INFO-VAX Tue, 27 Nov 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 649 Contents: Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: Looking for a TPU section that does automatic word wrap Re: Looking for a TPU section that does automatic word wrap Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer OT: Grid Computing and HP? Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Nov 2007 18:58:05 GMT From: billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <5r0j9tF12c3p1U1@mid.individual.net> In article , koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes: > In article <5r0973F11m0o1U1@mid.individual.net>, billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: >> >> Just becuase it needs the roor password to write things like >> startup info in tot /etc (or other directories) does not mean >> it is "reconfiguring the OS". I would bet that most applications >> (like Oracle) require system access on VMS as well. I know >> installing any compiler does. Are they also "reconfiguring the OS"? >> > > Installing anything on VMS that is completely integrated requires > write access to sys$library:dcltables.exe. And write access to the > directories where files get put. > > Requiring write access to /bin or /usr/bin for a compiler > installation on UNIX would be the same type of privilege requirement > and I would not consider that "reconfiguring the OS". So up to tyhis point we agree. > > As far as Oracle on UNIX, every installation of Oracle I've worked > with on any UNIX has modified the kernel, at least by changing kernel > parameters, to suit its needs. I find it hard to believe that Oracle doesn't require the same kind of copnfiguration changes on VMS. See below....... > That's what I consider "reconfiguring > the OS". I would feel the same way if a product installed on VMS > contained new kernel modules or required me to update SYSGEN > parameters. For compilers there are no kernel modules and typically > the SYSGEN parameters are optional. 1.4 Preparing for DEC Ada Installation Preparing for DEC Ada Installation $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$GETSYI("FREE_GBLPAGES") 15848 $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$GETSYI("FREE_GBLSECTS") 24 If the returned values are greater than the values in Table 1.2, you do not need to increase the values for these parameters. If the value of either free global pages or global sections is less than the value in Table 1.2, you must increase that system parameter setting. Not the term "must" above. Unless you have already set some values higher than necessary in the initial SYSGEN you most certainly will have to do it to install a compiler. Or DECWindows. Or any number of other applications. I usually end out having to do a new SYSGEN everytine I install anything unless I just up the numbers more than needed on an earlier product. So, tell me again that Oracle doesn't require these settings? If you have a problem with Oracle and call for support are they not going to tel you to make those changes you skipped before trying to resolve your problem? I would guess it is possible to actually run Oracle without making the kernel tuning changes on Unix, but the same rules would apply. bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:08:54 GMT From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: Bill Gunshannon wrote: > I find it hard to believe that Oracle doesn't require the same kind > of copnfiguration changes on VMS. See below....... Equaly true for "Oracle Rdb", which is as VMS-ish as any software package could be... Jan-Erik. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:20:18 -0500 From: "Richard B. Gilbert" Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <474B1C72.1040208@comcast.net> Bob Koehler wrote: > In article <474AFAED.5040108@comcast.net>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes: > > >>The idea behind OO is that you represent an "object" as a package >>consisting of a data structure and all the allowed operations, called >>methods, on that data structure. If the language in use requires OO, >>you can't easily do stupid things like trying to add two windows or >>multiply a window by a file! > > > I'm quite sure I could do both of those in C++. 8( C++ does give you that "creative freedom". I think most of us understand the price for that freedom! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:40:15 -0800 (PST) From: AEF Subject: Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: <2e5baacf-de70-4a79-99f0-3600d59ebc2b@e1g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> On Nov 26, 10:39 am, koeh...@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) wrote: > In article <2da2d$474adc43$cef8887a$20...