* Posts by Wzrd1

2260 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2012

Boffins have constructed a new LIGHT SABRE. Their skills are complete

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"The handle would need to be hooked up to a rather unwieldy power source and cooling air supply."

Cooling air supply? Highly inefficient. I'd use a liquid coolant.

Since the air is already becoming unbreathable due to ozone, might as well use anhydrous ammonia for the coolant. ;)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"Personally I've always considered light sabres to be magnetically confined plasma."

Briefly considered that back in the 1980's. Then, I considered how magnetic fields don't maintain annular confinement beyond a magnetic coil.

Then, I considered multiple standing waves and a holographic reflector at the point...

Finally, I considered it a matter of, "To hell with that idiocy. A blaster puts out a greater volume of fire."

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: " Wonder what kind of application photon matter would have"

"I wonder how much support the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms receives from the US government."

If the research was US Government funded and not classified, it'd not be behind a pay wall. It would be openly available for all to read.

Forget what law that was that required that one.

For classified stuff, all bets are off, save that it wouldn't end up published for a generation or so.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"Wonder what kind of application photon matter would have or even if it is feasible for general use"

How about a holodeck?

Light sabre.

Hard light bridge.

Hard light windows.

Maybe a more energy efficient deflector, more efficient than a plasma window?

Boffins explain bizarre here-one-month-gone-the-next 'third Van Allen belt'

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Unfulfilled Purpose

"Although it may appear to be a separate entity, the 'third belt' isn't separate at all."

How fascinating! So, you think it isn't a third belt at all, even though it is separate from the other two belts. In spite of scientists who specialize in the field believe and proclaim, based upon empirical evidence observed in and around the phenomenon.

Then, you decide how research should be exercised.

All without the benefit of such understanding or even the ability to control the purse strings on scientific studies and their budgets.

What I find truly fascinating is how little we still understand about magnetism, after centuries of studying it and knowing about magnetic field lines, the source of various magnetic fields or the chaotic systems such natural fields generate.

Something that one can only begin to understand by studying both the more stable state first two belt and the transitory third belt during such excitation states.

Otherwise, you get half of the picture and it'll be another three centuries before we actually fully understand magnetic fields in large systems, magnetic tangle systems and hopefully, eventually fully map and understand even solar magnetic field processes.

Because only studying stable state belts is really a lot like studying a magnet on a desktop. Not highly illuminating when one really needs to also understand processes involving highly energetic particles trapped in such belts.

The NSA's hiring - and they want a CIVIL LIBERTIES officer

Wzrd1 Silver badge

I'd actually accept that position. Contingent upon my acceptance, as part of my contract, would be to depart if the NSA declined to obey the US Constitution, with my own full right to disclose to uncleared persons.

That said, I'm also an operations first IA type and highly successful at preventing my area of concern from being compromised, whist not hampering operations by seeking various and sundry exception to policy documents (letting the other poor General/bastard take the risk). But, the law was *always* obeyed.

Constitutionally, I'm a mix of living document and strict interpretation, depending on the amendment.

I've also held the clearance necessary, only a few caveats would be needed to be added.

That said, the Constitution is King, not an administration, not a Congress without a ratified amendment.

So, I suspect I need not apply. :/

Pity, as I know the Fort Meade area somewhat and had my eye on a few properties to consider.

Space truck Cygnus left idling outside ISS after data format snafu borks docking

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Safety?

"Astronauts are supposed to just suck it up."

Not really.

Astronauts/Cosmonauts are expected to clean up the screwups of those on the ground and let those on the ground paint a rosy picture of it when it goes public.

Rather a lot like special operation types in the various militaries.

The guy at the brutal end of reality has to clean up what the higher ups screw up.

AKA, business as usual.

It is what it is. Ugly, brutal, honest and true.

It isn't pretty, but it is the reality of the world regardless of nation.

Because, people are people, regardless of where on this blue ball of water and rock you find them.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Safety?

" I'd have though airtight doors ought to really remain closed, or at least be able to automatically close in case of a major leak. "

Spacecraft and space stations operate under rather low pressure. Far lower than sea level, more like 10-12000 feet air pressure (excuse the imperial, it's late and I really don't feel like converting right now, sorry).

