Root Access - 2015-04-23 (page 1 of 3)

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Journeyman Geek

12:25 AM

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In the News: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/22/uk-chile-volcano-idUKKBN0ND2R320150422?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
"Volcano erupts in southern Chile, belching ash, smoke into sky"
"Television pictures showed a spectacular mushroom-shaped column billowing into the sky with occasional lighting bolts shooting through. The eruption was seen in towns at least 50 kilometres away."

@JourneymanGeek lol

@allquixotic For some reason I thought you were lol'ing at @Psycogeek 's news.

@MichaelFrank D:

I guess I just saw the *geek part of the name?

12:30 AM

The Briard /briːɑrd/ is an ancient breed of large herding dog, originally from France. A Briard-type dog appears in Gaston Febus' Livre de chasse ("Book of the Hunt"), written in the 14th century. According to legend, about the same time, a Briard fought a judicial duel with Robert Macaire to avenge its owner's murder, Aubry of Montdidier. Charlemagne, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, and Lafayette are all said to have owned Briards. It became popular after the Paris dog show of 1863, after the breed had been fixed, with crosses with the Beauceron and the Barbet. During the First World War, the Briard...

interesting wolves

of course, I hate them all. *cat-burrito*

> $15.50 per MB

O_O

@Bob I'll take Hotel Wireless for $200!

(data roaming charges to Maritime Islands)

Ahh

Journeyman Geek

Oh, I've seen one at the vet!

I'd argue tho, that dosen't take into account a predilection for grand theft auto theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/22/…

3

12:56 AM

0

Q: How can I stop my monitors from wobbling?

I recently purchased a new monitor (Asus VS247 if it matters) and found out that it wobbles quite a bit when I type. I've had this problem before, even my smaller monitor wobbles a little bit, but even as I type this I can see my entire display wobbling left and right. I suspect the issue is the ...

multiple-monitors

I hated the monitor bases so much, that was 25% of my buying descision. for it to have a base with some size , which usually (also) includes height adjustement, and vesa mount.

In the store about 10% of these cheap all plastic bases were already broken.

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I would be doing that with them :-) a couple of 2x4s can fix anything. Pic from etsy.com/listing/206171822/…

@Psycogeek Clever

Journeyman Geek

1:30 AM

Nice. Tho a metal vesa mount would be nice.

Kinda broad tho. Smells more like something for chat.

2:21 AM

Does adobe.com work for anybody? I have not been able to install Creative Cloud for the last two days. I get a 404 error when I try.

CC is a pain in the ass to find...

@MichaelFrank Does this page work for you? I see it for a split second and then it moves to a 404. adobe.com/creativecloud.html

Driving me nuts. There's stuff I need to do.

Works fine for me.

Hmmn

Works here too, some script runs, the browser that runs scripts went white for a second, then it all showed.

2:33 AM

Tried different browsers here. But I am using Windows 10.

it would be kinda useless (and totally par) for a web based service to , not work because of the web :-)

Weird that it does not work for me on Chrome on Win10.

Or Spartan or IE11.

Guess I'll have to install another version of Windows tomorrow.

Oh another build update arrived. Might as well install this and see if it fixes this problem.

I wouldnt be so quick to assume it was the OS, what if it is the myriad of other things , like routers, filters, certs, and all that other fun stuff?

the only thing simple about that particular page is the loads of javascripting stuff going on. I wouldnt call a page like that very safe or totally backwards compatable.

I set it to show only text, and it is a mess, but the text is there.

A good hosts blocking setup can have various aspects of adobee blocked out , even after paying them thousands for thier programs I block many of thier tracking and activations servers.

3:29 AM

@Psycogeek Why would you block the activation servers if you paid for the software? :P

@Psycogeek I thought it could be a certs problem, which would be an OS problem too. Problem has occurred in different locations (and therefore routers).

And it's still happening with the latest build. The Recycle Bin has turned square and looks very much like the Windows '95 one now.

Journeyman Geek

3:55 AM

0_0

pcgamer.com/gaming-mouse-myths-busted

Seems an interesting read ;p

4:12 AM

@MichaelFrank Because various activation and call home stuff acts much like viruses do. When watching/controlling all activity things that start talking to the web are suspect. With all the programs trying to connect, i cant make heads or tails of what is supposed to be connecting. If nothing does anything without the user manually doing it, then anything the user did not initiate is suspected.

