Tavern on the Meta

A: Better to learn programming, or hire a programmer?

@Alex o_0

user315433

The close reason "OT: was caused by a typo" on SO is often something that the OP themself recognizes. Should they be invited to confirm/refute the closure the way it's done for duplicates?

user315433

Unrelated: when "they" is singular they, why do people write "they do" instead of "they does"?

Journeyman Geek

cause... fracking english.

user315433

0

Programming is easy bro. With God All things are possible. I am also planning a startup in the future just starting up saving cash. There are so many tools you can use to accelerate learning just be committed ie code academy, bignerdranch. Learning swift is NOT hard. Neither is java, and html wit...

user315433

1:20 AM

The best part got cut off: "Android - CSS!!!- its gotta look good IOS -- SWIFT --"

user315433

I figure the software doesn't treat OT sub-reasons as really different, but if DAG really wanted to give special status to some of them on SO, I suppose it could happen.

user202362

Science…is just science. Until you make it improve the world.

user315433

> If everything we tried worked out great, we wouldn't be trying bold enough things. farewell, Stack Overflow Documentation -- Joel Spolsky at 4:37 PM - 1 Aug 2017

user315433

Fair enough, but what are examples of things that did work out great, say in the last 5 years? I guess SO Enterprise...

user202362

1:36 AM

career isn't?

user315433

SO Careers launched in 2011.

user202362

and? there wasn't ~~an exponential~~ growth in the past 5 years?

user315433

So, a thing started long ago keeps growing. Not an answer to "what was tried in the last 5 years that worked out great".

@Alex Worldbuilding is pretty great. (Not that we can take any credit for it. It would have been squashed in Area 51 if I'd had it my way.)

user202362

1) I am not sure what goals you are trying to achieve by trying those things, with the exception of enterprise. 2) Ask yourself, what did work out great, say in the last 5 years at NASA. 3) I probably should be the last person to answer such a question because I am a hoarder. As a hoarder, I keep things for sentimental value, not by how well they work out.

1:50 AM

@Telkitty The best stuff NASA does is not well publicized. Mars and manned flights get all the press, but truly useful missions don't get any notice at all. Hence, a long history of poor resource distribution. (Source: I worked at JPL for the first part of my career.)

user315433

NASA put Matt Damon on Mars, I think it was in the last 5 years.

user202362

through photoshop, yes

Totally mismanaged. He made it back. (Spoilers!)

user202362

@JonEricson examples?

JamesENL

@ShadowWizard Thanks for your post :P

1:54 AM

@Telkitty Other than the Earth observing missions I was close to, the first one I thought of is:

Spitzer Space Telescope

The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. It is the fourth and final of the NASA Great Observatories program. The planned mission period was to be 2.5 years with a pre-launch expectation that the mission could extend to five or slightly more years until the onboard liquid helium supply was exhausted. This occurred on 15 May 2009. Without liquid helium to cool the telescope to the very low temperatures needed to operate, most of the instruments are no longer usable. However, the two shortest-wavelength...

user202362

first, all those explorers and observers do get a lot of coverage ... when they are sending data back to earth

user315433

James Webb Space Telescope looks cool.

user202362

second, those ventures are lot like documentations ... it's not like sending humans to mars, there is a set goal

user315433

I don't think sending humans to other planets is an important task. Just send out probes with SE data dump before going extinct. That will be our best contribution to the Universe. A lot of clever jQuery code.

user202362

or we could send cockroaches to other planets - if we could not get rid of them here, send them across the universe so others can share our suffering!

user202362

2:05 AM

@JonEricson also, think about it, what do those telescopes observe - electromagnetic waves, reflected electromagnetic waves

That's remote sensing for you.

user315433

"That last LinkedIn request set a new record for the most energetic physical event ever observed. Maybe we should respond." "Nah."

user315433

2:30 AM

So... I guess Blacklist spam phrases for first time users is just that, a scheduled post for Oli to vent about boring spam.

user315433

Collecting confirmed spam domains (e.g., those that appeared more than once in posts marked spam, and not in any others) wouldn't be impossible, say, on daily basis. With subsequent hellban on new users' posts containing them. But...

