It seems widely known that the HLT instruction, supported on many modern (and some non-modern) CPUs, allows for significant reduction in CPU temperature by shutting down most of the chip's subsystems for a period of time. This is true, but also misleading when talking specifically about potential CPU failure caused by heat-induced electromigration. Although halting a chip powers down MOST of its functions, there will still be one or more localized hotspots (e.g., timers or clock-related portions) that HLTing the chip will not affect, and will still be prone to electromigration. Wherever there is a transistor switching state, heat will be generated.
Remember however, that for any average chip operating within its temperature specs, it will take years and years and years (I think I read someone above quoting a minimum 40 years) for electromigration to cause any noticeable harm to the chip...
For anybody still reading at this point in an overly long thread:-)
Yes, I actually have a Kaypro II, and it still works. I can't actually think of anything useful for it to DO these days, but it looks cool.
As for the stuff I do use... there's my HP spectrum analyzer from 1985 or thereabouts (measuring up to a *whopping* 112KHz or so), 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives transplanted from some ancient gray-brown beasts to my latest machine (Besides being drives from the days before they were built to fail prematurely that will probably outlive me, they serve as an excellent theft deterrent by giving my machine that '286 look), my trusty line printer and SB16 (this is all on my *main* machine). Servers-in-the-basement get the royal treatment: Pentium 66 and 133, Cirrus ISA video boards (CGA and TTL outs, just enough video board so the machine doesn't go beep-beep-beep when you turn it on), the ever-popular 3c509s, and '80s off-brand keyboards (actually, just the controller board wired to a short plug, for those machines that just can't live without one).
Granted, I don't watch that much TV, but I have noticed a trend in recent years of some shows actually "bleeping" product logos on clothing, product packaging, etc. I have seen this on reality TV (yeah, yeah...someone in the household was flipping through channels) and shows involving non-actor video footage (America's [funniest/dumbest/craziest/most dangerous] [videos/police chases/animal bites/stunts]). Your first guess would be (as was mine) that these are offensive slogans/slurs not permitted by the FCC...but they are not!
It really makes me wonder about the reason, as I would expect the stations to want to cram in (and charge accordingly for) every product logo they can. It would not surprise me to find that these censored logos result from failed extortion attempts: when a candidate video for America's Funniest Animal Crotch Bites comes across their desk, and the protagonist is howling in front of the camera in his Nike hat, the studio calls up Nike and says, "For $x, we'll leave this logo in, y'dig?"
Because this worm doesn't know when to quit. In the last 2 days I have received over 300 copies from ONE Comcast customer. I'm still waiting for the last of 'em to download (dial-up is a bitch), but I'll bet money that the remaining copies are from the same IP as well.
They have these already, they're called polymorphic viruses.
Sadly (or happily, depending on your perspective), the average virus/worm has lost a lot of complexity since the DOS days, winding up as an onslaught of one lame.VBS script, IE worm, etc., after another. I imagine antivirus companies housing entire roomfuls of disillusioned old assembly gurus doing virus analysis, muttering derisively at every such lame worm coming down the pike and secretly hoping the next one is a clean, elegantly-coded polymorphic bootsector infector...
When building a house in a country-ish area [Morris, IL] a good while ago, one of our deciding factors was light pollution--or rather, the lack thereof. It was a place you could sit out at night and watch a meteor shower, for example, free from the glare of city lights.
Since that time, however, not one but TWO large plants went up near this area (the worst offender being in the general direction of Aurora), equipped with flame stacks serving to purify (or maybe just burn-off) some kind of industrial waste product. These are essentially very tall smokestacks shooting large jets of yellow flame into the air, all day, all night. It causes more light pollution than any mere streetlamps.
If I were hacking these things, I'd do the following:
Before taking pictures, I'd create a pair of public/private keys. I remove the '93C46 chip you stored your public key on (or just reprogram it in-circuit) to install MY private key. ('93C46 is the type of small serial EEPROM used to store little bits of 'unique' data in virtually EVERY consumer electronics product: Network cards (MAC address), copiers, printers, some TVs...yes, even CueCats...)
I then store my privatekey wherever I please. E.g. on a USB-capable computer.
When the camera takes a shot, it is stored *only after being encrypted* using MY public key.
When the camera comes back to my USB-capable PC for processing, the private key is retrieved and used to decrypt the images.
How is it that the camera can store its pictures on regular film (implying a purely optical process), but allow the user to erase a picture after it is taken? What exposes the film?
(Unless the 'film' is really some kind of magnetic media, I'm stumped.)
As I understand it, the "make-the-controller-vibrate" technology consists of a small electric motor with an off-centered weight attached. The motor is spun to create varying degrees of vibration. This is worthy of a patent? (I have prior art in my basement, typically during the Spin Cycle).
When was the "wiggle pen" introduced? The vibrating massager? Various (ahem) adult toys?
Also does anyone besides me think full speed sounds quicker then high speed?
