Root Access

Germany has pretty strong consumer goods protections, yes.

Although by EU standards it's just slightly above average (whereas the UK is somewhat below average)

Hmm. Volkswagen? Might be solid but lies about it's stated performance figures.

2-year warranties are mandatory

As with all the EU, within the first 6 months it's the retailer's responsibility to prove an item wasn't faulty.

@qasdfdsaq UK consumer rights law was updated in Oct 2015

But Germans generally have high expectations of their shite

@DavidPostill Yes, we know.

4:09 PM

New to me is that "US-style class actions introduced in UK" as part of the update.

VW's new car does 250mph

Hi guys. Would the following "how to add page numbers to a PDF on Linux" be better on SU or U&L?

I didn't find anything much on either site.

The 6-month timeline after which the burden of responsibility shifts is unchanged.

Q: How to add page numbers to Postscript/PDF

@FaheemMitha

22

If you've got a large document (500 pages+) in Postscript and want to add page numbers, does anyone know how to do this?

@DavidPostill Thank you.

4:13 PM

I must say, despite my fears of stories of people getting banned from Amazon for making too many returns, their returns policy and process is far superior to these useless Dixons people which I practically have to take to court every time a product develops a fault.

command-line software-rec editors gui pdf

8

Q: Modifying PDF files

I need to do some basic editing on existing PDF file. I.e. I need to: Add chapters/bookmarks Change some page numbering However I cannot find any tool - GUI or commandline - which would offer this functionality. Is there any alternative to just write such tool myself? PS. I look only for fre...

@qasdfdsaq I've heard of people getting banned from Amazon for making too many returns. But I don't know of any statistics.

@FaheemMitha I've had a first warning already because they accidentally processed two returns twice.

@qasdfdsaq Wow. That sucks. What was the wording of the warning? If you don't mind me asking.

@FaheemMitha Obtuse.

4:15 PM

I've returned a couple of things in the past year. Because the seller in both cases was dishonest and sent me crap.

No, I think it was 3.

I generally try to be careful, but sometimes I slip up. Amazon seems to do zero validation of the people selling on their site. They seem to accept anyone and anything. At least in India.

@FaheemMitha forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17432-wtf-amazon-cheeky-gits

@qasdfdsaq Obtuse? You mean obscure?

Stories of other people getting the same emails.

@FaheemMitha No I mean obtuse. If I meant obscure I would have said obscure.

@qasdfdsaq Well, obtuse means something like slow witted. I don't understand how that would fit here.

@DavidPostill @Dave for the tilde expansion, clink w/ lua script might do it

its readline lib does tilde expansion to obut unfortunately you have to hit a key combo to get it to expand

4:20 PM

I'm familiar with obtuse meaning beating around the bush, not addressing anything specifically

^^ pretty much this

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obtuse "difficult to comprehend : not clear or precise in thought or expression"

^^ and this

Thinking of getting this now to cover my electronics that I've been getting annoying numbers of faults with: americanexpress.com/uk/content/ba-premium-plus-credit-card/…

"The word has also developed a somewhat controversial third sense of "hard to comprehend," probably as a result of confusion with "abstruse." "

Mind you I do have insurance on my Microsoft Band so I can get it replaced that way, but I don't want to pay an excess for what is clearly a manufacturing defect.

4:22 PM

Full Definition of abstruse

: difficult to comprehend :

Hmm, obtuse as in unclear is a meaning I'm not familar with.

Much better word ;)

I had no idea Amazon bans for returning lots of things :x Now you've got me worried

Is that standard usage?

@JohnB It does, yes.

@JohnB techwalls.com/amazon-ban-return-too-many-items

4:22 PM

oblique might work too merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oblique "not direct : not stated directly"

> In a recent statement, Amazon mentioned that they are forced to close accounts when they detect extreme abuse but it only happens after they carefully review the account and work with the customer over an extended period of time.

But the criteria are ill-defined.

there we go - got my Meelecs working fine with the Imperial BART 1

Eh I've linked the wording above, you can make your own judgement on how to describe it

same ones that used to make shotgun sounds but I think that was Android

4:23 PM

@qasdfdsaq The articles I read some years ago indicated that they would just inform people with no prior notice. Of course, things change.

@FaheemMitha One of those undisclosed policies that is probably applied very inconsistently

I can only think of two things I've returned, one was damaged due to poor packaging and the other was DOA

@qasdfdsaq Yes, so I imagine.

@FaheemMitha Yes, according to several well respected English dictionaries.

hey, latency is pretty good with these Meelecs too

only problem now is finding a Mini USB cable

4:24 PM

@DavidPostill Oh.

@JohnB I think they cut you off if you do it a lot.

If they don't, they'd lose most of their customer base.

