Stupid/Small Questions Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Stupid/Small Questions Megathread

«‹›2425 »

Lance Streetman: Feb 20, 2011; A parfait is a dessert, but it is also the French word for perfect.

OUTLAWDAN posted:

How do i change my avatar under my name? I bought the platinum upgrade..

You have to buy avatars individually, for 5 bucks each (or 10 dollars to buy somebody else an avatar).

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 20:14

Smeep: Jan 20, 2004

Are there any chat rooms connected to free email services left? Like Yahoo and AOL used to have.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:31

RaoulDuke12: Nov 9, 2004; The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who see it coming and jump aside.

can you use a google + hangout? They're basically chat rooms.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:34

KittyLitter: Feb 3, 2003

Here's a question that has been bugging me for years...

When the batteries in a remote control start to die, why is it that simply rolling the batteries back and forth for a second or two charges them up enough to last another week?

WHY!?!?!?!!?!?!!

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:39

Smeep: Jan 20, 2004

RaoulDuke12 posted:

can you use a google + hangout? They're basically chat rooms.

I don't think so. Do they have rooms you can browse through by topic?

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:40

Base Emitter: Apr 1, 2012; ?

KittyLitter posted:

Here's a question that has been bugging me for years...

When the batteries in a remote control start to die, why is it that simply rolling the batteries back and forth for a second or two charges them up enough to last another week?

WHY!?!?!?!!?!?!!

I'm just guessing, but there's probably corrosion on the battery contacts that increases their electrical resistance. Since a discharging battery has ever lower voltage and increasing internal resistance, reducing the resistance of the contacts might give just enough extra power to keep the remote going a little bit longer.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 04:42

OUTLAWDAN: Jan 20, 2013; and a SCHOLAR

Lance Streetman posted:

You have to buy avatars individually, for 5 bucks each (or 10 dollars to buy somebody else an avatar).

Thank you

# ? Jan 27, 2013 05:18

RaoulDuke12: Nov 9, 2004; The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who see it coming and jump aside.

Smeep posted:

I don't think so. Do they have rooms you can browse through by topic?

Oh I get it, you want like, furry porn enthusiasts only.

There are "permanent" google + hangouts like http://gphangouts.com/hangout/extras/ but yeah, I guess that's not exactly what you're looking for.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 06:39

User-Friendly: Apr 27, 2008; Is There a God? (Pt. 9)

Don't Yahoo Chatrooms still exist? I feel like I still see fearmongering over how dangerous they are occasionally.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:44

niethan: Nov 22, 2005; Don't be scared, homie!

What was that 2d physics model game/sim that was a thing on the forums a couple years back?

# ? Jan 27, 2013 11:04

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Lance Streetman posted:

You don't have to do anything with your channel. It's just there in case you ever feel like uploading something. Your google account is just a security measure. You don't actually have a "youtube account" if you don't have a channel.

I seem to have in pretty much every respect; I've got subscriptions, watch later, watch history, it doesn't bug me about age/content restrictions, likes work - it's only trying to favorite videos that brings up the channel creation thing. I'm in liiiimbo....

Presumably it packages your favorites in your channel to deliver to whatever devices you're signed in on, but like I said, whatever. I don't know what the default settings are on the thing without creating it and I don't want to spend 5 hours getting the privacy settings sorted out if it's anything like Facebook's, so I'll do without.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 11:10

Eggplant Wizard: Jul 8, 2005; i loev catte

Ron Don Volante posted:

Does chocolate wine actually taste any good? It sounds kinda disgusting.

Sometimes it's like a mudslide in a bottle and it's delicious! Probably not for you if you actually like wine.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 16:09

Penguissimo: Apr 7, 2007

Where can I buy clip-on sunglasses (to attach to regular eyeglasses)? I just got new glasses that are a different shape, so the old clip-ons don't fit anymore, but it's been so long since I got my previous pair that I don't remember where they came from. I do remember it taking forever to find a set that fit correctly, though, so ideally this would be a store I could walk into and actually try them on.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 17:36

Xenoborg: Mar 10, 2007

You can try going to the website of the company that made your glasses. Thats the only way I ever found clip ons for my current ones.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 17:50

User-Friendly: Apr 27, 2008; Is There a God? (Pt. 9)

What's the point of spam emails that don't contain attachments or links? Do they expect me to reply, wanting to give them my bank account information for clearly-bullshit offers?

