INTRODUCTIONS THREAD

[Jack Saladin]

Australian accidents or attacks of any kind usually consist of Australians blundering into various pointed instruments and then trying to hide the fact that have a reflex time of roughly half an hour.

Look, in our defence, we have lots of alcohol. Probably why we pick an island to live on, so the neighbours don't get pissed off when we get pissed.

Yeah, you know what kind of alcohol? Crappy Australian beer, that's what. *shakes fist*

I could do this all day.

Also;

17/F/KS

Currently working as a checker and losing more faith in humanity each time someone tries to pay for candy bars in pennies. Escape-the-room junkie, situational logic puzzle fanatic. Also, I cook better than your mother. That's right, your mother.

So, wassup?

[Ephphatha]

Australian accidents or attacks of any kind usually consist of Australians blundering into various pointed instruments and then trying to hide the fact that have a reflex time of roughly half an hour.

Look, in our defence, we have lots of alcohol. Probably why we pick an island to live on, so the neighbours don't get pissed off when we get pissed.

Yeah, you know what kind of alcohol? Crappy Australian beer, that's what. *shakes fist*

Pfft

It's better than the pisswater they have in America. Besides, I only ever drink vodka. (Crappy British vodka mind you, but that's beside the point.)

[think_of_a_shape]

45 (no, wait, I think I might be 46…)/M/Oxfordshire, UK.
IT Services in a FE/HE College. Dealing with the Apple Macs Mostly.

:cool site:

[Verysillyman]

Australian accidents or attacks of any kind usually consist of Australians blundering into various pointed instruments and then trying to hide the fact that have a reflex time of roughly half an hour.

Funny (peculiar and haha) you should say that just before Australia's greatest icon was killed by, well, blundering into a pointed object.

[Ursus]

This webcomic (according to Wikipedia) is exactly 26 years and a day younger than me. Since the site will have its first anniversary later this month, I find that pretty damned cool.

I like the fact that almost half this topic was written today. Hi, other QC readers! What did you guys think of A Girl and Her Fed? I'm enjoying it so far, but I like xkcd better. G&F's art is kinda... hard to watch.

Anyone who knows the barest shred of Latin grammar can deduce my gender from my username. For those who don't, this may require a good deal of finesse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_decl ... on_.28o.29

I'm a student at Southern Oregon University (which takes care of the /L), about to start what I hope is my last year of Computer Science.

The maths department tried to recruit me, but I figured that I'm enough of a geek, nerd, AND dork. If I go into maths, I'll never get laid again. Yes, it has happened on occasion.

I work for an advertising agency. We're currently helping LG with their plans of global domination (yes, that's in the ad material). I make PHP do unnatural things and like it. I'm kinda like digital MDMA.

The internets have made me forget English. Sometimes, I rewrite "have" to "haev" and then have to fix it again. Tangentially (in the literary sense) I think I'm the only person outside this forum who checks what they write before posting it. Go you guys.

On a further tangent, if they is a valid third-person, singular, unspecified-gender pronoun, shouldn't the phrase be, "checks what they writes"? Maybe not, since it's "you are" rather than "you is". Also, I disagree with the idea that other punctuation always goes inside the quotes, as demonstrated amply above.

If I've bored you to death, cool; I call dibs on your stuff.

Q: What is a dib?

A: "It's one o' them big-head boys."

When I started writing this post, my Giant Playlist Of Doom fed me Hands with a Hammer which may be the best drum solo evar. As you clearly could have guessed, I'm well into Magdalena now.

God, that's a long post. I may never have to write again.

Peace out, bitches.

[Oracle]

"It's kind of sad that teenagers are basically relegated to cheap labor."

Ah, all the hidden costs of slavery. In my experience, teenage labor is not cheap unless it is someone else's teenager.

I would like to be an oracle but until my hoped for appointment, I am a marketing engineer. My favorite cartoon thus far is, http://xkcd.com/c101.html I also like http://xkcd.com/c125.html well, there are a bunch others too.

[MathBluster]

I am a high school student. I live in Arlington Virginia.

[Nex3]

Hello, folks. I'm a student at the Unversity of Washington, currently majoring in Computer Science. I'm interested in many things, among them programming, web design, philosophy, math, and literature. I came to the site just today through a link to the "sudo" comic. I'm staying for the math/language jokes and the love comics.

[davean]

On a further tangent, if they is a valid third-person, singular, unspecified-gender pronoun, shouldn't the phrase be, "checks what they writes"? Maybe not, since it's "you are" rather than "you is". Also, I disagree with the idea that other punctuation always goes inside the quotes, as demonstrated amply above.

They is one or more, genderless, hence follows plural rules; so no, not at all.

One good example of how fucked standard engrish rules of quotation are is an exclamative sentence quoting a question, then you get leety "?!"s and well, pumping lemma applied in an absurd fashion later ...

The professor emeritus say "And thats why math works!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?".

Which I propose to be totally fucked up. Quotes should not be allowed to be modified AT ALL. if you allow any modification then quotes are useless in any sense.

With a bit of work I could get the '1's and '@'s in there also if someone wants to really make it leety, but I'll leave such a simple expansion as an exercise for the reader's rarely used brain.

