Root Access

Journeyman Geek

00:02

meh. Adjusted to be more modly and boring.

DragonLord

> Welcome to Super User. The questions you've been asking have been of consistently low quality and do not show research effort as they are easily addressed through Google searches. This is why your questions are getting downvoted and closed. Please consult the help center and try to ask answerable questions about practical issues instead of broad questions about how computer equipment works in general.

Michael Frank

@JourneymanGeek Looks like SE knows what's up with that user. lol

Journeyman Geek

0_0

Michael Frank

I'm not sure. That screenshot is from an account that hadn't used yet.

DragonLord

Every post deleted.

Sadly, you sometimes have to be blunt. It's hard to get the point across otherwise.

Journeyman Geek

00:12

Well there's blunt. Then there's the sledgehammer ;p

DragonLord

The issue here is that if you try to be direct (your questions are getting downvoted and closed), you are spoonfeeding an explanation of the problem without promoting an understanding of what's wrong.

Journeyman Geek

(I probably would have left the old spice reference if I wasn't a mod)

@DragonLord: hence suggesting he read the help, and telling him the exact issue.

DragonLord

Another example:

Grasp the stick between thumb and forefinger. Rotate arm laterally such that hand is positioned over round container next to your desk. Release. — Daniel R Hicks Feb 25 '14 at 18:06

This is much more effective than:

> The drive is dead, throw it out.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: However there's the hat.

DragonLord

... or even:

Journeyman Geek

00:15

Humour is useful at times, but I was essentially going "knock it off"

DragonLord

> Your drive is broken. Just throw it out, don't bother.

Journeyman Geek

Someone might see it as mockery

(when all I was trying to do is help)

Michael Frank

@JourneymanGeek I see the point here, but I feel the obvious language barrier would have gotten in the way.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: a combination of 1 and 3 would be even more effective

@MichaelFrank: hence the edit

DragonLord

I don't like being blunt. I always prefer to be transparent, clear, and to the point.

Michael Frank

00:17

Your question is bad. Read the help.

Journeyman Geek

Welcome to superuser. You're asking a bunch of extremely basic questions that are trivially googlable - which is probably why they arn't being well recieved. I'd suggest help center and consider asking questions about practical issues, rather than asking questions on how stuff works with no research effort. I'd add too many closed questions might result in restrictions in your ability to ask questions. — Journeyman Geek ♦ 23 mins ago

Michael Frank

!! s/arn't/aren't

ChatBot John Cavil

@MichaelFrank That didn't make much sense. Use the !!/help command to learn more.

Michael Frank

!okay

DragonLord

@MichaelFrank You're missing the trailing slash.

Michael Frank

00:18

@DragonLord Ahhhhh

Yea, I've never used that particular command in it's native enviroment before.

DragonLord

I would rather make an easily understandable and direct statement even if it falls on deaf ears than a blunt and salient statement that could come across as offensive or condescending.

> Welcome to Super User. Your questions are getting downvoted and closed because they are too broad and could easily be addressed through Google searches. Please consult the help center for guidance and try to ask questions about practical issues that can be addressed more directly. Asking too many bad questions can result in your account getting blocked from asking any more.

I ultimately think this is just a troll.

Suspend or delete the user.

The conduct I'm seeing from this user is exploitative of the community.

> you see I want to understand 100% from the point you turn the computer on to the point a cursor moving. how does a mouse move 100% explanation if you can

> IF YOU CANT EXPLAIN 100% THEN FEEL FREE TO TELL WHATEVER YOU CAN

Little more than a troll.

At this point, even I can't assume good faith.

-2

Q: Our muscles give us the ability to move our arms but....?

I have a strange question, but let me tell you something first. If you think of this carefully, then you realize something, please try this right now: Contract your muscles only so that your arms move without you doing it. You can't. The way it happens is that you move your arm (or you do somet...

This guy is trolling across the network. A network-wide suspension may be in order.

biology.stackexchange.com/posts/31797/revisions

Journeyman Geek

00:36

@DragonLord: or a language barrier

DragonLord

This guy is just rambling, asking random questions to get attention. I cannot see any plausible reason for this conduct other than to troll.

Look, this is not a confused newbie here.

This user has multiple accounts across the network and is exploiting our communities.

