« first day (1584 days earlier)      last day (3635 days later) » 

01:31
@tchrist Remember, many people never make it to Piaget's formal operational stage. They stay at concrete operational all their lives, if that.
@JohanLarsson Haha, I didn't know it. But it's very accurate!
Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. It was first developed by a Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Piaget believed that one's childhood plays a vital and active role to the growth of intelligence, and that the child learns through doing and actively exploring. The theory of intellectual development focuses on perception, adaptation and manipulation of the environment around them. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but, in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge...
@tchrist Haha, right.
But prelapsarian is not so bad?
> "However, research has shown that not all persons in all cultures reach formal operations, and most people do not use formal operations in all aspects of their lives"
@Cerberus It makes me think of mitral-valve prolapse sufferers.
And then I get lost between prescribe and proscribe. :)
01:36
What?
I don't have a mitre, let alone a mitral valve.
Prolapse is the "common" word.
@Cerberus Can't live without a mitral valve. You don't have to be a bishop to need one.
@Cerberus Oh, I should think you do!
Mitral valve prolapse (or floppy mitral valve syndrome, systolic click murmur syndrome or billowing mitral leaflet) is a valvular heart disease characterized by the displacement of an abnormally thickened mitral valve leaflet into the left atrium during systole. It is the primary form of myxomatous degeneration of the valve. There are various types of MVP, broadly classified as classic and nonclassic. In its nonclassic form, MVP carries a low risk of complications and often can be kept minimal by dietary attention. In severe cases of classic MVP, complications include mitral regurgitation, infective...
Sounds most unpleasant.
What do you know?
But I am infernal.
@Cerberus Not much, you?
01:38
My organs may be different.
That remains to be demonstrated.
I'm also drunk.
Et tu?
We went to a Belgian café and drank Belgian beers.
That is only right.
01:38
@Cerberus Hey, did you know Firefox still has memory leaks? Why did you talk me into using it? They've had memory leaks since v. 1.0.
Belgium makes the best beer on the Continent.
Does it?
@Robusto He forgot.
Now we're at 36.0 and it still has memory problems.
My Firefox doesn't seem to be having any huge memory leaks?
At least not that I remember.
01:39
@Cerberus If I have a lot of tabs open eventually it freezes.
What does it do to you?
Or gets really slow.
Right, but the same happens to me in Chrome.
The Chrome dev tools are better than Firefox with Firebug, no?
Not sure it's a memory issue anyway.
01:40
And even if it is doing some laborious garbage collection, it's still no excuse for long freezes and slow performance.
@Robusto That never happens with Opera.
Or, actually, with anything I regularly use.
@tchrist People say they aren't...
@tchrist Yes, but Firefox native dev tools are catching up fast.
I don't use Firebug at all anymore.
@Robusto It normally doesn't do that for me.
@Robusto Oh really? That's interesting.
01:41
@Cerberus Try leaving a window open with duolingo running for a couple of weeks.
I’ve been using FF+FB for ugly reasons, and I miss the Chrome tools I normally use.
@tchrist Firebug was great in its day, but its day has passed. Even IE has at least comparable dev tools now.
Ok, time to vcheck.
@tchrist Chrome dev tools are top drawer.
@Robusto Never tried...the only thing that brings Firefox to a crawl or crash is Google Maps.
But I use a ton of extensions.
01:43
Well, the Mac is running v36, but the ugly little VM with Windows is running I have no fucking clue because I can't figure out how to use its goddamn UI to tell me shit.
IE 11 is actually a pretty good browser. Who'da thunk it?
I can't stand not having a regular toolbar, like.
@tchrist You have to tell it to show you the menu bar.
Sigh.
It does not respond to curses.
Nor any other imprecation.
I believe IE 11 is currently fastest for JavaScript performance.
01:46
I cannot abide these fucking hieroglyphics.
Which they change every few years.
At least in Opera you can turn that shit off and make it GIVE YOU WORDS.
I have no idea how to get it to tell me what version it is. Stupid POS.
Yeah, I like everything about Opera except the fact that they think they don't need to adhere to standards. And even if their way is arguably better, the other 99.95% of browser usage is what we developers want to develop for.
And if you don’t have a "smart phone", then everything is a new fuckyou every day.
Believe it or not, developer pressure was what got Microsoft to make a better browser at long last.
They’ve changed al the hieroglyphics to things smart phone users expect.
Which are utterly indecipherable to the rest of us.
Assholes.
Yeah, I know. My life shouldn't have to be a rebus.
01:49
Unholy slaves.
And this Netscape Navigator wheel they use for config settings is stupid.
Except when it’s an astrological sign.
So annoying.
These are what they use these days, I have learned. I hate them all.
Egypt is dust in the wind. Let my people go!
Give me fuþorc or give me death!
Huh.
What does that mean?
What does what mean?
The hieroglyph and the other sign.
Those are what the assholes use for Config Settings these days.
Usually both.
In various arrangements and orientations.
May they eternally burn in hell forever and ever.
Very strange.
01:57
I didn't spend my life reading just to discard fucking words for nouveax hierofuckingglyphics
But why do you associate this with smart telephones?
It’s like how Europe has forgotten how to put words on signs, preferring yet another set of hieroglyphics you have to learn.
I agree about the use of icons in general: they're overused, where text would be better.
But with computers, they change more often then women’s hemlines.
It is intolerable.
Huh?
01:58
Hip.
You gotta be hip to grok their hieroglyphs.
Do we have more symbols on signs than other continentia?
You. Have. No. Idea.
We use signs with words of them.
Europe is all about hieroglyphics for road signs
So unless you know a hundred different icons, you're completely screwed.
But unlike computers, those icons don’t change whenever there’s a trendy new hipness.
Still, it is a very limited system.
Example?
It is not extensible.
Language is.
Of course I don't drive a car.
02:03
Haha.
That's very...explicit.
But I should think a red circle was not so cryptic...
What the hell is a red circle?
Go ahead, make my day: what’s the eurotrash symbol for that last one?
@Cerb You could navigate our roads here even though you don’t know our symbols. Because, like, we use words.
That one is on I-70 coming down from the Divide. What's the eurosign for that?
That one is real: they ran out of names. :)
Don’t we have useful and understandable signs, even ones you have never seen before in your life?
I’m trying to choose signs I’ve actually seen myself.
Bah.
Notice the pregnant chick warning.
@Cerb So yes, you have lots of hieroglyphics. It’s like the only word Europeans know to use on road signs in STOP.
I guess if you have to choose one... :)
02:35
@tchrist There are two advantages to symbols:
1. People who speak a different language can understand them.
2. They're easier to identify from a distance, when you can't read the letters.
