Haha, where do you dig that stuff up? That was... bizarre. There was a strange, almost porn- or dreamlike quality to the quality of the production. Or is that just me?

Ozzy Osborne has defeated me. I picked up Guitar Hero yesterday and have beaten most everything on Medium level except for Bark at the Moon. HOW do you get past that??

Update: Perhaps of Interest to Mr. I'msteve

The first episode of the new Blade TV show is free for download on the iTunes music store. Downloading it right now. I'm almost positive it's going to suck! Hard!

fArt... Comedy goldmine that.

Jeezuz! Two words... Slap Machine. Does not get any better than that. Brilliant. Normally I lose interest in long web videos, but that is worth every dollar. Damn.

D>M>

I did the "ugly" laugh on this one.. couldn't frigging breathe, I swear. LOL:

Crazy Asian Game Show

Steve (I'msteve): Yeah, I do QC, although it must be said that today I wasn't doing it very well. I was out and out surly today.

I'm generally pretty mellow and tolerant of bullshit. The flipside of this is that I'm mellow, patient and tolerant right up until the point at which the straw hits the camel's back. Then I become more or less permanently pissed. So it's kind of like instead of having a gradation of "good mood" to "bad mood" I'm more or less always in a good mood until something causes me to hit asshole status, where I more or less stay. That is the stage I hit as of yesterday. Going forward, I predict a lot of dickhead maneuvers. I'll let you guys know about any good ones.

This is an interesting contrast with my girlfriend, who dishes out stinkeye on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure that she takes the emotionally healthier route. I suppose I subscribe to the saying "Never date anyone crazier than you are."

Oh well. I'm fucking wiped out.

PS Special Action Team points to Ja-el! He knows why.

Brilliant

"Apparently, a company in Sweden is offering file-sharing insurance - they'll pay your fines if you're sued by the RIAA. The /. submitter translates the link as follows: 'For a mere 140 SEK ($19 USD) per year, they will pay all your fines and give you a t-shirt if you get convicted for file sharing.'"

jr0n: I am sup4r bummed about the job situation. It seemed like it was a green light not tso long ago, ahtough you did express concerns about the multi-lingual thing. Boo. WAIT, You know Japanese right?

D>M>

Wow Enoto! Good times there haha! At least if you get fired for that, maybe you can get some of that gov't cheese in the form of an unemployment check. Who knows if they'll ever even see that footage, but it would be pretty friggin classic if they did. I don't even know what the fuckers you do for a living. QC still?

Twilight Struggle

Enron and I fired up the old Skype accounts (with new Skype installs) and downloaded the online version of Twilight Struggle. I vaguely taught Enron how to play a few days ago mostly though a chat screen cause Wylie was sleeping, and we played a round or two. Then tonight we fired it up again and got a through a bit more, and lemme tell you, it is AWESOME RAD!

It is a little clumsy only cause you can't see the whole board infront of you, and Enron is reading his cards from a list D/L'd from BGG that doesn't include some of the card texts, but still, it is an awesome game no matter the format!

It is the ultimate game of life giving you lemons and needing to make lemonade. Particularly if the Lemonade is at DefCon 2, and the lemons come from DeGaulle's backyard.

Everyone should SERIOUSLY check this game out, and at THought Hammer, you can get the first edition for $35.00! That's almost half off!

Heh

I went through 6 att servers on my trip to aljazeera.net, but not the one in question. It looks like a NorCal spook server, only cause of the sffca reference. I went through la2ca.ip.att.net, go figure.

Though none on my way to theactionteam. So, I am not sure there really is any monitoring going on, cause surely the NSA motherfuckers would want to keep tabs on the shit going down at AT, yo.

Everyone get your tin foil hats on, I am taking you for a ride.

We all know AT&T and the NSA have been caught red handed on tapping American communications, however it is not know what servers are tapping. Rumor 'round the net is that someone has found suspect AT&T servers that may be tapping american IP communications. Now appearently, if your traceroute to a certain site and it contains a route to sffca.ip.att.net then this info is being routed through an NSA monitoring station. I decided hey, lets check it out on my box.

