* Posts by A.P. Veening

3766 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2018

Feds, you'll need a warrant for that cellphone border search

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Re: Last time I checked ...

Not only can, will.

I still remember how shocked American travelers were when Brazil enacted some reciprocal legislation and they had to have their fingerprints taken at Brazilian airports when they wanted to enter Brazil.

Seriously, boss? You want that stupid password? OK, you get that stupid password

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Re: Missing part

The user was intelligent; they obviously knew firstly to ask for a password and secondly not to ask for their password to be "Password", "Password1" or "12345678".

With malicious compliance, the latter would have resolved to password "2444666668888888".

Why you might want an email client in the era of webmail

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The email app is supposed to be a productivity tool. You can't say productivity and web based app in the same sentence.

You can, but there has to be a negation in there as well.

That old box of tech junk you should probably throw out saves a warehouse

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Re: The boss chucked mine out

Tell that to the council drones who insist that we have to take all the stage lights down from the lighting bars every year to get them PAT tested (PATted? RAS syndrome!), plus unplugging all the servers, switches, etc...

Just make a video recording of such a council drone insisting on PAT testing such a non-portable and working stage light and make sure it fails the test, thereby making it non-working. Then tell that drone he (or his department) is now liable for the replacement as it was destroyed while undergoing a clearly unnecessary test insisted on by him. When he starts protesting, tell him you got the evidence on video and will make it public if/when necessary.

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Re: The boss chucked mine out

I understand the replacement was quite expensive...

Karma is such a lovely bitch ;)

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Re: TBFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC

Read the article.

First ever 64-bit version of Windows rediscovered … and a C compiler for it too

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Re: Windows ME

In Germany called "Müll Edition" -> translates to "Trash Edition".

Somehow that works very well with the German reputation of never making jokes.

Microsoft will upgrade Windows 10 21H2 users whether they like it or not

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You left out Windows 2000 (or 2K), which was excellent. Windows XP only became good with SP2.

Will LLMs take your job? Only if you let them

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Re: Overly optimistic

Now that we have COBOL, management can instruct the machines directly

The same was once said about Report Program Generator, TLA'd to RPG, by now the original name is scrapped and it is just the computer language RPG.

An important system on project [REDACTED] was all [REDACTED] up

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There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

Except for a temporary tax hike.

Is there anything tape can’t fix? This techie used it to defeat the Sun

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Re: Wait ... What?

Because modern buildings come under the heading of Intellectual Property.

As far as I am concerned, any shortcomings like described can be fixed the easy way and if the architect doesn't like it, he is liable for all the extra costs.

Datacenter fire suppression system wasn't tested for years, then BOOM

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I've been told that ICBM Submarines do run at reduced oxygen.

Why would they, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages (as far as I can see) and the oxygen is easily extracted from seawater.

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Re: Err

Sometimes, someone will point it our to a visiting manager...

Meaning every time there is one of those extremely rare visiting managers.

NASA tweaks Voyager 2's power supply to avoid another sensor shutdown

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Re: "legacy Fortran code"

People are still writing new stuff using it, but I really hope it will be gone by then...

No chance whatsoever, Fortran and COBOL are eternal by now, the installed base is too large to be replaced.

BOFH takes a visit to retro computing land

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Re: NMOC

And for those on the continent, especially the Netherlands and neighbouring parts of Belgium and Germany:

Home Computer Museum.

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Re: Depreciation

Apparently that was my fault!

Depending upon your job description, it may have been.

NB: Scapegoat is also a job description.

Support chap put PC into 'drying mode' and users believed it was real

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Re: Washing Machine Fix

Jings, I must be getting old.

That still beats the alternative.

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Re: Buying time

Shutdown is also a command.

Thanks for fixing the computer lab. Now tell us why we shouldn’t expel you?

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Re: Wheels within Wheels

After all, those who "discovered" said file would probably be those least likely to flunk out.

True, but how well did they keep it a secret?

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You should really add another - wife's birthday.

I would ... if it were on another day, but I didn't want to chance getting confused.

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I've seen far too many Post-Its with 8 character strings stuck to monitors. (To be fair, seeing even one is too many)

I have one, but it isn't any password. Those eight digits represent the date I married (lest I forget).

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Re: Command.com

Make that 5¼"

Child-devouring pothole will never hurt a BMW driver again

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Re: Plant more trees!

It is beyond the lift capability of all UK city Councils as those are only capable at failing.

Microsoft stumps loyal fans by making OneDrive handle Outlook attachments

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If an email is so important one absolutely needs to keep it, which in my opinion is about one in a thousands messages, use the good old CTRL-A, copy and paste it into LibreOffice Write or the like.

Hit CTRL-P and put it in a .pdf.

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Re: M$

Using a catch-all is even easier, I can make up such an email address on the spot and it will work immediately, I don't need to access the server.

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Re: Doesn't take OneDrive

That's odd - as FAT32's file size limit is 4GB. I suspect the email client

Which was Outlook aka Outhouse.

CAN do attitude: How thieves steal cars using network bus

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Re: Why

The correct solution to unnecessary rear fog lights is an automatic speed limiter to 40 km/h (25 mph) when the rear fog lights are on.

