Microsoft's ill-chosen magic constants
Jul. 13th, 2012 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mjg59Paolo Bonzini noticed something a little awkward in the Linux kernel support code for Microsoft's HyperV virtualisation environment - specifically, that the magic constant passed through to the hypervisor was "0xB16B00B5", or, in English, "BIG BOOBS". It turns out that this isn't an exception - when the code was originally submitted it also contained "0x0B00B135". That one got removed when the Xen support code was ripped out.
At the most basic level it's just straightforward childish humour, and the use of vaguely-English strings in magic hex constants is hardly uncommon. But it's also specifically male childish humour. Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren't welcome. It's especially irritating in this case because Azure may depend on this constant, so changing it will break things.
So, full marks, Microsoft. You've managed to make the kernel more offensive to half the population and you've made it awkward for us to rectify it.
At the most basic level it's just straightforward childish humour, and the use of vaguely-English strings in magic hex constants is hardly uncommon. But it's also specifically male childish humour. Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren't welcome. It's especially irritating in this case because Azure may depend on this constant, so changing it will break things.
So, full marks, Microsoft. You've managed to make the kernel more offensive to half the population and you've made it awkward for us to rectify it.
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Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-07-23 09:45 pm (UTC)In the future, I recommend you stick to speaking for yourself.
Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:30 am (UTC)It's somebody taking a string of numbers that nobody actually 'wrote', a string that a machine translated from a logical language that a machine needs in order to function... and then some women come along and associate it with their reproductive organs cause it kind of looks like it -might- reference them if taken out of context and translated into a laungage that is 100% foreign not only in heritage but in type.
The only joke being played is on the uneducated and uninformed readers of the story that are quick to form strong opinions on an issue they know less than zero about (mis-information and mis-education being counted as negative).
Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:33 am (UTC)Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:41 am (UTC)I think concomitantly forming strong opinions in spite of having less than zero knowledge on the subjects at hand, based on hearsay and mis-information is a bigger problem than differentiating a man from a woman on the internet.
Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:43 am (UTC)'Cool story bro'... good job on creating a positive image for your Distro and the Linux community in the eyes of people that -can- tell the difference between source code and a binary.
Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:46 am (UTC)Don't taze me bro.
Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
Date: 2012-08-04 05:46 am (UTC)Re: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:00 am (UTC) - ExpandRe: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:01 am (UTC) - ExpandRe: Grow a set. Get a life. Move along.
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:04 am (UTC) - Expandno subject
Date: 2012-07-24 02:14 pm (UTC)If a programmer wrote a line in "Big Boobs" does not mean that it is sexist and does not place women.
........................................
Acho que essas brincadeiras de testes não devem ser levadas a serio, porque em um desenvolvimento o objetivo principal é fazer funcionar o sistema.
Se um programador escreveu em uma linha "Big Boobs", não quer dizer que ele é machista e que não dá espaço as mulheres.
This overreaction IS childish
Date: 2012-07-26 01:06 pm (UTC)Come on guys ! There are much to say about M$, but complaining about supposedly offensive hexa strings isn't a very smart move... Unless you really want to show americans as even more anal-retentive and immature than they are.
Re: This overreaction IS childish
Date: 2012-08-04 05:25 am (UTC)Source code is written in C, or another high level language.
This is 'machine code' and 'source code' authors have limited control of it...
I could probably take your words, move them around in a way that the annunciation of them in would be mysognist as well. Should you be fired from your job and banned form the internet for it too?
See how a person educated on the subject would think the idea is stupid and moronic?
People should not have strong opinions about things they know nothing about.
Re: This overreaction IS childish
Date: 2012-08-04 05:32 am (UTC)Yes it is. Someone typed those characters.
Re: This overreaction IS childish
Date: 2012-08-04 05:50 am (UTC)It's machine generated. Sorry. You should probably stick to movies like 'hackers' and 'swordfish' and leave debates on software development to people that actually write source code.
Fail troll is fail.
Re: This overreaction IS childish
Date: 2012-08-04 05:54 am (UTC)It wasn't 'hand typed' as much as you might like to believe that there is some villainy at work, and have something to be angry about... you're ignorance is showing more and more.
Re: This overreaction IS childish
From:Re: This overreaction IS childish
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:06 am (UTC) - ExpandCarefactor 0.
Date: 2012-07-27 03:22 am (UTC)Chill the fuck out.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 07:46 am (UTC)The words aren't offensive, but the behaviour is. First, the /joke/ has zero intellectual merit. Maybe ten-year-olds find it funny. I'd be worried if somebody that smart were let loose on kernel code.
Second, the behaviour is indicative of, /and reinforces/, the sexist bias of the industry. It's easy to say 'chill out' if you are male or have no ambitions for a career in programming. There aren't many other professions where this would be tolerated. It's about time the programming world grew up.
BS
Date: 2012-07-27 10:15 am (UTC)"It's about time the programming world grew up", you're welcome, then please grow up.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:36 am (UTC)In fact you all owe the Microsoft programmer an apology for forming bias opinions against him and accusing him of something he didn't do.
If you knew more than nothing about software development you'd understand, hell, if you didn't -think- you knew everything about everything you'd be able to eventually understand by seeking the wisdom of someone more educated on the subject than yourself.
All in all I'm very disappointed with the Red Hat developer who takes a snippet of machine code required for a computer to operate, associating it with female reproductive organs, and destroying a fellow programmer's reputation by spreading hate and mis-information.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:42 am (UTC)(Hint: no really it honestly was in the source code)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:52 am (UTC)Just because you saw 'hackers' and 'swordfish' and took a microcomputer applications class doesn't make you educated on the subject.
I'm bored with this now... actually I have code to write (not in Hex as nobody writes code in hex).
BTW: Microsoft doesn't make their source code available to the public, they aren't open source. Nice try though.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:07 am (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2012-08-04 06:11 am (UTC) - ExpandWTF?
Date: 2012-08-02 10:19 am (UTC)Oh - by the way, you don't need to watch this. It's just a 10min. vid saying "YOU ARE AN IDIOT!"
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:18 am (UTC)Wait...
GUYS... I loaded the Quake Engine, Steam Client, Firefox, and OSX Finder in hex editors and they all contained misogynist strings!
It's a constrict to subconsciously degrade women! THE SKY IS FALLING!
I think it's Bell Labs... they should have had the sense to remove all possible mygonist machine translations from their compiler output. IMO there should be a required college course on integrating offencive hex string filters to remove them from machine code output at the parser design level.
Also filesystems should scrape all memory buffers, hard disks, optical media etc for any binary patterns that could be translated into any language (if possible, preferably even in form of an anagram) as misogynist in nature.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 06:12 am (UTC)Retracting argument, author was right i was wrong.
Let it not be said his article went unchallenged.
So, I was sceptical
Date: 2012-08-04 06:21 am (UTC)MJG59 took the time to present the source code from Microsoft over at Kernel.org... I can't deny what's right in front of my eyes.
Also I sincerely doubt forensics would turn up anything other than the MS contribution containing the original offensive string.
That said... it must be annoying to be female and be in software development. There was literally 1 woman in my software development courses back in college...
To be blunt I don't think id take well to a bunch of fat-ugly unhygienic girls talking about me in a sexually perverted way all day at work either.
Stay classy fellas.
Heck. I do not think that would Make Any difference.
Date: 2012-11-14 11:17 am (UTC)And to my thought process, Any body who is there at this level would just laugh it off....
RS