@allquixotic Heh, I have a few, mostly from old headsets. The only thing I still use them for is charging my bike lights

I mean, everyone returns stuff some of the time.

@allquixotic And yet I've still not had any issues

@allquixotic Wanna swap? :P

A major reason I use Amazon in India is that the big online services are pretty much the only people who will take stuff back.

I don't use it that much and mine is the 2014 one with micro

but shipping kills it ... again

4:26 PM

Taking stuff back is un-Indian. Hardly anyone does it.

It's influenced by the value of the returns as well. Just a small number of high value returns can trigger the automated flag, such as the laptop I returned.

@Bob I'm wearing mine slightly off center from my ear in case it shotguns but I don't remember it ever doing that with my laptop so I think it'll be fine with the BART

@FaheemMitha Of course not every native English speaker uses a large vocabulary. "Total vocabulary size varies greatly from person to person, but people typically use about 5,000 words in their speech and about twice that many in their writing. A college-educated speaker of English could have a vocabulary as large as 80,000 words. "

I'm pretty sure that's the server of certain website I visit.

4:26 PM

If I was in the US, I'm not sure I'd use it so much. Probably look more for alternatives. Amazon doesn't seem very nice.

(It's been down for 5+ hours)

@qasdfdsaq Yes, I see. Usually I'm super careful with expensive stuff, but of course things can still go wrong.

@DavidPostill I'm not sure what the relevance of that is.

wtf, why do I have a USB-A to 3.5mm cable

@FaheemMitha Mine was a very minor, cosmetic fault, but I was pretty meh with the laptop overall (stupid proprietary ports... urgh).

@qasdfdsaq What model?

4:28 PM

@DavidPostill Dunno what mine is but it's better than most

@FaheemMitha Lenovo Yoga 700-ISK

@allquixotic Does it do anything?

who knows

@qasdfdsaq Oh. Not a good machine, then?

it doesn't look like it has any kind of smart electronics in it

Apart from making your computer look like the image above, anyway.

4:29 PM

!!xkcd converter

ChatBot John Cavil

Comes with a 50-lb sack of gender changers, and also an add-on device with a voltage selector and a zillion circular center pin DC adapter tips so you can power any of those devices from the 90s.

@FaheemMitha The proprietary ports made it impossible to find a portable charger that worked with it

@FaheemMitha Standard usage does not mean the average person it the street used all the words in a big dictionary.

Also the lack of Ethernet, dodgy USB, and micro-HDMI

@qasdfdsaq That sounds annoying. Proprietary hardware sucks. One problem with laptops.

4:29 PM

The cheaper model has widely-available power input, Gigabit ethernet, more USB ports, and a full size HDMI port.

why couldn't they write sharepoint in php! GRRAAAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Save £300, get the same laptop but better.

@DavidPostill Mmm. I'm usually aware of standard usages of a word.

@Burgi Because Microsoft.

Of course, people can differ in what they consider standard usage.

There are plenty of common usages I dislike.

4:31 PM

@Burgi ...Why should they?

PHP is a plague.

@qasdfdsaq I presume you are college educated ;). That immediately excludes half the UK population ...

@DavidPostill I thought the target was 30%? Or was that university (is college used differently to university? Argh I'm picking up too many americanisms)

List of countries by tertiary education attainment

This is a list of countries by 25- to 64-year-olds having a tertiary education degree as published by the OECD. It includes some non-OECD members. Tertiary education is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including universities as well as institutions that teach specific capacities of higher learning such as colleges, technical training institutes, community colleges, nursing schools, research laboratories, centers of excellence, and distance learning centers. == 2014 OECD data... ==

O_O

We're at the top?

i made a change and it worked

4:33 PM

> palette:
He lost his palette.

wish to eat food

container for carrying fish

artist's board for mixing paints

young female companion

I don't know

Wait, how the hell do those rankings work?

That doesn't seem to be in % order...

There's millions of them and they work differently

@Bob Ignore the rankings. They appear to be ranked in Alphbetical order :/

New Zealand was at the top of one I saw earlier this week

you know, I forgot how good these meelectronics headphones actually are

4:34 PM

i alt tab out of my VM to demo it and it breaks

there's a little bit of sibilance, but the bass is nice, mids are pretty good...

Urgh.

@DavidPostill well, that's a fail

they're not my sennheisers -- still the best cans I've ever had for music listening

@DavidPostill Someone's broken the table it seems

Extra column divider where there shouldn't be :-/

> perturb:
I was perturbed.

worried and puzzled

very wet

corruptly sexual

made to agree

I don't know

Yes, I was ... corruptly sexual

4:35 PM

@qasdfdsaq I suppose it lets you sort and show rank

@Bob Yeah, but they''re two disconnected tables instead of one

@qasdfdsaq where are you finding these definitions? (I'll take the young female companion, thanks)

@allquixotic they also cost less than half as much :P

Maybe I should answer these questions what I want the word to mean...

