Re: Total garbage search results, even for simple tech search terms
DDG's search results are going downhill too; which reflects mostly on their sources.
Posts by Linker3000
191 publicly visible posts • joined 7 May 2010
Google's AI-powered search results are loaded with spammy, scammy garbage
Monday 25th March 2024 18:22 GMT 
No shit sherlock
The results from all the major search engines have been getting progressively shittier for several years.
I am sure Google:
Values the quality of its search experience very highly.
Always endeavours to provide only the best, curated search results.
And lots of other marketing crap including words like: 'strives', 'synergy', 'quality' and 'listens'.
But we're living the reality of the situation - and it's dire.
Never mind, those profits still look oretty good for the shareholders.
Microsoft license shuffle means Power Apps users could break the bank
Saturday 16th March 2024 13:13 GMT
Re: Very generalised response ahoy
Yep - good poiint. Corporate politics and evangelism come into play too.
My background is very much biased towards Linux-based platforms and Open Source stacks.
Last place I worked spent a fortune on commercial middleware and development to integrate a couple of ITSM tools with SolarWinds, mostly for CMDB ingest and updating. I knocked up a proof-of-concept analogue in Fusion Inventory and Node-Red etc. in about 2 days as a side project to fulfill a similar, but different need, but the grown-ups couldn't get their heads around the 'L' word.
Friday 15th March 2024 21:46 GMT
Very generalised response ahoy
I know it's down to needs and use case, data volume, responsiveness etc. etc. but I implemented a data collection and dashboarding tool with Node-RED, InfluxDB and Grafana. Picking up data from sensors (low bandwidth MQTT), Webhooks, JSON formatted data streams, API calls and some Direct (IP) device probing.
It's not a very sophisticated stack but it did the job and avoided PowerApps completely.
Twitter further restricts free tier with option to limit replies to verified accounts
Wednesday 11th October 2023 03:05 GMT
My strategy
After 14 years of participation, I've now gone read-only on Xitter. I'm only hanging around for the local travel news reports until I sort out an alternative, ideally with an rss feed.
Happily still engaging with like-minded (STEM and retro-computing) folks who've moved to the Fediverse and Bluesky.
What does Twitter's new logo really represent?
Brit broadband subscribers caught between crappy connections and price hikes
Datacenter fire suppression system wasn't tested for years, then BOOM
Sunday 7th May 2023 10:55 GMT
The newly-installed fire suppression system in the computer room next to me was test-fired with a cylinder of CO2.
That's when the contractors found the uncoupled pipe in the false ceiling - mostly because the entire ceiling, dust, metalwork and all, was now resting across the floor and the IBM mainframe, while the air in the room was doing a good impression of the smoggiest day in history.
At least all personnel had left the room for the test. The cleanup bill was expensive because as well as replacing the entire ceiling, the mainframe had to be cleaned and all dust filters changed. Fortunately, no asbestos found.
Google's bug bounty boss: Finding and patching vulns? 'Totally useless'
Know the difference between a bin and /bin unless you want a new doorstop
Monday 20th June 2022 09:58 GMT 
Son of a 'b'
Back in the early 90s, the place where I worked ran Sage Accounting on a system running AT&T UNIX.
Our semi-technical Financial Director was doing some housekeeping and needed to restore a copy of the bought ledger files from tape. As was Sage's way of things, all the bought ledger files started with 'b'. Unfortunately, the FD restored all the files into the root folder, so he just moved 'b*' to the right place and carried on.
A month or so later, the system was restarted but failed to come up. A bit of head scratching and a pile of 5.25" 'recovery' floppies later, we discovered that a rather critical file called 'boot' had been swept into the bowels of Sage alongside the bought ledger files.
ZX Spectrum: Q&A with some of the folks who worked on legendary PC
DIY Sinclair clones: Left it too late to back the Next? Build your own instead
Friday 7th January 2022 10:42 GMT
CP/M Systems
Back in the 1980s, as a very young electronics engineering apprentice working in an R&D lab, I was tasked with operating and maintaining the lab's timesheet recording app, which was hosted on this big (small filing cabinet on its side) 'thing' with twin 8" floppies. It might have also had a hard disk, I don't remember. The program was written in BASIC and I didn't really think much of it at the time.
