Root Access

3:02 AM

if a windows 10 installation is extremely corrupt having been on a bad hard drive, and after chkdsk /r has run, there is no windows\system32 directory, is there anything that can be done to restore that directory and required system files?

the startuo repair option doesn't do it

rahuldottech

5:18 AM

roota.cc still down :/

@bwDraco alq's homeserver is down

Isiah Meadows

7:23 AM

I've got the weirdest issue: I've got a file I can't even unlink. Tried not only rm -f $FILE but also unlink $FILE and then in Node.js via fs.unlinkSync(FILE). For the first two, I get an Invalid argument error and for the last I'm also getting the same EINVAL errno code. (The manpages don't state that as even possible for unlink, just unlinkat if you pass the wrong flags. And Node doesn't call unlinkat or anything else, just unlink.)

djsmiley2k

@barlop why would you not just reinstall?

Isiah Meadows

For context, my issue is on MacOS High Sierra.

And it's not one file, but about a dozen all at once.

djsmiley2k

@IsiahMeadows sounds like you've got enough info for a question there

maybe worth trying askDifferent too, though I'm not sure how deep into the OS they dive.

Isiah Meadows

9:27 AM

@djsmiley2k Rebooted and it automatically did an fsck, and when I went back, the entries were gone. So it appears all is well now.

djsmiley2k

10:17 AM

ah

Good job :)

I was going to suggest that the file handle didn't exist anymore, so there was litterally nothing to unlink, but I doubted myself.

Journeyman Geek

IT Crowd - Have You Tried Turning It Off And On Again?

►

Burgi

10:44 AM

@bertieb my GF called the company this morning, turns out it is a courtsey car

bertieb

@Burgi The ones, uh, "trading Pokémon" and, ah, "driving while tired and emotional" ?

Burgi

yes

bertieb

Are they going to take any action?

Burgi

the company can't but they have made a note against the guys details and will pass the details on to the police if they chase it up

bertieb

Seems reasonable

Burgi

10:50 AM

they can refuse to give him a courtsey car in the future

bertieb

Based on someone's say-so?

I mean, I know you wouldn't make it up

Burgi

*theoretically

bertieb

But other people are vindictive bastards

Burgi

nothing will happen

djsmiley2k

arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/…

rise of the machines!

bertieb

10:52 AM

Robots are ~~people~~ animals too!

djsmiley2k

@Burgi 'It's a courtsey car while he retrieves his other one from the crusher'

Burgi

@djsmiley2k the algorythm is protecting its own

djsmiley2k

@Burgi it comes!

I wonder why he had the car tho

was it becuase he drove the other one through a wall

while hunting them dang pokemon

Burgi

in other news, my beer delivery is nearly here!

djsmiley2k

/me looks at clock

Burgi

10:59 AM

i don't think you guys drink beer, do you?

djsmiley2k

I can't, makes me ill.

Burgi

beer52.com/join/143051/f055fd45bc01e520

djsmiley2k

However, bourbon, vodka, tequila, rum, it's all good.

hmmm

tempted to join a different home server

bertieb

I don't really drink much

Yes, yes

Burgi

if only people editted the wiki with their home server details....

bertieb

11:03 AM

A Scotsman not drinking? Inconceivable!

djsmiley2k

There's a wiki?!

bertieb

You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means

etc

I'd put my HS deets on there

But it's run on a kinda flaky VM/box/connection

But if people are hungry for a homeserver...

djsmiley2k

I'm just hungry

/me glances at clock agian

bertieb

HALF-CAST has become FULL CAST!

djsmiley2k

ooo racist.

bertieb

11:14 AM

Something something eye of the beholder

OH!

I just got why a Beholder is a giant floating eye!

11:28 AM

@Bob That's the badger!

Sweeeeeeet

Shoogle is great

echo '{ "videoId": "YniTfKb0_so" }' | shoogle execute youtube:v3.thumbnails.set --client-secret-file ~/.client_secrets.json - -f ~/images/test2.png

← sets YT video thumbnail :D

This'll help with the paltry 5-6 video per days limit the API imposes

djsmiley2k

nice.

bertieb

It is :D

I like it when other folks have done the hard work of talking to APIs

Means I can just talk to their program

Which is much simpler

Ahhh

barlop

11:48 AM

@djsmiley2k did you never use the xp repair installation feature? it's a clear advantage to not have to install all your programs again

Journeyman Geek

@barlop only when things went horribly wrong

barlop

well obviously

nobody is going to use it if there is a quicker way

but it's miles faster than having to reinstall the programs that were on it

djsmiley2k

@barlop only to have it go horribly wrong

barlop

how!

i've never had a win xp repair installation go horribly wrong!

djsmiley2k

I've known windows to go horribly wrong, and repairing it just seems to mask the issues.

good for you!

xp is EoL.

