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2:52 AM
blah
!!/tumbleweeds
 
3:25 AM
Had to edit the answer because it was disruptive to 10k users.
Mar 28 at 7:49, by Journeyman Geek
user image
 
3:40 AM
I do not take editing someone else's deleted answer lightly (even if the account is deleted).
 
3:51 AM
@bwDraco eh, that should have been left as is for historical reasons
 
4:04 AM
Yet another victim of the 364.72 drivers.
1
Q: Nvidia Gtx 960 blackscreen and loud noise, code 43:windows has stopped this device because it has reported prob

Thor_that_new_in_programmingNvidia gtx690 blackscreen and loud noise(sometimes). code 43:windows has stopped this device because it has reported problem. Currently i am using windows 10. I tried many methods. Including unplug graphic card, Uninstall all nvdia software through DDU. Update Bios, set graphic primary to PCI-e...

I'm starting to see this as potentially serious enough to require a canonical question.
 
and heh. I'm running it with no issues
 
Composing a question right now.
 
I wonder if specific graphics cards/firmware versions are affected
on meta?
 
Bob
...
Chrome 50 broke stuff
 
@Bob harbinger unlocked ;p
though, I was knocking the AI controlled ones out with russian AA APCs
 
Bob
4:12 AM
@JourneymanGeek I didn't even fight any.
Did an early push across to the right and wiped out the airbase early.
 
4:26 AM
0
Q: Graphical corruption, game or video driver crashes, BSODs, or noisy GPU fan after updating NVIDIA GeForce drivers to 364.72

bwDracoI recently updated the drivers for my NVIDIA GeForce video card to version 364.72 and I'm now experiencing one of more of the following issues: Games or other graphically intensive applications crash or hang. I get BSODs that are associated with the graphics driver, e.g. nvlddmkm.sys or dxgkrnl...

This needs a canonical question.
There are enough duplicates out there to make this necessary.
 
4:44 AM
Alright, folks. Let's start closing the duplicates.
 
 
3 hours later…
7:17 AM
tomshardware.com/news/… I have noooo idea what this does, but it seems cool ;p
 
8:05 AM
yesterday, by Journeyman Geek
This is why I nuked the account
@JourneymanGeek He clearly didn't take the hint. Back as superuser.com/users/588412/macpay
-1
A: Uninstall Bluestacks Old Version

macpayAs for BlueStacks removal, make sure you've gained the admin rights and, you've completely exit the app, including its background processes. Here's how to perform the manual uninstall, read it if you need extra help. More, reviewing the attempts you made to get BlueStacks would also help perform...

Link to https://removeunwantedprograms.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/uninstall-bluestacks-ma‌​c-pc/
Complete with the same affiliate links.
Flagged as spam.
 
yeah
Nuked,
 
Thanks. Anything linking to removeunwantedprograms.wordpress.com needs to be nuked on sight ;)
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek interesting: shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/…
But RAM's a bit low :P
Especially compared to the less known Chinese stuff
 
8:34 AM
2gb is standard modern day netbook ;p
actually looks a lot like a 2nd gen stream would be I suspect
 
Bob
8:59 AM
@JourneymanGeek still a bit low though :P
@JourneymanGeek Our favourite travel.se user is back :P
1
Q: Can I import a gun-shaped console controller‎ from the United States into the UK?

UlkomaMy friend is traveling to the states next week for a short time then he'll be back to England , I would love to ask him to get me this very unique xbox controller. He doesn't have to carry it with him of course instead he will keep it in his luggage. Would it cause him any problems? Related ar...

> PS: damn trolling, now when I need real advice you'll think I m trolling.
 
9:16 AM
lol
lol
Pretty sure that would be totally illegal here
I think the correct solution is to hide it an a crate of replica office equipment....
 
does anyone know C here?
 
Bob
Possibly.
Depends what level of knowledge you're after.
 
