For wizards and experts only,
Kbuild people don't like this!
Don't spam the mailing list with support questions!
- Remember CML2, anyone? The noble attempt to replace the Linux kernel config language (which makes even JCL or RPG/38 seem like high Latin)? That one went with a "splash" on the LKML and found a new home in emDebian, too.
When reading Dreppers' comments, my browser died with a SIGEGOTOOBIG.
Those who dare to install heart monitoring or other life critical equipment running Windows should be deported to The Hague and tried for crimes against humanity. Those who agree to operate such equipment of their own free will should be fired on the spot. This is about as insane as controlling an 80 foot crane with a Gameboy. Total madness.
Getting first post on Slashdot while falling into a black hole. Cynical phycisists might call that an extremely slow news day. Other physicists might remark that now there are 2 things which can escape from a black hole: Hawking radiation and Slashdot posts.
BIOS chips are so '90s. Why not do away with them entirely and use a tiny MicroSD cardreader? Leave out all the USB mass storage controller stuff, replace it with a simple address decoder and have the system address it directly.
Reflashing would be as easy as hopping over to a clean system, inserting the card in a reader, and doing (in *nix):
I for one cannot believe that something this obvious has no prior art which voids this patent claim, but IANAPL. Fail-safe systems in engineering come in all sizes and shapes, a fixed-function system taking over from a dynamic one being just one of them. Substitute 'backup BIOS' for fixed-function and 'Flash BIOS' for dynamic system and you should be set. But then again, anyone who adds just a nut or a bolt to an existing design or simply turns it 45 degrees counter-clockwise is able to get a patent these days.
If not the BIOS, then the Flash chip itself may contain circuitry which switches in a normally inaccessible erase block containing malware when it senses a certain access pattern (read OR write).
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
...at our 2600 meetings practically everybody has a handgun and communications equipment;)
Sounds more like combat training to me.
Our 2600 meetings weren't called 2600 meetings, we just shouted "Pass--word" at anyone who wanted to enter. We let in those who replied correctly by belching "Word". Those who farted instead were granted apprentice membership.
I wonder how many mainboards are out there which have their Flash write protect disabled straight from the factory. Many people probably don't even know their system has one ("Jumper, whaddoyoumean jumper. I know that movie, but that's probably not it."). Shudder...
Deciding whether two algorithms are equivalent in functionality? Without severely impacting user experience by taking ages to compute? Let's not even discuss whether that can be done in polynomial time or not, it's pointless.
Jeebus, why are people trying to reduce every problem in CS to an exercise in masochism? It's not that masochism is NP-complete or something.
Just add something like "no-nonfree" to the browser User-Agent string and require all websites to honor that. If some site doesn't, sue them. Works the same as "robots.txt", just the other way round.
Or have all scripts which are GPL (or other somesuch) do "include("gpl.js");", then load a greasemonkey script matching all URLs that raises hell when any object in the DOM doesn't include a special "is_gpl" member.
OK, found out that the tool is called crunchgen, and that its main purpose is efficiently combining multiple binaries into one (although I've read it could be used for building efficient libs, too), so it is more like an alternative to BusyBox multi-app binaries.
Also, as far as I remember, NetBSD (and perhaps some of the other BSDs) has a tool (I don't remember its name, but I think it is used in building the installation media) for building a custom libc containing just the bits that executables on the ramdisk actually require. This optimized libc is built from the same sources that the well tested 'main' libc is built from. Saves you a lot of uClibc hassle and validation troubles, not to mention ramdisk space.
Be happy. If the wheel were patented by some Evil Corporation, we'd still be bumping along the road on wooden tyres, so that the Evil Corporation can sell us expensive suspension systems, expensive auto repairs, expensive health plans for our rattling bones, etcetera.
Thanks to Linux, we now have wheels with pneumatic tyres, among other varieties.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, he's just thinking about Sturgeon's Law. Ninety percent of everything is crab.
Hear, hear!
config EMBEDDED
bool "Not for Aunt Tilly!"
For wizards and experts only,
Kbuild people don't like this!
Don't spam the mailing list with support questions!
-
Remember CML2, anyone? The noble attempt to replace the Linux kernel config language (which makes even JCL or RPG/38 seem like high Latin)? That one went with a "splash" on the LKML and found a new home in emDebian, too.
When reading Dreppers' comments, my browser died with a SIGEGOTOOBIG.
Those who dare to install heart monitoring or other life critical equipment running Windows should be deported to The Hague and tried for crimes against humanity. Those who agree to operate such equipment of their own free will should be fired on the spot.
This is about as insane as controlling an 80 foot crane with a Gameboy. Total madness.
