Pant Thread (because we need more panting)

[SecondTalon]

WHAT WOULD HUMANITY DO WITHOUT YOU.

Enjoyed a cleaner planet running on more renewable energy sources not as strongly tied to Oil, with overall better air quality.

THE HORROR.

[ShootTheChicken]

[Link]

My cat has gone missing. He's been out for nearly 36 hours now. It's not uncommon for him to be gone for long periods (he does that a few times a year), but it's never been this long. So yeah, really worried now. :/

My cat used to do this. He once disappeared for three weeks! I have absolutely no idea where he went, but I hope you can get yours back safely.

He came back in after around 48 hours, acting like nothing had happened. Typical.

[PhoenixEnigma]

Do you mean to say that the cat came back? You thought it was a goner, but it came back the very next day?

[emceng]

I have now experienced Chinese water torture, or as close to I want to come. Dripping pipes all night while I am trying to sleep.

[Jave D]

Yeah, right-wingers, you're so right. I'm a Nazi. A Jewish Nazi. You solved the case again.

[userxp]

I hate gratuitous XML so much. Compare:

Code: Select all

Keybinds:
C-A-Left    DesktopLeft  nodialog nowrap
C-A-Right   DesktopRight nodialog nowrap
C-A-Up      DesktopUp    nodialog nowrap


Code: Select all

    <keybind key="C-A-Left">
      <action name="DesktopLeft">
        <dialog>no</dialog>
        <wrap>no</wrap>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="C-A-Right">
      <action name="DesktopRight">
        <dialog>no</dialog>
        <wrap>no</wrap>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="C-A-Up">
      <action name="DesktopUp">
        <dialog>no</dialog>
        <wrap>no</wrap>
      </action>
    </keybind>


Yes, definitely much more human-readable and easy to edit.

[Zarq]

I find the XML more readable, and I see no difference in edit-difficulty. The XML is less memory efficient though.

[Magnanimous]

Is that Openbox? (Which reminds me, I still need to get my Crunchbang desktop working...)

[userxp]

Yes, that's Openbox from Crunchbang .

In the non-XML version you can see all the keys and actions at a glance. Sure it's not structured in blocks and you don't have a little tag that tells you that "C-A-Left" is a key.
I was going to post a comparison with JSON and YAML here, but I think I'll save that for the Religious Wars forum. The point anyway was that for 90% of configuration files a simple "name = value" list is enough (aka ini files).

[Yakk]

I hate gratuitous XML so much. Compare:

Code: Select all

Keybinds:
C-A-Left    DesktopLeft  nodialog nowrap
C-A-Right   DesktopRight nodialog nowrap
C-A-Up      DesktopUp    nodialog nowrap

To the equivalent:

Code: Select all

<keybind chord="C-A-Left" action="DesktopLeft" dialog="no" wrap="no"/>
<keybind chord="C-A-Right" action="DesktopRight" dialog="no" wrap="no"/>
<keybind chord="C-A-Up" action="DesktopUp" dialog="no" wrap="no"/>

Putting the modifiers of the command as interior tags can add to the flexibility of what the XML parsing engine can do. But if your goal is compact and human readable, you can create compact XML that is easy to human read, and still be easier to parse and find syntax errors in with a computer.

The real advantage of the XML is that there are myriads of parsers written and tested by other people, and standards so you can understand what is valid and what isn't without having to delve into the parser. And not having to write/maintain low level parsing code is a very large plus, even if it means you have to instead understand how to tweak an XML parser front end.

[OBrien]

Doll and Housing benefit application forms: What the fuck?