You just have to recognise the general shape.
But in general I agree with you: symbols are overrated in our time and age; we should use more text.
@Cerberus This is not a problem here.
That, however, is a problem. :)
Do you recognize the hotel?
It’s the one from The Shining with Jack Nicholson.
Truth in advertising:
@tchrist I bet some foreigners won't know what elk means.
@Cerberus Then they should not be driving here if they cannot read road signs.
Or...the road signs could be made universal to accommodate them.
Nope, that’s hieroglyphics.
Canada though does these things differently.
02:45
That's nice.
@tchrist You said it wasn't a problem. I pointed out how it might be a problem for some people.
Ask @Rob about suicidal deer.
@Cerberus Everyone speaks English here.
You are used to all kinds of people coming there who don’t speak Dutch.
When you drive an hour and suddenly you are in a country that speaks a different language, well, that isn’t normal here.
Not everyone, and not well enough.
In all the world, only Québec alone has no STOP signs.
Even France has STOP signs.
That’s their way of saying "If you don’t speak French, you don’t belong here.” :(
That’s from Maine.
I bet you have many recently Latinos imported who wouldn't understand that...
Darwin wins.
Survival of the moosest.
A collision with a deer can easily kill the drive.
A collision with an elk usually does.
A collision with a moose — haha!
They stand taller than the hood of the car.
You just drive under their legs.
And a ton of venison comes crashing through your windshield. Pretty much a guaranteed nobody-lives scenario.
02:55
Assad has tortured 13.000 people to death.
And disappeared 20.000.
Why are you counting people in thousandths? :)
Hi guys :-)
Hello, have you visited a moose, lately?
Prolly just as well.
02:57
Have you?
Not this year.
But the year is young.
They’ve put up moose-crossing signs on the road into Nederland.
Poor @Cerb, first it’s wolves then it’s moose!
To be honest, I have never seen a moose in Boulder County while driving, only while hiking on foot.
02:59
I don't mind.
Wolves normally aren't dangerous.
That’s correct, but how few know that!
Just handsome dogs.
Like myself.
Besides, I'm an urban dog.
Ok, Havoc.
I like brick and sandstone, not clay and sand.
They’ll huff and they’ll puff.
03:01
Who will?
Sweden is prepared to interrogate Assange in the embassy in London!
@Cerberus The Big Bad Wolf.
And the case will lapse in August anyway! I had no idea!
@tchrist Fiction.
That’s a Boulder County sign, BTW.
03:03
Haha.
Very useful and rational.
Yup.
It’s even in metric: see how it starts with ten?
@Cerberus Good luck with that.
user116848
Hi guys
Hello!
@tchrist How do you mean?
@Cerberus Why would he submit, and what good can come of it?
This one is about 45m from me. As you see, they’ve converted it for Furriegn Visitors:
I cannot see what he stands to gain.
@Cerberus It’s because of Sweden’s brief statute of limitations.
@tchrist Clear his name?
The case seems to lack merit.
03:10
This is the sign at the roundabout in Nederland:
@tchrist Apparently.
But rightly so.
@Cerberus Probably.
Tourists drive into the roundabout and stop there. It is terribly annoying.
But I’m not sure we can blame its sign.
He will no doubt confer with his solicitors.
The sign is not clear.
But they should stop before the roundabout.
03:12
Heh.
The road to Nederland has lots of these signs along it:
I find it totally ironic that in the Netherlands, there is no such opportunity, but in Nederland it is mandatory.
Haha.
Y'all should move to below sea level.
More climbing opportunities.
Well...
More dike-building ones.
Please. Ladies of sensible shoes.
New Jersey does things like that, but that’s not in Jersey. Not sure where it is.
Perfectly clear.
I presume that isn't serious.
03:21
Well, I think it was an old sign.
This one is here in town:
It looks like a fun water slide, but it kills.
It would be very bad if one did not read English, don’t you think?
You have canals. Do you have a skull-and-crossbones symbols for the deadly ones?
They probably should add that.
This is up in the County past Nederland:
They don’t say no bikes; they just say on your head be it. :)
Such a friendly environment.
@Cerb I really don’t know what to do about Assad, or anything in that part of the world.
Well, he has killed and tortured many more than IS has.
How can a canal mean "certain death"?
It rushes down through an underground opening that feeds into a reservoir. There is something in the down-chute that nobody survives.
It looks like you could just ride though it like a sled in a water-park.
So you should just not enter the opening?
03:29
Well, yes.
The rest of the canal is fine.
Right.
It is very slippery and fast and hard to get up out of at that point.
Wow, that’s a lot of prepositions.
We have a lot of very cute signs on our footpaths.
They’re starting to account for people who only speak Spanish.
This is for you bikers. I don’t think it would work without the words:
That’s just a couple of miles from me.
Obviously for footgoers, not drivers.
Notice again that they don’t say you can’t go there. They just say on your head be it.
"Calmly back way from the lion" is far easier said than done. One is anything but calm.
But if you run, it will eat you.
It’s probably best to bring a sacrificial dog with you.
Tsk.
So it won't attack if you keep facing it?
It's more likely to attack if you give chase.
I guess.
There are no guarantees in this life, but you are a bazillion times safer that way. Prey flee; competitors never turn their backs.
To run from a lion will trigger its leap-to-kill instinct. You will die.
They can leap thirty feet.
And they can outrun a horse.
Easily.
Those are much better instructions.
Yup!!
Well...
That isn’t quite fair.
Then again, neither is being attacked by a lion.
Oh, apparently it's bedtime.
Goodnight!
’Tis.
Night!
A puma is of the same size as a leopard, but for some reason I think of leopards as more dangerous. I don’t know why I think that.
Fight back is good advice.
Parents have saved their children in this way, right here in town.
A lion springs on a child of eight, and the parent becomes insanely protective beyond all reason. And the child lives. It has happened at least three times since I’ve lived here.
Unfortunately, once it did not work.
That was up in Rocky Mountain National Park.
But the couple occasions here in the city parks it has been a miraculous save.
Both occasions the parent engaged the lion with bare hands.
For the fatal one in RMNP, the child was separated from the parents, and they got there too late.
> A fatal attack took place in Rocky Mountain National Park when a 10 year-old boy, hiking on a trail ahead of his parents, was attacked by an adult female lion. The lion left the scene when the parents arrived, but was killed a short time later when it tried to pounce on a National Park Service officer who was guarding the boy's body.
> If attacked, fight back with your fist, walking stick, camera, or whatever object is available. People have successfully driven lions away using their bare hands. Always remain standing.
One lad used his bike. That could be you, @Cerb.
> A cyclist encountered a mountain lion on Walker Ranch Open Space in the foothills west of Boulder, an area popular with hikers and mountain bikers. The cyclist, a male in his 20s, was riding alone when a lion lunged from beside the trail and took a swipe at him.

