Posts by Trygve Henriksen

If you don't LARP, you'll cry: Armed fun police swoop to disarm knight-errant spotted patrolling Welsh parkland

You got off easy...

Here in Norway we had this:

https://youtu.be/K27Tayaxavc?t=19

Square peg of modem won't fit into round hole of PC? I saw to it, bloke tells horrified mate

Re: soft modems

As someone who found hat they didn't even spend the $0.10 to install a diode to protect against reverse voltages on the power connector on their laptops... I used to tell people that they were slightly less painful than being poked in the eye with a rusty fork.

A paper clip, a spool of phone wire and a recalcitrant RS-232 line: Going MacGyver in the wonderful world of hotel IT

Re: About ten years back

Should have used a much longer cable so that they could make a few more crossings and zigzags across the room. Just one crossing isn't enough to bother anyone.

Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent 'misleading data' being shown to pilots

Re: Windows Server 2000

How did they get NT4 to run for 42 days before crashing?

Planet Computers has really let things slide: Firm's third real-keyboard gizmo boasts 5G, Android 10, Linux support

Slip sliding away...

I remember all the smartphones with slide-out keyboards...

That never really worked. The contacts lost contact, the slide mechanism jammed or broke.

My Gemini is mostly collecting dust. Sorry, but it's too slow to run the apps I want.

My Cosmo hasn't shipped yet...

and now they want to push this disaster-in-waiting onto the market?

That awful moment when what you thought was a number 1 turned out to be a number 2

Re: PD?

Unfortunately, back then 'Professional development' meant something like 'we pay our programmers enough that they don't have to dumpster dive'....

About the same as what it means today, really...

Checks?

Oh, I remember those!

No, actually, I don't. Never used one.

Theranos vampire lives on: Owner of failed blood-testing biz's patents sues maker of actual COVID-19-testing kit

Do you still have any coins containing silver in the USA?

If so, 30 of those would be the correct amount.

Not exactly the kind of housekeeping you want when it means the hotel's server uptime is scrubbed clean

Re: Lockable outlet?

Why not just get these:

https://www.panamax.com/product/max-wall-power-signal-bay-15a-code-compliant-extension-system-MIW-XT

Most vacuum cleaners and electric drills doesn't come with a C13 cord...

Re: The cleaner did it.

Two big flaws in that situation.

1. You let the monkeys work unsupervised.

2. You had regular power outlets.

You won't find anything but C13 sockets near the server racks in my Server room.

(Distribution rails, connected to large 32Amp sockets under the raised floor. )

What's inside a tech freelancer's backpack? That's right, EVERYTHING

Re: "my backpack can weigh between 8 and 14kg"

Have you SEEN the S60?

If you hear a crack, it's the rim of the tank that cracked...

Re: "my backpack can weigh between 8 and 14kg"

I put my phone on silent if I'm in a meeting. Anyone who NEEDS to contact me then can email me, Skype me(text only or I'll force reboot their PC) or even use Teams chat.

My portable(no serious manufacturer calls them laptop anymore because they're afraid of being sued when someone burn their wedding tackle) is a DELL 2-in-1 hybrid. Takes less space than a block of A4 paper, and easy to grab with me if I have to go outside.

Re: "my backpack can weigh between 8 and 14kg"

My work phone is a CAT S60.

I'm afraid that it would probably survive the drop, and someone would have to fish it out...

Re: Power Blocks

Why do you need 3 ports?

Not that many portables that require more than one socket.

Re: "my backpack can weigh between 8 and 14kg"

4G modem?

That's what the 'Internet Sharing' function on the cell-phone is for.

When I'm out travelling, my phones gets charged off the laptop. got to use those USB ports for something...

And my phone can take 2 SIMs, so no need to lug two phones.

Hello, support? What do I click if I want some cash?

Re: Not surprised at all

Did the Boys in Green ever thank Barclays for not letting them do such a serious mistake as signing up with them?

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

Re: Windows...

Nah..

You can still do bace to face' service in the upper floors...

