Posts by Wzrd1

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.

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.

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.

Re: Remember the old motto

"Systems weren't thrown together, they were lovingly crafted. observing carefully defined standards which made support and upgrades a breeze, these were tested, stress tested and parallel run for an age before implementation and when they were implemented, everyone including the company cat stayed up all night to monitor the first batch run."

Later, Microsoft came along, ignored bounds testing and the ping of death ensued, revealing deficits.

Such deficits still run amok today, courtesy largely to Adobe and a bit less often lately, Java.

But, we still find the occasional 20 year old bug from hell.

Carefully defined standards relied upon enforced upon standards. That has proved relatively absent over the years.

Lovingly crafted and tested by pen test teams is the rule of today and that is always improved upon.

Or do you honestly want a modern pen test team attack your "lovingly assembled" device or cluster?

Re: No really, wire recorders have a much warmer sound.....

"OK, BOFH, so what did you do with the ancient Ampex machines then?"

In high school, I actually serviced two inch Ampex videotape machines. I *loved* the performance of the machines, today, it's sadly and laughably obsolete.

But, I ponder what we could do with that technology with today's technology, just as a "science experiment".

Those tapes had storage capability that is only available today and could store *more* than HD for every centimeter of tape.

At that time, I also repaired every television in the school, the equipment being hybrid vacuum tube and transistor technology, hence having to learn both. That all was extra-curricluar, a personal hobby.

That said, high school was a disappointment, as our junior high school had electron microscopes and an observatory. They were lost when I was in high school.

When our children went to the same school, chemistry class was consisted with terminology and M&M's (seriously).

"Or maybe a WWI infantry charge is just like a modern tank brigade plus air support coming at you. Who knows."

As one who has both modern military experience that is still current *and* current, bleeding edge IT experience, we'll suffice it to say, I understand both viewpoints and you do not.

The tank brigade would be countered with covered pits, for the infantry to engage inside of the blind zone of the tanks, within danger close of the tanks from the air support.

The IT addressed similarly. I've done the latter, cutting loose the hopelessly obsolete and overly expensive, protecting the worthwhile, pending porting to a more modern and more inexpensive, but effective platform.

So, I'll say, I can out-script you in the environment of your choice, I can outfight whatever military force you choose. I can out-fart you, but then, I'm a lot older than you. Arthritis is also an issue, but it's more an annoyance that triggers adrenaline and increases strength.

The latter being of note by my ability to throw a 20 stone man into an object within two meters and change and disable that man.

Now, I'm not suggesting violence. I'm suggesting a certain specific experience set that you badly lack.

I've worked with ancient IT, I work with modern IT. I've worked with specialist warfare teams.

I far prefer the IT environment, ancient tech present or not.

I know how to handle ancient and get it ported to more sustainable technology that wouldn't bankrupt the Crown of England.

In a couple of decades, you just *might* accomplish that, if you learn to actually learn old and new things.

I'm also proficient with vacuum tube technology, germanium transistor technology and VLSI technology, working with all of the above.

So, I'll suggest you do one thing: "Open your mind".

For, closed minds are the path to extinction.

Still, it's only a suggestion.

Re: No really, wire recorders have a much warmer sound.....

"I tend to stay one generation behind the latest and greatest in software and hardware, and have been known to rescue some pretty old machines, but I also understand that there comes a time when it makes no sense whatsoever to hold together old technology."

Same here. I'm also fully qualified to be an engineer for such systems.

Frankly, I'd gin up a one farad capacitor at 400 volts, then hand him the leads, one to each hand.

I also go back to when that described device was the size of a small dumpster.

Regrettably, it's unlikely any could afford my rates today.

"Heck, I built stuff 15 years ago that pretty much still supports a whole country (at which point several people suddenly realise who I am and what I'm talking about."

Telephone networks are a lot different from real IT.

<ducking>

Re: Remember the old motto

"Give me an old git who just shrugs and gets on with it every day."

This BOFH Mk II is available, for the proper price and benefits package. :)

I've worked on and with equipment that booted, early POST test era self-test, file system consistency testing that took long enough that I literally glued an antique wind up clock key onto the server face to relive the tedium of whoever was the poor soul dispatched to reboot it, to working at a Fortune 200 company.

Where I have been horrified to find a few pet abominations.

Hmm, what would the BOFH do and how to improve upon the action?

"Just because we're not enthusiastic about some new fangled thing that isn't really new at all, (cloud computing, HSM, virtualisation, all stuff that's been around for decades under a different name), doesn't mean we don't understand it. It just means it's crap and better avoided."

True enough, I'm nearing my mid-50's and realized that as well.

That doesn't mean that every operation requires an AS-500. Mainframes have been relegated to payroll and hospital patient tracking and are beginning to be phased out of the latter.

