prev <-> next
[2008-12-09 12:44:26] - gurkie: i'm very surprised at your sense of humor. i'd expect something like that out of paul, but you? for shame. ~a
[2008-12-09 12:33:08] - vinnie: honestly me too, i wasnt sure what it was getting at then i was like... OOOhhhhhh I get it. ~gurkie
[2008-12-09 10:49:21] - http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/12/09/greece.riots/index.html Anybody been following what's been going on in Greece? -Paul
[2008-12-09 10:02:45] - gurkie: haha I did a double-take on that last panel - vinnie
[2008-12-09 09:44:33] - http://photofile.ru/photo/fishki_net/3659813/81692821.jpg ~gurkie
[2008-12-09 09:03:09] - a: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081209-fears-of-gender-bending-chemicals-blur-complex-reality.html My worst nightmare might not be as bad as advertised. -Paul
[2008-12-08 17:24:06] - but it wasn't a rock. ~a
[2008-12-08 16:43:25] - title: now i want to watch the rock. ~gurkie
[2008-12-08 16:43:02] - a: just re-read bits to figure out what phthalates are... im again creeped out... this is why everyone should eat organic food... But not this weaker more recent fda organic but more classically organic where there arent residual pesticides in the ground and crap... ~gurkie
[2008-12-08 13:07:58] - gurkie: yeah. if you see the number "3" inside the recycle symbol on your food container, then it might contain phthalates (though most "3"s DO NOT contain phthalates). ~a
[2008-12-08 12:59:39] - a: that article is kinda scary... ~gurkie
[2008-12-08 11:53:02] - a: Ideally, I should only have to do it once or twice. -Paul
[2008-12-08 11:42:04] - or this one ~a
[2008-12-08 11:40:58] - yeah, it isn't very technical. if you're doing it once though, it's probably the best way. if, on the other hand, this is something you're going to want to do pretty often, i'd instead look for a firefox extension. like this one!!! ~a
[2008-12-08 11:37:42] - a: Not as technical as I was expecting, but it has the type of simple brute forcishness that I find compelling. Thanks.
-Paul[2008-12-08 11:32:35] - i would probably open mspaint (start->run->mspaint) and find out how big 1024 pixels is. then i would manually resize my window to be the same size as that. is that a good enough solution? ~a
[2008-12-08 11:24:45] - Anybody know an easy way to set the width of my ie (or firefox) window to be 1024 pixels? -Paul
[2008-12-08 09:58:18] - a: It's a female conspiracy! -Paul
[2008-12-08 09:25:22] - paul: your worst fears have been realized. and who would have guessed that pollution was to blame? ~a
[2008-12-05 19:14:40] - i think perhaps, once i've dissected everything they've talked to me about, it comes off as a long and convoluted way of saying, "might makes right", though i suppose this may be a gross oversimplification, but that's just my opinion. - mig
[2008-12-05 19:13:32] - i've talked with objectivists before, and for whatever reason, they've always given me a bad vibe. - mig
[2008-12-05 18:34:07] - logan liked ron paul before it was cool [outside texas] - pierce
[2008-12-05 18:33:30] - a: I was anon. I'm not surprised, just think it's funny since that was before The Ron Paul Revolution Google Ron Paul!. - pierce
[2008-12-05 17:33:41] - gurkie: you lost to paul just earlier today. so you're tied (at zero) with everybody who isn't pierce or paul. ~a
[2008-12-05 17:29:06] - pierce: I WIN!!!!! ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 17:29:06] - pierce: I WIN!!!!! ~gurki
[2008-12-05 17:24:54] - anon: who is surprised that logan likes ron paul? ~a
[2008-12-05 16:57:38] - "[2001-06-22 10:15:00] - I'm starting to like this Ron Paul guy in Congress. Makes me wish I lived in Texas. -logan"
[2008-12-05 16:51:35] - ack, dammit gurkie. - pierce
[2008-12-05 16:51:26] - http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html - pierce
[2008-12-05 16:48:02] - im sure this is no surprise but... http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/virginia-school-tops-the-best-high-schools-list.html ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 15:43:48] - a: And that was the nicest thing she had to say about libertarians. Seriously. -Paul
[2008-12-05 15:25:16] - "I’ve read nothing by a Libertarian (when I read them, in the early years) that wasn’t my ideas badly mishandled—i.e., had the teeth pulled out of them—with no credit given. I didn’t know whether I should be glad that no credit was given, or disgusted. I felt both."
