Root Access

Bob

4:00 PM

@allquixotic Slow? :\

allquixotic

@Bob the NAND

pathetic

Bob

My Clover Trail tablet is actually alright. The Bay Trail one is fine.

@allquixotic Well, yes, it's eMMC.

allquixotic

a 5400rpm HDD is faster

Bob

But it's good enough to be usable.

Journeyman Geek

lol

Bob

4:00 PM

For that price...

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: My bay trail netbook has emmc

its not that bad

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Your netbook has faster eMMC :P

allquixotic

not all emmc is created equal

Bob

these tablets' eMMC is about half the speed of yours

random is still quite a bit faster than a HDD

sequential is slower, but not too bad

it's usable

allquixotic

I think Asus used leftover eMMC with defects from the original Nexus 7 run for their Win8 tablets

Bob

4:02 PM

not gonna win any speed awards, but for web browsing? works.

2

HackToHell

aww

allquixotic

is that @HackToHell sleeping with {person who used to have a parrot gravatar}???

That Brazilian Guy

I want to buy Child of Light on Steam - it's 66% off ending in 54 minutes, but it has Uplay DRM, I only heard bad stuff about it and there's an xbox 360 version, maybe I should get it instead?

HackToHell

@allquixotic you jelly ? :P

allquixotic

@HackToHell obviously ):

@ThatBrazilianGuy say no to Ubisoft!

Canadian Luke

4:16 PM

@ThatBrazilianGuy @allquixotic Details? What happened with Ubisoft, and what is Uplay DRM?

That Brazilian Guy

@allquixotic But... but it is sooooo beautiful... And dubbed in Portuguese... With rhymes!

allquixotic

Uplay

Uplay is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service created by Ubisoft to provide an experience similar to the achievements/trophies offered by various other game companies. The service is provided across various platforms (PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Facebook, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, OnLive). The Uplay app for the Wii U was released after the launch of the console on 1 December 2012 on the Nintendo eShop. Uplay is used exclusively by first-party Ubisoft games, and although some third-party titles are sold through the...

HackToHell

@allquixotic if only it were true ;/

That Brazilian Guy

@allquixotic Who used to have a parrot avatar?

allquixotic

@ThatBrazilianGuy I don't remember.

YOU?

That Brazilian Guy

4:23 PM

Well, @HackToHell obvisously does.

@allquixotic !!no

Toucans aren't parrots, you racist.

allquixotic

although if we expand the search to any aves, slhck would fit the bill

Bob

@ThatBrazilianGuy s/racist/speciesist/

Or is that specist?

Canadian Luke

Well, at least Uplay isn't enabled on Worms or XIII :)

allquixotic

Ubisoft's double bill of delusion - Oct. 22nd, 2014

►

Ubisoft is fighting EA tooth and nail for the dubious title of most anti-consumer gaming company in the world

and the scary part is that they might win

DragonLord

4:49 PM

I think the real issue is out-of-control game development costs.

I've said this time and again. Games are getting way too expensive to make and game developers and publishers consistently fail to communicate this clearly to consumers.

This is why the market isn't accepting a sticker price more than $60.

If consumers understood what goes in a modern AAA game, they'd be more willing to pay extra for it.

I know the economy still isn't great, but good marketing would help a lot.

Instead of just hyping the game for sales, why not raise awareness of the work that goes into developing it so that consumes can appreciate what it takes to create a high-quality gaming experience?

It's well understood among consumers that movies usually cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to make.

It's not well understood that similar costs apply to developing a video game.

allquixotic

@DragonLord I think this statement is even truer than you meant when you said it! What I mean is, I think game development shops have no idea how much their game is going to cost to develop, and they can't control those costs, because software development in general (moreso with a volatile feature creep as in gaming) has extremely nonlinear and unpredictable costs to get from where you are, to where you want to be.

I think you meant that game development costs keep going up, but I mean that game development costs may have higher order functions applied to them with respect to arbitrarily-sized feature adds or bugfixes... bugfixes 1 through 10 may each cost $1000 to fix, but bug #11 may cost $10,000,000 to fix.

DragonLord

EA is already trying to reduce NRE costs by having one engine, Frostbite 3, that underpins almost all of their recent games.

allquixotic

@DragonLord true, but you still need a hideous amount of coding for things like game logic, shaders, multiplayer (server state tracking), etc. and much of that code is going to be game-specific, unless you want to churn out 9 games that each have exactly the same gameplay with different art.

having a common engine helps, but it is a minor salve in the grand scheme of things

DragonLord

@Bob Very happy with my Clevo P157SM. You won't regret getting a Clevo, there's a reason all these companies build from Clevo platforms.

