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[2011-04-04 21:01:11] - aXpovos: Honestly, I'm a little surprised that it would matter much to the majority of people on the message board. Does it matter if he is running against Palin? Huckabee? Romney? Gingrich? Ron Paul? -Paul
[2011-04-04 20:24:39] - paul: as xpovos suggests, it is 100% dependent on who he runs against. do you have any hypothetical opponents you'd like us to consider? ~a
[2011-04-04 17:44:37] - Paul: In a binary election, without knowing at least who's likely the other candidate, that's a hard question for anyone. Who would you vote for in the Obama vs. Santa election of 2012? How about Obama vs. Satan? -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 17:06:17] - So, Obama apparently announced his re-election campaign today. I'm curious how many people here who voted for him in 2008 are planning on voting for him in 2012. -Paul
[2011-04-04 16:14:08] - g: Legal issues aside, I don't think they'd be happy with the query load, plus I'm a stickler on my projects, I want to control my data. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 15:59:34] - also, i bet we could query an existing thesaurus through web services (there must be a public option here) rather than having to create our own thesaurus... ~g
[2011-04-04 15:58:59] - xpovos: thats what I was thinking... But then I was curious about the possibility of presenting good sounding sentances so it could be something that students would want to use to help their papers sound better... But realized that would probably get really complicated. ~g
[2011-04-04 15:24:37] - Doesn't sound too hard to program, either. Just build a thesaurus with only 7+ letter words. You don't have to worry about losing precision too much on a joke site. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 14:57:44] - g: that's actually a pretty cool idea. I would call it embiggen.com (apropos simpsons joke) - vinnie
[2011-04-04 14:46:48] - hehe we should create a website called... piercify.com where people can enter a sentance, hit submit, and receive a new sentance with BIG words in it... ~g
[2011-04-04 14:45:25] - if the gov't doesnt fund things by friday I get to work from home! well maybe Ill have to work from my office but I wont have to go to crystal city! ~g
[2011-04-04 14:29:16] - gurkie: No, but very clever. Too bad I ruined it and said it was a group effort. - Stephen
[2011-04-04 14:25:14] - stephen: did you notice how I blamed erica instead of us? ~g
[2011-04-04 14:17:03] - gurkie: Yeah, we definitely timed Vinnie. Even as a guy I didn't understand how he went so quickly. We should totally play Pierce time's up at Vamy's tonight. - Stephen
[2011-04-04 14:04:43] - Vinnie: Good point, indiffierent is the better way to describe it. No need to apologize for being pedantic. It's good practice for the vocab section of the GRE.
-Paul[2011-04-04 13:38:43] - stephen: yea sooooo not going to watch... ~g
[2011-04-04 13:38:14] - also... I can attest to vinnie having a rep as using the bathroom really quickly... maybe that was cause the other guys never used the bathroom... I seem to remember erica timing vinnie... ~g
[2011-04-04 13:37:14] - vinnie: I want to play pierce times up with you... thats what you are doing right? ~gurkie
[2011-04-04 13:16:43] - Stephen: I was mildly rooting for VCU, and since Butler beat them I guess I'm kind of rooting for UConn? Also, I have some relatives up there who are fanatical. And lastly one of my office mates knows the coach of UConn, so I guess I'm slightly pro-UConn. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 12:57:09] - paul: ambivalent or indifferent? (sorry if I sound pedantic) - vinnie
[2011-04-04 12:51:49] - Paul: Neither will Gurkie, since the teams have similar colors. - Stephen
[2011-04-04 11:38:19] - Stephen: Sorry. Thoroughly ambivalent to the game. Probably won't even watch. -Paul
[2011-04-04 11:32:44] - xpovos: that was yesterday. ~a
[2011-04-04 11:30:46] - Are any non-Huskies cheering for UConn tonight? - Stephen
[2011-04-04 10:56:37] - vinnie: Are you sure? Seems like it's an almost 30th birthday party for someone. It's the un-birthday un-party of the un-year! -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 10:53:09] - i'll be there. ~a
[2011-04-04 10:30:02] - for those who are confused by the mboard subtitle, there is NO party at vamy's tonight
- vinnie[2011-04-04 10:22:05] - i originally thought the dotted line was the chance of dying that year and the solid line was the chance of surviving past that year. iow, the solid line was 100% - the integral of the dotted line. looking back at the image, though, it seems like that can't be right at all because the dotted line would have to be much smaller. so now i'm not sure what the graph is. ~a
[2011-04-04 10:21:51] - I go to the bathroom every 2-3 hours, so I used the bathrooms at TJ constantly. in fact, I had a reputation in our group as a lightning-fast bathroom user! - vinnie
[2011-04-04 10:19:57] - the forums seem to suggest it's survivability of cancer - vinnie
[2011-04-04 10:17:58] - "i'm not sure I ever used the bathrooms at tj in my four years i spent there." hah, is "bathroom weirdness" a commonality between all of our friends? ~a
[2011-04-04 10:17:39] - a: That was my guess too, but what is the dotted line on the graph for then? Also, a 77% survivability rate after 10 years actually seems pretty high for a lot of illnesses... doesn't it? -Paul
[2011-04-04 10:13:25] - oh right. i forgot about 818. he's more explicit there. ~a
[2011-04-04 10:10:44] - survivability of an illness is my guess. he's had other comics where he refers to a sick person or sadness in his life. like 828, 836, or 847. ~a
[2011-04-04 10:07:43] - Paul: Generically or specifically? -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 09:59:48] - Does anybody understand what the graph on today's xkcd refers to? -Paul
[2011-04-04 09:53:19] - I'm not sure I ever used the bathrooms at TJ in my four years I spent there. In retrospect, that doesn't seem healthy at all. I'm guessing I wasn't drinking enough liquids during the day. -Paul
[2011-04-04 09:46:03] - a: Stayin' Alive was the best one I ever found, though I think we eventually found a 100% to 0% jump - vinnie