@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei writes: > > > Just stumbled on this. > > > apparently, specifying ;-0 gives you the file spec with the lowest > > version number. > > You should read the fine manual someday. Well, at least it's on topic, which is pretty good for JF! And it increases the S/N ratio! It's not like we're being flooded with FAQ's. BTW, ;-0 doesn't work in the input-specifier for BACKUP, at least not in V6.2. Did that ever get fixed? AEF ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:41:50 +0100 From: "Dr. Dweeb" Subject: Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: <474b4b56$0$7605$157c6196@dreader2.cybercity.dk> briggs@encompasserve.org wrote: > In article <2da2d$474adc43$cef8887a$20438@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei > writes: >> The funny part is when you do a SET WATCH for a ;-0 access: >> >> XQP, Thread #0, Read only directory access (6796,17,0) >> %XQP, Thread #0, Directory scan for: NETSERVER.LOG;4294934528, >> Status: 00000001 >> %XQP, Thread #0, Lookup (4734,216,0) Status: 00000001 >> >> Now, that is the highest file version I have ever seen on VMS :-) :-) > > Or one of the lowest. > > I have next to no knowledge of XQP internals but > > 4294934528 = 2^32 - 2^15 > > or 0xFFFF8000 > > It's the two's complement encoding of -32768 in 32 bits. > > The obvious mapping of ASCII version numbers to 16 bit two's > complement > would be: > > ;-32767 = -32767 = 0x8001 > ... > ;-1 = -1 = 0xFFFF > ; = ;0 = 0 = 0x0000 > ;1 = 1 = 0x0001 > ... > ;32767 = 32767 = 0x7FFF > > That leaves exactly one code point unused. So... > > ;-0 = -32768 = 0x8000 > > Or, in 32 bits > > ;-0 = -32768 = 0xffff8000 = 4294934528 (unsigned) > > > But that's just guesswork. One speculates as to what sort of mind fosters such speculations :) Dweeb ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:51:27 -0500 From: "Syltrem" Subject: Re: Looking for a TPU section that does automatic word wrap Message-ID: <13kmfv1qp0n3620@corp.supernews.com> "Hein RMS van den Heuvel" wrote in message news:db2f5c06-b1d8-4cb4-93ce-38954b8efde4@j44g2000hsj.googlegroups.com... > On Nov 19, 5:06 pm, "Syltrem" wrote: >> Hi ! >> >> Does anyone know of a TPU section file that would do automatic word >> wrapping > > I would probably use a perl one-liner to do a job like that. > > > $ typ tmp.tmp ! Notice 4 space leading second line, 2 spaces leading > 3rd. > So If I have some text like this that's too long: > 1) I could split the lines so that I don't loose characters at the > end of a line > 2) It may not look pretty, but not that bad either. It would come > out like this > > perl, maintaining leading spaces > > $ perl -ne "while (length > 35) { m/(\s*)(.{0,35})\s+(.*)/;{ print > qq($1$2\n); $_=$1.$3}} print qq($_\n)" tmp.tmp > So If I have some text like this > that's too long: > 1) I could split the lines so that > I don't loose characters at the end > of a line > 2) It may not look pretty, but not > that bad either. It would come out > like this > > More basic perl, not perserving line indent > > $ perl -ne "while (length > 35) { m/(.{0,35})(\s.*)/;{ print qq($1\n); > $_=$2}} print qq($_\n)" tmp.tmp > > > > the crucial part is the MATCH regular expression: m/(.{0,35})(\s.*)/ > > $_ is the 'default' line buffer variable. > The m// is the match function. Could also use m%% or whatever. > The parens identify a remember zone, identified as $1, $2, $3,... > So we are looking for, and remember in $1 anything '.' for up to 35 > times '{0,35} followed by a second string which we remember by $1 > which must start with whitespace, followed by anything, any number of > time '.*' up to the end'. > Print the first part, and save the second part in the default line > veriable for the next iteration untill the line is shorter than > target. > > If we move the whitepace match '\s' out of the second paren, then we > 'eat' that: > > $ perl -ne "while (length > 35) { m/(.{0,35})\s(.*)/;{ print qq($1\n); > $_=$2}} print qq($_\n)" tmp.tmp > So If I have some text like this > that's too long: > 1) I could split the lines so > that I don't loose characters at > the end of a line > 2) It may not look pretty, but > not that bad either. It would come > out like this > > > hth, > Hein. > > > Wow that's cool ! I will study this (somewhat cryptic for me). I can certainly use PERL to do this, after the user has entered the data. Very good for what I have to do; I don't need "live" reformatting. I just tried it; works nice ! Thanks ! Syltrem > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:40:25 -0800 (PST) From: Hein RMS van den Heuvel Subject: Re: Looking for a TPU section that does automatic word wrap Message-ID: <15385d29-97e4-4896-8062-6643560c2731@d21g2000prf.googlegroups.com> On Nov 26, 4:51 pm, "Syltrem" wrote: > "Hein RMS van den Heuvel" wrote in > > I would probably use a perl one-liner to do a job like that. : > > More basic perl, not perserving line indent > > $ perl -ne "while (length > 35) { m/(.