Posts by C. P. Cosgrove

Three Brits charged over 'active shooter threats' swattings in US, Canada

Re :- Swatting

There wad a well reported incident incident in London a few years ago where an innocent citizen who was carrying a wrapped up and repaired table leg was shot to death in the street by the police. It turned out that he had gone into a bar for a drink on his way home and another drinker had taken the wrapped up table leg for a shotgun and phoned the police.

Understandably, the police had turned out an armed response unit who , at the scene, issued the standard challenge - "Armed police ! Put down the weapon !". This obviously creates a problem for someone who knows he is not carrying a weapon. In consequence the police opened fire and he was killed. No evidence was ever brought that the bystander in the bar who phoned the police acted with any malicious intent. The incident went down as a tragic accident.

In the Army I was trained that in the 'Advance to Contact' you did not take cover until you came under 'Effective enemy fire'. While this was never defined to my satisfaction, it is probably quite reasonable to say you should allow the enemy / suspect the first shot before you open fire.

Chris Cosgrove

Trump hits undo on Biden AI safety order, EV mandate, emissions standards, and more

Interesting ?

"It's going to be an interesting four years."

Terrifying is more like and the really worrying bit is that, like a former citizen of the Austrian Empire, he spelt out exactly what he was going to do before he was elected. And people still elected him. Still, think of the poor lawyers, they are in for a bonanza few years.

Chris Cosgrove

Abstract, theoretical computing qualifications are turning teens off

Something is definitely wrong !

A couple of weeks ago I had a young lad - early 20's ? - on my doorstep signing people up for BT/EE broadband ( a bloody awful job !). Since I was thinking hard about making this switch I invited him in and during the conversation he started rabbiting on about download speeds and I asked what are we talking here - Megabytes or Megabits ? To which he replied in all seriousness 'Why, they are the same aren't they ?'.

And I still signed up for BT but then I have somewhat more faith in their engineers than in their sales people.

Chris Cosgrove

AI giants pinky swear (again) not to help make deepfake smut

Yes - BUT

Yes, we will adhere to this agreement so long as (1) it doesn't reduce our profits, or, (2) it doesn't increase our costs.

Call me a cynic but . . .

Chris Cosgrove

Algorithmic wage discrimination: Not just for gig workers

Get the strength of the Union around you !

!I can remember when I was a kid seeing a series of B&W TV ads with the above tagline, I think it was put out by the T&GWU (Transport & General Workers Union). This article makes me realise that trade unions are just as relevant today as they ever were, and more so in the so called 'new' industries such as 'gig' workers.

I fully agree with the poster above who said that if you have to take the rate you are given rather than negotiate your own remuneration you are an employee and not an independent contractor.

Chris Cosgrrove

Innocent techie jailed for taking hours to fix storage

Non-HGV Drivers Hours

Once upon a time, about 35 years ago, I considered putting a truck of my own on the road which, as a legal requirement required that I became qualified with 'Prpfessional Competence Certificates in National and International Road Transport Regulations'. There are indeed British regulations on the amount of hours total of work and work related driving you can do which apply to all non-HGV and PSV vehicles such as cars and light vans. These are laid out in one or other of the Road Traffic Acts and If I remember correctly, limit you to a maximum spell of 12 hours combined work and driving to be followed by a minimum 8 hour rest.

I remember with shock chatting over a coffee somewhere in the North of England to a Tech Rep who said he had left home in Kent that morning, driven to Aberdeen, taken a chopper to a rig in the North Sea, fixed whatever needed fixing, a chopper back and was now on his way home to Kent. Talk about excessive hours !

Chris Cosgrove

Crypto scammers circle back, pose as lawyers, steal an extra $10M in truly devious plan

Social media spamming as well.

As a senior moderator on Bleeping Computer I am seeing an increasing amount of spam on the lines of 'Hire white hat hacker XYZ to recover your lost bitcoin.'. While we hammer these posts as soon as we come across them I very much doubt we are the only forum or social channel suffering from this wave of spam.

Chris Cosgrove

Amazon Labor Union votes overwhelmingly to join forces with Teamsters in NYC

Not before time.

It is not before time that a union had the tie power to stand up to the likes of Amazon. I have never really understood why American industry is so anti-union apart from the fact that they are seen as an obstacle in management's path to running a business their way. Of course they are an obstacle but in my lifetime experience as much as anything they stand up for workers' rights and employers' legal duties being upheld. It is not just a matter of standing on picket lines and shouting slogans, that is a small part of what unions do.

