I happen to have a small portable word processor which uses a serial cable and Xmodem to transfer files to the computer from 1200-19200 baud. (It does only have to send plaintext.) It's great for taking on the go, say, to jot notes in class without the teacher thinking you're surfing the web the whole time. After class, just play with HyperTerminal for a minute, copy the text into OpenOffice.org, and format as you please. A few minutes of your time is a small price to pay to make a free (rescued) word processor useful. Oh, and it has terminal software too -- I use either that or an Apple IIGS as an auxiliary control for my home server, which is invaluable when I screw up and lock up the rest of the system.:P
And I still demand a parallel port, because inkjet supplies cost more than blood, and I have an old dot-matrix with an ink ribbon that I use for my low-intensity printing needs. $5 for the printer and a dozen ribbons, so all I really pay for is the paper.:) Believing in the value of old technology is one of the best ways to save money.
I thought Wiis still couldn't play DVDs? That's been the quirk about the last couple of generations of Nintendo hardware; even the Dreamcast could play CDs and VCDs, while the GameCube couldn't use standard discs at all. And then the Wii hardware wasn't DVD-capable, although they promised a firmware upgrade later on to fix that -- has it finally happened?
Might I also suggest Zenwalk Linux? Originally Slackware-based, uses Xfce, package management system (netpkg) isn't *too* hard to get used to. Runs pretty quickly on my PIII/500MHz ThinkPad with 320MB RAM. (I used to run Damn Small on a PII/300MHz/96MB, which wasn't that bad, either, since it used Fluxbox.)
I used HyperWRT for a time on my WRT54GL. I boosted the power to probably 50mW, to overcome bad router placement. (In an alcove, in a corner of the house, where the cable modem was, behind a computer. It had to go through three or four walls to reach my parents' laptop on their desk, because they were too cheap to spring for a repeater. Ack.)
Things were peachy for a few months, but eventually the router wouldn't actually *route* or even load its control panel page for minutes at a time, several times every hour. It may have been unstable custom firmware, but I failed to account for the extra heat generated by the higher transmit power. Luckily, I restored the original Linksys firmware, at the standard power level, and it's worked fine ever since. Next time, I'll start with a bigger antenna, then add a repeater, then if I *really* have to go all out, use custom firmware and *mod a case fan into the router.*
I actually found Windows 3.11 to be a very usable operating system. Namely, because if it froze, I could CTRL+ALT+DEL, the system would actually reboot, and then it would be usable again.
I don't think that a drifting airship is what you would want to use for time-critical applications. The wind doesn't blow nearly that fast. (And if it did, your blimp pilot would likely be in a nasty spot of trouble.)
On the other hand, think of all the energy that goes into producing all the new computers out there, from mining and refining the often-hazardous materials, to making chips, assembling circuit boards, packaging, and shipping. I can't do the math, but it might be more environmentally friendly to just stick with one computer that can do everything you could possibly want, than to buy two and alternate.
The best solution I can think of (without completely ridding yourself of computing machines, and going off to milk some cows) is to satisfy yourself with a single, old laptop that you bought used. But who on Slashdot would do that? I know I couldn't.
Yeah, but it was more fun to learn how to set up the generation process myself.:) My most recent set of tables covers all alphanumeric characters, space, and 14 symbols to 99% accuracy, in 3GB. NTLM and MD5 are almost time-prohibitive for my hardware collection, unfortunately, so my ambitions there are a lot smaller, but they are the next step.
I'm not sure if it's open-source, but I believe that would be OphCrack, by Objectif Securite. It works like a dream, but they want you to shell out a lot for their "perfected" tables with special character support and all. It's really neat though.
Perhaps he used rainbow tables? I've spent the last couple of months putting my computer toward generating them (so far, just for LM hashes). The precomputation time is worth it when you're nearly guaranteed password cracks in a matter of minutes; no waiting for every single password to be brute forced one at a time.
Of course, I don't really have a need for such an ability (unless someone wants me to test their own systems' password strength, or I lock myself out of the Windows install that I never use), but it's nice to be able to brag.
Eventually the odds are such that this will produce a great RPG of all the works of Shakespeare.:P
Re:Family is all that matters in life.
on
Disillusioned With IT?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Sure, work hard at a boring job so that your child has all the right opportunities to grow up and do the same for his child.
