Archive for April, 2021

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 395

Friday, April 30th, 2021

Phone Phriday is back!

I’m kind of fascinated by the idea of disaster recovery. Back in the day when I was a sysadmin, and later when I was doing backup/recovery support, disaster recovery was a part of my life. These days, other people plan disaster recovery for what I do (and we have a lot of redundancy) but every now and then, I see someone who’s got themselves jammed up…

What does the phone company do?

“Operation Desert Switch”. After Gulf War I, Kuwait’s phone system was completely destroyed. AT&T came to Kuwait in early March 1991 to get at least some limited phone service back to the country:

The company first installed a station in Kuwait City to provide 120 outgoing lines to Kuwaiti citizens, the press, and Operation Desert Storm soldiers. The station was established when a group of AT&T technicians drove from Saudi Arabia and erected a portable satellite ground station overnight. The station, which was the first to link Kuwait to the outside world, soon was handling 10 to 12 thousand calls per day. A more permanent station was established later in 1991, with 720 lines.

Bonus: “Miracle on Second Avenue”.

The morning of February 27, 1975 brought a fire in the telephone building at 204 Second Avenue, at East 13th Street. The building housed the Main Distribution Frame that served customers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn–the mainframe was destroyed, disconnecting tens of thousands of customers, and switching equipment was melted or damaged by smoke. The fire took out approximately 170,000 lines.

The Second Avenue fire is not one I remember, but I do recall the Hinsdale Central Office fire: I was reading TELECOM Digest on USENET pretty avidly at the time, and the Hinsdale fire was a big freaking deal.

Posted in History | Comments Closed

Quick update from the legal beat.

Friday, April 30th, 2021

Five people have been arrested on charges related to the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker.

Three of them were actually involved in the robbery, according to police:

Detectives do not believe the men were targeting the dog walker because of the dogs’ owner, the police said. Evidence, however, suggests that the men knew that the dog breed was valuable and that this was the motivation for the robbery, according to the police.

The other two are charged as accessories after the fact. One of them is the woman who returned the dogs.

Posted in Law, Mammals | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 394

Thursday, April 29th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Why don’t we continue with our tour of the United States and visit another exotic destination?

“More Per Mile”, a 1950s travelogue about the great state of Kentucky, “the state where the young have fun”.

Bonus: “Real Appalachia with Shane Simmons” visits Harlan.

Bonus #2: This stretches the definition of “travel” a bit, but I found it amusing: “Flight Attendant: Is There A Doctor On This Flight? Dad: Yeah, Me [It Happened Again]”. This guy seems to get dragged into in-flight medical emergencies a lot.

Also, to be honest, I’m fascinated by this portable Bluetooth EKG machine. Not that I have heart trouble, but at $149, this almost falls into “impulse buy” territory. Throw it in your carry-on if you are a doctor and are traveling…not that I know anybody who falls into that category…

Posted in Bluetooth, History, Radio, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 393

Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

I’m feeling in the mood for some random gun crankery.

DeviantOllam – DEFCON speaker, locksport guru, penetration tester, gun guy, bon vivant, and international man of mystery – has a YouTube channel. I plan to put up some more videos from him on other topics in the future, but I thought I’d link this very recent one: “What’s Inside the Rifle Bag that Tarah and I Both Use?”

There are things I don’t care for in this video. But that’s because my needs and my preferences differ from Mr. Ollam’s. Neither of is wrong, we just do things differently and have different ideas. For example, I would get a different bag: not just because the one in this video is currently unavailble, but because I don’t like storing my rifles broken down. (Many of them don’t break down anyway. Though a takedown pre-1964 Model 70 would be a really bizarre and interesting thing to have a gunsmith build.)

But watching this video gives me a lot of ideas for things that I would like to start carrying, and things I would like to do.

Here’s another perspective and another guy’s bag: “Jon’s Bag Gun Setup – An EDC Bag That Packs A Punch!”

Again, I’m not saying I agree with everything here. But I like the lightness and compactness of this guy’s setup for a truck/car bag. (I have to say, though: that Unity Tactical Clutch belt seems a little on the high side for me, price wise.)

