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By sven (Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 01:54:10 AM EST) (all tags)
I wrote up a problem report description the other day that ended up getting a bit out of hand. You know a problem report's going to be good when the description starts with "back in the dawn of time", and includes other phrases like "chaos reigned supreme" and "everyone was happy". Maybe I should tone it down a bit. Or maybe not. I haven't decided.

Inside: Work stuff, minor HTML/CSS problem, Spider-Man, slang


Work stuff

Sometimes at work to compensate for our lack of anything approaching a decent debugger, we create our own breakpoints by inserting SIGQUITs into the code to cause a core dump. It's quite ingenious in its own way. My friends laugh at me when I tell them stories like that.

Today we discovered three (3) requirements which have either been added or changed since the last revision, but which nobody bothered to tell the software engineers about. Naturally we had our code deadline months ago, and we've successfully completed nearly all of our testing. With new requirements continuing to creep in, one wonders how much testing the new code will be given before it's deployed. It's a little scary.

But for now, all problems are on hold while we work on getting the Software Design Description (SDD) finished by Friday. Now there's a fun document. It's the customer's theory that they should be able to reimplement everything from scratch using only the information in the SDD. I think that's just crazy. Anyway, it's taken 11 hours to review half of our section so hopefully I'll have it done on time.

Minor HTML/CSS problem

I've started getting my European holiday diary written up. Problem is that when I include images within links (like here) Mozilla draws a little underline beneath the image. But I'm running a fairly old Mozilla Firebird 0.6, so maybe it's just me.

Spider-Man 2

Last Thursday we saw Spider-Man 2. I was well entertained, but sometimes they take the realm of fiction way too far. I can readily suspend reality to imagine a man swinging between buildings and generally doing whatever a spider can, but the way he rejects MJ time after time is just beyond belief.

Whack, pineapples, and other slang

Since when has everything bad been "whack"? Nobody bothered to tell me when the expression was introduced, and consequently it took a while before I caught up. I don't approve.

A random survey of five people at work showed that only 20% of people understand the expression "rough end of the pineapple".

And I now understand why Americans are called seppos. Ironically, it was an American who explained it to me. (He was also spreading misinformation about the origin of "yankee".)

The same American was pondering the origin of the expression "barlees" (sp?), as shouted to temporarily take oneself out of a game and prevent oneself from becoming "it". One of the guys who grew up in Sydney and Canberra said that he had always heard it abbreviated to "bar". Everyone understood the expression, but nobody knew how to spell it or where it comes from. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to be in the Macquarie Dictionary.

Software

I managed to get X-Chat and micq installed on my machine at home without anything segfaulting. Amazing. Shame it doesn't work for anything larger. Hopefully my tax return is only a few weeks away, and then I'll have my shiny new machine. (Not literally shiny. Shiny cases cost $20 more.)

Reminder to self for tomorrow

Call the real estate agent and get them to fix the leaky toilet. (I'd email myself at work but our mail server tends to lose email with alarming regularity.)

< Which one for me | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >
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Which slang expressions are you comfortable with?
- whack 42%
- seppo 71%
- rough end of the pineapple 42%
- barlees 28%

Votes: 7
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Primal chaos reigned | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
A certain User here often makes disparaging by georgeha (6.00 / 3) #1 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:20:48 AM EST
remarks about Kirsten Dunst, which makes me suspect his gender and Genuisoity. She's a redhead, what more do you need?




I dont think you mean me by cam (3.00 / 0) #5 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:37:09 AM EST
but I am going to join in; she has a face like a bag full of spanners. I dont think she is that crash hot. Most of those hollywood women are no good. They are stick figure spiders doused in L'oreal products.

My wife is a better looker than most of the ones that get trudged along the picture screen or tv tube. I am biased, but I am fair dinkum.

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
[ Parent ]

Not unless you're posting as AustralianGenius by georgeha (6.00 / 1) #10 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:58:58 AM EST
nt


[ Parent ]

No, I dont do the multiple account thing by cam (3.00 / 0) #13 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:22:26 AM EST
There is only one cam, I dont timeshare who I am. So no, it isnt me.

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
[ Parent ]

She is bizarre-looking, by webwench (6.00 / 1) #12 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:05:44 AM EST
an utterly average girl. Tiny eyes overhung by enormous manbrows, freakishly wide cheekbones, an almost lipless mouth, a weak chin, and small breasts. OK by normal-human standards; not at all attractive by movie-star standards.


[ Parent ]

Which is why by Gedvondur (5.66 / 3) #14 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:53:22 AM EST
Most guys desire her.  It's the very average-ness. 

No guy looks at Heather Locklear and says "Wow, if I could just meet her I could ask her on a date"  We all know she's WAY out of our league and so good looking that we wouldn't be able to even form whole sentences.

But Kirsten Dunst looks like the cute girl next door, and therefore, in men's fantasy, approachable.

See chameleon laying there in the sun.  All things to everyone.

Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan
[ Parent ]

well, if MNS is to be believed by infinitera (6.00 / 1) #16 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 04:00:37 AM EST
He could form whole sentences during the process.


[ Parent ]

Some men by Gedvondur (6.00 / 1) #19 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 05:54:23 AM EST
Have that kind of control.  I can tell you, that when the super-model kind of pretty gets around me, I am not one of them.

I don't drool or stare, but intellegent conversation is beyond me in that case.

Gedvondur of the Clan Testosterone
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan
[ Parent ]

*cough* by ti dave (1.00 / 1) #20 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 06:38:08 AM EST
*cough*

The 'wench can put that in her pipe and smoke it.

I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do.
The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. --W.S. Burroughs
[ Parent ]

This explains the white stains on our by ti daveswife (3.00 / 0) #24 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:03:08 PM EST
comforter.





