This is the place to talk about software related issues.

By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

I really need a program that will take a WAV file
and play it. It needs to run in DOS from the
command line, and it has to run in REAL DOS, not that fake Windows DOS shell. Oh yeah, and it has to be free. I've been looking for one, and so far no luck.

Anyone have one lying around?

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

I will find out for you. I will get back to you in this topic at a later time.

By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date:

Well Microsoft just released a new version of
Internet Explorer today.

IE 5.0 Ms claims, is supposed to be less tightly integrated with the windows operating system then the previous version of IE.

Yet, despite that claim, the uninstaller for IE 5.0 specifically says "Restore Previous Windows Configuration".

It figures..

-Houdini

By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date:

How to protect yourself from the "Melissa Virus".

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/articles/macroalert.htm

By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

Yeah, I'm doing the last few backups of Cool Stuff to disk so I can take it home. I probably will put it on my computer at home, too, just in case.

I am saving files from the MBrola Project, a TTS project that will help me out when I start work on Lal. Of course, there are a few pieces I still need, but all the source is there, and all I really need, the last piece, is something that'll play WAVs in DOS. I am gonna try one more such candidiate tonight called SEA... it plays WAVs, maybe in DOS? We will see if it is any good for my purposes...

Peace out
Tony

By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

(Sol crying)

I've come home again! I've come home!

Mother of ALL DOS ARCHIVES

By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

I am now downloading JDK121. Thank you for the information on where to get free Java, Bryan! I can't wait to learn. I figure it will be a good use of my time to load it up here and try it out. Too bad it needs 15 disks! Oh well! Peace out

Sol

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

Woah - ! I just discovered that I can use my Netscape browser to do a telnet! Of course, there's a firewall from school, but I will try it later from home.

Also, can anyone explain SSL and Certifricates to me? I'm trying to use my Netscape Browser at home to access my hotmail account - it requires SSL to be enabled. Does this mean I need to have a digital certifricate to access my hotmail? So far I haven't had any luck!


Sol

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

I spent last night trying (again!) to install DJGPP. The problem is this: you download multiple ZIPs, and when you UNzip, there are lots of repeated files. Trick is, files of the same name are sometimes not the same - always different versions of the same thing. I had to weed through as I went and keep just the most recent version of each. I also stored the old version of each in another folder for safe-keeping. What a lot of work! They're all long-file names, though, so I will probably have to use WINZIP and do it all again anyway - there's a freeware version of WINZIP I know of... anyway, fun in my future. Oi! It is a big job, DJGPP is HUGE, 100 megs so far and I am not done unzipping 1/2 the files yet.

Jeesh!

By Bryan Cummings (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date:

Here's an interesting article if you're interested in the Microsoft versus Linux battle. Especially since Microsoft has been bashing the GNU General Public License lately.


The GNU GPL and the American Way
By Richard Stallman, Special to eWEEK, eWEEK
February 28, 2001 8:15 AM PT


Microsoft Corp. describes the GNU General Public License as an "open source" license and says it is against the American Way. To understand the GNU GPL, and recognize how it embodies the American Way, you must first be aware that the GPL was not designed for open source.


The Open Source Movement, which was launched in 1998, aims to develop powerful, reliable software and improved technology by inviting the public to collaborate in software development. Many developers in that movement use the GNU GPL, and they are welcome to use it. But the ideas and logic of the GPL cannot be found in the Open Source Movement. They stem from the deeper goals and values of the Free Software Movement.


The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community and voluntary cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech and to free software.


As in "free enterprise" and "free speech," the "free" in "free software" refers to freedom, not price; specifically, it means that you have the freedom to study, change and redistribute the software you use. These freedoms permit citizens to help themselves and help each other, and thus participate in a community.


This contrasts with the more common proprietary software, which keeps users helpless and divided: the inner workings are secret, and you are prohibited from sharing the program with your neighbor. Powerful, reliable software and improved technology are useful byproducts of freedom, but the freedom to have a community is important in its own right.


We could not establish a community of freedom in the land of proprietary software where each program had its lord. We had to build a new land in cyberspace -- the free software GNU operating system, which we started writing in 1984. In 1991, when GNU was almost finished, the kernel Linux written by Linus Torvalds filled the last gap; soon the free GNU/Linux system was available. Today millions of users use GNU/Linux and enjoy the benefits of freedom and community.


