/dev/chat

10:36 AM

Hi. What does it mean that "Dig can query DNS name servers to find information like "Mail Exchanges""? I don't understand the last part(mail exchanges). Does that mean we can find out what mail servers are used by a network, and we can find the addresses of these mail servers?

(A mail server called a "mail exchange"?)

@Moytaba It means that you can find the MX record for a domain. This tells us what servers would handle mail sent to that domain. For example dig @dnsserver somedomain MX or just dig somedomain MX.

@Kusalananda Aha, thank you. So for gmail.com it gives only 5 addresses, so 5 servers handle emails sent to gmail.com?

That seems about right.

At least from where you're at.

... or rather, from where your DNS server is at.

great \0

thanks

Rui F Ribeiro

12:54 PM

@Moytaba An IP address has not been equating for a single server for ages now. 5 IP addresses not equal to 5 servers for a giant like Google

1:11 PM

@RuiFRibeiro Ah, I've not learned much network, thanks for telling me.

Rui F Ribeiro

1:32 PM

@Moytaba You are welcome. It is just for having the notion nowadays things are bigger and complex.

@RuiFRibeiro Honestly I've studied a Network+ course just recently(not very deeply) and realized what are servers, ips, switches, routers, telnet, ssh etc ... I love it. but no matter how much I learn there is still a huuuge amount of things to learn! :))

That's fun. But sometimes I make silly mistakes.

This, certification.comptia.org/certifications/network ? Or some other such certification?

@ilkkachu Some other certification. But it was almost according to Network+.

2:15 PM

@terdon: I got one of those v-shaped wrist wrests and it's much smaller than I thought it would be but so far feels pretty good

terdon

Nice!

3:17 PM

@Jesse_b Good!

@Kusalananda I've got the gel type keyboard wrest that pairs with your mouse pad too :p

@Jesse_b How does that feel? I left mine in the UK in 2014.

@Kusalananda I really like it, it is much bigger than I expected it to be but it's perfect

I lost the mouse pad too.

Good

I use a different type now, but still with gel filling.

I had a cloth one previously and it got filthy. This one seems like it will be easy to wipe off

3:30 PM

@Jesse_b Yeah, as long as you don't pierce it you could just hand wash it in a sink.

hah

Combining differential snapshots of virtual machine disk images takes time... sigh.

(deleted, before someone takes offence...)

Combining them into what?

Into fewer snapshots.

3:32 PM

ah

Sounds like you should automate it :p

automate the world!

It's just clicking a button in VirtualBox, so there's not much to automate.

Hi folks.

Good day to you sir!

I just had the odd, and fortunately unusual experience of having Debian stable breaking under me.

I'm not sure what happened, but it had something to do with the nvidia drivers.

I rebooted today, because someone came to look at my UPS, which is probably at the end of my life, and needs to be replaced. Anyway, X wouldn't come up.

After screwing around a bit, it occurred to me to just run an upgrade, which pulled in a bunch of Nvidia packages, which fixed the problem.

The odd thing about this is that I'm generally pretty good about keeping my system up to date.

@Kusalananda Hey. Congrats on the no 5 spot.

Stephen Kitt

9.8 was released last weekend so there were a bunch more updates than the usual security fixes

3:36 PM

I really should build a new computer.

@StephenKitt So was something out of sync momentarily?

@FaheemMitha Thanks.

History says I last did a manual upgrade on the 18th. And there was an unattended upgrade on the 20th. Still not sure how those work, actually.

Why do those not upgrade everything? They seem to upgrade some stuff, and not others.

@FaheemMitha wat it do Faheem

@Jesse_b Hey. What's happening?

Had my filling done yesterday. Wasn't as terrible as I imagined. Still no fun. It's been a while. An uncomfortable reminder that my teeth are mortal too.

Why does it say "3h ago (but that was an accident)" in Kusalananda's info box..?

3:40 PM

@ilkkachu :-)

If you look at the bigger profile it makes more sense, maybe. chat.stackexchange.com/users/217475/kusalananda

oh, right, there's a distinct about box for chat...

@FaheemMitha Nice. Hopefully not too much pain

It's just a custom text. I thought it was funny a while back.

@Jesse_b Not really nice. I thought I was going to pass out towards the end.

Not the pain, just having to keep my mouth open so long.

There wasn't actually significant pain.

@FaheemMitha Oh, that's good! Better to have it done and over with than living with the pain.

3:43 PM

@Kusalananda There wasn't any pain. I didn't even know I had a cavity.

@Kusalananda yeah, I just hadn't really seen that before on anyone.

