Posts by Swampie

The silence of the racks is deafening, production gear has gone dark – so which wire do we cut?

Let out the magic smoke.

There I was, it's 2003 in deepest, darkest Iraq, the rebuilding, the successful in removal of Goddam Insane... you would think smart things are about to happen... but we are here.

Rebuilding/ cleaning up/ sorting out an old Iraqii Army Base, which had been bombed three times in 3 wars... 2 x by my own US Air Force! Well, building is rebuilt, new power, new everything... And we build out an important ( read big budget ) Office building for the CPA ( Coalition Provisional Authority!). Well, in Iraq, they love England... so electrical power and bits and pieces mirror old blightey... well, not with US Trained techs/ and engineers... all the computers bought from and shipped from CDW in USA... ( read US Power supplies and cables!). Well, one emergency phone call later and a late night flight from USAF/RAF Mildenhall... we had a box of 50 electrical plugs converters US <--> UK. ( hint, hint... they only convert the physical cable!).

Well, My buddy sets up 3 nice Dell computers on new desks... three monitors... all into one US Power strip! Oh, and he uses a US/UK converter at the end of the power cord! Way cool, fire up this puppy!!! Pop, pop, pop... all the magic smoke gets let out, and the powerstrip catches on Fire to boot!

The only savings grace was that the monitors were auto sensing and didn't get zapped... but all the power supplies on the desktops were hard switch 110/220 using a small flat head screw driver... and that was beyond his experience!

Fun times!!!

Don't die on the Job

Big Sign on the Door of HR: Due to new Govt Regulations; Do NOT Die on the Job. The paperwork is terrible, and we don't have the man power budget to process everything. Please die at home!

Judge shoots down Trump admin's efforts to allow folks to post shoddy 3D printer gun blueprints online

Article ( to include first photo) does an injustice to journalism, the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, programmers and coders in general, and of course the actual issues on hand.

Coding is speech; and as such, then publishing a line of code is an exercise in Free Speech ( just as publishing this electro fish wrapper called the Reg). You don't need to bow and scrape to any level of government in order to Buy a Stamp Tax to publish your code. The 3D printer file which produces the Liberator piece is considered Free Speech. If you have a government official pass judgement over the block of text which is the code, then where do you stop when a government official wants to "Judge" the html code for The Reg? So, yeah, while the US Govt could Not enforce the ban against the code as code; what they originally did was to say that having it open on the WWW was defacto exporting the drawings/ diagrams of a weapon to the World + Dog... and as such was exporting arms. ( Keep in mind that software/ electro gizmos, words/ plans/ maps and other printed material and software items can be considered "weapons " and subject to Arms control laws...) ( Look up the battle about Crypto algorithms.).

The 2nd issue is that whether you not you like it ( and for opinions originating in bloody old England, we American's don't really care about your opinions...); America not only has the 2nd Amendment, but a whole govt dept tasked with defining what is and is Not a "GUN"; and how to control it/ them. So, both a home built firearm is legal; as is buying gun pieces/ parts and assembling a firearm... ( both a 3D printed gun and making an 80% lower into a functional gun receiver, and then bolting on what ever more parts you need... all legal ( and done often!).

Finally, the photo on the first part of the article ( and many parts of the rest of the article ) talk past or show false facts/ ideas... No, you won't be printing out a fully functional AK-47 in plastic filament on a Maker Bot... and no, you still can't print out bullets on an XYZ De Vinci Mini... bad journalism... ( don't get me started on when ever an article talks about bitcoin, they show a little pile of coins, like fake pirate treasure Doubloons! ( PS: I would rather have 1 bitcoin, than a 1 oz gold coin!).

When the IT department speaks, users listen. Or face the consequences

Back up of encrypted folder

Had a VP keep all kinds of important files in an encrypted folder on his desktop... and I added that folder on the back up files list for his comp name. Sure enough, hard drive probs later tanked his drive... I go and swap out his hard drive with a new one; add the corp image, a few specialty apps... and restore his different backed up folders! Oops, wait, where are the contents of that encrypted folder? I had the name, the folder got put back... but empty.

Turns out, the back up program didn't read/ work with encrypted folders; and never dived into the folder itself and back up the contents. One mad VP and a major talking to by the IT manager... however, savings grace was that the encryption software was personal, not authorized, not supported by the list of "Good" programs, and against policy to be on a comp/ used in the corp IT environment. So I won the battle but lost the future. Moved on 4-5 months later.

Re: Beautiful

Take HD out of chasis; boot from burned CD. Now, they must save to a floppy or to a network file share! ( this was at a office in 2003-2004!)

Conspiracy loons claim victory in Brighton and Hove as council rejects plans to build 5G masts

I blame Marconi

I blame Marconi and his evil AM radio... see, it sank the Titanic now didn't it! And too, If you leave your idiot phone on in a Boeing 737 Max, it will crash land and kill everyone! Proof that Electro Magnetic Radiation is harmful... just lay out in the sun without sun block on for 3 to 4 hrs... turns you Red!

Don't even get me started on how the color of my car at night is changed by those evil Orange hued street lights! OH, and my sister's wedding dress wasn't a nice shade of egg shell white, but some funny blue hue at the wedding reception and those cheap chinese fluorescent tube lights they had!!!

I can't believe you've done this: Cisco.com asks visitors to explain to IT why they have broken the website

Of course it is the customers fault

The Beatings will Continue until Morale Improves!!!

How to avoid getting burned at Black Hat, destroyed at DEF CON or blindsided by Bsides

And no mention of which after parties are worth going to; who has the best hospitality suite ( with open bar and hot food ); and of course, any good raffles/ drawings for good Swag!

Google: We're not killing ad blockers. Translation: We made them too powerful, we'll cram this genie back in its bottle

Time to use dan pollock's hosts file... plus a rasp pi pie hole... 2 can lay at this game! Fark goggles and ad boiz... we want clean, fast intertubiez... just say no to spam, bloat, auto play videos, and tracking!

No backdoor, no backdoor... you're a backdoor! Huawei won't spy for China or anyone else, exec tells MPs

So, this smart suit doesn't know about China's National Intelligence Law? Bull shiat!

Cite: https://qz.com/1016531/what-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-intelligence-law-that-takes-effect-today/

Lying liars who lie a lot!

Apple strips clips of WWDC devs booing that $999 monitor stand from the web using copyright claims. Fear not, you can listen again here...

Anyone know what parody is? Just add the laugh track from a slock TV show; and et voila!