A while back, I told my brother Narcos on Netflix was watchable, and tonight we had this conversation:
Seth: So I’m watching Narcos on your recommendation.
Me: Yeah.
Seth: They killed a dog and a cat in this episode, so fuck you for that.
Me: Sorry
Seth: When they kill animals it makes me angrier than when they kill people. Does that mean there’s something wrong with me?
Me: No. Just means you’ve met a bunch of people.
We’re happy people, really.
TheMightyTrowel
Well bushfire season is well underway down here. total fire ban tomorrow chez Trowel (though we’re nowhere near where there might be problems in our district) and out in WA 4 people died in fires yesterday. With the El Nino this is supposed to be a particularly bad year. I’m really really glad for the distraction of American political horserace lunacy because bushfire news freaks me out even when I’m in a safe place with low(ish) danger.
scav
@efgoldman: well, A) I’m personally still hesitating between donating via or donating with Paypal. I’m thinking the latter is the better option as Paypal probably has loads of extra money to kick in and I’m rather short. But then, waiting around for Paypal to pipe up that it’s ready to donate itself might take a while . . . .
B) it could still be a random quote, just a very very very very very very very very very very very very very unlikely one.
redshirt
Think about it – if you watch action movies, you’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of people die.
Who cares? It’s a movie.
But a cat? A dog? A horse?
Tears.
eemom
This, plz.
Tommy
Well I got this site I recently found.
https://www.thedodo.com/
I can’t bring myself away from it and often I yell. I hold my cat a lot closer reading that darn site.
Things like this are posted:
piratedan
well in happier news, mst3k reached their opening threshold and made their beginning 2m goal. This means that for many of us, there will be movie sign for the first time in 10+ years as they hope to make their goal for funding a full season. In this day and age of this kind of political insanity, topical riffing of cheesy movies sounds like the kind of haven I want to reach…
for those inclined to kick to in and participate, here’s the link…
see kickstarter for details, keyword mst3k
redshirt
Anyone see the movie John Wick?
One dog’s death is way more powerful than a hundred goons.
TheMightyTrowel
@eemom: I’ve always liked this source, myself
M. Bouffant
While you’re re-doing the site, could you get rid of the Amazon thing? Or are you completely happy w/ how they treat their wage-slaves as well as everything that piece of shit Jeff Bezos says & does?
M. Bouffant
Your brother’s named Narcos? Oh, sorry ,,,
Tommy
Well you got this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA&index=25&list=RDrYEDA3JcQqw
I am a walker. I listen to this song daily.
Omnes Omnibus
You’re so full of shit. You are socially awkward. It doesn’t make you a misanthrope. You actions in your hometown prove your statement a lie. Enjoy the pose. That’s all it is. Deal, poseur.
mclaren
This would be a nice planet without the human infestation.
Tommy
@M. Bouffant: As the guy that redid this site I am always stunned by how much people are assholes. Of about the thousand things I took issue with the Amazon thing wasn’t even a consideration.
Mike J
Tommy
@Mike J: Going to buy it now!
I like to joke my dad bought his house across from him just to put in his books. Dad has kind of a library. Coolest thing in the world ….
Smiling Mortician
Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but if you wanna feel misanthropic (as in, this guy’s on my side?) check out the likely next Democratic leader in the Senate.
redshirt
@M. Bouffant: Narcos Carlito Cole
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: People have opinions. People express those opinions in a variety of ways. Cole’s concerns about Christie came from his milieu of a certain type of bluster being popular. It simply isn’t in our part of the country. I’ve said before that there is a reason I don’t do work for friends or family. You chose to do so. Probably a mistake. All that being said, your god mode comments were beyond the pale. You threatened really, really nice people who disagreed with your calls. It was not cool. IMO Satby and BellaQ deserve apologies. Sincere, personal apologies. YMMV.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy:
While I’m usually not surprised with the number of assholes in the general population(hey, there’s a whole political party), I was surprised with the rancor of some folk here associated with the site upgrade.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
He made the statement in a comment, apologized in the comment. Drop it.
CDE prof
@Tommy: My dad treasured his library, and I loved it as a kid. Room full of books ! Made me want to write. He kept a globe and maps and monster dictionary there.
Chair of our CS Dept bought a small house in the neighborhood just to house his books, like your dad. I’d love to do it myself.
