This is considered news? Anyone who paid to rent this part of EA's temporary entertainment service must have known it was going to be a train wreck for a week or so, then be littered with similar problems from time to time, until the service is withdrawn.
A visit to their homepage helpfully tells Comodo, Twitter, UserTrust and Google about your visit and drops several cookies, some lasting one or two years. But it's OK - it all goes via SSL so it must be good for privacy.
They are also abused during the supply chain. I've had enough fail under (24hr) burn-in tests that I never let a disk hit production until it has been tested.
smartmontools works brilliantly under Windows too as smartd can be run as a service. With a suitable smartd.conf and blat to email reports, it can be a double-click-installed jobby. Also writes to the Event Log.
The UK's Novatech do this. I've seen Novatech's pre-built backup disks have "recertified" disks from "Magnetic Data Devices" in them. If that doesn't sound dodgy to you, then you should have seen how well they worked:-)
Amen to that! I tend to let the disk acclimatise at room temperature if it's been sat in a cold warehouse, and then run the short, long and conveyance SMART tests. Assuming they don't report any errors I dban it with the PRNG stream with verify all passes, at least three rounds, then check all of the SMART attributes and error logs again. If it survives that then it might even live until the end of the month! SMART isn't a be-all-end-all, but I tend to accept a disk is faulty if SMART says so.
I don't use vendor-supplied diagnostics any more. I've seen both Seagate and Western Digital disks with very nasty errors (audible faults, hundreds of re-allocated sectors) pass their tests with flying colours.
Don't forget that the tax payer's money pays for all roads - including motorways which cyclists are forbidden to use. Vehicle Excuse Duty (which goes direct to the Treasury and is not allocated to any particular part of running the country) would not even cover the annual cost of upkeep and development of motorways. This means that as a cyclist and not a motorist I am partly subsidising the motorways for motorists!
Not with Internet Explorer it isn't. Even setting the Java control panel not to use the plug-ins, disable them in IE's Add-Ons and then remove all references to them using AutoRuns and parts of the Java plug-in can still execute.
A well-written and informative reply, you deserve some mod points! I'm on Win7 x64 and have finished playing games in the past, quit to desktop to see that my video driver was restarted. After checking the event logs, I see it happened several times. Whilst I was playing the game. Without me noticing! This feature really says something about how well Microsoft are working around crappy drivers and hardware.
If the weather's been cold (<5C) between the warehouse and the place of testing then I give a disk 24 hours to acclimatise outside of any packaging before powering it up. I check it for visible signs of damage as I've had a few delivered which had undamaged packaging but was still visibly broken. Once I've noted the product code, model name and serial (great fun otherwise, if $mfg does a recall and you don't know if affected) I do a warranty check on the drive. Ebuyer in the UK send out grey imports with no UK warranty sometimes, which shows up on $mfg's web site. If this is the case I'll get written confirmation from the supplier that they will honour the manufacturer warranty. n.b. I run a business, so consumer protection laws do not apply to me - this is a necessary precaution.
Then I start testing using a procedure which is designed to be thorough but not wasting any time if something is amiss. I don't consider SMART to be the end-all of fault finding, but always trust it if it's saying something is wrong. The manufacturer will honour returns according to SMART, so it's good enough for me.
I check the SMART attributes for anything obvious. Any mention of any LBA being bad or possibly bad, then the drive fails. I then run the short, conveyance, offline and long tests, checking the attributes and logs afterwards.
I run the manufacturer's short test on it, then the long test. These often lie if a disk is bad but if they do show up anything, the disk fails. I record the firmware version and check the manufacturer's site to see if they advise an upgrade (I don't trust the version printed on the label). smartmontools is also quite good at alerting you to this. I'll then DBAN the disk with DoD short to give it a good test and then check the SMART attributes again. Once these all pass I'll start using it and get smartmontools to schedule regular tests and email me if anything bad shows up.
No Mass Effect 3 or Half Life: Ep3 for me, either. Fuck em.
What I find most saddening is that they've stopped me caring about the story line and characters that I once so cared for.
The last straw that broke the game-playing camels back:
http://simplypeachy.livejournal.com/632013.html
As that's what I've had since I went ADSL2+. Any significant increase in this will mean my ISP will hound the telco until they fix it, because they actually give a shit.
I wish they'd take that frigging great badger off that page, it's the most cringeworthy thing I suffer while updating client computers.
Gives Mozilla a real professional and safety-concious persona.
I find that charging people money makes stupid things less frequent. Or at least profitable:-)
Same goes for family - if they do something I consider below common sense for a non-techie, they can pay up or put up. And if they have stuff with iffy licenses then I won't even touch it. I can't afford the liability.
What an obnoxious and offensive footer his web site has. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth that makes it all feel like he's being turned into an Attorney himself.
Slashdot Mirror
Is redirection to ::1 all the rage for hosts files these days? I'm out of touch.
Or a Privoxy rule: [Redacted] (Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.)
Doh. It's not like commenters on a nerd site want to post code-like text that may contain repetition.
I love you, my dearest. Will you marry me?
This is considered news? Anyone who paid to rent this part of EA's temporary entertainment service must have known it was going to be a train wreck for a week or so, then be littered with similar problems from time to time, until the service is withdrawn.
