1 Comment Written by Ronald on January 9, 2008 – 2:56 pm

Have you ever wondered about the interstellar space outside of our solar system boundaries? Or ever wondered how computer software interacts with computer hardware? Well, in this article I will discuss two subjects a lot of people do not seem to understand or even know about. Which I believe is important to know, whether it matters or not. It’s just good to know. In the first subject I will explain galaxies, specifically ours, the “Milky Way Galaxy.” I will also explain important specific features in our solar system. In the second subject I will explain computer operating systems, how they work, and the different types of operating systems and kernels. These are two extremely interesting topics. I hope to bring people who are dim on these subjects to light, and hopefully inspire most of my readers.

SPACE SCIENCE, GALAXIES:
I will start off with explaining our galaxy, the Milky Way. Every object made of matter has a gravitational force. Without breaking this down in to quantum physics and laws, I will explain. It’s simple, the larger the object, the larger the gravitational field. A gravitational field is what keeps the planets round and bound. It’s what keeps the earth’s moon on course; it allows anything within the field’s boundaries to orbit, basically. With that said, the sun has the largest and most powerful gravitational field in our solar system, thus it’s the center of our solar system, and the planets are trapped revolving around the sun. A strong gravitational field allows an atmosphere to be created around a planet. Mercury’s gravitational field is too weak to host an atmosphere. Therefore mercury is extremely cold (-300), except when the sun beams and heats the surface up to 800oF. But, earth has a very strong gravitational field, this is part of the reason Earth is perfect to support life. Beyond our sun’s 8 planets, there lies Pluto which was demoted to a “Dwarf Planet,” and the Kuiper’s Belt which are also in the suns gravitational field. Outside of that are many unknown things to man, stars, nebulas, asteroids, comets, and deadly ray’s that our sun’s gravitational field shields us from. Now that you understand the basics of our solar system, I will move on to the “Milky Way Galaxy.” Our sun is a single a star that revolves around the Milky Way galaxy. There are estimated to be about 4,000 to 20,000 stars in our galaxy in many stages. Every star is trapped in a particular gravitational field; this gravitational field belongs to a “Black Hole.” Many people believe a black hole is some dark spiral floating out in space sucking anything in its way. When in fact… we know it is not. A black hole is a dying neutron star. It’s force is so powerful that nothing can escape it’s force! Not even light, that’s the reason there black. The black hole sucks in the light and then the light can’t escape. The black hole sets off a field so powerful that it traps many stars into its gravitational field. Yes, we are revolving around a black hole. Our Milky Way can be seen from earth with the naked eye, maybe not in Charlotte, but maybe somewhere where there are fewer lights; then you will be able to look up into the night sky and see our galaxy we revolve around. I hope the opens eyes to our beautiful universe; things like this have kept me interested since the second grade. Since then I have seen many things our universe has to offer, things I am able to see with the naked eye. I’ve seen Mars, meteorite showers, andromeda’s, shooting stars, comets and so much more. I hope you can learn to find space as fascinating as I do from reading this.

COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEMS:
My next subject in the technology world, computer operating systems. A computer operating system is software that allows an interface that can interact with computer resources, and hardware. It allows user to store and process data. I’m somewhat an expert on computers, considering that fact that I have developed an operating system myself, called Verdis. But in this section of the article I will cover the basics of operating system architecture and the main types. First, remember these words; OS, Kernel, Assembler, Firmware, and Hardware. OS is short for operating system. Kernel is the core component to an operating system that stores the main data, drivers and more; this basically is the majority of an operating system. Assembler is basic instructions for the computer which tells it things like memory locations and other entities. Firmware is a program built into hardware it is vital to hardware. Hardware, of course is parts and components to a computer.

The most popular operating system for personal computers to date is Windows by Microsoft. Windows is built based off the NT Kernel. Windows has its pro’s and con’s. Some cons could be its notorious “Blue Screen of Death,” or because it’s open to thousands of viruses, and tons of 3rd party software that may not be so good to a computer, and everything cost. Then there’s the Pro’s like the fact that most software and games are written for Windows, and it’s extremely easy to use. I would go more in depth but you probably already use Windows and know the basics. Then I would go into the advanced factors of Windows, but Windows is closed source so I don’t know much about the core capabilities.

My next operating system I will cover is “Mac OSX” by Apple Computers. Mac OSX is an open source ”Unix-like operating system.” Unix-like means that it is based off of UNIX, another OS I will get into later on in the article, but specifically Mac OSX is based off FreeBSD. Mac OSX uses a kernel called Mach 3.0, the Mach kernel is a microkernel which basically means it provides no service to the operating system but plays the role of executing in a kernel mode. This means the services it should provide are provided by “user-mode” servers. This is a clever way to protect drivers and all that good stuff from malicious content. Mac OSX was built to run only on Macintosh computers, but it can easily be modified to work on any computer. Including AMD64, and ix86 architectures. Mac OSX is a very nice OS, and makes a great alternative to Windows for basic computer users looking for something new. Besides the basic architecture of Mac OSX, I don’t know much. Although it is open source, I haven’t taken the time out to take a peek at the source code yet, though I do know the Mac OSX is a secure choice!

The next operating system I will cover is UNIX. To me UNIX is the greatest thing to happen to computers since birth. UNIX has a powerful terminal, and great security. With that said, UNIX is not a good choice for personal computers, or basic computer users. But, it’s good to know about. A while back, in its release from Bell Lab’s. UNIX was an operating system used only by scientist and mega geniuses. Things changed over time, computer users got a hold of it all over the world. UNIX became the hackers choice, and top universities and institutes like M.I.T. found interest in it. Soon programmers began developing flavors for UNIX. This birthed the flavors Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OSX, Minix, and many more sad success stories. Many of these flavors became the hacker’s choice, and server administrator’s choice because of their high security. UNIX is a great operating system to any without argument.

One of the UNIX flavors I listed above is the last but not least I will cover. Linux, a operating system developed by Linus Torvalds (Me and him share the same birthday: P). Linux is my personal favorite operating system, besides my own. Linux is used as the OS too many computers such as supercomputers, personal computers, servers, Playstation 2 and 3, embedded devices such as mobile phones and routers. Linux like UNIX and BSD started the development of many other Linux flavors birthing the GNU Project from M.I.T., Debian, Slackware, and my operating system Verdis! Linux is just a beautiful thing, its terminal is excellent for everything. Never move the mouse; you can do anything from the Linux terminal. The repositories in the Linux communities have great free software, and most importantly Linux is immune to just about any virus. There are probably 6 viruses for Linux you will never see. Linux is a kernel, but there’s a larger break down to it. The Linux kernel is a “Monolithic kernel.” This means the entire kernel runs in “kernel space.” I’m not expecting the average computer user reader to understand, so I’m just going to leave it at that. Linux is the greatest operating system without a doubt, but many argue FreeBSD to be better. I’m content with both, but Linux is my choice.

CLOSING:

I’m hoping you understood most of what I was trying to say in this article, and I’m hoping you will read many more of my articles. When I wrote this I wanted to write something to fascinate the readers mind. Hopefully interest you in a subject from my world. If you were interested in this article then please visit my website for much more @ www.ronaldarichardson.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this article! Peace out, sincerely, Ronald A. Richardson.