Giving an application a window icon in a sensible way

Twisted · Dec 7, 2006

Oliver said:
Because they'd be reducing their posts alltogether.

You assume that where they would have posted a mixed helpful and nasty
post, they would then post nothing, rather than a purely helpful post.
Unless you can read minds, you don't know *what* they'll do. My guess
is they'll just post as rudely as they ever did, unfortunately.

there's something like high-tens-low-hundreds of helpful
posters here.

Which means the helpful-but-condescending ones can all drop dead
without making a dent in those numbers, unless they actually number in
the dozens all by themselves. If they do, then we have a larger
problem, perhaps a cultural problem, to deal with.

You didn't answer my question.

Yes I did. Your inability to read between the lines isn't my fault.
Reread it.

Once again, you're talking about "fault". You obsess too much with
"fault" and "blame" and "right" and "wrong".

I've been attacked! Obviously someone (NOT me) has chosen to make this
about "fault" and "blame" and "right" and "wrong", and equally
obviously I must defend myself on those terms. Numbskull.

blmblm · Dec 7, 2006

[ snip ]

If you really want to challenge your anger management skills, lurk in
comp.os.linux.advocacy until someone makes the claim that it's impossible to
use a Microsoft OS for more than a month without seeing a blue screen (and
it WILL happen eventually -- there are trolls lurking there too), and post a
reply saying that's not true, or that your experience differs. You'll get
into a pretty wild "debate". However, you'd probably be contributing to the
provokation of a flamewar, which may or may not be against your ethics.

Yeah. Apparently I can't always resist the temptation to participate
in -- well, *is* this a flamear? -- but it doesn't seem like the
best kind of post to be adding to my, um, permanent record.

Funny you should mention c.o.l.a., though. If I remember right,
for a while I did subscribe to that group, but eventually I decided
the signal-to-noise ratio was too low, and the noise wasn't even
particularly entertaining. I do still subscribe to another few
comp.os.linux groups, and I find that the browsing experience is
enhanced by killfiling all crossposts to c.o.l.a.

[ snip ]

I think experiencing emotions is like biting your fingernails: Initially
done subconciously, but you can learn to consciously stop. I actually
believe that you can't control your own thoughts (and thus people do not
have free will), but that's an entirely different topic: In as much as you
can control your own thoughts, you can control your emotions. Like biting
your nails, sometimes you'll get angry and only later notice that you're
angry. Once you notice this, (disregarding the free will issue), it is
entirely within your power to choose to stop being angry, just like it is
entirely within your power to choose to stop biting your nails. The only
issue is that sometimes people *don't* want to stop being angry.

You know, I think you might have a point here -- that you might not
have a choice about the initial reaction, but you do get to choose
whether you stay in that state or find a more pleasant or useful one.

[ snip -- interesting stuff, but we really are off-topic .... ]

blmblm · Dec 7, 2006

news:[email protected]...

[ snip ]

If you think "Patricia Somebody" is too snappy with newbies, then I
claim you are overly sensitive.

Sing it, brother. I don't read every post by every person, but the
posts of hers I've read have been uniformly helpful and articulate, and
I'm deeply impressed by how well she resists whatever temptation she
might experience to snap at the newbies or participate in discussions
such as this one. Now *that* is a "permanent record" to be proud of.

(And if she sounds like a teacher, or whatever the comment was, well,
hasn't she said she's in graduate school? so it's no surprise that
she writes like an academic, or maybe an academic-in-training.)

(Yeah. I got into this discussion by making a possibly ill-conceived
to defend someone else, and here I am doing it again .... <shrug> )

[ snip ]

Bent C Dalager · Dec 7, 2006

Bent C Dalager wrote:
[A whole load of BS]

The best strategy to avoid getting smeared by random strangers is to
ensure that your own standing is sufficiently strong that no one is
going to take them seriously anyway.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, if they attack you while you're a n00b, that strategy is
obviously not available.

You have yourself claimed to be a competent Java programmer. If this
is the case, then building up a good standing on this ng shouldn't
take much effort at all. Indeed, it would likely have taken _less_
effort than your ongoing defensive campaign already has.

Cheers
Bent D

Oliver Wong · Dec 8, 2006

Twisted said:
Oliver Wong wrote:

Which means the helpful-but-condescending ones can all drop dead
without making a dent in those numbers,

You're assuming that the topic of "Java" is small enough that if we lose
the condescending ones' expertise, the others can somehow fill those shoes.

Yes I did. Your inability to read between the lines isn't my fault.
Reread it.

I don't understand your answer then. Can you answer with either "Yes, I
meant 'ought to'" or "No, I meant 'must'"?

I've been attacked! Obviously someone (NOT me) has chosen to make this
about "fault" and "blame" and "right" and "wrong", and equally
obviously I must defend myself on those terms. Numbskull.

The fact that someone else is worried about fault, blame, etc. doesn't
mean you have to be.

- Oliver

Oliver Wong · Dec 8, 2006

Twisted said:
But I am. I will not change behavior that is not "wrong" in response to
coercive tactics designed to blackmail me into doing so and that's
final.

A butterfly flaps its wings. A hurricane flattens Galveston. Is it
sensible to blame the butterfly, even if the hurricane would have
missed or been weaker had it not done what it did when it did it?

It's funny that you talk about "blaming" the butterfly. Would I "blame"
the butterfly? No, because I don't care about blame, and I don't place
blame. Would I say the butterfly "caused" the hurricane, given that had the
butterfly not flapped its wings, the hurricane would have no happened? Yes.
It's this distinction because "cause" and "blame" that you seem to be having
problems grasping.

- Oliver

Oliver Wong · Dec 8, 2006

Twisted said:
Not in any posting that propagated to me. All I saw was a
http://...foo.pdf link and a http://...format=pdf link.

You snipped the part where I told you that an URL can contain the
substring "format=pdf" and yet not be a PDF file. Ironically, you also
snipped the part where I told you that you've dismissed this information as
being irrelevant before, and are thus doomed to repeat your mistakes over
and over again. I didn't think you'd fufill that latter prediction so
quickly!

[Insults me]

Go away and stop telling lies.

I deny that I've ever told a lie in this thread, but fine: I won't
knowingly communicate with you anymore. If I reply to your posts, they won't
be directed at you, but instead will be intended for the reading by
others -- possibly the general public.

- Oliver

Twisted · Dec 8, 2006

Oliver said:
You're assuming that the topic of "Java" is small enough that if we lose
the condescending ones' expertise, the others can somehow fill those shoes.