1 TB USB sticiks

[Jan Panteltje]

For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.

Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,
sort of half expected it to be fake, but writing a 500 GB test file worked,
so spend some time using it to create backups so as to have something that
you can carry with you....
All of my website, email, code I wrote and one old CD after the other..
Write speed is slow, but read speed seems high enough for HD video.
And it fits in my Raspberry Pi4... or any recent Linux laptop.
http://panteltje.com/pub/1TB_USB_stick_closed_IXIMG_0927.JPG
http://panteltje.com/pub/1TB_USB_stick_open_IXIMG_0929.JPG
Old USB socket!

So also discovered all my CD-R I burned back in about 2002, so 21 years ago (for the mamaticians)
still read 100% and mostly at high speed on my LG M-Disc reader....
All optical media is stored in light proof alu box...

I mean I am used to high capacity, have 2 4 TB harddisks and 2 1 TB harddisks in use,
but those suck current, make a little noise too and are relatively big
and fragile (dropping is not good for drives),
but this is really small and you can drop it as often as you like...

Who needs cloud storage? carry it anywhere,
I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...

Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
Anyone know?

[Ed Lee]

Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:31:18 GMT, Jan Panteltje <al...@comet.invalid>
wrote:

We use several-terabyte USB hard drives for backup, roughly $25 per
tbyte. I guess we could cut over to flash sticks and save some storage
volume. A full backup is just under a tB and creeps up over time as we
release more products.

Aren't the flash drives slower to write?

[John Walliker]

He doesn't want it to work in Windows!

John

[whit3rd]

On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> > For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
> > Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.
> >
> > Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,

> > Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
> > Anyone know?

> Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.

NTFS was read-only on MacOS; not recommended for broad compatibility.
Apple redesigned HFS+ into APFS to accomodate big flash drives.
ext4 wasn't aimed at flash storage (has to be handled carefully according to
its erase/wear-out characteristics).
There are patents involved, too.
What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

[Don Y]

NTFS (et al.) should be avoided for "portable" filesystems
(despite the fact that only FAT32 is really portable, nowadays).

While NTFS will support case sensitive file names, most of
the Windows tools won't. So, Makefile and makefile will
compete for whichever name happens to be created first, on
the medium. Ditto README, readme, ReadMe, etc.

Use NTFS if you created the file hierarchy under windows
and expect it to remain there. Think twice before trying
to migrate a hierarchy created elsewhere *to* NTFS!

Likewise, maximum path lengths are an issue with MS tools.
There are often workarounds but expecting a tool (e.g.,
a decompressor) to be able to build an arbitrary file hierarchy
at an arbitrary point *in* the file hierarchy is a recipe for
disappointment. I.e., create an archive with files from:
/some/really/deep/level/of/the/file/system/hierarchy/.../folder
and try to unpack it into:
/some/other/really/deep/level/of/the/file/system/hierarchy/.../folder

[This problem exists regardless as every file system walker has
limits on MAXPATHLEN]

As far as big thumbdrives are concerned? Wait until one quits because
it's not been sufficiently overprovisioned to handle the write-erase
cycles!

If you can tolerate the slower speeds of thumb drives, then a commercial
multiterabyte disk is a no-brainer (~8TB for $120 with sustained write
rates of 100+MB/s)

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 12:00 PM, whit3rd wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>> For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
>>> Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.
>>>
>>> Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,
>
>>> Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
>>> Anyone know?
>
>> Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.
>
> NTFS was read-only on MacOS; not recommended for broad compatibility.

Ditto on NetBSD. OTOH, there are tools that will allow you to read
(mount?) UN*X filesystems under Windows.

Or, access them via a network share, HTTP/FTP server, etc.

[IIRC, Windows has some problems with their SMB implementation
that manifest when you try to hammer on a share -- like copying
a folder (and subfolders) with a few hundred thousand objects
to a new destination]

> Apple redesigned HFS+ into APFS to accomodate big flash drives.
> ext4 wasn't aimed at flash storage (has to be handled carefully according to
> its erase/wear-out characteristics).
> There are patents involved, too.
> What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
> most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

If you treat the medium as R/O, then I've found bundling disk (or
project) images into .ISOs to be an effective way to port them to
other platforms. It preserves case and trims pathlengths (a bit)
but still leaves you vulnerable to client file systems that don't
support the same character sets or preserve case.

