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[2010-12-02 11:23:07] - One thing I dont quite understand C# is "close sourced" but there are contributers who build things like NHibernate or Spring.Net arent there? I know at least one of those was build by a guy who doesnt work for MS... ~gurkie
[2010-12-02 11:22:12] - hrmm we did continuous integration with visual studio... Although I am not sure how the build machine was configured... But we didnt have any problems with it. ~gurkie
[2010-12-02 11:01:44] - mig: that's cool, yeah last time i had to integrate any kind of microsoft-specific see plus plus gui stuff into an automated build, it was a huge pain. iirc, every machine which wanted to build the project had to have visual studio installed. made things like "continuous integration" totally impossible - aaron
[2010-12-02 10:58:41] - there seems to be some maven plugins that might help with that for VS, but I have no idea how polished they are. - mig
[2010-12-02 10:56:07] - dependency management can be really difficult in java, newer technologies like maven or ivy make it less painful. but isn't C# just as bad? isn't that what "DLL hell" is? - aaron
[2010-12-02 10:54:47] - gurkie: it's one thing to tell a customer, "well, there's a bug in this third party library; we can fix it but it will be difficult"... but i've never had to tell a customer, "well there's a bug in this third party library, but we don't have the source code so you'll just have to live with it" - aaron
[2010-12-02 10:52:30] - gurkie: I've used both for web services. Language wise I didn't have a preference. Library--wise, I just can't ever see myself using closed-source libraries in a production environment if I had any kind of alternative. - aaron
[2010-12-02 10:40:13] - s/IE/IDE
[2010-12-02 10:40:05] - Going strictly on the languages themselves, I'm not sure which I prefer, Microsoft's IE sucks balls so that's really my big reason for preferring java. - mig
[2010-12-02 10:34:28] - personally I think I like C# better because I tend to like Visual Studio better than Eclipse and I hate dependency management in Java. But when I switched from Java to C# I hated VS and missed eclipse so it could easily just be based on what I have been doing recently. ~gurkie
[2010-12-02 10:33:12] - how many people here have used both Java and C# and if so which do you prefer? Or do you have a preference.... (im curious) ~gurkie
[2010-12-02 09:59:49] - aaron: You're making my brain hurt. I think I'll avoid groovy. It looks like I'll be writing in C#. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-02 09:55:51] - a: but groovy is a really good tool for writing terse, unmaintainable code - kind of like yeah, perl or (i guess) javascript, they all kind of fill that same niche. write lots of unit tests i guess
- aaron[2010-12-02 09:54:36] - a: i mean something like "def plans = planService.determineTipPlansForUser(user, userSession)" seems harmless until it's out of context, and you can't tell what type plans is supposed to be five lines later. and you can't find the "determineTipPlansForUser" method because it was declared on planService, and you don't know what type that is either
- aaron[2010-12-02 09:51:01] - a: oh yeah, i hate groovy, every groovy project i've ever seen has been completely unreadable. and the lack of "strong typing" means that you can't use any refactoring tools, and tracing code is completely impossible as well - aaron
[2010-12-02 06:46:32] - Now they see some business incentive to know at least some of what is transiting their pipes, so they suddenly can and do know what is passing through. Their dumb pipe argument is gone. Let's ramp up the child porn lawsuits again. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-02 06:45:14] - Back in the 90s, ISPs were getting lawsuits regarding the transportation of illegal materials over their network. Child porn and copyrighted materials being the two hot-button ones, but that was just the start if the lawsuits went the wrong way.They successfully defended themselves by essentially refusing to take any liability for what transported their network. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 23:18:49] - I wish I knew more about internet infrastructure to know which side makes more sense. -Paul
[2010-12-01 23:18:24] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/comcast-we-bent-over-backwards-to-help-level-3-those-bastards.ars Another Ars article explaining Comcast's side of the story. -Paul
[2010-12-01 21:52:55] - a: I don't think there is any evidence that Comcast has ever throttled Netflix, is there? -Paul
[2010-12-01 18:17:16] - aaron: looks a lot like js. or perl. there are downsides to that kind of programming. ~a
[2010-12-01 18:14:23] - daniel: no, you've been in the subtitle before (iirc). ~a
[2010-12-01 18:13:39] - paul: sure. but comcast only recently started throttling netflix, right? ~a
[2010-12-01 18:12:42] - paul: packages.ubuntu.com: search . . . looks like it's in lucid, maverick, and natty. so, yes. regardless, if you want to install it outside of "add/remove applications" window that's your prerogative. ~a
[2010-12-01 15:49:30] - a: So is Chrome available in later versions of Ubuntu? -Paul
[2010-12-01 15:48:26] - for example, def words = ['ant', 'buffalo', 'cat', 'dinosaur']; assert words.findAll{ w -> w.size() > 4 } == ['buffalo', 'dinosaur'] - aaron
[2010-12-01 15:46:47] - xpovos: groovy is really efficient at handling arrays/collections, it does a lot of stuff well that java does poorly: retrieving the last element from a collection, converting from fixed-size arrays to dynamic-length collections, iterating over collections, searching collections, and stuff like that... it's pretty much all one line in groovy - aaron
[2010-12-01 15:38:58] - Paul: I'd play. I'm ok with starting whenever. -Daniel
[2010-12-01 15:25:55] - mig: Awesome! Only a year til D3. - Stephen
[2010-12-01 15:03:37] - i will probably play. - mig
[2010-12-01 15:03:21] - Paul: Game. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 14:57:37] - http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/blizzardslate.jpg blizzard's release schedule leaked. - mig
[2010-12-01 14:48:49] - Paul: I'm in. Holidays shmolidays! - Stephen
[2010-12-01 14:46:12] - Also, if people are interested in another Diplomacy game, I would be willing to act as GM if somebody could show me the ropes (although I do wonder if it might make sense to wait until after the holidays). -Paul
