should we create an OS development magazine?

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:13 am

You seem to have far more experience in the field of technical writing than probably alot of the writers aboard, so the advice is indeed welcome.

yeah, lets try to keep the articles in the middle and not on someones opinionated side.

I still don't see the issue with 'hacking' articles if they are referring to hacking in the non-malicious (non-cracker) way. If they are just talking about code-altering OS stuff, then I dont see an issue, if they are writing articles about their newest 0day exploit, then there's a problem.

Dex · Post by **Dex** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:07 pm

I was thinking in terms, of articles like this:
http://www.dex4u.com/DexMag/DexMag1-3.htm

Just as part of my puting myth's to the test, for articles in the mag.

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:39 pm

thats an incredibly sketchy series to publish.

First off, what if Arethos didn't like how you were misusing their hardware? or netgear, or whatever your router was, or the WEP creators themselves?

you would have to read a ton of fine print to know if what you did (local or not) is truely legal and worth the risk to publish.

t0xic · Post by **t0xic** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:47 pm

Solar wrote:Bad idea. Such a complaint will usually be attached to a lawsuit, which usually means a four-digit amount of fines payable by the person signing responsible for the mag. Been there.

I like the statistic of a future quantum computer breaking the U.S. security codes in one second.
Haven't read the article, but that smells fishy - Slashdot type journalism, that which a hacker likes to hear and heard elsewhere on the 'net.

As an example of peer editoring, my take on the subject: For years to come, such a quantum computer won't be a PCIe slot-in card or a different brand of motherboard, but something that resides in the basements of organizations-who-can-pay. And it won't be just "the US security codes", but the GPG, SSL, and SSH you use for your privacy. Of course there will be quantum encryption, too, which will be (reasonably) secure from such quantum computing attacks - and again, available for organizations-who-can-pay. Then there's the history of the US banning strong cryptography from export - which effectively failed with stuff like PGP because it's software. Quantum Cryptography is hardware...

Now I may be paranoid. But whoever is the editor of that Quantum Computing article should have some pointers on how he could extend his article by some research, to make it into something that has not been widely circulated on the 'net already.

This is not for the sake of the article on Quantum Computing, but a suggestion for Modus Operandi. Find two (or more!) people with widely varying views on a subject. Talk to both of them. Follow their pointers. Do research. Write an article that reflects both POV's, without actually judging either, so the reader can widen his horizons instead of being spoon-fed whatever the editor feels about a topic.

Disclaimer: I still don't want a part in this magazine thing, I'm just being vaguely supportive.

You have a great point. I'm not going to claim to be an expert on quantum computing or anything in that realm - far from it. I am open for pointers on how to expand, as I am writing off of things already circulating the net, and there is only 1 sentence in the article that has the prefix "crypto" in it.

jerryleecooper · Post by **jerryleecooper** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:59 pm

That's true, what if some technology creator doesn't want you to use its technology the way you use it? It's their technology after all and its their responsability to assure the society the technology they created doesnt do harm to the society in any way.
THe corolary is that, to make sure we never do things with technology that the technology creator dont want us to make with it, we must write article detailing each and every steps of WHAT we must not do, so to make sure we don't do it! Problem solved.

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:20 pm

lmao.
interesting perspective.

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:53 pm

is no one going to ever submit anything?
that was a giant waste of 16-pages lol.

jerryleecooper · Post by **jerryleecooper** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:23 pm

Who is interrested about fat12? a bootloader? how to write one that load a file from a floppy? the second file does the a20 protectedmode things?
I wrote one.

piranha · Post by **piranha** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:50 pm

I'd like the FAT12 thing......as long as the tutorial isn't too fat! HAHA! get it? fat as in length!! hahaha

Wow......

-JL

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:12 am

that would be excellent seeing as how there are no other offers.

go ahead and submit it if you are ready - fakeworld.homeftp.org/magazine/upload.aspx

actually, submit it even if you aren't, I need some test material to work with to do some web formatting and such.

jerryleecooper · Post by **jerryleecooper** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:52 am

I have just wrote that, is it good? No, it is a work in progrees, and I am tired a bit.

Code: Select all

The FAT filesystem began in Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, from Marc MacDonald, with help from Bill Gate. The FAT is a very simple filesystem at its core, very suitable for the hobbyist operating system developer or for anyone wanting to comprehend a filesystem. 
Feature of FAT12:
1.	Keeps track of bad blocks
2.	Keeps track of files sizes
3.	No need to move files around to make place for new files
A FAT filesystem has four sections:
1.	The BPB
2.	The FAT table
3.	The root directory
4.	The cluster area
These areas are in this order in the FAT, but in this article, to not be fat, we will present thing in a different order, in beginning by the cluster area, using an even/odd order.
The cluster area is where each file is stored. Files are fragmented into â€œclustersâ€

Dex · Post by **Dex** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:21 am

01000101 wrote:is no one going to ever submit anything?
that was a giant waste of 16-pages lol.

All my articles were about hacking, or coding a usb stack or tcp/ip stack or coding a GUI.
But i see little point in submitting to a mag with no editor.

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:18 am

I thought Alboin was the editor?

And an article/tutorial on a TCP/IP stack or GUI would be a great contribution.

Quick grammatical fixes.
Bill Gate -> Bill Gates
Feature of FAT12 -> Features of FAT12
present thing -> present things (even though 'things' is a terrible descriptor)

Do you have any visuals to go with it?

lukem95 · Post by **lukem95** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:01 pm

well Dex surely the OS relevent stuff is better than nothing? i'd be interested in reading it anyway.

jerryleecooper · Post by **jerryleecooper** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:34 pm

I made a fast fat image, it was big, and I made it smaller. I don't know if it's any good. Think it is.

edited to remove the image, becayse of the sticky.