[2011-04-04 08:56:53] - Tried out the game MineCraft over the weekend. Turns out the rumors of being simple yet addictive are true. I spent a good amount of time digging a giant hole in the ground but somehow felt good about it. Anyone else played it here? -Daniel
[2011-04-04 08:36:50] - I know the communal bathroom situations in the dorms at college was kind of freaky for me. In a strange reversal, Vawter's bathroom system was easier for me to handle than Harper's. That reference will make sense to the VT people, I hope. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-04 08:28:23] - aaron: I'm with you. I don't know how I did it in hs, but I don't really remember using the restrooms at all. It wasn't til college that I got over whatever bothered me about them. - Stephen
[2011-04-04 00:17:37] - haha! i think speed 2 was mentioned, right? ~a
[2011-04-03 14:42:25] - http://www.saasta.fi/saasta/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/sequel-map-1-4.png maps rotten tomatoes ratings of sequels against the original to once and for all conclude (not really) not that sequels are worse than the originals. this would have ruined our game of trying to come up with the biggest rating drop between movie and sequel - vinnie
[2011-04-01 20:12:14] - not irrational or kooky. i usually like to be alone in the restroom. unless i'm in the shower. damn, i hope this isn't the message that sits at the top all weekend. ~a
[2011-04-01 19:40:55] - aaron: I don't think that's my pee comment. I mean maybe I was really drunk one night, but that doesn't sound like something I'd say. But, yeah... of all the weird things we could have (and of some of the ones I still do) not using a public toilet is among the least damaging. Hurrah for us accepting society's norms! -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 19:10:27] - (normaller) - aaron
[2011-04-01 19:10:23] - a: but yeah in hindsight it was pretty irrational and kooky. i think remnants of it stuck with me until super recently. i like rarely rarely used public urinals until 2009. ha ha! but it's all good i'm normal now - aaron
[2011-04-01 19:08:59] - a: i don't know, i guess when i was 5 or 6 it just seemed gross and i didn't have a problem holding it. and as i got older i just never had a reason to change. i don't know. if you could theoretically eat triple-dinner at home, and not get hungry all day, would you still eat school lunch? - aaron
[2011-04-01 18:23:12] - i have a very high pee-tolerance too; i just like to pee in public. ok, uhh, why did you not use public restrooms until college? ~a
[2011-04-01 17:43:22] - and no, i never pull over to pee. i have a very high pee-tolerance, i attribute it to never using public restrooms until like... college, maybe. i used to just hold it all the time until i got home. i can hold it forever if i have to - aaron
[2011-04-01 17:40:05] - xpovos: wait, was that your comment about pulling over to pee??? that title was not mine but i think it might have been xpovos's - aaron
[2011-04-01 15:46:34] - I think you can improve your aim, but I think aim is in the 'height' kind of category. It's a natural gift too. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 15:36:53] - title: was I right about who it was? and do you ever pull over? ~g
[2011-04-01 15:36:39] - title
[2011-04-01 15:36:16] - xpovos: ah, i misunderstood "train himself". You don't think you can learn to aim? I mean presumably the first time you try and shoot the ball you would be fairly off target but that doesnt mean you wont ever be able to be on target. ~g
[2011-04-01 15:32:59] - g: I don't think my point is clear. An individual who trains his skills in baseball will show the most improvement relative to an individual who trains his skills in other sports. Not necessarily an individual who trains by himself. Also, I'd tend to consider basketball shooting an athletic skill mostly. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 15:29:29] - xpovos: I dont know... Basketball you can learn to shoot on your own... But with baseball who is going to throw you ground balls/pop flys so you can learn to field? who is going to pitch so you can learn to bat? ~g
[2011-04-01 14:43:24] - That said, I think baseball is probably the sport where one player can train himself in baseball-skills and have the biggest impact, regardless of other factors. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 14:43:14] - also it doesnt work on google's mobile site. ~g
[2011-04-01 14:42:50] - aaron: I'm having a hard time answering your question. I think it could be any team sport, most individual sports are almost entirely athletic-skill based, but team sports by their nature result in team results, and the training of the rest of your team matters to your performance. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 14:42:00] - aaron: apparently if you search helvetica it also appears in comic sans... not sure why (or if they are the same) ~g
[2011-04-01 14:40:54] - aaron: its april fools... ~g
[2011-04-01 14:38:07] - ahhaha why is it that if you google "comic sans" the results page is in comic sans? is that a "today thing" or has that been around? - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:19:05] - I hate 4/1. People are trying so hard it's difficult to separate the real news from the fake. - mig
[2011-04-01 14:16:33] - http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/e8be/ i was a little surprised this was an april fools thing; i know a few people who would actually benefit from a pair - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:15:58] - gurkie: sure, well even 18th century man had to like, throw and catch things, even if you never played any sports in your life those are everyday skills. - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:15:03] - g: or performing a steal in basketball, you're reaching out and grabbing for a ball, i just feel like a lot of basketball is more intuitive than soccer; they're actions which are common to a lot of other sports or just common to real life - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:14:58] - aaron: Interesting, I guess I thought that our 18th century man was starting any sport from the beginning rather than relying on skills from other sports... ~gurkie