"After the lion realized the biker wasn't typical prey like a deer, it stopped and began snarling with its ears laid back," reported Rick Basagoitia, the Division's district wildlife manager for the area.

According to Basagoitia, the biker positioned his bike in front of him until the lion backed off. The man slowly and warily p
But they are a wonder to behold.
Right.
I'm glad I'm safe here.
I WILL GET YOU IN THE END, YOU KNOW
2
Lions are much more dangerous than wolves.
@Cerberus TMI
03:58
Yeah, kitties.
You shouldn't address death.
 
6 hours later…
09:43
Hi! I'm writing some guidelines for technical documentation, and I need an example where it's a bad idea to leave out the last period in a single-sentence comment.
Is there a nice example where leaving out the period makes the sentence look "half finished" or ambigous?
10:12
A sentence, by definition, requires a period, question mark, or exclamation mark at
The end.
;-)
11:07
@tchrist What sort of a benighted place doesn't want you to ride bikes?
@Cerberus With what?
 
1 hour later…
12:13
@infinitesimal, I've seen recommendations to skip them if they don't serve any purpose. In for instance lists of simple statements etc.
Then it's not English.
12:49
^^
You can use semicolons instead for list items.
@terdon But only for compound items that may contain commas themselves. That is to avoid ambiguity.
@Robusto Aye, but I don't like lists with nothing at the end. They seem strange somehow. Unless we're talking about non-sentences.
@terdon Wait, what? Who said anything about nothing at the end? Wherever the list ends, that's something.
41 mins ago, by aioobe
@infinitesimal, I've seen recommendations to skip them if they don't serve any purpose. In for instance lists of simple statements etc.
What? That is nonsense. Who would say such a thing?

« first day (1584 days earlier)      last day (3635 days later) »