Posts by CrazyOldCatMan

Re: Cheers, Slack

Stuck with it until late 2006

From memory[1], my distro-career is as follows:

Slackware

Redhat

Mandrake

(a very brief flirt with SuSE)

Mandriva

Ubuntu (probably the one I used for the longest)

FreeBSD

Devuan

I may have missed one or two - I'd have to look at my shelf-o'crap at home to see what CD's and/or boxes I have. Although I did go through a phase of buying the multi-distro sets (from Distrowatch? Can't remember) that shipped out all the currently-popular distributions as a multi-CD set so possession of a distro CD isn't a sure indicator of whether I actually installed it..

Re: Not to mention ...

... Slackware's systemd free.

As is Devuan - which is what I'm moving to. Especially as most of the stuff that people want me to provide (gitlab et. al.) comes with instructions on how to install on debian-based distributions so I don't have to think too much about it!

Re: 1994

like 27 install floppies. - that was the whole thing

Yup. And being a newbie, that's the option I went for - even though I was going to be using it as a headless server so didn't need most of it..

Re: 1994

That was the time I first installed Slackware

For me it was pre version 1 (0.99pl15 to be precise) which (from memory) was only a couple of weeks before v1 (in 1993)

On a 386sx25 with an 80MB ATA hard drive. With no CD-drive ('how many floppies???!"). All downloaded via my friends work internet connection (we didn't have internet at work[1] or at home). All the floppies were repurposed ex-demo or driver floppies, all of which were the cheapest spec possible.

Which involved quite a few read errors and handing back to Joe so he could re-download the files. It took more than a week to get installed.

That install got me online (via Demon Internet) and from then on I could go my own install floppies. My other PC (running OS/2, including a CD-drive attached via a SB16 soundcard) used the linux box as a gateway (dial-on demand actually worked!) and the SMTP email and Usenet access also came from that box. The Acorn Archimedes didn't get Internet access because I couldn't network it..

Ah, them were the days - when I could stay up until 4am configuring 'stuff' and still go to work for 9am. MInd you, that gave me the impetus to push for an Internet connection at work (via Pipex, a 64K leased line with a Sparc-1 running Checkpoint Firewall hanging off it - it also had a (very, very expensive) token-ring card in it so it could talk to the rest of the network).

[1] We were an IBM mainframe place - we had access to IBMNET which (sort of) got us internet email but it was pretty cumbersome and labourious. And we sure as hell didn't have FTP access to the Internet.

Re: How?

The biggest danger of the Cloud is the morons who can't understand how to set up a bucket policy. :(

and the people commanded to make it insecure so that their manager can access the data from home..

Re: "...including the audio files to be used in robocalls to voters..."

I do that when a human tries to flog me

I take it you don't work in an S&M Dungeon then?

(I ignore any phone calls that are from numbers that I either don't recognise or are not in my local area. Especially the ones marked "International" - I have no-one who lives abroad who would contact me via my home phone. I best guess is that they are the "we are from Microsoft" scammers. While it might be amusing to waste an hour or two of their time and end it by asking them how they can live with themselves stealing money from the elderly, life is too short and there are many, many things higher up the desirability tree.. live clipping my toenails..)

Re: Don't bother paying the dosh

so it'll use the Internet

If only someone would invent a method of making point-to-point links securely between two internet endpoints! I know - they could call it 'almost private network' or something similar to that..

And let's not forget that even the NHS managed to set up N3 which was (mostly) secure..

Re: Don't bother paying the dosh

"Paying the Danegelt just results in the Vikings coming back next year to demand more".

After all, if they were trustworthy and upright people, they wouldn't have swiped the information in the first place, would they? You going to trust criminals to stay bought?

Re: tried and tested windows update

Versus simply clicking on an update button?

Well, it does omit the "crossing your fingers and hoping that the MS update doesn't kill your device" stage..

Re: 'Perhaps MS can assume this role, if they can be trusted with it'

Dirty tricks started long before that.

As IBM and DR-DOS (and Lotus) discovered in the early/mid 1990's. And Doublespace.

Re: A better informed and empowered customer base?

Which makes you think "why dont they just connect you there in the first place!"

Yup. The reason why I (finally) left Demon Internet post-borging was their 'help' desk. I knew exactly what the issue was (water in the line box outside the house - it needed to be drained and the connections cleaned and dried - this happened fairly regularly until BT actually fixed the cause rather than the symptom..) but still, painfully, had to go through the scripted process.

After having the phone put down on me twice by the same person ("You can't speak to me like that"! - I'd asked him to skip to the end of the script and just call BT like had been done 3 times previously and then, when I redialled and got put back through to him again, he immediately put the phone down again..) and having my formal complaint utterly ignored, I went to IDNet since they had proper techies answering the phone and a good reputation.

While they were good, their prices gradually crept upwards so I eventually moved on to Zen. Which is where I still am.

Re: The Inquiry said it takes data protection "very seriously"

.. now anyway. Cos we don't want to get fined again.

The people involved who got their details leaked? Nah - we don't care about them..

Re: Exterior cables in ground

These are pretty resistant to water, but the polyethylene does become porous over extended time periods

And, as the article (and my house[1]) shows - the problem is where the cables terminate.

[1] Exterior connection is on the pavement, in a water runoff area. The connection either wasn't sealed properly when installed ot (more likely) something went wrong afterwards. After about 3 years occupancy of the house, I started to get DSL drops and bad line noise every time it rained for any length of time. If the runoff got deep enough, it reached the line connection in the pavement and proptly filled it up. At which point, DSL became unusable as did the landline. BT (after many attempts and logging it as "no fault found" because of how long it took them to investigate) eventually fixed it. But only after I poured several watering-cans of water over the area to simulate the rainwater runoff..