~a[2008-12-05 15:25:00] - i have bad news, ayn rand is dead. ~a
[2008-12-05 15:20:23] - paul: i'm guessing most people capitalize it (including wikipedia's article). we don't capitalize "tax collectors" or "murderers". yet we do capitalize "washingtonian" since it has a proper noun in it. so maybe since "christ" (another proper noun) is part of christian, that would be evidence enough for capitalization. ~a
[2008-12-05 15:07:56] - pierce: your article now reads "Missing atheist sign found in Washington state" ~a
[2008-12-05 14:49:29] - http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_campus_libertarians I get the feeling Ayn Rand doesn't like libertarians. -Paul
[2008-12-05 14:39:22] - paul: I find your face to be too wordy! - pierce
[2008-12-05 14:32:08] - Pierce: I find that to be too wordy. Also, is christians supposed to be capitalized or not? -Paul
[2008-12-05 14:26:31] - paul: I'd prefer "Atheists fire rounds off at Christians" if we're going that route. - pierce
[2008-12-05 14:24:03] - Pierce: So true. The headline really should've been: "Athiests take aim at christians". -Paul
[2008-12-05 13:45:10] - Thanks for grossly mischaracterizing the issue and giving right-wing pundits cannon fodder, CNN! - pierce
[2008-12-05 13:44:48] - Atheist sign disappears from Washington State Capitol. what's interesting to me is that earlier today the headline of that same link was "Atheists take aim at Christmas," talking about the sign before the story broke that it had been stolen. - pierce
[2008-12-05 12:37:47] - paul: i'm sorry
- aaron[2008-12-05 11:39:16] - i assume he meant unfortunately for aaron. ~a
[2008-12-05 11:29:44] - Paul: UNFORTUNATELY??????? ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 10:56:47] - aaron: I think I'm going to be in Richmond for most of the weekend, unfortunately. -Paul
[2008-12-05 10:34:10] - paul: sorry not tonight, but i'm free this weekend - aaron
[2008-12-05 10:04:03] -
~a[2008-12-05 09:47:50] - a: waaah! you could have answered me not him! ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 09:44:21] - gurkie: i already answered that question. ~a
[2008-12-05 09:43:59] - paul: i'm busy until like 9ish. i might come over after that. ~a
[2008-12-05 09:37:11] - paul: dont steal my questions! ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 09:36:57] - is anyone planning on coming to poker tonight (other than paul)? ~gurkie
[2008-12-05 09:33:14] - aaaron: Either of you coming to poker tonight? -Paul
[2008-12-05 09:12:18] - aaron: That's interesting. I don't think that would cause any major issues for what I'm planning to do but it's something to keep in mind. Thanks. -Paul
[2008-12-05 08:50:30] - aaron: yeah, if you want to copy files while preserving dates, you need to use "cp -a" or "cp -p". i didn't know about that in 2001 when i moved everything to linux for the first time, so some of my really old files from before 2001 don't have the correct dates anymore. ~a
[2008-12-05 08:32:33] - paul: I used my Ubuntu partition as a backup when I was reformatting/reinstalling windows. It worked OK but it reset the dates on all my files which was annoying for things like music and photographs - aaron
[2008-12-05 08:30:59] - a: sorry, yes the link was safe for work... no pictures or anything (thank god) - aaron
[2008-12-04 17:31:36] - a: Cool. I didn't even think about what kind of file system the usb drive would be using. I guess it makes sense it's fat32. Thanks. -Paul
[2008-12-04 17:25:25] - ntfs-3g is a relatively new package, but i've been using it constantly at work (using a crazy technology called wubi) and it's been error free. ~a
[2008-12-04 17:23:40] - the long answer: flash drives are generally fat32 (which has been supported in linux since the beginning of time). ntfs is also supported using a package called ntfs-3g (which i BELIEVE is on by default, and easy to turn on even if it isn't) . . . ~a
[2008-12-04 17:20:15] - paul: short answer is yes. ~a
[2008-12-04 17:10:00] - This may be a dumb question, but is NTFS compatible with whatever file system Ubuntu linux uses? In other words, can I copy files from my Windows XP computer to a USB flash drive to a netbook running ubuntu (and vice versa)? -Paul
[2008-12-04 16:49:53] - aaron: sfw? ~a
[2008-12-04 16:37:47] - One of my coworkers got that article from the "random article" button - aaron
[2008-12-04 16:37:29] - nipple hair Doug Williams now lives in Oakland and maintains a nipple hair related website - aaron
[2008-12-04 15:04:13] - I code as a 'hobby' at best. In chess terms I'm a patzer, but I enjoy it and understand it well enough to be dangerous. -- Xpovos
[2008-12-04 15:03:03] - a: Currently I manage an office devoted to education and prevention of child abuse. Previously I was a contractor reviewing security plans for merchant vessels in accordance with federal regulations for the Coast Guard. -- Xpovos
