I'm somewhat saddened when I look just now and find that all of my old ftpsearch sites are gone. But somewhat relieved when I realize that I really haven't needed them in a decade or so, which is why I didn't notice that they'd disappeared.
And I haven't seen a structure, period, that these guys can't get into. They've got Porta-Powers for spreading steel doorframes, and chainsaws with carbide teeth, and razor-sharp axes, and a fleet of specially-designed spud bars for prying all manner of things, and a fuckton of adrenaline to make it all work.
A fire crew doesn't need doors and windows to get into a structure.
You probably do not even need anything really expensive. Just a guide, a flat sheet of metal, and a dermal with a few different bits, and a bit of a steady hand and some time... I used to do similar things in woodshop with wood. Metal is just a matter of the right bits and keeping it coolish. And my way is probably the 'hard' way. I am sure there are much easier ways.
Kids, these days. Sheesh. Of course there's an easier way:
All you need is a key blank, a file, at least one working eyeball, and (optionally) a bench vice. Key blanks (for darn near any incarnation of "key blank") are very easy and cheap to get, and brass is ridiculously easy to work using simple hand tools.
"Do not duplicate" keys are not protected by just being labelled, they are physically a different shape (often with patented curves and bends), and genuine blanks can only be bought by registered locksmiths who have signed an agreement with the manufacturer not to duplicate keys without proof that the customer is authorised to duplicate that key.
Physically different? Because it is physically impossible for an individual to get a key blank and imprint "DO NOT DUPLICATE" on it using a stamp?
Wait, that was harsh. Let me try again: Dear sir, I think you are confusing the words "DO NOT DUPLICATE" with some other concept that actually has merit.
Whenever someone I've known has had their house robbed by a stranger, there's tons of evidence: The place gets trashed.
It is a different story when you're being robbed by someone you know: They're neat and clean and precise. All you notice is that you go looking for your diamond-studded Rolex, and it isn't there anymore. But chances are good that you've already invited them in, anyway, so a lock doesn't help that situation at all either.
In construction: Your work is only as good as that of your worst sub[contractor].
If I do a bunch of work under my name, let's say Snormy, and hire parts of it out for others: I will be judged, not my subs, because I am cashing the checks.
If Snormy hires bad subs, Snormy gets a bad name. The subs might live on. It doesn't matter how well Snormy does their own work.
In anything, really: If I put my name at the top of the project, it is my project. If something goes wrong, it is my fault, even if the fault rests layers (see: Ogres or onions or Tor) beneath me.
You know, there's nothing inconsistent about believing that both this man and the law are asses.
You know, perhaps that is exactly the point.
The difference between him and the State (or he and the coffee house, or whatever) is that he is both highly visible, and able to run away, while a lone camera can do neither of these things.
Lots of LED bulbs are no-name Chinese imports. That they accept and operate at 120VAC does not mean that they're compliant with FCC Part 15.
If you have specific examples of LED bulbs that are noisemakers, please complain to the FCC. It's an easy and cheap fix on the manufacturing front (an extra capacitor and/or an inductor), but that doesn't mean that the manufacturers are even aware of the problem.
After I'd been online for 20 years or more, I got hired to do a job doing refactoring and computerization of the control system for the motorized doors in a working jail. This required a certain amount of poking-around to make sure that I was a trustworthy person, if for no reason other than potential contraband issues.
One day, after I'd been working on the project for a couple of weeks, the person responsible for vetting me says "Hey, Adolf: Did you know what when I google your name, nothing comes up?"
I said "Yep. And I'm not surprised, either."
And that was that. No big deal, even though as Chief Technical Lackey of the project I might have been expected to have some mention of me somewhere.
Why was I so invisible? Because I just never, ever bothered posting something under my real name, and I stay away from real trouble and out of the news.
Not that I don't write entire volumes of text on/. or flame away on various forums (and once upon a time, Usenet -- which is forever). I just never wrote any of it as me.
Why would I?
Why should I?
Now, granted: I don't hide very hard. The Gmail address above is easily connected to me by the right entities, if they're so-inclined, but chances are good that I'm not hiding anything from those particular snoops anyway....
Google allows maps to be updated by end-users. There is an approval process, and a system that seems to operate somewhat like Slashdot's karma/moderation system.
So Waze isn't so different, unless it allows direct editing by end-users.
