WTF Bites


  • BINNED

    This is driving me crazy!

    My wired USB mouse clicking was erratic and I could not like all of the @blakeyrat posts and videos, so I decided to buy a new mouse. I got a "Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000" which has a dongle, and that was great NOT (Linuxen not likez that mice apparently)!
    The fucking mouse just does not work properly! It works for a while then becomes slow and unresponsive and all of a sudden those Russian hackers have more control over my mouse! So I start reading all the random forums on Internetz, with people giving random advice, and none works of course; other than perhaps I copy pasted more Russian C&C malware in the process.

    Anyways! I realized if I connect the previous defective mouse (wired USB mouse with click problem) then this new mouse also works smoothly! It seems Russian hackers stop interfering when they see a new rival. Or maybe there is some odd power optimization fuckery on that hid device.



  • @dse Of the wireless Microsoft mice I have had, the ones with dongles tend to require the shortest possible distance between dongle and mouse. Plugging the dongle into the back of my computer resulted in a laggy mouse cursor, and moving it to the front fixed all issues. I've since switched to a bluetooth variant, a 3600 I think.



  • @ben_lubar said in WTF Bites:

    @JBert said in WTF Bites:

    @CreatedToDislikeThis said in WTF Bites:
    Your "B" is dripping...

    Posted for future reference:

    0_1488123838061_bdrip.png

    Oh wow, that explains a lot. For me, it wrapped way before that.

    For me, it doesn't wrap at all. Also, when I saw that screenshot, my first thought was an oddly misshapen β. Second thought was zalgo, because TDWTF.



  • @Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    Or use a better phone?

    TIL my phone is "better." Better than what, I m not quite sure, but better.



  • @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    Trying to install a QR reader on my Windows tablet.

    That reminds me, yesterday I learned that my phone will scan QR codes automatically without having to install an app. This discovery lead to the opportunity to "improve the Windows support experience" by suggesting (in perhaps not the most tactful way I might possibly have done so) that if they are going to display a QR code on a BSOD, it should lead to a page with info about the specific error. No, a page that merely says, you're seeing a BSOD because an error happened, is not at all useful.



  • @magnusmaster said in WTF Bites:

    @HardwareGeek This is the first time I've ever heard of of a FOSS program being GUI-only. Let me guess, is it Blender?

    Ha ha, no. The Blender API is not well documented (is any?), but compared to this program's, it's outstanding. As far as I can find, the only documentation for the API, at all, is the fine source code. For Blender, there are lots of examples and tutorials, and it's not too difficult to write a script that works; although finding the right API method to call can require some digging, writing and running the script is easy. Program has an optional "script" tab that is only enabled by an obscure setting (BTW, this was my first-ever answer on SE), which offers a handful of API call examples that you can click a button to paste into an editor, but no way to run the result. There is also an "execute" tab with a button that executes ... something. It (usually) says it executed successfully, but it doesn't seem to actually do anything — the set*() functions don't make any noticeable changes in the GUI, and the ones that are supposed to dump info to stdout, well, I haven't succeeded in finding any window, console or log file that contains any output.

    And Blender's GUI is better, too, unbelievable as that may be. For all (?) of Blender's controls, if you want an exact value, you can type in a number. For Program, it displays a numeric value for a few of the controls, but does not accept numeric input for any. The only way to set any control is dragging a slider and eyeballing the result.

    Finally, in my limited experience, Blender's community is better, too. My only experience with Program's community is the :doing_it_wrong:-like reaction to scripting questions, and that has not made a good impression.



  • @JBert no repro

    0_1488166671355_Screenshot_20170227-003712.png


  • Fake News

    @Jarry
    Get a wider device then to see it in all it's dripping glory.


    Filed under: :doing_it_wrong:, CLOSED, WONTFIX



  • So we have this VPC in AWS. It's pretty much a sandbox at the moment but we intend to have production code in there eventually, so it's locked down tighter than a Yorkshireman's wallet.

    The cloud includes several workstations which can be RDPed or SSHed to. But the firewall won't allow SSH from outside the VPC, except when our provisioning Jenkins job temporarily opens the firewall to allow us to get dependencies in there from elsewhere.

