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[2009-04-16 16:00:56] - sure, but if it's not there, i'm going home. i'll go at 6:30. ~a
[2009-04-16 15:54:03] - http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10220649-38.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0 internet sales tax being proposed (again). - mig
[2009-04-16 15:44:38] - a: haven't been there in several months. if you want to check it out and give me a call, i'd be willing to go if i know the machine's there - aaron
[2009-04-16 14:35:39] - a: haha, that's like nvcc times three - vinnie
[2009-04-16 14:19:04] - the one in mclean is at a movie theater (even worse, it's an AMC) which is always fishy because they usually won't let you even see if the machine is there without a movie ticket. ~a
[2009-04-16 14:17:10] - aaron, have you stopped by the itg recently? is it still gone? ddrf still has it listed. plus the one at gmu. and the ultrazone. apparently there's one in mclean? ~a
[2009-04-16 14:12:19] - "The rally was suspended about midafternoon when a box of what turned out to be tea was thrown over the White House fence. Police evacuated Lafayette Square as a security precaution but reopened it a short time later." -- Xpovos
[2009-04-16 14:10:11] - aaron: nope, sorry - vinnie
[2009-04-16 13:16:04] - vinnie, a: either of you going to make it to pump it up? i'll probably go regardless - aaron
[2009-04-16 12:02:05] - Passengers who 'require extra space' to be charged for a second seat, or upgrade. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-16 11:36:28] - About time... -- Xpovos
[2009-04-16 11:07:53] - http://www.cnbc.com/id/30246302 John Madden retiring from football commentating. -Paul
[2009-04-16 10:27:44] - Yeah, I was off my Peggle last night. I was pleased by the Ticket results, though. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-16 10:14:42] - a: There is none, I think it's just blocked at work for me. -Paul
[2009-04-16 10:08:34] - paul: what is the error? ~a
[2009-04-16 10:03:11] - Gurkie: I don't think it lists an overall winner. -Paul
[2009-04-16 09:55:56] - paul: did peggle consider you the overall winner, or do they not list one? ~gurkie
[2009-04-16 09:52:15] - Gurkie: Well, I got first place twice and second place three times while Travis (my nearest competition) got first three times but also got third twice. Using the 3-2-1 scoring system, that gives me 12 points to his 11. -Paul
[2009-04-16 09:51:06] - a: I can't see your tjreunion picture.
-Paul[2009-04-16 09:50:28] - Vinnie: On the plus side, we did run into a guy waving a flag consisting of his pants who was yelling out, "I like to eat pancakes!" -Paul
[2009-04-16 09:49:58] - Vinnie: Adrian said it, we didn't stay very long. I would've been more interested in staying longer if I didn't already have plans, I was dressed more appropriately for a cold and rainy day, and if I could hear the speaker more easily. -Paul
[2009-04-16 09:49:52] - Paul: you didnt win peggle? I thought you said you were gauranteed the win... ~gurkie
[2009-04-16 09:49:15] - a: thats who I expected you to say... and no... Travis and Andrew he has a weekly man-date with them ~gurkie
[2009-04-16 09:49:02] - a: It went well. I won my football game and 1 out of 2 of my ticket games while also performing admirably in peggle. -Paul
[2009-04-16 09:39:45] - we didn't stay long. long enough to hear a few speakers. paul had to get to his date. paul, how was your date? ~a
[2009-04-16 09:28:06] - did you guys have tea? - vinnie
[2009-04-16 00:27:45] - who the hell is dan hall? ~a
[2009-04-15 20:27:36] - vinnie: http://gollyday.com/ Gollyday is still in beta but supposedly it's a site where you list bands or venues you like, and it tells you when your bands are touring - aaron
[2009-04-15 17:28:22] - gurkie: this person ~a
[2009-04-15 17:13:02] - a: sure, ill tell after you do ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 17:02:26] - paul: ok. gurkie: yes. ~a
[2009-04-15 16:57:16] - a: my guess on who his date is with? ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 16:57:03] - a: Ok, well, I can meet you in the parking lot sometime between 6 - 6:15. I can call you when I am there. -Paul
[2009-04-15 16:55:09] - gurkie: you tell me your guess and i'll tell you my guess. i was just reading about mexican standoffs when i clicked on a link from reservoir dogs. ~a
[2009-04-15 16:52:43] - paul: i could go either way. i don't mind getting wet and i also don't mind sticking around for a few minutes before leaving. ~a
[2009-04-15 15:46:21] - a: So did you actually want to meet in Reston at 6? The rain is coming down pretty hard right now. I don't necessarily want to discourage you from coming, but I would feel bad if we drove there and just stuck around for a few minutes before leaving. -Paul
