Root Access

Journeyman Geek

12:54 AM

I'm at the airport. Two cleaning vehicles are seemingly racing.

Hm. Airport has free Wi-Fi. Unsecured tho.

qasdfdsaq

Changi? Yeah the wifi's a bit meh though

qasdfdsaq

1:36 AM

Lol. British Airways from UK to China... £1640 economy. £615 in Business class.

Makes sense.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek s/Wi-Fi/traffic interception/

Journeyman Geek

@Bob yeah. Firesheep would be baaaaad

qasdfdsaq

1:55 AM

Pretty much all airport wifi is unsecured...

I've never seen any secured airport wifi tbh

Bob

2:29 AM

That's because even secured wifi is usually susceptible to snooping.

IIRC PSK doesn't really offer protection if the key is known

And even the other auth systems are usually susceptible to ARP poisoning.

Unless the AP deals with that, but it's fairly rare IME.

Michael Frank

TIFU by replacing four $500 keyboards in the wrong branch. =_=

bwDraco

2:58 AM

An Open Letter to the Community at Root Access
-----

If you're here often, you may be aware that I have a history of emotional instability resulting in multiple instances of disruptive behavior that ultimately led to a suspension. I took this opportunity to better understand the nature of this issue and it turns out I've been making this much more difficult than this needed to be.

For historical reasons, I had defined my behavioral goals in terms of being a gentleman. Among other things, this meant staying calm and never losing control of myself no matter the circumstances. This ambitious…

I expect to continue normal contributions shortly. I am still shaken that this escalated to a full site-level suspension, with all the implications it carries. It is my promise that I will never allow this to happen again.

little pootis

3:27 AM

someone direct me to unix room pls

bwDraco

/dev/chat

General discussion for unix.stackexchange.com. If you have a q...

3

I'm wondering where @JourneymanGeek, @Bob, et al. have gone.

little pootis

thanks

bwDraco

Everyone at work or gone for the day?

Bob

I'm at work. JMG's on a plane.

bwDraco

@Bob I'm wondering if this open letter is worth starring, so that my suspension isn't a mystery to the other regulars and to bring attention to what I'm doing to fix the issue. It's up to you, of course.

Bob

3:42 AM

I'll look later. In the middle of something.

random

4:17 AM

Starring the open letter does not sound like a way to chillax about its whole reason for being

bwDraco

@random You seem to take a rather unusual approach to moderation, and yet you're always a mystery. Care to explain yourself better? We'd all benefit from understanding the philosophy behind your approach and how it might be better.

random

You know how you like to make drama about your comportment? Writing a multi-paragraph letter and wanting/needing it to be starred rather than just walking away for a bit keeps that cycle going

bwDraco

I have this weird feeling that the only reason you've remained a moderator for this long is that you're whimsical.

After all...

Sep 6 '15 at 4:10, by Journeyman Geek

Have Fun

random

Every day is another day to burn out. That's not whimsy, that's how it is

bwDraco

@random Again, care to explain your approach to moderation?

in Ask a Super User Moderator, Jan 24 '15 at 3:42, by random

You're in some kind of "full on" election mode setting. And time is just on the other side waiting to see when you're going to snap from stressing yourself out

Look, I deeply regret that I failed to heed the nonstop warnings I've been given.

The inevitable has happened. I did snap from stressing myself out. It did not end well.

I wound up in the penalty box, a serious blow to my credibility.

random

4:27 AM

Deletion is the approach to moderation

bwDraco

@random Again, please explain yourself. Being terse isn't going to help.

We'd learn a lot if you explained yourself better.

What's the point of not explaining it?

Moderation is not just about deleting bad content. It's also about managing a community and handling disputes between users.

Perhaps, with the open letter out there, I might be able to refer to it if called upon to explain the suspension. Ultimately, I'd like to focus on moving forward, not dwelling on the past.

random

You don't explain moderation like it's a rule, it's a feeling

bwDraco

@random I know it's subjective. I'd just like to see your thoughts.

The reason I wrote the letter in the first place is to show that I'm accountable for my actions, that I have a clear intention of addressing the underlying issues that led to the suspension, and that I have a plan to move forward and improve myself.

I ultimately just wanted to say sorry.

