The minor rants thread.

Fox

Electromagnetic waves, of course, but that wave generates functionally zero electromagnetic flux compared to motion relative to a magnet.

dkf

@Fox said:

but that wave generates functionally zero electromagnetic flux compared to motion relative to a magnet

No. They're the same thing. Really. All that changes is the magnitude, and that just depends on how strong a magnet or powerful a transmitter you use.

HardwareGeek

@dkf said:

All that changes is the magnitude

And the rate of change, which is a lot faster for radio waves than most moving magnets.

Fox

@dkf said:

All that changes is the magnitude

@Fox said:

functionally zero electromagnetic flux compared to motion

The difference in magnitude is immense.

HardwareGeek

@Fox said:

@dkf said:
All that changes is the magnitude

@Fox said:
functionally zero electromagnetic flux compared to motion

The difference in magnitude is immense.

If the flux was "functionally zero," radio waves would be useless for communication or any other purpose. It's dH/dt that induces dE/dt in a receiving antenna (whether that's an antenna for a communication device or a rectenna); if dH/dt were functionally zero, radio receivers wouldn't function.

Fox

@Fox said:

compared to motion

Okay. For the purposes of generating electricity, radio waves have functionally zero magnetic flux compared to the movement of a magnet or changing its magnetic field.

Or, in short,
@HardwareGeek said:

If the flux was "functionally zero compared to motion"

FTFY

dkf

@Fox said:

The difference in magnitude is immense.

That depends on the magnets and the transmitter. Really.

A big transmitter will produce very large magnetic fluxes, especially in close vicinity to it. A small magnet will only produce tiny ones. Transmitters are not generally configured to produce a static change in magnetic flux, sure, but there's really not much reason for anyone to do that as it's much harder to transmit information with a static magnetic field.

These things are not separate. That's been known for around 150 years.

Fox

Okay, under most circumstances, the difference in magnitude is immense.

dkf

Varying field vs static field is a more important difference.

anonymous234

Today on things that annoy me:

Programming languages that don't support something like break 2 to break out of multiple nested loops.

"hurr hurr you just need to structure your code better". If by "structure better" you mean "add an extra boolean", then you might be right, because in most cases there's absolutely no other way.

And guess what, you could say the same about the break and continue keywords in the first place! And "for". Who needs them, just structure your code better!

It's all syntactic sugar for "if"s and "while"s (and that last one is just syntactic sugar for "goto"s). But syntactic sugar is good. It means more semantic code, easier to read, harder to mess up.

Arantor

Fuck, even PHP gets that right.

Maciejasjmj

@anonymous234 said:

Programming languages that don't support something like break 2 to break out of multiple nested loops.

Refactor to method, use early return. Duh.

anonymous234

I think other languages don't want it because it's a "PHP thing"...

antiquarian

@anonymous234 said:

I think other languages don't want it because it's a "PHP thing"...

Ada also has it.

boomzilla

My wife saw the street sweeper go by the "main drag" this morning.

I just had to run an errand, and they're out on the same road mowing the medians and the grass between the sidewalk and the road, spewing cut grass and leaves all over it.

~~Your~~My tax dollars at work.

Rhywden

So,I have this app. And I want to use localized strings in case I ever want to change it easily into another language.

This works fine in XAML and in the ViewModel. In XAML it's a question of setting the x:Uid. In the ViewModel I construct a Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources.ResourceLoader and call it's GetString("foo") method.

However, I also want to use a proper validation method for my models. And, instead of doing a whole lot of if(string.IsNullOrWhitespace(baz) and stuff, I thought: Why not use the provided validation methods using DataAnnotations? Y'know, like [Required(ErrorMessage = "Entry is required")]

Yeah. Turns out that they somehow didn't deign to provide an easy way to access the resources file in an annotation. Every single solution I've seen would either break the XAML and ViewModel methods or would force me to include a horrendous workaround which would kind of lead the ease of DataAnnotations ad absurdum.

Luhmann

Saw them doing the same things around here the other day ... Only in the right order.

Magus

@Rhywden said:

However, I also want to use a proper validation method for my models.

Oh no!

This is the worst thing in WPF. There are 3-5 different ways of doing it, and they're all bad. The least horrendous seems to be INotifyDataErrorInfo, but it's still bad.

Rhywden

@Magus said:

@Rhywden said:
However, I also want to use a proper validation method for my models.

Oh no!

This is the worst thing in WPF. There are 3-5 different ways of doing it, and they're all bad. The least horrendous seems to be INotifyDataErrorInfo, but it's still bad.

