The Whiteboard

user41796

5:00 PM

@Undo When gnat was rolling through and fishing out link-only answers, MichaelT and I were routinely out of close votes each day.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 you guys are out of CV and DV every day.

I don't even try to keep up

user55340

@JimmyHoffa Don't worry, when the delete votes roll in (2 days), you'll get that rep back.

user41796

@JimmyHoffa maybe you should and we wouldn't be... :-P

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 Uh-huh, riiight... as if you guys wouldn't find enough shit to CV

Undo

For comparison, SO returned 10,995 comments matching that.

Anyone have any good query ideas for flaggable comments?

user55340

5:02 PM

"belongs on"

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo '+1%'

user41796

and '-1%'

Undo

@GlenH7 @JimmyHoffa But won't those turn up comments that have some critisism that should stay?

user41796

or a plus and any number amount. Generally the higher the number the more worthless the comment.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo I didn't say delete them all, I just said you would find some, Better if you limit the length too.

user41796

5:03 PM

@Undo rank by length of comment next. That will weed out the ones with valid criticism.

Undo

Ahhh.

How do I do ORDER BY LENGTH(Text) in MSSQL?

user41796

And a few false positives are okay. Actually, we can empirically determine where the cutoff length should be with your valid / invalid flag tracking

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo That doesn't work? (it's LEN unless it's of a binary type then it's DATALENGTH)

Undo

So, watcha think of the comments turned up with this? Flaggable or no?

user55340

I hit the close button on a very fresh question, it comes up with "cannot cast close vote because it is already closed, please refresh" And what do I see? Oded.

user41796

5:07 PM

@Undo garbage. All or almost all flaggable.

user41796

Here's a gem:

user41796

> +100! 25 reports is the path to insanity!

Jimmy Hoffa

data.stackexchange.com/programmers/query/150333

look at the first one that pops up

user41796

Oded FTW!

user41796

> +1000 it's valid for anything.

user55340

5:08 PM

Modify Jimmy's "+1%" to a "+%" -- anything that starts out with a plus.

Undo

I'll throw @JimmyHoffa's one in there. Just a minute.

(with the mod)

user41796

proving my correlation between the higher the plus value, the more worthless the comment.

Undo

What reason should +1 comments be flagged with?

user41796

@Undo - I would encourage ignoring the score on the comment. Snarky stuff will get comment up votes, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be deleted.

user41796

@Undo not constructive is the most general catch-all for those

Undo

5:10 PM

@GlenH7 I do.

NC it is :)

user55340

Linkable comments - data.stackexchange.com/programmers/query/150338

André

hello

user41796

@André Hola!

André

@GlenH7 que tal?

Ampt

@André Tag!

Undo

5:12 PM

@GlenH7 They doth be there now :D

André

I'm it now? You guys sound bored lol

user41796

coolness. More to delete!

user41796

@André oh, you stepped into a land mine there. :-)

user55340

Ug - locked questions...

user55340

+1 lol... — RCIX Sep 12 '09 at 13:34

André

5:13 PM

:)

Ampt

@André Was?

gnat

@Undo flagged some 4-5 of these, most of the rest belongs to stuff that needs to be DVed / Cved / VtDed along with plain comments cleanup :)

Undo

@gnat Want a 'dismissal comment' field?

Ampt

@André sprechen sie deutsch?

Undo

I could make it so that it shows up to everyone else with a comment....

André

5:14 PM

@Ampt nein! But my family is germanish

How's work Ampt?

user41796

@Undo dismissal?

Ampt

Cold

not sure if the heaters are on or not

Undo

@GlenH7 Just a rough idea.

Ampt

@André you?

