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Journal Journal: GNU/Linux Compiling Toolset references ? 1

I am a developer with several years of experience in programming, mostly Java an Windows (Visual Studio, DevC++, PHP MySql, etc) environments. Although I know how to program in C, C++ I have never had interaction with any of the GNU tool chains for maintaining used code in many Open Source software (such as Makefiles, autotools, cmake). I know the basic usage of those (what are they for and how to create one) from some online tutorials I have looked.

Some days ago, I decided to engage in helping a specific (not very big) SourceForge C++ project to practice my C++ skills, however, after downloading the SVN code I was presented with an overwhelming source tree which used either autotools or cmake for the generation of the project. I tried to setup either Eclipse CDT and KDevelop to work in the project and also tried adding a simple class (.h and .cpp) manually but I could not make it compile successfully (did not know what files to modify for the autotools or cmake!).

Therefore I would like to know if there is any place or books (other than the typical Manuals which are not very didactic) which could guide me at the "logic" used when participating in projects using such toolsets.

User Journal

Journal Journal: A technique to avoid ad-blocking programs in web browsers 1

There you go, a proof of concept method to skip those pesky ad-blocking programs and deliver the ads to the lusers.

I do not know if this is innovative or if it has been already implemented, but I came up with it in the last half hour... if it becomes wildly used, then you saw it first here.

Oh, and the CEO-like mumbo jumbo is courtesy of myself...

---
A technique to enforce ad delivery in Web (HTML) based applications.

The following is the description of a technique which enforces the deployment of web based advertisment preventing the client applications from removing them automatically using extensions such as Adblock (Firefox), AdMuncher (Internet Explorer), etc.

The typical ad-blocker will allow the removal of certain elements in a web page that match certain predefined filters. Thus for example, if an ad blocking program is instructed to filter out elements containing the text "www.adcompany.com/*" in the URL, then when the web client is downloading a web page and the ad blocking component finds the web page that matches the filter it will remove the corresponding element from the HTML.

In order to avoid such behaviour a method to mix the content with the ads is proposed. This method prevents the use of pre-defined filters to remove automatically ad blocking elements in web pages enforcing the web client to display the page as it was designed by the content provider.

To achieve this, the method consists on three steps.

First the web server (i.e. www.mycontent.com ) creates a random URL which will contain the actual web page content (www.mycontent.com/LKFSPEKW ) and redirects the client browser to such page, which perform the second step for every ad to display.

Secondly an ad-server is setup which provides the predefined ads for the web page. This ad-server communicates with the web serverthat displays the content via server-side scripting language (as PHP, Python, etc) to provide the corresponding add to display. The web server then creates a local copy of the ad creating a random based URL (which still has as base the www.mycontent.com web page) creating a virtual directory (www.mycontent.com/XCKLA132D).

Finally, the web server proceeds to insert the ad links in the displayed web page containing the information to be accessed. It is important to note that the URL containing the content of the page must be of a similar nature (random characters, with numbers, etc) than the adds being served in order to prevent automatic filtering.
---

User Journal

Journal Journal: Holophony... A technology destroyed by greed 2

Some of you might have heard about it, some don't. Holophony is, as stated in the Wikipedia:

an audio recording technique, designed by Argentine researcher Hugo Zuccarelli, which operates on a similar principle to Holography, except it applies these principles to sound and audio recording. It uses a multiple exposure technique where an original recording is combined with a reference recording, and the resulting interference patterns are recorded. The result has been reported to be realistic and life-like three dimensional sounding audio recordings which have been said to exceed the realism of stereo sound.

The results obtained from holophonic recording should be listened to be understood. One of the main breakthroughs is the ability to play audio which is real 3D in contrast with current market techniques like DTS, Dolby Surround, etc. Although These techniques claim to produce tridimensional sound, the audio signal listened lacks of the vertical component. An example would be, in a typical THX introduction video where the robot seems to go around fixing the logo, you can listen the sounds at your front, side and back; however, these sounds lay in the same plane, there is difference in the vertical (i.e. there is *no* way to listen sound at the top of your head).

For some time, I have been looking hard on any information available on Internet that would allow me to create this kind of sound. I am a hobbyst game programmer and I believe this kind of sound has a lot of potential in game development. Specially on these days when portable gaming has became mainstream (and that the consoles are powerful enough to create 3D worlds).

