What are the details for PF Chat Days?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
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A weekly chat day is being reintroduced for all members of Physics Forums, starting on Sunday, February 3rd, from 10 AM to 4 PM Central Time. The chat will feature both a general and a science-specific room, accessible via a link on the homepage. Participants will need to have Flash enabled in their browsers to join the chat. The event aims to encourage community interaction, especially during the Super Bowl, with discussions about snacks and personal experiences with chat technologies. Staff will have moderation powers to manage the chat effectively, ensuring a smooth experience for all attendees.
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We've decided to try out having a weekly chat day again.

The chat will be available to all members at
https://www.physicsforums.com/chat/index.html

You're browser will need Flash enabled, download it here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

A link on the homepage to the chat room will be displayed on the chat day. There will be a general chat room and science chat room.

The first chat will be open Sunday Feb 3rd between the hours 10am-4pm central time.
 
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Good, something better to do than watch pregame Superbowl crap all day. I just can't understand how someone can stay fixed to a couch for that long watching people debate about what normally is a pretty boring game.
 
Who's bringing the snacks?
 
Evo said:
Who's bringing the snacks?
Here you go! There are dill pickles and bread-and-butter pickles if you don't like hot salsa and REAL hot chili relishes. Somebody's got to come up with cheese, fish, meat, crackers, etc.

smallcupboard.jpg
 
Would any of that be corn relish? It looks very similar to what you have pictured there.
 
Ronnin said:
Would any of that be corn relish? It looks very similar to what you have pictured there.
Nope! Those little jars with the light bits in them are packed with hot chili peppers and garlic, pickled in my vinegar, water, salt, and brown sugar mix, with chopped fresh dill florets. The chili relishes that are primarily habanero chiles (as opposed to super-chilies and jalapeno) pack incredible heat. 1/2 tsp of that on a hot dog with some mustard doesn't taste too hot, but your scalp will be all sweaty by the time you're finished.

It starts out like this:
habanerorelish003.jpg
 
Did you grow those peppers in Maine? Ours all need about 100+ days to mature. Those must be short time to maturity, like 65 days.
 
Is this a live chat like msn or yahoo messenger?
 
Kurdt said:
Is this a live chat like msn or yahoo messenger?
Yes, I believe so.
 
  • #10
jim mcnamara said:
Did you grow those peppers in Maine? Ours all need about 100+ days to mature. Those must be short time to maturity, like 65 days.
Yep, I grew them in my garden. Since our season is so short, I buy flats of small seedlings from a local greenhouse and get them into the ground as soon as the danger of frost has passed. If I can get them transplanted by memorial day, they have all of June, July, and August, and part of September to mature. Since our days are not really hot, many fail to mature, so I process them green. The green ones are plenty hot and are a little tangier in flavor (not so sweet).
 
  • #11
Can a slow typer get by in a chat room?
 
  • #12
You'll be left in the dust.

But I'll be there with you, I'm not a fast typer.
 
  • #13
RonL said:
Can a slow typer get by in a chat room?

Depends how many ppl show up. If there is some maddness we'll just open up more rooms.
 
  • #14
I have a version 9, of Dragon Naturally Speaking, i just set it up so don't know if it will work for me. Does anyone have experience with this program?
 
  • #15
I've received e-mail from a person that uses it and it was noticebly odd. The syntax was off, it looked like English was his second language.
 
  • #16
Evo said:
I've received e-mail from a person that uses it and it was noticebly odd. The syntax was off, it looked like English was his second language.

While that's not good, it's likely that no one will be able to tell the difference in how i come across now.:blushing:
 
  • #17
RonL said:
While that's not good, it's likely that no one will be able to tell the difference in how i come across now.:blushing:
Well, then that's good. :smile:
 
  • #18
Evo said:
I've received e-mail from a person that uses it and it was noticebly odd. The syntax was off, it looked like English was his second language.
Little story: When I was building and maintaining a network for a commercial real-estate appraisal firm, the owner of the company (who did not type) asked me to sit in on a salesperson's demo of Dragon. She was a nice lady, and she brought in a computer and plugged in a microphone. She said (casually) "I'll just read from our promotional brochure so you can see how it works." and sure enough, the software managed a 90+ % accuracy level. The owner was pretty impressed until I handed her a standard appraisal proposal letter and asked her to read it. I thought she was going to leave in tears. The accuracy plummeted (to about 40%, IIR), and she constantly had to leave "dictate" mode and enter "edit" mode to fix all the typos, homonyms, mispronounced words, etc. I expect the program is better now, but given the vagaries of pronunciation, accents, colloquialisms etc, she must have trained that program very thoroughly with that sales brochure to get 90+%. Since commercial appraisers are constantly working with specialty business, manufacturing facilities, etc, they have to use words that are not always commonly in the vocabulary of the common person. I got a nice little bonus from the owner from that session. Dragon was VERY expensive then, with heavy hardware requirements.
 
