xkcd

by **roband** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:47 pm UTC

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:(and I like to freak them out by turning my head and facing someone to hold a conversation with them, WHILE STILL TYPING CORRECTLY).

I've done this once, EVER. I felt SO FUCKING COOL. Then I carried on, I don't think anyone noticed

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Attention all the kids my son invited to his 10th birthday party: Fuck you. If all of you aren't going to show up, the polite thing to do would be call.

Not just the kids, fuck those parents. That sucks man, hope the little dude was ok with it.

by **suffer-cait** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:49 pm UTC

our school had us learn to tyoe in 4th grade. our program was instructions sheets with patterns on them that we had to type while covering our hands with said sheets. i failed. also our computers were the kind with a black screen and orange/green letters, so none of that mavis beacon stuff.

by **PhoenixEnigma** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:54 pm UTC

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Nowadays, no-one particularly cares how I type, just that I can (and I like to freak them out by turning my head and facing someone to hold a conversation with them, WHILE STILL TYPING CORRECTLY). Five-finger for the win, yo.

I've tried that. It tends not to end well.

by **Rium** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:04 am UTC

I’m starting to make some progress with singing and my voice, which is nice. Except now I often notice imperfections in live performances that I’d never have caught before (I think).

by **Ptolom** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:23 am UTC

Writing a response to a thread in News and Articles, I had a sudden attack of nihilism and had to go and have a lie down.

by **Mighty Jalapeno** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:44 am UTC

I figured I'd just throw this out into the world and see if it sticks. It was an idea I had for a website, but since I have neither the time, money, skill nor wherewithal to accomplish this, I'll see if anyone else can.

Spoiler:

by **UniqueScreenname** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:24 am UTC

I think that's a great idea. As long as it doesn't sound like a midi, then I would love it.

by **Aleril** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:58 am UTC

I would add my crappy song ideas to that for sure!

by **Cathy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:00 am UTC

Ptolom wrote:Writing a response to a thread in News and Articles, I had a sudden attack of nihilism and had to go and have a lie down.

Har har har. After a while I've realized that the mod's joke name for it, Bitching and Whining, is surprisingly accurate.

N&A either makes me want to scream or cry or laugh. Or all 3, really.

by **Hawknc** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:14 am UTC

You should try moderating it.

by **Cathy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:18 am UTC

Ahahahahahahhahahaha. :shock:

That had better be a joke!

by **Giant Speck** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:55 am UTC

I have finally scheduled a Genius Bar appointment to get my iPhone's dock connector looked at. I'm glad it's still under warranty, but I hope it doesn't take too long to get fixed. :/

by **Steax** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:43 am UTC

Hawknc wrote:You should try moderating it.

I found this "ban everyone in thread" plugin you may like.

Giant Speck wrote:I have finally scheduled a Genius Bar appointment to get my iPhone's dock connector looked at. I'm glad it's still under warranty, but I hope it doesn't take too long to get fixed. :/

Those things typically take less than a day. I had mine done in an hour. My cousin, who came in with the whole bottom half fractured due to a drop from ear height (slipped during a call), got the easy ticket and they just got him a new handset.

by **Whelan** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:54 pm UTC

Is there a way one can stop the power button shutting down windows without a password or something? My flatmate's a twat and just wanders over and hits the power button when he wants my attention.

by **bigglesworth** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:06 pm UTC

You can change it to send your computer to sleep... or *checks* yep, even do nothing.

by **Webzter** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:07 pm UTC

Whelan wrote:Is there a way one can stop the power button shutting down windows without a password or something? My flatmate's a twat and just wanders over and hits the power button when he wants my attention.

Do you use the power button ever? If not, have you considered putting a metal contact on the power button and routing a lead off of the power supply to it? Him screaming would still get your attention but not have the undesired effect of shutting your computer off.

edit: Bigglesworth's answer is probably a better solution to the problem.

by **Whelan** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:16 pm UTC

bigglesworth wrote:You can change it to send your computer to sleep... or *checks* yep, even do nothing.

Perfect, ta.
I would do some hardware jiggery, but I'm not that way inclined.

by **jobriath** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:28 pm UTC

Whelan wrote:Is there a way one can stop the power button shutting down windows without a password or something? My flatmate's a twat and just wanders over and hits the power button when he wants my attention.

How do you avoid homicide?

by **Obby** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:30 pm UTC

Whelan wrote:Is there a way one can stop the power button shutting down windows without a password or something? My flatmate's a twat and just wanders over and hits the power button when he wants my attention.

If there is a way to ensure that I will not pay attention to you ever again... that's probably it.

by **roband** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:30 pm UTC

jobriath wrote:
Whelan wrote:Is there a way one can stop the power button shutting down windows without a password or something? My flatmate's a twat and just wanders over and hits the power button when he wants my attention.

How do you avoid homicide?

