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[2008-01-25 12:51:59] - Dave: Darla from Angel? -Paul
[2008-01-25 12:32:23] - dave: gah, stallone is too old. ~a
[2008-01-25 12:31:30] - xpovos: finally the link at the top of the message board will be useful! ~a
[2008-01-25 12:31:11] - darla is in Rambo! -dave
[2008-01-25 12:28:58] - "consumers bought just 1.7k hddvd players the week of january 12, down from 15k players the week before. in contrast, consumers bought 22k bd machines, up from 15k the previous week." i'm actually more surprised that the previous week saw an even number of both players bought (15k vs 15k). ~a
[2008-01-25 12:28:33] - We got our wedding photos yesterday. Katie and I will probably spend a chunk of this weekend going through them. Since we also have digital copies of them all, I should be able to post the ones we liked best to the website sometime next week. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-25 10:24:40] - miguel did! and you vaguely referred to "everybody" . . . i figured this crazy media thing was somehow encompassed by "everybody". ~a
[2008-01-25 10:21:31] - a: I haven't mentioned to media in my last couple of posts.
-Paul[2008-01-25 10:20:29] - paul/mig: i don't know anything about this "media" thing you guys are talking about. is that a tv show or something? ~a
[2008-01-25 09:30:50] - a: it shouldn't matter, but the media seems to think so. - mig
[2008-01-25 09:27:34] - a: That was kinda my point. Everybody is making a big deal about black women being torn, as if they only thing they care about is gender and race. -Paul
[2008-01-25 09:21:58] - plus it's not like the gender or the race of the candidate should matter anyways. ~a
[2008-01-25 09:16:37] - a: I guess they have Edwards to vote for, that's true. -Paul
[2008-01-25 01:29:39] - paul: white male democrats have (always) like a ton of people to vote for. it's much less dichotomous for the white, male democrats. ~a
[2008-01-24 20:04:58] - I just had a thought. A lot is being made of how torn black, female democrats must be. Why is nobody covering the plight of the white, male democrats? -Paul
[2008-01-24 18:25:57] - i borrowed a coworker's. ~a
[2008-01-24 17:49:30] - Does anybody have a copy of the Futurama movie that I could borrow to watch sometime? -Paul
[2008-01-24 17:28:15] - gawd, i never saw pierce's 0101st pictures.
~a[2008-01-24 16:04:13] - gurkie: it's not like your sister is a minor. ~a
[2008-01-24 16:03:28] - vinnie: mkay. i'll be out too then. ~a
[2008-01-24 16:03:00] - gurkie: i guess i don't know enough about flickr. adding a picture as a "favorite" just means that they liked your photograph, right? ~a
[2008-01-24 16:00:05] - a: I'm skipping DDR today. too much work stuff going on - vinnie
[2008-01-24 15:57:31] - a: hmm what if my sis doesnt know it is on flickr, cause i added it? ~gurkie
[2008-01-24 15:31:46] - gurkie: probably depends on the picture and depends on who was adding it. but i think that's something i'd tell my sister about and let her deal with it how she saw fit. ~a
[2008-01-24 15:12:49] - a: tjen i guess i didnt miss much on not seeing them... would you be weirded out if someone you didnt know added a pic of ur sis as a favorite on flickr? ~gurkie
[2008-01-24 14:52:26] - gurkie: oh the comments were very lame. even if he was being ironic in every message it was still annoyingly stupid. "php sucks" and/or "use a real language" were what ended half 'a dozen of his posts. ~a
[2008-01-24 14:36:27] - amy: i saw that link from slashdot. very nice flickr account. gargamel242 saw a compulsive need to comment on every picture, but it looks like since yesterday somebody went through and deleted all of his comments. ~a
[2008-01-24 14:31:21] - mig: i'm using gwt here (click on any of the "jsload" links). and i'm not running a j2ee server. however, server-client communication using j2ee is different than server-client communication otherwise. ~a
[2008-01-24 14:00:06] - a: nevermind, i need to learn2read. - mig
[2008-01-24 13:52:23] - a: does gwt work on a non-j2ee based servers? - mig
[2008-01-24 13:48:43] - http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/grand-theft-auto-iv-dated-for-april-29/ gta4 to be released april 29. - mig
[2008-01-24 13:44:08] - amy: although, i kinda wanted to see gargamel's comments... ~gurkie
[2008-01-24 13:43:53] - amy: me likey! although, i already told you that... ~gurkie
[2008-01-24 13:19:25] - Understanding art for geeks -amy
[2008-01-24 12:47:25] - mig: i saw that... its ridiculous. i wonder how i would feel with a manager like that... I mean I know I would want to try and be able to work from home... ~gurkie