As I said, this user needs a network-wide suspension.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: That's somewhat overkill

In reality, he'll get questions closed, and question blocked

DragonLord

The user is actively being disruptive. He'll be blocked on Super User, but will just go on to troll the other SE communities. Notice that the user has asked questions on Electrical Engineering that have gotten deleted:

electronics.stackexchange.com/users/72830/…

Badges, but no questions on the account.

Journeyman Geek

suspensions are for people who 1) we think are salvagable 2) need salvaging

a question ban is more effective since there's nothing we can do about it

DragonLord

This is to stop disruption. This user is actively toxic to the Stack Exchange network.

Journeyman Geek

00:42

@DragonLord: You're getting worked up over one insignificant user ;p

DragonLord

lol

> toxic

Journeyman Geek

(Tip to not burning out as a moderator. Pick which ships to burn)

DragonLord

This doesn't happen all that often.

Journeyman Geek

And sites can handle their own shit

Don't forget, there's inter mod communication

DragonLord

I've seen lots of noobs who don't understand how the site works or what our rules are and just need some help. This is not one of these users.

This is a troll, plain and simple.

Journeyman Geek

00:44

In general unless its a spammer we don't get involved with other site mods

Michael Frank

Also, it's kind of amusing to read.

DragonLord

> there's nothing we can do about it

what?

Why?

I don't understand this assertion.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: Its automatic

DragonLord

The ban may be automatic, but the user has a history of deliberate abuse.

In addition, the ban is per-site.

Journeyman Geek

So we can't remove the ban manually. And while there's ways to lift it, its nebulous enough that the user is forced to be a high level contribution, and unlike a suspension, permanant.

I'm an SU mod. Other sites are outside my domain.

DragonLord

00:49

I don't understand how this is more effective.

Journeyman Geek

1) no mod intervention needed

2) no obvious time limit

3) good behaviour is the only way out.

DragonLord

The user has no intention to contribute in good faith.

Journeyman Geek

There's a few cases where a user manages to get around it

Yup, and he's handled on the site I moderate at.

DragonLord

As someone who's aspiring to be a mod, what lessons should I learn so that I can put them to use when the diamond comes?

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord deal with the problem in front of you, then put it aside ;p

DragonLord

00:51

I don't want to make the wrong decisions. I'm still very green when it comes to things like this, having very little experience in managing a community.

Is Community Building the answer?

Journeyman Geek

And being a mod is essentially being a leveled up poweruser

I never go there

I used to be a mod elsewhere (and am still a mod on a battletech site)

DragonLord

What can you teach to me that I can put to use?

Journeyman Geek

And really, I be the mod I want to have ;p

Nothing ;p

Just be terrified and horrified by your powers ;p

DragonLord

I'm afraid that as good as I am at handling spam, I simply lack the ~~skills~~ experience to act as a good leader.

Journeyman Geek

spam is easy

DragonLord

00:56

How do I get started using my existing tools?

Journeyman Geek

XD. As far as community leadership goes, I think you're ready when someone else starts annoying you about being a mod, not the other way around

as for existing tools, things changed a lot since I got elected

I just used to try to clear queues

DragonLord

I still go through the review queues and do general site cleanup on a regular basis.

I've taken to commenting more, though, and have tried to guide users through the system.

Journeyman Geek

(of course, now I have a job, so I mainly do proper moddy stuff in the mornings, lunchtime and evenings)

DragonLord

...and of course, I still try to post answers of the highest quality.

Sadly, I still feel like a complete neophyte at actual community building

😢

sob

Flags, badges, and reputation ultimately say nothing about whether you would be a good community leader

oldmud0

one day somebody will write a satire on SE

DragonLord

01:04

You can have a thousand spam flags, 100k reputation, and a hundred gold badges and still be a bad mod.

oldmud0

one day some moderator will say, "You're stupid and the help center won't help you. SE is not for you. Please talk to your parents about installing a webfilter on your computer. do your homework, have a good day."

DragonLord

Sadly, that's where I stand.

I just want to be the best contributor I can be.

oldmud0

security bulletin of the day: never plug in flash drives from untrusted sources kukuruku.co/hub/diy/usb-killer

DragonLord

...but I just seem to lack the secret sauce that makes a good mod.

Well, instead of complaining about it, how do I start building experience?

Perhaps I should just lurk on Community Building a bit?

Gotta get to work, ping me with any tips.

It's about time for me to learn this stuff as a 15K+ user.

Michael Frank

@oldmud0 This happens all the time.

