Posts by Antron Argaiv

A few reasons why cops didn't immediately shoot down London Gatwick airport drone menace

Re: Why haven't they thought of.....

And no bras on the well endowed (of course) ladies.

You could pay for it all by selling videos afterwards.

American bloke hauls US govt into court after border cops 'cuffed him, demanded he unlock his phone at airport'

Re: The US can't be too careful

Mr. Mueller's working on making that official.

Re: Good luck

(which is pretty much impossible as he was born in the US...)

The current administration would like you to hold its beer...

How low can they go?

They just deported a group of Vietnamese and Cambodians who came here as refugees. Allegedly, they are all criminals. I would not be terribly surprised if they are minor crimes, but no details were given. With the current administration, assuming the worst is usually a safe bet.

// disgusted.

More disturbingly, this seems to happen much more frequently if you're not old, white and/or Republican.

And, if we allow it to continue, that may very well change. These officers were abusing their authority and need to be held to account. We like to think they are trained, objective professionals, but too many of them are drunk with power and enjoy the ability to wield their authority with no consequences. That sets a bad precedent, and needs to be firmly stopped.

Otherwise, see icon.

Houston, we've had a problem: NASA fears internal server hacked, staff personal info swiped by miscreants

Re: Hah!

I, too have hacked an SGI (Indigo) to get root. In my case, I did not have to use the NVRAM password, (though I did have to replace the NVRAM battery!) the previious sysadmin had left the "demo/demo" and "guest/guest" users active, and I was able to read /etc/passwd. John The Ripper to the rescue, and a cup of coffee later, I had the root password (because this is "old" Unix!).

Next surprise was that SGI's Unix, unlike all others, does not include cc -- you have to buy it! Working on that...

Godmother of word processing Evelyn Berezin dies at 93

CHM oral history

The interviewer was Gardner Hendrie. He was my grand-boss (boss's boss) at my first job out of college.

He was also the engineer who designed the first 16 bit minicomputer for Honeywell.

Small American town rejects Comcast – while ISP reps take issue with your El Reg vultures

Re: @Christoph

This is Massachusetts. We tend to frown upon laws like that. Comcast/Xfinity have a hard row to hoe around here, because we have several towns which are making town-owned utilities work just fine, thank you.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj9k5/22-towns-in-massachusetts-are-building-their-own-gigabit-fiber-network

Re: Democracy at its best!

...don't tell those who have voted for it that this is called socialism...

One man's "socialism" is another man's "States' Rights" or "local initiative".

To be fair, it's not socialism, because the residents are going to be paying monthly ISP bills. It's just that they won't be paying them to Comcast.

Shrewsbury (the one in Massachusetts) built their own cable system (at least 20) years ago, it's still going strong and they offer higher speeds at lower cost than Comcast. Perhaps because they don't have to pay outrageous executive "performance bonuses"?

Re: Good for Charlemont!

I went to school with someone from Charlemont. It's a *very* small town, and I'm not sure it's even on Comcast/Xfinity's radar. The population density is low, there's not a lot of money there, and the profit margins would be pretty thin, I suspect. Not worth Comcast's attention, which is why they don't have good (or any) internet.

You can bet that Town Meeting had a lot of debate before the town decided to build their own network. And good on them for deciding to do it. It's really no different than building roads or sewers. And now that POTS service is being abandoned because it's no longer profitable, Internet is really the communications system of the future.

Poor people should get slower internet speeds, American ISPs tell FCC

No cost to the suppliers

Once you get an infrastructure inplace, the cost of connecting an additional customer (if you've planned your network correctly) is very low. Likewise, the cost of supplying 100Meg broadband (as long as you're not trying to do it over RF carrier on coaxial cable).

The Greatest Country in the World(tm) should be able to manage getting fiber to every doorstep. We did it in the last century with electricity and POTS, we should be able to do it with fiber. Sure, it will take work, and sure, the ISP execs won't like it, but at this point, 25Meg broadband should be everywhere.

