Firt off, I don't know much of the architecture of Android (flame me for that but I've karma to burn), but what's the point in calling a platform 'open' when you can't get root?
If your idea of having fun is playing in a (Java) sandbox while Big Brother is watching, then enjoy your kids' dreams. Grown-ups like to do some real hacking on a real open platform.
Well I told people so, also here on Slashdot, when the media was all abuzz about Android and how it would revolutionize phone software hacking.
At great risk of sounding like a broken record and repeating myself over and over again:
Grab a fr.. (nah leave that word out already) GSM module.
Hook it up to your favorite SC/SoC evaluation module
Bootstrap your favorite OS
Start hacking already
Much better than carrying your carrier's ball-and-chain around your neck always, anxiously waiting for the next OTA provisioning download that CALEA-stricken providers stuff in your phone's guts at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night, to have them turn on your phone's mic or camera to big-brother you on a whim, or is it?
*Audio debugging: Sending specially crafted debug messages from your software into/dev/dsp. Sometimes more useful than wading through tons of debug messages, in particular when dealing with a large number of iterations or timing constraints. *Alternative: video debugging: Sending debug output directly to the framebuffer or certain video registers.
(You probably know that/dev/audio by default puts audio through a really ugly mu-law decompressor that makes anything sound horrible, even proper Sun.au files.)
Audio debugging is a fine art and can be quite a rewarding experience (if your musical taste permits), in paricular for loop optimization, distinguishing freezes from loops and such.
My other browser is Really Fast. It's wget piped into less in Gnome Terminal (so I can right-click on a link to open it in..a new terminal window. Parse the HTML in your head, give those brain cells a boost. Who cares about all that Javascript anyway? Same about images and Flash banners not displaying, you want the frckn source, don't you?
Nothing can beat that, short of hexdumping the network interface or sniffing the raw network data right off the line using an oscilloscope and bit-banging it back manually. Only you'll need to have superhumanly keen eyesight and be unimaginaturally fast with that Morse paddle to key in packets requesting Web links and acknowledging incoming packets.
"Happiness is a warm gun (Bang Bang Shoot Shoot) Happiness is a warm gun, momma (Bang Bang Shoot Shoot) When I hold you in my arms (Ooooooooohhh, oh yeah!) And when I feel my finger on your trigger I know nobody can do me no harm"
Maybe the site is hosted on an IIS alternative that's too close and faithful to the original, even being bug-compatible and all./me ducks and cowers from the expected mod-storm
iPhone...Activesync...in one sentence? Related? Actually...working together?
I'm sorry guys, but my head is spinning...gonna get me a Tylenol...quickly. Isn't it so that 'iPhone' goes with 'Apple' and 'Activesync' goes with Microsoft?
Next they're going to tell me that you can run Windows XP on a MacBook. Oh well...
Isn't the US military actively searching for a so-called 'non-lethal weapon', a (bio-)chemical agent which is designed to induce fear in those on which it is used?
If, given the political track record and the results of the research from TFA, there is even a slight chance that a State might want to use a weapon like this against their own people, be very afraid indeed.
"Fear is a weapon of mass destruction" --Faithless, from the album "No Roots"
the US Government starts using this technology on its own people?
Until Skynet becomes self-aware (which may have already happened). Skynet isn't just a virus infecting networks of computers, it is a virus infecting peoples' minds. A meme, a namchub (remember Snow Crash?), call it whatever you like, it is already among us.
A possible antidote:
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
Come to think of it, it can't be a fearmion, for fearmions constitute the dark matter of the imagination. As a carrier of emotion it must obviously be a bogon.
Sure, but if I had to choose between either the Web crashing or the Earth crashing (into a black hole), I'd choose the Web. The Earth has some darn nice features but it falls short in the area of user-friendliness, for its reset button is quite inaccessible. Maybe we should file a complaint with Magrathea (or the mice who commissioned the Earth's construction in the first place). Anyone know if it's still under warranty?
As long as the EXE is actually a renamed COM file (which has no header, and DOS doesn't care either way), adheres to the a.out format (no ELF back then) and executes some weird and interesting syscalls before possibly dumping core on an illegal instruction, everything is possible. Remember the 'crashme' tool?
Or what could you accomplish with all that bandwidth, storage space and computational power within your grasb?
Those kids were probably imagining a Beowulf cluster of it. Enough network bandwidth and storage capacity to suck in and share all the pr0n and warez they would ever need. Thank goodness the DMCA doesn't apply in Switzerland, for otherwise CERN would surely collapse into a black hole under the sheer mass of subpoena's, court orders and takedown notices crashing on their doorstep.
Slashdot Mirror
Firt off, I don't know much of the architecture of Android (flame me for that but I've karma to burn), but what's the point in calling a platform 'open' when you can't get root?
If your idea of having fun is playing in a (Java) sandbox while Big Brother is watching, then enjoy your kids' dreams. Grown-ups like to do some real hacking on a real open platform.
Well I told people so, also here on Slashdot, when the media was all abuzz about Android and how it would revolutionize phone software hacking.
