Posts by Down not across

Behold: The ghastly, preening, lesser-spotted Incredible Bullsh*tting Customer

Re: Beware enterprising users...

Ah comments in code.

I (and I am not alone by a long shot) have often included choice comments in the code to explain bits of code. Usually the comments are critical of some less than stellar policies or practises necessitating some jiggery pokery, so more likely to be potty mouthed against the company (possibly manglement) than any specific user.

I do recall colleagues being told off and asked to remove the offending comments.

I suppose ideally anyone above team leader shouldn't have clearance to see code. I mean what is the point, it is not like its likely (apart from rare exceptions) they'd understand it.

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Re: I'm so angry I can't think

Ribbon Factory

ServiceNow's 6-week virtual conference kicks off. Yes, you read that right: 6 weeks...

"I think so because what everyone's looking for now is a great experience and that's what we kind of give them at ServiceNow," he said, before padding out his big sell with mention of silos, stitched together workflows and virtual agents.

Guess he has never tried to use their own product. It may be due to implementation, but my experience is defnitely not great. Simple task of raising an incident takes forever with slow lookups for fields that it insists on looking up (or verifying if you try to bypass by typing it in).

For many things it will take longer to wrestle with ServiceNever than actually do the work.

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

Re: Testing?

So California will apparently never lift the shelter order as currently written.

Neither is UK, given the 5th condition "No chance of second wave of infections" (yes, I paraphrased).

That condition can only be met when there are no more people left.

Xiaomi emits phone browser updates after almighty row over web activity harvested even in incognito mode

Ferris Bueller would be proud

Ferris Bueller would be so proud...

Whilst I'm sure he would be, I think David Lightman got there few years earlier.

Sun shines on ServiceNow amid pandemic storm after belated spree of $1m+ deals

Re: ServiceHow?

ServiceNever more like it.

Not sure if it is due to the implementation, but my experience mirrors yours. Ridiculously slow. Look ups for fields in form take forever, so just raising a simple incident takes multitude of time longer than actually dealing with the issue. Alas, incidents must be raised.

Here, have a virtual one (hope you have real equivalents in your fridge) if you also have to suffer from this abomination.

You can get a mechanical keyboard for £45. But should you? We pulled an Aukey KM-G6 out of the bargain bin

Re: Sun4

There are only two keyboards I have found comfortable to type so that I don't need to look at them at all and they are Model M (I really need to check why they occasionally lock up and need a reset (unplug and reseat cable at keyboard end) ..could be bit flaky connection I guess) and Sun Type 5. Sun Type 4 is not too bad either. Nor is LK201 come to think of it.

Who's still using Webex? Not even Cisco: Judge orders IT giant to use rival Zoom for virtual patent trial

Re: Webex and Skype

Used Webex to get past the 45 min Zoom cap. It was pretty terrible and looked like it had barely evolved in 5+ years.

I wish that was true. They have been mucking with the UI a lot, and like so many other have been infected with hunt around the screen with a pointed and you might come across a button for some functionality. Bring back the old UI, it may look clunky, but it worked fine.

ff I'm on conference call I don't care if the UI looks pretty, I just want it to work and be able share application/screen if needed.

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

Re: And yet...

Eons ago I had a Brother mono laser and was happily printing from SunOS/Ultrix via ghostscript thanks to it supporting PS (well they called it BrotherScript but same thing).

Re: HP printers

As I've posted on these hallowed pages before, you can pry my LJ 4 and 5 out of my dead cold hands.

In fact given the reliability of the old, properly built HP printers, quite a few years ago I got a 4700 to print in colour (on the rare occasion I need to) and not have to sufffer the dried/gunked up ink/heads and constant banding. Ok cartridges for 4700 are not cheap but the amount I need to print (especially in colour) probably last lifetime of the printer.

Repair/maintenance manuals are out there easily available, spares are plenty.

@PJL RDYMSG DISPLAY = "Happy Days"

Re: HP printers

Historically at least, that was somewhat due to CPU and especially memory requirements. For many vendors PS support was an optional extra, and often required memory upgrade.

In this day and age, I have to agree. Every printer should support PS.

Outages batter UK's Virgin Media into wee hours as broadband failures spike 77% globally

Re: across all Liberty Media in Europe

Yeah, most things point to the core network. I didn't see loss of connectivity to CMTS and even traceroutes worked, kind of, but extremely slowly. Needless to say any actual traffic, name look ups, estabilished connections etc timed out.