One software asks ME , if i would like to renew the licence (which is just calling home) I can do so then or later, as long as i do so at some time. That one i have never had any need or desire to break , or stop.

ChatBot John Cavil

HAMMERTIME!

Journeyman Geek

;p

And there have been some weird things that go on, at times, that luckily i am not the only one who asks about them, so usually you can find out on the web, why MS is talking to some weird server in arizona :-) or how some DNS was resolved when the DNS was fully non-operational (howd they do dat).

Also weird folders with files in them showing up. (who the h-- put dat der). That times it was a new feature of the browser (also discovered via the web, and real web pages, not SEO pages).

The beast has become like a Mutating zombie with growing apendanges, we kill those things , just for fun sometimes :-)

@paradroid "IIRC, ADS is used for EFS, and moving EFS encrypted files to FAT32 will make them unreadable forever" could be that would need to be edited into the answer?

superuser.com/questions/403870/… <-- this question

Journeyman Geek

4:38 AM

sounds like that. Might be fun to test it out ;p

Unless EFS is Encapsulated file system :-) I wouldnt know encrypted.

4:55 AM

@Psycogeek anvir.com/encrypting-file-system.htm

Yeah, I reckon it's an important point to make.

Search that page for 'stream'

I had a client that was completely screwed by that, as the data backups didn't include the ADS.

Backups made by Acronis TrueImage, or whatever they called the server version.

So if they use a raw backup system, in files mode vrses sector by sector, then the ads itself could be lost, which is critical to the encryption. but regular transferring of files to a non-encrypted file system would decrypt prior to transfer.

@Psycogeek Well Acronis stuff strips the streams, which basically caused a hell of a lot of grief for one of my clients a few years agoo.

@Psycogeek Hello. When you use someone to ship something on your behalf, do you put "c / o"?

that could explain why like 50% of people cant seem to use acronis :-) many many people have a horrible time using that thing , as seen in the amazon reviews.

Acronis help stuff suggests that they do store ADS, and my own experience with a few files with ADS would say that was true , because my whole system has survived many acronis full restores. but they dont survive de-duplication, about then my head explodes and i just do not know.

5:17 AM

@Psycogeek They have possibly fixed that problem since.

I have no idea what happens if one attempts to restore to a fat system.

Acronis Backup & Recovery was the name of the software

That also brings up "converting" a partition.

And it was at least four years ago when it happened.

8

A: Decrypt EFS files

The EFS keys are kept in NTFS alternate data streams, so if your USB drive was not formatted as an NTFS drive, the information would be lost. Backup programs often discard this information as well. You can check if the streams are still there using Streams or ADS Spy. If they are no longer the...

How about EFS can also use ADS and that is not covered here in this answer. so before using EFS be sure you get your shit together , or you be in a world of hurt :-)

5:21 AM

Heh

Doing that to yourself would be worse than getting that CryptoHostage virus, at least with it you could (hope to) pay your way out.

True

5:38 AM

ok try that superuser.com/a/403875/98855 I really do not know how to fix it, because I would not be testing that here. Luckily the question only asks, and the Way people are finding that is probably based on the Error text, and for that error text it is probably good to go as it was.

The question (luckily) did not ask to describe all ways that ADS are used, just why do i get this requester asking me stuff.

@Psycogeek Cool. Well that page seems to get a lot of views, so it could help someone.

so what does the requester pop up, when your putting encrypted files onto a Fat32 system <-- the 6400 doller question (because it isnt worth 64.000).

I would have thought that there is a warning dialogue, at least when using Windows.

Well if anybody know (cause now i want to know) How windows flags the user when an encrypted file is about to be decrypted and stored unencrypted by default, Ping me, so i see it.

@paradroid Yea gotta love the part where i said , nothing critical is stored there :-)

It's why I thought I'd mention it.

Journeyman Geek

6:01 AM

@paradroid geeze. Thanks for finding a hillariously bad answer I posted 4 years ago ;p

@JourneymanGeek It appeared on the front page

@paradroid tbh that doesn't make much sense to me

@Bob What doesn't?

the key shouldn't be stored in the file's stream, unless it's generating a new symmetric encryption key for each file

if you mean the encrypted data itself is stored in an ADS, fine... but normally the action of copying the file to a non-EFS FS will also decrypt the file (and would come up as a 0-byte file otherwise)

@Bob Well the encryption key for EFS is stored in the ADS.

