Things That Drive You Crazy Redux

[Dom Heffner]

Here's one for me, and those of you who play fantasy baseball might get this more than others.

People who write articles about the "gambler's fallacy" as it relates to fantasy baseball.

They essentially make the following argument. Say you are sitting at a roulette wheel and we are simply betting on whether the ball will land on red or black. The ball has landed on red 27 times in a row, so that means there is now way that the odds say the 28th time it will happen again, right? Wrong, of course, the odds are still 50/50 because that's what the odds are, regardless of past events.

Now, they take this argument and then apply it to human beings. They say because MarkTeixiera had a bad April and May, that the gambler's fallacy apllies here and says that does not mean he'll have a better rest of the season.

No.

We're talking about human beings, skill sets, emotions, and changing conditions here, not just a wheel with two color options.

Drives me nuts- especially with players who are notorious slow starters.

[Rojo]

The amount isn't the issue.

At all.

It's the effect of what's there, regardless of the size.

One can simply look at the ocean and see that the spill is small compared to all that water.

I guess if you look at it this way, Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't that big of a deal, relatively speaking.

This argument would be like me spray painting my name on your house and then telling you that relatively speaking, I didn't put that much paint on it.

You know, a little oil in the water has the same effect as a lot, truthfully. It's a mess.

Alright relax, you're preaching to the choir. I started the thread on this issue in the peanut gallery so I'm disgusted about it as anyone else.

[Caveat Emperor]

Here's a new one I can't stand: the belief that you should simply be thankful to have a job and willing to accept any working conditions or pay scale as a result.

I should have every right to be upset that I haven't received a raise in 4 years without someone telling me that it somehow sounds "ungrateful," since I have a job while other people don't.

[GAC]

Having to stand back 3 ft when using a public urinal because you don't know if that water or what on the floor!

And boogers on the stall walls. What a turn off that really kills the mood.

[Eric_the_Red]

Having to stand back 3 ft when using a public urinal because you don't know if that water or what on the floor!

And boogers on the stall walls. What a turn off that really kills the mood.

Gross, yes, but what "mood" do you find killed?

[919191]

Here's a new one I can't stand: the belief that you should simply be thankful to have a job and willing to accept any working conditions or pay scale as a result.

I should have every right to be upset that I haven't received a raise in 4 years without someone telling me that it somehow sounds "ungrateful," since I have a job while other people don't.

I spent 6 weeks last summer on strike. You should have heard the crap heaved at us. That we should take whatever is offered. And we were striking over temp workers, not money or benefits.

[GAC]

Gross, yes, but what "mood" do you find killed?

Not the one you're thinking of.

At my age I'll just mention one word - Metamucil :

[Rojo]

At my age I'll just mention one word - Metamucil :

Still one too many.

[Caveat Emperor]

A fly caught between the blinds and a window.

The buzzing and ever so slight "bumping" sound will drive me insane if I don't manage to kill the fly or get it out of my house.

[Caveat Emperor]

Bumping this thread because I found a new one:

Websites that require you to have a password that meets some stupid, arbitrary criteria. I had to register for some employee payroll website through work, and the website REQUIRES a password that is:

- Longer than 8 letters
- Uses at least 1 lowercase letter
- Uses at least 1 uppercase letter
- Uses at least 1 symbol
- Uses at least 1 number

I'm never gonig to remember this thing -- which means I'm going to need to write it down somewhere...DEFEATING THE POINT OF A PASSWORD ENTIRELY!

[westofyou]

Bumping this thread because I found a new one:

Websites that require you to have a password that meets some stupid, arbitrary criteria. I had to register for some employee payroll website through work, and the website REQUIRES a password that is:

- Longer than 8 letters
- Uses at least 1 lowercase letter
- Uses at least 1 uppercase letter
- Uses at least 1 symbol
- Uses at least 1 number

I'm never gonig to remember this thing -- which means I'm going to need to write it down somewhere...DEFEATING THE POINT OF A PASSWORD ENTIRELY!

Payroll is a touchy subject, we have locks on our HR departments doors, mostly because the keys to the kingdom can be found in the personnel files. The same can be said for cracking into the payroll site. Now granted a symbol and caps required is over the top, but I bet that policy leads to safer site usage. the key is to have a copy of it somewhere on the web that you can access if you can't recall the darn thing.

[reds1869]

I had to create a password like that this morning for a magazine subscription. Really? To access the pdf of a magazine I need an high security password?

[westofyou]

I had to create a password like that this morning for a magazine subscription. Really? To access the pdf of a magazine I need an high security password?

The standard is 8 characters at least one numeric.

But then again I write business requirements, ones like that one for a magazine tend to written by developers (if they are odd and obscure) and my mantra is tell the developers what to build, don't let them tell you how they'l build it.

[Roy Tucker]

Payroll is a touchy subject, we have locks on our HR departments doors, mostly because the keys to the kingdom can be found in the personnel files. The same can be said for cracking into the payroll site. Now granted a symbol and caps required is over the top, but I bet that policy leads to safer site usage. the key is to have a copy of it somewhere on the web that you can access if you can't recall the darn thing.

Yeah, I help manage a commercial customer-facing web site that gives access to sensitive info and financial stuff. Woe be to us if our auditors find out our password policy allows folks to use weak passwords. I'd be looking for a new job.

For my personal passwords, I do stuff like use @ for a, $ for s, 3 for e, etc etc. That was you can have a password like P@$$w0rd.

[durl]

Bumping this thread because I found a new one:

Websites that require you to have a password that meets some stupid, arbitrary criteria. I had to register for some employee payroll website through work, and the website REQUIRES a password that is:

- Longer than 8 letters
- Uses at least 1 lowercase letter
- Uses at least 1 uppercase letter
- Uses at least 1 symbol
- Uses at least 1 number

I'm never gonig to remember this thing -- which means I'm going to need to write it down somewhere...DEFEATING THE POINT OF A PASSWORD ENTIRELY!

My employer changed password policy some time ago, forcing us to change them more often and make them more complex. I passed this criteria around to others in my department:

1. You must change your network password every 90 days.
2. New passwords must be different from the last four passwords used.
3. Passwords cannot be changed more than once per day.
4. Passwords must have a minimum of seven characters.
5. Passwords must meet at least 14 of the following requirements:
-- Contain English uppercase letters
-- Contain English lowercase letters
-- Contain numerals
-- Contain non-alphabetic characters such as !, #, $ and %
-- Contain a character from a language yet to be invented
-- Include NO references to a member of the insect family
-- Reflect the Classical Prose Movement of the late Tang Dynasty, advocating clarity and precision rather than the florid parallel prose style that had been popular in the Han dynasty.
-- Include a cover letter
-- Must be entered truthfully, completely, and accurately.
-- Mention a member from one of the following: The Three Stooges, Little Rascals, or a briefcase model from "Deal or No Deal."
-- Be double-spaced
-- When read backwards, must rhyme with "peppermint"
-- Must not be resistent to traditional antibiotics
-- Cannot cool a system all the way to absolute zero, thereby violating the third law of thermodynamics
-- Must NEVER include "4,8,15,16,23,42" in sequence
-- Contain no anagrams
-- Avoid any letters used in the name: "Johann Gambolputty de vonAusfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nurnburger-bratwustle-gernspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shonedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm
-- Contain jaunty banter
-- Contain no spaces unless followed directly by a character that meets the above requirement; unless the space is preceeded by a hieroglyph or an image of a moose head.