[2009-04-15 15:42:02] - a: sigh, i guess we are at an impasse then... ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 14:57:11] - gurkie: and risk blowing paul's cover? ~a
[2009-04-15 14:51:02] - a: aaaw but im intrigued as to who your guess would have been ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 14:47:54] - gurkie: you tell me, "paul has a date tonight..." ~a
[2009-04-15 14:44:53] - a: http://maps.google.com/?q=11400 Washington Plz. W. Reston, VA 20190+20190 I've also read 1609 Washington Plaza at another site. Not sure which it is. -Paul
[2009-04-15 14:41:05] - a: which chick from tj? ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 14:40:44] - gurkie: who with? is it that chick from tj? ~a
[2009-04-15 14:40:03] - paul: latitude/longitude? address? ~a
[2009-04-15 14:39:46] - a: paul has a date tonight... and not with me ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 14:29:08] - a: Well, I guess I could meet you at the Reston tea party location at 6pm if you wanted to. Probably can't stay much longer than 6:45, though. -Paul
[2009-04-15 13:59:13] - paul: i've driven to reston for much lamer reasons. plus my commute is less than 10 minutes so i don't mind driving places. . . . i've never really been to a rally or protest so i thought it would be fun. ~a
[2009-04-15 13:55:18] - a: Besides, the nearest one seems to be Reston, and I don't know if you want to come all the way up here just for that.
-Paul[2009-04-15 13:27:36] - a: Not sure if it's ironic or not, but you are right, I probably don't have better things to do with my time (except for reading books about buying gold in advance of the upcoming monetary meltdown). -Paul
[2009-04-15 13:19:34] - though if i went, i might be late submitting my taxes. is that ironic? ~a
[2009-04-15 13:17:29] - paul: i contest that. you do not have better things to do with your time. ~a
[2009-04-15 13:15:39] - paul: i stand corrected. i had it backwards. tranquility was NOT one of the proposed names, and serenity WAS. ~a
[2009-04-15 13:09:29] - a: Probably not going to go. The more I hear about it the more I think it's geared towards Republicans, and it's also fairly rainy out. I've got better things to do with my time.
-Paul[2009-04-15 13:08:45] - a: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html What were the NASA proposed names, then? I'm going by the four options they had for their poll on the right. -Paul
[2009-04-15 12:25:59] - gurkie/paul: serenity was not one of the nasa proposed names. ~a
[2009-04-15 12:25:28] - also, what time is it? ~a
[2009-04-15 12:25:22] - paul: so are you going to go? ~a
[2009-04-15 12:25:14] - . . . yeah
~a[2009-04-15 11:56:53] - a: I guess I didnt realize they had NASA proposed names, CNN just said Colbert won and that Serenity was second and that Serenity went with their general naming scheme. ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 11:51:55] - Xpovos: Agreed that it won't accomplish anything, but I can envision it being an entertaining experience as long as it's not just a bunch of Republicans calling Obama a socialist. -Paul
[2009-04-15 11:51:03] - a: I thought Serenity was one of the NASA proposed names. -Paul
[2009-04-15 11:46:05] - a: great contest, huh? guess what name nasa wants to use
- vinnie[2009-04-15 11:37:30] - gurkie: serenity wasn't one of the nasa proposed names. ~a
[2009-04-15 11:29:40] - paul: yea it said serenity was second in the polls, but that they went with tranquility anyway... I dont know why they didnt go with the second name since it fits with their pod names in general... ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 11:26:19] - Paul: Tea Parties: they aren't going to accomplish anything. I don't think they're backed by any Republican conspiracy, and I know a lot of liberal-leaning people who are in general in favor of the idea. But in the end it just doesn't accomplish anything. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-15 11:25:21] - a: Thanks for the correction. Sheesh, I should know better. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-15 10:52:27] - paul: glenn beck is always talking about them. and i hate glenn beck. though i'd go with you if you went. sounds like it would be fun. i'd be one of the few people there that voted barack. ~a
[2009-04-15 10:34:24] - apovos: Ah, ok. Yeah, I actually have heard of them, I think. -Paul
[2009-04-15 10:32:27] - a: Oh, mega-weak. It's not going to be Serenity? That blows the big one. -Paul
[2009-04-15 10:31:24] - paul/xpovos: i think he means Project Honey Pot or http://www.projecthoneypot.org/ ~a
