Open Thread XXII: A Quantum of Threadness

[Fifthfiend]

So hey akaSM, we haven't chatted in a while.

How are you doing these days?

[Fifthfiend]

Lol, posted in the wrong forum

I am history's greatest monster

[Fenris]

I'm going to allow this, for the time being at least.

but I'll also move it over to general

[Kim]

I've been watching the house of some friends who are out of town. Is it just me or is it HELLA hard to be at all productive when you're literally just sitting around someone else's house all day making sure to water their cat and feed their plants? I just feel lazier than usual.

[Fifthfiend]

I've been watching the house of some friends who are out of town. Is it just me or is it HELLA hard to be at all productive when you're literally just sitting around someone else's house all day making sure to water their cat and feed their plants? I just feel lazier than usual.

You are being productive, you are producing Watched House at a rate of one Watched House Minute per minute, being a big lazy ass doing nothing except occupying the general area around you is literally what you're being paid to do.

Unless you're not being paid in which case you are a worthless drain on society go get a real job, hippie.

[Kim]

Shit!

[Ryong]

Clearly, we need to setup an IRC channel.

[Krylo]

IRC Channel? What is this, 1992?

We need an embedded flash chat.

[Kim]

Seriously, what is the deal with IRC channels. Also, I'm all for an embedded chat.

[Krylo]

Five seconds on google. (http://www.123flashchat.com/vBulletin_chat.html)

[Ryong]

It was a joke. It's old as fuck, I know. Thing is, my experience with these flash chat things isn't very good.

Which is to say, they're pretty borked and people spamming all the time, usually.

[Fifthfiend]

Seriously, what is the deal with IRC channels. Also, I'm all for an embedded chat.

literally add a top-menu link to gpd chat.

alt post:

yaplet, lolz

[Kim]

literally add a top-menu link to gpd chat.Would be pretty rad, not gonna lie. I mean, it pretty much is unofficial NPF chat already.

Oughtta re-add the custom chat smileys.

EDIT: Whoo! NPF chat! Same kind as GPD has even.

[akaSM]

So hey akaSM, we haven't chatted in a while.

How are you doing these days?

Hi Fifth, you know, I missed sleeping at least 10 hours a day and playing videogames the rest of it ^_^

[Seil]

What, Fifth? AkaSM? I'm not your favorite anymore?

Also, I'm watching Poltergeist and it's totally great.

[Amake]

I've watched so much Community, last night I dreamed I saw Annie's boobs. The theme song was playing, and she was standing in front of a mirror shirtless, coyly touching herself with the tips of her fingers under the pretense of covering up.

So uh hey a chat!

[Seil]

I watched Al Pacino be amazing in "The Devils Advocate," but I cannae talk about it 'cause we've got that religion rule thing.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I'm watching the Coen Brothers. I would say which movie but they are all exactly the fucking same.

[Fifthfiend]

So Goemon is a totally great movie, any of ya'll who have netflix i wholeheartedly recommend it.

I'm watching the Coen Brothers. I would say which movie but they are all exactly the fucking same.

Smarty reaches new heights in his ongoing "snob to the snobs" troll-saga.

EDIT: tell us how the coen brothers fail at post-structuralism

[mauve]

Holy. Crap.

My mom complained to the phone company about how horrible our internet is, and now, after several hours of said internet being EVEN WORSE THAN USUAL, I am now getting a download speed of 100 kb/s. My usual download speed was 30-ish kb/s on a good day.

I... don't know what to do. All this power. All this speed... All these videos that now load in seconds instead of minutes!!! IS THIS WHAT INTERNET IS SUPPOSED TO BE?!?! THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL AND WONDROUS PLACE FULL OF JOY AND LOVE

[Krylo]

Welcome to the 21st century, Mauve.

[mauve]

Welcome to the 21st century, Mauve.

I'm scared.

The Dark Ages are the only life I've ever known! What will I do?!

[POS Industries]

I'm scared.

The Dark Ages are the only life I've ever known! What will I do?!
Play video games?

Like, really fast?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

So Goemon is a totally great movie, any of ya'll who have netflix i wholeheartedly recommend it.



Smarty reaches new heights in his ongoing "snob to the snobs" troll-saga.

EDIT: tell us how the coen brothers fail at post-structuralism

It's more that they employ a particularly crude negative dialetic in their aesthetic dimension which while a component of many modern films is particularly pronounced in the Coen brothers' film as they cannot hide it behind an action packed plot. In many ways it is reminiscient of disenchantment, or in this case a lack of disenchantment, by lacking the veneer of distraction, the emotive belief, the inherent contradictions are there to be interacted with and even if not consciously seen, ripple out into cognitive dissonance
Joel Cohen on the other hand is genius. Daddy Day Care is a stunning expose of many of societies inherent and outdated value systems.