Lenovo tells Asia-Pacific staff: Work lappy with your unencrypted data on it has been nicked

Re: Meet our CSO, Mr. Hindsight

"Lenovo takes the security of employee information very seriously."

So seriously, in fact, that, instead of keeping it on company servers, accessible only through a VPN, we let employees walk around with it on their laptops, unencrypted.

Methinks Lenovo's definition of "security" is a mite more lenient than mine.

// what *possible* reason is there for an employee database with all kinds of sensitive information to be on a worker's laptop?

College PRIMOS prankster wreaks havoc with sysadmin manuals

Re: Unencrypted passwords in user profiles

I should also mention: I have the front panel to a Nova 3 somewhere in my attic. I salvaged it from a machine headed for the scrapheap.

Real Computers have switches and lights.

PDP-8, FOCAL and the 1130

We spent the same years in high school, I guess.

Before the HS got our 1130 (in my senior year), we had an IBM unit record setup. This was used to run attendance reports, submitted on mark-sense cards, for the 15 or so schools in town. I thought it would be cool to work there, so I applied, and for some reason was hired for 15 hours a week.

The 402 accounting machine, used to run the reports, was a motor-driven relay logic behemoth, weighing about as much as a small car. It was basically a glorified adding machine combined with a printer, which took its input from punched cards and you told it exactly what to do by pushing jumper wires into a 12" x 24" Bakelite plugboard. I actually took a course and learned how to wire the plugboard (being a fan of moribund technology). I also learned how to run (and unjam) the 082 sorter. Surprisingly, this came in handy in college, when we were learning sorting and searching algorithms. Card sorting (from the least significant column to the most significant) is bubble sort.

Thanks for the memories...core, of course.

// face down, 9 edge first!

Re: Unencrypted passwords in user profiles

I worked for DG.

DG was smarter than that.

Not always :-)

But IIRC, there's an option, when setting up a UNIX system, to encrypt passwords. It's supposed to be enabled by default, but maybe...

CSB: when DG decided that maintaining their home-grown schematic capture system was silly, the engineers all got Sun workstations. Shortly thereafter, they discovered "xnetrek". 50 engineers roaming the known universe, shooting at everything that moved, is a surprisingly effective way to bring a thick-wire 10mbit Ethernet to its knees. A memo was issued requesting that conquest of the galaxy be restricted to after four o'clock.

Student days

Ahhh...the memories

I had acquired for myself, a Teletype and modem before arriving at school. This meant that I could access the timesharing system from my dorm room, rather than having to trek tot he shared terminal room on campus.

Not knowing how to maintain my Teletype, I wandered into the Computing Center at the end of my first year, and discovered that they were looking to hire a Teletype repair person. I applied for the job, stated that my qualifications were that I was in the EE program and owned a Teletype, and was promptly hired!

I spent the next three years, with a permanent login to the mainframe, no time limit and access to all the free manuals I could ever want. This turned out to be handy.

After my first week of Linear Algebra, I decided I was finished finding matrix determinants by hand, and learned APL to complete my assignments without having to multiply and divide all night.

When my Assembly Language class was invited to submit our programs on punched cards, I learned how to do remote job entry using a file of card images submitted from a timesharing terminal,

As I entered grad school, I salvaged and repaired an old DEC VT05 "glass teletype" and upped my speed from 110 baud to 300 baud.

Playing around with this stuff probably taught me at least as much as I learned in my formal classes.

Tech support discovers users who buy the 'sh*ttest PCs known to Man' struggle with basics

When adding a daughter board to a PC we used to leave the mains cable connected...

I did that, once, when adding memory. Destroyed the memory and the motherboard. In the manufacturer's defense, there was a lit LED on the motherboard, which I ignored, because I was tired, inattentive, or both.

Lesson learned.

Mains cable is now always unplugged before opening the case.

FYI: Faking court orders to take down Google reviews is super illegal

Re: How long before the courts move into the modern world?

