Tavern on the Meta

6:24 AM

→ 21 messages moved to Chimney

6:37 AM

→ 3 messages moved to Chimney

rene

8:26 AM

@zaq yeah, well ... didn't they dissect Einstein's brain? That was way after his dead IIRC. So if people want your brain you could see that as an honor...

user202362

10:51 AM

user202362

11:49 AM

I wonder what would happen if we keep on thrusting cockroaches into the space

user202362

11:59 AM

or better still - cockroach eggs

user202362

My experience of freezing fruit flies is this: a few minutes at -20°C (normal household freezer temp) is usually survivable, although it takes them a few minutes more to wake up (this is probably what a magician would do). An hour at -20°C? Dead.

user202362

A Fly Larva that tolerates Dehydration and Temperatures of −270° to +102° C.

user202362

2:13 PM

So you might ask, why not sending fly larva into space instead? Because cockroaches eat wider varieties of food. Once I witnessed one devouring a piece of soap. Not just any soap, a piece of honey oatmeal soap

user202362

also stop making soap looking so delicious

user202362

I mean, am I the only one look at this and think of fudge?

user340193

4:22 PM

can I lock a question so no new answers/ votes /comments can be added?

hichris123

4:33 PM

@Oded And historical locks...

Shadow Wizard

@Telkitty yes

@Oded huh? That's wrong. Any kind of lock prevents voting.

(that's ordinary lock, not historical. The only difference with historical is that there are no vote arrows at all, plus one can't even flag.)

Hey what happened to @Undo's bounty on the sandbox?

oh, Shog removed it.

Oded

4:56 PM

I was probably thinking about protecting.

@MarkYisri so, only moderators can lock posts. See:

76

Q: What is a "locked" post?

A post can be locked. What does it mean to lock a post? Who can lock a post? When should a post be locked? Return to FAQ index

Undo

@ShadowWizard A lot.

Shadow Wizard

5:20 PM

@Undo TL;DR?

@Oded oh. Fair enough. :)

@Oded whoa..... Big bug! Onebox showing avatar of deleted question author.

(Justin Standard)

Q: I want to crowd-source data on MAF readings at idle. Should I make the request on the main site, meta or in chat?

Guys, do we have a precedence for crowd-sourcing data from users?

0

I think it would be possible to answer a question like this if sufficient data was collected about various vehicles: Is there a rule of thumb for estimating volumetric efficiency? I am quite comfortable asking the question, but where should I ask it?: The main site would be ideal... ... sinc...

discussion asking-questions

@JasonC ?

user315433

5:41 PM

Generally, polls are not allowed. But if the question is phrased as "What are the possible/typical MAF readings at idle", it may be an on-topic question.

user315433

One problem with polls is that they are very much dysfunctional when posted as questions: you get a dozen random responses before everyone gets sick of the question being bumped and closes it or something. And the data you've collected by then is pretty much worthless.

user315433

The purpose of Meta is up to the users running the site. Photography have contests choosing the best photo of the week. Arqade decide what movie to watch next. Mathematics collect catalogs of typical questions and answers.

user315433

If the matter is important and mods are okay with this, you could have a meta post with a Google Form for collecting data, titled like "Collecting MAF readings at idle", and a mod would make it featured so it's in the sidebar of the main site.

6:06 PM

@Zaid I don't know if anything like that exists but I will look around.

I could certainly throw together a web site where folks could upload sensor logs.

It might be a fun idea for an app that reads bluetooth/wifi sensors and automatically collects and shares peoples readings.

Also hi, lol. Don't see you in these parts too often.

user315433

It's been almost four years since xkcd.com/1179 but it doesn't seem to have an effect on people...

user315433

I want to import MotoGP calendar into my Google Sheets. The calendar comes from Europe so it uses dd/mm format, motogp.com/en/news/2016/12/07/2017-motogp-calendar-updated/…

user315433

Sheets interpret half of the dates incorrectly, and leave the rest as text. So I change the locale to Germany, and now I have correct dates in Tabellenblatt4. sigh

user315433

Like, why would a user ever import a webpage (importhtml) with a convention different from his own locale? Not going to happen.

@zaq Because that way sucks too, lol. (Well OK, except for filenames).