The Slashdot Paradox:
Getting first post on Slashdot while falling into a black hole.
Cynical phycisists might call that an extremely slow news day.
Other physicists might remark that now there are 2 things which can escape from a black hole: Hawking radiation and Slashdot posts.
Pussy doesn't even exist ...
Hmm, there is a G-spot, but it's well hidden behind a cover.
$ dpkg -L gspot
...
/usr/lib/gnome-panel/gspot
...
Isn't IT great?
Henry Ford: "You can have any color car so long as it is black."
State of California: "You can have any color car so long as it is not black."
We've come a long way, except it's still tyranny.
Just make the car's roof a canopy made of hemp cloth. Solves 2 problems, see above post.
Green? Leaves, yes. Many users (medicinal or otherwise) would agree.
BIOS chips are so '90s. Why not do away with them entirely and use a tiny MicroSD cardreader? Leave out all the USB mass storage controller stuff, replace it with a simple address decoder and have the system address it directly.
Reflashing would be as easy as hopping over to a clean system, inserting the card in a reader, and doing (in *nix):
$ dd if=bios.bin of=/dev/sdc # sdc being the card
No more hassle.
I for one cannot believe that something this obvious has no prior art which voids this patent claim, but IANAPL. Fail-safe systems in engineering come in all sizes and shapes, a fixed-function system taking over from a dynamic one being just one of them. Substitute 'backup BIOS' for fixed-function and 'Flash BIOS' for dynamic system and you should be set. But then again, anyone who adds just a nut or a bolt to an existing design or simply turns it 45 degrees counter-clockwise is able to get a patent these days.
If not the BIOS, then the Flash chip itself may contain circuitry which switches in a normally inaccessible erase block containing malware when it senses a certain access pattern (read OR write).
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
That would be picoviruses. Please get your units straight :-)
...at our 2600 meetings practically everybody has a handgun and communications equipment ;)
Sounds more like combat training to me.
Our 2600 meetings weren't called 2600 meetings, we just shouted "Pass--word" at anyone who wanted to enter.
We let in those who replied correctly by belching "Word". Those who farted instead were granted apprentice membership.
ok, just kidding...
EZ-Botnet
1. Infect BIOS
2. Install hypervisor
3. ???
4. Profit!!
$ sudo sledgehammer
Thrashing BIOS..1..2..3
BIOS now defunct.
$
coreboot FTW!
I wonder how many mainboards are out there which have their Flash write protect disabled straight from the factory. Many people probably don't even know their system has one ("Jumper, whaddoyoumean jumper. I know that movie, but that's probably not it."). Shudder...
Just like the Linux kernel taint check. If some script fakes it, sue them.
Deciding whether two algorithms are equivalent in functionality? Without severely impacting user experience by taking ages to compute? Let's not even discuss whether that can be done in polynomial time or not, it's pointless.
Jeebus, why are people trying to reduce every problem in CS to an exercise in masochism? It's not that masochism is NP-complete or something.
Just add something like "no-nonfree" to the browser User-Agent string and require all websites to honor that. If some site doesn't, sue them. Works the same as "robots.txt", just the other way round.
Or have all scripts which are GPL (or other somesuch) do "include("gpl.js");", then load a greasemonkey script matching all URLs that raises hell when any object in the DOM doesn't include a special "is_gpl" member.
Easy as pie.
"Those who sacrifice reliability for responsiveness, deserve neither." 'Nuff said.
Just saw that the Woz is also on the advisory board for IOActive, the guys who showed that your (RF)ID may be cloned off you from yards away...
OK, found out that the tool is called crunchgen, and that its main purpose is efficiently combining multiple binaries into one (although I've read it could be used for building efficient libs, too), so it is more like an alternative to BusyBox multi-app binaries.
Also, as far as I remember, NetBSD (and perhaps some of the other BSDs) has a tool (I don't remember its name, but I think it is used in building the installation media) for building a custom libc containing just the bits that executables on the ramdisk actually require. This optimized libc is built from the same sources that the well tested 'main' libc is built from.
Saves you a lot of uClibc hassle and validation troubles, not to mention ramdisk space.
...we now have wheels with pneumatic tyres, among other varieties.
in a F/OSS sense, of course. F/OSS is not just about being free, it's also about having choice.
Be happy. If the wheel were patented by some Evil Corporation, we'd still be bumping along the road on wooden tyres, so that the Evil Corporation can sell us expensive suspension systems, expensive auto repairs, expensive health plans for our rattling bones, etcetera.
Thanks to Linux, we now have wheels with pneumatic tyres, among other varieties.