Grapple is designed to be a simple network layer, allowing the addition of multiuser features to an application for as little as a dozen lines of code. However, it also allows for more. It features simple client-server networking that keeps all clients aware of all other clients, passworded servers, and data transfer via TCP, UDP, or reliable UDP. Advanced features include network messaging via push, pull, or a combination, multiple methods of querying users, user groups for client bandwidth saving, network load reacting data transmission and retransmission, background pinging to monitor network states, server failover, and a fully functional lobby system. hr / strongLicense:/strong GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) hr / strongChanges:/strongbr / The large enhancements in this release are the final completion of the much delayed encryption system for TCP sessions and the enhancement of the callback system to enable multiple callback threads to be running simultaneously, allowing more complex systems to be built if desired. Minor improvements are encryption certificate inspection, the ability to encrypt a lobby, and the addition of connection callbacks to the lobby. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/hcz0S0eVSlfwoLHZTbXJ7VuCPlQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/hcz0S0eVSlfwoLHZTbXJ7VuCPlQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshmeat/feeds/fm-releases-global/~4/FZJjp_BjAiY" height="1" width="1"/

Grapple is designed to be a simple network layer, allowing the addition of multiuser features to an application for as little as a dozen lines of code. However, it also allows for more. It features simple client-server networking that keeps all clients aware of all other clients, passworded servers, and data transfer via TCP, UDP, or reliable UDP. Advanced features include network messaging via push, pull, or a combination, multiple methods of querying users, user groups for client bandwidth saving, network load reacting data transmission and retransmission, background pinging to monitor network states, server failover, and a fully functional lobby system. hr / strongLicense:/strong GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) hr / strongChanges:/strongbr / The large enhancements in this release are the final completion of the much delayed encryption system for TCP sessions and the enhancement of the callback system to enable multiple callback threads to be running simultaneously, allowing more complex systems to be built if desired. Minor improvements are encryption certificate inspection, the ability to encrypt a lobby, and the addition of connection callbacks to the lobby. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Rc_V0IaT1MV_kEx45N4vOel7KN4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Rc_V0IaT1MV_kEx45N4vOel7KN4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshmeat/feeds/fm-releases-unix/~4/FZJjp_BjAiY" height="1" width="1"/

!-- [DocumentBodyStart:30b8504f-de38-4059-aa41-ccb5daeaf987] --div class='jive-rendered-content'pHello!/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppI'm experiencing very annoying bug in VS2008 + R# 4.1, here's what's happening:br/Visual Studio's editor automatically scrolls (horizontally) after picking an element from completion list. It happens in such a way that current line moves to the center of editor area./ppHere you can see it for yourself:br/a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=1tFCpwrkV5E"http://youtube.com/watch?v=1tFCpwrkV5E/a/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppIt happens only if ReSharper IntelliSense is used and only if cursor has passed center of line (you can see it on video)./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppWhat's weird is that it happens only on one machine in my company and we have about eight very similar machines with VS2008 and R#. I couldn't find anything on that one PC that could interact with R# resulting in that bug./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppReinstalling R# and resetting it's options doesn't help. When I reinstalled VS, VS SP1 and R# the bug was gone but after a short while it came back again./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppDoes anyone have some suggestions how to fix it?br/thanks!/p/div!-- [DocumentBodyEnd:30b8504f-de38-4059-aa41-ccb5daeaf987] --

!-- [DocumentBodyStart:30b8504f-de38-4059-aa41-ccb5daeaf987] --div class='jive-rendered-content'pHello!/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppI'm experiencing very annoying bug in VS2008 + R# 4.1, here's what's happening:br/Visual Studio's editor automatically scrolls (horizontally) after picking an element from completion list. It happens in such a way that current line moves to the center of editor area./ppHere you can see it for yourself:br/a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=1tFCpwrkV5E"http://youtube.com/watch?v=1tFCpwrkV5E/a/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppIt happens only if ReSharper IntelliSense is used and only if cursor has passed center of line (you can see it on video)./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppWhat's weird is that it happens only on one machine in my company and we have about eight very similar machines with VS2008 and R#. I couldn't find anything on that one PC that could interact with R# resulting in that bug./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppReinstalling R# and resetting it's options doesn't help. When I reinstalled VS, VS SP1 and R# the bug was gone but after a short while it came back again./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppDoes anyone have some suggestions how to fix it?br/thanks!/p/div!-- [DocumentBodyEnd:30b8504f-de38-4059-aa41-ccb5daeaf987] --