# ? Jan 27, 2013 18:28

Fork of Unknown Origins: Oct 21, 2005; Gotta Herd On?

User-Friendly posted:

What's the point of spam emails that don't contain attachments or links? Do they expect me to reply, wanting to give them my bank account information for clearly-bullshit offers?

They don't expect you to, but they expect at least a couple of the thousands of people they sent it out to to respond.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 18:59

Dudebro: Jan 1, 2010; I TO UNDERAGE GYMNASTS

Noni posted:

Since nobody answered your question yet, I guess I'll give it a shot even though I know little about Congress.

Congress is a big huge game full of the spergiest people who have ever lived, only with access to both power and money. There are two main factions, the Horde and the Alliance, and the only way that they can actually do battle is through legislation. Some people are on P2P servers, but that's mainly during election years, unless the player is really into griefing (Michele Bachmann, for example, is one of the more successful and hilarious congressional griefers). As such, while one might imagine that the two groups mostly spend their time engaging in massive, semi-scripted battles over big issues, they really spend most of their time grinding by spatting over bullshit for the sole purpose of gaining XP and leveling up.

Because legislation is the means of battle, this results in a lot of idiotic and repetitive legislation. Strategically, fighting in a way that forces your opponents to spend resources is equally as good as voting for something that actually benefits you. For example, a member of the Horde from Cooperstown, New York wants to look good, so he fires out a little proposal about commemorating his local baseball museum. Nobody but him really gives a poo poo about this, but half of the people don't want to appear like they hate baseball. The Alliance folks decide that they can't let this guy and the Horde have that tiny prize for free, so they pretend to be against it and force the Horde to invest a lot of political GP in a small battle that they don't really care about.

A good deal of taunting is involved throughout the process. In the battle itself, you usually have some high level players on both sides casting buffs on the newbies and drawing on large mana pools of public support to do so. Obama is a sorcerer, for example. This is similar to a mage or a wizard, but the sorcerer class permits a larger variety of races and skills, which is why President Obama does quite well as a bard Dunmer halfgiant sorcerer. There are also Tanks, like Bill Clinton, who can take a lot of damage but don't perform many attacks. Tanks generally serve to purposely annoy the enemy and draw aggro so that the rest of the team can secretly get away with a lot of bullshit. Usually, there are DPS characters standing right near the tanks. The DPS group serves to dish out political damage to the opposition as rapidly as possible. They are typically classes that can use AP/mana-based skills to sustain their rate of damage. Class types are not exclusive; Strom Thurmond was one of the most amazing combination Tank/DPS rogue characters ever to play the game. He could take 50 critical hits in a row, 10 being accidentally self-inflicted, and he would not ever die. This is because he had a surplus of buffers and a nearly-infinite mana pool. There was no way that Strom Thurmond would ever lose a reelection and leave the game. Eventually he just got bored and left, handing the mantle to Lindsey Graham, who plays one of the newer ninja DPS classes and favors using short-blade chain combos while being buffed by wealthy shamans.

Rangers, in my opinion, are assholes who take potshots and cheerlead from afar while never actually ever doing much of anything. They're also sometimes known as "pundits". Each team has a few rangers who focus on keeping their own team members in line. These guys are armed with giant whips.

In the game, there are guilds which are also known as "subcommittees" or "caucuses". Guilds, oddly enough, often contain characters of both factions. Sometimes a guild member who doesn't play very much has a sudden realization that he's about to get booted, so he quickly gets involved with a bunch of bullshit minor resolutions. That way, he can say that he took part in some raids. It's busywork, but you can also do this kind of raiding to earn political GP. Pro-Panamanian donors, to take an example from your post, will give valuable rare drops toward your guild's coffers if you take part in a Panama trade raid. This is why some players will do the same raid again and again, in slightly different ways, despite not giving a crap about Panama.

In public chat channels there's a lot of griefing, posturing, name-calling, and generally behaving like assholes. The game is designed to make players feel like they're important. Everybody perceives themselves to be a good guy on a team of good guys, just like in America's Army. You are always on the side of America. Nobody wants to play a game if they're not a big drat hero, so players take on these sorts of rear end in a top hat personas and call other people names while simultaneously pretending to be greatly offended. Typically, they argue about ideas that neither side has any actual knowledge of. They are professional arguers, you see, not debaters, if you can understand the distinction. It's the difference between a town crier and a print journalist. The actual subject of the argument, be it tax reform or the Border Tunnel Prevention Act, doesn't matter because it's all just a battle on loving Hamburger Hill. There are a few GMs, however, but they are mainly for show. In theory, GMs like the Senate Pro Tem have a lot of power over the game, but the reality is that they can't actually use the power in unpopular ways or else they'll get accused of nerfing.

