Like most people are pointing out there is a good chance the the drive is erased before even being booted. So wouldn't a custom bios be needed with all the reporting tools, dhcp clients, etc? Besides LinuxBIOS anyone have any data about adding custom programs to a BIOS?
A quick search turned up this which seems like a good idea. Also this site discusses varies ideas to make theft and reselling more difficult.
Half of what you want is cpu documentation, Intel makes nice free guides to their 32 bit x86 cpus. Sometimes they even will send out the manuals free in book format, right now it looks like you can download them or order a free cd. Check back often because the free books(shipping free too) come and go.
http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/index2.htm
For the rest you just need lots docs about various hardware like floppy controllers and such, check out my site for OS developers since I probably have more links listed then anyone else.
Besides this stuff you might want to re-include java in your google searches because most of the research into virtual machines that I've seen uses java but alot would still apply.
I know Loki made the Linux version of Tribes 2 and they are out of business now and a quick scan didn't show any free Linux client downloads. Since all the game data should be the same does anyone know of a free binary for Linux?
Yea, I know but making a modification in preperation to make a modification? I *personally* don't like low ttls just because of the increase in traffic. The only time I would use a low ttl is for using dns to implement web server failover with multi-site, multi-subnet'ed backup web servers. So in that sense being able to specify low ttls would be a reason to roll your own dns.
Unlike what some people are saying speed is not a reason to roll your own dns. If you managed your own dns then on your network you'll probably see changes instantly but your changes are still going to take 1 day to a week to go through everyone else's caching dns. I'd assume you want to see the same data as your customers. The main reason to choose is failover; if you can have two systems for dns at different locations on different network connections then you *can* do it yourself if you want. Otherwise unless Network Solutions doesn't give you some feature you want(for example: unlimited sub-domains) then there is no reason not to use them.
I can say that as a Sun Certified Java Instructor one of the most common questions I see from entry level developers is "are there any gode sites I can copy and paste from?". I usually point these type of people to JavaAlmanac. In more advanced classes we end up spending more and more time talking about design patterns because there really is no point to reinventing the wheel. A this level most developers treat design patterns as more of a framework then anything else, mantaining a code library for examples but writing new code to tailor to the need at hand. After all the end job of most developers is to implement business logic and since business processes always change you're never going to be able to copy and paste for any decent sized business app.
Specificaly the Frame Format is wrong. Memory cards with (I'm assuming) a Fat FS was used in the test and the RFC states that paper with datagrams should be used. Sounds like a M$ implementation of a RFC if you ask me....
And now AMD's come up with the brillant idea of extending a register. The 64 bit accumlitive register is now RAX with it's low 32 bits being EAX and the low 16 are ax and so on.
The continuation of adding on register extensions is great for backwards compatiblity but it makes the instruction set a mess. Intel knows this but people don't seem to be will to give up compatibility or performace. The only way this is probably ever going to go away is if every one is forced to write a C compiler.
The sad thing is that a new cpu could have a compatibility layer that had a slight performance hit but with a lack of software supporting new 64 implementations people wouldn't buy it because the pretty little bar graphs that the sales drones produce.
I've got a HP laptop that has died twice with power problems. It's shouldn't be any big deal since it's still under warranty. With my warranty once the laptop is determined to be dead HP arranges a fedex pickup and I get it back in a week. Both times the system has died it has taken over a week to arrange the fedex pickup(no fault of fedex). I think the biggest problem is that every single support number I tried goes to bottom dollar Indian tech support. Now I've worked tech support and had to deal with bad support before but I've never sworn off buying a companies hardware until now.
Does anyone see the problem with the following: Tech support must arrange pickup of a laptop, despite repeated instruction given by you that you do not in fact live in a city named "how-sin" that's what they'll be telling fedex. (Houston in case you couldn't tell). And all the problems aren't just communication related, there were several other problem like support tickets that were never filled out or closed and many, many more. I'd go on further but I have a HP web survey to fill out that I'm going to save up most of my anger for.
I have an apartment in Houston and I pick up at least two other wireless networks. I'm using 802.11b and what helped me was plugging my wap (linksys wap11) into a long cat5 cable and an extension cord. It turns out that I get better coverage with my wap off to one side of the apartment then in the middle. The signals bounce thru walls in ways you don't always forsee. Don't forget to try out each location with your microwave and cordless phones in use. I see a much more noticable difference with placement then I do with channel changing or even hacking the signal stregth.
There used to be a book called Developing Your own 32 Bit Operating System that went out of print but it's be rereleased as MMURTL. You can order it in PDF or dead tree format. Also you might want to check out my site. I've got a bunch of links to osdev resources.
