Useless Conversation

[HaemishM]

I actually thought the WWI series was the weakest of the lot. I thought first series was much stronger and approachable, if only from an aspect of making fun of Shakespeare.

[Bunk]

The first series is a little tougher, especially since that version of Blackadder is probably the most annoying - but half the scenes feature Brian Blessed, so that makes up for most everything.

The most shocking thing to me about the series, is watching it after watching Mr. Bean. It's such a dramtic 180 in the style of comedy.

The sound of hoof beats 'cross the glade / Good folk, lock up your son and daughter / Beware the deadly flashing blade / Unless you want to end up shorter / Black Adder, Black Adder, he rides a pitch black steed / Black Adder, Black Adder, he's very bad indeed / Black: his gloves of finest mole / Black: his codpiece made of metal / His horse is blacker than a vole / His pot is blacker than his kettle / Black Adder, Black Adder, with many a cunning plan / Black Adder, Black Adder, you horrid little man.

[Arthur_Parker]

They didn't really have a clue what they were doing during the first series.  There were moments of greatness but overall I thought it was very hit/miss, Blackadder was a sniveling coward, when they changed him to a sarcastic, sneering bastard in the later seasons, people liked him a lot more.

WWI was different again because historically what actually happened was difficult to top on the insanity scale.

[WayAbvPar]

Thanks for the heads up! I own the old VHS version, and have always wanted a DVD version. Yay!

And for any of you on the fence, you MUST watch it. Netflix it or whatever, but it is one of the funniest shows ever made.

[Arthur_Parker]

Fun read too.

http://www.suslik.org/Humour/FilmOrTV/BlackAdder/ba4-4.html

[Minvaren]

6 months of internal angst for taking off a CSR's head (and their manger's head too) - erased.

Your SIP/TLS profile is broken, ($provider_name).  Port 5061 is the standard, not "listen on 5061 and reply on 5060."  

[Lantyssa]

On a slightly different note.. FUCK YOU LIGHTNING.  Right before I got home yesterday a lightning strike hit a transformer or something (roommate said there was a second explosion after the nearby strike).  It friend the ethernet between my cable modem and my router, but nothing else.  So I could see the router, Comcast could see my modem, but no combination of wires would work while either was part of the network.

Now it's bed time.

[Sand]

Other than Monty Python and Benny Hill the only British comedy I'm familiar with is the sitcom where all the old people work in some department store or clothing shop. It was horrible and seemed to be on PBS every day every other hour. Is Black Adder better than that show?

[Lantyssa]

Dude, how can you hate on Are You Being Served?

[rattran]

Everyone should watch The Mighty Boosh and That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Just sayin'.

[Sand]

Dude, how can you hate on Are You Being Served?

Cause for an American it was about as funny as a funeral?

[Abagadro]

Now don't be hatin' on Mrs. Slocombe's pussy!

[NowhereMan]

If you really hate Are you Being Served I would assume you hate all puns or didn't get any because it didn't seem like the kind of show that would be ridiculously rude (i.e. the kind of stuff censors would happily put on at 3 p.m. on a Saturday because they don't actually realise the rude jokes are the ones that aren't obviously jokes).

It is however radically different from Blackadder, which showcased some of the best comedic writing and acting talent in Britain in the late 80's/90's era. The Christmas Carol special alone is worth watching, though is greatly improved if you're somewhat familiar with the characters. The WWI series (final one) is definitely quite different but that's mostly because they made an effort to actually capture the spirit of the period, for a comedy show with a lot of silly stuff they genuinely repected the tragic nature of the setting. Fuck WWI history lessons in the UK usually feature at least a couple of lessons where classes just watch Blackadder goes Forth. As has been said the first series is very different just because they didn't really know what they were doing with the concept, they changed up the balance of the characters with the others quite a bit.

If you like less traditional comedy have a look at Peepshow as well, it's Mitchell and Webb and the whole thing is done from the perspective of the two main characters and is ridiculously popular over here. I say this as someone who hasn't ever gotten into watching it, it's very good but doesn't quite click for me.

[Sjofn]

I fucking love Are You Being Served. Ingmar doesn't. Can this marriage be saved?


EDIT: By the way, anyone who hasn't seen any Fawlty Towers should do so immediately.

[IainC]

Also Big Train

[Lantyssa]

EDIT: By the way, anyone who hasn't seen any Fawlty Towers should do so immediately.

And only six episodes, so easy to watch it all!

[rattran]

I find Fawlty Towers to be mostly unfunny farce, bits bits of brilliance. It's painful to watch.

[Sjofn]

Then we can never be friends.


EDIT: Also it is 12 episodes, I believe.