@qasdfdsaq the idea being you don't sort the rank column too

i.e. you can choose the criteria to rank by

4:36 PM

theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jun/04/… is maybe a better analysis for the UK

Er... hmm.

it seems like an ugly hack around wiki limitations?

Someone added a table that is basically a substitute for line numbers :-/

@Bob Yeah, that

@allquixotic my.vocabularysize.com

I'll have the young female companion very wet and corruptly sexual please.

ok... let's tone it down a little please

it's my fault, I started it

blame me, not him

4:38 PM

don't really need to be starting a fire right now

@allquixotic DavidPostill is the one who inspired me to take this "test"

@allquixotic not assigning blame, just asking that we don't go putting words together like that

@DavidPostill Interesting. Unexpected results. Russia and South Korea? Wouldn't have been my first guesses.

@Bob Are you worried about the mod invasion? :-)

@qasdfdsaq also, might be a good idea to delete/sanitise that before someone comes along. your choice though.

ah... maybe too late. shrug

What, none of it's even vulgar

4:39 PM

@FaheemMitha I'd prefer to avoid it.

Unlike DavidPostill's link to Urbandictionary yesterday -_-

@qasdfdsaq It's suggestive ... personally, I don't care overly much, but I'm trying to keep the room alive until JMG gets back :P

Do you get people with hair triggers here then?

The only way I can delete it is to flag it, so...

@qasdfdsaq No, don't do that.

4:40 PM

@qasdfdsaq yea, nah. Just leave then. And pray.

@FaheemMitha The regulars, generally not. We have had a couple drive-bys though.

Oh hey I just noticed the difference between "Flag as spam" and "Flag for moderator" buttons

@Bob Till JMG gets back from where?

@FaheemMitha From his trip.

It's in the transcript somewhere.

@Bob Er... there's one "mystical creature" >_>

@Bob Ah, yes. Those are the worst.

@Bob Ok.

4:41 PM

> locust:
There were hundreds of locusts.

creatures with wings

people who do not eat meat

unpaid helpers

brightly coloured wild flowers

I don't know

@FaheemMitha It's an ongoing problem, and is almost assuredly not the regulars in here doing it

@allquixotic Ok.

oooh hey my question hit the HNQ :P

@qasdfdsaq that's actually hilarious. I guess I'm a locust then

I've never flagged anything in 5 years on SE. Nor am I likely to do so.

4:42 PM

oh look that site's back up

@allquixotic Vegetarian or unpaid wild flower?

I might if a spam bot got loose in one of the rooms.

No, change that from "might" to "definitely".

> cordillera:
They were stopped by the cordillera.

an armed ship

the firstborn son of the king

a line of mountains

a special law

I don't know

@Bob biggest single environmental disaster (manmade) in history :S

4:43 PM

Huh, first one I don't know :-(

Spam is an issue on IRC, but they don't have any mechanisms to control access.

Other than tossing them out.

@qasdfdsaq I'm an unpaid creature with wings, you insensitive clod! :-P

@allquixotic Cats have wings?

> beagle:
He owns two beagles.

houses built at holiday places

large guns that can shoot many people quickly

small dogs with long ears

fast cars with roofs that fold down

I'll have all of those please

> time:
They have a lot of time.

friends

money

food

hours

I don't know

Hehe, you doing the test too?

4:45 PM

@qasdfdsaq rofl, I can imagine there being an M-88 "Beagle" machine gun

Lol

> pantograph:
The pantograph is broken.

framework of moving bars for copying plans

instrument which measures the amount of breath a person has

pen with a metal point for writing on hard surfaces

instrument which plays music from a metal tube

Wait a pantograph it the thing on top of electric trains that takes power from the overhead wires :-/

I didn't know there were otehr meanings

@allquixotic debatable...

@FaheemMitha sure they do. require registration.

@Bob Chernobyl? :P

nickserv can happily chuck em out

the detonation of Tsar Bomba? :P

4:46 PM

@allquixotic maybe?

Fukushima was worse than Chernobyl no?

@allquixotic not that much fallout from that, actually

@Bob Individual channels can require it, yes. But usually they don't.

@qasdfdsaq nowhere near as bad

Fukushima was largely contained.

@qasdfdsaq Fukushima was several mini-Chernobyls (or in USB plug nomenclature, maybe even micro-Chernobyls)

4:46 PM

just fearmongering news channels trying to get their views

Oh

Fukushima will probably be way more expensive to finally clean up though because it involves so many reactors

> The planetarium was interesting.

place where planes are built

Haha Igeddit. Plane-tarium

lol, the Boeing planetarium in Seattle, WA churns out 737s

I'm going to start using some of these wrong definitions in my speech

@allquixotic If I were to propose a 'biggest human-caused environmental disaster', I'd think of... hm.

