prev <-> next
[2012-05-22 12:57:07] - ... like supporting US manufacturing. -Daniel
[2012-05-22 12:56:58] - Paul: I lean towards new cars as well mostly because I want to make sure someone else didn't f up the machine that I go speeding around in. However I do think lightly used (10K or less miles) is good enough for me but your call. I don't know to much about specific cars but I know Ford is supposed to be pretty improved in the last few years if you are feeling...
[2012-05-22 12:53:54] - paul: http://www.hyundaiusa.com/assurance/america-best-warranty.aspx and i'm considering buying a hyundai for my next vehicle, i've heard really good things about their reliability and their warranty - aaron
[2012-05-22 12:51:56] - paul: remember it's customary to tip %15 over the sticker price on a new vehicle, and an %18-%25 tip isn't out of the question if you were impressed by the service offered by your sales team - aaron
[2012-05-22 12:50:49] - Daniel: Mostly looking for an actual new car. I know used cars are usually better deals, but I just prefer new cars for some reason. I was also specifically thinking of car ideas, but I'll take any advice people have. -Paul
[2012-05-22 12:49:54] - Xpovos: Thanks for the advice, although I don't know how well I'll do following it. I'm not too good at negotiating. -Paul
[2012-05-22 12:05:55] - Are you looking for car buying strategy idea's like Andrew posted or specific car ideas like adrian posted? -Daniel
[2012-05-22 12:05:12] - Paul: When you say new do you mean actual new or new to you? I was able to get my 2010 mazda 3 with only like 5k miles on it so it was mostly new but not priced as a brand new car. It took a bit of looking to find but I've been happy with it -Daniel
[2012-05-22 11:39:16] - Paul: Best piece of advice I have is the one I discovered totally by accident. Don't need to buy a car, and walk at least once. If they don't call you back, no loss--there's another dealership. If they do, and they will, you're getting a better deal. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-22 11:05:00] - purely electric motors though, they're so much more simple than a gas engine or a hybrid engine. ~a
[2012-05-22 11:00:09] - granted, it's not yet to the point where it's a purely economical solution. ~a
[2012-05-22 10:48:15] - a: The problem is that even in an ideal situation, the extra cost of getting an electric car over a gas one won't make up for the money saved on gas, I don't think. -Paul
[2012-05-22 10:47:36] - a: Believe it or not, I've considered it. My HOA pays the electric bill for our garages, there are charging stations in Reston, and the range of a car like the Volt is almost ideal for my daily commute. -Paul
[2012-05-22 10:42:44] - paul: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=electric+charging+stations+near+fairfax,+va (I know there are more). go electric? ~a
[2012-05-22 10:34:26] - So, I'm hopefully going to be buying a new car this weekend. Wondering if anybody here has bought a new car recently and/or has any suggestions on ones to look at. -Paul
[2012-05-21 11:34:56] - aaron: Exactly. -Paul
[2012-05-21 11:16:11] - paul: that was a WORRRRRTHY FOE - aaron
[2012-05-21 09:20:28] - aaron: Now I'm tempted to switch to the scoundrel too. My female wizard is using the templar as his skills seem to complement mine better, but I'm already getting repeat dialog with him. -Paul
[2012-05-20 20:51:24] - http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/best-game-ever/ random strangers turn a little league baseball game into a major league event - aaron
[2012-05-18 14:00:19] - xpovos: i think i do actually remember the act 3 level grindings. oh yeah that was bad. - mig
[2012-05-18 09:48:39] - mig: I don't know if my perspective is skewed from my having to play the first half of Act 1 twice, but leveling slows significantly, just as it did in D1. The first ten are pretty fast. The next ten are medium. Then it starts to slog. D2 analogy: Act 1: 12, Act 2: 20ish. Act 3: 26. Act 4: 28. Act 4 was short but Act 3 was brutally long. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-18 09:31:30] - going to be a sudden slowdown in levelling. Or worse, that the last 2 acts are short. - mig
[2012-05-18 09:30:51] - I've been somewhat pleased that the leveling rate has been somewhat constant. Though I'm curious if that will last. I'm at level 23 and almost somewhere in the middle of act 2 (or close to the end, I've killed 2 bosses that triggered achievements). Everything I've read says that you should be around level 30 once you beat the game on normal, so i wonder if there's
[2012-05-18 09:22:58] - mig: Makes a kind of sense and definitely fits anecdotal evidence. But it means that my having to replay all those quests really was totally wasted. Silly, and annoying bug. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-18 09:06:05] - xpovos: i've been hearing that you only get a guaranteed rare drop the first time you kill a major boss like Leoric. - mig
[2012-05-18 08:57:00] - Last night I reclaimed all my lost progress from my quests being overwritten. Re-killing Leoric resulted in a fairly unimpressive loot drop. Maybe somehow the game knew deep down that I'd already done it? I mean, I did still have the achievement... Kept the Templar this time, he is fun to have around for the random conversation. Kept the same hallways fresh -- Xpovos
[2012-05-18 08:27:54] - paul: yeah, temporarily
ahhaha. but i just got into act 2 so now it's some 50-foot tall cactus man - aaron[2012-05-17 15:58:00] - Aaron: Did you switch to the scoundrel? -Paul
[2012-05-17 15:57:51] - I think "F" is the shortcut to open up the follower's inventory. -Paul
[2012-05-17 15:09:35] - xpovos: I've always just right/left clicked on the follower portrait, which let's me do inventory management. Though it'd be odd if there was no default key-binding for that... - mig
[2012-05-17 15:08:21] - mig: my follower kept hitting on me ;-p so i had to change. but the templar is a winner anyways, the health regeneration is very valuable - aaron
[2012-05-17 15:04:54] - Paul: I drank two healing potions like a pussy. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 15:03:03] - aaron: I didn't know you could have more than 3, but I definitely agree about the damage soaking. That's how I beat Leoric... I just had my dogs and spiders soaking damage while doing a bit of their own while I kept running away like a coward.
