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[2011-04-27 10:49:09] - a: Yes, even if I could prove it, it's legal. We're afforded a lot of discretion with respect to hiring laws. And there's no way I could prove it. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-27 10:46:29] - oh no! is that discrimination? assuming you're right (and somehow could prove it), is that legal? ~a
[2011-04-27 10:42:11] - g: No, not unless you consider the religious (as you noted before) side of affirmative action, I guess. My previous (and I guess still current, though he's gone now) boss was a priest. My new boss will be a deacon. The fact that I'm not a religious may well be a factor in the reason I was passed over. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-27 10:08:42] - and if you would rather not say on here, I can understand that and I will stop querying... ~g
[2011-04-27 10:08:17] - xpovos: is it similar though, in that this guy got the job cause of affirmative action more than anything else? ~g
[2011-04-26 21:58:57] - a: Not even to my location. Several of our departments have female heads, but no, my new boss is another guy. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-26 17:04:01] - having a female boss isn't alien to most offices. ~a
[2011-04-26 16:48:28] - xpovos: for some reason and Im not sure why I got the feeling the new boss is female... and I get the feeling thats why you think she got the job. But I could be inputting my own biases as I looked for what made me think that and couldnt find anything. ~g
[2011-04-26 16:35:16] - a: im guessing religious... But I dont know that I would say religious intrigue is that different from political, just another aspect of political intrigue... But it might be completely different. ~g
[2011-04-26 16:15:23] - what kind of intrigue? ~a
[2011-04-26 15:55:32] - g: Probably true. But the problem with my particular organization and it's structure is that it doesn't lend itself well to certain kinds of office intrigue, because that is overcome so completely by a completely different kind, alien to most offices. And that intrigue actually does explain (maybe) why the other person got the job. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-26 15:43:45] - primarily cause I didnt think I should have to constantly brag about myself, but apparently sometimes its necessary so that people will realize your value... This could be more related to consulting where everyone is on their own projects and are often unaware of what others are doing though. ~g
[2011-04-26 15:42:42] - I understand you feeling accountable to others in the office, but it is your bosses' bosses job to know who is needed and why. If they arent recognizing it they are probably undervaluing you which you should try to fix. One year my review stated that I didnt sell my successes within the company enough, which I was surprised by. ~g
[2011-04-26 15:39:52] - xpovos: its possible that if you stated why you wanted to leave they would reconsider... then again they might not and you could be in an undesirable position... Im really sorry, that isnt fun. ~g
[2011-04-26 15:37:47] - a: Yeah, it was on my mind when I was first notified. But I'm kinda stuck in some golden handcuffs for a while. Plus I'd feel bad if I just stormed out in a huff and burned bridges and let the entire office burn to the ground with them. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-26 15:29:32] - anon: so now will you consider changing jobs? also, who are you?
~a[2011-04-26 15:09:28] - g: It's complicated, but my boss is leaving and they're replacing him with a greenhorn. Which is bad on so many levels. I liked my boss. And if he couldn't stay, and they did want to promote me, the least they could do is hire someone with the right skill set.
[2011-04-26 14:52:44] - anon: I dont think I get your statement... you were passed over for promotion, or you know you will be? In which case how do you know and that sucks, I am sorry... ~g
[2011-04-26 14:15:56] - anon: huh? ~g
[2011-04-26 13:08:20] - Passed over for promotion in ... six days.
[2011-04-26 11:29:17] - mig: I think that's how I see it. The customer is within their rights to sue, but it seems a bit petty, so I feel like Best Buy's petty action of banning him from their stores is fitting. -Paul
[2011-04-26 10:18:50] - I can understand BB's position under a certain set of circumstances. If for example, BB offered to settle (I find it hard to believe they wouldn't try to do so), and this guy was just being a vindictive fuck and refusing any sort of deal and just hauled them to court, I could understand it. If he's being petty about it, they get petty in return. - mig
[2011-04-26 10:04:11] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dqKZhYRW0U
[2011-04-25 16:38:17] - Paul: giving the repair for free is going to possibly get an employee in trouble, getting sued and the publicity might make them rethink their policy beyond just yelling at someone. But I could be wrong. ~g
[2011-04-25 16:35:20] - g: I feel like that probably was already accomplished when they gave them the repair for free. I'm guessing somebody got into hot water for losing $100+ of repair fees (assuming it was a mistake on somebody's part). -paul
[2011-04-25 16:33:59] - Xpovos: I can kinda see Best Buy's point, though. From their point of view, this person came into their store looking to get something fixed. There was some misunderstanding. BB fixed it, and then the customer didn't want to pay. Because there was a misunderstanding, BB let them have the repair for free. Then they got sued. -Paul
[2011-04-25 16:33:45] - Paul: if something like this happens often enough they will be stricter about enforcing their policies with their employees and hold them responsible for not following procedures. Or if this gets enough news attention which I kind of doubt. ~g
[2011-04-25 16:32:16] - g: I'm just not so sure this is going to change any Best Buy practices. It's hard to say since we don't have their side, but it sounds like this was probably more of a mistake on an individual employee's part rather than some top-level corporate strategy. -Paul
[2011-04-25 16:00:14] - After an experience like that, banning seems unnecessary since in most cases the person will carry on a grudge and a personal boycott of some sort for a while at least. But in the end, this is a bad PR situation for BB that's getting worse. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-25 15:17:52] - Paul: nothing is going to change without someone making it obvious that things need to change. Additionally the fact the guy had to act like a jerk in order to get it resolved in a satisfactory manner means that the company wasnt honestly trying to fix the mistake just trying to make the problem go away.~g
[2011-04-25 14:54:06] - g: I think it's within their right to sue, but I felt like it was needlessly escalating the situation. Best Buy made a mistake, and I felt like it was resolved in a satisfactory manner (customer got a free repair, even if it took forever). Why the need to sue on top? -Paul