First off, why the hell do you have "helpful" little tabs telling me what a rental agreement is, but not what things like unit trusts, PEPs and TESSAs are?
Second off, you know that bit where you ask if I'm awaiting any money from a previous job? It would be helpful if you could tell me it's not including wages before I've clicked "submit" (seriously: no mention of it until the "What you need to bring to your interview" bit after the form's been submitted).
Third off, I am the one applying for housing benefit, I am the one who can't afford to pay my rent. Why the hell does it matter if my housemates can afford their rent?
Fourth off, why do you need to ask me how many housemates I have, make me tell you every single detail about their life, then ask me how many housemates I have again?
Fifth off, Your wording is terrible and, in places, entirely ambiguous. I had to go back and change quite a few things when, three pages down the line, I find a different wording for something I wasn't clear on that makes me realise I've been wasting my time for the past fifteen minutes.

Fuck red tape and everything to do with it.

[podbaydoor]

Blargh, convention plague. Oh anime nerds, why you so disease-ridden?

[Garm]

Blargh, convention plague. Oh anime nerds, why you so disease-ridden?

Con funk is the worst.

[st1980]

Doll and Housing benefit application forms: What the fuck?

Fuck red tape and everything to do with it.

Feel your pain, I had to deal with it a month ago, followed by the joys of the personal adviser interviews

[Xeio]

Awwwww, so apparently the new power strip my power company sent me doesn't actually work. If I put my computer to sleep all the peripherals do become unpowered... for about 5 seconds. Then they turn right back on.

Supposedly this could be caused by my computer drawing more than 10W while in sleep according to the manual, but my Kill-a-Watt was reading only 8ish so I dunno...

[Tomlidich]

so, looks like my employer is now threatening to take away my workman's comp, insurance, and all other "fulltime" benefits if i do not get my hours up.

which is at this point impossible, with the the doctor visits, pt appointments, and fuck load of stretches, exercises, and assorted crappy shit i must deal with to recover.

i may not even get paid for my lost hours if they do that.

i am so FUCKED.

i hate this shit. are there actually people who do not have to deal with this crap? is anywhere safe anymore?


i hate my fucking life.

[micco]

Why does my brain have to think that asking a simple question is a terrifying task...

[Garm]

Why does my brain have to think that asking a simple question is a terrifying task...

"He who asks a question is a fool for a moment; he who asks not, a fool forever."

I used to have this same problem, then something changed. Not sure what.

[SecondTalon]

so, looks like my employer is now threatening to take away my workman's comp, insurance, and all other "fulltime" benefits if i do not get my hours up. which is at this point impossible, with the the doctor visits, pt appointments, and fuck load of stretches, exercises, and assorted crappy shit i must deal with to recover.

I'm not entirely certain that's legal. I may be mistaken, as you were not injured on the job.

[Virtual_Aardvark]

so, looks like my employer is now threatening to take away my workman's comp, insurance, and all other "fulltime" benefits if i do not get my hours up. which is at this point impossible, with the the doctor visits, pt appointments, and fuck load of stretches, exercises, and assorted crappy shit i must deal with to recover.

I'm not entirely certain that's legal. I may be mistaken, as you were not injured on the job.

It depends. If he was threatening to fire Tom it would be different. Bumping him down to part time... hard to say. While employers are required to make accommodations the actual hours you work are pretty hard to get past.

I don't know how much help you're already getting but, if you'd like to PM me some details I can run this past my mom. She's not a lawyer but is a disabilities advocate as well as a person with a disability. She knows the AWDA like the back of her hand and has been dealing with California's laws in this matter for 30 years now.

[Tomlidich]

so, looks like my employer is now threatening to take away my workman's comp, insurance, and all other "fulltime" benefits if i do not get my hours up. which is at this point impossible, with the the doctor visits, pt appointments, and fuck load of stretches, exercises, and assorted crappy shit i must deal with to recover.

