The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[Duleigh]

Apparently, it was a bug in CrowdStrike that took everything down ...

when CrowdStrike’s new code reached computers that run Microsoft Windows software, the machines began to crash.

The fallout was immediate and harmful. CrowdStrike and Microsoft underpin many major businesses. Airlines canceled flights and airports fell into chaos in the United States, Europe and Asia. In the United States, operators of 911 lines in multiple states could not respond to emergencies. Parts of Britain’s National Health Service reported problems. New driver’s licenses could not be issued in some areas. Some television broadcasters could not go on the air.

 

[NotWise]

More evidence that diversity is critical to health of cybersphere.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Millie and Jo are on the highway now and heading for here. They are staying with us this weekend and only visiting her sister a little so the kids can all play together but not be around her sis enough to go insane. LOL, I'm the one who will be refereeing the fights. How'd I get so lucky? Anywho, my coffee got cold. HUM!

 

[NotWise]

Well, y'all have a good time.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

. I think I need to call the state natural resources department tomorrow.

Weird fauna story:
My commute to work is 11 miles each way, over a mountain that's mostly public land (well, at least one side). The place I work is state property bordered by national forest on two sides. Suffice to say, there's a resident herd of deer and lots of other wildlife.
About 2 summers after I started there, I was driving home one evening and rounded a curve just past the top of the mountain, just 8n time to see a critter saunter out of the treeline. Came to a stop, to watch a mountain lion mosey across the road and casually jump on a rock, and climb back into the trees. Supposedly, there haven't been mountain lions in my area in centuries. But, this thing looked almost exactly like a female African lion. Dun coat, long tail, huge paws, no spots.

Anyway, after I catch my breath, I drive on, really wishing I'd figured out some way to have gotten a picture. A car approaches from the opposite direction, the driver flashing the lights in warning. I slow down, assuming there's a cop or a crash around the next bend. Then another car comes, its lights flashing faster. I slow some more. Another car, more flashing light. Another car, this one with the driver hanging out the window frantically waving his arm. I'm going like 8 mph at this point.

Round the next bend, and there's a herd of Angus beef cows walking up the road. Somewhere between 15 and 20, mostly, but not quite, managing to stay in the uphill lane. One was clearly in the lead, and the rest were trailing along behind. Looked kinda tired, actually.

Turns out they'd escaped from a farm down in the adjacent valley, and had been wandering around most of the afternoon. The cows made the news, and at least two of my co-workers saw them. But I'm the only one who saw the lion.

I'm convinced the lion had something to do with the cows running away.

I didn't call the wildlife people, because the official line is that there are no mountain lions in this area.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

The fallout was immediate and harmful. CrowdStrike and Microsoft underpin many major businesses

Some significant percentage of the computers at my work were nonfunctional most of the day, including mine. I was able to borrow a co-worker's, but mine didn't get fixed until after 2pm.

 

[Agent0069]

Some significant percentage of the computers at my work were nonfunctional most of the day, including mine.

What I don’t get is what were all the IT departments doing. Back in the days I might have worked in a bank we could be
giving more scrutiny even to a minor pieces of software. (Not saying that I was, though.)

And nowadays it seems like everyone collectively decided to just yolo an untested kernel-space driver onto business and life critical machines with no thoughts or testing whatsoever. Very strange.

 

[Rustyoznail]

What I don’t get is what were all the IT departments doing. Back in the days I might have worked in a bank we could be
giving more scrutiny even to a minor pieces of software. (Not saying that I was, though.)

And nowadays it seems like everyone collectively decided to just yolo an untested kernel-space driver onto business and life critical machines with no thoughts or testing whatsoever. Very strange.

That seems to be the way. If it's deemed a minor patch, it's waved through.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I still haven't found the trivet so I'm setting the teapot on the back burner so I don't scorch the countertop. I should have paid attention when TxRad told me where it was.

Anyway, it's taking a long time to fix the CloudStrike issue since each computer has to be manually brought up in safe mode to remove the offending file before the computer can come up and the fix applied. We're talking a billion computers and not nearly enough IT people to quickly fix everything since they've automated so much and didn't need a lot of bodies.

 

[MrPixel]

This CrowdStrike debacle reminds me why I run MacOS and Ubuntu Linux in my shop. Neither is perfect, but forced-down-your-throat updates are the devil's work, and the Windows world has to have that because there are "critical" security patches published every week, or so it seems. You can't have your IT staff on hot standby to approve every little patch on every machine.

I always have the option to say, "No. Not this one," until it's vetted by others and covered in the IT press. I still have to update to releases that breaks things, but at least I have the opportunity to click the "...shit...whatever..." button.

 

[NotWise]

My investment firm notified me several months ago that they were getting out of the small-business retirement fund racket and transferring all such accounts to another investment manager. That was something I didn't have a choice about, it was just going to happen--and happen as of yesterday. Exactly how it would happen was a mystery.

This morning I got a message from the original investment company that "my transfer was complete" so I logged into my account to see what happened and had to catch my breath. Zero balance on all the fund accounts and no information for accessing my accounts on the new manager's site. This after two recent notices of security breaches at companies holding my personal info, and the CrowdStrike failure.

It was only after that when I got a second message from the original firm telling me what the schedule of events would be. It seems like they could have switched the order of things and saved me a little adrenaline and a few extra heartbeats. It's bad enough that I have no information on or access to my accounts until Monday at the earliest.

 

[MrPixel]

...mountain lion...

Puma are making a resurgence in a lot of areas, so it makes you wonder why your state agency continues to deny it. 20 years ago when I lived on the San Francisco peninsula there were alerts about puma hazards on popular hiking trails in the coastal hills. Then there are the big cats in the Los Angeles basin, the most famous having been recently killed by the inevitable discussion with a vehicle on a busy freeway.

