The Nineteenth Byte

Nathan Merrill

6:00 PM

is it possible to make a check if you are elevated without attempting to elevate yourself?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Yes, one sec.

(btw, just launching ConEmu gives you a non-elevated shell)

Nathan Merrill

I changed that fast :)

I pretty much run everything from Git Bash, but I have a hotkey for elevated cmd

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill But anyway. In any windows shell, you can run fsutil dirty query %systemdrive%. If it prints "access denied", you're non-admin.

If you are elevated, it'll say " NOT Dirty"

I'll add a warning to alwsl if it is being run as admin.

@Poke I just posted that.

Poke

oh

my bad

mınxomaτ

Tracking here for 0.06.

Nathan Merrill

6:08 PM

hey, I get emails when a project updates!

anyways, got another error on reinstall:

-- Beta feature --
This will install Ubuntu on Windows, distributed by Canonical
and licensed under its terms available here:
aka.ms/uowterms

Downloading from the Windows Store... 100%
Extracting filesystem, this will take a few minutes...
Installation successful!
bash: apt-get: command not found
bash: apt-get: command not found
alwsl (info): Downloading alwsl rootfs (this might take a while)...
alwsl (info): Downloading checksum for this image.
alwsl (info): Checksums match :-)
alwsl (info): Copying rootfs to temporary extraction destination.

mınxomaτ

I need the text before that.

Installation successful!
bash: apt-get: command not found

wat

That doesn't make any sense. Try running alwsl remove a few times.

New Meta Posts

2

Q: King Of the Hill playing a Copyrighted game

Copyrighted King of The Hill Games Some Game X is created and copyrighted by corporation Y. Can I post a king of the hill challenge about Game X, or some derivitave of X? This issue came up here as well as my related post. Does this relevant copyright info apply? Some Relevant Questions If it...

mınxomaτ

I can't believe the first few issues are all caused by MS's inability to write compliant command line utilities.

Nathan Merrill

by the way, what does "311ba2 5453bf" mean?

I'm still getting the "bash: apt-get: command not found"

I'll see if the installation finishes though

as its still continuing

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Please go to \user\AppData\Local\ and delete the "lxss" folder if there is any. Reboot, then try again.

@NathanMerrill It's a cryptographic pseudonym. Basically a hash of my real name. So commits are quasi-anonymous, but I can claim them retrospectively.

aditsu

6:18 PM

so I made my poll, hope it's not duplicate

What Linux/Unix graphical environment do you mainly use?

mınxomaτ

@aditsu Mainly LXDE, but an i3 option would be nice.

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ lets hope you don't write a complete failure of a program, and then a great one

mınxomaτ

I wouldn't call that "weird" :P

xnor

I feel like new users keep posting this exact challenge about compacting numbers and I don't know why. Is it a FizzBuzz of sorts, i.e. a classic question that's asked in many places?

Nathan Merrill

because you'd have to claim both of them

mınxomaτ

6:20 PM

Lol

Nathan Merrill

...there were files in /tmp/etilqs area

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill What is that?

Nathan Merrill

no idea, but its relevant, because the script tries to remove them

rm: cannot remove ‘*.sfs’: No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove ‘tmp/etilqs_Hs9xuSxm3SYiK0V’: Device or resource busy
rm: cannot remove ‘tmp/etilqs_wMvCGtQppzIwoHD’: Device or resource busy

but there's no /lxss folder

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill That's not the first error you should run into. What's the whole log.

Nathan Merrill

same as last time

mınxomaτ

6:23 PM

Did you try a reboot? It seems to me you have some program trying to access these files.

Nathan Merrill

nope. I was just informing you that /lxss folder doesn't exist but those files do :)

El'endia Starman

@xnor Might have something to do with math homework assignments often being given in compacted form?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Did you actually try to access the lxss folder directly?

