Topic: Random thoughts (Read 621315 times)

Papersatan · « **Reply #4250 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 09:55 »

Quote from: Papersatan on 27 Mar 2014, 15:19

Quote
The Internet is no longer just about email, ecommerce or Twitter. “We are at an inflection point,” says Joe Salvo, manager of Complex Systems Engineering Laboratory at GE Global Research. “The next wave of productivity will connect brilliant machines and people.”

But before that happens, they must find a common language. “It’s still like the Tower of Babel,” Salvo says. “We need to bring them together in powerful new networks.”

I have a question which is important for reasons. Did you assume I was posting it as a random thought about technology, or did the quote strike anyone as amusing? If you thought it was funny, can you tell me why? (I am currently trying to make a point about this quote elsewhere, but running into that problem where you can't tell if your understanding is widely held)

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #4251 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 10:17 »

Because the building of the Tower of Babel caused its builders to have their language confused, scattering them?

Papersatan · « **Reply #4252 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 11:45 »

snalin · « **Reply #4253 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 12:53 »

Yeah, the metaphor used is the direct opposite of what Joe's trying to say.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #4254 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 15:59 »

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but to me it reads like he's saying "it's like the Tower of Babel, everyone's scattered and speaking different languages, we need to fix that". Is that not what he's trying to say?

Papersatan · « **Reply #4255 on:** 29 Mar 2014, 17:56 »

That's what he is trying to say, but in the story of the Tower of Babel, everyone speaks the same language and so are able to (start to) build this great city/tower. But the a person in a position of power (God) scatters them apart and confuses their language. This is the opposite of the situation which he is trying to describe, which is individual (electronics) speaking different languages, but someone in a position of power (GE) coming in to make them speak the same one so that they can do great things.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4256 on:** 30 Mar 2014, 18:34 »

Maybe he means we're still suffering from the effects of the Tower of Babel's destruction, and we have to reverse it?

Papersatan · « **Reply #4257 on:** 30 Mar 2014, 19:15 »

Quote from: Method of Madness on 30 Mar 2014, 18:34

Maybe he means we're still suffering from the effects of the Tower of Babel's destruction, and we have to reverse it?

eh, that doesn't quite work either, because it is not human language that is the problem here, it is the way electronics send and receive information. I think it is just a bad metaphor.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4258 on:** 30 Mar 2014, 19:17 »

Ahhh. I thought he was talking about both. Yeah, not the best metaphor.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #4259 on:** 01 Apr 2014, 15:10 »

Why is it that shovels are never honored with the phrase "ground-breaking technology"?

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4260 on:** 01 Apr 2014, 15:41 »

Doubly so if it's a new kind of shovel!

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #4261 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 05:14 »

Making money isn't cutting it for me. I can do that, I'm even fairly good at it. I want to do something that feels like it matters again.

Sure the Marine Corps paid me dog food, fucked me over constantly and generally abused me and my comrades on a near daily basis but... it mattered. In lives saved and blood bonds formed it mattered.

I want that back.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4262 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 05:31 »

Quote from: GarandMarine on 02 Apr 2014, 05:14

Making money isn't cutting it for me.

Wanna trade?

cesium133 · « **Reply #4263 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 05:56 »

Quote from: Method of Madness on 02 Apr 2014, 05:31

Quote from: GarandMarine on 02 Apr 2014, 05:14
Making money isn't cutting it for me.
Wanna trade?

I second this offer. (edit) err... I mean I also offer to trade. I guess I made it sound like I was agreeing that Method doesn't get paid well.

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #4264 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 09:12 »

If you can magically get me my legs functioning 100% again and let me reenlist? Fuck yeah in a heart beat.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4265 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 10:15 »

Quote from: cesium133 on 02 Apr 2014, 05:56

Quote from: Method of Madness on 02 Apr 2014, 05:31
Quote from: GarandMarine on 02 Apr 2014, 05:14
Making money isn't cutting it for me.
Wanna trade?
I second this offer. (edit) err... I mean I also offer to trade. I guess I made it sound like I was agreeing that Method doesn't get paid well.

Well, I dont

The Seldom Killer · « **Reply #4266 on:** 02 Apr 2014, 23:40 »

Quote from: GarandMarine on 02 Apr 2014, 05:14

Making money isn't cutting it for me. I can do that, I'm even fairly good at it. I want to do something that feels like it matters again.

Sure the Marine Corps paid me dog food, fucked me over constantly and generally abused me and my comrades on a near daily basis but... it mattered. In lives saved and blood bonds formed it mattered.

I want that back.

That's what keeps pulling me back into the public sector. I really like the emphasis that gets placed on quality in the private sector and the "good enough" mentality that gets applied to processes in the public sector really grates on me. However, the feeling that you're doing something that means a difference to people's lives is important.

Perhaps you should consider running for public office. While your values are somewhat different to mine, you're the sort of person who I really enjoy seeing in politics. You strike me as the sort of person whose principles aren't easily swayed by comfort and expedience.

Redball · « **Reply #4267 on:** 03 Apr 2014, 08:28 »

The puns are OK, but it's the Claireface that really brightened my day.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #4268 on:** 03 Apr 2014, 10:38 »

Quote from: GarandMarine on 02 Apr 2014, 05:14

Making money isn't cutting it for me. I can do that, I'm even fairly good at it. I want to do something that feels like it matters again.

Sure the Marine Corps paid me dog food, fucked me over constantly and generally abused me and my comrades on a near daily basis but... it mattered. In lives saved and blood bonds formed it mattered.

I want that back.

Do EMTs need healthy legs? Any emergency room jobs you could feasibly train for? Going a bit afield, vet tech for a horse doctor?

