The Whiteboard

user55340

1:35 AM

Whee! Back from the road trip loop.

user55340

53 North from Eau Claire to Trego to 63 North (St. Croix scenic byway) to Hayward, to 77 East through the Chequmegon National Forest to 13 south to Fifield to 70 west through the Flambeau River state forest to Ojibwa to 27 south which took me to 29, and then back to 53.

Ampt

2:23 AM

@JimmyHoffa and ooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnn

user55340

@enderland You just need to join me for a road trip!

user55340

user55340

user15026

oooh, pretty

Ampt

2:35 AM

@MichaelT I like the first one!

user55340

@Ampt Old 70 (off of highway 70)

Ampt

we're all on progs at 10 at night. we need hobbies, collectively.

user55340

That was ~~literally~~ shot out of my car window as I stopped for a bit.

user55340

Middle one was near a bog/marsh/swamp that I wanted to record the location of on gps (geotagged photo) - there are other shots from there on my dslr. The bottom one is from 9 mile creek across the water.

Ampt

I think that's beyond the threshhold of a creek or even a stream an on to a full-on river

user55340

2:38 AM

(old 70 and nine mile - heh, they typoed it as one word 'ninemile creek': google.com/maps/place/9+Mile+Tavern+%26+Canoe+Rentals/… )

user55340

Its a river, but its at Nine mile creek.

Ampt

ah, ok

user55340

3:17 AM

@Ampt you know, when you have an emergency situation, you find the best things in fire extinguisher holders...

user55340

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT thanks for the reminder, I need that glass of fiddich right now...

brb

time to start on an exercise, see if I can at least get my conceptual approach decided before beddy time

@Ampt or rather, we like programming just enough that we're blessed to still find it is our hobby, even when it's our job. Couldn't be luckier. Ok, that's just a masochistic comment, people get paid for things so much funner than this... We must all just be messed in the head to enjoy programming this much to begin with.

user55340

@JimmyHoffa I once again return you to Programming Sucks from the 'stilldrinking.org' website.

user55340

> Every programmer occasionally, when nobody's home, turns off the lights, pours a glass of scotch, puts on some light German electronica, and opens up a file on their computer. It's a different file for every programmer. Sometimes they wrote it, sometimes they found it and knew they had to save it. They read over the lines, and weep at their beauty, then the tears turn bitter as they remember the rest of the files and the inevitable collapse of all that is good and true in the world.

2

user55340

3:34 AM

I contend that we write code in our off time because we need to know that good code can be written. Writing code is the game of kids (and we're big ones) making castles out of the stuff of dreams... because we can and most of the rest of the population can only marvel at what we do.

Jimmy Hoffa

Well said.

user55340

Little do they know that most of what they marvel at is a pile of crap just waiting for one runtime error to end the world as they know it... but they still marvel that we can actually do it. They tried. They got to chapter 2 of "Learning Java" or "Learning C++" or whatever and decided that this wasn't fun and they'd rather be out drinking.

user55340

Our secret is that we can do it and drink at the same time.

Jimmy Hoffa

@MichaelT so much truth here... this is something I've heard repeated from so many of the good engineers I've ever known, if you've never written code after at least a few (and sometimes more than a few) drinks, then I contend there is yet to be proof you truly are a coder.

@GlenH7 The fiddich...it tastes like...Glen Fiddich...yep. Sometimes consistency can be done in a fashion other than consistent failure.

user55340

The 'I can program in my free time' is what makes one a programmer rather than someone who goes to work 9 to 5 and does something - be it writing code or making pre-hung doors at a factory. Its that you love programming and want to do it for reasons other than a paycheck.

user55340

5:37 AM

enderland

12:56 PM

Hah! I'd imagine that area is gorgeous right now, it's super pretty during summer at least

Ampt

@RobertHarvey Since you're shopping for computer parts, you may want to check out some of these deals

lucky me, my graphics cards dropped by $110 a piece, so I'll hopefully get that back through neweggs iron egg guarantee!

