Musings on Random Musings

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Functions are just gosub-return with variables.

[Old Man]

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I started in Fortran' date=' did a bit of assembly code for a while, did a bit of C (after finding that awk couldn't quite do what I wanted) and (much later) C++, some Cray fortran stuff in that interval there. Later I had to bash on some GAUSS (stay away! stay away!), now I do mostly python when I program, which isn't often. I must have two or three other SDKs downloaded and on hard drives at home, waiting for me to get the time and motivation to crack them open (which will never happen).[/quote']

 

I've done quite a bit of C and C++, but not for a long time. Both tend to be overkill for what I want to do. I've done Java too, but I'm so far behind on it that I might as well not have. More recently I've done PHP/MySQL for web sites, and lots of bash scripting for massaging text and data. In fact a lot of my "programs" wound up being workflows like "save the spreadsheet as windows text, then run stripquotes.sh to replace the quotes, then load into Textwrangler to rejustify, then run sed to replace all instances of this with that..."

[Bazza]

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Turbo Pascal FTW.

[Narf the Mouse]

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Man' date=' when did I become the optimistic, happy-go-lucky one? What does that mean for my situation?[/quote']

Pessimistic is when you think things always go downhill.

Optimistic is when you think they go uphill, too.

 

It's not in whether the glass is half-empty or half-full; it's in whether the glass will ever have something again.

 

And now that I've solved all your problems with pop philosophy...

[lemming]

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I've done quite a bit of C and C++' date=' but not for a long time. Both tend to be overkill for what I want to do. I've done Java too, but I'm so far behind on it that I might as well not have. More recently I've done PHP/MySQL for web sites, and lots of bash scripting for massaging text and data. In fact a lot of my "programs" wound up being workflows like "save the spreadsheet as windows text, then run stripquotes.sh to replace the quotes, then load into Textwrangler to rejustify, then run sed to replace all instances of this with that..."[/quote']

 

I think you just described why Perl was written.

[Old Man]

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Yes! Touched on Perl a little bit but just never got around to really learning it.

[Enforcer84]

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I kinda dug my brief introduction to Python.

[Vondy]

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Pessimistic is when you think things always go downhill.

Optimistic is when you think they go uphill, too.

 

It's not in whether the glass is half-empty or half-full; it's in whether the glass will ever have something again.

 

And now that I've solved all your problems with pop philosophy...

 

So, by this logic, I'm an optimistic cynic.

[Narf the Mouse]

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So' date=' by this logic, I'm an optimistic cynic.[/quote']

I think people have worlds of potential...Much of it unused.

[Old Man]

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And the rest, wasted on hopelessly frivolous pursuits.

[Cancer]

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Like posting here.

[Enforcer84]

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You take that back!

[Cancer]

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Better here than, say, in a chairs' meeting with the Dean.

[Klytus]

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Like posting here.

 

No... posting comments on newspapers and news articles is a pointless endeavor. After all, they get so flooded with comments, odds are, no one will ever read it; and to those who do, they will either agree with you, or not; and when they don't, they'll flame you for it. The odds of such commentary in doing something constructive, like sparking a meaningful debate or changing someone's mind, are so remote, it makes hitting the Lotto look like money in the bank in comparison.

[Cancer]

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Well, with luck, you'll get someone reading a newspaper site so p.o.'ed that they'll have a stroke. That'd be good, like in Good Omens when Hastur eats the room full of telemarketers.

 

 

 

 

I can dream, can't I?

[Old Man]

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No... posting comments on newspapers and news articles is a pointless endeavor. After all' date=' they get so flooded with comments, odds are, no one will ever read it; and to those who do, they will either agree with you, or not; and when they don't, they'll flame you for it. The odds of such commentary in doing something constructive, like sparking a meaningful debate or changing someone's mind, are so remote, it makes hitting the Lotto look like money in the bank in comparison.[/quote']

 

On top of that, I've noticed the tinfoil hat factor in online news comments is really, really high.

[teh bunneh]

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On top of that' date=' I've noticed the tinfoil hat factor in online news comments is really, really high.[/quote']

 

I've always wondered who it was who thought that "talkbacks" on newspaper sites was a good idea. I mean, we've always had the letters to the editor section, but normally you have an editor who can go through them and weed out the crazies: "Let's see, a response to our article about summertime grilling that talks about how JFK's death was faked and he's living on the moon... yeah, we can throw that one out." The comments sections on news websites don't have that kind of firm hand at the rudder, so they tend to get pretty crazy (and/or flamey) really fast.

[Enforcer84]

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Once Newsertainment mentality took hold the idea of editorial control was ceded to the crazies.