VMDKs (and their ilk) are a possible alternative (though not as
widely supported).

[Ricky]

FAT32 has a 4 GB limit on file size, so I format all of my flash drives as exFAT... until I tried to print a file at a office supply store (don't recall which one). It would not read exFAT! WTF??? Talk about the lowest common denominator.

--

Rick C.

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[Carlos E.R.]

On 2023-01-27 21:27, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 3:00:26 PM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:
>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:


>> What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
>> most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

There was a filesystem designed by the media manufacturers (I forgot its
name), which hasn't gained traction. There are problems because they
were still changing the specs and there is no way to know which exact
version the media you have in your hand is using.

> FAT32 has a 4 GB limit on file size, so I format all of my flash drives as exFAT... until I tried to print a file at a office supply store (don't recall which one). It would not read exFAT! WTF??? Talk about the lowest common denominator.

I have TV sets that do not read exFAT. And I may need big files there.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Sylvia Else]

These days I store important stuff, strongly encrypted, on Amazon, with
the advantage that it can be automated, and is off site, so I'm OK even
if the house burns down.

Sylvia.

Sylvia.

[John Walliker]

But will you still have the encryption key if that happens?

John

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 2:43 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> I have TV sets that do not read exFAT. And I may need big files there.

Use the display as a monitor and put an external media server
in place for the stored content. Chances are, the TV won't keep
pace with changes in CODECs over the years, etc. but the
media server likely will (or can be made to, long after
the TV vendor stops supporting your model).

[Carlos E.R.]

I'm actually doing that. It is an old TV set, used with a new digital
tuner. The *new* digital tuner doesn't accept exFAT.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Ricky]

I recall a friend bought a video camera a few years back, and it would stop recording when the file reached 4 GB. LOL!

--

Rick C.

+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 2:54 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
> These days I store important stuff, strongly encrypted, on Amazon, with the
> advantage that it can be automated, and is off site, so I'm OK even if the
> house burns down.

I suspect that, if the house burns down, your files will likely be
the least of your concerns! Will you have the encryption key,
your account details and access to a secure machine to pull down
that content? (how soon?)

We keep thumbdrives with "essentials" on hand -- account numbers,
policy numbers, legal documents, etc. So, they can be accessed
as soon as needed. ("Gee, what was the policy number and contact
info for my homeowner's insurance?")

[Don Y]

It's just a matter of time for ALL consumer kit to "go out of date".
I use HDHomeRuns for tuners -- so not tied to a host computer's
hardware AND accessible "everywhere". And, the "recorder"/tank can
evolve without necessitating new tuner investments.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
<edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
<40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:

Good, that makes it more secure :-)
I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),
I publish here as I know you are a most reliable bunch and won't tell anyone..

Have some simpler ideas, will let you know, suggestions welcome too.
Wanted to put reiserfs on it, but mkreiserfs took very very long, so aborted that, not even sure it supports that size.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:04:23 -0700) it happened Don Y
<blocked...@foo.invalid> wrote in <tr1vrg$1ulct$1...@dont-email.me>:

Yes, HD pictures of all documents also on the USB stick.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 11:00:19 -0800 (PST)) it happened whit3rd
<whi...@gmail.com> wrote in
<5aeb50d5-fed2-4b66...@googlegroups.com>:

This one came with that latest Microsoft filesystem that allows big files
cannot remember the name exFAT?

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:44:04 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<fb6cc11b-c0d7-48e9...@googlegroups.com>:

My terrestrial and satellite receiver boxes will just start a new recording every 4 GB,
on playback it automatically moves to the next directory entry.
It does keep some control file per recording that regulates that.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 08:54:11 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
<syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3ivg3...@mid.individual.net>:

Amazon, Microsoft, all US Big Brother reading everything.
If the house burns down I have this USB stick im my pocket....
:-)

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:58:08 -0800) it happened John Larkin
<jla...@highlandSNIPMEtechnology.com> wrote in
<4j38th953mtiop5d0...@4ax.com>:

These are, I found some compare and tests at tomshardware.com
But this one was so cheap because of the slow write times,
But for writng date from CDs or Bluray and mainly storage use, this is just fine.
For a HD camera recording likely not.
The newer ones mostly seem to have those small USB connectors that fit into you smartphone.
Some also have memory buffers..

