Blag

a.k.a 32-Bit Web Browser Review

And now for a short detour in the multi-part series, onto the most extensive post I have written to date.

A few months back, I was searching for Firefox on Major Geeks (file download mirror that’s unmetered on my ISP) and came across a… let’s say, unique browser – 32-Bit Web Browser, developed by a small company called Electrasoft.

Click here to visit Electrasoft’s home page, and here for the product information page.

Seeing as I was auditioning browsers anyway, I downloaded 32-Bit Web Browser and installed it in a virtual machine to try out. The results made me cry

I didn’t even bother benchmarking it; instead, I shall endeavour to give the application a virtual anal tearing, point out it’s numerous (understatement of the year there) flaws, and why its author is a charlatan who is scamming money off unsuspecting parent and senior types who don’t know any better. Let’s just say I would rather use Lynx or Dillo, than go anywhere near 32-Bit Web Browser with a 15 foot barge pole, so to speak.

This will be a long and intensive post, so click to read more.

(There’s more text at the end, it’s not all images!)

Read the rest of this entry »

Copied verbatim from their blog post:

As always, check back at http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/ and Torrent Freak for the latest news.

Today is a sad day for Internet users, torrent trackers, ISPs and network operators worldwide.

The Pirate Bay 4 – Guilty.

1 Year jail term, and $905000 fines each.

The Pirate Bay will stay running of course – the trial was never about the tracker, just the 4 admins who ran the website behind the scenes. They do have 2 courts (or opportunities) to appeal their sentences though, the first of which must be lodge by the 9th of May 2009. It may be years before an outcome is reached though.

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/ is the most accurate and constantly updated source. (Torrent Freak is the de facto site when it comes to file sharing news.) Check back constantly.

The outcome will be very interesting though as this is a landmark case, and it could mean that ISPs may become responsible for policing their users download habits. The outcome of this case LITERALLY could halt the development of broadband worldwide. Let’s face it, with P2P file sharing accounting for 2/3 (and growing) of the data transmitted over the Internet, the ripple effect from these legal proceedings could make 4 companies VERY rich, many companies very broke and land millions of citizens in jail (or at least considerably lighten their wallets anyway).

Speaking of which, iinet vs. AFACT isn’t going too well either… I’m sure Senator Cuntroy is happy, but every Australian ISP is on the edge of their seat watching the drama unfold.

The amount of licensing models available for open-source software is ridiculous. Why can’t the OSS zealots standardize on a few licensing models, instead of creating a new iteration every time they fix a spelling mistake in previous license?

For starters, there’s the all too familiar GNU GPL and LGPL licenses… which come in version 1, 2, 2.1 and 3. Version 4 is on its way soon.

Now head over to http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical and cock a snook at the variety available:

• Academic Free License 3.0 (AFL 3.0)
• Affero GNU Public License
• Adaptive Public License
• Apache License, 2.0
• Apple Public Source License
• Artistic license 2.0
• Attribution Assurance Licenses
• New and Simplified BSD licenses
• Boost Software License (BSL1.0)
• Computer Associates Trusted Open Source License 1.1
• Common Development and Distribution License
• Common Public Attribution License 1.0 (CPAL)
• Common Public License 1.0
• CUA Office Public License Version 1.0
• EU DataGrid Software License
• Eclipse Public License
• Educational Community License, Version 2.0
• Eiffel Forum License V2.0
• Entessa Public License
• European Union Public License (link to every language’s version on their site)
• Fair License
• Frameworx License
• GNU General Public License (GPL)
• GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3)
• GNU Library or “Lesser” General Public License (LGPL)
• GNU Library or “Lesser” General Public License version 3.0 (LGPLv3)
• Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer
• IBM Public License
• IPA Font License
• ISC License
• Lucent Public License Version 1.02
• Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)
• Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL)
• MIT license
• Motosoto License
• Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL)
• Multics License
• NASA Open Source Agreement 1.3
• NTP License
• Naumen Public License
• Nethack General Public License
• Nokia Open Source License
• Non-Profit Open Software License 3.0 (Non-Profit OSL 3.0)
• OCLC Research Public License 2.0
• Open Font License 1.1 (OFL 1.1)
• Open Group Test Suite License
• Open Software License 3.0 (OSL 3.0)
• PHP License
• Python license (CNRI Python License)
• Python Software Foundation License
• Qt Public License (QPL)
• RealNetworks Public Source License V1.0
• Reciprocal Public License 1.5 (RPL1.5)
• Ricoh Source Code Public License
• Simple Public License 2.0
• Sleepycat License
• Sun Public License
• Sybase Open Watcom Public License 1.0
• University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License
• Vovida Software License v. 1.0
• W3C License
• wxWindows Library License
• X.Net License
• Zope Public License
• zlib/libpng license

I like the close source world much better. OSS makes redistributing, or basing your application on the work of others a royal pain in the arse.

I did come across the WTFPL though – “Do What The Fuck You Want To public License.” The entire license is:

            DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
                    Version 2, December 2004

 Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar
  14 rue de Plaisance, 75014 Paris, France
 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified
 copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long
 as the name is changed.

            DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

  0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.

Aka, do whatever you like, modify the license however you like, and best of all, it’s a legally recognized license which will hold up in court

Read more about it here: http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/