The Whiteboard

Matt D

12:03 AM

<zimmer frame> back when I was first writing html, we still had the blink tag *waves walking stick </zimmer frame>

user41796

1:16 AM

It might be a bit of a stretch, but I think those two animated gifs could be flagged as offensive.

MetaFight

"Old Faithful Erupts", and "Just Bieber gains a follower on Twitter"? Yes, I agree.

Aaron Hall

1:55 AM

Just spent about an hour writing a small book of a response.

Jim G.

3:33 AM

-2

A: Should you always max out contributions to your 401k?

Definitely not. You are too young. Let me explain: Your money will be locked up for at least 40 years, and you will have to navigate some really quirky and trap-laden rules in order to get money for simple things. Let's say you want to buy a house. You won't be able to leverage the 401K for ...

^^^ Any young people need some investing advice? ;)

user15026

4:18 AM

eeeee I did the fizzes and the buzzes and the fizzbuzzes and IT WORKS and you can try it: jsfiddle.net/etzbe

user15026

(Sorry, I am just excited. I made a thing.)

Matt D

4:49 AM

>_<

yay for combinatorial logic

MetaFight

1:45 PM

some
lines
of
text
to
get
those
blinking
gifs (pronounced like "gifts" but without the T)
to
scroll
out
of
view.
phew.

gnat

2:20 PM

my heart breaks reading code in this question. I started writing an answer but dropped it, as it soon turned into too much of a straight plain code review, nothing conceptual. Would it make better sense to migrate it to CR? it's not a bad question mind you but I am somehow not comfortable stealing stuff that is supposed to be targeted by other SE site

0

Q: Avoiding Packages with High Efferent Coupling

I use java language to develop android application, after static analysis, the tool warns about high efferent coupling. What is the reason of this warning? Is it about AComModel which is extended by other class? There are 4 classes below which the tool warns us about them. I hope I asked logic...

efferent coupling sounds promising, but when my eyes eyes stuck at public non-final fields, only thing that remains in my brain is reference to basic language tutorial "Use the most restrictive access level that makes sense for a particular member. Use private unless you have a good reason not to. Avoid public fields except for constants..."

amon

@gnat That code is sorely in need of a code review (the names, oh the names), but the core question “what to do about the high coupling” would be off topic on CR, as that's more of a design question. I think here on programmer, that question is right where it belongs.

(on second thought, that looks very much like example code, so it would be off topic on CR anyway)

gnat

@amon i see, all right, let someone else to pick it here then

and names, yeah... I just couldn't get past public fields but now that you pointed it... oh the pain

I see! example code isn't acceptable for CR, it has to be real life

This question is sadly off topic. For a question to be suitable on code review, it has to contain actual code from a project rather than pseudo-code or example code: it's okay to ask "Does this code follow common best practices?", but not "What is the best practice regarding X?" See the help center for more info. — amon 23 hours ago

user41796

2:51 PM

@amon yes, looks like it has been intentionally sanitized. The (poor) names likely reflect that sanitation too.

user41796

@MichaelT - I disagree with an earlier comment from you. This would make for epic bikeshed question to throw onto the collider. We ought to agree to re-open after we each get a few days to research and pre-build our answers. We could all easily rep cap on that one for a day or two.

user55340

3:08 PM

Context because @ampt loves it when we toss 10k links around:

user55340

> On creating a new language. Curly braces or no curly braces?
I'm surprised that I haven't found very much debate between the absence of curly braced code blocks in python like languages and curly braced languages like C or Java. I'm currently working on a language of my own, mostly for personal growth, but would also like to see others use it as a best case.

Although it is very subjective, my question is: Should a programming language use curly braces (or other types of braces) to denote code blocks and what are the pros and cons of using them/not using them?

user55340

> This is one of the most minor concerns for a language definition. Completely subjective and bike shedding. Pick one, use it, and go on to bigger problems. – MichaelT Jan 23 at 22:22

amon

3:22 PM

@MichaelT There are actually some nice objective arguments to be made here. I think we can all agree that Visual Basic does it wrong. Also, a moderate amount of non-letter characters tend to make a language more readable (Python often evokes the feeling of sitting before an unstructured wall of letters … something amplified by the insane PEP-8 recommendation to not vertically align your code. Then again, Perl can be written with far too much symbol soup)

gnat

@GlenH7 wrong strategy! "asked Jan 23" => age decay leaves no chance for it at hot list. Most epic sticky question, about idiot auditor was able to stick only for 16 days. What you really need to do after you pre-build answers, is to repost it as a new question...

