w.r.t. the availability of OSS compilers for Embedded PPC:
I worked on several very large and complicated embedded PPC projects using UBoot and GCC from DENX (http://www.denx.de/en/Software/WebHome).
As long as you have a stage-0 bootloader and a serial port, the rest is very workable with OSS tools.
In another life, I also wrote all the multistage bootloaders for an ARM926EJS based part from stage-0 to up to Montavista Linux entirely with GCC and Binutils. Using LD to generate embedded software images can be tricky b/c the linker script language is complicated, but it is very doable once you get a feel for it.
Having a spectrum digital JTAG pod to debug the stage-0 bootloader was necessary, but once you get the serial port working, the rest is usually gravy. Those pods were about $1500 with software. These days, tin can tools do a decent job for some parts.
I also disagree with notion that a RaspPI wouldn't survive very long as a limiting factor. While the whole board isn't rated for industrial temp range, the BCM2836 is supposedly -40C to 85C. It's not a huge stretch to believe that a similarly priced board (even 2x or 3x the cost) could be completely wide-temp rated.
What would be of concern is possible peripherals that are sometimes used in automotive ECUs, such as advanced timing modules, that are used to provide very precise hardware based timing of things such as injector control and (in spark ignition applications) spark plug firing not being available in generally available consumer parts.
Now, if you have regulatory compliance requiring signed images, crypto, etc. Then it goes more complicated, but not unworkable. There are a number of vendors that offer hardware crypto chips commercially for such applications to assist. These are not prohibitively expensive either.(http://www.atmel.com/products/security-ics/cryptoauthentication/)
I deal with this frequently with sub-contractors (and firms) doing development.
It's actually very simple. The understanding starts out as: This is a work-for-hire. All work product is property of the company.
Which eventually leads to a contract containing: All source-code, build scripts, documentation, keys, any other materials required to use or reproduce the deliverable item are exclusive property and proprietary information of the company. The contractor shall not release, reuse or redistribute any component of this work in any other business. This includes any custom libraries, headers or other application work-product. This does not apply to off-the-shelf open-source tools and libraries, however such items shall be documented and approved in advance to avoid GPL contamination.
I don't see a problem here. I expect to pay through the nose if i want exclusive rights and ownership to someone's special library, for exactly the reasons the article dictates. Otherwise a non-exclusive source-code license that I may do with as I please is cheaper. A binary-only license might be cheaper still.
They devs have to make a living and if it wasn't cheaper/faster to use them in the first place I'd just write it myself.
Just try explaining these legal subtleties to someone who doesn't understand software.
I write driver level embedded code for a living. Everything from bootstrapping embedded linux to SoC level power management.
Power management is usually the last thing to get done (if at all)... why? Because management usually sees it as icing on the cake. Attitudes are typically just make it work and we'll ship a bigger battery to make it last. Or we'll ship an upgrade in 6 months, if the product starts to take off and we decide to fund further development.
Time to market is everything.
Power management is also really hard to get right 100% of the time. It's really hard to debug code/hardware where stuff is shutting itself off, or worse, a controller uP is shutting you off unexpectedly.
It has NOTHING to do with 'bad code' or 'shitty programmers'. It's just management grinding down on the engineers to do it: better, faster, cheaper, pick two. Usually faster and cheaper win.
I hate to state the obvious, but a hash by nature is breakable. You are (typically) distilling a large number of unique bits down to a smaller number of bits.
Of course there will be more than one set of inputs that generate the same output.
Its more an issue of: 1. How hard it is to find colliding inputs. 2. What the hash is used for.
Passwords typically generate more bits, so different rules apply.
You are missing a key point here, something that embedded developers understand. It is much easier to support software on 1 platform, where you have complete control. (Such as a console) On a PC you have thousands of hardware and driver configurations, other conflicting pieces of software that you may or may not know about, library versions. All kinds of unknowns. It is a whole different beast.
The ultimate answer is really very simple. Don't buy music. At all. If enough people stop buying music then the RIAA will notice a drop in sales and might stop sucking at life. (That's called wishful thinking, but hey a guy can dream.) You don't need music like milk and bread. And there is always the radio.
I think the whole article is a very narrow look at what eBay is good for. For your average internet user that can handle a web browser, eBay is a great way to get rid of the extra stuff that is lying around the house. I just replaced 2 light fixtures, I'm going to eBay the old ones. Why shouldn't I just get whatever I can in money for them?