[2008-12-04 14:51:14] - i'm embarrassed that i don't know what you do . . . i always assumed it was programming. ~a
[2008-12-04 14:49:28] - Should I be sad that I'm clearly a better programmer than so many of these people who do it for a living? -- Xpovos
[2008-12-04 14:47:46] - a: A lot of them are dumb; some of them can't seem to do 2^x math--but then, neither could the original programmer. On the whole, though, some were amusing, most were a waste. The code though, that was awful. -- Xpovos
[2008-12-04 14:47:36] - for example, in this case half of the posters are mentioning that 102,400bytes != 1mb which is completely irrelevant. 1,024,000bytes != 1mb is relevant, but only barely. ~a
[2008-12-04 14:40:22] - xpovos: be careful reading the comments. it's been months since i read a dwtf comment, but back when i did, at least half of the comments were factually incorrect or just plain dumb. ~a
[2008-12-04 14:32:19] - So, I read this without knowing what malloc() did. Luckily Wikipedia told me. Then I laughed. Then I read the comments. Fun stuff. -- Xpovos
[2008-12-04 14:22:20] - no piu for me. ~a
[2008-12-04 13:27:36] - aaron: I'll be there - vinnie
[2008-12-04 13:21:09] - also, pump it up? - aaron
[2008-12-04 13:04:05] - a: yes, thank you! - aaron
[2008-12-04 10:38:16] - aaron: did the "eval" function work for you? ~a
[2008-12-04 09:58:55] - a: it's not the default shell for our target machines, unfortunately. - mig
[2008-12-04 09:57:04] - a: i don't know, all of our scripts at work use ksh i think it's just some kind of requirement. i always use bash at the command line though - aaron
[2008-12-03 22:57:48] - aaron: Thanks for the heads up. -Paul
[2008-12-03 18:46:32] - i have to ask, but why the heck are you using ksh anyways? bash has been the de facto standard for at least a decade. ~a
[2008-12-03 18:36:31] - nope. it doesn't. and i can't find a way to do it (you're basically trying to pointers/references). anyways, here's how to do it in bash: myscrpt.sh cointains: echo "${!1}" ~a
[2008-12-03 18:34:13] - i found a better way in bash, let me see if it works in ksh. ~a
[2008-12-03 18:33:05] - i'm sure there's a better way. ~a
[2008-12-03 18:32:42] - *works. ~a
[2008-12-03 18:32:33] - it's pretty lame, but this work. myscript.sh contains: eval echo "\$$1" ~a
[2008-12-03 18:22:30] - i'll have to install ksh. one sec. ~a
[2008-12-03 18:22:07] - paul: also, adblock plus works very well... going from the comments on the plugins page, there are some negative reviews for adblock promoting adblock plus fwiw - aaron
[2008-12-03 18:19:28] - in other words, I want to do this: <pre>export foo=bar;./myscript.sh foo</pre> and get "bar" as output - aaron
[2008-12-03 18:18:28] - if you have a korn shell script which takes a variable name as an argument, how can you evaluate the value of that variable? like, ${1} would get you the variable name, so intuitively i thought ${${1}} might work, but it doesn't work that way - aaron
[2008-12-03 16:52:48] - a: i have it if you want to borrow... ~gurkie
[2008-12-03 16:17:47] - paul: i've done mouse gestures with a touchpad and didn't like it. but i probably biased because i hate touchpads (i often use a mouse when using a laptop). ~a
[2008-12-03 16:09:35] - a: Mouse gestures also sound like something I should get into. Are they easy enough to do with a touchpad? -Paul
[2008-12-03 16:02:14] - gurkie: donnie brasco is already in my queue of things to watch. i'll move it up to the top. thanks! ~a
[2008-12-03 16:00:56] - well my resume is here. i'll be adding a header (with my name/address/phone/email-address) before i send it out. thank you very much for any suggestions you give (either here or send me an email). ~a
[2008-12-03 15:58:32] - i've looked at littlefox, but i feel that using the compact theme (and customizing my toolbars to put everything on one toolbar) is enough. ~a
[2008-12-03 15:56:46] - a: I have my resume which is not up to date, but I would be happy to send it to you or review yours for you... I dont think Pauls looks like mine so we arent being redundant
~gurkie[2008-12-03 15:54:49] - a: you should watch donnie brasco I liked! ~gurkie
[2008-12-03 15:53:41] - a: Yeah. I'm doing some advance research for things I want to change when I get my netbook so web surfing is easy. Do you use the LittleFox extension (or whatever it's called)? -Paul
[2008-12-03 15:50:52] - real estate? you might look at my setup: here. add-ons: mouse gestures (to remove the need for a back button) and the classic compact theme. ~a
[2008-12-03 15:41:18] - Anybody here use the AdBlock extension for firefox? I'm looking into ways of increasing the efficiency of my web browser real estate and I'm wondering how well this extension works. -Paul
[2008-12-03 15:38:20] - a: I'm fairly terribly with resumes, but you are welcome to look at mine which I updated fairly recently (or I can look at yours and offer suggestions). -Paul