...then let me know, I have a few friends on Workplace who enjoy playing Ride the lemmings, and our little team will take proper care of making it stick

7 happy hours, that's the age any lemming-rider should target

7 hours while formula is completely, totally braindead

you also better recruit a couple of n00bs / make sock puppets to fill it with more answers

just like guys at BitCoin did it

and Chinese...

14

Q: What's up with this question?

Someone seems to be playing with the Stackexchange Hot Question algorithm: 这是一个专门创建的社区Wiki集学习中国普通话的资源，它已经批准由社区本身 This question seems to be the coordinated work of about a dozen entirely new users (created today) to post a "question" that gets a high "hotness" score. I don't know any Chinese an...

discussion specific-question hot-questions

30

Q: A lot of sock puppet accounts on the Bitcoin Stack Exchange site

I am aware the the Bitcoin site has its own Meta, but that meta was last active on the 6th of January so am posting here also. I'm more of a lurker on Bitcoin Stack Exchange than an actual user, but I was lurking (like I do) and I spotted these guys: dalower mony jeme musakhan joli moly foysal...

support

Robert Harvey

3:42 PM

@gnat Would never have imagined that.

Someone actually asked on the Tor SE site recently how to best use Tor to get around Stack Exchange's limitations. :)

...

Is DI one of those things that you don't need in Functional Programming languages?

user41796

If you need to ask how to get around a site's rules, then you don't need to be getting around the rules. :-)

Jimmy Hoffa

You know... it occurs to me as much as Eric Lippert pops around this site, he's bound to run into my "F#? Don't bother.." ramblings which are littered around the site. Glad he hasn't taken to counter-answering any of those Qs because he'd make me look like an idiot

user55340

@amon It can be a good question, though the way I read it was a "should" question thats a minor issue of lexing/parsing and not too much of a change (if one wanted to change it).

gnat

Am I the only one that finds sock puppets on a bitcoin site highly ironic? — Robert Harvey Jan 15 at 23:06

user41796

@JimmyHoffa He's no longer with the mothership, so maybe he doesn't have to toe the party line and argue in favor of F#. Maybe he agrees with your ~~rantings~~ ramblings.

Jimmy Hoffa

3:51 PM

@GlenH7 Unless I'm mistaken, I believe he had a hand in the design of F#

user41796

@JimmyHoffa great architects are still able to call out the failings or constraints of their progeny.

user41796

He could very well say "we started with the best of intentions; but we got mired down because of XYZ" or "we didn't expect to have problems with ABC, but we did, and that kind of broke what we were aiming for."

user55340

@RobertHarvey How to Know When to Apply Fancy Computer Science

user41796

Or he could smack you down and point out how it's a gateway language to more pure FP styles. And therefore it's important and valid. :-)

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 alternatively, he could just know way more about everything than me, and point out why I'm completely wrong- as I usually am, there's just rarely somebody else around who knows well enough to tell me.

gnat

3:59 PM

Tuesday... the day of mass arrival of lemmings from Ars Technika. On weekend, they were reading the "c00l question". On Monday, they figured there's Q&A site there. On Tuesday-Wednesday, they get an idea... "hey I can ask something c00l and become famous, too". And... here we go!

►

Jimmy Hoffa

On the plus side, I'm almost overtaking the questioners own answer with my suggestion not to use a builder. 10-9, two more upvotes and I'll have gotten more votes than his own self-answer got heh. There should be a badge for that.

user41796

@JimmyHoffa link?

gnat

-3

Q: Learning computer graphics fundamentals in C under modern IDEs

I have a course on computer graphics this semester but my college is still using 20 years old grandpa - turbo C!. This course is based on C. I am using this book titled "Computer graphics - A programming approach" by Steven Harrington. Since I am using C, as my syllabus is based on it I want to k...

c ide libraries graphics

user41796

@gnat Already VTC'd

user41796

and now it's -4, so it won't show on the front page

gnat

4:01 PM

-1

Q: c program where the function will be given in the time of output

How to write a program in c where the value of the function will given by the user and then the value will be calculated by the program. I have no idea how to use this type of function. Is it possible to write such program

c

user41796

@gnat "Next!"

gnat

-3

Q: Java/ Object Object Oriented Programming

hullo there, guys m a beginner to OOP and i wish to learn more in OOP and how i can invent new ideas to write in my programs. basically i need friends to share with info and improve on my skills in programming

java web-development object-oriented architecture web

Jimmy Hoffa

9

A: How to improve upon Bloch's Builder Pattern, to make it more appropriate for use in classes that may be extended and sub-extended many times over?

