> I remember almost a decade ago, there was a rash of mysterious deaths in the UK of top programmers working on top secret military projects.
To be precise, a total of 20 programers linked to Marconi Defense Systems or the Ministry of Defense died suspiciously between 1985-1987.
The first mainstream magazine to break this story was the April 30th 1987 edition of Computer News (UK), but unfortunately the article does not seem to be available online.
However, it gets a mention in the Risks Digest, as well as plenty of conspiracy sites such as this one.
There's a growing school of thought within physics that the Heisenburg uncertainty prinicple could be a misconception arising from inexact experimental tools, and from an unwillingness to abandon the idea of the point perticle.
Carver Mead, a past student of Richard Feynman and one of the most important practical scientists of the past 50 years discusses this in an interview in the American Spectator.
> What if they [future civs] stumble across the Yucca Mountain dump?
This is getting slightly off-topic, but the nuclear industry has been researching how to warn future civilisations 10000 years later about nuclear waste.
There's some excerpts from a report here that are surprisingly interesting reading.
Amongst other things, the report discusses using earthworks and markers to try and convey an impression of danger and inhospitability - but, importantly, without making the waste repository look like it might contain anything valuable. After all, it did not take long for grave-robbers to break into the pyramids, curse or no curse...
Still has 137GB Limitation
on
Serial ATA Coming
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
One of the current limitations of the ATA standard is that maximum drive size is 137.4GB. While we're not quite there yet, it seems like this could become a problem at least by mid-2003.
I'm surprised that the opportunity was missed to address this with the introduction of Serial ATA.
For the curious, the limit comes about since only 28bits are used for the sector number in the ATA protocol. (2^28 * 512 bytes = 137.4Gb).
This is straying dangerously off topic now, but its quite amusing to look at the history of arbitrary hard disk size limits: (from The Storage Review)
PC/XT Parameter (10.4 MiB / 10.9 MB) Barrier
FAT12 Partition Size (16 MiB / 16.7 MB) Barrier
DOS 3 (32 MiB / 33.6 MB) Barrier
The 1,024 Cylinder (504 MiB / 528 MB) Barrier
The 4,096 Cylinder (1.97 GiB / 2.11 GB) Barrier
The FAT16 Partition Size (2.00 GiB / 2.15 GB) Barrier
The 6,322 Cylinder (3.04 GiB / 3.26 GB) Barrier
The Phoenix BIOS 4.03 / 4.04 Bug (3.05 GiB / 3.28 GB) Barrier
The 8,192 Cylinder (3.94 GiB / 4.22 GB) Barrier
The 240 Head Int 13 Interface (7.38 GiB / 7.93 GB) Barrier
The Int 13 Interface (7.88 GiB / 8.46 GB) Barrier
The Windows 95 Limit (29.8 GiB / 32.0 GB) Barrier
The 65,536 Cylinder (31.5 GiB / 33.8 GB) Barrier
The ATA Interface Limit (128 GiB / 137 GB) Barrier
And only four of them are due to Microsoft...
> Everyone has the right to freely state and distribute his opinion in spoken, written or imaged form and to obtain information from publicly available sources without limit. The freedom of the press and the freedom of reporting on radio and TV are granted. There is no censorship.
However, this right seems to be overridden by other laws.
For example, it is illegal to deny the extermination of the Jews occurred in Germany. So surely there is censorship?
While this example is perhaps understandable, it does seem slightly odd to need to legislate against the demonstrably false opinion of a small group of ignorant and bigoted people.
You are correct in that Windows will still be responsible for reading the file system data and making available over the network and therefore no changes to Samba etc. will be needed.
However, the point of OFS is that it is *not* simply a classical file system containing directories of "flat files" which are simply a sequence of bytes (or characters). OFS will allow structured data to be stored in the file system and also allow greater indexing and data retrieval capability.
In order to get the benefits of OFS, Linux apps will need to be able to understand the extra meta-data available, and make more complex requests than the old POSIX fget() / fseek() etc.
Therefore, OFS *will* affect other machines accessing it if they want to be able to do more than simply read what will, I guess, become "legacy" style files.
> How long do./ readers think it will be until the Linux kernel and/or Samba will be able to read OFS shares?
Surely that's kind of academic, since UNIX only has the concept of the flat file? What would the Linux kernel do with the structured objects read from the OFS share?
No doubt the standard windows file APIs + file sharing protocols will continue to work fine on top of OFS, and so regular files can continue to be read by Linux using Samba.
