User talk:Tmtoulouse/Archive15

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Retirement[edit]

I understand. I too have had to reconsider everything I've ever believed, and have turned to God. Bless you, and all of us here at RationalWiki. I will pray for us. DogP 12:50, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Of late, I too have been struggling with spiritual issues and find myself increasingly convinced by YEC viewpoints.--Bobbing up 13:13, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I suppose that my Faith might shortly force me to depart from this den of iniquity. ToastToastand marmite 13:17, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
These pagans will destroy you, Ms. Toasty. Turn your back to the burning pit and walk towards the light. DogP 13:20, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
They'll realise come the RAPTURE just how foolish they have been. ToastToastand marmite 13:27, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I, too have had a revelation: that Windows is far superior to those confusing and virus ridden UNIX based systems. Oh, and I realised that semicolons are pretentious. Bastard evil Hoover! 14:10, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Moreover, Java sucks. Bastard evil Hoover! 14:16, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Why the hell did he leave? I don't believe what was on his user page. Who's he turning the server over to? Fall down? Why wasn't this screamed over the intercom? Why aren't there mourning masses? --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 16:40, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Teh departure of one (minor) member is nothing to be alarmed about. ToastToastand marmite 16:44, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
He controls the server, it dahm well is something to be alarmed about. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 16:46, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

He sets a great example, IMO! Perhaps others of us will find to God, too! larronsicut fur in nocte 16:48, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
TMT IMed me that he just couldn't take any more of the stoopid. I think it was the therian stuff that made him seek another way. But as toast said, he is only a minor member. I can't remember a substantive edit from him for ages. Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 16:48, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
@CUR Rationalwiki is more than a mere machine. The server can be relocated. What counts is the zeitgeist of the collective. We won't miss TMT for his contributions. Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 16:51, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Perhaps if CUR were to email him, promising to mend his ways, that would have some effect? ToastToastand marmite 16:54, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
(EC) Yeah, but I already did. Now you're the only one fussing about therians. By the way, if he couldn't take more of the 'stoopid' and 'stoopid' refers to religion around here, why'd he take it? What makes more sense is that he got bored of Conservapedia and has homework. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:02, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

I really empathise with TMT, I have also been doubting my own commitment to this project. It is just a shadow of the site it was almost two years ago. I can't put my finger on the exact cause but I am seriously considering moving over to aSK full time. It seems to have much more verve. Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 17:00, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Before Toast accusses me, I will point out that it is not, in fact, all my fault. Probably the result of CP dying, which is why I am using lulzy socks to lighten things up. Seems to be working even on TK. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:02, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

CUR, your socks arnt remotely funny I am sorry to say. Ace McWickedRevolt 17:14, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I'd refute you by telling you which sock was mine, but I'm not willing to out him- yet. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:15, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Nothing funny is happening at CP, so if you have a sock running its not funny. You have free will to deny this logic though. Ace McWickedRevolt 17:23, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Check WIGO CP. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:24, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

I resemble that imputation, CUr. I have not, nor would I accuse you of anything. I was merely taking GK's point. What did you email him with? ToastToastand marmite 17:07, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I apologize for accusing you. Actually, I meant I had mended my ways. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:09, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

TK vs. CUR[edit]

If indeed TMT is leaving due to CUR then he is no better than TK - a community wrecker. My fear is that he is TK and we can't let him (or CUR) win. Ace McWickedRevolt 17:24, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

You still think I'm TK? TK ain't the word-that-must-not-be-spoken (whether it actually exists or not). --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:26, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

What I AM is close enough to TK to go under his radar. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 17:37, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

I dont know but what I do know is your an absolute pain in the fucking ass. I have held my temper and tried to not insult you but I find idiotic, boring, unfunny and unable to maintain yourself in regards to fostering a community spirit. You continually claim you are "making lulz" via various socks which inevitably out in the process (like your current one which you have made plainly obvious) and claim to be "under TK's radar" - see above - but act surprised when he blocks you! You make descions on how other people should act (No one mention fucking therians!) and whinge like a freaking baby about everything. Piss off CUR. Ace McWickedRevolt 17:38, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
If it's true that dearest Trent retired because of that little Cur then I'll boil his tiny balls in oil and have them for tapas.  Lily Ta, wack! 17:44, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
It's a real shame that CUR's work has driven Trent away. But perhaps it's time for a change at the top? Does anyone feel that the changing of the guard has happened, and that CUR should maybe be given the Boss job, now that he's usurped the Former Leader? I'd say it's due. DogP 18:07, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I flatly refuse to acknowledge your joke. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 18:08, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

