The Official Status Thread
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Status: AC fixed--a bad start capacitor meant the compressor fan wouldn't come on unless manually assisted. That was cheap...only $216 after a 20% discount (including labor).
Secondary Status: I think we're over the peak here in Florida. Not the viral peak (that's a different thread), but the much more dangerous (to me, personally) oak tree pollen peak. Not getting nearly as much coverage on my car. That's good--it means I might actually be able to go outside once in a while (observing social distancing, of course).
Tertiary status: I can tell I haven't been driving much. A spider managed to make a quite-elaborate web between the passenger-side mirror and the car.
4th status: Had my first attempted "Zoombombing" today--some yahoo with the display name of "Dickiner" or something like that (obviously an attempted obscene reference) tried to join. He didn't succeed.
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Status: Taking satisfaction in pulling out tufts of the older bitch's winter coat. Said coat is mostly in the derriere area.
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@Zenith said in The Official Status Thread:
I can only imagine what the ~500 people not in the office have been doing
So many possibilities!
Option 1:
Option 2:
inb4
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Corporate policy says:
- no split VPNs
- no media streaming
They can have one or the other, but not both.
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I have an external WNIC laying around. I wonder if I could VPN one adapter and not the other...
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I have an external WNIC laying around. I wonder if I could VPN one adapter and not the other...
Short answer: Not really?
Longer answer, technically yes but it's more difficult than split VPN.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I have an external WNIC laying around. I wonder if I could VPN one adapter and not the other...
Short answer: Not really?
Longer answer, technically yes but it's more difficult than split VPN.
There are multiple watchdog processes to try to thwart it on this machine.
I'm thinking I provision a VM for my media streaming, and give it direct control of that Wifi adapter.
I can't do the opposite because the VPN will fail if I don't have approved backup, encryption, virus protection, etc etc etc running.
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@izzion said in The Official Status Thread:
Quarantine Status: The shortages are getting dire. I just ran out of pickles.
Crisis averted. The store had been successfully restocked, so now are I.
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I have an external WNIC laying around. I wonder if I could VPN one adapter and not the other...
Short answer: Not really?
Longer answer, technically yes but it's more difficult than split VPN.
There are multiple watchdog processes to try to thwart it on this machine.
I'm thinking I provision a VM for my media streaming, and give it direct control of that Wifi adapter.
I can't do the opposite because the VPN will fail if I don't have approved backup, encryption, virus protection, etc etc etc running.
Status: I started the Ubuntu installation in a VM, and it's been on a solid black screen (with active mouse cursor) for 10 minutes now. Is this the expected out-of-the-box experience?
Edit: apparently not. After 20 more minutes of nothing, I rebooted and started over... and it's already past where it got stuck last time.
Editedit: seems to be triggered by resizing the VM window.
Filed under: Hashtag triggered
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
@error said in The Official Status Thread:
@Tsaukpaetra said in The Official Status Thread:
@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I have an external WNIC laying around. I wonder if I could VPN one adapter and not the other...
Short answer: Not really?
Longer answer, technically yes but it's more difficult than split VPN.
There are multiple watchdog processes to try to thwart it on this machine.
I'm thinking I provision a VM for my media streaming, and give it direct control of that Wifi adapter.
I can't do the opposite because the VPN will fail if I don't have approved backup, encryption, virus protection, etc etc etc running.
Status: I started the Ubuntu installation in a VM, and it's been on a solid black screen (with active mouse cursor) for 10 minutes now. Is this the expected out-of-the-box experience?
Edit: apparently not. After 20 more minutes of nothing, I rebooted and started over... and it's already past where it got stuck last time.
Editedit: seems to be triggered by resizing the VM window.
Filed under: Hashtag triggered
Nevermind, it's softlocked again, just without the all-black screen.
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@error Maybe try Linux Mint. It's like Ubuntu but only half as shit
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@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
Linux Mint
Alright, I'll try it, if it runs Spotify (which claims to support Debian).