[2011-04-25 14:50:06] - aaron: Yeah, I am always a little leery when I hear customer service horror stories for huge companies that I've always had perfectly acceptable interactions with. Seems like even the best big company is going to have to occasional problem. -Paul
[2011-04-25 14:28:39] - Paul: I dont mind the banning or the sueing... A lot of people in the comments think this guy shouldnt have sued. I feel like having people sue you for bad practices is a risk of practicing business especially on the scale that Best Buy does. ~g
[2011-04-25 14:21:17] - that said, yeah, it sounds like best buy had some serious communication issues with this particular customer, all big companies like that have customer service horror stories here and there. the bigger question is whether that represents an average user's experience in which case that's obviously terrible - aaron
[2011-04-25 14:19:39] - paul: yeah, it's fully within their right. i don't think best buy was trying to be punitive, i think they just do it to protect themselves from individuals who might otherwise exploit the same flaws to keep getting money/winning settlements - aaron
[2011-04-25 13:38:36] - http://consumerist.com/2011/04/customer-catches-best-buy-breaking-law-gets-banned-from-store.html Wondering what people think about this story. Obviously Best Buy was in the wrong (for a number of reasons), but I actually don't have much of a problem with them banning this guy from the store. -Paul
[2011-04-25 11:43:22] - hmm... urine as a replacement for gas would be interesting... Its not too hard to get and if you are a guy hopefully you will be able to refill easily... ~g
[2011-04-25 11:12:03] - title: what sort of portal should I leverage, liferay, jboss epp, jive, sharepoint?? ~g
[2011-04-25 11:08:02] - Actually from the comments it says you get a coupon for the game and if you all show up together at will call can get seats together... So I might just buy some and post the link so you guys can chose to also buy if you are interested. ~g
[2011-04-25 10:17:19] - games that are offered are May 4th and July 20th. I am of the opinion that May 4th is easier to plan for since its soon... ~g
[2011-04-25 10:14:58] - GroupOn has a deal for tickets to a DC United game... I have never seen a pro soccer game, unless Boca Juniors in Argentina counts... But I am interested in going, anyone else? ~g
[2011-04-25 09:12:42] - Stephen: Steve Jobs punched Sid Meier once in a college frat party, peed in his gas tank, and briefly dated his mom. Things were just never the same after that. -Daniel
[2011-04-25 09:04:29] - Daniel: I like them a lot, but apparently Civ 5 does not play well with Macs at all. I realize most gamers have PCs, but BioWare does a good job making their games Mac-compatible, so why not Firaxis? - Stephen
[2011-04-25 08:50:29] - Stephen: Yeah you could probably watch for it to be on sale at some point on steam and try to grab it on the cheap. Its not a bad game but its not without its flaws. Depends on how much you like Civ games in general I think. -Daniel
[2011-04-25 08:29:07] - Daniel: Sounds disappointing. Between those reviews and then the Mac-specific problems I've been reading about, I guess I'm going to have to give Civ 5 a pass
- Stephen[2011-04-22 18:14:43] - Vinnie: "a more useful study might be looking into why gas prices are high but oil companies are doing so well right now" I'm not sure I understand your point. It seems to me that high gas prices are a reason gas companies are doing so well... -Paul
[2011-04-22 16:26:19] - another review for you http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/whatwentwrong.html
[2011-04-22 16:25:05] - Long winded review that compares Civ 4 and 5 - http://www.gamepad-dojo.com/?p=3256 -Daniel
[2011-04-22 16:22:57] - run. Empire building is also kind of out of wack in this one. I don't remember it all exactly, you can try to google some reviews, but they way they tried to control just building cities everywhere turned out to make you want to just build small cities everywhere I think. So it can be a fun civ game but its not a must buy. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 16:21:13] - Stephen: If you are a big Civ fan its worth it to get and play cause its still Civ and can still be fun. That said there are definitely some things that didn't go right in it. The AI is hella dumb. You can only have 1 unit per tile now and the computer just doesn't know how to do that well. As a human, you'll figure it out. This makes combat kinda dumb in the long...
[2011-04-22 15:44:11] - they also provide a lot of benefits to having a small, tightly-controller empire of only 3 or 4 cities; i think that's actually a viable way to play/win the game now. for guys like me who usually play these games diplomatically, i was pleased with the amount of different peaceful ways to play the game - aaron
[2011-04-22 15:40:46] - i found the micromanagement less annoying than other turn-based strategy games too. there's a resource-incentive to letting your cities "think for themselves" in which case they build whatever the hell they feel like. so in one of my games, i had a 20-30 city empire where i was only really controlling 3 cities. - aaron
[2011-04-22 15:39:00] - stephen: i can't compare it to Civ 4 but i can compare it to master of orion and alpha centauri. battles include much fewer units (having 6 units is like, an armada) and the introduction of "city states" makes diplomacy more interesting. there are a lot of small graphical/performance/gameplay bugs, although maybe they've cleaned some of them up. - aaron
[2011-04-22 14:49:27] - How does Civ 5 compare to Civ 4? I think it was just released for Macs, and I'm tempted to purchase it. - Stephen
[2011-04-22 14:40:01] - Er...I think I screwed up that sentence, but I'm sure you can parse it
- Stephen[2011-04-22 14:38:44] - xpovos: What Gurkie said. As someone who preferred the social sciences, TJ was often a very lonely place for me, academically-speaking. - Stephen
[2011-04-22 14:26:03] - also the only civ game I have played is revolutions which is on xbox 360... I dont remember Adam Smith being in there... Although if he was one of the famous people in it I probably wouldnt bother remembering... ~g
[2011-04-22 14:24:47] - joking... ~g
[2011-04-22 14:24:39] - xpovos: we went to a science high school... we didnt take history ~g
[2011-04-22 13:14:58] - xpovos: i can't find a source, sorry. ~a
[2011-04-22 13:11:05] - Daniel: Ok, that's acceptable at least. I mean there are lots of guys I've 'heard of' in plenty of fields I don't follow. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-22 13:07:39] - a: Yeah I mean I remember him coming up in school at some point but probably the reason I remember him is because of Civilization. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 13:06:41] - You guys make me weep for our educational system. I mean, granted, we're like cramming both of my expertises together here, but, c'mon. Didn't you guys have to read (or at least read about in history classes) Wealth of Nations in high school? -- Xpovos
[2011-04-22 13:04:55] - daniel: yeah i wouldn't have known who adam smith was if it weren't for civilization.
