User talk:Tmtoulouse/Archive16

Fancy fonts

So now that Firefox 3.5 supports downloadable fonts with @font-face, we could provide (free as in speech) fonts from the server instead of relying on hacky things like images or listing 47 curly fonts and praying the user has them. There are three ways to do this:

1. upload the fonts to the server manually, make them accessible from the internet, and use src:url("http:/rationalwiki.com/fonts/stuff.ttf")
2. allow ttf uploads (this would require adding a line to includes/MimeMagic.php and includes/mime.types)
3. using the data uri scheme like this and this (it works) - no work needed server side, but the disadvantage is that base64 encoded content is about 25% larger than binary.

What do you think? Nx (talk) 09:26, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

1. Firefox 3.5 is buggy - sometimes when I edit a tab, I find myself in a new window (PS, I find it fucking incompetent when the so-called latest stable release isn't). B. Firefox is not MW. It is not the software the site runs on, it is software some people use to interact with the site. Every other browser will fail to show what is intended. 3. We don't need no stinking fonts (yet) - look, most of the good fonts are copyrighted. I have a couple hundred allegedly freeware ones on my machine, but I bet you don't have a single one of them on yours. And so on and so forth. Oh yeah, D. don't make the user download stuff so they can see your work. ħuman 09:35, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

PS, I think the line in the kendoll font tag: "Or Any Other Stupid Curly Font You Have Got" is hilarious. Although, I doubt any browser supports it. ħuman 09:36, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

The purpose of @font-face (which is part of css3, is supported by Firefox 3.5, Safari 3, Opera 10 and should be supported by Chrome since it's webkit, but isn't for some reason) is to solve the font problem, i.e. that users have to download stuff so they can see what the author intended. With Firefox adding support, this means that a larger percentage of viewers will see the font - and this can be a fallback, i.e. if the user doesn't have any of the fonts listed in Template:Kendoll, then a font is downloaded from the server, cached, and used Nx (talk) 09:46, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, you mean it's automated in "the majority" of modern browsers? Hell, I have FF 3.5 (as I said, buggy), and I still have funny boxes of numbers for things where I don't have the font. "should be supported by Chrome since it's webkit, but isn't for some reason" really, a web site should be readable no matter what crappy browser the viewer is implementing. That's why we did images at ten commandments instead of fonts - because no one would have the fonts installed. ħuman 09:52, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Who said it would be unreadable? If you don't have a browser that supports @font-face, it either uses a font you have installed on your computer, or the default font. Text in images on the other hand can't be searched, selected, copied or edited. Nx (talk) 09:57, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

(EC) And you're still seeing boxes because obviously the author has to specify a downloadable font with @font-face. Wikipedia has an optional gadget because WinXP's international character support sucks Nx (talk) 10:24, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

I didn't say "unreadable" and neither did you. Text images are only used here for effect. Granted they can't be "copied" etc., but you are arguing for implementing something the latest - buggy - version of FF supports. I'm arguing against that. I think my version of IE is like 4 or 5 (I really don't want to let MS muck with my computer to update it), if I had to default to that, I wouldn't get the effect. Anyway, I think we're arguing at cross-purposes, I probably "want" what you "want" - but web 3.0 isn't quite here yet. It will be soon, I'm sure we both hope. ħuman 10:10, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

"a web site should be readable no matter what crappy browser the viewer is implementing" :). I switched to FF3.5 because FF3.0 was giving me horrible slowdowns, and in my experience it is more stable than 3.0 - but this is irrelevant, since bugs will be fixed. I didn't have the Ten Commandments in mind here, but things like Phantom Hoover's or Publius's signature or Template:Ken (I didn't even know it was supposed to be curly, since I don't have those fonts on Linux). In the case of signatures for example, it would be nice to be able to search for the user's name (on a talk page with ctrl-f to find their posts), something which imagelinked signatures don't allow. Anyway, this question wasn't about using @font-face in specific places - whether we should replace the Ten Commandment images with text should be discussed at Talk:Ten Commandments. The question was how to implement it. I'd prefer to enable ttf uploads, but if Trent says no, I'm going to do the third option. Nx (talk) 10:24, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Since this has mostly been me arguing and whining with you, yeah, let's wait til Trent turns up and sees his orange box. As far as bugs, I prefer to install stable platforms, not fucked up ones, and I think FF 3.5 isn't quite there yet, so they shouldn't be presenting it as the latest and greatest. Otherwise, I have had no problem with their work. Anyway, I don't think we should expect our "customers" to upload fonts to read our stuff. But nighty night, it was fun wrangling! ħuman 10:48, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

The conflict here is about when to switch from our image approach to the @fonts-face approach, and can be resolved on a case-by-case basis, or when the time comes that browser support can be assumed. There is no reason not to implement potential solutions server side as long as we maintain backwards compatibility until Unity is reached with support. So I have no problem working on implementing this. I really don't want to implement it in such a way that requires direct action from a server admin, things work much better when RW users or sysops (pretty much synonymous) can implement things on their own. Let me take a closer look at the options you suggested. tmtoulouse 17:20, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Addendum to option two: it's also possible to disable mime type checking via $wgVerifyMimeType=false, so that adding ttf to the allowed file extensions is enough, and the patch to MimeMagic.php and mime.types isn't needed.

