This kind of thing is unreasonably amusing to me. (2013/01/21)
Someone I had some run-ins with on a video game forum sent me what I consider just about the funniest thing ever. Now, normally, I don’t like to randomly repost private messages, but in this case, there’s some real value to commentary on the tactics here, because messages like this are emotionally abusive, and a closer look at how they work, and why that’s unambiguously abusive, may be of value. Knowing how it works can make it easier to resist the effects. Quoted text is from my correspondent.
[read more...]How to improve political dialogue (2013/01/13)
So, I have complained in the past about the poor tone of political dialogue. But shouldn’t I offer solutions? Yes, yes I should.
[read more...]The mystery of my bad writing and debate skills (2013/01/11)
Sometimes, when I am in an argument with some random person on the Internet, a thing happens which has always sort of mystified me. What will happen is, around the time that I conclude that someone is genuinely incapable of even basic logical coherence, they’ll turn to a variety of personal attacks. And what makes it mysterious is, the attacks are pulled from a small pool of things like “nothing you say makes any sense” or “you are too dogmatic” or “you are so authoritarian”, and…
[read more...]Sorry. (2013/01/09)
So, I got up in the middle of the night to pee, and when I got back, I looked around for a pillow, and found it, and picked it up. Under it was a cat. He gave me… a look. He was not happy.
[read more...]Spouses: awesome (2013/01/04)
So, last night, I woke up with weird leg cramps. Like, unlike any I’ve had before, and really disturbing. Different muscles, often two or three areas at once, and much more persistant than the kind I occasionally get and I’m sorta used to. And after a while of this, I concluded that I wanted painkillers, so I went to go get some.
[read more...]Pinkie Pie advises you about programming (2012/12/19)
My usual response to particularly ill-considered ideas is to warn people that if they do these things, we will have to point at them and laugh while Oompa Loompas sing about how their downfall was the result of their own poor decisions. But after I got a compiler bug report where the test case wouldn’t even compile, and yielded warnings about 35% larger than the program source… Well. Time to step it up.
[read more...]A few notes on how to run a forum or similar community (2012/12/13)
For some reason, people who run forums keep inventing the same ideas, and they keep being really bad ideas.
[read more...]Personal opinion: Python's "usability" and "readability" are marketing hype (2012/12/02)
People love to pitch Python as a language to learn in. I am pretty sure this is because everything you hear about Python is about how easy and intuitive it is, and how people love to pitch it as a good choice for learning.
[read more...]I love the idea of having a working memory, anyway (2012/11/25)
So, my memory is better sometimes, not quite as good other times.
[read more...]David Frum says true things. Pundits bash him. (2012/11/09)
It says something when David Frum is described as not really a conservative, or as someone unimportant and uninformed. The man has credentials. I don’t like everything he says or does, but I have read his writing and found it persuasive more than once. Not always, but more than once. And a speechwriter for George (H. W.) Bush is almost certainly not reasonably considered some kind of leftist.
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