The Whiteboard

12:27 AM

@MichaelT nope, you can spread and plow at the same time, but doing them seperately for different things is normal too. often in a city you spread a lot of salt because you have no where to put the damn snow.

also, you usually want to be in the middle lane to spread salt the most evenly

you also use sand when you care about the environment/ground water

a lot of salt is very hard on aquifiers

user55340

12:50 AM

@Ampt Thats part of why California doesn't salt at all in the mountains - thats drinking water in the summer.

user55340

@Ampt Up here, a number of cities have spots they just "push it onto the lake" type thing. I've also seen a parking lot (I think it was Rosedale in MN) where they had a "snow to water" truck with a front loader to reduce the volume of material from a parking lot.

Matt D

morning

salt's also pretty terrible for metals

rruuussstttttt

but then, i currently live in the tropics so...

user15026

1:07 AM

@MichaelT Oh that's neat. :)

Matt D

moving to seattle soon. but it doesnt really snow a lot either

@AshleyNunn i had never considered laser pointer power and cats eyes... that probably makes me a terrible human

user15026

@MattD I had thought about it a bit, but never really super indepth until someone asked that question.

user15026

Then I went into full research mode.

Matt D

i totally agree with your end point

about giving them something to lash out on to end play

that isnt your hands/arms/sofa/shoes/other cats/babies/mailmen/raptors

user15026

@MattD Yeah, I found my cat was super happy at the end if I gave him one of his toy mice to take the "kill" energy out on

Matt D

1:15 AM

how is the weather in NA atm? another polar vortex?

also i should really upload a profile pic at some point

user15026

@MattD Where I am (SW Ontario) we got another dumping of like 20 cm of snow over the weekend. It's not that cold right now, though. (-10 C instead of say, -20c)

Matt D

I hope you're getting some ski'ing or snowboarding in

user15026

@MattD I would if it didn't mean pretty much falling down forever (I am not that coordinated)

Matt D

get a sled? or an inflatable tyre?

you can spot the australian.. SNOW? WHERE? OMG!

user15026

@MattD THat would be more fun for me, yeah :) I keep thinking I should get some friends together to do that

user55340

1:45 AM

When I went skiing (x-country) in Tahoe a number of years ago I met a South African who worked there... so he could ski. He was a professional skier / instructor and would move from Tahoe to Chile or South Africa every spring... as in his seasons where "North Winter -> Spring (move) Fall -> South Winter -> Spring (move) Fall -> North Winter ..."

user55340

He never saw Summer unless it was on vacation from his job.

user15026

@MichaelT Interesting.

user55340

@MattD As to Seattle, it can get cool there, but its an ultra-maratime climate, though with a north - south current (compare Florida that has a south - north current)

Matt D

interesting

it rains a lot i hear, but not the kind of rain we get here, where it really throws it down.

user55340

I lived in San Francisco - the low in summer is the high temperature in winter. But it is quite difficult for it to get cooler than the water.

user55340

1:49 AM

I think it falls into the "Dry-summer subtropical" climate...

user55340

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate. The lands around the Mediterranean Sea form the largest area where this climate type is found, but it also prevails in much of California, in parts of Western and South Australia, in southwestern South Africa, sections of Central Asia, and in central Chile. Köppen climate classification Under the Köppen climate classification, "dry-summer subtropical" climates (classified as Csa and Csb) are often referred to as "Mediterranean". Under the Köppen-Geiger system, "...

Ampt

I think you all suck with your warm weather

user55340

Eh... not really.

user55340

@Ampt The people that went down to New Orleans got back early Friday morning (should have been back on Wednesday instead). One point they made about it down there - the houses weren't insulated. So when it was 20F outside... the furnace couldn't keep up with that temp... and it was ~50F inside with single pane windows and maybe some old insulation.

user55340

Ahh... Seattle would be a "Csb"

user55340

1:51 AM

Ampt

that regex game is so beyond me

user55340

Classified as a "Warm-summer Mediterranean climate"

Ampt

i don't even know where to start with regex

user55340

Though some call it an "Oceanic climate" rather than Mediterranean climate.

user55340

Oceanic climate

An oceanic climate (also known as marine, west coast and maritime) is the climate typical of the west coasts at the middle latitudes of most continents, and generally features warm, but not hot summers and cool, but not cold winters, and a relatively narrow annual temperature range. It typically lacks a dry season, as precipitation is more evenly dispersed throughout the year. It is the predominant climate type across much of Europe, in coastal northwestern North America, portions of southwestern South America and small areas of Africa, in southeast Australia, and New Zealand, as well a...

user55340

1:53 AM

user55340

@MattD so, that should give you an idea of what to expect there. Its a really nice place to go and be. Seattle is a great city.

