Muli Ben-Yehuda's journal

January 18, 2004

the rewards of free software

Filed under: Uncategorized — Muli Ben-Yehuda @ 4:13 PM

Last year, I guided a group of students from Eddie A.‘s Linux Development Workshop who wanted to work on syscalltrack. Together, we ported syscalltrack’s hijack module to kernel 2.6[0], and while it took a lot of effort from all involved, I believe we all enjoyed the experience. They got a pretty good grade for their work, too, 95/100.

On Friday afternoon, Lior, one of the guys, came by and gave me a small present from all of them – a bottle of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. This is the first time I get a gift for working on free software[1], and I am deeply touched.

Lior, Ori, David, if you read this – thank you! As I kept saying, the pleasure was all mine… Cheers!

On a side note, I met Eddie at the last Telux meeting. I agreed to give a talk at this year’s Linux Development Workshop on kernel development, and told Eddie that if any student should be interested in doing a Linux kernel project, I’ll be delighted to guide them.

[0] the code is in a branch in CVS. I need to finish it and merge it into HEAD, and make a new release.

[1] I’ve had a link to the amazon.com wishlist for ages on mulix.org, and no one I didn’t know in real life ever bought me anything from there. Maybe I should replace it with a link to the local alcoholic beverages purveyor…

18 Comments »

  1. I have both the crypto books that you mentioned in your wishlist. Dont bother with the AES stuff. Get Practical crypto ASAP. Its an *AMAZING* book.
    Btw do wishlists really work ? I had it for a while.. no one ever got me anything.. so eventually gave up

    Comment by kalyan — January 18, 2004 @ 6:49 AM | Reply

    • thanks for the recommendation… I’m a bit disenchanted with crypto at the moment, so they’re mostly there for if/when I get the urge back.
      I’ve heard of several people who got lots of stuff from their wishlist from people who used their code. I guess it’s a matter of how popular your code is, and luck… what do you work on?

      Comment by mulix — January 18, 2004 @ 7:20 AM | Reply

      • Unfortunately I dont do too much open-source work. I just evengalise it whenever I can. I work for a certain well know dot com company( if you read my blog carefully, you will know ). I take care of web/app security.. mostly playing with applying crypto, security scanners etc.

        Comment by kalyan — January 18, 2004 @ 7:27 AM

      • sounds like a fun job… I think I know which .com you work for.

        Comment by mulix — January 18, 2004 @ 7:33 AM

      • Kernel hacking/development/patching/merging is more fun 🙂

        Comment by ideawerkz — January 18, 2004 @ 12:16 PM

      • Keen to come down to Singapore for a game of CtF probably around June? 🙂 I will probably be in the blue team, so come down, and have fun.

        Comment by ideawerkz — January 18, 2004 @ 12:15 PM

      • Sounds interesting..
        what games? what event ? will prob try 🙂

        Comment by kalyan — January 18, 2004 @ 9:54 PM

      • CtF… Capture the flag… Red/Blue Cybergaming… DefCon-style games. TBC. Will post on my LJ when application is open.

        Comment by ideawerkz — January 19, 2004 @ 7:29 AM

  2. Great idea!
    I’m going to get a present to my guide at the security workshop.
    It was a great experience and she should be thanked.

    Comment by shapirac — January 18, 2004 @ 8:53 AM | Reply

    • Re: Great idea!
      what are you going to get her? did you finish the project?

      Comment by mulix — January 18, 2004 @ 8:59 AM | Reply

      • Re: Great idea!
        I finished (just wrote a finishing entry in my LJ).
        I’m trying to think of a good present, maybe a book. I’ll only give her the present after I get the grade, otherwise it’ll look too much like bribery.

        Comment by shapirac — January 18, 2004 @ 9:13 AM

  3. Re: Great idea!
    I’m a student. For BSc. What made you think otherwise?
    That project is for CS workshop, and the idea is to give us a loosly defined project, and let us learn all we need to design and implement it on our own.
    I think I learned from that workshop more than I ever learned in any course, with maybe one or two exceptions.

    Comment by shapirac — January 18, 2004 @ 12:31 PM | Reply

    • Re: Great idea!
      I see. You sound good. Anyway, I am also a CS major but I have not touched Windows since freshman year. Quite a regret. Incapable to do Win32 programming but will pick it up when I am free.

      Comment by ideawerkz — January 18, 2004 @ 6:12 PM | Reply

      • Re: Great idea!
        Incapable to do Windows programming… I think I should add that to my CV :->>

        Comment by mulix — January 19, 2004 @ 12:39 AM

      • Re: Great idea!
        Haha. Ok, let’s add it in our CVs 🙂

        Comment by ideawerkz — January 20, 2004 @ 5:25 PM

  4. Jameson Irish what ???? And you didn’t invite us over ??? As we say in the USA, “Holy Mackeral !!” What a cool present.
    🙂

    Comment by 77azkkr — January 19, 2004 @ 12:03 PM | Reply

    • Thanks 🙂
      If you’re in the neighbourhood, you’re welcome.

      Comment by mulix — January 19, 2004 @ 2:31 PM | Reply

      • If it wasn’t for the Atlantic Ocean, I’d start packing the car up !

        Comment by 77azkkr — January 19, 2004 @ 3:18 PM


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