Nail, head, hit. It would be a nice world where one didn't have to worry about the underlying architecture, and it could be designed for specific tasks.
For example, one set of CPUs would be designed to run bytecode as energy efficiently as possible. When CPU load goes over a threshold, the JVM is passed to another CPU/core set which is optimized for performance. Once the CPU is back under a threshold for a certain amount of time, it goes back to the watt-saver dies.
Done right, improvements with computers, even architecture changes (like to Harvard from von Neumann) would not even be noticed by applications.
I almost wish Oracle could spin Java off to a small corporation whose job it would be to repair the damage (in both PR and JVM), and to perhaps make what the original vision was going to be.
The ironic thing is Java had its chance. Had Sun/Oracle did it right, there would have been no need for Flash or Shockwave, no need for HTML5, and perhaps no need for any other browser extensions, period.
The fact that a JVM != a JVM is one of the things that killed Java as a usable platform. Had there been some consistency where code running under IBM's JVM would work without issue on Oracle's or Microsoft's, or just even between versions, Java would likely be a must have on today's desktop.
I wish Oracle would invest in Java some more. At least deal with the fact that applications pretty much have to install their own instance of Java for any guarantee that their stuff will work right. Some guarantee of backwards/forwards compatibility would go a long ways. Worst case, perhaps have some sort of compatibility libraries. On a machine running Windows 8, I can still run.NET 1.0 programs, although it might take some updates. Perhaps Java should do similar.
HTC is decent. Worst case, unlock the bootloader and grab an unofficial ROM that is well maintained.
I do prefer Motorola phones, because their cellular quality just seems better on average. However, until they offer some way of unlocking bootloaders, I rather go with HTC, Samsung, or another brand that gives me the ability to have unfettered access to the device I paid for.
What helps mitigate that is having an app like Titanium Backup which not just encrypts backup data, but saves the encrypted backups onto Dropbox or another provider. Done right, it provides a decent level of protection, especially if one takes a periodic nandroid backup and uploads that.
If given the choice of command-line SSH tools versus a broken Java-based web UI, just give the SSH tools. One can write a front-end if they really felt like it then.
To boot, why is Java even needed these days on the client end? HTML5 + Javascript can do a lot. I can generate RSA keys using JS using aSSL.
There are things to do to help mitigate chances of malware on Android, especially if one has root:
1: There are AdBlock-like utilities available for Android which can actively firewall, add hosts entries, or block on the app layer.
2: For older versions of the OS, there used to be an app called LBE Privacy Guard, which would prevent apps that wanted full kitchen sink perms from being able to do their dirty deeds.
3: Some Android ROMs allow permissions to be edited. That way, an app wanting all and sundry might get the ability to yak on the network, but that's it.
4: Droidwall is an old standby. Unless one explicitly wants an app to hit the network, it won't.
Android has a good amount of privacy/security tools available. However, Android's main weakness is that the app stores need to have two tiers, one tier being the default, with rigorous app scanning, then the other tier as we have now, with phones set to only access the more policed tier as default.
On OS X, I can purchase/download a game from a third party maker, and be off and running. In fact, there are a few utilities (InsomniaX) that are not up for sale in Apple's store due to doing low level kernel functions.
Now, iOS is a different story. Without a JB, one is forced to go through iTunes (beta apps, or enterprise apps) or they go through the App Store. However, this doesn't apply to OS X.
In some cars, it can take almost a second for the vehicle to get back into a usable gear, as well as spin up the TC so a tap on the gas causes the vehicle to accelerate.
If sitting in line idling, I'll pop it into neutral and drop the parking brake so the engine doesn't have to keep spinning fluid in the TC, but a 1-2 second delay getting into gear at worst means someone impatient lays on the horn. I'd not want to lose an important control function in other cases.
Every single car I've driven, same thing. Pop it into neutral, or release the clutch, and the vehicle will eventually coast to a stop. Almost all cars made within the past 5-10 years have engines that have rev limiters on them, so the engine will be noisy, but it shouldn't throw a rod. If the engine has to go off, that isn't too hard. Push start cars like a number of Nissans, Lexuses, and others, one holds the button in, cars with a conventional key can get turned to off. In all cases, because the vehicle is in gear, it won't lock the steering wheel, so the vehicle can be pulled over.
