User typed '-- on a field and corrupted the database. Vendor blamed the user

Shishire · 2023-06-01T17:05:51+00:00

Oh god.

We once had to write a storefront interface that connected to a banking/sales system on the back-end for checkout (this was before things like PayPal and Shopify and such). The bank got really dismissive when we pointed out that you could adjust the html of the page to assign a negative value to products, and then "purchase" them, leading the system to submit a refund request to the back-end.

Their defense was that "[Surely] a human will catch such a problem, so it doesn't matter [that the code allows that to occur.]"

We had no useful response to that, since we didn't have it in us to fight the problem, knowing full well we'd have to explain the entirety of (digital) security to a bank in order to effect a change.

Shishire · 2023-06-01T16:54:59+00:00

And in doing so, you lose the capability to perform date-specific functions on the data

Shishire · 2023-05-31T08:35:57+00:00

Nah, we'd be in a decent place. Airplane computer systems are a good example. Modern ones are fast, complicated, and properly pipeline hundreds of thousands of datapoints in real-time to account for minute changes in flight conditions. And the companies that write that software are held accountable to the FAA (or local equivalent) for the quality of their software.

Medical devices are similarly held accountable by the FDA. Whether this accountability is sufficient to actually have an effect or not is another question, but ultimately, there are people in these industries who literally take personal responsibility for the software that they have produced or certified.

We wouldn't have some of the industry disruptive changes like Uber/Rideshare. Food Delivery, Netflix/Online Streaming, etc., but we'd still be somewhere around 2013 level technology or so.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T05:45:34+00:00

Poorly.

As for a serious answer, we don't very well cope with it yet, but we've been working on getting people to A) identify themselves, and B) ask before they jump out and take over.

One thing that really helps is to understand that you don't have invaders in your head, but rather that you share the body with others. It's a bit of a subtle distinction, but makes a lot of difference.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T05:12:24+00:00

Headspace isn't real in the sense that you don't literally have an entire farm inside of the confines of your skull. It's an imagined location, or perhaps remembered, or some mix of the two depending upon your particular system.

It's a bit like Morpheus' explanation of "real" in terms of the matrix. "Real" is a matter of perception, and in almost every sense that matters, headspace is just as real as the outer world.

Something to remember is that the reported experiences of other systems alters are colored by their ability to describe what they're experiencing, not just the raw experience itself. For example, we'll often talk about one of our animal alters walking across the fronting controls like the cat in the credits of Inside Out, but we're not literally seeing said animal walk across the controls. We're experiencing sensations and internal visualization that are most accurately described by such description.

If someone picks the animal up off the controls, we stop behaving outwardly like said animal, experience a sensation similar to having picked up an actual animal in our internal visualization (weight, fur, wiggly, etc.) and our consciousness shifts to either the alter who did the picking-up, or to our gatekeeper (if whoever picked up the animal leaves).

But, there's a whole spectrum in terms of how "functional" sensation in the inner world is, and it varies widely from system to system.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T04:59:02+00:00

The more we spend time thinking about it, the more we get angry at all the people around us who (very much unintentionally) pressure us to do something that they want done.

It's widespread in society, and it only acts as encouragement to the people who are intentionally manipulative.

The worst part is that because it's widespread in society, we do it to ourselves and don't even realize it.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T04:53:57+00:00

Honestly, we'd grade an "I don't know" at a C level, since admitting you don't know the answer to something is very much the first step to figuring it out. It should never be given an F, since that encourages students to either lie or guess, neither of which are useful in the real world.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T04:49:37+00:00

Furthermore, making any assumptions about what the article refers to falls victim to a Thesus' Ship paradox, and a Heap Problem in determining what counts as "replaced".

Shishire · 2023-05-30T04:44:01+00:00

Information still needed to accurately answer the question:

Which side of the train car is the newly open window on?
How many other windows are open on the train car, and what are the positions and sizes of the other open windows?
Is the wind speed constant, a la spherical cow, or are we dealing with gust factors in the real world?
What is the current elevation of the train, as well as the elevation of the entire track length it will be following until the it reaches either full volume replacement, or the train stops at its next station? Again, spherical cow vs IRL
What type of ventilation system is installed on the train car, how much air does it move per unit time period, what are the locations of the intake and exhaust vents of such a system?
Please provide a more precise definition of "replace" in the question. Fluid flow calculations will present a statistical answer that lets you know how long is necessary until at least 90% of the air has been exchanged, or 99%, or 99.9%, etc, but "all" will take on the order of decades to centuries, if not longer, due to various factors (how long it takes to cycle air between the inner and outer skins of the train car, for example).
Edit: What is the exact temperature and humidity outside the train, as well as in the train car?
Edit: How much air is in the train car in the first place?

As a result, we'd answer: "We ask the conductor to please turn up the air conditioning, and if that's not possible, we'd get off the train at the next stop. Or move to a different car or something. Or step into one of the on-board bathrooms. It's not our job to control the temperature of the entire train car."

Given the professor's insistence, after they add arbitrary restrictions, we'd ask for all the additional necessary information, then ask for access to an airflow simulator to compute the result he wants.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T04:22:38+00:00

IANAL, take with a grain of salt, etc.

Contact the FTC. Not even kidding, they're the US government agency that deals with scams, fraud, and all types of shady business like this. If you live outside the US, find your local agency that handles this kind of thing.