I designed the GNU GPL to uphold and defend the freedoms that define free software -- to use the words of 1776, it establishes them as inalienable rights for programs released under the GPL. It ensures that you have the freedom to study, change and redistribute the program by saying that nobody is authorized to take these freedoms away from you by redistributing the program.


For the sake of cooperation, we encourage others to modify and extend the programs that we publish. For the sake of freedom, we set the condition that these modified versions of our programs must respect your freedom just like the original version. We encourage two-way cooperation by rejecting parasites: Whoever wishes to copy parts of our software into his program must let us use parts of that program in our programs. Nobody is forced to join our club, but those who wish to participate must offer us the same cooperation they receive from us. That makes the system fair.


Millions of users, tens of thousands of developers, and companies as large as IBM, Intel and Sun have chosen to participate on this basis. But some companies want the advantages without the responsibilities.


From time to time, companies have said to us, "We would make an improved version of this program if you allow us to release it without freedom." We say, "No thanks -- your improvements might be useful if they were free, but if we can't use them in freedom, they are no good at all." Then they appeal to our egos, saying that our code will have "more users" inside their proprietary programs. We respond that we value our community's freedom more than an irrelevant form of popularity.


Microsoft's 'embrace and extend'


Microsoft surely would like to have the benefit of our code without the responsibilities. But it has another, more specific purpose in attacking the GNU GPL. Microsoft is known generally for imitation rather than innovation. When Microsoft does something new, its purpose is strategic -- not to improve computing for its users, but to close off alternatives for them.


Microsoft uses an anti-competitive strategy called "embrace and extend." This means they start with the technology others are using, add a minor wrinkle which is secret so that nobody else can imitate it, then use that secret wrinkle so that only Microsoft software can communicate with other Microsoft software. In some cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program when others you work with use a Microsoft program. In other cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program for job A if you use a Microsoft program for job B. Either way, "embrace and extend" magnifies the effect of Microsoft's market power.


No license can stop Microsoft from practicing "embrace and extend" if they are determined to do so at all costs. If they write their own program from scratch, and use none of our code, the license on our code does not affect them. But a total rewrite is costly and hard, and even Microsoft can't do it all the time. Hence their campaign to persuade us to abandon the license that protects our community, the license that won't let them say, "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine." They want us to let them take whatever they want, without ever giving anything back. They want us to abandon our defenses.


But defenselessness is not the American Way. In the land of the brave and the free, we defend our freedom with the GNU GPL.


Addendum: Microsoft says that the GPL is against "intellectual property rights." I have no opinion on "intellectual property rights" because the term is too broad to have a sensible opinion about. It is a catch-all, covering copyrights, patents, trademarks and other disparate areas of law -- areas so different, in the laws and in their effects, that any statement about all of them at once is surely simplistic. To think intelligently about copyrights, patents or trademarks, you must think about them separately. The first step is declining to lump them together as "intellectual property."


My views about copyright take an hour to expound, but one general principle applies: It cannot justify denying the public important freedoms. As Abraham Lincoln put it, "Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail." Property rights are meant to advance human well-being, not as an excuse to disregard it.


Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU Project, launched in 1984 to develop the free operating system GNU (an acronym for "GNU's Not Unix").


Copyright 2001 Richard Stallman


Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.

By Subcriminal (Nat) on Unrecorded Date:

Ahhhhhh. I finally got Maya 3.0 up and running on my machine (yes Fred, I figured it out =), they improved it soooo much since version 2.5.

It's like buttah!

By Technomage (Houdini) on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 11:23 am:

Bad, bad naughty Microsoft. No cookie for you!

Microsoft just released IE 6.0, and guess what?

No Java support, and no Netscape style plug-in support. I guess the big bear is no longer afraid of Netscape and Sun. Gosh darn it!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/ap20010828_14.html

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 12:35 pm:

perhaps it was an oversight or error?

By Technomage (Houdini) on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 12:40 pm:

Big brother Microsoft is at it again...

Microsoft's Media Player Keeps Track of Users' Entertainment Habits

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 02:22 pm:

So what?

Could it POSSIBLY be a function that ASSISTS the user by narrowing down selections displayed, rather than SIFTING through lines and lines and lines of USELESS drivel you are frankly NOT INTERESTED in? Could THAT be a reason why the internal preferences tracking is in there? And if you are so horribly concerned about it, you can go into your registry and make it so that preference never existed. I do not see a problem here.