Posts by Trygve Henriksen

BOFH: The Prints of Darkness pays a visit

Re: Printer Configs

Pretty certain the Psion Org II (CM and probably XP) came out in 1986, and the LZ version in 1987(or was that the 4line 64KB LZ64 only with the LZ32 in 1986?)

I didn't really get into Psions unil the S3a, and I spent way too many hours sitting on the floor in networking closets with it hooked up to a router or Switch of some sort.

Picked up the S5 and did a lot of the same with that...

Got a few Org II(a POS350 and a LZ64 among them) and even a Psion Organiser(the first one) later. Wonderful machines.

My MC400 laptop is awaiting a battery pack rebuild, but the rest of the Psions still works.

BOFH: Have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?

The only way to deal with Progress Bars...

Is to NOT look at them. Go away and do something else for the next hour or two.

iRobot may be iDead in iYear

Re: Troubled robot vacuum-cleaner maker...

There are models with the hose built into the wall itself. Just pull it out and attach the head or whatever that thing is called.

Placing outlets closer can allow you to use a shorter hose, too.

The really big advantage to them is that they vent outside. The dust that regular vacuums require a HEPA filter for, isn't needed in a centralised vacuum.

CISA pen-tester says 100-strong red team binned after DOGE canceled contract

Re: Needed?

Most people when they try to save 'downgrade' their shopping. Instead of Stabucks, they get instant coffee and make it at home. Cheaper, but you still get that caffeine boost.

Instead of an expensive Bagel or donut, you eat a bowl of muesli or something. you still get the energy to work.

DOGE is removing both the coffee and the bagel, but not leaving a substitute anywhere.

Re: New Orleans

Read it quickly, and it sounds like Orangutan...

C++ creator calls for help to defend programming language from 'serious attacks'

Why do all Operating Systems have to be written in C?

There's no legal requirement for it as far as I know, it's just easier to do it in a high(er) level language than in Assembler.

As for Rust or any other compiler needing to be built in C?

Absolutely baloney of the finest grade.

It's probably possible to do it in REXX if you want...

I'm a bit rusty on REXX, so I won't attempt it.

I did write a compiler for a simple structured language in ADA once upon a time, though...

Untrained techie botched a big hardware sale by breaking client's ERP

Re: IBM?

I would guess at a capacitor, too.

I tossed out the last Procurve a few years ago, but I still have one or two spare PSUs, so there was no real reason to investigate. Besides, I think they're glued together.

Re: IBM?

We used a lot of the old 8port unmanaged ProCurves back in the day. Never an issue with them...

Until the PSU slowly died.

Thankfully, I had kept 'a few' of the PSUs for the JetDirect EX3 print servers.

BOFH: The USB stick always comes back – until it doesn't

I rescued a couple of used 8TB 3.5" SAS drives at work. And found an USB dock that accept them on a certain Chinese site.

Re: what's wrong with them?

I think I prefer my Psion Series II Datapaks. Nothing like hearing the tick of the charging circuit producing the 22V needed for writing to the EPROM...

I was told to make backups, not test them. Why does that make you look so worried?

Re: The only verified backup is one that you have restored from

I used to call that program Backup Excrement.

Someone is slipping a hidden backdoor into Juniper routers across the globe, activated by a magic packet

Re: If it is in memory

How many Sysadmins do you gather in the woods?

It should be 7. A lot of people think that it's 5 and to use Pentagrams.

Poor deluded fools...

7 because that's all '1's. In theory, 15 could also be used, but that always ends up in a fight between the BSD and the RedHat admins.

Also, the hooded cloaks are so last century. An old, green Norwegian Army Sweater(wool, with velcro closing in the neck), and a cap of some sort works just fine in my experience.

The main requirement is 'No Nylon, and Corduroy was never ever allowed, so there!'

Reading firmware is fun. Used to do a bit of that back in the day, but never anything more complicated than 8bit stuff.

(Need to get back into that. Got a few things I want to hack and modify)

Tech support fill-in given no budget, no help, no training, and no empathy for his plight

Re: Not "Fixing", Exactly

All wrong!

You should have taken the machine offline at 9am and run the backup then.

NetAdmin learns that wooden chocks, unlike swipe cards, open doors when networks can't

I believe Deviant Ollam is the better choice for intrusion videos.

Beijing claims it's found 'underwater lighthouses' that its foes use for espionage

I don't think it's the Islands we need to worry about. That's just a diversion.

No, what we, or rather Taiwan, needs to worry about is the enormous dredgers.

They are operating near or even in Taiwan's territorial waters.

Any even halfway competent submarine captain can navigate his sub under one of those and follow it to wherever its dredging, then let his sub sink down to rest in the newly dug out hole and be much more difficult to detect.

Each dredge takes the round trip 3 or 4 times, and you end up with a flotilla of subs on the seabed, just waiting for the signal to move towards Taiwan to release teams of SF operatives.

BOFH: Boss's quest for AI-generated program ends where it should've begun

Re: Hilarious

Sort everything by size, then start adding up at the small end?

A nice cup of tea rewired the datacenter and got things working again

I have Colossal cave on my Psion Organiser II.

