This isn't a totally new idea, either. The first step in this direction was the peripheral processor for the CDC 6600, in the 1960s, which appeared as ten peripheral processors to the programmer. Internally, it was ten sets of registers and one ALU, doing one instruction for each machine state in turn.
Here is how it worked. On the CDC 6600 when the CPU wanted to do I/O it would store a request packet into a magic memory address. The next virtual PPU would scoop it up and shovel the bits into the device. There was no DMA. The PPUs polled the I/O port to push each word of data.
They also did most of the 'system call' functions. For example for a context switch the PPU would order the CPU to dump its registers and halt, then the PPU would swap in the new registers and order it to resume and load.
Each PPU ran one instruction before switching. The design documents called the switching logic the 'barrel', as in the drinking song Roll Out the Barrel. The design engineers must have liked their beer:-)
Hypercubes have been around for a long time. The first commercial implementation was the Connection Machine CM-2 circa 1985 by Thinking Machines Corporation. Its a rather cool box with lots of blinky lights. Its successor, the CM-5, used a fat tree network, which was a more economical way of achieving scalable bandwidth.
Thinking Machines Corp went out of business around 1994.
Only in later versions did they add the security holes (ActiveX controls, executable.HTA/.HTM, ignored Content-Disposition header). The original was quite secure. Ok maybe *one* buffer overflow problem came from the original code, but it is nothing like the bullet-ridden security bugfest it is now.
What if the process has forked off a bunch of children? Are you going to archive all the children at the same time? What if the process has a whole bunch of files in/tmp, are you going to roll them up into the freeze state as well? What if your using pthreads? Are you going to keep the state for each thread? How about file pointers?
Back in the 80s, Cray UNICOS had a cadillac checkpoint package. It could track child procs, save/tmp files, save threads, save pipe data, and pass down SIGCKPT for user-controlled checkpoint.
Of course at $1000/hour you want to damn sure be able to save your work:-)
A good choice for a small box is the NLX form factor, pictured here.
The NLX form factor is widely used for "enterprise" PCs, aka cubical PCs, where space is a premium. For example see the Gateway E series.
The NLX has a 5.25" bay for CD-ROM/DVD and four half-height 3" bays (two accessible from the front panel). Up to 3 PCI cards plug into the riser card.
The result is a very nice little box with as much performance as you need.
The best choice (IMHO) is to form a Limited Liability Company, or LLC. A sole-owner LLC is taxed like a sole-proprietorship, but it is treated legally like a corporation.
Thus you get the benefit of filing Schedule C with all those tasty deductions, and if go bankrupt or get sued you have the LLC to hide behind ('Limited Liability').
Filing an LLC is cheap, typically $100, and most states recognize them.
Just to clarify a common misconception on this thread, Python is not subject to the GPL. You are not forced to distribute your source code if you make mods to Python. The
license is actually more like BSD and Apache (free to modify and distribute; must cite copyright). "Compatible" just means that the FSF has signed off on the wording on the license in relation to linking or including with GPL software.
At a former employer I helped to embed a Python interpreter in a proprietary hard-assed firewall system, some components of which were classified by the feds. That's about as non-open as you can get.
Generally whoever frames the argument wins. The MPAA framed the DeCSS case as "evil hackers stealing movies". Felder frames his case as "scientists being censored in the pursuit of knowledge". Basically there is no way he can lose.
The DMCA hinges on the concept of a circumvention device. If the DeCSS case was framed similarly, with heavy emphasis on scientific analysis the weakness of CSS, with emphasis on abstract mathematical algorithms, it would have won. Unfortunately DeCSS was just a hack tool. Without the larger context there was no way it could possibly win.
HP will accept old computer components for recycling. If you have 10 or fewer items visit http://warp.external.hp.com/recycle. They will charge you $13 to $34 per item. They accept all brands, not just HP.
The easiest way to quickly boost the performance of your satellite link to is kick up your TCP window maximum segment size (MSS). The MSS determinates the amount of data sent per round trip.
On NT and W9x the MSS defaults to a pathetic 8KB. On Windows 2000 it defaults to 17KB, which is not much better.