Every 2 or 4 years, there's a server reset that often accompanies an expansion, which adds new quest lines, events, and raids. A new race was added in 2008. The 2012 expansion was all about fixing the buggy trade system. Big expansions might include server-wide events such as hurricanes or entire wars with previously unheard-of nations, started for dubious reasons. The 2001 game expansion featured the fictional in-game nation of Afghanistan, and both the Horde and the Alliance had to temporarily join forces in fighting this new foe. It had fantastic sales (practically everyone bought it!) and was initially a critical success. It seemed well written at the time, but in retrospect, most people now think that this game expansion and the later Iraq sequel were idiotic. However, these areas of the game are still available as ongoing platforms for the occasional legislative quest or raid.

If you're new to the game but plan on sticking to it for a while, then a worthy goal is to get yourself an epic mount. This is when you get to co-sponsor a big, important bill and harp on a single issue for the rest of your career, even if it means riding it right into the ground every chance that you get. Generally, you'll see only high-level or wealthy players with epic mounts. A notable exception is Paul Ryan, who is low-level but rides a flying epic pro-life pig. By contrast, Joe Biden has no mount, but instead chooses to summon them depending on the situation. He's been riding a Gun Control Panda lately, but usually he summons a Flying gently caress, but only so he can not overtly give it to someone. Last week, it was a dead horse. You do need a mount, though, or you won't get anywhere very fast--Even if it's a level 4 Pesticide-Registration Mule, which you asked about. Everyone knows that this is a worthless mule that, as you pointed out, shouldn't even be in the game. But someone is riding it because they just need some sort of mount.

One final note: The legislation is both the means of execution and primary ammunition in this never ending war. However, the idea that the legislation actually affects non-player lives in meaningful ways does not matter or even occur to the majority of congressional players. They do not give a poo poo about us, the NPCs. If this idea matters, it does so only temporarily and in election years when they are busy questing. When questing, we NPCs can start to seem like we're real, live humans. Then they go right back to the game and we're all just cannon fodder--technically part of the game, but held as worthless.

Therefore, it's a common misconception that these players are acting unselfishly and in our best interests. Sometimes, you'll hear about a player poopsocking and hogging the battlefield waiting for something like a rare drop. This is known as a "filibuster." You might think that someone filibustering is nobly standing up for his beliefs. In reality, he's probably just poopsocking while ganking someone on the other team.

I'm offended that no one quoted this and commented. This is :master:

It may seem cynical and pessimistic, but goddamn it's sadly accurate at its core. It's true, they don't really give a poo poo about the NPCs!

# ? Jan 27, 2013 19:33

razz: Dec 26, 2005; Queen of Maceration

^^^ Somehow, miraculously, in a weird roundabout way, that answered a lot of my questions.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 20:36

Giant Squid: May 17, 2005; Tentacles rise from the sea...

Several months ago, I changed my facebook privacy settings to where a certain person couldn't see some of my status updates. If I go back and remove him from the custom hide list for each of those posts, will he get a new facebook notification for every post he can see now that he couldn't before?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 00:48

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

My wife uses Outlook 2007 to read her AOL email, and it has recently started resetting the way it displays the list of email in the spam folder. She can reset the view settings and it looks the way she likes it, but when she opens Outlook again, it'll be back to some other way. Why is that setting not sticking?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 02:02

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Runcible Cat posted:

Presumably it packages your favorites in your channel to deliver to whatever devices you're signed in on, but like I said, whatever. I don't know what the default settings are on the thing without creating it and I don't want to spend 5 hours getting the privacy settings sorted out if it's anything like Facebook's, so I'll do without.

By default, your channel will list every video you Like, every channel you subscribe to, and every video you mark as a favourite. You can easily turn all (or any) of that off though.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 02:49

KittyLitter: Feb 3, 2003

This is really petty, but maybe someone can help.

A long time ago Lowtax gave goons the ability to upload a picture of their favorite pet to be shown to the left/right of the banners at the top of the page. My absolute favrite is a little cat wearing wraparound shades with a 'fukyeah!' looks on his face.

