Posts by Fortycoats

They were open:

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599516036964835328

Sir Pterry said it best. What people think they want is news. But what they really crave is OLDS.

And from the same book: "A lie can run around the world before the truth has pulled its boots on".

We all have an inherent bias, and many people want to read things that reaffirm their opinion on how they think the world should be. Somehow a significant number take it as a personal affront to have their views challenged by truth, and just double-down on the crazy.

Re: I miss IBM keyboards

I have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000. Got it 14 years ago and it's still going strong. It's quite sturdy, but not cast-iron heavy. Whenever I changed jobs, the keyboard came with me. Also helps that nobody in the office is used to the ergonmic shape so it will never be used by anyone else.

Got another one Xmas 2019 for my daughter, so they might still be available somewhere.

Re: Power Grid

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, they're doing exactly that:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/conservatives-falsely-blame-renewables-for-texas-storm-outages

Re: Selective attention

Reminds me of this Father Jack classic:

https://youtu.be/DqM_9_5SCdU

Re: Seen in the wild

No, you just need to hit it with EXACTLY the right amount of energy to excite it briefly to the higher level.This is an unstable state so it re-emits that energy as EM radiation (or "bloup", as Alessandro's customer would put it), and returns to its normal, stable state.

Dell got itself a backup product or two when they acquired EMC. Not just the storage, but also DataDomain, NetWorker and Avamar.

Cops in Munich weren't taking any crap either. Half of all those done for drink-driving during the Oktoberfest in 2019 were on eScooters - 414 people. 254 of them temporarily lost their driving license. Good.

Re: Whacksing benefits

Straight outta Office Space!

Re: Re. Zip disks

I never found out the real cause, thanks!

Imagine working in Tech Support for Iomega at the height of this problem (1998), and being ordered to tell customers "no it's not a design issue, we'll replace it under warranty". And you had to keep a straight face doing so......

The response was usually, "fine I'll buy a SyQuest". Then CD-Writers became affordable, followed by USB sticks.

Crikey, that was over 20 years ago....... get off my lawn!

Re: Erm.....

Blowing his own trumpet?

Re: Simple, just call: 36-24-36

Unfortunately these dirty deeds are not being done dirt cheap. Instead it's bloody expensive, it seems to me.

The late, great Sir Pterry summed it up well:

"People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things…well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is OLDS"

- Lord Vetinari in "The Truth"

Re: Well you'd need to compare available income

€400 "warm" rent for 75m² is not all that expensive (relatively speaking). Depends on where you are. I'm at about €1000 per month for 88m² for a family of 4, but this is in southern Bavaria about an hour outside Munich.

As far comparing costs of living, I think Dublin is far more expensive. Healthcare and childcare here are brilliant compared to Ireland. Food is much cheaper, too.

Re: Off shore slumming

The UK would have been able to restrict "New EU" immigration after certain eastern european nations (including Poland) joined the EU several years ago. Most EU countries passed legislation through their national parliaments for a grace period where new EU citizens would not immediately have full freedom of migration/employment. In Germany, I think it was 7 years. Only a few EU countries did not pass such laws, including UK, Ireland. Guess where a lot of those people went as soon as they were legally allowed? So for all the "polish plumber" complaints, Westminster had the ability to restrict it but did nothing. As Binky said, ask yourself why.

Re: Critique

About HPE: "With the exception of servers..... they don't produce anything themselves"

HPE servers were also acquired.... from Compaq

So was their EVA Storage, which was based on tech from DEC

Re: Called the fire brigade indeed...

Well he probably did "fart in your general direction" while the snake was stuck in the U-Bend.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

Re: "Kraut" ? really ? in the 21st century ? after 70 years ?

They're just using the wrong vinegar. You try finding malt vinegar in a German supermarket. Only wine or apple-based stuff on the shelves here. Yuck! Only good for descaling the kettle.

Re: Tax refund

Fat chance. They won't even use it to plug the gaping holes in the national pension reserve fund. It's all going to pay off a fraction of the Anglo-Irish Bank debt. So some senior bank managers in Paris, Frankfurt and whoever else lent Anglo the money can get even bigger bonuses.

Well, some might be used to finance the next well-earned pay rise for the glorious elected representatives of Dáil Éireann (apologies if anyone's sarcasm detector just exploded)

Re: "Zeroth Law Rebellion,"

Well the movie just borrowed the concept. It was in the book "Robots and Empire" where the zeroth law was formulated by the robot Giskard.

Re: 'Snot fair

Maybe they can put that in the deal with the DUP - move the eclipse to the UK. The DUP claim to have a direct line to the man upstairs, don't they?

Re: Common guy interpretation?

Zip-Ties + Fibre Cables = Bad Idea

Maybe the cable might have been slightly damaged. Not enough the cause the port to go offline, but just a weak signal. Sometimes that's hard to pick up without appropriate monitoring parameters on the SAN switch (the default thresholds might not have picked it up).

Also, the disk firmware issue can affect multiple disks at once. I saw one advisory that said after a certain amount of running time (about 3 years), some flash disks could shutdown and restart themselves. Since all disks in a SAN Array were started at the same time, it could have caused the affected pool to go offline. Prevented by installing a new disk firmware before the 3 years were up.

For some reason, this clip from Futurama came to mind:

https://youtu.be/XPGgTy5YJ-g

Google and Amazon are probably working on it as we speak.

Re: Forward Thinking Company

Well obviously it was a llama. I don't think you'll find a møøse in India......

Re: Flying foxes

Terry Pratchett was right. The list of harmless creatures in "Fourecks" is shorter:

Some of the sheep.

Re: Turkish diplomacy

What galls me is how many Turks in Germany are pro-Erdogan. If they think he's such a great führer why are they not on the next plane to Istanbul to live in the paradise he's creating for them?

What's scary is what's happening to anti-Erdogan Turks here.There's reports of people being spied on or beaten, simply for saying they disagree with Erdogan and are voting No in this upcoming referendum. The Verfassungsschutz need to have a good look at what some turkish organisations are up to.

The comments of the turkish regime have really shown their true colours and their desperation. I hope EU companies with business interests in Turkey are considering their positions (e.g. VW/MAN has a bus factory in Ankara, MediaMarkt has plenty of stores there, too)

Re: Is it my imagination

The MSA was a Compaq product. I think it was based on their Smart RAID controller for Proliant servers, just in an external box. And the EVA was based on the HSx Controller originally developed by Digital (DEC), who were acquired by Compaq, and then by HP.

Clariion was a DG product. Even today, an EMC Unity LUN identifies itself as DGC

You should be so lucky.

That was especially for you.

Re: Camera

Wait until the robo-lawnmower gets a camera. Then you can watch a video of grass growing (and getting trimmed).