~a[2011-04-22 13:01:25] - I can go along with that. The cure for high gas prices are high gas prices. One of the reasons we're so dependent on fossil fuels is that there has been no reason to be otherwise. It will cripple our economy short-term, but be better for us long-term as we're forced to innovate better (and probably healthier) energy solutions. But short of Shipstones, we're stuck. - Xpovos
[2011-04-22 12:39:34] - a: yes i agree, personally i want gas prices to go up because i want there to be a natural free-market forces driving the expansion of the DC metro/mass transit systems. even if it makes my life a little worse for the short term - aaron
[2011-04-22 12:38:11] - daniel: but, i think that yes, if gas was 5 or 6 bucks a gallon it would motivate a lot of people to change their lifestyle or habits - aaron
[2011-04-22 12:36:15] - daniel: my break-even point for the metro (money wise) is around $7.50 a gallon. metroing into work sucks when you don't live or work near a metro station - aaron
[2011-04-22 12:35:04] - Maybe this is one of those things I know because of Civilzation (the pc game)... -Daniel
[2011-04-22 12:34:15] - g: you don't know who adam smith is? I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just surprised. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 12:25:39] - xpovos: well thats quite a thought... although I bet it would make more sense if I knew who adam smith was... ~g
[2011-04-22 11:21:08] - a: Cite a source for your 'gas companies are colluding'. The market appears to be functioning in a fashion that would give Adam Smith wet dreams. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-22 11:10:17] - since the gas companies are colluding it's hard for the gas prices to stabilize. after it's all said and done, though, i'm happy gas prices have gone up (and i hope they go up even more) because now more people are going to be forced to find better ways of powering my electric car of the future. ~a
[2011-04-22 11:08:04] - daniel: there are a lot of commodities like that. if the price of food went up, would you still keep buying food? of course. that's not the point, with healthy competition, food prices can stay low even though there are lots of people who will buy food at any price. the problem is we don't have any healthy competition with gas prices. ~a
[2011-04-22 10:52:51] - daniel: mostly because whenever gas prices rise by a signficant amount people in government officials wag their fingers in dissapproval and threaten some sort of retaliatory legal action (like what's happening now and what happened post-katrina). - mig
[2011-04-22 10:49:19] - I think gas companies are doing well because they've discovered they can keep raising the price and people will keep buying. I'm surprised they don't just keep raising the price until people actually buy less then back off that a bit more. I mean would you all suddenly stop driving to work if gas was 5 bucks a gallon? 6? I'd still drive. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 10:43:51] - a: yeah, I think that's the point of a study, most likely. maybe I'm wrong and the finding would be trivial, but a more useful study might be looking into why gas prices are high but oil companies are doing so well right now - vinnie
[2011-04-22 10:39:41] - is it legal (or should it be legal) to hide the fact that you are withholding a commodity to generate a worldwide panic to run up demand for the commodity? ~a
[2011-04-22 10:25:30] - I would also throw in: "Create a situation of perpetual war in a middle-eastern country"
-Paul[2011-04-22 10:25:01] - Although I do think Reason had a good quote, "Here's your federal energy policy: Do nothing significant to increase domestic supply, create future mandates to have XX% of future supply come from magical green leprechauns, then when prices (surprise!) go up, you know what to do: Blame the 'speculators'". -Paul
[2011-04-22 10:24:14] - I posted this question on an article Miguel shared, but I'm really curious as to what kind of "manipulation" and "fraud" (words used by Obama) they expect to find. Is it illegal to sell gas higher than a certain price or to produce less all of a sudden? -Paul
[2011-04-22 10:22:37] - On the gas issue I'm with Stephen. I don't think there is really anything we can 'do' about high gas prices. Its a commodity a billion+ people consume daily with that number only going up. Coupled with the events Stephen listed, its not going to stay cheap. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 10:21:03] - g: Andrea and I are planning on playing tonight though we might be a little late cause she has a dance lesson that ends at 7:30. -Daniel
[2011-04-22 10:15:35] - also, my office is super quiet I think no one might be here. ~g
[2011-04-22 10:15:07] - who wants to play poker tonight? ~g
[2011-04-22 10:09:15] - I think Americans need to quit bitching and face the fact that we've spent the last sixty years cultivating lifestyles that assumed that gas would always be plentiful and cheap, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. - Stephen
[2011-04-22 10:08:05] - aaron: I dont know what the reality of the situation is but what you said is "what can be done about rising gas prices" where as xpovos said "why gas prices are high" I think there is a difference in study there. ~g
[2011-04-22 10:07:38] - aaron: Personally, it seems like a trivial question, or a no brainer. Prices of all commodities rise and fall, it's just that fluctuations in gas prices are likeliest to be passed on to the consumer. Increased demand + unrest in the Middle East + last year's BP spill = expensive. - Stephen
[2011-04-22 10:04:48] - i don't remember GWB doing much about gas prices except for declaring a war iraq (which made them better) and a war on new orleans (which made them worse) - aaron
[2011-04-22 10:03:36] - i mean he's already signed off on bills to do stuff like increase public transportation/high speed rail/alternative energy, and now he's looking to see what can be done about rising gas prices. on paper it seems like his approach to fossil fuel dependence is pretty sound - aaron
[2011-04-22 10:01:50] - what would you do if you were president? i guess maybe i'd look to see if there were any pre-existing studies which were conducted, and try to duplicate the results they found. or do you think it's just too trivial of a question to even warrant a study? - aaron
[2011-04-22 09:59:14] - Its totally the hybird's fault... as more hybrids are produced less gas will be needed by cars so the gas companies have to raise the prices in order to keep their businesses from collapsing thereby forcing them to lay a bunch of people off... we dont want unemployment rates going up do we? ~g