MS does not provide a documented way to change the MSS using the GUI. However you can hack the registry to boost the MSS to the max (0xFFFF = 65535) for a decent speedup. However, beware of the infamous 64240 byte bug in Windows 2000 and the equally infamous "windo" typo in Windows 98.
I've been thinking of dragging out the Pascal source to Scepter and transliterate it to C again, for historical interest. I sold the original C (QNX) translation to Interplay International in 1985. Being somewhat naive, per the agreement I destroyed all copies (really!).
After Denny Flanders got busted by the IRS, everything went to the creditors. I suspect the creditors probably reformatted the drives and the diskettes.
I have the original line printed source to Scepter's sequel, Screenplay, which went online about 3 months before Interplay went bankrupt. The source code was written in an object language (Lo), which generated K&R C, similar to C++'s old cfront translator. It had vestigal polymorphism and primitive kind of inheritance (single global superclass).
Lo interpreted Hi, a scripting language. The Hi scripts manipulated the classes declared in Lo: Players, Objects, Containers (rooms), Automatons (actors), Events, and Scripts.
Bob Alberti Jr. wrote two scenarios in Hi, a wild west town, and a weird noir/comedy Douglas Adams-esque town. During the latter scenario I remember getting a slip of paper from a beautiful redhead at the town bar. I looked and saw that it had her phone number on it. After she left I went to the phone booth and dialed the number. I was promptly dropped through the floor into the chair of a psycho dentist. He grinned and said "I see that Tina sent you," and proceeded to give me the full dental treatment a la Little Shop of Horrors.
The cool thing about Screenplay is that the DM could jump into a script and improvise the automatons without the player knowing it. For example, the dentist would be drilling the player per the script. Then the player says "I like pain!". The script doesn't recognize the keywords, but the DM could puppet the dentist to make him express his surprise, and switch to tickling with feathers. Basically the DM could improvise and interact with the scripts.
The main problem with Screenplay was that it was too slow. We upgraded from the 4Mhz PC XT to a 16Mhz Motorola 68000 but it was not enough. The interpreter bogged down terribly.
Someday I'm going to resurrect Screenplay. After 16 years I have yet to see another MUD like it.
E-commerce merchants need to use common sense when dealing with credit card transactions.
Never, ever, store credit card numbers in the web server. After getting the authorization code from the cc processor, scrub the number from memory. If you absolutely must store cc numbers, put them on a backend server behind a firewall.
Hunt down and kill any debug log files in your payment software that may inadvertently record cc numbers. (This is what burned CDUniverse.com)
Configure your payment system to do realtime auth so you don't need to batch cc numbers for later capture. Thus the cc number lives on your site for only a few seconds.
Always use the Address Verfication System (AVS) to the verify postal address against the cc.
Always check ARIN/RIPE for the country of the IP address. Assume that any cc purchase attempts originating from east european countries are suspect. (Especially from St. Petersburg area of Russia, which are almost 100% fraudulent.)
Set your site up to automatically ban users who try to spam your order system with bogus cc numbers or failed AVS checks.
In addition to the above, do the usual security procedures that you would do for any secured site (e.g., do anti-virus checks, checksum system files, sweep for trojans, etc.)
For tax expense purposes, the IRS treats off-the-shelf commercial software as a depreciable intangible asset. When you buy, say, Office 97 for $600, the IRS makes you write it off in $200 chunks over 3 years.
So why can't software copyrights be the same way? 3 years is about the real practical shelf life limit for most software. Heck, most games end up in the remainder bin a lot sooner. 75 years is rediculous for something as ephemeral as software. By that time the aluminum substrate on the CD will have long since oxidized. There will be nothing for the future
Bartlebys of the late 21st century to salvage.
Windows System File Protection (SFP) is enforced by SFC.DLL, which is run by a thread in WINLOGON.EXE. It monitors for any file changes in the Windows directory. When it spots a change, it rescans the file by calling SfpVerifyFile() in SFC.DLL.
