« first day (1188 days earlier)      last day (3796 days later) » 
00:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

Undo
Undo
12:36 AM
5
Q: Show 10kers some simple analytics in the tools

UndoCurrently, only Diamond mods have access to real analytics - with pretty graphs and stuff. I'm currently helping in a Beta site, and I'm very interested in how the site is doing. Because of this, I have a big system set up that collects stats from the API on a regular interval. This works ok, but...

feature-request 10k-tools analytics discussion
^ I'm sure all you P.SE 10kers want this :)
 
 
4 hours later…
user20683
4:58 AM
@MichaelT It's probably cheating to answer that question before I migrate it but I did learn something.
 
user55340
@WorldEngineer Which one?
 
user20683
@MichaelT the mail one
 
user20683
pipe a text file to mail and then supply the addressing info and govern via chron
 
user20683
easy as that
 
user55340
Ahh yea... yep. Knew that from LONG ago. Most of the mail like programs have that functionality. I was an elm user back in the day until I switched to mutt for awhile.
 
user55340
5:02 AM
 
user55340
Mutt also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,

mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~/run2.dat
 
user20683
@MichaelT one of my long term goals is to learn Unix-likes to the level of a systems admin
 
user20683
Windows too maybe
 
user55340
You're young... you can do it...
 
user55340
(When you get older as a developer you just want it to work and don't care too much about fiddling with it)
 
user55340
5:04 AM
Which is why the mac is such a nice platform. You've got unix there if you want it, but if you don't... it just works.
 
user20683
@MichaelT at the moment I am simultaneously shoring up my testing and learning more Django
 
user20683
yeah but it's got weird quirks to it. I think most of my annoyance is expecting it to behave like Linux because it does most of the time.
 
user20683
and then you hit the wall and realize that you're actually on a UNIX box
 
user20683
I just wish my OS class had actually been more useful
 
gnat
gnat
7:28 AM
@MichaelT yeah good answer, and relevant to the question asked, was fun to read this bit of history
 
 
1 hour later…
gnat
gnat
8:39 AM
funny how this suggestion has quickly gotten 9 downvotes without explanatory comments. It's like there's a group of users who are simply willing to silence concerns about the queue. Given 100+ upvotes to recent strike announcement, this shut-up attitude seems to be indeed in minority — gnat 1 min ago
 
gnat
gnat
9:04 AM
free spam flags...
-2
Q: Instant Mock Testing with PowerMock - Review Copies Available

user110498We are looking for 5 people who can review our new title,"Instant Mock Testing with PowerMock" on their Blog/Website, Amazon/Goodreads and their social media websites. If interested you can contact me on priyankabudkuley@packtpub.com or drop your email address and I will be happy to provide you ...

java testing technology mocking
 
ChrisF
ChrisF
9:30 AM
@gnat - I would have said that this is on topic for us:
-1
Q: How to algorithmically add notes to an existing midi file relative to positions of existing notes in python

user110490I have a midi file that I'd like to algorithmically add notes to relative to other notes that already exist in the midi file using python, or if it's easier using a different language I'm open to that as well. So basically, I have a midi file with a bunch of notes, and let's say I'd like to ad...

design algorithms python
Why the downvote?
 
gnat
gnat
10:04 AM
@ChrisF that's for cross-posting; if this is cleared I'll revert (there's an obvious edit there that would unlock my vote)
 
ChrisF
ChrisF
@gnat I thought it might be. I'm still trying to decide where it really belongs. Neither question has an answer so all I'd do is close the off topic one and leave a "don't cross post" comment.
 
gnat
gnat
@ChrisF FWIW I personally would prefer it here, not at SO
 
ChrisF
ChrisF
I've closed the SO version.
You're free to edit and revert your vote.
The reason I asked about the down-vote is that it can make it harder to decide which site a question should be on.
I do appreciate the effort you go to to find these cross posted questions though.
 
 
4 hours later…
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
2:20 PM
Woohoo! I got my first down-vote. I must be doing something right!
 
 
2 hours later…
user41796
4:03 PM
@MichaelT bummer; not enough rep on SO to do anything with those.
 
user55340
@GlenH7 I occasionally poke at my rep there. The thing is it might be rolled out to the rest of the sites and we could get more people doing reviews here too.
 
user41796
yes, that part would be goodness
 
user41796
it's kind of rare, but I'm starting to see a few questions where I can't tell if they're just weird or just wrong.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
I take it reviews are what GlenH7 was doing when he said my first question was too vague?
2
Q: Facebook authentication with an Authoritative Server for a Flash Game

Kody ManharthI'm working on a multiplatform game in Flash. This game utilizes Photon Server for authoritative physics and user statistics tracking. I'm looking to leverage Facebook authentication as an alternative to creating a domain specific account. I'm curious if I can use the Flash SDK for Facebook to in...

authentication flash facebook oauth
 
user41796
4:20 PM
@KodyManharth I don't recall if I was rolling through the review queues or skimming new questions on that one. IIRC there was one close vote already in place on your question before I placed (and retracted) mine. So perhaps it was from the review queue.
 
user41796
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Okay, that adds quite a bit of context to MichealT's proposal. I'll have to brush up on this stuff once I'm a bit closer to using it.
It's a seems to be a very effective form of peer-review if you ask the guy who knows nothing about it.
 
