Update on progress

Nothing really specific to say this time round, just wanted everyone to know that I'm still alive. Made quite a bit of progress on MLX though (which, funnily enough, doesn't seem to be the focus of this blog anymore. Perhaps I should rename it...). Some of the things I've done are:

• Finally managed to get a (semi) working makefile. The problem is really that make isn't exactly cut out for this sort of thing, and as a result, it doesn't really work too well. Another issue is the loopback mechanism in Linux doesn't allow for partitions. To solve this, I simply specified the build directory as an external bootable USB key. Not ideal, and definitely not portable, but it works. Ish.
• Next, I've managed to get Grub working with MLX. Now, the layout is (temporary)
• GRUB
• Boot loader stage 4 (1-3 are intended to be my multiboot loader, if I get round to it.)
• Kernel

• Furthermore, I've abandoned file system development for now, opting for EXT4 for now. Screw FAT.
• Started to get the modular loading working (it loads A module, but I want it to load SOME modules...)
• Got a basic relocatable kernel (moves itself to address 0, wherever it is, then goes from there)
• Started to work on the relocatable driver code. So far, don't know how I'm going to handle the kernel/router calling, may opt to have another boot script directive for that.
• Started working on the boot script format. So far what I have is:
• All modules must be loaded by the MB loader. The boot script must be the first module, followed by the kernel/drivers, in any order.
• The kernel/drivers/whatever, must consist of a short jump, followed by sufficient NOP instructions, to obtain the 4 byte mark. After this, a signature string will occur.
• The boot script will load the module using the command, "LOAD " + signature string.
• All signature strings must be unique.
• Yeah, so far I don't have any way of keeping strings unique. What I may do is develop some hashing thing or other. Don't know yet. Right now they're just called "KERNEL", "HAL", "KEYBOARD", etc. Nothing special.

That's about it on the MLX front. Other than that, managed to score myself a 26 port (24 + module + 100Base-TX) 10Base-T switch, for under a tenner. Set up a laptop to use as my router, as my wifi dongle broke. Since then, added to that, turning it into a web server (DNS doesn't work though).

That's all folks.

On Reaching a Learning Plateau

Following on from my last post, another few points have come to mind, that I really should post. In the scheme of things, I'm an average programmer. I'm not amazing, and I'm not afraid to admit it. However, when looking at the bigger picture, I'm very good considering my age (though there are plenty of people my age, whom are much better).

The primary problem is not a lifestyle one (although there are issues there that really do need sorting, and will be, in the manner of the last post), however one of learning. The issue is that I have learned quite a bit, and, while I need to carry on learning to get any better, the progress I am making feels like nothing, which is dragging on motivation.

This leads on to the typical lazyness, etc. which impact all areas of my life, causing issues all round. The problem is, predominantly, that I need to carry on programming to continue learning, however all of my projects have reached the critical mass.

What I mean by critical mass, is that they have reached the point where they are no longer trivial. This is a problem for me, as I am prone to not actually planning my projects, and once they reach the critical mass, they implode, becoming messy and unmaintainable, and the project dies. This is a massive issue, and a big part of the lost motivation issue, and part of getting over the plateau.

So, I need to plan my projects more.

Furthermore, I lack imagination quite a bit as well. This also needs sorting, as I often struggle to find new ideas, either for what feature to implement next, or what project to try next (note that now, they will all be logged, in an idea file, and maybe started someday, when I have finished the current one). Again, major issue. I have the technical knowledge, but my creative side lets me down.

So, I need to improve my imagination.

Finally, mental arithmetic. By this I don't mean the "two twos are four, three twos are six" style of memorizing everything, but I do mean reducing my reliance on a calculator. This will be a productivity boon, as I won't have to fumble with the calculator every time I need to work sector boundaries out, etc. I need to improve my simple math. I can do them, but very slowly. PROBLEM. Doing this in binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal, will vastly improve my abilities academically, and in programming.

All in all:
Plan projects, improve imagination, and improve mental math skills. This should get me over the plateau.

Bit of an Experiment

No posts in a while. Sorry (if anyone even reads this blog...)

