Posts by Fortycoats

Software engineer accused of stealing $300k from employer was 'inspired by Office Space'

Bought stock in GameStop?

You know what he could have done with that money? Two chicks at the same time!

Now where's the red stapler icon?

Gunfire at electrical grid kills power for 45,000 in North Carolina

They were open:

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599516036964835328

Twitter is suffering from mad bro disease. Open thinking can build it back better

Sir Pterry said it best. What people think they want is news. But what they really crave is OLDS.

And from the same book: "A lie can run around the world before the truth has pulled its boots on".

We all have an inherent bias, and many people want to read things that reaffirm their opinion on how they think the world should be. Somehow a significant number take it as a personal affront to have their views challenged by truth, and just double-down on the crazy.

Helsinki Syndrome: Ubuntu utterly fails to boot on metro

Not a poor second to Belgium

when going a-bork!

Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

Re: I miss IBM keyboards

I have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000. Got it 14 years ago and it's still going strong. It's quite sturdy, but not cast-iron heavy. Whenever I changed jobs, the keyboard came with me. Also helps that nobody in the office is used to the ergonmic shape so it will never be used by anyone else.

Got another one Xmas 2019 for my daughter, so they might still be available somewhere.

Texas blacks out, freezes, and even stops sending juice to semiconductor plants. During a global silicon shortage

Re: Power Grid

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, they're doing exactly that:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/conservatives-falsely-blame-renewables-for-texas-storm-outages

Hear, hear: The first to invent idiot-cancelling headphones gets my cash

Re: Selective attention

Reminds me of this Father Jack classic:

https://youtu.be/DqM_9_5SCdU

What a terrible result from this year's Super Bowl. Can you believe it? Awful. Yes, we're talking about the tech ads

Re: did not watch

NFL GamePass did have a global failure. For about 10 minutes in the 1st quarter, and then for the last half hour (about 3 minutes of game time). Just as the Chiefs took the lead it went TITSUP.

Paying customers around the world were not amused.

So you locked your backups away for years, huh? Allow me to introduce my colleagues, Brute, Force and Ignorance

Re: Seen in the wild

No, you just need to hit it with EXACTLY the right amount of energy to excite it briefly to the higher level.This is an unstable state so it re-emits that energy as EM radiation (or "bloup", as Alessandro's customer would put it), and returns to its normal, stable state.

Back up a minute: Private equity outfit coughs $5bn for Veeam

Dell got itself a backup product or two when they acquired EMC. Not just the storage, but also DataDomain, NetWorker and Avamar.

Eggheads have crunched the numbers and the results are in: It's not just your dignity you lose with e-scooters, life and limb are in peril, too

Cops in Munich weren't taking any crap either. Half of all those done for drink-driving during the Oktoberfest in 2019 were on eScooters - 414 people. 254 of them temporarily lost their driving license. Good.

A History of (Computer) Violence: Wait. Before you whack it again, try caressing the mouse

Re: Whacksing benefits

Straight outta Office Space!

Literally braking news: Two people hurt as not one but two self-driving space-age buses go awry

Distracted idiots

It's not just AI that has to deal with idiots not watching where they're going. Even Meatbag-Operated public transport can't do better. Several tons of tram can't just stop on a sixpence.

Examples from Dublin's LUAS: https://youtu.be/Ig_PW_-y5SU

Wide of the net: Football Association of Ireland says player, manager data safe after breach

Shocked!

I am absolutely shocked about this.

The FAI displaying compentency in anything is definitely NOT normal (apart from organizing junkets for the suits). Is that what happens when the entire board gets sacked? You actually get people who know what they're doing? Who knew?

Vulture gets claws on Lego's latest Apollo nostalgia-fest

Pricey

€90 is not exactly pocket change. Mind you, still better than the €800 they're asking for the Millenium Falcon.

There's only one LEGO Spaceship for me, though: 928

7-year-old me had a great Christmas with that, and for several years afterwards, back in the Good Old Days (TM).

Devs slam Microsoft for injecting tech-support scam ads into their Windows Store apps

Even Solitaire was at it

I had those annoying malware ads using Microsoft's OWN Soltaire Collection App. Just finished my game of FreeCell and BEEEEEEEEEP! with a browser window opening saying "you have been infected". And they kept popping up, until I closed Solitaire.

It seems to be fixed now. Just the regular annoying ads, which can safely be ignored (no I won't cough up just to remove the ads, that's bloody ransomware)

Is that a stiffy disk in your drive... or something else entirely?

Re: Re. Zip disks

I never found out the real cause, thanks!

Imagine working in Tech Support for Iomega at the height of this problem (1998), and being ordered to tell customers "no it's not a design issue, we'll replace it under warranty". And you had to keep a straight face doing so......

The response was usually, "fine I'll buy a SyQuest". Then CD-Writers became affordable, followed by USB sticks.

Crikey, that was over 20 years ago....... get off my lawn!

Tim Apple. Larry Oracle. Ginni Layoffs: It works so why the heck not?

Re: Erm.....

