She is on cloud nine today. Several of the "cool kids" gave her a pat on the back yesterday. Which she takes with a grain of salt. But it's good to find a niche beyond "the nice/smart black kid." Wife has noticed that many of the "right kind of" parents have been speaking to us lately to which we both respond with a polite but firm <_<
- MoTO #TeamMonique
Well, it is a base for data, but it isn't a conventional relational database, so that is why people say it isn't a proper database. Excel is so free form that it is often full of errors. A relational database separates the data from the application so the data always remains valid. Excel mixes data and application together, which is powerful, but as everything becomes larger and more complicated it all goes to hell.
- Todd Hoff
I think saying Excel isn't a database is like saying that Wordpad isn't a word processor. It may not be a relational database, but it's powerful, convenient, easy...and, of course, what Todd sez. Flash here: As one who worked on "real" databases for many years, I can tell you that they can go to hell just as rapidly as Excel can--and be a LOT tougher to recover from.
- Walt Crawford
Hell does seem the natural endpoint for most technical things :-)
- Todd Hoff
One of the reasons I would say Excel is not a database is that any fool can copy and paste, or delete, or move, any grid of cells at anytime, which completely separates the cells from any identifying "field" defined by a column or row label. In a database, the data is more tightly bound to the field.
- Laura Norvig
Excel can be used as a flat file database, but so can a text editor.
- Eric - seven eleven
from iPhone
Right. The average text editor does really well at providing Pearson's Coefficient for 9,000 pairs of values and providing crosstab or "pivot" tables. I must be missing those functions.
- Walt Crawford
And I have a little too much experience with using commercial (programmable) software with true relational databases, and seeing the absolute garbage that can result from making reasonable assumptions, to believe that being a true database provides any real measure of security.
- Walt Crawford
Oh, and I should note that this was *my job* for a few years, full-time, after decades of systems design & programming. I'm not a total amateur in this area.
- Walt Crawford
Use Notepad++ ;) of course, I agree with you there. Also, I missed the thing on security, but there is much to discuss when it comes to database systems.
- Eric - seven eleven
from iPhone
Many people view a database as rows (records) and columns (fields) in an essentially 2 dimensional framework. Multiple worksheets doesn't really change that, but it at least brings about the beginnings of the multi-dimensional structure. Even today, the concept of a hierarchical database structure is foreign to many (most?) data users, even though it can be far more efficient in terms...
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- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
Excel isn't really a slice of German Chocolate Cake.
- Greg GuitarBuster
My mother is adopting two cats from the shelter. She is going to name them Maundy and Thursday. Actually, she isn't getting them till tomorrow, but I guess I can be grateful she isn't going for Good and Friday.
"The next time you look at a diamond, consider this. Nearly every American marriage begins with a diamond because a bunch of rich white men in the 1940s convinced everyone that its size determines your self worth. They created this convention - that unless a man purchases (an intrinsically useless) diamond, his life is a failure - while sitting in a room, racking their brains on how to sell diamonds that no one wanted."
- ronin
from Bookmarklet
You overlook the fact that diamonds are very beautiful and women like them.
- Eithne Herd
Put me in the anti-diamond category. So many other gemstones please my eye. My engagement ring was a black pearl with diamond chips on the sides. I had them removed immediately.
- Anika
Diamonds are beautiful, but so are cubic zirconiums and artificial diamonds...
- Andrew C (✓)
You can't beat the moment when the sunlight makes the the diamonds sparkle.
- Eithne Herd
"Today [Pope Francis] washed the feet of a dozen inmates for Holy Thursday. And notably, two of the inmates were women." - Change - TPM http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archive...
"But this seems to have been more than a departure from tradition. It actually seems to be a violation of the prescribed liturgy of the Church."
- Victor Ganata
opps here u go " The rubrics for Holy Thursday clearly state that the priest washes the feet of men ("viri") in order to recall Christ's action toward his apostles. Any modification of this rite would require permission from the Holy See. It is certainly true that in Christ there is neither male nor female and that all disciples are equal before the Lord. But this reality need not be...
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- Peter Dawson
"Any modification of this rite would require permission from the Holy See" - HE is the Holy See, so he does not need to take permission :)-
- Peter Dawson
As recently as 1988, this restriction was affirmed: "In both cases the latin word vir is used which means that men is not referring to mankind but only to males. Therefore, only men may have their feet washed on Holy Thursday." http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index...
- Victor Ganata
This is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's take, though: "While this variation [washing the feet of men *and* women] may differ from the rubric of the Sacramentary which mentions only men ("viri selecti"), it may nevertheless be said that the intention to emphasize service along with charity in the celebration of the rite is an understandable way of accentuating the evangelical...