4:48 PM

@Bob you have to think of it in terms of a single event vs. a long string of events though

> The speedometer stopped working.

tube put into a person to let liquids in or out of their body

WHAT

because if you are going to identify a single marathon series of a number of years of activity, you could say World War II is the biggest human-caused environmental disaster

I wonder if these are generated at random or of someone actually... does them by hand

@allquixotic Eh. Going with the oil theme, there was the Kuwaiti fires.

@allquixotic Was it? I thought it was more of a humanitarian disaster than environmental

4:50 PM

@allquixotic I'd actually say climate change in general.

Starting with the industrial revolution.

@qasdfdsaq Nagasaki, Hiroshima. The enormous environmental pollution given off by producing so many warships. The pollution of the warships themselves (both the ones that fought in the war, and the ones that didn't). All the airplanes. All that shit now littering the bottom of the ocean. Landmines. Etc.

@Bob in the long view, yes, definitely, climate change wins

Oh

@allquixotic Nagasaki and Hiroshima had minimal fallout, though.

Most of it was very short-lived, and didn't spread very far.

so then the dirty bombs the US tested in the 50s? :P

Pollution... would WWII really be worse than modern day?

4:51 PM

for the worst single-event

Was it geographically more than Deepwater Horizon though? Volumetrically more pollution?

@allquixotic For the most part, there simply isn't much radioactive material involved in bombs.

More species killed?

wtf.... i change no code and run my code again and it now magically works!

we definitely put out way more CO2 these days than they did in WWII, but there were so many other horrid, toxic chemicals being released at that point due to general inattentiveness of environmental issues.

4:51 PM

Hard to quantify off the top of my head

Leaded petrol.

That's why Chernobyl released so much more debris than bombs.

Lead paint.

CFCs.

DDT.

> canoodle:
They’re always canoodling!

stroking and kissing one another

looking for a free meal

merging into the crowd

spreading false and evil ideas about others

@qasdfdsaq that site is incredibly perverted

4:52 PM

You could say overfishing is a massive environmental disaster in itself.

Deforestation. Overfarming.

@allquixotic I'm not even going to quote the list for "nymphomaniac"

What site?

> shoe:
Where is your shoe?

the thing you use for writing

the thing you keep your money in

the thing you wear on your foot

the person who looks after you

lol. when I was a kid my shoe always tried to feed me meat but I didn't want any

>
microphone:
Please use the microphone.
machine for making food hot
machine that makes sounds louder
machine that makes things look bigger
small telephone that can be carried around

...where's my "none of the above"?

Lol, Micro-phone

4:54 PM

LOL

Huh I like this site. No registration. No spam. No demand for your email address or personal details

>
circle:
Make a circle.
space with nothing in it
large hole
round shape
rough picture

I'm too pedantic for this.

Technically a round shape can be an ellipse. Or even something less regular.

Just answer like a dumb person would

-_-

where does it get the potential answers from?

4:56 PM

hm... what happens if someone uses a shoe for writing?

@Bob I don't think it's very pedantic to say that none of those apply. For example, if I speak into the microphone on my iPhone and I'm recording it to NAND, nothing is being made louder at any point in that use of the microphone.

or keeps money in their show?

I mean, those are possible

However, I'm pretty sure I'm now going to start calling the iPhone Mini the "micro-phone"

@allquixotic pretty much.

i used to keep a tenner for an emergency taxi in my shoe on nights out

4:57 PM

also, "machine for making food hot" is hilarious - someone could actually confuse a microPHONE and a microWAVE :)

@qasdfdsaq Please don't try and blame me ... I didn't provide the test link or ask you to publish your results.

this test is way too much fun

@allquixotic Huh, I'd actually have got that one wrong

>
basis:
I don't understand the basis.
road signs
words
reason
main part

> Origin of microphone Expand
1875-18801875-80; micro-, in sense “enlarging” (extracted from microscope ) + -phone

4:57 PM

again with the ambiguous crap

@qasdfdsaq You can flag a mod and say you would like something you posted to be deleted.

@qasdfdsaq except that a device that strictly does amplify sound is called a megaphone

reason ... main part ... both work

@Bob I heavily lean to thinking reason fits better

@allquixotic Yeah, when I skimmed over it the first time I picked "A small telephone"... :-/

4:59 PM

@allquixotic That's what I thought at first, but honestly main part also fits equally well

O_O I just got "basis" but with different answers

basis:
This was used as the basis.

main part
answer
place to take a rest
next step

I mean, the example sentence suggests reason

@allquixotic LOL

obviously it's main part since it appears in both of ours