YES... It reminds me of "Double Density" vs. "High Density" on floppy disks. This one threw me the first time I bought floppies. Wow, that's been a while.
Yep, I have it. I prefer to think of it as "Attention Distribution Difference". The level of attention remains constant, it's just distributed over a wider area.
Tell me, do you have a dozen or more simultaneously unfinished projects, all inching their way to completion?
I recently graduated from a (non-MIT) EE curriculum. You mean it's possible to get a degree without actually having to *build* anything?
There is nothing that instills respect for the apparatus (and frustration, rage, etc.), not to mention the concept of component drift, quite like an entire lab team frantically retuning their 6th-order Chebyshev filter 15 minutes before it's due, after everyone's individual breadboard, containing a piece of the circuit, gets a little rained on between the dorms and the lab.
Some of the privacy and security sites that mention Altnet or the b3d Projector are being sent a document "From Kevin Bermeister" that explains the technology in greater detail. Mostly it is their attempt to get their product delisted from spyware/etc. listings. From the document:
Q: What is the Peer Points Program and how will it be created? A: In addition to TopSearch, Altnet intends to distribute and use other private peer-to-peer applications. To enable all of Altnet to function, each computer must be equipped with several small software programs including. Peer Enabler - a peer to peer application that links users together to enable the sharing of authenticated files in a more secure and efficient manner than many existing similar peer to peer applications on the Internet Download Manager - a browser plug-in that enables a user to download audio and video files from the Altnet P2P network when visiting web sites that support Altnet file downloads on their site. Peer Points Manager - a system tray application that provide users access to management controls over Peer Enabler file sharing activities and allows Altnet to issue loyalty points to peers (users) who are serving other peers (users) with files that originate with the permission of content owners. Loyalty points can be redeemed for items and prizes from the Peer Points Manager. Altnet Signing Module - an application that enables Altnet servers to authenticate the volume of files served by a peer to other peers so that loyalty points can be issued to the serving peer in a secure manner.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems widely known that the HLT instruction, supported on many modern (and some non-modern) CPUs, allows for significant reduction in CPU temperature by shutting down most of the chip's subsystems for a period of time. This is true, but also misleading when talking specifically about potential CPU failure caused by heat-induced electromigration. Although halting a chip powers down MOST of its functions, there will still be one or more localized hotspots (e.g., timers or clock-related portions) that HLTing the chip will not affect, and will still be prone to electromigration. Wherever there is a transistor switching state, heat will be generated.
Remember however, that for any average chip operating within its temperature specs, it will take years and years and years (I think I read someone above quoting a minimum 40 years) for electromigration to cause any noticeable harm to the chip...
For anybody still reading at this point in an overly long thread :-)
Yes, I actually have a Kaypro II, and it still works. I can't actually think of anything useful for it to DO these days, but it looks cool.
As for the stuff I do use... there's my HP spectrum analyzer from 1985 or thereabouts (measuring up to a *whopping* 112KHz or so), 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives transplanted from some ancient gray-brown beasts to my latest machine (Besides being drives from the days before they were built to fail prematurely that will probably outlive me, they serve as an excellent theft deterrent by giving my machine that '286 look), my trusty line printer and SB16 (this is all on my *main* machine).
Servers-in-the-basement get the royal treatment: Pentium 66 and 133, Cirrus ISA video boards (CGA and TTL outs, just enough video board so the machine doesn't go beep-beep-beep when you turn it on), the ever-popular 3c509s, and '80s off-brand keyboards (actually, just the controller board wired to a short plug, for those machines that just can't live without one).
hotplug CPU support? You could pry loose your CPU and put a new one in, without turning the computer off?
While the mere thought of this has immense geek appeal, how would this actually be useful?
>Except that there is no content stored on the servers, and all the swapping is done via DCC (Direct Client Connection) and not through the server.
This article's a big damn advertisement. I'm surprised Proxomitron didn't catch it.
Yeah, but can your tape recorder legally enter a contract?
:-)
(I *know* mine can't, it's not 18 years old
Granted, I don't watch that much TV, but I have noticed a trend in recent years of some shows actually "bleeping" product logos on clothing, product packaging, etc. I have seen this on reality TV (yeah, yeah...someone in the household was flipping through channels) and shows involving non-actor video footage (America's [funniest/dumbest/craziest/most dangerous] [videos/police chases/animal bites/stunts]). Your first guess would be (as was mine) that these are offensive slogans/slurs not permitted by the FCC...but they are not!
It really makes me wonder about the reason, as I would expect the stations to want to cram in (and charge accordingly for) every product logo they can. It would not surprise me to find that these censored logos result from failed extortion attempts: when a candidate video for America's Funniest Animal Crotch Bites comes across their desk, and the protagonist is howling in front of the camera in his Nike hat, the studio calls up Nike and says, "For $x, we'll leave this logo in, y'dig?"
Of course, I could also be completely wrong.
Documentation of Cerwyn-Vega products tends to be (often intentionally, but sometimes not) quite amusing.