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- Victor Ganata
The slide deck in which I take complete responsibility for the success and sale of FriendFeed. (See slides 17 and 18) -- Presented this afternoon at Devoxx France in Paris. :)
Actually, black people say lots of racist (if by that we mean generally characterizing people by race) things about white people and say them very naturally. I've had to spend time in hospitals around "diverse" people and heard plenty. I took that as the interesting point of the article, that he felt so "uncomfortable" saying anything about black people in general.
- Berthe
The White in Philly article is pretty tame. Dysfunction within the black community is off the charts. Why would anyone want the rot in his neighborhood? Blacks are definitely no longer victims in the U.S.
- Todd
The real question for honest historians and academics to explore is how much blacks were ever victims. Maybe 20 years ago I read "George Washington, the Indispensable Man" (Flexner). There was a section in the book about Washington's view of slavery --- he was stuck with it but it was a lousy way to get work done. His will freed the slaves on his plantation upon the death of his wife but according to Flexner that was rather irresponsible as it put his widowed wife's life in considerable danger.
- Berthe
It wasn't all Simon LeGree on those plantations. The plantation owners imported Irishmen to work in the areas that were malaria infested, like Sea Island because if they died it was no loss. Others who came to this country by the millions didn't live in the lap of luxury, either. See "How the Other Half Lives." Black criminality rates have always been a multiple of their percentage of the population.
- Berthe
Wow....having lived in Philly, I found the original article extremely offensive to everyone - black or white. The idea that a white person walking down the street saying hi to white people, and "hi plus a little bit more" to black people is doing something to help race relations is absolutely ridiculous and insulting all around.
- Mary Carmen
Mary Carmen, I kind of appreciated what he was saying there. White people tend to walk on eggshells around black people.
- Berthe
I can't imagine why. I mean, all we (in the collective sense) did was kidnap them from their homes, pack them into cargo ships that weren't big enough for them to stand in, sell them into slavery, keep them dumb and uneducated, beat and whipped them when they stepped out of line, set up a whole new hierarchy where they were property because they had dark skin, set poor white people...
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- Steven Perez
Steven --- thats like something I'd expect to find in The Onion.
- Berthe
Well, most people whose harbor antebellum misconceptions of American history can be forgiven for believing such.
- Steven Perez
And before you type that next rejoinder, think real hard how far you want to take this conversation.
- Steven Perez
I don't know....I just tend to see people as people and don't tend to walk on eggshells around anyone. I find being respectful and courteous to all I encounter to be a winning strategy. To me, being any different would be an awfully unhappy way to walk through life. But, to each his/her own.
- Mary Carmen
I don't know about Philly, MC, but I was born in Chicago, I've lived a few years in the Deep South and I went to high school a stone's throw from Tom Delay's neighborhood, and I can tell you that most of the things this article details are positively quaint compared to some of the things I've directly heard. But you are right in one respect: courtesy and respect are the way to go.
- Steven Perez
"And before you type that next rejoinder, think real hard how far you want to take this conversation." Gee, that is so typical of the phony goodie goodie: pettiness, threats and meanness to anonymous internet posters they couldn't pick out of a police line-up.
- Berthe
Steven, you are not interested in history. Truth would conflict with your ideological fixations and narcissism.
- Berthe
Mary Carmen, I am sure you are a nice person. I don't know what that has to do with anything, of course.
- Berthe
See, I had a feeling that's where you wanted this conversation to go, Berthe. I puncture your pretty fiction with some nasty truth, and you resort to idiocy. That's why I'm cutting you off now. If I want to hear that kind of stupidity, I'll watch reality television. Go, and never darken my towels again.
- Steven Perez
At my previous job, a new co-worker was told that even though I don't smoke, I occasionally go out with the smokers when they take smoke breaks. He patted his pockets and said, "Oops, I forgot my crack pipe." This is the legacy of racism. I have never smoked crack or partaken of any other illegal substance, and he had no reason to think I did. He simply assumed I had, because of my skin...
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- MiniMage
"I don't know....I just tend to see people as people and don't tend to walk on eggshells around anyone. I find being respectful and courteous to all I encounter to be a winning strategy. - Mary Carmen..........MC gets the prize for being most right.
- American
I agree about being polite to everyone, and I am, whether I like the person or not. What I don't agree with is a view of history that makes blacks into eternal victims, heaps all blame on whites, makes me responsible for the actions of a few plantation owners or distorts what really happened. I'm as southern and white as can be, and I don't owe a thing to anyone. I also deeply resent...
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- Todd
And yet, they were still slaves. And no matter how relatively "well" they may have been treated by a few slave owners, it doesn't makes up for us (collective sense; might want to look that up) basing our whole foundation as a nation on killing off one ethnic group (see: Native Americans) and using another as little more than cattle. Anyone who thinks otherwise should try living in chains before implying that such a life is not so bad.