user15026

@Ampt That would be awesome

user55340

3:25 PM

Heh... Microsoft submitted a patch to OpenJDK... that will improve the performance of Minecraft... on windows systems.

user15026

@MichaelT As far as first acts go, that's not surprising, although I hope they don't continue in the "we will only help minecraft on windows" route

user55340

(and the ref: mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/net-dev/2014-September/… )

user55340

@AshleyNunn Its more of 'There are things in windows that have some oddball performance improvements for specific situations' - TCP loopback on windows is one such. Java doesn't take advantage of this. Microsoft is submitting a patch to Java that will allow it to do so. This will improve the performance of some Java apps (including Minecraft) on Windows platforms.

user41796

> This is especially relevant in distributed server-side/cloud scenarios, such as Hadoop.

user55340

@GlenH7 There's that too...

user41796

3:31 PM

Might be bigger fish they're going after, but the little fish benefit from the waters being baited

user15026

Ah, okay, I misunderstood, lacking that technical knowledge

user41796

With the way questions are shaping up today, I'm glad I'm leaving early

user41796

blech.

user55340

@GlenH7 though Oded is back...

user55340

And you can do some speedy delete vote therapy...

user41796

3:35 PM

@MichaelT I've noticed a lot of "needs 1 more" in the queue lately. It's been fun finishing those off

user55340

4:21 PM

@GlenH7 "what if" got nerd sniped itself... what-if.xkcd.com/113

user15026

@MichaelT That one was super entertaining

user114359

@RobertHarvey you mentioned a snake can't eat its own tail in a comment on this question: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/257309/…

user114359

user55340

@Snowman Should ask on Pets.SE about that... right @AshleyNunn ?

user114359

@MichaelT I am not asking anything, I am providing a counter-example to his statement.

user15026

4:29 PM

@MichaelT Why not, could make things interesting :P

user15026

(Although, in actual Pets awesome, they are holding kinda a mini-contest for their first anniversary in beta, and some really cute pictures and stories are coming out of it. Full disclosure, mine is one of them :P)

user114359

I should have taken a picture of my cat this morning. I was getting ready for work and she was hiding between the shower curtain and bath tub. But there is a good 4 inch gap between the shower curtain and floor. Worst. Hiding spot. Ever.

user55340

@Snowman Ashley, who hangs out here, is a mod at Gaming (and thus has the Bridge) and Pets (where they have a litter box)... thus we sometimes poke fun of those two sites.

user55340

(note the whiteboard description)

user15026

@MichaelT I'm actually not a Pets mod anymore, just someone who chills there with a nice pile of rep :P

user15026

4:34 PM

@Snowman One of those "I can't see you so you can't see me" situations?

user55340

@AshleyNunn Thats ok... we'll still poke you about it then... ;-)

user114359

yeah one of those situations.

user15026

@MichaelT I wouldn't have it any other way.

enderland

fun frustrating problem of the day - not having "set nocount on" in a SQL stored procedure prevents me from returning the recordset in access

is there a good explanation for that?

user55340

Sometimes, I wonder if we should call it "Not the teacher's lounge, just ignore the blue"

user114359

4:39 PM

@enderland sorry my Access knowledge rivals my knitting knowledge.

user55340

I'm going to guess it has something relating to:

user55340

> SET NOCOUNT ON prevents the sending of DONE_IN_PROC messages to the client for each statement in a stored procedure. For stored procedures that contain several statements that do not return much actual data, or for procedures that contain Transact-SQL loops, setting SET NOCOUNT to ON can provide a significant performance boost, because network traffic is greatly reduced.

enderland

hmmm.

