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[2017-04-10 09:48:17] - a: The weather stripping stuff I did already was pretty cheap. It was around $4-5 for a package and I used maybe 5-6 packages. -Paul
[2017-04-10 09:47:08] - a: It obviously varies a lot. My electric bill over the pass year has been between $90 (in winter) and has gotten as high as $350 (in summer). My gas bill has been between $20 and $250. -Paul
[2017-04-10 09:19:14] - paul: saw your fb post. how much is your gas/electric bill? also, how much did the weatherstripping / insulation cost? ~a
[2017-04-09 12:06:14] - And of course, I win the next 3 games, although in most of them, the opposing team had more characters on the end screen (and I wasn't often in there). -Paul
[2017-04-09 09:55:49] - Heroes of the Storm question: If I play a game with all AI teammates against the AI, should I be able to win with veteran bots? Because I tend to lose badly. -Paul
[2017-04-08 00:48:44] - a: There's an even better one where he says Obama should make sure to ask congress before bombing Syria. -Paul
[2017-04-07 22:59:01] - ok, hmmm. ~a
[2017-04-07 21:57:38] - paul: yes and no. it's when a car sideswipes you. link i've had it happen to me. if you notice it quickly enough, you can swerve right or otherwise avoid a collision. it's pretty scary. ~a
[2017-04-07 20:13:07] - a: What is a "right hook", though? Is it that the bicyclist was riding on the right side of the truck and then the truck took a right and the cyclist ran into the truck? -Paul
[2017-04-07 20:08:43] - a: I don't swim in the same waters as you because I don't recall ever hearing about complaints over "the bike community".
I like to think I would complain about the dollar cost per life saved for road stuff too. -Paul[2017-04-07 18:49:46] - paul: maybe we should put a dollar amount on lives. $7m/life sounds pretty cheap to me, but when it comes to a bike-life $7m/life most people would say that's too expensive. ~a
[2017-04-07 18:48:13] - paul: when it's a car-road-condition improvement, people do say "You can’t put a dollar amount on lives". When it's a bike-road-condition improvement, people do focus on "the bike community". Where's the "car community"? ~a
[2017-04-07 18:48:07] - paul: cyclist community. i don't actually agree that putting these guards on trucks is a good idea. but i do think it's an interesting overall point: ... ~a
[2017-04-07 17:03:02] - i feel old too! 1999 + 4y college + 7y one company + 7y another company, all of a sudden it's 2017? crazy. ~a
[2017-04-07 16:24:19] - http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19103840/pittsburgh-steelers-qb-ben-roethlisberger-says-return-14th-season Holy crap, Big Ben is in his 14th season? Doesn't seem that long ago that he was a rookie. I feel old.
-Paul[2017-04-07 12:53:17] - mig: Yeah, ESPN obviously hasn't said it was because of her political views, but pretty much everybody thinks that it's because of the backlash she's been getting over social media. Doesn't mean it's right, though. -Paul
[2017-04-07 12:52:23] - aaron: Cool. I'll be interested in hearing what you think. -Paul
[2017-04-07 12:26:35] - Michelle Beadle could just be better in the role. I mean, longstay CBS analyst Phil Simms is getting suddenly replaced by Tony Romo, so these kind of things are not that unprecedented. - mig
[2017-04-07 12:25:45] - As far as whether this led to her demotion at ESPN, who knows? - mig
[2017-04-07 12:24:26] - paul: I'm not even sure that Steele has really any conservative viewpoints (none are really cited). Her real crime (in the author's eyes) is just not unconditionally embracing Social Justice Values enough. And there's really no greater crime against humanity from this crowd than a minority who doesn't fully embrace the "cause". - mig
[2017-04-07 12:23:34] - paul: i'm going to get started this weekend! looking forward to it - aaron
[2017-04-07 12:12:41] - So, anybody else here playing Andromeda? Gurkie and the girls are out of town for the next few days so I'm playing a lot of it while they're gone since I know my free time will disappear again once they're back. -Paul
[2017-04-07 11:29:20] - Apparently, we've always been at war with Middle Eastasia. -- Xpovos
[2017-04-07 10:16:06] - The article I posted is anti-Sage, so it likely has the worst of what she has said, which seems incredibly mild. Michelle Beadle has said many more seemingly more controversial things. I'm a little baffled by the huge backlash against Sage (in particular the racial aspects of it). -Paul
[2017-04-07 10:13:56] - Recently, though, she was removed from that position and replaced by Michelle Beadle (who has liberal viewpoints). Many are taking this as Sage Steele being punished for having "controversial" viewpoints, although in looking at all the evidence, it's really hard to find anything extreme. -Paul
[2017-04-07 10:12:45] - http://www.theroot.com/twitter-rejoices-after-learning-that-espn-analyst-sage-1794007483 I found about this story yesterday and am oddly fascinated (and a little saddened) by it. The TLDR is that Sage Steele is an ESPN anchor who apparently has conservative viewpoints. She used to host NBA Countdown. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:52:18] - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/us/politics/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-senate.html whelp, that's that. RIP filibuster. - mig
[2017-04-06 12:20:31] - mig: And that person seems to be VERY different from the aforementioned gun toting home-invader. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:19:04] - mig: Maybe that's it. I dunno, I just feel like "rape" and "rapist" encompasses too much. Like, if a 17 year old male has consensual sex with his 16 year old girlfriend in Virginia (where the age of consent is 17, I believe), he's a rapist, even though he wouldn't be if it was in Maryland (age of consent of 16?). -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:13:24] - If the issue of consent is disputed, and there's no other evidence we can point to, what is a legal system that requires evidence beyond reasonable doubt to do. I mean, I can understand the frustrations of those victims and those who are pushing colleges to hold their sexual assault proceedings. - mig
[2017-04-06 12:11:47] - a: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/apr/13/rape-sexual-assault-frances-andrade-court Or even uses like this, where it was clearly a pretty traumatic experience, I'm not sure if using the term "rape" is the right thing to do. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:11:27] - paul: I think the problem is less the actual term (or supposed expansion of it) but just the complications about the nature of the crime that make it difficult for the legal system to adjudicate. - mig
