Author Topic: The computing stuff rant thread (Read 411392 times)

Kim · « **Reply #375 on:** 10 December, 2014, 12:52:46 pm »

Related rant: People who use their email archive as an address book (fine) by finding and replying to a random message and stripping out the contents (not so fine), thereby acquiring random 'References'/'In-Reply-To' headers and buggering up the threading. This is particularly rude on mailing lists.

Same goes for the copy&paste behaviour described above, of course, but I reckon the absence of threading is slightly less irritating than actively incorrect threading.

Basil · « **Reply #376 on:** 10 December, 2014, 09:23:36 pm »

Not enjoying the experience of Android 5.0.1 that my nexus has just updated to.
Bollix.

Feanor · « **Reply #377 on:** 10 December, 2014, 10:21:51 pm »

Junior2's Alienware lapdog just let out some magic smoke accompanied by the usual acrid smell,
and got a terrible pain in all the LEDs down it's right side.
But it continues to compute correctly.

The smell is that of Electrolytic Capacitors that have let the smoke out, but it turned out not.
Strip-down and I find that an I/O PCB which has several USB ports and the LAN port, and a tiny connector for the 'Tron' decorative LED strips has failed.
Specifically, the 'Tron' LED connector and the cable coming from it has burned and melted.
The melted remains of the connector on the PCB still contains the connector part of the destroyed cable.
Faulty connector or cable, I'd guess.

I can source a new PCB, with a week's lead time, but the cable is more difficult.

I've just de-soldered the melted SMD connector from the board and cleaned the board up.
I'm hoping the board is otherwise undamaged, and can be pressed back into service in the meantime.
I can't leave the whole board out, as the main CPU fan connector is also on it.

Re-assembly tomorrow night and hopefully we can be back up, but without decorative LEDs.

Kim · « **Reply #378 on:** 10 December, 2014, 11:52:45 pm »

NullPointerExceptionThrowingNullPointerExceptionException()

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #379 on:** 11 December, 2014, 01:30:13 am »

Idiot backup program!

You're supposed only to be backing up the files wot have changed since the last full backup. This could conceivably be as many as 120 files, assuming iThings updating the play count is considered a change. And I don't think it is.

Why, then, in the name of Beelzebub's bollocks are you apparently backing up the whole directory tree? Tw@.

Feanor · « **Reply #380 on:** 11 December, 2014, 10:21:25 pm »

So the I/O board on Junior's lapdog is re-installed, having de-soldered the melted SMD connector for the silly LEDs.
The entire machine is re-assembled.

All is well.

I have to say, the machine is very well engineered.
There's a massive amount of 3-d engineering gone on to fit all that into the case.
Everything is serviceable and modular and removable very easily.
Well impressed.

fuaran · « **Reply #381 on:** 11 December, 2014, 10:51:39 pm »

Recent Windows 7 update broke autoplay for my camera. It should popup with the "Import pictures" prompt when I plugged it in, but nothing happened. I've done a system restore to before the updates were installed, which seems to have fixed it for now.
But for some reason the system restore broke Firefox, so I had to reinstall that.

Ham · « **Reply #382 on:** 11 December, 2014, 11:36:13 pm »

Another update b0rked Virtualbox in an amusingly comprehensive manner - nothing gets anywhere near starting - and the only way to fix is to reverse the update.

Oaky · « **Reply #383 on:** 12 December, 2014, 08:15:06 am »

Quote from: Ham on 11 December, 2014, 11:36:13 pm

Another update b0rked Virtualbox in an amusingly comprehensive manner - nothing gets anywhere near starting - and the only way to fix is to reverse the update.

Is that 4.3.20? I wa going to update mine today (currently 4.3.12) but might hold off in that case.

Ham · « **Reply #384 on:** 12 December, 2014, 10:00:46 am »

Quote from: Oaky on 12 December, 2014, 08:15:06 am

Quote from: Ham on 11 December, 2014, 11:36:13 pm
Another update b0rked Virtualbox in an amusingly comprehensive manner - nothing gets anywhere near starting - and the only way to fix is to reverse the update.

Is that 4.3.20? I wa going to update mine today (currently 4.3.12) but might hold off in that case.

4.3.2 is sound, the problem is with KB3004394 (which has other issues, too https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/windows-update-kb3004394-issues/ace25277-7f65-4486-bc44-c1b106907a18) which was in the last batch of Win7 upgrades (I'm running VB on a W7 host). Solution is straightforward -uninstall update.

Oaky · « **Reply #385 on:** 12 December, 2014, 10:28:36 am »

Thanks Ham!

Zipperhead · « **Reply #386 on:** 12 December, 2014, 02:32:09 pm »

Quote from: Afasoas on 07 November, 2014, 05:26:42 pm

Quote from: Zipperhead on 07 November, 2014, 02:23:31 pm
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.

It's an even bigger pile of shit than I could possibly imagine. I've seen farm slurry tanks that are smaller piles of shit - and at least they're useful.