[2010-12-01 14:45:26] - a: All I can say is that over dozens of hours watching Netflix on my TV, I only recall it once telling me it had to reduce the video quality (and don't recall it ever stuttering). Considering we agree that's the biggest bandwidth hog, shouldn't that mean I haven't noticed hardly any "issues"? -Paul
[2010-12-01 14:36:24] - What programming language do you find handles arrays in the most efficient and/or programmer-friendly manner? -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 13:42:45] - Hey I'm part of a (sub)title! I don't think thats happened before, at least that I'm aware of. -Daniel
[2010-12-01 13:22:57] - aaron: I'm frustrated by the Irish debacle because the government did do the right thing, but the banking sector is taking down the gov't. It's amazing--in a very bad way. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 13:00:58] - aaron: that's true it would have been nice, but it probably should serve as a warning to our government to they need to be really serious about dealing with the deficit (one way or another), because there won't be anyone to bail the U.S. out if nothing is done about it. - mig
[2010-12-01 12:49:24] - rebuild their economy. it would have been nice to have a story like that for ireland making budgetary cuts and coming out "in the black" or whatever - aaron
[2010-12-01 12:49:02] - mig: yeah, could be. but it would have been nice to have you know, the example of "look, they cut spending and resolved their deficit" to point to. kind of like the story where iceland allowed its banks to fail and they were able to - aaron
[2010-12-01 12:20:09] - aaron: i don't think that means the cuts were the wrong approach. I think that just meant there budget situation was more dire than the cuts and/or tax hikes could do anything about. - mig
[2010-12-01 12:13:48] - that said, yeah i agree with you, it's stupid for people to clamor for deficit reduction without understanding what that means on a personal level, or without realizing that it totally contradicts some of their other ideas - aaron
[2010-12-01 12:12:43] - xpovos: have you been following what's going on in ireland wrt their deficit, spending cuts, etc? i just thought that was kind of a sad example where like, you had a country which had massive budgetary problems, they did "the right thing" and cut spending and the EU still ended up having to "bail them out" if i understood correctly - aaron
[2010-12-01 11:56:15] - Ah I was unfamiliar with the phase 'bread and circuses' but after looking that up it makes more sense. -Daniel
[2010-12-01 11:55:32] - Same poll, deficit and taxes are regarded as tied in perceived importance for 5th out of 7 (i.e. 5th and 6th, or second to last) issue items. Same poll finds people want to increase spending on employment programs at the expense of more red ink. etc. Basically, read from "Even so, the public is not bristling to tackle the deficit." onwards for the bad stuff. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 11:53:25] - Daniel: It went to the right article, it sounds like.The poll asks how people want to close the deficit, cut spending/increase taxes. Most say cut spending (good), but both answers are legitimate. The part that makes me lose faith in democracy and cry "B&C" is that the spending cuts are 'non-specific', and everyone rushes to defend their pet project immediately. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 11:36:04] - Xpovos: Did that link go to where you wanted it to? It took me to an article about the deficit and polling people about how they wanted to fix. Nothing to do with either bread nor circuses and I'm not sure which part would make you lose faith in democracy. -Daniel
[2010-12-01 11:19:26] - Bread and circuses. I'm just about done with democracy. -- Xpovos
[2010-12-01 11:10:27] - "issues" isn't the symptom. ~a
[2010-12-01 11:06:12] - a: no. though to date, I haven't had many issues with Netflix streaming. - mig
[2010-12-01 11:03:29] - mig: you weren't watching that off of netflix.com, right? ~a
[2010-12-01 11:00:11] - i was watching some 1080p videos from Husky's channel last night. One video ran fine, one video had some issues until I let it buffer a bit. - mig
[2010-12-01 08:56:41] - it's like you're saying: well either it's really bad and it'll be obvious that it's happening; or it's really mild and then really who cares if it's happening. well i'm saying that it can be something big but not obvious what's happening. ~a
[2010-12-01 08:49:49] - paul: ok. whether it's "noticible" is kind of ambiguous. ask yourself: if the throttling is happening, will you know it's happening or will you misattribute the slowness to something else? ~a
[2010-12-01 08:46:56] - if you want to learn more about a package, you can go to http://packages.ubunutu.com/ and read about it there. ~a
[2010-12-01 08:36:32] - you can install it outside of the "add/remove applications" window, but i wouldn't suggest it. ~a
[2010-12-01 08:36:00] - paul: it's not in hardy. ~a
[2010-12-01 00:10:12] - Ubuntupeeps: Can anybody tell me how to install Chrome on Hardy Heron? It's not showing up in my "Add/Remove Applications" window when I search for it. -Paul
[2010-11-30 17:39:28] - a: wednesday güüüüd Ü - aaron
[2010-11-30 17:20:46] - a: But I thought you just said there wasn't a noticeable difference. Unless you are implying that Comcast and company are throttling everybody at all times going everywhere. In that case, wouldn't it not be a violation of net neutrality? -Paul
[2010-11-30 17:10:51] - aaron: wednesday instead? ~a
[2010-11-30 17:10:24] - paul: if, because of throttling, you have: twice the load times on websites? twice the download times on files? half the resolution of video? buffer overruns? is it that a problem? i'd say, clearly, yes. ~a
[2010-11-30 17:03:31] - a: Fair enough. But if I can't even notice a dip in performance, is it really a problem, then? -Paul
[2010-11-30 17:02:39] - I thought it was interesting that they pointed out that a lot of people (even those blaming Comcast) don't consider it a net neutrality issue since Comcast wouldn't be technically discriminating based on the bits of data. -Paul
[2010-11-30 17:01:29] - http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/how-comcast-became-a-toll-collecting-hydra-with-a-nuke.ars/ A little more in-depth article by Ars Technica. Sounds like they mostly blame Comcast for being greedy, but also bring up some other points as well. -Paul
