* Posts by Stoneshop

5951 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Oct 2009

Sysadmin sticks finger in pipe, saves data centre from flood

Stoneshop

Re: There's nothing quite like...

AC starts leaking in a LAN room,

Well, a computer room, not a dedicated LAN room, although it involved the LAN. And it wasn't much of a computer room either, merely a repurposed office where they had installed a raised floor to house a pair of VAX8200's.

The problem was the LAN getting gradually flakier, so I was called in to figure out what was happening, and solve it. After lifting a floor tile to check where the AUI cable went, it immediately became clear what the problem was: apparently the aircon had sprung a leak, and there was a serious quantity of a strange yellowish fluid under the raised floor. Pulling on the cable it transpired that the coolant had dissolved the linoleum flooring into something custard-like, engulfing a DELNI and some other unidentifiable stuff.

Getting a few AUI cables and a new DELNI, simply put on top of one of the systems, took care of the LAN problems; whatever they did with the custard was NMP.

Corporates ARE sniffing around Windows 10, says Computacenter

Stoneshop
Linux

we really have few options.

"few" == "more than one".

And indeed there are.

Go forth Spitzer! To infinity and....

Stoneshop
Headmaster

Re: Eh?

Better use the 'tips and corrections' link at the bottom of the article for, eh, tips and corrections such as this; they're usually acted on pretty quickly. And you won't have a comment looking misplaced after the correction.

Watch the world's biggest 'flying bum' go arse over tit in a crash

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Personally I'd liket to see it drifting through moutains with engines off

completely oblivious to our presence.

ITYM 'undisturbed'. A bird unaware of a 100 nanowales arse floating nearby will quite likely have serious trouble locating anything smaller, such as prey.

What wedding cake would an engineer make? A LEGO one

Stoneshop
Coat

We’ve asked Dan what his wife made of the cake

A boat? An airplane? A train?

Kindle Paperwhites turn Windows 10 PCs into paperweights: Plugging one in 'triggers a BSOD'

Stoneshop
Mushroom

Re: I remember

Plugging in an ODS-2 formatted USB stick bluescreens W7, IIRC XP did a hard reset immediately.

Given the degradation from W7 to W10, I won't be surprised if the system explodes after scribbling PANICPANICPANIC all over the disk.

Stop lights, sunsets, junctions are tough work for Google's robo-cars

Stoneshop

Re: How it will happen ...

(anyone dreamt up a roadsign yet ?).

Side view of a stick figure in drivers' seat (steering wheel in front), snoring? Road stretches allowing autonomous driving should be thusly indicated in the car's navigation system too.

NASA wants to sell International Space Station to private enterprise

Stoneshop

For sale: Space station, several owners, billions of miles travelled

Well, 3.50 and a kick in the nuts, and only if NASA can show a valid MoT plus maintenance records

London cops hunt for drone pilots who tried dropping drugs into jail

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Time for Trebuchets!

America's counterpart, Junkyard Wars, managed to show you could do similarly with a modified treb design and pumpkins. Less consistent ammo and a lack of chances to dial it in meant only one hit was scored, but the principles were still sound.

The trebuchet team sorted their cabbages by weight (I can't remember if the other team did too), and made minor corrections to their shots that way once they had the counterweight roughly right.

Stoneshop
Holmes

Re: Thank God it's just drugs..

A bunch of these, a Raspberry Pi with the appropriate sensors and actuators, plus a billion and a half thrown at BaE for software would solve that..

Stoneshop

Re: Time for Trebuchets!

Truck-mounted trebuchets would do a fine job of dropping packages into prisons,

A mortar or bombarde would be the better choice; you can hide one in a panel van, requiring only a sliding roof panel to operate. Pick a suitable location, calculate elevation and charge for the required distance and payload, go test somewhere remote, park van at location, fire, drive off.

Stoneshop

Re: Time for Trebuchets!

They were never accurate enough to use as general purpose weapons.

In the first Scrapheap Challenge series, the first episode even, the teams were given the task to build a medieval siege engine; one built a ballista, the other a trebuchet. Both were not too shabby in their performance as well as their precision; after several shots the team operating the treb managed to fling a cabbage squarely at the besieged castle's occupant. Other sources too indicate that the trebuchet was sufficiently precise to hit the intended target once you've got it aimed, using calibrated munition. But if the goal is to just cause damage, lobbing a holy handgrenade a bucketful of sharp stones covered in horse piss, rotting carcases or killed defenders' heads into the besieged area doesn't require more precision than making sure it lands in the enemy compound, and not your own.

Microsoft's maps lost Melbourne because it used bad Wikipedia data

Stoneshop
Joke

Re: Cheap way to travel

move London and Paris to the U.S.

Nonono. Just move London to Paris. Paris is happy because they get the London banks, London is happy because they get to stay in the EU, Amsterdam and Frankfurt are happy because they don't have to deal with those entitled twonks.

And you missed the window to move Cleveland to the Gulag archipelago by a few weeks. Pity.

Stoneshop
Facepalm

WTF?

The developer API's don't use this and didn't have this error.

So, the developer APIs don't drop a sign that the end-user APIs do, for particular data? More like they're working on a different dataset.