SfpVerifyFile() computes the 160-bit SHA digital signature hash of the file data and compares it to the signature in the corresponding catalog (.CAT) file. Note that the signature is not stored in the file itself.
The.CAT files are located under \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CATROOT. They are heavily armored with RSA PK and obfuscation of the data format. The catalog is modified by calling InstallCatalog() in SETUPAPI.DLL
The Office division of Microsoft doesn't use SFP, so files like WINWORD.EXE and EXCEL.EXE are not protected. Neither are macro files like NORMAL.DOT. If history is any guide, the Office division will run off and invent their own separate way of doing it.
So it is really more like a Usenet-style name system. Ex: ford.auto.pro, citibank.fin.pro, northwest.aero.pro, etc.
QNX + MUD fit on one 320K diskette
on
The Rise Of QNX
·
· Score: 1
The whole 16-player MUD game (Scepter of Goth) fit on a single 320K diskette with the OS (QNX). I used to bicycle the diskette from my home PC (8088Mhz) to the office system located 3 miles away (which had the 16 phone rotary).
In 1982, I ported one of the earliest MUDS (Scepter, 1979) from a Cyber 6000 mainframe to a PC using QNX. It supported sixteen users on an IBM PC XT (4Mhz 8-bit 8088 CPU). And no stinking 16650 FIFOs. With 1-character-per-interrupt, 16 users merrily MUD'ed away at 2400 baud.
In addition to the MUD we offered chat rooms, e-mail, and two other multi-player games (Diplomacy and Space Combat). We charged $2.99 an hour. It paid my way through college.
Don't believe it? Telnet to drscape.com. To this day it still runs on a 4Mhz PC XT with QNX 1.14.
Alan Klietz
Author, Scepter of Goth on QNX
alank@algintech.NOSPAM.com
Another important reason for a subscription model is the financial treatment for tax purposes. The IRS normally requires that software expeditures be capitalized as an intanglible asset. The depreciation rate is 3 years (non-accelerated; straight-line).
Now if you buy the software like a magazine subscription, you can write it off in the current year as it is consumed. No bookkeeping hassles, and it lets you knock dollars off your taxes quicker.
This is partly why Microsoft's Open Licensing program is popular with businesses.
Fermi is arguing statistically. It only takes one civ to create Von Neuman Machines (i.e., self-replicating interstellar robot probes). Given billions of years they could have crossed the galaxy back and forth a thousand times by now. So where are they?
Slashdot Mirror
Here is how it worked. On the CDC 6600 when the CPU wanted to do I/O it would store a request packet into a magic memory address. The next virtual PPU would scoop it up and shovel the bits into the device. There was no DMA. The PPUs polled the I/O port to push each word of data. They also did most of the 'system call' functions. For example for a context switch the PPU would order the CPU to dump its registers and halt, then the PPU would swap in the new registers and order it to resume and load.
Each PPU ran one instruction before switching. The design documents called the switching logic the 'barrel', as in the drinking song Roll Out the Barrel. The design engineers must have liked their beer :-)
In other words, life shortening events can cause abnormal sleep habits, not the other way around.
Thinking Machines Corp went out of business around 1994.
Whoever wrote this app at Microsoft had a clue.
Microsoft didn't write it. They bought it.
Only in later versions did they add the security holes (ActiveX controls, executable .HTA/.HTM, ignored Content-Disposition header). The original was quite secure. Ok maybe *one* buffer overflow problem came from the original code, but it is nothing like the bullet-ridden security bugfest it is now.
What if the process has forked off a bunch of children? Are you going to archive all the children at the same time? What if the process has a whole bunch of files in /tmp, are you going to roll them up into the freeze state as well? What if your using pthreads? Are you going to keep the state for each thread? How about file pointers?
Back in the 80s, Cray UNICOS had a cadillac checkpoint package. It could track child procs, save /tmp files, save threads, save pipe data, and pass down SIGCKPT for user-controlled checkpoint.
Of course at $1000/hour you want to damn sure be able to save your work :-)
The page is not easy to find, but you can get a list of alternative DSL ISPs here.
