Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Powered Descent: Jul 13, 2008; We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.

Cojawfee posted:

The concepts in Cryptonomicon were interesting even if the story was dumb.

I actually enjoyed most of the parts set during World War II. I like the idea of a team that's called upon to do some very strange things for the war effort, all to keep the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. And a lot of the stuff they do in the book is at least inspired by real events, though of course it wasn't a single team doing it all. In contrast, the 1990s parts left me wishing the author would figure out which story he actually wanted to tell there, and get on with it already.

# ? Dec 27, 2020 00:01

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 15:29

Toast Museum: Dec 3, 2005; 30% Iron Chef

Dick Trauma posted:

Despite being so bad at math that I think I might have a neurological problem Cryptonomicon made me purchase a book about cryptography, and it was excellent.

What was the cryptography book called?

# ? Dec 27, 2020 01:13

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Toast Museum posted:

What was the cryptography book called?

The Plaintexticon.

# ? Dec 27, 2020 02:59

Dick Trauma: Nov 30, 2007; God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Toast Museum posted:

What was the cryptography book called?

"The Code Book" by Simon Singh.

# ? Dec 27, 2020 03:45

RoyKeen: Jul 24, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Lowen SoDium posted:

The Plaintexticon.

I had this. It was an easy read.

# ? Dec 27, 2020 03:49

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Kahn's "The Codebreakers" is pretty excellent. Just get the recent edition, the first didn't have the Enigma stuff in it because it hadn't been declassified yet.

Thomas Jefferson invented a cipher that was used by the US army until 1942.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_disk

# ? Dec 27, 2020 05:16

axolotl farmer: May 17, 2007; Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

Cojawfee posted:

The concepts in Cryptonomicon were interesting even if the story was dumb.

Neal_Stephenson.docx

# ? Dec 27, 2020 21:47

ookiimarukochan: Apr 4, 2011

Eh his last couple of books the concepts have been dumb too

# ? Dec 28, 2020 14:13

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

I skipped a few books but Seveneves was pretty good :shrug:

# ? Dec 28, 2020 14:35

Pretty good: Apr 16, 2007

Seveneves was pretty entertaining but frustratingly zany and the last third of the book should've been like a ten page epilogue. Anathem was just straight up excellent A++ and I still reread it every couple years.

# ? Dec 28, 2020 14:40

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

LifeSunDeath posted:

it's not super useful for modern spying, but interesting sure.

Wallace's Spycraft is basically a work of CIA fan fiction which really needs to be read with a huge grain of salt. Here he is talking about MKULTRA--a secret program which involved experimenting on unwilling US citizens using everything from LSD to rape and included outright torture in secret black sites (which were used specifically because the CIA was aware that what they were doing was illegal):

Spycraft posted:

The negative publicity surrounding MKULTRA far exceeded its modest contribution to intelligence and the negative aspects of the program acquired undeserved legendary status in the mind of the public as well as conspiracy theorists. Secret government-sponsored mind-control research, dangerous experiments on unwitting people, covert assassination tools, and white-coated chemists mixing unknown concoctions in hidden laboratories produced vivid images in the public's imagination. Virtually none of this was a reality, but more than five decades after Allen Dulles and Richard Helms initiated the ultrasecret programe to counter what they believed to be a grave threat to free thought, MKULTRA continues to generate public intrigue and controversy. The officer chosen to carry out the program, Sidney Gottlieb, did what he understood duty demanded, and paid a heavy personal price.

This is straight propaganda.

And there's some pure-strain pseudoscience passed off as gospel truth. E.g., in the section on psychological assessment of agents Wallace speaks glowingly of handwriting analysis ("graphology") which is unquestionably pseudoscience. Here's Wallace's major disclaimer on the subject:

Spycraft posted:

Although psychologists disagree on the value of graphology as a stand-alone tool, many Agency operational managers agreed that, as a supplement to direct assessment or in the absence of direct assessment opportunities, handwriting analysis done by trained graphologists contributes valuable insight into a target's mental state.

This is in the middle of a multi-page discussion of the subject in which it is otherwise accepted as a viable assessment tool, including several examples including one which I assume is destined to be removed from future editions. Because the big flourish at the end of the section on handwriting is a CIA assessment which concludes Aung San Suu Kyi is a saint for whom "Peaceful conflict resolution is a forte" based on a "folded piece of silk". An assessment which probably looked more compelling before the Rohingya genocide.

This is just off the top of my head. Point being that nobody should read Spycraft without being aware that it's actively misleading in many places, and is misleading specifically in propagandistic ways.

