Posts by Alan W. Rateliff, II 892 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Nov 2007
I call shenanigans on your cell phone versus floppy scenario. Not just because it sounds like a bad 80's serial plot line, but because I have done just such.
The transmitter in the tape would have to be pretty strong to affect the contents of the tape. All it has to do is communicate via WiFi or 3G, neither of which when placed next to a DLT has ever damage the tape beyond readability, let alone erased it. Irrespective of signal strength, the higher frequencies used by communications radios would mostly, if not completely, be ignored by the magnetic media.
And since it's initially a passive device -- it only phones home when it strays off-route -- the likelihood of said bulk erase would be even more minimized.
I do, however, think that a better security scenario would be to have the capability to simply wipe the device should it stray from its programmed GPS route, or cannot detect a GPS signal for more than a defined period of time. Other tapes destroyed in this process would be collateral damage, as you simply must err on the side of caution.
And I certainly agree about encryption. The tape should be encrypted and have the ability to self-destruct.
But why don't more people use encryption? Because you would need the drive itself to encrypt the data, as NTBackup.exe does not, as of yet. There are backup software solutions that encrypt, but pointy-haired bosses don't like them because it takes away from the coffee fund.
Paris, for self-destructing when going off-route.
Outlook search is absolute garbage, or I am really missing something. I can be LOOKING at the email with the term, word, or partial email address I am looking for and "Advanced" Find will NOT find it. Disgusting.
Paris, because she's looking right at it and can't find it.
The problem is the data sprunging happening in the background, not to mention the lack of security looming over said data.
If a string of government agencies would actually do the jobs required, RealID would not be necessary to control illegal immigration and terrorism.
Paris, sprunging for information.
@Chris C
As I was reading the prior comments, I was thinking just that. As a voter, I would most definitely sue the state for note ensuring that my vote was properly counted.
The fact that NJ would not stand up to Suckqoia is appalling, disgusting, and simply an abandonment of its citizens. I figure that Suckqoia's methodology in this situation is a threat to national security, and should be treated as such. Water-board their asses.
At the very least I would give Suckqoia one last chance: tallying a recall vote for every elected official responsible for the decision not to put a foot squarely in Suckqoia's collective ass.
Paris, for not properly counting.
Actually, there are a number of interesting shows available on Hulu. Including movies, such as "Master and Commander." The advertisements are generally 15 seconds long, with three to five breaks per show, depending upon length. Some commercials go 30 seconds. But it is a helluva lot better than the two to five minutes on regular television.
Mike here needs to completely disconnect himself from the world. Thankfully, he is apparently not the target audience.
There are quality shows here. I agree that other sites offer some overlap in content, I use Hulu because it only requires that I have Flash. A couple of other sites required additional software or ActiveX control, and I said "lump that" within seconds.
Go watch your YouTube mind-trash. I will keep up with Family Guy, House, and various other shows. Barney Miller is there now, and I was able to get my fill of NewsRadio. We will continue to disagree on the value of content.
This is the a-la-carte cable that cable will not offer. I despise cable for the $55 per month I was paying for 25% of my viewing time wasted by advertisements. Essentially, I was paying $14 a month for friggen commercials. Now I pay nothing other than the Internet connection for which I was already paying, watch about a minute worth of commercials for a 45 minute show, when I want and where I want.
Again, this is the cat's tits, or something like that.
Paris, for the YouTube mind-trash.
I've been using Hulu in the private beta for several months now. It's great! I was able to catch up on favorite series ON MY SCHEDULE, and I was even introduced to new shows. I dropped cable in July of last year because I could no longer justify $55 per month for the five channels I watch.
Wanna watch Battlestar Galactica? Catch up on Monk or Burn Notice? What about some old episodes of Archie Bunker, A-Team, or Airwolf? It's here.
Paris, because I hear she's been without cable for about as long as I have. Oh, wait.
Contrary to seemingly popular opinion, this really is relevant, and the risks are not negligible. Poor design and implementation breeds more poor design and implementation. The fact that there are no known exploits in the wild does not mean that the problem should be ignored.
