Posts by jake

Hey, you know what the internet needs? Yup, more industrial control systems for kids to hack

Re: Part of the Problem

I think in these here parts, Gartner fell out the bottom of the Trough of Disillusionment over a decade ago ...

Blithering idiots.

Ah, well. More loot for me, cleaning up the mess. Still, it's getting rather old. You'd think after a couple decades they'd notice something wasn't working exactly as planned.

As Facebook pushes yet more fake articles, one news editor tells Mark to get a grip – or Zuck off

Just a reminder.

"The news", regardless of source, is entertainment. It is not education.

SAP made a mistake on its own blog - mobile platform to survive

SAP has a mobile platform?

Who knew?

Apple: iPhone sales are down (but they've never been more lucrative)

Selling fewer phones, making more profit.

The iPhone set must feel so proud to be helping poor, poor Apple stay out of debtors prison.

Super Cali's unrealistic net neutrality process – even though the sound of it is something quite... ferocious

It's not supposed to make it past a challange, silly!

The only reason SB640 exists at all is to remind the Trump administration that "the out of control State of California" doesn't really give a shit about anything the Trump administration has to say on any subject whatsoever. It's designed to get the .fed flailing around even more uselessly, and looking even stupider than normal. Personally, as a citizen of said State, I find it absolutely hysterical :-)

To hack Australia and learn its secrets, buy second-hand furniture

Re: More common than you might think.

Tha Ham store went away years ago. Are you sure it was on Lawrence? Not Kifer?

The Source is long gone, unfortunately.

HalTec on Linda Vista in Mountain View is also gone, alas.

HalTed is still with us. http://halted.com

Weirdstuff is a relative newcomer, and still here. http://weirdstuff.com/

For those who don't know, the above five "recycled" parts stores are the un-sung heros of Silicon Valley. Much of the computer/high-tech revolution started with a nerd/geek rummaging around in their parts bins.

HalTed and Weirdstuff both ship. If you're fiddling about with a RasPi project (or similar), and are having trouble finding a strange bit of kit, try them. One or both probably have it. If it's not listed online, drop 'em a note. They are responsive to serious inquiries. Both have a generous return policy. Both have regular hours, and are open to the general public. Well worth a visit if you are in the South Bay. They are close enough together (under five miles by road) that you can visit both and have a good nostalgia-browse at both in a short afternoon.

I'm not an employee, just a very long term satisfied customer.

Re: What's this Telstra thing?

Two takes on the concept of Frisian-roo:

Me: That must be where they get milkshakes down under.

Wife: That would be a jumper with springs!

Re: Holding it wrong

Inversion won't work with top of the line Steel Case cabinets. The new ones ship with the keys taped to the outside, behind the top drawer pull so they don't get rubbed off during transit.

Re: More common than you might think.

Yes, I know how to pick locks. And yes, desk drawer and file cabinet locks are really, really easy to pick (and good practice for the neophyte). And yes, once its open, and if you have a set of blanks, it's trivial to cut new keys. However, I had no blanks and didn't want to pay a locksmith for a house call. The fastest/easiest/cheapest method at my disposal was to drill & replace. Also, the folks I sold them to appreciated the matching numbers on the locks & keys, which didn't hurt any.

More common than you might think.

I purchased a pallet load of used 5 drawer SteelCase filing cabinets from a company called "Weirdstuff Warehouse" back in 1989. There were a dozen in all, arranged in a 3x4 grid on the pallet. One of the employees allowed as to how they had come in with a bunch of office equipment from a small engineering campus that Unisys had just closed in South City (South San Francisco).

None had keys. Knowing that it's easy to replace a drilled out lock in this kind of cabinet, I was pretty happy to pay $40 apiece. The way I figured it, I'd sell 10 for $120 each after replacing the locks ($20 per), for a nice tidy profit of $480, plus two "free" locking file cabinets, which was what I needed for my startup.

It turned out that the lower three drawers of the center two cabinets were full of half inch mag tape. Half were labeled "Sperry", and the other half were labeled "Burroughs", and from the labels they contained system images, source code and some kind of corporate data. Being the curious type, I eyeballed the contents of a couple at random. They contained what was written on the tin.

I have no idea why they were "hidden" in the middle of the load like that, but I have my suspicions. Rather than jump through hoops to return them to Unisys, and having no use for the code, I bulk erased them and re-used the tapes. I wish now I had kept them :-)

FYI: That Hawaii missile alert was no UI blunder. Someone really thought the islands were toast

Re: Early warning siren

One's a cut of beef, the other is a violent whirling wind accompanied by a cloud that is shaped like a funnel which moves overland in a destructive, narrow path.

Peh-cahns are for eating, pee-cans are for truckers.

And amonds are amonds ... To harvest them, you shake the L out of the trees.

For "omni-shambles" read ...

... "Gen-u-wine Class A Clusterfuck".

