Sounds like the Gateway/MPC 450-series laptops to me. The problem is usually the video system of the motherboard. Are you open to simply replacing the motherboard? Look at http://mundocorp.com/ or http://blueraven.com/. Either will sell you the parts or do the whole job for you.
Unlikely, yes. Unheard of, no. One year ago I thought nothing of running servers on RAID5. Then over about 9 months I had two servers suffer dual-drive failures. On one, the second failure occurred during rebuild and I was able to recover everything since the nightly backup. On the other, the drives failed within seconds of each other and nothing was recoverable.
I was already keeping two spares on hand. I was set up to get e-mails of problems well in advance. And NEITHER of the second-to-fail drives had even hiccuped before.
Now I run RAID-1 or RAID-10 *only* though I'd consider RAID-6 if I could afford newer 3Ware controllers.
Amazing...I'd love to see more about this. I've got four (oops, an HD died, make that three) 486 laptops with 8-12mb RAM and 400mb HDs monitoring UPSes. Slackware 9.0.0, kernel 2.4.20.
Hmm, I may know her. If you run her first and last names in lower case through "md5sum -t", is the output 87ebb5ab20b015733ff5759de095719f?
When here she was worse. Had certain large (and expensive) apps installed on D: and E: of her workstation for various GOOD reasons, but coded to assume that they were there for EVERYONE. She thought those were the proper locations.
I hadn't heard of Computrace / Absolute until about two weeks ago, when we found two computers at my office talking to "search.namequery.com" several times a second. What I find is interesting: A program that installs without my permission or knowledge, takes orders from a 3rd party (up to and including "wipe the hard drive"), and actively resists removal.
One computer was brand-new (MPC/Gateway M685), the other just over a year old (MPC/Gateway E475). The first one they claim was "accidentally" activated at the factory, the second got a motherboard replacement that had this little program "activated" from its prior owner.
The sales rep at MPC/Gateway got the Absolute/Computrace rep on the phone and they both claim that it isn't a virus. Okay, fine, it doesn't self-replicate. Seems to fit darn near every other part of the definition! Their tech-support guy ordered the two computers to disable their BIOS component and uninstall, which THEY DID! The files in C:\Windows\System32 vanished before my eyes.
They were back the next day.
Gateway/MPC doesn't seem to understand my frustration. We spend so much time and money securing our computers and making sure they run only the software we WANT them to run. Now you want me to feel safe with a BIOS-level program that copies itself to FAT32/NTFS partitions and tricks Windows OSes into executing it? This same program that calls a 3rd party and requests instructions? I know of only three instructions it can accept, but what if there are others? ("Stolen, check in every 15 minutes", "Stolen, wipe hard drive", "Disable and uninstall" we know of)
I asked how they secure the disk-wiping function and was not impressed with the answer. They use an RSA token to verify that the right customer called in. I said 'Ok, what about the link to the computer? Is it signed or encrypted?' No answer, they just went back to the RSA token.
Heck, we have BlackBerries that can wipe themselves on remote command but RIM makes a big deal of how the communications are encrypted between the BB and my server. I know that J. Random Cracker isn't going to trick my BB into nuking itself. But what if he spoofs "search.namequery.com" and returns the code for "Nuke HD"? Will their little 200kb program accept the order?
I read that someone found and disabled Computrace/Absolute's BIOS code in a firmware dump and then re-flashed his machine. If I can't pull that off with Gateway/MPC I will have to recommend that we find a vendor that does NOT pre-infect the computers we purchase.
From what I've been told while in Haiti, they wouldn't be quite so generous.:)
Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a pair of AC-130's on "looter patrol". Once word gets around that TV's and 105mm holes are closely related, I'm sure the deadbeats will find something more productive to occupy their time.
Examine alternatives based on their differences. In this case there is no difference: You have to know the persons hours of operation OR rough geographic area (from which you *guess* hours). If the person doesn't specify his hours you look at the physical information. Don't have it? Look at the area code. 800/866? Call the number and listen for "our hours of operation are foo to bar, blah-standard time".
