The first thought that popped into my head when I saw the post title was someone pressing the up arrow 24 times to find that `ls` they used a couple hours prior.
crote · 40m ago
You might be interested in the book "The Cuckoo's Egg"!
It describes how in 1986 the compute time accounting at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was off by 75 cents - literal theft of compute time, in other words. Long story short: it was a hacker in Germany, compromising a large number of US government computer systems in order to spy for the KGB.
Cockbrand · 13m ago
This is an excellent recommendation for an excellent book. As the hackers were German, the hackers' perspective is somewhat well-known in Germany, and it's interesting to learn about both sides.
I just learned that a documentary on this topic with Cliff Stoll exists: The KGB, the Computer and Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHNVNRQTJg - I haven't watched it yet, though.
Arainach · 57m ago
>The lengthened times for showing up at the airport mean that it no longer even makes sense for many people to take shorter flights
Shorter flights should generally be rail anyway.
The math on "no longer makes sense" isn't run, but short flights were never cheaper - the benefit is that I either don't have to pay attention and drive for hours or that I don't need to be on a slower bus for more hours.
It describes how in 1986 the compute time accounting at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was off by 75 cents - literal theft of compute time, in other words. Long story short: it was a hacker in Germany, compromising a large number of US government computer systems in order to spy for the KGB.
I just learned that a documentary on this topic with Cliff Stoll exists: The KGB, the Computer and Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHNVNRQTJg - I haven't watched it yet, though.
Shorter flights should generally be rail anyway.
The math on "no longer makes sense" isn't run, but short flights were never cheaper - the benefit is that I either don't have to pay attention and drive for hours or that I don't need to be on a slower bus for more hours.