2010/1/22 James Hozier <guitars...@yahoo.com> > I don't understand what a solution can be. If they're never going to > release > supporting documentation anyway, does it really make a > difference for them? > Since they're profiting with or without us > anyway. So we can either choose to > just make it work, or just not buy > their products. I think the former is more > productive than the latter > since "boycotting" their product won't really > affect them (at least > any time soon) so they won't care anyway. On the other > hand, learning > to do things like reverse engineer and write drivers can be a > good > experience, especially for a young person such as myself. I just want > to > make my stuff work, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it... > and if > other people want to use my code too, then I'd be glad to share. > But the > primary focus is for my own personal gain, not to help others > have support for > their hardware. > > Of course the other option being that I could just go ahead > and forget > all of that and buy a Thinkpad of my choice so the work is already > done for me. All of my previous machines just coincidentally had bad > compatibility with OpenBSD because I didn't exactly choose them from > selections like at a store (I took whatever was available for free or > cheap) > and I didn't always get what I want because I didn't grow up in > a household > where we really had the luxury of even buying a computer > at all, but I was > always open to picking up thrown away boxes that were > functioning perfectly > fine. > > After I recently finished high school (just barely; I'm not very smart > which is also why I failed every class in two semesters of community > college) >
Take it easy pal, your never limit your capacity.... I've been working full-time for minimum wage with extra shifts > to save up for > that new ThinkPad I've always wanted. It took a while > after the rent, bills, > and food, but I'm not sure if I still want to > make the purchase because I > could learn so much from trying to get my > current notebook to work instead of > just relying on something that > works out of the box. So I'm still > contemplating on whether my money > can go to better use. > > What do you think? > --- On Fri, 1/22/10, J.C. Roberts <list-...@designtools.org> wrote: > > > From: > J.C. Roberts <list-...@designtools.org> > > Subject: Re: Books on reverse > engineering? > > To: "Ted Unangst" <ted.unan...@gmail.com> > > Cc: "Tomas Bodzar" > <tomas.bod...@gmail.com>, "Tobias Ulmer" <tobi...@tmux.org>, "James > Hozier" > <guitars...@yahoo.com>, misc@openbsd.org > > Date: Friday, January 22, 2010, > 9:05 AM > > > > [snip] > > > > At present, James only asked the question of "How?" > but > > skipped over > > the far more important question of "Why?" > > > > I've been > a DataRescue/HexRays customer for over a decade, > > and I have a > > full > licenses for the IDA Pro disassembler and the HexRays > > decompiler. > > I am > certainly not "great" at reverse engineering, but I > > can usually do > > well > enough. When I see the constant complaints from the > > open source > > world > about closed hardware, in particular nVidia, my > > personal thought > > processes > is very consistent... > > > > 1.) Get Angry. > > 2.) Say to myself, "I could > fix this," since > > disassembling and/or > > decompiling the closed source > nVida > > drivers is certainly possible. > > 3.) I ponder how long it would take > to do, and how > > much time I would > > sink into supporting it. > > 4.) > And finally I get to the rational conclusion; I > > SHOULD NOT HELP A > > > HARDWARE VENDOR WHO REFUSES TO RELEASE > > DOCUMENTATION! > > > > The reality of > "why?" is truly ugly; If I spend my time > > supporting > > undocumented hardware, > then I am only encouraging vendors > > to refuse to > > provide documentation. It > actually makes more sense to > > throw away the > > undocumented hardware and > replace it with well documented > > hardware. > > > > As you can see, the challenge > of getting something to work > > is not the > > most important consideration. The > most important thing is > > the > > precedence you set by helping hardware vendors > to remain > > closed. > > > > James would do more good by "stomping" on the device > as he > > mentioned, > > taking pictures of the destruction, putting up his poor > > > experience up > > on a blog, and mail the link to the VP of Marketing at the > > > vendor. > > > > Being nice with vendors seldom works. > > > > -- > > jon > > -- Atentamente Andris Genovez Tobar / Sistemas COMERCIAL SALVADOR PACHECO MORA S.A. / DESDE 1945 Tecnologmas Cuenca, Av. 27 de Febrero y Jacinto Flores Esq. http://www.cspmsa.com Telifono. 593-7-2842388 ext 408 Fax. 593-7-2842388 ext 120 Celular: 593-97670874 PIN BB: 258F58F4 Jabber: bitfr...@asgard.crice.org MSN: andresgeno...@msn.com Mail: ageno...@cspmsa.com Personal: andresgeno...@gmail.com http://www.crice.org