Otherwise the following changes are needed:

• In MimeMagic.php, in function doGuessMimeType around line 457, add the line with the comment "recognize ttf files" (00 01 00 00 00 is the ttf header)

		$headers = array(
			// Multimedia...
			'MThd'             => 'audio/midi',
			'OggS'             => 'application/ogg',

			// Image formats...
			// Note that WMF may have a bare header, no magic number.
			"\x01\x00\x09\x00" => 'application/x-msmetafile', // Possibly prone to false positives?
			"\xd7\xcd\xc6\x9a" => 'application/x-msmetafile',
			'%PDF'             => 'application/pdf',
			'gimp xcf'         => 'image/x-xcf',
			"\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00" => 'application/x-font-ttf', // recognize ttf files

			// Some forbidden fruit...
			'MZ'               => 'application/octet-stream', // DOS/Windows executable
			"\xca\xfe\xba\xbe" => 'application/octet-stream', // Mach-O binary
			"\x7fELF"          => 'application/octet-stream', // ELF binary
		);

• In mime.types, add "application/x-font-ttf ttf" to the end on a new line.

Nx (talk) 18:07, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Go for it, is MW going to fold this into future releases or is this something that will need to be manually entered by us in future upgrades? tmtoulouse 19:23, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Done. The patch file is ~nx/ttf.patch. Nx (talk) 08:07, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I've also enabled eot uploads for Internet Explorer's implementation of downloadable fonts, and had to add eot to the text/plain line in mime.types (I don't know if eot has a magic header to identify it, if it does, a similar patch could be written, but this works too) Nx (talk) 10:00, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Very nice. How do we upload fonts we want to use? Copy what you did at MediaWiki:Common.css? ħuman 08:21, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm expanding Help:WikiSig now Nx (talk) 08:26, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Could you test this in IE please? Nx (talk) 08:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Wait, you're doing "web development" and you can't even run IE yourself? Isn't that, well, sort of embarrassing? Because I am sure as hell am not gonna fire up that piece of crap (hell, I still have version like 6.0 or something) just to make sure you didn't break what you wrote. ħuman 08:54, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Last time I checked, IE wasn't available on Linux. Anyway, I didn't break anything, since it still works on Firefox, I just added support for IE's different way of doing things. Nx (talk) 09:15, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Broke Script is broke on IE. - π 09:17, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I thought you could run Windows in a window on Linux? ħuman 20:30, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I brainstormed an idea.

I'm sick and tired of Ken's shit. "Ole! Ole! Ole!", indeed. I was thinking of a way to punk him down and I came up with the idea for a RationalWiki channel on YouTube. Unnamed sources have agreed to provide input so it doesn't turn into a channel of suck, but suggessted I ask you before going any further.

I've already secured the user name RationalWikian. My aim is to produce videos in four categories: Science (for our Science articles), Snark (for pretty much everything else), Conservapedia Sucks (to highlight CP's wackaloonery with high ranking CP:WIGOs), and "Profiles in PWNAGE" (where CPians get burned by us or others, like SirChuckB's Jinxbaiting EPIC WIN). I will try to keep each video under 60 seconds in length (120 for more complicated topics) and function as a kind of highlight reel/advertisement for RW. Each video will link back to the covered page or pages and credit will be given to RWians who did the majority of the work on said page(s).

