• justsomedude (unregistered)

    It's 11:05 AM, do you know where your comments are?

  • (cs)

    Why won't my keyboard work?

  • unekdoud (unregistered)

    If I were an administrator, I wouldn't want my archives filled with pics of goats- either.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Explaining technology to a University Dean is a futile effort at best. It's the combined effect of them being utterly clueless and too pig-headed to listen to a mere tech/student.

  • problem exists between my own memories (unregistered)

    what was I just doing?

  • problem exists between comments and commenting (unregistered)

    ^---- markup fail ---^

  • Dom (unregistered)

    I bet the JPEG was a renamed BMP...

  • (cs)

    TRWTF is the e-mail archive system that converts to PDF. Why not just store the actual MIME message?

  • moz (unregistered)

    Just think, tzveta's problem would never have arisen had he only had the foresight to go with a UNIX network in the first place.

  • (cs) in reply to justsomedude
    Typical windows user:
    "Help me understand why we can't get the new printer/scanner to work?"

    TUWTF is that the above is an imperative statement but ends with a question mark.

  • white (unregistered)

    "Oh wait," she said, "actually, I was using white on the previous page!"

    Perhaps she was using white on a color background or over an image?

    Or, what I've seen before, people thinking their desktop printer can print white onto colored stock.

  • karo (unregistered)

    This is why it's better to call users with root access, "super users".

    "Do you have super powers? No? Then you're not super and cannot have root access on your computer, sorry.

  • (cs)

    When it comes to school administrators, you just have to be able to speak in terms they understand. Kindly point out to him that he inadvertently committed a fallacy of equivocation. Surely a school administrator would then be able to understand that term, and hence, the problem.

  • rewt (unregistered) in reply to karo
    karo:
    This is why it's better to call users with root access, "super users".

    "Do you have super powers? No? Then you're not super and cannot have root access on your computer, sorry.

    Or just call it "root" and they'll have not a clue what you mean and hopefully go away.

  • u4ia (unregistered) in reply to fluffy777
    fluffy777:
    Why won't my keyboard work?

    FTFY

  • BentFranklin (unregistered) in reply to ShatteredArm
    ShatteredArm:
    Kindly point out to him that he inadvertently committed a fallacy of equivocation.

    I told someone at work she committed a fallacy and I was reprimanded for sexual harassment.

  • (cs) in reply to fluffy777
    fluffy777:
    Why won't my keyboard work?
    The funny thing is that making it a featured comment ruins the joke.
  • Yanick Rochon (unregistered) in reply to white
    white:
    "Oh wait," she said, "actually, I was using Or, what I've seen before, people thinking their desktop printer can print white onto colored stock.

    Well, of course!! Mine has a cartridge of liquid paper in it!! Doesn't yours? O_o

  • F (unregistered) in reply to white
    white:
    "Oh wait," she said, "actually, I was using white on the previous page!"

    Perhaps she was using white on a color background or over an image?

    Or, what I've seen before, people thinking their desktop printer can print white onto colored stock.

    Of course it won't - you need a black and white printer for that.

  • J-Y (unregistered) in reply to white

    No, she had typed in a mistake on the previous page and had set her font color to white to overtype.

  • n_slash_a (unregistered) in reply to J-Y
    J-Y:
    No, she had typed in a mistake on the previous page and had set her font color to white to overtype.
    +1
  • Oldtimer (unregistered) in reply to jspenguin
    jspenguin:
    TRWTF is the e-mail archive system that converts to PDF. Why not just store the actual MIME message?
    This is so that when you receive a subpoena to turn over your emails from a certain date range, they receive 2 million PDF files. But not just PDF files, these are PDF files that are generated via pixel rendering instead of searchable text. (You of course have a text copy for internal searching!)
  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to karo
    karo:
    This is why it's better to call users with root access, "super users".

    "Do you have super powers? No? Then you're not super and cannot have root access on your computer, sorry.

    "If somebody asks if you have super powers you say YES!"

  • michael (unregistered) in reply to white

    the point, it missed, you have.