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer: A Dutch salary of 3,000 EUR - What is my net? And can I live on that in Amsterdam? by greg on expatriates.SE

2:58 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected: How to undo a cable tie so that it is reusable by Ben Dover on lifehacks.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] URL in title: 1 Ethereum only 0.055BTC or $168,delivery in 10minutes,accept btc and paypal www.worldbitcoinex.com by worldbitcoinexcom1 on ethereum.SE

4:00 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, blacklisted website in body, pattern-matching website in body: This complement allows to get the by mahikapte on workplace.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, link at end of body, pattern-matching website in body, +1 more: Bella Rose RX - Repairs, rejuvenate and regenerates the new skin cells and tissues by lucyjardine on superuser.com

user310756

4:26 AM

@ShadowWizard at insulting you? :D

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, link following arrow in body, pattern-matching website in body: Muscle Amp X Oysters are wealthy in zinc Muscle Amp X by maryjdaniel on apple.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] URL in title, bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, blacklisted website in title, +2 more: lumalifteye.com/aqua-refine/ by Yaidlku on graphicdesign.SE

TGMCians

4:50 AM

\o

Roses are red,

Doritos are savory,

America’s prisons

are legalized slavery.

user315433

5:05 AM

Artificial Intelligence is one year old today. Top question by views (over 25K views): Could a paradox kill an AI?

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, pattern-matching website in body: Body Building - 10 Tips To Get A Better Body by osimabraga on graphicdesign.SE

user315433

Nobody mentioned Liar! by Asimov, it seems. Well, it's not supposed to be SFF....

user315433

Notable: top question has over 25K views, no other question has even 3K views.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Pattern-matching website in body: It ensures optimum nutrition for by user249878 on apple.SE

5:43 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: Proof that $f(x)={1\\over x}$ is continuous on $(0,\\infty)$? by urdad remi on math.SE

5:56 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, blacklisted website in body, link at end of body, link following arrow in body, pattern-matching website in body, +1 more: Diabetic When You've Got Over The Holidays? by Spurl stock on drupal.SE

@Alex Asimov was a genius.

True AI is a fool's errand though. While automation is possible, and a learning process is possible when the end goal is defined, we have as much chance at creating true AI as we do exceeding the speed of light.

6:15 AM

@rene now he is my fan too i.stack.imgur.com/ugCtJ.png

6:27 AM

@SagarV welcome to the club ...

Always fun to trick a mod: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/354258/… ... not pushing my luck any further ...

@rene Cody is 5 sec late

It doesn't matter, right? Late is late ...

yeah but careful when playing with people who have a gun in their hand :p

Meh, what could possible go wr

6:44 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted website in answer: I am not able to send mails to from google VM with port 25,587,2525 by Ketan Patel on serverfault.com

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in body: How can i Get/Buy/Obtain/ legit and registered IELTS certificates without attending the Exam? by borrow7747 on ell.SE

7:05 AM

bleh server config is so dull

why are there so many checkboxes ?!

where?

where? heh let me count the ways

Coding is so much more straightforward. There are only checkboxes to worry about if you specifically render them to the screen.

Inc.

7:21 AM

Perhaps I was too late for the Docs farewell meta party, but why don't just put a big banner on Docs main page

locked by Jon Ericson♦ Aug 8 at 00:00

This page exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, feature for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can propose similar features here. This topic and its examples are frozen and cannot be changed. More info: FAQ.

Gonna miss docs. I accept the argument to take it down though. But still...

7:44 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at end of answer: How can I enable the console in Survival mode? by Boxing Gloves on gaming.SE

wtf

oh thank god. in.000 works

8:05 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, offensive answer detected: "libmtp error: Could not get file from device." on attempting to transfer files from Android phone by Mâsud Îî on askubuntu.com

@YvetteColomb that too!

@JamesENL what post? :D

JamesENL

Birthday one

@Alex new top bar

(and footer)

@JamesENL ohhhh.... Mazal Tov again! :D

(I check FB only during night, so if you replied there I didn't see yet.)

user343622

8:24 AM

Hello. Is there an SE website where I can solicit a book recommendation?

Derpy

9:12 AM

Genre?

