08/31/09 [AS2 #67] - Curse you Change!

[Scarydragon]

I did not use the tag "Shi" out of a sense of political correctness.

I hate to be a smart ass, but you said 'hir' not 'shi'. Also:

...I've just spent an hour and a half rewriting the same paragraph to convey how upset I am over your referring to my terminology as "excessively stupid"

I don't think this was a direct criticism on you, but rather a personal opinion on all wacky gender neutral pronouns that pop up in these situations. Also, remember that this is the internet, and that it's unwise to take anything you find here too seriously. And lastly:

...and on a completely unrelated note, how did you get your avatar icon to rotate every time the page loads?

Magic Box Powers.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I love how this comic is bringing out all the random, weird, excessively stupid and overly politically correct optional gender tags that anyone feels might be appropriate.

I've suddenly realized why your post has been bothering me so much. I did not use the tag "Shi" out of a sense of political correctness. I did it because that was the term I was most familiar with. When I came across the Chakat's Den nearly 15 years ago (I wasn't very interested in the site's contents then or now, but that isn't the point), it was my first experience with the concept of a hermaphrodite, or any non-standard gender. "Shi" is what they use, so "Shi" is what I use.

There is no official "Standard" for non-standard gender configurations. ...I've just spent an hour and a half rewriting the same paragraph to convey how upset I am over your referring to my terminology as "excessively stupid", while trying not to fall into the trap of unofficial moderation, which is against the rules, or starting a flame war by accident. At this point, I give up. I'm going to bed. I'll have forgotten the whole blasted thing by tomorrow anyway.

I apologise - I wasn't thinking about the "shi" terminology (which, I will grant you, is reasonably usable, and fairly well thought out - although I deplore the need for such terminology when there are already language constructs to cope) but more the post one up from yours, which used ve and vim. :-/

I will note that while Chakat's Den uses hir, shi, etc, Lois McMaster Bujold has been writing about a hermaphroditic character since about 1986 or so, and has used standard "he" and "she" all the way through, depending on what said character happens to feel like being at the time (he has a crush his commanding officer, and happens to be captain of a mercenary ship... so while running the ship tends to be "male", whereas while flirting, he's "female". So to speak. But I digress...)

And, as Tapewolf mentions, it was a personal opinion, rather than moderator commentary. I do try to make sure the two are kept separate, but, as also mentioned, it can be difficult to tell sometimes. I'm always happy for someone to ask for clarification, though; I'd much rather someone said "hey, I don't understand, can you explain" than, from my perspective, ignoring me when I'm making Administrative Edicts. The former is just a chance to talk more (and my post count should explain that) whereas the latter requires me to do more work, setting up a ban, notifying the other admins, checking the ban works and doesn't hit anyone else, checking IP addresses, doing whois lookups, etc etc.

Once people begin to disobey you it's nothing but work work work... ;-]

...and on a completely unrelated note, how did you get your avatar icon to rotate every time the page loads?

I have a cgi script running on my webserver which returns a redirect to one of the multiple images I have, also hosted on that same webserver. I can provide you with more details if you're really interested...

I hate to be a smart ass, but you said 'hir' not 'shi'. Also:

Hir, shi, shim. It's a range covering he, his, him or her, hers, she...

[Scarydragon]

I hate to be a smart ass, but you said 'hir' not 'shi'. Also:

Hir, shi, shim. It's a range covering he, his, him or her, hers, she...

I hadn't thought of it that way. Besides, I was lying anyways. I love being a smart ass.

[Kuari]

...I just noticed....  we haven't seen Change's clan symbol...  yet we've seen a good portion of Change.  I can't help but wonder where the symbol is.

Most likely, since most symbols we've seen have been red, Change's clan symbol is the marking overlapping his/her eye.

If we see it again, that's the likely case scenario...  but I only remember seeing three clan symbols so far for certain...  1 red, 1 pink, 1 blue.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hir, shi, shim. It's a range covering he, his, him or her, hers, she...

I hadn't thought of it that way. Besides, I was lying anyways. I love being a smart ass.

As starcat5 said, Chakat's Den is a collection of stories, and that's the terminology they've come up with to refer to hermaphrodites. I'm... ambivalent as to the need for such a thing, but since they've been consistent about it, they at least get points for that.

And yes, I'd about figured you might enjoy being a smart-arse. ;-]

[Dagardo]

I seem to notice something resembling a bite mark on Fi's tail in the top panel. Either that or I'm out of it, my mind that is.

You're out of your mind. The tail is completely unmarked.

Yes, it is now, but when i first saw it there was indeed some portion of the tail missing, or something to that effect. Which can only mean, it was edited. I'm not crazy, I know what I saw.

[Scarydragon]

As starcat5 said, Chakat's Den is a collection of stories, and that's the terminology they've come up with to refer to hermaphrodites. I'm... ambivalent as to the need for such a thing, but since they've been consistent about it, they at least get points for that.