I can recommend Visi and USFamily.net. I am sure other folks can recommend their favorites also.
A good choice for a small box is the NLX form factor, pictured here.
The NLX form factor is widely used for "enterprise" PCs, aka cubical PCs, where space is a premium. For example see the Gateway E series.
The NLX has a 5.25" bay for CD-ROM/DVD and four half-height 3" bays (two accessible from the front panel). Up to 3 PCI cards plug into the riser card.
The result is a very nice little box with as much performance as you need.
NPR is reporting this morning that the plan cannot go forward until Nevada has agreed to it.
.. while conveniently neglecting to report that the law says that Nevada veto's can be overriden by a simple majority vote of both houses of Congress.
You can get a TCP load balancer like Cisco LocalDirector or one its competing clones. They are expensive tho ($20,000)
The best choice (IMHO) is to form a Limited Liability Company, or LLC. A sole-owner LLC is taxed like a sole-proprietorship, but it is treated legally like a corporation.
Thus you get the benefit of filing Schedule C with all those tasty deductions, and if go bankrupt or get sued you have the LLC to hide behind ('Limited Liability').
Filing an LLC is cheap, typically $100, and most states recognize them.
The text of EU Directive 2001/29/EU is available
here. Unfortunately it is not free.
I'm amazed our friends across the pond have not squawked about this yet.
Just to clarify a common misconception on this thread, Python is not subject to the GPL. You are not forced to distribute your source code if you make mods to Python. The license is actually more like BSD and Apache (free to modify and distribute; must cite copyright). "Compatible" just means that the FSF has signed off on the wording on the license in relation to linking or including with GPL software.
At a former employer I helped to embed a Python interpreter in a proprietary hard-assed firewall system, some components of which were classified by the feds. That's about as non-open as you can get.
Generally whoever frames the argument wins. The MPAA framed the DeCSS case as "evil hackers stealing movies". Felder frames his case as "scientists being censored in the pursuit of knowledge". Basically there is no way he can lose.
The DMCA hinges on the concept of a circumvention device. If the DeCSS case was framed similarly, with heavy emphasis on scientific analysis the weakness of CSS, with emphasis on abstract mathematical algorithms, it would have won. Unfortunately DeCSS was just a hack tool. Without the larger context there was no way it could possibly win.
HP will accept old computer components for recycling. If you have 10 or fewer items visit http://warp.external.hp.com/recycle. They will charge you $13 to $34 per item. They accept all brands, not just HP.
More pros:
More cons:
The easiest way to quickly boost the performance of your satellite link to is kick up your TCP window maximum segment size (MSS). The MSS determinates the amount of data sent per round trip.
On NT and W9x the MSS defaults to a pathetic 8KB. On Windows 2000 it defaults to 17KB, which is not much better. MS does not provide a documented way to change the MSS using the GUI. However you can hack the registry to boost the MSS to the max (0xFFFF = 65535) for a decent speedup. However, beware of the infamous 64240 byte bug in Windows 2000 and the equally infamous "windo" typo in Windows 98.
I've been thinking of dragging out the Pascal source to Scepter and transliterate it to C again, for historical interest. I sold the original C (QNX) translation to Interplay International in 1985. Being somewhat naive, per the agreement I destroyed all copies (really!).
After Denny Flanders got busted by the IRS, everything went to the creditors. I suspect the creditors probably reformatted the drives and the diskettes.
I have the original line printed source to Scepter's sequel, Screenplay, which went online about 3 months before Interplay went bankrupt. The source code was written in an object language (Lo), which generated K&R C, similar to C++'s old cfront translator. It had vestigal polymorphism and primitive kind of inheritance (single global superclass). Lo interpreted Hi, a scripting language. The Hi scripts manipulated the classes declared in Lo: Players, Objects, Containers (rooms), Automatons (actors), Events, and Scripts.
Bob Alberti Jr. wrote two scenarios in Hi, a wild west town, and a weird noir/comedy Douglas Adams-esque town. During the latter scenario I remember getting a slip of paper from a beautiful redhead at the town bar. I looked and saw that it had her phone number on it. After she left I went to the phone booth and dialed the number. I was promptly dropped through the floor into the chair of a psycho dentist. He grinned and said "I see that Tina sent you," and proceeded to give me the full dental treatment a la Little Shop of Horrors.
