Geekish things: kexec and BRLCAD

The kexec() call has existed in the Linux kernel for some time.  I just yesterday got around to installing and setting up kexec-tools and experimenting with kexec().  I'd hoped it would enable me to switch to a new kernel without having to actually reboot, inheriting all the existing kernel structures and data, but (not surprisingly) that turns out to be a bit much to ask.  What it DOES do, however, is dramatically speed up rebooting by skipping the entire BIOS initialization phase.  After umounting everything and stopping all processes, instead of going on to cold-boot the machine from scratch, the kexec daemon jumps directly to warm-booting the new kernel.  On babylon5, this turns out to shorten the reboot time by almost two minutes.

Sure, two minutes isn't much in the overall scheme of things.  But it feels like eternity when you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs while you wait for the machine to reboot.  It also appears kexec() consistently reboots my laptop, which — if rebooted without kexec — will as often as not decide to just shut itself down instead.

In other geekish pursuits, I got BRLCAD installed over the weekend, and spent a fair bit of time learning the basics.  (I observe that BRLCAD's raytracer doesn't anti-alias edges very well.)

Here's my take on the mug tutorial, and my version of the candle tutorial, rather more elaborate than the USARL's...:

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PSA: Backdoored battery chargers

Ever bought an Energizer Duo USB battery charger?  Ever used it on a Windows PC?  It may have trojanned your PC.

"The installer for the Energizer Duo software places the file UsbCharger.dll in the application's directory and Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory," the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory on Friday.  "Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp.  Its capabilities include the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs."

Energizer reportedly has no idea how or when the trojan got into their software, but it may have been there ever since the Duo was launched three years ago.

Geekish things II: Making a good case

...No, not a legal case.  Fortunately.

( Hardware hacking within )

General linkiness

Scott and Scurvy

An article about how the cure for scurvy was first found, then misunderstood, then lost, and how this doomed the Scott expedition to the South Pole.  It wasn't Antarctic weather that killed them, so much as it was scurvy ... in 1911.

Our own Greek tragedy

From about a week ago, Mark Steyn on why the Greek economy is going down for the third time, and why the US is following them down the same road through failure to understand what happened and why.

We Are Not Evil

Magnatune, the first Internet-based record label, is trying to establish a new model for selling music.  This model includes letting you try before you buy, letting you pay what you think the music is worth, and paying artists not the piddling 2% or 3% of receipts that even big-name acts are lucky if they ever actually see from old-school record companies, but 50% of the purchase price.  They even encourage you to make three copies of every purchase to give to your friends, because Magnatune understands that word-of-mouth sells music.  (And books, and...)

And last but not least ...

John Kelly on printers as instruments of Satan.