The CWAL Rubber Room

[STORY] [CDE] The Wreck of the Bloody Red Ledger - The V Man 15:11:23 12017-10-01
[STORY] CWAL Erotica 2017 - Paradox 18:48:06 12017-09-08
[STORY] Something has awoken - Tssha 07:08:51 12017-08-25
[STORY] Tidings of Doom, part 2: The Doomening - Arcturus 22:26:21 12017-08-24

Alright you monsters, you've done it. We're moving back to Prince Edward Island. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 20:48:41 12017-10-21
- That could be... a good thing? [NT] - Lothos 21:02:24 12017-10-21
  - I'm going to eat so many oysters! [NT] - Psycho Sam! 21:49:57 12017-10-21
    - Man, what the shuck? What did they ever do to you?!? [NT] - Tssha 22:45:45 12017-10-21
[VIDS] Pirates of the Caribbean theme played on two calculators - Lothos 14:23:14 12017-10-21
[VIDS] Duet for French Horn and Chair - Lothos 14:22:27 12017-10-21
[VIDS] For Blinky - Lothos 16:37:16 12017-10-20
- D'awww... [NT] - Psycho Sam! 23:45:36 12017-10-20
[VIDS] Well, um...at least it looks good, right? - Tssha 07:38:14 12017-10-20
- Fortunately Origins is separate from the project by the two creators. This is Stardock bullshit. [NT] - Lothos 17:35:57 12017-10-20
  - Yeah. I just...I cringed so much just watching this. Thank goodness we've still got Toys for Bob to pin our hopes on. [NT] - Tssha 17:57:26 12017-10-20
So I was twenty feet away from Wayne Gretzky this morning, that was kind of neat. - Fron 19:45:44 12017-10-19
- I was thousands of feet away from Wayne Gretzky this morning. Don't know how to feel about that. [NT] - Rotten 14:20:59 12017-10-20
- If you can get Wayne Gretzky, why wouldn't you get Wayne Gretzky? [NT] - Kalledon 08:47:01 12017-10-20
  - I'm pretty sure "can get Wayne Gretzky" just amounts to "can afford whatever his speaking fee is" [NT] - Fron 19:04:49 12017-10-20
I don't know what everybody else is on about, and honestly, I can't hear you over how amazing this Granny Smith apple is. - Psycho Sam! 17:33:18 12017-10-19
- *HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS* [NT] - Vektor 20:14:15 12017-10-20
Possibly relevant: Civ III Complete is free for two days on Humble Bundle. [NT] - Tssha 17:31:10 12017-10-19
- Noooo, don't give them any money! Not even free money! [NT] - Psycho Sam! 17:35:16 12017-10-19
*chomps* OMG HONEYCRIP OP PLEZ NERF!!!!! [NT] - Rotten 16:29:55 12017-10-19
- YOU'RE ALL FUCKIN BIG MOUSE - Sokwoo Lee 16:56:39 12017-10-19
Monoprice Select Mini: Good starter 3D printer? Looking for something in the $300 range. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 20:42:42 12017-10-18
One day I will stop snickering every time that I gratuitously put the words "ROMAN STYLE" into the slides for one of my classes. But it is not this day. [NT] - Ravil 11:14:23 12017-10-17
- Well, the Roman Legions certainly did a number of things with style. :) [NT] - TheDeamon 20:04:43 12017-10-18
- *sage nodding* Daft teaching shenanigans keep me sane, and the students seem to love them. I fully expect dour teaching types to notice what I'm ACTUALLY DOING at some point and then have a seizure as they weigh Propriety versus The Enrolments Are Good. [NT] - Lothos 22:27:44 12017-10-17
  - Personally (as someone who has been a student), I say anything that makes a class more engaging and less boring is alright in my books! *cough* Not that I've ever failed to pay attention in a class or anything... [NT] - Tssha 02:39:42 12017-10-18
    - YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION WHEN I DISCUSS THE INTRICACIES OF ROMAN STYLE [NT] - The Cupric Dong 11:09:43 12017-10-18
Hey, any math geniuses around here?? - Dorg 15:52:43 12017-10-15
- ∫(honeycrisp) from 0 to my mouth = ∞ [NT] - Mana 18:09:44 12017-10-16
- how would it know a lead is connected to a nand gate? It would have to have feedback of some kind no? [NT] - Rotten 19:56:34 12017-10-15
- I know of math! [NT] - Psycho Sam! 17:34:05 12017-10-15