I've never had a helium filled zeppelin go horribly wrong!

Aibobot

12:04 PM

@barlop tbh, and I' still working on it - much better to have systems you can fix and quicky deploy than bandaiding things ._.

I don't do repair installs cause I have backups

bertieb

That's a very good point tbh

Lots of folks think "I'll back up the data" but not the OS install

But it's very handy to have a working install to restore

That said, my own old experiences i that Windows is very picky

barlop

yeah for sure, and many techies backup far more now than in the past as hard drive space is pretty cheap (or at least they claim to)

bertieb

Maybe Veeam is better at creating a working OS restore?

Though a disk image should work, if it includes the additional partitions Windows creates, right?

Journeyman Geek

@bertieb I do plain file backups for data.

bertieb

Haven't tried it meself

Journeyman Geek

12:13 PM

@barlop well my is drives are 120 to 256 gb

@bertieb veeam works great as long as you have more than 2gb of ram

bertieb

@JourneymanGeek As in user data?

Journeyman Geek

Very reliable

@bertieb movies music and documents

bertieb

In case you are talking about OS data and I get very confused :D

Sure

barlop

who said anything about OS data that is a bit meaningless

there's OS and there's data.

technically one could say the registry is OS data but nobody says that, it'd be a bit confusing

bertieb

I was just wondering if I could point borg at a Windows drive and have it create something restorable

Burgi

12:14 PM

ugh... andromeda is just getting worse

barlop

nobody usees the term OS data

Journeyman Geek

The ideal for an os install is to have it reproducible

barlop

Is the System Reserved partition a primary partition or what?

Journeyman Geek

I'm actually trying to get my basic build done mostly off chocolatey

bertieb

@JourneymanGeek Yup, that's the ideal

I should have tried that theory out when I got the latest SSD

Journeyman Geek

12:15 PM

Used to be off ninite

bertieb

Would have been an excellent opportunity, had I thought of it xD

I tried chocolatey

But I ended up removing it

Journeyman Geek

Hmm, why?

bertieb

Something about it didn't work quite right, or quite how I wanted

barlop

it's rubbish

hardly any programs supported

bertieb

It may have been related to ffmpeg

barlop

12:16 PM

and any author that calls his program that can't be relied upon to design things intelligently. he couldn't even name his program intelligently

bertieb

It was quite a while ago

so my recollection is fuzzy

Journeyman Geek

@barlop this is a dumb reason

bertieb

might have been not adding ffmpeg to PATH or something

barlop

heh

Aibobot

@barlop eh, my base build is a browser (currently vivaldi), VLC, sumatrapdf (which has a small issue with the packagename), sublime text (ditto), 7zip and paint,net

bertieb

12:18 PM

I may give it another try at some point, but IIRC it was last year I tried it

Aibobot

I used to run cccp for video but eh...

and all those things work

bertieb

@Aibobot There are other videos than VLC?!?!?!

turns to Johnny Depp

Aibobot

@bertieb I used to run MPC-HC

bertieb

How long have you known?

Aibobot

I have always known

oh and foobar2k

bertieb

12:20 PM

@Aibobot It was a reference to Johnny Depp 'hiding' the fact that there are other actors than him and Tim Burton's wife from Tim Burton

:D

I used to run fb2k

Aibobot

lol

so least for me it works ok

bertieb

Actually think I tried to run fb2k under Linux back when I first switched

Which was... many moons ago

Probably not quite kosher to say "many moons ago"...

@Aibobot See, that was my thought too- my Windows apps are few and common

So thought chocolatey would work a treat

(dunno if it has something for VM Banana)

but something bounced me off it

Aha

Feb 14 at 16:21, by bertieb

ISTR some weirdness around install/uninstall

Thanks for being so specific, past-me!

But then why even use chocolatey? just program a malduino to download the things you want installed ;-P

Journeyman Geek

Lol. Cause you need to find n different websites

bertieb

waves hand airily details, details :P

Changing subject slightly

what the frick frack snick snack does launchpad mean by people who "May be notified" of a bug report

is this some kind of quantum phenomenon?

