Muli Ben-Yehuda's journal

The reiser4 and pwc threads on lkml are really bringing out the nutters out of the woods. lkml is a zoo.

and since someone asked, here’s my opinion on the pwc business:

Have you seen the threads on lkml? See the links at http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/3729 for how it got to be this way.

Basically, I think greg is 100% right (no hooks that are only useful for binary-only modules), I think Linus is 100% right (if the author wishes to remove the code he wrote, we should respect that), and I think the assorted whiners should realize that the code is GPL’d. You can read it, fork it, and if you rewrite it and offer to maintain it, it will be back in the kernel very quickly. Of course, it’s much easier to whine.

and here’s my opinion on reiser4:

nice toy. Now go play somewhere else.

Yeah, I’m harsh. Got a problem with it? write some code and prove me wrong 😉

In my never ending quest to know everything there is to know about Unix system programming, I learned something new today: man ptmx(4) for the gory details.

I have a new (old) project idea, nick-named RTMOS, or Run-Time Modifiable Operating System. I don’t like the RT “Real Time” connotations. Anyone got an idea for a better name? To put it in one sentence, I’m thinking of doing the emacs equivalent of operating system – infinitely run-time modifiable. I’m writing a rational / research proposal and will post it when it’s ready, but I need a good name now!

People who refer to themselves as hackers, without having done enough IMENHO to merit it, annoy me. I should use procmail to minimize annoyance.

hacker: n.

“It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you’ll quickly be labeled bogus). See also geek, wannabee.”

Following the MD5 collisions found and the SHA-1 break rumored, orrd, who should know something about these matters, recommends using Tiger. I’m reading the paper now.

It’s my sweetie’s birthday today. Happy birthday, ladypine!

Are now online (also on mulix.org). Mostly Hebrew, some English. Blame ladypine 😉

Orna and me will be giving a talk on our impressions from OLS 2004 tomorrow. Orna’s notes in Hebrew are here. Mine will join them as soon as I finish proof reading. I also need to reread the Xen and Unmapping the Page Cache papers before the talk, if I want to talk about them. *angst*.

Any day at the office when I get to write in shell, C, assembly and lisp is a good day.

The annual “has someone broken trident and I haven’t noticed?” check passed succesfully. I ran it on 2.6.8-rc4 with Ingo’s Latency Tracer applied, and so far, the results are very encouraging – except for various bootup bogosities (127msec, ouch!), there’s nothing above the threshold.