user41796
@KodyManharth The image above is from P.SE's close review queue. SO's close review queue is the primary focus of all the MSO hand-wringing. The queue cleared 100k questions needing review and SE is looking at ways to get things reviewed more quickly.
 
user41796
That's part of the reason why 5 community votes are required to close a question. It's a peer review saying "nope, this question just isn't going to work as is." Edits to salvage a question are always encouraged, but a lot of the time it can't be done without the OP's involvement.
 
user55340
@KodyManharth Hmm? What proposal? (getting back in to chat after finishing up an answer...)
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
4:28 PM
@MichaelT The pie-chart filtering system for the close review queue.
 
user55340
Ahh... that. Yep. Though I'm fairly sure we could use help on our queue here from time to time too.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@GlenH7 That simple suggestion helped me quite a bit with forming my next question. From what I could tell I got it right from the start.
 
user41796
@MichaelT I think ours would easily be contained by doubling the allotted # of close votes for us.
 
user55340
We've got 70 questions in the queue at the moment... thats 70 questions that either need to be closed, could be migrated, or should move out of limbo.
 
user55340
@GlenH7 I typically see < 20 because they're all reviewed.
 
user55340
4:30 PM
Right now, I see 19.
 
user55340
I also believe that getting people to do reviews helps them feel more part of the community and responsible for the quality on the site.
 
user55340
4
Q: How to get more people doing reviews?

MichaelTWe're nowhere near the point of Stack Overflow with (at the time of this writing) 65.9k questions in the close queue. I've noticed an uptick in the queue of people flagging questions. In a batch of 20, I often see a question that is not an audit that has no votes on it - this is from a flag. T...

discussion review
 
user41796
@KodyManharth YW and I'm glad it helped. Everyone would much rather see constructive questions than to just close things off. Yours was right at the edge, and it was nice to see it be brought back into the fold.
 
user41796
@MichaelT That's a good point. Queue volume has been down since the recent purging campaign came to a close.
 
user55340
@GlenH7 Well, its more a thing of "I've reviewed 50 questions that are still in limbo" - that moving out of limbo is a necessary step.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
4:34 PM
@MichaelT I think that is my favorite part of this site, I feel involved. Even if I've only be actively using it for a week.
 
user55340
They are either poor questions that need to get fixed (and faster feedback is better), or migrated (and given a chance to be answered on SO), or well, out of limbo.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
4:48 PM
0
Q: How are algorithms developed?

2013AskerI'm impressed with the efficiency of some algorithms and I noticed the way the problem is solved can be and/or appear really unintuitive. It may sound dumb, but I would like to know: How do the authors come up with amazing algorithms? Do they just keep thinking about the problem and end up wit...

algorithms
That's an amazing question if you ask me.
 
user41796
@KodyManharth erm, not quite. It's pretty vague and wishy-washy as evidenced by my answer. Great questions will have definite problems. "Wondering" type problems can be interesting, but they are rarely amazing. If the OP is asking about how "those problems" are identified to begin with, then that would be too broad of a question for the site.
 
user55340
If the question can be the subject of a book, or a college class - it a bit too broad. I had a class in theory of computing, and it touched on the problem domain... enough to show that it was huge.
 
user55340
Things like recognizing a FSA within the solution, or a context-free grammar hidden in there... and then you get to find the algorithm easy.
 
user55340
But people spend years and thesis papers on trying to figure out ways to shave off fractions of a power in O() for solving TSP almost optimally.
 
user55340
And those are algorithms too.
 
user55340
4:57 PM
Or you get into genetic programming... where you write the way for the code to determine its own algorithms.
 
user55340
 
user41796
I see what you did there, but there's a generalization process, a refinement process that your answer doesn't specifically address. This refinement process is where software patterns come from; it's the foundation of all creative endeavors. — Robert Harvey 7 mins ago
 
user41796
@RobertHarvey - curse you. Making me extend my FGITW answer into something more usable! :-)
 
user55340
@GlenH7 but we're not SO... its FGITE here.
 
user55340
@RobertHarvey btw, want to write some FRACTRAN?
 
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
4:59 PM
No thanks. :)
 
user55340
(and you should see what I did with that answer since your comment...)
 
user55340
While I admit I gloss over it, there's a relationship between FRACTRAN and the collatz conjecture and the halting problem... and also show how to go from FRACTRAN to a register machine (which is what BrainF is) and that they are equivalent.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
So a better question would be something like: What was the methodology was used when designing the binary search algorithm, once the mathematical proof was discovered?
 
user55340
@KodyManharth You might find inwap.com/pdp10/hbaker/hakmem/hakmem.html interesting... though the binary search is, trivial and obvious.
 
user55340
I'm fairly sure that as soon as you had the first sorted array, you had the binary search.
 