Is there a full sized version of that cat pic that I can download as a wallpaper?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 04:53

tarepanda: Mar 26, 2011; Living the Dream

Dudebro posted:

I'm offended that no one quoted this and commented. This is

It may seem cynical and pessimistic, but goddamn it's sadly accurate at its core. It's true, they don't really give a poo poo about the NPCs!

I did.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 04:59

value-brand cereal: May 2, 2008

KittyLitter posted:

This is really petty, but maybe someone can help.

A long time ago Lowtax gave goons the ability to upload a picture of their favorite pet to be shown to the left/right of the banners at the top of the page. My absolute favrite is a little cat wearing wraparound shades with a 'fukyeah!' looks on his face.

Is there a full sized version of that cat pic that I can download as a wallpaper?

It might help if you posted that particular picture as they might be a goon's pet. You can also try some reverse image search engines like google has, or tineye.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 05:51

zachol: Feb 13, 2009; Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 WATER monster you control (except this card) to Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your hand. The monster Special Summoned by this effect is destroyed if "Raging Eria" is removed from your side of the field.

Why is it so hard to find unscented/lightly scented laundry detergent? They all loving reek. I'm not even wondering why people like this stuff, I don't even get how they can stand it.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 08:49

tarepanda: Mar 26, 2011; Living the Dream

zachol posted:

Why is it so hard to find unscented/lightly scented laundry detergent? They all loving reek. I'm not even wondering why people like this stuff, I don't even get how they can stand it.

You could make it yourself and it would be super cheap.

I use plain Gain and it's a pretty neutral smell.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:10

Powered Descent: Jul 13, 2008; We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.

zachol posted:

Why is it so hard to find unscented/lightly scented laundry detergent? They all loving reek. I'm not even wondering why people like this stuff, I don't even get how they can stand it.

A lot of detergents have a version that's free of scents and dyes for people with allergies or skin sensitivities. They're often in white (or at least lighter-colored) bottles and usually have words like "free" or "clear" or "natural" prominently displayed on the label.

Here's some examples by Cheer, Tide, and All.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:20

zachol: Feb 13, 2009; Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 WATER monster you control (except this card) to Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your hand. The monster Special Summoned by this effect is destroyed if "Raging Eria" is removed from your side of the field.

tarepanda posted:

You could make it yourself and it would be super cheap.

I use plain Gain and it's a pretty neutral smell.

Well I'm mainly just angry because I'm in Japan and can't read the drat labels. Thought I'd finally found something but it's stinking up the whole apartment, argh.
Gain, huh?

e: Honestly this was mostly a rhetorical question, I could manage in the US but I still don't understand why other people buy that stuff, why it's so prevalent.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:20

Gravity Pike: Feb 8, 2009; I find this discussion incredibly bland and disinteresting.

They enjoy the smell. :ms:

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:30

tarepanda: Mar 26, 2011; Living the Dream

zachol posted:

Well I'm mainly just angry because I'm in Japan and can't read the drat labels. Thought I'd finally found something but it's stinking up the whole apartment, argh.
Gain, huh?

e: Honestly this was mostly a rhetorical question, I could manage in the US but I still don't understand why other people buy that stuff, why it's so prevalent.

Where are you? Gain is pretty easy to find here (edit: in Tokyo. I also saw it in Gunma.).

Make sure you're getting 洗剤 and not something else.

アタック is also pretty close to unscented, I think.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:35

zachol: Feb 13, 2009; Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 WATER monster you control (except this card) to Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your hand. The monster Special Summoned by this effect is destroyed if "Raging Eria" is removed from your side of the field.

tarepanda posted:

Where are you? Gain is pretty easy to find here (edit: in Tokyo. I also saw it in Gunma.).

Make sure you're getting 洗剤 and not something else.

アタック is also pretty close to unscented, I think.

Sapporo. I've been using アタック "ALLin" because it seemed likely to be good for colors, and the first thing I tried had bleach in it and ruined some shirts. They didn't have any more, tried a different type, stinks of flowers.
Will double check for Gain, thanks. Maybe shop around a little.

Gravity Pike posted:

They enjoy the smell.

Then they're utterly insane, holy poo poo.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 09:42

tarepanda: Mar 26, 2011; Living the Dream

zachol posted:

Sapporo. I've been using アタック "ALLin" because it seemed likely to be good for colors, and the first thing I tried had bleach in it and ruined some shirts. They didn't have any more, tried a different type, stinks of flowers.
Will double check for Gain, thanks. Maybe shop around a little.