For Joe Smoe, eBay is probably best as a way to get rid of extra stuff around the house that's not useful to him anymore.
I don't know why everyone gets so up in a huff about all this: Consider the basic principle of the whole thing: If I can watch the media (audio/video) I can copy it. It's just a fact. I have no idea why the record execs spend so much $ on this. (Yes the quality, blah, blah...)
Actually there is an upper limit... It is some of Shannon's work on Information Theory. Basically, information has entropy associated with it. Entropy being the randomness of information. Truly 100% random information cannot be compressed. The central idea has to do with the probability of something occuring. Text compresses quite well because certain letters are more common than others and there are a limited number of symbols. (e for example) If i encode e using 1 bit instead of 8 that saves 7 bits.
This is the idea behind Huffman Coding.
Binary data... well, depends on the data. I ran into this at work... basically, I was trying to reformat some data to save space on disk and eventually figured out that bzip would accomplish the same thing.
The numbers 1984 quickly come to mind.
I really think its time to rally around our beliefs in civil liberties and write to our political leaders as necessary. Remember, the only thing they care about is reelection come the time and if they sense that their stance on an issue might cause a problem with consitutients they will be far more careful what they allow to occur. I don't know about anyone else but couple this technology with Facial Recognition software and some other pattern matching software and stick a few field agents around with micro cameras and poof... big brother is always watching.
Someone mentioned a trend to a police state... well, at least in Israel the common person can carry a decent weapon ( Ak-74.. etc )... here we have laws against that... with some states being rediculous... Massachusetts comes to mind... Do you really think 9-11 would have happened if the public were allowed to carry on planes? ( at least the people invovled would have considered the reduced success potential, since they obviously didn't care about dying. ) "Do not go gentle into that good night..." -Dylan Thomas.
Points to ponder.
I just wanted to respond quickly as I run to class.
Yes, right now there is an artifically large concentration of FIRST teams in certain high-tech areas. However, it is the goal of the organization to eventually offer teams whereever there is interest. FIRST is relatively young for an undertaking of such magnitude and hopefully in the next 10 years ( 2001 was the 10 aniversary ) it will be available to all students.
Also, as a quick aside, for the middle schoolers out there, there is a Lego League, which is far less costly than the other competition, but still encourages the ideals of FIRST. I believe the cost of the competition is around $500.
I'm a College Student Mentor for a FIRST Team based out of RIT. My team page can be found here
I just wanted to comment on some of the posts.
This is not a battlebots clone. Far from it. The goal is not to disable/destory the other team, and although the game itself changes from season to season, it has been trending towards a cooperative effort.
The messages and encouraged behavior while somewhat idealistic are exatly what today's highschool students need. If anything, (refering to some other posts i skimmed) it will prevent violent behavior by providing kids with afterschool activities. I encourage everyone
looking for a way to fill free time to
check out www.usfirst.org
I can say personally that FIRST ( this being my first year ) was a great experience and very personally rewarding to feel as if you are making a difference in others' lives.
I seem to remember somewhere that you can be held accountable to claims made during a trial. IANAL, but I remember that you can sue for false accusations and the like made during a case once the case has finished. I also believe the extent to which you can claim depends on the outcome of the initial trial.
I think many people are missing the point. Not to side with the Judge or RIAA, but legally, as it stands, downloading mp3's of songs you don't own is prohibited. Now, granted Napster is not only used for pirated music, but for legitimate small name distro as well. What needs to happen is a compromise: remember that word from kindergarden (which is how the RIAA and Napster are acting). They need to find a way where both sides benefit. Or one side needs to find a way to change the current laws regarding the issues at hand. Don't complain when you can't get illegal music anymore, you don't have a right to it in the first place. (regardless of who makes the most $ off the sales). I'm not a saint. I make no claim to not using napster, but I don't bitch and moan when it doesn't work out. Perhaps we are going about this all wrong... not to advocate for big brother, but there should be a way to remove certain artist-title songs from the napster index. Gnutella and such open another can of worms where it's not even worth going b/c they are designed to be unregulatable... which is both good and bad, depending on your side of the coin. What it all comes down to is people will go the cheapest route to get what they want. All gnutella and napster do is make it easier... personally i think the RIAA is wasting time and $ (which they seem to have plenty off.. hmm...) on something that won't help them much anyway. Kudos.
