The Pod Bay

geoffc

02:02

Musk released his Master Plan part deux. Pickup truck, full autonomy by 10 billion K driven mark, Tesla Bus! Tesla Semi-truck! Better factories.

tesla.com/blog/master-plan-part-deux

4

Antzi

07:11

japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/07/21/national/science-health/…

Jaxa is planning to send a huge solar sail for a long duration mission

Stack Exchange

10:00

Introducing Stack Overflow Documentation Beta

Kevin Montrose on July 21, 2016

Today - thanks to our amazing community beta testers - we're shipping our [biggest expansion to Stack Overflow][1] since it first launched: Documentation.

PearsonArtPhoto

11:47

@geoffc Also, make money from your idle car.

geoffc

@PearsonArtPhoto My dad runs cabs. This will last as long as the first drunk pukes in the back seat. There is a reason cabs get run down. People suck.

PearsonArtPhoto

Fair enough.

Of course, there are already car sharing services which seem to work reasonably well.

geoffc

12:08

@PearsonArtPhoto Owner operated right now. I am sure they are enjoying the puke in their nice personal cars as well. :) Unmanned, off on its own, comes back stinky, torn seats, etc... Especially after multiple rides, who puked? Who tore the seat? Who knows.

PearsonArtPhoto

The idea with the current car sharing services is that each person inspects the car before they get in to it.

called2voyage

12:59

@StackExchange I like this. Can we get it on other sites?

We could have examples of how to solve common equations that we reference a lot.

We could have examples of how to configure cube sats and model rockets

geoffc

13:46

@called2voyage I was thinking the same thing!

called2voyage

@geoffc And if we had it, maybe we could get some kind of lightweight orbit simulator that we could draw simple orbits in as demonstrations.

geoffc

That would be cool.

called2voyage

@JonEricson Can this be our graduation present?

PearsonArtPhoto

14:16

We should see if we can come up with an interesting chat feature.

There's a few sites that have special chat features, like RPG has the ability to throw dice.

There's a game that can happen in arqade.

geoffc

That SpaceX landing on ASDS game?

PearsonArtPhoto

69

A: What Easter Eggs do the chat sites have?

Meta Stack Exchange/(any room): red tags Send a message consisting solely of [status-SOME_PLAINTEXT_STRING] and it will appear in chat like a moderator tag. Doing this as a reply to another message is okay, but other text or formatting will not work. The plaintext string cannot be longer than 50...

That actually would be pretty cool.

called2voyage

14:29

@PearsonArtPhoto Add things to a Moonwards environment with a text command from chat. A bot posts a link to the environment in reply. :)

I'm really putting the pressure on Kim. :P

kim holder

@called2voyage pressure is good ;] but stuff i don't know how to do isn't going to happen unless i can bring more people on board

for something like that, i recommend pressuring @Hohmannfan ;]

called2voyage

@kimholder I know, the pressure is in jest. :)

kim holder

i wonder how they are going to make the documentation site more searchable. looks like they have organized it into chapters and sub-chapters, but that won't be enough.

PearsonArtPhoto

Of course, you see how many sites have easter eggs...

It might be cool to get a text one, like the time until the next optimal launch to all planets or something.

geoffc

A sidebar, displaying the launch schedule, like r/SpaceX has would be nice.

PearsonArtPhoto

15:15

Good luck though, the devs are overworked here as it is...

Maybe we'll get lucky, Space.SE has been a favorite of the team...

called2voyage

@PearsonArtPhoto Yeah, I feel for them.

PearsonArtPhoto

Wow, our question count is up, and pretty consistently...

And we almost topped our all time high for page views in a day...

kim holder

over 5 q per day since the beginning of the year, 6 a day for the last 2 months

geoffc

15:47

Do you guys have any feedback on graduation? This seems better established than Bicycles when it graduated. So wondering how we get into that queue?

called2voyage

@geoffc I'm pretty sure when we hit ten questions per day, we'll graduate.

geoffc

@called2voyage That seems pretty arbitrary.

I know. I know. Our other stats seem pretty good.

Not sure 10/day is a reasonable thing for this site, ever...

called2voyage

@geoffc I think we'll get to 10 q a day

Phiteros

Won't we also need the 2.5 answers/question?

called2voyage

@Phiteros personal opinion: no

kim holder

15:53

traffic indicators are far more important. Blender.SE graduated with one 'okay' stat - less than 90% of questions answered.

and the answer count that indicates health on a programming or hobby site is not the same on a science site.

called2voyage

@geoffc Philosophy didn't have to hold 10 q per day. It just had to average it for a while.

@kimholder and question count per day is a good indicator of participatory traffic

Phiteros

If we graduate, do we get to toss our hats?

geoffc

@kimholder That is what I was thinking. Science vs programming.

called2voyage

@Phiteros no, we'll still get winter hats ;) (I know what you mean)

geoffc

@called2voyage Bicycles, they mailed nice pens (Retractable Sharpie, which I still use) water bottles, logos and a shirt I think on graduation. That was nice. Love that Sharpie.