[2010-11-30 17:01:13] - "there have been a number of times that my house has been streaming Netflix movies, playing WoW and browsing the internet at the same time with no noticeable dip in speed." like aaron suggests, you might not notice a "dip". sometimes things are slow because of the server and sometimes it's because of the isp and you have no (easy) way of finding out which. ~a
[2010-11-30 17:00:27] - Aaron: I very rarely watch videos on youtube, honestly. Most of my video streaming is done through netflix or ESPN or Xbox360. In each case, I don't recall having a problem. My TV downstairs, though, it connected to the router using ethernet cable and not through the wireless network. -Paul
[2010-11-30 16:40:21] - a: do you want to check out springfield mall this thursday to see if the DDR machine is playable? i heard they have a good DDR machine - aaron
[2010-11-30 16:08:52] - HD streaming on youtube seems to be really hit or miss from me. It seems to be narrowed on specific videos though. And then there are weird problems where the video is very clearly buffered enough (at least the client visually says so) but there are still streaming hiccups. - mig
[2010-11-30 15:56:06] - i'll go home today and measure it because now i'm curious again. have you ever tried streaming stuff at 720p off youtube? does it usually work ok? - aaron
[2010-11-30 15:53:57] - i've tried streaming some videos from youtube at 720p or higher and it's been awful. i check my network connection and it's holding firm at about 5 megabits/second which is pretty low. but maybe that's youtube, maybe that's fios, maybe even a problem with flash or my browser, i don't know for sure - aaron
[2010-11-30 15:51:58] - paul: yeah, well streaming is very high volume, the other two activities wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket really. i know that a lot of times i've been frustrated with my internet performance, between cox/comcast and fios. i think some of that might be the limitations of wireless, i'm not sure. - aaron
[2010-11-30 15:34:29] - I know that's not exactly three high volume activities, but it would seem like it would be a good candidate for any kind of throttling. -Paul
[2010-11-30 15:33:08] - Aaron: I don't know, I just assumed you had run into some sort of problem based on your comments. I just know there have been a number of times that my house has been streaming Netflix movies, playing WoW and browsing the internet at the same time with no noticeable dip in speed. -Paul
[2010-11-30 15:13:16] - paul: how would i know for sure? sometimes certain web sites seem slow, youtube in particular, but i can't tell whether or not that's throttling on verizon's part - aaron
[2010-11-30 15:02:10] - Aaron: Have you ever run into a problem with that? I consider my household to be pretty heavy consumers of bandwidth, but I've never noticed any kind of throttling or blocking of websites. -Paul
[2010-11-30 14:46:47] - ultimately i wouldn't mind (too much) throttling or censorship as long as ISPs would globally switch to the "blockbuster model" and, just charge me for what i use. i hate this whole "unlimited internet unless you use too much" "300 MB/s unless we throttle you" "all web sites except for hulu and youtube" kind of bullshit. i just want a more open payment model - aaron
[2010-11-30 14:44:36] - paul: i mean, ultimately there's the "blockbuster model" where you pay a fixed price for a known amount of content... and there's the "netflix model" where you pay for god knows how much content. maybe one week netflix decides not to mail you anything, and the next month they decide you're at risk of dropping your membership so they turn DVDs around super fast - aaron
[2010-11-30 14:41:22] - paul: i mean, it seems like double dipping; charging consumers for internet access and charging providers as well. almost like, if comedy central charged comcast a fee to host their content and then also showed commercials
- aaron[2010-11-30 14:38:45] - paul: i know, i was looking for a less biased source which is how i found the nyt article. it had some quotes from Joe Waz, a senior vice president at Comcast which implied that high-volume content providers already pay comcast some sort of premium - aaron
[2010-11-30 13:52:09] - Aaron: I read on one article that these kinds of fees were normal and Level 3 was just taking advantage of the Comcast/NBC merger and Net Neutrality debate to try to use public pressure to get an advantage in negotiations with Comcast, but I honestly don't know enough to say whether or not that makes sense. -Paul
[2010-11-30 13:50:47] - Aaron: I've heard a little bit about it, but so far most of the information seems to be coming from Level 3 and net neutrality advocates. I wish I could find an article discussing it more from Comcast's point of view. -Paul
[2010-11-30 13:47:00] - as long as people have an alternative to comcast, and that some kind of "non blocking" ISP is available to people, i guess i don't think this is a big deal. if my ISP ever adopted these kinds of practices i'd have to drop them on principle, assuming there was an alternative - aaron
[2010-11-30 12:07:10] - http://nyti.ms/e5440p anybody heard about comcast blocking netflix? we were talking about net neutrality a couple months ago i guess this kind of falls under that - aaron
[2010-11-30 10:57:41] - gurkie: yeah, "laid off" is different from "fired". i've been kind of tangentially related to someone being fired. they were incompetent and they asked me for help and i said no and they got fired when they did a lousy job - aaron
[2010-11-30 10:26:31] - paul: true, though it's not technically happening until next year. - mig
[2010-11-30 09:54:52] - oh yea "they" = the company that I worked for in 03... ~gurkie
[2010-11-30 09:54:26] - a: back in 03 I had a friend who got "laid off" yet they continued hiring the next day... It was a wierd situation and I thought she should have pursued it more cause I thought it was based on discrimination but if she had she wouldnt have gotten her severance. ~gurkie
[2010-11-30 09:53:15] - xpovos: Ive never had to fire someone my self but have contributed to people seeing that certain employees need to go... ~gurkie
[2010-11-30 09:52:23] - mig: And the Big 12 currently has 10 teams, right? -Paul
[2010-11-30 09:47:19] - http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20024076-260.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 Looks like Apple wants all their users to be murdered by crazy video game fanatics.