Bonus: Maggie, from the “God Family and Guns” channel, explains “What Happens If You Lie On Your Background Check?”. I’m sure all of my readers know this, but I thought I’d link this video here so you can use it as a handy refutation next time someone starts spouting off.

Related: “How To Pass Or Fail A Background Check”. For the next time someone says “It’s easier to buy a gun than it is to vote.”

“That’s what we do here. We adopt babies to good homes to people who can pass their background checks.”

One more, just for giggles: “Top 5 Guns With Cult Followings” from TFB TV.

Posted in 1911, Guns, History | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: April 28, 2021.

Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut.

NASA memorial page.

When the lunar module Eagle, descending from Columbia, touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969, Colonel Collins lost contact with his crewmates and with NASA, his line of communication blocked as he passed over the moon’s far side. It was a blackout that would occur during a portion of each orbit he would make.
“I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life,” he wrote in recreating his thoughts for his 1974 memoir, “Carrying the Fire.”
“If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God only knows what on this side,” he added. “I like the feeling. Outside my window I can see stars — and that is all. Where I know the moon to be, there is simply a black void.”

Ole Anthony, one of those interesting characters you may never have heard of.

Mr. Anthony was trained in electronics, and in 1958 he was sent to an island in the South Pacific, where he was supposed to watch a small nuclear test many miles away. But the explosion was much larger than expected, and the radiation left him with scores of knobby tumors throughout his body.
He left the military in 1959 and took a job with Teledyne, a defense contractor. In a 2004 profile in The New Yorker, he told the journalist Burkhard Bilger that he had continued his work for the Air Force, sneaking behind the iron and bamboo curtains to install long-range sensors to detect Chinese and Soviet nuclear tests, though a later investigation by The Dallas Observer, a weekly newspaper, called that claim into question.

He went on to become active in Republican politics and became rich. Then in 1972, he found Jesus, but with a twist: he built his own religious community and specialized in taking down scam evangelists.

He specialized in what he called garbology — rooting through dumpsters for evidence of legal or spiritual fraud by televangelists like Robert Tilton, Benny Hinn and W.V. Grant, just three of the more than 300 he went after during his nearly 35-year campaign.
He compiled the results in long reports that he fed to reporters, and he made frequent appearances on shows like “Primetime Live” and “Inside Edition.” His work was largely responsible for the implosion of Mr. Tilton’s $80 million-a-year empire and Mr. Grant’s 1996 imprisonment for tax evasion. In 2007, he worked with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in its own investigation into televangelists.

…

At first, Mr. Anthony tried to gather his flock among the Republicans and Rotarians of wealthy Dallas. But his abrasive style — he talked about his sex life in Bible study and was permanently barred from Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” TV show — turned off the well-to-do.
Mr. Anthony didn’t seem to mind. With no religious training, he was teaching himself theology, and he became obsessed with the austere mysticism and doctrinal fluidity of first-century Christianity. He incorporated Jewish practices into Trinity’s evolving creed: The group celebrated Passover and insisted on having a minyan (at least 10 people) for Bible study.
As word about Trinity got around, it began to attract disciples from the margins of Dallas society: addicts and ex-hippies, disaffected students and people who otherwise found themselves at a dead end — as well as the occasional curious blow in.

I cannot tell a lie: “permanently banned from the ‘700 Club'” is what hooked me. (And “often obscenity-laced, sometimes violent Bible study sessions”. And “a Trinity member who, like Mr. Anthony, had taken a vow of poverty before acquiring a private investigator’s license”.)

Among those “margins of Dallas society” he attracted: Joe Bob Briggs.

Noted: DEFCON is holding an online memorial for Dan Kaminsky on 2021/05/02 at 12 PM PDT. Link to the Discord is at the top of the DEFCON page.

Posted in Geek, History, Religion | Comments Closed

The fark?!

Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

Greg Newman, the elected DA for Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties in North Carolina, has been removed from office.

…Newman engaged in “willful misconduct in office” and “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute,” under N.C. General Statute 7A-66.
The decision was made nearly two weeks after a three-day removal hearing April 12-14 in Henderson County Superior Court.

