The Whiteboard

iBrazilian

02:50

I've been programming with PHP for a 1-2 years now, I'd like to move onto something more in a career path, I've been getting interested in windows apps ( project I'm going to be working on is web based ), I'm unsure where to start on which programming language I should learn next, for windows I've been looking at c#, any suggestions?

Matt D

04:20

c# is fine

iBrazilian

06:02

@MattD isn't c# considered a heavy weight language? learning c#, has good benefits in a career path as well? If c# wasn't suggested, what other programming language would you guys suggest?

Matt D

06:13

languages are like discussing different types of screwdrivers

as long as the screwdiver is designed to be held the same way

and has the same effect on screws

you just pick the right one for the screw you're trying to tighten (or loosen)

point being. language is just syntax.

as long as you're operating in the same paradigm, then its just the same shit you were doing before with different syntax

the advantage of c# is that it has very good tools, that are free. there's a lot of documentation on MSDN and other places, it's widely used and wont assume you actually know what you're doing (like c/c++)

anyway. the point of my rambling is a good programmer understands how to program, she doesnt just understand how to use one language ;)

gnat

10:09

5

Q: Need guidance on editing "Defending against PHP and SQL injection for a PHP beginner" for reopening or migrating to Programmers

I recently asked the question "Defending against PHP and SQL injection for a PHP beginner", which has been closed as too broad. I'd like to edit the question so that it can be reopened and/or have it migrated to Programmers Stack Exchange. What is the best way to go about doing this, and does i...

user41796

13:35

@Ampt - From what I remember when I was at Marquette, MWSE has always been a solid engineering school. Good academics without the overhead cost of some of the Universities carry.

user41796

@Ampt - IIRC, IBM builds their supercomputers at their Rochester plant. I remember seeing one that they were in the process of stress testing prior to shipping it out. I don't think it was RoadRunner, but it would have been around that timeframe. I wouldn't imagine that they advertise the positions in an obvious way. More likely that they simply reference system assemblers for the role. And I'm doubtful they let new hires work on those projects ...

user41796

... they have a number of experienced assemblers available. And there's a bit of a cachet behind putting those systems together, so it's not like they'd go wanting for applicants. (Sorry to burst balloons)

user41796

After digging a bit more, I think it was a Blue Gene/L or a BlueGene/P that I saw.

user55340

14:05

@RobertDodier Without digging to far into it yet...

user55340

75

Q: Rest clients for Java?

With JSR 311 and it's implementations we have a powerful standard for exposing Java objects via Rest. However on the client side there seems to be something missing that is comparable to Apache Axis for SOAP - something that hides the web service and marshals the data transparently back to Java o...

java rest client

gnat

@Won't quite a pity that vast majority of flaggers are not aware of your opinion. A feature-request? "At comment flagging dialog, add a note for 'too chatty' option: Warning! this may be declined because some believe that this flag is worthless" — gnat 1 min ago

Ampt

@GlenH7 Damnit glen, now you're breaking my hopes and dreams. Surely theres a place for a rookie engineer like myself in there somewhere?

user55340

@Ampt They're worried the newbies would drool on it...

user41796

@Ampt "Sorry" If you really wanted to put one together, your best bet is to push for one within one of your classes or projects at school. IIRC beowulf clusters grew out of a Uni environment (and budget). With today's commercial availability of previously esoteric cooling technologies, you could make an argument for building out a cluster

user41796

14:17

I believe Facebook has released their server specs as open source designs, and they are bare, bare, bare bones systems designed for clustering

user41796

Pitch it as a new twist on "old" technique to reinvent state-of-the-art

user55340

Long ago, at the UPL, we built a cluster. It wasn't big... a couple of pentium linux boxes running beowulf cluster. The theme of the lab's naming was Star Trek - so the cluster was named '1 of 9', '2 of 9'. Of course, '7 of 9' was the 'main' one.

user41796

Oh, and I think the Rochester plant is a union shop which is a bit unusual for IBM. But I think all the folk who assemble and work the warehouse floors are union. So that's also going to impact your ability to get in for a short term stint.