I think the question here assumes something from the outset without attempting to prove it, that the builder pattern is inherently good. tl;dr I think the builder pattern is rarely if ever a good idea. Builder pattern purpose The purpose of the builder pattern is to maintain two rules that w...

user41796

i want to learn how to introduce new objects — Casule Marc 3 hours ago

user41796

^^^^ priceless

gnat

4:02 PM

-2

Q: Good reference for naming folder on projects?

So I'm building a framework, and I can't find a good reference for naming generated folders for the programmer to use (names like: controllers, scripts, and so on), do somebody know some good reference to it?

naming

user41796

@JimmyHoffa I'm one of those 9. :-)

gnat

c00l ain't it

MetaFight

@JimmyHoffa Isn't the builder pattern used extensively in the Android API?

user41796

I wonder if we could petition to have the threshold lowered to keep negatively scored questions off of the front page.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MetaFight Oh yeah, I know all about this on the many android applications I've written, I wrote uh candycrush and angry birds if I remember yep. Yeah builders everything's a builder sure ok.

MetaFight

4:05 PM

Then it's settled :)

user41796

@JimmyHoffa And why did you take down Flappy Birds? I hadn't played it, but I heard a lot of good things about it.

user55340

Theres a balance to be struck between many parameter constructors and a builder.

user55340

Lots of gui things take LOTS of parameters to set up properly.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 I accidentally put a bug in it that would cause cell phones to occasionally tap into the international super-spy bands, people got tired of all the steak-out chatter.

gnat

Jin says, Workplace ned design is nearing the launch!

in The Water Cooler, 6 mins ago, by Jin

we may launch the site today! (3-4pm EST)

Jimmy Hoffa

4:07 PM

@MichaelT My contention isn't about number of parameters, just that the builder concept requires you to do a lot of ceremony in this single-use case for constructing one class, where DTOs can serve the same value and be reusable with less ceremony

user41796

Happy 0th Birthday to TW!

4

user41796

Our birthday gift to TW is to make sure we don't migrate crap to them.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 How about our birthday gift be the opposite of that? Anybody want to re-open some old goma Qs and see if we can get them migrated?

user41796

@JimmyHoffa No, no. I was reading over SO nomination profiles yesterday. Get this, room owners are supposed to avoid chat room fights and to be model citizens for the rest of the community. I mentioned to @MichaelT that we may be in trouble then.

Jimmy Hoffa

Gotta make sure TW doesn't think just because it's a real site now that it won't get inundated with an endless barage of garbage. That's a birthday gift that lasts; teach a man to fish 'n all 'at.

user41796

4:11 PM

pretty sure they get enough practice with what's already swimming through their stream.

Jimmy Hoffa

For the NetworkAddress example I think the "traditional" solution would be a builder factory returning something of INetworkAddressBuilder, which you're right does add a lot of boilerplate. I'm certainly not suggesting your solution here is a bad one, I just don't think it replaces a builder in all scenarios. Having a .Validate still puts the work on the client, you lose the very expressive API (though could get close to it), and you're now re-coupling with the concrete type. A Builder<T> could build any subtype of T, after all, there's no reason T must be concrete and bottom of the tree. — Phoshi 6 mins ago

Haha, show a Java developer a scenario where a simple non-pattern approach works better than their pattern, their response? Oh yeah, you just need to use this other pattern...

user55340

I wonder if we shoud/will get an official migration path.

user41796

@MichaelT We have suggested that for quite a while - the answer has always been "not until they graduate from Beta." But I don't know if the volume of TW type questions is what it used to be. So it may not be necessary anymore.

Jimmy Hoffa

470 to seeing red...

user41796

pink

Jimmy Hoffa

4:16 PM

@GlenH7 Yeah, it's not so much berserker mode as something like kittenserker mode

Anywho, I should stay out of those comments henceforth. The points of debate are made and people may read them to see both sides, it need not drag on

Robert Harvey

@gnat I added delete votes to all of those.

user41796

FWIW we were recently mildly chastised for deleting crap questions too quickly. Which is why I'm down voting to -4 to get it off of the front page but won't necessarily DV beyond that.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt you should truly read that How to be a Programmer document. Hell, print it and keep a copy on your desk, I don't recall ever seeing such a gem for juniors as that before

@GlenH7 Who did such castigation?

user41796

@JimmyHoffa I think Thomas had mentioned it, but I want to say another mod or two had sparked the conversation with him.

