The Water Cooler - 2014-08-05 (page 1 of 2)

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12:01 AM

oh man @MattGiltaji you vote a lot! (Which is a good thing :) )

Apr 7 at 14:31, by enderland

I'm not here to make friends with everyone, I'm here to help make Workplace a valuable site. If I stand up for what I believe is required for site quality I'm bound to make enemies through that process and if I spend my entire tenure here trying to appease everyone, well, I'm going to hate this site

Sometimes it's nice to read what you wrote in the past

@IanHolstead that electorate badge, nice and gold and shiney

but I need to vote down more :S

its like 90% up

@MattGiltaji well over 1k votes in a two months? not bad

@MattGiltaji I think the overall answer quality here has gone up slowly as I find myself less and less going to popular questions and downvoting multiple answers, either that or I'm getting soft in my old age

@IanHolstead max of 40 a day, so I should be up near 2400 if I was depleting every day

12:07 AM

I'm over 1k downvotes now, woo

more memes!

user image

go look at @gnat's profile if you want to see some insane voting

@MattGiltaji did you just get the enthusiast badge today?

@IanHolstead yay! I did!

fanatic, coming up

@MattGiltaji haha, I did too!

12:10 AM

BTW, checking the stack exchange app makes those super-easy to get now

@IanHolstead grats

hmm

@MattGiltaji there an android one?

(i.e. is there an apk that I can get from the not google play store?)

@IanHolstead i think there was an android app before an iphone

@MattGiltaji I will have to investigate, as a very proud owner of a BlackBerry Z10, the google play store and I don't get along

but Z10s can run andriod apps... sketchy sites ahoy!

@IanHolstead lol

> too long by 1015 characters

hmmmmm

12:15 AM

btw @enderland, I'm going through that transcript now, you ruined my productivity for the rest of the day :p

Hahah

Apparently @enderland makes this room busy.

@jmac You know, I noticed that it was nearly dead for the couple months I was less active

wb jmac

I mean, @Ian and @Matt and @Bmo made this place occupied before, but geez, you're around and I scroll for all the dayz.

12:21 AM

Causation, correlation...

@enderland The smiley avatar, of course.

who wants to be in a chat room without smileys.

wow, this is the most people i've seen in here in a very long time

@jmort253 I wonder whether that avatar affects me on a psychological level and makes me generally more happy

Indeed! The thought of being able to vote on people rather than just posts makes us excited

@enderland We should all try it... on our gloomy days we'll have to use a smiley...

in fact I wonder if one could take the unicornify script and make one for smileys....

smiley gravatars.

@IanHolstead Heh, right.

12:23 AM

Note to self: figure out how to use powers to add smileys to everyone's graviconatars

3

Note to self #2: Figure out how to respond to all complaints with an auto-reply Y so serius?

and none can be solid yellow... that color is already taken

@jmac AUTOREPLY - Y so serius?

Just have @jmort253 write a script to auto reply and leave a computer open

@enderland stop thinking so small -- I am an employee now. It is my duty to think network wide.

we can do a little predictive analysis on the text in the post and reply with a template...

oh @jmac I wrote up that meta post we talked about, and forgot it on my computer at work... I will post it in the morning

12:25 AM

@IanHolstead No fears Ian! We are planning to be around for at least one more day.

TWP is a marathon, not a sprint. No need to burn yourself out sprinting -- make sure you enjoy your time here too!

@jmac actually SE is ending tomorrow at 12:34 CST, gg jmac

@jmac (I may need to still do a terrible photoshop of you fighting a hydra)

@enderland Is that when you nominate yourself for the mod slot?

@enderland I thought that's when SE goes self aware and starts answering all the questions for us

@IanHolstead I think @jmort is more the Hercules type than me.

But if you do make such an image, an illustration fit for a 7 year-old is way cooler than photoshop could ever be.

12:27 AM

if you mean armchair Hercules, then yes.

@jmac workplace.stackexchange.com/election/2#post-31842

no

The most heroic thing I've managed in the past month is 20 reps on litre-beer lifting.

@jmac oh dear, you think too highly of my drawing abilities

@enderland Glad to see you tossed your hat in enderland!

