Corel to acquire InterVideo, from News.com.

繼 InterVideo 在去年買下開發 PhotoImpact 的友立之後, 現在開發 CorelDraw, WordPerfect 和 Paint Shop Pro 的 Corel , 也準備花大約二億美金買下 InterVideo 了.

今年真是併購年啊!

Popularity: 9% [?]

FairUse4WM strips Windows Media DRM!, from Engadget.

Windows Media DRM 授權保護機制被一套叫做 FairUse4WM 的軟體破解了, 目前可以破解的苦主是 Windows Media DRM 10 和 11 (不包括 WM DRM 9).

今天在 DK blog 上看到這句話: (如果不能這樣引用, DK 長輩記得通知我啊~)

有很多人認為 DRM 是用於「保障著作人的權利」(Digital “Rights” Management)，但實際上 DRM 一定可以被破解，無法保障著作人的權利。DRM 真正的用途如同自由軟體基金會所說的，是「限制使用人的權利」(Digital “Restrictions” Management)，並藉由限制使用人的權利而宣稱可以保障著作人的權利。

突然發現之前雖然聽過, 卻沒啥感覺, 但是看到 FairUse4WM 這個軟體之後, 熊熊發現這句話還真是貼切啊~

Popularity: 77% [?]

Firefox Extension Promises Private P2P, from BetaNews.

AllPeers released a beta Thursday of what it called the most ambitious Firefox extension to date, a peer-to-peer application that would allow friends and family to share files and content between one another in a private setting.

The application has been released on Firefox’s extensions Web site, and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The AllPeers backend uses BitTorrent in combination with what is calls a “darknet,” where the computer user will remain anonymous while transferring files.

You can get this Firefox extension on Firefox Add-Ons site or take a online tour on AllPeers official website. In addition, here is a tutorial on AllPeers.

It’s sad, however, that traffic MUST go through the AllPeers servers in the UK from user Comments on Add-Ons site.

Popularity: 19% [?]

FreeEnigma is Firefox extension which implements a version of GPG, and brings cryptography to webmail like Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail.

Popularity: 15% [?]

To get a core dump you need to do something to change the max core file size, because it’s 0 by default.

In Linux, default shell bash has a built-in command which lets you set various resource limits for the processes started by the shell, like the core file size, called ulimit. You, hence, have to change these limitations before executing any program you want.

Let’s see how it work:

sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -a
core file size (blocks, -c) 0
data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
pending signals (-i) 32767
max locked memory (kbytes, -l) 32
max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
open files (-n) 1024
pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8
POSIX message queues (bytes, -q) 819200
stack size (kbytes, -s) 8192
cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
max user processes (-u) 32767
virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited
file locks (-x) unlimited

“core file size” line says 0 blocks. Change it by using ‘ulimit -c’:

sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -c
0
sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -c unlimited
sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -c
unlimited

As you think, to enlarge the available FDs is to set the option of “-n”. Not exactly. It’s because only privileged user (root) can set this option. Here we go:

sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -n
1024
sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -n 8192
bash: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] su
Password:
sojia ~ # ulimit -c
unlimited
sojia ~ # ulimit -n
1024
sojia ~ # ulimit -n 8192
sojia ~ # ulimit -n
8192
sojia ~ # exit
logout
sojia [~] -pigfoot- [W0] ulimit -n
1024

The first, we can see it encounters “Operation not permitted” as normal user. Second, coredump size is inherited. The last but the important thing is, when we terminate privileged session and return to normal user shell, the maximum number of FDs is back. You know why? Feedback please. ;-)

AS a result, if we want to change the maximum number of FDs for some program, we must execute it as root. Please keep it in mind.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0b2 Branch builds (20060822)

• [TB] P3 build (6.4 MB)
• [TB] P2 build (6.4 MB)
• [TB] P1 build (6.4 MB)

Sepecial Check-in

• Thunderbird 2.0 Beta 2 Branch

Known Issues

• N/A

1. checkout finish: Tue Aug 22 01:42:41 PDT (UTC -0700) 2006
2. All Chech-in, TB Chech-in from last build
3. my vs7.1-moz_1_8 patch
4. my tweaks profile patch
5. Used branding artwork by JairoB
6. UAO of zh_TW.Big5 Unicode Fix
7. P0/P1/P2/P3 all build with VC7.1
8. P0 build build with /GAL7 arch:SSE and mmoy’s SSE patches, for Athlon XP, and Duron 1.1 GHz+
9. P1 build build with /GAL6 and mmoy’s MMX patches, for Generic CPU
10. P2 build build with /GAL6 arch:SSE and mmoy’s SSE patches, for Pentium III ,Celeron 500+
11. P3 build build with /GAL7 arch:SSE2 and mmoy’s SSE2 patches, for AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron, Pentium 4, Pentium M, and Celeron 1.7 GHz+

Popularity: 9% [?]

Network Algorithmics, from Slashdot.

Network Algorithmics: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Designing Fast Networked Devices. Which is a interesting book I would like to read recently. Here is some information from Amazon.

Table of Contents

• PartI: The rules of the game
  • Ch1. Introducing network algorithmics
  • Ch2. Network implementation models
  • Ch3. Fifteen implementation principles
  • Ch4. Principles in action
• PartII: Playing with endnodes
  • Ch5. Copying data
  • Ch6. Transferring control
  • Ch7. Maintaining times
  • Ch8. Demultiplexing
  • Ch9. Protocol processing
• PartIII: Playing with routers
  • Ch10. Exact-match lookups
  • Ch11. Prefix-match lookups
  • Ch12. Packet classification
  • Ch13. Switching
  • Ch14. Scheduling packets
  • Ch15. Routers as distributed systems
• PartIV: Endgame
  • Ch16. Measuring network traffic
  • Ch17. Network security
  • Ch18. Conclusions
  • App. Detailed models

Popularity: 17% [?]