Root Access

Bob

4:00 PM

Well, the kernel wouldn't have changed much. Same major version and all.

allquixotic

did they break ABI for drivers though?

I see Nvidia and AMD had to specially write Windows 8 Preview drivers

which tells me that the Win7 drivers didn't work due to ABI

Bob

I think it may have had something to do with driver signing...

allquixotic

maybe new version of WDDM

or that :(

ah, WDDM 1.2

Bob

Debugging Windows 8 BSoDs is going to be painful...

allquixotic

Windows Display Driver Model

Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM, also WVDDM during the Vista time-frame, Longhorn Display Driver Model and LDDM prior to the introduction of the Vista name) is the graphic driver architecture for video card drivers running Microsoft Windows versions beginning with Windows Vista. It is a replacement for the Windows XP display driver architecture aimed at enabling better performance graphics and new graphics functionality. WDDM provides the functionality required to render the desktop and applications using Desktop Window Manager, a compositing window manager running on top of Direct3D...

WDDM 1.2 == new graphics driver API/ABI == new graphics drivers

stereoscopic 3D now a standardized DirectX/WDDM thing rather than a vendor-specific hack

Bob

4:04 PM

laslow.net/2012/03/14/…

allquixotic

bye bye AMD Quad Buffers SDK

r.tanner.f

so new drivers for graphics cards to run on Win 8? =\

allquixotic

Hmm. I wonder if transitioning to requiring finer granularity multitasking in WDDM -- DMA buffer, primitive, triangle, pixel or instruction -- will make it incompatible with semi-fixed-function GPUs like Intel 945G(M) and 965G(M), which only support command submission at the batch buffer level

Having WDDM ask for multitasking at the pixel or instruction level on hardware like that would mean submitting a batch buffer for one pixel or instruction, which sounds painfully slow

Maybe it's just an optional thing but the wiki article makes it sound un-optional

well... supporting WDDM 1.0/1.1 was already a struggle for that generation of hardware, so I guess it's fully out of the picture or in some kind of legacy / doghouse mode now

but yes @r.tanner.f

in all likelihood, AMD HD4000 and earlier cards, which are in legacy support, and Nvidia's cards that only run on the legacy or very-legacy drivers, are probably not going to receive WDDM 1.2 support.

AMD massively scaled back their Catalyst driver team (stupid idea imho) so they've had to drop support for older hardware sooner than they'd like, and scale back the release cycle for Catalyst also

scaling back driver support and maintenance for a driver that's already extremely shoddy and needs a lot of support is like committing corporate suicide. AMD hardware is wonderful but their drivers are horrendous. now they're going to remain horrendous in perpetuity.

Supporting WDDM 1.2 and dropping backwards compatibility for WDDM 1.1 drivers is likely just a ploy to sell more Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge CPUs with on-board graphics... Intel colluding with MSFT again. Old news.

All those old Nvidia FX5200s and Intel 945Gs have to go.

avirk

4:20 PM

flipkart.com/lava-e-tab-z7h/p/…

:D

allquixotic

looks NSFGW

avirk

NSFGW ? :(

I think not safe for and GW?

allquixotic

not safe for government work

avirk

@allquixotic if its about my link then yeah!

r.tanner.f

what about plain old W?

allquixotic

4:25 PM

depends on how close your corporate network is to the Great Firewall of China

or alternately the Great Firewall of US TLAs

@Bob, that "laslowNET" at the top reminds me of the way they say "zombo COM" at zombo.com

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk That's 80EUR O__O

avirk

@OliverSalzburg very cheap one

Oliver Salzburg

I bought more expensive cat food yesterday

2

allquixotic

your cat is one spoiled brat

r.tanner.f

ARGHGL:SKDJH:LSDGHEWI:JOIEWLGJDSG:LIDHG:DLX I"M SICK OF IT.
What's everyone's preferred method of backing up a PC that you might be potentially borking?

avirk

4:28 PM

cost me 5500 INR and even my Xperia cost more than its double

Oliver Salzburg

@r.tanner.f dd

allquixotic

r.tanner.f: dd

Oliver JINX

Oliver Salzburg

:D

r.tanner.f

lol

dd it is

thanks

avirk

@OliverSalzburg that's what you guys can't feed the poors :D

Oliver Salzburg

4:29 PM

dd even repaired my RAID once :D

Bob

@allquixotic what?

