The Adventures Of Hax0r Man Chapter 6 Hax0r Man goes on IRC by LateBlt The Internet is a global network full of people from all walks of life. Some people say that if you know where to look, you can find anything on the Internet. Anything. The Internet is therefore a logical place to look for information, the most widely-traded commodity online. And so, Hax0r Man reasons, it is a good place for him to go when he wants to find something out, which is what he wants to do right now. Hax0r Man has a computer which is not behaving reliably. Every now and then, it seems to just freeze up and stop doing anything at all. This is not uncommon among computers, but Hax0r Man figures that there is a guru out there who can provide him some direction. Hax0r Man is keenly aware that no matter how good a person is, there is always going to be someone out there who's better. He's sure that somewhere on the Internet is someone who knows a lot more than he does, even if he's never met such a person yet. It's been a long time since Hax0r Man was on IRC. The last time he went there must have been at least 3 hours ago. But he decides now might be a good time to check back in there, and see if he can find anyone who still remembers him. Even if he can't, maybe he can find someone who can help with his problem. Hax0r Man decides to try deveral different channels and paste his question into all of them to maximize his potential of getting responses. He signs on to #computers, #computing, #computerfreaks, #computerusers, #computerhackers, #computerproblems, #computertroubleshooting, #hack, #hacking, #hackers, #hax0rs, #hax0ring, #hackerswhoarebetterthanyou, #geeks, #help, #helpdesk, #assistance, #wecansolveanyproblem, and #cybersex. Hax0r Man isn't actually going to ask his question in the latter channel, but he figures he might find some interesting conversation or goings-on there anyway. In all the other channels, Hax0r Man pastes the following text, ever mindful that IRCers who field tech-support questions prefer to have plenty of information so that they don't have to proceed to grill that information out of the user: I have a computer motherboard which is experiencing periodical freezes and reboots. It's possible that there may be some power jitter, but it has a 47uF tantalum capacitor to filter the input stream. Does anyone think that might not be enough? I can switch to a 470uF electrolytic, but it doesn't seem like that should be necessary. I'm wondering if there might be some kind of race condition on the CPU's ring counter as well, since the clock inputs to each flip-flop don't seem to be arriving perfectly in sync. There are six outputs on the counter, and each is driven by a 74LS107 J/K flip-flop IC; the clock seems to be well within tolerance if I look at it on a logic analyzer, but maybe out of every few million cycles, there's one that arrives out of sync with the rest. What do you folks think? The other possibility is that my operating system's handling of interrupts is hosed, but I don't really want to go there yet until I'm sure that the hardware bugs have been ironed out. All is silent on the channels for a moment; presumably, people are reading Hax0r Man's question. Then the responses start to flood in. On #computers: Hax whats ur os On #hacking: hax0r wtf does that have to do with hacking? On #help: lol what r u talking about man ...And a host of similar responses. Hax0r Man responds to these queries as best he can: On #computers: wamford: Well, it doesn't actually have a name. On #hacking: devleet: It's computer hacking, no? Designing circuits and code. What's not to hack about that? On #help: grepper: I'm talking about exactly what I just typed. The responses are disappointing: On #computers: it doesn't have a name? what shows on the screen when u boot up? On #hacking: it has nothing to do with security On #help: >>> You have been kicked off #help by grepper (speak english please) Hax0r Man begins to get the feeling that out of all the people he's fielding conversations with, exactly zero of them have any clue what either he or they are talking about. He tries to respond as politely as he can: On #computers: This machine doesn't actually have a screen yet, I'm just using my oscilloscope and logic analyzer to watch what's going on. On #hacking: Neither does hacking, necessarily. Hacking is about doing smart things and knowing what you're doing. It doesn't have to have anything to do with security. Hax0r Man is promptly kicked from #hacking for knowing what the word "hacking" actually means, leaving his only remaining active conversation in #computers: hax why not plug a monitor into your box? wamford: Well, I guess mainly because there's no place to plug one in. you dont have a video card? Nope. hah then ur box wouldnt actually boot pcs need some kind of video card or the bios will not boot That depends on the BIOS. I made mine so that it didn't require the presence of any video adapter. you sure? cuz even if you have no monitor plugged in (which is ok) there still usually needs to be some video system for the machine to boot On a typical PC, yes. But I made this one to not require a video system. ok, but you mentioned you're running an OS. Who makes your operating system? it must have a name I made it. I haven't named it yet, so it doesn't have a name. Would you like to name it for me? Actually, I'll do it right now: I call my OS wamfordOS. Are you happy now? That's the name of my operating system. Is the name of my OS actually relevant to my question? uhhh... you made your own os? That is correct. lol rofl lmao Hax do u really expect us to know how your os works if you made it yourself? obviously none of us have ever seen it No, but that was only part of my question, and it was a part that I didn't actually want to get into right now. Does anyone have any insights regarding my filter capacitor or possible race condition? i seriously have no idea what youre talking about dude :) who makes your mobo? I made it. roflmao hax, i dont know if ur telling the truth or not, but even if you are, your still crazy >>> You have been kicked off #computers by wamford (lame) Hax0r Man is disappointed. Perhaps the Internet is not the fountain of information and understanding that he's often told it's supposed to be. Signing off IRC, Hax0r Man proceeds to fix his own problem and add many IRC users to his "People to kill" list. /quit