And until trent says I drove him away, let's avoid accussing, okay? --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 18:09, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Dude, you did it, you're the Alpha Dog around these parts now. I bow down. What wandalizm would you have me do, O Might CUR? DogP 18:13, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
I'm not this stupid. --<choose>

<option>Input The ResistorOutput</option> <option>CoyoteOver 450 pages watched NOT including talk pages</option> <option>The Trickster</option> <option>Acionyx</option> 18:14, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

No? You certainly had me fooled. DogP 18:15, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

EJ Thribb[edit]

So. Farewell then, Trent Toulouse
You were an English river in France
But you saw the light and left
You had nothing, Toulouse.

Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 17:27, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

That'll fall on mostly unknowing eyes, GK. How about a McGonagle (sp?) ToastToastand marmite
Applause @Genghis Bondurant 17:34, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
How about a McTeagle?
Trent, can't you lend us a pound or two?
I shall pay you back by the end of the week
I'm expecting a cheque by post
It should be here any day.
SirChuckBDMorris for new Jinx! 20:07, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

April Fool's ?[edit]

How could we have been so foolish to be taken in by such a cunning stunt. You really had us going there Trent. I was even thinking of joining aSK full time. Please don't ever do that again. You made one of us look really foolish. Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 18:58, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Not so obvious to me - its April 2nd here. Still, I stand by my CUR comments. Ace McWickedRevolt 18:59, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
Have I ever even directly interacted with CUR? Can't remember...tmtoulouse 19:00, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
EC EC EC - forgot what I said. Assume it was witty though. ToastToastand marmite 19:02, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
It was an April Fools!! Oh No! I feel so silly confessing to my conversion to YEC on the same day!--Bobbing up 02:36, 2 April 2009 (EDT)
Some people were taken in by it? I believe that's the original meaning of Poe's Law. ArmondikoVnarchist 09:00, 2 April 2009 (EDT)
It was an April Fool's? Not for me, I meant it very seriously - I am now a member of the Unification Church. May God help you all. DogP 10:59, 2 April 2009 (EDT)

Namespace names nitpick[edit]

I was writing the family.py files for pywikipedia, and I noticed that some of our custom talk namespaces have a capital Talk, while others don't. Is it ok if I change them all to lowercase (consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds)? Also, we could add Fun and Conservapedia to wgContentNamespaces. Right now it would only affect Special:Statistics, but in 1.14 they'd also be included in Special:Random. --  Nx/talk  13:53, 8 April 2009 (EDT)

On your last point, that is exactly why those namespaces exist - so they don't come up as "random pages". If they were accessible via the normal random link, we'd have to delete a lot of them. On which point I have a question you (Nx or Trent) might be able to answer - can you make an adaptation of "special:random" that returns only articles from one specific namespace? ħumanUser talk:Human 21:25, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
I seem to remember that someone asked Trent to fix that, implying that the mob wanted that. Anyway, Special:Random/Fun works. --  Nx/talk  21:48, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Well, basically, we want "random" to return "mission" articles (hence "fun"), and also to tone down our massive CP-obsession, it got its own namespace too - and a major consideration was not to return them as random, which is often how people look around a wiki to see what it's about. That random link is awesome, we need to implement something like that on our "CP continent" - can you do any magic JS which puts a "random article on CP" link only on articles in that namespace? Or should I settle for grunting it into a few likely places? ħumanUser talk:Human 21:55, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Done. --  Nx/talk  22:10, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Do people have to manually implement that in their own js, or can we have something like it namespace wide? (we might want to move this part of the discussion to talk WIGO CP for the best input from others...) ħumanUser talk:Human 22:33, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
We can import it in Common.js. --  Nx/talk  22:36, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Nice. What's the link look like? Indented below random saying "Random CP page" ought to work, you thinks? ħumanUser talk:Human 22:41, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
It's just another item in the list because that was simpler to do. I tried indenting it, but I didn't like the result, it looks like something broke. It's almost as long as Best of RationalWiki, but fits even when indented. If you move the discussion, please leave a copy of my first post here. --  Nx/talk  23:01, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Yes, I'd leave behind all important notes. Doesn't "**" work to indent it? ħumanUser talk:Human 23:55, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
MediaWiki is very nitpicky about the contents of MediaWiki:Sidebar, but that doesn't matter, since this is javascript. When I tried it (by inserting a nested <ul>) I didn't save the result, just used show preview (and disabled the namespace check) --  Nx/talk  00:00, 9 April 2009 (EDT)