Until applications capable of formulating requests and interpreting the objects returned by OFS are written or ported to Linux, then no, Linux will not be able to use OFS. However, I'm sure an open source project will quickly appear to develop a framework to make this possible.
I think its important to realise that if Microsoft can make OFS do what they say it can, this is more than just another file system.
Cinematique said: > what about fair use, you cry? give me one good example where you *need* to copy a movie that you own
Fair use? Let's suppose I want to use clips from a movie in a class I'm giving about filmmaking. Not the whole movie - just a few scenes. Almost everyone would agree that this should not be illegal. Indeed, it is in the publishers interests that I can do this so that future artists can create new content. And yet, this is not possible.
But copying is not the real issue - it's about control. Look at the DVD furore about DeCSS. Professional pirates don't need to break encryption - they make bit perfect encrypted copies using professional mastering encryption. However, DeCSS (and the DMCA) makes it illegal for me to write my own DVD player so I can watch *my* DVD on my Linux machine.
I could (maybe) accept the loss of ownership if the consumer saw some benefit - e.g. if I could pay $2 to watch a time-limited movie over the net, or continue to pay $15 to buy the DVD. But as proposed, I don't have that choice.
I'm not saying Copyright is wrong - content producers need protection. But a balance must be struck.
Microsoft And Yale Conclude Agreement To License Technology For Haskell
Microsoft Demonstrates Haskell-Compatible Browser and Tools
NEW HAVEN - Feb 7, 2002 - At a press conference today Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced it has concluded an agreement to license the Haskell programming language and related technology for inclusion in Microsoft products. As part of this agreement Microsoft will develop and maintain the reference implementation of Haskell for Windows(R) platforms, such as the Windows(R)98 and Windows NT(R) operating system.
Also, Microsoft demonstrated a number of Haskell-compatible technologies collectively code-named "Curry." The technologies demonstrated included Haskell support in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 Web browser using a built-in, high performance just-in-time (JIT) compiler; an integrated development tool Haskell; and integration of the Haskell language with industry-standard component object model (COM) objects through Microsoft ActiveX(TM) Technologies for the Internet and PC. Microsoft further outlined its plans for Haskell support, indicating that future versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and Apple(R) Macintosh(R) will include the ability to run Haskell applets distributed through the World Wide Web. The company also outlined plans to create a high-productivity development tool for Haskell, based on its award-winning Developer Studio technology.
Microsoft is currently being sued by Sun over trademark infringement issues relating to its licensing of Java technology from Sun. A U.S. District Court judge granted Sun Microsystems Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction that prevents Microsoft from using Sun's Java Compatible(TM) logo to promote and distribute its Internet Explorer 4.0 and related products. In response, Microsoft has taken the unprecedented step of completely abandoning Java in favor of what they consider to be "a vastly superior programming language technology" in the words of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
In a project that has been kept under wraps ever since the initial adoption of Java, a team of Microsoft researchers has prepared an alternative programming language for use in case of a serious dispute with Sun over the future of the Java language. After evaluating many programming languages, the team settled on Haskell as being the best alternative to Java. According to Chris Fraser, a Microsoft research scientist, "Haskell's polymorphic type system is far superior to the one developed for Java." Also, he asserts that "purely functional programs are the wave of the future: object oriented programming has reached a dead end." As other developers integrated Java into Microsoft products such as the Internet Explorer, this "shadow team" created secret versions of these same products using Haskell instead of Java. The team leader, Conal Elliott, asserts that due to the elegance and expressiveness of Haskell, his team was able to completely duplicate the work being done with Java using only a tenth of the manpower. As all tools needed to switch from Java to Haskell are already in place, Microsoft expects to completely purge its products of Java within a period of less than two months.
"Haskell technology will provide a great way for our developer customers to create innovative applications for the Web," said Dave Hanson, vice president of development tools at Microsoft. "We intend to be the premier supplier of Haskell-compatible tools to Internet developers."
"Microsoft's commitment to Haskell is both impressive and comprehensive, and this agreement makes them one of the leading Haskell supporters," said Paul Hudak, the former head of the Haskell committee. "Microsoft's licensing of Haskell broadens support of the technology significantly."
"Integrating the Haskell language with.NET is something our customers and ISV partners think is extremely important," said Erik Meijer, the new senior vice president of Internet platforms and tools, at Microsoft. "It brings a whole new dimension to Haskell: a clear path for integration with existing applications, systems and technologies. It means that you don't have to start over to take advantage of Haskell."