Blowing his own trumpet?

Fujitsu: Closes director's gate to Tait, 9 execs abdicate, and for German workers – a crap Weihnachtszeit

Re: Getting out of the hardware business?

I think so. It's in Augsburg, where I live. Pretty glum news. Hope the staff can find something more that just working as Jeff Bezos' slave down the road in Graben.

Though it probably means even more cars on the Autobahn and even more people on the already full trains to Munich (which I, like many others, use to commute to work)

Greybeard greebos do runner from care home to attend world's largest heavy metal fest Wacken

They were picked up at 3am, so they were living after midnight.... you don't have to be old to be wise, but it might help

They're back! 'Feds only' encryption backdoors prepped in US by Dems

Re: Simple, just call: 36-24-36

Unfortunately these dirty deeds are not being done dirt cheap. Instead it's bloody expensive, it seems to me.

Addicts of Facebook and pals are easy prey for manipulative scumbags – thanks to tech giants' 'extraordinary reach'

The late, great Sir Pterry summed it up well:

"People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things…well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is OLDS"

- Lord Vetinari in "The Truth"

Ugh, of course Germany trounces Blighty for cyber security salaries

Re: Well you'd need to compare available income

€400 "warm" rent for 75m² is not all that expensive (relatively speaking). Depends on where you are. I'm at about €1000 per month for 88m² for a family of 4, but this is in southern Bavaria about an hour outside Munich.

As far comparing costs of living, I think Dublin is far more expensive. Healthcare and childcare here are brilliant compared to Ireland. Food is much cheaper, too.

Trump buries H-1B visa applicants in paperwork

Re: Off shore slumming

The UK would have been able to restrict "New EU" immigration after certain eastern european nations (including Poland) joined the EU several years ago. Most EU countries passed legislation through their national parliaments for a grace period where new EU citizens would not immediately have full freedom of migration/employment. In Germany, I think it was 7 years. Only a few EU countries did not pass such laws, including UK, Ireland. Guess where a lot of those people went as soon as they were legally allowed? So for all the "polish plumber" complaints, Westminster had the ability to restrict it but did nothing. As Binky said, ask yourself why.

Twilight of the idols: The only philosophy HPE and IBM do these days is with an axe

Re: Critique

About HPE: "With the exception of servers..... they don't produce anything themselves"

HPE servers were also acquired.... from Compaq

So was their EVA Storage, which was based on tech from DEC

Frenchman comes eye to eye with horror toilet python

Re: Called the fire brigade indeed...

Well he probably did "fart in your general direction" while the snake was stuck in the U-Bend.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

Danger! High voltage: German customs bods burn half-tonne of weed in power station

Re: "Kraut" ? really ? in the 21st century ? after 70 years ?

They're just using the wrong vinegar. You try finding malt vinegar in a German supermarket. Only wine or apple-based stuff on the shelves here. Yuck! Only good for descaling the kettle.

Re: "Kraut" ? really ? in the 21st century ? after 70 years ?

I think the pun is somewhat appropriate for this article, as Kraut, or rather its plural "Kräuter" is the German word for herbs....

The Germans also take the piss out of the British for what they consider culinary blasphemy. Like warm beer, the contents of a fry-up, mint-sauce with lamb, and vinegar on chips (and this from a country that considers mayonnaise as an acceptable condiment to chips, the heathens!).

Escrow you, Apple! Ireland expects Cupertino to cough up to €13bn

Re: Tax refund

Fat chance. They won't even use it to plug the gaping holes in the national pension reserve fund. It's all going to pay off a fraction of the Anglo-Irish Bank debt. So some senior bank managers in Paris, Frankfurt and whoever else lent Anglo the money can get even bigger bonuses.

Well, some might be used to finance the next well-earned pay rise for the glorious elected representatives of Dáil Éireann (apologies if anyone's sarcasm detector just exploded)

Tesla launches electric truck it guarantees won't break for a million miles

Re: Tesla semi?

"they could take power from overhead lines."

Scania have already done this. I kid you not. And it's not a train.

https://www.scania.com/group/en/2016-worlds-first-electric-road-opens-in-sweden/

Amazon Key door-entry flaw: No easy fix to stop rogue couriers burgling your place unseen

Re: a locked "Amazon box"

Erm, don't know about the english-speaking world, but here in the Fatherland, DHL already have stuff like that:

https://www.dhl.de/en/privatkunden/pakete-empfangen.html

(the page in in english, don't worry)

I've used their free Packstation service for about 10 years, maybe longer. Any online retailer worth their salt can accept Packstation addresses. Amazon were one of the first to offer it. In fact, I think I first found out about this on Amazon.

Atlassian kills God, rebrands as a mountain, a structurally unsound 'A' or a high five

Charlie Sans?

Well, at least it's better than Comic Sans

To me that logo looks like someone being hit over the head by a frying pan......(Married Man perspective of teamwork).

Ouch, my head hurts.......

Are Asimov's laws enough to stop AI stomping humanity?

