Posts by JimboSmith

Re: Word Perfect is still the best

You do your writing on an XP emulator in order to use a 24 year old word processor?

If it was a choice between that and Word for Web I'll take the 24 year old word processor. No grid lines? WTF

Re: They cross the vastness of interstellar space in technology far beyond our own

Not just to buzz us, you've missed the anal probing that people frequently report. Oh Matron!

Re: And the point is?

I remember back in my days in the media reading about the situation in the USA. There was and presumably still is huge objection to satellite delivery. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) were horrified by the licensing of satellite radio companies XM and Sirius. They're also not keen on Dish and Echostar the satellite TV companies. The NAB represent terrestrial radio & TV companies and these upstarts were very unwelcome. They'd take away listeners/viewers from their members so they had to be brought down to earth (pun intended).

The radio services for example needed terrestrial repeaters to cover areas of no reception such as big cities with skyscrapers etc. These (after a lot of lobbying) had restrictions placed on them regarding local content* etc. Therefore I'm not surprised there's a group not keen on satellite broadband.

*Traffic, weather and so on.

Re: But can it....

make telephone calls ?

Who cares? A colleague of mine at the time of the first iPhone bought one as soon as he could. He proudly showed it off in the office and explained what it could do etc. Anyway day two and he's also seen sporting a Nokia, taking calls on that etc. The reason he explains is that his iPhone isn't really a phone.......It's a touchscreen pocket computer and modem with phone functionality tacked on seemingly as an after thought. He was therefore paying for two contracts but he was a flash git and said he didn't care. Obviously things have massively improved since then on the fruity mobiles.

Family member called a while ago and said their TV isn't working. It's a digital telly and showing "weak or no signal" on screen. First thing I ask is whether the aerial is still plugged into the back and yes it is is the reply. So navigate through various menus over the phone to no avail. Said it might be the roof aerial or the cable from it. Thankfully we were in Lockdown so I said I can't do anything else as I'm 150 miles away unable to visit. So next day it's obvious from the message I get that the aerial cable wasn't plugged in and the cat is the guilty party. Very pleased I couldn't get dragged over to fix that.

Re: Failure? Intended?

Ah you just reminded me of Marvin Roffman who made predictions about (then) Mr Trumps Taj Mahal Atlantic City Casino. He would prove to be correct but even back then Mr Trump didn't like the truth apparently.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-marvin-roffman-casino-lawsuit-213855/

Re: Cut out middle men

There's a shaggy dog story I was told about that. One of the South American countries had found a stash of marching powder in a rural area. They were worried about a cartel trying to get it back. So they decided to incinerate it quickly at a disused, local but out of the way industrial facility. Something went wrong and loads of it went unburned, up the chimney to be carried by the winds elsewhere.

Also this happened to the BBC journalist Quentin Sommerville at a drugs incineration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NAssPedIdbk

They don't need it if you buy a ticket in a store over the counter, so why do they need it if you buy the ticket online?

I believe it's so that the underage don't play online. I can't remember the exact phrases she used but it's something like the following If you buy a ticket in a store then you're going to be seen by the salesperson. They can judge if you're over the age limit or can ask to see ID. They'll apparently come and visit you if you do win the jackpot wherever and however you bought your ticket.

Re: When turn off/turn on fails

I hope you gave it to him preloaded with black paper.

He was a real pain at times but was only a temporary C suite as a result of a merger. I think he was just out to enjoy his authority whilst he could. Black paper would have been a nice touch though.

Re: You got that wrong-ish

There's always something wrong when you hire somebody to scrutinise a deal and then ignore their report. I've written reports before that have gone largely unread by management*. In one fun instance my recommendations were ignored as the main person who was supposed to read it didn't bother. Then when the sh!t hit the fan and I was queried I pointed to my work.

The difference is I wasn't writing about spending billions of pounds or dollars.

*In one thing I wrote, I included a recommendation for compulsory watching of one of the Star Wars films once a week. He never mentioned it once, which was typical.

Re: When a company ignores its customers

This is further indication that SAP users should adapt their working practices to SAP not the other way round.

In reference to another product one of my colleagues said:

"There should be a rule for any company that wants you to totally shift to using their products on the cloud. They should insure you against all GDPR violations caused by incursions/problems/issues/data losss with/from their systems."

Sensible, but I've bet them it never happens.

Re: Please click the link to read

My last security training module at work had warnings about exactly this. We were told to watch out for links sent by email, WhatsApp, SMS etc. from people/companies we didn't know. Weirdly I received a dubious SMS (on a number neither work nor Amazon have) a couple of minutes after finishing the module. I declined to click the link despite their being an "issue" with my order.

Re: On call Legend

I got a round trip ticket, a couple nights on a five star hotel and some expenses money and went all the way from Argentina to Paris and back to recover a Red Hat cluster for Big Blue once.

