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[chat] of the [chat]

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Posts

  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    Goddamn mobile autocorrect makes me type like in a parodic accent. "It is effektive, ja?"

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  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Upgrading to Ruby 2.1.3

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  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    I really hope the Ironborn stuff isn't cut completely from Game of Thrones now

    It's probably my favourite part of the book-story

  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Some days I would like to get hold of everyone in the world who thinks private companies are naturally more efficient and better for the customer and burn down everything they love.

    We need the Vetinari approach where the head of such groups implicated in foul play are subject to very unpleasant stuff.

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  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    The first leader bright enough to suggest "donating" his fortune to the government was Lee Byung-chul, who you might know as the founder of Samsung.

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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    Pony has added an invaluable tool to my reaction repertoire!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUpQF7awoko

  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Abdhyius wrote: »
    Competition creates efficiency - private sector doesn't guarantee effektive competition

    Efficiency, but not for the customer. Lowest bidders with shit service win business so the bottom line of the company doing the hiring is better. Customer loses out, cunts win.

    Capitalism!

    There's numerous things that can muck up the competition, skewing it so the result is undesirable, outside of market failure

    Things being made by the lowest bidder doesn't mean that you'll get the shittiest unless there's something fucking it up

    which there usually is


    fakedit: haha jesus jailed again for image violations. I swear I'm not even doing it on purpose it just happens. I guess restricting my foruming a bit now right before exams can really only be a good thing.

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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    Bogart wrote: »
    Some days I would like to get hold of everyone in the world who thinks private companies are naturally more efficient and better for the customer and burn down everything they love.

    We need the Vetinari approach where the head of such groups implicated in foul play are subject to very unpleasant stuff.

    XC7CGgi.png

    This sounds like kind of a good idea? But I'm not sure if I've thought through the implications enough.

  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    edited November 2014
    ronya wrote: »
    Bogart wrote: »
    Some days I would like to get hold of everyone in the world who thinks private companies are naturally more efficient and better for the customer and burn down everything they love.

    We need the Vetinari approach where the head of such groups implicated in foul play are subject to very unpleasant stuff.

    XC7CGgi.png

    This sounds like kind of a good idea? But I'm not sure if I've thought through the implications enough.

    Well - remember Vetinari's "clerks"?

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    I mean, it is worth acknowledging that South Korea became very, very rich and non-dysfunctional, but it is also decidedly the case that being led by Vetinaris is not necessarily a fun prospect

    ronya on
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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    Ah, I was approaching from the "how could a corporation abuse this" angle, forgetting that hey, governments can abuse it too!

  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    edited November 2014
    Ankh-Morpork has an actual secret police that actually disappears people, it's in the text, it's the fate of Reacher Gilt in Going Postal - who as a plot point has not been proven to be guilty in any court.

    ronya on
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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    No plan form of government survives contact with the enemy people.

  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    ronya wrote: »
    The first leader bright enough to suggest "donating" his fortune to the government was Lee Byung-chul, who you might know as the founder of Samsung.

    Smart man. That kind of thinking is what keeps Vetinaris from dangling you over the scorpion pit.


    I like today. Last vestiges of my cold has finally lost their grip, I'm not bored by everything today (by which I mean the depression kind of bored where hardly anything holds any interest) I've had six cups of free coffee and I'm dancing while cleaning my apartment

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9EYSpzlTg
    (to this tune)

    and my best friend sent me a snap that's just him smiling saying "six good days in a row" which is fantastic news because he's been really down in the dumps over his breakup with his girlfriend

    today's a good day

    Abdhyius on
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  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    oh abdh. you are a treasure. a 501kb treasure, but still.

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  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    Pratchett's alzheimer's is really too bad because I'm sure he could've written an awesome novel around Ankh-Morporkh democratizing under the vast cast of social actors he's concocted

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  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    badababaa ba bada-daba ba bada-dab ba bada-dab
    badababaa ba bada-"more coffee"-bada-dab ba badadabaa


    Abdhyius on
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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    Ankh-Morpork has an actual secret police that actually disappears people, it's in the text, it's the fate of Reacher Gilt in Going Postal - who as a plot point has not been proven to be guilty in any court.

    Reacher made that choice to be disappeared. He was given the same choice that Moist was at the start of the book.

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    Ankh-Morpork has an actual secret police that actually disappears people, it's in the text, it's the fate of Reacher Gilt in Going Postal - who as a plot point has not been proven to be guilty in any court.

    Reacher made that choice to be disappeared. He was given the same choice that Moist was at the start of the book.

    Moist had been arrested and tried, Vetinari merely diverted his execution. Reacher was not arrested or tried, he was just grabbed off the street by a golem.

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  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    Pratchett's alzheimer's is tragic in no small part due to how good the man is at writing about it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1070673/Terry-Pratchett-Im-slipping-away-bit-time--I-watch-happen.html

    Also for tangential reasons, pratchett on cats:
    Consider the situation. There you are, forehead like a set of balconies, worrying about the long-term effects of all this new 'fire' stuff on the environment, you're being chased and eaten by most of the planet's large animals, and suddenly tiny versions of one of the worst of them wanders into the cave and starts to purr.

