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Great meeting last night!
by Tim Keller April 13, 2018

April 13, 2018

Hey Everybody, Last night's meeting was fantastic! It's always great to get a full house! For those of you who were unable to make it, there were a number of fantastic mini talks. Login gave a great 15 minute rundown regarding the "audit2allow" tool to generate selinux rules. Login then proceeded to show how SElinux is running in lots of places... and then SSH'd into his phone to show that it was also run SElinux. kudos on the sshing over bluetooth from your laptop... that was cool. Greg then gave a great demo on a very lightweight security oriented linux called "Heads" (as opposed to the more well known "Tails" distribution. What was more amazing was that he was running it on a pretty old laptop and it was zippy... Though their support for mirroring displays could be a bit clearer! It was really impressive what you can do with a two core pentium laptop and a usb stick! Lastly, Chuck showed off Qubes. While the install didn't finish until we'd come back from dinner! Chuck was able to talk about the idea of separating applications into different Xen domains. It was really cool. Though we talked about this at and after dinner... I'm fearful that Xen is going the way of the dodo... I wonder if in the future the Qubes people will support other hypervisors. Thank to Login, Greg and Chuck for presenting and thanks to everybody for turning it into a lively and interesting round table discussion. Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: [Wlug] WLUG Meeting Tomorrow! Topic: Security Oriented Linux
by Tim Keller April 12, 2018

April 12, 2018

That would be awesome! On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 10:03 AM, Chuck Anderson <cra(a)wpi.edu> wrote: > I can try to get Qubes working again on my laptop. I kinda doubt it would > work as a VM since it is based on Xen VMs itself. > > On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 02:10:28AM +0000, Tim Keller wrote: > > Hey Gang, > > > > Our next meeting will be April 12th, 2018. > > > > Time: 7pm > > Location: WPI Mid Century Room rm 331 > > > > The topic of this meeting will be Security Oriented Linux(s). In short > > these are versions of linux that attempt to harden your machine through > > encryption, process isolation, etc. and obscure your access to the > internet > > using proxies and tor. > > > > This will include Tails, Kali, Whonix, Qubes, etc. > > If you are using one of the above, drop me a quick line. > > > > Otherwise, I'll be running a few of these as VMs on my machine. > > > > Snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off > for > > dinner and keep the conversation going. > > > > Thanks, > > Tim. > > > > -- > > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > > constituents as "consumers". > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wlug mailing list > > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > -- > - Chuck (0 Days until IPv4 depletion: http://ipv4depletion.com/) > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: [Wlug] WLUG Meeting Tomorrow! Topic: Security Oriented Linux
by Chuck Anderson April 12, 2018

April 12, 2018

I can try to get Qubes working again on my laptop. I kinda doubt it would work as a VM since it is based on Xen VMs itself. On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 02:10:28AM +0000, Tim Keller wrote: > Hey Gang, > > Our next meeting will be April 12th, 2018. > > Time: 7pm > Location: WPI Mid Century Room rm 331 > > The topic of this meeting will be Security Oriented Linux(s). In short > these are versions of linux that attempt to harden your machine through > encryption, process isolation, etc. and obscure your access to the internet > using proxies and tor. > > This will include Tails, Kali, Whonix, Qubes, etc. > If you are using one of the above, drop me a quick line. > > Otherwise, I'll be running a few of these as VMs on my machine. > > Snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for > dinner and keep the conversation going. > > Thanks, > Tim. > > -- > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- - Chuck (0 Days until IPv4 depletion: http://ipv4depletion.com/)

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WLUG Meeting Tomorrow! Topic: Security Oriented Linux
by Tim Keller April 11, 2018

April 11, 2018

Hey Gang, Our next meeting will be April 12th, 2018. Time: 7pm Location: WPI Mid Century Room rm 331 The topic of this meeting will be Security Oriented Linux(s). In short these are versions of linux that attempt to harden your machine through encryption, process isolation, etc. and obscure your access to the internet using proxies and tor. This will include Tails, Kali, Whonix, Qubes, etc. If you are using one of the above, drop me a quick line. Otherwise, I'll be running a few of these as VMs on my machine. Snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner and keep the conversation going. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: [Wlug] Human Machine Interface
by Richard Klein April 6, 2018