[Ricky]

I hope you are able to escape your burning home with pockets.

--

Rick C.

-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Sylvia Else]

Since my data is encrypted before it's sent, good luck to Amazon reading it.

Sylvia.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
<syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3k398...@mid.individual.net>:

Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
But even then they likely see who you communicated with and when.
And where you was at any time from your cellphone
where and what you bought or sold from your bank.
All data sold to the highest bidder of course, to target you with advertising.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 23:53:54 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<9bafa74c-693c-4f2c...@googlegroups.com>:

>> If the house burns down I have this USB stick in my pocket....

>> :-)
>
>I hope you are able to escape your burning home with pockets.

Long time ago I had training in how to handle fires, required with a studio full of artists.

In my upstairs bedroom I created an escape path, even some rope present to let yourself down
USB stick and some other stuff is close to me, fire detectors with alarms on each floor,
tool to open windows..
Downstairs exit is much easier.

But OK if a F35 lands on the house... but then 5 of those from here have just left for Poland
says the news... To help the US Military Industrial Complex make more money burning Ukrainian and Russian lives.

So less F35, more quiet (its a noisy piece of crap, noisy is a sigh of a bad design).

By the time the nukes fall well hide under the table..
?

[Carlos E.R.]

And where do you keep the encryption key and software? :-D

If it is strong encryption, they key has to be big, so not to be kept in
neurones based memory :-DD

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 02:29:10 +0100) it happened "Carlos E.R."
<robin_...@es.invalid> wrote in <6caeajx...@Telcontar.valinor>:

>If it is strong encryption, they key has to be big, so not to be kept in
>neurones based memory :-DD

Right
I have been using Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
for all my accounts
Cannot remember how to spell it either, but google always finds it...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

None of the auto-bots has tried it yet according to my logs.

So I am safe!

[Joe Gwinn]

On Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100, Sylvia Else <syl...@email.invalid>
wrote:

I would also worry about Amazon (or Google) losing the data in an IT
incident. It does happen.

So I'd retain a physical copy on an encrypted thumb drive or the like.
Or have two cloud backup providers. On different continents maybe?

Joe Gwinn

[Joe Gwinn]

Not necessarily. The current approach is to use a very long
passphrase that is easily remembered because it isn't a long string of
random letters.

Being long enough eliminates the need to be complex or random.

MS BitLocker works that way; I assume their competitors do as well.

.<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-device-encryption-overview-windows-10>

Joe Gwinn

[Don Y]

How many of these do you "commit to memory"? And, how good will that
memory be in times of stress?

"Strong secrets" really only work if you don't have many of them.
(because you don't want to reuse ANY of them).

Otherwise, you have to start jotting them down, somewhere.

[whit3rd]

On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 10:43:25 PM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
> <40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:
> >On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:

> >> I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...

> I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
> However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
> then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),

If you compress files first (to increase the info concentration) then XOR,
there won't be as much tolerance; one bit wrong in your XOR standard, though,
will clobber the compression.
To get long multibyte randoms, an old UHF receiver tuned to static will
video-capture a nice hash; a non-repeatable 'seed' to fit a DVD-ROM can
be replicated, and copies kept in multiple sites... and if you don't store
all the instructions for use in the same place, decryption by passers-by is unlikely.

[Don Y]

On 1/28/2023 11:51 AM, whit3rd wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 10:43:25 PM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>> On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
>> <40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:
>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>
>>>> I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...
>
>> I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
>> However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
>> then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),
>
> If you compress files first (to increase the info concentration) then XOR,
> there won't be as much tolerance; one bit wrong in your XOR standard, though,
> will clobber the compression.

Store ISOs and the hashes of their contents. So, if the ISO structure is
munged, you can (potentially) retrieve the individual files within.

My archive takes this approach -- storing hashes of every file in
a separate RDBMS. This allows a script to routinely "patrol" the
archive and verify the contents are 1) accessible and 2) not corrupt.

Additionally, it allows for the rapid identification of likely
duplicates of files (helpful if a file is found to be inaccessible
or corrupt).

(most) Compression leaves you more vulnerable to data loss for small errors.

And, given the storage densities available, today ($/byte), it's almost
a silly exercise.

> To get long multibyte randoms, an old UHF receiver tuned to static will
> video-capture a nice hash; a non-repeatable 'seed' to fit a DVD-ROM can
> be replicated, and copies kept in multiple sites... and if you don't store
> all the instructions for use in the same place, decryption by passers-by is unlikely.