"We can't tell you who will be notified or it'll affect the superposition and change who is notified"

It's probably something more mundane, related to pubsub/notification settings

barlop

no idea what you are talking about.. exactly

bertieb

12:31 PM

But that's much less satisfying to grouse about

barlop

but yeah programs have stupid ways of doing things

bertieb

Since you asked

barlop

please no!

i don't want to know.. yeah programs have stupid ways of doing things

bertieb

Too late!

barlop

bad design decisions

hehe

you should see if the guy that wrote that is on twitter and mock him

that will teach him

bertieb

12:33 PM

Uh

No

barlop

well then it's just whining

bertieb

If that's the case, I'd rather be someone who whines than someone who mocks people on Twitter

Hmm, this cast is scratching my desk :-\

barlop

well if you prefer politer ways there's finding his github and asking him there, or asking him in a tweet

Aibobot

@bertieb There's something to be said for giant mouse pads...

bertieb

I sent a message on IRC to the maintainer of the project I submitted the bug report to

@Aibobot Wishing I had one right about now (the funk soul brother)

But I haven't used a mouse pad in years

Aibobot

12:38 PM

@bertieb oh not as a mouse pad

bertieb

@Aibobot I know what you mean, to lean on

Aibobot

I have a ginormous one that's almost a meter long to protect my desk

bertieb

But I just haven't had one in ages

Didn't they used to sell linoleum to cover desks?

Aibobot

but it would keep your desk from scratching

bertieb

True

Aibobot

12:43 PM

or self adhesive vinyl

bertieb

Vinyl!

That's the one I was thinking of

Not lino

Aibobot

actually been trying to find floor protectors on aliexpress ;p

bertieb

Aha :P

Tempted to go get some vinyl actually

For the look

But it wouldn't protect the edge, which the cast is rubbing on

Aibobot

put vinyl on the cast ;p

where it rubs

actually a conformal bandage would be a better idea

bertieb

I've got some gauze

and a tubigrip

Might try that

Downside is it'll make that arm even warmer ;-P

CaldeiraG

1:55 PM

good news :p

Luyw

guys, anyone knows which qwerty version is tihs?

i have uk's qwerty now, but not all keys are like the keyboard

Burgi

its arabic

@CaldeiraG QUICK! DV HIM!!!!

;)

CaldeiraG

@Burgi XD

i got 2001 now :p

Luyw

burgi, i use the english keyboard

i mean in eng mode

Burgi

ok so what are you missing?

Luyw

2:08 PM

the keys aren't all as shown

for example @ isn't where 2 is

i shift click ' to get @

Burgi

yeah, its an international english KB

bertieb

UK vs US or elsewhere variants?

Burgi

the @ symbol is on the ' key

shift + '

the £ is on the 3

Luyw

yes but it should be shift 2 in ;y case

my

switched to us international, works fine now

Burgi

swap to a US keyboard

Luyw

2:10 PM

thanks

Burgi

i have a US keyboard that was a gift, i've had to remap #~\ and | to a single key

and the return key is smaller than on a standard UK keyboard

i've lost the euro symbol entirely but i won't need it after october

what is really annoying is that apple use the US layout for the @ symbol

barlop

thanks for that information

so i and the entire chat will know not to send you a euro after october

and anybody on the planet should be sufficiently used to the @ symbol's location on a US keyboard

half the time on a non-us keyboard where some other symbol is printed above the 2, the OS is set to USA and so one is used to the AT symbol being above the 2.. that's just normal. And if you don't like it then you can change the keyboard layout in the OS. And if it is printed over the 2 and is that, then fine, it's really no big deal. techies are used to reaching for it with shift-2 often, and without changing layout

even when something else is printed above the 2 on their keyboard.

Blog bot

3:11 PM

Research Update: Impact of the Ask Question Wizard

Julia Silge on August 22, 2019

In March of this year, we launched the Ask Question Wizard, the biggest change to the question asking experience on Stack Overflow in our ten years’ existence. People have been using the wizard for about six months now, so let’s explore how many people have used it, what its impact has been, and where we’re going from here. We have seen some encouraging improvements in question quality, and we can use what we’ve learned to improve question asking more broadly.

What is this wizard? The wizard presents an alternate question-asking mode that we call guided mode, offerin …

Burgi

@barlop i'm not quite sure why you felt you need to have a little rant about that... but whatever shrugs

Aibobot

@barlop eh, then it does nothing ;p

THere's nothing worse than a layout that's ALMOST but not quite identical

Burgi

btw i found the €, it was hiding on the 4 key :)

Bob

@Burgi ah, the $ key :P

Burgi

maybe that means we won't leave in october afterall... ;)