Microsoft Apologizes For Inserting Naughty Phrase Into Linux Kernel 897
netbuzz writes "Microsoft has apologized and promised to rectify the fact that one of its developers slipped a sexist phrase into Linux kernel code supporting Microsoft's HyperV virtualization environment. In that code, the magic constant passed through to the hypervisor reads '0xB16B00B5,' or a slightly camouflaged 'BIG BOOBS.' After Linux developer/blogger Matthew Garrett criticized Microsoft for the stunt, the predictable debate over sexism in the technology world ensued. Microsoft issued a statement to Network World apologizing and added, 'We have submitted a patch to fix this issue and the change will be published in a future release of the kernel.'"
Linux kernel's code is full of naughty words (Score:5, Informative)
Just check the Linux kernel swear count: http://www.vidarholen.net/contents/wordcount/
Re:Wait, "big boobs" is sexist now? (Score:5, Informative)
Just to stop the crap, here's the rest from wikipedia.
Many computer processors, operating systems, and debuggers make use of magic numbers, especially as a magic debug value.
0x8BADF00D ("ate bad food") is used by Apple in iOS crash reports, when an application takes too long to launch, terminate, or respond to system events.[1]
0x1BADB002 ("I bad boot"[citation needed]) Multiboot header magic number.[2]
0xB16B00B5 ("big boobs") is required by Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor to be used by Linux guests as their "guest signature".[3]
0xBAADF00D ("bad food") is used by Microsoft's LocalAlloc(LMEM_FIXED) to indicate uninitialised allocated heap memory when the debug heap is used.[4]
0xBADDCAFE ("bad cafe") is used by Libumem to indicate uninitialized memory area
0xCAFEBABE ("cafe babe") is used by Mach-O to identify Universal object files, and by the Java programming language to identify Java bytecode class files.[5]
0xCAFED00D ("Cafe Dude") is used by Java as a magic number for their pack200 compression.[6]
0xD15EA5E ("disease") is a flag that indicates regular boot on the Nintendo GameCube and Wii consoles.[7][8]
0xDEADBABE ("Dead Babe") is used by IBM Jikes RVM as a sanity check of the stack of the primary thread [9]
0xDEADBEEF ("dead beef") is frequently used to indicate a software crash or deadlock in embedded systems. DEADBEEF was originally used to mark newly allocated areas of memory that had not yet been initialized -- when scanning a memory dump, it is easy to see the DEADBEEF. It is used by IBM RS/6000 systems, Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors and the Commodore Amiga as a magic debug value. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory. On OpenVMS running on Alpha processors, DEAD_BEEF can be seen by pressing CTRL-T. The DEC Alpha SRM console has a background process that traps memory errors, identified by PS as "BeefEater waiting on 0xdeadbeef".[10]
0xDEADDEAD ("dead dead") is the bug check (STOP) code displayed when invoking a Blue Screen of Death either by telling the kernel via the attached debugger, or by using a special keystroke combination.[11] This is usually seen by driver developers, as it is used to get a memory dump on Windows NT based systems. An alternative to 0xDEADDEAD is the bug check code 0x000000E2,[12] as they are both called MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH as seen on the Microsoft Developer Network.
0xDEADFA11 ("dead fall") is used by Apple in iOS crash reports, when the user force quits an application.[1]
0xDEFEC8ED ("defecated") is the magic number for OpenSolaris core dumps.[13]
0xFACEFEED ("face feed") is used by Alpha servers running Windows NT. The Alpha Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) generates this error when it encounters a hardware failure.[14]
0xFEE1DEAD ("feel dead") is used as a magic number in the Linux reboot system call.[15]
0xE011CFD0 is used as magic number for Microsoft Office files. In little endian this reads D0CF11E0, "docfile0".[16]
0x0000000FF1CE ("office") is used as the last part of product codes (guid) for Microsoft Office components (visible in registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall registry key).
0x00BAB10C ("oo-ba-block") is used as the magic number for the ZFS uberblock.
C15C:0D06:F00D ("cisco dog food") used in the IPv6 address of www.cisco.com on World IPv6 Day. "Dog food" refers to Cisco eating its own dog food with IPv6.
face:b00c ("facebook") used in the IPv6 address of www.v6.facebook.com
If I were Linus T. (Score:4, Informative)
... I would kick Matthew G. out of kernel development for being a butthurt nitpicking lamer.
Re:0xB16B00B5 (Score:5, Informative)
I've always preferred 0x5MA11B00B5 myself.
Re:0xB16B00B5 (Score:5, Informative)
Ironically, Sony uses 0xD15EA5ED (diseased) for its guard bytes for memory corrupt.
There is a fun list at: Magic Debug Values
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_debug_values#Magic_debug_values [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_byte [wikipedia.org]
Us geeks laugh, and move on.
It is only an issue for those that have nothing better to do.
Re:0xB16B00B5 (Score:2, Informative)
Right, because adult women are all obviously (1) straight (2) insecure about our chests
No, not all of you are adult. Some of you have some growing up to do so you can accept that even 0x0BE5E 0x1E5B05 can take a joke for a joke.