<-- I know, some editing is almost impossible to "preview", like template changes. Feel free to invoke the alterations to the sitewide js to test. I'll yell at anyone who complains. If you want me to "work with you" on the final appearance, let me know via email or talk page, ok? So I "get right on it". Or we could do what Trent & I used to do, which was use the phone as well to coordinate efforts. ħumanUser talk:Human 00:12, 9 April 2009 (EDT)

RationalWiki forums[edit]

I made an account at teh forums, but when I tried to log in it said I was "inactive". Help?--Ipatrol 00:03, 18 April 2009 (EDT)

Muahaha, teh kabal had already blockzored you! ħumanUser talk:Human 00:09, 18 April 2009 (EDT)
You're active now. Redchuck.gif Генгисunbelieving 09:14, 18 April 2009 (EDT)

P.S.: I can has cabal membership?--Ipatrol 19:18, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

There is no Cabal. - π 00:57, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

That is wrong, I have screenshots! Seriously, membership in teh seekrit forumcabal where we can coordinate all sorts of seekrit activities?--Ipatrol 02:42, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

One does not seek The Cabal, The Cabal seeks them. - π 03:07, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
Well put, Pi guy. ħumanUser talk:Human 03:25, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Why is this such a big deal? I want to start a seekrit IRC channel and having the cabal forum accessable would help. I am also devising a devious plan for Conservapedia I'd like to share.--Ipatrol 02:14, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

As an ex-cabal member, I'd suggest that you haven't been here long enough. You could e-mail your idea(s) to someone like Human. ToastToastand marmite 02:18, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
There's a forum? Why is there a forum!? (Has just signed up for aforumentioned forum) PubliusTalk 03:47, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Extension:ErrorHandler[edit]

I'd like to install ErrorHandler to get a backtrace of those dpl errors that are causing the main page to go blank sometimes. BTW, I think PHP can't log to /var/log because it doesn't have write permissions there. -- Nx / talk 08:09, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Go for it, and yeah, I figured that's what was happening, I have it dumping to /tmp now. tmtoulouse 17:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
I've already installed it, but it's worthless, so I just resorted to putting error_log calls everywhere. I've finally found something, and it's fixed now, but I may have broken something else in DPL with my fix. I have no idea what the parameter I changed does... -- Nx / talk 17:13, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
I've reverted to the broken version again to find a proper fix -- Nx / talk 17:21, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
And I think I found the proper fix too. I've reported this to the DPL devs here, let's see what they say. -- Nx / talk 17:34, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Memcached[edit]

After spending hours trying to figure out why memcache would cause a fatal error, it turns out all I had to do was restart it to clear old entries that were breaking stuff. Memcached is now working, and you can check the stats by running stats.php in the maintenance directory. -- Nx / talk 22:10, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

I read that as "menarche", and, no, surely it not a fatal error, just a bug in God's plan. ħumanUser talk:Human 03:47, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

RSVG[edit]

I've installed rsvg and switched our svg converter to that, since ImageMagick was giving really crappy results and MediaWiki recommends rsvg. Fortunately all the dependencies were already satisfied. --  Nx/talk  11:58, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Bayesian inference, etc.[edit]

Great, informative essay on a subject I had very little prior knowledge of. I hope you complete it someday!