[2011-04-01 14:13:34] - g: i feel like footwork is really meticulous, and very specialized to soccer. if you've played football or basketball you kind of understand how to catch a ball. but none of those sports really teach you how to catch a ball, with your feet, while running at a decent clip - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:08:56] - aaron: why do you think soccer has so much more skill than baseball? you have to know to kick things but in basketball you have to know how to throw and catch... ~g
[2011-04-01 14:06:43] - g: yeah there's doubles tennis but that's all i've ever heard of. - aaron
[2011-04-01 14:03:33] - g: there's team golf in college and high school. Also there's an annual team "team" tournament (Ryder Cup i believe) though i don't know the specifics into how the "team" part of it works. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:54:17] - aaron: the one thing with golf is you really arent on a team... its not like there is a team usa, or is there? similarly I dont know if Tennis has teams as such either. Although according to the Manga Prince of Tennis there are teams... ~g
[2011-04-01 13:52:08] - players also spend signficant of time studying both their own game film and film of other teams, which is a big part of preparation for a game in addition to all the physical workout stuff they do. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:49:42] - aaron: I think the cerebral part is more remembering the plays and such, I could be wrong though. I think there playbooks are actually quite extensive. ~g
[2011-04-01 13:33:18] - aaron: Well the nba is the easiest to guarantee. 'You can't coach height'. So if we assume a 7 foot plus athlete the NBA will scoop him up and teach him the rest. -Daniel
[2011-04-01 13:31:58] - billy madison taught me anybody can become a pro golfer in about 2 weeks, you're probably right about golf - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:31:08] - daniel: yeah again, i'm not really saying anything's easy; i'm just asking what's easier. i think we can all agree some sports are easier to learn. and our hypothetical athlete, let's just assume he time travelled from the year 1800 but was in incredibly good fitness, and had any height/weight/muscle characteristics you want him to - just no special skills - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:31:07] - Also coaches matter very little in the nba comparatively to the other sports - Have anything to back that up or just your opinion? I would probably disagree with it. Phil Jackson? Pat Riley? Larry Brown? Talent matters to but I dont think coaching should be ignored. -Daniel
[2011-04-01 13:30:22] - mig: i bet you're right, i bet i overestimate basketball. i think if you're tall, and you practice free throws/shooting for 6 months or so, you could be pretty competent - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:29:26] - -Daniel
[2011-04-01 13:29:21] - el
[2011-04-01 13:29:20] - What exactly are we assuming about our hypothetical athlete? I think bball would have less memorization than football but has more contingencies sinces its more fluid. Does the athlete have to learn how to shoot well or is that part of the 'physical talent'? I think golf? might be the easiest cause there are a lot of pros and your caddy can just hand you the right club?
[2011-04-01 13:27:41] - Also coaches matter very little in the nba comparatively to the other sports, which is also pretty telling. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:24:49] - I think basketball would be pretty low on the "no need to learn" scale. You can get by so much on sheer physical talent alone. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:24:15] - aaron: I think you are discounting the number of plays they have to have memorized and be able to rapidly switch among them when the QB audibles and how contingencies are built into the plays. -Daniel
[2011-04-01 13:23:25] - aaron: just to be sure I get it that would probably limit the scope to football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, and golf? I am probably forgetting some... ~g
[2011-04-01 13:22:57] - aaron: I'm not sure any sport is easy. I think any team game is probably going to take more than a solo game (bowlling / tennis/ golf) but even that I'm not sure of. Professional sports are so competetive that its hard for me to think of someone "picking one up" as easy. -Daniel
[2011-04-01 13:21:49] - so i was under the impression that it was pretty easy to train up and get bulky and be a good burly pawn (linebacker i suppose) but you're probably right; maybe it's actually harder than other sports. what sports do you think are easier than football then? i guess baseball, anything else? - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:20:47] - mig: i'm surprised you'd consider football to be the most complex; on the surface it looks like two coaches playing a game of chess, and a lot of the players are just big burly "pawns" with instructions like "keep moving one space forward until you can capture someone diagonally" - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:20:33] - aaron: hockey to curling might be easier... Do curlers where skates? or just run on the ice? ~g
[2011-04-01 13:19:50] - g: that's a good point. i guess i was thinking professional sports, sports where you can earn a livable wage playing in america. you're right, i suppose i could put arimaa or chess boxing and those both take an unbelievable amount of skill i guess. - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:17:46] - g: that would be so depressing if someone retired from baseball to seek a professional career in curling. sounds like a disney movie - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:14:44] - aaron: I guess it depends on what you consider a sport? mainstream sports? or anything in the olympics or... ? ~g
[2011-04-01 13:14:11] - aaron: ok, in that respect I can agree with that. Football I think is the most complex. Football players have to be a lot more cerebal than people give them credit for. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:13:55] - aaron: curling? ~g
[2011-04-01 13:12:45] - Im a little bummed by google's april fools day gimmick... ~g
[2011-04-01 13:12:03] - what sport do you think is easier to pick up than baseball, to play at a professional level? - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:10:59] - i didn't think baseball is easy, all i said was that it was easier for someone to learn than soccer or hockey. i agree there's a lot of complexities to batting, baserunning, stuff like that, i just think that at its core there's not a lot of baseball-specific skills you need to be good at, physically, and that a lot of the decision-making is not in the players hands- aaron
