Remote

Lorry

@lorry@infosec.exchange

mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.3+glitch

Leading online #policy & #enforcement for 40 years. I left as head of Safety and Advocacy for #OkCupid after 9 years with #MatchGroup where I worked in T&S, data governance, legal compliance, DEI, realistic wellness, and ethics then became a #Whistleblower

Formerly worked in IT Security. Probably the world's first non-US-government hacker-catcher, head of commercial security for British Telecom, 2nd (and longest serving) #IRC Operator outside of Finland - And all that #MUD & #MIST stuff.

Old posts: @Lorry@mstdn.social

Why I left Match Group?

. https://bit.ly/dateinside (BBC Documentary)
. https://bit.ly/okcupid-safety-1
. https://bit.ly/okcupid-safety-2
. https://bit.ly/okcupid-safety-3
. https://bit.ly/dating-site-ripoff

You get the idea!

Old man shouts at clouds:

. First article I wrote online that still exists: 1988
. Oldest email address I use daily: 1989
. First Phrack hate: 1991 (Phrack 35)
. Oldest domain name: 1992
. First academic paper on social media: 1992

1439 Followers

1628 Following

50 Posts

Joined November 12, 2022

My Weblog:

https://superhighwayman.com

Landing Page:

https://untrusted.ca/lorry/

Github (emptyish!):

https://github.com/Hacklet

Gravatar:

https://gravatar.com/lorry

Just my toots:

https://justmytoots.com/@lorry@infosec.exchange

Old mstdn.social toots:

https://justmytoots.com/@lorry@mstdn.social

Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

This is still my favourite personal hackery/security story, and the only one I have ever written about where I am on the naughty-side of the desk. Different times! https://artofsecurity.com/2011/humble #Security #InfoSec #Hacking #DEC #VAX #VMS #Teletype #Blog #History #UniversityofLeicester #FoiledAgain

artofsecurity.com

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· 5mo ago

Since I am on an accidental #nostalgia (naustalgia?) trip in trying to find old #MUD things, this one popped up on my Facebook feed which may amuse the #RetroComputing #VAX #VMS and #History of the #Internet folks.

This was UKNet's office in about 1994-1995

I think there are some #SUN and #SGI machines in there too, there definitely were somewhere.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to on infosec.exchange

@cstross@wandering.shop @jguillaumes@mastodont.cat @jlargentaye@mas.to Leeds University kept some of its DECSystem-10 stuff, or it had last time I was there in 2005. #Leeds #LeedsUniversity

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

A late birthday present. Next time I need to get online on my Apple IIe, I will be well sorted!

#Apple #Computers #RetroComputing #Electronics #AppleII

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to on wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop if you are feeling really brave... RUN ADVENT[42,42] Though you'd have to be really dedicated to retro gaming to want to play it. But at least I installed the #Stanford version that doesn't require caps lock stuck on to play it.

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· 6mo ago

The strangest thing about the #EFF leaving #Twitter is that ... Why the fuck were they still in that #NaziBar !?

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@lproven Ah it's a sad story. I used to do a lot of work in preservation, partly because when I was working on Edinburgh's Tardis program (I think @cstross was on that?) I had to drive around trying to find bits of hardware for maintenance from places like Daresbury Labs, and it was depressing seeing what they were throwing away - And this was in 1990 - But I would take what I could rescue in a van or car, and try to find places to store it. Sadly two of the places were a storage unit, and the back of my land-rover for a while, and the storage unit was broken into and the Land Rover stolen (which is another rant) - So I lost 100% of the offline backups (tapes , listings and game-design notes), including the first Multi User game I wrote on a PRIME in 1984 (and also my first computer dating app in 1983/1984 too!). I had some bits left, mostly the small bits, and I rebuilt a lot of it ( some on https://old.technology the gallery software broke years ago, so there are no proper descriptions ). I gave a bunch of my stuff to Bletchley Park when I moved to Canada, and resisted taking too much away. They had a PERQ there that I desperately wanted to crush and eradicate from history in the car park, but they wouldn't let me. Weirdly, there was a submarine in the car park at the time too - But I am going way off topic :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@cstross the Web link is a direct telnet with the terminal emulator already setup. I decided against direct telnet, mostly so I had control over the terminal settings. 1970s operating systems are not that forgiving of bad setups. https://dec10.uknet.net

dec10.uknet.net

ttyd - Terminal

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sbisson @cstross hummm, it's working for me. In true timeshare operator fashion, I will dig after a cuppa.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@AbramKedge yup! That was UK.AC.ESSEX.KL10. I was the last user on it, apart from Rick, the systems manager, who shut it down for the last time around me checking I'd saved everything for the 30th time. TOPS-10 was a great operating system although I am worried why my muscle memory seems to have remembered #TECO so well.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@hacktopus I can! I am good at quitting 😜 The irony about the price is that's probably about what it's worth now too.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Since the demise of #Radioarchive and the other #Cheops sites, is there anywhere to get some of that old #BBC #Radio4 stuff?

It's kind of ironic that the BBC calls out to people who have preserved their stuff in the past to fill in programme gaps for stuff that they then sell, and yet do their damndest to stop archivists preserving things that have now ended up lost again.