Oded

@BillalBEGUERADJ I'd say no.

A: Where can I ask questions about career book recommendations?

2

Questions asking to recommend a book, or another off-site resource, are generally not well received on Stack Exchange, as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam (from the Stack Overflow help center) You might find related questions at The Workplace, but I think this particular q...

user202362

9:50 AM

@JonEricson if seeing pictures and watching videos about a place over the internet is enough, people wouldn't spend thousands of dollars traveling just to experience it in real life

10:46 AM

@Bart hiding behind a mask?

1

:D

I've been working out

1 ? is he suspended?

yeah. Poor @Bart.

getting hired by Trump as Fake News Chief

2 stupids Lol

@SagarV yup, I got suspended. Apparently my behaviour was unacceptable

10:52 AM

easy to find... google.co.uk/… :D

How did you notice this? @Sag

@Bart bad Bart!

@ShadowWizard brought in Sobotics by Queen

@Bart ah you can still chat :p

@SagarV possibly offensive comments detector? Nice!

yeah. but I won't flag comments that much

only 50+ comment flags

@SagarV well, users can still chat even with their main account deleted.... ask @Alex. ;)

how

10:55 AM

@SagarV when site account is deleted, chat profile/account is not. It must be removed manually by SE employee.

why there is such a system?

@SagarV not worth the efforts

why you said to ask Alex

@SagarV because he used to chat here for long time with his main account on MSE deleted.

so this is his new account?

11:08 AM

@SagarV of Alex? Yeah, he was originally known around here as NormalHuman

Then Sally

Then tons of other names...

Anyone else having problems accessing this: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/274918/…

@rene link working fine

if you mean favouriting, yes it too work fine

@SagarV hmm, it errors for me.

strange

you mean custom 404?

@SagarV yeah, you're in Asia, right?

11:13 AM

@rene yup

only that single post?

@DavidPostill where has this been all my life o.o — ItamarG3 1 hour ago

@SagarV yep

someone love your script.... :D

oops wrong ping (I think) lol

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer: Open source lecture notes and textbooks by BandarQ Agen Sakong Judi AduQ on math.SE

@ᔕᖺᘎᕊ long time no see! :D

11:22 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: How to undo a cable tie so that it is reusable by Ben Dover on lifehacks.SE

ᔕᖺᘎᕊ

12:16 PM

@ShadowWizard haha yeah, it's been a while! school got really busy :(

@ᔕᖺᘎᕊ oh no.... hope you're doing fine though? :)

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at end of answer: What does the word "square" mean in this context? by gili alafia on ell.SE

Feeds

1:07 PM

Since buns range from crepuscular to nocturnal, it's recommended that you enable the scheduled "Do Not Disturb" mode on your phone to avoid being woken by alerts about Night Buns.

Oded

1:39 PM

I would understand a bunbun alert, but a bun alert? naw.

user202362

bun .. bunny?

user315433

2:03 PM

@Inc. I think it's the same logic as with Q&A sites that become disused, they are not left around as read-only ghost-towns.

Derpy

user315433

When Docs data dump is made available, someone will probably want to set up a site for them outside of SE (probably plastered in ads and whatnot)

@Alex make sure to hire an lawyer as well to handle the DMCA Takedown requests ...

user315433

Supposedly those don't require legal analysis; if one is playing by Safe Harbor rules, all takedown requests are granted until the contributor files a counterclaim.

user315433

But then, one has to draw the line somewhere before "take all Stack Overflow down, it contains the word 'the' that was copied from my copyrighted novel".

Inc.

2:12 PM

The "The"

why SO providing 301 when trying to login via a PHP script? ~O_O~

getting this as headers

any idea? anyone?

Q: Why isn't stackoverflow using www in the URL?

2:37 PM

14

Is there any specific reason to why stackoverflow isn't using www in their URL? When you type http://www.stackoverflow.com the site change it to http://stackoverflow.com. This is opposite to what many other sites does. I like it, and I can see it is useful since the URLs these days are long and c...

just remove the www. and you won't be redirected

ᔕᖺᘎᕊ

@ShadowWizard I'm good thanks! just less time for fun ;)

@ShadowWizard perfect. thanks ^^

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Mostly dots in answer: Ajuda em Procv para selecionar dados by WillGreco on pt.stackoverflow.com

plz-delete sanitary meta.stackexchange.com/questions/299183/… @rene @Bart (real Bart!) @Trav

A: How does one delete a chat profile?