[2017-04-06 12:10:18] - a: Maybe not and I am off base. I just think there should be something like how we have degrees of "murder" because, while all rape is wrong and bad, it does seem like some is worse than others. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:08:33] - It's similar to a rant somebody had on a podcast I listen to (Miguel might get this) about how we too easily throw around the term "Nazi" now that it kind of loses its meaning and almost seems to lessen the terrible things that the actual Nazis did. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:07:49] - ashley judd is an idiot. ~a
[2017-04-06 12:06:52] - oof, yeah, i'm not sure rape applies to that paper. regardless, i don't think fake allegations of rape are very common or that the definition of rape has changed drastically in recent decades. ~a
[2017-04-06 12:04:30] - a: http://ijr.com/2017/03/814479-ashley-judd-said-trumps-election-was-like-being-raped-again-heres-what-actual-rape-victims-say/ And then you have things like this. I'm the last person to say that people shouldn't be able to say what they want, but I do feel like the overuse of the term might've numbed us some to it. -Paul
[2017-04-06 12:03:18] - a: For example, a person breaks into somebody's house and forcibly rapes them at gunpoint is rape and is a horrible thing. A drunk college student has sex with another drunk student and doesn't get consent and is also rape. Without at all trying to condone it (it is still wrong), it does seem like a difference in degrees. -Paul
[2017-04-06 11:59:40] - a: So, I really don't think that the message board is the appropriate place to discuss this, because I feel like I won't be able to express myself well enough to get my point across, but I've been wondering about how the use of the term "rape" seems to have expanded and whether that's a harmful thing. -Paul
[2017-04-06 11:54:48] - mig: Doesn't mean I can't bemoan their behavior. I find it sad, not surprising.
-Paul[2017-04-06 11:53:47] - the abstract of the paper in question. ~a
[2017-04-06 11:52:59] - mig/paul: along the same lines. found this article on a reddit post about the word "slavery" being used in too many situations. i really only read the beginning of the article and the end of the article because i'm slowly getting ADD. tl/dr: american's are too sensitive. ~a
[2017-04-06 11:49:42] - paul: you do realize we are talking about people who are rigid absolutists about what social norms should be, right? - mig
[2017-04-06 11:32:58] - daniel: yep. which is why some people (in bonkers markets) will do an inspection *before* the sales contract. but that's really expensive, because you're spending thousands inspecting houses that you probably won't even have the *option* to buy. ~a
[2017-04-06 11:27:46] - a: Wow! No inspection contingency? That seems bonkers. Could you sell a house just worth garbage and get away with it with no contingencies? Yikes. -Daniel
[2017-04-06 10:38:58] - daniel: i feel your pain. buying a house in arlington was ridiculous. all of the houses we looked at were on the market zero days and they all went for like 100k over asking without an inspection contingency! (also, without *any* contingencies to speak of) ~a
[2017-04-06 10:04:59] - Daniel: Also, the seller's realtor for our second place was.... different in some sense that might've spooked away realtors for buyers. I think they were a "discount" realtor that charged less fees, but it somehow hurt the commissions for other realtors too? So it might've discouraged other realtors from showing the property. -Paul
[2017-04-06 10:03:57] - Daniel: Yeah, I was kind of lucky in a sense in that my first place (the townhouse) was on the market for a long time and then they reduced the price and I just happened to catch it right then. Our second place was also on the market for a long time before dropping the price. -Paul
[2017-04-06 09:59:18] - Thanks for the thoughts on houses! I was not familiar with the Optimal Stopping / Secretary problem. Interesting stuff. Houses are definitely not staying on the market long here so it does make it tricky for us. -Daniel
[2017-04-06 09:36:26] - And yet that still doesn't seem to be enough for some people to the extent that they felt like they had to apologize. We can accept that humanity is travelling millions of light years with a blue-skinned all female species of alien... but we can't accept that maybe a transgender character 100 years in the future might have different social norms? -Paul
[2017-04-06 09:33:30] - http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04/05/bioware-apologizes-for-how-it-handled-mass-effect-andromedas-transgender-character This kind of stuff makes me sad. It's hard to think of a more progressive video game company when it comes to having LGBTQ characters. Bioware seems to really try hard... -Paul
[2017-04-06 09:02:41] - paul: agreed, there is no amount of "time". which is another reason the house-hunting problem isn't really the same as the classic secretary problem. you could always rent an apartment (as i did) or live out of a hotel for a few weeks extending your amount of "time". with the marriage problem, you can't extend your life or somehow free-up some divorcées. ~a
[2017-04-06 08:29:13] - a: Haha, I even read that before, but still had the "X number of houses" thing stuck in my head, so when I heard it was actually a percentage of time, I didn't draw the connection back. You're right about not being able to go back, though. Still think the bigger problem is "what defines your amount of time?". -Paul
[2017-04-06 08:27:44] - the 37% assumes you can't go back to houses you previously rejected. ~a
[2017-04-06 08:26:56] - paul: yeah read my last comment again. 1/e = 0.368. that's where your 37% comes from. ~a
[2017-04-06 07:59:31] - a: It wasn't exactly what I thought it was, and probably isn't helpful, but apparently Daniel should spend 37% of his time (not sure how that's defined) looking at places and then after that, be willing to buy the next place that he likes. -Paul
[2017-04-06 07:58:03] - a: Ah, think I found it. The 25:50 mark here: https://www.fool.com/podcasts/motley-fool-money/2017-02-22-investing-in-the-age-of-trump -Paul
[2017-04-06 07:54:33] - a: Unfortunately, I can't find the episode so I can find the book author to get more info about it. -Paul
[2017-04-06 07:53:29] - a: I thought somebody had done an analysis specifically on house hunting, though. I thought there was an episode of Motley Fool Money where they interviewed a guy (who I believe also spoke about the marriage problem) who said that people should look at at least X houses before making a decision. -Paul
