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12:53
How do I make a private discussion room go away?
13:04
Don't think you can
3
Q: Is it possible for the owner of a chat room that has been frozen, to edit or delete it?

blueberryfieldsIs this functionality available? If not, has it been considered already?

it'll go away on its own, or so i hear
I'm conflicted on this question. I think the answer is "Do it again".
3
Q: How do I properly seal slate tile?

Matt DowellWe recently installed slate tile in our renovated bathroom. We have sealed it with a penetrating water-based sealant. Water still seams to soak in to the tile and little water spots on the tile are appearing (and staying) after two coats of sealer. My wife is not pleased. I am worried about the s...

I sent a text to my brother (tile mechanic) and he mentioned that they make the newbs do four coats - two before grouting and two after.
Slate's naturally porous anyway - My answer was going to be "make sure its waterproof behind the stone"
but I didn't think that was all that helpful
and I don't think this one:
1
Q: Can I unwarp sliding pocket doors so that they move freely once more?

Alex FeinmanWe have a pair of sliding / pocket doors where one side is painted and the other side is mostly taken up with a mirror. Well, the color was atrocious so we painted one side, but didn't get to painting the mirrored side yet (have to remove the mirror, paint, reinstall...). This means the doors ha...

was caused by what the asker thinks
only painting one side of the wood wouldn't cause it to warp, would it?
My assumption was that he removed the door to paint it and left it laying at an angle somewhere humid
13:12
heh i bumped all of those yesterday
I think you inadvertently buried the one you put a bounty on though :(
@SteveJackson wah.
well it's a "featured" question.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ I was hoping our Mainer, @shirlock would tackle it, but it may have missed his attention.
@SteveJackson might have. =/ he did answer about wiring in conduit, tho
That may have been a bit too many bumps for one day, There are some interesting questions that got buried, e.g.
3
Q: Should a circulator pump be installed on the supply or return of a forced hot water heating system?

tmcallaghanI currently have a forced hot water heating system with 3 zones, all of which have the circulator pump on the supply side of the line. I need to install a 4th zone and am being told that putting the circulator on the return side is more efficient. What are the pros and cons of the circulator's ...

I'm guilty of my own editing sprees, and try to keep it to only a handful per day now
13:28
ahh yeah my bad.
Yeah its also a bit kinda little annoying to see all these "new" questions turn out to be weeks and months old.
I get the desire for uniform appearance but recent questions shouldn't get displaced for old ones due to cosmetic edits, IMO.
Well it's also one of our lofty goals to have an answer to every question. So those edits bring them back to the attention of people who missed them the first time.
@TheEvilGreebo You can always go to the newest questions but I think most of us follow the front page
Yeah I only bumped unanswered.
@BMitch Exactly - and especially new people will be going there mainly until they learn the interface.
13:32
@TheEvilGreebo I understand the frustration though, especially if you're looking for clarification in a comment. Who knows if the asker will ever come back?
hides in a corner
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Not looking to beat up on you, it's important to discuss things like this and make sure the community knows where it wants to go
@AarthiDevanathanΨ You're trying your best. :)
@SteveJackson Right and if they do come back, they can bump their own questions.
but seriously, though; up til now I'd only update the front page, because I didn't want the total churn.
but then @BMitch pointed out that we have lots of unanswered questions. so i bumped, uhhh, 15 of them.
@SteveJackson if it's unanswerable, possibly because we're waiting for clarification, then we've been given the green light to flag and close them as too localized.
2
Q: How to handle unanswerable questions

BMitchShould old questions where the original asker is not responding to questions in the comments section be closed or deleted? If so, what's the appropriate response for the non-moderators, vote to close or raise a flag? Here's an example. It's a good question, but without more details, or at least ...

@AarthiDevanathanΨ I'm thinking the right approach would be cheerleading people into clicking the "unanswered" link rather than bumping them.
13:38
or perhaps only bumping 1-2 of those a day.
a week. w/e
Good info. It's kind of an interesting problem for us because we're not swimming under too many unanswerable questions. I think we could focus on whipping the question into something that could be answered. Of course then you get the retorts like this where someone is offended you changed their question.
4
Q: How should minor edits be handled?

Jeffrey BlakeI received notice that two of my previous questions were edited. Obviously, if those edits improved the question somehow, that's a good thing. So I went to check them out, also wanting to verify that the meaning of the question had not been altered. When I loaded them and reviewed the revision h...