I spent the last five years of my career with Royal Mail as Union Rep/Shop Steward in a delivery office and the biggest part of my time doing that was spent representing members at disciplinary hearings and discussing working practices and issues related to health and safety. And when push comes to shove there are far better ways of putting pressure on employers than going on strike.

Chris Cosgrove

Shouldn't Teams, Zoom, Slack all interoperate securely for the Feds? Wyden is asking

From the first paragraph - "and be securely end-to-end encrypted,"

One law for them another law for the great unwashed ? Or hypocaacy in action ?

Chris Cosgrove

Kremlin accuses America of plotting cyberattack on Russian voting systems

Not shocked !

I'm not shocked but doesn't he have a runner in the race already ? After all The Donald gave him permission to attack anyone he felt like if they hadn't contributed their 2% of GNP to NATO ?

Chris Cosgrove

Nostalgia for XP sells out Microsoft's 2023 'Windows Ugly Sweater'

re: Teletubbies

I always quite liked the default XP wallpaper, technically it's a pretty good photo.

But I always felt it needed something coming over the hill even if only Indian war bonnets as per traditional horse operas. Instead, about four years ago with more time on my hands one morning than was good for me I did a pretty quick and dirty Photoshop job and, Lo ! It turns out I was a trendsetter and didn't know it ! TeleTubbies, anyone ?

I still have it in my collection of preferred wallpapers and even run it occasionally. Sad, isn't it ?

Chris Cosgrove

Microsoft, Meta detail plans to fight election disinformation in 2024

I fail to see the connection between apologising for slavery and control or otherwise of misinformation in political elections. I hold no brief for slavery but up until about 1800 it was very widely accepted social and commercial practice. A significant number of mercantile fortunes made in Scotland were based on slavery one way or another and Scotland is in no way unique in this regard. But times and social attitudes change. It is entirely possible that some distant ancestor of mine owned or otherwise mistreated slaves and I can regret this if it happened, but I see no reason for me to apologise for it, I had no responsibility for it.

On-line misinformation is very much a current problem and one with potentially dangerous consequences and not just in the sphere of politics. Surely anything that may have an effect on reducing the level of this misinformation is to be applauded ? You can argue about the effectiveness of such programs or propose better or different methods. I do know that properly moderating even an ordinary on-line forum is a difficult and demanding task. I shudder to think how much more difficult it must be when it comes to the size of something like Facebook or X/Twitter.

Chris Cosgrove

Data breach reveals distressing info: People who order pineapple on pizza

Doner kebab anyone ?

While I agree with one of the earlier posters that anchovies are good on pizza one of my occasional weaknesses is a Margherita pizza with doner keaab and chilli sauce as an additional topping. Happily my supplier is a local Turkish business who have no religious objections to what their customers request for toppings.

My wife is having her tea out tomorrow, I might have one !

Chris C

That old box of tech junk you should probably throw out saves a warehouse

It's the cupboard under the stairs !

I'm an amateur, at least in the sense that fixing things is not my employment, I do it to keep my hand in and my rates are extremely reasonable - trivial jobs and advice for free, smallish jobs a bottle of gin, larger jobs 2 bottles - and bits and pieces as well as odds and sods live in that cupboard. Every once in a while I get pressure from my beloved to clear it out. The last time I threw anything out three days later I had to go and get a replacement for something I had just sent to the dump. That was the last time I threw anything out !

Chris Cosgrove

Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks this weekend, and will be one for the ages

Aye, right !

There was an article in El Reg a few years ago which pointed out that anytime there was an interesting astronomical event in the UK skies the weather prevented you from seeing it.

I can confirm that this still holds true. Outside my house in Central Scotland, at its 220m above sea level height, horizontal visibility is about 200m max and vertical visibility zilch ! This is about par for the course.

Chris Cosgrove

Rust Foundation so sorry for scaring the C out of you with trademark crackdown talk

Trademark wars ?

Has anybody noticed that RS is a trademark of RS Components ?

Chris Cosgrove

OpenAI CEO warns that GPT-4 could be misused for nefarious purposes

Problens, always problems

On the 22nd February 'the Register' published this article - https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/22/clarkesworld_ai_spam/ - in which ''Little Mouse' said in a comment

"Starting a year or two ago, I noticed the emergence of a style of IT troubleshooting "how-to" web pages that had clearly scraped the technical steps from another source, and then padded it with a lot of infuriating waffle."