[2011-04-01 13:09:07] - mig: yeah, i totally agree it's flawed, basing my argument on only two people. but i mean, playing at any two pro sports just seems so unusual to me. i can't imagine any football player being like, a pro hockey player, or a basketball player also playing pro soccer; it just seems like - what are the odds you're even a remotely competent skater? - aaron
[2011-04-01 13:09:03] - I don't agree on baseball being "easy" either. It takes a lot of pratice and repititon to be a good hitter (which is why pitchers even those with a repuataion for being good hitters aren't very good at it). Fielding for the most part is pretty easy to pick up, but arguable it is not the most important aspect of the game. - mig
[2011-04-01 13:05:51] - Bo Jackson was only 1 of 2 people to do both baseball and football at a very high level in the history of pro sports, honestly I think using to support your case is a bit flawed, because his case (and deion sanders, the other guy who did) is such an outlier. Also Jordan's venture into baseball was very short lived and not successful. - mig
[2011-04-01 12:59:34] - I feel like the easiest three are probably baseball, football, and basketball, just based on bo jackson/michael jordon or the number of players who have switched those three.... i feel like sports like soccer and hockey require immense amounts of training to be competent - aaron
[2011-04-01 12:57:34] - which sport do you think requires the most amount of learned skill, and which requires the least amount of learned skill? like, physical limitations aside - take someone who's currently in good shape and "built for the sport". i feel like soccer takes the most skill, and football takes the least. i know miguel vehemently disagrees - aaron
[2011-04-01 12:41:02] - I don't think I would have the same drive that I used to in terms of getting my work done, not saying I had a lot of drive back then but I wouldnt care much about not turning in hw... well maybe. ~g
[2011-04-01 12:40:27] - daniel: I guess I was thinking about how some people enroll in classes (college level) what if I re-enrolled in hs cause I wanted to keep learning and didnt have specific classes I wanted. ~g
[2011-04-01 12:39:44] - xpovos: and what would your wife say about that? ~g
[2011-04-01 11:50:13] - gurkie: I'd probably do about the same in high school. I slacked off enough on the courses I wasn't interested in back then, too. But the downside is that I probably wouldn't really learn anything new. I bet I'd be a whole lot better in the dating scene though. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-01 11:33:55] - gurkie: If we did HS again w/o the goal of getting into college? Its hard for me to consider doing HS again if we are assuming we're already college educated. -Daniel
[2011-04-01 11:22:24] - Paul: once you marry me, I bet I would contribute... and now everyone knows why you are marrying me. ~g
[2011-04-01 11:21:56] - do any of you ever wonder how you would do at hs now? I mean a lot of the stuff we did back then I wouldnt have interest in and wouldnt necessarily feel obligated to do as I already went to college and don't need another HS ed to go back. ~gurkie
[2011-04-01 11:06:13] - g: Generally they get paid to go to a college. Want to pay tuition to go to George Mason? -Paul
[2011-04-01 10:55:05] - paul: go to tj and Ill pay your tuition! ~g
[2011-04-01 10:26:58] - g: I'm an amateur e-athlete... doing it for love of the game (and hoping some rich booster will pay me money to go to their alma mater). -Paul
[2011-04-01 10:11:51] - g: Not unless I am getting paid and didn't know it. -Paul
[2011-04-01 09:45:56] - title: its like loaded questions but I dont have other questions to match to players which makes it a lot harder... ~g
[2011-04-01 09:45:04] - title: or adrian... but I think I will stick with aaron. ~g
[2011-04-01 09:44:50] - title: aaron? ~g
[2011-04-01 09:43:46] - daniel: does that make you all professional e-athletes? ~g
[2011-04-01 09:43:12] - xpovos: I think they had to have a windows version because apple products were not as popular then. The iPod really brought them back into the market in a major way, so they had to accomodate the largest user base. If they didnt the Zune? would have gained popularity. ~g
[2011-04-01 09:33:39] - Cool article about the rise of Starcraft as an 'E-Sport'. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/the-dawn-of-starcraft-e-sports-come-to-the-world-stage.ars/ -Daniel
[2011-03-31 13:25:46] - Then we get to start the whole thing over again in NJ. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-31 13:25:26] - mig: Judge made his ruling. They'll have the data needed for the next judge to make her ruling on jurisdiction on or before 4/11 and Hotz gets deposed in CA on 4/15. So, 4/15 or 4/16 we'll have it lined up and I'm suspecting based on the requests and what I know of the technical side of things that the discovery for jurisdiction will fail. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-31 13:03:14] - xpovos: that "is this california's jurisdiction?" bit was the last I had read on it, so it really hasn't gone past that? - mig
[2011-03-31 12:59:36] - mig: Even better is that this is all still just wrangling over jurisdiction and standing. Amazing. As a commentator on groklaw said, to my amusement, "Am I the only one who finds it strange when a company has to come to my house and search my stuff to find out whether or not the two of us have ever had a business agreement?". -- Xpovos
[2011-03-31 12:47:32] - xpovos: somewhat. it's getting rather zany in terms of the legal manueverings on both sides. - mig
[2011-03-31 12:25:03] - Anyone else following Sony v. Hotz? -- Xpovos
[2011-03-31 11:43:09] - g: I'm fairly surprised they have a Windows version. Also, disappointed. I'd love to get rid of it. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-31 11:08:51] - a: im surprised they dont have an android version of iTunes. ~g
[2011-03-31 10:11:01] - Vinnie: Yeah, I knew you checked fairly often, but Travis hasn't checked in years, I think, so you average out to not checking very often.
