21–30 of 67 posts
"we have a closet full of sparc 10s, we figure that'll be enough to last as long as the satellite"
jesus christ, i dont think ive ever seen an article that beats around the bush for as long as this one does before finally getting to the point. anyways, for those who don't have the patience, the title is misleading. it's just some old software from the 90s. It's only ancient if you're one of those people who completely rewrites their entire code base from the ground up every two years because to pad out your resume…
Software does degrade with age, though. Simply the fact that vulnerabilities are found over time means that our understanding of a piece of software and how it works changes. But it's not just vulnerabilities being found, it's protocols used that may be unsupported etc. That change is a kind of a rot like people call 'bit rot' but it's a specific software rot that does happen. Systems are complicated.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would anyone need bolt cutters to extract the drives? I have a couple Win98 PCs in the basement, and you just unscrew the drives. The password on it didn't encrypt the drives, either. As for the password, this is the old days. Could probably google how to crack the password for it. Or just try the classic 123456, querty, password, or letmein.
Why would anyone need bolt cutters to extract the drives? I've had PC cases that had eyelets for a lock. You'd have to get through that before "unscrew(ing) the drives".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Apollo capsule didn't have a fuel gauge, either, because nobody could figure out how to make a fuel gauge work in weightless conditions. Various schemes failed. The solution turned out to be to have a reserve tank with enough propellant in it to do reentry. Then when the main tank ran dry, you knew just what you could do with what was left.
Since you know how much fuel you start with, can't you integrate something like the time spent firing the engine and use that as gauge?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Apollo capsule didn't have a fuel gauge, either, because nobody could figure out how to make a fuel gauge work in weightless conditions. Various schemes failed. The solution turned out to be to have a reserve tank with enough propellant in it to do reentry. Then when the main tank ran dry, you knew just what you could do with what was left.
Since you know how much fuel you start with, can't you integrate something like the time spent firing the engine and use that as gauge?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/nasas-buildings-are-ev...
How about traveling-wave vacuum tubes from the pre-transistor era. Doesn't Voyager use them to generate its RF transmission power?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software does degrade with age, though. Simply the fact that vulnerabilities are found over time means that our understanding of a piece of software and how it works changes. But it's not just vulnerabilities being found, it's protocols used that may be unsupported etc. That change is a kind of a rot like people call 'bit rot' but it's a specific software rot that does happen. Systems are complicated.
An example is SSL root certificates, which expire by design. Also ABI. But if you use containers or virtual machines you can basically have a program run forever.
jesus christ, i dont think ive ever seen an article that beats around the bush for as long as this one does before finally getting to the point. anyways, for those who don't have the patience, the title is misleading. it's just some old software from the 90s. It's only ancient if you're one of those people who completely rewrites their entire code base from the ground up every two years because to pad out your resume…
Software does degrade with age, though. Simply the fact that vulnerabilities are found over time means that our understanding of a piece of software and how it works changes. But it's not just vulnerabilities being found, it's protocols used that may be unsupported etc. That change is a kind of a rot like people call 'bit rot' but it's a specific software rot that does happen. Systems are complicated.
In the thirty years I spent developing software I spent hardly any time on anything that was accessible through the network and I'm confident that I'm not the only one. The embedded control software that I wrote for 6502s would still work today and would be completely invulnerable to attacks other than from someone standing right in front of the machine pushing buttons.
Of course now that everything has to be networked so that your fridge can advertise special offers to you the situation is changing for the worse.