The computing stuff rant thread

[Pickled Onion]

And Apple's stupid fucking piece of shit mailclient had better not still have that fucking bug where email just stops working and needs reconfigged from scratch cos Lightmail was a pain and I don't want to have to pay for something Apple should make work... 

It's unbelievable isn't it? How does something as basic as an email client have so many bugs in it? Having switched to the mac way for most things, they integrate brilliantly, but Mail is driving me mad. Some of the most irritating bugs have clearly been reported and left unfixed for some time.

I don't mind paying for something that actually works, any suggestions?

[TimC]

Mail does my head in too - its talent for forgetting passwords is so infuriating. I don't understand how Apple can be content with this piece of crap.

[Pickled Onion]

I don't understand it either, perhaps email is just not hip enough to bother with any more? Young People (TM) seem to communicate with a mixture of whatsapp, imessage, twitter, dropbox, instagram, snapchat... email seems to be going the way of the fax machine.

[Woofage]

I don't mind paying for something that actually works, any suggestions?

Thunderbird. Not perfect but I've used it since version nought point something and it's never let me down.

In the fruit-sphere¹ you may be wary of something that you don't have to pay for. No need to panic, it's free software but contributions to the developers are welcome .

[1] Other non-free proprietary computer systems are available.

[Biggsy]

Another vote for Thunderbird.  Mac version available.  And lots of addons available if you want more than the standard features.

[ian]

Mail seems to have got a bit better with its password Alzheimer's, though it still tends to 'Mail is preventing your computer from shutting down.' Other than that it mostly seems to work. I'm minded that all email clients suck to some degree. I used to use Thunderbird and it was OK but seemed a bit clunky.

I couldn't be bothered paying for a mail client, but Sparrow seems to be well regarded in Mac circles.

[TimC]

On my iMac, it's only one Mail account that is subject to Apple's tactical amnesia. Trouble is, it's my main one (Gmail) and, as I use Google's two-stage security, it requires me to generate a new access code each time it's forgotten. That's a minor PITA, really, but on the last occasion it worked for incoming mail but not outgoing - which it just hid in the Outbox without telling me it wasn't being dispatched. My MBA, iPad and iPhone have never suffered this annoying behaviour, so perhaps my iMac is just a bit pissed off that it doesn't get as much attention as the other gadgets.

[Kim]

OSX isn't the problem.  It's a grown up operating system that can run software with unix pun names, as well as Thunderbollocks.

It's the iThings where the Mail bug is a real PITA.  Especially someone else's iThing.

[ian]

Internet Explorer. I've avoided successfully for years, but there's some SAP horribleness aboard the mothership that needs to be dealt with. Believe me, that shit has scoured planets to bleeding earth and made entire populations weep acid tears. Apparently this means IE version I-don't-give-a-shit.

Firstly, the pile of arse-coded shit won't save the full URL as a favourite, clipping off the bit that navigates our SSO, which needs to be there otherwise I end up at the login page and we don't have separate logins. Ah, it's alright, it'll be in the history. Ctrl-H gives me a history of every file opened, not just web pages. What kind of braindead chucklefucker thought that was a good idea? I'm using a browser and you're telling me about Word documents. It doesn't even appear to let me go back more than a week. Maybe there's some cryptic settings. Bejeebus, I just want to see what web pages I accessed last week.

Now I have to wade through my inbox to find the bloody access link to click.

[Pickled Onion]

That's the "integrated user experience". You don't have to know where anything is as the OS tools will find it for you, and to make sure you buy in to that it will make sure you don't know where anything is.

My (big corp) current client has given up fighting with IE as the corporate standard, even the help desk stock response is now "just use chrome instead, it will work".

[ian]

Ironically, despite all the warnings that SAP Business Objects needed IE, the reports run fine in Chrome.

[Kim]

So it turns out that if you run the Raspberry Pi's serial port at 2400 baud, it has to stop and put its feet up for the requisite 60ms or so every 16 bytes so as not to overflow the bugger (TBAGO).

Please don't ask how I know this.

[PaulF]

Sharepoint: it's where people in my company put documents that they don't want anyone else to find

[Afasoas]

Hellish Morning.

For some reason the (new to me) netbook was refusing to mount NFS shares. It was working! I figured my NAS box might have blocked it's IP address, which was non-reserved DHCP and I'd meant to give it a reservation consistent with my IP number scheme anyway.

Created a DHCP reservation on DD-WRT router for it. End result: Hosed router. No idea how something so routine resulted in a non-functioning router.
Reset router and restored an old configuration.

After the reboot, webserver was not dishing up any content. Rebooted web server (running on a different netbook) and found it wouldn't start mysqld. I noticed the init.d/mysql file was trying to run safe_mysqld instead of mysqld_safe. No idea how that's happened and why it's gone unnoticed.
Also notice apache2 was excluded from the init.rc

So back to those pesky NFS shares. I looked again at the configuration on the NFS server (NAS box) and I've no idea how it ever worked. Authorised network segments were incorrectly configured. Fixed configuration and shares now mounted.

So now the good bit. I've managed to set-up printing via CUPS. And then create a new invoice in LibreOffice (based on an excel template), print it, PDF it and mail it.
 

[David Martin]

Excel. Almost enough said.

