Thoughts for ships

[poxic]

It may solve it for you.

Or make the solution impossible. Either or.

[Sableagle]

It loaded the images, looked at them for a second and said: "Out of memory."

I now have it working on a 360° taken inside a palace courtyard. I'm hoping it'll split it at the gates.

[Sableagle]

YouTube popped up an old Jon Stewart clip. He played a Sarah Palin clip. It included audience reaction.

[New User]

A bug flew into my ear today. It was too deep in my ear for me to do anything about it. It eventually came out after about an hour. It was quite distressing. I seem to have suffered no harm.

[Yakk]

Well, except for the eggs.

[New User]

My eggs are fine too. Thanks for your concern!

[Zohar]

Ack!

[Sableagle]

It's alright. Emerald wasp larvae eat the least important tissues first, to keep their host/prey alive and fresh as long as possible, and they'll probably all get big enough to pupate and emerge before they've done more than give you a bit of liposuction along the jawline.

[addams]

A bug flew into my ear today. It was too deep in my ear for me to do anything about it. It eventually came out after about an hour. It was quite distressing. I seem to have suffered no harm.

Well, except for the eggs.

AHHH!!
Go to a Doctor!
Go to a Nurse!

Get someone to look into your ear!
where do you live? In a warm place?

If you live at 45 degrees,
then it is most likely nothing,

If you live at 30 degrees, "Run!"

[Sableagle]

They're good dogs, Clyde.

[somitomi]

I've been storing two "Ex Libris" stickers on my desk for a while now, trying to decide what to do with them (they came with a planner I got for Christmas¹). Normally you're meant to stick those in your books, but which two of my books should I favour then? Besides, I don't really like writing into books and putting a sticker in them feels odd too. So in a snap decision I stuck them on two generic cardboard sleeves holding a double LP album. "Now I can easily tell these two apart from any other records I put into generic black sleeves in the future."
That doesn't make any sense, but the stickers are pretty.

¹: I don't even use the calendar app that much, so it's a bit of a miss. Shame though, because it's high quality and I like the typography a lot. Maybe in 2029...

[somitomi]

So my sister mentioned replacing thethermostat, because we need to manually switch it between day and night setting. I'm usually not in favor of replacing things that aren't completely terrible at their purpose, but there's no harm in looking. Thus I realised I'm a curmugeonly old man, because I looked at all these fancy programmable thermostats with menus and learning algorithms and I'd much rather buy an old one you "program" with a dozen DIP-switches.
I'm probably going to explore the possibility of modding the existing one though, because the programmable ones are not that cheap anyway.

[Zohar]

We recently got a Nest and are liking it. I'm not sure it's learning much (and our HVAC system itself is pretty old so there's a limit to what it can do), but the convenience of adjusting temperature from anywhere - including from bed with my phone without getting up or when we're half an hour from our home through wifi to make sure the house is cool, is pretty great.

[sardia]

We recently got a Nest and are liking it. I'm not sure it's learning much (and our HVAC system itself is pretty old so there's a limit to what it can do), but the convenience of adjusting temperature from anywhere - including from bed with my phone without getting up or when we're half an hour from our home through wifi to make sure the house is cool, is pretty great.

No spies in my house is what I told my future girlfriend. The nature of the internet makes the internet of things a giant liability. My phone and browsing habits are already being tracked, but at least I have control over security updates on them. Not so much with a bunch of random wifi devices that get hacked if you sneeze near them, even with a megacompany like google.

[Zohar]

That is a very valid point!

[Sizik]

I'm probably going to explore the possibility of modding the existing one though, because the programmable ones are not that cheap anyway.

Fancy color touchscreen ones maybe, but ones with a simple LCD and buttons are fairly cheap

[somitomi]

I'm probably going to explore the possibility of modding the existing one though, because the programmable ones are not that cheap anyway.

Fancy color touchscreen ones maybe, but ones with a simple LCD and buttons are fairly cheap

I don't think I've seen this particular model, but the LCD ones I've seen cost more than twice the price of this. I'm probably going to just keep switching manually anyway.

We recently got a Nest and are liking it. I'm not sure it's learning much (and our HVAC system itself is pretty old so there's a limit to what it can do), but the convenience of adjusting temperature from anywhere - including from bed with my phone without getting up or when we're half an hour from our home through wifi to make sure the house is cool, is pretty great.