- I'll take a look at that book you linked. I have a Bachelor's in Mathematics, and took enough Comp Sci that I should hopefully be able to parse what code is trying to do. [NT] - Legacy 17:21:42 12017-10-15
  - After poking through the book a bit, I don't see anything too bad math-wise. I'd have to brush up on stuff to knock off all the rust, but it should be plenty doable. [NT] - Legacy 18:18:22 12017-10-15
    - YEAH!!! I'll let you know if I manage to do anything interesting in the mean time. Feel free to e-mail me if you try anything out and get bogged down wrestling with linker errors or something [NT] - Dorg 20:19:45 12017-10-17
*sad trombone* IGN buys Humble Bundle. Yep: a company heavily tied up with advertising revenue from game reviews now owns a game storefront that publishes its own games. This cannot end badly at all for a wide number of different stupid reasons racing to be first. [NT] - Lothos 00:31:44 12017-10-14
- Humble bundle sold out a while back IMO, they've had way too much "bundle" and not nearly enough "humble" lately anyway [NT] - Dorg 15:38:48 12017-10-15
- Well, it was nice while it lasted :( [NT] - Legacy 10:28:42 12017-10-14
[PICS] Vektor's been lying to us about his job - Kalledon 17:00:46 12017-10-13
- Fierce! [NT] - Tssha 18:10:19 12017-10-13
I am so close to getting to stand up in front of half my company next week and ask them to answer the question "What *are* birds?" but The Man is threatening to keep me down. [NT] - Fron 22:45:13 12017-10-12
- *punches fron's dangling scrotal sack* [NT] - Rotten 13:14:43 12017-10-13
- In other news it turns out all it takes to get me to sell out a meaningful fraction of my principles and work happily in online advertising is a pile of cash and the opportunity to indulge roughly 10% of my lunatic whims. [NT] - Fron 22:46:51 12017-10-12
  - I kept my principles and worked in science for the betterment of humankind and knowledge and whatever whatever I hate everything and I'm going to die poor [NT] - Vektor 02:33:58 12017-10-13
    - Yeah, I've been trying to stick to my principles and work in a field I care about and all it's gotten me since coming to Canada is a string of awful jobs that pay really well but make me want to kill myself or jobs that pay shit and make me not want to kill myself. The one time I got the best of both worlds the board of directors fucked the company into an early grave. - Reecle 13:11:43 12017-10-13
      - I ran into some similar trouble, so I ragequit Microsoft and now I'm running my own device driver/game development firm!! I'll let you all know if it goes anywhere [NT] - Dorg 15:37:57 12017-10-15
        That's an interesting mix of businesses. [NT] - Fron 18:48:53 12017-10-15
        It's basically the "Mullet" of engineering companies [NT] - Dorg 20:24:01 12017-10-17
      - oof *radiates positive mindbeams in both of your directions* [NT] - Lothos 15:05:46 12017-10-13
    - But at least you'll die! - Tssha 04:35:14 12017-10-13
      - If they let me play with the big laser before I kick it, it'll have been worth it. [NT] - Vektor 09:54:45 12017-10-13
[PICS] This is how my day is going... - Rotten 09:44:54 12017-10-11 [NWS]
- I'm not sure whether to express sympathies or congratulations. - Ravil 12:17:42 12017-10-11
  - Maybe he's the ceiling (floor?) and there are people fighting over balls around him [NT] - Kalledon 11:13:48 12017-10-12
  - I have so many questions, Rotten. [NT] - Ravil 12:20:42 12017-10-11
    - I think it's best left up to interpretation. [NT] - Rotten 13:43:52 12017-10-11
[LINK] ACTUAL SEQUEL TO STAR CONTROL 2 FROM THE ACTUAL CREATORS OF STAR CONTROL 2 AND NOT THE LAMENTABLE FUCKBASKETS AT STARDOCK AAAAA GLEEEEE AAAAAAAAAA - Lothos 19:47:18 12017-10-10
- i, um, never played star control [NT] - Ravil 12:16:02 12017-10-11
  - you yet have time to correct your terrible oversight [NT] - Fron 21:34:40 12017-10-11
    - He has a newborn. He has no time. At all. It's all gone [NT] - Kalledon 13:58:14 12017-10-12
