1. Free as in freedom :
Almost 99.9% of Linux’s source code is released as open source. This means you can modify the code and redistribute it as you see fit. This means lesser lawsuits and lesser hassles in gaining updates.
There was a point in software time when anything free was considered buggy, incomplete or plain pointless. That might be then, but this is now. Linux has grown into one of the most advanced OS out there, and how! The penguin has come a long way indeed.
2. Surf the net without fear:
Yes, you read it right. Linux separates the root user from other users, thus restricting user privileges, and drastically reducing the chances of catching a virus. There are around 40 malwares in circulation, but almost 32 of them do nothing harmful, and are intended to point out security loopholes within Linux’s kernel. 6 of the remaining rest are dangerous and 2 are Trojans. If you’re still worried of catching a Linux virus, why don’t you resort to the age old solution- Go get yourself a free antivirus.
3. No more bloated OS: Linux makes a lot of room for your programs:
In fact, I’ve been using a PCLinuxOS installation on my PC for the past 2 months, and I’ve Installed a lot of software’s for Linux from Unreal Tournament 2004 to NVidia’s latest graphic drivers. Linux leaves a lot of room for your stuff, and doesn’t slow down one bit!!
Showing posts with label The future of computing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The future of computing. Show all posts
02 February, 2009
01 February, 2009
Emulation on the PSP:
I haven’t installed a single game on my PC after I brought my PSP. I almost feel as if I should’ve purchased it EONS ago. What really is the point of upgrading your PC< when you can do everything, except programming, on your PSP?? And you can carry the PSP everywhere you go! What was that? Lack of functionality? Not many options when it comes to gaming? Earth calling to .
Have you checked the homebrew community? They have everything from new games to friggin alarm clocks for the PSP. I have also seen some REALLY good programmers put out everything from emulators for the N64 on a PSP to a Linux port that runs on the PSP. Do you have any idea as to the humongous library of games that are available for even one of these consoles? That in itself is a HUGE advantage. Add to that portability.
If you are able to play that classic game of Mario Kart 64 on your flight, isn’t that everything you ever dreamed of ? Add to that watching movies, recording, and camera snaps. Isn’t that what most people use our PC’s for?
And I have also beta tested a bit torrent downloader for the PSP. To me, the PSP is the single most dominant piece of hardware that I have around me at all times. Whatever Sony’s intentions were in making this piece of hardware, I’m sure they hadn’t expected it to be used thus? Laugh on Nintendo and your army of fan boys ?
Have you checked the homebrew community? They have everything from new games to friggin alarm clocks for the PSP. I have also seen some REALLY good programmers put out everything from emulators for the N64 on a PSP to a Linux port that runs on the PSP. Do you have any idea as to the humongous library of games that are available for even one of these consoles? That in itself is a HUGE advantage. Add to that portability.
If you are able to play that classic game of Mario Kart 64 on your flight, isn’t that everything you ever dreamed of ? Add to that watching movies, recording, and camera snaps. Isn’t that what most people use our PC’s for?
And I have also beta tested a bit torrent downloader for the PSP. To me, the PSP is the single most dominant piece of hardware that I have around me at all times. Whatever Sony’s intentions were in making this piece of hardware, I’m sure they hadn’t expected it to be used thus? Laugh on Nintendo and your army of fan boys ?
30 January, 2009
How badly do you need an antivirus?
How many times have you wondered which is the best antivirus? Nod? Symantec Norton? Kaspersky? Bit defender?? My answer: None of the above. Why?? Read on.
Recently my curiosity got the best of me and I finally decided to read “The Big black book of virus programming” that I bought a while back. I’m told the book is illegal in most countries, and you could end up in jail for so much as possessing it!! The book details pretty much everything you need to know and also gives you a start by giving off some virus source code on the CD accompanying the book.
I started off writing my first virus and coded it such that it would look for a folder and deleted it. The folder was aptly named “Do Not Delete” and resided on my root drive.
I have a PC with the latest hardware. Thus , running 3 anti viruses is a walk in the park. Just for your info, I was running MacAfee, Symantec Corporate, and Nod 32. Some of the most reputed names in the antivirus industry.
The virus was written in assembler to make it faster than programs which I previously wrote in Java or C#. I fired up my “Virus”, and it promptly did its work. For a moment this really startled me because none of the antivirus programs even warned me that a potentially unsafe operation was being performed by a third party program. I convinced myself thinking that of course they didn’t detect it! It’s just another program that’s occupying memory and manipulating files. As far as other “programs” such as anti-viruses are concerned, there is NO harm being done to your computer!!
Most viruses are offshoots of “virus creation” kits available in shady websites running in third world countries like Nigeria or Kenya. So, the programmers for these “antivirus” programs have to detect a pattern in the viruses and voila, the antivirus detects the threat. But what if people like you and me started writing viruses? Would the antivirus programs have any chance at all in detecting these new “breed” of viruses?? Of course not! This is exactly the reason why the market for “network security” has grown exponentially over the past decade. We need to have fewer OS loopholes (poke at Microsoft) and fewer ways for programs to run in the background without your permission. Of course, if windows (like Symantec internet security 2008) were to ask you each and everything, you would curse your OS while click “ OK” and “Ignore” buttons , endlessly.
Yes, there is a certain tradeoff between OS security and usability, but that’s for novice users. NOT for pros like me. Well, we could probably have 5 modes for the OS, something like:
1. Novice
2. Intermediate
3. Power User
4. Expert User
5. Geek demigod ?
Recently my curiosity got the best of me and I finally decided to read “The Big black book of virus programming” that I bought a while back. I’m told the book is illegal in most countries, and you could end up in jail for so much as possessing it!! The book details pretty much everything you need to know and also gives you a start by giving off some virus source code on the CD accompanying the book.