Yes, I am being intolerably smug – because I ignored you and saved the project

The correct way

to do such an operation is to DOCUMENT EVERYTHING FIRST!

Map out the network. Find out what is connected to every d*mn port in every switch. This can be done digitally.

Now, go check every switch physically, and find every cable connected that isn't on the map.

Track those down to where they end (empty office, places where there used to be a printer and so on)

Get rid of those. That should clear out a good chunk of the rats nest, without even requiring a service window.

Your trainee just took down our business and has no idea how or why

Re: "Doublefuck!! Wrong [rebooted|powered-off] Computer!"

No, you make the DEV background FLASH.

BOFH: The new Boss, Aiman, is suspiciously good – for now

Some fridges...

fits into a 19" rack... Then grab the front bezels of some old DELL servers and stick them to the front.

As those bezels are full of holes and gaps and general lack of design, grab a stack of old Hot-plug disks, cut the end with the locking arm off, connect wires to the LEDs in that piece and stick them to the door before placing the bezels.

For extra points, fit pressure transducers to the shelves and use an arduino to display the number of lagers on each shelf as a RED LED among the Green ones.

Yes, you can use a RPi to connect it to the network and show it all on a fancy website, but what's the fun in that?

Techie saved the day and was then criticized for the fix

Re: Locks.

That's when you use Grease instead of oil....

Lost your luggage? That's nothing – we just lost your whole flight!

AAnyone who ever survived a flight with Spantax also understood this.

I'll see your data loss and raise you a security policy violation

Re: Outlook...

Ah, may you also be a connoiseur of Alaskan comics?

https://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb301.html

BOFH takes a visit to retro computing land

Re: The TRS 80 Model 100 should have been among the stuff 'responsibly disposed of'...

I actually have an Epson EHT, can't remember the correct number. With some accessories, but no documentation. Haven't had time to search it out.

I'm more a Psion fan when it comes to handhelds... ;-)

The TRS 80 Model 100 should have been among the stuff 'responsibly disposed of'...

What a pile of sorry code. They say that it's the last computer BillG was in on the programming of the OS on.

I believe it. If you start any of the built-in programs fresh out of the box you'll get an error.

Also, unlike what the Americans think, it wasn't the first 'laptop'

the Epson HX-20 came first.

And is a much more capable machine, too.

Yes, I have them. I also have the TRS 80 Model 102. Mostly a slightly slimmer 100.

I have the Osborne.(First portable. No, I don't count that movable IBM), the Commodore SX-64, and a few others.

The Epson PX-8 is extra nice...

I have the Amstrad NC-100 and 200. Anyone got a 150 for sale?

I have Apples, I have Newtons, I have the eMate...

Even a non-toasted PowerBook 5300.(Popularly known as the Hindenbook because of its tendency to catch fire... But only the model with Li-Ion batteries, supplied by Sony, did that. Mine's a Ni-mh model)

I have Psions, a cratefull even, and a Geofox among them. I have Palms, I have REXes.

I could use a BBC Model B, though. Is it export limited or something?

Service desk tech saved consultancy Capita from VPN meltdown, got a smack for it

Re: Lesson Learned?

The correct way to handle it is to tell either the crew that is on the case, or their manager, what you happened to find when you were messing about on your own time.

Let them decide if it's a fix, or tempporary patch, or just a wild shot in the dark.

Also, as this was during the slow transition from XP to Win7, it's possible they had already decided that they would use this to get he stragglers to finally update!

Uptime guarantees don't apply when you turn a machine off, then on again, to 'fix' it

Re: wait till a support person arrived

This.

That half an hour may be the difference between 'barely catching the plane going vaguely in the customer's direction', and 'there's a plane heading there tomorrow'

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

Re: "NEVER SWITCH OFF"

I've begun posting placards in my server rooms that 'any new installs not labelled with name and function will be disconnected without warning.'

Errors logged as 'nut loose on the keyboard' were – ahem – not a hardware problem

Re: Aaaaargh!

And THAT is the only thing you're supposed to look for when doing statistics on tickets; all the easily fixed 'nuisance tickets' with the same cause.

Find the worst offender, and fix the root cause, then the next worst offender and so on.

Anything else in the system is not relevant and can probably be faked anyway.

BOFH: Generating a report the Director can show the Board – THIS is what AI was made for

Re: One line.

Probably a bit-slice CPU.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Re: A beam in their eye... Physical Methods Trump Signs in Any Language

I have a pair of Cocoons Sidekick orange UV filter glasses I like to use when driving.

Only...

Blue paint on signs turns black, and Blue light just... disappears...

Re: Not only two signs...

It's a CLEAR cover. That won't stop anyone stupid enough to mess with the cables at all.

If the socket can't be hidden under a raised floor, use a 60309-something instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60309

Then use distribution rails in the rack with IEC 60320 C13 sockets. Most Rack-mount kit can work with a standard C13 - to - C14 cable.

Well, besides Cisco...

