From: dropping science like galileo dropped the orange (gschmidt@mit.edu)
Date: 04/12/00-01:24:05 PM Z
> What I've learned so far:
I've only had a few hours the other night to poke around with my new
toy, but I've poked around in some binaries and it looks like dsmod
("data set modifier") is a custom NPL tool for talking to a custom NPL
library (ie QNX service) called DSM ("durable storage munger").
DSM manipulates two kinds of data: configuration data stored in named
groups of attriubtename=value pairs (attributename always seems to
start with a '.'), and blobs ("Binary Large OBjects") which are larger,
arbitrary blocks of data.
DSM has the concept of a dataset (the -d nvram in all of the dsmod
commands you've seen) which is exactly what it sounds like, a
dictionary of configuration data and blobs. nvram (Non-Volatile RAM)
is a dataset that's stored on the client somewhere (I strongly suspect
on the sandisk somewhere.) I don't know if you can create additional
local datasets. DSM can also use *remote datasets* on NPL's server.
This lets your IO get dynamic configuration data from NPL, and maybe
store extra data that wouldn't fit on the sandisk at NPL. This is
probably what they're talking about when they say "all of your data is
backed up on our servers." I'm guessing the username:password
argument to dsmod has something to do with using server-side datasets.
Communications with NPL's DSM servers are encrypted with SSL! So they
consider at least some of the data stored in DSM to be sensitive.
lessee, what else.. you know that nplog command you see everywhere?
that talks to a custom logging library/daemon, and provisions exist
for *sending all of the stuff logged with nplog off over the net
connection to netpliance*! so watch out. I didn't take notes so I
don't remember all of the pieces of the logging system and what talks
to what.
I'm beginning to suspect they have a generic NPL-to-client message
passing layer that nplog, poke (see below), etc use. possibly this
layer is DSM. this paragraph is all speculation.
they have a custom 'watch' daemon that monitors how much system
resources various programs use (they're mostly concerned with ram) and
takes various corrective actions (like rebooting the machine) if a
program spirals out of control. the config files for it are, uh,
somewhere (I forgot, easily findable.) i think this thing writes to
the log too.
there's a daemon/QNX library thingy called poke (? like I said I
didn't take notes but I think that's what it was called) that lets the
server call up a client and say "hi. download this file" or
"hi. execute this command" or "hi. execute this command using the
shell" -- it's fairly obvious from the binary all the things it can
do, but I don't remember. this would be one way to deliver
updates/flash people's bioses remotely.
conclusion: they've built an elaborate and reasonably-well-thought-out
architecture here that supports much much more than web browsing and
email. now, either it's just overengineered as fuck (as eg the aol
client is -- i disassembled it once upon a time, and the whole thing
is an object-oriented bytecode interpreter that runs programs it
downloads from the server!!) or they're planning on doing a lot more
with the toys they're putting in everybody's houses, like
subscription-based hosted applications ("$1/mo extra for our word
processor that backs up all of your documents on our server using
DSM")
conclusion II: i'm skeptical that they'd throw away all the work
they've put into their architecture and go with whatever people come
up with on devcorner.netpliance.com. I think it's all just spin
control to keep us from badmouthing NPL to our grannies. Remember,
we're the "computer geniuses" of popular stereotype that people trust
and ask for advice when they're buying computers. devcorner has been
nothing but stalling, and there's been this suspicious pattern of
updates where every time NPL sends out a press release to placate
their investors talking about how they'll stop the evil linux hackers
once and for all, they'll add another sentence to devcorner a few
hours later to distract us.
it'd be nice to take this to a list where we don't have NPL looking
over our shoulders. It's funny to think that the people who
implemented all of this stuff are probably reading this email. Hi
NPL! As long as I'm talking to ya, you did know that Macromedia
released a free flash decoding library, right? wanna hire me to do an
open source port to QNX?
all right, enough ignorant slashdot-esque rambling.
g
_______________________________________________
iopener mailing list iopener@scsiboy.com
To change your mailing options, please go to http://snoopy.net/mailman/listinfo/iopener
Read the FAQ, please! http://fastolfe.net/misc/i-opener-faq.html