* Posts by Wzrd1

2260 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2012

TERROR in ORBIT: Dodgy rocket burp biffs International Space Station off track

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"I do hope they sort out the cause and can correct it."

Do remember, a bug with seniority is a feature.

We stand on the brink of global cyber war, warns encryption guru

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"What I don't understand are 2 things:"

What I see is someone who has not detected, responded and mitigate an APT incursion.

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Re: Luckily defence is comparatively easy

"1970s was towards the end of the era of 16bit computers such as PDP11..."

Wow, that brings back memories. My high school had a donated PDP11/03.

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Re: Luckily defence is comparatively easy

"People these days DON'T WANT to learn."

Easy. Make the people *want* to learn.

'If you get infected due to stupidity, which is entirely the IS shop's call, you are terminated for cause and we'll sue you for damages incurred from the remediation'.

I know of one information security shop that has just that clause in their employment contract.

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Re: Just as well...(You never got the US filmstrip version)

"Your glowing parents will be over to pick you up as soon as the half life of Plutonium kicks in."

I don't know about the plutonium bit, but I'm of the generation that has radioactive bones, courtesy of strontium-90.

My area also still has plenty of the old CD shelters, aka school, church and older government buildings basements.

As I said long ago, when working with nuclear field missiles, "Go toward the light, my children!".

For, afterward shall be much suckage.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Before the Internet

"It OK guys we're safe, I've put the big blue 'e' into my recycle bin, if anyone tries to blow up the internet we can just restore it from there."

Oy!

The Almighty wanted me to tell you, he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're fucked.

I have the internet backed up on my SAN in the basement, run on a Linux cluster, secured by *BSD and managed from a Solaris box.

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Re: Just as well...

"What happened to all those sirens on pylons and high buildings?"

They figured out that all of those precautions were rubbish.

If the nuclear attack didn't get you and the firestorm didn't get you, nuclear winter would get you.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Just as well...

"Or put another way, what's the minimum connection that would be required simply to keep up with all new content currently being uploaded worldwide?!"

I don't know, but I have six (!) OC-48 feeds coming into my building at work.

And we're *not* the NSA or any other government entity.

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Re: Just as well...

I always thought that slices of bread *were* Styrofoam.

DARPA unTerminators gather for Robotics Challenge finals in Hell*

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The robots will destroy us all!

Shortly after proton decay is completed in this universe.

Ruskies behind German govt cyber attack — report

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Re: And yet the EU continues...

"Now how do you propose the West can impact on "the criminal government staff" without starting a war?"

Not without it going thermonuclear within less than a week.

Why did Snowden swipe 900k+ US DoD files? (Or so Uncle Sam claims)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Time

That is one thing about espionage many people do not get. Sensitive information typically is time sensitive.

Frankly, many of the documents Snowden stole and have not been released yet are no longer timely, leaving much to be in the "who cares" category as time moves on.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: "Secret" == "Not very import, interesting, or secret at all"

Far too often, secret is abused and things that should be unclassified are marked secret. Confidential is largely ignored.

The stupidest thing I ever saw was a group of DoD contractors, who were marking U/FOUO information as S/FOUO. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over?! FOUO is for unclassified information that should still remain free of FOI requests.

Of course, there's a full alphabet soup after the primary security level is determined, NOFORN being the least and I'll not bother getting into bigot lists.

But, I also started out in things nuclear, holding an N clearance and a standard clearance.

Top Secret is determined by whether the information being released would result in critical damage to the government.

Secret is determined whether the information being released would result in significant damage to the government.

Confidential is determined whether the information being released would result in minor damage to the government.

The damage could be to reputation, standing or things like everyone knowing precisely what is inside of the physics package on a modern thermonuclear warhead.

Unclassified is a valid security designated, if sensitive, such as personnel PII, it's designed Unclassified/FOUO (For Official Use Only) and is typically exempt from FOI requests (or the sensitive details removed from the document).

An N clearance is for things nuclear, in nuclear weapons fields, where direct access to the device is part of one's duties.

A Q clearance allows one just to be around a nuclear weapon, but not to directly access, handle or touch a device.

A Yankee White clearance allows one to be physically around the POTUS, such as workers in the White House and other locations the POTUS frequents.

I'm sure I missed a couple of oddball clearances, but it is late here.

Electrons ride huge plasma tubes above Earth

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Re: excellent!

A bit of greater separation between arrays would increase definition and precision of measurements.

So, EE. Who IS this app on your HTC M9s sneakily texting, hmm?

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Re: Where it ends

In the US, those are called Homeowners Associations.

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Re: If you think ..........

You do know that googleapis is part of Google, in the US, right?

Google, who sells Google appliances to three letter US agencies.

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Re: Crapware

You'd have to check with GCHQ to find out, but probably.

