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Thursday links

11 Comments

  1. rochester_veteran
    rochester_veteran September 28, 2017 11:45 am

    Does it really take returning to 1950s technology? I hope not. But stranger things have happened (like security-conscious nerds tippy-tapping on typewriters).

    In 1983, my wife and I moved to my hometown of Rochester, NY. My previous job that I had in Colorado was selling gaming and home computer systems, so I looked for work in that field. I applied for a job that I found in the newspaper want ads at a place that sold gaming and home computer systems and also calculators and typewriters. The place had started out as a typewriter store for Smith Corona typewriters, but by the early 1980s, the owner saw the writing on the wall and crossed over into high tech world of gaming systems (Atari 2600 and 5200, Intellivision) and computers (Commodore Vic 20 and 64, Atari 400, 800 and 800 XL and also the early Apple and IBM PCs). The best commissions though were on typewriters, so I hustled my butt off trying to sell them and now I can claim that I was a typewriter salesman. 😉

  2. jed
    jed September 28, 2017 2:12 pm

    Tape storage is pretty robust. I wouldn’t call it ‘vintage’ either. The 8mm tape cartridge is pretty recent (or ancient, in ‘web time’), and back in 2014, Sony announced a 185-Terabyte Cassette Tape. I suppose the main issue with tape is you have to keep the hardware around to read it, but businesses aren’t going to use tape for long-term archives (I don’t think … but …). I suppose it depends on your definition of long term. I assume there are still 9-track drives around. But for a modern large company, regularly scheduled tape archives, with an off-site storage rotation, are a good strategy. The high density and transportability are hard to beat. And when the tape is out of the machine, it can’t be compromised by a network crack.

    Used to be a semi-joke, which still applies, that the cheapest bandwidth is a box of hard drives on a FedEx truck, and companies that are serious about cloud storage will provide the capability for companies to ship them a ‘starter’ data dump, rather than uploading terabytes of data on the network.

    I’m finally reading Guns, Germs, and Steel. Yes, astonishing how few species provide the bulk of our food.

  3. Desertrat
    Desertrat September 28, 2017 9:41 pm

    Sorry to not have met the man who traveled in elephants.

    I’m still partial to Lugers; they are such natural pointers.

  4. MJR
    MJR September 28, 2017 9:46 pm

    Going back to the 1950’s for security? The author make a good argument but they are for the big players, not me. I do understand that there are so many ways you can be gotten at it can be frightening and I understand there’s the need to protect against these threats but I also understand there is only so much a person can do.

    Personally I’m just a tiny little fish in a school of billions and not into anything that is worrisome if it gets into the wrong hands, so I refuse to worry about it. If things change there are opsec options but for now…

    Oh BTW If you use Foxit Reader or Bluetooth you may want to look at this.

    https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/cybr-ctr/index-en.aspx#al

  5. kycolonel
    kycolonel September 29, 2017 7:50 am

    Having done business with Equifax in the past, I took them up on their free offer to scan the Dark Web for my email, etc.
    It seems my email was there from 2011.
    I have since regularly received solicitations from Equifax for a monitoring service for a fee, of course. *&%)_@#$

  6. larryarnold
    larryarnold September 29, 2017 9:40 am

    One of our local environmentalists used to preach biodiversity and locavore; people should eat a greater variety of things all grown within 100 miles.

    Then she got in to actually growing food, and discovered how many of the things she really thought we should eat simply can’t be grown within 100 miles because of pesky restraints like soil types, temperatures, and limited water. Natural restraints that aren’t human’s fault and can’t be fixed by humans.

    Biodiversity is no longer a problem, now that we can GMO anything we want. 😉 But I bet that’s not the solution the authors of the article are looking for.

    I remember when typewriters were security threats because people would carelessly discard carbon paper.

    Computers are just as secure as typewriters as long as they aren’t connected to other computers. Of course that includes avoiding wireless connections between CPUs, drives, input devices, monitors, and printers.

    And, of course, when the economy falls apart I don’t expect to see semis schlepping tape around.

  7. Comrade X
    Comrade X September 29, 2017 11:23 am

    The big deal about the right to be wrong is when one group loses that right what is there to prevent whatever group you might be in; in losing it to.

  8. ellendra
    ellendra September 29, 2017 5:33 pm

    “Then she got in to actually growing food, and discovered how many of the things she really thought we should eat simply can’t be grown within 100 miles because of pesky restraints like soil types, temperatures, and limited water. Natural restraints that aren’t human’s fault and can’t be fixed by humans.”

    Amazing how many lifestyle-preachers have changed their tunes when they found out how hard it really is to do what they preached.

    Growing your own food teaches lessons that can’t be taught any other way.

  9. parabarbarian
    parabarbarian September 30, 2017 8:09 am

    If you are interested in obfuscating your email address from those annoying marketers try Blur from Abine. They have a paid service but the email masking is free.

    https://www.abine.com/index.html

  10. ExpatNJ
    ExpatNJ September 30, 2017 10:21 am

    And, for ‘registering’ on sites you to whom you don’t want to give your real e-mail address, or ever want to hear from again:

    ’10 Minute E-Mail’:
    http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

    (yes, it literally lasts 10 minutes, during which you may receive ‘login credentials’ or other email message, and then the temporary address vanishes)

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