April 6, 2018

Yes, Keith, you're interesting! On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 12:07 AM, Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> wrote: > Richard Klein <rich(a)richardklein.org> writes: > > > If anyone has experience writing HMI software, > > I hear my employer needs someone. > > This your lucky day! I wrote some of that years ago; > here it is: > > ;;; Copyright Keith Wright (2018) > ;;; This is Free Software. Licence GPL v2 or later. > > (define (HMI) (display "prompt>") (read)) > > > I think we're looking for an EE, too. > > I have a roll of CAT-5 and a crimper tool. > > > Let me know if you're interested. > > Let me know if I'm interesting. > > -- Keith > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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Re: [Wlug] Human Machine Interface
by Keith Wright April 6, 2018

April 6, 2018

Richard Klein <rich(a)richardklein.org> writes: > If anyone has experience writing HMI software, > I hear my employer needs someone. This your lucky day! I wrote some of that years ago; here it is: ;;; Copyright Keith Wright (2018) ;;; This is Free Software. Licence GPL v2 or later. (define (HMI) (display "prompt>") (read)) > I think we're looking for an EE, too. I have a roll of CAT-5 and a crimper tool. > Let me know if you're interested. Let me know if I'm interesting. -- Keith

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Re: [Wlug] Meeting April 12th, 2018 Topic: Security oriented Linux distributions.
by Richard Klein April 5, 2018

April 5, 2018

I was starting to plan to bring my tower with Kali and was wondering if a monitor would be available, but then i remembered I'd have to haul it up from the parking area. It's an old Dell Precision; it's pretty heavy. A VM sounds good to me! On Thu, Apr 5, 2018, 9:06 PM Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Gang, > > Our next meeting will be April 12th, 2018. > > Time: 7pm > Location: WPI Mid Century Room rm 331 > > The topic of this meeting will be Security Oriented Linux(s). In short > these are versions of linux that attempt to harden your machine through > encryption, process isolation, etc. and obscure your access to the internet > using proxies and tor. > > This will include Tails, Kali, Whonix, Qubes, etc. > If you are using one of the above, drop me a quick line. > > Otherwise, I'll be running all of these as VMs on my machine. > > Snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for > dinner and keep the conversation going. > > Thanks, > Tim. > > > > -- > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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Human Machine Interface
by Richard Klein April 5, 2018

April 5, 2018

If anyone has experience writing HMI software, I hear my employer needs someone. I think we're looking for an EE, too. Let me know if you're interested. -- Rich

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Meeting April 12th, 2018 Topic: Security oriented Linux distributions.
by Tim Keller April 5, 2018

April 5, 2018

Hey Gang, Our next meeting will be April 12th, 2018. Time: 7pm Location: WPI Mid Century Room rm 331 The topic of this meeting will be Security Oriented Linux(s). In short these are versions of linux that attempt to harden your machine through encryption, process isolation, etc. and obscure your access to the internet using proxies and tor. This will include Tails, Kali, Whonix, Qubes, etc. If you are using one of the above, drop me a quick line. Otherwise, I'll be running all of these as VMs on my machine. Snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner and keep the conversation going. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: [Wlug] Resurrecting old computers with Linux...
by Chuck Anderson April 1, 2018

