At 3/3/17 06:48 PM, Diki wrote: Oh, I know why that happens, but there's no reason in the world that it should do that and it makes no sense that it would be designed that way. (It is PHP, after all.)

Gonna have to agree with this. I've kinda fallen in love with C#. It's genuinely a really nice language with the benefits of low-level code and a high-level language simultaneously - you can use pointers in it, which is hugely helpful performance-wise when doing thinks like OpenGL for graphics.

Come across my first bit of stupidity in GCloud. I'm not sure if I can change this on my end, but once things are back up I hope I can.

Google decided now was a great time to update my SQL instance. Normally that's not bad since I have a failover replica that's automatically used instead, but apparently both instances update at the exact same time.
Nice.
Either way this works out, I wish the default window for updates wasn't.. Ya know.. EXACTLY the same time as the DB it's supposed to be the failover for.

At 3/2/17 12:23 PM, Diki wrote: I only really know the basics, but it's essentially an attempt to replace HTTP for serving hypermedia (which HTTP sucks at) and make websites more stable by decentralising them.

Oh, I know what this reminded me of! I've been trying to think of it for days.
This project.

The return of dropdown menus for the Newgrounds navigation!

I've never agreed with the decision to remove dropdown menus from Newgrounds, and felt that the reasoning was very myopic, but I've always been too lazy to fix the problem myself. But, I had nothing better to do today so I wrote a quick bit of JavaScript code for Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey that brings back dropdown menus and makes them easily customisable.

All you need is either Greasemonkey for Firefox, or Tampermonkey for Chrome. I'm not aware of an equivalent addon existing for IE/Edge, Safari, or Opera (or any of the other little-used browsers).

Then just create a new script and paste in this code, and configure the navigation object to your liking.

It doesn't look fancy (I didn't feel like adding styles for that) but it works on both the old and new layouts, which is all I cared about. Feel free to use it, not use it, or do whatever you want with it.

At 3/5/17 04:12 PM, Diki wrote: The return of dropdown menus for the Newgrounds navigation!

I also just noticed that Newgrounds does in fact use HTTPS sometimes, and that script as written won't work on the HTTPS page unless you change the http at the top for the match argument to https?.

edit:

Apparently that only works in Greasemonkey. For it to work in Tampermonkey, you'll need to add a second match with https as the protocol. (That's what I get for not testing in Chrome.)

At 3/5/17 04:56 PM, Diki wrote: I also just noticed that Newgrounds does in fact use HTTPS sometimes, and that script as written won't work on the HTTPS page unless you change the http at the top for the match argument to https?.

NG is weird with the HTTPS inconsistency. I asked before, and the answer I got was "we're working on it" - totally fine. That was a while ago, though, so I'm not entirely sure.

Unrelated: Things I Google when I'm bored.

At 3/5/17 05:09 PM, egg82 wrote:

At 3/5/17 04:56 PM, Diki wrote: I also just noticed that Newgrounds does in fact use HTTPS sometimes, and that script as written won't work on the HTTPS page unless you change the http at the top for the match argument to https?.

NG is weird with the HTTPS inconsistency. I asked before, and the answer I got was "we're working on it" - totally fine. That was a while ago, though, so I'm not entirely sure.

Yeah, it's a little odd. I came across it on the Wiki, which had functioning HTTPS, but browsing anywhere else and you get the yellow/orange hazard triangle due to mixed content on the page (caused by things being loaded explicitly over HTTP, rather than the current protocol being used, or explicitly HTTPS).

I'd guess they've gotten it working but haven't updated their codebase to remove the mixed content yet—the only things I've seen causing mixed content warnings are stuff from Google, which work over HTTPS, and stuff being loaded from their own servers, which also work with HTTPS, so that seems likely to me.

edit:

At 3/5/17 05:09 PM, egg82 wrote: Unrelated: Things I Google when I'm bored.

Good luck.

IIRC they said that games using http requests something something breaks https something.

This isn't my element...

At 3/6/17 01:46 AM, MSGhero wrote: IIRC they said that games using http requests something something breaks https something.

This isn't my element...

Right, the API is HTTP and not HTTPS because they're (somewhat understandably) afraid of all the bug reports and tickets they'll get from those who are using a terrible language and/or don't understand that HTTPS is a different protocol. (While my personal belief is that doesn't justify a non-secure API used for logins and OAuth, that's neither here nor there) - the real question is "why is the site not HTTPS?" since the two aren't related.

Good fucking lord Roblox tech support is a joke.

I have been getting several password reset requests for my account, and contacted their support to let them know about it and asked if there was anything they might be able to do to prevent me from receiving these in the future.

This is the exchange I had with their supportl.

Fuck off, Roblox.