This is the equivalent of a one-time pad. Wonderful at concealing
the contents. But, usually adds considerably to the storage requirement
(for the pad, itself)

[Don Y]

Perhaps an acceptable solution -- if you don't have much "data"
(or, more generally, "content").

Note that information leaks just by the fact that you *have* data
and have chosen to store it on their server. (none of my
neighbors would think to do such a thing; what does that say
about them? you??) And, of course, any names you've chosen
for those "storage entities" can be revealing (BankRecords.tgz,
etc.)

I'd be particularly annoyed at having to store (multiple?) HUGE
tarballs to archive the many TB of stuff I have, here. Just the
bandwidth requirements to move it up and back would be silly!

[Packaging things in smaller units would mean maintaining
multiple secrets.]

[Ricky]

You say that like it's a bad thing. Without advertising, how would you know that you need mouthwash or better clothes, or a new car?

All kidding aside, out economy is consumer based. If we change our habits, the economy goes into a tailspin that is hard to recover from. Look what happened because we stayed home, en masse, and we lost the ability to manufacture semiconductors in adequate numbers. Three years later, we still haven't recovered that knowledge.

Most people don't know the Roman empire collapsed because of a bout with swine flu that resulted in the loss of chariot manufacturing.

--

Rick C.

-+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Sylvia Else]

It would take a breakthrough in number theory related to factorisation
for RSA to be broken. There is no reason to think that the US has
achieved that.

> But even then they likely see who you communicated with and when.

They can see that I communicated with Amazon.

> And where you was at any time from your cellphone
> where and what you bought or sold from your bank.
> All data sold to the highest bidder of course, to target you with advertising.
>

My cell phone tends to sit on my desk. It would be a rare occasion that
I even remember to take it with me when I go out.

Sylvia.

[Sylvia Else]

They're encrypted compressed tar files, broken into numbered pieces
(usually just one, but the initial backup took more space). So I doubt
much could be deduced from the uploaded data.

Sylvia.

[Ricky]

Can you say, supervulnerabletodictionairysearchattacks? Me neither.

I was trying to enter a new password for some work system and it wasn't accepted. The tech guy shows up and I had to show him the password I was entering. He said, "It has to be two words". But it *is* two words. He kept saying "two words". We went around that loop a few times, before I finally realized he meant, words starting with upper case letters!

That's what happens when you put geeks in charge of the geek stuff!

--

Rick C.

+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Ricky]

https://xkcd.com/936/

--

Rick C.

++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Ricky]

When I was responsible for US Government secrets, it was forbidden to write down any combinations to the safes. Now, when I create a new password for my online banking, the tell me to write it down.

WTF???

--

Rick C.

--- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
--- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Ricky]

I obtain a very, very high degree of compression by first, XORing the contents of a file with itself. It will then become very small by compressing through a special program I've written. I've never had anyone be able to figure out how to reverse the process without my zero bit length key. It's very easy to remember this key, without writing it down. This is one of the advantages of modulo 1 arithmetic.

--

Rick C.

--+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
--+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Sylvia Else]

Actually, the RSA private key is also on the server, but is protected by
a long pass phrase which I can remember. So the difficulty of finding
the key is the lower of the difficulty of finding a passphrase that
decrypts the key to something that works, and the difficulty of
factorising the public key.

The former is certainly computationally more feasible than the latter[*]
but still pretty hard, especially as I know better than to use a
combination of birth dates and family names.

I am confident that both Amazon and the NSA have better things to do
with their computational resources, and even for them the computational
effort required would be daunting.

Sylvia.

[*] Given that that's currently regarded as computationally infeasible.

[Don Y]

But malware on your (local) PC could easily intercept that
passphrase. And, because you need to expose that machine to the
outside world, it is possible/likely that it can become infected.

An adversary could then access and examine your data without
your ever being aware of it. Potentially even as you later
*update* it!

Had all of your "content" been local -- and backed up locally -- then
you could eliminate the possibility of a malware infestation compromising
ANY of it.

Here, it is rather unlikely that an adversary would gain physical access
to my possessions AND LEAVE NO TRACE of having done so. ("Let's just
take a peek at his files...")

