Posts by Robert Carnegie 4557 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Sep 2009
The programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07c4tqf
The company: https://www.davidnieper.co.uk
Beware - if I heard correctly, not only does Christopher Nieper want to reach out to non-customers at will, but I -think- he said that the business also relies on sending goods without bothering to have a customer order them first - apparently something that there was a risk of the European Union banning, but averted..
People who have never heard of him are safe for now (so, whoops), but put the two together and he will be sending -you- his cashmere T-shirts with an unexpected invoice. A ticklish situation.
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/distance-selling-regulations
doesn't mention what to do if you are sent stuff you haven't ordered. I think I remember that if you open it then you may have to pay for it, but the smart thing is to call back and say "Something I didn't want has been delivered, do you want to come and get it?" Something like that.
Topic: British membership of the European Union - good or bad for business?
One contributor was complaining that the EU wants to legislate over and over again to restrict his ability to collect data and locate and market directly to prospective customers...
That's spam, I do believe. Spam, or maybe junk post.
I was slightly surprised that no one said so on the air.
I dunno. An artificial hand may be a fairly good hand if you don't have enough natural born hands for the job at... the moment. An artificial leg may be a satisfactory leg, at least on a table. And artificial grass may be a good alternative to grass - at least a colleague's neighbour apparently thinks so.
http://www.dpriver.com/pp/sqlformat.htm is an online service to make SQL more readable[*]. It provides a "Copy to clipboard" button - and using that produces a message saying that I'm also giving it permission to READ the clipboard. Oh, and I'm also giving a stranger some SQL program that I wrote with my own hands. (The program's owner is my boss, though, so I don't much care if it's stolen by sinister Eastern European database engineers.)
It's useful, probably legitimate - maybe, and probably honest - maybe.
It seems to say "Copy Successful!" even when it isn't. I think my browser is lying to the web site. At least the browser is on my side today.
I think Notepad++ also comes with a desktop SQL formatter, but my boss says we can't afford to get Notepad++ (it's free).
[*] Feed it this:
select a, b, c from someTable
Much more readable now! :-)
So I have set it to ChangedMonthly-May-2016. in a few days I will set it to ChangedMonthly-June-2016.
Not really. But what -is- the point of that compulsory change anyway? My best guess is it's so that everybody that I myself told my old password to can no longer use it. Unless they understand my system. And perhaps they now use it for their own... why don't I ask them.
No repeats is another annoying condition that leads to reasonable pw choices being rejected.
I therefore use N letters, the first being a capital (which may be too obvious or may not make much difference), excluding repeats, then two digits produced by looking at minutes and seconds on a digital watch which may or may not show the correct current time - whenever a new password is required.
I may also add spaces in a regular pattern, just to help me read and type the thing.
Now, how big should N be?
https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show_mobile?name=kernel.org
I don't know if it's possible to see what the threats are believed to be, while they are shown. You could try putting in a risky site name. Note that 4ch*n.*rg is also "OK" apparently, so goodness knows how bad it has to be.
I rarely get marketing calls on my mobile but I got one this morning - presumably: it was an 0845 number reported, I didn't answer, I put it into Google and various web sites say it's a nuisance service, usually for car accident claims.
Perhaps it was this company or a reincarnation of it making a rude gesture by spamming everyone in the country.
Strictly, open source just means that users can see and/or use the source code if they want to. It doesn't mean that no licence applies or even that no non-restrictive licence applies. Just that there is source code. But it may be still mine and copyrighted and if I decide to take it away, which this bloke did, then I can. Since he could and he has.
Presumably the nicotine is in fact extracted from tobacco plants, so is a tobacco product?
As for prominent display of products in TV shows, there is a reason for that. There also is a notification symbol for that. In UK TV programs it is a rather small letter P hidden somewhere on the screen nearly the same colour as the background and/or made to look as though your digital telly is playing up. Try to spot one this weekend and win my sincere respect! (quantity of respect may vary).
In Swedish television I think the equivalent symbol appears as a birthmark on each corpse when it is found. Or if the camera dwells on the rather nice wristwatch it is still wearing.
The comms stuff will be in some server room or cabinet surely, not in the bar. Mind you, that probably will be physically secure as well.
I suppose you can either disable it remotely when not paid for, or divert POS electronic payments to pay your outstanding bill first. Surely it must be possible to write a contract with a clause that says you can do that.
Detection and alerting is feasible. An Internet connection with an absolute smut block is impossible, unless Far Eastern computer appliance vendors have finally stopped displaying their electronic delights by having them cuddled by young ladies in swimsuits... maybe that doesn't sound like porn to you, but back in the day it was something to... notice in the classified advertising in dear old "Personal Computer World". There must be middle aged ladies now who still have indentations in the shape of the BNC port or the Dvorak keyboard.
