Posts by matt38

Debugging source is even harder when you can't stop laughing at it

SET PASSWORD /GENERATE

Back in the 80s, VMS had an optional security feature that could prevent users from choosing their own passwords, instead forcing them to choose one from a list of 5 random "generated" passwords. Of course, there was always the possibility the OS could generate a password with a naughty word in it, so there was allegedly a list of words which could not be used.

Source code was on microfiche in those days, so sadly I never was able to add to my vocabulary by finding the de-facto list of forbidden words!

Google advises Android users to be careful of Microsoft Teams if they want to call 911

Re: Does this issue impact all emergency phone numbers?

Some of the satellite telephone exchanges in the UK used "9" as a local code prefix to route calls to the main exchange, so an upshot of this was that you only needed to dial "99" from the main exchange.

Which was worth knowing if you were pranking your friends by pretending to dial 999 and assumed the call wouldn't go through until you dialled the last 9 :-)

Savvy users realised you could often dial long-distance calls at local rates by using a string of local prefixes to hop around adjacent exchanges. IIRC BT fixed this by printing something like "only codes published in this book may be used" in the local dialling codes directory, and was eventually swept away by insisting on using the full STD code rather than the short local codes.

(No, not that sort of STD. As someone else said, you can't catch an STD from a telephone, but you could from a telephonist :-)

Re: Does this issue impact all emergency phone numbers?

I can never remember the UK non-emergency emergency number, probably because if I'd designed the system, it'd have been 998

To have one floppy failure is unlucky. To have 20 implies evil magic or a very silly user

Who is General Failure

and why is he reading my disk?

We know it's hard to get your kicks at work – just do it away from a wall switch powering anything important

We had those modified plugs and sockets where the earth pin was a T shape, so cleaners couldn't use the regular sockets. Didn't stop new cleaners unplugging things occasionally only to find out they wouldn't fit, or enterprising IT staff wiring a regular power strip to a cleaner plug ;-)

Plus ça change, these days the cleaners unplug USB devices to charge their phones...

Uber allowed to continue operating in English capital after winning appeal against Transport for London

Why don't Black Cabs just embrace the technology? I'd much rather be picked up by a spacious Black Cab than a poxy Nissan ;-) They could probably put Uber out of business overnight if they wanted to