I'm sure @Nagesh would find this interesting.
Best posts made by abarker
-
RE: I think we made @CodingHorror mad
-
RE: How to reboot in Windows Server 2012
Its a server, so I presume it spends most of its life un-attended in a comms room & is usualy adnministered remotly.
if so WTF does it even HAVE a gui?
So that when you do need to administer it, there's a simple interface to access it through. Plus, most of the admins I work with (including myself as a web admin) usually connect to servers via remote desktop. That doesn't really work without a GUI.
-
RE: FileNotFoundStorage.com Design Document
+1
I ran out of daily likes on the likes thread, but @the_dragon has a good suggestion.
-
RE: Smart phone scroll does not like discourse
@Intercourse said:
ASDESIGNED, WONTFIX, ONLYTESTEDFORIPHONES
(this is added because of Popup telling me to be more descriptive)
next time, use
-
RE: Favorite Anti-Pattern
@PleegWat said in Favorite Anti-Pattern:
@abarker I think
if
is an expression with a value (soelse
is mandatory).return
exists but is strongly discouraged; the value of the last statement is returned automatically and that is preferred. IE, early return prohibited, which most others in this thread seem to have indicated to be undesirable.That is going to depend on the language. I thought we were (at this point) talking about no language in particular. What you're saying, on the other hand, is language specific. Though I am unclear about which language you are referring to.
-
RE: If Windows is Updated, Only Windows Users Will Have Updated Windows
@abarker said:
And what is the shortcut if you don't have a touchpad or said touchpad is broken?
I suppose you buy a new laptop, because laptops are pretty shit without a touchpad.
What about a Mac desktop? Not all Macs are laptops, after all.
Also, my gripe with Windows virtual desktops is that I am entirely unable to switch between them when running full screen RDP. I get and understand why that is, and if I had not used a Mac before Win10 I might not see why that is a big deal. But I have, and therefore the MS implementation seems clunky and annoying.
I'm just trying to determine if your "works on Mac" only works in one given scenario: with a touchpad.
-
RE: FileNotFoundStorage.com Design Document
Allow for download of dummy file that contains no data/corrupted data
Or better yet: Allow for download of completely valid, yet incorrect file. Sure, they might occasionally get the right file, but even a massive WTF gives the right results once in a while. Of course for "security", this file would still be encrypted.
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
Still, not bad. It's still a lot better than the Win 8 start screen. After looking over the wiki, it looks like you still have a menu, it's just full screened. Whereas with Win 8, it's a menu/mini OS with big ass tiles that are in some {$deity}awful color scheme that hurts my eyes.
If Win 9 ends up a flop, I'd consider switching to some Linux distro if it weren't for the fact that I develop mainly for Windows systems. Maybe I just need to have a Linux system with a Windows VM.
-
RE: Jonathan Dowling
@Rhywden said in Jonathan Dowling:
@abarker Yes, that's pretty much a given. However, the question is now whether this uncertainty is a fundamental property of the system itself or caused by our inability to make non-manipulative measurements.
Doh. Now I realize that I misinterpreted what @topspin was saying.
Many apologies for that, @topspin.
-
RE: Jonathan Dowling
@Benjamin-Hall said in Jonathan Dowling:
So "zero-point energy generators" (a staple of science fiction including the Stargate series)
Tangent warning!
As I recall, the ZPMs in Stargate didn't rely on the vaccuum energy. Weren't they drawing energy from a finite pocket dimension. That's why they had a finite energy supply, though the energy supply was vast.
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
This appears to be on a tablet, which is actually what 8 was designed for. I don't have a problem with it on tablets. Just on desktops.
And that's not even Win 8, is it?
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
Ok, if you are going to bash on a product, at least have your facts straight. Maybe you do and are just not being clear about it. In any case, lets make sure we bash Windows 8 and 8.1 for what they are, not what people say they are.
Let me clarify:
- On the IE thing: Launch IE from the Start Screen, you get a dumbed down version with no plugins (unless that's changed in the last few months). Launch IE from the desktop, you get the full IE experience, with plugins. App vs. Application.