This nincompoop needs to be educated on some essential terminology (well, there's a reason he's Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. Quite likely a "senior moment")

Das ist empörend: Microsoft slams umlaut for email depth charge

Stoneshop
Headmaster

Re: Bitte!

"Leck mich am Arsch".

Which has the advantage of not using anything but ASCII7, so should be accepted by any version of Outlook.

ISS astronauts begin spacewalk to install new docking adapter

Stoneshop

Will there be a valet service or am I expected to do this myself?

Well, Marvin wioll haven be occupied elsewhere, and currently I'm unaware of any other robots being able and inclined to take on that job.

Paper mountain, hidden Brexit: How'd you say immigration control would work?

Stoneshop

Pretend Brexit never took place

Brexit hasn't happened yet. What has happened is a referendum, the outcome of which is such that the UK government is advised to start proceedings to leave the EU. And that too hasn't happened yet.

I got the power – over your IoT power-point

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: The problem

The best fix for this device (in fact, for all Edimax crap) is to turn it off by applying sufficient kinetic energy by means of, for instance, a Fiskars X46. Do wear safety glasses.

Stoneshop
Devil

Re: Spiders

may they be hassled by a thousand spiders

Of the anus-infesting sort*.

The article's author is from Vulture South. No need for those spiders to crawl up particular places; their bite will be agonisingly painful (if not deadly) anyway.

Beauty site lets anyone read customers' personal information

Stoneshop
Devil

And they will only receive pro-convenience answers

Half of them by genuine customers who can't be bothered thinking about the security implications (if they can grasp the problem in the first place), the other half by impersonated customers.

Ancient radioactive tree rings could rip up the history books

Stoneshop
FAIL

Re: Unless you are a Christian who cares...

Personally I think the development of writing would be a good point to use.

And you have a single, precise date for that?

I'd propose that today is 2457622.5. or 22 August, 6728.

Stoneshop
Coat

Re: Unless you are a Christian who cares...

people who don't believe Jesus was the Messiah

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy! Now, piss off!

Microsoft can't tell North from South on Bing Maps

Stoneshop
Windows

Re: I can see it now :P

the first to push Windows powered planes forward

Windows powered planes.

No wonder you have to push them forward.

Stoneshop
Windows

Re: If I remember correctly

I bet the reason they stopped using that strapline is because with the ongoing Windows 10 alpha programme, they haven't got any stability - like the recent webcam debacle.

It's more appropriate than ever, though one might find that not being able to control where you want to go is a bit of a problem there.

And clearly, Microsoft is unable to control where they're going as well, though their general direction appears to be 'pot'.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update completely borks USB webcams. Yay.

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Multiple steam...

'Webcam steam' means it's running way too hot.

You shrunk the database into a .gz and the app won't work? Sigh

Stoneshop

Re: Replace tape

Back in the days of VAX11/780's and such, one of my colleagues was called to fix a disk drive. THE disk drive, OS, data, everything. And so he does, then proceeds to help with restoring the backup. Which is duly retrieved from the safe, but he's rather surprised to see that it's just three RX01 floppies. Which is rather at odds with the capacity of the disk, 120MB, where an RX01 can only hold a few 100kB.

"So, how do you run your backup?"

"Well, like the manual says, @SYS$SYSTEM:STABACKIT, and we swap floppies when prompted"

Every Friday the customer had faithfully made a bootable floppy set for the VAX to run off, so that the system disk was not in use when you wanted to backup or restore it. No actual backup, however...

NASA to begin first asteroid sample mission: Seeks 'pristine' specimen

Stoneshop

Re: Yarkovsky effect

That flying shit tends to be man-made, couple of decades old at best, constructed of metals and fibreglass/carbon-fibre/ceramics and such, with sizes mostly ranging from dustbin to a couple of large fridges with half a tennis court strapped on. Bennu is of a different composition, quite a bit larger [eeeEEECHum] and it's been around since forever.

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Take me along

Mean radius: 246 ± 10 m -> 1.77 brontosaurus ± 71.42 linguine

Equatorial radius 275 ± 10 m -> 1.99 brontosaurus ± 71.42 linguine

Mass 6.0×10^10 kg to 7.76×10^10 kg -> 14285.714 to 18476.19 MJub

And if we take Bennu to be spherical (it's not quite, so definitely not perfectly spherical and of uniform density, and by inference not a cow with those properties either), the mean radius gives 62356412.59 m^3, or 24913.987 Olympic swimming pools plus or minus about 62.52 Ranomi Kromowidjojos.

Scared of mobile banking

Stoneshop
Holmes

Re: The real problem is why it's only 36%

a [well written and downloaded from an official source] banking app

You mention the problem right there already.

And it's far easier to isolate a single browser instance for banking from the rest of a PC's ecosystem, than it is on some Android phone, up to spinning up a VM with an entirely different OS with extremely restrictive firewall and routing settings.

The curious case of a wearables cynic and his enduring fat bastardry

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: Remotes

Have you tried mounting a funnel in front of the player in such a way that a CD, thrown across the room and landing in the funnel drops exactly onto the open drawer? Of curse there's still the problem of them landing data side up half the time, but that could be solved by judicious use of a cat and a slice of buttered toast, I think. With the vacuum cleaner removal method you're on the right track for that part.