  • #19
Thanks turbo-1

I'll think about that before i spend a lot of time, or get my hopes up.
Might be better to just learn to type:rolleyes:
 
  • #20
Why is it not 24/7? And why can't we start now?

Just a few questions, I'm sure there is a reason.
 
  • #21
_Mayday_ said:
Why is it not 24/7? And why can't we start now?

Just a few questions, I'm sure there is a reason.

This site is a forum based community, not chat based. Setting a specific time usually brings in more people.
 
  • #22
How many people would you expect to be there?
 
  • #23
_Mayday_ said:
How many people would you expect to be there?

No idea. Haven't had a chat day in a few years. This is sort of a test.
 
  • #24
turbo-1 said:
Little story: When I was building and maintaining a network for a commercial real-estate appraisal firm, the owner of the company (who did not type) asked me to sit in on a salesperson's demo of Dragon. She was a nice lady, and she brought in a computer and plugged in a microphone. She said (casually) "I'll just read from our promotional brochure so you can see how it works." and sure enough, the software managed a 90+ % accuracy level. The owner was pretty impressed until I handed her a standard appraisal proposal letter and asked her to read it. I thought she was going to leave in tears. The accuracy plummeted (to about 40%, IIR), and she constantly had to leave "dictate" mode and enter "edit" mode to fix all the typos, homonyms, mispronounced words, etc. I expect the program is better now, but given the vagaries of pronunciation, accents, colloquialisms etc, she must have trained that program very thoroughly with that sales brochure to get 90+%. Since commercial appraisers are constantly working with specialty business, manufacturing facilities, etc, they have to use words that are not always commonly in the vocabulary of the common person. I got a nice little bonus from the owner from that session. Dragon was VERY expensive then, with heavy hardware requirements.
Just bought a copy for my slow typing father. Retail box is less than $200. Dragon wants 1GB RAM (won't install without it)so not bad on new machines. With regards to the business jargon, yes that throws it off at first but to be fair I think you'd have to compare it to a brand new admin. assistant back in the day, who in my experience does exactly the same thing for the first couple of days - 'The marketing 'whatyacallit? plan', Mr Pilonec-huh? Actually those specializations make things easier after you dial them in as they are so distinct from most other words that you can grunt a couple syllables and Dragon nails it. If you have a constant turn over of new jargon your sunk, just as you would be with a new admin.
 
  • #25
Ronnin said:
Good, something better to do than watch pregame Superbowl crap all day. I just can't understand how someone can stay fixed to a couch for that long watching people debate about what normally is a pretty boring game.

Is this Sunday the SuperBowl? Shouldn't that have happened already? Oh well, I'm with you, having a chat room open is a much better way to spend the day. Hopefully nothing crazy will come up that keeps me away...sounds like fun!
 
  • #26
Moonbear said:
Is this Sunday the SuperBowl? Shouldn't that have happened already? Oh well, I'm with you, having a chat room open is a much better way to spend the day. Hopefully nothing crazy will come up that keeps me away...sounds like fun!
Yes it's SuperBowl Sunday. I think it's been pushed back to extend the season and generate more revenue.
 
  • #27
Astronuc said:
Yes it's SuperBowl Sunday. I think it's been pushed back to extend the season and generate more revenue.

And here I thought I managed to miss the whole thing this year since I was so busy in January (I sort of thought it was LAST weekend :rolleyes:).
 
  • #28
I remember the very first PF chat. A young man spent hours chatting away, telling us all how he had discovered free energy in magnets and ice. I think Greg had already left. We tried to chat around him..ignore him, and finaly they just attacked him. It was a chat nightmare!
Hope you all have some booting powers.
 
  • #29
You could set up a voice chat and use Skype (it is free to download and use for Skype to Skype voice chats)

Just an Idea.
 
