Root Access

bwDraco

16:04

@ThatBrazilianGuy Your company seems to on financially shaky ground.

They probably can't afford to upgrade that many machines at once.

...and they probably had just enough money to give you more memory.

Replacing your machine was probably outside of budget. Perhaps you can accept a temporary pay cut as a bargaining chip for better hardware?

That Brazilian Guy

"Financially shaky ground" is quite an understatement.

However, that's not due to lack of money, but lack of planning, as I see it.

bwDraco

@ThatBrazilianGuy Bankruptcy imminent?

That Brazilian Guy

And also due to different departments / branching having different financial, HR, IT teams...

Fragmentationg and overlapping is rampant.

bwDraco

That calls for restructuring. Time to talk to upper management on fixing things up?

That Brazilian Guy

@bwDraco I seriously hope not. I also don't think it'll ever happen...It's the government.

bwDraco

16:08

Wow.

That Brazilian Guy

> That calls for restructuring.

It's the government

bwDraco

No wonder the government is charging such absurd taxes and tariffs. The whole place is a mess!

That Brazilian Guy

> talk to upper management on fixing things up

It's... still the government! ;p

bwDraco

Your system is quite literally throwing money away!

That Brazilian Guy

Surprisngly, my direct management is quite active, proactive, and it's part of a "new blood" who want to change things. For the first time since I've been hired, I see traces of a possible change instead of the constant apathy and lethargy of a big gvmt corporation.

However, we have a mandatory 4-year rotation on upper mgmt, with elections and all. So the next upper mgmt might undo everything we gain, who knows?

"quite literally throwing money away" => government in a nutshell.

@bwDraco I don't work for your government, but I bet hight taxes, bad planning and wasting resources is an exclusivity of your country ;p

So, the place is a mess, but there is hope. Maybe not much hope, but there is hope, and things are improving. For who knows how long.

!! s/is an exclusivity/is not an exclusivity/

ChatBot John Cavil

16:23

@ThatBrazilianGuy So, the place is not a mess, but there is hope. Maybe not much hope, but there is hope, and things are improving. For who knows how long. (source)

That Brazilian Guy

...oops. Lacking this single word made me sound incredibly rude. Sorry @bwDraco!

bwDraco

That's fine :)

ChatBot John Cavil

@ThatBrazilianGuy @bwDraco I don't work for your government, but I bet hight taxes, bad planning and wasting resources is not an exclusivity of your country ;p (source)

That Brazilian Guy

Turns out I have a MySpace account (huh?) and there was a data breach:

> Email addresses, Myspace usernames, and Myspace passwords for the affected Myspace accounts created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform are at risk.

Turns out they also very much probably stored plaintext ;p

Rahul2001

@JourneymanGeek very much

@ThatBrazilianGuy MySpace? That's still a thing?

That Brazilian Guy

16:41

Not that I know of. I got this email out of the blue and immediately though "Huh? But... I don't have a MySpace account!"

Rahul2001

Um guys? If someone doesn't know the name of an irc channel, they can't find it easily, right?

Ben N

@Rahul2001 It Depends (tm)

DavidPostill

@Rahul2001 Once you connect to a server, you can get a full list of all public channels on that server or network by typing /list

Ben N

If the channel isn't set with mode +s (or +p), a /whois on a user in the channel will reveal the channel's name

...and /list too

DavidPostill

irchelp.org/irchelp/chanlist

Ben N

16:44

The online Mibbit client lets you search for channels

That Brazilian Guy

Turns out in 2008 ~~MySpace was great for bands~~ most local bands thought MySpace was better than facebook, although there were only bands talking to other bands there, and I made an account to listen to some music.

Rahul2001

Lol

@DavidPostill @BenN thanks

FuzzyBoots

Has there been a consensus on mobile computer questions? I had someone dispute my question regarding the PocketC.H.I.P. but based on Meta questions such as meta.superuser.com/questions/575/…, it looks like we do include mobile computing devices.

Ben N

> Mobile phone questions are generally frowned upon unless you are asking how to perform some actions with them along with a computer.

That Brazilian Guy

> mobile computer

FuzzyBoots

16:47

That's the thing. It's not a phone. It's a portable computer. :)

Ben N

Ohhhhh

That Brazilian Guy

Maybe some VTC's made the same assumption as Ben? ;p

FuzzyBoots

There haven't even been any VTCs yet. I just figured I'd check here on their advice before such votes came in.

