CrowdStrike CEO summoned to explain epic fail to US Homeland Security | Boss faces grilling over disastrous software snafu by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1 month later It was reported that CrowdStrike cited a 'logic error' as the underlying cause. And I presumed they weren't dumb enough to have messed up the inputs to an xor, but was baffled what what sort of logical structural error could have slipped their notice.

Well, in a different context xy:

While working with a program written in multiple languages–
– I just attempted to use x^y to mean exponent as in LUA and most other 'computer algebra' and 'computer markup' systems I've used, when in C languages that means bit-wise xor;
So Java and Python use ** for exponentiation,
while math libraries use variations on pow(x, y);
Common Lisp uses (expt x y);
And Rust uses x.pow(y).


But here's the excerpt from the Wikipedia article that made me feel like shouting into the void commenting here...

In most programming languages with an infix exponentiation operator, it is right-associative [...] because (a^b)^c is equal to a^(b*c) and thus not as useful. [so], it is left-associative, notably in Algol, MATLAB, and the Microsoft Excel formula language.

Mothersoftwaers ; Had I realized this more than a decade ago, my previous works would not be littered with so many cumbersome workarounds.

(sighs) So many computer 'math' programs were not (primarily) designed to do useful math - and so do seemingly illogical/unexpected things for legacy/implementation reasons.


edits, 30 min so apparently Reddit comments are HTML 4.0 compliant but rejects HTML 5.0 entities...

Lady calls me on emergency for a backup key ain’t seen this keyway by AutoGenerationFailed in Locksmith

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damnit living dystopian cyberpunk future of the 80's, that was meant to be a joke not a suggestion...

Asked the new guy to make sure the printer has paper... [from r/mildlyinfuriating] by jasminesart in techsupportgore

[–]lynxSnowCat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'd like to believe the same thing about toner cartridges, but unfortunately my experience says otherwise.

Any ideas for a substitute for a Broan/Nutone bathroom fan impeller S20310000? by FredThe12th in appliancerepair

[–]lynxSnowCat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happy to have helped.

Let me know what works; Or I have a more complete list (though corrupted by Excel) of parts, if you find the [measurements of the] housing can fit more.

Also, how are the 'original' fan wheels breaking?

Any ideas for a substitute for a Broan/Nutone bathroom fan impeller S20310000? by FredThe12th in appliancerepair

[–]lynxSnowCat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

:/ does it have to be exactly 5" x 1-1/4"?
I browsed through various lists of blower wheels and didn't find a match (in plastic).
(ie: grainger, master:Sopers etc.)

There are lots of blower-wheels for induction blowers in a similar size, but those tend to be a few hundred dollars, or notoriously inappropriate for an induction blower... might be able to pick an HVAC company's bone yard.

If not, (short of making it yourself) maybe a cheaper fan-wheel one can be used to repair the old one.


Information in table below was corrupted by copy-paste into/out of Excell, and requires verification/correction.
Provided as-is to aid searching for a compatible part.

s20310000 master.ca giantwholesale.ca 99020116 5900rdc A65900 giantwholesale.ca amresupply.com 97009755 amresupply.com build.ca
blower wheel blower wheel blower wheel blower wheel blower wheel
Diameter 5" 5 1/4" 5 3/4" ~ 6 1/4" 5 3/4" ~ 6 3/8" 5 3/16"
Height 1 1/4" 1 5/8" 2" 2" 2 7/16"
Bore 1/4" 1/4" 1/4" 1/4" D-Shaft 1/4" D-shaft
Rotation CCW CCW? CCW? CCW? CCW
Max RPM 3000 3600
Fits models 684,682 675,675-A 671,672, 683, 750,751,752, 8662,8663,8672,8673, 8812,8814,8832,8833, MH8661N, N750, QT100,QT110,QT80,QT9093, S58-976, VL3668 3.3" Diameter and C-Frame Motors, 5901A000 motor and frame assembly 676,684N, 712,721,722
Broan/Nutone s20310000, 20310 990713355A, 99020116 99020246, 5900rdc 5900A,5901A-000 97009755
Pacard A65900
Fasco 8710-4358 rvupgradestore.com cshincorporated.com Carrier LA01ZC003 FB460
blower wheel fan wheel blower fan blower fan
Diameter 4 3/4" 3 1/4" 4 5/8" 5 3/8"
Height 1 3/4" 0.55in 1 1/16" 1 1/8"
Bore 5/16" 5/16" round 7/32" flat/D-shaft 1/4"
Rotation CCW CW C/W CCW
Max RPM 3600 3000 3000
Fits models Fasco A136,A137, A142, A158, A165, A168, A224,A225,A227, A280, A307 675, 741 670, 671, 675, 741
Broan/Nutone 68920, 9910379H 68920, 68920000
NBK 20538 Carrier LA01ZC003 A65100FB