Current Haskell developers reacted with both joy and concern at this announcement. Simon Peyton-Jones, a prominent Haskell implementor, said "I guess this means the end of our research efforts here. There is no way a small research group such as ours can compete with Microsoft." At Yale, Alastair Reid was more optimistic: "Now I can get out of this hellhole in New Haven and get a real job at Microsoft." In fact, many Haskell developers are expected to join a new Microsoft research group in Nottingham, England which will be headed by Mark Jones, a prominent Haskell researcher. Dr. Jones explained that "they wanted me to come to Redmond but I decided to remain here in Nottingham. When they decided to build a research center here for me I was thrilled!"
Additional information on Microsoft Corporation is available on the Internet at http://www.microsoft.com. Additional information on Haskell is available on the Internet at http://www.haskell.org.
Microsoft Windows, Windows NT and ActiveX are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
(spoof reproduced from http://haskell.org/humor/press.html, originally released 1 April 1998)
Surely it's the historical context that's interesting?
No one's claiming that the 'art' is anything special (though its not exactly bad - love the 70s girls...), rather it's an interesting insight into the creative process behind some of the ideas that went on to become part of a hugely succesful industry.
While there does not appear to be a direct equivalent of the EFF in the UK/EU, one organisation that springs to mind is Statewatch, which is dedicated to monitoring civil liberties (including electronic) in the EU.
Hopefully organisations like these will stop abuses of power such as the EU Telecommunications Directive (news story ZDNET) which calls for ISP and Telecomms to retain communication records for 7 (yes, seven) years.
Some people are also rather annoyed with Echelon, the Menrith Hill based UK-US monitoring centre which listens to some/many/all (depending on who you talk to!) calls and email within the UK. Personally, I have a soft spot for it, since it really annoys the French: ZDNET story
On a semi-related note, the Campaign for FOI is campaiging for more open access to information in the UK.
On an insane note, these people Project Freedom are determined to expose MI5/MI6/CIA use of mind control on socialists and other undesirables...
Slashdot Mirror
> I remember almost a decade ago, there was a rash of mysterious deaths in the UK of top programmers working on top secret military projects.
To be precise, a total of 20 programers linked to Marconi Defense Systems or the Ministry of Defense died suspiciously between 1985-1987.
The first mainstream magazine to break this story was the April 30th 1987 edition of Computer News (UK), but unfortunately the article does not seem to be available online.
However, it gets a mention in the Risks Digest, as well as plenty of conspiracy sites such as this one.
There's a growing school of thought within physics that the Heisenburg uncertainty prinicple could be a misconception arising from inexact experimental tools, and from an unwillingness to abandon the idea of the point perticle. Carver Mead, a past student of Richard Feynman and one of the most important practical scientists of the past 50 years discusses this in an interview in the American Spectator.
> What if they [future civs] stumble across the Yucca Mountain dump?
This is getting slightly off-topic, but the nuclear industry has been researching how to warn future civilisations 10000 years later about nuclear waste.
There's some excerpts from a report here that are surprisingly interesting reading.
Amongst other things, the report discusses using earthworks and markers to try and convey an impression of danger and inhospitability - but, importantly, without making the waste repository look like it might contain anything valuable. After all, it did not take long for grave-robbers to break into the pyramids, curse or no curse...
This is a repeat from Sunday:
Cat Recognition Alogrithms
One of the current limitations of the ATA standard is that maximum drive size is 137.4GB. While we're not quite there yet, it seems like this could become a problem at least by mid-2003.
I'm surprised that the opportunity was missed to address this with the introduction of Serial ATA.
For the curious, the limit comes about since only 28bits are used for the sector number in the ATA protocol. (2^28 * 512 bytes = 137.4Gb).
This is straying dangerously off topic now, but its quite amusing to look at the history of arbitrary hard disk size limits: (from The Storage Review)
PC/XT Parameter (10.4 MiB / 10.9 MB) Barrier
FAT12 Partition Size (16 MiB / 16.7 MB) Barrier
DOS 3 (32 MiB / 33.6 MB) Barrier
The 1,024 Cylinder (504 MiB / 528 MB) Barrier
The 4,096 Cylinder (1.97 GiB / 2.11 GB) Barrier
The FAT16 Partition Size (2.00 GiB / 2.15 GB) Barrier
The 6,322 Cylinder (3.04 GiB / 3.26 GB) Barrier
The Phoenix BIOS 4.03 / 4.04 Bug (3.05 GiB / 3.28 GB) Barrier
The 8,192 Cylinder (3.94 GiB / 4.22 GB) Barrier
The 240 Head Int 13 Interface (7.38 GiB / 7.93 GB) Barrier
The Int 13 Interface (7.88 GiB / 8.46 GB) Barrier
The Windows 95 Limit (29.8 GiB / 32.0 GB) Barrier
The 65,536 Cylinder (31.5 GiB / 33.8 GB) Barrier
The ATA Interface Limit (128 GiB / 137 GB) Barrier
And only four of them are due to Microsoft...