A visit to their homepage helpfully tells Comodo, Twitter, UserTrust and Google about your visit and drops several cookies, some lasting one or two years. But it's OK - it all goes via SSL so it must be good for privacy.
Thanks for the tip. I also read that about conveyance - I assume it checks that all is well after being thrown around in a delivery van :-)
They are also abused during the supply chain. I've had enough fail under (24hr) burn-in tests that I never let a disk hit production until it has been tested.
smartmontools works brilliantly under Windows too as smartd can be run as a service. With a suitable smartd.conf and blat to email reports, it can be a double-click-installed jobby. Also writes to the Event Log.
The UK's Novatech do this. I've seen Novatech's pre-built backup disks have "recertified" disks from "Magnetic Data Devices" in them. If that doesn't sound dodgy to you, then you should have seen how well they worked :-)
Amen to that! I tend to let the disk acclimatise at room temperature if it's been sat in a cold warehouse, and then run the short, long and conveyance SMART tests. Assuming they don't report any errors I dban it with the PRNG stream with verify all passes, at least three rounds, then check all of the SMART attributes and error logs again. If it survives that then it might even live until the end of the month! SMART isn't a be-all-end-all, but I tend to accept a disk is faulty if SMART says so.
I don't use vendor-supplied diagnostics any more. I've seen both Seagate and Western Digital disks with very nasty errors (audible faults, hundreds of re-allocated sectors) pass their tests with flying colours.
Don't forget that the tax payer's money pays for all roads - including motorways which cyclists are forbidden to use. Vehicle Excuse Duty (which goes direct to the Treasury and is not allocated to any particular part of running the country) would not even cover the annual cost of upkeep and development of motorways. This means that as a cyclist and not a motorist I am partly subsidising the motorways for motorists!
Not with Internet Explorer it isn't. Even setting the Java control panel not to use the plug-ins, disable them in IE's Add-Ons and then remove all references to them using AutoRuns and parts of the Java plug-in can still execute.
A well-written and informative reply, you deserve some mod points! I'm on Win7 x64 and have finished playing games in the past, quit to desktop to see that my video driver was restarted. After checking the event logs, I see it happened several times. Whilst I was playing the game. Without me noticing! This feature really says something about how well Microsoft are working around crappy drivers and hardware.
It's my expectation that in 2012 it will actually look unusual and awkward when someone makes idiotic statements.
...and my bank balance and wondering if I should renew my /. subscription. At least I don't have to wonder any more.
Shame on you, slashdot, for going down this route. You are no longer stuff that matters.
If the weather's been cold (<5C) between the warehouse and the place of testing then I give a disk 24 hours to acclimatise outside of any packaging before powering it up. I check it for visible signs of damage as I've had a few delivered which had undamaged packaging but was still visibly broken. Once I've noted the product code, model name and serial (great fun otherwise, if $mfg does a recall and you don't know if affected) I do a warranty check on the drive. Ebuyer in the UK send out grey imports with no UK warranty sometimes, which shows up on $mfg's web site. If this is the case I'll get written confirmation from the supplier that they will honour the manufacturer warranty. n.b. I run a business, so consumer protection laws do not apply to me - this is a necessary precaution.
Then I start testing using a procedure which is designed to be thorough but not wasting any time if something is amiss. I don't consider SMART to be the end-all of fault finding, but always trust it if it's saying something is wrong. The manufacturer will honour returns according to SMART, so it's good enough for me.
I check the SMART attributes for anything obvious. Any mention of any LBA being bad or possibly bad, then the drive fails. I then run the short, conveyance, offline and long tests, checking the attributes and logs afterwards.
I run the manufacturer's short test on it, then the long test. These often lie if a disk is bad but if they do show up anything, the disk fails. I record the firmware version and check the manufacturer's site to see if they advise an upgrade (I don't trust the version printed on the label). smartmontools is also quite good at alerting you to this. I'll then DBAN the disk with DoD short to give it a good test and then check the SMART attributes again. Once these all pass I'll start using it and get smartmontools to schedule regular tests and email me if anything bad shows up.
Good god I thought I was alone until I got to your comment. Thank you for saving me.
No Mass Effect 3 or Half Life: Ep3 for me, either. Fuck em. What I find most saddening is that they've stopped me caring about the story line and characters that I once so cared for. The last straw that broke the game-playing camels back: http://simplypeachy.livejournal.com/632013.html
As that's what I've had since I went ADSL2+. Any significant increase in this will mean my ISP will hound the telco until they fix it, because they actually give a shit.
Once you've sent a disk back three times in 18 months, you start to realise that a five-year warranty is actually just a great way to waste money.
With Privoxy you can block and re-write whatever you please. And I do. 20,131 Google Analytics URLs blocked since August 18th.
We're saying that it shouldn't have been. But also should have. So much inner conflict.
I wish they'd take that frigging great badger off that page, it's the most cringeworthy thing I suffer while updating client computers. Gives Mozilla a real professional and safety-concious persona.
I find that charging people money makes stupid things less frequent. Or at least profitable :-)
Same goes for family - if they do something I consider below common sense for a non-techie, they can pay up or put up. And if they have stuff with iffy licenses then I won't even touch it. I can't afford the liability.
What an obnoxious and offensive footer his web site has. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth that makes it all feel like he's being turned into an Attorney himself.