-Paul[2010-11-30 09:45:31] - soon to be 12 next year. - mig
[2010-11-30 09:40:34] - Well there's the Big 10, but the problem is they can't do math (they have 11 teams). - mig
[2010-11-30 09:24:33] - SEC = Superior Ego Conference?
-Paul[2010-11-30 09:18:18] - They shouldn't use georaphical references in the divisions/conferences. Just say this is NFC Delta division. Or call yourself the SEC but say it doesn't stand for anything (kinda dumb though). I can't come up with any good conference names but I'm sure there is an alternative to 'Big East" or 'Atlantic Coast' -Daniel
[2010-11-29 17:40:29] - I'm ok with Boston College in the ACC because at least it's near the Atlantic Coast (regardless of how far away it is from the other schools). TCU being in the Big East, though, makes about as much sense as Dallas being in the NFC East while Jacksonville is in the AFC South. -Paul
[2010-11-29 12:57:01] - Yeah, the conferences will realign to meet the status quo, and by doing so protect it. Self-fulfilling prophecies. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-29 12:32:42] - stephen: the only reason for the move is that the big east is probably very worried about losing it's automatic BCS bid, and this is kind of a desperation move to make sure they keep it. And I guess TCU wants to be in a BCS conference just as desperately. - mig
[2010-11-29 12:26:36] - mig: I know way more about basketball than football, but that makes absolutely no sense. Boston College being in the ACC was bad enough, but a Texas football school in the Big East? - Stephen
[2010-11-29 11:57:26] - http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=AmrtMf09WQZHncwlDoaJFpMcvrYF?slug=ap-tcu-bigeast what. the. fuck. - mig
[2010-11-24 14:50:55] - you guys never lay people off? i'm just curious. i've hardly ever heard about people geting layed off. ~a
[2010-11-24 14:31:37] - paul/aaron/daniel: ultimate sunday? ~a
[2010-11-24 13:59:13] - a: Despite being in a 'Right to Work' state, we still don't fire without cause. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-24 13:55:42] - fire for cause? ~a
[2010-11-24 13:34:25] - a: Yeah, but usually on a much less personal basis. This time I'm going to have to fire my own employee. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-24 13:02:24] - You could use Donald Trump as an example? -Daniel
[2010-11-24 12:33:42] - never. i assume you do? ~a
[2010-11-24 11:58:10] - Anyone here have to fire someone? -- Xpovos
[2010-11-23 21:58:42] - hi adrian! ~a
[2010-11-23 15:13:18] - dee: umm. hey, what's up? ~a
[2010-11-23 15:08:06] - Any chance you guys can help pull off the last two days of voting for us??? Currently in 2nd place but third place is very close and 1st place is gonna be disqualified... http://apps.facebook.com/verragio/contests/72618/voteable_entries/11092995 ~dee
[2010-11-23 14:21:27] - At least concerning contenders. There's still a lot of work to be done on the pecking order, at least for my division. You've got yours sewn up. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-23 13:38:49] - Daniel: It looks like Dave clinched a spot at 9-2, which means 9 wins is in. There are only 6 teams capable of getting to 9, with one additional team capable of getting to 8, and then only one more capable of getting to 7 who isn't strictly speaking mathematically eliminated. So, it looks like the playoffs are pretty well set, actually. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-23 12:05:24] - I'm just happy to see that I've finally over taken the leader for most points scored against. My fantasy defense really sucks.