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I started the Ubuntu installation in a VM
Hmm. I've done it a couple times and it went smoothly each time... On Win10, with Hyper-V, installing 18.04. Did it with a raw install, and also used the preconfigured vm via Hyper-V's 'Quick Create'.
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@dcon said in The Official Status Thread:
Hmm. I've done it a couple times and it went smoothly each time... On Win10, with Hyper-V, installing 18.04. Did it with a raw install, and also used the preconfigured vm via Hyper-V's 'Quick Create'.
I can't use Hyper-V because it's not compatible with VirtualBox which I need for work stuff.
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Such contrast, much legibility.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:
4th status: Had my first attempted "Zoombombing" today--some yahoo with the display name of "Dickiner" or something like that (obviously an attempted obscene reference) tried to join. He didn't succeed.
How is that even a thing? Did some of your pupils share the room code for it to get pranked? Because I've read about that 2 or 3 times by now, and the first one on Slashdot mentioned someone did that with automated guessing. It should be trivial to have room codes be at least 64 bits, making that basically infeasible.
Also, of the bajillion conferencing systems I've tried the last weeks, Zoom worked really well for me, was super easy to use and set up. But I have read a lot of negative reports about it (bad privacy / giving data to facebook, purported "end to end encryption" that isn't end to end, this pranking stuff, etc.). Also, I think someone mentioned in another thread that it uses malware-like behavior to install itself without user feedback. Which made me realize, it was surprisingly simple to install.
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@topspin dunno how. But our best guess is that people in the outside are doing it. Probably by brute force. Meeting IDs are only about 10 digits, and probably have some underlying pattern. So easy to crack.
Edit and the decision was the school's, not mine. So
. Only issues I've had have been my laptop (a newish MacBook air) deciding to stop talking on the WiFi until it's turned off and on again. With no notice, just the link goes dead, despite full bars. I think it may be related to the VPN software, which I've tried to kill (since I don't use it) but which keeps coming back on a reboot.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:
Meeting IDs are only about 10 digits, and probably have some underlying pattern. So easy to crack.
Yes, I just checked. Our meeting ID is about half a billion, so only 9 digits. With the amount of meetings going on right now probably being in the millions, the chance of a hit are pretty high. Terrible ID implementation.
Did you just kick them out or are you using room passwords or something like that?
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@topspin I have the waiting room set up. So I booted him before he even got in.
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Edit: Increased the disk size, and it seems more stable at least.
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Success! I'm on the VPN in the host, and off the VPN in the guest.
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
purported "end to end encryption" that isn't end to end
FWIW on that: computer-based voice is end-to-end encrypted. Phone call audio if you dial in is not encrypted at certain points of the call (like, duh. the phone line has to hook in somewhere). Pretty much FUD for that one.
And Zoom bombing is largely a case of misconfigurations due to people setting this up in 2 minutes flat and not bothering to read the documentation. Zoom has had the ability to set meeting passwords (which wind up being 100+ bit entropy randomized strings) for over a year, and provided a way to set your organization's defaults to make the Outlook plug-in and the Zoom app add a password on meeting requests late last year, but a lot of organizations still aren't using that feature by default. (Though, to be fair to the FUD crowd, even if you are using the meeting password by default via the Outlook plug-in, the password gets included in the meeting URL that gets sent to participants, so users still have to not share their Zoom links, but that's on the border of a "other side of the locked door" problem).
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@izzion said in The Official Status Thread:
(like, duh. the phone line has to hook in somewhere). Pretty much FUD for that one.
Yeah, that's obvious. But it should then also not suggest (I don't know if it does) that the connection is end to end encrypted.
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
I think someone mentioned in another thread that it uses malware-like behavior to install itself
I remember when I was installing a Jawbone (RIP) bluetooth speaker, I noticed a momentary popup as it installed its own self-signed certificate into the root CA store of the computer, because its UI was web-based, and worked by installing a local web server - which means the private key was also included in the installation - and it fucking used the mouse cursor API to accept the warning on the user's behalf.