iCancer, Vol. 113, No. 11. (2008), pp. 3108-3115./ibr /br /The study aimed to identify factors associated with less-than-optimal radiotherapy (RT) and its impact on disease-free survival in women aged 66+ years diagnosed with stage I breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).The subjects were women diagnosed from 1991 to 1999 in the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database who underwent breast-conserving surgery and RT within 12 months postdiagnosis. The authors conducted descriptive and multivariate survival analyses, and considered age, race, poverty, marital status, comorbidity indices, rural/urban, radiation oncologist density, comedo necrosis histology (DCIS only), chemotherapy receipt (stage I only), and RT completion (3+ weeks of treatment) and delay (8+ weeks postsurgery without chemotherapy; 4+ weeks postchemotherapy).Of 7791 subjects, 16% experienced RT delay, and 3% had incomplete RT. Subjects with stage I disease who were more likely to delay RT were of black race (odds ratio [OR], 1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17-2.08), whereas women in areas of high radiation oncologist density were less likely to delay (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.66-0.81). Those living in high poverty areas were less likely to complete RT (P < .03), as were those undergoing chemotherapy (OR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.15-2.88). Stage I breast cancer patients with delayed RT were more likely to experience a subsequent breast event (OR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.00-1.30), and those with incomplete RT had a higher rate of overall mortality (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.06-1.63). Factors associated with lower subsequent breast events included older age, lower poverty, and being married. RT delays of 12+ weeks (or 8+ weeks postchemotherapy) had a strongly negative impact on subsequent events (OR, 3.94; 95% CI, 2.51-6.17 for DCIS; OR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.84-2.59 for stage I).RT should be facilitated to ensure completion and timeliness, especially for early invasive breast cancer patients. Cancer 2008. © 2008 American Cancer Society.br /iHeather Gold, Huong Do, Andrew Dick/i

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/32673?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+ECB+set+to+confirm+India+Test+series+will+go+aheadch=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=England+in+India+2008-09%2CIndia+cricket+team%2CEngland+cricket+team%2CEngland+cricket+series%2CCricket%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCricketc6=David+Hoppsc7=2008_12_03c8=1128122c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=England+in+India+2008-09c13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FEngland+in+India+2008-09" width="1" height="1" //divpThe England and Wales Cricket Board expects to confirm within hours that the Test series of India will go ahead after the completion of a security inspection in Chennai. The ECB remains confident despite the febrile atmosphere surrounding the tour that the bulk of the squad will accept the security report that a tour of India remains legitimate and will decide to travel./ppReg Dickason, the ECB's security adviser, completed today what appeared to have been a satisfactory inspection of the Chidambaran Stadium, the new venue for the first Test on December 11. He told Press Trust of India: "We had some security concerns and these have been addressed." Dickason now flies on to Mohali, venue for the second Test, and a similar outcome is expected within 48 hours./ppOn the basis of Dickason's preliminary report on Chennai, which will reach them today, the ECB should be emboldened to confirm that England will fly to India at the end of the week via Abu Dhabi, where they will practice for about 48 hours. They may not fly to Chennai until two days before the game./ppDickason held security meetings with N Srinivasan, the secretary of the Indian board and also president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which manages the stadium. He also met the Chennai police commissioner K Radhakrishnan. Srnivasan said: "Based on the discussions held and the clarification given, the BCCI expects no problems with the first Test being held in Chennai."/ppDickason sought commitment on a range of issues, including the presence of Indian special forces as well as police, an emergency evacuation plan and heightened security in the vicinity of the England dressing room. Radhakrishnan confirmed: "A central access control system will be installed at the vantage point and the players' viewing area and also at the team hotel. The players, upon their arrival here, will be advised to restrict their movements outside the hotel area."/ppThe police presence around the hotel and the stadium will be in record numbers and it is likely that all leave will be cancelled during England's stay in the city./ppAbu Dhabi is struggling to find enough players of sufficient quality to host a practice match and England are likely to make do with two or three days of net practice before entering the Test./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandinindia200809"England in India 2008-09/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/indiacricketteam"India Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketteam"England Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketseries"England cricket series/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/cricket"Cricket/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YLIVsP53EYp0SZUx-JisyWr3tNE/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YLIVsP53EYp0SZUx-JisyWr3tNE/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