[2017-04-05 11:05:14] - paul: optimal stopping#examples. also secretary problem: 1/e = 0.368. i do remember that there was some common modifications. anyways, daniel could potentially go back to a house he's rejected (not in the classic secretary problem). also daniel is not restricted by how long it takes to "date" a house before you know it well enough to "marry". ~a
[2017-04-05 11:02:08] - We had seen several houses that were "almost". I'm very happy I didn't buy any of them. They were all short of my 'big' criteria, but my 'big' criteria seemed to be largely out of the area/price points we could handle. Finding the house that met my big criteria in the area for the price was what made it work. -- Xpovos
[2017-04-05 11:01:08] - Daniel: When I was home buying, I did a ton of the work that an RE agent might do on my own. I scouted my own properties through the MRIS, and in fact the house we bought was one I found.The market is different now, but a good house will still get some competition, so doing your own research will save you valuable time in getting an offer in-when it's right. -- Xpovos
[2017-04-05 10:54:29] - yeah, agreed. you hopefully have a place to live currently in the same area as the houses you're looking at? that's the best situation. ~a
[2017-04-05 10:39:55] - Daniel: So when I was looking, it was more a leisurely thing where I could afford to take my time. -Paul
[2017-04-05 10:39:37] - Daniel: Doesn't mean you should do the same thing, because as Adrian said, it probably depends on the market and personal circumstances. I was lucky in that I was in no rush to purchase either time in terms of personal circumstances and the housing market either being flat or slightly declining. -Paul
[2017-04-05 10:38:33] - Daniel: Having said that, I've purchased two houses in my life. Both times they were places that I loved and didn't just fit my main big criteria, and in both cases I was glad I waited, since there were places that I considered before. -Paul
[2017-04-05 10:37:35] - Daniel: I can't find the exact info now, but I know there's a mathematical algorithm (optimal stopping problem?) that essentially says how many houses you should look at before you make a decision to buy. -Paul
[2017-04-05 09:25:44] - daniel: of course it depends on the market, but i think rushing to a decision as big as this one is a a possible misstep. ~a
[2017-04-05 09:07:27] - House Purchase Philosophy Question: Do you stop searching at the first house you find that you can live with if it fits you main big criteria or do you wait and look at more houses and hope for a house you love? -Daniel
[2017-04-04 16:55:43] - paul: you can get free services, and personalized recommendations, without a seconds-party having your data. all you have to do, is . . . wait? until decentralization gets more popular? then jump on it once it is. be an early(ish) adopter. ~a
[2017-04-04 16:51:49] - i dunno about the whois. i just went to https://rampantdiscourse.com/ ~a
[2017-04-04 16:51:21] - basically, your server is misconfigured. now we have this cool thing called sni so michael pettit could fix your server to get you some sweet sweet https action. if you (like me) want to save $15/year, you could look into https://letsencrypt.org/ but that takes some serious technical knowledge to set up. ~a
[2017-04-04 16:49:33] - a: Is that the whois or whatever for RD? -Paul
[2017-04-04 16:49:15] - a: Heh, well, I think we're fairly different on this particular topic (likely a result of me having worked in/with marketing departments for 10+ years). I mostly don't mind the Googles and Facebooks and whatnot of the world having access to a lot of my data because I feel like I benefit in the sense of free services and personalized recommendations. -Paul
[2017-04-04 16:48:32] -
i was going to ask you who Michael Pettit is. ~a[2017-04-04 16:47:12] - a: I'm not sure what control I have over that stuff with regards to Rampant Discourse. My method of protection is the "cross my fingers" method.
-Paul[2017-04-04 16:46:36] - paul: maybe we need to start getting better at end-to-end encryption and decentralization. then the second-parties of this world will have less and less of our stuff to sell. i can't wait till shit like openbazaar has more content than amazon. and decentralized social networks could be really cool too. ~a
[2017-04-04 16:46:14] - a: Yeah, the coverage of this issue is just setting off a lot of red flags for me in terms of journalists talking in vague terms about technical stuff (of which they probably know little about) and scare terms being thrown around like "privacy" and "isps" (everybody hates their isp). -Paul
[2017-04-04 16:45:26] - paul: agreed. regardless, let's move all the servers to https, then at least we have some protection. let's fucking turn off port 80 to the world entirely. firewall that shit off. then at least the third parties of this world will only be dealing with metadata. ~a
[2017-04-04 16:41:36] - a: So it's a little hard for me to believe that we're all suddenly at risk of some shady/greedy/immoral corporate trading of our information... that we apparently were all vulnerable to all this time except for a brief one year period where maybe we were protected. -Paul
[2017-04-04 16:41:30] - and hasn't even taken effect yet . . . yeah
~a[2017-04-04 16:40:19] - a: Good points, and you could very well be right on all accounts. I still don't know nearly enough about the bill and am trying to learn more by reading more. One thing that seems weird to me, though, is the hysteria from people over an FCC rule that was enacted last year. -Paul
[2017-04-04 15:27:05] - this law is about third-parties. ~a
[2017-04-04 15:26:26] - "It’s not magic, it’s your browser tracking your habits and then syncing them with advertising algorithms from Amazon, Google, or whoever else, to deliver promos for things you’re more likely to buy." hi, your browser isn't doing this. it's servers. it's second-parties. and no matter what you think about second-parties selling with your data, that's not this law. ~
[2017-04-04 15:24:56] - "If you think that sounds creepy I’m sorry to tell you that this kind of thing is, well, pretty much the standard." i don't agree. i don't agree that it's standard. i don't agree that it should be standard. basically, i don't agree in general. his next example completely misses the difference between a third-party and a second-party. ~a
[2017-04-04 14:21:00] - http://bgr.com/2017/04/04/internet-privacy-rules-trump-bill-explainer/ It sounds like this "ISPs can sell your browsing history" thing might be similar to Net Neutrality in the sense that the issue is a little more nuanced and complicated than the doomsayers might have people believe. -Paul
[2017-04-04 13:06:28] - mig: Yeah, Strasburg got the win. Harper got a home run. Bullpen pitched a shutout. Pretty good performance all around. Now we get to see if they can do that 161 more times.