Jimmy Hoffa

Ah. Well, I appreciate the concern for the community but I'm still a fan of consistency; that which doesn't belong ought go so the 1/3rd or so of our stream that's good get's appropriate attention.. getting off the front-page doesn't get off the newest questions page though (does it?) which is the most commonly viewed page by site participants

Sure we want to give a good face to passersby on that front-page, but giving a good filter to site-participants is a better way to increase participation from them and keep them focussed on the good stuff we have.

When we participants look at our newest questions list and half or more are junk, it's harder to find the gems to actually answer

user41796

4:32 PM

I think most "new folk" look at the front page, whereas most seasoned folk look at the newest question page instead

Jimmy Hoffa

But iduno. Maybe there is too much fast-deletion happening... I don't even see the deletes so don't know, but something tells me the things being deleted would just be slow-deleted if not fast, and that's inefficient in my book

@GlenH7 You think? Iduno, anyone who wants to participate will look at newest, whether new or experienced people will know well enough that if they want to see something they can answer that hasn't been answered by others, they'll look at newest

user41796

And deleting too quickly means confused Meta questions because the OP can't find their Q anymore.

user41796

But a -4 DV count is a bit of a black eye, and then you get seasoned folk (kinda rightfully) complaining that we're being too rude to new users and aren't welcoming enough.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 Ah, yeah there has been a little of that - if we could comment on deleted posts they would be able to reach their Q in their notifications and get good feedback to help them not just be all "WAT HAPPEN??"

user41796

and there's a fairly recent question on Meta to that exact effect.

user41796

4:39 PM

Does that JVM question make sense to anyone?

Jimmy Hoffa

MSO Feature Request: On question deletion (Do delete votes have the close-vote choices for reasons to leave?) a notification is immediately sent to the questioner and possibly the answerers with a link saying "This Q was deleted <for reason if close-vote reasons are available>"

MetaFight

@GlenH7 not to me, but I'm not a Java junky. It's not a programming question, though.

Jimmy Hoffa

and has the DV voters list with their reason etc on it so the questioner can actually see it was deleted and why

user41796

4:59 PM

@MetaFight and we have a bike shed question for the day!

user41796

(vacation + user story)

Thomas Owens

How is that a bikeshed question?

user55340

5:16 PM

(the 32 / 64 bit JVM question... I suspect the OP is now question banned... he keeps asking XY questions)

Jimmy Hoffa

6:32 PM

Chasing my tail in debugging to the point that I need to step into the .NET code itself... proof positive I am doing something very wrong...

3

Jimmy Hoffa

6:50 PM

Ok, LINQ 2 SQL officially makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Or someones eyes out. All I know is someone needs to be punished for what I'm dealing with here..

I'm about to just replace this generated code L2S block with a little ADO.NET data reader action..

@AshleyNunn You were clearly trying to troll us with alert-window spam ;P

user15026

@JimmyHoffa It's the only way I know right now to make things appear!

Jimmy Hoffa

@AshleyNunn Try including the jquery library (checkbox on the left, any of them) and then do $('body').append('whatever text you want to show up');

right..left...same thing...

in place of alert('whatever text');

user15026

oh, neat. :D

Jimmy Hoffa

@AshleyNunn api.jquery.com

Read .append on there, also you may be interested in .text and if you want to get crazy .click

user15026

Yay! New things!

user41796

7:15 PM

I am afraid that I have merely wasted electrons:

user41796

0

Q: Trying to understand why meta compatibility tag resolved jQuery error

I'm looking for an explanation as to why a particular fix worked so I can better understand the mechanics of what's going on. I have an ASP.NET MVC 5 application; "everything was working just fine" (TM) until I allowed NuGet to update the jQuery package(s). Then, when I tried to run the webapp ...

jquery html asp.net

Jimmy Hoffa

I'm with Alan here, my immediate thought reading the title here was that TAOCP could easily beat most people, books would truly stand no chance. I'm not sure how many decades old my copy is, but it still feels more like a brick than a readable digest. (It also feels more like a brick when attempting to read it) — Jimmy Hoffa 5 mins ago

user41796

And now it's off the front page.

user41796

Apparently you have to coax IE into strutting it's stuff. It's not brash like firefox and chrome which automatically try to do their best. IE figures that if you're on an intranet level site then it needs to use IE7 mode to ensure compatibility with whatever enterprise site crap you might run into.

user55340

7:48 PM

@JimmyHoffa You need to write the cliff notes version to TAOCP so that people could read that and make it look like they know a lot.

user55340

What is it with this barrage of the 2 sentence questions?

user41796

@MichaelT quality filter forces them to write more than "I CAN HAZ TEH CODEZ?"

