Grounding is vital, but depends quite a lot on the power grid setup. Here in the US, specifically in Florida, the ground actually runs on the return on single phase AC power. In the panel box, the ground and phase return (cold) are on a bus connected to a ground in the earth. This means that a strike can travel either through equipment or through ground with similar ease to ground path.
As for a lightning rod, you are quite correct that they need to be near the building being protected. Since the lightning starts from the ground and rises to the clouds, they can still cause induced EMP on lines within the building.
The moral I guess being that there should be a good lightning arrestor between panel and interior wiring (it's Code here in Florida), as well as a proper path to earth on all equipment.
As for protecting the network, buried cable at least 6' deep rarely takes a hit, it is where the cable emerges from the ground to enter the building that is the weak point. Make sure that no cabling is exposed, that all conduit it electrically isolated from the cabling and properly grounded, and that an isolation circuit (UPS, etc) is between any incoming cable and equipment, and you will minimize losses from a strike.
Given all that, nothing can completely protect from lightning. Even a disconnected machine can be damaged from EMP.
So backups and spares are the single most important line of defense.
Much as I hate to say it, fiber isn't an end all solution. All it will protect is the networking gear from a network side strike. A near hit will induce EMP on any and all copper connected in any way to the machines, so the NIC might be fine, but the Routers, Hubs, UPS's, Switches, PC's, Servers, all connected to the power grid, or phone lines, etc, will become slag toast in a a very near or direct strike. Have geographicly seperated redundancy, and spares on hand.
Being a Floridian, I can speak from experience: you most certainly can! While the V/inch is 10,000, Lightning is well over that threshhold, meaning that it can have a measurable effect at a distance. From my experience, having a strike 30 feet from a building, it not only came in through the WAN line, but also the power and phone, and blew anything hardwired to the LAN. It also blew all WiFi cards in the building, and in some cases, melted the antenna leads.
Best thing for lightning, don't want it blown, don't plug it in. Minimize the connections to building wiring, remove any machines that can be from LAN, Phone, Cable, etc lines. Surge protectors are good for distant strikes, but a near building strike will still blow anything connected to an inductive antenna (wiring).
I agree, simplest explanation and all. But I think the keyboards emit a low intensity SEP (Somebody Else's Problem) field as well, causing non technical users to attempt to blame anyone and everything other than themselves when sitting at the keyboard. As an observation of this, I have placed users in front af a keyboard connected to a non functional machine and observed the same reaction. It is possible that the mouse amplifies this field on contact, that will require further resarch.
This series of effects has been observed on some other electronics, as well. For quite some time, it was highly noticable on VCR clocks, until the VCR's learned to set themselves as a defense mechanism against Clueless Lossy Usage of Buttoning (CLUBing).
The US Department of Transportation says that, yes, it is your fault. The vehicle owner and the vehicle driver are responsible for ensuring the operational safety of the vehicle. Failing to replace tires, have brakes inspected regularly, checking the lights before driving, etc. are all reasons that insurance claims can and have been thrown out in court.
The car company is required to install the proper safety equipment, and guarantee a minimun operational capability for the vehicle, but once sold, the owner is responsible for securing the fuel tank (firewalling), inspecting safety equipment (a professional can be hired), preventative maintenance, etc.
So to continue with the (albeit weak) analogy of a car owner, yes, the user is responsible for running a firewall, antivirus, spyware scan, etc. Failure to do so has nothing to do with the manufacturer not including the required equipment on the system.
Cars are, by design and nature, unsafe. They are multi ton slabs of hurtling metal strapped to your ass. No matter what safety equipment they have, as long as a human is at the controls, that human is responsible for being or not being a safe driver.
Computers are, by design and nature, obscure cryptic machines. They are designed to be as flexible as possible as computational devices, and as such, have the ability to be safe and unsafe. It is up to the user to take responsibility for their use of the machine.
You, me, most likely. Joe Twopack (already 4 down) probably not. They just like the simple it says click no if I don't know what's goin' on, so I click no style. Witness e-mail virii and worms, spam, etc.
The only problem is if everything is written for the lowest common denominator, we might as well just plug in at birth so no one can possibly get hurt.
I'd rant about it, but I'm so tired and inured of it that all I have left is a feeble kick or two before I join them...