The main payoff would be if I could convince other rationalistic YouTubers (like Andromeda's Wake, dprjones, FFreethinker, and others) to push viewers to the channel, then they might be pushed to the site as well. So what do you say? Is this cool or not? The Foxhole Atheist (talk) 14:42, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

As long as you are not seeking specific "official sponsorship" from me or the site then it is perfectly fine with me. I try and avoid creating situations where things are presented as "what RationalWiki thinks" as our user base is opinionated and diverse. That would be my only issue. tmtoulouse 20:20, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Oh, no. That was never the idea. I agree that RW's diversity is its greatest asset and I want to emphasize that as much as possible. I just didn't want to take off and not get permission. Thanks! The Foxhole Atheist (talk) 20:37, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Review

I don't mind giving your exam a once over. Document reviews being a necessary annoyance in my line of work, I've done a fair few in my time. As long as you aren't expecting a technical review, since judging by the exam I doubt I know anything at all about the subject. I think you already have my email address. --JeevesMkII ^{The gentleman's gentleman at the other site} 18:46, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I am up for copyedits, although I am also ignorant of the subject matter. ListenerX^TalkerX 21:32, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I would be glad to do it also, having far too much free time on my hands. Evil time Phantom Hoover! 21:32, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I think I only have Jeeves e-mail, if you guys want to toss me an e-mail so know where to send? tmtoulouse 22:50, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I was going to offer proof-reading services but it looks like you may have enough volunteers already. Генгис^{You have the right to be offended; and I have the right to offend you.} 22:57, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

How long is it? Maybe we could each work on sections... ħuman 00:12, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm great at creating tyops - but also not bad at spotting others. I'll join in. But, as Human asks, - how big is it?--Bob^{Not Jim} 06:28, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

It's a shame someone deleted some troll's comments here. ħuman 06:49, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I am hard capped at 5 pages double spaced per question, so hard capped at 15 pages double spaced. I havent finished it all yet so might be less. If you are willing can you just drop me an e-mail? ttoulouse@gmail.com as I don't think I have everyone's e-mail address easily accessible. I appreciate all the offers, thanks! tmtoulouse 18:03, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I'll help. I sent you an e-mail. Hopefully it doesn't get lodged in the spam filter. Corry (talk) 21:15, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Waterboarding

Done any waterboarding lately, Trent? [1] Tell me, what would motivate a person to place themselves in this sitation, your sympathy for terrorists, or hatred of Dick Cheney? RobS (talk) 19:42, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Rob, you really shouldn't be taking psychoactive medications with vodka. --Kels (talk) 19:50, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

I suppose that a search for truth might motivate somebody.--Bob^{Not Jim} 20:34, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

I will make a deal with you, if you are actually interested in discussing this, and want to know my thoughts and motivations behind the waterboarding story I am more than willing to discuss it. But it looks to me like you are just trolling. I don't have time to waste at the moment feeding a troll. Come back and give at least one legitimate reason other than WND talking points about why I might have done it and we can talk. Otherwise, go waste someone elses time. tmtoulouse 21:13, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

TY. I am interested and mean no disrespect. Am not interested in wasting either of our time. I've never read anything about other than the WSJ (don't know of anything about a WND story on it). My reason is simply that it is somewhat unusual for a young person with impressive academic credentials to engage in an activity that is potentially lethal, or participate in an activity that places others in a potentially lethal situation. Now, if you think I'm trolling, you can dismiss this request by saying some people with impressive academic credentials use dope or give dope to others, and there's nothing unusual about that. But if you'd care to explain, as you have time, what motivated you to undergo such risks, I'd be interested in quietly listening. Thank you again. RobS (talk) 19:30, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

First of all, there was never really any risk of death or injury. Several important differences between actual waterboarding and what we did are that my friend was never confined in anyway. He was free to move and respond anyway he wanted. The incline of the slop was also fairly marginal and the amount of water used was also minimized. We took precautions to make it as safe as possible.

My friend who was waterboarded got his degree in film and worked in NY for about 5 years on various projects before getting sick of MTV promos. He is a fabulous artist, a good writer and all around creative and effective communicator. He wants to try and figure out ways to use visual media as a means for promoting social change and awareness. He was a few months out from starting his work in the Peace Corp in Uganda which he has about 6 months left on right now. We had been talking for almost a year about the various ways he might create projects and gain attention. He established a blog, learned to work with youtube and other social media. We decided to try a project before he left. A test run to see what might be possible for when he got back. We wanted to pick a major social issue that we felt strongly about, figure out how to present it in a visual medium such as film, and to see how much effect we could create from it. Waterboarding was a hot topic at the time, and a discussion about it over pizza elicited the question of whether it was torture or not. So that was what we decided to try our project on.

We video taped the procedure, set it up on various social networking sites, and started to push PR buttons to see how far we could get. As can be seen we were pretty successful in gaining widespread, though short lived, attention. We learned a lot in the proccess and when my friend returns from Uganda with his stories and experiences there I think we will be in a good position to really up the ante a little more.