[2008-12-03 15:37:40] - All this discussion about evil place names reminds me of the sketch from KitH where Kevin would point to his assistant and say "Evil!" in his typically weird tone. -Paul
[2008-12-03 14:14:42] - paul: (or anybody) do you have any information on what a resume should look like or how to get one up to snuff? ~a
[2008-12-03 13:36:55] - "the tunnel of tapestries." not so evil? ~a
[2008-12-03 13:34:58] - aaron: "rotted shaft of flesh". so eww - vinnie
[2008-12-03 13:23:21] - http://deathculture.net/ evil place name generator - aaron
[2008-12-02 16:02:16] - a: you still have to put in movies you see outside of netflix though. those were the ones I ended up forgetting the most, especially movies I saw at other people's places. anyway, it shouldn't have been THAT hard for me to keep it up to date, but I forgot to do it regularly, so after I went a year without updating it, I stopped doing it - vinnie
[2008-12-02 15:13:16] - "It is possible today to hijack an aircraft using only five or six able-bodied passengers who are well-trained in Kung Fu fighting," he says. "There is no technology in place in airports to detect a threat like that."
- aaron[2008-12-02 13:58:35] - gurkie: yes that's what the red exclamation point means. the two crashes were a mistake. it's fixed now, thanks. ~a
[2008-12-02 13:48:43] - a: yay! and is the red exclamation point really liked? Also was there two crash's? ~gurkie
[2008-12-02 13:47:07] - for some reason this really scares me... http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/02/airport.security/index.html?iref=mpstoryview ~gurkie
[2008-12-02 13:29:37] - i remember reading through it in college. ~a
[2008-12-02 13:29:27] - vinnie: yeah, except i don't really have to maintain it. i just use netflix as usual and it gets auto-magically updated. do you still have your old list online? ~a
[2008-12-02 13:23:00] - a: I used to keep a list of movies I had seen too. it got too difficult to maintain, but it was pretty cool having it. when I look back at it, sometimes I can't remember a single thing about some of the movies I've seen - vinnie
[2008-12-02 13:07:09] - gurkie: fixed? ~a
[2008-12-02 12:44:32] - but maybe not... since that might just be odd looking~gurkie
[2008-12-02 12:43:45] - a: same with a perfect murder cept P... ~gurkie
[2008-12-02 12:43:25] - a: I think An Inconvenient Truth should be under I not a. ~gurkie
[2008-12-01 23:19:19] - aba: alpha ~a
[2008-12-01 23:14:17] - or a result of actively removing prior regulations, or deregulation under some other definition. -- Xpovos
[2008-12-01 23:13:49] - pierce: You have an acceptable point, but it's predicated on an assumption of economic philosophy--in this case that regulation of a market is both a possible thing, and one that will produce good results--which is a totally different debate. This one is still whether this was a failure to enforce current regulations (good or bad without value judgement at this point) ...
[2008-12-01 22:23:15] - a: the way it's divided is not intuitive to me. it'd be easier if the list was just all alphabetical (at least for me). - aba
[2008-12-01 19:39:41] - aaron: fixed ~a
[2008-12-01 19:22:07] - you are inadequate!
[2008-12-01 19:18:46] - fucking netflix always going down. ~a
[2008-12-01 19:17:37] - aaron:
netflix's site went down right when i was updating the page. http://www.netflix.com/ ~a[2008-12-01 19:16:17] - a: that's not a lot of movies - aaron
[2008-12-01 18:16:34] - movies i've seen. please suggest any good movies not on this list
~a[2008-12-01 16:51:29] - title: apparently stan isn't the only one thinking along those lines: hamburger hinderer ~a
[2008-12-01 16:44:01] - in summary, ymmv. ~a
[2008-12-01 16:43:15] - paul: yeah that seems to mimic my own personal beliefs/feelings about gnu/linux in general. half the time i bitch to myself about how incredibly hard it is to do the simplest things that are inherently easy in windows. the other half the time i am amazed how the simple things in windows are simple in linux and the impossible things in windows are possible in linux. ~a
[2008-12-01 16:39:27] - While the other half just keep mentioning how incredibly easy it is to install Ubuntu and fix any problems that come up. -Paul
[2008-12-01 16:38:53] - a: It's amusing to read the netbook Ubuntu forums. Half the people there bitch about all the problems they are having and how hard it is to do anything even though they consider themselves relatively tech-saavy... -Paul
[2008-12-01 16:36:39] - i guess it's all relative. i've had so many problems with dual monitors in microsoftland over the years (and even recently). ~a
[2008-12-01 16:35:29] - my dual monitors seem to work fine i guess though yeah dual monitor support is a bit flaky. ~a
[2008-12-01 16:25:48] - The good thing is that since I am buying a laptop with the OS already installed, all of those problems should (fingers crossed) be ironed out already. -Paul
[2008-12-01 16:24:57] - Aaron: Cool. I guess.