Never seen one like it before or after.

called2voyage

16:18

@geoffc Sweet, was it certain members who got those?

geoffc

@called2voyage I think it was founders (From proposal) with XXXX points. I forget how many or what the rules were.

That was an early grad, so may no longer be the case.

PearsonArtPhoto

It's usually the top 3 pages.

Or something like that. Users by reputation.

called2voyage

Ok

PearsonArtPhoto

I've gotten something as recently as a year or two ago for Graphic Design.

I think they still are doing it.

I've gotten one from Photo, SciFi, and Graphic Design.

Jon Ericson

@called2voyage Depends on timing. And if the feature actually works. ;-)

PearsonArtPhoto

16:21

I'll probably get one for Signals.

So, all we have to do is to get our question count a bit higher than it is right now for a while...

kim holder

probably a year more still though. i don't want us to try to push it.

called2voyage

@JonEricson yes, it is a beta feature. It looks great though.

kim holder

comparisons to wikipedia float through my mind...

it moves from q&a to reference material. while avoiding the problems that reduced wikipedia contributions to a tiny fraction of what they were in the early days.

Rory Alsop

16:57

@geoffc My water bottles from there keep being nicked by my kids

geoffc

@RoryAlsop I have so many bottles it was not a thing for me, but that Sharpie man!

Rory Alsop

For Security we got a torch, a t-shirt and some stickers. For Music it was a t-shirt and some stickers

Yeah the Sharpies are good

For Travel we got a towel! That was superb

geoffc

Oh man, a towel for travel? That is excellent!

Rory Alsop

For all the ones I have swag from, it's been the top 2 pages of users, and/or mods

Just a little face towel with the logo on, but you know - a nice nod to Douglas Adams

geoffc

That makes sense. I knew there was a points aspect, first 2 pages make sense.

Phiteros

17:15

Did they have to ask you for your address or something?

geoffc

17:33

@Phiteros I forget how, now.

Phiteros

@geoffc (brown cow)

kim holder

@Phiteros i imagine they send out emails

geoffc

@Phiteros I have the horrible urge to say that, every time I answer the phone. Or a colleague asks for help in chat.

Have to be careful, since some might take that as an offensive comment.

PearsonArtPhoto

18:03

I bet we get a model rocket;-)

@Phiteros They send out an email giving you a link to a Google Survey, where you include your address.

geoffc

@PearsonArtPhoto I bought my son one of the F-9 model kits from SpaceX. We built it, but he refused to launch it, Preferred it as a toy to play with Would love another one of those.

PearsonArtPhoto

I actually did the same thing.

But it won't be that nice.

I actually have my Falcon 9 (1.0 w/ Dragon) right next to me now.

geoffc

@PearsonArtPhoto I contemplated buy ing another one for me. :)

Hohmannfan

19:34

I will argue that if you can solve this one, you are probably not a human being.

kim holder

uhhhh... tyrflux lrWhythW...

i think, after staring

Hohmannfan

@kimholder Nice try, robot.

kim holder

tell me more about nice try. is that a robot? well, i don't know. how are you today. i think try is nice. i bet. how about that. would you?

i wonder how hard it is to convince people on a chat that you are a sophisticated bot?

Hohmannfan

I too feel nice today. how are you today. go to here for more information.

kim holder

19:49

:}

called2voyage

@kimholder Easy, just keep saying, "I'm NOT a bot!"

kim holder

:) i was just thinking a lot of semi-appropriate emoji could be very effective, getting to that blurry line between crazy person and bot

called2voyage

Yeah, I've chatted with people who talked more like a bot than some bots I know.

Hohmannfan

@called2voyage You know some bots?

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan Crap, does that make me a bot?

Hohmannfan

19:55

I have a bot mode, it is specified on my user page. I was a "manual bot" for a while over at the robots chat of worldbuilding. That does perhaps make me a bot.

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan I'm not a bot, you're the bot!

Wait, what were we talking about?

What's your favorite color?

kim holder

oh, you are a good bot :)

called2voyage

I don't want you to go just because we are going well.

kim holder

lol XP :O should i go? would you look at my website now? i think we are friends.

called2voyage

The website and I will be coming back.

geoffc

19:59

@called2voyage I for one welcome our bot overlords. As a trusted member of the community I can be helpful in rounding up slaves for your underground oil mines.

called2voyage

We are happy friends!

The mines and I will be able to relate to your question.

Seriously, though, do you want to know my hack for sounding bot like?

You just press the recommended words on your phone keyboard. :)

2

You can add in contextual stuff now and then.

And some classic bot catch phrases.

Hohmannfan

That is actually really close to how actual bots generate their messages too.

kim holder

we have come up with a system for people to create bot dialogues!