!-- [DocumentBodyStart:5b3d1702-6e41-4d09-b4df-8ab9284e808b] --div class='jive-rendered-content'pHello Mike,/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pblockquote class="jive-quote" level="1"pTrying out the new 'Database' tab and its functions./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppI'm looking at a java source file that contains SQL statements.nbsp; I see/ppthey're now highlighted green, which I assume means that IDEA/pprecognizes this as "this is SQL" and I'll get the SQL code assist/ppthings? So I'm inside that string and I hit ctrl-space and I get a/pphuge popup list of SQL keywords (o/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppk, fine).nbsp;nbsp; But where's the table and column names?/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppspanAs talked about here: /spana class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/sql.html"http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/sql.html/a/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppDo the table/column names only come up inside *.sql files?/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppI've tried in that type of file as well, but I'm actually getting less/ppjoy there.nbsp; No highlighting even.nbsp; I must have something configured/ppincorrectly.nbsp; Any help?/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pp---/ppOriginal message URL:/ppa class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://www.jetbrains.net/devnet/message/5228090#5228090"http://www.jetbrains.net/devnet/message/5228090#5228090/a/p/blockquotep style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppPlease, check the SQL dialect assigned to the file. E.g. in Settings / SQL /ppdialects./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pp"Generic SQL" does not provide table/column completion./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppAlexander./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/p/div!-- [DocumentBodyEnd:5b3d1702-6e41-4d09-b4df-8ab9284e808b] --

PGnJ 1.0PGnJ is an intuitive SQL Database Development Environment for Mac OS X. PGnJ is surprisingly simple, yet extremely powerful for working with databases. Unlike alternative clients, PGnJÂ’s unique, single window interface gives you everything you need, right at your fingertips.
WHAT'S NEWVersion 1.0:

