Debug versions?

So... how did a debug version of a component with logging still enabled make its way into an Official Release? Don't they test these things before sending them out to the masses? How did something so simple and obvious get through?

iCloud Advert

This is just a marketing ploy to get more people to sign up to iCloud.

Chrome on Home PCs

I find a surprising number of my "home user" clients have Chrome on their PCs, but no idea where it came from. It gets packed into so many other product installers that it should be classed as Malware. I think I even spotted it as part of a Java Update installer which would give it a huge install base.

The average home user always accepts the defaults of any installation package. So gets stuck with Chrome without knowing how to get rid of it. This is the marketing method that Google have chosen. Which is dishonest.

Safari used to be installed as default with iTunes, until Apple stopped the practice due to complaints. Yet Google are getting away with these stealth installs.

Automatically Braking Cars

So if the car in front stops, your car is supposed to automatically stop. Which just means the guy behind you slams into your car instead. (Well, I guess that could have happened anyway...)

How sensitive is that laser sensor? It would be easy to see a car slowing down, but did it spot the football also in the same graphic? Could it work out that a bouncing ball which bounces across the road usually means a kid following it?

This kind of thing can't all be passed to a computer as a meat-bag should always have better all round awareness. Unless they get lazy and trained that the computer will stop the car.

Printer Test Page

So what are they going to put on the Printer Test Page in Windows 8?

That little flag in the corner has always been perfect for checking the colour is actually working, while not wasting tons of ink.

Trolling news item

Isn't the original news item one of those Trolling news items designed to cause "uproar" and lots of page views? Has "side-line.com" ever posted anything of note before?

Lack of cash showed in the hardware

I used to be a fan of Mesh as I bought many for clients. And they worked well and lasted for many years trouble free.

But in the last couple of years you could see the change happening. That lack of profits was showing up in the hardware. Cheaper PSUs were being used, and I was now seeing failures in their product on delivery. Graphics cards, RAM, and other items. All gets frustrating for my reputation and my client's new PC.

I also learnt long ago to never order a PC from them at Xmas as they never had enough staff to keep up with the demands.

A pity to see UK company go down... but they were also the cause of their own downfall. Spoiling a good reputation with cut-backs in the quality.

White number pads

Aren't those white and black numeric pads timers? That would explain the lack of buttons.

Easy to kill

This is a simple virus. Easy to kill. Doesn't work in Safe Mode. So just boot into there. Fire up msconfig.exe and you'll see the obvious filenames in the startup list. Then go look into your %appdata%\Local\ folder and you'll see a couple of randomly named folders with randomly named files in. Delete them.

NOD32 will also kill it off. (If you can get the update - or scan it as an extracted hard disk)

NOTE: Also go and check your Proxy Server settings as this is how it is stopping the updates of the AV programs.

Bunch of amatures....

Network Congestion? Not fscking surprising. One of the accounts I host there has just spat out ALL email I have ever received - which dates back to 2007. 700+ messages being REDELIVERED into my mailbox. Thank gawd I am weird enough to use Opera M2 mail client and it can show the newly arrived email in a different colour. Otherwise I'd of just double the size of my mailstore on the local PC.

I have also confused a few clients by replying to old 2007 emails as if they came today....

My own fault really, I have been putting of the migration of my "other" domain names due to their awkward transfer process. This is going to make me finally get my butt in gear and get it sorted.

The poster above is correct - you really do get what you pay for. The bare minimum costs of UK2 hide the horrendous service. And, of course, they nail you on excessive costs when you try and migrate OUT of their awful system.

A Title

Seen many worse.... with my top two being:

The PC I found in a concrete manufacturing works (building kerbs stones, etc). When that was opened up, every horizontal surface (graphics card, NIC, Sound, HDD, etc) was covered in an inch thick layer of fine concrete dust. I would hate to think what that was doing to the hard disk breathe holes!!

And then there was the PC in a client's home. A flat with shiny wood floors and an overly fluffy cat. When I opened that Dell up, the front plastics were hiding a solid mat of cat fur. It was like an inch thick blanket there was so much of it. Jammed in all possible corners - including up the sides of the machine. After I cleaned that one out the client says "oh - it sounds a lot quieter now" Duh!!

One thing this job has taught me is the PC is a brilliant vacuum cleaner.

Lemonwires

@Pablo - some of the sharing software out there is pretty lame. I have no idea where the kids find it from. But there are dozens of different flavours of program. And I've seen some which default to sharing everything in the My Documents folder. Some even have specific tick boxes to add in sharing for .doc file types. (why?)

Plenty of companies and hackers have taken open source P2P code and repackaged it for their own needs. Most efficient way of passing viruses around as the idiot targets download without a care.

Or we have an idiot who has shared his My Music folder, but then manages to copy documents into there as well. (Seriously - you will be amazed at the lack of knowledge of a file system that some users have. Not always their fault as there is no decent IT Training)

Combine idiot users with idiot software and this is the outcome. It is nothing to do with OS or Web Browser versions.

(I work as an IT Engineer visiting people's homes.... scary what is often found...)

Staff Names

I have lost count of the number of times I have going into support a new company only to find the previous IT numbskull has named each PC after the member of staff it was built for.

Problem is, the staff leave and the computer keeps the same name. OR, even worse, the staff member changes post within the company and starts using a computer with someone else's name on it. OR the machine got retasked without a name change.

I have lost count of the errors I made in that company when trying to work out which computer was where as no one mentioned that Sharon used the machine called Angie and Angie had the machine called Tracy and the server was Sharon's old PC. ARG!!!

I now pick themes like elements or animals etc. Which means a little fun handing stupidly named boxes over to people who annoy me.

Virus tactics

Changing the wallpaper is a standard virus tactic. Now the virus writers just need to add a BBC logo when then link you to their dodgy "anti-virus" websites. What the BBC did is stupid as it hands more ammo to the virus writers.

It makes more sense for an ISP to be blocking these infected machines, but that would mean port monitoring. So a minefield in all directions.

And anyone who calls a wallpaper a screensaver should be shot.

London 7/7/5

When the tube and buses were bombed in London, they shut down the mobile phone network and turned it into a restricted system. The police, fire, etc have their phone numbers registered so they have priority access during that time.

I ain't no expert, but that system sounds simple enough to implement in ANY city. Can't be that hard to collect mobile phone numbers of important services who will need access to the network in an emergency.

I was in London on 7/7/5 and it was funny to see very long queues at every phone box I walked past. :)

Extended countdowns?

So does that mean when the do the "countdown to midnight" it should be...

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2..1...1... Midnight?

It will be a New Year for the Pedants to have fun. :-)

F1 KERS - great acronym

And can I just thank the FIA for coming up with such a good acronym.

F1 KERS.... we almost don't need the WAN version :)

I want to know what happens to that flywheel when the car hits a wall. Or other car.... I hope they have it bolted down well.... The odd wheel coming off at speed is bad enough, but that flywheel could lethal.

OpenID? MS Passport?

Didn't Microsoft try to do the "One ID to rule them all" with their MS Passport idea?

To me, OpenID is just as stupid as that. So, I can loose just ONE username and password pair to loose all my data now? Yeah... I trust that scrubby little forum to protect my OpenID.

Or why make the hacker's \ PI \ FBI job easier by giving them a "one stop shop" for all of my online identities and tastes. I quite LIKE the idea of having different identities everywhere. :)

Google - you are a search engine. Stick with what you know. :) Maybe get the search to work BETTER? This would be good. For example - being able to search for information on a product one owns without being bombarded with those useless pages trying to sell me another one. (Or a list of sites who can....). "No Sales Search" would be very useful.