  • BlueCollarAstronaut (unregistered)

    My printer hasn't worked ever since I ran out of white ink. I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy.

  • (cs)

    So:

    1: It sounds like the admin is just asking (not nicely) why he doesn't have proper privileges set up. It may just be the way the story is told, but it doesn't sound to me that he is clearly misunderstanding computer-based permission.

    1. Someone had some goat porn, and then you deleted it. Ok, there's the aspect of it breaking the archiver, but that part of the story didn't really pan out.

    2. Someone managed to call tech support before realizing they made a simple mistake and corrected it. Meh, it happens.

  • (cs) in reply to Oldtimer
    Oldtimer:
    jspenguin:
    TRWTF is the e-mail archive system that converts to PDF. Why not just store the actual MIME message?
    This is so that when you receive a subpoena to turn over your emails from a certain date range, they receive 2 million PDF files. But not just PDF files, these are PDF files that are generated via pixel rendering instead of searchable text. (You of course have a text copy for internal searching!)

    Unfortunately IRS does have OCR for this sort of thing

  • quisling (unregistered) in reply to Dom
    Dom:
    I bet the JPEG was a renamed BMP...
    I was thinking steganography, myself...
  • (cs) in reply to rewt
    rewt:
    Or just call it "root" and they'll have not a clue what you mean and hopefully go away.

    But I always root, root, root for the home team! I should get the proper privileges for that!

  • Edward von Emacs, VI (unregistered) in reply to rewt
    rewt:
    Or just call it "root" and they'll have not a clue what you mean and hopefully go away.

    And make all the trees on campus a backdoor ... !

    Trac
Ticket 3221
Reported by:  	EEmacs@...  	Owned by:  	eemacs
Priority: 	highest 	Milestone: 	--
Component: 	general 	Version: 	0.9.6
Severity: 	highest 	Keywords: 	security, lumberjacks
Cc: 			
Release Notes: 	

Remote root access

Description: Privilege escalation via tree excavation
  • whiskeyjack (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Explaining technology to a University Dean is a futile effort at best. It's the combined effect of them being utterly clueless and too pig-headed to listen to a mere tech/student.

    He was probably frustrated after telling off all those students storing game executables on the network.

  • BBCode Okay (unregistered)

    Cool story, bro.

  • Hamra (unregistered) in reply to fluffy777
    fluffy777:
    Why won't my keyboard work?

    You mean REALLY broken?

  • Mr Etymology Pedant (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    So:

    1: It sounds like the admin is just asking (not nicely) why he doesn't have proper privileges set up. It may just be the way the story is told, but it doesn't sound to me that he is clearly misunderstanding computer-based permission.

    Nope read the article. It seems pretty clear that the person doesn't understand the different between being a school administrator (read middle manager), and belonging to a computer security group/role having full rights to configure computers. In case you weren't aware these are 2 unrelated uses of the term administrator.

    captcha: validus - Trust me we really are valid, just ignore the black hats.

  • Printer Administrator (unregistered)

    i'd have just clarified with either "Network Administrator" or "Computer Administrator" or something similar, if they continue to insist that's them: ok, i'm off for lunch, let me know when you've fixed it

  • Veldang (unregistered)

    So did "We're All Administrators" really happen in a high school?

    </joke> sorry it had to be done :P

  • (cs) in reply to fluffy777
    fluffy777:
    Why won't my keyboard work?
    Haha! This joke was ruined by highlighting it on the article page.

    It's a Heisenberg joke.

  • Herby (unregistered)

    On white type...

    User: I'm out of paper, what do I do? Admin: Do you have one last blank sheet? User: Sure do! Admin: Go to the copier and make 20 copies, that ought to get you through the job. User: Thanks, I'll do just that (walks over to copier...)

    This would be even better if the copier was coin operated.

  • nobis (unregistered)
    Article:
    White Space (from Caitlin) I'm not quite a follower of the Nick Burns school of tech support, which means I try hard to not make my users feel stupid. Even if the problem very clearly exists between the chair and the keyboard.

