The computing stuff rant thread

[Polar Bear]

Ironically, Microshaft who make these rules available through their group policy now advise that system administrators don't force users to change their passwords too frequently because it leads to use of weaker passwords.

Not only that but people cannot remember them all so write them down and leave them even more vulnerable.

My password policy for teh interweb is quite interesting - nobody would approve it.   I've only needed to change my default password once and only then because ebay was hacked.

It's all in the mind MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!   

[woollypigs]

Never got on with network share on linux, samba with gui on ubuntu sometime worked, but I have always had to hack/kick/scream about to get it somewhat working.

Dropbox have often been the easiest option to move files from computer to computer.

Where as with Windows, 99% of the time, was just right click, share and you were up and running.

I'm now at wars with crunchbang to get it to share with crunchbang, arrgghh! Happily remote desktop, ssh but for the life of me can I get to see a folder on the other laptop in the file browser, can I heck!

ok using gadmin-samba got it to play ball, but what an over complicated program to use to get a simple share to run.

[Bledlow]

Ironically, Microshaft who make these rules available through their group policy now advise that system administrators don't force users to change their passwords too frequently because it leads to use of weaker passwords.

You mean . . .  they've finally seen sense! 

[Afasoas]

Never got on with network share on linux, samba with gui on ubuntu sometime worked, but I have always had to hack/kick/scream about to get it somewhat working.

Dropbox have often been the easiest option to move files from computer to computer.

Where as with Windows, 99% of the time, was just right click, share and you were up and running.

I'm now at wars with crunchbang to get it to share with crunchbang, arrgghh! Happily remote desktop, ssh but for the life of me can I get to see a folder on the other laptop in the file browser, can I heck!

ok using gadmin-samba got it to play ball, but what an over complicated program to use to get a simple share to run.

You don't need samba for sharing linux to linux. Use NFS?

[woollypigs]

You don't need samba for sharing linux to linux. Use NFS?

A bit over my head and I have never really got it to work that way. The simple GUI that was on Ubuntu where you point to a folder and say share, is something I like

[tiermat]

Never got on with network share on linux, samba with gui on ubuntu sometime worked, but I have always had to hack/kick/scream about to get it somewhat working.

Dropbox have often been the easiest option to move files from computer to computer.

Where as with Windows, 99% of the time, was just right click, share and you were up and running.

I'm now at wars with crunchbang to get it to share with crunchbang, arrgghh! Happily remote desktop, ssh but for the life of me can I get to see a folder on the other laptop in the file browser, can I heck!

ok using gadmin-samba got it to play ball, but what an over complicated program to use to get a simple share to run.

You don't need samba for sharing linux to linux. Use NFS?

After years of supporting a multitude of systems, my first response, when asked how to shae files between servers, is "DO NOT use NFS!" It's shit, it's flaky, it falls over and causes all sorts of issues and it's shit.

As daft as it sounds, SAMBA is possibly the most reliable options for sharing files, even in a single OS environment (and the only real choice in a mixed OS one)

[Kim]

NFS handles permissions and file locking properly, in that bizarre NFSy way.  It's relatively simple to set up (as long as you don't try to use a GUI) and tends to Just Work once configured.  The security model is frustratingly simplistic, though, and synchronising user lists becomes an issue.

Samba makes assumptions about file ownership which can be suboptimal.  It's the only sane option when Windows is involved.  It's slightly less simple to set up, and tends to Just Work until something (usually authentication or name resolution related) goes wrong at the Windows end.

SFTP doesn't require any setting up, and Just Works over the internet as well as it does on the LAN.  Throughput is a bit iffy, and it's not transparent.  No use with Windows as the server.

SSHFS is a thing of beauty and a joy forever (at least for laptops offsite).  Requires FUSE and a bit of manual intervention, and again, windows doesn't have a server by default.

Dropbox is quick and easy for sharing files over the internet without having to worry too hard about authentication.  You have to pay attention to how synchronised the local files are, and obviously file size becomes an issue.  The Android client is a piece of shit, and I expect the IOS client likewise.

Dropping things in a webserver directory is often a winning strategy for sharing files with randoms.

Sneakernet still has its uses.


Basically, 30 years of mainstream computer networking, and nobody's come up with a way to share files easily.  How did that happen?