allquixotic

actually I tend to back most things up on the cloud nowadays, and I'm more than willing to lose trifling things like operating system configuration and bookmarks and passwords (Xmarks for bookmarks, LastPass for passwords)

Oliver Salzburg

My Intel software RAID0 was broken. 1 drive marked missing. Booted into Ubuntu, ran dd on both disks, rebooted. RAID array was marked as functional again :D

Bob

Oh, that link

allquixotic

@Bob you linked to laslow.net earlier

at the top it says "laslowNET"

"welcome... to zomboCOM"

avirk

4:30 PM

A friend of mine want me to tell her the Laptop model in 25-26K INR with 4gb ram :P

Bob

@OliverSalzburg wait, isn't Intel just fake RAID?

r.tanner.f

@allquixotic well, I'm working with other people's PCs. And every time without fail, when I nuke their system they go "Oh wait! I had this one super-duper important file that I totally forgot about! Can you magically bring it back?" ~_~

avirk

She thought I'm a GEEK of the computer :D

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob I don't know. But it's weird. I kept the RAID0 afterwards, the same thing happened again a few months later.

I repeated the steps and got it working again

Bob

@r.tanner.f You probably want file level backup, dd is block level...

allquixotic

4:31 PM

Intel's motherboard RAID0 is indeed "fake RAID", which means that the BIOS/SATA controller fake out the operating system to recognize it as two different disks at some layers and as one disk at other layers

it still needs software support and parity bits, stripes, etc. are all done on the host CPU

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Well, it never provided the performance gain I was after anyways.

allquixotic

of course not

Oliver Salzburg

It was garbage and that's it

allquixotic

Adaptec hardware RAID for performance

I have a 6405E (I think) at home in my desktop

I'm still waiting for a desktop replacement laptop that has a hardware RAID controller but doesn't weigh 25+ lbs and comes with a TrackPoint

then I can sell my desktop and just use laptops forevermore

Oliver Salzburg

Well, ever since SSDs I haven't really looked back at those failed RAID0 experiments.

allquixotic

4:36 PM

SSDs win on seek time; HDDs + hardware RAID wins on throughput

SSDs + hardware RAID rock your socks, but storage capacity bad

sidran32

I have a RAID0 setup with Hybrid SSDs (basically, regular HDD with a massive flash cache). It's pretty quick, but nothing spectacular.

Oliver Salzburg

Hehehe

allquixotic

I have 1.5 TB in my C:\Steam\steamapps\common folder alone

sidran32

It's a hardware RAID0 setup, by the way. AMD RAID.

allquixotic

one thing I can say for sure about RAID0 is I love the throughput... I love watch Skyrim gameplay videos on Youtube, so I can laugh at how long it takes people to load between areas. I can take FRAPS video to disk at full resolution and load 20 times faster than they do

watching*

avirk

4:39 PM

@OliverSalzburg 1EUR = ? INR ?

sidran32

I think I was really wanting the seek performance, but it didn't give me that, so much.

But, ya, the throughput is nice.

Diogo

software recomendation is still off-topic right?

allquixotic

lmgtfy.com/?q=1+euro+in+IND

Bob

@allquixotic You'd laugh at my system then :P

avirk

@Diogo yup

sidran32

4:40 PM

My computer runs regular disk image backups every other day. I've had it running them in the background with absolutely no performance hit.

Diogo

2

Q: Is there a program to record keyboard/mouse usage stats only for certain programs?

I need to find a program that does the following: Monitors number of keypresses, mouse movement and mouseclicks (NOT a keylogger) Tracks/saves results by date Can export to CSV or something similar Can monitor per-application / differentiate by application (ie. show me stats for keystrokes/mous...

allquixotic

change that "IND" to "INR", I think

1 euro is 69.0802 rupees

avirk

@allquixotic thanks

allquixotic

seriously the lmgtfy is funnier though

lmgtfy.com/?q=1+euro+in+INR (corrected link from above)

avirk

@OliverSalzburg how much you have pay for your phone?