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Re: Stock Rom

Or, there's a carrier push when the version/checksum is "wrong".

Mac bug makes rootkit injection as easy as falling asleep

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Re: Without...

Ah, you mean like the old Chernobyl virus? Windows 95 days, trashed the flashed BIOS.

Hardcore creationist finds 60-million-year-old fossils in backyard ... 'No, it hasn’t changed my mind about the Bible'

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Re: Loaves and fishes

Yeah, we are. We're talking about North America, where all superstitions are welcome.

But, the Earth is *indeed* 4.5 billion years old. I was part of the Great Earth Dirt Delivery Project.

So, yes indeed, I am older than dirt.

I'm not older than rocks though.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: From a proud Bible thumper

Well, one can arrive from the Big Bang to essentially today in six days, relativeisticly. But, the hardest gamma radiation since the Big Bang would make it a miserable trip, with all of those atoms phtoto-disassociating and all.

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Re: Hitch-hikers

The mice ordered a replacement Earth.

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Re: The scariest thing ...

Ah, but, but, but... He can vote for someone to control Canadian nukes!

Remember, Canada has as many nukes as Saddam did.

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Re: Just another fuckwit

"Start taxing all that shit Americans."

Can't, our very first amendment prohibits any interferance with religion. Taxation certainly counts as interference.

Of course, religion isn't supposed to interfere with government, perhaps we can enact a penalty when it does and tax the living dogshit out of them then.

Creationist: The Flintstones was an accurate portrayal of Dino-human coexistence

Wzrd1 Silver badge

As it's religion, of extremist proportions *and* having personal experience in such things going "off the wire" in Afghanistan, Iraq and the US, let's suggest that such folks are equal to the Taliban in real actions, when pressured.

Such as when the very first amendment is forced upon them.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Well, the US is special. As in "short bus" special

Currently and for quite a bit before, the right in the US has been racing for the bottom.

They're nearing what they fear, "pitchforks and torches". That isn't a true fear, but an allegory of those who are possessing capabilities that approach their misjudgements in government.

There are those of us who are centrist in nature, who have suggested that "fear".

It's literally gotten to the point where small town politics are expressing threats to those who are equally capable, but stubborn on a point of fact.

Personally, I'm a mixed bag of right, left, center and gravitating on center.

I also personally own a full dozen firearms.

All stored in their safes.

I and my peers give the far right insane pause.

For, we *were* or *are* military.

We've long told "them" we'd sit on the side and kick anyone approaching us into the fray, then figure out the reality for ourselves.

Yeah, it's getting *that* bad here.

For some circles, there has been a suggestion of destroying the "football".

Those have been suppressed.

For, that *would* be treason.

Elon Musk's SpaceX: Now we help do SURVEILLANCE for the SPOOKS

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: "military space missions"?

"is america running out of places to bomb on planet earth??"

Naw, Earth is big, bombs are small and plentiful in the US.

Annoyingly, they're sparse for the citizenship. Otherwise, that tree stump would've been long gone for free. ;)

:/

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: They don't have much of a choice

"They needed another launch option since the Russians haven't been able to do it lately without either losing the payload or blowing it up."

We've done less, on a federal front.

Welcome to libertarianism run amok.

Makes me sorry I redeployed home.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"...and they also want it as cheaply as possible."

Erm, this US citizen and recently retired veteran calls bullshit on your bullshit.

We *all* seek the cheapest.

Or are you honestly willing to pay over $1k for a PC, just to bitch about the price?

Every US car has a majority of foreign components. Do you *honestly* want to spend $50k for a *cheap* car and $100k for a decent family car and half a million for a luxury car? SUV, you're shit out of luck for under $300k.

You know, you've increased my respect for the ancient Athenians. They prohibited the Idios the vote.

Perhaps it's time for a Constitutional amendment...

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: All depends on your point of view...

Well, as a retired US military citizen, who held some multiple character clearances, with alphabet soup behind the hyphen, I'll suggest you read the writings of US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler.

Then, with an eye to those true words, review history since.

Although, fuck all if I can figure out *why* we'd overthrow Iraq. Iraqi oil goes to Europe.

But then, the US overthrew Iran's democracy to install the corrupt and inept Shah, at the behest of British oil interests.

Something I had long attributed to "taking care of war buddies".

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Given the USAF handed ULA a 36 core block buy* before this

Quite true. But, remember, the GPS satellites are aging.

The number is close to a binary fraction portion of the aging satellites.

The Air Force hasn't gotten Congressional funding to replace the aging satellites for nearly a decade.

So, would you rather do without GPS, out of fears of a camera that has long been present peering at your bum?

Communications is also key. Something I learned firsthand, while I was in the military.

Is spying present?

Yes. Get over something that has been around for thousands of years.

Spies keep every nation honest.

