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What really happened to the software on the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft? | 60 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
The FBI is the enemy ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 04 2013 @ 08:07 PM EDT
'NSA leaker Edward Snowden is the subject of an open letter of support just published from behind bars by John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent currently serving time for sharing state secrets.`

DO NOT, under any circumstances, cooperate with the FBI,” Kiriakou warns. “FBI agents will lie, trick and deceive you. They will twist your words and play on your patriotism to entrap you. They will pretend to be people they are not — supporters, well-wishers and friends — all the while wearing wires to record your out-of-context statements to use against you. The FBI is the enemy; it’s a part of the problem, not the solution”. link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What really happened to the software on the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 04 2013 @ 11:27 PM EDT
Tasks were executed as threads with priorities determined by their relative urgency.

The meteorological data gathering task ran as an infrequent, low priority thread, and used the information bus synchronized with mutual exclusion locks (mutexes). Other higher priority threads took precedence when necessary, including a very high priority bus management task, which also accessed the bus with mutexes. Unfortunately in this case, a long-running communications task, having higher priority than the meteorological task, but lower than the bus management task, prevented it from running.

Soon, a watchdog timer noticed that the bus management task had not been executed for some time, concluded that something had gone wrong, and ordered a total system reset.

[...]

It was possible to upload a short C program to the spacecraft, which when interpreted, changed the values of these variables from FALSE to TRUE. This put an end to the system resets.

http://www.rapitasystems.com/blog/what-really-happened-to-the-software-on-the-ma rs-pathfinder-spacecraft?reposting

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Hybridization, and Backcrossing, and Macroevolution! Oh, my!
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 04 2013 @ 11:56 PM EDT
In the case of chimp - pig hybridization, the "direction of the cross" would likely have been a male boar or pig (Sus scrofa) with a female chimp (Pan troglodytes), and the offspring would have been nurtured by a chimp mother among chimpanzees (shades of Tarzan!).

The physical evidence for this is convincing.

Phys.org

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Résumé Shows Snowden Honed Hacking Skills
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Thursday, July 04 2013 @ 11:56 PM EDT
Link

In what may have been his last job for Dell in Hawaii, he was responsible for the security of “Windows infrastructure” in the Pacific, he wrote, according to people who have seen his résumé. He had enough access there to start making contacts with journalists in January and February about disclosing delicate information. His work for Dell may also have enabled him to see that he would have even more access at Booz Allen.

Some intelligence experts say that the types of files he improperly downloaded at Booz Allen suggest that he had shifted to the offensive side of electronic spying or cyberwarfare, in which the N.S.A. examines other nations’ computer systems to steal information or to prepare attacks. The N.S.A.’s director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, has encouraged workers to try their skills both defensively and offensively, and moving to offense from defense is a common career pattern, officials say.

Moving to offense from defense.

And therein, lies the problem.

It is the mentality, the thinking patterns, that makes one want to move from defense to offense.

It makes one want to create haystacks to look for needles.

It makes one want to create new 'programs'.

It makes one want to justify their job, and continue the cash flow.

If this behavioural problem is not addressed, the MIC will at some point, declare *EVERYONE* the enemy.

Including themselves.

---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Cheers SpaceLifeForm
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 05 2013 @ 12:11 AM EDT
A perfect 4-for-4. Mate, your evening at the pub is deserved.
Cheers

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

AT&T business model
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 05 2013 @ 07:09 AM EDT
An integrated, innovative telecommunications company that sells the location,
call data, and browsing history to the highest bidder and maintains lucrative
government contracts by providing the government the same data for free. We
are the phone company of the 21st century, we do not just make a bunch of money
off our overpriced cell phones (but we do), we also make tons of money by
aggregating and selling our customer's private information. Invest with us, our
lack of morals is a business advantage.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Microsoft innovation and the Tadag NDA ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 05 2013 @ 08:23 AM EDT
"In 2004, tadag's owners engaged with Microsoft to discuss how tadag intellectual property rights (IPR) could be protected to enable discussions on joint development .. In April 2005, at an executive briefing in Redmond, Microsoft shared a confidential security development to a group of development partners that included tadag's author, David Gale. Unwittingly, a senior Microsoft employee presented the tadag architecture to the audience, under the banner of an 'exciting, still-under wraps, Microsoft innovation'" link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

40 Best Signs From The “Restore The Fourth” Rallies
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 05 2013 @ 08:33 AM EDT
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/40-best-signs-from-the-restore-the-fourth-ral lies

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Monty Python's flying lawsuit
Authored by: jmc on Friday, July 05 2013 @ 09:30 AM EDT

Clicky

( About as OT as it gets but probably of some interest is it involves "Spamalot".)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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