    But we've noticed that if you start an SSH session while the firewall is open, it stays open when it's closed again...


  • FoxDev

    @CarrieVS said in WTF Bites:

    it's locked down tighter than a Yorkshireman's wallet

    I call bullshit: nothing's more locked-down than a Yorkshireman's wallet.

    @CarrieVS said in WTF Bites:

    But we've noticed that if you start an SSH session while the firewall is open, it stays open when it's closed again

    Makes sense: the firewall will only stop new connections.


  • 🚽 Regular

    @Zecc said in WTF Bites:

    SPECIAL PRICE

    TAKE 6, PAY 5

    Price: 6 €

    Okay, sure, the individual price could be 1.20 €, but it certainly doesn't read that way.
    In particular because the pastries they were announcing cost about 1€, usually less.

    Ah yes, this is from the same store that had a sign saying:

    THE BEST ${pastry} IN THE WORLD
    (2nd place in ${obscure competition})


  • 🚽 Regular

    Hmm, I triggered Bootstrap's blockquote footer::before, blockquote small::before, blockquote .small::before { content: '\2014 \00A0'; } rule there.



  • @RaceProUK said in WTF Bites:

    Makes sense: the firewall will only stop new connections.

    Well it surprised both the senior devs on the team. They think it's bizarre.


  • FoxDev

    @Zecc I don't see an em dash.


  • 🚽 Regular

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    And Blender's GUI is better, too, unbelievable as that may be. For all (?) of Blender's controls, if you want an exact value, you can type in a number.

    I don't use Blender much and in particular I haven't done any scripting, but I know this: Blender is extremely scriptable.

    When you hover any pretty much any button or input in the UI, it'll show you a tooltip with how to get a reference to that widget from Python. If you don't feel like typing, right-clicking will give you the option to copy that path to the clipboard.

    Numeric inputs don't just accept numbers, they accept expressions.



  • @Zecc said in WTF Bites:

    right-clicking will give you the option to copy that path to the clipboard.

    TIL. Or maybe I knew but had forgotten; right-clicking a control or tool tip is almost never something I do on purpose. I haven't done much scripting, either; what I have done works, as far as it goes, but it's incomplete and badly in need of refactoring for clarity and maintainability (which is the main reason it's still incomplete).


  • :belt_onion:

    @Bulb said in WTF Bites:

    It could be first in Russian (because з (z) is second letter in their alphabet)

    З is 9th letter in the Russian alphabet.
    Either Abkhazia (if we include sort-of-countries) or Australia (if only proper countries are allowed) would be first in Russian.

    I found your error pretty curious and I wonder if your misconception of the alphabetical order stems from the word азбука?

    INB4 no-one cares. But someone was wrong on the internet and I couldn't leave it like that.



  • I just saw a McDonalds commercial that used the words "Alaska" and "sustainable fishing" like 50 times and then ended with "when you go to McDonalds, you can be sure that the fish is fresh from Alaska" with this map:

    0_1488256457368_upload-45a1d3d5-5c4e-4538-9fbd-e835588dcaf6

    Yes, they even labelled the body of water in the map.



  • @obeselymorbid said in WTF Bites:

    alphabetical order stems from the word азбука?

    Yes, it does.

    I actually had a year of Russian in school, but that was 28 years ago and I remember nothing from it.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @RaceProUK said in WTF Bites:

    I call bullshit: nothing's more locked-down than a Yorkshireman's wallet.

    Yorkshiremen aren't mean. Just careful. No sense in frittering away brass on foolishness…



  • One of the Windows Insider previews has a bug where it might fail to install. OK, no big deal, it's beta software after all, but this part of the workaround instructions bugged me:
    0_1488291122421_upload-b3085085-bdd2-415e-b93a-13c6126060bb
    And this comment corroborating it:
    0_1488291188458_upload-5be744f4-4cf7-4f17-9fec-d64172b80cbe

    How the fuck can a command work on Command Prompt but not on Powershell? Either the .exe file runs or it doesn't, the shell shouldn't affect it in any way. This is extremely worrying given that they're trying to get rid of command prompt.

    For the record, the commands are "reg delete [key] /f" and "netsh int ipv6 set locality state=disabled".