      - She's like, entire months old now. I'm sure she can take care of herself for a few days. [NT] - Fron 20:19:44 12017-10-12
        The cat's sort of a shit babysitter it turns out. [NT] - Ravil 02:23:33 12017-10-13
        put the baby in charge of the cat - the sense of responsibility will keep her grounded AND give her confidence in later life [NT] - Lothos 02:30:52 12017-10-13
        I so look forward to seeing this conversation play out a second time in front of family and children's services. :P [NT] - Tssha 04:34:02 12017-10-13
        at this point "getting extradited to Canada" is one of the most efficient early phases toward living there available in my arsenal. [NT] - Lothos 14:42:11 12017-10-13
- Thank honeycrisp! [NT] - Vektor 01:35:53 12017-10-11
- On further consideration: Let's all just make our peace in advance with the fact this might turn out to not be a very good game. These guys made one work of sublime excellence 25 years ago and nothing of note since. [NT] - Fron 21:54:27 12017-10-10
  - Welllllllllll that's fair. I have to acknowledge that Skylanders single-handedly revolutionised some toy/game markets though. It's not necessarily our kind of fun, but that thing's got a big cultural footprint to it. [NT] - Lothos 21:58:53 12017-10-10
- Well, Stardock will be (at least) peripherally involved (if I'm reading the article right), but it will be a true sequel at least so I will bite the bullet and swallow their involvement since it means a True Sequel. I am provisionally excited! - Tssha 20:11:29 12017-10-10
  - I'm a little confused about that myself: it looks to me like this ISN'T a Stardock project, but is being made with their cooperation since they agreed not to use some rights they have access to? Their game won't use any of the species we know and love, because they wanted to leave space for this one. If they are involved, I will weep and climb aboard the NopeFish. [NT] - Lothos 20:27:29 12017-10-10
- YESYESYESYESYESYESYES [NT] - Paradox 20:08:51 12017-10-10
  - seconded [NT] - Lothos 00:36:43 12017-10-11
- FUCK YEAH I KNEW ALL THOSE GOATS I SACRIFICED HAD TO BE FOR SOMETHING [NT] - Fron 19:59:19 12017-10-10
  - SQUASH ANOTHER ONE FOR ME LORD FRONNINGTON, WE WANT TO GET THIS OFF TO A SAFE START. [NT] - Lothos 20:31:33 12017-10-10
[LINK] Mana saves Canada - Psycho Sam! 15:59:15 12017-10-10
- Find yourself someone who looks at you like Mana looks at honeycrisp apples. [NT] - Arcturus 19:55:39 12017-10-10
  - This needs to be added to the random quote generator [NT] - Kalledon 11:14:39 12017-10-12
  - People have. There was that german dude who found someone to cannibalise him. [NT] - Lothos 00:47:08 12017-10-11
- "They have a thick stem, which must be snipped off to prevent it from puncturing the thin skin of other apples when it's packed in crates." THEY EVEN DESTROY THEIR COMPETITION. [NT] - Mana 18:39:09 12017-10-10
So, I know everyone's been interested and thought I'd let y'all know that Dream Daddy is on sale on Steam right now! [NT] - Psycho Sam! 14:58:47 12017-10-10
I purchased and have been enjoying honeycrisp apples, but am also too lazy to take and post a picture. Where's your god now? [NT] - Sassypants McJerkface 09:38:08 12017-10-10
- I've converted about a dozen people to honeycrisp apples at this point. *They* are our god now. [NT] - Mana 11:08:17 12017-10-10
  - I disagree!! - Dorg 05:30:33 12017-10-12
  - ya they r p good [NT] - Sassypants McJerkface 12:25:16 12017-10-10
I'm confused about Robert Jordan. As I understand it, the story is that his wife picked Sanderson to finish the series. But how could that be true given that the text clearly indicates that Jordan had never met a human woman in his entire life and therefore could not possibly have a wife? [NT] - Fron 20:06:18 12017-10-08
- Likely they were both products of an older generation that magnified the differences between the genders to ridiculous proportions. In any case, it got a lot better when Brandon Sanderson took over. - Tssha 20:33:19 12017-10-09