If life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice into a watergun and squirt it into other peoples eyes!
[ Parent ]

I thought that was Hollandaise sauce. by ti dave (6.00 / 1) #26 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 09:17:17 PM EST
From a can, of course.

I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do.
The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. --W.S. Burroughs
[ Parent ]

typical woman ratings by phred (3.00 / 0) #27 Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 02:02:47 AM EST
Women will go through all of this supposedly objective and systematic evaluations of another woman, I swear they make a detailed science of it, whereas a guy will "know her when he sees her."

Of course this also explains things like boob jobs, success of the plastic surgery industry, "womens fashion", etc...

I get this all the time, a woman will ask me what I like in a woman and (when I don't say "me"), I just say that I like a woman that makes me want to be with her.


[ Parent ]

Heh by webwench (6.00 / 1) #28 Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 02:13:22 AM EST
I've seen enough guys with redhead fetishes or very exacting preferences for waist-to-hip ratios to know better :)

On the other hand, you know what they say about women. If a man is at a party alone, and a couple walks into the party, he will check out the female half of the couple to see if she's attractive. If a woman is at a party alone, and a couple walks in, she will check out the female half of the couple, to see how she measures up.


[ Parent ]

I'll give you the redhead thing by phred (3.00 / 0) #29 Thu Jul 08, 2004 at 05:34:54 AM EST
Still, I've got lots of specific things on a superficial level that I think are cool and then the right woman can come along and make all of them meaningless.


[ Parent ]

I think Kirsten Dunst is a pretty gal. by ti daveswife (3.00 / 0) #25 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:03:48 PM EST

If life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice into a watergun and squirt it into other peoples eyes!
[ Parent ]

Which is the rough end of a pineapple? by herbert (6.00 / 1) #2 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:27:32 AM EST
One end is sort of spiky and the other is wider and more solid.  I find it difficult to say which I would consider rougher.



I think the leafy end by sven (3.00 / 0) #4 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:34:03 AM EST
Though it's all relative, there isn't exactly a smooth end of the pineapple.

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

Do an empiricial study by cam (6.00 / 1) #6 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:39:27 AM EST
Stick both ends up your arse and you will have your answer. That is what the colloquilism implies, that you are getting shafted by a rough object up the arse.

Unless of course the Westralians are more sophisticated than the t'othersiders and the saying over there is genuinely about eating produce. ??

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
[ Parent ]

Sophistication by sven (6.00 / 1) #8 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:43:04 AM EST
Unless of course the Westralians are more sophisticated

Not in this example (though I haven't tried this empirical study personally).

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

your css problem.. by infinitera (6.00 / 2) #3 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:28:17 AM EST
Is that the text-decoration is from the A container, but you're applying it to img. What you want to do instead is create a class for links that have images in them and use it on those two. There's probably some more elegant selector-based way, but it's not coming to mind.




Sounds feasible, but tedious by sven (3.00 / 0) #7 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:41:00 AM EST
I'm sure there's a better way. I would have thought that this bit of CSS would have sorted it out, but apparently not...


a
{
  text-decoration:underline;
  font-family: sans-serif;
}

a img
{
  border: 1px solid;
  text-decoration: none;
}

I don't understand why the text-decoration:none isn't overriding the text-decoration:underline. I might have to do some experimenting tomorrow.

Thanks for your thoughts!

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

yes, i looked at your css by infinitera (6.00 / 1) #9 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 02:46:24 AM EST
Since your photos are the ones being linked/causing the problem, I think that the best idea would be to change the a img text-decoration directive to:

td.photo a { text-decoration: none; }

And the reason it wasn't overriding before is precisely what I said - that's not the image being decorated. It's the A tag enclosing it. All you're doing there is saying don't decorate images within A tags, but that doesn't help you. ;-)


[ Parent ]

Thanks, I'll give that a go by sven (3.00 / 0) #22 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 12:03:18 PM EST
It will have to wait until Friday though, our firewall at work is quite restrictive. :(

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. by Rogerborg (6.00 / 1) #11 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:01:40 AM EST
Heavens sought order. But the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essence of Heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the Sun and the Moon all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, "With our thoughts, we make the World". Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it came a stone monkey.
The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!
Monkeeeeeeeeeey!

-
Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.


Seppos..... by Gedvondur (6.00 / 1) #15 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 03:56:13 AM EST
As an American, I demand to know just exactly how we are being disparged by that word!

Tell us or Bush will bomb you.  Trust me, it doesn't take much to get him to do that kind of thing.

;-)

Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan


answer by tps12 (6.00 / 1) #17 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 04:18:10 AM EST
here

[ Parent ]

Ahhh by Gedvondur (6.00 / 2) #18 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 05:49:57 AM EST
I see.

After great consideration, Bush will be bombing Australia soon anyway.

I don't know how he missed it when he was doing the "A" countries anyway..

Oh, that's right.  He can't spell.

Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan
[ Parent ]

That site must be good by sven (3.00 / 0) #21 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 11:50:33 AM EST
Access Denied
The following URL you've requested has been blocked by CS MIMEsweeper for Web:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=seppo&r=f

URL Classification........................................: URL Block
Web Policy...................................................: Scenarios
User Name...................................................: 10.226.1.3
Proxy...........................................................: websweeper
Proxy Port....................................................: 80

--
harshbutfair // you know it makes sense
[ Parent ]

eh by tps12 (3.00 / 0) #23 Wed Jul 07, 2004 at 12:11:12 PM EST
It's not that bad...just a sort of wiki-ish dictionary type thing. Anyway, "seppo" is:
Derogertory word used by the English and Australians for all American nationals. Derived from Rhyming slang (Septic Tank = Yank)


[ Parent ]

Primal chaos reigned | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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