Posts by EnderX

Um.. I do not think so, I think it just assigns the value.

I'm fairly sure from most of what I've been reading recently on programming that the expression is calculated, then if it doesn't result in a 0, it's treated as a true statement. (In C, at least; you may be correct for other languages.)

If I am incorrect on this, please point me to the appropriate documentation so that I might learn more.

If you wish to attempt to disprove, then you may choose to do so. I would recommend the following as starting places:

Icons of Evolution, by Jonathan Wells. (Might be Jonathon Wells; can't remember for certain)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, by Tom Bethell.

Have fun.

Nah, he's just autosetting the stuff to bebo. Isn't that what happens if you use an assignment in place of an equality check? The program automatically assumes (I know, anthropomorphizing) that it's a true statement?

The blackness isn't blackness, is it? I'd always understood it to be true space, a physical area with no intervening objects. Admittedly, most of what might be there doesn't hit blackbody or higher, so we don't see it, but it's supposed to be just empty, isn't it? Truly empty, or as close as the background radiation will let it become?

haha.. I see no evidence in either of your posts.. no links to data whatsoever.. There is tons of evidence for evolution, and I suggest you search for it instead of some christian site proclaiming bogus information relating to evolution and science alike. Evidence seems to be against you..

How about I toss out a couple of book titles at you instead? They'll have the information footnoted (or endnoted, or whatever) and you can look it up at your leisure. Sound fair?

Personally, I am supportive of declaring the U.S. official language as English, because it is the language that the majority of the population speaks. I think we should not post anything (signs, t.v. commercials, etc.) in any language except for English... since this is America, and the least you can do is learn to speak our language

Agreed.

As for helping the millions of illegal immigrants gain citizenship, I am strongly against.. Every single American has had relatives that immigrated to the United States (for the most part), and all of our ancestors had to go through rigorous tests and many years of citizenship classes before they actually gained their citizenship.. So, what the hell is the difference now?

A vast potential Hispanic vote.

Also, how much trouble would it be to add an 'undecided/unsure' option to your poll? I'm in favor of part of the bill, but not all of it, and I am a non-apathetic American citizen...none of the current options are suitable for me, really.

Ok, firs of all, evolution takes a long time.. Evolution is a theory, yes. But It has pretty much been proven, and the entire science community would tell you that they agree with evolution. Every single test ever performed that tested evolution has resulted in the theory being upheld. Face the facts, evolution is true.. so stop trying to find some obscure reason to disagree with..

If it takes so long for it to happen, then how can it be rigorously tested?

Not to mention the fact that the main reason most of the scientific community would tell you they agree with evolution is because, in America at least, you tend to lose your funding if you don't agree.

Human and primeape dna is something like 98% similar.. They are very similar to us, and sometimes can look a lot like us.

Okay, several things with that:

1. 'Primeape' is the name of a creature in the pokemon games; unless you're indicating that you are, in fact, an Artificial Intelligence capable of passing the Turing test, I doubt you have much dna in common with them. I'm assuming here that you meant 'primate', although the number you cited is more commonly used specifically to reference chimpanzees, if I recall correctly.

2. Even so, so what? I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that humans and dandelions share about 68% of their dna. For a dna strand of any given length, considering that there are only four nucleotides to …

I heard from a teacher once that the southern accent was actually proven to be the closest in relation to the way that the original settlers sounded like when they first came to America. (And since this is the "We need to laugh" thread) it must be because they were the slowest to advance. Har har. Lol.

Nah, it's just because the South is the real guardian of tradition.

Remind me to always roll a bowling ball in front of me next time I go walking in the forest.

Then what would you call evolution? Satan's plan to deceive you? lol...

An inaccurate attempt to explain the creation of various forms of life without having to require the intervention of a creator.

Evolution requires that random chance be capable of producing nonrandom results. Well, theoretically, I suppose that's possible, but it'd take more time than even the multi-billion year presumed life of the universe. (Note: I say presumed only because it's not something I've been around for the full length of...make of that what you will.)

On the actual evidence, evolution falls down.

Miller-Urey experiment: False idea of original atmosphere, incomplete and inaccurate list of reduction byproducts even within said atmosphere.

Modified Miller-Urey: Accurate atmosphere tends to generate substances bearing more resemblance to Formaldehyde than to any normal biological substance.

Darwinian Evolutionary Tree: Uprooted by Cambrian Explosion.

Fun with Fruit Flies: Best 'mutation' recorded in labs appears to produce flies with extra wings; said mutation is actually three separate mutations which must be carefully maintained within the lab, and the 'extra' wings replace useful organs called halteres with nonfunctioning pseudowings.