Unfortunately, there is very little information about the process of recording holophonic audio. Some people claim that it is just a type of binaural recording but, you can listen, from samples available at both Wikipedia pages that the binaural recording lacks the depth of dimensionality achieved with Holophony.

As stated on the Wikipedia page, Holophonic sound was invented by an Argentinian named Hugo Zucarelli near the 1980s. It was because of the date of the invention that I was really puzzled why nobody hasnt exploited the inventions; and moreover, why isn't there information on how to achieve this type of audio.

Sometime this year, I started looking *again* for information about Holophony, but now, one obvious thing that I have always missed hit me, this is, if the author is from Argentina then maybe, just maybe there is some information in Spanish (which luckily is my mother tongue).

Although I could not found *how* to record using holophony, to my surprise I found some forums where (it seems) the same Hugo Zucarelli posted what I think is very interesting information which explains why Holophonics is not as widespread as other more accepted sounds.

Unfortunately, the story of this inventor is sad and from what he wrote, it seems some companies from the not-very-liked record industry assossiation of america have once again tried to abuse from the inventor.

I took the task to translate the forum posts made *by* the person who claims to be Hugo zucarelli. On the first forum thread the person claiming to be Mr. Zucarelli uses the nickname Hugi. The translation of the text is as follows:

#132 06-ago-2005 1:21
I am the inventor of the Holophony, I have just arrived to Buenos Aires, you can contact me at [mail removed]@yahoo.com
Next Friday in "Obras" I will show for the first time the Holophonic Speakers, I hope you like them.

The concert is "the end", they play "The Final Cut" from Pink Floyd. I hope to see you there. We will have Holophonic disks to sell ($30) 3 x $60 . I will be there to autograph them. Hope to see you there!

#139 09-ago-2005 22:57

On Friday in "Obras" in the concert of "The End" we will sell CDs. Come! Huggo Zuccarelli.

#215 24-feb-2006 23:21
If you want to ask me something interesting for everyone I answer. zuccarelli@yahoo.com
Specially the people that want to meet to chat. I am in Buenos Aires.
A hug.

It is on the next post (#216 ) where the interesting bits start:

Holophony is not binaural, because you do not need two ears to appreciate the 3D effect.

As you do not need two eyes to see a hologram in stereoscopic.

The reason is that the ears are tridimensional by nature and do not need to interrelate to work.

If not, you could not percieve sounds being with one ear covered with a pillow.

Moreover, try covering an ear and ask a friend to make a sound with his fingers around, up, down and you will see that you can percieve it.

The binaural heads where made for people instructed far from their intelligence. I, on the other side could be a monkey but I am not retard.

Observe and you will see that you can not pan the reality, you realize that the sound does not COLLAPSE on your ear when you cover the other, according to the binaural theories you could not have no spaciality however the sound does not approach your head it stays there.

Thanks for your interest, I wish that the Yanki and the Britons had not impede me make popular the holophony, that way you too could listen it.

It is still not late, if you know someone who is interested in using it we can still have fun.

A Hug. Hugo

As you can read from the above post, Zuccarelli explains a bit of the theory behind Holophony and the gives some hint about the problems he had to stand against the "Yankis" (peyorative for Americans) and Britons.

This is the first part of the story. I will continue it as I have some time.

User Journal

Journal Journal: MSOffice-OOorg compatibilty 3

So, as I stated I am going to list every stupid comment that states that "OpenOffice is compatible with MS Office", that is bullshit at least by OO 2.0 which is by NO MEANS even 80% compatible. This is the first comment I'll annotate:

First bullshit

User Journal

Journal Journal: A good web hosting site + $15 2

Ok, this is the deal. I am being clear as I do not like being scammed or the pyramid schemes.

The first thing to note is a very good hosting company called DreamHost they are a web hosting sevice company whoes services start at $7.95 a month. They DO have a great service, you can look at this review site . Of course you can always make a google search for and see for yourself.

Now, if you go to the homepage you will see that they are running a referral program where you can earn $97 when you reffer someone. This is where I come in.

I am willing to share $15 of those $97 with you. Of course this only works if YOU need a web provider, and you actually become a customer of DreamHost. You must also have a Paypal account, as I will pay you trought PayPal.

Now, you could also reffer some other people and get your $97, that is your buisness.

To do this you need to click here when signing into a service with them, or just type my name "xtracto" as the refferal.

