WTF Bites
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@topspin
To save others the time of looking up the man page:crontab -estands for edit the current crontabcrontab -rstands for rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
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@topspin Bonus Stackoverflow WTF:
The accepted solution to restoring accidentally deleted crontab entries is restore from backup, with a snide implication of "you have backups, right? RIGHT?".Yes, IT does have backups. We even have file system versioning. But only for user data, not for shit that's in OS directories. Which, to IT's defense, actually makes sense.
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Yes, IT does have backups. We even have file system versioning. But only for user data, not for shit that's in OS directories. Which, to IT's defense, actually makes sense.
Crontab kind of stuff strikes me as something that should be considered more like user data. Unless it's something you have in something like source control (like application / webserver configuration might be) and is easy to replace that way.
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WTF of my day: So, I'm mucking about with creating a PXE server for imaging PCs - since I already have a working Clonezilla flow, it seemed to be the easiest to use their solution as it promises multicast and stuff.
Found myself an unneeded PC and proceeded to install Debian Net-Installation from a USB stick on it.
First order of WTF during installation: "The firmware for this WLAN adapter is non-free. Please insert a CD-ROM or USB-drive with this file on it!" Instead of, I don't know, at least offer me to enable the non-free repositories? Especially since there's an obviously working LAN connection?
Next up: I can't go beyond a 800x600 resolution because of "Unknown screen". Yes, thank you, a screen connected by HDMI is probably incapable of displaying higher resolutions than those from 1997 anway.
Went to the "Software & Repos" page, selected the "Non-Free" repositories. Damn UI became stuck while "Refreshing repositories". Yes, should've used the shell, I know. After a quick reboot, I started the shell.
sudo apt-get update!sudo: Command not recognized- what ass-backwards distribution does not install sudo by default?Okay, then it's a quick
sufollowed byapt-get update && apt-get install sudo?Which yielded:
Please insert disc: *blargh* into drive /media/cdrom!First of all: I installed this shit from a USB-stick. WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU ASKING FOR A CD FOR?!?
Secondly: THIS IS A FUCKING VESA-MOUNT MINI PC. IT DOES NOT HAVE, NEVER HAD AND NEVER WILL HAVE A CD-ROM DRIVE!
But, yes, this is the Year Of The Linux Desktop. I'm certain of it.
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@Rhywden I install debian on similar machines like this:
-Install the os (net install image) from USB and from LAN, wifi will probably not work.
-After the OS is installed, remove the USB and the disk-related garbage from your /etc/apt/sources.list, and add the non-free to the repo. apt-get update after you are done.
-apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree
-sometimes wifi not showing up in wicd. iwconfig will tell you the lan cards unix path ( /dev/whatever023423 ) add that to wicd. you now usually have wifi.
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@hungrier Somehow I've managed to never make that mistake, I wonder why--
Oh right. I use an OS that doesn't suck ass.
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@Rhywden That's pretty much a list of reasons that Linux Mint exists.
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@boomzilla said in WTF Bites:
Yes, IT does have backups. We even have file system versioning. But only for user data, not for shit that's in OS directories. Which, to IT's defense, actually makes sense.
Crontab kind of stuff strikes me as something that should be considered more like user data.
It is. But probably nobody realized that you keep some tiny amount of user data in non-user writable directories.
Since home dirs (and some other stuff) are NFS mounted, you could usually just wipe a machine and re-image it without much loss. Well, except for crontab and maybe some other things I'm not aware of (but hopefully IT is).
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First order of WTF during installation: "The firmware for this WLAN adapter is non-free. Please insert a CD-ROM or USB-drive with this file on it!"
Ahhhh flashbacks. The firmware for the wireless adapter has been non-free on every machine I've ever installed Debian on (probably 4 or 5 different ones), and I tried every variation I could think of/seen recommend for that "Insert CD-ROM or USB-drive with blah-blah-blah" .ucode file business the first few times, but I never got it to work. I just stopped trying, and accepted that I'll always need ethernet to finish a debian install.
Why is that CD/USB method so damn flaky?
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I always knew 1366x768 was a weird not-really-16:9-but-close-enough resolution, but I really didn't need it that precise, game...
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crontab -rstands for rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
My question is: why is there a command to erase the crontab at all?
Shirley there are more cromulent methods of disabling a service than wiping its
spiritconfig!Edit: fixed before @pie_flavor gets confused....
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@Tsaukpaetra Because there is a per-user (or per-service) crontab and it only erases the specific one. Cron itself remains running and is usually kinda essential to continue doing so.