André

@Ampt, finished some project, made bugfixes, waddling around now

@Ampt, they don't organize stuff, so there are times there is nothing to do

Mostly is reading time, I'm researching what to for my "master degree thesis" or whatever that translates to :-)

Ampt

5:18 PM

haha masters degree? you're nuts

in a good way

someone has to come up with all these algorithms so I can do a quick import and have all the power

André

I'm getting old, time to take to next level I suppose :)

I still want to be able to work overseas, having a master degree help

user41796

Yet another reason I need a diamond - so I can roll through locked questions and purge crap comments.

user55340

Blam! programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/18480/…

user55340

(see @JimmyHoffa you'll get your rep back...)

André

@MichaelT, looks a nice 404 here :)

Jimmy Hoffa

5:21 PM

data.stackexchange.com/programmers/query/150346

^-- has links to comments

user41796

@André don't worry, the cool kids can see it still. :-)

Jimmy Hoffa

(some things break the links like double quotes but most the links work)

user55340

Lots of activity in the 'recently deleted' bit.

André

kicks some dirt I suppose I don't have enough bling bling

user55340

Another Blam programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/21325/…

user55340

5:23 PM

We're giving the mods something to do apparently...

user41796

@André only 9899 more rep and you'll be there too!

user41796

@MichaelT and we've got two mods working away at things today

user55340

That means... we need more comment flags!

user41796

@WorldEngineer - have we even made a dent compared to normal flag levels?

user55340

Ok... enough flagging for a bit... back to wishing I was drooling. (thats drools - instead of writing business logic by hand)

user20683

5:30 PM

@GlenH7 maybe

user41796

@WorldEngineer We're just trying to make sure you feel needed.

Jimmy Hoffa

....and I'm out of comment flags

user55340

@WorldEngineer he's just trying to gauge how much work he'll have when you finally slap him with a diamond.

Jimmy Hoffa

(you know, one of us probably should have been working from the bottom up on that query rather than all of us going top down)

user41796

@JimmyHoffa I was thinking about that this AM. Multiple flags actually makes it easier on the mods. Shows consensus that the comment needs to go.

user55340

5:32 PM

@JimmyHoffa Debateable... while it would mean that you wouldn't be redundant, three people working in the same direction would mean that you might not need any mod intervention to delete the comments.

user41796

So it slows down the rate that we can clear things out, but it provides more assurance that the things need to go.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I don't have DVs, just flags, don't think those accrue to cause automatic deletion

user55340

Comment flags can cause automatic deletion of the comments.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Oh sweet. Wonder how many it takes. Just need to get @Ampt participating then... alternatively @WorldEngineer could just take the query and do all the work for us

user55340

3 + (vote/3) I think... looking up.

user55340

5:34 PM

(i.e.: a comment at +3 takes 4 flags)

Undo

@MichaelT I think that's correct.

user41796

@JimmyHoffa it's community moderation. Not dump on World moderation...

Undo

(sorry, @WorldEngineer. You might be busy for a while.)

user20683

@Undo I'm down to one flag that's nothing to do with you lot.

gnat

wow recent deletions remind good old times of STCI

meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/stci

user41796

5:34 PM

@Undo Yannis had posted your original taunt about coming to Programmers next in here, which is how we found out about it.

gnat

10

Q: Structured Tag Cleanup — Call for proposals #1

Related: Request for comment: structured tag cleanups This is a call for proposals for the Structured Tag Cleanup Initiative. Provide one proposal per post A tag cleanup proposal is a tag, or a collection of highly related tags (e.g., tags all sharing the same stem) that needs to be...

user41796

@WorldEngineer yeah, probably means that one of us got out of hand and needs to be suspended. See you on the flipside of my timeout

Undo

1 min ago, by World Engineer

@Undo I'm down to one flag that's nothing to do with you lot.

Having a hard time processing - my brain isn't fully engaged yet.

user55340

@WorldEngineer admit it, you enjoyed going "Blam!" to those questions and comments.

user55340

@Undo He's handled all the flags we've tossed his way, there's one in the queue remaining that isn't related to us.

Undo

5:37 PM

Oh.

Oy @RobertHarvey!

Robert Harvey

'sup.

