[linuxbios]Now that I have your attention :)

Chris linuxbios at rebel.com.au
Wed Apr 21 01:01:00 CEST 2004


No not really I was just passing comment

But I do have a question, based a little on laziness cause I could not find
adequate mention of my ideas in respect to LinuxBios.

I have thought about a embedded operating system for some time, for two main
reasons the first is obvious and well documented

That is the desire to have a computer come with an OS that runs as soon as
it is started. perfect for all sorts of things

The second does not seem to have been covered or at least I have not been
able to unearth much information about it.
So I wanted to see if it was in the charter of this group.

What I am referring to is a method to enable device manufacturers to have a
consistant interface to the hardware.

If an OS writer such as M$ does not support a device it is very hard to get
that device to work if at all.

Manufacturers have to write device drivers for many different os's and
versions, consequently they only write for the most popular and forget less
popular and older systems.

What I envisage is a common device interface. Allowing any manufacturer
create one piece of software for their hardware and except for constraints
such as recompiling for different cpu's etc their hardware will work on any
system. (within reason).

So all you need is one API written for each OS that gives the the
manufacturer access to that particular device REGARDLESS of whether the OS
was written to handle that device.

For example NT 4.0 has no idea what a USB device is. So you can't use one.
period! this was the main reason I went to XP and its griped me ever since.

I am sure that in the linux world it is annoying to have to write new
drivers for every little piece of hardware that comes out.

Wouldn't it be nice if the device manufacturer could simply recompile their
driver to suit linux or sun or mac(bsd)

the only real place for such an interface is at the BIOS level, lest OS
writers pervert it for their own good.

and if that BIOS was provided licence free to Mainboard manufacturers
wouldn't that be something.

Sorry If I am going over old material, As I said I have not found articles
relating to this.

Regards
Chris




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris [mailto:linuxbios at rebel.com.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, 21 April 2004 3:21 PM
> To: Eric W. Biederman; Chris
> Cc: John Usher (Maptek); linuxbios at clustermatic.org
> Subject: [linuxbios]RE: flash_n_burn rom utils, /dev/bios ... resquest
>
>
> > >
> > > I am not saying it is, just that when you view the subject
> > lines they often
> > > appear like subjects designed to foil filtering systems
> >
> > Subject lines are for humans the other headers are for machines.
> >
>
> I have given up on filters. Dont trust them to do the job. so I
> use them to
> pick the obvious spam
> then the remaining emails get scanned by trusty human eye and
> brain for the
> final decision.
>
> Unfortunately some of the very cryptic subject lines appear to be
> spam so I
> tossed the first few until I realised my mistake.
> (bugger does that make me as reliable as spam filters)
>
> I will try the list-id header. and mark it as friendly if it has it.
>
>
> > Re: [linuxbios] Re: [linuxbios]
>
> If the list server placed the tag in it wouldn't be a problem and no-one
> would have to type it
> the list server can delete any redundant tags and then forward the mail
>
>
> >
> > As for adding numbers for general categories that is just silly.  If
> > you want to describe what is going on feel free to add:  [IDEA] or
> > [PATCH] or whatever.  Enumerations with numerical values are just
> > silly when they are for human consumption.
>
> not really its just shorter to read and write, with only 6
> choices the ASRG
> works very well
>
> > The next logical step is
> > to progress forward to writing programs in machine code to give more
> > control so they are not susceptible to viruses.
> >
>
> now your just being really silly
>
> Regards
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Eric W. Biederman [mailto:eric at lnxi.com]On Behalf Of Eric W.
> > Biederman
> > Sent: Wednesday, 21 April 2004 3:03 PM
> > To: Chris
> > Cc: John Usher (Maptek); linuxbios at clustermatic.org
> > Subject: Re: flash_n_burn rom utils, /dev/bios ... resquest
> >
> >
> > "Chris" <linuxbios at rebel.com.au> writes:
> >
> > > Hi
> > >
> > > I am new to this group and currently in the lurk stage
> > >
> > > but can I pass a comment/suggestion.
> > >
> > > I get a huge amount of spam, and on a cursory glance a lot of
> > the mail from
> > > this group "appears" spammy
> > >
> > > I am not saying it is, just that when you view the subject
> > lines they often
> > > appear like subjects designed to foil filtering systems
> >
> > Subject lines are for humans the other headers are for machines.
> >
> > > can I suggest a standard element be placed in the subject
> line such as I
> > > have done
> > >
> > > that way it will be easier to seperate the linux bios mailings
> > from the spam
> > > mailings
> >
> > Look at the List-Id: that should be completely constant.  That is what
> > I filter by and it makes it trivial.  I filter not to get rid of spam
> > but to separate the LinuxBIOS mailing list traffic and the linux
> > kernel mailing list traffic etc.
> >
> > If you want something practically spoof proof ask for the mailing
> > list to gpg sign messages.  Then you can be certain the message
> > at least came from the mailing list.
> >
> > I have not seen any spam come through this mailing list.  Or even
> > spoofed as such.
> >
> > If you really want to stop spam.  Don't concentrate on the fact
> > that it is unwanted mail.  Concentrate on the fact that it is
> > bulk mail, and that it is generally fraudulent.  Detecting mail is
> > passing in bulk or that it does not have a legitimate source do not
> > sound like hard problems.
> >
> > > I am also a member of the ASRG "Anti Spam Research Group" and
> they use a
> > > system that looks like this
> > >
> > > subject: [ASRG] 3: description
> > >
> > > the number is for pre-organised topics such as 0 = general 1
> = new ideas
> > > etc...
> >
> > Things like that get extremely ugly when you cross post,
> > or the mailing system does not recognize your Re: line
> > so you get things like:
> >
> > Re: [linuxbios] Re: [linuxbios]
> > or:
> > Re: [linuxbios] RE: flash_n_burn rom utils, /dev/bios, ... resquest
> >
> > And we have a diverse enough crowd we don't get consistent recognition
> > of the Re: line anyway.  Yhlu I think posts with Chinese character
> > set which makes things interesting.
> >
> > Hacked subject lines just clutter up things up.
> >
> > As for adding numbers for general categories that is just silly.  If
> > you want to describe what is going on feel free to add:  [IDEA] or
> > [PATCH] or whatever.  Enumerations with numerical values are just
> > silly when they are for human consumption.  The next logical step is
> > to progress forward to writing programs in machine code to give more
> > control so they are not susceptible to viruses.
> >
> > Eric
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>




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