I.e. run explorer %localappdata%\lxss from a shell.

xnor

@El'endiaStarman maybe, i guess you'd be reminded a lot of it in schools

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ I have hidden folders turned on, so I think I'd see it from my explorer

mınxomaτ

6:25 PM

@NathanMerrill Try the command anyway.

Nathan Merrill

yeah, it opens my default folder

/Documents

ooooh...I think I figured it out

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Well, if it tries to access "etilqs_wMvCGtQppzIwoHD", this file definitively exist.

So there must be an lxss folder.

Nathan Merrill

explorer from within git bash doesn't work. it does work from cmd

mınxomaτ

Don't use git bash as your windows shell. git bash uses powershell, not cmd.

Nathan Merrill

ah, then that may be the cause of all of the problems :)

aditsu

6:27 PM

have we had a US election poll?

mınxomaτ

Argh, don't tell me you tried to run alwsl from git bash >.>

Nathan Merrill

of course I did

mınxomaτ

OK then. Back to square one. Spawn a new cmd console in ConEmu (non-Admin) and run alwsl remove & alwsl remove & alwsl install.

Nathan Merrill

I didn't run the extra alwsl removes, but already on it :)

El'endia Starman

> alwsl remove & alwsl remove & ...

mınxomaτ

6:30 PM

@NathanMerrill Check if the lxss folder disappeared / contains less files during the install (before the Windows store thing finishes).

El'endia Starman

For when you really need to be sure that alwsl is gone.

aditsu

LOL

May 4 at 1:27, by Helka Homba

Presidential Poll

mınxomaτ

@El'endiaStarman Yeah. Because the first time, Windows might report it's gone, but it isn't. A good way to check is to run it again and see if it finishes instantly (nothing to remove).

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ windows store has already finished, but I checked the modified date in explorer, and it shows 2 minutes ago

mınxomaτ

So far, so good.

El'endia Starman

6:31 PM

@mınxomaτ Oooh, clever.

Business Cat

@aditsu What about Dennis?

Nathan Merrill

I'm not sure if I want Martin as president. He's great and all...but he isn't exactly an american

El'endia Starman

@aditsu Well, I only use Linux via SSH, so I guess I should put text-only?

aditsu

@BusinessCat ¯\_(o_º)_/¯

@El'endiaStarman or the last option :p

El'endia Starman

@NathanMerrill He'd probably still be a better President anyway. He'd confuse our enemies (and allies) with Hexagony programs for everything.

mınxomaτ

6:33 PM

@El'endiaStarman Well, SSH can still carry X.

El'endia Starman

@aditsu I refuse to call Windows "inferior"!

aditsu

let me make a new election poll..

mınxomaτ

Well, Strawpoll's own "featured poll" is kind of election related.

Lol, the results though: strawpoll.me/11061514/r

El'endia Starman

@mınxomaτ Well, that's mildly terrifying.

TimmyD

@NathanMerrill Neither's Obama! badum-tsh ;-)

aditsu

6:38 PM

@mınxomaτ mother of God..

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

Honestly anyone from ppcg (with the possible exception of ColdGolf) would make a better president than trump,

Nathan Merrill

can we please not get back into politics here

aditsu

If you could, who would you vote to be the next US president?

Nathan Merrill

this has got to be the 80th time we've talked about it

FryAmTheEggman

It's a really good way to wind up with a frozen room :P

Business Cat

6:40 PM

Toss up between Bernie and deez nuts

mınxomaτ

Yeah, but it isn't.

Nathan Merrill

effective, maybe. good, no way.

@mınxomaτ well, I'm definitely further than last time. Currently unsquashing

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Also, by the way: If you want to run X apps, you need to install XMing.

Nathan Merrill

Oh, I was going to ask about that

:)

oooh, I totally want to try and setup battle for wesnoth on both machines, but use the same save files

aditsu

@mınxomaτ they also misspelled Hillary

mınxomaτ

6:45 PM

Should run out of the box. I recommend to start X apps using whatever & to un-block the bash instance.