[2009-04-15 10:29:41] - pierce: happy birthday . . . lover. ~a
[2009-04-15 10:28:59] - errr, just one "t" ~a
[2009-04-15 10:28:43] - xpovos: they did not name it after colbert. as a joke, they named the treadmill after colbert (Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill). colbert, being the showman he is, demanded that they name the treadmill after him and called it a victory. the node will be called tTranquility ~a
[2009-04-15 10:25:17] - pierce: happy bday ~gurkie
[2009-04-15 09:50:27] - Vinnie: I'm torn because on the one hand, the libertarian party seems to be endorsing it and the people themselves claim it's not partisan or anti-Obama, but anit-irresponsible-spending. On the other hand, everybody in the media seems to be painting it as some sort of Republican backlash. -Paul
[2009-04-15 09:48:32] - http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm? Myths about the Columbine shooting. -Paul
[2009-04-15 09:45:49] - paul: I'd never even heard of Tea Parties (I just googled it). smells like a conspiracy to me... - vinnie
[2009-04-15 09:42:41] - So what do people think about the Tea Parties that are supposed to be going on today? I'm mildly tempted to visit the Reston one after work, but I'm a little worried because everybody seems to think it's just some vast right-wing conspiracy. -Paul
[2009-04-15 09:41:50] - Xpovos: I'm confused, is there supposed to be a website there? All I see are go daddy ads when I visit that link. -Paul
[2009-04-15 09:32:17] - a: funny
- vinnie[2009-04-15 08:46:46] - a: I didn't watch. I also had no idea what the contest was about, or even that it existed until yesterday. So, I'm mildly curious: what was the result? -- Xpovos
[2009-04-15 08:45:05] - Anyone heard of these guys? http://www.projecthoneypot.com -- Xpovos
[2009-04-15 01:06:10] - vinnie: "that'd be funny if they went with a name other than Colbert
" ~a[2009-04-14 13:08:40] - Pierce: Yeah, I thought that quote was priceless. Ignoring the whole "how dare you do this to a patriot instead of some worthless immigrant" mentality, I wonder if during his job he has ever made a similar mistake. -Paul
[2009-04-14 12:46:04] - The Labrador Retriever's name is Whitey? Wow. Can't make stuff like this up. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-14 12:45:02] - this kind of stuff happens often enough that you have to start chalking it up to incompetence at some point. - mig
[2009-04-14 12:40:51] - and to answer your question, it's still wrong if it's a mistake, just wrong for different reasons.
- pierce[2009-04-14 12:40:15] - a: oh, entirely possible... I'm commenting on his attitude as expressed in that quote, as though his service had anything to do with the justification for the raid. - pierce
[2009-04-14 12:35:39] - is it wrong? it MIGHT have been an honest mistake? everybody makes mistakes, even police officers. nobody was hurt, right? ~a
[2009-04-14 12:30:01] - "I bleed red, white and blue. I serve my country, and then they do this to me?" basically sums it up. It's not wrong because they did it to a patriot, it's simply wrong. - pierce
[2009-04-14 12:00:51] - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/us/08border.html?_r=1 Immigration Raid at Customs Officer’s Home Leads to Suit -Paul
[2009-04-14 10:20:20] - aba: yea I read about that this morning, but like Pierce said Amazon seemed to claim that it was an internal issue. ~gurkie
[2009-04-14 09:58:48] - http://www.examiner.com/x-6911-Hartford-Gaming-Lifestyle-Examiner~y2009m4d12-April-13-When-politicians-tax-violent-video-games video games being targeted for "sin" tax treatment. - mig
[2009-04-14 09:57:47] - nytimes on the amazon thing. supposedly the guy claiming "credit" was full of crap. it's a little light on the actual detail of what went wrong, but the official position is basically #1 on my list. - pierce
[2009-04-14 09:43:21] - http://www.criminaljusticeschools.com/blog/20-crimes-caught-on-google-street-view Interesting things (They are not all crimes) caught on google street view. Mostly safe for work. -Paul
[2009-04-13 18:08:24] - gurkie: this guy is saying he spammed amazon with flags saying that the books were adult. i'm guessing there was some automated response to the authors based on the sheer quantity of complaints, but honestly who knows if he's just claiming he did it for his 15 mins of fame. - aba
[2009-04-13 18:06:58] - sounds like some guy is saying he's responsible (and he used method 2 in pierce's list). - aba
[2009-04-13 15:27:36] - pierce: If it wasnt a change in policy why were authors receiving emails telling them there books had been deranked as they had been deemed adult material? ~gurkie
