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Admin
Imho XXX is for p0rn.
Admin
Yeah... the the LINK is offensive. Scientology is offensive. Sorry Stew but you and the others are... how can I put this... INSANE. A word of advice. treat your brainwashing/cult/religion like most people treat their own religions. It is a personal thing that they don't push on people. If I told every anti christian person to stop I would have no time for... the WTF!
Admin
I appreciate that some people are scared by what they think it is.
But to be honest I was taking GoatCheez's as tongue in cheek. The 'concrete shoes' comment is a gag. Pure commedy. Obviously.
Admin
Isn't it obvious how this point-of-sale system works? The "x"s are the points at which the sales took place.
Admin
Our CR specialists don't buy this ... they believe it's a con!
LOL
Admin
I was being quite serious. Again, I've witnessed FIRSTHAND what those people can do.
Admin
Heh, you get to say 'gotten', we get to say 'learnt'. Seems fair ;)
ObWTFAgain: Ooh, I know, it's database Connect-Four!
Admin
I'm surprised nobody has postulated that the X's and spaces could represent a bar code.
Admin
It's called "sparse data storage" guys! It's very efficient! Cutting edge computer science!
Admin
Uh....YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP! ?
Today's spelling and grammar WTF:
I'll leave it as an exersize for the reader to immagine
Admin
Well, if I did witness firsthand someone being put in concrete shoes and being dumped into the ocean, then that would scare me thoroughly. In fact I would call the police and be ready to testify in court against such a person.
I can't believe I'm taking this seriously. Such an act is criminal; murder in fact. It is totally contrary to my values and totally contrary to the philosophy of Scientology. Such as person cannot be a Scientologist, by definition, and is a liar if they claim they are; just as a drug-dealer can't be a Muslism no matter how much they claim they are; nor an IRA terrorist a Christian.
Admin
Technically, I never witnessed someone getting concrete shoes. What I have seen, and experienced though, has been enough for me to believe that the Scientologist organization is complete capable of doing such a thing though. Actually, I think they are capable of far worse, with no consequences for their actions. Mr. Hubbard was a con-artist, a liar, and a criminal. This is fact. Denying such would be the same as saying Mike Tyson has never bitten off anyone's ear, or saying that OJ Simpson was never chased by police in a white ford bronco. The only nice/not-bad thing that anyone should ever be able to say about L. Ron is that he was pretty damn smart to be able to do what he did. I would be willing to say that the people who frequent this forum are probably smarter than 99.9% of the rest of the world. You may not realize this, but the world is littered with idiocity. L. Ron was able to recognize this, and devise a method for the idiots to pay him money for doing essentially nothing.
I would cite reference, but on this subject it is entirely unnecessary. Anyone with some google sense can find all the information they need.
Admin
Sorry. It's opinion as far as I'm concerned. As far as you're concerned, it's probably fact to the best of your knowledge.
I would agree with you on these points. I hope you're generous enough to include me in that 99.9% ;-) And I have come across my fair share of idiocy.
On the money point, to the best of my knowledge, Ron Hubbard made lots from book royalties, but not from any income from Churches of Scientology.
Quite honestly, I've never seen anything in Scientology to scare me or make me suspicious that it's not what it says on the tin. But I can understand you may have observed or experienced different things to me.
I'm happy to agree to disagree and leave off at this point. I didn't expect things to go quite so off the topic of this being a WTF blog.
Yours Respectfully,
Stewart
Admin
Isn't Sciencetology a fictional book?
Back to the subject at hand...
That database looks alot like Applied System's WinTam.... the nightmares still linger....
Admin
Want me to refer you to the hotel that is using this system? Can't recall it's name right now and I don't want to embarass anyone, but definitely it's in Linz and I think this is where the original developer lives.
So where are you going to? Germany? Belgium? US? :-) Just kidding. You may find good developers everywhere. Bad too. Just give a computer to some of these guys and enough time and you will get miracles like this one...
Admin
I HATE to add even more to this side-bar... but....
