Posts by pirxhh

C'mon SPARCky, it's just an admin utility update. What could possibly go wrong?

I distinctly remember a hard drive urging the user to wear safety shoes (with steel toe caps) during installation. Cannot remember the brand; may have been HP.

Justice served: There is no escape from the long server log of the law

Re: Surely...

Nah, only a significant reduction of reproductive success is needed.

Loss of attractiveness to prospective mates and/or ability to provide for offspring would qualify.

Our hero returns home £500 richer thanks to senior dev's appalling security hygiene

Re: Ahhh passwords...

I once had a project for a major hosting provider, which involved forest admin access. This was way more than I really needed for the actual project, but it got the job done with late-night support calls.

When the project was finished, I handed over the documentation and asked for my account to be terminated or disabled.

It turned out that so large a client had strict processes to follow, which meant that half a year later, my account was still live. I actually had to threaten them I'd write to corporate compliance to get the access revoked.

Exclusive: Windows for Workgroups terror the Tartan Bandit confesses all to The Register

Re: Childish but satisfying...

I was really bored once... wrote a (DOS) keyboard driver that randomly introduced spelling errors, but only when typing fast. When the victim tried to troubleshoot, they'd type slowly, so nothing unusual happened. Once they sped up, the errors were back.

Hi! It looks like you're working on a marketing strategy for a product nowhere near release! Would you like help?

Re: So...

Just like your body needs an asshole.

Are you sure your disc drive has stopped rotating, or are you just ignoring the messages?

Re: I can believe it!

Lasers, surprisingly, also are better at very low print volumes. With inkjets, if you do not print every couple of weeks, the ink will dry up and may break the print head. If you print only every other day, the cleaning cycle will empty your ink cartridges rather quickly.

Lasers do not have that issue, so I run a laser at home for the few times a year I have to print something, like official letters or tax forms. When not in use, it's completely powered down - another thing most inkjets don't like and penalize by more elaborate (and ink consuming) cleaning cycles every time you turn them on.

Re: I can believe it!

With special printers (large format, special certificate paper...), either the output is brought to you (inhouse mail) or you pick it up at some kind of cubbyhole.

In large-scale operations, many hardcopies are mailed or used directly - e.g. letters to customers or pay slips that get sent out directly, so the user generating them never sees the final hardcopy and does not care where the printer is located - it may be even offsite, in a mail depot somewhere.

The best way to screw the competition? Do what they can't, in a fraction of the time

Re: Don't forget arcnet

Archer was token passing, but no ring architecture.

Then there was Corvus Omninet, 1 Mbps over very simple tweisted pair cable and dependable as hell.

Ethernet is (was) coax - originally (10Base-5) thick, yellow coax with transceivers mounted to the cable by drilling a hole to the cable core, then came the so-called "Cheapernet" (10Base-2) RG-58 cabling that we all loved to hate.

Twisted pair (10Base-T and later) came later.

Convenient switch hides an inconvenient truth

Re: And as any fule kno ...

No, a projector starting up (or trying to...) has a pretty low resistance, so there will be more than enough current to energize a relay coil.

It's a plain and simple relay circuit, thus operating at the mains voltage.

The 115 VAC power the coil to a relay, which breaks the power to the mainframe (and whatever). Same as the light circuit on stairs or hallways. Old-school but reliable.

Equifax's IT leaders 'retire' as company says it knew about the bug that brought it down

Re: 'You don’t pay extra at restaurants to keep rat poison out of the food'

Europe is leading the US by a wide margin in this - the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) is already in force and becomes fully mandatory on May 25th, 2018. This unifies the much stronger stance on privacy prevalent in Europe - in part this is due to different perception; Europeans generally care more about e.g. your neighbor knowing how much you make but less about nudity than their US counterparts.

The EU GDPR has significant fines attached, i.e. 4 percent of annual global turnover or 20 million Euros (about 22 million dollars), whichever is greater.