When I got back into the retro 8-bit scene a few years back, it dawned on me that the system was a Cromemco, probably sent over from our US parent company! I suspect the system was replaced with a PC eventually and the Cromemco hardware was probably scrapped for parts :-(
Start or Please Stop? Power users mourn features lost in Windows 11 'simplification'
Friday 27th August 2021 08:41 GMT
Win 10 treacle mode
Likewise, just for one app that runs a chip programmer.
I always regret it though because the first thing Windows does is start doing updates, slowing the entire computer to a crawl (Core i7 @ 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, Enterprise-class HDD; might change for an SSD).
Sometimes it's around 10-15 minutes before the machine is useable for browsing, email etc. I often spend perhaps 10 mins with the app and then reboot to Linux.
It's a traumatic experience every time.
Debian 11 formally debuts and hits the Bullseye
Thunderbird 91 lands: Now native on Apple Silicon, swaps 'master' for 'primary' password, and more
Revealed: Perfect timings for creation of exemplary full English breakfast
Friday 9th July 2021 16:23 GMT 
Fry up
Forget the oven.
Forget the hash browns if having fried bread.
Heat the grill on max minus a little bit (95%)
Sausages take 7 + 7 + 7 minutes, turning 120 degrees twice.
Tomato goes on grill after 1st sausage turn
Bacon goes on grill with a total of 10 mins to go.
Eggs fry on lowish heat from last sausage turn.
Add black pudding to grill for last sausage turn. Turn over the black oudding after 3.5 mins.
With 2 mins to go...
Beans go in microwave for 1.5 mins on medium.
Plate the eggs once the microwave starts.
Put bread in frying pan.
Start to plate up the meats and tomatoes when the 21 mins total is reached.
Turn the bread in the frying pan.
Add beans to plate/s.
Add bread to plate/s
Make sure grill and hob are off.
Eat.
The PrintNightmare continues: Microsoft confirms presence of vulnerable code in all versions of Windows
150,000 lost UK police records looking more like 400,000 as Home Office continues to blame 'human error'
The Novell NetWare box keeps rebooting over and over again yet no one has touched it? We're going on a stakeout
Friday 15th January 2021 16:00 GMT 
Oh the memories...
When Netware 386 3.0 came out, I had a nightmare server on a customer's site in London (my office was in West Sussex).
To cut a long story short...
Regular trips to site to try and catch the issue. Very stress-inducing customer.
Replaced components until the server was effectively swapped out - apart from the case.
Novell took an interest on the basis that it might be a software glitch...they found an issue with the 'network cable disconnected' code...but the server still crashed maybe 2-3 times a week. Nothing else in the server room was playing up.
I tried a mains analyser - nothing stood out except perhaps the odd 'blip' at crash time - but it was barely more than a bit of noise.
Widening the search for a fix, I asked about the room, which belonged to another company, behind the server room...it was their kitchen, and hard up against the wall behind the server was their dishwasher. It turned out that the dishwasher was switched on when full..a couple of times a week!
Hey - EMP from the some motor or pump in the dishwasher knocking over the server!
Fix: Move the server to against another wall.
Western Digital shingled out in lawsuit for sneaking RAID-unfriendly tech into drives for RAID arrays
Monday 1st June 2020 10:43 GMT
Correction: HGST/Hitachi
** "There’s also Hitachi (owned by Western Digital)" **
Um, no. Not quite.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was created by an IBM/Hitachi drive tech business merger in 2003.
WD acquired the business in 2012 and rebranded it as HGST and from that time, it had absolutely nothing to do with Hitachi.
WD does not own Hitachi.
If you're writing code in Python, JavaScript, Java and PHP, relax. The hot trendy languages are still miles behind, this survey says
The Iceman cometh, his smartwatch told the cops: Hitman jailed after gizmo links him to Brit gangland slayings
Microsoft liberates ancient MS-DOS source from the museum and sticks it in GitHub
Tuesday 2nd October 2018 21:00 GMT
Re: for the cost of a tape to copy them to and delivery.
Don't write off the retro computer scene just yet...
This lot have just started regular UK meets: https://rc2014.co.uk/
also: https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=start
...and shameless self-promotion:
https://github.com/linker3000/Z80-Board
Microsoft gives Windows 10 a name, throws folks a bone
Heatwave shmeatwave: Brit IT departments cool their racks – explicit pics
Saturday 14th July 2018 10:40 GMT
Re: for the cost of a tape to copy them to and delivery.