So there is really two parallel tracks in the reasons for what we did. The first was the most superficial one, that we wanted to see of waterboarding was torture and to see if we could help shape the debate on the issue a little bit. The second was as a pilot project for a much larger endeavor, to learn how to maximize "viral marketing" and media exposure. tmtoulouse 20:00, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for such a candid response. So the initial two reasons I set out were perhaps in error. Would it be an unfair characterization to say it was motivated by some distant expectation of financial reward, or profit? Not so much social conscious raising, but rather promoting one's own career? Not necessisarily you, but rather your collegue. Thank you. RobS (talk) 20:58, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

In one respect I suppose you could say that, but its not exactly fair. My friend has chosen to pursue a goal of creating a career involved in helping people, raising social consciousness, and pushing the bounds of standard forms of communication. He is not in it to get rich, he is living off of banana mush and has to walk a mile when ever he wants to get some water to boil and try and drink. He hasn't been able to use a flushable toilette in two years. Ideally, he would be able to pursue his goals within the context of something that allows him to earn a living. Money is not the motivation, but without nothing can happen. Now what he might choose to do when he comes back I am not sure. Whether his "media for social change" becomes merely a hobby or something more remains to be seen. tmtoulouse 21:06, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Well thank you, this has been insightful. Perhaps your friend in the Peace Corps can take inspiration from Michael Savage who endured similiar circumstances as a young man and eventually became a successful broadcaster. RobS (talk) 01:03, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Looks like he thinks it incriminates you somehow. Mindless drug Hoover! 21:16, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

I've never done deliberately it but have experienced the sensation while swimming in a T-shirt. It's horrible - at least I was in control enough to be able to rapidly rectify the situation. There's no way I would volunteer to undergo it as an experiment. Генгис^{You have the right to be offended; and I have the right to offend you.} 21:24, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

RobS, it's obvious from reading the story why he did it. Three friends were having a discussion about whether or not waterboarding should be considered torture. One volunteered to be the subject of an experiment to see how it felt, in order to have a more informed opinion. I don't see anything wrong with that. What I do find disturbing is not that three people willingly chose to do an experiment among themselves, but that one man is apparently "stalking" Tmt. Just because someone participates at a wiki that holds a general viewpoint that is not in agreement with another wiki does not mean he should be the object of internet research. That's just kind of creepy. Refugee^{talk page} 03:21, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

And the accusation implicit in RobS' opening line is just stupid - and reminds me of RobS' tendency to chain together weird connections, the whole six degrees of commie bastards movie he wish he wrote, I guess. And the next sentence/question he wrote is just warped. Warped, I tell you. ħuman 04:50, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Rationalism at its finest. I'm not sure I'd have the courage, but kudos to those who do. Worm ^{(t | c)} 21:41, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

XSS vulnerability in MW1.14

There's an XSS vulnerability in MediaWiki 1.14 because the username is not escaped on Special:Blockip (and Special:VandalBrake, since the code is a copy from Blockip). Try this link: http://rationalbeta.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Block&ip=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%22bug%22%29;%3C/script%3E

Fortunately, MW doesn't allow < in usernames, so it's not that serious. I have applied this patch from MW1.14.1 to Special:Blockip and Special:VandalBrake on RationalWiki. Nx (talk) 13:24, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

So, what's a guy gotta do....

...to get 'cratted around here, anyways? Just curious as to what the criteria (or lack thereof) is so that I can set myself a goal.The Goonie 1 (talk) 06:31, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Suck up to the other crats? I don't know. tmtoulouse 06:32, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

The first criterion, as far as I can tell, is not to aspire to 'cratship. ħuman 06:52, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Bullshit Huw-man! I dun bin here foor munths now and I've showed no cratship aspirations and remain un-cratted! SJ ^Debaser 10:52, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

HA!!! I've been a sysop over a year now, and this was the first I ever spoke of being a 'crat, SuperJosh. Although, now that the Vicodin has worn itself off, my interest has waned significantly.The Goonie 1 (talk) 21:14, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Suck up to me; I'm capricious! Mindless drug Hoover! 21:16, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

GOONIE/JOSH FOR CRAT!!!! ^{— Signed, by: Neveruse513 / Talk / Block} 21:17, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I concur, take this up with PH. At best I am an absent leader, and certainly not the person to figure out such issues as who should be a 'crat and when. tmtoulouse 21:28, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

In short, you become a 'crat when a 'Crat walks into the saloon and says "Lets make this guy/girl a 'Crat!" and the crowd goes "YEAH!!!!". Aside from that.... no formal rules. ĴάΛäšςǍ₰ Over 2700 edits! Thats over 825! 18:12, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

What the hell

Why did you delete RA's talkpage? Mindless drug Hoover! 18:10, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Meant to delete a redirect and must have hit the talk page instead. tmtoulouse 18:20, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Magenta Shears loves to hear your input

Apparently, (s)he wants lots of feedback here. ħuman 08:00, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Blogspot

The site was down for about an hour this afternoon from between 2ish-4ish British time... I don't know what that is in whichever Canadian timezone you are, sorry. As such, I was wondering what the address was for the RW blog you set up last month for situations like that? SJ ^Debaser 16:12, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

http://rationalwiki.blogspot.com/ ħuman 20:41, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Aha! No wonder I couldn't find it I was googling "Goats of Herbonia". Thanks. SJ ^Debaser 18:32, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Re: Your buddy the film-maker and media as a way to increase awareness of human rights....