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan Well, of course, that's what powers the keyboard recommendations.

Hohmannfan

@kimholder Perhaps we can automate it?

called2voyage

20:04

Google is releasing an app that will generate your messages for you.

Hohmannfan

@called2voyage a "personal chat bot"?

called2voyage

I can't remember the name.

kim holder

i'm having happy flashbacks to the keyboard shortcut conversation months ago.

called2voyage

Google Allo

It has a smart reply feature

kim holder

ok, i know they talk about not being evil, and they almost had me convinced...

called2voyage

20:07

You just press a button to accept the auto message

Hohmannfan

They keep saying "We are NOT evil". Hmmm....

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan Obviously, Google is Skynet and has long been self aware.

Phiteros

Okay, but having does having something that replies to your messages so you don't have to 'evil'?

I mean, they're basically allowing it to take care of all the mundane messages that, let's be honest, were going to ignore anyway.

called2voyage

@Phiteros Nice try, Google.

2

;)

Phiteros

Did you mean 'recursion'?

called2voyage

20:10

Phiteros obviously is not reading his smart reply messages before hitting send

He can no longer be trusted

kim holder

ah, how i long for the days when i was simply honestly ignored...

called2voyage

@kimholder ignores

Hohmannfan

Who here will honestly use a feature that sends automated replies to your friends in your name?

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan Honestly, I'll try it. You still have to read and press send

Phiteros

If you are pointedly ignoring someone, can you honestly be said to be 'ignoring' them? Like if you're going out of your way to ignore them, that means that you are at least paying attention enough to look like you're not paying attention to them.

2

called2voyage

20:13

@Hohmannfan Google could already be doing it anyway for all you know.

Hohmannfan

@Phiteros Too meta...

called2voyage

@Phiteros That's the joke

kim holder

i would love to be able to log conversations where the auto-reply feature starts to get into a conversation.

Hohmannfan

What if all participants use the auto-reply feature?

Phiteros

What happens if they get into a loop with no exit condition?

called2voyage

20:16

@Hohmannfan Google signs them up to go to Elon's Mars colony.

Hohmannfan

The problem with online bots is not bots acting like humans, it is humans acting like bots.

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan It's hard to tell the difference.

Phiteros

I would say the problem is humans acting like humans. At least bots follow logical rules.

4

called2voyage

@Phiteros Algorithmic and conversational logic is different though.

We have an audience!

11 people

Last one to speak is a bot.

Phiteros

nose goes

Hohmannfan

20:23

v

called2voyage

v

kim holder

:)

Hohmannfan

^

Phiteros

:-) for a nose

Also, who is our audience? Have the government spy drones caught up with me at last?

called2voyage

Kim's the bot, unless someone else has anything to say.

kim holder

20:33

hey, there is a list of perfectly plausible non-speakers over there on the sidebar

Phiteros

@called2voyage I think that my phone assumes I am a robot if I make a message by just pressing the recommended words. Message reads:

called2voyage

@kimholder But they're not the last to speak.

Phiteros

I am on the plane and now I am a robot is a good time to time and money to pay for the Galaxy

Hohmannfan

Jim V is the only present person that does not show up in CHAT.RoomUsers.initPresent in the source.

kim holder

Jim V is a suspicious name if ever i saw one [squint]

called2voyage

20:35

@Phiteros Obviously, your phone knows you will soon buy out the galaxy.

Phiteros

Why buy when you can steal?

Hohmannfan

Why steal when you can destroy?

called2voyage

@Phiteros You're just trying to hide the fact that you're a wealthy alien

@Hohmannfan Said the bot

Phiteros

@called2voyage By pretending to be a robot?

called2voyage

@Phiteros Yes it's a ruse with many layers

You're obviously smarter than we are

Hohmannfan

20:38

"Reverse this MD5 hash to prove that you are not a robot: 87b7cb79481f317bde90c116cf36084b"

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan The correct answer is Steve.

Hohmannfan

@called2voyage OK, now I know for sure that you are not a robot.

called2voyage

@Hohmannfan Yes, my innocence is proven!

Phiteros

@called2voyage So I guess that begs the question: Am I present on this SE site to help humans know more about space exploration to uplift them, or am I here to reinforce things you think you know to prevent you from getting to space?

called2voyage

@Phiteros You're trying to help us get to space so you have more subjects to tax.

Phiteros

20:42

Has anybody else read "The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu?

called2voyage

@Phiteros No, is it good?

Phiteros

Let's just say that for a while after finishing book 2, I seriously considered learning Chinese so that I could read book 3 before it comes out in English.

It's really amazing.

called2voyage

I'll have to see if I can get a copy.

Rory Alsop

23:39

@called2voyage ... I was busy...

Phiteros

Robot!

Speaking of robots, though, Curiosity can now choose laser targets by itself:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6575&utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=weekly20160721-6

Transcript for