How CIA betrayed informants with shoddy front websites built for covert comms

Re: So which is worse

You might want to read the wiki article about them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_14_(Norway)

NASA builds for keeps: Voyager mission still going after 45 years

Way back in the early 90s, I had a course in microcontroller tech, and the teacher told us that if one of his students had come to him with one of those first PCs as a 'project', he would have failed him.

Ukraine's secret cyber-defense that blunts Russian attacks: Excellent backups

Re: "Maintaining offline backups is expensive and a lot of boring, repetitive work."

They forced you to use DAT tapes for backups?

Those... those... FIENDS!

Re: "Maintaining offline backups is expensive and a lot of boring, repetitive work."

If you have to worry about inserting the wrong set, or labelling tapes, you don't have a large enough robot.

In a robot, there are 3 sets of tapes; protected(tapes written to, and that should not be reused for a certain period), the 'Scratch tapes'(any tape not protected by a time limit) and the cleaning tapes...

Tapes you NEED to remove for offsite can be exported, and you replace them with scratch or new tapes.

And you can get LTO tapes already labelled from the factory.

BOFH: You'll have to really trust me on this team-building exercise

Re: Ahh, Team building/break the ice exercises....

I think the idea being that the team members will stop calling the people in other departments for simpering idiots or neanderthals, and actually start cooperating with them...

The only thing a Teambuilding dofus manage to get them to agree on is that the dofus needs to be taken out back and playfully rolled through a few cow patties.

Other than that, what everyone wants to do is forget everything that happened, and hope that the simpering neanderthals in the same group also does, otherwise they might have blackmail material on you.

NO ONE has yet managed to prove that Teambuilding exercises actually work!

Prototype app outperforms and outlasts outsourced production version

Re: So

Manglers are easily distracted by shiny reports.

That users need to be able to actually enter data or do other operations is not something they understand.

Chromium-adjacent Otter browser targets OS/2

Re: I always feel a certain nostalgia...

One of those components was the HPFS file system. M$ owns that, and IBM paid royalties from it, so every time IBM sold a license, BillG got tingly...

I believe at least some M$ marketing drones were told to FUD OS/2 as much as possible, too.

I heard one once say that HPFS was critically flawed. (He was pushing NT server 3.51... talk about flaw... )

I immediately stood up and asked when M$ was going to fix it, then since it was their product and all...

Technology from the 1980s?

I feel the urge... to hit someone...

Also, since OS/2 is being maintained you're allowed to use present tense when mentioning it.

I can never remember seeing an error screen on an OS/2-based ATM. But you can't walk through a large shopping mall or international airport without seeing at least a few winblows-based ATMs, ticketmachines or info-screens with either white text on blue or a dialog box that someone needs to click away...

Real-time software? How about real-time patching?

Re: Not necessarily an Osborne

He should NOT feel guilty about the guard.

It was the guard who decided to move what he believed to be a dangerous explosive device. Or some mangler or other ordered him to do it.

Had he done his job, and called it in, the bomb squad would have told him to under no circumstances toucht it. Then they'd send a team to deal with it.

Re: Portable? Shirley you mean luggable ...

The Compaq Portable is also rather sewingmachine-shaped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable

Also, I have the Lemmings game for the Z88...

Re: Portable? Shirley you mean luggable ...

It could also have been an Osborne, a Compaq Portable, possibly a Kaypro(can't remember the size of the screen).

It probably wasn't the Commodore Sx-64, though, as it had a smaller screen.

And the Panasonic Sr. has a 9" screen, not a 7" as mentioned in the article.

Trade me the sr for a Cambdridge Computers Z88? New in box... Yes, original carboard 'attache case' packaging.

No?

IT technician jailed for wiping school's and pupils' devices

Re: 14 different steps

It's England. Odds are that step 2 involves making a pot of tea instead of coffee, and 5 is 'add milk and sugar, stir and sip'.

Nothing's working, and I've checked everything, so it must be YOUR fault

Re: "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Best Seasons ending ever!

Yeah, I also have the DVD set.

Playing jigsaw on my roof: They can ID you from your hygiene habits

Only one thing to do; get one of those oldfashioned galvanized steel bathtubs, and fill it with water you heat on a woodstove..

You forced me to use this fancypants app and now you're asking for a printout?

I bet your hay fever starts close to Christmas?

It's not hayfever, it's allergy.

Probably to the pollen from Euphorbia pulcherrima

Commonly known as 'Poinsettia' and very popular as Christmas decorations.

One of the big bosses at my office was allergic, and she finaly got the building owners to stop giving one of those wretched things to every employee in the building.

LAN traffic can be wirelessly sniffed from cables with $30 setup, says researcher

I think this is imagine used on an airgapped computer sitting somewhere by itself in an otherwise secure facility. And then it's a means for malware that's already on it to use the patch cable someone were considerate enough to leave hanging on it to transmit the stolen data.

Config cockup leaves Reg reader reaching for the phone

Re: Me too...

Run his COMMIT first...

US school districts blame Amazon for nationwide bus driver shortage

Re: Bus drivers...

Are you mad?

Do you know how much soldiers get in combat pay?

It'd blow the budget within the first week!

(No, it's not all that much, but it can't be less than the pittance the school bus drivers gets.)