Telex???? It must mean something else where you're from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telex

In the USofA, it was an antiquated 5-level teleprinter service, last offered, I think, by Western Union (who is now solely a money moving company, I believe)

Funny thing it, the Telex system *did* have answerback. I used to repair 8-level teleprinters and that super-secure answerback you refer to is merely a string of characters, spit out from a primitive PROM (a rotating drum with 5 or 8 levels of tabs; break off the tab for a "1", leave it on for a "0") in response to receipt of a "WRU" character. NOT hard to spoof.

In college, I had a KSR-33 in my dorm room, the answerback drum was coded with my "username, CR. password, CR", so to log on, all I had to do was hit the HERE IS key.

Now, getting yourself ON a Telex network (if they still exist) might be well-nigh impossible. But, once you're on, you could spoof to your heart's content with a microprocessor and a UART (if you can find one that still does 5-level characters)

CR CR LF LF LTRS LTRS

FYI: NASA has sent a snatch-and-grab spacecraft to an asteroid to seize some rock and send it back to Earth

Re: Serious Question

How do they orbit something roughly 500 m in diameter?

A: Very carefully.

Take my advice and stop using Rubik's Cubes to prove your intelligence

Re: 1970's black-and-white

5247 FTW -- slides *and* negatives. Oregon Labs IIRC. Much less expensive than Kodachrome, but not as long-lasting.

Baroness Trumpington, former Bletchley Park clerk, dies aged 96

Re: A Good Life

...as did mine (though on the other side of the pond -- Nebraska Ave in DC).

I think probably the worst part for her was being kicked out the door at the end of the war, being told "thank you very much, now get out". At 25, having had all that responsibility and having accomplished so much, to be told that your services are no longer required, and you should settle down and raise children (which she did, and very well, too) is somewhat (!) of a slap in the face.

But that was how they treated the women who ran the country while the men were off fighting.

Here's to them all!

Microsoft reveals terrible trio of bugs that knocked out Azure, Office 362.5 multi-factor auth logins for 14 hours

Re: This hit us bad.

Cheaper? ...for now

Faster? (does anyone else remember diskless workstations, and before them, diskless X-terminals?)

More reliable? From Microsoft? Surely, you jest...

In theory, computing in the cloud should just work...multiple redundant servers, load balancing, unlimited storage and blindingly fast speed -- all those goodies. And The Internet hardly ever goes down, right?

Thankfully, my company has not yet converted to O362.5, but the indications are that it will eventually happen -- Microsoft will force us to.

We also have (an outstanding) in-house IT staff, but have recently been bought by a much larger corporation. As long as they don't outsource IT support, we'll probably be OK...

Pasta-covered cat leads to kid night operator taking apart the mainframe

Re: Screwdriver? Try a spanner!

Have not done that. Close, but have never done it.

Best I have done is to melt the blade of a screwdriver.

Before working on a mains circuit (which I believe to have been shut off), I first meter it, then short it with a screwdriver, just to be sure (taking the appropriate safety precautions, of course - safety glasses, etc)

I have drawn a spark more than once.

Consultant misreads advice, ends up on a 200km journey to the Exchange expert

Re: Bad advice

I'd be highly skeptical of ingesting anything from Russia, given recent events.

Analogue radio is the tech that just won't die

Re: Analogue Radio Must Never Die

The Navy do now, and Morse as well.

Got a tour of an Aegis destroyer last summer, and asked the nav officer (he looked about 18) exactly this question. He practices several times a week, and compares his fix with gps.

They also had a blinker and people who could use it.

Now, no paper charts...thats because updating them was a huge manpower drain. Its all e-charts now, he said.

What's big, blue, and short on Intel? The supercomputer world's podium: USA tops Top500 with IBM Power9

Re: What are the costs of these machines ?

If you have to ask, you can't afford one...

...but maybe buy it on the "core a month" plan?

Publicly Known

To me, the two most interesting words in the article.