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey
5:02 PM
@MichaelT All you need now is to mention algorithmic optimization. :)
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@MichaelT Wasting 6 years of my own salary on an associates taught me that. Was just using it as an example.
I don't care who you are 6 years of "Who's code is it anyway?" reruns will make your mind segfault.
 
user55340
5:21 PM
... @GlenH7 though, one would argue that P.SE suggests the BCITE, though I'm not sure that's a problem (Biggest Canon In The East).
 
user41796
5:33 PM
@MichaelT Site mechanics can be odd. My algorithm answer (which was an off-the-cuff throwaway type thing) has garnered me 70 rep. My SOA answer from today hasn't seen any love whatsoever.
 
user41796
Of course, the SOA answer wasn't what the OP wanted to hear and bursts the little bubble that many SOAistas live in, but c'est la vie.
 
user55340
Its also what is popular... the algorithm question, if given the proper coercing could hit the collider. SOA... not so much.
 
user41796
it's only at 4 answers so far - so there's plenty of time to get on the collider train and ride the rep
 
user55340
Its also got 3x close votes on it, it will get closed before it hits.
 
user41796
possibly. Nah, probably.
 
user55340
5:37 PM
Btw, I need more close votes.
 
user41796
@MichaelT I have a few spare left
 
user55340
5:50 PM
@MichaelT - it's a use question, not a workflow question. — GlenH7 43 secs ago
 
user55340
@GlenH7 I know that... I was trying to get the OP to understand that... the Socratic method or some such thing like that.
 
user41796
So that's one of the close votes you needed... :-)
 
user55340
Yep.
 
user41796
I dropped mine on there
 
user41796
actually trying to answer the question too so I can get some SO rep
 
user55340
5:51 PM
The "up votes on P.SE migrate to SO, whee! Instant SO rep!"
 
user41796
0
A: TFS: Is adding another state that complex?

GlenH7For TFS 2010, adding a state can be done and yes, it's pretty easy if you use the TFS PowerTools. This MSDN blog entry provides quite a bit of detail for the Agile task board. And this blog entry also provides some step by step procedures to do so. So, with TFS 2010 and TFS Powertools, it's ...

 
user41796
^^^ Begging for future SO rep...
 
user41796
 
user41796
SE has failed us. /dev/null is supposed to be readable but with no guarantee of what you'll get back. I went to see if it existed as an easter egg before I asked on MP.SE for an official migration target of /dev/null.
 
user41796
6:09 PM
@MichaelT - it made it on to the collider. Currently @ 19.
 
user55340
6:21 PM
[sigh] Stack Exchange is not written in PHP. — The Grinch 20 hours ago
 
user41796
@MichaelT That Grinch... He's a real mean beast.
 
user55340
Ha! Ok, go poke at this MSO question for some chuckles....
 
user55340
3
Q: Destroy the combine

MichaelTThe tag combine is described as: Combining is the action of using different concepts or functions together to perform only one in the end. And well, its a bit of a mess. Everything from combining data sets to combining functions to... well, I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone tryi...

discussion status-completed burninate-request
 
user41796
enjoy the imaginary integers
 
user55340
I'm most amused by Shog's picture.
 
user41796
6:32 PM
he got some imaginary integers too
 
user41796
today's random tidbit: In silverlight, the tooltip service doesn't work if the control itself is not enabled.
 
Joe
Joe
Hello
Do any of you know where I can get reilable ruby hosting? If it's free, that will be a bonus
 
user41796
Not offhand. I only know of the gem, not the language.
 
Joe
Joe
I'm thinking of a VPS for now. All these cloud guys are just too expensive for small projects
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
It all depends on your requirements.
 
user41796
6:40 PM
@Joe AWS has micro servers that are free, IIRC
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth I'm trying to setup Gitlab for a remote set of people. OpenShift didn't work, so my next bet is to use a VPS where I will have root access.
@GlenH7 I've considered that too.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe Downside of that is most cheap VPS's aren't managed and things like security, server maintenance, and updates are going to be all on you.
@Joe The reason I bring that up they will likely be restrictive as well in terms of quotas, and a security incident could lead to those quotas being grossly exceeded.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth The system I'm using isn't a 'critical' app per say. I am just trying to get it off the ground for now. If it picks up, I'll move it over to something like Heroku.
@KodyManharth Like a server hack and turning it into a drone?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe Precisely. I'm just making sure you're aware of the possibility. My server ban about 300 CMS bots and IMAP bots a month. It's very low traffic, as well.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth If my system is running exclusively private, will I still face attacks as often as a public-facing site?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
6:51 PM
@Joe It depends quite a bit on the configured services. If you run mail, on any hosting companies of note's network, expect at least a few bots trying to gain access. For instance.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth I'll be running: GitLab which is similar to GitHub
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe I can't say if you'll be attacked directly or not, with that. I've never used it. Though in my experience mainstream services are a common target.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth They probably do have flaws in their code, but it is an open-source project, so I assume it has dealt with basic security measures that prevent common attacks.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe Anything that can lead to escalated privileges, denial of service, or theft, is a potential target.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth I am however pointing the service to a public domain, which may be the weak spot.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
6:57 PM
@Joe You can't stop everything, and you can't really predict anything. It's just something to be aware of, if you manage your own hosting.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Thanks for the feedback. It will at least give me a chance to be a sysadmin too, which I've always wanted to do.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe You're generally (every provider I've ever seen) liable for any security violations, and subsequent terms of service violations relating it, with non-managed hosting.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Liable how?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe If you VE is hacked, and attackers then install software with for instance which transmits pirated software. You are liable for the bandwidth, memory and CPU overages resulting from it. Though this depends heavily on the provider, as well.
fixed grammar/spelling.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth This is why I am going for a limited VPS that doesn't scale. Even if they try to cross a threshold, they won't be able to do so, and if they compromise the entire network, that is a company issue. I don't think it is possible to break through a VPS to get to the actual hardware layer, I could be severely mistaken though.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:03 PM
@Joe Just make sure to read the legal documentation with whoever you sign up with before you sign up.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Will do. Thanks again.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe No problem. Good luck with it.
@Joe Also, generally hosting would likely be an issue for one of the other stacks. It just happens to be a speciallity of mine.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Are you a sysadmin?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe I do a bit of everything, Linux system and network administration being one of them. I've run a server, and I've ran into this specific situation before.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Was it a dedicated server?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:09 PM
@Joe No, it was a VPS.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth How did the company react?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe I was running it for myself. I caught this incident before it became a monetary issue. But, I also saw it happening in real time. I was also on a 95th percentile plan so the spike didn't cause an overage.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth Were they attacking a website on the VPS?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe I'm not willing to speak on that topic, nor would it help you now. Any piece of software is potentially vulnerable to exploit.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth That's true.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:17 PM
@Joe The key is to be aware of the implications, and you personal responsibility in relation to them.
 
