Think you are a computer geek?

[War]

Ah, the good old days when you could send an Ath0++ command to someone elses modem and make them hang up.

[Rkolter]

Ah, the good old days when you could send an Ath0++ command to someone elses modem and make them hang up.

Or trick them in old IRC chat sessions to type +++ to do the same thing...

[War]

Yeah, the internet was more fun in those days. Slower, but fun.

[Jim North]

Ath0++

Egad, sudden memory rush.

[Helixdq]

Don't forget these:
Understand DOS, and understand the usefulness of owning a DOS box while in an otherwise windows environment.

I still know a lot about DOS. Probably almost everything there is to know - there wasn't that much .

Understand at least one computer language and are able to at least roughly read other languages and follow the logic.

I work as a programer (C++ Builder, databases, SQL).

Know the significance of 127.0.0.1

DUH !

Be reasonably comfortable using regedit.

Use it all the time.

Know what at least some of these ports are for: 7, 21, 23, 25, 80, 443, 666, 9535 (bonus points for not having to look in a services file...)

.. well i do know about 4 of them without looking (echo, ftp, telnet, http).

Comfortable in a unix environment, including the ability to understand core dumps and update the environment.

erm i can use linux in console and under XWindows (KDE/Gnome).
Not really an expert, i avoid it if i can...

Understand what information is being given to you in a BSOD.

Yep

Have crashed a system and spent all night fixing it not because you have to, but because you don't want the computer to think it won.

I don't think i actually personified it like that ...

Know the sequence of commands to make a modem dial and to make a modem hang up.

Yep, i know the common AT commands.

Have at one point or another in your life used a hole punch to enhance the capacity of a floppy disk.

erm, no

Taken a soldering iron to your computer, and had your computer come out better (or repaired) afterwards.

No, unless cables count... i do messure voltage/currents sometimes to figure out what's not working

Either remember before the internet was swamped by the world wide web, or understand how to navigate the internet without a browser, including using finger, ping, telnet, login/rlogin, ftp, gopher, etcetera.

Yes, i know how to use all that.

If you use IRC, remember the time before chatrooms were named, when all you had to go by were numbers. Bonus points if you remember the number of your favorite room (-107186 was a hidden tinyCWRU chatroom in the mid-1990's).

Nope, i'm not much of an irc person, i only started about two years ago.

[Collapse]

Understand DOS, and understand the usefulness of owning a DOS box while in an otherwise windows environment.

I understand DOS and know how to use it pretty well. I used to know a whole lot of stuff, tricky stuff messing with the autoexec and such. I don't even remember what I used to be able to do. I can still navigate DOS, use most of the more common programs, create batch files (I love batch files), etc etc. I don't have a DOS box set up but I could probably do it pretty quickly. I don't see why I'd need one, except to grab files to fix another computer, and I haven't had to do that in a while.

Understand at least one computer language and are able to at least roughly read other languages and follow the logic.

I'm fully proficient in a few forms of BASIC and I can follow most of it. I used to know C++ reasonably well, but now I'm not sure how much I could even follow it. I can handle console applications in Java fairly well. I also learned and forgot Logo.

Know the significance of 127.0.0.1

I don't do much with IP addresses or ports.

Be reasonably comfortable using regedit.

I'm quite comfortable with the modifying and deleting stuff in the registry. Never had to create anything.

Know what at least some of these ports are for: 7, 21, 23, 25, 80, 443, 666, 9535 (bonus points for not having to look in a services file...)

I don't know much about ports or IP addresses.

Comfortable in a unix environment, including the ability to understand core dumps and update the environment.

Never used unix

Understand what information is being given to you in a BSOD.

Memory addresses and error codes?

Have crashed a system and spent all night fixing it not because you have to, but because you don't want the computer to think it won.

All the time. Though it's usually someone else *cough*brother*cough* who crashed it.

Know the sequence of commands to make a modem dial and to make a modem hang up.

Nope

Have at one point or another in your life used a hole punch to enhance the capacity of a floppy disk.

Huh?

Taken a soldering iron to your computer, and had your computer come out better (or repaired) afterwards.

God no.

Either remember before the internet was swamped by the world wide web, or understand how to navigate the internet without a browser, including using finger, ping, telnet, login/rlogin, ftp, gopher, etcetera.

Not old enough

[Warren]

I know most of the questions (except a couple ports and the UNIX stuff.) I still have my disk nibbler for the c64 around here somewhere, too.

[Rkolter]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised the only person who can relate to hole-punching floppies is Warren.

It's not fair - I'm not even in the top five oldest spacers anymore!

[Sam_Charette]

Don't worry, rkolter, I can relate to it. I pass a good chunk of that "test" ('course I am both a system admin and a programmer by trade ). I've never actually punched a hole in any of my floppies, as I never really needed to, but many of my friends did, and I would sometimes end up with their disks.


And faub, 22 is NOT the only way to connect to a host machine. That's SSH (secure shell). There's also port 23, telnet (which no one should leave open, as it's insecure).

Of course, you can run both ssh and telnet on any port you like, and you can also telnet to other applications such as webservers, mail servers and ftp servers. Usually you get the server name and version number, which is how hackers get in. They find out what version of a piece of software you have, and if it has a vulnerability they run it against the server to get in.

You can also get a remote shell by cleverly crashing one of these servers, as if they die they drop to a shell (hence why it's so important to keep your servers either off the internet, or up to date )

[Joel Fagin]

Oh, I punched a great many floppy disks in my day. Both ways. Not only can you double the capacity, but you could also destroy people's disk drives. How many of ya knew that one?