From my point of view, it's better to take a fun but low-paying job, because you'd inspire your kid to follow his own dreams instead of taking the easy way out. (There's also the side benefit of perhaps not being so materially-focused.) Plus, even with your responsibility for others, it is still your life -- as long as you can still keep your family in food and shelter, why not enjoy it?
Also, don'tcha want to be the "cool dad" everyone else's kids want to have?:P
That really is an interesting and exhaustive book. I got a copy for Christmas and just finished it a few weeks ago, and got drawn in each time I picked it up. My only complaints are that some people are introduced after they've been mentioned several times, there's a lot of repetitive phrasing, and apparently there's very little proofreading. (Oh, and I was hoping for more Amiga coverage.) That isn't enough to detract from the story, though. Before reading the book, I was an "Apple invented the PC and did it the best" fanboy, too.:P
Actually, I kind of appreciate their Durabrand consumer electronics. I had an MP3/CD player that stood up to a lot of heavy wear-and-tear (constant use, constant dropping, etc.) for over two years. When it died, I replaced it with a fancy Memorex player at twice the price. It lasted eight months. I'm not buying Memorex media anymore, either.
It also totally ignores the precedent set involving LoC (Library of Congress) units. I don't care how many instructions a second it can do, just tell me the equivalent in books-reshelved.
I'd love to get my hands on a Poqet PC. Ran MS-DOS from a little flash card, had a small but apparently surprisingly usable keyboard, and the machine would run for a couple dozen hours on some AAs. Small enough to fit in a purse or small bag, too.
I don't know about all of Slashdot, but there are a lot of us who would love to toy around with a computer like that, running Linux in textmode only; you could still do basic document creation and web/e-mail/IM functions. and even programming. Just give it a faster processor, an SD card slot, and WiFi.
Unfortunately, I think they'll notice both, but think that they can only understand the one they already know, which would be Windows. People will go to a lot of trouble to keep within the realm of the familiar.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what I did on my old DOS box, in autoexec.bat. (Ah, good ol' autoexec.bat.)
Then I discovered that you could do fun things in DOS, too. I commented that line out (with a REM) and the real fun began!
Maybe they figured that since we true /.ers never RTFA, they don't need to link us to them anymore.
Yes, and what do you do when the server gets infected?
I happen to have a small portable word processor which uses a serial cable and Xmodem to transfer files to the computer from 1200-19200 baud. (It does only have to send plaintext.) It's great for taking on the go, say, to jot notes in class without the teacher thinking you're surfing the web the whole time. After class, just play with HyperTerminal for a minute, copy the text into OpenOffice.org, and format as you please. A few minutes of your time is a small price to pay to make a free (rescued) word processor useful. Oh, and it has terminal software too -- I use either that or an Apple IIGS as an auxiliary control for my home server, which is invaluable when I screw up and lock up the rest of the system. :P
And I still demand a parallel port, because inkjet supplies cost more than blood, and I have an old dot-matrix with an ink ribbon that I use for my low-intensity printing needs. $5 for the printer and a dozen ribbons, so all I really pay for is the paper. :) Believing in the value of old technology is one of the best ways to save money.
Indeed, early Commodore PETs reportedly suffered a "killer POKE" via their BASIC.
I thought Wiis still couldn't play DVDs? That's been the quirk about the last couple of generations of Nintendo hardware; even the Dreamcast could play CDs and VCDs, while the GameCube couldn't use standard discs at all. And then the Wii hardware wasn't DVD-capable, although they promised a firmware upgrade later on to fix that -- has it finally happened?
Might I also suggest Zenwalk Linux? Originally Slackware-based, uses Xfce, package management system (netpkg) isn't *too* hard to get used to. Runs pretty quickly on my PIII/500MHz ThinkPad with 320MB RAM. (I used to run Damn Small on a PII/300MHz/96MB, which wasn't that bad, either, since it used Fluxbox.)
I used HyperWRT for a time on my WRT54GL. I boosted the power to probably 50mW, to overcome bad router placement. (In an alcove, in a corner of the house, where the cable modem was, behind a computer. It had to go through three or four walls to reach my parents' laptop on their desk, because they were too cheap to spring for a repeater. Ack.)