[2009-04-13 15:27:18] - pierce: probably #1. and you were in charge of the internal metadata, right? either that or #3 where you were the internal user. ~a
[2009-04-13 15:15:07] - title: lol - aaron
[2009-04-13 15:11:07] - ...distant 4. Amazon decided that pro-LGBT material wasn't how they wanted the company to be represented and so they tried to find a way to surreptitiously remove it from their rankings while leaving hetero material. - pierce
[2009-04-13 15:09:25] - 3. Some internal user decided to try to sneak this in for their own reasons, perhaps intending it on a smaller scale but screwing up this sort of "mundane detail". - pierce
[2009-04-13 15:08:23] - 2. Some external group, either for political/religious reasons or just as a prank or attack on amazon in general, found a way to muck with the rankings in the amazon version of a googlebomb. - pierce
[2009-04-13 15:07:16] - 1. Some internal metadata they have for this sort of thing got miscategorized by accident, and a new build exposed the bug in a much more obvious way (supposedly problems like this had been cropping up on a smaller scale over the last few months). - pierce
[2009-04-13 15:05:58] - I would be very, very, very, very surprised if this was any sort of internal change in policy. Here are the options I see, in decreasing order of likelihood: - pierce
[2009-04-13 14:27:09] - a: from what I was reading (and I was probably reading biased things) it sounds like it was not so much a mistake as trying to pretend it was a mistake after angry consumers were making a fuss. ~gurkie
[2009-04-13 14:11:26] - well if it was indeed a mistake, then i see no need to worry. if it turns out, on the other hand, that this was meant as a virtual book-burning, then that sounds pretty dumb of amazon to try. either way, we should hold pierce responsible. ~a
[2009-04-13 14:06:53] - I saw that there was a childs book on having 2 mommies which is about being raised by lesbian parents which was deranked and marked as "adult" despite lots of explicit hetero material being left alone ~gurkie
[2009-04-13 14:04:22] - a: sorry I was working and didnt notice your response... later amazon said it was a glitch in their system presumably due to complaints on how they determined what was adult. ~gurkie
[2009-04-13 13:37:02] - nm. i found one ~a
[2009-04-13 13:35:37] - gurkie: no. link? ~a
[2009-04-13 13:31:00] - did you guys read about amazon's de-ranking of glbt literature? ~gurkie
[2009-04-13 11:50:11] - it could be that they're going on his show to apologize for not picking his name. what better place than a comedy show for such antics? ~a
[2009-04-13 11:49:31] - Vinnie: There was actually a campaign by firefly fans to get it named Serenity and they were all excited that they were in the lead... until Colbert stepped in.
-Paul[2009-04-13 11:40:30] - a: that'd be funny if they went with a name other than Colbert
- vinnie[2009-04-13 11:27:52] - from nasa's facebook page: "NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name [tomorrow]. The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of ... astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The program will air at 11:30 p.m. EDT. The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs."
~a[2009-04-12 12:42:50] - a: that's adorable! but, i can't believe he never got run over - aaron
[2009-04-12 09:47:55] - http://www.tweenbots.com/ hehehe. ~a
[2009-04-10 19:35:34] - bored bored bored. ~a
[2009-04-10 12:55:49] - 0x80004005?! That means you're an INSTANT WINNER! - pierce
[2009-04-10 12:51:24] - aaron: "General network error (0x80004005)."? ~a
[2009-04-10 09:48:10] - http://watchout4snakes.com/CreativityTools/RandomParagraph/RandomParagraph.aspx i needed to create some fake paragraphs of test data - this generates stuff slightly more interesting than lorum ipsum - aaron
[2009-04-09 17:12:20] - vinnie: yea i like that, you'd have some certified category of e-mail. that makes sense to me - aaron
[2009-04-09 15:34:18] - vinnie: i would rather just deal with spam than have a law. The last thing I would want is for the government to define what spam is. - mig
[2009-04-09 15:16:47] - to clarify, it might be too much to hope for that we could get rid of spam WITHOUT any law. I'm definitely in favor of handling things without laws if possible - vinnie
[2009-04-09 15:08:09] - also, that way there wouldn't have to be a law (which might be too much to hope for, but who knows) - vinnie
[2009-04-09 15:07:13] - I think it'd be something like "this trusted escrow service has verified the e-mail" and you could ignore e-mails that weren't verified. could work like websites do - vinnie
[2009-04-09 14:35:08] - hahaha to the title ~dee