For the ignorant, there was a clocking hole in the magnetic disk itself and in the sleeve. As the disk spun, the holes lined up and you could see through. The drive would use this to detect how fast the drive was going and adjust its speed accordingly.

What you could do, right, is punch another clocking hole in the magnetic disk right next to the existing one. The drive would read two in quick sucession and slow right down, before picking up speed again when it didn't detect any more for a while. Then it would slow down, and then speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up and then start smoking.

Great fun.

- Joel Fagin

[Warren]

Oh, I punched a great many floppy disks in my day. Both ways. Not only can you double the capacity, but you could also destroy people's disk drives. How many of ya knew that one?

For the ignorant, there was a clocking hole in the magnetic disk itself and in the sleeve. As the disk spun, the holes lined up and you could see through. The drive would use this to detect how fast the drive was going and adjust its speed accordingly.

What you could do, right, is punch another clocking hole in the magnetic disk right next to the existing one. The drive would read two in quick sucession and slow right down, before picking up speed again when it didn't detect any more for a while. Then it would slow down, and then speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up and then start smoking.

Great fun.

- Joel Fagin

Where were you in 1985 when I could have used that one?

[Rkolter]

Joel, I never did that... how fiendish. I wish I had.

Do you remember when you could flip a floppy upsidedown in a drive, format the other side, and use it as it's own disk?

That, or use the 'b' series of commands to access the other side of a disk.

Ah, the good old days.

[Warren]

Do you remember when you could flip a floppy upsidedown in a drive, format the other side, and use it as it's own disk?

Now I'm confused... that was part of the process of using the hole punch.

You looked for the notch on one edge and made a notch in the same area on the opposite edge... then you had to flip the disk.

At least on the 64....

[Faub]

And faub, 22 is NOT the only way to connect to a host machine. That's SSH (secure shell). There's also port 23, telnet (which no one should leave open, as it's insecure).

Okay, let me put it this way. SSH is the only SANE way to connect. Through port 22 you can run telnet, ftp, rcp, etc. What's the point of having a separate port for each of these services when one does it all? Having a telnet port open is just asking for trouble.

Telnet alone is inherently insecure and there has been at least one occurance of someone losing all the data in their account because their telnet session was sniffed. I avoid it and FTP if at all possible. Both send passwords that should be at least minimally encrypted when sent over a public line. I don't particularly like the idea of typing my password into the forum login so I use a junk password. HTTPS may not be 100% secure but it will keep away the people unwilling to spend a couple hours crunching numbers to get the data.

None of my linux servers have a telnet for ftp service running much less allowing the port to be open through a firewall. There was one case where I HAD to use telnet and that was because Windows is a piece of crap.

I know I haven't locked down my servers tight enough to prevent someone actively attacking me from getting in. I'm not that good. I will take a few basic steps to make the attack more difficult, though.

Do you remember when you could flip a floppy upsidedown in a drive, format the other side, and use it as it's own disk?

I thought that's the way it was supposed to work with 5.25" floppies. A lot of programs, especially games, required you to flip the floppy over because you had single sided drives and double sided disks. 3.5" floppies didn't allow that because only one side has the attachment to turn the disk.

[Rkolter]

The earlier 5.25" floppy drives required you to flip the disk over to use the other side, however later 5.25" floppy drives accepted a hole-punched floppy as double-sided and didn't require the flip.

[Sam_Charette]

Okay, let me put it this way. SSH is the only SANE way to connect. Through port 22 you can run telnet, ftp, rcp, etc. What's the point of having a separate port for each of these services when one does it all?

Because it's a standard. Web browsers expect that the web server runs on port 80. You can force the browser to look at a different port, but to do so for your typical web pages is just annoying to the users Similar for FTP and others.

Having a telnet port open is just asking for trouble.

Well of course

None of my linux servers have a telnet for ftp service running much less allowing the port to be open through a firewall. There was one case where I HAD to use telnet and that was because Windows is a piece of crap.

I have an ftp server running. You kinda need one if you want to, you know, FTP files easily. It'd be different if it were only me doing it, as I could easily do it over command line (but hate to), but when you have friends who are less computer literate than you using it, but still need ftp, well then you run an ftp server.

Telnet, though... well there's really no point to running it. SSH is a telnet-like experience, only secure, so if you have to run something like it, then it should be SSH.

I know I haven't locked down my servers tight enough to prevent someone actively attacking me from getting in. I'm not that good. I will take a few basic steps to make the attack more difficult, though.

That's all you can do, really. If someone really wants in, they'll get in.

[Steverules]

Dang. Reading this forum has made me realize I wasted my high school and college years on dating women when I should have been in the computer lab. Unfortunately, I have nothing to add to this thread. Curse hot women who want to do nothing more than please me. . . you've ruined my life!!!

[Warren]

Yeah... while you were actually out getting laid we were busy Phreaking. Loser.

[Steverules]

You're welcome. Many of you may wonder if I have so many hot chicks on the side why am I in a cartooning chatroom on a Saturday night. Well, don't you all worry your pretty little heads about that. Just one of life's little mysteries. I mean really, one can't have sex ALL THE TIME, one must take a break. My 15 minutes are almost up.

[HeDanny]

Dang. Reading this forum has made me realize I wasted my high school and college years on dating women when I should have been in the computer lab. Unfortunately, I have nothing to add to this thread. Curse hot women who want to do nothing more than please me. . . you've ruined my life!!!

woah. I missed the Computer lab AND the hot women for the Woodwork. I made some damn fine Vinyl Album racks and a bread box, tho.