Posts by Sparkypatrick

Russian oligarch's financial network crashed thanks to a crank and a cleaner

Re: Why would you blame the cleaners?

I trust the round pin socket (for 15A unfused plug) was not on a ring main.

Elon Musk wants to build 50 times more chips than the world currently produces, using 'new physics'

Don't mention the Borg.

In Musk's dream of an ideal future, we are the Borg.

While you're here, could you go out of your way to do an impossible job?

1. SOX absolutely will apply to all subsidiaries anywhere of American companies it applies to.

2. SOX relates to financial controls, so how warehouse employees log in is unlikely to be in scope.

3. If that password list contained the credentials of anyone with access to financial data, it was almost certainly a violation.

Blustering Blackbeard's PC was all at sea, sysadmin got him shipshape in seconds

Jolly by name, Jolly by nature.

Fake job applications pack malware that kills endpoint detection before stealing data

I think you meant a very expensive case.

Re: do not open random files from strangers

Not fixed, as that isn't what happens. Using a full stop in a file name is an allowed character. Only the part after the last full stop is an extension. MyMalware.docx.exe will appear as MyMalware.docx if file extensions are hidden. An intelligent person with an understanding of file extensions might immediately wonder why that file is the only one displaying it. One with no understanding of them is going to click on what ever they received regardless.

Re: hide file extensions y/n

The reason for leaving the default setting at hiding the file extension is that if you don't, you will end up with a large number of files with no extension and users that have no idea when asked, what the file should open with. And a few with the wrong extension. This will swamp your helldesk.

There are plenty of mail security products that will open attachments in a sandbox and record activity. They can tell if a .docx is really an exe and block it. You can stop malicious attachments, but this seems to be the HR drones downloading files from links. What org these days doesn't get so many CVs that they can't just ignore any application that doesn't attach it? Or for that matter, allows access to cloud storage not under their control?

Engineer held hostage by client who asked for the wrong fix

Re: Outrageous

Toxicity is only relevant in case of passing exposure while exiting. Flooding a room with Halon suppresses a fire by depriving it of oxygen. It will have the same effect on a person, which is why it should not be deployed until the room is clear of people. Unless you consider the hardware more important than the wetware.

Final step to put new website into production deleted it instead

Safeway Inc opened stores in the UK in the 60s. In the 80s they sold the UK business to the Argyll Group, who owned Presto. The Presto stores were rebranded as Safeway or sold off to Spar. The chain struggled and was eventually bought out by Morrisons - a Northern England brand that wanted to expand South.*

*Not exclusively South. I have shopped in a Safeway in Kirkwall (Orkney). Can't get much further North in the UK, unless they had a branch in Shetland.

Assuming it's a UK chain, Tesco. Their website notably combines online groceries and a range of other household goods (often from third parties) delivered separately.

Techie's one ring brought darkness by shorting a server

Re: "Steven" is lucky he's still alive

Batteries are pretty standard, but pins aren't always. Had a strap that could not be repaired for want of an unusual-sized pin. Even if you don't fix it now, I'd get that pin if you can - unless you're sure it's a really common type.

Britain goes shopping for a rapid-fire missile to help Ukraine hit back

Re: Shit show likely

Only if enough useful parts can be stripped off it to make something that works. The way to approach this is like the Ukrainian homegrown missile based around end of life Soviet era jet engines, used both there and around the developing world. Only having a remaining service life of a few hundred miles is scrap for an aircraft engine, but fine for a vehicle with no planned return journey.

Hopefully someone can get similarly inventive.

Re: Starmer sabotages peace process

1. 'Playing Donny for a sucker' has nothing to do with military capability. It's about convincing the orange one that they are serious about seeking a peaceful resolution - or more likely, making sufficiently believable noises that he can pretend they are.

2. Russia and Spain may have similar sized economies, but Russia spends 7.1% of GDP compared to Spain's 1.4%. That's $149 billion vs $25.6 billion. Every year. That gives quite a different capacity.

Re: The Cynic's View

The UK MoD might well do that. In the meantime, the original spec kit can be sold to the Ukranian MoD as is and as intended.

Cornish recycling drive sows confusion among Reg Standards Bureau

Nice try.

Quite amusing story, but only holds up when written down. And even then requires a misspelling. Cornish Pasty, burlesque pastie. Pastie pronounced like paste, i.e. the adhesive used to attach it. So not really to be confused in spoken conversation. And yes, in NI a pasty is a pastie, but the pronunciation is (basically) the same.

Seven years later, Airbus is still trying to kick its Microsoft habit

Re: Toys for all the boys

OneDrive Files-On-Demand only syncs the files as needed - stay in the cloud otherwise, unless specifically marked to always retain a local copy. Also sounds like you might want to look at FSLogix for profile management.

BOFH: You know something's up when the suits want to spend money

Re: "An early play of the Health and Safety wildcard."

Indeed. I had a support zombie from MS cite GDPR as to why he couldn't just message me on Teams instead of endless emails.