At great risk of sounding like a broken record and repeating myself over and over again:
Much better than carrying your carrier's ball-and-chain around your neck always, anxiously waiting for the next OTA provisioning download that CALEA-stricken providers stuff in your phone's guts at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night, to have them turn on your phone's mic or camera to big-brother you on a whim, or is it?
You must be new h... (looks at PP's ID, gasps)
Nevermind.
*Audio debugging: Sending specially crafted debug messages from your software into /dev/dsp. Sometimes more useful than wading through tons of debug messages, in particular when dealing with a large number of iterations or timing constraints.
*Alternative: video debugging: Sending debug output directly to the framebuffer or certain video registers.
$ cat vmlinux > /dev/dsp
and hear what Linux really sounds like :-)
(You probably know that /dev/audio by default puts audio through a really ugly mu-law decompressor that makes anything sound horrible, even proper Sun .au files.)
Audio debugging is a fine art and can be quite a rewarding experience (if your musical taste permits), in paricular for loop optimization, distinguishing freezes from loops and such.
w00f, the same one who let the dogs out.
My other browser is Really Fast. It's wget piped into less in Gnome Terminal (so I can right-click on a link to open it in..a new terminal window. Parse the HTML in your head, give those brain cells a boost. Who cares about all that Javascript anyway? Same about images and Flash banners not displaying, you want the frckn source, don't you?
Nothing can beat that, short of hexdumping the network interface or sniffing the raw network data right off the line using an oscilloscope and bit-banging it back manually. Only you'll need to have superhumanly keen eyesight and be unimaginaturally fast with that Morse paddle to key in packets requesting Web links and acknowledging incoming packets.
switches kill YOU.
Oh it's the Army not the Air Force?
"Happiness is a warm gun
(Bang Bang Shoot Shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, momma
(Bang Bang Shoot Shoot)
When I hold you in my arms
(Ooooooooohhh, oh yeah!)
And when I feel my finger on your trigger
I know nobody can do me no harm"
There, fixed it myself.
"But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round."
[queue vid of fighter jet going into a spin and burying itself into a hilltop]
whoops! I mistook Exchange for Outlook, sorry :-)
And don't get me started with how Outlook is written in VB.
Er, citation please?
Well, not all of it is written in Visual Basic, but parts of it (like the Microsoft Exchange Routing Wizard certainly are.
I bet that others can find more tasty and embarrassing examples.
Maybe the site is hosted on an IIS alternative that's too close and faithful to the original, even being bug-compatible and all. /me ducks and cowers from the expected mod-storm
iPhone...Activesync...in one sentence? Related? Actually...working together?
I'm sorry guys, but my head is spinning...gonna get me a Tylenol...quickly.
Isn't it so that 'iPhone' goes with 'Apple' and 'Activesync' goes with Microsoft?
Next they're going to tell me that you can run Windows XP on a MacBook. Oh well...
Isn't the US military actively searching for a so-called 'non-lethal weapon', a (bio-)chemical agent which is designed to induce fear in those on which it is used?
If, given the political track record and the results of the research from TFA, there is even a slight chance that a State might want to use a weapon like this against their own people, be very afraid indeed.
"Fear is a weapon of mass destruction" --Faithless, from the album "No Roots"
American or European?
several to go.
Well ALICE, let's see how deep the budget hole goes...
the US Government starts using this technology on its own people?
Until Skynet becomes self-aware (which may have already happened).
Skynet isn't just a virus infecting networks of computers, it is a virus infecting peoples' minds. A meme, a namchub (remember Snow Crash?), call it whatever you like, it is already among us.
A possible antidote:
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
Come to think of it, it can't be a fearmion, for fearmions constitute the dark matter of the imagination. As a carrier of emotion it must obviously be a bogon.
Strange (no pun intended), I always thought that the particle was a fearmion.
Sure, but if I had to choose between either the Web crashing or the Earth crashing (into a black hole), I'd choose the Web.
The Earth has some darn nice features but it falls short in the area of user-friendliness, for its reset button is quite inaccessible. Maybe we should file a complaint with Magrathea (or the mice who commissioned the Earth's construction in the first place). Anyone know if it's still under warranty?
Worse yet, neither Freddie Mac nor Fanny Mae can quote you a mortgage on that property, either before or after the crunch. The horror!
As long as the EXE is actually a renamed COM file (which has no header, and DOS doesn't care either way), adheres to the a.out format (no ELF back then) and executes some weird and interesting syscalls before possibly dumping core on an illegal instruction, everything is possible. Remember the 'crashme' tool?
Or what could you accomplish with all that bandwidth, storage space and computational power within your grasb?
Those kids were probably imagining a Beowulf cluster of it.
Enough network bandwidth and storage capacity to suck in and share all the pr0n and warez they would ever need.
Thank goodness the DMCA doesn't apply in Switzerland, for otherwise CERN would surely collapse into a black hole under the sheer mass of subpoena's, court orders and takedown notices crashing on their doorstep.
As far as I know, information flows out of CERN in high volume, and not in.
Stop Press! This just in: The LHC is going to create a white hole, not a black one! We need to run a special edition ASAP!