Jimmy Hoffa

15 mins ago, by Jimmy Hoffa

http://data.stackexchange.com/programmers/query/150346

user41796

@Undo World is really good about digging into the flags and making sure the decision he makes is "right" for the situation. Some are obviously more thorny than others.

gnat

@Undo he will suspend you at SO for today's fun at Programmers

Undo

@Robert I have brought my SO flagopilypse to Programmers.

user55340

5:38 PM

@RobertHarvey Having fun with a tag and comment cleanup (look at the recently deleted in 10k tools)

user41796

The flag-pocalypse is all Yannis' fault. Just saying for the record.

Undo

/me wishes he had 10k tools

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo Some day I might get those...

user55340

@RobertHarvey apparently, Jimmy resisted doing any "Bleh" flags.

user41796

@MichaelT We're not sure. World did say there was one left....

Robert Harvey

5:39 PM

Gotta be careful what I say around Jimmy.

Jimmy Hoffa

Hope it doesn't snow on my flight back from Charlotte next week

user55340

It was probably the goatse graffiti one.

user41796

yeah, that one does have historical significance. Just in the wrong kind of way.

Robert Harvey

Nice collection of suck in that Recently Deleted list.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 I didn't know anything about that, but I can't imagine there's enough historical significance to not delete a one sentence answer that's basically "Well I think bleh." to a question that stinks to begin with

user55340

5:42 PM

@enderland My arguments appear to be falling on deaf ears at TW... workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/16911/… Would you care to chime in?

user41796

@JimmyHoffa you haven't heard of goatse?

user55340

Ahh... I remember when goatse was actually shocking on the web.

user41796

If so, then you are truly lucky

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 are you kidding me? I made the reference above that @MichaelT is using.

Robert Harvey

@MichaelT Eh, let it go. Question closed, going nowhere. Let it die gracefully.

user41796

5:44 PM

@JimmyHoffa ok - I hadn't seen the comment in question so didn't know

user55340

@RobertHarvey I'm not worried about the OP reposting much at all. I am concerned that the commentator has a mistaken impression of the types of questions we have here and what is on topic for P.SE and will continue to spread this as comments (rather than flags for migrations).

Robert Harvey

He'll find out in no uncertain terms if he tries to post here.

>"Jimmy"

A generalized name for the clueless/new developer.

We found as we were developing a framework component that required minimal knowledge of how it worked for the other developers.

We would always phrase our questions as:

"What if Jimmy forgets to update the attribute?"

This led to the term: "Jimmy-proof" when referring to well designed framework code.

3

user55340

But thats the thing, the commentator doesn't post here. Its much like the SO people who have 101 rep here from an association bonus who post "belongs on P.SE" on every question without code.

Robert Harvey

Highest voted comment in stack overflow history is on that (deleted) answer. It reads: sigh . . ...... :< – Jimmy

user55340

They never learn what is right, but every time someone follows their advice they have a very negative impression of what P.SE is about.

user41796

5:48 PM

@RobertHarvey Laughs like that make me want to get to 10k on SO....

Robert Harvey

1,469 great comment votes.

user41796

That's gotta be some bragging rights to the mod who blew away the answer & comments.

Robert Harvey

That would be me. :)

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT The thing that forces me to say somethign when I see any of those comments is that if you stop someone once, you've stopped them multiple future times from doing it again, potentiallty saving millions of lives from torment on P.SE

user41796

Props. I was half-afraid it was some villain like Jeff stealing that limelight.

Jimmy Hoffa

5:54 PM

This question was already posted and accepted appropriately on SO. This cross post does not belong open or here at all. — Jimmy Hoffa 56 secs ago

^-- my custom off-topic CV

if anyone has any left...

Not going to close vote as belongs on SO when it's already on SO

and not super good for SO even.. "Here's an absolute train load of code, guys plz2fix kthxbye!"

user20683

@JimmyHoffa dead

Jimmy Hoffa

Somebody brought his A game today..

> Just wanna be capable of meeting their expectations, without knowing which they are. All I can come up with is saying I'm bringing good vibes to the role....