[2011-04-22 08:40:26] - xpovos: well he can't blame it on the greedy oil companies just yet. He just needs a biased committee to come up with that pre-determined conclusion first. - mig
[2011-04-21 20:45:01] - So, President Obama is going to commission a study looking at why gas prices are 'high'. I know that probably plays well to people not like me, but to me it's about the stupidest thing I've heard. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-21 20:43:53] - Stephen: It was part of my mother's sci-fi book discussion group. Awkward! We managed to skirt that mostly. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-21 15:16:44] - Xpovos: I liked them a lot, even though I'm not usually a fan of sci fi with unusual sex elements. - Stephen
[2011-04-21 15:06:40] - plus starting with step 3 ensures i'll see any existing conversations - aaron
[2011-04-21 15:06:04] - a: yeah i usually do step 3 first, and usually nobody cares - aaron
[2011-04-21 14:41:21] - Stephen: Good books. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-21 14:24:44] - one alternative route is skipping directly to step 3. i'll do this if i think i'm going to have my edit undone. the problem with skipping directly to step 3 is sometimes people won't reply. ~a
[2011-04-21 14:21:54] - vinnie: 1. make sure you have a new source for your change that agrees with what you're saying (WP:V) 2. explain yourself in the edit summary. 3. be prepared for your change to be undone. if this happens you'll just need to take it to the talk page. ~a
[2011-04-21 14:19:26] - vinnie: so yeah, hypothetically if you were still interested in making the change, my recommendation would be: omg, this is actually a well sourced sentence. since you think the source is wrong, you are now talking about a non-trivial change. ~a
[2011-04-21 13:35:43] - Vinnie speaks the truth! I learned some of the names of the modes of music in this odd sci-fi trilogy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaea_Trilogy - Stephen
[2011-04-21 13:31:13] - vinnie: You're making my brain hurt. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-21 12:39:01] - vinnie: you made that word up!! stop vandalizing wikipedia - aaron
[2011-04-21 12:01:43] - a: ok I take it back. I see why they put it in B major. The song is in Gb or F# mixolydian which works out to B-major - vinnie
[2011-04-21 11:51:43] - a: hm, to complicate things, I see that they referenced the sheet music which lists it as B major, but I seriously think that's wrong... - vinnie
[2011-04-21 11:48:02] - a: pretty sure that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_This_Way_(song) is in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-flat_major . should I just fix the article or post on the talk page or what? - vinnie
[2011-04-21 10:12:47] - vinnie: that's cool of her to change her mind i guess! but it's probably too late for weird al to release it as a single. we'll see! - aaron
[2011-04-21 09:25:24] - aaron: the comments mentioned that she already reversed her decision on it and it has been approved. or there was some mix-up and she had never actually heard it, it was just her manager who rejected it - vinnie
[2011-04-20 18:36:11] - http://alyankovic.wordpress.com/the-gaga-saga/ lady gaga rejected weird al's parody of "born this way" after forcing him to record the song - aaron
[2011-04-20 17:36:13] - although it's possible i just like, absorbed that from some anti-drug episode of Rugrats or something and it's totally disreputable - aaron
[2011-04-20 17:34:25] - i'm surprised solvents is so low on the physical harm scale. i thought that was like, one of those things were you had an X% of dying every time you did it, and nobody could really say if it would be your first use or your fifth use or what. and i thought it actually like, destroyed brain cells every time you did it - aaron
[2011-04-20 16:33:32] - alcohol is more addictive than weed. so is nicotine. i wouldnt be surprised if caffeine was too. File:Rational scale to assess the harm of drugs (mean physical harm and mean dependence).svg ~a
.svg){kind=link}
[2011-04-20 15:56:38] - g: alcohol on some level i guess has addictive properties but I don't think it's really on the same level as something like cocaine or nicotine. - mig
[2011-04-20 15:51:42] - daniel: ok, I was curious because your comparison between alcohol and pot was very high level and didnt delve into the addictive aspect. Even though alcohol is supposed to be pretty addictive right? did you see game of thrones? ~g
[2011-04-20 15:50:37] - also apparently DC is trying to allow online poker as part of the lottery program... ~g
[2011-04-20 15:48:15] - G: I think the more addictive ones we should be more careful with but unless there are facts floating out there I don't know I'm not aware of pot being more addictive than regular smoking / alcohol. Whereas I've heard that doing heroin once can be enough to addict you. So no I'm not for legalizing all but its hard for me to draw distinctions b/w pot and alcohol. -Daniel
[2011-04-20 15:44:48] - wow when you guys said major poker sites I didnt realize that they were basically the only poker sites I know of... thats pretty crazy. ~g
[2011-04-20 15:43:52] - daniel: people still take government propaganda of marijuana as fact unfortunately. - mig
[2011-04-20 15:42:06] - Daniel: by that logic a lot of things should be legal... Are you for the legalization of all drugs? Cause I think you could make that case for quite a few of them if not all of them... ~g
[2011-04-20 15:39:54] - a: i didnt get your joke. I think I might now... but... im not 100% positive ~g
[2011-04-20 15:39:52] - My opinion on pot is that I don't get how its different than alcohol. Its not especially healthy for you but its not going to kill you straight up. You shouldn't be operating heavy machinery under the influence of either. Both shouldn't be used by kids. Ones legal and ones not. Seems odd. -Daniel
[2011-04-20 15:38:10] - title: I didnt click on the link. I don't think I have an opinion on the legality issue, I do have an opinion on the state v. federal conflicting laws. I also have an opinion on 12 yr olds breaking laws. ~g
[2011-04-20 15:36:56] - Paul: Right, which is why its dumb and we should just make it legal and all go about our lives but I do understand on some level why it drew the attention of DoJ. -Daniel
[2011-04-20 14:36:23] - Daniel: Yeah, I'm pretty sure they "had" to do that since the US made it illegal to legally process funds for online poker. Not necessarily trying to make excuses, but I don't think they were money laundering because they wanted to.