Ben N

What kind of thing is the device you're talking about? What does it do? Is it general-purpose?

I Googled "pocketchip" and got this getchip.com/pages/pocketchip

FuzzyBoots

The C.H.I.P. is a miniaturized computer that runs Linux. The PocketC.H.I.P. is one of those computers slotted into a plastic shell that provides a keyboard and touchscreen.

DavidPostill

16:49

@FuzzyBoots Hi Sean. There are currently 4 VTC including mine ...

That Brazilian Guy

The world's first nine-dollar computer! Now $49 For a Limited Time!

FuzzyBoots

@BenN That is the one.

Ben N

You can only see VtC's on your own questions when you get 250 rep

FuzzyBoots

@ThatBrazilianGuy :) Yeah. That includes the carapace. It's kind of like how the Raspberry PI isn't all that expensive, but the case, accessories, etc boost the price.

Ben N

I'm not sure that device counts as a general-purpose computer; it seems vaguely video-game-console-like? I'm just looking at the front page of its website, so I don't know for sure

FuzzyBoots

16:52

It does come with games, but it also comes with a console interface. :) Much like most OSes.

That Brazilian Guy

If the question is focused on the computing nature of the device, IMHO it's on-topic.

If it's about the gaming nature of the device, it's... complicated, as it's arguably unfit for Arqade

DavidPostill

@ThatBrazilianGuy It wasn't. It was what does the battery indicator mean.

FuzzyBoots

{nods} So my question regarding part of the interface of the computing device is in a grey area since it's general usage.

DavidPostill

Here is the question. It is unfair to speculate without seeing it:

-1

Q: How does one read the battery indicator on the PocketC.H.I.P.?

The PocketC.H.I.P. documentation states the "The top left corner of the screen shows your battery level". The example image shows a white battery: I instead have a pinkish battery symbol with white spaces in it. Does this indicate that it is currently charged? Or that it's almost empty? Are th...

charging

That Brazilian Guy

@FuzzyBoots General usage of the interface of the gaming edition of an embedded device. Yeah, a grey area indeed ;p

FuzzyBoots

16:54

Ultimately, I got my answer by their message boards, so it's not a huge issue for me, but I was just curious about whether there was a specific line drawn between desktop / laptop / tablet computer or if it was a matter of me being too vague about what it was.

It seems a little odd that the site is about asking about hardware or software of a computer and then having an additional unstated criteria that you have to be actively coding with it to ask a question.

DavidPostill

@FuzzyBoots If the same question was asked about a programmable calculator with an embedded device, and an operating system it would be off-topic.

Ben N

It's not that you have to be programming it, but that the device has to be a general-purpose computer

William Mariager

Anyone got some good tips on how to have a mobile work situation? I have a desktop at home and I'm buying a workstation laptop for when I have to go to the office.

I'll be working with Windows 10 and mostly Visual Studio.

That Brazilian Guy

@BenN It is a gen. purpose computer, just that it comes pre-loaded with a gaming interface and (legal) game ROMs. If I got it correctly.

Rahul2001

@WilliamMariager thinkpads?

FuzzyBoots

16:58

OK. So it is as per my comment to DavidPostill in the question, that the C.H.I.P. would be on-topic as a general-purpose (if small) computer, but the PocketC.H.I.P. isn't because it has a dedicated OS for the touchscreen and the initial applications that come with it are primarily for word-processing and simple games with the ability to code also available.

William Mariager

@Rahul2001 I'm currently looking at a Dell XPS 15. I did look at some ThinkPads as well.

DavidPostill

@FuzzyBoots It's a grey area. We had the same argument about smartphones ...

Rahul2001

@WilliamMariager what will you be doing primarily?

William Mariager

Coding C# with Visual Studio

DavidPostill

16

Q: How is the term "Computer" defined on Super User?

The arguments over whether a tablet counts as a computer this rather lovely Ars Technica article on why they think a tablet is a PC as well as a chat conversation over this question got me thinking over what a PC is. This is a semi rant, but eh, considering that nearly everything is some flavor o...

discussion allowed-topics site-definition scope

Rahul2001

17:03

@WilliamMariager I recommend thinkpads for coding... they perform really well and the keyboards are awesome too!