[Ricky]

I find it very hard to crack a key based on family names, as long as it's the right family. Morticia, Gomez, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Lurch. Not your everyday family names. Then there's Lebachiaceae, Voltziaceae, Palissyaceae, etc... Then there's Pandalidae, my favorite!

What are your family names?

--

Rick C.

-+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Don Y]

On 1/28/2023 5:01 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
>> I'd be particularly annoyed at having to store (multiple?) HUGE
>> tarballs to archive the many TB of stuff I have, here.  Just the
>> bandwidth requirements to move it up and back would be silly!
>>
>> [Packaging things in smaller units would mean maintaining
>> multiple secrets.]
>
> They're encrypted compressed tar files, broken into numbered pieces (usually
> just one, but the initial backup took more space). So I doubt much could be
> deduced from the uploaded data.

So, to recover anything, you have to pull the entire thing down?

[Sylvia Else]

Each day's backup is self contained. I retain information about the
dates that individual files were backed-up, so it's not necessary to
retrieve the entire backup repository to restore something that has been
lost, just the compressed encrypted split tar files for that date.

That metadata is held locally, so if the house burns down, the entire
thing needs to be restored, but in that event that is what would be
required anyway.

I'm not in the video making business, so I don't have terabytes of data
to backup.

Sylvia

[Don Y]

It doesn't take "video" to run through lots of bytes.

My music collection is approaching a terabyte (largely
because of a lot of content encoded lossless).

I have 500GB+ of "technical papers" that I've accumulated
from various sources, over the years.

I probably have three times that in 3D and CAD models.

Note that I don't bother archiving "collections" for which
I have the original source media (e.g., clipart) as I can
always recopy them onto a new system disk, as needed.

I image each system after a project is complete. This lets
me restore that system image at a later date if followup work
is required on a project. The OS, applications, datasheets,
schematics, artwork, source code, etc. and each of their
versioning histories can easily exceed 500GB, depending on
what applications I might have needed for the project. This
has saved some clients' asses when they mindlessly upgraded
their toolchains and discovered that the newer versions didn't
recognize work done with older versions ("Don, do you happen
to still have...")

[It's also a win, for me, as I'm not "stuck" trying to maintain
something that the client has changed in the interim since I
released it. I can simply roll back everything to the point
at which I "finished" it]

Memory is cheap. It is silly to try to skimp. 8TB (consumer)
drives are $120. Buy two -- in case one shits the bed.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 10:51:09 -0800 (PST)) it happened whit3rd
<whi...@gmail.com> wrote in
<930273d9-debe-48e0...@googlegroups.com>:

My idea was to avdoid any random, but use a function (some sort of) that I can
use to decrypt the XORed stick.

As such a function I can, if I really need he backup, write on any computa.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 15:54:15 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<4b91c267-fbd3-4205...@googlegroups.com>:

>On Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7:59:43 AM UTC-4, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>> On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else

>> Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
>> But even then they likely see who you communicated with and when.
>> And where you was at any time from your cellphone
>> where and what you bought or sold from your bank.
>> All data sold to the highest bidder of course, to target you with advertising.
>
>You
>say that like it's a bad thing. Without advertising, how would you know
>that you need mouthwash or better clothes, or a new car?

LOL

>All kidding aside, out economy is consumer based. If we change our habits,
>the economy goes into a tailspin that is hard to recover from. Look what happened
>because we stayed home, en masse, and we lost the ability to manufacture
>semiconductors in adequate numbers. Three years later, we still haven't
>recovered that knowledge.

Yea, well US mafia . sanctions.. basically US is a big weapon factory and
its game is to create wars so it can sell weapons.
So side effect of capitalism.
Wars elsewhere of course, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Ukrain, Afghanistan ..
again and again....
And basically given its own people weapons so they can start shooting each other
from 6 years old shooting their teacher to again and again mass-shootings all over the country.
police kicking innocent people to death,,
Civilization as we know it? Not in the US!!!!
So what will stop this?
Global nuclear war, more and more countries now unite against that US weapon seller,
and under the table you will eventually have to hide when it rains nukes.

>Most people don't know the Roman empire collapsed because of a bout with swine
>flu that resulted in the loss of chariot manufacturing.