DragonLord

01:18

I think dealing with problematic users is the trickiest part of being a mod and I'm slowly learning.

Michael Frank

My highest rated comment is "Have you tried the other mouse button?"

DragonLord

I have been trying to post more comments lately.

oldmud0

@MichaelFrank I meant write a satire targeting SE, not writing it on meta itself.

oldmud0

01:51

posting comments doesn't give you rep :^)

oldmud0

02:04

chatting doesn't give you rep either :^^))

Journeyman Geek

@oldmud0: I chat cause its fun.

Comments are more for clarification purposes. Its a good way to replace broken windows ;p

I breached 75K today.

DragonLord

I better get to 20K soon...

I absolutely need to answer more questions.

Journeyman Geek

I'm at one answer every 2-3 days ;p

Bob

I'm at 2-3 per month :P

My last one => superuser.com/questions/904978/…

Journeyman Geek

02:20

My most recent ones are heavily zero score

(but meh. IMAGINARY INTERNET POINTS)

Wierdly, I'm two zero score answers away from a bronze badge

allquixotic

03:13

Hey guys

Journeyman Geek

hiiii

I'm waiting on a literal ton of storage to be delivered to work ;p

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek @Bob Check US news... I live about 12 miles and work about 3 miles (as the crow flies) from the tinderbox that is Baltimore City. It's an absolute mess. Racial tension, looting, violence against the police and media, burned down businesses and homes, military troops incoming, curfew imposed

Journeyman Geek

Aw, shit

Is it quiet where you are?

s/quiet/safe

allquixotic

600k people living in a few square miles area, 65 percent of them black, most of them living in poverty, took the opportunity to loot and vandalize and destroy people's livelihoods, overshadowing a peaceful protest against police activity leading to the death of a black man.

Journeyman Geek

This tends to happen far too often in the US :/

allquixotic

03:19

Where I live is definitely far, far out of the area of danger. Where I work may eventually get caught up in the roving bands of thugs and looters.

But they are putting thousands of military troops throughout the area starting tomorrow so I should be safe to go to work

Journeyman Geek

(out here we had one riot in recent times. They got caught flatfooted. We do have police trained to handle it tho)

NG?

allquixotic

It's not martial law, the police have authority, but the national guard will be supporting and reinforcing

The military guys will be taking orders from the civilian executive branch.

Journeyman Geek

Yeah.

Its more having boots on the ground to handle the situation

allquixotic

I'm crushed by how there is so much injustice for so long, causing so many people to live in poor conditions and not have access to higher education and the global economy. And they are so desperate and angry about it that they are looting malls and drug stores for medicine and clothing and TVs.

Journeyman Geek

"The incident stemmed from a flier that circulated widely among city school students via social media about a “purge” to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly among city school students, based on the film "The Purge," about what would happen if all laws were suspended."

This is fucking stupid

@allquixotic true, but ... stuff like this makes thing worse, not better :/

allquixotic

03:25

The people committing crimes are definitely stupid, and they are setting back the city YEARS because the businesses are going to move back out after we worked hard to move them in to give people opportunities.

Journeyman Geek

yup. And at a local level trickle down economics actually works.

allquixotic

They are destroying their own neighborhoods. And Baltimore has always had a high level of violence. Most of the violence in Baltimore has been black people stabbing and shooting each other, not white on black wars. Most of the white people moved out of the inner city, ceded control of it to the blacks when they became afraid of violence.

One of our Mayors said a few decades ago, now the shoe is on the other foot, referring to the fact that now these people are in control of their own destiny and can do what they want with their life and community

A lot of the community leaders are sad now that they have apparently failed to raise a civil and progressive community

There's a lot of people who feel that they just can't get jobs that pay a living wage. Whereas if you go to a 4 year university your prospects are much better.

These people have destroyed like 3 or 4 major businesses and countless small businesses. They've also totaled about a dozen or so vehicles by setting them on fire. What has that solved? It's just made things worse. It's made people even more suspicious of inner city "hood rats". That's the wrong message. How can we figure out how to give them better opportunities if they're being violent and looting constantly?

DragonLord

Baltimore is out of control, wow

Hope you're safe, @allquixotic.

allquixotic

The sad part is, I've been IN the mall that got looted. It was a very nice mall. Not super high end but very modern and lots of good interesting businesses. Radioshack, gamestop, verizon, lots more

DragonLord

Would not be surprised if you're ordered to evac at some point.