Re:Does certification actually matter?
on
JCert Is Dead
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Disclaimer: I'm a Sun Certified Java & Solaris Instructor
And beyond that, do you folks think that certification provides a decent learning path.
You've apparently had a bad experience somewhere. Are you a MCSE by any chance?;)Joking aside, certification should provide you a good opportunity to show the learning paths you've been down already. You shouldn't learn to get certified. If you take the Sun Java certs you'll see the it's designed to see if you actually use Java for what's being tested; Such a wide area of questions is asked that you are not expected to score very high. If you look at Sun's percentages to pass they are around 50-60% because you have to have been using Java for a while to come into contact with that much material.
If I learn just from books, it seems like I will only learn some aspects of a topic, and will neglect other chunks. A classroom and teacher help to provide a more well rounded learning experience.
Yes and no, it's all a matter of the course, teacher, and test. There used to be many course out there that were designed to get someone MSCE certified in a week or two. This explains why I had to show a MSCE how to install a cpu (slot 1) a couple years back when I was working tech support. One of the Sun courses I teach that raises a lot of certification questions is SL-275 for previous programmer that are new to Java. It's the course that supports the Certified Java Programmer exam. When people ask how much study they need after that course I typically tell them one solid month of using Java and 1 week of study time.
I don't want to pay $1000 for the actual certification test,
Sun's range from $150 to around $400 for most.
and don't care too much about becoming certified. I just want to learn useful stuff.
And with todays surplus of people wanting tech job every little bit that gives you a chance to get an interview helps because it's a sure thing that everyone else has a resume saying that they know stuff.
The Core OS team is at least 4 months old. I run a site about operating system development and I just finished a run of a Microsoft banner advertising OS developer positions. The banner linked to here if you're interested.
>>Solaris 8/9 and CDE, what could be better...
Solaris 9 and Gnome...oh wait that's been standard for the the last couple of releases of 9.
And before people whine too much about hardware support...
For a port of XFree86 drivers to Solaris(even the VESA driver) please see: here
For nic drivers see here(I helped get the Realtek driver building with the Solaris/sparc version of gcc, previously you had to buy Sun's compiler to build the driver for a 10 dollar nic)
Or you might want to look here for links to other Solaris drivers.
Usually in the extra skills/info section I like to add a little blurb about how I like to play around with writing Operating Systems. It's one of the few things in todays world that instantly lets people know that I'm really a computer geek and not just a normal person working in IT. It was probably what got me the interview for my current job.
I used to work at a tech shop so of course when ever we had the chance we'd take delight in destroying equipment. There were monitor from building tops, screw driver heads on spinning disk platers, blanking plates in slot 1 cpu slots and just about anything else you can think of.
Someone tried to sell us a pretty old computer and when we told them it wasn't worth anything they ask us to trash it. The hard drive in the system was an old MFM 5.5 inch full height drive that had a non-removable cover. We tried to break it open with a hammer and could barely scratch the thing. I swear that you could have thrown the thing out of an airplane and it would surface scan ok.
Another time we had a custom throw their own computer through a wall after Windows locked up on them. The only thing that didn't have any damage was a USR 56k ISA modem. But that was only until we gave the modem back to the customer and he broke it into two piece in the front of our store(I personally think he had issues). It did take him about 5 minutes to crack the thing though....
Isn't it a possibility that a game of chess can be played equally well by humans and computers. Just see it as tic tac toe carried to the nth degree. The really question is would a human ever design a game with enough complexity that we could never truly master it? Maybe we'll just have to wait for the computers to design the game themselves one day....
Did anyone not see this coming? And if you didn't here's why you should have:
Mark Fleury's original response to Apache Geronimo As our customers know, we are a business, a serious one and we seriously believe in and defend "professional open source". That includes legal protection of IP. Make no mistakes, JBoss will AGGRESIVELY defend its copyright and LGPL license.
And from the Elba website Think of Elba as a latticework for Geronimo--and as a shield to buffer the Geronimo codebase and CVS repository from any LGPL code. As Geronimo is built, its code will replace the code from Elba, bit by bit until there's nothing left in Elba at all. At that time, Elba will cease to exist and only Geronimo will remain; we'll have a big party and you're all invited.
So if Geronimo is being developed as outlined at the Elba website then they'd have to have the exact same method signatures....