(My real bugbear is the way the Gnome GUI tools pretend to mount network shares transparently, which works fine for the file manager and a handful of Gnome apps, but leaves the user scratching their head when some other standard non-Gnome application can't see the 'mount' that the file it was launched by double clicking on exists in.  If you're not doing it in fstab, it's going to confuse you at some point.)

[Mr Larrington]

Dropbox is quick and easy for sharing files over the internet without having to worry too hard about authentication.  You have to pay attention to how synchronised the local files are, and obviously file size becomes an issue.  The Android client is a piece of shit, and I expect the IOS client likewise.

The IOS Dropbox app works but has some "features" which are massively annoying when viewing large PDFs.

[Kim]

Thinking about it, I expect it's less annoying on IOS, as the whole thing is in denial over having a filesystem.

That's "less annoying" in the sense of "no more annoying than anything else you do on that platform", of course.

[Zipperhead]

Micro-fucking-soft. If I could find the two people who have the keys then Redmond would be a smoking, glow in the dark crater by now.

At work we use Skype. We use skype for communicating with customers as well. It's not perfect, but in general it does what's needed in an easy to use manner. As long as there's a phone or internet connection I can use skype on whatever device I have with me.

But one customer insists that we use Microsoft "Lync. If you've never had to install it, I can't begin to describe to you what a great big pile of shit it is. The slurry tank on the farm, feed by 200 cows, contains less liquid shit than one single Lync client installation.

Once I had got through the installation and all of the configuration options it then required me to reboot my machine (for a messaging client installation?) and guess what? Oh, because I've just installed Lync, my machine now needs to install 35, yes thirty fucking five, new updates. With a reboot afterwards. Several hours wasted on unproductive crap.

And, and, and, and and, I'm one of the lucky ones because I don't have ms office on my machine. If I did, there are then all sorts of version incompatibilities to deal with.

This is just for the "basic" version, no doubt the "enterprise" version is even more of a bastard.

And (sorry, bad grammar again I know) do you know what? For days at a time the client hasn't been able to log into the server and even when it has the client has never used it to communicate with us.

[mrcharly-YHT]

scp

http://www.tecmint.com/scp-commands-examples/

[woollypigs]

I do like a bit of GUI when I move my files about, very easy click, drag, right click etc. I have tried to use the terminal and used scp etc. But figuring out where files are, passwords, urls and along with does this folder need a / at the end or not when I move these files/folders. For me GUI is much easier, especially today when I tried to sort out my backup, which have gone a bit Pete Tong. Too many copies and not in a good filing order either. And I can remember when I used windows on all my 'puters, it was most times just right click, share and I could see that folder on my other machines, about 99% of the times I did, sometimes M$ didn't want to play with the ball. Ubuntu had a GUI tool that made SAMBA easy to share but now and again it just feel over and even if both machines were Ubuntu they wouldn't talk. Along with nvidia drivers, network share have always been a pain to get running for me on my systems. Lucky the nvidia has become easier and I hope that network share will go the same way

[Kim]

Ubuntu should GUIify SCP in the same way it does samba: just select 'SSH' under server type.  You don't usually have to set anything up at the other end.

[Afasoas]

Using SAMBA = using CIFS? NFS is noticeably better for streaming media onto a device like a RasbPi.
I'm subscribing to the opinion that if you are doing anything that is even remotely out of the ordinary, the command line wins. It also seems to impress the folk who I live with 

I experimented with Zentyal on my Linux Server - it does seem fairly robust. Once it is set-up, configuring a Linux server is much easier from someone coming from  a Windows background. Unfortunately I ditched it because it doesn't work with ZFS.

But one customer insists that we use Microsoft "Lync. If you've never had to install it, I can't begin to describe to you what a great big pile of shit it is. The slurry tank on the farm, feed by 200 cows, contains less liquid shit than one single Lync client installation.

It's not the first time I've read this rant. Wailing and gnashing of teeth seems to be a key part of the Lync installation ritual.

[Chris S]

I tried very hard to get on with NFS, but I could never quite get auto-mounts to work correctly. Then of course there's the whole user mapping thing between machines.