  • Java Dev

    @anonymous234 Maybe powershell has builtins for those with slightly different syntax?


  • FoxDev

    @PleegWat Nah: the PowerShell builtins would be called something like Registry-Delete-Key and Net-Shell-Internet-IPV6-Locality-Set or something.


  • Java Dev

    @RaceProUK Ah, yes, cross-shell compatibility is not a thing over there.

    And I think registry delete would be like del HKCU:\somekey


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @RaceProUK Remove-Item



  • @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    One of the Windows Insider previews has a bug where it might fail to install. OK, no big deal, it's beta software after all, but this part of the workaround instructions bugged me:
    0_1488291122421_upload-b3085085-bdd2-415e-b93a-13c6126060bb
    And this comment corroborating it:
    0_1488291188458_upload-5be744f4-4cf7-4f17-9fec-d64172b80cbe

    How the fuck can a command work on Command Prompt but not on Powershell? Either the .exe file runs or it doesn't, the shell shouldn't affect it in any way. This is extremely worrying given that they're trying to get rid of command prompt.

    For the record, the commands are "reg delete [key] /f" and "netsh int ipv6 set locality state=disabled".

    On a whim, I'd say it probably has something to do with permissions. Are they supposed to be run in a regular command prompt, or an elevated one?



  • @anotherusername
    Yeah, the netsh command is going to require an elevated Command Prompt.

    There's definitely several PS native ways to do the registry key deletion... I doubt the PS firewall rules provider does the netsh command, though I would expect an elevated PS session to be able to run the "cmd" command just fine...



  • Some months ago, my old Windows Vista computer took several days to perform Windows Update. Now it takes several days and then BSODs without updating, which means Windows Update is now irretrievably broken on it. Ended up disabling it on that computer... Which means now, instead of having the balloon notification that there are updates waiting, I get the balloon notification that Windows Update is disabled. Sometimes you just can't win.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Medinoc said in WTF Bites:

    you just can't win.

    @Medinoc said in WTF Bites:

    Windows Vista

    Indeed.



  • Today's WTF bite is a two-fer. And both of the guilty parties are Google...

    First, apparently it's fuggin impossible to uninstall an old copy of Google Chrome if it's installed in a user's %appdata% folder, unless you're logged in as that user. Go ahead, google it. It don't work.

    And second, I did a search on Google Maps and, in addition to my results, it did this:

    0_1488299948511_upload-36945ad3-cfdc-4b37-bd67-681eed1b0a98

    (The map was showing the correct results, but I panned it over to a large body of water because 1) you can see the :wtf: better and 2) PII. The partially-transparent crap stayed put when I panned, like the rest of the controls.)


  • FoxDev

    @anotherusername said in WTF Bites:

    First, apparently it's fuggin impossible to uninstall an old copy of Google Chrome if it's installed in a user's %appdata% folder, unless you're logged in as that user. Go ahead, google it. It don't work.

    Simply deleting the folder isn't enough?



  • @RaceProUK with how deeply it's embedded in the registry?

    Maybe, but I was already having it cause weird issues by conflicting with an up-to-date Chrome installation that was installed in Program Files where it belonged (and running as a totally different user). I didn't want to risk it.

    I ended up running a PS script that promised to eradicate it from the registry in addition to just deleting the files.



  • @Medinoc said in WTF Bites:

    Some months ago, my old Windows Vista computer took several days to perform Windows Update. Now it takes several days and then BSODs without updating, which means Windows Update is now irretrievably broken on it. Ended up disabling it on that computer... Which means now, instead of having the balloon notification that there are updates waiting, I get the balloon notification that Windows Update is disabled. Sometimes you just can't win.

    Sounds like it's doing you a favor. BSODing that is.


  • Fake News

    @anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:

    One of the Windows Insider previews has a bug where it might fail to install. OK, no big deal, it's beta software after all, but this part of the workaround instructions bugged me:
    0_1488291122421_upload-b3085085-bdd2-415e-b93a-13c6126060bb
    And this comment corroborating it:
    0_1488291188458_upload-5be744f4-4cf7-4f17-9fec-d64172b80cbe

    How the fuck can a command work on Command Prompt but not on Powershell? Either the .exe file runs or it doesn't, the shell shouldn't affect it in any way. This is extremely worrying given that they're trying to get rid of command prompt.