-Paul[2008-12-01 16:21:29] - My wireless card wasn't supported out of the box, a lot of drivers are missing or incompatible with my 64-bit motherboard (and for awhile they didn't have any flash support), I still can't get my dual monitors to run... etc etc.... it helps a lot to have very smart friends - aaron
[2008-12-01 16:20:08] - paul: I like Ubuntu, I've had about a dozen pretty serious problems with it but the user community is strong - aaron
[2008-12-01 15:47:49] - a: all better... ~gurkie
[2008-12-01 15:47:26] - a: Thanks (on both accounts). I am considering getting a netbook with ubuntu installed over a netbook with Xandros installed and the flavor of linux is playing a significant factor in my decision. -Paul
[2008-12-01 15:31:33] - gurkie: oops! i take that back. there was a problem on my end. tell him to try again. ~a
[2008-12-01 15:27:11] - gurkie: the ip should still work from my end. maybe they weren't filtering the ip address before for some reason. ~a
[2008-12-01 15:26:40] - hrmm, i didnt do the pouty face but I did say that neither address works for paul ~gurkie
[2008-12-01 15:26:17] - a: he says neither works for him
[2008-12-01 15:25:34] -
[2008-12-01 15:25:04] - a: I think it was the one with the IP addy.... ~gurkie
[2008-12-01 14:22:28] - a: I hate you. - pierce
[2008-12-01 13:54:20] - pierce: no you don't want to add milk after the cake has burned. ~a
[2008-12-01 13:53:02] - paul: ubuntu is by far the easiest linux i've ever used. the recent versions of ubuntu are very stable and are able to do crazy things that i've never done with an operating system. their user community is also very newbicentric (a word i just made up). ~a
[2008-12-01 13:50:57] - gurkie: which address was he using? i wasn't informed that any of the addresses i had sent him were working. http://68.55.109.184/msg/ and http://test.w.aporter.org/msg/ (replace "test" with anything) still both work from my end. ~a
[2008-12-01 13:44:23] - vinnie: congrats on slashdot. i actually read slashdot yesterday but i must have missed that article. ~a
[2008-12-01 12:50:07] - as an analogy, imagine you tried to make a cake with no flour and half the milk you needed. by your logic, you shouldn't add more milk because it won't "solve anything." Not by itself, no, but it's still a step in the right direction. - pierce
[2008-12-01 12:46:54] - late to the party, I know: I think we can all agree that poor enforcement of the laws in place was a factor in the current crisis. But I think it's fallacious to then conclude that adding new regulations "doesn't solve anything". - pierce
[2008-12-01 12:06:57] - a: apparently the msg board link u gave paul doesnt work anymore (so I posted for him under his name per his request) ~gurkie
[2008-12-01 12:06:56] - vinnie: http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/11/29/1729229.shtml you made slashdot! - aaron
[2008-12-01 12:06:31] - all: what is your preferred flavor of linux and why? -Paul
[2008-11-30 15:30:20] - sd
[2008-11-27 15:29:44] - mig: I don't. I blame them for thinking they could fix it, which they can't... but the bust is not -entirely- the fault of the government. Probably not even mainly. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-27 13:31:40] - you can however, directly blame the government for the current financial mess that the country is in right now. - mig
[2008-11-27 09:20:56] - a: I don't think I blamed the government for Enron. I blamed Enron, particularly the greedy/corrupt/deceitful portion. At the same time I didn't call it deregulation, nor did I feel any sympathy for Enron investors, even those where were company employees and got bilked. So I'm kind of all over the place, and that might be confusing. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 19:09:12] - i guess then that was my point (or something close to my point). it's hard to blame too much government for the enron situation. there was a relatively open market (there was a place where nobody came in to take over because crazy-accounting behavior that was messing things up). ~a
[2008-11-26 18:38:43] - Other investors and companies seeing no opportunity for them to profit using normal accounting methods decided to not join the market. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 18:38:26] - a: Excellent question. I don't know. With the relatively low barriers to entry there should have been. My best guess, and it's just that, an educated guess, is that no legitimate company could compete because Enron had set the market price at an unprofitable level while booking apparent profits.
