Showing posts with label skype. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skype. Show all posts

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Skype Insanity: No Longer Worth It

Tonight I noticed that I didn't have Google Voice or Skype installed on my primary desktop, which I recently upgraded to Linux Mint 13, so I decided to remedy the situation. Installing Google Voice was painless, easy, an quick. Installing Skype appears insane, I don't remember it being so bad in the past. Anyhow, to install Skype, I need to install 240-some additional packages. No frigging way:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bluez bluez-alsa:i386 gcc-4.6-base:i386 glib-networking:i386
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386
  gstreamer0.10-x:i386 gtk2-engines:i386 gtk2-engines-murrine:i386
  gtk2-engines-oxygen:i386 gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386 gvfs:i386 gvfs-libs:i386
  ia32-libs ia32-libs-multiarch:i386 ibus-gtk:i386 lib32asound2 lib32gcc1
  lib32stdc++6 libaa1:i386 libacl1:i386 libaio1:i386 libao-common libao4:i386
  libasn1-8-heimdal:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386
  libasyncns0:i386 libatk1.0-0:i386 libattr1:i386 libaudio2:i386
  libaudiofile1:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386
  libavahi-common3:i386 libavc1394-0:i386 libbz2-1.0:i386 libc6:i386
  libc6-i386 libcaca0:i386 libcairo-gobject2:i386 libcairo2:i386
  libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 libcanberra-gtk0:i386 libcanberra0:i386
  libcap2:i386 libcapi20-3:i386 libcdparanoia0:i386 libcomerr2:i386
  libcroco3:i386 libcups2:i386 libcupsimage2:i386 libcurl3:i386
  libdatrie1:i386 libdb5.1:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbus-glib-1-2:i386
  libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau1a:i386 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2:i386
  libdv4:i386 libesd0:i386 libexif12:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386
  libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgail-common:i386
  libgail18:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgconf-2-4:i386 libgcrypt11:i386
  libgd2-xpm:i386 libgdbm3:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libgettextpo0:i386
  libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386
  libglib2.0-0:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libgnome-keyring0:i386 libgnutls26:i386
  libgomp1:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgphoto2-2:i386 libgphoto2-port0:i386
  libgpm2:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgssapi3-heimdal:i386
  libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386
  libgtk2.0-0:i386 libgudev-1.0-0:i386 libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386
  libheimbase1-heimdal:i386 libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386 libhx509-5-heimdal:i386
  libibus-1.0-0:i386 libice6:i386 libidn11:i386 libiec61883-0:i386
  libieee1284-3:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjasper1:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386
  libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386
  libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386
  libldap-2.4-2:i386 libllvm3.0:i386 libltdl7:i386 libmad0:i386
  libmikmod2:i386 libmng1:i386 libmpg123-0:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386
  libncurses5:i386 libncursesw5:i386 libnspr4:i386 libnss3:i386 libodbc1:i386
  libogg0:i386 libopenal1:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386
  libpango1.0-0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386
  libpng12-0:i386 libproxy1:i386 libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 libpulse0:i386
  libpulsedsp:i386 libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative:i386
  libqt4-designer:i386 libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386
  libqt4-qt3support:i386 libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-scripttools:i386
  libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-svg:i386 libqt4-test:i386
  libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4:i386
  libqtwebkit4:i386 libraw1394-11:i386 libroken18-heimdal:i386 librsvg2-2:i386
  librsvg2-common:i386 librtmp0:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libsane:i386
  libsasl2-2:i386 libsasl2-modules:i386 libsdl-image1.2:i386
  libsdl-mixer1.2:i386 libsdl-net1.2:i386 libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386
  libsdl1.2debian:i386 libselinux1:i386 libshout3:i386 libslang2:i386
  libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libsoup-gnome2.4-1:i386 libsoup2.4-1:i386
  libspeex1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl0.9.8:i386
  libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtag1-vanilla:i386
  libtag1c2a:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtdb1:i386 libthai0:i386 libtheora0:i386
  libtiff4:i386 libtinfo5:i386 libudev0:i386 libunistring0:i386
  libusb-0.1-4:i386 libuuid1:i386 libv4l-0:i386 libv4lconvert0:i386
  libvisual-0.4-0:i386 libvisual-0.4-plugins:i386 libvorbis0a:i386
  libvorbisenc2:i386 libvorbisfile3:i386 libwavpack1:i386
  libwind0-heimdal:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1:i386
  libxau6:i386 libxaw7:i386 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb-render0:i386
  libxcb-shm0:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxcomposite1:i386 libxcursor1:i386
  libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxft2:i386
  libxi6:i386 libxinerama1:i386 libxml2:i386 libxmu6:i386 libxp6:i386
  libxpm4:i386 libxrandr2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386
  libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common odbcinst
  odbcinst1debian2 odbcinst1debian2:i386 oss-compat skype xaw3dg:i386
  zlib1g:i386
0 upgraded, 246 newly installed, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.
Need to get 105 MB of archives.
After this operation, 288 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

It appears that many packages listed are specifically 32b--this on a 64b version of Linux Mint. I went back and checked, and I did click the 64b Ubuntu link and the .deb downloaded has a 64 in its name. So, WTF, Microsoft?

Sunday, December 23, 2007

German Police, Skype, and Trojan Horses

A commentator on a podcast I recently listened to made an offhand comment that the German police were unhappy with Skype because they can't break Skype's encryption. My first thought was that such privacy is the point of encryption, right? Then I thought I should verify that the German police really were unhappy. That led me to this link at Yahoo Canada. It looks like the German Federal Police (BKA) don't have a problem with Skype in particular, but want to be able to tap phone calls. Their approach is to plant Trojans on suspected criminals' machines which, IMHO, is a pretty extreme step. Who's developing the Trojan? Is it someone the BKA can really trust? How do they ensure the Trojan doesn't leak data to anyone but the investigative team that planted it? Does the Trojan have any side effects that impact the performance or security of the suspect's machine?