Indeed. Since I also need Class-wide validation (for example: attribute A or attribute B have to be non-empty) I am now using the IValidatableObject interface. This means that
a) I could in principle still use annotations but since calling Object.ValidateProperties() would only yield the first error and not the class-wide one, I won't bother and
b) I'll have to call the Object.Validate() method manually instead of having it automatically validate upon PropertyChange

Then again, using this method also means that I can use the ResourceLoader again.

Magus

And that's the worst thing about it. Our interns recently had to implement validation, and neither they nor i apparently found that interface. It's just yet another way of doing it, I assume...

I liked INotifyDataErrorInfo because it actually gave me all of the current errors, but the fact that it validates with an indexer always bugged me. I don't know why this all has to be so difficult.

Rhywden

Here's the gist of it, just in case you're interested:

Your model looks like this:

public class Stuff :  IValidatableObject
{
  public string PropA {get; set;}
  public string PropB {get;set;}

  public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(PropA))
                yield return new ValidationResult("May Not Be Empty!", new[] { "PropA" });
            if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(PropB))
                yield return ValidationResult("May not be empty either", new [] { "PropB" });
        }
}

and then you do this wherever you deal with events from your view:

var someStuff = new Stuff { };
var ctx = new ValidationContext(someStuff, null, null);
var errors = new List<ValidationResult>();
bool isvalid = Validator.TryValidateObject(someStuff, ctx, errors, true);

Magus

Eww, that somehow seems even worse! Does it get included in the binding metadata at least, so you can read it from an errortemplate?

Rhywden

That's the part of the errors list.

Magus

It sticks that in the validation attached property through some static nonsense? And somehow finds the correct binding?

At least with INotifyDataErrorInfo, the binding just calls it automatically.

FrostCat

@boomzilla said:

My wife saw the street sweeper go by the "main drag" this morning.

I just had to run an errand, and they're out on the same road mowing the medians and the grass between the sidewalk and the road, spewing cut grass and leaves all over it.

~~Your~~My tax dollars at work.

The town I work in has been doing various "beautification" projects on the main street as long as I have lived here. We're currently in the middle of a project to bury the overhead power lines in the center of the road; every three months or so they move to a different section where they put up concrete barriers as they trench, lay cable, and re-fill. They keep also blocking off all the side streets.

They're only 2/3 of the way done on the whole job, but last week they dug up the sidewalk on the first, completed section.

I am interested in seeing what they do next, as they've already replaced the street lights with a more artsy version of same, again in the interest of "beautification". But now the street itself is a mess, full of places where it's been dug up and fresh concrete poured, as well as some eroded spots. I suspect they'll do a repaving in a year or two.

Rhywden

That's a problem over here as well. Saw that at a street near my parents' home.

First they ripped open the street to lay new telephone lines. Two months later they ripped it open again to lay gas lines. Half a year later they ripped it open yet again to lay cable.

But the absolute epitome of idiocy I saw in another town where they laid some cables and then planted trees directly above those lines. This was the same town I went to school in - they took a horrendously long time to renovate the city hall. I went to this school from grade 7 to grade 13 and they began renovating shortly after I joined the school.

We had a bet going if they would be able to finish renovating before I finished school. I lost the bet by a week.

This town also decided that it'd be a great time to repave the street in front of my school exactly at the same time we were writing our finals - a 5 hours long math exam is really fun when you have jackhammers below your window. I've never seen our principal so furious :)

dkf

@Rhywden said:

But the absolute epitome of idiocy I saw in another town where they laid some cables and then planted trees directly above those lines.

That's almost as dumb as putting trees over gas or water pipes.

Nocha

So, I have just started at a new job where I was told at my interview "Our codebase is currently about 60% VB.Net, 40% C# but we are looking to increase the amount of C# we do". Having worked there for a week, I have established that not one of my new coworkers can name more than a single small project in C#, and that none of them are aware of any suggestion they should use anything other than VB. On the plus side, they pay better and have better training policies...

anonymous234

Why the hell can't I see Netflix's library before signing up? Is "being able to know what you're going to buy before you buy it" such a strange concept to them?

No, the one month free trial doesn't count.

Nocha

It's a sales tactic. They assume most/enough people will think along the lines of

What's this Netflix thing Jim at work talks about? Oh, it is online TV, I wonder what they have? Oh. I have to sign up to find out. Well, Jim uses it and he is a pretty good judge of these things, plus it is only $5 a month. May as well sign up for it and see what they have

Or some variation on that line of thought. Keeping the price low also means you are more likely to just forget to cancel if you find they have nothing you really want to watch after a month or so as that then means you can't check their new stuff...

Tsaukpaetra

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٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩

FrostCat

Keep that yEnc crap out of here. Where do you think you are, Usenet?

Tsaukpaetra

@FrostCat said:

yEnc

What is that?

@FrostCat said:

Where do you think you are

Discoworld.