Techie ran up $40,000 bill trying to download a driver

Those people affected on Three, by any chance. Had this issue with them on a ferry. Roaming on, as my contract included UK and France. No idea the maritime network existed, let alone that my phone would connect to it.

That time wasn't a big deal - a couple of quid and they refunded it. The next time, I was in Alaska on a cruise. The US was also in my plan, so roaming was on and my phone obviously decided to start syncing back my photos from the trip. Didn't turn it off when back on board and at some point in the night, it dropped the US signal (boat wasn't moving) and switched to maritime. Despite a £10 spend limit set, ran up a £400 bill. They dropped it to £200, but you can bet I am no longer a Three customer!

New boss took charge of project code and sent two billion unwanted emails

Think 'Leeson'. Or at least, I did.

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease

ITunes is basically dead. If you thought it was bad, try its replacement. The Apple Music app clearly only supports anything other than their streaming service grudgingly (and very badly).

Who gets a Mac at work? Here's how companies decide

Cultural reference explainer.

Trigger's broom is a reference to a gag in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses (very popular series for some reason). Trigger is a slightly dim character, who says he has had the same broom for 20 years. During which time it has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles.

I believe the US equivalent is grandpa's axe.

'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident

Just the fax, ma'am.

Workers: Yes, RTO makes sense. No, we’re not going to do it

Re: Chocolate and orange juice

Chocolate and orange is a pretty common combination.

Examples:

Terry's Chocolate Orange (It's not Terry's, it's mine!)

Green & Blacks Maya Gold

Pre-owned software trial kicks off in UK as Microsoft pushes resale ban

Who can I give that to ?

No-one. The device comes with an OEM licence, the key for which is in the BIOS (not literally). It is tied to the hardware, so if you want to give someone the Windows licence, you have to give them that. There is no longer a licence key supplied with OEM hardware, so you need manufacturer specific media to restore/re-install the OS.

If your machine came with Pro, someone with a machine from the same OEM that came with Home might be able to get a cheap/free upgrade with your restore disk.

Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware, warns lack of support could disrupt food supply

"in this instance it’s Broadcom that needs to be cut down to size."

Correct. Tesco screw lots of people, but their being screwed by Broadcom will lead to higher prices when people are already feeling the squeeze and spending a disproportionate percentage of household income on food.

Microsoft-backed boffins show mega speed boost with hollow-core fiber

Congratulations!

You have invented the networking equivalent of Betamax.

Norway's £10B UK frigate deal could delay Royal Navy ships

Norway's need is greater, since one of the boats they're replacing has sunk and the others may be in danger of doing the same. Since we cooperate already and are increasing that, it won't make much short-term difference in defence capacity beyond whose flag is on the boat.

Since both countries are perhaps more short of crews than boats, maybe we could get creative. We've had an influx of young men in small craft who might be persuaded to do a stint on something bigger for a path to citizenship. That would take the wind out of the flag-shaggers sails.

I was a part-time DBA. After this failover foul-up, they hired a full-time DBA

Tay Tay is better known for her security skills.

BOFH: Deepfake or just an idiot? We'll need an audit to confirm

Re: Very interesting.

RAtM-BoLA-1999?

BOFH: HR plays checkers, IT plays 5D chess

Re: I believe the current nomenclature is...

Talent Management.

Re: PVC drain pipe bursting... actually it came apart at an elbow joint.

Also a previous job, the top floor tenant installed (without permission) an additional toilet. Directly above the electrical riser. Took out all power to the building for nearly a week, when the inevitable happened. Moved our server room to a co-lo not long after.

Microsoft hoping to knock users' socks off with Windows XP Crocs

"[T]he distinctive odo[u]r that can come from the footwear"?

They are completely washable, even the fleece lined ones. If they smell, that's down to the owner, not the footwear.

Tested: Microsoft Recall can still capture credit cards and passwords, a treasure trove for crooks

"Maybe it's unfair to expect the software to identify a credit card number..."

No, it really isn't. CC numbers are all the same length and the first four digits identify the issuer. They are very simple to recognise.

Junior developer's code worked in tests, destroyed data in production

Shirley the second contributor should have been Ronnie?

Don't panic, but it's only a matter of time before critical 'CitrixBleed 2' is under attack

Now being exploited

Citrix have updated the bulletin to say that it is now being actively exploited.

User demanded a 'wireless' computer and was outraged when its battery died

Re: TV portrayal of computer use

See also selecting 'update and shut down' before disconnecting a dock. Did this once, gave it ten minutes while packing everything else up to finish, then chucked it in the bag. Happened to put my hand in the bag for something on the train home and found it roasting. Happily, it survived - but mostly by luck.

Automatic UK-to-US English converter produced amazing mistakes by the vanload

Re: Bin there and suffered

That's not how you shape packets!

Microsoft will kill Remote Desktop soon, insists you'll love replacement

Getting closer to the truth.