Just sent that last response about 15 minutes ago. Let's see how Mr. I-am-totally-a-human-capable-of-independant-thought who wrote the following definitely different lines of text that definitely don't both have a grammar error:

We are constantly working to improvise our game against fraudulent attempts to access the accounts and providing our players a safe and uninterrupted gaming experience

we are constantly working to improvise our game against fraudulent attempts to access the accounts and providing our players a safe and uninterrupted gaming experience

How much you want to bet the response I get is about how they are improvising their game?

I had to vent. This is fucking annoying. All I want is an actual answer; I don't care what the answer is.

Yes. I made a typo in that last email. Gimme a break, I'm half in the bag.

At 3/6/17 10:40 PM, Diki wrote: This is the exchange I had with their supportl.

At the job I just left (call center) we had three "levels" of agents: Standard agents who answer basic calls, customer service agents who answer standard calls + customer service calls, and admin agents who answer e-mails + customer service calls + standard calls. Everyone starts off as the first type and, if they want, move up the ladder. I got to be the third type.

Here's what I saw: Every e-mail we got we had a standard script we followed that was written by a single agent (in an Excel sheet, don't ask why but literally everything ever written ever was done in Excel, even if it hindered more than it helped) that left a while back. If the e-mail didn't fit that script, too bad; try to make it fit. Sometimes you could get away with typing out a partial response with a script or splicing two scripts together, but your ass was on the line if something blew up.

I've had a few instances of extremely upset customers e-mailing us about how our scripts suck. I really wanted to e-mail them back with an actual answer. Sometimes I was able to, but pretty rarely. Thankfully, near the end I was able to modify some of our scripts and add new ones that actually helped and were relevant. It didn't fix the underlying problem (we were still using scripts) but hey- whatever helps.

My philosophy after I got the hang of things: Fuck the customers if they didn't like our script, I wanted to keep my job. *Deletes angry e-mail*

Edit: I don't blame my supervisors for that system; it wasn't them that made it and they tried running with my suggestions. I blame whoever came up with the brilliant idea of paying people who write those e-mails minimum wage to ensure they can never be trusted.
Also, halfway through I got to write a cool program (that technically wasn't allowed, but nobody complained) that took e-mails and shot out automated replies after parsing the message, etc. Increased my EPH (e-mails per hour) stat from 10 to 80 and I, more than once, cleared out our entire inbox singlehandedly.

At 3/6/17 11:44 PM, egg82 wrote: [...]

This is my biggest problem with companies that do this. I'm asking the dude a simple yes or no question, politely stated I am fine with either answer, and I just get a copy/pasted response that completely ignores everything I said. I don't need to be repeatedly reassured my account isn't susceptible to hijacking after I've stated I know that it is not.

Either that guy is incompetent or whoever is in charge of how their customer support is. I was basically having a conversation with an FAQ.

At 3/6/17 11:44 PM, egg82 wrote: (in an Excel sheet, don't ask why but literally everything ever written ever was done in Excel, even if it hindered more than it helped)

My experience has been that people who most want to use Excel have no idea what Excel is actually meant for. I've had many given to me, some used to just make a fancy looking table, others used to make calendars, others that were just a brochure, and have gotten several that are essentially simulating Access but are far less usable—I have yet to receive a spreadsheet that so much as uses SUM or AVG.

At 3/7/17 07:49 AM, Diki wrote: I was basically having a conversation with an FAQ.

How do you think it felt for me on the other side, going "I know how to fix your problem, but I can't!"

I have yet to receive a spreadsheet that so much as uses SUM or AVG.

We did have one sheet that was essentially a giant database of all guest service tickets for the last month. It had a stats page that was a bit shoddy so I completely re-wrote it. I wound up using math functions I didn't even know existed.

Unrelated: I made a quick gist that monitors uptime of servers that don't respond to pings. Needs hping3 to work and you might want to set the port from "22" to an open port if 22 isn't open.
Excuse the shoddy bash, I'm a complete bash noob. Learning, though!

Delicious. Go grab it if you haven't yet.

Oh, F-
Uhh.. All of my yes.

At 3/11/17 08:02 PM, egg82 wrote: Oh, F-
Uhh.. All of my yes.

Yeah I need to figure out how the tv in my apartment works in the next two hours. I've been living here for over a year, and I've only ever used it as a big monitor.

At 3/11/17 08:59 PM, MSGhero wrote: Yeah I need to figure out how the tv in my apartment works in the next two hours. I've been living here for over a year, and I've only ever used it as a big monitor.

Oh, I got CenturyLink recording this shit now. It's supposed to FINALLY be the season to end the show.
.. 11 fucking years and three movie teases later, and AS just casually announces it like "Oh, yeah, and we're doing season 5 now as well."

