Search feature etc.
TrainableMan,
Ooops, expressed myself badly. Of course the hackers are the baddies and the Web authorities should be much more willing and proactive to stop them.
Hacker are only programers and above to do it. They have the same mental set as burgler, wife beaters etc. who do it because, as the mountainers say, they can.
What I meant to say was that when I began in computing in 1966 on IBM 360 Mainfraims, followed by Midrange it simply did no happen anywhere I worked. There was an intermediate area that the engineers could change instantly if/when it did.
That said, in my office in London's Bond Street, i did a little program that put the red fault light on the machine as it crashed! All standard code it took some finding and isolating to 3 cards.
My old training and testing IBM centre in Wigmore Street, easy walking and they knew me and let me in. Showed them the cards and said "this shuts down my machine".
They came back furious, it shut down their big fully loaded multitasking big one! They had to check me out from fear of it spreading, and soon fixed it.
It is dificult to make systems fail safely, I could tell of pleanty that would make your hair stand on end as mine has.
The best example I know is the Three Mile Island one, I have been in the US, but nowere near this one I know of. The audible alarm systems had no OFF swiches and the totally overwhelming noise in the control room meant migrans and no posibility of comunication. Someone took the ever present Fire Axe and cut the alarms power so they could sort it out. Got told off too for there solution.
My first carreer job was designing boxes to indicate visualy and audibly detected faults - with a silencer button. My managers and trainers took me to the test rig in the 500 men factory under full load, very noisy. The audible devices were audible for three miles in still air. They set me up for the young sucker I was, stood behind me with fingers in ears as I was to to press the first circuit to test. 6 feet from a syren I swear I levitated at the blast! Instant migrain for me.
They died of lauging. When I turned every poor person in the factory was frozen over their dangraous machine and devices. Then they looked up to see it was me, the young idiot in a suit. The factory managaer, an old man who liked me stopped them lynching me
Now I never ever was able to go in the factory again whiout every eye following me.
My next career job saw me forced to work 3 weeks in a factory/powerstation, 18 watertube coal fired boilers for steam and elelctricity. So noisy, I could only just hear the 3 mile in still air syren inside. It was a test of whether I was any good outside an office, but that is a whole now story.
Now you know my secrete, i never could spell and i have not yet put in a spellcheaker. Often wonder if i would have been prime minister if i could spell, but secritaies and computer spell checkers have done me well enough for a wonderfull life and travel with cameras, still, film, and video. This machine to produce Blu-ray and the books.