Amusingly, this time VM's outage page didn't lie that everything is ok, but was also broken.

I don't hold out much hope that VM/LG ever tell the truth, but it would be nice to hear what actually happened just out of professional interest.

Chinese carmaker behind Volvo and Lotus ships first two satellites for planned IoT ‘OmniCloud’

Re: Only two?

Yes, that he did.

While I'm happy it was a Tesla and not a '60 Corvette, I still think he should've chosen Riggs' Radar Rider as the song to play on its radio.

'Non-commercial use only'? Oopsie. You can't get much more commercial than a huge digital billboard over Piccadilly

Re: Free for non-commercial use?

Not quite equivalent, but VNC (there are quite a few implementations both free and commercial) is not bad alternative forremote support if you can live with its limitations compared to TeamViewer.

TightVNC tunneled via SSH has saved me from a long trip on occasions,

Elevating cost-cutting to a whole new level with million-dollar bar bills

Re: Another elevator anecdote.

Hmm, mostly 60 mA current loop in those days. Took a while until current loop standardised (effectively anyway) on 20 mA like ASR33, PDP-8, etc.

I think RS-422 would've been more likely as I recall RS-485 wasn't until early/mid 80s.

Re: Elevator interface

Article says 80s, so probably not very since RS485 came about in early to mid 80s. Current loop would've been around for sure.

Quite a few implementations in those days supported current loop option, so may not even had necessarily needed converters. The article doesn't mention distance, but sounds long enough for current loop to be the more sensible option especially since lower maximum data rate would not have been an issue.

The rumor that just won't die: Apple to keep Intel at Arm's length in 2021 with launch of 'A14-powered laptops'

Re: Around 95-99% of professional users

It's been painfully obvious for many years that Apple just want the professionals to go away. Yes, they buy the really expensive Macs, but there aren't many of them compared to the consumers buying Airs, iPads and the like.

Hardly, especially when you can also sell them wheels and monitor stands for some extra cash.

Web pages a little too style over substance? Behold the Windows 98 CSS file

Now if only I could turn my Linux UI into something resembling an Irix workstation or similar.

IIRC IRIX's 4Dwm was pretty much Motif. And after 5.1 or thereabouts they did bring out the MagicDesktop.

I think there are 4Dwm (or very similar) themes for most window managers.

Re: Who needs gooey?

BDOS Err On A: Bad Sector

Re: Better

It's a travesty I can only upvote once.

Moderatrix, the coders need whipping.

Are you fixing that switch? Or setting it up as a Minecraft server?

Re: OK, so can run a game server on a switch

I wouldn't (unless you're running L3 switch with reasonable feature set perhaps the line gets bit blurred) call it a router. Yes many home routers have 4 port switch built in as well, and some modular enterprise routers have switch modules available. That said, 9300 is a switch not a router.

Since you brought routers into the discussion, it might be worth pointing out that CPU (and to an extent memory) is a real issue. Sure if you're just passing packets that can take advantage of hardware acceleration you don't need much CPU. Once you add more complex firewall rules (or heaven forbid DPI and/or IDS) or anything else that causes the packet to be handled by CPU, the CPU load goes up considerably and your maximum throughput drops massively.

CFAA latest: Supremes to tackle old chestnut of what 'authorized use' of a computer really means in America

Re: "he was an authorized user of the plate system"

Did you mean that if I have access to medical records I can hoard them and sell them to health and pharma companies? If I work in a bank I can access at will and use for my personal gain, or give away people's financial status? If I have access to a model database I can sell their telephone numbers and addresses?

Of course not. Perhaps CFAA, as it currently stands, is not the law for that however.

IANAL, but surely there are other laws, probably even from time before computers, specifically for disclosure of information especially for monetary gain.

Europe publishes draft rules for coronavirus contact-tracing app development, on a relaxed schedule

They way I see it is for this to work it maybe has to be carrier side and not anonymous.

Good thing I still have drawer full of old Nokia Symbian phones. Good luck pushing any crap onto those.

Problem with carriers and governments is that they cant, in general, be trusted.

Honor MagicBook 14: Nice keyboard and ports aplenty – but with a webcam forever fixed on all of your chins

Re: Sure, USB-C is way more versatile

My biggest beef with any mechanical charging port is that it will suffer from wear and tair.

