@TheSnarkKnight But its not comcast or TimeWarner so its got that going for it
@Kaz That is the worst. I would much rather have a worthless platform all around than something that keeps reminding you that you "Almost" got something great
@DarkCygnus ?
Have I mentioned lately that I really really hate the new coke variety of the top bar?
@IDrinkandIKnowThings So I wrote what was a somewhat-controlled rant, with the intention that I would edit it down to something more constructive afterwards. Gave a copy to my boss to ask for some advice on how best to condense and frame and tone-adjust it, and he liked it so much that he just forwarded it, verbatim, to their CEO.
@Nofel yeah that's not bad.. especially for a first effort
@Nofel nah for the guy who opened the advent calendar doors out of order
@Snow there are online practice tests you can take.. but the test itself is pen&paper multiple choice (or at least it was when I took it about 18 years ago)
@Nofel good call.. pass plus is valuable for filling in some of the things that the standard test doesn't cover such as motorways and it can help reduce your first year or two of insurance as well
I am a software developer with about 10 years of professional experience (approximately 20 as a hobbyist). I program in Javascript, Python, Perl, Java and also know a few other languages like Visual Basic, bash/sed/awk etc.
I am currently doing a large number of tasks for the company I work at. ...
@motosubatsu I have to admit that I've never heard of a "puffin crossing", we don't have those automated ones where I live. And I don't think I know what happens when I get 6 points as a new driver (well, I know you lose your license, but that's about it).
@Nofel nope.. 6 pts in your first 2 years since passing your test means your license is revoked (you are not banned) and have to retake both your tests
@Snow pretty much.. it's actually a sensible law IMHO, it's not overly punitive and if you manage to pick up 6 pts in the first 2 years then you probably aren't really ready yet
I actually got my one and only set of points during my 2 year period (I got 3 for speeding) and it worked - I drove like an absolute saint for the rest of the "probation" period
Yeah. I didn't notice a 30 sign on an exit from a roundabout and did 36 down a dual carriageway. A nice policeman at the end was busy showing a young cadet how to process speeding tickets and breathaliser tests.
Him: When did you last have a drink, Sir? Me: A glass of wine two weeks ago. Him: I see - was it red or white wine?
@Snow yes that's correct - my comment about lanes was in regards to it being a single/dual carriage way
@Nofel in general yes.. but not exclusively, it's theoretically possible to have a single carriageway motorway but I don't think there actually are any
"dual carriage way is two lanes" <- this bit. A dual carriageway is two carriageways (ie opposing flow of traffic) whereas two lanes are both travelling in the same direction
@Nofel I missed your mention of "contraflow" - this is where the flow of traffic in a lane is temporarily reversed to normal (due to roadworks or similar)
@motosubatsu here, we drive on a parkway, park in a driveway, and pay on a freeway
@motosubatsu I worked for six years for the county road department, the frightening thing is I know what all those words mean, plus what the numbers on our highways mean as well.
you can have permanent contraflows in some cases - usually it's something for a different class of traffic like buses or cycles to travel in the opposite direction to "normal" on a 1-way street
@MisterPositive Horses are very common on the roads in the UK.. in fact they not only have priority over motorized traffic but are considered so different legally that they have a right to use the roads, those of us in cars are only granted permission to use them if we meet the appropriate conditions
In the same way as Americans can't walk dogs wherever you like. You have to drive to a dog-park and allow your dog to be mauled by other dogs and you're forced to pick up other dogs crap.
@motosubatsu I lived out in cattle country in Colorado. The cows have an absolute right of way, and if you hit one, you're done. If the cow doesn't kill you, the rancher just might.
It's true about my cat though. When the alarm goes off, my cat pesters me until I get up. She will even bat at my nose with her paws. If I'm in the shower too long, she comes into the bathroom, moves the shower curtain aside, and meows at me.
At bedtime, she'll go back and forth from the living room to the bedroom until I go to bed
if I'm later than normal getting up I can hear my two going mental at the door to "their" room, bedtime is less defined as my two aren't really fans of the concept
@Snow i do sometimes wonder how little my Birman would be if you took away the fur, he's a stocky kitty but I think his "actual" size is nowhere near what he appears to be
@Nofel I actually just remembered that there is a single carriageway motorway, and it's not actually that far from you - the Walton Summit spur between the M61 & M65
@Snow *mostly*. It's not that they reject technology outright, just that, rather than defaulting to use whatever the latest technology is, they default to sticking with what they currently know/use, and only adopt new technology if they are sure it provides a wider community benefit.
@Kaz what they SPECIFICALLY reject is outside interference from the outside. So any phone will be out at the roadside. They will use lights and appliances, but they are all powered by propane and they have large tanks to store the propane. They essentially "live off the grid"
@Nofel thanks. The American diabetes groups are useless. The American diet is a quagmire of dietary refuse, barely edible and entirely unhealthy. I've been reverting back to a traditional German diet, it's helping.
