A couple of years ago, I recovered data off some 5 1/4" floppies that were written in 1987/88. The problem was that the data has just plain rotted and a disk controller wouldn't read any of them. I tried pulling off individual sectors, but maybe only got 25%. I then bought a "Catweasel" card designed to read Amiga disks on a PC, found some Linux driver code, and started hacking. I wrote some Python to parse the raw data pulled off the disk, extract what it could by ignoring sector headers (mostly broken), looking for sync marks, and then playing guessing games around areas with bad MFM clock bits to get the CRCs to work. My code then spat out a file of what it had managed to get along with "goodness" flags for that pass. Over multiple passes, with merging of files to keep best copy of each sector, I managed to get 100% of the data off the disks but it took around three months of hacking around.
All I had to do then was find a cracked version of the proprietary DOS backup software (Fastback) on a Russian hack site, run it in a dosbox, feed it the floppy image files one by one, and my data all came back.
It was about 50k lines of x86 code (and same again in 68k) for a game called Carrier Command that I wrote in the 80s (wikipedia is your friend). I'm considering making it available at some point so people can see how bad my coding was back then!
We mainly employ CS grads, and have good rates of pay and even better benefits, but we still struggle to find enough good people. Fortunately, with the Greek and Spanish economies doing down the pan, we're getting a lot of good applications from elsewhere in the EU.
I'm currently trying to finish a novel. I have never done any creative writing before, but then along came a zany idea, which I had to get it out of my head and into a file. The idea itself took but moments, yet writing the 130k words I'm now up to has taken 18 months, a great deal of hard work and whole load of learning. So, when someone pops into a writing forum and says "Hey, I've had a great idea, and now I just need a writer" everyone tries to be gentle with them. No, really, we do.
I used to write computer games and it was much the same there. Yes, original ideas are important, but the implementation stage - where raw ideas meet harsh reality - is when talent and experience are essential.
Ian
My understanding is that trim won't be done when partitioning but instead when a file system is created. So, fdisk won't have trim capability added, but mkfs will. So, creating a new filesystem over the top of valuable data will be a BAD THING but my view is that only one skilled in the art of marketing/political talking could ever have presented this as being a good thing. Ian
> a CostCo run is out of the question
I've used my bike to go to CostCo a few times. I leave it with the guy on the front door to look after (hey they are Security Guards, they can keep my folded bike secure!) and put my purchases in various bags and panniers, with the really big stuff going on the rack. If I'm buying a lot of stuff, I take my bike trailer.
However, the real key to shopping by bike is to shop regularly at local shops rather than doing a huge "arctic exhibition" style run every few weeks. When out buying my lunch, I also buy whatever we're going to need for the meal that evening. We do have lots of stuff in stock, but the fresh stuff gets bought 1-2 days before we need it.
Ian
>When David got in the next day (at around 8AM), >he saw that his machine had crashed, so he knew >that Steve had come by and seen it.
Golly, the world's first ever UAE (what GPFs were called when Windows was young and people didn't even dare to dream of BSODs) and Steve got to see it personally.
I hope he gets to personally see all the results from me hitting "Send Error Report" half a dozen times a day.
Ian
I tried it and was underwhelmed. The heuristics seem far too simplistic for this thing to actually do any real good for the inexperienced user.
For instance, MS antispyware claimed that I had a key logger on my system (despite Sophos, adaware and spywareblaster giving it a clean bill of health). The file it question was a text file full of release notes.
A bit of experimentation showed that creating an empty text file in c:\program files\coding workshop was enough to trigger this alert! It seems there is a keylogger by a group called Coding Workshop but also a ring tone editor by a company of the same name. MS Antispyware will be advising people to remove parts of their applications.
The tool also pointed the finger of blame at an exe in system32. I don't know what it is but suspect that if it really was a downloader trojan as claimed that Sophos would complain. So given that I *know* that the MS utility is trigger happy do I delete or not? Risk leaving malware on my system or risk deleting something important?
I'm sure it will find and remove spyware but I think it will do so much collateral damage that many users would be better off either using a different tool or just living with the malware!
The problem with applying the taxation to the fuel is that it ends up taxing exactly the wrong group of people.
People outside cities usually have lower incomes, greater distances to travel, and few other options regards how to travel. Taxing the fuel taxes these people heavily.
Inside cities incomes are generally higher, typical journeys shorter, and there are alternatives to the car, which sadly many reject for reasons as vacuous as "personal space" and image. Fuel taxation affects these people very little.
The advantage of taxation based on when and where the vehicle is driven is that it can be used to discourage selfish vehicle use in cities, where it causes congestion and pollution, but not penalise those whose journeys are not causing the problems that we need to address.
Excellent advice that I will pass on to my nine year old daughter. Except that before hitting delete she has to read a header advertising web sites where she can see beastiality and incest, usually described in rather graphic language.
The spam needs to be blocked before it hits the user's inbox.
I use a full HD snapshot program http://www.drivesnapshot.com/en/index.htm to make full images of my notebook HD onto an external USB2 HD. Agonisingly slow with USB1.1 but about a minute per gig (before compression) with USB2.