Ampt

it never gets below freezing?

wut

is that in the northern part?

user55340

@Ampt If it gets colder than the water, the water 'releases' heat. Its hard to get sea water below freezing outside of the arctic.

Ampt

the lake over here freezes :P

user55340

And likewise, the water also will start absorbing heat when its warmer... so that cools it down in the summer.

Ampt

1:56 AM

stupid lake

Matt D

thanks @MichaelT

user55340

@Ampt That's once the lake released all if its heat (at the surface). But the ocean is a bit bigger than the lakes.... even Superior.

Ampt

@MichaelT (Michigan)

user55340

Superior > Michigan

Ampt

Michigan is superior to Superior

blasphemer

user55340

1:59 AM

@MattD If / when you move out there, be sure to head out to Sol Duc and Kalaloch area. Its a coast that... well... its a coast. You've got sea stacks down in .au too though.

Ampt

@MattD you're going from australia to US?

you nuts?

user55340

Glancing at it, its a lot like the coast of Victoria.

Matt D

@Ampt i'm joining 343i as lead UI. so.. not really nuts no ;)

Ampt

@MattD you're joining 343?!

Matt D

yes

Ampt

2:01 AM

ajfkldsaskld

user55340

But that's west... if you head east, you get the cascade mountains and then the scablands... and then the rockies.

Ampt

you better get that Halo shit together. Halo 1, 2 and 3 were my life back in the day and it's really sad to see them fall so far

AKA I'm holding you personally responsible for the success or failure of the future of Halo

nbd

Matt D

fantastic

user55340

(I will point out at least Austraila is a large and 'young' country... I've heard funny things from europeans who don't realize how big the country is... "oh, we'll just drive from New York to New Orleans... how far is it? can we do that in a day?"

Ampt

@MichaelT yeah its crazy how small most european countries are

user55340

2:03 AM

.uk types thinking they can drive a full tour of the country in a week...

user55340

@Ampt 100 years is a long time in the US. 100 miles is a long distance in Europe.

Ampt

.co.uk types?

@MattD I'm rather jealous. I hope it goes well!

Matt D

thanks :) should be fun when i finally get there.

user55340

Completely blew away a guy from the UK that he could read the entire history of the US in newspapers.

Matt D

@MichaelT that is quite a strange thought

Ampt

2:05 AM

lol! and it's true

user20683

@MattD One of the GameDev mods works for them, congrats.

user55340

@MattD From the revolution to today... newspapers have always been there.

Matt D

@MichaelT probably for AU too. well the white history anyway :)

@WorldEngineer yup, josh works for them I've known him (in an online capacity) for a long while :)

user55340

@MattD Yep. We've got native people here too...

user55340

I suspect that Australia is a similarly 'new world' country as is the US.

Matt D

2:07 AM

yep

and we only really bother to inhabit the very edge of the country, aside from miners and brave folk who live in the outback

user55340

West coast (and seattle) will also get you a bit more of the "pacific" culture - china, japan cultures are more prevalent there than in the midwest or east coast.

Matt D

which is a bit more like home for me, living in SEA

user55340

You should take a car trip into our "flyover states" some day... a drive to Glacier NP isn't that far from Seattle.

user55340

Anyways... food.

Matt D

i havent set foot in seattle yet, just redmond and kirkland for the interviews

and yeah. ill be heading over to NY in june i hope

would love to see some of the countryside while im there

chicago too.

And of course vancouver, and montreal, I love both those places

user15026

2:16 AM

Well, I will make the usual offer - if you or any other SE folk end up in my area, there can be cupcakes. (I like excuses to make cupcakes)

Ampt

@MattD milwaukee is cooler

although I'll be in chicago soon enough

Ampt

2:34 AM

although if you're ever in the area, I'll tell you where the best and worst brewery tours are in exchange for everything you know

user15026

@Ampt I don't know much, but that is stuff I'd want to know!

