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3:18 AM
I just noticed the woof star wall
3
 
3:40 AM
reactos.org/en/index.html - hillarious 404 page
 
 
2 hours later…
5:58 AM
Where do I download MS Office when I just want the streaming installer without having to go through all the BS of Microsoft registration forms?
Ugh... this is why people pirate your software M$...
> Please fill out this registration form.
submits form
> We're sorry, the page you've requested doesn't exist.
Eat a bag of dicks M$.
 
lol
what version of office?
 
6:42 AM
I was thinking about electronics design and stuff again
"reconfigurable processor"
> Processor with rewritable circuits that can dynamically adapt to perform complex corrections and processing tasks.
Who here thinks Fujifilm's EXR Processor contains an FPGA?
!!/wiki Field-programmable gate array
 
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing – hence "field-programmable". The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, as they were for ASICs, but this is increasingly rare). FPGAs contain an array of reprogrammable logic blocks, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the blocks to be "wired together...
 
Anybody else agree?
 
Bob
7:03 AM
oh, look, stack.imgur is back
also, main imgur is:
> Sorry! We're busy running around with our hair on fire because Imgur is over capacity! This can happen when the site is under a very heavy load, or while we're doing maintenance.
 
My gut is somehow telling me this "EXR Processor" may very well be a rebranded Altera Cyclone V SoC
 
@Bob: That happens sometimes
 
The EXR Core and vector graphics accelerator might simply be soft processors loaded onto FPGA fabric
Alternatively, the chip might be an Altera Nios II
 
could someone rollback the last edit here, thanks? superuser.com/a/886293/172747
 
Bob
@allquixotic I wonder if the SP4 will have a USB C connector
 
7:17 AM
@bummi: In this case tho, that's a substancial edit the OP didn't want
 
so it should be removed as NAA?
 
Answer rolled back.
Not sure why the post author rejected the edit.
 
Bob
While there isn't really a consensus on SU (we've discussed it a couple times in here), personally I prefer to let the author have final say; i.e. if they really don't want an edit it's their choice (even if it gets deleted).
 
Could be. I would wait a tiny bit and see what the OP's response is before getting into an edit war
 
OK, thanks a lot
 
Bob
7:19 AM
Short of banning a user, you simply can't force an edit on them anyway. They can always roll it back again.
 
If the OP rolls it back again, I'll let it stand.
 
Bob
7:39 AM
"The fans of such servers can be rather loud" Since we're understating things today, I hear the Nazis were "kinda mean". :-p — ceejayoz 10 hours ago
 
8:16 AM
;p
GODWINNED!
 
 
1 hour later…
10:08 AM
> it’s a great example of why Microsoft is cool again
I especially like that it's cool again, implying Microsoft was once cool, then lame, and now the sticker is bringing them back home
The time period where Microsoft was originally cool must have been around the time this picture was taken:
 
11:04 AM
lol
Actually they were almost cool ~windows 95 ;p
(Mom used to remind me how I REALLY wanted windows 95 as a kid, when I was a bit overenthusiastic about linux ;p)
 
11:26 AM
hm, chrome is being annoying. I never realised it hoarded old versions, and this is on a VERY space constrained device.
 
12:09 PM
@JourneymanGeek I don't understand the point of that either. It has never done me any good that I'm aware of
 
Bob
@JourneymanGeek pretty sure I've commented on that here before :P
also, the updates are bloody massive
they need to learn to make differencing updates :P
 
They should have implemented it by now -_-
Google assumes everyone has high speed internet with several terabytes of storage
 
Bob
see: breaking microsd support in Android
o.O
 
12:40 PM
@Bob I expect the SP4 will be very much "older" tech in most respects (DDR3, USB 3.0, Haswell Refresh or Broadwell CPU, etc.), but that the SP5 will follow fairly closely on its heels (like the SP2 did from the SP1) with USB-C and Skylake and Iris Pro and DDR4L
my prediction is the SP4 will be a red-headed stepchild, and the SP5 will be fantastic
 
1:13 PM
@HackToHell: heh, this is on my stream
and I kinda need chrome for crd
 
crd?
 
chrome remote desktop
 
And I got screamed at today because the head of my department and the principle don't go along
@JourneymanGeek It's way better than Team Viewer
 
Yup
and I have near zero config needed for that
(tho, I can do a SSH tunnel any time I want now so..)
 