There have been no home robberies in my neighborhood for several years, but I still lock my front door.
The lax approach to security in the medical field is astonishing.
Paris, contrary to popular opinion.
WHS is more than just a NAS device. It's a centralized media center, backup and recovery, media sharing, and remote access device, amongst other things.
Not saying that you couldn't hobble all this together yourself on a *nix system, but Joe Sixpack couldn't.
It has some relatively neat features, though not my taste for doing things. Including media integration with the XBox and Media Center. So, why not?
But why such a horrid bug let go so long? Primarily, if the bug only affects machines with multiple hard drives, most home-bodies won't have that (they SHOULD at least have RAID 1 and an external backup drive, but alas.) Seems like MS branched Server 2008 (which begot Vista) and then proceeded to let it hump Vista to produce a retarded in-bred offspring, in some grand scheme to dodge ISPs restrictions and prohibitions on running servers on a home connection.
Really, no excuse for letting this go so long. OR for NOT CATCHING IT in the first place. How long was this friggen thing beta? Oh, still is...
Paris, for humping to produce retarded offspring.
I wonder how many professional Vxers are basing their wares on the hard works of those who do it for fun. If all the guys doing this for fun stop, what would happen to the pros? Would we start to see really crappy malware, something along the lines of a process named "stealingyourpasswordz.exe"?
Paris, basing her wares on the hard works of those who do it for fun.
You'd be surprised at how lax security is on many military bases in the US. In particular, I learned growing up that Air Force bases are pretty bad. I'm sure there's a number of reasons that will ostensibly piss off some of my AF chums for saying so, but the short of it is that too many of the guards at the gates are young and haven't had the idealism beat out of them, so they have plenty of other things on their minds and often don't mind "bending" the rules.
Paris, because she doesn't seem to mind "bending."
when saying "but terrorists could use that information" will get you not only laughed out of an office, but carried out by using large objects inserted into uncomfortable orifices.
Of course, countries and governments will continue to have their secrets. Like officially-not-there Air Force bases, and officially-did-not-happen incursions into other countries. I see these secrets the same as defending a trade mark: if you don't defend them, then you cannot deny usage.
Paris, because you simply cannot deny usage.
I have a CD on my desk which is marked as property of the Home Office. When I put it in my drive, it comes up blank. Obviously, this is the work of a form of unbreakable encryption which requires access to the entire set of data to use as a decryption key.
Ingenious.
This message was encrypted with dual rounds of ROT13 for your protection.
Paris, for your protection.
I have it deployed at several sites. The problem with validating certificates stems, I feel, mostly from the use of self-signed certificates. No one wants to spend the money on a real cert when "they don't have to," even though it can cost as little as $20 a year.
All of our deployments are Small Business Server 2003, which will generate a self-signed certificate by default. No biggie, since this cert can be deployed to all authorized domain clients. The problem comes into play when you want a guess to join the network. But, frankly, guests shouldn't be using your main network, let alone be given .1x credentials.
Also, you can push out wireless restrictions via Group Policies, which helps maintain control over misconfigurations.
As far as I can tell, I'm doing it right.
Paris, because as far as I know, she's doing it right.
I've been using SP3 for about a month. First thing I noticed on my laptop is that it suspends and wakes up faster. It also does not require rebooting as frequently from repeated suspending and waking. It does still fight with some drivers to sleep, though.
I also noticed a little faster boot time, but it is still slow in first runs of applications (to be expected.)
My machine: Dell Latitude D410, 2.0GHz, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD.
I believe that XP SP2 was such a major change in the OS that it would be the equivalent of 98SE versus 98. Given that, the SP2 release of XP is not quite so old. Then with the release of SP3, I will see another boost in the system's viability.
The change from 2000 to XP was exciting: new driver models, redesigned kernel, restructured interface, better memory management, better stability. The change from XP to Vista is aggravating -- though as an IT pro I will say that Vista does make me more money as I have to wait on stupid system and application hangs and poor performance relative to a comparable XP system.