So you accidentally told a million people they are going to die: What next? Your essential guide...

Re: The Final Step : Hawaii EMA, My Part in its Downfall

Any Yanks reading this (and perhaps youngsters in Blighty?), that's a reference to Spike Milligan's 7-part wartime trilogy that starts with the book "Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall". If you haven't had the pleasure yet, get thee to a library, pronto. If they don't have it on the shelf, ask about inter-library loan; they CAN get it in. Should be required reading to graduate from high school on either side of the pond ... and points antipodian. IMO, of course.

Re: Mini population explosion

So-called Blackout Babies don't exist.

Re: Work down the list ...

You and I would be just finishing lunch, yes. Capitol Hill was still asleep.

Re: More incoming...

So-called Blackout Babies don't exist.

Re: Work down the list ...

The "retaliate" button is in DC, not HI. DC was still asleep at 8AM Hilo time. Thankfully.

So you accidentally told a million people they are going to die: What next?

"We're going to DISNEYLAND!"

California Senate OKs net neutrality law, gives FCC cold hard long stare

Re: If It's So Flipping Bad?

Zippy! Where have you been? Getting your meds adjusted? Doesn't seem to have worked ... Might want to let Nursie know when she comes in to wipe the drool off your chin.

Re: If It's So Flipping Bad?

Which "they" and what "vote" are you babbling about?

We (TINW) are not mind readers; context is kind of important.

On yer bike! Boffins teach AI drone to fly itself using cams on bicycles, self-driving car

Re: Rotating blades at groin height

"2.5 meters (high enough to avoid most urban obstacles)"

Brooms, baseball/cricket/golf bats, hats gloves & scarves, frisbees, junk food wrappers, small change ... at that altitude, drone parts will be easy pickings.

Of course, they'll be easy pickings at any altitude in an urban setting.

Timeout everyone. Y'all know that Musk's $500 'flamethrower' is literally a Boring blowtorch?

Re: Very disappointed..

More to the point, in most cases a civilian using a flamethrower is self cancelling. I'm all for chlorinating the gene pool. Hopefully this won't get any laws protecting rednecks from themselves passed.

That's not a flame weeder ...

... THIS is a flame weeder.

Sorry, Musk. Mine's bigger.

Ubuntu reverting to Xorg in Bionic Beaver

Re: It is the video hardware driver's fault

In this case, the "S/W" is the instructions for setting up the "H/W". Without those instructions, the hardware is useless. IMNECTHO, the instructions are an integral part of the hardware.

Re: It is the video hardware driver's fault

My servers have been headless for decades. It's not like you need a GUI to admin them.

Re: I find this slightly embarassing

Strangely enough, every single contributor to TUHH is now happily using a system that is based on un*x. You will be assimilated ...

Took 'em long enough.

Next up ... systemd, hopefully.

Maybe you should've stuck with NetWare: Hijackers can bypass Active Directory controls

Netware? Nah.

I stuck with BSD on my servers ... 40+ years on: So far, so good.

Sysadmin crashed computer recording data from active space probe

Re: The Murphy Brown episode was mocking corporate America appropriating such concepts.

Fair enough, Etatdame.

But I gotta ask ... What's wrong with using the Dewey Decimal system as an example? Seems perfecty reasonable to me.

HEY, YOU KIDS, GET ORF MY LAWN!!!

Re: Hmmm ...

No, not the first wireless network. Look up AlohaNET for enlightenment.

Re: Hmmm ...

I just now got off the phone with an old mentor from back in the day. The NASA recording systems on the ground were redundant because the hardware of the day was so flaky ... having one system fail catastrophically was always possible, so they took measures. Also, he can't remember a mainframe involved in that recording. That would have been entirely too much money to throw at a problem with much easier & less expensive solutions. He's also fairly certain that the ground systems that did exist were Honeywell, not IBM ... But, as he put it, he's in his eighties & they say the mind is the first to go.

Re: But we we all knew that token ring...was going to be the future...

The talking stick is a device used from time immemorial by so-called "indigenous tribal cultures" world wide. The Murphy Brown episode was mocking corporate America appropriating such concepts.

Re: Not totally accurate?

Correct. The 1403 was actually built for the 1401, not a mainframe. When used with a mainframe, they required a bit of a kludge, but removing one from such a system wouldn't crash anything.

Re: It's not usually what you don't know that's the problem

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." --Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Boat mooring ... (was: Re: Hmmm ...)

I've personally seen >$120,000 yachts moored with nothing more than shore power, a telephone line (POTS) and a fresh water line. The last time I saw this was at St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, a place where you'd think they would know better ... I was there to fix their end of a dial-up UUCP link.

One of the boats that "broke free" in Santa Cruz, California during the tsunami following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake was "moored" with only coax for a CB radio antenna bolted to the top of a piling ... The coax was RG-58.

Ever wondered why tech products fail so frequently? No, me neither

Re: Software testing?