Ampt

@jimmyhoffa its good, but honestly its not the intangibles that I struggle with, its just time and experienc3

user41796

@Ampt Is it worth getting an XBONE if you don't want to play fast-twitch FPS games?

Ampt

I dont think so, no.

I honestly dont know if ill be investing in another console this generation

user41796

8:03 PM

So they pretty much cater to the 13 -> ?? male twitch & kill-em-all crowd, right?

Ampt

Almost exclusively, yeah

If you really wanted a console id say ps4 personally

user41796

out of curiosity, why do you think you'll skip this generation of consoles then? Too expensive to refresh your catalog of games?

Ampt

Otherwise I think the steam box may be the next big advanvement for gaming

No, I dont think the value is there

The console is cheap but 60 bucks a game is steep

user41796

That makes sense too regarding the Steam box. Certainly seemed like a disruptive platform for the console world

Ampt

And the performance isnt as good as pc

user41796

8:05 PM

You don't buy their future-proof arguments? :-)

Ampt

The steambox has a long way to come but I think that its got the best chance of shaking stuff up

Hmmm... I guess but its still 60 bucks a game

Steam sales absolutely made me stop buying games at full price

user41796

I have been doing some digging, and you're supposed to be able to install apps on the Win 8 | 8.1 side of the XBONE. So that has some appeal to me

user41796

and $60 / game is steep. They're definitely trying to make their profit on the games instead of the console.

user55340

They lose money on each console hardware sale.

Ampt

No they dont

Last gen: yes

This one no

They are trying to have their cake and eat it too

user41796

8:08 PM

Is it break-even, or is there a profit on the console too?

Ampt

attackofthefanboy.com/news/…

user41796

And per BBuy, there are 3 or 4 $50 games. But the rest are $60.

Ampt

Yep. Thats just a lot. I have a hard time paying > 20 bucks for a game

user55340

PS4 is $18/unit profit - ign.com/articles/2013/11/20/…

user55340

@Ampt This changes when you get a real job.

Ampt

8:10 PM

Ps3 was the opposite by a ton. They lost hundreds per unit so having high priced games made sense

user41796

They may have priced the xbone high in advance of the inevitable console price wars

Ampt

@michaelt I make an alright amount and couls pay for 60 dollar games but I have so many 6 month old AAA titles in my steam library to get through that it doesnt pay for me to get them on launch day

user55340

@Ampt -$307 pcworld.com/article/127906/article.html

user55340

> With a suggested retail price of $499, that would mean Sony is taking a loss of about $307 on each console it sells. The differential for the 60GB model is less, with the cost exceeding the price tag by $241.

Ampt

It was the cell architecture and blu ray. It was absolutely ground breaking at the time

They just dont have that this gen

Its just ho-hum. Many of the games arent even 1080p

user55340

8:13 PM

Would it be fair to say every other gen is a ground breaker?

Ampt

(Forza)

Yes.

Xbox was super powerful

user55340

ie: 3 = new tech. 4 = polish of existing.

user41796

@Ampt Forza isn't 1080? <sigh>

Ampt

Nooope. 720p upscaled.

user41796

That was the one game that looked appealing and I wouldn't have to worry about the kids seeing it.

Ampt

8:14 PM

I lied. It is

m.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/…

But many arent

What happens when 4k hits mainstream in 2 years

Your consoles are screwed

user41796

I think Wii U was in trouble well before 4k became a consideration. :-)

Ampt

Yeah nintendo isnt pushing the graphics envelope in any sense of the word

But I love my 3DS XL

user15026

@Ampt My 3DS is the thing I game on the most

Ampt

im more into my pc personally, but come talk to me when I commute 2 hours a day via train and that may change

user55340

Nintendo seems to be working on other things - like controllers and interaction with the game.

Ampt

8:19 PM

But going back to game pricing, I just got that sid meier humble bundle for 15 bucks. Civ 3, 4 and 5 with all the expansions

If that were console id be paying closer to 300

user55340

Thats where the Steam console will be great.

Ampt

Drivers drivers drivers drivers

Thats where they need to invest

If linux drivers can come close to windows it will change the game

user41796

@Ampt The biggest hold back to that has been lack of money to drive the development.