Nathan Merrill

what's Xming vs Xlaunch?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Just go with the defaults.

(and select "Don't install SSH client")

That'd be a bit redundant.

Nathan Merrill

its asking me about desktop shortcuts. I actually want a shortcut, but I have no idea the difference

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Use Xming for the shortcut.

Nathan Merrill

hmm, I wonder whether localhost is a public or private network according to windows

mınxomaτ

6:49 PM

@NathanMerrill Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I'll add that to the install routine.

@NathanMerrill Check both boxes for Xming.

Nathan Merrill

oh I do

but I'm just curious

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill That depends solely on the setting you've set in the Network & Sharing center for your current main network. It doesn't affect localhost at all if the ports aren't forwarded (which XMing doesn't).

aditsu

wow, Deez Nuts turns out to be a really strong contender

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ I'm struggling to add a user to the sudoers. My ~ is actually located at /root, which is what I think is the root of my problems

did you run into this?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill That's not a problem.

Just nano /etc/sudoers

After doing this:

username=myusername # change this
useradd -m -g users $username
usermod -aG bin,daemon,adm,tty,disk,kmem,wheel,ftp,rfkill,http,network,video,audio,storage,scanner,power,dbus $username
passwd $username

Nathan Merrill

7:03 PM

already added my userr

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill So what's the problem?

Nathan Merrill

oh, I figured it out

mınxomaτ

After adding the user, exit bash. Run alwsl user default username. Post what it says.

Nathan Merrill

I ran useradd initially

but then I ran sudo adduser

-.-

mınxomaτ

I see that I'll have to create a really comprehensive documentation :D

Nathan Merrill

7:05 PM

nah, its not your fault

I know how to add a user

but forgot what the command was to add them to sudoers

which, of course, had the wrong command :)

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill More details on this. The root user has it's home in %localappdata\lxss\root. Yet, every added user get's a new home in %localappdata%\lxss\home\username.

Nathan Merrill

huh, ok

yet another reason to use a standard user

mınxomaτ

And actually the reason the alwsl distribution contains custom builds of pacman, libalpm, yaourt, fakeroot, makepkg and chroot. I had to modify them to work in WSL.

Nathan Merrill

going back to your instructions, what does "alwsl user default USERNAME" do? Do I really need to still be using "alwsl" to launch bash?

mınxomaτ

No

@NathanMerrill It sets the user that bash is run as.

You can launch your final bash using (WIN+R, bash), clicking the "archlinux" shortcut, or by selecting "bash" from ConEmu's shell dropdown.

In fact, you never use alwsl to launch bash. It's just a maintenance utility.

TùxCräftîñg

7:10 PM

github.com/Microsoft/BashOnWindows/issues/1

\o/

mınxomaτ

?

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ can I get a path to bash?

is it in system32?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Of course.

Nathan Merrill

I'm trying to add it to ConEmu

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill ConEmu has it by default.

Nathan Merrill

7:13 PM

for a second there, things was weird

mınxomaτ

But really, you can just type "bash" from any shell (except of course git bash), and it'll launch alwsl.

Nathan Merrill

I did use that option

but when I tried "pacman" it couldn't find it

I reopened it, and its fine now

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Use yaourt as the pacman wrapper, I made some important mods to it. Even if you don't use AUR packages.

Nathan Merrill

I've never used yaourt...but I'll look into it, thanks

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill If in doubt just replace "pacman" with "yaourt". For a start, run "yaourt -Syu".

There'll probably be some updates to do.

Nathan Merrill

7:16 PM

...its just a GUI?

mınxomaτ

What?

Nathan Merrill

yaourt

mınxomaτ

No.

It's a package manager with support for AUR packages.

Anyhow, I appreciate the test and I see I've got some work to do to make the installation process more robust. Thank you.

Nathan Merrill

yep!

how do I log in as root again?

I somehow managed to mistype my password when setting it

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Just su, or run alwsl user default root.