Ever since I lost my old iPod with the 48 hour version of "This Sceptred Isle" on it, I have been trying to find it again. There are plenty of torrents with 0 seeds and no "last seen" info, and I think even the abridged one is gone from Archive.org so unless someone has copies, it's just on its way to becoming yet another lost show, that I partly paid for.

Grrr.

#History of #Britain #UK #Museum #Curation #Collecting #LostMedia #Radio no #Podcast #ThisSceptredIsle

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@bitsavers @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross Lovely :) Funny thing is, I was almost tempted to go the path of exploring the idea of reading the digital information off it with an offset head - But I think at that point I'd (sensibly) convinced myself that it was really just an unreadable 9-track because it was pretty crispy at that point. Also, the chances of the compiler actually being on the tape were very low anyway. User backups are unlikely to have system partitions on them, so it really was a Hail Mary move. I found a photo of the setup I was mostly using, a Microvax something-or-other on top of a DEC TSZ07 (my favourite DEC tape drive, and so the one I kept using, to the detriment of my poor back!). The photo info says this was 16 Nov 2003, so I have a date for that part of the project now, too.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross If you read the weblog post I sent somewhere in this thread, there's a rant about trying to read 7-track PDP-10 tapes that Richard had sent me. I thought I had just about every tape drive, but not that one.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

Feels like this should be in the Entertainment section rather than the Politics one.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11688507/conservative-searches-antifa-federal-government/

#Canada #Politics #AntiFa #RedNexit #CanPoli #Trump #MAGA #MapleMAGA #Globalnews @globalnews@botsin.space

Conservative MP searches for ‘antifa’ in federal government, Canadian Armed Forces - National | Globalnews.ca

Conservative MP searches for ‘antifa’ in federal government, Canadian Armed Forces - National | Globalnews.ca

Federal departments and the Canadian Armed Forces must answer by April how many members of anti-fascist groups work for the public service and the military.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@janeishly @Error417 although I wrote this in 1995, complaining about how shitty the modern Internet had become by then. https://lorry.org/Docs/fod.html

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@janeishly@beige.party @vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net @aaronareed@mastodon.gamedev.place it's funny because as a much more working class lad, I always found Richard to be the snobby and posh one ⚒️

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@rlaimondas It's an A2B0003 Communications Card (Revision 1) - So an RS232 card with a DB-25 port, everything you need to plug a modem into an Apple-II, which didn't come with a serial port because it was designed to be modular. So I was basically saying that if I ever need to use my Apple IIe online, this card will do the job (British slang, "sorted"). It's highly unlikely I ever will, I'd have to find a dial-up Internet service in Canada first :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@WiteWulf Ah, noted - So I will be prepared for an annoying surprise - Though I don't really use the VMS anyway now I have TOPS-10 back. I dunno where I got the license .COM file from, but it looks like I am safe on the VMS end for those: $ show license vax-vms Active licenses on node CALDER: ------- Product ID -------- ---- Rating ----- -- Version -- Product Producer Units Avail Activ Version Release Termination VAX-VMS DEC 0 0 100 0.0 (none) (none) $ I know nobody cares any more, but given that I worked for security within DEC I feel the mild urge to add that I have hundreds of legitimate licenses, and you'd think a huge box of hard grey folders would be easy to find, but nooo :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@WiteWulf Thanks! I found those a few days ago, and a useful .COM to register every single possible license on the machine as well :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@bitsavers @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross I gave it a hell of a try :) I thought I had a 7-track tape somewhere in my pile of junk. Back when I worked in Epidemiology, I spent a lot of time trying to collate patient death data from every health recorder in the UK. They came on everything you can imagine, and I'd become the NHS's go-to tape-and-disk person as a somewhat annoying and unwanted side job for quite a while. But nope, outside an environment where I could just send out a message begging to borrow a 7-track, I was completely buggered. I think it's the first time I have ever truly been defeated by a smug-looking bit of media, daring me to eviscerate it. Mind you, now I know where to borrow a drive! Although by now these tapes are kinda crispy :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@cstross @sbisson it's my fault for trying to force the front end on a machine that is definitely not setup for Web stuff. I'll move the Web parts to a machine I actually look after. The only problem is that I'll kill the Web clients every time I reload the Web server so I might have to put a teeny bit more thought into this once I get it stable because security wise that will leave floating TOPS monitor sessions on connectable lines. For now though, I'll redo the front end. I am far happier managing TOPS-10 than bloody Unix and have been for 40 years.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sbisson @cstross Apparently I'd broken something at the Cloudflare end but it was completely random. It SHOULD be working now. If it's not I will probably have to change front-end software.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Oh that was a #debug win anyway - I hadn't given the games enough privileges to reset themselves. Mind you, who needs a reset game, they are boring!

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@gulfie I worked with a lot of the old Prestel/Micronet/Compunet people in my days at BTnet - There were some great people from that era still hanging around at BT! Compunet ran a very early of MUD (so did Compuserve, confusing isn't it!) on their DecSystem 10s too. #UK #BT #Prestel #Micronet

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

"Two more minutes of that and I'd be wearing a MAGA hat" - Jimmy Kimmel on the People's State of the Union.