- As I was speaking of 8, any time I've touched an 8 system, I've never found a way to easily launch a desktop app from the start screen. Maybe that's changed in 8.1. Even then, that is a huge waste of real estate. The start screen uses tiles that take up large chunks of space, because it is designed for a touch UI. Having to side-scroll through multiple pages to find the desktop application I want to launch is a PITA and even less desirable than crowding my desktop with shortcuts and folders.
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
That sounds too horrible to be true. They already backpedaled with the Xbox One always-on DRM, hopefully they won't implement a system like that.
I hope so as well. We'll just have to wait and see if that leak pans out.
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
@abarker said:
Sure it is. Based on actual market penetration, they should have already declared EOL on Vista. Why continue to devote any resources to a 3 version old product (since M$ considers 8 and 8.1 seperate) which is used by 3-4% of the market, when you provide no support for a product that has about 5 times the market share?
MS aren't killing all support for 7; it's basically going to the same level of support as Vista i.e. bugfixes and security patches. And I imagine they'll still be fulfilling their paid support obligations, like they did (do?) for XP.Not sure how that applies to what I said about Vista being relevant ...
Anyway, as I've pointed out (repeatedly) the big issue is that this means there will probably be no more IE development for Win 7. This is an issue as IE11 is not very far along with HTML5 implementation compared to other browsers. As HTML5 gains traction, this means that IE is likely to get pushed out. Because of the tight linking between IE and Windows, it's a bad business move to push Win 7 to extended support when the latest version is so clearly not accepted.
And no start menu; and you have to have shortcuts on the desktop, or some third-party menu app, or just browse through your file system to get to your desktop apps; and then you have things like an IE app (started from metro) and an IE application (started from desktop) which behave differently even on a desktop (because who needs consistent application behavior?); and ...
There is evidence they've learnt from some of those mistakes, with a form of Start Menu staled for return in 9, if not 8.n. And let's face it: the programs you use most often are pinned to the Taskbar already
[/quote]But this hasn't been a discussion about what they are including in Win 9 (which at this point is only rumors based on leaks from unnamed sources). This is about the extended support date for Win 7. You brought up Win 8, shortcomings, so I expanded on that. Right now, I don't give a shit about what might be in Win 9.
As for pinning programs to the taskbar, I only do that with my top 5 programs. I have another 10 or so on my desktop. That accounts for my 15 most common programs. Everything else I go to the start menu for. I do that to minimize clutter on my desktop and to leave space in the taskbar for less common programs (when I need them). If I were to switch to Windows 8, I would be getting a third party plugin to give me a menu. It makes the less common applications much easier to find and access without causing clutter.
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
Well, piracy is evil, so they have to give users a reason to do it. Obviously.
I hadn't thought of that! Plus, it might even make piracy easier. Remove the actual software validation from the software, and push it to a remote server. This allows pirates to host their own fake M$ stores (probably on their LAN) which automatically authenticate any request which they receive. Genius! Admittedly, you won't be getting any updates, but there will probably be ways around that, too.
I wonder how long it will take before this happens?
-
RE: Send Desk Pics!
@apapadimoulis said in Send Desk Pics!:
@abarker someone has a good taste in keyboards!
-
RE: Windows 7 Extended Support date announced
Yeah, that's one of my worries. And if they really are going to follow through with the online registration in Win 9, this is just a shit storm waiting to happen.
-
RE: Licence? What licence? All your links are belong to us!
I still don't agree, b/c I see it as a form of caching and fair use. Either way, a jury could see it differently.
But it isn't caching, partly because all reference to the original source is eliminated. Without that source information, how do you plan on claiming caching?
but don't think anyone is going to sue over this. I feel there's a lot more potential liability with other aspects of the site.
Yeah, and I thought I was safe a few years ago when I bought a few legal copies of Photoshop, kept one, and sold the rest on eBay. Apparently, Adobe thought that me selling two copies of Photoshop on eBay was enough to come after me for copyright infringement. Fortunately, I know a big name in IP law, and he let me use his firm's name free of charge when responding to the initial complaint. Never heard back from Adobe's lawyers after that letter.
Anyway, my point is, you're taking a calculated risk using Discourse.
By coding this behavior with no option to turn it off, @sam and @codinghorror are pushing that risk to everyone who chooses to use Discourse (I bet most people who deploy Discourse have no idea of this risk).And I bet thatno one in this whole mess has onceyou have not consulted an IP lawyer about the legality and/or potential liability of such behavior.Edit: Updated based on PM with @sam
-
RE: It's 2014, this IT problem should be solved by now...