[mauve]

Play video games?

Like, really fast?

.....Yes. I think this is the best option at this point.

[POS Industries]

.....Yes. I think this is the best option at this point.
Man, I hope so. I'd be really worried if there was something actually productive you could do instead.

[Archbio]

I'm sure Adorno had a lot to say about the Coen Brothers.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

All of it "Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttt tttttttttttttttt"

[Osterbaum]

Clearly, we need to setup an IRC channel.
There used to be one on EFnet. Hell maybe there still is, I just haven't been using IRC in a long time. I'd be willing to start using it again though.

a download speed of 100 kb/s
If I get anything less than 200kbs, something is wrong.

[Fifthfiend]

Smarty: Are you secretly Armand White?

...TELL US WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT PIXAR MOVIES

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I... don't know what to do. All this power. All this speed... All these videos that now load in seconds instead of minutes!!! IS THIS WHAT INTERNET IS SUPPOSED TO BE?!?! THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL AND WONDROUS PLACE FULL OF JOY AND LOVE

Yes, drink deeply of this power, Mauve. Savor it, let it flow through you...and then bend it to your will...

[Loyal]

...and then we never see her again as she spends all her waking hours on Youtube.

[Specterbane]

Maybe she'll finally down load some TF2 maps if she wants to try instead of youtube... or cats could win out.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Smarty: Are you secretly Armand White?

...TELL US WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT PIXAR MOVIES

Ridiculous, shallow, manipulative whimsy more suited to a 1950s childrens musical than modern day film.

[RickZarber]

Ridiculous, shallow, manipulative whimsy more suited to a 1950s childrens musical than modern day film.
This is fun! Now name the five most underrated films and give reasons!

[EVILNess]

I just worked a 120 hour week. I am so goddamn tired it hurts to think. The sad thing is it really wasn't worth it with what I am being paid.

Fifth and Smarty still make me laugh when they post, even after all these years. (... and then I realized it has been years. That was a "Whoa!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT4B-NJUcZE) moment.)

I also bought a bunch of games for peanuts. I got two copies of Bioshock 2 for $2 each, Dead Space 2 and Super Meat Boy for $5 each, and a few others that I really am not interested in all for $2. (I think one of them is a hidden objects game, which I thought to be a horror themed Adventure Game, and a 2 copies of some need for speed game)

I still do LPs on Youtube, just completed my fifteenth game. So go me!

I also keep forgetting to ask Fifth to whitelist me on his Minecraft server, and when I think about about it I am usually in bed so I go "Fuck it, do it later."

One Piece is still rad, although I miss the old Franky.

Err... anything else? Yeah, I got nothing else to blather on about at the moment.

[Red Fighter 1073]

I'm spending my summer waiting for college to come back so I can actually do something with my life and work on trying to transfer out my Management Information Systems major-less University instead of being stuck in Undeclared limbo.

Andd it seems like a bunch of my friends are all doing important stuff with internships and the like while I didn't think to apply for one until it was reallyyy late. So instead I have opted to learn a bunch of programming languages during the summer to make up for it. I've already got XHTML/CSS down, and now I'm going for Javascript, SQL, and possibly PHP. Any other suggestions are absolutely welcome. I just can't really think of where to go from there. I wouldn't mind learning some more Java, except for the fact that my Data Structures teacher from last semester almost completely DESTROYED all of my interest in Computer Science/Programming. What a great teacher she was...

Also playing a lot of Starcraft 2, trying to get out of the damn Bronze League. Some of the games are interesting, but I never get any chance to play against higher league players, so it's so annoying just trying to rank up.

[mauve]

One day after recieving the gift of first-world-level internets, I get the trojan horse that's apparently connected to a banner ad here on the forums. My antivirus has finally decided to do its job and quarantine the damn thing, but only AFTER I took the pc to Best Buy and had them run a scan on it.


Curse you, irony. Curse yoooouuuu.

[Fenris]

Did you figure out which banner ad it is so we can remove it?

[Bells]

Also: If you guys can remember the name of the Trojan, you could try to google hunt it. Just search form something like " "trojanx" linked to forum ads" and similar stuff and maybe you can find other forums that had and pinpoint what caused it or if there is a common element.

Incidentally in the spirit of the thread: I left a muffin on the counter right before i took a bath, and when i came back all like "Muffin time!" it was gone... now, does anybody here wants to come forward and clean with this? hum? HUH?! C'mon now...

[EVILNess]

Incidentally in the spirit of the thread: I left a muffin on the counter right before i took a bath, and when i came back all like "Muffin time!" it was gone... now, does anybody here wants to come forward and clean with this? hum? HUH?! C'mon now...

Anti-Bells ate it.

Look for yourself with a goatee. If you are the one sporting a goatee, then you are the evil version of yourself.

