On 10/4/2015 12:03 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 10/04/2015 01:20 AM, Don Y wrote:
giving me a
duplicate, counterfeit copy of the genuine "key"... all using THEIR
tools to do so!

Ooops!

Don't you love that? The IBM 5110 had a way to 'lock' the BASIC source code on
the floppies. They also threw a binary disk editor into the software set. Lemme
see... locked source has these bits in the header set, unlocked doesn't. Bingo!

Yeah. Something about "left hand" and "right hand" and their knowledge of
each other's actions springs to mind! :

I was tasked with bringing up a fairly large bit of ATE on a subcontract to
one of the IBM divisions. Used a "series 1" (IIRC) minicomputer to drive
the test program (used to verify that the device we had built was
performing according to spec).

Test procedure (script of some sort) resided on an 8" floppy.

Many of the tests were incredibly long (time wise) -- e.g., memory test.
As a result, if you ran those tests in the test suite, you were
unable to get many "passes" in an 8 hour shift. And, tedious to
select just *one* particular test (esp if you've made some change
to the device that could cause some other test to fail -- without
your being aware of that fact cuz you're focused on another test!).

System came with facilities to "edit files" (IIRC, similar to a hex editor
as the "script" wasn't in an "English" language). So, I'd routinely
patch the test floppy to eliminate the lengthy tests (that I "knew"
would pass) so i could concentrate on the tests that were catching
faults.

Time for sell-off came. IBM technician came out. Lots of handshakes
all around (they're happy cuz we're done; we're happy cuz we're getting
PAID! : ).

Sat down for the test (hours!). Memory test came up and announced
itself:
Testing memory. Go for coffee.
Technician frowned. Test never said "Go for coffee" before!

Ooops! *Busted*.

He calmly opened his briefcase and pulled out *his* copy of
the floppy and said, "Shall we start, again?"

[No animosity. No suspicion that we were trying to pull a fast
one -- device passed with flying colors. *But*, he'd seen
something that shouldn't have been there, so... shrug Of
course, my boss knew who the "wise guy" had been...]