What is your pet peeve of the day?

[ERD50]

Financial discussions that mix up principal and principle. Everyone knows that a principal is in charge of a school!

Not sure if you are trying to be funny or using satire here?

The "principal is your pal" only helps you recall the proper form when referring to a school principal. It doesn't help me with the proper usage for financial terms:

Principle vs. principal | OxfordWords blog

As the principal of a small school I know what every child is up to in terms of their academic achievement and their behavior.

All the principals in the cast deliver vivid, memorable performances.

He is now principal of the Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

As a singular noun, principal can also refer to a sum of money lent or invested, on which interest is paid:

She was assured that there would be no risk to her principal.

In the first years in which you pay back your loan, the majority of each payment goes towards interest rather than principal.

So I think I'm correct if I say: "I agree with the principal of our school that the buy & hold principle is a reasonable approach to the investment of my principal."

Did I get that right?

Maybe I'll start thinking "My money is my (princi)pal"?

-ERD50

 

[JoeWras]

Today's pet peeve:

Buying a $375.00 Kraus faucet and having Chinese picture installation directions with no text (words) and parts shown on the diagram that are not required or even in the box.

You mean like this? OK, not exactly like this, but the words are useless, so it might as well have just been the terrible picture.
They have their ISO9001 certification, so no worries, it is a quality product!

 

[kcowan]

Did I get that right?

Maybe I'll start thinking "My money is my (princi)pal"?

-ERD50

What bugs me is when the financial gurus lack principles. They have an interest in your money though.

 

[travelover]

Not sure if you are trying to be funny or using satire here? ............-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

And now I'm not sure if you are just trying to cover your mistake!

-ERD50

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

People who need to have the term "recursive" explained to them.

-ERD50

Yeah, I googled it, still dont know what it means. Dont bother to explain it any further, Im sure its something I will never use/need.

 

[MRG]

Yeah, I googled it, still dont know what it means. Dont bother to explain it any further, Im sure its something I will never use/need.

It's simple.

After you Google recursive, Google recursive! Repeat as many times as needed, or till the resolution of pi.

 

[ERD50]

Yeah, I googled it, still dont know what it means. Dont bother to explain it any further, Im sure its something I will never use/need.

It's simple.

After you Google recursive, Google recursive! Repeat as many times as needed, or till the resolution of pi.

BCG, that's OK - it was meant to be a bit of a 'geeky' joke anyhow, and I'd expect it to go over a lot of non-geek people's heads. A play on braumeister complaining within a thread about complaining.

So I'm not really complaining about explaining 'recursive', it was part of a recursive joke. hah-hah. In fact, I'm happy to explain:

As MRG hinted, it's when something gets repeated within itself. For semi-technical things, a simple example would be you go through a calculation to get an estimate of something, and now that you have that estimate, you can repeat the calculation more precisely, because now you have a number that's closer. Keep going until you are there (or as close as you can get).

More technically, it's a software routine that can call itself from within itself (and make your head spin). Don't worry if you don't understand that, it's a weird thing.

And in the technical world there are more 'jokes' (geeks are pretty 'funny' people, if you know what I mean) based on 'recursion'. The names of some applications or Operating systems are recursive:

GNU - an operating system, that is UNIX-like, but it isn't Unix. To make that clear, the name GNU stands for: GNU's Not Unix. Get it? You can't have the initials "GNU", until you have the name "GNU"s Not Unix", so it's all twisted up in itself, chicken and egg fashion, a bit like a mobius strip.

A few more I had to look up:

PIP — PIP Installs Packages << pretty good, huh?

JACK — JACK Audio Connection Kit << Clever, "Jacks" are the plugs and jacks used to connect audio equipment

And my favorite:

XNA — XNA's Not Acronymed << That just cracks me up!

And that reminds me when I first started in my career, and there were all these acronyms for internal systems and things you had to learn. Someone would say "You need to learn about the TLA's". OK, what are "TLA's?"

Three Letter Acronyms. (rim-shot)

Fun times, eh?

-ERD50

 

[Sanstar]

My pet peeve of any day? When I buy a new truck or car and the dealer has placed a sticker on it with their company's name, logo, etc. as soon as it arrives from the factory. They are willing to try to get it off, but won't guarantee results or that the finish won't be damaged. It irritates me that after paying for a new vehicle and without my consent, I am now advertising their dealership for as long as I own it. My purchase was for a new, pristine, not defaced vehicle.