Even a major leak, which that one actually was, wasn't a you're dead in a minute kind a deal. If it was, we'd be reading about a crew that died in the line of duty.

As for panic, there was a managed panic on all hands to get that crap out of the way, try to use procedures, note the loss of pressure rate, etc. The result was, as I recall from the more confidential report was that a Russian actually cut some cables to clear the hatch. The American was unplugging in a somewhat uncontrolled fashion, but only somewhat.

All were doing what they could to avoid attempting to respire in a vacuum. The loss of Spektr and half of the station power was essentially unavoidable, due to a shitty design that never considered the loss of a module.

As for reverting to native language, that does happen in a stress situation. It seems to have partially done so then as well.

Fortunately, anyone that *any* nation trains and sends to space is also one well vetted to handle life or death stress and has repeatedly done so in the real world, not exclusively one of training.

That's why former fighter pilots are so frequently chosen. The safety margin on fighters is far lower than on any other aircraft due to the nature of the duty requirements.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Safety?

Dunno, Apollo 13 came damned close.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Safety?

It was a *bit* uglier than that.

In order to close the hatches, they had to unplug and even cut cables to get them out of the way.

That was what caused the loss of computer and half of the station's power.

You run extension cords out of the door of your house. *NOT* through airtight hatches that can save your life!

A lesson Russian space engineers learned the hard way that day.

Or, after they got back up after the Cosmonauts explained their frustration with their obstinacy...

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Safety?

"How much damage can come about from a docking cock-up?"

I remember back in 1987, Mir lost a module due to a docking cock-up. The Cosmonauts heard this bang, then hisssssssssss...

It was a rather heated moment, disconnecting all manner of cabling to close the hatches before everyone had to learn how to do without oxygen.

For it sitting around idling, not a big deal. It's parked out of the way and the Soyuz is more than able to steer around odd debris in its way. Why, they even have a Cosmonaut version of a steering wheel to steer around obstacles. ;)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Cygnus is in orbit around the earth...

"...staying up there isn't a problem."

For a month or three. Then, it'll start getting a bit wonky in its orbit, falling behind in odd ways unless corrected.

Still, they usually maintain additional fuel for such contingencies.

...While the Russian crew steals the wodka and asks where it went when the docking finally occurs.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

ISS sent an NMI as ctrl-alt-delete.

Cygnus dutifully said, huh?!?!

And sat back waiting for the silliness to end.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"Or maybe NASA sent their messages via Xmodem, 8N1@9600, while Cygnus uses 7E1 @1200/75 ??"

Nothing as complex as that.

Cygnus uses zmodem and NASA uses kermit.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"Not that I'm saying rocket surgery is easy or anything."

Rocket surgery is incredibly easy.

Successful rocket surgery is hard.

See Apollo 13 for easy rocket surgery...

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: to be fair

Wrong, the gray aliens had the NSA send a SQL injection attack disguised as routine docking guidance info in order to steal more vodka for their mothership.

Regrettably, antivirus software caught the attack before it could cause a problem and the interruption caused the craft to go into a station keeping position in order to protect the precious vodka.

On Saturday, Operation Grey Goose will continue as previously planned.

Douglas Adams was RIGHT! TINY ALIENS are invading Earth, say boffins

Wzrd1 Silver badge

For heavens sake, that is a fragment of a bloody diatom.

Used to fix them on grids for our junior high school's donated electron microscope (hopelessly obsolete at the time).

Erm, El Reg, please distinguish between a real boffin and a buffoon.

Hardbitten NYC cops: Sir, I'm gonna need you to, er, upgrade to iOS 7

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Amateur

"I think they should also be urging all of us to move to trauckers' wallets, as it is much safer to have your stuff chained to your belt. And, while they're at it, they could suggest strongly that we sew hidden pockets into our clothing for our car-keys etc."

Old trick I relearned from a SAS type, eyewash bottle with bleach, aim for eyes.

If you're squeamish, plain water will also rather distract the bastard, just not as long as blindness does.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Absolutely Ridiculous

..."the security scanners at Heathrow..."

Not only there.