@Bob I need to know how the function "free" works
 
Bob
@JesterTran What do you mean "how"? Need more context...
It also depends on the platform you run it on :\
 
@Bob Say we have an integer pointer and we want to free it
Linux OS
 
Bob
9:26 AM
I mean, if you want implementation details, IIRC typical libcs use the sbrk syscall. Windows/MSVCRT uses HeapAlloc/HeapFree.
 
thanks!
 
Bob
Oh wait, moden libc (e.g. glibc) uses mmap
 
thanks, much appreciated
 
Bob
@JesterTran These are really implementation details that vary a lot depending on the runtime, the compiler, etc..
They're not things you generally want to worry about.
If this is for some homework/assignment, you need to be very precise about what environment you're asked about.
I've written my own sbrk implementation for a toy OS (OS/161) that would be completely different from how Linux does things.
 
it's just for my own pleasure
 
Bob
9:30 AM
Ah. I nthat case I can go into more detail without worrying about giving you misinformation :P
 
Bob
Though, I only have a very broad understanding... there's lots of good resources for more detail.
Generally, the C runtime will request a block of virtual memory from the OS.
That's a syscall, which is platform-specific.
mmap on Linux, Unix. HeapAlloc on Windows.
This happens when you malloc.
This memory is allocated in a giant chunk to your process.
The OS doesn't know about any of your in-process data structures.
The C runtime handles the splitting of this chunk into smaller blocks. There's some bookkeeping data attached to each block.
So a block might look like this:
(The bookkeeping data can go anywhere... maybe at the end of the block, etc., very implementation-dependent. Beginning makes sense cause it's easy to find from the pointer.)
 
Bob
That'll store the size of the block. And maybe able a link to the next block.
Each malloc call would allocate a new block.
When you free, the free function knows how the malloc arranged the block. So it knows what the offset for the bookkeeping data is.
 
yep, I'm following. This is exciting!
 
Bob
9:35 AM
Then it can look up the size and mark that block unused.
Usually you'd also have a free block list, which can be simply implemented as a linked-list. There's more efficient and advanced structures possible, though. This is the pool of blocks malloc can allocate from.
Malloc will search the free block list for a block big enough to satisfy the request. It can also break blocks up to make them smaller, and merge small blocks to make a large one.
The process of merging blocks can be very slow. It also only works on contiguous blocks. This is also why a process with a fragmented heap can take up a lot more virtual memory than actual used memory.
When you free, the newly-freed block is added to the free block list.
Depending on the implementation, if there's enough free blocks it might decide to reduce its virtual memory allocation by resizing its heap using syscalls.
Oh, look, this probably explains it better than me :P en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
 
@Bob How does this work? Does it change bookkeeping data?
 
Bob
> The GNU C library (glibc) uses ptmalloc,[11] an allocator based on dlmalloc.[12]

Memory on the heap is allocated as "chunks", an 8-byte aligned data structure which contains a header, and usable memory. Allocated memory contains an 8 or 16 byte overhead for the size of the chunk and usage flags. Unallocated chunks also store pointers to other free chunks in the usable space area, making the minimum chunk size 24 bytes.
@JesterTran Implementation-dependent (again! noticing a pattern?) but it could mark the block unused in the bookkeeping data and add it to the free block list. That would be enough.
It could even just mark it unused and forget about it - then you'd end up with a block that could never be used again.
Or a dumb implementation could simply do nothing at all!
Of course, then your memory usage would never decrease and repeated malloc+free calls would eventually run out of address space.
 
When you say implementation-dependent, are you saying it depends if it's mmap, HeapAlloc, etc?
 
Bob
Some implementations might decide to try to do block compaction on the free rather than on the malloc.
@JesterTran Depends on the malloc implementation. On Linux you're probably dealing with glibc's implementation.
 
Right
 
Bob
9:42 AM
mmap and HeapAlloc are OS syscalls. mmap is the one on Linux (sbrk is also there but no longer recommended). HeapAlloc is the Win32 one.
They're used to allocate a large chunk of memory. Then malloc/free plays within that chunk.
 