Agreed. Epecially with USB ports being fairly flimsy, although USB-C seems bit more robust (so far) than previous USB-A, MicroUSB and the like.

Reminds me when I used to have a slim 9-pin F-M straight through "gender changer" plugged into serial port to save the real port from wearing out as it got console cables plugged in and out frequently enough. Better to change the few quid adaptor occasionally than whole laptop (or to take it apart to solder a new connector to the mb.

Linksys forces password reset for Smart Wi-Fi accounts after router DNS hack pointed users at COVID-19 malware

Re: Surprise, surprise!!

Once the pain was over I did a factory resent on the router, packed it back in the box, and gave it to the local charity shop. SEP!!

Yes, absolutely correct. I'd resent too.

Another "Smart" something turning out to be less so

And this is why you don't allow anything external to configure your network. At least with the likes of Ubiquiti (not that they are without their own foibles) offer the choice of running AP controller, NMS, etc locally if you don't like the idea of using their cloud version.

Oh Hell. Remember the glory days of Demon Internet? Well, now would be a good time to pick a new email address

That reminds me of Freeserve back in the day. Got BT HomeHighway and used cisco 2503 to connect (and ensure line got dropped every 59 minutes) 128kbit/s, effectively permanent, connection. Eventually Freeserve stopped allowing bonding of B-channels which was hardly unexpected.

Sometime later NTL brought out the first cablemodems, that made the ISDN setup redundant.

Linux kernel technical advisory board asks if any maintainers need coronavirus relief

Re: Mämmi actually sounds delicious

It is delicious. Might not look very appetising with cream/milk poured on it, but tastes divine.

Re: Molasses? In Mämmi?

It's an interesting, very old-school brew, not for everyone's palate.

Traditional finnish homebrew is Sahti. Not sure how many people still use juniper branches for filtering. s for alcohol content, it can end up surprisngly high.

As for Mämmi, its utterly delicious.

If you don't cover your Docker daemon API port you'll have a hell of a time... because cryptocreeps are hunting for it

Pinged? Really?

The Register has pinged Docker for comment on the attacks.

What is wrong with "contacted" or something along those lines. Guess it is just me, but the current fad of "pinging" really irks me.

Alright, I'll crawl back under my rock.

Oh....and get orf my lawn!

Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again

Re: Many problems

* battery life - you can run portabale FM radio ages on set of batteries, try that with DAB...

Ethernet standards group leaves its name in the dust as it details new 800Gbps spec

Re: Insane Speed

That's not fast enough. Need Ludicrous Speed.

Capita inks deal with NHS to 'bring back staff': Workers get an hour of training to recruit and vet retired doctors, nurses

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Infosys, Accenture take leadership positions at India’s tech lobby NASSCOM... as on-premises call centers wither

Re: Nearly 90% of India's IT workforce is now working from home...

So their participation in outsourced services has declined.

Hardly surprising as many corporations insist employees/contractors in India to work from a clean room, which is currently rather unfeasible.

I'd like to think it would make companies rethink their outsourcing decisions, but I suspect that is not going to happen.

COBOL-coding volunteers sought as slammed mainframes slow New Jersey's coronavirus response

Re: We've been saying an upgrade is necessary for literally decades.

Most of this wouldn't be recognized as 'computing' by most modern programmers (just as they won't make a lot of sense of antique computing hardware)

Antique computing hardware makes more sense than the modern. All my "relics" Just Work(tm).

Too many (thankfully not all!) modern programmers also could do with pulling their heads out of their agile arses long enough to actually assess if what they;re doing and if it is the right solution to the problem in hand.

Absolutely everyone loves video conferencing these days. Some perhaps a bit too much

Re: Paris...

Think of all the bad things you've heard about JFK and Heathrow. Add them and multiply by 10. CDG is still worse.

You're being generous. Then add to that vistiing some grotty building (maybe it has improved since 90s but I've seen nicer council estates than that) on outskirts of La Defense.

And yes definitely, just carry-on bag with laptop and change of clothes.

NASA's classic worm logo returns for first all-American trip to ISS in years: Are you a meatball or a squiggly fan?

Both

Why not use both? Meatball is great for earthly signs and stationary. Worms/noodles looks good on the (space) vehicles.

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

Re: "Sounds like a number of designers are needed ..."

Ah yes. Agile!

