Posts by Cian_

Automation is great. Until it breaks and nobody gets paid

Re: This is why we need code review

The almost 20 years ago, high speed internet and Netscape refusal reminds me - pretty much exactly that amount of time ago, I was getting an 'engineer'-lead install of a blisteringly fast 512/128k DSL line, which hadn't been provisioned properly. Said ISP 'engineer' didn't actually have a computer and tried to blame the line not working on my use of Mozilla; as if it had somehow poisoned the Cisco router - as clearly sites didn't work in Internet Exploder either afterwards.

One argument and a trip to the exchange later, there was internet connectivity. In both browsers.

IT phone home: How to run up a $20K bill in two days and get away with it by blaming Cisco

Re: Ah, the good'ol days..

The radio station I worked for had just changed to IP units in late 2019 - to replace temporary ISDN lines (which were getting costly); and analogue Band I links from an OB truck.

This meant that getting people kitted out to work from home in March 2020 was so much easier.

I'd also just replaced the firewall setup with one that didn't have a per-user fee for VPN clients; for a completely unconnected reason to that; a few weeks beforehand; and the parent firm had finished their on-prem to Google Cloud email migration in December 2019.

Incredible amount of coincidence made the first few weeks of COVID a hell of a lot less panicked for me as for nearly everyone else working in the same job!

Backup tech felt the need – the need for speed. And pastries and Tomb Raider

Re: Formatting DVDs?

DVD-RAM discs could/should be readable in any drive. I used them fairly extensively in ~2006 as I had both a TV DVD+VHS recorder that used them, giving something more like DVR functionality as it could delete shows from the disc; and a laptop that properly supported them.

Most modern drives do actually support at least reading them still - out of caddy of course; but most later DVD-RAM drives were caddyless anyway. I have used this quite recently to copy a VHS to DVD-RAM and then pull the files on my PC; and use Handbrake to to convert to something sensible.

A tip for content filter evaluators: erase the list of sites you tested, don't share them on 100 PCs

Re: Customers

There was a relatively common, 56k modem based STB pushed by a cable TV company in Ireland, a Unison Box, which were about a third or less of the price of a PC at the time. Lots of people got burnt buying those instead thinking it was a good cheaper option.

I've never got my hands on one to figure out what they ran but I'd guess WinCE on SH or ARM.

Transmission FOSS BitTorrent client hits version 4.0

Something possibly of interest to said Reg FOSS desk is the origins of Transmission - and also Handbrake the popular media transcoder. Both started as native BeOS apps written by the same author due to there being no other native applications for it.

Both have long since lost BeOS support, or even Haiku support except using QT. Shows the afterlife something can have when its OSS

Haiku beta 4: BeOS rebuild / almost ready for release / A thing of beauty

The underlying OS now supports users and standard file permissions, but you are the root user when running.

CT scanning tech could put an end to 100ml liquid limit on flights by 2024

Re: But, the trouble is...

The article mentions Shannon (EU) as having them, and separately both Dublin (EU) and Cork (EU) have ordered them.

Amsterdam (EU again) have them already and while they strongly advise you don't use bottles >100ml as you could be made throw them out at a connecting airport, they do allow them - the website still has the <100ml entry in the rules list but there's a note below saying that staff can allow >100ml. And they do, I've seen it.

UK comms regulator rings death knell for fax machines

Re: Faxing is often better

I worked with one of the software providers cleared for use on the pharmacy end of this, closer to two decades ago than one by now.

The NHS England prescription transfer system Just Worked, even back then. It was extremely frustrating for us as we were trying to get our local health authority (Irish firm) to move away from using modems for financial claims and paper for prescriptions.

The former happened - replaced by a HTTPS API with client certs. The latter has been replaced by... sending PDFs of prescriptions via a restricted Office365 Exchange tenant shared between all the GPs and pharmacies (can't handle mail to/from any other domain)

India's – and Infosys's – favorite son-in-law Rishi Sunak is next UK PM

Re: Talking points

After your clarification that you meant this in a racist, rather than country of birth manner, how about you remember *the only other country the UK has a land border with*. Who had a leader of partial Indian origin a number of years ago; and will again in a few months due to a coalition deal.

One-size-fits-all chargers? What a great idea! Of course Apple would hate it

Re: Apple don't like it?

Early Symbian devices used Nokias popport and a power barrel. They then had this plus mini, not micro, USB at the same time.

Check your bits: What to do when Unix decides to make a hash of your bill printouts

Re: Not a Cossie, but...

Very hard to take status level off someone even if I you confiscate the miles.

I had decent Hertz status basically locked in due to some horrific customer service experiences and it being given as an apology so got some nice upgrades without any points changing hands.

You walk in with a plan. You leave with GPS-tracking Nordic hiking poles. The same old story, eh?

Re: gripping very small moles

Have to be Lidl then, as for unexplained reasons there are no Aldi stores in Northern Ireland

A hotline to His Billness? Or a guard having a bit of a giggle?

I actually worked on that support team well over a decade ago, it was outsourced and split between the UK and Ireland at the time, and also handled anything that had come in from Ofcom. Agents had refund capabilities and priority technician bookings.

Would make you wonder why anyone would ever use the main system for support!

From cash machines to commercial kitchen appliances, Doom really will run on almost anything

Re: Don’t show Apple this.

It significantly predates the fondleslab of the same name. There's a manual from 2006 online using that name.