The cool thing about Screenplay is that the DM could jump into a script and improvise the automatons without the player knowing it. For example, the dentist would be drilling the player per the script. Then the player says "I like pain!". The script doesn't recognize the keywords, but the DM could puppet the dentist to make him express his surprise, and switch to tickling with feathers. Basically the DM could improvise and interact with the scripts.
The main problem with Screenplay was that it was too slow. We upgraded from the 4Mhz PC XT to a 16Mhz Motorola 68000 but it was not enough. The interpreter bogged down terribly.
Someday I'm going to resurrect Screenplay. After 16 years I have yet to see another MUD like it.
-AEK
Alan E Klietz
alank@algintech.com
E-commerce merchants need to use common sense when dealing with credit card transactions.
In addition to the above, do the usual security procedures that you would do for any secured site (e.g., do anti-virus checks, checksum system files, sweep for trojans, etc.)
For tax expense purposes, the IRS treats off-the-shelf commercial software as a depreciable intangible asset. When you buy, say, Office 97 for $600, the IRS makes you write it off in $200 chunks over 3 years.
So why can't software copyrights be the same way? 3 years is about the real practical shelf life limit for most software. Heck, most games end up in the remainder bin a lot sooner. 75 years is rediculous for something as ephemeral as software. By that time the aluminum substrate on the CD will have long since oxidized. There will be nothing for the future Bartlebys of the late 21st century to salvage.
Windows System File Protection (SFP) is enforced by SFC.DLL, which is run by a thread in WINLOGON.EXE. It monitors for any file changes in the Windows directory. When it spots a change, it rescans the file by calling SfpVerifyFile() in SFC.DLL.
SfpVerifyFile() computes the 160-bit SHA digital signature hash of the file data and compares it to the signature in the corresponding catalog (.CAT) file. Note that the signature is not stored in the file itself.
The .CAT files are located under \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CATROOT. They are heavily armored with RSA PK and obfuscation of the data format. The catalog is modified by calling InstallCatalog() in SETUPAPI.DLL
The Office division of Microsoft doesn't use SFP, so files like WINWORD.EXE and EXCEL.EXE are not protected. Neither are macro files like NORMAL.DOT. If history is any guide, the Office division will run off and invent their own separate way of doing it.
If you read the application, the second level will be
So it is really more like a Usenet-style name system. Ex: ford.auto.pro, citibank.fin.pro, northwest.aero.pro, etc.
The whole 16-player MUD game (Scepter of Goth) fit on a single 320K diskette with the OS (QNX). I used to bicycle the diskette from my home PC (8088Mhz) to the office system located 3 miles away (which had the 16 phone rotary).
-Alan
In 1982, I ported one of the earliest MUDS (Scepter, 1979) from a Cyber 6000 mainframe to a PC using QNX. It supported sixteen users on an IBM PC XT (4Mhz 8-bit 8088 CPU). And no stinking 16650 FIFOs. With 1-character-per-interrupt, 16 users merrily MUD'ed away at 2400 baud.
In addition to the MUD we offered chat rooms, e-mail, and two other multi-player games (Diplomacy and Space Combat). We charged $2.99 an hour. It paid my way through college.
Don't believe it? Telnet to drscape.com. To this day it still runs on a 4Mhz PC XT with QNX 1.14.
Alan Klietz
Author, Scepter of Goth on QNX
alank@algintech.NOSPAM.com
Now if you buy the software like a magazine subscription, you can write it off in the current year as it is consumed. No bookkeeping hassles, and it lets you knock dollars off your taxes quicker.
This is partly why Microsoft's Open Licensing program is popular with businesses.
Fermi is arguing statistically. It only takes one civ to create Von Neuman Machines (i.e., self-replicating interstellar robot probes). Given billions of years they could have crossed the galaxy back and forth a thousand times by now. So where are they?