Hi guys

@Twyxz afternoon young sir

Young? @motosubatsu

@Twyxz do you prefer to be called fledgling sir?

juvenile sir?

unformed sir?

kid

will do

callow sir?

you're a baby goat now?

whatever you want me to be ;)

I love the idealism and wide eyed innocence of youth. Let them enjoy it. They'll have the whole latter part of their lives to be jaded and cynical dousing the smoldering embers of burned out dreams with an ocean of tears.

@RichardU I say make a teenager president while they still know everything

@motosubatsu We've got Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez, is that close enough?

Fun fact, the leader at my local council gets paid more than the prime minister

bit stupid really when they've got no money to spend on the city

@RichardU she's 29.. or in as @Twyxz would say "ancient"

@Twyxz the higher echelons of local council can be paid very, very well

they generally operate on the hope that no-one will notice that their job basically involves doing f##k all

We should go back to the days when politicians were not paid at all.

@RichardU wasn't that otherwise known as "before the invention of money"

@motosubatsu No, initially in the USA, most political posts were unpaid, as they were part-time, and intended to be representative of the people, not any particular class.

@RichardU I always think politicians should be paid like directors - with profit share. If the country does well and makes a profit they earn more

@motosubatsu I'd like them to be too busy with their full-time jobs to have time to think of new ways to get at us. The French are rather unhappy with the EU flagged armored vehicles right now.

brum brum

@Twyxz oh dear.. have you lost the power of speech?

Skrrtt rrrrrrrrrrrRRRRrrrr click RrrrrrrrAAARRRr

That reminds me of my ex wife ^^^^^^^^^^^

@Twyxz are you browsing from your race car bed again little guy?

@motosubatsu dammit, I was drinking coffee when I read that. NOw I have to clean off my keyboard

or can you not afford fuel for the ST this month?

@RichardU you're welcome

hahahahhaha

Can't afford the fuel

This is my replacement fun hahaha

well I suppose there's (slightly) less chance of you crashing this one

any news on your close calls with the photographic fuzz?

I remember being homeless, and riding my bike to the bus (free bus pass).... then one night, having missed the last bus, had to ride the full 10 miles... not an easy thing to do in the high desert

Nah nothing

Photographic fuzz? Who's policing images now.

other than FB

and twitter

I started Go Karting in a competitve league for no reason hahaha

and spotify

@Twyxz at KNE?

@RichardU I feel it would be Un-PC of me to laugh at the joke.. but well played sir

@motosubatsu I find I am living life in reverse, when I was young, I was very much a get along to go along type. Now, in my old age, I am getting rebellious.

I got a time out on FB for offering free helicopter rides.

@motosubatsu Yeh but the adult 10 round championship with absolute randoms hahaha

I don't even know why, Didn't even want to do it

@RichardU I believe the term as applied to us old people is "crotchety"

@motosubatsu I prefer Cantankerous. it rolls of the tongue far better

@Twyxz supposed to be a good track that, although I perhaps question the wisdom of putting an outdoor track in the NE

what happens when they realise you lied about your age?

then everyone knows they've been beaten by a child?

Then I better get a call up to Junior F1 hahahah

Apprenticeship with Ferrari as a driver would be nice

@Twyxz this is why I like you.. you've got modest ambitions

@Twyxz I think you and my daughter would make a good pair. She's the same way about Golf

The most modestest person everer

what Karts are they using for the adult champs - the Sodis or the RX250s?

Sodis

I think?

@Twyxz Sodis are fun

damn I miss karting :(

How do people actually become formula 1 drivers?

Go through the ranks of 4,3,2?

@Twyxz the standard route is pretty much - start Karting at about 8 years old, then either Formula Ford, or straight to F3 -> F2 -> F1

but as ever you need money

lots and lots of money

£50 per championship ahhaha

then you get a £25 gift voucher

so you come again

the sad but true adage is Q:How do you make a small fortune in motor racing? A:Start with a large one!

@Twyxz £50 for a championship event is pretty cheap

@motosubatsu my brother used to say the same thing about aviation. He saved his company millions in cost cutting and increased efficiency, and not one person lost their job.

@Twyxz nah.. you have to do a proper championship, something like Rotax Max

a season in that will set you back around £2k + the costs for the kart itself

more if you want to really be competitive

125 cc in a go kart sounds awfully exciting

@IDrinkandIKnowThings welcome brother.

GM all

@IDrinkandIKnowThings How may we offend the masses today?

BTW, does anyone else feel like Roddy Piper's character in the movie "They Live"?

@Twyxz the Sodis are 390cc Honda units ~ 15bhp

a rotax max is "only" 125cc but ~28bhp

the difference being the rotax will need rebuilding every 10hrs or so

money Money Money

@Twyxz if you want a truly mental Kart you want aa Gixxer Kart

Imagine being able to precision stunt drive, the thrill

@RichardU Im more of Jim Carrey in Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind

@IDrinkandIKnowThings Despite my splenetic nature, I still seem to be a magnet for people in trouble. I had yet another friend in trouble contact me out of the blue last night. Don't people realize I'm evil?

I am too but I have a soft spot for other broken people too

@IDrinkandIKnowThings I guess that must be it. I really don't care for people whining about small things, but people suffering from real tragedy, that's different.