Seriously, or at least a tiny little bit of GBH...

by **Xeio** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:11 pm UTC

The problem, of course, being that the reset button would still be active as that's a hardware switch (though you can disconnect the cable from the mobo I guess?).

by **roband** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:24 pm UTC

So, personA says something and personB replies "relevant xkcd" with a link. PersonC replies "there's a relevant xkcd for everything". We need a comic which is relevant to xkcd having a comic relevant to everything. Then the circle shall be complete.

by **Dason** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:36 pm UTC

But then what about the situation where you want to find a relevant xkcd comic but one doesn't exist? Is there an xkcd for that?

by **Link** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:36 pm UTC

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Firefox 10 (I was still using 3.6). From version 4 onwards, Mozilla has made some design decisions that I strongly disagree with, and I've been reluctant to upgrade because I knew it would be a lot of work to undo those changes. And sure enough, it's taken half a day's work, the installation of two extra extensions and a theme, three extension compatibility hacks, a userChrome tweak and about half a dozen about:config changes to get it to a remotely acceptable state. It's still not 100% perfect, but at least it's passable. It's also a helluva lot faster than Fx3.6, so that's good, I guess.

I want to use this moment to say the following to Mozilla -- and this is from the bottom of my heart: boo ya, bitches!

by **roband** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:38 pm UTC

Dason wrote:But then what about the situation where you want to find a relevant xkcd comic but one doesn't exist? Is there an xkcd for that?

Well, person B would never mention xkcd, so I can't see that being a problem.

by **Dason** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:44 pm UTC

roband wrote:
Dason wrote:But then what about the situation where you want to find a relevant xkcd comic but one doesn't exist? Is there an xkcd for that?

Well, person B would never mention xkcd, so I can't see that being a problem.

Why not? People mess up sometimes. I can recall quite a few threads where people describe what they believe to be an xkcd that they're looking for and the problem ends up being that it was a different comic.

by **SecondTalon** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:47 pm UTC

Dason wrote:Why not? People mess up sometimes. I can recall quite a few threads where people describe what they believe to be an xkcd that they're looking for and the problem ends up being that it was a different comic.

My favorites of those is where the comic they're looking for turns out to be something like Romantically Apocalyptic. Something in which the detailed artwork is a huge part of the draw.

by **Steax** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:49 pm UTC

Link wrote:I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Firefox 10 (I was still using 3.6). From version 4 onwards, Mozilla has made some design decisions that I strongly disagree with, and I've been reluctant to upgrade because I knew it would be a lot of work to undo those changes. And sure enough, it's taken half a day's work, the installation of two extra extensions and a theme, three extension compatibility hacks, a userChrome tweak and about half a dozen about:config changes to get it to a remotely acceptable state. It's still not 100% perfect, but at least it's passable. It's also a helluva lot faster than Fx3.6, so that's good, I guess.

I want to use this moment to say the following to Mozilla -- and this is from the bottom of my heart: boo ya, bitches!

Is there a particular thing you don't like about it?

Not that I really care, except that I (and probably most web designers) hate Mozilla for skimping on 3d transforms. And I need every excuse to blame them for how the hell FF3.5/3.6/4 has like 25% browser share in my country. We could have tasty flip-page animations by now!

EDIT: Sorry, missed this post earlier.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Attention all the kids my son invited to his 10th birthday party: Fuck you. If all of you aren't going to show up, the polite thing to do would be call.

This kind of thing honestly traumatized me from ever holding parties again. It only takes one party where a quarter of the people come and you get stuck in that awkward moment when you realize that's everyone, and I never want to feel that way again.

And yeah, those parents there are equally ridiculous.

by **Link** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:43 pm UTC

Steax wrote:Is there a particular thing you don't like about it?

Most of the frustration actually stemmed from the fact that I started a new profile (I had problems with the old one), but some annoying things about Firefox itself:

The fact that the status bar is gone. Seriously, fuck that shit.
The default look of the Fx4+ tab bar, which does not match the native one (with my configuration, anyway), while the 3.x one did.
Minor but unnecessary interface changes, such as the stop and reload buttons being crammed into one, and the drop-down arrow that was next to the "forward" button being gone.
Various default settings such as automatically installing updates, hiding the protocol from the address bar, and smooth scrolling in the tab bar.

Those are the major gripes I encountered with Firefox itself (that I can think of at the moment). Then there was the issue of some extensions - most importantly, the Google Toolbar - being unavailable in Fx-5+, which admittedly isn't Mozilla's fault, but it certainly didn't make upgrading any more attractive.

Most of my dislike for the newer versions stems from (1) unnecessary removal of features like the tab bar and (2) lots and lots of simple settings being the exact opposite of what I would consider sensible by default, to the extent where they're Goddamned Bats. I suppose there'd be fewer of them if I'd migrated my old profile over, but it was high time I created a new one.

by **Steax** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:57 pm UTC

Link wrote:
Steax wrote:Is there a particular thing you don't like about it?