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #4269 on:** 04 Apr 2014, 04:22 »

EMTs need VERY healthy legs, I mean you have to run from the truck to the patient, and lift the patient onto the gurney amongst other physical tasks. If I was physically able to accomplish the basic tasks of an EMT or Paramedic, I'd still be in the service.

As far as politics goes... I doubt political office would suite me much.

nekowafer · « **Reply #4270 on:** 04 Apr 2014, 07:06 »

What about another medical field? Ultrasound tech... or even just credentialing. It all makes a difference in the medical field.

Grognard · « **Reply #4271 on:** 04 Apr 2014, 07:48 »

come to the dark side: USgov subcontractors....
we are the military industrial complex your hippies warned you about.
but with benefits and pretty good pay.

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #4272 on:** 05 Apr 2014, 04:47 »

Groggy if you can point me in the direction of a gig I'm down once I finish gunsmithing school

Patrick · « **Reply #4273 on:** 05 Apr 2014, 18:47 »

Just promise me that once you're done with gunsmithing school that you'll be very discerning with where your Veras go.

~~GarandMarine~~ · « **Reply #4274 on:** 05 Apr 2014, 19:40 »

...dude, FBI background check. If you can't pass one and I don't log any given sale in my bound book the ATF will buttfuck my soul and send me to the Federal slam for 20+ years.

ankhtahr · « **Reply #4275 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 04:47 »

Hmm. I haven't found out yet, why, but sometimes I receive a HTTP 500 error when trying to search for something. I tried a few terms, at first thinking that the term I was looking for didn't have any results, but it did. I made about 8 search requests, 3 of them giving me the 500. An Admin might want to look into this.

pwhodges · « **Reply #4276 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 04:55 »

The search does seem to stress the server badly. I always use the advanced search, because it enables me to restrict the search to specific sub-forums and dates, which helps a lot, and even to specify the poster - which sometimes makes the search really useful!

ankhtahr · « **Reply #4277 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 05:02 »

So it's a known issue caused by server load?

pwhodges · « **Reply #4278 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 05:15 »

I've never taken it up with the server admin. It got a lot better when he upgraded the server a while back, but I've not followed it up because no one ever complains (I think yours is only the second or third complaint I've seen in five years). I could mention it to him and see if he can determine what server resources need to be increased to resolve it, and whether that's practical.

ankhtahr · « **Reply #4279 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 05:20 »

Yeah, I can guess that this forum's database has become very bloated over time, so a search is probably very resource intensive.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4280 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 07:49 »

Quote from: pwhodges on 06 Apr 2014, 05:15

server admin

Maybe I'm not understanding the term, but that isn't you?

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #4281 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 08:02 »

I though it was est.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4282 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 08:06 »

Well yeah, but I meant isn't it both of them?

pwhodges · « **Reply #4283 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 09:04 »

I am an admin of the forum as a function of the forum software itself; I have no access to the server the forum runs on. The forum and the comic are on the same dedicated server in a small hosting operation in CA. The owner (I guess) and server administrator is a forum admin here for the purpose of doing things to the forum when no one else can (basically, I guess he installed it initially). I contact him by email (because he doesn't watch his forum account) if there are server issues or forum things even I can't do (e.g. when I installed Tapatalk, he had to do a chmod on the new directory it created before it could work; and recently he added https access to the forum at my request).

Est was (is, if he ever feels the need to return) in the same position as me; and like me he runs other computer systems, but not this one. He hosted the PocketJury forum that some people from here set up, and still hosts its replacement (I don't know if that's on his own machine, or rented server space).

Loki · « **Reply #4284 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 11:34 »

Basically you can imagine it like this: if the forum is a private club, Paul is head of security and can execute rights of the householder, while Jeph holds the deed and the other guy holds the building permit.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4285 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:12 »

What does that make us?

Loki · « **Reply #4286 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:17 »

Vermin?

No seriously, we are guests.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4287 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:21 »

I meant the mods.

Loki · « **Reply #4288 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:28 »

Oh. We are regulars who are trusted enough to break up fights on their own. I in particular am someone who only stays at the bar and doesn't veer into the VIP lounge where the important problems of life are discussed by bohemian people in furs smoking cigars, because he gets a headache from the smoke in the air, and besides, there have been too many fires there over the years, so he is afraid to get caught up in one.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4289 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:38 »

This is a depressing way of looking at the forum.

Loki · « **Reply #4290 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:43 »

That's why I am staying at the bar, drinking to forget

ankhtahr · « **Reply #4291 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:52 »

*pours himself a glass of Irish Mist and raises it to Loki*

Kugai · « **Reply #4292 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 13:54 »

*Pulls another Pint of Guinness for myself*

Barmymoo · « **Reply #4293 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 14:51 »

Hm, I think this metaphor makes me the annoying Temperance Movement rep in the corner.

jwhouk · « **Reply #4294 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 17:06 »

And I'm the guy who comes in for the Pub burgers and the occasional live band.

Oh, and to watch sports on the TV.

celticgeek · « **Reply #4295 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 17:32 »

Raises a glass of Jura 16 year old to Loki and Barmymoo.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4296 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 17:33 »

Just to them, eh?

celticgeek · « **Reply #4297 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 17:37 »

Well, and to Paul, and to all the other regular contributors to the drunken thread.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #4298 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 17:38 »

Oh. Well, dang, I guess I should go to that thread some time.

BeoPuppy · « **Reply #4299 on:** 06 Apr 2014, 23:37 »

They should teach this in school: metaphors lead to drunkenness.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Random thoughts (Read 621315 times)