Away...[edit]

Have a nice trip. You going anywhere interesting? - π 06:26, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

"Away" sounds interesting enough... ħumanUser talk:Human 06:30, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Capturebot2[edit]

I'd like to try running it on the server. Blocking it will still cause it to crash, but I think I've got everything else covered. It will wake up every minute to check recent changes, and if any of the pages on its list have been updated, it will scan them. If asked to capture huge pages like this, it can eat up quite a lot of memory - 400 megs in this case, and it can't even upload this one, but it will create a page to prevent it from trying again. Normally though it's just difflinks which should be much smaller. And if it's too much for the server to handle we can hand out the python script to some volunteers (it should run on windows too). --  Nx/talk  21:29, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Can I see the source? tmtoulouse 22:26, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
User:Capturebot2/capturebot2.py and User:Capturebot2/webkit2png.py --  Nx/talk  22:36, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Bayesian Inference and...[edit]

Do you have any intention of finishing this? I find it interesting. I used to understand Bayesian stuff better, but it's getting hazy, alas. Sterile noun 02:38, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, some day I will work on it. It did sorta fall off the radar. I think it needs a lot of work polishing it up. But yea its something I think about trying to finish up fairly often. tmtoulouse 05:57, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

RevisionDelete config[edit]

Should we give bureaucrats more rights than sysops? What I'm talking about is the ability to hide a revision from sysops (crats can still see it) and to hide a username from the block log, active blocks list and active user list when blocking the user. -- Nx / talk 05:44, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I am preliminarily okay with extending it to allow hiding revisions from sysops (since most the site is sysops), as for other issues, I would say do we need it. Has something occurred that having the ability would have been useful. If not then no need to worry about it yet. But such changes really need to be dumped, probably at community standards page, for more general feedback before implemented. tmtoulouse 05:46, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Well, we had someone create a bunch of users with offending usernames, but that was mostly on RationalWikiWiki -- Nx / talk 05:48, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
It happens occasionally, I think the general guiding principle here is to "leave a paper trail whenever possible." So if someone is making offensive user names, or edits, blocking/reverting is the best approach. We only "hide" stuff that pushes the bounds beyond what we even want to be in our history, such as the link today. I am hard press to see what kind of "liable" or privacy violation can emerge from user creation. But I have been surprised in the past. Drop it on a talk page, and drop an intercom message or salon bar message linking to it and see what everyone else thinks. Feel free to implement whatever consensus seems to pull out. tmtoulouse 05:51, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
On second thought, hideuser doesn't look too useful, since we can just rename the user, and possibly hide the user rename log if really necessary. I'll start a discussion on the saloon bar. -- Nx / talk 05:55, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
(EC)Yeah, "offensive user names" is trivial on a wiki. As far as the hide revision thing, I think we need to make it easier for dolts like me to do it correctly, and seriously bury the offending personal info edit in one simple step. If that can be done. And, as I said earlier today, I hope that by the next time I need to do it, I will have forgotten how. ħumanUser talk:Human 05:56, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
(2xEC)We did have Fall down using young miss Allison C's name and the fallout from that. - π 05:57, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, and she followed that little drama tornado from WP to our tiny shack and used her own name here, etc. But, yeah, the A-R A-C user name was well-renamed. I was more thinking of user names like "rationalwiki sucks cocks and spits the foreskins on the pope" kind of offensive as being trivial. You bring up/remind me of a good point. Of course, it's also only happened once (maybe a clusterfuck of once, but once). ħumanUser talk:Human 06:12, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
The point was to deprive the vandal of his source of fun, but like I said renaming is better than hideuser -- Nx / talk 06:19, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Yup. Ignoring works best, of course, but we, as any mildly successful W2.0 project, have too many drama queens (including yours truly of course) who would make a big deal of some crap and give them their thrills. ħumanUser talk:Human 06:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Illustrated Guide[edit]

Hi, what do you think of Conservapedia:An illustrated guide? Did you have something like this in mind? larronsicut fur in nocte 23:28, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Borken bits[edit]

The edit tools stuff under the edit box went bye-bye. So did the magic comment that appears when editing the todo list (it has the "newpollid" instructions). Also, there's a fly in my soup. ħumanUser talk:Human 01:57, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Also, the intercom message management buttons (next/prev/mark) are not where we left them (over on the right). When do we get the thrilling tale of what went wrong? ħumanUser talk:Human 02:00, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

