Posts by GlenP 1294 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Apr 2012
A few years ago I was driving along a fairly straight road in the local town at the posted 30mph, as I do. A car came roaring up behind then overtook me doing, I estimate, well over 40mph - the speed camera van was around 50 yards ahead! Assuming they did clock him* I'm hoping he got more than the offer of a speed awareness course given how fast he was going and the dangerous manoeuvre.
*When I received my one and only speeding ticket for doing 37mph in a 30 limit my brother, who was following me, got away with it - he was too close behind for the camera to get his registration!
You can do up to 15 hours per week whilst continuing to be "signed on" as I found when my previous employers asked me to help out, at a rate of several hundred pounds per day! I agreed on the understanding that I would do 2 7.5 hour days a week. I did discuss it with my adviser at the Job Centre and completed the relevant form but their view was that keeping some work experience going was a "good thing". I would have signed off if necessary - I was being paid several times what I was getting in any benefits.
Due to timing of payslips I did get a letter stating I'd worked while signed on and been overpaid benefits but I just replied with the circumstances and never heard anything back.
It's not always that much better in business.
We had a sister company that had IT oversight for us who kept a handwritten list of all their user's passwords in their office where almost anyone could have found it - when they did "demand" my password to do something I made a point of changing it before and after. They really should have known better and were always bleating on about "Sarbanes Oxley doesn't allow..." whilst ignoring basic principles themselves.
Hopefully people have got past using such obvious things but one colleague was always talking about her horse, Oliver, guess what her password was? Everyone on the office knew that until she was persuaded to change it to something more secure.
When I joined the current employers the servers were in a locked cupboard. The clearly labelled key to the cupboard was hanging in an open keysafe in the lab office which wasn't permanently manned or locked. I fixed that when we moved - I inherited a reinforced room with a Chubb safe door (formally used as a property deeds store), there were two keys, one in my possession and one in a hidden key safe that only a couple of very senior people had the number for.
I've recounted before, the ACT Apricot always used A: as the primary disk, so if an HD was installed that would be A: and the first floppy would be B:
Swapping between IBM compatibles and Apricot's was hazardous, particularly as I was often retrieving data from Apricot machines:
Format A:
Oops!
Ctrl-C
Get out Norton Utilities diskette
Undelete
Fortunately the few times it happened I knew what was needed for Undelete to save the day, i.e. the first letter of the filenames.
I've probably related this before but we had various period end procedures which the IT department carried out remotely on a Sunday morning (we worked 4-4-5 week periods). They'd been doing this well before I arrived when we had a full time operator who generally did the work. It wasn't terribly onerous, probably 30 minutes actual work over around a 4 hour period, but it did mean you had to be connected so couldn't just go out for the day*. Whoever did the work, which later was myself or my boss, would get an afternoon off in lieu, everyone was happy.
Then the big boss decided that we couldn't have the afternoon off in lieu, effectively meaning we'd be working in our own time. At that point I automated the few actual IT parts of the process and we handed the rest over to finance telling them it was now their problem! They weren't happy as they'd now got a few more hours work to do over the weekend but they couldn't do much about it.
*I did once run the month end sat outside my tent at a waterways rally, laptop connected to the phone via IrDA, with a beer in hand as we were both away that weekend. I still took the time off in lieu.
I once had a user phone to ask how to turn off her PC (back in the day when they had physical power switches. I did suggest that she pressed the same button as she had that morning to turn it on to which she replied, "I know that - but I can't remember where it is!" IIRC it was an HP full tower where the power switch was large, white and in the top corner so not easy to miss*.
I did install one Apricot desktop where the user could be excused not finding the power switch, it was on the back and looked exactly like a cover over an unused port - I made sure they were well educated!
*Those power switches were also annoyingly close to the floppy drive eject so we used to use tape cartridge cases to make molly guards.
At least they are custodial sentences, unlike other recent high-profile cases the judge hasn't fully accepted the neurodiversity argument.
Also they'll only be freed on licence, in theory if they continue their hacking after release (and their past performance suggests they might) they could easily be recalled to prison.