[2008-11-26 18:24:46] - so back to "there's absolutely no market involvement". WHY was there no market involvement? shouldn't there have been market involvement in the long term? shouldn't there have been a better company (aes? reliant energy?) that came in and done a better job? right? there was no regulation, so what was keeping that from happening? where were the market forces? ~a
[2008-11-26 17:39:17] - But that's getting off-track. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:38:17] - The barriers to entry were then very high for competitors to AT&T. Cost of laying wire, political pressures, social costs, even environmental factors, though they were less considered. And after AT&T had their monopoly and had invested so heavily in the infrastructure, it is difficult to get them to share; or innovate. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:36:31] - a: In the long term, no. In the longterm monopolies always fall apart, usually of their own weight, sometimes with government internvention. AT&T was a good example of a natural monopoly because there is no added benefit to laying multiple series of wire/cable to individuals and only a monopoly (or government-which is a unique monopoly) had the resources to achieve that.
[2008-11-26 17:33:25] - a monopoly makes sense for landlines? how so? i don't think monopolies ever make sense in the long term and when monopolies start charging too much or delivering too little then the market forces need to force the company out of their monopolistic seat. ~a
[2008-11-26 17:30:27] - Therefore a monopoly doesn't make sense. However something like a landline phone company, a monopoly makes more sense. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:29:50] - a: Depends on the flavor of the libertarian. Anarcho-capitalists would be thrilled, but others wouldn't. It would depend mostly on barriers and costs to entry. For an Enron-esque company where energy production was a very small part, and buying and reselling energy was a very large part, the barriers to entry are fairly low. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:20:38] - and a monopoly in libertarian-land is just fine as long as the monopoly is benevolent, right? in fact, in libertarian-land, once the monopoly becomes malevolent, things are still just fine from the government's perspective. ~a
[2008-11-26 17:16:54] - Basically you've moved power from a government sponsored and controlled monopoly to a non-government controlled oligarch under the guise deregulation. But there's absolutely no market involvement. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:12:56] - In this case likely because of corruption, kickbacks, and all sorts of ugly politics. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:12:38] - a: Because no regulation was removed. Instead one actor has been elevated by the institutions of new regulation. The fact that the elevated actor is less controlled (and I'm using a new term to avoid confusion) doesn't make it deregulation. It's new regulation wherein the gov't is changing rules to make a new actor the 'winner'. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 17:05:05] - if you're not arguing the degree of regulation between pg&e and enron was remotely close, then why were you trying to define deregulation as NOT the "transfer of power from a highly regulated entity to an only slightly less highly regulated"? ~a
[2008-11-26 16:41:41] - a: I wasn't intending to try to argue that the degree or regulation between PG&E and Enron was remotely close. Enron operated relatively free from government AND market interfernce in that they held a near natural monopoly. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 16:21:46] - few would argue that enron was only slightly less highly regulated. enron was able to do pretty much everything they wanted. they could sell at whatever prices they wanted. they could shut down their plants for no reason to artificially drive down supply and intentionally cause rolling blackouts. they could hide their unorthodox accounting from their investors. ~a
[2008-11-26 16:13:02] - There's also a measure of degrees to be considered. Is a repeal of a relatively minor or insignficant law deregulation? Similarly, would transfer of power from a highly regulated entity to an only slightly less highly regulated entity still deregulation? -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 16:11:59] - a: Alright, I can see where that might've caused some confusion. I'm more likely to have defined deregulation more narrowly, as in the process of removing/repealling laws and/or regulations on an industry that is regulated, rather than just transfer of authority from regulated to relatively unregulated. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 16:10:00] - xpovos: because the other companies are (relatively) unregulated. whereas pg&e is highly regulated. ~a
[2008-11-26 15:58:53] - Ok, so how does transfer of instilled (via regulation) power from Pacific Gas to the other companies constitute a removal of regulation? -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 15:52:04] - deregulation . . . the process of removing regulation? in this case, we're taking power away from pg&e (and the like) and passing it onto companies like enron, aes corporation, and reliant energy. ~a
[2008-11-26 15:20:37] - a: I think it's probably a definitions issue, so let's see if we can agree on some simple terms and their definition. I'd start with trying to define 'deregulation' itself, but even that could be too thorny an issue. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 15:13:45] - why don't you think the california deregulation plan caused deregulation? everywhere i can see, people seem to think what happened in california in 2001 was deregulation. ~a
[2008-11-26 14:58:31] - a: So, what about the "Patriot Act" clearly that was a very patriotic thing to enact. Obviously not. Bill titles have little to do with their content. While the front of it says 'deregulation' it, from what I can see, merely changed the regulations around to give certain companies in the market an advantage. That's not deregulation but gaming. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 14:52:27] - it was more than mere ignoring of regulation on the books. it was a legislative deregulation of california. and we did pretty much the same thing only 6 years later with the banks. this time there wasn't anything inherently illegal going on, but we once again see these horrible effects of too much deregulation. ~a
[2008-11-26 14:40:46] - xpovos: California Deregulation Plan? it has deregulation in the name! ~a
[2008-11-26 14:36:26] - I'd even argue that it was clear that Enron was in violation of many regulations at the time of its failure. To be fair to the opposite side, they hid that in new and crafty ways, but auditing and proper regulation at the time should have caught it. That it didn't is an indication of failure of the regulation, not of the market. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-26 14:33:42] - a: Which is why I asked for generic comments without trying to pin myself into it too much. I thought the article echoed some of the ideas I've tried to present here, though. That this isn't inherently a failure of capitalism, but a failure to enforce regulations on the books--and as such adding new regulations, even with the best of intentions, doesn't solve anything.