English Speckled Moth test: No new species were created; both subsets of moth (normal and melanic) existed beforehand and afterwards; supposed tests of bird-sighting ability against light/dark bark worthless, as the moths' natural resting spot is the underside of branches, not the trunk. Many of the photos of this shown in textbooks are in fact faked, with biologists afixing dead moths to …

One of the things we lost when Middle English transformed into the modern version of the tounge. Thee, Thou, Thy, etc...all were second person singular. Ye, You, etc...all were second person plural. As far as I know, the only dialect that still retains that divide is the American Southern dialect. Do y'all get what I mean?

Another little touch from Shogi: Captured pieces are truly 'caputured'; that is, when a player captures a piece, it becomes one of his own. The pieces are tiles, designed with a specific front and back to allow for this. (Top and Bottom are also used to mark promotions. As I said, almost everything gets to promote.)

Yeah, I'm fairly sure that was it. I still find some old jokes along those lines.

"I hear your daughter is off at college."
"Yep, she's learning a bunch of languages this semester."
"Which ones?"
"Hmm...I think it's French, German, and Esperanto."
"Your daughter's learning Esperanto?"
"Yep, and she's doing well. She can already speak it like a native."

A Japanese wargame similar to chess. It can get quite complicated, however. For example, almost every piece can be promoted, not just the pawn-analogues. I think my favorite from that list was that you can promote your 'Drunken Elephant' to a 'Crown Prince', sort of a spare king (or emperor in some versions, I believe).

I don't think I'm good enough at the normal version...that's kind of why I like the exotics. And, of course, I'd also like to learn how to play Shogi.

The basic rules of chess are laid out in the normal game; most exotic variants create and use extra pieces, although there are a few that use normal pieces on a modified board layout. From what I've seen, most exotic piece variants also use an enlarged board just to fit everything on it.

Examples of a few exotic pieces:

Champion: Combines the move type of a knight with that of a rook.

Archbishop: Combines the move type of a knight with that of a bishop.

(Note that these are the logical parallels to the Queen's [Rook+Bishop])

Camel: Moves as a knight, but must move three squares on the longer leg.

Black Hole: A piece not belonging to either player, which must be moved one square after each player's turn, by the player. Any piece on the square it lands on is captured/taken out of play.

Grasshopper: If I recall correctly, moves as a rook, but cannot move unless it can jump something in its path; must come down on the square immediately beyond the one it jumped.

Exotic boards:

Martian board - Just an ordinary 10x10 board, no 'special effects' involved.

Teleportation board-Two boards are laid out side-by-side. One is set up as normal, the other is left blank. After each move on either board, the piece in question is moved to the same square on the other board. Captures can be made as normal, or by landing …

Which chess? Normal, or some of the exotic variants?

I'm not totally certain on this, but to your comments...

1)BSD: Isn't there a specific BSD liscence that Micro$oft would have to adhere to?

2)UNIX: I vaguely recall hearing that Micro$oft tried to support a unix-esque setup some time back...I think the name was Xenix, although I can't recall for certain.

My $0.06 worth:

Antimatter is a known substance. It's the best known opposite to normal matter so far, and some small quantities of it have been developed under careful lab conditions.

'Antimatter' is a generic term for anything made up of the basic 'anti-particles'; subatomic particles with the same mass, but opposite internal charges, as normal matter. The most commonly-heard of antiparticle is the positron, a positively charged particle with the same qualities as an electron. (Except for the charge, of course.)

When a normal electron and a positron come into contact, the two anihilate one another. All that's left is radiant energy and a pair of photons. I haven't read on heavier particle/antiparticle reactions, but I presume something similar would occur with heavy particle reactions. (I'm still trying to figure out what the 'opposite charge' to an electrically neutral particle [neutron] would be. My best guess would be that, since neutrons seem to be proton-electron combinations [see beta decay, for example], the end result is that an antineutron would be a similar combination of antiproton/positron.)

Given that the two substances destroy each other on contact, I'd be quite willing to bet that 'dark' matter isn't antimatter, if only because the universe isn't made up of only one of them.

Also, in a semi-on-topic point, please take a look at this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047871/

@JoshSCH:
Regarding your contention of Christians becoming atheists, please provide some evidence of this. I'd like evidence …

Where do you work and go to school? Unless you go to a private christian school (doubtful, no offense) then it's illegal. And the same is true at your work unless you work at a religious place like a church.