Re: Total Malarky. This is abject stupidity

it's that the land is sinking. It's built on weak sediment from the Mississippi river

It's also resting on a swampy floodplain that people are sucking all the water from - which makes the land drop, thus making the problem worse..

The same is happening in parts of China, India and Bangladesh.

Re: That dirty yard in the neighbourhood

slight radioactivty in my kitchen due to the granite countertop

Yup - granite is a known source of radiation due to the low levels of Potassium-40, thorium and (in some granites) low levels of uranium.

My wife's parents both died of cancer - her father was a stonemason who worked with granite for most of his life and her mother was exposed to granite a lot for most of her life. I'm hoping that my wife's years away from it will reduce her chances of cancer..

Re: Uh, no.

and they were mostly OK decades later

Apart from the mutant superpowers and randon extra limbs of course..

Re: Thanks for the tip off.

wild goose chase round the M25 on a loop

Or, more accurately, a slightly-annoyed-duck stop-and-start round the M25..

(Anyone else remember the old days when people could use the M25 for illegal races to circumnavigate London? I suspect they'd be lucky to get 5 miles now..)

Re: Thanks for the tip off.

A cheap Chinese GPS jammer will..

... end you up in $LOCAL_PRISON if you get caught..

Re: All roads lead to the pub (or not)...

self-driving British Racing Green Lotus

I know that the build quality was a bit iffy but I didn't think you could describe a Lotus[1] as 'self driving'. 'Proceeding in an average direction'[2] maybe..

[1] Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious

[2] If one takes into account all the bits that drop off. They should be fitted with a dragnet to catch all the bits - although the dragnet itself would probably partially disconnect, wrap itself around a handy lamp-post and guide the car into a firey, doom-filled collision with a handy wall.

Re: Luckily

Real men navigate with a bulldozer

Or a Corps of Engineers and copious explosives.

For when you really, really don't want that mountain to be there..

Re: Luckily

until I see some signs for where I want to be and follow them

Which is fine, right up until you want to navigate across Birmingham..

(Even though I was born in Brumagen, we left there when I was five. So I've not had an opportunity to aquire knowledge about the various boroughs[1]. So who knows if Selley Oak is near Kings Norton? And, unlike London where the roads signs point you to not only the next borough but also to the ones beyond that[2], in Birmingham they don't appear to.)

[1] Or the delightfully idiosyncratic accent.

[2] Plus, having grown up in London, I have some idea of the layout of the various boroughs. In the proper, civilised bits anyway - I know very little about Sarf Lunnon.

Re: Luckily

cross staff

Maybe you should provide them aircon if they are that cross?

Re: Luckily

Listen to the radio, look at other cars and what they are doing and following the yellow diversion signs

Just like every driver around you then. Welcome to traffic-jam heaven.

Re: Luckily

If I'm driving anywhere, I read a map a couple of times, memorise it and go there

Good luck trying to get across London using that method - unless you have a few years spare to do the Knowledge..

(And yes - my GPS[1] recently took me on a jolly through South London[2] instead of round the M25. Yes, there was traffic on the M25[3] but I'd rather be sitting on traffic there rather than trying to dodge insane cyclists and taxis in Greenwich.)

[1] Quite possibly operator error (although I'd deny that if pressed) - once you put in the destination it shows you potential routes and there is a vague possibility that I selected the wrong one. In my defense, I had just attended my mother's funeral..

[2] Which, as we civilised people from North London know, is a vast and wailing wilderness, full of subhuman denizens who grunt at eath other in a debased form of LondonSpeak.

[3] As always. And the extra two hours that it took me to get back out of London onto the M25 meant that we hit it at 16:30 rather than 14:30. On a Friday. Lucky us..

Re: Art of Modern Warfare Chapter 1

Personally, I blame the EU for not wanting to continue the charade

Personally, I blame the US for their utter contempt of privacy and the security of other people's data..

Re: Have an extra upvote for…

Tempting

We're watching you y'know..

Signed,

KLF

(Kitty Liberation Front - reclaiming our food dishes, one human at a time)

Re: If you have cold dead fingers

"send more brains"

My experience with Notes is that it tries to make your brain die from sheer frustration..

Re: Have you hit upon an interesting way to cool your tech systems?

Do you vote conservative?

Either that or is from the US..

Re: Why is this even a story?

No need for a space heater in winter when you've got a couple of those in your workstation

Ditto for a Dell server with 8 15K RPM drives in the front. The acoustic case mostly muffled the noise but didn't do much for the heat generated. Still, it kept upstairs nice and warm in the winter..

Re: Temperature ratings

6 years worth of dust isn't good for the lungs

How about 10 years-worth of cat hair and associated dried mud? That's what I vacced out of an old server once (at home I hasten to add).

These days, my home computer room door is kept shut[1][2] - prompted by one of the cats being sick all over the network switch. Which meant buying a new one since half the ports stopped working once the stomach acids had done their work on the circuit board..

[1] Much to the annoyance of senior female cat - she regards any closed door as a personal affront to her dignity.

[2] Just as well that many years ago, we had aircon fitted to that room - back in the days when I was a contractor and had my own limited company. Which paid for my then motorbike and the computer room aircon.

Re: Backups and redundancy, FFS

Not so long ago the emergency backup process was the old style carbon-paper slips and rollover machines

.. which pushes back the liability for fraudulent card use onto the retailer. So, understandably, most places won't use it.

Re: Cashless society

Notes and cans of tuna are real currency

My cats don't accept notes..