-Paul[2012-05-17 14:56:02] - mig: Interesting. Also I couldn't find the key comand to open the follower inventory while I had him temporarily I wondered if they'd removed that feature, like they removed the alternate weapon slot. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 14:55:46] - also they will have random conversations with your character from time to time, which adds a bit of lore flavor while crawling the dungeons. - mig
[2012-05-17 14:53:51] - xpovos: well as far as I can tell, there's no downside to having a follower. The only thing I remember that sucked in D2 was them dying frequently enough that paying the gold to constantly resurrect him/her was annoying, but they will resurrect themsevles without any cost once you're out of combat now, so that issue is no more. - mig
[2012-05-17 14:52:57] - paul: well, you can run in with 3 dogs, and then summon 3 when they die, so you kind of have six dogs for any given boss fight. they're pretty good damage soaks imho, every point of damage they take is either a point of damage you're not taking, or (if nothing else) a couple more seconds the enemy has to sit still and attack - aaron
[2012-05-17 14:48:54] - paul: just don't forget to feed him the ocassional 1-handed weapon/shield as upgrades. The increase in effectiveness is noticable. - mig
[2012-05-17 14:44:09] - mig: I haven't dug deep. It asked me if I wanted the Templar and so I said no. I'm not sure if it's like D2 where having the follower was never disadventageous unless it aggro'd something it shouldn't--which was basically never. But I didn't see the benefit in keeping him at that point either. I know he's in town... -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 14:43:35] - mig: Yeah, I am. He doesn't seem to do much in terms of killing things, but he does distract people, which is what I need. -Paul
[2012-05-17 14:38:33] - paul: you are using the templar follower, right? I've found he's been kind of good for occasionally keeping the heat off my demon hunter. - mig
[2012-05-17 13:41:48] - Paul: Bosses are supposed to massacre summoned minions, that's OK. My barbarian has been doing OK. Leoric was a bit of a pain, but that's because he kept summoning in his own minions and I'd switched to bash from cleave 'cause I figured it was probably going to be mano a mano. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 13:39:39] - http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/05/17/senators-to-saverin-dont-come-back-ever/ Senators want to create a law to forbid facebook cofounder from returning to the US. -Paul
[2012-05-17 13:38:52] - aaron: My witch doctor is a male. I've been mostly using the zombie dogs, spiders and slow-down aura spell, but my zombie dogs got really massacred by the skeleton king recently, so I might switch soon. -Paul
[2012-05-17 13:37:33] - Xpovos: Had to look that one up. I just wanted to create a new character because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to waiting with my other character for multiplayer playing. Also, the witch doctor seemed like it would be easier to solo with. -Paul
[2012-05-17 13:32:17] - and given that the game is rather lacking in new content until sometime this summer, it's not surprising the wow raiders have taken the speed killing over to diablo 3. - mig
[2012-05-17 13:29:39] - xpoovs: it is. world and server first kills of major bosses are quite still quite a huge deal wthin the WoW raiding community. - mig
[2012-05-17 13:08:31] - I guess that kind of competition is fun for some people? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 12:40:43] - mig: never mind, the only sources i can find are talking about method on inferno, i don't know of any other teams on inferno right now - aaron
[2012-05-17 12:36:10] - mig: i heard the furthest team just cleared inferno act 2 by rushing past all the mobs, only activating checkpoints and skipping to bosses... but they've hitting a barrier because their equipment is too bad for them to fight anything. there's a different team in korea who's current farming gear in inferno - aaron
[2012-05-17 12:32:27] - i tried playing with all different skills from what i was using (bats instead of grasp, darts instead of spiders, spirit walk instead of dogs) and it's just so cool how differently the witch doctor plays. you can also mix and match your skills and have both darts and spiders, stuff like that - aaron
[2012-05-17 12:30:12] - paul: are you a female witch doctor too? i've been building my witch doctor with lots of DOT-type skills which is fun and effective for single player but, i think it makes multiplayer less fun because i feel very disconnected from the battles. it's cool that diablo 3 lets you switch your skills whenever you want though - aaron
[2012-05-17 12:24:21] - Paul: Altitis already? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 12:09:04] - yikes! people have been killing bosses on inferno difficulty as well. - mig
[2012-05-17 12:07:53] - I haven't crafted anything yet, although I did start up another character (a witch doctor). -Paul
[2012-05-17 12:07:18] - mig: Some people don't have work, or took off work. That helps a lot. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 11:54:47] - also in craziness: a few people I know have already finished normal difficulty and are working on nightmare mode. - mig
[2012-05-17 11:23:04] - On the other hand, last night I experienced significantly more lag problems in a much shorter gameplay period, ran into trouble with the authentication server, and the lag hit me in the middle of combat on multiple occasions. Add in the glitch when I upgraded my access to the CE and all my quest progress was reset and it was not a stellar night for Blizzard. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 11:20:54] - I haven't actually crafted any items yet, but I do seem to be getting some nice luck. Leoric dropped two class-specific weapons for me, one was rare. I remember reading that the loot was supposed to be character specific, maybe it's character tailored too? That would be a huge shift. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-17 10:50:42] - It also might depend on what you craft. If it's something that's very class specific it probably will have a much higher chance of having stats for your class. When my blacksmith was making 1-handed crossbows, they tend to have demon hunter friendly stats because only demon hunters can really use them. - mig