Look up Able Archer and figure out *how* close this planet came to nuclear winter and radioactive fallout. Two spies kept everyone honest and prevented a thermonuclear war.

Geofencing: The ultra-low power frontier for the Internet of Things

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Primetime

"Just hack each manufacturers keyspace database. Come on, you know they will."

More like, already did.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Why does this stuff need to update ?

"Yes every lawnmower, toothbrush and toilet to have a unique IPv6 address and be individually accessible from t'internet with only a perfectly configured free modem from crap-cable-provider(tm) to secure it."

Well, *my* network is connected to a Catalyst 4506 switch routing internal traffic, appropriate firewall in between and a *real* router, configured by myself, to the crap-cable-provider(tm).

The negotiations to actually succeed in doing so was far less than negotiating with the Taliban.

Both, a regrettable experience in my real life.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Why does this stuff need to update ?

'What "dubious purposes" are you using your stuff for?

Also, would it be too much to ask for this IoT crap to be IPv6 compliant from day one? I want to be able to get on the Internet, for any purpose, without finding I've been NATed back to the stone age because all the IPv4 addresses are in use by lawnmowers!'

Televisions, well, some, are known to send out every spoken word within range of their microphones.

Don't worry about the lawnmowers. My straight razors already took up those IP's. The remainder was taken by my bathroom paper dispensers, toothbrush and socks.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Why does this stuff need to update ?

"The only way to do security is design it in from the ground up."

No, no and fucking no!

I'd be out of a job if things suddenly were designed to be secure.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Why does this stuff need to update ?

"Maybe security should be designed, not into the IoT thingamabobs, but into the router/switch/hardware that talks to them."

Bloody piss, have you never heard of not defining a default gateway or DNS servers to IP configuration?

Now, just *where* did I store those laser wearing sharks...

Screw it, the security droids will suffice.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Lawn mowers

Or, they begin communicating in an uncontrolled fashion and name the resulting gestalt "Skynet".

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: I await the dawn of smart cutlery, where a fork can scream for help if ...

Mental note: Upon death, shovel coal upon the place in hell Emily Post sits.

Oz dad-and-son team rattle tin for homemade reusable spaceplane

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Oh, you think I'm kidding...?

I've been toying with the notion of a "fuel-less" engine, well for in-atmosphere usage. Ionization and acceleration of the ionized air would work, although the energy required would be significant.

There would also be an issue of nitrous and nitric oxides and ozone production as exhaust byproduct.

The entire bit would be using existing experimental ion thruster design.*

I doubt I'd get it off the ground, the environmental folks would be up in arms about the byproducts.

Not to mention trying to figure out how to loft a >10 megawatt power plant is a bit problematic.

*Yes, I'm laughingly serious. I did do some numbers crunching. Laughing the entire time. While it is theoretically possible, it is currently and thankfully, impractical at the current level of our technology.

Thankfully impractical, just because the exhaust of any decent flight would exceed the NOx and O3 products of any five industrialized nations.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Father and Son

And today, we're at the age where software is trivially available to model the conditions the craft will experience, as well as the flight of the craft from altitude to ground.

Jamie Oliver's ministry of malware served slops AGAIN

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Low-hanging Fruit

Why stretch and exert oneself when the low hanging fruit is so common and reached by simply opening one's hand for it to fall into?

ISS 'naut: How we collect our POO and DROP it FLAMING on hapless Earthlings

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Crash helmet?

Well, with a dinner of the impossible to fin din orbit beef and beans meal, it's a lot like the scene in RED. Do you want a vest? No, it wouldn't help.

As for me, given a meal of beef and beans in orbit, due to age and an excessively long military career, with all of the physiological insults contained therein, what *I* would produce would sink immediately into a teraton thermonuclear event, destroying the planet and likely, causing harm to Sol.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: I wonder...

"You've raised the question of how do male astronauts relieve pent-up tension while in space. Into a sock?"

Since it's space, an incredibly hostile and unnatural environment for humans, I'll actually respond.

Considering the low atmospheric pressure *and* microgravity, one is already bloated, has incredibly stuffy sinuses and frequently suffer from motion sickness.

Yeah, not wanting to fuck when I'm about to puke.

And my experience is exclusively on Earth.

There are other issues present, such as stress from being a second to around a minute from being dead, the dread of actual illness with only amateurs to give actual help and the potential for a paint chip to offer you those seconds to a minute time until death.

Now, add in an impressive mission load, where every spare second is consumed, to avoid boredom, idle experimentation that isn't authorized or even opening the airlock to sniff external environment.

Yeah, no sock or anything else required.

Hell, under those conditions, it's likely that an erection would be decidedly uncomfortable.

NASA plans electrolysis-powered ROBOT EEL for Europa's oceans

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Ice

"Might even be unconstitutional here in the U.S., where we have the right to arm bears or something like that."