No, it is not opinion. It's a well known fact that Hubbard was convicted of fraud charges in france back in 1978. It's also a well known fact that Hubbard's naval record was heavily modified to make him look more like a war hero. If you look at his real naval record (which is public, however I was unable to find it on the internet... a simple snail-mail and it's yours though), it will show you that he was an complete bafoon. There are a LOT of other public records that provide even more proof. I think it's odd that more people don't know these things.
So despite what anyone else wants you to believe, the truth is that L Ron Hubbard was a lying, criminal con-artist.
The more I look at that table, the more it does look like a hotel reservation system.... whack...
Admin
The book is called "Dianetic", Scientology is the sect.
Scientology is IMO not like most other religions.
It's important for every human being to seperate the things we know from the things we believe. That's why very clever people have invented the scientific method for gaining knowledge, while religions address belief. Scientology deliberately breaches this seperation. Instead of getting a proof for the pseudo-scientifc claims in Dianetic, you have to believe them.
This is dangerous and mind-boggling.
BTW, the same argument goes against that "intelligent design" stupidity.
Admin
The obvious answer: Give it to us, we give it to the poor in a much more efficient ways.
BTW, many religions want money. "Become a christian, it's cheaper" is not a convincing argument.
Every religion wants your soul. I guess that's ok, it's their job at least.
It becomes dangerous when they want your sanity as well.
Scientology is sneaky. I can't comment on the conspiration theories, but their disguised business circles, schools etc. are scary.
Admin
No, he was't talking about a TI-83.
He was talking about Z80 assembler
I also (partially) agree with Dijkstra, although I have to say that VB6 is the COBOL of cliënt-server.
But then:
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
- Dijkstra
Admin
Well, it's clear to me that you want me to believe something.
But luckily for me, even since I was a child, I thought my own thoughts and did what I thought was right, despite being "unfashionable" or ridiculed by the ignorant. I have a tradition of making my own mind up, and not being easily swayed. It never bothered me if that made me "uncool".
Admin
Some pretty arrogant assumptions here. False assumptions. I use google daily. But as I've said before, a document is far far less convincing than personal, real-life investigation and experience.
Another piece of nonsense. Yawn.
They do. Actually, we do. (I am not seperate from "this group" - I'm a member.)
I've helped some people. People have helped me. Help is one of my favourate subjects.
I am special. But isn't everyone?
More arrogance. I totally, 100%, completely agree with this principle.
Again I agree. But now I'm getting bored of your assumptions about who I am and what I am like.
You've scored a maximum of 100% of your assumptions being wrong. Well done.
Admin
Yeah, and so are the police, stock brokers and the military. Yawn.
Admin
Is that what they're 'helping' you with? How much is it costing?
Admin
*Yawn* at your brainwashed drivel. You've not successfully rebutted a single point that has been raised. But I realize full well that arguing a point like this, with someone as far gone as you, is pointless... I will have a quiet chuckle though when you've been through the wringer and they've gotten what they wanted out of you.
How about answering to this point: you follow a religion that was concocted by a convicted criminal, a liar, a coward ... and basically a loser. The last point is subjective, the rest is easily 'verifiable'. The fact that you claim anyone can write anything is disingenuous. Its provable in a real sense. And yet you still follow his sci-fi fantasy spiel... he was a fantasy writer wasn't he?
Admin
This is a great way to mostly deny knowledge at all, thus opening your mind to believe incredibly stupdid things. (Xenu, anyone?)
In our non-perfect world, Police and military are necessary and they need to have greater power than normal citizens to do their work; thus, they are scary by design.
Admin
Obvious answer: In his time, Jesus was a convicted criminal etc. I don't think you can impress a scientology victim with that argument.
Admin
i honestly hope either: 1) this is a tongue in cheek comment OR 2) you are high.