-Paul[2011-04-20 13:22:28] - but its still dumb and should just be legal. -Daniel
[2011-04-20 13:22:18] - Last time I played online you had to go through 3rd party companies where you transfer your $ from US bank to this other internet payment company (like paypal but not in the US) that would then transfer $ to the poker site. Apparently they were trying to get around that and I think thats what got them in trouble. -Daniel
[2011-04-20 13:20:43] - -Daniel
[2011-04-20 13:20:40] - mig: I think its dumb that they are cracking down on Poker but what I heard on npr about it didn't make the poker guys sound good. They were faking documents so that US banks thought transactions were for golf balls or jewelry which is bad since that is basically money laundering and that one of them had been just straight up bribing a smaller bank to process poker stuff.
[2011-04-20 12:30:47] - mig: Yeah, it's pretty shocking. Didn't ESPN decide to stop showing some poker too because of the crackdown? -Paul
[2011-04-20 11:56:55] - In other victimless crime related nonsnese, did anyone else hear about 3 major online poker sites getting shut down by the DOJ and FBI? I'm surprised this hasn't had much mention on the news places I frequent. - mig
[2011-04-20 11:44:57] - If it were legal and well regulated, it would actually be more difficult for a 12 year old to partake, in my opinion. I apologize if this response is tired or overused. -title
[2011-04-20 11:41:36] - g: i think you missed my joke. and i'll refrain from explaining it thus ruining the humor. ~a
[2011-04-20 11:35:04] - a: hrmm, no need for wine then we could comsume fun things without wine? I dont get it, what is the need for wine? What is it preventing us from consuming... Are you saying you prefer hard liquor? ~g
[2011-04-20 11:33:41] - title: saad, on fb im friends with a 12 year old kid who is talking about celebrating the day... that scares me. ~g
[2011-04-20 11:30:00] - g: i didn't like wine until well after college. mostly i hadn't been exposed to the many different uses for wine. for example, you can play games with wine. i found wine alone wasn't as fun, so i like to use wine when interacting with friends! i kind of wish there wasn't a need for wine, then we could all consume fun things without wine. ~a
[2011-04-20 11:17:01] - a: hmm I didnt like wine much when I first started drinking it but now I do enjoy wine
I think my taste has gotten more refined though... (yes I know this isnt what you meant) ~g[2011-04-20 11:09:26] - i'm wondering, has wine has gotten better, or are game manufacturers testing their games in wine? ~a
[2011-04-20 11:08:33] - yes, gta4 did not run in wine. but more recent games seem to be playing in wine much better than games of that era. ~a
[2011-04-20 11:04:49] - a: you did that for gta4, though right? - mig
[2011-04-20 11:01:20] - i don't want to have to boot to xp every time i want to play portal 2. more importantly though, i'm hoping i never have to purchase windows 7 (or 8 or 9 for that matter) to play games of the future. ~a
[2011-04-20 10:59:08] - i hope you're right
~a[2011-04-20 10:49:21] - a: i mean, even on older windows systems (XP), I would think a bug that would be "you have no access to your games" (I assume this affect more than just Portal 2 from the sounds of it) would be something they want to plug quickly. - mig
[2011-04-20 10:47:52] - considering the wording of the valve response, i'm hopeful that it's either A) something easy to fix or B) something they are working on. we'll see how it pans out. ~a
[2011-04-20 10:46:39] - aaron: no, it does not only affect linux users. it is also a windows problem. ~a
[2011-04-20 10:45:59] - high priority, i guess maybe. except not that many people have fat32 partitions anymore. ~a
[2011-04-20 10:44:22] - mig: well, it's a steam bug which only affects linux users who don't have a separate NTFS partition (right?) so it's a pretty small percentage of a pretty small percentage. even when i used to run ubuntu, i had an NTFS partition so this bug wouldn't have affected me - aaron
[2011-04-20 10:12:00] - a: really? I would think a steam bug would be something that would be high priority for them. - mig
[2011-04-20 09:23:38] - apparently . . . the issues with portal 2 i mentioned had nothing to do with running in wine. the issues noted also exist on windows systems. valve admitted to a bug in steam regarding running in non-ntfs. imo, the sad part is since it's a steam problem and not a wine problem, i'm going to have to wait longer for it to be fixed. ~a
[2011-04-19 17:39:07] - a: No idea, although I would guess not. -Paul
[2011-04-19 17:24:59] - paul: does the ps3 version run in other freebsd-based systems? ~a
[2011-04-19 16:16:06] - g, Paul: Take your pre-marital bickering elsewhere, like the bedroom! - Stephen
[2011-04-19 15:37:15] - g: I don't think so. -Paul
[2011-04-19 15:06:48] - Paul: lies I tell you... plus you didnt buy me the wii... did you? ~g
[2011-04-19 14:03:21] - g: Hey! I've used it for both Uncharted games, Heavy Rain, and bunches of Blu-Ray movies. That's more use than your Wii has gotten.