I figured maybe the NSA flags certain 'suspect' sites too. Example of the two trace routes from my box:

More Likely to Red Flag: Tracing route to www-lm.aljazeera.net.att-idns.net [12.120.9.55]

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms adsl-68-127-151-109.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net [68.127.151.109]
2 18 ms 12 ms 11 ms bras4-l0.pltnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.184.80]
3 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms dist1-vlan60.pltn13.pbi.net [64.164.97.130]
4 9 ms 10 ms 10 ms bb1-g3-0.pltnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.54]
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bb1-p3-0.crsfca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.190.85]
6 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms ex1-p14-0.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.41.10]
7 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms 12.122.79.101
8 76 ms 76 ms 76 ms tbr2033101.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.85.142]
9 76 ms 76 ms 77 ms tbr1-cl2.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.41]
10 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms tbr1-cl4.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.29]
11 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms gbr5-p10.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.11.170]
12 76 ms 75 ms 75 ms wasdc001il4.equip.icdsatt.net [12.120.9.5]
13 262 ms 79 ms 82 ms 12.120.9.55

Less likey to Red Flag: Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.87]

1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms adsl-68-127-151-109.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net [68.127.151.109]
2 25 ms 16 ms 11 ms bras4-l0.pltnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.184.80]
3 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms dist1-vlan60.pltn13.pbi.net [64.164.97.130]
4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bb1-10g2-0.pltnca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.42.100]
5 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms bb1-p4-0.crsfca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.41.5]
6 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms core1-p5-0.crsfca.sbcglobal.net [151.164.243.1]
7 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms core1-p5-0.crskut.sbcglobal.net [151.164.42.11]
8 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms core1-p11-0.crdnco.sbcglobal.net [151.164.243.246]
9 44 ms 44 ms 44 ms core1-p5-0.crkcmo.sbcglobal.net [151.164.42.23]
10 56 ms 55 ms 55 ms core2-p11-0.crchil.sbcglobal.net [151.164.240.118]
11 55 ms 55 ms 55 ms core1-p8-0.crchil.sbcglobal.net [151.164.188.42]
12 63 ms 62 ms 62 ms core1-p10-0.crcloh.sbcglobal.net [151.164.42.9]
13 63 ms 62 ms 63 ms core2-p1-0.crcloh.sbcglobal.net [151.164.188.190]
14 78 ms 78 ms 78 ms core1-p2-0.crnyny.sbcglobal.net [151.164.188.36]
15 80 ms 79 ms 80 ms bb1-p11-0.nycmny.sbcglobal.net [151.164.189.164]
16 80 ms 80 ms 80 ms bb2-p6-0.nycmny.sbcglobal.net [151.164.42.161]
17 148 ms 148 ms 147 ms bb1-p2-1.linxuk.sbcglobal.net [151.164.188.147]
18 149 ms 149 ms 149 ms ex1-p6-0.linxuk.sbcglobal.net [151.164.41.244]
19 148 ms 148 ms 148 ms bbc-gw0-linx.prt0.rbsov.bbc.co.uk [195.66.224.194]
20 148 ms 147 ms 148 ms 212.58.238.133
21 149 ms 149 ms 149 ms www50.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.87]

In fact a number of people on AT&T's own network have reported not having any 'ATT' routers on their traces except when going to 'suspect' sites. Creepy, or maybe coincidence. I am on SBC and seem to stay off of ATT routes except in the travels to certain sites.

Paranoia, or on?

D>M>

I <3 Work

(So I'm gonna avoid company and individual's names here.)

Dunno if any of you guys remember, but a couple of months ago my boss made talk about my imminent conversion to permanent status, with an accompanying raise (a VERY substantial one) and all the other good stuff that you would imagine resulting from that.

Anyway, apparently everything was cleared for takeoff. It was a matter of waiting a month or two for them to get my dough into the budget. But then... nothing happened. I gave it some time because I was told it might take a few weeks to shake out. Then nothing continued to happen. I lost a lot of sleep about it. I asked my boss about it. She said that she HAD cleared it with HER boss, but now something was wrong. But she was on top of it. Weeks and then months went by but hey, I like the job, and I've had plenty of work to do, so I waited.

Yesterday we went to a group meeting with her boss. This meeting was unrelated to my situation -- it was a general discussion of some other issues facing the department -- but finally having a chance to see their interaction in person, I understand what happened. Basically, there is every reason for the department to hire me, especially with some of the big projects coming up that I have more technical knowledge of than anybody else in the dept. (Well, there's one reason not to hire me, see below.) However, her boss thinks that going forward all of HER hires should be fluent in a foreign language. Why does he think this? The reasons are minor, and EASILY knocked down. In fact, my boss has knocked them down for me in a way that made me perfectly confident. But seeing them interact... well, basically she was unable to stand up to this guy about ANYTHING. From the direction of this meeting that was supposedly hers to run, to his completely running over any of her points without her fighting back at all, it was clear that the relationship between the two of them is one-way. And I am certain that that means that no matter WHAT kind of agreement they had made before, once he changed his mind, she is not going to be able to convince him. Not because he can't be conviced... he seems like a relatively reasonable guy, as reasonable as any boss #2.66378z4a would be. But because for whatever she doesn't feel like fighting him.