 

[Rustward]

The road signs that have dynamic updates for how many miles and minutes to the next major interchanges. How many tax $$ go into the construction and maintenance of those signs that seem to me to provide no useful information. Does anyone ever use the info on the sign to make decisions on their commute?

Steve, I believe the primary function of those signs is to display Amber and Silver Alerts, lane closures due to construction or accidents, flood and icing alerts, and other information that is useful to drivers. The miles and minutes stuff is just filler between the important messages.

 

[cooch96]

The road signs that have dynamic updates for how many miles and minutes to the next major interchanges. How many tax $$ go into the construction and maintenance of those signs that seem to me to provide no useful information. Does anyone ever use the info on the sign to make decisions on their commute?

I use them daily on my commute. I don't know about maintenance (should be minimal), but last I checked, it costs about $7k each just to buy. But keep in mind that they are programmable, wired into a permanent power and signal source, usually linked to traffic loops and cameras, weatherproof, and shock resistant; and if paid with federal monies, then all the steel parts and pieces are domestic. There are many variables that go into erecting a Variable Message Sign (VMS), but figure a DOT pays $20-$90k for the whole shebang.

 

[SteveNU]

Steve, I believe the primary function of those signs is to display Amber and Silver Alerts, lane closures due to construction or accidents, flood and icing alerts, and other information that is useful to drivers. The miles and minutes stuff is just filler between the important messages.

We have signs like that too but the ones I'm referring to are dedicated to distance and time and just seem to be giving you useless information because many times there aren't alternate routes available. I'll have to pay more attention next time I see one and figure out if there are viable alternative routes available. Certainly if your not familiar with the area they would be of little use it would seem.

I just use Waze and go wherever it tells me usually!

 

[Rustward]

We have signs like that too but the ones I'm referring to are dedicated to distance and time and just seem to be giving you useless information because many times there aren't alternate routes available. I'll have to pay more attention next time I see one and figure out if there are viable alternative routes available. Certainly if your not familiar with the area they would be of little use it would seem.

I just use Waze and go wherever it tells me usually!

Well, then maybe you should contact whatever officials are in charge of these and let them know what you think. Start an "action group" and get these useless things shut down and put the tax money back into the taxpayers' pockets or drivers' pockets in the case of tollways. You might be doing a really good thing.

... Certainly if your not familiar with the area they would be of little use it would seem. ...

... and the contraction for "you are", which is "you're" would have been more appropriate in this case than using the possessive "your".

After all, we are in the pet peeves thread, aren't we?

 

[folivier]

Since we're talking about road signs. Around here our highway department likes to put up signs where it is obstructed by something, a tree, another sign, power pole, anything that keeps you from reading it until you're passing it not giving you enough time to react.
And if there is a street sign chances are it is misspelled.

 

[Dash man]

Last fall I had a Generac whole house natural gas powered generator installed. This weekend was the first time we lost power and the generator failed to start. It tried and died displaying a red light and error code indicating to call an authorized service dealer. Fortunately the power outage was brief, but after paying several thousand dollars for this generator....well, I'm not happy. Installer can't come out for a week to fix it.

 

[kombat]

And my favorite:

XNA — XNA's Not Acronymed << That just cracks me up!

And that reminds me when I first started in my career, and there were all these acronyms for internal systems and things you had to learn. Someone would say "You need to learn about the TLA's". OK, what are "TLA's?"

Three Letter Acronyms. (rim-shot)

At the risk of being pedantic, neither XNA nor TLA are acronyms - they're initialisms. To be an acronym, it has to be pronounceable, like LASER or SCUBA.

 

[euro]

BCG, that's OK - it was meant to be a bit of a 'geeky' joke anyhow, and I'd expect it to go over a lot of non-geek people's heads. A play on braumeister complaining within a thread about complaining.

So I'm not really complaining about explaining 'recursive', it was part of a recursive joke. hah-hah. In fact, I'm happy to explain:

As MRG hinted, it's when something gets repeated within itself. For semi-technical things, a simple example would be you go through a calculation to get an estimate of something, and now that you have that estimate, you can repeat the calculation more precisely, because now you have a number that's closer. Keep going until you are there (or as close as you can get).