These errors are caused by MW linking the pages to "blank" versions. For example, I fixed the edit tools by going to the page where they are stored in the mediawiki namespace and resaving it. Should fix any such problems. I am not sure where the magic comment is stored. tmtoulouse 02:01, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
Thanks, all is happy in munchkinland now :) Nice work! ħumanUser talk:Human 04:14, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

baleeht baleeht[edit]

The thing you want to hide is still visible in the "prev" diff of your revert. You may want to do some mo' deletin'. Mountain Blue 05:49, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

botserver[edit]

Ok, so since pywikipedia assumes you're going to run all the bots under the same account, I did this with a few modifications. ~bots/pywikipedia contains the main pywikipedia distribution, and ~bots/capturebot2 is capturebot2's working directory. If you want to run a different bot account, here are the steps (switch to the bots account instead of your own):

  1. create a directory for the bot:
    mkdir ~/foobot
    
  2. symlink the necessary stuff:
    cd ~/foobot
    
    ln -s ~/pywikipedia/families
    
    ln -s ~/pywikipedia/userinterfaces
    
  3. go back to ~/pywikipedia and generate the necessary files (the script won't run elsewhere):
    cd ~/pywikipedia
    
    python generate_user_files.py
    
  4. select both, then rationalwiki (should be number 35), and enter the bot username.
  5. go back to the working directory and move user-config.py and user-fixes.py there
    cd ~/foobot
    
    mv ~/pywikipedia/user-*.py ./
    
  6. log in (in the bot's working directory):
    python ~/pywikipedia/login.py
    
    The password for Capturebot2 is in ~/capturebot2/password.txt in case you need it, but once you run this command it saves the cookie and should stay logged in.
  7. copy the bot script into the working directory. The instructions at meta say you should modify the script - this isn't needed, since I've added ~/pywikipedia to the PYTHONPATH environment variable (it's in ~/.profile so it should be set whenever you log in with bots), except if the script calls other bots (i.e. import looks in PYTHONPATH)
  8. if you want to run a script that is always on, use nohup:
    nohup ./capturebot2.py > logs/capturebot2.log &
    

You can log out after that, but if the machine is restarted you'll have to start capturebot manually again. Also periodically delete the log file (~/capturebot2/logs/capturebot2.log) as both capturebot2.py and pywikipedia are quite verbose. -- Nx / talk 07:52, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

A couple of suggestions. You could write an init script for this so you don't have to manually restart the bot on reboot. daemontools is a suite of tools for looking after processes like this, including making them run as a user other and different from the one they were invoked as. Second, configure logrotate to look after the log files. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 08:25, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll try that. I had to add a ppa repository since the ubuntu package daemontools-run is borken. -- Nx / talk 09:05, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
Ok, I finally managed to get it going. I used this howto. The service is in /etc/services/capturebot2, the logfile is in /etc/services/capturebot2/log/main/current. If you want to kill it, go to /etc/services and type
svc -d capturebot2
, to bring it back:
svc -u capturebot2/
-- Nx / talk 11:52, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks[edit]

I didn't get my paper finished though so I might have to take a few more weeks off. - π 07:57, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

I got my reading list approved today for my comprehensive examination, I printed of the papers and bound them up, it required three 2 inch spiral bindings for my just under 6 inch stack of papers to ready. Plus two published books. I have 6 weeks to read them, then synthesize them all into a paper, and then submit myself to oral examination on the topics. All of which to say is, I am sympathetic, and will not be around too much either. Remember the offer to port pibot to run 24/7 on the new bot hub still stands. tmtoulouse 08:07, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
I'll look at it this weekend. You guys sound like you have it a lot tougher, I got given an office with a computer and told to bring them a thesis in three years. - π 08:16, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
Yeah different programs vary across the globe. There is a sliding scale on how much time and importance is placed on departmental requirements versus thesis, some places have no requirements but the thesis. Others have extremely structured course work and exams. My program is somewhere in between, and moving towards the thesis end of the scale. When I first started there was significantly more course work requirements and structure to the program. But they switched to a new "core" they split the differences a little better, putting more emphasis on research and absorbed a good chunk of the course work by requiring these "comprehensive examinations" at the end of the 2nd your in the doctoral program. I had a choice, and much prefer less course work than more even if the next six weeks of my life are going to suck for it. But I should be all but dissertation by September which should leave me ample procrastination time. tmtoulouse 17:46, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Baby machine intercom[edit]