  - I kinda thought Jordan intentionally made the genders so polar in WoT to make a point - Kalledon 09:07:21 12017-10-10
    - What? It's just the women are crazy / men are stupid trope. It's everywhere. [NT] - Fron 19:40:12 12017-10-10
- *braid tugging intensifies* [NT] - Mana 11:08:48 12017-10-09
  - In all seriousness, this topic comes up a lot. Where are you guys being exposed to media that "accurately portrays females" enough to where the Wheel of Time stands out as not doing so? This may just be my lack of life experience talking. [NT] - Mana 11:48:01 12017-10-09
    - Well, A Song of Ice and Fire is a convenient contrast in the same genre. Despite taking place in a more oppressively patriarchal world, it doesn't have the same inane battle-of-the-sexes motif going on. - Fron 12:54:21 12017-10-09
- Does this confusion dampen or intensify the nostalgia high? *taps clipboard* [NT] - Paradox 06:19:33 12017-10-09
  - I don't know if there's even any nostalgia going on. I haven't read The Eye of the World in twenty years. I don't remember any of this. [NT] - Fron 12:55:06 12017-10-09
- Maybe Sanderson is trans and actually was his wife? [NT] - TheDeamon 20:41:14 12017-10-08
[PICS] Dear The Rubber Room: Tonight for dinner I made pan fried trout, with crispy roast potatoes, and brussel sprouts. What's everyone else having for dinner? - Psycho Sam! 20:04:52 12017-10-05
- I think the picture of the apple and board game you paired the meal with is missing. [NT] - Mana 11:10:54 12017-10-06
  - We ended up watching Planet Earth 2 (those poor baby turtles!) while I played Guild Wars 2 and the missus played Stardew Valley. It would have been a very wide shot. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 14:40:09 12017-10-06
- Broccoli coleslaw covered in vinegar! [NT] - Paradox 08:09:16 12017-10-06
  - Brussel Sprouts sauteed in butter with lots of black pepper. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 11:00:11 12017-10-06
    - re: Brussel Sprouts sauteed in butter with lots of black pepper. [NT] - ...Broccoli coleslaw with white wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, chili peppers and almonds. 11:25:15 12017-10-06
- *bump* *brake screech* - Tssha 00:08:22 12017-10-06
- #troutsex [NT] - TheDeamon 20:08:45 12017-10-05
I kind of love living in a country where we've gone from "He's just not ready" attack ads to Justin Trudeau being the oldest of the major party leaders in just a few years. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 16:18:40 12017-10-04
- Trudeau may be ready... but is Bonesaw? [NT] - Fron 20:57:44 12017-10-08
  - Vote Palin [NT] - TheDeamon 18:31:39 12017-10-12
HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK - Vektor 03:18:13 12017-10-04
- Well, chuck a duck. [NT] - Paradox 21:20:50 12017-10-04
  - No, it's a goose. [NT] - Vektor 00:21:43 12017-10-05
    - We're in pre-alpha here, Vektor. There could be all kinds of waterfowl or even TURTLES. Open your goddamn eyes AM I THE ONLY ONE ON THIS PROJECT WHO WANTS TO SUCCEED [NT] - Paradox 05:11:39 12017-10-05
- Let's take a gander at this then. [NT] - Tssha 17:14:46 12017-10-04
[PICS] Alright Vektor, I tried a Gala apple... - Mana 22:47:25 12017-10-02
- Three times as good as a Gala is the bare minimum I will accept given all this Honeycrisp buildup. - Ravil 00:43:26 12017-10-03
  - I respect Ravil AND Mana so much, conflicting apple preferences might personally destroy me. Exciting! [NT] - Paradox 11:37:07 12017-10-03
- See my followup! The second honeycrisp I tried was way better and I think a gala apple might have got into the bag and messed up my first taste test! [NT] - Vektor 23:49:16 12017-10-02
  - Ah - I had misread the follow-up to imply that you had *thought* you preferred Honeycrisp but in reality accidentally had a Gala. All is forgiven. [NT] - Mana 23:50:46 12017-10-02