So. I see know that this is a pretty fucked situation. So, fuck that, back to the drawing board I guess. I can't quit, unfortunately, not enough in the bank to do that. But it is time to go.

I have been possessed by the spirit of retard

So today I went to observe some testing in the testing lab. This is where they bring in a potential customer (who in this case was like nine) while a producer on the project shows them a game in development, asks what they like about it what they don't like etc.. Of course it's got one of those mirrors with an observation room on the other side. Anyway we were told it would be a good idea to check this testing out to see how it goes, since it's kind of a window into an area of the development process that we don't typically touch. Anyway the testing was fine, the kid was squirrely and only liked the game OK, whatever. The smooth move on my part was after the producer and kid left and the three of us that went decided to go inside the room, which looked a lot like an interrogation room, and see what and how much could be discerned of the observation room, from the test lab. So I go around and start messing around, start pretending like I'm beating a prisoner, etc.. Then what do I do? I sit in a chair, turn it towards the mirrored wall, and cross and uncross my legs like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

In a room where everything is fucking captured on tape and recorded for posterity.

On a tape that will be attached to a kid testing tape.

Smooth move, Ragnar!!!

Prime Time

That is a pretty funny little bit of unintended humor. Man that Leonardo guy is a jArk.

Rude: That video is more than a little disturbing. Grizzly. I almost had to turn around when she picked up the razor.

D>M>

So, I'm scrolling through the Tivo list for something to watch this morning, when I see that Michelle is recording an Oprah episode. On a whim, I decide to see what the episode is about.. and about spit my breakfast out.. "anal rubberband" style:

Apparently, Oprah has offered up $100k to catch Leonardo DiCaprio, child molestor.. LOL!

prime time of yer life - a pretty incredible music video for daft punk. pretty fucking scary, just WOW...

Trust me, I realize that this sounds like "fuzzy" math, but it's not. This is in fact a case of fuzzy reality.

Try it like this (this was basically my methodology, except I didn't have a pal around):

Get a pal.
Get three cards, of which two are black, and one is red.
Your pal holds the cards.
Choose a card.
Your pal flips over a black card that you did NOT pick.
Stick with the card you picked.
Record whether you won or lost.
Repeat 30+ times.

Now repeat, but this time switch cards.

By your logic (which I understand), sticking with your initial pick should give you approximately a 50% success rate. After all, it's the same as choosing from two cards, right? But it's not. It's a continuation of the original probabilities. I guarantee that in this case you'll win more times when you switch than when you stick.

Better yet, write a computer simulation to do the above a million, jillion times (I expect Enron will have to do this).

If you still don't believe me, answer this:
Why should sticking with your first pick give you any better odds than your initial 1/3 odds?

Just plain Hot!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/112261

The meek shall rule the world. I wonder if I can find a gamer like that... maybe it'll make me get my interest back into games... heh

Nerds!

well..

the problem lies in trying to divise by 0. (a+b)(a-b) is 4 x 0, but b(a-b) is 2 x (2-2) and if you divide by zero, you can't. It's a Pentium III flaw and they recalled it back in 1997. (recalling arts chip please) hehe.

A for fun and games!
F for actual proof!

fAllacious Math. Its the blurstiest.

if 1/9 = .1 repeating (i.e. .1111111 forevAr)
and 2/9 = .2 repeating
3/9 = .3 repeating
8/9 = .8 repeating
does 9/9 = .9 repeating (i.e. .9999999 for3v4r)?

It all depends if you are a mathematician or an engineer.

Yeehaa D>M>'s dead.

Fun with math!

Hehe.. let those twist your noodle for a little while. =)

"Proof": 2 = 1
-2 = -2
4 - 6 = 1 - 3
4 - 6 + 9/4 = 1 - 3 + 9/4
(2 - 3/2)2 = (1 - 3/2)2
2 - 3/2 = 1 - 3/2
2 = 1

"Proof": 2 = 1
a = b
a2 = ab
a2 - b2 = ab-b2
(a-b)(a+b) = b(a-b)
a+b = b
b+b = b
2b = b
2 = 1

"Proof" that 1 + 1 = 1
a = 1
b = 1

a = b
a2 = b2
a2 - b2 = 0
(a-b)(a+b) = 0
(a-b)(a+b)/(a-b) = 0/(a-b)
1(a+b) = 0
(a+b) = 0
1 + 1 = 0
2 = 0
1 = 0
1 + 1 = 1

Yay for wasting time.. LOL.. took out a trusty quarter and got the following results in 60 flips:

22 heads
38 tails

We could conclude that picking tails every time any quarter is flipped will garner you a significant advantage, but that would fly in the face of what we know to be truth.