Joe
Joe
@KodyManharth I will read over the legal documents for each company I consider. This advice is definitely something I needed to know before jumping into the VPS thing
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Joe Glad, I could help. However, I need to get back to coding now.
 
user55340
7:37 PM
Hmm... I appear to have started a new style on MSO burinate requests - including a sample list of egregious offenders of meta tag use.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@MichaelT I take it this is you indirect doing:
7
Q: Burninate the [required] tag

bluefeetThe required has no tag wiki to it and it seems like a meta tag considering items tagged with it alone couldn't stand on its own. Just a sample of what this tag contains: Is QuickBooks sdk necessary on Client machine to establish connection with QuickBooks desktop? How to change my validation...

discussion burninate-request
 
user55340
@KodyManharth Notice the "Just a sample of what this tag contains:"
 
user55340
And compare it to the style of:
 
user55340
7
Q: Destroy the combine

MichaelTThe tag combine is described as: Combining is the action of using different concepts or functions together to perform only one in the end. And well, its a bit of a mess. Everything from combining data sets to combining functions to... well, I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone tryi...

discussion status-completed burninate-request
 
user55340
I looked at the history of them and haven't seen the example usage on any of the last 25 burinate requests.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:48 PM
@MichaelT I think yours is much more entertaining. Though they do have quit a bit in common.
 
user55340
Entertainment is key to getting eyeballs which is useful for MSO rep and getting it acted upon.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@MichaelT Yeah... I got some (I assume unwanted) attention earlier, earned three star from one person with an off-topic conversation.
@MichaelT Couldn't clean those up by chance could you?
 
user41796
@KodyManharth link?
 
user55340
@KodyManharth clean those up by chance? Removing the tags by hand you mean?
 
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange
Blog - Stack Exchange: A New Top Bar for Stack Exchange
David Fullerton on December 04, 2013

The top bar of a Stack Exchange site has always been a bit of an odd place. It somehow combines user info, navigation, search, and a one-size-fits-all popup that includes hot network questions, a list of 100+ Stack Exchange sites, personal inbox messages, and other system notifications (lovingly referred to as The StackExchange™ MultiCollider SuperDropdown™).

It was, in retrospect, overdue for a face-lift which is why we’re excited to roll out a new top bar this week.

So, in the redesigned top bar, we wanted to make sure that it would look the same across all sites, and make it obvious that you’ …

 
user41796
7:51 PM
If it's in this room, either MichaelT or I can clear the stars on a comment
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@MichaelT No, it was about 30 minutes ago in this room.
 
user55340
Stars are 'no big thing' here. They show up often.
 
user55340
Nov 26 at 21:52, by psr
stop pinning everything!!!
 
user55340
That got 6 stars.
 
user55340
As did...
 
user55340
7:52 PM
Nov 22 at 22:00, by Robert Harvey
Sheesh. You guys will star anything.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
They were well off topic.
 
user55340
Topic here wanders... significantly.
 
user41796
I got the other two
 
user41796
@KodyManharth - stars in chat mean ... nothing. And we've had some really odd ones creep up. I have already cleared two of the three
 
user41796
Would have gotten the third, but I clicked the wrong spot.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:54 PM
The legal ramifications of running an un-managed VPS are hardly "Programmers" material.
 
user55340
Beer and monads are.
 
user41796
@KodyManharth oh, they're actually more constructive than some of the other things we've chatted about in here. But I understand the concern of having your name associated with perceived advice
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Beer yes, no idea what monads are. They sound dirty.
2
 
user41796
See, that sort of comment is pinnable.
 
user41796
'cause that's downright hilarious
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
7:57 PM
@GlenH7 Yeah, I don't want to be in trouble a week in.
 
user41796
The Functional Folk aren't currently in the room. But the worst they would do to you is explain what a monad is.
 
user41796
Not sure I can think of too many things worse than that though. So just as well they're not here.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Yeah I read the first few lines of the wiki page and felt dumb. I'm pretty sure I've had enough of that for one day.
 
user55340
I pretend to be functional at times.
 
user41796
@MichaelT I gave up. Too much effort managing state.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
8:00 PM
Stop mocking my tests!
 
user55340
I slipped some FP in...
 