My friend's life is a study of the American dream in reverse. She started out affluent, got married, bought a house in one of the wealthiest areas on the east coast..... Then everything fell apart. they hired a contractor to do renovations, he ruined the house to make it unlivable, 1 legal battle later, they lost the house. Her hubby was a computer programmer, who got swept aside in the great Y2K purge, her children have serious health issues...

@Twyxz Ken Block-style?

And the latest is that she found out that hubby is carrying out numerous affairs.

She contacted me last night because she was suicidal.

I talked her down.

@RichardU nice one.. despite you're wide streak of evil you're a good egg really :)

@motosubatsu I've been trying to channel my shadow towards the truly evil.

Id fear more someone who thinks he's moral than someone who thinks he's evil

@ArthurHavlicek As would I.

My SO is good. She confuses the hell out of me.

Browsing someone's SO is something sucidal persons do before asking for advice

Not that I want to switch from that sad and personal subject but

are you in computer science Richard U ?

Never mind, read your profile, quite amazing I must say

@ArthurHavlicek self taught hacker since the ripe old age of 10. brought down my first system at the age of 20 (I was bored), been white hat ever since.

Do you think claiming CS is in shortage of person that big of an overstatement ? I did so, but now I feel dumb

@ArthurHavlicek There is definitely a shortage of COMPETENT people in CS, that's been true for a while

There is generally a shortage of CS people in general, because so few people have gone into it since the dotcom crash in the early aughts

I was lucky enough to get the train because my father was in CS, now I feel a bit bad for many of people that haven't. I find myself having it easy

not that i don't have disabilities, but still

in my area freedom to choose your boss is a luxury even for minimum wage workers

I wish workplace had a bit more of this humility, many here are in CS but don't feel as privilegied as they should IMHO

When I dealt with people snarking at the users, I told them to think of how they feel when talking to their auto mechanic, drop the snark, and get back to work.

Ugh! Remember folks, if something doesn't work 100% of the time, it doesn't count....

SMH

@RichardU What if it worked but only one time at band camp?

@IDrinkandIKnowThings When I was young, I was a sex object. Every time I'd ask a girl for sex, she'd object.

This new code of conduct is interesting. Apparently, saying that someone's answer "reflects poorly on your own character." is acceptable, but pointing out that such behavior is heckling violates the policy. I'm wondering if I could get clarification.

@RichardU I just saw another one you knocked out of the park again... good for you.

@AaronHall Thank you. Some of the reactions though...... wow.

I don't really read comments, haven't seen any...

@AaronHall I should stop reading them... I should absolutely stop reading them......

@AaronHall My answers come from the wisdom of having learned from a lifetime's worth of poor choices, mistakes in trusting the wrong people, and at one time assuming that HR was my friend :D

@RichardU Stephen G? my advice on that guy is to not respond to him, or if he has a nominally legitimate "criticism" just directly address it in your answer, and ignore how many protest votes he gets on his comments.

Keep the upvotes where they count - on the answer.

@AaronHall yeah, I know...... I shouldn't take the bait. What's really bothering me is some problems a high school friend is having. Got hold of me over the weekend, telling me I was the only one she could reach out to. Had to talk her down from being suicidal.

so, that lowers my tolerance for nonsense....

I should get hold of my church and see if I can keep myself busy doing volunteer work again.

@RichardU Your answers have reached 3+ million people on Workplace - you're doing the Lord's work right here.

@AaronHall It's one of the reasons I decided to come back. I don't like the way this place is run, but I've decided that I can help people. So, I stay and will continue to answer.

Personally, I think it would behoove the staff of SE to ask a few questions here and get some guidance. Joe could probably give them a real education, if nobody else.

Maybe it's because of my MBA that I empathize a great deal with SE's management, I don't have any big complaints, they just act like I expect any corporation would given their management and employees, and actually better than I expect in most cases.

I'd like the big "SE Management is Bad" thesis at some point...

@AaronHall you've got to admit that the way they reacted to the twitstorm was a textbook case of how to not handle a crisis.

The strategy of favoring new users over old is a bad one too, as was the "benevolent dictator" speech on META.

They also have the appearance (note, I said appearance) of not caring about the existing userbase.

What they should do is hire someone who's full time job would be to promote the changes and speak for the company itself.

I saw Tech Republic go down this route and become a shadow of it's former self, I'd hate to see that happen here.

I think the balance is still very strongly in favor of established users, even if everyone rolls out the welcome mat for every noob, that doesn't change the fact that low-quality questions are going to be immediately down-voted, closed, and eventually deleted.

My real fear is that the firm may be over-leveraged, whatever expansive business plans don't work out, and new management (one that's really tone-deaf and out-of-touch) is brought in to "turn it around" and instead runs it into the ground.

My credibility eggs aren't in just one basket, but there's not a lot of baskets...

@AaronHall SE has tried to expand too quickly. The solution is to pull back, and if need be shut down a few stacks that aren't behaving. Curtail bad behavior quickly, respond quickly, and perhaps split some of the "soft" stacks away from the harder ones.

although, that doesn't account for all the nastiness coming from the math SE.

TWP is stable because we have some high-powered, knowledgable people in here who KNOW the workplace. The stacks that have trouble are filled with people who know little to nothing of a subject and are spamming those boards with answers, so especially in it's infancy, they will skyrocket to the top, get privileges, and be able to lock the doors behind them, so to speak.

If SE did just that, and nothing more, they'd eliminate 90% of their problems.