The -only- exception to this was a vehicle I read about that was completely drive by wire. Completely as in steering, acceleration, breaking, and gear selection (even neutral) were all computer controlled. So, when the computer had issues, the driver was basically SOL. However, in the US by law, steering and braking have to be mechanical, and I think Europe is the same.
A gasoline powered fuel cell would still be very useful.
If it could do high amounts of energy, it would be useful as a generator replacement, and have the added bonus of being quiet. Heat could be used for heating water and air in the winter, or be vented away in the summer.
If it could produce only relatively small amounts of usable electrical output, it still would be very useful, even just to keep the starting battery topped off and maintained.
I'm reminded of the EFOY methanol fuel cell. It won't give anywhere near the power of a 2000 watt Honda generator... but what it can do is quietly keep a set of RV batteries topped off at night when the solar charging system isn't working.
If someone is boondocking, having a way to keep the batteries charged is very important (especially at night when one runs the furnace with the 10Ah blower fan.) Yes, there is always firing up the generator, but even the quiet inverter models can be noisy, especially in a secluded wilderness area.
What fuel cells bring to the table is the ability to slowly charge items.
Another place this could be useful would be a house, where one outlet in various rooms would be a r15A circuit that is connected to a 2000 watt inverter and battery pack. Said batteries are charged by a fuel cell at night, and a 400-800 watt solar panel system in the day. This wouldn't save a lot of energy, but it would be a place to plug low, but constant current draw items like battery chargers and not have those run up the monthly bill.
On this subject, what would be nice would be to have both a PIN and a symbol password.
The first time the Android device powers up, it will prompt for the longer version. After that, it can use that version, or a short PIN.
Of course, another solution is to do similar to Apple, and have a dedicated chip (or in Apple's case, have it be part of the custom CPU) which stores the volume decryption key in a physically tamper-resistant place and acts as a gatekeeper. That way, accessing the stored password hash would require the facilities of a modern chip fab.
I remember this being described years ago in PGP Desktop's [1] owner's manual. What the PGP program (pgpserv.exe) did was keep two copies of RAM resident keys, one normal, one bit-inverted (XOR all 1s.) Periodically the program would flip the copies.
[1]: When PGP, the commercial product was split from McAfee and was run by an independent company before becoming part of Symantec.
Mattresses seem to be the banking instrument of the future:
1: No overdraft fees. 2: No fees on withdrawals. 3: No fees due to having a balance under x amount. 4: Accessible 24/7, not just "banker's hours". 5: No need to worry about a username/password. 6: No ID theft can slurp your balance dry. 7: Assets can only be frozen if your heater fails. 8: Interest rate is about the same as most CDs. 9: Computer glitches won't make the balance disappear. 10: No need to give all your personal info when starting a new account.
One smartphone I've had that had a dumbphone battery life was the venerable HTC Wizard. It was a dual core unit (one for radio, one for Windows Mobile), and it wasn't fast (200 Mhz), but it did a decent job, especially if one mapped a "kill all background apps" button, and used that when done with tasks. Overclocking did help a bit as well when needed.
Buy HSMs. Issue new keys with the private keys stored in the security modules, and the access to who gets access to sign data tightly restricted and audited.
Any production security outfit storing private key material on something that is not a hardened appliance is just asking for it.
It might make Joe Sixpack realize something when instead of taking about 10 titles in for his $10.00, that he gets nothing. Even the little cash coming back from used games denied may be a game-changer.
At least with the used game market now, people get something, even if it is $5, for bringing in used games. The psychological factor of "once its bought, its bought" may be a hurdle that causes people to either hesitate on buying titles, or buy them on Windows.
Of course, there will be the fact that one has to have both the game CD/DVD, the console it is locked to, and perhaps the right XBL account for it to work.
That is a lot for an average console gamer to swallow, even though they are used to other DRM factors, not to mention paying 2-3 times as much for the game for additional DLC.
