The Skunk Works

hazzey

00:47

@GlenH7 My biggest issue with the homework question was that a photo of the text was used. If the question would have been reworded to begin with, it would have been better.

That is my feeling about homework problems; they need to be put into the asker's own words. We also avoid plagiarism that way.

user41796

01:06

@hazzey I agree wholeheartedly on preferring the question to be typed out. I would have converted it save for my being busier than I would have like today.

Elric

@Air I was using the question as an example.

user41796

@HDE226868 - you need to switch back to a darker gravatar. I don't recognize you anymore. :-P

HDE 226868

01:32

@GlenH7 I'll have to Photoshop in "Je suis HDE 226868" to my old one. . . Said the guy who can't use photoshop.

This was my original; I only meant to change it for a week.

Air

@HDE How about the GIMP? Or even easier, Paint.NET?

HDE 226868

@Air You severely overestimate my skills with any computer programs whatsoever, save a few. And the idea was really a joke.

Perhaps I'll give them a try.

@GlenH7 Changed back. Though it won't load on chat for a while.

Elric

try this

pixel.tools

HDE 226868

@Elric I'll try it later and get back to you.

In theory, I should be working on a project at the moment.

Elric

@HDE226868 that makes two of us...

But my project is personal

Air

01:38

In theory, I should go to work tomorrow

In practice, I will be spending all day with a toddler who may barf on me again

HDE 226868

In theory, I have a four-day weekend coming up (Friday-Monday).

In practice, I'll be spending all days working on another project.

Air

I think toddler with pneumonia beats homework

Did I mention he shit in the tub an hour ago? Because he shit in the tub an hour ago.

HDE 226868

In middle school, we had a class called Life Skills. Each year, we learned different things. In 8th grade, one of the topics was baby care. We were divided into groups and were responsible for a mechanical baby that wailed like a banshee periodically. You can to "feed" it with a certain key to get it to stop.

Elric

@Air your toddler looks lovely. Please take care of him.

HDE 226868

One day, there was a fire drill. We had to bring our babies with us. As we were walking outside, our baby starting wailing, and we couldn't turn it off. The fire drill lasted for 10 minutes, and I can tell you that there is nothing more awkward in middle school than holding a crying "baby" for 10 minutes. Better than your scenario, of course.

Air

01:42

@Elric "Looks?" OH MY GOD THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

@HDE I have heard of that sort of exercise but I think when I heard about it, instead of robot babies, it was frogs or some other sort of small animal you had to keep alive

HDE 226868

We tried that we mealworms in elementary school. It was boring as heck, though most managed to survive the hell that is being the experiment of a bunch of 8-year-olds.

Elric

@Air ¬¬ I mean by the words... I wass a very ill child (mostly respiratory) and I thank my mom everyday for taking good cre of me - well not everyday... But everytime I see her!

Air

My son is usually very healthy but his daycare is full of sick since 2015 showed up

They're required to post a notice on the door whenever a child is sent home with an identifiable illness, along the lines of "your child may have been exposed to ____" and right now the door has five or six notices on it.

HDE 226868

@Air The same thing?

Air

No, they only have to do it once per bug

If memory serves they are roseola, influenza, pinkeye, pneumonia and croup

(Of course, only the first two of those are specific infections, the other three can be caused by a wide range of viruses or bacteria)

HDE 226868

01:48

Te-rrific.

Air

On the bright side, no measles or ebola

HDE 226868

Or cancer. Or tuberculosis. Or smallpox.

Air

Or climate denial.

HDE 226868

I don't know; those toddlers are a skeptical bunch.

Air

The daycare is on the ground floor of the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters.

Elric

01:54

google has nice results on those

Air

They're not old enough to rebel, dammit!

HDE 226868

@Air Wow.

Elric

I mean, it now has a small box with information..

Air

Not sure why that is star-worthy.

HDE 226868

@Air I suppose it qualifies as interesting. I don't think the phrase "The daycare is on the ground floor of the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters." will ever be used on Stack Exchange ever.