Oh, ok
 
Bob
Actually, according to that wiki page, glibc's allocator will use a combination depending on the size. It could use brk or mmap.
I'm not sure how accurate that is :P
 
Namo namaha!
 
Bob
@JesterTran Looks like a lot of malloc implementations will directly allocate larger blocks with mmap rather than from a common pool.
Makes sense. Then they don't have to worry about fragmentation.
 
What types of "pools" are there?
 
Bob
9:47 AM
@JesterTran tbh... that's beyond my knowledge :P
 
Ok, thanks for the explanation on malloc, free and enlightening me that they depend on OS and system architecture
 
Bob
The 'common pool' (possibly not typical terminology there) would just be a set of one or more mmap allocations that are split up by malloc into smaller pieces as I originally described. This would be used for small malloc requests.
Apparently modern mallocs will just allocate larger requests directly from the OS via mmap etc.
@JesterTran Just keep in mind that it's a very rough and probably outdated overview :P
If you want specifics, there's lots of docs available.
Or:
70
Q: How is malloc() implemented internally?

bodacydoCan anyone explain how malloc() works internally? I have sometimes done strace program and I see a lot of sbrk system calls, doing man sbrk talks about it being used in malloc() but not much more.

Or:
188
Q: How do malloc() and free() work?

maheshI want to know how malloc and free work. int main() { unsigned char *p = (unsigned char*)malloc(4*sizeof(unsigned char)); memset(p,0,4); strcpy((char*)p,"abcdabcd"); // **deliberately storing 8bytes** cout << p; free(p); // Obvious Crash, but I need how it works and why cras...

@JesterTran ^ the answer on that last one is a good explanation of free
(and much more coherent than mine -_-)
 
oooh thanks
 
Bob
The first SO link goes into a bit more detail on the glibc algorithm.
The sploitfun blog goes into a lot of technical detail.
 
9:57 AM
@everyone Hi
 
 
1 hour later…
11:18 AM
User superuser.com/users/588576/johnbellyw posting multiple spam questions (flagged).
 
11:34 AM
@DavidPostill Gone
 
11:45 AM
@OliverSalzburg Thanks.
 
@Bob you're comparing it with daily driver mainline machines. ;p
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek I'm comparing it with my own experience on said machines.
 
@Bob you're using said machines like daily driver mainline machines? ;p
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek Nup.
 
(or too many tabs)
 
11:52 AM
hey
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek two tabs.
One, even, not counting the pinned chat tab.
 
is it a bank holiday this weekend?
 
It's May day
 
"Early May bank holiday"
 
thanks
 
12:25 PM
hm
vivaldi's servers kinda suck
Trying to give the new release a spin, Its telling me over 2 hours for a 40mb file 0_0
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek I'm downloading at 1.6 MB/s on my home connection...
 
Maybe shit downstream?
Cause I know my connection is fast.
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek Sounds more like crappy routing from your somewhat-dodgy ISP :P
 
it failed, and it went faster when I retried 0_0
naw, still shit
heh
 
install Synology os on your own hardware and not pay the price for their hardware ^
 
12:46 PM
I've played with it, its pretty nice
though its a bit of work getting this to work.
 
1:16 PM
If I'm already building the hardware myself, I'd just install a proper OS
Synology OS is horrible garbage
 
1:30 PM
That's news, out of the 20 companies i know that use it.. You're the only one that has lowlights about it Oliver :)
 
1:42 PM
@GuitarShoeDave there are a few less hacky options if you're DIYing
 
yea i know
not dyi'ing anything though just thought it was an interesting read
 
i'm sleepy
 
:29336748
 
gives you wings
 
@GuitarShoeDave Of all the companies I know that use it, none have the same technical expertise we do
 