    One of the folks in marketing called the helpdesk to report that her keyboard wasn't working. A phone diagnostic was basically impossible, so I visited her at her desk to see the problem in person. It was immediately apparent that the keyboard was working just fine, but that characters typed in Word were not visible because of all the white-out on the screen.

    FTFY

  • abbas (unregistered)

    When troubleshooting computer issues, always suspect it is a hardware problem and check to see if is caused by the nut holding the mouse.

  • Vivin Paliath (unregistered) in reply to fluffy777

    Can anybody read this? I don't think my keyboard is working!

  • transverbero (unregistered) in reply to abbas
    abbas:
    When troubleshooting computer issues, always suspect it is a hardware problem and check to see if is caused by the nut holding the mouse.
    Meet Rod:
    Rod wanted Katie to work on a mini project for him. His PC was crashing frequently and was running a whole lot slower than he thought it should, and it was up to Katie to do something to fix that...

    During all this, Katie noticed that the scroll wheel stuck and noticed it to be clogged with vicious, oily substance that was missing the tell-tale tinge of his tanning cream. Katie dared not want to think of what it was – all that she could think of was getting as far away from Rod’s computer as possible.

    Yep, it is a hardware problem.

  • odio (unregistered) in reply to unekdoud
    unekdoud:
    If I were an administrator, I wouldn't want my archives filled with pics of goatse either.
    FTFY
  • Hans (unregistered)

    Am i the only person who has a problem with an admin snooping around in user email? I work as an administrator myself and i would never do that both for legal reasons and out of professional integrity.

    The admin saw that the archiving was stopping at a specific mail. He could just have moved that mail away without looking into it. Or he could talk to the user first to get permission.

    Yes, i am aware that in many jurisdictions around the world it is perfectly ok for an admin to do that. I still despise it.

  • tego (unregistered)

    Where is the WTF in the Zoologically Educational story? For a researcher in caprine reproduction with no separate data storage, this is often the best option.

  • (cs) in reply to Hans
    Hans:
    Am i the only person who has a problem with an admin snooping around in user email? I work as an administrator myself and i would never do that both for legal reasons and out of professional integrity.

    The admin saw that the archiving was stopping at a specific mail. He could just have moved that mail away without looking into it. Or he could talk to the user first to get permission.

    Yes, i am aware that in many jurisdictions around the world it is perfectly ok for an admin to do that. I still despise it.

    First: It's not a personal account, it's a COMPANY account. Second: In order to fix the problem, you have to understand the problem. In order to understand the problem, you have to examine the problem... see where that's leading?

  • (cs) in reply to Printer Administrator
    Printer Administrator:
    i'd have just clarified with either "Network Administrator" or "Computer Administrator" or something similar, if they continue to insist that's them: ok, i'm off for lunch, let me know when you've fixed it
    He did.
    "Err, no," I said, "it's a security privilege, it's more about administering the computer than—"
    The dean didn't listen. I blame Microsoft for calling the root users "Administrators". Should've used SUPERUSERS or MASTER or something like that. Given that it is MS, probably OVERLORD would've been a nice fit :)

    Captcha: Insufficient Vespene gas.

  • hoodaticus (unregistered) in reply to Dom
    Dom:
    I bet the JPEG was a renamed BMP...
    Nice! Although the JPEG classes could certainly check to see if the damn thing was tagged as a JPEG (regardless of the filename), it is far from certain that everything on the stack would fail gracefully if it wasn't. Seriously, good eye there.
  • Jeremy Friesner (unregistered) in reply to white
    white:
    Or, what I've seen before, people thinking their desktop printer can print white onto colored stock.

    Sounds like a reasonable expectation to me... it says "color printer" on the box, and white is a color, is it not?

    I guess it's time for me to file a bug report at HP.com...

  • tamas szilassi (unregistered)

    am I the only one who assumes the goat photo was maybe not sent by jane herself, but by a worm. maybe designed to crash/exploit the mailing service?

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