@Ian, I think highly of your artistic spirit. Which may not have anything to do with your artistic talent. But remember, I said 7 year-old level here.

@jmac will be interesting, I will be away thurs through sunday, but I guess I'll see how that factors in

12:35 AM

Yeah @enderland, this is much more fun when I'm not the one running ;)

@jmac I'm somewhat surprised they didn't throw this election at you and make you do it

@jmac yeah I looked, i've been traveling and on vacation 50% of time in July (RL ftw)

jmac had one job: get enderland to run. Having accomplished this, he's free to drink and enjoy the show.

@Shog9 lol

mission accomplished

If I were in charge of the election, SE would likely be in read-only mode right now.

12:39 AM

@jmac hey that's a lot better than completely deleted

I try to use my superpowers for good, but it's like Superman if he tripped over his own feet -- good intentions, lots of broken ~~coffee tables~~ critical infrastructure.

I just realized some of the goals that Stack Exchange community managers might be really weird. "Get enderland to run for mod" or "Convince jimbob234 to stop posting junk constantly" or whatever

I asked an idle question the other day, and got awesome answers. Yet another reason I love Stack Exchange:

9

Q: Why is Diet Coke more expensive than Regular Coke and other Soft Drinks in Indonesia?

Here is a photo of a menu in Bali, Indonesia: The Diet Coke is 14,000 rupiah. The regular Coke, and other soft drinks, are 10,000 rupiah. It isn't just this restaurant, the same is true of virtually every restaurant I have been to. Why is Diet Coke more expensive than regular Coke in Bali (or...

food-and-drink price indonesia bali

@enderland Wait, we're supposed to have goals? Shog, you'd better take notes, enderland may be on to something here.

Nah good employees write their own goals and let their boss tweak them, it's the easiest way to have a job doing whatever you want (unless you suck at thinking of good goals, then you're hosed)

12:51 AM

@jmac what enderland said. Sheesh, I was asleep at the time but I know someone explained this to you just this morning.

3

A: How to motivate your boss to let you spend time on tasks that won't generate any immediate revenue, but will pay off in the future?

Here's how I've done it and it's very simple: Step 1: be absolutely awesome at your job and accomplish your work effectively. Learn to communicate with your boss so they understand you are doing this. Step 2: never stop learning or exploring new technology for your current job. Make it a priori...

Of course, the truth is that we pick our own goals, let the bosses tweak them, and then spend all of our time handling support emails anyway.

@Shog9 I believe the bulk of my training was how to maintain various coffee apparati in offices half a world away from me.

well, of course. Gotta get the important stuff out of the way early.

enderland, I demand to know about the 11 unhelpful flags that you have in your record!

12:53 AM

once we get this coffee site going, we can just toss like half the employee handbook and replace it with a link to that

@enderland I've come to the conclusions that the people who do these things do it on their own time.

medium.com/@stef/what-gets-done-is-what-gets-done-6d711818b86a

that is nearly 3%!

Stef refers to working as working and offtime stuff that's still related to one's field as "tinkering".

@jmort253 I just tell my coworker/project manager, "I can't be in meetings all day and work, I'm fine doing either but I can't do both" -- he's now probably a bigger advocate of me working from home than even I am, because the few times I have I've cranked a ton of stuff out because there are no distrations...

I used to think that @fat from Twitter wrote Bootstrap getbootstrap.com while he was working at Twitter, but I saw an article where he said him and another colleague did it in their apartment after work.

12:55 AM

@MattGiltaji one of them was on an answer that jmort deleted :P

@enderland Yeh, and I guess that's where the lines really blur....

when is one working vs when is one tinkering when working remotely....

@jmort253 bravenewlife.com/06/the-man-is-you

well honestly it's just amazing how much you can do with no distractions, too

Amazon in Japan is insane.

We started doing 3 days per week remote.... super productive!

user image

12:57 AM

Although I find that on our supposed remote days I sneak into the office because it's quiet

It is 10am on Tuesday. If I order by 11am today, it will come today.

How do they do that? Magic!

