Posts by Chloe Cresswell

Self-hosted email is in steep decline, Microsoft and Google are taking over

Re: Do these numbers add up to the headline?

Had this today for a client.

Pay slip to one person isn't arriving.

outlook.com address.

Our logs show it all the way till outlook.com accepts it.

Email SPF/DKIM/DMARC

One thing that winds me up is how Google/etall say they require correct email service records to cut down on spam entering their servers and users mailboxes.

But do sweet FA about the amount of spam flowing out of _their_ services.

SPF/DKIM/DMARC does nothing when the spam is coming, DKIM signed, out of gmail.

SPF? Match

DKIM? Valid.

DMARC: pass.

Voyager 2 cheats the power budget for another year

Re: The future

"(it's close...ish, but space is really big)"

I thought it was a long way down the road to the chemists, but that's just peanuts compared to space.

Millions of California-bought cars can be hijacked via Bluetooth

KARR

A car security system called KARR? A murderous prototype??

Photovoltaics are still running after a year under Swiss trains

"If solar installations power the trains (partially or fully) with mains being used to make up deficiencies, that might be better."

As the article said: "as solar energy is fed directly into the traction grid." It is being used to power the trains first, yes.

If you have the space, does the lower efficiency really matter when you can just lay kilometres of them?

Re: 19MWh? are you sure?

I only have 5.1kW of panels, and my inverter max output is 3.86kW, and I'm still hitting 5MWh a year.

If I had 48 panels like the story, with the inverters to match the output of the panels, it would output roughly 14MWh a year.

Is that 5MWh a year extra after 6 years of solar improvements really that far out of belief?

Re: 19MWh? are you sure?

32 panels over 3 years and less then 19MWh?

I have 17 panels (JAM60S05-300/PR, so 7 year old tech at best) and generate an average of 5MWh per year.

Outlook for Mac bug makes font choice a purely decorative feature

So now font issues...

...is this after the "replying to an email doesn't quote the email being replied to" bug was fixed, or is that still not working...

Portuguese bank sign's storage is about to cash out

The Fujistu D3651-A is indeed a DDR4 (2 sodimm slots) motherboard.

It's a low profile board used for sff machines and digital signage.

O2 joins UK 2G switch-off with summer 2029 start date

Re: The wrong metric

My Wiley Fox is one of the former.

Although I only use it for data (it's running torque pro talking to my cars) on 4G these days, when vodafone canned 3G I got lots and lots of messages from them about how as my phone didn't do VoLTE, I would be reduced to using 2G for calls.

I got a letter from EE about their 2G turn off, telling me I need to upgrade my devices.

Issue is the devices using 2G on EE are 4G and 4/5G devices. They only are using 2G as that's all the EE signal they can get in those location.

So I read the letter as "you need to take action because our network is crap there"

Digital indigestion: Fizzy Coca-Cola display chokes on full storage

I've set up a few for local business and the local football club, mostly anthias as the package over debian.

Re: sachet of Pop Rocks/Space Dust

The UK version was a cardboard tube with a paper wrapper, with the liquorice down the middle, the Sherbet Fountain.

Packaging has been updated, but it's still on sale today.

Microsoft accidentally kills epic Outlook email threads

I had someone tell me on Friday that my comment on the new liquid glass interface for Outlook "is all very well, but maybe they could fix outlook on mac first" was just my opinion that outlook on mac is a bit broken (still).

And then this.

Obviously this is also just an opinion!

Vivaldi 8 polishes the chrome without coating it in AI

IIRC, that one was "Myth Busted"

Lab worker built a fake PC to nuke his lunch

Re: What am I missing?

Most places I work only allow cooking things (microwave/kettle/coffee machines) in set areas, not in random offices.

I assumed that "moving" the equipment to the Boss' requirements would be in a place that wasn't convenient, like another set of offices/lab entirely.

But disguising the microwave as a PC, well, it's just another PC on a desk, right?

User found the perfect formula to make Excel misbehave

Re: Had something like this once with a client

Most americans I know will tell you they use Imperial, then use US unit sizes.

Re: Had something like this once with a client

"I can use a third system if you just make it up."

A 3rd system? Metric, Imperial, US Customary? I can think of 3 directly.

Re: Had something like this once with a client

The customer knew it was A4.

They didn't care, they were getting it at like, 25% of the retail price and had a use for it.

Re: Had something like this once with a client

In my first job, a friend of the boss got the option on some inkjet photo paper.

It was a "don't touch it yourself" type job: he got the offer on it, lined up a buyer, and had it shipped directly to them.

Issue was, he was in the UK, the buyer was in the US, and he didn't know the US didn't use imperial, so he filled the customs forms out in tons (imp), not tons (us).

I'll let you imagine the slap US customs gave him when 1.2X the stated amount on the paperwork actually arrived.

Re: Had something like this once with a client

"insisting that all measurements be made in imperial rather than metric" Must be that rare part of the USA that adapted Imperial... ;)

Have I Been Pwned claims Pitney Bowes hit by 8.2M email address leak

Re: The 8.2M customers were already pwned...

It's good they keep their data up to date though.

We had an email try to get in claiming the email was sent from the data theft, due to being an active account at Pitney Bowes.

The intended recipient retired in *thinks* 2007.

High quality data there!

Meta to power its bit barns with energy from space

Re: Project

I'm thinking of Real Genius....

The CrossBow project: there's no defense, like a good offense

Microsoft gives your Word documents an AI co-author you didn’t ask for

Re: LibreOffice.

Poisoning it more then people would think.