What is the breakthrough we are twiddling our thumbs for will be something to do with energy, be it a way to do fission on the cheap, or even better, a way of doing fusion. Even cold fusion still hasn't been written off, although it has been moved into the "woo-woo" camp next to "free energy" and perpetual motion machines.
Lets say there is a breakthrough that allows a cold fusion reactor to be made, and scalable from something that could power a watch for 100 years to terawatt reactors.
This would completely change our world just as electricity and coal allowed a jump from using manpower to machines.
There are inventions that we can't even think of today that would be easily possible given cheap energy. Stuff like thermal depolymerization on a mass scale to clean up the Pacific Gyre, pushing further out to have usable living space in previous uninhabitable areas, being able to actively de-pollute using chemical reactions which are prohibitively expensive today, making space exploration cheaper, and so on.
However, until we get that energy breakthrough, modern society is coming to a slowdown. Oil and coal can only do so much, and we have passed peak on both of them [1].
The bad thing is that the world balance of power depends on how poor the energy availability is today, and the fact that it only is going to get worse. If a country has nuclear plants, fires up a recycling plant, and gives the finger to the rest of the world since they can recycle rare earths, China would get hit with a severe economic blow. Same with the US and petroldollars. So, with the power structure as it is, getting a 1GW fission reactor working, much less a fusion one is impossible as we know it, just like it would be for someone in Europe during the Middle Ages to show a heliocentric model of the universe, so science can get over that hump and move to better discoveries.
[1]: Peak as where it is becomes more expensive to obtain the stuff, and expenses increase. The oil wells where one could poke a stick in and get crude from the ground are long gone, same with finding anthracite or other pure burning coal.
Exactly. For an embedded system, a MS-DOS variant with FAT32 is good enough [1] for a lot of tasks. Done right, it can be close to a realtime OS as one would need for most tasks, with very little overhead, especially with hardware saving every CPU cycle can be important.
Security? The OS doesn't even have a TCP/IP stack unless explictly loaded. No finding ports open that shouldn't be.
Malware? Within the realm of possibility (Stuxnet showed us that), but without physical access, highly unlikely, especially if there is no Internet connection. Done right, the embedded code could write via a serial port, and another machine (or a VM) could read that, making those files accessible to a TCP/IP network for audit purposes.
[1]: It would be nice to have ExFAT available as sizes of disks and other items get larger, but the IFS code to handle the complexities of a modern filesystem can be larger than the rest of the DOS kernel combined.
If we don't bail them out and depositors suddenly have lost their checking/savings accounts, then we will be back to bank runs at a moment's notice, mattresses stuffed with money, and panics. Do we want that? Banks have security issues, but they are far more secure than a pile of gold stashed between two chunks of drywall in a disused bathroom.
Don't forget that the bailouts did return most of the money spent with interest. In fact, in some cases, it was more of a smart investment.
What OnLive might do is consider making commodity boxes packed full of GPU power that are made to sit on LANs. This way, game commands for rendering are coming from a server at most a hop away.
Plus, people would more than pay for central render/streaming server than have to upgrade each PC's/devices graphics card each time a new Crysis hit the stores.
What might be interesting is having cores reprogram to a different CPU architecture for security specific code. For example, extremely security critical stuff is better off running on a Harvard architecture machine where code and data are stored separately. Done right, it would help stomp most basic issues with code.
It can also help to enforce security on virtual machines (JVM, Dalvik), to ensure that some software failure would not mean that the VM could be used as a stepping stone to gain a complete user context.
Even with boring general purpose CPU tasks, this could be useful. Say a machine is going idle, it would be able to re-pattern a core from high wattage and CPU to a more power saving design.
Taking this technology to software would allow CPU architectures to be used in tandem. For example, ARM executables could be run on the same die (not the same core) as x86. Or, if one is allowed to "import" old CPU architectures, one could have one core running a SPARC domain, a POWER LPAR, a couple VMs under vSphere, and be playing Dungeon Master for the Amiga with true 68k emulation and timings on the console.
It also might allow for CPU architectures to vary by task. For example, one executable type might need more registers than another, so it can be handed additional registers, something that would be impossible without a technology like this.
Slashdot Mirror
Nail, head, hit. It would be a nice world where one didn't have to worry about the underlying architecture, and it could be designed for specific tasks.
