Random Thoughts Part 4 - Split Thread

[dlgoff]

Please say you have an English version coming out !

I remember just how self-conscious Borek was about his English when he first joined?

 

[WWGD]

Congratulations.

Ditto. Next in line for literature Nobel prize?

 

[Borg]

Congratulations @Borek!

 

[dkotschessaa]

Twilight Zone marathon for new years' eve, including the more recent ones in color (which I actually like more than the older, black-and-white ones). Despite enjoying socializing, I have somehow turned into a loner , and a TV marathon and some good food, caffeine is like a small party. Should be fun, although I may have to decide between different programming marathons (I think there is also one on Burn Notice, but they seem to have those almost monthly): life is so hard!

I actually hate that Netflix carries the complete twilight zone series. The marathons used to be this magical event. Now that I can watch it any time I want it's just not the same.

 

[dkotschessaa]

In Polish, so hardly readable for most of you, but it just hit the shelves here. Published by a small, but reasonably reputable publishing house.

Congrats!
Unfortunately the only polish I know is my last name, and even that is half German.

 

[dkotschessaa]

What a pleasantly bizarre week.

Thank you for saying it like that.

 

[Borek]

I remember just how self-conscious Borek was about his English when he first joined?

You mean it has changed?

 

[Borek]

Next in line for literature Nobel prize?

About as likely as FTL.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

You mean it has changed?

I think it was a good compliment

 

[dlgoff]

You mean it has changed?

Your English, yes. Your self-consciousness, ...

 

[WWGD]

I actually hate that Netflix carries the complete twilight zone series. The marathons used to be this magical event. Now that I can watch it any time I want it's just not the same.

Maybe the Burn Notice one is not out yet. That's a great one too.

 

[WWGD]

About as likely as FTL.

Pretty amazing nonetheless. FTL?

 

[Borg]

FTL?

Faster Than Light travel?

 

[WWGD]

Faster Than Light travel?

I don't know, since FTL has no vowels, I thought it may be a Polish word, or a Polish name? You know, like
less likely than vrqw ?

 

[Borek]

It's a common lie there are no vowels in Polish. "Ala ma kota" - which is a first phrase I was taught how to write (Ala has a cat) has more vowels than consonants.

And yes, FTL = Faster Than Light.

 

[WWGD]

It's a common lie there are no vowels in Polish. "Ala ma kota" - which is a first phrase I was taught how to write (Ala has a cat) has more vowels than consonants.

And yes, FTL = Faster Than Light.

Of course, it is an exaggeration, but seems vowels are less likely in Polish words than in English (middle of page):

http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~krynicki/my_pres/my_pres_6c.htm

 

[zoobyshoe]

I've been watching a lot of YouTubes about electronics and am often irritated to hear people pronouncing the word "solder" as if the "l" were supposed to be pronounced. It isn't. It's a silent "l." Also, some people pronounce LED as if it were the word "lead," as in the heavy metal: "So, let's now sold-er our lead to the terminals." In reality, it should be pronounced like this: "So, let's now soder our ell-ee-dee to the terminals."

 

[WWGD]

I wish I could photo (or otherwise) copy today's 71 degree weather with a very slight cold breeze and play it every single day. I guess it is OK to have the stores closing early and kin of empty streets for a contrast and then go back to the busier routine.

 

[WWGD]

My 'Deleted Items' folder went from having around 514 items yesterday to 14 today.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

My 'Deleted Items' folder went from having around 514 items yesterday to 14 today.

?

 

[WWGD]

?

No kidding. No idea why Outlook decided to delete them all in a single shot.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

I don't understand.

 

[WWGD]

In Outlook, when you delete a program, it is not completely removed, but instead, it is sent to a folder called 'deleted' (similar to the way you can send files in your desktop to the 'Recycling Bin' , so that they are not immediately deleted). Outlook keeps these deleted files for some time, after which it actually deletes them . This time somehow it decided to delete a large chunk in a single shot, I am not clear on why it did so.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

In Outlook, when you delete a program, it is not completely removed, but instead, it is sent to a folder called 'deleted' (similar to the way you can send files in your desktop to the 'Recycling Bin' , so that they are not immediately deleted). Outlook keeps these deleted files for some time, after which it actually deletes them . This time somehow it decided to delete a large chunk in a single shot, I am not clear on why it did so.

Oh I see it now, You can go back to your Account Settings, and select your email account that you're using at the moment, then click Change button of the Email tab to bring up the Change Account property page.
You will see a More Settings button if your account is set to POP/IMAP account settings, click it to bring up the Internet Email Settings property page, then go to Advanced tab and Look at the Delivery section to make changes to your message status on your email server.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

There should be some people on PF who were born on around Christmas day. I would like to say Happy (belated) Birthday and Merry Christmas to them !