Admin
i hope # 2 is true
Admin
<FONT face="Courier New">CREATE TABLE TestTable
(
MyAutoNumber COUNTER
)</FONT>
You're right, that was nasty and non-intuitive. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. As for needing to do it through code, why? Use the access gui and pick "Autonumber" from the dropdown. If you don't have access installed on a computer that has access to the server, write a quick and dirty vbscript and run it from the command line. This should do it:
<FONT face="Courier New">Set cn=CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
cn.ConnectionString="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=D:\path\db.mdb"
cn.Open
cn.Execute "CREATE TABLE TestTable (MyAutoNumber COUNTER)"</FONT>
BTW, both MS SQL and ORACLE's syntax for autonumbering are more complicated than Access.
Admin
What you say isn't true. Tell me what's the "more complicated" of MSSQL?
CREATE TABLE TestTable
(
ID int identity
)
Is it the space between int and identity?
Well, ORACLE on other hand doesn't have autonumbering at all and you have to use generators while inserting the data or add a trigger to populate the field. Interbase is the same. It's somewhat harder to use it, but there are situations where it's useful to generate the unique numbers across a couple of tables.
Admin
sooo, the guy must have had another job lined up, giving up the chance to re-do this system, and keep him busy for months making it right?
Admin
You seem to have completely missed the point of the post you are responding to.
Admin
Yes, it is the space between int and identity. MS SQL requires both a datatype and the identity keyword. I'm not saying that it is terribly complicated, but it is more complicated than Access, where the datatype and autonumber feature are all done in one keyword.
The whole point was that it's reallllly easy in Access, even easier than MS SQL. The fact that MS SQL is pretty darn easy just makes my point more effective.
Admin
I do consider it non-intuitive considering in the GUI its "Autonumber" and in DDL its "Counter". I don't typically create objects in Access via DDL so the nasty part is looking the syntax up. Now when I go to the help docs and want to find the DDL for "Autonumber", how many appropriate hits am I going to get for "Counter" using "Autonumber" as a keyword? At least in SQL Management Studio, the field properties are "Is Identity", "Identity Seed" and "Identity Increment". Using those names as a starting point, don't you think I'd have an easier time finding the equivalent DDL is Identity(X,Y)?
As far a doing it through code, the server was on the DMZ, file share would be a bad thing. No Access on the server either (putting desktop software on the server is just a bigger WTF). Code was the only way to it. As a developer, I didn't have remote access to box other than FTP access to specific sites I was responsible for (violation of separation of duties as defined by MSF/MOF). Now I had two choices, write a vbscript and tell the operations guys to run the script, or embed the vbscript in an ASP page, drop it in a secured admin area and browse to it. I chose not to bother the operations guys for a two minute job.
Admin
If you connect the dots, you will see the data
Yet another crypto algorithm, certainly not a wtf
captcha: paste ("connect" would be more fitting)
Admin
What I wrote was not my personal opinion, just the kind of answer you might expect from someone who thinks that LRH (or any other sect founder, doesn't really matter) is the prophet, the messias, whatever. You should consider that what is holy for you is not holy for them, and (of course) vice versa.
Admin
Cognitive Dissonance.
being not easily swayed (which is not a good thing, btw. i can be swayed reasonably easy when i'm wrong), i don't expect you to drop the resistance. however, you were right. i did make assumptions (see how easy it is t sway me when you are right ;-).
you claim they are false - and they may well be. or not. i don't *know*, and perhaps you don't know, either. maybe you do.
you claim that you get help for free. you seem intelligent. you know this is a worthless statement b/c the definitions are so weak. let's get more data.
how much have you paid to any organization or person associated with scientology?
give the reader the FACTS and decide what is "free."
how much money have you, or those around you, helped scientology related groups get from other people.
give the reader the FACTS and let the reader decide.
i'm not scared of FACTS, REALITY. i hope you aren't, either.
to imporve context, how long have you been associated with the group - this will give us an idea of how much you give them per year and how much you get others to give per year.
assumptions are suboptimal. facts are much better.
Admin
After reading a bit about scientology, I think they will rather say "you know we have an important mission, we must save mankind (at least the "cleared" part of it), it takes a lot of resources to do that; giving money to the poor is simply money wasted". And, of course, like any efficient sect, they want their members to obey; it's not like a member is free to decide what is good for him and others. The gurus will decide that for him. Making your own decision means questioning the supremacy of the gurus. BTW, in scientology, you do not simple give your money to the gurus; instead, you pay for "courses" and "treatments". Without those, enlightment and advancement are impossible.
