palordrolap

palordrolap , 1 month ago to Fediverse in Kbin /m/fediverse is over 90% spam

One of the main problems is that Ernest is the owner and only mod on those magazines getting all the spam. I guess I missed the memo (figuratively speaking) about deletions not being federated though. That seems like a problem even if there were alternative moderators.

There's at least one person on the mod-request queue for most of the spam-ridden magazines. That "at least one" is me, which is how I know. I'm not here all the time and wouldn't be great at it, but at this stage even a part-time mod would be better than none at all. Hopefully, as and when Ernest comes back he can assign some roles. Twice as hopefully, someone else who would be better at it gets it instead.

palordrolap , 2 months ago to xkcd in [What If?] What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?

Install a net or mesh of some sort about halfway to the danger depth, that way if some fool decides to go for a dip they can't get down low enough to do themselves harm.

Also, it'd be useful for catching the bodies of people who got shot by security on the way there but still fell in.

palordrolap , 3 months ago to Fediverse in The devil himself...

Stage one complete: Embrace.

palordrolap , 4 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2896: Crossword Constructors

Or they could push for the sort of crosswords with more black squares (very common here in Britain) that rarely have anything bigger than a 1x1 intersection. There are other ways to challenge the solver.

palordrolap , 4 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2893: Sphere Tastiness

As a fan of log-scale axes, Randall really ought to at least suspect that the vertical axis is also logarithmic. If so, the average 800m sphere is very much not tasty.

palordrolap , 4 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2892: Banana Prices

There's no need to worry. There will always be someone around to point out that prices were cheaper back in the olden days, whether that pointing out is needed or not.

And yes I appreciate the subtle(?) irony in this comment.

(I am pointing something out. (Which these parentheticals are also doing.))

palordrolap , 5 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2881: Bug Thread

Reminds me of the guy who was the original reporter of a fault in some software that went unfixed for years.

He eventually applied for, and got, a job at that software's company.

His first day, he logs on, and goes to find and then fixes that bug.

With a sigh of relief, he then logs off and quits the job.

(I believe this is a true story, but someone will undoubtedly be along in a minute to confirm or correct. With a sigh of relief no doubt.)

palordrolap , 5 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2882: Net Rotations

Triangular grid guy: "Guess I'm going back the way I came."

Hexagonal grid guy: "What is left. What is right. This did nothing! Nothing!"

Guy on Penrose tiling: "Get me out of here!"

(In before: "You have the first two the wrong way around." Not if they're walking the edges.)

palordrolap , 5 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #156: Commented

Write if(0){ on the back of your left hand and } on the back of your right. Use perspective - or whatever - to put the person between your hands.

This, of course, assumes a person is executable, but as circumstances not limited to but including the French Revolution proved, people are definitely executable.

Curiously, this trick makes the person not be executed, but it also means they can't execute you. Theoretically.

palordrolap , 6 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2869: Puzzles

The dead pirate captain's name is literally a penis joke. I don't think anything in that movie is supposed to be legit.

palordrolap , 6 months ago to xkcd in Challenge accepted

Likewise there are no states with a B in the name.

palordrolap , 6 months ago to Fediverse in reb00ted | Meta/Threads Interoperating in the Fediverse Data Dialogue Meeting yesterday

The lack of answer to the question "Why are Meta suddenly so open and willing to integrate with the Fediverse when they've basically been doing the opposite with their own products?" is a huge concern.

My guess is that they don't have an exact game plan yet, and are letting their naive, enthusiastic staff - those with no idea of the answer to the above question - do the initial scout and integration work with a view to see how it can be perverted for Meta's profit/benefit in future.

Meta probably wouldn't use the word "perverted", but from an outside perspective that's what it'd be.

My thinking here is exactly the same as in comments I posted about Microsoft's embrace of Linux a short while back: 1 2

palordrolap , 6 months ago to xkcd in Exploits of a Mom

Allegedly real names that didn't break a database so much as people's brains:

Female (fe-MAA-leh) - the story goes that the mother didn't know the word "female" or didn't know it was spelled that way, so assumed the nurses named the child for her.

Ampersand (pronounced as the regular word) - the mother liked the sound of it, and well, IMO, it does have an "Amber" + "Amanda" + "Sandra" kind of ring to it (Not now, Lou Bega).

Shithead (shuh-THEED) - there may be at least two people with this name, or else I've heard the same urban legend / of the same person from two different directions. That is, I had heard of this name prior to chatting online with someone who claimed to have met a person by this name.

In before someone posts the Key & Peele sketch.

palordrolap , 6 months ago to xkcd in xkcd #2863: Space Typography

If the planets remained in conjunction as they went around the Sun, yes. The planets don't wander as though they're attached to the spoke of a wheel though... and as I click through the explainxkcd link, it seems that someone else has pointed that out, albeit in other words.

palordrolap , 7 months ago to xkcd in xkcd 2861: X Value

Let |ε| < 0...