Does he know about the Guantanamobile Project? TheoryOfPractice (talk) 20:08, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually had not seen it. My involvement with his project got put on hold during his Peace Corp work. He gets back in Feburary and hopefully we will be able to move forward with some of the ideas we discussed before he left. tmtoulouse 22:40, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Enjoy your trip...

... and as for the blog which you mentioned in the Saloon Bar I'd reccommend leaving an intercom message on Tuesday before you leave to let everyone know about the blog. Holiday or business trip or other? SJ ^Debaser 22:37, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

My semi-annual trip "home" not sure you would call it a holiday. Though the fact that I have parted ways with some of the larger sources of drama and energy drains might make it more enjoyable. tmtoulouse 22:46, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I hope you have a great vacation! :-D Refugee^{talk page} 23:38, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, have the best time you can. Travel comfortably, and renew lapsed friendships. And drink lots of cheap gin. ħuman 02:36, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Phoenixwiki: thanks!

Thanks for getting things up so quickly and all you do for RW Sterile minefield 00:43, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

As above, you do a great job with an honorable mention to Pi and Nx. Ace McWicked^{Model 500} 00:52, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

What they said ^^^ thanks for everything you do in general Trent, maintaining the server and such. You're brill. SJ ^Debaser 12:24, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Yup, a big thanks Trent. It was actually excellent to take a break, even though we just ended up cluttering up another wiki or five. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 16:12, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I hope you think your trip home was worth it because leaving the server unattended has resulted in a great deal of distress for many people, not least Bob M's bank manager. Генгис^{You have the right to be offended; and I have the right to offend you.} 20:52, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

P.S. Thank goodness you're back. Генгис^{You have the right to be offended; and I have the right to offend you.} 20:52, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

eaccelerator

An automatic update borked eaccelerator and the site again. I forgot to check the php log because it wasn't in /var/log - I'll try to relocate it there, then I'll see what I can do about eaccelerator. -- Nx / talk 11:39, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I've made /var/log writable for all users and moved the php log to /var/log/php. -- Nx / talk 11:57, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I also installed policykit. I first thought this was causing the problem because syslog was full of policykit errors. Apparently this is a bug related to upgrading, and installing the policykit package fixes it: [2]

Chip In Donation Metre

How quickly is this supposed to update. You suggest 'real time' but I have evidence that it's not. Bob Soles 17:51, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I was going to email... but I have evidence too. –SuspectedReplicant^{retire me} 17:54, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

The pedant in me thinks this should be 'meter' but I could well be wrong. Either way - I'll be donating momentarily. Worm ^{(t | c)} 18:27, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Me three, although I suppose my donation could have been before the meter went up. --JeevesMkII ^{The gentleman's gentleman at the other site} 18:30, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Hell if I know, chipin has always seemed temperamental to me but its the easiest free paypal thing that I know of. At this point we are about $50 shy of my goal. Assuming the Canadian customs officials don't try and drop a $60 duty fee on me....tmtoulouse 18:39, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Blog status widget

Make a div with the id "rwstatus", then use this script.

It refreshes every 30 seconds, just edit setTimeout("rwstatus()",30000); if you'd like to change that.

Here's the code in easier to copy form:

---

function rwstatus()
{
  var req = false;
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    req = new XMLHttpRequest();
  } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
    req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
  if (req) {
    req.open("GET", "http://rationalwiki.com/widget/up.php", true);
    req.onreadystatechange = function()
    {
      if (req.readyState==4) 
      {
        if (req.status == 200) {
          if (statusdiv = document.getElementById("rwstatus")) {
            statusdiv.innerHTML = "<font color=green>Server online</font><br/>" + req.responseText;
          }
        } else {
          if (statusdiv = document.getElementById("rwstatus")) {
            statusdiv.innerHTML = "<font color=red>Server offline</font>";
          }
        }
        setTimeout("rwstatus()",30000);
      }
    }
    req.send(null);
  }
}

if (window.attachEvent) { 
  window.attachEvent('onload', rwstatus);
} else if (window.addEventListener) {
  window.addEventListener('load', rwstatus, false);
} else {
  document.addEventListener('load', rwstatus, false);
}

---

-- Nx / talk 19:18, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Arrgh there be happy birthdays to ye.

