"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

meako said:
My wife works in the ICU of a large private hospital in Wollongong. They needed some info on breasts (as you do in a hospital)but found a firewall which prevented access to most of the major body parts for some reason.
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IT filters. Gotta love them. NOT.

I once had to look up some information on a vendor's web site. We were a customer and I needed some information about one of their products. They sold oils and lubricants for various kinds of machinery. They had divided their web site into "lubricants derived from petroleum" and "synthetic lubricants", which they decided to call "exotic lubricants". Well wouldn't you know, we used a synthetic lubricant, so I clicked on the link to "exotic lubricants". My screen froze and I got a very blunt message from the software telling me in no uncertain terms that this web page was blocked because of its evil content and implying that I was violating corporate guidelines by trying to access it.

To unblock the site and get the information I needed I had to go to local IT. They sent me to local HR. They sent me to Corporate HR. They sent me to Corporate IT. Of course each entity had its own form to fill out. Took me 10 days to get them to unlock the web site so I could get the information I needed.

Filters. PHHHTTTT!
 
Oh, and for no particular reason I am going to post this because I'm listening to the album as I cruise the forum tonight. It's from an album of lullabies. Yes. I do have odd eclectic tastes in music.

[video=youtube;_OCYIK95KXE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OCYIK95KXE[/video]
 
It's always good to get back here after a few days of absence. It's good to be home I guess :)
I've been working a bit more lately but I'm fine and I hope you're all fine, and way beyond your allergies, wi-fi troubles, IT filters, and so on :D
As for friendliness in the streets, it does happen here as well. In Sardinia, when you visit a small town or village (plenty of places here under 1000 souls), most people will say hi but if you're not from there they'll chat you up somehow and try to understand who you are, what are you up to, and so on (just making sure you're not sticking your nose into their business). Entering a bar will often lead you to a number of free drinks (locals will pay their rounds for you as well, and will not allow you to pay when your turn comes...if you're still standing :rolleyes:) and an informal interrogation by the "local police" (retired men who spend their days sitting there). Curiosly, in about an hour, you will have the impression that everyone in the town knows about your presence. It's not an impression though. It's true :p and it's been like that for decades, way before internet and smartphones :)
Like Paul said, sometimes friendliness scares you, sometimes coldness annoys you; it usually depends on what you're used to, where you live (and grew up), and so on. As a general rule though, the friendliest people I've met were in Asia and South America (mostly the latter, but it might also depend on the fact I have little cultural impariemtn when I'm there).
Oh, and Paul...the "I ended up marrying her" thing is awesome :D
Have a nice day folks!

Fausto
:cool:
 
knarfeng said:
IT filters. Gotta love them. NOT.
I once had to look up some information on a vendor's web site. We were a customer and I needed some information about one of their products. They sold oils and lubricants for various kinds of machinery. They had divided their web site into "lubricants derived from petroleum" and "synthetic lubricants", which they decided to call "exotic lubricants". Well wouldn't you know, we used a synthetic lubricant, so I clicked on the link to "exotic lubricants". My screen froze and I got a very blunt message from the software telling me in no uncertain terms that this web page was blocked because of its evil content and implying that I was violating corporate guidelines by trying to access it.

To unblock the site and get the information I needed I had to go to local IT. They sent me to local HR. They sent me to Corporate HR. They sent me to Corporate IT. Of course each entity had its own form to fill out. Took me 10 days to get them to unlock the web site so I could get the information I needed.
Filters. PHHHTTTT!
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As the person who is responsible for corporate infosec at work, I find content filtering to be a necessary evil. There are so many state and federal regulations governing IT in various sectors that open, unfettered internet access can more often than not create actionable situations through no malignant intention of the users. Unfortunately for infosec, the excuse "We didn't know!" is not valid in a court of law, so if a user finds himself or herself getting into trouble "accidentally" the result may be no different than if that user was purposefully committing a crime with company equipment. It's almost as if IT has become a hyperspecialized legal department, in a way! Plus, with the advent of ransomware and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), a user who is less than extremely saavy can easily create a situation that can snowball into a critical data loss scenario, and even with available backups (something woefully absent in the vast majority of environments when it comes to data on personal/local systems) the sheer amount of time required to restore business to 100% productivity can cost some larger organizations up into the six figures rather easily.

