Sometimes one can go a little too far in search of isolation Welcome to another in The Register's surprisingly long-lived series of Borks and bugs from the UK, Europe and beyond. Today's Bork is an entirely different beast to the BSODs and plaintive error messages of recent times. The computer in question here is just fine and dandy but as Register reader Mat observed "it clearly hasn't …
A few months ago I had a live one wandering around between the layers - very annoying until I noticed that lightly tapping near it made it walk in the opposite direction. It finally disappeared off the visible part of the screen, thank goodness. I have no idea whether or not it's still in there!
I really should have taken a photo last time I flew KLM on a 777 using the older in-flight entertainment systems. On a couple of flights I managed to get Tux to show up whilst the damn thing rebooted.
The newer ones (that use a decent IPS screen rather than the crap FN screens that just needs the person in front to lower their seat and you couldn't see jack all clearly) I've yet to manage get them crap out. Maybe once the planes age abit more, they might get more susceptible to falling over.
The ultimate screen reader, maybe they have some sort of micro-transmitter hidden away to send all your characters and other information back to some greater power somewhere.
When my kids were younger there was a fantastic DVD called G-Force. It featured some guinea pigs doing a mixture of James Bond, Mission Impossible and Charlies Angels. In the film they had various insects with cameras and listening devices. The G-Force guinea pigs had some cool comms kit as well.
A nearby petrol pump has had a very large, very obvious mummified bug carcass behind the screen for ... 7 years? Possibly more. The pump has been inspected with the appropriate stickers/seals multiple times. I guess it's a feature, not a bug.
I am alternately repulsed and somehow impressed.
A pump inspection involves just making sure that the volume it displays and the total monetary value displayed match the amount of fuel dispensed, and that the internals are leak free. Opening the counter mechanism to remove bugs might not even be possible. They're often built more or less sealed and tamper-proof. Likely the inspector doesn't even have the know how and the tools to do so.
My worst bug story was a TV repair in probably 2005/2006. I was called out to a house for a non operational set. I remember stepping into the house and getting a whiff of that smell of cockroaches that you learn to identify if you repair a lot of electronics. I asked the customer if he had a bug problem and he did the typical reply of no.
I remember opening the back of the set and even though the room was lit it seemed overly dark inside the back of the set (LG Rear projection). I turned on my flashlight and it was like the shadows ran away from the bulb and I realized that there was a literal carpet of cockroaches inside the set. What they had left behind on the circuit board was reminiscent of HR Geiger and the Aliens movies (I know also H. R. Geiger but its what flashes through my head when I saw it). I calmly gathered my tools and told the customer it was a full loss and non repairable. He decided to yell at me and called my boss to complain. Sitting down the street I got a call from my boss who was super hot about me walking out of a repair. Not wanting to ever look into the face of crawling horror ever again I replied with a "Listen, if you can fix this thing I will give you back a weeks pay" and standing by since I didn't have a call again for about an hour or so I watched my boss drive by in his van. About 20 minutes after seeing him I receive a call back going "Nope, not even touching that you can keep your paycheck"
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