Actually, as I understand it, if the school or workplace as a whole is in agreement with the idea/ideal, then it's government interference with religion (the original reason for the purported 'wall of separation') to say "No, you can't do that."

TOS usually stands for Terms of Service.

Do you know how arrogant, dogmatic, stupid, and misled you sound?

To one who has rejected that which my Lord has offered? I have a few ideas...

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

The Dark Ages are called so because it was a time when the church ruled.

The Catholic institution is not the Church. Catholicism did have great political power in that time, (and still does to a lesser extent even in this day,) but it is a counterfeit of the true Church. It looks close enough to match on the surface, for one who is unfamiliar with the real thing, as a well-made counterfeit bill will look like its legitimate counterpart, but that is all. The Roman Catholic system is basically the ancient Baal worship of Babylon with a nice 'churchy' cloth spread over it to hide the truth. The Catholic institution has always attempted to spread darkness in the guise of light. However, the Church itself has always fought to spread the freedom that comes from knowing God personally.

This Jesus Christ guy does not seem very compassionate. Isn't the devil supposed to do awful things? This Jesus Christ guy seems to be a lot more sadistic, cruel, twisted, insane, and evil things than the devil.

Please give me some examples of what you mean...I do not know of anything such as you describe in the scriptures, unless …

We are all destined for something. Nothing is random. Free will does not exist, only the illusion of it (still thats good enough for me ;-)

Do you actually think I am going to hell because I am an atheist?

I contend that you and I are both atheists. When you understand why you dismiss all other gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

ONLY SHEEP NEED SHEPHERDS.

If free will does not exist, then you cannot posess it. If you do not posess free will, then I submit that your life is pointless.

Yes. If you are an atheist, then you will go to hell, and from there to the lake of fire. There is only one escape from that fate, and that is through the salvation offered by Jesus Christ. Without that, you have no hope.

An atheist is one who believes in no god. ('A', without; 'theos', god or deity.) I do not know for Christina>you, as I do not know her other than by this board, but for myself, I am not an atheist; I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do not believe in other deities because they are false; by your statement, you claim that my Lord is false as well. To me, all that states is that you refuse to test his word, and I sorrow for you over that.

Yes, sheep need shepards. I presume that, from the emphasis you placed on that, you would consider …

Not true. Look at it this way: The reactive force of the kick can be measured by the distance flown and size of crater gouged by the object receiving the kick.

@Mayan Calender:
The date set for the end is Dec. 21, 2012. According to a show I saw about it a few days ago, that date is also supposedly predicted by the I Ching and the prophecies of at least one Merlin.

I'm a bit suspicious about the date, given that it's on a 'famous' day...in this case, the Winter Solstice. Also, I'm suspicious about the chinese variant, given that the actual 'prophecy' was created sometime in the near past, from computer analysis of the original or something; you can, with the right algorithms, get a computer to produce pretty much any output you like, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was done that way on purpose.

The final 'predictor' they listed was some kind of websearch project designed to look for recurring words, phrases, or themes across the 'net; at a guess, it's based on something like the 'collective unconcious' idea, although they didn't actually say that on the show.

@JoshSCH:
A quick analogy I heard to that at one point:
You're watching a football game on television. At the end of the game, one team has won the contest. Your watching the game does not make that team win, does it?

It's similar with God. He is eternal, and omniscient. The two play into each other; He exists beyond the range of time, and can see all of time at once. Just because he sees what happens at some point X in the future, does not mean that he caused the events at point X, any more than your watching the game forced one team to win and the other to lose.

That explanation make any sense?

As for the abondonment of laws, that isn't a good idea. If we were to abondon laws then that would factor into the chemical and physical properties in peoples minds and they would act differently. Your abondonment of laws plays into the system, not as an interference, but as another component. This doesn't mean I don't have free will. If I want to turn a light switch on I will. But there are reasons for it. Maybe it was dark, maybe I was curious as to what it did. These things trigger chemical reactions in my brain eventually leading up to the decision to flip the switch. If laws were abolished, that would register too and I would then not feel the need to restrict myself. Nothing is an interference. Anything that happens is a component as well.

Laws are neither physical nor chemical. In order for them to interfere, you would have to allow for the option of a non-material structure (the idea of a law, in this case) to interfere with the physical and chemical structures in your brain.

And if you make decisions on your own, rather than having the physical/chemical mix force them on you, then you've again proven that something outside the phys/chem mix (your own free will) can override the original reaction sequence. Otherwise, you wouldn't have made the choice; in a rather warped way, it could be said to have made you instead.

Hmm...wasn't there something about a bunch of dead potatoes?