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  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
    "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
    "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
    "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
    "I did," said Ford. "It is."
    "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
    "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
    "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
    "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
    "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
    "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
    "What?"
    "I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
    "I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
    Ford shrugged again.
    "Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
    "But that's terrible," said Arthur.
    "Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”

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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    ronya wrote: »
    Ankh-Morpork has an actual secret police that actually disappears people, it's in the text, it's the fate of Reacher Gilt in Going Postal - who as a plot point has not been proven to be guilty in any court.

    Reacher made that choice to be disappeared. He was given the same choice that Moist was at the start of the book.

    Moist had been arrested and tried, Vetinari merely diverted his execution. Reacher was not arrested or tried, he was just grabbed off the street by a golem.

    Is it conceivable that as a result of the uncovering of his shenanigans, he was found guilty in absentia? Or am I forgetting a conversation towards the end of the book where Vetinari tells Moist that it was all legal?

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    ronya wrote: »
    ronya wrote: »
    Ankh-Morpork has an actual secret police that actually disappears people, it's in the text, it's the fate of Reacher Gilt in Going Postal - who as a plot point has not been proven to be guilty in any court.

    Reacher made that choice to be disappeared. He was given the same choice that Moist was at the start of the book.

    Moist had been arrested and tried, Vetinari merely diverted his execution. Reacher was not arrested or tried, he was just grabbed off the street by a golem.

    Is it conceivable that as a result of the uncovering of his shenanigans, he was found guilty in absentia? Or am I forgetting a conversation towards the end of the book where Vetinari tells Moist that it was all legal?

    Vetinari invokes what appear to be latent legal powers as tyrant in order to detain the rest of the directors and nationalize the Grand Trunk

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  • surrealitychecksurrealitycheck lonely, but not unloved dreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered User regular
    @spacekungfuman I JUST WON £25 ON MY PREMIUM BONDS

    BIG

    MONEY

    INVEST0RZZZZ

    also @Abdhyius‌

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  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    if you're a tyrant you'll find that it's easier to get things done without much fuss if you simply make your tyranny the law

    Abdhyius on
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  • bloodyroarxxbloodyroarxx Casa GrandeRegistered User regular
    fuck these people and their EA Access Dragon Age

    Ill make my own EA Access with blackjack and hookers!

  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    edited November 2014
    “However,” Vetinari went on, “since the question of wrongdoing had been raised by Mr. Horsefry,” and he gave the young man a brief smile, “I am sure you are aware of talk suggesting a conspiracy among yourselves to keep rates high and competition nonexistent.” The sentence came out fast and smooth, like a snake’s tongue, and the swift flick on the end of it was: “And, indeed, some rumors about the death of young Mr. Dearheart last month.”

    A stir among the semicircle of men said that the shoe had been dropped. It wasn’t a welcome shoe, but it was a shoe they had been expecting and it had just gone thud.

    “An actionable falsehood,” said Slant.

    “On the contrary, Mr. Slant,” said Vetinari, “merely mentioning to you the existence of a rumor is not actionable, as I am sure you are aware.”

    “There is no proof that we had anything to do with the boy’s murder,” snapped Horsefry.

    “Ah, so you too have heard people saying he was murdered?” said Vetinari, his eyes on Reacher Gilt’s face. “These rumors just fly around, don’t they…”

    “My lord, people talk,” said Slant wearily. “But the facts are that Mr. Dearheart was alone in the tower. No one else went up or down. His safety line was apparently not clipped to anything. It was an accident, such as happens often. Yes, we know people say his fingers were broken, but with a fall of that distance, hitting the tower on the way, can that really be surprising? Alas, the Grand Trunk Company is not popular at the moment and so these scurrilous and baseless accusations are made. As Mr. Horsefry pointed out, there is no evidence whatsoever that what happened was anything more than a tragic accident. And, if I may speak frankly, what exactly is the purpose of calling us here? My clients are busy men.”

    Vetinari leaned back, closed his eyes, and placed his fingers together.

    “Let us consider a situation in which some keen and highly inventive men devise a remarkable system of communication,” he said. “What they have is a kind of passionate ingenuity, in large amounts. What they don’t have is money. They are not used to money. So they meet some…people, who introduce them to other people, friendly people, who for, oh, a forty-percent stake in the enterprise give them the much-needed cash and, very important, much fatherly advice and an introduction to a really good firm of accountants. And so they proceed, and soon money is coming in and money is going out but somehow, they learn, they’re not quite as financially stable as they think, and really do need more money. Well, this is all fine, because it’s clear to all that the basic enterprise is going to be a money tree one day, and does it matter if they sign over another fifteen percent? It’s just money. It’s not important in the way that shutter mechanisms are, is it? And then they find out that yes, it is. It is everything. Suddenly the world’s turned upside down, suddenly those nice people aren’t so friendly anymore, suddenly it turns out that those bits of paper they signed in a hurry—were advised to sign by people who smiled all the time—mean that they don’t actually own anything at all, not patents, not property, nothing. Not even the contents of their own heads, indeed. Even any ideas they have now don’t belong to them, apparently. And somehow they’re still in trouble about money. Well, some run and some hide and some try to fight, which is foolish in the extreme, because it turns out that everything is legal, it really is. Some accept low-level jobs in the enterprise, because one has to live and in any case the enterprise even owns their dreams at night. And yet actual illegality, it would appear, has not taken place. Business is business.”

