zero_one_one

I definitely would have gone for “close the lid” as a title rather than “close the book”. An opportunity for prime journalistic comedy missed!

I agree - my main point is that an OS is ‘just a program’ as well

I suspect we’re both making a similar point in a roundabout way - the operating system is both another layer of abstraction on top of the Instruction Set, while also making the programming process for that chipset somewhat easier (providing software interrupts etc. at the expense of bare metal understanding).

My argument is loosely that modern (x64) assembly is not so much targeting hardware as it is programming into a software abstraction (the operating system).

I think this is the biggest problem with learning x86 assembly (or ARM or anything else) on modern systems (or more specifically modern operating systems).

It’s sometimes difficult to think about the assembly code in situ when you start to think about the operating system doing a ton of context switching and paging etc. in the background, which can distract your thought process from what’s right in front of you (as well as the operating system’s software interrupts / system calls on top of the basic ISA, which is another abstraction!)

Older systems had the currently running program as the entire context of the system at that point in time - in a similar way to embedded programming, which is imho a much easier realm to learn assembly in once you’ve got a bit of basic electronics under your belt!

The code above I believe is the point to jump to when the register has been assigned some value for x. Think along the same lines as a function call once the pre-amble is out of the way (or a ‘goto’ by someone who knows when to use it!)

I think it’s created by the man himself - having been through it it’s a very thorough coverage of the basic instruction set without delving too much into the windows specifics (it uses FASM syntax from what I recall)

I’d like to add to this comment to say that the author has a fantastic assembly course available on udemy - very thorough and practical (teaching the basics in a win32 environment)

https://www.udemy.com/x86-asm-foundations/

The original requirements were for bread and meat. With an optional drink of water if there was time and it came in under budget.

Don't forget your towel!

grep -v .*[nN].x will solve the infrastructure problem...

As you say, the way to make money (with any tool) is to get good enough at using them to be useful to someone that wants to pay you to do so

>> if your code needs a comment to be understood, it would be better to rewrite it so it's easier to understand.

I both agree and disagree with this... C is a small language, and it shouldn't take a huge amount of time to parse the source code to find out what's going on if variables / function names are self-documenting etc.

However, if you're dealing with a large code base and trying to track down where a variable is declared (and subsequently defined) for the purposes of maintenance or updating legacy code, comments hinting the what the structure underneath that label represents are incredibly useful (and more importantly, time and energy saving)

To clarify - I agree the BSDs are keeping Unix alive, however separating BSD from those Unixes with System V roots which are starting to wither and die is the point I was making - hence the (BSDs aside) addendum.

If you don't mind me asking, what are you using the horsepower for? Is it in use for day-to-day operations?

It's a real shame that the last line of System V Unixes/ Unices / Unii is starting to die off. Market share aside, it's sad that the history of UNIX(r) appears to be coming to a close...

A very undignified end to a wonderful OS (BSDs aside!)

Agreed... although x86 port for Solaris from SPARC wasn't enough to keep Solaris alive and kicking, despite the huge advancements Sun had made with the kernel and filesystem etc.

Nothing like long-term legacy support contracts for a bit of cash injection...

My concern would be that as they look to carve off the less profitable areas of their enterprise divisions, that the HP/UX team (as a smaller subset of the overall quoted number of 5000) and in turn the HP/UX product as it stands at the moment, could potentially be marked to suffer the same projected fate as Solaris.

They also create several workstations used quite extensively in the video editing world, along with other power-user oriented industrial uses

Could we be possibly be looking at HP taking HP/UX the same way that Oracle took Solaris? i.e. tossing it overboard?

Addison Lee also tend to seemingly employ many drivers who drive as if they're doing their best to kill you, themselves, and any cyclists or unwary pedestrians around them. Worse still, this activity is actively encouraged by Addison Lee's own corporate policy

:set sarcasm

Hey, That's unfair to C! If an OS is reckless enough to give a process memory when it asks for it, it should have no business worrying about what the process does with the allocation!

In all seriousness though, the language can't be held responsible for poor programming practices.

For any insecurities resulting from c code, blame the compiler!