My parents wouldn't buy my one, so I bought an ideapad instead

William Mariager

Hmm, I just found better value from the XPS. But maybe there's a reason. :)

Rahul2001

I love Lenovo keyboards

:D

I don't really like the xps's build, but it's your choice...

FuzzyBoots

@DavidPostill As that discussion indicates, it's a thorny question, but it does seem to boil down to a few potential criteria and "I know it when I see it". In this case, I feel it is arguable, but since it is subjective, I will yield to the expert opinion of the masses.

allquixotic

17:35

@Bob If we were playing SoaSE, the "European Union" faction would have a Dwarf Planet called Britain being bombed by Pirate Pillagers. "Our allies' planet is under siege!" and the AI would chat to us, "I'm worried about Britain." :P

allquixotic

17:55

@qwertyuiop Analysis pleeeease!!! ^^

allquixotic

18:29

lol. off home-row typing = hoohlr

Štěpán Bartoš

19:07

Good evening.

allquixotic

o/

qwertyuiop

20:05

!!caat

ChatBot John Cavil

qwertyuiop

@allquixotic I'm not overly familiar with U.S. types... or wherever that's from. Actually I don't know where that's from

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop Wait, the US have different cellphone towers?

I thought I'd seen one kinda like that in this country...

qwertyuiop

Looks like a fairly typical multi-carrier multi-technology setup. Perhaps a hubsite given the loads of dishes. I see a lot of RRU's on the bottom tier, plain MHA's on the 2nd and 4th from bottom, and possible RRUs on the 3rd. Lots of modern multi-band antenna so very hard to figure out what's going into them

@Mokubai Nearly every country does. Even in this country there's numerous different types

It used to be very easy to distinguish operators by the shape of the mast or antenna alone but with multi-band, multi-tech, multi-network mast sharing everywehere now it's a lot harder.

allquixotic

@qwertyuiop next to a Verizon building in the US

qwertyuiop

20:09

There's a lot of geeky websites dedicated to spotting/distinguishing the different types

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop So if I got you a picture of the one near me would you be able to tell me who'll get the best signal?

qwertyuiop

@Mokubai Possibly

Would also depend on the path between you and it, its configuration, etc. To be fair you'd get a far more reliable figure of who'll get you the best signal by using your handset and forcing it to try other networks to get an actual signal reading

Mokubai

Oh, I already know as I'm with that network and everone else spends their time complaining about crap signal, I was just curious...

qwertyuiop

lol

Could easily identify it from a streetview link too, since there's a national mast database

Mokubai

sigh 32Mbps down and 14 up on mobile, with the crappy $INCUMBENT_TELCO$ landline getting 6 down and 1 up when it can be bothered to actually work.

If I could get an unlimited mobile data contract I would. Sadly the only ones that do it have the absolute worst signal

qwertyuiop

20:15

Heh.

Mobile just doesn't have the capacity to be used as a landline substitute.

Hence why as speeds have gotten faster and more people have been trying to use it as a landline replacement, the actual number of options have been decreased/withdrawn

Mokubai

Aye, I had noticed the tarrifs getting more expensive/limited even while speeds got faster

"Hey, now you can hit that 1GB limit in seconds rather than hours!"

qwertyuiop

Heh. To be fair, allowances have gone up a bit too

Speeds have mostly been going down actually, at least since 4G. Any areas with 300/450Mbps service deployed only get it as capacity relief cause the existing 150Mbps is service drops to 1.5Mbps at peak times. Even in the middle of the night you'll next to never get near the headline speeds.

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop They did for a while, but for the last 4 years they've been pretty stagnant

qwertyuiop

That said, Heathrow T3 has some sort of multiband DAS/DRS which is the only place I've ever gotten near maximum possible speeds. And the highest SNR readings ever. Sadly, the only network that could effectively make use of multiband CA there, doesn't, and it's a SISO system for some very odd reason.

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop I get pretty good/reliable speeds all day, I live on the outskirts and I think the operator has a backbone link passing nearby, it's the only explanation I can see for upgrading the tower in this area...

@qwertyuiop where was that mast database site?

qwertyuiop

20:26

@Mokubai Which operator?

Mokubai

Vodafone

qwertyuiop

Only Vodafone even attempts to operate their own backbone, and they do a pretty bad job of it.