@jmac supposedly, I've been let down by amazon often before :(

@jmac is it true about the trains being within a few seconds of schedule in Japan?

@enderland, Amazon has never let me down in Japan unless it is coming from a third-party seller.

@MattGiltaji Yes.

Amagasaki rail crash

The Amagasaki rail crash (JR福知山線脱線事故, JR Fukuchiyama-sen dassen jiko, lit. "JR Fukuchiyama Line derailment") was a fatal railway accident which occurred on 25 April 2005 at 09:19 local time (00:19 UTC), just after the local rush hour. A seven-car commuter train came off the tracks on the JR West Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo, near Osaka, just before Amagasaki Station on its way for Dōshisha-mae via the JR Tōzai Line and the Gakkentoshi Line, and the front two carriages rammed into an apartment building. The first carriage slid into the first floor parking garage and as a result took days...

> I work in software, yet I suspect this applies to anyone who does late night work. Sometimes you wake up in the morning, stumble back into the office and show others what you’ve been doing.

Yeah, I've convinced my coworkers of this, me doing tons of hours results in me doing more work, but me being sharp and focused for fewer is far better

12:59 AM

@enderland its a hard costs vs soft costs debate

> Japanese culture is very strict when it comes to punctuality ... In fact, cumulative changes over the previous three years had reduced the leeway in the train's schedule from 71 to 28 seconds over the 15 minutes between Takarazuka and Amagasaki stations.

@MattGiltaji no it's more bad or shortsighted managers assuming that "hours in chair" = productivity. This is true temporarily, but not long term

@enderland its not even true temporarily

@jmac That could be good or bad, depending on your ability to adapt...

@MattGiltaji nah, I think overtime can be beneficial in limited amounts

1:00 AM

when I was riding the bus and forced to be punctual, I felt more in control than being able to hit the snooze button for another 10-20 mins lol.

the problem is "limited amounts" normally translates to "months"

good article btw, too

overtime once in a while can be ok

if i am in a flow, I am much mroe productive up to a point

@jmort253 Yeah, but in this case it caused a new train driver to barrel around a curve too fast to try to make up time, causing the deaths of 162 people.

but butts in chairs has no correlation with productivity

> I realized that The Man is just a figment of our imagination who we let control us through fear. Fear of being fired, of letting someone down, or of not getting a much-desired promotion. Sure, there are plenty of people that will let you work your ass off: managers, customers, stockholders, and even your peers – they will all let you work harder to make their live’s easier. But they aren’t The Man. They can’t be The Man because they’re all busy working for their own “Man.”

1:02 AM

i know more than a few people skilled in the art of looking productive whithout doing any real work

Yes! I can relate

Yeah, I thought you might like that article, it's really well written and from a good perspective

1:21 AM

@MattGiltaji you can always grab a broom. There's never a floor so clean you can't look busy sweeping...

36

A: Is it appropriate for an employer to ask skilled professionals to do manual labor?

Manual labor can actually help you kick start your creative process. I've been programming and solving very interesting problems for more than two decades. I'm also, recently, wearing my writer and community manager hat for a living most of the time during my work days. I'd like to talk to you a...

Probably the only lesson I've managed to take with me through every job I've ever had.

1 hour later…

2:40 AM

ugh, these flippant comments to new users are starting to piss me off

Voting to close because this question has nothing to do with navigating the workplace. We are not career counselors and we are even less qualified to be mental health counselors. — Vietnhi Phuvan 6 mins ago

@MattGiltaji yeah, It was such a good question, just not here...

@IanHolstead the OP has cut out a lot of it and focused on just the panic attacks

even if it was pure coincidence, I'm going to assume that the OP read my comment and listened, and that makes my day

@MattGiltaji enjoy it, most of the time those sorts of comments get ignored...

@MattGiltaji I refined the scope of the question. — Anon 1 min ago

@enderland the optimist in me says that even helping improve one person is worth it

and I'm not going to look at the data to prove otherwise

2:56 AM

Hurry up Amazon, I want my router! I am tired of 802.11g! I hear that is slow! Speed test proves it! Allow me to make use of the 100 Mbps I have access to!