[2009-04-09 14:03:29] - a: Ah, I see now. I don't have a good answer. Need some time to ponder. Clearly there's a lot of security needs on the sender-side and any open, or semi-open format the spammers could hack anyway. White-listing is probably the only option there, which explains your pathological case. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 14:02:29] - xpovos: actually scratch that. i think i have a few ways in mind that it could work. ~a
[2009-04-09 13:57:20] - xpovos: ok. hmmm. so the sending mail program sets up the escrow account. how does the receiving mail server determine that an escrow has been set up by the sending program for that email? in other words, what prevents the sending program from lying about setting up the escrow with the escrow company? ~a
[2009-04-09 13:56:50] - a: Well, presumably it would eat it away a little bit, but not be crippling. Datran actually hated spammers too because the ESPs tended to be over-aggressive in their war on the spammers and would filter out Datran mail too. -Paul
[2009-04-09 13:53:05] - a: OK, that's what I assumed. Good to know for certain. I guess I just don't see how the example you cited is pathological. Presumably the e-mail servers themselves are bearing very little of the financial (escrow/tax) load here. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 13:51:46] - ... and that defeats the purpose of the whole thing, which is to impose a monetary restriction against spam sufficient to eliminate or reduce to tiny percentages. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 13:51:08] - vinnie: I still prefer escrow. If we want to bring gov't into it, we could still have the escrow fee, but have it paid by the government. Or even better, if the escrow is demanded by the recipient, the fee is taken from that, and no fee for returned monies. But there would have to be enough people accepting the money in exchange for spam to pay for the escrow. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 13:46:11] - vinnie: it's good you're seeing a doctor. i hope she finds out what's wrong. but even if she doesn't; i've found, anecdotally, that sometimes problems just go away on their own (but only sometimes). ~a
[2009-04-09 13:46:03] - escrow companies won't have much incentive to offer something like that to users - vinnie
[2009-04-09 13:45:03] - the nice thing about a tax is that you can do something like "the first x e-mails you send in a day are free", so that the majority of users wouldn't have to pay anything - vinnie
[2009-04-09 13:42:13] - I was speaking about a fee for the escrow service (because presumably that wouldn't work for free). I suppose that cost could be evenly distributed but I guess I'd prefer if the people doing the most e-mailing were hit hardest with that cost, so I was thinking a miniscule charge on every e-mail sent or a higher flat fee for power users - vinnie
[2009-04-09 13:41:08] - paul: wouldn't an email "tax" (and/or escrow) blow away datran's bottom line? ~a
[2009-04-09 13:38:42] - vinnie: sorry to hear that, hope your specialist gives you some good news. - aaron
[2009-04-09 13:37:28] - xpovos: "the pathological case" is the worst case. it's the use case which is the hardest to implement against. it's often abnormal. in other words, in a sorting algorithm, the pathological case is the numbers that will take the longest to sort. see Pathological (mathematics). ~a
[2009-04-09 13:04:59] - a: Pathological is causing the most consternation. I have a reasonable interpretation for disparate in your sentence, assuming I've deconstructed the rest of the semantics appropriately. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 12:36:45] - xpovos: which terminology? pathological? or disparate? ~a
[2009-04-09 12:36:24] - you wouldn't even need to have it be a set amount. $.001 could just be like an example amount. i could say: if you want to send ME an email, the escrow will be $.10 ~a
[2009-04-09 12:29:14] - a: Yeah, and I think even legitimate marketing companies wouldn't be too upset over it because it would give them a good indication of who doesn't want their emails but is too lazy to unsubscribe and they could still legally email that person if they are willing to pay the price. -Paul
[2009-04-09 12:28:02] - a: I don't follow your terminology of a pathological case. (previous was me too) -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 12:27:26] - vinnie: Are you speaking about a fee for the escrow service, or the money put into escrow? The fee for escrow service could be paid by the e-mail domain. E.g. bundled into your account with your ISP, by Google for gmail, by your work... that obfuscates for the end user, which will eliminate the deterance. The actual escrowed money should come back to you. (In general).