I only recently moved my desktop to XP x64, and I have to say that I am very VERY impressed. Coincidentally, I have a customer to whom it was recommended to move to x64 for AutoCAD 2008 for better performance and support for very large and intricate drawings. I do not have a piece of hardware for which there is no x64 driver. And since XP x64 and 2003 x64 share the same core, it is theoretically possible for me to use 2003 x64 drivers as well. Within a day of dual-booting XP and XP x64 I made the final decision to go 64-bit.
@JayKay: I dated an screamer once.
Paris, because I could make that decision within a day.
My favorite is the .Net EULA which prohibits benchmarking the software and reporting on the results.
I am afraid that requirements of EULA statement up front will translate to a website link on the box. Even more unlikely that Joe User will take the time to go home, pull up the website, if he remembers it, read the EULA, go back to the store and purchase the item.
And what about ordering online? I do not recall any online retailer which posts EULA information on its software products.
Paris, because there is no easy way to know what you are getting into there, either.
First, @Ash, you *can* get medical treatment without insurance in the US.
Now, this is flat-out government-sponsored extortion. Much like a lot of these beneficial programs are, like unemployment insurance, etc. Oh, you want medical care? You want to go to school? You want to purchase sinus and allergy medication? You want to visit a relative? To do that, we must have access to your very essence.
I have read in numerous credible news sources that the 9/11 terra'ists were all on some gubberment agency's watch list. That didn't stop them from getting into the country.
Piss on all of the details and ranting I was going to do here. Suffice to say that RealID is only necessitated by the fact that our government is NOT DOING ITS JOB at ANY LEVEL. PERIOD.
Paris, because I just wanna yell FUCK!
It just hit me that none of this "IP" and source code foolishness would be a problem if the government did not outsource its programming and critical systems.
IIRC, we entrust the results of election counting to government certified counters, then outside auditors to ensure that the gov-cert'd counters actually know how to count. Should we not do the same for critical systems and programming?
In all seriousness, we're essentially selling our country to the lowest bidder in just about everything we do. Is it not time to bring all that back home and at least give the semblance of increased and credible security.
Well, DHS aside, since they cannot even pass their own internal security audits. Sheesh, what a circle jerk...
Paris, because, sheesh...
Just text your candidate's name to USVOTE (878683). (Not responsible for misspelled candidate names, whose votes will be awarded to the opponent. Only one vote per phone number, $.99 per vote, additional fees may vary depending upon carrier, void where prohibited or not. Outcome and vote accuracy not guaranteed. Voting apathy is a tool of terrorism. Maybe you should just watch TV and try to ignore the lapsing of your civil liberties.)
Paris, void where prohibited.
I managed to come up with an Adam unit, sans printer, over a decade ago. After doing some research, I decided that it would be an abysmal waste of time and left it in storage. I do recall, though, that the tape drives in the thing were blazingly fast and pretty intelligent. That's cool.
Paris, because she'd be an abysmal waste of my time.
It amuses me that in the midst of world-wide feedback that Vista is the pariah of Microsoft, Microsoft still sticks to claims of wide adoption and great feedback.
I provide service to about a dozen regular business customers who have all shied away from Vista. They have either been warned off by professionals, industry analysts, or got it on a home computer and did not like it. One office got Vista on a couple of laptops and these laptops have nothing but problems.
The problems with Vista are very real, and I see where Microsoft will silently throw Vista off the bridge wearing cement shoes to sleep with the fishies and ME.
Paris, for the fishies and ME.
I often call Vista the desktop equivalent of a phone tree.
@Shabble
Can you give me indication as to why IE7 is better than Firefox? While I do not consider myself a fan-boy or evangelist by any means, I certainly do enjoy the flexibility that Firefox offers me versus IE7. In fact, what pushed me to Firefox in the first place was that IE6 kept forgetting my tool bar settings. Since then, I have been very please with Firefox.
I used to use Netscape back in the v6 days for the tabbed browsing... brilliant! For whatever reason I went back to IE6. I really enjoy being able to reconfigure the Firefox UI for my use preferences. I also enjoy all of the add-ons I use, like AdBlock and FlashBlock (not used on El Reg, though,) and Sun Cult, Server Spy, Fire Sizer, NoScript, UnPlug, Download Them All, IETab, and a few others which make working on the web a lot more fun and practical.
