TR Forums

Kevin wrote:

I am guessing, but I think that there could be topics at the main forum level. If there were topics, then you would not have permissions to read those topics. But we don't have topics at that level, so it is nothing to worry about.

okay doke, thanks sugar

You make undocumented changes to the software I need to do my job and run the reports I gotta run, I make undocumented changes to your car, capiche?
grrr. All frigging morning spend on what *should* have taken me 20 minutes cause of that.

IT guys in my office told me today that data security paranoia has reached the point where they're required to remove not only the HD (that at least makes sense) but the RAM from machines headed to surplus and must physically destroy both. I get the HD, but RAM? After all, the LN2 trick only works if the RAM is removed at shutdown and these machines have been in a closet for months.

Meanwhile, the uncounted and uncontrollable thumbdrives are ubiquitous.

Idiots.

Fark headlines of the year http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDBlog=182

Captain Ned wrote:

IT guys in my office told me today that data security paranoia has reached the point where they're required to remove not only the HD (that at least makes sense) but the RAM from machines headed to surplus and must physically destroy both. I get the HD, but RAM? After all, the LN2 trick only works if the RAM is removed at shutdown and these machines have been in a closet for months.

Meanwhile, the uncounted and uncontrollable thumbdrives are ubiquitous.

Idiots.

USB drives should be banned at all sensitive locations. Case in point Stuxnet.

SpotTheCat wrote:

USB drives should be banned at all sensitive locations. Case in point Stuxnet.

Not at all disagreeing with you, as I agree.

That said, my office isn't handling data that requires the BFG9000 approach to data security. I'm also pointing out the absurdity of the BFG9000 approach without closing the gaping gaps in security like thumbdrives or disc burners.

This is how this little absurdity play went down. The IT boffins (universally known as Itchy & Scratchy) said that we had too much data on the network drive and we needed to delete some of it as it was bogging down their nightly backup. The offensive data was PDF files we received in our regulatory examination process (i.e. PDF copies of mortgage loan files). OK, you want to remove data from the server. I hit up Newegg, bought a $30 WD 120GB external drive, removed the 8GB of PDFs to the external, which was formatted as a whole-disk TrueCrypt drive. My boss (he's a hippie at heart who spent 8 years driving charter boats in the Caribbean for A-list celebs) goofed by saying in a high-level Dept meeting how we'd solved our problem, which angered people with more power than brains, who then issued the kill order on a harmless piece of hardware. I finally brought the offending device to the IT boffins today. The head boffin (Itchy) agrees with me in that a 7-pass wipe, followed by a partition table delete, a hard reformat, and a second 7-pass wipe is more than enough to destroy the data, but the IT megaboffins say that he must bust out the drill and drill completely through the drive.

He's required to drill through each chip on every stick of RAM he removes from a machine for any reason.

I never knew that the NSA was based in Vermont.

Captain Ned wrote:

He's required to drill through each chip on every stick of RAM he removes from a machine for any reason.

That's frikkin unbelievable! 30 seconds of Memtest86 on the machine and nobody's ever gonna recover anything from the RAM.

Here's how I ensure the security of old hard-drives before disposing of them:
$20 worth

just brew it! wrote:

That's frikkin unbelievable! 30 seconds of Memtest86 on the machine and nobody's ever gonna recover anything from the RAM.

You've worked for gov't. Do the imaginary numbers math; there's not enough common sense there to light a match.

The head boffin is fully in my camp (he's come to me several times asking how to fix his latest mess), but his boss lady is pretty much a FPS boss battle where iddqd is an instant self-kill.

so...did the person that institute the "drill each chip" know what RAM is?

/facepalm.
Ya'll are really dashing any hope I had of finding a job with merely minor amounts of idiocy.

Captain Ned wrote:

You've worked for gov't. Do the imaginary numbers math; there's not enough common sense there to light a match.

Yeah, I guess you've got a point there. Have I ever posted the story of how it took me a week to overnight a package?

These days I work for a defense contractor. So not quite working for the government (at least not directly)... but close!

paulWTAMU wrote:

so...did the person that institute the "drill each chip" know what RAM is?

The distinction between volatile and non-volatile memory probably sailed right over their head. Drilling holes through the chips sounds like a procedure which was designed to ensure that data can't be recovered from flash or EPROM.

/facepalm.
Ya'll are really dashing any hope I had of finding a job with merely minor amounts of idiocy.

Those are exceedingly rare. In over a quarter century I have yet to find one, unless you count a couple of very small one-off contract projects. IMO the best you can really hope for is that most of the people you need to interact with every day won't be idiots...