@FrostCat said:

Usenet?

They banned me for seeding unusefull content.

Eh, this was actually part of a longer document about string-safety in form submissions.
(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

FrostCat

@Tsaukpaetra said:

What is that?

LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You

Tsaukpaetra

Strings which contain bold/italic/etc. versions of normal characters

Ｔｈｅｑｕｉｃｋｂｒｏｗｎｆｏｘｊｕｍｐｓｏｖｅｒｔｈｅｌａｚｙｄｏｇ
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐱 𝐣𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐠
𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖈𝖐 𝖇𝖗𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖋𝖔𝖝 𝖏𝖚𝖒𝖕𝖘 𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖆𝖟𝖞 𝖉𝖔𝖌
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒙 𝒋𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒈
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝔁 𝓳𝓾𝓶𝓹𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓪𝔃𝔂 𝓭𝓸𝓰
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕔𝕜 𝕓𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕗𝕠𝕩 𝕛𝕦𝕞𝕡𝕤 𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕒𝕫𝕪 𝕕𝕠𝕘
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚏𝚘𝚡 𝚓𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚜 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚣𝚢 𝚍𝚘𝚐
⒯⒣⒠ ⒬⒰⒤⒞⒦ ⒝⒭⒪⒲⒩ ⒡⒪⒳ ⒥⒰⒨⒫⒮ ⒪⒱⒠⒭ ⒯⒣⒠ ⒧⒜⒵⒴ ⒟⒪⒢
Weird...

Tsaukpaetra

Zomg, it's been a while since I heard the term "neticens"...

30\. March 2003:
Newsflash: Some neticens began to post yEncoded messages without the mandatory keyword: yEnc
in the subject line. Some tools are permitting to post without the quotes around the filename.
Both tendencies are not compliant to the yEnc spec. Programmers are honestly to fulfill the spec.

Filed under: Programmers are honestly to fulfill the spec.

FrostCat

Dang. It's supposed to be "netizens" anyway, like "citizens".

Tsaukpaetra

This is what I get for copy-pasta.

Filed under: [Unless they're from the Dark Web, I heard they're something strange in that corner of the sphere...] (#No_true_neticen)

antiquarian

@Tsaukpaetra said:

They banned me for seeding unusefull content.

Banned from usenet? I didn't know that was actually possible.

HardwareGeek

@antiquarian said:

Banned from usenet? I didn't know that was actually possible.

I suppose one could be effectively banned from a specific newsgroup if the newsgroup were moderated, and the moderator simply refused to approve any posts by someone. In a normal, unmoderated newsgroup, getting all the regular participants to killfile the objectionable person could work, in principle; in reality, of course, getting sufficient cooperation for that is, shall we say, unlikely.

A particular server operator might ban him from that server, but there are a lot of servers, and not all of them care all that much about their users playing nice. It's not even difficult to set up your own; you just need to find somebody willing to be your upstream. A fat pipe and a lot of disk are nice, but not necessary if you only care about a few specific groups.

dkf

@HardwareGeek said:

A fat pipe and a lot of disk are nice

These days, those are unnecessary (unless you're so foolish as to carry *.binaries groups) because the content is nicely compressible and nothing like as much as it used to be. Networks and disks have grown plenty. Though a symmetric pipe might be a good idea, especially if you plan to be upstream of anyone else, but that's really just a reflection of how thoroughly miserable some people's network asymmetry is.

The quality of experience of users of usenet will depend hugely on which groups they subscribe to. Some are still civilised and informative. Others… aren't and perhaps never were.

HardwareGeek

@dkf said:

unless you're so foolish as to carry *.binaries groups

Yes, exactly.

@dkf said:

perhaps never were

Some definitely never were. To pick merely the most obvious example, alt.flame exists for the specific purpose of being uncivilized. Personally, I don't understand why anybody would like that, but de gustibus...

Maciejasjmj

@HardwareGeek said:

Personally, I don't understand why anybody would like that

...are you sure you went to the right forum today?

Filed under: what.thefluffykittens.com is the other way

HardwareGeek

@Maciejasjmj said:

are you sure you went to the right forum today?

I come here mostly for the humor, with a fair bit of education mixed in. I generally avoid topics that have turned into flame wars.

Maciejasjmj

Yeah, yeah, and you read Playboy for the articles.

boomzilla

That's all there is any more. Or will be, soon. Or something.

Rhywden

Well, what with the changes to Playboy, that might actually be true now.

Luhmann

Switch to the Dutch version, they are not changing.

Lorne Kates

@Luhmann said:

Switch to the Dutch version, they are not changing.

Yeah, but everyone in Dutchville is naked 24/7 anyways.

PleegWat

Ah, so that's why I love living there.