[2012-05-17 10:39:50] - aaron: you might just be luckier than most. I've had much less success at getting the random stats for my crafted stuff to be appropriate. - mig
[2012-05-17 10:32:44] - i noticed when having my blacksmith craft stuff for my witch doctor, about 80% of the equipement crafted had a massive intelligence bonus... is this just good luck, or does he actually try to generate equipment which fits your current character? - aaron
[2012-05-17 10:31:47] - mig: yeah, you're right. i think i'm starting to understand why it's more objectionable than it seemed at first - aaron
[2012-05-17 10:27:09] - aaron: i don't think it's inappropriate for the white house advertising the current president on the site. In some sense, that is expected. I think the problem stems from where those advertisements show up. - mig
[2012-05-17 10:23:56] - xpovos: to me i guess it's kind of like when i go to the post office and they ask if i want to buy stamps
if i went to the whitehouse and they asked if i wanted to buy stamps, i'd probably be bothered, but it's the post office, and i kind of expect it - aaron[2012-05-17 10:23:05] - xpovos: i guess it is a little propaganda-ey... somehow it really doesn't bother me, i guess because it's the whitehouse advertising the president on the whitehouse web site. but maybe you're right, maybe i should hold the government to a higher standard - aaron
[2012-05-16 19:10:03] - If you view in Flash, the file gets downloaded to your internet cache folder, and you can copy it from there, but it requires a little parsing. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-16 16:45:31] - paul: realplayer i think has the capability to let you download flash video to your computer. The downside is you have to install real player. - mig
[2012-05-16 16:43:22] - it depends on the video. if you use youtube+html5, you can just save it: right-click->view-page-info->media-tab. ~a
[2012-05-16 15:40:03] - Also, does anybody know if it's possible to download a video on youtube to watch later? -Paul
[2012-05-16 15:39:48] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpj3dy9ALQ0&feature=g-vrec Stumbled across this video while trying to find something else on Youtube. Thought it was hilarious. Basically some people singing over the ME3 trailer. -Paul
[2012-05-16 15:01:03] - http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/an-introduction-to-the-diablo-3-economy-for-wow-players/ I found this to be a good rundown on how to spend gold in D3. It says it's geared towards people who are used to the WoW economy, but I think it's useful for all. - mig
[2012-05-16 14:36:25] - Or in short, people prefer their government to be better than commercial corporations. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-16 14:35:59] - aaron: But you have artificially low levels of expected behavior because of corporate advertising fears and practices. Whitehouse.gov is a government owned and operated website. Government advertising is generally viewed extremely negatively and called propaganda. Most people seem to prefer their governments not engage in that behavior. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-16 14:29:55] - mig: the biographies at whitehouse.gov? i'm not particularly surprised, and i don't think it's particularly arrogant either. if i looked up calvin coolidge's biography at poptarts.com, i'd probably expect some kind of blurb about how pop tarts are choc-full of B vitamins which could have delayed the heartattack which lead to his death - aaron
[2012-05-16 13:23:46] - Vinnie: http://failbook.failblog.org/2012/05/16/funny-facebook-fails-before-yolo-came-into-my-life/ -Paul
[2012-05-16 13:22:51] - http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/16/obama-bio-bombs-presidential-history-on obama gets inserted into the historical bios of other presidents on the white house website. Clever campaign tactic or pathetic and/or pointless one? - mig
[2012-05-16 09:49:17] - "The Aurora Police Department said it was not involved in the case because laws only cover children ages 10 and older." Because truly this is an incident that warrants police resources... - mig
[2012-05-16 09:46:49] - http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/05/04/6-year-old-suspended-for-singing-im-sexy-and-i-know-it/ singing "I'm sexy and I know it" to another student is worth a 3 day suspension from school. - mig
[2012-05-15 16:16:31] - mig: Well, if you already have a full party, I might just skip on multiplayer tonight. If anything, I'll just cut my teeth on some single player. -Paul
[2012-05-15 15:07:10] - paul: i've had other people bug me about setting groups up, we'll probably work something out. - mig
[2012-05-15 15:04:53] - mig: So you guys already have a full party for tonight, right? -Paul
[2012-05-15 14:50:14] - paul: 4. - mig
[2012-05-15 14:48:03] - mig: What are the limits of the number of people that can play in a Diablo 3 game at once? Is the max four? -Paul
[2012-05-15 13:10:06] - xpovos: it certainly would be historic. - mig
[2012-05-15 13:02:31] - And lest I stray off-topic, Diablo for first-demonic president. Mephisto for VP. Why settle for the lesser of two Prime Evils? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-15 13:01:39] - http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/05/obama-our-first-gay-female-black-hispanic-asian-jewish-president/52299/ A nice take on the issue of the week, with some excellent history. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-15 10:59:23] - xpovos: mine was last spotted at the post office in chantilly va... so i might get to play it tonight or might not, depending on whether amy's awake when it shows up, or whether they're OK with leaving it at the door! as long as i get it by friday though it's no big - aaron
[2012-05-15 10:38:44] - xpovos: well I know they are wonky about delivery estimates, I've had several items arrive days before or days after the estimates they give, but usually they are at least able to accurately tell you when an item has shipped. - mig
[2012-05-15 10:29:03] - mig: Amazon, and they're usually pretty good. But they're probably also being cautious. I might get home tonight and have it. Same tomorrow. But I should definitely have it Friday. I can live with that. Except then Saturday morning I'm leaving for a week-long vacation.