Air

01:59

Challenge accepted.

user41796

@Air It does get better, I promise.

Air

Pneumonia? I certainly hope so.

My son is a delight. Just not a constant one.

user41796

@Air everything is star worthy. :-)

user41796

@Air It get's better, I promise.

user41796

I don't really miss the younger years with mine.

Air

02:11

Oh god, it's Winter Bash all over again

hazzey

You have to get that badge somehow...

user41796

People will start whinging about stars on the Whiteboard. Which prompts basically everything that follows for the next 10 or 20 comments to get starred.

HDE 226868

A Hitchhiker's quote can be enough in the Pod Bay (SEx.SE).

Air

"sexy"?

HDE 226868

@Air Space Exploration.

We have fun with the abbreviation.

Air

02:13

I like "sexy"

hazzey

I can see why they would choose that abbreviation.

user41796

@HDE226868 SpEx?! :-D

Air

I guess we're Eng.SE. That's not exciting.

user41796

@Air In general, engineering is not exciting

HDE 226868

Trivia: The url www.thefinalfrontier.stackexchange.com beings you to Space Exploration.

user41796

02:15

unless it's a bridge collapsing. Then it's scary azz shite exciting.

Air

Speaking of OUR BRAND!, we should brainstorm icons

user41796

sprockets? :-P

user41796

Spacely Sprockets (just to date myself...)?

hazzey

I was going to try to put together an ad with all of the ideas that were mentioned yesterday.

Air

@GlenH7 "Baby, I'm gonna ride you like the Tacoma Narrows"

hazzey

02:16

That probably won't happen for a couple of days though.

user41796

@hazzey I think we've already unofficially declared that Eng.SE needs to come before work. Just saying.

hazzey

@GlenH7 Trust me... I am on that bandwagon too much already...

user41796

(just trying to help you get badges)

user41796

@HDE226868 You had asked why things get down voted heavily on Progs. This is why...

HDE 226868

I accuse @GlenH7 . . . in Engineering . . . with the star . . . for the murder of John Body - nope, excessive starring instead.

user41796

02:19

Sorry, it 404's now. The owner self-deleted.

user41796

@HDE226868 I'll pin that one...

HDE 226868

I got to the page just before. What the heck was that?

user41796

@HDE226868 sheer garbage

user41796

the polite term is it's a "code dump", emphasis on the "dump" aspect

user41796

Being mindful of the eternal battles that wage on every site of how to be welcoming to beginners learning the craft versus expert questions - Some of the stuff that's asked is such shlock that you're shaking your head in disbelief.

Air

02:23

@GlenH7 That reminds me of the first time my wife used the term "horse apple" around me

I was only half paying attention, and so I said, "hmm, I've never had a horse apple before"

Assuming it was something like a crab apple

user41796

Had a question earlier today where the OP drops a code dump and says "what's wrong?"
I asked "what did the debugger say?"
OP then dumped the ***compiler*** output in response.
face palm.

hazzey

I have usually heard it as "Road apple"

user41796

@Air One of those nearly killed a friend of mine. Dropped and shattered the windshield of their car. Almost wrecked.

Air

I... am not altogether certain we are all three of us talking about feces

3

user41796

@Air Nope. google provides crab apple as the first image response

user41796

02:25

But that woulda been one hella tall horse....

HDE 226868

. . . awkward silence . . .

Air

I see something that looks like a brain fruit

Not a crab apple

user41796

@HDE226868 Be happy you're in the NW

HDE 226868

@GlenH7 NW = Northwest?

user41796

yep

HDE 226868

02:26

My location != Northwest.

I'm a Northeast US guy.

