Bug of the moment 2012-01-21

Update Roll-Up 8

The random character appliance

I found the following while trying to locate a device on a network – the network-enabled random character appliance:

Upon receiving the string “GET / HTTP/1.0” it would fire off a string of random characters on that final zero without waiting for two carriage returns/line feeds. I don’t recall seeing any HTTP headers returned, either; it wasn’t my local network otherwise I would have run HTTP Werkzeug on it.

It disappeared from the network later, so I will probably never discover who it was who tied /dev/random to a socket stream.

The Disobedience Option

Apologies for leaving the cursor over the screenshot. FoxIt Reader giving me the chance to disobey it:

They just don’t care

Usability at its finest. You can spend £1000, £2000 or more on a computer and it’s still too stupid to figure out why it won’t let go of your memory stick:

After recently watching Eagle Eye (oh dear…), I think the biggest counter to anyone believing that level of claptrap is a few minutes spent using a real computer.

Time to try turning it off and on again.

Bits and bobs

Java doesn’t take kindly to cancelling its incessant nagging to upgrade:

Word 2010’s error handling when the desktop went away (probably after a VPN connection dropped):

And finally …

Some years ago, I sent off a copy of Evil Invaders to Chris Richardson of 8-Bit Software on 5.25″ floppy, and he converted it to a disc image file. I recently realised that in my intro loader program, I misspelt my own name! So I present to you – I am TRWTF:

I have now corrected C.EVILINV and uploaded a new SSD.

Posted 21st January 2012 – Comments and questions?