* Posts by chivo243

6090 publicly visible posts • joined 10 May 2010

Excel recruitment time bomb makes top trainee doctors 'unappointable'

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Facepalm

Started reading, think it was a Who Me? Without a tag...

Then the tone was rather serious...

Police ignored the laws of datacenter climate control

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Facepalm

Re: One of my favorites.

Hands down the best ever is a rack filled with UPS and POE switches, power injectors for cameras in a basement, under the roof drain pipe, in The Netherlands. I have the pics!

BYOD should stand for bring your own disaster, according to Microsoft ransomware data

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Windows

We want royalties!

Me and a colleague were tasked with brainstorming the idea of a BYOD model many years ago. We titled the draft doc Bring Your Own Disaster, who do I speak with as M$?

No, no, no! Disco joke hit bum note in the rehab center

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Go

Wait for it...

Gene Gene the dancing machine! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Gene_the_Dancing_Machine

The Gong Show...!

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

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Trollface

Doug or Dug?

Worked in a mine... these are getting to easy...

Techie labelled 'disgusting filth merchant' by disgusting hypocrite

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Trollface

File This One!

Under do as I say, not as I do!

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

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Re: by 2027 – except for security-related fixes – no printer driver updates will be allowed

2027 is getting awfully close the the finish line for me, by then I won't care as I'm certain there will be no Windoes computers with printing needs.

Long-lost 1977 Star Wars X-Wing prop discovered – lock s-foils in bid position

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Holmes

"I knew something was probably in the box..." Would have been funny if it was a box of 'only' packing peanuts. But if there's a big box in a collectors possession would this stand to reason?

Square blames last week's outage on DNS screw-up

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Facepalm

Re: Offline mode?

I once supported* POS devices that did exactly that, when connection to the mothership was lost, it began buffering, but there was a limit as I recall. I'm so glad those days are behind me.

*Went as far as unplugging the offending USB peripheral and plugging it back in again. Rebooting the underlying Windows, or reading the error code over the phone to the helpdesk.

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It's always DNS

Sounds like the issue is a fat finger... causing the problem, and then another fat finger compounds the problem, and finally a total melt down, too many fat fingers in the soup?

Watt's the worst thing you can do to a datacenter? Failing to RTFM, electrically

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Go

Ah, the Regomiser strikes again

Nikolai and a power related tale...

Okay, SMART ePANTS, you tell us how to create network-connected textiles

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Trollface

That looks like

SmartBoards! AArrrrgh!

PEBCAK problem transformed young techie into grizzled cynical sysadmin

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Headmaster

KAC or CAK?

Potatoe potato? Tomatoe tomato?

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Thumb Up

Re: Plausible...

Give that commentard a cheroot! new models usually get 32GB? Doubtful, PAE says 3GB. Or is my memory fading? LOL

Sure, give the new kid and his MCSE power over the AS/400. What could possibly go wrong?

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Trollface

Oh, you know...

Back when I was an MCSA candidate(easy route) I was entrusted with a cluster of windows servers running Exchange and File services, one day the cluster had lost some luster, and my boss said move file service to the other node and we'll reboot it... I failed over (love that term! Failover) the files to the other node (I'd done it dozens of times, a no brainer really), and it didn't do much of anything except render any file services limper than a whisky dick... The phone rang, it was the finance director, I looked at my boss and said it's for you!

Farewell WordPad, we hardly knew ye

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Coat

Joke in the old office

Just give me Wordpad and a browser, and I'd say I can do it with Notepad and a broswer!

We all scream for ice cream – so why are McDonald's machines always broken?

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Facepalm

They are NOT broken!

They are not broken, just dirty, and the employees are too lazy to clean it! Or, it is being cleaned, but takes 3 hours!! TIKTOK is full of employees telling the real story...

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

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Devil

Another new boss!

How many new bosses must we re-train before we get one that lasts? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!

