Where Science Went Wrong (hilarious web site)

David Mitchell wrote:
On Fri, 14 May 2010 14:06:58 -0700, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
I just checked the browse tab I have open to see if chapter 21
has been released yet. I have done this too many times already.

No, it has not been. And if it were, I would be crying for
chapter 22.

I've just signed up, so I can receive a story alert. I'll post here
if/when that happens.

And for anyone else who hasn't checked it out yet: do. Oh, do. I am having
an average of two entirely uncontrollable giggling fits per chapter (and the
"Omake Files" bits-and-pieces chapter nearly killed me).

That URL again (yes, I know this sounds like an aluminum siding commercial):
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/...of_Rationality

Dave "be SURE to also read the disclaimers at the top of each page, as you go"
DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeableBLINK
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

In article ,
Martin Brown said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though: http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2543'.)

-- wds

In article ,
(Derek Lyons) said:

David Johnston wrote:

It is fundamentally fallacious to regard the "environmental
movement" as an individual who has been saying things in the
first place.

And no less fallacious to do the same with regards to "big oil and
the fossile fuel lobby groups".

I don't know about that. The "environmental movement" is pretty
inchoate, with no official leadership and anybody with a big mouth
can be a member; "big oil" on the other hand is a relatively small
and identifiable set of (corporate) entities, and there's a bit of
an entry barrier.

That's not to say that "big oil is a monolithic bloc" isn't
fallacious, but I think it's a lot _closer_ to being one than is the
"environmental movement" (when speaking or acting on matters that
affect the industry as a whole, of course).

-- wds

On May 15, 6:17*am, (William December Starr) wrote:
In article ,
(Derek Lyons) said:
David Johnston wrote:

It is fundamentally fallacious to regard the "environmental
movement" as an individual who has been saying things in the
first place.

And no less fallacious to do the same with regards to "big oil and
the fossile fuel lobby groups".

I don't know about that. *The "environmental movement" is pretty
inchoate, with no official leadership and anybody with a big mouth
can be a member; "big oil" on the other hand is a relatively small
and identifiable set of (corporate) entities, and there's a bit of
an entry barrier.

That's not to say that "big oil is a monolithic bloc" isn't
fallacious, but I think it's a lot _closer_ to being one than is the
"environmental movement" (when speaking or acting on matters that
affect the industry as a whole, of course).

It may well be that some oil companies have more sense than to try to
argue against global warming science, just as some cigarette companies
might have had more sense than to get themselves embroiled in trying
to fight the medical evidence linking cigarette smoking to lung
cancer.

But to denounce the fact that there are some scientists who are funded
by some oil companies, and who make up a significant part of the
attempt to make it seem as if global warming is controversial among
scientists is no fallacy.

Nor is it fallacious to denounce a major segment of the environmental
movement that always focuses on conservation and reducing consumption,
and never on alternate ways to meet demand for energy that don't
impose limits - like nuclear power. One can't help but suspect that
this segment of the environmental movement includes people who aren't
desperately afraid that China, or North Korea, or al-Qaeda, or Iran,
or even Russia might grow in strength and cause greater harm if
anything were done to limit the economic and military might of the
United States.

John Savard

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In ,
Martin said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

In article ,
Gene Wirchenko wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In ,
Martin said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...ail.aspx?entry
ID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

It is, in fact, because there's an apostrophe at the end of the URL.
Remove that, and the URL works.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

Mike Ash wrote:

In article ,
Gene Wirchenko wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In ,
Martin said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...ail.aspx?entry
ID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

It is, in fact, because there's an apostrophe at the end of the URL.
Remove that, and the URL works.

Which shows what incredibly bad software is supporting the thing.

The scary part is that it isn't all that unusual.

--
"Vengeance is mine" saith Montezuma

On Sun, 16 May 2010 06:53:23 -0600, noRm d. plumBeR wrote:

Mike Ash wrote:

In article ,
Gene Wirchenko wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In , Martin
said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not
the whole tool. It still sufficed
though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...lopedia/entry-
detail.aspx?entry
ID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the
current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

It is, in fact, because there's an apostrophe at the end of the URL.
Remove that, and the URL works.

Which shows what incredibly bad software is supporting the thing.

The scary part is that it isn't all that unusual.

The tinyurl link worked OK.

As far as the linked-to page is concerned, while I feel sorry for the two
airmen who were blown up (one survived, one didn't), it sounds like they
didn't fully appreciate the risk. If I found that an enclosure was full
of a fuel/air mixture, I wouldn't sit down at the edge of the enclosure
to wait for my ride, I would get as far away from it as possible. I did
once have to deal with a propane leak inside a factory; I opened several
overhead doors for ventilation (manually, not using an electric hoist),
then got outside as quickly as possible. Had the concentration been as
high as what the two airmen found, I wouldn't have taken the time to open
the doors, I would just have run for my life.

--
John F. Eldredge --
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

In article ,
"noRm d. plumBeR" wrote:

Mike Ash wrote:

In article ,
Gene Wirchenko wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In ,
Martin said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...detail.aspx?en
try
ID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

It is, in fact, because there's an apostrophe at the end of the URL.
Remove that, and the URL works.

Which shows what incredibly bad software is supporting the thing.

The scary part is that it isn't all that unusual.

There's nothing incredibly bad about this. It's perfectly normal to
error when you try to load a URL that doesn't exist. A really good
system might notice that the URL is very close to one that does exist,
and redirect you, but failing to do so does not make a system bad. This
particular system's failure mode is not pretty, and it really should be
more graceful, but that's just slightly bad, not "incredibly bad".

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On 5/16/2010 7:25 PM, Mike Ash wrote:
In ,
"noRm d. wrote:

Mike wrote:

In ,
Gene wrote:

On Sat, 15 May 2010 13:56:37 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 15/05/2010 12:55, William December Starr wrote:
In ,
Martin said:

The guy with the spanner was just a bit unlucky and a victim of
Murphys Law - the spanner really did fall where it could do most
damage.

Could've been worse. Could have been in a Titan II missile silo.

(Okay, that was actually just the socket from a socket wrench, not the
whole tool. It still sufficed though:http://tinyurl.com/2u6ly2,
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...detail.aspx?en
try
ID=2543'.)

True to form where Murphy's Law is referenced that URL said:

smirk

Error converting data type nvarchar to int.
[snip]
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the
exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
[snip]
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603;
ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

Don't you just love MickeySoft product reliability!

It appears to be an application programmer error.

It is, in fact, because there's an apostrophe at the end of the URL.
Remove that, and the URL works.

Which shows what incredibly bad software is supporting the thing.

The scary part is that it isn't all that unusual.

There's nothing incredibly bad about this. It's perfectly normal to
error when you try to load a URL that doesn't exist. A really good
system might notice that the URL is very close to one that does exist,
and redirect you, but failing to do so does not make a system bad. This
particular system's failure mode is not pretty, and it really should be
more graceful, but that's just slightly bad, not "incredibly bad".

The point is not the error, but that it was unhandled, even though
calling for a nonsense index is a typical attack.

really, the host script should have vetted for sanity before sending it
on to the data server.