Got a "new"ish office that is now unsupported? Like 2016 home and business or 2019 home and business?

It might randomly update to office365.

It's still reported as the original install in settings/apps or control panel/add remove programs, but the start up screen clearly says 365.

Support tech caught by 'Technician Aura': the bug that only hides when you're watching

Re: "Technician Aura" takes many forms

I had a friend who worked on a machine with multiple cards.

To test one, you'd pull the card, put an extender card in place, so the card under test was outside the chassis so you could get to it for testing/diagnostics.

Worked fine till one time he met a fault card that turned out to have timing issues.

Didn't work properly in the machine at random.

Add the extender card, and it worked perfectly under test.

The extra traces of the extender "fixed" the timing issues, making it a bugger to work out the actual fault!

Anyone with a GSM based phone and being near anything with amp in it probably remembers the "duh duh duuuuh" type sounds the amp would pick up on it's input from the GSM phone going from "cell standby" to "making connection for call" before it rang.

Ah, the practical version of the old compuserve NT forum statement: Never trust benchmark you didn't rig yourself.

:)

Windows Update is a torture chamber for seldom-used PCs

new machines

The worse thing I find for updates on a new machine it letting it do it.

It will download update, reboot, download updates, reboot.. and eventually find there's a new version of windows 11.

As we're always using pro or higher and can jump parts of the setup annoyance, I've taken to getting it to the desktop asap, then pulling the update assistant (which then needs the windows 11 compatibility checker to check the machine running windows 11 can run windows 11, another MS classic there!) and jumping it to the current release before letting updates run.

It's a pain in the bum that MS is trying to make harder to do.

BOFH: Are you ready to raise our expense account limits now?

Re: B&Q sell those

It's by Crapola Inc.

$£19.99 + tax.

Re: B&Q sell those

Wrong franchise...

HOWDY DOODLY DOO! I'm Talkie, Talkie toaster. Your chirpy breakfast companion!

Talkie's the name, toasting, the game! Anyone want any toast?

Re: B&Q sell those

Shut your grill *thump*

Re: B&Q sell those

Perfect for dealing with the toaster.

Microsoft locks out VeraCrypt and WireGuard devs, blames verification process

Re: I vote Incompetence

I do believe the MS drone.. That they put it on a blog and that was the only form of contact regarding this.

Sticky-note security turned gym into hall of '80s horrors

Re: Manual

Share and enjoy!

Cloudflare, GoDaddy team up to curb AI bot brigades

I've always been able to read elreg in seamonkey

But I can't login at the moment as it gives me a cloudflare "verifying you are not a bot" loop.

You also have to verify if your browser isn't "common".

Cloudflare has said rarer browsers/agent IDs is a sign of a bot.

So waterfox works here but seamonkey gets flagged on every site that uses cloudflare, and their system just loops endlessly and never allows you to verify.

The developer who came in from the cold and melted a mainframe

Friend of mine, a US coder, once remarked it to me as "America. Where we want to wear sweaters in summer and tshirts in winter"

Lloyds app glitch turned transactions into shared experience for 447k users

Strange interactions

For once the inability for me to use Lloyds banking app was a plus?

Who'd have thought it...

Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin applies to launch 51,000 datacenter satellites

Re: Cooling?

"But the chips themselves work slower and less efficiently at higher temperatures. Just because they can survive protracted temperatures which would be lethal to humans doesn't make that a good use of launch-to-orbit resources."

60C is pretty lethal to humans, so I guess you make sure nothing you use lets it's chips get that hot then?

Re: Cooling?

Skylab, like the ISS, has (well, had) to have a heat radiating system to maintain a human comfort level temp.

Computers can run hotter and the heat radiating system can therefore be hotter and work better.

Scott Manley's video went into it.

Even in Skylab's day, it could have dumped more heat if it wasn't for those pesky humans!

Not saying it's a pipedream or not, just that it's complicated.

And I'm not a spacecraft designer!

Re: Cooling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQYU3m1e80 for those who want it

("It will be taking that in from the solar panels, and converting it into heat... and cat memes" great line :)

Microsoft startup credits are the gift that keeps on billing unsuspecting users

MS communications

"We listen closely to customer feedback" - and file it all in the deleted items....

Blustering Blackbeard's PC was all at sea, sysadmin got him shipshape in seconds

Had a client with a machine with out network access.

Refused to do what I asked, and I was heading south to a consultant doctor's appointment in London (this was in Lincolnshire).

Ended up swinging past the site, walking in, pushing the network cable back in, walking out, back in the car, heading to south to catch my train.

The next week I replaced the cable, due to the broken latch on the connector.

Call out fee for pushing a cable in and walking away.

Dell laptops and slipcase style cases was one of my client's loves.

Pulling the laptop out of the tight case moved the switch every time of course.

White House activates Yu-Gi-Oh's trap card by using anime clip for war comms

I read it as Staler and Waldorf.

Retro tech fan views LaserDisc movie data with a budget microscope

Re: Chips are cool, too

Shelby does get that energetic when he finds stuff on his live twitch streams.

That part of the youtube video is from the live stream.

They made a TV programme on it, where kids had to work out things using the domesday system as their reference.

The only part I remember is them looking around a north sea oil rig on it.

Hah, Checked Shelby's video on the domesday duplicator, where he showed the discs. And sure enough, on the centre label is a clear "RLV" logo/note.

Shelby (techtangents) has some recordable laserdiscs.

They were used (in his examples) for the video in a motion simulator ride.

From the different types you listed, I think his are RLV.

And IIRC he said the drive to write them at the time was like, $50,000.