Root Access

@NathanOsman is a mod

and Hi

Can someone quickly fill me in on what's happening?

@JourneymanGeek Catty decided to abuse username changes again, changing four times in fifteen minutes.

And.... are they pretending to be someone else?

No, but the user proceeded to sockpuppet even after a CM suspended him for an hour.

@JourneymanGeek Was chat banned for an hour and while banned logged in as i-am-a-bot and started flagging ...

12:43 AM

I Am A Bot

51 1

Was also posting dodgy images (NSFW) one of which was flagged.

... may need to be suspended due to abuse as a sockpuppet account.

@DavidPostill flag abuse is serious. Can we not make the nick changes an issue?

@DavidPostill how do we know they were flagging?

Spam/offensive flag on chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/32518042#32518042 was raised by I Am A Bot while the user's main account was suspended.

Hm, seems reasonable

12:55 AM

@JourneymanGeek timing. i-am-a-bot appeared. @bwDraco got flagged ... flag was on this IIRC

1 hour ago, by bwDraco

@IAmABot: Please stop sockpuppeting. If you persist in doing this, a moderator will suspend you.

I'm going to recommend suspending I Am A Bot because it serves a ulterior purpose which was not apparent until now.

@JourneymanGeek It's not really an issue for me. But if others are complaining ...

@bwDraco I'll deal with it as I see fit.

@DavidPostill @bwDraco is

and its an echo wall of attention seeking.

@JourneymanGeek True.

I've tried to avoid doing this...

Sorry if my actions were inappropriate, but I'm not sure if there was a better way to handle this.

I could have ignored the username changes, but I was unable to determine who this "Powershell for Linux" was for a while until I checked his profile.

That was what got me really annoyed.

1:00 AM

I believe the best way to deal with this is just to ping the wrong nick for interesting things

So. My advice is stop making this an issue

I really wish I had a more tempered mind like you...

Its been hashed out on meta already. The user's ignoring you so clearly is saying nothing of value to you, and you're both bringing out the worst in each other.

Lesson learned.

My lack of social interaction has limited my ability to handle these situations properly :(

So much to learn...

Simple rule of thumb. If someone dosen't want to talk to you, you don't want to talk to them

2

I'm still committed to improving myself and my conduct and expect more substantial changes over the next several months.

1:03 AM

OH

@JourneymanGeek I like that :)

@JourneymanGeek So where did you learn this?

How did you improve yourself from being an "impulsive hothead" to where you are now?

@bwDraco common sense

I am honestly lost here and don't have a clear way forward.

sigh

Stuff that's never taught.

@bwDraco What make you think he was ever an impulsive hothead? ;p

1:05 AM

@bwDraco By stopping before I act.

@DavidPostill His own words.

@DavidPostill I'm still one. ;p

I just learned to control it

@bwDraco By stopping before I act.

I guess I'm just not the right personality to move up. I give up, it's not my nature and there is no way forward.

@DavidPostill I'm still one. ;p

I'm sorry for making a promise I cannot keep, though in retrospect, I did not know it was an impossible promise in the first place.

Ah well.

Aug 25 at 1:03, by bwDraco

Instead, I'm starting to learn how to think before I act.

...which petered out; no further progress is possible.

1:07 AM

@bwDraco It's not impossible. Just keep working at it ... you can't make big changes instantly

So clearly, you're letting yourself get affected

so, realise that we have many people who can deal with this sort of thing

Just, ignore them.

If you notice a conversation of interest, read it a little after the fact

One of the big issues here is the inability to positively demonstrate that I was able to make the right decision.

(Hell, its probably easier for me to deal with sleepytime drama cause I just woke up and someone else handled most of it for me ;) )

So next step

moving on

PUT DOWN THAT WOMAN, ACOLYTE!

So... should I pretend to be an RO and try to behave like one?

Nope

1:10 AM

Anyway I'm off for some zzzzs. It's 2 am here.

Ask yourself a simple question - is this actually affecting me?

The idea is that by holding myself to a higher standard, I may be able to perform better.

So can you assign me RO privileges for a day and see how that turns out, or is it too risky?

@PotatoCat check your sock.

@bwDraco 90% of what I do as a chat mod does not involve using my powers

Rule #1: Never moderate under the influence of emotions.

You don't need to be a RO to 'moderate'. You just need to understand how people work

1:13 AM

Jun 5 at 0:15, by Journeyman Geek

I do not ever mod angry. I mod when I'm calm or not even angry

@JourneymanGeek ...which I don't due to a lack of experience.

@bwDraco Well, if you think about it, most people have patterns

the trick is to understand the patterns and act accordingly

So how do I positively demonstrate that I have improved?

I need something concrete to work on.

TBH weirdly, your biggest problem is you're trying too hard to be a mod

when the trick is, well, let it go.

