Tonight we experienced 5 hours outage when no one was able to enter comments. Even the mods were locked out of the system. This is the second time we have experienced this problem, the other time was for a much shorter time period. Then about 9am GMT everything started working again. Have not yet identified the problem, but the only change that has been made recently is the ‘new comment’ software. The ‘new comment’ software has been deactivate. If you get locked out by a ‘permission denied’ message email me at saker-webmaster@yandex.com.
Regards
Herb (webmaster)
Saker Message:
Testing this very welcome return to the old, no-nonsense comment system. It was an instructive lesson on the severe unwisdom of fixing that which is working well. I also like the fact that the time stamp is back to its useful function of telling the date and time (and what kind of time) instead of saying “Today” which is meaningless if you want to refer to a specific comment by date and time.
The lockouts are US done with help from Saudi Arabia and Quatar and NATO connection uses. Actionable news up to date and adrip in freshness terrifies the US and US NATO like nothing else. Reason Obama will move to Canada should Trump win .. in desrperate fear of needed legal action to deligitimise him..
Are you kidding or serious? (regarding the lockouts, forget about the cocaine gay)
Silver linings department:
Back to the old software, and interface.
I disliked the new thing intensely (my mom told me “Never say ‘I hate . . .’ ” )
Please, don’t fix what ain’t broke.
I have enuff problems (such as maintaining sanity while living in the nutcase USA) without having to be locked out of the Saker!
Or be annoyed by the unworkable formatting and nonresponsive “read more” irritant.
Katherine
Ah, it’s like after a long drive where the weather turned nasty and one was forced to take many detours due to street blockages and then finally arriving back home and finding everything in order.
And the evil javascript?
Yesssss! The evil javascript has been banished back to the depths of hell where it belongs. :)
Yes, this is much better now.
I was getting used to it……..
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But thanks mods for all your help.
If it serves of something, last night, after doing my last comment in the cafe, my computer was took out of work again, not being able to switch it off until I did it the rude way, by pushing the on/off button. No other way to go to bed.
Today I have been offered a new upgrade of “Windows” which after almost one hour, they have not been able to deploy in my computer.
I wonder what the hell they have deployed instead.
You can refuse the upgrade.
Just say no.
Katherine
No, I had not that option, this is the strange issue. Since three days ago, I have been offered three options to switch off my computer, all including upgrade.
Weird? Quite so.
Well, I am not a techie.
A friend had the automotic upgrade to ‘windows 10 thing take over her computer. She didn’t want it but didn’t know how to go forward (or, actually, backward). She said she got a dialogue box with something like “I accept” and so she accepted it . . .
Now she hates Windows 10. I asked my tech guy about it and he said that once you accpet the upgrade, it is pretty hard to uninstall it and go back. But he said that there is an option not to accept. However, I bet Windows has many ways of inserting itself unwanted onto your computer.
I did a search for “Windows 10 upgrade how to stop.” I got this:
To block the upgrade by using Computer Configuration, follow these steps:
Click Computer Configuration.
Click Policies.
Click Administrative Templates.
Click Windows Components.
Click Windows Update.
Double-click Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.
Click Enable.
How to manage Windows 10 notification and upgrade options
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351
Also this:
How to Stop Windows 7 or 8 from Downloading Windows 10 …
http://www.howtogeek.com/…/how-to-stop-windows-7-or-8-from-downloading-windows-1...
Sep 11, 2015 – Download it, run it, and then click the “Disable Win10 Upgrade” button. If your system has already downloaded the Windows 10 update files, it will tell you, and you can click the “Remove Win10 Files” to delete them.
There are quite a few other hits with info on avoiding the automatic Windows 10 upgrade.
Katherine
Or just stop using Windows
Yes, of course, this is the solution.
I like this format you can see and correct posts.
Good that it is back to the old system!
The old comment system is better.
@ elsi turn off windows updates, uninstall any pdf readers, some bugs require the computer to reboot so pull the power to shut it down, otherwise never turn it off. free avast seems to keep the minor bugs at bay. apart from the operating system uninstall as many programs as possible leaving just a few basics preferably not microsoft.
I remember the good old days when people were saying: “Yes but Linux is harder to use, it’s for pro’s”.
I completely dropped it after Windows Vista. Six years of easy living already! And counting…
And, are you a professonal in this field or not, and if not, have you found Linux easy to learn coming from Windows Vista, which was the program I has in my computer from its origin, then turned to Windows 8 by my brother?
I tried windows 8 short time when I bought a computer that had it installed, but too much that cannot be controlled. I went back to windows 7 which I find much better.
I started to go to debvian at one stage rather than windows but I had a few health issues at the time that made it difficult to concentrate on something new, so never got around to it. Now I just treat my computer and the internet as a public place and don’t worry too much about snoopers.
Unless you know all the tricks of the trade, somebody will get into your computer no matter what system you are using. If they really want to know what is on your computer and can’t get into it, they will simply take your computer which is what happened to me and another reason I never bothered going to / learning a new operating system.
As long as I can access media and blogs like this one, that is all I need the computer for. Pre Windows eight system are ok for that. keep it simple, a good free antivirus like avast to keep minor bugs away, and anything happens – any sign of a bug, shut off the power rather than switch off the computer so that nothing it has picked up is saved. Turn off auto updates. No microsoft updates or updates of any kind unless you are very sure of what they are. That seems to keep a basic windows setup ticking along
No, I am not an IT professional, but I am a self-taught power-user (emphasis on self-taught).