Why are blacks like this? Can't we all just get along?

We're all human beings. This is not okay.

allquixotic

03:37

I'm way out of dodge of the chaos downtown, Brian, but thank you for your concern. I just hope my place of work will be safe, because it is MUCH closer to the Hotspot than my house

DragonLord

Racism makes absolutely no sense.

allquixotic

My home is not even in the same county as the city or its outskirts. I'll be safe at home at least. My neighborhood is completely quiet right now.

Journeyman Geek

Its more that 1) they're an underclass in general 2) racism is kind of an excuse.

allquixotic

I agree with Ravi. It's more about class and economics than color of skin. Only a small percentage are pulling the race card. It just so happens that the poorest communities are mostly black.

DragonLord

> Ravi

Do you know Journeyman Geek personally?

Journeyman Geek

03:41

;p

DragonLord

I was also referred to by my real name Brian.

allquixotic

The gangs are a problem. The gangs are much bolder and more dangerously armed than the regular folk on the street.

Journeyman Geek

Regular folk wouldn't generally have or want to use a gun tho

DragonLord

My real name is public, but it's not on my Stack Exchange profile.

Journeyman Geek

I probably couldn't ever shoot a person, even in context.

allquixotic

03:42

Oh. You guys stated your names publicly when you ran for mod, and it's on your fierydragonlord site. I sometimes use people's names when I'm in a serious or heightened state of mind.

Bob

@allquixotic Oh wow :(

allquixotic

I'm on my phone so I don't have an easy way to reply to messages, no chatsey installed yet. I'm watching TV on my primary monitor.

Bob

@allquixotic Just... stay safe. Might be worth taking a day or two off until it calms down a bit?

allquixotic

Well I considered taking a day off but I'm going to communicate with my boss and coworkers and poll them. If everyone else comes in, I will too. It also depends on how traffic is in the area, considering there are thousands more law enforcement officers on the streets now than there are usually, and they disrupt traffic.

Journeyman Geek

I'm cool with that. If you want it nuked, let me know, and I'll do it

Yeah.

DragonLord

03:46

Not an issue.

allquixotic

I know a coworker who lives about 2.5 miles from an area that was looted

Journeyman Geek

(and heh, knowing my workplace, my boss would be "stay the fuck at home. We can handle shit remotely"

allquixotic

He texted me to say his neighborhood is ok

Journeyman Geek

^^

DragonLord

@allquixotic, good luck, and stay safe.

allquixotic

03:48

I can't handle anything remotely. I have to be on premises. However, if our building is unsafe, the customer campus is MUCH safer, it is locked down by the Federal Protective Service.

I can work from the customer site.

DragonLord

Great, at least you have security.

allquixotic

Thank you @DragonLord I appreciate the sentiment. I'll be cautious.

HackToHell

What's happening ? o.0

Scrolls up

DragonLord

Baltimore is rioting.

allquixotic

Wtf Wtf wtf.... there IS ANOTHER BUILDING FIRE IN BALTIMORE

HackToHell

03:49

Oh, it was all over reddit yesterday

@allquixotic lives neraby ? :O

allquixotic

What in the actual fuck.... another fire... unbelievable

So we've gone from angry looters and rock throwers to MULTIPLE arsons

Bob

@JourneymanGeek My boss would react similarly if asked, but organisationally our response to local emergencies is pretty terrible. We found out about the siege ~200m away via an email forwarded from one employee's husband's workplace... and then the designated OHS officer got pissed cause the news broke unofficially :S Then again, it's nowhere near as widespread (or dangerous, as it turns out) as such a massive riot...

DragonLord

All this over one person, Freddie Gray.

Bob

@DragonLord Well, no.

allquixotic

This is one of Baltimore's darkest days in history, according to our Mayor

Bob

03:51

The protests were over a more widespread general issue.

The riots... rioters always pop out at times like this, and generally use the issue as an excuse.

The rioters rarely actually care.

DragonLord

The state of emergency was declared because doing so is necessary to invoke the National Guard and obtain federal assistance.

There is no martial law.

allquixotic

The protests were over economic inequality in the inner city, particularly among black communities. The protests are 100% legit and peaceful. The protesters and the rioters are two completely different groups of people.

The protesters want social change and to work with Government. The rioters want a stolen 50" LCD TV.

3

Totally different groups.