:P:p:P:p:P:p

Damn it! Stop trouting me! ;)

More seriously, that 20 year old server *is* obsolete. Hell, I'd not even keep one of those in my garage.

And I'm the guy with a Cisco Catalyst 4000 and Dell PowerEdge 2850's in the basement. Running.

I'm on the local electricity company's Christmas card list, with a special gilded card.

Note to self: Join the pen test team for the electricity company at the first opportunity. One exponent needs to be deleted from the bill.

Re: Hrmm

"I remember a 20 year old Ultra1 running some business critical system."

As bad as an old DEC Alpha server I was called in on.

Documentation on configuration, absent, taken when the company sacked their quite efficient IT guy.

High end external SCSI RAID, main controller blown and replacement no longer available.

Legato backup in use, configuration unknown and if you know Legato, it possessed nearly infinite configuration options.

In the end, the sacrifice of the ram was insufficient, a few prime bulls also failed, 7 virgins and my sanity were the final required sacrifice to reverse engineering that Heath Robinson, well, it's a bit more modern and hence, it's a Rube Goldberg monstrosity.

All to then port everything over to our more modern confidence job product, a commodity motherboard inside of a pretty case and called a server, with "dual mirroring", meaning RAID 1.

By the time my company was done with that company, they'd have been better served by retaining their IT guy.

But, those were my formative years, while I was learning my skills of a BOFH.

Today, it's likely I can give Simon a run for his money, departing afterward *with* his money.

After all, today, I'm in information security, on the technical side. I'm the guy who can figure out a result of policy in an AD environment of 1000+ OU's, in a forest with an equal number of elements and if given enough paper, accurately display the propagation results.

Then, move on to "Why in the hell are *those* on the same VLAN as the operational, internet facing hosts? Place them on a VLAN configured *so*, with access to *these* hosts only and segregate those hosts *this* way, giving configurations on the fly that work.

Those who oppose me are typically sent to explore alternative employment options, largely because the local swamp is now full and they closed the local land fill.

Still, we're moving offices. Currently, we're near the crab capitol of the land. Later, I'll be in alligator country. Opportunities for advancement abound.

Now, just *where* did I put that mold of the alligator heat? I'll need that for the 3D scanner and printer, to ensure a proper fit for the lasers.

Re: Hmmmmm.....

It's not all DDOS, quite a lot of it is data exfiltration.

Re: curs ewe use less spell chequer

I missed it completely, but then, it's late and when I'm tired, my dyslexia kicks up a lot.

So, it make complete sense to me, as it was intended, if not how it was spelled.

The NSA is part of the US DoD and gives recommendations to DISA on cyber defense.

It is interesting that you mentioned 2008, as the US DoD had a major compromise in that year and it was quite expensive to remediate, the primary issue was lack of adherence to DISA requirements in the baseline configurations of workstations, servers and antivirus.

My installation was in compliance and shrugged off the attack.

Re: Lucky Man

"Says the one sitting safe at home who doesn't have to face down the enraged lunatic. "

It's been my experience that when a knee begins to bend in the wrong direction, no matter how enraged, how drugged or how high their zeal formerly was, the fight ends immediately.

I faced far worse in my life. I've faced my own buddies in the military, when they were drunk. When I couldn't talk them down, well, thing got quite interesting. I've had to use carotid compression, once, a throat strike (I could treat the results, if necessary) and assorted nerve strikes.

The Commonwealth SAS varieties quite enjoyed partying with me as well, although they managed to not get quite so ugly.

As for Afghans, let's say, they're tough, strong and the fight is over when the knee bends the wrong way.

Me? I'm notorious for blocking with either my chin or my forehead, both of which are dense and comprised of a substance that could crush that pebble in Gibraltar and consists of strange matter, insulated with neutronium. I'm also infamously insensitive to pain and noted for my inability to quit.

I'm also a deity, although I'm not entirely sure if I'm the Almighty or the son, as I'm variously addressed upon entering a room as Jesus Christ or God!, so I'm not certain which I am.

But, the strong and dense skull does successfully protect both of my remaining brain cells, each of which takes an alternate day off (the rest melted out of my ears, while variously dealing with military lieutenants and raising two children to adulthood).

Obviously, my humor is mercurial. That's due to the first mentioned experiences being real life, real world.

I only get serious when things are so bad, someone might end up deceased if they don't listen.

So, remember, from my world and life experience, life sucks, but it beats the shit out of the alternative. I know that as true, as none of my deceased buddies have bothered to ring me up and tell me how great dead is, so I know it's deadly dull.

/Mercurial mode off (yeah, as if that'll happen)

With a note that universally, on every continent I've visited, which is all save two, *everyone* knows "pull my finger". What does that and this event say of the species?