Well after Caesar its army was no longer any good, uprising of the slaves,
Nero playing the fiddle when Rome burned... an empire in decline
Carthage must be destroyed..
It says that last fact triggered the decline later, same as now US sanctions on China etc..
https://academic.oup.com/book/850/chapter-abstract/135458607?redirectedFrom=fulltext
have not read it, first link google found
I was sort of interested in these things in school times.
Europe took hundreds of years to recover..
So, as history has this habit of repeating itself, here is your future.
Also we see many times after some epidemic large wars happen.
The doomsday clock just made some noise first boing? ..
I say 2024 WW3

[Jan Panteltje]

>On 28-Jan-23 10:55 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>> On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
>> <syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3k398...@mid.individual.net>:
>>
>>> On 28-Jan-23 5:39 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:

>> Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
>
>It would take a breakthrough in number theory related to factorisation
>for RSA to be broken. There is no reason to think that the US has
>achieved that.

There is a lot to do about quantum computers, I know they have some.
No idea if it can break RSA in a flash,
When sci.crypt was still alive there were interesting postings about that,

>My cell phone tends to sit on my desk. It would be a rare occasion that
>I even remember to take it with me when I go out.

I usualy carry at least one phone with me, more often 2, one smartphone,
nice to take pictures.... record things.

[Ricky]

You have a bizarre obsession with the US military spending.

2021 US GDP - $23 trillion
2021 US Consumer Spending - $14 trillion
2021 US Military Spending - $0.8 trillion

So you think the US economy is all about the military.

You are clearly a psycho.

--

Rick C.

-++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2023-01-28 02:44, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 5:45:29 PM UTC-4, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-01-27 21:27, Ricky wrote:
>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 3:00:26 PM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:

>>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
>>>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>
>>

>>>> What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
>>>> most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.
>> There was a filesystem designed by the media manufacturers (I forgot its
>> name), which hasn't gained traction. There are problems because they
>> were still changing the specs and there is no way to know which exact
>> version the media you have in your hand is using.
>>> FAT32 has a 4 GB limit on file size, so I format all of my flash drives as exFAT... until I tried to print a file at a office supply store (don't recall which one). It would not read exFAT! WTF??? Talk about the lowest common denominator.
>> I have TV sets that do not read exFAT. And I may need big files there.
>>

>
> I recall a friend bought a video camera a few years back, and it would stop recording when the file reached 4 GB. LOL!

Which is simply sloppy software.

If the camera knows it is writing to FAT (whatever version of it) and
knows there is a size limitation, it should code around that by changing
to a different file every 4 GiB.

If things were done properly, that video camera vendor should be in prison.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:50:54 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<e0c257a3-c6eb-4321...@googlegroups.com>:

You look at the wrong thing
Look for what US sold
relative to other stuff they sold
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/exports
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/exportshttps://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/exports
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-arms-exports-up-11-fiscal-2022-official-says-2023-01-25/
https://www.state.gov/fiscal-year-2022-u-s-arms-transfers-and-defense-trade/

all exports go down, nobody wants US stuff, China is better and cheaper.. more value for money.
So they attack China and Europe and others by making war there
and forcing EU to give weapons to Ukrain and then buy new US ones.
Only mil exports went up!
US just a bad weapons manufacturer sucking the US taxpayer (its own people) many of who now are homeless,
a bunch of war criminals with Biden and sun as their puppet.
Its infrastructure failing, its police criminals, large part of US population drug addicted.

No Empire Yet lasted!
So Aztec pyramids, Statute of gibberish, Skyscrapers...
dug up perhaps (if humming beans persist) aeones from now...
Planet of the apes..... comes to mind.
Turning black, lower aeons, not a change against the rest of the world.
I will watch the documentary when back on my Ohm planet
The Fall Of The US Empire
What's the difference between Nero fiddling and Trump Twittering?
History, my friends, IS repeating itself.

[Carlos E.R.]

As long as you use integer math, and words of the same size.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[John Walliker]

If you want to avoid weaknesses in your random data due to unrecognised
systematic effects, then you can make a great improvement by XORing several
different random number streams that originate from different kinds of source.

John

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sun, 29 Jan 2023 11:15:07 +0100) it happened "Carlos E.R."
<robin_...@es.invalid> wrote in <bithajx...@Telcontar.valinor>:

Sure
Even a small Microchip PIC with RS232 interface running asm code I wrote could be a key...
Could XOR it with PreCedent ByeThen's top secret papers too.... There must be enough for 1 TB ;-)
Or his son's laptop hardisk disk..