@allquixotic You're entirely right.

I'm also concerned about the cost of developing high-quality assets that meet the demands of HD and even UHD gaming.

NBC News explains the issue nicely: nbcnews.com/id/51339252/ns/…

This leads us to the issue of consumer-hostile practices by major game developers and publishers.

Bob

5:11 PM

@DragonLord Clevo seems fine for larger powerful laptops, but not so good for compact lightweight ones.

Also, I kinda want a W230SD, but it's not available yet from my preferred reseller :\

DragonLord

Instead of properly communicating the work it takes to develop a compelling game and the costs it entails to consumers, they just keep hyping things that shouldn't be or don't need to be hyped.

It's a combination of factors, but good marketing will help consumers understand the true cost of making a AAA game, and make them more willing to pay more for high-quality content.

allquixotic

@DragonLord they also need to stop being shy about the upfront price or subscription fees -- because when they try to "monetize" the game by selling pay to win gear in an online shop for a single-player game, that just hurts everyone, and ruins the game

if they're spending so much that they are literally going to be in the red if they sell a million copies at a typical price point like $30 or $40, then they need to increase the price or charge a subscription, not ruin the game with day 1 DLC or pay to win stuff

DragonLord

@allquixotic Precisely. Much of this is a marketing issue.

If the market isn't willing to accept games that cost more than $60 and the price isn't high enough to cover the cost of development, than make it clear why the price needs to go up.

I know a lot will find raising the price of games an insane idea, but it makes perfect economic sense to me.

I wrote this a while ago, but wound up deleting it because of a strongly negative community response: reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2i64m9/…

@allquixotic Subscriptions work best for multiplayer content—something like $4 a month or $40 a year for premium multiplayer access would make a lot of sense.

They wouldn't work well for single-player games.

allquixotic

5:29 PM

however, there does seem to be a B game segment on the rise -- games that, while not especially buggy or low quality, just have a less epic scope and don't try to be everything to everyone

Starpoint Gemini 2 for instance -- it was released on-time, with relatively few bugs, no microtransactions, no day-1 DLC, good graphics, appealing to a niche market, for a $39.99 retail price, with a DLC coming out 2 months after release (representing thus, 2 months of effort)

by all accounts it's a successful game

but it "does" a lot less than, say, X Rebirth or Star Citizen

there's no FPS or walking around on planet surfaces or expensive full-motion video cutscenes or anything like that

there are a few limited voiceovers, and the ones that are there are pretty good, and a lot of good hand-drawn art

Banner Saga, another instance of a game with a very limited scope that stuck to a sane budget and was widely acclaimed

DragonLord

> It doesn't take a game designer to know that when a critical darling sells 3.5 million copies at $60 a pop and becomes a "failure," there is something seriously wrong with the way the industry is making and marketing games.

allquixotic

heh

DragonLord

NBC News.

allquixotic

but how much money is being sucked away by their creditors and by executives, expensive marketing, events like CES and GDC?

if the development itself -- which comes down to a couple (tens or hundreds) of high-end computers and thousands or millions of hours of labor -- costs that much, so be it

if significantly more than half is being eaten by executives lining their pockets and other "indirect expenses", that's bad.

I mean you can't possibly justify advertising in a superbowl commercial for a game unless you expect to sell hundreds of millions of copies, which never realistically happens because the market isn't that big

there may be 300 million people in the US, but there aren't 300 million gamers

That Brazilian Guy

5:52 PM

Athough I strongly prefer DRM-free games, I don't oppose it when it's done right. Steam is a great example. I dislike owning a "license to play" as opposed to owning a copy of the game, but at least they have great promotions and the experience is mostly transparent and doesn't impact negatively the user experience.

DragonLord

@ThatBrazilianGuy Yeah, Steam just gets it right.

That Brazilian Guy

The worst DRM I've seen is the one in Batman Arkham City where you can only install it 10 times or in 5 computers (whatever comes first) in your entire lifetime. (I paid USD 5 for the game, unaware of this ridiculous fact)

Does Ubisoft manage to be more evil than that?

DragonLord

On Steam, games are sold as "named-user licenses", not "node-locked licenses".

allquixotic

I'm fine with the type of "DRM" that simply checks up on their servers when you install/activate the game to make sure you have a valid license ("sign in with your account") -- as long as it doesn't install a kernel module to accomplish this

@ThatBrazilianGuy with certain of their games, you will be taken out of the game if your internet connection hiccups while playing.

DragonLord

The node-locked approach most other DRM systems use isn't great.

Steam gets it right by using named-user licenses.

That Brazilian Guy

5:55 PM

2nd place in the list of annoying DRM is the one that forces you to be online. Android games seems to be adopting it a lot, even for single-player games.

