Re:Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days...
on
Remembering the BBS
·
· Score: 1
...IBM portable PC/XT (5151 I think?)
Do you have the original CP/M disks, or were they
MS-DOS by then?
I can't claim to have been doing much but watching cartoons and playing with Tonka Toys when it was new (I'm not that old)
ARGH! I'm NOT, I repeat NOT old! I've haven't even had four zero rollovers yet!
Re:Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days...
on
Remembering the BBS
·
· Score: 1
Ok, so maybe this will get modded down for being off-topic, but remember the old (old, old) hard drives for the TRS-80? The size of a large briefcase, at least 20 pounds, oh, and the operating system requires you for format them into umpteen-bazillion "big floppies".
Then again, I still remember 8" hard-sector floppy disks, so I'm probably dating myself.
How about the original "portable" computers? Definitly kept those arm and shoulder muscles in shape.
Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days...
on
Remembering the BBS
·
· Score: 1
I still remember my first experience with a 1200 baud modem, and thinking "it doesn't get any better then this".
Later I found out that I can read at just over 2400 baud. My family never understood what I was talking about.:]
I just wish more of the people on usenet, irc, and the rest of the internet understood more about *why* you trim messages when replying, *why* you don't spam, blah, blah, blah.
The internet has a place, but I really miss the local feeling that the BBS's had.
WTF? In case this guy has forgetten, I own my computers. I own my pipes (well, lease, but...). I own my network. If I decide to filter all FTP traffic at my external firewall because I don't have a public FTP server, why does he think he can force me to put one in?
Likewise, if I decide to reject any mail that isn't reverse-dnsable, who is he to try and tell me how to run my system?
Similarly, if I decide to reject any mail that server "x" (where "x" is not in my domain), who is he to try and tell me how to run my system?
One thing's for sure. As part of discovery, all his addresses and such are going to come out, I have the suspicion that they are going to get added into the "click this button to unsubscribe from our spam" lists very quickly.
COBOL (circa 1950's) was designed to be as close to American as possible. That's why it uses those supid periods (but only most of the time), and things like
Please do not confuse your misinterpretations of incomplete data about myself with reality. I'm not suggesting that MS be forced to hand over their Precious[tm].
I keep seeing on slashdot about how people want to get microsoft (yaddah-yaddah-yaddha) out of the picture, how linux (yaddah-yaddah-yaddah) is "so much better".
The only way to change the court of public opinion (which is basically run by the microsoft public relations department for desktop purchases) is to get the information about how shoddy microsoft software is, and offer alternatives.
This is not a chance to tell somebody "MS sucks" again, it's a chance to tell people that "MS sucks, they admitted it under oath, here's things that don't suck so badly."
My personal opinions about Microsoft, Linux, Luigi's Castle, and Final Fantasy:Mystic Quest don't factor into this.
Get a paper copy of this testimony. Make lots of photocopies. Highlight the "interesting" parts (such bad security that releasing it would be a national security risk, etc). Send to everybody in your local government you can find, demanding that they stop using MS products until their security problems are fixed. As alternatives, there is at least OSX, all the Linux distributions, and probably other things (the resurrection of BeOS?).
Given that MS is admitting in court that they are selling defective products, demand that your local government sue MS for fraud. Politicians don't keep up to date on every legal battle going on everywhere, but if you send them the relevant portions they at least can't claim they didn't know.
While you're at it, forward this onto the local newspaper and tv stations. "poor security" is a big boogyman these days.
Another thing; Send this onto the people at your company who make buying decisions, if MS is going to admit their products have the security of swiss cheese, does your company really want to expose itself to that kind of danger?
Keep it short, stupid. Functions (methods, procedures, whatever you call them) should be as short as reasonably possible.
Keep it simple, stupid. Writing lines like that look like sumarian may be cool, but are going to be really hard to maintain. If it takes you longer to explain all the neat tricks you're doing then it does to write the line, you're being too cryptic.
Keep it standard, stupid.
The overuse of "#define FOO BAR" statements in c is a good example. Likewise, although =+ and += used to mean the same thing, the standard suggests that you use += nowadays.
Keep it syntatic, stupid.
The days of 6-character variables are long gone. The name of the variable should have some relevance to the use of the variable, such as "MailingAddress[]", not "MA[]".
Finally, comments should probably never be used
to describe individual program lines. If you need to use something like
f03vun(//Verify the city/state.
You should rename your function to
VerifyCityState(
Disconnecting is easy.
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 1
Just cancel the credit card they are billing.
They'll either kill your access, or a human will get ahold of you to correct the "billing problem", at which point you tell them to cancel the account and send you a bill, which you pay by check.
Or at least, since about 1997. For details, check out "Dennis Erlich", "alt.religion.scientology", any number of anti-scientology web sites, the official cult of scientology press releases, or the MoFo announcements.
(Long story short: Dennis Erlich was sued by the cult of scientology for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and probably everything else under the sun. MoFo took his case on a "not pro-bono, but we know we're going to lose money" basis.)
While you're at it, make sure you pick up your copy of the ScientologySuperDooperSecretSacredScriptures by asking MajorDomo, or using ftp://127.0.0.1/etc/top/secret/directory/scientolo gy_secrets.txt
Slashdot Mirror
Do you have the original CP/M disks, or were they MS-DOS by then?