Would you prefer to have your icons go into the bit bucket whenever you don't work with your second monitor?
My work system has multiple monitors with icons on both screens. I occasionally need to remotely connect to do some work that only requires one screen, and in those instances only the icons on my primary screen are visible. When I log in later, all the icons on my second monitor are still there. It's like magic!
Basically, maybe at some point nVidia's practice of moving everything to the first monitor was actually helpful during driver installs, but I would say that it isn't necessary anymore.
-
RE: Apple Swift
@DrakeSmith said:
Oh my god... swift is worse than I thought
I see no problem with that.Damn it! Do I need two shits, or three?
Was that supposed to be , or ?
Did I use or ?
My point is, emoji are a lot harder to remember than traditional words, especially when you've get such tiny differences between some of them.
-
RE: Wow, this place is still going?
Huh, really? Guess Alex just hasn't got a round tuit yet.
-
RE: Reading the clipboard with every keystroke
@Zenith said in Reading the clipboard with every keystroke:
@abarker said in Reading the clipboard with every keystroke:
Not surprised. IE is a dinosaur, as far as browsers go. Honestly, everyone should stop worrying about IE11 support on web projects. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen until well after it has reached the end of its extended support life cycle.
And, again, I said my use case was over five years ago. In a Microsoft shop. Where do people work that any dev saying "lol i cant do anything but google and javascript so we r a chrome shop now" can part the sea?
- Pasting into the provided DIV ()...for some reason highlights the pasted text.
The div is a bit more flexible than a textarea as it allows you to also paste HTML if you need some formatting. As for the highlighting bit, that's easy; just add this after the
insertNode
:Why not toss every single control in the toolbox and make everything a DIV? It's so simple!
That does seem to be the way web development is going.
selection.setPosition(selection.getRangeAt(0).endContainer, selection.getRangeAt(0).endOffset)
- I added a textbox. Because we're talking about pasting to a textbox. And...it doesn't work.
Strange, I got it to work in about 5 minutes, though I did have to tweak the fix for the cursor position. Try this fiddle for to see it working:
With a textarea. Not sure why everybody sees "textbox" and thinks "textarea." The only way the confusion makes sense is if you only do web dev and don't know that every desktop form builder defaults to MultiLine=false for textboxes.
Well, a textbox element doesn't exist, and the closest match when doing a mental search is
textarea
. After further consideration, I suppose you mean aninput
withtype=text
. Still, switching to fromtextarea
toinput
is trivial, so here you go: https://jsfiddle.net/4f6oe3kw/This is why I said I this:
@Zenith said in Reading the clipboard with every keystroke:
But to prevent pasting characters, I had to read the clipboard, set a modified copy, let the paste event happen, and restore the original contents.
It's not necessary to modify the clipboard, but you do you.
Yes, if I'm willing to completely replace every part of the paste event with script, right down to fucking with the cursor position.
If your goal is to be able to modify what's being pasted, then yes, you will have to do a little extra legwork. But constantly watching the content of the text field is .
Why don't I just make my own context menu too?
If you need to, go for it. There are times when a context menu is appropriate from a UX standpoint - just like in a desktop app. When you need it in a desktop app, you have to do most of the work for making a context menu, too. Why should it be any different for a web app?
Oh but then it'll be the evil of Flash and ActiveX and Silverlight all over again because the designed-by-committee DOM's crippledickery is good enough.
-
RE: FedEx Tracking XML Schema
@Groaner said in FedEx Tracking XML Schema:
@abarker said in FedEx Tracking XML Schema:
@Groaner said in FedEx Tracking XML Schema:
Fascinating. I don't recall signing up to be the world's foremost authority on file format storage efficiency - I signed up to make an offhand comment about how a supposedly bloated file format compressed surprisingly well in my testing. To anyone familiar with how compression algorithms work, this should be non-intuitive, but interesting. Is there a new rule around here where we're all expected to post from a position of authority with reams of data to back up our statements? If so, I'm going to hold the rest of you to it and I expect post volume to plummet accordingly.
YMBNH. Pedantry is one of the top 5 desirable activities on this forum.
Can you name the other four?
You want me to explain a ?
