I have been thinking what would the world be like if things were closed like proprietary instant messaging protocols (for example, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, AIM and similar). Here we go…

• If borders were like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to cross them.
• If e-mail was like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to send it outside your network.
• If roads were like closed IMs, you wouldn’t be able to drive your car on every road.

On the other side, Jabber is open and extensible. That means that you don’t need to be on the same network as your friends in order to IM with them. So, why aren’t people using it? I believe most of them haven’t heard of it at all. And some of them have, but not all of their friends are willing to switch. Wouldn’t it be great if you had to manage only one IM account, instead of 3 or 4? Especially if you’re not using an IM program which supports multiple accounts - in that case you have to run as much programs as you have accounts, just to be able to communicate with all of your friends. What a waste of CPU power and memory.

Have something to add? Feel free to…

Firefox is on its way for setting a Guinness world record in the most software downloaded in 24 hours. It’s gonna happen on FF3 release day. If you want to pledge that you will download it on its release day, you can do so on their Spread Firefox page. Also, check out the cool affiliate buttons and place one on your site.

Spread the word, spread Firefox!

Well, I finished the assembler project for school. It was fun writing it and breaking the assembler into separate parts, for each specific task. I have also learned a lot about the way assembler works.

It is a basic assembler for 8086 processor with 2-byte words, and 1 byte long addressable unit.

It isn’t full with instructions, but it covers the basics. There are four segments: dat, txt, bss and stack. dat and txt, as data and code segments, are represented in the object file. There is the directive DW which is used to reserve a word, END for marking the end of the input. Seven instructions are available:

• mov dst, src
• add dst, src
• push src
• pop dst
• int src
• jz src
• jmp src

Eight registers are accessible: AX, BX, CX, DX, SI, DI, BP, SP. There are four addressing modes: immediate, direct, register direct and register indirect with displacement. The coded instruction is one word long, if both operands are addressed with register direct addressing, or two words long, if one of the operands is addressed in some other mode.

So far, the assembler is case-insensitive, but I think I’ll reprogram it, so it is case-sensitive for user-defined symbols. That would be nice :).

Since I don’t think I should publicly post the project code for now (there are still other people writing it), I’m gonna post a simple assembler program and the output. The program is not doing anything meaningful. It is just presenting the assembler possibilities. Continue reading ‘Assembling … done’

I have been writing assembler for the school project in the past few days. I think it had some negative effect on me…

Here’s a snippet from recent conversation with a friend:

Minja: The French guy has a great song.

Me: I’ll listen it. So far, I like mov, add… I mean, Turkish, Israeli and Bosnian song.

Time for dinner… definitely.

This is the first post on the new domain, so I would like to make it a bit special :).

Hardy Heron will be released in five days, and Ubuntu’s Mozilla team has been quite busy preparing all the goodies. So, what has Mozilla team done?

Firefox 3 beta 5 is in the official repositories. It replaces the old Firefox 2, which can still be installed from the repositories. It is a pity that Firefox 3 release candidate is coming out few days after Hardy, but Firefox 3 beta 5 is very useful and pretty stable for day-to-day use. Just look at the reviews. And I’m sure we’ll be able to install Firefox 3 as soon as it comes out from Fabien Tassin’s Personal Package Archive.

Also, many members have been testing, editing and packaging Firefox 3 (and upgraded some of Firefox2) extensions for Ubuntu, so this release brings more of them than before. Currently, around 30 extensions are in the repositories. The work is still in progress, so expect more. If you would like to see your favourite extensions, feel free to suggest them at Firefox 3 extensions wiki. Ubufox extension makes it easy to install other extensions. Start it from Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Ubuntu extensions.

Prism, which allows to users to move webapps to their desktop, is also in the repositories. Be sure to check it out.

And, if you feel like living on the wild side, you can test Thunderbird 3 alpha from Fabien’s Personal Package Archive. No links, since this can be very dangerous. You have been warned :).

Congrats to the whole Mozilla team, and to the Ubuntu community :).

I have just received a link from a friend over MSN instant messenger that pointed to “her” website on picfriender.info. I clicked it, and saw a homepage which asked me for my MSN username and password. Why would they need it? If I needed an account to visit her website, I would need to make a new one. So, the only logical thing is they would use it to get access to my account. Well, it seemed like a spam company, so I googled them. Strangely, Google knows nothing about them for now.

Then I noticed a link to their Terms of Service, and I wasn’t surprised to read this…

“We may temporarily access your MSN account to do a combination
of the following:
1. Send Instant Messages to your friends promoting this site.
2. Introduce new entertaining sites to your friends via Instant Messages.”

It doesn’t smell only like spam, it is spam. Sort of legalised, though. I hope they will be closed soon. Be sure to not give them your account information, unless you want them to send annoying links to your friends. Some of them may fall for this too… And the chain reaction begins.