Nathan Merrill

7:23 PM

I can't sudo because its giving me "sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified"

but I can't fix that without being root :)

mınxomaτ

Exit bash, run alwsl user default root, rerun bash.

Nathan Merrill

yep :)

mınxomaτ

Though I actually meant "su" and not "sudo". The former doesn't care about any configs.

You can ofc use alwsl user remove username to delete a borked user and return to root.

TimmyD

I find that su doesn't care about a lot of stuff. Willy-nilly deleting files, changing configs with no checks-and-balances. The jerk.

Nathan Merrill

don't you need to prepend su with sudo?

hmmm...I'm still unable to authenticate

mınxomaτ

7:27 PM

@NathanMerrill Um no, "su" just kicks the active terminal into root mode.

TimmyD

su changes your overall user context (like opening a command prompt with "Run as Administrator" in Windows), while sudo changes your context for just that one command (like using the runas command in Windows)

mınxomaτ

And I just created a new user w/o any issues. I recommend you nuke that user and create a new one.

Nathan Merrill

ah, I figured it out

the password is my root password

mınxomaτ

root shouldn't need any password (unless you set one, which you don't need to). A password is only necessary for sudo. And that password is just the user password.

Nathan Merrill

when I type su, it asked for a password

which didn't work until I set the root password

mınxomaτ

7:30 PM

@NathanMerrill But you wouldn't need su, if you have a working sudo ;-)

Because if sudo is setup correctly, sudo -i replaces su.

TimmyD

Relevant Phil Collins song

DJMcMayhem

7:43 PM

reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/4zis1k/do_do_try_null

Haha

Nathan Merrill

@mınxomaτ is there a test I can run for the X server?

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill Install some GUI app. firefox or whatever.

feersum

g++ -fno-exceptions: there is no try.

Nathan Merrill

there isn't one by default?

mınxomaτ

(yaourt -Sy firefox)

Nathan Merrill

7:47 PM

ok

mınxomaτ

@NathanMerrill No, I want to keep the distro size down for people who don't care about X.

Nathan Merrill

that's fine

its really cool to see "pacman" in the task manager

mınxomaτ

BTW, you don't need to run yaourt with sudo, if you've been doing that.

Nathan Merrill

it worked!

TimmyD

Ooof, my RAM ... :-/ Running a message trace against the past 14 days worth of emails when we process around 2m emails per day is causing PowerShell to struggle.

mınxomaτ

7:56 PM

@NathanMerrill What exactly now?

Nathan Merrill

firefox

mınxomaτ

@TimmyD PowerShell is a struggle in and of itself :P

@NathanMerrill Nice.

@NathanMerrill Probably best to launch it like this to avoid all the Gtk warnings: firefox 2>/dev/null &

I think a smaller program like pcmanfm would have been easier to test :D

Nathan Merrill

I'm only getting one warning: Sandbox: unexpected multithreading found; this prevents using namespace sandboxing.

mınxomaτ

Any warning is annoying. There shouldn't be any errors though.

I'm currently trying to install a compositor so that X apps with transparency run (like a widget or dock etc.)

TimmyD

@mınxomaτ You're not wrong, but I think any scripting language would have problems trawling through 20+ GB worth of text logs. Especially if you're stupid like me and just decide to accumulate interesting results in a variable rather than re-writing them to a separate log file as they're read. :D

mınxomaτ

8:03 PM

Throw more RAM at it.

Business Cat

Or download more ram.

El'endia Starman

@flawr I'm definitely looking forward to cross products.

But I still got a better understanding of dot products from that video.

TimmyD

We're programmers. Any CPU or memory shortage is obviously a hardware issue.

El'endia Starman

Heck, just the simple idea that the first column of a 2x2 matrix is where \hat{i} goes and likewise for the second column and \hat{j} pretty much revolutionized my understanding of transformations.

flawr

=)

I know what I do when I'm tutoring the next LA class=)

xnor

8:17 PM

i wish i'd learned linear algebra like this

El'endia Starman

Me too. Would've made so much more sense immediately.

flawr

So what is your favourite number?