In such an event take adequate precautions against being defeated by your counter-part as part of a ploy to restore cosmic balance.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

What's up with the temporal prime-directive? What is sos pecial about the time-lline we happen to live in? Surely with informed hindsight you can make better decisions than those in the moment. Sure you might get it wrong but you'll get it right far more often and unless you sit paralysed in fear at any action it abit disingeous

[Bells]

What's up with the temporal prime-directive? What is sos pecial about the time-lline we happen to live in? Surely with informed hindsight you can make better decisions than those in the moment. Sure you might get it wrong but you'll get it right far more often and unless you sit paralysed in fear at any action it abit disingeous

What a nefarious display of anti-space-time-continuum-patriotism. Young man, a lot of Quarks got de-ionized in the formation of this time-line, and you will learn to respect procedural progression of time!

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Your ways are old-fashioned and outdated and abitrary! By applying scienctific methods we can advance mankind to its pinnacle. Your blind adherence to tradition is not only short-sighted but also evil. The future is also the past!

[Kerensky287]

Your ways are old-fashioned and outdated and abitrary! By applying scienctific methods we can advance mankind to its pinnacle. Your blind adherence to tradition is not only short-sighted but also evil. The future is also the past!

If the future is the past, then the past is the future. And that means that it's only a matter of time before the old-fashioned ways become new and trendy. The push toward secularism is SO yesterday you guys, I'm gonna go sacrifice several chickens to Lord Pasntarnaru of the Sun, who I just decided probably exists because hey that thing's gotta be up there somehow right

[Revising Ocelot]

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually - from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff.

[Flarecobra]

Incidentally in the spirit of the thread: I left a muffin on the counter right before i took a bath, and when i came back all like "Muffin time!" it was gone... now, does anybody here wants to come forward and clean with this? hum? HUH?! C'mon now...

DAMN YOU DERPY!

Course, she might've needed it for her Ultimate Weapon... (http://th06.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/158/6/e/muffin_cannon_by_maximillianveers-d3ib3bd.png)

Speaking of... The Devil likes the Pony... what about our very own Jesus?

So how about it big guy? What do you think of them?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Look for yourself with a goatee. If you are the one sporting a goatee, then you are the evil version of yourself.

What about soul patches? Are those for divergent but not quite perpendicular universes?

[Krylo]

What's up with the temporal prime-directive? What is sos pecial about the time-lline we happen to live in? Surely with informed hindsight you can make better decisions than those in the moment. Sure you might get it wrong but you'll get it right far more often and unless you sit paralysed in fear at any action it abit disingeous

But who will we trust enough to make these decisions? And how will we deal with situations wherein doing what seems 'right' could slow our technological progress by eliminating what would have been war time research?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

The persons making the decision would depend a lot on the makeup of future society. But it would need to eb some sort of committee with maximum information available to them. And clearly you want to preserve the development of time travel technology as a high level technology.

But all I'm really saying is the vast majority of time travel films/shows/books etc in existence have "Don't interfere with the past" as important rules but I don't understand why. If I had a time machine that is exactly what I would do.

[Krylo]

I dunno. Still seems like it'd be easier to just teach cavemen all about current current physical and social sciences.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

That runs the risk of premature genocides of humanity. I call this the Hitler with Space Nukes conundrum. In most cases we will just simply advance humanity development but the risk is not neglible particularly to you specifically as a timecop that you'll never exist. I'd need somebody to run the numbers first.

There's also the fact tht to get massive speedups you need to progress humanity's social organisations and economic systems as knowing how to build a car for example is useless if you don't the society in which cars are necessary, you have people mining al the individual components, some kind of monetary system to incetivise parts collection etc etc You will speed up development dramatically, mostly through eliminiating dead ends and waste but you do need to go through the technological stages of development somewhat, if only to provide the parts for the next stage. And like today, if some spaceman came and gave us plans for the next 1000 years of technological development we're stil going to progress pretty solely because large scale technological development is only profitable in the long term nd that won't get the CEO of the factory who is going to have to update his year end bonus.
It's same reason that Greeks/Romans (and Chinese) never underwent an industrial revolution despite having very similar scientific knowledge as the Europeans who did. The Romans had excess manpower that the initially labour saving devicing of industry were not necessary and their limited liability was not companies but rather a way of investing your liability on your own slaves, thus preventing large scale fundraising, investment and long term planinng as well as radical expansion. Why the Chinese didn't is more argued but I go with the labour idea s well, they had more labour than they needed so were caught in the labour trap.