Remember when Europe’s entire Galileo satellite system fell over last summer? No you don’t. The official stats reveal it never happened

Re: WTF?

Assholes will be assholes. Simple as that.

Now, if this site let us see who up or downvoted posts...

I do believe that only a coward and sleazebag will ever downvote without posting the reason for it.

Re: WTF?

If I write something, I usually do it because I want someone to read it. and right-to-left writing tends to confuse people.

I prefer felt-tip because when you write left-to-right with your left hand, you're pushing against the paper with the pen, and that really fucks up the ball of ball-points.

Re: WTF?

I'm leftanded, so ball-point pens have 75% or less reliability.

Which is why I prefer felt-tip pens...

Mine's the one with maps and a compass in the pocket...

Will Asimov fix my doorbell? There should be a law about this

Re: 3 laws for AI

I effing hate those 3 laws.

They're so vague that there's no way that a robot can follow them. At all!

I'm very, very cross at Asimov to have even thought them out since muggles all over the world think they're a good idea and it seems, wants to implement them!

You haven't seen the movie?

Good luck the weekend's here, then.

BOFH: When was the last time someone said these exact words to you: You are the sunshine of my life?

Also, I never use the F-word the first time they call(that year).

Telling them that I don't want to be bothered with surweys now or in the future doesn't seem to stick.

As I told the caller after they called to interupt my work 'I'm satisfied with everything, except these annying calls afterwards. Now please fuck off, I have work to do'

Who says HMRC hasn't got a sense of humour? Er, 65 million Brits

No, it's NOT The Same The Whole World Over...

I'm in Norway, and so far I've checked the pre-filled form online, and will probably just sign off on that.

If I don't bother to check or sign it one year, the system will automatically accept it on the last day.

And yes, I get a bit of money back most years.

A Notepad nightmare leaves sysadmin with something totally unprintable

Re: OS/2

Definitely a whippersnapper.

The 40 floppies sounds like 3.0.

1.3 and 2.0 were just a handful of floppies.

(I have a folder with OS/2 1.3, MS LAN Server 2.2, MS SQL Server and Ungemann Bass Network monitoring SW... somewhere in the attic... I need to tidy up soon. Dump that SQL Server crap)

Re: Printer drivers: still cruddy after all these years

That brings me back...

To sitting crosslegged in front of assorted networking gear with my Psion S3a connected with the soap-on-a-rope serial adapter and a null-modem cable, to do configs.

I've later aquired a few of the IIs, a CM, a LZ64, and a POS350(an XP model with a whopping 96KB RAM)

They're fun to mess around with. Added the sensor from an old bicycle speedo and some logic chips, and suddenly I had a bike speedo that not just gave me the usual speed and distance, but average speed and average speed last minute(there's some long uphills... very long... )

One day I'll remake that with Low-power chips so that the PP3 battery lasts more than 15 minutes...

Why is the printer spouting nonsense... and who on earth tried to wire this plug?

And what if the wiring is IT net?

On an IT net there's no connection between the grid and the ground.

Quite a few installations are IT here in Norway.

TN-C-S is a pretty recent thing.

Can't you hear me knocking? But I installed a smart knocker

Re: The joys of automation...

I wouldn't trust a humidistat. Besides, I like to get the air moving before I get the water running.

I'm in the 'just a bit helpful' camp when it comes to home automation.

Re: The joys of automation...

I'm just starting out with home automation, but I'm taking it slowly, and with a finger in the ground.

My first automation was a fan. It's connected to the kitchen, the bathroom and the closet(the closet is a 'wet' room with the hot water tank, and fittings for a waher and dryer. ) I know the fan is important, but... I CAN HEAR IT. Particularly late at night when I can't sleep... So now it shuts down at 11pm, and starts back up at 7am. In the unlikely scenario that I would want to take a shower before 7am, I plan to add a wireless button outside the bath and mark it with 'shower' which will start the fan back up again. (I'd still have to stumble into the kitchen to kick the fan into high, but... )

Next is m garage door opener.