TimmyD

In general?

Poke

self reviews for work are no fun

flawr

@TimmyD No, in particular.

TimmyD

8:25 PM

@flawr Hah. Sorry, no, I meant were we discussing a particular subject, like your favorite Fibonacci, or your favorite prime, or just "What's your overall favorite number?"

flawr

Your top favourite number :) (Because favourite alone is not enough.)

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

@TimmyD so I assume you are a big fan of sleep sort? It works just fine provided you have unlimited threads and cores. THe nonexistence of infinite core computers is clearly a hardware issue, and thus no need for a more efficient sorting algorithm

FryAmTheEggman

@flawr 163 is pretty cool, but it's hard to really pick a favourite :P

Nathan Merrill

oooh, 163 is a strong prime

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

<self-promotion type="shameless">

0

A: Exploded view of a string

S.I.L.O.S 265 The (non competing) code better input format is at the bottom, feel free to try it online! def : lbl loadLine : a = 256 :a :s x = get a z = x z - 32 z | if z u a + 1 GOTO s :u if x c GOTO e :c b = x b + 512 c = get b c + 1 set b c a + 1 if x a :e a = 512 b = 768 l = 10 :Z j = a j...

</self-promotion>

TimmyD

8:29 PM

I've always rather liked 17. It's got a good sound in English, even though it's confused with 70, has a lot of cool prime properties, and is also the least random number.

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

@NathanMerrill is my XML better?

43 is a top notch prime

its only one away from 42

Nathan Merrill

much better

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

:D

flawr

Hm let's ask the other way aroudn: What is your least favourite number?

mınxomaτ

yesterday, by mınxomaτ

The least exciting demo ever of a User -> SYSTEM escalation exploit in Windows 10

Here's the source code for that. When compiled an run as a local user, the executable calls itself. Each call elevates it one level higher, until SYSTEM privileges are granted with the TrustedInstaller token from the "new & improved" winlogon.exe in Windows 10.

For educational purposes only.

flawr

8:35 PM

For the educations of future criminals

TimmyD

@flawr 4.

flawr

@TimmyD But 4 is so cute!

Why 4?

It's the smallest even square!

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@mınxomaτ and that's why you don't use windows

TimmyD

It's so ... boring. The only thing it really has going for it is its the smallest X for a large variety of X.

mınxomaτ

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC UAC is not a security feature. Running a local split-token admin is the user's own fault.

TimmyD

8:40 PM

It's also ridiculously common. Four directions on a plane. Four seasons in weather. And on and on.

mınxomaτ

The detection rate for this exploit is slightly worrying though.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@mınxomaτ ???

local split token?

flawr

@TimmyD these are all man made.

mınxomaτ

A local user account that can elevate only by the means of UAC with no admin credentials required.

You are supposed to have a separate admin account for that. This is when UAC will ask for credentials. A bit like linux. But no one does that, because Windows users are lazy.

flawr

What about global users?

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

8:43 PM

local split token?

TimmyD

@flawr Just because they're man-made doesn't mean they're not common.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC amen brother

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@mınxomaτ I see. But like everybody uses admin accounts

mınxomaτ

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1rb6fl/uac_split_token/…

TimmyD

> because Windows users are lazy.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

8:45 PM

TL;DR: it's a token that allows your session to "split" with the new one having elevated privs

mınxomaτ

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC A dedicated admin account would protect you from the 20 or so UAC exploits out there. But yeah, laziness strikes.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@TimmyD no, because windows users are tech illiterate and Microsoft tells nobody that you aren't suposed to use admin accounts on default

feersum

For a single-user computer, it seems fairly pointless to separate the admin account.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@feersum security exploits, that's why!!

flawr

@feersum Or because you don't trust yourself=)

feersum

8:47 PM

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC What does that protect you against?