6:04 AM

@paradroid That, again, makes no sense.

The primary per-user key is stored in the certificate store.

You can export a backup copy of the certificate.

@Bob Welll read the wikipedia page for it, or this anvir.com/encrypting-file-system.htm

If there's a per-file key (one per file) then that would explain your statement. I wasn't aware of per-file keys.

@paradroid Ah, so there is a per-file key.

(sorry, that wasn't immediately clear on reading your answer)

@paradroid Then it's not so much an "encryption key for EFS" as it is an encryption key for that particular file.

I read "for EFS" as either the user-global or system-global EFS implementation...

6:32 AM

@Boris_yo I dont know "Care Of" i thought was the opposite? to ship something to an address where a person gets it, and then gives it to the person it was supposed to be sent to? Like "care of" Country Jail? "COMMUNICATIONS abbreviation for care of: used in addresses when the person you are writing to is staying at someone else's home: Sylvia Mendez, c/o Ann Smith, 12 Glastonbury Lane, Bickerton" dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/business-english/c-o

If I had someone else ship something for me, first they better be doing it right :-) and just like I would. It might have a different "return address" than who acted to ship it for me, or at least my phone number tossed on it somewhere. I might just use something simple like Shipped From: or Shipped By: and put both addresses as needed with simple human understandable pointers.

6:52 AM

Even in the first scenario c/o Ann Smith, i would really want to avoid giving anyone an excuse to aquire a package intended for a specific person. I would try and avoid putting the other person (or business) on it at all. The only time i can think where that would be desirable is when shipping to a Kid, and you put thier parents name on it too.

Journeyman Geek

Are you talking about 'shipping to a friend' or 'shipping to a company that handles reshipping?'

For the former, sometimes. For the later, you just use your own name, or whatever they tell you to use as an address

I think boris was refferring to having a shipping agent.

Hey guys, usually when a laptop (full battery) shuts down without warning, is it more likely to be a problem of drivers or maybe the memory maxing out. I'm unsure how to check all this. Going vaguely into google just lands me in weird places.

Journeyman Geek

IIRC mine uses my actual name, no c/o

@Nick Define "shut down" first ? It is unlikely that any maxing out on memory would cause a shutdown, or an auto-restart.

7:00 AM

@Psycogeek Sorry, it just turns off and restarts again. no warning. (I'm using win7)

Journeyman Geek

@Nick: is your system set to reboot on blue screen?

@Nick You know that the win7 system by default (i think) is set to restart on a crash, instead of showing stuff you could need to know, and waiting up, for you to restart.

Journeyman Geek

In any case, whocrashed and blue screen view are your friends here ;p

@JourneymanGeek I didn't get a blue screen but no. It usually shows me the blue screen.

Journeyman Geek

resplendence.com/whocrashed

7:03 AM

@JourneymanGeek .... you've made me regret not asking here sooner.

Journeyman Geek

nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html is also shiny for doing remote post mortems.

@JourneymanGeek mmh, is it possible that a .dmp file was not made during the crash?

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There is where they put that button.

Journeyman Geek

Yeah, but that's rare.

And without a dump its PRETTY hard to work out what the error was.

@Psycogeek That colour scheme scares me but yeah. it's unchecked for me too.

@JourneymanGeek Mhh, the new-gen approach is to dump the machine and buy a new one.

7:09 AM

you mean the "good time for an upgrade" :-)

Journeyman Geek

Depends on how old the machine is ;p

@JourneymanGeek I just wish a computer lasted a lifetime. Tech these days seem so use and throw.

whos lifetime, there are a lot of computers that are 25 years old still working, nobody wants to work them, but they could :-)

Journeyman Geek

@Nick: 5 years makes sense for a good primary system

(and usually when I buy new hardware these days, its cause I have a need that's not covered, or reasonably catastrophic failure, rather than "its old" )

@Psycogeek Sure, things from those days actually were made to work. If it weren't for compatibilty problems, I would fire up an old pentium core cpu.

Journeyman Geek

7:14 AM

One or two exceptions, and I'm not averse to handing down parts between boxen.

