User: ems2

Re:How does it compare with the SavaJe OS

On: Driving Plan 9

There is APE for POSIX support. And linuxemu for emulating linux binaries.

I personally have not checked out Savaje OS. Inferno would be most comparable to such an OS. Inferno is based on many of Plan 9's ideas but with a new programming language, Limbo (famed for being the only other language than C Dennis Ritchie documented) and a virtual machine, Dis. Limbo can run on bare hardware without a host operating system with around 700KB of memory.

Rob Pike explains the advantages of the Dis virtual machine. Unlike the .Net and Java virtual machines which are stack based Dis is register based. This allows it to run on bare hardware and doesn't require a (according to some heavyweight) operation to translate it from stack to register. Dis provides virtually infinite registers like Parrot. For more information read Pike's paper, The design of the Inferno virtual machine.

Plan 9's web browsers

On: Driving Plan 9

First of all there is Charon from Inferno. It supports html, EMCAScript (1.1 IIRC), CSS, DOM (level 1 IIRC) and https. (See screenshot however this one is a bit outdated)

Abaco is the most actively developed Plan 9 web browser. It supports most of html. DOM level 3 development has been started. Mozilla's Javascript engine has been ported to Plan 9 and can be used today for a Javascript shell. This will provide abaco with Javascript in the future. Work on CSS has started but I do not know what has been done or where it is heading. Abaco has been ported to Linux and friends via Plan 9 from Userspace. Package managers are encouraged to make packages of abaco for their systems. (See screenshot)

Then there are webpage, links, mothra, and htmlfmt.

Finally there are text web browsers for acme (htmlfmt for Plan 9 and see this for Inferno)

In other news, SDL now works on Plan 9.

Re:Has to be asked...

On: Driving Plan 9

...considering that there were 10 versions of UNIX from Bell Labs research...

The review is not so great

On: Driving Plan 9

The review is not so great in terms of accuracy i.e. there is no emacs (check out acme, sam, ed, and smacme instead) and the 640x480 resolution is nonsense. 9fans certainly isn't so grateful about this review.

Check out the Plan 9 documentation if you are interested in understanding Plan 9.

Re:Zzzzzzz.....

On: Driving Plan 9

"We have persistent objects, they're called files." -- Ken Thompson

Re:I think people are slightly missing the point

On: Australia Wants to Regulate Internet Streaming

The internet works differently. As we all know, it's a series of TUBES

You might be using tubes in America but Australian ISPs are busy microwaving everyone...

Re:Christians claim to be children of Abraham?

On: The Shallow Roots of the Human Family Tree

No they weren't. They were Roman converts and to a lesser degree the Greeks.

Re:Christians claim to be children of Abraham?

On: The Shallow Roots of the Human Family Tree

There ARE hebrew and arabic Chirstians, you know.

but is there is a group of them that make such a claim?

Re:Its "don't be evil"

On: Another Microsoft Exec Joins Google

Is it incorrect or is it not in the correct format? Or maybe it is in the correct format as I am helping the language evolve.

Christians claim to be children of Abraham?

On: The Shallow Roots of the Human Family Tree

It means when Muslims, Jews or Christians claim to be children of Abraham, they are all bound to be right.

I know Jews and some Muslims claim to be children of Abraham but I never heard of a group of Christians claiming to be children of Abraham.

Its "don't be evil"

On: Another Microsoft Exec Joins Google

The correct phrase is don't be evil. Check Google's site yourself. It is surprising how many people can get a simple phrase like this incorrect.

Re:Google's Shelf Space = Safeway's Shelf Space

On: Google Antitrust Suit May Go Forward

To make this a fair comparison. Kinderstart is the piece of poison in Safeway with the incorrect label and located at the front of the supermarket with a big sign pointing to it.

Its "don't be evil"

On: Google Antitrust Suit May Go Forward

The correct phrase is don't be evil. Check Google's site yourself. It is surprising how many people can get a simple phrase like this incorrect.

NYT article

On: Google Launches PayPal Rival

NYT times also has a interesting article on this with quotes about Google's plans on what they want to do with this product.

Re:WTF

On: Freenode Network Hijacked, Passwords Compromised?