# ? Dec 28, 2020 22:13

LifeSunDeath: Jan 4, 2007; still gay rights and smoke weed every day

SubG posted:

Wallace's Spycraft is basically a work of CIA fan fiction which really needs to be read with a huge grain of salt. Here he is talking about MKULTRA--a secret program which involved experimenting on unwilling US citizens using everything from LSD to rape and included outright torture in secret black sites (which were used specifically because the CIA was aware that what they were doing was illegal):

This is straight propaganda.

And there's some pure-strain pseudoscience passed off as gospel truth. E.g., in the section on psychological assessment of agents Wallace speaks glowingly of handwriting analysis ("graphology") which is unquestionably pseudoscience. Here's Wallace's major disclaimer on the subject:

This is in the middle of a multi-page discussion of the subject in which it is otherwise accepted as a viable assessment tool, including several examples including one which I assume is destined to be removed from future editions. Because the big flourish at the end of the section on handwriting is a CIA assessment which concludes Aung San Suu Kyi is a saint for whom "Peaceful conflict resolution is a forte" based on a "folded piece of silk". An assessment which probably looked more compelling before the Rohingya genocide.

This is just off the top of my head. Point being that nobody should read Spycraft without being aware that it's actively misleading in many places, and is misleading specifically in propagandistic ways.

The entire reason I read the book was to learn more about "one-time pads," the application and also how it works with numbers stations, that's it. The rest of the book was enjoyable, and obviously not like some whistleblower type book.

# ? Dec 28, 2020 22:23

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

LifeSunDeath posted:

The entire reason I read the book was to learn more about "one-time pads," the application and also how it works with numbers stations, that's it. The rest of the book was enjoyable, and obviously not like some whistleblower type book.

Unfortunately Wallace doesn't even mention the most interesting stuff involving OTPs in the period he covers! There's not a single mention of e.g. the VENONA project, despite the fact that most of it had been declassified for over a decade before Spycraft was published, presumably because it's difficult to discuss VENONA without discussing all of the double agents and other successful Soviet espionage activities revealed by the decrypts, most of which reflect poorly on US intelligence.

Which is too bad, because the story of the VENONA project is basically the story of operational cryptography in a nutshell.

OTPs, as you're probably aware, are provably unbreakable if used properly. Proper use basically comes down to two things: the keying material must be truly random; and the keying material can't be reused. But because truly random keying material was tough to come by in the pre-digital world (and distribution of the printed keys to agents in the fields was challenging) somebody involved in the production of the physical OTP keys decided that if a OTP used once was absolutely secure, a OTP used "only" twice must be pretty secure. Which, it turns out, is not true.

# ? Dec 28, 2020 22:54

LifeSunDeath: Jan 4, 2007; still gay rights and smoke weed every day

SubG posted:

OTPs, as you're probably aware, are provably unbreakable if used properly. Proper use basically comes down to two things: the keying material must be truly random; and the keying material can't be reused. But because truly random keying material was tough to come by in the pre-digital world (and distribution of the printed keys to agents in the fields was challenging) somebody involved in the production of the physical OTP keys decided that if a OTP used once was absolutely secure, a OTP used "only" twice must be pretty secure. Which, it turns out, is not true.

Yep it's awesome, simple and effective but requires discipline.

# ? Dec 28, 2020 23:19

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Got some new Vinyl singles today from the UK:

# ? Dec 30, 2020 09:28

wa27: Jan 15, 2007

This guy is no Techmoan but these devices are neat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVPGU9DuH-Y

I especially like the "Talking books" at the end.

# ? Dec 31, 2020 05:45

an actual frog: Mar 1, 2007; HEH, HEH, HEH!

Humphreys posted:

Got some new Vinyl singles today from the UK:

Nice, nice. That power glove remix of Dark All Day is :discourse:

# ? Dec 31, 2020 06:08

Hirayuki: Mar 28, 2010

wa27 posted:

This guy is no Techmoan but these devices are neat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVPGU9DuH-Y

I especially like the "Talking books" at the end.

I had several of those Fisher-Price books growing up! Sesame Street and Muppets.

I'm betting they're still in my parents' basement. They worked reasonably well, considering; I do remember one of the embedded discs skipped, though, so Lew Zealand would forever say "Sorry, I didn't catch that--I'm hard of herring...herring...herring...herring..."