I'm going to chalk it up to a shitty database program

user55340

@enderland Access? or the program based on it? or both?

enderland

@MichaelT access

user55340

4:47 PM

@enderland I thought that was a given...

enderland

the more you learn, the more you know

user41796

5:11 PM

@MichaelT I can't comment on other rooms since I generally don't frequent them, but I suspect we have one of the higher concentrations of blue outside of the tavern and whatever the private mod-only room is.

user55340

@GlenH7 tavern collects signficant non-blue meta denizens...

enderland

maybe you guys should stop being interesting

?

user41796

@enderland trying

user41796

but I can't help when I get sniped having to come up with ways to protect recycling bins from being stolen

enderland

just use linux or os:x

user41796

5:13 PM

Was reading an advisory today about shellshock and they spelled it "LINUX" - I did not have a favorable reaction

user55340

@GlenH7 put a bobcat in the recycling bin!

user55340

You can do this one in every 30 times and still have 97% positive feedback.

psr

@MichaelT anybody follow it to this link?

roadrunnersinternationale.com/roadrunner_blog/?p=188

user55340

@psr I think I've read that one before... yep, I had.

enderland

I just wanted to @username someone in Lync in a groupchat. fml

user114359

5:16 PM

I love the bobcat xkcd. The Oatmeal has a series of cartoons about the office bobcats, that reminded me of it

user55340

Not linked (I don't think) but another SR 71 story: oppositelock.jalopnik.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041

user55340

For continuation at pretending to be Aviation.SE - there's a fire in the radar center in Chicago. This kind of messed up air traffic patterns in the midwest:

user55340

Realize that between o'hare and midway, there is typically a take off or landing every 30 seconds.

user15026

@MichaelT Okay, that was a neat story

enderland

5:31 PM

@AshleyNunn I've seen that before and love it every time

user41796

5:42 PM

@MichaelT Chicago provides radar for MKE as well?

user55340

in The Hangar, 17 mins ago, by abelenky

user55340

in The Hangar, 19 mins ago, by abelenky

ZAU is the code for Chicago Center....
(Its AU, because its located in AUrora, Illinois)

user55340

Its not "fire at o'hare" - its "fire at "Chicago radar center"

user41796

I think we're still at "whoops"

user55340

Digging a bit - a list of all frequencies and airports associated with ZAU radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=2241

user55340

5:50 PM

Or something like that...

user55340

wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/…

user55340

@enderland for this comment I am so tempted to add a response back with uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kitten_Huffing

user55340

First time heard the word 'catsup'. My first reaction - why on earth would someone eat cats in workplace? — Donaudampfschifffreizeitfahrt 11 hours ago

user55340

26

Q: Dealing with attire mishaps mid-day

Let's say a few minutes before a meeting, you spill coffee on your shirt -- or worse, catsup. In addition to staining, dampness itself can be an issue; even if I only spill water, there's a huge discolored spot until it dries. What's the best way to recover rapidly so you don't look like a tota...

dress-code

user55340

Aside: worse wardrobe malfunction I had was at Employer^^ where a tooth in my pants zipper broke and I couldn't zip up.

user55340

6:05 PM

@AshleyNunn Physics or Pets: "If you let go of a cat while in the space station (zero g environment) will the cat land on its feet?"

user41796

I vote for cross-post

user15026

@MichaelT Physics. :P

user41796

Can anyone explain why MS chose to jack up (yet again) the locations of all the tools that admins were used to with WinServer 2012?

user55340

@GlenH7 Provide revenue stream for people who write the "How to $doSomething on Microsoft $App $Year"

user41796

Then they're doing a great job of that...

user41796

6:13 PM

Although if I had used 2012 sooner, I would have known ahead of time what a train wreck Win8 was going to be by taking away the start button

user41796

@RobertHarvey can't read lol

Robert Harvey

Animated version of tl;dr.

user41796

→ 1 message moved to ProgsTrash

user41796

Sorry, it was really getting on my nerves

Robert Harvey

didn't read lol

►

user41796

6:22 PM

@RobertHarvey So do you want repz on Physics, Pets, or both?

user55340

@GlenH7 npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/09/347093135/… (home-brew? or pets?)

user55340

(and a straight up pet one for @AshleyNunn npr.org/2013/09/05/219254626/… )

user41796

I'm a bit surprised I haven't heard of Glenturret before

user55340

@RobertHarvey For a bit there, from the image, I thought this was something from Red Dwarf... it kind of looks like Lister and Rimmer. And of course, you could have a conversation with The Cat.