[Don Y]

On 1/28/2023 4:58 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
>>> Since my data is encrypted before it's sent, good luck to Amazon reading it.
>>

>> Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
>
> It would take a breakthrough in number theory related to factorisation for RSA
> to be broken. There is no reason to think that the US has achieved that.

Or, for <someone> to install a keylogger on your computer and
wait until you access the data -- cheerfully capturing your
300 character passphrase in the process.

You don't attack the encryption; you attack the user of the
encryption.

A colleague used to poo-poo my avoidance of ecommerce relying on
arguments like "you'd have to have a supercomputer to break that
(48 bit, at the time) encryption (for the secure link)." It
never occurred to him that malware on his computer would have access
to the plaintext of all of his transactions! ("Hmmm... how is
encryption going to protect you, there?")

We have a dedicated laptop for all our ecommerce (banking, etc.)
uses. It doesn't handle mail, isn't used to browse the web, etc.
And, reloads the disk image each boot (so no persistent store).

If you rely on any external services, then you have to expose your
machine(s) to that outside world and discipline yourself to keep
them all secure (against even zero-day exploits). Most people
rely on convenience so end up exposing machines that are used
to handle sensitive material, needlessly.

> My cell phone tends to sit on my desk. It would be a rare occasion that I even
> remember to take it with me when I go out.

As does ours. But, no idea what the car reveals and to whom.
Plus, every time we use a credit card or membership card at
a store, etc. A more determined tracker (e.g., police)
could likely pick up visual imagery from the innumerable
stationary video cameras scattered around.

ObChuckle: My sister suspected her husband of some "dallying".
Looking at his phone bill (that she would routinely pay as part
of their division of labor), she could see calls DURING WORK HOURS
that were handled by cell towers located in cities other than where
his DESK was located! (ooops!) And, as he was addicted to his
phone, you could see him traveling from town to town making different
calls in rapid succession -- and deduce his eventual endpoint.
Along with the number of days of work he was missing!

[Towns, back east, are relatively close together so a 10 mile
drive could have you passing through 5 different towns and each
cell tower identifying itself as being in said towns]

[Ricky]

Let he who has not sinned...

--

Rick C.

+-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Ricky]

I think you spend your life looking at the wrong things. I feel for you.

--

Rick C.

+-+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Don Y]

On 1/28/2023 5:11 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> Which is simply sloppy software.

Depends on the vintage. Would you fault FAT12 for not being able
to store 1GB files? Or, a developer who targets that medium as
the "medium of exchange"?

Why do we still see 2GB limits on partitions in some systems?
Why can't I set the date on my PC to a date before 1990 or
after 2099?

> If the camera knows it is writing to FAT (whatever version of it) and knows
> there is a size limitation, it should code around that by changing to a
> different file every 4 GiB.

What if you are shooting RAW and have an 8GB file?

> If things were done properly, that video camera vendor should be in prison.

No, his product should find few buyers THAT ARE CONCERNED WITH THIS ISSUE.

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2023-01-29 19:11, Don Y wrote:
> On 1/28/2023 5:11 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> Which is simply sloppy software.
>
> Depends on the vintage.  Would you fault FAT12 for not being able
> to store 1GB files?  Or, a developer who targets that medium as
> the "medium of exchange"?

I a have a TV recorder box that can write unlimited long movies. An old
thing.

>
> Why do we still see 2GB limits on partitions in some systems?
> Why can't I set the date on my PC to a date before 1990 or
> after 2099?
>
>> If the camera knows it is writing to FAT (whatever version of it) and
>> knows there is a size limitation, it should code around that by
>> changing to a different file every 4 GiB.
>
> What if you are shooting RAW and have an 8GB file?

Split it.

>
>> If things were done properly, that video camera vendor should be in
>> prison.
>
> No, his product should find few buyers THAT ARE CONCERNED WITH THIS ISSUE.
>

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Don Y]

On 1/29/2023 11:39 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2023-01-29 19:11, Don Y wrote:
>> On 1/28/2023 5:11 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>> Which is simply sloppy software.
>>
>> Depends on the vintage.  Would you fault FAT12 for not being able
>> to store 1GB files?  Or, a developer who targets that medium as
>> the "medium of exchange"?
>
> I a have a TV recorder box that can write unlimited long movies. An old thing.