• [NEW] Oracle support added. (Thanks, Lorgio!)
• [NEW] SQLite support added. (Thanks, Milan!)
• [NEW] Tab completion support for table and column names added to the query editor.
• [NEW] A Script Library for managing SQL scripts added (:variables supported).
• [NEW] A template system for generating DDL SQL templates.
• [NEW] A common toolbar has been added to the Query Editor and Script Library views.
• [NEW] A filter bar (CMD+F to focus) to filter and order data with SQL added in the DataBrowser. (Thanks, Lorgio!)
• [NEW] The bookmark manager can now remember connection passwords.
• [NEW] The execution engine has been completely rebuilt from scratch to better handle multiple queries regardless of type.
• [NEW] The database tree now automatically refreshes when DDL is detected.
• [NEW] The database tree's state is now recalled when the database is refreshed (expanded nodes remain expanded, selected node remains selected).
• [NEW] SQL can now be executed directly from a file without first loading it into the query editor (for larger scripts).
• [NEW] It is now possible to drop one more files directly onto the query editor's input area to load sql.
• [NEW] Right clicking on a result set now reveals a pop-up menu that allows copying the content of either a single cell or the entire row in CSV format to the clipboard.
• [NEW] The bookmark manager now remembers the last selected database type to ease the task of adding bookmarks.
• [NEW] Table details are now pre-fetched in a background thread after connection to database is established.
• [NEW] A drag handle has been added to the bottom left action bar to make resizing the sidebar easier.
• [NEW] PGnJ can now remain running without any windows open (like standard Cocoa applications).
• [NEW] Experimental horizontal scroll wheel support added (use preference to toggle).
• [NEW] Added preference to convert all zero datetimes in MySQL to NULL (on by default; off causes exception).
• [NEW] Added menu items and keyboard shortcuts to navigate the table details at the bottom of the sidebar.
• [NEW] A shortcut (CMD+T) to focus on the database tree in the sidebar has been added.
• [NEW] A shortcut (CMD+W) to close the preferences window when it is visible has been added.
• [NEW] When started, PGnJ now specifically asks if it's okay to check for updates rather than defaulting to autochecking.
• [CHANGE] CSV Export no longer wraps integers, floats and booleans in quotes.
• [CHANGE] The connection sheet and bookmark manager are now fully keyboard navigable.
• [CHANGE] The connection sheet now cancels on escape. (Thanks, Manton!)
• [CHANGE] The keyboard shortcut CMD+E and menu item 'Database > Execute SQL' now executes SQL when the QueryEditor is visible and reloads the DataBrowser when the DataBrowser is visible.
• [CHANGE] Altered the row selection behavior on the database tree so that clicking on an expand/collapse arrow doesn't highlight that row unless the currently selected row is a child of that row.
• [CHANGE] When using CMD-UP/CMD-DOWN quick history from the Query Editor, if there is SQL currently in the Editor, it is added to the history so that it isn't lost.
• [CHANGE] The history browser (CMD-SHIFT-H) no longer automatically executes a SQL statement after selecting it and appropriately cleans up the query editor before loading the selected SQL.
• [CHANGE] Connection sheets are now correctly document modal. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [CHANGE] Menu items are now properly enabled or disabled based on the context of the application.
• [CHANGE] Where necessary, tooltips are assigned to disabled menu items to explain how they can be enabled.
• [CHANGE] All tables are now borderless to be more in line with current trends in OS X application design.
• [CHANGE] The background color of the sidebar has been darkened slightly to better resemble the sidebar background colors of other OS X applications.
• [CHANGE] Polished dialogs with more appropriate copy and icons.
• [CHANGE] The QueryEditor now receives focus upon a successful connection to a bookmark.
• [CHANGE] When resizing the window, the sidebar now only grows the area containing the database tree rather than the table details section at the bottom.
• [CHANGE] Updated Quaqua LAF to version 5.0.1. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [FIX] Now able to issue ALTER, CREATE and DROP statements to MySQL databases.
• [FIX] When a new bookmark is setup to connect to, it is now only added if the connection is successful.
• [FIX] The AutoCheckForUpdates preference is no longer (accidently) ignored.
• [FIX] Style changes in the query editor are no longer registered in the undo/redo history.
• [FIX] When loading a sql file, the QueryEditor properly replaces the current view.
• [FIX] Dialogs (sheets) now correctly gain focus, enabling keyboard interaction. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [FIX] Columns of a table no longer sporadically appear multiple times in the table details area.

REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.4 or later.
DEVELOPERThomas Mango
DOWNLOADS7733
DOWNLOAD NOW (5.8 MB)
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Express Dictate 5.05

Express Dictate is a professional voice recorder for Mac OS X. It features all the functions of a handheld dictaphone and allows you to send audio files to a typist via email, FTP or LAN.

Express Dictate uses state of the art digital audio processing and compression technology to record and transmit audio. It also includes features such as automatic editing, voice activated recording and 256bit encryption (HIPAA compliant). Express Dictate will also keep track of the progress of work and the expected completion time.
REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.1 or later.
DEVELOPERNCH Software
DOWNLOADS4704
DOWNLOAD NOW (749 K)
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More and more people want to watch their HD DVD on iPod.
But we all know DVD is .VOB format and iPod can only accepts MP4 and H.264 video formats.
A professional DVD to iPod Converter is all we need. With it we can not only rip DVD to iPod playable video formats but also can edit it such as cut a clip and merge some files into one.
This guide show you how to do this. It includes three parts.
Part 1: How to rip a DVD to iPod
Part 2: How to edit a DVD to iPod
Part 3: How to add already video to iPod

Part 1: How to rip a DVD
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter, run it.
Step 2: Click ”Load DVD” button to load your DVD.
This professional DVD Ripper can load three DVD source, you can load your DVD from DVD drive, DVD folder in your PC and also IFO file.
Step 3:Select the output video format you want from the ”Profile” drop-down list.
You can also click the ”Settings” button to set the value of Frame Rate, Resolution, Bitrate and so on.