Basically, what everyone seems to be saying is that: "I like this or that better." There is no reason to bash M$ because you don't like their products, so don't use them. You are entitled to use what products you like to get the job done. (provided you can convice your boss...)
Having gone through the process of learning to program in the last few years i think i could help you out with this one.
I started out learning BASIC on the Apple II and at the same time picked up Lego Logo. I found these to be easy and at the same time useful for simple things (like helping with math homework).
I then moved on to pascal and then C.
In reterospect this was a good progression as it went from simple languages to more robust and powerful languages. However, these days, in the world in win9x, and *nix, there is little reason to teach your kids Logo, BASIC or even Pascal. Mindstorms would be different, and really really cool as i'm sure they love legos, but isn't that expensive?
I would stay away from LISP as it would probably be a little hard for them to grasp at that age.
Perl is a wonderful language, but the idiomatic nature it tends to take on is difficult for beginners (i know, i'm teaching myself perl).
I don't know anything about Python, but i've heard that its a nice simple language, you might want to start there, i really can't comment on that.
If I were you, I would just jump right into C or C++ and teach them slowly, they should be able to understand if the concepts and methods are explained well. The only thing i remember having trouble with when I was learning C (around age 13) was pointers (bad explanation, kids like pictures...), so i don't see any reason they couldn't understand C or C++.
You could teach them HTML, but it won't help them write any real programs, you need a scripting language to do most things, and J-Script is about on par with C as far as difficulty goes.
This link has some Rackmount Cases in the $240-$1200 range. I own two of the $310 model and am very pleased with the performance. http://store.yahoo.com/jinco/19raccas.html
I would just like to comment that althought what Kevin did was wrong the way he was treated by the American legal system was not much better. I believe that if had access to large sums of money that he would have been out on the street in a few weeks instead of 4+ years. I mean, at least he's not getting away with anything... like murder for example in another case where the defendant was able to offer up large sums of money for legal defense, Kevin wasn't. Just goes to show you what really drives the American Legal System.. a lot of FUD and MONEY.
Slashdot Mirror
w.r.t. the availability of OSS compilers for Embedded PPC:
I worked on several very large and complicated embedded PPC projects using UBoot and GCC from DENX (http://www.denx.de/en/Software/WebHome).
As long as you have a stage-0 bootloader and a serial port, the rest is very workable with OSS tools.
In another life, I also wrote all the multistage bootloaders for an ARM926EJS based part from stage-0 to up to Montavista Linux entirely with GCC and Binutils.
Using LD to generate embedded software images can be tricky b/c the linker script language is complicated, but it is very doable once you get a feel for it.
Having a spectrum digital JTAG pod to debug the stage-0 bootloader was necessary, but once you get the serial port working, the rest is usually gravy. Those pods were about $1500 with software. These days, tin can tools do a decent job for some parts.
I also disagree with notion that a RaspPI wouldn't survive very long as a limiting factor. While the whole board isn't rated for industrial temp range, the BCM2836 is supposedly -40C to 85C. It's not a huge stretch to believe that a similarly priced board (even 2x or 3x the cost) could be completely wide-temp rated.
What would be of concern is possible peripherals that are sometimes used in automotive ECUs, such as advanced timing modules, that are used to provide very precise hardware based timing of things such as injector control and (in spark ignition applications) spark plug firing not being available in generally available consumer parts.
Now, if you have regulatory compliance requiring signed images, crypto, etc. Then it goes more complicated, but not unworkable. There are a number of vendors that offer hardware crypto chips commercially for such applications to assist. These are not prohibitively expensive either.(http://www.atmel.com/products/security-ics/cryptoauthentication/)
I deal with this frequently with sub-contractors (and firms) doing development.
It's actually very simple.
The understanding starts out as: This is a work-for-hire. All work product is property of the company.
Which eventually leads to a contract containing:
All source-code, build scripts, documentation, keys, any other materials required to use or reproduce the deliverable item are exclusive property and proprietary information of the company.
The contractor shall not release, reuse or redistribute any component of this work in any other business. This includes any custom libraries, headers or other application work-product.
This does not apply to off-the-shelf open-source tools and libraries, however such items shall be documented and approved in advance to avoid GPL contamination.
I don't see a problem here.
I expect to pay through the nose if i want exclusive rights and ownership to someone's special library, for exactly the reasons the article dictates.