[2008-01-24 12:33:16] - http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx .... wow ... just .... wow. - mig
[2008-01-24 12:18:46] - a: Cool, thanks. I'll look into Google's stuff, that'll probably do it. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 10:31:37] - i'm playing saturday night at market street coffee in leesburg! -amy
[2008-01-24 10:18:28] - xpovos: i use them at work. ~a
[2008-01-24 10:17:11] - xpovos: GWT and MyGWT are free and open source. ~a
[2008-01-24 10:15:15] - xpovos: i know that's the eval version, but i'm just amused at the formatting. - mig
[2008-01-24 10:07:59] - The file you linked to is the eval version, I could have downloaded that easily enough. I'm not opposed to paying, even. It just has to be in my price range, which is about 20% of what they were charging. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 10:06:35] - mig: Yeah, I knew there had to be a lot of competition, I just couldn't google it up. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 09:56:04] - well if you're just concerned about looks, you'd really need nothing more than just css to fix that. - mig
[2008-01-24 09:55:28] - good lord everyone has their own commercial version of this. - mig
[2008-01-24 09:49:30] - not that you can really do a whole lot to try and "hide" javascript to begin with. - mig
[2008-01-24 09:47:05] - http://www.activewidgets.com/runtime/2.5/lib/aw.js well this is ... amusing ... is this really their idea of obfuscation? - mig
[2008-01-24 09:43:59] - Yeah, my problem I know jack about js. And it's not nearly as friendly to learn as PHP was. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 09:43:14] - I want something that provides a decent-looking sortable table. I can build tables easily enough, and I've even made them sortable, but they're clunky HTML. That widget made it very GUI/user-friendly and looked like it could much more easily integrate into more modern webpages. Additionally, it would decrease the SQL queries I'd have to run. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 09:42:42] - i could probably reimplement that spreadsheet on the main page on my own, the code would look ghastly though, but it appears to be nothing more than fancy css and heavy use of javascript event handlers. - mig
[2008-01-24 09:35:12] - which widgets specifically would you want to use? - mig
[2008-01-24 09:17:38] - mig: PHP & MySQL. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-24 09:14:49] - is your development platform j2ee or .net? - mig
[2008-01-24 09:08:23] - I'm looking at Active Widgets and the features are very cool and would be beneficial to me, but the price is high. $500 for a single developer license. Probably quite reasonable in the field, but since I'd be using it on a hobby site, it's just not worth it. Does anyone know of something similar? -- Xpovos
[2008-01-23 23:01:27] - xpovos: i hope you're right. ~a
[2008-01-23 22:05:21] - a/Paul: I'm pretty sure we've got two more good ones in the bag this week. Probably start next week strong too. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-23 19:31:45] - "But just when we fancied that spelling had become a science, a prescient foreign geisha woman named Deirdre Oppenheimer came down from the heights of a glacier, tore off her veil, seized an ancient financier, and shamed our consciences grievously. 'This society is inefficient!', she inveighed. 'I wasted my leisure becoming proficient in cuneiform hieroglyphs.'"
[2008-01-23 18:14:36] - Gurkie: I didn't mean to imply that, although it would be nice to start assembling a tally of who is coming so I know if I should invite others. Why haven't you decided to come yet?
-Paul[2008-01-23 18:13:03] - a: I agree, although I would prefer at least 11 or 12 more days. -Paul
[2008-01-23 17:55:53] - the stock market needs to have nine more days like today before i stop hating the world. ~a
[2008-01-23 17:52:41] - gurkie: but you can give him the money now then get it back later (thus decreasing paul's strain) ~a
[2008-01-23 16:54:23] - paul: so what you are saying is you want people's beach house deposits? id totally give you my deposit but i still dont know if im going... ~gurkie
[2008-01-23 16:23:53] - watching clinton and obama bicker is just .... ugh. - mig
[2008-01-23 16:21:50] - i watched some of the debate on cnn on moday. dear god it was absolutely dreadful. - mig