1:33 PM
Weeeee \o/
 
Bob
1:52 PM
o.o
@allquixotic ah well... looks like I'll be missing the SP4 and maybe SP5 too :P
 
Bob
2:10 PM
hm... W230SS doesn't use MxM
the GPU is soldered on
and it's a slightly older gen (8xx)
First-gen Maxwell
Only thing I'm really gonna miss is hardware HEVC decoding/encoding support => en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Oh, and high-res encoding, I guess...
I've completely forgotten how HEVC compares to VP9 now :P (@allquixotic?)
 
@Bob HEVC is infinity% more patent-encumbered, has just as bad hardware support and media player support (possibly just slightly better playback codec support), requires way more computation for high entropy, high quality encoding, but overall provides significantly better compression ratios for the same PSNR as VP9 (but introduces... interesting and weird artifacts and omissions of detail if you're not careful).
 
Bob
@allquixotic Wait, does VP9 have any fixed function hardware support yet?
 
@Bob it exists, but it's not in Joe User's GPU if that's what you mean
 
Bob
Maxwell gen 2 introduced it on Nvidia for HEVC. Dunno what's happening on AMD and Intel.
@allquixotic Yea, I meant in typical consumer systems.
 
bellard.org/bpg has a pretty good comparison between lossless and the same compression alg that HEVC uses; you can see that it carefully chooses important but subtle details to simply omit from the image
 
> decode
mmk.
look at that
roll over to the original, then roll slowly over to the BPG
that's what HEVC does
the Medium setting, which is 50% bigger, doesn't help very much in bringing back the detail, either
it absolutely wrecks the bricks and those green steeples
 
Bob
hm
 
we pay all this money for 4K screens and then watch it in highly compressed HEVC so it looks no better than 720p anyway :P
 
3:14 PM
stop being so quiet!
this would be a perfect time for @DragonLord to come in and roar
 
Bob
3:30 PM
 
@Bob are meelec reps on reddit, or where? I keep forgetting that forum
I wanted to ask a question about the random loud pops on bluetooth A2DP
 
Bob
@allquixotic ozbargain
 
basically it sounds like, for the duration of one or two bluetooth frames (just a couple of milliseconds), the volume gets cranked to +0.0dB and then the audio gets severely compressed to be nearly a square wave at 0 dB
sounds like a goddamn shotgun being fired
 
Bob
@allquixotic tried just contacting them directly? through their website?
 
roar
 
Bob
3:34 PM
 
Is there something you need?
 
@DragonLord I needed chat messages to appear in RA; there weren't any and I was distraught
but now you and Bob are here and everything is good
 
Bob
@allquixotic has it been a year yet? ask for help/repair under warranty?
@allquixotic I was watching some CS matches :P
 
@Bob rofl.... I ordered them 3/19/2014
 
Bob
O_O
 
3:36 PM
looks at calendar
 
Bob
better contact them quick
 
they were apparently delivered on 3/20/14
they were in the same box as my two new HDDs to round out my RAID10
 
> This limited warranty does not cover signal reception problems and failures due to line power surge.
they'll just rope it under "signal reception" and send them back to me
 
Bob
shrug worth asking?
> Issue: Crackling noise, static, interference
Resolution: Make sure you are within range of your Bluetooth-enabled device. Bluetooth devices are susceptible to interference from other Bluetooth devices, microwave ovens, power stations and transmission lines, Direct Satellite Service (DSS), and wireless devices operating on the 2.4 GHz band. Eliminate as many potential sources of interference as possible while using your Bluetooth headphones.
:\
 
3:41 PM
basically they're going to say it's not their fault...
and they may be right
I have no idea what kind of 2.4 GHz noise goes on in my building
 
Bob
you could contact that guy on ozb, I guess
 
for all I know they have an X-ray machine upstairs
 
Bob
or just email meelec directly
 
(upstairs is a bunch of random small offices that aren't our company)
 
Bob
don't have to ask for warranty/repair, just ask if they have suggestions?
@allquixotic didn't it happen at work? and in your car?
 