-- Xpovos[2012-05-15 10:18:55] - xpovos: where did you order from? it's very unusual for games you pre-order to not ship a little before or on the day of release. - mig
[2012-05-15 10:10:54] - at the cost of a 5-6 second cooldown before you can start using that skill once its bound. I wonder if the nightmare/hell metagame will incorporate this type of on the fly skill switching. - mig
[2012-05-15 10:10:17] - interesting change that was made since I played beta: so while I was playing, when you wanted to pick your 6 skills to your keybindings, you had to do so in town with at a "skill stone". I've found that the stone has been removed and you can change your skills whenever you feel like it, even in the middle of combat...
[2012-05-15 10:03:00] - As I went to bed I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to join in, but even if I'd had the constitution to do so, the game is still listed as 'shipping soon', so I'm not getting it until Friday.
-- Xpovos[2012-05-15 09:47:11] - daniel: i did get some sleep, just not much since I woke myself up around 5. I was dismayed to find out Matt and Aparna had a headstart on levelling over me. - mig
[2012-05-15 09:44:20] - mig: Yikes, I briefly thought about it then said NOPE and went to bed at like 12:30. Good luck on making it through the day! -Daniel
[2012-05-15 09:30:54] - xpovos: i came in today. though it will feel like a long day because I did partake in midnight launch (pst) night festivities. - mig
[2012-05-15 09:29:03] - Also: http://mthruf.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/job-fails-it-is-inevitable.jpg -- Xpovos
[2012-05-15 09:28:42] - http://notyourmommascookie.com/2012/03/nyan-cat-cookies/ People do extraordinary hard things for no good reason. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-14 18:10:33] - Ron Paul People: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2012/0120/Are-you-a-true-Ron-Paul-supporter-Take-our-quiz/What-board-game-best-represents-your-vision-of-a-just-society I thought this was an interesting quiz, although I don't know how accurate it is. -Paul
[2012-05-14 14:53:07] - mig: http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/how-much-screen-time-does-each-avenger-get.html this quantitatively backs up what you were saying about hawkeye's representation in the avengers movie - aaron
[2012-05-14 12:58:00] - mig: Yeah, I didn't think it was a particularly strong article, but it seemed to fit the discussion so well that I thought I would post it. -Paul
[2012-05-14 12:35:42] - If he'd endorsed same-sex marriage whole-heartedly, he's still have won, but by a lot lower percentages, and probably a few states shorter. Therefore, significantly less of a mandate. Considering how he ended up wasting that mandate, it's kind of moot, but it could have been otherwise. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-14 12:34:39] - mig: That was the point I objected to the most, as well, but as I reflected, I felt that it might be somewhat reasonable, while still untrue. Obama was going to win, that was clear once he beat out Hilary and McCain was the Republican choice. But by how much? By winning by a lot he carried a theoretical mandate. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-14 12:15:13] - paul: An interesting article, but I think the comparison is a little flawed. Also I think the claim that McCain would have won in 2008 if Obama had taken the "I support gay marriage" position to be a bit outlandish. - mig
[2012-05-14 11:53:54] - xpovos: http://reason.com/archives/2012/05/14/obamas-cynicism-on-gay-marriage Funny you should mention Obama and Lincoln. I think this article came out today comparing the two. -Paul
[2012-05-14 11:15:41] - Also, the first black president would probably be Washington, since he did speak out against slavery at times, freed his slaves (upon his death), but like Obama for homosexuals, made no actual effort to change the laws. Lincoln (arguably) changed the laws. If second-term Obama repeals DOMA, etc, then the analogy works better. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-14 11:12:18] - aaron: Newsweek is definitely a fan of the sensational cover, but usually their actual reporting is pretty solid. So I'm not going to put pure sensationalism beyond them, but it's an extreme case, that's for sure. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-14 10:53:00] - aaron: the word choice is certainly very poor, or does newsweek know somethign the rest of us don't? - mig
[2012-05-14 10:38:19] - mig: i think it's honestly, just their attempt at a deliberately misleading/shocking cover in order to get people to read their magazine, like a tabloid - aaron
[2012-05-14 10:24:52] - mig: i... i really don't understand their logic... does that make lincoln the first black president? - aaron
[2012-05-14 10:13:46] - http://reason.com/assets/mc/jwalker/2012_05/GayPresident.jpg I'm still trying to make sense of this .... I still can't figure out if this cover is mocking or praising his announcement. - mig
[2012-05-14 09:56:07] - aaron: Aw, it's not arbitrary. The animals that are small, cute, and easy to domesticate are loved. The others are either eaten (if they are tasty) killed (if they threaten the loved or tasty ones) or left alone. -Paul
[2012-05-14 09:24:01] - aaron: I love animals too! -Daniel
[2012-05-12 10:39:27] - http://i.imgur.com/0t8hu.jpg i love animals - aaron
[2012-05-11 13:18:40] - mig: it copies the pieces, so that he can put them back in the original vehicles and it works fine. it's also computer-driven, and he gave the example where the door handle on one door would break, so he's can in the other handle, mirror it digitally, then print out a new handle - aaron
[2012-05-11 13:04:14] - aaron: democrats don't necessarily believe that all money rooted out of politics. Just that it needs to be tightly regulated. - mig
[2012-05-11 13:02:04] - aaron: like really replace those parts for real or just provide a replication of those pieces? - mig
[2012-05-11 12:37:11] - http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/articles/jay-lenos-3d-printer-replaces-rusty-old-parts-1/ jay leno uses a combination of 3d scanner and 3d printer to replace antique car parts which aren't manufactured anymore. the technology appears to cost around $20,000 which to me seems insane, i might be misreading it - aaron
[2012-05-11 12:22:54] - paul: that could be true! although they might be failing to account for the fact that democrats are stupider, and won't correctly sidestep whatever restrictions get put into place
- aaron[2012-05-11 12:08:46] - aaron: But the cynical reason why Democrats could (largely) be against Citizens United is because of their belief (rightly or wrongly) that allowing these corporate contributions would help Republicans more than Democrats. -Paul
[2012-05-11 12:07:34] - aaron: Hmmm, I didn't mean to be making any statements about ideal representations of liberals or republicans... and I thought that I was being the cynical one.