[2008-01-23 16:19:50] - Gurkie: That would somewhat be the opposite of what I am hoping for. It's not that prices are too high, it's that I have no money ($2k towards the beach house and $2k to my credit card bill will do that). -Paul
[2008-01-23 16:16:41] - Paul: all you need is for prices to drop soo much that you can afford to buy more, right? ~gurkie
[2008-01-23 16:15:02] - Xpovos: Are you sure? I don't want to look at it unless I am somehow miraculously in the black for today. -Paul
[2008-01-23 15:57:37] - Paul: Also, you can look at the stock market now. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-23 15:56:03] - Paul: Obama is mostly running on that 'change' platform too. But, yes, the whole spectacle is very popcorn worthy. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-23 15:12:34] - It's almost as amusing to me as Mitt Romney suddenly deciding to run on a platform of "change". -Paul
[2008-01-23 15:11:41] - Does anybody else find it ironic that Obama has been running as the "peace, love, unity" candidate and he can't even get out of the democratic primary without getting involved in a nasty war of words with people he is supposed to agree with on the issues? -Paul
[2008-01-23 14:37:05] - and to double it apparently the Joker role was contributing to his sleep issues... I wonder how this will affect the movie... ~gurkie
[2008-01-23 14:26:04] - a: i was actually wondering if his death would boost the movies popularity.. after all it will (most likely) be the last movie he appears in... I dont know how far along they were with the one that was shooting... ~gurkie
[2008-01-23 12:13:36] - here's hoping my next car is fully electric (or at the very least a plugin hybrid). article has an innovative way of quick recharging for road trips (though i'm not sure how plausible it is). ~a
[2008-01-23 10:49:17] - vinnie: according to the link, it'll be july. ~a
[2008-01-23 10:44:15] - xpovos: i knew you were joking
~a[2008-01-23 10:00:26] - a: yeah. that one apparently wrapped shooting already, but I think they may delay the release. and I think he was in the middle of filming Terry Gilliam's newest movie - vinnie
[2008-01-23 10:00:15] - Xpovos: I saw that. I might log on and download it tonight if I can remember. -Paul
[2008-01-23 09:55:20] - Paul: X-box Live is giving "Undertow" download away for free tonight and for a few days to compensate for poor network performance recently. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-23 09:09:47] - That settles it. I'm not looking at my stocks until I either have money to buy more or the end of the week, whichever comes first (almost certainly it will be the end of the week). -Paul
[2008-01-23 08:04:13] - a: You weren't. But I figured the winky would make it more obvious I was jesting. You were more correct in putting specific words into my mouth than Paul; however that's generally not going to be the case, I'd imagine. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 23:29:46] - *starred ~a
[2008-01-22 22:05:50] - so apparently ledger stared in an unreleased movie: The Dark Knight (film)#Release. ~a
[2008-01-22 21:59:11] - or an animal for that matter. ~a
[2008-01-22 20:53:52] - paul: i wouldn't try to rape a fetus anyways. ~a
[2008-01-22 20:53:40] - a: Don't get penisy. -Paul
[2008-01-22 20:53:26] - a: Sounds like I missed the target on summing up Andrew's opinion, though, so it doesn't matter.
-Paul[2008-01-22 20:53:10] - i didn't realize i was getting cocky. ~a
[2008-01-22 20:52:59] - a: I was more talking about the rape and incest thing, I wasn't trying to sidestep whatever issue you were talking about. -Paul
[2008-01-22 20:50:17] - title: mmm. Delicious fetus. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:49:23] - a: In this case, yes. Don't get cocky.
-- Xpovos[2008-01-22 20:48:55] - As medical technology advances, the definition of 'extraordinary' medical intervention tends to shift. Food and water are not; but is a feeding tube? -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:45:59] - xpovos: so i did a good job putting words into your mouth ("no, that matters not"). paul, on the other hand failed ("If you wouldn't do it to a one year old, don't do it to a fetus") ~a
[2008-01-22 20:45:58] - Pro-life philosophy has numerous issues to contend with. Ectopic pregnancies are one of the most complicated. End of life issues are another. E.g. A man has severe emphezema and needs oxygen assistance to survive. Another man has worse emphezema and needs to be in an iron lung. Which, if either, is it permissible to 'pull the plug' on? -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:44:24] - Which again, isnt' even close to the same thing.