It was just a routine inspection. And I wouldn't even have gone if my cook hadn't had a toothache. He's getting a root canal.

The thing that bothers me most about dental work is getting a shot in the roof of my mouth

I would almost rather deal with the rest of the pain than that

@FaheemMitha That's the blasted thing. They don't hurt until things are really wrong.

@Jesse_b He didn't give me a shot.

3:44 PM

Gas?

or a few shots of whisky

@ilkkachu Yes, very true. That's true of a lot of really nasty things. E.g. cancer. Once you notice something is wrong, it's too late.

@Jesse_b Nothing.

I asked him if he was going to inject my gums. He said something like - let's see how it goes.

As it turns out, it wasn't really painful. But holding my mouth open that long was really no fun at all.

It was probably 10 minutes. It felt like hours. Towards the end I started coughing uncontrollably, but fortunately by then he had more or less finished.

(I have bronchial issues.)

Yeah the whole experience is uncomfortable, probably why so many people have dental phobias

Did you have one of those rubber blocks wedged in to force your mouth open too?

@StephenKitt It looks like the 18th Feb upgrade was probably responsible. But the logs don't tell me if apt wanted to do a dist-upgrade or not. The terminal output doesn't show the commands issued. I'm not sure why not.

@Jesse_b No, no rubber blocks.

I have has occasional fillings, but not very often. Maybe an average of once a decade. Possibly a bit more often.

@FaheemMitha I had three crowns put it last year and I had one of those in for like an hour and a half

Started getting lock jaw

Actually, maybe once every 5 years. It's hard to keep count.

I'm not very careful to keep dental records. And that probably includes work that didn't actually need to be done. Dentists like to invent work if they can.

@Jesse_b Sounds unpleasant.

I used to go to a lady who kept finding stuff to do with my teeth. Eventually I stopped going to her.

3:51 PM

Probably more unpleasant for the dentist. I remember while he was grinding down my teeth little chunks of tooth and saliva were flying out everywhere; spraying him in the face

She had pretty good technique though.

Well, I'm going to try to take my dental hygiene more seriously. It's gone downhill in recent years, and really downhill this past year. Major personal trauma takes a toll on hygiene issues.

I've heard rinsing your mouth out with water immediately after having any sweets goes a long way

@Jesse_b That's odd. It shouldn't be so violent. Plus, they wear masks.

@Jesse_b Sure, and one can use mouthwash too.

Mouthwash is a marketing scam lol

@FaheemMitha When you take a die grinder to something it sends particles flying everywhere. He was wearing a mask and goggles but it was still hitting all parts of his exposed face and head

@Jesse_b Sounds unpleasant. But I've seen other dentists grinding, and nothing was visible. Perhaps I just have poor eyesight.

@Jesse_b So you said.

I got the impression the tooth residue just gets suctioned away.

It's usually not that much, anyway.

3:56 PM

the listerene company literally invented the concept of mouthwash after their product failed to sell as a household cleaning product. They took advantage of human insecurity to convince everyone they had bad breath and need mouthwash

BTW, does anyone have recommendations wrt UPS's? Is APC still a good brand?

@Jesse_b Is there a consensus about this?

@Jesse_b Mouthwash is a crutch?

I think humankind sometimes must miss the caves and plains sometimes. At least then one didn't need to do research every time before buying something.

4:27 PM

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/marketing-campaign-invented-halitosis-180954082/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/16/is-mouthwash-bad-for-your-long-term-health/#797b331b2b22

@Jesse_b Thanks. But a medical source would be more reassuring.

smilecolumbia.com/blog/bad-breath-wasnt-invented-listerine

https://www.drstevenlin.com/good-bacteria-mouth-gut-flora/
https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/life-stages/adult-oral-care/mouth-bacteria-friend-or-foe-0316
https://www.demercydental.com/good-bacteria-bad-bacteria-and-your-mouth/
https://thegutstuff.com/the-gut-blog/2017-11-21-the-mouth-gut-axis-why-bacteria-and-your-teeth-are-key-to-digestive-health/

Don't get me wrong, I use mouthwash (very rarely and only to get rid of bad breath when I don't have time to brush...which is almost never) but your mouth definitely does have good bacteria and you definitely should not use an antiseptic mouth wash

unless recommended by a doctor

In my experience flossing gets rid of bad breath better than anything else though. It's normally caused by the rotting gunk stuck between your teeth

4:47 PM

@Jesse_b Bad breath isn't the issue.

@FaheemMitha Bad breath is the only thing mouthwash is intended to remedy

For dental health you should floss and brush

@Jesse_b Ok.

Now I'm having to read about what VA means in a UPS.