[xkcd]

Which I propose to be totally fucked up. Quotes should not be allowed to be modified AT ALL, unless you feel like it.

Yeah!

[Charodei]

The question mark, being part of the quotation, belongs inside the quote marks. An exclamatory or declaratory sentence must end with an exclamation mark or period respectively; not being part of the quotation, they belong outside the quote marks. Hence, the proper use is: ?"! . Strunk and White may disagree, but this is the clearest, most logical writing style.

[kuno]

I prefer ?:

(oh noes a programming joke!)

[Shoofle]

The question mark, being part of the quotation, belongs inside the quote marks. An exclamatory or declaratory sentence must end with an exclamation mark or period respectively; not being part of the quotation, they belong outside the quote marks. Hence, the proper use is: ?"! . Strunk and White may disagree, but this is the clearest, most logical writing style.

Hear hear! Although I think that <sentence end punctuation>"<sentence end punctuation> is in most cases a horrible abuse of my eyes.

[Pau!]

I am an eighteen year old student at the University of Ottawa, I've been living on my own for a couple of months now, just to know what it's like. I'm still not really sure.

I am taking biomedical science because I want to join Doctors Without Borders. I want to join DWB because people dying of easily cured diseases pisses me off. I already own everything I want (A computer, a twelve-string acoustic guitar, and a frisbee) and occasionally think too much. I stopped posting on forums a couple of years ago, but decided to make an exception for this place. There is a red light flashing on my phone, and I don't know what that means. I'm much less expressive online than in real life for the simple reason that it is difficult to speak with my hands online. Well, technically typing is speaking with my hands, but I meant making gestures that imply emotion and such. You probably got that, but I'm clarifying just to make sure. I've been trying to figure out the square root of love for a while. Maybe it's an imaginary number? I'm also terrible at conclusions.

[Stick]

Hi, I'm male, and 17. I live in Canada. And you know what that's like.

[danb]

I'm 19 and I'm a student at Tufts, near Boston.

Also, I'm an English/Music major, so I have to look up some of the math jokes. Heh.

[danb]

Ooh ooh! Also, I spend too much time on Facebook, so I made an xkcd group.

I know you're out there.

http://tufts.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2209230429

[Charodei]

The question mark, being part of the quotation, belongs inside the quote marks. An exclamatory or declaratory sentence must end with an exclamation mark or period respectively; not being part of the quotation, they belong outside the quote marks. Hence, the proper use is: ?"! . Strunk and White may disagree, but this is the clearest, most logical writing style.

Hear hear! Although I think that <sentence end punctuation>"<sentence end punctuation> is in most cases a horrible abuse of my eyes.

Yeah, consecutive punctuation marks can be ugly, but at least it's syntactically and sematically correct. Leet-speak and AOLisms, on the other hand, make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon soaked in brine.

[RealGrouchy]

I am an eighteen year old student at the University of Ottawa,

I am taking biomedical science because I want to join Doctors Without Borders. I want to join DWB because people dying of easily cured diseases pisses me off.

Don't worry. Once you've been churned through the U of O's bureaucracy, any feelings towards other humans other than bitter, bitter hate will subside.

- RG>

[DaveFP]

And that's why I go to Carleton

[Pau!]

Don't worry. Once you've been churned through the U of O's bureaucracy, any feelings towards other humans other than bitter, bitter hate will subside.

- RG>

I can already see what you would mean by that, though, as I know I'm a number, not a name. My name's just there to be polite.

Two Ottawans here, h'm? Tres cool. OttawaU has the distinct advantage of being right downtown, though, and I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of my humanity for that.

[DejaVoodoo]

I am a mere 17 year old chronic overachiever, taking my first physics and calculus course this year. Hoping to go somewhere in Cambrige (the one that's not MIT, ). I had to join this forum.. from what I can tell, it has the most intelligent following. Almost perfect grammar and spelling, and those logic problems require.. well, a degree in physics to understand =P. At any rate, love the comic!

[Shoofle]

Yeah, consecutive punctuation marks can be ugly, but at least it's syntactically and sematically correct. Leet-speak and AOLisms, on the other hand, make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon soaked in brine.

But... It's not a dumb thing! I actually do it to clarify my writing and what I am referring to! For example, a question mark inside quotes indicates that perhaps the subject of the quotes is something that I am questioning, whereas outside means that the quotes and the contents thereof are combined intentionally and inseparably. It makes more sense, logically.

[Penguin]

Hoping to go somewhere in Cambrige (the one that's not MIT, )

Wait, there's another college in town?

... d'you mean that little lib-arts school up the river?

[QuxxJ]

29/M/MD/Computer geek

Currently I make things to control robots, but unfortunately not so that they can love, atleast the birth control is cheaper that way. Had slaves, err, interns from nasa this summer, but the robot is recovering from the molestation.

Before I made fun things for museums, and got to do a real-life version of guitar hero with expensive / fun guitar stuff.

In case of raptor attack, the dogs should not only provide warning, but also provide defense/confusion/snacks to aide in escape attempts. Hopefully they are actually disguised raptors... hrmmm extra food for em tomorrow.