JAE: my brother says a 45-70 govt. works wonders too I haven't gotten to shoot one yet though.
Shooting things..hmmm fun.
Captain Ned: I googled FPS boss but got mostly...well. FPS game bosses. What does it mean in this context?

paulWTAMU wrote:

Captain Ned: I googled FPS boss but got mostly...well. FPS game bosses. What does it mean in this context?

Exactly that, except that God Mode doesn't work when facing her (the iddqd reference from Doom).

ah. The doom reference escaped me. I only played it on the N64.
Now I've got a picture of a giant demonspawn in office attire. A cross between a demon and that manager from office space.

A cyberdemon in a suit. I think I'd need a rocket launcher. And a shotgun. And the BFG. And....

double barrel shotgun FTW. I think I played 3/4 of the game with it.

chainsaw was better

paulWTAMU wrote:

chainsaw was better

On the first level or when you found a few weak things. The double barrel shotgun is the utility knife of Doom weapons.

the double-barrel shotgun was only in D2, though, right?

derFunkenstein wrote:

the double-barrel shotgun was only in D2, though, right?

Correct.

better in this case meant it more fun, not more practical. I used to get a kick out of going melee as much as possible in games. Nowdays I favor pistols and bombs.

just brew it! wrote:

paulWTAMU wrote:

Ya'll are really dashing any hope I had of finding a job with merely minor amounts of idiocy.

Those are exceedingly rare. In over a quarter century I have yet to find one, unless you count a couple of very small one-off contract projects. IMO the best you can really hope for is that most of the people you need to interact with every day won't be idiots...

The last one I had was mowing lawns for beer money as a teenager.

paulWTAMU wrote:

better in this case meant it more fun, not more practical. I used to get a kick out of going melee as much as possible in games. Nowdays I favor pistols and bombs.

I got the biggest kick out of four-player Goldeneye. License to kill mode. With power weapons. You'd get 100 rounds with an automatic rifle of some sort and blow through it in about 5 seconds. And you only needed a 1% accuracy rate to actually kill someone that way.

I stopped by McDonalds to get some lunch today (yeah I know rotten food but its fast). Anyway the total came up to $7.41. I had a twenty, some ones and a bunch of change. I hand the chick behind the counter $22.41 and it took her a good two minutes to figure out what my change was. WTF are you really that stupid ?

Hance wrote:

I stopped by McDonalds to get some lunch today (yeah I know rotten food but its fast). Anyway the total came up to $7.41. I had a twenty, some ones and a bunch of change. I hand the chick behind the counter $22.41 and it took her a good two minutes to figure out what my change was. WTF are you really that stupid ?

Happens all the time. They've got a friggen calculator right there! If they'd wait 3 seconds for you to get the money instead of working on change as soon as they see a $20 they would have no trouble! I always get the cashier in training as well.

bobboobles wrote:

If they'd wait 3 seconds for you to get the money instead of working on change as soon as they see a $20 they would have no trouble!

There's not a one of them that can make change in their heads. As soon as you hand them more money than it would take (from their POV) to complete the purchase, their brains have gone into vapor lock and the only way out is to tell them to just punch in the total cash amount on the register and all will become clear.

If you really want to see brain lock, buy something that costs $3.01 and hand over a $5. As she opens the register (after keying in the fiver), pull a penny out of your pocket. If the cashier is 30 or under, they will have no clue. Many have refused my penny and made 99 cents in change because they no longer possess the ability to do math in their heads.

Captain Ned wrote:

If you really want to see brain lock, buy something that costs $3.01 and hand over a $5. As she opens the register (after keying in the fiver), pull a penny out of your pocket. If the cashier is 30 or under, they will have no clue. Many have refused my penny and made 99 cents in change because they no longer possess the ability to do math in their heads.

I resent that.

edit: maybe not, I don't work retail.

Yeah, I don't think he meant to disparage everyone under 30; just the under-30s who tend to work in retail!

Hance wrote:

I stopped by McDonalds to get some lunch today (yeah I know rotten food but its fast). Anyway the total came up to $7.41. I had a twenty, some ones and a bunch of change. I hand the chick behind the counter $22.41 and it took her a good two minutes to figure out what my change was. WTF are you really that stupid ?

To be fair, when you're a teen/young adult who is chronically sleep deprived and trying to knock down maybe $150 a week on your way to something you actually care about, the way you cope with a retail job is to think about what you're doing as little as possible. Fast food especially -- think too long about what you're doing and you'll start screaming.

The vapor lock/deer in headlights thing comes from being knocked out of autopilot.

Yeah, I did fast food one summer and although I managed to survive change-giving experiences...well, I'm smarter than most people and it was a struggle to wake up my brain that much. 6-hour shifts tend to involve shutting down the brain and being as stupid as possible.