- Steven Perez
Collective guilt is a sham. Besides, white America has paid through the nose for generations. Political power rather than justice is the issue at this point. It's also worth noting that most whites had nothing to do with slavery, and didn't benefit at all from the practice. In many cases, slavery harmed average whites, and the people harmed by slavery understood that they were being...
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- Todd
"What economic sense would it make to invest large amounts of money in each slave, and then treat them poorly?" - Because they were bred, largely. But the effects of racism in America went beyond the abolition of slavery. Jim Crow segregation, "The Black Codes", the disparity in education and health care, and red lining to name a few. The lives of black people were not valued as those...
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- MoTO #TeamMonique
Who are you quoting with "whining"? If you wish to "pay" for the past, go right ahead. Give up your job, your home, your future opportunities, your money, opportunities for your children and grandchildren, etc.. I don't owe a thing to anyone. The wrongs you mention are long over, and most whites, especially in the South, didn't benefit from slavery or segregation. The U.S. has spent fortunes addressing the wrongs done to blacks already. Enough is enough.
- Todd
You really think you get to declare "it's over" and "enough is enough" just on your say so? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
- Victor Ganata
Yeah, I sure do. I can't force an end to the stupidity of affirmative action or other needless and senseless giveaways, but there is no higher morality to either practice. I certainly don't owe Latinos a thing. It's all going to end poorly for almost everyone, but apparently you think you have an upper-hand, so harming whites for supposed future political power is okay. Isn't that the way the thinking goes?
- Todd
I really don't think you understand the difference between collective guilt and collective responsibility, Todd. Before one can feel guilt over something, they must acknowledge that they've done something that requires correction. If you're not even willing to make that initial leap, then I'm not surprised that you believe collective guilt is a sham. Although, I think an entire generation of Germans might disagree with you on that point.
- Steven Perez
Steven, I'm not guilty or responsible for anything. I've actually never harmed a soul, and who are you to say that I have? As a matter of fact, having faced affirmative action my whole life and having tax money taken from me to give to others, I have been harmed.Save the morally superior BS for someone else. Political power, not justice, is the goal at this point. And nice try with the...
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- Todd
If there was ever a case for willful ignorance, Todd, you've made it. If you honestly believe that power of any stripe is more important than justice, then this conversation is at an end. Res ipsa loquitur.
- Steven Perez
So, Hair verdict. Cut $18 .. its ok, I'm not digging that she didnt taper the bangs into the sides but I'll get over it. Box color $10 ... too damn dark but I'm expecting it to fade. I seriously miss my highlights, but I'll get over it. Total spent with tip, $32 (there's a tip in there), total saved $88. Its not great hair but I can live with it.
- Shannon - GlassMistress
Whelp, so much for FB groups. I posted the hair photo to 'friends except aquaintances' and my old hairdresser (an aquaintance saw it) FB Fail.
- Shannon - GlassMistress
NAME FIGHT. Stephan vs. Steven vs. Steve vs. Stephen. Which name is superior? Why? Please use as many fallacious arguments as possible. You may pick more than one side.
To begin: Stephen King. Stephen Hawking. Stephen Colbert. Stephen Fry. Stephen Crane. Stephen Jay Gould. History is filled with famous Stephens, all sporting the most elegant and sophisticated spelling of this name of ours, which means "crowned one." Clearly, Stephen is King.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
m9m: But Europeans are snooty, just like Stefan (which is also not an option).
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
SAM: Not bad, but how can we seriously evaluate the opinions of someone whose name is not Sam but who posts as SAM?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
When is it pronounced Ste-FAHN? Because that's when I get confused on the spelling and how it's pronounced. Is it *always* pronounced Steven no matter the V or PH or does it depend on the person?
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
Though, to my credit... it is my initials. So I've got that going for me.
- SAM
It's whenever Urkle is not wearing glasses, Zulema.
- SAM
As far as I'm concerned, I automatically translate all of them to Esteban in my head.
- Victor Ganata
from iPhone
I like Esteban (and Stefano and Etienne) but it doesn't really address the core Steve/Steven/Stephen/Stephan debate -- if your given name is one of those and then you switch to another language's version but it's not your cultural background, that's pretty pretentious.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Well, you can't be responsible for how people store it in their brains :) But, basically, I don't know.
- Victor Ganata
from iPhone
I like Victor's answer. Ooh, look at me avoid confrontation! ;)
- Kelli H.
Oh I was referring to Steve Smiths who introduce themselves as Steffan O'Smith or Esteban Smithito.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
And when I hear Esteban, I think Estefan. GLORIA ESTEFAN.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
For argument sake: Steven Jobs, Steven Wright, Steven Tyler, Steven Spielberg, Steven Seagal, Steven Bochco, Steven Levy, Steven Lindsay (Astronaut), Steven Chu, Steven Weinberg ( last two were Nobel prize winners).
