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Member since:2006-03-20
Member since:2005-12-18
Certainly. And you propose to use.. what?
<sarcasm>Vista!!!</sarcasm>
So... let's see. The DNS insfrastructure didn't even BLINK because of this DDoS but so unix should be gotten rid of cause it's not robust enough??? Huh??? Oh, man... I'd like to know what would have happend had it been any of the MS server variants. Had it been on, we would be surfing a cheap porn site when you asked for www.google.com!!! :-S :-D
Member since:2006-04-21
I think it's time we question whether Unix is an appropriate platform for the Internet. This is not the first time this has happened, and if we keep using in-secure OSes for critical data then we get what we deserve.
You obviously didn't read the article. Yes, Unix runs most of the Internet. The article clearly points out that this sustained attack was a dismal failure. Yes, highly trained and competent people were involved in keeping it that way, but whatever the platform, you wouldn't want highly UNtrained and INcompetent people running the 'Net, would you?
As another poster said, I'd welcome your thoughts on any alternative that would be an improvement.
Member since:2006-01-10
Member since:2006-04-25
Last time I checked more of the Internet's big DNS (and BIND) servers were running some variant of Unix.
Um ... BIND is a DNS server.
I think it's time we question whether Unix is an appropriate platform for the Internet. This is not the first time this has happened, and if we keep using in-secure OSes for critical data then we get what we deserve.
Did you read the article? It had nothing to do with the OS that was running. It was a DOS attack. It doesn't matter what your OS is, if your pipe is full of illegitimate requests, then you're going to have a hard time servicing legitimate requests.
Member since:2005-07-08
Um ... BIND is a DNS server.
And it's an outstanding piece of code, too. One of my previous jobs involved using some static analysis software to analyze lots of system code. It's very picky and produces 50% false positives on a good day.
I was asked to run this tool on some open source code of my choice for comparison, and I happened to choose BIND. This resulted in zero "complaints" from the analysis tool, which I'd never seen happen for anything larger than a few thousand lines of code.
Taking a look, I found that the code is immaculate, highly structured, and defensive to the extreme. Every little function has a block of assertions at the top that list all of the preconditions and a block at the bottom to check the postconditions. It manages its own slab of memory using ultra-robust routines (because malloc just isn't hardened enough).
I came away with the sense that this is exactly the kind of code I would want running something so important as the Internet. Then I had to get back to work, so I scanned the FreeBSD kernel instead, and found a more usual distribution of bugs and weaknesses.
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces."But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Member since:
2006-01-09
Last time I checked more of the Internet's big DNS (and BIND) servers were running some variant of Unix.
I think it's time we question whether Unix is an appropriate platform for the Internet. This is not the first time this has happened, and if we keep using in-secure OSes for critical data then we get what we deserve.