-
RE: FedEx Tracking XML Schema
@Groaner said in FedEx Tracking XML Schema:
I don't get the hate for XML. If the verbosity is offensive, it compresses very nicely, such that compressed CSV offered less than a 15% reduction in archive size over compressed XML in some testing I did.
XML doesn't always translate well to CSV, so that isn't a very good comparison. A better comparison would be XML versus JSON.
EDIT: Yeah, I'm a day late. So what?
-
RE: STOP! PLEASE STOP!
@Gąska This thread has probably been drowned out for everyone who doesn't have that thread ignored.
EDIT: Well nearly everyone. After all, @boomzilla a has seen it.
-
RE: STOP! PLEASE STOP!
@remi said in STOP! PLEASE STOP!:
@abarker said in STOP! PLEASE STOP!:
After all, @boomzilla a has seen it.
Hang on, you're using letters to distinguish all @boomzilla's alts rather than their official user names? But which is which?
I can guess that @boomzilla A must be the "true" one, and @boomzilla Q is probably @apapadimoulis, and @boomzilla X could be @error, but for the rest...
Ah, that was my bad. I meant the principle @boomzilla, but initially forgot one of the Ls. When I went back to fix it, "helpfully" autocompleted, adding a space before the straggling a.
Though it would make sense to make the principle @boomzilla be @boomzilla a when denoting by letter.
-
RE: Close enough security
@Vixen said in Close enough security:
@mott555 said in Close enough security:
@Vixen We all have @boomzilla's credit card.
yes. I know. That's what makes it the perfect crime. We all stole his card. All of his cards.
-
RE: Composer (style) is broken again
@anotherusername said in Composer (style) is broken again:
And when the preview contains a code block, this can happen:
Did you try widening your window?
-
Web Service WTF
I contemplated putting this in CodeSOD, but I don't trust myself to be able to sufficiently anonymize the code I have access to, and I don't have access to enough code to fully illustrate the extent of the WTF.
My company is starting a partnership with another company to heavily integrate our software. This is in the hopes of making both products potentially marketable, and is the beginning of a long term partnership. Both pieces of software are browser based, so my team and the other team have been building web services for each other. The web services built by my team allow for both SOAP and RESTful calls. The RESTful calls permit XML or JSON, as the caller desires, automatically returning data in the same format as the request was received. And, perhaps most importantly, we have been building the interface for each web service method to suit the purpose of that particular method, to help make it clear what the job of that method is.
The team from the other company, however - did I mention they are outsourced from India? - they have made a complete mess of their web service. Yes, singular. All methods, whether related to the same or not, are crammed into a single web service. Then there's the endpoint: SOAP only. They supposedly have plans to add RESTful later, but I'm not holding my breath. To make matters worse, they change the web service's URL every three or four days, without informing us. Since we have 12.5 hour time difference, any requests for information we send them typically don't get answered until the following business day, so there goes a day's worth of work.
And then there is the structure of their web service methods. Part of our specification involved sending 3 pieces of information with every web service call (to identify client company, individual user, and the location they are working from that day). This allows us to filter the returned data to what they need at that time. Because of this specification, the other team decided that they would build all of their web service methods off of common requests and replies, aptly named "genericRequest" and "genericResponse". The basic structure for a request is something like this:
<genericRequest> <customerid>SOME GUID</customerid> <userid>SOME GUID</userid> <locationid>SOME GUID</locationid> <attributes> <attributeDetail> <attributeName>SOME NAME1</attributeName> <attributeValue>SOME VALUE1</attributeValue> <attributeDetail> <attributeDetail> <attributeName>SOME NAME2</attributeName> <attributeValue>SOME VALUE2</attributeValue> <attributeDetail> </attributes> </genericRequest>
Where the
attributes
are used to include parameters necessary for the specific method being called. The genericResponse structure is similarly structured, exceptattributes
is renamedattributeRowDetails
.Does it really take that much effort to design and implement a unique interface for each web service method? One that isn't a pain in the ass to use? Or am I TRWTF?
-
RE: FlightAware starts using :disco: :horse: Sadness ensues
@raceprouk said in FlightAware starts using Sadness ensues:
@abarker said in FlightAware starts using Sadness ensues:
The right solution would be for the
@media handheld
query to become more commonly used. It's one of the defined media types, and would be perfect for identifying mobile devices. After that you can worry about determining screen sizes to differentiate between phones and tablets, if you want to. The only question is: is it properly supported in mobile browsers?No, not even close.
