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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no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 12:19 am (UTC)Now now, let's not be rash.
Date: 2012-07-14 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 01:18 am (UTC)$ grep "^[0-9a-flogs]*$" /usr/share/dict/words | tr logs 1065 | awk '{print length, $0}' | sort -n | cut -f2- -d' 'cheers, P@draigBrady.comNot just for boys...
Date: 2012-07-14 02:18 am (UTC)Is 0xDEADBEEF offensive to cows?
Date: 2012-07-14 02:36 am (UTC)But seriously, /troll, does anybody have an estimate on how many women actually touch, or even see, kernel code? I've only ever seen a smattering of posts, but I don't ever recall seeing a female name on kernel-related mailing lists.
get real
Date: 2012-07-14 03:13 am (UTC)nice
Date: 2012-07-14 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 04:22 am (UTC)Developer Douchebaggery
Date: 2012-07-14 04:37 am (UTC)Re: Developer Douchebaggery
Date: 2012-07-14 05:16 am (UTC)Re: get real
Date: 2012-07-14 05:50 am (UTC)Re: nice
Date: 2012-07-14 05:54 am (UTC)Re: get real
Date: 2012-07-14 05:58 am (UTC)Re: nice
Date: 2012-07-14 06:00 am (UTC)Re: Is 0xDEADBEEF offensive to cows?
Date: 2012-07-14 06:01 am (UTC)Re: get real
Date: 2012-07-14 06:53 am (UTC)+1 ... This article sounds really childish actually.
Re: get real
Date: 2012-07-14 06:56 am (UTC)Re: get real
Date: 2012-07-14 06:56 am (UTC)Re: Now now, let's not be rash.
Date: 2012-07-14 07:21 am (UTC)Re: nice
Date: 2012-07-14 07:25 am (UTC)Men can also have boobs
Date: 2012-07-14 07:34 am (UTC)Re: Men can also have boobs
Date: 2012-07-14 07:41 am (UTC)Why are people too dishonest to admit to reality?
Seriously?
Date: 2012-07-14 07:46 am (UTC)If this offends you, please, please, just do us a favour and get over it.
The real, technical problem here is that the magic number was not drawn at random. The pool of constants that "look like" English words/phrases is much much smaller than the pool of all 32-bit constants. So you're much more likely to get a collision with somebody else. Entropy's a bitch...