I ended up pulling one laptop from the bag, then telling them to hand search the bag, due to the large number of cables and peripherals in the bag.

It's faster.

Amazingly enough, less breakage too.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Umm.

As I said above, it's even simpler.

The mugger kills the iphone holder, the phone then isn't locked out.

The dead are striking in their inability to interface with their computer.

Nice idea, just not thought through properly.

Or, maybe it is. Get rid of all those liberal fanbois.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Absolutely Ridiculous

"If people who are going to mug you for your expensive iPhone/iPad know that they aren't going to work after they've been stolen, that would stop quite a few muggings."

There's an old saying, "Dead men tell no tales". Modify it to meet the current environment, "Dead men lock no phones".

For a hardened criminal, the street violence won't decrease, it will increase in severity.

RSA: That NSA crypto-algorithm we put in our products? Stop using that

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: On the bright side...

"So, malware might break even a legit Intel RdRand, and what are the chances VmWare implementations might be dodgy?"

I remember back when there were true random number generator cards. Expensive as hell. Some were even restricted in sales to government agencies.

Interestingly enough, they're still available. For around 1300 Euros.

As for VMWare, if the hardware is already dodgy in crypto generation, heaven knows what else was stuck in there as well, any implementation on said hardware would be potentially compromised.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: So closed source solution * NSA championed algoritm * default option * slow =

"The $64m question. RSA management. Incompetent or pressured like any US company."

Both. I seem to recall RSA getting their root keys pilfered in a rather simply exploit. Had to rekey all of their clients.

Multiple incursions to their corporate network, "But nothing was compromised".

Of course, RSA only admitted the key compromise when it began to be exploited in the wild.

Corporate business as usual, with Six Sigma flair, as long as it's flat on its ass six sigma, erm, ultra-mega-uber-lean-and-mean-six-sigma, which bears little resemblance to the one that actually works.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"I always wondered why various products with certain encryption mechanisms weren't allowed to be exported."

I wondered why the DoD did an about face with Linux some years back.

Previously, it was forbidden. Utterly forbidden.

Then, one distro was approved. Only one. One ponders *how* that hat got red...

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: And now for something completely different

I remember the big stink over NSAkey, back in the late NT4 and early W2K days.

It all got glossed over as "nothing".

Remember http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9909.html#NSAKeyinMicrosoftCryptoAPI

?

Mr Peabody: Sherman! Set the WayBack machine to when the NSA wasn't inside of everyone's crypto!

Sherman: OK, setting the WayBack machine to WWI!

(Old American cartoon)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Maybe the clue's in the name?

" I can't even figure out where the smoke is stored."

The smoke is stored in condensed form. You need to apply power for it to be released from its condensed state.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Maybe the clue's in the name?

"Hasn't anyone tried to decap one of these Intel CPUs to find out for themselves what's in the works?"

Can't see microcode. You can only see the circuitry.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Actually, that is close to how it works.

The NSA hires the most cryptographers and mathematicians in the world. Much of what they do is crypto, making it, breaking it, scrutinizing it.

When the NIST is looking at a standard, they go to the puzzle palace to find it, due to their specialist nature there.

The NSA meanwhile, determines what crypto the US DoD uses, which also meets with the NIST approved, NSA recommended crypto scheme.

It really helps with one is the only adviser to the regulatory agency.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

"(The land of the slaves that are forced to say they are free)"

Erm, the slaves aren't forced to say that they are free, they're conned into thinking those chains ensure their freedom in the most Orwellian manner imaginable. Even to the point where many of the drones are utterly convinced that universal healthcare is harmful and unhealthy.

'Occupy' affiliate claims Intel bakes SECRET 3G radio into vPro CPUs

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Why, oh God, why is El Reg giving this guy any attention?

Apparently, wake on lan and dual core are new things to the manic individual being reported on.

So are the basic laws of electronics, where radios require oscillators, an antenna, etc.

Put the antenna on the chip at usable power levels, inductively interfere with the chip's operations.

But then, the laws of electronics, which *is* a branch of physics, are all part of the Grand Conspiracy of the Space Aliens.

Or something.

El Reg seeks new mobile, wireless tech writer - could it be YOU?

