Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:08:57 -0400 From: Allen <Unix.Hacker@comcast.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Turning system accounting data into money Message-ID: <4E972939.5030505@comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <20111011222327.6002c397@dijkstra> References: <20111011160619.840c69f8.freebsd@edvax.de> <20111011222327.6002c397@dijkstra>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
*snip* On 10/11/2011 4:23 PM, Christopher J. Ruwe wrote: > Cannot be of any direct help, but ... > > You remember that 'astronomer chases hacker on Berkely computer > systes'- novel, Cliff Stoll: The Cookoo's Egg? If not, try wikipedia. > As an aside, I was told that at some universities' CS-classes, it is > required lecture. In that novel, user's departments where charged > according to resources spent on the university's computers and the > main figure was tasked to find out about a 0.75$ accounting error and > found a hacker instead. The system in the novel was a Berkeley Unix. > So, systems that do what you want (and customers who want to pay on a > per use basis) must be around for quite some time. The novel is > copyrighted 1989, I cannot track when the real event circling around > a certain Markus Hess, cf. also wikipedia, took place. My guess about > the system is 4.3BSD Tahoe or earlier 4.3BSD. > > Cheers, I actually found that book not very long ago at a used book store. It was neat; I went in with my Wife, saw that, started reading the back, saw Berkeley, and bought it. At first I wasn't sure how it would go, but as I kept reading, I started knocking out like 5 chapters at a time, and reading multiple times a day. It was a REALLY good book, and, yea, the Copyright, on mine at least, says "1989" and "1990" but, in the book, he does name years in it. Some of them I know are 1987, and some I think were much earlier, but I don't think any of the time frames he gave were before 1985 or so, but I'd have to check, as I finished it and read the last chapter a while ago. I thought it was funny that a 75 cent accounting error was how they figured out a complete ring of "chaos" lol. And of course, you can't help but laugh at the VMS joke, and, the System V jokes. -Allen
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4E972939.5030505>