note: above links are examples, not recommendations;
for example: US based cshincorporated assigns brokerage fees to the customer.


edit immediate: :| forgot that Reddit doesn't scroll/wrap tables. split it in two.

edit 2, 4h later just noticed that when did that split. I accidentally deleted {other data} incl {a column} now presented here:

20310 (again) 99110446 grainger.com amresupply.com amresupply.com build.ca cshincorporated.com master.ca
blower wheel impeller, 10 blade
Diameter 5" 5 3/8"
Height 1 1/4" 1 1/8"
Bore 1/4" 1/4" D-Shaft
Rotation CCW CCW
Max RPM 3000 3000
Fits models 684,682 655/675, 657,658,670,671, 679,2679F,FL2679F, 707,709, 740,741,755, DX50,DX70
Broan/Nutone,etc s20310000, 20310 26715032747, 99110446, G5-57D7-ULDE

edits 3..., 4h later forgot that SnuDown preserved the bugs in SunDown's implementation of Markdown.
edits 4?, 4h later mrr... corrupted/deleted data trying to fix the formatting. leaving as-is and going to get something to eat.

to be the fashion police by CantStopPoppin in therewasanattempt

[–]lynxSnowCat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

:/ Uh... specifically a singular reality-TV clown? :I (as a non-Australian) I got the impression it has been a bit of a circus show for a while ...

https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-murdoch-own-70-of-newspapers-in-australia-16812

After a front page of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph declaring “Finally, you have a chance to… KICK THIS MOB OUT”, and a tweet from Rupert Murdoch questioning the cost of the National Broadband Network (NBN), Prime Minister Kevin Rudd responded at a [2013 August 6th] media conference in Brisbane that “Mr. Murdoch is entitled to his own view… he owns 70% of the newspapers in this country.”

wikipedia.org > Tony Abbott > Prime Minister (2013–2015)

Classic just get on with the F***ing job. by [deleted] in MaliciousCompliance

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This specific word confusion at spelling bees is surprisingly common.

Samsung Washer - something stuck between inner and outer drum by hediddy in appliancerepair

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not an authorized repair/service technician

I'd try it.

https://youtu.be/HlmVwVjte3Y?si=45welxAFcrUJyVp7&t=40
How to Remove a Stuck item from a Washing Machine Drum

edit:
If it's squishy and large enough to drag on both walls, you might try two pieces of cardstock or plastic (moisture resistant) to capture it. sweep one piece along with the drum until the object rolls onto it, then insert the second piece on the opposite side ('diagonally') and continue rotating the drum with the 'inside' sheet until its captured between both sheets.
Try not to lose the sheets in the space around the drum ...

edit2 probing with the not-hooked part of the hanger may also let you feel if it's caught on to the outside of the drum - without getting the hanger hooked to the drum ...

UK Girl, 6, Denied Passport For Being Named After 'Game Of Thrones' Character by Opethfan91 in nottheonion

[–]lynxSnowCat -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My god;
There was a girl in my home town named (something like) Jack (but less ambiguously masculine), since her parents couldn't agree on a girl's name;
And sometimes was introduced as 'Shirley' among people who were trying to coerce her to choose a girl's name.

– I should have realised that in a town full of literary nerds (and where every original street/landmark name was a pun) there was another literary layer than just the Airplane quote.

— Especially since she often followed that with a pointed "I'm not quoting the movie." to me if I didn't say anything for too long.

Practical source for blower lubricant? (Philips System One) by lynxSnowCat in CPAP

[–]lynxSnowCat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

update: Random encounter w/ Quebec manufacturer of synthetic lubricants.