sidran32

4:42 PM

Although, lmgtfy.com is pretty rude unless the other guy is in on the joke :P

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Nothing. It came with the contract. And I'm paying that neither :D

allquixotic

it's not rude if it's accurate and the first result literally tells them what they wanted to know

it teaches them a (brusque) lesson

avirk

@OliverSalzburg with company or something else

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Yeah, my employer pays it.

allquixotic

I paid the USD equivalent of 36071 rupees for my smartphone

Oliver Salzburg

4:43 PM

In exchange for a piece of my commission

avirk

ANd I mean to ask you if you buy it how much it cost you @OliverSalzburg

Sathya

@allquixotic out of contract?

r.tanner.f

Ok, I did something really stupid. I put a 35GB VHD on my desktop, which is attached to my roaming profile. Trying to log out now and I think it's trying to transfer the file back to the server over a 10Mbps link. -_- Think if I cut the power the file will still be on my desktop?

allquixotic

@Sathya, yes

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Right now, the SGS2 costs 380EUR (26K rupees)

r.tanner.f

4:45 PM

This is my last stupid question for the day =D

Sathya

@allquixotic huh. interesting - not many people buy out of contract phones in the US

avirk

@OliverSalzburg yeah but it is without contract?

allquixotic

every single Verizon customer who's grandfathered into an unlimited 4G contract will be buying out of contract phones in perpetuity until Verizon kills our contracts forcibly

Bob

@sidran32 if you want to be rude, there's always jfgit :\

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Yes. That's the full price for the phone. No strings attached.

allquixotic

4:47 PM

they made it so that you lose your contract (and your unlimited) if you buy a new 2 year plan

avirk

@OliverSalzburg Gal S2

allquixotic

so I'll be buying retail from here on out

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Yes. S3 costs 500EUR (35K rupees)

allquixotic

I save thousands of dollars per year (hundreds per month, probably) by staying with unlimited rather than paying the absolutely heinous fee of 10 dollars per gigabyte overage

sidran32

@Bob Never heard of that one. :o

avirk

4:48 PM

@OliverSalzburg but it will cost me 39K here :D

Now I'm dreaming about S3

Oliver Salzburg

@avirk Hah, my mistake. It actually costs 550/38K

allquixotic

not only am I a road warrior but I also use it as my primary internet connection, because getting decent cable/fiber to the premises where I live is impossible

Oliver Salzburg

Well, depends on the seller. I was just checking Amazon

Bob

@sidran32 jfgit.com/clean/jfgit

sidran32

@Bob I can infer the abbreviation :P

I'm at work

avirk

4:49 PM

@Sathya do you get any discount from the IT city :P

allquixotic

LOL I got that acronym "jfgit" without even visiting the site

Bob

:P

avirk

2

Q: Is there a program to record keyboard/mouse usage stats only for certain programs?

I need to find a program that does the following: Monitors number of keypresses, mouse movement and mouseclicks (NOT a keylogger) Tracks/saves results by date Can export to CSV or something similar Can monitor per-application / differentiate by application (ie. show me stats for keystrokes/mous...

monitoring usage statistics keylogger keystrokes

sidran32

I bought my phone off contract. It was expensive, but my 2 yr contract with AT&T was almost up and I didn't want to renew it again.

I think I have a couple months left at the most.

avirk

@OliverSalzburg had you looked on that?

Oliver Salzburg

4:50 PM

@avirk What do you mean?

allquixotic

I'll be staying with Verizon until/unless they force me off the unlimited 4G plan

avirk

@OliverSalzburg that question is not off topic here?

allquixotic

as long as I can stay unlimited, they'll continue to get my monthly flat rate and I'll continue buying phones for $600-$700 every year or so

Bob

@sidran32 safe now, sorry (nothing really NSFW stood out on the other one, though)

sidran32

I will be staying with AT&T but I have a strong desire to see if I can find a cheaper prepaid plan that I can use.

@Bob Well, I'm conservative about what I visit when at work.