    For the record, the commands are "reg delete [key] /f" and "netsh int ipv6 set locality state=disabled".

    It might have something to do with elevation rights, but something I also got hung up on is that PowerShell comes in a 32- and 64-bit variety, each having different contexts thanks to one of them running WOW64.

    Do you have a link to the instructions?




  • Fake News

    @anonymous234
    Ok, you don't want to run this without a liberal amount of quoting:

    reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nsi\{eb004a01-9b1a-11d4-9123-0050047759bc}\28 /f
    

    The braces are very likely to be stripped away.

    Still, I guess it was just the lazy way to explain everyone to use CMD than properly explaining how to do it in PS. As far as I can see both reg and netsh are available.


  • :belt_onion:

    @JBert said in WTF Bites:

    The braces are very likely to be stripped away.

    I use PowerShell every day and didn't anticipate that behavior. WTF?!

    PS C:\Users\heterodox> write-host reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nsi\{eb004a01-9b1a-11d4-9123-0050047759bc}\28 /f
    reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nsi\ eb004a01-9b1a-11d4-9123-0050047759bc \28 /f
    

  • Fake News

    @heterodox
    It might confuse the braces as starting a code block?

    Anyway, single quotes would have resolved the issue but I guess they didn't want to bother people with such stuff.



  • @JBert
    Yeah, braces are "special" in PS, due to the whole code block pieces of fun. Some things that do GUIDs work in PowerShell with the GUID format that omits the braces, but I doubt that reg command is one of them.


  • area_can

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    a page that merely says, you're seeing a BSOD because an error happened

    Holy shit, that's all it says? I thought it would encode an error code or SOMETHING useful....



  • @bb36e said in WTF Bites:

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    a page that merely says, you're seeing a BSOD because an error happened

    Holy shit, that's all it says? I thought it would encode an error code or SOMETHING useful....

    Probably an intern project. And they're back at school. So 🤷



  • @izzion it wouldn't be, because as far as the registry is concerned, curly braces don't have any special significance. That GUID is just a key name like any other key name.



  • @bb36e said in WTF Bites:

    Holy shit, that's all it says?

    More or less. It basically just explains what a blue screen is.

    @bb36e said in WTF Bites:

    I thought it would encode an error code or SOMETHING useful....

    Nope. Absolutely nothing about the specific error that occurred, and nothing that any seasoned Windows user doesn't already know.



  • @Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're a godse--

    Fuck!

    Better than a goatse.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    @Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:

    You're a godse--

    Fuck!

    Better than a goatse.

    Maybe...


  • 🚽 Regular

    @heterodox said in WTF Bites:

    I use PowerShell every day and didn't anticipate that behavior. WTF?!

    Before I manually updated the Powershell version in my Windows 7, it would autocomplete filenames with square brackets with an escape that would then fail to prevent them from being stripped away.

    I should post about it in... oh, ok.



  • Python 3 came out in 2008, or something like that. Why, in 2017, is our IT still provisioning boxes with only 2. 2 and 3, sure; there may be legacy scripts that still need 2. But only 2, without 3, so that new development is forced to be done in 2, or at least unable to use the improvements in 3, why??

    I wrote a script for my own use (in 3, of course). A couple of others thought it's useful. My boss said let's deploy it. But you have to make it run on these machines that don't have 3. :headdesk:


  • :belt_onion:

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    But you have to make it run on these machines that don't have 3. :headdesk:

    Well, if Python 2 is Turing-complete... 🍊


  • kills Dumbledore

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    But you have to make it run on these machines that don't have 3.

    Does Python have syntax to apt-get install python3?



  • @Jaloopa said in WTF Bites:

    @HardwareGeek said in WTF Bites:

    But you have to make it run on these machines that don't have 3.

    Does Python have syntax to apt-get install python3?

    Well, technically I am a local admin on those machines, but they're effectively production, so I don't think messing with the configuration would be appreciated. Besides, I already made it work (except Unicode, because languages are hard, but I only need a few box-drawing characters, and I just don't use them if version<3).


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