* Posts by Antron Argaiv

2177 publicly visible posts • joined 18 May 2016

UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles if they can't lay cable underground

Antron Argaiv Silver badge

Really?

Boston, MA outer suburbs. Verizon FIOS, installed 15 years ago, and I'm currently paying $45/mo for 300/300. For another $10/mo I could have 500/500, but that's overkill for me. I know of no fiber offeringnhere that is not symmetric rate. The asymmetry in your case makes me think there's CATV coax infrastructure involved somewhere, since asymmetry is baked into that technology (as into ADSL, which should be outlawed and replaced with fiber).

What strange beauty is this? Microsoft commits to two more non-subscription Office editions

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Re: Trying To Stem The Tide Of Defections To LibreOffice

Libre Office has been getting significantly better at reading Office docs in my limited experience. And it's quite good in its own right as well.

It is not that hard to build a good (e.g.) word processor. Most of the "features" added by MS to Word since 2000 have been useless decoration with little practical benefit. But that's just my personal opinion.

IBM lifts lid on latest bid to halt mainframe skill slips

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Re: "halt mainframe skill slips"

...and don't forget "maximizing shareholder value"

HP print rental service seeks more users to become subscription addicts

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Laser is better for b&w

If you mostly print B&W, get a refurbed commercial quality laser. Mine's an old Laserjet 5, but I hear Laserjet 4200 are just as good (and no DRM). Since they were produced by the truckload, there are plenty of refurbs around for reasonable prices.

When I do need to print colo[u]r, I send it to Staples and pick it up. Let them worry about ink and toner. A few dollars not very often is a cheap price to pay.

Copilot pane as annoying as Clippy may pop up in Windows 11

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Linux

Re: Is Micros~1's marketing dept. out of their ever-lovin minds?

C'mon...Microsoft is really Sirius Cybernetics in disguise, aren't they?

Because their Marketing Department will certainly be first against the wall, when the Revolution comes!

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Re: Business model

Slow learners, aren't they?

It's that most wonderful time of the year when tech cannot handle the date

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Re: That's just career-ending embarassing!

IIRC, the correct way to avoid embarrassment is to use the built in library routines of your chosen language. That way, any errors aren't your fault, but the fault of the library developer.

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You just have to remember to click it 2 days forward before Friday...

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Devil

Oh, I don't know...

BOFH seems to "outsource" the bean counters occasionally...from the 3rd floor window.

(probably not the best "real life" solution to the problem, though)

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
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Re: International Earth Rotation Service

According to Wikipedia, their new name is:

International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service

Now, I know who to write to when I have a complaint.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
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Re: Don't people test edge cases any more?

THAT...would be an ecumenical question.

:-)

If we plug this in without telling anyone, nobody will know we caused the outage

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Ethernet AUI were a pita too.

I was at one of the IEEE meetings where AMP made a pitch for the slide latch.

What a mistake. I hated those damn things. I have ONE memento of that era...an old SGI Indigo with an AUI connector on the back and an AUI to 10BASE-T adapter so I can hook it to my wired network.

Google Maps leads German tourists to week-long survival saga in Australian swamp

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Re: What’s truly amazing…

I have had *reasonably* good luck with Garmins (but you must keep them updated). That being said, they like to do the "take this exit, go around the block then take the same on-ramp" thing. I'm usually good enough to spot those, but I have been caught. They do readjust quickly when you decide to vary the route, but they also treat service alleys like real roads.

I like them for two reasons:

1. It's GPS, so doesn't depend on cell coverage (which has been a problem in the past for me)

2. It's likely more up to date and more detailed than any printed map I might have

That being said, if I were planning to wander around the Outback, I'd probably seek local advice and let someone know where I was going and when I expected to be back.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
FAIL

Left the legs unprotected, IIRC

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

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When I retired, got my final check, looked at it, thought it might be a little "light". Recalculated what I thought I should be getting for unused vacation time, and, yep, it was off...by a lot. In my state, vacation time is considered part of your salary, and, by law, must be paid out in your final check.

So I waited a pay period to see if it came as a separate check, but, no, it did not. So, I wrote a polite note to HR, asking that they help me to understand how they calculated my payment for unused vaca, and included a screenshot I had taken before I left, of my balance. I got a very rapid reply, and the missing amount in my bank account the next week.