At one place I worked, the in-house facilities guys turned one end of an office block into a fully airconned computer room with raised flooring:
1) They boxed-in a row of radiators behind drywall - but didn't shut them down, so from the getgo the room never reached the expected temperature. The aircon guys spent ages recalculating things, checking equipment etc., before someone commented 'does this wall seem warm to you..?' Out came the padsaw, holes were cut and valves were turned. The room temperature dropped, but the ugly holes were never fixed.
2) They put the room stat on a pillar next to a window so it was affected by outside temperature and sunshine. The room went into superchill mode when the sun was shining, and on very cold days the aircon would hardly kick in and the room stayed toasty. When someone put 2+2 together, the stat was relocated.
TalkTalk plans to sell family B2B jewel to Daisy Group for £175m
Microsoft patches problematic OS to deal with SSD woes
IBM bans all removable storage, for all staff, everywhere
Thursday 10th May 2018 07:08 GMT
Same old...
Me (on phone in 1990s - probably wrangling SCO UNIX): Hi support guys, this server OS doesn't recognize the optical drive properly - any thoughts?
Support: Hmm, well there's a drivers CD in the box somewh...oh, right....OK...The driver will be downloadable from our BBS [look it up, youngsters]...that server has a built-in modem.
Me: I can't see a modem on the devices list...?
Support: Oh, the driver'll be on the CD..
Me: See my problem here?
Support: Um, yeah - but the driver will be downloadable from the BBS too...oh, yeah.
Me: I'll just pop back to the office and fetch stuff on a floppy or three..
Support: Hey, if the server's hooked up, why not download the drivers on another machine and copy them across the network?
Me: There's no other machine here with a modem. Anyway, Would the NIC drivers be on the CD?
Support: Yep!....Oh!
Sir Clive Sinclair dragged into ZX Spectrum reboot battle
Friday 4th May 2018 11:50 GMT
Re: for the cost of a tape to copy them to and delivery.
..Connectors will be super-cheapo and unreliable bits of bent metal, while cables to plug into them will cost extra and the controls will be similarly cheap and nasty, feeling more like a dead frog on its back than anything else.
So pretty much true to the original design?!
We sent a vulture to find the relaunched Atari box – and all he got was this lousy baseball cap
RIP... almost: Brit high street gadget shack Maplin Electronics
Facebook invents new unit of time to measure modern attention spans: 1/705,600,000 of a sec
One more credit insurer abandons Maplin Electronics
Tuesday 19th December 2017 11:36 GMT
Amazon, Shmamazon
There's an Amazon Monopoly on electronic components and related stuff? Check out our curated list of suppliers on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/wiki/buying
(Abbreviated list:)
EMEA Suppliers
Bitsbox UK
CPC Farnell UK
Electron Electronics UK
Element14 UK AKA Farnell.
HobbyTronics UK
Mallinson Electrical UK
Maplin UK
Mega Electronics UK
Rapid Electronics UK
RS Components UK
Spiratronics UK
Squirrel Labs UK
Arduino, components and robotics:
EMEA
Cool Components Some say "The UK's Sparkfun".
Kitronik BBC micro:bit partner. Kits, Arduino, Sparkfun parts and components.
Oomlout Arduino, Adafruit, Sparkfun and components.
Pimoroni Stocks Adafruit parts.
Proto-PIC Stocks Adafruit and Sparkfun parts.
SK Pang Stocks Sparkfun parts.
ExpTech Boards and modules, robotics etc.
Tinkersoup Arduino, modules etc.
Waterott Electronic Boards, kits, robotics, components.
There's also a supplier in Thailand called Tayda that has stupidly-cheap stuff and 2 week delivery - they are used by many UK and global hobbyists.
Yes, Maplin is on our list - with a comment that they aint what they used to be in terms of stock and pricing. I could go on, but suffice to say I have a 4 digit Maplin customer number as one of their early accounts and the current company is not a patch on the 'original'. For others that hark back to the 1970s-80 hobby electronics scene and the Maplin catalogue, coloured vouchers you could collect towards future orders and the decent projects, check out some nostalgia here:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Maplin-Electronics.htm
Spy-on-your-home Y-Cam cameras removes free cloud storage bit
FCC boss Ajit Pai emits his net neutrality extermination plan
BBC’s Micro:bit turns out to be an excellent drone hijacking tool
Roland McGrath steps down as glibc maintainer after 30 years
Currys PC World given a spanking for misleading laptop savings ads
Consultancy titan EY to shift jobs to Indian outsourcer TCS
Tuesday 6th June 2017 12:26 GMT
Re: we are in the process of transforming how we deliver IT services
Above 1200, it's officially 'bits per second' as the modulation techniques changed so that one state transition can convey multiple bits. Baud is only used where 1 state change = 1 bit.