I'm not convinced "Fail fast, fail often" is entirely appropriate for aircraft software.

Here's what Europeans are buying amid the COVID-19 lockdown – aside from heaps of pasta and toilet paper

Re: Thermometers too

That was predictable. I was expecting it. Nevertheless... --->

UK Information Commissioner OKs use of phone data to track coronavirus spread

Re: More Panic Buying

It is not the lack of geolocation hardware, but removable battery. If you can't pull the battery out, you can't really turn your phone off.

Drones intone 'you must stay home,' eliciting moans from those in the zone: Flying gizmos corral Brits amid coronavirus lockdown

Re: Don't give them ideas...

Give them more good reasons, and they'll augment the same with autonomy and computer vision and police-drone object recognition capability. And with even more reasons, they'll perhaps start teaching their neural nets how to dogfight, develop mass production and widely disseminate such plans, designs, code and weights.

So, hunter killer drones. And I guess the control system is called Skynet?

Capita cuts projects, furloughs workers due to 'unpredictable level of disruption' from COVID-19

£100m saving

Cut £25m investment, close some offices (temporary closure not likely to reduce costs materially given likely fixed costs whether occupied or not), temporarily cut exec and board wages and bonuses. So, the top brass gets ~£75m. Nice trough...

Interested in Busting a Move? Mmmm? IBM UK: We couldn't get to GTS redundo numbers we need by voluntary means

Re: "I would encourage you to give it careful consideration"

And they expect people to leave at the first possible moment under these terms in the current circumstances?

Or in any circumstances. Hardly an incentive to give the minimum they're obliged by law anyway.

(...apart from the possible ex-gratia pension contrinbution, which given the generosity of the offer, is unlikely to be anything substantial)

Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo dies aged 92

Re: The heroes from my childhood

Obelix' words often echo through my mind whenever I visit a country for the first time; "These Norwegians are crazy!".

Or visit to Switzerland..

What did you think of it?

Obelix: It was flat.

Small business loans app blamed as 500,000 financial records leak out of ... you guessed it, an open S3 bucket

Re: Ok, the lesson to learn here . .

Just don't trust financial startups that don't have a banking charter.

Sadly entities with a banking charter are not necessarily any more trustworthy.

ServiceNow pulls on its platforms, talks up machine learning, analytics in biggest release since ex-SAP boss took reins

Re: ServiceNow is great

Now we are forced to use ServiceNow which means no more tickets as its so unusable and crap.

I love it. Now we get on with things I want done instead of solving tickets!

Unless of course you're forbidden to do do anything without a ticket. In which case you can hardly do any real work as you spend most of the day waiting for ServiceNever to do looks ups for the fields,etc.

I've proabably used most of the major ticketing systems in the last few decades and SN is definitely the worst I have come across. Bloated and frustratingly slow.

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

Re: Win2000

I remember reluctantly upgrading to Win2k from NT4 to get USB support. I was pleasantly surprised, as it turned out to be rock solid. I think it only crashed once which turnd out to be DIMM gone bad. Most reliable OS (wiith a GUI) to ever come out of Redmond.

You've duked it out with OS/2 – but how to deal with these troublesome users? Nukem

Re: Why reinstall Win3.1?

Windows to OS/2 - why bother? NO compelling reason!

Stability.

I had a DEC 486sx and SparcStation 10 on my desk at one previous workplace.

I replaced the WFWG with OS/2 Warp, out of curiosity mostly. Granted, getting the Pathworks ethernet cards to play ball was bit painful. Once it was up and running it was bloody fantastic. Better performance and virtually no more crashes. Also if something did crash it didn't take the whole OS down with it, unlike with WFWG.

Why did I need a PC when I had the SS? Well, the usual word/excel crap. Oh and ALL-IN-1 (sorry... for anyone else who had to use it)

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

My 4-way has an C14 plug on it, and I have a selection of short X-to-C14 cables.

<pedant class="especially since you used boggin icon">

If your 4-way has C14 pllug on it, then surely the selection of short cables have C13 plug on them.

</pedant>

It's only a game: Lara Croft won't save enterprise tech – but Jet Set Willy could

Re: its FPGA chip

Every once an a while the stupid idea of "building" a VAX or PDP-11 on a FPGA core wombles into my mind.

You, of course, know that there are several implementations. w11 is one fairly complete 11/70. There are of course others too.