Not necessarily!
I will require justification for system access for Directors and Execs and will refuse it, with a full explanation, if it's not justified. It rarely happens of course, ultimately the C-Suite could overrule me but that's not happened at the current company. I do have the advantage of being a grey beard who's close to retirement and has been with the company a long time, it's a lot harder for someone younger who's early in their career.
Yep, I've had C-Suite asking about whether we should use AI or is it largely hype, my response is basically, "Remember blockchain?"
About the time of the story I was actually asked whether we should move our data to blockchain (it mostly resides in on-prem SQL databases) - my response had to be polite as swearing at senior execs is not a great career move and I didn't want to hasten my retirement.
A common one in the early days of PCs, and similar to the above, was, "No boot sector found". That used to panic the users (and some support people) but more often than not it was just a floppy left in the drive. Fortunately BIOS options for boot order and disabling floppy boot started to appear after a while!
It's said that there was a warehouse fire at Catterick Camp in the UK. The reported losses would had completely filled at least three similar sized buildings and for a long time after if something couldn't be found the QM would report it, with appropriate paperwork, as, "Sent to Catterick!".
Our collections were a single van load but as we weren't paying for them, provided we sent sufficient items, I encouraged everyone to have a good clear out, including disposing of their personal equipment if they wished.
Inevitably we had one user who'd dragged her ancient MAC from one office building to another "in case she needed to access something!" It was nearing 15 years old when I finally persuaded her it had to go!
Nearly all out phishing attacks come from LinkedIn data scraping*;they are rarely to the C-Suite but do come "from" them.
Three times we've had new staff who's email addresses would not be in the public domain at all, except that they've updated their LinkedIn profiles, receive a scam "Welcome to ..." email from the CEO.
A former employer installed clock machines for the office staff, ostensibly so they could generate an evacuation report in the event of a fire*, and mandated that this would apply to all staff. Only one person refused to use them, the MD that had signed off the policy in the first place!
*The offices were small enough for fire wardens to do a quick walk through and check everyone was out. The evacuation report system never worked so the plan was to have "In" and "Out" racks for the swipe cards so a fire marshal would collect the "In" rack as they left the building. The next argument was over clocking out if you went out for lunch, the company said not to, which negated the whole exercise.
A few jobs ago I was working with out American corporate on a global ERP implementation - several weeks spent commuting to the US sounds great but was a pain.
At one point I was asked how the system would support the European plans for, basically, a single integrated company using Euro's as base currency. My fairly blunt response was that it wouldn't, and nor would any other ERP system, as what they wanted to do was impossible in the UK*. The only way they'd be able to do what they wanted was to run everything from the German company and contract the UK company to provide labour and services. I was told I was wrong and that the white paper from the supplier that I'd cited was American and not relevant in Europe (despite the fact they hadn't had any meaningful contact with the provider's European business).
Of course a few months later it became very apparent that the system was not going to work the way they wanted. I already knew the writing was on the wall, it was clear Germany was going to dominate the European operation and was quite happy to receive an enhanced redundancy payout. Within a couple of years the entire UK operation was reduced to a few warehouse roles for urgent customer requirements with everything else drop-shipped from Europe.
*Yes, you can file accounts and pay taxes in Euros but customers will pay in GBP and the tax man simply converts numbers at the current rate so you're not protected in any way from currency variations.
I got a trackball at work when I had suspected Carpal Tunnel problems (I didn't - it was spine related but that's another story). More recently I was using it on my own computer due to restricted space but I've now moved it back to the work one and bought a new wireless version for myself. They're Kensington Expert and the work one is at least 20 years old and still going strong.
I had similar with eBay, without even having to escalate the case. The item I received, from a supposedly legitimate seller, was not an OEM item, as advertised, and was poor quality. I raised it with the supplier through eBay, within a few days they hadn't responded so eBay processed the refund automatically and presumably would claim it back.
The truth is the scam sellers just build the refunds into their operating costs and many people don't bother complaining.