Neil

any one have any ideas on how you would fix a Windows 7 boot repair loop. every time it finished attempting repairs, it just reboot and goes thought the repair again.

bwDraco

As a 20k user, there's still plenty I can do to help out.

After all, Stack Exchange is designed so that ordinary users can handle most common moderation tasks. Full ♦moderators should only be needed for situations that ordinary users cannot handle.

Alright, let's move forward.

Good night, folks. It's almost midnight here.

XKCD

5:05 AM

But listen, if getting your car out from under the pile is REALLY important to you, we do have an axe you can borrow.

2

DavidPostill

8:41 AM

Morning all

Michael Frank

Morning?!

DavidPostill

It is here ;)

Burgi

9:09 AM

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DavidPostill

9:23 AM

RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Burgi

seriously?

i wonder if it is because you are on the coast

DavidPostill

Probably. Liverpool Bay seems to have a "microclimate". Although we have had a lot of rain and some strong winds this winter we have had no snow of flooding unlike many other areas of the UK.

snow or flooding

Burgi

when we had that huge amount of rain at christmas they "forget" to open the lock gates in manchester and the canals flooded

-1

Q: Removing cached data from trials

I went to go download Adobe Photoshop CC again to use the trial. I do not remember every using this application on this Mac and this was purchased by my brand new. Do companies like Adobe or TechSmith cache data on your machine so that they know when trials have expired even after you uninstall ...

J_F_B_M

9:54 AM

If you're repairing a non-boot drive you might try to unplug it before starting your computer (not while it runs). My computer run a repair on a particular drive everytime I restarted. Then I unplugged it, started the computer without the drive, turned it off again, plugged the drive back in and started the computer. It booted normaly. Is there any message about why it does that (maybe your drive is really faulty)? Also, if it is your boot-drive I can not help you, as you obviously can not unplug that.

Anonymous

10:16 AM

yesterday, by qasdfdsaq

How did you find out about our chat drama services?
- Word of mouth
- Newspaper/magazine advert
- Website advert
- Search engine (please specify)

Anonymous

lol'd

Bob

@PatoSáinz I wonder if anyone ever looks at the responses.

Anonymous

@Bob I hope so.

Bob

I should make a survey. "Press submit to and your response will be routed to the nearest black hole."

Anonymous

Bob

10:20 AM

o.O

Anonymous

I love just how active some email lists are

Bob

I have a DSi on my desk

I forgot about that

Anonymous

@Bob lol I sold mine years ago

Burgi

the head of it told us yesterday that only 50% of the team had done the "anonymous" staff survey

Bob

@PatoSáinz Bought this one second hand. Maybe it was yours? :P

Anonymous

10:21 AM

I just got bored of it

Bob

@PatoSáinz Active is good.

Anonymous

I haven't purchased anything from Nintendo for years

Bob

Anonymous

@Bob hah that's a shame

Bob

@Burgi Eh. No need for the scare quotes.

Anonymous

10:22 AM

well bbl

Bob

We actually had one of those come through. Was handled by an external survey site.

Burgi

@Bob was it you that was talking about the terrible new sourcetree?

Bob

@Burgi No, I think that was @OliverSalzburg

I don't use Sourcetree

Burgi

it might have been

you all merge into one

;)

anyway we have just started trialling gitkraken.com internally

Bob

Eh. Still using GitExt, it still works... just wish they'd update to support 2.x

@Burgi Does it do git-svn?

Burgi

10:30 AM

not sure

i only installed it this morning

Bob

@Burgi Let me know if you can find out? :P

Cause that's kinda a requirement for me.

Burgi

i'll ask the guys in the web team, they've had it for 3 days

Bob

I like GitExt cause it's pretty damn flexible

Covers just about all the git operations, including some fairly uncommon ones.

Don't really want one of the dumbed down clients...

Burgi

> The Kraken will never say “it looks like you’re trying to write a letter.” The Kraken will never judge your code.

Michael Frank

10:52 AM

@PatoSáinz Inbox would make that so much easier to manage.

Psycogeek

11:55 AM

XCOM2 Rewrite: Games have changed. Twenty years have passed since world leaders offered an unconditional surrender to game ruining bugs. XCOM, the planet’s last line of defense, was left without beta testers. Now, in XCOM 2, bugs rule Earth, building shining sequils that promise a brilliant future for humanity on the surface, while concealing a sinister and game breaking bugs, eliminating all enjoyment from their new game.

reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/44hrsl/xcom2_bugs_a_list_of_bugs See bugs list, and also at steam hotfix that makes things worse. Me I loved Xcom, but i sure aint forking over $50 for this kind of trouble.