Emma
Am I touched by angels or just damn lucky about this redo? I use a crappy Acer laptop running Windows 10 and searching on Firefox and the only problem I had was at first when the comments seemed oddly spaced. Got fixed pretty quick. Same with my little Samsung tablet.
Or maybe I have a higher tolerance for technical glitches and simply blank them out?
M. Bouffant
I’m talking about the morality of supporting Amazon in any way (Or is it O.K. if you get a cut?) not bitching about the redesign.
I suppose it’s an issue to be taken up w/ J.C. hisse’f, although I can’t see why not supporting Amazon would be an issue w/ anybody but members of the 1%.
Mandalay
Oh dear. Our friendless hall monitor is on the windbag lecture circuit again after having had a little too much to drink this evening.
redshirt
@Mandalay: Which friend is that?
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: No. He apologizes to Satby and BellaQ, and I drop it. BellaQ who is a very reasonable commenter still seems stirred up about it. I also know of female commenters who feel threatened by the idea that B-J may no longer be a safe space to comment because someone may pursue them into meat space.
Mike J
@M. Bouffant: Some of us actually have friends whose livelihood comes from Amazon, people who aren’t necessarily rich.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BillinGlendaleCA: I guess I missed the apology. I’m not trying to be a bitch, but I genuinely missed it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Many apologies should be offered on both sides.
ETA: There’s a line between offering constructive criticism of one’s work and being insulting. That line was often crossed.
Smiling Mortician
@efgoldman: Yeah, that’s the guy. I really wish he weren’t such an asshole.
CDE prof
@Omnes Omnibus: The so called god mode comment I saw was referring to helping someone who said she was stuck in moderation. He unstuck her, and called it being in god mode. You repeat the same complaints (even before the redesign) in one thread after another. Kind of threatening yourself, by vaguely threatening exposure of some sinister past issue without evidence.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve made jokes about the rebuild. Won’t apologize for them. I have offered advice on content and procedure. Won’t apologize for that.
Oh, fuck it. If you don’t see any abuse of power by someone, then the conversation is pointless.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BillinGlendaleCA: Fine. I’ll apologize for being critical and snarky (which I was, and am), but I do not believe I was ever insulting. Mocking, sure, but I went out of my way not to insult the developer.
Nothing I said justified the “god mode” threat. It was over. the. line. (by some distance). In fact nothing anyone said, however insulting, excuses that. Beyond the pale. I’ve got no concerns about being pursued in meat space – if that’s gonna worry me there are actual murderers much higher on the list and life’s too short. But I understand how some people would be unnerved.
Mandalay
@M. Bouffant:
I see where you are coming from, and I sympathize to some extent, but you better be a paragon of virtue yourself when making that argument.
And if you milk it for all it’s worth then anyone buying a GE light bulb is guilty of supporting the military industrial complex, anyone with a Chase or B of A bank account is enabling Wall Street corruption by the one percenters, etc…
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I tend to be on OO and BellaQ’s side for that particular incident — while I understand there was a lot of provocation, Tommy was the one who crossed the line with the God Mode stuff. Once it got to that point, it unfortunately didn’t matter anymore who started it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’ve been on Tommy’s side of this type of upgrade, I probably have a different perspective on these things. Also, remember snark can run both ways.
John Cole
I’m ready to fucking nuke the site into orbit. Every fucking thread, the same handful of people bitching. You have constructive criticism to offer and or know how to code or a designer who wants to help, email me.
Otherwise, get fucking over yourselves and stop with the needless fucking rancor. I could understand this shit if it were August and there was little in the way of politics. But every thread, even about important shit, is just a deluge of bitching about font size or how the number buttons in the comments is two picas too fucking big for your tastes.
Christ almighty. You all the fucking 80 year olds who bitch for three years because one night the fucking cafeteria didn’t serve tapioca on WEDNESDAY, like they always do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: Just go off the grid.
John Cole
And that’s not to say there aren’t things that need to be fixed, before you motherfuckers start whining that we are dismissing your concerns and hurting your fee-fees. There are. We’re working on them. Now email me if you have something specific or shut the fuck up.
Bobby Thomson
@BillinGlendaleCA: Thin blue line, huh?
