WTF Bites


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    I tried to use Windows' "revert to initial state" feature on my tablet.

    It told me that it can't do it unless I insert my "install media".

    What's the fucking point then? If I had install media I could just reinstall.

    Well, that's literally what it's doing, actually...



  • Real error message I just got from a process that was running entirely inside my own house:

    ERROR: Unhandled exception: System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: An error occurred while sending the request. ---> System.Net.WebException: The request was aborted: The request was canceled. ---> System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: Error while copying content to a stream. ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: The connection was closed.
    

    Here's the log for anyone who wants to see it in context: https://buildmaster.local.lubar.me/executions/execution-details?executionId=12520



  • @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    I tried to use Windows' "revert to initial state" feature on my tablet.

    It told me that it can't do it unless I insert my "install media".

    What's the fucking point then? If I had install media I could just reinstall.

    Well, that's literally what it's doing, actually...

    Why can't it, I dunno, download the install media from their servers and apply your license key to it?


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    I tried to use Windows' "revert to initial state" feature on my tablet.

    It told me that it can't do it unless I insert my "install media".

    What's the fucking point then? If I had install media I could just reinstall.

    Well, that's literally what it's doing, actually...

    Why can't it, I dunno, download the install media from their servers and apply your license key to it?

    Because Internet is wholly unreliable, and you do not want your install media suddenly disappearing.

    True facts. Because I actually have a working system that lets you recover my IBM T42 laptops over the internet, so long as it can boot iPXE to https://tsaukpaetra.com/iPXE . (And so long as its' MAC address is registered in the system).

    Losing connection while imaging typically means redo from start...



  • @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    Because Internet is wholly unreliable, and you do not want your install media suddenly disappearing.

    If you're going to clear most of the data out anyway, why not have it clean out enough space to download the install media before it reboots to delete all the data and start over?


  • 🚽 Regular

    Just how the hell would one stop a YouTube playlist from auto-advancing without signing in or hacking the URL, if you can't stop the video (which isn't playing). Blargh.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    Because Internet is wholly unreliable, and you do not want your install media suddenly disappearing.

    If you're going to clear most of the data out anyway, why not have it clean out enough space to download the install media before it reboots to delete all the data and start over?

    Because one of the steps in resetting is to FORMAT THE DRIVE? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that usually means that partition is no longer available with the previous files.

    Granted, there's really no reason it can't preemptively ensure a secure install.wim copy was present after installation at some point in a secondary partition, but ISTR people hating the fact that they "don't get the full drive to use" on their computer. At least, according to google searching "Windows Recovery" returning page after page about how to get rid of said partition!



  • @tsaukpaetra Does it have to format the whole drive? Why not resize the partitions so it can add the install media and remove that install media partition when it finishes the reset?


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra Does it have to format the whole drive? Why not resize the partitions so it can add the install media and remove that install media partition when it finishes the reset?

    You're looking for complicators gloves, aren't you?

    Sure that's an option, but IME there's usually some file or 'nother a the end of the drive that makes resizing the partition not possible.

    Besides, I'm not a MS employee, I don't design their Recovery software, why are you interrogating me like this?


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're looking for complicators gloves, aren't you?

    Well if you're opening an invitation, why not load it into a RAMdisk before running?

    Wait.

    IBM?

    How old are these laptops?

    • One of the following processors:
      • Intel Pentium M (Banias) 1.5 GHz
      • Intel Pentium M (Dothan) 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz
    • 256, 512MB or 1GB PC2700 memory standard, 2GB maximum
    • 30, 40, 60 or 80GB HDD

    Released: May 11, 2004

    Oh. Oh no. I'm so sorry for you.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @dreikin said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're looking for complicators gloves, aren't you?

    Well if you're opening an invitation, why not load it into a RAMdisk before running?

    Wait.

    IBM?

    How old are these laptops?

    • One of the following processors:
      • Intel Pentium M (Banias) 1.5 GHz
      • Intel Pentium M (Dothan) 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz
    • 256, 512MB or 1GB PC2700 memory standard, 2GB maximum
    • 30, 40, 60 or 80GB HDD

    Released: May 11, 2004

    Oh. Oh no. I'm so sorry for you.

    Fear not for my fleet of T42 units! They enjoy their single-core goodness very well! It discourages heavy web use and gaming, so it's rather perfect to ensure homework (their primary purpose) is dutifully enforced, without a whole slew of software controls! :D

    If only I could get legitimate IDE SSDs bigger than 16 Gb that actually work properly, they do suffer from low space availability quite often...