Plan 9/Inferno were talking about secure chat yesterday (before the 'attack' happened):

caerwyn> tmcm, i rewrote the cryptfile.b to work as a file fs instead of a file2chan.
caerwyn> the only advantage is that the standard kfs can be used because it can read the file length, which is not available in a file2chan
caerwyn> is anyone interested in having a secure, encrypted, chat channel?
tmcm> yes, i am
tmcm> have you posted the new cryptfile.b yet?
tmcm> i'm interested in that
tmcm> comcast has really been fucking up in my area
tmcm> i've been offline for most of the past 24 hours
caerwyn> hi tmcm
caerwyn> i began looking at all the ways i was giving away private info in the last week.
caerwyn> what was easily trackable and logged etc. by outside companies and govt.
caerwyn> it's hopeless.
caerwyn> even my local public pool started requiring photo id with a barcode that they scan for everyone entering the pool.
caerwyn> and this applies to kids too!
caerwyn> it freaked me out.
caerwyn> time to quit using google/gmail etc. fire up tor. encrypt all network connections.
caerwyn> turn off the mobile phone
caerwyn> throw away the loyalty cards
caerwyn> i got a letter from wells fargo recently saying someone had stolen the computers storing my personal data.
caerwyn> who can you trust
tmcm> no one
caerwyn> bbl
caerwyn> back
caerwyn> bbl
tmcm> caerwyn: have you written or considered writing anything for osnews?
caerwyn> i considered it. and started writing something. but not much.
caerwyn> its hard to write that kind of thing. takes ages.
caerwyn> my conclusion of the day is that email is no way to have a private conversation
caerwyn> and neither is irc
tmcm> right
caerwyn> i spent over an hour today setting up gnupgp and thunderbird
caerwyn> and looking at webmail etc.
caerwyn> it's all hopeless.
tmcm> i thought the spree service you have/had set up was pretty good alternative
tmcm> you get user authentication and encryption if you mount it with -C
tmcm> that should read (user authentication) and (encryption if you mount it with -C)
caerwyn> yes. with /appl/demo/chat/chatsrv.b that'd be an encrypted private conversation
caerwyn> email reveals too much in the headers. the sender, receiver etc. with an inferno append only mailbox a user could mount the service and append an encrypted message.
caerwyn> and the connections could all go through tor.
caerwyn> and the userid's are anonymous
tmcm> you've heard of nym.alias.net, right?
caerwyn> no
tmcm> finger help@nym.alias.net
caerwyn> i was looking at some anonymous remailers todays
tmcm> nym servers allow you to have a two way exchange
tmcm> instead of just the sending feature of typical mixmaster setups
caerwyn> i'll look at it tomorrow
caerwyn> goodnight

(from #inferno on freenode; I have only removed join/part/disconnected/etc messages)

And as we speak discusion in #acme/#plan9 is taking place about moving to a 9P chat service and having a relay to irc for newcomers.

Re:Explaining the jargon...

On: Freenode Network Hijacked, Passwords Compromised?

I.e. my parent post. In case any was wondering...

Re:Web Based != access everywhere

On: Microsoft Ex-Chief to Launch Web-Based Software

That would be the reason why 9P isn't web-based. Ken Thompson and Rob Pike had some good understanding of making a good design.

Inferno

On: Microsoft Ex-Chief to Launch Web-Based Software

They don't want their whole lives bound up in one piece of hardware. People want to get access wherever they are, from whatever device they're using.

Isn't that what Inferno and Plan 9 are all about? It seems Ken Thompson was looking about 20 years ahead of his time.

Re:Let me be the first to say

On: SCO to Unix developers, We want you back

We are alive again!

Re:Sample size of 45 users...

On: Microsoft Workers Prefer Google

Unless they included people part of the Microsoft "compare our results with Google's" team...

Another solution

On: Google Releases Google Browser Sync Extension

Plan B comes with a P2P Single Sign-on system called SHAD. This solves the problem without having a central server, like Google, hosting the data.

Re:Couldn't agree more!

On: Making an Argument Against Using Visual-Basic?

Hey hands off! We don't need you to crap up Inferno.



In case your English is absolute crap. Inferno is a synonym for hell

Re:Can .Net Provide a Vehicle for alternatives?

On: Making an Argument Against Using Visual-Basic?

Java and .NET virtual machines are stack based, a side-effect of being designed by language programmers as opposed to chip designers. Translating from a stack based language to a register-based assembly language is a "heavyweight" operation. This means Java's and .NET's compilers and virtual machines have to be many times larger and slower than a register based virtual machine. Anyone who blames the slow down on something else has no clue (i.e. the toolkit). In contrast, Inferno's virtual machine (dis) - being designed by chip designers - was inspired to use a register based system that more closely matched the internal workings of real-world processors. They found, as RISC designers would have expected, that without a load-store design it was difficult to improve the instruction pipeline and thereby operate at higher speeds. They felt that all future processors would thus move to a load-store design, and built Inferno to reflect this.

Thats good

On: Tom's Hardware Looks at Microsoft Vista Beta

because deleting a shortcut is just a few clicks away.

Re:They are sure not afraid of magic

On: 13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th

You mean June...