Re: [Sheflug] Re: Building kernel on one machine, using on another.

["Alex Hudson" <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

> (1) Run IPv6 behind the gateway.  Could make you _very_ salable in the
> net admin market in a year or two.  I doubt there are competent IPv6
> hackers with time on their hands to answer FAQs on Sheflug, tho.
> Could be wrong....

You're probably right about 'competent', but there's plenty of people
dabbling :). I'm personally more interesting in IPv6 for multicast
(streaming video and stuff like that, kind of a hobby), but I'm sure there's
plenty of stuff to get out of playing with IPv6. It's supposed to be easier
than IPv4, although the thought of remembering ip addresses suddenly turns
me blue...

> (3) Run an open private net by running a real DNS on the router
> (instead of just a repeater for your ISP's DNS).  I've not tried this
> you understand, but in theory you should be able to create a new root
> domain accessible to people who know where your DNS is.  (Not
> recommended; the tools for subverting DNSes are well-developed, and
> this would provide direct access to your internal net without the
> masq if somebody should happen on it.)
> (4) Same as (3), but as a VPN.  A lot safer.  Then you'd only have to
> worry about the friends you let join your VPN stabbing you in the
> back. :) :)

Yay ;) .html suddenly becomes a tld ;)) BTW, point 4 is pretty much how we
have DNS set up at work, and works very well - a worthwhile project indeed.

> (5) A really tiny Beowulf cluster.

Can I suggest as (possibly more) interesting  - MOSIX? In most ways, this is
as specialised as Beowulf, in that programs have to be specfically written
to take advantage of the cluster, but they're easier to write than Beowulf
programs, and also more clever.

I also have another suggestion, partly proposed by a friend of mine some
time ago. The idea was to set up a compute server on a network, although
this computer was to be a BBC model B. The name of the computer was to be
'Deep Thought', and the idea was that you'd have two machines: Deep Thought,
and Minion. Minion was to be a machine able to serve web pages (and thus was
considerably more powerful than D.T.*, which was one of the reasons this
ridiculous project floundered ;), and you'd submit programs to 'Minion' in
the form of BBC Basic. You'd then be allocated a time slice on D.T., and
your program would be run, and the results saved on a web page on Minion.
Our first problem was to work out how many ways you could make up certain
amounts of money in loose change: i.e., 22p could be 20+2, or 20+1+1, or
10+5+5+2, etc. Test runs of this program showed a distinct lack of
performance (we calculated it would take over two years to finish, given a
million-pound figure, IIRC), so we didn't around to it completely, but we do
have a complete network architecture running from Beebs over serial lines to
normal TCP/IP networks (no, a Beeb can't handle SLIP ;). In fact, my friend
has the circuit diagrams for an extra serial controller that goes on the
user port so that you can create 'ring' networks for more Beeb computing
power.

Perhaps such a project would be possibly a little useless though ;))

Cheers,

Alex.

* - the Beeb was in fact a Torch, a dual processor model, a real hot-rod as
far as Beebs go ;)

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