[davean]

Yeah, consecutive punctuation marks can be ugly, but at least it's syntactically and sematically correct. Leet-speak and AOLisms, on the other hand, make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon soaked in brine.

But... It's not a dumb thing! I actually do it to clarify my writing and what I am referring to! For example, a question mark inside quotes indicates that perhaps the subject of the quotes is something that I am questioning, whereas outside means that the quotes and the contents thereof are combined intentionally and inseparably. It makes more sense, logically.

"Perhaps" and if the quote its self is a question? Problematic, huh? Probably should use syntax to indicate what you are questioning, as thats what syntax is for.

[Tropylium]

Seriously, I had to put on a jacket during the last few days of August. Come on, Boston! Try having GOOD weather for a period instead of abruptly switching from "too hot" to "too cold"! Aargh

Don't whine, mr. Oceanic Climate. I get to see temperature variations of some 50°C (90°F) over here, and I'm living on the coast too.

Yeah, consecutive punctuation marks can be ugly, but at least it's syntactically and sematically correct.

Correct according to who, anyway?

[Charodei]

"Perhaps" and if the quote its self is a question? Problematic, huh? Probably should use syntax to indicate what you are questioning, as thats what syntax is for.

As a freind said, "Here's a quote from Einstein: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?", which I think is pretty clever.".

Ouch, though as a programmer I don't have too much trouble with lots of punctuation marks. A real problem is that the quote marks are adirectional (unless you use broken Microsoft 'smart quotes', which may still get it wrong), leaving the matching ambiguous. I'd alternate double and single quotes to solve that problem, but "''tis'" can be misleading on some displays.

Some languages, such as Russian, use « and », which are much easier to read. Why can't we just talk in a programming language like lisp or perl?

[DaveFP]

Perl: Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. I don't know why this amuses me so much, but it does.

[DarthCat]

There is no job, there is only your mind.

...But I don't have a job, because I'm a student.

And now, in Spanish!

Tengo deis y siete años, y soy de Florida. Tiene mucho calor aqui... todo del tiempo.

In response to Charodei's comment about other languages, I think speaking a computer-related language is all well and good of an idea, but why not go it one further and all speak binary? I'd promise that no one else would know wht you were saying... especially not the person you were talking to!

[davean]

"Perhaps" and if the quote its self is a question? Problematic, huh? Probably should use syntax to indicate what you are questioning, as thats what syntax is for.

As a freind said, "Here's a quote from Einstein: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?", which I think is pretty clever.".

Ah, but this is an ordered, quite full, desk.

[ed]

22/m/Computer engineering major at CalPoly, SLO (btw: computer engineering=EE/CS)

[Verysillyman]

As a freind said, "Here's a quote from Einstein: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?", which I think is pretty clever.".

I'd use single quotes inside it. And spell freind differently. And just for more punctuation, Einstein would have been yelling. "...of what then, is an empty desk?!',..."

[kuno]

22/m/Computer engineering major at CalPoly, SLO (btw: computer engineering=EE/CS)

San Louis Obispo? I'm thinking about transfering there for mathematics. How do you like it?

[ed]

22/m/Computer engineering major at CalPoly, SLO (btw: computer engineering=EE/CS)

San Louis Obispo? I'm thinking about transfering there for mathematics. How do you like it?

I don't know, I'm moving down on the 16th

[Marrow]

27/M/IL

I look at pieces of metal all day long, they call them exaust manifolds.

[Marlayna]

First post

I'm 21/F/student (electrical and computer engineering).

I discovered this comic (and forum) recently, read all of the strips in one sitting, and I'm hooked! Very, very intelligent and inspired humour. And the riddles here in the forums are good fun... I think I am going to love this place

[Jeff]

33/M/AK

When I'm not doing generally geekified stuff for work (video editing, writing php, building RAID-5 arrays, etc.) I play guitar and sing in my band. Our genre is 3 to 6 minute songs that are completely improvised yet structurally sound that fall within the rock/pop/blues context. We have never played the same song twice. Our "hit" to "trainwreck" ratio is something like 10:1 and getting better and better. I don't know whether to consider ourselves a real band or more of a performance-art kind of thing. I do know that it's a lot of fun.

[RealGrouchy]

Sorry for all the Can-con, I'll try to abbreviate it all to one post...

OttawaU has the distinct advantage of being right downtown, though, and I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of my humanity for that.

First, Ottawa University is quite a distance from downtown Ottawa, ON. At 20,000 acres, it's considerably larger than downtown Ottawa as well.

Second, the University of Ottawa does not have the "distinct" (I dislike this application of this word) advantage of being downtown. There are many other universities (in fact, most major Canadian ones) which are right downtown. It is not even alone in Ottawa, as Saint Paul University is also right downtown, albeit in an utterly drab part of downtown.

Third, join the debate club, or at least visit them for a while. They will teach you how to remorselessly tear into other people with all the confidence of someone who knows that he or she is saying.

</rant>

- RG>

[Smajie]

I will be eighteen in a month, live in Jerusalem, Israel, and will soon be drafted into the Israeli army. More specifically: intelligence.