January 17, 2007
Userspace Woos
A few years ago, I worked for the Center for Systems Assurance and would go to the secure operating systems research group meetings. I wasn't much of a programmer then, but I knew enough to know secure design when I saw it. As such, microkernels have always been of interest to me. I went to Dresden, for example, hoping to broaden my knowledge of formal methods and secure coding techniques from the team that brought us the L4 microkernel and eventually TUD:OS.
I've been sorely disappointed at the world's slow adoption and approval of what I call the, "userspace push," microkernels that run traditional operating system capabilities as userspace services. From a security standpoint, this is the way to go...make a small and optimized generic kernel hooks for userspace services to tie in to, for everything from filesystems to networking to graphics. It makes for a lot of Really Neat Things, too: for example, writing a little driver to encapsulate ethernet packets over SSH is easy, and you will even be provided with a device file like, 'ssheth0' to put your packets on (one of the things a coworker wrote for GNU/HURD).
Commerce doesn't work like that, though: commerce wants features first, and secure design later. It's hard for a microkernel operating system to get its foot in the door, because the features just aren't there. The HURD didn't even support POSIX threads until almost the year 2002, which pretty much made all commercial development shy away from the kernel.
It's kind of funny when I see things like MacFUSE, though. FUSE is essentially taking a microkernel idea and wedging it into a monolithic kernel (Linux), moving a traditional kernel feature (filesystems, in this case) into userspace. MacFUSE makes me laugh out loud, of course: it's taking a microkernel idea that was wedged into a monolithic kernel, and porting it to a microkernel. Hilarity ensues!
Still, it's interesting to see the monolithic operating system adopting microkernel ideas. I kind of wonder if GNU/Linux will start to move more in this direction? Doubtful, but time will tell...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009