Ampt

oh I meant @MattD and his soon-to-be- intimate knowledge of my favorite gaming franchise. for you it'll just be cupcakes!

user55340

@AshleyNunn finnishfoodgirl.com/2013/10/trader-joes-cupcake-vodka

user15026

@MichaelT Here we have a cake vodka....it is pretty tasty

user15026

@Ampt I can trade cupcakes for information! :D

user55340

2:44 AM

@AshleyNunn allrecipes.com/recipe/…

user15026

@MichaelT Oh hot damn. I think I just found my baking project for when I have a job again :D

Matt D

@Ampt there's these wonderful things called NDA's

user55340

@MattD NDAs don't cover cupcakes.

Matt D

can we make NDA flavoured cupcakes?

user55340

@MattD Tastes like... I really can't say.

Matt D

2:48 AM

ingredients: [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted]

my cover story for NDA'd stuff has always been "monkeys in hot air baloons throwing shit at each other"

Ampt

@MattD ugh, NDAs are just beaurocratic red tape! You can tell me everything! I won't tell anyone!

Matt D

one day ill make that game.

user55340

@MattD ~~Thats "Bloons TD"~~ Wait, sorry... thats monkeys throwing darts at hot air balloons.

Matt D

bloons td?

user15026

@MichaelT <3

user15026

2:50 AM

@MattD Bake at [redacted] for [redacted]

user20683

MDD = Monkey Driven Development

Matt D

PDD = poop driven development

MPDD?

anyway. I love that cover story. its just bonkers enough to be almost plausible, but not sane enough to be taken seriously

Jimmy Hoffa

@MattD MPDD - The actual most commonly used methodology in industry.

user55340

user15026

@MichaelT I have the latest version on my phone and I really like it

user55340

2:52 AM

(that's a early version of the game... not the current one.. but you see the monkeys and balloons)

Matt D

yeah. i think you missed a trick with not having poop throwing

and by "hot air baloons" i mean dirigbles

user55340

Have to persuade the parents to buy it for the kids... poop.

Matt D

have that as an IAP

then you can legitimately claim that monkey poop is making you money

user55340

Matt D

stealing my ideas damn you!

;)

I was really thinking something more like youtube.com/watch?v=UDc3ZEKl-Wc , except with poop, and hot air balloons

anyway. thats the story i tell people when people ask me what i'm working on and I cant tell them

user55340

5:08 AM

Ohh... Snark opportunities: informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-business/…

user55340

> "What is your least favorite thing about humanity?" -- ZocDoc, Operations Associate interview.

user15026

@MichaelT "Inquire why I have a visa, which is unnecessary for a US citizen visiting Canada, but not a work permit. Then identify the client, the project goals, whether a car will be required, and whether Internet access is available at the hotel and on-site."

user15026

Okay, that was entertaining.

user15026

Note to self: if you get interviews, do not snark.

user55340

@AshleyNunn And make sure you have your passport, credit card, and drivers license if stranded on Maui.

user15026

5:13 AM

@MichaelT giggles That too.

user55340

From /.

user55340

> "Do you have any weaknesses?"

Blondes, brunettes and redheads.

user15026

@MichaelT Oh my goodness :P

gnat

6:02 AM

Don’t ask what SE team can do for you. Ask instead what you can do for SE team

great experiment! To help in testing, I plan to visit Stack Overflow questions in the hot list and actively vote up posts I like. This way will let SE team study how effective it works against "lemming effect" using familiar material (instead of obscure questions at smaller sites like Programmers, Workplace, Math, Code Golf, UX) — gnat 14 mins ago

Matt D

6:15 AM

yeah. when I interviewed at 343, i was expecting someone to ask me "so whats your top 2 weaknesses" at which point i was going to answer with "chocolate and guitars"

gnat

11:02 AM

@s3ib if you check answerer's profile, you'll also notice that he is a specification lead for the very API you are asking about. This makes an answer as authoritative as it gets doesn't it :) — gnat 40 secs ago

Jimmy Hoffa

4:02 PM

@AshleyNunn I can't help it, if they have no sense of humor I figure I don't want to work there

RhysW

4:37 PM

Anyone here used Knockout.js before and might be able to help me with an issue im having?

