Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 306310 times)

woollypigs · « **Reply #2000 on:** 16 April, 2022, 08:35:15 pm »

Bobby got a sister

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/null

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2001 on:** 18 April, 2022, 04:25:23 pm »

The Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia doned an update on my fondleslab last night and now the “Jump To” wossname down in the bottom right corner of YACF no longer works, at least in Chrome.

Bah!

rafletcher · « **Reply #2002 on:** 18 April, 2022, 06:44:15 pm »

Works in Safari ok. But then I guess it would.

andrewc · « **Reply #2003 on:** 18 April, 2022, 10:27:02 pm »

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1516144514984923139 https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/shameful-insteon-looks-dead-just-like-its-users-smart-homes/

"IoT service shuts down its cloud hosts without warning; execs scrub their Linkedin profiles of the company's name; parent company deletes press-release trumpeting the acquisition, and every single device they've ever sold is bricked. "

I've never had a reason to look at automating my home and this sort of thing doesn't encourage me. Careful research needed to make sure you are not locked into a supplier who just vanishes. Reading the Aretechnica article it seems seems the users might not be completely in the lurch, but they'll be in for a lot of faff.

Kim · « **Reply #2004 on:** 18 April, 2022, 10:42:27 pm »

The rule of thumb is that if it relies on a cloud service, it's disposable. Which might be acceptable if it's something cheap and easily replaced like an Echo or Chromecast where the cloudiness is a key part of its functionality, but less so if it's all your light switches.

Local control is the way to go (healthy paranoia aside, it's good for things to keep working without an internet connection), and preferably open standards and - where possible - open source. That way if the manufacturer leaves you up shit creek, there's a decent chance that someone out there will have made a paddle.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #2005 on:** 20 April, 2022, 12:58:59 am »

Hello,

Have a gmail account that seems to be having issues sending emails to another free.fr email.

The person can email me, and I have replied to their email but cannot seem to email them back. The email mentions that the response from remote server is 451 toomany errors detected from your IP.

philip · « **Reply #2006 on:** 20 April, 2022, 11:52:47 am »

Quote from: Gattopardo on 20 April, 2022, 12:58:59 am

Hello,

Have a gmail account that seems to be having issues sending emails to another free.fr email.

The person can email me, and I have replied to their email but cannot seem to email them back. The email mentions that the response from remote server is 451 toomany errors detected from your IP.

I suspect an automatic system on the free.fr end has classified a number of emails from gmail as spam, leading to one or more of the gmail server being blacklisted at free.fr. This is likely to be temporary, and there is not much you can do other than retry. The spam emails are almost certainly not yours, just other users on gmail.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #2007 on:** 20 April, 2022, 01:06:08 pm »

Quote from: philip on 20 April, 2022, 11:52:47 am

Quote from: Gattopardo on 20 April, 2022, 12:58:59 am
Hello,

Have a gmail account that seems to be having issues sending emails to another free.fr email.

The person can email me, and I have replied to their email but cannot seem to email them back. The email mentions that the response from remote server is 451 toomany errors detected from your IP.
I suspect an automatic system on the free.fr end has classified a number of emails from gmail as spam, leading to one or more of the gmail server being blacklisted at free.fr. This is likely to be temporary, and there is not much you can do other than retry. The spam emails are almost certainly not yours, just other users on gmail.

Yeah I get that, but the person has emailed me and they have received my reply, as initially I was getting the remote server issue. Got them to email me, I received that and them replied to their email. Now re emailing them get the 451 reply.

Have emailed the people from an dodgy sounding email where the name is tea and biscuits and that email got through.

EDIT: had a wander on the the free.fr site and found that the ip address listed in the gmail as the issue is blocked for 24 hours

rafletcher · « **Reply #2008 on:** 21 April, 2022, 01:00:25 pm »

Trying to look at the BBC news on my work computer, using Chrome. Type BBC into google, click on link for "BBC Home" - bbc.co.uk page displays for a few seconds before the link changes to bbc.com and the BBC page gives me a 404 error. Most odd. Click on the "News" link in the still visible header, hey preston, bbc.co.uk/news page displays. No issue in IE, but it displays bbc.com/news.

ETA, click on "UK" get 404.

Kim · « **Reply #2009 on:** 23 April, 2022, 11:48:18 pm »

Isn't technology marvellous? https://northumbriaggj.github.io/2019/games/tv_aerial_simulator/

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2010 on:** 25 April, 2022, 12:04:00 am »

o hai Microsith!

What’s with the little roundel in the system tray which, when the mouse pointer hovers o'er it, tells me:

Quote

Your location is currently in use

I know. I know this because I am sitting in my location. Explain yourselves, fatheads.

kthxbai

Ham · « **Reply #2011 on:** 25 April, 2022, 09:10:58 am »

Actually quite a big thing. Even after reading it I don't REALLY understand what quantum computing is, but it's pretty and I feel like I might, one day. Interesting for the examples of potential use, too.

https://www.quantumbusinessnews.com/applications/how-a-quantum-computer-actually-works

Beardy · « **Reply #2012 on:** 25 April, 2022, 03:45:58 pm »

I once managed a project where the chap doing the work was using quantum entanglement or something. I just tried to nod in the right places.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2013 on:** 25 April, 2022, 05:06:38 pm »

iOS Mail, or the Mega! Global! Punctuation! Abuse! Corporation! Of! Sunnyvale! USAnia! or both.