I know: I've checked. And checked. And double-checked. Fuck, if I check anymore, I'll turn into a checkmark!
Yeah, and it's probably (at least in part) because it isn't getting used. It's an endless feedback loop.
It doesn't help that Mozilla just put something out claiming that handheld is deprecated, based on the Media Queries 4 recommendation that was released just 5 days ago.
-
RE: Project Sunroof, another high-quality bug-free product from Google!
@sh_code said in Project Sunroof, another high-quality bug-free product from Google!:
isn't there a way to sell it back into the network?
It depends based on where you live and who your provider is. Even if you can sell excess power back, the amount you get for selling it back to the network compared to the amount you pay varies based on the same factors.
Effective this month, my electric company implemented a policy change on solar power buy back. If you were in their system prior to July 1, you're grandfathered in and continue to sell excess power at wholesale rates, which means that each kW you put into the grid during the day offsets a kW you take out of the grid at night. If you get put in the system now, they have some complex system for determining what you get for your excess power, but it will be less than the wholesale rate.
-
Apple Swift
Apple announced a new programming language today called Swift.
After a brief review of their highlights, here are some of the things that stood out to me:
Inferred types make code cleaner and less prone to mistakes.
Because who wants strongly typed variables?
you don’t even need to type semi-colons.
We don't need any clear indication of statement endings. Let's throw out one of the clear indicators that this is a C-based language and make it look more Basic.
Create new tests, verifying they work before promoting into your test suite.
Umm, other environments have been doing this for years. Case in point, Visual Studio. I use 2005 and 2008 at work, and both give me the ability to do this. Making a feature that is well behind the curve part of your highlights makes it feel like you're stretching.
I'll be honest, I've avoided developing for Apple products in the past for 2 reasons:
- The entry price (face it, their hardware is expensive, and I won't release something that's only been virtually tested).
- The monstrosity of objective-C.
Maybe now that Swift is out, I'll be down to one reason not to develop for Apple.
-
RE: Getting hyper loop vibes...
@dkf said in Getting hyper loop vibes...:
@boomzilla said in Getting hyper loop vibes...:
That probably assumes that you have a convenient way to recharge while not driving, which I suspect most people do not. It's still much more inconvenient even if it only happens once a week.
How many times a week do you fill up the tank on your existing car? (I usually only fill every few weeks, but then I don't use it to commute because the traffic's pretty awful that way.)
I refill 1-2 times a week, depending on weekend driving and when during the week the first refill falls. My commuter car gets ~320 miles to a tank, and I drive a little under 70 miles per day for work. That means that I typically need to refill after 4.5 days of commuting, which of course gets thrown off by any weekend driving.
-
RE: What has the world come to…
@CrazyEyes said in What has the world come to…:
Sounds like they've hired someone on their marketing team who might actually be competent.
I don't think those new items can beat Whataburger here in the deep south though. They have the "specialty burger" market cornered here, at least in Texas it seems like everyone prefers Whataburger.I used to prefer Carl's Jr/Hardy's over any other burger place, but their prices have gone up, and the burger size has shrunk. Now I'm a Whataburger fan. Unless there's an In'N'Out nearby. Then I'll take a double-double with grilled onions.
-
RE: If Windows is Updated, Only Windows Users Will Have Updated Windows
@Polygeekery said:
Then what is it? A reason that your average office worker would want to change and change to that shifty UI.
http://www.howtogeek.com/128123/10-awesome-improvements-for-desktop-users-in-windows-8/
- Boot Speed
Most users in my company have trouble remembering to reboot their systems once a month, let alone the once a week that is in written policy. I doubt they would care about this one. Also the claimed 30 seconds is a bit of an exaggeration. My work system boots in about 20, my home in about 15. Of course, I do have pretty high end hardware. - File Copying
Again, not going to be an issue for most users in my company. File copying just isn't needed much around here because anything that needs to be shared is already stored on the NAS drives. - Improved Multi-Monitor Support
They barely use the multi-monitor setups we forced on them. Outlook sits on one monitor and they do everything else on the other monitor. The wouldn't know what to do with the other new multi-monitor features. - Task Manager
The enhanced task manager would be nice to have from a tech support stance, but most of our users don't even know how to open it. - File Explorer
We had a trial run to move to Office 2010 about 3 years ago. We're still on Office 2007. Let's just say that the changes to Windows Explorer/File Explorer wouldn't go over so well. - Storage Spaces
Nice, but again, only from a technical perspective. Doesn't make a lick of difference to a typical office drone. - Hyper V
Good for the IT team (maybe). Typical office drone won't ever know about it, much less use it. - Refresh and Reset
Good for tech support. Office drones won't care, and probably won't know. - Battery Life
Doesn't matter on a desktop. - Security
None of the stuff mentioned here will really matter to the office drones.
