Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Blog Maintenance
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 07 00:01:21 GMT
Some blog maintenance done. May messages were
moved to the 2007 archive (so as to shorten the
browser based and RSS based list) and the order
of both was reversed to “blog” order (most recent
on top) at the request of several families.
— MV
Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Kiss Unmasked
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 07 22:01:21 GMT
My favorite band of all time: Kiss.
When they came to Lisbon, back in 1983, I was
pissed off that of all countries they had to
choose Portugal to take the makeup off, right after
having filled up the Maracana still with makeup on.
Some years later I had the chance to see them in
the Reunion tour, when they reunited and put the
makeup back on, at the Monster of Rock festival in
Donington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters_of_Rock#1996
So that took away some of the grief I had for the
1983 show and I now look back on these images with
fondness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccoPDcdTpNc
Yours truly, aged 15, is actually part of the
video, so try and spot the wally…
— MV
Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Que Futuro para as Democracias
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 07 20:23:21 GMT
Achei interessante o tema do mes do PlanetGeek.
No entanto nao me parece que a citacao que faco seja
muito do agrado geral dos envolvidos e da opiniao
vigente. E que o autor e “desagradavel” e nao e
considerado “politicamente correcto”. Mas, como dizia
Socrates (ou Platao?), la porque e um louco que grita
“o Sol amanha volta a nascer” isso nao faz da afirmacao
uma mentira.
Segue a citacao. Quanto ao autor, adivinhem.
“Um dos grandes erros do seculo XIX foi considerar que o
parlamentarismo ingles, a democracia inglesa, constituiam
um regime capaz de se adaptar a todos os povos. Eis aqui
o resultado: a democracia parlamentar conduziu por toda a
parte a instabilidade e a desordem, ou entao trannsformou-se
numa especie de dominacao absoluta dos partidos sobre a
verdadeira Nacao.
Desde logo [provocaram] o funcionamento irregular dos
poderes politicos – um pouco causa e um pouco efeito de
todas as outras desordens. Independentemente do valor dos
homens e da rectidao das suas intencoes, os partidos, as
faccoes e os grupos politicos supunham ser, por *direito*,
os representantes das democracia; e exerciam de facto a
soberania nacional, mas simultaneamente conspirando.
A Presidencia da Republica nao tinha forca nem estabilidade.
O Parlamento oferecia constantemente o espectaculo do
desacordo, do tumulto, da incapacidade legislativa ou do
obstrucionismo, e escandalizava o Pais com o seu
procedimento e a inferior qualidade do seu trabalho.
Aos Ministerios faltava coesao; nao podiam governar, mesmo
que alguns governantes desejassem faze-lo. A administracao
publica, incluindo a das autarquias, em vez de representar
a unidade e a accao progressiva do Estado, era pelo
contrario simbolo vivo da falta de colaboracao geral, da
irregularidade, da desorganizacao que gerava, ate nos
melhores espiritos, o cepticismo, a indiferenca e o
pessimismo
Em geral, as democracias nao fizeram pelo povo aquilo
que regimes nao democraticos teriam podido fazer, e nao
e verdade que os regimes qualificados de liberais tenham
realmente salvaguardado as liberdades publicas.
Somos antidemocratas porque a nossa democracia, que
aparentemente se apoiava no povo e pretendia representa-lo,
chegou ao ponto de nao se lembrar do povo a nao ser no
momento das eleicoes.”
– autor portugues, 1936
— MV
Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Ah e Tal…
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 07 18:35:21 GMT
E incrivel a forma leviana como algumas pessoas sao
capazes fazer “raciocinios” baseados em nada e sem
qualquer tipo de responsabilidade.
(O autor do artigo removeu o post original e pediu
desculpas pelo mesmo, que foram aceites. Pelo que o
texto de resposta foi removido, com um pedido de
desculpas reciproco)
— MV
Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: 1000 Euro Firefox Bounty
Date: Sun, 01 Jul 07 22:16:21 GMT
Here’s a challenge for all you hackers out there,
with a 1000 Euro reward that the portuguese Ministry
of Justice will pay for. You will be helping not only
Firefox, but also the new portuguese ID card as well
as the national PKI and the portuguese EU presidency.
How’s that for a CV entry?…
Here’s the problem.
Goto https://private.eu2007.pt/ using Internet Explorer,
Safari, Opera or any other browser. It should work in all
of them. The certificate is recognized and you get to the
login page.
Now go there with Firefox. You’ll get an error saying
that the certificate is not recognized, supposedly for
not being signed by a known authority. Which is false:
it works in other browsers and in those you can check
the certificate chain and verify that it is signed by
known CAs.
The problem would be admitedly related to Firefox not
implementing a subjective part of the standard, as you
can read in the following links:
http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2004/06/04/148612.aspx
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=245609
But somehow that doesnt seem enough to justify the problem.
First because it seems really stupid for Firefox not to
implement something that all other browsers implement and just
saying “lets wait till the standard is clear”.
Second because its not a solution if you just say “reconfigure
the server and make sure that the intermediate certificate is
served”. The other browsers dont need that.
Third because even if you install the certificates locally
in your browser, the problem continues. It seems to be
related to a possible problem with comparisons of fields
encoded in UTF-8 in one certificate and encoded in quoted
printable in others.
So, here’s the deal. If:
– you correctly identify what the actual problem is
– you provide a solution, whether in code or configuration,
that involves only Firefox
– you can provide a receipt for 1000 Euro
– you email me at mvalente@itij.mj.pt and I validate
your solution
… you get 1000 Euro in cash and singlehandedly prove
to portuguese government and bureaucrats that the open
source community kicks ass. Gentlemen, start your engines…
— MV