She was surprisingly opinionated on Stossel. I was surprised. -Paul[2011-03-31 09:27:46] - paul: me? I still check daily, most of the time. I think I heard a while ago that she was a libertarian. also a hottie - vinnie
[2011-03-31 09:01:59] - Xpovos: Yeah, I would really only expect Vinnie and Travis to get that reference, and I'm not sure how often either check this anymore. -Paul
[2011-03-31 08:28:55] - a: So, apparently no plans to launch Android versions of their bloated mp3 software? -- Xpovos
[2011-03-30 23:48:33] - "if you don't have an iphone, you don't have an ipod in your phone. and you don't have itunes on your phone." . . . well that is great news. i hope it isn't false advertising. ~a
[2011-03-30 16:56:05] - Paul: The Googlepedia knew. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-30 16:49:26] - Paul: What? Who? What? Ah, nevermind... Let Me Google That. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-30 16:41:32] - Friend or Foe people: I just saw Kennedy (the host of the show) on an episode of Stossel. Sounds like she's actually a bit of a libertarian. Who knew? -Paul
[2011-03-30 16:39:10] - Daniel: Seems like giving money to rebels with possible terrorist ties to Al Qaeda wouldn't be a great idea. Didn't work out too well in the past. -Paul
[2011-03-30 12:54:43] - http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2011/03/amazon-on-cloud-player-we-dont-need-no-stinkin-licenses.ars do users need a license to stream their own music off of amazon's cloud? kudos to amazon for standing up to the music industry like this - aaron
[2011-03-30 12:43:12] - daniel: if there was indeed a good case, our history books, news media, etc would certainly make sure we didn't forget about it. - mig
[2011-03-30 12:29:54] - mig: They've been considering it since the begining. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Arming random groups of people seems to not have a good track record but maybe I only know about the bad cases? But if the US wants Gadaffi gone w/o committing troops it seems like it could help towards that goal. But yeah seems dicey... -Daniel
[2011-03-30 12:11:04] - http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/30/arming.libya.rebels/ not very encouraging developments. - mig
[2011-03-30 10:49:34] - a: so play some more games, it shouldn't take much to get back up there. - mig
[2011-03-30 10:18:39] - When you get placed initially you start with 0 points, so if you get put in a division with a lot of players in it you're going to start at the bottom of it. - mig
[2011-03-30 09:56:10] - a: all I am saying is I bet it takes more than 1 game to come up with a good ranking... ~g
[2011-03-30 09:55:44] - a: maybe you need more than one game to get completely accurately placed... Like say you played the closest guy who happened to have previously been ranked 100 you beat him but your margin of winning was smaller than the margin that someone beat the guy in 80th... So that random guy who beat 80 might get ranked above you one 1... ~gurkie
[2011-03-29 23:27:41] - mig: that's odd. i was top 5 in gold. i did my placement match (won it) and now i'm not even top 50 in gold? wtf? ~a
[2011-03-29 17:05:30] - vinnie: after reading them, i noticed the really tiny text, and reread them all, which made me lol at "those are my shoes" a second time - aaron
[2011-03-29 16:15:00] - mig: I'll have to see if I can fit some playing it this week/weekend. Maybe I can trick the system into putting me into platinum again.
-Paul[2011-03-29 16:03:26] - aaron: "those are my shoes" made me lol - vinnie
[2011-03-29 15:55:30] - sc2 ladder season 2 has officially begun. - mig
[2011-03-29 15:53:20] - http://i.imgur.com/pmvpJ.jpg postal posters - aaron
[2011-03-29 15:40:24] - xpovos: yeah... amazon has adopted a very non-invasive DRM-free stance for their MP3 store. they have a downloader but it's optional, and all their stuff is MP3s. now that's either out of the goodness of their heart, or out of desparation to retain a competitive niche in a crowded market. either way, we'll see if they stick with it for this cloud stuff - aaron
[2011-03-29 15:21:17] - aaron: Sure. And that's more likely with the Android app. But presumably if you have your username and password combo it'll work for you. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 15:11:41] - xpovos: well, all he implied was they could encrypt data for each device accessing the cloud as a means for DRM. and he's right; they could encrypt it so that if you're accessing it from a PC, you have to decrypt it using their windows-specific decrypter or something zany - aaron
[2011-03-29 15:01:13] - a: I wouldn't normally agree with the statement encryption == DRM. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 14:39:03] - but yes, they could definitely do things like; sniff incoming/outgoing MP3s, match them up with some digital fingerprinting software, detect "hey i don't THINK you've paid for this so you can't store it" and stuff like that. but hey it's live, so just try it out, and if it's annoying don't use it - aaron
[2011-03-29 14:38:04] - a: well the way they're phrasing it, it sounds like it's literally "storage", in that if you want, you can download those MP3s to any machine you want. the player is just an extension of that basic storage capability. so if it's storage, any DRM would be much less effective - aaron
[2011-03-29 14:27:58] - well that's cool there is no drm. "I have no idea how it would work if they wanted to put DRM in" they could encrypt the data for each device accessing the cloud. i'm guessing that is what the ipod did. and what netflix does now? ~a
[2011-03-29 14:11:26] - I can't see any fine print, either. It looks like you get a $20 credit towards cloud storage for an Mp3 album, and they stack, so you could theoretically buy 10 albums between now and 12/31/2011 and have 20GB paid for until sometime in 2021. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 13:49:57] - augh! blue! - aaron
[2011-03-29 13:26:54] - from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/amazon-cloud-player-puts-your-music-on-the-web/2011/03/29/AFBJ5jsB_blog.html - aaron
[2011-03-29 13:26:46] - a: yeah it's all MP3s, you get 5 gigs of storage for free which gets bumped to 20 gigs if you buy an MP3 album from amazon. - aaron