He's not wrong, the Democrats are begging to lose if that's the best they can do as their alternative. @MeidasTouch@mstdn.social fucked up there big time; it felt like a high school protest without any of the energy and inspiration.

#StateOfTheUnion #USPol #Trump #Epstein #meidasTouch #Politics #Protest #DNC #Democrats #Useless #JimmyKimmel #PeoplesStateOfTheUnion

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

It won't be long before the Bellamy Salute is back.

#USA #Politics #Fascism #Nazis #FCC #Television #Orwell #Propaganda

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

@Linza@kamu.social I'd love to see what POSTUS's historical record would look like in 350 years, if there are still people or records then.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 9mo ago

Replying to

@cstross@wandering.shop I am avoiding making any Canadian snowbirds quips.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@livcomp @lproven @cstross The best thing about PERQs is that they are a decent shape to drive a large truck over. (Actually, the bee "busy" icon was cool the first time you saw it, but that is it!)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@larsbrinkhoff If you know him, say thanks for me please :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@larsbrinkhoff Yes! I used a lot of his stuff for a shortcut to get the BCPL up and running - He saved me hours (I was going to link him but I forgot his name so thanks for that opportunity). He did a great job with what he was working with, but that MUD was very old, and I don't think Quentin had ever managed any TOPS-10 systems so there were a few paths I didn't take and I built my systems mostly from a cleanish build. But I am very glad he did the legwork with BCPL. These versions of the games have (relatively) much more modern code, and the MUD is V3 which is a combined MUD/VALLEY system and a lot of bugs (and usability) issues fixed. I suspect I also had a lot more support files than he had access to. Quentin's version was also not protected in any way, which, for a live system, I guess I'd have been the person I'd have asked, so that was convenient :D But yeah, I definitely shouldn't diminish how much help his original project was. I will release the tape images to this system when I get everything stable and strain-tested.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@WiteWulf And to be fair to the gods of time... My DecSystem 10 is in 1987 at the moment, since that gets the date and days mostly correct.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@philpem @bitsavers @davebarnes @jguillaumes @cstross copyright isn't really an issue for me on this one :)

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 8mo ago

That's because you aint professional, innit #LinkedIn

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

Hey! That's me!

@warandpeas@mastodon.social @warandpeas@mastodon.social

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ukscone the names ring a bell. Was that "Clive of the yard"?

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

This is where I need #KevinMitnick - Mr #Mitnick had copies of all my legitimate old licenses :) #Hacking #Archives

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@quentinnuk @larsbrinkhoff Ah hiya Quentin. I noticed that back in the day you'd commented on a blog post I made about not being able to find BCPL back in 2012 - I was sending that post to somebody yesterday :) I am not sure if MUD3 (1.3 I guess!) will work on the BCL code you have working, so I will have to update that for you too, I had to do some work on the MBOOTS.MAC and it's tied to different accounts, reflecting the situation after Richard left and it went to the COMPSOC accounts - It's more geared towards running multiple games with different account administrators now though. You need to update anyway because the older sources are dire. I am on 7.03 and no plans to update, but it'll work fine on 7.04 - There are some annoying account quotas need tweaking but I think I got those from a post you made anyway so you know that already. Pop me an email/pm I will package up a .TAP for you of MUD and the new BCL - I will have to tweak a few copyrights just to keep the record accurate; all of mine were as I last edited them in 1991 on the machine. You can try them on https://dec10.uk

ttyd - Terminal

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@rbos @globalnews I'd hope they include the military too!

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@janeishly@beige.party @vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net @aaronareed@mastodon.gamedev.place more seriously, Richard gave a good interview to the Retro Hour Podcast about MUD and the class system a few years ago, there's a version here: https://youtu.be/SJa1AOQJCUo?si=4n9QxinY5ezYYcIC I gave one on the same show a few weeks later more specifically about early Internet, IRC, MUDs and things: https://youtu.be/dBsyZgZxxwQ?si=Br9MiGvR7Uilpm1S (skip the first 30 minutes or so maybe) It was the first interview I'd given since about 1996 and they only talked me into it because they got Richard on, and then Al Lowe the week before me 😎 #retrocomputing #games #gaming #history #mastodon #mud #podcast #uk #internet #interview

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@gulfie Ooh, I thought I knew all the UK games! one to add to my list :) My first one was called MUCK from 1983/1984 running on PRIMOS on a Prime 2250 - It was great, brilliant game-play design (mostly not by me, and Neil Burgess is no longer with us) and I think a pretty innovative multi-user mechanism (I did write that bit :P) - But each move took about 45 seconds, so as people said, it may as well just be a tabletop game that happened to be running on a minicomputer. Humph.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@cstross @sbisson I think it's good now... I have logged out of the front and to stop myself fixing things that need a restart for now.

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 9mo ago

@Mer__edith Do you have an actual Trust & Safety team at @signalapp ?

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Lorry @lorry@infosec.exchange

· 6mo ago

They are calling the bogroll guy "Warehouse Luigi": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpqhREBFIoo

#Luigi #Bogroll #News #EatTheRich

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