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Comment The explanation, deadlock...do kill the messenger (Score 1) 284

Described here (w/dump): https://lkml.org/lkml/2009/1/2/373

Simple version:
"dont kill the messenger" except when the messenger is going to kill you. Its printk sending notice that the leap second happened that deadlocks against the timer doing the leap second (both vying for xtime_lock). Call it a "feature" of the NTP code. Hence the "turn off NTPD" workaround, if NTP doesnt get notified it should implement the leap second from somewhere upstream, it wont notify about it to the kernel, and the printk shouldnt happen.

-T

Bug

Submission + - Leapsecond is here! Are your systems ready or going to crash? (redhat.com) 1

Tmack writes: The last time we had a leapsecond, sysadmins were taken a bit by surprise when a random smattering of systems locked up (including Slashdot itself) due to a kernel bug causing a race condition specific to the way leapseconds are handled/notified by ntp. The vulnerable kernel versions (prior to 2.6.29) are still common amongst older versions of popular distributions (Debian Lenny, RHEL/Centos 5) and embeded/black-box style appliances (Switches, load balancers, spam filters/email gateways, NAS devices, etc). Several vendors have released patches and bulletins about the possibility of a repeat of last time. Are you/your team/company ready? Are you upgraded or are you going to bypass this by simply turning off NTP for the weekend?

Comment GPG (Score 1) 198

As many others above have posted, though none got any mod points for (yet)...

Its free, opensource (GNU), widely available as a standard package to most platforms, etc. You create a password file, encrypt with gpg, then sign it with each user's key that should have access to it (requires all users to have proper gpg keys setup). When someone leaves, you revoke their key from the file and they can no longer get to it, without having to do much else. If thats too complicated, just do a basic crypt (gpg -c) and share that password around. Then if someone leaves just decrypt and re-encrypt with a new password.

Comment Re:Been there, done that.. Here's your plan. (Score 1) 508

....>

Then go to dealextreme.com, or I think they're also at dx.com now. There you can get cameras, and the video balun's to make it simple to use cat 5 to run your cameras. A camera is about $20 for a decent night vision one, and the balun set (8 baluns to run 4 cameras) were about $25.

....

You forgot the step where you wait a month or four for the dx cameras to ship from HongKong....

-tm

Comment Re:What kind of congress is that? (Score 1) 435

4th amendment "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Can some one point to the airport exclusion? Or where congress amended the constitution to allow this?

They simply changed the interpretation of "unreasonable". After all you may be a terrorist, citizen.

No, its simple congressional logic: that since you are flying on a commercial airliner, and terrorists have flown on and blownup/crashed commercial airliners, you must be a terrorist, therefore probable cause exists to search you with overpriced gadgets that serve to slow down the lines of passengers (unless you pay them more $$ to bypass them) and not detect any of the things the manufacturers promised they would, but find everything else that could make them run your bag through multiple times... while said manufacturer, and their share holders (coincidentally people that helped construct/pass the bills making this mess happen) is raking in taxpayer $$.........

-Tm

Comment Re:Bad idea (Score 3, Insightful) 343

The output of the 3d printers will be made of a completely different substance than the specialized car parts. The different substance will likely have different heat and pressure tolerances, different tensile strength, and so on. It probably won't work, and could cause damage.

Maybe, but they would make a great pattern to build a mold so that the part could be reproduced with the proper materials.

-Tm

Comment Greptile? (Score 1) 95

I just removed similar tape from my bike handlebars cause it was worn out. Granted, it wasn't on the same nano scale, but the tape I used has small hairlike nubs on it that aid in grip, especially when used in conjunction with gloves also having the greptile material on them. Now it seems it is only being used for golf gloves and grips. Worked amazingly well..

tm

Comment Re:Public safety should be the priority (Score 1) 95

Calcium carbide, in rock form would work, just add water and you get acetylene gas. If you keep that contained and mixed with the proper amount of air before igniting, yeh, it makes a bright flash and loud boom. On a plane though, the rocks take a while to bubble away into the gas, and it smells very strongly of onions. Also, you need a very large amount to do anything serious, on the order of several large garbage bags full (caver rating scale: 2bagger, 3bagger...), stuff very unlikely to go unnoticed. Otherwise you get about the equivalent of a flash-bang.

The rocks are small and look like small bits of concrete, but can be crushed between your fingers. You have to keep them super dry or they start to emit gas just from the atmospheric moisture, which is easily smelled, and would probably show up on the airport screener's volatiles sniffer (I assume the xray machines have these built in these days, tho I have seen some of the wipe-pad ones still around). Otherwise they would blend in with a handful of normal gravel.

-tm

Comment Dalton Kick started it... (Score 2) 240

Dalton (your smaller neighbor about 30mi south), and specifically Dalton Utilities, got that all kick started. It was building out massive infrastructure to fuel the booming carpet industry of the late 80's-90's (most millionaires per-capita prior to the dot-com boom), strung fiber along with the new lines, mainly for daq/scada at first, but launched into more general access starting in 2000 when they started installing fiber everywhere. Now they have Optilink, which has up to 2.5Gbps (graph shows 10gbps) though their offerings to the public list only 20mbps. Also independent of the ILECs (GTE/alltel/bellsouth or whatever it is now), and also running phones and TV with the internet service.

-tm

Space

Sun Unleashes Most Powerful Flare Since 2006 100

astroengine writes "Early Tuesday morning, the Sun unleashed a powerful X-class flare. The X7 flare is the most energetic explosion to come from the Sun since December 2006. Although the flare was directed away from the Earth, a minor proton storm was detected and some radio communications have been disrupted due to higher-than-normal rates of ionization in the Earth's ionosphere. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the whole event, imaging the flaring site and multi-million degree post-flare plasma."

Comment Re:circumcised pets as toys with a happy meal? (Score 1) 733

Add to that list:
  • plastic bags
  • Sitting
  • Lying down
  • Segway scooters
  • Sales of cigarettes in pharmacies
  • Soda
  • The Yellow Pages
  • Bottled Water
  • Gay Marriage
  • Most guns
  • Advertisements with guns
  • JROTC
  • irradiated food
  • Smoking in public (parks, on the sidewalk, etc) or in communal housing (ie: apartments)
  • Styrofoam
  • Electronic cigarettes
  • De-clawing cats
  • Grasshopper Tacos

*Yes, some are state-level, and some (like bottled water and soda) are for government establishments/schools only, and I think the handgun ban got overturned by the NRA as did DC's, and some are just other proposals. Im glad to see our elected officials using their time so effectively to give us the best supernanny city around!

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