@JourneymanGeek I should definitely get a phone charger that supports swappable 18650s :P

I now have enough to charge my phone 20 times over...

Journeyman Geek

;p

superuser.com/questions/905046/… stuff like this scares me ;p

@JourneymanGeek your comment finished the job of scaring me :-)

@JourneymanGeek Yeah, maybe it's my fault every tech I own ends up getting dumped. It would be more economical if I could self-LTS everything I own.

Journeyman Geek

lol

@Nick: I try to balance "initial cost" and "how long do I expect to run this" and "what do I want to do with it?"

So my gaming PC from 2007 is the family spare PC (with replacements for attrition)

I spent ~1.2K on my current system, and built it so I could use it as a VM host in future with upgrades.

(and I'm starting on the next gen build now, so ....)

7:22 AM

@JourneymanGeek The last CPU I had ran a splendid 4 years with Windows Vista. I played too many games to count, had so much software, it was hilariously packed. Finally, the graphics card attempted suicide and then the rest of it got stolen by a guy who said he'd fix it. Yeah, life is unexpected. I can't even balance a bicycle.

Journeyman Geek

lol. Hardware is a bit like lego.

@Nick I've had this machine since 2011. It's still running well.

I might upgrade the RAM (cur 8 GB) soon-ish, but that's not maxed out.

@JourneymanGeek, but Lego doesn't have wire management. ;)

The CPU (i7-2600) is usually sitting completely idle and is rarely maxed. Won't benefit much from upgrading it.

The GPU (GTX 560) is probably the most significant performance-related upgrade at this point, but even then it's not necessary - most games still run adequately.

Side note: the GPU fan has actually died once, but I replaced it :P

I go through laptops pretty quickly, though. The displays tend to not last long.

Or it might just be because HP has especially flimsy internal display cables and connectors...

@Bob Is that readyBoost thing actually any good. I took out an 3GB SD card from a seldomly used camera to readyBoost my lap which has a 4GB RAM. I'm not seeing much of an improvement.

7:27 AM

Well, I have a fully working AMD Sempron 3400 skt 754 and 1.5GB of RAM running Xubuntu.

@Nick, it's kinda just like faster page-file/swap.

@CozzmyCosmin That's neat.

@Nick ReadyBoost is primarily for caching application images - you want a page file (and/or something like PrimoCache). But it won't help much in this case - SD cards are not fast.

HDDs are still faster than all SD cards in sequential access - and that includes UHS-I cards that go to 90 MB/s.

The cheap-ish class 10 cards only guarantee 10 MB/s write.

The cheaper and alarmingly common class 4 cards only guarantee 4 MB/s write.

@Bob, but they should be faster, as they don't have moving parts.

If that PhoneBlox thing ever works out, and doesnt cost 3times as much as replacing the phone, they could start to apply that to lappies. google.com/… LaptopBlox You should get the kickstarter going now.

The alarmingly poor class 2 cards only guarantee 2 MB/s write. If it's a 3 GB card, and from an old camera, it's likely class 2 or worse (!!!).

@CozzmyCosmin That is a fallacy.

When your "moving parts" move at > 5000 revs per second, it's not necessarily the bottleneck.

7:30 AM

@Bob I ran 2 good years without a working GPU fan for my old cpu before it got harvested. Maybe that's why it died.

SD cards can be very slow.

@Bob Well, so, I've made the worst possible decision for readyBoost hardware, eh?

Higher-end SD cards might beat an HDD in random access, but even that's not guaranteed - the typical card reader interface is also not optimised for random access so you end up with a bottleneck there.

@Nick ReadyBoost is pretty much a last resort when you're running with bare minimum RAM.

@Bob How about a USB?

@Nick, same shit.

7:32 AM

Better to grab an SSD and chuck a page file on there (cc @allquixotic), or just add more RAM.

@Nick Same as SD cards. Some flash drives are fast, some are horrifically slow.

@Bob I'm running 64bit, so, I have a lot of memory consumption.

@Nick ...yea, when the fan dies you really should fix it :P

@Nick The memory usage difference between 32-bit and 64-bit isn't that large (depending on what you're doing).

RAM is just cheap this days. Don't buy any chocolate a few weeks and you can buy some more RAM.

You simply don't have enough memory for what many modern programs expect..

I wouldn't recommend any less than 8 GB for a new desktop or full-size laptop.

