64K hours

Posted on October 17, 2010 by ward

Some disks last a long time. This is an old IBM IDE drive (IC35L040AVVA07-0).

smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%        66         -
# 2  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     65434         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     65266         -

Interestingly, the Power_On_Hours field did not wrap. Bug in smartctl? Bug in the drive firmware?

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   095   095   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       458761
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0005   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Offline      -       210
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   105   105   024    Pre-fail  Always       -       160 (Average 154)
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       27
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   005    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   100   067    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   111   111   020    Pre-fail  Offline      -       43
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       65616
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       27
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   099   099   050    Old_age   Always       -       1387
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   099   099   050    Old_age   Always       -       1387
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   189   189   000    Old_age   Always       -       29 (Lifetime Min/Max 21/39)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
Posted in Sysadmin | Leave a comment

microsoft discovers remote attestation

Posted on October 8, 2010 by ward

Via slashdot: Microsoft’s corporate VP for trustworthy computing – Scott Charney – has published a position paper that boils down to remote attestation: let ISPs cut off internet access for computers that are not deemed free of malware.

So… how would this work? Presumably the computer would run some code that is not under the control of the user/owner of the machine, and protected by the TPM module. That code would then validate if the machine is free of malware or not – somehow. I have no idea how that could possibly be foolproof, but let’s assume for a moment there is a way to do this.

First problem: your computer would have to run code that most likely comes without source, is hard or impossible to inspect, and cannot be changed.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that this validation code is somehow optional. Or perhaps you are an enterprising person, and you’ve managed to kick this stuff off your computer (TPM-ectomy, anyone?). Next problem: now you can’t validate your computer with your ISP to prove that it is free of malware. To do that, you need access to the secret encryption key buried in the TPM.

This is called remote attestation: the machine(s) your computer communicates with can see information about your computer – say, what operating system you run, and what patch level – and because that data is signed or encrypted by your TPM chip, you can not change it.

Note that it’s already pretty easy for remote machines to see what (version of) an operating system a computer runs, for instance with TCP/IP fingerprinting, but that is easy to fake.

Remote attestation is the real danger of ‘trustworthy’ computing. They can try to put all sorts of things in the hardware; if people have physical access, someone will find a way around it. But if they make it impossible to network your computer without an operational TPM chip then we might as well kiss all our free software and free hardware goodbye. It won’t be any good to run a computer with GNU/Linux, if we can’t go online with it… Or if our online banking refuses to talk to our computer because our machine is not deemed to be running a fully patched version of Windows.

Given that this position paper comes from Microsoft, it’s not too hard to see where they want to go. Microsoft would love to be in a position where ISPs and banks require certain patchlevels of its software. Can you imagine a better way to force people to keep upgrading their Windows licenses? Or to force people to stop using free operating systems?

I have a better idea to combat the malware problem, mr. Charney. Why don’t we ask people to stop using Windows. Without Windows, the malware/botnet problem would not be nearly as bad as it is today.

Posted in Free Software/Open Source, Hardware | Leave a comment

Intel selling crippled CPUs

Posted on September 21, 2010 by ward

Via boingboing.net: Intel is now selling crippled CPUs that can be ‘upgraded’ through the purchase of scratch cards (!) with a code. That code can be entered in the BIOS of the computer, thus unlocking additional horsepower.

I’m running out of CPU – quick, head over to the corner store for an Intel scratch card!

Is this an alternate universe? And, how long before they sell cards that will unlock extra features, but only for a limited time?

I guess now we know at least one concrete reason why Intel does not like coreboot. You can’t restrict people like this when their computer does not have a proprietary BIOS.

Posted in DRM, Hardware | Leave a comment

View from my ‘office’

Posted on June 29, 2010 by ward

Lac Leman

Sadly, this is just for a few weeks…

Posted in Personal | Leave a comment

failed US broadband policy – excellent lecture by Larry Lessig

Posted on April 20, 2010 by ward

There is a good article over at PCWorld titled Why America’s Telecom System Stinks. It refers to a lecture by Larry Lessig which you can view in its entirety here. The first 25 minutes or so deal with broadband policy.

I wish lawmakers took the time to view that lecture. Maybe they would come to understand the problem then – barring a few exceptions it seems that most high up in government do not have the faintest clue that broadband policy in the US is fundamentally broken.

It’s pretty bad when a big honcho from the FCC publicly states that he is not interested in returning to a competitive broadband landscape by reinstituting unbundling because it would result in lengthy legal battles with the big telcos. Can you say regulatory capture?

