Slashdot Mirror


User: GSMacLean

GSMacLean's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
19
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 19

  1. Google needs to look at itself!! on Google Targets Fake "Download" and "Play" Buttons (torrentfreak.com) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I run a site that offers downloads of files. I have advertising on that site. A large number of those ads, obviously context-sensitive, display fake "Download" buttons on them.

    Guess who is my ad provider? Google AdSense.

    Google, heal thyself.

  2. Re:You get what you deserve for using comcast. on Comcast's Xfinity Home Security Flaw Leaves Doors Open (rapid7.com) · · Score: 1

    It has to work this way. Otherwise your alarm would be going off every time you turned on the microwave oven. Wireless security systems are inherently secure. I refuse to use them in my house.

  3. Spoiled Californians on Charge Rage: Electric Cars Are Making People Meaner In California · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh, waah, cry me a river. I live in Ohio, and the only place I have ever found to plug in my car is in my own garage, at my home. There ARE no public charging ports, anywhere. They don't exist here. So when I hear about Californians crying because they can't conveniently find enough public charging ports, excuse me if I don't get all weepy about their struggle.

  4. Phones? on New FCC Rules Could Ban WiFi Router Firmware Modification · · Score: 2

    My phone can act as a WiFi router. Does that mean no more firmware updates allowed for my phone?

  5. Re: Maths much? on 8 Yelp Reviewers Hit With $1.2 Million Defamation Suits · · Score: 2

    Or they live in the UK, where it is normal usage for what we in the US refer to as "Math."

  6. Re: Sometimes even your hack gets outdated... on Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack? · · Score: 1

    My favorite cell phone ever: a Mitsubishi DiamondTel 22X, back in the days of AMPS. Hold down the pound sign and type 0944635 (still remember that) and it would go into diagnostic mode. You could manually turn on the receiver, and then manually tune to different cell channel pairs, and spend the day listening to other peoples' phone calls. Not that I did, of course, that would have been illegal.

  7. Re:Commodore Hack on Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack? · · Score: 1

    My 1980's Commodore PET hack story: We had a MuPET (Multiple User PET) network that consisted of a card plugged into the IEEE port in the back of each PET, and connected to a daisy-chain ribbon cable that led to the MuPET controller. This controller then plugged into a 4040 dual floppy disk drive and a printer. When the MuPET controller was powered up, it would load its firmware from the disk in drive 0. When each PET was turned on, it would load the TSR (terminate, stay resident) driver to redirect disk and printer I/O to the MuPET controller, from the controller itself. Therefore, each PET was running a TSR that ultimately came from whatever was stored on drive 0 on the 4040 when the controller was booted. I wrote a tiny hack into this code that when loaded into the PET as a TSR, would watch the jiffy timer. Every 9 minutes or so it would make the End of Memory pointer equal to the Begin of Memory pointer - effectively erasing whatever BASIC program the student was typing in. So students who were sitting at the PET typing in their programs, would unknowingly end up saving only the last 9 minutes of their work. Stupidly, I was so proud of my nasty little hack that I put a message with my initials in it. Turns out the Computer Science head was smarter than I thought, and found my little boast. That little bit of fun got me banned from the computer lab for the remainder of my high school career.

  8. Remote server rebooter on Ask Slashdot: Your Most Unusual Hardware Hack? · · Score: 2

    We had a server at a co-lo that was locking up on a regular basis. It had a phone line that it used on an infrequent basis with a modem to send faxes. When it would lock up, usually at 4 am, I would have to drive 45 minutes to the co-lo in order to press the reset button. I took an old 1200 baud modem, and cut the traces on the PC board where the off-hook relay connected to the analog phone circuitry, and instead brought those relay contacts out to a set of wires. I hooked those wires into the reset switch on the server, put the modem on the same phone line as the outgoing fax line, and set the modem to auto-answer after 20 rings. There were never any legitmate incoming phone calls on that line, and any random wrong numbers would give up after 4-5 rings. When the server did lock up, I would just dial the number of the outgoing fax line and let it ring 20 times. The modem would "answer" - but the relay would actually "press" the reset button on the server instead, saving me a 45 minute drive.

  9. Re:hunter hunted on For-Profit, Illegal Movie Download Sites Threaten MPAA · · Score: 1

    More specifically, I would like to see the MPAA and RIAA take on the Russian mob. I would encourage them to do this! Heartily!

  10. Re:What about $50 GPS Jammers? on Senate Votes To Replace Aviation Radar With GPS · · Score: 3, Informative

    You're missing the point. The idea behind GPS-driven ADS-B is that it REPLACES surveillance radar.