@Bob .....Running a lot of 32 bit apps.....

@CozzmyCosmin Or wait a couple more weeks till the RAMs become even cheaper ;)

7:34 AM

@CozzmyCosmin I still have an old PIII machine I still haven't gotten around to trying to boot yet :P

@JourneymanGeek has an SI Octane IIRC

@Nick DDR4's out now. DDR3 isn't going to get much cheaper, if any.

It was cheap many years ago, before the floods...

@Bob Mhh, will consider.

@Nick Thing is, with DDR4 out they'll almost certainly slow production of DDR3. Less supply => prices won't go down until demand also drops => demand won't drop for a while yet - by then you might as well go DDR4 as well with a new machine.

Having a dilemma,
on the same machine, with Windows, HTML5 video playback is faster than flash, but on Linux, it's the other way around.
Any explanation?

@CozzmyCosmin Graphics drivers, probably - but you'll need to define "faster".

@Bob Well, that was a good lesson on what drives the market.

7:38 AM

Are you experiencing stuttering on one or the other?

@Bob Couldn't this be more of a browser issue?

@Nick There's another POV though - DDR3 will still exist for a while yet, but that's more in the embedded world where high throughput aren't really important. So the actual memory modules will still be manufactured, but probably not so much in the stick form factor used in desktops and laptops.

@Bob, stuttering with HTML5 on Linux and with Flash on Windows.

@CozzmyCosmin That's very odd.

For the Flash thing - perhaps try turning off "protected mode" if you're using Firefox?

@Nick, well it's the same browser, Mozilla.

@Bob, will look into that option.

7:41 AM

As for Linux... what videos are you testing with?

IIRC FF can't play H.264 on Linux.

H.264 generally has better hardware decoding support.

@CozzmyCosmin kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabling_Protected_Mode_in_Flash_11.3

huh, they added an in-browser protected mode config O_O

niiiice

Generally, I don't recommend disabling security features. But Flash's Protected Mode is horribly unstable.

@Bob this is interesting to think about.

@Bob Flash still seems so 90s. When are we throwing it out?

@Bob, flash is unstable as-is.
Just waiting for the moment when everything will be HTML.

:)

@Nick Not for a while yet.

There's actually a benefit to Flash from the consumer's perspective - it's easy to enforce click-to-play.

As more features and access is given to JS/WebGL/etc., unless similar security controls are added, the attack surface of every browser will increase. Bit of a scary thought.

@CozzmyCosmin Yeah, not everything. Wildtangent used HTML and Js to make their onboard HP Games module.... I cringe everytime I look at it.

On one hand, if we keep JS/et al. more restrictive then we're safer. But then people will continue writing for Flash/Java/etc., because they need that additional access those plugins provide.

It's really hard to find a compromise (apart from the whole browser vendors barring plugins entirely thing... which isn't necessarily good thing from an open web perspective).

7:47 AM

@Bob That's true. I guess he's going to be with us a for a while :(

We're already seeing some measure of security controls: explicit permission is required for desktop notifications and for full-screen. But that's more to prevent annoying spam and impersonations respectively.

I'm mostly concerned about WebGL - there's typically a lot of vulns in anything related to graphics :\

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: Can't login tho ;p

Are you guys into Android too?

@CozzmyCosmin I'm into androids a.k.a humanoid robots

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7:53 AM

@Nick, that's not exactly what I meant. :)

@Psycogeek, at least 100 years to get to that stage.

@Bob The future will hold more holes than patches. I guess it's kind of like the lesson you take away from Power Rangers, the battle never ends.

@Psycogeek well, you seem into androids in a different way. lol.

@CozzmyCosmin Hey, that's what they said a hundred years ago.

I have to eat something, I've spend all my morning decompiling android apps.

spent*

Journeyman Geek

8:11 AM

I pretty much need an oldschool scsi device to break in ;p

hmmm lygte-info.dk/review/…

interesting

a battery pack that actually uses good Samsung cells, but doesn't work :P

Journeyman Geek

sounds like a bit of a waste. Maybe a dud unit?

@JourneymanGeek ya, one of the battery welds was faulty

@Bob, Dat website design...