    Lord Vetinari opened his eyes. The men around the table were staring at him.

    “Just thinking aloud,” he said. “I am sure you will point out that this is not the business of the government. I know Mr. Gilt will. However, I note that since you acquired the Grand Trunk at a fraction of its value, breakdowns are increasing, the speed of messages has slowed down, and the cost to customers has risen. Last week the Grand Trunk was closed for almost three days. We could not even talk to Sto Lat! Hardly ‘As Fast as Light,’ gentlemen.”

    “That was for essential maintenance,” Mr. Slant began.

    “No, it was for repairs,” snapped Vetinari. “Under the previous management the system shut down for an hour every day. That was for maintenance. Now the towers run until they break down. What do you think you are doing, gentlemen?”

    “That, my lord, and with respect, is none of your business.” Lord Vetinari smiled. For the first time that morning, it was a smile of genuine pleasure. “Ah, Mr. Reacher Gilt, I was wondering when we’d hear from you. You have been so uncharacteristically silent. I read your recent article in the Times with great interest. You are passionate about freedom, I gather. You used the word ‘tyranny’ three times and the word ‘tyrant’ once.”

    “Don’t patronize me, my lord,” said Gilt. “We own the Trunk. It is our property. You understand that? Property is the foundation of freedom. Oh, customers complain about the service and the cost, but customers always complain about such things. We have no shortage of customers at whatever cost. Before the semaphore, news from Genua took months to get here, now it takes less than a day. It is affordable magic. We are answerable to our shareholders, my lord. Not, with respect, to you. It is not your business. It is our business, and we will run it according to the market. I hope there are no tyrannies here. This is, with respect, a free city.”

    the combination laid out in the later Ankh Morpork books - of a dictator with a secret police who, correspondingly, appears to be bound by legal threats from a lawyer - is not actually something which is novel to recent world history

    ronya on
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  • kedinikkedinik Captain of Industry Registered User regular
    I ought to read some Discworld books.

    I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
  • HaphazardHaphazard Registered User regular
    'allo, 'allo!

  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    kedinik wrote: »
    I ought to read some Discworld books.

    I nominate Wyrd Sisters because it is my favourite.

    Or just follow this chart and pick one of the paths (big)
    terry-pratchetts-discworld-reading-order-guide-en.jpeg

    RMS Oceanic on
  • HerrCronHerrCron It that wickedly supports taxation Registered User regular
    kedinik wrote: »
    I ought to read some Discworld books.

    Just read one for each of the main groups of characters, so one Rincewind book, one about the city watch, one about the Witches and one about Death.

    Congratulations! You've now read all the Discworld books,

    sig.gif
  • cB557cB557 voOOP Registered User regular
    kedinik wrote: »
    I ought to read some Discworld books.

    I nominate Wyrd Sisters because it is my favourite.

    Or just follow this chart and pick one of the paths (big)
    Discworld-Reading-Order-discworld-22614060-1280-960.gif
    Image is broken.

  • ronyaronya Arrrrrf. the ivory tower's basementRegistered User regular
    I felt like Unseen Academicals and Making Money were both worse than Going Postal, though. hmm

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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Unseen Academicals had some good stuff if you like football, and Nutt was an interesting character. Making Money had good bits, but Going Postal made me feel feelings at the end, so it's a hard one to beat.

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    There, got Vagrant up and running. That was pretty painless.

  • SparvySparvy Registered User regular
    It has been a pretty steady decline since Going Postal unfortunately, Making Money was still good though.

    But I don't think I'll buy any new books at this point, I'm fine rereading old ones every once in a while.

  • AbdhyiusAbdhyius Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    “We have your satellite if you want it back send 20 billion in Martian money. No funny business or you will never see it again”
    -Reportedly written on a wall in a hall at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, California, after losing contact with the Mars Polar Lander in December 1999

    EDIT: I liked the Tiffany Aching books.

    Abdhyius on
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  • BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    I enjoyed Snuff, but it lacked the brevity of wit that many of the early books had.

    Honestly though, I can't really think of a DW book that I'd consider bad though.

    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Argh, people talking about the animes here.

  • PLAPLA The process.Registered User regular
    Automata Silverside is pretty good.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Well, now I know everything that happens in Naruto.

This discussion has been closed.