Oliver Salzburg

4:51 PM

@avirk Tough call. It sounds a bit off-topic. But, at heart, it's on-topic ;D

avirk

@sidran32 No contract with most of the phones and can change my carrier every month and also Port my no. after 3 months :P

allquixotic

it's funny because AT&T is advertised very aggressively on TV and radio here, but Verizon has a much stronger presence in terms of signal coverage, variety of phones and number of official Verizon stores in the region

sidran32

@avirk I'm pretty certain taht I'll have to carrier-unlock my phone if I move to T-Mobile or something. Even though I bought it off-contract, pretty much all phones you buy in the US are carrier-locked unless otherwise specified.

allquixotic

@sidran32, that's correct

Sathya

@avirk not really,.

allquixotic

4:53 PM

however I believe it's technically legal to root your phone if you buy it outside of a 2 year agreement contract

it's YOUR hardware so they can't tell you not to

sidran32

Luckily, unlocking a phone isn't that hard.

avirk

@Sathya :D hahahahaah so many taxes here :P

sidran32

@allquixotic I think it's legal anyways.

allquixotic

and they seem to have backed off on the tethering issue, too

Motorola Android smartphones by Verizon are coming with built-in USB tethering for no extra fee

sidran32

But I'm not going to root it. Carrier unlocking is simpler than that. You just have to get the code to do it from the carrier.

allquixotic

4:53 PM

over RNDIS

sidran32

Or you can bring it to someplace like Best Buy and have them do it for you :P

allquixotic

I'm currently hating Lenovo's guts about how well they locked down the Thinkpad Tablet. The WIFI version! With absolutely no ties to any cellular carrier whatsoever! And I can't even unlock it without downloading a hack? Come on, people...

I ended up bricking it (I think) after several attempts to manually upgrade to ICS

sidran32

@allquixotic I can tether, I just have to buy the 5 GB data plan. Luckily, I can do that on my phone, and if I cancel it early, they refund me for the days that I don't use it. So I stay on the 3 GB plan except for those rare instances where I want to tether.

allquixotic

@sidran32, that's very unusual.... on Verizon the USB tethering is unlocked regardless of what plan you're on, out of the box... it just eats into your data plan if you have an unlimited data plan; if not, it doesn't eat into it at all

sidran32

@allquixotic They had to because of the frequencies their service operates on. Locking down tethering violated some net neutrality thing or something, so they were forced to open it up.

Bob

4:56 PM

@allquixotic you can probably unbrick...

allquixotic

@sidran32 do you mean AT&T or Verizon?

sidran32

@allquixotic That's Verizon. AT&T operates on different frequencies that aren't covered by those rules.

allquixotic

I know that one of the bought a frequency band that the FCC specifically earmarked for cellular data and required whoever bought it to operate under net neutrality regulations

ah, you're right, very good, I had no idea that Verizon would actually accede to that

I'm impressed though; that's excellent of the FCC

see, now I want to work for the FCC I love them so much. They are actually doing things that protect consumers. Whodathunkit.

avirk

good night all

sidran32

Hehe

Night @avirk

allquixotic

4:59 PM

Not only do they license out the bands so that nothing except lightning is legally allowed to broadcast and mess up your signal; but they made Verizon open up their phones to tethering. Wow.

sidran32

The reason I stick with AT&T and similar stuff though is simply because I love SIM cards. I can pull one out and stick it in another phone and use it without having to call the carrier up.

allquixotic

Now I feel bad for AT&T LTE customers

sidran32

@allquixotic Well, like I said, I can unlock tethering pretty simply straight from my phone and when I cancel it, they refund me for days not used.

allquixotic

but you're still limited to 5GB!

sidran32

So it's effectively unlocked, for me. It's just a few extra steps to turn it on :P

allquixotic

5:00 PM

that's tyranny!

:P

sidran32

@allquixotic I don't use my cell data enough to make that a problem :P

If I went over, they'd charge me $10 for another GB, anyway. I think that's fair.

Since I don't use it heavily, anyway.

allquixotic

well that must be because you have a primary internet connection other than cellular, which makes you a conformist :P (not derogatory, just makes me le sigh because I'm not part of that group)

sidran32

Ya. I have cable Internet at home and a wireless router. So I'm priviledged in that regard. Unfortunately, some parts of the US aren't so lucky.

allquixotic

$10/GB is definitely not fair, and there is absolutely no reason why people shouldn't be able to use LTE as their primary internet connection. $10/GB has no place in 2012. There's enough spectrum for it to be charged at like $1/GB at most.

it's a perfectly viable technology with plenty of spectrum and bandwidth and suitable for desktop purposes -- streaming video, gaming, surfing with sites using heavy AJAX...