  • #30
This sounds like a great idea! It'll be cool to interact with other PFers in real time!
 
  • #31
Will we be able to use \LaTeX in the science room?
 
  • #32
siddharth said:
Will we be able to use \LaTeX in the science room?

nope sorry, if we could we would
 
  • #33
Moonbear said:
Is this Sunday the SuperBowl? Shouldn't that have happened already? Oh well, I'm with you, having a chat room open is a much better way to spend the day. Hopefully nothing crazy will come up that keeps me away...sounds like fun!

There is going to be a Star Trek Enterprise marathon on all day Sunday. So I guess that means we won't be seeing you online?
 
  • #34
hypatia said:
I remember the very first PF chat. A young man spent hours chatting away, telling us all how he had discovered free energy in magnets and ice. I think Greg had already left. We tried to chat around him..ignore him, and finaly they just attacked him. It was a chat nightmare!
Hope you all have some booting powers.
That's a good point. Greg?
 
  • #35
\LaTeX would be hard, I already struggle getting it right when I have 20 minutes.
 
  • #36
Evo said:
That's a good point. Greg?

Will some members not have like "mod" stats? Then they can just boot unwanted visitors. I mean the time period in which it is open is quite narrow.
 
  • #37
Evo said:
That's a good point. Greg?

Staff will obviously have "mod powers". If people are really worried then I think we can have HH's and SA's receive them as well.
 
  • #38
Ivan Seeking said:
There is going to be a Star Trek Enterprise marathon on all day Sunday. So I guess that means we won't be seeing you online?

:smile: That was when I finally gave up on watching Star Trek. But, maybe I'll tune into that when I'm not chatting.

If it is SuperBowl Sunday, maybe we should have a third room for the sports fans to chat, make the predictions, let the rest of us know when the halftime commercials are on, etc.?
 
  • #39
So close now! I haven't been this excited about physics in a while!
Greg Bernhardt said:
Staff will obviously have "mod powers". If people are really worried then I think we can have HH's and SA's receive them as well.

As caht won't be open for long periods of time it will be easier to mederate in general I feel. If there is a problem I'm sure things will be able to be arranged in a short period of time, especially with the initial interest.
 
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  • #40
_Mayday_ said:
So close now! I haven't been this excited about physics in a while!

As caht won't be open for long periods of time it will be easier to mederate in general I feel. If there is a problem I'm sure things will be able to be arranged in a short period of time, especially with the initial interest.

Glad you are excited! We should be good, atleast 4 staff will be active at the chat.
 
  • #41
Bumping to remind everyone! 10am central time! Link will be posted in here and below the top nav bar.
 
  • #42
bumped again!
 
  • #43
What is the time central time now? 8am?
 
  • #44
I think its 6 hours behind GMT so it'll be about 8:30.
 
  • #45
90 Minutes! Do I just use the link provided? This is going to be awesome.
 
  • #46
Yes I think Greg will be posting the link here and another on the main page.
 
  • #47
So who's kicking off the PF pre-chat show?
 
  • #48
Hurkyl said:
So who's kicking off the PF pre-chat show?

Yeah, keep them distracted a little longer. I'm just putting the finishing touches on the place, putting out some flowers on the mantle, getting the hors' doeuvres (sp?) ready to serve, pulling open the curtains, still got to tap the keg (can you believe they JUST showed up with it?)...*looks at watch* I better run, we only have an hour until the grand opening!
 
  • #49
Moonbear said:
Yeah, keep them distracted a little longer. I'm just putting the finishing touches on the place, putting out some flowers on the mantle, getting the hors' doeuvres (sp?) ready to serve, pulling open the curtains, still got to tap the keg (can you believe they JUST showed up with it?)...*looks at watch* I better run, we only have an hour until the grand opening!

Don't forget to put some clothes on Moonbear:!)
 
  • #50
Some instructions on getting started.

There is a font color palette just above the text box on the bottom underneath the chatroom. To the right is the Room list.

Background can be adjusted using Options > Theme, and that resets the font color to default.

Avatars are available for the Chat and Room list. Use Options > Effects, select an Avatar, and make sure the two boxes on the left are checked. Top one isn't, but the bottom one is by default.


Use the left mouse button on the name in the Room List to get a drop down menu of options to communicate with a particular member.
 
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