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Phoenix to embed bootup ads in BIOS
quonsar writes "According to ZDNet, Phoenix today announced plans to embed bootup ads in BIOS by 4Q 1999. Take a look at the story:
Phoenix to sell Windows launch ads.
Phoenix has formed a subsidiary, ebetween,to sell the ads.
"
I think his point is this: you don't pay to watch national stations like ABC and NBC, etc. So you would expect those to have many ads. But a motherboard is something you pay for so as long as A-trend intel and the rest have to sell mobos, if the customer wont buy them at reduced rates with ads, then they wont sell them. I expect if anything, it will be an option. Remember, bad technology can be thwarted: R.I.P. Divx
-Z
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going.
A BIOS is specific to a particular motherboard. It's not possible to create a generic BIOS, because the job of the BIOS is primarily to initialize the motherboard hardware. Many of the chips on a modern motherboard are very compex, such as Rambus memory controllers and SuperIO IC's. These devices take thousands of lines of assembly code to initialize.
The OpenBIOS FAQ has some errors in it:
1. The FAQ says that the primary job is to boot the OS - this is false. Booting the OS is the last thing the BIOS does at startup, and this feature hasn't really changed in 15 years, with the exception the modern BIOS's can now boot CD-ROM drives and Zip drives. Only 1% of the BIOS code is allocated to this function.
2. The FAQ says that "proprietary BIOSes have usually been written with one operating system formost in mind." This is also false. For instance, when you shut down the computer, Windows will send a call to the BIOS to power down the machine. Windows itself can't do this, because each machine is different, but the BIOS provides an API which Windows can call. AFAIK, all of these specs are 100% open, so that any OS can call them. However, Windows is usually the first OS to use these API's as they come out, mostly because Microsoft cares a lot about this issue. I can tell you in at least one instance, an "enhancement" to the BIOS that Microsoft recommended was immediately dismissed because it would be incompatible with Linux.
In my opinion, OpenBIOS is doomed to failure. The rate at which new systems are created is way too rapid for any one team to keep up. There are only a handful of people with the skills necessary to write a BIOS, and none of them can afford (as individuals) the hardware necessary to debug their code - the ICE sitting next to me costs over $10K and it's the low-end model. Not only that, but most of the information needed is not publically available and would be impossible for me to get if I didn't work for a major OEM already. Look at the hardware that OpenBIOS currently supports: a 386 and a 486 system!! Talk about outdated!
Because the BIOS is specific to a motherboard, any OEM which makes its own motherboards (like Dell does for some of our systems) must have a customized BIOS. I can't speak for all Dell systems (I only work on the high-end desktop machines), but in our case we do our own customizations. The alternative is to ask the BIOS vendor (e.g. Phoeniz or AMI) to make the customizations. Your guess is as good as mine as to how often this happens.
--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address
In Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age," a character is mentioned who commits suicide after getting infected with a rogue nanomachine that played commercials for roach motels, in Hindi, in the lower right corner of his visual field, 24-7. I'd rather have BIOS ads....
I think I caught wind of a project to create a free GPL'ed BIOS. Of course you'd have to have the equipment to burn the chip. Anyone know anything more about that?
You need to download the SoftPaq for your machine. Then run it, and it will make four floppies for you (you probably ought to have four good, formatted floppies ready to go, because if one step fails, you get to do the whole thing over again). When you get the disks done, boot from the first one.
Now here is where my memory fails me slightly. At some point, you'll have to do an inventory-ish thing. The choice should be obvious, but if not, see Compaq's site for a FAQ (they have it somewhere, but I don't ahve the URL bookmarked). The deal will run, and you'll throw another of the disks in. When it's finished, you'll have what amounts to a complete, editable "snapshot" of the system. From this snapshot, you can change whatever setting you want. You just select the hardware and choose the resources you want. You also get to see a list of what's free, so it's pretty easy.
I have an old Compaq Deskpro PPro 150 that I figured would make a good gateway machine. The only problem is that I needed to put in an additional NIC (incidentally, Bay/Netgear makes a 10/100 card called the FA310TX which has the Dec Tulip chipset; it's a great card, low CPU utilization, lot's of status indicators, and only costs about $25.00). The machine already has an onboard AMD ethernet interface, but both cards wanted IRQ 5. So I ran the SoftPaq, told it where to stick its IRQ, and everything is happy behind my gateway/firewall now. If I want to add more hardware, I just run the disks again.