Journeyman Geek

@CozzmyCosmin: I use a android phone, but its a tool more than anything rlse. It does phone calls, and lets me access the internet away from home, and that's about it ;p

@Bob: the build quality on the xiaomi is not bad ;p

8:20 AM

@Bob, well, mine is much more.

@CozzmyCosmin That guy does great reviews, especially for chargers. The website design? Doesn't really matter too much; all the info is there :P

@CozzmyCosmin I think you meant to reply to @JourneymanGeek

@JourneymanGeek He hasn't reviewed it :P

@Bob, yeah, my mistake. :)

Journeyman Geek

Currently have a 1st gen moto G

But there are plenty of existing tests, and it's a known quantity by now.

O_O

Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan

Wikipe-tan (ウィキペたん, Wikipetan) is a personification of Wikipedia and was created in January 2006 by the editor Kasuga. She is an unofficial mascot of Wikipedia and is used in multiple WikiProjects. The "-tan" in "Wikipe-tan" is a hypocoristic suffix, in the form of a Japanese honorific. Like the OS-tans, she is a product of moe anthropomorphism. Wikipe-tan is the mascot character for WikiProject Anime and manga and WikiProject Holidays' Christmas task force; she was also the mascot for Admin coaching, the Counter-Vandalism Unit, and a contender for the Wikipedia mascot. In addition, Wikimedia Hong...

@JourneymanGeek, then we are in the same specs range, I have a ZTE Vec 4G.
Tho ZTE doesn't have Moto's software support.

Journeyman Geek

8:23 AM

I have an old plan with more data but 3g only ;p

@JourneymanGeek, I don't actually use the 4G connection, everywhere I go i have wi-fi connections.

@Bob Never knew that.

Journeyman Geek

(probably getting a one plus (2?) at some point)

@JourneymanGeek, that phone is a beast, tho I've heard people having some hardware problems with it.

@JourneymanGeek, I was talking about the Oneplus One.

Journeyman Geek

@CozzmyCosmin someone here has one. And yeah

I'm never an early adopter. Better to wait for the bugs to come out first ;p

Just found an YouTube video about a Nexus 6 shipped with KitKat on it.

8:34 AM

@CozzmyCosmin Neither did I!

@Bob I know 4x 18650 usb power boxes exist with spring connects so you can replace the batts easily. I think the first few in existance were lower power. Thought it would be cool to get the box without the batts, then a person ca use thier own. But nowdays i prefer to use li-poly flat packs, saves space.

@Psycogeek Eh, I have a couple of the Xiaomi 10400mAh ones... but I'd also like one to use all these loose cells in :P

@Psycogeek I prefer to stay away from Li-po. Pain to charge, and larger chance of fireball.

The real advantages of a box without the batteries yet installed, is knowing it Has any :-) batteries when you put them in.

@Psycogeek I don't just want to install batteries in one of the screw-shut boxes, though. I want something easily swappable.

The ML-102 looks like a decent candidate, though it only takes one cell at a time.

Li-Po is just li-ion in a bag instead of a can, and they do not have as many safety features. but just because RC people charge at 10C (torture) doesnt mean we have to, soo it is all about how it is treated.

8:38 AM

Dammit, I still want to make a proper Joule Thief when I get time :(

My last attempt ended quite abruptly when I burnt myself with the soldering iron :(

Journeyman Geek

._. You hold the handle, not the tip.

Ahh Joule what?

Journeyman Geek

(also, opposable thumbs can be useful when soldering)

@JourneymanGeek Well, it was one of those cheap irons... had a little accident involving the side of a finger while trying to put it down.

Bought a proper (still cheap, but better) soldering station since.

Now it has a nice stand and all that :P

@MichaelFrank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief

Journeyman Geek

8:40 AM

@Bob: I have a cheap soldering iron, but a decent stand.

Hm... I vaguely remember using it to fix something in the last year, but can't remember what

My soldering iron is gas powered B)

this is really annoying

I know I used it. I know the repair was a success.

But what was it?

^ been trying to figure it out for at least a month by now

Journeyman Geek

rofl. Clearly not memory.

xD

8:58 AM

Why these gamemakers think putting a epic (not) movie stopping my game play completly (QTEs dont count) , improves anything. I think they spend a lot of money keeping me from playing?

I know it isnt working, because even with a strategy game i can intensely get into another world, then the stupid movie comes along and it's like what the f----

Tell story while i am playing game , works everytime. stop game to tell story, , , well either way i still really dont completly comprehend the story they are attempting to tell , unless i play it again.