DragonLord

@allquixotic ROTFL

Journeyman Geek

No disagreement there.

HackToHell

The worst part is they don't get the fact that rioting to get free stuff is a double edged sword

They are killing their neighborhood

allquixotic

03:54

A lot of the protest groups are led by people who were alive when Martin Luther King Jr was leading the civil rights movement, and they are steadfast, as MLK was, about PEACEFUL social change!

Journeyman Geek

That assumes these people think that far ahead

allquixotic

I downright support the protesters. They are in the right.

The rioters are numbskulls

MLK had the right idea. He and people who took after him got real results from the stingy and change-averse federal government.

What change do the rioters think they're going to get by burning down buildings???? Ffs

Journeyman Geek

small change. And TVs ;p

(none at all)

Bob

@allquixotic Reinforced stereotypes. More restrictions.

They come out of this worse off, obviously.

But of course they won't see that until it happens, and then won't connect it to their own actions.

Journeyman Geek

In asia, generally when there's 'racial' riots, there's an actual racial/sectarian component

allquixotic

03:59

You're right. We're moving backwards and it's really disheaetening.

Bob

@allquixotic He was a charismatic well-known leader. Most protests now lack an obvious rallying point...

DragonLord

More than ever before, money makes the world go round.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob leaders like that are rare

DragonLord

One word: Avarice.

Journeyman Geek

Well, that's at a wider macro level

allquixotic

04:02

Avarice is a big problem of course but I don't think a poor person, who's living under the poverty line, is being avaricious when they dream of having a 2 story house with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and a little backyard and a garage and a 4 year degree and a good job, just like me

Journeyman Geek

On one hand, you need economic opppurtunities across the income curve, and on the other, people need to be willing to take it.

allquixotic

The poor people in Baltimore's inner city are not looking to live in huge palaces and not work for a living. They want to work hard, earn their place, learn new skills, and use them, to get opportunities to live in a good, safe community in a nice house with fast Internet and a cat and a pool and etc

DragonLord

@allquixotic ...just like that adorable cat of yours.

allquixotic

Hehe

Journeyman Geek

(or a dog.)

DragonLord

04:05

allquixotic

I intentionally avoided mentioning a dog because I would have to hang on its back with my claws

Journeyman Geek

(and heh, the singaporean dream is a condo. I'll settle for an apartment with the potential for a server rack ;))

allquixotic

I love our local newspeople. They've been on the air for 8 hours continuously with no commercial breaks and no rest and they are still going strong. And the news anchors are 50% black 50% white. It's awesome

Journeyman Geek

Our newscasters are creepy

Most of them have no expression above the nose.

Qcom

On a linux system is it possible to observe the stdin of a process given a pid? I'm not sure if I quite understand how the standard streams work

allquixotic

04:12

I want our place of business to get involved in the community more. Help the local elementary schools.

Journeyman Geek

@Qcom heh, flesh it out and ask a question on the site. Sounds like a potential hot question with a little more context.

Qcom

Oo excellent, glad you think it's worthy

I'll be back after some more research

DragonLord

@allquixotic Wait a sec. Your company is a government contractor?

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: where do you think the NSA jokes started? ;p

allquixotic

I don't think you can passively observe a stdin. You'd have to disconnect it from whatever it's connected to and reconnect it to a monitoring process. And if it was previously set to NULL, the process may have to be somehow made aware that it has a stdin now

My company is a government contractor, yes, @DragonLord

It's past midnight local time and the news crew is still going full tilt. Their dedication is truly stunning.

DragonLord

04:17

I do happen to be in the same time zone as you, @allquixotic.

allquixotic

You're out of New York, right?

DragonLord

I actually live in New York City. I can't say much more, though.

allquixotic

I don't need an exact location. Somewhere in that area is close enough :P

Journeyman Geek

lol

Its probably possible to find out where I work from what I've said in chat.

HackToHell

Microsoft's Azure documentation is crap

allquixotic

04:22

You know what's remarkable? Despite millions of dollars of property damage and numerous hospitalizations and arrests, NO ONE has died in all of this unrest.

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: this is a very good thing

2013 Little India riot

The 2013 Little India riot occurred on 8 December 2013 after a fatal accident occurred at SST 21:23 at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road in Little India, Singapore, causing angry mobs of passersby to attack the bus involved and emergency vehicles that had by then arrived at the location. About 300 migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu and Bangladesh were involved in the riot which lasted for around two hours. This was the second riot in post-independence Singapore, and the first in over 40 years since the 1969 race riots. == The riot == The riot continued for approximately two hours...