I think also that warning the browser before letting them see anything that might be inappropriate is simply fair, and, even better, applying a browse time quota to ALL internet access, not only the fun stuff. Most people don't need more than a limited time for work-related browsing, and it will be humiliating and worse to use it all up even on adorable kitten videos and then be not able actually to work. I wonder if any office has tried it that way?
I think this is different for external and (genuine) internal e-mail. (I've had spam "from" my own address, presumably used because assumed to be whitelisted.)
External e-mail is likely to benefit the business, even if it's just social. it should be delivered as the sender intended.
Having reflected on the unwanted harassment question, internal e-mail should return to sender, with a covering message that looks like an automated response, but with a hint of doubt. If they want to correct it and send it again, that's up to them. If they're ashamed to, that may be for the best.
I quite often get e-mail intended for a colleague with the same forename, but it is almost never as much fun as the case described.
Competent professionals won't be distracted by the hype. Instead they will use the hype to increase non-IT colleagues' awareness and understanding of the need to maintain and patch all the systems that a business uses, whether there is a logo campaign and T-shirt or just a faceless bug number.
Goodness, why would the Thing Replacer be a person? Either there will be a Thing made for the purpose of bringing you a new Thing and taking away the old one, or your Things themselves will do it: those that are mobile anyway or supposed to be. Your front door will have a Thing-flap so they can let themselves in and out - or rather you will have your own app for control of your flap.
I think several products exist - cases etc. - which basically fix a large handle to the back of the tablet, to hold it securely with one hand, operate it with the other.
Mine however is glued and taped inside old hardback book (desk diary) covers which I can wear on a cord around my neck, like a slate accessory for someone lacking the power of speech. Sometimes.
Nowadays your PC or laptop does "screen saving" by turning off, more or less. Or by turning everything off. It's a standard feature and it saves electricity.
You can however set the display to stay on, for applications where the device needs to keep running while not being touched.
The screen saver or lock screen mainly reminds you that you haven't actually turned the PC off.
No need for any of that - just press 5 and the company stops calling your number. (I did. They haven't. I was joking.)
I wonder if the banks are sponsoring the "annoy people about PPI claims" phone spammers / scammers. It must encourage support for a "put an end to PPI claims" cutoff date, and maybe also the bank gets a lot of its PPI compensation penalty returned to it via the dodgy PPI agents - lovely! Yes, I would do that! If I had my soul removed beforehand.
I got caught out by reading something on a support blog.
"Why does powershell 4 automatically convert my UTF-8 text to Unicode?"
That was what actually I wanted it to do.
But it doesn't. It just treats it as ASCII or ANSI or something.
Powershell 5 does allow e.g.
powershell -version 5.0 -command "&{gc -encoding utf8 euro-utf.txt | sc -encoding unicode euro-ucs.txt}"
I am going to need a little more than that though. Specifically, arbitrary input file name, e.g. to be dropped onto the CMD file. I can have four of those, because I want four output files.
If it's also the door guard's day off, sure.
Then again, maybe it also voice prints selected senior British actors.
Ian McKellen
Michael Hordern (BBC radio Mithrandir)
Peter Cushing (always possible, e.g. he played Doctor Who in movies, but also a Star Wars baddie)
Christopher Lee: obviously not. He's a vampire.
Here 1 perhaps is a semaphore flag that means "Test that the data meeting valid accounting standards", things like sales x tax rate = salestax and so forth. Disabled (set 0) in development when processing produced no output at all with no visible reason, necessarily enabled at all times in the live system.
I agree that these stories probably are edited down to get us to the punch line faster.
I think if you aren't a programmer then this may not be the series for you. Although the web server that executes any UNIX command in the URL (in it is in fact doing that) doesn't require a programming qualification to appreciate. So efficient! :-)
I can imagine encoding an "rm" cleanup command in the parameter which would invoke the equivalent actual "rm" command on the server, without recognising any other UNIX command input.
But even then it might be unwise.
Usually human error... in the latest adventure of "The Avengers", the superheroes build a time machine... all of them, including Squirrel Girl, a charming young woman who has powers (and proportionate tail length) of a squirrel, and her sidekick Tippy-Toe... who is a squirrel. And is colour blind (despite also being a girl squirrel).
Red-green cable coding mix-up hilarity ensues.
People make mistakes is what I'm saying (and so do squirrels).
But testing the equipment before it leaves the factory would be a welcome courtesy.
SCO UNIX wouldn't let us set a (root?) password containing the symbols "sco". Specifically I'd chosen "moscow" and it occurred to me that there might be a routine to prevent American software being used in the Soviet Union. Then I read the docs and found out.