Re: "Zeroth Law Rebellion,"

Well the movie just borrowed the concept. It was in the book "Robots and Empire" where the zeroth law was formulated by the robot Giskard.

Trump as US president (in Sharknado 3)? Oh Hell No!

Trump and Sharknado have one thing in common on how they divide opinion:

Half of America: Oh Hell No!

Other half of America: Oh Hell Yeah!

(Note: "half" is only a rough estimate. Your mileage may vary)

A bit like Marmite in Britain, really.

US Senators want Kaspersky shut out of military contracts

What about Veeam?

Will they be banning Veeam Backup software, too?

Darkness to fall over North America from a total solar eclipse

Re: 'Snot fair

Maybe they can put that in the deal with the DUP - move the eclipse to the UK. The DUP claim to have a direct line to the man upstairs, don't they?

Congressman drafts COVFEFE Act to preserve Trump's Twitter tantrums

Backronyms

The late, great Lester would have appreciated Congressman Quigley's talent for backronyms.

PARIS, LOHAN, COVFEFE

Ex-MI5 boss: People ask, why didn't you follow all these people ... on your radar?

Re: IRA

32 counties, not 36 :-)

But you're right on the rest. Though I don't think they're targeting the Irish government. Their target is to be IN the next Irish government. The main political parties have each proved they're useless and can't run the country, so I fear the Shinners will do rather well at the next election. Taoiseach Gerry? Ugh!

Twice-crashed HPE SANs at Oz Tax Office built for speed, not strength, and turned off error reporting

Re: Common guy interpretation?

Zip-Ties + Fibre Cables = Bad Idea

Maybe the cable might have been slightly damaged. Not enough the cause the port to go offline, but just a weak signal. Sometimes that's hard to pick up without appropriate monitoring parameters on the SAN switch (the default thresholds might not have picked it up).

Also, the disk firmware issue can affect multiple disks at once. I saw one advisory that said after a certain amount of running time (about 3 years), some flash disks could shutdown and restart themselves. Since all disks in a SAN Array were started at the same time, it could have caused the affected pool to go offline. Prevented by installing a new disk firmware before the 3 years were up.

Try not to scream: Ads are coming to Amazon's Alexa – and VR goggles

For some reason, this clip from Futurama came to mind:

https://youtu.be/XPGgTy5YJ-g

Google and Amazon are probably working on it as we speak.

London app dev wants to 'reinvent the bus'

Re: So they're going to be big

So something like a purple triple-decker bus, which appears when you call it? And it can zoom and squeeze through London's traffic, because everything else hops out of the way. I think I saw one parked out in Leavesden. Bloke called Ern was driving it.

Big mistake by Big Blue: Storwize initialisation USBs had malware

Re: Forward Thinking Company

Well obviously it was a llama. I don't think you'll find a møøse in India......

Core blimey! 10,000 per rack in startup's cloud-in-a-box

Re: Exactly...

I imagine it's like the exhaust of the batmobile.

Just put some meat on a skewer, instant BBQ!

Snakes and bats cause more blackouts than criminal haxors

Re: Flying foxes

Terry Pratchett was right. The list of harmless creatures in "Fourecks" is shorter:

Some of the sheep.

Euro Patent Office hit with wave of anti-Battistelli letters

Next opportunity

Does the Turkish patent office have an opening at the moment? Sounds like this guy would fit right in with Erdogan and his cronies. They'd get along like a house on fire.

Twitter app pwned by pro-Turkey hackers: Users' accounts sling 'Nazi' slurs

Re: Turkish diplomacy

What galls me is how many Turks in Germany are pro-Erdogan. If they think he's such a great führer why are they not on the next plane to Istanbul to live in the paradise he's creating for them?

What's scary is what's happening to anti-Erdogan Turks here.There's reports of people being spied on or beaten, simply for saying they disagree with Erdogan and are voting No in this upcoming referendum. The Verfassungsschutz need to have a good look at what some turkish organisations are up to.

The comments of the turkish regime have really shown their true colours and their desperation. I hope EU companies with business interests in Turkey are considering their positions (e.g. VW/MAN has a bus factory in Ankara, MediaMarkt has plenty of stores there, too)

Smart sex toys firm coughs up $3.75m in privacy lawsuit

Re: Did they collect...

"Is it classed as a root'er?"

Only Down Under....

Oh, 3PAR. One moment you're gliding along. The next, you're in the rain as HPE woos Nimble

Re: Is it my imagination

The MSA was a Compaq product. I think it was based on their Smart RAID controller for Proliant servers, just in an external box. And the EVA was based on the HSx Controller originally developed by Digital (DEC), who were acquired by Compaq, and then by HP.

Clariion was a DG product. Even today, an EMC Unity LUN identifies itself as DGC

Kylie withdraws from Kylie trademark fight, leaving Kylie to profit from… existing?

You should be so lucky.

That was especially for you.

Could a robot vacuum cleaner monitor your data centre?

Re: Camera

Wait until the robo-lawnmower gets a camera. Then you can watch a video of grass growing (and getting trimmed).