It's more difficult than that. You have to memorize the sounds of the letters, numbers and punctuation, so that when you hear dah-di-dah-di, your brain automatically says "C", without conscious thought. Something similar applies to sending code.
In the old days, you would run into shipboard radio operators who could listen to morse code and type the received message on a typewriter, while simultaneously having a conversation with someone in the radio room. Transcribing the code had become a reflex.
There is a fair amount of CW jargon and text that is so common that it is language independent. You can operate at a limited level with no knowledge of the other operator's native language.
I think most of the morse code fanatics have died off. I don't hear many people saying that deletion of the morse code licensing requirement would lead to the fall of Western Civilization, which was common in previous debates on the subject.
I recently got a grandfathered upgrade to a General license, because I got my Technician license way back when it included a 5 WPM send/receive morse code test and the General written test. I'm studying for the Extra license, now that it doesn't require another morse code test.
I have nothing against morse code, I just think that it shouldn't have a special status in licensing examinations.
There is nothing "perfectly good" about a lock whose keying needs to be changed every few days for liability and safety purposes. On-staff locksmitch or programmable locks? Hmmm.
Electronic door locks come with their own new and unique vulnerabilities. It isn't obvious that they are better than mechanical locks.
One possibility is to spend some more money and get the low-end model in a series of routers manufactured by a real router company. After having problems with Netgear and SMC, I bought a Netopia R910. It runs the same software as their more expensive routers. The firewall features, while not as fancy as what you can do with a dedicated PC, are adequate for my needs.
Blaming the guy at the bottom of the totem pole is the easy way out. What sort of guards did they hire? Minimum wage rent-a-cops? Were they properly trained and supervised, given clear orders, have the backing of management?
At most places, security is an underfunded joke. The only serious security that I have seen is at some military installations, where sensitive areas have MPs with weapons, who actually look at IDs and access lists, and have clear orders to shoot any idiot who tries to breeze through the
entrance, even if it's the commanding general.
In defense of the "idiots", many IT people and system administrators are hobbled by the lack of time, money, and equipment. There is the "right way" to do things and the "real world" way to do things. If management isn't willing to spend the money, and doesn't care, what can you do? At my last job, I had to bring a spare CD-RW drive and blank CDs in to work from my home to back up the critical files on my work PC.
Don't Worry, Be Happy
on
Cracking GSM
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· Score: 1
This isn't an issue for cell phone users in the United States. There is no encryption on your calls. So you don't have to worry about someone cracking the lame algorithm. There are secure cell phones available for GSM and CDMA networks, but they don't sell them to the proles.
If they are using a LFSR (linear feedback shift register), a popular circuit for generating pseudo-random bit sequences, it isn't secure. Simple LFSRs are trivial to crack.
I like the idea of a vole system. Of course we would have to define the standard vole to make it useful.
Measurement systems need to have some relevance to the everyday world. Just look at the metric system, they based the length of the meter on a bad measurement of the size of the Earth, an otherwise insignificant planet. Things went downhill from there. We could have done just as well by digging up an old king and measuring the length of his forearm.
Imagine that you are shipwrecked on a previously undiscovered island. After months of effort, you learn the local language. How will you explain the units of the metric system to the natives? See, there's this platinum-iridium bar stored in a vault in Paris... Have you ever heard of Krypton-86... What about atomic clocks... Forget it.
I had hoped that nuclear power would have eliminated fossil fuel burning power plants for the generation of electricity. Saving the oil for those applications where there are no reasonable replacements. With a reasonable investment in research and engineering, we could have safe, standardized, nuclear power plants all over the world.
Even if you ignore CO2 emissions and global warming, fossil fuels kill untold thousands every year via air pollution and deaths related to extraction, processing and distribution. They even release substantial amounts of radioactive materials into the atmosphere.
Ever since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, i've wanted a computer that had voice recognition and could speak in a normal voice. Even though the technology has improved over the years, it's a long ways off from replicating HAL.
For years, I've read about large IBM systems that have extensive fault detection, retry and repair capabilities. They have built-in spares and can automatically call field service with a list of boards that need to be replaced. The field service engineer can replace the defective boards whenever it is convenient, without taking the system down. It seems like none of this technology makes its way into small computers. You can't even get ECC memory without buying a workstation/server or building your own box with the right chipset and motherboard.
Flying cars are easy. Competent and safe drivers are hard. There are so many ways to kill yourself, and others, in a flying vehicle. Think of all the idiots and poorly maintained vehicles that you see on the road everyday.
It might be popular to dis Madonna, but she has more singing and dancing talent than 99.999% of the people out there.
You should do a little research before you call someone a liar. Yes, you could spend $10K, or more, on a 9.6 kbps full duplex modem for voice grade lines. These were rack-mount commercial modems used in early data networks. You wouldn't find them in a neighborhood store. That was in the mid 1970s. Computer hobbyists were still using Bell 103 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers.
To get 56K, you needed a special modem that used a group of 12 voice channels in a FDM (frequency division multiplex) system. FDM was an analog system used to transport multiple voice lines before PCM replaced it. It was used with the microwave relay system that used to cover the United States.
I used to use a 3COM 56K LAN Modem for
Internet access. It was very convenient. All of my computers were on a local Ethernet. The 3COM box was a DHCP server and router, and it dialed my ISP on demand.