user55340

6:28 PM

Things you can do in Java that you likely didn't realize - journeyofcode.com/…

user55340

class Foo {
	class Bar {

	}
}

class Baz {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Foo foo = new Foo();
		//Foo.Bar bar = new Foo.Bar();
		Foo.Bar bar = foo.new Bar();
	}
}

user15026

@MichaelT :D

user55340

That one makes me go 'hmm' and think about what code I could have written before.

user55340

Tama (cat)

Tama (たま, born April 29, 1999) is a female calico cat who gained fame for being a station master and operating officer at Kishi Station on the Kishigawa Line in Kinokawa, Wakayama, Japan. == Early life and adoption == Tama was born in Kinokawa, Wakayama, and was raised with a group of stray cats that used to live close to Kishi Station. They were regularly fed by passengers and by Toshiko Koyama, who was the informal station manager at the time. The station was almost shut down in 2004 because of financial problems. Around this time, Koyama adopted Tama. Eventually the decision to shut down the...

user15026

@MichaelT Trains AND cats. Two of my favourite things, at once! :D

enderland

7:47 PM

> You have been prevented from viewing this site because this page ( uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kitten_Huffing ) is categorized as: "Adult/Mature Content;Humor/Jokes"

user55340

@enderland um... its right.

enderland

:) I figured

user55340

enderland

wtf is that lol

user55340

@enderland Its a man huffing a cat.

user55340

7:50 PM

Go look at that page when you get home... its SFW, though much of the rest of the site is... questionable.

user55340

Though there is that picture of David Hasselhoff on there...

user41796

8:08 PM

@MichaelT bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-26/…

user41796

> Early indications were that he was “possibly a disgruntled employee,”

psr

8:22 PM

@GlenH7 That term is so strange. "Employee shoots 73 people, police considering upgrading status from 'disgruntled' to 'peevish'".

user41796

@psr definitely a grade or three above eclectic.

gnat

8:39 PM

we seem to have three instances of the same user consistently spamming us with low quality questions, deleting their account (probably after hitting q-block) and then retrying with a new one: 144412/user-level-organism, 144665/user-level-organism, 150366/user-level-organism...

wonder if something can be done about this

18

Q: What is the reasoning behind limiting "recidivists" to post one question per week?

Anti-Recidivism System currently restricts recreated accounts to "posting only one question per week..." I would like to understand why this rate was picked, and not, say, once a day or once a month? The reason why I ask is that some users limited or banned at Stack Overflow attempt to circumve...

support asking-questions rate-limiting anti-recidivism-system

user55340

8:51 PM

@gnat This sets off my andy-dar.

user55340

1

Q: Is a digital bit represented by any two discrete signals?

I am trying to understand computers from the building blocks up. I know computers use transistors to amplify voltages, and this is used for arithmetic, such as a MOSFET. However, what really makes up a typical computer bit? Is it just two input currents, one higher and one lower? Two possible s...

voltage computers computer-architecture

user55340

-1

A: How to write "Hello World" for N64 purely from scratch?

Like this: lw 0bRRRRRGGGGGBBBBBA, 0x04400000 lw 0x0140, 0x04400000 sw 0x0140, 0x04300000 sw 0bRRRRRGGGGGBBBBBA, 0x04300000 This sets up the framebuffer using 16-bit color depth, 320x240, and interlaced video with 60Hz timing signals; writing to the screen afterwards can be done various ways.

user55340

@gnat I'd be willing to bet that he hit existing blocks from his other accounts.

gnat

@MichaelT oh heck so this is most likely known troll

user55340

I seem to recall him using that account name in the past, though I'm not sure.

gnat

8:57 PM

@MichaelT well that's how I've got to these old, deleted accounts 144412 and 144665. I just figured that user name sounds familiar and picked these from my browser history by entering "USER LEVEL ORGANISM" in there

5

Q: Perform automatic checks for cross-posting and question ban at SO when post enters close queue, not only at attempt to migrate

Suggest to perform automatic checks for cross-posting (including deleted SO cross-posts, like this one for example) and question block / warning at Stack Overflow when post enters close queue, not only when it is attempted to migrate. If check detects a problem, system would raise automatic flag...

feature-request moderators review post-ban cross-posting

Yannis Rizos

@MichaelT Confirmed. Leslar/Andy is back.

user55340

@YannisRizos ~~I've missed him.~~ sigh

psr

@MichaelT He asked how to make a bit.

gnat

@YannisRizos thanks! while I have your attention, is today's "peter zwegat" related?

user55340

►

psr

9:11 PM

"Now, how do I make an electron from scratch?"