Wzrd1 Silver badge

I considered it. Moving abroad isn't that big a deal, I've done it before.

Driving on the wrong side of the road again would take a brief bit of getting accustomed to again.

However, there is one stumbling block for this generalist.

You can't afford my rates.

I typically get 32 pounds per hour, with 40 hours guaranteed and overtime isn't all too unusual. Had one offer for 47 pounds per hour (all today's conversion rate). Didn't like the latter's benefit to wage ratio though and the distance was excessive at three hours to work and back. With bad weather in winter equaling a full 8 hours drive time on ice and snow.

Sorry, but no.

Besides, with some offerings of devices out there, I'd probably be unable to refrain from the use of profanity in my review. ;)

'Bogus IT guys' slurp £1.3m from Barclays: Cybercops cuff 8 blokes

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Simplicity Works

Want another security gaffe laugh?

I went to a local branch of a bank with my daughter.

The very first thing that caught my eye was a printer, sitting all alone, unobserved, in the customer waiting area.

Worse, with the ethernet port inviting one's eyes and even worse, the IP and MAC address proudly displayed for all to see.

MY first thought was, were I contracted to evaluate their security, get another ethernet cable the same color, jack in my wireless device to blind proxy the device traffic, sniff and probe a few times a day to gradually acquire their network general scheme, then grow gradually from there.

BOFH, watch out. In a Spy vs Spy scenario, I'd punk your Panther. ;)

Signed,

BOFH MKII.

'Kissing couple' Trojan sent to slurp fanbois' data... Syrian Electronic Army fingered

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Now that OSX is becoming

"That's just common sense... there will always be scammers and hustlers and people will always get tricked."

Tell me about it!

Just yesterday, my wife got an interesting letter via Royal Mail.

Strange, as we live in the US and it was airmail.

It guaranteed her $100000 if she called the UK number and followed their "security measures".

Strangely enough, the UK postal codes don't match the mythical address. Nor did the meter number on the printed label postage.

I took the liberty of contacting the UK embassy with an offer to assist UK law enforcement in shuttering their operation and seeing to it that they get to wither under the baleful eye of the judiciary.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Now that OSX is becoming

"Macs are just a shell around BSD UNIX."

True, a broken, security wise *BSD Unix.

Spoken from a Mac user, Linux user, Windows user and *BSD user, as well as *real* Unix user.

In short, a BOFH.

I've known since it's inception that OS X was vulnerable by many, many exploits. The list only increased and modestly decreased over time. The only thing protecting it from mass exploits was its market share.

That market share has increased.

My use of multiple layers of protection that begins with me, then antivirus/anti-malware and ends around my firewall continues since before OS X existed.

The bastards might get in, but one of my IDS and IPS systems will detect them.

I reserve the right to decompile their toy and use it against them just out of pure spite.

Boffins: Earth will be habitable for only 1.75 BEEELLION more years

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: WE'RE ALL DOOMED!!!

Actually, well over a dozen dinosaur killers and spare change, dozens of smaller ones as well.

Meanwhile, his number doesn't match every other prediction made on Insolation increase. As in at 0.75 billion years, humanity could not survive at our current technological level and at one billion years, vertebrata cannot survive and it's at 1.75 billion years that the most primitive single cell organisms can no longer survive.

So, rocket boffin Dr Adam Baker: Will we live long and prosper in SPACE?

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: There's a reason why the OSC Pegasus has an empty manifest.

"Maybe a new market for the Rasperry Pi-in-the-Sky?"

Doubtful. Too thin a mask, too thin the shielding.

There's a *reason* that the space shuttle flew with an embarrassing amount of CPU and memory. Radiation.

Angry Brazilian whacks NASA to put a stop to ... er, the NSA

Wzrd1 Silver badge

As an owner of a dozen firearms, half of which were inherited from my dementia ridden father, a hunter and prize competition shooter, I'd be happy with that.

The NRA currently is insanity mixed with firearms.

We saw the results of that mix in a Navy yard in Washington, D.C. recently.

In the US, the lunatics rule the asylum.

I'd not be especially upset, but with all of the shootings and worse, the nuclear arms.