I'm not entirely certain that's legal. I may be mistaken, as you were not injured on the job.

actually, i WAS injured on the job. thats what sucks about all this. that bike accident was my commute from a client site back to our office. i was in office attire, carrying office equipment, performing office duties, and getting billable pay from the office. (well, until i got shipped to the er of course)

[PhoenixEnigma]

I forgot my phone at home. This is a trivial thing that is continually but mildy annoying, and has left me feeling somewhat naked :/

[bluebambue]

so, looks like my employer is now threatening to take away my workman's comp, insurance, and all other "fulltime" benefits if i do not get my hours up. which is at this point impossible, with the the doctor visits, pt appointments, and fuck load of stretches, exercises, and assorted crappy shit i must deal with to recover.

I'm not entirely certain that's legal. I may be mistaken, as you were not injured on the job.

actually, i WAS injured on the job. thats what sucks about all this. that bike accident was my commute from a client site back to our office. i was in office attire, carrying office equipment, performing office duties, and getting billable pay from the office. (well, until i got shipped to the er of course)

Then I'm pretty darn sure they aren't allowed to do that. There should be, if your state is anything like Washington, a big poster stating your rights should be in the break-room.
Here's some info for California http://www.hartnell.edu/faculty/orienta ... Worker.pdf http://library.findlaw.com/1999/Nov/1/132087.html

[Menacing Spike]

Blargh, convention plague. Oh anime nerds, why you so disease-ridden?

IIRC the penny arcade guys have "no shaking hands at cons" policy after a flu outbreak.

[Giant Speck]

I dragged myself out of bed at 0400 to get some laundry done and get my bike stuff ready for my ride to work.

I neglected to look outside; it's pouring buckets. No bike ride for me.

[e^iπ+1=0]

How fucking hard is it to get me my package? It only took two days to get to England. But then it sat in customs for 5 days. Then it only took 1 day to get it to a nearby town. But then there were apparently customs charges, so they held it and sent me a slip. Also, the charges were practically extortionate. I think the combined cost of the actual items save one was equal to what they charged me. But I payed them the same day and scheduled delivery for the next day, last Thursday. And then they just didn't bother even attempting to deliver it until today. And then apparently no one was around to receive it. So I just went to ask the porter why the fuck that was. His response to why no one was there was essentially 'because no one was here'. It was 11 fucking am on a Tuesday! Why was no one there?!

[Garm]

How fucking hard is it to get me my package? It only took two days to get to England. But then it sat in customs for 5 days. Then it only took 1 day to get it to a nearby town. But then there were apparently customs charges, so they held it and sent me a slip. Also, the charges were practically extortionate. I think the combined cost of the actual items save one was equal to what they charged me. But I payed them the same day and scheduled delivery for the next day, last Thursday. And then they just didn't bother even attempting to deliver it until today. And then apparently no one was around to receive it. So I just went to ask the porter why the fuck that was. His response to why no one was there was essentially 'because no one was here'. It was 11 fucking am on a Tuesday! Why was no one there?!

That's the worst. What is it with customs? Do they hire a bunch of recalcitrant, sociopathic misfits? My company shipped something to India once and it sat in customs for somewhere between 3 and 6 months.

Rant the first: Testing legacy products makes me want to rip my eyeballs out.
Rant the second: Why can't people babysit without plunking my kid down in front a TV? Just take him for a walk people. Use some imagination.

[Tomlidich]

my only regret... is that i cannot fully express my rage through this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwH1x7Q6sjI

[The Scyphozoa]

I was expecting boneitis.

[emceng]

I hit a new low yesterday - I was bothered 8 fucking times during lunch. That's in a 30 minute lunch. That's god damned ridiculous. You can't leave me alone for a few fucking minutes to eat a sandwich? It didn't help that yesterday was crazy anyway, and I had a million things going on. If this happens again I'm going in my office and locking the door.