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It's getting more obnoxious than it used to be. (Video ads that pause if you take the focus away from them?! Seriously?)
It's always been like that for me since the Win10 upgrade; has it not for you?
In fact, those actually got a little less obnoxious quite some time ago, when they added a mute button so you could at least stop them from stomping all over any music you might have had going. Before that I used to just turn off my speakers while the ads were playing.
But I hardly ever play Solitaire Collection these days, so I don't have to put up with those ads any more. (I successfully broke myself away from the "must complete all daily challenges!" compulsion.)
@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
Yeah, eventually he'll keep clicking the "I can't hear you la la la" button for 72 hours straight.
I wish I lived in your world. In my world, 80% of the time my work PC reboots for updates without me ever seeing any indication anywhere that a reboot might be required. The rest of the time is about evenly split between getting a notification and noticing the "Update and <x>" options appearing on the start menu.
Meanwhile, up until recently it would bug me once or twice a day to say my Microsoft account has problems, click here to fix it, but when I click there it says everything's fine.
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@Scarlet_Manuka said in WTF Bites:
@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
Yeah, eventually he'll keep clicking the "I can't hear you la la la" button for 72 hours straight.
I wish I lived in your world. In my world, 80% of the time my work PC reboots for updates without me ever seeing any indication anywhere that a reboot might be required. The rest of the time is about evenly split between getting a notification and noticing the "Update and <x>" options appearing on the start menu.
Meanwhile, up until recently it would bug me once or twice a day to say my Microsoft account has problems, click here to fix it, but when I click there it says everything's fine.
Then set AUOptions.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
crontab -rstands for rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
My question is: why is there a command to erase the crontab at all?
Shirley there are more cromulent methods of disabling a service than wiping its
spiritconfig!Edit: fixed before @pie_flavor gets confused....
Beats me. If I had actually wanted to erase it I'd still have edited it with
crontab -eand either commented or deleted everything. I learned of the existence of-rthe moment I mistyped it.
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
Then set AUOptions.
Did you miss the part where I said it was my work PC? All the update settings are locked down by group policy, which I assume would also prevent me editing the relevant registry keys. And even if it doesn't, I don't believe it's ethical or professional to try to actively subvert my organisation's computing policies. (That's why I haven't pursued the USB auto-Bitlocker-unlocker thing someone mentioned elsewhere, which would be handy for the case when an unexpected reboot happens overnight and then shuts my machine off because I can't enter the code, rendering me unable to remote in if anything breaks in the overnight runs.)
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@Scarlet_Manuka The point of HKEY_CURRENT_USER is that title can be edited by you without admin access. No idea how GP would affect that.
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@pie_flavor Group policy wins. That's the whole point.
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So I felt like getting some homework done on the train ride home today. After all, it was due at midnight. And what do you fucking know, it actually has a usable mobile interface! In educational software! Astounding!
Anyway, it went a lot faster than I thought it would, and I noticed it was skipping numbers. I go back to the question list, and it says that certain questions can only be completed on desktop. Okay, that at least makes sense. I'm surprised they got the math box to work on mobile (they actually had a custom keyboard for it), so I'm sure there's some wild and woolly stuff that mobile just isn't cut out for.
I was wrong. The desktop-only questions are the ones that have reference images in the 'Figure X' area. That's what you couldn't implement on mobile? Seriously?
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@pie_flavor Back in my day (and that wasn't even that long ago) we handed in our assignments on paper.
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@pie_flavor Back in my day (and that wasn't even that long ago) we handed in our assignments on paper.
I printed mine, otherwise my handwriting would perpetually result in rejection.
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@pie_flavor Back in my day (and that wasn't even that long ago) we handed in our assignments on paper.
It was a mix of floppy and paper for me. I liked the ones with floppies because you could hand in
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/fd0and get another day or two to finish the assignment without penalty...not that I would ever do that, floppy drives are just so flakey.
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@pie_flavor I have the very strong feeling I've posted that one myself before.
Awesome show, btw.
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
it actually has a usable mobile interface! In educational software!
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I don't believe you. You sure you didn't fall asleep on the train and dreamed this up? Somebody passed you some hallucinogenics? 40+ degrees C of fever?
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Back in my day (and that wasn't even that long ago) we handed in our assignments on paper.
Back in my day, we had to hand-write our assignments. Well, until a group of us figured out how to use LaTeX… ;)
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
I printed mine, otherwise my handwriting would perpetually result in rejection.
Same here. The effort of typing stuff out in LaTeX or something was way less than making my handwriting readable.
