Hanging on the fence next to the gates to the loading bay at the Hangar 1 facility in Alameda is this sign. I wonder what caused them to use this wording though? Had there been incidents of truck drivers arriving, ringing the bell and then driving off? Or, perhaps, getting out, ringing the bell and then hopping back in the cab and just driving through the gates?
The mind boggles!
And apparently proud of it. This little Prius was parked in the north parking lot on the southbound side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
In case anybody was in any doubt about the suitability of Microsoft products as servers, of any kind, The Register is reporting this week that something as simple as handling the extra day in February this year passed them by. Most amusing perhaps is that the technology preview, released just two days before the leap day, was affected.
Nonetheless, the SQL Server 2008 “community technology preview” was brought down by the dreaded Leap Year Day bug just 48 hours after Microsoft unveiled it. “We have recently discovered an issue with SQL Server 2008 CTPs that result in SQL Server 2008 not starting on Feb 29 GMT only,” read a statement from the company. “We recommend that you do not run or install this CTP on Feb 29 GMT to minimize any impact in your environment. You can install starting on March 1 GMT.”
The advice given by Microsoft? Don’t install it or run it on that day. Great solution guys. Would that answer be the same for production software? No reason to think otherwise since they left UK users with the wrong time on all their machines for a week not that long ago when they got the daylight savings rules wrong. So, that web site you run with SQL Server as a backend – just turn it off for a day to “minimize the impact” of their poor quality software. I’ve got a better idea: spend that day upgrading to a real platform (try Linux or FreeBSD).
But it gets better:
And there was a very similar problem with Windows Small Business Server. On Leap Year Day, Windows SBS was unable to issue itself certificates because it stamped each certificate with the date February 29, 2013. So, it failed to recognize the correct date. And it replaced the correct date with a date that doesn’t exist.
Not only did it fail to understand the leap day in the date, it then compounds the problem by producing certificates with a non-existent date on them instead of just saying the date is invalid! But since it is only a small business product, no problem just leaving it that way. They won’t sue Microsoft after all – they don’t have the cash to do that.
Seems that the folks at British Airways don’t know where Stansted is. What makes it perhaps worse is that Stansted is an airport town – you would have thought they’d know where the London airport towns were located. Let’s hope they don’t use these maps for navigation!
Tea that “helps promote vitality, stamina & healthy natural energy levels” so they claim… but with a name like that would you drink it?
This was taken in a new supermarket over in San Francisco, and was only one of many strange things I discovered on their shelves (more photos will be posted to Flickr as soon as I get them off the iPhone – this one was in the N95 making it a breeze to upload).
Nokia has its N95, Apple has its iPhone, and Microsoft has…
… a big ass table 🙂
Thanks to the folks at Sarcastic Gamer for this one.
Look what happens when you put your Audi through the hot wash at the local petrol (gas) station 🙂 They go in as a chunky pseudo-SUV, and come out looking more like a Tonka toy…
I have a similar photo of a Mercedes that seems to have shrunk in the wash too – that is still in the camera though; I’ll upload it when I get to Stockholm.
A long time ago, about 7 years in fact, I pulled a list of silly things that tourists say out of a paper in Vancouver because they amused me. While unpacking boxes yesterday I found it again and thought I’d share my favourites with you:
- Do you drink salt water or fresh water?
- What’s the fastest way to drive to Vancouver Island?
- What’s that in real money?
- How much is $8.95?
- Do I have to get Canadian money while I’m here?
- Is there any money I can get that’s all one colour? It’s too hard in different colours.
- If I come up there with my kids can someone show me how to build an igloo?
- What’s the weather going to be like when we visit in two weeks?
- Can I go see polar bears in Victoria?
- If it rains on Monday, can you guarantee it won’t rain on Tuesday?
- Are the trees real?
- How much do your totem poles grow each year?
- Do you guys speak English or Canadian?
- Can I get the Canadian flag in a different colour?
- Is it called British Columbia because you’re part of England?
- I have a pistol I want to bring across – is that OK?
One of the most annoying things about the early versions of Vista that I was playing with was the continual darkening of the screen and question about whether to allow something I had just asked for. That is what this commercial from Apple is playing off of. Perhaps the worst example of this was having to allow notepad to open each time I wanted to view the source for a web page from IE7. Apart from the fact that by now they should be able to open it inside the browser and display it with syntax highlighting like every other browser, having to approve it every time is really annoying.
Check out the third network in this list of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in San Francisco, California. Never realised that Waikiki was so close. I wonder why it take United 6 hours to fly there…