Thomas Owens

@MichaelT References to Star Trek: Voyager are now "long ago"?

2

user55340

@ThomasOwens '95 to '01. Season four was '99 then... and yea, that was so last millenium.

user55340

14:22

It was more the 'pentiums' that made me think long ago than Voyager.

user55340

When I started in that lab... we had two machines. Kahn and Saavik. Saavik had a lower load because people couldn't remember how to spell the name. Later we got two Dec stations - Yar and Picard. Eventually, we were given a new HP of some sort. 'Dax' won out because of the shorter name.

user55340

(That, and 'cisco' would have really confused the networking guys... we also got a gatorbox (appletalk - ethernet gateway/router) that we named 'wormhole')

user55340

There were two old HP Bobkats that we got working again with fricking huge ~24" monitors (remember, CRT). Gowron and Duras... An old 3B1 sat in the corner named 'scotty'. We had fun naming machines.

user55340

AT&T UNIX PC

The 3B1 (also known as the PC7300, or Unix PC) was a Unix workstation computer originally developed by Convergent Technologies (later acquired by Unisys), and marketed by AT&T in the mid- to late-1980s. Despite the name, the 3B1 had little in common with AT&T's other 3B-series computers. Hardware configuration * 10 MHz Motorola MC68010 (16 bit external bus, 32 bit internal) with custom MMU * Internal MFM hard drive, originally 5 MB, later models with up to 67 MB * At least 512K RAM on main board, expandable via expansion cards * 3 expansion slots * Monochrome green phosphor monito...

Ampt

Lol, my uni would just laugh at me. Getting funds for projects around here is stupidly hard

user41796

14:32

@Ampt time to learn how to write a grant. :-)

Jimmy Hoffa

14:46

@GlenH7 At Microsoft's Virtual Earth team we had 3 semi trailers on cement piers in our parking lot filled end to end with cheap garbage 1Us, doing our imagery data processing (this was just for processing data from terrabyte disks filled by flyover cameras and drive-around cameras -> stitched together imagery + vectorized roads + data merged with map data etc for the site to serve). They did it exactly like you mention; mega barebones simple stupid machines for cheap replacement.

The real money went into the SAN for the data to be read from and written back to

Ampt

just housing servers in semis?

what?

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt Yep. Cheaper than building a real data center, just bought 3 semi trailers, put 'em on blocks, put enormous blowers on and voila, storage space for thousands of 1Us

user55340

Portable Modular Data Center

The Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) is a portable data center solution built into a standard 20, 40, or 53-foot intermodal container (shipping container) manufactured and marketed by IBM. IBM states that a PMDC cost 30% less to design and build than a traditional data center with cooling equipment. Portability The Portable Modular Data Center loaded with computer equipment can be transported using standard shipping methods. The PMDC is weather resistant and insulated, and can be placed in environments like tundra or the desert. See also *Shipping container architecture References ...

Jimmy Hoffa

I don't remember how many but I wanna say it was like 12k 1Us, maybe more...

was impressive how many they got into there

that's not one though, we had 3 (4? it was year ago, I don't recall..)

user55340

user55340

14:53

And a glimpse inside

Jimmy Hoffa

blogs.msdn.com/b/markbrown/archive/2008/04/19/…

user55340

Jimmy Hoffa

^--- that has pictures of one of the actual trailers

user55340

This is the inside of one of them (a data center in Iceland)

user55340

Jimmy Hoffa

14:55

You can see piers for more containers, that must be a picture from when they just got the first one up

user55340

Apparently Google does container computing...