-Paul[2017-04-04 12:12:53] - paul: mostly that. it's a good tone setter. - mig
[2017-04-04 11:10:03] - mig: Anything beyond the Nats winning that was good? -Paul
[2017-04-04 11:06:38] - I don't have super opinions yet but I would draw some distinction between texting and 'using your smartphone'. I don't think using spotify or something is the same level of involvement as sending a text. Sending a text is clearly bad and I think there are campaigns out there to try and change that behavior. -Daniel
[2017-04-04 10:05:08] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-perez-apology-trump_us_58e35c07e4b03a26a36594ca I guess the era of caring about civility in politics is over. - mig
[2017-04-03 16:51:22] - not a bad start to the baseball season. - mig
[2017-04-03 15:21:30] - a: Well, sure, but the even more obvious solution is "stop hitting pedestrians with cars".
People are going to use their smartphones while driving and walking, unfortunately. I'm not sure how we're going to be able to change that behavior. -Paul[2017-04-03 15:16:18] - paul: i'll be honest, i don't ever use my smartphone on my bike unless i have a hands-free solution and i can't see a car in front of me or behind me. i really only feel comfortable using my smartphone on my bike when i'm on a residential back-road. ~a
[2017-04-03 15:14:45] - paul: you don't think the more obvious solution is to stop using smartphones on the road? (drivers and peds) there was a local story recently where some dude plowed into a bus because he was texting and driving. like there was a 911 call before the crash where somebody was like "this asshole is all over the road" ~a
[2017-04-03 12:04:47] - And yet, these snakes have apparently been decimating the local populations of animals, so isn't reducing their population generally good? Honest question, I don't have a clear answer. I do wonder what their natural predator is elsewhere. If crocodiles can't take care of them, what can? -Paul
[2017-04-03 12:03:35] - http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/01/us/florida-burmese-python-hunt/index.html I (genuinely) wonder what animal rights activists think about stuff like this. I can just imagine the outcry if instead of snakes it was something like bunnies or deer (especially the part about bonuses for snakes defending a nest). -Paul
[2017-04-03 11:42:53] - a: Like, if this is rural areas where there are no sidewalks, then maybe the solution is to build sidewalks. -Paul
[2017-04-03 11:42:28] - a: If I was driving and I saw somebody walking in the road at night not at an intersection, I would think it was very odd. And yes, I still know that my own experiences are not representative, that's why I'm trying to get info on where this is happening and why. -Paul
[2017-04-03 11:41:00] - a: Right, but I don't recall seeing many people at all walking IN the street, particularly at night, except for obviously at crosswalks at intersections. I sometimes see bikers biking along roads during the day. Do bikers count as pedestrians? -Paul
[2017-04-03 11:26:55] - on a weekend that place is hopping. ~a
[2017-04-03 11:26:14] - try walking around king and lee street. ~a
[2017-04-03 11:25:36] - it helps that you work in alexandria. shit tons of people walk in alexandria especially close to the river. ~a
[2017-04-03 11:24:12] - well, ok, but i'm helping you by giving you the data i've found. at least start by recognizing that the data shows that these mythical walking people DO exist. then, look around you. you live (IMO) in the worst area for walking and biking in nova, so when you're anywhere in arlington, alexandria, or dc, look around at all the people walking. ~a
[2017-04-03 11:21:45] - a: Right, I understand, but knowing that my personal behavior is irrelevant doesn't help me understand the people that DO walk. That's why I'm trying to figure it out. -Paul
[2017-04-03 11:21:29] - also, walking has become much more common since 2001. it seems like walking hit it's "low" (car trips reached a peak) around 2001, and walking/biking has been very slowly climbing since. ~a
[2017-04-03 11:17:37] - paul: your personal behavior is irrelevant. you hate walking, so why would we use you as our only data point?