[Steax]

How fucking hard is it to get me my package? It only took two days to get to England. But then it sat in customs for 5 days. Then it only took 1 day to get it to a nearby town. But then there were apparently customs charges, so they held it and sent me a slip. Also, the charges were practically extortionate. I think the combined cost of the actual items save one was equal to what they charged me. But I payed them the same day and scheduled delivery for the next day, last Thursday. And then they just didn't bother even attempting to deliver it until today. And then apparently no one was around to receive it. So I just went to ask the porter why the fuck that was. His response to why no one was there was essentially 'because no one was here'. It was 11 fucking am on a Tuesday! Why was no one there?!

That's the worst. What is it with customs? Do they hire a bunch of recalcitrant, sociopathic misfits? My company shipped something to India once and it sat in customs for somewhere between 3 and 6 months.

This is why I really hope 3d printers take over. Screw piracy, fakes or whatever.

I've specifically stopped buying books from amazon and stuff, and buy ebooks wherever I can, just because getting them through custom is evil. Pay less, save trees, save transport costs, give more to authors, and get the book faster.

I'll grab the best books physically later when I'm abroad, thank you very much.

[Garm]

Unfortunately, the thing that went to India was a Faraday cage and it rusted, ruining it.

One problem I have with Ebooks is fixity. Things can change on the page and no one would be the wiser. Another problem I have is that my wife monopolizes our kindle.

[gorcee]

Dear student loan servicer: the information you put on my credit report is wrong. It is your duty to fix it. I don't care that your records fail to show certain information. I have already demonstrated that your records are unreliable and faulty. You should not be able to claim, "but we have no record of that transaction" when your records are demonstrably unreliable. I should not have to spend any more of my own time digging up my archived records to deal with this. I should not have to call multiple times and deal with multiple CSRs and eventually send letters threatening to sue just to get my credit report restored to an accurate state. I should not have to dig up 6+ year old phone records to prove that I made certain calls.

You are the creditor, the law puts this burden on you. And yet, when it boils down to it, why does the challenge of "my word vs. yours" fall in your favor, when I have already proven your word to be unreliable?

[Obby]

Dear student loan servicer: the information you put on my credit report is wrong. It is your duty to fix it. I don't care that your records fail to show certain information. I have already demonstrated that your records are unreliable and faulty. You should not be able to claim, "but we have no record of that transaction" when your records are demonstrably unreliable. I should not have to spend any more of my own time digging up my archived records to deal with this. I should not have to call multiple times and deal with multiple CSRs and eventually send letters threatening to sue just to get my credit report restored to an accurate state. I should not have to dig up 6+ year old phone records to prove that I made certain calls.

You are the creditor, the law puts this burden on you. And yet, when it boils down to it, why does the challenge of "my word vs. yours" fall in your favor, when I have already proven your word to be unreliable?

Because the system is set up to fuck over people that either can't or aren't willing to put in the massive amount of time it takes to get these companies to admit fault. My girlfriend has to go through the same crap with the insurance industry every time she goes to the doctor's office. She calls, asks if her visit to the doctor will be covered, they say yes, she goes, three weeks later she gets a $500 bill from the insurance company because they claim the visit was not covered. That's every visit, without fail, for the past year and a half, despite the fact that it says right in her terms that she's covered for any doctor visit excepting a $30 co-pay. Eventually she got them off her back by threatening to leave for another company (which, admittedly, doesn't help you because you can't really just move to another loan provider...).

[gorcee]

Dear student loan servicer: the information you put on my credit report is wrong. It is your duty to fix it. I don't care that your records fail to show certain information. I have already demonstrated that your records are unreliable and faulty. You should not be able to claim, "but we have no record of that transaction" when your records are demonstrably unreliable. I should not have to spend any more of my own time digging up my archived records to deal with this. I should not have to call multiple times and deal with multiple CSRs and eventually send letters threatening to sue just to get my credit report restored to an accurate state. I should not have to dig up 6+ year old phone records to prove that I made certain calls.

You are the creditor, the law puts this burden on you. And yet, when it boils down to it, why does the challenge of "my word vs. yours" fall in your favor, when I have already proven your word to be unreliable?

