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Damascus CD, unfortunately not as strong as the knife 
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David Crow wrote: Damascus knife.
"Forged in Firefox"?
Don't give 'em any ideas!
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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That looks like what happens to aluminium when you boil it in water.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I usually boil my enemies in oil.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Are you saying I shouldn't boil my CDs?
Doesn't everyone do that? 
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Nah, it wasn't quite like that.
The pattern looked more beautiful.
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At first look, it seemed like deliberate decoration (to the back of the CD). I learned some time back (the hard way) that scratching the back coat off a CD causes as much harm, or more, than the front.
Now I do have a lot of CD's with funky playing characteristics - they had been exposed to salt during the Superstorm Sandy flooding - but those are somewhat grayed spots. Those that play will occasionally have gaps of silence. That after a good rinsing at that time (salt water is pretty quick on the time scale of picking-through-ruins). (A lot of disk as my mind's eye mourns a bit)
A bit late, now, but would alcohol (rubbing or drinking) have worked better for this? Next time, try it and update the post.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: A bit late, now, but would alcohol (rubbing or drinking) have worked better for this?
Probably, but I didn't have any and it's too late now
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: salt water is pretty quick on the time scale of picking-through-ruins
We've had "De Ramp" here in The Netherlands (which literally translates to "The Disaster" and that's literally how we call it as we've only had like one natural disaster, ever, and it's short for "watersnoodramp" or flood in English) in 1953.
Houses that were around at the time, which is more than you'd think (complete streets and villages), still show.
A lot of houses were completely under water, but some were only half, and you can still see where the water stopped, although after all this time you'd have to look pretty closely.
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Sander Rossel wrote: Houses that were around at the time, which is more than you'd think (complete streets and villages), still show.
A lot of houses were completely under water, but some were only half, and you can still see where the water stopped,
My entire city was effectively under (ocean) water. Living on some of the highest ground on this barrier island, we only had about 60cm outside and, except for a small room at ground level, about 40cm inside. Others, particular in the western part of the city, had 1m-2m of sand left behind when the ocean receded. The boardwalk was shredded and throws hundreds of meters inland. This story was the same up and down the entire East Coast of the US. The water supply plant literally blew up. Flooding much of the NYC subway, down the coastline - the number of people effected was quite staggering. That was near the end of 2012. It was amazing seeing the contents of homes - every one of them, piled up for disposal. By contents, I mean furniture, appliances, and the floors and walls. Many homes have since paid to be raised about 3m. City code now demands new construction be raised.
Yet - very very little of the damage remains to be seen. The government (despite political opposition for quite a while from the southern and western states who get disaster help frequently) opposed it. A few, however, had no work done. Some, because given FEMA money, they used it to pay down their mortgage instead of repairing the house and then cried they have no place to live. Only a fraction of a percent aren't redone and re-inhabited. A 500 year flood they called it - but as the climate evolves I worry if they're off by an order-of-magnitude.
Anyway - it Sandy did not make it into the form of an idiom as yours did. Probably, because the country's too large. Also, particularly in the South, they've been getting floods and storms like crazy these last few years. And the fires. And droughts. So far, the sheer size of the country makes them more expensive economic events (if we ignore the local misery). I never want to experience something that becomes and idiom.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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How could I tell? I checked the "About" box on my password storage app - the first "real app" I wrote when when I was confident enough to try something "complicated" in C#. I still use it today, and it still works fine, with no changes or bug fixes since 2009*.
The depressing bit is that since 2010 I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch, because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ... 
* Which is really amazing considering one app I wrote last year is up to version 2.36 already!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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The frightening thing for me, I've been using it for 21 years this year.
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But ... but ... I only wrote it in 2009!
Show how good a language design it was, though - yes it's been extended, but it's still recognisable as the original language and still one of the most used (if not the most used if you ignore JS which doesn't really count as a computer language - more of a virus IMHO).
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Aye. I'm somewhere in this neighborhood, too. I think 20.
Jon Sagara
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If it ain't broke fix it till it is 
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I don't dare break it - I only know one password, and it's the one to get into that app ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: I still use it today, and it still works fine
Because you know exactly what NOT to do?
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My first professional job with C# began in 2004, but I first started playing with it in 2002 -- I took a class in C# and ADO.net.
However, I've been a fan of C# since a first read the spec in 1999 (if I recall correctly).
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Pah! Such a youngling you are!
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If you rewrite it now, then in 12 (well actually more like 2) years it will be really badly written compared to how you do it at that time. So what have you gained?
I just love code that is modern and up to spec.... I can look at it for a long time... but then I need to press enter to move on to write the next line, and the code I was looking at joins the rank of obsolete junk.
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OriginalGriff wrote: The depressing bit is that since 2010 I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch, because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ...
It would be more depressing if it still seemed well written and your programming style had not evolved and improved over all of that time.
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OriginalGriff wrote: The depressing bit is that since 2010 I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch
I've been doing same with my first C++ app (a time tracking app) since I wrote it 1997
OriginalGriff wrote: because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ...
Same...
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
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I'm curious where you came from prior to C#.
I went from FOTRAN (via VAx Assembler) to C . The C code, for a while, was written like it was FORTRAN using C syntax. Then, suddenly, it wasn't.
As for C#? I used it a few times and even remember the introductory articles and how it was planned to attract and replace VB.NET users. Also, the resentment that the help library for VS had lots of examples of C# and C++ got the short and smelly end of the stick - I often had to guess at things.
Ya' know - I still think I resent C# because of that
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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FORTRAN, then PASCAL, then to realtime embedded assembler - decades of that, slowly migrating to a C / assembler mix, then C++, then C++ / assembler mix (some embedded, some Windows), then to C# / Windows pretty much exclusively.
There were others in there (COBOL, ALGOL, VB) but fortunately they died a death and no-one used them for real-world projects!
The worst combination? Windows 3 apps in C ... brrrrr! Nothing was simple in those days!
The best fun? Z80 assembler in a tiny RAM / ROM combination. Hard work that you really had to think about and plan ahead - but when it worked, that was a really good feeling.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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First work in Windows was, mercifully, delayed until NT .
But the best fun was DOS - C w/inline assembler and also just make .COM file and C-callable function in assembly (a tiny graphics library for my FORTRAN) and the odd TSR.
The C/inline mainly went for the ROM BIOS and the incredible fun that offered; also, when in need of memory, using unused video memory.
The most fun, pound for pound, were the TSR's as they were for mischief. One of them kept rewriting the input buffer back to the command line backwards but stored the correct value, as well, so it still executed. My favorite, however, was one that took every eighth 'd' or 'D' and replaced it with an 'f' or 'F'. Just enough to cause havoc yet extremely hard to investigate unless you already knew what you were looking for.
Funny thing - that creating an annoyance was such a good time.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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