[Murgos]

I don't remember Visual Studio as being this unfriendly the last time I used it.

Wtf, I just want to write a stupid console app.

#include <stdio.h>

"Ignoring stdio.h when looking for precompiled header files!  Did you forget to load stdafx.h?"

Huh?  Why?  What the crap is stdafx.h?

Where is build?  Hmm, not in commands bar, not in the quick buttons bar.  Oh, it's only if I right-click in the perfect spot.

The number of .dll files it tells me it's loading is unreal.  What the fuck is all this shit?  imm32.dll? lpk.dll? usp10.dll?  "Cannot find the pdb file?"

Fuckit!
install gcc
gcc stupid_cosole_prog.c
done.

[Lantyssa]

stdafx.h is the pre-generated header file which will be a part of your project.  If you add other header files to it and do a full recompile, they'll be added.

Build/Compile is under one of the menus.  I forget which off the top of my head, but the entire thing is dedicated to execution, linking, and debugging.

(I actually just used VS for the first time in ages last week.  The stdafx.h got me for a while.)

[Salamok]

Other than Monty Python and Benny Hill the only British comedy I'm familiar with is the sitcom where all the old people work in some department store or clothing shop. It was horrible and seemed to be on PBS every day every other hour. Is Black Adder better than that show?

You haven't seen the IT Crowd yet?  Just put life on hold, call in sick, whatever spend a day or 2 and go through em all.

I don't remember Visual Studio as being this unfriendly the last time I used it.
Wtf, I just want to write a stupid console app.

It is saying something that in this day and age it is easier to spin up a LAMP stack and whip up a web application than it is to compile and package an application for distribution on a development platform that has been around for almost 20 years.

[NowhereMan]

Other than Monty Python and Benny Hill the only British comedy I'm familiar with is the sitcom where all the old people work in some department store or clothing shop. It was horrible and seemed to be on PBS every day every other hour. Is Black Adder better than that show?

You haven't seen the IT Crowd yet?  Just put life on hold, call in sick, whatever spend a day or 2 and go through em all.

If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead style humour and appreciate geeky references then Spaced would also be highly recommended.

[ghost]

So I just got back from my trip to Disney World with the kids and wife.  It was an interesting trip.  Disney has service down to a science.  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge and got one of the rooms that looks out over the "savannah" so you can see the giraffes and zebras, etc.  If you have small kids it's pretty cool, but taking the bus to get everywhere can be a bitch if you have to take a stroller.  The crowds weren't too bad, for the most part, but I noted a couple of things:  1.  I was shocked at both how rude and how absolutely kind and giving people can be when you have small kids, 2.  A very high percentage of people ride those fucking scooters around, even if they obviously don't need them and could do with some exercise.  It won't be long until we are really living like the fatsos in Wall-E, 3.  Florida is fucking hot    and unbelievably humid compared to Texas. 

[Cyrrex]

So I just got back from my trip to Disney World with the kids and wife.  It was an interesting trip.  Disney has service down to a science.  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge and got one of the rooms that looks out over the "savannah" so you can see the giraffes and zebras, etc.  If you have small kids it's pretty cool, but taking the bus to get everywhere can be a bitch if you have to take a stroller.  The crowds weren't too bad, for the most part, but I noted a couple of things:  1.  I was shocked at both how rude and how absolutely kind and giving people can be when you have small kids, 2.  A very high percentage of people ride those fucking scooters around, even if they obviously don't need them and could do with some exercise.  It won't be long until we are really living like the fatsos in Wall-E, 3.  Florida is fucking hot    and unbelievably humid compared to Texas. 

My one and only trip to WDW a few years ago, the thing my wife and I noticed above and beyond everything else was how clean, orderly and well planned everything was.  Like you said, down to a motherfucking science.  Even the queue systems.  Every service business in the world could learn a great deal with how Disney does it.  And you never even see the people behind it.  Amazing.

[Merusk]

There's a huge network of underground tunnels, hidden passways and doors that make it so invisible.  There's a few specials around on it if you're interested and they do a behind-the-scenes tour.  I got to do it as part of the senior Architecture trip and I recommend it to anyone who's interested.  Fascinating how they move tons of daily garbage without anyone seeing it.

[Mrbloodworth]

Would be fun to have a group go at the same time. Then, we can get some matching shirts. 

[Ironwood]

First day back at work in over a year.

It fucking sucked.