How it can give a result of zero for  =COUNTIF(S4:S155, S155)  is beyond me. So far beyond me that after 15 minutes of trying I did Save As >Tab delimited, booted up RStudio and got done what I needed in about 15 seconds.

I will generate an R script that will package that analysis for next year.

[TimC]

Bloody Devolo dLan wifi. The plug works, I can get Internet via a wired connection, but nothing - Mac, PC, iPad, phone - will connect to the wifi. They can all see it, they all have the correct code, but nothing will bloody connect. Bum.

[JStone]

Bloody Devolo dLan wifi. The plug works, I can get Internet via a wired connection, but nothing - Mac, PC, iPad, phone - will connect to the wifi. They can all see it, they all have the correct code, but nothing will bloody connect. Bum.

Have you got MAC access control set? (Configuration > WLAN Configuration > WLAN Filters). I've got 3 x Devolo dLAN 500 & it generally Just Works ^™ unless someone turns off the wrong socket 

[pcolbeck]

Cisco you are muppets. Yes the 3850 is a very lovely stacking switch with 480Gbps stacking backplane but why did you put the mode switch where the boot on a snagfree Ethernet cable can press it ? Its not funny when your a hundred and fifty miles from the datacentre and some one looks in the rack to see if there is pace for some new equipment and happens to move that cable slightly and it does press said mode button which wipes the config of the switch and reboots it thus disconnecting the Internet and my remote VPN connection so I cant even fix it without getting someone to physically go to the DC and plug in a console cable !!!!!!

[TimC]

Bloody Devolo dLan wifi. The plug works, I can get Internet via a wired connection, but nothing - Mac, PC, iPad, phone - will connect to the wifi. They can all see it, they all have the correct code, but nothing will bloody connect. Bum.

Have you got MAC access control set? (Configuration > WLAN Configuration > WLAN Filters). I've got 3 x Devolo dLAN 500 & it generally Just Works ^™ unless someone turns off the wrong socket 

It was working fine. I have two of these plugs to extend the network in my house. They've been fine for a couple of years, but now this one's decided it doesn't want to work any more. All devices can detect it, but it won't let anything connect. I've 'restored' it to factory settings (it never had them changed anyway), but it just won't accept an connections. I guess some of the wigglyamps have gone on strike and it's preparing for a natural death, but I'd have preferred it if it had waited a few years longer!

[Afasoas]

TimC,

Tried changing the channel? Or using an application like inSSIDer on a laptop to see if there's a plethora of wi fi access points using the same channel?

[TimC]

Yes, I did try changing the channel - it's preset to auto, so I tried pretty much all of them. The Devolo 'cockpit' app is pretty good at giving access to these things, and I checked the firmware was up to date, that the security code hadn't been corrupted (the reset should have taken care if that anyway), and that it was actually receiving transmitting data via the mains (it was - works fine via an Ethernet cable). It's got me flummoxed, I must say!

[Afasoas]

Have you tried testing it with no wireless key?
Try changing the SSID?

I've occasionally resolved issues like this by ditching any existing profiles for a wireless network and creating a new one. I think both Andr0id and iOS have options to "forget this network" as you scroll through your list of known networks. On Windows, I think it's under "My Wireless Networks" or some such.

Also, what security standard are you using? And which encryption algorithm? TKIP or AES? Are all of your devices compatible with it? I think most clients will automatically choose security standard (WPA, WPA2) and encryption algorithm based on the information communicated by the wireless network, so if that has changed any old profile won't work.

[TimC]

Yes, I've told all the devices to forget the network and start afresh. I'm using the WPA2 security as it comes out of the box; the plug has been restored to factory settings (several times). I can't remember which encryption it's using - I'm out of the country right now. But it will be whatever Devolo set as standard. I did try changing the SSID, but no difference. All of my devices previously connected with this plug with no problems. Now, none of the will, whether Mac, iOS, Windows, or Android. I tried removing all security from the plug; no change. All of my devices can see it, they just can't connect to it.

[Ham]

Excel. Almost enough said.

How it can give a result of zero for  =COUNTIF(S4:S155, S155)  is beyond me. So far beyond me that after 15 minutes of trying I did Save As >Tab delimited, booted up RStudio and got done what I needed in about 15 seconds.

I will generate an R script that will package that analysis for next year.

If that is your real example that's your problem: your criteria is is the range you are counting. Put it outside, t155 for example and all will be well.

[Wombat]

Windows 8.1 home networking!  Just fucking work, will you!  PC has a homegroup established, and will tell me its password.  New laptop can see the PC, and wants to join the homegroup.  So, following instructions it is giving me, I enter the homegroup password.  After a minute of thinking, it now decides it can no longer detect the network, even though it is telling me it is there, and wants to join it, and would I like to put in the password - again.  Aaaaand again, and again, and again.....  Oh fuck it, its quicker to just go upstairs and put the stuff on a USB stick and put that in the laptop.

And why does it copy to the laptop's SSD at around twice the speed anything will copy to or from the desktop's OCZ Revodrive PCI-E hybrid drive which claims a transfer speed twice that of the SATA SSD?   In both cases they are reading to or from the same USB3 stick.  that Revodrive is kack, its going in the bin.  I'd ditch it now, but I've blown a lot of money on the laptop.  Now, it did have a warranty, even though it was refurbished.  Can I just send it back as failing to meet the specs?  It seems to be acting like it doesn't have an SSD strapped to the back of the hard disk.