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* Posts by davef1010101010

12 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Nov 2020

HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls

davef1010101010

Seems that these clowns do not understand that people use the telephone because their digital support channels have failed to provide the information that the customer needs.

HMRC is particularly guilty of this, the website is generally an unmitigated failure and even the simplest question can't be handled by it.

But since their outsourced mess continues to hit the false metrics that were dreamt up by someone without a clue we'll continue to have to suffer this way in the name of progress.

AI bots have just added to the torture.

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Techie left 'For support, contact me' sign on a server. Twenty years later, someone did

davef1010101010
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I've no idea if they did find it, I was just completely disgusted with them, so that was the extent of the conversation.

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davef1010101010

Over 10 years after i installed an HP MSA1000 storage array as part of a Sharepoint/SQL installation for a major university I got a call asking what the password was for the MSA Admin interface.

I suggested that they read the documentation I'd left with the installation as I'd left precise detail in there

The password was still set as default with a big note in the docs saying "please change all default passwords to secure ones once the consultant has finished the project"

Basically in 10 years they'd not upgraded firmware, changed passwords as instructed etc.

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Tax helpline callers left on hold for nearly eight centuries

davef1010101010
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Re: Not fit for purpose

The problem is that it's not an out of the ordinary issue, it's one faced by hundreds of thousand of individuals every year. It was a simple request for repayment of higher rate tax on pension contributions.

There's a convoluted way to tell them you want to reclaim online but there's no way to submit the documentary proof that they require other than by post with accompanying letter. Hence my title, not fit for purpose.

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You've stolen the antiglare shield on that monitor you've fixed – they say the screen is completely unreadable now

davef1010101010
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Re: Overheated

I was called out to one where the fault was "it's printing backwards"

Factory made magnets and the entire pcb was covered in a layer of magnetic dust so thick that you could barely see the ICs. Went over to the compressor/airline in the corner, blew the dust off it and it worked perfectly.

Health and Safety, inhalation of dust etc, nobody gave a damn back then.

But yes they were bombproof. I saw some still going strong at manchester airport a couple of weeks ago

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davef1010101010

Overheated

Lots of stories of this type but the one that always springs to mind is the waste disposal company with OKI Microline 132 col dot matrix printers thundering away outputting the invoices inside huge cabinets/acoustic hoods. Same as the story above, you needed breathing aparatus to go into the portacabin and I hated going there because I always ended up with mud on my suit trousers wading across the site.

Called out one day, "not printing anything". Printer was too hot to touch inside its cabinet because the fans on both sides of the cabinet had gummed up with the tar completely suffocating the poor Oki.

Not my problem I said, we only cover the printer, not the acoustic cabinet. You'll have to run it with the lid up until you get a new one.

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Story of the creds-leaking Exchange Autodiscover flaw – the one Microsoft wouldn't fix even after 5 years

davef1010101010
IT Angle

So what we're really saying is...

that all those ex-customers of mine who refused to configure an Autodiscover record correctly or at all because it was a security risk are screwed, and those who configured it correctly are fine.

Where's the I told you so icon?

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Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

davef1010101010
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Re: Sticky fans

After decades of passive smoking on buses, in the workplace etc, probably closer to the mark than you think

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davef1010101010
Coat

Sticky fans

Used to service printers as well as part of my job. Regularly called to an industrial waste site's office/cabin where there was an OKI dot matrix 132 col inside a large printer hood. The fan built into the hood that was supposed to provide airflow across the printer would regularly sieze.

Why.... chain smokers in the office, the grunge/tar from the smoke would glue the fan.

I've got a million of these, how log have you got?

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UK union pens letter to data watchdog on icky workplace monitoring systems like Microsoft's Productivity Score

davef1010101010
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Paris Hilton

Re: Doing a deal with the devil, or maybe Jesus?

This is the same Teams that marks you "away" after 5 mins whilst you have it in the background whilst you're replying to your 50th email that day and in your 7th Zoom meeting of the morning.

So it's accurarate then...

Paris...because she's always active in the backround.

And come on El Reg, isn't it about time we had someone more relevant like a Trump or a Kardashian icon?

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Pure frustration: What happens when someone uses your email address to sign up for PayPal, car hire, doctors, security systems and more

davef1010101010
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Coat

Re: Other casual people

They did, it was the German Post Office that laid claim to gmail.com in europe, it was finally settled in 2012

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2503171/google-settles-gmail-trademark-dispute.html

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AWS reveals it broke itself by exceeding OS thread limits, sysadmins weren’t familiar with some workarounds

davef1010101010
Coat

Translation - They built a "Cloud of Cards" ?

And the cards got wet!

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