I've been attempting to teach myself some C, as I have been tasked with maintaining a program written for a handheld barcode scanner that appears to be written in this language. (At least, I'm assuming that for the moment, considering the fact one of the first statements I saw when I started skimming the source code was a malloc).

I've decided that for my first test program (to be shifted to the scanner to see if I can get it to work there) should be a four-function calculator. The scanner has a numeric keypad setting, so the numbers and symbols shouldn't be any problem.

My problem here is a bit simpler. So far, the only input reading method I've found in the text I'm using for this is the getchar() function. From what I can see, that doesn't look as though it's going to be able to handle more than one input character at a time; ergo, any mathematical equation involving numbers 10 and up would be (as far as I can see) impossible to directly deal with.

What other methods of input reading (from command line; I'm assuming that's stdin) are there? Is there something designed to read in multiple characters, or do I need to look into developing a read/store loop pattern for my numbers?

All input highly welcomed.

Here's an analogy: If you flip a coin there is a fifty percent chance it will land on heads. This is your free will. You don't know if it will land on heads. But is it really a fifty percent chance? Take into account the force exerted on the coin, the composition of the coin, the altitude and air composition (for air resistance) where it is caught, etc. etc. etc. to every little detail. All of these details may not be able to be documented by a scientist but it is documented in the universe, those details are there and they exist. So after it all, you flip the coin and it lands on heads. All along there was a fifty percent chance it would land on heads with the given factors. And that one hundred percents chance of the coin landing on heads represents the one hundred percent chance of the decision you will make.

Actually, from most coins it's around 45%ish; the head side is usually a bit heavier than the tails side, and gravity does play a role in the interaction.

@Sturm and @JoshSCH:
Check out the site Random.org. Their claim is to draw something truly random out of radio frequency background noise, if I recall correctly. I know it's something like that. At what point is the difference between Chaos and Randomness defined?

(Background level radiation, aka 'static', is a fairly good example of a chaotic system from what I recall.)

How much of the usual indoctrination did they cover?

They weren't Cuban missles. They were Soviet missles being deployed in Cuba. Considering the ties between Castro's Cuba and the USSR, that's not too surprising.

I'm not sure about that particular bill, but it's my understanding that bills in that denomination range do in fact exist. However, they aren't put into circulation; they're supposedly used for transferring funds between banks. Which means that, what with ebanking and the like, and instant access to other banks via the Internet, it's quite possible such denominations will be phased out. (Note: From the word Which on is speculation on my part.)

Edit: Also, please note the 'in gold' reference near the bottom of the bill; might have a point there. As I said, our currency really isn't metal-backed any more.

If pro is the opposite of con, is Congress the opposite of progress?

111111111111111111111111111111111111
(Just a quick one-liner.)

A man opened up his refridgerator one day to see a rabbit lounging against the fridge wall near the ligth bulb.
"What are you doing in here?" The man asked.
The rabbit looked up. "This is a Westinghouse, right? I'm Westing!"

A priest, a doctor, and a lawyer walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says "What is this, some kind of a joke?"

@Hollystyles:
I've messed with VB6 before, at college. Now, I mostly use Delphi. Is there anything VB6 offers that Delphi doesn't? From what little I remember of my VB classes, they're pretty much the same in terms of immediate interface, and I'm finding the Pascal backend programming on Delphi to be easier than the backend programming was on VB6.

Oh, we like change just fine. Problem is, we like bills even more.

I'm attempting to teach myself some C programming, for use on a handheld barcode scanner. I've never worked with C before except for (maybe) 1 semester in college (which might have been C++ instead). I figured I'd try to start with a simple project; write a program to build a simple four-function calculator (+, -, *, /) manipulated by the scanner's keypad. Please note; I'm not asking for help here, only have one simple question to ask.

In an ordinary four-function calculator, are the ( and ) keys available? I've been working with scientifics for so long that I'm not sure what a 'normal' calc would have any more, beyond the numbers and those four functions.

Hmm...If I ever see ~s.o.s~ lurking in a dark alleyway, I think I now know how to ward him away.

Oh, it gets better. Two year college in my case, starting programing language was QuickBasic. Although in fairness, I do think that one got phased out at the end of the year...

Which Superman?

When was the Korean War? I haven't really studied too much about it, although it's my heritage.

If I recall correctly, the Korean War began under President Dwight David Eisenhower. And from what I have been told by others, it's technically still on, as it was indicated that there was never an official treaty to end the war, just a sort of semi-permanent ceasefire. Not completely sure how accurate that informmation is, but I trust the source.