What were your testing parameters?

It's fairly simple, I would think. You set up two cards (perhaps one red, one black), face down.. with the assumption that your "third" (nonexistant) card has already been revealed as a "death" card. So, you can either stick with your card, or switch cards between the two remaining cards. Because you don't know what the two cards are that remain face down, the fact that previous cards were "wrong" cards is totally irrelevant. You could remove the two remaining cards, shuffle them randomly and lay them back down on the table and your odds would not change if you still selected the card on the "left" or the "right" as you had originally decided.

Your odds do not increase from switching cards when you must pick between the two.

The compound odds of flipping over two consecutive "wrong" cards are really what the math guys are talking about.. not the odds of selecting the "right" card in the second situation. It's the presentation that screws with your head.

Try flipping a quarter sixty times and see how many heads/tails you get. You're not likely to get 30 heads and 30 tails due to statistical deviation from a small data sample.

BTW.. am I the only one that still has to fight the urge to jump out of the room when the microwave is counting down to zero?

Fuck. Errs.

Yeah. It's not a sunk cost, it's a continuation of the original probability.

How big of a loser am I tonight? I just got three cards and physically did the experiment. When I stuck with the original card, I won 11/30 times. When I switched cards I won 18/30 times.

(Play "The Maths Theme" from Eric's D&D adventure... the same one where Enron stood around in the hourglass for some reason....)

Anyway I've had enough math for now, so here are some random pictures from my picture folder.

Arithameticulous

Yeah. It's "fun with maths".

My poker and business brain doesn't see it that way, though. You can't use sunk costs and lost costs to make future decisions, as they are irrelevant in practical use. The math nerds want to twist the theoretical numbers around to give you a brain cramp. And, I get what they/you're saying.

Fuckers rhymes with Smuckers.

~O.

BTW.. my Raiders board bretheren have voted to come to the Steelers game in Oakland on October 29th. Anyone interested in going? We're going to have a laid back tailgate with some kick ass BBQ, adult malted beverage and get a group-block of tickets for the game.

Hahahahaa! Did you post that after my post, meaning that you saw and responded to it in the three seconds between when I posted it and when I viewed the blog? Or did you post that before I posted, making it a brilliant piece of synchronicity???

I give it a 67% either way, and we should probably both stop lounging around on the Internet. :)

*waves hand*

I have no idea what you're talking about, fuckers.

I had to think about this fuckin' problem all day (not because I had to for work, really, but rather because there was not much to do). The logic that made me finally "get it" was by re-imagining the same example but using not 3 doors, but 100 doors.

You pick a door. Your odds of being right are 1/100.
98 doors are revealed to be wrong -- all but the door you picked, and one other door.
There are now only two doors left. But do you have a 50% chance of survival if you stick with the door you picked? No! In fact, most likely the door you initially picked was wrong, and the other door is one with the elven chainmail. Your odds that the door you initially picked was the right one, is STILL 1%.

It's the same shit when there are three doors. Your chances of guessing right out of three doors is 1/3. The same probability holds after one of the death doors is revealed.

It is non-un-counterintuitive as fuck, but I had to finally grudgingly admit it made sense. Apparently it was this huge deal back in the '90s (when the Demmycrats were in charge, and that was the biggest problem America had): behold the Monty Hall debate!

Moral of the story: It's always better to switch. With doors, as with genders that you have sex with. Fuckers sex partners!

you meant fuckers math, not fuzzy. sheesh.

Fuzzy Math Fuckers

The way the math works out has to do with the fact that you have to make two selections.. so it's kind of a trick question. Yes, the second choice you have to make is 50/50, but that's not really what was being asked, I'd wager. What they're probably asking is for a composite probability between your 1/3 and 1/2 choice.

Although, I'm still not sure how they figure changing doors increases your probability of picking correctly.

"... just fuck up whatever is behind the doors, Elven Chain mail included."

HAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

I hate statistics

Don't feel bad Aeryk because I would most likely join you in the pile of corpses in the Fuckers Room.