Theoretically, a good idea. Until the user sees this:
"61593428.adelphia.net is attempting to connect to your pc (3459876.adelphia.net) on port 455 and initiate a TCP connection to strcruft.exe. Do you wish to allow this connection?"
After Windows and Drivers, and before it touches the network:
1) Anit-Virus 2) AdAware 3) Firewall (if necessary... if it's for home, it's behind 2 already) 4) SP xx (From a CD) 5) Security Updates (From CD) 6) Mozilla/Firefox/etc. (From CD) 7) Zip/RAR Proggie of the week (From the CD) 8) The Windows CAB files 9) From here on it depends on the purpose of the build, but the machine can now join my network
Actually, it is my understanding that the controller software in the eye takes several micro offset images and then produces an interpolated image of much higher resolution, which is then compressed into a datastream and sent to the driver (optic nerve). So the theoretical resolution is actually a function of the resolution of the eye * (speed of the eye in actual frames per second/the number of frames transmitted per second) with allowance made for the compression stage.
The actual resolution transmitted to the brain may be much much higher than the mere 100 megapixel single image resolution.
Disclaimer: IANAOBYRMV (I Am Not An Optical Biologist, Your Resolution May Vary)
Doesn't have to be that bad, just wire up an instruction to recursively calculate say PI, or the Fibonacci series, into one location on the die. Think your AMD gets hot? Wait until the die starts melting in one spot only...
Or alter an instruction creatively. Maybe make the JMP instruction always branch with a call parameter to virus code, loaded in memory. So now ANY JMP loads the virus.
Or move the location of the most common instructions to the center of the die, defeating the heat dispersion...
Hmmm... maybe I should write some of these ideas down...
Re:Iron rations and other strange items
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
And then after a while DM'ing, and being asked the same basic questions: Can I have 100' of rope? 30 torches? Some lockpick oil? you finally just gave up and started issuing a 'Basic Dungeoneer's Kit' with all the common stuff in it for 100 gold?
5 Torches (Long Burning) 100' Climbing Rope 30 Days (Freeze Dried/Iron, pick one) Rations 1 Flask of water 1 Flask of oil 1 Tinderbox 10 Flints 10 Sheepskins etc.
I'm sure I've forgotten more than a few as I am just spouting the names from Cache RAM. The issue isn't wether they are supported, as Linux has quickly been gaining support for a lot of major hardware, but instead how big a DVD set would be required to support at boot all the possible combinations.
For example, one system I have has a NVidia GeForce MX400 video, ATI Radeon PCI second video, Creative PCI 512 Sound, NVidia AC97 Sound, 2 different USB Game controllers (Saitek and Microsoft), NVidia NForce chipset and IDE, and a new Belkin Wireless card. Everything except the Wireless is supported in Linux, but it takes me quite a while to teach Linux exactly what order to load the drivers to prevent crashing.
Now just imagine doing that with the variety of old and new and top of the line hardware in the average PC, for all possible combinations, or even a realistic subset.
That is the real challenge in a bootable CD. Not picking the software, but making it work across as many combinations as possible.
First Graphics Adapter options: NVidia,ATI,S3,Intel Second Graphics Adapter Options: NVidia,ATI,S3,Intel
First Sound Card Options: Turtle,Roland,Creative,CM8032,Intel,Via, NVidia,AMD,... Second Sound Card Options: Turtle,Roland,Creative,CM8032,Intel,Via, NVidia,AMD,...
IDE Driver Options: VIA,NVidia,Intel,AMD,...
As you start making the list of combinations, be careful, and make sure there are drivers for all combinations from the major manufacturers. Also, remember, there can be more than one of most cards.
You will find that it quickly exceeds N! combinations.
If I recall correctly, it was actually formulated by R. Giskard, R. Daneel's contemporary, and in as much as possible, friend. R. Giskard then used his rather unusual ability to modify R. Daneel's programming, imprinting the Zeroth Law onto the Positronic matrix.
In both cases, the hardwiring was not so much of the laws into the Positronic part of the brain. In Asimov's explanation, the laws were fundamental limitations in the architecture of the system.