In case you already gave out your personal information, the fix should be simple. Just change your password over at MSN Passport/Windows Live ID website.

Update: I have just checked the information about this website, and I found out that it was registered less than 10 hours ago. It’s logical why Google still knows nothing about it…

Update #2: It seems that this is not new, Aeriff wrote a blog post on this on March 15th. The only difference is the more logical domain name (picfriender.info vs. rkntbp.info)…

The thing I love about math is its abstract nature. For example, let’s take a look at the Dirac’s delta function. It’s the function that has the value zero, everywhere except at x=0, where it has infinitely large value. And it has a property that its total integral (area beneath the function) is 1. So, to think a bit about it, it an infinitesimally thin peak, which has infinite height. And the area beneath it is 1. Something like … Ain’t that amazing :)?

And on the opposite, less abstract side, … Or to put it in a more descriptive way :)…

Mind-expanding :)…

I’m a regular on Serbian’s Ubuntu LoCo forum. Today I stumbled upon one post that got me into thinking “Are we a bit hypocritical?”. Here’s what happened…

There is one guy who messed up his system a bit with Windows and Linux installations and removals. He wanted to have both operating systems on his computer and he asked for a solution. Another guy tried to help him. The problematic part of his message was the comment “If you need help with removing Linux because you want to stay on that other OS, you’re not gonna find it here.” But why?

We, the FOSS community (or Ubuntu community in this particular case), are supposed to fight for freedom. In my opinion, that includes the freedom of choice, to let the user use whatever he or she wants. Including that other OS, which may have a lot of restrictions.

Sure, it wouldn’t be wise to just say “Remove Linux”. I’m not for that in the first place. But if there was no fix, why wouldn’t we help someone to switch back? That is what freedom of choice is all about, right? Someone might say that by not helping others to switch back to that other OS, we will make them adapt to Linux. Someone might say that it’s against its principles to help someone switch back to that other OS. But, if the only fix is the switch back, wouldn’t it be helpful to explain how to switch back.

What is my way of fight for freedom? Education. I think that is the best way to do that. Show people what freedom gives. The rest will follow.

I had a MySpace account, got irritated over time by its terrible design and decided not to use it anymore. I didn’t want to give Facebook a chance, because I was expecting something similar to MySpace. Another reason was because of all the spam it sends. I heard my friends complaining about all the e-mails they got from Facebook’s applications. A friend even made a label in Gmail called “Facebook spam”.

And now, I got my first Facebook notice by e-mail, even though I don’t have the account. It’s an OK one, a friend of mine tagged me in a photo and I got a link to it. Quite polite on first glance. I clicked on the link and got “You have not been tagged in any photos yet.” The usual login fields were on the left side of the page. Should I create an account in order to see the photo? Well, I surely won’t. And it’s not very friendly not to give an explanation why someone can’t see a photo. Is it because someone deleted it? Or maybe you should login? It would be more useful if they sent “Hi, click this link to see the photo. You have to be registered.” sort of message. Or a notice on the page that the photo doesn’t exist anymore. Still, you only get the message that is not helpful (and probably not true).

So, no Facebook for me.

Dejan Cvetkovi?, generalni direktor Microsoft softvera za Srbiju i Crnu Goru, je objavio interesantan tekst u dnevnim novinama Danas. Naime, on je napisao veliki broj neistina o slobodnom softveru i softveru otvorenog koda (kao i otvorene standarde i ostalo). Da vidimo šta je napisano…
(Napomena: pasusi u kurzivu su delovi originalnog teksta iz novina)

“Otvoreni standardi, otvoreni kod, otvorena arhitektura - sve to zvu?i tako pozitivno, tako sli?no, tako…otvoreno. Ko ne bi poželeo da radi baš sa takvim IT sistemom koji je mnogo bolji od zatvorenog. Prvo iznena?enje krije se u ?injenici da je pravi kontrast na tržištu danas izme?u razli?itih vrsta  otvorenog, a ne izme?u otvorenog i zatvorenog. A zašto je danas sve na IT tržištu otvoreno? Zato što želimo da imamo ve?u kontrolu, želimo da sara?ujemo sa drugima na razvoju naših sistema i želimo bolji uvid i razmenu podataka. Ali, to ne zna?i haos, ve? nastajanje da sazna šta je u osnovi programa koji se koriste. Tako ga bolje poznajete, bolje koristite i više u?ite o njegovim (a i svojim) sposobnostima. To zvu?i kao velika sloboda, ali krije i veliku opasnost. Metafore iz sveta automobilske industrije svojevremeno su bile veoma popularne u IT novinarstvu, a se?am se nekih u kojima je Majkrosoft prošao ne baš slavno. Pa da probamo ponovo - zamislite da svaki put kad otvorite haubu svog automobila i dotaknete neki njegov deo, doživite da se taj deo promeni ili, ?ak, nestane. Ili, još gore, želite da prekontrolišete ko?nice, ali pritisnete pogrešno dugme, i one potpuno nestanu, ali i dalje izgleda kao da su tu. Možda bi to bilo po malo opasno?”