@jmac do they have the drones already delivering in Japan?

Wow, never see you in here @Robert! Welcome to our corner of SE.

@MattGiltaji No. They use human drones. I feel bad for them.

Have to get out of my cube and frequent the water cooler sometimes.

@jmac that could be a metaphor for everyone who is not lucky/skilled/L337 enough to work at SE :p

I just stumbled over the "Roll of Niceness" blog post in here, then realized it was from April.

Blog - Stack Exchange: Stack Exchange is not a forum: the role of “niceness” on a Q&A site

Shog9 on August 08, 2012

It’s been a few weeks now since Joel kicked off our “summer of love”. There’ve been some excellent discussions in the blog comments and on Meta, and we’ve tried to present some hard data on how objectively “nice” we are. But it’s high time to talk about what place “niceness” really has on Stack Exchange. And to do that, we need to start by talking about you:

You, sir, are a jackass.

And that’s ok.

Stack Overflow wasn’t created to be some utopian ideal of peace and love. When Jeff & Joel set out to create this system, they knew full well the sort of problems that face online commun …

Shog9 took a lot of flak for that one.

2:59 AM

@RobertHarvey Were you searching all of chat.se or somesuch?

@jmac @enderland posted a blast from the past

@MattGiltaji I am lucky. Everyone else falls in the skilled/l33t category. I am there to make them all look good by contrast.

@jmac even shog9?

@jmac Somebody quoted this message in The Whiteboard:

@MattGiltaji Especially Shog. Though I would never admit it in public, and despite his rather wacky views, he actually knows how SE works back to front to a level that is very difficult to grok for us mere mortals.

3:03 AM

Apr 7 at 14:31, by enderland

I'm not here to make friends with everyone, I'm here to help make Workplace a valuable site. If I stand up for what I believe is required for site quality I'm bound to make enemies through that process and if I spend my entire tenure here trying to appease everyone, well, I'm going to hate this site

@RobertHarvey Ah, okay, thanks. That makes more sense.

@RobertHarvey it was just a perfect response to what glen said ;)

@MattGiltaji some people are more likely than others to have a productive discussion vs an argument

I don't argue, I discuss

Everyone says that.

So why are shog's views wacky?

@RobertHarvey Every now and again he actually thinks I'm wrong. For all sorts of logical reasons. I mean, the gall of that! That's just weird. Trusting common sense over my reassuring smile? (I need to work on my sales techniques I guess)

lol

That's a very diplomatic answer.

3:10 AM

@jmac clearly you should have gone with the smiley emoticon avatar

I think it's already taken.

When I find out who took it I'm a gonna... Oh, wait.

@enderland I'm saving that for when I need to push something really important through that makes even less sense than my normal ideas.

it would actually be funny to have all a site's active users have the same avatar and change their names to be similar

So save all your chips for the really wacky idea?

user2938, user2398, etc. heh

3:11 AM

@RobertHarvey I need to act as an ambassador to the entire nation of SE (that's Sweden, right?). Of course they train us in diplomacy. And what the little fork is for.

Salad, right? Or is it dessert?

no it's South East

or maybe Salad Eating

Server Explosion, its like the European version of the dot com bubble

@RobertHarvey To poke employees who disagree with Shog. At least that's what master-Shog says.

@jmac pretty sure SE jobs come with a "we won't poke you with a sharp stick" disclaimer

3:18 AM

@enderland Fork != stick.

(I consulted a lawyer)

@jmac hey, legal advice is off topic! I'm getting a mod

@MattGiltaji I would have asked it here, but it would have been closed -- that's why I asked a lawyer! And anyway, chat is more relaxed ... right?

I was tempted to flag that so a bunch of mods came here going "wtf guys"

0

Q: I received a raise, but I want more

I know, this sounds a bit greedy but here's my situation. I am currently, an undergraduate engineering student and I managed to land a part-time job at an engineering firm doing some engineering work. However, as an undegrad I was extremely happy considering I was making more than what I would ma...

someone made a wonderful edit to that question which needs to be approved yet

Stephane finally fixed the CSS! And there was much rejoicing! Huzzah!