I was hosting at couple domains a work with a RAQ4. While waiting for updates to ssh to become available it got hit with a exploit known as "raq f***". I decided to never run on a box that I couldn't patch to my hearts content again. I switched over to a Sun Nextra X1 running Solaris 9. Everything from Apache to MySQL to Courier IMAP and Postfix is custom compiled and configured by hand. My opinion is that a graphical front end is nice but if you admin more then a couple of domains then you should know how to setup your machine. It takes a while doing it the first time but if you document everything the slowest part in setting up a new box is downloading everthing and compiling and you could even script that if you wanted. I think the RAQ type setups are great for resellers or web designers but if you're an admin then if at all possible try to actually admin the systems you manage.
This of course comes as a surprise to noone under the 5'5" mark
What's funny, or perhaps expected, is that tall people are, as a rule, blissfully unaware of the advantages their height affords them. They bitch about trivialities like fitting into movie seats while attractice girls fling themselves at them and they command undue attention in a conference room.
People that complain about their height are usually at least my height (6'6") or greater. You're probably right about girls flinging themsevles to slightly taller then average men but at my height a lot of the extra women are little old ladies that need help getting something at the grocery store. I've never had a problem with a movie seat myself but rental cars and airplanes can be an issue. I'm forced to spend my "extra" income on things like larger rental cars and special ordering clothes.
And if one of us shortish people brings it up, we're told we have a "Napolean complex", as if they even know what that means apart from that Napolean was also kind of short.
Yea, sure. You don't know fun until you're extremely tall and you run into a short person with a chip on their sholder that decided to compensate by becoming a cop. I bet if you run some numbers cops are shorter on average then the general population.
And for other benifits; If what I've read is true extremely tall people have shorter life spans and usually develop knee and joint problems. If you get past the chip on your sholder you'll find that attitude and brains plays a larger role in getting attention in a conference or picking up women.
Pidget sounds a lot like Java ServerFaces so it's nothing new. What I find annoying is that the "best" way to make a dynamic site keeps changing. Last week it was to have your site generate XML and use style sheet translation, this week it's to assemble objects on the server and have the server convert all the objects to html.
Slashdot Mirror
Like most people are pointing out there is a good chance the the drive is erased before even being booted. So wouldn't a custom bios be needed with all the reporting tools, dhcp clients, etc? Besides LinuxBIOS anyone have any data about adding custom programs to a BIOS?
A quick search turned up this which seems like a good idea. Also this site discusses varies ideas to make theft and reselling more difficult.
Half of what you want is cpu documentation, Intel makes nice free guides to their 32 bit x86 cpus. Sometimes they even will send out the manuals free in book format, right now it looks like you can download them or order a free cd. Check back often because the free books(shipping free too) come and go. http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals /index2.htm
p ub/WWW/files.html
The other main half is BIOS info, check our Ralf Brown's int list: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/ralf/
For the rest you just need lots docs about various hardware like floppy controllers and such, check out my site for OS developers since I probably have more links listed then anyone else. Besides this stuff you might want to re-include java in your google searches because most of the research into virtual machines that I've seen uses java but alot would still apply.
I know Loki made the Linux version of Tribes 2 and they are out of business now and a quick scan didn't show any free Linux client downloads. Since all the game data should be the same does anyone know of a free binary for Linux?
Yea, I know but making a modification in preperation to make a modification? I *personally* don't like low ttls just because of the increase in traffic. The only time I would use a low ttl is for using dns to implement web server failover with multi-site, multi-subnet'ed backup web servers. So in that sense being able to specify low ttls would be a reason to roll your own dns.
Unlike what some people are saying speed is not a reason to roll your own dns. If you managed your own dns then on your network you'll probably see changes instantly but your changes are still going to take 1 day to a week to go through everyone else's caching dns. I'd assume you want to see the same data as your customers. The main reason to choose is failover; if you can have two systems for dns at different locations on different network connections then you *can* do it yourself if you want. Otherwise unless Network Solutions doesn't give you some feature you want(for example: unlimited sub-domains) then there is no reason not to use them.
Good coders just use "design patterns" ;)
I can say that as a Sun Certified Java Instructor one of the most common questions I see from entry level developers is "are there any gode sites I can copy and paste from?". I usually point these type of people to JavaAlmanac. In more advanced classes we end up spending more and more time talking about design patterns because there really is no point to reinventing the wheel. A this level most developers treat design patterns as more of a framework then anything else, mantaining a code library for examples but writing new code to tailor to the need at hand. After all the end job of most developers is to implement business logic and since business processes always change you're never going to be able to copy and paste for any decent sized business app.
Specificaly the Frame Format is wrong. Memory cards with (I'm assuming) a Fat FS was used in the test and the RFC states that paper with datagrams should be used. Sounds like a M$ implementation of a RFC if you ask me....
