No Operating System

Written by Paul Siegel


Imagine a computer with no operating system. If you can do that, you can imagine a computer that is extremely difficult to hack into. A computer that is almost immune to viruses. A computer that rarely crashes.

Too good to be true? No, such a computer has been invented.

Eric Hauk and Eric Uner, 2 former Motorola engineers, invented this computer. They became so frustrated and annoyed by hack attacks and by allrepparttar time they wasted installing software patches, that they decided to change their server. Instead of an operating system, they designed a chip storing a "kernel" of only about 4 Kilobytes of code. They founded Bodacion Technologies Inc. (http://www.bodacion.com) to market their computer, which is called Hydra.

This is essentiallyrepparttar 107850 same idea that is used for medical devices and for game-playing machines like Nintendo. Nintendo rarely breaks down even though young hackers are constantly trying.

Why is an operating-system-less computer more sturdy than one with an operating system? What do many viruses do? Once they get intorepparttar 107851 system they manage to modify operating-system instructions to killrepparttar 107852 whole system. But if operating-system instructions do not exist, or rather they exist in hardware, they cannot be modified. Result: a computer you can depend on.

Windows Screensavers Explained

Written by Roman Kramar


In this article you will find some background information about screensavers and their history. You will also learn how Windows screensavers differ from other programs and how you can use it to your own advantage. There are also some tips for screensavers users owning laptops, notebooks or CD-burning devices.

Have you ever asked yourself a question like "What is a screensaver actually?" I did. And now I will gladly sharerepparttar results of my investigation. As you can see easily, splittingrepparttar 107849 word "screensaver" into two words will give usrepparttar 107850 phrase "screen saver". This isn't a rocket science and it's clear thatrepparttar 107851 phrase suggests our subject somehow savingrepparttar 107852 screen. Sorepparttar 107853 word "screensaver" can be applied to some sort of good things that saverepparttar 107854 screen of our so much beloved baby-computer. But what does it mean exactly? Who is going to harm our computer's screen? Who could be such a bad person? The answer lies inrepparttar 107855 exact definition ofrepparttar 107856 screensavers.

If you are a meticulous person then you can searchrepparttar 107857 Internet and come up with some ofrepparttar 107858 existing definitions. But don't hurry. I will list some ofrepparttar 107859 most often found. Here they are:

- A moving picture or pattern that appears on your screen when you have not movedrepparttar 107860 mouse or pressed a key onrepparttar 107861 computer for a specified period of time. Screensavers prevent screen damage that is caused whenrepparttar 107862 same areas of light and dark are displayed for long periods of time.

- A program that "wakes up" after a certain amount of time has elapsed with no keyboard or mouse activity and blanksrepparttar 107863 screen or displays various moving objects acrossrepparttar 107864 screen; these are used to prevent your screen from getting "burn in".

- An animated picture or graphic that can be programmed throughrepparttar 107865 Display control panel to come onrepparttar 107866 computer screen after so much inactivity time has elapsed. The main reason for a screensaver is to reduce wear and tear onrepparttar 107867 CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) insiderepparttar 107868 monitor that can burn out or become etched ifrepparttar 107869 same window is left on for extended periods of time.

The picture is getting clearer, isn't it? Let's make it plain. The "burn in" or "damage" used in these definitions refer us torepparttar 107870 time before 90-ies. At that time many cathode ray tubes in TVs, computer monitors or elsewhere were prone to be damaged ifrepparttar 107871 same pattern (e.g.,repparttar 107872 WordPerfect status line;repparttar 107873 Pong score readout; or a TV channel-number display) was shown atrepparttar 107874 same position onrepparttar 107875 screen for very long periods of time. The phosphor onrepparttar 107876 screen would "fatigue" and that part ofrepparttar 107877 screen would seem grayed out, even whenrepparttar 107878 CRT was off.

TIP: Be careful when using a screensaver on a computer with an LCD screen (most laptops and notebooks). A pixel on an LCD screen is on when it's dark; therefore, blackingrepparttar 107879 screen as some screensavers do would cause more damage.

Eventually CRTs which were resistant to burn-in (and which sometimes went into sleep mode after a period of inactivity) were developed. But inrepparttar 107880 meantime, solution was found: home video game systems ofrepparttar 107881 era (e.g., Atari 2600s) would, when not being played, changerepparttar 107882 screen every few seconds, to avoid burn-in; and computer screensaver programs were developed.

The first screensavers were simple screen blankers - they just setrepparttar 107883 screen to all black, but, inrepparttar 107884 best case of creeping featurism ever recorded, these tiny (often under 1K long) programs grew without regard to efficiency or even basic usefulness. At first, small, innocuous display hacks (generally on an almost-black screen) were added. Later, more complex effects appeared, including animations (often with sound effects!) of arbitrary length and complexity.

And now we live inrepparttar 107885 world full of fun and entertaining screensavers. Many of them produce amazing and very attractive effects. You can find a screensaver on any theme you like, download it, install and enjoy.

This means that a typical screensaver is a program. And it really is. But isn't there something different? Is there something that distinguishes a program running as screensaver from other typical programs? You're right, there is a bit of mystery. In order to demystify it we should plunge deeper into screensavers' mechanics. But don't be afraid. It isn't complicated at all.

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