-Paul[2012-05-11 12:04:10] - paul: i guess i was just overly cynical for a change ;-b - aaron
[2012-05-11 12:03:53] - paul: i guess i just assumed that all politicians took campaign contributions from large companies, and that all politicians would be in favor of a supreme court decision which would increase their income, and that all politicians would be [b]publicly[/b] outspoken against said decision so that they could look cool in front of their fans. - aaron
[2012-05-11 12:02:16] - paul: pay income taxes... but in the real world, those people would either be losing elections or sitting in jail
- aaron[2012-05-11 12:01:49] - paul: well, being realistic about it, liberals and republican politicians both get their political power from somewhere. and if they didn't, a different better-funded politician would replace them. i guess you're right in that an ideal representation of a liberal wouldn't take campaign contributions, just like an ideal representation of a republican... - aaron
[2012-05-11 11:34:54] - *link. ~a
[2012-05-11 11:34:49] - aaron: your like says "as seen on gizmodo" ~a
[2012-05-11 11:21:45] - Aaron: I don't know, why wouldn't it be a partisan issue? If I wanted to be stereotypical about it, it's because liberals think money is evil and so having money in politics corrupts it, whereas Republicans are greedy and love money and want to buy elections. -Paul
[2012-05-11 11:14:09] - mig: wow, i guess mccain was just genuinely a very weird kind of republican. good for him! and wow, mark warner too. - aaron
[2012-05-11 11:07:39] - Senate vote, same thing. - mig
[2012-05-11 11:06:50] - aaron: the vote on mccain-feingold campaign finance reform bill. Ayes mostly democrat, nays mostly republican. - mig
[2012-05-11 11:00:26] - paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United#Criticisms barack obama and john mccain were both outspokenly against the citizens united decision right? i mean being self-serving politicians, it seems like one of those issues where it's in your best interest to be very outspoken about it, but to leave it in place right? why would this be a partisan issue - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:58:02] - paul: oh i've heard of the citizens united decision, i guess i'm just genuinely surprised that it was a partisan thing. i thought all of this stuff like Super PACs and "corporate personship" and stuff were bipartisan efforts to get politicians more money. i guess i need to read up on it more - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:55:28] - amy: http://www.2d-glasses.com/ i think this was an april-fools joke on gizmodo the last year, but joke's on them because now someone's actually selling em. i remember at the time thinking, "you know there's actually a target demographic for these...." - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:39:26] - Aaron: Including a bunch discussing whether it can be repealed or rolled back. -Paul
[2012-05-11 10:38:27] - aaron: I'm a little surprised you haven't heard much about it. It comes up on the Colbert Report all the time and I know Obama has been railing against it for a long time. If you do a search on Mother Jones for Citizens United, you get a bunch of articles about it. -Paul
[2012-05-11 10:37:18] - Aaron: As neither a homosexual or an African American, I don't think I have the authority to agree to that deal, but I will support it.
-Paul[2012-05-11 10:36:06] - paul: typically the people i see decrying money in politics are either a) non-partisan americans who just hate the system in general or b) europeans baffled by the fact that corporations can openly give money to politicians, and why this doesn't constitute corruption - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:34:38] - paul: sure, you're right, it was an overstatement. alright, i guess his actual impliciation was that, he was surprised that he had heard people on the left decrying about money in politics when stuff didn't go their way. maybe i just don't read the same blogs or facebook posts he does or whatever, i just haven't heard about people on the left doing that - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:33:02] - paul: maybe we can strike a deal, where gays will be in favor of african american marriage... in exchange for african americans changing their stance on gay marriage - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:32:23] - aaron: Ah, ok. I guess I just didn't get the implication that everybody on the left was decrying every time something didn't go their way.
That seems like a deliberate overstatement of what he said. -Paul[2012-05-11 10:31:43] - mig: do i think there wouldn't be *any* media outlets going apeshit? well no, there's too many media outlets for that. i just don't think i'd be exposed to them - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:30:04] - aaron: http://www.gallup.com/poll/147662/first-time-majority-americans-favor-legal-gay-marriage.aspx This is a year old, but 69% of Democrats think gay marriage should be legal and 28% of Republicans. -Paul
[2012-05-11 10:28:42] - paul: oh i just thought it was weird that miguel implied that everybody on the left was decrying about the "corrupting influence of money in politics" every time something didn't go their way. i can't really remember that coming up since the occupy protests - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:28:19] - aaron: "i think a lot of minority groups fit in that category" Yeah, I was going to say that I saw some news stories about how a lot of African Americans are against gay marriage. I would definitely say support for gay marriage is well under 100% for Democrats.