[2008-01-22 20:44:14] - There's no way to carry the analogy over to a one-year old. The closest you can really come is the classic moral philosophy question of: someone has a gun pointed at your head, places a gun in your hand and instructs you to shoot one of two people, a young woman, or her young child. Which do you shoot. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:43:07] - a: One way of looking at the situation is to attempt to philosophically ignore the pregnancy. E.g. it's completely reasonable to perform a surgery to remove a cancerous overy. Similarly, it's morally acceptable to remove a 'jammed' fallopean tube that would kill the woman. Factoring back in the pregnancy under pde it is acceptable to remove the tube anyway. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:34:23] - paul: regarding "If you wouldn't do it to a one year old, don't do it to a fetus" . . . that completely sidesteps the issues. according to that quote, even aborting ectopic pregnancies should be illegal. there's no way that they'd allow you to kill a one-year-old to save a mother. right? ~a
[2008-01-22 20:20:52] - Xpovos: I imagine your stance can be summed up by: "If you wouldn't do it to a one year old, don't do it to a fetus"? -Paul
[2008-01-22 20:16:15] - *logically consistent. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:15:25] - a: In other words, if all the states decided to allow abortion, he wouldn't do anything to overturn it. That does seem to conflict with the whole constitutional amendment thing, though. -Paul
[2008-01-22 20:14:48] - aba: Personally I'm opposed. I don't see the logic. But then I'm not the woman who's just been victimized either. It's difficult enough to take a logically positioned pro-life stance as it is, so I try not to complicate it by adding rape/incest/death penalty type exceptions. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 20:14:35] - a: I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think that although Ron Paul is personally against abortion, his political stance is to just leave it up to the states. -Paul
[2008-01-22 20:13:08] - a: Intent is a lot easier to deal with in terms of morality instead of legality. Legally, it's a crap shoot. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 18:42:17] - legalized abortion and crime effect (correlation only, of course) ~a
[2008-01-22 18:40:42] - aba: i hate to put words in their mouths, but i doubt xpovos nor RP would go for that. i.e. my guess is they'd say "no, that matters not" ~a
[2008-01-22 18:39:49] - aba
[2008-01-22 18:31:07] - xpovos: what about pregnancy resulting from rape/incest? - aba
[2008-01-22 17:16:44] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarana this is the stuff that's in Monster Energy, and that's not in Five-Hour-Energy - aaron
[2008-01-22 17:06:03] - gurkie: whoa, holy crap. that's terrible - vinnie
[2008-01-22 16:59:22] - RIP Heath Ledger... ~gurkie
[2008-01-22 16:43:09] - regarding pde . . . i was under the impression that regulating "intent" (see second bullet) was undesirable because it was impossible (or very difficult) to prove in court. ~a
[2008-01-22 16:33:36] - well at least according to catholic teachings, anyways. - mig
[2008-01-22 16:28:42] - a: usually according to christian ethics, if your own life is in immediate danger, then you have every right to deal with it up to and including lethal force, so i think even among the most fanatic pro lifer wouldn't have much issue with an abortion in that circumstance. - mig
[2008-01-22 16:16:25] - a: Contrarily, termination as a result of birth defects would not be acceptable. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 16:13:53] - a: Obviously that's a complicated issue, which I can't get into with just the space here, plus I'm not sure how many people are really interested in it. So, let me link you an example. This is an example because of this. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:57:31] - xpovos: if conception = life, don't you have issues with pregnancies that endanger the mother (i.e. you can't terminate the pregnancy if that's considered murder) or fetuses with terminal birth defects (i.e. you can't terminate the pregnancy if that's considered murder)? ~a
[2008-01-22 15:40:02] - Because even with the amendment example I gave, all that has to happen is that a law be tested by the Supreme Court which allows abortion, provided the fetus has been given 'due process', which if the justices are all pro-choice will be easy to do. Clearly we give parents legal rights over children... etc. on down the line. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:38:14] - If you read his statements, it's pretty clear that he thinks a constitutional amendment is a messy and pretty much impossible way of dealing with abortion. He wants long-term cultural shift, not to impose his viewpoint through law. Which is completely in character. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:36:15] - a: I was going to add "With reasonable being a matter of personal opinion" but I ran out of characters. If I had to guess, I'd say RP would be in favor of a amendment that clarified the constitution to the point of conception = life; and then allowed most of the rest of the constitution to provide rights after that, e.g. due process. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:33:36] - xpovos: what would be an example of a reasonable constitutional amendment against abortion? ~a
[2008-01-22 15:26:54] - Xpovos: I actually read that article earlier this morning, but I haven't read any comments yet. I will proceed now. -Paul
[2008-01-22 15:18:21] - About a third of the way down, after reading "oh dear god Abortion and Ron Paul. It's the perfect thread-storm." and "Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others." I about fell out of my chair. Not a good thing, since I'm still at work. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:17:57] - xpovos: it's not that evil unless it gets to be too much money over too little amount of time (which is why raising the blinds and the buyins would be bad). nobody has lost more than $100 in a month, right? and even if they have, it's not like they've lost more than $1200 in a year. ~a