Yesterday evening there was an issue at a customers. A number of us were working on it, and I had extracted some information that might (or might not) have been pertinent. The person opposite me was communicating with the customer using Lync (the whole reason why we installed it), so I thought that I would us it to send him the information.

This information comprised 11 lines of ascii characters (all 7 bit), 672 bytes in total. So I pasted it into link, pressed return and got the message "message too large" or similar.

672 bytes too large?

What possible use is this piece of overcomplicated crap? As far as I can see the only benefit it offers over skype is ldap integration, apart from that it's all downhill using ships anchors for assitance.

TheLurker · « **Reply #387 on:** 12 December, 2014, 04:39:44 pm »

Less a rant more an unfocused grumble.

Google. Yes, OK Eclipse _is_ a bit of a peat-fired Swiss Army chainsaw, but if you are going to push your shiny new Android Studio as its replacement then at least allow those of us wise enough to wait for version 2 to do just that rather than forcing everyone to use version 1. I mean any fule kno that the first cut of a product is always buggy rubbish which should be left to enthusiastic idiots^h^h^h^h^h early adopters. Chiz, chiz.

And I bet it won't work with the SVN plug-ins I've got installed. *sigh*

P.S. Lync? S'OK. Its screen sharing is miles simpler (ergo better) than Skype's.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #388 on:** 18 December, 2014, 05:23:59 pm »

Oi! Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia! No!

Did I tell you to change the location of the iTunes media folder from Z:\iTunes to somewhere on D:?

Why, no. No, I did not.

So why did you decide to change it anyway? It's not as if Z: has magickally Ceased To Be as you appear perfectly capable of finding the Stuffs already on it. You utter twat.

Zipperhead · « **Reply #389 on:** 21 December, 2014, 10:54:43 am »

Now I know why people have ranted about Windows 8.

I've just got a new machine with 8.1 on it. I had already decided that if I couldn't stand it then it wouldn't be much effort to put 7 onto it.

Microsoft have broken a perfectly good and well evolved UI so that everybody can treat it as a tablet? Classicshell fixed most of that in a few minutes (thank goodness) but the thing that it can't fix is how patronising this version of windows is.

Microsoft, I'm not going to set up a microsoft account just so that I can log into this machine!

For the moment it's staying, but I've put Windows 7 into a vm on it - just in case.

redshift · « **Reply #390 on:** 21 December, 2014, 12:01:04 pm »

Quote from: Zipperhead on 21 December, 2014, 10:54:43 am

Now I know why people have ranted about Windows 8.

I've just got a new machine with 8.1 on it. I had already decided that if I couldn't stand it then it wouldn't be much effort to put 7 onto it.

Microsoft have broken a perfectly good and well evolved UI so that everybody can treat it as a tablet? Classicshell fixed most of that in a few minutes (thank goodness) but the thing that it can't fix is how patronising this version of windows is.

Microsoft, I'm not going to set up a microsoft account just so that I can log into this machine!

For the moment it's staying, but I've put Windows 7 into a vm on it - just in case.

So glad it's not just me.

I constructed a baby Intel Nuc box a few weeks ago to finally replace my 8-year-old XP/Linux dual-boot machine. I used the Nuc kit that takes a real HDD not just an SSD. I was going to use Win8.1 Hyper-V to host the Linux VM which would be a dupe of the dev box at work, but having installed it and set it up, I rapidly became so disenchanted with it that I simply carved the HDD in half and put Linux on the second partition. Sadly, I know I'll need to boot into Win at some point to write some stuff in Visual Studio, but until then forget it.

How is it possible to break something so badly? I remember the legal 'Look-and-feel' battles through the 90's, and all that stuff about how developers should always respect the menu and naming conventions (especially for Apple) so that the interface would always work in an expected fashion for the user. Clearly they weren't even preaching to the choir...

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #391 on:** 21 December, 2014, 01:21:40 pm »

With Classic Shell installed Win8 doesn't bother me half as much as as the Fisher-Price inspired upgrade to the controls within Office. And do Microsith offer the option of changing back to the old-skool menus?

Why, no! No, they do not.

Some Swiss outfit offer an add-on which they claim to do the biz, which is free for private users, but although I've downloaded it I haven't installed it yet.

I somehow managed to start the Camera "app" yesterday and couldn't figure out how to exit it again. Task Manager to the rescue. Can the "apps" be uninstalled?

tiermat · « **Reply #392 on:** 21 December, 2014, 05:22:52 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 18 December, 2014, 05:23:59 pm

Oi! Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia! No!

Did I tell you to change the location of the iTunes media folder from Z:\iTunes to somewhere on D:?

Why, no. No, I did not.

So why did you decide to change it anyway? It's not as if Z: has magickally Ceased To Be as you appear perfectly capable of finding the Stuffs already on it. You utter twat.