April 1, 2018

I wonder if Sparkler Filters is still using their IBM 402 which they were still using as of 2012: https://www.pcworld.com/article/249951/computers/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-… They seem to be in business still: http://www.sparkler.com/ On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 09:42:37PM -0400, Jon "maddog" Hall wrote: > John, > > If I remember correctly, the equivalent of "assembly language" for the 1401 > (either the IBM model or the IMB model) was "Autocoder". > > The IBM 1401 was introduced about 1961. By the time I started work at > Aetna Life and Casualty in 1973, we had become the "Largest commercial user > of IBM Equipment in the Free World". That means that maybe the government > used more IBM computers, or that the Russians or the Chinese were using > more IBM computers, but other than that AETNA WAS THE LARGEST. We > AUTOMATICALLY ordered two of anything IBM announced. No sales person had > to call us. IBM announced it: Aetna ordered two. > > So by that time we had lots of IBM 1401s and lots of Autocoder programmers. > > Then the IBM 360 line came out, and with it IBM's line of batch operating > systems: MFT, MVT, VS-1, VS-2, and (finally) MVS. Unfortunately getting > jobs into and out of these batch systems was extraordinarily painful until > the Houston Automatic Spooling Priority (HASP) system (developed at the IBM > Federal Systems Division of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Flight Center in > Houston, Texas) came out and made life bearable for the operators of the > machines. [Editorial Side Note: These were not "Network Administrators", > nor "Systems Administrators"....these were OPERATORS! As in BOFH! Never > forget that! And for heaven sake RTFM!] > > With those also arrived a time-sharing system called CP-67 along with a > small "Cambridge Monitor System" (CMS), needed because CP-67 was a Virtual > Machine. > > Yes, a Virtual Machine in 1973! Which eventually was renamed to "VM/CMS" > and "CMS" became the "Conversational Monitor System".....but I digress.... > > Aetna had a LOT of machines, and a LOT of Autocoder programs, and a LOT of > Autocoder programmers, which they tried to convert to COBOL. > > Yes, COBOL, that wondrous language developed by the team headed up by my > personal hero, Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper! > > After several years most of the programmers were happily writing COBOL > (yes, I know that seems hard to believe, but they were) except for a few > Autocoder programmers left to make bug fixes and extensions to existing > Autocoder programs. Of course new programs and new systems were written > in COBOL, because why would you write anything new in Autocoder. > > As the 1401s were replaced by 360s and (later) 370 machines, IBM created an > emulator for Autocoder that operated in a 360/370 system, so you could run > Autocoder programs binary compatible on your 370/370 mainframe. And when > you did you almost heard the IBM choking. > > I never coded in Autocoder, but I did hear one story about an instruction > that "rotated all of memory under the accumulator", and it was said that > when that instruction (which executed gracefully on a real IBM 1401) hit > the emulator on the 360/370, you could hear the machine hemorrhaging..... > > Over time the Autocoder programmers became gloomy. They were tired of > patching old programs, and not working on any of the new, exciting systems > that Aetna was writing. Aetna had written its own real-time transaction > processing system called SAFARI (sorry Apple, we were first) and later on a > Group Claim Payment System (ACCLAIMS), which gained a lot of people glory. > > Autocoder patching did not get much glory. And over time there was less > and less work...the writing was on the wall. > > One day I came into work and found the Autocoder programmers very excited > and happy. They were given NEW programs to write! "I did not know you > guys had learned COBOL!" I exclaimed. > > "Oh, we have not learned COBOL. They are allowing us to write the new > programs in Autocoder." > > In the late 1990s there was this panic to find old COBOL programmers who > could fix potential problems with Y2K problems. I am sure that Aetna had > to bring a few Autocoder programmers back from the dead. > > And now you know THE REST OF THE STORY. > > Warmest regards, > > maddog > > > > On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 8:39 PM, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > > > > *ppppbbbbbbttttttt!* > > > > Jon> I never worked on an "IMB 1401". Was that anything like the IBM 1401? > > > > Jon> (ducks) > > > > Ken Shirriff is the guy behind righto.com, really interesting stuff he > > writes about. Sometimes I wish I was that smart and motivated. But > > writing is hard for me... as Maddog showed. > > > > *grin* > > > > Jon> On Sat, Mar 31, 2018, 19:16 John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > > > >>>>>> "Jon" == Jon \"maddog\" Hall <jon.maddog.hall(a)gmail.com> writes: > > > > >>> The trouble with the old machines is the > > >>> eventual death of irreplacable hardware -- Pentium-MMX CPU Fans, PATA > > >>> disks and the like. > > > > Jon> Emulators and virtual machines.....allow old copies of the OS to live > > Jon> forever. > > > > Jon> I am, however, waiting for the "virtual car", for the time that > > Jon> people can no longer get the little embedded systems that allow > > Jon> modern-day cars to run. The era of "fixing up an old car" which > > Jon> both trained you in auto mechanics and "gave you wheels" is > > Jon> coming to a close. > > > > Jon> Did you see the new game on early release on Steam? System Build > > Jon> Simulator? Where you get to build a new PC in a simulation? > > Heh... > > > > Jon> Another great resource is this blog, http://righto.com, who > > works on > > Jon> old IMB 1401 systems with card punches, etc. Lots of great info > > Jon> there. > > > > Jon> John

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