Oh, I've heard the terms before. I just honestly didn't think that that's what starcat5 meant in... er... 'their' post. I guess my literal-minded smart-arse-ness got the better of me, as it usually does.

[Starcat5]

As starcat5 said, Chakat's Den is a collection of stories, and that's the terminology they've come up with to refer to hermaphrodites. I'm... ambivalent as to the need for such a thing, but since they've been consistent about it, they at least get points for that.

Oh, I've heard the terms before. I just honestly didn't think that that's what starcat5 meant in... er... 'their' post. I guess my literal-minded smart-arse-ness got the better of me, as it usually does.

For the record, I'm a guy. Both physically and mentally.

[JackTheCubiWolf]

I like Change. He/she is good in my book.

[Janus Whitefurr]

Relevant in part to this thread's interests. At university today I was dropping off something in the Arts building main foyer, and glanced at the subjects/rooms map on the way out.

The Arts Building has "Transformation Studies".

Hee hee.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

For the record, I'm a guy. Both physically and mentally.

... and, more to the point, in your profile. ;-]

[ChaosMageX]

...and on a completely unrelated note, how did you get your avatar icon to rotate every time the page loads?

I have a cgi script running on my webserver which returns a redirect to one of the multiple images I have, also hosted on that same webserver. I can provide you with more details if you're really interested...

I'd certainly be interested, but only if there is a PHP version of the script, as I highly prefer PHP over CGI.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It'd be reasonably trivial to write it in php; it's not a massively complex script.

It is, however, written in perl. Sorry about that.

[LionHeart]

Relevant in part to this thread's interests. At university today I was dropping off something in the Arts building main foyer, and glanced at the subjects/rooms map on the way out.

The Arts Building has "Transformation Studies".

Hee hee.

Sounds like something from El Goonish Shive.

[hapless]

Trivial is a good description. Something like

Code Select Expand


<?php
$filelist = array(
"file1.jpg",
"img54.png",
"whatever.gif"
);
header("Location: " . $filelist[mt_rand(0,sizeof($filelist)-1)]);
exit();
?>

should work.

//h

ED/PS: Long ago, before I heard of HTTP 302 Found, i wrote a php script that fopen()d randomly selected avatar, header()d proper Content-Type and Content-Length, and finally spewed the binary. Fortunately, I won't repeat that mistake ever again.
ED2: Hey, that's not fair! I was trying to make it as simple as possible!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I believe the original code (from http://www.ftls.org/cgi/) has slightly more functionality:

Code Select Expand


######################################################################
# Necessary Variables:                                               #
# The following variables should be set to define the locations      #
# and URLs of various files, as explained in the documentation.      #

$RandomTextFile = "/path/to/randimg.txt";

$BaseImgURL = "http://llearch.net/me/";

#Options:
$UseLog = 0;      # Use Log File ? 1 = YES; 0 = NO
$LogFile  = "/path/to/randimg.log";

# Nothing Below this line needs to be altered!                       #
######################################################################

        srand(time);
        open(LINKS,"$RandomTextFile") ||  &Error("Cannot Open Links File : $RandomTextFile, Error $!\n");
        $NbLines = @IMGFile = <LINKS>;
        close(LINKS);

        $Url = $IMGFile[int rand $NbLines];

        if ($UseLog) {
                @date = localtime(time); $date[4]++; $date[5] += 1900;
                $Time = "$date[4]/$date[3]/$date[5]";
                open(LOG,">>$LogFile") || &Error("Cannot Write Log File : $LogFile, Error $!\n");
                print LOG "[$Time] - $ENV{'REMOTE_HOST'} -> $Url\n";
                close(LOG);
        }

        if ($Url =~ /^http:\/\//) {
                print "Location: $Url\n\n";
        } else {
                print "Location: $BaseImgURL$Url\n\n";
        }

sub Error {
        my($ErrorText) = @_;
        exit;


So... it manages to accept paths that don't have a base, and paths that are full URLs, mixing the two without trouble. But, as noted, fairly trivial to set up.

Thanks for that code, hapless. I may get around to setting it up to run in php instead of cgi, if only so I can disable that option on the webserver...

[Janus Whitefurr]

Relevant in part to this thread's interests. At university today I was dropping off something in the Arts building main foyer, and glanced at the subjects/rooms map on the way out.

The Arts Building has "Transformation Studies".

Hee hee.

Sounds like something from El Goonish Shive.

[rabid_fox]

She it the her he man womb gender solar system Jupiter.

Now you know.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hapless: You want to make a version that covers everything this code does, I'll be ecstatic. :-P

Until then, shush ;-]

[hapless]

Hapless: You want to make a version that covers everything this code does, I'll be ecstatic. :-P

A CHALLENGE?