To put it in another way, moving from Windows to Linux is like changing apartments: the drawers are in a different place, the kitchen is slightly different to use etc. You must spend some time learning where things are and how to do everyday stuff. It does have a leaning curve, but with today’s forums most problems can be googled and solved.
The benefits?
-I use no antivirus program
-I don’t deal with the @%&%$ registry
-I can move to a new computer in less than 2 hours (installed programs, settings and data files) instead of a full week reinstalling and tweaking a Windows computer
-my updates are global, meaning I don’t have to update each software separately but with a single command
-can update whenever I want, IF I want, and WHAT I want
-I have multiple desktops to partition my work (Desktop 1 reading Saker, Desktop 2 writing reports etc)
-I can control my system fully (depending on the distro). In other words it’s mine and not hijacked by M$ or Apple
…
Bottom line: the initial trouble will pay itself 10 times over in time. Just ask a friend to help you get going (installing and showing you the first steps) and Google (or Duck-Duck-Go) is your friend!
Nothing is so bad that it couldn’t be good for something. The good thing here is the old format of comments is back.
Saker:
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Pluses and minuses are the nature of nature. The digital-silicon world is festooned with bad code, poorly compiled or tested.
The new version had some upside. Bugs come from the nature of software dudes. They live in a world of very insular sloppy thinking. In fact, they revel in slop code. It extends their tenure and payments.
Testing in real life situations off-line to the public is the rule. Alpha, Beta and emulation of real-user situations.
Code is a world of elite doofuses, to be kind. Some brilliant, most keyboard pounding twinkies eaters. Unsocial at the core.
User testing is crucial.
You tried. Maybe next time, long period of testing with a maniacal mind at the help of the tests would be helpful. I’ve done that in my ragged past. Code writers get colitis in my company.
Don’t be intimidated to make “improvements”.
User interface means user, not coder. Coders would live a world of never finished, never polished, never working, ever crashing programs if they could. It’s their nature.
If they were musicians, they’d all be progressive dissonance proponents. You’d never hear a melody or tune you could sing. NOISE is their output without a whip cracking their backs.
Many thanks to the saker, webmaster and moderators for your wonderful and heroic work !
hi all,
I’m very happy… claps for Saker, claps for Web-Herb, claps for Mods!
the old (and good) way (comments format) is back!
by the way,
the novelty is important …
the format is important …
the change is important… bla, bla, bla…
not, no, non, nay, nope, ne, masaka, bu, non, la, nein…
the important thing is to change when the thing does not work, when they do not give technical support to an improved debate, when technical resources are lacking for the debaters.
now, change by change, to decrease practicality, ease, can only be a shot in the foot itself.
learning to use new tools is easy, just insist a little in case of difficulty, but “read, think, write” with quality is another matter, much more complicated.
usually those who do not have intellectual depth are very concerned with form, even as a way to demonstrate some protagonism… pff…
thanks again, for having back the old and good road…
all the best!
HELD for forwarding to Herb and Saker. DG
Saker, Webmaster,
taking the opportunity, and speaking about time stamp, why u don’t use (UTC/GMT/Zulu reference) a logical time stamp, like yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm (24h) format?
e.g.:
“2016-12-05 03:45” or “2016-12-05 03:45 UTC”
“2016-02-27 21:05” or “UTC 2016-02-27 21:05”
or more complete,
yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss, e.g.:
“2016-05-07 19:05:08” or
“2016-05-07 19:05:08 UTC”
or a bit more, with week day (3 letters),
“wed, 2016-05-07 19:05:08” or
“wed, 2016-05-07 19:05:08 UTC” or
“UTC 2016-05-07 19:05:08 wed”
simple, compact and without dubious interpretation.
thus not avoid confusion??
how about asking the opinion of the commentators?
all the best!
DG,
thanks for your feedback and attention.
AND… congrats to all Mods. for the personal effort and good work!
all the best!
Do you remember the US mess up of the Cypress bank that held quite a bit of Russian money years ago? The end result of the mess was what the US planned to get out of it:
i. practice stealing automaticly from private bank accounts on a regular basis as much in increments they can get away with regularly, called ‘bail-ins’ I think.
2 the Russian were messed up and removed all their funds to some other known intelligence places, but all funds were checked out carefully by the Feds…for the full amounts.
The practice of how the US Pentagon would steal from European bank accounts in order to fill empty US coffers was practiced and works…whatever you call it. When the actual US coffers are empty.
US is over 20 trillion in debt in 2016.
Kaperskey is the name of cutting edge Russian cyber firm tht has been successfully working protecting computer use. Several years ago the developed a fool prool computer protection system.
Across Amsterdam,Netherlands the new Kaperskey system was for sale. I bought one. In one week I brought it back. Did not work.
Microsoft was accomplishing two things for the US Pentagon. I make the brilliant Russian firm look cheap, shoddy and close down the market for any safety system that could interfere with Federally stealing bank funds by way of internet banking anyplace on earth.
Of course, 9/11 was US done to remove all law. Trump may not be able to replace the US law and not be able to “drian the swamp.
Prime people to steal from in this way are older men and women or disabled on fixed incomes or pensions. If they die from it well they were going to die anyway..
I know as I have such a Microsoft apt on my internet bank account log-in. Quite inobstrusive.