user55340

Jimmy Hoffa

These weren't meant to be portable, just cheap way to get the data centers up quick using real estate they already owned (a parking lot)

gnat

Aug 5 at 17:45, by MichaelT

@gnat might want to tweak the link only DE query to find ones that have youtube in there as they are even less helpful than the typical link (many corporate networks block youtube and I really don't want to scan to 24:03 to find where the guy is talking about a given subject)

user55340

From news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html

gnat

14:56

@MichaelT I blatantly copied from above comment here, thank you!

would you mind explaining more on what it does and why do you recommend it as answering the question asked? "Link-only answers" are not quite welcome at Stack Exchange. Please also note that many corporate networks block youtube, making your answer useless for readers behind these — gnat 52 secs ago

user55340

@gnat No problem at all. And yea, that youtube... not blocked here but completely forbidden where I worked before.

user55340

> The company also revealed for the first time that since 2005, its data centers have been composed of standard shipping containers--each with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Interestingly the biggest problem is vibration; apparently the cement piers may not have been too wise, thousands of 1Us in a steel container has disk drives creating a large amount of vibrations, which the piers did not absorb, that's why they think we had an enormous drive failure rate (no big deal, we had lots of redundancy guarantees and CRC checks constantly throughout the data processing system)

Matt D

damn

can i borrow a few of those containers for a build system? ;)

hehe

i wonder if you'd get sympathetic harmonics with rubber supports

user55340

This is apparently what a google data center looks like..

user55340

15:06

user55340

And that quote back there was from 2009. I'm fairly sure they've improved it.

user55340

A patent application - appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/…

user55340

> A system includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units.

gnat

@MichaelT today, I discovered a "branch" in Roomba discussion that might be of interest to you:

your concern looks reasonable - accepted answers immunity feels indeed slippery to me. As explained in hotness formula post, "accepted answers are a fine social contract, but not a good data point for question or answer quality" - meaning it doesn't really indicate a valuable content. I can imagine this as sort of protection for new users who might need time to get rep for upvote privilege, fine - but even then, I can't see how keeping zero-score, unattended answers is justified for more than, say, a year — gnat 1 min ago

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT That's a cool ass idea. I can see it already: Google has submarine data centers. Sink them to the bottom of the ocean where it's nice and cool... replacing hard drives is however a bitch

user55340

15:17

@gnat Yea...

user55340

0

Q: recaptcha not showing on centos server

I use recaptcha for one of my pages. When deployed locally everything is working fine, but when deployed to the CentOS server the image is not rendered. I have the following in my application: $.getScript('http://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js', funct...

linux centos recaptcha iptables

user55340

And the answer...

user55340

-1

A: recaptcha not showing on centos server

So there was no technical problem, just that the recaptcha key I used was for a different domain...

user55340

(note self answered, and accepted - won't get roomba'ed)

user55340

@ThomasOwens another data point for the 'legal close reason'

user55340

15:20

0

Q: Is it legal to make 80s game clone and publish it?

Is it legal to make 80s game clone, Tetris for example, and publish it to Apple/Windows store as free or payed app?

legal

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa This is why SSDs are awesome

I'm just slowly counting down the months until ssd prices and hdd prices are the same

gnat

@MichaelT agree, that's a killer example. I am trying to figure MSO request to enhance Roomba for stuff like that, just can't yet figure how to keep that "sort of protection for new users who might need time to get rep for upvote privilege" mentioned in my comment

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt Yes, though in 2008 they were a bit more expensive, and if you count out that we stored data in the exabytes...

gnat

@JimmyHoffa vibration is a problem only because they forgot the history; there are tried and true ways to handle it :)

user55340

A query for 'self answered, self accepted, no other answers, net zero or worse'

Jimmy Hoffa

15:26

@gnat You're suggesting they used records instead of hard drives? I'm not certain what the data density is but I don't quite think they could have fit a big enough record in the trailers...

user55340

Basement of Chem and Physics buildings at the university they had some neat optical labs - where the lasers are isolated from vibrations of things like people walking around or wind blowing on the building.