Never ascribe to malice...(and in this case, I'm fairly sure it was either incompetence or bad software)...Trust but verify.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
Childcatcher

I worked in one small group where the management was terrible. I stayed there because I needed the job, but as soon as there were other positions available in other groups, I moved. Same company, much better team leadership. At one reorg, in spite of my express request NOT to be put under the former team again, I was. This prompted a brief visit with the Director, who I knew from a previous employer, where I stated in very clear terms that I would not work for those people again, and reminded him that I had said so before the reorg. I was transferred to a different group.

The rest of the people I've worked for have been varying shades of good. Some acceptable, some great. Though retired, I'm still on a "long leash" with my former employer, because I enjoy working for my boss, and I enjoy the work. Money's welcome, too.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge

My first job was at Data General. We got Sun workstations to run our schematic tools on, and they needed names. Mine was "ficus", after the plant in my office. I learned a lot of Unix from that system, and followed up by learning to use Linux...which is what's running on the machine ("Snape") that I'm typing this on...30 years later.

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Re: Being polite is great

Never one to hold a grudge when there's good money to be made. They're just unaware that you've added the "asshole boss" premium to your rates.

Americans wake to widespread AT&T cellular outages

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You are an example of why we in the US need a federal subsidised push for a national fiber infrastructure. It will be what the national copper POTS infrastructure was in the 20th century, but providing Gigabit (at least) fiber to everyone. Top down, no excuses, it's the right thing to do, and we should start now.

Sheesh. Like *that's* gonna happen in my lifetime!

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Re: Towers

Cellular network operators have been using rented antenna and equipment space on/in other people's towers and buildings since the very beginning back in 1980.

True for MVNOs, but the tower next to me has three separate sets of antennas, all (as far as I can tell) owned by different companies, and upgraded/changed at different times by different crews. I think the current users of "my" (actually my neighbor's) tower are AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile

Tower companies just want an income stream, they don't necessarily care what's on the towers. The problem here is that they also don't want to do preventive maintenance or be too picky about loading stresses. I'm not sure the tower next to me has had any engineering work done to verify that its current loading is within limits...but I'm outside the drop radius, so it's just casual interest on my part, not panic.

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Verizon sent me a letter a few years ago, telling me that if I didn't allow them to replace my copper landline with fiber (at no cost to me), that I would lose service. I accepted their offer, kept the new fiber landline for a month, then terminated service. When COVID rolled around, I called them back and had them activate the fiber with FIOS internet on it.

My landline is now through a VOIP provider, over that fiber, can use both pulse (rotary) and DTMF phones on it, and the number is the same one I've had for 40 years, at a small fraction of what a Verizon landline would cost me. It works just fine, and I used it to verify that I could call my AT&T cellphone this morning. Whatever rot is in the AT&T infrastructure, it hasn't yet made it to my neck of the woods

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
WTF?

Towers

Not sure I understand the penultimate paragraph completely.

The towers are just metal. Yes, they're owned by tower companies, but the towers themselves (as long as they're standing), and who owns them, have no effect on the cellular service provided through the equipment bolted to them and in the shelters at their bases. THAT is owned by the cellular providers, who pay rent to the tower companies for space on the towers.

I doubt very much if the ownership of the towers has anything to do with this outage. A network misconfiguration would be my guess.

Self-taught-techie slept on the datacenter floor, survived communism, ended a marriage

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Can't really blame them for (b). We (the US) have a lot to answer for in Central and South America (and elsewhere). IMHO, we should have, when the Russkies told Cuba "Good luck, you're on your own", extended the hand of friendship and offered to let bygones be bygones. Which may or may not have worked, but would at least have given both of us the opportunity to act like adults. At least until The Donald took office.

Dave's not here, man. But this mind-blowingly huge server just, like, arrived

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Re: Jazz Cabbage

Dates back to the early part of the 20th century, that does.

FCC really, truly won't give SpaceX nearly a billion bucks for Starlink rural broadband

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Re: Meanwhile...

That DSL is still being used by so many in this country (US), is an unmitigated embarrassment.

If the government is going to spend my money, and they are, I would like them to spend it on a national fiber infrastructure, rather than Starlink, and I suspect you would too.

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Re: The problem with the Last Mile...

My fiber from the pole to my house was free, as they yanked my copper line & were obliged to replace it. I kept,it active for another month then cancelled it. Switched to fiber internet (using that selfsame fiber) and went from $80 for 100 Mbits/s with Comcast, to $40/300Mbits/s with FIOS). They have recently upped their rate to $45 but I still conside fiber to be a much better deal.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
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Re: It is only Rural if they say it is.