In this case, moving to a universal time can help. If the recording leaves off "blah-standard time" you don't have to continue guessing based on other clues in the message.
Really, what good does it do you to know that I'm in a GMT-6 timezone? I still have to say 0800-1700L or 1200-2300Z for you to know when to call. What if I'm on the night-shift?
What would someone need to do to cause serious harm? Well, the waste pipe will carry low-level radioactive waste only, but I don't believe it would be beyond a saboteur to hook the output into some critical input (say an air intake, or the water mains for drinking water).
They aren't using patch cables here, no "saboteur" is going to change piping/duct systems without bringing in his own contractor. One or two people sneaking in and planting small explosives is one thing, a team of plumbers and H/VAC engineers tearing up critical systems would probably be noticed.
Which is why it was so much fun! Few people know the challenges of piloting an unshielded (and arguably unarmored) fighter against a few dozen well-shielded and well-armed enemies.
Heck, you want fun? One T/F against a Calamari Cruiser. If the thing is far enough from its jump point (or waiting for something), you *can* take it out.
[Note: I played far more TIE Fighter than XvT. Some of my favorite survival tricks in TF are quick and certain death in XvT]
"Normal" sex education is more akin to teaching kids how to drive against traffic on the highway. If you stay on the correct side of the road to begin with you don't have such problems.
I eagerly await your response that it's "human nature" to mess around before/outside of marriage. I can then regale you with tales of idiot drivers in Haiti who "do their own thing" and "what's natural" or "fun".
Yes! *Finally* I'd be able to arrange something at X-time and not have to mess with four different timezones at the office!
People think I'm nuts, but I honestly have no problem going to work at 1400Z and eating lunch at 1800Z. People in a given area (not necessarily bounded where the timezones are now) would simply adapt to given on/off times. People on the east cost of the US would likely start work at 1600Z, for instance.
I'm in a small IT dept. dealing with ~200 systems. There are two basic lines of thought amongst our department: 1) The "P" in "PC" means they can do anything they want; 2) They are CORPORATE computers, and their use is a privilege.
I fall more into the second group. I don't have a problem with people changing the background, switching screensavers, putting a few icons on the desktop, etc. What I (and the department) DO have a problem with are obscene color schemes, the removal of certain icons, the *installation* of screensavers (or anything else), using an itallic-cursive font system-wide, etc.
Face it, the goal of business is to...wait for it...MAKE MONEY. "Maximizing profit" includes cutting costs, such as how much they pay me to clean up luser's "customizations". You want to do all that stuff? Do it at home. Don't have a home computer? Not my problem. Of course, if you bother to ASK, we just might give you permission to do something basically harmless. Heck, we might even help you.
As for Internet access, again, it's NOT YOURS. Grow up. Our policy started with "everyone is a 'professional' and can be trusted" and has moved to "keep a close eye on the logs". We've had to block off harmless sites because some people thought they had a God-given right to browse the Net all day. I wish we could automatically un-block some of those sites from, say, 1150 to 1310.
Contrary to what your spoiled mind may think, we aren't out to get you. We just don't need you YOU creating more work for US. Did I use small enough words for you?
The PopMech story mentioned that. The explanation was that this is an ususual isotope of hafnium that *does* emmit gamma rays in response to irradiation by x-rays. The emmisions were (reported to be) 6 times the input energy.
I'd be happy to provide exact quotes and such, but I think that issue is already gone, and their website is not being helpful.
I haven't been to Trinity Site (yet...), but I'm told they gathered up as much of the trinitite/atomsite as possible and stored it in 50 gallon drums. That said, if you go to the White Sands Missle Range Museum you'll find a few pieces in a glass display case in a small room near the back. IIRC, the same room had parts from the bunkers too.
According to this page the museum on Kirtland AFB is being combined with the National Atomic Museum. I am pretty sure they were separate entities before, but both rocked. I'm sure they will only become better. I hope they keep the two B28 bombs from the Palomares, Spain collision on display.