Jimmy Hoffa

Yep, easy solution: use angular instead.

No actually I don't know anything about any of it

user55340

jQuery is the answer to everything.

user55340

88

Q: When is "use jQuery" not a valid answer to a JavaScript question?

How many JavaScript questions can be answered with "use jQuery"? Looking at JavaScript questions, all too often the answer seems to be "use jQuery," sometimes in as few words. We can end up with answers which feel more like plugs getting the asker to try jQuery (the Silver Bullet) than a concise...

Jimmy Hoffa

4:52 PM

When your writing JavaScript for IE3 because your stuck in a special kind of legacy hell only known to you and 3 others who have a token ring network with you. — Jimmy Hoffa 11 secs ago

user55340

5:06 PM

And if you're expecting to be coddled by a bunch of curmudgeons who write software for a living, well, good luck with that. — Robert Harvey 5 mins ago

Jimmy Hoffa

0

A: What is the clean way to pass my LoginContext down through the layers to the data access layer?

The clean and appropriate way to do this is to use the request context scoped credentials. You can access the current http request context at System.Web.HttpContext.Current which has a User property of type IPrincipal - so implement your own IPrincipal or use one that's available if you can find...

Damnit. More rep whoring that will just float away to SO.

psr

@MichaelT For some reason I just looked at the link. Is the Java JSON API as ugly to work with as it looks? My MUMPS JSON parser just makes an object graph of objects that subclass JSONObject (which I suppose Java might offer, I didn't did into it).

user55340

5:32 PM

@psr Its not grand. The awkwardness is that Java isn't a dynamically typed language so things like json are a bit... forced at times.

user55340

And if you try to coerce a wrong type into another type, you get an exception... which is, well... correct but annoying.

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Maybe not. No close votes on it yet... I don't see it being off topic here, and your answer being codeless makes it stick better here.

Thomas Owens

0

Q: How do I better engage the 822 Github users who starred my project

I recently put up a project, called Hebel, that I've been working on to Github. It's a framework for GPU accelerated Deep Learning (Machine Learning, object recognition, etc) written in Python and Nvidia CUDA. I posted about it on Google+ and soon afterwards it was picked up on Hacker News and we...

open-source python git github machine-learning

It's about user engagement, yes, but is it really off-topic? Anyone want to weigh in?

user55340

@psr when doing java to java serialization, I really prefer working with xml. The stronger types and validation there makes it easier, jaxb to go between java, xml and xsd.

user55340

@ThomasOwens I'm on the fence leaning to reopen.

Thomas Owens

5:40 PM

@MichaelT Same. I can see the answers being relevant to anyone with an open-source project. Perhaps some minor cleanups to the last paragraph so it's less pollish.

user55340

The thing that needs to be watched for is the "avoid a discussion / polling"

Oded

@ThomasOwens happy to be told I am wrong ;)

thorsten müller

We should have a feature where we migrate closed questions directly to reddit /r/programmers.

Thomas Owens

@Oded I don't know if you are. I'm totally on the fence. I'm trying some edits now. I'll poke when I finish.

user55340

I'd love to have a discourse.programmers.SE where we could migrate discussions.

Oded

5:43 PM

@ThomasOwens no prob.

Thomas Owens

Just edited. It's still could lead to discussion, but it's not explicitly asked for, since I got rid of the bit about asking for ideas. I think the current wording inspires longer answers and sharing of experiences.

Thoughts?

user55340

Looks good. Still need to watch it for discussions, but seems reasonable.

Thomas Owens

OK. Let's give it a shot and see what happens. I'll throw a mod-notice on it, too.

There. Let's do science with questions.

psr

6:04 PM

@AshleyNunn "What a fascinating question!" Later... "So, the guy I just interviewed with, in what capacity would I be working with him? I see. Would it be all right if I talk to him for a couple more minutes? I have some great snark I don't want to waste."

user55340

1

Q: Where is the guideline for where you should post ambiguous questions?