sidran32

However, 4G LTE is pretty awesome. I went on a trip with my friends to Virginia this summer, and our primary Internet connection was the Wifi off my phone. We were able to play multiplayer XBox games online and there was no noticable speed difference.

allquixotic

5:02 PM

and it makes you stop worrying about things like the limits of your wifi router's range, so you can just walk across the street with it and not care

yeah... hell, even back on Verizon's 3G (EvDO) in 2007-2008, I took four total (one-way) train trips across country from DC to California and I had EvDO most of the way, and it was usable

although there were lots of dropouts because they were still getting the network up and running at that point

if I took the same trip today, I'd probably never lose connection at all, and have 4G at least 50% of the time

r.tanner.f

A note about the tethering + Verison thing: if I remember right those that were still grandfathered in to an unlimited data plan were exempt from the FCC's decision to make Verison open up tethering. So... if you're still on a Verison unlimited data plan the apps might still be blocked.

allquixotic

and strong 3G the rest of the way

sidran32

The only thing that I had to worry about is tethering kills battery life. I had to plug my phone in so it wouldn't go dead in a couple hours :P

allquixotic

@r.tanner.f -- that certainly isn't the case here. It's not an "app"; it's a feature built-in to Android in the Settings menu where you just enable RNDIS tethering to your desktop.

they could very easily have disabled it, though

just don't ship the kernel module for it, or remove the feature from the settings app

r.tanner.f

@allquixotic I think the way Verizon was blocking was through the app downloads. Not sure though.

allquixotic

5:05 PM

It's not an app. It's just a piece of the operating system. They would have to detect that my account is grandfathered-unlimited and disable a core piece of the Android operating system. I don't think they do that.

Their policy may say that I can't tether, but nothing about the phone is in any way obstructing me from doing that by single-tapping a checkbox that's built into the stock ROM.

sidran32

@allquixotic Aside from the pricing though, which I concede would be an issue for heavy users, unlocking it is really simple. I just purchase the 5GB plan with the myAT&T app, and then go into settings, enable Internet Connection Sharing, and I'm good. When I'm done, I just go back into myAT&T and switch back to my old plan.

It's that easy, and that immediate. No waiting a day for things to process or whatever :P

allquixotic

yeah, I can see how that can be convenient if you just want to surf a little bit while you're away from home

sidran32

Ya

allquixotic

but you know, making a real serious business out of cellular data as a primary internet connection isn't all that difficult for companies like Verizon. If they'd just allow new customers to get unlimited data and advertise it heavily, along with explicitly allowing tethering for all customers and unlimited data on their MiFi hotspots, the world would be a much better place.

r.tanner.f

@allquixotic This. I don't care about the cost, I just want to be able to use it.

allquixotic

5:08 PM

if people started to truly saturate the LTE spectrum at that point, they could easily remedy that by gradually reducing the distance between towers over time and reducing their transmit range, so that you can fit more unique spectrum-spaces in.

sidran32

AT&T does have a data-only plan. You can get wifi hotspots from them I think. I never really investigated it though, or their pricing (which I think is different than their cell data plans).

allquixotic

the whole argument by certain "experts" that there isn't enough cellular spectrum to enable truly unlimited data tethering and hotspot usage for everyone, is an argument based on a false assumption that the distance between towers is fixed and must remain the same as it is now

as society starts to accept more towers as a necessity and beneficial thing for our digital life, you will see previously-denied tower provisioning permits start to be accepted in areas like parking lots and on top of buildings

r.tanner.f

engadget.com/2012/07/31/…

allquixotic

so you can have towers every square mile instead of one every 10 miles

and then you have more spectrum spaces and the spectrum problem disappears

sidran32

What would be nice too is mandated tower sharing. You can fit antennas for multiple carriers on one tower.

allquixotic

5:10 PM

true, you can, and many companies still don't have peering/roaming agreements where you can e.g. use Verizon towers on AT&T (or vice versa)

sidran32

At my old job, there was a Verizon tower right in the parking lot. AT&T service sucked. They had to install micro towers in our building for us AT&T users.

allquixotic

and a lot of towers have a whole ton of unused space at the top that is just begging to have more antennae piled up on it

sidran32

I got one repeater right above my cubicle. :)

allquixotic

nice!

they have AT&T 3G repeaters at my customer site because it's the officially supported solution for all the execs' blackberries

but Verizon service in that building is godawful

Qualcomm needs to make a more efficient LTE baseband though, or integrate the baseband processor's functionality directly into the host CPU on a Snapdragon or something, because the main drawback of LTE today is the battery consumption

sidran32

They should do that. And they should start making bigger batteries instead of trying to shave millimeters off the thinness of the phone.