[2011-03-29 13:20:44] - a: I found the info on and linked to from the main page of Amazon.com. AFAIK ther would be no DRM. I have no idea how it would work if they wanted to put DRM in. Aside from the whole mp3 licensing thing... -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 13:17:54] - a: http://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+cloud+music ? - aaron
[2011-03-29 13:10:35] - amazon already had a cloud service and an mp3 service, so i'm having trouble finding information on this. what's it called? also . . . is there any drm? ~a
[2011-03-29 13:08:10] - a: You own the music, it's just storage. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 12:03:23] - aaron/xpovos: how is it different from pandora? ~a
[2011-03-29 11:56:48] - xpovos: i hope it takes off, i really like the model netflix has been providing for movies/TV and i'd love for it to take off for other formats like music/video games - aaron
[2011-03-29 10:43:14] - Amazon has a new cloud drive/cloud mp3 player feature announced today. Looks interesting to me. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 10:36:06] - mig: Maybe if their matching algorithm was perfect. But it's not, and it can't be, because people's skill levels change. And in fact the change in skill level for me is what I care about more than anything else. So I'd like to see the number of losses, but I'm more interested in the quality of those losses improving. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-29 09:41:21] - a: well I think blizzard's rationale is that losses don't matter in terms of win/loss ratio, since they're matchmaking system is sort of designed to put you at roughly a 50% win ratio, so they felt the "losses" weren't too meanigful of a statistic, at least until you hit the league that's above diamond, in which case they will show the loss stats. - mig
[2011-03-28 23:34:33] - losses do matter, don't they? you still lose points when you have a loss. they're just hiding this information for some reason. it is odd that they make this change in the middle instead of before the game came out. i have mixed feelings about it i guess. ~a
[2011-03-28 16:07:06] - overall, i'm ambivalent about the change, though i still find the rationale for it odd. - mig
[2011-03-28 16:05:33] - hmmm, i just took a quick look at my profile on the bnet website and total games played seems to have been removed as welll. - mig
[2011-03-28 16:02:50] - mig: Interesting. I guess it's somewhat useless considering the divisions and how it matches people, but it does seem a bit odd. -Paul
[2011-03-28 15:59:47] - unless of course you just keep a mental note of how many games you lose in each ladder division. - mig
[2011-03-28 15:58:10] - you'll see total games played accross all your leagues, but not for each individual division. So if you only played 1v1s and nothing else, you can probably deduce your W/L ratio, but not otherwise. - mig
[2011-03-28 15:54:04] - mig: I'm confused, isn't that how it works now? It shows how many wins you have and how many total games, but not losses. Did they take away how many games you have played? -Paul
[2011-03-28 15:31:39] - s/encourge/discourage
[2011-03-28 15:30:58] - the concept that "losses don't matter". I'll be surprised if it works, but I find it strange? Does anybody here think it'd be something that would affect whether you'd play ladder or not? - mig
[2011-03-28 15:29:59] - so, there was supposadly a controversial change made in the sc2 patch last week that basically removes losses from your profile (you will see how many games you won, but not your total W/L record). Apparently the rationale for the change is too keep people from being too encourage people to either keep or to start playing on the ladder by trying to socially engineer ...
[2011-03-28 13:25:39] - paul: huskies are cute and all but... I think I will abstain from caring about the final four... ~g
[2011-03-28 11:31:43] - Gurkie: UConn's mascot is the Huskie, if that helps your decision at all. -Paul
[2011-03-28 11:25:21] - Stephen: but powder blue is one of my favorites... ~gurkie
[2011-03-28 11:22:53] - gurkie: They are mostly better (darker) shades of blue, like Duke
None of this powder blue UNC crap. - Stephen[2011-03-28 11:20:53] - stephen: you have to be kidding me??? 3 blue and white? Are they cute shades of blue??? Cause I like UNC's colors
~g[2011-03-28 11:15:33] - Gurkie: UConn is blue & white, UK is blue & white, Butler is blue & white, and VCU is black & gold. So basically you're stuck cheering for VCU since everyone else has similar colors (the shades of blue aren't identical). - Stephen
[2011-03-28 11:11:26] - Well, I'm still a little bitter about VCU getting into the tournament to begin with, so I'll probably be pulling them to lose. - mig
[2011-03-28 11:01:07] - title: often it isnt your job to make things better, and you have to accept that things arent better. ~gurkie
[2011-03-28 11:00:33] - Stephen: who has the cutest team colors? ~gurkie
[2011-03-28 10:57:41] - So who is everyone cheering for next weekend? I'm hoping that whoever wins the VCU-Butler game takes it all, with a preference for VCU. I can't really stomach the thought of UConn winning, but that leaves me with UK, so I'm at a loss there. - Stephen
[2011-03-25 14:47:30] - Paul: I don't know that I could quantify it but sure it factors in. -Daniel
[2011-03-25 14:37:18] - Daniel: How much does whether or not a "large percentage" of Syrians (or Libyans) want us to intervene or whether or not the Arab League wants us to intervene affect your thinking on the matter? -Paul
[2011-03-25 14:24:26] - Paul: This was my point the other day where there seems to be a specturm with the holocaust on one end and death penalty(state killing only one person?) on the other end of government violence towards its populace. At some point its ok/tolerable. At some point its not. Where you decide the switch is seems to vary by person. -Daniel
[2011-03-25 14:22:40] - Paul: I don't think Syria sounds the same as Libya to me yet. It sounds more like Tunisia and Egypt so far where some people died but it wasn't cities of people being bombed, shelled, or having tanks sent at them. Once we get to that point in Syria I'll reevaluate. -Daniel