-Paul[2011-04-19 13:09:22] - Paul: are you actually going to USE the PS3 I bought you? I thought that was just for decoration... ~g
[2011-04-19 12:36:31] - If anybody else has multiple platforms and is thinking about Portal 2, it sounds like the PS3 version can not only be played with people using the PC version, but it also sounds like it comes with a free copy of the PC version (if you link your PSN account with your Steam account). -Paul
[2011-04-19 10:14:50] - daniel: there are a few issues that prevent it from playing in wine. once they fix those issues i'm buying it. ~a
[2011-04-19 10:06:13] - daniel: yes, i bought it last night and i'll begin playing it tonight - aaron
[2011-04-19 09:50:00] - Daniel: Funny you ask, I just sent an email out to some people asking the same thing. I'm planning on getting it soon-ish (might wait a bit to see if it goes on sale), but I'm not sure which platform to get it on. -Paul
[2011-04-19 09:30:24] - mk9 is out today as well. - mig
[2011-04-19 09:24:38] - Anyone here get / getting Portal 2? -Daniel
[2011-04-19 09:14:28] - Daniel: The recliner is blue and is in the corner of the living room (to the left of the TV if you are looking at Miguel's TV). -Paul
[2011-04-19 09:06:04] - Paul: I think we are going to pass on the couches. What recliner is it? I can't think of one that I remember. -Daniel
[2011-04-19 08:53:31] - a: Well, if you think you could pick it up in the next few weeks, I don't mind holding it for you or Daniel. -Paul
[2011-04-18 20:38:42] - mildly interested. might have trouble moving it out by this weekend. ~a
[2011-04-18 14:51:53] - Daniel: Honestly, I don't think I'm going to find any other takers by the weekend, so probably not a big deal there. It's either one of the two couches in the basement (the red/green one that reclines or the blue denim one). -Paul
[2011-04-18 14:20:37] - Paul: Hmm I wouldn't count on me for by this weekend. Andrea and I had talked about looking into getting a couch at some point and 20 bucks is a good price but I'm not sure we will be able to make it happen this week. So if you get other people interested don't let me stop you. I'll talk to Andrea though. Which couch is it? -Daniel
[2011-04-18 11:52:09] - Daniel: Ideally by this weekend, but I can hold onto them for longer. I was thinking something around $20 for any of them, but I would be happy to negotiate lower (especially if you could pick it up yourself). -Paul
[2011-04-18 11:43:52] - Paul: with my possible interest being directed at the couch and the recliner not so much at the rest. -Daniel
[2011-04-18 11:43:07] - Paul: When do you need to have them gone by? And how much? I might be... -Daniel
[2011-04-18 11:33:36] - Anybody here interested in (or know somebody who would be interested in) an old-but-still-functional recliner, loveseat, couch or table? I've got to clear out some room in my house. -Paul
[2011-04-18 09:27:00] - "i bit into my onion ring accidentally pulled out the whole onion" - aaron
[2011-04-18 09:22:05] - a: Where did you see Karl Rove and Ben Stein eating dinner this weekend? - Stephen
[2011-04-17 18:07:31] - my lexus takes too long to parallel park itself.
~a[2011-04-17 08:02:56] - http://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems/ I got into too many colleges and I can't decide where to go. - aaron
[2011-04-17 08:01:38] - daniel: i was like, "i don't even have to look, grand market and kings court" but no, kings court city. that's good too! but opening workshop/bridge? looks like you were playing a total scrub - aaron
[2011-04-15 23:56:31] - craziest combos i've ever run - http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201104/15/game-20110415-205512-a257ce7f.html.gz My last turn I had like 30 money and 12 buys! -Daniel
[2011-04-15 16:17:47] - not sure* what
[2011-04-15 16:17:38] - ... what my criteria would be for when it was ok. -Daniel
[2011-04-15 16:17:27] - Paul: I looked and the most I found were articles saying that there might be terrorist ties but it was all just conjecture currently. I'm not sure whether I think we should just take out Gadhafi. I think its better for Libya if they are able to do it. Maybe they can't and at some point NATO pulls out but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up yet but I guess I'm not...