That does sound convenient, but I wouldn't connect my delicate, hackable embedded systems to the internet for that. Especially if they're in my car, like have you seen how many security features the average in-car network (like CAN or LIN) has?
Want to guess?

Spoiler:

Absolutely none and I'm not kidding.

Whenever I see something like cars remotely controlled from phone apps, I think "Have they lost their fucking mind"?

[Sableagle]

https://youtu.be/3jstaBeXgAs?t=52

https://youtu.be/MK0SrxBC1xs?t=14

"There is not a motivation, apart from simple theft, that would necessitate developing the skills, which are not insignificant, required to do this."
- someone who's never spent much time around gamers or security services.

[Quercus]

https://youtu.be/3jstaBeXgAs?t=52

https://youtu.be/MK0SrxBC1xs?t=14

"There is not a motivation, apart from simple theft, that would necessitate developing the skills, which are not insignificant, required to do this."
- someone who's never spent much time around gamers or security services.

Or geeks in general. We are renowned for needing no motivation other than "because we can".

Also, wouldn't being able to remote control cars using their existing hardware (while terrifying in general), revolutionise the movie car stunt industry, bringing it into the reach of films that can't afford to hire a full-on stunt company to rig cars? In much the same way that drones did for aerial shots.

[somitomi]

https://youtu.be/3jstaBeXgAs?t=52

https://youtu.be/MK0SrxBC1xs?t=14

"There is not a motivation, apart from simple theft, that would necessitate developing the skills, which are not insignificant, required to do this."
- someone who's never spent much time around gamers or security services.

Yeah, nobody would ever use motor vehicles for terrorism, murder, kidnapping or smuggling. Seriously, do these guys not read the news at all?

Or geeks in general. We are renowned for needing no motivation other than "because we can".

Also, wouldn't being able to remote control cars using their existing hardware (while terrifying in general), revolutionise the movie car stunt industry, bringing it into the reach of films that can't afford to hire a full-on stunt company to rig cars? In much the same way that drones did for aerial shots.

I don't think so. Making a remote control car is already more than possible by modifying existing power steering, cruise control and brake assist systems. I thought the expensive thing about car stunts was, you know, the cars themselves.

[gd1]

I wanted to take the lyrics from 3 songs on youtube and make a dumb joke, but I can't turn them to mp3's because the website won't allow it unfortunately.

Was going to be:
We all live in a yellow submarine (Yellow Submarine - The Beatles)
I am titanium (Titanium - David Guetta)
Woah, woah, I'm radioactive, radioactive. (Radioactive - Pentatonix, Lindsey Stirling)

To make:
We all live in a radioactive titanium yellow submarine.

Oh well, it's the thought that counts

[Sableagle]

When you don't know whether it's real, a phishing scam or just junk email and ask Gootra for help:

Good luck <airborne riding in the clouds;> coming < also confirmed the effect of returning to life. > Existing <I have my personality, conscience, not money to buy. My music is dedicated to the motherland and dedicated to the working people and the masses to serve the national crisis. >188<The house of the monk is wonderful (temple) > Lottery <The raw bean sprouts in the plate is shallow> Sending <Blessed are those who have full freedom to realize their honest will. >You are detailed <to success. >Love plus me <self but back twenty times! The most repeated is me;>Penguin <More true, I have been squinting cold eyes>199<千红, fragrant overflowing clusters of flowers,>19<Flies see blood without moving>00<genius required The first and last things are the love of truth. >07<No matter the sword of the god of war or the flame of war>4 <Let's talk less and talk less. >Oh <If my eyes are obsessed with beauty,> the ground <The stage is open and lively>6<No matter how sharp you and your sickle. >04<Smoke smear black and dirty] 953<The top man is a strange man, you have to turn it around. >CO<Friendship is a seasoning for life and a painkiller for life. >M

Now, is that really deep or just horseshit?

My favourite part of that is, of course,

Penguin

[SuicideJunkie]

I wanted to take the lyrics from 3 songs on youtube and make a dumb joke, but I can't turn them to mp3's because the website won't allow it unfortunately.

1) Plug Line Out into Line In.
2) ???
3) Memes!

[ucim]

Gootra

?? Google Translate? Are <these> emoji?

Jose

[somitomi]

I wanted to take the lyrics from 3 songs on youtube and make a dumb joke, but I can't turn them to mp3's because the website won't allow it unfortunately.