> Everyone has the right to freely state and distribute his opinion in spoken, written or imaged form and to obtain information from publicly available sources without limit. The freedom of the press and the freedom of reporting on radio and TV are granted. There is no censorship.
However, this right seems to be overridden by other laws.
For example, it is illegal to deny the extermination of the Jews occurred in Germany. So surely there is censorship?
While this example is perhaps understandable, it does seem slightly odd to need to legislate against the demonstrably false opinion of a small group of ignorant and bigoted people.
You are correct in that Windows will still be responsible for reading the file system data and making available over the network and therefore no changes to Samba etc. will be needed.
However, the point of OFS is that it is *not* simply a classical file system containing directories of "flat files" which are simply a sequence of bytes (or characters). OFS will allow structured data to be stored in the file system and also allow greater indexing and data retrieval capability.
In order to get the benefits of OFS, Linux apps will need to be able to understand the extra meta-data available, and make more complex requests than the old POSIX fget() / fseek() etc.
Therefore, OFS *will* affect other machines accessing it if they want to be able to do more than simply read what will, I guess, become "legacy" style files.
> How long do ./ readers think it will be until the Linux kernel and/or Samba will be able to read OFS shares?
Surely that's kind of academic, since UNIX only has the concept of the flat file? What would the Linux kernel do with the structured objects read from the OFS share?
No doubt the standard windows file APIs + file sharing protocols will continue to work fine on top of OFS, and so regular files can continue to be read by Linux using Samba.
Until applications capable of formulating requests and interpreting the objects returned by OFS are written or ported to Linux, then no, Linux will not be able to use OFS. However, I'm sure an open source project will quickly appear to develop a framework to make this possible.
I think its important to realise that if Microsoft can make OFS do what they say it can, this is more than just another file system.
Cinematique said:
> what about fair use, you cry? give me one good example where you *need* to copy a movie that you own
Fair use? Let's suppose I want to use clips from a movie in a class I'm giving about filmmaking. Not the whole movie - just a few scenes. Almost everyone would agree that this should not be illegal. Indeed, it is in the publishers interests that I can do this so that future artists can create new content. And yet, this is not possible.
But copying is not the real issue - it's about control. Look at the DVD furore about DeCSS. Professional pirates don't need to break encryption - they make bit perfect encrypted copies using professional mastering encryption. However, DeCSS (and the DMCA) makes it illegal for me to write my own DVD player so I can watch *my* DVD on my Linux machine.
I could (maybe) accept the loss of ownership if the consumer saw some benefit - e.g. if I could pay $2 to watch a time-limited movie over the net, or continue to pay $15 to buy the DVD. But as proposed, I don't have that choice.
I'm not saying Copyright is wrong - content producers need protection. But a balance must be struck.
Microsoft And Yale Conclude Agreement To License Technology For Haskell
.NET is something our customers and ISV partners think is extremely important," said Erik Meijer, the new senior vice president of Internet platforms and tools, at Microsoft. "It brings a whole new dimension to Haskell: a clear path for integration with existing applications, systems and technologies. It means that you don't have to start over to take advantage of Haskell."
Microsoft Demonstrates Haskell-Compatible Browser and Tools
NEW HAVEN - Feb 7, 2002 - At a press conference today Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced it has concluded an agreement to license the Haskell programming language and related technology for inclusion in Microsoft products. As part of this agreement Microsoft will develop and maintain the reference implementation of Haskell for Windows(R) platforms, such as the Windows(R)98 and Windows NT(R) operating system.
Also, Microsoft demonstrated a number of Haskell-compatible technologies collectively code-named "Curry." The technologies demonstrated included Haskell support in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 Web browser using a built-in, high performance just-in-time (JIT) compiler; an integrated development tool Haskell; and integration of the Haskell language with industry-standard component object model (COM) objects through Microsoft ActiveX(TM) Technologies for the Internet and PC. Microsoft further outlined its plans for Haskell support, indicating that future versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and Apple(R) Macintosh(R) will include the ability to run Haskell applets distributed through the World Wide Web. The company also outlined plans to create a high-productivity development tool for Haskell, based on its award-winning Developer Studio technology.