[Krylo]

That runs the risk of premature genocides of humanity. I call this the Hitler with Space Nukes conundrum.Teach them all the social sciences first, and MAYBE some agriculture or something, then pop forward like 200 years and make sure culture is coming along as it should, then teach them all the other shit if it's working. the risk is not neglible particularly to you specifically as a timecop that you'll never exist. Firstly: is time simply a measure of increasing entropy, or a dimension? If the former, how do we travel through it, and isn't the risk of making yourself not exist pretty huge any time you change anything from before you were born? If the latter, then wouldn't that mean that you're simply from a different 'part' of time and shouldn't be deleted by causality if you're never born or whatever in the new timeline you created?

There's also the fact tht to get massive speedups you need to progress humanity's social organisations and economic systems as knowing how to build a car for example is useless if you don't the society in which cars are necessary, you have people mining al the individual components, some kind of monetary system to incetivise parts collection etc etc You will speed up development dramatically, mostly through eliminiating dead ends and waste but you do need to go through the technological stages of development somewhat, if only to provide the parts for the next stage. And like today, if some spaceman came and gave us plans for the next 1000 years of technological development we're stil going to progress pretty solely because large scale technological development is only profitable in the long term nd that won't get the CEO of the factory who is going to have to update his year end bonus.
It's same reason that Greeks/Romans (and Chinese) never underwent an industrial revolution despite having very similar scientific knowledge as the Europeans who did. The Romans had excess manpower that the initially labour saving devicing of industry were not necessary and their limited liability was not companies but rather a way of investing your liability on your own slaves, thus preventing large scale fundraising, investment and long term planinng as well as radical expansion. Why the Chinese didn't is more argued but I go with the labour idea s well, they had more labour than they needed so were caught in the labour trap.

Blah blah blah. Force those bitches to build highways and roads with your super space man guns if they won't do it for themselves.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Re time paradoxes, killing your future and shit- depends on how time works. Time police work that shit out. Like it doesn't make a lot of sense to kill your future but fuck who knows.

I havebetter idea- rather than teaching cavemen how to build neutron bombs I'm just gong to bring them to the future as my slaves. Better than robots.

[Fifthfiend]

isn't the risk of making yourself not exist pretty huge any time you change anything from before you were born?

Yeah, considering the particularities of the reproductive process, fucking with anything that occurs anytime before your birth that could even faintly, in passing, brush against the lives of your parents is basically retroactive suicide.

Your parents may still have a kid who looks not-dissimilar to you, and even at a 50/50 chance is of the same gender as you, and allowing for that 50/50 chance in all likelihood has the same name as you, but there's really no chance whatsoever that person will be you.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

All timecops are vat-people. Problem solved.

[Revising Ocelot]

Someone pissed on me out of a window last night.



Sigh.

[Premmy]

A new career path has just dropped in your hair

[EVILNess]

Someone pissed on me out of a window last night.



Sigh.

No offense, but I kinda laughed. I mean I feel for you, but I still laughed. Sorry

I have a rear facing window that my drunk friends piss out all the time, but thankfully there is no path over it. If someone gets pissed on then they are somewhere they shouldn't be.

On a random tangent, I am freaking hungry for... something... I don't know what. I have this craving and I can't identify it to satisfy it.

[GrandMasterPlanetEater]

Teach them all the social sciences first, and MAYBE some agriculture or something, then pop forward like 200 years and make sure culture is coming along as it should, then teach them all the other shit if it's working.

You have to teach the cave men to read first, otherwise they won't remember what you've taught them. But then when you come back in 200 years, their most popular weekly papyrus scroll or clay tablet, Mox Newse, will call you socialists and everyone will ignore you.

[Revising Ocelot]

No offense, but I kinda laughed. I mean I feel for you, but I still laughed. Sorry


Yeah, I don't blame you for that. It -would- be funny to any onlooker, it's just more damned drudgery for me.
The problem is that this isn't the first time I've been urinated on. When I was in Year 9 of school (about 7 years ago, when I was 15 or so), I was just practising some basketball after school, and somebody else initially had the same idea. But hey, it's that ginger kid everybody picks on, let's throw the basketball at his head and see what happens.

Got knocked unconscious for about 10 minutes. Woke up covered in piss, in my hair and everywhere. Certainly wasn't my own since I'd fallen onto my front and face. Maybe it wasn't the guy who threw the basketball, but it was someone.


One of the many reasons why I forgo social contacts in real life now. I wish I could say it wasn't an improvement.

[EVILNess]

Yeah, considering the particularities of the reproductive process, fucking with anything that occurs anytime before your birth that could even faintly, in passing, brush against the lives of your parents is basically retroactive suicide.

Your parents may still have a kid who looks not-dissimilar to you, and even at a 50/50 chance is of the same gender as you, and allowing for that 50/50 chance in all likelihood has the same name as you, but there's really no chance whatsoever that person will be you.

Back to the Future taught me that this isn't a problem. All you got to do is fuck with the past until you get it reasonably close to what it was before.