[2008-01-22 15:16:50] - a: Ron is pro-life. However, he believes that federal governmental intervetion into the issue is bad, because it is clearly beyond the scope of the Consistution. He would favor state laws limiting or prohibiting abortion. I would imagine he might agree to a constitutional amendment against abortion, if it was reasonable. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:15:00] - a: I dunno, most of those guests come back; and even then, it's still zero sum. Just that the guests have walked away with our money on average. And again, if I'm up, and the guests are up, even more other people are down. Ah, the evils of gambling. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 15:11:53] - wait, ron paul is for additional governmental restrictions of abortion? i didn't know that. ~a
[2008-01-22 15:06:05] - xpovos: most of the readers on reason ... tend to be unreasonable. - mig
[2008-01-22 15:01:27] - xpovos: it's also not closed circuit. we often have guests (who almost always leave way up for some reason). ~a
[2008-01-22 14:59:15] - i've had a few nights where i left with 60, but many many more nights where i lost 20. ~a
[2008-01-22 14:56:48] - xpovos: it's not awkward. i'm well aware that i'm way down overall. ~a
[2008-01-22 14:56:36] - a: I have a spreadsheet too, but it's only for me, and only since I got married, so it's sitting comfortably at $0 right now. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 14:55:58] - Paul: You may get a kick out of this. The actual article/endorsement maybe not so much, but some of the comments are hilarious. I'm not sure which are satire and which are legit. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 14:54:54] - this is why my coworkers have a spreadsheet of overall winnings/losings. ~a
[2008-01-22 14:38:26] - i don't think that's really that accurate, at least by my observations. he hasn't really bombed out in a really long while and he's usually up $20-30 at least every week he plays. - mig
[2008-01-22 14:09:54] - aaron: according to Yuriy he was over 100 bucks down overall and I think Paul said he won 30/40 (profit) on sunday. Meaning still down. ~Gurkie
[2008-01-22 13:59:49] - Paul: Analyzing that kind of stuff gets awkward. It's a closed circuit thing. If I'm up overall, someone else has to be down overall. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 13:13:13] - a: I think in terms of whether he has won or lost money overall at poker since starting to play at my place. -Paul
[2008-01-22 12:56:44] - paul/aaron: down overall in what context? ~a
[2008-01-22 12:08:24] - Aaron: No idea. I haven't been keeping track. You would have to ask him. I think I'm getting close to being down overall, though. -Paul
[2008-01-22 12:07:11] - paul: so is yuriy "even" yet? - aaron
[2008-01-22 09:47:18] - Paul: Depends on a lot of things. Some people disliked the news because it weakens the dollar, and so are reacting negatively, and some people disliked the news because it wasn't a full point (nutjobs) and so are reacting negatively. The news took the generally down pre-market and scattered it. Some went even further down, some went way up. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 09:05:18] - Very odd, but my stocks (which were all showing little change in pre-market trading) are now showing huge drops (4-6%). I wonder if that info is innaccurate or if I am missing something. -Paul
[2008-01-22 09:03:56] - Xpovos: Wow, should be a very interesting day for the market today. I'm really hoping for a rally but I fear we'll just tread water. -Paul
[2008-01-22 08:41:04] - Hmm. 3/4 of a point, I did not see that coming. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-22 07:45:10] - Paul: Unfortunately, I think we do have a continuing downward trend, I just suspect we'll see a counter-trend rally this week and maybe next. It never goes straight up or straight down. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 21:11:48] - xpovos: i am amused by vinnie's new huge mousepad, as i call the mtg mat .) (srsly, we put it on his desk and it fits both mouse and keyboard, and you can still see a lot of the design) -amy
[2008-01-21 21:10:35] - gurkie: i went to work today, i just went a lot later than other people do .p -amy
[2008-01-21 16:41:45] - gurkie: i'm at work . . . every day. except when i was chilling yesterday. hopefully i'll be able to take it easy in february (denial). ~a
[2008-01-21 16:33:53] - Xpovos: Well, I'll take that over a continued downward trend. I would just like to make back at least some of my losses before it comes time to cash out for a downpayment. -Paul
[2008-01-21 16:31:58] - Xpovos: I am working for a consulting firm, although yes thats still my current project... ~gurkie
[2008-01-21 16:11:51] - Sorry all, 1600 rolls around and it's quitting time here. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 15:17:59] - gurkie: Apparently it's a federal holiday or something, and some companies place stock in that. Ours don't. You still working for that insurance company? -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 15:10:19] - why arent more people at work? I think its unfair for me to be here when no one else seems to be... ~gurkie
[2008-01-21 13:01:58] - Final result would be a Friday close of about 12500 if that's correct. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 13:01:40] - Paul: I don't know for sure, but I'm going to 'strongly suspect' not. Tomorrow morning we gap down, the depth of the gap will be informative. Unless the gap is massive (>300) I suspect we'll recover by noon. Overall the day will be up slightly (<50) to down slightly (<100). Wed-Fri I expect up every day probably in excess of a 100 pts per day. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 11:54:50] - Xpovos: But will the rally take us anywhere near where we were just a month ago? -Paul
[2008-01-21 11:28:55] - Hmm, Stock Futures have the Dow at perilously close to my bottom called back in April. Factor in a probably rate cut (at least 0.50%) and we should have a strong rally next week. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 11:20:31] - users of ie6, beware of microsoft: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/01/17/Microsoft-warns-businesses-of-autoupdate-to-IE7_1.html ~a
[2008-01-21 10:39:29] - Actually, Katie and I were thinking of hosting some kind of event to make a house-warming. She'd been talking about Magic on the one hand, something else to keep everyone else enteretained on the other. Of course, that was being discussed when Coldsnap was still in-play, so it may be off the table at this point. Also, parking at my place sucks. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 10:25:26] - Xpovos: Sounds good to me. Just tell me when and where.