This the one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/635791862/vintage-1978-fisher-price-talk-to-me?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
My player was 1970s beige and brown. :allears:

# ? Dec 31, 2020 18:26

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

an actual frog posted:

Nice, nice. That power glove remix of Dark All Day is

It's not bad but I went in hoping for something with more pace like their remake of the X-Men cartoon theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24EvCZkny8

Although, the redo of Dark All Day is true to most of Powergloves catalog of moody synth so I appreciate it still. Gunship really did get some random people to work with - even Bullet for my Valentine (which was brilliant!)

Here, have a pic of my little Dark All Dave:

# ? Jan 1, 2021 05:23

LifeSunDeath: Jan 4, 2007; still gay rights and smoke weed every day

Humphreys posted:

It's not bad but I went in hoping for something with more pace like their remake of the X-Men cartoon theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24EvCZkny8

Although, the redo of Dark All Day is true to most of Powergloves catalog of moody synth so I appreciate it still. Gunship really did get some random people to work with - even Bullet for my Valentine (which was brilliant!)

Here, have a pic of my little Dark All Dave:

holy poo poo they still make GPC!?!

# ? Jan 1, 2021 07:21

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

LifeSunDeath posted:

holy poo poo they still make GPC!?!

LOL, no it was a little extra in one of the Gunship albums. I can't remember if the CD or LP version.

# ? Jan 1, 2021 11:13

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

LifeSunDeath posted:

holy poo poo they still make GPC!?!

They just revamped them recently actually. I know this because RL Stine did a book for them.

# ? Jan 1, 2021 11:31

Pretty good: Apr 16, 2007

Humphreys posted:

It's not bad but I went in hoping for something with more pace like their remake of the X-Men cartoon theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24EvCZkny8

Although, the redo of Dark All Day is true to most of Powergloves catalog of moody synth so I appreciate it still. Gunship really did get some random people to work with - even Bullet for my Valentine (which was brilliant!)

Powerglove the power metal band and Power Glove the synthwave duo are totally separate :eng101:

# ? Jan 1, 2021 11:36

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Pretty good posted:

Powerglove the power metal band and Power Glove the synthwave duo are totally separate

Well that explains why every second song on my playlist is different! gently caress! Lucky I like both.

# ? Jan 1, 2021 13:56

Nocheez: Sep 5, 2000; Can you spare a little cheddar?; Nap Ghost

And we're one year closer to being obsolete ourselves. Happy New Year, everyone!

# ? Jan 1, 2021 14:36

LifeSunDeath: Jan 4, 2007; still gay rights and smoke weed every day

Humphreys posted:

LOL, no it was a little extra in one of the Gunship albums. I can't remember if the CD or LP version.

that rules

# ? Jan 1, 2021 15:29

Porfiriato: Jan 4, 2016

Some guy on Reddit used a Raspberry Pi and a floppy drive to build a "VCR" that can play a full-length feature film on a 3.5-inch disk:

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/kkzpuk/i_created_a_floppy_disk_vcr_that_plays_full/

# ? Jan 2, 2021 01:52

azurite: Jul 25, 2010; Strange, isn't it?!

Porfiriato posted:

Some guy on Reddit used a Raspberry Pi and a floppy drive to build a "VCR" that can play a full-length feature film on a 3.5-inch disk:

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/kkzpuk/i_created_a_floppy_disk_vcr_that_plays_full/

I deeply appreciate him using the Selectavision intro for this. It reminds me of trying to watch streaming video over 56k, except it's quite a bit better.

# ? Jan 2, 2021 02:29

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

LifeSunDeath posted:

The entire reason I read the book was to learn more about "one-time pads," the application and also how it works with numbers stations, that's it. The rest of the book was enjoyable, and obviously not like some whistleblower type book.

All of VENONA is now online, and it's fun reading if you're that kind of person. https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/ For a good memoir about one-time pads (among other things, see Leo Marks's excellent Between Silk and Cyanide.

# ? Jan 2, 2021 17:50

LifeSunDeath: Jan 4, 2007; still gay rights and smoke weed every day

Arsenic Lupin posted:

All of VENONA is now online, and it's fun reading if you're that kind of person. https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/ For a good memoir about one-time pads (among other things, see Leo Marks's excellent Between Silk and Cyanide.

thk u.