Ampt

Yeah we have those at our school. They are essentially 5000 pound tables riding on air cushions, sitting on like 15 feet of concrete

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt hovercraft ftw

Ampt

(We built on top of an old nuclear physics lab that they overengineered because they had no clue how dangerous the stuff was)

@JimmyHoffa pretty much, yeah

gnat

@JimmyHoffa but of course! because these sound better. Warm, analogous data. Did I mention that they need tubes for even better results?

Ampt

15:30

@gnat they could just write it all down at that point :P

Jimmy Hoffa

@gnat I actually knew someone who was one of these nuts; got off ebay or somehow a hand full of old tubes, took a wood block off a 2x4, drilled holes and ran the wires through it, installed the tubes and a volume dial into the block of wood.

Of course didn't commit to sand, polish, varnish, or any other such with the wood

I recall being told all the tubes any more come out of the eastern block because they still have tons of the original electronics with them and just pull the tubes out and sell them

gnat

@JimmyHoffa I've been one of these nuts in the past (maybe I'll even get back to that madness one day)

speaking of dampening, my last amplifier before I quit audiophilia was SET. Taught me that lots of dampening isn't always better (for the sake of precision, speakers I used it with were very easy load). I am not certain yet how this translates to Stack Exchange; after all "speakers" here don't feel like an easy load :) — gnat Aug 6 at 23:58

@JimmyHoffa tubes from eastern block are just cheaper iirc

Jimmy Hoffa

Are they still made anywhere?

My understanding was basically no one makes them anymore, and if you do find someone making them they're probably insanely expensive because they have no competition

So perhaps that's why as you say, they're cheaper

@gnat Personally I just use a home-made tesla coil for all my amplification needs! It sounds...great... !

Ampt

15:46

@JimmyHoffa that's actually a thing. Electrostatic headphones

Seriously a thing. A very expensive thing.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt Not quite an amplifier though is it?

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa they require special amplifiers to run, yes

look at the connector on it

Jimmy Hoffa

I see the connector, but a tesla coil amplifier?

Going out on a limb here as I really don't know the basics of all this stuff, but I would think the spark gap would seriously screw the audio transmission up

Ampt

I believe the electrostatic headphones use the same principles of a tesla coil, (but I may be wrong)

They have no moving parts and the sound comes from creating electric fields across the plate

which I just assumed was the same sound that a tesla coil made

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 you're a real engineer, you figure it out; as we clearly don't know anything about electronic components

Ampt

15:55

Man, i love that we keep him around for these occasions

user55340

@GlenH7 just wait until the winter... I'll be asking @Ampt to plow my driveway.

Ampt

I think the plows have a minimum working width. How big is your driveway again?

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Based on his description of the hardware controller quality, do you really want that?

user55340

The bigger problem with 'plow my driveway' is the 'push all the snow up against the garrage'

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT they can plow backwards; just like a how a frontloader levels a plane

Ampt

15:58

@MichaelT shoot, you figured out my plan

user55340

Width is 1 car, though its on the side of a terrace that has quite a bit of room.

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa not usually, ours are made to go forward at like 45-65 mph

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt but the point is they could

user55340

Worked with a guy at previous employer who was a snow plow driver in Aspen once upon a time.

user55340

(and I cannot type 'plow' for some reason today)

Jimmy Hoffa

15:59

@MichaelT Those people are well loved, and it's pretty good work for the money

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa I'm honestly not sure they could. The plows are made specially for the scenarios we put them in, which doesn't include any reverse plowing

user55340

Tahoe has a restriction that you need a business permit to plow drive ways (too much money in it) - can't just get the kid to do it.

Ampt

well I'd just call up the DOT for where you live and have them dispatch a plow on a testing run. We do that for new equipment betas fairly often enough

whether or not the driver does a half ass job is out of my hands unfortunately

but I can say that you'll have plenty of salt on your driveway

user55340

And then there are the mountain road plow drivers (aspen was all in town - nothing more dangerous than an annoyed movie star)... where they've got GPS to help identify where the turn is and where the edge of the road above the canyon is.