{0,35})(\s.*)/;{ print qq($1\n); > > $_=$2}} print qq($_\n)" tmp.tmp > Wow that's cool ! Thanks. It can actually be shortened a little more to: $ perl -ple "while (length > 35) { m/(.{0,35})\s/;print $1; $_=$'}" tmp.tmp The first example worked with the help of an implied loop through the "-n" = "do Not print", the alternative used above is -p = "Print $_ variable at bottom of loop" This is used in the shortened example, as well as -l for "new Line, after print" And I replaced the explicit any-match-to-EOL after the space '(.*)' with the build in 'post match' variable $'. > I will study this (somewhat cryptic for me). I can certainly use PERL to do > this, after the user has entered the data. A few remarks Perl commandline parsing takes care of the Unix style re-directs. So you do not need pipe to do something like: $perl -n prog.pl < input.dat > output.dat By default the last command line variable is the input file name. The -e gives the program as a one line text. It would be clearer to stick it into a file say prog.pl and indent. (actually, I noticed a redundant 'block' {} while writing this explanation: For example: ----- prog.pl -------- while (length > 35) { # check length of variable $_ m/(.{0,35})(\s.*)/; # match up to 35 chars before whitespace, and the rest. print qq($1\n); # print first match $_=$2 # make line variable be the rest. } print qq($_\n); # print last chunk ------------------------------------------- Exposing the loop and the $_ variable you could also use $perl prog.pl < old > new ---- prog.pl ---- while ($_ = ) { while while (length > 35) { # check length of variable $_ $_ =~ m/(.{0,35})(\s.*)/; # match up to 35 chars before whitespace, and the rest. print STDOUT qq($1\n); # print first match $_=$2 # make line variable be the rest. } print STDOUT qq($_\n); # print last chunk } btw, that first loop is more often written as: while (<>) { ... TIMTOWTDI ! "Tim Toady" = "There is more than one way to do it" hth, Hein. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 15:44:52 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer Message-ID: In article <49f32980-721c-49bf-aada-1295efbce55d@w40g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, Neil Rieck writes: > > I hope people don't take my previous comments the wrong way. Being a > child of the 1950s made me a part of the sputnik craze along with the > subsequent American manned landings on the moon. But NASA has changed > and it seems to me that if it weren't for JPL, that there wouldn't be > much science at all in the American space program. Also, I recently > heard a story on NPR (thank god for Sirius satelite radio)... NASA has transformed from the premier engineering organisation that did some science on the side to a big bureaucracy that also does engineering and science. But almost everything we do at the Goddard Space Flight Center is science. JPL does most of the deep space missions, GSFC does most of the earth orbiting missions; every other NASA installation (JPL is actually a contractor) has its specialty. So why haven't you heard of the GSFC science missions? Because the Hubble Space Telescope is the only one of them the media pays any attention enough for its name to be recognised. Its NASA's number one PR machine as well as one hell of a good science resource. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:07:07 -0800 (PST) From: Neil Rieck Subject: OT: Grid Computing and HP? Message-ID: <53be15d7-424a-4ffb-89ed-341688dff750@e1g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> I just learned about an IBM sponsored project called "World Community Grid" where IBM has made sure that BOINC WCG clients are available for the following platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac-OS-X and FreeBSD. Apparently, they encourage their customers and employees to participate in it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_community_grid (Just like McDonalds takes credit for donating their customers' money to charity, I'm sure IBM will eventually take credit for curing some disease like cancer even if it doesn't happen on an IBM platform) But then it occurred to me that Compaq had temporarily loaned two of their employees to SETI@Home to create client software for Alpha. To this day SUN still donates hardware. While SETI@Home still seems kind of flaky to me, BOINC is sponsored by the NSF and appears to be a totally legitimate effort. Has H-P ever gotten involved in something like this? If anyone was asking for my 2 cents: H-P should either hook up with IBM on BOINC or contact the Stanford people running folding@home. I'm sure that they've got a lot of Itanium2 platforms running 24/7 that could be doing some serious folding in the background. http://folding.stanford.edu/ Neil