I have it upon great authority from Billy-bob that one has the right to bare arms in the US.

Although, the actual intent, as insane as it sounds today, recall that gunpoweder ran firearms, they were flintlocks or fused cannons, *everyone* was allowed to have any one of those.

As a cannon cost as much as a fire engine of the period, rifles were a lifelong investment and pistols were for the gentry.

Today, one goes through the same background investigation as is required for a top secret security clearance, which involves neighbors interviewed, a decade of former neighbors and employers (if something cropped up in the seven year portion), current and former employers, current and former coworkers, one's criminal history, domestic violence makes you shit out of luck, current on child support.

*Then* you can get your howitzer.

Or machinegun.

Or disguised firearm.

Or "destructive weapons" (see food for howitzers and other things that can blow up the neighborhood).

*While* previously paying for a $200 tax stamp, which if rejected, see shit out of luck.

Me? I'm happy with a bolt action, lever action, semiautomatic action and nothing crazier. .50 BMG is flat out wrong for me, my osteoarthritis would never forgive me that abuse.

I'll be happy with a .308 precision fire system to enter into contests for cash prize.

My pistols are largely the same, expensive, due to customization to ensure pinpoint accuracy.

I keep a hunting rifle and pistol to dispatch still living game, lest it suffer further.

But, the majority of my firearms defend me from only one "tyranny" of this modern world; the tyranny of the unperforated "x" ring.

I enjoy that last bit.

Back to the matter at hand, I'd use radiothermic generators to melt the ice and slide in the probe behind.

But, I'm dubious on gathering enough energy, considering our current level of technology.

Making the damned thing work on Earth would be beyond our current level, considering the specifications. Might as well specify a TARDIS.

FOUND: NASA's stray balloon located in the middle of nowhere

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"It seems an awfully long winded way to go about it ..."

Indeed! Wouldn't be simpler to train those about how to properly collect your kit, protect it and move it to a less rural region, rather than going largely insane and jetting across the globe?

But then, this BOFH Mk II always used the suggested method to excellent success, even under military conditions.

But, also remembers , the US government does what most governments does, treat the average citizen as a village idiot.

Whilst being ruled by elected village idiots.

Airbus to sue NSA, German spies accused of swiping tech secrets

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Schultz Matt / Saddam's chemical weapons factory

" I see you missed this recent discussion at the UN about the loss of the Samarra chemical weapons complex to ISIS last year "

Moron milk drinker, who has never learned a shit stain of NBC comprehension.

First off, *any* petrochemical plant, any pharmaceutical plant, any chemical plant *is*, by definition, a chemical weapons plant under variable conditions.

Variable being, producing chemical weapons (*any* US citizen can produce a fair handful of such weapons in their garage or basement), via actually producing such weapons or more rarely, suggesting capability by the company or just having the precursor chemicals (which also produce plastics and drugs).

What is lacking in your insane world view is actual production, suggestion of production, existing stockpiles, anything other than the fucking sand I and my buddies examined until quite a few were killed by IED's. Oh, and the lack of any WMD within the entire, centimeter observed nation of Iraq.

Oh! Maybe they're in Syria, just to puff up your failed nation leadership desiring misleadership!

Too bad, beat you to the punch. Terabytes of data are stored on various secure networks to remove the clearance of a leader attempting such.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Credas NoneSuch

"Wow, you really want to go off-topic, don't you? Not feeling too confident on discussing UN embargo breaches?"

As one who served in war after a yellowcake brownstain on a national undergarments mess *and* having worked for a US company that suffered multiple ITAR violations, do you *really* want to go down that road with me?

There will be an investigation. Espionage for corporate gain will not be permitted.

If such has been conducted, the NSA will be properly monitored and guided.

Here's the fun part. Due to an oddity of circumstances, I happen to be within "small arms range" of the NSA. That doesn't suggest I'd fire a weapon, it only describes a certain oddity of time and corporate conditions.

So, such a suggestion of corporate gain conditions with the NSA *will* be investigated and reported upon.

But, it will take time. If such is present, it'll be eliminated silently.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Guilty As Charged

As a retired soldier of the US military, I have to agree with the statement, if not some guided views.

A lawful order is supreme, an unlawful order was and is inactionable.

But, we're dealing with spy land, where things get... Strange.

But, I've learned to love spies.

They keep everyone honest.

Save, when it's for economic gain.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Matt / Saddam's chemical weapons factory

"Is that the real weapons factory from the good old days when The West supported Irak in its war with "

If you can't even successfully spell Iraq, your further testimony is suspect in the extremity of reviewing the testimony of the village idiot.

Because the server room is certainly no place for pets

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Re: Lodgie Remember the old motto

"...they can develop a system the same way as they now try to rush through coding..."

That's *why* we have *BSD.