Yes I have a remote for it. Two actually. And I can't count the number of times I've managed to 'pocket dial' tthe remote and left the garage open...

Soon I will not only be able to see the status of it, and close it with my phone, but if someone comes by with a delivery of say, car parts for my dilapidated car, I can remotely open the garage for them to place the package there, the nclose it again.

Oh, and windowblinds...

I'm going to toss out the old IKEA wood slats, and install roller blinds. That goes down automatically if the system detects sunshine... Or later, only does it if I'm home to be bothered by it...

Door lock?

No, I don't think that will be 'upgraded' soon.

Close the windows, it's coming through the walls: Copper Cthulu invades Dabbsy's living room

Voice activated Stupid gear? Not happening.

(It's 'stupid' because the processing happens outside the box, often in Google's server farms)

I'm slowly smartening up my home, too, but yeah, I'm using 433MHz and Z-wave kit mostly.

And I'm using HomeSeer, not the manufacturer's cloudy solutions, or ITTT.

I should probably label some of the cabling in my 'network closet', though. And now you can get heat-shrink TZe tapes...

Remember the big IBM 360 mainframe rescue job? For now, Brexit has ballsed it up – big iron restorers

Ask Drew Pritchard?

The host of the Salvage Hunters show on Discovery.

I don't know how much the lift of his car can handle, but he do know how to secure fragile cargo.

He probably have to take two trips, but if he can take a stop or two along the way to buy some old industrial light fittings, he'll probably jump at the opportunity.

The safest place to save your files is somewhere nobody will ever look

No, an Avid DOS user would understand what a PATH was and that some programs would require files to be in specific locations.

What you were thinking of was a DOS Monkey. Probably even had a hand-written list of 'useful commands' taped on the wall, too. (Monkey see, monkey do. No concept of when something is appropriate or not)

And they had the sound to match, also.

If you dropped one in, you knew instantly what you had done.

Not a death spiral, I'm trapped in a closed loop of customer experience

Re: This requirement for paper bills/statements...

This is bollocks.

By those companies, not what you wrote.

In many countries, you don't own your official ID papers. They're defined as Government Property. And you need government approval to hand them over like that. (Check your country's law on this, you may be surprised)

If any company or organisation demands to hold my ID, they can kiss my big, fat arse goodbye because I will turn around and march out of there.

To hold a passport, they must generally have a 'relevant use' reason, such as Visa approval work.

(The Russian Embassy may hold your passport for up to 4 weeks just for a one day Visa. )

Of course, many countries allow you to have a 'spare' passport for situations like that.

(In Norway, that passport has a validity of only 2 years. Also handy if you plan to visit both Iran and Israel... )

There's generally no 'relevant use' for holding a normal ID card or a Driver's License.

And some picture IDs I wouldn't let anyone hold, ever.

(My VISA doubles as picture ID. Yup, mugshot on the back of the card )

MIT boffins turn black up to 11 with carbon nanotubes that absorb 99.995% of light

Re: "unfit for use on a public road"

I wouldn't know about motorbikes, but one of the reason I stopped driving mopeds was that everyone drove past as if they never saw me. And I made certain that all the lights worked, added lots of freflex tags, and wor a bright orange vest with reflective stripes.

Re: "unfit for use on a public road"

Hypotethically...

It's a rainy evening and you're heading home after slaving for minutes in the server room... And spening 10 hours writing the change logs...

There's no streetlights because it's out in the boondocks somewhere, and you see a solitary red light up ahead, possibly with a orange light blinking to the left of it(Brits: imagine that it's to the right instead)

Probably a motorbike about to turn off up ahead...

You can't really se it because of reflections and of course the lights from oncoming traffic. So you position yourself to the right(or the left if you're a Brit), closer to the edge of the road to give him a decent margin as you slip past...

And SMACK straight into the rightand back corner of the expensive blackpainted car with a broken taillight...

I'm not kidding about this situation. I was so very close to do that once, and that car wasn't even covered in Vantablack, just regular black.