# ? Jan 2, 2021 18:28

Buttcoin purse: Apr 24, 2014

Buttcoin purse posted:

The regular Flash installers you download for Windows seem to be just downloaders that probably won't work after the end of this year, but if you go to https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/debug_downloads.html the debug downloads seem to be full installers. In a Windows XP VM with no network access, I installed the last Firefox to support XP plus one of those debug plugins and I was able to view some flash stuff I'd saved from some sites years ago. It seems like at worst you might need to set your clock back if the debug installer checks if it's past the end of 2020

The time bomb isn't just in the installer:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/adobe-to-block-flash-content-from-running-on-january-12-2021/ posted:

At the time, Adobe said it planned to show prompts to all Flash users by the end of the year with a notification that the software will soon reach its planned end-of-life [EOL].

The new update also brings an actual date to Flash's actual demise in the form of January 12, 2021 � the date after which any type of Flash content won't run inside the Flash app.

Skipping this last Flash update won't remove this "time bomb," however.

Adobe told ZDNet that the killswitch code was added months before in previous releases and that this last Flash update only modifies the language used in the prompt that will ask users to uninstall the app.

Oh well, I can set the clock back in my VM. Obviously it'd be more of a pain in the rear end for normal people who don't use VMs all the time!

# ? Jan 5, 2021 01:21

Slimy Hog: Apr 22, 2008

Buttcoin purse posted:

The time bomb isn't just in the installer:

Oh well, I can set the clock back in my VM. Obviously it'd be more of a pain in the rear end for normal people who don't use VMs all the time!

Unless it phones home, then you'd have to setup a dummy server + know what response it should be sending

# ? Jan 5, 2021 03:14

SEKCobra: Feb 28, 2011; Hi
Don't look at my site

Slimy Hog posted:

Unless it phones home, then you'd have to setup a dummy server + know what response it should be sending

Well no, you can just block it.

# ? Jan 5, 2021 07:38

Buttcoin purse: Apr 24, 2014

Slimy Hog posted:

Unless it phones home, then you'd have to setup a dummy server + know what response it should be sending

I was able to install and use it on a VM that wasn't connected to the Internet, so I guess it doesn't, at least not within the first hour or so of use.

# ? Jan 5, 2021 08:33

Pulcinella: Feb 15, 2019; Can't post for 28 days!

Loxbourne posted:

I think we all have our retrogaming white whales. Mine is Interplay's unfinished crock of a Star Trek RTS, New Worlds. Completely forgotten by the industry, and doesn't run on anything unless you go to huge amounts of effort. I've tried a few times but never gotten past the title screen.

It�s not even particularly retro but what I wouldn�t give to play Steel Batallion with that controller on a nice Trinitron or PVM against other human players.

And now I remember those Battletech pods. I remember being in one only once during a friends birthday party in the 90s and thinking that was the future of videos games. I guess olds one that are actively maintained are still around. Why aren�t there any mech sims like there are racing and flight sims. :argh:

# ? Jan 5, 2021 19:15

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taNqWqtVWqA

# ? Jan 8, 2021 03:04

OniPanda: May 13, 2004; OH GOD BEAR

Pulcinella posted:

It�s not even particularly retro but what I wouldn�t give to play Steel Batallion with that controller on a nice Trinitron or PVM against other human players.

And now I remember those Battletech pods. I remember being in one only once during a friends birthday party in the 90s and thinking that was the future of videos games. I guess olds one that are actively maintained are still around. Why aren�t there any mech sims like there are racing and flight sims.

I still have that steel battalion controller. I will never part with it.

There weren't that many mech sims outside of mechwarrior, and PGI has kinda sunk mechwarrior. There aren't many new space sims either unfortunately, though the new Star Wars game is p good. Star citizen does not count.

# ? Jan 8, 2021 09:13

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

OniPanda posted:

I still have that steel battalion controller. I will never part with it.

There weren't that many mech sims outside of mechwarrior, and PGI has kinda sunk mechwarrior. There aren't many new space sims either unfortunately, though the new Star Wars game is p good. Star citizen does not count.

Man I want that controller so much. I see them for $400+ on ebay from the USA etc but one day I might find one in the wild in Australia. I can't seem to justify the price, yet I bought a Net Yaroze for $1000 earlier in the year.

# ? Jan 8, 2021 10:17

ookiimarukochan: Apr 4, 2011

In Japan, at least, Capcom were selling a custom wire chair with a space for your TV, the main controller unit, and the foot pedals.

# ? Jan 8, 2021 16:01

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 15:29

Shibawanko: Feb 13, 2013

i once saw a steel battallion controller for sale in bookoff in japan, 10.000 yen which wasn't that expensive

the problem is that it came with the online-only version of the game so it would've been useless without a hacked xbox and i didn't want to go through that kind of trouble, i would have also had to take it home somehow

# ? Jan 8, 2021 16:05

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