1) Plug Line Out into Line In.
2) ???
3) Memes!

2)OOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEERRRRDDDDRRRRRIIIVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

What happened to the "Youtube-to-mp3" sites that were in every bush last time I needed to do this?

[SuicideJunkie]

Some adjustment of volume levels may be required of course. (Your magnitude may vary)

[Flumble]

No spies in my house is what I told my future girlfriend. The nature of the internet makes the internet of things a giant liability. My phone and browsing habits are already being tracked, but at least I have control over security updates on them. Not so much with a bunch of random wifi devices that get hacked if you sneeze near them, even with a megacompany like google.

To play the devil's advocate: google is one of the best at securing their products. That, or I've never heard about a big data breach at google because of some meddling with search results.

Regarding the no spies part: it's technically feasible to make an "IoT" thermostat, fridge, clock or whatever, but no company wants to at the moment. (On one hand it needs to connect to some public address for the average consumer to access it, because routers and NATs make a mess of the current internet. On the other, if a rival company gathers all the information and your company doesn't, you're at a clear disadvantage: less telemetry to use for improving your product and less telemetry to sell to third parties.)
If you are tech savvy enough, you can make one yourself with some time investment: hook a raspberry pi (or similar device) up to a sufficiently digital thermostat on one end and a wifi cable on the other, or use wireless if getting a cable there is hard and your wifi isn't stuffed. (And configure it to run an Onion service so you can securely access it anywhere from any device that can use Tor.) Not like you need that internet end if you just want to program your own controller logic on it and 3 buttons to select a preset, but you'll want it eventually for Zohar's convenience scenarios.

Especially if they're in my car, like have you seen how many security features the average in-car network (like CAN or LIN) has?
Want to guess?

Spoiler:

Absolutely none and I'm not kidding.

Whenever I see something like cars remotely controlled from phone apps, I think "Have they lost their fucking mind"?

As long as

• the internet connection of your car is secure (as in: a hacker can't pose as the car manufacturer because all connections are verified with a signature only the car company knows)
• the internet connection and app on your phone are secure (luckily this is the case in general nowadays)
• you can trust the car company (hahahaha) and
• physical access is secure (as in: you can't access any buses without triggering the car alarm, or at least a notification to the car company and you if the car's unlocked)

everything is totally fine.
Of course, if anything in that internet chain is compromised, you damn well wished you'd have to physically confirm any change that's sent over the internet. And something like unlocking the car can should must be done over bluetooth with a secure pairing that has been done at home. Using an app is perfectly fine if it's just for unlocking the car, rather than some hodgepodge of a webview to http://forum.company.car/ for managing everything including a helpful /unlockMyCarUsingJSCallback page, which leaves you open to dozens of exploits happy little accidents.

I wanted to take the lyrics from 3 songs on youtube and make a dumb joke, but I can't turn them to mp3's because the website won't allow it unfortunately.

Youtube itself doesn't offer downloads, but there are many youtube-dl sites that offer this service, often including audio-only downloads so you don't have to demux the video file. And of course there are many places where you can get high-quality music downloads for free.
Or mix it live by clicking play and pause in 3 windows while recording it with your phone. Sloppy, crappy memes are all the rage right now!

[somitomi]

As long as

• the internet connection of your car is secure (as in: a hacker can't pose as the car manufacturer because all connections are verified with a signature only the car company knows
  
• the internet connection and app on your phone are secure (luckily this is the case in general nowadays)
  
• you can trust the car company (hahahaha) and
  
• physical access is secure (as in: you can't access any buses without triggering the car alarm, or at least a notification to the car company and you if the car's

unlocked)

• would you trust companies to get that right when keyless entry systems are pretty vulnerable?
• unless the "car diagnostics" app you downloaded to see the oil pressure (or whatever) turns out to be a trojan
• that too
• unless you don't also buy a 5$ bluetooth OBD dongle to use with that app

[Flumble]

I'm inclined to say "they had to build protocols for keyless entry themselves, while they can use off-the-shelf HTTPS for secure internet connections", but I guess they could've used off-the-shelf secure bluetooth for keyless entry too. And they can easily mess up the internet connection by not verifying HTTPS certificates* or not even requiring it**.
If you install the "free! car diagnostic 2019 not scam" app that is not endorsed by the vendor, aren't you to blame?
Regarding the OBD dongle: I don't know if it's normal to customize your car like that, but I'd say that's on you too.