[2011-03-25 14:02:34] - Stephen: I wasn't saying has made that argument, just asking what people thought. I will say, though, that I feel like the statements Daniel has made would indicate that he feels like "disregard for protesters' lives" is sufficient. -Paul
[2011-03-25 13:56:28] - want "it", not want in. - Stephen
[2011-03-25 13:56:18] - Paul: Does a large percentage of Syrians want in? What does the Arab League say? You're making it sound like disregard for protesters' lives was a necessary and sufficient condition for bombing a country, and I don't think anyone has made that argument. - Stephen
[2011-03-25 13:46:58] - http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/25/syria.unrest/index.html?hpt=T1 "Syria's security forces are showing the same cruel disregard for protesters' lives as their counterparts in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain". Who's ready to bomb Syria? -Paul
[2011-03-25 12:35:02] - But you are right about the housing stuff. - Stephen
[2011-03-25 12:34:40] - Xpovos: My game show winnings don't show up in taxes til next year
- Stephen[2011-03-25 12:33:13] - it is fun to me! that bit more extra money over the course of the year can make me a bit MORE extra money over the course of the year . . . and again, like recursively. ~a
[2011-03-25 12:31:39] - cause then i get a big random payment in april? /shrug I understand your point but having a bit more extra money over the course of the year isn't as fun to me. -Daniel
[2011-03-25 12:09:13] - daniel: NO. refunds are payment on tax-free loans you make to the government. why would you want that? ~a
[2011-03-25 12:04:19] - I owe taxes this year
Apparently Andrea and I were still claiming an exemption each and shouldn't have been. Refunds are so much more fun. -Daniel[2011-03-25 11:42:52] - Stephen: Yeah, I used to owe additional taxes pretty consistently until I bought my house. I changed my w-4 withholdings but apparently not by enough, as I still get a fairly sizeable refund every year. -Paul
[2011-03-25 11:40:28] - Stephen: Also, I don't have game-show winnings messing up my w-4 withholdings. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-25 11:40:05] - Stephen: I've had to in previous years, I owed VA state tax last year, e.g. But I bought a house last year, so that kind of trumps most situations where I'd owe a small amount of tax. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-25 11:38:18] - aaron - I don't see why you can't be taught to 'learn to learn' in a conventional language. I was forced to use ocaml in college, and I can't say I learned much from it. My bigger gripe is the hubris of these educators to say that OO programming is purely "optional". How many companies will be jumping at hiring someone who doesn't know OO in 4 years? - Matt
[2011-03-25 11:33:27] - I must be the only person who still has to pay additional taxes. - Stephen
[2011-03-25 11:21:23] - Xpovos: I got mine a few weeks ago. I imagine it'll be quite helpful when some of these wedding bills come due. -Paul
[2011-03-25 10:17:01] - Huzzah for tax refunds. Mine posted today. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-25 09:29:06] - so in regards to that i think it's cool for intro classes to use some crazy obscure language. i think my first three languages were basic, logo, and QBasic, in that order; not the most practical intro languages but it's not really the language that's important. you just want something simple for an intro class; the less powerful the better - aaron
[2011-03-25 09:28:01] - daniel: yeah i learned a lot of weird languages like prolog and scheme; i think the biggest gain from that, was learning to learn. understanding that not every language uses the same boolean operators, not every language ignores whitespace, not every language has variables, and stuff like that. comes up a lot in the real world - aaron
[2011-03-25 09:13:27] - a: I learned haskell in college. I'm not sure I would remember anything about it now though. I had to make a program that would give a solution move set for towers of hanoi for however many disks you told it to start wtih. If you gave it a number like over 10 it would take hours to run I think. -Daniel
[2011-03-25 08:59:35] - lol, "politicians should wear jumpsuits like NASCAR drivers so we can see their corporate sponsors". that would be nice - aaron
[2011-03-24 18:51:31] - gurkie: No, it is from a song. -title
[2011-03-24 17:48:08] - i like functional programming languages and think it's cool when CS students get exposure to them. i'm surprised they didn't pick haskell though since it seems like the language that CSey people like. ~a
[2011-03-24 17:12:10] - Daniel: Precisely. Death Penalty is probably the single biggest point within the scope of that question, but warfare fits in too. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 17:06:11] - xpovos: yeah i agree with daniel. there's a reason why there's like 9 supreme court justices and why juries have 12 people, i think it's really important to have multiple heads in the game for anything of that importance - aaron
[2011-03-24 16:57:13] - Depending on your feelings on vigilantes then law enforcement / death penalty (big can of worms, I know, not sure if it counts as 'moral' but something our society does) spring to mind as things that our society does but frowns on individuals doing. -Daniel
[2011-03-24 16:54:32] - Back to the debate, and interestingly coincident with the recent critique of Candidate Obama declaring what President Bush did inappropriate, only to do the same thing himself--there is a fundamental question of government of people by people. When is it moral for a group of people to do something that a single person cannot? -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 16:48:45] - Ah CMU... You break my heart... WHY will intro CS classes be taught in SML??? http://existentialtype.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/teaching-fp-to-freshmen/ okay so its totally not the point of the link, BUT it bothers me ~gurkie
[2011-03-24 15:30:44] - Daniel: The next time lack of money stops Obama from doing something would be the first, IMHO.