Re: "unfit for use on a public road"

Because in poor light conditions these cars can end up practically invisible?

I honestly hope that the car(s) get stopped and impounded as painting a car with Vantablack or similar would make it unfit for use on a public road.

(I think BMW officials were prattling about selling a series of cars painted with the stuff )

BOFH: What's the Gnasher? Why, it's our heavy-duty macerator sewage pump

Re: Colour me shocked...

Yeah. Amigas are way too common, and not all that often used in these kind of systems.

I know that C64 was used in some Teletext systems, though. And because of the relatively simple HW and the 6502 instruction set it would have been easy to use it as the controller in a large HVAC system.

They even had a chained serial port with addressable nodes.

A PC,(Original, or XT) with a custom ISA card that may even have some sort of custom chip or programmable logic, where the documentation is... lacking... can be almost impossible to upgrade to a modern system.

This is actually a real issue. Many buildings have ancient controllers that only still works because of regular blood sacrifices, and they can't upgrade the HVAC systems because there's no way to update the controller to support new components. Because the original manufacturer no longer exists or will not touch it because it's so old that they no longer have documentation or anyone old enough to even remember it.

Captain's coffee calamity causes transatlantic flight diversion

Re: Cup-holding it wrong

Except that the passengers only have the regular fold-out table with a circular depression where they're supposed to place a cup, a waterglass or possibly a soda can, while the pilots have proper cup holders. Why not give them proper thermos mugs, with a button on the lid for open and close?

First water world exoplanet spotted – and thankfully no sign of Kevin Costner, rejoice!

Re: Super earth.

I'm pretty certain that they can also 'spot' large planets by plotting the wobble of a star or other already detected planets in that solar system.

Can you download it to me – in an envelope with a stamp?

I just WISH a human had anything to do with my package...

One package I've been waiting for has now been travelling between Oslo and Bodø(central and northern Norway) for nearly 3 weeks.

What a pity that I live almost smack dab in the middle, then...

Support expect that it'll be returned to China 'soon' as it has been so long since it should have been delivered...

Until then it will continue to zip back and forth between two large, automated sorting centers, never arriving at my local post office because of what may be a slightly smudged address label... (most probably, a 6 is being misread as an 8 )

Massachusetts city tells ransomware scumbags to RYUK off, our IT staff will handle this easily

It's for situations like these you have a 'Network Kill' script that shuts down every effing switch on the network by disabling all but the uplink ports on them.

I just love your accent – please, have a new password

Caller ID = Your routines suck!

Caller ID just means someone needs to walk into an empty office and place the call from the phone there...

There's also usually a doorsign giving him the victim's name, and if you're lucky, IT haven't stopped Windows from showing the signature of the last person to log in...

Pokemon Go becomes Pokemon No as games biz Niantic agrees to curb trespassing addicts

Re: Octo-mon found

I've heard of people bringing several phones with them when they're visiting other countries. The phones belongs to friends who also play the game, and they've sent them off so that he can catch pokemon with them using their accounts. It's not enough for some to trade for pokemon that can't be found locally.

Y2K, Windows NT4 Server and Notes. It's a 1990s Who, Me? special

Re: Shutting down the wrong server

My point is that SOME servers had the tech back then, and anyone managing a large server room or a remote site that didn't buy servers with this kind of tech really, really got what they deserved.

Re: Shutting down the wrong server

Not with ILO.

Even the first gen RIB (before RILOE I and II which came before ILO) did a proper power-off.

Bit of a time-saver: LibreOffice emits 6.3 with new features, loading and UI boosts

Re: File Edit menu

You are allowed to donate if you like the program...

They'll even help you set up a recurring transaction in PayPal if you want.

(I'm a bit cheap, so I only give $10 every 3 months. )

Storied veteran Spitfire slapped with chrome paint job takes off on round-the-world jaunt

Re: Greenland

They fly over Greenland because it's the route with the shortest hops over open water.

(There's an airport on greenland capable of taking quite large airplanes if a landing is deemed necessary)

Pilots don't like wet feet, either.