But when he learned the "why" of it, he calmed down.
and, no lie, Caleb's comments make me feel all warm and squishy inside.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Absolutely. But if I were to change the Slate tile question so that the text matched the question title then I'd be changing the Asker's meaning. I could answer the question with the steps to seal slate tile - but he did the steps it didn't work. I don't know why they didn't work so I'm left with leaving it alone.
@SteveJackson oh. hmm. we have a problem.
good news, everyone! I brought in A Professional :)
Clean up edits are a "good thing", as are edits to bump unanswered questions. However, we have to make sure that we don't cause an "edit flood" where all questions at the top of the home page have the same "last modified by" user.
@SteveJackson Based on your earlier comment:
45 mins ago, by Steve Jackson
I sent a text to my brother (tile mechanic) and he mentioned that they make the newbs do four coats - two before grouting and two after.
That's a perfectly acceptable answer - basically that it might need more coats of sealer.
13:58
@ChrisF Good point. And I can always expand the answer to make it useful in the general case, rather than modifying the existing question to match the question title.
I'm guessing here, but if the slate were particularly porous then the sealer would soak in further and you would need more coats to get a good finish.
I agree. The reason for the pre-grout coats is twofold - 1) Because unless you've handled a lot of slate tile you don't know the difference between highly-porous and top-grade. 2) It helps with cleaning up the grout if you're sloppy.
I'd say that makes a good answer
I'd upvote it.
@SteveJackson If you don't post it I will ;)
14:08
@SteveJackson do it! @ChrisF doesn't need the rep! ;)
@AarthiDevanathanΨ I want to get to 10K at some point you know ;)
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Thanks to you both. I'm almost ready to sit through another build.
@ChrisF nevar! ;)
I'll get to it then.
I'm bummed I missed the swag cut off - if only we'd had this conversation last week!
i'm like 10 people away, too.
14:11
@SteveJackson The DIY shirt was one I was particularly looking forward to. I think the design on blue will look just great
@ChrisF the sticker, too, will be awesome and OMG HATS BRB
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Hats? Do we get hats in the swag pack?
Jeff has said that he's not happy with people under 1000 rep getting top user swag. I guess the 950 cut off is a buffer assuming no one with less than 950 will hit 1000 before the swag arrives.
@ChrisF ...maybe. gotta talk it over.
@ChrisF I'm gonna be someone someday! I'll show you Jeff Atwood! shakes fist
:)
I think we have spam:
0
A: Is a radiant floor enough to heat the room?

Steve KilbrideSo much mis-information, so little time :) With regards to the OP's primary question, yes, radiant (be it electric or hydronic) can be the primary heat for a room. The only way to know for sure is to perform a heat loss calculation for the space, then match the heating capacity of the system to...

The site linked to in the answer is the users:
While he's correct in that a single room water system would be very inefficient, that's not the point.
Anyway - should I just remove the spam link or kill the entire answer?
14:19
I'd just remove the link
@ChrisF: edit out the link and maybe the first sentence too
the answer is not inappropriate
I disagree with changing content
I'd downvote him for being insulting though ;)
@TheEvilGreebo The first sentence is fairly pointless and is contrary to the "be nice" rule.
I'll leave a comment about declaring affiliation, but he's an unregistered user so less likely to see it
I agree it contrasts the be nice rule
I disagree with editing for content/tone
if its bad enough, flag it and remove it as offensive, or encourage hIM to change it, but don't change it for him
in other news: AAAAUUUGGGHHH
0
Q: Changed stored procedure not recognized in ASP.NET - SQLDataSource

The crocodile hunterI am working with ASP.NET and StoredProcedure. I change the stored procedure so now it returns 10 field rather than 9. I have added corresponding textbox in asp.net which gets the 10th field. <asp:TextBox ID="ID" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("ID") %>' Width="80px" ReadOnly="true">&l...