Now I have shown my hand as to why I like Firefox. I understand that every one has his or her preferences, and I would like to know what drives your love for IE7.
Paris, because everyone has his or her preference.
IIRC, there was supposed to be a DX-64, which would be the dual drive model. AFAIK, never saw the light of day. As for the CRT blanking disks, I never had the problem. Might have been a problem in the UK versus the US due to FCC requirements and stuff. Who knows.
I remember running GEOS v2 on mine. That little monitor is surprisingly sharp. Of course you could hook up a larger monitor in the back if necessary. I don't think that the SX could be used as a serious business machine any more than the real 64 could. There was good software, though. I remember reading about small businesses run entirely on Commodore 64, hotels and the like. In fact, during one family road trip way back when we stayed at a hotel that was run on a C64.
One of the great things about the SX was using the "dual monitor" capability. My friends and I could play games versus each other on separate screens, or use the bigger screen for observers. "Space Taxi" anyone? "Gunship" more your style? Or how about a game of "Strip Poker" for the party?
PH again, for the strip poker.
In my last few high school years my SX-64 and I were inseparable. I hauled that muther around 10 states on various trips, and even used it at school. I participated in the First Annual New Mexico High School Super Computer Challenge. I used the SX to dial into Los Alamos and work on a VAX/VMS system to write programs in Fortan 77 for the new Cray Y-MP/2E. For myriad reasons my team did not complete the challenge, one of which being my active activism against the tyranny of the school administration.
The airports didn't like it so much. At every security check-point I had to plug it in to show them that it worked and was a real computer. At one I actually wound up doing a demo. People thought it was pretty cool though aged at the time (1990-ish.) With it at 23 lbs and I at a wobbly 130 lbs or so (boy, those days are gone!) with toothpick sized arms, it was quite a chore to carry around Memphis, Atlanta, and Dallas/Fort Worth airports. But I had some games, a BBS program I was writing, and a WarpSpeed cartridge, so I was pretty much set. Carried the 1670 modem and a joystick in my bag.
This unit was stolen from the high school computer lab by a former fellow teammate. It was found out in a field, sabotaged, with several pins broken off the character ROM. Still works to this day. I was able to quickly figure out the problem and replaced the CHARROM.
I've picked up a second unit not long ago and have planned to rebuild the insides including a 5" LCD screen to replace the CRT. Just need to find time for it.
I've seen some redone with 1581 drives in the empty drive bay or replacing the 1541. There's a lot of room inside and a lot which can be done with these things.
Paris Hilton icon 'cuz I bet she's a chore to lug around all those airports as well. There's a number of projects I wouldn't mind working on with her as well, I just need to find time for it.
"*Spare us the "so why did you publish the link?" whines. Even if we didn't, the first thing you lot would do is Google the PPRuNe, so we've saved you the trouble."
Can we put this on Slashdot, too?
In the 'States, the NTSB at some point will release either transcripts or actual audio of the "black box." Any chance that will happen in this case?
Was Paris on-board?
I'm actually looking forward to Sun-rolled native installs of MySQL for Solaris. Err, although admittedly I rarely use any of the native packages, preferring to compile my own, but that could change.
In any case, I'm a staunch Solaris advocate. Just something about it has grabbed hold of me and won't let go. I beat the hell out of my Solaris boxes and they don't budge. Love them!
I'm running XP SP3 RC on my laptop. First thing I notice is it suspends and resumes MUCH faster. I haven't noticed much more speed elsewhere, really, but so far everything is ok. Second major thing I've noticed is not once have I had to power-off my laptop because Explorer (the desktop) hung on me. Maybe better drivers, who knows, but I don't care as it just seems to work better.
On my desktop system I have installed XP x64 Edition and I absolutely love it. Fast, stable, full 4GB of memory available and I can go to 8GB if I want or need, which I may for running several Virtual PC instances.
I've noticed that there's not much mention of pros or cons of Vista x64 specifically. As Vista and XP x64 are cousins, I would like to assume that Vista x64 runs much better than its x86 sibling. Anyone??
