Tag: stub

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Uncommon Knowledge: NTFS Allows Weird Filenames

The whole internet confuses NTFS and Windows. If you try to find what characters are disallowed on NTFS, you’ll probably find what Windows blocks:

But NTFS doesn’t actually have this limit. As far as I can find, the only limit is the NULL character. I don’t know of an operating system that will let you use a forward slash (“/”) in a filename, but technically it is allowed.

Not only is this relatively unknown, but it is hard to find information on because most searching will bring up results about Windows only. 😀

Sources

(Note: All resources are archived using the services linked to on Archives & Sources.)

  1. Discussion: Edge cases of file naming in NTFS/FAT/etc, Windows/Linux. The only specific affirmative answer I could find.
  2. Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces Microsoft does mention namespaces, but doesn’t go into detail.
  3. Filename Namespaces – Concept – NTFS Documentation & the 101th page (pg. 93) of NTFS Documentation (PDF) (different formats, same source) The NTFS Project states that only NULL and forward slashes are not allowed. (The forward slash is disallowed by the NTFS project, not NTFS.)
  4. Filename – Wikipedia (Comparison of filename limitations) Mentions that Posix namespaces remove some character restrictions, but doesn’t specify details (and is also flagged as “dubious” lol).

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I’m in danger of becoming homeless

If you can spare a few dollars, it would go a long way to helping me survive: PayPayl.me/Guard13007

Update: It’s now October 2nd, 2024 and my partner has temporary employment. This danger is still present, but not as immediate as it was. The primary danger at this point is the lack of savings due to living for 1.5 years without income combined with being severely behind on housing payments.

Thank you to those who have helped! We have only been able to afford food due to assistance from others for the past few months.

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AI Won’t Destroy Tests

When calculators first started coming out, people said they would be used to cheat and students wouldn’t learn anything. Instead, we changed how testing works to focus on learning what’s important – broader concepts and implications – instead of “what is 232+47”. With AI tools, we again need to change how tests work. This time, instead of asking if a student can regurgitate information in a way that aligns with the teacher, we can start to see if students are actually paying attention to the work. The difference between AI answers and real answers is a level of understanding deeper than the surface.

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Paywalls Suck, We Forgot About Bookmarklets, Information Needs to be Free

I can’t afford most things. 12ft.io proclaims “Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.” I proclaim copy-pasting links when I just hit one of those pesky paywalls is too much effort. Create a new bookmark with the following, and then you can click it any time you really need to read what’s being blocked:

javascript: window.open("https://12ft.io/" + encodeURI(location.href), "_self")

Just remember: If it has a paywall, it probably isn’t worth reading. I’m not kidding about that.

A quick reminder that using archival services like the Wayback Machine and archive.is can also remove paywalls. (I maintain a list of archival services on Archives & Sources.)

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Are All Headlines With A Question Mark Answered “No”?

Yes.

But actually, it’s sometimes more complicated. Perhaps a better question is “Should you ever use a question as the headline to an article?” The answer is still no.. but it’s more complicated. Such headlines are often associated with fake news, but NPR lists a few guidelines where such a headline may still be useful.

They don’t get to the point until the end of a long page though, so I’ll save you a click:

Using a question in a headline may be acceptable if the answer to the question is not clear, your post provides detailed analysis and explanation, and the headline cannot be easily reworded into a statement.

(Note: All resources are archived using the services linked to on Archives & Sources.)