The computing stuff rant thread

[BrianI]

AMD Ryzen CPUs certainly have a confusing name and numbering system.  Apparently a Ryzen 5, 5600x is a better CPU than a Ryzen 7 3700x? Even though the Ryzen 7 has 8 cores / 16 threads compared to the Ryzen 5 six cores / 12 threads. 

[SoreTween]

Good software engineers always test their work.  It does what the manager or management software tells them to do. It is a very sad job. Any computer programmer wants to do the best they can on the time their given. User level testing is done by test engineers.  The Software Engineers favourite thing is writing correct computer programs. Their job is hated, a horrible contradiction.

I apologise. Post edited to hopefully point the finger more correctly

[Morat]

I have finally been forced to migrate everyone to O365 email/Exchange.
It's 10x the price of the previous solution and the management interface is absolute DogShi$ I really resent finding something that I need and then being told that it's now part of another product and "Click here to start your 1 month free trial".
At least I've found a use for Edge now, because you can only log in as one user per browser and to do anything at all you need to be logged in to loads of separate pages with an admin account.

Apparently, we've now migrated to The Cloud so everything is better.

[Mr Larrington]

O hai SCS Software

This error message:

Code: [Select]

<ERROR> d:\buildbot\slaves\win_slave\final_build_ets2_141_windows_bin_steam_x64\build\prism\src\p3core\collections\arrays\arrays_base_impl.h(475):
??A?$array_t@M@prism@@QEBAAEBM_K@Z:
Index outside array boundaries.
is Not Useful.  I know it's because something is too big for the executable's tiny head-branez, but howzabout you tell us which something is causing it?

kthxbai

Cross of E17

[ian]

Excel again for telling me that having ported a large functioning workbook over from Macland to the vista of Windozia that there's an error in a formula somewhere in the workbook.

Still not helpful, is it, Microsoft?

[TheLurker]

O hai SCS Software

This error message:

Code: [Select]

<ERROR> d:\buildbot\slaves\win_slave\final_build_ets2_141_windows_bin_steam_x64\build\prism\src\p3core\collections\arrays\arrays_base_impl.h(475):
??A?$array_t@M@prism@@QEBAAEBM_K@Z:
Index outside array boundaries.
is Not Useful.  I know it's because something is too big for the executable's tiny head-branez, but howzabout you tell us which something is causing it?

kthxbai

Cross of E17

I will see your bounds error and raise you, HRESULT, E_FAIL,  Unspecified failure, 0x80004005 which is M$ for "Ahhhh fuckit. It's broke, *you* sort it out. " and which occurs far, far too often to be funny.

[SoreTween]

You are writing a webmail server, a companion to the mail server your company already produces.  When writing the part of the webmail software that talks to the mail server do you:

• Create settings such that the user can configure your webmail server to talk to any ip and port.  Thus allowing the webmail server and mail server to exist, if the user so desires, on totally separate hardware / lans / etc.
• Use the settings from the mail server assuming the two will be on the same box.  Not a great approach but at least allows the ports to be configured.
• hard code localhost:25.

FFS.

[Kim]

Trying to set up the printer on barakta's $ork_2 laptop:
No driver. Windows Update can't get one because policy.
Download the driver from HP. Discover its the Windows NT version. Discover HP haven't heard of Windows 10.
Obtain the proper driver from elseweb.
Can't install it because admin privs.
"Never mind, it's a proper printer for grown-ups that speaks Postscript over Ethernet. A generic driver should work."
...unless it's Microsoft's generic driver, it seems; the job arrives at the printer and Windows is happy, but nothing happens apart from blinkenlights.
Try the generic PCL6 driver. That one actually crashes the printer.

Useless.

[Feanor]

For things like the laserjet 4000, you need to download the Universal Print Driver from HP.
It supports win10 in both 32 and 64 bit variants.
I'd advise configuring it in Traditional mode, where you specify IP addresses etc, rather than Dynamic mode where it tries to figure it all out by magic.