When the police came for him it must have been like looking at the logo for his own company. LOL.
Given a general cpu register like eax it looks like this:
31--------------15-------7------0 Bits
|--------------eax--------------|
|------ax------|
|--ah---|--al---|
And now AMD's come up with the brillant idea of extending a register. The 64 bit accumlitive register is now RAX with it's low 32 bits being EAX and the low 16 are ax and so on.
The continuation of adding on register extensions is great for backwards compatiblity but it makes the instruction set a mess. Intel knows this but people don't seem to be will to give up compatibility or performace. The only way this is probably ever going to go away is if every one is forced to write a C compiler.
The sad thing is that a new cpu could have a compatibility layer that had a slight performance hit but with a lack of software supporting new 64 implementations people wouldn't buy it because the pretty little bar graphs that the sales drones produce.
I've got a HP laptop that has died twice with power problems. It's shouldn't be any big deal since it's still under warranty. With my warranty once the laptop is determined to be dead HP arranges a fedex pickup and I get it back in a week. Both times the system has died it has taken over a week to arrange the fedex pickup(no fault of fedex). I think the biggest problem is that every single support number I tried goes to bottom dollar Indian tech support. Now I've worked tech support and had to deal with bad support before but I've never sworn off buying a companies hardware until now.
Does anyone see the problem with the following: Tech support must arrange pickup of a laptop, despite repeated instruction given by you that you do not in fact live in a city named "how-sin" that's what they'll be telling fedex. (Houston in case you couldn't tell). And all the problems aren't just communication related, there were several other problem like support tickets that were never filled out or closed and many, many more. I'd go on further but I have a HP web survey to fill out that I'm going to save up most of my anger for.
I have an apartment in Houston and I pick up at least two other wireless networks. I'm using 802.11b and what helped me was plugging my wap (linksys wap11) into a long cat5 cable and an extension cord. It turns out that I get better coverage with my wap off to one side of the apartment then in the middle. The signals bounce thru walls in ways you don't always forsee. Don't forget to try out each location with your microwave and cordless phones in use. I see a much more noticable difference with placement then I do with channel changing or even hacking the signal stregth.
I *was* going to look at the terms but the wording on their site is:
Click on any link or image to indicate "I ACCEPT" the USER Agreement
And you have to click on a link to view the user agreement!
There used to be a book called Developing Your own 32 Bit Operating System that went out of print but it's be rereleased as MMURTL. You can order it in PDF or dead tree format. Also you might want to check out my site. I've got a bunch of links to osdev resources.
Disclaimer: I'm a Sun Certified Java & Solaris Instructor
;)Joking aside, certification should provide you a good opportunity to show the learning paths you've been down already. You shouldn't learn to get certified. If you take the Sun Java certs you'll see the it's designed to see if you actually use Java for what's being tested; Such a wide area of questions is asked that you are not expected to score very high. If you look at Sun's percentages to pass they are around 50-60% because you have to have been using Java for a while to come into contact with that much material.
And beyond that, do you folks think that certification provides a decent learning path.
You've apparently had a bad experience somewhere. Are you a MCSE by any chance?
If I learn just from books, it seems like I will only learn some aspects of a topic, and will neglect other chunks. A classroom and teacher help to provide a more well rounded learning experience.
Yes and no, it's all a matter of the course, teacher, and test. There used to be many course out there that were designed to get someone MSCE certified in a week or two. This explains why I had to show a MSCE how to install a cpu (slot 1) a couple years back when I was working tech support. One of the Sun courses I teach that raises a lot of certification questions is SL-275 for previous programmer that are new to Java. It's the course that supports the Certified Java Programmer exam. When people ask how much study they need after that course I typically tell them one solid month of using Java and 1 week of study time.
I don't want to pay $1000 for the actual certification test,
Sun's range from $150 to around $400 for most.
and don't care too much about becoming certified. I just want to learn useful stuff.
And with todays surplus of people wanting tech job every little bit that gives you a chance to get an interview helps because it's a sure thing that everyone else has a resume saying that they know stuff.
The Core OS team is at least 4 months old. I run a site about operating system development and I just finished a run of a Microsoft banner advertising OS developer positions. The banner linked to here if you're interested.
>>Solaris x86 8 & 9 is once again Free (as in beer) to download for x86 users. ;)
>Can we download the x86 version for free?
No, it requires the use of the right mouse button.
>>Solaris 8/9 and CDE, what could be better...
Solaris 9 and Gnome...oh wait that's been standard for the the last couple of releases of 9.
And before people whine too much about hardware support...
