Author Topic: The computing stuff rant thread (Read 404767 times)

rafletcher · « **Reply #2700 on:** 14 January, 2022, 09:30:37 pm »

Ah, Microsoft. I set the options in the App Store to automatic updates. And do they do so? Why, no, they do not

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2701 on:** 15 January, 2022, 02:52:12 am »

Good old Microsith has decided, now that I've reinstalled Windows on Bruiser McHuge to fix the problem of an update that steadfastly refused to install, not to let me download updates from Intel and Creative. I click the “Download” button and suddenly! Nothing happens.

This is doubly ironic as I strongly suspect it was Creative's driver update that b0rked it in the first place.

Ham · « **Reply #2702 on:** 18 January, 2022, 03:17:25 pm »

Oh My. Oh My My.

I'm on a corporate mailing list that has been spammily sending out Security, System updates etc notification by the armload each day. Now this is annoying, but what could be more so? When one of the multi thousand people on this corporate list Replies All to say "Take me off this list". And is followed by many others. AND..... the sending system has a "bounce" for replies that - you guessed it - Replies All

I didn't want to send or read any mail today, anyhow.

woollypigs · « **Reply #2703 on:** 18 January, 2022, 04:31:32 pm »

That reminds me of when the Melissa virus hit the servers at work. A week after our boss had told us to be extra careful of what we clicked and we should update.

Staff arrived at work, since we had looked at the online news, before arriving at the office. The staff in the Sydney office was telling us, via ICQ, it was circulating. It was at hand if you applied the update that could remove it before you fired up your email.

Which we did and nothing really happened other than sharing news stories how other companies got hit hard.

Then the boss arrived in the Paris office, were I was at the time, and we all got infected emails from him via the various mailing list etc. As you said Ham sooo many middle management people started to hit reply all to tell us that there was a virus and we should be careful.

Until the IT fella found the Boss and unplugged him and a few others that was dumb enough to click

Then the UK office opened up and for some reason they were a wee bit dumber than the Paris office. Which caused our IT fella, the company's top IT guy, unplugged us from the internet and went desk to desk. I'm sure there were a few angry phone calls to the UK.

Then the US office opened ... and our IT fella went ballistic and walked out of the building, after he shut down the company mail server, as he had just managed to control the fall out in the UK and France.

Ham · « **Reply #2704 on:** 19 January, 2022, 03:41:48 pm »

The ones that really crack me up are the ones who Reply All saying "STOP REPYLING ALL!!!!" - and there are always more than one.

ian · « **Reply #2705 on:** 19 January, 2022, 04:56:28 pm »

Aboard my last mothership, there was a mass corporate spanking over this, after a reply-all storm peaked at 33,000 responses. Honestly, it was pure popcorn watching the responses pile up. STOP REPLYING TO ALL, someone would shout, inevitably replying to all. YOU STOP REPLYING TO ALL someone would respond, replying to all. The cavalry of stupid is limitless.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #2706 on:** 19 January, 2022, 05:20:21 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly-YHT on 13 January, 2022, 01:46:44 pm

Turns out she set up some (uknown) backup program and left it running. It has been consuming nearly all the Up and Down (why?) bandwidth.

Probably running over TCP. For every so many packets sent you get an ack packet back from the other end to say it got those packets. The point being that the application doesn't have to worry about whether the other end is getting the data the underlying network protocol handles it, if the packets aren't acked the sender resends them. Its the "acks" that are filling up the download bandwidth.
A proper TCP implementation has a thing called sliding windows where on a good connection it increases the number of packets it sends before requiring an ack. You can end up sending 50 for 1 ack for example. A bad TCP implementation (Windows 2000 was rubbish I haven't put a sniffer on later versions and it would max out at 3 packets per ack) or drops in the path between you and the device your sending teh file to will result in the window size being small or even 1 packet per ack.

Kim · « **Reply #2707 on:** 19 January, 2022, 05:31:54 pm »

Or it might be less broken, and doing some sort of peer-to-peer shenanigans?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2708 on:** 24 January, 2022, 11:38:40 pm »

So. Fuck. Yeah. Windows 10 on the big box in the Estate Office is actually up to date with its, er, updates. Except it isn’t, because it’s telling me there are updates from Creative and Intel. So I click the handy button with “Download” written on it in large friendly letters and…

…nothing happens. And all of the suggestions on the Internets for the remediation of this state of affairs have this in common: THEY DON'T FUCKING WORK

Now, the Creative one is probably not that difficult to find and install manually but when you bung the name of the Intel one into a FWSE, the first result is Microsith, specifically a set of pages offering:

237 identically-labelled entries, and
no means of determining which is the one I am supposed to install

Moreover, until they are installed, it would seem that Microsith will not install any other updates it’s discovered in the meantime. Get with the program, O Great Satan Of Redmond, or it'll be time for you and Mr Shovel to get jiggy.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2709 on:** 25 January, 2022, 08:07:53 pm »

Yahoo! Mail! Why! Are! You! So! Fucking! Shit! At! Letting! Mail! Programs! Access! You?