Between you, me and that dodgy-looking USB: A little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone

My company was recently acquired.

I was given a new email address and a new web-based email account <my_name>@BIGCORP.COM

The *very first* email in my new inbox, was titled "Mandatory Security Training!" and came with a link, which I stupidly clicked and entered my newly provided credentials, only to be informed that this had been a phishing email from their "IT security team" and that I had failed.

So, like a good boy, I went to change my password.

"Password cannot be changed because you have had this one for less than 7 days"

Junior dev decides to clear space for brewing boss, doesn't know what 'LDF' is, sooo...

Re: Killing a database?

"Ever lose control of a handtruck loaded with punchcards..."

We use USB thumb drives to move that amount of data now :-)

// good old days...hah!

Townsfolk left deeply unsatisfied by Bury St Edmunds' 'twig' of a Christmas tree

We could use more of that kind of spirit in this world right now.

Nova Scotia sends a tree to Boston [MA] as a thanks for coming to their aid after the Halifax explosion.

Must visit and say thank you one summer.

Can your rival fix it as fast? turns out to be ten-million-dollar question for plucky support guy

Re: recompense?

Cheer up, it could have been a hot cocoa sampler box:

https://www.fark.com/comments/3268900/Hot-cocoa-sampler-box-What-did-you-get-from-your-company-this-year

Windows 10 Pro goes Home as Microsoft fires up downgrade server

Re: Just go Linux "Take my Linux ... please!"

My suggested tagline for Linux:

Linux: it's free, and it doesn't suck any worse than Windows.

// I will admit, it is an acquired taste, but I have been using it at home for almost 20 years, no complaints

// Currently using Mint MATE

Foxconn denies it will ship Chinese factory serf, er, workers into America for new plant

Re: Waste dumping

Well, duh!

Once you carefully "conserve" a reef, you wouldn't want anyone to come by and dump garbage (human or otherwise) on it, after all that work you've done to "make it yours", would you?

So you need to defend your newly conserved reefs (and, incidentally, all the water between them and you)

It is, of course, OK, when we (the US) does it...because Democracy and Freedom and stuff.

Turnabout is only fair play when we're doing the turning-about.

30 spies dead after Iran cracked CIA comms network with, er, Google search – new claim

Re: You do NOT jeopardise the safety of your people...

Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

...or something like that. The Old Guard has retired, the Young Turks are now in charge. And there's nothing they don't know, because...The Internet.

Sad.

DBA drifts into legend after inventive server convo leaves colleagues fearing for their lives

Re: My boss was demonstrating the instrusion sensors on our building

If it's like my company...

Someone, at one time, knew the reset code, or who to call. Fast forward five years, and all those who know are gone, having carefully handed over everything to the new person, who was transferred, so their replacement will have the binder of all knowledge...which seems to be missing the alarm code page (or there is one, but it's the old code, which was changed when the first person left, but the new person, instead of updating the page, simply stuck a yellow Post-It with the new code on...

...which fell off.

Nikola Tesla's greatest challenge: He could measure electricity but not stupidity

Re: oh, very good!

Chain printers :-)

Of course, the canonical tune for this sort of thing is always "Daisy" (aka "Bicycle Built for Two")

Re: Noted scientists

No love for Marconi?

Maxwell provided the theory, Marconi made it work...AND (more importantly) made it pay!

Difficulty: Italian, so probably not a good candidate for the #50 note (sorry, no "pound" on my KB)

Rosalind Franklin?

Re: The name 'Tesla' has been hijacked

Today, "Tesla" (or Тесла) in these languages in addition to carpentry tool meaning is also the colloquial for "botched job", "f***-up", someone not showing up for a meeting/date or something not being on time.

Good luck to Tesla Motors to sell a Tesla in a Balkan country. They are going to need it. It is after all a Тесла. Colloquial for a Tesla.

Perhaps they could rename the export version a "Nova"...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/

Goodnight Kepler! NASA scientists lay the exoplanet expert to rest as it runs out of fuel

Opportunity's last rights?