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Re: Massive improvement in security over the decades

but given that you can get sued by burglars for getting injured while breaking in

They will need to be alive to sue you, so your only problem is to get rid of the bodies (without getting caught at it).

Cisco Moscow trashed offices as it quit Putin's putrid pariah state

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Re: Only good business

Which leaves the curious bit, ie how Cisco would still have employees in Moscow. Maybe they've got some exemptions to allow a clean-up crew to remain and be paid, otherwise AFAIK they'd be in breach of the sanctions. That stuff generally gets very complicated, and very risky, ie could the remnants have contracts with Russian accountants or lawyers, or transact with Russian banks? Other countries have been pretty much ignoring sanctions and are still doing business in and with Russia, so presumably there are legal-ish workarounds.

Locals on the local pay-roll and paid from the local bank account don't violate sanctions.

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

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Re: "NEVER SWITCH OFF"

There's many amongst us who are more "switch it off and see if anyone complains"

The best are the ones where the screaming starts shortly after (fiscal) year end, about nine months after it is switched off.

Uptime guarantees don't apply when you turn a machine off, then on again, to 'fix' it

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He ought to have been praised rather than rebuked.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Botched migration resulted in a great deal: One for the price of two

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Re: The opposite problem

She’s also very curious as to how he’s managed to edit her password protected terms…….

I don't know how old this story is, but for years my usual way to "crack" protected Excel sheets is by opening them in the spreadsheet program of Libre Office.

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Re: The opposite problem

It is even funnier if an essential service is already suspended (or even terminated), resulting in lost revenue and profit to a high multiple of the "savings".

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There's no way they'd let themselves be accountable...

Just tell the CEO that he can't afford that extra Jaguar/Ferrari/Bugatti/yacht*) due to accounts fucking up.

*) More highly expensive items available, depending on taste.

Errors logged as 'nut loose on the keyboard' were – ahem – not a hardware problem

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Re: Take aways

You also see that at Drive Through queues as well, cars get priority over people in the store.

And people on the phone.

It was once so bad, I just used my mobile to call the restaurant and gave my order that way. When they asked where to deliver it, I gave the table number. The look on her face was priceless.

Microsoft freaks out users with Windows 11 warning: 'LSA protection is off'

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Re: A mixture of anger, frustration, and anxiety

That about sums up working with Windows, or Microsoft in general. Is this news?

No, this is olds (thanks, PTerry).

Vessels claiming to be Chinese warships are messing with passenger planes

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Re: Peak China?

China was aiding Vietnam? I think you may have to check the history books... URSS came to the aid of Vietnam while China has managed to invade Vietnam in 1979(see the SinoV-Vietnamese war of 1979-1981). If you check, US and Vietnam have normal relations and Vietnam is the biggest benefactor of US companies seeking alternatives to China sourcing...

The Vietnamese still haven't forgotten about a thousand years of Chinese occupation.

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Er, and each other.

Only very indirectly by communicating to other aircraft in the neighbourhood about their altitude so no two aircraft within a couple of tens of miles share the exact same altitude.

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Re: Peak China?

I got similar information from the BBC…

So do I ... from my Vietnamese in-laws.

Techie fired for inventing an acronym – and accidentally applying it to the boss

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So I'm assuming that the blameworthy user would get called "Sue" regardless of whether they were a girl or a boy?

You asked for it ;)

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Exactly. It's always ISO Layer 8. Sounds clever and no one (i.e. no one of the targets) knows what it actually means.

Not always, I've encountered a couple of ISO Layer 9 problems (management).

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Re: brightness adjustment needed

Sadly, users are not adjustable.

Maybe not, but their attitude does respond to a clue by four.

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Re: Well that was unfortunate.

you can be fired at any time for any reason with no recourse

The best part is the other half: You can walk at any time for any reason and the company has no recourse either and they don't like it when you use that option, especially when they need you a lot more than you need them.

Techie wiped a server, nobody noticed, so a customer kept paying for six months

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Re: one had an ancient JDE instance on AS/400

And as could be predicted by everyone here at el Reg, one year the system refused to power on. Deadder than door nails. Not even clicks or heterodyne whines from the power supplies.

Oops, too late!

That is the problems with those AS/400s. They are just about immortal as long as you keep them running. Repeatedly stopping them for longer periods will kill them.

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Re: Would have done otherwise

Don't get mad, get even.

And remember, some people are more even than others!

Duelling techies debugged printer by testing the strength of electric shocks

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I can confirm that Stan is alive and well and is working for one of my customers.

My condolences to that customer.

PC tech turns doctor to diagnose PC's constant crashes as a case of arthritis

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Re: Dell's help desk script

Would it be great if somehow they could know for sure that we really did know what we were talking about and were given the authority to short-circuit the process and just skip to the end where they generate a RMA number/field tech appointment/etc?

Shibboleet

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Re: South don't work in the North

As your comment has a strong indication of which period it was and that strongly corresponds with the period when Philips was truly good, I am inclined to believe it.

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Re: Don't get me started...

I wish I could give you the number of upvotes that deserves (and no, it isn't a negative number).

NASA: Yup, thousand-pound meteorite exploded over Texas

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Re: Texasssss....

Why would it be bigger? It isn't native Texan, it is coming in from elsewhere.