I agree that the floppies are a pain, and aren't as handy as a plain ROM BIOS in some cases (my battery goes dead and I'm covered). But that doesn't mean that the old Compaq sitting in the corner is useless.
Now, booting from a floppy I don't know about. I've never bothered with that before. I'm sure it's doable, but I don't recall the SoftPaq's screen menus/features that well. It's been a while.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Hopefully an end-user will hack this so we can display custom images as boot time. I kind of like the penguin image I see in the virtual console boot. :) Imagine seeing that as you boot to Windows!
Now, if only I could get the virtual console to work with 2.2.9 (vs. 2.3.6)...
æeee!
While the idea of an advertising splash-screen at boot time is annoying, it might not be that bad. If there was some way to flash a new image into the BIOS, you could have (for example) a Tux splash screen at boot.
However, the article implies that it could be more than that. According to the article, "an Internet-service provider such as America Online Inc. could theoretically put its sign up icon directly on the desktop of any PC that uses the Phoenix start-up software". Doesn't this imply that the BIOS would have Windows-specific code in it? I shudder at the implications for non-Windows users if the BIOS assumes that your OS is Windows, and tries to make system calls. Hell, I shudder a the implications for Windows lusers if this is true. The ultimate impossible-to-delete icon on your desktop. I think I see declining market share in Phoenix's future if this is true.
Company Contact
Toni Goodrich
Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
(408) 570-1000
toni_goodrich@phoenix.com
Public Relations
Kristin Jones
Walt & Company Communications
(408) 496-0900
kjones@walt.com
Be nice, but let 'em know how you feel about this BS.
Proof that Capitalism is the ultimate evil. Maybe next I can get advertisments on my car's odometer and possibly on toilet paper!! Joy!
While I am a lawyer this is not legal advice. If you need advice on this matter, see a lawyer in your own jurisdiction.
The repercussions from this could be interesting . . .
MS has made a habit of pulling licenses for windows from companies that modify the windows startup screens, taking the (peculiar?) position that the companies are distributors for microsoft.
This won't work with the bios for a couple of reasons. The first is the lack of a contractual relationship with microsoft--microsoft doesn't have any threats to make, or contracts to claim it will enforce. The more interesting variation is that it puts microsoft in the same position w.r.t. Phoenix as Compaq was in with regard to microsoft--if the MS arguments are accepted, windows cannot tamper with the bios ads.
curioser & curioser . . .
hawk, esq.
Hard drive detection
[80] MXT-10000 10.2GB
[83] ATAPI CD-ROM
Still booting Windows ???
Get a REAL Operating System!
Linux. It's free. What are you waiting for?
Starting MS-DOS ...
- - -
The article states that they are targeting the "white box" computers (the ones you and I build, and the ones that the small retail outlets build), instead of the big OEMs (Dell, Compaq, etc).
I've been out of the building biz for a little while now, but last I recall, nearly every white box MB used an AMD or Award BIOS. I generally only see Phoenix on the big OEMs.
What's up with this?
--
Fourth law of programming: Anything that can go wrong wi
The most popular and growing forms of advertisement and product placement is most evident in material and media that we cannot avoid. Take a look at the ads that come with you phone and cable bills. Look along the side of the interstate in many areas. You can't really close your eyes whil you drive or write a check for the bill. You can't even go bowling without running into tons of beer ads! I won't even go into junk mail (e- and realtime).... :).....
I've even seen roadmaps, that you pay money for, sport ads on top of the "less important" sections of a city. Whereas advertisements used to make things cheaper for the consumer, it's now become an "extra" source of revenue in many types of necessary-to-view media. Yes, even Austin Powers (the spy who shagged me) probably would have left a bit better tast in everyone's mouth without blatant product placement
So, unavoidable ads are the hottest property on the block, and why would corporations pass up selling that type of ad space if they can provide it?