I wouldn't say deprecated, just discouraged. Even though M$ is well entrenched at my office, we use FAT32 wherever possible so that we can still use simple bootdisks and disk utilities.
For the moment this requires formatting drives with Windows98SE bootdisks, as NT5.1 won't format with FAT32 if the drive is over 4gb(?).
The problem is that anyone can create keys with duplicate names and addresses. What you need to do is associate your (legitimate) key pair with your Slashdot user (for instance). This might take the form of/. giving you a message like "I am [username]" for you to sign and return.
For regular authentication either your browser would need to repeat that process OR/. would send a message encrypted to your key, which you must decrypt and use. Either way, you'll be using your private key in a challenge/response system.
That said, I see no security problem with it unless you get so tired of typing your passphrase that you change it to "asdf".:) It wouldn't hurt to look this situation up in AC2 and see if I missed something.
No, you are not alone. Our IT group of 6 supports ~180 users, of which a few dozen are in remote offices around the US. The two people with whom I work most of the time know what they are doing, and can learn new things fairly quickly. They can apply logic to a situation and make rational decisions.
The three "above" us have been with the company for about 20 years and are terrified of change. They don't learn new things, they "learn" what button to press to accomplish X. They hire consultants when we have in-house staff with more than adequate knowledge and experience. Their "catch-all" fix, whether we truly have a problem or not, is to find an expensive Windows "solution" and deploy it. Note that *cheap* Windows stuff won't cut if for them.
One of them was the dept. head, but passed that role to another when he could no longer take the stress of micromanaging everyone. The current DH has pitiful communication skills, understands nothing about our systems, and yet still tries to micromanage everything. The third has demonstrated that she can on occasion learn and adapt if needed. She is also the only one of the three who performs useful work on a regular basis.
The dept. head recently laid off one of my two co-workers as part of a company-wide cost-cutting round, yet they refuse to return the $3k server we just bought and provably do no need or change any of their existing (expensive) plans. They insist that we have no money for anything *they did not propose*.
I can handle the ignorance and arrogance of the users, but for some reason I expect more intelligence from people in our field.
So, all venting aside, how does one approach this? I'd like to take this issue to certain Board/OpCom members, but I'm uncertain of how I should bring this up with them. I'm not out to get them fired, but in all honesty I think the company would be better off without one (or two) of them.
For doubters, here's part of a message I was BCC:ed into a few days ago. Names deleted to protect the innocent. No, this was not about or directed at me.:)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I really must be frank here! ___1__ is apparently not capability of carrying out the responsibility of making sure that your machines are patched per the latest critical patches. _1_ actually responded that all have be patched! I have included _1_ response inserted in red! Actually ___2__ confirmed all this because CR had ran a scanning program and __2__'s showed up as not being patched so __3__ started communication per several e-mails below. These files must be applied and are very critical to guard against security holes dealing with Window OSs. I would strongly suggest that __2__ be our contact person from now on! Do you agree?? Please call if you want to chat about it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It's not as bad as the memo in question, but it doesn't take an English degree to see the problems.
Don't you just love watching fish tanks? You can see the fish swimming, the plants growing, the fossils forming....what? You don't see fossils forming? Why is that?
Could be because the organism would have to be quickly buried in sediments beneath moving water. Otherwise it will simply decay, leaving.... nothing.
So, fossils only form under certain conditions. Those conditions happen to be pretty rare on earth. For one thing, live animals don't often sit under sediments, and corpses often float and/or are picked apart by other animals. Bacteria and other mini-animals/plants are going to be moved enough by currents that burial is not much of a concern.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like the Gateway/MPC 450-series laptops to me. The problem is usually the video system of the motherboard. Are you open to simply replacing the motherboard? Look at http://mundocorp.com/ or http://blueraven.com/. Either will sell you the parts or do the whole job for you.