One of the big issues I've been trying to come to grips with is the lack of any clearly-defined objective in trying to improve myself.

But that's life

1:15 AM

Any IRL recommendations, actions to take offline and on the field to practice soft skills?

I'm serious about making real improvements and I do not wish to cause any more trouble.

I just don't know where to get started or what actions to take.

When there's an opportunity, it's sudden and unexpected and I am unprepared to actually engage the appropriate skills, like what happened earlier.

there's no level ups or red key cards

The question is, where do I begin?

I'd love to be a better person. I just can't seem to find the motivation to actively practice.

I think I've held my temper better these last few weeks but it's not enough.

yesterday, by bwDraco

Stepping out: "let it out" is not appropriate (attempt to induce disallowed conduct!)

2 days ago, by bwDraco

Stepping out briefly...

^ evidence of attempts to improve.

Ah well. I'll start to check reactions so that I don't overreact.

in Ask a Super User Moderator, 2 days ago, by Ben N

One possible strategy is to - before telling anyone to do anything - stop for a few moments, think about something else, and see if the original thing is still worth actioning after that time

And again, never let emotions affect moderation decisions.

I'll leave it at that.

@bwDraco you keep saying that tho.

Ben N

I don't know how scientific or effective this strategy is, but maybe try getting into some hobby that's borderline embarrassing but really fun

e.g. I dance horribly but I have a great time while doing it

o0

1:26 AM

My plans call for practicing skills like thinking before acting in everyday interactions, online and offline, whether at home, on the field, at work, etc.

I learnt patience dealing with my parents. My dad is a hothead and proud of it.

Perhaps I'll start to count the number of time I managed to successfully check an action to motivate myself...

@bwDraco don't plan. Planning means thinking. You need less long term thinking, more right now thinking.

You have to have a workable plan before you can take action.

Perhaps log every successful attempt or use some tokens as a motivator...

There has to be an incentive, and I'm trying to devise one, perhaps in collaboration with Mother.

Recently, incidents here in chat have been the main driving force towards improving my behavior in real life.

You're taking chat much too seriously then.

1:31 AM

Alright then, let's get to work.

I'm here to talk about computers, headphones......

Anyway I'm out. I'll deal with the rest of this later.

See you, too.

Ben N

In computer-related news, I discovered today that letting small children be in a computer lab will result in Ethernet switches being connected to themselves, looped with each other, or otherwise misconfigured

lol

Lol

1:35 AM

Jinx!

So, I'll be logging successful attempts to think before acting (among other positive behaviors) as a motivator to improve myself.

I am still committed to remaining calm and making the right decisions even under extreme stress.

Let's move on.

2:00 AM

...hmm. This idea came up.

Windows Notepad has a feature where if you put .LOG at the top of the file, it automatically appends a timestamp every time you open the file in Notepad.

Is there an Android app where I can add events containing arbitrary text content that are automatically timestamped and easily searchable?

Never mind.

Nathan Osman

@bwDraco Google Keep?

...doesn't seem to meet my requirements. I need to be able to record a long stream of events in a fashion reminiscent of Windows event logging.

Nathan Osman

Ah.

Rahul2001

2:41 AM

hi

This is what I wrote yesterday during my examination... The time we had was restricted, so it's not my best work, but whatever. rahul2001.com/roguemission09.html

We were given certain prompts and phrases that we had to include in our story

@BenN Ha, I think that's the case for many people (like me)

Does anyone have any thoughts/advice on the story?

3:22 AM

...open-source solution: play.google.com/store/apps/…

3:33 AM

@Hennes This is not new functionality: mashable.com/2016/05/22/august-smart-lock-homekit-review

yesterday, by Hennes

The problem is that someone discovered a vuln. Apparently, the device does not authenticate the user when handling requests like this.

night.

Sathya

5:35 AM

morning

hi

Sathya

how are we doing today

6:12 AM

oof

Sathya

woof

why does the transcript look like pile of smouldering ruins? (cc @JourneymanGeek)

-_-

@Sathya floof

6:34 AM

ahh, i am become house flipper :-) I kept calling idiots who advertise for work they will do, they dont call back? So i reversed it and advertised for the workers direct (minus the corporations and companies) and people came out of the woodwork.

@Bob In my defence, I was asleep and missed everything.

@JourneymanGeek Heh. I slept in for a bit today -_-

And then had to go install a couple more locks...

I got woken up at 8.30 am ._.

o.O

6:37 AM

So for 1/2 the price of the stupid corporations that take 1/2 the paychecks , and do the work quickly and poorly usually, I now are one. OMG hope this works, this time for sure rockey.

@allquicatic I can already see you on there... but don't really want to wake you at 2am :P

(the regularly scheduled double grocery run ._.)

why double ? dogs cant carry the full load in one trip?