-Paul[2011-03-24 15:04:31] - 159 fired from all sources (U.S./U.K.) so far. (wikipedia sources CNN). -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 14:59:58] - gurkie: Totally, unfortunately, we have all these security issues... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_cruise_missile Pretty cool, honestly. All declass, of course. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 14:57:22] - daniel: ah, I didn't understand that the UN would be maintaining the NFZ after... That makes more sense. ~gurkie
[2011-03-24 14:56:05] - maybe we should make them in china... it will be cheaper
~gurkie[2011-03-24 14:55:47] - xpovos: WOW those are expensive weapons... ~gurkie
[2011-03-24 14:26:37] - Daniel: According to a news report I heard the other day the Pentagon says it can pay for $1B out of cashflow, after that it needs to ask Congress for additional funding. Several $0.75M Tomahawk Cruise missles and a $40M jet later, we're well on our way to that total. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 14:13:24] - mig: I can undestand the concern but I don't think we will stay (hope we don't?) to long. Obama won't have the $ to stay long. -Daniel
[2011-03-24 14:11:57] - gurkie/xpovos: Yeah its the not the rebels its like France/Britain/Qutar/Italy other UN peeps who are supposed to maintain it. We are just supposed to use our kickass-ness to go in first and f up their planes/radar/AA guns to make it so the Ghaddfi can't really stop the other people from enforcing the NFZ. -Daniel
[2011-03-24 13:01:34] - daniel: certainly that is possilbiity. I would like to think France/UK/whoever else is still there would be capable of making sure Qaddafi doesn't advance more on the opposition, and the US may leave as scheduled. I have a suspicion, though that the US may be reluctant to leave until the opposition starts making some headway in their goal of removing qaddafi. - mig
[2011-03-24 12:55:12] - gurkie: This is where the facts I don't know come into play. I thought we enforced our NFZ through some counter-air strikes on their planes. If they still have a significant air force, then my point is refuted pretty strongly. If we did in fact essentially eliminate their air force, though... -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 12:53:20] - daniel: not entirely sure I understand, when we leave we give the libyans our stuff to maintain the NFZ? ~gurkie
[2011-03-24 12:47:43] - gurkie: I think the idea is that american stuff (planes/missiles) 'degrades' their ability to prevent a NFZ then its supposed to be up to others to maintain it. Thats how I understand it. -Daniel
[2011-03-24 12:42:25] - xpovos: i think mig's point was more that we are stuck there because once we leave qaddafi can go back in and kill everyone... Unless somehow the no fly zone would be in affect without our presence? ~gurkie
[2011-03-24 12:14:30] - mig: To play devil's advocate, at least he won't be able to do that by means of air strikes like he has been. It'll be a 'fairer' fight. Which probably just means a higher death toll overall, but at least the 'good guys' can put up resistance. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 12:14:30] - a: Ah, good. Very useful, thanks. I don't know how others feel, but I think the numbers seem a little unremarkable considering the talk about massacres going on. The opposition has lost about 3 times as many people, but you would probably expect that since they are outgunned. -Paul
[2011-03-24 12:11:05] - since there's the fear once we leave and the situation is still the same, qaddafi will just march in and slaughter everyone. - mig
[2011-03-24 12:10:27] - Daniel: To answer your point about my 'immutable right/correct" earlier. I do agree. There is one best option for every situation, there may be other good options as well, but we should choose the best. We may not for a wide variety of reasons, including lack of knowledge, but that doesn't preclude the existence of that one best response. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 12:09:03] - Vinnie: I think part of the problem is that we took something we all admittedly only know a fraction of the story about and turned it into a moral/hypothetical argument when we realized that we were coming at the problem from different angles. It's very logical, but rife with antagonism. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 12:08:48] - in Libya unless something drastic happens. - mig
[2011-03-24 12:08:31] - daniel: the problem is now there seemed to have been an underlying assumption that once we stopped the libyan military from advancing that the rebels would start making advances and that we'd be out in a week. That hasn't happened, and now we have a stalemate between the 2 forces. If the US goal is to simply keep civilians from being slaughtered, we seem to be committed
[2011-03-24 12:08:05] - I was against the Iraq warfare, and am even on record on the message board for that one. Go me. I'm for the Afghan warfare. I was for it before, but I've become ever more in favor of it the more I've learned about the situation and it's complicated history with U.S. intervention. -- Xpovos
[2011-03-24 12:06:20] - Paul: There's definitely uncertainty about the type of government that would arise, you're right. And there are tribal divisions, but they all speak the same language, belong to the same faith, are of the same ethnicity, and have a shared history. "Tribe" in this context isn't the same as Native American tribes. - Stephen
[2011-03-24 12:05:24] - paul: Casualties of the 2011 Libyan uprising. ~a
[2011-03-24 12:01:16] - I think I would oppose moving into Libya like we have in Afgan and Iraq and really if we are still doing stuff in Libya like next week I'll start to be less ok with it. However for the short term bombing tanks on a highway so they don't obliterate people I'm ok with. -Daniel
[2011-03-24 12:00:24] - Paul: Back from meetings! I think Libya is different because we aren't trying to change the regime. We would like the regime to change. However thats not what our military is doing. Its destroying tanks, planes, artillery, type stuff so that they are used to obilterate a large portion of the Libyan population. -Daniel
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