Sounds familiar: http://tcoverride.blogspot.com/2009/04/president-chuck-somali-pirates.html
Unlikely, yes. Unheard of, no. One year ago I thought nothing of running servers on RAID5. Then over about 9 months I had two servers suffer dual-drive failures. On one, the second failure occurred during rebuild and I was able to recover everything since the nightly backup. On the other, the drives failed within seconds of each other and nothing was recoverable.
I was already keeping two spares on hand. I was set up to get e-mails of problems well in advance. And NEITHER of the second-to-fail drives had even hiccuped before.
Now I run RAID-1 or RAID-10 *only* though I'd consider RAID-6 if I could afford newer 3Ware controllers.
Amazing...I'd love to see more about this. I've got four (oops, an HD died, make that three) 486 laptops with 8-12mb RAM and 400mb HDs monitoring UPSes. Slackware 9.0.0, kernel 2.4.20.
BTW that's with no space between the names and no new-line character.
Hmm, I may know her. If you run her first and last names in lower case through "md5sum -t", is the output 87ebb5ab20b015733ff5759de095719f?
When here she was worse. Had certain large (and expensive) apps installed on D: and E: of her workstation for various GOOD reasons, but coded to assume that they were there for EVERYONE. She thought those were the proper locations.
I hadn't heard of Computrace / Absolute until about two weeks ago, when we found two computers at my office talking to "search.namequery.com" several times a second. What I find is interesting: A program that installs without my permission or knowledge, takes orders from a 3rd party (up to and including "wipe the hard drive"), and actively resists removal.
One computer was brand-new (MPC/Gateway M685), the other just over a year old (MPC/Gateway E475). The first one they claim was "accidentally" activated at the factory, the second got a motherboard replacement that had this little program "activated" from its prior owner.
The sales rep at MPC/Gateway got the Absolute/Computrace rep on the phone and they both claim that it isn't a virus. Okay, fine, it doesn't self-replicate. Seems to fit darn near every other part of the definition! Their tech-support guy ordered the two computers to disable their BIOS component and uninstall, which THEY DID! The files in C:\Windows\System32 vanished before my eyes.
They were back the next day.
Gateway/MPC doesn't seem to understand my frustration. We spend so much time and money securing our computers and making sure they run only the software we WANT them to run. Now you want me to feel safe with a BIOS-level program that copies itself to FAT32/NTFS partitions and tricks Windows OSes into executing it? This same program that calls a 3rd party and requests instructions? I know of only three instructions it can accept, but what if there are others? ("Stolen, check in every 15 minutes", "Stolen, wipe hard drive", "Disable and uninstall" we know of)
I asked how they secure the disk-wiping function and was not impressed with the answer. They use an RSA token to verify that the right customer called in. I said 'Ok, what about the link to the computer? Is it signed or encrypted?' No answer, they just went back to the RSA token.
Heck, we have BlackBerries that can wipe themselves on remote command but RIM makes a big deal of how the communications are encrypted between the BB and my server. I know that J. Random Cracker isn't going to trick my BB into nuking itself. But what if he spoofs "search.namequery.com" and returns the code for "Nuke HD"? Will their little 200kb program accept the order?
I read that someone found and disabled Computrace/Absolute's BIOS code in a firmware dump and then re-flashed his machine. If I can't pull that off with Gateway/MPC I will have to recommend that we find a vendor that does NOT pre-infect the computers we purchase.
*grumble*
Don't forget a bunch of spare batteries for the GPS and radio, plus one or two extra truck batteries (you never know...), and a Glock 21 with ammo.
From what I've been told while in Haiti, they wouldn't be quite so generous. :)
Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a pair of AC-130's on "looter patrol". Once word gets around that TV's and 105mm holes are closely related, I'm sure the deadbeats will find something more productive to occupy their time.
Examine alternatives based on their differences. In this case there is no difference: You have to know the persons hours of operation OR rough geographic area (from which you *guess* hours). If the person doesn't specify his hours you look at the physical information. Don't have it? Look at the area code. 800/866? Call the number and listen for "our hours of operation are foo to bar, blah-standard time".