Bad coverage? Data caps? No game for you.

I have uninstalled more than a handful of games because of that.

yoyo

Nice.

@ThatBrazilianGuy lol i was going to do the same thing, with the exact same image O_O

Ben Richards

That Brazilian Guy

5:59 PM

@allquixotic Great minds think alike ;)

Ben Richards

:)

allquixotic

people must've been really bored to need to occupy their time with such trivial "toys"

Ben Richards

Hey, it was invented 200 years ago and they aren't "trival" :P

Also, now that we're on the subject, my mom's best friend has this guy as a son in law. :) yoyowiki.org/wiki/Andre_Boulay

So now all he (her son in law) does is travel and do yoyo shows and workshops and make millions of $$. :)

allquixotic

fast-forward to the year 2769...

> people must've been really bored to need to occupy their time with such trivial "games"

Ben Richards

:P

I had an awkward moment with a Microsoft Customer Support rep when I was inquiring about getting a replacement power supply for my Surface Pro 2 yesterday.

He made a joke (I think). I wasn't sure how to respond.

allquixotic

6:03 PM

what happened to your PSU?

my original Surface Pro's PSU is still going strong

Ben Richards

I was using my tablet on the couch with it plugged in to charge it. I didn't realize I was sitting on it and pulling on the cable, apparently kinking it, until the tablet complained of having a dangerously low battery level. Apparently by pulling and kinking it, I pretty much ripped the cable coming out in half.

It was hanging together by a little bit of the rubber and a few strands of wire.

And I think one of the wires too. Shifted around and it sparked :o

Oliver Salzburg

@BenRichards We tried to get a replacement for a Surface Pro 1 power supply the other day. In the store they told us that they aren't available separately :P

Ben Richards

Unplugged it quickly. But it's gone, needed a new one.

allquixotic

yikes

That Brazilian Guy

@OliverSalzburg O__o

Ben Richards

6:06 PM

@OliverSalzburg I can't buy the Surface Pro 2 power adapter either. At least not at the Microsoft Store. But I saw in the comments that you can get new ones through a warranty replacement. Don't remember if mine is even in warranty anymore but they're sending me a new one for free :)

allquixotic

lol nice

I'll probably buy the SP4 if it has Skylake, or if not, then the SP5

for such a pricey device I can't upgrade often

Oliver Salzburg

I'm not even sure what my colleague at the fair did in the end...

Probably bought a new Surface Pro and returned it after we didn't need the power supply anymore ;D

Ben Richards

Hehe

I wasn't sure how to respond. :P

allquixotic

o_O

Ben Richards

Ah ok, I have another year left on my warranty

I think I purchased an extended warranty on it after I had to get it replaced twice for defects.

allquixotic

6:15 PM

wow o_O

I've never had any defect at all with my Surface Pro 1, except that (as a design constraint, not a defect) the battery life is embarrassing

Ben Richards

Shortly after I bought it, the battery stopped charging at all. Got a replacement under warranty. New one had a defective SSD (which I initially discovered when it would periodically freeze when trying to resume from standby/hibernation). Second replacement was ok.

Yeah, the Surface Pro 1 didn't have the benefit of the newer Haswell chips from Intel, so it had a short battery life.

Surface Pro 2 gives me a decent 4-4.5 hours, depending on what I'm doing.

My old Dell laptop from years ago gave me a little less than that. My AMD laptops gave me less, but this was years ago. My last AMD laptop is my Thinkpad that I have now, which is 5 years old. Bought the extended battery pack to get 4 hours on it. The standard battery pack would give me half that.

I hear AMD is better with power efficiency these days though

My old Dell laptop had the ability to swap the optical drive out with a secondary battery which let me get up to about 7 hours of battery life. In 2005, that was godlike. :P

I loved that design, even if the rest of the laptop was a crappy build.

Ben Richards

6:36 PM

I wonder if I should post that to /r/techsupportgore

I posted it :B

Arthur

6:55 PM

Oh, /r/techsupportgore.

That subreddit is full of people that have no idea what they are talking about..

Just yesterday there was a post showing someone cleaning their motherboard using tapwater, the entire thread is full of people going "Well it should work! it worked on my keyboard". Sigh.

Ben Richards

Oh yeah I saw that :P

I was simultaneously incredulous but thankful that at least some people knew what was up

allquixotic

@Arthur right, because tapwater never contains trace minerals that may conduct electricity O_O :P

Ben Richards

It is ok if you do it sparingly and you don't have hard water.

My tap water is pretty good. It's not hard, it's not chlorinated or fluoridated. We don't have to filter it.

Arthur

I think the potential for damage is much higher then simply using compressed air.