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@feersum the exploit that was JUST MENTIONED, a few messages ago

mınxomaτ

@feersum Unattended elevation of any process to admin privileges without the user noticing.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1rb6fl/uac_split_token/…

feersum

If you have malware already running on your machine, then it can already take all of your data and do most anything it wants.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@feersum then why do we have rootkits?

mınxomaτ

8:49 PM

@feersum Well, except not a single privileged process can be executed without actual authentication (akin to sudo). Local split token admins have 0 protection. It's like running a root-only linux system and relying on application to be nice and let you know if they are about to do something destructive.

feersum

What's a specific scenario where you would end up better off by using separate admin on a single-user machine?

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@feersum then why do we have rootkits?

mınxomaτ

@feersum Running any downloaded software or otherwise third-party executable.

Local admin = it can do whatever it wants, separate admin = auth everytime it tries to enter high privilege modes

You don't actually switch accounts. You just have to enter your password.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@feersum then why do we have rootkits?

feersum

Yeah but can't it read your files, encrypt them, and hide itself in various programs without needing elevation?

mınxomaτ

8:53 PM

@feersum No.

feersum

Which ones can it not do?

New Main Posts

0

Q: Non-palindromic numbers

A strictly non-palindromic number is a number that isn't a palindrome in any base (in bases 2 to N-2). These numbers are listed on OEIS For example, the number 19 in base 2,3,4,5,6,...17 is: 10011,201,103,34,31,...12. None of these representations is palindromic, so the number is strictly non-...

code-golf

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

can't read restricted files

can't encrrpyt other user's files

feersum

The premise is a single-user machine.

TimmyD

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC Really? Because Microsoft has been saying, literally for years that you shouldn't logon to your computer as an administrator.

mınxomaτ

8:55 PM

@feersum Everything except read you files. Program data and files are high priority access. Look, I already said it's the exact same thing as running a root-only linux system. Your system files have no protection whatsoever.

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

@TimmyD nobody listens to that

TimmyD

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC That's not what you said. You said Microsoft didn't tell people.

feersum

@mınxomaτ That doesn't seem right, surely there are many programs that can write files without elevation?

mınxomaτ

@feersum Sure, but not to the SYSTEM files.

Is that so hard to understand?

feersum

With files I'm thinking e.g. encrypt all the files in the "Documents" folder for example.

mınxomaτ

8:58 PM

@feersum So? That's the users area. The system remains unaffected. A piece of malicious code can also encrypt all files in your linux /home. But it can't touch the rootfs.

E.g. delete your AV scanner, modify kernel drivers, brick your BIOS, whatever.

TimmyD

Microsoft, Apple, Symantec, RedHat, IT admins ... practically everyone knowledgeable about computer security says you shouldn't login with an administrative account. Yet people still do, primarily because they're lazy and they think "nothing bad will happen to me".

mınxomaτ

^

Exactly. And Windows is just about the only operating system doing this by default.

feersum

I think "If I run malware on my system, very bad things will happens to me whether or not I do the right admin thing."

And I'll want to reinstall the OS either way.

mınxomaτ

Good for you. But if you don't understand why Admin accounts are even a thing, I can't really explain the issue to you.

feersum

If I shared the computer with other users I would definitely find value in it.

mınxomaτ

9:01 PM

Configure your system correctly, and chaos will always be restrained to any single user. The system will remain unaffected.

TimmyD

@mınxomaτ Yes. I get why Microsoft does it. Still makes me sad.

mınxomaτ

@TimmyD Well, they could have communicated the UAC topic a bit better when it was first introduced tbh.

Nathan Merrill

a major problem I find with admin accounts is knowing whether an app requiring elevation is even a valid request.

mınxomaτ

Well, that's what signing is for.

Checking the signing company, another thing no user does. That recently caused some big problems.