[2008-11-26 14:13:45] - and who is surprised that the three libertarians agree with a pro-free-market piece? miguel, you really can't blame regulation on the deregulated market that enron lived in. same thing goes for the banks. ~a
[2008-11-26 14:07:00] - Xpovos: I've read a lot of Fleckenstein's stuff and I find that I generally tend to agree with him. That article appears to be no exception. -Paul
[2008-11-26 13:38:28] - xpovos: i agree with a lot of it. it does make my blood boil a bit everytime I hear some moron decry how this is all capitalisms fault when it's been clear that we haven't had a true free market for quite a while. - mig
[2008-11-26 13:32:33] - Comments anyone? --Xpovos
[2008-11-24 11:38:46] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdvLEiWzEvQ stealth cat - aaron
[2008-11-21 11:13:07] - anon: Yeah, that's why when context isn't clear I'll usually hyphenate the version that means to sign again. It also helps accentuate the pronunciation of the words, as they're not homonyms, at least in my dialect. -- Xpovos
[2008-11-21 11:10:20] - haha. resign has two very different meanings.
[2008-11-20 17:35:30] - me neither. no ddr for me this month
~a[2008-11-20 17:09:20] - argh my phone is dead. I'm not gonna make it to DDR today, too much work to do - vinnie
[2008-11-19 17:20:06] - vinnie: yeah for me it's usually a word i've never heard of, and a celebrity whose name i don't know how to spell - aaron
[2008-11-19 16:30:54] - as the last word, I mean - vinnie
[2008-11-19 16:30:39] - aaron: heh. in my crossword solving experience, I end by guessing at the second letter of a three-letter word I've never heard of, intersecting with another three-letter word I've never heard of
- vinnie[2008-11-19 16:23:54] - a: as though she would pick up the puzzle, ignore all of the "down clues", and solve all of the "across clues" except for 35 across... and then solve 35 across last - aaron
[2008-11-19 16:22:25] - a: did you notice in the episode how, for every crossword, lisa always left an entire word missing from the crossword up until the end? i guess it made for better TV or something but it was still very silly - aaron
[2008-11-19 15:51:04] - aaron: i found a copy that was all filled in all the answers in place... but dont see it blank online... ~gurkie
[2008-11-19 14:38:59] - vinnie: ha! now i want to solve the crossword! - aaron
[2008-11-19 14:17:23] - a: awesome. brings back memories. - pierce
[2008-11-19 14:12:39] - dude, now tj is on streetview ~a
[2008-11-19 11:58:18] - a: There's a couple of restaurants as I recall. Joe Thiesman's is around here and there was some other bar and grill place. -Paul
[2008-11-19 10:30:53] - paul, well you walked through there today and yesterday, right? did you see anywhere cool to eat? worst case scenario, we walk to the movie theater . . . there's a bunch of restaurants there. ~a
[2008-11-19 10:22:52] - gurkie: yeah, no crosswords. it was in response to Aaron's comment about how the puzzles were made. I don't think that NYTimes crosswords is available online... - vinnie
[2008-11-19 10:07:19] - a: Also, class gets out at 4:30. -Paul
[2008-11-19 10:07:00] - a: When and where did you want to meet for dinner today? I am right next to the King Street metro if that helps. -Paul
[2008-11-19 10:05:05] - vinnie: that appeared to be a "behind the scenes" document by the puzzle maker, I didnt see any crosswords in it... Am I missing something? ~gurkie
[2008-11-19 09:20:13] - http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/TheSimpsonsBehindtheScenes.pdf this covers the puzzles for the show and the puzzle they created for the times (yeah I hate pdf too). I want to watch this episode now even neither of you think it was great
- vinnie[2008-11-18 18:13:55] - I realized it would have been very difficult to have so many fake puzzles, they were probably all real NY times crosswords - aaron