I had an all day meeting yesterday and didn't get a chance to call DNR. I just did a quick search, and wolves are known here, just not at our end of the state, but they do wander. This fella was big and had to be in excess of 120 pounds. I've stapled a note to my forehead to call the agency on Monday - PostIts don't stick there.

 

[NotWise]

This CrowdStrike debacle reminds me why I run MacOS and Ubuntu Linux in my shop. Neither is perfect, but forced-down-your-throat updates are the devil's work, and the Windows world has to have that because there are "critical" security patches published every week, or so it seems. You can't have your IT staff on hot standby to approve every little patch on every machine.

I always have the option to say, "No. Not this one," until it's vetted by others and covered in the IT press. I still have to update to releases that breaks things, but at least I have the opportunity to click the "...shit...whatever..." button.

Canonical pushes security updates on Ubuntu frequently -- assuming you're running a version that's still supported.

Depending on your system settings, you may get no information or update; you may be notified and given an option to update; or the update may be automatic. There are different behaviors depending on whether the update is regarded as a security issue or not. There's also a newer version that digs even deeper. It's aimed at systems that handle personal information, especially medical records.

I've used their update system since version 14.02, and it's generally worked well. Updates to the printing system used to uninstall my printers, but they seem to have fixed that problem. I had an "event" a few months ago when someone found a way to mimic Ubuntu's update notice and tricked me into installing a virus that destroyed the system on my laptop. That seems like something Canonical would be concerned about, but I never saw any acknowledgement of or reaction to the trick.

 

[NotWise]

Puma are making a resurgence in a lot of areas, so it makes you wonder why your state agency continues to deny it. 20 years ago when I lived on the San Francisco peninsula there were alerts about puma hazards on popular hiking trails in the coastal hills. Then there are the big cats in the Los Angeles basin, the most famous having been recently killed by the inevitable discussion with a vehicle on a busy freeway.

I had an all day meeting yesterday and didn't get a chance to call DNR. I just did a quick search, and wolves are known here, just not at our end of the state, but they do wander. This fella was big and had to be in excess of 120 pounds. I've stapled a note to my forehead to call the agency on Monday - PostIts don't stick there.

Wolves get around.

They're trying to reintroduce the Mexican Gray Wolf along the southern Arizona/New Mexico boarder, and they monitor the animals closely. One female with a collar wandered all the way to Colorado. She was trapped and moved back where they wanted her, and she just headed north again. I think the second time they decided to let her go. They've also wandered as far as Prescott in Az, to the Rio Grande in south-central New Mexico, and to the edges of the city here. They've even wandered to Mexico and back again.

I think pumas and bears can both wander long distances when they're trying to establish a new territory.

 

[MrPixel]

Canonical pushes security updates on Ubuntu frequently -- assuming you're running a version that's still supported.

Yes. I have everything set to notify on updates. The most active Ubuntu system in the house is my wife's desktop, and she's been badgered instructed to stop whatever she is doing and come get me to make the decision about accepting the patch.

I made note of your earlier problem with the faux update. I definitely appreciated the heads-up, and made doubly sure I first confirmed any update(s) on the spare system I mostly keep for this purpose.

 

[NotWise]

Variety is the spice of life, right? I should welcome 85F and 60% humidity, but it's putting a crimp in my gardening and lawn care. (He says as he gulps down the lemon sorbet-flavored seltzer and sweats a little more). Soon it's back into the breach to trim and mow, then I can spend the afternoon inside. Maybe.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Puma are making a resurgence in a lot of areas, so it makes you wonder why your state agency continues to deny it

I live on the eastern seaboard, in the Appalachians. Supposedly, the only "big cat" species left east of the Mississippi is the endangered Florida panther.
Sometimes I think the natural resources people are just sticking to the official line to make it less likely that some idiot will try to hunt it down.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Hey, you won't be on much this next week. We're vacationing in Colorful Colorado. We'll spend a few days with Mary and Sis, and then to the mountains we'll go. God love my sister, she never changes. Anway, kids are getting along well, so that's something.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I should welcome 85F and 60% humidity

No sane person would welcome that. Listen to the voice of experience (that typical early summer weather here. Add 10f for late summer). Stay in the AC.

 

[litfan10]

As I get older I find once the temperature crosses past 69F it's too hot. Crossing past 79F and I start to get miserable.
Yeah, I'm a big snow bunny.

 

[NotWise]

As I get older I find once the temperature crosses past 69F it's too hot. Crossing past 79F and I start to get miserable.
Yeah, I'm a big snow bunny.

Checking the weather service ... Yep. You could have been comfortable here for about 2 hours in the last week.

 

[litfan10]

Checking the weather service ... Yep. You could have been comfortable here for about 2 hours in the last week.

Yeah, I keep saying if I ever move it's going to be further north. And I'm a stone's throw from Canada now.
But I do have to be careful now as weather can greatly aggravate my condition very painfully. Storms and pressure changes are not my friends. Sad as I used to love sitting by a window watching it snow.

 

[NotWise]

Don't mean to pry, @litfan10, but what's your "condition?" You've mentioned it recently, bat I don't remember you having something before.

 

[litfan10]

Don't mean to pry, @litfan10, but what's your "condition?" You've mentioned it recently, bat I don't remember you having something before.

Not prying at all. I have severe neuropathy. Unfortunately ten years ago I went through some organ failure (I got better) and have a bad knee since high school and I'm getting older (as we all do.). I thought what I was going through was normal age stuff with a bad body. By the time my doctor and I figured out I had neuropathy the nerve damage was so bad I almost lost a leg and I have trouble walking now.

 

[NotWise]

Sorry for all that. It seems like I hear more about neuropathy than I used to, or maybe we're all getting older.