Though my Lumia 900 does get pretty awesome battery life.

allquixotic

5:16 PM

the Razr Maxx is pretty amazing both in battery capacity and thinness

I don't know how they did it, but it's some new battery technology Motorola invented and/or bought which provides increased energy density

I'm really pleased with the phone overall

sidran32

Ya. Same thing with the Lumia 900. It's both svelt and has great battery life. Can't complain. :)

allquixotic

I gave my friend a demo of the Otterbox Defender on it the other day. I dropped it from chest-high standing up onto a hard datacenter floor. It elicited a "holy shit!" followed by covering-of-mouth, nervous giggling, then awe as I showed him the complete lack of damage to the case or the phone.

sidran32

Well, except that it doesn't have more battery life. I always want more :P

We need smartphones that hold a charge for a week!

Haha, nice. :P

You should have thrown the phone at the floor instead. :P

allquixotic

the Razr Maxx can survive on standby for a week, especially if you turn off 4G and just use 3G, but if you're watching youtube constantly you can kill it in about 8 hours

sidran32

@allquixotic Mine last a good 20 hours so long as I have my email accounts set to pull instead of push. Even with normal usage (I use it for twitter/facebook and some web browsing throughout the day)

But ya, doing games or netflix and it will probably get about 6-8 hours of life.

allquixotic

5:21 PM

I wonder how long until companies are allowed to eavesdrop on cellular data originating from handsets inside their premises, or just install a Faraday cage to prevent it altogether

so they can monitor/measure how much of your time you're spending on your phone

sidran32

Ya, the Nokia site says this:

7.0 Hour(s)
Maximum 3G talk time
300.0 Hour(s)
Maximum 3G standby time
60.0 Hour(s)
Maximum music playback time
6.5 Hour(s)
Maximum video playback time

That's pretty good

allquixotic

not bad

the main things that kill a smartphone's battery are using the 4G (if any; but 3G is okay); or having the screen on. Worse if you do hardware-accelerated 3d graphics

screen off + no GPU accel + no 4G can give you a very long run doing almost anything else

sidran32

Ya.

Helps that I'm on Wifi most of the time

Both at home and at work.

allquixotic

bast-- er, I mean, lucky

and no, I don't worship Bast

sidran32

:P

allquixotic

5:27 PM

"Real Fact" #916 -- The scientific term for a [sic] sneezing is sternutation.

So says Snapple

sidran32

Thanks that is very helpful. :P

allquixotic

why isn't Root Access more popular :( there are "136 users currently talking in 41 other rooms".

this is where all the cool people hang out

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic It's one of the most popular ~~channels~~ rooms if I'm not mistaken

allquixotic

ah, so then there's a "long tail" of rooms with 1 - 5 people in them

sidran32

Ya, there's a ton of other chatrooms. Most of them only have a few people, if any.

allquixotic

5:47 PM

I hope answering questions on SU/SO is a good use of downtime while I don't really have anything due at work

peaks and valleys kind of job

...this, is a valley

I like to think it's at least slightly ethical because I learn as I answer questions, which makes me a more valuable employee

and I've asked a few job related questions at various sites too

r.tanner.f

6:02 PM

that's what I'm hoping when they look at my history and see I log in to Super User Root Access every morning at 6:53 =D

allquixotic

lol

r.tanner.f

seriously though stack exchange has saved my bacon more than once

2

Q: Can't attach VHD

I think I may be experiencing that horrible moment when the backup fails. Somewhere hiding on this VHD is an SQL database I need to extract. This is from a Windows backup, not a virtual machine. I'm totally stumped. What can I do with a vhd I can't even mount anywhere? Diskpart has referenced an...

windows-7 backup data-recovery windows-backup vhd

like that day =D

allquixotic

as long as I don't get anything like "Hi, this is your boss. Get back to work." as a comment/answer to one of my questions or comments

none of you here look like my boss if your avatars can be trusted

Mokubai

Who says our avatars can be trusted?