1:49 PM
makes sense
"same technical expertise" = huge nerds right ? :P
 
They just hire us to take care of their IT when it doesn't work :P
 
2:00 PM
 
2:53 PM
this is meta.
I got a spam email, offering email spamming services. I mean 'Mail Blast' services. And apparently the whole mail was images, and they want people to contact them over the phone.
They do have a fax number. Pity, I don't have a fax machine any more.
Black faxes seem tempting
 
lol
oh god
I googled the phone number
 
I wonder how many of https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=50&q=internet+fax+free are really free ;)
 
their website is truely horribad
@DavidPostill still needs actual effort
 
3:09 PM
Are md5, sha1 and crc32 meant for doing the same thing??
 
kinda sorta
technicallu crc32 is actually meant to find errors
 
Bob
@RahulBasu Nope.
 
MD5 and SHA1 are hash functions - run them on something and they create a unique output for it.
 
Bob
CRC32 is very good at detecting transmission errors of the single-bit-flipped variety.
 
Which is handy when finding errors
 
Bob
3:12 PM
It does absolutely nothing against malicious modifications.
CRC32 is also very very simple.
Easily implemented in hardware.
 
3:45 PM
@DavidPostill I wonder how many "free" advertised products are actually free. (Spoiler: a very small minority)
 
3:57 PM
LOL, you should have seen the crasy Html/scripting Art Show I just saw when trying to find/download a hard to find driver for a mostly obsolete ethernet card. semantic.gs/… (probably 100% EVIL link)
If you have a safe type of computer , and dont (of course) run the exes and all, you could see there by starting a download, insane layers of cuteness , worthy of its own youtube Video , that i am not really sure why they even did that.
Assuming they actually would have had the (oh) 56K sized driver (max package less than 1 meg ever) it did a video routine that took 5 minutes , making it look like they were "checking" the files and "packaging" and "virus checking" and "processing" much processing :-)
Yea it was my last hope for finding the driver, but before running anything on this "ethernet" driver, for some reason the ini was for a mouse , and serial mouse ? WTH , with 2 disclaimers that "we wont be responcible for anything" Oh your disclaimer wont protect you (US based) they got laws.
The web has gone to hell in a handbasket, and googles magic search adjustments still puts Layers of fraud in the first of the search.
Top off the fact that the first 2 pages of search for a driver are Fraud, when searching to see if the sites were "trustable" (yea 2 pages of that too) all the idiot sites claiming to "trust" and "review" the sites all put it between 70-100% trustable :-) most of them 100%
 
4:16 PM
I've downloaded drivers from torrents in the past. NO BLOAT ;)
 
@RahulBasu sick aint it, when the pirates are more trustable than the greedmonkers.
 
lol
not all torrents are illegal y'know?
 
i know that even the illegal ones (too) have less malware than trusted sites, stuff I have even paid for that has stupid toolbars, browser hijacks and add-ons that sweep in (or try to) off some server that who know what is going in.
 
I think I read a report somewhere stating that porn sites are safer for your computer than most "legit" sites
I kinda want to find it again, except I'm at work...
 
4:31 PM
xD
 
there is a screenshot of stage 1of4 , think of all that moving, spinning and filling.
 
that probably saps some of the power from your CPU
like driving with the AC on
 
it probably took about 80times as much fluff , and bandwidth than it would have taken to actually provide the file in the 4-8 seconds it would have downloaded.
and not to forget the capcha , that made it look all protected for thier server, that was the SAME text every time :-)
Snake Oil Show comming to a town near you.
Yo! if you can do all that for a 1 minute glance at your worthless sponcors, think what you could do with a real job.
If people like that end up as walking dead in the zombie apocalypse, I would be all to happy to . . . laugh and leave them like that , forever.
 
4:56 PM
and the fun didnt end, downloaded Foxit, to read a few PDFs. What the F--- Did you do to your program :-) what once was a really nice small free pdf reader, went all godzilla on my computer. 2 malwares , full page advertising , cloud connections and 15 minutes to get the little beast under control. IF i had known, wouldnt have done it.
 
