Thursday, April 28, 2011

Program Like in the Movies

  If you've ever wanted to wanted to hack like in the movies but never thought your programming skills were up to snuff or couldn't type a thousand words per minute, have some fun with Hacker Typer. Select the file you want to generate and then go nuts on the keyboard. In seconds you'll transform into a Hollywood programmer, typing perfect code impossibly fast. If the code generated seems pretty cryptic, don't worry, even I had to look up to figure out what the second and third file choice was. Mobile Substrate is used by third party groups to patch system functions on the iPhone and fini.sh is a type of Linux shell, or operating systems environment, but I couldn't find any real information about it.
  But the first choice is the one I want to talk about, the Linux kernel. A kernel is the core of the operating system, the bridge between software applications and hardware level devices. All user generated resource requests, things like saving to disk space or loading up a program to be placed in memory for quick access, are directed through the kernel. The kernel then takes these requests and generate systems calls to these devices and returns the necessary information back to the application to be passed on to the user.


  Direct kernel interaction can be dangerous without the proper knowledge. Kernels have the least amount of restrictions on what they can and cannot access in the computer. They act as resource managers for the central processing unit, memory, and I/O devices, keeping applications and devices from interfering with each other that could cause catastrophic crashes while doling out resources for system requests quickly and efficiently.
  Kernel coding is considered one of the more difficult of any coding practice, as it requires a strict finesse to utilize the raw power of the kernel while not damaging any critical areas of the computer. So using Hacker Typer as a quick sandbox just for fun can be a nice distraction.

3 comments:

  1. That was fun, but then I spent too much time trying to figure out the code. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. When you say that the kernal is the bridge between software programming and the actual hardware, does that mean that the kernal acts somewhat like PLC programming?

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  3. Zach,

    You're correct in that comparison, a PLC and kernel are pretty close to the same idea.

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