Read the comment chain - I keep asking him for VERY SPECIFIC things and he keeps adding NOT THOSE THINGS
Step away from the keyboard...
Ooh - the sun's come out again - back to striping and sanding windows
14:26
Aww, I thought venting in a completely unrelated chat room was safe enough ;)
@ChrisF take pictures to share later today! :D
I'm rather proud of myself for restraining from saying, "I need the datasource - DA-TA-SOU-RCE - you idjit
@AarthiDevanathanΨ It's really boring
@ChrisF pictures make everything more interesting!
Make a game out of it. Figure out how many windows you have to strip and sand, then see how fast you can do half of htem!
14:27
Which is why I'm here and not actually doing what I took three days off work to do
@TheEvilGreebo But then I'd never finish ;)
</principalskinner>
@ChrisF ... ???
@TheEvilGreebo Xeno's paradox
OOOOH good one
/me shoots an arrow at your windows.
Don't worry, it'll never get there.
Zeno's paradoxes are a set of problems generally thought to have been devised by Zeno of Elea to support Parmenides's doctrine that "all is one" and that, contrary to the evidence of our senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion. It is usually assumed, based on Plato's Parmenides 128c-d, that Zeno took on the project of creating these paradoxes because other philosophers had created paradoxes against Parmenides's view. Thus Zeno can be interpreted as saying that to assume there is plurality is even more absurd than ...
Apparently it's Z eno rather than X eno
Debateable
I seem to recall it being Xeno in "Godel, Escher, Bach"
and also I think Terry Pratchett in "Pyramids" called his parody of Xeno the same
@ChrisF good comment
14:45
@TheEvilGreebo For every good user on SO there are 10 difficult ones.
Moderation must be a nightmare
Though I did get a nice fuzzy yesterday. I stumbled upon a question with non-answers awhile back, actually found the answer on my own and updated the question that day, and got a thanks for it yesterday. System works. Sorta.
@SteveJackson I try very hard to be difficult, so thank you ;)
Whichever makes you happier
Pizza makes me happy
14:59
mmm pizza
1
A: How do I properly seal slate tile?

Steve JacksonYou likely need more coats of sealer. Depending on the porousness of the tile and the quality of the sealer you may just need more to get the job done. When you do the shower walls, I would follow these steps: Make sure your wall is waterproof - good suggestions from @Shimon Rura. Install you...