Air

@glen are you talking about this thing?

user41796

@HDE226868 Pffft, blew that one. For some reason I was placing you in Oregon / Washington

user41796

@Air yes

HDE 226868

@GlenH7 I think I mentioned it once while talking about trees.

user41796

but obviously, you weren't

HDE 226868

02:27

Maclura pomifera

Maclura pomifera, commonly called Osage orange, hedge apple, horse apple, monkey ball, bois d'arc, bodark, or bodock is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, typically growing to 8–15 metres (26–49 ft) tall. It is a Carolinian species. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on different plants. The fruit, from a multiple fruit family, is roughly spherical, but bumpy, and 7.6–15.2 centimetres (3–6 in) in diameter. It is filled with a sticky white latex. In fall, its color turns a bright yellow-green. Despite the name "Osage orange," it is not closely related to the orange. Maclura is closely...

Air

Nope. Also, that is not a crab apple.

HDE 226868

@Air Nice.

Air

I'm jealous of the snow in Boston right now.

user41796

@HDE226868 It's okay. It was pretty easy to remap you to the other side of the country

Air

I lived there 20 years and never had a blizzard that size.

user41796

02:28

Although you must be getting walloped with nasty cold weather about now

HDE 226868

I have relatives in Massachusetts. You do not want to be there at the moment.

user41796

@Air some folk call it that...

Air

Some folk call soda "pop" too. We don't talk about those people.

Some people use emacs.

Some people don't like pineapple pizza.

user41796

@Air pineapple by itself? not so good.

HDE 226868

Some people are Yankees fans.

user41796

02:30

with ham, bacon, and onions? Now we're talking

Air

@HDE226868 Good lord, that got dark fast

user41796

@Air erm, there's an alternative?!?!

Air

@GlenH7 add jalapenos

user41796

@HDE226868 yeah, let's stick to the religious wars of vi vs. emacs and how to dress hawaiian pizza properly

user41796

@Air I'm down with that

user41796

02:31

but just pineapple and ham? blech. Waste of an otherwise good pizza.

Air

At some point I came to terms with the fact that the only reason I ever order a Hawaiian pizza is for the pineapple. And I started just getting pineapple pizzas instead. Cheaper, less chance of getting ambushed by BBQ sauce.

HDE 226868

@GlenH7 We actually had something approaching a religious war on Worldbuilding today:

22

Q: How would society react if the existence of a god was scientifically proven?

Let's assume that : The scientifically proven god is omnipotent and omniscient The god stays as how it was acting even after the proof, meaning natural disasters still occur, the speed of light is still the way it is, and the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. The god is a singul...

The question's fine. Some of the answers weren't. ~40+ comments nuked, it seems.

user41796

oh god! who puts bbq sauce on a pineapple pizza?!

user41796

@HDE226868 3900 views? I'm assuming that's pretty good for world building?

user41796

and yeah, that's flame bait written all over it

HDE 226868

02:33

@GlenH7 It's above average, but we have a lot of 1k+ questions.

3900 is good, though.

Air

@HDE226868 Oh, bugger. Poor Monica!

user41796

I would've shut that one down the moment it got out of hand. The comment threads escalate out of control so quickly

Air

But 4k views in 24 hours?

Wowza!

Interesting question, anyway.

user41796

One of the Progs mods is a mod for Politics too. He says the trolls can be quite prolific

user41796

The rest of us think he's insane to mod for politics

HDE 226868

02:36

The trolls are all Republicans. No, Democrats. No, Rick Perry.

hazzey

I would think that there would be more deletes and closes in politics than any valid posts!

HDE 226868

That probably goes to Skeptics.

user41796

@HDE226868 <snicker> Smart move by Tim on that question

HDE 226868

@hazzey

0

Q: why are only 2 of last twelve questions open?

Only two of the last twelve questions remained open on this StackExchange. Why are so many held? Seems like they're closed when people here don't know how to answer the question (like the vaccine one) rather than just waiting for a person with the right expertise who understands the question to ...

discussion politics

user41796

@hazzey I really don't know - I just view politics as a cesspool and refuse to taste the filthy beast.

user41796

02:38

@HDE226868 skeptics is brutal in shutting down the cranks. And rightfully so

hazzey

Sites like those should have their mods work on a schedule so that there is always one (or two) active.