Paris icon because I fell in love with a Paris Hilton look-alike last Halloween.
I have found that 2007, aside from being horribly obtuse in its user interface, still maintains a lot of the usability and functionality problems I encounter in 2003. One big for instance, what happens to Outlook when it can't talk to the IMAP server: lock-up, big time, from which it can only sometimes recover.
And Vista vs XP is not much better. Ever have a removable device attempt to occupy the same drive assignment as a mapped drive? What happened in XP still happens in Vista: the removable drive is inaccessible in favor of the mapped drive, rather than Windows bumping the removable up to an available drive letter.
And I have not run into this yet, but I bet Vista still has a maximum file length of 255 characters including the path. 8-bit counters in 2007? Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick!!
@LaeMi Qian:
Sorry to say, if you are jaded by learning that Santa Claus is not a real person, then you have deeper issues already.
When I learned that Santa was not a real person, I was very quick and happy to shift from concrete "Santa the man" to the abstract "Santa the personification of goodwill."
I could go along with it being religious-like in the sense of being good to receive rewards later. Although in my thirties I am pretty sure that accepting Santa into my heart is not suddenly going to bring me a treasure trove of gifts in a couple of weeks :)
One could also look past the superficialities of Santa Claus and find the reward of kindness, goodwill, and philanthropy towards your fellow human-kind (as well as furry and non-furry critters*,) and enjoying the happiness these bring to others.
* Except spiders... damned little beasties.
No, go hug a tree and shut up ;)
The C64 used a pseudo-random number generator on-board the SID chip to produce white noise. I would assume that, given the technology at the time, this sequence would be easy to deduce.
I was thinking along the lines of the digital noise in a computer to provide random numbers. How about a simple USB-based (or even chipset based) RF receiver which uses some unused or used frequency from which to derive randomness. I imagine that the white noise in an unused frequency would generate crypto-sufficient randomness. It might even be enough to continually scan through the FM or AM radio bands. If an FM receiver can fit in my cell phone with all its other gadgetry, I would think that it could fit on a motherboard.
Considering the proliferation of 802.11g these days, maybe even using the output of a spectrum analyzer of the 2.4GHz band could do that (and then somehow avoiding the inevitable privacy concerns with active intercepting WiFi, and the potential hacks to actually listen in.)
For the scanning idea, maybe feeding the input into a state machine which would dictate which direction the scan would move: up, down, up by x, down by x, stay, etc.
And what about that idea of a sound card sample? Imagine a microphone on a sound card in a server room or data center. PLENTY of noise in there from fans, air conditioning, and the like.
I have migraines which are brought on by stress, missing a meal, allergens, some artificial flavors, certain non-sugar sweeteners, and other things which I've yet to figure out.
As mentioned before, pain is subjective. I have had headaches that last for a couple of weeks or more, ranging from a dull throb to a white-hot glowing poker shaped like a Klingon weapon rammed in and out of my head by way of my eyeball, and in most cases I have had to work through it all. Sometimes sleep helps, sometimes nothing helps. Imitrex has been a God-send for me, but sometimes it can't knock 'em out, either. Scale of 1 to 10? Not bloody likely, as sometimes 10 has to be adjusted.
But I also suffer from certain sensitivities, some painful and others not. Touch is uncomfortable, I don't like things on me. I'm very sensitive to light, and my optometrist has noted my very reactive pupils, but my 20/15 vision only hurts under headache. I have very acute hearing, but luckily I've only once had sound be painful. Smells set me off, sometimes smells actually hurt me.
Oh, I almost forgot that I cannot play XBox or any other modern console in an interlaced screen mode (four-player Halo, anybody?) without sending me off to the closed-up bedroom with my head under a pillow.
They suck, and I've had them as long as I can remember. It never occurred to me that these were so prevalent until my high school reunion when someone I hadn't seen in 10 years asked me if I still had my headaches. Wow.
On a scale of 1 to 10: I'd like to prop my feet up under the base of my skull and pop my head off. Where does that rate?
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