More technically, it's a software routine that can call itself from within itself (and make your head spin). Don't worry if you don't understand that, it's a weird thing.

And in the technical world there are more 'jokes' (geeks are pretty 'funny' people, if you know what I mean) based on 'recursion'. The names of some applications or Operating systems are recursive:

GNU - an operating system, that is UNIX-like, but it isn't Unix. To make that clear, the name GNU stands for: GNU's Not Unix. Get it? You can't have the initials "GNU", until you have the name "GNU"s Not Unix", so it's all twisted up in itself, chicken and egg fashion, a bit like a mobius strip.

A few more I had to look up:

PIP — PIP Installs Packages << pretty good, huh?

JACK — JACK Audio Connection Kit << Clever, "Jacks" are the plugs and jacks used to connect audio equipment

And my favorite:

XNA — XNA's Not Acronymed << That just cracks me up!

And that reminds me when I first started in my career, and there were all these acronyms for internal systems and things you had to learn. Someone would say "You need to learn about the TLA's". OK, what are "TLA's?"

Three Letter Acronyms. (rim-shot)

Fun times, eh?

-ERD50

Dang, I previously considered myself pretty geeky, but I just realized that I'm very mainstream

 

[pb4uski]

People who need to have the term "recursive" explained to them.

-ERD50

How about people who use the term "recursive"?

 

[pb4uski]

My pet peeve of any day? When I buy a new truck or car and the dealer has placed a sticker on it with their company's name, logo, etc. as soon as it arrives from the factory. They are willing to try to get it off, but won't guarantee results or that the finish won't be damaged. It irritates me that after paying for a new vehicle and without my consent, I am now advertising their dealership for as long as I own it. My purchase was for a new, pristine, not defaced vehicle.

+1

 

[Nemo2]

How about people who use the term "recursive"?

Do I see a pattern here?

 

[pb4uski]

The road signs that have dynamic updates for how many miles and minutes to the next major interchanges. How many tax $$ go into the construction and maintenance of those signs that seem to me to provide no useful information. Does anyone ever use the info on the sign to make decisions on their commute?

I no longer commute, but I find them useful in assessing whether traffic is backed up ahead of me and if so, then I will consider exiting the interstate and taking alternative routes.

 

[pb4uski]

Do I see a pattern here?

Lets not go there.

 

[splitwdw]

Last fall I had a Generac whole house natural gas powered generator installed. This weekend was the first time we lost power and the generator failed to start. It tried and died displaying a red light and error code indicating to call an authorized service dealer. Fortunately the power outage was brief, but after paying several thousand dollars for this generator....well, I'm not happy. Installer can't come out for a week to fix it.

We have a whole house Generac and have it setup to self test once a week. Was yours setup for self test and then failed to start. I think, don't remember for sure, that my husband said it was best for the generator to run (weekly/monthly) similar to not letting a car sit without running it once in a while. Plus my husband does the maintenance (oil change) once a year. Our neighbors Generac failed to start but that was due to his handy man doing something wrong during his yearly maintenance, not turning a switch back on??

 

[ERD50]

At the risk of being pedantic, neither XNA nor TLA are acronyms - they're initialisms. To be an acronym, it has to be pronounceable, like LASER or SCUBA.

You are correct! I had forgotten that distinction, but words have meaning, so we really should use them properly. Thanks, hopefully I'll remember that in the future.

ac·ro·nym
An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g., ASCII, NASA ).

How about people who use the term "recursive"?

Yea, them too!


-ERD50

 

[W2R]

My pet peeve of any day? When I buy a new truck or car and the dealer has placed a sticker on it with their company's name, logo, etc. as soon as it arrives from the factory. They are willing to try to get it off, but won't guarantee results or that the finish won't be damaged. It irritates me that after paying for a new vehicle and without my consent, I am now advertising their dealership for as long as I own it. My purchase was for a new, pristine, not defaced vehicle.

I know it's strange, but I like having the dealer's name on my car. I guess the reason I like it is that it indicates that I am probably actually from New Orleans, and not (yet another) temporary transplant or tourist. But I do agree that they should have given you the option to not have that sticker.

Here's yet another pet peeve: Lately, more often than not, people around here have been just not even trying to stop at stop signs if nobody is coming. It's not a "stop if you think it's necessary" sign, it's a stop sign.