-Paul[2010-11-23 11:51:35] - xpovos: It will be interesting to see who makes the playoffs in our league. It is a pretty tight race for those 3-6 spots. -Daniel
[2010-11-23 10:56:52] - mig: I'm speaking of the specific TJ&F league, though. Has anyone else scored as much in a week? Granted, we're past byes now, so most weeks aren't a good comparison. But man, my team went off. Good thing too. Nina had a strong week herself. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-23 10:23:26] - xpovos: I'm not sure that's a record that would matter a whole lot. There are so many different combinations of scoring and roster formats. - mig
[2010-11-23 10:15:16] - Is 153 points a season-record for the fantasy football team? I skimmed and couldn't see any higher. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-23 10:03:37] - Daniel: In previous books they dropped some side storylines such as the house elf thing... But here I thought they skipped scenes which help develop the storylines... ~gurkie
[2010-11-23 10:01:27] - I don't know that it was right but at least it gives them more time in the next movie for some of the more epic scenes near the end of the book. -Daniel
[2010-11-23 10:01:05] - gurkie: If they were already skipping scenes do you think they could have fit it into one movie? I think its a tough call for them because people give them crap for straying from the book but its hard to make even a 3.5 hour movie from a 700 page book and stay faithful to the book. -Daniel
[2010-11-23 09:59:19] - Daniel: I'll try to avoid spoilers, but I felt like the conclusion of the wedding at the beginning was strangely flat, and the confrontation in the mansion near the middle of the book was also not very exciting. I am worried about how the battle at the end of the second movie is going to be portrayed. -Paul
[2010-11-23 09:58:36] - Daniel: I think they screwed up by splitting it into two movies... I thought the movie ended up with no closure and I didnt feel like they had gone into enough detail on any of the storylines. They also skipped scenes that I thought added to the story, maybe they will put them in the second movie? ~gurkie
[2010-11-23 09:48:50] - What scenes did you think they screwed up Paul? Though I don't know if people want to avoid spoilers? if thats possible for a book series that finished like 2 years ago. -Daniel
[2010-11-23 09:48:02] - Yeah I was pretty bored by the part in the book where they are just moving around camping all looking at each other going, do you know what to do? no? me either. so i'm not surprised the movie is kinda boring there. -Daniel
[2010-11-23 08:48:27] - Vinnie: I agree that the boring-ness of the movie came a lot from the book, but I also felt like they screwed up the interesting scenes that they had to work with. -Paul
[2010-11-23 08:29:38] - stephen: the first half of the book itself was pretty boring... - vinnie
[2010-11-22 20:41:42] - Daniel: I've seen all the movies but haven't read any of the books, and this was the first HP movie where I spent a lot of time being incredibly bored. - Stephen
[2010-11-22 15:50:23] - Daniel: Saw it this past weekend. Was a little disappointed, but if you've seen the other movies and/or read the books, it's probably worth seeing. -Paul
[2010-11-22 15:47:37] - Harry Potter Fans: Did you see the movie this weekend? If so what did you think? I didn't see it yet but probably will in the next week at some point. -Daniel
[2010-11-22 14:06:29] - a: possibly but I feel like a good journalist would state something along the lines of Max, more commonly referred to as Tom, blah blah blah ~gurukirn commonly referred to as gurkie
[2010-11-22 13:33:20] - gurukirn: regarding tom vs max: one is a nickname and one is a legal name? ~a
[2010-11-22 12:25:20] - http://www.stylelist.com/2010/10/29/ugly-people-dating-site-first-engagement/?ncid=txtlnkusstyl00000003 questions... who would sign up for an ugly person dating site? is that really a guy and girl? why does she call "him" Tom when the article calls "him" Max? ~gurkie
[2010-11-22 11:17:42] - Paul: The difference appears to have been approaching it from an elemental standpoint. Most things are not easily divisible down to a basic elemental form... they have the reactivity factor to contend with. I guess starting with the elemental side helps to show how reactive things are in general. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-22 11:09:20] - The article definitely took a different approach than I expected. Usually I read about how gold was ideal because of the things Xpovos mentioned (rarity, fungibility, etc). -Paul
[2010-11-22 10:27:17] - Daniel: Yeah, the key points are relative rarity (rare, but not absurdly rare), functionality (low melting point) and non-reactivity. For the purposes of money, a lot more substances are non-reactive than they covered in that article. Most of them have been used as some form of currency at some point. The fact that gold has an alluring color to us as well helps too. -- X
[2010-11-22 09:46:43] - Xpovos: I had often wondered why gold was always picked to have value. It seemed arbitrary to me but that article makes a lot of sense about how it wins out. -Daniel
[2010-11-19 18:13:20] - aaron: I didn't enjoy the article, but that could be because of my background... it was explaining something that to me should be obvious at this point. But probably isn't. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-19 17:18:39] - it's like vegas.
~a[2010-11-19 17:18:25] - "rhodium, palladium, silver, platinum and gold" heh, i've owned some of silver, platinum, and gold and almost bought some rhodium and palladium a few years ago just for fun. ~a
[2010-11-19 13:40:45] - http://m.npr.org/news/front/131430755?singlePage=true why gold beat out all other elements for use as money - aaron
[2010-11-19 11:03:14] - xpovos: Sorry, I almost certainly will be busy and not be able to make it to the discussion. -Paul
[2010-11-19 09:14:08] - anon: wwwwwwwoo. ~a
[2010-11-19 08:22:52] - Friday! WOO
[2010-11-18 23:59:51] - I am MUCH happier now. that's how fucking quickly my bi-happiness swaps.