-Paul[2012-05-11 10:28:06] - aaron: if romney had a netrual stance on gay marriage, and anti-gay donors pressured him into adopting a more anti-gay position on the issue, do you really think there wouldn't be any media outlets wouldn't be going apeshit over how it's so horrible that people with lots of money are influencing romney's stance? - mig
[2012-05-11 10:26:50] - racial minorities i mean, hope that doesn't come off as racist but i think there's a lot of racial minorities who would never vote republican in a million years, but they're still strongly against gay rights, reproductive freedom, or whatever other things their religions are against - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:26:06] - aaron: http://triad.news14.com/content/657134/money-spent-on-marriage-amendment-campaigns-shows-divide/?ap=1&MP4 I could be misunderstanding your point, but the side that spend the most money on NC's marriage amendment appears to have lost... -Paul
[2012-05-11 10:25:22] - number of "socially progressive" (i hope i'm using that term right) republicans in younger age groups so i just thought it would be more like 40% or 35%. but i guess i probably underestimated the number of christian democrats who still vote democrat but are strongly against gay marriage... like, i think a lot of minority groups fit in that category - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:22:55] - honestly the most surprising thing to come out of the article for me was the snippet that 48% of americans think that same-sex marriages shouldn't be legal. i guess in my mind, i imagined that like 100% of democrats would be in favor of gender-equality, and you know maybe 25% of republicans, and that the number should be lower. there's a growing - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:21:35] - mig: I don't think it's just the left in general, but Obama specifically has been trash talking the Citizens United decision pretty much as soon as it came out (despite having no problem encouraging his supporters to donate to his own SuperPac). -Paul
[2012-05-11 10:21:32] - aaron: you forgot to end that comment with: "boom!" ~a
[2012-05-11 10:10:39] - mig: oh okay. i'm not surprised and i don't find it interesting. and if nobody on the left was decrying about the "corrupting influence of money in politics" over north carolina's constitutional amendment then i don't understand why they'd decry it over something they agree with - aaron
[2012-05-11 10:08:12] - and as the article mentioned, the fact that no one on the left will be decrying about the "corrupting influence of money in politics" over this provides me some amusement. - mig
[2012-05-11 10:05:43] - aaron: oh i'm hardly surprised. I just find it interesting. - mig
[2012-05-11 10:04:55] - mig: does that surprise you? what did you think it was? a sudden ethical reawakening or something? - aaron
[2012-05-11 09:39:37] - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203604577396221780005972.html money in politics was a factor in getting the President to make his statement on gay marriage. yay for Citizens United? - mig
[2012-05-10 15:54:13] - aaron: his last name is misspelled (Molyneux) so more than likely it is fake. - mig
[2012-05-10 15:32:25] - https://twitter.com/#!/PeterMolydeux peter molydeux's twitter account (the mind behind the overhyped fable series).... "I designed a point and click adventure many years ago where you had to gain the trust of the pointer so it didn't lie to you" okay it's probably not him but it's funny - aaron
[2012-05-10 15:08:38] - he would highlight the text, then mouse up and click "edit", then click "copy". then click somewhere else, click "edit" and click "paste". he didn't even right-click for the context menu
i'll have patience with all three people but i genuinely don't lose any respect for non-computer people who don't know computer stuff - aaron[2012-05-10 15:07:26] - xpovos: sure, but it totally depends on how well i know the person and what the context is. i've interacted with two different people over the last week who insisted "their computer was too slow for e-mail". and about a year ago i was pair programming with someone when i realized he didn't know CTRL+C and CTRL+V were shortcuts... - aaron
[2012-05-10 15:04:12] - paul: you made failbook - http://failbook.failblog.org/2012/05/09/funny-facebook-fails-the-adventures-of-sober-paul-and-drunk-paul/ ~g
[2012-05-10 12:24:04] - struggle not to look at someone* -- Xpovos
[2012-05-10 12:05:55] - aaron: I try to hold it, and I think the comic is good for putting a nicely memorable phrase to it, "lucky 10,000". That's also nicely positive in semantics. But all the same, it's a struggle some times to look at someone and say (at least to myself), "you're a total ignoramus, aren't you." -- Xpovos
[2012-05-10 11:39:07] - a: and yeah i felt like that XKCD was really strange too, i didn't know anybody else actually held that opinion about people who don't know things
- aaron[2012-05-10 11:38:01] - xpovos: paul and i used to play pikmin 2, one shot per match, usually something like peppar... each match we'd adjust the handicap so the matches went about even. it helped that it was kind of like mario kart where one person would have a clear lead and some bullshit item would fuck everything up and you'd end up drinking - aaron
[2012-05-10 10:19:22] - aaron: All of them are quite good, but Beer-io Kart is my favorite so far. With some of the addendum, like 1/3rd of the beer per lap. I could see playing that for hours. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-10 09:43:46] - http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/tfqbp/best_drinking_games/ oh my god i want to play mustache. a lot of these games sound great - aaron
[2012-05-10 09:37:03] - a: uhh... chinese yuan!
[2012-05-10 09:30:34] - i'm pretty sure terrorist dollars is worse. ~a
[2012-05-10 09:22:41] - mig: wait did i say taxpayer dollars? i meant uhhh... terrorist dollars!