@Nofel I have the reverse problem... I can't gain weight, which sounds like a non-problem - except when I get ill and my body tries to sustain itself from it's reserves I don't have any and bad things happen
@Nofel one of the biggest things that affects it is a person's basal metabolic rate (i.e. how many calories they consume just by being alive at "rest", I suspect that for someone like me it's higher than average
@TheSnarkKnight yeah people kept saying things like "oh when you turn 30 you'll balloon" (didn't happen) then it was "when you hit 35.." (didn't happen)
I currently weigh 8.5 stone - I think the most I've ever weighed was 10.5 stone and that was during a period when I was doing no exercise, (basically sitting on my ass all day every day) and I was stress eating nothing but crap
@TheSnarkKnight yeah that'll do it
at my lightest I was 7 stone dead about three and a half years ago - my clothes didn't fit, my body was falling apart and the people who were aware of it were rather seriously concerned as a bout of food poisoning or prolonged illness could have done permanent damage or even killed me
I'd like to request to reopen How to find out knowledge level of coworker.
It was closed for being too broad, but this question seems clearly answerable to me (and the upvoted answers support that). The question is asking how to effectively and professionally communicate technical knowledge when...
@Nofel I do. Love it love it love it. I could see myself as a history teacher if I were young enough to go to school for it and start that as a career.
@Snow I was going to leave at 4 today..unfortunately my plans for the evening fell through as the friend I was going to the cinema with isn't well and had to cancel. I'm mainly remaining at work so I can dodge a dark and rainy commute in crap traffic
@TheSnarkKnight Nope. I knew a guy (now deceased) named richard jr. He worked with his father in construction and they called them Big Dick and Little Dick. No lie. And they didn't mean it as a joke.
@Snow guessing that was meant for me? tbh it's more the traffic, leaving here at four means I run into a load of school run traffic and just can't really be bothered with it today - not if I don't have a good reason to be back by a specific time. Instead I'll just bank the extra hour and use it to leave early on a day when it suits
@Nofel it's possible that someone will call him that at school...but I wouldn't worry about it. If kids want to give another a mean nickname they'll find one regardless of what their real name is
@Snow ugh.. that reminds me, I need to get my eye test done - I've been getting guilt trip emails from Vision Express about it being overdue for..erm..a few weeks now
This question was closed due to being company specific or requiring a lawyer to answer. However that's not the case and I'd like to request we open it.
The question is referring to criminal records checks, which is a national certificate in the UK but can be obtained from different bodies and ha...
I think we should have a "How can I take offense to this statement?" SE. The idea is people share something that someone said to them innocently and we mansplain how what they said was condescending and irresponsible.
@TheSnarkKnight I hope I made a wise choice, As I am weaker in everything, yet I am praticising very much my new job subject and stuck on a thing for a week and again and again I m going over it as I don't want to leave it thinking It is undoable
@Nofel you made the right choice. We took on an additional programmer here and I've been teaching him constantly. He's eager to learn, and THAT is what matters to me, not any lack of knowledge
@MisterPositive I doubt many would run for the new term then you just have a green mod all the time trying to figure out how to do things and not get yelled at
@MisterPositive yes if they do their job well and regularly then they get to stay on. Do you really want it any other way? or do you just want a method to show your displeasure with certian mods in a way that can have a lasting effect as a personal attack at the mod?
its been a while since we have had an opening but we also do not have a large queue of unhandled flags as far as I can tell and we are not having a rash of unhandled issues
If you think there is a need for another moderator i would ask about it in meta. I suspect that if we asked for another they would give us another slot.
While i dont see an immediate need, I can definately see where we could expect to need one in the next year or so. So having a mod up to speed when that need gets here is not a bad thing.
Here is a different totally hypothetical question. How would we go about exposing and removing a bad moderator? IMO we don't have this situation, I am simply curious.
One or more of the following things happened to me on a Stack Exchange site:
My post(s) were wrongly deleted or locked by a moderator
A moderator posted a wrong comment to one of my posts
I was suspended, but did not do anything wrong
I asked a meta-question, but the question was closed and/or ...
@DavidK I do not think we have any bad moderators though. I think we have policies that are open to interpretation and an inconsistently enforced process for moderator intervention.
I think part of the problem is that issues pop up and whichever mods are around need to respond, often without waiting for a collective decision. Those kinds of inconsistencies are unavoidable though.
I rarely have an issue with them taking action. For me it is more the times they choose not to take action because the situation has not spiraled out of control yet. Even though the expectations based on the rules would seem to point towards taking action.
I feel like I completely wasted time since the entire point of the controversial post notice was to preempt and stop the poopstorm before it gets all over everyone
and maybe its that they are declined with messages that infer that I am wrong for asking for the notice rather than they decided not to act. Its possible im just too close to differentiate the a real problem from a percieved problem
I wish we could get rid of the close queue. We have some people who will close anything they can and one person who clicks Leave Open on literally everything (last close vote for this person was Nov 20).
@ChrisE SO implemented a feature, were users are randomly passed a review that has already reached a consensus as a "test" for the reviewer. If you fail you are suspended some days from doing review queue
@motosubatsu thanks :) I really hope to get that pint, I am positive on my application
It'd be interesting if they did that here. There are some very obvious off-topic questions that get "Looks OK" just because someone apparently doesn't even read them. And same with the other way around.
@ChrisE I'm probably the one who leaves everything open. I think we close far, far too many questions. I won't do a love of voting to close - others can do that if they choose. I usually do read them before acting on the close queue though.