[2011-04-15 14:53:16] - Daniel: Do you think we should just go balls-to-the-wall against Gadhafi to make sure his forces are smashed and the rebels win? Because as it stands now, I'm not sure how this conflict ends as long as we're preventing him from winning but not supporting the rebels enough for them to win. -Paul
[2011-04-15 14:49:13] - Daniel: There were a bunch of mentions on it on CNN. If you do a google search for "libyan rebels terrorist ties", you'll also get a lot of results. -Paul
[2011-04-15 14:28:46] - Paul: No? I'm not sure which way has cost more lives but in my head it would have been worse to not do anything. I said that because I can't really prove that in a defendable way. You have a source for the possible terrorist ties part? I haven't heard that before. I think a stalemate is better than the protesters being wiped out. -Daniel
[2011-04-15 13:32:12] - Daniel: "Its hard to say really which way has/would have cost more lives". If this is the case, isn't it safe to say (in retrospect), that getting involved was a bad idea? We spent a lot of money and killed a bunch of people with the end result being a stalemate between a dictator we know we hate and a group of rebels with possible terrorist ties? -Paul
[2011-04-15 12:58:04] - the woman in the duke lacrosse case apparently stabbed someone (who then died from the stabbing) ~g
[2011-04-15 12:54:16] - todays groupon is white water rafting on the potomac... 62 bucks... ~g
[2011-04-15 12:45:35] - aaron: Yeah I don't know that the conflict will be over super soon. I don't know that I think it will go on for years, but I'm not super worried about it continuing for awhile because its not the US thats running the show. I think we have some stuff contributing but I'm pretty sure its not the majority or anything like that. -Daniel
[2011-04-15 12:43:56] - That city thats being shelled is Misrata(sp?). It was Bengazi that was about to be overrun when the campaign started. Its hard to say really which way has/would have cost more lives since its hard to quantify how many lives have been lost with this course of action and the other side is a hypothetical at this point. I still agree wtih the choice made though. -Daniel
[2011-04-15 12:42:54] - daniel: i'm not genuinely like, upset at obama or anything? but the further this goes on the more i understand the criticism that he doesn't have any plans or any valid exit strategy or any reason to believe the conflict will be over soon - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:49:31] - Daniel: I guess I am thinking of another city. Either way, I'm still not convinced Gadhafi was going to slaughter everybody in that city had he taken it over. -Paul
[2011-04-15 11:38:58] - Daniel: Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it just getting blown up by artillery now instead (or am I thinking of another city)? Honestly, it seems like fewer lives would be lost if we just let him have the city instead of supporting this stalemate. -Paul
[2011-04-15 11:35:21] - aaron: I haven't heard of anyone sending in ground troops, its all been bombing. I know NATO wanted us to come back to help more but I hadn't heard anything that resulted from that yet. I don't think not winning yet is bad obama to me. Preventing bengazi from being blown up by tanks seems like good obama to me. -Daniel
[2011-04-15 11:28:55] - yeah, so it does seem like the indefinite future is going to be a stalemate assisted by U.S/allied air strikes and ground troops. bad obama! - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:27:27] - sorry, i misread. it's talking about the gaddafi armi; not gaddafi himself. it probably means stuff is still ongoing. - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:26:24] - paul: yeah, i heard they were talking about the potential consequences of arming the rebels but apparently most of them were untrained and a lot of them had ties to al-queda so they thought it was a bad bad idea - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:25:14] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcMgPsB3Gs apparently there's video of it but it's blocked at work. it happened in the last 2 hours. - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:20:50] - aaron: Yeah where did you hear that from? Was it recent, like the last 3 hours? -Daniel
[2011-04-15 11:19:10] - aaron: I hadn't heard that. Last I had heard his forces were still winning the war and we were considering whether to arm the rebels or step up our bombing campaign (which I don't think anybody is pretending is just to stop genocide anymore, but is to outright help the rebels). -Paul
[2011-04-15 11:15:30] - i guess maybe the question now is whether the US lessens their involvement now that the rebels are in power? i haven't been following this very closely since we talked last. but i feel pretty satisfied with obama's approach to this conflict, i feel like we did what we set out to do and there wasn't any sort of prolonged quagmire or anything right? - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:14:03] - so i heard someone executed gaddafi, and cut off his head with a hacksaw and mutilated his corpse? did the US ever have to send in more troops or give the rebels more weapons and stuff, or was our involvement limited to those few weeks of air strikes? - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:12:31] - pbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt
[2011-04-15 11:12:28] - vinnie: grow up - aaron
[2011-04-15 11:08:56] - I'm still giggling about fart32 - vinnie
[2011-04-15 10:36:04] - pierce: happy birthday ~g
[2011-04-15 10:12:05] - Stephen: chocolate cake, and it was yummy! well probably still is, wayyyyy too much cake for me to eat yesterday ~g
[2011-04-15 09:06:46] - g: I want cake! What kind? - Stephen
[2011-04-15 09:04:53] - aaron: I've been lucky with my neighbors so far. I imagine my bass sometimes carries over and probably not always just in the middle of the day. I have yet to hear any complaints, though. -Paul
[2011-04-14 20:13:28] - http://goggles.sneakygcr.net/ draw everywhere!!! - aaron
[2011-04-14 19:02:33] - i forget what the game theory thing is where the person who needs something the most has to pay for something that everybody benefits from. it's probably really selfish of me to approach the situation this way, actually. maybe i'll talk to amy about it and we can talk to the neighbor together - aaron
[2011-04-14 19:00:30] - g: that's nice! a couple weeks ago one of my neighbors complained that my bass was carrying through the walls. totally fair, i'm not bad, but still sad. and it was 3:30 p.m on a saturday. it's like college all over again! i'm looking forward to amy moving in, i'm kind of non-confrontational so i'm glad the issue will be forced by someone not-me - aaron
[2011-04-14 16:54:55] - Hmm this is a sweet week... Yesterday Paul's neighbors gave him (us) a bunch of candy, today the deli gave me CAKE! ~g
[2011-04-14 15:20:23] - i bought 3 familiars to her 1 and we still ended up with the same number of curses, it's frustrating sometimes how small things like getting a chapel/familiar/witch early on in a shuffle makes a huge difference - aaron
[2011-04-14 15:19:47] - vinnie: yep, villages/vineyards/bazaars. the full transcript is http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110309-192158-e3e9e2d2.html here but you nailed it, mere played her first familiar on turn 5 hitting everybody before their first reshuffle and that had kind of a snowball effect that tipped the curses in her favor - aaron