HDE 226868

@GlenH7 And they're harsh on sources. I've never had trouble with references, but I find myself spending ages finding good ones. They lead to good answers, though.

Sam Weston

Hey irrelevant question but How long do people think engineering will be in beta, that is assuming it becomes an actual site

user41796

@SamWeston Do you know the winning power ball numbers for tonight?

user41796

Seriously though, it's impossible to predict. The site is quite young. Betas can last years until things have gelled well enough that SE will launch it as a full-fledged site.

hazzey

02:40

@SamWeston I certainly hope that it will. There seems to be some good energy now...

HDE 226868

@SamWeston Add those numbers together and multiply by pi. That's how many months it will take.

hazzey

@HDE226868 Months or years?

user41796

And y'all need to star more often. Just saying. :-P

HDE 226868

@hazzey Ahhhh . . . I'm not sure.

Sam Weston

ha ha ha

HDE 226868

02:41

@GlenH7 You can get in trouble for that, you know.

user41796

@HDE226868 WUT?

user41796

stars are free, cheap, and almost infinite....

HDE 226868

@GlenH7 Yep. Around New Years, mods nuked a lot of flags because folks wanted to get hats and were starring each others posts.

user41796

Oh really?!

user41796

<---- Is laughing hard to himself now.

HDE 226868

02:43

Yep.

user41796

First I've heard of that. Chat is a 3rd class citizen in the world of SE

user41796

In my book? Do as you wish.

user41796

Especially when there's hats up for grabs! :-D

HDE 226868

I rather liked my Tam O' Shanter.

I need to get a real one.

user41796

Seriously - chat is meant to be a lot less formal than main or even meta. That's not an excuse to be profane, but off-topic can fly without problem if the rest of the room is okay with it.

HDE 226868

02:45

I love it. I really do.

user41796

I'll be the first to kick 4 letter bombs forming the bulk of someone's comments. They clearly need to work on their vocabulary. But chat is meant to be a lot more free-form.

user41796

For example, I just (falsely) threatened to kick someone from another room as part of our banter.

HDE 226868

Who says that meta doesn't have some fun from time to time?

75

Q: Please Add Means of Converting Reputation to Actual Beer

When I help someone solve a programming problem, they often express their gratitude for the solution (yay!). Generally, this takes the form of one of the following: "Think you!" Sometimes, people offer to hire me for further work. (Generally, stay away from these folks; they've been hiding thei...

discussion reputation fun

54

A: What kind of computer is being used in "Workin on ur problemz"?

This is a V-Tech Talking Whiz Kid Mouse PRO Deluxe As illustrated on this Ebay auction: To compare, three photos with another cat (and you can see part of the VTech logo on the second): Interesting fact, there are many photos with different cats, because this was taken during a contest. T...

. . . aaaand I have to go.

So long, ladies/gentlemen/bots created by Jon Skeet.

Air

In the SO Python room the ROs diverted people to The Sandbox for hat-related starring

It was very effective

Okay, whoever's left in the room, instant poll

I'm going to have a finger of A) whisky, B) rum, C) bourbon

You have until I finish feeding my sourdough starter and dosing my son with amoxicillin to vote

hazzey

03:01

A+B+C? Actually that sounds bad...

Go with C

user41796

03:25

@Air Gotta be A

user41796

Well, maybe C

user41796

depends upon which of each you're talking about

user41796

With B... Better be a dang good, super dark jamaican varietal. :-)

Sam Weston

@Air OH! I just thought of what this sites icon could be

user41796

@SamWeston scotch glass?

Sam Weston

03:36

We could have a tower light/light stack

@GlenH7 That's actually pretty good

user41796

@SamWeston That's workable too. And SE proper may not allow the scotch glass in the final design....