One that really ticks me off is when your hands on finnaly winning a huge boss, or just the general end, then for the "big glorious win" your not even playing, your watching, and that is (more like) watching someone else win :-(

And a QTE that has me blow the smoke off the end of my gun , doesnt count .

@Psycogeek Ikr. Games need to remove that old fad. We need interactive in-game storylines. If we wanted to watch video, we'd have gone for a movie.

I dont know if they really thought out the QTEs either, they spend days making a scene, that is totally awesome, and i am looking for what button i am suppsed to push instead.

@Psycogeek Sometimes, game-makers just settle for what's easier, I think. We need more people out there who are willing to actually invest more time and effort intop a truly immersive experience.

as long as it was easier , i see it more often in the epic 140million doller games?

9:14 AM

@Psycogeek lol. These people are wasting money. We should totally pin the inflation on them.

One i forget the name of, should have been on an interactive DVD instead. At least they are making use of the 3D game engine more often than before to do scenes (that do not really include me)

@Psycogeek It's a problem with the template of popular games out there, I guess. They tend to use cheap tactics if the userbase allows it.

that would be the user base that says "Fingledork 2 was way better than Fingledork 3" which probably cost them 4 times as much to make.

Then the reviewers will say " this is fingledork for all gamers, not just the nitche market"

And people really do sop it up, they certannly know more about the lives of the game charachters than i do. Could be playing it 50 times does that :-)

hehe, yeah. Media is much better than actual real-life living. It's easy to just fall into it.

@Nick Depends what game.

Interactive (or at least immersive) cutscenes make sense in FPS and maybe TPS games. Oh, and RPGs.

9:24 AM

@Bob Yeah but for me, I can even fall into something text based. For example, the chrome experiment "A Dark Room"

Not so much for RTSes.

Shameless plug:

0

A: Does the JPEG file format support RGB data?

While the actual data format read by WIC can be controlled, notice that the Device Independent Bitmap format, commonly used for uncompressed image data (and contained inside most BMP files too), stores each pixel in 24BPP and 32BPP formats as a single 24-bit or 32-bit little-endian word. This im...

@Bob Where do you learn stuff like this? I feel like I've been living under a rock for a long time.

@Nick Here and there :P

I did something with manually creating bitmap files ~two years ago.

@Bob So, basically, it comes from experience.

@Nick Oh, no, it was the memory dump I downloaded into my head back in '10 :P

9:30 AM

@Bob Wait, what do you do exactly? (ie, professionally)

@Nick You need more memory first :P

@Nick It's a secret ;)

Journeyman Geek

lol

I like to run and hide under rocks when i read such things :-) I think the first answer is kinda weird itself, when jpeg has always stored in a "different" colorspace not RGB, they dont toss out RGB data, they seperate it all and toss color data out left and right YCbCr

It is like they have been doing for ages with video, make a great B/W image and plop some nasty color on top of it :-)

Be it old analog or premium digital the first thing they toss out (when compressing to death), is the quantity or res of the color. I can see the reason for doing that, but not the reason for telling people it is all 1:1 Still :-)

@Bob Oh, thanks for the RAM :D I really needed it.

@Bob Well, construction isn't such a shameful profession.

user image

...oh god that thing is still haunting me

Journeyman Geek

9:41 AM

lol.

(We have something called that at work ;p)

@Bob Own it. It'll make things easier.

@Bob If it makes you feel any better. Mr. Incredible's name is Robert "Bob" Par. So, I guess you could also be a superhero.

10:09 AM

You game!, I am not dead, repharase that ,
Your a Zombie, Game Over

"Would you like to continue" as a zombie?

10:43 AM

crasy zombies were surviving with 1/2 thier brains blown off, so i have invented a new style the "Neck Shot"

11:11 AM

Is there any special about font for windows 8?

(Just wondering about the windows-8-fonts tag)

Journeyman Geek

11:29 AM

Nope.

11:48 AM

Eww what do you call zombies that eat eachother? Canabies Zonibals or necrotic diminution of putrefaction?

ha bob the builder

Hereby bob is renamed :D

I have the secret to surviving the zombie apocalypse now , MSG , and BHT , makes zombies tastey.

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