The rewrite comes from thier initial description store.steampowered.com/app/268500 found in the about section.

Burgi

12:11 PM

why is asking for learning materials off topic?

Bob

@Burgi Because you usually end up with an endless list

Psycogeek

because it is sort of shopping, it bring in a lot of opinion (which is best for learning that) and stuff of that type can become dated fast.

i suspect that some of the things they refuse to allow on SU also would be honey for spammer bees. Any paid for items have people with vested interests shoving thier products down our throats.

Oliver Salzburg

12:36 PM

@Burgi The latest release is much better. The initial 1.8 release was garbage

We looked at Kraken, but dropped it on the first day :P

Burgi

12:57 PM

why did you drop it, @OliverSalzburg?

Oliver Salzburg

@Burgi UI issues and the disclaimer: "This is beta software, don't use it with repositories that contain data you'd like to keep"

Burgi

fair point

Oliver Salzburg

I didn't evaluate it personally

Burgi

we keep running into issues with VS not playing nicely with sourcetree

heh! one of the questions in our employee survey:

> I feel my pay is fair for the work i do.

who would tick "strongly agree"?

Oliver Salzburg

@Burgi The guy who fires the people that don't give the right answers ;D

Burgi

1:16 PM

heh

my answers became increasingly sarcastic

welp

DavidPostill

@Burgi You do realise the survey is probably not anonymous ;)

Burgi

yup

but i have an official email printed out saying that it was definitely 100% anonymous

Hennes

1:51 PM

Morning

DavidPostill

Afternoon

Dave

2:21 PM

I live on Planet Awesome (The planet that never sleeps). We only have Daytime here..

DavidPostill

Hehe. Heading towards rep capping. I have an answer to a question that went to HNQ ;)

2

Q: cmd equivalent to "cd ~" to change to C:\Users\<current user>\Documents\

I have to switch to Windows for the duration of a project. I have only just started, and I already dislike using cmd. Is there a shortcut for C:\Users\<current user>\Documents\ ?

windows-7 command-line cmd.exe

Dave

Before I read this.. Im expecting to see this... cd %HOMEPATH%\DOCUMENTS

DavidPostill

@Dave Who wants to type that every time ;)

and it doesn't work if you are on a different drive ...

`F:\test>cd %HOMEPATH%\DOCUMENTS
The system cannot find the path specified.`

HOMEPATH=\Users\DavidPostill has no drive letter.

Dave

Wonder if u can do something alike so doskey ~="cd \\%HOMEPATH\\DOCUMENTS"

where if you type ~ it will be macrofied

not sure if doskey supports env variables though

doskey ~=cd %HOMEPATH%\Documents

yea that works

ah nice i know even a better way of doing it ... one second

AzkerM

hey! there... just a quick question on routing... well! dumb maybe...

May I?

Psycogeek

2:34 PM

well you dont have a lot to lose from trying :-) do ya.

AzkerM

haha...

well! one of our office network has two routers for internet.. main one 10.1.1.1/16 is used with pfsense and all the clients are communicating to it.

now the second router 10.1.1.5/16 has very specific PC's just using for certain services...

DavidPostill

@Dave Nice idea, but I can't get it to work correctly and it prevents using ~ normally :/

Bob

@Dave ~ is %userprofile%

Not documents...

AzkerM

I know its not the ideal way.. but it was there from the begnning

however, when I do VPN from outside to the office network it connects through 10.1.1.1... however, I cannot ping or reach the devices that communicates to 10.1.1.5

I know its a routing issue as there are two different gateways...

but still confused, how to achieve it... :/

DavidPostill

@bob OP wants "documents" to be his "home" directory.

Bob

2:39 PM

shrug

Dave

@bob: Good point.. userprofile stores FQDN with drive letter and homepath does not.