*because that's "hard" and "we used self-signed certificates during development and then we only had time to make it feature-complete, no time to fix security".
**"We didn't use HTTPS during testing because it only got in the way on our test network, so in the end we just configured the server to redirect the car to the HTTPS version of the connection." "But hey, it's pretty safe because we got a direct connection via a mobile operator that we trust, and no one's gonna do a MITM attack on the cellular network, right? I mean, you need pretty specialized equipment*** for that."
***dropping this link for posterity

[somitomi]

If you install the "free! car diagnostic 2019 not scam" app that is not endorsed by the vendor, aren't you to blame?

I think pretty much all car diagnostic apps are third party, so you either don't do this at all or try to tell "scam" from "free app with ads for car stuff".

Regarding the OBD dongle: I don't know if it's normal to customize your car like that, but I'd say that's on you too.

I think it's pretty common among car enthusiasts and/or people, who do their own repairs. That's admittedly a relatively small subset of car owners, but it's not the only way a car can end up connected to a smartphone/internet.

[gd1]

I used to think something like this...

[somitomi]

I have never heard of "fire control towers" before. Now I do, but I had a bit of trouble with this sentence until I realised "direct" is used as a verb.

A fire control tower is a structure located near the coastline, used to detect and locate enemy vessels offshore, direct fire upon them from coastal batteries, or adjust the aim of guns by spotting shell splashes.

[ThirdParty]

Today I typed "problem exists between" into Google, and the top autocomplete option was "... leopard and chair".

[Quizatzhaderac]

I'm a contractor being converted to a direct employee on literally my last day as a contractor.

Today is the day the contracting company's time tracking software makes me change my password.

[gd1]

I wanted to take the lyrics from 3 songs on youtube and make a dumb joke, but I can't turn them to mp3's because the website won't allow it unfortunately.

1) Plug Line Out into Line In.
2) ???
3) Memes!

2)OOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEERRRRDDDDRRRRRIIIVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

What happened to the "Youtube-to-mp3" sites that were in every bush last time I needed to do this?

Ladies and gentlemen, you already know what it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI1VzG_GNjQ

[SecondTalon]

That wasn't Mambo #5 as I was expecting.

[Deva]

Momentary/Meandering/Meditations: Gains an extraordinary power: weasel detection. Perceives the number of weasels within one hundred feet, but not direction. Senses eighty-four weasels nearby. Works only on the live animal, not duplicitous people. Remains steady at eighty-four at the present location.

Hm. Wants to ignore that. Cannot. Sees none at the moment, obviously. Should have noticed other people packing in that many. Suspects an underground chamber of weasels. Lacks a way to gain sufficient height to gauge distance underground. Wait. Knows sufficient math.

Imagine a chamber x feet straight down. Walks y feet until the number of weasels drops. x² + y² = 10000. x = sqrt(10000 – y²). Assumed it to be directly below, however. Hm. Ought to be solvable by moving around more. Simply needs more boundary points (and level elevation).

What then, though? Call Animal Control? "Help. Discovered eighty-four weasels seventy feet below ground through weird powers." Declines that ticket to a mental facility. May write it off as a prank call too. Requires less effort on their part. Leaves one option: monitoring the situation. Does the source move? Does the amount change throughout the day? Does the population shrink or grow? Calls for a spreadsheet.

(Usually thinks through interview scenario questions. Tries to avoid easy and/or limited solutions. Felt too ridiculous, also.)

[Zohar]

I'm unclear why you need to notify people of the existence of weasels or locate their exact position. In any case, if they're underground, waiting some time while moving around would probably reveal an entrance.

[Deva]

Cannot recall ever seeing one weasel. Presumes something unnatural about eighty-four in a small area. (Perhaps not that small, actually. Just did the math. Expects about one weasel per 24933 cubic feet of dirt. Amounts to less after factoring in basements, pipes, actual burrow depth, and whatnot.) Probably exceeds the number of squirrels by a factor of two or three. May be someone with far too many as pets (in a creepy underground chamber). Assumed an immediate drop at a certain distance for that reason. Would not be as concerned with something natural.

[gd1]

Questionable decision for facial hair...

Spoiler:

If the Riddler ever gets facial hair it should look like this.