For example, one set of CPUs would be designed to run bytecode as energy efficiently as possible. When CPU load goes over a threshold, the JVM is passed to another CPU/core set which is optimized for performance. Once the CPU is back under a threshold for a certain amount of time, it goes back to the watt-saver dies.
Done right, improvements with computers, even architecture changes (like to Harvard from von Neumann) would not even be noticed by applications.
I almost wish Oracle could spin Java off to a small corporation whose job it would be to repair the damage (in both PR and JVM), and to perhaps make what the original vision was going to be.
The ironic thing is Java had its chance. Had Sun/Oracle did it right, there would have been no need for Flash or Shockwave, no need for HTML5, and perhaps no need for any other browser extensions, period.
The fact that a JVM != a JVM is one of the things that killed Java as a usable platform. Had there been some consistency where code running under IBM's JVM would work without issue on Oracle's or Microsoft's, or just even between versions, Java would likely be a must have on today's desktop.
I wish Oracle would invest in Java some more. At least deal with the fact that applications pretty much have to install their own instance of Java for any guarantee that their stuff will work right. Some guarantee of backwards/forwards compatibility would go a long ways. Worst case, perhaps have some sort of compatibility libraries. On a machine running Windows 8, I can still run .NET 1.0 programs, although it might take some updates. Perhaps Java should do similar.
HTC is decent. Worst case, unlock the bootloader and grab an unofficial ROM that is well maintained.
I do prefer Motorola phones, because their cellular quality just seems better on average. However, until they offer some way of unlocking bootloaders, I rather go with HTC, Samsung, or another brand that gives me the ability to have unfettered access to the device I paid for.
What helps mitigate that is having an app like Titanium Backup which not just encrypts backup data, but saves the encrypted backups onto Dropbox or another provider. Done right, it provides a decent level of protection, especially if one takes a periodic nandroid backup and uploads that.
You have to log on to HTC's site, punch in the IMEI code, and they will send you a file you can use for a fastboot unlock.
If given the choice of command-line SSH tools versus a broken Java-based web UI, just give the SSH tools. One can write a front-end if they really felt like it then.
To boot, why is Java even needed these days on the client end? HTML5 + Javascript can do a lot. I can generate RSA keys using JS using aSSL.
There are things to do to help mitigate chances of malware on Android, especially if one has root:
1: There are AdBlock-like utilities available for Android which can actively firewall, add hosts entries, or block on the app layer.
2: For older versions of the OS, there used to be an app called LBE Privacy Guard, which would prevent apps that wanted full kitchen sink perms from being able to do their dirty deeds.
3: Some Android ROMs allow permissions to be edited. That way, an app wanting all and sundry might get the ability to yak on the network, but that's it.
4: Droidwall is an old standby. Unless one explicitly wants an app to hit the network, it won't.
Android has a good amount of privacy/security tools available. However, Android's main weakness is that the app stores need to have two tiers, one tier being the default, with rigorous app scanning, then the other tier as we have now, with phones set to only access the more policed tier as default.
On OS X, I can purchase/download a game from a third party maker, and be off and running. In fact, there are a few utilities (InsomniaX) that are not up for sale in Apple's store due to doing low level kernel functions.
Now, iOS is a different story. Without a JB, one is forced to go through iTunes (beta apps, or enterprise apps) or they go through the App Store. However, this doesn't apply to OS X.
To me, an emergency brake is the guardrail... It will do a good job slowing a vehicle down, although the results definitely won't be pretty.
In some cars, it can take almost a second for the vehicle to get back into a usable gear, as well as spin up the TC so a tap on the gas causes the vehicle to accelerate.
If sitting in line idling, I'll pop it into neutral and drop the parking brake so the engine doesn't have to keep spinning fluid in the TC, but a 1-2 second delay getting into gear at worst means someone impatient lays on the horn. I'd not want to lose an important control function in other cases.
Every single car I've driven, same thing. Pop it into neutral, or release the clutch, and the vehicle will eventually coast to a stop. Almost all cars made within the past 5-10 years have engines that have rev limiters on them, so the engine will be noisy, but it shouldn't throw a rod. If the engine has to go off, that isn't too hard. Push start cars like a number of Nissans, Lexuses, and others, one holds the button in, cars with a conventional key can get turned to off. In all cases, because the vehicle is in gear, it won't lock the steering wheel, so the vehicle can be pulled over.
