The Rec Center

08:09

0

How do we handle questions like this? Should I buy i5-5200U or i5-5250U? As mentioned by the author: Well, believe me, had I asked this in Super User, they would close this one immediately as "off-topic". They would consider it a shopping advice (which kind of it is) and they would clos...

discussion

enderland

13:15

4

Q: Portable Headphone Amplifier/Splitter w/ Separate Volume Control

My wife and I have different noise-cancelling headphones that we prefer for air travel, but they are too quiet when connected to an iPad with a headphone splitter. I purchased a portable batter-powered splitter/amp, but the volume outputs are so different that we can't both comfortably hear. I ...

headphones amplifiers

This question is an XY question and is exactly why questions like that are bad

Are you only interested in using a standard headphone jack output? There are other options which may work, too, but you seem to be set on using a standard headphone jack output. It seems you are defining your solution criteria rather than the problem driving the criteria - you will get better answers if you explain the problem you want your hardware to solve. — enderland 5 secs ago

Adam

13:45

We're getting a lot of strange questions lately.

Andy

Yeah, I've been thinking that too

I'm looking at this "can I get another video card one" and I'm not sure what I want to do with it

It really seems like a Yes/No question

Adam

That's what I thought of it too.

There's no information to work with besides computer specs so it could be left as too broad.

Andy

It's not asking for a recommendation or anything that leads to one. Just a simple, can I do it or not

I'm convinced. voting to close

Adam

I'm kinda bummed that the majority of the recent questions need to be closed. Doesn't really look great for us.

enderland

Closed questions are not bad, as long as they are off topic

Open, off topic questions? Those are bad

Andy

13:52

Hey enderland. How's it going?

enderland

@Andy glad it's friday.. hahah

Andy

Me too.

21 hours ago, by Andy

Anyone have ideas on what that section should look like? I'm not in a word smithing mood right now (I've been writing documentation all morning)

That's related to your comment on the high quality questions post. Did you have any ideas for wording?

enderland

I tried writing somethign there when I made the comment, but had trouble getting a ncie wording

Hardware Recommendations Meta

14:15

0

Q: Updates to Tour - What to Ask/Not ask?

On our tour page we currently have the following: Ask about... Specific issues with hardware recommendations Real problems or questions that you’ve encountered Don't ask about... Anything not directly related to hardware recommendations Questions that are primarily opinion-based Questions ...

discussion tour

0

Q: Updates to Tour - Community Description Blurb

On the tour page there is a brief description of the community that current reads: Hardware Recommendations Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people seeking specific hardware recommendations. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With you...

discussion tour

Hardware Recommendations Meta

15:59

0

Q: Communication with other sites about what is on topic

We've started to receive traffic from other sites (Super User in particular). No, on superuser they said I had to ask it here. So I did that. And that is excactly what I want to know if I shoud buy it or not with my current setup. I don't understand why this is off-topic - Can I run anothe...

discussion question-quality

Andy

And with that, I think I'm out of Meta questions for the morning

ArtOfCode

@Andy That's enough for anyone...

Working on an answer to the last.

enderland

I feel like I should pull my mod acceptance, you guys are doing so much better work for this site than me ;)

ArtOfCode

@enderland That's not necessarily a reason to pull. If you take a look at the voting on the nominations, it gets interesting.

And yes, the voting isn't supposed to have much bearing - but given two equal candidates, one highly upvoted and the other heavily downvoted, SE are going to pick the upvoted one.

enderland

Bah I no longer have enough rep to see votecounts :(

Haha

ArtOfCode

16:07

@enderland I do :D

Though you can get votecounts without the rep.

The AJAX URL isn't protected.

enderland

Yeah

Andy

It's in the API too, if you are so inclined to go that route.

ArtOfCode

Damn it, I need 4 more rep to get over 1000.

And there's a +10. Thanks, whoever that was.

Cfinley

@ArtOfCode Should be good now

The more people with 1000+ rep, the better

ArtOfCode

Aye. Editors are useful.

Go ahead and suggest all your edits, we now have 2 edit reviewers.

@Undo is looking pretty likely for mod

Andy

16:22

@ArtOfCode, has OS done any user education about what's on topic or have you kept it at the mod level?

I know programmers uses this to watch comments. I'm curious how effective it is.

enderland

@Andy very, very effective

Andy

Awesome!

enderland

People post "belongs on programmers.SE" all the time on Stack Overflow, and nearly always it doesn't

ArtOfCode

@Andy We haven't needed to, yet.

Our own users know the scope, obviously, and that takes care of most things.

Andy

So you guys are dealing with it as the questions arrive, not before? Fair enough. It does help if your users know what's on/off topic.

enderland

16:33

That bot is helpful since users on Stack Overflow always suggest P.SE (it's not in the migration path thankfully) incorrectly

Andy

My interactions on P.SE are limited to a single question. I imagine they'd be unhappy with a migration path though, based on how often the comment appears

Hi. Yes I am trying to make a bluetooth speaker connect to my computer. The speaker has bluetooth capability but it only connects to my smartphone (Motorola or samsung or any other smartphone) but not my Personal Desktop Computer. I am already using a bluetooth Dongle like the one shown above. While it sometimes does detect the speaker it provides no functionality to the speaker. — Svetsi 5 mins ago

enderland

@ArtOfCode I'm not sure how to get this to work :) now that I'm curious about it. lol

It looks like there is a custom id attached to each request:

Andy

If I refer him to SU, is that on topic? I don't know what SU does/does not support

ArtOfCode

@enderland Go the API route, it'll be easier.

enderland

@ArtOfCode I'm not sure why I'm curious about this, more of a nerd sniping than anything else...