Rieck Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:20:32 -0800 (PST) From: twnews@kittles.com Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <90fd5eb6-c366-4d61-9b2c-c3137a004257@i12g2000prf.googlegroups.com> bradhamilton wrote: > David J Dachtera wrote: >> Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; >> so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. >> >> Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining >> that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. >> >> Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data >> recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and >> such). > > I don't suppose a second PC is available, with a "free" "disk slot". If > such were available, you might be able to take the bad disk out of the > PC, insert it in the other PC, and attempt to read files (like *.PST) > off the "bad" disk. A bad boot sector may not mean that the rest of the > drive is unreadable (but is probably on its way). This is what I do at home and work when a drive fails. It works best when combined with backup or recovery tools (too many to mention). We have even done this without removing the the disk from the original PC. We just put the two PC back to back with the cases open and connected the disk cable from the working PC to the not working disk and it allowed us to save all of the data files before reformatting and reinstalling Windows. Good luck! Thomas Wirt Director of IS Kittle's Home Furnishings Indianapolis, IN ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:22:12 +0000 (UTC) From: moroney@world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney) Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG writes: >In article , JF Mezei writes: >> >>People used to brag about VMS being secure. The whole point of having >>robust software, intrusion detection/evasion and good logging is so that >>you can have services opened to the world and sleep at night. >> >>However, the POP server, as furnished by the current owner of VMS does >>not adhere to those high standards. And while I am at it, the SMTP >>server/receiver doesn't even support username/password authentication >>for calls coming from the outside. >The problem is that these *network* *protocols* were not devised by the >same security conscientious people who brought you VMS! I'd wager that >we'd not know SPAM, other than that ham, pork and potato starch product >from Denmark, if the VMS folks devised SMTP -- where the S in SMTP stood >for Secure instead of Simple. The real issue is, given a (weak) protocol like POP or FTP, how does VMS and the network stack deal with a breakin attempt like a dictionary attack? We all know what would happen if a computerized dictionary attack was launched against a hardwired port on a VMS system. Unless a valid username/password was guessed in the first couple of times, breakin evasion goes into effect and the attacker won't get in even if he does eventually manage to guess a valid user/password pair. But the POP breakin doesn't trigger breakin evasion. If the attacker guesses a valid user/password on the 10,000th attempt, he's in. This has nothing to do with the weakness of POP or other TCPIP protocols. The same would be true if there was no breakin evasion for DECnet SET HOST. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:59:56 -0500 From: "Peter Weaver" Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <059401c83077$aeb79f10$4d02a8c0@CHARONLAP> > is the only allowed access to POP via your cellphone, or from > readily identifiable sources? If so, then does your firewall allow > restricting the IP ranges that are allowed to initiate inbound POP (or > other port) connections? Right, the only reason I have POP open is for my cell phone, but I have no idea what the range of possible IP addresses is. I do not know if I get an IP address from my provider if I am out of my area, if POP would have logged the IP address I could have checked to see what address I had last week :(. In any event my firewall does not allow me to restrict IP address at that level, I could restrict it at the POP service level though (SET SERVICE POP/ACCEPT=(HOST=ip)). But if it was possible I would rather allow the attack to continue as long as I could control the number of processes created so I do not get the NOSLOT errors and as long as I could track the IP address so I could let the ISP know that they have a hacked machine on their network. Peter Weaver www.weaverconsulting.ca CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial Hardware ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:02:33 -0500 From: "Peter Weaver" Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <059501c83078$0c7df810$4d02a8c0@CHARONLAP> >... > The real issue is, given a (weak) protocol like POP or FTP, how does VMS > and the network