That e-mail from Professor Larrington was apparently received at 16:30 yesterday but only now shows up on my devices and yes, it was quite important, actually. The other addresses I use with Thunderbird and iOS Mail work flawlessly, but not you. Just! Fuck! Off! And! Die!

spesh · « **Reply #2710 on:** 30 January, 2022, 05:20:03 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 14 January, 2022, 08:59:27 pm

O hai Twitter!

I see the big box telling me to log in or sign up you splat all over Stuffs that people link to is now without the little “X” in the corner to make it go away.

I encountered this for the first time today - I'd get about 5-6 posts down someone's timeline and then get the pop-up you describe.

Mind you, getting shut out like that is more honest of the fuckers and less evil/annoying than what Tw@tter was inflicting on me for the last two weeks.

The "log-in/sign up" pop-up had a "X" button, but clicking on it sent me back back to the previous page on Tw@tter. Yes, I could get round it by opening every tweet in a new tab, but the faffage and time wasted meant hilarity absolutely failed to ensue...

Quote

Off you must fuck.

This, in spades. If the hoofbungling turboclunges are trying to persuade me to sign-up just so I can read the accounts I've bookmarked because they had useful content, they couldn't have been more wrong in how they have gone about it.

robgul · « **Reply #2711 on:** 04 February, 2022, 09:41:40 am »

Weird situation I have suddenly found with my Win10 PC (running with latest updates etc) . . .

The taskbar icons (that's the ones on the left at the bottom for frequently used progs etc) don't appear when the machine boots up . . . BUT when I do a Power/Restart they appear - likewise if the power is switched off at the mains and then comes on again the icons appear [I have all the IT stuff on a Hive socket that switches everything off at about 2300 and back on at 0630 to, possibly, save some juice cost. I normally close down the PC at the end of the day but if I don't it boots with the icons]

I've been through about 5 or 6 possibilities suggested by Mr Google's search facility - and no change? It seems that it's a known issue . . . anyone else with the symptoms and a working remedy?

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #2712 on:** 04 February, 2022, 10:14:26 am »

I have noticed the same on a laptop I use for church streaming. Very odd

Zipperhead · « **Reply #2713 on:** 04 February, 2022, 02:40:41 pm »

I had the same, I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling a pile of things to sort it out (of course I couldn't remember everything and found another missing one last night)

Ham · « **Reply #2714 on:** 04 February, 2022, 03:32:10 pm »

Just FTR, you can still use the Quick Launch toolbar which I have always found to be the most productive option. To achieve my personal nirvana, I disable all other toolbars, use two lines, all common programs into small icons on the left, tamed system tray on the right which means all your normal stuffs stay in the same place and doesn't bugger around to different locations.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2715 on:** 08 February, 2022, 02:00:04 pm »

Calibre! You have worked flawlessly since, well, that minor smeg-up involving the upgrade to v5.0. Indeed, you worked flawlessly both this morning and last night. Now you’re telling me you cannot open the database file

Get thee, yea and, moreover, verily, to fuck!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2716 on:** 08 February, 2022, 03:07:43 pm »

Fixed Calibre. Now had to fix Giant Monthly Backup of All Things after it:

Hung while I was down at Fort Larrington for a Several of days, and
Had to be restarted after a reboot last night, and
Slowed to an even slower than usual crawl this morning

It looks a bit more lively after rebooting the target NAS.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2717 on:** 12 February, 2022, 02:10:22 am »

Attempted to fix b0rked Windows update — Windows says there's an Intel system update but the “Download” button, she does nothing — and now PC won’t restart. Nor does System Restore work. Nuke from orbit for the second time in six fucking weeks called for

Bollocksbollocksbollocks.

Kim · « **Reply #2718 on:** 12 February, 2022, 11:26:29 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 12 February, 2022, 02:10:22 am

Nuke from orbit for the second time in six fucking weeks called for Bollocksbollocksbollocks.

Makes you nostalgic for Windows 98. Almost.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2719 on:** 12 February, 2022, 12:07:23 pm »

The only plus point about the whole sordid business is that you don’t need a foot-high stack of floppies to reinstall everything these days.

woollypigs · « **Reply #2720 on:** 12 February, 2022, 12:45:40 pm »

What's wrong with knocking over a stack of 45 3.5" floppies. Then trying to figure out if "3 of 45" written in pencil goes before or after "smeared pencil of 45" or if that's the one that you used to save finaltxt.doc on.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2721 on:** 12 February, 2022, 01:12:36 pm »

And guess which idiot deleted the checklist he made for the last time he had to reinstall Windows

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggh!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2722 on:** 12 February, 2022, 03:08:41 pm »

Install keeps failing with my old friend “PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA”

FFS

TheLurker · « **Reply #2723 on:** 12 February, 2022, 03:28:02 pm »

I take it that there are applications that you use that will absolutely not run under a.n.other OS, not even in an emulator?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2724 on:** 12 February, 2022, 04:11:35 pm »

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: I know nothing of emulators but suspect the bitsteepfulness of the learning curve would give me more sleepless nights than I can handle, especially coz it’s mostly used for gaming.

Some parts of the Internets suggest it may be a memory thing; replacing the memory will be cheaper than replacing the whole box but it’s still a PITA.