Date   : Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:13:49 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Fw: DD & HD Floppies

On 18/10/2010 05:59, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

> A lot of places won't take Amex or Ma$tercard 'cos the merchant fees are
> much higher than Visa.

Ah, these are places that *do* take MasterCard.

Good point re. AmEx though. I remember in the '80s when AmEx used to 
advertise it was accepted everywhere around the globe. Now? I'd have to 
struggle to find a place that takes them.

Our local supermarket...
   AmEx? Nope.
   Traveller's cheques? You're kidding, right?
   Try the ATM over there... oh, it doesn't take AmEx either?

Must suck to be a clueless cash-shy American around here! ;-)


> Well, you're in France.  Whoever said the French were logical?

This is what the bank system reports as the error. France's fault?

That said, if France doesn't get its s**t together soon (more strikes 
tomorrow - WTF?) then I won't be going to work any more... or out 
anywhere. The car is pretty efficient, but an empty tank is an empty tank...

Question the world ought to be asking - where's the poisoned dwarf? 
Sooner or later he's going to have to speak up, and he's rather stuck 
between a rock and a hard place...


> The nice thing though is with Linux, once a vuln is found it's fixed
> very quickly.

Indeed, while M$ get hung up on "responsible disclosure". In a way I 
kinda agree with that Russian guy who has been releasing data without 
contacting the company first. If there's a problem then there is a 
problem and sitting on it won't make the problem go away.

 From BBC News:
     "The government is in control," Industry Minister Christian Estrosi
     told French radio on Monday.
     "There will be no blockade for companies, no blockade for transport
     and no blockade for road users."
     [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11563423]

Dude, step outside...


> http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2271652/top-security-myths?page=6

Indeed. You read the comments on The Register when a Mac story comes 
around and you get ones who say they use Macs rather than crap Windows 
so they don't have to bother with hassles like antivirus and firewalls.


> <shame>  I have to make a confession here.  After studiously ignoring
> Steve Jobs and his evil works for nearly thirty years, I'm seriously
> contemplating getting an iPad.</shame>

The specs aren't bad, but I think the whole 'experience' is a little too 
controlled for my liking.
That said - I think the iPad is a fairly successful attempt at being 
what it is. I've seen tablets before and they were pretty poor. But then 
we'd all seen netbook profiles before and until Asus squished an actual 
real PC into that small size it wasn't overly popular. Now it is.


> Very few tech gadgets make me cackle like a witch.

;-)


> The first was replacing my hard drive with an SSD (Windows gets to a
> usable desktop in <  10 sec.)

My eeePC *used* to do (near) that. Then I installed stuff. Now it boots 
like a regular PC...


> Anyone here remember the furore caused by the printing of the Hacker's
> Handbook by Hugo Cornwall?  About 1985?

Yup. As soon as I got myself an electronic copy (circa 1991), I spat the 
entire thing to a laserjet and burned through an entire ream of paper. I 
have a copy of it here someplace.
Looking back, it is amazingly dated. Kinda like when I got a floppy disc 
with The Jolly Roger Cookbook on it, and read some of the "Ma Bell" 
files (this, coming a fair while after the breakup of Bell!)...


> And what about state-sponsored hacking?

Chinkies and Ruskies. And if you think that's impolite, take down your 
firewall and count the attempts, noting the origin of the IPs.


> tacnuke://N=39?54'17.67"&E=116?23'54.99"
> is starting to look like an attractive option.

Thank you, but if/when/ever I visit Japan, I would like it without a 
glowing cloud in the sky. And, between you and me, I would prefer:
   tacnuke://$SARAH_PALIN

Surely the simpler way is to find where China's internet joins the rest 
of the world, and install a firewall on outgoing connections - for 
obviously the Great Firewall of China is rather leaky.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...