For a port of XFree86 drivers to Solaris(even the VESA driver) please see: here
For nic drivers see here(I helped get the Realtek driver building with the Solaris/sparc version of gcc, previously you had to buy Sun's compiler to build the driver for a 10 dollar nic)
Or you might want to look here for links to other Solaris drivers.
Usually in the extra skills/info section I like to add a little blurb about how I like to play around with writing Operating Systems. It's one of the few things in todays world that instantly lets people know that I'm really a computer geek and not just a normal person working in IT. It was probably what got me the interview for my current job.
I used to work at a tech shop so of course when ever we had the chance we'd take delight in destroying equipment. There were monitor from building tops, screw driver heads on spinning disk platers, blanking plates in slot 1 cpu slots and just about anything else you can think of.
Someone tried to sell us a pretty old computer and when we told them it wasn't worth anything they ask us to trash it. The hard drive in the system was an old MFM 5.5 inch full height drive that had a non-removable cover. We tried to break it open with a hammer and could barely scratch the thing. I swear that you could have thrown the thing out of an airplane and it would surface scan ok.
Another time we had a custom throw their own computer through a wall after Windows locked up on them. The only thing that didn't have any damage was a USR 56k ISA modem. But that was only until we gave the modem back to the customer and he broke it into two piece in the front of our store(I personally think he had issues). It did take him about 5 minutes to crack the thing though....
But I bet his record will get him more girls then the ability to start x86 pmode without a triple fault.
Isn't it a possibility that a game of chess can be played equally well by humans and computers. Just see it as tic tac toe carried to the nth degree. The really question is would a human ever design a game with enough complexity that we could never truly master it? Maybe we'll just have to wait for the computers to design the game themselves one day....
Did anyone not see this coming? And if you didn't here's why you should have:
Mark Fleury's original response to Apache Geronimo
As our customers know, we are a business, a serious one and we seriously believe in and defend "professional open source". That includes legal protection of IP. Make no mistakes, JBoss will AGGRESIVELY defend its copyright and LGPL license.
And from the Elba website
Think of Elba as a latticework for Geronimo--and as a shield to buffer the Geronimo codebase and CVS repository from any LGPL code. As Geronimo is built, its code will replace the code from Elba, bit by bit until there's nothing left in Elba at all. At that time, Elba will cease to exist and only Geronimo will remain; we'll have a big party and you're all invited.
So if Geronimo is being developed as outlined at the Elba website then they'd have to have the exact same method signatures....
I was hosting at couple domains a work with a RAQ4. While waiting for updates to ssh to become available it got hit with a exploit known as "raq f***". I decided to never run on a box that I couldn't patch to my hearts content again. I switched over to a Sun Nextra X1 running Solaris 9. Everything from Apache to MySQL to Courier IMAP and Postfix is custom compiled and configured by hand. My opinion is that a graphical front end is nice but if you admin more then a couple of domains then you should know how to setup your machine. It takes a while doing it the first time but if you document everything the slowest part in setting up a new box is downloading everthing and compiling and you could even script that if you wanted. I think the RAQ type setups are great for resellers or web designers but if you're an admin then if at all possible try to actually admin the systems you manage.
This of course comes as a surprise to noone under the 5'5" mark
What's funny, or perhaps expected, is that tall people are, as a rule, blissfully unaware of the advantages their height affords them. They bitch about trivialities like fitting into movie seats while attractice girls fling themselves at them and they command undue attention in a conference room.
People that complain about their height are usually at least my height (6'6") or greater. You're probably right about girls flinging themsevles to slightly taller then average men but at my height a lot of the extra women are little old ladies that need help getting something at the grocery store. I've never had a problem with a movie seat myself but rental cars and airplanes can be an issue. I'm forced to spend my "extra" income on things like larger rental cars and special ordering clothes.
And if one of us shortish people brings it up, we're told we have a "Napolean complex", as if they even know what that means apart from that Napolean was also kind of short.
Yea, sure. You don't know fun until you're extremely tall and you run into a short person with a chip on their sholder that decided to compensate by becoming a cop. I bet if you run some numbers cops are shorter on average then the general population.
And for other benifits; If what I've read is true extremely tall people have shorter life spans and usually develop knee and joint problems. If you get past the chip on your sholder you'll find that attitude and brains plays a larger role in getting attention in a conference or picking up women.
Pidget sounds a lot like Java ServerFaces so it's nothing new. What I find annoying is that the "best" way to make a dynamic site keeps changing. Last week it was to have your site generate XML and use style sheet translation, this week it's to assemble objects on the server and have the server convert all the objects to html.