The -only- exception to this was a vehicle I read about that was completely drive by wire. Completely as in steering, acceleration, breaking, and gear selection (even neutral) were all computer controlled. So, when the computer had issues, the driver was basically SOL. However, in the US by law, steering and braking have to be mechanical, and I think Europe is the same.
A gasoline powered fuel cell would still be very useful.
If it could do high amounts of energy, it would be useful as a generator replacement, and have the added bonus of being quiet. Heat could be used for heating water and air in the winter, or be vented away in the summer.
If it could produce only relatively small amounts of usable electrical output, it still would be very useful, even just to keep the starting battery topped off and maintained.
I'm reminded of the EFOY methanol fuel cell. It won't give anywhere near the power of a 2000 watt Honda generator... but what it can do is quietly keep a set of RV batteries topped off at night when the solar charging system isn't working.
If someone is boondocking, having a way to keep the batteries charged is very important (especially at night when one runs the furnace with the 10Ah blower fan.) Yes, there is always firing up the generator, but even the quiet inverter models can be noisy, especially in a secluded wilderness area.
What fuel cells bring to the table is the ability to slowly charge items.
Another place this could be useful would be a house, where one outlet in various rooms would be a r15A circuit that is connected to a 2000 watt inverter and battery pack. Said batteries are charged by a fuel cell at night, and a 400-800 watt solar panel system in the day. This wouldn't save a lot of energy, but it would be a place to plug low, but constant current draw items like battery chargers and not have those run up the monthly bill.
On this subject, what would be nice would be to have both a PIN and a symbol password.
The first time the Android device powers up, it will prompt for the longer version. After that, it can use that version, or a short PIN.
Of course, another solution is to do similar to Apple, and have a dedicated chip (or in Apple's case, have it be part of the custom CPU) which stores the volume decryption key in a physically tamper-resistant place and acts as a gatekeeper. That way, accessing the stored password hash would require the facilities of a modern chip fab.
I remember this being described years ago in PGP Desktop's [1] owner's manual. What the PGP program (pgpserv.exe) did was keep two copies of RAM resident keys, one normal, one bit-inverted (XOR all 1s.) Periodically the program would flip the copies.
[1]: When PGP, the commercial product was split from McAfee and was run by an independent company before becoming part of Symantec.
Mattresses seem to be the banking instrument of the future:
1: No overdraft fees.
2: No fees on withdrawals.
3: No fees due to having a balance under x amount.
4: Accessible 24/7, not just "banker's hours".
5: No need to worry about a username/password.
6: No ID theft can slurp your balance dry.
7: Assets can only be frozen if your heater fails.
8: Interest rate is about the same as most CDs.
9: Computer glitches won't make the balance disappear.
10: No need to give all your personal info when starting a new account.
One smartphone I've had that had a dumbphone battery life was the venerable HTC Wizard. It was a dual core unit (one for radio, one for Windows Mobile), and it wasn't fast (200 Mhz), but it did a decent job, especially if one mapped a "kill all background apps" button, and used that when done with tasks. Overclocking did help a bit as well when needed.
Even better:
Buy HSMs. Issue new keys with the private keys stored in the security modules, and the access to who gets access to sign data tightly restricted and audited.
Any production security outfit storing private key material on something that is not a hardened appliance is just asking for it.
It might make Joe Sixpack realize something when instead of taking about 10 titles in for his $10.00, that he gets nothing. Even the little cash coming back from used games denied may be a game-changer.
At least with the used game market now, people get something, even if it is $5, for bringing in used games. The psychological factor of "once its bought, its bought" may be a hurdle that causes people to either hesitate on buying titles, or buy them on Windows.
Of course, there will be the fact that one has to have both the game CD/DVD, the console it is locked to, and perhaps the right XBL account for it to work.
That is a lot for an average console gamer to swallow, even though they are used to other DRM factors, not to mention paying 2-3 times as much for the game for additional DLC.