in 2001 it was estimated that there were around 35.3 billion walking trips each year. that's over 100 trips per person per year. so, yeah, some people walk. ~a[2017-04-03 10:35:36] - Daniel: So it might have the best of both worlds? -Paul
[2017-04-03 10:35:27] - Daniel: Going back to your mortgage question: I know Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans advertises a lot on the Motley Fool podcasts. Never used them, and this is not at all a recommendation, but you might want to check them out. It's apparently a (mostly? entirely?) online process, but by an established company (Quicken). -Paul
[2017-04-03 10:32:07] - a: Right, but I guess my question is why are people walking on the roads at all? I hardly walk anywhere, sidewalk or no, so I'm trying to figure out who these people are and what they are doing. Are they poorer people? More rural areas? -Paul
[2017-04-03 08:25:15] - paul: there are tons of small roads in virginia without sidewalks. i won't even count your house, since that's obviously a residential road. ~a
[2017-04-02 11:33:24] - a: Is it a rural thing where there's no sidewalk and people are walking home? A city thing where people are crossing the street at non-crosswalk places? People running across highways? I'm having a hard time envisioning what the standard scenario is. -Paul
[2017-04-02 11:32:10] - a: So to me, that sounds like a lot (most?) of pedestrian deaths are happening when the pedestrian is either walking on a road at night or possibly trying to cross the road? Why are they walking along/crossing the road? -Paul
[2017-04-02 11:30:35] - a: Honestly, though, I just don't know how the vast majority of these pedestrian deaths are happening. Your article said most "occur at night in road space designated for vehicles" and "Only one in five pedestrian fatalities occur at intersections". -Paul
[2017-04-02 11:28:11] - a: Depends on your definition of drivers, but I'm sure people were run over by horses before we had cars. Also, I'm frankly not sure how that's relevant. If it weren't for airplanes, we wouldn't be "in this mess" of having plane crashes either. -Paul
[2017-04-02 11:25:03] - a: Sure, you can suggest drivers should be more cautious. Unlike you, I won't jump to any conclusions about assigning blame.
I just think pedestrians have more power over reducing their own deaths. -Paul[2017-04-02 09:57:31] - paul: well let's just suggest precaution to the drivers then. i mean, they're the ones with the great power and the great responsibility. also, without drivers we wouldn't be in this mess (where the opposite can't be said about pedestrians). so let's just prescribe precaution to drivers. i'm not assigning blame, just precaution. right? ~a
[2017-04-02 09:53:57] - a: People can certainly easily conflate them, but people also easily conflate correlation and causation. Doesn't mean it's right. -Paul
[2017-04-01 22:57:38] - "Suggesting precaution and assigning blame can be two separate things" don't you think they can be easily conflated? if all i do i suggest precaution to one side, aren't i like, between the lines, indirectly assigning blame? ~a
[2017-04-01 19:07:42] - a: But my stocks had a gangbusters quarter. Up 14.36% for the quarter! Still trailing the S&P from when I started tracking, though (19% to 23%). -Paul
[2017-04-01 19:06:43] - a: I thought I had edit access, but I can't edit it now. I can just tell you. By my calculations, my Vanguard account was up 7.76% (but still just barely trailing the S&P from since I started tracking at the beginning of 2016). -Paul
[2017-04-01 10:05:14] - paul: how did we do? ~a
[2017-03-31 20:20:54] - a: Suggesting precaution and assigning blame can be two separate things. -Paul
[2017-03-31 20:20:20] - a: Okay, sure, we can use your example. If I said the patient shouldn't go to see a doctor who has a history of turning off their patient's oxygen supply... I wouldn't consider that to be blaming the patient. -Paul
[2017-03-31 17:11:38] - jesus maybe i need to change my behavior. ~a
[2017-03-31 16:44:58] - paul: if the patient wasn't unconscious and could have maybe noticed that the oxygen supply was disconnected himself, i still think we come down pretty hard on the doctors that fail to notice that the oxygen supply was disconnected. ~a
[2017-03-31 16:43:23] - heart attacks don't have two groups of people coming together and killing each-other. a better analogy would be a situation where two groups of unequal people aren't paying attention and endanger eachother: maybe a doctor taking care of a patient. "a doctor fails to notice a patient's oxygen supply has disconnected and the patient dies" (literally from wikipedia) ~a
[2017-03-31 16:00:53] - a: If you ask me how we can reduce heart attacks and I suggest people exercise more, does that mean I'm "blaming" people who have heart attacks for having them? -Paul
[2017-03-31 15:59:00] - a: ways of solving the problem <> blame and 1 != 2. -Paul
[2017-03-31 15:30:13] - "I'm frankly not interested in turning the issue into some sort of blame game" then immediately: here are two ways pedestrians can solve this problem they've created and drivers can keep doing what they were doing without changing anything. ~a
[2017-03-31 14:56:52] - a: Drivers can be paying attention for 59 seconds out of a minute, but with how fast cars move, that one second can be fatal. It seems to me that pedestrians have a greater margin for error because they frankly don't move as fast as cars and can stop/turn more nimbly. -Paul
[2017-03-31 14:53:27] - a: Nowhere did I say drivers didn't pay attention, but if we're talking about reducing pedestrian deaths, I think an effective way would be to get pedestrians to be more aware when crossing streets. -Paul
[2017-03-31 14:47:55] - a: *Shrug* You asked for how we decrease the number of pedestrians killed, not "how do we best assign this blame to cars". I'm frankly not interested in turning the issue into some sort of blame game in your crusade to force all cars off the road so you can bike on them.