Otherwise a non-exclusive source-code license that I may do with as I please is cheaper. A binary-only license might be cheaper still.
They devs have to make a living and if it wasn't cheaper/faster to use them in the first place I'd just write it myself.
Just try explaining these legal subtleties to someone who doesn't understand software.
Perhaps NOTHING was the wrong choice of words.
I write driver level embedded code for a living. Everything from bootstrapping embedded linux to SoC level power management.
Power management is usually the last thing to get done (if at all)... why? Because management usually sees it as icing on the cake. Attitudes are typically just make it work and we'll ship a bigger battery to make it last. Or we'll ship an upgrade in 6 months, if the product starts to take off and we decide to fund further development.
Time to market is everything.
Power management is also really hard to get right 100% of the time. It's really hard to debug code/hardware where stuff is shutting itself off, or worse, a controller uP is shutting you off unexpectedly.
It has NOTHING to do with 'bad code' or 'shitty programmers'. It's just management grinding down on the engineers to do it: better, faster, cheaper, pick two. Usually faster and cheaper win.
I hate to state the obvious, but a hash by nature is breakable. You are (typically) distilling a large number of unique bits down to a smaller number of bits.
Of course there will be more than one set of inputs that generate the same output.
Its more an issue of:
1. How hard it is to find colliding inputs.
2. What the hash is used for.
Passwords typically generate more bits, so different rules apply.
You are missing a key point here, something that embedded developers understand. It is much easier to support software on 1 platform, where you have complete control. (Such as a console)
On a PC you have thousands of hardware and driver configurations, other conflicting pieces of software that you may or may not know about, library versions. All kinds of unknowns. It is a whole different beast.
The ultimate answer is really very simple. Don't buy music. At all. If enough people stop buying music then the RIAA will notice a drop in sales and might stop sucking at life. (That's called wishful thinking, but hey a guy can dream.) You don't need music like milk and bread. And there is always the radio.
I think the whole article is a very narrow look at what eBay is good for. For your average internet user that can handle a web browser, eBay is a great way to get rid of the extra stuff that is lying around the house.
I just replaced 2 light fixtures, I'm going to eBay the old ones. Why shouldn't I just get whatever I can in money for them?
For Joe Smoe, eBay is probably best as a way to get rid of extra stuff around the house that's not useful to him anymore.
I don't know why everyone gets so up in a huff about all this:
Consider the basic principle of the whole thing:
If I can watch the media (audio/video) I can copy it. It's just a fact. I have no idea why the record execs spend so much $ on this.
(Yes the quality, blah, blah...)
Actually there is an upper limit...
It is some of Shannon's work on Information Theory.
Basically, information has entropy associated with it. Entropy being the randomness of information. Truly 100% random information cannot be compressed.
The central idea has to do with the probability of something occuring.
Text compresses quite well because certain letters are more common than others and there are a limited number of symbols. (e for example)
If i encode e using 1 bit instead of 8 that saves 7 bits.
This is the idea behind Huffman Coding.
Binary data... well, depends on the data.
I ran into this at work... basically, I was trying to reformat some data to save space on disk and eventually figured out that bzip would accomplish the same thing.
The numbers 1984 quickly come to mind. I really think its time to rally around our beliefs in civil liberties and write to our political leaders as necessary. Remember, the only thing they care about is reelection come the time and if they sense that their stance on an issue might cause a problem with consitutients they will be far more careful what they allow to occur. ... here we have laws against that... with some states being rediculous... Massachusetts comes to mind. .. Do you really think 9-11 would have happened if the public were allowed to carry on planes? ( at least the people invovled would have considered the reduced success potential, since they obviously didn't care about dying. )
I don't know about anyone else but couple this technology with Facial Recognition software and some other pattern matching software and stick a few field agents around with micro cameras and poof... big brother is always watching.
Someone mentioned a trend to a police state... well, at least in Israel the common person can carry a decent weapon ( Ak-74.. etc )
"Do not go gentle into that good night..." -Dylan Thomas. Points to ponder.
Tell us where to send the $, there are many loyal users who will donate either time or money to keeping slackware alive.
Yes, right now there is an artifically large concentration of FIRST teams in certain high-tech areas. However, it is the goal of the organization to eventually offer teams whereever there is interest. FIRST is relatively young for an undertaking of such magnitude and hopefully in the next 10 years ( 2001 was the 10 aniversary ) it will be available to all students.