Because the system is set up to fuck over people that either can't or aren't willing to put in the massive amount of time it takes to get these companies to admit fault. My girlfriend has to go through the same crap with the insurance industry every time she goes to the doctor's office. She calls, asks if her visit to the doctor will be covered, they say yes, she goes, three weeks later she gets a $500 bill from the insurance company because they claim the visit was not covered. That's every visit, without fail, for the past year and a half, despite the fact that it says right in her terms that she's covered for any doctor visit excepting a $30 co-pay. Eventually she got them off her back by threatening to leave for another company (which, admittedly, doesn't help you because you can't really just move to another loan provider...).

That's the thing right there that pisses me off the most. I'm a generally-conservative, pro-business type, and I believe in the free market. But this shit is evil. The free market no longer exists when the consumer has no option to vote with their money. Although, I suppose that's not strictly true. I could take out an alternative loan and pay off my student loan. Unfortunately, any alternative would be at a higher interest rate. Though, I could borrow against my 401(k), and then the interest on that loan just gets paid back to me... Nevertheless, the inability to choose my loan servicer is annoying; it's worse when you realize that you could take out a mortgage, and have that mortgage get purchased by a company you're boycotting. Oh, you want to boycott BofA, do you? Too bad they own your loan, and they make gobs of money off your monthly interest and there ain't a fucking thing you can do about it. Lovely.

But really, this one company has the ability to completely fuck over my credit, and it will take literally thousands of dollars of my own time to fix it? I know I have options. They just all suck.

[Ashlah]

What do you do if you are starving, but have no appetite, and are throwing up anything you force yourself to eat? I have hunger pains, but I can't eat. It's an awful, helpless feeling. This cold (/flu?) came on so incredibly fast. I was fine last night, had a tickle in my throat this morning, congested a few hours later, nauseous by lunchtime, barfing by two. And, of course, after not getting sick for nine months (graduating school does wonders), this has to happen two days before I'm scheduled to finally get my wisdom teeth extracted. Fuck.

[RetSpline]

WHY am I having so much trouble coming up with a topic for this stupid, inconsequential paper? Time past, I could shit out 8-10 page serious research papers like they were nothing, but a rinky-dink persuasive paper over "a local issue" gives me trouble for weeks? I don't even need to write the whole paper tonight! I just need a detailed outline! I used to be able to do this in my sleep. Hell, I could do this in my sleep if I could come up with a topic I gave a rat's ass about. That's the problem right there. I have taught myself too well to ignore the minor injustices in my life, such that now there's simply nothing I care about at such a small scale. I either tend to focus on tiny, personal issues or large, conceptual issues at the national or global level. I wish I could have a teacher that either gave us more specific, directed paper topics, or actually gave us the freedom to write about the things we care about.

[PhoenixEnigma]

What do you do if you are starving, but have no appetite, and are throwing up anything you force yourself to eat? I have hunger pains, but I can't eat. It's an awful, helpless feeling. This cold (/flu?) came on so incredibly fast. I was fine last night, had a tickle in my throat this morning, congested a few hours later, nauseous by lunchtime, barfing by two. And, of course, after not getting sick for nine months (graduating school does wonders), this has to happen two days before I'm scheduled to finally get my wisdom teeth extracted. Fuck.

Spoilered for advice in rant thread:

Spoiler:

Depends what all you can keep down, but sports drinks are a good option if you can, they have some calories as well as electrolytes (which is good if you're losing fluids). Sucking on hard candies can also help. If you can, bland soup (nothing acidic or creamy or with lots of stuff), maybe with crackers. Dry toast, rice, and boiled potatoes are also decent bets. And take it slow.

Hope you feel better soon

[RollingHead]

Dear me from tuesday the twenty-fifth of october of 2011, what is that illegible symbol you wrote on the twenty-third page of your chemistry notebook just under "ΔE"? Sincerely, present me who sometimes hates studying her own notes.