Whilst waiting in the business class lounge mid September one year I met a bloke going to Bermuda. He worked for an insurance company and was going to fix something with their computers/network etc. He had been to Bermuda earlier in the month but when he landed he'd not had good news. His boss had left voicemails, sent emails and SMS. These said he was booked on the return flight and not to leave the airport. This was bcause there was a nasty hurricane on the way. His boss was unwilling to have him there when it hit. So he'd gone through immigration who were intrigued he wasn't staying long. Got to the check in and found he was booked in business class on the way back. The only available seat apparently.

The guy was now going back to Bermuda because the hurricane had been and gone. He'd taken grief from his girlfriend because he was getting two trips to Bermuda. She didn't understand that 14hrs on a plane with a couple of hours at each end wasn't fun. All she understood was he'd been to a sunny island with sandy beaches and she hadn't.

Re: UK Law

Called my dad on his mobile and his PA answered which was odd. He was apparently in a meeting with a Government bloke and his phone had to stay outside. When he got home and I asked he said he and a few others at work had had a visit from someone from the Government. I queried why somebody from HMG had visited them. He said wasn't able to disclose anything from the meeting to anyone else, sorry about that.

I obviously knew what the firm did, I knew from him and the press about a major building project they were involved with. Putting 2 & 2 together I got four and asked if it was related to X. He didn't say anything but he was lucky he never played poker as you could see the shock in his eyes. After the colour had returned to his face I pointed out how I knew what I'd just told him. I showed him a couple of sites on the internet with info.

He told me - although unconvincingly - that what I'd just said was pure speculation. He couldn't talk to me about anything (i.e. confirm or deny) to do with it. Given I might breach the Official Secrets Act I'm not going to say anything more about it. It was amusing that he (and other senior people) had to be read into something that I already knew about. He did tell me years later that he was told he'd been vetted & cleared. If he hadn't he wouldn't have been allowed into the meeting.

Re: Quote

My burning question is what are people using the blistering 5G speeds for? I know Kevin Bacon has suggested in the past downloading a box set etc. I'm not a massive user of mobile data though I'll happily admit. I normally download anything I want to watch or listen to before going out. I know some content can't be downloaded and has to be streamed. I'm just curioud what are people doing with it? Are people gaming for example?

Re: So tomorrow Signal, Telegram?

I thought WhatsApp used the Signal Protocol for their encryption, the same as Signal.

So ignoring that, are Silent Circle, their Blackphone range etc. Bittium, etc. phones are going to be targeted by the FBI? So online sellers such as this one Ebay Blackphone seller are likely going to be hassled? Odd then that this seller also appears to have a bricks and mortar shop too in Kensington: https://www.kickmobiles.com/contactus and a whole page of security focused phones and other devices. The luxury phone maker Vertu also included Silent Circle on their expensive phones. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/02/21/silent-circle-and-vertu-partner-on-10000-phone/?sh=570850ef22ac

Re: Queen of Carnage

The excellent Private Eye did a piece after she was appointed detailing all the jobs she'd had and how long she'd stayed in them etc. It was a great read.

Re: Hopefully

My folks village was fibred up by a non Openreach company with subsidies I believe. They do FTTP as opposed to the FTTC offered by those using Openreach. When a neighbour asked about max speed from their existing supplier they were told it was something under 30mbs. As this neighbour needed faster than that they signed up to the new service on their top speed package which was 900MB I think. My folks don't need anything like that and when the sales woman cold called at the door she got a shock.

The sales lady was laying it on thick with the benefits of the fastest package. My mum asked about the cost of the top package given a very expensive quote for (almost) gigabit fibre broadband. Apparently they had a nonstandard installation and a long distance from the road. This required specialist equipment and the quote for the first year including installation was £1k+. Mum asked if having fibre would make her emails go any faster or shopping on Amazon faster? Lady said possibly but then mentioned streaming things like Netflix and mum said "Nope don't do any of that". Sales lady mentions gaming and mum confesses she does do that. Saleswoman becomes more animated until mum says she's unsure how her games of Bridge will be improved by lightning fast internet speeds. Needless to say there was a no sale from my parents. I was there and watched the whole conversation with a barely hidden smile.

One thing I've noticed during the lockdowns thankfully is I don't get the usual callers to my front door. So the religious groups, the knife sharpeners, the mobile butchers/fishmonger, political canvassers etc. have all gone. My usual ploy of coughing profusely and saying

"Don't get too close I think it's contagious."

Would have been much more believable though.

Re: Have their cake and eat it too

Their "policies and practices regarding content moderation" should not be “highly confidential”

They're the rules by which people are expected to behave on their system.

No they're not, the published rules are found here https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules

These should be public so people know how they're expected to behave."

If someone can't follow or understand the published rules what difference will the content moderation rules make?

Tesco self service tills had another problem a few years ago. Suppose you'd scanned some of your shopping in and wanted to check that the 3 for 2, BOGOF's etc. had been applied. Well you just pressed the "subtotal" on screen button to do this. When you did the machine would reboot. After it happened to me twice I spoke to the manager to point out the issue. She was slightly sceptical and wanted to watch me do a demonstration. So I scanned in a few items and then hit subtotal as normal. Then it rebooted as I'd promised to her utter amazement. I did it again on another till with different items to prove it wasn't just that till etc. She thanked me for bringing it to her attention and said she'd pass it on to head office. Then I had my shopping scanned in at a manned till and some or all of it (can't remember now) free to say thank you. The issue was fixed not long after that.