I have a GREAT boot manager! She's a smooth Collie. No matter where we leave our boots in the house, she very carefully puts them away down in the mud room. Her kennel name is Martha, but I call her Lilo ...

Re: Software testing?

"use of Javascript should be a hanging offense."

FTFY. No charge.

Re: Software testing?

Can't wear another man's boots. No two pairs of feet are the same. If you wear somebody else's, you'll have foot trouble guaranteed.

Re: Software testing?

Boots? Get the best quality you can. Eat rice & beans instead of meat for a couple weeks if you have to in order to get the best. You'll survive the diet just fine, and your feet will thank you for years thereafter.

I wear Ariats around the livestock, my normal work boots are RedWing (steel toed and standard), and my logging hobnails are Hi-Tec "Magnum", which are no longer available, alas. (I got my three pair "for the price of one!" ~19 years ago in a close-out at the factory store in Riverbank, CA ... I had to add to hobnails myself. Best boot purchase ever.) All my current collection have been re-soled at least once, except one pair of the Magnums.

The way I see it, boots aren't properly broken in until they've been through at least one set of soles. The exception to this rule is my wellies, which get replaced every couple years. They are made by the Muck Boot Company ... Look it up if you're not familiar with the name. Worth the price, if you need a good set of warm, dry wellies that you can wear all day without destroying your feet.

Re: Software testing?

SnapOn are good tools, but I rarely have time for the truck to come when I have a broken tool that needs replacing. So I use Craftsman, as there is almost always a local Sears store (and now OSH, Ace et alia) that is open when I need a replacement. The "free replacement" thing seemed important to me 40-odd years ago, when I started buying my own tools, but I've only had to use the option a couple dozen or so times since I started building the collection ... That said, Craftsman quality has been slipping. I might choose to move to SnapOn for new purchases.

Re: Software testing?

Voyna, I got my MBA in '88, before Vimes was known to the public ...

All, I must confess to a cardinal sin. I have not yet read the Discworld series. I've read a chapter or three of a couple of the books, enough to know that I'll read them all eventually. In fact, I have the complete set in the "Barrister Bookcase" over my right shoulder that also contains a bunch of other books that I intend to read some day. A couple years ago, the Wife etched the top glass panel with the words "In case of retirement, Break Glass".

Re: Software testing?

Trust me, Jeltz, I know a good bargain when I see one. Sometimes I'll wait a year or more before finding the right price on a piece of equipment. Haste makes waste ... unless it's an emergency, of course. But I can't remember the last time I had to make an emergency equipment purchase.

I can afford what I need, when I need it. Part of the reason for this is because I only buy equipment once.

Re: Software testing?

"the ones you never use"

What are these mythical sockets that I never use? I never heard of such a thing. Sounds like a daft concept to me.

Trebles all round! Intel celebrates record sales of insecure processors

Re: misinformed

Out of curiosity, Nimby, what colo(u)r is the masthead in your world?

If you've ever wondered whether the FCC boss is a Big Cable stooge – well, wonder no more

Re: Pardon?

John, yer butter's done slipped off yer biscuit.

You are so fractally wrong about everything concerning politics that I think it's time to invoke Formosa's Law on the subject and just let you stew in your own juice.

Re: Pardon?

"I'm saying this article is written specifically to attract haters, and direct their attentions to Pai. That's evil."

Talk about having it backwards! In reality, putting somebody like Idjit "Tweety" Pai into a position of power is the thing that's evil. Pointing it out is responsible journalism.

Virgin Media skulks in disused public toilets

Re: Back in the early 2000's

Either the renter missed the boat on making money off of so-called "portals", or it was a spammer. My money is on spammer.

Google slaps mute button on stupid ads that nag you to buy stuff you just looked at

Re: Does Google really not get it?

"What's the Roman numeral for 1000?"

To the Romans it was the Greek letter "phi". This was later stylized into CIƆ, which in Medieval times was changed to the easier to write (carve, chisel, whatever) letter "M". Note that "M" being an abbreviation for "mille" is purely coincidental.

"M" is used instead of the seemingly more obvious "K" when the user means "per 1000 units or impressions" in various industries for the simple reason that those industries existed long before the new-fangled metric system was an itch in Simon Stevin's pants.

HOWEVER, when ordering a lot of small parts make absolutely certain that the vendor actually means "per 1000" and hasn't "helpfully" "modernized" the use of "M" to mean one million. If you don't, you'll wind up with an argument over who owns 10,000,000 3" nursery pots ... I got the shipment stopped at about 1,000,000 delivered or in transit. We settled out of court, with me purchasing the shipped lot at manufacturing cost. I'm still using them over ten years later ...

Re: hasn't affected my so-called "internet experience", near as I can tell.

The phrase "near as I can tell" has meaning. Perhaps you should parse it?

One thing I'm 100% certain of is that I don't have any of the google-angst displayed in this thread.