Congrats. - π 04:26, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, happy wrong number by the beach!Lord Goonie ^{Hooray! I'm helping!} 04:29, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Happy birthday indeed, we never knew upon which dae ye wre bourned! We did thaink ye mite have been maed of a maiden untrothed, of course. ħuman 06:46, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Happy birthday ye scurvey dog! -- Nx / talk 07:05, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

happy birthday from the home of pirate speak! Totnesmarrrrtin 09:13, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag! larron^{sicut fur in nocte} 10:18, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Bon anniversaire, Trent. Your birthday's the same day as an associate of mine... Well I think it's interesting... SJ ^Debaser 11:13, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Happy Birthday, Virgo. Junggai 21:36, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Hey.. me being late of happiness. it's a day before my brother's, I'll try to remember next year. NotHuman 05:42, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Belated felicitations! Mindless drug Hoover! 08:13, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all. tmtoulouse 17:21, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

So, what happened?

On friday I was able to acces the server from the botserver, but not from my home or from university (I could even access rationalwiki in lynx). Today it was completely unaccessible, even from the botserver. -- Nx / talk 16:38, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

While Trent was in church, the devil came into his house and spat on the server. Totnesmartin 16:49, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

How long was the server down?--Bob^{Not Jim} 17:03, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Seemed to be most of today, though I'm pretty sure I couldn't access RW last night too, so it may have been 12+ hours. Whether it came back up early morning GMT I don't know, recent changes was flooded pretty quick once I saw RW was back so it's difficult to say where the down time was. The tech-blog widget lied though, it still insisted that RW was up. ^theist 17:12, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Total downtime was around 6 hours. Beyond that I don't have anything new to report yet. tmtoulouse 17:21, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

If you've replaced the power supply and you're still having hardware issues, I'd suggest you take the server offline for half an hour sometime and run memtest86 on it. Bad RAM can often cause symptoms like the ones you're currently experiencing. --JeevesMkII ^{The gentleman's gentleman at the other site} 17:55, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

RW Meetup

--The Emperor _{Kneel before Zod!} 21:43, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Can you confirm your intentions to be in Chicago on October 16th? ^{— Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block} 19:32, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Don't discuss it publicly! Then TK will know where to send the sysops armed with largely defensive weapons of gun! Mindless drug Hoover! 19:34, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Don't discuss it publicly, then all the other RW nerds will want to show up! 19:41, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

My plan gets in on the 16th around noon assuming there is no delays. tmtoulouse 20:40, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Excellent. ^{— Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block} 20:59, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Where will you be meeting? Just curious. --The Emperor _{Kneel before Zod!} 00:31, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

You should write this up parodying the WikiMania events. - π 00:40, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Email broke?

Hey Trent, I have asked for about 6 email confirmation notices in the last week and I still have not received one. Is it broked or something? - π 01:24, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

You know, I think the same thing happened to me. I'll send one to Pi now.--Bob^{Not Jim} 07:11, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Or I would if I could see the option on his page.--Bob^{Not Jim} 07:16, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Bob, I've sent you an email. Try emailing me -- Nx / talk 07:21, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Check you spam folder. Gmail decided it was spam for me. -- Nx / talk 07:22, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Ah my spam box is full thanks, Nx. - π 07:55, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Do the emails look like they were sent from your email account? I used the "email me a copy" feature and gmail put the email into spam because it suspected forgery. I think we should change the emailing system to use rationalwiki's email address (the one that sends talk page notifications and stuff) when sending these too. -- Nx / talk 07:58, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

I have yet to receive your very important Email Nx. I'll try sending to you.(It's not in spam)--Bob^{Not Jim} 08:03, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

I can now send and receive emails of any importance. - π 08:04, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

I have nothing yet. Should we copy/paste this to technical support to keep everything in one place?--Bob^{Not Jim} 08:12, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Check it

Check this out! It's my response to something Kenny boy directed at you.The Spikey Punk ^{I'm punking my punk!} 05:06, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Uploading from url

$wgAllowCopyUploads makes it possible to upload an image by pasting the url into the upload form. It needs php5-curl which isn't installed on the server. I imagine it's disabled by default because WP doesn't want people copying images from all around the interwebs, but I don't see any reason not to enable it. Also the ability to upload images this way is only given to sysops by default. What do you think? -- Nx / talk 08:59, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