Ampt

I firmly believe that the steambox will rise or fall based on driver performance

user41796

Add money from game sales into that equation, and things can change

Ampt

8:23 PM

I would buy a 400 dollar steambox if it gave me performance close to my 1200 dollar 2 year old computer.

I get to play all my current games on it

And I dont think that that Is unreasonable from a performance standpoint

Jimmy Hoffa

I want a steam box...

I have never wanted a console...

The key is that they work out a deal with Netflix and hulu to have streaming apps on it. What I want more than the steambox is the controller for my kid so he doesn't mash my keyboard and accidentally delete my computer

plus the controller just looks really cool and creative the way they're doing it

Ampt

Lol. Its called user accounts

user55340

8:43 PM

@JimmyHoffa Many years ago (Mac, System 6) there was an extension that made the trash can change to a trash can that sang "I love trash" by Oscar the Grouch every time an item was thrown into it. My sister was ~3-6 in that range (can't pin int down exactly) and threw away every file on the hard drive - one file at a time.

user15026

@MichaelT Hahaha that's terrible, and I would be annoyed, but honestly, making computer destruction fun for a small child is almost diabolical

user55340

@AshleyNunn You know of the cats making in-app purchases?

user55340

kotaku.com/5927815/…

user15026

@MichaelT So far mine hasn't!

user15026

@MichaelT That is hilarious

user55340

8:50 PM

> The problem was that a lot of cats accidentally purchased the level without permission, which caused a lot of owners to think Hiccup tried to fool cats into buying it on purpose. "We got in a lot of trouble," remarked TJ Fuller, the artist for the title.

Since the developers didn't actually have nefarious plans, they implemented a highly advanced 'human-check' to fix the issue—the need to hold four fingers on touch points without moving them for a few seconds.

user15026

although I always worry about stuff like that, because if the cat isn't declawed, couldn't they ruin your device?

user55340

@AshleyNunn cat claws are much less hard than the glass of the screen.

user15026

@MichaelT Huh, neat.

user55340

Mohs scale of mineral hardness

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science. The method of comparing hardness by seeing which minerals can scratch others, however, is of great antiquity, having been mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise On Stones, c. 300 BC, followed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, c. 77 AD. Minerals The Mohs scale of mineral ...

user15026

(After my cat killed an ereader by stepping on it, I am very hesitant)

user55340

8:54 PM

I read Gorilla Glass at 7 on that scale.

user55340

So, unless your cat can scratch a quartz crystal with its claws... you're good

user15026

@MichaelT Nice. My mom keeps wanting to try those games with her four cats but doesn't want her iPad to get wrecked, now I can tell her it is safe :P

user55340

Hmm... should have migrated programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/229444/… to gaming.SE

user55340

> Excuse my english, I'm not a native speaker. Feel free to edit.

That's a simple question, why in some FPS we can kill each other (I mean, an enemy kills you when you kill him) and in some you just can't ?

Is it only related to choices in game design or it could be something depending on how projectiles are handled (client/server communication) ?

Of course I'm talking about rifles, not explosives or this kind of stuff.

I hope this question fits on this site.

user55340

@AshleyNunn The best was the goldfish pond with one of my parents cats... she tapped the screen and then shook her paw as if it was wet.

user15026

8:59 PM

@MichaelT Aww, that's both cute and ridiculous. :)

user55340

►

user55340

(not my parents cat... but same app)

user15026

That is so cute

user55340

search for cat pocket pond ipad on youtube and enjoy

user55340

But back to that question... don't you think we should get it migrated over to gaming.SE?

Robert Harvey

9:37 PM

0

Q: There seems to be some contradictory guidance with respect to asking career development questions

The Help Center says this: and it is not about... career advice, salary or compensation, ... but it links to an answer that cites this question as being an acceptable career development question: Can someone find a job as a programmer without an education? Which is closed. The Tag W...

discussion scope

@MichaelT It's not of sufficient quality to migrate.

Jimmy Hoffa

@Ampt Bla. I don't want to meddle with all that nonsense.

user55340

Oh oh... that Robert guy asked a meta question.

user55340

@RobertHarvey I know... its more a "tease @AshleyNunn about being a mod on gaming"

user55340

Its not like I'm suggesting doing a cross posting of how to write a game to play with cats on tablets on Pets.SE and Programming.SE (would that be P*.SE?)