Going to try something radical over the next few months (radical for me anyway), and see what happens. I'm also going to post regular updates here, as to my progress, and what it is doing.

The Problem: Recently, I've got absolutely nothing done. Motivation is low, and I'd sooner spend the day watching T.V. (daytime television, bah!), and playing mindless minigames than actually getting things done. Something that is alright for a day or two, but this has been happening for a few weeks, and I want to do something about it, BEFORE it turns into depression.

The Aims: In this experiment, not only do I want to increase my motivation, but I also want to try and increase my productivity, and better my health, while I'm at it. Of course, all of these things are related, so improving one should improve the others as well, but there's no harm in targeting all three at once, now is there?

The Experiment: Several key changes are going to happen in my life over the next few months. In no particular order:

• I'm going to try to cut down on sugary snacks, and eat healthier.
• I'm going to try to exercise more (at least an hour a day, 3 times a week.)
• I'm going to cut down on the amount of T.V. I watch.
• I'm going to tidy my pit, and keep it tidy.
• I'm going to get all of my college notes typed, and cut down on the paperwork I have.
• I'm going to reorganize my hard drive, to make things easier to find (see point 4 above to get the idea).
• I'm going to work on one project at a time, and stow the rest. I may well end up putting them on an external drive, but the one I'm working on, and giving the drive to my Grandma or something, so that they're well out of the way.
• I'm going to see projects through to the end.
• I'm going to listen to some positive music, like classical for example, rather than my heavy metal, which, while getting me pumped, can have depressing lyrics.
• I'm going to get well away from Facebook, limiting myself to 10 minutes a week (anyone know a good Firefox plugin for this?)
• And on the point of Facebook, I'm going to "decrappify" my Facebook stream, my G+ stream, and my emails, and get rid of as much shit as I can.
• Following on from this, I'm going to stop watching the news, or reading the paper (other than the crosswords and number workouts :)
• I'm going to stop having my music quite so loud.
• I'm going to get some (decent, well behaved *cough*dane*cough*) friends (in the local area).
• And finally, I'm going to try to be more positive.

Dr. Lustig - Sugar, the Bitter Truth
The Power of Ignoring Mainstream News

Many of these mean I probably won't work on anything for a few months more, while I implement them, but after that, I will be back on running full steam. I hope.

What thinking aloud can do - An idea for 100% secure backup

I've been lousy at updating lately, sorry. String of posts to follow, LOTS to share!

I was thinking today, about how I can better secure all of my data. A lot of data I have is completely irreplaceable, on my phone, computer, laptop, etc. Therefore, an adequate backup solution would be a fantastic idea. Added to this, I don't want to entrust everything to the cloud - it's expensive, and not 100% secure; people can listen in, the company could lose the copy, or go bankrupt, and/or a number of other things could happen. Just look at the amount of dead geocities links for an example (not cloud storage, but the same thing could happen to it very easily).

So, thinking about this, I had the idea of buying loads of high capacity (>2TB) disks, cramming them into a cheap machine, tucking it away on a shelf somewhere, and setting up automated backups to the new server. Again, however, there are a few problems. House gets broken into and the machine taken? Fire? Hell, just taking it down for an upgrade means I can't do anything with my data for a while.

So, then I managed to conjoin the two ideas, and several others, to come up with something that IS 100% secure, and free too. Social backups, with distributed RAID.

What is that? A new idea, I believe, that I don't think has been done before. If several people all contribute 2TB to a vast network of computers, and then consume 2TB from the network, then it's like nothing happened, right? Effectively, but picture this: if 10 people did this, and those 10 people all had the 2TB each on separate partitions, all of which were assembled in a RAID array, then one of those 10 people could suffer a fire, or outage, and none of the data would be lost. Granted, there would be small data loss as far as the capacity went, but that should be insignificant compared to the benefits.

Particularly if it is distributed globally, this kind of network, especially encrypted, and individually passworded (if the technology exists, if not, TO THE EDITOR!), then we have completely reliable, completely secure (if the encryption and password are strong) backups. No need for expensive cloud solutions, and really, nobody has to pay anything, or even trust each other, because it's all distributed. With the right people starting this off, I personally think it could work really well, and catch on quite quickly.

