Questions you want answered.

Query: what do those long online commercial do to make money? I can't see how Trying to get me to watch your crappy doodle illustrations of how it is that you found away to go off the electric grid.. Great now I'm give minutes into this commercial and not actually watching anymore, I'm over here watching gwj... Great I can't pause your video to answer my phone or rewind,... Forget it close the window... Now what did that accomplish for the people running the website?

Nosferatu wrote:

Query: what do those long online commercial do to make money? I can't see how Trying to get me to watch your crappy doodle illustrations of how it is that you found away to go off the electric grid.. Great now I'm give minutes into this commercial and not actually watching anymore, I'm over here watching gwj... Great I can't pause your video to answer my phone or rewind,... Forget it close the window... Now what did that accomplish for the people running the website?

Welcome to "brand awareness" and "impact".

Those companies are paying the people hosting/making the video to tack on to your attention, and at a rate of some dollars per thousands or millions.

Its really hard for them to directly correlate this marketing spend to revenue (unless they're doing something like Audible does with the GWJ podcats - "go to Audible.com and sign up with the reference code 'GWJ' "), but they can compare results from when they didn't spend the money against a time period they did spend the money.

They're spending marketing budget to fund YouTube/video producers, and quite literally HOPING that it'll translate into YOU buying their product.

@NSMike:

If they're looking to get you set up for working at home, even just occasionally, why do you feel the need to push it now? I'm not saying it won't work, but it might be gentler on management if you just sorta bump up your home-work as you go along. Stay home a couple of times during crappy weather, then introduce the idea of a regular day-a-week, etc. If management sees that you're still at least as productive as before, it should be easier to sell them on the idea of you being in the office less.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

@NSMike:

If they're looking to get you set up for working at home, even just occasionally, why do you feel the need to push it now? I'm not saying it won't work, but it might be gentler on management if you just sorta bump up your home-work as you go along. Stay home a couple of times during crappy weather, then introduce the idea of a regular day-a-week, etc. If management sees that you're still at least as productive as before, it should be easier to sell them on the idea of you being in the office less.

On this subject, I ended up having a chat with my boss about all of this... Not a negotiation, just talking. Turns out he's quite aware that I could easily work from home full time with practically no detrimental effects, and that a lot of people could do the same. It's something they're going to have to address in the near future, and my boss is actually a good bit on my side. Office culture is changing, and leaning in this direction already. I am actually probably going to be able to do not quite as much as I was hoping for, but close to it. I didn’t push for anything just yet or lay down any conditions or terms or anything of the sort.

Awesome! Sounds like a happy compromise for everybody!

NSMike wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

@NSMike:

If they're looking to get you set up for working at home, even just occasionally, why do you feel the need to push it now? I'm not saying it won't work, but it might be gentler on management if you just sorta bump up your home-work as you go along. Stay home a couple of times during crappy weather, then introduce the idea of a regular day-a-week, etc. If management sees that you're still at least as productive as before, it should be easier to sell them on the idea of you being in the office less.

On this subject, I ended up having a chat with my boss about all of this... Not a negotiation, just talking. Turns out he's quite aware that I could easily work from home full time with practically no detrimental effects, and that a lot of people could do the same. It's something they're going to have to address in the near future, and my boss is actually a good bit on my side. Office culture is changing, and leaning in this direction already. I am actually probably going to be able to do not quite as much as I was hoping for, but close to it. I didn’t push for anything just yet or lay down any conditions or terms or anything of the sort.

Well done. I love the feeling of relief that comes from exactly this kind of reasoned action. Glad it's working out positively for you (ie. your boss isn't a total jerk face)!

I've got a GIMP photo program question: Anyone know how to blend the borders of a pasted image onto another image to avoid hard separation?

How about adding an appropriate gradient as an alpha channel, of the inserted image first, then drop it onto the second image as a separate step?

MoonDragon wrote:

How about adding an appropriate gradient as an alpha channel, of the inserted image first, then drop it onto the second image as a separate step?

I`ll give that a shot. First I have to decipher what the hell you just wrote. I`m a dummy.

Strangeblades wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

How about adding an appropriate gradient as an alpha channel, of the inserted image first, then drop it onto the second image as a separate step?

I`ll give that a shot. First I have to decipher what the hell you just wrote. I`m a dummy.

The alpha channel basically refers to transparency, so MoonDragon is saying you can add gradients of transparency to the image you're inserting. You could add these all around the edges of the image, and play around with how steep the gradient is, to get it to gradually blend with the second image. A little cumbersome, but I believe gimp doesn't have a healing brush like Photoshop has.

If you do image editing fairly often, you might want to see if there's any Christmas deals on Photoshop Elements 11. It's quite powerful and waaay cheaper than the full Photoshop.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

How about adding an appropriate gradient as an alpha channel, of the inserted image first, then drop it onto the second image as a separate step?

I`ll give that a shot. First I have to decipher what the hell you just wrote. I`m a dummy.