It wasn't our fault, but my then boss needed a new Surface Tablet* PSU at short notice as he was going away. We only buy genuine PSUs so I found one on Amazon (as the only place that would deliver in time), ordered it and had it sent directly to him. What arrived wasn't genuine MS, it was a cheap Chinese knock-off and it didn't work.
The boss managed to buy a replacement wherever he was and we got a full refund from Amazon but I bet they were still allowing the same seller to advertise genuine parts.
*Also not my fault, senior management insisted that's what they had to have. They now all have proper laptops.
I just hope none of my pension funds have bought into the hype, or at least not too deeply!
Market cap is a falsehood anyway, valuing the whole business based on a limited number of shares being traded is not a true reflection - if Musk put all his shares on the market tomorrow they'd be relatively worthless.
Fortunately the Maestro I had (forgive me, but it was a cheap buy when I lost my company car after a takeover) didn't have the speech, however the ECU was dreadful! It decided that the engine was permanently hot which wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't been for the electrically operated choke which wouldn't come on.
I did enquire about replacement ECUs but quickly realised if I did obtain another one it would probably have the same, or another, fault. Fortunately the plastic case only needed a drill to take apart and it hadn't been potted so my tame electronics engineer (AKA the Brother) resoldered every single joint he could get to which cured the problem. We just wrapped the case in insulating tape in case it needed to come apart again, refitted it and I didn't have any starting problems for the rest of the year or so I had it,
Sadly you're right. The Head of IT's only real option would have been to resign first, and that's not easy.
I've been in the position of having to inform senior management that I disagree with what they want (and making sure I had private copies of the correspondence) but doing it anyway.
I worked for an American corporate owned company where our Dutch colleagues had control of much of the European IT, including providing our email services (Lotus Notes then Exchange). They were forever telling us what we couldn't do*, thanks to Sarbanes Oxley, but as with the article held a list of all their users and passwords "just in case". When they insisted they had to have my password to do something I made sure it was changed both before and afterwards. MFA wasn't generally used then but I'm sure they'd have resisted.
I've got a couple of people's main passwords stored securely as they're difficult ones to provide support for** and we will very occasionally ask someone for their password for support and testing (then advise them to change it and we don't keep a record) but that's very rare.
*Such as telling us we "must" give every individual user a login to the ERP system and they must log in and out - we'd have needed at least an extra warehouse person per shift for the waste of time making bookings.
**Like a tendency, when you're providing remote support and need them to enter the password, to go walkabout and not respond to messages!
Not always entirely the fault of the user - there were some appalling UIs out there!
An older friend asked for help with his VCR and even with the help of the user manual (yes, it was so bad I had to resort to actually reading the darn thing) I found even basic tasks completely unintuitive. Fortunately he'd rented* rather than bought it so sent it back.
*For the youngsters, renting big ticket items was common "back in the day".
That's reminded me of the time a team of us spent a weekend in the Hilton at Florence while on a European road trip before the Euro was introduced. The lead person got the bill for everyone for 3 nights plus restaurant, bar, etc. - she nearly had a meltdown when it came to over 3 million!
In truth the person who'd done the bookings had negotiated a great rate for what was effectively a weekend off for us in the middle of two weeks visiting all the offices in Europe.
I don't recall ever sneaking anything through expenses except beer!
In one job I was working away and the expense policy was £12 for food and £3 for drinks each evening, which was fairly generous at the time. We mainly dined in a pub that was quite happy to write the bill anyhow we wanted so as they did a decent meal for under £5 we had around £10 for our drinks.
I've also had "unlimited" expenses but that's a different story as you didn't really know where you stood - the only rule when I was working in the States was that you could only buy stuff you couldn't take home with you.
In WW II it was wireless transmissions and location detection equipment but both sides were well aware of the importance of signals intelligence. In the lead up to D-Day the allies had vans travelling around the East Coast sending messages with spurious IDs whilst on the South Coast activity was minimised.
I do object to apps requesting always on location data though, and make a point of reviewing the permissions periodically - it's not exactly rocket science.
