I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's the 'stay and gloat' that gets me every time.

Ethan Rayne ,'Potential'


Spike's Bitches 27: I'm Embarrassed for Our Kind.  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risque (and frisque), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Topic!Cindy - Dec 12, 2005 4:10:00 am PST #9280 of 10003
What is even happening?

Woo! So I went out to walk the dog this morning in my boxers and tank top. Surprise! It's only 55 out with a high of only 72 predicted. That's what I'm talkin' about! The cold snap will be over by Wednesday, but every little bit helps.

That is pretty much my favorite temperature range. I'll be right over, Laura.

Poor Andi. I have no idea what to do. I'd try the shaking it out. I'd maybe run another rinse cycle before I then tried the no-heat drying, and then I'd wash it again. You're not gross; you're forgetful. Whole different vibe.


brenda m - Dec 12, 2005 4:13:20 am PST #9281 of 10003
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

The cold snap will be over by Wednesday, but every little bit helps.

If that's the case, you want some of our zero degrees?


Emily - Dec 12, 2005 4:13:38 am PST #9282 of 10003
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola

I have no idea what "absorbent gel stuff" is. Nevertheless, I feel for you, Andi.

I love my dead gay mathematician!

Seriously, though, as intimidating as I find the "On Computable Numbers" stuff (which is what my paper is nominally about), I was totally charmed by the original "Turing test" article here.

(2) The 'Heads in the Sand' Objection "The consequences of machines thinking would be too dreadful. Let us hope and believe that they cannot do so."

This argument is seldom expressed quite so openly as in the form above. But it affects most of us who think about it at all. We like to believe that Man is in some subtle way superior to the rest of creation. It is best if be can be shown to be necessarily superior, for then there is no danger of him losing his commanding position. The popularity of the theological argument is clearly connected with this feeling. It is likely to be quite strong in intellectual people, since they value the power of thinking more highly than others, and are more inclined to base their belief in the superiority of Man on this power.

I do not think that this argument is sufficiently substantial to require refutation. Consolation would be more appropriate: perhaps this should be sought in the transmigration of souls.


brenda m - Dec 12, 2005 4:14:57 am PST #9283 of 10003
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

Okay, now I'm kind of charmed.


amych - Dec 12, 2005 4:16:21 am PST #9284 of 10003
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

I love my dead gay mathematician!

Hands off my dead gay secret celebrity geek boyfriend!


Laura - Dec 12, 2005 4:16:47 am PST #9285 of 10003
Our wings are not tired.

Cindy visitage. Shiny!

Poor Andi. We could play a round of gross mess stories if ya wanna. I got plenty!

My MIL does laundry every time she comes to my house if I haven't managed to get it all hidden before she gets here. She turns everything inside out which makes me nuts. So I finally asked her why she does this and she tells me it is in case a tissue gets left in a pocket. That way all the stuff doesn't get covered with tissue fuzz. So why doesn't she just check the pockets? Wouldn't that take less time than turning everything inside out only to right it again after drying? She has no answer for that. Hrmph.


Emily - Dec 12, 2005 4:17:24 am PST #9286 of 10003
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola

Oh, oh! And also (since I'm worried I may have to edit this quote out of my paper, I want to share it with somebody) from a different paper:

It would be quite possible to arrange to control a distant computer by means of a telephone line.... The [programmers] are liable to get replaced because as soon as any technique becomes at all stereotyped it becomes possible to devise a system of instruction tables which will enable the electronic computer to do it for itself. It may happen however that the [programmers] will refuse to do this. They may be unwilling to let their jobs be stolen from them in this way. In that case they would surround the whole of their work with mystery and make excuses, couched in well chosen gibberish, whenever any dangerous suggestions were made.

(1948-ish, by the way)


Emily - Dec 12, 2005 4:18:46 am PST #9287 of 10003
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola

Hands off my dead gay secret celebrity geek boyfriend!

No! Mine!

...unless you have a simple and quick writeup of the halting problem and its application to the Entscheidungsproblem, preferably with quotes, so I didn't have to do it myself. Then we might be able to negotiate.


WindSparrow - Dec 12, 2005 4:22:17 am PST #9288 of 10003
Love is stronger than death and harder than sorrow. Those who practice it are fierce like the light of stars traveling eons to pierce the night.

Brilliance, Raq, brilliance! The stuff is collecting all around the door, for easy wiping off. It's not going into the lint trap, but that's probably because the bits are too big. Running the dryer again on no heat, as there are more bits that need be gotten off.


Nora Deirdre - Dec 12, 2005 4:28:09 am PST #9289 of 10003
I’m responsible for my own happiness? I can’t even be responsible for my own breakfast! (Bojack Horseman)

I love Alan Turing. I was reading a history of coding when I first heard of him and literally cried on the T when reading about how his brilliant life ended. Wow, sexy brains on that one.