I'm on a few gun related blogs, to monitor things and learn an occasional thing about new products that I'll not acquire.

Things are looking *very* worrisome.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Give due respect, Pan Sapiens.

Or Homo Troglodytes. Take your pick.

The entomologists are still in the middle of a bar fight over it.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Overzealous?

English is stupid and wacky?!

Not at all!

It's simply insane.

*Every* rule has an exception.

No exception to the rule makes a damned bit of sense.

An extremely well educated friend of mine once said, "The first man who fully documented the English language went insane and killed himself".

I never checked the veracity of that statement, but consider it true.

English *is* that fsck'd up.

Especially American English, which I was raised in.

But, I speak reasonably fluent *true* English. As well as languages that make more sense.

Starting to forget those learned tongues, I've been retired from the military and no longer exposed to them.

And I'm getting older.

English. A language brought to a fair amount of the world to bring about civilization.

Brought to you by the people who consider blood pudding noteworthy.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Misunderstanding, but whose?

Yep! Vandenburg Air Force base.

Completely unrelated to NASA.

The last time they were integral was in the mid cold war.

Then, some Apollo thing came along and injected loads of money.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: NASA security

Pretty much.

Though, due to legal requirements and NASA's disobedience to them (there are baseline requirements mandated by law that should prevent this), I'm wondering of NASA is simply a gigantic honeypot.

It's something *I* would do.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

It wasn't.

Back then, the very existence of the NSA was classified.

The joke was, NSA stood for No Such Agency.

Still, even money those old usernames and passwords still work. :/

Their only secure networks are ones like NIPRnet, SIPRnet and JWICS because the DoD would pull their ATO (Authority To Operate) and sever their network connection.

I had to get an ATO once, after the installation I was working on had been on an IATO (Interim ATO) for so long it was literally illegal and we risked being severed from the DoD networks. A rather big deal, as the installation was in the war zone.

Loads and loads of documentation and a copy of our baseline configurations that complied with DoD baseline requirements. On *every* piece of equipment we had on the network.

Being a good BOFH, I had things tidied up quickly.

Only had one accidental toaster in a swimming pool at that! (Thought I'd need two and one killer robot accident.)

Management complied quite nicely. :)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: ASDA

They had me at paying for parking.

If I ever move to the UK, I know one place I'll not patronize.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Seems quite reasonable to me

A short list is, the CIA, NSA, NRO, GCHQ... ;)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: At first I thought he was a crackpot

That facility was closed and the operation placed on the downgraded installation 33 1/3.

Damned sequester!

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: well both are "national"

If that is the case, they missed the mark by a lot.

Most US citizens don't visit NASA sites. They'd far rather go to Twitter or Facebook than anything scientific, especially as they don't understand most of what NASA does.

As for our attitude with our government, you're partially correct. But, we also despise our government and distrust it.

Largely due to the fact that when we correspond with our congresscritters, we typically get a barely polite sod off letter. Regardless of how many voters write in.

Besides, this describes governments at their best:

http://www.despair.com/meetings.html

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Come to think of it....

Well, the script kiddies aren't going to get into the NSA website, so they picked the low hanging fruit.

Actually, considering NASA's history, that fruit is always on the ground.

As for geography, most US citizens couldn't even find the US on a map. I won't even go into how many can't find Afghanistan, far too many think it's next door to Saudi Arabia.

I'm ashamed to say of my countrymen that the United States of America is a large village.

Full of village idiots.

Apparently, Brazil is trying to close the idiot gap.

Cold-blooded, INHUMAN visitor hitches ride on NASA moon rocket

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: ' Lights, camera, ACTION!!!'.............."Ribbit"

Erm, in the *real* world, Khan is an Indian name, not a Middle Eastern name, such as Kamel, Abdul, Kereef, Shamal, Bint Haram, etc.

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: Mais attendez!

A little. I already have enough frog legs in my freezer, thank you.

Seriously, I do. :)

Wzrd1 Silver badge

Re: We'd all jump that high

"Suicidal frog, trying to find the IT angle. Poor bastard."

Animal trying to find the IT angle. See Dilbert.

Oh, wait...