ArtOfCode

16:35

@Andy Go ask an SU mod. They've got a chatroom for that, or use TL.

Cfinley

@Andy That would be on topic at SU.

ArtOfCode

@enderland Heh. There's also a userscript on Stack Apps, if you want a pre-rolled solution.

enderland

that's cheating. I'm surprised by the downvotes on candidates tbh, no explanations are given yet a lot of people have multiple DVs

Andy

Let's all assume we are just too awesome and people didn't want to be in the presence of that much awesomeness.

2

ArtOfCode

@enderland I think I'm on 4 downvotes? Something like that.

Undo

16:44

@ArtOfCode I don't see why, it's not like I'm particularly active

This darn sickness

ArtOfCode

@Undo Aye, but +12/-0? Impressive.

Undo

I thought I had a downvote or two mixed in there. But I'll take -0 :P

@ArtOfCode Really? I always thought the API was the only way to go

ArtOfCode

I... don't know. You might, maybe not.

enderland

@Undo I think it is

You get unique links like this - workplace.stackexchange.com/posts/55315/… - which are only viewable if you are logged in

ArtOfCode

@Undo I assumed there's an AJAX URL. Seems likely, I doubt the SE web interface would want to go through an API when they could just put in a much faster method.

Undo

16:46

There is, but I don't know if it's protected

SE is good at this

yep. http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/posts/###/vote-counts

It's protected

Returns blank if you don't have privs

Remarkably thorough.

ArtOfCode

Hmm, interesting. Wasn't protected last time I checked.

Cfinley

Welp. I am now 2 for 2 candidates declining my nomination for moderator.

ArtOfCode

@Cfinley You're whatty?

Undo

@ArtOfCode Both people he nominated have declined

ArtOfCode

Ah. Of course, that would make sense. ME NO ENGLISH UNDERSTAND GOOD.

Undo

16:52

engrish

Cfinley

ME NO RITE GOOD ENGRISH

Undo

stackoverflow.com/search?q=engrish

ArtOfCode

> Thanks and sorry for me EngRish.

Undo

sounds like a skin disease. Engrash.

Cfinley

17:11

I feel like I will become a buffer for SU and HR questions.

Adam C

17:45

and now I have remembered that engrish.com exists

thanks for that

Adam

@ArtOfCode Good to see you way up here in the 1000s finally ;)

ArtOfCode

@Adam Good to be here.

Adam

I'm thinking we should really get on that help center stuff.

Would help a whole lot in commenting on bad questions

ArtOfCode

@Adam Aye, could do with some mods first though.

Adam C

I would volunteer, but I have never been a mod on an SE site - I do not already know where the shiny buttons are :)

Adam

17:54

I volunteered and I've never been a mod.

Cfinley

Same here

Andy

Not to completely derail the topic, but I just realized there are two @Adam users. I am sorry if I've confused one of you for the other. :\

Adam

Just remember to use that C at the end if you don't want to summon me.

ArtOfCode

@AdamC @Adam - I was never a mod, about 2 months ago. Volunteered, got picked, now know where the shiny buttons are.

Adam

I'm stuck in the deep dark depths with +7/-4

Cfinley

17:58

I think im somewhere in that range as well

ArtOfCode

@Adam 'S not that far below others

Adam

@Cfinley you have +5/-1

Cfinley

I thought I had more downvotes than that... Not that I am complaining.

Thanks

Adam

I'm currently leading the pack.

In dislikes.

Andy

Anyone want to help finish this one off?

1 hour ago, by Andy

Let's all assume we are just too awesome and people didn't want to be in the presence of that much awesomeness.

Adam

18:00

@Andy Done.

Did we decide to reopen that weird tempest case question?

It still doesn't sit right with me.

Andy

It's clearer now at least. He wants a specific type of case

There is still some paranoid rambling in the question though

I tried to remove some of that rambling. I've added a comment too

Are you looking for a computer case that is TEMPEST proof or a room that is TEMPEST proof? Completely different things...and the viability of a case being TEMPEST proof is low (consider that you could use a smart phone to monitor keystrokes, or a monitor could be watched remotely). It seems like you are looking for a room that meets TEMPEST certification. Is this what you are asking? — Andy 1 min ago

enderland

18:23

@Cfinley :P

@Cfinley also every time I see "HR" I think human resources, just saying

@ArtOfCode I assume this isn't good enough to make it on Open Source? programmers.stackexchange.com/q/298849/52929

Adam

On the "what to ask" tour page I think we need to clarify "information that will lead to a recommendation."

Do the information and the recommendation need to be in the same question, etc.

Adam C

18:47

man, I remember having to ask for a stack trace from the US DoD and finding out it was on an air-gapped computer in a secure room

the poor guys had to go in and transcribe it by hand

then come back and type that back into a ticket for us to look at

took them ~48 hours to get it to us, and we'd already fixed the issue in a later version, which they were already waiting for approval (for several months) to install

similar crash happened a couple weeks later (no upgrade yet), and generated a different trace, another 48 hours for transcription, and same root issue

ArtOfCode

19:11

@enderland You'd be right. We don't do software recommendations, and I can't actually figure out what the guy wants anyway...

@Adam Nope, Gilles is on -6

Adam

@ArtOfCode Oh wow. Didn't even check the declined nominees.

ArtOfCode

@Adam You're next, I'm after that. But vote totals are what matters, really.

enderland

22:10

@ArtOfCode your question is probably going to end up closed FYI...

ArtOfCode

22:28

@enderland Aye, I did wonder. Seemed on the border of might fly might not, so I just gave it a shot

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