  • @tsaukpaetra If my $250 Chromebook with a 16GB SSD was capable of it, why isn't a Microsoft tablet with much more space able to do it? Why was my Windows 8 PC able to install Windows 10 on itself without me buying a Windows 10 DVD but a tablet already running Windows 10 somehow isn't?


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra If my $250 Chromebook with a 16GB SSD was capable of it, why isn't a Microsoft tablet with much more space able to do it? Why was my Windows 8 PC able to install Windows 10 on itself without me buying a Windows 10 DVD but a tablet already running Windows 10 somehow isn't?

    Your Chromebook has two system partitions because the OS is small enough that having such is practical. Under most circumstances Windows 10 can't even be installed on a 16 Gb drive.

    Additionally, upgrading is different from clean install, even an "Upgrade but don't keep anything".

    Actually, an upgraded PC probably does keep the install files around, you'll have to consult the interwebs for that, and that's why you can reset without recovery media in that situation.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    @dreikin said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're looking for complicators gloves, aren't you?

    Well if you're opening an invitation, why not load it into a RAMdisk before running?

    Wait.

    IBM?

    How old are these laptops?

    • One of the following processors:
      • Intel Pentium M (Banias) 1.5 GHz
      • Intel Pentium M (Dothan) 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz
    • 256, 512MB or 1GB PC2700 memory standard, 2GB maximum
    • 30, 40, 60 or 80GB HDD

    Released: May 11, 2004

    Oh. Oh no. I'm so sorry for you.

    Fear not for my fleet of T42 units! They enjoy their single-core goodness very well! It discourages heavy web use and gaming, so it's rather perfect to ensure homework (their primary purpose) is dutifully enforced, without a whole slew of software controls! :D

    If only I could get legitimate IDE SSDs bigger than 16 Gb that actually work properly, they do suffer from low space availability quite often...

    I will say that the fact they're apparently still running well seems to be a testament to IBM's production quality.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @dreikin said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    @dreikin said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're looking for complicators gloves, aren't you?

    Well if you're opening an invitation, why not load it into a RAMdisk before running?

    Wait.

    IBM?

    How old are these laptops?

    • One of the following processors:
      • Intel Pentium M (Banias) 1.5 GHz
      • Intel Pentium M (Dothan) 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz
    • 256, 512MB or 1GB PC2700 memory standard, 2GB maximum
    • 30, 40, 60 or 80GB HDD

    Released: May 11, 2004

    Oh. Oh no. I'm so sorry for you.

    Fear not for my fleet of T42 units! They enjoy their single-core goodness very well! It discourages heavy web use and gaming, so it's rather perfect to ensure homework (their primary purpose) is dutifully enforced, without a whole slew of software controls! :D

    If only I could get legitimate IDE SSDs bigger than 16 Gb that actually work properly, they do suffer from low space availability quite often...

    I will say that the fact they're apparently still running well seems to be a testament to IBM's production quality.

    I do love them. The only thing I've really had to fix/replace on them has been the hard drive and battery. Would that recent laptops would be that sturdy...



  • @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra If my $250 Chromebook with a 16GB SSD was capable of it, why isn't a Microsoft tablet with much more space able to do it? Why was my Windows 8 PC able to install Windows 10 on itself without me buying a Windows 10 DVD but a tablet already running Windows 10 somehow isn't?

    Your Chromebook has two system partitions because the OS is small enough that having such is practical. Under most circumstances Windows 10 can't even be installed on a 16 Gb drive.

    Additionally, upgrading is different from clean install, even an "Upgrade but don't keep anything".

    Actually, an upgraded PC probably does keep the install files around, you'll have to consult the interwebs for that, and that's why you can reset without recovery media in that situation.

    Microsoft recommends a "20GB or larger" hard drive for Windows 10, so any device with more than 40GB of disk space should be able to do that same trick.

    I'd just like to point out that this forum uses that trick for updates. No sense turning it off before you turn the new one on.

    I've been wondering if we'll ever get to a point where computers don't turn off in the middle of a reboot and instead the kernel squishes everything into half of RAM and then starts handing off things to the new version of the OS kernel until all the programs have transitioned (either by calling some application-defined function or by starting up a service on the new kernel and then doing a graceful shutdown on the old kernel) and then suddenly you're on the new version of your OS and nothing has actually stopped accepting input during that time.

    A few days ago, I installed a graphics driver update while watching a YouTube video and playing a fullscreen 3D game. No part of that encountered any problems. My screen simply turned off for half a second at some point in the middle.

    In basically anything that runs on a computer, the less time the program spends in a state where it does not accept user input, the better. That's just as relevant to video games as it is to business applications, operating systems, and even computer hardware.