FWIW I find SAMBA more than up to streaming 1080p movies from a RaspPi (Samsung 1Tb USB drive) "file server" to a RaspPi "media server" (RaspBMC).

[davelodwig]

I experimented with Zentyal on my Linux Server - it does seem fairly robust. Once it is set-up, configuring a Linux server is much easier from someone coming from  a Windows background. Unfortunately I ditched it because it doesn't work with ZFS.

Nothing works with ZFS, not even the OS it's designed to come with, using ZFS to do replication across the wire to an offsite data centre for redundancy purposes worked, in theory but the ability of it to decide it didn't like it's own disks was outstanding.

There are days in my past that make me glad I've moved full time into development and the day my boss proudly told us the major part of our infrastructure was running ZFS was one of them.

[Afasoas]

FWIW I find SAMBA more than up to streaming 1080p movies from a RaspPi (Samsung 1Tb USB drive) "file server" to a RaspPi "media server" (RaspBMC).

I've streamed to RaspBMC on openElec from a Synology NAS using NFS and CIFS. SD and 720p were fine, but 1080p using CIFS resulted in less than smooth playback and occasional buffering.

That said, NFS didn't always work and I didn't persevere long enough to find out why. Perhaps there was something wrong with my network at the time.

Nothing works with ZFS, not even the OS it's designed to come with, using ZFS to do replication across the wire to an offsite data centre for redundancy purposes worked, in theory but the ability of it to decide it didn't like it's own disks was outstanding.

Although there are one or two gotchas, it's been easy to set-up and plays quite nicely with Ubuntu server. The native file system is ext4, I'm only using ZFS for data disks. I haven't done any benchmarking yet, but file transfers run up to the limit of my gigabit network, versus a real world 60 mbyte/second using the Syno NAS. That said, using in a production environment (as oppose to a home server) could be another kettle of fish.

[David Martin]

I tried very hard to get on with NFS, but I could never quite get auto-mounts to work correctly. Then of course there's the whole user mapping thing between machines.

the proper answer this is that you don't do user mapping, you use a directory service and network mounted drives for home directories.

[Mr Larrington]

Why did you have to conk out after updating four thousand-odd of eleven and a half thousand files?  And not just conk out, but freeze the entire Babbage-Engine more firmly than an outdoor turd at the South Pole?

Stupid FOREIGN SCIENCE!

[Mr Larrington]

Hurrah!  SCIENCE ran through to the end the second time around

Bah!  SCIENCE cannot cope with certain characters in path 

SCIENCE is updating tags on .mp3 files.  Path includes band and album names.  iThings library contains much Sigur Rós and Motörhead.  This could be a long afternoon.

[ian]

iTunes store.

You are shit.

I buy music elsewhere. It downloads. Amazon even put it into my iTunes library for me. Just like that. They'd bake me a cake if I let them. Probably.

From you, I get a big poo sandwich. There was a problem downloading these items. Your network connection has reset.

Oh no it hasn't you dairylea-brained bonobo botherers. You have just one job, iTunes store, and that's letting me purchase the damn album.

[Mr Larrington]

Also you'd think that when you click "buy" and it's taken your money it'd download it automagically, yes?

No, we'll hide it "in iCloud" and make you hunt around for the thing you've just spent seven quid on.

But we'll whack U-fucking-2 on your machine because we're too cool to have a checkbox for you to say "no, I do not wish to give free publicity to a sanctimonious tax-dodging git".

Grrrr!

[Mr Larrington]

In the interests of balance I shall lay off the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia for at least ten minutes and ask those terminal jizzbadgers at Microsith why it's apparently taking all afternoon to install three updates on my lapdancer?  Especially as one of them is just a Windows Defender thing, which happens almost daily.

Oh, it's just finished and wants a reboot.  Bah!

Edit: 33 minutes from clicking restart clicky thing to desktop reappearing.  Gates onna stick!

[ian]

Downloading it song by song worked for some reason.

Strangely, when Apple decide to let Bono lay a turd on my hard drive, there's none of this your network connection has been reset business.

[Afasoas]

AV software remote deployment - you are sh!te.

UAC needs to be temporarily disabled prior to installation - which means forcing users to reboot and leaving one of Windows prime safety features disabled for an undetermined length of time.