-Paul[2008-01-21 10:20:41] - So, we need to get together for some drafting. I have 4 packs total to contribute (1 Lorwynn, 3 Morningtide). -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 10:20:10] - Paul: The price on the playmat amuses me so much because, while it's nice, it's also maybe worth $5 tops. $10 retail would be high. It's fresh too, so it's giving off rubbery fumes which gave me (combined with little caffiene and food) a terrible headache, which still hasn't really gone away. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 10:15:09] - Paul: $55 for two sealeds with the playmat for free for buying both at the beginning. Also a $5 dicount off the price (normally $30 per sealed). 1 75 card Lorwyn box, 3 Morningtide boosters. So about a $7.50 premium, or $15 total. But I walked away with $10 worth of prizes and the *cough* $20 playmat. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 10:11:09] - Paul: We both played two sealed deck tourns. I went 2-2 then 2-1-1 (officially) / 3-1 (unofficially). I drew the last game to guarantee packs, but we played anyway and I beat him pretty solidly. Vinnie also got packs his second event. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 10:06:04] - Xponie: How did the tournament go? -Paul
[2008-01-21 09:21:38] - vinnie: Those playmats we got are MSRP $20. Ha! http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=49089 -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 07:07:18] - a: The variant I'm talking about is very different, but the play style is similar because it's an end-game simulation, so pawns and lots of open space. The initial set up is: WP: F2,G2,H2 ; BP: A7,B7,C7; WK: E1; BK: D8. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-21 07:03:28] - Definitely harder, but still winnable. And I could see the deterministic bit, at least within the scope of the AI. The new AI didn't let me beat it with the same strategy I used against the old AI, so either my play was suboptimal (definitely) or it's not 100% deterministic. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-20 00:45:28] - a: yay i won! i think it's harder - aaron
[2008-01-19 15:30:26] - how relevant to our discussion ~a
[2008-01-19 12:53:45] - i just realized that most of what i'm talking about only comes up when you're playing as white: which you can do here: http://aporter.org/fox/?playerwhite i warn you, though, it's pretty easy to win. also of note: the interface won't let you take the queen, but the ai would only put itself in that situation when it knows you're going to win anyways. ~a
[2008-01-19 12:50:25] - s/he/it/
~a[2008-01-19 12:50:16] - aaron: yeah. he does funny stuff when he knows he's going to win or knows he can't force a win. i'm thinking it's probably not good when the ai knows he can't force a win, that the he assumes that the player won't screw up. ~a
[2008-01-19 12:46:01] - dee: we'll miss you. ~a
[2008-01-19 12:28:00] - We are getting ready to board the ship!!! See you guys in February!!! ~dee
[2008-01-19 12:06:26] - a: since he can win either way.... it's just kind of funny, it's not something a human would do - aaron
[2008-01-19 12:06:12] - a: haha that's pretty funny, if you put the queen in a position where it can be captured, but the AI already has a pawn on like the 6th row, he'll just keep advancing that pawn rather than capturing you - aaron
[2008-01-19 12:04:49] - a: you should have it cache the responses to the opening moves, that's when it takes the longes and it seems like there's only so many things people do - aaron
[2008-01-19 12:02:30] - a: so if the pawn has no moves it's a draw? okay. - aaron
[2008-01-19 00:32:12] - aaron: you can draw (if you're playing as black). i had to recently retune the ai (playing as black): before i fixed the ai, it was equating a stalemate with a win. the ai will now only attempt a stalemate if it knows that forcing a win is impossible. a draw is when there's only one pon left and it's blocked by the queen. ~a
[2008-01-18 20:23:44] - xpovos: you can't draw in this game, because the pawns always have to move forward... - aaron
[2008-01-18 16:20:36] - aaron: also the game is deterministic, so if you can beat it once, you can beat it the same way every time (unless i re-tune the fitness function). ~a
[2008-01-18 16:20:00] - aaron: three moves from the end of the game (the depth is 6 total piece moves), the ai will always play optimally unless it has already lost. anything before that is a crap shoot. the ai is trying to increase its "fitness" over the next three moves taking into account your moves but it's all according to a fitness function that is very broken. ~a
[2008-01-18 16:10:24] - and fyi, white = pawns, black = queen. ~a
[2008-01-18 16:09:27] - aaron: yeah, it's not because the game is fixed for one side, it's because the ai is pretty dumb. i'd allow you guys to play as white, but the ai has an even harder time playing as the queen. ~a
[2008-01-18 16:09:03] - xpovos: how is the variant different. i didn't make up the game, but i probably didn't remember all of the rules correctly. ~a