I can't claim to have been doing much but watching cartoons and playing with Tonka Toys when it was new (I'm not that old)ARGH! I'm NOT, I repeat NOT old! I've haven't even had four zero rollovers yet!
Ok, so maybe this will get modded down for being off-topic, but remember the old (old, old) hard drives for the TRS-80? The size of a large briefcase, at least 20 pounds, oh, and the operating system requires you for format them into umpteen-bazillion "big floppies".
Then again, I still remember 8" hard-sector floppy disks, so I'm probably dating myself.
How about the original "portable" computers? Definitly kept those arm and shoulder muscles in shape.
I still remember my first experience with a 1200 baud modem, and thinking "it doesn't get any better then this".
:]
Later I found out that I can read at just over 2400 baud. My family never understood what I was talking about.
I just wish more of the people on usenet, irc, and the rest of the internet understood more about *why* you trim messages when replying, *why* you don't spam, blah, blah, blah.
The internet has a place, but I really miss the local feeling that the BBS's had.
WTF? In case this guy has forgetten, I own my computers. I own my pipes (well, lease, but...). I own my network. If I decide to filter all FTP traffic at my external firewall because I don't have a public FTP server, why does he think he can force me to put one in?
Likewise, if I decide to reject any mail that isn't reverse-dnsable, who is he to try and tell me how to run my system?
Similarly, if I decide to reject any mail that server "x" (where "x" is not in my domain), who is he to try and tell me how to run my system?
One thing's for sure. As part of discovery, all his addresses and such are going to come out, I have the suspicion that they are going to get added into the "click this button to unsubscribe from our spam" lists very quickly.
Hey, I got 6 of 9, which, as a homosexual, works better for me anyway...
COBOL (circa 1950's) was designed to be as close to American as possible. That's why it uses those supid periods (but only most of the time), and things like
ADD MICROSOFT-TAX TO SUB-TOTAL GIVING TOTAL.
You are a criminal, you just don't know it yet.
:|
Maybe I have grown a little cynical.
IANAL, but if you live in the US, it should be. Take a look for the supreme court decision in wordperfect corporation vs somebody or another.
One word - SQLSnake
The fact that you need "x" access in order to get to the password file is no protection against the password file being stolen and cracked.
Please do not confuse your misinterpretations of incomplete data about myself with reality. I'm not suggesting that MS be forced to hand over their Precious[tm].
I keep seeing on slashdot about how people want to get microsoft (yaddah-yaddah-yaddha) out of the picture, how linux (yaddah-yaddah-yaddah) is "so much better".
The only way to change the court of public opinion (which is basically run by the microsoft public relations department for desktop purchases) is to get the information about how shoddy microsoft software is, and offer alternatives.
This is not a chance to tell somebody "MS sucks" again, it's a chance to tell people that "MS sucks, they admitted it under oath, here's things that don't suck so badly."
My personal opinions about Microsoft, Linux, Luigi's Castle, and Final Fantasy:Mystic Quest don't factor into this.
Get a paper copy of this testimony. Make lots of photocopies. Highlight the "interesting" parts (such bad security that releasing it would be a national security risk, etc). Send to everybody in your local government you can find, demanding that they stop using MS products until their security problems are fixed. As alternatives, there is at least OSX, all the Linux distributions, and probably other things (the resurrection of BeOS?).
Given that MS is admitting in court that they are selling defective products, demand that your local government sue MS for fraud. Politicians don't keep up to date on every legal battle going on everywhere, but if you send them the relevant portions they at least can't claim they didn't know.
While you're at it, forward this onto the local newspaper and tv stations. "poor security" is a big boogyman these days.
Another thing; Send this onto the people at your company who make buying decisions, if MS is going to admit their products have the security of swiss cheese, does your company really want to expose itself to that kind of danger?
Keep it short, stupid. Functions (methods, procedures, whatever you call them) should be as short as reasonably possible. Keep it simple, stupid. Writing lines like that look like sumarian may be cool, but are going to be really hard to maintain. If it takes you longer to explain all the neat tricks you're doing then it does to write the line, you're being too cryptic. Keep it standard, stupid. The overuse of "#define FOO BAR" statements in c is a good example. Likewise, although =+ and += used to mean the same thing, the standard suggests that you use += nowadays. Keep it syntatic, stupid. The days of 6-character variables are long gone. The name of the variable should have some relevance to the use of the variable, such as "MailingAddress[]", not "MA[]". Finally, comments should probably never be used to describe individual program lines. If you need to use something like f03vun( //Verify the city/state.
You should rename your function to
VerifyCityState(
Just cancel the credit card they are billing. They'll either kill your access, or a human will get ahold of you to correct the "billing problem", at which point you tell them to cancel the account and send you a bill, which you pay by check.
Or at least, since about 1997. For details, check out "Dennis Erlich", "alt.religion.scientology", any number of anti-scientology web sites, the official cult of scientology press releases, or the MoFo announcements.
o gy_secrets.txt
(Long story short: Dennis Erlich was sued by the cult of scientology for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and probably everything else under the sun. MoFo took his case on a "not pro-bono, but we know we're going to lose money" basis.)
While you're at it, make sure you pick up your copy of the ScientologySuperDooperSecretSacredScriptures by asking MajorDomo, or using ftp://127.0.0.1/etc/top/secret/directory/scientol