Monthly Archives: June 2020

Article note: Windows 2000 really was a lovely, consistent realization of a clean, simple, does-what-you-ask OS. XP was also quite nice for it's time, but more obfuscated and inconsistent. Server 2003 was all the modernity of late-XP with all the UX consistency and non-coerciveness of 2000, and, like many, I ran it off-label as a workstation OS for some time.

Article note: Good. Oddly, that wasn't as closely decided as everyone had reason to fear it would be. And it provides a handy tool to separate the textualists from the shameless bigots.

Article note: The industry with absolutely no memory of its own history crests the AI hype cycle for the third time, unaware winter is coming.

Article note: Apollo Domain/OS is one of those bits of fully realized alternate history that everyone in computing owes it to themselves to experience, it was so far ahead and so clean compared to anything else that came to the market. I've only ever played with one in emulation (MESS can do it, it's not _too_ fiddly - but a single node isn't the full magic experience because a lot of their majesty is their network transparency), but if I ever get a line on a one that isn't several hundred dollars I'd _absolutely_ own any of the later Apollo (or HP 9000/4xx) machines; I like and own enough 68k boxes already, it would be a variation on an existing theme.

Article note: Google trying to "curate" (to the highest bidder) out of your observation and control, again. AOL keywords and AMP and capture capture capture. It's a little bit the fault of URLs not going in a uniform order (Why is it not tld.domain/directory/page like most of the competing technologies?) and being confusing to ...dullards... but seriously, protocols, not platforms.

Article note: The huge number of games is like 75% weird anime/furry/dating sim choose-your-own-adventure porn, game assets, and other so-far-up-their-own-unconditional-affirmation-asses-they're-choking indie game community bullshit, but there are a handful of things I've been wanting to try mixed in, so good excuse to chuck $10 to timely charitable causes.

Article note: This is a serious fuckin' problem. The Internet Archive is unbelievably valuable, but they've put themselves in a position that is clearly legally (but, I would argue, not by any other standard) in the wrong due to decades of copyright-maximalist legislation, and the publishers seem incentivized to go after them for a variety of horrible reasons.

Enlarge (credit: Johner Images / Getty)

The Internet Archive has ended its National Emergency Library programs two weeks earlier than originally scheduled, the organization announced in a Wednesday blog post.

"We moved up our schedule because, last Monday, four commercial publishers chose to sue Internet Archive during a global pandemic," the group wrote. The online library called on publishers to "call off their costly assault."

But that doesn't seem very likely. The Internet Archive isn't ending its online book lending program altogether. Instead, the group is returning to a "controlled digital lending" (CDL) model that it had followed for almost a decade prior to March. Under that model, the group allows only one patron to digitally "check out" a book for each physical copy the library has in stock. If more people want to read a book than are physically available, patrons are added to a waiting list until someone checks the book back in.

Article note: Just amplifying because I keep giving the same advice. A second screen is a good idea anyway if you do tasks where you have reference material + work area, but for video conferencing, or video production where you screen record, or any similar task, it's basically required, and in the current age, it's a worthwhile investment for most of us.

Article note: Congrats on another milestone to the Haiku folks! I've always adored BeOS, and watching them fight the good fight to keep it alive is inspiring.

Article note: It's almost like introducing piles of hideously complicated features with poorly-understood interactions to processors is not conducive to security. Especially ones specifically designed to cross-cut the security model of the processor and let people-not-the-computer's-owner run code privileged outside the normal hierarchy. Now strap in for another round of feature-disabling, performance sapping microcode updates.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

For the past two years, modern CPUs—particularly those made by Intel—have been under siege by an unending series of attacks that make it possible for highly skilled attackers to pluck passwords, encryption keys, and other secrets out of silicon-resident memory. On Tuesday, two separate academic teams disclosed two new and distinctive exploits that pierce Intel’s Software Guard eXtension, by far the most sensitive region of the company’s processors.

Abbreviated as SGX, the protection is designed to provide a Fort Knox of sorts for the safekeeping of encryption keys and other sensitive data even when the operating system or a virtual machine running on top is badly and maliciously compromised. SGX works by creating trusted execution environments that protect sensitive code and the data it works with from monitoring or tampering by anything else on the system.

Key to the security and authenticity assurances of SGX is its creation of what are called enclaves, or blocks of secure memory. Enclave contents are encrypted before they leave the processor and are written in RAM. They are decrypted only after they return. The job of SGX is to safeguard the enclave memory and block access to its contents by anything other than the trusted part of the CPU.