[2008-01-18 15:41:35] - aaron: I don't know about this variant, but the one I mentioned yesterday White (or the player who moved first) won if played perfectly. If he played poorly, black could at least force a draw. And it all depended on the first move. This is probably similar. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-18 15:33:35] - a: i always win with a pretty simple strategy - aaron
[2008-01-18 15:33:12] - a: can a player playing the pawns always win if they do a good job? or is this a game you made up - aaron
[2008-01-18 14:18:36] - where "faster" is still only a four year old machine. ~a
[2008-01-18 14:09:14] - xpovos: yeah . . . i uhhh . . . wasn't able to speed up the ai (i'm a horrible programmer i guess). so this webpage is ssh-ing to my faster machine
~a[2008-01-18 12:25:43] - There we go. I may not be the sharpest, but I'm glad to see I'm (eventually) better than a static AI on a 400MHz machine. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-18 12:15:01] - a: Ditto on the replication so far. 6 >> 5, zugzwang exploit is filled, haven't beaten it yet. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-18 11:50:16] - a: couldn't replicate that movement bug. and I was happy to beat the AI on 6 once. I tried twice more and lost - vinnie
[2008-01-18 11:25:54] - Bobby Fischer, Chess Master, Dies at 64 ~a
[2008-01-18 09:42:04] - http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080115-amazons-free-shipping-costing-1000-per-day-in-france.html frenchgov fines amazon for giving their customers a good deal. - mig
[2008-01-17 20:59:04] - lol: no way. googlebot is trying to play! ~a
[2008-01-17 20:47:18] - i also changed the depth to 6. ~a
[2008-01-17 19:34:43] - xpovos/vinnie/aaron/paul: i fixed some of the display bugs. i still haven't seen the: the game won't let me make a legal move bug. ~a
[2008-01-17 17:04:38] - you jump onto them. but don't let them take you (pawns have a weird diagonal attack) or the game will be over. (though there's a display bug after game is over where it's not obvious you were taken by a pawn) ~a
[2008-01-17 17:02:40] - oh, is it pawn? god, PON is all over the code
~a[2008-01-17 16:58:09] - Okay but how do I get the pawns... do I jump over them like in checkers... I know i'm a loser, I never learned chess. ~dee
[2008-01-17 16:20:43] - Paul: It's generally advisable to have some stops in play for a vow like that, I would think. Of course, ideally I could just forget that I have money in SIRI for the next 5+ years and be really surprised when I look behind the seat cushions. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 16:17:20] - anonymous: I pon't understand what you're complaining about - other anonymous
[2008-01-17 16:12:36] - stop saying pon!
[2008-01-17 16:03:10] - xpovos: it understands it much better when depth=6. you can't do much with depth=5. ~a
[2008-01-17 15:59:29] - a: The AI seems to have a real problem understanding zugzwang. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 15:55:31] - a: If I get the error again I'll be sure to note the url. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 15:52:00] - the only two situations where i can't go as far as i want diagonally is when i've been killed or when i'm jumping over a pon. ~a
[2008-01-17 15:50:37] - if you guys give me a url for a broken situation, i can fix it. ~a
[2008-01-17 15:41:31] - Xpovos: I was getting hammered so bad that I made a vow to not look at the market at all until close of business tomorrow at the earliest. -Paul
[2008-01-17 15:39:47] - Who's getting hammered by the market today? Anyone? Anyone expecting a 'surprise' 'emergency' rate cut tomorrow? I'll stake some credibility on it and say we get a 0.50% rate cut tomorrow. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 15:33:31] - aaron: i'm out too. ~a
[2008-01-17 15:12:55] - xpovos: yeah that was exactly what happened to me. I tried to move more than one square diagonally backwards and it didn't recognize it as a legal move. it would let me move one square in that direction though - vinnie
[2008-01-17 15:11:31] - aaron: I think I'm going to skip. the roads still aren't that great - vinnie
[2008-01-17 14:54:58] - Yay! I finally beat it (leigimately, no bug exploit). -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 14:49:28] - dee: Further, the object is to remove all of the pawns before they reach the 8th rank, and thus get promoted. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 14:37:15] - dee: its a chess board the queen can move in any direction as many squares as she wants the pawns can only move forward. They can only attack at a diagonal from one space away (forward still). ~gurkie
[2008-01-17 14:15:33] - I don't really "get" this game... Please explain to the slow Damascian. ~dee
[2008-01-17 14:10:03] - ddr_people: i didn't go to work today because the snow was kind of bad. are you going to ddr? i could go if the roads have cleared up- aaron
[2008-01-17 13:51:20] - Xpovos: Wait, this is chess? Does that mean the # symbol isn't a barrier after all?