  • area_can

    @scarlet_manuka doesn't YY also delete the line, though?


  • Considered Harmful

    @bb36e said in WTF Bites:

    @scarlet_manuka doesn't YY also delete the line, though?

    No, that would make it functionally equivalent to dd



  • @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    Because Internet is wholly unreliable, and you do not want your install media suddenly disappearing.

    It'd cache it locally first, obviously. If that means you need a blank USB memory stick, then so be it. It's certainly easier to arrange than going back in time to burn backup disks.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    I've been wondering if we'll ever get to a point where computers don't turn off in the middle of a reboot and instead the kernel ... starts handing off things to the new version of the OS kernel until all the programs have transitioned (either by calling some application-defined function or by starting up a service on the new kernel and then doing a graceful shutdown on the old kernel) and then suddenly you're on the new version of your OS and nothing has actually stopped accepting input during that time.

    Erlang has been something similar with its hot code loading for like a billion years.

    For kernel updates, there are ksplice/kpatch/kgraft in the Linux world. I know that CRIU lets you migrate processes from one box to another, so you could maybe use it in combination with kexec to handle the situations where the live-kernel-patching methods can't update the kernel (because of kernel datastructure changes or whatever).



  • @bugmenot said in WTF Bites:

    @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    I've been wondering if we'll ever get to a point where computers don't turn off in the middle of a reboot and instead the kernel ... starts handing off things to the new version of the OS kernel until all the programs have transitioned (either by calling some application-defined function or by starting up a service on the new kernel and then doing a graceful shutdown on the old kernel) and then suddenly you're on the new version of your OS and nothing has actually stopped accepting input during that time.

    Erlang has been something similar with its hot code loading for like a billion years.

    For kernel updates, there are ksplice/kpatch/kgraft in the Linux world. I know that CRIU lets you migrate processes from one box to another, so you could maybe use it in combination with kexec to handle the situations where the live-kernel-patching methods can't update the kernel (because of kernel datastructure changes or whatever).

    I wasn't saying it didn't exist now, I was saying I hope we get to a point where everyone has that feature built into their OS.

    I didn't know about CRIU, though.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @anotherusername said in WTF Bites:

    @tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    Because Internet is wholly unreliable, and you do not want your install media suddenly disappearing.

    It'd cache it locally first, obviously. If that means you need a blank USB memory stick, then so be it. It's certainly easier to arrange than going back in time to burn backup disks.

    Ah, so in other words the Windows ISO download tool?

    Certainly they could implement a pre-check that ensures it can find the install.wim and if not prompt the user to get it downloaded.


  • Considered Harmful

    Old and busted: OSX and DisplayPostscript
    New hotness: DOS and DisplayHTML

    0_1508118128824_htmlfail.jpg



  • @boomzilla said in WTF Bites:

    GAH! Wednesday's emergency fix was off by one.

    ... you didn't get it in until Thursday?




  • Considered Harmful

    @brisingraerowing said in WTF Bites:

    @laoc

    :wtf:

    It's been like this for months at the café where I meet the cycling buddies. As long as their baker is better than their IT guy I'm not asking questions.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Fuck Excel and the way it reports errors in SpreadsheetML documents.

    XML ERROR in Table
    REASON: Bad Value
    FILE:   c:\users\etc\etc\foo.xml
    GROUP:  Row
    TAG:    Cell
    ATTRIB: Index
    VALUE:  2
    

    There are only 34 instances of that in the file. And actually the log shows that identical error twice.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @boomzilla said in WTF Bites:

    And actually the log shows that identical error twice.

    Which was apparently a hint. I had two cells in the same row that wanted to be in column 2.



  • @boomzilla What? You expect sane error reporting from a parser of XML-based format? I've never seen one that would. Basically, the underlying XML parsers tend not to remember the file locations in the parsed DOM, so the second stage parser simply does not have the info it would need to produce a proper error.

    … OK, but it could at least say the reason is “duplicate value” rather than just “bad value”.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @bulb said in WTF Bites:

    What? You expect sane error reporting from a parser of XML-based format?

    No, just ranting.

    @bulb said in WTF Bites:

    … OK, but it could at least say the reason is “duplicate value” rather than just “bad value”.

    Yeah, something like that, which would have given me a decent clue to finding the actual problem.


  • Java Dev

    Presenting The Daily WTF:

    0_1508184378151_gj-tdwtf.png


  • Considered Harmful

    @atazhaia We have a front page?