IMHO, spend the "billion bucks" on subsidising a gigabit fiber infrastructure for everyone in the country.

We did it for POTS, so now that that's being (rightfully) abandoned, let's replace it with fiber for all.

Microsoft's Notepad goes from simple text editor to Copilot conspirator

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Re: No No No

I despise laptop keyboards, so I *made* room on my desk for a real one. Monitor on lifted platform, lappie shoved umder platform (with lid propped up for cooling airflow -- guess how I found *that* one out?) and a giant USB breakout dongle for camera, KB, token, etc.

KB sits in front of lappie, there's now plenty of room for it and a mouse to the side (mouse USB dongle is in the massive USB breakout, along with its "wiggler" to prevent 5 minute passworded sleep, not needed for wfh)

'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand

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Re: Ouch

[raises hand]

I have done that...once.

Every time you think you can get away without reading the data sheet from top to bottom [INCLUDING the footnotes]. you end up wishing you had.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
Childcatcher

I maintain that The Mythical Man-Month should be required reading at one's first job. I read it in a management class at Data General...they were pretty good at offering internal development courses. Though I remained an individual contributor until my recent retirement (from another company), it's always useful to know how the "other half" thinks...

Please install that patch – but don't you dare actually run it

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Re: Uptime

Seems gel cell lead batteries are only good for a few years.

Four to five, as a rule. Sometimes much less, depending on vendor (did Purchasing find a "really good deal"?)

Tesla power steering probe upgraded after thousands more incidents reported

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Re: Austin maxi

Lucas, then.

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Childcatcher

Re: Lucky for them...

Or, maybe, it's just that this is the kind of thing that happens when one decides on morning to build a car (never having built one before). Teslas do seem to have a few of these "learning experiences"

Return to Office mandates boost company profits? Nope

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Re: Just reduced my office time

I cannot upvote this enough.

My last job had an open plan, but it was in a carpeted area with an acoustic ceiling. I didn't like it, but it was bearable.

We moved. Into the city (from the suburbs...for "image" reasons), into a rehabbed industrial space. High concrete ceilings, bare concrete floor, long tables, you got 5 feet to call your own. The noise level and people passing behind you effectively prevented any concentration. Luckily, I was nearing retirement. Then, COVID happened. I finished off a section of my basement with a raised floor, carpet and an acoustic ceiling. Added a long workspace and network cabling. I spent 3 years down there, after which I returned to the office just long enough to hand in my retirement papers.

I still work down here, but as a contractor, making more per hour, *every* hour, and thoroughly enjoying it.

Techie climbed a mountain only be told not to touch the kit on top

Antron Argaiv Silver badge

Re: I once had ....

I do NOT miss shared media networks.

(though TDRs were quite cool - I still have a roll of RG-58 thinnnet and BNCs. I use them to make RF jumper leads))

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Re: A wasted trip

"But they are looking at the same thing on a shared screen , so they are in effect there."

In effect, except for the inability to push that power switch.

And...while we're waiting for the replacement router to get here, let's try turning this one off and on again.

(anyone who has seen The IT Crowd knows that!)

FBI confirms it issued remote kill command to blow out Volt Typhoon's botnet

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
WTF?

"Out-of-date" routers?

I'm running Netgear R7000 units (one as a router and another as a wifi access point). They're more than a few years old, but they perform well on my 300/300 fiber connection and handle the GigE traffic on my network just fine. Sure, Netgear introduces shiny new routers yearly, but these meet my needs, so I'm still using them. Set for auto firmware update, of course.

The Land Before Linux: Let's talk about the Unix desktops

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
Linux

Re: It wasn't really the desktop

I worked for Data General during the time of "Soul of a New Machine". They sold proprietary hardware (they even drew their schematics with internal part numbers so third-party service companies couldn't repair the boards) and proprietary software to run on it. If you bought a DG system, you were locked in to their OS, their software and their service organization.

Then we in Engineering got Sun workstations and I learned UNIX. Big difference, but as others have mentioned, each vendor supplied their own version of UNIX, and if you wanted to run free software on your system, you needed to compile it from source to account for your vendor's UNIX peculiarities.