And if it does allow that, then Waze is not so different from OpenStreetMap, except for being less open.
Indeed, I'm not sure, as an end-user, what advantage Waze has for the mapping data.
However, I did use it today for the first time. I was struck with joy when I was able to enter a destination, have a sane route planned for me, AND peruse a list of places along that route which have coffee and add one as a stop. (Google Maps can't do this. My old Garmin can, but it's got its own set of issues that make it a PITA.)
(Routing around traffic automatically is neat, but I almost never drive in places that actually suffer from Real Traffic.:) )
Every community needs a toilet bowl. It keeps things sanitary.
What's weird about/. these days is that the toilet seems to be just inside of the front door, inviting any and all to shit in it. And it doesn't flush; indeed, it hasn't worked for quite some time.
And yes, vagueness does imply unreliability: If the data is so vague that I simply cannot independently verify that the data is correct, then I must assume that it is every bit as [un]reliable as "someone on the Internet said so."
And that is, obviously, pretty far down on the reliability scale.
I was always able to overlook the stabilizing wires in a Trinitron, because the colors tended to be so goddamn pretty compared to everything shadow mask.
The whine you hear is loose transformer winding(s). On a CRT, it's the flyback transformer. On an LCD, it's part of the power supply. Some of them do it, some of them don't.
(When I was much younger, I could hear flyback transformer in every CRT TV -- even at some distance. I could be just walking down the street on a cool summer night, localize the sounds emanating from open windows, and count the various different televisions that were on inside of a house using my ears alone. After a bunch of subsequent years of concerts and loud music and playing FOH engineer, I can't do that anymore, which might be a pity, except: My evening walks are MUCH more peaceful now.)
Slashdot Mirror
When I'm in the car and want some cheap, fast, gut-filling goodness, do I say to my wife "Do you want to stop at McDonald's?"
Or do I say "Would you like to stop at that individually-franchised restaurant-like business that happens to have a McDonald's sign attached to it?"
Just sayin'.
I'm not willing to accept the notion that the device itself isn't backdoored by default.
...which was another ftpsearch, at the time.
I'm somewhat saddened when I look just now and find that all of my old ftpsearch sites are gone. But somewhat relieved when I realize that I really haven't needed them in a decade or so, which is why I didn't notice that they'd disappeared.
Did you, you know, try reading the link?
I did. Years and years ago. It's a lovely story about a prop computer that actually was a real computer, from the horse's mouth.
Paperwork? The dude who built it is the dude who's selling it. WTF else do you want?
And I haven't seen a structure, period, that these guys can't get into. They've got Porta-Powers for spreading steel doorframes, and chainsaws with carbide teeth, and razor-sharp axes, and a fleet of specially-designed spud bars for prying all manner of things, and a fuckton of adrenaline to make it all work.
A fire crew doesn't need doors and windows to get into a structure.
Kids, these days. Sheesh. Of course there's an easier way:
All you need is a key blank, a file, at least one working eyeball, and (optionally) a bench vice. Key blanks (for darn near any incarnation of "key blank") are very easy and cheap to get, and brass is ridiculously easy to work using simple hand tools.
Yes, politicians are tantamount to fraud.
The Wii and the 360 weren't x86.
Physically different? Because it is physically impossible for an individual to get a key blank and imprint "DO NOT DUPLICATE" on it using a stamp?
Wait, that was harsh. Let me try again: Dear sir, I think you are confusing the words "DO NOT DUPLICATE" with some other concept that actually has merit.
Wait. That was harsh, too.
I give up.
If the maximum level of security for a home is governed by a fireman's ability to break in, then we're done here. There's nothing left to discuss.
Heh.
Whenever someone I've known has had their house robbed by a stranger, there's tons of evidence: The place gets trashed.
It is a different story when you're being robbed by someone you know: They're neat and clean and precise. All you notice is that you go looking for your diamond-studded Rolex, and it isn't there anymore. But chances are good that you've already invited them in, anyway, so a lock doesn't help that situation at all either.
You say it's funny, but it's the truth.
In construction: Your work is only as good as that of your worst sub[contractor].
If I do a bunch of work under my name, let's say Snormy, and hire parts of it out for others: I will be judged, not my subs, because I am cashing the checks.
If Snormy hires bad subs, Snormy gets a bad name. The subs might live on. It doesn't matter how well Snormy does their own work.