Ugh, so Star Trek Discover airs a day late in Canada. Seriously CBS, you're not going to convince me to move to the US and subscribe to your service. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 20:55:58 12017-10-01
- Jesus, are they really going to make me wait 'til 8:30? I'm sorry CBS. I'm sorry for whatever I did to you. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 19:49:50 12017-10-02
[STORY] [CDE] The Wreck of the Bloody Red Ledger - The V Man 15:11:23 12017-10-01
- This guy honeycrisps. [NT] - Sassypants McJerkface 18:11:50 12017-10-03
- *snaps fingers* [NT] - Paradox 21:42:23 12017-10-01
- *removes cap* *bows head* [NT] - Tssha 19:30:10 12017-10-01
- This is excellent! I heartily endorse this product and/or service! - Captain Hat(entee) 15:31:09 12017-10-01
[CDE] A Proposal - Captain Hat 12:20:17 12017-10-01
- Sounds like a good idea. [NT] - Legacy 18:52:13 12017-10-01
- This seems like a good scheme. I think the CDE thing ran aground against reality rather than entirely ran out of steam? I have plans to finish the weird epic I started within CDE, but that's going to need to wait until the end of the year when I'm not teaching over the summer for the first time in more than a decade. [NT] - Lothos 17:52:50 12017-10-01
- I'm not entirely clear what this has to do with Honeycrisp apples. - Ravil 17:01:16 12017-10-01
  - Have you not heard the tale of Manny Appleseed? Storming across the countryside, giving Honeycrisp apples to the poor, apple-less children, and stealing Honeycrisp apples from rich Fat Cats? They say he left a trail of Honeycrisp seeds as he walked, and that's where the vast forests of Honeycrisp trees came from. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 07:33:24 12017-10-02
  - Well I'm sure they still exist in the CDE world Ravil- there's infinite possibility in there! - Captain Hat 19:45:05 12017-10-01
    - Now I'm busy composing a CDE parable about Honeycrisps. - Ravil 01:06:17 12017-10-04
- I've been working on tabletop content recently to some modest success within the relevant game's community, so I'm definitely interested. I don't have a copy of Star Thugs though so don't know how adapting CDE to it would work. Happy to write up world-building and classes, though. [NT] - Reecle 13:31:56 12017-10-01
[LINK] Fuck you lothos - Rotten 09:22:24 12017-10-01
- hey it's not my fault some snoopy gits noticed the breadth and splendour of my undersea domain [NT] - Lothos 23:42:30 12017-10-01
  - So where us your secret underwater volcano base with shark infested waters? [NT] - TheDeamon 22:25:05 12017-10-02
    - hypothetically speaking, can you think of a worse idea than telling people on the internet where your secret volcano base was, if you happened to have one? [NT] - Lothos 22:22:34 12017-10-03
      - That's when you give them directions to Vektor's secret underwater volcano base instead. [NT] - TheDeamon 23:36:58 12017-10-04
      - Telling them the password to get in to it. [NT] - Legacy 00:12:05 12017-10-04
        Let's see...it's P...A... [NT] - Tssha 16:33:12 12017-10-06
        Well, 12345 seemed to work fine for me on the secret underwater volcano base I happened across. [NT] - TheDeamon 18:33:40 12017-10-12
People have seen that Amazon is working up TV pilots for series adapted from Ringworld, Lazarus and Snow Crash, right? [NT] - Lothos 00:49:56 12017-10-01
- NIVEN HAS BEEN UNLEASHED!!! Pack up our planets into a Klemperer rosette and accelerate them away from the galactic core, only way we'll be safe [NT] - Dorg 12:31:57 12017-10-01
- I'm sure they won't be available in Canada. [NT] - Vektor 02:47:09 12017-10-01
  - Nah, we finally got Amazon Prime Video this year. Previously we were paying the same as the US Prime for literally nothing. [NT] - Psycho Sam! 12:59:42 12017-10-01
  - torrents are available everywhere also move to NZ we have uncapped broadband options [NT] - Lothos 05:01:44 12017-10-01
    - We have uncapped broadband in Canada too, but we also have decent pings to go with it. [NT] - Fron 13:11:44 12017-10-01
