Monday, November 28, 2011
Before suing / getting sued for libel...
Know this: the day is drawing near when bullies can no longer get away with intimidating scientifically minded truth seekers and skeptical speakers. If you're gonna try to use the courts to push us around, be sure you have the truth on your side, or you're gonna get your ass handed to you in the public forum by a calm, assiduous, and intellectually honest high school kid, rightfully and righteously so.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
How to find broken 2-way relationships
This is not advice on how to interact with people. I'm not the best person to ask for that.
===
I have a table to represent friendships. In this table there must be two rows for each friendship: one for User A->User B, and one for User B->User A.
There are some friendships where the second row is missing.
How do I find them?
Here are the pertinent tables and columns:
Table: User
Columns: userID
Table: UserFriend
Columns: fromUserID, toUserID
===
Solution:
select UF.*
from UserFriend UF with (nolock)
left outer join UserFriend UF2 with (nolock) on
UF.fromUserID = UF2.toUserID and
UF.toUserID = UF2.fromUserID
where UF2.fromUserID is null
===
I have a table to represent friendships. In this table there must be two rows for each friendship: one for User A->User B, and one for User B->User A.
There are some friendships where the second row is missing.
How do I find them?
Here are the pertinent tables and columns:
Table: User
Columns: userID
Table: UserFriend
Columns: fromUserID, toUserID
===
Solution:
select UF.*
from UserFriend UF with (nolock)
left outer join UserFriend UF2 with (nolock) on
UF.fromUserID = UF2.toUserID and
UF.toUserID = UF2.fromUserID
where UF2.fromUserID is null
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
ERROR[3332]: Connection to SMTP server test failed.
Going to the web UI for a Sharp3100N printer, Network Settings, Connection test, got this error:
ERROR[3332]: Connection to SMTP server test failed.
Solution:
Change the SMTP server address to
smtp.google.com
Port: 587
SSL: On
Authentication: put in your gmail username and password.
Assuming your printer can find the internet, that should do it.
ERROR[3332]: Connection to SMTP server test failed.
Solution:
Change the SMTP server address to
smtp.google.com
Port: 587
SSL: On
Authentication: put in your gmail username and password.
Assuming your printer can find the internet, that should do it.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Today, +/- n days
Searching on google and stackoverflow wasn't much help; also, "man date", "man cal", "man calendar", "man time", etc are limited in there accuracy; so here:
What is today's date plus n days, let's say 61 days*?:
date -v+61d
Answer:
2011-02-18
Calendar marked.
*: This is the question that came into my head after reading this.
While I applaud them for making a testable claim, I doubt this. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones. But who knows, this time may different. Maybe some of us will have to start carrying around unmemorizable IPv6 addresses. Maybe we'll find a way to memorize them. Maybe IPv4 really was a gross underestimation of our capacity for connectedness (and maybe IPv6 isn't). We shall see; and thankfully soon.
What is today's date plus n days, let's say 61 days*?:
date -v+61d
Answer:
2011-02-18
Calendar marked.
*: This is the question that came into my head after reading this.
While I applaud them for making a testable claim, I doubt this. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones. But who knows, this time may different. Maybe some of us will have to start carrying around unmemorizable IPv6 addresses. Maybe we'll find a way to memorize them. Maybe IPv4 really was a gross underestimation of our capacity for connectedness (and maybe IPv6 isn't). We shall see; and thankfully soon.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sex, not gender
Continued from here (where I seem to have reached the thread's size limit), regarding Disapora's choice to use a text field for Gender instead of a drop down for Sex:
I agree that sex is not a simple binary, although the vast majority of the human population is not hermaphrodite or neutered. But let's consider that n%, as I'm sure you'll agree it is the rights of the minority that are the most important when considering how to design a new society like Diaspora.
Are anyone's rights being infringed up by having a drop down for Sex (options being Male, Female, Other, ..) instead of a text box for Gender? You say such an approach would implicitly treat them as freaks- funny your usage of "implicitly" here, as though I am implying anything. I am not. If such a conclusion is reached, it is by inference, i.e., someone else is inferring it. In other words, it is their problem that they would think I am calling them a freak, not mine. Sorry to get tautological here, but if they are not male or female then they are not male or female, and as such should be given an option for neither. This says nothing about whether or not they are freaks. Any reading into it as such is just bringing one's own prejudices where they are not justified.
As far as denying their existence by giving them this option- um, no? Isn't giving them the option in fact recognizing their existence? Wouldn't it be a denial of their existence if the option wasn't given?
Think of it another way: gender is subjective. What is masculine in one culture may be feminine in another. What makes me manly in my eyes could make me womanly in yours. Sex on the other hand is objective. I either have a penis or vagina or neither or both. I may feel manly today and womanly tomorrow, but the sexual organs I have do not change on a daily basis. Male in Italy and Australia and 13th century France is male in America, today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
I want my user profile to reflect the fixed status of this aspect of my objective self. It seems other people want to have a non-fixed reflection of a subjective aspect of their self. Fine. How about this for a compromise: give users both the free-form text field for Gender and the drop down for Sex. This solution recognizes the validity of both our points, as I believe there both are. As it is right now, Diaspora is limiting its appeal by excluding people with preferences like mine, and I'm sure you'll agree that maximizing its appeal would be good for Diaspora.
I agree that sex is not a simple binary, although the vast majority of the human population is not hermaphrodite or neutered. But let's consider that n%, as I'm sure you'll agree it is the rights of the minority that are the most important when considering how to design a new society like Diaspora.
Are anyone's rights being infringed up by having a drop down for Sex (options being Male, Female, Other, ..) instead of a text box for Gender? You say such an approach would implicitly treat them as freaks- funny your usage of "implicitly" here, as though I am implying anything. I am not. If such a conclusion is reached, it is by inference, i.e., someone else is inferring it. In other words, it is their problem that they would think I am calling them a freak, not mine. Sorry to get tautological here, but if they are not male or female then they are not male or female, and as such should be given an option for neither. This says nothing about whether or not they are freaks. Any reading into it as such is just bringing one's own prejudices where they are not justified.
As far as denying their existence by giving them this option- um, no? Isn't giving them the option in fact recognizing their existence? Wouldn't it be a denial of their existence if the option wasn't given?
Think of it another way: gender is subjective. What is masculine in one culture may be feminine in another. What makes me manly in my eyes could make me womanly in yours. Sex on the other hand is objective. I either have a penis or vagina or neither or both. I may feel manly today and womanly tomorrow, but the sexual organs I have do not change on a daily basis. Male in Italy and Australia and 13th century France is male in America, today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
I want my user profile to reflect the fixed status of this aspect of my objective self. It seems other people want to have a non-fixed reflection of a subjective aspect of their self. Fine. How about this for a compromise: give users both the free-form text field for Gender and the drop down for Sex. This solution recognizes the validity of both our points, as I believe there both are. As it is right now, Diaspora is limiting its appeal by excluding people with preferences like mine, and I'm sure you'll agree that maximizing its appeal would be good for Diaspora.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Friend looking for employment
Anybody need pet-or-house sitting or house cleaning services? I have a friend who is in desperate need of funds. She has references and experience in these things.
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