I personally find that, given the time to do all that, and given that most luggage locks aren't even made with hardened steel, a 6" metal rod suffices to open them. For stronger locks, just take the whole bag and use bolt cutters later. Anyone wanting to use a case hardened Master lock probably has enough worth taking the whole thing.
Anyone here recall the old Tandy 1000 SL/2 machines? Booted and ran from a ROM on board, and the ROM had a BASIC interpeter, and the BASIC interpeter had a virus in the executable (Jerusalem.B if I recall) and the VIRUS could only be removed by removing the ROM?
Once again we shall come full circle.
Me, I'll just drag out my Tandy 1000 SL/2 with the Hard Drive kit and be done with it. Anyone want an old DOS virus? Barely used!
While we're on the analogy kick, this is like Joe Nobody modding his car to look like a Ferrari, leaving his car deliberately parked and unlocked in a highly visible car park, hiding in the backseat with a camera, and waiting. When the unsuspecting 'thief' comes along, he snaps a picture and turns that over to LEO as proof of the thief's guilt. In US courts, this is a) Entrapment and b) Vigalantism, and is not admissible in court.
On the other hand, an LEO who tapped a PC like that would himself be guilty of wiretap without a warrant, or illegal entrapment.
And you don't have to go looking for these files. Just try to find a Mandrake ISO without getting at least one misnamed.ISO of some cracked game. It's not very easy to avoid.
One minor correction: In the US military, most pilots are in the 5'2" to 5'4" range, not the 6'3" range as portrayed in movies. Size and weight matter when facing Mach speed.
It is far easier to fit a small person into an already cramped cockpit than someone who looks down at the subway hand grips.
Slashdot Mirror
Grounding is vital, but depends quite a lot on the power grid setup. Here in the US, specifically in Florida, the ground actually runs on the return on single phase AC power. In the panel box, the ground and phase return (cold) are on a bus connected to a ground in the earth. This means that a strike can travel either through equipment or through ground with similar ease to ground path.
As for a lightning rod, you are quite correct that they need to be near the building being protected. Since the lightning starts from the ground and rises to the clouds, they can still cause induced EMP on lines within the building.
The moral I guess being that there should be a good lightning arrestor between panel and interior wiring (it's Code here in Florida), as well as a proper path to earth on all equipment.
As for protecting the network, buried cable at least 6' deep rarely takes a hit, it is where the cable emerges from the ground to enter the building that is the weak point. Make sure that no cabling is exposed, that all conduit it electrically isolated from the cabling and properly grounded, and that an isolation circuit (UPS, etc) is between any incoming cable and equipment, and you will minimize losses from a strike.
Given all that, nothing can completely protect from lightning. Even a disconnected machine can be damaged from EMP.
So backups and spares are the single most important line of defense.
Much as I hate to say it, fiber isn't an end all solution. All it will protect is the networking gear from a network side strike. A near hit will induce EMP on any and all copper connected in any way to the machines, so the NIC might be fine, but the Routers, Hubs, UPS's, Switches, PC's, Servers, all connected to the power grid, or phone lines, etc, will become slag toast in a a very near or direct strike. Have geographicly seperated redundancy, and spares on hand.
Being a Floridian, I can speak from experience: you most certainly can! While the V/inch is 10,000, Lightning is well over that threshhold, meaning that it can have a measurable effect at a distance. From my experience, having a strike 30 feet from a building, it not only came in through the WAN line, but also the power and phone, and blew anything hardwired to the LAN. It also blew all WiFi cards in the building, and in some cases, melted the antenna leads.
Best thing for lightning, don't want it blown, don't plug it in. Minimize the connections to building wiring, remove any machines that can be from LAN, Phone, Cable, etc lines. Surge protectors are good for distant strikes, but a near building strike will still blow anything connected to an inductive antenna (wiring).
Good insurance is recommended as well.
Oh? Two words: Pentium Division.
Can't tell me that wasn't worse than the previous technology.
Clippy: It looks like you opened MS Web Office from a slashdot link. I am now going to run in terror before the Office server melts! Aiiiiieeeeeeeeee!
I agree, simplest explanation and all. But I think the keyboards emit a low intensity SEP (Somebody Else's Problem) field as well, causing non technical users to attempt to blame anyone and everything other than themselves when sitting at the keyboard. As an observation of this, I have placed users in front af a keyboard connected to a non functional machine and observed the same reaction. It is possible that the mouse amplifies this field on contact, that will require further resarch.
