Simple and effective tools strung together as needed, this one of the strongest attractors luring technical people into unix-like operating systems and keeping them there. For example, consider the real-world example, "generate a list of all files below this directory where any of the specified XML tag attributes are null or only numeric, and sort the list by filename paths, grouped by the specific attribute error" ... the concept of global actions across potentially thousands of files is completely alien in some operating system philosophies -- in unix it's a short shell script binding a handfull of text and file utilities, easily prototyped at the command line, ready for production use within the hour.

Mariusz Burdach gives us yet another example of small tools for direct solutions in a excellent tutorial on using the lowly GNU debugger to verify the integrity of your O/S, check for system-call exploits and some tips on ways to automate the audit.

we will make use of just one tool, gdb, the GNU debugger, to detect whether a Linux operating system has been compromised. The package that includes this tool can be found in almost every Linux distribution by default.

His paper also surveys the methods these intruders use to patch the kernel and how to relate this knowledge into appropriate detection tests.

[ via SecurityFocus HOME Infocus: Detecting Rootkits And Kernel-level Compromises I ]

I love the BBC -- first off, ever the ones to put a few pennies into real research, they bring to proof a new video compression method so ultra-advanced it rivals the lock-in codec foisted by the world's largest budget, and state of the art so much it has roots in quantum physics. If that weren't enough, next they turn around and release the code ... under a free software license

And why would they do that? Because, says the BBC, they want this thing to go places ...

"A lot remains to be done to convert our promising algorithm and experimental implementation into practical useable code. This includes optimization so that it can decode in real time. Algorithmic enhancements are needed to improve the compression performance still further. The resulting codec needs to be integrated with other parts of a compression system such as players, and interfaced using standard IO formats."

and to do all that, the shortest path is the one with the most load-bearing feet.

[ Source: BBC develops 'alternative' codec ]

Fascinating muse by Topix.net on some plausible ways and means that are likely under the hood of the server farm at Google. While nobody on the outside actually knows for certain, skrenta proposes that the real reason Google can roll out amazing web applications others would fear is all a matter of lowering the cost of the CPU-second ...

Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It's running their own cluster operating system. They make their big computer even bigger and faster each month, while lowering the cost of CPU cycles. It's looking more like a general purpose platform than a cluster optimized for a single application.

[ Source: Topix.net Weblog: The Secret Source of Google's Power ]