I've installed php5-curl to spoof the referrer using http://www.rationalwiki.com/redir.php?url=example.org, because Jinx was redirecting links from RW to goatse. -- Nx / talk 20:03, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Oye

Hello, I haven't seen you around in a while all is well I hope? - π 03:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Yep, all is well, just busy playing catch up from Chicago and trying to start up some new experiments. I am usually lurking around here or there but don't have much time to invest to writing on RW till summer comes round. tmtoulouse 04:40, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I need to spend less time lurking, because the moment I see something, I start editing and then I lose the time I should be writing. I hate writing. I think my problem is I have done all this work and I still can't find the question I have answered. - π 04:56, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

"I have done all this work and I still can't find the question I have answered." ought to be in the random RW slogan rotation. ħuman 06:12, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

To answer your question

No. The Saloon bar is large, edited often and capture tags are usually not used on it. It would be a waste of resources. -- Nx / talk 23:56, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

No problem. Was more an idle wondering than anything, thinking in the comment box if you will. tmtoulouse 23:58, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Brainz

problem

quick test rendering

This is the best I could do, unfortunately a portion of the skull remained at the rear. Have you had any better luck with Freesurfer? -- Nx / talk 10:08, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

The left hemisphere is done, the right should be done this afternoon and I can put them together and make a whole brain! Here is my lefT:

It is a different style from yours, not sure which is better, but the skull seems to be properly stripped from my rendering. tmtoulouse 15:28, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

And here is the whole brain:

tmtoulouse 15:37, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Those are looking good, I think Trent's needs to a be a bit lighter though. PS, when uploading these, be sure to mark every single version as protected by copyright, otherwise an argument could be made that they are CC by SA once on the wiki. ħuman 21:11, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Here's the new one using Trent's brain. There's a high res version too.

I've also uploaded the logo to rwbeta

Trent, go ahead and edit the image descriptions to claim copyright. -- Nx / talk 02:58, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, and we haven't decided on including any text yet, I added that just for kicks -- Nx / talk 03:01, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

That looks very nice Nx. Too bad "hot" and "science" aren't equal-length words :( I'd say drop them, and that makes some whitespace between the image and the "RationalWiki" text? Although I do love that slogan... some of this will probably require, in the end, some headless chicken voting mode and 56k on the saloon bar. ħuman 03:14, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

PS, should the brackets be solid black for the 135x135 logo version? ħuman 03:16, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I think the 3d brackets look better, and the reason they are not black is lighting. If they were black you couldn't see the 3d-ness. Anyway, here's a flat version for comparison. -- Nx / talk 03:26, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, excellent work. My thoughts, I like the 3d brackets for sure, but think they should be a little taller, and maybe moved up in the zed direction so they hover more in the middle of the brain? tmtoulouse 04:00, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

3D brackets good for hi-rez (t shirts, coffee mugs, superbowl blimp), not so good for 135x135 wiki logo thing. Suggest two versions. Also hi-rez should be far bigger than 800x800, try 2400x2400? ħuman 04:49, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Meixperiment

Nx would you upload a different version if i asked nicely? -- =w= 03:18, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Define different version -- Nx / talk 03:26, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I wondered what it would look like with a slight purple tint on the brain. I always thought purple was the RW color. I don't know why. -- =w= 03:28, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

That's because purple (and green) are my favorite colors, and I bent Trent arm till it almost broke, and everyone else's, to impose my fashion sensibility on the site. By the way, that purple brainz fucking rocks. Can we now haz green brackets? ħuman 04:39, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Purple brains for MeiWiki. Green brains for HumanWiki. Pink brains for PinkWiki. -- =w= 04:48, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

more like pink

thnx.

BUT

Darker! Darker! -- =w= 03:44, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

FF00FF tends to look more pink than purple (see my sig...). darker (ff88ff) or bluer (cc44ff) usually looks "purpler" (I think...). ħuman 04:51, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Send it to the Party Labs

I'm going to guess that the "copyright" thing means I can't shoop this for parody purposes on RationalWikiWiki? --The Emperor _{Kneel before Zod!} 03:46, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

True parody is a fair use criteria, and within reason I won't bitch about RWW using the logo. tmtoulouse 03:49, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Welcome

Welcome to MeiWiki, Tmtoulouse. Please see this political leaflet and this badge of support, which you should adopt as soon as possible. Vote for Mei.