Sam Weston

I figured a light stack at least by name is kinda on topic xD

Plus they are used constantly in aviation, maintenance and all areas of production img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-m/…

Maybe irrelated to areas like civil, but even electrical which designs their construction/implementation are somewhat related

user41796

@SamWeston Oh wait, are the Aviation folk gonna fight us over that then?

Sam Weston

plus, it's no more irrelated than gears

@GlenH7 Nah, They are way more prevalent in production

I work on site at an automated food production facility, you can't walk more than 5 meters before seeing another one

Plus, Aviation has way more iconic engineering tools they could use

Air

Bourbon it is, then.

Sam Weston

03:47

@Air booo

Light STACK!

user41796

@SamWeston But we don't know what type of bourbon it is

user41796

his bourbon may be better than his whiskey stock currently

Air

@Sam you didn't even vote, you don't get to boo :P

Sam Weston

@Air Vote where? what?

user41796

And I don't miss the days of having to give antibiotics to toddlers.

Ethan48

03:48

I'm anti-bourbon, but pro light stack

Air

50 mins ago, by Air

Okay, whoever's left in the room, instant poll

user41796

@Ethan48 Scotch then?

Sam Weston

@Ethan48 HELL YEAH!

@Air damn, was I there for that, I don't remember that

user41796

pssssh. You're all worried about mundane things like site icons. @air and I are worried about important things

Ethan48

@GlenH7 Naww, it's above 80 degrees here, beer is the way to go.

Sam Weston

03:50

@Air Ah I wasn't I was in a meeting :P

@GlenH7 important? such as?

user41796

@Ethan48 that's hot for you this time of year, no?

user41796

@SamWeston whiskey, rum, or bourbon. Duh. :-)

Ethan48

@GlenH7 Yes, even for California. But I'm not complaining.

Air

@GlenH7 Four Roses Single Barrel, The Balvenie Doublewood, Flor de Caña 4 year Gold

were the specific options

Sam Weston

@GlenH7 Neither, shot glasses of one third kalua, one third baileys, one third midori

known as the quick fuck :>

user41796

03:52

@Air I've only had option 2 there. 1 and 3 sound tasty

user41796

@SamWeston Sorry, I'm gonna go with Balvenie over a shot any day of the week. But I've gotten old that way. Shots no longer appeal to me

Sam Weston

@GlenH7 I'm a 21 year old Australian, let's be honest, it's amazing I drink anything other than cheap beer

Air

ugh, midori

user41796

@SamWeston The rest of the world does need to work a bit harder to civilize you lot. :-)

Sam Weston

@GlenH7 Plus, I can't exactly afford good Bourbon anyway :P

user41796

03:56

@SamWeston I'm gonna blame the gov't. :-)

Air

I inherited part of a bottle of Midori at an apartment in college once. I wanted it to be good. It really wasn't.

Sam Weston

@Air Yeah I know, but it works well in this shot, makes it taste like caramel

user41796

@Air Needs tequila and orange juice to complement it

Sam Weston

@Air yeah dude it's like pure sugar, never drink it straight

@GlenH7 Ditto

user41796

Best drink I ever had was just over the border into Mexico, called an iguana. OJ, tequila, midori, and a few other liquors. Quite tasty.

Air

03:57

Sounds too much like a tequila sunrise for me.

Sam Weston

@GlenH7 Probably should, you have any idea how much we tax liquor, 600ml of smirnof is like $45

user41796

@SamWeston That's.... sinful.

Sam Weston

@Air What's wrong with tequila sunrise

user41796

750mL stateside is under $20

Air

What's the AUD/USD exchange?

Are they about equal?

Sam Weston

03:58

yeah about the same

Air

@SamWeston Just not my cup of tea.

