• Mr. Wha??? (unregistered)

    and just why should LightScribe be checking all the time for an iTunes directory? blow it away.

  • (cs)

    It's like an annoying 5 year old on a road trip..

    "Are we there yet?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?"

    ...

  • (cs)

    A batch file is the solution? Are you kidding? Blow away that LightScribe software.

    Besides which, the original error dialog was never explained. Why would something complain about not enough disk space when there was still so much free disk space?!

  • Unknown (unregistered)

    Having a piece of software generating logfile at 'a few hundred kilobytes per second'?

    I would not call that 'problem solved'

  • Mike (unregistered)

    Come on, obviously the correct solution is to create a directory with the same name as the file, so the program can't make the log file in the first place. Easy.

  • Vollhorst (unregistered)

    One of our customers at my last job hosts a site with a lot of online gambling. Since the application never left beta state (but still was online) debugging was activated all the time. So the log files went quite big. But since those contained important data we weren't allowed to delete them all now and then.

    At some point the file got too big and the system stuttered. So we went in and compressed the file to get at least the system back running. What was the solution of our customer? He bought a bigger hard drive? No, he just waited and complained.

    Better than allowing us to change the logging mechanism used... well...

    It was even one big file and not rolled like could be easily done with one config entry... No allowance. Glad I left. :)

  • lubik (unregistered)

    Well, nobody mentioned checking for update of that LiteScribe software - seems like the best solution.

  • (cs) in reply to Vollhorst

    The security on TDWTF has clearly been compromised, and this is a well crafted troll post. Every reply to this post will generate 32MB log file.

  • Rene (unregistered) in reply to WhiskeyJack
    Besides which, the original error dialog was never explained. Why would something complain about not enough disk space when there was still so much free disk space?!
    Because the log file is probably bigger than some arbitrary limit on individual file size (be it at the FS or API level), and the program doesn't bother to try and distinguish the error code returned from the failed write. Thus it assumes a fail due to disk full rather than error due to file too large.
  • Jeroen (unregistered)

    Personally, I'd go into berserk at the programmer responsible for this, then realize it could happen to me too, and then simply uninstall LightScribe and make a mental note never to install it myself.

  • WC (unregistered) in reply to lubik

    Or just install (or fake an install) of iTunes so it'll shut up. There were quite a few better ways than what was chosen. That's the -real- WTF.

  • Druas (unregistered)

    google "LSBurnWatcher.log" looks like a troyan or virus ,well badly coded yes, but some annoying junk.

  • Manu (unregistered)

    "After looking through various folders"

    I hope he used a tool like Filelight (linux) or Scanner (Windows)... They allow you to see the biggest folders or files in an instant !

  • (cs)

    Reminds me of the time Wildfire IM server (previously known as Jive Messenger, now Openfire) crashed one of our servers, which also happened to be the DFS root for all our file servers, with a gigantic admin-console.log, which it was updating every second, even though the admin console wasn't in use. I was no longer with the company when they woke me up after 4 hours sleep to fixed it, but I decided not to charge them since I was the one who installed it.

  • (cs) in reply to WhiskeyJack
    WhiskeyJack:
    A batch file is the solution? Are you kidding? Blow away that LightScribe software.

    Besides which, the original error dialog was never explained. Why would something complain about not enough disk space when there was still so much free disk space?!

    The user will just reinstall it since it comes free with his ZangyBuddy Toolbar. Best to uninstall it, give the user a stern lecture which he will promptly ignore, AND deploy the batch file.

    Too bad there's no equivalent to 'ln -s /dev/null LSBurnWatcher.log' in windows.

  • (cs)

    Change the security permissions on the log file so the program can't write to it.

  • lalligood (unregistered) in reply to Druas

    That was my first thought when reading the story. Any program that I come in to contact with that genera--I mean, wastes that much CPU & disk space would be treated as malware & be removed promptly, without prejudice.

    In my definition of malware, it isn't just about "calling home" or compromising security on a PC...it's any application that unnecessarily consumes A PC's resources without the user's knowledge. This story captures an excellent (albeit unfortunate) example of that.

  • (cs) in reply to A Nonny Mouse
    A Nonny Mouse:
    It's like an annoying 5 year old on a road trip..

    "Are we there yet?" "No" "How about now?" ...

    I always answer "Yes, go ahead and get out." by the third time my 6 year old asks that question. Even when we're driving 70 mph on the expressway.

    (The child safety locks are always engaged just in case.)

  • (cs) in reply to Mr. Wha???

    Yeah, I'd probably dig around in the lightscribe application for some kind of setting, if possible. Or better yet, just uninstall and find another one -- I'm sure there are several options for lightscribe burning software, and hopefully most of them don't have this kind of madness. Who knows what other atrocities that software will wreak on your system.