…

The term “willful misconduct in office” has been defined as “the improper or wrongful use of the power of his office by a judge acting intentionally, or with gross unconcern for his conduct, and generally in bad faith,” Ervin wrote in his 30-page order.
“Conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice,” is defined as “conduct which a judge undertakes in good faith but which nevertheless would appear to an objective observer to be not only unjudicial conduct but conduct prejudicial to public esteem for the judicial office,” Ervin wrote in his order, citing multiple instances presented in the hearing with which he agreed.

The process was started by a group of victims who felt ex-DA Newman wasn’t taking child rape and murder cases seriously:

Peggy McDowell filed the G.S. 7A-66 affidavit without a lawyer, but she was supported by more than a dozen families who said they were seeking justice on their own because Newman had been acting out of self-interest rather than in the best interest of the public.
One was her daughter, Joanne McDowell, a former UNC law student, who now lives in Canada. Joanne McDowell claimed she had to flee the country to protect her child from sexual abuse by his father and four years later was charged by Newman with felony child abduction, which she calls a “vindictive charge.”
“Newman’s expulsion proves that endemic corruption plagues North Carolina’s legal system,” McDowell said. “For years, Newman’s victims begged for relief from the N.C. Attorney General, N.C. State Bar, and N.C. Court of Appeals, but these institutions repeatedly protected the wrong people. Now that ongoing harm has been established, N.C. must assist Newman’s victims and investigate systemic corruption.”
Valerie Owenby, now 22 and living out of state, also supported the removal petition and was a witness at the hearing. She claims she had been raped from ages 5-12 by a Hendersonville neighbor, James Sapp, but Newman pleaded down the felony to a misdemeanor in 2015 without notifying her or her parents and without letting her face the accused in court.

Newman is the third DA to be removed from office in North Carolina. (The other two were Jerry Spivey in 1995, and Tracy Cline in 2012. Mike Nifong was disbarred in 2007, and then resigned, so he technically doesn’t count here.)

(Hattip to President Dawg.)

Posted in Law | 2 Comments »

Speaking of DEFCON…

Tuesday, April 27th, 2021

I’m sure many people have been asking the questions, “Is DEFCON happening this year? And will it be in-person or virtual?”

The answers are: yes, yes, and yes.

DEF CON 29 will be a hybrid conference, partially in-person, and partially online. DEF CON will not be a “normal” con, but more like DEF CON “Different.” The situation we face this year is unique and will require us to do things differently, simplify our plans, and in a fast-moving environment be flexible to change.

Summarizing:

  • Masks.
  • Vaccinations.
  • Social distancing.
  • “For the first time ever, we will have conference pre-registration for the in-person conference.”

Link to the full statement.

Posted in DEFCON, DEFCON 29 | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 392

Tuesday, April 27th, 2021

Well, I threatened some mixology, and it has been a while since I’ve done anything with cocktails…

Two videos on the gin and tonic, with associated discussion on malaria and quinine: the “How to Drink” guy:

And Alton Brown:

Bonus, also from the “How to Drink” guy: “A history of Tiki: Donn the Beachcomber”. Personally, I find the backstory behind Donn Beach interesting, which is why I’m linking the video here. The cocktails strike me as sort of fussy and requiring various specialized syrups and ingredients (“Velvet Falernum”, “Fassionola Syrup”), which you may be able to get mail order (if the store isn’t sold out). Frankly, I like cocktails that I can make from a relatively small number of ingredients that are available locally.

The “Missionary’s Downfall” does sound feasible, though I don’t generally keep peach brandy around.

Posted in History, Mixology | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: April 27, 2021.

Tuesday, April 27th, 2021

The NYT has published an obit for Dan Kaminsky that’s both respectful and timely.

His childhood paralleled the 1983 movie “War Games,” in which a young child, played by Matthew Broderick, unwittingly accesses a U.S. military supercomputer. When Mr. Kaminsky was 11, his mother said, she received an angry phone call from someone who identified himself as a network administrator for the Western United States. The administrator said someone at her residence was “monkeying around in territories where he shouldn’t be monkeying around.”
Without her knowledge, Mr. Kaminsky had been examining military websites. The administrator vowed to “punish” him by cutting off the family’s internet access. Mrs. Maurer warned the administrator that if he made good on his threat, she would take out an advertisement in The San Francisco Chronicle denouncing the Pentagon’s security.
“I will take out an ad that says, ‘Your security is so crappy, even an 11-year-old can break it,’” Mrs. Maurer recalled telling the administrator, in an interview on Monday.