I deleted that message from “JSD Engg Products” on arrival, on March 1st. And have emptied the BIIIINNNNSSSS folder frequently ever since. Why, then, does the stupid* bloody message keep reappearing like that cat that got into the habit of crapping on Ozzy's car

sort it out u muppets!

* It's wishing me a happy Shivrati

aidan.f · « **Reply #2014 on:** 26 April, 2022, 09:25:14 am »

Quote

Isn't technology marvellous? https://northumbriaggj.github.io/2019/games/tv_aerial_simulator/

I have not tried the game, but the demo video shows analog noise rather than digital dropouts - I turned off one of the last 626 PAL analogue transmitters, Burnhope Ch5 in September 2012...
To be really retro they could have simulated 405 line positive modulation with line tearing and frame rolling, receivers losing frame sync with poor s/n
Andy Pandy Bill and Ben plus test card F
Had to do some research myself... https://tx.mb21.co.uk/

Feanor · « **Reply #2015 on:** 01 May, 2022, 10:07:19 pm »

Dear websites that need a login: Please to be working properly.

So I have a login, and have checked the option to 'remember me', so it should log me back in.
Does it fuck.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

The site is difficult to navigate, and it takes me some time to find the event I want to enter.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

I finally get to the event I want to enter. But when I try to enter, I'm not logged in, because the auto-log-in does not work.
I need to click the 'log in' button at the end of my on-line quest.
Fine. this works, but WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK can this login not leave me at the same page I logged in from?
No, after logging in, I'm thrown to the website home page, where I have to start my quest once again.

And breathe.

Kim · « **Reply #2016 on:** 01 May, 2022, 10:10:19 pm »

Ah, that saves me a rant.

Presumably staying logged in would cost another £100k

neilrj · « **Reply #2017 on:** 01 May, 2022, 10:13:57 pm »

Quote from: Feanor on 01 May, 2022, 10:07:19 pm

Dear websites that need a login: Please to be working properly.

So I have a login, and have checked the option to 'remember me', so it should log me back in.
Does it fuck.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

The site is difficult to navigate, and it takes me some time to find the event I want to enter.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

I finally get to the event I want to enter. But I need to click the 'log in' button at the end of my on-line quest.
Fine. this works, but WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK can this login not leave me at the same page I logged in from?
No, after logging in, I'm thrown to the website home page, where I have to start my quest once again.

And breathe.

Right click open in new tab works in Win7-11 for tab forgetful websites (and works everywhere at the 'expense' of a tab, the forgetful sites are usually very broken big sites, or more usually amateur/enthusiast sites.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2018 on:** 03 May, 2022, 12:59:53 pm »

Quote from: Feanor on 01 May, 2022, 10:07:19 pm

Dear websites that need a login: Please to be working properly.

So I have a login, and have checked the option to 'remember me', so it should log me back in.
Does it fuck.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

The site is difficult to navigate, and it takes me some time to find the event I want to enter.
(AUK, I'm looking at you)

I finally get to the event I want to enter. But when I try to enter, I'm not logged in, because the auto-log-in does not work.
I need to click the 'log in' button at the end of my on-line quest.
Fine. this works, but WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK can this login not leave me at the same page I logged in from?
No, after logging in, I'm thrown to the website home page, where I have to start my quest once again.

And breathe.

Also webshites that, when you poke “Back” to go, well, back to somewhere not on that site instead serve up a fresh deluge of shit with some patronising crap like “Before you go why not give us another opportunity to hit you with MOAR shitverts?” If I wanted an extra serving of your buckets of tedious I wouldn’t have tried to navigate away from your wanky site in the first place.

This probably qualifies as a rant, but I'm busy keeping an eye on ~~some wet paint~~ a rebooting NAS.

Pingu · « **Reply #2019 on:** 05 May, 2022, 11:08:54 am »

w00t! My track ball has magically turned itself into a theremin

TheLurker · « **Reply #2020 on:** 10 May, 2022, 08:55:44 pm »

A link just for Mr. Larrington... https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/10/openvms_92/

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2021 on:** 10 May, 2022, 11:28:25 pm »

w00t!

Beardy · « **Reply #2022 on:** 10 May, 2022, 11:49:39 pm »

I remember the occasional VMS vs UNIX skirmish in the office back in the late 80s early 90s but by the time I moved into computing full time, unix was top dog mainly because it allowed the company to use competing box venders and recompiling for a different venders specific kernel was a relatively trivial task if need be. We used to develop our MC applications in house back then, so managing such things was pretty much run of the mill.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #2023 on:** 11 May, 2022, 09:24:32 am »

I know of one company in the UK defence industry that still has a VAX running a major part of its manufacturing business. I was asked if there was anything to replace the Telnet to LAT translation feature on the old L3 switches they were replacing with modern ones that definitely don't do anything with LAT.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2024 on:** 11 May, 2022, 11:13:24 am »

Today I are mostly learning that when attempting to access! Yahoo! mail! with! Thunderbird! the trick is, for each and every folder on your Thunderbollocks installation, right-clicking the folder name, selecting “Properties” and turning on the “When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder” wossname seems to cure Thunderbum of its annoying habit of pretending! that! Yahoo! Mail! is! down! when you try to access the folder in question.

This! has! been! a! public! service! announcement!