 

[dlgoff]

No idea why Outlook decided to delete them all in a single shot.

No idea why I continue to use Outlook mail.

 

[wolram]

There should be some people on PF who were born on around Christmas day. I would like to say Happy (belated) Birthday and Merry Christmas to them !

I was born on the 16th, Happy holidays to you too

 

[Borg]

I love irony. My company sent me a bluetooth speaker for Christmas that I can't use with my work computer - security restrictions don't allow installing the necessary drivers.

And Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[WWGD]

No idea why I continue to use Outlook mail.

I continue because most of my contacts, official and otherwise know this address. Particularly Jarring is the
amount of times I have accidentally sent myself mail because of the way Outlook is laid out.

 

[WWGD]

I love irony. My company sent me a bluetooth speaker for Christmas that I can't use with my work computer - security restrictions don't allow installing the necessary drivers.

And Merry Christmas everyone!

I recently saw a pedestrian safety unit van (from the local PD) almost run someone over.

And a Merry ChristmaHannuKwanzaMadan to all (Did I leave someone out?)

 

[jim hardy]

No idea why I continue to use Outlook mail.

I've been happy with Thunderbird, never use outlook any more. . Took me a good while to learn to use its Filters to delete from server before loading, much less aggravation now.

 

[WWGD]

A good answer for next time a high school kid asks why s/he needs to know Math:
I ordered a pizza at Papa Johns. A large garden is $20 + tax. It has 6 veg toppings.
There was a deal for a large one , 1 topping for $7.80. Each extra topping is $1.50.
So if I got the one for $7.80 with 1 topping + the 5 toppings for $1.50 each, for a total
of $15.30 vs $20. A saving of almost $5. Math ( at least arithmetic) paid off.

 

[Ibix]

If your sales tax is more than about 6% then you save more than $5, in fact.

 

[WWGD]

If your sales tax is more than about 6% then you save more than $5, in fact.

Good point, it is 8.875% , so the savings are around $5.20.

 

[Ibix]

Coming from a country where VAT - our equivalent of sales tax - is included in the price of everything, I always find a visit to the US a challenge for my mental arithmetic. I don't have any quick look-ups in my head for something like "What is 1.08875 times $7.43?"

 

[WWGD]

Coming from a country where VAT - our equivalent of sales tax - is included in the price of everything, I always find a visit to the US a challenge for my mental arithmetic. I don't have any quick look-ups in my head for something like "What is 1.08875 times $7.43?"

I am good at mental arithmetic, but there are some tricks: you can take 1.1 , the 10% and then subtract a bit more than 1% from it, which may not be too hard. Or, if doubling is easier for you, you can double three times , to figure out 8% and then add a bit less than 1%. But you have a good point, it is kind of complicated.

 

[zoobyshoe]

A good answer for next time a high school kid asks why s/he needs to know Math:
I ordered a pizza at Papa Johns. A large garden is $20 + tax. It has 6 veg toppings.
There was a deal for a large one , 1 topping for $7.80. Each extra topping is $1.50.
So if I got the one for $7.80 with 1 topping + the 5 toppings for $1.50 each, for a total
of $15.30 vs $20. A saving of almost $5. Math ( at least arithmetic) paid off.

That's right. But personally, I would scrutinize things even further.

I am almost positive no veggie topping would cost them $1.50 to add, so they make profit there. Additionally, when they add topping #2, I bet they cut back on how much of topping #1 they use (by at least 5%, say). By that logic and procedure, each additional topping allows them to obfuscate how much of each topping they add, such that they make more and more profit per topping the more toppings you order (by topping #6 they are only adding 60% of topping #1, say). So, one topping is the hardest for them to play 3 card monty with, and you get the most mass for the least amount with one veggie only.

It could be I'm wrong and that each topping is pre-measured regardless of the number of toppings, but I would be on the lookout for this tactic

 

[WWGD]

That's right. But personally, I would scrutinize things even further.

I am almost positive no veggie topping would cost them $1.50 to add, so they make profit there. Additionally, when they add topping #2, I bet they cut back on how much of topping #1 they use (by at least 5%, say). By that logic and procedure, each additional topping allows them to obfuscate how much of each topping they add, such that they make more and more profit per topping the more toppings you order (by topping #6 they are only adding 60% of topping #1, say). So, one topping is the hardest for them to play 3 card monty with, and you get the most mass for the least amount with one veggie only.

It could be I'm wrong and that each topping is pre-measured regardless of the number of toppings, but I would be on the lookout for this tactic

It may be hard to implement unless done very carefully. Workers are either Mexicans whoo don't speak English well, or high school kids who
can barely do Math. But if management wants to be cheapskates, they can always figure out a way of doing it I guess. And the pizza is pretty tasty too, so at least it seems I am getting reasonable quality.