CDE prof
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Agree. Those focusing on the few times he got angry, consistently fail to mention the bullying and pure meanness that started much earlier and then mixed in with the requests to fix something. Would be interesting study to add up the number of insults and needling comments overall, which trolled him and trashed the quality of the comments night after night.
eemom
@TheMightyTrowel:
Exactly what I need — thanks!
redshirt
And so ends another lesson in customer management by John Cole. :)
Mike J
@Mandalay: And never buy anything from Apple. Hell, there’s no computer equipment you can buy.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Bobby Thomson: More of a dashed grey line.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: Did you read this thread? People aren’t bitching about minor shit here. The main complaint is the issue of Tommy’s “god mode” threat. I think it is a reasonable concern on the part of commenters who have somehow offended Tommy. He mentioned not only an ability to ban people from here but also the ability to go after them elsewhere. He was targeting people like Bella Q and Satby, not people like me and Corner Stone who can be assholes.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s all cool now. My concerns have been allayed. I can’t speak for people with meat space concerns, but mine were virtual and I’m not worried now.
I’m pissed about the event at issue, but I’ve been much more pissed about actual scary things. MBBJ addresses all my design and UI concerns; thus the site works just dandy for me, beyond things that will be a bitch to troubleshoot, and have been mentioned repeatedly and at length before. So, my sympathies to the folks still wrestling with WP and PHP. Mr. Q wrangles code as a profession, and he assures me that both can be monstrous at times.
eemom
@John Cole:
ok, now that I’ve read the other comments. Cole, dear Cole, you are missing the point. Maybe it was while you were sick, and that’s why you didn’t notice, but this Tommy person (who fucked the place up even worse, imho, but that’s neither there nor here), who you’ve given the keys to, is not a lovable eccentric. He said some seriously fucked up shit on that thread people are talking about, i.e., he’s God and not only can he ban people from this site, he can fuck them up IRL too. That’s what he SAID.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wuvz you. And you are never an asshole.
That being said, I was most disconcerted to find myself agreeing with Corner Stone — who IS an asshole — on that thread.
CDE prof
@Omnes Omnibus:
There has been a resemblance to workplace harassment with excuses of — but it happens everywhere! — and repeat protestations of innocence. You’ve been on his case for a long time, which weakens yours.
Mandalay
@Mike J:
Exactly. If you took a truly principled stand on this issue your conscience wouldn’t let you put gas in your tank.
M. Bouffant is not wrong, but it’s not a productive debate to be having. Especially when we could be talking about Daesh’s position on back page functionality.
Omnes Omnibus
@CDE prof: The fact that I think, and have long thought that Tommy is an asshole and a bully, does not diminish the fact that that he acted exactly as I described him on prior occasions. Rather, his behavior validates my stated opinion.
redshirt
This is tearing us apart.
When we should be joyously mocking Republicans we are instead at each other’s throats.
CDE prof
@Omnes Omnibus:
Your behavior is also at issue, and belies your stated concern for the preserving the quality of the comment section.
Fordpowers
Weird. I’m just like your brother in this instance.
Omnes Omnibus
@CDE prof: Explain please. I’ll respond, if warranted, in the morning.
Jerzy Russian
@Fordpowers: Did you see the movie “Roger and Me” by Michael Moore? In one scene a woman killed and skinned a rabbit for its meat. The audience in the theater I was at freaked out. Not much was said when actual people were being thrown out of their homes, etc.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: You called me a swear word once for no good reason. It really shocked me, at the time.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@redshirt: I bet I shocked you more in an earlier thread. Harsh, I believe you noted.
eemom
@CDE prof:
I smell a sock puppet.
redshirt
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Your words did cut to the quick.
eemom
@redshirt:
Yep, this is it. Some stupid shit on a blog thread is going to make the difference between war and peace.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@eemom: I can’t quite place the scent.
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: A friend’s brother lived in a small MA town near the VA hospital where he worked. The guy liked to read and he bought a lot of books. When he died, his book collection was given to the town as the start of a library (they didn’t have one of their own). He was so liked, people got together and made the library happen.
mclaren
@John Cole:
Here’s an open email. I’ll use small words so Tommy and you can understand the problems.