That being said, filtering can be a real PITA. Corporations must remember that with great security comes great responsibility. Unless you work in the Nome, Alaska branch of Google (that's a thing, right? :p) you should have access to a process that enables reasonably fast access to necessary content in line with corporate infosec policies. Of course, with the way IT has been under increased pressure to underfund and overdeliver, you might simply find yourself working for a company whose technical staff is outmanned and outgunned. Sadly, I do not expect that trend to change any time soon.

There will always be a human element to infosec and information technology, necessarily. I wish C-levels would understand that more readily.
 
interestingly that is how my coworker left the job. he somehow looked up something that caused the computer we share to be locked out. took IT a week to sort that out. He was the respiratory therapist and trained me for the job, on the way to med school.
 
Far from brexit are the celebrations of the battle of the Somme, where 19 000 British died on the first day of the attack (and it lasted for months). The Somme dept has a lot of cemetaries full of boys from UK, Aussie, NZ and India...
This shell-hole has been kept for souvenir. I don't want to know how many stayed there for ever...

Somme.jpg
 
Thanks for posting that JP. The Sheffield Pals battalion, many of them cutlers, was virtually wiped out on the Somme. Two of my great grandfathers were killed there, and the other two fought there. I've spent quite a bit of time in that area myself, and the first time we drove past the vast cemeteries I can remember being shocked by the sheer size of them.
 
My Great Uncle Charlie bought it on the first day, picked off by a sniper while spotting for the Royal Artillery, I'm pretty sure from the cathedral at Arles. We've got pictures. He got a better headstone than we could have managed for him.
 
All that aside here's a very interesting fact about WW1-
we've all heard of the ANZAC legend and the Gallipoli Campaign- in 11months of fighting 9 Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australians-
The battle of Mont St Quentin in France (I doubt many have even heard of) went for 2 days during which Australians were awarded 8 VCs.
That my friends is a startling statistic.


Everyone knows how much I love kiwis and New Zealand;)
But they did have a bonafide war hero-WW2
Double VC winner (that's known as VC and bar) Capt. Charles Upham .
I recommend his biography "Mark Of The Lion" if you an get it.
 
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scrteened porch said:
My Great Uncle Charlie bought it on the first day, picked off by a sniper while spotting for the Royal Artillery, I'm pretty sure from the cathedral at Arles. We've got pictures. He got a better headstone than we could have managed for him.
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A terrible loss of young life. My father and grandfather were in the RA. I'm afraid I don't know much about the circumstances of the deaths of my great grandfathers, nor indeed much about them, as they were so young. I'm sure there would have been other family members killed too. As a young boy, I remember my grandmother, who rarely, and with good reason, spoke about her mother, recounting of how the news of her father's death had been received by letter, and how her mother had thrown the enclosed medals (Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred) across the room in her distress. He was Irish, a cutler, a foreman at Tommy Wards works, and latterly a sargent.
 
Jolipapa said:
You may mean Amiens cathedral, Arles is in the Southern France.
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Thanks, JP; actually I might mean Arras- I think it was the same place where Cyrano de Bergerac got the old wound he mentions in his last scene.

Anyway, I have a feeling I trotted this all out on the last patriotic holiday.
 
meako said:
All that aside here's a very interesting fact about WW1-
we've all heard of the ANZAC legend and the Gallipoli Campaign- in 11months of fighting 9 Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australians-
The battle of Mont St Quentin in France (I doubt many have even heard of) went for 2 days during which Australians were awarded 8 VCs.
That my friends is a startling statistic.
Click to expand...

That's a high density of VCs, all right.
 
scrteened porch said:
Thanks, JP; actually I might mean Arras- I think it was the same place where Cyrano de Bergerac got the old wound he mentions in his last scene.

Anyway, I have a feeling I trotted this all out on the last patriotic holiday.
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I see. Arras is further North, in French Flanders. My Ma's uncle Arthur was sergent and shot by a machine gun leading an assault during the battle of Artois (the name of the country) in 1915. Who knows, maybe they fought side by side!
 
scrteened porch said:
That's a high density of VCs, all right.
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had to read that carefully and go back. VCs brings me to a different war. which I have to say I see more nam vets that are patients then the WW2s. of course the other week i had a patient that was 101 and she remembers the Great war.
 
No need to be that old to remember, there is no day without unearthing unexploded shells, North and East or mines in the sea. :grumpy:
 
I've read it will be 500 years before the Somme is cleared of UXO and debris from exploded ordnance.
 
Just want to say "Happy Canada Day", to our Canadian members!
 
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