I wanted to ask for people's opinions on one programming language vs. another. I'm curious as to where an ambiguous question like that should be posted, and how in the future I would know where to post other such ambiguous questions?

discussion questions guidelines

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT My answer is very code-specific. It's an explicit .NET framework approach to how you should do that, which is useless in other languages etc but hey maybe I'll get some rep and it wont' get migrated. Here's hoping.

psr

@MichaelT Mine is in MUMPS. It has Java-like types - except that they don't actually do anything. You just (optionally) annotate methods and parameters with pretend types. It's really duck-typed. You can even handle calling a non-existent method (with some edge cases that don't work). When you are done writing your class, it statically compiles it - into a dynamic language. I hope they laughed as hard designing it as I am typing this.

user55340

@JimmyHoffa The thing is people are more likely to cast 'migrate' if there is an answer that is a block of code. Likewise, if there are answers that aren't block of code, they're less likely to do a close to migrate vote.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Fair enough. Perhaps it will stay. Either way looks like it'll be barely any rep anyways. I think I forgot how I got 9k P.SE rep to begin with...

user15026

6:16 PM

@JimmyHoffa That makes sense. It would be a terrible environment if no one had a sense of humor ever.

user15026

@psr That would be highly tempting!

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Accumulated interest on answers... {snark} and something about paypal billing. {/snark}

user55340

@JimmyHoffa and as always... give it time. Drive by upvotes accumulate over time (and yea, I know... 10k is so close...)

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT stupid paypal inordinateflow error yeesh I was so damn close to not answering that question... I almost close voted before looking at my calendar and deciding I didn't have anything else to do for 10 minutes...

user55340

Oh... I love the spell checking on that one. inordinateflow ;-)

user55340

6:22 PM

At least you didn't ask a mod to delegate an answer that doesn't make sense.

user55340

We've got a ping pong table in the basement here. People have set up two webcams on it so that we can see if someone is playing before going down there (don't want to go down there to find out someone else is playing and walk back)...

user55340

CEO and VP of marketing where playing. Neither are that good (I'm not either... but I'm not playing). So they covered up the webcams with paper so we couldn't watch them play. So instead, they got a live audience - we all went down there to watch (and comment).

psr

@MichaelT That's awesome. I hope people recorded with their phones.

user55340

@psr Ohh! ... ok, next time.

Jimmy Hoffa

@AshleyNunn @MichaelT just rewrote that answer, does it read more clearly now? programmers.stackexchange.com/posts/227696/revisions

user15026

6:30 PM

@JimmyHoffa Yes, it reads a lot more clearly than it did before

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Yep, under or over or something, I know it wasn't an ordinate flow.

user55340

@JimmyHoffa There's a 'yep' from me too.

user15026

Somedays I wish I knew enough tech-stuff to suggest edits in more places - editing stuff on Gaming or Pets doesn't require much of my skills that I want to develop

user15026

Although, I am now helping someone from Pets do documentation on a project they are making!

user15026

So that is exciting.

Jimmy Hoffa

6:33 PM

@AshleyNunn Just read The MSDN Library

:)

Or The MDN Library

user15026

@JimmyHoffa Is this going to make me want to edit it all of it? :P

user55340

@AshleyNunn They're fairly well written big sources with lots of tech writers behind it... You won't cringe when you read it.

Jimmy Hoffa

@AshleyNunn Most MSDN articles have a section at the bottom to suggest edits/corrections which are often taken seriously if you wish it. But I just mean then you'll have the techie knowledge necessary. Plus you'll get ideas about what seriously techie writing should look like

user15026

@MichaelT Ah, that's good, I was scared it was like when I peeked at minecraft wikis. That was a dark and scary place.

user15026

@JimmyHoffa This is a good thing :)

user55340

6:36 PM

Wikis are all volunteer work, and mostly by people who don't write well. MSDN and MDN are large organizations that hire professionals to write readable documentation.

Jimmy Hoffa

MSDN was for a very long time at the vanguard of what a technical library for developers using your products should look like - in the past 6 or 8 years it seems others caught up quite comprehensively, but it still represents an ideal fairly well.

user15026

@MichaelT Yeah, I have discovered that while wikis have the information, sorta, they...need a lot of help with articulating that.

user15026

@JimmyHoffa I am poking at it, and it has so much useful stuff in it. And it is written so nicely!

enderland

@MichaelT which is rather ironic, when you think about how much more reader-friendly wiki seems to be than MSDN

Jimmy Hoffa

I remember using MSDN back around '00 thinking how totally awesome it was compared to having to have desk references on hand like I had to with non-MS development products

@enderland depends on the reader ;P

enderland

6:39 PM

.... until you read documentation for almost all other project (especially open source). Man was it amazing working with QT for that reason, great docs

Jimmy Hoffa

@enderland You want to see great docs? See hackage

> See Maarten Fokkinga''s PhD Dissertation for cascade and prepro.

high quality documentation right that. Yeah woot!