This is happening on an as yet smallish but annoying scale on technical forums. I, and my fellow moderators, on Bleeping Computer know it is happening but because the text is modified it is almost impossible to identify the source of their quoted material. Without knowing the source it is impossible to justify taking action against these posters for breaching the rules on copyright.

A week or so later 'The Register' published another article, for which I didn't save the link, but it referenced research at Stanford University aiming at identifying AI generated text complete with a demonstration on-line tool to test for such text. The tool specifically states it is merely a demo version and is not to be relied on as evidence but it gives hope that reliable tools for the detection of AI generated text may become available in the nearish future. Then I will be able to take action ! See - https://hai.stanford.edu/news/human-writer-or-ai-scholars-build-detection-tool

Chris Cosgrove

I can't do that, Dave: AI drowns top sci-fi mag with story submissions

Little Mouse said it.

A comment above by Little Mouse provides a possible answer or at least explanation to a situation I am suffering from.

For my sins I have the honour or misfortune of being a senior moderator on bleepingcomputer.com and for a little while now I have been bothered by a not large but not insignificant number of posts which are suspected of being straight plagiarism but it is difficult finding an original source for many of them. His description -" "how-to" web pages that had clearly scraped the technical steps from another source, and then padded it with a lot of infuriating waffle, with a real "English is my second language" vibe." fits what is happening to a T. This is something I think that I and my colleagues are going to have to discuss.

Chris Cosgrove

E-commerce pros tie the knot in Amazon-themed wedding

Daft !

I did suggest the registry office/pub route to the father of my my bride-to-be and he was quite receptive to the idea. Unhappily I made this proposal in the presence of his wife and two daughters and we were vetoed within 10 seconds. So with a chorus of 'Yes dear; certainly dear; whatever you say dear' we shut up and did as we were told.

The bit that constantly amazes me is that some 40 years later we are still married, we even talk to each other now and again !

Chris Cosgrove

Oregon city courting Google data centers fights to keep their water usage secret

But how much of that water is lost to the ecology of Oregon ? It is just being run through a system of pipes and released again. A common sight in the UK used to be pillars of steam rising from cooling towers attached to coal fired power stations and this steam was lost to the immediate ecology since the evaporated water seldom fell as rain in the immediate area but the majority of the water used was released back into rivers and such like.

Piping the sort of volumes referred to is not a trivial cost and the tax payers are entitled to be given the cost benefit data as they are the ones paying for it, and it would be reasonable to expect a commercial company to pay a commercial rate for its water supply but I fail to see how this affects the overall water supply in Oregon. It is possible that this water is no longer considered fit for human consumption but it is surely available for irrigation and similar uses. It is not as though it is being used for processing purpose as used in a chip fab or a steel works which do result in considerable contamination of the water used.

Chris Cosgrove

UK data watchdog calls for end-to-end encryption across video chat apps by default

Gilbert and Sullivan said "A policeman's lot is not a happy one.". That is as maybe, but what a hardship to have a requirement to get a warrant foisted upon them, it is so difficult to get a warrant. All they need to do is convince a Magistrate that there are reasonable grounds for suspicion and Magistrates tend not to take too much convincing.

Chris Cosgrove

38 million records exposed by misconfigured Microsoft Power Apps. Redmond's advice? RTFM

Ms. Barnes is just continuing a long standing tradition -

Shoot the messenger !

Chris Cosgrove

Audacity's new management hits rewind on telemetry plans following community outrage

Telemetry

Telemetry is not a subject I have significant problems with so long as it is restricted to how an application behaves and any possible negative interactions with the OS it is installed on. I have Audacity installed on both Win 10 and Linux and I am firmly of the opinion that it is a brilliant application. It is possibly - probably ? - not the application my ex brother-in-law would use, he is after all a professional sound engineer with his own record label, but for me it does everything I need.

It is probable that to an extent MS poisoned the telemetry well during the development of Win 10, but this was on pre-release development versions where, understandably, MS were watching almost every interaction with the OS under development. Once Win 10 went RTM most of this compulsory telemetry fell by the way-side and it is now extremely easy to restrict telemetry to the functioning of the OS itself, which is entirely reasonable. It is almost certainly true that MS could have explained this period of intense telemetry better and it is largely for this reason that there is still a tremendous amount of FUD about telemetry in general around.

Chris Cosgrove

Absolutely fab: As TSMC invests $100bn to address chip shortage, where does that leave the rest of the industry?