@Psycogeek different grocery stores

or they keep forgetting stuff when they walk by a fire hydrant ?

6:42 AM

dry goods in one place, veggies in another

and it takes 3-4 trips from the carpark to get it all home.

Also, small dogs... not the most efficient. If it was a bernese...

an overweight wauzer is 10.5 kg. A carton of milk is > 12 kg...

@JourneymanGeek ...carton of milk?

Hello guys

do you mean crate?

@Bob we typically buy one or two 12x1l packs of milk when we do, every... 2 weeks or so?

@JourneymanGeek yea that's more like crate

6:46 AM

@Bob cardboard carton with 12x tetrapacks

this is a carton

@JourneymanGeek box, then

don't think I'd call that a carton... o.O

I'm ripping old family videos and making them h264 with AAC audio.

google.com.sg/…

Is profile High and h.264 level 4.1 good enough? I think it wont play on older iphones and ipads correctly ?

@JourneymanGeek ya, but carton + milk implies the triangular top things

6:47 AM

a carton of milk cartons?

a metacarton?

@Freedo "good enough" is defined by a combination of what you expect and the input quality

@Bob and codec support/power...

@JourneymanGeek carton²

@JourneymanGeek eh, I tend to not care much about that

I expect to have transparent quality from the source and use the most lastest standarts

I want to play those videos in 30 years

I mean, "older iphones"?

6:48 AM

ah

I could say "it doesn't work on my 2005 flipphone"

@Freedo most video compression schemes will be lossy

it's up to you to visually compare a before vs after and make sure it looks alright

lossless compression tends to be big

actually, what is your video source anyway?

can't you just keep it in the same format as the source?

@Freedo then put them on LaserDisk :-)

that's the best way to reduce transcoding losses: don't transcode at all

The original video files is .VOB

And Like I said, I expect to seem them like 30 years from now

So I'm pretty sure that size and process power won't be a problem in 30 years from now

I'm using constant quality 10, which I believe will be transparent quality from the source ( you can't see the difference )

That should be enough right? Level 4.1 and profile High ?

@Freedo that's a container format, not a codec

> Analogous to the MPEG program stream, a VOB file can contain H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 or MPEG-1 Part 2 video, MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II audio

eh, just keep them in the source format

6:52 AM

I'm pretty sure this won't be supported in the future

why not?

@Freedo You'll be fine.

Just keep backups.

I don't really expect to still be using h264 in 30 years

Sure we would be

there'll be some player that supports it

DVD codecs are ubiquitous

@Freedo Eh, transcode it when you need to, then.

The algorithms are public knowledge.

6:53 AM

We are already going to h265, and things usually drop support to older formats

Hell I could play an early internet divx today if I wanted to

ffmpeg is highly unlikely to ever drop support

Lol

in 30 years most of internet will be in Ultra-definition

@Freedo Nup. Hardware acceleration might, but there's no reason for software to drop older codecs.

or maybe 8k

yeah I'm talking about hardware acceleration too

6:54 AM

Pretty sure the codec library is only some 1 MB of code (compiled binary), if that.

@Freedo You don't need hardware acceleration.

A software renderer will play them just fine.

You've come here with a solution to a problem that doesn't exist...

How often do you watch them?

Daily? Every hour?

Almost never, but I want to make sure I'll be able to play it in 30 years

h264 and AAC is the standard now

Seriously, for something you'd only ever look at once a year, if that, using a less-efficient software renderer is just fine.

it is likely you will know when to transcode, when they make those transistions, transcoding before might just lead to having to transcode again.

@Freedo common old formats never die

The quality of things keep going up, I don't expect people to still use mp3 in 30 years from now. Or h264

6:56 AM

but we wont know what they will be using then?

@Freedo I'm a flac snob, and I still have 128bps mp3s in my collection

@Freedo It doesn't matter if most people use them. It doesn't matter if most players even support them.

I'm telling you, now, one last time: ffmpeg will still support them.

Even if new-ffmpeg doesn't, you can almost certainly run old-ffmpeg.

Transcode them if you need them.

Yeah but also, archiving it on a format that is widely played natively better than rely and less-than good software encoding

Not really

@Freedo Software decoding is what you should care about, not encoding.

6:57 AM

I'll lose quality when transcoding when I could just play the original as AAC audio and h264 mp4

Archiving them in the original format means you can take advantage of whatever's latest and greatest if you need to

And software decoding is better than hardware.

Hardware acceleration is just more efficient. Efficiency you won't need for something you might only watch twice in your lifetime.

so if you're transcribing from original/noncompressed, it makes sense

That makes sense Journeyman

@Freedo You lose quality now by transcoding.

By keeping the original format and playing it later, you don't lose as much.

Your plan seems to be: Transcode to H.264, great. Five years later, transcode to H.266. Then .. etc.

Every time you lose quality.

That's not a good plan.