Just sayin'
15:16
@SteveJackson :O
They're doing sewer maintenance - not sure what that is? Workers don't look very alarmed.
@SteveJackson "Nothing to see here, folks, just move right along."
RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!
Oh - change of a Necromancer badge for my flat mirror answer....
@AarthiDevanathan - you need to put a word in with Joel to see if @SteveJackson can get some top user swag :)
already upvoted that one
15:31
@ChrisF not joel -- JEFF.
and oh god. jeff doesn't know us at all. like he'll listen to me.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Well Joel's the one who signs the letters and he is in the same building as you. I was just going for the path of least resistance ;)
@ChrisF lololol if i could, it would be joel. i assure you.
Get Joel to talk to Jeff
@ChrisF ha. hahaha. that seems unnecessarily complicated
@AarthiDevanathanΨ I thought everyone listened to you. You have a pitchfork!
15:34
@SteveJackson lol i wish.
Rule #1 in life: Always listen to the lady with the stabby thing.
@ChrisF Have a badge
Thanks - I keep trying for it on Stack Overflow, but so far I've always failed.
@SteveJackson Response:
> that is a wise man with a good rule -- Laura (Psi)
my coworker.
@ChrisF which which?
15:40
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Necromancer badge
@ChrisF oooh shiny!
One time I even had someone complain I'd added an answer to a previously unanswered question.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ I'm well trained
@ChrisF What?
@SteveJackson Unbelievable but true - it was something along the lines "why have you resurrected this question?"
Necro
/me shoves ChrisF in the morgue
15:56
aaaaand on that cheerful note: lunchtimes. see y'all latersauce.
16:12
/me vies for the necro badge too ;)
17:06
Hey @Tester101. how's life?
18:06
One hour til Project Update Thursday! Yaaaay!
18:18
You're far too excited
18:29
@TheEvilGreebo :( i think i'm excited just enough.
Nope, my DeWalt(R) Excitement Meter reading says you're way too excited.
its wobbling between way and far, which is 3 or 4 levels beyond "excited enough"
@TheEvilGreebo :O
SHOCK AND AWE, BABY!
@TheEvilGreebo i can't believe DeWalt makes one of those too
How DARE you question my integrity!
18:36
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Makita's is better. Has a laser.
@SteveJackson bam, nailed it.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ So you believe STEVE but not me!
&offended&
@SteveJackson And anyway, Makita's has a cheap plastic casing that breaks if it's exposed to an excitement level above "Hyper"
@AarthiDevanathanΨ Yah yah sure sure whatever
@TheEvilGreebo My only possible comeback contains the words "Your mom", so I'll just let you win.
18:42
lololol
A+, you guys, A+
Here are the top searches that lead to @TheEvilGreebo's excellent into blog post:
earth's position in the milky way, where is earth, earth position in milky way, milky way earth position, milkyway earth position
@SteveJackson thats awesome
I'm going to go ahead and open this up!
Welcome to Project Update Thursday #06!
woooo
well in that case, I'll go real quick
(I'm worried i'm going to get called away to a meeting, so I figured it was best to do this now. :D)
18:56
my home improvement this week consisted of landscaping, cutting back bushes, fixing grading issues
and showing my neighbor the awesomeness of a sawzall
that's it, turning the mike over to whoever wants to go next
i demand photos!
lol, no pics, the sawzall lasted an entire 10 seconds
took more time to find the blades than anything else
awww
but i wanna see your lawnnnn
18:59
you mean my weeds?
My only update this week is that we updated our project budget last week and concluded that the temporary counter replacement ended up costing us $800 , 1/4 of which was replacing the dang stupid disposal, so we're set that much back in preparing for the electrical panel upgrade muttermutter
on an unrelated note, my construction neighbors seem to be installing a retaining wall on their side of the fence they are building... I'm not sure I count it as an 8' fence if they put it in a 4' deep ditch
Almost electrocuted myself last night. I was adding a new receptacle in the garage. Started to open up the junction box I was going to tap, and thought hmmm maybe I should test for voltage just in case. Good thing I did, the receptacle I was going to tap was on a different circuit and still LIVE!
Hey it's a new face!
Hi there, @billoreid :D
19:05
whoever wired up the garage put that one receptacle on the light circuit, while all the rest are on their own.
@Tester101 "Well I've already got this wire here...."
Found a different receptacle to tap. I hadn't cut the wire to length yet, so I just rerouted it.
Hey, saw the link on the diy page and figured I'd check out the chat. Seems to be...sparse.
What we lack in numbers we make up for in spunk!
Oh geez did I just actually say "spunk"?
19:14
Yes, yes you did.
edit fast! moxie's a better word anyway
hey there @Doresoom sorry you came in at the worst possible moment ;)
haha, i'll survive
@BMitch I did some similar yard work this past week as well
Transplanted some rose bushes and tilled a flower garden/planted bulbs
and planted a maple in the front yard last weekend
I resent the implication that me saying "spunk" is the WORST possible moment.
@Doresoom photooooos
There's the tree. No pics of the flowerbed - I'll wait til it has flowers
19:20
@Doresoom shiny.
@TheEvilGreebo true. but that that is our lowest moment doesn't suck.
has anybody else ever used these?
I found out yesterday, they SUCK!
@Tester101 the non adjustable kind? Yeah, once.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ :P
@Tester101 I haven't. Sounds like an easy blog post :)
they don't sit flush against the framing, so when you plug things in the whole box moves.
That's what I did this weekend. Also sucks.
19:26
Did it get all over?
Thanks to @Tester101 and @TheEvilGreebo I went in fully armed
Oh yes
haha. did you have a popcorned head?
I had plastic, canvas, and plastic curtains. I then tried to hold a cardboard box up and work inside that. Gave that up quickly.
@Tester101 What do you mean they don't sit flush? My problem was no control over the depth of the box
19:27
i hate dealing with popcorn
i always manage to get it in my eyes
@Tester101 gave me the protip. I wore goggles until I couldn't see out of them anymore.
@TheEvilGreebo it's slightly tapered along the side from the front to the back, so right next to the tab it's against the framing but the back is ~1/4" away.
So it pivots on the tab.
@SteveJackson Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, have multiple pairs of goggles!
I started out pretty terrible at it (using that can spray). Here's my first can:
Just kind of glopped it up there and tried to do something with it. It ain't popcorn exactly.