I'll see your data loss and raise you a security policy violation

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Windows

My Documents redirected

Long ago when only desktops roamed the earth, I worked at a place where My Documents was redirected to be the p:\ on the server.... No one was supposed to save anything locally, it was NOT backed up! Our thinking was: we're not backing up 300 desktops, when we can back up a couple of servers. Any issues on the desktop was a nuke a pave, pull your profile down from the server and move on. We had one new employee, stored all his work in a folder on his desktop. We saw this and pointed out our set up, and told him any local data was not backed up, and we're not responsible for it... You guessed it boys and girls, his pc needed a nuke and pave, and all his work was on that desktop... I was in a meeting about his disaster, long enough to confirm that I had done my part telling him NOT to save locally. I was excused and never heard another peep about it.

USENET, the OG social network, rises again like a text-only phoenix

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Mushroom

Re: Pine and ... Outlook Express?

Outhouse express... LOL. We called it Outbreak express... it was the vector for many call outs where NUKE and PAVE were the prescription.

University cuts itself off from internet after mystery security snafu

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Pint

Re: Wrong School!

Perhaps I need a double faceplant, and a note to myself not to post before the first cuppa, while you need one of these-->

...and no questions asked!

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Facepalm

Wrong School!

but go Wolverines! ? I think It's Go Blue! which is the other Michigan University...

Wordpress sells 100-year domain, hosting plan for $38K

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Devil

Is there anything else on the menu?

Not in the mood for a website or a Tesla...

Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea

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Trollface

Especially if you're Waylon Smithers! After all he did say "Women and Seamen(sp?) don't mix."

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Go

Re: huh?

When I read about taking footage for souvenirs, I feared they would have gotten some NSFW wardrobe malfunctions on tape and the hilarity would have ensued.

Two teens were among those behind the Lapsus$ cyber-crime spree, jury finds

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FAIL

Re: In the dock?

If a couple of 16 years olds can access BT/EE servers alongside other multinational tech companies, and help themselves to secure data, then surely someone else should be in the dock?

So much this^^^. If some skript kiddies can waltz into systems like this, somebody better call the engineers responsible on the carpet, stat!!

Start rummaging: Atari's new 2600+ console supports vintage cartridges

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Go

Let the Games Begin!

Not only will playing on this venerable console reboot be a blast, but I suspect lots of enthusiasts will get a kick of rummaging for these cartridges, be it in their closet, or a shop, or boot sale(garage, trunk, or rummage for us yanks...)

Let the Games Begin!

Biden to bolster boondocks broadband with a billion bonus bucks (barely)

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Go

They're here! Before the cash!!

Where I'm at, the fiber pipe is in the ground, those huge rolls of orange pipe are everywhere... we're told fiber to the premises will arrive in about two months. A welcome competitor, the current ISP is the only game on this side of town, and they are not very good.

Lesson 1: Keep your mind on the ... why aren't the servers making any noise?

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Re: Been there done that

Good points, but usually either APC or Eaton UPS was in a rack, but since that episode, I've taken to putting the provided serial cable into the UPS serial port it came with, coil it up nicely and attach it with non sticky tape.

Yes, being dicks, making money off the differences...

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Facepalm

Re: Been there done that

The deafening silence of a quiet server room... I experienced that using the incorrect serial cable on a UPS. That's what you get when someone doesn't standardize because it costed a bit extra. Half of the UPS in service were APC the others Eaton.

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Coat

Was this in The Netherlands?

He could have been Tweede Hans!

Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

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Coat

Re: few minor parts, gasket, switch, modulator ?

I'm glad one of the ministers also sold off the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, it would have made a heckuva dent in the moon...

Google 'wiretapped' tax websites with visitor traffic trackers, lawsuit claims

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Re: El Reg has possibly better ways to track anyway

Is using Reg.com* when testing new distros/browsers/VMs messing with the googley analytics?

I think using GA for some web owners, who aren't server jockeys, makes life easier, trawling through web logs can be tedious?

*(we all know the old El Reg wouldn't touch Google with a bargepole)

Need a decent dining spot in Ottawa? Microsoft suggested a food bank

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HA LOL

I live in a city called Ottawa in the US, and it has a food bank that my family volunteers at weekly... Too weird to read the headline before a cuppa, I thought "naaa, can't be, not us?"

