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ironpotato  ·  3234 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

IMO that's how the internet should look... Can we go back to BBSs?

ironpotato  ·  3234 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Go Is Unapologetically Flawed, Here’s Why We Use It

I was previously attempting to write a MUD in python... it's no picnic either. So I decided to use the language I know best C... So far... things are okay.

ironpotato  ·  3255 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading? Is it any good?

If there's anything I've learned about powershell it's how messy the documentation is. How is that Lean Architecture book? My degree is actually in computer science but I've always done either sysadmin jobs or electronics repair. So I've always been interested in different methods of agile software development. I'm pretty sure SCRUM is still pretty popular but I honestly have no idea how it works...

ironpotato  ·  3256 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading? Is it any good?

Same, I've been reading some books on linux system administration and I've been perusing a powershell book. It's powershell 2.0 though. So far I've not learned much that I didn't know from experience powershell wise.

ironpotato  ·  3257 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading? Is it any good?

If you're looking for good fantasy, there's a series called "Tyrants and Kings". It's kind of SciFi fantasy. But the world is great and the characters are fairly interesting. I read the first book when I was a freshman in high school. I read the second book at some point but never bought the last book. They're also on my list to reread sometime this summer.

ironpotato  ·  3259 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading? Is it any good?

Yeah, Stephenson can be an exhausting read at times. I wish I had gotten more into Cryptonomicon. I started it but just couldn't get past the beginning.

Anymore the only reading I do is either technical or SciFi/Fantasy. And I haven't read a fantasy book in a couple of months. I've got a couple of autobiographies of musicians I want to get through but my list of books is just never ending...

ironpotato  ·  3261 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: "The Suicide Kid" by Charles Bukowski

Couldn't help it.

ironpotato  ·  3261 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading? Is it any good?

I quite enjoyed "Ready Player One".

I just bought "The Martian: A Novel" which is about a a guy stuck on mars, it's in the style of a logbook. It should be okay. If this book doesn't satisfy me I think I'm going to go back and start the "Red Mars" series again. I got halfway through book two and then just stopped reading previously.

Oh and I also just finished "Nymphomation" by Jeff Noon. That guys writing style is insane, but the book was actually quite interesting. The end was a bit of a disappointment but it could have been much worse.

Also, sorry for putting all my reading in a comment to you Kaius, I forgot where I was posting for a moment... But on the note of Neal Stephenson, have you read Anathem? That book is a commitment, but it's totally worth it.

ironpotato  ·  3285 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Bugs on tmi page

May not be worth it, just a heads up. I've tried in the past, it's usually in your best interest to find a better server.

ironpotato  ·  3319 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: In honor of Valentine's Day being over, post your favorite break up songs

Well honestly, if you count the entire internet that is sort of cheating. But I've never seen someone reference him or have any clue what I'm talking about when I do. I mean the man did a song for billy and mandy you'd think everyone would know...

ironpotato  ·  3320 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Smartphone Syndrome

Don't use my phone in class unless it's a work call.

We also generally have computers in front of us in classes, my solution to that is just to stay off the computer. I do enough of that at work and home.

ironpotato  ·  3320 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: In honor of Valentine's Day being over, post your favorite break up songs

I'm so glad I'm not the only person who knows voltaire

I wish I could get through dune, holy crap that book is dull. And there's like 40 of them.

ironpotato  ·  3320 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why digital natives prefer reading in print.

e-ink readers last a month on a single charge. But then again, there's a huge difference between a tablet for reading and an e-ink tablet. E-ink tablets lack all of those fancy facebook bells and whistles. They're kind of in their own category.

ironpotato  ·  3320 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why digital natives prefer reading in print.

I love my kindle, but I still love a good print book. I can write in a print book, I can flip through pages and quickly recognize what I'm looking for. Print books really do smell nice too.

But I like reading for pleasure on my kindle, it's much more convenient, there's a built-in backlight so I don't have to worry about a light source or I can lay in bed with the lights off and still read until I fall asleep. There's advantages and disadvantages to both.

ironpotato  ·  3332 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pipe Smoking: Why I do it, and why you should try it.

I don't doubt the question of the risks. But I feel like 5 years is a good amount of time to know that I'm not in any more danger than I would be with cigarettes. There is of course the question of the liquid ingredients. But if you buy from a reputable seller you can be fairly certain that the ingredients are propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and artificial flavors. All of which have been studied for a long time. We know how they break down in the body and that they are relatively safe. That of course doesn't mean that ingestion via the lungs is just as safe as ingesting them via the stomach or intestines.

All that aside though, from my own experience I feel 400x better than I did while smoking, which is enough for me.

And on the note of building coils, it's basically that with a mechanical mod the only way to regulate the heat of the coils is by changing the resistance of the coils. The lower the resistance the hotter the vape. It also means there's less wires and electronics that would increase your resistance. Another important thing is that you can change the surface area that will be heating your liquid. That of course means more vapor! That's the basics of it anyway, as I understand them.

Edit: I didn't mention the danger of purposely short circuiting high discharge batteries to generate heat. That should be self explanatory. Well you aren't really short circuiting, but you can very easily get to that point if you don't know what you're doing. /responsible-adult-rant

ironpotato  ·  3332 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: This journalist used CAPS LOCK for an entire week.

    but one of the selling points of the CODE keyboard for me was the ability to turn caps lock into a CTRL key.