In anything, really: If I put my name at the top of the project, it is my project. If something goes wrong, it is my fault, even if the fault rests layers (see: Ogres or onions or Tor) beneath me.
Reliable data can be verified, much as reliable software can be. It can be proven.
Vague data cannot be. And it can not be proven, much less verified.
There, an analogy! This being Slashdot, I think we're done here.
You and your anecdotes can go and play together now.
Selective editing?
Almost all most conventional CCTV footage is also very boring. Usually, we only see the highlight reels. So what?
You know, perhaps that is exactly the point.
The difference between him and the State (or he and the coffee house, or whatever) is that he is both highly visible, and able to run away, while a lone camera can do neither of these things.
Lots of LED bulbs are no-name Chinese imports. That they accept and operate at 120VAC does not mean that they're compliant with FCC Part 15.
If you have specific examples of LED bulbs that are noisemakers, please complain to the FCC. It's an easy and cheap fix on the manufacturing front (an extra capacitor and/or an inductor), but that doesn't mean that the manufacturers are even aware of the problem.
After I'd been online for 20 years or more, I got hired to do a job doing refactoring and computerization of the control system for the motorized doors in a working jail. This required a certain amount of poking-around to make sure that I was a trustworthy person, if for no reason other than potential contraband issues.
One day, after I'd been working on the project for a couple of weeks, the person responsible for vetting me says "Hey, Adolf: Did you know what when I google your name, nothing comes up?"
I said "Yep. And I'm not surprised, either."
And that was that. No big deal, even though as Chief Technical Lackey of the project I might have been expected to have some mention of me somewhere.
Why was I so invisible? Because I just never, ever bothered posting something under my real name, and I stay away from real trouble and out of the news.
Not that I don't write entire volumes of text on /. or flame away on various forums (and once upon a time, Usenet -- which is forever). I just never wrote any of it as me.
Why would I?
Why should I?
Now, granted: I don't hide very hard. The Gmail address above is easily connected to me by the right entities, if they're so-inclined, but chances are good that I'm not hiding anything from those particular snoops anyway....
Google allows maps to be updated by end-users. There is an approval process, and a system that seems to operate somewhat like Slashdot's karma/moderation system.
So Waze isn't so different, unless it allows direct editing by end-users.
And if it does allow that, then Waze is not so different from OpenStreetMap, except for being less open.
Indeed, I'm not sure, as an end-user, what advantage Waze has for the mapping data.
However, I did use it today for the first time. I was struck with joy when I was able to enter a destination, have a sane route planned for me, AND peruse a list of places along that route which have coffee and add one as a stop. (Google Maps can't do this. My old Garmin can, but it's got its own set of issues that make it a PITA.)
(Routing around traffic automatically is neat, but I almost never drive in places that actually suffer from Real Traffic. :) )
What bias?
Every community needs a toilet bowl. It keeps things sanitary.
What's weird about /. these days is that the toilet seems to be just inside of the front door, inviting any and all to shit in it. And it doesn't flush; indeed, it hasn't worked for quite some time.
So welcome to Slashdot. Watch your step.
And a lot of closed-source things: FreeBSD != GPL, so one is free to bottle up a bunch of their compiled stuff and sell it without interference.
I, personally, am quite OK with this. (I once owned a TV that I strongly suspect ran FreeBSD; it worked well.)
Fine. On average, your data was vague.
And yes, vagueness does imply unreliability: If the data is so vague that I simply cannot independently verify that the data is correct, then I must assume that it is every bit as [un]reliable as "someone on the Internet said so."
And that is, obviously, pretty far down on the reliability scale.
I was always able to overlook the stabilizing wires in a Trinitron, because the colors tended to be so goddamn pretty compared to everything shadow mask.
The whine you hear is loose transformer winding(s). On a CRT, it's the flyback transformer. On an LCD, it's part of the power supply. Some of them do it, some of them don't.
(When I was much younger, I could hear flyback transformer in every CRT TV -- even at some distance. I could be just walking down the street on a cool summer night, localize the sounds emanating from open windows, and count the various different televisions that were on inside of a house using my ears alone. After a bunch of subsequent years of concerts and loud music and playing FOH engineer, I can't do that anymore, which might be a pity, except: My evening walks are MUCH more peaceful now.)
Dear AC,
Please explain how ocular scar tissue can affect persistence-of-vision effects in any way, shape, or form.
I'm all eyes.