Month: February 2007

You’d better…

Posted on by Andy

Bryn, I have been generally happy with smile. Since online is the only place you get to do things with them they tend to have it all worked out. The only thing I dislike about their web interface is that they make the back button log you out “for security reasons”, but at least you can do everything you need to do in a fairly sane manner.

I should say that last month they tried to charge me £20.53 for something I don’t think they should have charged me for. It’s a long and not very interesting story so I won’t go into it, all I will say is I have no time for people who complain about their overdraft charges and there was more to it than that! Anyway I complained in an online message and they removed it.

Being a treehugger, the Co-op’s ethical policy also appeals to me.

Oh, but if we’re on the subject of how not to do things, I’d been trying to use the “e-banking” feature of my new Abbey business account since last Friday, and after putting in my login details I would get a page that said this every time:


ANIB JSP Diagnostic Page

Background
to : from (localhost) (host )

Error
bean error not found within scope

Additional
Content Length:
Content Type:
Remote User:

The site had also been occasionally displaying “temporary error” messages over the weekend so I left it until this week thinking they were having problems. After trying again on Tuesday and having the same message, and also confirming with another Abbey user that they could log in to theirs, I decided to call them and ask wtf.

The answer is that they have not yet received my security information that I posted back last week, so I havent yet been “setup on the system”. Was I supposed to deduce that from “bean error not found within scope”?

Not at FOSDEM

Posted on by Andy

I’m not going to FOSDEM because I have spent most of today since about 4am alternately vomiting or curled up in a foetal position with incredibly painful stomach cramps.

No throwing up in the last 5 hours and cramps reduced to the point where I can actually use the computer, so fingers crossed I’m past the worst of it. Even so I don’t think it would be wise to try to get out to Brussels in this state.

I’m really pissed off that this had to happen now and ruin my weekend. I was really looking forward to it.

Why doesn’t script work anymore?

Posted on by Andy
Contents
      1. Update…

Uwe’s post about script reminded me that script just doesn’t seem to work for me for some reason anymore on Debian (both sarge and etch). I also see it sometimes on work’s RHEL-alike machines, but not all of them!

Here’s what happens:


$ script
Script started, file is typescript
bash: No such file or directory
Script done, file is typescript
$

What’s going on there? I’m sure it’s something simple. This has been happening for ages (more than a year) but I always get distracted when a simple search doesn’t turn up an answer to it. Any ideas?

Update… ^

huggie suggested I use strace to see what was going on. I have tried this before but I should have paid more attention, and done it again anyway, because now I can sort of see what is going on:


setsid() = 31937
ioctl(5, TIOCSCTTY) = 0
close(4) = 0
close(3) = 0
dup2(5, 0) = 0
dup2(5, 1) = 1
dup2(5, 2) = 2
close(5) = 0
execve("bash", ["bash", "-i"], [/* 22 vars */]) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
.
.
.

It is literally calling “bash” with no path. If I cd to /bin and do it then it works. Also this works:


$ SHELL="/bin/bash" script
Script started, file is typescript
$

Note:


$ echo $SHELL
bash

I still don’t know what exactly is going on, but at least I have a workaround now.

Executive Ultra Realistic

Posted on by Andy

ureasample.com:

“Contents of our Executive Ultra Realistic kit:

  • Five inch ultra realistic prosthetic penis (available in 3 skin tones)”

And:

“Residents of Pennsylvania, Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolina may only purchase this kit minus the clean urine and therefore must choose ‘NO SAMPLE’ from the ‘Select Sample Type’ options box below. Kits are NOT available to residents of New Jersey, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Illinois. If you are from one of the aforementioned states and would like to purchase one of our Executive Ultra Realistic kits and samples then you may have it shipped to a friend or family member in a different state.”

He hates macs

Posted on by Andy

If the ads were really honest, Webb would be standing there with one arm, struggling to open a packet of peanuts while Mitchell effortlessly tore his apart with both hands. But then, if the ads were really honest, Webb would be dressed in unbelievably po-faced avant-garde clothing with a gigantic glowing apple on his back. And instead of conducting a proper conversation, he would be repeatedly congratulating himself for looking so cool, and banging on about how he was going to use his new laptop to write a novel, without ever getting round to doing it, like a mediocre idiot.

Brilliant.

No custodial sentence for torturing a cat to death

Posted on by Andy

Via the BBC: A woman who put her boyfriend’s cat in the washing machine and set it on full cycle has been given a four month suspended sentence. The cat died of heart failure and severe burns.

District judge Andrew Shaw, sitting at Llandudno magistrates’ court, told Hannon it was the worst act of animal cruelty he had dealt with.

So why not impose a custodial sentence? How much worse would it have to get before Andrew Shaw would or could impose one?