Mine is more a guideline than an actual hard rule...

allquixotic

the push is a lie?

r.tanner.f

6:13 PM

0

Q: Just got a new sub, what do these knobs do and what should I set them to?

Just got a new sub, what do these knobs do and what should I set them to? Phase Crossover Also, what is LFE? Also, is the headphone jack crappier quality compared to the white and red inputs?

audio speakers

How off topic is this?

allquixotic

about this much: |________________________________________________|

also, I find that question very exploitable by combining 80s-era stereo knobs and Subway sandwiches and Photoshop

allquixotic

6:30 PM

It's pretty cool that I work for a company that has its own /8 in IPv4. That's pretty leet. There can only be at most 255 of them, and in practice there are many fewer

Mokubai

@allquixotic So you're somewhere on this list then?

allquixotic

yup.

we have a company-internal registrar and NOC. :D

wondering if they've started selling the addresses commercially though since I'm sure we haven't nearly exhausted our space

Darth Android

I hate it when people downvote but don't leave feedback :/

Mokubai

6:50 PM

@allquixotic Closest to Maryland my Googling gets from that list is Dupont in Delaware...

maybe Merck

allquixotic

newp

Mokubai

headquarters or satellite office? headquarters are easier to find...

allquixotic

the latter

Mokubai

:/

allquixotic

also I'm not actually on their network here even though we have their network in our building

how many hints do you need :P

public sector....?

Mokubai

6:57 PM

So a company large enough to purchase a /8 block, and have multiple offices, but not so large that it might ever actually actually fill said /8 block...

allquixotic

and work for the federal government

Mokubai

Ah, I'd kinda ruled out the various DoD/postal service ones

allquixotic

not THE federal government

the guessing game is fun but 20.x is it.

i mean 20.0.0.0/8

Mokubai

Ah :)

Had a quick look at them but didn't see much in that area...

allquixotic

o_O

okay then

we have more offices in the MD/VA area than anywhere else in the world

Mokubai

7:01 PM

My american geography is rusty, I assumed virginia was nearer the middle for some reason

it sounds like a "near the middle" state to me

A company of companies, cool

allquixotic

removing an Otterbox Defender either requires you to grow fingernails to exactly the right length and durability or else buying a guitar pick or an iSesamo. ugh.

Diogo

superuser.com/questions/465019/… there is some way?

allquixotic

This is frustrating. I can't get my phone out of this stupid case. I want to throw it, but I know that doing so wouldn't even hurt it, because the damn thing is so strong.

well, I did something right. it literally fell apart all at once. and my phone hit the table.

allquixotic

7:26 PM

there. my screen has NO dirt between the Otterbox case and the device screen. for one day. until I put it back in my pocket.

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Wow. Those Otterbox cases look nice

allquixotic

the Otterbox Defender is the real thing. the commuter is less sturdy

I have the Defender on my Razr Maxx. it doesn't do much for water protection (there are still ways for water to get through the case and into the phone) but it can take a football-style Hail Mary Pass and land on concrete with no damage to the phone

Oliver Salzburg

:D

allquixotic

it has an outer rubber moulding to protect from scraping and an internal very-hard-plastic shell to absorb shock

I wouldn't go as far as to say that it should be able to survive terminal velocity due to gravity, but pretty close to that.

I could see it easily surviving something like, you're walking down the street holding it casually and a passerby bumps you and knocks it out of your hand, it falls, and one of you steps on it accidentally while trying to catch your balance from the collision

whereas without the case that would be a situation for major damage or destruction to a raw phone

r.tanner.f

8:24 PM

I've got one of those Casio g'ZOne Commando phones. It's an awful phone, but it is pretty much bullet proof. I threw it down a small cliff so my wife could take a picture. It landed screen-first on a rock, bounced off, and bruised her leg with no other damage. xD Not even a scratch. Next time I'll just get a normal phone and an Otterbox though... I'm sure I can find a good alternative use for an indestructible device.

allquixotic

8:54 PM

r.tanner.f -- Wow, that's with no case mods?

I'm impressed

Oliver Salzburg

bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19349921

Wow

allquixotic

Just more proof for the Christians that man really did descend from monkeys

r.tanner.f

@OliverSalzburg That makes me want to puke.