Some people are spoiled. 9.6 kbps used to be a high speed data line that required a $10K modem and 56 kbps was a very expensive wideband data line.
But system-level stuff like operating system kernels? A relatively low-level language is required.
They could write it in Ada or Modula-3. I can't think of a reason why you couldn't write 99.9% of an operating system in Ada. Compiler and computer technology has advanced quite a bit since the days of UNIX V7 and the Portable C Compiler.
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In the old days, you would run into shipboard radio operators who could listen to morse code and type the received message on a typewriter, while simultaneously having a conversation with someone in the radio room. Transcribing the code had become a reflex.
There is a fair amount of CW jargon and text that is so common that it is language independent. You can operate at a limited level with no knowledge of the other operator's native language.
I recently got a grandfathered upgrade to a General license, because I got my Technician license way back when it included a 5 WPM send/receive morse code test and the General written test. I'm studying for the Extra license, now that it doesn't require another morse code test.
I have nothing against morse code, I just think that it shouldn't have a special status in licensing examinations.
Not now. But if you want to operate HF, you still need to pass a 5 WPM morse code test.
Due to the political system in the United States, there can be a rather large number of offices and questions on a ballot.
It isn't.
Guess how LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) got the nickname "Landslide Lyndon"?
Electronic door locks come with their own new and unique vulnerabilities. It isn't obvious that they are better than mechanical locks.
One possibility is to spend some more money and get the low-end model in a series of routers manufactured by a real router company. After having problems with Netgear and SMC, I bought a Netopia R910. It runs the same software as their more expensive routers. The firewall features, while not as fancy as what you can do with a dedicated PC, are adequate for my needs.
At most places, security is an underfunded joke. The only serious security that I have seen is at some military installations, where sensitive areas have MPs with weapons, who actually look at IDs and access lists, and have clear orders to shoot any idiot who tries to breeze through the entrance, even if it's the commanding general.
He's ineligible for the office.
In defense of the "idiots", many IT people and system administrators are hobbled by the lack of time, money, and equipment. There is the "right way" to do things and the "real world" way to do things. If management isn't willing to spend the money, and doesn't care, what can you do? At my last job, I had to bring a spare CD-RW drive and blank CDs in to work from my home to back up the critical files on my work PC.
This isn't an issue for cell phone users in the United States. There is no encryption on your calls. So you don't have to worry about someone cracking the lame algorithm. There are secure cell phones available for GSM and CDMA networks, but they don't sell them to the proles.
If they are using a LFSR (linear feedback shift register), a popular circuit for generating pseudo-random bit sequences, it isn't secure. Simple LFSRs are trivial to crack.
Measurement systems need to have some relevance to the everyday world. Just look at the metric system, they based the length of the meter on a bad measurement of the size of the Earth, an otherwise insignificant planet. Things went downhill from there. We could have done just as well by digging up an old king and measuring the length of his forearm.
Imagine that you are shipwrecked on a previously undiscovered island. After months of effort, you learn the local language. How will you explain the units of the metric system to the natives? See, there's this platinum-iridium bar stored in a vault in Paris... Have you ever heard of Krypton-86... What about atomic clocks... Forget it.
That depends on your definition of speed.
Mainframes aren't bought for raw MIPS.
I had hoped that nuclear power would have eliminated fossil fuel burning power plants for the generation of electricity. Saving the oil for those applications where there are no reasonable replacements. With a reasonable investment in research and engineering, we could have safe, standardized, nuclear power plants all over the world. Even if you ignore CO2 emissions and global warming, fossil fuels kill untold thousands every year via air pollution and deaths related to extraction, processing and distribution. They even release substantial amounts of radioactive materials into the atmosphere.
Ever since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, i've wanted a computer that had voice recognition and could speak in a normal voice. Even though the technology has improved over the years, it's a long ways off from replicating HAL.
For years, I've read about large IBM systems that have extensive fault detection, retry and repair capabilities. They have built-in spares and can automatically call field service with a list of boards that need to be replaced. The field service engineer can replace the defective boards whenever it is convenient, without taking the system down. It seems like none of this technology makes its way into small computers. You can't even get ECC memory without buying a workstation/server or building your own box with the right chipset and motherboard.
It might be popular to dis Madonna, but she has more singing and dancing talent than 99.999% of the people out there.
I'm currently reading that book. Who would have thought that all electronics is based on the need to party with some hot chicks.
You should do a little research before you call someone a liar. Yes, you could spend $10K, or more, on a 9.6 kbps full duplex modem for voice grade lines. These were rack-mount commercial modems used in early data networks. You wouldn't find them in a neighborhood store. That was in the mid 1970s. Computer hobbyists were still using Bell 103 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers. To get 56K, you needed a special modem that used a group of 12 voice channels in a FDM (frequency division multiplex) system. FDM was an analog system used to transport multiple voice lines before PCM replaced it. It was used with the microwave relay system that used to cover the United States.
Some people are spoiled. 9.6 kbps used to be a high speed data line that required a $10K modem and 56 kbps was a very expensive wideband data line.
They could write it in Ada or Modula-3. I can't think of a reason why you couldn't write 99.9% of an operating system in Ada. Compiler and computer technology has advanced quite a bit since the days of UNIX V7 and the Portable C Compiler.