Jimmy Hoffa

It's a common side-gig for anybody who wants to do it, they have their normal job and then they buy a big tough truck, add the plow and megatires, and go around to neighborhood shops and folks/HOAs, get a deal for pay to plow and then they get up at 3am through the winters, drive around drinking their coffee for a few hours plowing places, then show up at their normal job at 9

Ampt

16:01

@JimmyHoffa yeah, a lot of my friends from highschool ended up doing that on the side

good cash, but the hours suck

and theres not a lot of up room

user55340

The first year I was up here, I had a small, single stage snow blower...

user55340

See that big vertical? It couldn't handle it.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT How much does one of these cost?

Shoveling sucks, though I only have a one-car driveway...

user55340

@JimmyHoffa About $200 - I had to shovel that (full lot length - my garage is in the back).

user55340

16:06

The next year, I got a dual stage with electric start. Much happier.

Jimmy Hoffa

Ugh yeah that deserves a blower, though I'm thinking for $200 I'll just shovel it myself. My driveway's no real trouble

user55340

I've got a double lot - so I've got a LONG way to also go for the sidewalk.

user55340

And that was back when I couldn't be 6 min late for work.

Jimmy Hoffa

Besides, I don't want to give my kid an excuse. Another couple years and it's going to be his job just like it was mine growing up.

user55340

Thing was, the next year... didn't have much snow at all.

user55340

16:08

user55340

Parents house where I grew up - the driveway was 1/4 mile long. That was 'fun'.

user55340

(ug, that doesn't look like a fun meta post)

user55340

16:58

@gnat He modified the answer accordingly.

enderland

17:16

@gnat my bounty here expires in 23 hours...

43

Q: In hotness formula, discard answers when voting evidence indicates that these are not good data points

In current version of “hot” questions formula (Qanswers * Qscore) *, all answers are assumed to equally contribute to question "hotness score", including even those downvoted into oblivion. I suggest discarding answers when there is a strong evidence that these do not provide good data points fo...

feature-request voting stackexchange-button hot-questions answer-quality

user55340

17:38

I saw an @YannisRizos !

user41796

@MichaelT @YannisRizos is like someone famous. You always hear of them, but you never actually see them.

user41796

Thanks @RobertHarvey agree re yes/no. Unfortunately the stack exchange moderators will proactively close anything that is no worded as a yes/no - so we have to slot it into that format. — hawkeye 19 hours ago

user55340

►

user41796

made me laugh this morning when I read it. I was really tempted to add a comment about Robert being one of those evil, subjective-hating stack exchange moderators

user55340

Everybody's always looking for Jack
In the fire and in the water
Everybody's always looking for Jack
In the streets and on the corners

Yeah, even Jack is always looking for Jack
He's always in another room
And when I spoke to the woman there
She said, "He left this afternoon"

user55340

17:45

(incidentally, the song is about Jack Nicholson - articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-02-13/entertainment/… )

user55340

(whee, more legal questions). If we ever get an increase in the count of close reasons, the legal one would be a close contender for a not infrequently used one.

user41796

18:24

@MichaelT Thomas FTW

Thomas Owens

I just found my get-rich-quick scheme. Seven "Seven X Books" in Seven Weeks

However, I just need someone to write 3 more "Seven X in Seven Weeks" books. And then explain how to read all 7 in just 7 weeks.

user41796

@ThomasOwens sounds like that should be one of the 7 books

Thomas Owens

@GlenH7 It has to be the 8th. Because it's going to tell you how to read the 7 other ones.

user41796

perhaps it should be the 7th one for the irony of "here's how you read all 7 in 7 weeks" and it being the last one.

Thomas Owens

Oh.