> Generalized prepromorphisms, parameterized by a comonad This is used to generate most of the specialized prepromorphisms in other modules. You can use the distributive law combinators to build up analogues of other recursion schemes.

> Generalized bifunctor prepromorphism, parameterized by a comonad

Yep. That's technical documentation right there. Are you taking notes @AshleyNunn? :)

enderland

git has something like "no one competent enough has bothered to fix this" as part of their documentation

> Can I add empty directories?

Currently the design of the Git index (staging area) only permits files to be listed, and nobody competent enough to make the change to allow empty directories has cared enough about this situation to remedy it.

user15026

@JimmyHoffa So many big words

user55340

@AshleyNunn Don't worry... functional programmer types keep making up new words all the time.

user55340

Some of them even mean things.

user15026

6:52 PM

@MichaelT THe problem is knowing which ones :)

user55340

yesterday, by Jimmy Hoffa

not like he was suggesting a hylomorphism or zygohisticprepromorphism

user55340

@AshleyNunn Just skip the ones you don't recognize... it might make more sense then.

user15026

@MichaelT That actually works pretty decently for a basic understanding.

user55340

(@AshleyNunn side bit, if you seriously spend enough time to learn git you could write a Git Cookbook and sell it)

user15026

@MichaelT That would be a very large project.

user55340

6:56 PM

Its a standard enough book that people have on their desks.

user15026

I am familiar with the concept, from dating programmers. :)

user55340

(deleted big long page eating links to amazon - nothing to see there)

user55340

@AshleyNunn Need to go for engineers - they even have their own cookbook. cookingforengineers.com/recipe/89/…

user15026

@MichaelT Now that's a cookbook I can get into!

user55340

Don't forget that beer & whiskey cupcake from last night

user15026

6:58 PM

@MichaelT Oh, I haven't. I am going to make those for sure because they sounded so amazing.

user55340

@Undo random huge data crunching database idea - take all the titles on Stack Overflow and find pairs of questions were the edit distance between the two titles is < 5. (5 being a random smallish number) Review them for dup/merge.

user55340

Tangentially related, @amon ever play with a Levenshtein automaton?

amon

@MichaelT No I did not. Oooh, this looks interesting. Thanks for the link!

user55340

@amon Yea... it does look interesting.

user55340

Long ago, I wrote my own (rather naive) approximate string matcher based on mutations in DNA (I was taking a class in genetics at the time and working on a CGI in C for serving up the Jarogn file)

user55340

7:12 PM

web.archive.org/web/19990423020235/http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/… (oh my code... ug... painful to read somewhat... and what is with that indent style?!)

user55340

int compare(char *s1, char *s2)
  {
    char foo[256]; // key
    char bar[256]; // matching
    int *qux;
    int quux;

user55340

No, bad me from mid '90s. Bad bad bad. Shame on me.

user55340

The #defines for it were:

user55340

#define vPM     15
#define vD       1
#define vR       3
#define vI       5
#define vS       3

#define MATCH    1
#define NOMATCH -2

user15026

WHO HERE PROGRAMS IN PHP AND WANTS TO WORK FOR LIBRARYTHING

user15026

7:18 PM

(aka I could use $1000 in books)

user55340

@AshleyNunn How much tequila do you have?

user15026

@MichaelT Probably not enough

user55340

Tequila is a requirement for proper understanding of php code.

3

psr

@MichaelT Yes, understanding the state of mind of the original developer is key.

user55340

@psr Thus, tequila.

user15026

7:21 PM

I just want the books, yo

user15026

:P

gnat

7:42 PM

@ThomasOwens current wording (in rev 4) didn't struck any of my multiple close-vote neurons (for comparison, I'd CV rev 1 in a heartbeat). Question wording looks OK. It will likely attract some garbage answers, especially now that it was tweeted, but imNSho this is going to be fault of the answerers, not of the question

user15026

8:07 PM

Huh. I made gaming mod.