Posted in Broadband | Leave a comment

Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system

Posted on April 17, 2010 by ward

The Free Software Foundation has funded a documentary about the folly of software patents, titled Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system. The film is available in Ogg Theora format. If you have a modern browser (Firefox, Chrome, etc) it will play embedded in your browser thanks to HTML 5′s video tag. If you are stuck with IE, you can just download VLC to watch it. The film is also available for download and as a torrent.

It is just under 29 minutes long, and highly recommended.

As a personal note – it’s awesome to see the FSF bring together two of its campaigns, End Software Patents and PlayOgg, while staying true to its founding principles: the film was produced entirely with free software.

Posted in Copyright, patents, and trademarks | 1 Comment

apparently some EU telecoms are just as greedy and stupid as their US counterparts

Posted on April 13, 2010 by ward

It seems Telefónica, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom all think that somehow, they should get paid twice for the internet bandwidth they provide to their end-user customers.

An article in the Financial Times quotes leadership from those three companies saying that Google is getting a “free ride” pushing YouTube traffic to their respective customers “because they do not pay anything”.

This is not a new argument of course – SBC has claimed the same thing in the US way back in 2005. Other than generate a general disgust for SBC, not much has come from that claim.

Statements like these show these CEOs do not understand the basic principles of internet peering. Worse, they also indicate a basic dishonesty – they must realize that *their own customers* already pay for that bandwidth.

It’s time the big telcos realize that the world has changed. Their companies are not phone companies anymore, they are telecommunications companies trending towards pure data companies. They are in the business of providing internet access. That means ‘dumb pipes’.

If they do not like that, they should go find something else to do. Of course their government granted monopolies should then be taken away. And the lavish subsidies they received for network buildouts should be paid back and given to other organizations who *do* understand how the internet works.

Maybe then we wouldn’t see such ignorant and dishonest statements in the press.

Posted in Broadband, Completely clueless | Leave a comment

UNIX

Posted on February 24, 2010 by ward

UNIX

UNIX fire extinguisher

As seen in a Spanish train station, April 2002.

  • Make: Nikon
  • Model: E995
  • ExposureTime: 10/603 sec
  • FNumber: f/3
  • ISOSpeedRatings: 100
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Google’s ultra fast fiber network

Posted on February 11, 2010 by ward

Google has announced it is going to build a real broadband network in the US, to test ultra-high speed applications and networks. They intend to provide service to at least 50,000 and possibly up to 500,000 people. It will be a fiber to the home network with speeds over 1 gigabit/second.

That’s way, way, way faster than anything commonly considered ‘broadband’ in the US. It’s on par with speeds residential users can get in parts of the most advanced broadband nation in the world – Japan. If you dig statistics and want to see how pathetic the broadband situation is in the US, the OECD has a ton of numbers on this topic.

Google is going to build this as an open access network. That means they will own the fiber but they will share access to that fiber with many ISPs. Users will be able to sign up for service with an ISP of their choice, which will then presumably handle all billling and pay Google a share of proceeds for the use of the fiber.

DSL used to be operated in a similar way in the US. That changed when our regulators and legislators rolled over and allowed incumbent telephone companies (Verizon and co) to kill off most of the companies they had to share phone lines with. The incumbents did that largely by pricing the alternative ISPs (CLECs) out of business: they charge them higher wholesale prices than what they charge their own DSL end users.

The difference with other countries is stark. The countries where open access is mandated by law and heavily regulated so that the company that ‘owns’ the cable can not abuse its position tend to have far higher availability of high-speed connections, at a fraction of the cost per megabit that is common in the US.

So, assuming that Google does the right thing with this new fiber (as in, does not undercut or sabotage competitor ISPs that share its fiber), and/or regulators and legislators get the guts and sense to actually enforce open access on all access networks, this announcement is really good news for broadband competition.

Google’s looking for state, county and city officials who want their communities to participate in this project. Google’s also asking non-officials to nominate their communties.

Now, if they could be convinced to put that fiber in the ground in Somerville, MA…

Posted in Broadband | Leave a comment

CF iPod conversion to FAT32

Posted on January 25, 2010 by ward

In order to install Rockbox on an iPod, it needs to be formatted in FAT32, not HFS+. The relevant wiki page over at the Rockbox site suggest either connecting the iPod to an iTunes install on Windows, or using one of the bootsectors they have available for download from that page.

Those boot sectors assume your iPod has one of the factory disks installed. I’ve got an old 4th gen iPod that I converted to compact flash after its disk died. It happens to have an 8G CF card in there.

Since I don’t do Windows, I downloaded the 20G 4th gen bootsector, put that on the iPod, and used fdisk to change the size of the FAT32 partition. And that worked fine.

Posted in Free Software/Open Source | Leave a comment