Also, as a quick aside, for the middle schoolers out there, there is a Lego League, which is far less costly than the other competition, but still encourages the ideals of FIRST. I believe the cost of the competition is around $500.
I'm a College Student Mentor for a FIRST Team based out of RIT. My team page can be found here
I just wanted to comment on some of the posts. This is not a battlebots clone. Far from it. The goal is not to disable/destory the other team, and although the game itself changes from season to season, it has been trending towards a cooperative effort.
The messages and encouraged behavior while somewhat idealistic are exatly what today's highschool students need. If anything, (refering to some other posts i skimmed) it will prevent violent behavior by providing kids with afterschool activities. I encourage everyone looking for a way to fill free time to check out www.usfirst.org
I can say personally that FIRST ( this being my first year ) was a great experience and very personally rewarding to feel as if you are making a difference in others' lives.
I seem to remember somewhere that you can be held accountable to claims made during a trial. IANAL, but I remember that you can sue for false accusations and the like made during a case once the case has finished. I also believe the extent to which you can claim depends on the outcome of the initial trial.
I think many people are missing the point. Not to side with the Judge or RIAA, but legally, as it stands, downloading mp3's of songs you don't own is prohibited. Now, granted Napster is not only used for pirated music, but for legitimate small name distro as well. What needs to happen is a compromise: remember that word from kindergarden (which is how the RIAA and Napster are acting). They need to find a way where both sides benefit. Or one side needs to find a way to change the current laws regarding the issues at hand. Don't complain when you can't get illegal music anymore, you don't have a right to it in the first place. (regardless of who makes the most $ off the sales). I'm not a saint. I make no claim to not using napster, but I don't bitch and moan when it doesn't work out. Perhaps we are going about this all wrong... not to advocate for big brother, but there should be a way to remove certain artist-title songs from the napster index. Gnutella and such open another can of worms where it's not even worth going b/c they are designed to be unregulatable... which is both good and bad, depending on your side of the coin. What it all comes down to is people will go the cheapest route to get what they want. All gnutella and napster do is make it easier... personally i think the RIAA is wasting time and $ (which they seem to have plenty off.. hmm...) on something that won't help them much anyway. Kudos.
Basically, what everyone seems to be saying is that: "I like this or that better." There is no reason to bash M$ because you don't like their products, so don't use them. You are entitled to use what products you like to get the job done. (provided you can convice your boss...)
Having gone through the process of learning to program in the last few years i think i could help you out with this one.
I started out learning BASIC on the Apple II and at the same time picked up Lego Logo. I found these to be easy and at the same time useful for simple things (like helping with math homework).
I then moved on to pascal and then C.
In reterospect this was a good progression as it went from simple languages to more robust and powerful languages. However, these days, in the world in win9x, and *nix, there is little reason to teach your kids Logo, BASIC or even Pascal.
Mindstorms would be different, and really really cool as i'm sure they love legos, but isn't that expensive?
I would stay away from LISP as it would probably be a little hard for them to grasp at that age.
Perl is a wonderful language, but the idiomatic nature it tends to take on is difficult for beginners (i know, i'm teaching myself perl).
I don't know anything about Python, but i've heard that its a nice simple language, you might want to start there, i really can't comment on that.
If I were you, I would just jump right into C or C++ and teach them slowly, they should be able to understand if the concepts and methods are explained well. The only thing i remember having trouble with when I was learning C (around age 13)
was pointers (bad explanation, kids like pictures...), so i don't see any reason they couldn't understand C or C++.
You could teach them HTML, but it won't help them write any real programs, you need a scripting language to do most things, and J-Script is about on par with C as far as difficulty goes.
Hope my experience in this is helpful.
This link has some Rackmount Cases in the $240-$1200 range. I own two of the $310 model and am very pleased with the performance. http://store.yahoo.com/jinco/19raccas.html
I would just like to comment that althought what Kevin did was wrong the way he was treated by the American legal system was not much better. I believe that if had access to large sums of money that he would have been out on the street in a few weeks instead of 4+ years. I mean, at least he's not getting away with anything... like murder for example in another case where the defendant was able to offer up large sums of money for legal defense, Kevin wasn't. Just goes to show you what really drives the American Legal System.. a lot of FUD and MONEY.