The computing stuff rant thread

[mcshroom]

Mapped network drives. You know what, we have loads of them here, and everyone's mapped them to different letters (and sometimes mapped letters to subfolders of the server).

Please stop sending links to your favourite drive letter which bears no resemblance to anything I or most of the rest of us have. I've shown you what the full address looks like and how to quote it so everyone can access it in one go, but you're too lazy or stupid* to change.

*Actually with this cow orker, probably both

[Afasoas]

• Switch off javascript.  I normally work this way anyway.

Srsly? Does anything work on the the internet nowadays without javascript?

And:
 (b) why?

Add exceptions for the websites you trust.
Lots of browser based exploits require javascript.

I also have my browsers configured to disable plugins until they are explicitly allowed. It's easy to enable them with a couple of clicks.

I also have third party cookies disabled, for privacy.

[barakta]

McShroom I have this debate with my colleagues all the time "The drive letter is just made up on your computer" "It ostensibly set us all up the same but..." "Here gimme the mouse..."...

[Pickled Onion]

Add exceptions for the websites you trust.
Lots of browser based exploits require javascript.

All these vulnerabilities?

I also have my browsers configured to disable plugins until they are explicitly allowed. It's easy to enable them with a couple of clicks.

I also have third party cookies disabled, for privacy.

That's fair enough, but JavaScript hasn't been a problem for many, many years. It was never much of a problem in the first place. Java, on the other hand... 

[Afasoas]

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/26179/why-do-people-disable-javascript

My major concern is being logged into a website that is vulnerable to a cross site scripting attack whilst I then have the miss-fortune to visit a malicious website.
I also to be in control of the information I'll make available to a website and it's developers/administrators. Keeping my browser locked down helps in some way towards this.

There's only a handful of sites I visit on a regular basis and I find white listing them is not a huge inconvenience. It takes two clicks.

Overall it improves the browsing experience on my underpowered but nicely portable laptop and I seldom see any rogue warnings that my version of Flash Player/Java etc. are out of date.

[mcshroom]

McShroom I have this debate with my colleagues all the time "The drive letter is just made up on your computer" "It ostensibly set us all up the same but..." "Here gimme the mouse..."...

Oh yes. Especially when they decide to be helpful and attach a shortcut to the file on thier mapped drive rather than a text link that can at least be immediately edited.

[Feanor]

I've had to deal with websites where image links are to "C:/my photos..", and the site admin insists 'it works OK on my PC...."

[tiermat]

IF you need to shut down a VM, check that the console for that VM is still on that VM, and NOT logged into the laptop that you are running the VM on.

Doing so will ensure that, when you issue a "shutdown -h now" the VM will shutdown, not your bloody laptop!

[woollypigs]

Oh I have done that, dead sure the terminal window was the remote laptop, but ...

[Pickled Onion]

That's not so bad. Compare to -h instead of -r on the build server. Quick call to the help desk:

- Can someone please press the power button on ASDFSA123123?
- Where is it?
- Err, we don't know
- Sorry, neither do we!

[tiermat]

That's not so bad. Compare to -h instead of -r on the build server. Quick call to the help desk:

- Can someone please press the power button on ASDFSA123123?
- Where is it?
- Err, we don't know
- Sorry, neither do we!

Done that one, too, at a job where the server could be a) in the server room next to the IT dept OR b) in the backup DC, 100's of Km away or c) on an oil rig, somewhere in the North Sea.

Fortunately, that time, the answer, once I found the floor plan and rack layout diagram, was a) !!!

[Kevina9]

Robocopy, with this semaphore timeout expired nonsense you are annoying us!  It's not as if that machine is being thrashed

A tad late this reply, nor been keeping up with this board, but here goes anyway...

Robocopy never generates any error codes of its own, it only ever reports the errors returned to it by Windows. This particular error usually bubbles up from somewhere deep in the depths of the TCPIP network stack, and usually means that a timeout occurred waiting for a response to some network IO. In other words, it is usually caused by network problems. You may need to sniff your network and do some troubleshooting to find the root cause of the network timeouts.
HTH, Cheers,
Kev (original author of Robocopy...)

[Mr Larrington]

Whatever was causing it seems to have gone now   One day I'll draw a line under the Babbage setup at Larrington Towers and say "yes, it's right now", probably the day after Stan goes to work on ice skates.

[Vince]

You know its going to be a bad day when you start off with a BSOD, which then progresses to just plain DETH under the tender touch of a site engineer.

[tiermat]

Google Play Store.  If I have "Auto Update" set to "Over Wifi Only" might it not be nice of you to remind me that the update I am about to do will be done over the magic of GPRS, so charges may be incurrerd? You know, like you used to do?  Instead you just merily download and install over 200M of updates without a grumble...