Code Select Expand


<?php
// IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
/* Random code-doodle by llearch's request.
 * Public domain, in case anybody's wondering.
 */

// CONFIGURATION DIVISION.
/* Log accesses? */
$log = 1;

/* Leave empty to use server's log. */
$log_file = './avrot.log';
//$log_file = '';

/* A filename or a directory. */
//$list = 'avatars.cfg';
$list = 'avatars/';

/* Filter only gif|png|jp[e]g? */
$filter_dir = 1;

//Used with relative paths from file, AND with filenames from dir.
$base = 'http://some-server.net/~user/avatars/';

// DATA DIVISION.
$urls = array();

// PROCEDURE DIVISION.
if($base[strlen($base)-1] != '/') $base .= '/';

if(!$list) log_die("Path to file list not set.");

if(is_file($list))
  {
    $fd = fopen($list,'r') or log_die('Cannot read file list.');
    while(!feof($fd))
      {
        $line = fgets($fd);
        if(!preg_match('@^http://@i',$line))
          $line = $base . $line;
        $urls[] = $line;
      }
    fclose($fd);
  }
else if(is_dir($list))
  {
    $dir = opendir($list) or log_die('Cannot open directory.');
    while(($entry = readdir($dir)) !== FALSE)
      {
        if($filter_dir && !preg_match('@\.(gif|png|jpg|jpeg)$@i',$entry) ) continue;
        if(!is_file($list.'/'.$entry)) continue;
        $urls[] = $base . $entry;
      }
    closedir($dir);
  }
else
  {
    log_die('Invalid path to file list.');
  }

$target_url = $urls[mt_rand(0,sizeof($urls)-1)];

write_log('['.date('Y-m-d H:i:s O').']'
          ." {$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']}"
          //." {$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}"
          ." \"{$target_url}\""
          //." \"$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']}\""
         );

header("Location: {$target_url}");
// STOP RUN.
exit();

function write_log($log_entry)
  {
    global $log, $log_file;

    if(!$log) return;

    if($log_file)
      {
        if(!error_log($log_entry."\n",3,$log_file))
          error_log("Cannot access \"{$log_file}\"; original message follows:\n".$log_entry."\n");
      }
    else error_log($log_entry."\n");
  }

function log_die($msg)
  {
    global $log;
    if($log) write_log('Error: '.$msg);
    error_log('Error: '.$msg);
    exit();
  }
?>


*sigh* PHP is annoying... and a great example of "piling random features together". Look at it. readdir() returns FALSE at end, but when you're reading lines from file you need to check feof() explicitly. Anyway, added a small bonus feature I'm going to use myself... adding a file/symlink in a directory is more convenient than editing a file, IMO.

//h

PS. Could you fix the theme (Inverted Dungeon, at least) to use monospace font for code tags? SMF's default does.

[GabrielsThoughts]

alright as long as people are having a debate about what to call a gender flipping he or she, I believe the terms "zim" and "hu" are the current most acceptable gender neutral terms by the APA... although author's generally use he or she depending on their own gender bias when writing textbooks they prefer not to objectify students by addressing a student or third party individual as an "it" or a "them."

but then again there are websites for people to look at for these sorts of things

http://santiago.mapache.org/nonfiction/essays/zie.html

http://www.hupronoun.org/

[Jer-oh-me]

Hapless: You want to make a version that covers everything this code does, I'll be ecstatic. :-P

A CHALLENGE?

... Code stuff that doesn't need to be Spammed...

*sigh* PHP is annoying... and a great example of "piling random features together". Look at it. readdir() returns FALSE at end, but when you're reading lines from file you need to check feof() explicitly. Anyway, added a small bonus feature I'm going to use myself... adding a file/symlink in a directory is more convenient than editing a file, IMO.

//h

PS. Could you fix the theme (Inverted Dungeon, at least) to use monospace font for code tags? SMF's default does.

Ooh, pretty unreadable colours...

[hapless]

Ooh, pretty unreadable colours...

I don't think the code-colorizer is a standard element... Somebody must had installed it as an add-on. And it seems that it ignores themes' colour settings.

//h(owever, it's not as bad as #e0e0e0 on #ffffff background, like it happens when I run an app that uses hardcoded white background and standard WindowText/ButtonText foreground... (e.g. installshield) or hardcoded #000000 on my dark background (old adobe apps, for example)...)

[Jer-oh-me]

Ooh, pretty unreadable colours...

I don't think the code-colorizer is a standard element... Somebody must had installed it as an add-on. And it seems that it ignores themes' colour settings.

//h(owever, it's not as bad as #e0e0e0 on #ffffff background, like it happens when I run an app that uses hardcoded white background and standard WindowText/ButtonText foreground... (e.g. installshield) or hardcoded #000000 on my dark background (old adobe apps, for example)...)

Heh, sounds like a headache.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Ooh, pretty unreadable colours...

I don't think the code-colorizer is a standard element... Somebody must had installed it as an add-on. And it seems that it ignores themes' colour settings.

Unless it was done manually, not using the package system, then no. It's just slightly oddly written, and probably hard-coded rather than done properly.

I'm not sure how V2 does it, though; they might have fixed that in that version. We have plans to upgrade at some point, but don't hold your breath - first they have to bring it out as stable, rather than release candidate...