Most of the frustration actually stemmed from the fact that I started a new profile (I had problems with the old one), but some annoying things about Firefox itself:
The fact that the status bar is gone. Seriously, fuck that shit.
The default look of the Fx4+ tab bar, which does not match the native one (with my configuration, anyway), while the 3.x one did.
Minor but unnecessary interface changes, such as the stop and reload buttons being crammed into one, and the drop-down arrow that was next to the "forward" button being gone.
Various default settings such as automatically installing updates, hiding the protocol from the address bar, and smooth scrolling in the tab bar.
Those are the major gripes I encountered with Firefox itself (that I can think of at the moment). Then there was the issue of some extensions - most importantly, the Google Toolbar - being unavailable in Fx-5+, which admittedly isn't Mozilla's fault, but it certainly didn't make upgrading any more attractive.

Most of my dislike for the newer versions stems from (1) unnecessary removal of features like the tab bar and (2) lots and lots of simple settings being the exact opposite of what I would consider sensible by default, to the extent where they're Goddamned Bats. I suppose there'd be fewer of them if I'd migrated my old profile over, but it was high time I created a new one.

I'd reply to your post, but you posted a tvtropes link.

But yeah. I hated FF for trying to get all in-sync with everyone else and removing those things.

by **e^iπ+1=0** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:48 pm UTC

Quick questions, fora: In Mathematica, how the fuck do I make a single letter in a frame label not be italicized? More specifically, part of the text I'm labeling a frame with is the single letter A. It also has a subscript, 2. Mathematica doesn't seem to want to let that letter be non-italicized.

Edit: I got it to work by putting an \[InvisibleSpace] between the A and the ², but it seems like there should be a more "correct" way to do it. Anyone?

by **lucrezaborgia** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:34 pm UTC

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:I can five-finger type about 70wpm - 90wpm. It used to bug the almighty crap out of my Data Processing teachers (the high school computing course at the time), since it 'wasn't right', and I ended up getting a C in that course. Nowadays, no-one particularly cares how I type, just that I can (and I like to freak them out by turning my head and facing someone to hold a conversation with them, WHILE STILL TYPING CORRECTLY). Five-finger for the win, yo.

I never learned how to properly type either even though I took typing classes at my computer magnet middle school. Late nights trolling AOL chatrooms back in the days of dial-up have trained me well. I can always type without looking but for some reason I have problems doing typing tests. Then again, I used to be a relay operator. GA

by **Giant Speck** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:41 pm UTC

Steax wrote:
Giant Speck wrote:I have finally scheduled a Genius Bar appointment to get my iPhone's dock connector looked at. I'm glad it's still under warranty, but I hope it doesn't take too long to get fixed. :/

Those things typically take less than a day. I had mine done in an hour. My cousin, who came in with the whole bottom half fractured due to a drop from ear height (slipped during a call), got the easy ticket and they just got him a new handset.

Oh, awesome. I recharged my old iPhone 3G last night just in case they'd have to send it in or something.

by **Menacing Spike** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:52 pm UTC

I usually hate vocal music in games (seriously what is this shit, it doesn't even fit the theme, goddamn), but this one is surprisingly good.

by **bigglesworth** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:58 pm UTC

lucrezaborgia wrote:GA

On another board I post on, this stands for 'Group Attack'. Since I presume you're not dissing all relay operators, what does it mean in this context?

by **lucrezaborgia** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:22 pm UTC

bigglesworth wrote:
lucrezaborgia wrote:GA
On another board I post on, this stands for 'Group Attack'. Since I presume you're not dissing all relay operators, what does it mean in this context?

GA stands for 'Go Ahead'. It means that I'm done typing or done reading what the TTY person has typed and that it is now time for the other person to speak.

http://relayservices.att.com/content/2/ ... tions.html

by **Panonadin** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:31 pm UTC

Oooo ooooo I knew that!

Even though when I first read it in haste, I thought it just said I used to work for the relay service in GA. Which to us USICANS is Georgia.

by **lucrezaborgia** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:34 pm UTC

LOL...naw. I worked for Sprint in Florida. The worst part was the people using the internet to make relay calls. Back then, all you had to do was go to a certain web page and you had the ability to make unlimited calls to anywhere in the US. No login or anything required!

Guess which wonderful African country decided to use this fine service to make large purchases from Dell and various stores using stolen credit card numbers?

by **Panonadin** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:36 pm UTC

NIGERIA!!!!!!!

You used to work for Sprint in Flordia and I have a sprint contract and live in FL. We are obviously related somehow!!

by **lucrezaborgia** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:45 pm UTC

Panonadin wrote:NIGERIA!!!!!!!

Nope. Ghana.

http://www.scamorama.com/deaf_relay.html

We are obviously related somehow!!

Um...sure! Now just PM me your CC, SSN, and address for verification.

Who is online