3:42 PM
yeah I'll email support
@Bob well the short dropouts (which are not the loud noises) happen absolutely everywhere, at home, in the car, at work, on trains, etc.
but those, I believe, are the fault of GOOG or QCOM
the loud pops only occur with the Air-Fi Matrix2 headset in particular
never happens with my car or the original Air-Fi Matrix
 
Bob
well, if you can tell them that
 
maybe I should just bring my original Air-Fi Matrix headset to work one day and listen to it in the exact same environment on my phone and see if it does the loud noises
if not, then it's specific to this headset
also, remember I told you I bought that Avantree Saturn Pro bluetooth receiver/transmitter thing? 3.5mm and USB power in (it also has a battery...); Bluetooth out to the headset?
that thing ALSO causes the loud pops with the Matrix2.
and that's with a very high quality 3.5mm cable that's shielded and has a iron whatchamacallit on it
when I plug the Matrix2 directly into the Note 4 using the 3.5mm cable, I never get any audio issues whatsoever, so it's definitely related to Bluetooth
 
Bob
@allquixotic ... :S
@allquixotic might be an issue with the on-headphone DAC/amp?
 
that's what I'm thinking -- either that or the on-headphone bluetooth chipset
kinda sad that the first-gen product is better in that regard, unless I somehow inadvertently damaged the Matrix2
 
Bob
well... I just jumped on Google, and guess what I found? forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-verizon/help/…
 
3:51 PM
ROFL. ME.
> I'm cynical so I bet Lollipop won't hit the Verizon Note 4 until 2015, possibly even March or April. I'll get plenty of use out of my Saturn Pro in the mean time. Thanks!
except that the Saturn Pro does the same damn thing
and it's mid-March and still no lollipop; I was dead-on there
mehhhhh, maybe I'll just order another copy of THE headphones
you know. THE. headphones. the only ones that actually work?
those are THE headphones
I guess I'll just end up taking my Air-Fi Matrix 1.0 cans when I travel, since they only make sporadic dropouts, which SHOULD be solved by Android Lollipop anyway
and I'll have the H Wireless (another) at work
 
Bob
still, at least contact meelec
 
ok, so I have another question, maybe you can help with this
the H Wireless base station has Analog Out and Analog In 3.5mm ports that accept the 3-resistor TRS cables (2 black rings around the connector)
the Note 4 accepts the 4-resistor (or is it 5? I dunno) "TRRS" cable (3 or 4 black rings around the connector) to do duplex audio
how do I get from one to the other while still having stereo output and some kind of working mic (don't care if the input is mono)?
 
Bob
@allquixotic there's adapters available :P
 
do you reckon that will work?
 
Bob
4:06 PM
yea, it should
make sure you get the correct one, though
IIRC Apple uses a different TRRS config
 
Bob
@allquixotic claims to be compatible with Dell and Apple laptops :\
 
@Bob well, it goes back if it doesn't work.
 
Bob
@allquixotic outdated; apparently modern Android phones usually do the same LRGM as Apple: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
 
needed to get another of those too; I have one sitting on my desk and I love them
 
Bob
4:10 PM
that explains why my headset mics work across phones? :P
 
@Bob ahh
now to call Crutchfield and give them the bad news :P
> Items are temporarily out of stock and will be shipped as they become available.
well, I've decided that my item will be permanently in-stock when it gets to you
you can keep it
 
Bob
...huh?
 
!! s/you/Crutchfield/
 
@allquixotic Crutchfield can keep it (source)
 
Bob
...Crutchfield?
 
4:13 PM
yeah
they were the first vendor that was allowing preorders on the Momentums
 
Bob
I'm so confused :P
Ahhhhhhhhhh
 
the ones I wanted badly but no longer do
so, I'll have everything this weekend, and on Monday I can start using the H Wireless at work :)
today and tomorrow I'll just have to use the Matrix2 cans wired :P
every time I'm forced to use wired headphones, a small part of my soul chokes and dies.
the sound quality is nice, though
 
4:50 PM
I'll probably transplant my old H Wireless headset and base station to work (with the batteries) so I can have a nice fresh set of long-lasting batteries at home
the Li-Ion replaceable battery packs (some low voltage @ 1 Ah) are already starting to lose their zero point
 
5:09 PM
Okay, UrBackup is giving me way too much trouble.
I've gone back to Windows system image backups for the time being.
 
5:34 PM
@Bob hmm, the Chromebook Pixel that just came out has two USB-C ports, 8 Gigs of RAM, a Broadwell i7, 1440p touchscreen, and 64 GB SSD for $1300 USD
unfortunately, 64 GB is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad
 
Bob
@allquixotic Ya, saw that. It's... very much meh.
Mostly because of the OS.
 
meh, you could probably replace it with another OS
just got a chair upgrade to a much nicer chair at work :D
 
6:03 PM
With Chromebooks, I think 64GB is probably overkill, if they expect you're doing everything on the cloud.
Also, they have touchscreens now?
 