What is the breakthrough we are twiddling our thumbs for will be something to do with energy, be it a way to do fission on the cheap, or even better, a way of doing fusion. Even cold fusion still hasn't been written off, although it has been moved into the "woo-woo" camp next to "free energy" and perpetual motion machines.
Lets say there is a breakthrough that allows a cold fusion reactor to be made, and scalable from something that could power a watch for 100 years to terawatt reactors.
This would completely change our world just as electricity and coal allowed a jump from using manpower to machines.
There are inventions that we can't even think of today that would be easily possible given cheap energy. Stuff like thermal depolymerization on a mass scale to clean up the Pacific Gyre, pushing further out to have usable living space in previous uninhabitable areas, being able to actively de-pollute using chemical reactions which are prohibitively expensive today, making space exploration cheaper, and so on.
However, until we get that energy breakthrough, modern society is coming to a slowdown. Oil and coal can only do so much, and we have passed peak on both of them [1].
The bad thing is that the world balance of power depends on how poor the energy availability is today, and the fact that it only is going to get worse. If a country has nuclear plants, fires up a recycling plant, and gives the finger to the rest of the world since they can recycle rare earths, China would get hit with a severe economic blow. Same with the US and petroldollars. So, with the power structure as it is, getting a 1GW fission reactor working, much less a fusion one is impossible as we know it, just like it would be for someone in Europe during the Middle Ages to show a heliocentric model of the universe, so science can get over that hump and move to better discoveries.
[1]: Peak as where it is becomes more expensive to obtain the stuff, and expenses increase. The oil wells where one could poke a stick in and get crude from the ground are long gone, same with finding anthracite or other pure burning coal.
Exactly. For an embedded system, a MS-DOS variant with FAT32 is good enough [1] for a lot of tasks. Done right, it can be close to a realtime OS as one would need for most tasks, with very little overhead, especially with hardware saving every CPU cycle can be important.
Security? The OS doesn't even have a TCP/IP stack unless explictly loaded. No finding ports open that shouldn't be.
Malware? Within the realm of possibility (Stuxnet showed us that), but without physical access, highly unlikely, especially if there is no Internet connection. Done right, the embedded code could write via a serial port, and another machine (or a VM) could read that, making those files accessible to a TCP/IP network for audit purposes.
[1]: It would be nice to have ExFAT available as sizes of disks and other items get larger, but the IFS code to handle the complexities of a modern filesystem can be larger than the rest of the DOS kernel combined.
If we don't bail them out and depositors suddenly have lost their checking/savings accounts, then we will be back to bank runs at a moment's notice, mattresses stuffed with money, and panics. Do we want that? Banks have security issues, but they are far more secure than a pile of gold stashed between two chunks of drywall in a disused bathroom.
Don't forget that the bailouts did return most of the money spent with interest. In fact, in some cases, it was more of a smart investment.
What OnLive might do is consider making commodity boxes packed full of GPU power that are made to sit on LANs. This way, game commands for rendering are coming from a server at most a hop away.
Plus, people would more than pay for central render/streaming server than have to upgrade each PC's/devices graphics card each time a new Crysis hit the stores.
What might be interesting is having cores reprogram to a different CPU architecture for security specific code. For example, extremely security critical stuff is better off running on a Harvard architecture machine where code and data are stored separately. Done right, it would help stomp most basic issues with code.
It can also help to enforce security on virtual machines (JVM, Dalvik), to ensure that some software failure would not mean that the VM could be used as a stepping stone to gain a complete user context.
Even with boring general purpose CPU tasks, this could be useful. Say a machine is going idle, it would be able to re-pattern a core from high wattage and CPU to a more power saving design.
Taking this technology to software would allow CPU architectures to be used in tandem. For example, ARM executables could be run on the same die (not the same core) as x86. Or, if one is allowed to "import" old CPU architectures, one could have one core running a SPARC domain, a POWER LPAR, a couple VMs under vSphere, and be playing Dungeon Master for the Amiga with true 68k emulation and timings on the console.
It also might allow for CPU architectures to vary by task. For example, one executable type might need more registers than another, so it can be handed additional registers, something that would be impossible without a technology like this.