      - ah. I remember someone complaining about mandatory caps, but perhaps it was regional or I'm misremembering. In any case YOU'RE MEAN FRON STOP BEING MEAN [NT] - Lothos 18:22:46 12017-10-01
        That may have been me. My parents persist in using Rogers despite there being other options. And Rogers is notorious for being money grubbing. - Tssha 19:26:58 12017-10-01
        The independent ISPs started offering affordable no-cap options a couple years ago. The caps were so large as to be irrelevant for several years before that. - Fron 18:59:29 12017-10-01
        I love the independent ISPs we deal with at our rural observatory sites. One ran 250/20 fibre (all the way to the building) to our in-the-middle-of-nowhere farmland, ON site. The other is building us a custom package on rural RF internet to support our data upload needs. Both are unlimited. [NT] - Vektor 19:49:23 12017-10-01
        They do SOUND loveable. [NT] - Lothos 23:09:21 12017-10-01
        They've been really good about accommodating our weird requests. [NT] - Vektor 02:41:03 12017-10-02
        "This cable isn't really designed to go up in there, but you are a paying customer." [NT] - Paradox 10:21:58 12017-10-02
        And now I have all kinds of weird and perverse ideas about where "there" is. Thanks CWAL! [NT] - Tssha 18:41:32 12017-10-02
        I mean. What you're thinking probably isn't THAT perverse. I've seen things. [NT] - Vektor 01:13:28 12017-10-03
        Interesting. We jumped from 90gig caps being the maximum straight to unlimited which was... a change. [NT] - Lothos 19:02:27 12017-10-01
    - You move to Canada first, then we'll talk! [NT] - Sassypants McJerkface 07:22:21 12017-10-01
      - I've been pushing the DISPENSE JOB button and it's... just... not... happening... yet! [NT] - Lothos 18:22:03 12017-10-01
        You should come work at my company! Do you have, uh, 2 or more years experience with agile development methodologies and a computer science degree or equivalent? [NT] - Fron 20:19:26 12017-10-01
        no, but I have a great deal of experience in pretending I understand long words, so i might be in with a shot! [NT] - Lothos 20:22:44 12017-10-01
        (seriously I hear people talk about agile things and it skids off my brain. I'm sure it makes sense, it's just not a parlance [language?] I'm familiar with in any way. YET.) [NT] - Lothos 16:43:58 12017-10-02
        If you read Charles Stross (and why wouldn't you), the depiction of it in The Rhesus Chart was very true-to-life, if not so much in the actual subject matter. [NT] - Fron 19:06:15 12017-10-02
        Interesting! That was a good book, but it's another scenario where I can say, "I read about it... but functionally I didn't understand it." It seemed to boil down to "these people have a lot of crunch time while using 'agile' as their word of the week." Even at the time, I was reasonably sure there were depths I wasn't grokking. [NT] - Lothos 23:57:55 12017-10-02
        If I had to guess I'd say it's a framework for prioritising what shit gets done during sequential phases of crunch time? [NT] - Lothos 23:58:30 12017-10-02
        It's not worth trying to explain in RR posts because also I don't fully understand it because process stuff isn't interesting to me, but it's basically just a way of planning work. You're supposed to avoid crunch. [NT] - Fron 19:17:17 12017-10-04
        Hunh, now that interests me, partly because crunch is terrible and needs to be expunged. [NT] - Lothos 22:48:25 12017-10-07
        Hey Fron, I have 12 years of relevant experience, is it OK if Lothos and I set up a deal where he wears a live-streaming camera and microphone with a two way link to me, and I act as a sort of "Engineer de Bergerac"? [NT] - Dorg 19:37:53 12017-10-05
        I think that's so far over the Terrible Idea horizon that it would be utterly hilarious. Also I refuse. Probably. [NT] - Lothos 22:49:30 12017-10-07