Da li sam jedini kome kraj zvu?i pomalo suludo? Dakle, otvoreni sistem je nekako i zamaskiran, te izaziva nagle i ?este promene. Možda grešim, ali to je moj zaklju?ak na osnovu napisanog. Prate?i tu logiku, do sada bi moj (a verovatno i milioni drugih ra?unara) bio u skroz neupotrebljivom stanju. Da li je tako? Kucam ovaj post, dakle nije. Radi li Google? Hmm, radi… Izgleda da je sve u redu i sa njihovim mašinama. Pošto je pisano u biznis delu novina, da vidimo šta firme imaju od otvorenog softvera. Brzi pogled na podatak o trenutno najstabilnijim hosting kompanijama nam pokazuje da ?ak sedam od deset koriste softver otvorenog koda za servere. Ako pogledamo istraživanje iz novembra ove godine, web serveri otvorenog koda drže oko 50% tržišta. Naleteo sam pre nekog vremena na zanimljiv post Svi koriste Linux (na engleskom), gde su ukratko navedene neke od ve?ih firmi koje, za neku svrhu, koriste softver otvorenog koda. Da nastavimo…

“Kod otvorenog sistema sve je otvoreno i pristupa?no: kad jednom otvorite sva vrata i u svom sistemu, morate dobro da pazite gde se šta ostavljate. To je kao da ste skinuli vrata sa svog stana i na dovratak stavili malu priru?nu mapu koja kaže gde su šrafcigeri, gde je novac, gde je kupatilo, a gde “ladno” pivo, jer vam povremeno u ku?u navra?aju neki majstori koji bi nešto da poprave. Da, ali ko još može da navrati? Sigurnost? Zaboravite na sigurnost, bitno je da je otvoreno.”

Uh, uh… Da li je baš tako?… A zašto? Jednostavno. Lepota otvorenog koda, naspram zatvornog, je baš ta otvorenost - svi mogu da vide kod. Svi mogu da u?u “pod haubu”, i da vide šta se dešava. Više o?iju ima priliku da vidi i da radi na kodu, te samim tim da doprinese sigurnosti i stabilnosti. To što je otvoren ne zna?i da svaka promena bude prihva?ena. Svaki projekat ima tim koji dobro proveri neki doprinos sa strane, pre nego što se spoji sa glavnim delom koda. Ako je nešto slu?ajno prošlo, bi?e brzo ispravljeno baš zbog svih uprtih pogleda.

“Tako?e, kad nema nekih pravila, kad nema standarda koji zacrtavaju kako se treba ponašati u ovakvoj situaciji, onda su jedini pravi eksperti oni koji su taj sistem postavili. A oni onda mogu da biraju koliko ?e vam naplatiti da ga i dalje održavaju za vas. Jer drugih nema. Vratimo se na ?as u automobilsku industriju: zamislite da vaša omiljena fabrika automobila proizvodi samo motore i volane, a da sve druge delove auta po volji ugra?uje vaš automehani?ar Ljubinko, koji ih kompletira i završava za vas. Zamislite dalje da je vaš automobil dovršio uz pomo? tri budilnika i pola kilograma retke vrste amazonske šljive. Koji drugi majstor ?e umeti da ga popravlja? I koliku ?e mo? nad vama imati vaš majstor? A da ne pominjem uvoznike retkih amazonskih šljiva.”

Ok, zamislimo za ?as da je naš automobil dovršio automehani?ar Ljubinko. Mi ta?no znamo kako je on dovršio auto, te možemo na?i nekog drugog automehani?ara, koji može da pogleda šta je radio Ljubinko. Drugi mehani?ar može da nam pomogne kad do?e do problema. Ako je dobar mehani?ar, verujem da ?e videti šta je neko pre njega radio ;). I u programiranju: ako je kod uredno pisan i održavan, ve?ina programera bi trebalo da bude u stanju da shvati šta se program radi nakon ?itanja koda.
Da posetimo Miladinka. Miladinko nam je sastavio ceo automobil. Tako?e nas je obavestio da jedino on može da nam servisira auto. Isto tako, imamo zabranu da zavirimo ispod haube. A ako ho?ete neku izmenu na automobilu, nadajte se da ?e ona odgovarati Miladinku i da ?e se on složiti da je odradi za vas.