I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and be the happiest person on this planet.

Big table of goodness.
Found it useful while looking at collision detection algorithms.

Found a USB fan with optional $80 installation fee on Amazon.

How does USB work, again?

Anyway, I've been busy with a major side-project here. Decided to renovate the spare bedroom (which was being used for storage) and turn it into an office. Going to move all the household PCs in there since there's excellent ventilation and it's relatively far away from everyone so noise isn't a huge deal. Even has a closet that we can turn into a small server room. We're planning on having everything (except some awesome-looking LED lights I have yet to purchase) in and operational by this Saturday. I'll take some photos once the lights are in. Going for a retro-modern look with the theme colors bein black, white, and blue (mostly white, splashes of blue and black).

Otherwise, I'm basically sitting here and researching network switches and mini-servers (for connecting the room up to the interwebs) until tomorrow when we'll run out and buy all the desks and networking equipment. I've already got a lock on the switch we'll use and how we'll get it hooked up, but I wanted to try and get an IDS or even IPS between one of the desks and the switch since that desk will solely be for city-government business (working from home). I'd love to airgap the thing completely, but it's just not feasible at the moment; so I'll stick with the mini-server.

At 3/15/17 08:05 PM, egg82 wrote: Otherwise, I'm basically sitting here and researching network switches and mini-servers

I'm sitting here slowly dying of grad school.

I've been making some good progress on UI which has helped make some of the mechanics a little bit easier to work on. I think I'm still a bit of a ways off to having this thing playable, and I'm adjusting gameplay a lot still. Maybe some of you would be open to helping me test in a couple of months? I could use some game design feedback. It's a realtime multiplayer game so kind of hard to test it by myself. :P

At 3/21/17 12:10 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: Maybe some of you would be open to helping me test in a couple of months? I could use some game design feedback. It's a realtime multiplayer game so kind of hard to test it by myself. :P

In a couple months, I won't have anything to do, so sure.

I have one friend on Facebook that always posts in those huge multicolored image-things.
I have a bunch that constantly broadcast that they're just wallowing in self-pity.
A few that post really provocative photos of themselves, I assume hoping they'll pick up a date?
And a couple that are actually cool.

And I always get asked, "Why do you never go on Facebook?" or "Why don't you like Facebook?"

To be fair, I could clear out my friends list, but I honestly still don't see a point.

Edit: Can't forget about those stupid "like if.. Share if.. Ignore if.." photos. Those are just.. The best.

Quick aside: Found this thing. It honestly surprises me somewhat that some devs think this way. Is it maybe a culture thing I don't understand, or.. ?

Edit: Holy shit I checked out the mod the other dev was creating and it looks like ass. But it's popular.
I don't understand anything any more. Excuse me while I go and rip assets from wherever and slap them into a half-assed game to post on Steam and make bank from.

At 3/24/17 08:18 PM, egg82 wrote: Quick aside: Found this thing. It honestly surprises me somewhat that some devs think this way. Is it maybe a culture thing I don't understand, or.. ?

I think it's a young people thing, where they want to create something but won't want to create something, like put the effort in. Us old timers wouldn't understand.

A lot of people here steal code for homework assignments, but that's a different issue

At 3/24/17 09:39 PM, MSGhero wrote: I think it's a young people thing, where they want to create something but won't want to create something, like put the effort in. Us old timers wouldn't understand.

I dunno; I get a certain joy in creating anything, even if it's stupid and will never see the light of day. Of course, I get even more joy out of it when people actually use and like whatever I've made. For example, I woke up this morning to TC++ getting a 30% jump in user-base. That felt really good.

A lot of people here steal code for homework assignments, but that's a different issue

One of my freelance jobs was a college student paying me $20 to what I assume amounted to me doing their crypto homework for them. I felt a bit dirty, but honestly if it wasn't me it would be someone else, so I took my $20 opportunity and made an attempt to teach them some along the way. I also took the liberty of going way above and beyond on the assignment because I love blowing teacher's minds. One of my college teachers was constantly asking me "wait, you can DO that?!"

At 3/25/17 02:18 PM, egg82 wrote: For example, I woke up this morning to TC++ getting a 30% jump in user-base. That felt really good.

Initially read that as TurboC++ and wondered what the fuck happened to this world...damn outdated college labs.

At 3/26/17 12:43 AM, Gimmick wrote: Initially read that as TurboC++ and wondered what the fuck happened to this world...damn outdated college labs.

Yo dawg, I heard you liked IDEs.

this is a fantastic website full of goodness.
Even has Python for Diki :)

Now if only it were available for other languages..

At 3/21/17 12:10 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: Maybe some of you would be open to helping me test in a couple of months?

I've been flaky on the forum for a while but I'll check back here and there in case you need testers.