Who are you, what do you do?

Happosai · Post by **Happosai** » Sat Feb 23, 2002 8:30 am

I basically manage the content and structure of our department's web site (http://www.BritishCouncil.org/ecs/ -- not that interesting to anyone not involved in eduction promotion to overseas students), internet site, and one or two other sites -- there's some design involved, but within corporate guidelines and templates. I also manage a departmental e-mail mailing list, do general IT support and am in the process of redeveloping the departments administrative database system.[Happosai]

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Sun Feb 24, 2002 2:25 pm

Thanks for the explanation, Andy. I have actually never once accessed this site, or any website that I use for fun, from work; I go to public Internet cafes in my spare time.I hope none of the regulars here were offended when I said I didn't want to be traced; you guys would be perfectly welcome to track me down, if you wanted to. I was thinking about the hundreds of unregistered people who might potentially visit a site; if one of them was a bit unhinged, enough to be unduly offended by an opinion (even something as basic as preferring one pop song to another, for example), I personally wouldn't want to give them a chance to know where I worked!

Post by **AndyThomas** » Sun Feb 24, 2002 2:58 pm

It's a sensible approach to take - were people to put contact details on here I'd generally remove them (and have done in the past). Obviously email is a more direct way to communicate those details if you want to, rather than having them posted in public. I always smile when you see people getting tracked down in 30 seconds flat on TV shows...

Matt Darcy · Post by **Matt Darcy** » Mon Feb 25, 2002 10:02 am

Just for you Andy, I worked on a PKI project. PKI have agreements with most of the UK's ISP. During a test I saw a hack attempt traced to a masquraded IP address,through the IP stack, to the ISP, to the username, to the users home address and telephone number in around 2 minutes. There is a similar company in the states. It is possible if everything is in place. Although after I bought hackers on DVD for £9 from backstar (plug) on Thursday I must say that tracing the hackers in about 30 seconds from a massive monitor with skyscraper like images representing inodes with a magician (Penn from Penn and teller) sitting next to you seems a bit far fetched. Didn't realise Angelina Jolie was in it. I am not a big fan of her, but in hackers whoooooor !!!!!

Post by **AndyThomas** » Mon Feb 25, 2002 10:23 am

Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if the government could do it rapidly in ideal conditions - I suppose it's just a case of being able to punch through the proxy that would normally look like the last stop and then being able to tie the user's IP address to a physical address. But the whole 16-year-old "I can track down anyone on the planet using my 486" is just daft. Mind you, there are of course several non-hacking ways in which you might be able to get general info about someone... Non-techies might be interested to know, BTW, that your e-mail headers give a lot of information. Try sending one to yourself, then finding the option that will display headers or, I don't know, "all info" or something. There's a lot of stuff going on in the background that most people are blissfully unaware of. Here endeth the paranoia

Bradster · Post by **Bradster** » Wed Feb 27, 2002 5:55 am

Okay, everyone, the wait is over...I'm here; I'm here!! Let the bells ring out; I'm here!! :biggrin:First off, I'm in the USA, living in North Carolina. The name's Bradley Warner Smith, but you can just call me Brad. I'm 19 3/4 years old (big 2-0 in May) and working as an IT guy (aka. systems admin) at a charitable organization that I suppose should remain nameless. Last year I attended NC State University majoring in computer science. I'm now taking some time away from my studies but plan to return in the fall.Tinkering in 3D and videography are two of my bigger hobbies. I mainly use Cinema 4D XL 7.3 and Final Cut Pro 3. I'm hoping that I can add just a wee bit of talent to the awesome pool that Nigel and Shane have already formed for Star Fleet modeling and animation.I can program Pascal, C, C++, Objective C/C++, Java, HTML, and a little bit of AppleScript. I can fare well with any unix shell prompt and even *gag* DOS. I'm certainly no 1337 h4x0r, but I can probably find a lot of info about you and can get into most marginally-guarded computers. Yeah, Angelina Jolie is a looker, but she couldn't "hack" her way out of a paper bag.

Most people think it's odd for a big computer geek to use Macintosh computers, as I do, but I challenge anyone to find me something that I can't do on a Mac. With Mac OS X (now a breed of FreeBSD and Mach 3.0) I can run anything a Mac, Unix, or Windows box can. Plus, it's comforting to know that the million bugs and viruses and other general problems of Windows PCs don't apply. You insult my Mac and I'll have your head on a platter faster than you can say "zealot"!(Edited by Bradster at 7:13 am on Feb. 27, 2002)

Bradster · Post by **Bradster** » Wed Feb 27, 2002 6:05 am

Oh, I suppose I probably seem a bit young to remember Star Fleet or X-Bomber or DaiX when it was on the television.Well, the truth is that I am too young!

Okay, it's like this... A childhood friend of mine apparently had rented the Star Fleet videos when he was a young boy. A few years ago he ran across one of those videos in a store and showed it to me. To be frank, I was unimpressed at first. I didn't see why he liked it so much. Over time, he scoured the internet and numerous video stores around the south-eastern US until he had all eight "volumes" of Star Fleet. I sat through them all again and eventually got hooked also.Thus, here I am today.

Post by **AndyThomas** » Wed Feb 27, 2002 8:26 am

Now that's an interesting way to come by the series, I have to say... It seems that the US is the one place where the show's never had a broadcast showing, but conversely the only place that got the series out on video in a convincing way.Oh, and for us limies: fall = autumn!Oh2 - For similar reasons to yourself Brad, I try and avoid standard Microsoft software - particularly Outlook. So I generally have no woes on that front. I had a mate who was seriously into the Archimedes from Acorn which you probably won't have heard of - the company now produces RISC ARM chips. But they were an interesting machine in much the same way as the Mac is - for example, two people could use different parts of the keyboard to control two applications at the same time. My friend ran his WP package while his girlfriend played Snake at the same time! Confusing, but neat...

Matt Darcy · Post by **Matt Darcy** » Wed Feb 27, 2002 3:16 pm

Welcome Brad ,I have family all around the US some in North and South Carolina (not far from the Army Airbase Sumter)I never use MAC's but I have used MAC OS X and agree it is quite an excellent port of FreeBSD with a couple of unique librarys. I am not sure the kernel is available for upgrade quite as easy as linux, and I don't think the kernel is modular like Solaris or HPUX, but other than that it "kicks ass", the other thing was the QT based gui is excllent and I have never seen any computer rival a MAC for video or graphics editing.

GenoGear · Post by **GenoGear** » Fri Mar 22, 2002 7:45 pm

Lets see now.Name: Craig.Age: 22 From: The wonderfull city of NottinghamJob: Diagnostic Imaging (NHS)Likes: Old school cartoons. Such as Robotech, Transformers, Thundercats, Star Fleet and Terrahawks and many more.