(It basically told my computer to trust any key signed with its key, and helpfully included a copy of that key in case someone else wanted to use it.)
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
It should be trivial to have room codes be at least 64 bits, making that basically infeasible.
Which would be fun to enter into a phone for people who need to dial in.
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Status: So close to thawing the ice queen. So tantalizingly close...
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@izzion said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: So close to thawing the ice queen. So tantalizingly close...
You tried kissing her yet? Might have to move on to more.... heated, actions.
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@izzion
Status: Thawed.
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Status Uninstalled Logitech G-Hub and now set an on-board profile on my mouse using the much better, older Logitech Gaming Software
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Status (earlier today): Thunderstorm. Shut down and unplugged my desktop, because I only have a cheapo surge protector, and that's not going to do diddly if lighting hits a nearby power line. After the storm, plugged it back in and turned it on. Wouldn't boot; got stuck in POST.
That happened last time I rebooted, but that time I just power cycled and it booted normally. Today, I tried several times. No joy.
Googled "<model number> hangs during POST". Found the front panel status codes; that didn't provide any useful explanation of why it was hanging, but it did tell me what state in was in. Googled that state code. Found Q&A website (not SO, some other site I don't remember) where somebody asked about hanging in that state, then answered his own question when he discovered a fan wasn't spinning due to dust accumulation. I didn't see any fans not spinning, but I did vacuum out a fair amount of dust, and when I powered it up, it booted without any problem. Powered down again, finished putting everything back together, powered up, still boots just fine.
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@loopback0 said in The Official Status Thread:
@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
It should be trivial to have room codes be at least 64 bits, making that basically infeasible.
Which would be fun to enter into a phone for people who need to dial in.
Instead you dial in 1) a shorter room code and an additional password, amounting to the same work, or 2) a short room code only and have to deal with the resulting pranksters.
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@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
using the much better, older Logitech Gaming Software
Link?
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
Instead you dial in 1) a shorter room code and an additional password, amounting to the same work
You only need the 9 digit room ID and, say, a 4 digit PIN. Far fewer digits. It's how conference lines worked since forever.
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@topspin Logitech support still has it. I went to my mouse, downloads, "show all downloads" and for some reason the latest one (9.02) was the second option, after one that was a couple years old. And of course crappy G-Hub.
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Status: Finally bought toilet paper for the first time in about 2.5 months. The only available brand was Great Value, a.k.a. Wal-Mart. This stuff is absurdly and uselessly thin. I'd measure it but my calipers don't measure in angstroms.
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Status: Had my first supermarket delivery since locking down relatively hard. Most things there, but was surprised to see that they substituted two small (200ml) bottles of lemon juice for two large (1 litre) bottles. That's… a lot; I hadn't realised that it came in that sort of quantity (and I think I'll need to decant some into smaller bottles for use). I guess I won't need to buy any more of that for most of the rest of the year. Also have somehow ended up with about 40 chicken thighs.
Guess I'm going to be eating chicken in lemon juice for a while…
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I beat Death Stranding. No, for real this time. The game has more endings than Return of the King.
Also I have all the stars (5 star connection with all UCA members).
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Honestly, having just binged the most bizarre and convoluted plot I've ever experienced, I feel like I need to discuss it with someone.
Preferably a therapist.
Filed under: It's definitely art, though.
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Status: My kingdom for a working debugger.
gdbis crashing all the fucking time,lldbis using 100% CPU (that might be the IDE integration's fault, not lldb's, can't tell for sure).For fuck's sake, why don't you people start dogfooding for a bit.
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@topspin said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: My kingdom for a working debugger.
gdbis crashing all the fucking time,lldbis using 100% CPU (that might be the IDE integration's fault, not lldb's, can't tell for sure).For fuck's sake, why don't you people start dogfooding for a bit.