After I get the get the the notification and (of course) the money, I will pay you the $15. For this I will need your paypal account.

And that is it, no hidden tricks and anything, of course if you have any question feel free to mail me (you can see my mail up there).

Thank you!

User Journal

Journal Journal: DRMd CD List 15

UPDATE: November 17, 2005:

Sony has made available an official list of the CD's that contain the XCP copy protection. The list can be read HERE.

I have created a new post to maintain the SONY's XCP DRMd CD list.

The original post is still here with some more information about the matter.

Last update:
Nobember, 11. 2005 (10:49 GMT).
November, 09. 2005 (13:00 GMT)

List

The list of CD's so far are:
Nothing Is Sound. Switchfoot
Unwritten [ENHANCED] Natasha Bedingfield
Ride Shelly Fairchild
12 Songs Neil Diamond
Touch Amerie
Bloom Remix Album [ENHANCED] Sarah McLachlan
The Essential Pete Seeger [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Pete Seeger
Jeru [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Gerry Mulligan
Times Like These Buddy Jewell,
Bob Brookmeyer & Friends[ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Bob Brookmeyer
Healthy In Paranoid Times [ENHANCED] Our Lady Peace
Cautivo [DUALDISC] Chayanne
The Invisible Invasion Coral, The Coral
Defined Amici Forever
Suspicious Activity [ENHANCED] The Bad Plus
Manhattan Symphonie [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dexter Gordon
Phantoms Acceptance
On Ne Change Pas Celine Dion
Get Right with the Man Van Zant
To Love Again [ENHANCED] Chris Botti
Life [DUALDISC] Ricky Martin
The Essential Dion [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dion
Faso Latido A Static Lullaby
Change It All Goapele
Susie Suh Susie Suh
My Very Special Guests [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] George Jones
Broken Valley Life of Agony
Silver's Blue [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Horace Silver
Z [ENHANCED] My Morning Jacket
The 60s The Dead 60s
Elizabethtown [SOUNDTRACK] Various Artists
Golden Elkland
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts [ENHANCED] Emma Roberts
Vivian Vivian Green
Dreamin' My Dreams [ENHANCED] Patty Loveless
Mary Mary [ENHANCED] Mary Mary
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Friendship [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Ray Charles
Juego De Amor [Copy Protected CD] ~ Antony Santos
On Your Shore Charlotte Martin
Brown Sugar Various Artists
Blue Skies Diana DeGarmo
Hero Kirk Franklin

As stated in the original post, I create this list using this Google search and then just copy/pasting the URL and information of the CD's from Amazon

If one of the listed CD's does not actually contain the XCP DRM technology please write it in the comments section and I wil delete it.

And no, I do not get anything from the clicked links from this page.

Think on this as a "social service".

User Journal

Journal Journal: Women in games...

Are you one of the frustrated women in games?, you may want to read this post that talks about my point of view.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Sony Rootkit CD providers! 44

Update, November 17:
Sony has made available an official list of the CD's that contain the XCP copy protection. The list can be read HERE.

As stated on the story: Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit, it seems that some of Sony's disks install a rootkit on your system after you try to listen them on your PC.

Why does it matter?

A rootkit is A type of Trojan that keeps itself, other files, registry keys and network connections hidden from detection. It runs at the lowest level of the machine and typically intercepts common API calls."

It is dangerous because hackers and virus writers can use it to help the attacker [hacker] to maintain his or her access to the system and use it for malicious purposes

On this page one of the developers at SysInternals explains what and how is the rootkit installed WITHOUT ASKING YOU when you insert any of the affected AUDIO CD's to play them on your computer running WINDOWS

Which CD's?
I have made a list of the CD's that are "Enhanced" and "Copy Protected" from sony with the XCP copy protection that provides a Rootkit.

It is easy to get an "up to date" list with
this google query.