By the way @Matt, have I told you recently that your comments make moderating stuff a dream?

I go in posts thinking, "Oh man", and then I see a wonderful comment explaining exactly what the issue is, and how to fix it, with all the niceties that make it come across as a positive interaction. Makes life so so so much easier, and I applaud you for it.

@jmac well I stole the format from you and @jmort253 :D

3:28 AM

@MattGiltaji I stole it from jmort, so I guess we are all following a good lead.

what if jmort stole it from you

I stole it from Robert Cartaino... not sure where he stole it from...

4

Q: As a web developer, how can I determine whether to focus on contract work or stay full-time?

I am a full-stack web developer who has worked exclusively at full-time positions for nearly ten years. The work that I want to be doing is designing and building sites that adapt to the rapidly-changing expectations of today's web users. In my experience, when companies want this, they hire cont...

career-development career-switch contracting

I just edited this. The top answerer did such a good job of looking at the entire picture objectively that I thought I'd try to make the question fit a bit better based on this answer.

too bad we can't flag to reopen :p

us low reppers, I mean :D

Just post on meta

@MattGiltaji You can flag to reopen... some people do bring those things to our attention with the "Other (needs moderator attention)" flag reason... in this case, it was already kinda on my radar, so yeh... what enderland said....

3:32 AM

Wow -- you have electorate in 2 months? That is insanely awesome. It took me a year plus. You really need to get some more rep!

and you can also do what I did @MattGiltaji and drop a link in chat... sometimes people can see your edit and derive inspiration from it and edit further or even vote to reopen if they have the rep....

@jmort253 good ideas, I will keep them in my back pocket

0

Q: Is it commonplace to pay interns a fixed (non-hourly) salary?

At previous jobs, we have had a small number of interns (compared to the overall engineering staff), and they were all paid hourly. At my current job, however, the engineering staff is 1/3 interns, and they are paid a weekly salary, while being expected to put in about 80 hours per week. Is thi...

internship salaried-pay

wow, that company is BEGGING for a government shutdown

@enderland depends how much the salary is

@MattGiltaji no, it really doesn't, there are basic laws about intern/overtime stuff

0

A: Is it commonplace to pay interns a fixed (non-hourly) salary?

Your company should be aware of the United States Fair Labor Standards Act as applies to interns. The FLSA details internship expectations in the United States. I recommend reading the linked summary. A section which will specifically cause you concern is the following: If an employer uses ...

3:35 AM

@enderland hmm, I was unaware that FLSA had something specific for interns

if you read through that this company is almost 100% violating some federal law

@MattGiltaji there's a lot in there about interns

@enderland some light reading before bed :D

0

Q: How can I determine whether or not I should ask for a raise, and how do I approach my boss with this?

I started a job as a car parts driver (something to work around my school schedule). We recently lost our manager and the warehouse assistant (stock boy) so they now have me doing stock, invoices, dispatching, and delivering parts. I do at least double the work as all the parts drivers but still ...

this has been fun all, see you later

Here's another one I edited.... these should appear in the reopen review queue, I believe...

3:38 AM

Goodnight @Matt! Thanks again for all the contributions.

@MattGiltaji Laters! :)

:D

I wish delete votes expired after a certain time period

maybe 3 months?

@enderland Why is that? Making a feature-request is the best way to actually get this to become a reality (no promises though).

@jmac idk, I dislike my stuff randomly disappearing I guess, if I could search my deleted content I'd be ok with it

3:42 AM

@enderland Can't you see your deleted content in your profile? In general, notifications are only for positive events.

@jmac I don't think so

I'm not sure if I have deleted questions/answers though so it's hard to check?

@enderland workplace.stackexchange.com/a/19164/7945

@jmac yeah that doesn't show on my profile

Ah, okay.

Be back in a bit

4:18 AM

Biggest Coding Nightmare: All our apps are down, leads are dropping, and the only editor I have is....... NOTEPAD.EXE!

Tweeted by jmort253 on August 5, 2014 at 4:06 AM

2 hours later…

6:26 AM

Anyone see any way to possibly salvage this question?