Arizona ? Fabs ? Water ?

I understood that a contributing factor in the World shortage of ICs was the drought in Taiwan which is impacting on TSMC production.

I understand that Arizona, USA, is largely desert so where is the water necessary for two fabs to come from ? Or is it another plan to grab a few billion in subsidies from Uncle Sam without actually doing anything productive to justify them ?

Chris Cosgrove

In YouTube's world, parental supervision means: 'Everyone sign in to Google, click once, and trust we get it right'

What age limits ?

While I am comfortably over the age of 18 I am not a regular user of YouTube. I find myself searching for tech vids from time to time in connection with what I do on BC and occasionally I watch the odd video for entertainment. I have a Google account but log-in is not automatic on my computer and I normally don't bother logging in on YouTube.

But I have never, ever been asked even to tick a box to certify that I am over 18, or whatever the age limit is. so how can they claim to be moderating the age of their users ?

Chris Cosgrove

Telcos face £100k-a-day fines unless they obey new UK.gov rules on how to deploy Huawei 5G gear in their networks

What if . . .

The UK Government eventually opted for a ban on Huawei kit because of heavy sustained pressure from the USA which was created by Donald Trump and for which nobody has been shown any hard evidence.

What if the incoming Government under Joe Biden decides to ease off significantly on the trade war with China and reverses the political decision to ban Huawei. What will the Johnson government do then ?

Will somebody think of the poor telcos ?

Chris Cosgrove

Google contractor HCL America accused of retaliating against unionized techies by shifting US jobs to Poland

Uh ?

I have been a trade unionist since I was 20 and spent five years as a shop steward. All I can say is 'More power to your elbows'.

Many of the HRT horror stories we read about in El Reg would be mitigated by union membership.

Chris Cosgrove

Brexit travel permits designed to avoid 7,000-lorry jams come January depend on software that won't be finished till April

I mostly agree

As a former international haulage driver this sounds like one massive upcoming cock-up and I agree with almost everything said to date in El Reg on this subject. The people I feel sorriest for are traffic admins and managers in the distribution industries. The beta - sorry, the working software - is going to be released in mid-December. These folks are not going to see much of their families over Christmas as they try to get this to work. Still they do have an extra day to get it working, unless my memory plays me false the cross-channel ferries don't operate on New Year's Day.

However I do have one small annoying bone to pick with El Reg, but they are not alone in this.

" about 60 miles or 96km end-to-end"

'60 miles' suggests an error level of +/- 6 miles or 10%, '96km' suggests an error level of +/- 500m or 0.5%. Why not just say '60 miles or 100km' ?

Chris Cosgrove

'We're not claiming to replace humans,' says Google, but we want to be 'close enough' that you can't tell it's a bot talking

And . . .why ?

And just why are Google developing this ? They have no intention of using it. Machine or human, you cannot get a response from Google in any case, but then most of the people I see who cannot get any help for Google problems are, of course, not customers, they are part of the product.

Chris Cosgrove

Brexit border-line issues: Would you want to still be 'testing' software designed to stop Kent becoming a massive lorry park come 31 December?

"The Smart Freight app will be up and running for January 2021 to minimise any potential disruption and help to ensure that only vehicles carrying the correct documentation for Member State border controls travel to ports. We are currently working with businesses and the haulage sector to ensure that the web application is effective and simple to use."

That statement alone is enough to make me glad that I am a retired chauffeur routier. The contents of the rest of the article make me regret that I ever took up driving trucks in the first place. Having said that, I really enjoyed the several years I spent running around the highways and byways of Europe in the late '80's and early '90's, but then, with one exception - Calais was blockaded by fishermen - I always managed to get through Calais - Dover.

Chris Cosgrove

Anti-5G-vaxx pressure group sues Zuckerberg, Facebook, fact checkers for daring to suggest it might be wrong

Beyond belief

Like the poor referred to in Scripture, the idiots you will have with you always.

I know the US Constitution guarantees freedom of belief but this is ridiculous.

Chris Cosgrove

British Army does not Excel at spreadsheets: Soldiers' newly announced promotions are revoked after sorting snafu

Oh dear !

And to think that the two stripes I had upon my arm once upon a time perhaps should only have been one ( or possibly three ?) . Still, the fact that the very next day, after getting the second, I pinned my best mate's ears to the wall - hard - did no harm to my reputation in the regiment as a hard man.

Then MoD really got it wrong, they commissioned me !