Admin
the difference being is that jesus wasn't guilty, nor did he *switch* to becoming a religion when the tax man came calling.
the l ron style of manipulation has no effect on me at this point.
i've been a true believer before (where Stewart is). my day to day experiences in that situation were also nice, too. some of the nicest people i've met were caught up. we were all sincere in our own way.
that didn't make it right, though.
Stewart touts all the "free" help he's received and given. let's see if he'll man up and tell us how much money he's given. let's see if he'll man up and tell us how much money he's helped extract.
let's review the facts so we can determine what is "free" or not.
if you are a scientologists, please divulge...
1. how much you've given to scientology related organizations or people.
2. how much you've helped others give to scientology related organizations or people.
3. how long you've been involved with scientology.
Admin
Stewart claimed to believe in "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." so, if you were born in the wrong place and starving to death, you'd want some guy to shell out thousands for "enlightenment" instead of make an effort to get you on your feet so you don't die?
if so, than Stewart has an issue. well, unless he rejects this view of scientology. he says he believes in something, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," yet his "church" (loosely termed) doesn't support it.
i also thought Stewart took me to task about letting others make his decisions for him... yet you say that's what they do... spoon feed their members.
i argue that "enlightenment" without compassion for others is no enlightenment at all. self centered, selfish depravity is a better description.
if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck.
i give l ron credit for being an exception manipulator, though. writing a fiction book and then getting others to actually believe it is real is something i could not do given eternity.
Admin
The guy needs this "enlightenment" to be able to help anyone at all, including himself. Without it, he is less than nothing. Or so they say.
"do unto others as you would have them do unto you," doesn't necessarily mean charity. For example, if someone beliefs in an extremely fascistic "survival of the fittest" ideology, he would not want anyone to help him if he were weak, because in his point of view, weak individuals have no right to live.
Scientologists want to become "clear", so "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," probably means: help them become "clear", too. Sending money or food to Africa doesn't help them to become clear, so it's probably useless.
I think it's reasonaly to assume that there are low-level members who don't pay too much and live a relatively normal life, with a little auditing session now and then, while others spent all the money they have and some more to become higher-level members. To make a far-fetched comparison with christians: some are normal members and just attend divine service on sundays, while others become monks.
I think their "enlighenment" (they have other words for it) is that selfish and self centered; that's part of their philosophy.
Admin
And I did and it doesn't work in 2003. This isn't that surprising since a lot of things broke between XP to 2003. Considering the amount of changes Microsoft made, you would think they would make Access' DDL more compatible with MSSQL, not less.
In most other flavors of SQL, Identity/AutoIncrement are optional modifiers for certain datatypes but in Access/Jet they are datatypes themselves. Consider the following SQL flavors:
- MSSQL: MyColumn Int Identity(1,1)
- DB2: MyColumn Integer Generated Always As Indentity (Start with 1, Increment By 1)
- MySQL: MyColumn Int AUTO_INCREMENT
In all those cases (those databases being the ones I'm most familiar with, excluding Oracle - no direct equivalent) you specify the identity spec in addition to the column datatype, but in Access, you do one of the following:- MyColumn Counter
- MyColumn AutoIncrement(1,1)
Which would be all fine and dandy if the docs in Access would have listed them as a datatype, but they don't. You have to go to the reserved words page and click on AutoIncrement to find the ANSI datatype comparison page to get any indication they are datatypes or synonyms. On the main datatype page they are not listed. IMO Microsoft normally does a good job documenting their products but in this case, they definitely have some holes.Admin
I just learned the syntax today. It took me 30 seconds on Google to find it. Complaining about these little differences doesn't prove anything about the fitness of a particular database engine for a specific application. Just because the documentation is less than clear doesn't make the syntax nasty and non-intuitive.
If you want non-intuitive try this one:
<FONT face="Courier New">BACKUP LOG xyz WITH NO_LOG</FONT>
This is a T-SQL statement. Guess what it does...
