Tales from IT

JTA
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Tales from IT

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Very long but worth the read.

Part 1: http://imgur.com/gallery/iJD8f
Part 2: http://imgur.com/a/AOz0d

Next time some code I wrote doesn't work for a customer I'm going to tell them to install adobe reader and reboot.
You aren't doing it wrong if no one knows what you are doing.

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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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Amateur. Experienced techs use the Kervorkian Dodge.

Write and install a program that turns off the processor fan. Have the user run it, or run it remotely. When the user reports white smoke, tell them that either they need a new system or their computer has elected a new Pope.

Whether they replace the motherboard or the whole system, you won't hear from them for a week. With a new, clean system, most of their problems are gone.

See also "Adjusting the monitor's refresh rate to induce seizures."

JTA
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:Amateur. Experienced techs use the Kervorkian Dodge.

Write and install a program that turns off the processor fan. Have the user run it, or run it remotely. When the user reports white smoke, tell them that either they need a new system or their computer has elected a new Pope.

Whether they replace the motherboard or the whole system, you won't hear from them for a week. With a new, clean system, most of their problems are gone.

See also "Adjusting the monitor's refresh rate to induce seizures."
This plan is level 100 IT wizardry. Fantastic.

One guy at my company once concluded that some feature in our software didn't work for a customer because Internet Explorer 10 removed support for javascript. That was news to me. Looks like a huge chunk of the work I've been doing the past two years will need to be scrapped thanks to IE dropping support for javascript...
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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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JTA wrote:One guy at my company once concluded that some feature in our software didn't work for a customer because Internet Explorer 10 removed support for javascript. That was news to me. Looks like a huge chunk of the work I've been doing the past two years will need to be scrapped thanks to IE dropping support for javascript...
Cool. Managers could actually believe that.

(In reality, Explorer 10 expanded support for JavaScript, adding JavaScript Typed Arrays. Explorer 11 added even more. If JavaScript is somehow turned off: In the Security Settings - Internet Zone dialog box, click Enable for Active Scripting in the Scripting section.)

JTA
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:
JTA wrote:One guy at my company once concluded that some feature in our software didn't work for a customer because Internet Explorer 10 removed support for javascript. That was news to me. Looks like a huge chunk of the work I've been doing the past two years will need to be scrapped thanks to IE dropping support for javascript...
Cool. Managers could actually believe that.

(In reality, Explorer 10 expanded support for JavaScript, adding JavaScript Typed Arrays. Explorer 11 added even more. If JavaScript is somehow turned off: In the Security Settings - Internet Zone dialog box, click Enable for Active Scripting in the Scripting section.)
I had to test some stuff in IE11 today, it was the first time I've used it. I saw they've finally improved the debugging tools. Debugging in IE10 and below was always terrible, especially when you've gotten used to primarily using chrome for javascript debugging.
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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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For Microsoft a browser was a browser, while Visual Studio (including the free versions) was for development. Google didn't have a development studio, so they shoved the debugging into the browser.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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Firefox + Firebug extension all the way for me.....

I hate javascript with such a passion though.

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Re: Tales from IT

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bannination wrote:Firefox + Firebug extension all the way for me.....

I hate javascript with such a passion though.
Found this today, might come i handy. I'm definitely going to bookmark this at work:

http://overapi.com/javascript/
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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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JTA wrote:Found this today, might come i handy. I'm definitely going to bookmark this at work:

http://overapi.com/javascript/
The impression I get is that increasingly JavaScript is like assembler - something you once dabbled in before moving on to better, higher level languages and environments that generate it for you.

Pages created with ASP.NET for example may contain JavaScript - with the programmer never seeing it. They can stick to C# or VB.Net without debasing themselves with JavaScript. Other web development and web application frameworks do this.

Other languages like CoffeeScript, LiveScript, TypeScript, GorrillaScript and Haxe will cross-compile to JavaScript. Google wants to replace JavaScript with its Dart language.

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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:
JTA wrote:Found this today, might come i handy. I'm definitely going to bookmark this at work:

http://overapi.com/javascript/
The impression I get is that increasingly JavaScript is like assembler - something you once dabbled in before moving on to better, higher level languages and environments that generate it for you.

Pages created with ASP.NET for example may contain JavaScript - with the programmer never seeing it. They can stick to C# or VB.Net without debasing themselves with JavaScript. Other web development and web application frameworks do this.

Other languages like CoffeeScript, LiveScript, TypeScript, GorrillaScript and Haxe will cross-compile to JavaScript. Google wants to replace JavaScript with its Dart language.
Yeah that's actually a good point. Seems like most people are moving towards third party Javascript frameworks.

