows
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 21 Sep '04

21 Sep '04

Hi Folks (andapologies for cross-posting) I've always had a good experience with 'fips' when using it to back Windows into a suitably restricted space prior to installing Linux. However, on these occasions it has been effectively a virgin preinstalled Windows with which I have done little or nothing. I'm now wondering about using 'fips' to resize some Windows partitions amongst themselves, this being a Win installation which has been actively used for years, and has a lot of user files and extra installed software, so this situation is beyond my experience. The situation is possibly complicated by the fact that the Windows partitions are not all distinct primary partitions: some are "logical" partitions within an "extended" partition. (In effect the aim of the exercise is to increase the size of C: at the expense of "E:", "F:" and "G:" and to re-allocate space amongst the latter, in the presence of a partition "D:" which is on a different drive and would have comwe out as "G:" were it not for a re-assignment of drive letters under software control ... If anyone has experience of going down this road I'd value hearing about it! (Sorry, too, for being somewhat off-topic!) Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 20-Sep-04 Time: 18:14:51 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Eye Candy
by Wayne Stallwood 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

Adam's last post got me thinking about the use of Eye Candy in software. What do the group think are good and bad examples of effects or eye candy. For example ( this is going to be a popular one I feel ) I absolutely hate the dog that appears when searching for a file in Windows XP (Spot I think it's called), it adds nothing to the search functionality and just wastes some screen estate. On the same OS I quite like the transparent mail notification that appears when Outlook 2003 receives a new mail (if you haven't seen it, it pops up above the system tray with a brief summary of the incoming mail over the active windows but transparent enough to still see the active window through it) It's pretty handy as it usually catches my eye and appears for long enough and with enough information for me to make a judgement as to whether it's a mail I need to deal with now or leave for later.

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[Fwd: Re: [ALUG] Eye Candy]
by Stechjo 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

>> I was going to say gvim, but "apt-cache search" digs up vim-gnome, >> vim-gtk. vim-lesstif, and vim-tcl instead. >> >> Hmmm .... > Welcome to the confusing world of vim! :D Nah, it's easy: # USE="-gnome gtk" emerge vim ;)

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Drawing program for plans, layouts, etc. wanted
by Chris Green 18 Sep '04

18 Sep '04

I've been looking for a simple program to draw plans and maybe flowcharts and other similar layout type things for ages (like years!). However I've never really found anything that fills the bill. Has anyone got any suggestions? I'm currently playing with Qcad which is OKish but it's not as intuitive as I would like for the basic operations of drawing rectangles and moving them around. If I can't find anything better I may persevere with Qcad but it's really both more and less than what I actually want. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Radio player thingy
by John Seago 18 Sep '04

18 Sep '04

Is there a free software radio player available, which now I have broadband, I can install? -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Re: Radio player thingy
by John Seago 17 Sep '04

17 Sep '04

Thank you to all who replied, I've got it installed, now all I have to do is to get it to let noise/sounds out my puny loudspeakers. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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