Re: Lucky Man

Not if he's white. Then, they hesitate.

"The radically different compositions of the various Asteroid Families are also difficult (though not impossible) to explain if they were to have originated from the same planet."

Not really, of Jovian migration occurred, a modest planet could have begun forming, differentiation begun, leaving metals migrating down, only to be sundered by the distant passing of Jupiter.

But, that's extremely dicey, I'll admit. It ignores the wide distribution of asteroids, it ignores needing passing within the Roche limit of Jupiter and well, physics in general, considering the previous issues.

What isn't explained is why we have chondrite or metallic and very little in the middle mixture. *Something* caused metallics to form in significant quantities in preference to a more random mixture.

"The chances of anything being on Ceres are a million to one they said."

That makes no sense whatsoever, as Ceres would obviously have some rocks and dust strewn about.

Re: Meh

"Who is this person called "Fuck"? I have never met him but I hear he knows a lot."

Fucked if I know, but the fucker sure gets around a fucking lot, the fucker.

Heard the fucker has a fucking lot of kids, millions of them.

Re: Meh

"Get Federal Firearms License, install FIM-92 around house regardless."

And get a wider burning debris field hitting your new home.

I'd simply get a Mind and have it effector away the wayward rocket, then CAM dust SpaceX.

Re: Meh

"The barge is at least about proving they can bring it back to a precision target as about landing the thing."

And a barge is a fuckton cheaper than launch complexes, incinerated lunch complexes full of workers and neighboring communities homes.

As you said, an awshit at sea on an unmanned barge isn't really that big of a deal. A bit of fresh paint, everything's right as rain. Or, another barge gets floated.

Re: Meh

"Rocket go KABOOM! People of Florida sad. People of Florida even sadder, if rocket go oopsie missy landing pad, and go crash-bang-boom on their house."

I don't know, I think if the rocket did the oopsie missy state and hit my house in Pennsylvania, it'd improve my property value.

I'd also make a mint on selling tee shirts with "SpaceX launched a rocket through my house and all I got was this lousy tee shirt" on them.

Assuming I wasn't home at the time. If I was home, I'd get pretty steamed. I mean really, it'd ruin my weekend plans, which would *really* burn me up!

But, at least the asshole neighbors would be a distant memory.

Re: Meh

"Obviously I know fuck"

No, you don't even know fuck.

It's quite likely you'll never be privileged enough to know fuck personally.

So, perhaps you should leave the criticism for those who far more than fuck.

So, do feel free to fuck off.

Re: A very well done

"You know that they sent near-Live video (certainly not HD) back from the fricken! Moon in fricken! 1969?"

Always some sap has to come in and tell other people how to spend more of their money, rather than be thankful that that sap actually was permitted to see a proprietary device in operation and later failure.

Here's an idea, if you want to see that live, *you* work with the team and *you* pay for all of the involved costs.

Re: A very well done

"Also, make the system literally bomb proof, because there is a big flamy thing going to be landing on or near it."

Also, make the system literally bomb proof, because there is a big bomb, exploding in one direction (hopefully) going to be landing on or near it.

A rocket is essentially, a huge bomb, which if properly constructed, only explodes continuously in one direction.

When improperly constructed, or when things break, the rocket fully describes all characteristics of a bomb - a very, very large bomb.

See Russian mishaps and NASA mishaps, the latest of which took a chunk off of an island launch facility.

"When have plans to expand digital surveillance ever been anything other than badly thought out and rushed, anywhere in the world?"

The Great Firewall of China comes to mind.

Re: long ago memories arise

1995 and Microsoft's ping of death, *really* blowing up the internet with >64k ping packets.

Microsoft's immediate response, threaten litigation against anyone who claimed the ping of death was real, switch out their NT 4 FTP servers with Sun boxes and claim the x86 hardware was overloaded, *then* eventually issue a patch.

Re: Just out of interest, how aggressive is Chrome's pre-fetching?

No, Chrome doesn't pre-fetch pages, it pre-fetches DNS entries.

Now, what would happen with a page with 1000 distinct domain URL's with Chrome?

Re: Malicious?

I'm thinking...

OK Google, bounds fucking checking.

Response: I don't know what that is.

Shades of 1995!

Re: I have a cunning plan...

Well, as one who is retired US military, I'll mention the fact that we were only armed when in the field training or on the range firing, when on our home base.

So, going to and from my home to the base, I most certainly was not armed.

That said, if anyone then or now came at me with a knife, he'd end up either with multiple dislocations or impaled upon his own blade. It all would depend on how irritated I was.

Military victories aren't measured by the number of dead, they're measured by when the enemy lost the will to continue fighting.