Incidentally, when I was on the other side, I always hated people with crappy handwriting and who were too lazy to type it up and hand in prints. Moving to all-electronic systems at least (mostly) eliminated that. (Every once in a while there's somebody who thinks they can use a scanner, but fortunately those are few and far between. It's one instance where I'm grateful to the IT department for making using scanners such a pain in the ass.)
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"Log entry string is too long. A string written to the event log cannot exceed 32766 characters."
Ok. Sure. Why not.
But did you have to completely replace the original log message, instead of clipping it to, say, the first 1000 or even just 100 or 20 characters? That would have been useful.
Furthermore, did you have to also write that message instead of the original to the other trace listener that wasn't writing to the event log?
Edit: on second thought I have reason to believe this was an actual exception that was logged elsewhere. So it's worse than I thought
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Furthermore, did you have to also write that message instead of the original to the other trace listener that wasn't writing to the event log?
Of course. What could possibly be more important than the internal limits of the logging system?
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@cvi I have a student with the worst handwriting ever. He has a reason (some form of neuromuscular disorder), but he has blanket permission to type everything and turn it in by email or otherwise electronically. Because there's no hope of reading it otherwise.
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Macros in JavaScript
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@sockpuppet7 said in WTF Bites:
Macros inJavaScript
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Yes, IT does have backups. We even have file system versioning. But only for user data, not for shit that's in OS directories. Which, to IT's defense, actually makes sense.
Yeah. I've been bitten by that in the past:
[me@host dir]$ sudo crontab -l 45 23 * * * /usr/local/bin/lscron 2>&1 >~/backups/daily/cron.lst [...] [me@host dir]$ cat /usr/local/bin/lscron #!/bin/bash for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; done
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@PJH Good idea. Don't have sudo rights, but could of course do that locally for myself.
For now, I think I'm aware of the danger and just put analias crontab="crontab -i"in my .bashrc.
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@sockpuppet7 Properly embedded hygienic macros are not a WTF. They are actually a sensible idea.
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@Bulb Let's wait to see how people will abuse it. I already don't like the introduction of yet another dependency (that sweet.js thing).
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@pie_flavor I have the very strong feeling I've posted that one myself before.
Awesome show, btw.Wait, that's a show?
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
it actually has a usable mobile interface! In educational software!
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I don't believe you. You sure you didn't fall asleep on the train and dreamed this up? Somebody passed you some hallucinogenics? 40+ degrees C of fever?
That's what I thought. There's even a fucking mobile app, but you can't do the homework on it - you can only study.
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@pie_flavor I hope you're kidding.
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@topspin I only know the image. I've never seen what it's from. Either that or I've seen it but can't place it.
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@pie_flavor I hope you're kidding.
None of my current pop culture datastores have much to say about that image. On indicates that the boy pictured will grow up only moderately handsome.
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
@topspin I only know the image. I've never seen what it's from. Either that or I've seen it but can't place it.
It's from Malcolm in the middle, featuring Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as the family dad. Funny family show about a slightly disfunctional family.
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Funny family show about a slightly disfunctional family.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
@pie_flavor I hope you're kidding.
None of my current pop culture datastores have much to say about that image. On indicates that the boy pictured will grow up only moderately handsome.
IMDb says he's born 1991, so old enough one could actually judge that. But there's really no recent pictures of him and google suggests a hoax he's dead.
So, really can't say if you're right on that one.
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Funny family show about a slightly disfunctional family
What are you talking about? It's a prequel to breaking bad, before Malcolm grows up to look just like his dad, changes his name and wasted his genius on teaching high school chemistry
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Steam temporarily had a bug where it discriminated against users with profiles names that were shorter than 3 characters:
If, like me, you had a profile name with less than 3 characters, you got it renamed to
< blank >and the old name got added into your past name history, with no way to set it back to what it was. Then a couple hours later they fixed it and restored the profile names, but didn't remove the entry from the past name history. I didn't used to have a past name history, but now I do and the one name in it is the same as my current profile name, so I guess I'm just special now because it's not possible to do that normally to my knowledge.
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This is a stapled packet, where the center of the staple got sent through the paper too. No idea how. Nothing wrong with the stapler.
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@pie_flavor: I have a stapler which exhibits the same bug. It rarely happens, though.
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
No idea how.
Too much force causing the arm to become misaligned with the curling divots. Usually caused by claiming down on the stapler at an angle.
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@Zerosquare said in WTF Bites:
It rarely happens, though.
The amount that it happens depends on how much sideways play there is in the hinge; it gets to be more of a problem as the stapler ages, especially with less well made models.
Stop Writing JavaScript Compilers! Make Macros Instead