Ben Richards

I never washed a motherboard though :P

Arthur

6:58 PM

Perhaps it's not a question of "Technically possible" as "Is this practical"

id still be worried about water washing off thermal paste and getting stuck underneath things

Ben Richards

If I clean electronics like that, usually I spot clean with alcohol. If it's that bad, I probably would power it off for a day, compressed air and wipe it down with an antistatic cloth for the easy stuff, then clean by hand with a water spray bottle to spray jets of water where needed, and alcohol.

Arthur

alcohol is different, at least it evaporates.

Ben Richards

It is my understanding that if you're disassembling a computer and taking the motherboard out, you always thoroughly clean off the thermal paste and reapply fresh.

Any time you take the heatsink off, you do that.

Arthur

I was thinking northbridge

Ben Richards

Oh that. Most of the people who commented were saying things like the water would corrode the electronics or short stuff. 1) You leave it unplugged, remove the battery, and hold on the power button for a while to discharge anything. 2) It shouldn't corrode if you dry it immediately.

After washing it, I'd probably let it sit for another day for good measure.

Just to be sure.

Oh, and 3) Tap water isn't equivalent everywhere. if it's hard, yeah, that could be a problem.

My childhood home had well water. It sometimes had visible sediment in it from the filter or the well.

Arthur

7:03 PM

Someone should try this. For science.

Ben Richards

That wouldn't go on any electronics. :P

Someone probably has. People have videos online of them using PCs, then taking off the CPU heatsink just to see what happens. :P

I remember way back when, a couple actually blew a hole through the table the computer was sitting on.

One guy built a computer that was completely submerged in a mineral oil filled fish tank. :P

DragonLord

!!/help kick

ChatBot John Cavil

@DragonLord Command kick does not exist.

MediaWebDev

7:33 PM

For all you Super Users out there. You have backups, right?

3

Please vote on answers to this question

I have a bounty expiring and I think new answers deserve to be voted on. I dont know enough to properly select the best answer

oops wrong link

1

Q: How can I convert all “x”s to “y”s in filenames for a specific directory from the command line?

I have been naming files, of out habit as a programmer working on a server command line, with underscores “_” rather than spaces “"—because from the command line you have to escape spaces—but that is unnecessary outside of the command line and is quickly getting old. I would like to keep everythi...

The 4 new answers with no votes all look good. I just dont know enough about it

Luke

well, first time I hear of "rename" command, perl is unnecessary heavy, but may work out, and David's answer seems quite complicated

That Brazilian Guy

@BenRichards I once read an article where someone used cooking oil.

Luke

you might try curious_cat's to see if it works for you, looks simple enough

Ben Richards

@ThatBrazilianGuy Might've been the same article?

That Brazilian Guy

@BenRichards it was years ago, in a Brazilian tech magazine. And you don't cook with mineral oil, if you want to survive afterwards

Ben Richards

7:44 PM

@ThatBrazilianGuy Ah ok. Different article :P

Nate Kerkhofs

8:12 PM

Well, this is fun... I just spent 6 hours installing 212 windows updates, I reboot and check for new updates: another 184 updates waiting for me

Oliver Salzburg

@NateKerkhofs Sounds like fun

Michael Frank

@NateKerkhofs Sounds like dial up.

Nate Kerkhofs

nope, just a 4 year old laptop without an SSD

I bought it back in 2010, even, I think

so 5 years old

and using the OEM windows that came with it

Michael Frank

9:07 PM

Ugh... IE8 isn't rendering this page correctly. I know the information I want is on it... time to delve through the source.

Arthur

Good old f12.

ekaj

11:23 PM

ADP CALLED IM GETTING A FREE SECURITY

allquixotic

@ekaj GOOD. LET THE NICE MAN COME INTO YOUR HOUSE AND INSTALL THE SECURITY.

ekaj

apparently i live at the richmond va police department

or at least that's my address

allquixotic

don't you?

the address you gave them? :D

ekaj

yes =p

Michael Frank

I had a guy turn up and try and offer me a free alarm system.

He had an ADT hat on and a clipboard.

I told him we already had an alarm, then when he left I called ADT and the police. :3

Canadian Luke

11:30 PM

@MichaelFrank Called ADT for the copyright infringement, right? ;-)

ekaj

well apparently he figured out that was a mental health place and not my home.. (i thought it was a police department..) so I told him that's why I wanted the system and that I lived across the street

Michael Frank

@CanadianLuke No, it was a legit hat. Probably got it from a clothing bank.

ekaj

11:59 PM

Went running for the first time in like 6-8 months and rolled my ankle while moving around a dog on a sidewalk

Root Access

Transcript for

Root Access