Vodafone shares with O2 and they both upgrade at the same time (though sometimes they leave a few days/weeks between actually switching it on). O2 uses VM and BT for their backbone, just like EE/3

allquixotic

European Stability Mechanism

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operate under public international law for all eurozone Member States having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was established on 27 September 2012 as a permanent firewall for the eurozone, to safeguard and provide instant access to financial assistance programmes for member states of the eurozone in financial difficulty, with a maximum lending capacity of €500 billion. It replaces two earlier temporary EU funding programmes: the European Financial Stability Facility ...

qwertyuiop

Vodafone bought out the old Cable and Wireless infrastructure and use that where they can.

@Mokubai sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk

It's outdated though.

Most changes to the data there you can figure out by looking at the mast directly or via a combination of information from the networks' own websites or planning records.

Right now all networks are planning on upgrading basically everything to 4G and are just doing them as and when they can. Most of the hold-up these days is usually down to legal/contractual issues.

So it's as much about how fast the landlord answers their mails as much as technology availability

Mokubai

4G I've got, I want unlimited data.

qwertyuiop

20:35

3 are basically the only ones doing that, and they've got the worst 4G network and disallow tethering

Not surprising.

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop Yeah, I had a 3 mobile briefly, you had to stand on a chair and sacrifice a goat to one of the elder gods just to get enough signal to receive a text message.

Their roaming package was great for going to the 'States though...

qwertyuiop

@Mokubai Ironically they also provide the strongest signal if you're flying over the Netherlands.

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop How high over the Netherlands?

qwertyuiop

@Mokubai Standard cruising altitude - 30 to 40 thousand feet

allquixotic

@Mokubai hey you didn't talk about Brexit in here before, did you?

the other Brit regulars already did but I think you were not here

Mokubai

20:38

@allquixotic I get enough of that crap at work

qwertyuiop

Reason being they're the only network not to restrict their 800Mhz (long range) transmitter power artificially.

Mokubai

@allquixotic The staunch "Brexiteers" get on my nerves. Apparently Farrage would make an awesome Prime Minister and he's definitely the "most honest" politician ever. :/

@qwertyuiop What, like limiting the power going straight up?

qwertyuiop

Limiting the power in general. They all limit the power going "straight up"

As in all antennas used by all networks are directional and very flat in the horizontal plane

Mokubai

@qwertyuiop And yet at 40k feet....

I had assumed mobile signal would be pretty poor

qwertyuiop

a) Signal travels thousands of miles in a straight line at any altitude

b) Even a very narrow beam gets very wide at 300 miles

Mokubai

20:43

Though 4 of the 6 airplanes I've been on were travelling over the atlantic, so probably not many mobile phone masts. The last two planes were to and from Glasgow.

qwertyuiop

c) Even tiny amounts of sidelobe emission can carry a long way when you've got thousands of miles of "spare" range on the main beam

Mokubai

True...

qwertyuiop

If the transmitter were pointed straight up you'd get a signal halfway to the moon.

Mokubai

I guess I'm just used to ground based range being so rubbish that I forget about all that lovely clear space above the trees and hills...

qwertyuiop

(If you ignore the interactions of different levels of the atmospheric which I know little about)

That's also a major reason phones don't work well at all on planes - the network density is based on ground level range meaning at altitude there are just sooooo many interfering signals to contend with.

In open space signal basically weakens purely based on the inverse square law. On the ground, it's all about obstructions. A metre or so of solid brick or concrete will block just about signal any non-military entity could send through it.

Mokubai

20:52

Surely the lower transmit power of the handset also plays a factor. You get a strong signal from the tower due to clear air, but your phone is much further away than it would normally be. isn't there an inverse cube law in there somewhere?

Urgh, RF stuff always made my brain hurt. I was much better with microcontrollers.

qwertyuiop

Handset power gets affected the same way as mast power. Both are usually attuned to each other.

The transmitter has better receive antennas and more sensitive receivers, to compensate for the weaker handset power.

At the end of the day, at any level, ground or sky, if the phone can receive from the mast but the mast can't receive from the phone, then you can't communicate. So networks don't do it. Much

Generally transmit power is set just high enough that when the phone can just hear the mast, the mast can just hear the phone so both paths drop out at roughly the same level

The real reason 4G signal is restricted is so that it doesn't "overreach" existing 3G signals. Networks are still working on getting phone calls to work on 4G, and apparently it would be "too confusing" for consumers if they had 4G signal, but couldn't make phone calls.

So despite the longer range of 4G at 800Mhz, it's often restricted to the range of the much lower coverage of 3G at 2100Mhz.