Things were peachy for a few months, but eventually the router wouldn't actually *route* or even load its control panel page for minutes at a time, several times every hour. It may have been unstable custom firmware, but I failed to account for the extra heat generated by the higher transmit power. Luckily, I restored the original Linksys firmware, at the standard power level, and it's worked fine ever since. Next time, I'll start with a bigger antenna, then add a repeater, then if I *really* have to go all out, use custom firmware and *mod a case fan into the router.*
I actually found Windows 3.11 to be a very usable operating system. Namely, because if it froze, I could CTRL+ALT+DEL, the system would actually reboot, and then it would be usable again.
I don't think that a drifting airship is what you would want to use for time-critical applications. The wind doesn't blow nearly that fast. (And if it did, your blimp pilot would likely be in a nasty spot of trouble.)
On the other hand, think of all the energy that goes into producing all the new computers out there, from mining and refining the often-hazardous materials, to making chips, assembling circuit boards, packaging, and shipping. I can't do the math, but it might be more environmentally friendly to just stick with one computer that can do everything you could possibly want, than to buy two and alternate.
The best solution I can think of (without completely ridding yourself of computing machines, and going off to milk some cows) is to satisfy yourself with a single, old laptop that you bought used. But who on Slashdot would do that? I know I couldn't.
Feed ye not the troll.
Unfortunately, there are only roughly 200 countries, but I bet you most of them would try to double-claim to make up for it. :P
Yeah, but it was more fun to learn how to set up the generation process myself. :) My most recent set of tables covers all alphanumeric characters, space, and 14 symbols to 99% accuracy, in 3GB. NTLM and MD5 are almost time-prohibitive for my hardware collection, unfortunately, so my ambitions there are a lot smaller, but they are the next step.
I'm not sure if it's open-source, but I believe that would be OphCrack, by Objectif Securite. It works like a dream, but they want you to shell out a lot for their "perfected" tables with special character support and all. It's really neat though.
Perhaps he used rainbow tables? I've spent the last couple of months putting my computer toward generating them (so far, just for LM hashes). The precomputation time is worth it when you're nearly guaranteed password cracks in a matter of minutes; no waiting for every single password to be brute forced one at a time.
Of course, I don't really have a need for such an ability (unless someone wants me to test their own systems' password strength, or I lock myself out of the Windows install that I never use), but it's nice to be able to brag.
Eventually the odds are such that this will produce a great RPG of all the works of Shakespeare. :P
Sure, work hard at a boring job so that your child has all the right opportunities to grow up and do the same for his child.
:P
From my point of view, it's better to take a fun but low-paying job, because you'd inspire your kid to follow his own dreams instead of taking the easy way out. (There's also the side benefit of perhaps not being so materially-focused.) Plus, even with your responsibility for others, it is still your life -- as long as you can still keep your family in food and shelter, why not enjoy it?
Also, don'tcha want to be the "cool dad" everyone else's kids want to have?
I have a suggestion for Slashdot: More music, less Nessman!
I don't think it would need to be on DVD. Windows XP installation files fit into a single CD, even with SP2 and all that jazz.
That really is an interesting and exhaustive book. I got a copy for Christmas and just finished it a few weeks ago, and got drawn in each time I picked it up. My only complaints are that some people are introduced after they've been mentioned several times, there's a lot of repetitive phrasing, and apparently there's very little proofreading. (Oh, and I was hoping for more Amiga coverage.) That isn't enough to detract from the story, though. Before reading the book, I was an "Apple invented the PC and did it the best" fanboy, too. :P
Only on slashdot would that comment be modded interesting and not funny. :P
Actually, I kind of appreciate their Durabrand consumer electronics. I had an MP3/CD player that stood up to a lot of heavy wear-and-tear (constant use, constant dropping, etc.) for over two years. When it died, I replaced it with a fancy Memorex player at twice the price. It lasted eight months. I'm not buying Memorex media anymore, either.
It also totally ignores the precedent set involving LoC (Library of Congress) units. I don't care how many instructions a second it can do, just tell me the equivalent in books-reshelved.
I'd love to get my hands on a Poqet PC. Ran MS-DOS from a little flash card, had a small but apparently surprisingly usable keyboard, and the machine would run for a couple dozen hours on some AAs. Small enough to fit in a purse or small bag, too. I don't know about all of Slashdot, but there are a lot of us who would love to toy around with a computer like that, running Linux in textmode only; you could still do basic document creation and web/e-mail/IM functions. and even programming. Just give it a faster processor, an SD card slot, and WiFi.
Unfortunately, I think they'll notice both, but think that they can only understand the one they already know, which would be Windows. People will go to a lot of trouble to keep within the realm of the familiar.