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Saturday, February 5, 2005

A collaboratively-developed operating system kernel known as GNU Hurd has been made bootable using the L4 microkernel, which provides room for significant speed improvements over an existing implementation using the Mach microkernel. The newer architecture also has a more lively developer community.

Developer Marcus Brinkmann made the historic step and finished the process initialization code, which enabled him to execute the first software on Hurd-L4. In a message to the L4 port of GNU Hurd mailing list, Brinkmann wrote, “We can now easily explore and develop the system in any way we want. The dinner is prepared!”. [1] However, the kernel’s current feature set is very limited. “With my glibc port, I can already build simple applications, but most won’t run because they need a filesystem or other gimmicks (like, uhm, fork and exec), and I only have stubs (dummy functions which always return an error) for that now,” he added in a later posting. [2]

Compared with Linux and BSD Unix’s monolithic kernel architecture, a microkernel based operating system provides developers greater modularity and isolation from hardware, a big win with L4 already being available for a large number of hardware varieties.

There is a cost in speed for such abstraction, and this cost was higher on Mach, at around 15%, compared with only around 5% on L4 and it’s predecessor L3, both developed by Dr. Jochen Liedtke. [3]

The greater modularity and abstraction of a microkernel approach means that the microkernel itself does not need constant modification as is seen in the Linux kernel today, since it provides only the very minimum of services, and does so very carefully. Thus, the fact that L4 was developed in 1996 is seen as exemplifying this stability — rather than showing its age — since few, if any, improvements in approach have been imagined in the meantime.

However, the Mach kernel first developed ten years earlier at Carnegie Mellon University is seen as a flawed first implementation, with the lessons learned being implemented in microkernels like L4, known as second-generation microkernels.

The GNU Hurd forms the base of the GNU operating system, much of which has been widely adopted by users of other Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. The GNU Project has been developing the Hurd since 1983. In 1990, the GNU Project decided to use the Mach kernel, rather than writing their own. [4] The Hurd is released as free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

The Hurd kernel is an experiment which aims to surpass existing Unix kernels in functionality, security, and stability, while remaining largely compatible with them. It currently runs on Intel IA32 machines. According to the GNU Hurd project, “The Hurd should, and probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other microkernels in the future” [5].

`Hurd’ stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons’. And, then, `Hird’ stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth’ – perhaps the first software to be named by a pair of mutually recursive acronyms.

A limited port of Linux already runs on L4, known as L4Linux.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Cars drove home the big prize last night, from the 34th Annual Annie Awards. The animation industry’s highest honor, ASIFA-Hollywood’s Annies recognise contributions to animation, writing, directing, storyboarding, voice acting, composing, and much more.

As mentioned, Pixar took home the big prize last night, after facing stiff competition from four other Happy Feet, Monster House, Open Season, and Over the Hedge.

But the biggest winner of the night didn’t get a “Best Animated Feature” nod at all. Flushed Away won five feature animation categories including Animated Effects (Scott Cegielski), Character Animation (Gabe Hordos), Production Design (Pierre-Olivier Vincent), Voice Acting (Sir Ian McKellan as Toad), Writing (Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan, and Will Davies).

Over The Hedge won awards for Directing (Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick), Storyboarding (Gary Graham), and Character Design (Nicolas Marlet).

Of little surprise, Randy Newman won an Annie for Cars in the “Music in an Animated Feature Production” category. Newman has won many Oscars for his movie music, and has a nomination this year for the song “Our Town”. Newman didn’t attend the Annies, instead picking up a Grammy for “Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media”.

DisneyToon Studios’ Bambi II won “Best Home Entertainment Production”, while “Best Animated Short Subject” went to Blue Sky Studios’ No Time For Nuts, which is based on Ice Age.

“Best Animated Video Game” went to Flushed Away The Game, while a United Airlines ad named “Dragon” won a “Best Animated Television Commercial” Annie for DUCK Studios.

Monday, November 28, 2005

SpaceX called off the much-delayed inaugural launch of their new Falcon 1 rocket on Saturday from Kwajalein’s Omelek Island launch site. The intent was to launch the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat 2 satellite, which will monitor plasma interactions with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere.

The launch was delayed, then finally cancelled after an oxygen boil-off vent had accidentally been left open. The oxygen was unable to cool the helium pressurant, which then proceeded to evaporate faster than it could be replenished. A main computer issue, probably serious enough to cause a scrub on its own, was also discovered.

This long-anticipated flight was originally expected to be launched in January 2005, however a series of setbacks forced a series of delays, with the flight most recently scheduled to be in early 2006. It was intended to be launched from the Kwajalein atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The maiden voyage was originally intended to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with a Naval Research Laboratory satellite and a Space Services Incorporated space burial payload.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

According to the Christian Post, Don Levine, the creator of the G.I. Joe, will be creating a line of action figures based on characters from the Old Testament. Released this month are action figures of Samson, David, Noah, Moses, and dolls of Queen Esther and Deborah the Warrior. The toys come with their own Bible storybook. By the fall, the line will expand to 35 products. Levine has began developing a DVD series and television show.

While certainly not the first action figures, dolls, or animated programs based on Biblical characters, it is perhaps the first to launch with a full-fledged licensing program. Already a comic book, narrated CDs, wallet, flashing pins, dog tags, and necklaces have been released.