user55340
2
A: Sorting an array of numbers with decimal places

MichaelTDepending on how large of an array you are working with you may wish to apply the functional programming "decorate sort undecorate" pattern (which is a form of memoization). Constantly splitting the string into parts getting its length and then discarding the data can be inefficient, after all, ...

 
user41796
@KodyManharth - have you played with Azure much? Near as I can tell, VMs can change their image size on the fly.
 
user41796
raises the possibility of some crazy scripting & cost management routines
 
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
Forgive me for barging in here and posting a quick question, but ... this answer says that "GitHub is NOT a version control -- it "hosts" the version control system called "Git". Aside from the pun, this is a very important difference" <-- what pun am I missing?
 
user55340
8:02 PM
Git / Get
 
user41796
I haven't put it to the test though, but the administration panel appeared to make it seem like it would work.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@GlenH7 I'm looking at it for a deployment platform later in this project.
 
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
@MichaelT ah, like "getfirefox.com" and the like? Thanks, that was not obvious to me :)
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
But yeah same boat at the moment. Too pricey to be feasible until the testing phase when I have the option to run a local development server.
 
user55340
Then there's also...
 
user55340
8:04 PM
Git (slang)
Git is mild profanity with origins in British English for a silly, incompetent, stupid, annoying, senile elderly or childish person. It is usually an insult, more severe than ' or idiot but less severe than wanker, arsehole or twat. The word git first appeared in print in 1946, but is undoubtedly older. It is originally an alteration of the word get, dating back to the 14th century. A shortening of beget, get insinuates that the recipient is someone's misbegotten offspring and therefore a bastard. In parts of northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland get is still used in prefere...
 
user41796
There's a couple of more alternatives with that pun. "Git" is British slang for someone who is worthless. "Git" is US Southern slang for "get out" or "get going"
 
user41796
@MichaelT I hate your google-fu
 
user41796
@KodyManharth agreed on the pricing. Fortunately, I have an MSDN subscription so I get a recurring monthly allowance.
 
user55340
> The word was used self-deprecatingly by Linus Torvalds in naming the git source control package.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Yeah it makes me wish I had a real, non-self-employed job.
 
user41796
8:06 PM
@KodyManharth Based upon your profile, I would imagine there ought to be a number of jobs available in your area
 
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
whoa, that name has layers. Thanks!
 
user41796
@TorbenGundtofte-Bruun and if you look at the user who made that statement: "greengit" also has a number of levels of punnery within their username.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@GlenH7 I'm in this odd place where I feel like if I actually sit down and finish this project, I'd be much happier for it. But I better do it fast or I'm going to be very hungry in the future.
 
user41796
Hungry can be good, as can be fear of hunger. We need things to help keep us motivated and moving forward.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
I only finished my Associates three months ago. Took a hiatus to decompress after six years of trivial hoop-jumping and well... being hungry.
 
user41796
8:10 PM
[cue Captain Obvious] Not all Uni's are the same. Some have great programs; others have crap programs. You're not going to get along with all of your profs either. Find the ones you can work well with and maximize those interactions.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
I paid my way through college with a combination of freelance web design, manual labor, and free software. Until last year when I qualified for Pell and Loans.
 
user41796
@KodyManharth Not that you asked for it - but my advice would be to polish up a personal project and use that as your portfolio when you go to interview for jobs. Demonstrating you can code is a key part of the interviewing process.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
This project is meant to be just that. It's also unique enough I might be able to release it as a real product as well. I also have a data-driven, scripted, network command processing engine I could use too.
C# + EF + Integrated C# scripting = headache.
 
user41796
@KodyManharth Look up Kathleen Dollard. She writes / blogs a lot in the EF sphere and has tackled a wide range of really weird problems.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
I like her already.
I actually wrote something along the lines of:
Well in the inverse, anyway.
 
user41796
8:33 PM
@MichaelT - here's another collider question
 
user41796
3
Q: How necessary is it to follow defensive programming practices for code that will never be made publicly available?

codebreakerI'm writing a Java implementation of a card game, so I created a special type of Collection I'm calling a Zone. All modification methods of Java's Collection are unsupported, but there's a method in the Zone API, move(Zone, Card), which moves a Card from the given Zone to itself (accomplished by...

java data-structures api-design
 
user55340
@GlenH7 Yea... I'm half thinking about it.
 
user41796
join in. It's at least 10 free imaginary points for you
 
user41796
And I would welcome feedback to refine my answer
 
user41796
@KodyManharth And if you can catch any of the conferences she is speaking at, she's a great presenter. I think one of her current pet projects is ramping up the quality of logging within the C# realm.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
8:40 PM
@GlenH7 Don't get me started on C# logging.
Also what's the collider?
 
user20683
@KodyManharth The thing that determines which questions are hot and gives gnat epileptic fits.
 
user41796
@WorldEngineer You said that so much better than I was going to
 
user41796
I'm a bit surprised you didn't throw an answer on the fire before / after your edit
 
user20683
@GlenH7 defensive programming?
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Yeah that made me giggle. And thanks.
 
user20683
8:41 PM
oh
 
user20683
not talking to me
 
user20683
:)
 
user41796
yes, the DP question. You tweaked the title.
 
user41796
 
user41796
click on the little chevron drop down thingy and you'll see a list of hot questions across all of SE.
 