Admin
Gotta love Google, that's were I found it eventually too. I was frustrated more than anything with Access's unclear docs after coming from the excellent documentation provided with SQL BOL and VS's MSDN. Guess I'm spoiled in that regard.
I agree with you 100% that syntax does not affect the approriateness of a particular tool for a application. If that was implied in my comments, then I'm guilty of being unclear as well.
And I believe that T-SQL statement truncates the transaction log and I agree it could be better, but it does make some sense. First, TRUNCATE is associated with tables so that's probably out. Second, you should BACKUP the database before the transactions logs are truncated since they would be used in a recovery process.
Admin
Just out of curiousity, what has this little exchange about the syntax for declaring identities in JET SQL taught us? I think I must be missing something. Can someone wrap this all up with a nice conclusion?
Admin
The guy needs this "enlightenment" to be able to help anyone at all, including himself. Without it, he is less than nothing. Or so they say.
therin lies the manipulation. you need to give us more and more money to be able to help others... but you always need more and you never have the full opportunity to help others.
scam. obviously so. it is fundamentally selfish. "give me money and i'll make you feel better about yourself." the TRUTH is that doing good to others out of cheerful heart is what good people do - and good people feel good about their efforts.
that lifestyle won't lead to peace and prosperity.
"do unto others as you would have them do unto you," doesn't necessarily mean charity. For example, if someone beliefs in an extremely fascistic "survival of the fittest" ideology, he would not want anyone to help him if he were weak, because in his point of view, weak individuals have no right to live.
talk about fringe. a sound minded person wouldn't believe that. a sound minded person would understand that chance plays a huge role in life. of course, some wealthy, self centered uncaring people might believe that... but they ask for help when they need it. you see, they are hyposcrites... treating others differently than they want to be treated.
Scientologists want to become "clear", so "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," probably means: help them become "clear", too. Sending money or food to Africa doesn't help them to become clear, so it's probably useless.
dead people can't be cleared, can they. again, enlightenment that is greedy and self centered is not enlightenment. "gimme clearance, gimme clearance, gimme clearance." gimme. money. selfish. self centered. not good.
I think it's reasonaly to assume that there are low-level members who don't pay too much and live a relatively normal life, with a little auditing session now and then, while others spent all the money they have and some more to become higher-level members. To make a far-fetched comparison with christians: some are normal members and just attend divine service on sundays, while others become monks.
cool. where is the scientific proof that those who spend more are better off than those who don't? how do they define better off?
my guess is Stewart won't tell us how much he's sent in b/c just like the jehova's witness guy never told my friends the pile of money his church is sitting on - even after promising to do so. such a feeble manipulation to pretend to be "honest" when manipulation is the intended goal.
I think their "enlighenment" (they have other words for it) is that selfish and self centered; that's part of their philosophy.
not sure what this sentence means. all i can tell you is the same thing i tell my son. "good lasts for ever. selfishness, greediness and evil lasts for but a short time. where is your time best spent?" okay, i have to tell myself that all the time, too.
Admin
I propose you just do what I did and use google to find a site that tells you some of the details about their "religion". I really don't feel like repeating all the stuff I read, in part because I might get the details wrong (I'm not one of them an never was) and in part because its both comprehensive and hard to believe if you don't read if from a first-hand participiant.
Admin
Yes, it truncates the transaction log. The weird syntax comes from the fact that the log backup implicitly truncates the log. So, doing the log backup without the log backup leaves just a truncate. BTW, you should backup the database after truncating the transaction log. My point was that even good products often have wacky syntaxes in various places.
As for my comment on appropriateness -- I jumped into this thread as you were comparing Access to Excel and implying that Access was just a little bit better at this data stuff than Excel was. That comment seemed to be justifying an earlier comment that Access should never be used for any production project. If I made too much of a link there, I apologize.
Admin
Too funny...
Admin
Umm... it is. The original poster didn't use it in a way normally considered common usage, but it is the preferred past participle of "learn".
I learn; I learned; I have learnt.
"I have learned" is, as far as I understand it, American.