I hope you bring more than good vibes heh

Undo

Anyone know how to take a Ubuntu desktop install and turn it into a server?

user20683

@Undo There's a site for that.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo apt-get install make-me-a-server-presto

gnat

5:59 PM

@MichaelT I flagged bad advice comments. Twice now :)

Undo

Meh, I'll stick with the desktop installation and try to remove the desktop part.

enderland

@CMW just because the subject might be better for P.SE doesn't mean this question in its current form should be migrated. From an SE perspective, this doesn't really fit a good subjective site question anywhere. That being said I'm also not really sure this is applicable on P.SE and MichaelT is quite involved in that community. — enderland 26 secs ago

Jimmy Hoffa

Poll question of the day: What's the most interesting thing you ever found in some old abandoned desk hanging around an office?

I'll never forget rummaging out of curiosity around in some file cabinets abandoned in my cube at one job that was used as storage space before I showed up, and finding a binder containing like 300+ pages of documentation on pointer tricks to improve performance from the mid 80s tagged with the Texas Instruments logo all over it as they had authored it

I found this binder still hanging out there around 2008

user55340

I'd actually intentionally leave odd things in desks when I leave. Just to make people go WTF.

Jimmy Hoffa

find the dangest things in abandoned desks sometimes, they oft end up dumping grounds for people who want to clean their cube but don't know where to put the stuff that was left there from previous folk

gnat

6:07 PM

user55340

I'd tend to leave this stuff in a drawer...

user55340

amazon.com/Black-LEMONADE-SCARY-12-Ounce-Bottle/dp/B001IW1MCY

gnat

oh my I can 100 a day! @GlenH7 you gotta be sorry for pinging me

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT For sure. I left all that stuff there for the next people, I've inheritted desks before with the filing draw jam packed with file folders from who knows when

gnat

16

A: How many flags does a user have per day?

As of June 25, 2013, flag weight appears to have been dropped entirely in favor of straight net count. default 10 per day one bonus flag per 2000 reputation one bonus flag for every 10 net helpful flags (helpful - declined) maximum 100 According to this post, flag weight is still used to de...

user55340

6:08 PM

> INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Lemon Concentrate, Lemon Oil, Red #40, Blue #1, Yellow #5, Herbal Blend Consisting of Siberian, American and Korean Ginseng, African Capsicum, Brazilian Guarana, Ginkgo Biloba, Kola Nut, Echinacea, Clove, Sage, Skullcap (Mad Dog Weed), Kava Kava, Sodium Bezoate to preserve taste.

Jimmy Hoffa

Heh sounds yummy

You just reminded me @MichaelT, for anyone whosoever get's a chance, single best cola ever made (also caffeine free):

amazon.com/China-Cola-Packs-bottles-total/dp/B001SAUXV2/…

not the cherry variety rather..

user55340

They also made one called brainwash that had jalpenio pepper oil in it.

user55340

>
BevNET Review: Brain Wash is perhaps one of the most exotic of the Skeleteens beverages, and definitely the one with greatest amount of food coloring. It contains numerous herbs, several types of ginseng, and an interesting kick of jalepeno pepper. Probably due to the jalepeno, the taste is similar to The Drink. Brain Wash is a bright blue color, which will temporarily dye anything it comes in contact with. It is also rumored to dye the drinker's feces and urine, but that failed to occur for this drinker. Despite its novelty, it can't really be considered a superior beverage, because it's…

user55340

And the face after drinking it...

user55340

6:13 PM

> INGREDIENTS: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Caffeine, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Red #40, Herbal Blend consisting of: American, Siberian and Korean Ginseng, African Capsicum, Buchu, Echineacea, Jalapeño Oil, Ginkgo Biloba, Ginger, Gotu Kola, Kola Nut, Brazilian Guarana, Skullcap (Mad Dog Weed), Clove, Damiana, Sage, Sodium Benzoate (to preserve taste).

user20683

@MichaelT Can't be worse than Kimchi soda.

user55340

softdrinkreviews.blogspot.com/2008/08/…

Robert Harvey

Might as well just drink embalming fluid.

user55340

The comments on the review are things such as:

user55340

> The blue version made my poop a bright bluish greenish color for over a week. I regret drinking the whole bottle.

user55340

6:15 PM

> I tried the blue version of this stuff. It tasted like carbonated pickle juice and burned my throat on the way down (presumably from the jalepeno juice).