Why?

Can't it turn left?

Assange catgate hearing halted as Ecuador hunts around for someone who speaks Australian

Re: Downvoted ..

The original offense was unwanted sexual contact in Sweden, right?

President Trump has said that's acceptable conduct, if I understand him correctly (and I admit, that is often somewhat difficult, as he speaks in 140 character bursts, not all of which are comprehensible).

So...no harm, no foul...no black helicopters, right?

// still, word may not have made it all the way down to the "snatch team" yet...

SQLite creator crucified after code of conduct warns devs to love God, and not kill, commit adultery, steal, curse...

Only one needed

Don't be a dick.

// yes, you.

// and if you get the chance to do something nice for someone, do it

The best way to screw the competition? Do what they can't, in a fraction of the time

Re: "Ethernet is so much better"

There's a reason nobody has mentioned Token Ring.

Re: I'm quite happy

Listen up, children.

Before wired Ethernet, there was Norm Abramson and ALOHAnet - a packet radio network over "real ether". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet

In the beginning there was PARC and Classic Thick Ethernet over half inch (~RG-8) 50-ohm, double-shielded coax with vampire or N-connector transceivers. (Actually, in the *very* beginning, I think Metcalfe started with 3 Megabits/s and genuine RG-8)

Then came "thin-net" - RG-58 coax and BNC connectors, still 10 Megabits. It didn't last long, because shared media is a bear to debug.

Then came 10BASE-T, 10, and later 100 Megabit Ethernet over twisted pair, as exemplified by the then ubiquitous "CAT3" four-pair telephone distribution cable, RJ45 connectors and "66 Blocks". The advantage here, was that the Bell System had developed, at great cost, a complete premises wiring architecture that was inexpensive, available and, as with all of Ma Bell's efforts, *extremely* reliable.

And with CAT3, came inexpensive switches. Yay! No more shared media. Individual connections could now be isolated, unplugged and tested.

Fast forward to CAT5, CAT6 and gigabit over twisted pair. And *really* cheap and intelligent switches.

So many Ethernet cables

Sorry friends, I'm afraid I just can't quite afford the Bitcoin to stop that vid from leaking everywhere

Re: Racist?

Racist?

Making fun of a poorly phrased (and thoroughly unconvincing) email?

Mine's a "No" vote.

That's for you --------------------------->

// old white guy, so please correct for inherent cultural bias and historical oppression, if any

Excuse me, but have you heard the teachings of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Chr-AI-st?

Re: Accuracy

Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!

Worse? It cant get any worse...

Silent running: Computer sounds are so '90s

Re: Not just phones :(

Could be worse: you could be sitting next to her in an open plan office.

Re: Bah!

The anti social twit who sits in the quiet car on the train and proceeds to make phone calls. Even after the announcement that the quiet car is the first car in the train. They usually use earphones and think they're ok because you can only hear one side of the conversation...

// icon is for the fate they deserve

Re: PC noises

@Dr_N - There are a couple of guys who wear shoes that make noise, but most of the noise is from women's shoes. Take it up with the shoe manufacturers.

Re: Various office sounds

"Workplaces are quieter now. No longer do you suffer the scream of dot matrix printers or tweedling of fax modems, let alone digital squeaks."

So...we invented "open plan offices" and bare concrete floors.

No need to thank us.

Now, get back to work. You're not being paid to believe in the power of your dreams.*

* shamelessly stolen from despair.com

Re: Wot, no Trio?

Mine was the sound of the arrow hitting the serf with the coconuts ("whiiiiish-THUNK") in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, continuing up through the part where the serf (Patsy, I think his name was) gasps out "message for you, sir", before expiring.

Haunted disk-drive? This story will give you the chills...

Re: Similar scenario with a line printer

Platen?

Line printers are usually tractor feed.

(and the really high speed ones have fancy negative-ion static generators to neutralise the positive charge on the paper, so it keeps flowing smoothly...or the other way round)