Links June 2010Links June 2010
Seth Berkley gave an interesting TED talk about developing vaccines against the HIV and Influenza viruses [1]. The part I found most interesting was the description of how vaccines against[...]
Logging Shell CommandsLogging Shell Commands
In response to my previous post about logging in directly as root [1] it was suggested that using sudo is the only way to log the commands that are entered[...]
Mailing List Meta-DiscussionsMailing List Meta-Discussions
It seems that most mailing lists occasionally have meta-discussions about what is on-topic, the few that don’t are the ones that have very strong moderation – authoritarian moderators who jump[...]
Does Every Serious Mailing List need a Non-Serious Counterpart?Does Every Serious Mailing List need a Non-Serious Counterpart?
One practice that seems relatively common is for an organisation to have two main mailing lists, one for serious discussions that are expected to be relatively topical and another for[...]
Is the PC Dying?Is the PC Dying?
I just read an interesting article about the dispute between Microsoft and Apple about types of PC [1]. Steve Jobs predicted a switch from desktop PCs to portable devices, while[...]
Bugs in Google ChromeBugs in Google Chrome
I’m currently running google-chrome-beta version 5.0.375.55-r47796 on Debian/Unstable. It’s the fastest web browser I’ve used in recent times – it’s the first time that I’ve run a browser that feels[...]
Securely Killing ProcessesSecurely Killing Processes
Joey Hess wrote on Debian-devel about the problem of init scripts not doing adequate checks before using the data from a PID file under /var/run to determine which process to[...]
Can SE Linux Implement Traditional Unix Users and Groups?Can SE Linux Implement Traditional Unix Users and Groups?
I was asked by email whether SE Linux could implement traditional Unix users and groups. The Strictly Literal Answer to that Question The core of the SE Linux access control[...]
Logging in as RootLogging in as Root
Martin Meredith wrote a blog post about logging in as root and the people who so strongly advocate against it [1]. The question is whether you should ssh directly to[...]
Brother MFC-9120CN Color LASER PrinterBrother MFC-9120CN Color LASER Printer
I have just bought a Brother MFC-9120CN Multi-Function Color LED LASER Printer for a relative. It was a replacement for the Lexmark printer which turned out not to support Linux[...]