First, stating the obvious - Google acquired Android.
This means even Google cannot get it right.
The CyanogenMod community puts a lot of hard work into trying to support old models, but Google/Motorola will not release the information on how to unlock the bootloader.
Most modders view this as a serious hit to Google's "no evil philosophy".
True, they aren't designed to protect your "national secrets" from the CIA, but then the CIA would probably just water-board you until you give up the password. Our computers are designed for protecting personal and business data, such as medical, legal, and financial records, diaries, browsing history and online banking passwords, etc. It is security simple enough for your grandparents to use, but so secure you can still sleep at night even if your computer with social security or credit card numbers is stolen.
Our company, CodeLock Computers, provides high quality encrypted Linux computers/workstations. We would be willing to provide welded-shut computer cases. We can also do security screws, USB ports filled with epoxy, and hardware encryption to protect boot partitions from tampering. Best of all, they run Linux.
I have experience building workstations and servers that last. Nearly all of the ones I've built for customers are still functional more than 10 years after first install.
Experience counts so I suggest you use a system builder with a similar track-record.
The more powerful the system, the more challenges in building it to last. Many of the items on the check-list below need to be balanced against the needs of the customer, including noise, environmental conditions, performance aspects, and frequently budget.
Check-list for Building a Computer that Lasts
Minimize expansion hardware. Expansion slot connectors sometimes oxidize so the less plug-in hardware the better. This includes on-board video, serial-ports if needed, etc.
Use a high-end board from a quality manufacture. High-end boards tend to have powerful CPU voltage regulators and are designed to support lots of memory, which reduces memory controller issues as the board ages. They also tend to be the boards preferred by early-adopters, which manufacturers are probably more thorough in validating. My current preference is for Asus as they have the highest end consumer boards which support ECC for AMD CPUs. Make sure not to overtighten the mounting screws.
One or two identical memory modules. when memory modules are mismatched, or with more than two unbuffered modules, when the memory controller ages you're more likely to run into trouble. Use memory approved by the motherboard manufacture. ECC is recommended.
A great power supply. An oversized PC Power & Cooling power-supply is the best choice for environments that can handle a fan and noise isn't an issue. That said, quiet is very important in many situations, and PC Power & Cooling's Silencer models certainly aren't silent under load. For those situations I use an oversized Zalman heat-pipe cooled power supply I install a Noctua fan into. With that setup you don't hear a sound from the cooling fan and the power supply runs extremely cool.
Hard drive redundancy. RAID-1 or RAID-10 is the only way to go for normal systems. A quality true hardware RAID controller for Windows, and software RAID for Linux. A hot spare is recommended. When using a software RAID, if you need to be sure the machine will boot with a HD failure, use a hardware RAID for the boot volume. A rather neat low-cost way I'm doing that for the next Linux server I'm building is using an Addonics duel CF interface that has hardware RAID in it.
Plenty of cooling with quality fans. No sleeve bearing fans, and if the speed of any fans is reduced to control noice, make sure they can start from every rotational position.
Use quality HDs and install them correctly. For the past several years Western Digital's high-end hard drives have had a perfect track-record for me. The most important thing to remember when installing a HD is absolutely, positively, don't over-tighten the mounting screws. Plenty of clean power, good cooling, and eliminating any vibration being transfered to them is important. Mount them as low in the case as possible to help keep them cool, and leave space between drives. If you use Seagate drives, server class is a must. In the last server I build, I did a RAID-1 between an Intel X25-E SSD and mechanical HDs so all the eggs aren't in one brand/type of basket.
Good power protection. I've never had a computer damaged by lightening plugged into a metal-case Tripp Lite surge protector. Also protect the cable, DSL, and modem connections, and any non-fiber runs that go outside the building. Make sure you protect all network equipment too. Plug an APC Smart-UPS into the Tripp Lite and you have total protection. No other brand or model UPS has help up as well in the long-term. Dedicated circuits are the icing on the cake, but with the Tripp Lite + APC SmartUPS combination, as long as the outlet is wired correctly, no matter how bad the power is the computer has always worked fine for me.
Using the file system as a DB meets all your requirements.
Place one record in each text file, group according to a sensible directory structure.
Benefits
There's nothing more portable.
You get to use your preferred text editor.
Any text file search tool from grep to Window's find will work with the approach.
It's trivial to write scripts to generate reports as needed.
One downside is you maintain the schema yourself, just like you are doing now, (or would do with a spreadsheet). The other, rather pedantic, downside is that it is not F/OSS unless you store the files on a file system that is.
The number depends on how you look at it. I made a table that lists every x86 instruction excluding prefixes a while ago and it came out to 57,839 instruction/parameter combinations. That doesn't factor in the specific values passed to the opcode, or in the registers, or the differences in behavior of the chip depending on mode, how memory protection is setup, out of order execution, or instruction prefixes.
The large number of combinations certainly makes validation a tremendous challenge.
Before you hang the guy, perhaps we should consider he may be on a low-carbohydrate diet and the unit fails to distinguish acetone from alcohol.
Just four months ago a Virgin Atlantic pilot was arrested and taken off the aircraft he was the pilot of for a flight from Heathrow to JFK. Several days later, all charges were dropped when the results of the blood tests proved him innocent.
It has been upheld in the courts in Germany, but the reason why it hasn't been litigated in most countries, including here in the US, is because it's clear and simple.