If you have a Don Quijote (ドン・キホーテ) near you, they carry it pretty regularly.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 11:11

Eggplant Wizard: Jul 8, 2005; i loev catte

Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

They don't expect you to, but they expect at least a couple of the thousands of people they sent it out to to respond.

Would you believe some of them actually ARE online pharmacies where you can (illegally) buy drugs without a prescription?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 15:37

Baron Bifford: May 24, 2006; Can't post for 2 years!

What do you call a military exercise where the participants are fooled into believing it is a real situation? In the movie WarGames, NORAD simulates a phony missile attack to test whether their nuclear missile crews actually have the nerve to launch their nukes. In the movie Dr Strangelove, one of Major Kong's flight crew asks whether the order they received to bomb Russia is just a test to see whether they would actually follow through with their orders in a real war.

What is the term for this sort of test?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 16:29

tarepanda: Mar 26, 2011; Living the Dream

Baron Bifford posted:

What do you call a military exercise where the participants are fooled into believing it is a real situation? In the movie WarGames, NORAD simulates a phony missile attack to test whether their nuclear missile crews actually have the nerve to launch their nukes. In the movie Dr Strangelove, one of Major Kong's flight crew asks whether the order they received to bomb Russia is just a test to see whether they would actually follow through with their orders in a real war.

What is the term for this sort of test?

A drill.

That's why in movies, alarms/announcers will often say "THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

# ? Jan 28, 2013 16:42

Rent-A-Cop: Oct 15, 2004; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Baron Bifford posted:

What do you call a military exercise where the participants are fooled into believing it is a real situation? In the movie WarGames, NORAD simulates a phony missile attack to test whether their nuclear missile crews actually have the nerve to launch their nukes. In the movie Dr Strangelove, one of Major Kong's flight crew asks whether the order they received to bomb Russia is just a test to see whether they would actually follow through with their orders in a real war.

What is the term for this sort of test?

"Drill" was already covered above. Drills are generally made distinct from actual emergencies/orders for a lot of very good reasons. Mostly because actual emergencies require people to do things that are too dangerous (or too expensive) to do during routine drills. What you're describing is mostly a component of fiction. It'd be insanely dangerous to actually go all the way to the edge of releasing nuclear weapons and then stop on a routine basis.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 17:35

MikeRabsitch: Aug 23, 2004; Show us what you got, what you got

Ror posted:

I have this little keychain bottle opener / knife. Those are pretty much the only functions of it, but for some reason it has these grooves cut into the outside edge opposite the knife. Does this have any purpose? It really doesn't seem like it's there for ergonomics or weight saving. My finger always runs over the ridges and it drives me crazy wondering why it's there.

I'd guess a grip, my pocket knife has similar ridges and helps prevent your finger from sliding off when applying force, especially if it was wet.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 19:06

Ron Don Volante: Dec 29, 2012

Eggplant Wizard posted:

Sometimes it's like a mudslide in a bottle and it's delicious! Probably not for you if you actually like wine.

My taste for wine still hasn't progressed much beyond dessert wines, so that actually doesn't sound too bad. Are there any specific brands you'd recommend?

# ? Jan 28, 2013 19:56

Baron Bifford: May 24, 2006; Can't post for 2 years!

Rent-A-Cop posted:

"Drill" was already covered above. Drills are generally made distinct from actual emergencies/orders for a lot of very good reasons. Mostly because actual emergencies require people to do things that are too dangerous (or too expensive) to do during routine drills. What you're describing is mostly a component of fiction. It'd be insanely dangerous to actually go all the way to the edge of releasing nuclear weapons and then stop on a routine basis.

My take on the WarGames scene is that the computers in the silo were rigged to immediately abort once the crew had done the final act of turning their keys.

# ? Jan 28, 2013 20:41

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 20:14

Rass P: Nov 23, 2012; by Ralp

Gobbeldygook posted:

I think you're thinking of this flash, which was released in 2002. The developer released the 'full version' this year.

Q. What take you so long to make Simgirls?
A. I was too busy and I halted the game development from 2006-2011. I just picked up the game again recently and then spent one holiday to finish it.

wow i remember this. are you absolutely sure it has an alien what shits herself to death, though

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Jan 28, 2013 21:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Stupid/Small Questions Megathread

«‹›2425 »