From: philo@privacy.net   
      
   On 6/30/24 5:18 PM, philo wrote:   
   > I have a drive with a few bad sectors that I have no intention of using   
   > for anything important. I'm always testing operating systems and often   
   > will load and delete several a day...so this drive would be fine for that.   
   >   
   > I zeroed it out using "dd" but before I did so, I looked at all the   
   > options in hdparm .   
   >   
   > One option was to deliberately create a bad sector.   
   >   
   > I imagine this is for some type of testing purposes..   
   >   
   > Just curious as to why someone would want to do that.   
      
      
      
   Interesting point as to my "credentials" and the use of terminology.   
      
   For the past 25 years, I've been repairing computers.   
   At one time I was constantly busy and often had three on the bench at once.   
      
   Because I worked out of my house...I was just an amateur but because I   
   got paid, I could be considered a professional.   
      
   For nine years however, I did volunteer work for an NPO , so wanted to   
   be sure everything I did was legit...so got "certified" and became an MAR.   
      
   Though this type of work would qualify me as a professional, because I   
   was a volunteer...I did not get paid. Anyway...all the computers I   
   refurbished were legal and by the book. No way did I want to get the   
   organization in trouble.   
      
   Kind of interesting though hoe some of their providers "ripped off" this   
   very good, non-profit agency.   
      
   A local outfit, to be nice, provided them with a free server...but still   
   charged them a monthly fee (I think $200). They did absolutely nothing.   
      
   One day their entire system came almost to a halt and their provider   
   said it would be a few weeks before they could get there, I was asked to   
   take a look.   
      
   Every machine in the organization was on the server...at least 25 units.   
   Only 12 were actually used for work.   
   The rest of them I took off the server.   
      
   They were mostly Linux machines I had setup for the members to browse ,   
   etc. ( They required no maintenance other than occasionally having to   
   delete all the .exe malware piled up on the desktop)   
      
   Anyway, with only 12 machines on the server...it was smooth sailing.   
      
   I did return on the weekend to perform all the updates which were never   
   applied and update to unapproved drivers to the correct ones.   
   I also told the director to fire the IT firm, which she did.   
      
   They found another who would only bill them for work done.   
      
   Additionally they were paying $100 a month on a maintenance contract for   
   there video surveillance system. One day it failed and they were called   
   in. The whole thing was running off a Win2k machine..which the company   
   said was unsupported and they did nothing.   
      
   I repaired the computer and told the director to fire the company, which   
   she did. I then had them purchase an entirely new security system for   
   the total price of $200.   
      
   It was considerably better than what they had.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)