This is the last riot we had .

allquixotic

Wow. Any deaths?

Journeyman Geek

No. Outside the guy who died before the riot.

Could have been handled better tho. Initial response was a bit shit

allquixotic

Wow, are you KIDDING ME???? Another god damn arson in a drugstore. This is depressing. Why won't these people stop destroying the city?!?!?

This just happened

Qcom

@allquixotic whoops didn't see your reply

Journeyman Geek

04:28

:(

Qcom

would it not be possible to examine /proc/pid/fd?

allquixotic

Good question, not sure

Qcom

@JourneymanGeek now I realize I tagged the wrong person D:

allquixotic

To everyone who wished me well and expressed sympathies for the destruction in Baltimore tonight, thank you much. I'm going to sleep now. The local news went off. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Gotta see how I can help out in Baltimore in the weeks and months ahead...

DragonLord

04:53

1

A: Why are there separate fixed-width characters for ０-９ in Japanese, compared to the typical 0-9?

These are fullwidth characters. These characters, which are in Unicode U+FF00 to U+FFEF, are intended to be used with CJK characters. They exist so that Latin characters can line up with fixed-width CJK text. Historically, Han characters were set double-wide in 80x24 terminals, and these charac...

I've been starting to use more images in my answers to address the "wall of text" issue that plagued some of my older long answers.

251

A: Why are we still using CPUs instead of GPUs?

TL;DR answer: GPUs have far more processor cores than CPUs, but because each GPU core runs significantly slower than a CPU core and do not have the features needed for modern operating systems, they are not appropriate for performing most of the processing in everyday computing. They are most su...

This is my highest-voted answer, and it still reads like a wall of text because there are no images and no section breaks (except for a brief TL;DR at the top).

This is in fact the primary reason I adopted Thaddeus's answer format.

in Post Quality Advice and Tips, Dec 18 '14 at 8:48, by DragonLord

I started this initiative as part of a commitment to better serve the Super User community, but I've noticed that some of my answers, especially my longer, more thorough ones, read like walls of text.

Journeyman Geek

heh. I've used animated gifs, images, and pretty much anything else I could. Of course, I'm a visual thinker so it makes it easier for me to read myself.

DragonLord

It's giving my answers a distinctive look and a considerable advantage over other answers.

Jan 15 at 13:47, by DragonLord

Protip: Think your answers might be a bit hard to read? Look at Thaddeus's recent answers and try adopting his style.

My recent answers seem to be scoring a bit higher overall as a result

Qcom

@DragonLord that gpu answer was informative and easy to read as someone unfamiliar with cpu/gpu hardware specifics despite being all text

DragonLord

05:11

This, actually, is my latest full-length answer:

9

A: Why are newer generations of processors faster at the same clock speed?

Designing a processor to deliver high performance is far more than just increasing the clock rate. There are numerous other ways to increase performance, enabled through Moore's law and instrumental to the design of modern processors. Clock rates can't increase indefinitely. At first glance, i...

Notice how much easier it is to read this way?

Answer quality has always been a primary goal of mine, and this is why I do this.

Qcom

that's an article

DragonLord

It's not just long and detailed answers. It's about readability, too.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord ever thought of writing for the SU blog? ;p

Qcom

for sure, I really appreciate a piece's form

DragonLord

in Post Quality Advice and Tips, Dec 18 '14 at 17:28, by Thaddeus

Read through some of your posts and found the information held within to be viable but not easily analysed. Go for smaller chunks of text, isolate the main points, use section headers to break out big ideas, or specific vendors. Use infographics to support your work. Good graphics (flowcharts are great for processes) can make a big difference.

> viable but not easily analyzed.

That's the "wall of text" problem.

Qcom

05:17

I agree with you ;)

though I don't mind suffering through a wall of text if it's worth it

but for a q&a site it's only decent to have standards

DragonLord

I actually discovered this wall-of-text issue during the last Winter Bash while looking for ways to get my work to stand out.

Seeing Thaddeus's answers is what made me take action.

Qcom

those diagrams are lovely

how can I view a user's answers?

holy shit praise be to the paper clip

2

Psycogeek

05:34

My walls of text suffer most from starting with an Outline that literally covers everything, and would be breif and readable, to "expanding" on it, and keeping people from whining about sematic , and technical wording. By the time it goes from short thought, to covers everything, it is simply unreadable.