Next, came Linux. Now, we had a flavor of UNIX that ran on the new "generic" hardware (such as it was at the time). You could buy a PC made by anyone, load any flavor of Linux (SLS, Slackware, Mandrake, etc) on it, and away you went. Generic hardware AND generic OS. As the PC and Linux became more powerful, that setup began to compete with the proprietary hardware, which was expensive to make and maintain. People began to think of a standardised HW/OS platform as being competition for the old proprietary systems.Within about 10 years, DEC and DG were out of business. Generic hardware had killed them...it was just so cheap that even the (minimal) performance advantage of proprietary hardware couldn't compete with multiple generic processors.

Standards-obsessed boss ignored one, and suffered all night for his sin

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Racks are funny things...they're horrifically expensive new, but scrap metal when the building changes hands, because the color's wrong or there aren't enough (or too many) of them for the new tenant.

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
Pint

Re: EMC Symmetrix

When I were a lad...

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1976-ish. We swapped a CDC 3600 and a CDC 3800 for a slightly used CDC CYBER 74. The entire machine room was emptied and reconfigured for the new machine. A grounding (earthing) grid was installed, and the raised floor was strengthened. All over summer break, so that the machine would be up and operational when the students came back in September. Quite an effort.

It is my considered opinion that those old raised floors could probably handle anything you could throw at them today, supporting,as they did, washing-machine sized hard disks made from Real American Steel. Not to mention, the cruciform CPU.

// no "Atlas with the world on his shoulders" icon...but this is for the folks who did the work --->

Top-tier IT talent doesn't stick around in 'mid-market' organizations

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Re: No surprise

When I retired a few years ago, it was on good terms. When the HR person asked what they could do to make me stay, I replied, "I'm retiring". No sense in pissing up a rope.

A few months later, I got an email from the person who hired me, asking if I was interested in contract work. I have spent the time between then and now, working part time, at a much improved hourly rate, picking up work that they did not have the manpower to do. Minimal training rewuired (orientation on the project) and I step right in and do what I was doing before I retired. I get paid for every hour I work, and nothing for the hours I don't work. It may not last, of course (the corporate HR people seem not to be able to grasp the concept of "as needed") but while it does, everyone's happy.

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Re: Dog Bites Man

Missing one more thing:

- Treat your people right.

That means advocating for them to upper management, including pushback on inadequate salary increases. It may not make any difference, but at least, if they leave for salary reasons, you'll know you did everything you could to prevent it.

Users now keep cellphones for 40+ months and it's hurting the secondhand market

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Childcatcher

iPhone 7+ here

Vintage 2016. It does what I need it to do. Bit large, but beggars can't be choosy.

When SWMBO gets a new shiny one, I get the old one.

Junior techie had leverage, but didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation

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Re: Shaky location

Please note: the last sentence is key.

Above river level as well

HP's CEO spells it out: You're a 'bad investment' if you don't buy HP supplies

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Re: HP Toner

2d owner of my LJ5. It was abandoned on the doorstep of a law office in town, free for the taking (which I did).

I watched Youtube, ordered a replacement fuser assy ($150) and drive gears ($30), upgraded the RAM and installed a JetDirect network card I found on eBay ($15) and a new (refilled) toner cartridge. Thing has been printing like a champ for several years, always there when I need it, draws 7W on standby. I have not yet used up the first cartridge I bought, but I have three more sealed NOS I bought at Goodwill for $15 each. The thing, I am positive, will outlive me.

Perfect timing... US Navy throws Boeing $103M to update its sub recon jets

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Facepalm

P-8 sub hunters

I hear they can swim now.

(too soon?)

YouTube video lag wrongly blamed on its ad-blocking animus

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Re: I can smell something... smells a lot like bullshit

I run NoScript and uBlock Origin, and have seen no issues yet with YouTube content.

Firefox on Linux Mint 21.2

Just one data point.

IBM overhauls rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points

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Re: Blue Points

Administered, of course, by a contracted "employee benefits" provider.

(I have no knowledge of this, but I would be very surprised if it's not true)

WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager

Antron Argaiv Silver badge
Happy

Re: Code comments

In the Data General D100/200 series of terminals, there's one character generator loction [corresponding IIRC to ASCII FF (or 00)] that only displays when you trigger a hardware screen test. That character at first appears to be a random assortment of bits. It is actually my first initial and last name, spelled out in ASCII, one 7 bit character per scan line.