That means I only have about 200M to last me the rest of the month! Bugger!

[Mr Larrington]

Why, Microsith, when so many Windows boxen come with their HDDs ready-partitioned so as to simplify the separation of System Stuffs and data, do you insist on bunging a metric fuckton of the latter on the system disk by default?  Concerned by the rate at which free space on the desktop's SSD was disappearing, I did some prodding and have relocated more than twenty GB of data to its rightful home on the electromechanical wossname.

Cockwombles.

[TPMB12]

Android developers please explain why you keep updating almost every week? Can you please schedule updates to happen less frequently? I am sick of getting update warnings only to see I have another 30 updates to install when all they are doing is adding minor improvements to the appearance and the ubiquitous "Bug fixes!"

Can I just say I now have 43 updates to install and only 24 are up to date!!! I feel a cull of apps that keep asking for updates. What is the best android browser as chrome is getting on my **** asking for an update every week.

Also, why did google split one play app into a load of other ones such as music, newsstand, etc.? Each one now needs updating.

Do you know what, I feel windows phone might be worth considering come update time in october. Is windows phone better or worse for updates?

[Afasoas]

Sounds like you have a lot of apps installed.

You can configure Google Play so that apps are automatically updated on a WiFi connection.

I'd rather apps were updated little and often - it's good development practice as it means lots of small changes, thus big bang changes that are more likely to break things are much rarer. It also means that when bugs are introduced, fast feedback loops ensure they are quickly identified and resolved instead of app users having to live with them for extended periods of time.

[fuaran]

In Google Play, you can turn off auto-update, and you can turn off notifications for updates. Then you won't actually see if updates are available, unless you open the Google Play app, and check "My Apps".
That's what I do, then I only choose to update the apps I care about - preferably after checking what is actually changed.

Also, if its apps you never use, then uninstall or disable them. eg I have disabled Google Play Newsstand, because I never use it, so it won't be listed in the apps with updates available.

[Morat]

Mapped network drives. You know what, we have loads of them here, and everyone's mapped them to different letters (and sometimes mapped letters to subfolders of the server).

Please stop sending links to your favourite drive letter which bears no resemblance to anything I or most of the rest of us have. I've shown you what the full address looks like and how to quote it so everyone can access it in one go, but you're too lazy or stupid* to change.

*Actually with this cow orker, probably both

Windows domain? You should have a look at this https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj127250.aspx
it's actually pretty easy to set up for a domain admin.

[ian]

Power-fucking-point, you piece of execrable shit hanging off the arsehole of the universe, I chose those colours for a reason. Why change them to some vaguely similar looking colours that look like they've come from the palette of worrisome intestinal ailments?

[mcshroom]

Mapped network drives. You know what, we have loads of them here, and everyone's mapped them to different letters (and sometimes mapped letters to subfolders of the server).

Please stop sending links to your favourite drive letter which bears no resemblance to anything I or most of the rest of us have. I've shown you what the full address looks like and how to quote it so everyone can access it in one go, but you're too lazy or stupid* to change.

*Actually with this cow orker, probably both

Windows domain? You should have a look at this https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj127250.aspx
it's actually pretty easy to set up for a domain admin.

It would be, except for the complexity of a server system set up to cover 12,000 users and, more importantly, the fact that our IT support is subcontracted to ATOS.

[Afasoas]

Funny. I had a call from someone looking to arrange some photography for ATOS a few days ago.

Anyway, Microsh4ft - why make it next to impossible to programatically remove the default icons you pin to the task bar in Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 r2? I want to display them just the taskbar items they are only ever likely to use as they've got not interest in Server Manager or PowerShell.

[Morat]

Mapped network drives. You know what, we have loads of them here, and everyone's mapped them to different letters (and sometimes mapped letters to subfolders of the server).

Please stop sending links to your favourite drive letter which bears no resemblance to anything I or most of the rest of us have. I've shown you what the full address looks like and how to quote it so everyone can access it in one go, but you're too lazy or stupid* to change.

*Actually with this cow orker, probably both

Windows domain? You should have a look at this https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj127250.aspx
it's actually pretty easy to set up for a domain admin.

It would be, except for the complexity of a server system set up to cover 12,000 users and, more importantly, the fact that our IT support is subcontracted to ATOS.

EWw, sounds like ATOS are sleeping on their contract if you need/allow mapped drives to help users find their data. Best of luck!

[ian]

I think I can say that after four hours of trying to use Powerpoint that I've used a lot of bad language. All of it, in fact. Big fucking shit pile.