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @atazhaia said in WTF Bites:

    Presenting The Daily WTF:

    0_1508184378151_gj-tdwtf.png

    So responsive!



  • Our contacts table has a column called SUSP_WTCH_FLG. I can only parse this as "Suspected Witch Flag"; I refuse to accept any more reasonable explanation.

    OK, I checked - It's referred to either as "Watchlist Flag" or "Global Watchlist Flag" in the places it's used.


  • Considered Harmful

    @scarlet_manuka said in WTF Bites:

    Our contacts table has a column called SUSP_WTCH_FLG. I can only parse this as "Suspected Witch Flag"; I refuse to accept any more reasonable explanation.

    OK, I checked - It's referred to either as "Watchlist Flag" or "Global Watchlist Flag" in the places it's used.

    👩 Hi, I'd like to switch to the extended package
    👨 Sure thing, can I have your identification number?
    👩 Yes, dear, 6ab865b7-1b48-403b-b126-25fe3e0a8fa6
    👨 :thonking:
    👨 Ma'am, is this you?
    👩 Yes.
    👨 *removes duck from under desk* Could you please step on this scale over here, ma'am?
    👩 Oh, bugger, it's the hat, isn't it?


  • kills Dumbledore

    @scarlet_manuka said in WTF Bites:

    I can only parse this as "Suspected Witch Flag"

    Me too. Shirley if they'd meant anything else they wouldn't have cut out important letters


  • BINNED

    Nearby Italian bistro posts their current menu on Facebook and I accidentally hit Translate. Good job!

    0_1508232901151_italiano.png


  • kills Dumbledore

    0_1508242470131_3c2e33b1-2047-4973-bfd1-53f7448132d9-image.png

    Wat?

    Edit:

    I forgot you can't copy into a remote desktop location that required admin to modify. Obviously



  • I have acquired a new hamster wheel for my office...

    0_1508248243828_hamster.jpg

    It's been going since Friday afternoon sometime. I'm not using the laptop, so I'm just going to let it go and see how long it takes.

    (TRWTF is Windows Update.)



  • :wtf: SQL Plus

    SP2-0042: unknown command "union" - rest of line ignored.

    Investigating this, I found this thread, in which one forum member wrote:

    I bet Eugene had a blank line right before UNION ALL, something line this:

    SELECT a FROM table_1
    
    UNION ALL
    SELECT b FROM table_2@db_link_1
    

    This cause SQL*Plus to ignore the first statement (SELECT a FROM table_1), and return the error on the next line (UNION ALL).
    That's all :)
    Eugene, I hope this explains it

    So my view with union queries that works perfectly in SQL Developer is apparently getting rejected by SQLPlus because of blank lines. I've now removed them and hopefully that'll fix it.

    Edit: The log doesn't show that error any more and the view is there, so looks like it worked.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @hungrier said in WTF Bites:

    So my view with union queries that works perfectly in SQL Developer is apparently getting rejected by SQLPlus because of blank lines. I've now removed them and hopefully that'll fix it.

    Yes, SQLPlus has some weird bullshit that you have to watch out for. Blah! 1970s technology bad! /blakeyrant



  • 0_1508252917746_60548f73-2b1e-49e3-958b-2d0fa69d888e-image.png



  • @xaade if original-number is an integer, then max(1, original-number) would be original-number if it is > 0, and 1 if it isn't. I'd assume that's what the other person meant.



  • @anotherusername said in WTF Bites:

    @xaade if original-number is an integer, then max(1, original-number) would be original-number if it is > 0, and 1 if it isn't. I'd assume that's what the other person meant.

    Yes, but the additional if original-number > 1 part is redundant. That formula always gives that result, so no qualification or extra check is needed. That's my take, anyway.



  • @benjamin-hall all good comments in code are redundant if you already know what the code does. That's the whole point of comments: sections of the code that are harder for human brains to read need to be rephrased in a way that we're better at comprehending off the cuff.

    Granted, that's not a particularly good comment. It doesn't clearly explain what the code does. It could be worse, though.


  • BINNED

    I just found out that Czech UniCredit Bank has had massive issues with its online banking for more than a week now. I can't find anything in English on this but it seems like a massive :wtf: and a migration gone wrong in biblical proportions.

    The timeline of articles about this is pretty interesting to read:

    • Oct 10: UniCredit Bank has a problem with internet banking update, customers can't transfer money
      After planned downtime of their internet and mobile banking application over the weekend, UniCredit Bank systems have been affected by outages of their key services. Some client are unable to transfer money or view important information about their accounts and cards. The bank confirms the outages and claims technical difficulties.