-Paul[2008-01-17 13:33:03] - a: i also liked the game! and I think I won... I mean all the pawns were dead but I am not sure when they actually hit the far side of the board and complete. ~gurkie
[2008-01-17 13:30:21] - a: Oh, yes. Nothing like the hard learned lessons. Also, I experienced a similar bug to vinnie's. In addition, on occasions I would not be permitted to move the queen more than one square in a cardinal direction. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 13:23:52] - a: I also had some problems where it wasn't letting me move the queen diagonally. I'm not sure why that was. I can try to replicate if you want me to. otherwise, fun game! - vinnie
[2008-01-17 12:46:41] - xpovos: you backup now, right? ~a
[2008-01-17 12:43:25] - a: Wow. The loss of that 13GB HD was brutal to me, I lost a ton of data. I had also upgraded the RAM many times. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 12:39:40] - xpovos: the original 16gb harddrive is still running! however, i've added two drives because the first one i added since crashed. other than that, the only improvements since 1999 was upgrading the ram from .25gb to .5gb (my dad had a dimm lying around he wasn't using) and a second network card so it can act as a router. ~a
[2008-01-17 12:23:40] - Paul: You are, but the pawns can take the queen as well. Also, I'm not sure if it's a win condition for the pawns if one reaches the end, but is capturable by the queen (without repercussion) on the next move. The AI plays as if it is, but that's counter to standard chess logic, but might make perfect sense for the variant. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 12:22:36] - a: My computer from that era (PII 400) is in pieces... impressive that yours is still running and as a server. Did you do a harddrive upgrade? That's what finally killed mine. Headcrash. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 11:53:09] - a: Wait, we're not supposed to run into the Pons? -Paul
[2008-01-17 11:42:00] - xpovos: i've been trying to speed up the implementation so i can set the depth to 6 (as you can see, i settled on a depth of 5). i think a depth of 6 plays much smarter, but it runs way too slowly on this computer. i bought this computer in 1999: it's a pentium3 with a clock speed of 0.4ghz. ~a
[2008-01-17 11:38:07] - xpovos: yeah, i changed that a few times. right now i don't think it stops the game when the game is over. there are a few minor bugs related to that (like when the queen gets taken by pons or when the pons get to the end). i'll refix that eventually. ~a
[2008-01-17 10:51:25] - gurkie: yeah, the singer/songwriter showcases and open mike nights tend to be on weekdays, with the "real" (paying) shows on weekends. unfortunately. we could get you home before midnight, but i understand if it's too late for you, i mean it is a tuesday after all. -amy
[2008-01-17 10:50:08] - paul: np. i won't be going on until about 9. i don't suppose you could drag out some coworkers, too? .D -amy
[2008-01-17 10:49:45] - -amy
[2008-01-17 10:49:42] - a: you are awesome, I <3 you forever! .D
[2008-01-17 10:01:06] - a: I'm not sure if this is the bug you're aware of, but the win conditions for the fox/chess game are unclear. -- Xpovos
[2008-01-17 02:39:56] - amy: i'll be there. ~a
[2008-01-17 02:38:30] - dee: sorry. i just left work. i'm too tired to talk
~a[2008-01-16 21:28:50] - I'm now chattychica04 on g-talk... if anyone is online and wants to keep me company.... I'm really bored here at work. ~dee
[2008-01-16 20:36:55] - "Well it's my roommate. And my roommate is friends with my exboyfriend. And they like to go out together sometimes. My exboyfriend likes to drink and might even be on drugs. Well he moved in with his baby's mama last month and I think she's crazy because I met her at a party once. So I just wanted to call." "I don't understand WHAT you are calling for..."
[2008-01-16 20:27:40] - AHhh the HALF sentence people. My favorite though, are the two words and pause people. "I called earlier..." (Ackward silence) "Ohhh kay? And how can I help you NOW?" ~dee
[2008-01-16 19:43:25] - my follow up questions usually make it quite obvious that they forgot to give any context to their statements. ~a
[2008-01-16 19:31:31] - xpovos: i've finally gotten to where i'll just cut in after like 45 seconds of them talking, and i'll interrupt with, "so... are you trying to say YES??" i'm getting pretty nasty imho but sometimes.... i just want to get my work done - aaron
[2008-01-16 19:29:34] - aaron/xpovos: i'm just as annoyed by the people who spit out half of a sentence and expect me to guess (using esp or magic) what the hell they are talking about. ~a
[2008-01-16 19:27:33] - xpovos: that kind of stuff really bothers me too. i work with a few people who speak very verbosely and give incredible amounts of detail - aaron
[2008-01-16 19:09:19] - Xpovos: you would surely hate my job. ~dee
[2008-01-16 17:56:30] - vinnie: No, first there's the completely unnecessary small talk, then there's the multiple redundant explanations. Finally, and most aggrivatingly (for me) they speak -slowly-. I suppose that's a good thing, but I'm used to lightning-speed talking. They probably find me incomprehensible as well. -- Xpovos
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