Posts by keith_w

The IT world moves fast, so why are admins slow to upgrade?

Re: Why are admins slow to upgrade?

It was pointed out that it is not just MS that is not getting updated.

Techie cleaned up criminally bad tech support that was probably also an actual crime

Re: "This person does not work here."

Many places I have worked have "Legal retention" policies for laptops and desktops that were used by people who were let go.

New Outlook marches onto Windows 10 for what little time it has left

Re: Why?

I think it implies that new outlook is always running in your machine, monitoring your email even though the UI is not active.

Good news! You'll soon be able to send faxes again with Windows 11 24H2

Vonage did, and I used it for faxing my wife's resumes as needed.

music music music CLUNK music music music

BOFH: Don't threaten us with a good time – ensure it

Re: The Generation Game

I was once asked, while being interviewed by my manager to-be for a position as network administrator, if I knew anything about TCP. I looked at him in a somewhat amazed way and said 'Yes, it's a requirement to be Cisco certified.'. He was the head of technical support and my certs were on my resume.

Linux admin asked savvy scientist for IT help and the boffin blew it

T-R PFYs

My PFYs once came back from an IBM Token Ring Self-Recovery presentation and decided to test the loop-back feature of our way-out of bounds token ring by pulling one of the uplinks, only to discover that our token ring was already in loop-back mode.

Revenge for being fired is best served profitably

Re: Never say never

Then you are probably the only one. I never did. And as for the huge LaserJets, try lugging a Xerox wax depositing colour printer up 2 flights. Even with 2 of us, it was very difficult.

FTC urged to stop tech makers downgrading devices after you've bought them

Re: Reminds me of TV sets

"BBC received zero complaints"

I bet that was a first!

Re: Reminds me of TV sets

I have a 42" not-smart Samsung TV. I bought a $99 stereo amplifier, a 20" HDMI cable and an HDMI splitter from Amazon, and a wireless KB and mouse. The splitter is connected to the PC and shares the signal between my monitor and the TV. The HDMI cable runs downstairs to the basement where the TV is located. This allows me to replicate anything on my monitor to the screen in the basement, No need for smart anything.

Bargain-hunting boss saw his bonus go up in a puff of self-inflicted smoke

Perth County on Ontario, Canada

Developer tried to dress for success, but ended up attired for an expensive outage

In Canada you can get yellow, orange, and black hi-vis vests/jackets with reflective stripes and non-reflective alternate stripes.

Re: Hard Hats and Hi-Viz...

Whenever I cut off a zip tie it is at the head, so there is pointy bit to stab anyone with. also, I use side cutters so the cut is flat.

Re: Putting your foot in it

I have Reebok sneaker (ie. trainer) safety shoes. I wear them in the candy manufacturing site, the margarine manufacturing site, and the alcohol bottling site and nobody says a word about it.

Techie told 'Bill Gates' Excel is rubbish – and the Microsoft boss had it fixed in 48 hours

Re: Ambiguous parse

There are decent POS systems?

Outback shocker left Aussie techie with a secret not worth sharing

Thank heaven I live in a country with a reasonable electric standard, where there's only 2 residential voltages and 2 styles of outlets, one for each voltage. But we still have idiot wiring them up.

I told Halle Berry where to go during a programming gig in LA

Re: being shot at

I worked at a location in Toronto that over looked highway 401 (4 lanes each way), after a running shootout on the highway, windows got bullet resistant appliques added.

ASML caves to US pressure to cease servicing some kit used by Chinese customers

Re: Pay attention to what they do, not what they say

The United States is supporting Hamas the Palestinian Authority and Iran? Because those are the only dedicated genocidal regimes in the middle east that I am aware of.

Software support chap survived breaking his customer

Re: Don't anybody move!

it was, using (I think) PC Connect which supported both dial-up and network connections. One place I was working had an employee living in New York and dialing in (9600bpi) to a computer in our computer room (early 90's) and working on that, and a few years later I used it manage NT 3.51 and 4 servers in our offices across Canada (Frame Relay).

NASA's Psyche hits 25 Mbps from 140 million miles away – enough for Ultra HD Netflix

with that 401 MKm being while Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun, which offers a serious impediment to laser light.

Re: Where is the "corrections"link?

so it should really say 30,577,536 kilometers

Techie saved the day and was then criticized for the fix

Re: Sounds About Right

side panels often have locks as well. I was working in a warehouse situation where there were several wall mounted device cages, 1 day every 2 weeks after the old IT contact person left. A new warehouse manager started and asked me where the keys were so I told him I had no idea, and that it was the responsibility of the person who had them installed to have managed the keys. I had wondered that myself when they removed an AP from a connected outside structure by cutting the cable prior to demolishing the structure. I still don't know if they have located the keys.

Microsoft thinks bundles are great and customers love them

Re: Benefits me - kind of

Corporately licenses are sold for individual users, so they can be a mix of levels. One place I occasionally work at, white collar workers get a full license, blue collar workers (yes, that's what they call them) get a limited license.

Air Canada must pay damages after chatbot lies to grieving passenger about discount

A Vancouverite is unlikely to consider a Vancouver to Toronto trip a vacation flight. On the other hand, a Torontonian may consider a trip to Vancouver a vacation. Also, both Air Canada and WestJet, our 2 major airlines, both frequently mistreat passengers and their luggage and end up in front of the tribunal.

Microsoft 365's add-on avalanche is putting the squeeze on customers

Re: Ripped out O365 last year

TANSTAAFL - There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Microsoft suggests command line fiddling to get faulty Windows 10 update installed

Re: spend hundred of hours choosing between distros and desktops

I think that one of the things you are missing here is that there are an abundance of choices for Linux desktops and the apps that run on them. Unfortunately most people are not techies and just want to sit down at a computer and know, pretty much, what is what. In the corporate environment they do not want to walk in and have to learn an entire new desktop environment, it is bad enough having to learn the specific apps that a company uses for it's business.