 

[WWGD]

It may be hard to implement unless done very carefully. Workers are either Mexicans whoo don't speak English well, or high school kids who
can barely do Math. But if management wants to be cheapskates, they can always figure out a way of doing it I guess. And the pizza is pretty tasty too, so at least it seems I am getting reasonable quality.

EDIT: If anyone in PF is interested, I can do research for them and buy some 10 of each standard large garden and then 10 $7.80 ones with 5 added toppings, then measure the amount of toppings in each --and then eat it. So I am asking for a research grant from anyone out there.

 

[Ibix]

I am good at mental arithmetic, but there are some tricks: you can take 1.1 , the 10% and then subtract a bit more than 1% from it, which may not be too hard. Or, if doubling is easier for you, you can double three times , to figure out 8% and then add a bit less than 1%. But you have a good point, it is kind of complicated.

True - "somewhere between 8 and 9 percent" would probably do for most purposes. And then taking a quarter of the difference between 8 and 9 percent would get me the rest of the way. The problem is that it never even occurs to me to think about it until I'm stood at the till with my $10 item and my $10 bill wondering why they're charging me $10.88.

I used to be treasurer of a student society many years ago. Student societies don't pay VAT, so if the society bought something that included it you needed a "VAT receipt", which shows the amount of VAT paid, and the university could claim it back. The books refused to balance one time, which I eventually tracked down to one VAT receipt (from a well known national chain) that showed that we had paid (for the sake of argument) £10 for something, of which £1.75 was tax. The tax rate at the time was 17.5%...

 

[zoobyshoe]

It may be hard to implement unless done very carefully. Workers are either Mexicans whoo don't speak English well, or high school kids who can barely do Math.

You don't need math. You would just tell them, "When it's only one topping, use about this much, but when it's two, use a little less of each one, and then even less for each new topping."

 

[WWGD]

You don't need math. You would just tell them, "When it's only one topping, use about this much, but when it's two, use a little less of each one, and then even less for each new topping."

Sorry, I need research to verify. Around $400 to buy 10 sets of pizzas from each type, then weigh amount of toppings in each.

 

[WWGD]

True - "somewhere between 8 and 9 percent" would probably do for most purposes. And then taking a quarter of the difference between 8 and 9 percent would get me the rest of the way. The problem is that it never even occurs to me to think about it until I'm stood at the till with my $10 item and my $10 bill wondering why they're charging me $10.88.

I used to be treasurer of a student society many years ago. Student societies don't pay VAT, so if the society bought something that included it you needed a "VAT receipt", which shows the amount of VAT paid, and the university could claim it back. The books refused to balance one time, which I eventually tracked down to one VAT receipt (from a well known national chain) that showed that we had paid (for the sake of argument) £10 for something, of which £1.75 was tax. The tax rate at the time was 17.5%...

Warning: lame joke ahead. A joke that does not work in writting, only if told (and not even half-good then ).

They don't pay Vat (what)?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Sorry, I need research to verify. Around $400 to buy 10 sets of pizzas from each type, then weigh amount of toppings in each.

Social engineering is a cheaper way: make friends with a Papa John's employee.

 

[Ibix]

Or, alternatively, get a grad student to apply for a job at a pizza restaurant and report back? You could even show a profit on your research from the grad student's wages, which you could plough into further pizza. I mean research.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Tonight Mysteries at the Museum told an incendiary story I've never heard before. After WWII American cities had a healthy and popular public transit system: the electric streetcar. However, a conglomerate of US Auto manufacturers conspired to bring it down so that everyone would eventually turn to the private automobile. They bought up all the street car companies all over the country, took the street cars offline little by little and replaced them with crappy, smelly and uncomfortable busses. Now public transit sucked, and people did, indeed, decide to buy their own cars.

 

[dlgoff]

... I have accidentally sent myself mail because of the way Outlook is laid out.

Yep.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Yep.

If Bill Gates had a nickel for every bug in Outlook...

Oh wait, he does...

 

[WWGD]

If Bill Gates had a nickel for every bug in Outlook...

Oh wait, he does...

He has a nickel for every nickel he has not bothered spending in quality control for sure. There is no doubt on who has the real power: marketing and sales and definitely not engineering.

 

[WWGD]

I seem to have an autistic-like disposition at times. There was this store's schedule described as: Friday: from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. And then something in me said: it cannot be, the second 6 a.m will not fall on Friday! It is , of course, clear what they meant, but the very slight ambiguity just bothered me. Had I been further gone towards this disposition, I would have talked to the store's owner about it (pretty sure s/he would have told me to get the $%* out of there, rightfully so).