Step 4:Click ”Start” button to start your conversion and in a short while it will be finished.

Part 2: How to edit a DVD to iPod
1: Capture your favorite picture.
If you like the current image of the video you can use the ”Snapshot” opinion. Just click the ”Snapshot” button the image will be saved and you can click the ”File” next to ”Snapshot” button to open your picture.
2: Merge videos into one file.
Just check the ”merge into one file” option if you want to merge the selected contents into one file As default the merged file is named after the first selected file (either a title or a chapter)
3: Video Effecting
Click the ”Effect” button and a dialog pops up, you can set your video effect here.
Brightness: Drag and click the Brightness adjustment bar to set the brightness of the video.
Contrast: Drag and click the Contrast adjustment bar to set the contrast of the video.
Saturation: Drag and click the Saturation adjustment bar to set the saturation of the video.
Volume: Drag the Volume adjustment bar to set the volume of the audio.

4: Crop video
There are two methods available to crop your video:
Method 1: Crop by selecting a crop mode
Select a crop mode in the Crop Mode drop-down list and click OK to save the crop. There are seven pre-set crop modes for your choice: No Crop, Cut off Top and Bottom black edges, Cut off Top black edge, Cut off Bottom black edge, Cut off Left and Right black edges, Cut off All black edges and Custom. For "Custom", it allows you to customize your movie according to your needs. To crop your movie video, you can just drag your mouse cursor from four sides and four angles.
Method 2: Crop by setting the crop values
There are four crop values on the lower right part of the crop window: Top, Bottom, Left and Right. You can set each value to crop your movie video, and the crop frame will move accordingly.

Note: Before you start to crop your movie video, you can select an output aspect ratio from the Zoom Mode. There are four choices available: Keep Original, Full Screen, 16:9 and 4:3. After you select an output aspect ratio and finish the crop, the result can be previewed in the Preview window of the program main interface.
5: Trim video
Click the ”Trim” button and a dialog pops up. You can set the time of the clip here.

Set Start Time
Enter the start time in the Start Time box and click OK or drag slider bar under the Preview window and start time will be shown in the Start Time box for your reference.
Set End Time
Enter the end time in the Set End Time box and click OK or drag slider bar under the Preview window and the end time will be shown in the Set End Time box for your reference.
After you set the end time, the length of the captured clip will be shown in the Select Length box for your reference. You can Click the ”Convert” button to convert your DVD.
After the completion of conversion you can upload the clip onto YouTube and Myspace and share them with people of the whole world.

Part 3: How to transfer Videos/Songs from iPod to computer
If you want to add video to iPod Touch/Classic/Nano with iTunes,
follow these steps:
1.Open iTunes and click "File" to add your videos to iTunes library.
2.Plug in your iPod to computer, then iTunes will detect your iPod as a device.
3.Select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.

Now enjoy your high-resolutin video on your iPod Touch/Classic/Nano.
Have fun!