Because this worm doesn't know when to quit. In the last 2 days I have received over 300 copies from ONE Comcast customer. I'm still waiting for the last of 'em to download (dial-up is a bitch), but I'll bet money that the remaining copies are from the same IP as well.
They have these already, they're called polymorphic viruses.
.VBS script, IE worm, etc., after another. I imagine antivirus companies housing entire roomfuls of disillusioned old assembly gurus doing virus analysis, muttering derisively at every such lame worm coming down the pike and secretly hoping the next one is a clean, elegantly-coded polymorphic bootsector infector...
Sadly (or happily, depending on your perspective), the average virus/worm has lost a lot of complexity since the DOS days, winding up as an onslaught of one lame
> The note is just to make sure that if the letter gets to the wrong recipient...
:-)
Sounds kind of toothless in the case of stopping distribution of misdirected mail:
The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed
If it wasn't addressed to you, you would not have received it
He just swapped the controller boards. That's not the hard way.
The hard way is pulling the platters and breaking out the MEMS...
When building a house in a country-ish area [Morris, IL] a good while ago, one of our deciding factors was light pollution--or rather, the lack thereof. It was a place you could sit out at night and watch a meteor shower, for example, free from the glare of city lights.
Since that time, however, not one but TWO large plants went up near this area (the worst offender being in the general direction of Aurora), equipped with flame stacks serving to purify (or maybe just burn-off) some kind of industrial waste product. These are essentially very tall smokestacks shooting large jets of yellow flame into the air, all day, all night. It causes more light pollution than any mere streetlamps.
Explained very well.
'Nuff said.
Before taking pictures, I'd create a pair of public/private keys. I remove the '93C46 chip you stored your public key on (or just reprogram it in-circuit) to install MY private key. ('93C46 is the type of small serial EEPROM used to store little bits of 'unique' data in virtually EVERY consumer electronics product: Network cards (MAC address), copiers, printers, some TVs...yes, even CueCats...)
I then store my privatekey wherever I please. E.g. on a USB-capable computer.
When the camera takes a shot, it is stored *only after being encrypted* using MY public key.
When the camera comes back to my USB-capable PC for processing, the private key is retrieved and used to decrypt the images.
It's probably because there is no "Upsightful" option.
How is it that the camera can store its pictures on regular film (implying a purely optical process), but allow the user to erase a picture after it is taken? What exposes the film?
(Unless the 'film' is really some kind of magnetic media, I'm stumped.)
As I understand it, the "make-the-controller-vibrate" technology consists of a small electric motor with an off-centered weight attached. The motor is spun to create varying degrees of vibration. This is worthy of a patent? (I have prior art in my basement, typically during the Spin Cycle).
When was the "wiggle pen" introduced? The vibrating massager? Various (ahem) adult toys?
[No Contents]
Mwahahaha! Murderer tried to electrocute someone with a GFCI (ground-fault interrupter) outlet.
Also does anyone besides me think full speed sounds quicker then high speed?
YES... It reminds me of "Double Density" vs. "High Density" on floppy disks. This one threw me the first time I bought floppies. Wow, that's been a while.
Yep, I have it. I prefer to think of it as "Attention Distribution Difference". The level of attention remains constant, it's just distributed over a wider area.
Tell me, do you have a dozen or more simultaneously unfinished projects, all inching their way to completion?
I recently graduated from a (non-MIT) EE curriculum. You mean it's possible to get a degree without actually having to *build* anything?
:-)
There is nothing that instills respect for the apparatus (and frustration, rage, etc.), not to mention the concept of component drift, quite like an entire lab team frantically retuning their 6th-order Chebyshev filter 15 minutes before it's due, after everyone's individual breadboard, containing a piece of the circuit, gets a little rained on between the dorms and the lab.
(True story - may I never relive it
Some of the privacy and security sites that mention Altnet or the b3d Projector are being sent a document "From Kevin Bermeister" that explains the technology in greater detail. Mostly it is their attempt to get their product delisted from spyware/etc. listings. From the document:
Q: What is the Peer Points Program and how will it be created?
A: In addition to TopSearch, Altnet intends to distribute and use other private peer-to-peer applications. To enable all of Altnet to function, each computer must be equipped with several small software programs including.
Peer Enabler - a peer to peer application that links users together to enable the sharing of authenticated files in a more secure and efficient manner than many existing similar peer to peer applications on the Internet
Download Manager - a browser plug-in that enables a user to download audio and video files from the Altnet P2P network when visiting web sites that support Altnet file downloads on their site.
Peer Points Manager - a system tray application that provide users access to management controls over Peer Enabler file sharing activities and allows Altnet to issue loyalty points to peers (users) who are serving other peers (users) with files that originate with the permission of content owners. Loyalty points can be redeemed for items and prizes from the Peer Points Manager.
Altnet Signing Module - an application that enables Altnet servers to authenticate the volume of files served by a peer to other peers so that loyalty points can be issued to the serving peer in a secure manner.