I'll do more research into this, but if it is to happen, some people need to come forth and volunteer as guinea pigs.

31 Day Challenge - Conclusion

Well, the 31 Day Challenge is over and done with, and yes, in case you are wondering, I did go a few days over, purely because of my busy schedule. Hence, no post for a couple of extra days. Here it is now, though.

To be honest, I really actually enjoyed this, and learned a fair bit from it. Most of my time was spent with my nose in a Stephen King novel, but regardless of this, I did learn a few things. So:

10. It's nice to do a bit of reading now and then. I'm going to be keeping up my reading now, and have fallen in love with it again. I used to read loads, but fell out with it (probably due to the fact that the book I was reading was falling apart, and was a swine to keep track of).

9. It is very possible to break habits, and find different ways to entertain oneself. I will be honest, to start with, I was as bored as I don't know what. Then I discovered books again. Happy days. Finding new hobbies isn't that hard, and as a result, if you're bored with something, but don't want to give it up in case you end up more bored (as I confess I was getting to before the challenge), just look. The right answer won't be too far away.

8. Everything gets better after a break. Having a break from my computer, music and TV has made me realize how good they actually are, and has made me appreciate them even more.

7. I was completely dependent on music. To tie in with my previous point, I was quite reliant on music, and found myself missing it heavily, and often fighting the urge to put some on (I didn't ever break the promise, other than what was outlined in my previous posts, so I count this as a success).

6. A break from music can be relaxing. I found that, before doing this, I sometimes got random headaches. Not anymore, not during the challenge. So, maybe I need to turn it down a tad ;).

5. I rediscovered my love of walking as well. A nice relaxing walk, with no music at all, is very worth while to clear your head (but can do just the opposite if the weather is shit, like today).

4. By doing things like this, it forces you to make new friends, and do more with friends. Extrapolating from this, the computer, Internet, TV, etc. are obviously vast social life vampires, essentially leaving you with nothing. So, I'll be cutting my hours down.

3. It is possible to get by, and organize things, without relying on technology. I often found myself organizing to meet people by, wait, you won't believe this, actually talking to them. Can you believe that? No texts, no Facebook or Google+, all by actually talking to them.

2. Most of our thoughts aren't our own. The media, and big advertisers, are often planting thoughts in our heads. There is no getting completely away from this, but we can cut it down, as I have done.

1. Things like this are absolutely worth while. It cleared my head, allowed me to discover some neat ideas for projects, etc., and was actually quite enjoyable. So, I'll be doing the same sort of thing, one month of every 3. Yeah, you heard me.

That's all folks!

The Black March - 31 Day Challenge - Day 9

Just to let everyone know, I am still alive.

News of the Day: Hacker 'Sabu' worked tirelessly as FBI informant

Thought of the Day: 99% of people are dicks. You just need to learn to deal with it.

Progress on the 31 Day Challenge so far: Its gone quite well, actually. Pleased with myself, and using the computer now is making me feel guilty, hence the short post.

I can't promise daily updates, but I will post as often as I can.

The Black March - 31 Day Challenge - Day 2

Late again, sorry. New format now.

News of the Day: Apple is going on the defensive. With the Foxconn mess, and many people doubting their ethics, Apple is now fighting to prove that it is an American company, apparently not worrying as much any more about clearing up the apparent disbelief of the Foxconn story. People still very much doubt Foxconn is ethical, but Apple seems more concerned now with allegations that it is no longer supporting American jobs. Full story here.

(Aside: this reminded me of a joke. "Ten years ago we had Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, and Steve Jobs. Now we've got no Hope, no Cash, and no Jobs. I hope Kevin Bacon doesn't die.")

Thought of the Day: If you think you can do something, and you think you'll be good at it, get up off your arse and do it!

31 Day Challenge - What I've done so far today: So, yesterday wasn't really part of the challenge - I booked a ticket to go and see Rammstein long before I knew I'd do the challenge. So, yesterday is exempt. Sorry.