Nathan Merrill

right, but there are lots of valid apps that don't sign

uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC

9:05 PM

@NathanMerrill same goes with *nix, just with sudo

Nathan Merrill

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC yep

mınxomaτ

@uoɥʇʎPʎzɐɹC Except there are nifty tools to pre-screen a process. maybe for example. Also, unix apps usually comes as source.

Nathan Merrill

unless you know the details of why an app needs administrative access, you either choose to not use it, or you allow access (which is no better than simply running administrator account)

Geobits

@aditsu Did you leave off Unity on purpose? I mean, I get the hate for it somewhat, but it is the default on (one of?) the most popular home distro.

aditsu

@Geobits haven't heard of it much :p

Geobits

9:16 PM

o_O

aditsu

thought it's some version of GNOME, maybe..

ah, a graphical shell for GNOME

drobilc

do you people prefer multiple if statements or switch-case statement?

Geobits

@aditsu Don't tell the gnome people that. It'll get them frothing at the mouth to think their beloved DE has been tainted this way :P

Nathan Merrill

@drobilc dictionary<int, func>

Rainbolt

@drobilc It depends

aditsu

9:21 PM

@Geobits I was just quoting wikipedia

Geobits

Ah, the scholarly route. Got it ;)

I generally prefer switch/case if there are more than a couple cases, but like Rainbolt said, it all depends.

Rainbolt

Usually what happens is I will have an enum that I am switching on, and then I'll get another switch statement, and a third switch statement, and then I'll finally break down and swap it all out for polymorphism.

I don't think I ever switch on anything but enums

Geobits

Of course, if you find yourself asking this on a golfing challenge, you should probably rethink the whole thing :P

Nathan Merrill

if I'm parsing input, I'll do a String,Function dictionary

Rainbolt

I found a switch statement that has strings, and I wish it used enums

Geobits

9:27 PM

Yeah, I'm not big on string switches in general.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

Best reason to get a cat

Rainbolt

All the cat does is recognize unprotected networks...

Geobits

And a dog would still be better at it.

Just like everything else.

Rainbolt

I wouldn't really even call it hacking if the network had no password to begin with

Eamon Olive

I haven't had an answer to a challenge I posted and since I'm new to this I was hoping I could get some feedback here. The challenge was: codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/90700/…. Is the spec to long/unclear? Is it too hard? or is it just not interesting? Thanks in advance.

ΛεγίωνΜάμμαλϠΨΠʹ

9:35 PM

CMC: Write in this room a CMC which is not equivalent to this one.

Geobits

Well the very first thing I noticed is that it's a whoooole lot of scrolling to take it all in.

Maybe if you shrunk the images down and had 2/3 next to each other it would look better in general?

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@Geobits haha bad joke

Steven H.

CMC: Modify the BF self-interpreter to run Self-Modifying Brainfuck

Geobits

@EᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏIʀᴋ Uh.... yeah... that's it...

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@ΛεγίωνΜάμμαλϠΨΠʹ CMC: Solve a random CMC that is this one.

Geobits

9:41 PM

I guess if you count wanting to eat their owners' faces, then yeah, cats are better at that.

Or being surly and unresponsive.

Or not listening at all.

Ok, so I guess they are better at some things :P

ΛεγίωνΜάμμαλϠΨΠʹ

@EᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏIʀᴋ If I was given that CMC, then I would answer with this response.

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

@StevenH. that is a not so mini challenge

Steven H.

@RohanJhunjhunwala Consider it a Chat Mega Challenge

Conor O'Brien

@StevenH. simple. add a self-interpret builtin

Steven H.

@ConorO'Brien the self-interpreter (aka the one written in BF to begin with), not any external interpreter

Conor O'Brien

9:46 PM

@StevenH. Ah.

Rohan Jhunjhunwala

9:59 PM

@Dennis is there any plans for graphical output support on TIO (I only ask, because I am planning to add a few features for producing a graphical output, (perhaps a simple bitmap encoding output on stdout)?

Transcript for