img class=face src=http://planet.ubuntu.com/heads/toponce.png alt= pSo, due to the bad shape of the economy, and the lack of faith from a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor in a href=http://gurulabs.comGuru Labs/a, I was let go from my position as a Linux instructor and guru. As unfortunate as it is, I have to press forward looking for the best job that fits my skill set./p pHowever, the point of this post isn#8217;t to complain about being laid off, or the bad shape of the economy. Rather, while employed, I was given a 120 GB LaCie Rugged hard drive that was called the #8220;gurudisk#8221; (being a #8220;Linux Guru#8221; from #8220;Guru Labs#8221;. Get it?). The gurudisk had everything on it necessary for easing the installation of Linux on computers. Kickstart and AutoYast files were used for automating the install of the instructor machine, while scripts and RPMs were used to automate the configuration and additional software installation of the instructor machine, and DHCP, DNS, TFTP and PXE, along with Kickstart and AutoYast files, were used for automating student machines. Using the gurudisk, I could do a full classroom install, complete with instructor machine and 20 student machines, in under an hour. The gurudisk held RHEL 5, RHEL 5.1, Fedora 6, SLES 10, SUSE Linux 10.1 and Oracle 4.5 disk ISOs and software, as well as RPMs, scripts and config files. It was truly a welcomed companion./p pHowever, all of that can easily fit in 40 GB of space, so what to do with the rest of the 80 GB? Well, most of us began using that space for personal data. Music, videos, scripts, documents and so forth. I#8217;m not one to carry music or movies with me, so that didn#8217;t interest me much. Rather, I wanted the ability to take the gurudisk further with using Ubuntu and Debian. So, I had an #8220;isos#8221; directory on my gurudisk, where I kept more updated ISOs, including RHEL 5.2, Fedora 9 and 10, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Debian 4.0, openSUSE 11, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and others. At one point, I had an entire Ubuntu repository mirroring 8.04 and 8.10 on the gurudisk. Lastly, if that#8217;s not enough, I had VMWare, KVM, Xen and VirtualBox virtual machines with clean, vanilla installations of a few of the major distributions. I took advantage of my space, and it also came to the welcome approval of many students./p pWhen news came yesterday that I had lost my job, and that I would need to turn in my gurudisk, I wanted to first get my Ubuntu mirror, virtual machines and ISOs off the disk. Then, I wanted to experience, first hand, #8220;shredding#8221; the data on the disk. Thus, we have now reached the topic of this post- GNU shred./p pI had heard from students over and over again that zeroing out the drive using /dev/zero is not sufficient for secure data deletion. I full heartedly disagree, and I#8217;m sure I#8217;ll bring out the emotion of many of you in the comments. Here#8217;s why I think /dev/zero is more than sufficient for secure data destruction:/p ul liOn older dive encoding schemes, mainly RLL and MFM, data was not written in exactly the same spot every time. As such, there was left over charge from the previous write, and expensive data recovery hardware could use math and averages to discover what the data once was. As such, a method known as the #8220;Gutmann Method#8221; became the standard of destroying data. Patters of ones and zeros would be written to the disk, in such a way that maximizing flipping the bits, minimizing the average left over charge. After seven passes, the residual charge would be so minute, that it would be virtually impossible to recover the data. Do 35 passes, and the data is gone for sure./li liDrives today do not use RLL or MFM encoding, and also, the bits are much more close together then they were in days gone by. The data has to be written in exactly the same spot, or data destruction is likely on other data existing on the disk. As such, there is no left over residual charge from rewriting the data. A single pass over existing data removes any existence of that data./li liSupposedly, top secret, mega government, super computers administered my corporations with endless amounts of cash flow can recover data on ATA drives, even after seven passes. However, there has been no academic study, no scientific evidence, no hard cold proof. All we have is hearsay and rumors of people we know claimed to recover the data using these killer machines or algorithms on ATA drives./li /ul pSo, with that in mind, after backing up my data, a single zeroing of the entire drive would be more than sufficient for a couple reasons. First, my bosses and company don#8217;t have the resources, the time and money, or the care to recover any data off of my gurudisk. Second, the data I was deleting wasn#8217;t necessarily personal, as no passwords or private keys or information was stored on the disk. So, even if the data could be recovered, of what use would it be to anyone? Little, if any. Chances are good that the drive will sit on a shelf, unattended and unused, and when it does make it back into commission, it will just be formatted with ext3, files put on, and used as any other drive. So, /dev/zero it is./p pOr not./p pI#8217;m a mathematician at heart. I love math and logic puzzles as well as cryptography and many an algorithm. If I had the time and money, I would finish college, and get a Doctorate in Mathematics. However, that#8217;s a dream that just isn#8217;t realistic at this point in my life, but I still enjoy pulling out my HP49G+, and crunching the numbers. So, the algorithm used in Gutmann#8217;s Method is interesting. More interesting are the pseudo-random number generators used in cryptographic applications. So, I decided to give GNU shred a try, seeing as though it#8217;s part of coreutils, and see what the result is. I ran the following command:/p preshred -v -z /dev/sdc/pre pThis means that GNU shred will make 26 total passes, with the 26th pass being straight zeros to hide the fact that the disk has been shredded. Once finished, I#8217;ll add one final pass as an easter egg to the next person who gets the gurudisk. So, 27 total passes to the disk. What I#8217;m mostly interested in, is the time it will take to finish. From my understanding, it will write pseudo-random numbers to the disk on the first, middle and second-to-last passes, due to passing #8216;-z#8217; to zero the shred. Writing random data to 120 GB of disk is going to take some time. In fact, I timed it, and it took 5 hours and 20 minutes. Which means it will last at least 16 hours to run to completion. But then there is the one and zero pattern writing that will take place in between. I would expect this to go substantially faster than writing random data, and it does- about three times as fast. Three passes can be completed in 5 hours and 20 minutes, give or take, based on the pattern. There are 23 final passes at this rate, which is approximately 41 hours. Add the 16 on top of that, and it#8217;s going to take 58 total hours to complete all 26 passes. That#8217;s almost 2 and a half days! In fact, as I#8217;m writing this, it#8217;s 18:00 the next day, and I#8217;m only on pass 11, writing the pattern #8220;333333#8243; in hexadecimal to the disk. The next pass will be my second random data pass. When I get out of bet tomorrow, I expect to be on pass 18, give or take./p pI figure, even though I#8217;m long past any possible data retrieval, it#8217;s fun to watch. Even more entertaining is the heat emanating off of the disk- it#8217;s fairly warm, which I guess makes sense, as the disks have been going non-stop for almost 24 hours. Would I recommend GNU shred for wiping your data? No. Again, /dev/zero will be more than sufficient, and fast too, at roughly 30 MB per second on a SATA or USB 2.0 disk. Which, by the way, this disk is connected via FireWire 400 (I#8217;m not a fan of the USB speed burst). I#8217;d love to see this run to completion, but I#8217;ll probably cancel it sometime tomorrow morning, install my easter egg, then be on my way to return the disk./p pLong live hacking!/p div class=feedflare a href=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pthree?a=dqloOimg src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pthree?i=dqloO border=0 //a /divimg src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pthree/~4/473095795 height=1 width=1 /