Jimmy Hoffa

@RobertHarvey I wrote that tag wiki as an attempt to hopefully stem the questions. I'm a fan of absolutism/consistency because it's easier to get a large group (the community) to meet that than subjective rules, so I'd be more than happy to say "NO career advice questions are on topic here" but I left it at "99%" in the tag wiki because I know the FAQ says they're supposed to be on topic - at least some of them

I can't imagine which ones, but I guess some are... like unicorns, just because I haven't seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist.

or, for that matter, Pegasaurus.

Which has me terribly badly wanting to mention how licensing questions should get an absolutist "Just no." but I won't bring that rant out right now. Nope. Not. Right. Now.

user55340

9:53 PM

3

Q: Are there any alternatives to Flappy Bird?

Flappy bird was a side scrolling game released for iOS and Android in which you controlled a bird flying across the screen by tapping on the screen to make the bird move up the screen. This game has since been removed from the iOS app store and from Google Play. The specific features that I'...

android game

user55340

@JimmyHoffa I do hope the (open source) licensing site goes through for area 51. It would let us have an outlet to people who claim to be experts in the area.

user55340

58

Open source licensing

Proposed Q&A site for people who want to use or publish open source software, data, texts, creative works, etc. and have questions regarding which license is best, what the differences between the different licenses are, & what restrictions regarding commercial use exist.

Currently in commitment.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I hope so too because when it has a 95% closure rate people might suddenly realize "Wait a minute.. you really do need to be a lawyer to advise anyone on any of these things" and I might finally have more support shoving that scope out of SE wholesale

user55340

@JimmyHoffa There are answerable questions - especially ones that do have canonical answers between two open source licenses. While not legal advice, they do have well established answers from legal types.

user55340

10:08 PM

IE: How do you include 2 clause BSD licensed software in GPL V2 licensed software?

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT I've heard this over and over again, every time I see one where people try to back it up (your example for instance) - I just disagree. Completely. I think your example could have an authoritatively correct answer taken as advice, acted upon and then a lawyer could take the person to court and pick it apart in front of the judge. The problem with anything related to law having authoritative answer is there are no correct legal answers.

What's legal is completely and entirely interpreted and reinterpreted every time, the whole practice is about debating interpretations, which makes none definitively correct. Judges throw eachothers rules out all the time, the supreme court throws out it's own ruling - in matters of law there is no authority.

Which is why those questions can simply not be properly answered, they can only be advised upon, and such advisement should only be given by a lawyer

See, I wasn't going to bring that rant out, but you pushed me. You made me do it. This is all your fault @MichaelT.

user55340

Hey... no fight picking.

user55340

(and I can certainly see that point of view being valid)

psr

@JimmyHoffa So you're saying that in your opinion as a lawyer, MichaelT is not incorrect.

user55340

10:24 PM

The thing with the major open source licenses there is often a 'plain english' version and the 'what it means to be compatible' that is lawyer reviewed.

user55340

If you go through and read gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html you will have things that aren't going to be argued by lawyers.

user41796

@JimmyHoffa contrary to many (any?) media reports, the sky is not falling. Past legal precedent does hold, and it's rare for earth shattering changes to roll out as you suggest.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 (all) and the sky is falling. For a real engineer, you're awfully imprecise... last time I checked the sky is falling towards us at precisely 108,000 km/h or away from us depending on your tangent.

enderland

@JimmyHoffa people think engineering is precise. jokes on them! TLAR and SWAG are the operating principles of most engineering designs for the majority of the design process ;)

user41796

10:40 PM

@enderland shhhhhh. Don't be giving away all of the secrets.

enderland

hey I didn't say what those acronyms mean, that's good amirite

user41796

I love conference swag

psr

In JimmyHoffa's defense, it's a bad thing if someone has to waste time and $ going to court over some silly suit. You don't have to lose the suit for that to happen.

user41796

@psr That would be the premise behind Samsung's countersuit to Dyson after Dyson retracted their patent infringement claims.

psr

@GlenH7 What! They ignore my patent on using aggressive counter-suits as a means of deterring patent suits at their peril. We live in a country of laws, Samsung.

user41796

10:52 PM

Samsung was actually claiming defamation...

user41796

Which, if you've been watching Samsung vs. Apple and hints of the negotiations between Samsung & Google.... Kind of a hard claim to pull off, IMO.

Jimmy Hoffa

0

A: What are some good ways to represent relationship among three numbers

I see only nine cases: A < B < C - This is a distinct ordered set A = B < C - This is an indistinct ordered set A > B < C - This is an unordered set A < B = C - This is an indistinct ordered set A = B = C - This is an indistinct ordered set A > B = C - This is an indistinct ordered set A < B > ...

