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Re: more evil firmwares found



On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 21:01:07 -0500, Ryan Underwood <nemesis-lists@icequake.net> said: 

> On Wed, Apr 21, 2004 at 02:23:11AM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
>>
>> > If you want to be more serious, there is the FPGA example. Is a
>> > *hardware* definition software? AFAIK, a FPGA definition (which
>> > may be very well what you are loading) is just "hmm, connect this
>> > port's output in input #1 of this other port, etc, etc, etc."
>> Duh, of course the *definition* is software.  Any stream of bits is
>> software.

> *Any* stream of bits?  I think that's going a bit far.  I think you

	I think not.

> are confusing the algorithm with the input.  The input is not
> software.

	Sure it is. It is either software, hardware, or wetware.

	Don't sond like hardware or wetware to me.

>         It cannot be executed on a machine.

	Not required for a definition of software, You are confusing
	this with program.

> An algorithm can
> operate on a binary string input, but the input cannot cause the
> machine to act outside of what behavior is defined in the algorithm.

> Is a PNG file considered software?

	Yes. Indubitably.

> Is it not DFSG-free if the source .EPS is not included?  What about

	Probably not, if the .EPS is the preferred form of
 modification of the software bit.

> This is ridiculous.

	Lots of people have said that about people who want free
 software. It may be ridiculous, but we do want the software to be
 free, despite all that.

> Extending the definition of software past "a set of formal
> instructions for a general purpose computing device, that describe
> an algorithm that runs on the device to transform an input string
> into an output string", is not productive IMO.

	Narrowing software definition down to what suits you does not
 fly either.
>From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

  software
      n : (computer science) written programs or procedures or rules
          and associated documentation pertaining to the operation
          of a computer system and that are stored in read/write
          memory; "the market for software is expected to expand"
          [syn: {software system}, {software package}, {package}]
          [ant: {hardware}]

	I think the antonym defines things just fine.

	manoj
-- 
Cruickshank's Law of Committees: If a committee is allowed to discuss
a bad idea long enough, it will inevitably decide to implement the
idea simply because so much work has already been done on it.
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C



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