Ian
Cornice Inc's 1" sized and 1.5G capabity Storage Element (that's a HD to you and me!) is going in to consumer devices such as cameras, and now also in to a USB "key".
http://www.hpcwire.com/dsstar/03/0610/106016.htm l
Slashdot Mirror
A couple of years ago, I recovered data off some 5 1/4" floppies that were written in 1987/88. The problem was that the data has just plain rotted and a disk controller wouldn't read any of them. I tried pulling off individual sectors, but maybe only got 25%. I then bought a "Catweasel" card designed to read Amiga disks on a PC, found some Linux driver code, and started hacking. I wrote some Python to parse the raw data pulled off the disk, extract what it could by ignoring sector headers (mostly broken), looking for sync marks, and then playing guessing games around areas with bad MFM clock bits to get the CRCs to work. My code then spat out a file of what it had managed to get along with "goodness" flags for that pass. Over multiple passes, with merging of files to keep best copy of each sector, I managed to get 100% of the data off the disks but it took around three months of hacking around. All I had to do then was find a cracked version of the proprietary DOS backup software (Fastback) on a Russian hack site, run it in a dosbox, feed it the floppy image files one by one, and my data all came back. It was about 50k lines of x86 code (and same again in 68k) for a game called Carrier Command that I wrote in the 80s (wikipedia is your friend). I'm considering making it available at some point so people can see how bad my coding was back then!
We mainly employ CS grads, and have good rates of pay and even better benefits, but we still struggle to find enough good people. Fortunately, with the Greek and Spanish economies doing down the pan, we're getting a lot of good applications from elsewhere in the EU.
I'm currently trying to finish a novel. I have never done any creative writing before, but then along came a zany idea, which I had to get it out of my head and into a file. The idea itself took but moments, yet writing the 130k words I'm now up to has taken 18 months, a great deal of hard work and whole load of learning. So, when someone pops into a writing forum and says "Hey, I've had a great idea, and now I just need a writer" everyone tries to be gentle with them. No, really, we do.
I used to write computer games and it was much the same there. Yes, original ideas are important, but the implementation stage - where raw ideas meet harsh reality - is when talent and experience are essential. Ian
No, it burns it inside the cylinders, hence the term "Internal Combustion". Ian
We've got all the IP addresses.
Ian
You forgot sport!
My understanding is that trim won't be done when partitioning but instead when a file system is created. So, fdisk won't have trim capability added, but mkfs will. So, creating a new filesystem over the top of valuable data will be a BAD THING but my view is that only one skilled in the art of marketing/political talking could ever have presented this as being a good thing.
Ian
> a CostCo run is out of the question I've used my bike to go to CostCo a few times. I leave it with the guy on the front door to look after (hey they are Security Guards, they can keep my folded bike secure!) and put my purchases in various bags and panniers, with the really big stuff going on the rack. If I'm buying a lot of stuff, I take my bike trailer. However, the real key to shopping by bike is to shop regularly at local shops rather than doing a huge "arctic exhibition" style run every few weeks. When out buying my lunch, I also buy whatever we're going to need for the meal that evening. We do have lots of stuff in stock, but the fresh stuff gets bought 1-2 days before we need it. Ian
I want to dye a virgin. Ian
If you are a geek, read Godel Escher Bach, and The Mind's I. And if you really want to tackle something, try Metamagical Themas.
Metamagical Themas is just Gödel, Escher, Bach read backwards skipping every other word, so you didn't need to go and buy it!
Ian
>When David got in the next day (at around 8AM), >he saw that his machine had crashed, so he knew >that Steve had come by and seen it. Golly, the world's first ever UAE (what GPFs were called when Windows was young and people didn't even dare to dream of BSODs) and Steve got to see it personally. I hope he gets to personally see all the results from me hitting "Send Error Report" half a dozen times a day. Ian
I tried it and was underwhelmed. The heuristics seem far too simplistic for this thing to actually do any real good for the inexperienced user.
For instance, MS antispyware claimed that I had a key logger on my system (despite Sophos, adaware and spywareblaster giving it a clean bill of health). The file it question was a text file full of release notes.
A bit of experimentation showed that creating an empty text file in c:\program files\coding workshop was enough to trigger this alert! It seems there is a keylogger by a group called Coding Workshop but also a ring tone editor by a company of the same name. MS Antispyware will be advising people to remove parts of their applications.
The tool also pointed the finger of blame at an exe in system32. I don't know what it is but suspect that if it really was a downloader trojan as claimed that Sophos would complain. So given that I *know* that the MS utility is trigger happy do I delete or not? Risk leaving malware on my system or risk deleting something important?
I'm sure it will find and remove spyware but I think it will do so much collateral damage that many users would be better off either using a different tool or just living with the malware!
Ian
The problem with applying the taxation to the fuel is that it ends up taxing exactly the wrong group of people.
People outside cities usually have lower incomes, greater distances to travel, and few other options regards how to travel. Taxing the fuel taxes these people heavily.
Inside cities incomes are generally higher, typical journeys shorter, and there are alternatives to the car, which sadly many reject for reasons as vacuous as "personal space" and image. Fuel taxation affects these people very little.
The advantage of taxation based on when and where the vehicle is driven is that it can be used to discourage selfish vehicle use in cities, where it causes congestion and pollution, but not penalise those whose journeys are not causing the problems that we need to address.
Ian
Excellent advice that I will pass on to my nine year old daughter. Except that before hitting delete she has to read a header advertising web sites where she can see beastiality and incest, usually described in rather graphic language.
The spam needs to be blocked before it hits the user's inbox.
Ian
I use a full HD snapshot program http://www.drivesnapshot.com/en/index.htm to make full images of my notebook HD onto an external USB2 HD. Agonisingly slow with USB1.1 but about a minute per gig (before compression) with USB2. Ian
Cornice Inc's 1" sized and 1.5G capabity Storage Element (that's a HD to you and me!) is going in to consumer devices such as cameras, and now also in to a USB "key".
m l
http://www.hpcwire.com/dsstar/03/0610/106016.ht