Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

angelfromanotherpin · Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:31 am

My go-to is Handbrake, which uses a queue and is pretty lazy. I'm not very savvy, though, so it could be sub-par and I'd never know. Free, though.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:03 am

Second on Handbrake.

GreatGreyShrike · Post by **GreatGreyShrike** » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:41 pm

If you're very comfortable with command line interfaces, ffmpeg is good. Otherwise, yeah, use Handbrake.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:39 am

Why is it that there are programs installed on the guest profile on my computer that I can't see or interact with on my admin profile? I'd like them removed but I can't.

EDIT: This would be kind of awesome if it wasn't happening to me. An 8 year old kid on a secured guest account with no access to admin functions managed to install multiple browsers and then install multiple toolbar viruses on top of that. This might be the end of the computer as for some reason it's demanding a disc for a system restore (something that this particular computer have not needed before).

Bah.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:37 am

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Why is it that there are programs installed on the guest profile on my computer that I can't see or interact with on my admin profile? I'd like them removed but I can't.

EDIT: This would be kind of awesome if it wasn't happening to me. An 8 year old kid on a secured guest account with no access to admin functions managed to install multiple browsers and then install multiple toolbar viruses on top of that. This might be the end of the computer as for some reason it's demanding a disc for a system restore (something that this particular computer have not needed before).

Bah.

Just back up your important stuff and do a clean install. It's like giving your computer a colonic, if colonics weren't bullshit quackery. It's like your computer being born again, but with fewer religious connotations.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:35 pm

hyzmarca wrote: Just back up your important stuff and do a clean install. It's like giving your computer a colonic, if colonics weren't bullshit quackery. It's like your computer being born again, but with fewer religious connotations.

Assuming Windows:

Back in college, we all had (or could easily acquire) install disks for these situations. Being at an engineering college, we usually did stupid shit with computers instead of getting arrested when we got bored. So, someone was doing this every week. Last I knew, you could make a slipstream CD with all of the service packs added to the base install to save time.

I assume that's why you have a "my documents" folder. Throw that on a flash drive, check it out with a computer using an up-to-date virus scanner, and put it back in after the computer is clean. I mean, you could do regular back-ups, but you don't learn how to lock stuff down until you've lost a few important documents.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:41 pm

You can legally download the iso files to create either a bootable usb stick or DVD from microsoft using the installation media creation tool.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:54 pm

Stahlseele wrote:You can legally download the iso files to create either a bootable usb stick or DVD from microsoft using the installation media creation tool.

Huh, I'd assume Microsoft would want to put someone in prison for life for something like that. I can give that a try.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:04 pm

No no, it is much cheaper for them to do it that way.
You still need a legit windows key of course, to activate.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:04 am

So... CB radio existed in the mid 40s, and trucking was a thing ...er...post WWII? And like, interstates got sorted out by '57, I think.

How much did Trucker CB Slang exist in decades earlier than the 70s that Wikipedia is telling me it became a thing? Was there just not a "Trucker Culture" before that?

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:12 am

Depends on what you mean by trucking culture. Stereotypical '70s trucker culture being perceived as rebellious and trendy had a lot to do with resistance to union busting, new traffic laws and the prices of CBs getting so cheap that randos would have them just for fun rather than utility. Prior to that truckers weren't really considered all that much noteworthy than other working Joes.

As far as CB slang in particular goes, the important thing is to understand is that it didn't spring out of nothingness fully formed. It's just mix of pop culture references plus a lot of influence from ten-codes which in turn have a lot of influence from military codes and a smattering of the NATO phonetic alphabet. So I'm sure there were precursors to CB slang virtually from day one but defining when it becomes its own thing is a fight I don't want.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:44 am

Ok, I can work with that. I'm doodling around a setting idea that's sorta "Mad Max, but the world ended in the 50s" and I want to add in some trucker stuff, so I can take some artistic license.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:22 am

WAS there any trucking in the 50s? O.o
Weren't cars and Trucks still kinda newish and expensive and unreliable and badly performing around then?

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:29 am

There was a huge international long wave radio culture going back to the 50's, I had an old teacher in my high school show us, called up some dude in Russia and had a quick chat, which, yeah, hi to Russia, but was pretty damn cool in the late 80's.

So quite how much transfers from semaphore signallers to telegraph operators to telephone operators to radio nerds to CB users, like, you need basic code systems to open and close channels and put in stops and everything else (at least semaphore you can both talk), and once you have the basic functions to let the system work existing, people will extend that shit to every common exchange really quickly.