Depends on how the currencying goes. From what I understand, originally our paper money was backed by gold and silver, now it's not. Hence, major inflaltion becomes an option.

What's the metal value of the coins? (Amnt Metal * $/oz) If that's high enough, the coins may be worth more for their metal value than their 'normal' value. They had a similar problem with dimes, quarters, and higher back when those were made out of silver; people would shave the edges off, then use the coin. After a while, the shaved silver was a pile large enough to be worth something in its own right. That's why they started putting ridges around those coins; shaving the ridges would be obvious.

6 or 7; one of those questions I'm not sure what my score should have been.

Had them a few years back. Couldn't stop fidgiting with the rubber bands holding the wire into the metal; probably cost myself a year and my family a small fortune because of that.

Those hybrids are a lie. The CO2 put out generating the power for it is in most cases from coal which is worse than burning gasoline.

Worse in what way? In terms of fuel price? Or in terms of emission value? Given that the topic here is fuel, I'd say that an emissions issue might not be exactly at hand. Unless that's why you brought this up...

I've about given up on my previous problem. I was beginning to think it'll be easier to do simply by dropping the user, then recreating it with the appropriate privileges next time around. Only, when I tried (as the superuser, no less) to drop the problem user, I got the following:

mysql> drop user 'dtuser'@'10.%';
ERROR 1268 (HY000): Can't drop one or more of the requested users

Anyone have any clue a)what the error means beyond the obvious, and b) why I wasn't allowed to drop the user?

Edit: I did make a couple of changes to a set of user lines in mysql.user [Update_priv] and [Alter_priv], but I then changed them back to what they were before. Could this have anything to do with the reason I cannot delete the dtuser user?

Remote machine. At the moment, my only access is through putty.

I am trying to maintain a MySQL db which is required for business usage. I recently ran into a problem where one of our programs would blow up with an SQL error; taking a look at the error message, the program description, and the database in question reveals that the program is trying to update some rows of the table without having the correct privileges for the user/password identification required to run the program.

I have looked at the only MySQL text I currently have on hand. It mentions the grant and revoke statements, but from what I can tell, 'grant' creates a new user. I need to change the permissions on an old user, and what little I've been able to find on the topic does not indicate how this would be done. Does anyone have any suggestions to offer?

Thank you for your consideration.

Yeah, I'll be 18 too. Actually by that time I'll be 19. I think I'll probably vote for her. Did you see the Republican debates? It was all about so much torture and increasing the size of Gitmo from the parts I watched. I thought it was kind of funny when they said it was sponsored by the South Carolina Republican party and Fox News. Kind of gave away their bias. I don't like watching Fox News anyway. It's too one-sided (conservative) but the truth is if I noticed a news channel that was too one-sided on the liberal side I wouldn't want to watch it either. Just because facts are always distorted. So many times I've heard one point of view, thought it was really good, but when I hear the other side I just feel stupid for believing it. It's good to be open-minded, but have opinions.

So, do you watch much news?

Most of the big names are fairly biased toward the liberal side. Fox News gets its name as 'biased conservative' from the fact it doesn't regurgitate the traditional liberal talking points on everything; the actual broadcasts do their best to remain balanced.

Not just our own federal government but proect us from foreign invadors too. I don't see our federal government being any sort of threat any more, so being a conflist of interest of not anything to be concerned about. But I do think using the National Guard to supplement our federal military troops to fight wars in foreign land is wrong. It might be leval, but its wrong.

You raise a valid point regarding your second statement, and I thank you for bringing it up.

If there were no guns, then you would not need to defend myself with one. And besides, if one lives in a place with high crime, they should probably move.

Two things wrong with that.

1) If someone's determined to harm me, he won't necessarily have to use a gun. A gun is a better weapon than some, as it is a ranged weapon with a high striking velocity and therefore more stopping power, but if someone's seriously determined to stop me, all he really needs is a handful of sand and a willingness to play unfairly. (Sand in eyes followed by a blow to a critical spot) If there were no guns, I'd probably find myself trying to defend myself and those I care about against pistol bows or one-shot springbows (note: probably not the official name), or against swords, spears, or axes. Or even against thrown rocks. It's not the weapon that's the problem, it's the nature of the person holding it. And from what I've seen, the real nature of the average person is fairly nasty, no matter how well they've learned to supress it in order to fit in with society. Evil lurks within all of us; most of us just cloak it fairly well.

2) Who says I'm talking about crime? The main reason for the second amendment to the United States Constitution was to allow the people of the several states to defend themselves against the federal government should the federal government …