Thomas Owens

@AshleyNunn Did you not accept the mod agreement yet? You should be blue everywhere.

user15026

@ThomasOwens I am working on that.

user55340

@AshleyNunn Yea!

user55340

@ThomasOwens She's a Pets mod. Modding gaming could be like herding cats (now there was a good superbowl advert)

user55340

►

user15026

8:13 PM

@MichaelT Hahahahaha <3

user55340

@AshleyNunn Have you seen that one before?

user15026

@MichaelT Yeah, mom emailed it to me :)

user55340

(looking at the election data now)

Thomas Owens

Speaking of mods, Friday is the anniversary of the 2012 moderator election.

user55340

Threshold for round 1 was 154.75, LessPop had 192 votes and was elected. Thus the amount between the 154.75 and 192 was transferred to second choices as 0.805990 of a vote...

user55340

8:20 PM

@AshleyNunn had 52 first choice votes (3rd place).

user55340

After the redistribution, it was 56.65 votes. Since no one had 154.361 votes (Fredly had 149.47 votes) Ullallulloo was elimated (only had 21.9 votes) and those votes were redistributed.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I made an awesome oven roast this weekend stealing his oven-ribs technique and swapping the BBQ sauce for A1, worcestershire, and red wine so it came out with a nice beefy roast flavor. Perfectly tender and juicy just like the ribs recipe.

user55340

That didn't push Fredly over the threshold though, so 3ventic was elimated (at this point Ashley had 63.8 votes). Wow... all the way to the 17th round.

user15026

Yeah, it took a while to get there

user15026

but hey, it got there. :)

user55340

8:23 PM

Meh. too wide.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I looked at your onebox perl cookbook and glanced it over reading the first line "Find a perl programmer" before closing the tab then pondering to myself "wait...I have to open that link again just to see if the next line is 'and put him in a pot with 3 potatos [...]' because it was called the perl cookbook...and I wouldn't put it past a perlist to write that book..."

user55340

@JimmyHoffa its tchrist who did that book... not quite the personality for it. Now, if it was Larry, Randal, Mark, or Damien... then yes.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Yahoo! Developer Network - aka WAT?

I mean, I know Yahoo! was at the vanguard for a great long time and all that

but ??

Oh it probably just talks about their public APIs and how to use them

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Well, their geocoding is something that is once again important information, and they do have some companies they bought in the day for location information

Jimmy Hoffa

developer.yahoo.com/cocktails

user55340

8:30 PM

@AshleyNunn Did you look at the data for that run?

user15026

@MichaelT I tried to, I got lost in the numbers

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT yeah I stumbled across their site looking for oracle's java version of MSDN the "Yahoo developer network" when you have MSDN as your context point - the idea of Yahoo having something to compare seems like a big ??

user55340

@AshleyNunn instant runoff with multiple options, exhaustion, and changing threshold can be a bit confusing. Any part of it that you were most lost in?

Jimmy Hoffa

Still snowing outside. Damnit. Just bought a new snow shovel and 40lb bag of salt..

user55340

(SE uses the only IR with a changing threshold... kind of neat and useful for multiple candidate selection)

user55340

8:35 PM

(I wonder if voting systems is on topic for Politics.SE...)

user15026

@MichaelT How I managed to get elected!

user15026

@JimmyHoffa Well, now you get to try them out? :)

user55340

@AshleyNunn well... what part of that is most confusing?

user15026

How did I win with not a lot of first place votes?

Jimmy Hoffa

@AshleyNunn I said still, it's been snowing pretty continuously since last Friday... and slated to continue into the weekend

user15026

8:37 PM

@JimmyHoffa Oh dear, never ending snow :(

user20683

@JimmyHoffa well it is Colorado in February :P

Thomas Owens

@JimmyHoffa No continuous snow here. But 8-12 inches tomorrow, so I'm working from home. Hopefully I get out of Boston tonight before it starts, since I'll probably be there until after 11.

Jimmy Hoffa

@WorldEngineer bla bla bla, whatever. I'll make the kid build a snowman tomorrow... if possible... the snow may be ready for it now, this past weekend it was still too soft and powdery.

user55340

@AshleyNunn Consider the first bit of a vote for Less Pop, Fred, and Wipqozn.