I hear you.
gdbis horrible. I have once tried to getdddworking as a frontend forgdb, but failed because since it's graphical it needs to run locally, but both my code and my running process need to be on a hosted server, which will be on the other side of the North Sea in the good case and on the other side of the Atlantic in the bad case. And I don't like remote desktop.
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@mott555 said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: Finally bought toilet paper for the first time in about 2.5 months. The only available brand was Great Value, a.k.a. Wal-Mart. This stuff is absurdly and uselessly thin. I'd measure it but my calipers don't measure in angstroms.
Last time I bought toilet paper, a good selection was available. When I bought paper towels last week, though, Great Value was the only brand. It has characteristics similar to GV toilet paper.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
@mott555 said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: Finally bought toilet paper for the first time in about 2.5 months. The only available brand was Great Value, a.k.a. Wal-Mart. This stuff is absurdly and uselessly thin. I'd measure it but my calipers don't measure in angstroms.
Last time I bought toilet paper, a good selection was available. When I bought paper towels last week, though, Great Value was the only brand. It has characteristics similar to GV toilet paper.
But usually isn't used to wipe sensitive portions of your anatomy. Hopefully.
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
Success! I'm on the VPN in the host, and off the VPN in the guest.
Linux Mint works great with Spotify.
VirtualBox fucking sucks. It randomly refuses to start due to hardening errors (solution: keep trying until it works), randomly drops audio, randomly refuses to connect USB devices, and refuses to mount shared folders. Oh, and it won't let me use a more sane VM (Hyper-V) alongside it.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:
@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
@mott555 said in The Official Status Thread:
Status: Finally bought toilet paper for the first time in about 2.5 months. The only available brand was Great Value, a.k.a. Wal-Mart. This stuff is absurdly and uselessly thin. I'd measure it but my calipers don't measure in angstroms.
Last time I bought toilet paper, a good selection was available. When I bought paper towels last week, though, Great Value was the only brand. It has characteristics similar to GV toilet paper.
But usually isn't used to wipe sensitive portions of your anatomy. Hopefully.
It's not so bad if you pre-
lubewet it first.
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@error I haven't had many random crashes (although, sometimes it throws up a memory access error in the shared clipboard module that crashes the guest, but only after you dismiss the error dialog. So whenever it happens I have time to gracefully shut down the guest). As for shared folders, I don't think I ever had it mount them automatically but it's always worked manually
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@error I haven't had hardening, audio, or shared folder problems with VirtualBox, but the only VMs I use regularly are Windows ones. I do have a Mint VM, but I was using it to see what it might look like if I installed it on my old netbook.
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@Parody said in The Official Status Thread:
@error I haven't had hardening, audio, or shared folder problems with VirtualBox, but the only VMs I use regularly are Windows ones. I do have a Mint VM, but I was using it to see what it might look like if I installed it on my old netbook.
I'm sure a lot of my issues come with the corporate-mandated malware installed on my work laptop (Symantec Endpoint Protection, CarbonBlack, GlobalProtect, Avecto Defendpoint, etc).
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Status: My spring-powered Airsoft sniper rifle is far more powerful than I ever knew. It just blew the guts out of the little mouse that's been running around my apartment all day. To think I used to shoot people with this...
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
@Parody said in The Official Status Thread:
@error I haven't had hardening, audio, or shared folder problems with VirtualBox, but the only VMs I use regularly are Windows ones. I do have a Mint VM, but I was using it to see what it might look like if I installed it on my old netbook.
I'm sure a lot of my issues come with the corporate-mandated malware installed on my work laptop (Symantec Endpoint Protection, CarbonBlack, GlobalProtect, Avecto Defendpoint, etc).
Yeah, I can see how that would
make it hard to get things doneprotect the company laptop while causing zero problems or performance issues.
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Status: just took a big sip of yesterday's coffee
That'll teach me to live like a slob.