[2010-11-18 22:54:35] - anon: Why so sad? -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 22:24:29] -
[2010-11-18 21:53:00] - a: Yep. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 21:42:29] - she's a librarian? ~a
[2010-11-18 21:03:57] - a: The program needs to bring in people. She gets bonuses to her performance evaluation for running a successful program. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 18:59:20] - yeah, i'm busy saturday morning too (business meeting). . . . i'll probably be done around 1 as well. ~a
[2010-11-18 18:53:23] - a: wedding venue viewing is sooo much better
although I actually think we may be back for the game... I think we will finish viewing places by about 1 ~gurkie[2010-11-18 18:36:33] - stats? ~a
[2010-11-18 18:09:20] - Even if you only poke your head in to make a single snarky comment about the impossibility of the dialect'd dialogue, my mother will be appreciative. She gets to count it in her stats. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 18:07:20] - Paul: 1430-1700 at Central Library on Mathis in Manassas. Come on in. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 18:05:08] - a: I am swapping out the football game for wedding venue viewing. -Paul
[2010-11-18 18:04:53] - Xpovos: Ooohh, fun book. -Paul
[2010-11-18 17:49:45] - gurkie: is anybody doing all four like me? maybe paul? ~a
[2010-11-18 17:48:04] - a: poker, football game, harry potter, frisbee.... for people who like doing everything. ~gurkie
[2010-11-18 17:42:32] - a: Sunday is Charlotte's baptism. Which means I have to run around getting the house cleaned up, and we're still not fully moved in. Plus I'm working Saturday. Oh, and Saturday is my mother's monthly book discussion, and I'm expected to put in an appearance since it's Moon is a Harsh Mistress. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 17:09:47] - what's happening this weekend? ~a
[2010-11-18 14:10:01] - gurkie: Seems pretty busy to me, too. Sunday particularly. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-18 13:27:08] - is it me or does this weekend seem too busy... ~gurkie
[2010-11-17 15:06:45] - Overall CPI-U 2007-2010-YTD is 8.13% So the measures are pretty close. That's almost four years of data, which means it's less than 2% per year (1.95ish, less for CPI-U) if the values hold over those four years. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 15:01:07] - Paul: I like the CPI-W SA, which is not what usually gets reported (that's CPI-U SA). But both have shown inflation over the past few years overall. CPI-W SA: 2007: 4.31%, 2008: -1.06%, 2009: 3.08%, 2010-YTD: 0.64%. Overall, 2007-2010-YTD: 8.28% -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 14:34:55] - Ah, ok. I don't know exactly what the BLS says about inflation, but I thought there was general agreement among everybody that we've been experiencing at least a little bit of inflation over the past few years (just not as much as the fed might like). -Paul
[2010-11-17 14:21:21] - gurkie: not necessarily, the use of the machines is probably federally mandated. - mig
[2010-11-17 14:13:36] - gurkie: test post from my droid. -Daniel
[2010-11-17 14:12:46] - And of course, I hardly need to point out that Amtrak is heavily subsidized by the federal government... -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 14:12:04] - It's still doable, esp. if you can tag-team it. But that's where trains probably come in. Amtrak is running ads vaunting their less intrusive security, "[...] where you only take your shoes off if you want to." and showing a woman lounging comfortably in her seat sans shoes. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 14:06:35] - mig: yeah, oh i totally agree for local stuff. like trips to new york and (maybe even) florida and stuff. but stuff like... blizz con... i don't think driving is an alternative - aaron
[2010-11-17 14:05:46] - also I cant seem to post on here from my android phone... Anyone else have that problem? ~gurkie
[2010-11-17 14:05:24] - At one point I remember hearing a security group I knew a bunch of people in got the BWI airport contract to do their security... That must have changed though cause it looks like BWI is using the new machines ~gurkie
[2010-11-17 13:57:34] - mig: Count me in that group. I was already planning to drive, but this is icing. It's really pushed Katie over the edge too, so I'll not even have to fight the fight to drive instead of fly. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 13:56:35] - Paul: BLS = Bureau of Labor and Statistics, they publish the CPI values. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 13:55:11] - aaron: no, but people could stop flying. If it gets to be bad enough, people would be more willing to drive down to florida from here rather than deal with TSA assholes. - mig
[2010-11-17 13:51:55] - xpovos: screening process is too invasive, it's like, well too bad. it's not like mcdonalds is going to open an airport across the street with private screeners and better practices
- aaron[2010-11-17 13:49:54] - xpovos: also, i heard about something that the GOP supposedly snuck in the TSA-related legislation a few years ago - where airports have the right to kick out the TSA and hire private screeners, which apparently was another proposed way to deal with these problems... problem being that airlines don't have a lot of competition, so i mean, if people think the - aaron
[2010-11-17 13:45:53] - a: What is the bls? Also, I'm not sure what you mean about the cpi having nothing to do with the fed. The fed can spark inflation, and the cpi is supposed to measure inflation, right? -Paul
[2010-11-17 13:43:57] - a: I think there have been areas where we have seen signs of inflation (commodity prices mostly), but haven't necessarily seen it reflected in the stuff most consumers buy. -Paul
[2010-11-17 13:42:10] - xpovos: there was a tv show where guys put objects like, a hammer, a roll of tennis balls, under their kilt and then a girl had to reach her hand up and figure out what they were. i think the TSA screeners would like to play that game. i think it would be really really funny whether they x-ray you, or whether they feel you up - it's win win - aaron
[2010-11-17 13:16:29] - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/blog-wear-kilt-underpants-protest-tsa-screenings/ -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 13:12:52] - Although it is somewhat encouraging to see at least one republican not named Ron Paul talking about the need to at least look into cutting military spending, even if it is happens to be Ron's son. - mig