“Otvoreni standard je neka druga vrsta otvorenosti, izbalansirana da vam da slobodu da znate i razvijate, ali i da ograni?i opasnosti i cene otvorenog sistema. Otvoreni standard podrazumeva da znate detalje, ali ih ne smete menjati i to omogu?ava svima da ga koriste. Drugim re?ima, razmenjujete sa svima klju?na znanja o tome kako se najbolje može sa vašim sistemom sara?ivati, raditi i komunicirati, ali im ne dajete šansu da u njega u?u i menjaju ga, kontrolišu ili zloupotrebljavalju. Otvoreni kod, s druge strane, podrazumeva da svako može da ga menja.”

Ovde je opet pogrešno shva?ena suština otvorenog koda. Svako može da ga menja i da izmenjeni program dalje distribuira i koristi. Ali to pravo ne zna?i da neko može da u?e u vaš ra?unar i da vam izmeni delove vašeg koda. Da koristimo paralelu sa automobilima: ne može svaki stranac da upadne ispod vaše haube i da tek tako vršlja po motoru. Stoji da su neki u mogu?nosti da to urade. Zato se kola i obezbe?uju na ovaj ili onaj na?in. Da li biste se sigurnije ose?ali kada znate da je na bezbednosti vašeg automobila radilo puno ljudi širom sveta ili neka zatvorena grupica?

“Ove i obi?ne teme provociraju snažne jake emotivne reakcije kod u?esnika na IT sceni; svi imaju svoj omiljeni modus i oblik rada, i sve te emocije vam kažu koliko se ljudi lako i duboko vezuju za jednostvane ideje - ideje otvorenosti i saradnje, ideje najboljeg mogu?eg iskoriš?enja onoga na ?emu rade, ali je paradoks u tome da upravo sistem koji je formulisaniji, ?vrš?i i zaokruženiji ima više šanse da im to pruži. To najbolje dokazuju veliki i mo?ni sistemi širom sveta, neki koji servisraju najve?e gradove na svetu - a svakim danom ih je sve više. Oni su probali da primene suprotnu logiku i od nje su odustali na veliki i posramljuju?i na?in, shvativši da je taj eksperiment zanimljiv, ali da oni moraju da budu iskreni i realni prema svojim potrebama.”

Verovatno su neki odustali, ali nemojmo zanemariti veliki broj vlada i državnih institucija koje su našle otvorena rešenja pristupa?nijim i boljim. Podsetimo se izveštaja britanske vlade o isplativosti softvera otvorenog koda iz 2004. godine. Tu je i zanimljiv tekst britanske vlade o softveru otvorenog koda. Još jedan državni dokument o isplativosti koriš?enja softtvera otvorenog koda bi mogao biti zanimljiv. Na kraju se nalaze linkovi ka izveštajima još nekoliko vlada, pa bih preporu?io da pogledate.

“I nije ovde re? o pobedi Majkrosofta nad Luniksom, niti o pobedi Luniksa nad Majkrosoftom, koliko o pobedi korisnika nad svojim iluzijama i parcijalnim vizijama.”

Kako neko može biti ozbiljno shva?en kada koristi imena poput Luniks? Baš kao i osobe koje misle da ?e nešto u?initi nazivaju?i Microsoft Microshit ili M$…

“Zagovornici OSS ponekad iskreno, ali i veoma pogrešno, sugerišu jednu suptilnu zamenu teza, po kojoj otvorenost zna?i slobodu, a slobode nikad dosta. Da, teško je ne složiti se da je sloboda poželjna, i da svi volimo da je ima dovoljno. Ali, ova rotacija poruka ima bar dve greške. Nije otvorenost apsolutno identifikovana slobodom, niti to ikad u relanom svetu tvrdimo. Ponekad želimo da budemo sigurni i “zatvoreni” u svojim domovima, sistemima i izborima, da bismo imali slobodu da u njima uživamo, radimo i gradimo po svojoj meri.”

Dakle, zatvorimo se u svoje domove. Promenimo koji komad nameštaja, ili možda boju zidova. Ali, ako ho?ete neku ve?u izmenu, pozovite one majstore koji su vam ku?u napravili. Jedino oni smeju da menjaju. Tako?e, nadajte se da ?e im se dopasti ideja, jer je njihova klju?na re?. I budite spremni da igrate po njihovim uslovima…

“Ali, tezu da je sloboda dobra, a apsolutna sloboda apsolutno dobra, doživela je krah. Jer, sloboda je kao i svaki drugi element konteksta - vredi ta?no onoliko koliko i stvar za koju smo je primenili. Otvorenost isto tako. I jedno i drugo se mogu zloupotrebiti, a na nama je da modulišemo koliko nam je ?ega kao društvu potrebno. IT scena? Isto tako.”

Ta?no. Da proširimo, sve se može zloupotrebiti. Doduše, verujem da je otvoreno manje podložno zloupotrebi od zatvorenog… Više o?iju je uprto u dešavanja.

Zaista sam razo?aran da je ovakav, nekvalitetan tekst prošao u novinama Danas. O?ekivao sam više…

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