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# nick        = computers-are-bad
# url         = https://feeds.twtxt.net/computers-are-bad/twtxt.txt
# type        = rss
# source      = https://computer.rip/rss.xml
# avatar      = 
# description = A newsletter on technology and its problems and also whatever else
# updated_at  = 2023-03-25T06:22:53Z
#
2022-10-22T00:00:00Z	**2022-10-22 wireless burglary**
Long time no see! The great thing about _Computers Are Bad_ is that you get
exactly what you pay for, and there's a reason I'm not on Substack. Rest
assured I am still alive, just very occupied with client's AWS problems and
the pleasantly changing weather here in New Mexico.

Speaking of pleasantly changing weather, it's the time of year when returning
diurnal temperature swings start causing the shock sensors start 'to fall off
my windows. I could provide a lengthy discourse on whic ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-10-22-wireless-burglary.html)
2022-09-25T00:00:00Z	**2022-09-25 the nevada national security site pt 4**
[part 1](https://computer.rip/2022-09-11-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-1.html) \|
[part 2](https://computer.rip/2022-09-13-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-2.html) \|
[part 3](https://computer.rip/2022-09-15-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-3.html) \|
you are here

And now, the conclusion.

Lunch at the Nevada National Security Site is a strange experience of its own.
Our coach dropped us off at the Bistro, a second, smaller caf ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-09-25-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-4.html)
2022-09-15T00:00:00Z	**2022-09-15 the nevada national security site pt 3**
[part 1](https://computer.rip/2022-09-11-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-1.html) \|
[part 2](https://computer.rip/2022-09-13-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-2.html) \|
you are here \|
[part 4](https://computer.rip/2022-09-25-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-4.html)

I said up front that the NNSS remains in use for several different purposes,
although the level of activity today is not nearly as high as it once was. To
my best abi ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-09-15-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-3.html)
2022-09-13T00:00:00Z	**2022-09-13 the nevada national security site pt 2**
[part 1](https://computer.rip/2022-09-11-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-1.html) \|
you are here \|
[part 3](https://computer.rip/2022-09-15-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-3.html) \|
[part 4](https://computer.rip/2022-09-25-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-4.html)

After our time milling around the Mercury cafeteria, it was back aboard the
coach to enter the test site proper. As our guide explained, the NNSS can be
divided into  ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-09-13-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-2.html)
2022-09-11T00:00:00Z	**2022-09-11 the nevada national security site pt 1**
you are here \|
[part 2](https://computer.rip/2022-09-13-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-2.html) \|
[part 3](https://computer.rip/2022-09-15-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-3.html) \|
[part 4](https://computer.rip/2022-09-25-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-4.html)

I promised a travelogue, and here we go. I'm not exactly a travel writer, but I
was recently able to visit a place that's fairly difficult to get to, so I
think it's  ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-09-11-the-nevada-national-security-site-pt-1.html)
2022-08-22T00:00:00Z	**2022-08-22 preventing loss dot jp2**
Programming note: Sorry for the infrequent posts lately, I have been traveling
and starting a new job. Probably the next thing I post will be a report on some
of that travel, which you will hopefully find interesting.

Previously on Deep Space Nine, we discussed the landscape of common retail
EAS systems: electromagnetic, acousto-magnetic, and RFID. I now want to
extend on this by discussing some peripheral systems that serve as part of the
larger retail loss prevention te ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-08-22-preventing-loss-dot-jp2.html)
2022-07-21T00:00:00Z	**2022-07-21 preventing loss dot jpeg**
Long time no post, or at least it feels that way! I have returned from a long
vacation in a strange foreign country where the money is made of plastic, and
I am slowly recovering from the tactile disturbance this caused. As tends to
happen I ended up thinking a lot about the small details of international
interoperation, and the issue of currency is an interesting one. I think my
next post will be a bit about the mechanics of the relatively seamless ability
to spend US f ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-07-21-preventing-loss-dot-jpeg.html)
2022-06-22T00:00:00Z	**2022-06-22 thermostats**
Let's discuss the humble thermostat. You probably have one in your house,
and it probably connects to a set of wires. If you've ever replaced your
thermostat, you've probably found those wires a little irritating due to
the lack of well standardized nomenclature for identifying them. This is
particularly clear in the new generation of smart thermostats which attempt
to be "consumer-friendly" to install, and thus must have sort of complex
install wizards (InstallShield (R) for Thermostats) just to ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-06-22-thermostats.html)
2022-06-10T00:00:00Z	**2022-06-10 analog phones**
The greatest trend in telephone technology for the last decade or so has been
the shift to all-IP. While this change is occurring inside telco networks as
well (albeit more slowly), it's most visible in the form of IP-based end-user
communications devices. In other words, the ubiquitous office IP phone.

