Posts by Spiny_Norman

TalkTalk downplays extent of breach damage, gives extra details

Is it just me or does Dido look especially like a bloke in drag in the picture for the article?

HP slaps dress code on R&D geeks: Bin that T-shirt, put on this tie

Interesting range of views here. I'm a manager and a techie & work in a fairly large office with a mix of fairly senior middle managers, hard core techies and project/delivery manager types. Nobody gives a shit how anybody dresses, but nobody wears a tie. I'm in short sleeved shirt plus cargos or similar - shirt rather than tshirt? smartphone in shirt pocket. Productivity is pretty good.

ISP Level 3 goes TITSUP after giganto traffic routing blunder

Wrath of the Gods #2

Wow did someone get their tits out in an exchange?

UK.gov pushes for SWIFT ACTION against nuisance calls, threatens £500k fines

Re: It's not calls from the UK that are the problem

I also have one of these - it's an answerphone that is permanently connected and gives me call screening. Anybody we want to talk to says who they are & we pick the phone up. The cold callers pretty much all hang up as soon as our message cuts in. Cost <£20 about 10 years ago & just works.

London commuter hell will soon include 'one card to rule them all'

Re: Why the Milton Keynes-bashing?

Upvote for this - I live technically in Milton Keynes but off the MK grid (Bletchley) & I actually like it as do many other people.

Helpdesk/Service Desk Recommendations

SharePoint 2010/2013 with custom lists & workflows will do all you need quite easily - I have built an online crime recording system using it for a FT100 company & it works like gangbusters & has been for last 3 years. Sometimes simple just works.

TalkTalk's commercial director WalkWalks away from telco

Hmmmm

"BT's is a mother knows best approach. I don't think they are building the right infrastructure for Britain," Goldie said in 2011.

And TalkTalk are/have?

BlackBerry BLOODBATH! Company warns of nearly $1bn quarterly loss

Shame

I've had 3 work issued BlackBerries - all basic models latest is a 9320 BBOS07 and I'm really happy with it. I guess the issue is what you need your smartphone to do - my company issues BBs purely for the push email facility. There are a few extras like a corporate IM client & VOIP/WIFI bolt ons but very little else - sure it has internet & GPS etc but the point of them is that they sync with our corporate email & handle our S/MIME secure email which all 3 models do really well. Not bad as a phone as well. I have been very nearly able to do a full day's work on the BB. I've not seen anything else that is as good as BB as a corporate comms tool. A shame it looks like they are going down the tubes.

BT: Ofcom's planned wholesale price cap? Just a smidge too tight

Ah, well your daughter's aunty should be asking the estate developers this question. It's standard practice to get the utilities in place as part of the plans and BT would have been only too happy to fibre it up, provided the developer paid them to do so - which they might well have made a feature of the estate and recovered on marginally increased sale prices. Otherwise why should BT provide 'Fibre to the Fields' for two years before it could even start recouping revenue?

BBC-featured call centre slapped with hefty fine for unwanted calls

The clown said that it would breach international agreements and would be illegal. Seems BT prefer to protect the scammers that are breaching EU law than thier customers.

They replied that it would breach international agreements and would be illegal. Seems BT prefer to obey the law then break it.

There fixed that for you. Or do you know (not assume *know*) different?

BOFH: Go on, beancounter, type DROP TABLE asset;

Or a feature of SQL*Plus that bit my colleague

A jobsworth clown bounced a Linux server 3 times in15 mins without telling us, Hundreds of seriously fscked files that had to be cleaned out manually. Fortunately we had a list of the file ids so colleague fires up sqlplus & DELETE FROM (huge_table)

WHERE FILEID IN (list of 10 file ids); This runs fine so:

DELETE FROM (huge_table)

--WHERE FILEID IN (list of 10 file ids);

WHERE FILEID IN (list of next 10 fields);

Whoops. 1.4 billion rows deleted before he wondered why it was taking a while. It took us a week to reprocess all the zapped data. Shame he hadn't RTFM...

Scottish SF master Iain M Banks reveals he has less than a year to live

Thanks Iain

Many hours of enjoyment & many more to come from your work. I hope you have had half as much pleasure writing them as I still get reading them. It's not over until the fat lady sings so keep your (raw) spirits up!! God Bless you.