[2012-05-10 09:22:19] - mig: yes it was a very very prepared statement! and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars went into making it as politically effective as possible. but cut me some slack, if mispronouncing a word during a meeting at work could cost you your job in 8 months you'd be super careful about this shit yourself
[2012-05-10 08:20:50] - haters gonna hate. ~a
[2012-05-10 01:09:04] - One gay republican is a bit cynical about Obama's gay marriage annoucement. - mig
[2012-05-09 23:39:12] - http://xkcd.com/1053/ . . . i feel like ~10% of the xkcd's i read with aaron's voice. ~a
[2012-05-09 22:11:33] - aaron: The technology depicted in Star Wars is clearly capable of generating force fields and anti-gravity that mitigates the sudden and unexpected depressurization concerns. And a plant-destroying type of weapon like the Death Star has is clearly depicted as needing something as big, or at least almost as big as the Death Star. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-09 16:55:58] - xpovos: the biggest argument i heard against (ships like) the death star is that larger vessels are so vulnerable in combat. it's not like naval combat where big guns need big ships. any tiny ship can carry a weapon big enough to depressurize a larger ship and fuck shit up - aaron
[2012-05-09 16:52:29] - hey north carolina - take your 15 electoral votes, and go fuck yourself
[2012-05-09 16:44:59] - mig: besides the obvious reasons why i would respect obama for that video, i also have respect for him stating clearly that this is a "personal opinion", and also that he didn't play any kind of morality card as far as saying that those against gay marriage were trampling people's rights or anything like that... very good speechwriters! - aaron
[2012-05-09 16:19:03] - This attempt at humor confuses me. The funny bit is that no one thinks the Death Star is a good idea? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-09 15:21:46] - a: i don't know recall if anyone blamed him for high gas prices, but I do remember people on the left were complaining that he needed to do "something" about them, just like how people on the right are demanding the same of Obama. - mig
[2012-05-09 15:18:25] - were people blaming bush for high gas prices? i know i wasn't. i blamed him for tons of things and that certainly wasn't one of them. ~a
[2012-05-09 15:16:45] - http://news.yahoo.com/obama-announces-his-support-for-same-sex-marriage.html obama now unambiguously supports gay marriage. - mig
[2012-05-09 14:25:29] - Daniel: It's why I respect people like Dennis Kucinich (who is against unecessary wars started by Bush and Obama) more than politicians who might agree with me more but change their tune depending on who is in office. -Paul
[2012-05-09 14:22:32] - Daniel: If somebody supports Obama because they think Obamacare is a good idea and want to tax rich people more, I can respect that point of view, but I just can't accept it when people tell me things like Obama is better on things like the Patriot Act or unecessary wars. -Paul
[2012-05-09 14:20:04] - Daniel: I actually think things like that (blaming Bush for high gas prices, then claiming Obama can't do anything about it) frustrate me much more than people who just legitimately disagree with me on certain political things. -Paul
[2012-05-09 14:17:20] - aaron: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/09/163202/google-patents-using-iphones-to-kill-free-bird no more playing loud strange music on bar jukeboxes for you! - mig
[2012-05-09 14:02:51] - xpovos: yes, we grew up in hard times
- aaron[2012-05-09 13:55:22] - aaron: "Deficit shortage". Nice.
-- Xpovos[2012-05-09 13:30:45] - side note: I was amsued Jonathan Chait's work was cited as an example of partisan bias. - mig
[2012-05-09 13:14:15] - daniel: hey i listened to that on the radio today! i don't think i was blaming GWB for oil prices back in the 2000s but... i know i often falseley credit clinton with the deficit shortage of the 1990s - aaron
[2012-05-09 12:25:00] - daniel: when it comes to discussions of political issues (or really, anything that has some sort of emotional attachment), confirmation bias is always a trap that's easy to fall into. It just seems to be a natural human failing that people just need to be aware of. - mig
[2012-05-09 12:21:00] - a: not only are they both in dallas they have the SAME EXACT ADDRESS! ~g
[2012-05-09 12:19:49] - g: My highschool (and Andrea's) is #376! Wooo! Clearly due to your school's precipitous fall we will soon overtake you! -Daniel
[2012-05-09 12:14:42] - http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/05/09/152287372/partisan-psychology-why-are-people-partial-to-political-loyalties-over-facts Interesting article about our politics clouding our judgement. I'd like to think I stick with facts but it makes me wonder about myself, if I fall victim to that at some points as well. -Daniel
[2012-05-09 12:01:43] - a: i solved the reverse boggle problem
i'll e-mail you - aaron[2012-05-09 10:49:25] - interesting that num 1 and num 3 are both in dallas. why? ~a
[2012-05-09 10:37:28] - oops that was g... ~g
[2012-05-09 10:37:21] - TJ loses number 1 hs spot http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings
[2012-05-09 10:15:29] - also approval rating polls != primary voting. Just because he has a lower approval rating in those states doesn't mean those state democratic primaries had hilarious or newsworthy results. - mig
[2012-05-09 10:11:58] - that would make it somewhat more newsworthy than the other states. - mig
[2012-05-09 10:11:36] - a: could be the fact that obama's opponent is currently in a federal prison in texas. - mig
[2012-05-09 10:09:21] - "The president had a lower approval rating only in Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma and Wyoming." it's interesting they used the word "only" because that's four other states he's less popular in! why pick west virginia to write this article about? because of the coal industry or because of the silly primary? ~a
[2012-05-09 09:53:47] - Obama is really unpopular amongst democrats in West Virginia. - mig
[2012-05-08 12:36:01] - rip Maurice Sendak (where the wild things are). ~a
[2012-05-08 11:44:18] - xpovos: this is in the UK, which has very tight gun regulations so I don't think that's too big of a concern. Though there is still a signficant threat of bodily injury trying that on an unsuspecting adult. - mig
[2012-05-08 10:06:36] - what will be your first Diablo 3 class?