Office IP phones have gone through various forms as vendors have come and gone,
but I still tend to picture the Cisco 7900 series as the prototypical example.
Some of this association probabl ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-06-10-analog-phones.html)
2022-05-10T00:00:00Z	**2022-05-10 amateur hour**
So we've talked about radio spectrum regulation in some detail, including the
topic of equipment authorization (EA)---the requirement, under 47 CFR, that
almost all electronics receive authorization from the FCC prior to sale. We've
also talked about the amateur radio service (ARS, 47 CFR 97), and I've hinted
that these two topics collide in an unusual way. So this of course raises the
question: does amateur radio equipment require authorization? Or, more fun to
type, does EA apply to ARS?

The ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-05-10-amateur-hour.html)
2022-04-22T00:00:00Z	**2022-04-22 regulating radiation**
One^wTwo days late for 4/20, I return to discuss equipment authorization. This
is a direct followup to my last post about unlicensed radio. I apologize for my
uncharacteristic decision to actually provide a promised follow-up in a prompt
manner, and give you my assurances that it's unlikely to happen again. I will
return to my usual pattern of saying "this is the beginning of a series" and
then forgetting about the topic for two years.

But equipment authorization is sort of an  ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-04-22-regulating-radiation.html)
2022-04-14T00:00:00Z	**2022-04-14 unlicensed radio**
I had a strong feeling that I had written a post at some point in the past
that touched on license-free radio services and bands. I can't find it now,
so maybe it was all a dream. I wanted to expand on the topic, so here we are
either way.

As a general principle, radio licensing in the United States started out being
based on the operator. As an individual or organization, you could obtain a
license that entitled you to transmit within certain specifications. You could
use whatever equ ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-04-14-unlicensed-radio.html)
2022-04-01T00:00:00Z	**2022-04-01 Bomb Alarm System**
Today, as New Mexico celebrates 4/20 early, seems an appropriate time to talk
about bhang... or rather, the bhangmeter.

The name of the bhangmeter seems to have been a joke by its designer and Nobel
laureate Frederick Reines, although I must confess that I have never totally
gotten it (perhaps I simply haven't been high enough). In any case, the
bhangmeter is one of the earliest instruments designed for the detection of a
nuclear detonation. In short, a bhangmeter is a photosensor wi ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-04-01-Bomb-Alarm-System.html)
2022-03-24T00:00:00Z	**2022-03-24 VoWiFi**
I haven't written for a bit, in part because I am currently on vacation in
Mexico. Well, here's a short piece about some interesting behavior I've noticed
here.

I use a cellular carrier with very good international roaming support, so for
the most part I just drive into Mexico and my phone continues to work as if
nothing has changed. I do get a notification shortly after crossing the border
warning that data might not work for a few minutes; I believe (but am not
certain) that this is because Google Fi us ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-03-24-VoWiFi.html)
2022-03-12T00:00:00Z	**2022-03-12 an 800 scam in short**
## A non-diagetic aside

This is an experiment in format for me: I would like to have something like
twitter for thoughts that are interesting but don't necessarily make a whole
post. The problem is that I'm loathe to use Twitter and I somehow find most of
the federated solutions to be worse, although I'm feeling sort of good about
[Pixelfed](https://pixelfed.social/jbcrawford). But of course it's not amenable to text.

I would just make these blog posts, but blog posts get emai ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-03-12-an-800-scam-in-short.html)
2022-03-05T00:00:00Z	**2022-03-05 high definition radio**
One of the great joys of the '00s was the tendency of marketers to apply the
acronym "HD" to anything they possibly could. The funniest examples of this
phenomenon are those where HD doesn't even stand for "High Definition," but
instead for something a bit contrived like "Hybrid Digital." This is the case
with HD Radio.

For those readers outside of these United States and Canada (actually Mexico
as well), HD Radio might be a bit unfamiliar. In Europe, for example, a
standard  ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-03-05-high-definition-radio.html)
2022-02-19T00:00:00Z	**2022-02-19 PCM**
I started writing a post about media container formats, and then I got severely
sidetracked by explaining how MPEG elementary streams aren't in a container but
still have most of the features of containers and had a hard time getting back
to topic until I made the decision that I ought to start down the media rabbit
hole with something more basic. So let's talk about an ostensibly basic audio
format, PCM.

PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation and, fundamentally, it is a basic
technique for digitization of analog ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-02-19-PCM.html)
2022-02-14T00:00:00Z	**2022-02-14 long lines in the Mojave**
I have sometimes struggled to justify my love for barren deserts. Why is it
that my favorite travel destinations consist of hundreds of miles of sandy
expanse? Today, I'm going to show you one reason: rural deserts have a habit of
accumulating history. What happens in the desert stays there---in corporeal
form. Slow growth of vegetation, little erosion, and extraordinarily low
property values turn vast, empty deserts into time capsules... if you spend
enough time looking ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-02-14-long-lines-in-the-Mojave.html)
2022-01-24T00:00:00Z	**2022-01-24 the smart modem**
I think I've mentioned occasionally that various devices, mostly cellular
modems, just use the Hayes or AT command set. Recently I obtained a GPS
tracking device (made by Queclink) that is, interestingly, fully configured via
the Hayes command set. It's an example of a somewhat newer trend of converging
the functionality of IoT devices into the modem baseband. But what is this
Hayes command set anyway?

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the "acoustic coupler," a device that
has two r ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-01-24-the-smart-modem.html)
2022-01-16T00:00:00Z	**2022-01-16 peer to peer but mostly the main peer**
I have admitted on HN to sometimes writing computer.rip posts which are
extensions of my HN comments, and I will make that admission here as well. A
discussion recently came up that relates to a topic I am extremely interested
in: the fundamental loss of peer-to-peer capability on the internet and various
efforts to implement peer-to-peer distributed systems on top of the internet.

Of course, as is usual, someone questioned my contention that t ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-01-16-peer-to-peer-but-mostly-the-main-peer.html)
2022-11-16T00:00:00Z	**2022-11-16 local newspaper**
And now for something completely different.

Today in the mail I received the latest issue of the _New Mexico Sun_, a lovely
local newspaper that I have never heard of, nor received, before. An oddity of
the addressing strongly suggests that it was sent based on the same address
list used for a lot of the political advertising I've received, and the
contents are... well, we'll go over that in detail in a moment, but I
immediately got the impression that this "newspaper" was actually a pie ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-11-16-local-newspaper.html)
2022-11-23T00:00:00Z	**2022-11-23 enlightenment and lighting controls**
One of my chief interests is lighting. This manifests primarily as no end of
tinkering with inexpensive consumer IoT devices, because I am cheap and running
new cabling is time consuming. I did nearly end up using DMX for my
under-cabinet lighting but ultimately saw sense and stuck to a protocol that is
even more unfamiliar to the average consumer, Z-Wave.

I worked in theater (at a university conference center) only briefly but the
fact that it was ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-11-23-enlightenment-and-lighting-controls.html)
2022-11-27T00:00:00Z	**2022-11-27 over the horizon radar**
One if the most interesting things about studying history is noting the
technologies that did _not_ shape the present. We tend to think of new
inventions as permanent fixtures, but of course the past is littered with
innovations that became obsolete and fell out of production. Most of these
at least get the time to become well-understood, but there are cases where
it's possible that even the short-term potential of new technologies was
never reached because of the pace at wh ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-11-27-over-the-horizon-radar.html)
2022-12-04T00:00:00Z	**2022-12-04 over the horizon radar pt II**
Previously on Deep Space Nine, we discussed the MUSIC and MADRE
over-the-horizon radar (OTH) programs. MUSIC and especially MADRE validated the
concept of an HF radar using ionospheric (often called "skywave" in the radio
art) propagation, with a novel hybrid digital-analog computerized signal
processing system. MADRE was a tremendous success, ultimately able to detect
ICBM launches, aircraft, and ship traffic in the North Atlantic region. What
was needed next se ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-12-04-over-the-horizon-radar-pt-II.html)
2022-12-11T00:00:00Z	**2022-12-11 over the horizon radar pt III**
Most OTH radar have faded into obscurity since the end of their era of
relevance (something we will get to in the chronology soon). One, though, looms
above all the others. This is mostly a figurative expression, but it's also
literally true to some degree, as it's a pretty tall one. I am referring of
course to Duga, or as some might know it, the brain scorcher.

As I have previously mentioned, development of OTH radar proceeded in the USSR
more or less in sync ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-12-11-over-the-horizon-radar-pt-III.html)
2022-12-17T00:00:00Z	**2022-12-17 the keyboard controller**
One of the more common arguments you hear in contemporary computer security
circles is about hardware trust and embedded controllers. Technologies like
Intel ME, the ARM Secure Element, TPMs, etc, remind us that the architecture
of the modern computer is complex and not entirely under our control. A typical
modern computer contains a multitude of different independent processors, some
running relatively complete software stacks. They come from different vendors,
serve diff ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-12-17-the-keyboard-controller.html)
2022-12-24T00:00:00Z	**2022-12-24 santa tracking**
Let's talk about a different kind of radar: the one notionally pointed at the
north pole. That's right, it's a Christmas post. I will keep it mercifully
short, and follow up soon with the article I wrote most of today (not at all
Christmas themed) before a tangent reminded me of this topic.