Bank's datacenter died after travelling back in time to 1970

Re: Yearly tasks....

9 volt batteries: https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-Everyday-Alkaline-Batteries-8-Pack/dp/B00MH4QM1S/ref=asc_df_B00MH4QM1S&mcid=39eabb23539a35dab6150dbd0fcf0308?tag=bingshopdesk-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80470598951659&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584070143719256&th=1

Making the problem go away is not the same thing as fixing it

Too many movies where the hero/ine holds a lighter up to 1 sprinkler and they all go off. I don't think I have ever seen a bad person do this.

Workload written by student made millions, ran on unsupported hardware, with zero maintenance

Re: Proof Of Concept Business

"In the end, we produced documentation which no one read but ticked the box for the regulator's audit."

In the end, that's the important thing, isn't it?

BlackBerry to split into two companies, foraging for tastier fare for shareholders

I am still using BB Hub on my phone, because I prefer it to any of the other options I have tried. It's a huge C$1.29 monthly expense that I am not sure I can afford for much longer /s.

Beneath Microsoft's Surface event, AI spreads everywhere

Re: allow Copilot to interrogate shoppers

influence, irritate. Same thing.

Airbus takes its long, thin, plane on a ten-day test campaign

Re: I guess someone had to...

no, not even after a shower.

Lightning struck: Apple switches to USB-C for iPhone 15 lineup

Re: Where do we go from here...?

"We will also have to standardise electric car charging cables, and I don't want the precedent that Ford can make a Ford-only cable that you have to have Ford adaptors or go to a Ford charger to use... which is exactly what happen if we don't dictate base-level standards occasionally."

Ford is switching to the TESLA connector, so that's that worry put to bed.

Dropbox limits ‘all the storage you need’ unlimited plan, blames abusive users

I don't think I have ever seen an SD card listed in a PC's list of bootable devices, although I know that Pi devices boot from them.

it went onto a 128GB thumbdrive.

Re: 110GB Image

it is probably that.

Last night i had the pleasure of downloading a 110GB image ISO from a one drive Sharepoint. It took 2 tries, failing at 12 GB the first try. Over all about 4 hours to do the download and the another bunch of hours to put it on a boot stick using Rufus. I wonder about who imagines a 110 GB image is a good idea.

Tesla knew Autopilot weakness killed a driver – and didn't fix it, engineers claim

Mansfield bars are located at the back of the trailer to stop cars from rolling under the back of the trailer at highway speeds and are mandated on all trailers on the road in the United States, which also puts them on all Canadian trailers and probably on all Mexican ones as well.

AMD mulls new chip manufacturing partners amid supply chain jitters

Re: Opening moves.

if China could replicate TSMCs' foundry, they would. Then they wouldn't need to invade Taiwan.

Bizarre backup taught techie to dumb things down for the boss

It has been many years since I worked with Notes, was it easy to set up folders? I also have had users who used their deleted bin as a storage location for emails they wanted to review.

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Re: Keyboard Confusion

On my Win 10 as well. However, for easy access to Emojis, I added the on-screen keyboard to which you can add what ever format of keyboards you like.

Many years ago, we were investigating changing our insurance management software to a package our home office was developing for IBM S/38s, later AS400s and were talking to IBM about localisation since we are in Canada and the Quebec language laws mandated French for use in the office. Our older software didn't support that, but it was kind of grandfathered. IBM suggested that the best way to localise would be to use message codes to look up the appropriate message in a language database before displaying it. We spent six months reviewing the package being developed and came up with 6 2" binders of required changes.

We put that in our requirements and got "For a million dollars, we'll change the spelling of check to cheque".

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Re: They're not supposed to

They never ring my doorbell before running away. Obviously never played Nicky-Nicky-Nine Doors.

Datacenter fire suppression system wasn't tested for years, then BOOM

One company I worked in the for 80's had added a computer room late in the planning stages so the only place available for it was between 2 sets of elevators on the 53rd floor. They had a Halon system which had a don't flood button, which need to be held until the cancel button was activated, on a wall about 20 feet from the phone. Unfortunately the cancel button was in a sister company's computer room 2 floors above. Fortunately we never had a fire in there.

SpaceX's second attempt at orbital Starship launch ends in fireball

That sounds like Canada and the AVRO Arrow. Many of the engineers and other staff, including my ex-Mother-in-Laws Uncle who moved to Florida and was a draughtsman working on various NASA programmes.

US changes rules on tax credits for electric cars to cover American-made only

Re: I’d want a discount too

And made in Canada as well. However, vehicles made with 75% parts made in the Canada-US-Mexico free trade area count as US made in the US.

More ads in Windows 11 Start Menu could be last straw for some

What the heck does that last sentence mean?

Microsoft mucks with PrtScr key for first time in decades

Windows 11? Who cares about 11? Windows 10 PrtScn launches Snip and Sketch on my machine

some text. Please see title.

Microsoft deigns to fix five-year-old Defender bug that slowed Firefox

Even the article says that it was only 1/2 MS's fault, the other 1/2 being how Firefox works.

CAN do attitude: How thieves steal cars using network bus

Re: Why

Many people appear to believe that if the console lights are on, which they are pretty much all the time in a modern vehicle, and the DLRs are on, then their headlights are on. Especially when driving on roads that are lit by overhead lights.

Microsoft uses carrot and stick with Exchange Online admins

Re: Article missing curcial details...

I would assume they mean any version of Exchange that is not up to date with the latest CU no matter how old. There are lots of companies that won't pay for an upgrade unless they absolutely have to.