Microsoft is currently being sued by Sun over trademark infringement issues relating to its licensing of Java technology from Sun. A U.S. District Court judge granted Sun Microsystems Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction that prevents Microsoft from using Sun's Java Compatible(TM) logo to promote and distribute its Internet Explorer 4.0 and related products. In response, Microsoft has taken the unprecedented step of completely abandoning Java in favor of what they consider to be "a vastly superior programming language technology" in the words of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
In a project that has been kept under wraps ever since the initial adoption of Java, a team of Microsoft researchers has prepared an alternative programming language for use in case of a serious dispute with Sun over the future of the Java language. After evaluating many programming languages, the team settled on Haskell as being the best alternative to Java. According to Chris Fraser, a Microsoft research scientist, "Haskell's polymorphic type system is far superior to the one developed for Java." Also, he asserts that "purely functional programs are the wave of the future: object oriented programming has reached a dead end." As other developers integrated Java into Microsoft products such as the Internet Explorer, this "shadow team" created secret versions of these same products using Haskell instead of Java. The team leader, Conal Elliott, asserts that due to the elegance and expressiveness of Haskell, his team was able to completely duplicate the work being done with Java using only a tenth of the manpower. As all tools needed to switch from Java to Haskell are already in place, Microsoft expects to completely purge its products of Java within a period of less than two months.
"Haskell technology will provide a great way for our developer customers to create innovative applications for the Web," said Dave Hanson, vice president of development tools at Microsoft. "We intend to be the premier supplier of Haskell-compatible tools to Internet developers."
"Microsoft's commitment to Haskell is both impressive and comprehensive, and this agreement makes them one of the leading Haskell supporters," said Paul Hudak, the former head of the Haskell committee. "Microsoft's licensing of Haskell broadens support of the technology significantly."
"Integrating the Haskell language with
Current Haskell developers reacted with both joy and concern at this announcement. Simon Peyton-Jones, a prominent Haskell implementor, said "I guess this means the end of our research efforts here. There is no way a small research group such as ours can compete with Microsoft." At Yale, Alastair Reid was more optimistic: "Now I can get out of this hellhole in New Haven and get a real job at Microsoft." In fact, many Haskell developers are expected to join a new Microsoft research group in Nottingham, England which will be headed by Mark Jones, a prominent Haskell researcher. Dr. Jones explained that "they wanted me to come to Redmond but I decided to remain here in Nottingham. When they decided to build a research center here for me I was thrilled!"
Additional information on Microsoft Corporation is available on the Internet at http://www.microsoft.com. Additional information on Haskell is available on the Internet at http://www.haskell.org.
Microsoft Windows, Windows NT and ActiveX are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
(spoof reproduced from http://haskell.org/humor/press.html, originally released 1 April 1998)
Surely it's the historical context that's interesting?
No one's claiming that the 'art' is anything special (though its not exactly bad - love the 70s girls...), rather it's an interesting insight into the creative process behind some of the ideas that went on to become part of a hugely succesful industry.
Here's one home application for this: (from an old Sci-Fi book)
Suppose you take a sheet made of this crystal thick enough that light takes one year to pass through it.
Then, place this sheet in a place of great natural beauty - (e.g. Lake District, view of Golden Gate bridge, Grand Canyon, etc.)
Leave the sheet there for a year and then take it home, frame it and hang it on your wall.
Over the next year, you will be able to watch your chosen beauty spot (delayed by a year) as the light emerges.
Pretty cool, huh?
While there does not appear to be a direct equivalent of the EFF in the UK/EU, one organisation that springs to mind is Statewatch, which is dedicated to monitoring civil liberties (including electronic) in the EU.
Hopefully organisations like these will stop abuses of power such as the EU Telecommunications Directive (news story ZDNET) which calls for ISP and Telecomms to retain communication records for 7 (yes, seven) years.
Some people are also rather annoyed with Echelon, the Menrith Hill based UK-US monitoring centre which listens to some/many/all (depending on who you talk to!) calls and email within the UK. Personally, I have a soft spot for it, since it really annoys the French: ZDNET story
On a semi-related note, the Campaign for FOI is campaiging for more open access to information in the UK.
On an insane note, these people Project Freedom are determined to expose MI5/MI6/CIA use of mind control on socialists and other undesirables...