Posts by Alan J. Wylie

The Financial Ombudsman clearly had a problem with their workflow, I sincerely hope that the new system solves it.

A few weeks ago I contacted them through their web form with an issue I had with a bank seeming to have leaked the unique e-mail address I had given them. I received an automated reply to the different, unique address I had used for the FO. A few days later I saw a rejected connection in my mail log: a1 "1" had been mis-transcribed as an "l" in the address! Why on earth did they have a system that required an e-mail address to be re-typed? How many times previously has this caused an e-mail to either not be delivered or to be delivered to the wrong person?

In: EHLO mailgate2.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

In: MAIL FROM:<complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk> SIZE=25646

In: RCPT TO:<.l.@wylie.me.uk>

Out: 550 5.1.1 <.l..@wylie.me.uk>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table

"Pernicious Possum" sounds just like an Ubuntu release codename

Ubuntu releases

10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

12.04.5 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Loss of service is bad enough, but a spurious "critical security alert" is ridiculous

First I knew was an e-mail:

"Subject: Critical security alert"

"Someone just used your password to try to sign in to your account. Google blocked them, but you should check what happened."

Why can't Google show the IP address that the attempt came from? It would have saved me a lot of worry.

Then I checked my logs: lots of these messages starting at 08:31 GMT, triggered by fetchmail

System error during SSL_connect(): Connection reset by peer

pop.gmail.com: SSL connection failed.

Connection errors for this poll:#012name 0: connection to pop.gmail.com:pop3s [2a00:1450:400c:c0b::6c/995] failed: Connection refused

Previously on The Register:

A couple of Geek's Guides, covering the sites where Blue Streak rocket motors were tested.

Spadeadam and The missile test facility at the High Downs on the Isle of Wight

As well as the James Webb

There is also the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, due to launch in the mid-2020s.

The Eye of Argon

Did they include The Eye of Argon in their training data? Enquiring minds want to know!

I knew before I followed the link that what the first comment would say!

"electron-to-joule conversion formulae"

That would be ""electronvolt""

Shame it's not 5 words

Then we could have pee.po.belly.bum.drawers

Don't forget the multimeters

radiomuseum.org page.

I've still got my PDM35. I built myself Sinclair Scientific calculator too, but sold that on when I got myself a Texas Instruments SR51A

Rural coverage is still very poor

The Yorkshire Dales have seen a huge increase in visitors since lockdown. Many areas (and not just the tops, but roads down valleys) have no coverage at all.

Visit The Ofcom map and look at the area around Hubberholme (BD23 5JE). Even "Outdoor", "No 4G" there are huge areas of white.

Indoors some towns have areas with no coverage at all. Even text messages don't get through, making the new two factor authentication for online purchases a pain, Settle for instance (BD24 9DJ).

A few years ago ...

much the same: Staff sacked after security sees 'suspect surfer' script of shame, including my memories of red faces when the contents of the squid logs were read out at a sales meeting

chmod 777

chmod 777 allows everyone to read and write

I was a volunteer at the library

Did they had a copy of The New Hacker's Dictionary on their shelves?

I wonder whether someone will make a film about it?

Previously: Trading Places

The IT angle? Charlie Stross is one of Random Penguin's authors.

Many years ago, I remember our DEC field service engineer carried a medium wave radio with him. Placed next to the PDP-11 UNIBUS wiring he could diagnose some failures just by listening to the noise (or lack of it).

Linux kernel support for processor undervolting

See also this recent article: Kernel support for processor undervolting at Linux Weekly News.

Correct Horse

I can't wait for the next password vulnerability to be called "Correct Horse".

the control key is remapped to where the caps lock key usually sits

Just like the Wyse WY50, where it always should have been.

Cookie Autodelete and uBlock Origin are both on the "recommended" list, but not uMatrix. If Mozilla are so keen on privacy, why is it missing?

Auto-update disabled.

Here are some photos and a description of Hermes over the years.

It's a sad day for Exim

"most people are limited to cheaper models, which in general have a shorter time"

Another instance of the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

"Among the fields of barely"

That's intere-Sting. Barley, surely?

It's not so bad when it's one of your own, but working on the Cambridge Science Park in the early 80's, we had lots of VIP guests (and I mean very). Margaret Thatcher and Prince Philip to name but two.

A page with links to some photos

A lot more embarrassing when one of their entourages' buttocks disrupted the demo.

Not the first time I've mentioned this.

"Senior Technical Analyst Programmer"

Or its abbreviation: "Sen Tech Anal Prog"

The 1959 International yard and pound agreement

This new definition won't have any practical effect, however, back in 1959 there was a change which caused the UK inch to increase in length by 1 part in 2 million.

Remember also, that the US (some states, not all) uses two different definitions of the foot, which differ by about 1/8 inch per mile, which can make a significant difference.