[2011-04-14 15:11:02] - aaron: must have been one of those games where everyone went for Curses and then avoided the big money stuff. I bet the game ended by 3 piles running out - vinnie
[2011-04-14 15:05:13] - i guess vineyards/gardens play really well in a curse-heavy setup, cause people don't get to provinces as quick... that's all i got. i really can't explain that one - aaron
[2011-04-14 15:00:46] - vinnie: a better question; how is this a winning deck!? 7 Villages, 7 Vineyards, 1 Apothecary, 1 Bridge, 1 Familiar, 7 Coppers, 3 Potions, 4 Estates, 6 Curses - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:53:00] - daniel: haha how'd you end up with -3? - vinnie
[2011-04-14 14:38:49] - paul: hmm yes? i think if you wanted to behave in a perfectly moral manner, i think the same morals apply. that said, i break the rule a lot, but i don't know. i speed a lot, and sometimes when i see someone sleeping on a park bench i just punch them as hard as i can and run away. nobody's perfect man - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:32:57] - aaron: Do you think the same standards apply outside of the work environment? I sometimes talk about friends without them being present and suspect they would object to what I am saying. I admit that situation could fall under (a) or (b) though... -Paul
[2011-04-14 14:31:33] - http://councilroom.com/player?player=mrc1ark apparently all dominion games you play on isotropic are logged for everybody to see FOREVER mwahahaha - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:28:04] - aaron: Yeah I think I agree with that. -Daniel
[2011-04-14 14:27:01] - aaron: No, I think thats how most people operate. Person D was trying to convince me at one point that you souldn't talk about anyone ever w/o them around but that seemed unreasonable to me. Was just curious how other people felt. I think the "would this upset/bother the other person" is a good rule to follow but tricky to define and depends on knowing them. -Daniel
[2011-04-14 14:26:59] - unless a) they don't care about Emp C's opinion of them, b) they're an asshole or c) sharing gossip holds tremendous personal value to them - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:26:14] - daniel: so i guess my answer to your original question, is that Emp A shouldn't be saying anything Emp C would object to. and if they're not sure whether Emp C would object, they probably shouldn't say anything - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:24:24] - daniel: i guess you're right. i usually know if someone's OK with it. there are some people at work who i know i can talk about, and some people i probably wouldn't talk about because they might take offense, or because i don't know them very well. i guess i just don't talk about people like that - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:20:20] - aaron: I think that is a good way of determining C's feelings but it seems unreasonable to talk about everyone in front of them before talking about them elsewhere to make sure they are ok with it. -Daniel
[2011-04-14 14:18:22] - a: probably not. but as those subordinates, i wouldn't want my managers talking about that in front of me either. that's all i'm saying. i'm saying if somehow, it's ambiguous to you whether person C would object to being talked about.... then just talk about it in front of them, and find out - aaron
[2011-04-14 14:16:30] - a: I'm employee D talking to employee F who is bothered by Employee A but I wasn't bothered by Employee A so i was seeing what other people thought. -Daniel
[2011-04-14 14:14:08] - aaron: you think it's ok for managers to talk about which subordinate would be best for a given position? without the subordinate being in the room? ~a
[2011-04-14 14:11:20] - aaron: i agree, that is probably the best plan. but i'm not going to say that it must happen that way. there are lots of situations where i don't find it inappropriate to hear_about/discuss employees behind their backs. ~a
[2011-04-14 14:05:46] - it doesn't have to be subjective, person A and B can just wait until C is present and then talk about his employment history. it's one of the advantages of an open environment, it's easy to talk about people in front of their face - aaron
[2011-04-14 13:55:07] - out of curiosity, which employee are you?
~a[2011-04-14 13:55:04] - daniel: i still think it depends on lots of stuff. i think it would be fine if C was just arriving on the job or just leaving the job or up for a new_position/promotion/demotion/etc. i think it would be fine if it were relevant to the work. i sometimes tell people that i like managers that used to be software engineers, does that count? ~a
[2011-04-14 13:33:31] - a: but what about when none of them are close friends? Just all work acquaintances. -Daniel
[2011-04-14 13:24:40] - i think it very much matters on the relationship between A, B, and C. if (A and B) or (A and C) are close friends, then almost anything goes. ~a
[2011-04-14 13:16:39] - So I can talk about someone else as long as I think the other person wouldn't mind what I'm saying? That sounds reasonable but is pretty subjective. Hmm -Daniel
[2011-04-14 12:47:37] - a: I like the background... Noticed it at work for the first time today, even though I thought I saw it awhile ago on Paul's comp... ~g
[2011-04-14 12:47:01] - aaron: I would say that its okay to discuss if C wouldnt mind people knowing... I dont think gossip has any connotations of it necessarily being something that you dont want to get out... But I could be wrong. ~g
[2011-04-14 12:45:59] - Daniel: I would say it can depend on the context... If there is something shocking about Emp C's history then probably yes. If they are considering hiring Emp C away from a contract then it could be background... ~g
[2011-04-14 12:43:22] - daniel: as long as they'd be OK talking about it with Emp. C present, i don't think it's gossip. it doesn't matter if it's factual, it matters if Emp. C wants people knowing it or not - aaron
[2011-04-14 12:11:14] - If you overheard Employee A talking to Emp B about Emp C's employment history in mostly just laying out the facts kind of way do you think thats gossip? And/or do you think Emp A shouldn't be talking to Emp B about Emp C? -Daniel
[2011-04-14 10:12:00] - Daniel: Presumably that will happen once the reapers kick the ass out of Earth.
-Paul[2011-04-14 09:26:40] - I want a ME game where the council goes "OMG We were so wrong! You were right about everything, we're so sorry!" and other such abasements. Seriously their head in the sand has been annoying the whole way. -Daniel
[2011-04-13 17:28:33] - mig: Ah, right. I should've remembered Joker's real name. Anyway, I'm excited Garrus and the Virmire survivor are coming back. One is my favorite character and the other is my favorite unresolved character thread. -Paul
[2011-04-13 17:28:05] - Oh... and, yeah.. we're out of town for the first episode, so, that sucks. -- Xpovos
[2011-04-13 17:27:44] - If y'all didn't live so far away I think I a group viewing would be fun. Or I could host it and make you guys all drive down to me... but I guess then I'd have to get HBO... -- Xpovos
[2011-04-13 15:23:23] - g: Sunday the 17th, yeah. - Stephen
[2011-04-13 15:03:09] - I seem to remember it starts on the 17th... I would be into watching it as a group
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