PROBLEM 1: Every site on the internet (except this one) lets commenters use bog-standard HTML tags like italics I within carats and underline U within carats to do ordinary standard things like boldface and underline. This has been standard on the internet since 1994. Now, because some clueless IT schmuck decides that these bog-standard HTML tags have been “deprecated,” they no longer work. Put it back the way it was. Put it back the way it is in every other fucking forum and every other goddamn site on the internet. The way you put it back is by using this extremely complex pseudocode:
if deprecated HTML markup, recognize and translate into new HTML markup.
endif
This is literally two fucking lines of Javascript. I understand that Tommy is not familiar enough with HTML programming to be able to bang out two fucking lines of dead-simple Javascript, so give the job to someone who is. It’s not hard.
[2] THE most basic principle of user interface on computers is that you should not confuse the user. This means that web designers should specifically AVOID using blue text where there is not a hyperlink. Ever since the earliest days of the internet, blue bolded text has always meant “hyperlink.” Using blue bolded text where there is not a hyperlink is a piss-poor idea, It’s such a bad idea that works scarcely exist in the English language to describe how bad an idea this is.
The way you fix this is by changing the HTML markup code for bold from #3333ff (dark blue) to #000000 (black). I understand that Tommy will not be able to figure out how to change the default display mode for bolded text from dark blue to black, but you can easily find someone who can. Perhaps your neighbor’s ten-year-old boy.
[3] Lots of people are complaining about the blinding white background. To make the site easier on everyone’s eyes, you can change the goddamn default background color #f2f2f2, a light gray. This is a single line of HTML code. Once again I understand that this may be too much for Tommy to manage, but once again, you can surely find someone who can.
[4] The problem with the layout is caused by Tommy using a dynamic layout with bad defaults. This dynamic layout is intended to flexibly scale between different screen sizes and aspect ratios, but what it really does it fuck up the display so the margins are either too small or too large. Go back to fixed aspect ratio formatting with a different display code for mobile devices. I access this site back in the old website design, and the mobile device display worked just fine. Just put it back the way it was.
Elie and various others have pointed out that of the 7 or 8 basic principles of web design, this site redesign violates all but one of them. Keep cursing everyone who points out the gross incompetence of this redesign, Cole. You’re only getting yourself in deeper.
Doing things like inserting #f2f2f2 as the default background color is not rocket science. Anyone who thinks it is needs to sit down and shut up. “Ooohhh, oohhh, oohh, the new redesigned comment box borders and sidebar comment tabs are also light gray.” Yes. Get rid of them. They’re shit.
SoupCatcher
@CDE prof:
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised at all the vitriol that Tommy had to put up with. After all, I’ve seen plenty of online gaming world chats full of shitcock over the years. But I was surprised at the incessant pettiness, to the point where going through comment threads has gotten a lot simpler as I see no point in reading opinions of people who have, as Maya Angelou says, shown me who they are.
Xenos
Some open threads just go bad. Rotten shit has been in the air lately.
I have run out of patience with anybody and everybody not in my immediate family. This includes a couple friends I have had for more than 35 years who have now gone full wing-nut over Syrian refugees. Fucking humans.
Emma
I am fascinated at the Republicanism shown in this thread.We have:
The Experts Who Give Advice From The Cheap Seats.
The Moral Scolds Who Demand Everyone Perform According To Their Code.
The Whiners Who Want Everything To Go Back To When They Felt Comfortable.
John? Really, this place has been a political home to me in the last few years. Not to mention the pets, the recipes, and Sunday gardening. But if you want to shut it down and let it go, I would understand completely.
J R in WV
@Emma:
But who would we talk to, in the we hours of blackness, when we can’t sleep ? Where would I get the social contact I had when I was working with 600 people to support their complex data needs with a team of 20; now that I’m retired and only socialize with Mrs J and my physical therapist?
Where would I learn about the treason being concocted by the Republican slime molds who want to destroy the world so no one can be happy?
The site works pretty well for me, now. Sometimes there is a delay when some twitter things (I barely know what twiting is, and I know I don’t like it!) don’t load right for whatever reason. I too wish the color wasn’t as bright, and that bold wasn’t blue, but not enough to heckle a volunteer until he breaks down late at night after working for 167 hours and being yelled at by people he thought were his friends.
Just use it the way it is, and watch as it slowly gets to more like what you want, and give Tommy a break. You torment anyone enough and they’re going to get squirelly!
NotMax
@John Cole
Now want to stick around this planet long enough to see you turn 80.
;)
Will you (perhaps grudgingly) admit that some of the suggestions proffered and later implemented (or several for which implementation is yet forthcoming) have/shall have improved the layout and aided readability since the initial roll-out?
eemom
@SoupCatcher:
sock puppet #2.