- Ken Gidley
Which St… do I think is superior? Make a guess.
- Stefano HBS
As a card carrying member of the "v" club I knew I made the right choice when a Stephen moved into the school yard in 4th grade. To make it worse he pronounced it "Stefffffen." We knew there could be only one. He hit me with a metal pole I still have the scars on my knuckles from his braces. I think that fight was over a 4 Square incident but it did solidify that "ph" is the devil's work.
- SteVe C
I was originally supposed to be a Stefan, but it turned out to be a mass distinction, not a specific name, so I became Ulrich. And since nobody in the US can pronounce that, it turned to Uli.
- Die Leberwurst
from Android
@Stephan, yeah thats odd. but I was not born .. so I could not kick up a fuss !! LOL
- Peter Dawson
Oh, I realize I haven't voted. I vote Steven because it isn't confusing to me on whether the 'ph' is a v or a f. :P
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
Yes we "v"s get Zulema's vote, that counts like triple at least.
- SteVe C
So it sounds like everyone is conceding that "Stephen" is the best spelling (except for that jerk who messed with SteVe and is giving us a bad name ).
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
I apparently can't shake the habit of piling clothes that can be re-worn on top of my hamper. So I'm going to stop trying. Now I have a brand new quilt stand just waiting to have clothes piled on it. http://www.amazon.com/gp...
I use the railing on my stair landing. I prefer to think of it as "airing out" the clothes.
- m9m, Crone of FriendFeed
Airing out! Brilliant. I also just placed a recycling bag right next to the front door for most of my mail.
- lris
valet stands might work. Might require more thought than I'm capable of.
- lris
mine go on a chair back, but yeah, been thinking about getting a valet stand. Can't bring myself to re-hang something that isn't fresh out of the dryer, but can't bring myself to toss in the laundry something I only wore once that isn't really dirty.
- Laura Norvig
I have a drying rack in my bedroom for that purpose. I don't use it for drying, I use it for 'airing' and wrinkle minimization. Oh, and then I keep my upright vacuum in the corner as a standby hanger for jeans to be re-worn. #wrinklesbedamned
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
and here I thought I was the only one who needed habit accommodations
- lris
Isn't this what people keep exercise bicycles in the bedroom for? I need to get a valet stand. I, too, use the top of the hamper.
- Betsy #TeamMonique
from FFHound(roid)!
A drawer of my dresser is permanently half open, it's only purpose is for draping shirts to be re-worn. There's a chair across the way for pants.
- Lnorigb
from FFHound!
I use a half open dresser drawer, too. Top of my dresser is for unmatched socks
- Christina Pikas
from iPhone
but ... but ... it's only dirty clothes ... a "floorper"?
- Laura Norvig
When I had more space, I had one part of my closet floor was the hamper (with actual hampers involved) and one was the "worn but not dirty" section of the floor where clothes that I could wear again but didn't want to re-hang lived. Now I have dirty clothes in a couple of hampers (based on color) and clean-ish clothes on my bathroom floor. It works for me.
- WebGoddess
The waitress at the bar is telling me she went to jail two years ago for a DUI, on her scooter, even though she passed all the sobriety tests. The reason she went to jail is because she admitted to having drunk a "couple of beers" before getting on the scooter. What you should've said, I reply, is "I decline to answer that question on the grounds that it may incriminate me". But, she replies, I want to be polite. But that is polite, especially if prefixed "I'm sorry, sir, but I decline to answer the question ...". Indeed, you should always be very polite to cops. Standing up for your rights is not being impolite. They might not like it, of course, but this is far different than flipping them off or calling them facists. The waitress doesn't accept my argument. Instead, she says "What I should've done is said that I hadn't been drinking". NO NO NO! Don't EVER lie to cops. This invariably gets you into worse trouble. It's like five year olds who think they can get away with lying to...
- Hacker News
"Twitter has been granted a patent which describes the basic principles of the service itself. Originally filed in July 2008 and granted to Jack Dorsey and Christopher Isaac Stone, the patent describes a system for "device-independent point to multipoint communication." From the patent: "The system is configured to receive a message addressed to one or more destination users (...) The system applies rules to the message based on destination user information to determine the message endpoints, the message endpoints being, for example, Short Message Service (SMS), Instant Messaging (IM), E-mail, web page output, or Application Program Interface (API) function call.""
- Morton Fox
from Bookmarklet
I have not talked about this much because I am not sure that the young man would want everyone in the world to know that he is missing a testicle and they have to go hunt for it, but I understand this is pretty common. But the surgery part makes us nervous.
- laura x