As I discovered, recently, you should cut out the middleman and just use UNCs for the library location, it not only means you don't need to mount the drive, but it performs better (as anything that bypasses windows drive mounts always will)

Feanor · « **Reply #393 on:** 21 December, 2014, 10:49:04 pm »

Not really a Computing rant, more a User rant.

We sell high-end petrophysical software.
I am one of the final-level support people who get the actual petrophysics issues, rather than the software issues.

I have a Dude who has loaded a bunch of data into our program.
It does some simple regressions and gives some gradients.
He says Excel gives different regression results.

It's all down to rounding.
Once the data is loaded in out program, it's *displayed* to X decimal places in the grid.
But the data remains stored in full-precision.
The regression is done using the full-precision values.
If he tries a regression in Excel by manually typing the rounded values visible in the grid, it *will* be different ( but not by much )

This seems a reasonable explanation, and is in fact stated in the documentation.
But no, I have to waste several hours demonstrating the issue in Excel using the displayed values and the true values.

David Martin · « **Reply #394 on:** 21 December, 2014, 11:06:07 pm »

unless you have apps that refuse to work with UNC but insist on using drive letters.

David Martin · « **Reply #395 on:** 21 December, 2014, 11:10:16 pm »

Hmm.. Excel for numeric work? http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947308001618 for a start.
I know the customer is always right, but informing them that you don't sell 12' bargepoles and even if you did you wouldn't touch Excel for numerical modelling with one..
R does nice regression modelling - and has a verifiable level of accuracy as it is open sauce.

redshift · « **Reply #396 on:** 22 December, 2014, 01:31:31 pm »

Quote from: David Martin on 21 December, 2014, 11:10:16 pm

Hmm.. Excel for numeric work? http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947308001618 for a start.
I know the customer is always right, but informing them that you don't sell 12' bargepoles and even if you did you wouldn't touch Excel for numerical modelling with one..
R does nice regression modelling - and has a verifiable level of accuracy as it is open sauce.

Excel for numerical work may be considered a step up from excel as a "database", which is what I've been fighting for the last six months. I have some 15,000+ assets to wrangle in differently ordered and differently structured spreadsheets, with different naming conventions, written by people who couldn't spell. Oh, and up to 46 assets in any one cell.

I'm starting to think that excel for anything other than adding 2+2 (for limited degrees of precision) is a bad thing. It might have been quicker to hire somebody to go round and re-tag all the assets from scratch.

barakta · « **Reply #397 on:** 22 December, 2014, 04:33:18 pm »

I feel your pain redshift, I have seen Excel used as a database with 500,000+ records in banking 7 years ago *shudder* which was over Excel 2003's max level so had to be split across sheets... with some VLOOKUP stuff in there my machine was permanently grinding...

And yes the spelling/formatting differently is maddening too. I haven't been allowed consistent admin support in recording our equipment loan pool items as they go out so every admin does it SLIGHTLY differently enough that I can't sort the data. I spend as long going in and sanitising the data as I would doing the fucking data entry myself except I can't actually do data entry cos it seems to be a style of typing which sets off my RSI pronto... And despite 3 requests for them NOT to, they are STILL using dots in dates which in excel doesn't work properly without fudging...

Admin staff who can't even use Excel to a basic standard "cos they're only support staff" who aren't seen as worthy of CPD and training by their useless twunt of a manager. If I was their manager training in basic office packages every year would be MANDATORY and they'd have to do refreshers and use the skills properly cos we waste hours with crap data entry and stuff.

David Martin · « **Reply #398 on:** 22 December, 2014, 09:54:21 pm »

Excel can't do dates properly, anyway.

Wombat · « **Reply #399 on:** 23 December, 2014, 08:15:52 am »

Quote from: Zipperhead on 21 December, 2014, 10:54:43 am

Now I know why people have ranted about Windows 8.

I've just got a new machine with 8.1 on it. I had already decided that if I couldn't stand it then it wouldn't be much effort to put 7 onto it.

Microsoft have broken a perfectly good and well evolved UI so that everybody can treat it as a tablet? Classicshell fixed most of that in a few minutes (thank goodness) but the thing that it can't fix is how patronising this version of windows is.

Microsoft, I'm not going to set up a microsoft account just so that I can log into this machine!

For the moment it's staying, but I've put Windows 7 into a vm on it - just in case.

You don't need to have a Microsoft account, whatever they tell you. Mine has no startup password, and there is no MS account on it. I too got duped into thinknig you had to, but you don't, but they make it as un-obvious as possible to find this. On the (very) rare occasions I use Skype, its a separate "desktop" version, not the bloody "app" and I share Mr L's desire to get rid of all the useless apps and use "proper program(me)s" When a stupid app pops up, Mr L, just do it the old fashioned way, alt-F4 gets rid of it! Alt-F4 is also my default method of closing down Win 8.1, rather than farting about with their silly shut down structure. Alt-f4, enter, is all thats needed.