I started off writing my first virus and coded it such that it would look for a folder and deleted it. The folder was aptly named “Do Not Delete” and resided on my root drive.
I have a PC with the latest hardware. Thus , running 3 anti viruses is a walk in the park. Just for your info, I was running MacAfee, Symantec Corporate, and Nod 32. Some of the most reputed names in the antivirus industry.
The virus was written in assembler to make it faster than programs which I previously wrote in Java or C#. I fired up my “Virus”, and it promptly did its work. For a moment this really startled me because none of the antivirus programs even warned me that a potentially unsafe operation was being performed by a third party program. I convinced myself thinking that of course they didn’t detect it! It’s just another program that’s occupying memory and manipulating files. As far as other “programs” such as anti-viruses are concerned, there is NO harm being done to your computer!!
Most viruses are offshoots of “virus creation” kits available in shady websites running in third world countries like Nigeria or Kenya. So, the programmers for these “antivirus” programs have to detect a pattern in the viruses and voila, the antivirus detects the threat. But what if people like you and me started writing viruses? Would the antivirus programs have any chance at all in detecting these new “breed” of viruses?? Of course not! This is exactly the reason why the market for “network security” has grown exponentially over the past decade. We need to have fewer OS loopholes (poke at Microsoft) and fewer ways for programs to run in the background without your permission. Of course, if windows (like Symantec internet security 2008) were to ask you each and everything, you would curse your OS while click “ OK” and “Ignore” buttons , endlessly.
Yes, there is a certain tradeoff between OS security and usability, but that’s for novice users. NOT for pros like me. Well, we could probably have 5 modes for the OS, something like:
1. Novice
2. Intermediate
3. Power User
4. Expert User
5. Geek demigod ?
27 November, 2008
Are we all heading towards an era of cloud computing?
NO. Heres 8 reasons why:
1. Providing Mario, or for that matter any modern graphic intense game, as a service wont be easy.
2. If you’re NEVER going to use the computing power in your PC, and would rather rely on some server for processing your information, do you think major hardware vendors such as Intel, and AMD, who have spent billions to develop their hardware, would just standby and watch?
3. One MAJOR problem with cloud computing is that if, and when the central server crashes, ALL of your data would be lost, because of the failure. It wouldn’t matter if you have backup servers. They could not take in ALL of the traffic resulting in slower transfers. This would be unacceptable for large companies depending on the central server to provide it with certain programming “services”, and for your 9 year old son who wants to play DOOM 3.
4. 82% of the world is still using dialup connections to connect to the internet. What could possibly compel them to change that? And if they decided to change that, even for some unknown reason, would the costs be the same? Wouldn’t it be higher? Wouldn’t this would compel most of them to stay on the same infrastructure?
5. Programmers are humans too. We aren’t perfect. We couldn’t possibly come up with a mechanism that would go online throughout the world providing “services” to everyone involved, AND expect the system to be robust enough to NEVER crash. Even a primitive system, designed for this purpose would probably end up crashing because of the load involved.
6. If you think Im being a pessisimist, and Im making this up, consider this- Even a complex backend architecture such as server farms, possibly coupled with complex algorithms to optimize performance, do you think the access time would be anywhere near, or comparable to a file stored on your system?
7. If you do everything on a server, then why do you need your PC? Just input devices, and output devices will suffice in such a situation right? Then your PC wouldn’t be a “terminal” it would be a dummy terminal.
8. Finally, the security threat involved is totally unacceptable for any major corporation. As all “services” run on a central server(or on different servers, which ever you deem necessary for the purpose of this discussion) even a small loophole could prove costly for all those involved in such an endeavor.
What makes you think that distributed could ever be stopped? Lets hear them in the comments !
1. Providing Mario, or for that matter any modern graphic intense game, as a service wont be easy.
2. If you’re NEVER going to use the computing power in your PC, and would rather rely on some server for processing your information, do you think major hardware vendors such as Intel, and AMD, who have spent billions to develop their hardware, would just standby and watch?
3. One MAJOR problem with cloud computing is that if, and when the central server crashes, ALL of your data would be lost, because of the failure. It wouldn’t matter if you have backup servers. They could not take in ALL of the traffic resulting in slower transfers. This would be unacceptable for large companies depending on the central server to provide it with certain programming “services”, and for your 9 year old son who wants to play DOOM 3.
4. 82% of the world is still using dialup connections to connect to the internet. What could possibly compel them to change that? And if they decided to change that, even for some unknown reason, would the costs be the same? Wouldn’t it be higher? Wouldn’t this would compel most of them to stay on the same infrastructure?
5. Programmers are humans too. We aren’t perfect. We couldn’t possibly come up with a mechanism that would go online throughout the world providing “services” to everyone involved, AND expect the system to be robust enough to NEVER crash. Even a primitive system, designed for this purpose would probably end up crashing because of the load involved.
6. If you think Im being a pessisimist, and Im making this up, consider this- Even a complex backend architecture such as server farms, possibly coupled with complex algorithms to optimize performance, do you think the access time would be anywhere near, or comparable to a file stored on your system?
7. If you do everything on a server, then why do you need your PC? Just input devices, and output devices will suffice in such a situation right? Then your PC wouldn’t be a “terminal” it would be a dummy terminal.
8. Finally, the security threat involved is totally unacceptable for any major corporation. As all “services” run on a central server(or on different servers, which ever you deem necessary for the purpose of this discussion) even a small loophole could prove costly for all those involved in such an endeavor.
What makes you think that distributed could ever be stopped? Lets hear them in the comments !