When it gets down to it, the last thing I want to see in the mornings when I turn on my computer is a fscking ad for depends undergarments. It is my personal property, and the only property I own that carries tangible, baltant ads are magazines. (I do not own t-shirts that advertise, nor do I watch TV). Just because Phoenix has a widely used BIOS doesn't mean they should exploit thier customers like that! They make enough money from motherboard manufacturers now. If they want to make the bios'es for free in exchange for ads, the motherboard manufacturers probably wont pass on the savings to us, the consumers, the people who matter most.
Just a quick question... being that this particular BIOS implementation, according to the article, is updateable via the internet (for revolving ads, new advertiser space, whatever...) would this not juts be an amazing place for a virus/trojan/work/whatever! Imagine that... the one thing that people had always conceptualized would be safe on their computers, the BIOS, is now officially open to attack from crackers! These are trully great times we live in kids, take note!
Maybe I'm the only one here, but I'd like to see a REAL help system in a BIOS. Every BIOS I've seen that has a help feature just gives you a list of the possible options for a feature. What I want is a short descripion of what a feature is and what reason a person would have to enable or disable it. It is just not very helpful to get to an option menu on a BIOS and find something like PMAS and a "help menu" of "Yes/No".
Of course that is just one example, there are gobs of things you could do with that extra space besides putting in Windows specific advertising (modifiying the filesystem from the BIOS?!? Yuck!).
I read the internet for the articles.
Great, so now my BIOS is *regularly* flashed so I can see new ads next time I reboot. The virus writers will love this. They just have their virus patch the bios.bin file and take over your BIOS. Lovely.
Technically, I'm curious how they will pull off a working signup icon in the BIOS. A splash screen is one thing, but something that actually interacts with the OS?
I wonder if the "icon" would kick in before the operating system. In order to work like this, the code for initializing the modem, dialing, connecting, etc. would have to be in the BIOS as well. I don't see that happening.
Alternatively, forcibly putting an icon on the desktop in Windows requires specific Win32 calls. Putting that in the BIOS sounds like quite a task. Not to mention you run the risk of shipping computers that won't boot unless Windows is installed.
I could be wrong, but I think the article may have taken some liberty with the notion of a working AOL Signup icon in the BIOS. I'm not saying it CAN'T be done, but that idea just sounds like a tremendous pain.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Don't know about a web page, but there's an active mailing list full of people working to write a free BIOS for most PC like motherboards. You can subscribe to this mailing list by sending the word "subscribe openbios" in the body of a mail message to:
majordomo@wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de
This is a worthy project. Please don't subscribe and immediately start asking stupid questions, just sit back and watch the flow. I've never posted a message there because I'm not a BIOS hacker... if you're not a BIOS hacker either, but are curious, you're probably welcome as a lurker. Serious BIOS hackers are probably most welcome contributors. Either way, please respect the users' of this list by helping to keep their S/N ratio down!
But I expect we'll find hacks to replace such images within a week of their appearance. Windows users will be paying $10 for shareware programs to flash the BIOS with their favorite picture, Word macro viruses will try to install offensive imagery in peoples' BIOSes, Linux users will see Tux at startup, BSD folks will be seeing the daemon, etc. etc.
Welcome to the future :)
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
They seem to be moving from
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/OpenBIOS/ to
http://openbios.org/.
... so it's unclear whether switching to Award would save you from the demons. See this for proof of ownership, but there's no doubt other places as well.
You shouldn't assume that everyone buys into the spamvert mentality. Not everyone is a prisoner of the American consumerist claptrap you're talking about, whether because of their geography or because they prefer something other than a lie-down-and-vege-out plug-in drug.
In short, we do not all live in a Brave New World of pervasive mind-control through spamverts, and those of us who have willfully absented ourselves from that particular horror shall not be dragged kicking and screaming into it. We'll kick the face of the spamverts. Mark my words.
And no, I'm not trying to stop people from making a living through honest commerce. It's the `oh boy let's torture the captive' thing I won't tolerate. It's like something out of A Clockwork Orange. I've written a bit more about adverts in my web diversity guidelines.Try looking at this page http://www.ptltd.com/pcuser/
It says "Phoenix Technologies Ltd., which has merged with Award Software..."
Seems, your list just got shorter
Sig: Sigh, can't think of a good one