-Paul[2017-03-31 14:11:58] - "the car is going to win that war" the war is about who is paying attention, not who wins when we hit each-other. i think both parties need to be paying attention, but if neither party is paying attention it's the vulnerable pedestrian that dies. ~a
[2017-03-31 13:55:40] - "Most pedestrian fatalities occur at night in road space designated for vehicles" i guess you forgot to mention that pedestrians are allowed in the road space designated for vehicles. they're also allowed to be there at night. it doesn't even need to be an intersection. ~a
[2017-03-31 13:55:12] - well that's some excellent victim blaming paul. it's an unpopular opinion because it's a moronic one. i guess the cars own the road and we should ask the cars permission to be there? ~a
[2017-03-31 13:37:44] - a: "Most pedestrian fatalities occur at night in road space designated for vehicles. Only one in five pedestrian fatalities occur at intersections." I found this interesting. -Paul
[2017-03-31 13:37:35] - a: Pedestrians should pay more attention? I know it's probably an unpopular opinion, but just because you have right of way, it doesn't mean you should just walk without looking. As I'm fond of saying, you might have the law on your side but the car is going to win that war. -Paul
[2017-03-31 13:32:01] -
i know you're kidding, but i'll say it anyways: there's no way that will even begin to offset the extra pedestrians killed by smartphones in the next 10 maybe 20 years. ~a[2017-03-31 13:27:33] - a: So obvious. The solution is the stage 5 affordable self-driving cars that we'll definitely have soon enough so that I win our bet. -Paul
[2017-03-31 12:56:50] - oof please ignore the (fucking autoplay) video at the top that doesn't even correlate with the text of the article. i guess we saw this coming, didn't we? not sure how to fix it though. ideas on how we can decrease the number of pedestrians killed by smartphone-using drivers? ~a
[2017-03-31 09:46:06] - a: "be filled with bread or toast or a combination of these two extremes," that sounds like my usual breakfast. of course i usually leave out the sour and large fish, since the opportunity's not thick enough and i cannot drink my refrigerator - aaron
[2017-03-30 14:46:12] - a: I didn't listen.
-Paul[2017-03-30 14:25:37] - paul: then don't read this ~a
[2017-03-30 13:42:38] - a: I had to stop reading before I started laughing out loud at work. -Paul
[2017-03-30 13:22:50] - lol "so, i've been training this neural network to generate cookbook recipes by letting it look at tens of thousands of existing recipes." ~a
[2017-03-30 11:56:14] - a: I don't think your first take was unreasonably inflammatory, but I do think there is a worrying tendency by pretty much everybody to take what is normally a complicated law/regulation and over simplify it. -Paul
[2017-03-30 11:16:11] - also, i had this convenient excuse to move all my servers over to https. and i'm doing my work servers next. ~a
[2017-03-30 11:14:08] - well, ok, sure, so maybe my first take on the topic was a little inflammatory. i left the nuance out of my argument. but i got your attention didn't i?
~a[2017-03-30 11:07:50] - FWIW, I almost certainly would have voted against the resolution too, if I were a representative. But I'm with Amash in acknowledging that it's a lot more complicated than just "privacy". -- Xpovos
[2017-03-30 11:01:11] - a: It sounds like it. -Paul
[2017-03-30 10:50:32] - paul: amash voted against the new bill? ~a
[2017-03-30 09:38:11] - a: https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/846935546639388672 I know next to nothing about this particular issue, but I do trust Justin Amash to have a nuanced view on it, at least. Is this the same thing? -Paul
[2017-03-29 21:21:29] - xpovos: well ok. i read that the original fcc rule was made because the ftc wasn't adequately protecting our bits. ~a
[2017-03-29 19:53:33] - a: Weird. It didn't before. I must have back-doored it. -- Xpovos
[2017-03-29 19:07:40] - xpovos: your second article requires a login. ~a
[2017-03-29 18:59:38] - a: This also gets to the heart of the matter. https://www.law360.com/articles/698451/ftc-fcc-to-clash-on-internet-privacy-regulators-say -- Xpovos
[2017-03-29 18:57:37] - a: Here's a speech by then FTC commish from 2014 which gives a lot of background. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_statements/893473/151204plispeech1.pdf -- Xpovos
[2017-03-29 18:44:06] - well on that note . . . https://aporter.org/msg/ finally made the jump after over 17 years. ~a
[2017-03-29 18:33:13] - xpovos: pretty trumpian, sure, but i didn't even mention trump. i mentioned the 50 senators and 215 congressmen. what's their excuse? "return to oversight of this kind of thing from the FCC to the FTC" ok where is that done exactly? the article i read didn't mention the ftc. ~a
[2017-03-29 17:48:30] - a: I'm not going to try to defend it, but I will say that it is just rolling back FCC regulations implemented by the preceding government. That's pretty Trumpian. I imagine a large part of the goal of these Republicans is to return to oversight of this kind of thing from the FCC to the FTC (reverse net neutrality). -- Xpovos
[2017-03-29 16:58:18] - Senate Joint Resolution 34. 50 republican senators and 215 republican congressmen voted for this? i'm so confused. isn't this pretty uncontroversially private data? what's next? for-sale health/bank records? ~a
[2017-03-28 11:01:15] - anyways, that's my personal observation. it was quite annoying. ~a
[2017-03-28 11:00:11] - big lenders can hold your mortgage so even if small lenders pass on you, a big lender could still give you a low rate. ~a
[2017-03-28 10:59:36] - daniel/paul: small lenders don't hold your mortgage themselves, which is usually fine. if they think for a second they won't be able to sell your mortgage to another lender (or get money from the government) they will back-out on your mortgage. even if they gave you a POS letter saying that they would give you a mortgage. ~a
[2017-03-28 10:54:09] - daniel/paul: yeah, you're probably fine. in fact, i think most people who have a stable income are fine. but, if you have weird investment income, or passive income, or . . . *any* income that comes and goes, that will freak out a small lender. ~a