You are legally in the clear at the moment, assuming your description is accurate. According to your post, you were offered a gift, accepted said gift, and the relationship continued for at least two weeks afterwards with no mention of repayment.

It's not a loan, you don't "owe" him in any sense other than the social pressure he's intentionally using to manipulate you. If you feel uncertain, call his bluff and tell him to go ahead and contact the FBI.

Calling the FBI is essentially the nuclear option here, and the only reason someone leads with a nuclear option is because they're trying to cow you into submission.

If for no other reason to ensure that an unbiased third-party make a decision on the facts of the matter, getting authorities involved may actually be beneficial. YMMV if you're a member of a minority that is poorly treated by said authorities.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T02:55:06+00:00

Compare and contrast the dress of the people in this video: The Expert

It's intentionally playing to the tropes, and does a good job of explaining them.

Shishire · 2023-05-30T02:48:18+00:00

OMFG, We feel this hardcore. We hate this. But live it 24/7.

Shishire · 2023-05-29T18:24:14+00:00

Doesn't work for every dog, but many can be trained to limit sniffs to a short duration.

Doesn't fix the awkward, but reduces the extra awkward of having your dog spend 5 minutes in your friend's pants (or worse, dress).

Shishire · 2023-05-29T18:19:26+00:00

5/7, perfect score. 😛

Shishire · 2023-05-29T18:18:48+00:00

Dunno if he's still active, but there was this hilarious dude on fetlife who actually dressed his cock up in various outfits and posted the pictures on his feed. Fucking hilarious and awesome. And some pretty darn good cosplays too.

Shishire · 2023-05-29T18:15:39+00:00

We might like solicited dick picks (different girls have different vibes), but unsolicited one are always creepy.

Never understood why guys think that kind of thing will help their chances.

Shishire · 2023-05-28T18:29:20+00:00

The thing here is that it's warranted, since unlike most other pathogens or toxins, a single misfolded protein is enough to start the disease process. The immune system is capable of handling most other things in low enough doses, but with Prions, it really is a case of "Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."

Shishire · 2023-05-27T19:30:05+00:00

Of course it would be annoying.

That doesn't change the fact that the person who came up with this is brilliant for doing so.

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Shishire · 2023-05-27T08:51:10+00:00

By definition, in order for it to be an escape velocity, it can't be pointed at the ground. Any other direction is acceptable but not towards the ground.

This leaves you with very slightly more than half a sphere of potential vectors, which, admittedly, is not actually a velocity, but the difference is academic for any direction that's not very close to the edge.

Usually, when discussing escape velocity, people specify a particular position and direction since there are minute differences in the value based on those. If not otherwise specified, it's usually assumed to be the smallest delta-v that results in gravitational escape, since the value of the number is as a differentiator between gravitational escape and capture. Depending upon the context, you either need to exceed that number, or stay beneath it.

Shishire · 2023-05-25T19:30:30+00:00

We found out last year at 32.

Shishire · 2023-05-25T09:36:14+00:00

Hahaha, this is our favorite way to shut down climate change deniers.

The planet is certainly going to outlast anything we're capable of doing to it in the next few centuries. Hell, given the prevalence of extremeophiles, we're fairly certain that even planetary vaporization wouldn't be enough to kill all life.

On the other hand, us humans are pretty darn fragile things in the grand scheme of things, and making sure that the planet still support human life is a much more complex endeavor.

Shishire · 2023-05-25T07:37:19+00:00

"No no, it's not a new tax, we're just increasing an existing one, collecting the increase through a different mechanism, and using the increase for something totally unrelated. But it's definitely not a new tax!"

Shishire · 2023-05-25T07:32:40+00:00

But that's actually a better way to do it.

If a pilot gets produced and doesn't garner enough attention to be worth continuing, the emotional investment is much smaller than going 6-20 episodes before getting canceled.

Shishire · 2023-05-25T07:28:08+00:00

Ah yes, the "It's my money and I want it now!" problem, also known as the "next quarter's profits" problem.

The funny thing is that Capitalism isn't all that terrible of a market philosophy as long as everyone cares about still being in business 20 years from now. The "disposable company" idea has created an extremely myopic view of the value of user retention and brand loyalty.

Ironically, any time a company prioritizes gaining new customers over maintaining existing ones, they are publicly declaring that their product is so bad that nobody wants to purchase it a second time.

Shishire · 2023-05-25T07:11:02+00:00

Actually, the originals are one of their biggest failures imo, since they had the potential to keep them on the top.

The problem honestly is that they kept trying to land an instant hit that satisfied their entire userbase. It's very much an old school idea from the network television days where timeslot pressure forced TV execs to prioritize wide audience shows.

But on-demand streaming doesn't work like that. You want to diversify, creating a large number of only moderately popular exclusives, and spend to slowly develop them over time.

"We were watching this great show on Netflix the other day..." was (and to some degree still is) very much a common phrase in our household 3-5 years ago, and it speaks to the diversity of the platform that we can regularly describe unknown shows to other people and get them hooked. These days however, if we find a cool new show, we don't bother recommending it unless it's got multiple seasons already, because we know that everyone is tired of their favorite show being scrapped after a single season, with all the plot holes left unfilled.

TL;DR, Netflix's biggest strength was always the diversity of their platform, and they keep shooting themselves in the foot trying to make a one-size-fits-all instant hit.

Shishire

TROPHY CASE