[2009-04-09 12:27:10] - oh wow though, there are so many things about it that make sense. if you want off of a semi-legitimate email list, you just accept the escrow money and you'll likely never receive an email from that list again. ~a
[2009-04-09 12:19:40] - it would be very hard to implement though. the pathological case is when a mail server has to send out thousands of legitimate emails to disparate servers all of whom it'll only communicate with once ever. ~a
[2009-04-09 12:15:25] - the benefit of the escrow is you're paying the person damaged by the spam from the person doing the damage. and even if the receivers incorrectly pocket the money from legitimate use, it's still no worse than the tax. ~a
[2009-04-09 12:08:46] - paul: yeah I'd like it to be something like that, whether it's escrow or a tax - vinnie
[2009-04-09 12:01:02] - Vinnie: The theory being that it would be small enough so that most legitimate emailers would be unaffected but spammers (who would send out millions of emails) would find it cuts into their margins hugely. -Paul
[2009-04-09 12:00:44] - xpovos: I think the escrow service would deter legitimate use too, because the service wouldn't be free. that fee would be equivalent to having a tax, just changes who the money goes to
- vinnie[2009-04-09 12:00:12] - Vinnie: I remember back when I worked at Datran, people were talking about how best to combat spam and one idea floated was essentially an email tax (although I think the idea was that it didn't come from the government) which put a price on each email sent. -Paul
[2009-04-09 11:57:15] - paul: I'm suspecting the ear too. apparently my family has a history of ear/balance problems similar to what I'm experiencing. - vinnie
[2009-04-09 11:56:52] - vinnie: A tax is definitely easier to implement, but it doesn't have the same effect. It does cut down on spam, but it aslo strongly deters legitimate use. A tax increase decreases the use of the item taxed. But how much it decreases depends on the marginal increase. That would be an infinite marginal increase, even if tiny nominally. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 11:54:17] - Paul: You hear the ear has something to do with balance? How dare you crack wise at Vinnie's expense? -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 11:31:42] - really, I'm surprised more people haven't floated the idea of an e-mail tax again. seems easier than escrow to implement, and pretty much has the same effect - vinnie
[2009-04-09 11:28:33] - Vinnie: No problem. Get well soon. Obviously I am as much a doctor as I am an economist, but could there be anything wrong with your ear? I hear that has a lot to do with balance. -Paul
[2009-04-09 11:28:16] - some of the comments in that article brought up good points against escrow too: there would have to be some sort of cheap, agreed-upon body for carrying out the transactions, and a lesser problem is that stolen credit cards could be used. I do think it's an idea worth considering but probably a ways off - vinnie
[2009-04-09 11:19:34] - vinnie: hope you feel better. - pierce
[2009-04-09 11:19:11] - aaron: I agree that it's a cool idea, and probably will be some future version of online communication. At the moment though, I'd hate to wake up one morning and find out that some virus or malware had taken over my system and sent a thousand dollars' worth of spam emails using my email client. - pierce
[2009-04-09 11:15:00] - aaron/a/paul: i'm gonna be skipping ddr and basketball until I figure out what's wrong with my head. it may have something to do with my balance. I get dizzy now after just walking for ten minutes, so ddr and basketball are out of the question. hopefully the specialist I'm seeing soon will be able to help me - vinnie
[2009-04-09 10:48:16] - http://technobabblepro.blogspot.com/2009/04/captcha-gotcha.html I thought this article was pretty boring until it mentioned "Requiring message senders (or users of other services) to place a small sum of money, per message, in escrow, which the recipient may collect if the message is unwanted." i think that's a cool idea! - aaron
[2009-04-09 10:47:37] - paul: I heard about that on NPR today. I like it better as a shortened word - aaron
[2009-04-09 10:03:27] - I particularly like that it works either as a shortend word or as pronounced letters. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-09 09:50:49] - that's excellent. - pierce
[2009-04-09 09:41:57] - paul:
~a[2009-04-09 09:41:55] - paul: hahaha - vinnie
[2009-04-09 09:15:54] - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30112394/?GT1=43001 DMV denies vegan's tofu license plate request -Paul
[2009-04-08 09:52:52] - Vinnie: In fact, I think I read that there was a Lemon Party briefly in Canada (I was doing a google search, not being familiar with the site and not wanting to visit it, and it came up). -Paul
[2009-04-08 09:41:32] - xpovos: yeah if that was the signholder's intent he could have phrased the sign differently. i'm pretty sure it was just a prank - aaron
[2009-04-08 09:36:07] - sorry, that was supposed to directed to xpovos, not the person agreeing with me - vinnie
[2009-04-08 09:35:47] - paul: I think it's a practical joke. also lemonparty sounds like it could be some sort of political party, so the name isn't too weird - vinnie
