No Fork Required - Scott's Thoughts

Genode - Genode Operating System Framework

We understand the complexity of code and policy as the most fundamental security problem shared by modern general-purpose operating systems. Because of high functional demands and dynamic workloads, however, this complexity cannot be avoided. But it can be organized. Genode is a novel OS architecture that is able to master complexity by applying a strict organizational structure to all software components including device drivers, system services, and applications. The Genode OS framework is an open-source tool kit for building highly secure component-based operating systems. It scales from embedded devices to dynamic general-purpose computing.

The Invisible OS

THE INVISIBLE OS – Every massive consumer technology business is selling the same thing: the removal of thought. In the end, convenience always wins. Dishwashers automated hours of domestic chores. GPS externalized our spatial memory. Calculators offloaded routine arithmetic. The pattern acceler...

The Invisible OS

THE INVISIBLE OS – Every massive consumer technology business is selling the same thing: the removal of thought. In the end, convenience always wins. Dishwashers automated hours of domestic chores. GPS externalized our spatial memory. Calculators offloaded routine arithmetic. The pattern acceler...

Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps

The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can reshape with minimal friction to suit their unique needs.

Identity is the Platform

This is the talk I gave at Mindtrek in Tampere, Finland. Slides are available here: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/10/01/identity-is-the-platform/

Forking is Cool, or: A Unix Shell in Zig, or: Dave Learns How to Fork - ratfactor

In this article, I make a real, working interactive shell written in Zig. Though essentially a toy, it demonstrates the incredible elegance of the fork() system call and is an example of what can be done with absolutely no runtime memory allocations.

Introducing the Third Generation of Apple’s Foundation Models

Our next generation of Apple Intelligence is centered around our users, integrated deeply into our operating systems, and powered by a bold…

A Decent Identity Part 1: Theory

This essay outlines a set of capabilities and goals comprising decent social computing and then establishes a framework for assessing how well an ecosystem’s identity system supports those goals and capabilities.

Experiences with recombinant computing: Exploring ad hoc interoperability in evolving digital networks

This article describes an infrastructure that supports the creation of interoperable systems while requiring only limited prior agreements about the specific forms of communication between these systems. Conceptually, our approach uses a set of “meta-interfaces”—agreements on how to exchange new behaviors necessary to achieve compatibility at runtime , rather than requiring that communication specifics be built in at development time —to allow devices on the network to interact with one another. While this approach to interoperability can remove many of the system-imposed constraints that prevent fluid, ad hoc use of devices now, it imposes its own limitations on the user experience of systems that use it. Most importantly, since devices may be expected to work with peers about which they have no detailed semantic knowledge, it is impossible to achieve the sort of tight semantic integration that can be obtained using other approaches today, despite the fact that these other approaches limit interoperability. Instead, under our model, users must be tasked with performing the sense-making and semantic arbitration necessary to determine how any set of devices will be used together. This article describes the motivation and details of our infrastructure, its implications on the user experience, and our experience in creating, deploying, and using applications built with it over a period of several years.

Minimum Viable Infrastructure

Minimum Viable Infrastructure Innovation often emerges not solely from brilliant ideas but from the infrastructure readiness that makes those ideas viable. Consider the progression of mobile consumer internet applications over the past two decades: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok. Their lau...

The Interfaces With Which We Think

The concepts in modern operating systems — apps, windows, desktops, notifications, and so on — have so permeated our understanding of personal computing, it’s hard to imagine anything else, let alone believe there could be anything better.