[Kim]

For things like the laserjet 4000, you need to download the Universal Print Driver from HP.
It supports win10 in both 32 and 64 bit variants.
I'd advise configuring it in Traditional mode, where you specify IP addresses etc, rather than Dynamic mode where it tries to figure it all out by magic.

Prior experience suggests that one doesn't work, but the Laserjet 4000 specific driver does.  But it doesn't matter, because we can't install printer drivers on that machine due to overly restrictive security settings.

[Feanor]

Its what Im using on a several of win10 boxen, with a lj4000.
Dunno why its not working for you (assuming you can install it, ofcourse!)

[ian]

Surely, it's submit-a-ticket territory. Let loose the flying monkeys of IT support. In practically hours you'll be set up to print to a dot matrix printer that was sold off to another company in 1992 and consequently your output will be ready to collect from Hyderbad at your convenience.

[barakta]

Yeah, the IT services for this uni are a bit of a pain and they tend to get sniffy if you ask for something small that is caused by their stupid policies. And get annoyed at me cos I don't do phones....

[Wombat]

Microsoft, just stop trying to destroy my laptop, will you!  Every time I switch it on, you try installing an update, which makes it not work at all, for over an hour, while it tries several times, admits defeat, then spends half an hour trying to work out how to undo what its just done.

Yes, its fairly old, but it performs its duties well, and is a lovely slender Sony Viao touchscreen skinny flippy foldy thing, and had an NVME SSD in it before such things were commonplace.  Its got a 4th generation i5 and 8GB of RAM, 500GB of SSD, so what is the problem? 

You insist you will stop support of Win 10 v2004 in December, and that I must update to a newer version of Win 10, but that is what crashes and burns each time. I can't even pause updates, as it says I've reached my pause limit, despite never having paused them.  I need the laptop to work, no questions asked, on Thursday, so please just leave it alone, will you?

Bastards!

[Mr Larrington]

If you have sufficiently privileged access then you can disable the various Windows Update services until such time as you are ready to nuke the installation from orbit and start afresh.

[liam_whippet]

Alternatively - if you're feeling brave - you could take the bull by the horns and get Microsoft to fix itself, by using the Windows Update Troubleshooter. Which often Just Works these days, to be fair. It checks the downloads for corruption, checks the downloads match the list/index of downloads, wipes the downloads and re-downloads them again..

Plan B is to download the Windows Update Assistant from:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

which will [eventually, like a couple of hours later] get you to May 2021...

I had a very similar Sony Vaio i5 - 12GB RAM, 256 GB SSD; no touchscreen, but a wireless mouse - to sort out last week, and it all came straight in the end.

Good luck!

[Mr Larrington]

I've been unsuccessfully trying to install the 2H20 update for the thick end of a year now but everything recommended by the Internets including the so-called “Troubleshooter” and the Update Assistant has failed to get past the “PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA” nonsense which is probably caused by a driver but no-one can tell me how to determine which one.  I ent yet got round to trying “mounting the downloaded Windows ISO and running its setup.exe” suggestion, but will have to try it sooner or later before I resort to Stab.

[liam_whippet]

Ah - you have an actual error message, which in Wombat's case he has not got - so he is more likely to update OK ...

He can also boost his chances by telling Microsoft to tidy its room first - by going System | Storage, clicking on Temp files, then checking the box to delete Windows Update files. Usually frees up 3GB - 8GB space, which can only be a Good Thing; current record is 17GB of UpdatenKruft ...

Actual driver errors are a different kettle of worms. AllI would say is that I was starting from either 1909 or 2004, and was more than pleasantly surprised to arrive safely and eventually in 21H1 [thus bypassing 20H2 completely]. And it felt like what it was doing behind the scenes was just downloading a humungous iso and running it ...

