Most of the new draft of the Concurrent Programs paper has to do with trying to specify problems and solutions in synchronization via an atomic “compare and swap” operation. Even these operations are surprisingly complicated once put under the microscope
clouds versus pcs
George Gilder had an article in Wired on data centers as clouds. My instinct is to dismiss anything Gilder writes because of his track record of wacky ideas (e.g. feminism is destroying civilization and supply side economics makes sense). But,
linux kernel
From LinuxDevices Every Linux kernel is being developed by nearly 1,000 developers, working for more than 100 corporations. An average of 3,621 lines of code are added to the kernel tree every day. A new kernel is released approximately every
who should control the internets
Op-ed in the NYTimes from Damian Kulash Jr. of Ok-Go We can’t allow a system of gatekeepers to get built into the network. The Internet shouldn’t be harnessed for the profit of a few, rather than the good of the
end to end design versus BOM design
Grossly simplifying, some products are Bill of Materials (BOM) products and some are Designed products. BOM products come to market via a process of generating a parts list and then integrating. In place of designers, BOM products have buyers and
Sorcerers apprentice at ATT: Security and privacy and reliability collide again
AT&T considers reading all the packets that cross its lines. Quite an interesting proposal. Tim Wu’s take The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way
Google’s engineering culture
Article in the New Yorker on Google contains a fascinating description of a product design meeting: Page and Brin had wanted an upgrade of an existing product, and they were unhappy with what they were hearing from the engineers. At
Cell phone handsets and linux and software value
Update at the end. Two FSMLabs alumni are leading the charge for Linux handsets in two different companies. Jason Whitmire is now GM of cell phones for Wind River. Jason’s blog is here and a Linuxdevices article discusses his first
Hollywood writers are smarter than programmers
The strike in Hollywood is about royalties. The writers, who are used to getting a share of the royalties on their work, want to keep getting royalties on work shown on the internet. The producers are making the claim that
OpenBSD developer notes king’s clothing is “virtual”
Theo de Raadt explains why virtualization does not improve security. How about this: to improve security, you have to have a secure design, a marketing buzzword won’t do the trick. Anyone who has seriously looked that the current generation x86