I once wanted to download some software from school, since I had no internet access at my new home yet. One program I downloaded needed 3 floppies, the other one 5. As soon as I went back home, one floppy from each program was broken. I got so angry that I immediately took the bus back, just to download the programs again. This time I thought I'd download just the smaller one. I went back home and - you guessed it - one floppy disk was broken! Then I called my dad to tell him to burn them on a CD and then mail it to me - yes, snail mail! FYI, that lab still doesn't support USB dongles "for security reasons".
A friend of mine always carried his lab assignments in 3 copies in the same floppy disk, until sector 0 broke.
.. The JPEG data-compression standard... applying to MP3 players?
Will the next step be to copyright DCT?:)
When I get enough money, I'll try to copyright the addition. What? Someone else invented it before I did? Oh nevermind, I already said I'll have enough money by then, and I'll make every single poor schoolchild all over the world pay me 2c for each addition!:)
Not only completely anonymous. I recently discovered an article about how easy it is to spoof Caller ID on VoIP - that means, you select the number you want to appear as Caller ID! I don't remember its url, but some googling will reveal quite a lot.
Of course, many providers won't accept this - they compare your real number with what you send as CID before routing the call, but spammers will always find one with no restrictions.
Maybe it's not the same group of people to complain both about invasion of privacy and about lack of security measures. Does anyone remember what was being said in the past about the fear of a terrorist attack during the Olympic games, and (most impotantly) WHO was saying that? Sounds like governments around the world nearly trying to sabotage the Olympic games by keeping people out of it. So they decided to take unprecedented security measures, not because they think that this would help that much, but mostly to say "We've done enough for your security, you may feel safe and attend the games". I guess they were successful. I wouldn't like a camera to watch my every step and a computer to watch all my conversations either, but remember how many polls there have been asking people "Given the threat of a terrorist attack during the Olympic games, would you attend them?".
In a few words: Now, with all this unjustified surveillance, it's just groups of individuals who complain. Without all this mess, it would have been governments and media worldwide, as it was until a couple of months ago - and I believe they can influence MANY more people. If *you* were organising the Olympic games, what would you prefer?
I was trying to replace the power switch on an AT box but the new switch had a different outlet, so I short-circuited 220V... Both the power supply and the motherboard were fried, but my brother's HD (defragmenting at the time) remained intact!!
I once spilled lemon juice on a keyboard with membranes - ruined 5 keys. My brother spilled instant glue on an OLD keyboard - a couple of melted keys (just the covers) but it still works fine!
My PC was just playing music when it froze. Reboot - can't load OS. Turned out that the FAT table had been erased, so I got my data back... Funny fact #1: By the time, I was studying in another city (8h by bus from here) and I used to carry my *other* HD back and forth. But no. The HD that crashed had to be the one with the OS and everything! Funny fact #2: It turned out that the battery made loose contact. That PC is now running as a server, incredibly stable - I have it lying on its side, so the battery's weight fixes the problem!
iptables -F and the default policy was DROP... Locked myself outside. Fortunately I got terminal access from a modem attached to the box.
I didn't mess this one up but here it goes: I was called for help because the mail server had gone mad. I realized that the mail queue was so enormous that it ate up all the disk space! I deleted everything, but it kept getting huge. What happened was that the previous administrator had root's mail aliased to her account, which she forwarded to an address which had ceased existing when she quit. Every mail to root (including a bunch of proc tasks) couldn't be delivered and resulted to a total of four other emails. Two were generated after the 4h limit, one was to the postmaster (aliased root) and one to the sender (usually root), and two similar ones after the 2d limit. Each was trying AGAIN to be sent to root, generating 4 MORE emails...
Left a W2K server unattended & without automatically installing the updates. Enough said.
An old server (with an old battery) lost the date when it rebooted and went some years back. I logged in and fixed it. Result: everyone who had logged on with the old date (including me) had their accounts expired, because the last login was some years ago!! I can't remember how we fixed that, honestly:)
Back when we had all important data on floppy disks, we often found our desk covered with them. On such a moment, coffee was spilled on the desk... Many floppies (and MANY old arcade games) thrown away:(
Slashdot Mirror
I once wanted to download some software from school, since I had no internet access at my new home yet. One program I downloaded needed 3 floppies, the other one 5. As soon as I went back home, one floppy from each program was broken. I got so angry that I immediately took the bus back, just to download the programs again. This time I thought I'd download just the smaller one. I went back home and - you guessed it - one floppy disk was broken! Then I called my dad to tell him to burn them on a CD and then mail it to me - yes, snail mail! FYI, that lab still doesn't support USB dongles "for security reasons".