Brainwaves rock! Scientists decode Pink Floyd tune straight from the noggin

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Re: This Happy Thought Experiment

Or Pink himself from the movie? I think Boomtown Rats "I don't like Mondays" also had a mind control theme??

Cage match: Zuck finally realizes Elon is full of twit

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Pint

I'm speechless... +1 and one of these -> Well said!

X-rated auction sells last vestiges of pre-Musk Twitter

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Coat

Re: An Epic location?

Why am I thinking of the Star Trek and Futurama episodes... I highly doubt this confrontation will take the form of a physical smack down thing... They will continue to use their platforms to fling poo!

Coat to keep the virtual poo away!

The price of freedom turned out to be an afternoon of tech panic

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WTF?

Never had my pay docked, but I know one of my managers used to fudge our time cards... When I called him on it, he said "There's no way you worked all 12 of those hours!"

Techie's quick cure for a curious conflict caused a huge headache

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Go

Re: "Ever done a little thing that made a big mess"

My downvoter has a doppelgänger and I've discovered you can have an un-voter as well??

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Thumb Up

Re: "Ever done a little thing that made a big mess"

See, MY downvoter is alive and clicking...

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Trollface

Re: "Ever done a little thing that made a big mess"

WE all have a downvoter that follows us around... I doubt they have a sense of humor!

Lock-in to legacy code is a thing. Being locked in by legacy code is another thing entirely

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Go

Asleep on the couch

Back at the turn of the century, I had a colleague, he was the counselor for the school I was working at... He was working late one afternoon, and decided to pop over to his couch for a few minutes of shut eye. A few minutes turns into many hours... Security makes their rounds, and don't see the counselor on his couch, pulls his door closed and locks it. The poor guy wakes up, building is dark, door is locked and his coat is in the foyer with his keys in the pocket. Being extremely embarrassed, he didn't call anyone, but went out the second story window, along the ledge to the corner of the building, and was able to shimmy down a drain pipe. This story didn't come out immediately, but at a cocktail party many months later... Embarrassed to say the least!

There's a good chance your VPN is vulnerable to privacy-menacing TunnelCrack attack

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Thumb Up

Re: Looks like I'm safe!

If needed, I use my phone as a hotspot.

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Windows

Looks like I'm safe!

creating a Wi-Fi or Ethernet network and trick the victim into connecting to it — for example, by spoofing a Starbucks cafe wireless network.

Have you ever suspected your colleague doesn't hope this email finds you well?*

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Re: your colleague microwaves seafood pasta in the shared kitchen

At my last gig, a shared kitchen with over 100 cow-wankers warming up leftovers from the <insert_ethnic_food_here>, that's the reason I never ate in the lounge... Almost always at my desk, with El Reg open.

Google launches $99 a night Hotel Mountain View for hybrid workers

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WTF?

Re: Accommodation on site....

Next thing you know, you're paid in Google funny money too! Company scrip anyone?? Pullman must be smiling!

Two US Navy sailors charged with giving Chinese spies secret military info

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Thumb Up

Re: Does the US pay that badly?

I already have the Colonel's secret recipe! Chicken, salt and grease! I also have others...

Official science: People do less, make more mistakes on Friday afternoons

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A lesson learned early on

I had been in IT about a year when I made "No Changes on Friday" one of my mantras.

How to get a computer get stuck in a lift? Ask an 'illegal engineer'

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Thumb Up

Re: With apologies to Phil Collins

I thought that Illegal Alien bit came from Cheech Marin, but the first cuppa is telling me Cheech did Born in East L.A.

+1 for the wake me up!

Brave cuts ties with Bing to offer its own image and video search results

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Brave search, not great yet

I use Brave everyday, but there are issues with search, and I often use google on Firefox to find what Brave Search fails to find for me. One fly in the ointment is that I live in a town in the US with the same name as a large Canadian city, even adding the state name to the search string doesn't help, Brave shows me shops for that city in Canada.