This series of effects has been observed on some other electronics, as well. For quite some time, it was highly noticable on VCR clocks, until the VCR's learned to set themselves as a defense mechanism against Clueless Lossy Usage of Buttoning (CLUBing).
- High quality Sushi fish available fresh (not frozen) worldwide (preserved by bacteria hunting nanobots)
The galaxies. Dark Matter. Dark Energy. There, there's three. They are mathematical kludges to attempt to fit the observed universe into GR.
Of course, I think that it's just the cream filling from all the twinkies, after all, we never can seem to find it!
The US Department of Transportation says that, yes, it is your fault. The vehicle owner and the vehicle driver are responsible for ensuring the operational safety of the vehicle. Failing to replace tires, have brakes inspected regularly, checking the lights before driving, etc. are all reasons that insurance claims can and have been thrown out in court.
The car company is required to install the proper safety equipment, and guarantee a minimun operational capability for the vehicle, but once sold, the owner is responsible for securing the fuel tank (firewalling), inspecting safety equipment (a professional can be hired), preventative maintenance, etc.
So to continue with the (albeit weak) analogy of a car owner, yes, the user is responsible for running a firewall, antivirus, spyware scan, etc. Failure to do so has nothing to do with the manufacturer not including the required equipment on the system.
Cars are, by design and nature, unsafe. They are multi ton slabs of hurtling metal strapped to your ass. No matter what safety equipment they have, as long as a human is at the controls, that human is responsible for being or not being a safe driver.
Computers are, by design and nature, obscure cryptic machines. They are designed to be as flexible as possible as computational devices, and as such, have the ability to be safe and unsafe. It is up to the user to take responsibility for their use of the machine.
Caveat emptor.
You, me, most likely. Joe Twopack (already 4 down) probably not. They just like the simple it says click no if I don't know what's goin' on, so I click no style. Witness e-mail virii and worms, spam, etc.
The only problem is if everything is written for the lowest common denominator, we might as well just plug in at birth so no one can possibly get hurt.
I'd rant about it, but I'm so tired and inured of it that all I have left is a feeble kick or two before I join them...
Ooh... shiny!
Theoretically, a good idea. Until the user sees this:
"61593428.adelphia.net is attempting to connect to your pc (3459876.adelphia.net) on port 455 and initiate a TCP connection to strcruft.exe. Do you wish to allow this connection?"
*click no*
Starcraft caused a general protection fault...
Guess it's yes from now on.
The one who is NOT related to the local lawyer. Simple.
Here, that makes a good oner liner
10 print "BASIC? Boy does that ring a..." ; CHR$(7) : goto 10
Enjoy *runs screaming*
My favorite sequence has been GATTACA for some time. Maybe you'd like that one!
After Windows and Drivers, and before it touches the network:
1) Anit-Virus
2) AdAware
3) Firewall (if necessary... if it's for home, it's behind 2 already)
4) SP xx (From a CD)
5) Security Updates (From CD)
6) Mozilla/Firefox/etc. (From CD)
7) Zip/RAR Proggie of the week (From the CD)
8) The Windows CAB files
9) From here on it depends on the purpose of the build, but the machine can now join my network
Actually, it is my understanding that the controller software in the eye takes several micro offset images and then produces an interpolated image of much higher resolution, which is then compressed into a datastream and sent to the driver (optic nerve). So the theoretical resolution is actually a function of the resolution of the eye * (speed of the eye in actual frames per second/the number of frames transmitted per second) with allowance made for the compression stage.
The actual resolution transmitted to the brain may be much much higher than the mere 100 megapixel single image resolution.
Disclaimer: IANAOBYRMV (I Am Not An Optical Biologist, Your Resolution May Vary)
Doesn't have to be that bad, just wire up an instruction to recursively calculate say PI, or the Fibonacci series, into one location on the die. Think your AMD gets hot? Wait until the die starts melting in one spot only...
Or alter an instruction creatively. Maybe make the JMP instruction always branch with a call parameter to virus code, loaded in memory. So now ANY JMP loads the virus.
Or move the location of the most common instructions to the center of the die, defeating the heat dispersion...