:)

Not only reading source code - how many people disassemble their compiled code and check for any unwanted side effects the compiler may have generated? For any non-trivial code base, this is not an option, hence where the implicit trust in the tools lies, and also the potential for exploitation

Most of the TV and movies you've been watching since things went digital are cases where 'high dynamic range' has been jammed into a standard dynamic range container (most features and high-end drama would shoot either raw or record sensor data using some form of logarithmic transfer function to maximize the amount of information per bit or encoding). All information coming from the debayered raw or camera's widest 'record gamut' that's outside of the Rec.709 (or P3 for cinema) colourspace has simply been mapped down to an equivalent Rec. 709 / P3 value via a Look Up Table, graded down to fit within the output gamut, or simply clamped/thrown away.

HDR now gives a lot more to play with from a post production standpoint (when shot raw or using some logarithmic transfer function to encode the sensor data), as more of the picture information coming off the camera sensor can be utilised (where exposure, recording format and compression allow)

BT2020/2100 covers 'Wide Gamut' and 'Higher luminance' (PQ / SMPTE ST:2084) - both of these in tandem are at the core of all existing HDR standards (aside from HLG which I'll save for another discussion).

Bit depth will give you a value per color channel between zero (black) and the upper bound for that bit depth (2^n - white). How the image data is encoded in those values is very much standardized for all display colourspaces (though whether the hardware is capable of displaying the full range of those values correctly is a different story).

HDR is certainly not a fad - the current crop of displays are nowhere close to being able to display the full potential of the technology yet (100% of Rec.2020 gamut @ 10,000 nits)

AndrewUnmuted - are you perhaps confusing 'true' HDR with upscaled / gamut mapped rec. 709 material? e.g. taking an existing rec. 709 master and mapping the color to a larger colourspace?

Netflix, Amazon and several other OTT providers have their original content mastered in true HDR from the get go - no post processing 'tricks'. The main limiting factor is the acquisition source, which is why Netflix have gone down the route of specifying acceptable cameras for use on their original content productions.

> HDR processing is just a post-processing gimmick

Can you explain how it's a gimmick?

If you are confusing HDR for the process of taking an existing Rec. 709 signal and gamut mapping into a subset of Rec. 2020, I agree that is a bit gimmicky.

This (ab)use of the technology has nothing to do with the HDR standards however, what true HDR video is, nor what material mastered for HDR is or is capable of, and shouldn't define how you see the technology (or present it to others).

The vast majority of consumer HDR displays aren't capable of displaying the full P3 Gamut - let alone making a proper dent on Rec. 2020.

That's quite incredible... It'd be interesting to see how up to date the CRL is as well.

RIP Solaris

Anyone who is old enough to remember MUDs feels your pain - it's a real shame that you had to test HR inputs this way though!

$ CROSS DRAWBRIDGE

CANNOT CROSS DRAWBRIDGE

$ TRAVERSE DRAWBRIDGE

CANNOT TRAVERSE DRAWBRIDGE

$ ABANDON DRAWBRIDGE

YOU REALIZE THAT YOUR EFFORTS ARE WASTED TRYING TO EXPLAIN YOUR QUEST TO A LOW LEVEL GUARD.

YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE.

GO NORTH, WEST, SOUTH OR EAST (?)

Your application for an internship was spot on - ignore any and all feedback you've received from the HR rep, as it's all gumph. You obviously know what you're doing, and Internships (while beneficial in the market at the moment) are useful, you will be more than capable finding real paid work in any other area with your skillset - and best of luck to you as well. Aiming high doesn't necessary mean applying to the Facebooks and Googles of the world.

--- Wonder if the HR filters take regex?

'It'"'"'s a $"[nN].[Xx]" system! I know this!'*

*Edit: This also qualifies you on Xanax, which may not be what you want.

I'm not sure that there's any exaggeration in my post - I didn't mention any overblown outcomes that could result from these sort of actions, purely the considerations that weren't taken into account before the action was taken. I may not be seeing the wood for the trees though - it's been one of those days at work today! :)

I agree with you, that the expectation is reasonable, however in the real world this is not always the case. I totally agree that the systems should be tested for this, and if not they shouldn't be in a live environment.

However I draw the line when an unauthorized actor accesses a live system to prove a point, rather than going through proper procedures with absolutely no knowledge of the potential outcomes of his or her actions. This isn't white hat by any stretch of the imagination, and is incredibly reckless.