At that point i could re-write the whole damn thing from scratch, given that someone would pay for that :-)

Pictures, even just for the sake of pictures, seem to give the reader a break, a transition to other sences.

It is actually much easier to toss up thoughts about a question on a forum, then to expand on it when the user themselves wants expansion of it.

Providing just the 1 user in query answers to thier latest thinking, while they are mentally involved, works great for that 1 person. reading back through the brain + brain train of thought , is then heck for anyone else to read. (including myself later).

Qcom

05:55

76

A: How can I replace a string in a file(s)?

1. Replacing all occurrences of one string with another in all files in the current directory: These are for cases where you know that the directory contains only regular files and that you want to process all non-hidden files. If that is not the case, use the approaches in 2. All sed solution...

I really find answers like these to be erotic

that font and syntax highlighting just so pleasing

better than images unless the information really lends itself to a visual demonstration

Journeyman Geek

Heh. I know this guy off... IIRC AU

Psycogeek

I look at stuff like that and think, there must be a simple library by now that you type Find Foo Replace FooGoo Quantity ALL

Qcom

github.com/harthur/replace

looks like that'll do it if you have npm installed might be a nice simple option

Psycogeek

If there isnt , were going about all this the wrong way :-) where each person has to spend hours in comprehention and programming to accomplish things that have been done for 20 years 20,000 times :-)

Journeyman Geek

._.

I would hardly consider npm simple

Qcom

06:00

from the everything is a module durp point of view it is

installation in other words

Journeyman Geek

especially where sed replaces in place.

Qcom

not its cost

what simple means depends on the crowd

Journeyman Geek

@Qcom: Unless it gives me a significant advantage over a built in tool I prefer the builtin tool. Alternately installation over the standard package manager.

I like my systems replicable.

(says the guy who has a standalone copy of FF on linux at work ;p)

Qcom

@JourneymanGeek I really appreciate this principle

just not too familiar with the unix ecosystem

Psycogeek

superuser.com/questions/906610/… Nuked for being opinion again. I notice they added in the "Specific Expertise" to that opinion close. It did not stop them from closing the question where i placed 20 years of partitioning experience into it :-) Real experience with all the methods across any aspect of the discussion from all the people discussing it.

Qcom

06:13

I do however have a hobby project I'm starting that'll involve jumping into some c and process work

all the cool kid work I don't know how to do

Journeyman Geek

(with windows, I have a "standard install", which I eventually intend to replicate with chocolaty from ninite)

Qcom

is homebrew the de facto package manager for os x?

Journeyman Geek

No idea. That's the one major OS I don't use much (yet)

Qcom

haha it's the one I've used primarily

when looking up command line information I usually just pretend it's linux until something goes wrong

Journeyman Geek

Windows and fedora at home, centos at work ;p

Qcom

06:16

amzn.to/1GrucpW

I did however just pick up a used copy of this bad boy so hopefully that'll change

wow is that enormous for everyone?

Journeyman Geek

Yeah, oneboxed ;p

I learnt linux super informally

Qcom

what's centos' deal by the way?

Journeyman Geek

Oh? They used to be an unofficial community respin of RHEL. Now they're an official community derivative working with redhat

Qcom

haha I think only real entities in the unix community I could toss out a quip about are ubuntu and arch

Journeyman Geek

Ubuntu's dev friendly, most sysadmins hate it tho

Qcom

06:22

yeah that's about the extent of my knowledge as to its intricacies

what does it offer that other distros don't?

regarding dev friendliness

Journeyman Geek

;p

Most devs use it for some reason so.... chances are if you're installing something to hack on, it'll work

Its also generally got a newer package selection than centos or stable debian, and VERY predictable release schedules.

Qcom

so pretty much you can sudo apt-get install node and 'everything just works'? ;)

Journeyman Geek

Not really. You prolly want the nodesource repos ;p

ANd sometimes io.js rather than node.ja and...

Qcom

oh I'm messing around of course

Oliver Salzburg

08:05

Great

We're off to a good start today. I changed all my Google credentials yesterday and now my work desktop is useless :P

Bob

08:46

@JourneymanGeek got the V3 Pistons

they sound alright

don't have time to do a full comparison right now, though

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