user41796
8:48 PM
And we've got two on the collider now. The algorithms question and the DP question. WooHoo.
 
user55340
Simpler - just go to this page: stackexchange.com/questions
 
user55340
It shows up in a number of places (drop down on old menu bar style, right hand side on new menu bar style, that page itself)
 
user41796
9:06 PM
And.... there goes my last close vote for the day
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Googles Pokemon Exception Handling instantly
 
user55340
@KodyManharth Gotta catch() them all.
 
user41796
It might help if I knew how to play Pokemon, but I'm pretty certain my conclusion about the question will remain the same.
 
user55340
Thus, catch(Exception ex) { ... } which catches all the exceptions, even the ones that you didn't wan to.
 
user20683
@MichaelT self.assertIn(catch, all(pokemon))
 
user55340
9:14 PM
 
user55340
9:41 PM
(some period later...) guys? did you get stuck in that link?
 
user41796
huh, wat?
 
user55340
TV Tropes is a site that you can just keep clicking through...
 
user41796
trying to bang out some code today. C# and services are giving me fits.
 
user41796
Contrary to what the advertisements say, I was able to stop at just one.
 
user55340
Oh, gotta catch them all, well thats a plot coupon? Whats that? Oh, that's neat... hmm, a cosmic keystone... in final fantasy... which has the too big sword...
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
9:44 PM
@MichaelT TVTropes is awesome. I use it to do design insanely tropic D&D adventures for my new player group.
 
user55340
@WorldEngineer as long as it stays there.
 
user41796
@MichaelT - you'll appreciate this story. Got an email from previous employer. The servers backing the virtual environment I had setup have crashed. So now they're going off of vague memories of how things were set up. They were asking for help in recreating things.
 
user41796
And yes, I had made sure backups were running on the servers as part of my setup work. Why they don't have those anymore is beyond me.
 
Mike
Mike
Going off vague memories of what was said and how things were setup is a way of life at my employer. Who needs to think ahead when you can solve the immediate problem?
 
user55340
Heh... did I tell you about the advertisement mixing pc's at the stores?
 
user41796
9:48 PM
@Mike I can't go into details, but with the number of regulations that rest of the environment was subjected to, I'm a bit dumbstruck.
 
user41796
@MichaelT Was that the mixup if you bought a particular combination of items jacking up the sales total?
 
user55340
Nope... though I'm still curious how that day went this year....
 
user55340
No, the last thing I worked on before I left was moving a rather simple C (not C++ - you've gotta do your mallocs()) program to use some different 3rd party programs.
 
user41796
@MichaelT oh.... yucky. Leave well enough alone.
 
user55340
This was a very VERY old Dell box before that ran an ancient version of linux. They wanted to be able to use newer (as in made in 2003) boxes for it because they were having trouble finding refurbished parts for something made in the late 90's.
 
user41796
9:51 PM
mind you, I like hunting down race conditions due to the intellectual exercise it involves.
 
Mike
Mike
@GlenH7 I'd kill for some regulations. I had to fight to convince my employer that they did indeed need to have people signing credit cards. Heck CVV2 data was in plain text in html reports on public windows shares. Did I mention these shares were accessible from our WEP protected wireless network?
 
user55340
So they pulled out some newer boxes, installed RedHat on it. Oh the joys we had... could get it to crash HARD (to the point where it needed to be reinstalled) while doing development on it.
 
user41796
@MichaelT that's .... priceless. I wish I could share my similar war stories.
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
@Mike Even I know that's outright embarrassing.
 
user41796
@Mike erm, sorry. I'm looking at your profile to see what sites to avoid now
 
user55340
9:52 PM
It used a different sound system in the kernel, so needed different programs to play mpg's (the old one wouldn't even compile under the current libs)... etc... Oh, and they put on a third party deployment tool on it too.
 
user55340
I got it working and in the stores the week before I left.
 
user41796
@MichaelT you almost nailed it then - the consultant adage is to roll-off before roll-out.
 
user55340
(had to do all testing at 10pm - the year before when I worked with it, they pushed it to the stores with all the config files... the config in the lab had very small tinny speakers in a whitenoise rich enviroment... had the volume set at 100. Stores have a PA system... the volume is at 20.)
 
user55340
The first time they tested that back then... picture the jingle of my former employer playing at FULL VOLUME in the store PA system.
 
user41796
I'm dying from laughter at the moment
 
user55340
9:55 PM
The GM ran to the room and yanked out the power cord on the device and then called up the guy who pushed the software with a lot of short words on the phone... this was at like 1pm - not 10pm. So there were customers in the store at the time.
 
user55340
So I refused to do any deployments for this while the store was open.
 
user41796
@Mike on a more practical note, I thought most folk dealing with CC info were required to be PCI DSS compliant.
 
user41796
@MichaelT can't say I blame ya. Not worth the stress that close to shipping out.
 
user55340
Anyways... about 3 months after I've left, a former cow-orker emails me and says "the machines apparently are crashing for some reason". I'm blaming some combination of the new OS, the new sound libraries and that deployment software. All I did was change some strings and figure out what the proper arguments were.
 
user55340
@GlenH7 Depends on size of vendor and how much they want to get that percentage down.
 
user41796
9:57 PM
@MichaelT maintenance reboot required....
 
