15 Oct
2002
15 Oct
'02
5:40 a.m.
Garcia is correct to praise the Hafner/Markoff account
of the worm incident. There were some details about
the kids' accounts and exploits that Markoff decided
to elide; by the time he wrote that chapter he had
become rather sympathetic with the Morris family.
In 1995 another big incident occurred: the exploitation
of the SYN TCP-connection takeover attack (Mitnick
etc.) Markoff got another front-page NYT story out
of this (and a book with Shimomura). I sent mail
to Markoff at the time of the newspaper coverage reminding
him that RTM had discovered the basic attack
in 1985 (see CSTR 117 at
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr.html );
while here during a summer. Markoff replied in part,
Interesting how often RTM figures, one way or another,
in your front-page
stories, and of course the [Cyberpunk] book....
Dennis Ritchie
yes, this is true. you know i sat there on sunday for about ten minutes and
thought about whether i should include rtm in my story - it would obviously
have spiced it up. i finally decided not to on the grounds that 1. i have
done enough to mythologize him for one decade 2. he is probably entitled
not to be dragged through all this again. i still wonder whether i did the
readers a disservice...
Incidentally, "RTM Sr." was (while here) "rhm" by login name,
and always called Bob; I don't think he actually has a middle name (at least
I don't know it.) I think it's like Harry S Truman. RTM
is called Robert, and never used Jr.
About
[Bob] Morris, he said, was the kind of guy who always
liked to tinker with
things, and if an object had buttons, Morris just had to push them.
In fact, sometimes Morris was just a little too quick with his fingers.
On one side of a machine room was the light switch, and on the other
side was the power to the machine.
On at least one occasion, you guessed it -- Morris hit
the wrong switch.
Some people hung a disk pack that got ruined around his neck, and someone
put up a big sign as a reminder: "THIS IS THE WEST WALL!"
I suspect that we may be dealing with the "Schryer filter" regarding
some of the details. Norm S. was right about Bob's being
an aggressive investigator and fiddler, but I don't
connect the west-wall sign with Morris in particular, but my
memory could be failing too. Norman Wilson
might have been around for advent of the sign.
In the event, it had more to do with circuit breakers
labelled in small print "east wall" and "west wall"
and someone choosing the wrong one.
Dennis
15 Oct
15 Oct
6:08 a.m.
New subject: Weinberger stencil? (was: rtm)
On Monday, 14 October 2002 at 23:40:56 -0400, Dennis Ritchie wrote:
Garcia is correct to praise the Hafner/Markoff
account
of the worm incident. There were some details about
the kids' accounts and exploits that Markoff decided
to elide; by the time he wrote that chapter he had
become rather sympathetic with the Morris family.
Interesting stuff. While you're in historic reminiscences mode, can
you shed any light on the "Peter Weinberger stencil" incident? My
understanding of the story, gleaned from multiple sources, is
something like this:
At some point, presumably round the time of the appearance of AT&T's
death star logo, Peter Weinberger was promoted from techie to some
kind of management position. Somebody came across the idea of
making a large stencil of his face in death-star like technology,
and used it to paint an image of him on a nearby water tower.
Allegedly the costs were charged to Peter's department.
Some years later, this stencil arrived in Greg Rose's office in
Australia from an anonymous sender. Greg has a suspicion who the
sender was, but no proof, so he doesn't want to comment. He gave it
to our own Warren Toomey, who still has it in his garage.
At some point, Peter Salus suggested that the image was of Rob Pike,
not of Peter Weinberger, but both Rob and Greg R. have denied this
version.
Things that intrigue me about this story are:
1. Who made the stencil, and why?
2. What was the time frame?
3. Who sent it to Greg Rose, and why?
I suppose that even now it's possible that this information should not
be made public, and I can accept that. But if there is anything which
can be used to fill it in, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only person to
find it interesting.
Greg
--
Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers
6:10 a.m.
New subject: rtm
Hello from Gregg C Levine
minutes and
switch.
From a totally different point of view now: I have here
a copy of
"Cuckoo's Egg", by Cliff Stoll, and his accounts of that
whole business
are interesting. Incidentally that's the book that hatched my interests
in things UNIX. And as it happens, I constantly, perhaps every couple of
months read it. Dennis, did you see my message on when a GUI was first
available with UNIX? If so, please contact me off-list. Or even on-list.
-------------------
Gregg C Levine hansolofalcon(a)worldnet.att.net
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke." Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
-----Original Message-----
From: tuhs-admin(a)minnie.tuhs.org [mailto:tuhs-admin@minnie.tuhs.org]
On
Behalf Of Dennis Ritchie
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:41 PM
To: tuhs(a)minnie.tuhs.org; dmr(a)plan9.bell-labs.com
Subject: [TUHS] Re: rtm
Garcia is correct to praise the Hafner/Markoff account
of the worm incident. There were some details about
the kids' accounts and exploits that Markoff decided
to elide; by the time he wrote that chapter he had
become rather sympathetic with the Morris family.
In 1995 another big incident occurred: the exploitation
of the SYN TCP-connection takeover attack (Mitnick
etc.) Markoff got another front-page NYT story out
of this (and a book with Shimomura). I sent mail
to Markoff at the time of the newspaper coverage reminding
him that RTM had discovered the basic attack
in 1985 (see CSTR 117 at
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr.html );
while here during a summer. Markoff replied in part,
>Interesting how often RTM figures, one way or another, in your
front-page
stories, and of
course the [Cyberpunk] book....
Dennis Ritchie
yes, this is true. you know i sat there on sunday for about ten thought about whether i should include rtm in my
story - it would
obviously
have spiced it up. i finally decided not to on the
grounds that 1. i
have
done enough to mythologize him for one decade 2. he
is probably
entitled
not to be dragged through all this again. i still
wonder whether i
did the
readers a disservice...
Incidentally, "RTM Sr." was (while here) "rhm" by login name,
and always called Bob; I don't think he actually has a middle name (at
least
I don't know it.) I think it's like Harry S
Truman. RTM
is called Robert, and never used Jr.
About
> [Bob] Morris, he said, was the kind of guy who always liked to
tinker with
> things, and if an object had buttons, Morris
just had to push them.
> In fact, sometimes Morris was just a little too quick with his
fingers.
> On one side of a machine room was the light
switch, and on the
other
side was the
power to the machine.
> On at least one occasion, you guessed it -- Morris hit the wrong > Some people hung a disk pack that got ruined
around his neck, and
someone
put up a big
sign as a reminder: "THIS IS THE WEST WALL!"
I suspect that we may be dealing with the "Schryer filter" regarding
some of the details. Norm S. was right about Bob's being
an aggressive investigator and fiddler, but I don't
connect the west-wall sign with Morris in particular, but my
memory could be failing too. Norman Wilson
might have been around for advent of the sign.
In the event, it had more to do with circuit breakers
labelled in small print "east wall" and "west wall"
and someone choosing the wrong one.
Dennis
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Dennis Ritchie -
Greg 'groggy' Lehey -
Gregg C Levine