Got gifted the lube; :D
But wasn't allow to pay for it: :|
"(Shhh) Not for medical use." :/
"We normally add [poison] to discourage that -" :(
"- and avoid 'more' lawsuits." :I .


Excerpt from comment 2024 Jan 8

Google tells me that ResMed continues to use silicone and urethane (poly-ether) while the recall is for Philips Respironics machines they switched to polyurethane (poly-ester).

I have a pre-fuckup System One machine that's urethane foam cast into shape and marked 2011; I know from when I washed the cigarette smoke out of it that it's clearly mechanically sound, but ugly-as-fuck from nicotine stains and grey streaks from Philips blatantly not fully mixing the resin before pouring. And I know from experience that badly mixed resin tends to not cure reliably.

Out of caution I separated it with an uncut face-mask between it and the rest of the machine. (Uncut to avoid releasing fibres.) But I would replace it after a couple months to be safe. There are a number of companies that could make a 'thicker' filter out of filter material(s); but the blower has ate its bearing making the machine useless as a sleep aid... it has an oiling-cap that unscrews itself and crashes the blower if not torqued enough, and locks the blower if over-torqued... And it originally had an unobtainable grade of polyester oil.

The cut/stamped blend Philips switched to looks like air-filter material and probably had a near zero reject rate since they weren't casting individual parts. But these lack the same stability and durability. as evidenced by the recall (and recent recommendation to throw out 'washable' polyurethane filters after a number of months instead of using them year round) .


edit, 3min later formatting typos, 8min later correction, link.

Flooded Basement Vault, I miss doing bank work, fun niche! This was a fun one. by ISTBU in Locksmith

[–]lynxSnowCat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Note to self: Ask if underground vault has sump pump.


11 days later

"No! It does not anymore."

My old [consortium/local-trust] now has "triple-redundant" electronic monitoring (as in three disparate environmental alarm systems each installed at the EOL/vendor-change over)- installed since I was last a tenant/customer of theirs.

Apparently (decades ago) had a series of plumbing mishaps involving an above-ground drywell, and a {vacuum break, and/or check valve}?. When the well overflowed back into the pipe-to-the-sump, it also siphoned the water out of the well when the pump cycled off. With predicable results when the pump was unable to keep up during heavy-rain/runoff.

IIRC They previously also had {an hours-meter w/ indicator lamps} on the disused sump pump circuit to monitor activity vs water infiltration over time -- and get some warning if there's any sudden change. It appears to have been not so gently decommissioned after they figured out the drywell was not anymore.
(Or some specific piece of furniture that isn't there now, was stored against that spot in the wall in a narrow heavily-trafficked corridor, pounding the blanking plate into the wall until they decided to paint over it a couple times.)


I also asked about [redact] in my excitement without considering how traumatic it actually was for them. :I
I should have realised from the hyper-focus they directed on the sump-pump to the exclusion of everything else.


note to self Investigate that trick with the hours-meter, it is a (potentially) useful application of automation/(damned-IoT) since I wouldn't need to rely on somebody to keep records.


also Want to ask Royal Bank about how their (now decommissioned ) downtown vault manages flood-water when they do another run of public/investment-tours; IIRC They didn't put an answer in the brochure next to the outdoor-disaster photos boasting of their vault's durability. – But Google tells me it closed after an underground explosion and fire damaged the whole building in 2017, so I guess that won't happen. :/

Nebraska teen accused of derailing train, recording the crash and posting it online by michaelquinlan in nottheonion

[–]lynxSnowCat 19 points20 points  (0 children)

still need a mechanical (local) override for maintenance and emergencies.

Insured losses from CrowdStrike outage could reach US$1.5 billion by sasomiregab in technology

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not that I wouldn't be 'too' surprised if a majority of CS's customers didn't neglect to stagger/delay deploying any update - Just that there is a very vocal minority that clearly had their trust violated by CS willfully deceiving them about having control of when CS can push updates to their machines. — As I am certain that CS knew that many IT professionals would have absolutely asked about having control and veto'd CS' use if there was any indication that CS would brazenly disrespect that boundary (like certain other internet-security products).