2:53 PM

@ShadowWizard not quite true anymore

user315433

8

As of today, chat accounts will be removed when the last qualifying main-site account is removed. Henceforth, deleting your Stack Overflow account will delete your associated chat account on chat.stackoverflow.com deleting your Meta Stack Exchange account will delete your associated chat accoun...

user315433

That change was made suspiciously quickly after Normal Bot's post.

...I have no memory of writing that.

user315433

Even more suspicious.

you got a bad memory

2:57 PM

Chat search is my memory

user315433

And chat search is bad, so.

upgrade to meta search

@ShadowWizard that issue solved. Still can't login using curl.

My favorite part of the new meta url scheme is being able to use site:meta.stackexchange.com to search (almost) all metas.

so you did buy Google stocks to thank them?

3:05 PM

@SagarV this answer of mine shows how to login with curl from a batch script. I believe it was posted after Universal Login went live so should still work ...

@rene thanks for the link rene. need some time to convert it to php

Just use jQuery

user315433

Joe Friend should get 200 rep on Project Management or something, to save metaSO folks the cognitive dissonance of having to listen to someone with 1 rep point.

@Bart another purpose. a script that sms me if there is new notification. test each hour using crown job

@Alex you dislike my solution?

user315433

3:20 PM

It wasn't posted as an answer, so I didn't read it until now.

@SagarV Is a crown job something Prince Charles or his mother will be doing?

user315433

SE Regex golf: match the names of all graduated sites but not of any beta sites.

awesome

@rene oops!! cron job.

Oh, boring

user315433

3:21 PM

The best part is the game never ends as new sites are created and graduated.

it's not a that much interesting to write a program in a language which stopped using 4 years ago

@Alex what would be the winning criteria? Most convoluted RegEx wins?

user315433

If it's golf, the shortest.

user315433

/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.

user315433

Out of date.... The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi... none match

user202362

3:33 PM

nowadays questions from noobs in SO is treated like this

2

4:29 PM

Nah, he's still alive

4:54 PM

@Alex Then they're obviously not real Star Wars movies...

user315433

Well we haven't seen The Last Jedi yet, so I can't tell. Rogue could indeed be set pretty much anywhere.

user315433

But a lot of people would rather watch TFA than Phantom Menace, so it's not fair to exclude former while including the latter.

@Alex What is, "Phantom Menace"? I've never heard of that before.

user315433

Randall's regex includes M alternative specifically to match it... it's not needed for other titles.

5:13 PM

@Alex There were only three Star Wars movies... and only one Matrix movie.

user315433

5:31 PM

Is the light background-on-hover on users page new?

user315433

It's misleading: when something changes color on hover, I expect it to be clickable.

user315433

5:57 PM

commonapp.org is already available for 2017-18 application season...

user315433

(For entering college in Fall 2018, like bjb for example)

user315433

Extending SO Insights/Trends to other SE sites? would be nice. The hard work is already done...

user315433

Imagine the publicity SE would get from articles tracking the popularity of SFF tags, for example.

user315433

Why is Introduce a feature to require version information in questions for libraries used, etc. considered off-topic?

@Alex Perennially Star Wars, Harry Potter and Star Trek. (Oh and story identification, I guess.) But trends on smaller tags would be interesting.

6:11 PM

@Alex looks like a mistake to me. cc @Oded

@Alex I think Oded misclicked there?

Could maybe argue it pertains only to specific sites ...

But not limited to SO alone

user315433

@JonEricson Yes, but charting Star Wars vs Star Trek over time...

user315433

The peaks from new releases, etc.

user315433

I see: Oded migrated it to Meta.SO but then the migration was rejected. Now both versions of the post are deleted by the OP, so the point is moot.

Ah...

6:27 PM

some of our more paranoid users glad I'm mentioned ...

Anyone know why all uses of Human Enhancement Technologies might be immoral?