So if this is true:

-- 1 door has elven chainmail, 2 doors contain DEATH
-- After you make your preliminary pick, a DEATH door (that you did not pick) opens up

Then your odds of survival are 1/3 if you stay with the door you picked, and 2/3 if you change to the other closed door.

It's fucked up.

The odds of survival are probably more like 7/8 though if you kick down all doors, chop off the head of the girl you are trying to rescue, and tell the random merchant you meet on the road about your top secret mission!

Enron -- I emailed you my CLASSIFIED: SECRET list about the War Store order. Don't let these other dudes know about it, because the models I'm ordering, are so fucking explosive, it would fucking, make some of those guys, flip, their fucking lids!

a$$ho|3

Man with hair like that, you have to be a jerk! And by 'you' I mean the picture of the growling blond freak below me. It just goes without saying.

Now who's the jerk?!

D>M>

Are you going to take that shit from a fuckers-nutt with all that shit jammed up his nose? I mean you once fit $1.75 in quarters in your nose. You gotta stand up and be all the jerk you can be.

Ah, booo...

Now I feel like a jerk.

It's just cause I am insecure and don't really know the answer that I lash out at everyone else who does know.

I still say kick down all the doors and kill everything.

Or, we take off and nuke the entire Tomb of Horrors from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

The powers of deductive will

Just to spite you all, I choose the door in which death came out of. It is an illusion. Just like JP's skull and cross bones on the floor.

D>M>

Eric is right. About everything.

roflplzthx

Well, there's 3 doors, times 2 chances after you picked the first one gives you the number 6. 6 three times is 666, the number of the beast. I remember Witchboard 2 (maybe) had a rad professor type come up with a similar equation to come up with 666. If it works, um... er, roll on it!

I Can See The Future!

Before I answer, this is how I see this playing itself out: I will answer some stupid answer, then MAYBE another AT member will get in before Enron or Art. One, or the other will then explain fully the prob/stat answer in great detail. Then the other one will chime in to either a) agree with said post, and extrapolate further, or b) disagree, and extrapolate much further to prove their point. Then Rudy will say "roflplzthx".

Of course now that I have foretold the future, will it change?

My answer, and remember I went to El Camino: I think it matters not which door you choose from that point, you are down to a 50/50 at that moment in time. There is probably some shit that deals with the original 66/33 odds that is then blah blah blah based on the reveal of one half of the 66, but its all fuckers to me.

Besides, Dirk was a smart knight and chose the 4th door, that led to the princess and all the riches of the world. (Dragon's Lair Cartoon Reference)

Or, you could go Action Team Stylee, and kick down all the doors, and just fuck up whatever is behind the doors, Elven Chain mail included. No beholder, or chain mail, or Terrasque is a match for The Action Team!

I saw an interesting probability question today:

Let's say that you're on The Price Is Right (or something) and are presented with a choice of three doo... wait a minute, let's Action Team this up. Let's say you're in the Tomb of Horrors, in the fabled "Room of Fuckers." You have a choice of three doors. A magic mouth informs you that behind one of the doors is a fabulous prize, for example some elven chainmail, and behind the other two doors is DEATH!!!

You pick one of the doors, but don't open it yet. At that time, one of the doors that you did NOT pick opens, revealing that it contained DEATH!!! (In the form of a Beholder maybe? I dunno.)

At this point you have a choice. You can either stick with the door you picked, and open it, or you can switch your choice to the other unopened door, and open that one instead.

What should you do? Stick with the door you picked, or switch to the remaining door?

Can you survive the Tomb of Horrors Fuckers?

Maybe you guys all totally know the answer to this one already, in which case lolz @ me.

I felt dirty after watching that one.

2-shay! (I don't know how to spell in french too good!) Man, youtube is the fuckin' shit! I stare at that shit all day, then I feel pretty dirty afterword.

I'll see your dancing cheerleaders and raise you:

You Touch My Tra La La

An oldie but goodie, yes.

Captivating!

That chick was Miss finland 1977, and I thought she was kinda hot. The rest of the stuff was definitely D porn material chicks n dicks in space kinda stuff. Although, that made her song career, and it was probably the ragin cajun back in her days when anything on MTV was dope. Then again, look at Michael Hasselhoff.. maybe they like that kinda stuff in Europe. Cuz I want to love you tender, only if your not a pretender

Dancing Space-Cheerleaders! I dunno, definately captivating.

Yeah, I really liked that toilet gags. The first part was pretty good, but the friggin water-ski-shitter was friggin insane hahaha. You think it was totally real? Some of them seemed so non-pulsed by it all. Maybe it was just the shock.