[2017-03-28 10:47:01] - a: Well I'm not sure, I definitely did change jobs in the last two years when I moved down here but my W2's should still be fairly stable. Hmmm. -Daniel
[2017-03-28 10:46:14] - Paul: There are lenders that are only online. Like one we are looking at is a company based in San Francisco and doesn't have any offices for a customer to go visit. -Daniel
[2017-03-25 11:19:28] - Daniel: I'm confused, what do you mean by online mortgage people? Our mortgages have typically come from banks that have brick and mortar locations, but essentially all the work was done online. -Paul
[2017-03-24 00:52:53] - Daniel: additionally agents hate online mortgage companies because my story (or ones like it) are all too common. Seriously the sellers agent could skip over your contract with an online mortgage company, assuming you're going into a purchase with multiple contracts. ~a
[2017-03-24 00:47:20] - Daniel: strongly against unless you have like two years of stable w2-only. I just got fucked over by a small (brick and mortar but small) mortgage company that said I was good to get a mortgage, then changed their minds at the 11th hour and i had to get a rush-job mortgage from Wells Fargo because they didn't like the variance in my k1 income. ~a
[2017-03-23 17:17:42] - Anyone here ever use online mortgage people or always actual brick and mortar stuff? Andrea and I are trying to decide how we feel about online mortgage people. -Daniel
[2017-03-22 22:59:09] - High percentage of remote workers in the Russian federation, much smaller number of survey results from Russia. Interesting. -- Xpovos
[2017-03-22 16:03:51] - answering the hard questions. gif-t or jiff. lots of the other serious questions were enlightening. i was surprised that students graduating from college were correctly guessing their starting salaries. also that csharp didn't show up on the "dreaded...languages" section. ~a
[2017-03-22 12:07:55] - a: A question libertarians have been asking for... decades? Marijuana prohibition is an obvious example of where the "cure" is worse than the disease, but I think this is (less obviously so) the case for many government cures. -Paul
[2017-03-22 10:49:39] - "no death from overdose of marijuana has been reported," according to the dea. so why exactly do politicians feel the need for heavy-handed prohibition of a thing that literally nobody is dying from? at least with alcohol prohibition (and prohibition of other drugs) tons of people were/are dying. ~a
[2017-03-22 10:45:40] - marijuana raids are more deadly than the drug itself. ~a
[2017-03-21 17:00:00] - mig: it's always "pathetic temper tantrums" when it's something you disagree with. ~a
[2017-03-21 16:50:38] - mig: Neither was the fight over DeVos (especially considering Sessions), but that happened too. -Paul
[2017-03-21 16:50:16] - mig: I don't disagree. Funny how all people could talk about is the death of the Republican party just 5-6 months ago and now it's the Democrats who look lost. Frankly, though, considering this whole health care debacle, both parties are a mess. -Paul
[2017-03-21 16:50:11] - This fight over Gorsuch is something that's just not worth having. - mig
[2017-03-21 16:47:19] - paul: I guess, but it highlights why I get frustrated and just have no faith in the competence of the democratic party. It just seems they're more focused on throwing pathetic temper tantrums over losing the election (still!) than actually having a competent resistance against Trump. - mig
[2017-03-21 16:41:07] - mig: I think Democrats are (understandably) sore over Gorsuch because of what went down with Garland and so even if the ideal liberal candidate was nominated to the court by Trump, there would be some push-back solely based on that. -Paul
[2017-03-21 16:23:10] - http://canadafreepress.com/article/dianne-feinstein-accuses-gorsuch-of-not-being-for-the-little-guy-.-.-.-imme can someone explain to me what democrats are getting out of this? They don't have any leverage to really block Gorsuch to begin with, and these might be the lamest "arguments against" a judicial nominee I've ever seen. - mig
[2017-03-21 12:38:31] - mig: What I don't get is that it seems like there are two universally disliked aspects from previous ME games: Planet scanning at the Mako. So why in Starchild's name did they decide to incorporate both of them in this new game? -Paul
[2017-03-21 12:16:48] - paul: I normally get a physical box for these type of games, but there wasn't any option for a physical collector's or anything like that through amazon so I just ended up getting the digital deluxe (sans the multiplayer stuff). It was nice to do the pre-load over the weekend and have it just activate at 12:00am. - mig
[2017-03-21 12:05:25] - mig: But, yeah, I've heard that the writing is bad in parts too and have seen some really awkward dialog. It sounds like some people are bent out of shape over not being able to play as a renegade, which is understandable, but which shouldn't be a problem for me. I was always paragon. -Paul
[2017-03-21 12:04:14] - mig: Aw, man. You got yours last night? Digital download? I've got my fingers crossed that Amazon delivers mine tonight and that the initial download doesn't take too long... -Paul
[2017-03-21 11:54:56] - one criticism from playing last night is some of the alien voice acting is not up to par. Tann is particular is kind of painful to listen speak. - mig
[2017-03-20 15:47:00] - though skimming over some of the ars review, I can see why it might get some negtaive takes from certain crowds. - mig
[2017-03-20 14:50:30] - mig: Yeah, I'm hoping the IGN guy was just in a grumpy mood, although it sounds like the IGN reviewer has finished the game whereas the ArsTechnica guy hasn't. -Paul
[2017-03-20 14:49:25] - arstechnica's review was generally positive. - mig
[2017-03-20 14:48:58] - paul: yeah i've been following that too! sad! i hope it's good - aaron
[2017-03-20 11:37:34] - Sounds like Mass Effect: Andromeda is getting some mediocre reviews. I'm disappointed, but still excited to play. -Paul
[2017-03-20 09:16:31] - holy shit sinfest has changed. ~a
[2017-03-20 09:15:02] - it's a ban-ban a ban on bans. ~a
[2017-03-15 13:46:38] - aaron: Ah, I thought you would've had a higher tolerance for puns.