…

When his talk was complete, Mr. Kaminsky was approached by a stranger in the crowd. It was the administrator who had kicked Mr. Kaminsky off the internet years earlier. Now, he wanted to thank Mr. Kaminsky and to ask for an introduction to “the meanest mother he ever met.”

Posted in Geek, Obits | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 391

Monday, April 26th, 2021

Military History Monday!

Today’s videos go out to FotB RoadRich, as they involve two of his favorite things: planes and submarines.

This is an older documentary (about 1990) from Connecticut Public Television on the USS Nautilus.

Back in a previous life, when I was going to Rhode Island semi-frequently, I was lucky enough to visit the Submarine Force Museum in Groton twice. The first time I went, the Nautilus was closed for renovations. So I made a second trip a while later just to see the Nautilus. I really like the museum itself, and the Nautilus: once things open back up again, if you have the chance, I recommend visiting.

Bonus: “Saga of the Skyraider”, a short video about the Douglas A-1 Skyraider.

This is one of those planes that I think would be hella fun to fly as a civilian, and maybe not that expensive to run.

Bonus #2: Since that last one was short, I’ll throw one more in here: “Tactical Weapons Effects Tests”, a 1963 Air Force promo film featuring Century series fighters blowing stuff up.

Posted in History, Planes | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: April 26, 2021.

Monday, April 26th, 2021

Les McKeown, of the Bay City Rollers.

I have not found a mainstream source for this yet, but it seems to have been confirmed in various places: Dan Kaminsky, noted security researcher.

His politics were not mine, and he was not a personal friend or even acquaintance of mine. But I was lucky enough to see him speak at DEFCON and Black Hat a few times, and the guy was wicked smart. Especially when it came to TCP/IP and DNS: man probably forgot more about DNS than I’ll ever know. (One of my favorite talks involved him demonstrating how he could run streaming audio, in real-time, over the Internet…by embedding data in DNS queries. I believe this was that talk.)

There’s a good Hacker News thread here, and an obit from The Register here.

When your Register hack asked Kaminsky why he hadn’t gone to the dark side and used the flaw to become immensely wealthy – either by exploiting it to hijack millions of netizens’ web traffic, or by selling details of it to the highest bidders – he said not only would that have been morally wrong, he didn’t want his mom to have to visit him in prison.

The Reg obit also includes a link to a playlist of Mr. Kaminsky’s talks on YouTube.

Posted in DEFCON, Geek, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 390

Sunday, April 25th, 2021

Science Sunday!

I wanted to do some biology today. Specifically, I wanted to do some stuff about malaria, as that would give me an opportunity to work in a couple of (appropriate!) videos about the gin and tonic.

But I couldn’t find any real science videos about malaria that I liked. I might do the G&T videos another day, if I decide to do a day of mixology.

Anthropology is kind of close to biology, though, and is science: “The Natural History of our World: The Time of Man”. I apologize for the naked man a-s early on, but you can safely fast forward past that. Also: narration by Richard Basehart!

Bonus: “How Does Forensic Anthropology Help Solve Crimes?”, with Dame Susan Margaret Black.

Dame Susan Margaret Black DBE FRSE FRCP is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. Sue was awarded an OBE in 2001 for her work in war crimes investigations in Kosovo and in 2016 she was awarded a DBE for her services to education and forensic anthropology.

Bonus #2: I find something kind of soothing in Dame Black’s voice, so how about another lecture from her?

“Forensic anthropology in the real world – this is not CSI!”

“So if I do nothing else this evening but remind you to switch off the television when ‘CSI: Fleetwood’ or whatever it is comes on next, can we please not?”

(And I quote Dame Black as a person who actually has a certain amount of affection for “CSI: Original Recipe”, at least the first eight or so seasons. I also say this as a person who can distinguish TV from reality, which I guess means I need to “check my privilege” or something.)

(I also say this as someone who is interested in forensic anthropology, but has never studied it formally.)

Posted in Geek, History, TV | Comments Closed

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