[2010-11-17 13:09:05] - Yeah, I'm not reading too much into this yet. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 13:01:48] - It's a start I guess, earmarks are kind of a symbolic thing since they account for a comparatively small part of the federal budget. I have my doubts that it signals a willingness to tackle the sacred cows of the federal budget (Social Security, Medicare, Defense), but maybe it could. - mig
[2010-11-17 12:58:57] - aaron: What I had heard was McConnell didn't want to have the R's alone stop doing earmarks b/c that would just leave more $ on the table for D's. He wanted to stop earmarks on both sides or neither side as I understood it. DeMint is willing to have R's alone stop earmarks but I don't think he is enough to make that happen. -Daniel
[2010-11-17 12:58:48] - xpovos: it seems like political suicide if the GOP genuinely stops seeking earmarks, and democratic senators keep up the practice. or at least, well, maybe not, i guess senators do get elected at the state level, and maybe people will be happy democrats are getting their state more revenue. it'll be interesting to see how it plays out - aaron
[2010-11-17 12:53:50] - aaron: Last I heard was that current Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell who had been vehemently opposed to stopping the earmark process has agreed to put a moratorium on it at least. It looks like one of the pieces of compromise most likely to occur from my vantage. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-17 12:51:34] - has anybody heard anything about the GOP agreeing informally to stop seeking earmarks? any thoughts? i think it would be cool if the GOP actually "drank the tea party koolaid" and this might be a small step towards doing that. it's hard not to be pessimistic though - aaron
[2010-11-17 12:17:23] - http://digitizor.com/2010/11/17/internet-explorer-9-caught-cheating-in-sunspider-benchmark/ did internet explorer 9 cheat in the subspider benchmark? - aaron
[2010-11-17 11:10:15] - pierce: try reading your sentence starting at "Obama". I guess context is everything - vinnie
[2010-11-16 17:49:02] - ...but bush backlash drove conservative apathy and liberal energy in 2006 and Obama sealed the deal by engaging young voters at unprecedented levels. - pierce
[2010-11-16 17:47:23] - My observation is that peopleget more conservative as they get older, but the younger generations' "starting point" becomes more liberal at roughly an equal rate. The conservative pendulum swing we've seen over the last ten years is the result of a big blob of people (boomers) getting to the former point... - pierce
[2010-11-16 16:47:06] - paul: I liked your video but I don't think we've had inflation over the last year. even if we've had inflation, the cpi has nothing to do with the fed. so you think the fed is wrong and the bls is wrong? ~a
[2010-11-16 15:25:54] - my dad got a 15/15. haha, it often surprises me how much smarter than me he is. ~a
[2010-11-16 15:11:53] - wow. i ansered the ones i was least confident of correctly, and i answered two that i was more confident of incorrectly. 13/15: #4 (jewish sabbath) and #8 (obiedient to god despite suffering) were incorrect. ~a
[2010-11-16 14:38:58] - I knew #6 because its one of the things people bring up sometimes when they want to talk about how Catholics are crazy. -Daniel
[2010-11-16 14:24:12] - Xpovos: 11 of the past 27 is nothing. You should remember the good old days in college where I would consistently have like 50% of the past thousands of posts.
-Paul[2010-11-16 14:23:14] - Aaron: Yeah, I would think by most definitions that would be a no. -Paul
[2010-11-16 14:20:38] - paul: oh okay, yeah, that makes sense then, so muslims aren't christian - aaron
[2010-11-16 14:14:11] - http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/11/22/101122ta_talk_surowiecki This is the point I made right after election day. It still concerns me. And with that, I have 11 of the past 27 posts, so I'll be shutting up for a while. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 14:13:17] - aaron: Both Mormons and Muslims recognize Jesus as being pretty awesome in their own ways. Muslims think he was a great prophet, though, instead of the son of God. -Paul
[2010-11-16 14:05:06] - 59% for white Catholics, 47% for hispanic Catholics. 40% at large. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 14:04:23] - Paul: Some of the dialogue is decent. The person who wrote it understood humor and how to work with his tools at least. Getting comedic timing out of computers is hard. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 14:02:53] - xpovos: yeah i missed #6, if a true/false question has less than 50% success rate that's a little fishy. i wonder what the success rate was among catholics
- aaron[2010-11-16 14:01:56] - i'm probably just mixing up "mormon" with "muslim" again, but i thought muslims recognized jesus as like... being awesome in some way... aren't "muslims" a subcategory of "christians" or am i way off - aaron
[2010-11-16 14:01:41] - Aaron: Interesting. The only question I read into was the one with the Sabbath, which worked out for me. -Paul
[2010-11-16 14:00:24] - How many people missed #6? That's the one that's bugging me the most. Particularly as I drilled down to the statistics. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 14:00:23] - Xpovos: I think most of it is just the way they talk, rather than any kind of clever commentary. -Paul
[2010-11-16 13:57:34] - bah, 9/15. some of it was ignorance and some of it was reading too much into the questions. i really thought #12 was muslim, but i was like - well wait - if they're muslim then wouldn't they technically consider themselves christians as well? so i ruled out both those answers and answered incorrectly as a result - aaron
[2010-11-16 13:57:30] - In case people didn't know, Amazon started a one-video-game-a-day sale on Sunday to spark their Black Friday style numbers. Today's game is Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3. Under $20 with the sale. Xbox 360 version? $35. What the crap? -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 13:45:06] - Paul: Well, I'm laughing. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 13:42:37] - waaah I suck at knowing things. ~gurkie