Would you like a special MeiWiki title? You can be a cardinal probably. -- =w= 03:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I prefer secular equivalents, which would be what, a viscount? tmtoulouse 04:52, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

My bicycle is a Viscount. I suspect you'd prefer a discount. ħuman 05:00, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

New Logo

I wanted to add the site's name at the top of the recent changes text. What is the font that was used in the logo? - π 00:19, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Batang. tmtoulouse 06:23, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Cheers. I'll get on with that later. - π 23:10, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and while we're on about it. Has the favicon been updated, it looks the same as the old one. ^theist 12:47, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Does it need to be? tmtoulouse 17:46, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Don't know, really. It'll probably not look too different but I figured if the idea was to control the logo/brand much more, I figured the favion was part of it. ^theist 17:48, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah, yeah, good point, its using the copyrighted image isn't it? I hate, hate, favicons...........someone wanna do it for me? Please? tmtoulouse 17:51, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

File:Brainicon.xcf (I've added xcf to the allowed file types, MW can't use them as images though). I've changed the favicons in www and www/wiki to this, the originals are also there if you want to change them back. -- Nx / talk 18:27, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

The favicon looks kinda indistinct - I don't think the new logo renders well at that small resolution. Maybe we could keep the old one for the favicon. Would having a public domain favicon really be a problem? Щєазєюіδ^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 23:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

It might work better to get Blender to render it at that res rather than just reducing it. Alternatively, just make a simpler version or use only the top-left quarter of it, the favicon doesn't have to be the exact logo. ^theist 23:17, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

What happened to "ceiling cat"? The cat that looked down when someone forgets to log in before posting? I see he is missing from the notice now. I miss him. :-( Refugee^{talk page} 19:03, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

It does mean that TV Trope's article is now out of date. But I think it's worth cutting the memes, the entire thing works if you're an existing editor and need to be reminded that your IP will be displayed, but for people just appearing out of nowhere, it's unprofessional and frankly stupid. ^theist 19:11, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Pi removed the cat. I was going to dispute it, but since I usually access RW from the same computer & stay logged in, I almost never see that box anyway. Щєазєюіδ^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 19:22, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

RIP Ceiling cat. :-( Refugee^{talk page} 19:43, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

I was less than enthused about that, too. ^{— Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block} 19:52, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

I miss it as well. There's something to be said for the site having some personality... also, it's a lot funnier than that simple "caution" triangle. ħuman 21:31, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

The warning triangle is lame & makes us look like a WP clone. We should replace it with something personable. If Ceiling Cat is not favoured, then maybe Kels's eye drawing. Щєазєюіδ^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 19:16, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Now Kel's eye I like. - π 08:24, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Favicon

I couldn't find the discussion so I'm sticking it here. The new favicon is awful. Please revert, so what if it's CC by SA? It's tiny, after all. Or, we need to rethink it. "RW" over a light grey brain? Also, the lack of transparency makes it even worse. The old one had that problem too, of course. ħuman 04:54, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

For discussion, see section above, most notably my complete abdication of responsibility or interest in it. tmtoulouse 05:07, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Let's discuss this on File talk:Brainicon.xcf (or perhaps somewhere else?) -- Nx / talk 15:02, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

monobook_adfree

Did you reenable that? It's still broken and IMO a gadget would be a better solution if we reintroduce ads. (I'm assuming the ads can be display:none'd away). I moved monobook_adfree.php to monobook_adfree.bak to disable it and switched the two users using it over to monobook. -- Nx / talk 14:59, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Nah, the adfree thing is just a relic and removing it is not a problem. There are no plans to add ads to the site anytime soon. tmtoulouse 18:26, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

DPL

DPL is causing a mysql lockup so I had to disable it. The source of the problem seems to a query like this:

select rev.rev_id from rw_revision as rev where rev_timestamp = (Select MAX(rev_aux.rev_timestamp) from rw_revision as rev_aux where rev_aux.rev_page=rev.rev_page);

This is probably not a very optimal query, but regardless it worked before. Did you change anything recently that could cause this? Perhaps it's just that the revision table passed a certain length so now it breaks MySql because of some memory limit or something. -- Nx / talk 23:30, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Server crashed a couple nights ago, and crashed the database, so I optimized and repaired it, that would be the only thing I have done recently. tmtoulouse 03:59, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Ceiling cat Fearless (bored) leader says: "fix it on your own". ħuman 06:15, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

I think I know how to fix the query, now it's just a matter of fixing dpl so that it generates the correct query every time. -- Nx / talk 07:17, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I think I have fixed it. I've reported a bug. -- Nx / talk 08:10, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Nice work, I appreciate it. Have some follow up via e-mail I will send along. tmtoulouse 08:14, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Ceiling cat is happy now, thank you. Everyone loves everyone. ħuman 10:06, 28 November 2009 (UTC)