[Sand]

So I just got back from my trip to Disney World with the kids and wife.  It was an interesting trip.  Disney has service down to a science.  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom lodge and got one of the rooms that looks out over the "savannah" so you can see the giraffes and zebras, etc.  If you have small kids it's pretty cool, but taking the bus to get everywhere can be a bitch if you have to take a stroller.  The crowds weren't too bad, for the most part, but I noted a couple of things:  1.  I was shocked at both how rude and how absolutely kind and giving people can be when you have small kids, 2.  A very high percentage of people ride those fucking scooters around, even if they obviously don't need them and could do with some exercise.  It won't be long until we are really living like the fatsos in Wall-E, 3.  Florida is fucking hot    and unbelievably humid compared to Texas. 

Any other tips? Food plan? Tickets? Discounts?

My wife and I are going in November.

[Mrbloodworth]

Do the free Food plans. Don't go crazy on your room, you won't spend much time there. Epoct is 2 days worth of park. Take rain jackets, wear worn in shoes. Do take advantage of the Magical express and other buses. Make sure you have reservations at restaurants ( This is a must ) the earlier the better.

[Lantyssa]

Florida is fucking hot    and unbelievably humid compared to Texas. 

Compared to West Texas.  Florida and Houston are about the same climate.

First day back at work in over a year.

It fucking sucked.

Gratz?

[shiznitz]

I will chime in too since we just got back as well.

I have three kids - 9b, 7g, 5b - who have a variety of ride tolerances.  We stayed at the Floridays Resort in Orlando because it was the top rated Orlando hotel on Trip Advisor and our two bedroom suite was $109/night (before all the taxes).  Staying off-resort meant we needed a car so we rented a Crown Victoria from Thrifty which was about half the price of the hotel.  Parking at any of the Disney parks is $14/day.  We went with the "one park a day" passes and got 5 days for the price of 4 by buying them at the Orlando Tourist Center.  We ate breakfast in the suite and packed lunch into the park (from local Publix supermarket) and ate dinner at Olive Garden (or other equivalent).

The last week of September is the best week to go - according to all our research - and this seemed to be so.  Lines were mostly 20 minutes or less except for some of the newest/best rides. I downloaded a nice app that updates wait times every minute or so based on app users submitting them.  This app was accurate to within 5 minutes 99% of the time.

We spent a full day each at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom.  For the first three, we usually left around 3 or 4pm and then came back for the 8pm-ish night time display after dinner and a swim at the hotel.  Animal Kingdom closes at 5pm.

For overall best experience I have to hand it to Animal Kingdom.  It is a good zoo and amusement park in one.  It is well designed with not a lot of backtracking required. I recommend going all the way to the Safari first thing and then working your way back.  Food variety was also pretty good here.  The Africa and Asia sections were well-differentiated and the strong food smells really added to the ambiance.

Hollywood Studios had two of our favorite rides: Star Tours and Rock n Roller Coaster. The two stunt shows are also well done, but you have to plan around their start times to avoid criss-crossing the park a few times (which is exhausting....) The first thing you MUST do in Hollywood Studios is run to the Toy Story ride and FastPass it immediately. We never did this ride because it was 60-90 minute wait times constantly.  By the time I went to FastPass it, FastPass was no longer available.  We missed the nighttime laser show because we were too tired to go back after dinner, but it is supposed to be quite awesome.

Magic Kingdom was good all around as well.  We could have done it more efficiently, but since it was our first one, I didn't understand the FastPass system (you can only have one outstanding ride FastPassed at a time) so I locked us out early on.  The boys loved Buzz Lightyear since you get to shoot at targets as you ride through it.  

Epcot has a real mix of dated rides (Captain EO starring a 1986 Michael Jackson!) and more modern stuff.  A lot of the rides have an educational/environmental brainwashing aspect to them that seemed to really suck the time away.  By 4pm, we had barely set foot in the country section and the kids were too tired to do the full circle of all the countries.  The light/fireworks show was the least impressive of the three.  It would have been really nice if my wife and I could have done the country circle without kids...

Overall, we liked the flexibility of driving in and out ourselves.  Dining options are plentiful with lots of different price points to choose from.  The convention center part of Orlando had plenty of high-end restaurants if that is what you like (which I do, but not with kids).  We really debated whether we would need the Park Hopper on our tickets but it really isn't worth the extra 50% cost if you are an occasional Disney visitor.  Each park will easily occupy you from 10-8pm.  We had very short lines for most things and we couldn't do everything in one day.

[Mrbloodworth]

My first trip was the last week end September, my second was the first week. For us, the first week was the best of the two.

[Ironwood]

First day back at work in over a year.

It fucking sucked.

Gratz?

Alas, No.

[SnakeCharmer]

What's a fair price for a very slightly used Herman Miller Aeron chair(s)?  As in used for 3 months by 120 lb secretaries?

[Viin]

Those are expensive chairs - $400 would be a good deal.