[2010-11-16 13:22:02] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k&feature=player_embedded Obviously biased but still somewhat amusing six minute video discussing QE2. Probably only appreciated by the anti-Fed crowd. -Paul
[2010-11-16 12:43:16] - I dunno about #9 misleading, but it's definitely worded very poorly. - mig
[2010-11-16 12:42:32] - a: Excellent. Guaranteed frisbee this week = me happy. -Paul
[2010-11-16 12:38:03] - Like most everybody here, I also missed #15. I randomly guessed and shockingly (sarcasm) got it wrong. -Paul
[2010-11-16 12:24:08] - I felt #15 was the hardest (I had to take an educated guess). #4 seems tricky, but is fair and accurate. #9 is the one I feel is probably most mis-leading. But of the answers given, the choice was obvious. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 12:16:29] - I got 13/15 too, missed #4 and had absolutely no clue on #15 (well, between two of the options) - vinnie
[2010-11-16 12:14:59] - paul: deal! ~a
[2010-11-16 12:13:51] - Here's a non-religious interlude... http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/earth-atmosphere-layers-atmospheric-pressure-infographic-0326/ -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 12:07:46] - 13/15 I missed #4 and #14. 14 I was flipping back and forth so I didn't really know but apparently choose wrong. -Daniel
[2010-11-16 12:00:44] - I got 13 out of 15, but I was an idiot and got the second to last question wrong (avoiding specifics in case somebody else is planning on taking the quiz). -Paul
[2010-11-16 11:58:05] - I gave the quiz verbally to one of my assistants (militant Catholic) she got 12 right. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 11:35:10] - gurkie: Well, a high percentage of them were Catholic-faith related, which gives me an advantage, and then I have an even greater advantage over the generic 'Catholic' since I actually know this stuff. The other religions I got right mostly because I'm a nerd and study comparative religion for fun. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 11:15:15] - xpovos: also 2 of the ones I ended up getting wrong I had the right answer initially then decided to change my answers... ~gurkie
[2010-11-16 11:13:53] - xpovos: apparently if you look at results by religion the most to be correct is Jewish, then Atheist... While I dont fit in those categories it makes the leg-up less convincing in my mind... ~gurkie
[2010-11-16 11:00:21] - gurkie: 15 of 15, but I consider some of them to have been misleading. Also, I probably have a leg-up. -- Xpovos
[2010-11-16 10:48:45] - oops.. that was me ~gurkie
[2010-11-16 10:48:38] - do you know religions? http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php I got a 10 out of 15
[2010-11-16 08:38:47] - a: I'll make you a deal. I'll plan poker this weekend if you make sure frisbee happens this weekend.
-Paul[2010-11-15 20:51:53] - a: no - aaron
[2010-11-15 18:37:37] - was there poker on friday? ~a
[2010-11-15 16:42:15] - daniel: sorry, i fucked that one up - grammar_jesus
[2010-11-15 16:04:22] - weird? wierd? i can never spell that word right. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 16:04:06] - aaron: Weird Paul was super friendly to me. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 15:59:23] - daniel: well, mitch was being nice and germany was being mean. i usually put more units next to mean people - aaron
[2010-11-15 13:54:16] - Aaron: another indicator for me was in the first winter turn you built an army in Sev instead of a fleet. To me that translated to you didn't mind Mitch being in the black sea which meant allied. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 13:50:40] - Daniel: I thought he had a few units left. It would've been tough, obviously, but I thought that if Aaron and I could trust each other and if we could somehow convince Turkey not to kill us, we could hold you off somewhat. -Paul
[2010-11-15 13:48:07] - paul: but yeah if you and aaron had teamed up against me once it was clear aaron wasn't going to be able to beat you it would have been bad news for me. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 13:47:01] - paul: aaron was dead by the time i stabbed you
-Daniel[2010-11-15 13:39:02] - Aaron: The unfortunate thing is that I was so sure you and Turkey were life-long buddies because on the turn Daniel back-stabbed me, I was thinking that it would be nice if I ally with you (and trust you) to back-stab Daniel first. -Paul
[2010-11-15 13:37:16] - daniel: oh yeah, it was early on when i decided to throw the game to mitch and put everything i had into holding StP. that disband was one of the only ways i could even get a third unit up there for defense, i was pretty desparate - aaron
[2010-11-15 13:33:54] - aaron: I sided with paul against you because it was hard for me to envision a Russia that took over Germany and then didn't contine to look west towards England proper or at minimum the lowlands/Scandinavia. So I felt I had to defend Paul for my own sake. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 13:32:13] - aaron: I was also under the impression you were working with Turkey from pretty early on. I think once you let him disband your southern fleet I was 100% convinced. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 13:31:35] - Aaron: I remember being under the impression that you were looking to start a scuffle with Germany from the start. Perhaps that was smoke being blown my way but if so it worked and influenced my decisions. -Daniel
[2010-11-15 13:28:10] - paul: which actually ended up being around 1911, 1912, i was pretty proud of that. and then we started arranging for which of my supply centers he could take first and stuff. i was, perhaps, excessively pessimistic - but i felt like once you and daniel joined forces, the best I could do was ensure mitch a solo or 2-way with daniel - aaron
[2010-11-15 13:27:02] - paul: ha ha some time around 1903/1904, i conceeded all of my supply centers to him, but asked him to leave me alone to hold off E/G off for as long as I could. so basically we had an agreement where he'd take over my stuff, but he'd wait until it looked like you guys were going to overrun me to do so - aaron
[2010-11-15 13:10:38] - Aaron: I would be interested in hearing about your relationship with Turkey, though, because I was very certain that you two were allied after the second turn and nothing changed my mind during the course of the game. -Paul
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