Far less misleading than previous articles, but still not quite there. To be fair, with the ridiculous app names and poorly worded comms, MS haven't made it easy.

What is going is the atrocious Remote Desktop Store app, which hasn't been available from the store in a while. Now support is going to end.

The Remote Desktop Client for Windows app (installed via MSI) will remain the preferred app for Windows users connecting to Windows 365 (!) or Azure Virtual Desktop for which Windows App is a long way from being ready.

Who the fuck is responsible for these names? They'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes. Standing next to whoever came up with "New Outlook".

App stores unconvinced by Trump's TikTok ban pause, which may itself be on shaky legal ground

User content isn't the real issue. The problem with TikTok is the amount of tracking and data slurping it does. In particular through the in-app browser, which is *potentially capable* of tracking keystrokes and sending that back to China. Follow a harmless link posted by another user, then unthinkingly use the same browser session to log in to something more important.

Watchdog finds AI tools can be used unlawfully to filter candidates by race, gender

Re: And most of the rest have clearly used some form of 'AI

In a world where applications are increasingly being filtered by AI, the logical answer is to have AI format your CV to maximise your chance of getting through that screening.

Relocation is a complete success – right up until the last minute

EU lighting circuits are typically 10A. UK may be 10A or commonly, 6A. You don't use a 16A circuit breaker for protection of a circuit with switches or other items rated at 10A for obvious reasons.

I see your 15A fuse wire and raise you a nail (and sundry other conductors guaranteed to offer no overcurrent protection).

I made this network so resilient nothing could possibly go wro...

Re: Making things worse

Using a second provider seems like a good idea, but I've seen cases where it turned out that somewhere along the way, both providers were using the same trench someone just cut through with a digger. Many providers will offer the option of diverse connections where they ensure that no part of the connection runs in the same physical path or on the same part of the backbone. At a price, obvs.

Microsoft on a roll for terrible rebranding with Windows App

Re: Misquoted?

It's a client app for Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 virtual desktops.

Re: Will searching for "rdp" still find it?

Searching for "rdp" will still find mstsc.exe. It will not find Remote Desktop, which is a completely different application. Which won't show up unless you have it installed (unlikely, unless you use AVD).

If you search for remote desktop and have Remote Desktop installed, then both will show up. Simples.

Remote Desktop is not RDP - and is going nowhere.

As I've said elsewhere, Remote Desktop is not RDP (mstsc.exe). It is another client for Azure Virtual Desktop (and other things depending on which version and what platform). And the article is incorrect, it has not become Windows App.

The Store version of Remote Desktop may be going. It is certainly the worst client for AVD by quite a margin. There is a version available for iOS, which handles RDP connections to Windows boxes. That may be getting replaced by Windows App, which is aiming to become the multi-platform, unifying client.

For the moment the Windows version of Windows App (confused yet?) is pretty useless as a client of AVD. It can't manage the simple task of displaying Remote Apps in alphabetical order. Or indeed, any discernible order.

MS put out a badly worded announcement that gave the impression that Windows App was replacing Remote Desktop (still not RDP), but have confirmed that is not the case. Remote Desktop client for Windows - to give the full name of the msi installed app - and its name will continue to sow confusion for the foreseeable.

Ryanair faces GDPR turbulence over customer ID checks

Re: I never fly Ryanair

Talk Talk's service may have improved, but there are still plenty of reasons to avoid them.

1. Their customer service is atrocious. This may be less of an issue if the service is more reliable and you don't have to deal with them as often, but chances are you'll have to at some point.

2. They gave me a router whose configuration included my account password (and therefor my email password) in plain text.

3. After their big breach, they insisted my credit card details hadn't been compromised. My provider replaced the card with a new number due to the attempted fraudulent activity detected in the immediate aftermath.

Regulators may have forced them to tighten up their security, but no heads rolled. If you believe they've changed their attitude to security, I've a bridge I'd like to sell you. Or a Samsung appliance.

Did you hear the one about the help desk chap who abused privileges to prank his mate?

RDP is still RDP

MS haven't renamed anything. The confusingly-named Remote Desktop Client for Windows (Remote Desktop for short) - which is a client app for Azure Virtual desktop - is being phased out in favour of the ludicrously-badly-named Windows App.

Said Windows App is, as I told them six months ago, somewhat broken and definitely not ready for use in production. Still, it is not RDP (mstsc.exe); although that is the underlying protocol it uses.

Bank boss hated IT, loved the beach, was clueless about ports and politeness

The lingo

OE = Overseas Experience

EA = Executive Assistant

NZ = New Zealand

Having bank problems? I feel bad for you son: I've got 25 million problems, but a bulk upload ain't one

Re: 10 minutes, not a second more...

I used to carry a pair of pliers with a notch melted into the cutting section as a reminder to always double (or triple) check I had isolated the correct circuit. I eventually replaced it with one that was more effective at cutting - and with better insulation - but only after the lesson was well hammered home.