Time to get back to answering.
I know I've said this before, but I'm going to give another shot at answering lots of questions
Jon Skeet, Reading, United Kingdom
759k 336 5093 6380
10 answers a day doesn't sound too far-fetched, does it?
 
6:18 PM
@DragonLord on SU, no -- 10 answers is actually kind of easy -- many of the questions are fairly basic, or can be resolved definitively through a quick google
on SO, 10 answers a day would be tremendously impressive, since a lot of the questions on SO require very deep and specialized knowledge
and the ones that don't require specialized knowledge have the FGITW problem
that problem isn't nearly as severe here since we have way fewer people trawling the site
 
6:31 PM
Is there some decent free file backup program I can use to augment Windows system image backups? File History is too restrictive.
I do use File History, but only for a very limited subset of files. I want a program that can produce crash-consistent file backups of entire volumes.
 
@DragonLord robocopy :P
 
Okay, I'll try out Cobian Backup.
 
Honestly, if I'm not using Windows File History, though, I use Acronis TrueImage, but it's not free.
 
Used version 9 Amanita years ago
 
You can use Windows File History to make system images though. I do those as one-off things if I am wiping the drive or doing an upgrade or something.
But when Windows runs File History, I have it save an image as well.
 
6:38 PM
The problem is that Windows refuses to store more than system image per destination volume.
 
Can't you configure File History to back up any files you want though?
 
@BenRichards It's not that efficient and it's not designed to cover entire volumes.
 
I have a drive dedicated to File History but want a more complete backup solution
 
Gotcha.
 
6:39 PM
I have a brand-new 3 TB hard drive and I want to take full advantage of the storage capacity
 
That's what I use Acronis for, honestly. :P But really, what I tend to do is image or just back up my home folder :P
 
System images take up less than 200 GB of space
 
I have several different backup drives
 
For my laptops/tablets I just use file history to back up to my NAS, but for my desktop, I'm more aggressive and use Acronis to do incremental whole-drive backups to an external and mirror it to my NAS.
My desktop is on RAID0 so that's why. Though granted, it's been about 4 years and it hasn't failed yet. I get the occasional RAID error but it never actually seems to indicate a real failure or lost data, probably just a momentary glitch.
Like it pops up in Windows or I have a ntfs BSOD. But I haven't found lost data or system instability from any of that, and it doesn't happen very often.
I chalk it up to software RAID :P
 
6:54 PM
Good evening
Just came back from eating Japanese food
Yesterday I played the 1st RPG session of my life (Call of Cthulhu)
 
@ThatBrazilianGuy Not into tabletop RPGs, but there's a hobby game shop near where I live
 
I've only played a tabletop RPG once, briefly, in college. Group didn't stick. Also, I'm not good at those. Feels way too open bounded. But maybe that's dependent on the DM.
 
70% of the players (me included) were newbies, so the GM built a quick and short campaign
He was really good in describing scenario, atmosphere, NPC dialog, character motivation
Most players were around 30yo and it was on a bookstore owned by a friend
 
Cool
 
7:56 PM
@BenRichards You ever see the DnD episodes from Community? They make the game sound so incredible even my wife wanted to get into it. :P
 
8:27 PM
Afternoon all
 
 
1 hour later…
9:31 PM
@MichaelFrank Don't think so. I only saw a few episodes from that show.
 
 
1 hour later…
10:31 PM
If I back up all files, including system files (except for things like pagefile.sys which the system will recreate), can I do a bare-metal restore?
If not, what else would I need?
 
Bob
@DragonLord Symlinks. FS redirection. Hardlinks. Volume and partition IDs.
They can be worked around, but it's not easy.
The IDs will require a boot repair at the very least, and may cause some things to lose track of the volume (and think it's a new one).
Broken hardlinks will primarily end up using more space. It might break the OS entirely.
Symlinks and FS redirection could cause the backup to fail in the first place...
 
2 StackOverflow Career Invitations left. PM if you want one
 
@allquixotic my creative came with one. Should work
 
10:46 PM
@allquixotic I've got one of these on order
should be arriving shortly.
I'll be using it with my PS4 controller for my Sennheiser and Antlion Modmic set up.
oooh.. apparently it arrived!
So hopefully it's there when I get home.
 
11:28 PM
@CanadianLuke I got one out of nowhere sent by the site itself. Not sure why, my resumé is terribly terrible.
 
hm. Actually I think mine is the other way around
 

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