Sam Weston

we were ahead for a while, it was good, cheap imports

user41796

1 AUD : 0.77 USD per google

Sam Weston

Wow, what the hell happened

Air

AMERICA HAPPENED

user41796

03:59

oil

Air

FREEDOM EAGLES

user41796

global politics

user41796

things shifting

user41796

wait a week, or a month, it'll be different

Sam Weston

nah, we just don't make anything anymore, jobs are drying up fast

We are a first world nation in close proximity to china, our only remaining industry is china

mining

:I

we don't even process our own natural resources any more

Sam Weston

04:17

@Air google.com.au/…

Air

wwwwwwwwwwwwat

not enough bourbon friend

Sam Weston

Did you watch the video?

"I said sit down"

Trust me, that show, Danger 5, as awesome as it is, gets so much freaking weirder than those scenes.

Stack Exchange

13:23

0

Q: It seems likely there will be a lot of naive "How do I design a ___?" questions

There have been a few questions where persons with little to no training are requesting instructions on how to design some object. Some examples: Asking for a "set of equations" to design a solar dish loaded by wind How to design a custom structure "for example a ladder" Questions like the...

discussion question-quality

Stack Exchange

19:02

0

Q: Reaching out to hackspaces

In order to get more knowledgeable1 active users I think it would be worthwhile reaching out to all the hackspace2 communities out there. I've asked questions of my local hackspace and got great answers before. They have many users with questions and many skilled professional engineers who also...

discussion community new-users hackspaces

Stack Exchange

19:24

0

Q: Should hackspaces have their own tags?

As a follow-up to this question: Should we allow hackspaces to have their own tags? I think this is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure about how well it would fit into the SE format, or if it would be accepted/appreciated by the wider community. Some Pros: People can follow their local ha...

discussion tags hackspaces

user41796

20:39

@Air - SE users have to have at least 20 rep on any SE site in order to participate in chat. So the OP of the compressed air bike question wouldn't be able to talk in chat. That said, moderators can grant under 20 rep users specific access to a room but it tends to be a convoluted process.

Air

21:03

@GlenH7 Sure he would, provided he earns that rep.

But you're right, I could have mentioned that requirement in my comment.

user41796

I suspect we're looking at different timeframes. :-)

user41796

I also noticed it was an unregistered account, which I tend to be a bit dismissive of. From my experience, there's lots of "ideas" behind an initial question and no follow-up with unregistered accounts.

user41796

Anyone have any thoughts about the couple of liability questions we've picked up so far?

user41796

My gut feel on them is they're going to spiral out of control

user41796

One of SE's tenets is that the question should preferably be a real problem faced by the person asking the question.

user41796

21:14

So hopefully we'll never see a "real" example of someone facing a liability issue - that's clearly time for the attorney

user41796

That leaves us with hypothetical scenarios. And it seems easy to game those or they can get out of control with endless "what-if" type questions

user41796

OTOH, a general understanding of liability that a PE may face for a sealed design would be a fair question

Air

21:30

@GlenH7 I am in the middle of answering one, somewhat against my better judgment...

user41796

@Air Yeah... I was about to start an answer or two as well. :-(

Air

I'll need another couple minutes to bang this out and then maybe we can discuss.

user41796

I'm wondering if editing the first of the two (jhabbott's, I believe) to become a duplicate target and then the community putting together a "canonical" type answer

Air

@Glen engineering.stackexchange.com/a/638/368

Have to see if I can get my son to eat lunch and take a nap now; back later.

hazzey

21:54

@GlenH7 @Air I put the first question up partially to see if those types of questions could work.

user41796

Oh, that's right, it was yours, not jhabbott's

hazzey

My feelings are that ethics and liability are too closely related to work well for the reasons that @GlenH7 stated.

user41796

@hazzey it caused me heartburn. :-)

user41796

I think there's a narrow sliver of questions in that vein that we could (safely?) have within the site. But there's a really bad cascade risk there

hazzey

the answers there are good, but they quickly go off of the relatively narrow question that I tried to ask.

Maybe I just missed the narrow mark!

user41796

21:58

It may be possible to tighten up the question. I hadn't done so because I felt it should be asked in meta (or in here) first

Transcript for