[Kim]

One of my Unifi UAP-AC Pros has developed a habit of every n days unceremoniously booting all the ESP8266-based Tasmota devices off and then refusing to re-authenticate them.  Fondleslabs and lapdogs remain connected on both 2.4 and 5GHz.  As do all the ESP devices on the other access point running the same firmware.  This is irksome, especially given that certain internet-of-shit^[1] devices have gone from techno-wank to useful accessibility tools since barakta got out of hospital.

Having moved a couple of smart things to other VLANs, I've concluded it's not VLAN related.  I've now downgraded the UAP firmware to see if that helps.

Devil's radio.


_{[1] Shoutout to the bathroom light, which I've programmed to come on automatically so I don't have to touch the switch when slopping out.}

[grams]

I bought a raspberry pi thinking it would be fun to play with and they’d have made everything glossy and nice by now. Dear god it’s the same cesspool of hours long mysterious package installation routines that flake out half way through, and forum threads for basic things that involve checking out and building some dude’s random Github that doubtless has its own dependencies.

The first thing I tried was retroPi game emulator thingy. It was a setup wizard that says you need to hold down a button on your controller to configure it. This is a Bluetooth pairing screen, I think naively, and proceed to put my controller in discovery mode.

Nothings happens. It turns out you need to connect to Bluetooth first using a command line tool that requires you to type the chuffing MAC address. Still doesn’t work, because my Xbox Series X controller is too new and requires some mysterious package I couldn’t find, and my Wiimote is too old and/or obscure (!) and requires pages of manual config.

The thing is going in a drawer.

[Wombat]

Ah - you have an actual error message, which in Wombat's case he has not got - so he is more likely to update OK ...

He can also boost his chances by telling Microsoft to tidy its room first - by going System | Storage, clicking on Temp files, then checking the box to delete Windows Update files. Usually frees up 3GB - 8GB space, which can only be a Good Thing; current record is 17GB of UpdatenKruft ...

Actual driver errors are a different kettle of worms. AllI would say is that I was starting from either 1909 or 2004, and was more than pleasantly surprised to arrive safely and eventually in 21H1 [thus bypassing 20H2 completely]. And it felt like what it was doing behind the scenes was just downloading a humungous iso and running it ...

I nuked from orbit, in the end.  Current version installed, seems happy enough.  As the laptop has limited duties, re-populating it with software isn't as much of a ball ache as it could be.  It does have one barmy habit, though.  As its a flippy thing that can be used as a tablet, it has screen rotate, which previously worked fine.  Now however, if I leave screen rotate unlocked, it defaults to being upside down... Hopefully there is a way to tell it which was is up, other than locking screen rotate and setting it each time, but I haven't found it yet.

[Pingu]

FFS Windows, "Still life with eggplant" and "Still Life With Eggplant"" are not the same

[Mr Larrington]

O hai TerraMaps!

If you’re going to have locations in Uzbekistan — and why not? — in your fine map product, do you not think it might be a good idea actually to add Uzbekistan to the list of countries, mmm?  You know, so the game knows a few trivial items like where to find it, what time zone it's in, how much petril costs, whether DRLs are required, what the speed limits are ect &, moreover, ect?

kthxbai!

[Pickled Onion]

On a similar vein, Apple, it may be vaguely acceptable for Apple Maps not to recognise Abkhazia as a country although it has mostly been one since 1994. Not returning the capital city when searched for even though it's clearly visible on the map is a bit bizarre, but there are plenty of other mapping solutions to use.

But for IOS deciding to use a completely different time zone to what's used by everyone there incredibly not helpful.

[grams]

Why can every huge corporate website be relied on to:
- Only tell you your email address is already in use *after* you’ve filled out the whole registration form.
- Lose your email address between the registration/login/forgotten password pages
- Have the reset password flow take you to the website rather than the app where you started all this?
- Have multiple domain names and funky password boxes so password managers don’t avoid all of the above?

I guess this web stuff is still new. I’ll give them another twenty years.