Yannis Rizos

@gnat No idea, the account was destroyed. There might be a way I could find out, but it's probably too much work for Friday night.

But, even if that account is unrelated, we can expect Leslar to create a handful or so accounts and post the same old crap in the next couple of days.

-4

Q: I need help printing out from MySql database by PHP PDO prepare statement

How can I retrive a username from the database.? to see if it equals $username? Suppose $username = "lovergirl";. Btw sorry for not having a good format. I am new here. sorry! $query = $con->prepare('SELECT * FROM tbl_members WHERE m_username = ?'); $query->execute(array($username)); ...

php web-development mysql server-side

> Suppose $username = "lovergirl"

gnat

@YannisRizos good catch!

ahh, account IDs! Andy - 150366, lovergirl asker - 150367

Yannis Rizos

IPs don't match. This is probably just a case of terrible taste in usernames.

Yannis Rizos

Terrible idea of the day:

-16

Q: Disable Down Voting for users with reputation less than 50

I am new to this forum and try to visit it daily. Most of the time, new users get too many downvotes. Some due to not editing their questions properly and some due to asking very basic questions. Many times in college I was not comfortable with asking my teacher questions. So I never asked. Tha...

discussion feature-request new-users

gnat

9:26 PM

38

A: How can we discourage over-downvoting on questions?

The main problem I see here is that downvotes are taken so damn personal. A downvote does not mean "you are a bad person and you should feel bad, go die in a corner". But that's how they're often understood. Try to see SE as a collaboratively edited knowledge base. New entries are created on an a...

^^^ dupe as usual

speaking of dupes, it's the second day in the row I am holding a dupe-vote at MSO, to let @MichaelT gain that reversal badge. Only two upvotes left to go, anyone willing to help? Post deserves this, I swear! :)

18

A: Do open-ended questions with good intentions deserve a place somewhere on the network?

'Ello. You may know me from such hits as Open letter to students with homework problems and Where to start? from Programmers.SE. Today, I'm here to talk to you about discussions. Much of this is an abbreviated recap of On discussions and why they don't make good questions, but as one may note...

Yannis Rizos

@gnat Upvoted. I'm mentioned in the answer, it must be good ;P

user55340

0

A: Disable Down Voting for users with reputation less than 50

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy -- Robert Heinlein When you make it so that if they have less than some amount of rep, you are hiding them from the 'real' world. When they get that 51 rep, suddenly they will be faced with a different reality. There is not tutorial m...

user55340

Needed to pull that quote out again before the question got closed.

user55340

9:42 PM

@Ampt @JimmyHoffa btw, you're missing it... gnat and yannis around in chat... at the same time. Neither of them have gone to hide under a rock in the face of September (though, I don't think I'd blame them...)

gnat

►

psr

@MichaelT Currently 32,779 questions (not deleted) on site. I'm going to check in later and make sure there's still at least 30,000.

gnat

@psr if Yannis happens to do some Haskell again, expect it to drop below that

Dec 11 '13 at 20:04, by Yannis Rizos

@psr I tried Haskell once. You might remember it, it was the day ~500 ProgSE questions went the way of the dodo (had to channel my rage somewhere...)

Robert Harvey

10:46 PM

I want to build a car from scratch, but I have so many parts from different manufacturers that I need to integrate them. What is the algorithm to do it? — Robert Harvey 48 secs ago

my question is not about integrating(which i am doing it well) its about possibilities, — Behzad 2 mins ago

[sigh]

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