What's up thread

[Rommie]

Seriously, do we not have one anymore and it got lost in the move or am I not paying attention?

Cause I've looked more than once and started new threads, but not sure if that's terribly productive, so here I am.

[Loresinger]

I am sure Brite will add when shes not burried in classwork

[Swift]

I think we do now.

[Rommie]

W00t! So... what's up?

[The Supreme Canuck]

...asks the astronomer.

[pumpkinpi]

I wonder if the people in the 10-deep Starbucks drivethru lines I pass on the day to the kids' day care (yes, lines....there are two within about a tenth of a mile of each other) are the same ones that tailgate and blow through stoplights on their ways in to work because they are running late.

[geonuc]

I wonder if the people in the 10-deep Starbucks drivethru lines I pass on the day to the kids' day care (yes, lines....there are two within about a tenth of a mile of each other) are the same ones that tailgate and blow through stoplights on their ways in to work because they are running late.

Probably. But they are the only ones in their world so they won't notice anyone's disapproval.

Meanwhile, I have new plumbing in my 83-year old house! Well, I think it's a big deal. A week of demolition and construction.

[Swift]

Meanwhile, I have new plumbing in my 83-year old house! Well, I think it's a big deal. A week of demolition and construction.

Congrats

[Cyborg Girl]

Penetration testing. Remote exploits vs. browsers, privilege escalation vs. intrusion prevention systems, Windows vs. itself. Taking things apart to see how they work is fun.

The Windows kernel APIs are insane though. Browsing the reference for more than an hour would make Cthulhu's eyes bleed.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Installing WIndows Server patches, no fun at all

[Sigma_Orionis]

Looks like I drove everyone away

[brite]

Nope... I'm trying to not work on a policy paper due Tuesday....

I now appreciate everything Cookie used to tell me about procrastination....

[Loresinger]

trying to talk myself out of ordering pizza (specifically double cheese, peparoni, onions on garlic crust - sounds so good (but we have enough food so...)

[Sigma_Orionis]

It DOES sound good, just finished having supper and I want that pizza too....

[geonuc]

Looks like I drove everyone away

You seem to do that a lot.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Yup, I'm a real charmer

[Rommie]

Penetration testing. Remote exploits vs. browsers, privilege escalation vs. intrusion prevention systems, Windows vs. itself. Taking things apart to see how they work is fun.

The Windows kernel APIs are insane though. Browsing the reference for more than an hour would make Cthulhu's eyes bleed.

What are APIs? I ask because my institute is actually API- Anton Pannekoek Institute.

Btw yes my Institute is named after a man whose last name means pancake in Dutch, and was a leading communist, but we're not actually all crackpots.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Application Programming Interface.

Translation to English: a set of Programming Libraries that allows a Software Developer's computer programs to take advantage of different facilities provided by other software. In the particular case GJ mentions, Windows has a huge and complex API that allows applications to use a lot of things Windows provides: access to the GUI, access to the different devices Windows handles etc.

Say you want to write a program to talk to your smartphone, grab the SMSs, and display them in your computer screen. Instead of writing the code to talk to the phone on the USB port, there are APIs provided both by Microsoft and the Smart-Phone software manufacturer that will do that, Microsoft also provides APIs for the program to talk to the mouse, screen, keyboard etc, so your program ONLY has to concern itself on asking all those devices through the APIs to do their job while your program does what it was intended to.

The idea is that you there's a standard way of doing things that will both reduce the complexity of your program and also make sure (theoretically at least) that it works with future versions of Windows and the Smart-Phone software.

SO, what do you do in that institute?, see Dark Matter is composed of Pancakes or Pancake-to-neutrino conversion are the way the Great Attractor caused the New York Blackout of 1977?

[FZR1KG]

I'm wondering what fixing the boat in snow is going to be like.

[Swift]

I'm wondering what fixing the boat in snow is going to be like.

Cold?

[FZR1KG]

I'm wondering what fixing the boat in snow is going to be like.

Cold?

Forecasts for snow. Wind chill to 16DegF.
Luckily all I have to do is power wash the inside to prepare the surfaces for a good cleaning and paint.
Wet and cold, not my idea of fun.

[brite]

86 on the policy paper

[pumpkinpi]

Yee haw!

[Rommie]

I just had the lunch with the author of a favorite textbook today (my cosmology one, for those who care) and at the end asked her to sign my old copy. This brings up my collection of textbooks autographed by their respective authors to four. Think that might be a geeky collection to have?

[Swift]

Happy birthday Geonuc!