(le sigh)

@DavidPostill now that I think of it, u could probably use doskey and macro the cd command with an expression check to verify if the first arg is a "~" then cd whatever else cd whateverwhatever.

rewrite cd ;) using doskey lmao

Psycogeek

@AzkerM I dont know, but it would seem like any even partly secured setup , that isnt purposfull about gathring users to connect to them (like a web page) would not allow any pings, or any connects initiated from the outside? Did you try reversing it first, and working the connection in the office first ?

allquixotic

2:54 PM

head-fi.org/t/746519/…

Bob

\o/

hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ab2a70ab5684

Dave

@DavidPostill: doskey cd=if $1 equ ~ ( cd %userprofile%\Documents ) ELSE ( cd $1 )

works!

Bob

My patch is in, and current Nightly works :)

@allquixotic ... o.O

DavidPostill

@Dave Needs more work.

F:\test>cd
~ was unexpected at this time.

Dave

oh forgot to check for null check

DavidPostill

3:01 PM

@Dave When you get it working you can add another answer ;)

AzkerM

@Psycogeek In office it works as the devices are all on the same subnet thus the gateways are different... default route would take to any of the devices. However, VPN through pfsense looks as if, it is not connected to the interface.

qasdfdsaq

@AzkerM Devices can only reach machines on the local subnet and everything else goes through the default gateway. Your VPN is inaccessible from the default gateway on those machines so it cannot be accessed.

You need to set up an alternate route on the second router to go through the first router, or static routes on all the client machines to tell them to use router 1 for VPN subnets.

AzkerM

@qasdfdsaq alternate route seems like, will work.. let me try that out and see..

qasdfdsaq

Good luck. I hope you know what you're doing.

AzkerM

3:20 PM

I do.. I'm moderate in routing.. but I can pick it up.

Thanks

Dave

@DavidPostill: Hows that for my reply?

That Brazilian Guy

HI ROOT ACCESS!!!

allquixotic

@Bob interesting part is the Sennheiser M2OEBTs are up there on the list, but nowhere near as good as the M2AEBTs (around ear)

Bob

o.O

allquixotic

does on-ear headphone geometry really kill the sound quality that much?

because in my experience it doesn't really, but the audiophiles are like YES IT DOES

I actually like headphones where the pads are small enough that they rest right on my ear, compared to headphones that try to surround my ear, because I have very large ears and there are almost no around-ear cans big enough to literally encompass my ears

DavidPostill

3:38 PM

@Dave Almost perfect. If you use doskey cd=if "$1" equ "~" ( cd /d %userprofile%\Documents ) ELSE ( cd $* ) (note the /d) it works if your starting point is a different drive ;)

Dave

oh woops! @DavidPostill note though that piping to other commands will not work when ~ is specified

but i cant think of anybody who ever pipes a cd ~ to another command lol

DavidPostill

And it doesn't work if there are spaces in the arguments:

Dave

@DavidPostill: But piping will work if ~ isnt specified

DavidPostill

C:\Users\DavidPostill\Documents>cd "WebCam Media"
The syntax of the command is incorrect.

@Dave

Dave

oh snap~ :(

try putting cd "$*"

and see if that works then.

DavidPostill

3:41 PM

Tried that

That was the above error

Bob

@allquixotic I just find them stifling.

DavidPostill

@dave With no quotes:
C:\Users\DavidPostill\Documents>cd "WebCam Media"
Media" ) was unexpected at this time.

It's harder than it looks to make it bullet proof ;)

allquixotic

@Bob Anyway, the reason I'm talking about headphones again...

Bob

@allquixotic ...that was fast

pretty sure your meelec stuff lasted longer :\

warranty?

allquixotic

@Bob Yeah, well, the plastic headband top piece flexed slightly when I'd put the headphones on my head, so I guess it wasn't designed to be flexible enough plastic for the number of times I put on and off the headphones

or maybe it doesn't flex when small people wear them but it does with my big head

Bob

3:45 PM

@allquixotic Do as @JourneymanGeek does.