In this case, moving to a universal time can help. If the recording leaves off "blah-standard time" you don't have to continue guessing based on other clues in the message.
Really, what good does it do you to know that I'm in a GMT-6 timezone? I still have to say 0800-1700L or 1200-2300Z for you to know when to call. What if I'm on the night-shift?
They aren't using patch cables here, no "saboteur" is going to change piping/duct systems without bringing in his own contractor. One or two people sneaking in and planting small explosives is one thing, a team of plumbers and H/VAC engineers tearing up critical systems would probably be noticed.
Which is why it was so much fun! Few people know the challenges of piloting an unshielded (and arguably unarmored) fighter against a few dozen well-shielded and well-armed enemies.
Heck, you want fun? One T/F against a Calamari Cruiser. If the thing is far enough from its jump point (or waiting for something), you *can* take it out.
[Note: I played far more TIE Fighter than XvT. Some of my favorite survival tricks in TF are quick and certain death in XvT]
"Normal" sex education is more akin to teaching kids how to drive against traffic on the highway. If you stay on the correct side of the road to begin with you don't have such problems.
I eagerly await your response that it's "human nature" to mess around before/outside of marriage. I can then regale you with tales of idiot drivers in Haiti who "do their own thing" and "what's natural" or "fun".
Yes! *Finally* I'd be able to arrange something at X-time and not have to mess with four different timezones at the office!
People think I'm nuts, but I honestly have no problem going to work at 1400Z and eating lunch at 1800Z. People in a given area (not necessarily bounded where the timezones are now) would simply adapt to given on/off times. People on the east cost of the US would likely start work at 1600Z, for instance.
For one thing, it breaks PGP signatures. May be minor, but it *can* be irritating.
I do hope you meant a "200x200 green button for \"No\"".
Of course, having both buttons be the same (dangerous) option sounds about par for the course from Redmond.
[Why am I replying to a troll?]
I'm in a small IT dept. dealing with ~200 systems. There are two basic lines of thought amongst our department: 1) The "P" in "PC" means they can do anything they want; 2) They are CORPORATE computers, and their use is a privilege.
I fall more into the second group. I don't have a problem with people changing the background, switching screensavers, putting a few icons on the desktop, etc. What I (and the department) DO have a problem with are obscene color schemes, the removal of certain icons, the *installation* of screensavers (or anything else), using an itallic-cursive font system-wide, etc.
Face it, the goal of business is to...wait for it...MAKE MONEY. "Maximizing profit" includes cutting costs, such as how much they pay me to clean up luser's "customizations". You want to do all that stuff? Do it at home. Don't have a home computer? Not my problem. Of course, if you bother to ASK, we just might give you permission to do something basically harmless. Heck, we might even help you.
As for Internet access, again, it's NOT YOURS. Grow up. Our policy started with "everyone is a 'professional' and can be trusted" and has moved to "keep a close eye on the logs". We've had to block off harmless sites because some people thought they had a God-given right to browse the Net all day. I wish we could automatically un-block some of those sites from, say, 1150 to 1310.
Contrary to what your spoiled mind may think, we aren't out to get you. We just don't need you YOU creating more work for US. Did I use small enough words for you?
IANANuclearPhysicist
The PopMech story mentioned that. The explanation was that this is an ususual isotope of hafnium that *does* emmit gamma rays in response to irradiation by x-rays. The emmisions were (reported to be) 6 times the input energy.
I'd be happy to provide exact quotes and such, but I think that issue is already gone, and their website is not being helpful.
I haven't been to Trinity Site (yet...), but I'm told they gathered up as much of the trinitite/atomsite as possible and stored it in 50 gallon drums. That said, if you go to the White Sands Missle Range Museum you'll find a few pieces in a glass display case in a small room near the back. IIRC, the same room had parts from the bunkers too.
If you are EVER close enough to pay a visit, DO IT. The New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo and the National Atomic Museum in Albequerque are other "nearby" must-sees.