    Or, there's also CCleaner, which cleans out your temp directory, and can be set to run on every reboot.

  • (cs)

    WinPatrol is one of many useful utilities that allow you to manage your autostart programs. Why treat the symptom when you can cure the disease?

  • MadJo@Work (unregistered) in reply to WhiskeyJack
    WhiskeyJack:
    A batch file is the solution? Are you kidding? Blow away that LightScribe software.

    Besides which, the original error dialog was never explained. Why would something complain about not enough disk space when there was still so much free disk space?!

    My guess is that it has to do with the maximum filesize on certain filesystems. 75 gigabytes is not something to be sneezed at. Most FS' have a cap at some point, and to shabbily written programs it's the same as 'not enough drivespace'.
  • Martin (unregistered)

    Those people who complain that the solution used was "the real WTF" seem to never have been in such a situation. When you're asked to help with your brother's (or father's or friend's) problematic computer, you're usually in a very fragile situation.

    The first thing Kim could expect had he uninstalled that crappy software would be a hot-line like call two days later, politely (or may be not so politely) complaining that the Lightscribe drive is not Lightscribing anymore.

    Try to replace the software with a new version, and the younger brother's favorite game might stop working at all.

    Yes, fifteen years ago I was quite confident to reconfigure any computer that crossed my path (they were all DOSes). Today - no, thanks. Simple batch file can't broke anything - er, I mean, anything that wouldn't broke all by itself the next time somebody coughes at the other end of the street.

  • notme (unregistered) in reply to Manu
    Manu:
    "After looking through various folders"

    I hope he used a tool like Filelight (linux) or Scanner (Windows)... They allow you to see the biggest folders or files in an instant !

    On linux, there's always "du / | sort -nr | less", and it doesn't require you to install any new software

  • rotinom (unregistered)

    You could just search the internet a bit...

    From http://www.lightscribe.com/support/index.aspx?id=1196

    under "Windows"

    LSBurnWatcher Date logged: August, 2007 Known Affected Platforms: All Supported Windows OS's.

    Symptom: The LightScribe process may error out with a message pointing to the LSBurnWatcher program, or the log file associated with LSBurnWatcher grows excessively large and start slowing down your computer sytem.

    Cause: LSBurnWatcher is not a LightScribe program but is pre-installed on some HP branded computers with LightScribe drives. Earlier version of the software may encounter these problems.

    Recommended Resolution: Download the update from HP <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"" target="_blank" title="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"">here.

    Known versions affected: All Windows Operating Systems

  • Uzytkownik (unregistered)

    I had once 1.7 GiB file. However it was my fault since having LogLevel="debug" for daemon restarted with evry hibernate wasn't possibly the best idea.

    emerge logrotate solved this problem (may be there is port on windows)

  • (cs)

    http://atom.smasher.org/error/?icon=Error4&style=xp&title=WTF&text=The+real+WTF+is+that+you+used+a+generator+instead+of+actually+writing+a+program.&b1=&b2=Ok&b3=

  • SteveG (unregistered) in reply to notme
    notme:
    On linux, there's always "du / | sort -nr | less", and it doesn't require you to install any new software

    Yeah, but that's like

    dir \ /s | sort /+25 /r | more

    on Windows, and nobody in their right mind would even be interested in that.

  • Malcolm Parsons (unregistered)

    Why can't people who write error messages spell the word "occurred"?

  • Anonymous, please: (unregistered)

    The ultimate lesson in humility: finding your software on the http://thedailywtf.com.

    (Though I honestly don't remember writing any logging code for this one, that could have been someone else...)

  • imbusy (unregistered)

    Why didn't you try installing iTunes?

  • (cs) in reply to rotinom

    Hi, I submitted the story, and I'd like to sort a few things out. First of all, something that didn't make it to the article was that the disk was actually full when I got there. His version of "deleting the games" was to delete the shortcuts. When I had actually removed the games, the disk was down to 40GB of free space.

    My immediate thought was of course to simply uninstall the lightscribe software, but I wasn't sure how that would affect the computer. After all this was a HP laptop with a lightscribe drive, and I didn't want to receive a call a few days later with him saying I crippled it. And yes, iTunes was installed on the computer. Not sure why the program failed to find it.

    rotinom:
    You could just search the internet a bit...

    From http://www.lightscribe.com/support/index.aspx?id=1196

    under "Windows"

    LSBurnWatcher Date logged: August, 2007 Known Affected Platforms: All Supported Windows OS's.

    Symptom: The LightScribe process may error out with a message pointing to the LSBurnWatcher program, or the log file associated with LSBurnWatcher grows excessively large and start slowing down your computer sytem.