I always map my CAPS LOCK to CTRL on my linux computers. It's so dang convenient.

ironpotato  ·  3332 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: When would someone need to program?

You mean... like computer programming? Plenty of people get by just fine not knowing programming. But for people who enjoy it, they will always find a reason to program. It makes life so much easier. Once you get decent with it you learn that you can pretty much accomplish any task and automate away dull parts of your life. Not to say the time invested automating something couldn't be longer than the time it would take to just do the task yourself, but hey we all need challenges.

ironpotato  ·  3332 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pipe Smoking: Why I do it, and why you should try it.

Speaking of! I just bought a mechanical mod, and I liken it to smoking a pipe. It takes a decent amount of preparation, the maintenance is a bit of a pain, but you definitely take time to enjoy it. It's an interesting hobby. Trying to get the perfect setup for your particular juice. Optimizing flavor or throat hit. Building your own coils like a mad scientist. It feels good man.

ironpotato  ·  3340 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: February 4, 2015

I read Samsara as Sinatra because the first word of the sentence was "Frank", I was like, hell yeah I'll have to check that out. Upon further inspection I realized my mistake, but I still want to check it out.

ironpotato  ·  3342 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Super Bowl roll call: Who is watching, who isn't and why?

I got drunk and watched watchmen and house instead...

I just checked the end scores after it was over...

ironpotato  ·  3347 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anyone know Visual Basic?

Yeah, I've used it. And ew. But I took a class on it.

If you haven't done much programming I recommend getting a book that goes over the basics really well.

I used this for a class and it has a lot of really good examples in the back that you have to make. It really nails in the basics. It seemed like a really good book for beginners. But I kind of just googled my way through things since I'd been coding for so long I really just needed the syntax.

Edit: Sorry for my weird link placement. Took me a while to find it...

ironpotato  ·  3350 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why you can't "invest" in bitcoin.

    in·vest inˈvest/Submit verb gerund or present participle: investing 1. expend money with the expectation of achieving a profit or material result by putting it into financial schemes, shares, or property, or by using it to develop a commercial venture.

Terrible article. Everyone knows buying/selling bitcoins is nothing like investing in stock. It's more akin to investing in gold or another commodity like a foreign currency.

Everyone also knows it's 99x less stable. It's easy to manipulate the market. Theft is rampant. Everyone knows these things. But to say you can't invest in bitcoin is silly.

Bitcoin is considered property, or at least the government had plans to consider it so. It's as much property as buying a computer application is. Which take that as you will. It's hard to classify bitcoin because it's such a unique thing. If nothing else it's akin to currency.

I don't condone dropping your life savings on bitcoin but it's a hobby for a lot of people. It's also made quite a few people very rich.

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Moot retires from 4chan

I saw this today, I was like, woah.

Honestly I've been expecting something similar for a long while. The dude went on a ridiculous hiatus, then just started messing with users, then suddenly became a good guy and started moderating again. It was all a pretty good indicator something was up.

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: January 21, 2015

There's always a relevant xkcd... always.

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What do you think of video games?

Awesome! Glad you found it, time to hit up ebay it sounds like ;)

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What do you think of video games?

When I was younger videogames were my life. They inspired me to go into programming. As I got older I found I spent more time analyzing the technical aspect of games and enjoying them less. Now I find it a chore to sit through games most of the time, and I really don't have the time to get invested as I want to. I still play some games, I spent almost this entire weekend playing pokemon. I beat it a couple days after it came out then didn't touch it for months until this weekend. I knew I wanted to relax this weekend and I used the game to facilitate that. I'll probably do something similar this weekend since I know from here on out it will be work and school 24/7.

My mother was always strict on limiting game and computer time. She still is with my siblings. She loosened up on me when I got older as I spent most of my time on the computer programming and learning. I'm extremely glad she recognized that. All in all I don't think it affected me negatively, as refugee said I really enjoy reading and that gave me more time to enjoy it. Or to go outside and ride my bike around town.

The way I see it is that videogames are harmless unless they're put in the right hands. But that can be said for anything. If someone is going to go on a spree of violence they would have done that whether they played games, saw movies, or whatever else. Games are just a good scapegoat. That said I never really got into the extremely over the top games like saints row or GTA. I just knew they weren't for me. I'm a nintendo fanboy and I'll probably stay that way.

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What do you think of video games?

Have golden axe for my genesis, oh my god I love those games. Right up there with fireshark, which I really like as well. Although I'm not sure why I like that one so much...

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: January 21, 2015

That looks delicious, I'm going to have to try that next time I'm sick. If this is the cure I'm going be rather upset with my immune system for not letting me get sick more often.

ironpotato  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: January 21, 2015

I've definitely looked into it, and thought of doing similar things. What I've found is that matching strings like that and finding a good sample size can be difficult. Not to mention 400 other little things that I didn't run into that you will...

I've never worked with the twitter API as well, so that may have it's own hurdles.

I one day hope to make a digital assistant of my own. I think that would just be awesome and it's been a goal for me since I was young. Best luck to you on your bot endeavors!