The list of CD's so far are:
Nothing Is Sound. Switchfoot
Unwritten [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
Natasha Bedingfield

Ride [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Shelly Fairchild
12 Songs [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Neil Diamond
Touch [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Amerie
Bloom Remix Album [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
Sarah McLachlan
Kasabian [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Kasabian
The Essential Pete Seeger [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Pete Seeger
Jeru [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Gerry Mulligan
Times Like These [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Buddy Jewell,
Bob Brookmeyer & Friends [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Bob Brookmeyer
Healthy In Paranoid Times [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
Our Lady Peace
Cautivo [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [DUALDISC]
Chayanne
The Invisible Invasion [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Coral, The Coral
Defined [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Amici Forever
Suspicious Activity [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
The Bad Plus
Manhattan Symphonie [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Dexter Gordon
Phantoms [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Acceptance
On Ne Change Pas [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Celine Dion

Get Right with the Man [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Van Zant
To Love Again [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
Chris Botti
Life [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [DUALDISC]
Ricky Martin
The Essential Dion [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Dion
Faso Latido [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
A Static Lullaby
Change It All [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Goapele

Susie Suh [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Susie Suh

My Very Special Guests [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
George Jones

Broken Valley [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
Life of Agony
Silver's Blue [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Horace Silver
Z [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] [ENHANCED]
My Morning Jacket
The 60s [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
The Dead 60s

What Can I do?
It is important to note that if you have tried to listen any of the above mentioned CD's your computer may have the rootkit installed. Hence, your system may be in danger of being hacked.

If you feel outraged because of this, you can write to the artists and complain about the problem. Tell them that their CD breaks your system as it opens a security hole.

If you think that there are other CD's which should be on this list please feel free to list them in a comment, also if you think any of the listed CD's DOES NOT actually have this problem please also state it in a comment.

Thank you!.

UPDATE:
November, 07. 2005

Mark Russinovich has posted a new entry on his blog showing some quite interesting and not less nasty behaviours of the fix "patch" provided by sony.

I found very interesting some of the comment posts in response of its blog entry. Specifically the one made by an author named xcp support who presumably represent the company behind the XCP technology.

On that post she states the following:

Blog: He claims that the patch itself could cause a blue-screen, although he says the risk is small.

Answer: This is pure conjecture. F4I is using standard Windows commands (net stop) to stop their driver. Nothing more.

There, she is trying to discredit the information provided by Russinovich's work. Stating that the program uses "standard windows commands". While that is certainly true, Russinovich shown on his post the specific state of the system that would cause the system failure.

Now, more interesting is a post from another user, Matt Nikki: ...If you want a more concrete proof, try to rename your favourite ripping software as $sys$whatever.exe and then run it again. You'll notice that the DRM system can no longer detect it, and thus you'll get good copy of the track you try to rip instead of one filled with noise.

So, that means that if someone wanted to make illegal copies of the CD's listed before, they just needed to rename one file!. Thus, at the very end it is Sony's technology who is providing the means to bypass its own copy protection technology.

People won't need to disassemble or hack/crack and or reverse engineer anything. Just rename a simple file.

Ironic no?

List Update
Anyway, here is an update of the list as of today.
For those who asked, no the links above aren't any kind of referral links. This means I will not get any money if anyone clicks those links and/or buy those CDs.

To make this list I am only making a google search as I stated before and then manually parsing the entries.

Life In Slow Motion David Gray
Elizabethtown [SOUNDTRACK] Various Artists
Golden Elkland
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts [ENHANCED] Emma Roberts
Vivian Vivian Green
Dreamin' My Dreams [ENHANCED] Patty Loveless
Mary Mary [ENHANCED] Mary Mary
Never Gone Backstreet Boys
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Friendship [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Ray Charles
Juego De Amor [Copy Protected CD] ~ Antony Santos
On Your Shore Charlotte Martin
Brown Sugar Various Artists
Blue Skies Diana DeGarmo
I'm a Hustla [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Cassidy
Hero Kirk Franklin
All That I Am Santana

List last updated:
November, 09. 2005 (13:08 GMT)
(The most up to date list can be found HERE)

User Journal

Journal Journal: IBS

An interesting thread about IBS can be found here

User Journal

Journal Journal: My Gift. 3

Yes, Here is what I have to say:

I am giving away for free my gmail invitations, you only have to give me a gift certificate that could be worth of $1 at the site AllOfMp3 you should note that I AM NOT selling anything, but I want politely to give away my invitations, as I have some of them, and well, i like to download music.

Now, there are several methods of payment in this site, one is from credit card, and I know some of you may not like the idea, but you can buy an X-rost prepaid iCard, it is safer.

If you would want me to give you as a gift more than one account, well, I would appreciate we could exchange the same number of gifts, this is the way we do it in my country, in some special dates we exchange gifts with other people! what do you think?

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