Javascript is pretty powerful, but you can get yourself into a lot of trouble unless you know what you're doing and can potentially write a real shitty app with lots of memory leaks, so maybe in that respect it is kind of crappy. Honestly though since moving to ExtJS, I don't think I can ever go back to pure Javascript. If I had to create a very simple web app then yeah of course, well I'd probably at least use jQuery, but anything of any complexity I'd have to use some third party library like Ext, which at least gives you some structure to work with like an MVC architecture, plus all kinds of goodies that give you a smooth UI experience.

Does anyone even use just plain old Javascript anymore for newer large scale applications?
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O Really
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:
The impression I get is that increasingly JavaScript is like assembler - something you once dabbled in before moving on to better, higher level languages and environments that generate it for you.

.
Assembler? Seriously? You must be a really old dude. Did you use that for your IBM360?

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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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O Really wrote:Assembler? Seriously? You must be a really old dude. Did you use that for your IBM360?
Back in high school I did my first programming on punch cards. (Place a number in memory. Load it into the X register. Place another number in memory. Load it into the Y register. Add the two together. Place the result from the accumulator into memory....)

I never did get an answer on what model is was. Just that it was given a female name, and was in another part of North York. We'd send the cards over and get the results back days later.

We quickly moved on to Commodore Basic and Waterloo Structured Basic on Commodore CBM 8032s - the 80-column, 32K Business version of the Commodore PET. I took an after-school course in 6502 machine code for the CBMs, which I could also apply to my Apple II.

Later, working for a computer store in Winnipeg, I dabbled in 8088 machine code. The original IBM PC and clones had empty ROM slots on the motherboard, mapped to memory immediately above the 640K RAM limit. If one was found on start-up, would be executed at a certain address. I wrote a few custom ROMs to ask for boot passwords, before such a thing was fashionable. Or just display a personal or company name and more information. VERY simple stuff. No assembler; just the op codes entered in with DOS's Debug utility for testing, and then the same thing burned to a ROM on an EPROM programmer card in my Apple II.

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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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Problem: The mail server was having trouble updating its virus definitions.
Solution: Punch another hole through the firewall, to Kaspersky.com.

Because to secure your network, you need to let servers in Russia through the firewall.

I don't want to be responsible for network security any more.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:Problem: The mail server was having trouble updating its virus definitions.
Solution: Punch another hole through the firewall, to Kaspersky.com.

Because to secure your network, you need to let servers in Russia through the firewall.

I don't want to be responsible for network security any more.
Probably safer than letting U.S. servers in.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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:D
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: Tales from IT

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Unintended consequences:
How an internet mapping glitch turned this Kansas farm into digital hell

... For the past decade, Taylor and her renters have been visited by all kinds of mysterious trouble. They've been accused of being identity thieves, spammers, scammers, and fraudsters. They've gotten visits from FBI agents, federal marshals, IRS collectors, ambulances searching for suicidal veterans, and police officers searching for runaway children. They've found people scrounging around in their barn. The renters have been doxxed, their names and addresses posted on the internet by vigilantes. Once, someone left a broken toilet in the driveway as a strange, indefinite threat.

All in all, the residents of the Taylor property have been treated like criminals for a decade. And until I called them recently, they had no idea why....

The Taylor home was at the very top of the list; the 600 million IP addresses attached to the home were an order of magnitude higher than at any other location....
600 million!
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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Hello,

Your certificate (or certificates) for the names listed below will expire in 0 days (on 03 Jun 16 11:55 +0000). Please make sure to renew your certificate before then, or visitors to your website will encounter errors.

blueridgedebate.com
mail.blueridgedebate.com
www.blueridgedebate.com


Thanks for the advanced warning!!!!

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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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The stability of an OS is in direct proportion to the stability of the user.

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bannination
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Re: Tales from IT

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rstrong wrote:The stability of an OS is in direct proportion to the stability of the user.
That's why I use Temple OS


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rstrong
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Re: Tales from IT

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My current project:

- Someone used the wrong currency while posting in Accounts Payable.
- In 1995.
- On the previous accounting system.
- Whose data was imported into my accounting system years later.
- They had selected Canadian currency, but the invoice was in Italian Lira.
- A currency which no longer exists.
- One Lira was worth 0.000735 dollars.
- So a small transaction in the wrong currency messed things up by over 9 million dollars.
- With no way to fix it, it was left on the books with a note.
- Suddenly, as of this morning, it needs to be reversed by tomorrow. URGENTLY.
- But my system has all sorts of safety checks to stop that from happening in the first place.
- Which means they also stop a reversing entry.
- So I'm essentially adding one bug after another until it lets me reverse the transaction.
- But there's a bunch of code I have to modify to allow currency to six decimal places instead of four.
- Arg.

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