Hm.

user41796

18:28

Well, an 8th book lets you charge more

user41796

or you could spin the PR campaign around it so you release the 8th book as the "secret" to understanding the blockbuster 7

Thomas Owens

Then, I could write an autobiography titled "How I Wrote "Seven "Seven X Books" in Seven Weeks" in Seven Weeks"". Because I'd write my first book in seven weeks.

user41796

ding!

Thomas Owens

And then, with all the money I made, I'd restart Horse_ebooks on Twitter.

user41796

and you could flood the forums with conspiracy theories about why so many 7s are involved. Including some errant links to rugby 7s teams just for volume

enderland

18:32

@ThomasOwens inseveneption

user41796

speaking of numerology, I'm at 662 flags right now. So I need to be careful when I submit the 4th additional flag and to follow it up immediately with a 5th.

Brant

19:08

Which, for reasons known to nobody, will be declined. As will the next. And the next. And thus it forever shall be, and the homework questions shall rain from the heavens forevermore.

user55340

@Brant We've already got that...

user55340

19:21

Can a turing machine be though of as a ugly CRUD app?

Brant

In the end, isn't everything a CRUD app?

user55340

@Brant That really is the question. Its just that the classic 'crud' app is obvious in what its doing.

user55340

@ThomasOwens More thoughts on the Voyager being "long ago" - see, if they were Star Wars references they would be "long ago in a galaxy far far away" - but Voyager is still within this galaxy. Maybe "Long ago in a distant future in a quadrant far far away..."

user55340

Btw, if anyone has some cv's to toss around a migrate on...

user55340

0

Q: git rebase and keep all child branches

I'm trying to import a CVS repository into git. Unfortunately, we've been using a really old method of creating releases from our CVS repo, that doesn't involve any actual CVS branches or tags, but keep that information in a separate system. Consequently, almost all of the development happens o...

git

user55340

19:27

Should head over to SO. Its a well written question, but its about tooling.

Yannis Rizos

Time to step into /tools and see if there are any pending delete votes. If you notice your reputation decreasing, it's probably my fault...

user55340

Ohh... haven't seen a good @YannisRizos delete vote cleanup in awhile.

user55340

(goes into /tools to watch the 'recently deleted' get updated)

user55340

@YannisRizos btw, programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/209517/… requires -1 more undeletes (thats negative one). Is that a bug? If so, can you fix it?

Yannis Rizos

@MichaelT Hm, did you try clicking undelete?

user55340

19:42

user55340

Yes, I've tried.

Yannis Rizos

That's what I expected. How, then, did those 4 undeletes sneak in?

Ampt

Magic.

Yannis Rizos

►

user55340

4

Q: Negative number of votes needed to undelete an answer

I know Will was using his answer to this question for testing, but I still think this is a bit odd: I tried voting to undelete, but it just gave me the "nice try puny mortal, this was deleted by a mod" error popup.

bug vote-to-undelete

user55340

19:46

(you see the -1 on the tools page)

Yannis Rizos

It's also in the tooltip if you hover over the undelete link

Is there any point in undeleting it? Seems a bit discussion-y, I don't see it getting re-opened.

On the other hand, I also see a re-open vote in there... Hm...

user55340

Thoughts there - there is a pending reopen from someone (though the OP did close it too...) There are not crazy thoughts in the question, and a reasonable answer that didn't get an upvote before the roomba.

Yannis Rizos

Also, overruling community feels gooood... (even if we are only talking about Community ♦). Undeleted.

user55340

(and an upvote on the answer before community gets out the roomba again)

user55340

For fun...

user55340

19:52

23

Q: Why is the Community user in a close war with a mod?