I didn't mind them, but I also was watching it while doing other stuff, so it didn't have my full attention. -Paul[2017-03-15 13:41:35] - but yeah honestly i liked the over the top bits, i liked the premise and where they went with it, the crazy violence and earning their R-rating. i just could have done without a lot of the more lazy humor - aaron
[2017-03-15 13:39:10] - paul: it was like the writers got to a few points where they were like, "ehh this part of the script isn't very funny. so how about instead of saying 'i don't believe you', he says, 'your explanation doesn't cut the mustard.' then some mustard shows up and does something silly." - aaron
[2017-03-15 13:33:26] - paul: it had a good premise, just i thought a lot of the pun-based food chokes were really cringey. it's so stupidly easy to work the word a food word into a sentence and it wasn't funny the first time. when they kept doing it it again and again it almost physically hurt - aaron
[2017-03-15 12:55:33] - aaron: I finished watching it last night and thought you would like it. Thought it was pretty clever early on and might've gotten a little lazy later (and very over-the-top by the end), but still fun. -Paul
[2017-03-15 11:54:44] - paul: yeah! i saw it in theaters. i liked it, some of the humor seemed kinda lazy but overall it was good - aaron
[2017-03-15 10:43:37] - mig: big hug ~g
[2017-03-14 22:03:25] - Aaron: Did you see Sausage Party? -Paul
[2017-03-13 11:37:18] - Daniel: Sorry, I realize I never thanked you for responding about my stock overweight/underweight question. Thanks! I'm looking into those. -Paul
[2017-03-13 11:00:01] - paul: i'm having a hard time following the history. maybe the name stuck with a different thing. maybe this is the same thing they did to colbert: capitulated on the name, but assigned it to a much-less-important (and much smaller and cheaper) piece of hardware. ~a
[2017-03-13 10:52:47] - a: Huh, didn't realize that the name stuck. I thought they were going to over-rule.
-Paul[2017-03-13 10:50:28] - Daniel: Huh, that's a good point. I didn't think of it that way. There's really only one team in the East that is notably better than the Wizards, whereas there might be 2-3 in the West that are better than the Rockets. Too bad we wouldn't be able to see a 7 games Rockets/Wizards series. I think the Rockets would win, but I could see the Wiz taking 2-3. -Paul
[2017-03-13 10:22:49] - boaty mcboatface to go on its fairst antartic mission ~a
[2017-03-13 09:09:21] - Paul: Doesn't seem that crazy to me. Its been that way for a while that its easier to get out of the East than to get out of the West. And getting to the Finals is still a pre-req for winning them! -Daniel
[2017-03-12 20:57:38] - video from a few years ago guy hooks up a neural net to super mario world. i learned about "neat" which is pretty neat. ~a
[2017-03-11 09:42:19] - Daniel: http://www.bulletsforever.com/2017/3/10/14877546/washington-wizards-nba-title-odds-probabilities-wow Wizards have a better chance of winning the title than the Rockets? I don't buy this at all, but I thought you would "appreciate" it.
-Paul[2017-03-10 16:42:05] - a: My truck is woefully empty.
-Paul[2017-03-10 16:29:25] - my truck is already full. i don't even have a truck. ~a
[2017-03-10 16:20:22] - a: Ah, wow, it did a bit. Still not low enough for me to back up the truck.
-Paul[2017-03-10 16:19:11] - paul: disapproval of coin on bats. price fell a little. ~a
[2017-03-10 16:09:55] - a: So there definitely needs to be something to balance that out. Maybe require everybody to pick at least 5 stocks in each portfolio? -Paul
[2017-03-10 16:08:23] - a: Right, I've had a similar experience. I think CNBC had a contest once to see who could make the best portfolio for a few months and the "winners" all just put all their money in penny stocks. -Paul
[2017-03-10 16:08:14] - honestly though even if there was a financial prize, i feel like you'd still want to be the most risky to win. ~a
[2017-03-10 16:06:52] - i did this with some friends at work ( marketwatch.com lets you create a group and each of you get a fixed amount of fake money ). it was pretty fun. but, i feel like it's very different from real investing because (unless you tied it to a financial prize) there's no penalty for failure. so the most risky people will either win the most or lose the most. ~a
[2017-03-10 16:05:19] - I'm wondering if anybody here has any thoughts on what might make this idea better and/or things that might be hurdles to overcome. I welcome any and all feedback. Thanks! -Paul
[2017-03-10 16:04:42] - So it would basically be a place where you could go and pick stocks that you think might outperform and see how you do against both the market (maybe defined as the S&P, maybe something else) and maybe how you do against your friends as well. -Paul
[2017-03-10 15:50:07] - Hey, message board. I'm wondering if I could tap some of your knowledge for some brainstorming. I've got a meeting on Monday of next week (March 13th) about a project that is (as I understand it) basically something like Fantasy Investing. -Paul
[2017-03-10 14:49:31] - paul: I guess, but there are some controversial elements to it (there's some dispute whether the Redskins assertion that he was an unruly drunk are accurate), and it seems like a human interest fall from grace that usually hooks in new outlets. - mig
[2017-03-10 14:27:49] - mig: I don't see why it would warrant that much attention. A dysfunctional franchise firing its GM who had already been fired from his two previous stops? Dog bites man. -Paul
[2017-03-10 14:16:54] - So is the mcloughin firing just not a big deal outside of DC? ESPN has barely any stories on it, while yahoo doesn't look like it's run even one story on it. - mig
[2017-03-10 14:06:05] - yeah, i briefly scanned that. looks like you're right though, there's no digest there. lame. in today's day and age, i'm surprised that passwords are ever sent over networks. nonce has existed for at least 20 years! (obsolete rfc) ~a
[2017-03-10 13:42:51] - a: https://github.com/SirCmpwn/evilpass/blob/master/evilpass/__init__.py you guess wrong, it literally just posts your password to twitter's mobile authentication URL
- aaron[2017-03-10 12:27:56] - aaron: HA! i guess it doesn't actually send your new password to those sites? (i assume it uses some sort of digest / challenge-response?) ~a
[2017-03-10 10:59:35] - https://github.com/SirCmpwn/evilpass slightly evil password strength checker - aaron
[2017-03-09 15:36:45] - http://imgur.com/a/5T4Fw a neat little mod project I found on reddit. - mig
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