Stoneshop

Re: TV Remote

No younger siblings? In an emergency just sit within arm's reach of the telly

Or sit back and use an element of a VHF Band I or II Yagi to poke the buttons. With a bit of rubber on the end and a bit of dexterity you could even turn the volume control. At least, if the set didn't have it combined with a push/pull power switch.

Stoneshop

Re: Smart bulbs versus light switches

The usual way was with a pull-cord right next to the fitting

Or even in the fitting, with the first part off the pull being a metal chain of some sort.

Stoneshop

Re: Fat chance

Maybe I should wear dresses instead,

Why not a kilt? I do, occasionally, and it's extremely comfortable. And it's got a hammer loop, pockets for screws and stuff, loops for screwdrivers, a pocket for my phone and one for a folding ruler. Really nice bit of ki(l)t.

Stoneshop
Unhappy

Re: ironic heart attack

He did that gig himself in 2004.

Jovian moon Io loses its atmosphere every day

Stoneshop

Night has fallen

With a particularly heavy thud this time.

League of lawsuits: Game developer sues cheat-toting website

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: fun California fact

Speaking of breaking up of California (which won't happen)

There's this San Andreas matter...

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook ads

Stoneshop
Mushroom

Re: A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

There's been a lot before FB... Bebo (I think that's how it was spelled), MySpace, Orkut, and others forgotten by the winds of time.

Oh, Bebo will be remembered. Briefly, but intensely. In the interval between the destroyer fleet from Gliese 581c being detected, and the earth being obliterated.

That they will have to deal with the Vogons afterwards will be cold comfort.

Thieves can wirelessly unlock up to 100 million Volkswagens, each at the press of a button

Stoneshop

Re: Just give me a physical key, please

The engines of keyless Fords can be turned off by pressing and holding the Start button, or by pressing it quickly three times.

That's not an emergency cutout; it still relies on some piece of software to not have gone titsup. It's not something I'd trust to kill the engine, unless it's some dedicated, separate piece of hardware that controls a Big Chunky Relay killing power to vital parts of the engine (but not braking and steering). But a direct mechanical way to get the relay to disconnect would still be on my requirements list.

Bungling Microsoft singlehandedly proves that golden backdoor keys are a terrible idea

Stoneshop
Go

and is now scrambling to undo the blunder.

Correct horse bolted stap^Hble.

Hitler ‘ransomware’ offers to sell you back access to your files – but just deletes them

Stoneshop

Re: Spelling!

It is still very difficult to fix human ignorance, fallibility (and greed) by technical means.

Unless it inconveniences you, why would you?

Israeli upstart E8 reckons it's hit storage's Holy Grail. Hmm

Stoneshop
Coat

The Holy Grail of Storage

It's in Castle Anthrax, isn't it?

Facebook to forcefeed you web ads, whether you like it or not: Ad blocker? Get the Zuck out!

Stoneshop

Hosts file

Unless ads are using IP addresses instead of FQDNs, it will.

There are a number of domains my DNS claims to be authoritative for, telling anyone on the LAN that 0.0.0.0 is the right address for anything in for instance doubleclick.net. Saves a lot of effort keeping hostsfiles up to date.

Stoneshop
Big Brother

Re: Facebook can...

Soon they will, peon, soon they will.

Brit network O2 hands out free Windows virus with USB pens

Stoneshop

Re: Dodged a bullet

Likewise OS/2

(where's the cobwebs icon?)

Stoneshop
Holmes

Re: Was this really a mistake?

The USB stick has a Windows 10 installer on it, that IS the virus.

If it's only 4G, it would be too small

Power cut crashes Delta's worldwide flight update systems

Stoneshop
Boffin

Re: @choleric

create a kickstarter to adjust the rotation of the Earth

Just a swift kick in the right direction would remedy the problem already.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Stoneshop
Linux

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"That's the downside of a rolling release."

...which is what Windows seems to have become.

A rolling disease, that is. Cure: see icon.

Stoneshop
Devil

Re: Boot scoot

Why do MS still store user data on the same partition as the system guff given that users are expected to rebuild their OS as a matter of routine ?

Until recently, just "the way it's been done since forever, people would be confused by things changing, backwards compatibility, yadda, yadda", but now they offer you an (ever-shrinking) OneDrive to copy your stuff onto as a 'backup', simultaneously enabling MS to rifle through your data.

Your 'intimate personal massager' – cough – is spying on you

Stoneshop
Coat

Re: Security research. Yeah, that's what it was

I'm pretty certain it doesn't need to be correctly placed in an anatomical sense in order to conduct security research.

As with any testing regime, there's probably bench testing as well as operational usage testing.

The latter may have some overlap with pen testing.

Stoneshop
Coat

Re: @Big John - " may I laugh my arse off at "You stupid Brits"? "

Wars in those days were usually part-time affairs - even if they went on for 100 years. The winter was a time when both sides probably stood down.

Also, there were the tea breaks and fighting only on weekdays 9 to 5.