EPOXY

allquixotic

Samsung's limited warranty for accessories doesn't cover physical damage >:(

so I'm out $250

problem is, my only remaining good BT headset, the Sennheiser M2OEBTs, have like... 2 second latency with my S/PDIF full-stack BT transceiver (the Imperial BART 1 - still a lovely and cute little device!)

qasdfdsaq

@allquixotic They can be... OK

allquixotic

the Level Ons, despite being BT 3.0 with apt-X, have much lower latency, very sub-second... probably around 100 ms

qasdfdsaq

Don't expect any sound isolation or top of the range quality

allquixotic

@qasdfdsaq low sound leakage is actually pretty important for me when it comes to my headphones for in the office

qasdfdsaq

3:48 PM

@allquixotic :28016264 I'm tempted to get an Amex for that reason

allquixotic

I've found that on-ears are pretty decent at that, no?

qasdfdsaq

Well some on ears have a leather surround like around the ears that can form a seal, some are just a plain foam pad that does not

I've found the best "sealed" on-ear ones to be on par with low-wend around the sealed pads

(Also depends are you more concerned with inwards sound leakage or outwards? How loud do you use them?)

allquixotic

oh wait, I just dug through a drawer here, and found my old Meelec cans... two pair... the crappy first-gen ones with SBC, and the better second-gen ones with BT 4.0, an early implementation of apt-X, but no noise cancellation and weird cup geometry

@qasdfdsaq I listen at a moderate volume, especially at work, about 40% of maximum volume on my iPhone with headphones that support AVRCP 1.2 or whatever that protocol is that provides flat volume control (@Bob)

qasdfdsaq

Oh wait you're wanting bluetooth ones sepcifically right?

allquixotic

@qasdfdsaq yeah, BT only

Bob

3:51 PM

@allquixotic absolute volume

qasdfdsaq

Urgh on an unrelated note what's with all the music videos lately with pedobears hitting on girls

Bob

@allquixotic this is arguably a manufacturing defect

qasdfdsaq

IMO the headband ones aren't actually that bad, and very robust

But they make you look like a street kid from the 90's

Bob

dunno about American law, but here that'd be "not fit for purpose"

doesn't matter what Samsung says.

qasdfdsaq

@Bob I agree, but I have a similar problem with my Microsoft Band 2, and Microsoft refuse to fix it under warranty.

"Physical damage" not covered yadda yadda. Tons of people have had the same issue though, after about the same amount of time, and some Microsoft staff have said a new batch with a different material fixes it.

Which is pretty much an admission of manufacturing/materials defect. But US buyers seem to have little recourse

Bob

3:53 PM

> Products must be of acceptable quality, that is:

safe, lasting, with no faults

lasting :P

But, yea. Generally price actually factors into it.

qasdfdsaq

Bob

If you pay $250 for headphones, they better damn last

@qasdfdsaq I can see the airbrushing in the tiny chat size -_-

qasdfdsaq

Yeah sell headphones by putting airbrushed women in the shot -_-

It does sure stand out on Google Image Search... so it clearly worked :-/

Price here doesn't matter a huge amount mind you, it's based on how long a "reasonable person" would "expect" such a device to last

A $250 car? Yeah that can be expected to not last too long

Bob

@qasdfdsaq that's pretty much it

if you pay $10 for headphones and they break, don't expect much

if you pay $200, you're allowed to expect more from it

allquixotic

I don't think there's really any kind of standard like that in the extremely anti-consumer US

Bob

3:56 PM

if you can reasonably expect them to last.

@allquixotic it's not a hard standard, unfortunately. some subjectiveness.

DavidPostill

@allquixotic At least the US has the possibility for class action lawsuites ...

Bob

Here's your $1

qasdfdsaq

@allquixotic Dunno if Amex does it in the US but in the UK one of their card benefits is a) Accidental damage protection, b) loss protection c) extended warranty on electronics (covering faults even if the manufacturer won't within first 90 days)

Bob

> You can claim a remedy directly from the manufacturer or importer if the goods do not meet one or more of the following consumer guarantees:

acceptable quality

allquixotic

well now it seems my Imperial Bart 1 doesn't wanna pair with my meelec headphones

Bob

3:57 PM

@qasdfdsaq A lot of credit cards do that here :\

but the excess is often not worth it

some policies give you 1 year extensions on all warranties (up to 3 if it's expensive)

others double the warranty

qasdfdsaq

Mine didn't used to have an excess. Then they withdrew the benefits completely. Now I'm tempted to switch by the fact they have a British Airways card that comes with extra miles and the electronics warranty benefits my current card withdrew.

Bob

others are any damage/loss of hte item

mine covers that for 6 months but it's something like $100 excess

/dev/chat

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