[2009-04-08 08:57:03] - Also, the Mel quote above is a little disturbing. -Paul
[2009-04-08 08:56:46] - Xpovos: I assumes it was even simpler than that and somebody just wanted to play a practical joke on people. -Paul
[2009-04-08 08:01:32] - a: Maybe I'm being overly obvious and ignoring your witty semi-sarcasm, but Lemonparty is a shock site with sick and disgusting images. People were getting sick of seeing high gas prices. Therefore, to put the high gas prices into perspective, the photographer suggests visting the site to see what is REALLY sick. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-07 23:02:23] - aba: and what does that have to do with gas prices? ~a
[2009-04-07 22:58:47] - gurkie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_site#Lemonparty.org - aba
[2009-04-07 15:54:58] - vinnie: i dont get it... ~gurkie
[2009-04-07 13:29:07] - a: I argued it but they just didnt get it... And wouldnt believe me... Plus I was more timid in HS. ~gurkie
[2009-04-07 13:24:20] - vinnie: Also, thanks for the link. Another site to amuse me and waste my time. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-07 12:57:32] - heh. I didn't get it at first... but slowly my mind pieced together the memories of a site called lemon. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-07 12:29:05] - vinnie: lol - aaron
[2009-04-07 11:52:48] - if you don't get the joke, please don't go to website listed in image kthx - vinnie
[2009-04-07 11:52:04] - maybe you all have already seen this (seems memey) but I cracked up: http://www.laughinggame.com/2008/08/16/sick-of-gas-prices/ - vinnie
[2009-04-07 11:34:19] - gurkie: you seem like the kind of person who wouldn't give up so easily. ~a
[2009-04-07 10:13:17] - I was in australia and trying to get in to a movie for kids price (I think you had to be 16 or something) and they looked at my passport which had mmddyyyy and said that I was too old, as they use ddmmyyyy and it was between April 11 and Nov 4... Sad... ~Gurkie
[2009-04-07 10:03:01] - vinnie: yeah, that's a good compromise... but the letter keys are sooo far awaaaay from the numeric keypad. - pierce
[2009-04-07 09:11:43] - we've switched to using dd-Mon-yyyy for my project, since we have lots of US and UK users - vinnie
[2009-04-07 09:09:36] - Despite it not being the ideal, I find most Americans use the mm/dd/yy format and so I pretty much stick to that to eliminate any unecessary confusion (although I will often use a four digit year). -Paul
[2009-04-07 08:25:52] - aaron: hah! - pierce
[2009-04-07 08:01:29] - pierce: ddmmyy is only logical if, when applying times, you extend the format to ss:mm:hh dd/mm/yy. i've never actually done that, but it would be funny - aaron
[2009-04-06 20:24:15] - I'll say this though, I think mmddyy and ddmmyy are about equal in stupidity, ddmmyy being only the slightest bit better. if you're looking for a strict digit significance order then they both fail, and if you're looking for a format that can't be confused for another in the real world then they both fail as well. - pierce
[2009-04-06 20:17:42] - I always confuse my boss when he has to approve my timesheets because I use yyyy-mm-dd to date my own signature, and he mixes up the format on his as a result. - pierce
[2009-04-06 17:06:21] - title: agreed. i also don't really mind yymmdd because i likely won't have to worry about rollover in my lifetime unless i'm dealing with historical data. ~a
[2009-04-06 11:12:27] - i think it was because someone said that the 3d parts looked really cheesy, and i didn't believe them - aaron
[2009-04-06 11:12:04] - it was really late at night. we didn't really watch the whole movie, just the last 20 minutes or so - aaron
[2009-04-06 10:13:58] - a: Vaguely. I do recall people watching about 10 minutes of a movie and then wanting to switch to something else. -Paul
[2009-04-06 10:07:42] - yes. do you remember the viewing we had at new years? ~a
[2009-04-06 09:12:32] - a: Did I mention that I already own the Matrix trilogy on DVD and blu-ray? -Paul
[2009-04-05 03:29:19] - paul: they're going to re-release all the movies and tv shows you own as high definition dvds. ~a
[2009-04-04 15:28:05] - very true.
[2009-04-03 19:31:44] - not when rounding by 5s!
[2009-04-03 17:15:59] - You could have rounded your age up to 30 like 2 years ago.
[2009-04-03 16:45:23] - rounding my age up to 30 is depressing
[2009-04-03 14:13:22] - Yeah, I was looking down at my manager's notebook this morning, and he had written down some notes for the meeting. At the top of his notes was today's date. I asked myself, "Hrmmm. Why do I remember that date?" - title
[2009-04-03 13:27:58] - title: thanks - j00
[2009-04-03 11:46:47] - paul: nor alec baldwin's. nor eddie murphy's. ~a
[2009-04-03 11:40:31] - a: Neither was mine. -Paul
[2009-04-03 11:38:04] - paul: aparna's birthday was not yesterday either. ~a
[2009-04-03 10:54:00] - In case there is anybody here who might be interested but isnt getting my emails: We'll be doing basketball this Sunday morning in Fair Lakes if anybody is interested in partaking. -Paul
[2009-04-03 09:30:58] - paul:
- aaron[2009-04-03 09:22:06] - Wow, kind of creepy how accurate the random title is.