Jimmy Hoffa

@RobertHarvey It's technically the same, aside from y'know, the actual dying part.

user55340

So yea... leaving a bottle of that in a desk makes you wonder what the people after you will do with it... think that you are crazy and pour it out... or wonder if you are crazy and give it a try.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT The best part is if they give it a try, not actually knowing anything about it do they then think they accidentally just had something utterly toxic and call poison control?

user55340

Dunno. I'd hope they'd read the ingredients. I mean... "skull cap (mad dog weed)"? That should be a hint.

Jimmy Hoffa

The sad thing is that when you show up at a job and rummage through the desk you're given and see it absolutely brimming with stuff from previous occupants over years just shows that the dingbats with the simplest of administrative tasks around offices like cleaning out desks upon an employees leaving because y'know, they might have things in there that are confidential to the company or them or who knows what, are so incompetent they can't even accomplish that simple task.

Offices have a lot of people in them who live in the periphery doing next to nothing far as I can ever tell...

@gnat [about] I like that link for close comments and close votes... nice touch I'll have to remember that

user55340

6:22 PM

4

Q: How can I write a good custom close message?

We only have so many canned, built in, close reasons. There are so many other reasons to close something at times - giving a better message than trying to shoehorn the reason to close something into too broad or primarily opinion. Custom close messages have the significant advantage when it com...

discussion close-reasons

2

user55340

I've got a lot of short cuts in there.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I need to pay closer attention to meta sometimes..

It seems to move in fits and bursts though

gnat

@JimmyHoffa yeah I find it great for blatant stuff

This question appears to be off-topic because it is about what banner ad to use. — gnat 4 mins ago

Jimmy Hoffa

@gnat yeah that's where I saw it

My point is that every proposed solution (your included) to the complexity faced by the OP is over simplified. By the time the proposal does what the OP requires (which we do not know accurately), including edge cases, it is likely to be no simpler than the original. We are so good in this industry at trivializing the last little bit....... — mattnz 15 hours ago

@mattnz we are also extremely good at fearing it disproportionately. — Jimmy Hoffa 38 secs ago

user55340

The solution by mattnz is exactly how I was working with a class that had methods with a complexity of 1000+.

user55340

6:34 PM

And they started out the same way... just a few if() { } else if () { } else if() {} ... blocks chained together.

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa Participate? Can't, only 2k rep. sorry!

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt Participate in comment flagging

Ampt

Oh jeez, would you look at the time...

point me towards the list and I'll see what I can do :P

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt data.stackexchange.com/programmers/query/150359

Ampt

too chatty?

that what we're going for?

Jimmy Hoffa

6:38 PM

Not constructive

Undo

@Ampt I can give you a better list!

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa mmkay

Undo

(with a nice gui)

Jimmy Hoffa

@Undo that list I just gave has tweaked to remove the top 30 or so that were deleted already

Ampt

@Undo how?

Undo

6:39 PM

@Ampt Well... I need your email so I can give you an account.

(not a scam, promise)

gotit

Ampt

you can spam that one all you want, I never check it haha

i believe its actually in my profile

@JimmyHoffa alright, used up my flags, time to go back to sipping PBR and making RoR Websites

Undo

You're all set up.

Ampt

sweet, ill check that out when I get home

Robert Harvey

You need to reduce your coffee consumption by about 50 percent. As to your question, generally speaking, you can license your applications any way you want, regardless of the compiler/interpreter license (there wouldn't be much point, otherwise). — Robert Harvey 1 min ago

Undo

flags as offensive

Woohoo! Now I have an old iMac G4 running Ubuntu in a closet as a server!