Levine created G.I. Joe for Mattel in 1963, after a licensing agent suggested soldier figures might have the same success as their Barbie line.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

United Press International (UPI) reports that the Senate took US$1.9b out of the 2006 emergency war supplemental funding to fund border security last month. The White House reportedly called for the transfer that was put into an amendment sponsored by Senators Bill Frist and Judd Gregg. Out of the $1.9b, $1.6b was meant to replace equipment that has been destroyed or worn out after four years of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An unnamed Pentagon budget official told UPI “You can’t tell me that illegal aliens coming across the border pose the same kind of threat to national security as insurgents in Anbar do against Marines.”

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Two nine-month-old babies were hospitalised after appearing to be mauled by a fox as they slept in cots in their home in Hackney, West London, United Kingdom. The attack happened on Saturday at 22:00 BST (21:00 UTC). It is thought the fox entered through an open door on the ground floor of the house, which was located beside Victoria Park].

The babies both suffered bite wounds on their arms, while one was also bitten on the face. Both are said to be in “serious but stable” conditions.

The babies’ mother, Pauline Koupparis, spoke of her shock to hear and see the foxes in her house to local BBC radio station London 94.9: “It’s something I would never have expected to happen — let alone to us and my beautiful girls. It was quite muffled but very pained. I went into the room and I saw some blood in Isabella’s cot, I thought she had a nosebleed. I put on the light, I saw the fox, it just looked at me and it wasn’t even scared of me. I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood.”

Hackney environmental health officers set traps in the rear garden of the property the night after the attack, and a fox was caught; this was humanely killed shortly after midnight. It is not yet known if this fox was responsible for the attack.

It is thought there are some 35,000 urban foxes living in the UK, and some experts believe that as much as a third of that number live in the capital. However, attacks on humans are very rare, generally occurring if the fox is trapped and is threatened.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Yaakov Neeman, an Israeli politician who served as justice minister and finance minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, died in his Jerusalem home on Sunday. He was 77.

Born in 1939 in Tel Aviv, Neeman, alongside future President Chaim Herzog, founded law firm Herzog, Fox and Neeman in 1972. He was appointed finance minister in 1979, a position he held until 1981. He was later appointed justice minister by Netanyahu, based on his legal training and loyalty.

Unusually for a senior minister, he had never served in the Knesset. He held the job for two months before resigning; he was being investigated for perjury. Michael Ben-Yair, Attorney General of the day, launched the probe after Neeman testified at a bribery trial. Neeman was cleared.

Neeman regained the Justice Ministry post in 1997, resigning again the next year. He blamed insufficient support from Netanyahu and resumed law. In 2009 Netanyahu was reelected, again appointing Neeman minister of justice. In 2013 this role passed to the Hatnua party’s Tzipi Livni.

Neeman’s last resignation, in 2013, came as he was under investigation by the Israel Tax Authority for evading tax via his law company. The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court ultimately acquitted him.

Outside law and politics Neeman was also an industrialist. He worked with Israel Aircraft Industries, airline El Al, and the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. In 1986 he was credited as key to convincing business partner Herzog, who was then president, with pardoning members of the Israel Security Agency; after a bus was hijacked, security forces shot dead two Palestinians once the hijack had concluded.

Neeman specialised in tax law. A fluent English speaker, he had degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York University. His wife and six children survive him.

Current President Reuven Rivlin spoke of a good lawyer and advisor whose wisdom he had sought as recently as last week. “The entire Justice Department bows his head”, said current Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Herzog’s son Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Zionist Union, spoke of “a tender-hearted, broad-minded and generous man” who “was a mentor and close friend for tens of years.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said Neeman was “a unique figure in our public life, blessed with talent and pleasantness, who believed in his heritage and his people with his entire body.” Netanyahu called Neeman “one of the senior jurists in the country, of a sharp mind and a warm Jewish heart.”

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary, all of which border Serbia, announced in a joint statement Wednesday that they will recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

“The decision on the recognition of Kosovo is based on thorough consideration,” the statement said.

Croatia and Hungary later confirmed they had officially recognized Kosovo, while Bulgaria is expected to make an announcement Thursday. Yesterday, Bulgaria’s security council held a meeting regarding Kosovo. Angel Naidenov, spokesman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, praised Kosovo for their efforts in establishing a “multi-ethnic and democratic country.”

The statement says Kosovo’s declaration of independence was prompted by the international community’s failure to work out a solution between Serbia and Kosovo. “In these circumstances the change of the unsustainable status quo was unavoidable,” the statement said.

The three nations express their interest in helping the European Union with stabilizing the region, and they wish to develop ties with a Kosovo that “maintains good relations with its neighbors, enjoys economic growth, and keeps its European orientation.”

Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremi? criticized their decision. “Every country that decides to recognize the illegally declared state of Kosovo breaches international law,” he said, adding that countries who recognize Kosovo “cannot have good ties with Serbia.”

“I call on states, particularly those of the region, not to take this step. Do not injure our country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Jeremi? said.

Boris Tadi?, Serbia’s president, had previously warned Croatia that recognizing Kosovo would have a negative effect on their relations. “We want to have the best possible relations with this country,” Tadi? said. “But recognition of Kosovo is certainly not an act of goodwill between neighbours.”

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader says he does not expect relations to worsen. “I do understand this is a difficult one for Serbia to swallow. That’s one of the reasons we have waited until now. But I don’t expect a worsening of political and economic relations because there is no alternative to good neighbourly relations.”

Kosovo’s deputy prime minister, Hajredin Kuçi said the decision was “very good for the Serbian perception and the people of Serbia that everybody who is in the neighbourhood is recognizing the new reality.”