I'm all about 2013-Feb-27

Sorts poorly, but no ambiguity in text.

user315433

6:20 PM

And then, your data source is in Russia and they have the same bright idea except it's now 2013-Феб-27...

user315433

We should just switch to hexadecimal globally. Then the month is 1 digit, day is 2 digits, no ambiguity.

user315433

Until someone leaves off the leading zero in the day number, that is.

Well you could encode the entire thing in 4 bytes.

3 bytes.

0 to 9999*12*31

Gets us up to 0x38C1CC, lol.

user315433

Then the Long Now Foundation will be unhappy.

@JasonC hello :)

6:26 PM

@zaq Or rather: 8ÁÌ

I'd tell you my birthday but... control characters.

^KA^Z, a special day to me.

→ 16 messages moved to Chimney

@Zaid I don't remember where it is, but there used to be (maybe still) a site where people would run performance tests on their computers and upload them along with their configuration. Then you could browse all the data and compare.

Something like that might be interesting for OBD logs, if you could somehow leverage people's competitive / bragging nature for upload motivation.

If you can think of a way to transform OBD stats into something that car people could use to impress other car people, you'd have a data collection gold mine.

@JasonC just you so you know, I'm not asking for logs. Just a few tidbits of information

Stuff like engine displacement, NA or forced-induction, idle RPM, MAF readout, MAF condition (new, original, unknown)

I know. But I'm thinking maybe too-bigger-picture. You make it easy for people to upload logs, so they don't have to look at numbers, do averages in their head, and type. You make people want to give you data. Then you have a recipe for all sorts of fun stats.

Nevermind.

lol, I was waiting with abated breath

Well if you want simple, I'd just ask on forums.

Haha sorry.

I was thinking along the lines of proper random sample surveys.

And was going to look online to see if there was a good service for it.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted website in answer: Разница между словами "эскапада" и "эпатаж" by Wert on russian.stackexchange.com

6:37 PM

But then I thought it'd probably be quicker to just ask on car forums.

As for meta

I say screw it, just post it, lol.

Worst that can happen is it gets downvoted to hell or Paulster or somebody goes "sigh".

Posting it is the easiest way to find out if the community is open to it.

Kind of makes the Meta post moot if I don't wait for input, doesn't it?

@Zaid Oh hey why don't you set up a Google form?

Because I want the information to be accessible to the site

People can fill it out, you'll have a nice spreadsheet, you'll keep the answers clean.

Yeah but you can share a view-only link to the spreadsheet publicly, Google lets you do that.

Let me think about it

6:41 PM

@Zaid And yeah it does make it moot. Easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission, heh. But since you've already done the latter now you've gotta politely wait.

@Zaid Check it out. Seconds: goo.gl/forms/WlX3sU32oyLKTfi42

Shog9

@JasonC make a site that generates leaderboards for arbitrary stats and then try to get the guy who makes Torque on board.

And public results: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…

@Shog9 Now you're talking.

@JasonC you're so kind. Except that the Marcellus Wallace question may be slightly biased :P

(whoever he is)

does he look like a bitch?

"Competition is fierce in the Top 3 O2 Sensor Values category."

@Zaid Pulp Fiction

►

A movie worth watching.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at end of answer: Which price format is more readable for car sites by jessica on ux.stackexchange.com

user315433

6:53 PM

Great success: I now have imported all 2017 MotoGP events in my Google Calendar, and thus answered a question on Web Apps. Next: how to delete them, given I don't follow MotoGP.

user315433

7:07 PM

I wouldn't mind an easily-importable Formula 1 calendar, though.

Wow

So my ISP usually has great customer service.

Today I tried calling them with a question about an overdue bill, which I don't intend to pay until after I talk to them.

And I found out that when you owe money on your bill their automated phone system only provides paths to pay the bill. I went through every path. There is no way to do anything else, and no way to talk to a person. And their chat server is down.

That

Is f**king frustrating.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Shortened URL in answer: How did Zeff really lose his leg? by Harsh Gupta on anime.stackexchange.com

Shadow Wizard

7:52 PM

@JasonC well, it's smart strategy... surely it makes people pay.

user315433

9:15 PM

!!/hats