-Paul[2009-04-03 00:54:04] - a: I understand and I admit it's tempting to try to separate functionality that way, but I've come across too many situations where I had no idea what the execution path was going to be because of stuff like that. - pierce
[2009-04-02 23:21:04] - when wikipedia uses it, it isn't necessarily programmatic. i.e. they're using it in much the same way we are except they've done it 5 or 10 times instead of just the once. ~a
[2009-04-02 23:20:01] - the thing i liked about it is you don't have to BOTH include the .js AND the function call. in other words, the .js does everything for you. also it keeps your body from getting over-cluttered. ~a
[2009-04-02 20:04:54] - I don't know anything in particular about it being a best practice, although it certainly has benefits in that you can manage the event handlers programmatically. under some circumstances that's nice but it's a pretty token measure in cases like this and it comes at the price of nondeterministic execution and loss of readability. - pierce
[2009-04-02 19:36:18] - "If you attach multiple functions to the same event on the same object, the functions are called in random order, immediately after the object's event handler is called." src - pierce
[2009-04-02 17:26:42] - pierce: it's what wikipedia uses, so i thought it was "good practice". are you sure they fire in random order? iirc, i don't recall/remember correctly. so, i have no idea in what order they fire. ~a
[2009-04-02 17:18:47] - aaron: nope, i'll be at work until pretty late. ~a
[2009-04-02 17:09:18] - gurkie: oh yeah, I do that pretty compulsively. you mean like when you took something out of the microwave with ten seconds left, and it just stays on 0:10 until you hit clear? - vinnie
[2009-04-02 16:26:04] - does anyone ever notice what microwaves say on them? For some reason I always feel compelled to hit stop/end/clear if its set to a value other than a time.... Assuming its not actively on and microwaving something. ~gurkie
[2009-04-02 15:15:21] - pierce: Well, we got one axiom. That's a start. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 15:08:33] - a: I don't mind, although as cool as window.attachEvent is it's not necessarily safe if you ever add other onload handlers that modify the page. they fire in random order, IIRC, which could lead to some nice heisenbugs down the line. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:59:58] - i hope you don't mind. ~a
[2009-04-02 14:59:46] - pierce: your recent.js is merged into the main template. also, i made a minor change to how the function is called on load. ~a
[2009-04-02 14:56:14] - hmm. on second thought, I don't necessarily agree that gradual is better than abrupt either. there are advantages to both... an abrupt change would reflect reality faster, but a gradual change would be less disruptive in the short term. depends on a lot of factors. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:55:22] - a: are you coming to pump it up? - aaron
[2009-04-02 14:54:12] - xpovos: agreed on gradual being better than abrupt. not necessarily preferred for the price to go down rather than up. what if it's a basket full of gold (:))? efficiency and technological advance can't compete with increasing scarcity. whether it's better for the price to go up or down depends on the goods. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:50:36] - pierce: Again: If the previous axiom is impossible it is better for the price to change gradually; and that the price is preferred to go down over time rather than up. [Accounts for efficiency increases, technoligical advance etc.] -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:42:36] - xpovos: all else being equal, yes. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:34:33] - pierce: Confirm or deny this assumption (axiom): It is a good thing that a 'basket of goods' remain at a stable price. [This eliminates the potato issue by generlizing and adding variety]. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:26:40] - pierce: very pretty! ~gurkie
[2009-04-02 14:26:22] - IE test 5. (last one) - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:26:14] - IE test 4. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:23:21] - pierce: FYI, I'm in Chrome. Like I said, it seemed to work fine for me. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:22:50] - IE test 3. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:21:51] - IE test 2. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:21:45] - IE test 1. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:15:27] - Dunno if you guys have seen this, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been leaked. Sorta. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7978379.stm -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:12:48] - pierce: Why that is an abstraction and why gold certificates are is probably more that I can fit into a message board argument. Even if I multi-line it. Let's just say that gold certificates are by their nature inflationary tools because they increase credit without increasing real money and hence break the 'standard' they are attempting to mimic. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:03:50] - it's no more an abstraction than a gold certificate was. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:03:05] - xpovos: assuming there's no way for e-gold to enter the system without a corresponding amount of real gold, I don't see how that's different. a gold standard doesn't mean you pay with gold coins. you wouldn't have to have, or ship any gold in order to pay with e-gold. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:01:27] - pierce: You almost got my point. My real gist was to indicate that in an electronic society that concept of a standard is iherently impossible. I cannot ship my gold over the tubes. If I have a e-gold debit account that is an abstraction, and hence e-gold is a fiat currency. Even if it's backed by the full faith and credit of e-gold and a bar of gold itself. -- Xpovos
[2009-04-02 14:01:05] - ...but more honestly, I'm not. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:00:25] - I am so sorry. - pierce
[2009-04-02 14:00:15] - where are all the cardboard reserves kept? Fort Box? - pierce
[2009-04-02 13:59:43] - it still needs some sort of central authority, whether that be the U.S. government or PayPal, but once people mostly agree on one there isn't much of a problem with it. - pierce
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