Jimmy Hoffa

Last year we didn't get but one or two days of snow until march, this year we've been getting it pretty consistent since mid-end of december

user20683

8:39 PM

We got 2 inches, it turned to ice. The whole region went pear shaped.

user55340

Well, Less Pop won in the first round. But only needed 0.8 votes/person to win, so 0.2 votes/person who voted for Less Pop were transfered to the second choice.

user55340

Well, now Fredly won (with those 0.2 votes that were transfered in), but only needed 0.96 of those votes/person, so 0.04 of 0.2 gets transfered to Wip, but he was elimiated so that goes to the exhausted.

user55340

As votes get exhausted, its as if they were never cast at all, so the threshold for electing a person goes down.

Jimmy Hoffa

@WorldEngineer ...what does that even mean??

user55340

As the threshold that goes down, votes that are transfered get transfered more...

user20683

8:41 PM

@JimmyHoffa took some people 12+ hours to go like 10 miles

user20683

traffic was so bad that I walked home

user55340

so a Less Pop, Fredly, Ashley vote would eventually be 0.47 for Less Pop, 0.53*0.53 for Fredley, and whatever is left over for you.

Jimmy Hoffa

@WorldEngineer Yes but mostly because your roads were full of idiots trying to drive in shitty conditions and other idiots abandoning their cars mid-traffic which is only going to cause more people to abandon their cars which is going to result in people stuck in traffic for 10 hours

user15026

Okay, I kinda get it

user55340

If they voted Wipqozn, Ashely, Frank... you would have gotten a full vote from that.

user20683

8:43 PM

@JimmyHoffa it was lousy planning and a long history of heavy regional infighting

user55340

I could dig into exactly how many 1, 2, and 3rd choices were for you...

Jimmy Hoffa

I've never heard of someone abandoning their cars in traffic out here... though in the mountains there are times where an entire stretch of the highway is told "alright - this stretch is blocked for the night, everybody here needs to walk out or hunker down, if you need blankets or water the cops over here can help"

That happens occasionally near the continental divide or vail pass, like half a mile or a mile stretch of the highway will just be blocked in so any traffic coming from either side is detoured to turn around and head back the way they came

Thomas Owens

In the winter, I keep a bag in my car with warm things and some extra clothes and whatnot, if I get stuck somewhere. Well, I do that in the summer too, minus the warm things, in case I am unable to drive. That plus an app that can get me a hotel just about anywhere is fantastic.

user55340

Ultimatelly, there were 175 votes for you.

Jimmy Hoffa

@ThomasOwens Yeah, it's a known rule out here that you always keep blankets in the trunk - just in case.

user55340

8:46 PM

(too many stray 3s in the file - one at the top, one at the bottom)

Thomas Owens

@JimmyHoffa If I were to be stuck at work right now, I'd just run out to my car, grab my bag, and be good to go.

user55340

1 1 2 3 0
1 10 9 3 0

Jimmy Hoffa

I assume most places that get cold weather that's one of those common knowledge things that you should always keep stuff like that in your car

user20683

@JimmyHoffa it was lousy planning and a long history of heavy regional infighting

Jimmy Hoffa

@WorldEngineer ? How was it that?

user55340

8:48 PM

That first one was a less pop, fred, ashely vote. The second was a 3ventic, Ulla, Ashely vote.

user55340

The first one wouldn't have given you that much of a fractional vote as some of them were used in electing the other two. The last one would have given a full vote to you.

user20683

@JimmyHoffa

user20683

slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/…

user15026

@MichaelT Because the other two were already eliminated?

user55340

@AshleyNunn Yep.

user15026

8:51 PM

Oh, okay, this is making more sense.

user55340

The one that really pushed things around was round 15 where Frank (who was slowly getting votes) was eliminated. Prior to that there were 56 exhausted voted. After Frank was elimated at 77.97 votes (you had 100.5 at the time and the threshold was 140.5), the exhausted pile went to 95 which pushed the threshold down go 130 while giving you another 12 votes.

user55340

Then reallocating vote weights gave you another 7 votes (side bit, Strix went from 96 to 109 in that reallocation - apparently quite a few of 1 2 8 or 2 1 8 or 1 8 ? or 2 8 ? votes)

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