user55340
Most of them just say "we're using third party software and not storying any CC data, 3rd party software sales said it passed your validation"
 
user41796
@MichaelT liability shifting statement required
 
Mike
Mike
@GlenH7 You are 100% correct. The sad fact of PCI DSS is nobody ever checks if you are or aren't compliant until there's an issue. Their card processor happily allowed them to process for years without even mentioning it (not that it is the processor's job).
 
user55340
@GlenH7 Possibly.. bet that's what they're doing now. The thing is to fix it... its either get the infrastructure team that refuses to be helpful to help, or find someone who knows old school C... neither are likely.
 
user41796
@MichaelT I like old school C. But I'm pretty sure I'll never apply with your former employer
 
user55340
10:00 PM
@Mike Having gone through a PCI "audit" - there are two types. One type is good, they sneak in and stick a wifi device on your printer and tap in from the parking lot and see what they can get at. The other... well, they ran a web scanning audit program against a stand alone java app and expected us to fix things like "it opens a file".
 
user41796
@Mike I'm all too familiar with that game, albeit in slightly different flavors.
 
user55340
We had to go through 1000 "violations" and explain "this is a stand alone program. It is opening a port to ensure that another copy of the program is not running on the system. It is not a backdoor."
 
user41796
Dude. Uncool to be coding backdoors into your standalone applications. :-D
 
user41796
Main has been invaded with the black bar.
 
user55340
It was a web checker. They were looking for cross site scripting issues in a 1M LOC program.
 
user55340
10:04 PM
We had to repeatedly tell them "no, this variable is sanitized, we can do a query that way"... sigh
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
That's got to be irksome.
 
user41796
Clearly they saw right through that flimsy explanation
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
My reaction would be here's an NDA and the code. Have fun boys.
 
user55340
They didn't even glance at what we were doing with credit card data itself. That was the frustrating part.
 
user41796
In an audit, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent.
 
user55340
10:06 PM
We actually had fixed a number of security holes in the original software... and if I ever see that software running on a machine at not my former employer... I'm paying cash.
 
Mike
Mike
We did a remote scan but it was all but useless. Firewall + NAT meant pretty much everything was hidden from the internet. Sadly even the best firewall is useless when you leave printed copies of card information on your front counter and walk away. We have amazingly honest customers.
 
psr
psr
@MichaelT My last security audit was the second type. The IT department at a client ran some kind of web site security checker they had bought, then dumped random sections of its output into a file and asked us to fix them. The problem was, they didn't know what the items meant - but wouldn't admit it.
 
user55340
(previous software, logged CC numbers across the wire to the server at debug level, even if the server wasn't listening. EJB access to get a jdbc Connection object. Yep, connection to the database, what price do you want that to be?)
 
user55340
Oh, that EJB connection wasn't password protected or anything either... sigh
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Remind me to never work somewhere that I have to worry about credit cards.
 
user55340
10:10 PM
(yea, don't need that sitting around in the chat transcript...)
 
Mike
Mike
It's already burned into my memory and I'm more than willing to sell the information to the highest bidder.
 
psr
psr
They finally got caught out on a conference call with some of their company's higher-ups on the line realizing they just didn't understand what I was asking them. But they were the ones who insisted the conference call happen, so, no real way to get them out of it.
@MichaelT indeed
 
user55340
We had a conference call with the auditors, the manager, director, and CIO about the audit results and explained each of the overall categories... and then explained again to the CIO after the call that we can give a better assurance of quality than the auditors by looking at the changes we've done.
 
Mike
Mike
@psr I feel your pain. We're looking to switch phone services at the moment and our "sales rep" who "reps everybody in the area" knows nothing of the product we are interested in yet the boss insists we buy through them. I'm having to call the vendor directly to get answers to questions to then turn around and ask the rep for a quote instead of going directly through the vendor.
I'm pretty sure I need a new job actually. Maybe it's time to hit careers.stackoverflow.com
 
psr
psr
@MichaelT At least your company was (apparently) the one deciding what to do with the audit results. It's really hard if the auditor has some authority over you and really isn't willing or able to be reasonable.
 
user55340
10:14 PM
@psr It was more just a reassure the CIO that we won't have trouble with a real audit.
 
user55340
If it was a real auditor rather than some cut rate out sourced "run a static analysis", they'd have other problems (though not with the code).
 
psr
psr
@MichaelT Imagine if those guys did the "real" audit.
You really can't prove your system is secure.
 
user55340
@psr Its things like "dev and production support by same people on same machine, developers knowing production info, developers knowing encryption key generation algorithm, infrastructure behind on patching..."
 
Mike
Mike
@psr good quote
 
user55340
Oh, patching... the week or so before I left, infrastructure put a patch out on the registers. When looking at our logs (not designed to do it, it was the failover logs that just happened to be running and recorded all timeings of EJBs) you could see some calls being 15 ms, some being 30 ms, and some being 100 ms....
 
user55340
10:18 PM
After the patch the calls were 150 ms, 300 ms, and 1000 ms. That was quite noticeable... and we tracked it down to the patches that infrastructure didn't test.
 
psr
psr
@MichaelT In their defense, the calls still worked correctly eventually.
 
user55340
@psr Yep. But when you're waiting a minute for the receipt to print rather than 6 seconds...
 