Here's a comparison. Let's say a town counsel passes an ordinance that says you are not permitted to park your car on the street without a parking permit available for purchase from the clerk at city hall, and if you have such a permit, you are only allowed to park on the street according to the conditions on it. You then go to the clerk, buy a parking permit which reads right on it, "The holder if this permit is entitled to park one vehicle on roads in the town for not more than seven days." You then proceed to park your Hummer for three months on Main Street, and as might be expected, your vehicle gets towed.
You get pissed, so naturally, you want to hire a lawyer. The only two approaches your lawyer could argue are either: A) The parking permit is invalid. -or- B) You can park anywhere you want, and you never needed a permit to begin with.
Which argument has a chance of succeeding?
Consider that there is a history of cases unanimously upholding that towns can pass any parking laws they want, and that they can tow your vehicle if you don't follow them.
Your only chance of success is arguing the parking permit is invalid. Unfortunately, NOTHING ELSE GRANTED YOU PERMISSION TO PARK YOUR VEHICLE. With that pertinent piece of information, perhaps one might be better off not spending a lot of time and money challenging the parking permit.
The GPL is like that parking permit. Nothing else grants you permission to distribute the software copyrighted by other people unless you agree to its terms.
So of course it _could_ be tested in court, but spending a lot of time and money to do so will never result in you being permitted to distribute the software without following the terms of a valid license. At best, all could ever accomplish is loosing your right to distribute the software at all.
Slashdot Mirror
First, stating the obvious - Google acquired Android.
This means even Google cannot get it right.
The CyanogenMod community puts a lot of hard work into trying to support old models, but Google/Motorola will not release the information on how to unlock the bootloader.
Most modders view this as a serious hit to Google's "no evil philosophy".
True, they aren't designed to protect your "national secrets" from the CIA, but then the CIA would probably just water-board you until you give up the password. Our computers are designed for protecting personal and business data, such as medical, legal, and financial records, diaries, browsing history and online banking passwords, etc. It is security simple enough for your grandparents to use, but so secure you can still sleep at night even if your computer with social security or credit card numbers is stolen.
Our company, CodeLock Computers, provides high quality encrypted Linux computers/workstations. We would be willing to provide welded-shut computer cases. We can also do security screws, USB ports filled with epoxy, and hardware encryption to protect boot partitions from tampering. Best of all, they run Linux.
I have experience building workstations and servers that last. Nearly all of the ones I've built for customers are still functional more than 10 years after first install.
Experience counts so I suggest you use a system builder with a similar track-record.
The more powerful the system, the more challenges in building it to last. Many of the items on the check-list below need to be balanced against the needs of the customer, including noise, environmental conditions, performance aspects, and frequently budget.
Check-list for Building a Computer that Lasts
Before I get modded down I should explain.
It's not a traditional single flat-file, it's multiple ones.
A file system is a database.
Using the file system as a DB meets all your requirements.
Place one record in each text file, group according to a sensible directory structure.
BenefitsOne downside is you maintain the schema yourself, just like you are doing now, (or would do with a spreadsheet). The other, rather pedantic, downside is that it is not F/OSS unless you store the files on a file system that is.
The number depends on how you look at it. I made a table that lists every x86 instruction excluding prefixes a while ago and it came out to 57,839 instruction/parameter combinations. That doesn't factor in the specific values passed to the opcode, or in the registers, or the differences in behavior of the chip depending on mode, how memory protection is setup, out of order execution, or instruction prefixes.
The large number of combinations certainly makes validation a tremendous challenge.
Before you hang the guy, perhaps we should consider he may be on a low-carbohydrate diet and the unit fails to distinguish acetone from alcohol.
Just four months ago a Virgin Atlantic pilot was arrested and taken off the aircraft he was the pilot of for a flight from Heathrow to JFK. Several days later, all charges were dropped when the results of the blood tests proved him innocent.
Pilot arrested on drink charge
Diet clears drinking-arrest pilot
It has been upheld in the courts in Germany, but the reason why it hasn't been litigated in most countries, including here in the US, is because it's clear and simple.
Here's a comparison. Let's say a town counsel passes an ordinance that says you are not permitted to park your car on the street without a parking permit available for purchase from the clerk at city hall, and if you have such a permit, you are only allowed to park on the street according to the conditions on it. You then go to the clerk, buy a parking permit which reads right on it, "The holder if this permit is entitled to park one vehicle on roads in the town for not more than seven days." You then proceed to park your Hummer for three months on Main Street, and as might be expected, your vehicle gets towed.
You get pissed, so naturally, you want to hire a lawyer. The only two approaches your lawyer could argue are either:
A) The parking permit is invalid.
-or-
B) You can park anywhere you want, and you never needed a permit to begin with.
Which argument has a chance of succeeding?
Consider that there is a history of cases unanimously upholding that towns can pass any parking laws they want, and that they can tow your vehicle if you don't follow them.
Your only chance of success is arguing the parking permit is invalid. Unfortunately, NOTHING ELSE GRANTED YOU PERMISSION TO PARK YOUR VEHICLE. With that pertinent piece of information, perhaps one might be better off not spending a lot of time and money challenging the parking permit.
The GPL is like that parking permit. Nothing else grants you permission to distribute the software copyrighted by other people unless you agree to its terms.
So of course it _could_ be tested in court, but spending a lot of time and money to do so will never result in you being permitted to distribute the software without following the terms of a valid license. At best, all could ever accomplish is loosing your right to distribute the software at all.
Wow, there are Citadel'ers here!