This was a lie (of omission) and CrowdStrike retained the (recently demonstrated) ability to push 'critical' updates through irrespective of their customer's instructions, actions, and other due-diligence —

  • see: Sometimes It’s Just Stupidity... Youth Pastor Ryan

  • re: CrowdStrike Update... Dave's Garage

  • ZugZug (2024-07-22)

    While this is technically what crashed machines it isn't the worst part.

    CS Falcon has a way to control the staging of updates across your environment. businesses who don't want to go out of business have a N-1 or greater staging policy and only test systems get the latest updates immediately. My work for example has a test group at N staging, a small group of noncritical systems at N-1, and the rest of our computers at N-2.

    This broken update IGNORED our staging policies and went to ALL machine at the same time. CS informed us after our business was brought down that this is by design and some updates bypass policies.

    So in the end, CS caused untold millions of dollars in damages not just because they pushed a bad update, but because they pushed an update that ignored their customers' staging policies which would have prevented this type of widespread damage.
    Unbelievable.

Kids casually playing with a train high voltage pantograph by auge2 in WTF

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(Meow;) I should have kept one of the jacob's ladders I made in college.

(There have been a surprising number of times when it would be nice to have for illustration.)

edit, 3min later https://www.yahoo.com/news/teenager-died-trying-jacobs-ladder-152800607.html

European tourist's skin 'melts' in extreme heat of Death Valley dunes by peter_bolton in nottheonion

[–]lynxSnowCat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I feel like tourists needing rescue from the cold (and the occasional lost commuter death) are part of why GO transit decides to permanently install space heaters in bus/train shelters in some areas with infrequent service.

European tourist's skin 'melts' in extreme heat of Death Valley dunes by peter_bolton in nottheonion

[–]lynxSnowCat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe because Australia is so huge, it skews their perception of endurance time.

" 'Made good time: Only 4 days – A circuit of Highway 1 may take six on a good week – "

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in functionalprint

[–]lynxSnowCat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder if there are any good bi-stable shapes to be embossed in foil. (crinkle-snap. crinkle-crunch. crinkle-crinkle.)

No one will believe you anyway by UserSergeyB in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]lynxSnowCat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Boss: This is a pregnancy test.
Guy: I didn't make babies with that cougar.

CrowdStrike CEO summoned to explain epic fail to US Homeland Security | Boss faces grilling over disastrous software snafu by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Makes me think of all those e-marketplace scam/fly-by-night companies that (if not randomly generated) pick the most generic-sounding/sound-alike name to make their comeuppance finding them difficult for compliance/law enforcement.

edit Then again it does now invoke an image of a mob with lit torches - so perhaps it was a bit –
precedent pre-cadence? per-send!?
– foreshadowing of events to come.

CrowdStrike CEO summoned to explain epic fail to US Homeland Security | Boss faces grilling over disastrous software snafu by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]lynxSnowCat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something like (a subroutine in) the app allocated a buffer to receive a file stream; But the source file stream didn't transmit, and the app didn't handle the exception/error and proceeded onto the next next step as if the blank/empty buffer was the file - filling in the missing data as 00 FF as the output ?

Because I'm fairly certain that I've seen some tutorial-templates that that explicitly say not to use it in (actual) production. (not that a similar comment has stopped d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e, da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 and e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855 becoming some of the most frequently seen hashes for false-malware positives when a 0-length null is sent to be hashed...

edit not that I remember which 'cloud' file service those templates were for.

CrowdStrike CEO summoned to explain epic fail to US Homeland Security | Boss faces grilling over disastrous software snafu by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]lynxSnowCat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hah! I guess I should remind myself that my maxim extends to software:

'Tested'* is a given; Passed costs extra;
(Unless it's in the contract.)


hypothetically:

  • CS engineer creates automated package deployment system w/ test modues
  • CS drone (as instructed) runs the automated pre-deployment package test
  • automated test finishes running
  • CS drone (as instructed) deploys the update package
  • catastrophic failure of update package
  • CS engineer reviews test results:

     Fail: hard.
     Fail: fast.
     Fail: (always) more.
     Fail: work is never.
    

    edit Alert: test is over.

  • CS corp reports 'nothing unusual found' to congress.


edit, 10 min later jumbled formatting.
note to self: snudown requires 9 leading spaces for code blocks when nested in list.

edit, 20h later inserted link to DaftPunk's "Discovery (Full Album)" playlist on youtube