/Yeah, I passed my A+ Service Technician Exam.
//How many UK or overseas consultants could have told you that, and how much would they have charged!?
///I feel old.
'Major incident' at Capita data centre: Multiple services still knackered
Cisco boxen hang after 213-and-a-half days
Monday 3rd April 2017 07:52 GMT
Re: Nothing New
There was something similar with one model of Cisco switch around 4 years ago where after a period of uptime something b0rked in the arp cache algorithm and the switches turned into hubs - you knew when it happened as network traffic ground to a halt and all the port LEDs flashed in unison.
UK uni KCL spunks IT budget on 'reputation management' after IT disaster headlines
Tuesday 7th February 2017 11:40 GMT
Re: Mountain out of a mole hill
>> down to KCL operations technicians. You could argue there was a lack of management oversight, but fundamentally someone wasn't testing the backups.
No, it was down to the Managers who either did not implement proper procedures or did not oversee any checks and balances to confirm that **working** backups were being performed. That's why you have Managers.
FYI: Ticking time-bomb fault will brick Cisco gear after 18 months
Saturday 4th February 2017 08:59 GMT
"Prize Plum"
This issue was picked up by /r/networking on Reddit, and one Redditor suggests which component is the culprit - it would be useful for the electronics industry at large if the part was officially identified to help other manufacturers and users plan scheduled maintenance for this issue before it gets worse.
https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/5rmsw0/major_cisco_hardware_clock_issue_affecting/
Bloke launches twinkly range of BBC Micro:bit accessory boards
Thursday 26th January 2017 13:45 GMT
Re: “I’ve designed my own connector,“
Edit: I see Gaz was onto this and has revised the article text.
I think what Nevil meant was that he's designed his own system/connector to mate with the pitch of the edge connector on the micro:bit - and in that respect he's dealing with what pitch the micro:bit designers chose and not numptyfying* anything.
2 FWIWs:
When the micro:bit first came out, getting hold of ANY compatible edge connectors (or even the spec for one) was a PITA until Kitronik et al started to make them available.
I have been playing with a few pre-production samples of Nevil's boards for a while - kudos to him for the effort put into the project.
*That's Numptizing for our North American friends.
Microsoft quietly emits patch to undo its earlier patch that broke Windows 10 networking
Botched Microsoft update knocks Windows 8, 10 PCs offline – regardless of ISP
Tuesday 13th December 2016 17:13 GMT
Re: Is this a UK only problem?
Dunno, but since I just lost Internet connectivity trying to check an email before I flew out of the house, I did a quick check of the network settings and the first entry in my DNS list was an IPV6 address and since my router does not have IPV6 turned on, I tried disabling the IPV6 protocol on my wifi adaptor and I was back online with only the expected two IPV4 DNS addresses showing.
Maybe something's not timing out as it should??
Just a thought - gotta dash....!
Sysadmin told to spend 20+ hours changing user names, for no reason
Friday 9th December 2016 14:19 GMT
Resistance was futile
A colleague and I once spent a good week or so changing the network IP address ranges of 30 regional offices to match the 'harmonised' scheme of the company who'd acquired us. The change was not a major shift in numbering and we were clever enough to do a fair bit of it remotely through deft use of RDP and multihoming. After we'd finished and handed everything over to our new lords and masters (who very soon kicked us regional IT guys out), it transpired they'd forgot to tell us that the subnet masks also needed changing, so off we went again!
This same company ripped out the 8Mbit ADSL VPN connections (this was around 2004) between our HQ and the offices and replaced them with 1/2 Meg MPLS circuits - then wondered why everything ground to a halt (I bet the accountants loved the new bills too!)
The icing on the cake, was that the encumbent IT guys were sh*t scared of Linux and so out went the 300-user email system based on Postfix, to be replaced by MS Exchange + required Licences, and they abandoned the distributed, replicated, cross-site backup system based on BackupPC which performed full and incremental backups of data overnight from every office to two other locations, plus the clever rsync scripts that brought a copy of all regional data back to HQ every night for data mining - we had data coming in from MS-SQL, MS-Access and proprietary systems to be munged into one data set in MySQL - it was bloody brilliant, even if I do say so myself.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