Gee I guess now would be a good time to discuss birth control, and, oh, who is fucking who (and why)? ħumanUser talk:Human 06:27, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Without knowing the circumstances and feelings involved, my initial reaction is yes. - π 07:15, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
Oh by the way I made this for CUR, now he and his IE is gone I have returned it to it former form. - π 07:30, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
Circumstances alter cases: A good childhood friend had a boy baby, married the non-father 35 years ago & they're very happy with another four kids. Use your judgement. This message brought to you by: Toastrespondand honey 08:16, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
I would say yes also. Put on our thinking caps and it would be a yes. Ace McWickedi9 09:01, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
The quick, uninformed answer is "yes", but there may have been circumstances that make it less clear-cut, and it's not my place to speculate. I'd say this though:
  • IF the pregnancy was the result of a BIG mistake as opposed to outright cheating, and
  • IF you have already had several serious relationships, so you know from experience (and not hope) that she is the one hanging in there with "for better or for worse", and
  • IF the baby's biological father is not an asshole who will be interfering with your lives as he asserts his paternal rights if she has the child...
Then I'd say, spend some serious time with her and come to terms with what happened and why, and what happens next - otherwise move on, and do so with a clear conscience. Good luck, Trent. --SpinyNorman 15:20, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
If the pregnant woman was monogamously involved with you at the time, you will not be fully able to trust any promise she makes, ever again. If not, you still have to be concerned about the Cinderella effect, that manifestation of the fact that blood is thicker than water. Mjollnir.svgListenerXTalkerX 16:03, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, it is appreciated. Luckily no major decision must be made anytime soon, maybe the path will become clearer with a little more time. tmtoulouse 16:28, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Lebedev article[edit]

None of the authors are found on the list of staffs in Lebedev Physical Institute/FIAN. It is suggested that you try to contact FIAN/Lebedev Physical Institute to see if these guys really worked there/ask for an article. [[User:K61824|]][[User_talk:K61824|]] 18:47, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, yeah I was going to try something like that, but one of the authors posted online and admitted that the Lebdev article had nothing to do with the phantom DNA effect. So didnt seem worth tracking down this article. I mean, the whole things smells bad from start to end, certainly not a great example of "science." tmtoulouse 18:49, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

RWW[edit]

Since you have access rights there, can you edit the name blacklist there to include the term "buy"? We're having an attack of spammers with names like 294 buy Lipitor. Thanks. The Emperor Kneel before Zod! 21:08, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

WTF?[edit]

Spambot? Huh? Ace McWickedi9 02:28, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

You were on top of recent changes and I felt a need to feel empowered. tmtoulouse 02:31, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
Oh I see, carry on. Ace McWickedi9 02:33, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Blogspot[edit]

Are you gonna do an intercom message about the RW blogspot? I don't know how many people would have seen it in the Saloon Bar. SJ Debaser 15:34, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


My 47 second Promotion And Then Demotion[edit]

HAHAHAHA!!! That was pretty funny.The Goonie 1 21:07, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

deleting me[edit]

I don't want this profile, I don't want to have any connection to RW, I support the site (totally), but I need to go. It was a mistake to make this account. — Unsigned, by: Zelmerszoetrop / talk / contribs

The only thing I can do for you is delete your user page. Beyond that, just no longer use the account and it will drift away. tmtoulouse 06:30, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
Yes, can you please do that? — Unsigned, by: Zelmerszoetrop / talk / contribs
(ECx2) You are free to leave, of course. But we don't "delete" accounts or records of users. If you stop editing your traces will vanish into the mist fairly quickly. If you use this user name elsewhere and want to minimize the "connection", however, we can rename the account to something else of your choosing. ħumanUser talk:Human 06:31, 12 July 2009 (UTC)