If the Helpdesk gave Darwin Awards......

[Biff]

I was on a train recently and I wanted to check my emails - so using my NewFangledWidget™ I switched on my PDA and attempted to connect to the tinternet using my new mobile phone via Bluetooth. I hadn’t paired them up at this stage, so I needed to search for the phone. Surprise, surprise - my PDA identified around 6 or 7 other Bluetooth enabled mobiles on the train.

“I wonder”, thought I. I attempted to connect to them, one by one just to see whether or not I could use their phones to access the internet. When I was asked to enter a password I entered what I know to be the default password for most mobiles. What a surprise, one by one I briefly accessed the internet on every one of the phones. What fun was had, as each time I connected to the internet via some poor suckers mobile, the phone beeped, and I quickly identified whose phone was whose, and wound up a lot of people in the process. What fun!! (yeah I know – simple things….)

My colleague and I found this highly amusing. Then I had a brain wave, I started up my laptop which has the standard Nokia software installed on it. I then used my Bluetooth enabled laptop (USB dongle) and connected to one of the mobiles. Then I started up the Nokia software and managed to download all of the configuration settings and address book from one of the mobiles!! The damage I could have done.

The moral of the story - CHANGE THE FREAKIN DEAFAULT SECURITY SETTINGS ON YOUR MOBILES!!

[TwoSeven]

I Surprise, surprise - my PDA identified around 6 or 7 other Bluetooth enabled mobiles on the train.

Come on - admit it - you were just "toothing" werent you

[Gremlin]

I have even heard that people send texts to the person saying "I would like to chat, when you get asked for a code press 1 and say yes to any following messages"

and it works, people fall for it...

whats the special code??

[FROSTY:Me]

Ok you lot of puter geeks explain this to me--How in hell can switching the puter off and on fix it?? And how can how long ya leave it off make a difference??

[Ixion]

Ok you lot of puter geeks explain this to me--How in hell can switching the puter off and on fix it?? And how can how long ya leave it off make a difference??

It fixes things because when you turn off and restart, all the memory is cleared and reinitialised. And other things have diagnostics run on them and are reset to correct values.

It's really the restarting that does it, not the turning off. You just ahve to turn off so that you can restart.

Essentially, it's saying "OK, it's all f***ked up. Lets go back to the beginning and begin again".

The reason why helpdesk say to leave it off for X minutes is because computers have big capacitors in them. Even after the power is off it takes time for the stored current to drain away completely.

[BNZ]

The reason why helpdesk say to leave it off for X minutes is because computers have big capacitors in them. Even after the power is off it takes time for the stored current to drain away completely.

Haha, if only.... Ram is cleared instantly, and if you want to wait for your bios battery to drain you will have to leave it unplugged for a few years. The reason they tell you to shutdown for 5 minutes is becuase something is fucked at their end and they know it will be fixed in 4 minutes

[BNZ]

I was on a train recently and I wanted to check my emails - so using my NewFangledWidget™ I switched on my PDA and attempted to connect to the tinternet using my new mobile phone via Bluetooth. I hadn’t paired them up at this stage, so I needed to search for the phone. Surprise, surprise - my PDA identified around 6 or 7 other Bluetooth enabled mobiles on the train.

“I wonder”, thought I. I attempted to connect to them, one by one just to see whether or not I could use their phones to access the internet. When I was asked to enter a password I entered what I know to be the default password for most mobiles. What a surprise, one by one I briefly accessed the internet on every one of the phones. What fun was had, as each time I connected to the internet via some poor suckers mobile, the phone beeped, and I quickly identified whose phone was whose, and wound up a lot of people in the process. What fun!! (yeah I know – simple things….)

My colleague and I found this highly amusing. Then I had a brain wave, I started up my laptop which has the standard Nokia software installed on it. I then used my Bluetooth enabled laptop (USB dongle) and connected to one of the mobiles. Then I started up the Nokia software and managed to download all of the configuration settings and address book from one of the mobiles!! The damage I could have done.

The moral of the story - CHANGE THE FREAKIN DEAFAULT SECURITY SETTINGS ON YOUR MOBILES!!

Haha, common issue. Most new phones ship with Bluetooth disabled for this reason.

[FROSTY:Me]

Haha, if only.... Ram is cleared instantly, and if you want to wait for your bios battery to drain you will have to leave it unplugged for a few years. The reason they tell you to shutdown for 5 minutes is becuase something is fucked at their end and they know it will be fixed in 4 minutes

I like your explaination best
Ohh I just remembered a conversation with the woosh helpdesk.
No sir there is nothing wrong with the network-It must be your unit playoing up. On the radio in the background -Woosh exoeriencing network problems in skycity.

[Ixion]

Haha, if only.... Ram is cleared instantly, and if you want to wait for your bios battery to drain you will have to leave it unplugged for a few years. The reason they tell you to shutdown for 5 minutes is becuase something is fucked at their end and they know it will be fixed in 4 minutes

No, RAM is actually left in whatever state it was at shutdown. It is reinitialised at boot up. On a big Unix server this can take several minutes. On some (mainly older) machines you can see the numbers clicking up on the post screen as it initialises memory. The 5 minutes is overkill, it only needs a few seconds, but they want to make sure and if you say a second or so, people hit the on button even before the fans have stopped.