Re: The blocker needs a present

A home on jam missile is another option. I asked somebody from the military about this option a good few years ago. He said (without going into any secrets) that there are certainly options for seeking and destroying a jammer that way. If you can DF a transmitter based on the power I can't see why a missile couldn't. Have to make sure no one else is using that frequency first I'd imagine.

Whois info has been used to target businesses I've worked for. In one instance they used that info to try and social engineer their way into getting access to the company network. The person who answered the call was suspicious that somebody who she knew had gone to the gents, had lost their password. It wasn't the most intelligent attack using the person listed as technical contact for the name chosen.

Re: Tech support scams

My folks who are both well into retirement are now very aware of scams like this. I have drilled it into them that if anything online is asking for payment check twice and then don't pay. My mum asked me once why somebody was acting as banker for these scumbags. I said write to your MP and ask why they don't do anything about that.

Re: EasyJet locations locations locations

You're thinking of Ryanair - London Shannon airport.

You jest, but I had a potential foreign client who asked how far I was from London Oxford Airport. As the place I worked was in Fulham, by the river the answer was "Quite far". I suggested a helicopter to Battersea Heliport, they declined.

Re: Not just me then.

One company I slaved for had a good relationship with a software house. They had industry leading DOS software suite when everybody was now using Win 95/98. So we were chosen to be Guinea Pigs for their new windows version. Now their products may have been industry leading but they didn't have a stellar reputation. They convinced one of our directors to pay for a bloke to come from the USA to install their new software. We'd also be paying a reduced rate on the license for the period we were testing. Why we were paying anything was beyond me but there we go.

So we started using it as a test bed with the data from four of our services. I had written a post it note saying "Days since last crash 0" and affixed it to the crt monitor bezel. I never had to change it though. We'd been using the software for two weeks and we had crashes every day. Then one day everything stopped working. It was totally dead and not just one program it was the whole suite. The UK office sent people round to try and fix things. They couldn't fix it and people had to remote in from head office in the US as well. They needed to take copies of our data for examination which required an NDA. They took until the week after to have things back up and running. The explanation was that one character in one of our datasets and a filename had corrupted everything. After a short in house evaluation we politely told them to take their software and sod off. We told them we couldn't have that happen on live machines. One day would have been bad enough, one week would have killed us. They tried to say we had to accept a lot of the blame as we'd been the ones using odd characters in our data. That was the kicker.

The youngest member of the team got given the blame (firmly tongue in cheek) for the whole mess. He was deeply unimpressed as he had been on holiday for those two weeks.

Re: Incentives...

That’s some impressive willpower. It took me a few goes. On the other hand, that’s an image that I really didn’t need.

20 years after my last cig, I seem to be pretty healthy at medicals. How much more healthy would I have been if not for my youthful addiction though?

A young ex colleague of mine smoked like a chimney and had done since 16. His reasoning behind this, despite knowing the risks, was that his distant uncle had smoked for years and "Must be nearly 90 by now." Then one Monday he came in looking pale enough that our manager was concerned. He said he'd stopped smoking that morning. When asked for a further explanation he said the family had had word late Sunday night from Canada that his uncle had died. Apparently he was far closer to 60 than 90 but thanks to the ciggies didn't look it. He'd died of undiagnosed lung cancer suspected to be the result of smoking.

He never touched another one after that.

Re: Cider Drinkers - Icon

To quote a colleague (who is I think quotiing somebody else)

There are idiots - look around!

Re: I know why they do it.

the West of Lothian Free Separatists?

The Cornish National Liberation Army?

An electrician I once worked with told me he'd found a perfect mollyguard for the 13Amp sockests he used. It was a hard plastic oblong cap that covered the switch perfectly with semi flexible plastic strips at either end. It was part of the packaging from something else so otherwise just waste. A small amount of sticky backed velcro top & bottom kept them in place. He'd installed a few over the years with little if any problems. Then one day a customer said called him and said they had certain equipment being turned off overnight probably accidentally. They asked if he could fit guards as a result. It was a retrofit but easy enough to do and quite cheap.

Customer less impressed as the guards keep 'falling off' so he paid a visit one morning and the Velcro was still there on both the guide and the guard. He stuck the 'fallen' ones off back on and they're fine which is baffling. Everything's fine when the staff leave at night but not the next morning.

Intrigued he made enquiries and it's only happened on certain nights. Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday nights are the culprits. After sabotage can't be ruled out he installed a camera linked to a long play VCR. As some of you will have already guessed the cleaner came three nights a week. Despite there being clearly labelled 'Cleaning Sockets' the cleaner wasn't using them. So they just used the closest socket pulling off the guard as they did so. The cleaner was a little Italian lady who didn't understand why some idiot had put things over the switches or indeed why you shouldn't unplug something.l