-17

Q: How do I deal with a colleague who wears socks and sandals to work?

I have a colleague who wears socks and sandals to work. I feel this is really unprofessional and the lack of style offends me. Our office has a smart casual dress code, and this seems a blatant transgression of this. How can I resolve this problem? The options I can currently think of are: R...

professionalism dress-code

Here's another one with good answers but poor question:

0

Q: How to find if we're monitored using Employee monitoring software?

Is it a myth or fact that employees are monitored using Employee Monitoring Software ? If so then , How to ascertain that we're being monitored ? Can management take any decisions based on the report generated by Employee Monitoring Software ? These are the common FAQ which are curious ones.D...

software-industry india employees employer termination

Some editing might help turn this into a good resource if any editors want to take a stab at it. Suggested editors (those with < 2000 rep) are welcome to try a suggested edit as well.

When I edit posts like this, older, abandoned posts, I look at the top answers and try to make the question fit the answer.

Ideally, on fresh questions, we'd try to get the asker's input, but at this stage we just work with what we have...

4 hours later…

10:29 AM

@jmort253 Socks and sandals question....not sure if troll.

10:55 AM

user image

@enderland was here.

1 hour later…

12:14 PM

I posted a question on the meta bout the software-industry tag complete with the 7 year old art @jmac requested

0

Q: software-industry tag discussion

The other day jmac and I were chatting and he raised the opinion that the software-industry was a terrible tag and he makes some good points. If someone works for twitter in HR are they in the software-industry? I currently work for an insurance company as a programmer, do I work in the softwar...

discussion tags

12:29 PM

@IanHolstead Thanks Ian!

12:51 PM

@jmac Your welcome! I didn't mean to imply that you were the one to be solving the problem but your name did come up a lot of times in the question... Your comment is helpful in that regard. Thanks!

@IanHolstead On SE, 99% of problems can be solved by the community. 0.99% of problems can be solved by mods. The other 0.01% of problems are for the CMs. (Proportions may vary, only valid in the continental 48, participating sites only).

So the fact that you made the post both entertaining and informative means it has a far better chance of being picked up on by the community, which is absolutely awesome.

For whatever reason, once you get the diamond, people start seeing you less as a member of the community, and more as an evil lizard-person overlord trying to enslave the rest of the site. Or perhaps the diamond makes folks act a bit like that because of the workload and perspective shift that comes with it. The point is that I used to do a lot more stuff like you just did, and am glad you did it not me!

1:09 PM

@jmac mods and CMs can sure create more problems if they like though ;)

@enderland I have a bunch in the oven for when the next mod gets elected ;)

Because everyone loves problems.

"oops didn't mean to delete everything"

Nah, that's an easy problem, nothing you can do about that.

you can undelete stuff, individually, over and over again...

More like, "We will double the amount of flags received through tweaks in the flagging system"

That would be really fun.

1:22 PM

Heh

At any rate, whoever wins will have a tremendous mod team backing them up in jmort and Monica. Those two are oozing with experience and insight in to moderation.

1:49 PM

@jmac you aren't going anywhere either don't forget, even if you aren't officially a mod ;)

@enderland Incorrect. I am going to Bali.

@jmac nope. I'll talk to Shog9!

2:08 PM

@IanHolstead i gave a +1 just for the hydra drawings

@MattGiltaji haha thanks

@jmort253 I would edit it, but the fact that the second highest answer is mine makes me feel like I would be too biased

I only have 12 network registrations. I need to catch up to @jmac

@enderland i picture @jmac swimming in diamonds like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his coins

@MattGiltaji At this point, the way I see it is if a question is closed and more than a week old, it's most likely abandoned by its original author.

So if we can do something cool with it, then that's great.

Here's some editing guidelines:

> 1. If the question is new, make a comment first, and make a quick edit to get the asker to participate
2. If the question is several hours old and still open, only edit if it looks like it will be closed (it has no good answers, downvotes, close votes, etc.)
3. If the question is already closed with no answers, have at it (anything is better than a no-answer closed question)

7

A: How should we adjust our approach to editing to minimize conflicts?