Can says to hold it 12" away. 20" worked a lot better for me.
:D
Oh hey!
@JohnFx welcome!
@SteveJackson get some goggles for when you paint it too. little bits will probably flake off while you roll it.
19:43
@Tester101 Yeah not sure how the painting will go. We're pretty sure that it was originally white (you can see where the light was and we didn't patch) and accumulated that lovely color over 30 years.
@Tester101 hadn't noticed that - double ugh then
big! soft! brush!
I prefer the kind that adjust forward and back - more solid structure too I think
They probably don't move once you put drywall up, but this is a garage so no chance of that happening. I'll probably just go pick up a metal box, and replace it.
I guess I'm confused then - why not use a normal work box?
19:57
Meanwhile: heeeeey @auujay
Thats the kind I like
I used the pvc box because it was ~$1.00, while the metal box was ~$2.00.
Sometimes being cheap, costs more!
This is $2.20 but it adjusts!
And it comes in a stylish blue!
and you don't need those special gromets like you do with the metal box (to stop the wires from getting cut)
Maybe I'll get one of those and give it a try.
20:00
though if you have old style 2x4s they dont work as well
I actually avoid the metal boxes not so much because they cost more, but becuse I hate having to ground the box.
they grip the front of the 2x4 but it needs to be a "new" 2x4
It's not often that I use new work boxes, most of my work is retrofitting so I use old work boxes a lot.
they are "newer" 2x4's so it should work.
I don't like metal boxes, because I thinks it's sort of silly to have an electrical connection in a conductive box.
never really made sense to me.
I spent the weekend painting and installing the ditra on the floor
no new pics yet though
I have yet to find a pvc box that has good wire clamps though, I usually end up snapping the little tabs accidentally.
20:06
@Tester101: my local lowe's has some boxes that look sturdier than usual.
and even when I don't snap the tabs, I never feel like it's really holding the wire.
@NiallC I know which ones you're talking about, but even those lack when it comes to clamps.
@Tester101, I don't think they are supposed to. That is why the NEC requires wire staples closer to plastic boxes then it does to metal boxes.
i think
I don't know were it says that but I seem to recall that is the case
I think they are supposed to, but NEC noticed they don't and changed the code.
Just today I went to the tile store to try and find some accent/mosaic tiles to run in a strip around the tub. But I was turned off by how crazy expensive they are. I am also worried about putting in a glass tile (which 90% of the accent tiles at the store are) as I think it is really trendy right now but I can see it dating the bathroom in 5-10 years.
I may just go with a simple 2x2 tile "grid mosaic" in a contrasting color instead
way cheaper too
@auujay good choice, tile is too much of a pain to change to go "trendy".
20:15
yeah, glass tile could very quickly go outta style. kinda like, umm, the glass-flecked tile I'll see sometimes. that tends to date a space fast, imho.
wow I killed the convo! :O
It's also a bad idea to "over personalize" a space. Everybody loved neon colors in the 80's, but try selling a house with a chartreuse tile floor!
@Tester101 or orange shag carpeting that's browned since 1975
@AarthiDevanathan who doesn't love orange shag carpeting?
@Tester101 only if it's from ikea. ;)
It's even better on the walls.
20:23
hey it's @ChrisF :D
The tile colors we picked are very neutral (for that very reason). The granite vanity top and shower shelves is a little trickier because it has a variety of colors in it that some people just may not like.
oh well
Hi - sorry not been around - food and stuff called.
@ChrisF Did you finish half your windows?
@SteveJackson Not really - it started raining, so there we couldn't do much. Hopefully better weather tomorrow
@ChrisF sounds like you did a "half sash" job!
20:25
/rimshot!
@Tester101 Ha ha
20:37
So what is everyone planning on accomplishing this weekend? I'm going to do boring stuff like mow the grass and clean the oven.
We've got to make significant progress on the windows. It's a big bay with three sash windows - one large, two small. We have one small one completely stripped, but managed to break the glass in both panes - so that's another job. The other small window is half stripped and the big one about 1/4.
We need to get the small window reglazed tomorrow (which involved an out of town trip to get restoration glass) as well as the other windows fully stripped.
As it's a Victorian house we need to get the ripply effect of old glass but with new glass. Unfortunately it's 4x the price of regular float glass
I'm not familiar with restoration glass - the pic looks nice, but what is it?
@ChrisF holy crap, the glass adds a building!!!
Ahh - gotcha
20:43
When I had some old leaded glass replaced after a hail storm they were able to reuse salvaged glass to match that "old glass look"
I don't know if it cost 4x as it was covered by insurance but I bet that is what they are charging to recreate that old effect in a new product.
If we can do that and get the windows primed by the end of the weekend I'll be happy. My wife's not working at the moment so she'll be able to finish off the painting next week and then we can re-hang the windows on new sash cords. Then we'll have fully working windows again. Just in time to close up for winter
We've got secondary glazing (well perspex sheets with magnetic strips) that keep us a bit warmer and less draughty in the winter
@ChrisF that sounds like a much better idea than that shrink wrap crap.
The plastic window wrap never seems to last the whole winter.
It works reasonably well. The only downside is that our windows are quite large - 5' - 6' high and they're a little too big for the gauge of perspex we got so they can flex and bow leaving gaps. We've had to resort to using cleats to keep them flat.
I'll have to try building something like that for my windows.
We got our kits from 365plastics.com
They now do edging profiles - see the bottom of this page - 365plastics.com/Secondary-Glazing-FAQ.html - which weren't available when we bought. I think they'd help stiffen the perspex.
Though looking at the pics we might be able to retrofit. Hmm, will have to think about this
20:58
Do you just leave the magnetic tape up all the time?
@Tester101 Yes. It's white so it's not too noticeable. Less so if you're window frames are white and possibly even paintable - though we've not tried that.
Thanks for joining us for Project Update Thursday! We'll see you all here next week, same time and place!
and with that, i'm out /waves
keep chatting yourselves, naturally. i just, i'm off of work now, heh.
byeeee

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