Weather Station Equipment

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Mon 03/05/2004 22:51

Manukau heads observer wrote:there is plenty of vunerability in Linux,etc....its just that hackers/virus makers dont target it, becuase its not as popular as window.
you can read all about it on the internet, those sorts of debates.

Mmmmm...a fair bit of MCSE-type FUD there Brian...security through obscurity is not really a trait of those operating systems whose source is completely open. Vulnerabilities are found very quickly, and usually patched before they can be exploited. Nobody waits until they are "outed", before grudgingly releasing a patch when it's already far too late. OpenBSD, for instance, has had one real-world exploitable issue in 8 years, and that was patched within hours of discovery. Linux isn't pretending to be safe because users think the skript kiddies haven't yet discovered it. The plethora of worms and viruses doing the rounds these days don't directly affect OSS systems not because there are so few, but because the malware doesn't interoperate with it. And IE/Outlook/Outlook Express aren't so vulnerable and easily exploited because "most" people use them: it's because they are wide open to attack. As with Windows: XP usershave administrator priviledges by default. Not good.

Still, it doesn't matter. Go with what works for you, I always say.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 03/05/2004 23:04

yes, i know all that, that it can be patched up quickly, etc, but that doesnt mean its not vunerable.
i was just trying to make a point
dont worry about, forget i said anything

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Mon 03/05/2004 23:10

Manukau heads observer wrote:yes, i know all that, that it can be patched up quickly, etc, but that doesnt mean its not vunerable.
i was just trying to make a point
dont worry about, forget i said anything

But it's not just the security issue, and OSS is quantifiably superior in that regard. It's the flexibility and the stability. A remote weather station running Win2k/XP has to have 500 odd MB of OS installed. Just to run an app smaller than a couple of MB. Whereas I can run a useful Linux system from a single floppy disk.

I'm not quite sure why you're getting so upset. I'm not implying that you are in any way deficient for choosing to use Microsoft Windows. I'm simply stating that we've stepped back and viewed the situation and decided that we are far better off using other operating systems. Remember, we're in a whole 'nother environment up there on the mountain. It can be dangerous when things don't work right. So we put our trust in OSS. But really, tomatoes, tomatoes.

Hmmm. That doesn't work when it's written down, huh?!

Manukau heads obs · Mon 03/05/2004 23:27

who said i was upset?
i have a linux box here, which i use for testing various things out.
i was just making conversation, and doesnt worry me that you use linux/etc, good for you, I am pleased.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Thu 06/05/2004 12:09

Whats happened to the "swish" Awhitu weather site

Its still stuck on the 4th at 1610

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Thu 06/05/2004 14:06

I've heard that the phone line is down...

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Thu 06/05/2004 15:38

ricky wrote:I've heard that the phone line is down...

I'm in the same boat. Well, different boat, same ocean. We're transferring our website from a host with the suckiest attitude imaginable, to our own webservers, so the Benmore Peak Observatory site has been down for three days (due to the previous webhost petulantly refusing to provide essential information; it took legal threats to obtain it...). Should be up-and-running again tonight though.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 06/05/2004 17:04

hi
back now
have had no phone for 48 hours
we cant even get a cell phone connection here ( i have had to drive to the top of the hill to get to phone people)

what annoys me about telecom is we were ok, the neighbour was not.
the neighbour complained, then got fixed, we went dead...i.e they gave the neighbour our pair in the cable
or at least so it would seem
anyway, it was a major cable fault, 15 customers or so were affected, and they had to dig under a road to fix it, or at least so i was told

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Thu 06/05/2004 18:57

Manukau heads observer wrote:hi
back now
have had no phone for 48 hours
we cant even get a cell phone connection here ( i have had to drive to the top of the hill to get to phone people)

what annoys me about telecom is we were ok, the neighbour was not.
the neighbour complained, then got fixed, we went dead...i.e they gave the neighbour our pair in the cable
or at least so it would seem
anyway, it was a major cable fault, 15 customers or so were affected, and they had to dig under a road to fix it, or at least so i was told

Why are you always so negative?!

Manukau heads obs · Thu 06/05/2004 19:06

well, must be time for me to leave this forum...i dont want to deal with the stuff Gary dishes out in my direction anymore.
its been fun though (being on this forum)!, I will miss it

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Thu 06/05/2004 22:26

I hope all you Aucklanders dont chuck the towel in that easily.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Thu 06/05/2004 23:49

Don't worry Brian, Garys only joking!!

And what Dean said. Besides, we need all the great weather info that comes from your way! I've noted from your posts in the past that the weather you get sometimes doesn't allways effect Auckland and can be interesting

.

Please, no leaving!!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Fri 07/05/2004 00:09

Aaron J Wilkinson wrote:Don't worry Brian, Garys only joking!!

And what Dean said. Besides, we need all the great weather info that comes from your way! I've noted from your posts in the past that the weather you get sometimes doesn't allways effect Auckland and can be interesting .

Please, no leaving!!

Heh! Brian asked me why I was always so negative in a post a while ago, so I was just getting some light-hearted payback. Oh well. Whatever.