Oliver Salzburg

That just blows my mind.

Someone with the "skills" to paint the right one, looked at the left one and though "Hey, I'll fix that right up!"

allquixotic

They can probably restore it by dating the individual pieces of paint and studying their layering to very carefully remove the new stuff, but that's gotta be even more expensive than just restoring it after deteriorating from old age

r.tanner.f

9:07 PM

@allquixotic Yeah no mods. It's supposed to be "mil spec" or whatever. I've had people drop kick it, throw it in water, throw it in beer, grind it in the dirt, nothin'. Too bad it's slow and glitchy... I want to flash it with something but I can't find anything.

allquixotic

ah

I don't know if Otterboxes are milspec but they're, uh, definitely way more than "civspec" (where that arbitrary term is defined as the average durability of an iPhone)

r.tanner.f

I just hate treating a phone like it's made of glass. Makes it useless to me.

allquixotic

not if it's made of diamond nanorod glass

you can pretty much treat an otterboxed phone like you'd treat a little league baseball that never gets hit by a bat. n00b throwing and impacts with hard surfaces are fine, but I wouldn't try to hit a home run off of it

r.tanner.f

haha, gotcha

allquixotic

Q: What happens when you take a telecommunications engineer from the pre-cellphone days and try to make them into a subject matter expert on modern (2012) smartphones? A: You get me editing their 81 page document all night to make it somewhat close to what the customer actually wants before delivering it on Friday

I would like to overturn some tables now. Can I? Pleeeease?

disregard; parser testing

I would like X

I would like to X

I would like to more than one word

I would like to .

I would like to --; SELECT * FROM DontWorryIllBeGentle;

Oh well. Clippy is immune to SQL injection. But I can still probably edit the JS for this page so that he doesn't display.

r.tanner.f

9:28 PM

Clippy went too far this time.

He's taunting you.

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Why would you want to disable such a helpful feature? :D

allquixotic

He totally is!

@OliverSalzburg, for the same reason I would be hacking the Microsoft 2010 binaries to remove Clippy if the Microsoft Office team decided that Clippy was, in fact, here to stay, and that moreover, giving the users the option to remove him would be "confusing" and "add complexity" and "make little children cry when he goes away".

Fortunately, sanity prevailed within the Microsoft Office team, and Clippy was made anti-mandatory. That is, gone. But then insanity made a triumphant return with Windows Product Activation.

r.tanner.f

OH DEAR GOD DO NOT MENTION THAT DEVIL'S NAME

allquixotic

What name? .... >_> .... WHAT name?!?!?

....Bingo?

r.tanner.f

Windows Product Activation

It's the reason I use OpenOffice exclusively and give away every MS Office key that's mine. It's just not worth the time and effort... I reinstall too often to have a 3 install limit. Bad enough that I have to make the phone call for Windows, not gonna do it twice just to open a .doc

Is it 3? It feels like 3.

allquixotic

9:45 PM

you can get it for $10 from the employee pricing program where i work, so i have it -- for now

►

Boris_yo

10:00 PM

@OliverSalzburg First you are to ask permission to modify.

Oliver Salzburg

@Boris_yo She thought the painting was a community wiki, I guess

5

allquixotic

The problem is, the church doesn't have a reputation system. If they did, hers would be 1, or negative.

2

She needs to spend a couple months building up about 2000 rep before she can go ahead and paint Jesus into a monkey. After that, people will tolerate it. Then if she keeps gaining rep, later on she can make him into a stegosaurus; it's all good -- she's a moderator. ♦

3

Luke

10:19 PM

@slhck PING

Mechanical snail

@Luke 64 bytes from 1.2.3.4: icmp_req=1 ttl=44 time=31.3 ms

allquixotic

@Luke Request timed out.

2

Mechanical snail

PING slhck (1.2.3.4) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 1.2.3.4: icmp_req=1 ttl=44 time=31.3 ms
^C
--- slhck ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 2002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 31.374/32.464/33.951/1.098 ms

allquixotic

I don't think schlick is here

Mechanical snail

@allquixotic Touché.

Darth Android

10:22 PM

I think you transposed a few letters there

allquixotic

yeah, because that's how I pronounce his name in my head

3

r.tanner.f

@allquixotic Trying so hard not to burst out laughing in the middle of the office.