On what media? Can I store a 200TB video stream? Will it prompt me
to install a new disk when the one contained within is full?

There are always limits. You (as a designer) pick the limits that
seem most appropriate for your customers -- aware that every
limit has costs (in convenience, usage, development effort, etc.)

>> Why do we still see 2GB limits on partitions in some systems?
>> Why can't I set the date on my PC to a date before 1990 or
>> after 2099?
>>
>>> If the camera knows it is writing to FAT (whatever version of it) and knows
>>> there is a size limitation, it should code around that by changing to a
>>> different file every 4 GiB.
>>
>> What if you are shooting RAW and have an 8GB file?
>
> Split it.

Is there an industry standard way of splitting it and reassembling it?
Or, do you expect each camera to have a list of "supported photo-processing
applications" with which it works?

If you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with RAW formats, you quickly
learn that there's NO standard. Better hope the camera on which it was
shot is "supported" by your toolchain!

Folks started shooting in RED ~15 years ago. That's nominally a TB for
2 hours of video (note that a film requires far more video than the
post-processed "final product"). What sort of data densities/capacities
are they using today? Will a mini-mag only support 30 minutes of video?
Will your workstation need dozens of TB of scratch storage for the post
processing/review?

Where are you (as a developer) "safe" in your assumptions as to limits?

[Sylvia Else]

On 30-Jan-23 2:48 am, Don Y wrote:
> On 1/28/2023 4:58 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
>>>> Since my data is encrypted before it's sent, good luck to Amazon
>>>> reading it.
>>>
>>> Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
>>
>> It would take a breakthrough in number theory related to factorisation
>> for RSA to be broken. There is no reason to think that the US has
>> achieved that.
>
> Or, for <someone> to install a keylogger on your computer and
> wait until you access the data -- cheerfully capturing your
> 300 character passphrase in the process.

If they can do that, they can probably access the files directly,
without bothering with my backups. In addition, there's much more
interesting stuff at stake that the source code various programs I've
written, letters of complaint to the government, etc. My internet
banking password, for one.

Sylvia.

[Sylvia Else]

On 29-Jan-23 7:01 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>> On 28-Jan-23 10:55 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>> On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
>>> <syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3k398...@mid.individual.net>:
>>>
>>>> On 28-Jan-23 5:39 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>
>>> Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
>>
>> It would take a breakthrough in number theory related to factorisation
>> for RSA to be broken. There is no reason to think that the US has
>> achieved that.
>
> There is a lot to do about quantum computers, I know they have some.
> No idea if it can break RSA in a flash,

There is an quantum computer algorithm (Shore's algorithm) for
addressing the factorisation problem, and it's supposedly been
demonstrated on a few very small numbers, but quantum computers have
nowhere near advanced far enough to make them able to tackle realistic
RSA keys, and it's not just a question of having enough money to build a
big quantum computer.

There are alternative encryption schemes not vulnerable to Shore's
algorithm, but that's a problem for the future

Sylvia.

[Don Y]

They don't *know* what to go looking for -- so, go looking for everything they
can access.

Compromise AWS's security and everything there is exposed.
Do you think they will decide that *your* files are not
significant ("Who are you?").

Chances are, human eyes won't examine them as there would be
far too much to parse (you being one of N clients). So,
<something> will decide what is worth pursuing and what isn't.

[data files with no giveaway "hints" as to content would likely
be not worth the effort. But, most file have internal hints
as to their form and likely content. Else file(1) wouldn't
work...]

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sun, 29 Jan 2023 09:27:07 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<3960197d-4751-4b5d...@googlegroups.com>:

Would you lend money to a country that only made losses in the last 50 years
and as has an ever growing debt, but holds the world in its mafia claws with nukes?
NATO protection... mafia protection... what's new.
Burn Ukrainians for weapon sales.
And now Israel destroying houses of Palestinians, killing many.. there ultra right club
now begs US mafia for help.
These days everybody and their cat has nukes, and the trigger is easily pulled
even accidently and hard to know who nuked who without some scientific analysis
and then in the 30 minutes or so for ICBMs to launch there is no time for that
and the ping-pong of nukes between continents starts.

Add some climate change.. no more electricity.... no more oil, no more gas
how many will survive and where? Flooding, storms..
back to nature?
US dollar is over-valued... world will move to a different currency...