[TAG] Amusing but true

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

So, I've shipped the HP laptop off to be repaired; however, just before
doing so, I wanted to try something that I saw on the Net while looking
up anything I could find related to this problem. Someone had mentioned
that having APM set in the Wind0ws registry could create all sorts of
mysterious crapology, and that getting rid of those settings was a Good
Thing. I booted Wind0ws - probably about the fifth time I did so on this
machine since I started playing with it, searched the registry for the
"APM" string (nope, no such thing), and got ready to shut it down before
shipping it out when I spotted *THIS*:

<http://okopnik.freeshell.org/img/WinXP_POS.jpg>

(Note message in lower left corner)

I was rather amused, but also somewhat curious: was this a virus, or
what? Searching the Net for that exact string produced _zero_ results
(!), so my best guess is that some disgruntled employee at HP is doing
his bit for entropy - and given HP's response, I suspect that I'm the
first one to report this.

Yes, I *was* nice enough to notify HP. However, the support-droid that I
spoke to did not appear to take me seriously... their loss. Pay the
people who are your main interface to the public $5/hour, and you'll get
those who are worth about half of that - if that much. On their own
heads be it.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *