@ulveon because people work with very narrow assumptions that are never questioned

such as "everyone has a last name" or "name cannot be a single character" or whatever

Sumcluts Paint services: happily helping you make a mess and clean it right up

good morning

Oh my goodness. I think this is the only place on the internet nerdy enough to help me locate this info.

My parents met on a what was effectively an unofficial chat room hosted by capital radio (London). In the 1980s, Capital Radio used to leave their switchboard open at night (unintentionally, they didn’t realise it was happening) and people would call the regular radio phone and just end up in what was effectively a giant group call for Londoners late at night. (I say Londoners due to the reach of the radio rather than the phone line itself, people wouldn’t know the number unless they listened in).

I understand they changed how the phone system worked later in the 80s and closed this loophole off.

So what I’m after is…
- the nature of the switchboard that allowed this to happen
- what change would have blocked this later on
- any historic info on the period it was left open, or personal accounts.

#radio #capitalradio #phreaking #VintagePhoning #1980s #retrochatroom

The British Library, one of the largest libraries in the world: holds only two dozens of (contemporary) books on pre-1960 computing in theory, had only one actually available out of 5 I requested.

It's quite fascinating how the modern world and the Internet creates the illusion of "every topic you can think of is covered in a lot of detail", but really, if you spend a couple of weeks deeply researching a topic you are curious about, you'll realise that the deep knowledge and deep expertise is quite scarce actually.

And the topic isn't even that obscure! I just want to know more about Ferranti and Manchester U computers from the perspective of contemporaries. That were supposed to be relatively popular and very famous.

There are more materials I'm looking for in Manchester U library, and there could be something in one of the Oxford archives. But it's going to be one expensive research.

🎓 Hoy se realiza la Marcha Federal por la defensa de la Ley de Financiamiento Universitario.

Desde el DebConf26 local team compartimos la invitación de la UNL, haciéndola extensiva a todas las universidades nacionales.

📍 Santa Fe – concentración 17 h en Av. de los 7 Jefes y Bv. Gálvez → acto central a las 18 h en Rectorado UNL.

#UniversidadPública #SantaFe

ftmpeg

being openly queer in public is fun

despite the weirdos

Oh look! It arrived! 😍

Okay so quick recap of all the shit that went down with my travel since Sunday

I was about to take the direct Berlin - Paris ICE (9590) that should arrive in Paris at 19:55 and then switch to a TGV to Rennes at 21:15

But ICE started already delayed, leaving Berlin 20 minutes behind schedule already

Then there was another delay

And an unscheduled stop in Darmstadt to couple another ICE 3 (407) for some reason (it was closed and empty). This stop also took longer than originally expected

Delay got so big that the change was no longer possible, even when running through the Paris metro and getting perfectly timed trains, it takes ~30 minutes to go from Gare de l'Est to Gare Montparnasse. Actual arrival time was 21:40-something anyway

I had to annoy the train manager a few times to let him know that I will be stuck in Paris. Seemed really annoyed but lol whatever. Ultimately he said he'd call SNCF and make an announcement when he knows more. I had my doubts but he actually did like 20 minutes before arrival in Paris, asking passengers with changes to check their email/SMS

And yeah I actually got two emails from SNCF, one saying I am entitled to free accommodation for the night and can pick one of the suggested hotels, other saying that my ticket to Rennes has been rebooked for 6:20am next day

Awesome. I already had fallback to someone ready to give me a couch to sleep on but hotel was much more convenient

In the meantime i write to Interrail support to let them know about all the shit that happened

Got into a free SNCF-sponsored hotel, had a good night, grabbed some food in the morning and went to Gare Montparnasse completely ignoring the 6am rescheduled train.

Went to the ticket office and asked about a new ticket for my train because of a missed connection. SNCF lady seemed a little confused that an ICE from Berlin to Paris even is a thing but looked up some stuff and gave me a new ticket for 11am, no problems with that

And with that train, I finally made it home

And in addition to that, Interrail gave me an extra day on the pass

It was a lot, quite stressful, really anxiety-inducing and messy but ultimately everything worked well and I didn't end up in some horrible situation <3

Looking at Zugfinder, this ICE is usually more-or-less punctual with a delay no longer than 30 minutes (which would still be fine for my connection) but sometimes it just explodes like this and it being the only pair of trains a day… yeah

I think I'll avoid it if possible and next time I'll go with a NightJet to be honest

#SNCF #DB #InterRail #CrossBorderRail #CrossBorderFail