LINA

LINA is a thin virtual layer that enables developers to write and compile code using ordinary Linux tools, then run that code on a variety of operating systems. For users, LINA runs invisibly in the background, enabling them to install and run these Linux applications as if they were native to that users' operating system.

LINA enables Linux applications to run on Windows, Mac OS X, and UNIX operating systems with native look and feel. GUI applications running on LINA are indistinguishable from the other applications on the user's machine because they utilize the native libraries of the underlying operating system. LINA integrates native Linux command line applications directly into the DOS, Mac OS X, or UNIX console. The configuration files of Web applications that run on LINA are fully accessible and editable.

Openfiler

Openfiler is an operating system that provides file-based network-attached storage (NAS) and block-based Storage area network (SAN). It was created by Xinit Systems, and is based on the rPath Linux distribution. It is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2. Its software stack interfaces with open source third-party software.

Features

Networking protocols supported by Openfiler include: NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP/WebDAV, FTP and iSCSI (initiator). Network directories supported by Openfiler include NIS, LDAP (with support for SMB/CIFS encrypted passwords), Active Directory (in native and mixed modes), Windows NT 4 domain controller and Hesiod. Authentication protocols include Kerberos 5. Openfiler includes support for volume-based partitioning, Ext3, JFS and XFS as on-disk native filesystems, point-in-time snapshots with scheduling, quota-based resource allocation, and a single unified interface for share management which makes allocating shares for various network file-system protocols easy.

The following are just some of the features currently available in Openfiler:

A. Block-based virtualization
1. Point-in-time snapshot support with scheduling
2. Online volume size expansion (testing)
3. Volume usage reporting
4. Support for multiple volume groups for optimal storage allocation
5. iSCSI initiator (manual currently)
6. Volume migration & replication (manual currently)

B. Accounts management
1. Authentication using Pluggable Authentication Modules, configured from the web-interface
2. NIS, LDAP, Hesiod, Active Directory (native and mixed modes), NT4 domain controller
3. Guest/public account support

C. Quota / resource allocation
1. Per-volume group-quota management for space and files
2. Per-volume user-quota management for space and files
3. Per-volume guest-quota management for space and files
4. User and group templates support for quota allocation

D. Share management
1. Per-volume based share creation
2. Multi-level share directory tree
3. Multi-group based access control on a per-share basis
4. Multi-host/network based access control on a per-share basis
5. Per-share service activation (NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP/WebDAV, FTP)
6. Support for auto-created SMB home directories

E. Industry-standard protocol suite
1. CIFS/SMB support for Microsoft Windows-based clients
2. NFSv3 support for all UNIX clients with support for ACL protocol extensions
3. NFSv4 support (testing)
4. FTP support
5. WebDAV and HTTP 1.1 support
6. Linux distribution back-end for any other customizations
7. Open source provides you the power to modify and deploy software if you want to do so

Hyper-V

Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian, formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor based virtualization system for x64 versions of Windows Server 2008, to be made available 180 days after the OS is released to manufacturing. The Hyper-V hypervisor will also be available as a stand-alone offering, without the Windows Server functionality, as Microsoft Hyper-V Server. Release candidates of Windows Server 2008 include a preview of Hyper-V.

Architecture

Hyper-V supports isolation in terms of a partition. A partition is a logical unit of isolation, supported by the hypervisor, in which operating systems execute. A hypervisor instance has to have at least one root partition, running Windows Server 2008. The virtualization stack runs in the root partition and has direct access to the hardware devices. The root partition then creates the child partitions which hosts the guests OSs. A child partition can also spawn further child partitions of their own. A parent partition creates child partitions using the hypercall API, which is the application programming interface exposed by Hyper-V.

A virtualized partition does not have access to the physical processor, nor does it handle its real interrupts. Instead, they have a virtual view of the processor and run in Guest Virtual Address, which depending on the configuration of the hypervisor, may or may not be the entire virtual address space. A hypervisor may choose to expose only a subset of the processors to each partition. The hypervisor handles the interrupts to the processor, and redirects them to the respective partition using a logical Synthetic Interrupt Controller (SynIC). Hyper-V can hardware accelerate the address translation between various Guest Virtual Address-spaces by using an IOMMU (I/O Memory Management Unit) which operates independent of the memory management hardware used by the CPU.

Child partitions do not have direct access to hardware resources, instead they have a virtual view of the resources, in terms of virtual devices. Any request to the virtual devices is redirected via the VMBus to the devices in the parent partition, which will manage the requests. The VMBus is a logical channel which enables inter-partition communication. The response is also redirected via the VMBus. If the devices in the parent partition are also virtual devices, it will be redirected further till it reaches the root partition, where it will gain access to the physical devices. Parent partitions run a Virtualization Service Provider (VSP) which connects to the VMBus and handles device access requests from child partitions. Child partition virtual devices internally run Virtualization Service Consumer (VSC) which redirect the request to VSPs in the parent partition via the VMBus. This entire process is transparent to the guest OS.

Virtual Devices can also take advantage of a Windows Server Virtualization feature, named Enlightened I/O, for storage, networking and graphics subsystems, among others. Enlightened I/O is specialized virtualization-aware implementation of high level communication protocols like SCSI to take advantage of VMBus directly, bypassing any device emulation layer. This makes the communication more efficient but requires the guest OS to support Enlightened I/O.