    Cause: LSBurnWatcher is not a LightScribe program but is pre-installed on some HP branded computers with LightScribe drives. Earlier version of the software may encounter these problems.

    Recommended Resolution: Download the update from HP <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"" target="_blank" title="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"">here.

    Known versions affected: All Windows Operating Systems

    There's one important line in that answer: "Date logged: August, 2007". This "incident" occurred this summer, and of course I googled it (I'm not an idiot). However, at the time the first 5-10 result pages mostly included Russian or Italian, or otherwise irrelevant sites, and after that I kinda stopped looking. This is also why I didn't find an update for the program.

    Oh, and about CCleaner; I didn't want to add another program to the mess. A batch file could do the job just fine. And Scanner, didn't know about that. I'll look into that, thanks.

    Any more questions/comments/you're-the-wtf, feel free to ask :)

    edit And no, that wasn't the actual error message.

  • (cs) in reply to A Nonny Mouse
    A Nonny Mouse:
    It's like an annoying 5 year old on a road trip..

    "Are we there yet?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?" "No" "How about now?"

    ...

    Every now and then on long trips I like to suddenly shout out "We're here!" They say "Really?" And I say "Yup, we're right here."

  • NeoMojo (unregistered) in reply to SteveG

    or dir /s /o:s | more

    Still not as pretty or friendly as a gui

    Although dir doesn't give the size everything contained in the directory next to the directory, you have to work that out as you go.

  • (cs) in reply to freelancer
    freelancer:
    Hi, I submitted the story, and I'd like to sort a few things out. First of all, something that didn't make it to the article was that the disk was actually full when I got there. His version of "deleting the games" was to delete the shortcuts. When I had actually removed the games, the disk was down to 40GB of free space.

    My immediate thought was of course to simply uninstall the lightscribe software, but I wasn't sure how that would affect the computer. After all this was a HP laptop with a lightscribe drive, and I didn't want to receive a call a few days later with him saying I crippled it. And yes, iTunes was installed on the computer. Not sure why the program failed to find it.

    rotinom:
    You could just search the internet a bit...

    From http://www.lightscribe.com/support/index.aspx?id=1196

    under "Windows"

    LSBurnWatcher Date logged: August, 2007 Known Affected Platforms: All Supported Windows OS's.

    Symptom: The LightScribe process may error out with a message pointing to the LSBurnWatcher program, or the log file associated with LSBurnWatcher grows excessively large and start slowing down your computer sytem.

    Cause: LSBurnWatcher is not a LightScribe program but is pre-installed on some HP branded computers with LightScribe drives. Earlier version of the software may encounter these problems.

    Recommended Resolution: Download the update from HP <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"" target="_blank" title="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"">here.

    Known versions affected: All Windows Operating Systems

    There's one important line in that answer: "Date logged: August, 2007". This "incident" occurred this summer, and of course I googled it (I'm not an idiot). However, at the time the first 5-10 result pages mostly included Russian or Italian, or otherwise irrelevant sites, and after that I kinda stopped looking. This is also why I didn't find an update for the program.

    Oh, and about CCleaner; I didn't want to add another program to the mess. A batch file could do the job just fine. And Scanner, didn't know about that. I'll look into that, thanks.

    Any more questions/comments/you're-the-wtf, feel free to ask :)

    edit And no, that wasn't the actual error message.

    So why not try one of the other tricks, like changing the log file's ACL to deny everyone or creating a folder with the same name?

  • (cs) in reply to mallard
    mallard:
    freelancer:
    Hi, I submitted the story, and I'd like to sort a few things out. First of all, something that didn't make it to the article was that the disk was actually full when I got there. His version of "deleting the games" was to delete the shortcuts. When I had actually removed the games, the disk was down to 40GB of free space.

    My immediate thought was of course to simply uninstall the lightscribe software, but I wasn't sure how that would affect the computer. After all this was a HP laptop with a lightscribe drive, and I didn't want to receive a call a few days later with him saying I crippled it. And yes, iTunes was installed on the computer. Not sure why the program failed to find it.

    rotinom:
    You could just search the internet a bit...

    From http://www.lightscribe.com/support/index.aspx?id=1196

    under "Windows"

    LSBurnWatcher Date logged: August, 2007 Known Affected Platforms: All Supported Windows OS's.

    Symptom: The LightScribe process may error out with a message pointing to the LSBurnWatcher program, or the log file associated with LSBurnWatcher grows excessively large and start slowing down your computer sytem.

    Cause: LSBurnWatcher is not a LightScribe program but is pre-installed on some HP branded computers with LightScribe drives. Earlier version of the software may encounter these problems.

    Recommended Resolution: Download the update from HP <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"" target="_blank" title="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-43374-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1118241&os=228%E2%8C%A9=en"">here.