stack deal with a breakin attempt like a dictionary > attack? We all know what would happen if a computerized dictionary attack > was launched against a hardwired port on a VMS system. Unless a valid > username/password was guessed in the first couple of times, breakin > evasion goes into effect and the attacker won't get in even if he does > eventually manage to guess a valid user/password pair. But the POP > breakin doesn't trigger breakin evasion. If the attacker guesses a valid > user/password on the 10,000th attempt, he's in. > > This has nothing to do with the weakness of POP or other TCPIP protocols. > The same would be true if there was no breakin evasion for DECnet SET > HOST. Exactly right. Luckily in my case after 13,966 attempts the idiot never even hit a single valid username, considering my minimum passwords are set to 10 (my main account has a 21 character password right now and that username/password is only used if I am using SSH to access the system) they would have to try for a long time before they got anywhere. But the attack did cause a DOS. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:11:34 GMT From: VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: In article , moroney@world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney) writes: > > >VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG writes: > >>In article , JF Mezei writes: >>> >>>People used to brag about VMS being secure. The whole point of having >>>robust software, intrusion detection/evasion and good logging is so that >>>you can have services opened to the world and sleep at night. >>> >>>However, the POP server, as furnished by the current owner of VMS does >>>not adhere to those high standards. And while I am at it, the SMTP >>>server/receiver doesn't even support username/password authentication >>>for calls coming from the outside. > >>The problem is that these *network* *protocols* were not devised by the >>same security conscientious people who brought you VMS! I'd wager that >>we'd not know SPAM, other than that ham, pork and potato starch product >>from Denmark, if the VMS folks devised SMTP -- where the S in SMTP stood >>for Secure instead of Simple. > >The real issue is, given a (weak) protocol like POP or FTP, how does VMS >and the network stack deal with a breakin attempt like a dictionary >attack? We all know what would happen if a computerized dictionary attack >was launched against a hardwired port on a VMS system. Unless a valid >username/password was guessed in the first couple of times, breakin >evasion goes into effect and the attacker won't get in even if he does >eventually manage to guess a valid user/password pair. But the POP >breakin doesn't trigger breakin evasion. If the attacker guesses a valid >user/password on the 10,000th attempt, he's in. > >This has nothing to do with the weakness of POP or other TCPIP protocols. >The same would be true if there was no breakin evasion for DECnet SET HOST. I understand and it is WHY I DO NOT PERMIT the general miscreant rabble on the internet to access these services. -- VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?" http://tmesis.com/drat.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:54:49 -0500 From: "Richard B. Gilbert" Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <474B78E9.9000108@comcast.net> Peter Weaver wrote: >> ... >> The real issue is, given a (weak) protocol like POP or FTP, how does VMS >> and the network stack deal with a breakin attempt like a dictionary >> attack? We all know what would happen if a computerized dictionary attack >> was launched against a hardwired port on a VMS system. Unless a valid >> username/password was guessed in the first couple of times, breakin >> evasion goes into effect and the attacker won't get in even if he does >> eventually manage to guess a valid user/password pair. But the POP >> breakin doesn't trigger breakin evasion. If the attacker guesses a valid >> user/password on the 10,000th attempt, he's in. >> >> This has nothing to do with the weakness of POP or other TCPIP protocols. >> The same would be true if there was no breakin evasion for DECnet SET >> HOST. > > > Exactly right. Luckily in my case after 13,966 attempts the idiot never > even hit a single valid username, considering my minimum passwords are > set to 10 (my main account has a 21 character password right now and > that username/password is only used if I am using SSH to access the > system) they would have to try for a long time before they got anywhere. > But the attack did cause a DOS. Have you considered a counterattack? If you could hack into the attacker's system and, say, format his disk. . . . :-) Actually, the attacker may be using a zombied PC as a proxy. ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.649 ************************