So, out of 10 improvements included in Windows 8 that your linked article praises, none of them would make a bit of difference to one of our office workers. None of those reasons meet the standard presented in @Polygeekery's question.
Number two, I wouldn't recommend, in the general case, office people upgrade an existing computer. But refusing to buy a new computer with 8 is just dumb. But if you like to keep investing in your buggy whip factory I won't stop you. It's still a free country, mostly.
We still purchase new workstations with Windows 7. Doesn't cost us any extra, and it ensures that we are only supporting one OS.
- Boot Speed
-
RE: Getting hyper loop vibes...
@masonwheeler Wait, are we talking just "south of the border", or are we talking "south of south of the border's border"?
-
RE: Global Warming fix?
@dfdub said in Global Warming fix?:
Still, the rate of change is significantly different than the natural rate of change would be.
I don't think that can be said with significant certainty. We have no records of a climate change. Yeah, there's the cord in fossilized trees and arctic ice, but there's still a lot about those periods that we don't know. And to go along with what we don't know: how much does cloud cover play a roll? What about oceanic warming/cooling? What about other factors we aren't even aware of yet?
Projections of what the natural rate of change would be right now are just guesses with no way to confirm them.
-
RE: If Windows is Updated, Only Windows Users Will Have Updated Windows
@Polygeekery said:
There was nothing there to sell, because there is no reason to switch.
"I would rather wait 6 weeks to get a computer with Windows 7" is a ridiculous attitude.
We order workstations with Windows 7. There is no additional wait time.
-
RE: Getting hyper loop vibes...
@masonwheeler said in Getting hyper loop vibes...:
@abarker You do know they improved a lot more things besides just rocket retrieval, right? (That was the most newsworthy one, but far from their only accomplishment...)
Let's see … what else have they done? They had several "firsts" that are only firsts if you exclude similar achievements which included public funding. None of those really changed or advanced rocketry in any way. After all those psuedo-firsts, they got into landing orbital rockets, first on land, then on an ocean barge. As @Polygeekery had already pointed out, this had always been technically possibly, but just hadn't been tried before. That SpaceX tried and succeeded here was their first actual contribution of any type to rocketry. Then, when they had actually retrieved, and successfully relaunched, an orbital rocket, they worked on retrieval of payload fairings. Again, that they succeeded here wasn't any real surprise. And I guess I shouldn't forget to mention that they have the only rocket currently using densified propellants. Not that it hasn't been done before. Some retired models of ICBM used densified propellants, and ICBMs achieve a sub-orbital trajectory. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to modify those old models to get an orbital rocket similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9.
So, what have I missed? Aside from retrieval, what has SpaceX really contributed to rocketry?
-
RE: Want to challenge traffic light timings? Better get an engineering license
@RaceProUK said in Want to challenge traffic light timings? Better get an engineering license:
@boomzilla said in Want to challenge traffic light timings? Better get an engineering license:
I can't recall when I've ever had to use a hand brake while driving.
The advice may be different in the US, but in the UK, learners are advised to apply the handbrake when waiting in a queue for a significant length of time (also for hill starts). Of course, most drivers, once they've passed their test, stop using the handbrake for that purpose, usually because they've had enough of dickheads in Audis blaring their horns because you haven't started moving three years before the lights change to green.
Makes sense … almost. Given that in many modern cars, the handbrake is just a way to apply only the rear brakes*, I'm not sure how helpful applying the handbrake would be in such a situation. If you've got your foot on the brake pedal anyway, engaging the handbrake isn't going to help at all. Even if you are in a manual and don't have your foot on the brake pedal, you've simply gone from applying the brakes on all four wheels to applying brakes to only the rear wheels, effectively reducing your stopping power.