Chris Cosgrove

Microsoft wants to show enterprises that Edge means business, rather than the thing you use to download Chrome

Don't shoot - I quite like Edge !

Forbye all the above, Edge is a pretty good browser. I certainly prefer it to Chrome if only because I can get it to run the way I want it to which is something I have totally failed to achieve with Chrome.

Yes, FF is my default, has been for years, but Edge is a pretty slick browser and as far as I can see works well and safely. I mainly use it on one US web-site where the GDPR notification has gone crazy. Instead of just coming up once when you log in it comes up every second page at the moment in FF, only the once you would expect in Edge. Since I am a Mod on that forum and am bouncing around from one page to another this is annoying !

Chris Cosgrove

FYI Russia is totally hacking the West's labs in search of COVID-19 vaccine files, say UK, US, Canada cyber-spies

Two points can be made here.

First, Governments have always spied on each other for both political and economic reasons. The only thing that has changed is the methodology, there is nothing new here.

Second, granted that in the present econoomic set-up whoever produces a working vaccine first is going to make a substantial amount of money but it can be argued on humanitarian grounds that this research should be open sourced. That would, of course, obviate the need for spying.

A beer because it is again possibble to go for one.

Chris Cosgrove

Forget biz insider threats for a moment – let's talk about partners turning rogue and installing spyware on phones

A real problem.

I am a moderator on Bleeping Computer and every so often we get topics started by people who are being surveilled by ex partners or lovers or suffering abuse in one form or another. It is not a problem that BC was set up to handle and apart from the obvious - change accounts, change passwords, report it to the police - there isn't all that much we can do to help.

After all, why should you have to close say your Facebook account because somebody is posting comments on it slagging you off ?

Chris Cosgrove

Oh crap: UK's digital overlords moot new rules to help telcos lay fibre in sewer pipes

Obvious solution

There is an obvious solution to the problem of fibre being cut by over-enthusiatic digger operators - site it some little way below a high voltage cable.

According to a friend of mine who blacked out Central Edinburgh on one famous occasion, to those who know the city he was digging a trench on the Mound just by the Art Gallery, 'You always know when you have hit a high voltage cable, there's a lovely blue flash and a bang !' !

Problem solved.

Chris Cosgrove

Facebook's cool with sharing the President's nonsense on its mega-platform – but don't you dare mention 'unionize' in its Workplace app

Uh ?

This is taking us back over 100years to the days of capitalism run wild in the USA. Carnegie would probably have approved. I know that trade unions in the US are regarded by many managers and proprietors as the leading edge of advanced left wing socialism but when the right to associate is enshrined in law ?

Having said that, about 40 years ago I suffered a short period of unemployment. Having signed on at the local job centre I was sent to firm in a nearby town who were hiring drivers, that was the trade I had signed on as, and when I got there I found a dozen or so guys standing on the doorstep. The converstation went something like this -

'Hi lads, whats up ?'

'We are the company's drivers'

'And . . .'

'We asked for the TGWU (the main Transport union) to be recognised for negotiation . .'

'Yes ?'

'So they sacked us all !'

Needless to say, as I was a member of the TGWU myself, I didn't cross the picket line and I didn't get an interview for the job.

Chris Cosgrove

Surprise! That £339 world's first 'anti-5G' protection device is just a £5 USB drive with a nice sticker on it

What 5G ?

I first saw this story on the BBC web-site this afternoon where, as reported, a member of the Glastonbury Council claimed it was a great device and that he had felt much more relaxed since he had acquired one.

This led me to check a 5G availability map or the UK and I don't see any 5G in the Glastonbury area.

Matter over mind ?

Chris Cosgrove

The longest card game in the world: Microsoft Solitaire is 30

And . . . There was . . . Ka -Boom !

Variously known as Mines or Minesweeper this was the other great time wasting educational game. Allegedly to improve Left/Right mouse clicking. Emabarassingly my wife got better at this than I was. Her record for the full size frame was 2 seconds better than mine.

So I stopped playing it.

Huff !

Huff !

Chris Cosgrove

Hooray! It's IT Day! Let's hear it for the lukewarm mugs of dirty water that everyone seems to like so much

Tea and the British Army ?

Juice, above, seemed a little surpised by the British Army's relationship with tea. Never mind quibbles about who drank tea in the Napoleonic era, when I had the honour of serving as a member of Her Majesty's Armed Forces during a fair chunk of the Cold War tea was the motive force especially on exercise when it was first boiled hard and then left to stew in a hay box for hours. But there was a very good reason for its popularity.

