Deskthority Secret Santa 2015

[7bit]

user shrubbry not found!!!
user Redmaus not found!!!
address for sethk not found!!!


Should we leave these out?

[Muirium]

I think we should leave you out of the driving seat! Seriously, would everyone be cooler if I dealt with this instead? I know how to write PMs and randomise a list without any wretched math involved!

If Matteo wants to take over, or Compgeke again, I support that too!

[guk]

At least Redmaus visits DT frequently, don't know about the other two but imho you should give them at least until tomorrow since your capable but complicated way of organizing took some time as well.

[seebart]

I think we should leave you out of the driving seat! Seriously, would everyone be cooler if I dealt with this instead? I know how to write PMs and randomise a list without any wretched math involved!

If Matteo wants to take over, or Compgeke again, I support that too!

As long as all of you sort it out before Christmas!

[Muirium]

"Capable", I like that!

[seebart]

The variable permutations had to be assembled first guk.

[7bit]

All I need is 3 addresses. I've found some from Round 5, but these 3 guys still need to tell the bot their address, or otherwise they can't get any Santa gift:

shrubbry, Redmaus and sethk.

[Muirium]

Are you sure these are up to date addresses? We don't want presents to go missing…

There is a technology you could use to sort everything out. It's called writing to people and getting direct answers. No script can beat that.

[kbdfr]

7bit programming his bot:

[Muirium]

Unseen: monkey pulling names out of a hat, over off the right.

[shrubbry]

Looks like someone forgot I PM'ed him right at the beginning of the thread...

Anyway, PM sent again. And magic number: 588. (Also, are we splitting cycles into separate Europe/CONUS?)

[Muirium]

No. Everyone bitched and whined about it. It's global. Where were you to back me up when I needed you?

[XMIT]

I imagine 7bot is programmed in APL. kbdfr's image looks like what I imagine APL source does. I bet that's a full OS kernel or something.

Mailing address sent to CherryMX. It's the same address as my Round 5a order.

If you want a random number here is one: 6591981.

It is decidedly not random. Bonus points if you figure out what it means.

[Madhias]

Code: Select all

echo $(($RANDOM %99999))

31282

[7bit]

I imagine 7bot is programmed in APL. kbdfr's image looks like what I imagine APL source does. I bet that's a full OS kernel or something.

Mailing address sent to CherryMX. It's the same address as my Round 5a order.

If you want a random number here is one: 6591981.

It is decidedly not random. Bonus points if you figure out what it means.

Nooo!!!!


APL, Fortran, Cobol, SGML and SQL, are all shit!


IBM never understood software, they are a hardware manufacturer and made great keyboards!


I still wait for Redmaus to send me (or the bot) his address. Then, the Secret Santa madness can start.

[XMIT]

Redmaus is in school! You'll probably get a response in about 4 hours. Shoot him a PM if you have not done so already.

[shrubbry]

No. Everyone bitched and whined about it. It's global. Where were you to back me up when I needed you?

That's what happens when I step away from activities that cost me money to actually earn some money - everything goes to poop.

Anyway, why do you care? Don't you have that whole intercontinental trip going on? (And does that mean if I have a Euro person, I can send it c/o your hotel room? )

[Muirium]

Yes, I'm flying over.

No, you'll miss Christmas. I ain't staying in a hotel, I'm with family. Won't be back in Europe until February!

[webwit]

The "Scottish people". Either they are voting to be English, or they elect to be American. What remains flies over during winter.

[Muirium]

As an avian, you know how fraudulent the very concept of nations becomes, the moment you're a certain height in the sky…

Incidentally, the independence thing isn't over yet. The SNP's polling over 50% for the Scottish Parliament election in spring. In a nation with 6 mainstream parties! And that Brexit referendum is looming on the horizon. We might end up with the English voting for independence, while we remain in Europe for ourselves.

But yeah, for the moment it's cold, dark, dank and I'm California Dreaming…

[webwit]

We currently have our own identity problems.

Don't get me started about the cesspool that is the Zwarte Piet Discussion.

[Muirium]

Had to Duck that. (Yes, I may be the only person on the internet who uses DuckDuckGo instead of Google *and* doesn't just still say "Google" anyway.) Looks like you guys have your own Black & White Minstrel Show! My mum still insists that wasn't racist. No, white guys in blackface has nothing at all to do with race…

[webwit]

Zwarte Piet is an extremely racist caricature. Just like Vikings with horned helmets are. This makes it complicated, especially since both are heroes (or badass may be the better wording for the Vikings) in their ancient folklore caricature. Enter cesspool racism vs innocent folklore.

[mr_a500]

What? Vikings with horned helmets is racist? When did that happen?

I'm still shocked and annoyed that the word "oriental" has suddenly become racist.

[webwit]

What's the currently correct denomination? And please don't call me an avian.

[Muirium]

An Asian avian, ya quacker.

[webwit]

I always have the upper hand when it comes to racism. My grand-grand-...-grandfather was a serf in the Habsburg Empire, before he fled to the Netherlands to become a circus artist where he pulled heavy objects or animals with his teeth. True story. I'm from a slave background. Does very well at parties. Still awaiting my financial reimbursement.

[mr_a500]

What a coincidence... my great great grand grandfather was a Habsburg royal who liked to slap serfs around.

[Muirium]

And yet the family wound up in Novum Scotorum, eh? Whatever went wrong…

The Scots side of my family were all miners. Yes, just like dwarves in Lord of the Rings, only bigger, boozier, and more foul mouthed. Especially about Catholics. Could really beat the shit out of anything with a hammer though.

The English side were proles with pretensions. Lumpen, as Marx rightly called them. They aspired to have underlings they could abuse, but never quite got around to it,

The lot of them were as racist as a gunstore clerk in Mississippi, of course. But all the equality propaganda on television seems to have taken the edge off the generations who were around to see it.

[webwit]

You better be careful with mr_a500, considering the photos of his mission control centre he's frequently posting.

@mr_a500 So you owe me. I'll take one beamspring keyboard.