Emma
@J R in WV: I keep having this weird experience in that I probably have the crappiest hardware around and the site never was a problem for me. It had glitches, yes, but within a week I was able to read and comment — which is really why I come here. My little Samsung Tablet worked too. So I keep hearing these complaints, and honestly, I couldn’t relate.
It is different and it will take me a bit to get used to it. So what? I started in libraries with a terminal with a built-in keyboard and when it glitched you pulled out a tool kit, flipped the thing open and used the thinnest-point stylus in the kit to push on row after row of miniature switches. Today my crappy little laptop has more power than the first mainframe I ever worked with. None of them — no hardware, no software, no NOTHING — I’ve ever worked with has been free of glitches.
None of it is worth the abuse people have been heaping on others. I’ve never used the filter because I’ve always found something interesting to learn even in the writings of people that I find annoying or irritating, but I am thinking of installing it. Life’s too freaking short.
Satby
Meh, I don’t care about apologies. The person in question labelled me a troll because he was in fact angry about me looking at his profile on LinkedIn, openly and under my own name. He blocked me and started calling me a troll when I asked about his own site. Because he rightfully surmised I was questioning his abilities and his “truthiness”. I’m obviously not the only person who thinks that, but I was probably too pushy about it.
He’s not working on the site any more and Alain and John are, by which I infer he no longer has the keys. That particular issue is over.
The entire episode was unfortunate and if there’s an Angies List for blog do-overs I image it will be consulted the next time. I just feel bad that John had to deal with it all while he was so sick. I apologize for my part in that.
Sherparick
@mclaren: Dogs and cats never trigger our tribal affinity aversion. I would expect that going on several hundred thousands of years, the biggest threat humans have had to deal with is each other. Meanwhile, observing how at least some dogs react to strange dogs and most cats react to strange cats, dogs and cats have plenty violent feelings in their own kind of stranger aversion.
Denali
Can’t we all just get along?
an’t we avoid being a mirror of this sad world? Just when everything seems to be going okay, something comes along and messes it up. We come from different parts of the country(even the world-I’m looking at you Amir Kalid) and you keep coming back here, and you have given us so much. We obviously have different personalities and different levels of computer expertise. We have different perceptions of each other. Just like the real world. Can’t we just try to make it a better place and not destroy it?
PIGL
@Omnes Omnibus: I see you’re doing your level best to crack him out of his shell, to let the seething misanthrope be born. Persistence, dear boy, that’s what it takes.
phoebesmother
@mclaren: You’re really REALLY annoying. There is no “rule” in HTML that href links have to be blue; that’s called convention and convention is the enemy of design — ask any graphic designer presenting something to a client. And on my Windows8.1 Firefox and Opera browsers the background is NOT blindingly white; it’s a light blue gray as you can see when it’s compared to the boxes where you type this comment and where you type the web addresses.
I do think Tommy’s mouth is too flip and too “what I thought of first to defend myself.” But it’s nowhere as arrogant and opinionated as yours. I still smart from your diatribe about how all of us who get cancer should just go off and die quietly because there’s been no progress on combatting any form of the disease other than leukemia and we cost too much and it’s just poison anyway. If I’d taken your advice last year, I’d be dead and not nicely or quietly but Big Pharma (yes, Big Pharma) and the universities discovered something several years ago that led to a big breakthrough and a positive increase in survival rates for my particular cancer. What some of you luddites miss is that every cancer we treat can teach us something and refine our techniques. Do others a favor and actually visit a cancer treatment facility and talk to us about the process — you’ll meet people who will not survive and also those who will — I can’t say with any certainty yet in which group I’ll land but I’m glad I’m still here without any debilitating aftereffects. Maybe you’ll think before you pontificate but I doubt it — you really have ZERO self-doubt, which is why you’re so annoying.
And fuck any of the rest of you that want to join the “cancer is too expensive to treat” bandwagon that seems to be trending on the Left.
and that ends this episode of “airing the grievances”
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: That is a sockpuppet.
Emma
@phoebesmother: Jesus God I’m glad I missed that thread (says survivor of two lumpectomies, currently being treated post-surgically with med that did not exist 10 years ago).
Sometimes it is really really hard to let karma do her thing unaided.