    Here's how it works right now: The ground-based radar sends out a signal; it hits the aircraft and bounces back; ATC now knows which direction and how far away the aircraft is. On top of this, there is a transponder in the aircraft which sends back a coded number assigned by ATC, so that ATC can determine which dot on their radar screen is which aircraft. Additionally, if the transponder has (and has enabled) Mode C (which is required in most congested airspace), it sends back the aircraft's altitude. ATC now has a 3-dimensional fix on the aircraft, with positive verification as to who you are.

    ADS-B gets rid of all of this. Instead, the aircraft has a GPS receiver, which gives itself a 3-dimensional fix in space. It transmits this information along with a unique identifier, when interrogated, to ATC. ATC utilizes this information to identify and track the aircraft in 3 dimensional space, as is now done with conventional radar/Mode C.

    The problem is, what if GPS goes out? What if some pimply 17 year old kid buys a GPS jammer from Mexico and sets it up on his roof? Every aircraft in the area suddenly loses their ability to receive GPS signals, and all of a sudden ATC has no idea where any of the aircraft are. There is no backup system, because part of NexGen is the decommissioning of all primary surveillance radar.

    THAT is the issue.

  11. Re:A Clockwork Orange on Using Classical Music As a Form of Social Control · · Score: 1

    Philadelphia airport does this throughout the entire airport - loud classical music blared 24/7 over PA speakers. Now don't get me wrong - I love classical music, but after a five hour layover there, I was ready to kill myself.

  12. Re:Telemarketer solution on The DIY $10 Prepaid Cellphone Remote Car Starter · · Score: 2, Informative

    You have no idea what you're talking about. Pretty well every gasoline engine has the capability (and the provision) for the addition of a block heater. Go up north where -40 is a normal winter temperature, you'll see everyone has block heaters. Even store parking lots have lines of plugs for you to plug your car in while you go inside. By the way, the only reason Diesel is more expensive here (unlike the rest of the world, where it is cheaper - which make sense, because it is far less refined and less costly to manufacture than gasoline) is because the government heaps taxes on it.

  13. Re:Sprint? on Analyst Estimates AT&T Needs To Spend $5B To Catch Up · · Score: 4, Informative

    I couldn't agree more. I've been on Sprint for five years. I also can't remember the last time I had a dropped call or no service, and the "everything" plan can't be beat. I talk to the Apple fanboys at work toting their iPhones, and they try to compare who has the least number of dropped calls - they can't believe that I don't have any at all, ever.

  14. Used in Toronto for years on The Year of the E-Bicycle · · Score: 2, Informative

    Electric bikes have been used and encouraged in Toronto for over three years. They can appear like stocky bicycles, or scooter-style. They have a maximum speed of 20 mph, and you don't need a drivers license, motorcycle license, license plate or insurance. A whole industry has sprung up around the legislation with many models of electric bicycles being sold.

    Ontario Ministry of Transportation e-Bike FAQ

  15. Re:The name Bowditch comes to mind on US Coast Guard Intends To Kill LORAN-C · · Score: 1

    Negative. I have a Loran-C (Apollo 612B) receiver in my airplane that is about to be turned into an inoperative brick.

  16. Re:.no on Are Sat-Nav Systems Becoming Information Overload? · · Score: 1

    I spent the summer driving around England and Scotland with a GPS. I loved it there for the same reason I love it on my motorcycle back home: I can go ANYWHERE - if I see some little road or village I want to explore, I can do so, without the fear of ending up hopelessly lost.

  17. Approve this app...but make changes first on The Kafka-esque Nightmare of Palm App Submission · · Score: 1

    Hmmm...is it only me that remembers the initial announcement from Palm back at CES? That announcement explaining how apps will be approved for the app catalog based on whether or not they will harm the phone...and nothing else? No Apple-esque "we want you to change the app so that it..." kind of BS. Yet now...

  18. Re:Cameras at every toll booth on California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable · · Score: 1

    Just layer this on top of your license plate, with a button in the car - turn your plate on and off. Someone build this, please! http://www.glass-resource.com/sub/special/privacy.htm

  19. Re:Not news to nerds on SF Not an Exception In Giving IT Too Much Control · · Score: 2, Informative

    It happens. I was called in to try to rescue a small web shop's hosting business. The hosting business was a side business of the web design shop, with two web servers, a database server, and a mail server. All the hosting stuff was run by one guy, he was the only one who knew the passwords, and they unfortunately went with him when he died on the operating table. Five months later, when the increasingly unpatched servers started falling victim to attacks, they called me to try to fix the mess. Of course there were no backups, no way of retrieving anything. It was a mess.