* This most noticeably doesn't apply to many post-WWII Citroens.
-
RE: United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why
@loopback0 said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
@kt_ said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
It's nice to take pride in one's work.
It's unusual for a moderator.
It's only unusual if I consider ry work.
-
RE: United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why
@coldandtired said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
@abarker said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
Maybe they were all idiots travelling on too tight of a schedule
Why are they idiots?
It's not unknown that, in order to keep costs down, airlines oversell seats on flights. For some reason, passengers in the US have a higher rate of not showing up when they have purchased a ticket, so the rate of overselling is higher here. Of course, by the law of averages, there are going to be flights where more people show up than there are seats for, meaning people will get bumped from a flight. So what should you do? Never book the last possible flight before you need to be where you are going. Doing that would make you an idiot.*
* Of course there are going to be times where extenuating circumstances make this unavoidable, but it's a good general guideline.
@coldandtired said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
How many days in advance must one travel [...]?
It depends. On the airline, the route, the time of year, and all sorts of other factors. There isn't any one right answer. Maybe you just plan to travel the day before. Maybe you just schedule your flight in the morning instead of the evening. Maybe you just avoid a given airline because they only fly the route you want twice a week.
@coldandtired said in United Airlines: the airline we love to hate, but we can't agree on why:
because of questionable policies
Are they questionable policies? Without overbooking, airlines would need to increase their ticket prices, possibly double them. In some cases, flights would end up a lot emptier because they weren't oversold.
-
RE: Because emoji are professional now
@asdf said in Because emoji are professional now:
@Akko said in Because emoji are professional now:
they don't point anywhere
Unless you either use a keyboard layout that has the typographical versions or are inside Microsoft Word. ;)
Or have a way to trigger the typographical versions. With WinCompose, there are 4 ways to type each of the typographical quotation marks used in English.
Now to wax a bit ic.
@asdf said in Because emoji are professional now:
@Akko said in Because emoji are professional now:
they don't point anywhere
Unless you … are inside Microsoft Word. ;)
It's not specific to Word, I've seen some other software so the same thing, but not in a while. Software that auto-inserts typographical quotes will detect the placement of quotation marks and then decide between the appropriate usage of ", “, and ”. Such software should do the same thing for single quotes (', ‘, and ’), since grammatical rules state that nested quotes should alternate between single and double quotes.
Useless background data inside
The straight quotes (" and ') were first introduced with typewriters as a way to preserve space on the keyboard. There were probably instances of this style of quotation mark being used in handwriting out of laziness or sloppiness prior to that, but the typewriter is where they started to become common. As a result, and because of limited resources, when the ASCII standard was created, the straight quotes were carried over into the computing world. Among other names, this style is often referred to as dumb or ASCII quotation marks.
The curved quotes (“, ”, ‘, and ’) are part of the Unicode character set. They were first used in the 15th century, written in the margins of manuscripts to indicate important passages, and evolved to the various forms used throughout Europe by the 19th century. In modern usage, this version of quotation marks are used primarily in printing and typesetting. As such, they are sometimes referred to as typographic quotation marks, though many on this forum probably know them best as smart quotes.
-
RE: Hacking the Deere
@izzion said in Hacking the Deere:
I would expect it isn't worth their time to have two different production process for American and European markets
Companies put out different versions of their products for different markets all the time. And, in this case, all they would have to do differently is make it easier for European repair shops to get a copy of the authorization software. They don't actually have to put out a different product, just have a different internal process in place for two different regions. That's easy, especially since the regions are probably handled by completely different branches of the company.
-
RE: In other news today...
@BernieTheBernie said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
BENTON COUNTY,
Wash.That's not in Florida, is it?
I've highlighted the answer to your question (EDIT: You may need to expand a quote). It happens to be the county I grew up in, but it sounds like an unincorporated location about an hour from my home town.
-
RE: Car Crash: A Story
@antiquarian said:
It's a standard Lisp joke. Would you like a whoosh ?
I believe it's @accalia who earns those for jokes she shouldn't be expected to have gotten.
I thought she usually gets them for jokes she tries to build on in a way that appears to imply she didn't get the original joke.