Here's another "Well that's a silly question.. but I think I might have an answer and a few minutes to write it up anyway..." something tells me it's not going to blow up like the paypal one did

psr

Isn't there one where C is a man, but he wants to share an apartment with A and B (both female) so he pretends to be gay so as not to upset the sensibilities of D, A and B's landlord? Oh wait, that's 4 numbers. You're good.

Jimmy Hoffa

@psr I'm pretty sure you're just describing 3's company, probably where you got confused about the 3/4 bit - 3's company was 0 indexed.

Oh, I was kidding - I just looked that up and you were describing threes company. I've never seen the show.

psr

@JimmyHoffa You have nothing to regret.

Wait, dealing with programmers. You have nothing to regret on that account.

user55340

11:05 PM

@psr there's bits in there that clear readings don't require a lawyer. There's the whole Theo de Raadt thing in linux awhile back where someone was stripping the BSD license from code and putting in Linux licensed as GPL... which is just wrong. But people think they can do it.

user55340

That doesn't require a lawyer to say "no, thats wrong"

user55340

undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20070901041657

user55340

The thing is, that doesn't really require a lawyer to answer... they can give the expert answer... but it doesn't require their answer.

user55340

(If I am reading this right), someone had BSD + GPL dual licensed code. Person takes the dual licensed code, strips the BSD part and includes it in GPL licensed code. This is wrong.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT Pay a lawyer enough and they can make that right. That's precisely the reason I don't think license questions can be answered here.

user55340

11:11 PM

The license questions we get here are either "here is the page you need to read that explains it" or "talk to a lawyer"

user41796

@JimmyHoffa The claims of the GPL haven't been tried in court, afaik. So your comment is tenuous.

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 ...what? The GPL has never been tried in court?

user55340

Any time someone goes up against the GPL, they back down.

user41796

Not to my knowledge; and most certainly not on a regular basis. You may find one or two examples. But copyleft is an untested claim.

user55340

(not the GPL, the person misusing it)

user55340

11:13 PM

And until someone tries to argue with the GPL, it isn't settled.

user41796

precisely.

user41796

The conspiracy set could call it one of the biggest scams in the industry....

user20683

@MetaFight Done

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 Wouldn't that make my comment more solidified in that answers regarding GPL have absolutely no standing in legal precedent therefore the questions can be even less authoritative, and a lawyer has more likelihood of getting them thrown out since the judge doesn't have past precedent to stand on in upholding the license?

user20683

@JimmyHoffa Do me a favor and check this to make sure I'm not spouting nonsense?

user20683

11:16 PM

0

A: Is there any difference learning OOP on different programming languages?

An object as a theoretical construct is very simple: It's a structure that stores data, functions, or both. The idea being that these structures have a sense of "self" which is implicit in most languages outside of Python. This is called a "descriptor" and gives the object a point of self referen...

user41796

@JimmyHoffa no, not really. Sounds more like you're retreating into a corner to defend your primary claim. :-)

Jimmy Hoffa

@GlenH7 Nah, I stand by my claim as pretty simple that there are no legal answers only legal advise, and no one here can be expected to have the appropriate education to share such

@WorldEngineer Iduno... the question's wishy washy and hard to pin down but I don't know that you answered it. The content of the answer is all good, though I would add a mention of the prototypal inheritance model because in JavaScript that's how it works, as well as other prototypal languages. That said, the big thing I'd drill on that defines objects is the sense of a class being a template for which you can create instances, and then you can identify those differences where in javascript

for instance that template acts like an instance itself

It's a bad question, not a bad answer. The fact of it being a bad question is identifiable by then number of answers it got.

5 answers in 2 hours. You're primed for hot-question rep

psr

@JimmyHoffa Answer for haskel, claiming it's object oriented because it has type classes. Plus objects are really just a mungomorphism over a zyclotic categroid anyway, so they fall out as a degenerate case of zymerophinoids, which are implemented in hackage.

user20683

11:31 PM

@psr That sounds like something The Doctor would say while high out of his mind.

psr

@WorldEngineer The doctor lies. JimmyHoffa is truth. All hail JimmyHoffa.

Jimmy Hoffa

@psr I know right, hackage is great.

psr

Startting JimmyHoffa's comment, because it's funny and gives 4 amazing stars in a row.

Check it out; I've had sex with someone who's had sex with someone who's written a paper with Paul ErdÅs!

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