This bypasses my carriers firewall
I can access internetz for free !
 
how is that possible? surely they can see data traffic still coming from your handset
afk, food
2
 
5:14 PM
@HackToHell what does your carrier's firewall block anyway?
 
5:24 PM
I'm making a command line app... should I give it features to display crc32 along with md5 and sha1? Or should that be an unrelated different app?
 
5:51 PM
^ xD
Sorry, I was just messing around :)
 
6:50 PM
!!help
 
@RahulBasu Information on interacting with me can be found at this page
 
!!list
 
@RahulBasu That didn't make much sense. Use the !!/help command to learn more.
 
!!/help
 
@RahulBasu Information on interacting with me can be found at this page
 
6:50 PM
damnit!
 
@HackToHell But how can a VPN app increase your mouse sensitivity?
 
!!info
 
@DavidPostill I awoke on Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00:08 GMT (that's about 19 hours ago), got invoked 4 times
 
!!listcommands
 
@DavidPostill help, afk, awsm, ban, color, convert, define, die, doge, domain, eval, export, findcommand, forget, forgetseen, github, google, hang, imdb, import, info, inhistory, jquery, learn, listcommands, listen, live, mdn, meme, moustache, mustache, norris, nudge, parse, refresh, spec, stat, stats, tell, timer, todo, unban, undo, unonebox, user, weather, wiki, xkcd, youtube, zalgo, ;), ;p, \/s*, after5, ahh, areyoukidding, bababababat, baroo, beatingbloodoutofarockwithahalberd, bespecific
boberror, brainf__k, bunny, caaaat, caat, cancer, caniuse, caution, chihuahuaunravelinginsidearollo
 
7:05 PM
@RahulBasu
 
 
2 hours later…
9:00 PM
Any ideas on how to build a Z170 system on a very limited (<US$500) budget with a strong foundation (high-grade motherboard, good SSD, etc.) with easy expansion from there?
I'd rather get a high-end motherboard and replace the CPU later.
I'd also prefer to not have to migrate a Windows installation to a larger or faster disk. (PCIe storage is not a requirement.)
Discrete graphics is not a requirement for the initial build.
The focus is to start with a strong foundation and limit the need to replace parts as upgrades are performed.
Is $500 too little? Something's telling me I need closer to $650-$800 to properly get started...
 
9:31 PM
I guess I'll continue to save up. PCPartPicker shows I still need about $1200 for the baseline due to expensive parts that cannot be eliminated from the equation.
 
9:52 PM
user image
2
 
 
2 hours later…
11:53 PM
@bwDraco migrating a install is trivial
And I donno
show me your build
 
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7YsNkL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7YsNkL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($65.23 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($212.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.40 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($217.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case ($177.98 @ Newegg)
Intended to be the foundation for Alastor, my primary desktop PC.
 
CPU planned to be replaced later, discrete GPU to be added as funds become available.
 
Yeah, nowhere I can see a meaningful place to chop. Maybe a 250gb SSD (they work well enough)
 
Includes a full Windows license.
 
11:56 PM
likewise with the PSU, Mine's 620W and it can handle a single 980TI
 
Original plans actually specified a 1000W PSU, but that was dropped to 850W.
80 PLUS Platinum may be overkill, though (this is probably why the PSU is so expensive).
 
I have just been restarted! This happens daily automatically, or when my owner restarts me. Ready for commands.
 
slower ram?
 
Dropping to Gold would shave a significant amount of money out of the build cost.
 
11:57 PM
s/memory/money
The other thing I would do is see what I can usee off an older system first
case? PSU? storage?
 
@JourneymanGeek This is already the best value I could find. 8 GB isn't much cheaper, and it's the baseline DDR4-2133.
 
ahh, ok
Not totally familiar with DDR4 then
 

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