b# for kernel modules?

Reading from http://www.embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183700818;

B# (pronounced “be sharp”) is a tiny, object-oriented, and multi-threaded programming language that is specially dedicated for small footprint embedded systems.

It has a mini-kernel, and can implement interrupt handlers. What I want to know is; can it be used to write portable cross-platform linux kernel modules?

More info, and sign up as a beta test at http://www.deepobjectknowledge.com/

Is Joker.com Joking or Choking?

Joker DNS servers are unavailable from most parts of the world for a few days now.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup.ch?name=joker.com&type=A

fails miserably, as it does for most joker hosted domain names.

I’m only using their website now because of an /etc/hosts entry pointing to 194.176.0.86

194.176.0.86 www.joker.com joker.com

All these fail:

nslookup www.joker.com 207.44.185.10

nslookup www.joker.com 194.176.0.2

Whats going on? I’ve filed a support ticket, lets see what they say…

DDOS Attack on Joker.com Nameservers
Joker.com currently experiences massive distributed denial of service attacks against nameservers.
This affects DNS resolution of Joker.com itself, and also domains which make use of Joker.com nameservers.
We are very sorry for this issue, but we are working hard for a permanent solution.
Thank you for your understanding,

Your Team of Joker.com

KISS of death (Keep it stupidly simple)

GNOME takes the biscuit (Americans seem to like that word lately).

The new GNOME Screensaver UI is so stupid you can’t actually do anything useful apart from choose the screen saver.

I upgraded Ubuntu from Breezy so at least my GLSlideShow screensaver works, cos I configured it before I upgraded to Dapper, but some poor folk are stuck! Dapper GNOME screensaver UI doesn’t even let them tell GLSlideShow WHERE to find the photos! See their cries of pain in their bug report.

GNOME is going so far backwards that only a granny will be happy with it, any one with an ounce of sense will quickly graduate to KDE so that they can do someting the way they want to, see my cries of pain at regressing from a quick cross-fading slideshow of all my photos to a ghastly 5 times showing over 10 seconds for each photo. 

When family members pass around new photos I don’t spend 10 seconds looking at a single one, I certainly don’t want to spend 10 seconds on a load I’ve seen before.

Of course with GNOME, thats what I’m doomed to, until the GUI designers think it worthwhile, but I doubt that they’ll descend from their abstract usability values to something so concrete as actual usability.

Of course I could fork GNOME (free software is all about freedom, which GNOME are denying me) or just move to KDE.

Thank goodness for Kubuntu.

A house, for One Red Paperclip

I was looking for cabin style bunk beds on ebay and ended up getting myself a real ebay bargain: A holday cabin in Wales for renting, for only 10 pence. (preserved for posterity  here)

Rename to .pdf to view full document

I was going to rent it out (as the buyer suggests) but I think I could trade it on One Red paperclip, it could be the house he is looking for! I don’t want the recording contract but maybe he can get something else…

US Patent System

All said at http://righttocreate.blogspot.com/2006/03/broken-windows-broken-patents.html, it would be hard to improve on what is written.

Drivers License Checking

This company, Intelligent Data Systems, provide a driving licence checking service which works directly off DVLA data.

Why would anyone want to do that?

Bank charges and pension post offices

In the UK the banks closed branches "cos there’s cash machines and its cheaper".
Then they decided to charge a quid a time to use the cash machine (now there’s few branches left).
Idiots.

it didn’t last long before all the banks were boasting they THEY didn’t charge for ATM use.

Co-op bank NEVER charged for ATM use and also allowed post offices to be used as branches.
-Which also makes it funnier about pensioners complaining about pensions being paid into bank accounts and not collectible from the post office, and even stranger that the Co-op bank didn’t say "hey guys, get your pension paid into a co-op account and then come and get it out the post office".

Weird.