For decades now, NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, has operated
the "Santa Tracker." This service, ostensibly backed by NORAD's radar and
satellite remote sensing, updates children on Santa ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2022-12-24-santa-tracking.html)
2023-01-02T00:00:00Z	**2023-01-02 ANT plus is PAN for ants**
One of the most interesting areas of modern consumer technology, to me, are
low-power, low-range wireless networks. This category of network protocols were
historically referred to as Personal Area Networks, or PANs. I say
"historically" here because the term has never really had any use among
consumers---I wager very few people on the street would be able to name a
single PAN protocol, even though most people use one of them regularly. Part of
the reason for this state  ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-01-02-ANT-plus-is-PAN-for-ants.html)
2023-01-16T00:00:00Z	**2023-01-16 huff-duff**
We've talked a fair amount about HF radio recently, in the context of OTH
radar. Recall that an extremely useful property of HF radio here is that HF
frequencies can reflect off of the upper layers of the atmosphere, causing them
to rebound towards earth at a range much further than the horizon. This
behavior, called ionospheric propagation or (more commonly among radio
operators) skywave propagation, is the best way to achieve radio communication
over ranges much longer than line of sight, without t ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-01-16-huff-duff.html)
2023-01-29T00:00:00Z	**2023-01-29 the parallel port**
A few days ago, on a certain orange website, I came across an article about an
[improvised parallel printer capture device](https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/01/24/Fake-Parallel-Printer-Capture-Tool-HW.html).
This contains the line:

> There are other projects out there, but when you google for terms such as
> "parallel port to usb", they drown in a sea of "USB to parallel port"
> results!

While the author came up with a perfectly elegant and working solution, on
reading that articl ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-01-29-the-parallel-port.html)
2023-02-07T00:00:00Z	**2023-02-07 secret government telephone numbers**
Very nearly a year ago, I wrote a popular article about [secret military\
telephone\
buttons](https://computer.rip/2022-01-01-secret-military-telephone-buttons.html).
To be clear, the "secret" here was a joke and these buttons are in fact well
documented. The buttons I was talking about were the AUTOVON call precedence
buttons, used for a five-level prioritization scheme within the AUTOVON
military telephone network. The labels on these buttons, FO, ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-02-07-secret-government-telephone-numbers.html)
2023-02-13T00:00:00Z	**2023-02-13 my homelab**
I have always found the term "homelab" a little confusing. It's a bit like the
residential version of "on-premises cloud," in that it seems to presuppose that
a lab is the _normal_ place that you find computer equipment. Of course I get
that "homelab" is usually used by those who take pride in the careful
workmanship of their home installation, and I am not one of those people.

Welcome to _Computers Are Bad_ \- **in color**.

![closet rack](https://computer.rip/f/hl_1.jpg)

They say that necessity ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-02-13-my-homelab.html)
2023-02-17T00:00:00Z	**2023-02-17 something up there pt II**
[As we discussed previously](https://computer.rip/2023-02-14-something-up-there-pt-I.html),
the search for UAP is often contextualized in terms of the events of 2017:
the public revelation of the AATIP and alien-hunting efforts by Robert Bigelow
and Tom DeLonge. While widely publicized, these programs seem to have lead to
very little. I believe the termination of the AATIP (which lead to the creation
of TTSA) to be a result of the AATIP's failure to address the DoD's act ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-02-17-something-up-there-pt-II.html)
2023-03-13T00:00:00Z	**2023-03-13 the door close button**
This will probably be a short one, and I know I haven't written for a while,
but it has always been the case that you get what you pay for and _Computers
Are Bad_ is nothing if not affordable. Still, this is a topic on which I am
moderately passionate and so I can probably stretch it to an implausible
length.

Elevator control panels have long featured two buttons labeled "door open" and
"door close." One of these buttons does pretty much what says on the label
(although I und ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-03-13-the-door-close-button.html)
2023-03-24T00:00:00Z	**2023-03-24 docker**
Lately I tend to stick to topics that are historic by at least twenty years,
and that does have a lot of advantages. But I am supposedly a DevOps
professional, and so I will occasionally indulge in giving DevOps advice... or
at least opinions, which are sort of like advice but with less of a warranty.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about Docker, mostly about their
boneheaded reversal following their boneheaded apology for their boneheaded
decision to eliminate free teams. I don't really care much ... ⌘ [Read more](https://computer.rip/2023-03-24-docker.html)