Have you ever tried The British Army's coffee ? Or at least the stuff that appears in ration packs labelled 'Coffee' ! It would turn anybody to tea !

Chris Cosgrove

US hands UK 'dossier' on Huawei: Really! Still using their kit? That's just... one... step... beyond

Quote - "Huawei's UK veep, Victor Zhang, said in a canned statement: "We are confident that the UK government will make a decision based upon evidence, as opposed to unsubstantiated allegations."

Would this not be setting a precedent by the UK Government and, presumably, the UK Civil Service who do not have a sterling record for going with evidence based decisions ? Just as an example look at the record on the 'War on Drugs'.

Chris Cosgrove

A short note to say I'm off: Vulture taps claws on Reg keyboard for last time

Best wishes for your future career !

Chris Cosgrove

Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed

?

"As just one example, it appears that both board and staff members are free to hold shares in companies whose value is closely linked to decisions that they make and that they are not required to disclose such holdings."

While I am not pointing the finger at any one person a set-up like that is virtually a licence for insider trading. Certainly it does nothing to prevent the possibility. It does indeed stink of corruption. And as for making a decision with such revenue implications at an administrative level rather than running it past the Board, the mind boggles !

Chris Cosgrove

Microsoft: Dynamics 365 to hook up online, physical retail... 'cos we love tracking so much we want it offline too

Privacy - what's that ?

Old saying seen in a bar - "In God we trust, the rest pay cash !"

I am fairly well known to the staff in my nearest supermarket, but their computers don't know me from Adam, and that's the way I like it.

Chris Cosgrove

Those fake spying cell towers in Washington DC? Ex-intel staffers claim they're Israeli

Why the surprise ?

I can understand the humour in the above comments but not the occasioinal touch of surprise here and the shock and horror expressed in a number of other publications. I would have thought the if the Director of Intelligence for the Israeli Government was not organising spying on the USA he or she would be falling down on the job.

As somebody else once said a while ago "It is generally easier to spy on your friends than your enemies. Further, you generally have a good idea of your enemies positions but you never know when your allies might change their minds."

Chris Cosgrove

Stop us if you've heard this one: US government staff wildly oblivious to basic computer, info security safeguards

Now I understand why there has been such a continuously negative response in the USA to any suggestion of introducing GDPR in any form there. Departmental budgets would be swallowed up paying fines !

Chris Cosgrove

Supreme Court of UK gives Morrisons the go-ahead for mega data leak liability appeal

An interesting case, Watson !

If I have read the article correctly then this appeal is around the extent of 'vicarious liability' in which case it has much wider implications than just the Morrison's case. The principal that 'an employer is liable for the acts of his servants' is firmly held in civil and commercial law and, having gone to the Supreme court, if Morrison's win this then everybody else in roughly analagous positions will be quoting this case as precedent.

Interesting indeed.

Chris Cosgrove

Astronomer slams sexists trying to tear down black hole researcher's rep

? ? ?

Is it any wonder I don't use any form of 'social' media ?

One word out of place, one remark that is outside currently 'correct' thinking or just one slightly inaccurate statement and you get rubbished - at best. I am fed up of hearing of people getting trolled for no good reason at all.

I am a moderator on a forum which is regarded as being well moderated. Two things which get very short shrift are trolling and spamming, both will get you banned in very short order.

Chris Cosgrove

Plusnet vows to shove a sword in members area 'White Screen Of Death'

Why ?

I am always amused that regardless of the numbers affected - whether it be a hundred or two, several thousand or several million - it is always "A small number of our customers have been affected."

Even when the forums, twitter, facebook etc. are full of complaining customers. Funny how much noise 'a few customers' can create !

Chris Cosgrove

Doom: The FPS that wowed players, gummed up servers, and enraged admins

It was great fun

I was doing an HNC in Mechatronics at the time and I think every computer in the college had Doom 1 on it. I can see the sysadmins' problems even if the students didn't.

It was great fun and the best thing about it was that it was a relatively small and simple game. Even on 486s, which is what the college was equipped with, it was quick to load. 5 - 10 minutes to kill ? You could have Doom up and running and be blasting baddies within about 30 seconds. I came back to it about 15 years later, v3 I think. Came on a DVD, about a 2GB install and took five minutes before you could shoot anything, and that was on a reasonable to good computer. It had lost the spontaneity and had become the preserve of serious gamers

Chris Cosgrove