I am NOT a PC repair man. I will NOT get your iPad working

My variant on the 'I only do Macs' theme

If asked to help with someone's home set up I reply that my job is supporting an 8 node Oracle Exadata cluster which tends to kill the convo dead as they realise that they have absolutely no idea what that means. It's also true but not the complete truth as there are various peripherals involved but we just don't get to go there.

BT scores £146 meellion more UK.gov cash to fibre up Balamory

@Christopher Rogers

So, loads of folk queuing up to do this then? No? Do you have a better model that justifies a business investing in infrastructure in a lightly populated, environmentally challenging region than this? Or just take the cheap shot at BT?

Psst, wanna block nuisance calls? BT'll do it... for a price

Easy solution. Use TPS - it's free and will stop the 'legit' telesales dross. Second layer of defence is *all* incoming calls go to an answerphone (unless we are expecting a call within a few minutes). It's surprising how many calls terminate as soon as the message cuts it. Legitimate calls either quote the password (Hello it's me...) or leave a message and once I've heard "Hi it's x from whatever" as if by magic we answer the call. It's worked really well for us for over 20 years.

Lotus 1-2-3 turns 30: Mitch Kapor on the Google before Google

Good Times

Lotus 1-2-3 was my first introduction to the world of spreadsheets. I used it to automate a quarterly task that took ten man days every quarter to do via 'back of fag packet' calculation & was never right. I'm still really proud of what I created - self taught with only the manual to help me. I'll always have a soft spot for 1-2-3 as I guess it started me down the slippery techy slope...

BT wins another HUGE gov-funded rural broadband deal

Re: Aim low to ensure disappointment@AndrueC

So, BT are recruiting ex forces people primarily to support this work - are you suggesting they should stop this in favour of 'other' unemployed people?

Smear campaign

Oh yes!

I spend most of my working life working from home so can keep laptop & second display clear & pristine as they *have* to be. A couple of months ago I had to spend a couple of days in one of the corporate data centres & my colleagues laptop crapped out so he had to use mine AND HE TOUCHED THE SCREEN REPEATEDLY leaving fingerprints. To this day he has no idea how close he came to death although he did wonder why I kept cleaning the screen while was using the laptop...

Young Frenchwoman desperate for fat pipe tumbles out of window

Re: And the guy across the street...

Love it!

BOFH: Uninterruptible patsy supply

Re: "Uninterruptible patsy supply"

ODFO. If you don't want to read BOFH don't. Nobody is forcing you to. Perhaps you could spare your words of wisdom for a more appreciative audience?

Assange chums must cough up £93,500 bail over embassy lurk

They should pay every penny of the £125k

They should be made to pay all of it. They collectively wagered £125,000 on JA not being a duplicitous bail absconder and lost. WTF 'doing the right thing' has to do with it escapes me - try that with your friendly local bookie when you try to welsh & see how much he lets you off.

Lancashire man JAILED over April Jones Facebook posts

Context is important

What may amuse in one context - the famous black humour in the emergency services for example which helps them cope with horrific things - is clearly inappropriate in others. Before gobbing off about 'freedom of speech' consider whether the 'jokes' would be suitable to relate in person to the family & friends of an abducted & probably murdered 5 year old child. Got off very lightly in my view.

Police mistake reveals plan for Assange's Embassy capture

Re: so10

"Legitimate Rape" - new concept to me not sure I understand what it is - please explain

Olympics security cockup down to software errors - report

Contract Security Companies

For someone who has worked in the industry - albeit some years ago - this is no surprise. It was considered normal for a prospective officer to be interviewed in the afternoon and, in uniform, on site the same night. The client thought they had a vetted and trained officer obviously. 'Ghosted' shifts, an industrial estate 'guarded' by a mannikin in uniform placed in a car which other officers moved around at intervals, recruiting illegal immigrants & unemployables - the list goes on. Why was London 2012 going to be different? Why would anybody think it would be? and then the ask is raised for more officers and some gormless sales droid says 'no problem' - I mean what could possibly go wrong?