Appleseed Ex Machina

Appleseed Ex Machina

Appleseed Ex Machina IMDb

Appleseed EX Machina is an anime film and is the sequel to the 2004 Appleseed film, similarly directed by Shinji Aramaki. It was released on 20th October 2007 in Japan and fully involved Hong Kong director and producer John Woo. The film made its American premiere at The Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival in Los Angeles on December 15th, 2007.

Plot summary

Following the non-nuclear war that killed half the world's population, the city-nation of Olympus stands as a beacon of hope in a world of chaos and conflict. The utopian metropolis is governed by Gaia, a vast artificial intelligence, and administered by genetically engineered humanoids known as bioroids, whose designer DNA suppresses strong emotions. With Bioroids being half of its population, peace and order are easily maintained.

Deunan Knute, a young female warrior, and Briareos, a veteran cyborg-soldier, are both partners and lovers. As members of E.S.W.A.T., the elite special forces serving Olympus, they are deployed whenever trouble strikes. The two fighters find their partnership tested in a new way by the arrival of a new member to their ranks — an experimental bioroid named Tereus.

Created by Gaia using DNA from Briareos, Tereus uncannily resembles Briareos before the wartime injuries that led to his becoming a cyborg. Not only does this trouble Deunan, but Briareos's DNA gives Tereus more than top-notch fighting skills; this battle-ready bioroid is like Briareos in another way — he also has strong romantic feelings for Deunan.

Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine

The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine

The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), nicknamed Baby, was the world's first stored-program computer. Developed by Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester, it ran its first program on June 21, 1948.

The computer was built around a Williams tube, a particular type of cathode ray tube (CRT) which had been developed by Williams at the Telecommunications Research Establishment in July-November 1946, before he joined the University of Manchester in December 1946. Working with Kilburn at the university they increased the storage capacity of the CRT from one bit to 2048 by October 1947 using a 64 by 32 array. This could be used for a computer's memory, with the advantage of allowing random access to memory, rather than the sequential access of the delay line memory units.

The SSEM was a very limited machine, designed to test the Williams tube and other hardware rather than as a practical computer. The SSEM had a single 32 by 32-bit word store, a second CRT to hold a single 32-bit accumulator, and a third CRT to hold the current instruction and its address. A fourth CRT was the output device, displaying the bit pattern of any chosen storage tube. The inputdevice was a set of 32 buttons with manual switches to set the bit pattern of any word.

A whole word was used for any instruction, with bits 0–12 representing the address and bits 13–15 the code defining the function. An instruction was executed in 1.2 milliseconds and the main store was refreshed every 16 instructions.

It was limited because it could store a total of only 32 numbers and instructions, and the instruction set was very limited. The initial seven instructions were:

* jump indirect
* relative jump indirect
* take a number from memory, negate it, and load it into the accumulator
* write the number in the accumulator back to memory
* subtract a value from the accumulator
* skip next if accumulator is negative
* stop

A division program was written, using pencil-and-paper method, operating on one bit at a time. It was used to divide 230-1 by 31, giving the answer in about 1.5 seconds. Then this routine was used in a program to show that 314,159,265 and 217,828,183 are relatively prime. Finally, a program was written to find the largest divisor of integers, by testing all numbers from a starting point down as possible divisors, with repeated subtraction used for division. This program consisted 17 instructions and it was written by Kilburn. (A 19-instruction amended version of it has been published.) It ran successfully on June 21, 1948, first on small integers. Within a few days it was run on 230-1 by trying every number from 218-1 down. It ran for 52 minutes, executing 3.5 million accesses to memory and 2.1 million instructions, and produced the correct answer.

The SSEM developed into the Manchester Mark I, which led to the Ferranti Mark I, the world's second commercially available general-purpose computer. At around the same time EDSAC was being developed at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory.

A working replica of the SSEM was created in 1998 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the running of its first program. This is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Hiberno-English

Hiberno-English Wikipedia

Hiberno-English — also known as Anglo-Irish and Irish English — is the form of English spoken in the Republic of Ireland and, to a lesser degree, some parts of Northern Ireland. It is the result of the interaction of the English and Irish languages. English was mainly brought to Ireland during the Plantations of Ireland in the sixteenth century and established itself in Dublin and in the area of Leinster known as the Pale. It was later introduced into Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster through Belfast and the Lagan Valley in the seventeenth century. The linguistic influence of the Irish language is most evident in Gaeltachtaí, areas where Irish is still spoken, as well as in areas where, before the complete adoption of English, Irish continued to be spoken for longer than in other areas.

The standard spelling and grammar of Irish-English are largely the same as common British English. However, some unique characteristics exist, especially in the spoken language, owing to the influence of the Irish language on the pronunciation of English. Due in most part to the influence of the US media abroad, many words and phrases of American English have become interchangeable with their Hiberno-English equivalents, most especially with the youngest generations. British English, however, remains the greatest influence on grammar, spelling and lexicon on English in Ireland.

Grammar

...Conditionals have a greater presence in Hiberno-English due to the tendency to replace the simple present tense with the conditional (would) and the simple past tense with the conditional perfect (would have).

* John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread ('John asked me to buy a loaf of bread')
* How do you know him? We would have been in school together. ('We went to school together')...