Executive Summary My stance on edits is simple: a closed question doesn't get answers and can't help the asker or any future visitors. If an edit can turn a non-productive closed question in to a resource, then that is a net positive. But the devil is in the details. I think there are three iss...

I think what we need to add is a #4. If the question is weeks old and still closed, edit to make the question fit the best answer, assuming there are good answers at all.

2:34 PM

@MattGiltaji Do you imagine the trip to the hospital after getting one in my eye? True story. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, perhaps, but they make horrible fill for a swimming pool.

@jmort253 I agree fully with the person who wrote that post. He sounds like a fellow with his head sewed on straight. What the heck happened to that level-headed user anyway? All I see is a bunch of rants on the front page about comment volume!

@jmac diamonds are an expensive best friend...

@enderland What are you talking about? I started a Diamond farm. I collected a bunch of coal, put it under my unused books, and now I'm just waiting to collect my reward!

user image

@jmac don't look so pointy to me

Man, I thought you guys were experts on the Workplace, not on diamonds. Clearly, if you look at my profile, I am the expert on diamonds, and I have many of them. ♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎‌♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦‌︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎‌♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎♦︎

maybe I can get a moissanite icon here

2:48 PM

What is a moissanite?

Moissanite /ˈmɔɪsənaɪt/ originally referred to a rare mineral discovered by Henri Moissan having a chemical formula SiC and various crystalline polymorphs. Earlier, this material had been synthesized in laboratories and named silicon carbide (SiC). == Background == Mineral moissanite was discovered by Henri Moissan while examining rock samples from a meteor crater located in Canyon Diablo, Arizona, in 1893. At first, he mistakenly identified the crystals as diamonds, but in 1904 he identified the crystals as silicon carbide. The mineral form of silicon carbide was named moissanite in hono...

Wikipedia, saves me again.

Man, I thought you were quoting the movie Snatch.

@Bmo Is there Moissanite in the movie Snatch?

@jmac it's basically a considerably cheaper and better version of a diamond

Diamond = ♦︎, Moissanite = ♢

There's a part in the movie where they talk about a fake diamond being a moissanite in the pawn shop. Laced with cockney rhyming and flowery language.

That was supposed to be 'colorful' language, not flowery.

2:51 PM

I was going to say, Snatch didn't seem big on 'flowery'

you from the UK Bmo? (I ask because you used the words 'cockney rhyming slang' as if it meant something to you, that is not so common in the non-commonwealth folk I've met)

US, but they used it in a few other movies that I've liked. I don't know much about it other than it exists.

Gotcha.

The only one I can ever remember is Septic Tanky, Yank, which the Aussies are oh-so-fond of (they call Americans 'Seppos').

septic tank yank. that's great :D

> 334 REVISIONS

only 166 more to the copy editor badge! haha

3:07 PM

I always feel I edit a ton. Then I look at my stats.

Only 185. I will never get there.

And I will likely lose my fanatic badge chance when I go on vacation.

Curses! Foiled again. And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you ~~stupid~~ meddling tropical islands.

Yeah it's really weird, I think I edit constantly but still only have 334

@jmac Smartphones ftw

I only didn't hit workplace 3 days all of 2013, surely you can do better ;)

@enderland Tropical island with poor infrastructure, fml

You also have to realize the burden of being in a totally different time zone from the server -- much harder for me to hit two days at once since the swap over hits really really early.

#firstworldproblems

lol

Think about it for a second, you totally forget to log on some day. Are you more likely to remember before 8am, or before 6pm?

3:20 PM

@jmac 8am

but... I'm weird

At 6pm, you are far more likely to log on both before and after every evening, so you don't even have to worry about the next day. And if you do forget to log on in the evening, you have the bulk of the next day at work to do it.

For me, I have to sign on each day, because unless I sign on right when I wake up, that day is already over.

4 mins ago, by enderland

#firstworldproblems

¬_¬

I guess there are probably differences in how much rep you get on a daily basis, I think west coasters probably have an advantage for that

Probably right there too. Yeah. I always ask questions at awful quiet times.