Mike
Mike
We have some old thermal printers that you have to literally smack about ever 5-10 labels to get them to continue printing. I think it's the optical sensors or something.
 
user55340
Btw, just want to point out and say thank you for the edit on this answer to the poster (once explained the quality expected)...
 
user55340
1
A: best way to send messages to all subscribers with multiple subscriptions and multiple providers

user2390183Hope you are not looking for a platform specific solution If so, your requirement highlights a pub/sub pattern. I handled the same using RabbitMQ which has specific support for Pub/Sub scenario. Without going in to in depth details, to give you an idea on RabbitMQ's pub/sub model It has somet...

 
psr
psr
10:21 PM
@MichaelT That's retail's problem. They should be so friendly that the customer is looking for an excuse to talk to them longer anyway.
 
user55340
 
Mike
Mike
I love the note on the revision "Added details as per comment"
Just noticed the new black bar at the top of the site as well. Nice.
 
user55340
There was a minor riot on MSO about it going to SO earlier.
 
Mike
Mike
35
Q: Is anyone else personally terrified of the new bar at the top?

GHarpingIt's just that the children are worried and so am I. Is it safe?

support user-interface top-bar
 
user55340
33
A: Is anyone else personally terrified of the new bar at the top?

Shog9I used to laugh at people like you. "Timid souls!" I mockingly exclaimed, "No doubt they tremble at their own shadows as well!" My first introduction to the new top bar came some time ago, when Professor Tunnell left some hastily-drawn sketches laying around in his laboratory. Casually drawn, th...

 
enderland
enderland
10:28 PM
rabble rabble rabble
 
user55340
Who let in the robbler?
 
enderland
enderland
☻/
/▌
/\
 
user55340
Figures... Bob. Microsoft Bob. With the happy face.
 
enderland
enderland
ALWAYS happy over here! I just can't help my smiley cheery face!
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Wow I leave for 5 minutes for a muffin and a soda, my bar at the top is different, Microsoft wants to give me free certification training and an exam voucher, and I can comment on stuff now.
 
user55340
10:33 PM
@enderland We need to introduce you to MUMPS... or maybe the version that could get @JimmyHoffa to code in it... C#HUMPS (C# and Haskell implementations).
 
Mike
Mike
"MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, later: 'Multi-User Multi-Programming System') or alternatively M"
Somebody worked very hard at that acronym on the first go around.
 
enderland
enderland
a hospital of all places did that? wat
 
Mike
Mike
All of the following positions can be, and have been, supported by knowledgeable people at various times: The language's name became M in 1993 when the M Technology Association adopted it. The name became M on December 8, 1995 with the approval of ANSI X11.1-1995 Both M and MUMPS are officially accepted names. M is only an "alternate name" or "nickname" for the language, and MUMPS is still the official name.
 
user55340
MUMPS
MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, later: 'Multi-User Multi-Programming System') or alternatively M, is a general-purpose computer programming language that provides ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, and Durable) transaction processing. Its most unique and differentiating feature is its "built-in" database, enabling high-level access to disk storage using simple symbolic program variables (subscripted arrays), similar to the variables used by most languages to access main memory. The M database is a key-value database engine optimized for high-thro...
 
user55340
Valid code:
 
user55340
10:38 PM
GREPTHIS()
       N S,N,T,I,K,Q S I="K",S="11",K="l1",Q="R",T="K"
       I I=T D T
       Q:$Q Q Q
T  I I,S&K S S=S+K Q
 
Mike
Mike
The verbatim version of the last line made me chuckle: THEN IF IF,SET&KILL SET SET=SET+KILL QUIT
 
user55340
> Abbreviation: You can abbreviate nearly all commands and native functions to one, two, or three characters.
Reserved words: None. Since MUMPS interprets source code by context, there is no need for reserved words. You may use the names of language commands as variables.
 
Mike
Mike
also: QUIT:$QUIT QUIT QUIT ; (quit)
wonder what the line does
 
user55340
(we tease @psr about being a MUMPS programmer...)
 
user55340
Heh...
 
user55340
10:41 PM
6
A: I can't find the logout button!

WernerThis is available under the "Site Switch" menu:

 
user55340
(score +6/-0)
 
user55340
-1 your circle isn't freehand. — MichaelT 5 mins ago
 
user55340
(score: +6)
 
Mike
Mike
plot twist, it is freehand, he's just that good
 
user20683
@Mike Da Vinci was that good
 
user55340
10:43 PM
Only Jon Skeet is that good... and that guy from MIT.
 
user55340
 
Mike
Mike
was just about to look for that video
hmmm, different video actually, let me see
 
Kody Manharth
Kody Manharth
Wow is that special chalk or something?
 
user55340
Nope, regular chalk. Years of practice.
 
enderland
enderland
that's incredible
lol
 
user55340
10:47 PM
Heh - read the comments on that answer now - meta.stackoverflow.com/a/210018/213963
 
enderland
enderland
sound effects are great
 
user55340
(he changed the image to be a freehand red circle... with drop shadow!)
 
Mike
Mike
Tempted to comment "-1 circle looks weird"
www.wimp.com/ostrichdrops/
hilarious video, might want to turn down your speakers, has nothing at all to do with programming
 
00:00 - 23:0023:00 - 00:00

« first day (1188 days earlier)      last day (3796 days later) »