These days I respect nearly everyone's stupid password rules (parsed either way), by grabbing a random book and picking random letters from some random words, excluding repeated letters and capitalisitg the first letter. Then check my watch for the slightly inaccurate time as M minutes and S seconds, and include the least significant digit of each. Awkward if that is a duplicate as well. The rule I do obviously break is the one about writing the password down. And I haven't got around yet to using my ultra-violet ink pen (invisible ink) for that.
You could put your power strip inside some kind of enclosure. A plastic 2 or 3 litre lemonade bottle, slit along its side, could do the job, while keeping the contents visible.. A slight risk though of the "sharp" edge of the cut plastic damaging the cable insulation. So you could fold duct tape over the edge.
Also, empty the lemonade from the bottle first. Gradually if you don't have a large bladder. Then rinse the bottle. Then let it dry before introducing it to electrical things.
A lemonade bottle can also be a solution for electric lawn mower extension cord issues, used in a similar way.
My mouse at a former job had that problem - under sunlight it just wouldn't go. I got it a cute little furry coat, complete with eyes and a tail. Solved.
"Wow!" for the case where intermittent daylight MADE the mouse work when untouched by human hand.
But where do they make and test these things where daylight is not a normal condition?
I don't think a 50 year old man on a bicycle on a wet winter evening could achieve that condition without pharmaceutical assistance.
That's possible (there is that advert where the old bloke loses his last Viagra tablet and goes off bicycling to get more) but it's a bit of a waste.
Also "young people" would be anyone under 40.
I suspect she misidentified his multi tool or rapid inflater, or possibly a spare pair of socks.
I've done the "shut down remote server without restart as intended", and gone over to sort it out, yes.
I have also freed up disk space by deleting a stupidly large file that some unimaginative colleague had named "/unix". I think that server was fine until they tried to reboot it. Should I have known? For that matter, should I be admitting it now?
This is not exactly on the topic, but half of our fleet of remote site cabinetted servers were fitted with a cheap modem (the telephone kind) for support and file transfer, which occasionally went funny and stopped answering our calls, or something like that. (If I remember right, the ones the supplier installed the previous year were fine. Or maybe that was the other supplier.) We had between 50 and 100 of the wonky ones. On site staff weren't comfortable being asked to press the button or pull a plug as required to restore service. Supplier wouldn't replace them or couldn't be asked to for some reason. Probably because the equipment worked some of the time.
So I recommended buying household clockwork time switches to turn each modem off and then on every day. This wasn't popular but eventually management decided to buy a box of these.
But there wasn't room in the cabinet to plug them in. I was told; I wasn't hands on for this. Power strip in the wrong place, presumably.
It was still a good idea of mine though, wasn't it? It would have worked, if it worked.
Technically we could have bought a similar number of our own modems, but this game does have rules and that would have broken them.
I have a TV box with one of the buttons labelled "Timer".
It doesn't have a timer. The button actually un-changes channel, to the channel you were previously watching. Which is good to know.
The message may be that colours are more easily translated to another language, than technical words. Although perhaps if that's a challenge then it is one better left unaddressed..
I expect people who read The Register are also watched. Especially people who comment.
Snowden doctrine suits freedom warriors but doesn't protect your ordinary private life. Vital universal liberty.
It turns out that the government can simply give itself permission to read everything that you send and receive on the Internet - for instance, the British government intends to have (if the prime minister decides that he wants to see it) a list of names and home addresses of anyone who in the last twenty-four hours accessed BlackLivesMatter.com, IMayBeGay.org, HowTradeUnionsWork.info, BorisJohnsonWouldDoItBetter.net . No warrant and no reason, just for fun. Or to pass it to a Taxpayers Alliance murder gang to carry out a few hits. (You say that isn't what -they- do, but, how do you know that?)
And it really will be illegal to supply, and presumably to possess, encryption software that the government can't see through.
That's the plan -here-. Try blowing your whistle wiht all that going on.
It must be stopped if possible, I suppose by the government being made to accept and actually abide by rules that properly limit what our governors can know about us and why. Which sounds difficult.
There are more unprincipled regimes around the world, of course. But our lot have a natural inclination to move in that direction.
My end-user experience has a twist - it appears that if I allow the installer for FrogSpotter Plus to run FrogSpotter Plus for me before it closes, FrogSpotter Plus is typically running as Administrator.
I infer this because (1) the installer had to be and (2) my third-party touchscreen keyboard software can't type into FrogSpotter Plus, because the keyboard is only running as me.
This is wrong too, isn't it?
If Site 1 isn't accessible, it's about the same as having it knocked out and you have to switch to Site 2. If however you can't switch Site 1 off to disable.it, consider air strikes. I think that was a Doctor Who plot more than once, in the old days, and also whichever Doctor bombed Downing Street:
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