We have a closed question with 0 sum votes (+2/-2). It got deleted by the Community user. Fine. Then came along DoubleAA (a mod) and undeleted it. Then comes Community and deletes it a few hour later. This cycle is currently in its 20th iteration. Why is the Community user (a robot) fighting ...

bug status-bydesign moderation delete

user55340

Glance at the revision history...

user55340

judaism.stackexchange.com/posts/8920/revisions

Ampt

..... it knows.

user41796

20:11

@YannisRizos the re-open is mine. I did it to see if I could actually submit a reopen vote while a question was deleted. The answer is "yes, yes you can."

Yannis Rizos

Heh... Oh well, it's a decent question with a decent answer, I'm not deleting it again.

user41796

How does a 262 rep user vote to close on their own question?

Yannis Rizos

@GlenH7 programmers.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/view-close-votes

At 250, you can vtc your own questions.

user41796

I didn't know that. Maybe it's also because I didn't ask a question until I was way past that point

user41796

Too bad the OP gave in to peer pressure and voted to close

Thomas Owens

20:31

I've VTC old SO questions as off-topic or not constructive.

And then I wait.

user41796

It would be interesting to see how many questions just age out of the SO close review queue because of the massive backlog

user41796

There's 81.4k questions needing review in the queue. And only ~2500 reviews today. Seems like it will be a loooooong time before the back of the queue will see the light of day

user55340

Ok... that's neat - rockpaperrobot.com

user55340

A coffee table made out of an array of wood cubes that have embedded magnets in it such that the magnets are repelling each other. The wires in the table are to hold it together.

user55340

@GlenH7 by undeleting the question, its back in the reopen review queue.

user41796

20:43

@MichaelT sorry, busy staring at beautiful tables

user55340

Did you watch the vimeo?

user41796

I did. And I'm totally trying to think of what's needed to build those...

user55340

Well... you're an engineer... you'll figure it out.

user41796

I know. That's the problem. I still have other things to do too

user55340

I don't think its a solid block of wood, though they did take some care with the veneer so that it is from consecutive pieces.

user55340

20:54

Well, I was looking at the coffee table in black wallnut. The detail shows it even more clearly.

user41796

nope, definitely not solid wood. A couple of the shots made it clear the surfaces are veneered

gnat

@enderland thanks for heads up! time flies like an arrow. Exposure wise (to get more eyeballs and possibly educate more readers), the longer you keep it there, the better (grace period doesn't count). We discussed this with GlenH7 at the previous bounty end...

Sep 12 at 15:30, by gnat

@GlenH7 at MSO - unlikely. Rep is cheap there and massive bounties are frequent, because of well same guy repeatedly pushing it through. what matters most per my observations is...

user41796

which can be considered a pretty responsible use of the material.

user55340

A coffee table sized block of black walnut would be $$$$$$$ and not just $$$.

gnat

Sep 19 at 13:42, by GlenH7

@gnat you had mentioned that the views tend to increase in the last day of the bounty. Does that include the 24 hour grace period as well? In other words, in order to maximize views should I assign it soon or wait until end of day but before grace expires?

Sep 19 at 13:44, by gnat

@GlenH7 grace period, no. It's only when question is at the top of the featured tab; it goes out of it as soon as grace period starts

user41796

20:56

I wonder how the table would react if the connecting rods were in compression instead of tension (pushing in instead of pushing out). Probably wouldn't work though and certainly wouldn't be flexible.

user55340

Btw, I've got this in some box from years ago...

user55340

amazon.com/Tensegritoy-Construction-Puzzle-Discover-Amazing/dp/…

user55340

tensegrity.wikispaces.com/Tensegritoy

user41796

those are sweet, no doubt.

user55340

20:58

Note the holes in the red sticks - you put the elastic through it to get different tensions.

user55340

@GlenH7 its the flexibility of the wires and the forces that give it its 'wow' factor.

user55340

A compression rod based system - it wouldn't really need magnets.

user55340

Apparently those tables were featured on "The Secret Lives of Scientists & Engineers" - a PBS Nova episode.

enderland

@MichaelT I need to watch this show! hahaha

Yannis Rizos

21:12

Yes, it's possible. — Yannis Rizos 15 secs ago

I'm not really helping there, am I?

enderland

@YannisRizos I think you meant to post that as an answer

Yannis Rizos

@enderland I would, in my pre-diamond days...