    Known versions affected: All Windows Operating Systems

    There's one important line in that answer: "Date logged: August, 2007". This "incident" occurred this summer, and of course I googled it (I'm not an idiot). However, at the time the first 5-10 result pages mostly included Russian or Italian, or otherwise irrelevant sites, and after that I kinda stopped looking. This is also why I didn't find an update for the program.

    Oh, and about CCleaner; I didn't want to add another program to the mess. A batch file could do the job just fine. And Scanner, didn't know about that. I'll look into that, thanks.

    Any more questions/comments/you're-the-wtf, feel free to ask :)

    edit And no, that wasn't the actual error message.

    So why not try one of the other tricks, like changing the log file's ACL to deny everyone or creating a folder with the same name?

    Didn't think of the folder trick, I'll keep that in mind for next time. Denying everyone in the ACL just produced a lot of access denied messages.

  • (cs) in reply to mallard
    mallard:
    So why not try one of the other tricks, like changing the log file's ACL to deny everyone or creating a folder with the same name?

    Probably because those solutions aren't any improvement over a batch file...

  • robf-AGI (unregistered)

    Actually LS refers to lightscribe (a cd/dvd disc label printer) it has a few drivers and extraneous softwares it installs, I have one myself, although I've never seen this log file. I'd remove all traces of the lightscribe driver/software and reinstall with the latest package...

  • robf-AGI (unregistered) in reply to robf-AGI

    although I see you realized this already, I'd try to figure out why its worried about the itunes directory, that it seems to not be able to find....

  • (cs) in reply to robf-AGI
    robf-AGI:
    although I see you realized this already, I'd try to figure out why its worried about the itunes directory, that it seems to not be able to find....
    It did seem a bit weird. I didn't want to stay all night trying to figure it out though, and the batch file took care of the actual problem anyway.
  • (cs) in reply to Malcolm Parsons
    Malcolm Parsons:
    Why can't people who write error messages spell the word "occurred"?
    "h-a-p-p-e-n-e-d"
  • virgil (unregistered) in reply to Mike

    my thoughts went along the same lines: why not leave a small log file, and remove the 'write' access rights, so that the program would never be able to write to it again?

  • (cs) in reply to Mal1024
    Mal1024:
    http://atom.smasher.org/error/?icon=Error4&style=xp&title=WTF&text=The+real+WTF+is+that+you+used+a+generator+instead+of+actually+writing+a+program.&b1=&b2=Ok&b3=
    This will now be my new reply to people that ask the same inane question for the third time in 2 hours:

    http://atom.smasher.org/error/?icon=screw&style=xp&title=You%27re...&text=screwed.&b1=OK&b1g=x&b2=Cancel&b2g=x&b3=File+Not+Found

  • (cs) in reply to virgil
    virgil:
    my thoughts went along the same lines: why not leave a small log file, and remove the 'write' access rights, so that the program would never be able to write to it again?

    That would be great as long as it doesn't log 50,000 "Failed to write to read-only file." entries in your Windows Event Viewer log. Which it probably would.

  • (cs)

    what about the abort, retry, fail??

    Yeah.. I fail to have a larger HDD!

  • (cs) in reply to mallard
    mallard:

    So why not try one of the other tricks, like changing the log file's ACL to deny everyone or creating a folder with the same name?

    If the program was complaining that the disk was full because its log file was too big, it would probably also complain that the disk was full because it couldn't write to the filename it wanted.

  • (cs) in reply to dtfinch
    dtfinch:
    ... I decided not to charge them since <reason>.

    I used to do that. Now I fail to see why I should care.

    I certainly wouldn't have been so generous at 4 AM.

  • Alan Monroe (unregistered)

    Instead of Notepad, consider http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/ for watching log files.

  • Rabbi (unregistered)

    My Company has purchased 5 HP laptops in the last couple of years. Every one has come with Lightscribe software installed although not one of them has a Lightscribe drive! (In fact mine was supposed to have one, but my purchasing managere never got it sorted out!)

    You can remove the software from an HP laptop with complete impunity. They all seem to come with something called Software Setup. This gives you a menu to reinstall any original software from the folder C:\SWSetup, including drivers and optional stuff that may not be installed OOB.

    And my vote for finding large files - Spacemonger. It's freeware (at least V1.4 is, and it works!) and gives you a direct visual representation of the size of all the files and folders on your hard-drive.

  • tamosius (unregistered) in reply to freelancer

    did you inform HP?

  • AC (unregistered) in reply to Mike
    Mike:
    Come on, obviously the correct solution is to create a directory with the same name as the file, so the program can't make the log file in the first place. Easy.

    That's so 90s... How about using access controls to deny write access?

Leave a comment on “The Really Big Log File”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article