Hi. Bye. <- short-hand code.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:52 pm

Stahlseele wrote:WAS there any trucking in the 50s? O.o
Weren't cars and Trucks still kinda newish and expensive and unreliable and badly performing around then?

By the end of the '20s there were some 20 million registered automobiles in the US and the tech was definitely sufficient by the '50s. Freight transporters are exactly the sort of thing you want to be mechanically simple and the disadvantages of diesel aren't a big deal when you want endurance rather than unadulterated speed.

The bigger obstacle was incomplete road networks and a lack of international or even national standardization of containers. Those logistical problems meant that early commercial drivers typically rolled around urban areas in trucks that would be considered light or medium duty today.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:58 pm

By the time America joined WW2, militaries were hauling troops and equipment around the frontlines in trucks all the time. The technology was definitely there to make trucks in massive enough numbers that consumers of the 50s could reasonably buy them.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:56 pm

Chamomile wrote:By the time America joined WW2, militaries were hauling troops and equipment around the frontlines in trucks all the time. The technology was definitely there to make trucks in massive enough numbers that consumers of the 50s could reasonably buy them.

This isn't wrong, but the amount of mechanization in the military tends to get exaggerated. Here's a fun Cracked Article addressing it.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 10:27 pm

Whipstitch wrote:
Stahlseele wrote:WAS there any trucking in the 50s? O.o
Weren't cars and Trucks still kinda newish and expensive and unreliable and badly performing around then?
By the end of the '20s there were some 20 million registered automobiles in the US and the tech was definitely sufficient by the '50s. Freight transporters are exactly the sort of thing you want to be mechanically simple and the disadvantages of diesel aren't a big deal when you want endurance rather than unadulterated speed.

The bigger obstacle was incomplete road networks and a lack of international or even national standardization of containers. Those logistical problems meant that early commercial drivers typically rolled around urban areas in trucks that would be considered light or medium duty today.

And even then, by around 1957 the government got off their asses in regards to the interstate system. I'm having the first main point of divergence be 1960, so I can use anything that happened at any point in the '50s and don't have to worry about "well, this piece of 50s culture is actually from 1958, so..."

Also, the breakdown of the Paris East/West Talks when a CIA plane was shot down presents a lot of tension that could easily have resulted in an exchange of nukes if the wrong thing happened at the wrong time shortly after. Like the Early Warning System getting a false reading and a guy who knows its prone to that not being in the base when it happens.

And then you get the whole of 1950s Americana culture held onto by the people in fallout bunkers like living time capsules when they emerge, iunno, 10 years later or whatever.

EDIT: Quick unrelated question- I'm super not tactful. Is there a tactful way to tell my roommate "I made a youtube account for the apartment so I don't get recommendations for a channel you watch that supports PewDiePie, because I want nothing to do with that racist fuck"?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:18 am

Prak wrote:EDIT: Quick unrelated question- I'm super not tactful. Is there a tactful way to tell my roommate "I made a youtube account for the apartment so I don't get recommendations for a channel you watch that supports PewDiePie, because I want nothing to do with that racist fuck"?

I want to say "I made a youtube account for the apartment so I don't get recommendations for a channel you watch that supports PewDiePie, because I want nothing to do with that racist fuck" is all the tact he deserves. But that's probably some privilege or other showing and unpacking which one isn't as important as actually answering helpfully.

Is there a reason he even has to know? How close are you to this fucker that you're having to risk him having access to a Google account you also have access to?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:41 am

Well, she and I are friends and coworkers, and I actually just explained what and why and she totally understood. She didn't know anything about Pdp or this channel supporting him.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:16 pm

Why were you getting her recommendations anyway?
Those are account and search/watch history bound, and not IP related i thought?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:24 pm

Stahlseele wrote:Why were you getting her recommendations anyway?
Those are account and search/watch history bound, and not IP related i thought?

Any hardware that you've signed into risks getting your recommendations, any time you look at videos recommended on your main account they risk being recommended to the account you're currently using.

(and I shouldn't have assumed roommate was a he, my bad)

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:46 pm

Huh, i only have this one account, so it never came up for me.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 9:52 pm

We have a Roku, and the Youtube account signed in to it has been mine, so all the viewing has been on my account.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:55 pm

Ah i see!