@bjb568 is an Exo-Skelet an HET?

Sure.

I wouldn't know why all uses might be immoral then.

Q: Fixing comments in 5 minutes. Intrigued? Let's discuss

Aww.

user315433

6:44 PM

Some of enhancement technologies are more annoying than immoral; they tend to be about male humans.

user315433

7:10 PM

7

I made a quick change to Area 51 recently, and it had a profound effect on how people used that site. Let's discuss. Background: The basic building blocks of every SE site are the QUESTION and the ANSWER. They are clearly portrayed as such, so if anyone puts "something else" in that space, it'...

feature-request comments user-interface

user315433

So many suggestions for improvements and requests for clarification there already...

user315433

The example of Area 51 is interesting, but ultimately those "questions" are one-liners, more or less like titles of real questions. Not much need for comments there, whatever you call them.

user315433

Testing this would be interesting, maybe on a localized site or Workplace...

I see @TravisJ is on the roll with @Kendra .. ;)

user315433

> we have a bunch of opinionated jackasses on these sites writing official-sounding answers

user315433

7:20 PM

hides

^

A: Hide employee reputation points on per-site Metas

7:37 PM

@Alex lol, what's that from?

bluefeet

8

This touches on something that's been discussed a lot over the years, both here on meta and internally within the company. It's a complicated topic; it's got layers. I'll try & cover it fairly here before addressing your specific proposal. Problem #1: it's confusing to see what appears to be a n...

@bluefeet hah, thanks.

7:54 PM

@andy grats

user315433

8:08 PM

Is it just me, or do the keyboard shortcuts like "I" for inbox not work on Meta.SE anymore? I do have them enabled, and they work on other sites in the same browser (Chrome)

@rene Apparently my point of view was controversial there.

@Alex Worked for me.

@Alex shift + i, and i, did not open the inbox for me at meta.se

Perhaps it only works when there are notifications?

If I click on the inbox just after pressing i then it opens :D

I take it all back.

I didn't have them enabled, and once enabled, i opened the inbox.

user315433

Must be just me then, with extensions, blockers and whatnot.

@Alex works for me as well

@TravisJ well, none of the answers showed much enthusiasm ...

user315433

8:19 PM

I propose replacing "add a comment" with "do not click. we'll cut you"

user315433

More seriously, it'd be nice if the owner of a post was not subjected to "requesting clarification" or "suggesting improvements" to their own post.

Oh well, if it goes through that just means there are tens of thousands of comments I can flag.

user315433

The most frequent comment I get on answers, apart from "thanks", is "this doesn't do what I really wanted (but didn't think to ask explicitly)"

I get a lot of clarification requests on my answers. "Hey, that works, but I had this misunderstanding about that thing because I thought the bar does the fooing."

I also get a lot of the latter example you showed @Alex

I moved the src line to the head of the document and the error went away. Now I get the error: "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'line' of undefined". In line var lineFun = d3.svg.line() So it recognizes d3, but d3.svg is still undefined? — Steve Scott Jan 13 at 23:50

Ah, that response was actually to me answering in a comment. Perhaps not the best example.

user315433

9:22 PM

Actually, this doesn't work so well after all. I ultimately need to convert the expr into optimized c++ code, and it is difficult to automatically identify that the sympy.Expr generated by your trick can be transformed into a c++ max() call. — dshin 36 mins ago

user315433

A fresh, perfect example of "doesn't do what I wanted but didn't ask".

@SagarV why? What error?

@Shog9 prove! (oh wait, not on me ... please ... ;))

You mean chat profiles are actually getting deleted now?

user315433

I posted a link right there, next message

10:09 PM

If a user's chat account is deleted, does that take all of its chat messages out too?

user315433

10:23 PM

@TravisJ No, the very valuable content stays as usual. Example:

user315433

Dec 3 '15 at 20:08, by user259867

It's an afternoon here, and not a particularly good one, at that. Dark, rainy. Nobody sent me Dogfish 90.

user315433

Zizouz212 proposes Moratorium on Hot Network Questions until we have greater control over content for IPS.

user315433

I like the abbreviation IPS. It should be an alias domain to save typing.