!-- [DocumentBodyStart:f3b9987e-6d11-4252-8f9a-679855f211b1] --div class='jive-rendered-content'pHi,/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppI see this is marked as fixed in release 500, but it's not quite working for me./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppFrom the above example I can type:/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppBa/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppthen hit Ctrl+Space and get Bar offered as a completion, which just completes to 'Bar', but I can't do/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppFo/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/pphit ctrl+space and get Foo offered as a completion. Furthermore typing/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppFoo::Ba/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppctrl+space doesn't offer Bar as a completion./pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppIs it supposed to, or could I have something badly setup?/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppThanks/pp style="min-height: 8pt; height: 8pt; padding: 0px;"nbsp;/ppJohn/p/div!-- [DocumentBodyEnd:f3b9987e-6d11-4252-8f9a-679855f211b1] --

Category: Sports
Released: Dec 01, 2008
Price: $0.99

Description:
If you're as obsessed with football as we are, then you'll love this app! Sure, they'll tell you the stats as the game goes on, and you can find out the rating after the game, but what if you want to know your favorite QB's passer rating (as well as that loser on the other side) DURING the game -- with every pass? See how each completion, touchdown or interception affects his game, season and career ratings all at once in a fun way complete with sound effects. You simply enter the season and career stats (if you want) before the game, then tap the correct button with every pass. A challenge button even lets you reverse the last pass, so feel free to experiment. Or you can just use QB Rater to calculate ratings for you whenever, maybe for high school or pee wee games. Add, delete, edit, or reorder multiple quarterbacks, and choose from either pro or college formulas. I bet the TV announcers wish they had this app.