    • Oct 11: UniCredit Bank internet banking is back online after longest outage in history
      Clients of the fourth largest Czech bank UniCredit Bank have been dealing with service outages since Monday. Some could not log in to their internet and mobile banking applications, others managed to log in after several tries, but could not transfer money, view account history, or display information about their credit cards. On Wednesday the bank managed to bring its services back online.

    • Oct 12: UniCredit Bank online banking still doesn't work, claims GLS transport company
      European parcel company GLS has been continuing to face problems with UniCredit Bank online banking even on Thursday. This proves false the bank's Wednesday claims that the internet and mobile applications now work. Other clients report continued problems. UniCredit Bank is preparing a statement.

    • Oct 16: UniCredit Bank problems: online banking outage and thousands of clients unable to access their accounts
      For nine days have some UniCredit Bank clients been unable to access their accounts online. Some problems have still been persisting even throughout last weekend. The service outage is caused by a software update.

    The last article also notes that the bank claimed that regular outgoing payments were still working fine, which was apparently true, but incoming payments weren't being processed. Most people here get paid monthly on the 15th of each month, so right in the middle of this clusterfuck (15th was Sunday, so a lot of people got paid on the 13th). Which means if you had a set payment for rent or utilities for the 16th, for example, and not enough cash in the account to pay that without your next paycheck, the payment didn't happen. Fun!

    At this point it's probably better to shutter the whole thing and leave town before they get chased out by a furious, hungry mob.



  • I need some funkily distributed random numbers in CUDA; the first step is to get uniform ones, though. Decided to try to get it right, and check the implementation of generate_canonical() and uniform_real_distribution in libc++ (the LLVM standard library) with the goal of perhaps not having to rediscover all the pitfalls that tend to present themselves when dealing with floating point and/or randomness.

    For those unfamiliar with the C++ standard lib: generate_canonical() takes an random engine (something that produces random bits) and returns a floating point number in the range [0,1). The uniform real distribution instead returns [a,b) with user-provided a and b.

    So, some hacking later (mostly copy-pasta and inserting __device__ in some strategic places), it's time to run a few brief ad-hoc tests. Simple test: compute a few uniform floats in [0, 3) and print out a histogram (with bins of unit size) of the results:

      0 : 40958926
      1 : 40960048
      2 : 40961021
      3 : 5
    

    Umm. 5 in the bucket for [3,4)? Hmm. libc++ has the same problem and actually produces stuff in [0,3] inclusive. So has libstdc++ until perhaps GCC 6 or something (*). Oh, and there's a bug report for Visual Studio too. Seemingly nobody got that right on the first try.

    So much for avoiding all the pitfalls. :-( Besides, neither libc++ not libstdc++ actually do anything clever other than dealing with the case where you need more bits of randomness than a single PRNG-invocation returns (i.e., for a double with std::mt19937 or something).

    (*) Their solution: in generate_canonical(), if the resulting value is >= 1, throw it away, and try again.


  • Considered Harmful

    @blek said in WTF Bites:

    Most people here get paid monthly on the 15th of each month, so right in the middle of this clusterfuck (15th was Sunday, so a lot of people got paid on the 13th). Which means if you had a set payment for rent or utilities for the 16th, for example, and not enough cash in the account to pay that without your next paycheck, the payment didn't happen. Fun!


  • Considered Harmful

    My university requires that we use possibly the stupidest system I've ever seen (Toby Faire, the only system I've seen, but it's still :wtf:) for its laundry services.

    Step 1 is to register at their website. Except their auto emailing service is borken, and everyone has to contact support to get their account fixed (unlike literally every other website I've ever used, including shit ones, there is no 'resend email' button).
    Step 2 is to purchase a revalue code. This is the interface:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8GtdRijewFzMGFiVzYxZG1URkE/view?usp=sharing
    If there is a worse way to present a form to the user, I haven't seen it.
    Step 3 is to physically go down to the laundry room, stick the card into a thing on the wall, and enter the code. Why I can't just add funds to the card directly from my computer, I have no idea. What the fuck are the codes for? How difficult would it be to cut out that middleman? Or rather, how difficult was it to make that middleman when you didn't need it? For bonus ducks, you have to enter the amount that the code was for, or it won't work.
    You may have noticed the 'code purchase history' box. You can search by date, or, get this, transaction number. By range. The 25-digit code that should not represent a sequential number. I'm sure this made sense to someone.
    As a parting note, this is their FAQ page:



  • @blek said in WTF Bites:

    I can't find anything in English

    The local newspaper don't seem to be giving it much weight either. In fact I don't remember seeing it in the printed version of DNES at all.


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