[2012-05-07 16:36:05] - aaron: Can't sleep, clown will eat me. Cool concept, but I don't think children as a target works. But then, maybe adults wouldn't either. Odds of getting shot on the job? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-07 15:56:44] - here's a boggle board with about 980 words, so maybe 2,000 isn't super infeasable! but i think it's too much - aaron
[2012-05-07 15:52:12] - bringing a little bit of life and laughter into kids’ lives is what we are all about - aaron
[2012-05-07 15:28:51] - aaron: Unsurprising, but not as much of a vocabulary tester then, so a bit disappointing. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-07 15:12:41] - xpovos: as with most word games, the definition of the word is irrelevant - aaron
[2012-05-07 14:55:45] - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/sports/basketball/joey-crawford-sounds-off-on-35-years-as-an-nba-referee.html a pretty interesting read about Joey Crawford. My favorite line: "One night, I hit Bill Fitch with a technical so hard, I broke my finger" - mig
[2012-05-07 14:15:44] - What about two words with the same spelling. "lead" verb vs. "lead" noun. Irrelevent to the CS problem, but now I'm curious for Boggles rules. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-07 12:32:16] - although if it did, would palindromes count twice? - mig
[2012-05-07 12:31:10] - g: for purposes of scoring in the game, no. - mig
[2012-05-07 12:16:20] - probably not. ~a
[2012-05-07 12:14:43] - if the same word shows up multiple times can you count it multiple times? ~g
[2012-05-07 12:05:01] - aaron: yeah i'm not sure 2000 words on a single 4x4 letter board is possible. Maybe if you made it a 5x5 board.. - mig
[2012-05-07 11:58:41] - aaron: ah I thought you had an example that included that many and I was shocked... ~g
[2012-05-07 11:48:54] - g: hmm i guess not! the best i could manage using an online solver is about 350, although it doesn't go over 8 letters so there's probably a bit more - aaron
[2012-05-07 11:03:47] - that sounds cool, also 2000 words in a boggle board??? Is that real??? ~g
[2012-05-07 10:42:57] - i guess "almost exactly" is a bad descriptor, but there are some similarities. ~a
[2012-05-07 10:41:29] - you know what? this is almost exactly the same as the crossword problem with a much shorter word list. ~a
[2012-05-07 10:40:33] - right, i already figured reflections would be allowed. ~a
[2012-05-07 10:24:34] - a: yes, 16 letters is the longest word. each letters joins to 3-8 other letters, depending on if it's a corner/edge/center - diagonals are allowed. obviously any given word list will have 8 identical solutions (reflections/rotations) so any solution would be acceptable - aaron
[2012-05-07 10:22:47] - in boggle, you can't reuse a position, right? so (just so i understand) the longest word you could have is 16 letters long? ~a
[2012-05-07 10:21:17] - aaron: i'm thinking about it. that's a great problem that probably has some cool solutions. ~a
[2012-05-07 09:52:33] - a: I didn't anticipate making serious monies, but it's a factor in my decision to purchase my new machine. Do I go for lower power draw and processing crunch or do I go more processing and pay for the extra electricity through mining, and related activities on my idle cycles. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-07 09:43:02] - a: have you played boggle? if i gave you a list of 2,000 words which were found on a boggle board, do you think you could reverse-engineer a boggle board which contained all those words? and if so, how long do you think it would take? - aaron
[2012-05-07 09:34:51] - i used to yes. and yes, you want to mine in a pool. you also want to mine with a graphics card, mining using your CPU is a total waste of time. mining coins in general though really doesn't get you much anymore. people with huge resources, like dozens of machines with multiple graphics cards, are the ones seriously mining and getting real monies. ~a
[2012-05-07 09:32:07] - a: Do you mine bitcoins? If so, are you in a pool? -- Xpovos
[2012-05-06 16:11:07] - paul: you need the http! ~a
[2012-05-04 15:57:18] - mig: I think you need a Battle.net account, so not 'anyone', but yeah it was widely available for the public beta stress test. I'm sure there'll be changes, etc. But those will just be patches rather than a whole new client, I'd think. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-04 15:53:49] - I suppose since the game requires an active battle.net connection i guess there's no harm in making the client that available i guess. - mig
[2012-05-04 15:51:50] - I just thought the option showed up in the my games area because of the annual pass thing. - mig
[2012-05-04 15:51:24] - oh really? anyone can download it? - mig
[2012-05-04 15:47:27] - mig: CE. Yeah. But you can still download the client. I can't install it because my poor old computer's HDD is cramped, but the technical possibility is there. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-04 15:44:11] - though I guess most of you guys are getting a box version. - mig
[2012-05-04 15:42:43] - speaking of diablo I found out today if you've pre-ordered a digital version or did the WoW annual pass thing you can start downloading the bulk of the client (probably minus some vital things so you can't actually play until the 15th). - mig
[2012-05-04 15:36:22] - xpovos: sure, that sounds good, it'll just be less of a "launch day" thing and more of a "lan party" kind of thing! but still sounds fun. hey maybe i'll finally get to use my gaming laptop for something that came out after 1991 - aaron
[2012-05-04 15:06:13] - a: Do I need the http:// ? -Paul
[2012-05-04 15:05:52] - www.reason.com/archives/2012/05/04/barack-obamas-private-war Does this work better? -Paul
[2012-05-04 15:02:52] - reason.com/archives/2012/05/04/barack-obamas-private-war Wondering what people here think about this. In a lot of ways, I think it's even worse than Guantanamo Bay. -Paul
[2012-05-04 15:01:53] - Xpovos: Sure. That'll give me some time to play the single player game so I won't feel bad about missing out on any plot. -Paul
[2012-05-04 14:37:22] - aar/Paul: Shoot for a day in June? Given how my June is going to go I know I'm going to be owed some hours and need a day where I can do something like D3 all day. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-04 14:26:21] - aaron: I would love to, but since my boss (who is also my backup) is out that week and I'm already taking that Friday off (and going out of town that day), I don't think I can do it. Sorry. -Paul
[2012-05-04 14:19:02] - aaron: If I wasn't taking the next week off for a beach trip, and if I was certain of my PC status, I'd be all over that. As is I'm gonna have to look for another D3 day. But the concept sounds seriously cool. -- Xpovos
[2012-05-04 14:16:04] - anybody have any interest in taking may 16th off from work, and spending all day at home playing diablo 3 as a group? - aaron
prev <-> next