The alpha channel basically refers to transparency, so MoonDragon is saying you can add gradients of transparency to the image you're inserting. You could add these all around the edges of the image, and play around with how steep the gradient is, to get it to gradually blend with the second image. A little cumbersome, but I believe gimp doesn't have a healing brush like Photoshop has.

If you do image editing fairly often, you might want to see if there's any Christmas deals on Photoshop Elements 11. It's quite powerful and waaay cheaper than the full Photoshop.

Eh, I like GIMP. I've been using ancient Photoshops at work (before I quit) and am in love with GIMP. ALSO: I'm broke.

Falling for a married woman is a bad idea, right?

garion333 wrote:

Falling for a married woman is a bad idea, right?

Epically bad!

TigerBill wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Falling for a married woman is a bad idea, right?

Epically bad!

Dammit.

TigerBill wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Falling for a married woman is a bad idea, right?

Epically bad!

The worst idea.

Okay, what if her marriage is on the way out and we keep talking? Then when things are over we figure out where we stand.

Sounds insane all around to me, but it's impossible for me (us) to deny this connection.

garion333 wrote:

Okay, what if her marriage is on the way out and we keep talking? Then when things are over we figure out where we stand.

Sounds insane all around to me, but it's impossible for me (us) to deny this connection.

When she shows you signed divorce papers, you may think about taking then.

TigerBill wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Okay, what if her marriage is on the way out and we keep talking? Then when things are over we figure out where we stand.

Sounds insane all around to me, but it's impossible for me (us) to deny this connection.

When she shows you signed divorce papers, you may think about taking then.

Yeah, getting involved beforehand could mess up her divorce proceedings too.

Yeah, I'm well aware of causing issues with the divorce.

This is no fun. None at all. Patience. Temperance.

... Breathe.

Write old-fashioned paper letters, sign, seal, and put them in a box. When her divorce is final, give her the box.

If it will tide over Victorians, it will work for you too.

garion333 wrote:

Yeah, I'm well aware of causing issues with the divorce.

This is no fun. None at all. Patience. Temperance.

... Breathe.

Watch the movie Unfaithful. That'll put a cap on it.

clover wrote:

Write old-fashioned paper letters, sign, seal, and put them in a box. When her divorce is final, give her the box.

If it will tide over Victorians, it will work for you too.

Or masturbate a lot.

... what?

TigerBill wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Okay, what if her marriage is on the way out and we keep talking? Then when things are over we figure out where we stand.

Sounds insane all around to me, but it's impossible for me (us) to deny this connection.

When she shows you signed divorce papers, you may think about taking then.

Agreed. Speaking as someone who's been through a divorce this is somewhere you really do not want to be right now. Divorces are an absolute emotional trainwreck. The woman she is now will not be the woman she is when the divorce is finalized and the dust has settled. If you're truly interested, get to know that new woman once the divorce is over. If you really can't wait and want to ride the rollercoaster now be aware that your decision will mean someone will get badly hurt because of it.

Grubber788 wrote:
clover wrote:

Write old-fashioned paper letters, sign, seal, and put them in a box. When her divorce is final, give her the box.

If it will tide over Victorians, it will work for you too.

Or masturbate a lot.

... what?

With a view to reciprocation

Grubber788 wrote:
clover wrote:

Write old-fashioned paper letters, sign, seal, and put them in a box. When her divorce is final, give her the box.

If it will tide over Victorians, it will work for you too.

Or masturbate a lot.

... what?

Well that's just good advice no matter what.

What are some good LAN party games that don't require multiple copies or Steam to play? We are starting a LAN party night at work and I was tasked with finding more games to play than just Unreal Tournament. It appears Call of Duty 4 fits the bill and, I have a copy of that already.

These PC's are a few years old and, don't have the best video cards for games; they have some decent engineering grade video cards in them though.

TigerBill wrote:

What are some good LAN party games that don't require multiple copies or Steam to play? We are starting a LAN party night at work and I was tasked with finding more games to play than just Unreal Tournament. It appears Call of Duty 4 fits the bill and, I have a copy of that already.

These PC's are a few years old and, don't have the best video cards for games; they have some decent engineering grade video cards in them though.

Artemis?

garion333 wrote:

Yeah, I'm well aware of causing issues with the divorce.

This is no fun. None at all. Patience. Temperance.

... Breathe.

As long as you avoid the physical side of things, I say full steam ahead. The only way to find a good woman is to take her from someone who doesn't appreciate her! Yeah some of that is sarcastic, but if you really have a legitimate connection, there's no point in potentially ruining what could be great. Just remember not to touch her until after things are settled with her current relationship.

Well, the good news is that come tomorrow we'll be 3 and a half hours apart so the physical is easy to avoid. How much, and what kind of, communication is the tricky part.

Perhaps I will become Victorian, chaste and letter writing.

Even if she shows up with signed divorce papers all annecdotal evidence available to me at this time suggests that being the rebound person isn't generally a good idea.

Of course some people are 'over' their relationships long before they actually/officially end so that line gets hazy but even in the most clear of cases I would be rather inclined to give them the time to process the fact that their relationship (marriage in this case) has really ended, to figure out what they really want next, etc.