 

Sometimes the crazies actually become editors.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

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I've always wondered who it was who thought that "talkbacks" on newspaper sites was a good idea. I mean' date=' we've always had the letters to the editor section, but normally you have an editor who can go through them and weed out the crazies: "Let's see, a response to our article about summertime grilling that talks about how JFK's death was faked and he's living on the moon... yeah, we can throw that one out." The comments sections on news websites don't have that kind of firm hand at the rudder, so they tend to get pretty crazy (and/or flamey) really fast.[/quote']

From a marketing perspective, it makes sense. In the theater, we call it the 'asses in seats' philosophy. Get people to come to your show no matter what. Quality is a secondary concern.

 

Here, it's 'eyes on the page.' There are three types of people that will go to a news site to read an article: those who want the article and nothing else, those who scan the comments but never leave one, and active commenters. The comment sections act as a draw for the last two audiences. Additionally, when an article is shared or linked, one still has to go hit the page itself for the commentary, another draw for people to the page itself.

 

Add in the fact that, once it's coded, it's very, very cheap and unique content.

 

Quality is a secondary concern.

[Enforcer84]

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From a marketing perspective, it makes sense. In the theater, we call it the 'asses in seats' philosophy. Get people to come to your show no matter what. Quality is a secondary concern.

 

Here, it's 'eyes on the page.' There are three types of people that will go to a news site to read an article: those who want the article and nothing else, those who scan the comments but never leave one, and active commenters. The comment sections act as a draw for the last two audiences. Additionally, when an article is shared or linked, one still has to go hit the page itself for the commentary, another draw for people to the page itself.

 

Add in the fact that, once it's coded, it's very, very cheap and unique content.

 

Quality is a secondary concern.

 

you overestimate their concern for quality.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

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you overestimate their concern for quality.

Sad, but true.

[Cancer]

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Sounds like we need more spambots to reduce the value of their very cheap content.

 

Yes, I am a bomb-throwing anticommercial terrorist.

[Vondy]

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I've always wondered who it was who thought that "talkbacks" on newspaper sites was a good idea. I mean' date=' we've always had the letters to the editor section, but normally you have an editor who can go through them and weed out the crazies: "Let's see, a response to our article about summertime grilling that talks about how JFK's death was faked and he's living on the moon... yeah, we can throw that one out." The comments sections on news websites don't have that kind of firm hand at the rudder, so they tend to get pretty crazy (and/or flamey) really fast.[/quote']

 

I have said the same thing many times. It detracts from, rather than ads to, our articles. I've told the management as much. They look at me like I'm some sort of lunatic from mars who does not understand. I have to take my turn going through the talk-backs on our site. The experience has led me to conclude talk-backs are the expression of the darkest, most disturbing corner of the Id. Its as though they are spewing their inner-most drug-addled thoughts out in lieu of shock-treatments from a qualified psychiatrist.

 

We don't just have after-birthers. We have after-deathers. And NWO chicken littles. And end-times nuts. And people bound and determined to prove Godwin's law in inviolate. And bigots. And... and.... and.... it drives me nuts.

 

I used to nuke them right and left but our management keeps saying "no, no, print as many as possible - otherwise we won't look like a website." Websites look like Arkham Asylum? Click-whores!

 

The same people who have time to write talk-backs are the same people who have time to watch jerry springer. No, wait, they're the same people who had time to be guests on Jerry Springer....

 

Scoop: Billary is banging sasquatch-hitler in Abbas' funky Ramallah orgy bunker using the American flag for sheets while Ahmadinijad films it in lingerie and a burqa to sell to illegal-immigrant Obama to watch while smoking the hookah with still living Osama bin Laden in the Oval office before planning the next terror attack on fundy Jesus-feak evangelist Americans who love and support Israel to bring the rapturous end of the Jews.

 

This is no joke. I read it in a talk-back. It must be true!

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

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Scoop: Billary is banging sasquatch-hitler in Abbas' funky Ramallah orgy bunker using the American flag for sheets while Ahmadinijad films it in lingerie and a burqa to sell to illegal-immigrant Obama to watch while smoking the hookah with still living Osama bin Laden in the Oval office before planning the next terror attack on fundy Jesus-feak evangelist Americans who love and support Israel to bring the rapturous end of the Jews.

 

This is no joke. I read it in a talk-back. It must be true!

 

I knew it!

[Old Man]

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I have said the same thing many times. It detracts from' date=' rather than ads to, our articles. I've told the management as much. They look at me like I'm some sort of lunatic from mars who does not understand.[/quote']

 

I think it has to do with the idea that you want your modern online news outlet to be a community that invites reasonable discussion among its readership. Imagine if every news web site had a discussion forum that was as enlightened and educational as this one.

 

Unfortunately, that requires a certain amount of effort, especially if your readership is not prescreened for mathematics ability like this one is. Effort usually costs money. And the anonymity of the internet can really bring out some of the worst in people.

 

Speaking of which, the dead tree newspapers here won't print your letter unless they can verify that you're writing under your real name. I wonder if requiring people to register their real identities--with the news outlet at least, not necessarily for print--would force a little self-editing by your audience.