If you're old enough, you might remember using floppy disks, either of the 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch variety
I'm old enough to have used 8" floppies! Upgrading VAX/VMS using dozens of the darn things was a pain in the proverbial until they started providing us with the distribution media on mag tape.
It was surprising what you could do on a twin* floppy machine, there was a viable CAD program that would run off A: with data on B:
*Or even a single drive as DOS would simply prompt to swap between A: and B:
It wasn't a "clockwork" mechanism as that implies stored energy intended to drive something, it was a winch.
The question is whether the cleaners could see that the cables were being chewed up but carried on anyway, in which case the rant was somewhat justified, or whether the handle was remote from the mechanism and they simply didn't know.
I've only once found NSFW material on a work laptop - as it had been returned by a leaver and I was archiving the data I just informed HR for reference (a quick check didn't show any legal issues).
I did have a user complaining about the lack of storage on her Surface Tablet (not my decision to use these - it's what the big bosses decided they wanted). A quick search revealed multiple videos that she'd downloaded to keep the kids amused while on holiday. That wasn't unreasonable but forgetting they were there and not deleting them was!
I wasn't directly involved but many years ago an RM 480Z (that's how long ago it was) was stolen from a local primary school. The miscreants couldn't get it working so asked RM for advice, given that their computers were almost exclusively sold to schools and colleges they suggested contacting the local Computer Education Centre. Inevitably a quick check of the serial number on the asset list led to the local Police being informed, one burglary duly solved.
who'd focus in on an example and treat it as the substantive issue
Our management team were doing some business risks analysis, the highest risk by far was staff retention and potential loss of knowledge. Instead of addressing this the board decided we needed to focus on the risks of the MD being kidnapped on a business trip! Of all the people in the business the MD was the one who'd least be missed in the short term and since we don't have a presence in South America or southern Africa his kidnap was very unlikely.
I've generally been fortunate but I've had a few people who wanted the latest shiny-shiny.
We had one manager who insisted his laptop had to be upgraded when we'd just replaced the ageing devices used by his subordinates as he couldn't possibly have something lower power than they had. This was despite the fact the location was closing and he was under notice of potential redundancy (he wanted a brand new laptop he could keep when he left). We made it clear there was a policy on retention of equipment based on book value* and that his existing laptop would be OK but a new one would have to be returned to the company if he was made redundant.
Role on a few months, the redundancy was confirmed and despite several requests he still hadn't returned the laptop so we asked HR to formally write to him stating that he would be reported to the police for theft if he failed to comply within 3 days. We knew full well the police would just say it was a civil matter but it worked so instead of getting to keep a perfectly good under two year old laptop he got nothing.
*Strangely the book value was set at just very slightly more than the projected value of my laptop, docking station, monitor, etc!
DOS typically allocated A: and B: to (non-existent) floppy discs and C: to the main hard drive
Not on all DOS machines - I think that was more a function of IBM compatibility.
ACT allocated the disk drives in order of HDs then FDs so an HD machine with a single floppy would have A: as the HD then B: as the FD but a twin floppy machine would have A: and B: as FDs.
Which was fine if that's all you were working with, but if you'd just come from a PC compatible and went to format a floppy when it was all too easy to type FORMAT A: <Return>, quickly followed by "Oh shit" and Ctrl-C! Thank goodness for Norton UNDELETE!
Many years ago the factory where I worked lost power on one phase, unfortunately the one with most of the offices on. It wasn't a major issue, just the main fuse blown but getting it replaced took several hours:
Engineer attends, can't get the dead fuse out, calls it in and leaves.
The heavy mob are sent from another job and remove the fuse in about 30 seconds, but aren't authorised to work on live equipment to put the new fuse in so they call it in and leave.
A senior engineer arrives to check our load balancing across the phases as they suspect that may be the cause (it wasn't, the issue was a slightly loose fuse overheating) which he can't do without the fuse in but fortunately he was authorised for live work and happened to have his kit with him so he fitted the new fuse then did his balancing check.
He reported there was an imbalance that we should investigate but it wasn't major - that was simply that as soon as he'd inserted the new fuse all the hand driers had started up!