[2008-11-18 17:40:40] - http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081118/METRO/811180402/1409/METRO well at least they're admitting it. - mig
[2008-11-18 17:21:36] - is it online somewhere? ~a
[2008-11-18 17:21:22] - vinnie: actually, no, i didn't know that it was a REAL crossword puzzle in the show even though they referenced a real crossword puzzle series from the show. ~a
[2008-11-18 17:07:14] - a/aaron: apparently yesterday's ny times crossword tied in to the show. maybe you already know this from watching the episode - vinnie
[2008-11-18 10:07:50] - a: i saw it, it was ok. i'm happy gil didn't die, i hadn't seen him in a few seasons - aaron
[2008-11-17 21:49:33] - vinron: the last episode of simpsons was all about crosswords. though it wasn't that great of an episode otherwise. ~a
[2008-11-17 17:16:19] - gurkie: I'll send it out when i get home... It's ready to send I just was missing some e-mail addresses - aaron
[2008-11-17 17:15:56] - a: i took the more verbose route... something like "float heightRatio = (600/imageHeight); pptImageWidth = imageWidth * heightRatio;" - aaron
[2008-11-17 15:50:58] - gurkie/pierce: yes i was referring to palin. ~a
[2008-11-17 15:32:06] - aaron: evite? ~gurkie
[2008-11-17 14:37:43] - so how did you fix it? "imagewidth / imageheight * 600"? ~a
[2008-11-17 10:36:59] - a: we had a formula for figuring out the computing the desired width of an image on a powerpoint slide, which was something along the lines of "pptImageWidth = imageWidth * 600 / imageHeight" so with the new gigantic slide boundaries, this formula caused an overflow - aaron
[2008-11-17 10:34:58] - a: the overflow error I was telling you about was in some PowerPoint logic we wrote... The bounds for a slide in Office 2003 were like 800 x 600, but the bounds in office 2007 are 9144000 x 6858000 - aaron
[2008-11-17 09:50:42] - pierce: I thought a was referring to Palin not knowing Africa was a continent... ~gurkie
[2008-11-16 14:46:30] - yeah, thank god we can upgrade the software on computers. it's the hardware (like medical devices and cameras) that those asshats probably didn't think about. ~a
[2008-11-16 14:05:41] - a: yeah that screwed me up in SQL about six months ago, when one of my unit tests just started failing for like three weeks in april.... took me like 2 days to figure out and fix - aaron
[2008-11-16 12:55:48] - god i fucking hate daylight savings time! how am i supposed to update my camera to use the new daylight savings rules? ~a
[2008-11-14 16:40:11] - it's a cover? yeah I don't remember hearing that - vinnie
[2008-11-14 15:48:44] - vinnie: new york london paris munich everybody talk about - aaron
[2008-11-14 15:06:27] - a: I assume you're just being pedantic about Dakota, but I don't remember bringing up "Africa" as a name. - pierce
[2008-11-14 15:04:23] - aaron: virginia was named for queen elizabeth, the "virgin queen". - pierce
[2008-11-14 13:51:44] - aaron: yeah M83 was good. but Stephen and I both liked the opening act more, they were really good - vinnie
[2008-11-14 13:50:36] - aaron: haha, I don't know that song so if they did I wouldn't know - vinnie
[2008-11-14 13:39:31] - i don't know any of their other songs - aaron
[2008-11-14 13:39:22] - vinnie: how was m83? did they play pop musik83? - aaron
[2008-11-14 13:05:59] - in case you guys hadn't seen you can get a free magic deck http://www.wizards.com/promo/hereirule/agecheck.aspx - aba
[2008-11-14 11:21:10] - those names are just ridiculous "I Da Ho" is tied for 5th... Those votes have a bias for the most amusing names... ~gurkie
[2008-11-14 09:26:01] - vinnie: ri is #3? wtf?! az is 10 times better than ri. ~a
[2008-11-14 09:11:15] - http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=65787 - vinnie
[2008-11-14 06:41:05] - tennessee is a weird name. i hope it was a pseudonym and not his born name - aaron
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