Hmmm... maybe I should write some of these ideas down...
And then after a while DM'ing, and being asked the same basic questions: Can I have 100' of rope? 30 torches? Some lockpick oil? you finally just gave up and started issuing a 'Basic Dungeoneer's Kit' with all the common stuff in it for 100 gold?
5 Torches (Long Burning)
100' Climbing Rope
30 Days (Freeze Dried/Iron, pick one) Rations
1 Flask of water
1 Flask of oil
1 Tinderbox
10 Flints
10 Sheepskins
etc.
Ah, Now I have to go home and start a game...
I'm sure I've forgotten more than a few as I am just spouting the names from Cache RAM. The issue isn't wether they are supported, as Linux has quickly been gaining support for a lot of major hardware, but instead how big a DVD set would be required to support at boot all the possible combinations.
For example, one system I have has a NVidia GeForce MX400 video, ATI Radeon PCI second video, Creative PCI 512 Sound, NVidia AC97 Sound, 2 different USB Game controllers (Saitek and Microsoft), NVidia NForce chipset and IDE, and a new Belkin Wireless card. Everything except the Wireless is supported in Linux, but it takes me quite a while to teach Linux exactly what order to load the drivers to prevent crashing.
Now just imagine doing that with the variety of old and new and top of the line hardware in the average PC, for all possible combinations, or even a realistic subset.
That is the real challenge in a bootable CD. Not picking the software, but making it work across as many combinations as possible.
First Graphics Adapter options:
, NVidia,AMD ,..., NVidia,AMD ,...
NVidia,ATI,S3,Intel
Second Graphics Adapter Options:
NVidia,ATI,S3,Intel
First Sound Card Options:
Turtle,Roland,Creative,CM8032,Intel,Via
Second Sound Card Options:
Turtle,Roland,Creative,CM8032,Intel,Via
IDE Driver Options:
VIA,NVidia,Intel,AMD,...
As you start making the list of combinations, be careful, and make sure there are drivers for all combinations from the major manufacturers. Also, remember, there can be more than one of most cards.
You will find that it quickly exceeds N! combinations.
If I recall correctly, it was actually formulated by R. Giskard, R. Daneel's contemporary, and in as much as possible, friend. R. Giskard then used his rather unusual ability to modify R. Daneel's programming, imprinting the Zeroth Law onto the Positronic matrix.
In both cases, the hardwiring was not so much of the laws into the Positronic part of the brain. In Asimov's explanation, the laws were fundamental limitations in the architecture of the system.
Disclaimer: IANARY (I am not a roboticist yet)
I personally find that, given the time to do all that, and given that most luggage locks aren't even made with hardened steel, a 6" metal rod suffices to open them. For stronger locks, just take the whole bag and use bolt cutters later. Anyone wanting to use a case hardened Master lock probably has enough worth taking the whole thing.
Anyone here recall the old Tandy 1000 SL/2 machines? Booted and ran from a ROM on board, and the ROM had a BASIC interpeter, and the BASIC interpeter had a virus in the executable (Jerusalem.B if I recall) and the VIRUS could only be removed by removing the ROM?
Once again we shall come full circle.
Me, I'll just drag out my Tandy 1000 SL/2 with the Hard Drive kit and be done with it. Anyone want an old DOS virus? Barely used!
While we're on the analogy kick, this is like Joe Nobody modding his car to look like a Ferrari, leaving his car deliberately parked and unlocked in a highly visible car park, hiding in the backseat with a camera, and waiting. When the unsuspecting 'thief' comes along, he snaps a picture and turns that over to LEO as proof of the thief's guilt. In US courts, this is a) Entrapment and b) Vigalantism, and is not admissible in court.
.ISO of some cracked game. It's not very easy to avoid.
On the other hand, an LEO who tapped a PC like that would himself be guilty of wiretap without a warrant, or illegal entrapment.
And you don't have to go looking for these files. Just try to find a Mandrake ISO without getting at least one misnamed
One minor correction: In the US military, most pilots are in the 5'2" to 5'4" range, not the 6'3" range as portrayed in movies. Size and weight matter when facing Mach speed.
It is far easier to fit a small person into an already cramped cockpit than someone who looks down at the subway hand grips.