3 are the only network so far to have voice calls working over 4G 800Mhz on a large scale. Everyone else is still developing it or officially in limited trials.

Mokubai

Well that makes sense, but I'd prefer longer data range over phone calls

allquixotic

@qwertyuiop VoLTE is in full-scale deployment mode on Verizon in the US, and enabled by default on new accounts (opt-in on existing accounts due to older phones not supporting it)

and no additional charge

qwertyuiop

@Mokubai Same. Who the hell still makes phone calls anyway. Plus VOIP. Skype. Whatsapp. Etc.

@allquixotic Not so here. Nobody has any intention of charging (AFAIK) but only allow phones bought directly from the carrier to use it in any case.

Which is apparently normal in the U.S. to get any sort of service, so maybe not so strange to you guys

allquixotic

not strange at all; Apple is really the only phone manufacturer where you can just pick up a vanilla carrierless phone and connect it to an LTE provider

Android's generally locked down (oh, except for Nexus)

Mokubai

21:03

@qwertyuiop As a proud member of the "how do you make calls on a phone that big?!?!" club, I hate talking to people and prefer emails and Hangouts for my communication needs.

allquixotic

@Mokubai I basically never make calls by putting the phone up to my ear... I do voice calls in the car over Bluetooth; I do voice calls at my desk over Bluetooth to a headset; I do calls while out and about in a pinch with speaker mode...

I touch the phone to my ear maybe on a bi-monthly basis

qwertyuiop

I still hold my phone up to my ear instinctively when I start a call, but usualyl switch to my wired headset during the call if it's not too noisy an environment/I can find the thing

I don't have any headsets that have working noise cancellation, and make so few phone calls as to have never bothered replacing my old bluetooth ones

tereško

sou

guys

I need some advice regarding fitness trackers

qwertyuiop

Don't

Is my advice.

tereško

should I buy sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/… or sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/smartband-2

(the reason I am going with Sony is because I need it more for the phones notifications and controls and less for any actual "tracking")

Mokubai

21:12

@tereško Moto 360 is pretty nice...

tereško

@Mokubai it probably wont integrate with Walkman app :(

Mokubai

I can vouch for both the normal and Sport versions...

@tereško You'd be surprised, if the walkman app shows a "music" notification I suspect it'll show up on the watch

Amazon Prime Music does...

tereško

hmm

Mokubai

@tereško what app? Is it available outside of Sony Phones?

tereško

ew, it's a watch

@Mokubai not sure .. checking

Mokubai

21:14

@tereško You want a fitness tracker that does all your Android notifications and music control. That's a smartwatch...

tereško

nope, I was using sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/smartband-swr10 for more then a year

it had tap-based controls for things (no screen .. and 5+ day batter life)

... maybe I should just buy it again :(

Michael Frank

21:58

@tereško That's pretty cool. I have a similar product. The Xiaomi MiBand. Doesn't have tap control though.

qwertyuiop

!!caat

ChatBot John Cavil

qwertyuiop

Jawbone Up is... reasonably good

Other people like it, I don't. Although maybe Ill try it again now they've updated it and I have a free one sitting around

Michael Frank

stuff.co.nz/world/asia/81080705/…

I didn't realise you could put animals on trial... o.O

That Brazilian Guy

> SmartBand makes sure you never miss a thing by vibrating gently when calls, message notifications or other alerts are activated in your smartphone.

But I want less notification spam!

bwDraco

22:53

Got ideas on using an old tablet? I still have my old Nexus 7 lying around and I want to make it more useful.

Michael Frank

@bwDraco Install it in your car.

bwDraco

I don't presently drive, so any other ideas?

Michael Frank

on a bike?

bwDraco

Gotta reboot my laptop. It's Patch Tuesday.

Other uses?

Bob

23:44

@bwDraco Wall picture frame. Tablet kept in bag. Chuck into cupboard. Toss in bin. Sell on eBay.

One of those.

I've asked that question a bunch of times and never got a good answer.

Journeyman Geek

There's no good answer ;p

Until you ask the right question

Tools should fit the task, not tasks found for tools.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek For purchasing, yea. But once you find yourself with extra tools, it's nice to find a use for them.

Especially when they lose value over time.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob I find more often "hey I need a spare computer temporarily, let me grab one off the pile' rather than 'I need to find stuff for my spare hardware to do'

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