3:30 PM

you want "midday" to be right in the middle of when you post answers generally, so something like noon = "midnight" system time

For the "optimizing rep" idea

so if you rep cap you hit it early rather than later

5 nominees already in the election. Wow.

@enderland nah, there seems to be a flurry fo activity at 5PM west cost time, which would be midnight UTC

i would've had fanatic on all my sites now, but I forgot to login one saturday night/sunday morning

wait not fanatic, the 30 day one

my answer seems to have generated quite the comment list

9

A: Mentioning family on CV

I would not mention anything about family on the CV as that can be a legal liability (in the United States, not sure about other countries) and prevent you from being interviewed. The United States government specifically mentions that employers should NOT ask anything about marital or family st...

now I'm wondering how I can edit it without getting too legal advice/IANAL

@MattGiltaji Your answer is fine as-is, but if you think the comments merit being addressed, don't worry about it and just give it your best. The community probably will like it based on past contributions.

3:57 PM

took a stab at rewording this to make it more broad and less company specific

please check the suggested edit queue and let me know if it's off base

0

Q: How to find if we're monitored using Employee monitoring software?

Is it a myth or fact that employees are monitored using Employee Monitoring Software ? If so then , How to ascertain that we're being monitored ? Can management take any decisions based on the report generated by Employee Monitoring Software ? These are the common FAQ which are curious ones.D...

software-industry india employees employer termination

2

Q: Is it commonplace to pay interns a fixed (non-hourly) salary?

At previous jobs, we have had a small number of interns (compared to the overall engineering staff), and they were all paid hourly. At my current job, however, the engineering staff is 1/3 interns, and they are paid a weekly salary, while being expected to put in about 80 hours per week. Is thi...

internship united-states salaried-pay

I don't know why this has 4 close votes

2 hours later…

6:16 PM

added some more to this answer

9

A: Mentioning family on CV

tl;dr I would not mention anything about family on the CV as that can be a legal liability (in the United States, not sure about other countries) and prevent you from being interviewed. Why not? The United States government specifically mentions that employers should NOT ask anything about mar...

6:33 PM

Ok so do I create a THIRD table for different classifications of employees, or do I suck it up and modify my main one to include all different classifications....

bitfield.

propertybag.

This feels like a question I don't want to think about the implications of just creating a third table and basically throw good database design to the wind

totally drop that & try JSON.

no jquery

Ok I convinced myself to do more work and add them to the main employee table

keep it normalized

6:36 PM

0

Q: 40 rep points disappeared yesterday

40 points disappeared from my Rep yesterday. It was 902 when I went to bed, when I woke up yesterday AM it was 872. I checked the reputation, voting tabs, etc. and didn't see anything. No downvotes, no user dropped etc. Any idea what's going on?

6:50 PM

What is your question? This doesn't have an actual question right now. "What should I do?" is not on topic here. — enderland 5 secs ago

be nice to get this closed ASAP before opinions abound

@enderland if only you had diamond powers to close it with one fell swoop

where's @Oded when we need him

@fschr did you read the link I posted? "What should I do" is specifically listed as off topic. — enderland 1 min ago

sigh. oh well

2 answers in 5 minutes... ramping up for hot questions list

@enderland I did read it, I agree that I have made a mistake. I don't know whom else can I ask questions like this. — fschr 32 secs ago

oh well, I guess that question is going to be popular for everyone here

maybe some aggressive edits to fix?

7:04 PM

there's no question nor semblence of one

if you want to upvote those comments that MIGHT help

it reads to me like "i've been given a task that violates my ethics, what do i do?"

but how do we get the "what do i do" out?

I don't think the person even knows what they want to ask

I can't believe someone running for moderator here answers a question blatantly off topic according to the FAQ and self admitted by the asker of the question

7:20 PM

@enderland haha that might have been me, when the question first came up I flaged for mod attention to nuke the comments

@IanHolstead No, I mean someone running for the moderator election here posted an answer

I dont have much time right now but I made a quick edit to try and save the question. I dont know that it is enough

@enderland ohhhh. ummmmmmmm awks

Someone might want to take a stab at fixing my edit (if it is approved) but I have to fly, I will be back later.

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