Website: http://anywiseenterprise.com
Support Website: http://anywiseenterprise.com

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: QB Rater

Category: Games
Released: Nov 26, 2008
Price: $1.99

Description:
Test your flying skills as you cruise through outer space, earning points by flying through obstacles and by shooting enemy spacecraft and asteroids. Immerse yourself in a 3D outer space universe with incredible graphics throughout your journey. Use the iPod�s accelerometer by twisting and turning your iPod or iPod Touch to guide your ship in the desired flight direction. Tap your screen to shoot and drag your finger to adjust your spacecraft's velocity. Work your way through ten levels of game play, each progressively more challenging, with more complex flight paths and increased enemy danger. Pass from one level to the next by warping through a portal that is is unlocked only after the energy rings on that level are cleared. These energy rings are charged, requiring you to fly through the green side of each ring. Attempting to fly through the red side of an energy ring will cause your shield strength to be reduced, ultimately leading to the destruction of your spacecraft. Shooting at the energy rings on the green side will grow their energy field and cause the ring to expand, making it easier to pass through. Shooting the red side of a ring has the opposite effect by reducing its size. Along your journey through each level, you will encounter enemy space probes, cruise ships, and asteroid belts. Shoot everything in your path. Points are awarded for flying through rings, for destroying space probes, cruise ships, and asteroids. Bonus points are awarded after each level based on completion time, remaining fuel and shield levels, flying accuracy, and asteroids destroyed. The top ten high scores are saved and displayed somewhere after each game and automatically during attract mode. Gameplay can be customized by selecting the number of starting spacecraft and the starting game level. An alternative flight mode can also be selected for even more challenging gameplay. In-game sounds may be disabled to allow your favorite music track to be played during gameplay. Pause the game anytime during gameplay by tapping the on-screen pause button. Are you ready to take flight?

Website: http://www.astroslalom.com
Support Website: http://www.astroslalom.com

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: Astro Slalom

Today, the Black Mesa Team released an impressive trailer for their remake of Half-Life . The remake is a total-conversion mod for Half-Life 2, bringing the updated graphics and AI of the Source engine to the original game. The team has been dropping hints lately that the project, which began in 2004, is almost done, and the trailer confirms that it will be out in 2009. They also recently announced that they've "dropped Counter-Strike: Source as a requirement for Black Mesa, and from now on, the only thing you'll need to play the mod is a Steam account with any Source engine game installed! Black Mesa is now running completely off of our own content and base Source shared content, and we felt the vastly increased user base more then justified creating all the extra assets needed to make this switch."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/02/085239amp;from=rss"img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/02/085239"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/02/085239amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/XhQS2uSOahUOUJ3KAToRIezT7fQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/XhQS2uSOahUOUJ3KAToRIezT7fQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/vlmZEJT8MfU" height="1" width="1"/

Today, the Black Mesa Team released an impressive trailer for their remake of Half-Life . The remake is a total-conversion mod for Half-Life 2, bringing the updated graphics and AI of the Source engine to the original game. The team has been dropping hints lately that the project, which began in 2004, is almost done, and the trailer confirms that it will be out in 2009. They also recently announced that they've "dropped Counter-Strike: Source as a requirement for Black Mesa, and from now on, the only thing you'll need to play the mod is a Steam account with any Source engine game installed! Black Mesa is now running completely off of our own content and base Source shared content, and we felt the vastly increased user base more then [sic] justified creating all the extra assets needed to make this switch."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/02/085239amp;from=rss"img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/02/085239"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/02/085239amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/SmfHI9lvLjjGwilEvfRCK5UK_ew/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/SmfHI9lvLjjGwilEvfRCK5UK_ew/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/zwL7yi47AzU" height="1" width="1"/