Jim G.

@EMS Adding a sentence saying "please only answer this if you have solid references" is not really what we are looking for. If it was, every question would be magically transformed into a good subjective one just by adding that sentence. What you need to do to "insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references" is to clearly and thoroughly describe your problem and your attempts to solve it, and show us that you aren't yet another lazy buffoon looking for someone to do all your work for you. And you've already done that, the explicit request for references is just noise. — Yannis Rizos 4 hours ago

enderland

to be fair though this guy did add a picture :)

Jim G.

^^^ +10 from me. :)

Yannis Rizos

21:20

@JimG. I think that guy was more interested in a fight, than getting his question unlocked, or understanding why it was locked in the first place...

Stack Exchange

Blog - Stack Exchange: Summer Hiring, Happened So Fast

Joe Humphries on September 25, 2013

We’ve been busy! So busy, in fact, that this post only takes us through the hires we made in June and July. More announcements are coming soon … in the meantime, get to know these 13 wonderful people who now call Stack Exchange home.

Jon Ericson, Community Manager, Burbank, CA

As an Air Force brat, Jon grew up all over the world but has lived in the Los Angeles area since attending UCLA, marrying his college sweetheart, and starting a family. He taught himself GW-BASIC on the family Tandy 1000, learned Pascal and FORTRAN in the classroom, C on the job, Perl on Usenet, and a bunch of …

user55340

An "I'm angry and I'm going to take it to meta to complain about evil mods"

user55340

> He taught himself GW-BASIC on the family Tandy 1000, learned Pascal and FORTRAN in the classroom, C on the job, Perl on Usenet

user55340

Those should all be reasons to disqualify a programmer...

user55340

I mean... Basic? Who knows what brain damage he's suffered...

enderland

21:24

@MichaelT maybe that's why he's a community manager ;)

user55340

@JimG. something I learned from my previous job - the longer the email message, the fewer responses you'll get to it. Furthermore, if you have an email that contains N questions sent to a manager, they will only answer the one question that is most convenient/easiest.

user55340

With SE, if I have to read through paragraphs to get through to the background for the question - its probably too localized... and whats more, I'll get bored after the first paragraph unless its a really interesting problem... and there are few "Best practices" questions that are that interesting.

Jim G.

21:47

@Yannis Rizos: Yeah - I think you're right.

@MichaelT: GREAT points. 1000% agree. FWIW: I was just trying to help that guy. It looked like he was smart, but young. Oh well. I think @Yannis Rizos was right. He was probably just looking for a fight.

gnat

I would like to expand on what is fundamentally wrong in your position.

You (and some other askers) re-post excerpts from the article, plainly translating these into requirements to answers and pretend that this makes your question compliant. **Don't do that.**

Above "translation" is purely yours, you have no grounds to state that this can be inferred from the article you refer.

Thing to remember is, this article states requirements for _questions_, not for the _answers_. Re-read it again and pay attention to the sub-title (quoted below, keeping font close to original):

tactics shmactics

0

A: What recourse is there for a post that is locked for reasons that one does not understand or agree with?

I would like to address one of the comments you made, likely intending to support the question with an authoritative reference: Note that my post specifically implements the tactics referred to in that post to achieve usefulness as a subjective post. It isn't shopping for a source if you insi...

Jimmy Hoffa

23:06

@gnat To suck it up and deal, because content on the site is the domain of the community's, and if the community changes, locks, closes, or commits any other activities to the post, that is their prerogative. The whole of SE was structured to illicit community engagement, agreement, feedback, and ultimately authority. Discussions may be had until one is blue in the face, but lack of understanding or disagreement with the community does not remove the community's authority to decide and act.

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