A friend of mine always carried his lab assignments in 3 copies in the same floppy disk, until sector 0 broke.
http://libo.ru/ind/graf1/3086.jpg
BB---|---------[OR]___
... And, logically, it's always true!
|_[NOT]___[ ]
Couldn't draw logic gates in ASCII art, but if you follow it, it reads "Two 'B' or not two 'B'"
.. The JPEG data-compression standard... applying to MP3 players? Will the next step be to copyright DCT? :)
When I get enough money, I'll try to copyright the addition. What? Someone else invented it before I did? Oh nevermind, I already said I'll have enough money by then, and I'll make every single poor schoolchild all over the world pay me 2c for each addition! :)
Not only completely anonymous. I recently discovered an article about how easy it is to spoof Caller ID on VoIP - that means, you select the number you want to appear as Caller ID! I don't remember its url, but some googling will reveal quite a lot.
Of course, many providers won't accept this - they compare your real number with what you send as CID before routing the call, but spammers will always find one with no restrictions.
Maybe it's not the same group of people to complain both about invasion of privacy and about lack of security measures. Does anyone remember what was being said in the past about the fear of a terrorist attack during the Olympic games, and (most impotantly) WHO was saying that? Sounds like governments around the world nearly trying to sabotage the Olympic games by keeping people out of it. So they decided to take unprecedented security measures, not because they think that this would help that much, but mostly to say "We've done enough for your security, you may feel safe and attend the games". I guess they were successful. I wouldn't like a camera to watch my every step and a computer to watch all my conversations either, but remember how many polls there have been asking people "Given the threat of a terrorist attack during the Olympic games, would you attend them?". In a few words: Now, with all this unjustified surveillance, it's just groups of individuals who complain. Without all this mess, it would have been governments and media worldwide, as it was until a couple of months ago - and I believe they can influence MANY more people. If *you* were organising the Olympic games, what would you prefer?
I was trying to replace the power switch on an AT box but the new switch had a different outlet, so I short-circuited 220V... Both the power supply and the motherboard were fried, but my brother's HD (defragmenting at the time) remained intact!! I once spilled lemon juice on a keyboard with membranes - ruined 5 keys. My brother spilled instant glue on an OLD keyboard - a couple of melted keys (just the covers) but it still works fine! My PC was just playing music when it froze. Reboot - can't load OS. Turned out that the FAT table had been erased, so I got my data back... Funny fact #1: By the time, I was studying in another city (8h by bus from here) and I used to carry my *other* HD back and forth. But no. The HD that crashed had to be the one with the OS and everything! Funny fact #2: It turned out that the battery made loose contact. That PC is now running as a server, incredibly stable - I have it lying on its side, so the battery's weight fixes the problem! iptables -F and the default policy was DROP... Locked myself outside. Fortunately I got terminal access from a modem attached to the box. I didn't mess this one up but here it goes: I was called for help because the mail server had gone mad. I realized that the mail queue was so enormous that it ate up all the disk space! I deleted everything, but it kept getting huge. What happened was that the previous administrator had root's mail aliased to her account, which she forwarded to an address which had ceased existing when she quit. Every mail to root (including a bunch of proc tasks) couldn't be delivered and resulted to a total of four other emails. Two were generated after the 4h limit, one was to the postmaster (aliased root) and one to the sender (usually root), and two similar ones after the 2d limit. Each was trying AGAIN to be sent to root, generating 4 MORE emails... Left a W2K server unattended & without automatically installing the updates. Enough said. An old server (with an old battery) lost the date when it rebooted and went some years back. I logged in and fixed it. Result: everyone who had logged on with the old date (including me) had their accounts expired, because the last login was some years ago!! I can't remember how we fixed that, honestly :)
Back when we had all important data on floppy disks, we often found our desk covered with them. On such a moment, coffee was spilled on the desk... Many floppies (and MANY old arcade games) thrown away :(