According to this page the museum on Kirtland AFB is being combined with the National Atomic Museum. I am pretty sure they were separate entities before, but both rocked. I'm sure they will only become better. I hope they keep the two B28 bombs from the Palomares, Spain collision on display.
I wouldn't say deprecated, just discouraged. Even though M$ is well entrenched at my office, we use FAT32 wherever possible so that we can still use simple bootdisks and disk utilities.
For the moment this requires formatting drives with Windows98SE bootdisks, as NT5.1 won't format with FAT32 if the drive is over 4gb(?).
I cannot help but think that it would be unwise to tick off the LLNL.
The problem is that anyone can create keys with duplicate names and addresses. What you need to do is associate your (legitimate) key pair with your Slashdot user (for instance). This might take the form of /. giving you a message like "I am [username]" for you to sign and return.
/. would send a message encrypted to your key, which you must decrypt and use. Either way, you'll be using your private key in a challenge/response system.
:) It wouldn't hurt to look this situation up in AC2 and see if I missed something.
For regular authentication either your browser would need to repeat that process OR
That said, I see no security problem with it unless you get so tired of typing your passphrase that you change it to "asdf".
No, you are not alone. Our IT group of 6 supports ~180 users, of which a few dozen are in remote offices around the US. The two people with whom I work most of the time know what they are doing, and can learn new things fairly quickly. They can apply logic to a situation and make rational decisions.
The three "above" us have been with the company for about 20 years and are terrified of change. They don't learn new things, they "learn" what button to press to accomplish X. They hire consultants when we have in-house staff with more than adequate knowledge and experience. Their "catch-all" fix, whether we truly have a problem or not, is to find an expensive Windows "solution" and deploy it. Note that *cheap* Windows stuff won't cut if for them.
One of them was the dept. head, but passed that role to another when he could no longer take the stress of micromanaging everyone. The current DH has pitiful communication skills, understands nothing about our systems, and yet still tries to micromanage everything. The third has demonstrated that she can on occasion learn and adapt if needed. She is also the only one of the three who performs useful work on a regular basis.
The dept. head recently laid off one of my two co-workers as part of a company-wide cost-cutting round, yet they refuse to return the $3k server we just bought and provably do no need or change any of their existing (expensive) plans. They insist that we have no money for anything *they did not propose*.
I can handle the ignorance and arrogance of the users, but for some reason I expect more intelligence from people in our field.
So, all venting aside, how does one approach this? I'd like to take this issue to certain Board/OpCom members, but I'm uncertain of how I should bring this up with them. I'm not out to get them fired, but in all honesty I think the company would be better off without one (or two) of them.
Know of any good (decent?) jobs in the OKC area?
For doubters, here's part of a message I was BCC:ed into a few days ago. Names deleted to protect the innocent. No, this was not about or directed at me.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I really must be frank here! ___1__ is apparently not capability of carrying out the responsibility of making sure that your machines are patched per the latest critical patches. _1_ actually responded that all have be patched! I have included _1_ response inserted in red! Actually ___2__ confirmed all this because CR had ran a scanning program and __2__'s showed up as not being patched so __3__ started communication per several e-mails below. These files must be applied and are very critical to guard against security holes dealing with Window OSs. I would strongly suggest that __2__ be our contact person from now on! Do you agree?? Please call if you want to chat about it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It's not as bad as the memo in question, but it doesn't take an English degree to see the problems.
[Throwing away mod points just to post....sigh]
Don't you just love watching fish tanks? You can see the fish swimming, the plants growing, the fossils forming....what? You don't see fossils forming? Why is that?
Could be because the organism would have to be quickly buried in sediments beneath moving water. Otherwise it will simply decay, leaving.... nothing.
So, fossils only form under certain conditions. Those conditions happen to be pretty rare on earth. For one thing, live animals don't often sit under sediments, and corpses often float and/or are picked apart by other animals. Bacteria and other mini-animals/plants are going to be moved enough by currents that burial is not much of a concern.