Ampt

6:44 PM

flags as not constructive

Undo

Now, anyone have any good ideas as to fun things to do with a home-server?

André

@Undo that's the hard part XD

Ampt

really, it is. I have more computers than I know what to do with

user55340

Control the lights in a room. Allow you to set a sleep timer to them. Control it from web app.

Undo

@MichaelT How would I do that?

user55340

6:46 PM

@Undo Typically with an Arduino doing the actual device control.

Undo

Oh.

user55340

blog.iteadstudio.com/…

André

Use a PIC with some electronic magic, connect it to the PC using the serial port.

user55340

The Arduino does the interface to the light, the computer tells the Arduino what to do.

Undo

Ahh.

Ampt

6:48 PM

lol just splice your computer up to the power line

André

I played with a Telit device, pretty fun, runs python

Undo

:D

Ampt

itll be fine!

trust me

André

"I'm a engineer?"

Undo

Now I have a MySQL server on it, with Apache and PHP.

Ampt

6:48 PM

I've only been charged with 3 counts of manslaughter

no convictions :D

Undo

Hmm... is there a way to have Ubuntu play music through the headphone port?

Ampt

audio drivers

André

sure, deppend on the driver

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt what's the latest on the HR communications? Accept anything?

user55340

@André Around here, we put "engineer" in quotes. Mostly because there is a guy ( @GlenH7 ) who is actually one.

André

6:50 PM

@MichaelT, oooh, okay

Ampt

@JimmyHoffa haven't accepted anything. still waiting on one of my offers, and pushed the other one back

although I haven't heard the latest on the one i had to push back

so im going to go no news is good news at the moment

It's the lowest offer anyway. I wouldn't accept it

André

I sent my resume to google, talking about HR, surprisingly I fit the minimal requirements

But I suppose there are way more qualified people waging war to get there too :P

Ampt

@André why Google?

out of curiosity

André

they are rated the best workplace at my country

Ampt

rated best workplace in most countries

André

6:53 PM

but what drawn me to it, is the 20% time policy to work in "whatever" you want

Ampt

Interesting

enderland

@André I do this at my current job, more or less :)

André

so cool the idea of being paid to have fun :P

enderland

it's not officially supported ;|

Ampt

Always fun to hear what people have to say about why they want to work somewhere

André

6:53 PM

@enderland lol

I'm cool here actually, but is not really challenging

Ampt

yeah. The more I learned about big corporations the less I wanted to work at one

André

that's why I want do a master thesis, seems a fun challenge

I'm going to try solve some physics problem with AI

just need to find some physics problem

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 if everything else about google is too life-stealing, you gotta admit the whole free in-office day-care would be awesome. That would save my wife and I soo much...

André

:)

enderland

@JimmyHoffa hows that work. lol

Ampt

6:56 PM

@JimmyHoffa their benefits are nuts.

Jimmy Hoffa

Iduno, the old kodger responses I hear to google and similar places that they suck you ded I have a really hard time squaring with the fact that the benefits at those places are so ridiculous, and it's not like you don't get PTO et al

André

a dog friendly work place would be great too :P

Ampt

yeah, but if you're backed up on a deadline and take PTO and the project doesn't meet that deadline, what happens

Jimmy Hoffa

@André Eh, this is more hassle than it's worth. Lots of people are allergic to dogs, the policy against them saves us all from hearing a lot of whinging

Ampt

just because it has benefits doesn't mean you get the chance to use them

@JimmyHoffa get out of here. I would love to bring my dog to work

user55340

6:58 PM

Most any <500 employee tech company is dog friendly.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt What makes people think google is somehow different than others in the way they treat this stuff?

André

@JimmyHoffa yeah, I understand, but it would be so cool :P

user55340

Though a lot of that is trying to keep the dot.com boom day feeling in the company.