Things I’ve Learned About The Good Old U S of A From Watching Films And Telly

[xlHammer]

.... All it would take is for Mr McCain to cash in his chips.

Presumably they would be Oven Chips.

 

[hatman]

- If you hear a strange sound or think someone is in your house, it is better to split up investigate by yourself rather than stick together or call the police (the basis of about every horror movie)

Sounds like the cardinal rules of Dungeon Crawling:

1) Never Divide the party.
2) Never keep the party together.
3) Never open any closed doors.
4) Never close any open doors.
5) Never go up.
6) Never go down.
7) Never summon anything larger than your head.
8) Make sure you specify RAISE rather than RAZE, when reviving a deceased party member.
9) There is no limit to what can be stored in a standard backpack.
10 Even though it seems like you could create an infinite interdimensional space by doing so, never try to place a Heward's Handy Haversack into a Portable Hole.

 

[hatman]

So having finally finished reading the ENTIRE thread, I see that my previous post is practically a non-sequitor.

Let's see what kinda trouble I can get into. The rest of you figure out which tangents in the thread I am responding to:

1) In the words of George Carlin: In a Disney cartoon, it's okay if Mickey says "I'm gonna snatch that *****, put it in a box and take it on the train." All of the words that are considered vulgar or offensive are related to context and upbringing... so of course they vary by country. You should meet my 3 year old daughter, who by the way will give you a frank and detailed anatomy lesson. She has the same confusion in using the word "bummy" that the brits have in using the word "fanny". In general, we try to use the correct anatomical terminology when talking about people's bodies in our house, but the grandparents still insist on the cutesy baby-talk words.

2) If good food starts to taste nasty when it goes bad, does Marmite (or Vegemite) start to taste good when it goes bad?

3) You mean that the Immediate Window has a use? After 10 years of programming in VBA, I have never found an application for the Immediate window that I couldn't do faster in the main code window...

4) Gilda Radner: Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals 'nuff said

5) Gotta add Black Adder to the old british shows that are classics.

6) Hey, any Red Green fans out there? As my wife and I were verbally sparring before we started dating, I changed my tag line to one of Red's quotes: "If the women don't find you handsome, at least they can find you handy." To which, Kelley replied "What if a woman finds you handsome AND handy?" That's how I ended up married with 2 kids.

7) So is the reason I find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead so funny because of the British Humor included? Or does the homor in the movie transcend the British plight?

8) After reading Rhinocerous by Eugene Ionesco back when I was in High School, I thought it might be interesting to look into the roots of BritCom, and see what link there may have been with Theatre of teh Absurd. Then I realized that it was way overboard for a 9th grade book report, and moved on with life. This thread has recalled a lot of those memories to my mind (hold on Mr Peabody). Anyone have any thoughts along those lines? Common roots? Or did one grow out of the other? I have a few thoughts, but I'm wondering about what others may have observed...

 

[RoryA]

3) You mean that the Immediate Window has a use? After 10 years of programming in VBA, I have never found an application for the Immediate window that I couldn't do faster in the main code window...

That may be the single weirdest thing I have heard this year (and it's been a strange year). I don't know anyone who spends any real time coding and doesn't have the Immediate Window open all the time. If I need to run one line of code, why would I bother writing a sub for it? And if I want to run some code while stepping through some other code, I can only do it with the IW. And finally (for now anyway! ) have you seriously never used a debug.print statement?

 

[Weaver]

it's possible to write and debug code without 'debug.print'?

Things I learned about America from watching TV:

American CCTV cameras are ultra high resolution and the FBI/CIA/NCIS has software that can turn 1 grey pixel into a readable number (license) plate

You can only buy flip phones in America

It's possible to drive full tilt through a shopping mall and not run anyone over

You're more likely to kill someone with a 6 shot revolver than a 500 round per minute Uzi submachine gun (or bad guys don't do target practice)

Emerging dazed from a rolled car is likely to make a bad guy see the error of his ways

There's probably loads more, but it's late

 

[hatman]

I always have the locals window open, which gives the current value of every single variable in the current procedure at any given time. At a glance, I can see what all of my variables are doing, rather than serially using debug.print... and in the code window, you can always hover your cursor over any variable and get a tooltip style display of the current value for that variable. I always found the Immediate window to be inferior for viewing the values of variables.

In retrospect, while I was driving home, I did remember one use that I sometimes put the Immediate window to: calling a procedure with arguments, to debug to specific combinations of parameters... though even that is rare, since I prefer to let the rest of the code run, so I can see any broad scope interactions between various pieces of code in the full call-stack, rather than looking at individual procedures in non-usual scenarios.

Just my preference.

 

[Greg Truby]

I always have the locals window open,... and in the code window, you can always hover your cursor over any variable and get a tooltip style display of the current value for that variable.

Not saying I disagree with anything you've said Paul. But, like Rory, I tend to end up with the Immediate open at some point. Normally in my locals window there are always umpteen items and many are objects or classes and I don't want to have to hunt for the container and then drill down. And if you want to look at a non-default property, then in order to get the hover thing to work you'll need a copy of whatever you want to look at right there, so you may as well print it. So I end up setting watches on expressions or properties. The problem is that if I have to close and then come back, I have to set up the watches again. A debug.print is permanent between debugging sessions; plus it tends to bookmark for me where I was last bug huntin'. Not sayin' I don't use watches; I use 'em all the time. But not to the exclusion of debug.prints.

And one of the favorite things I ever learned from the movies (Commando) is that even the saddest, scrawniest hedge will protect you from machine gun fire if you're on the side of righteousness.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

And one of the favorite things I ever learned from the movies (Commando) is that even the saddest, scrawniest hedge will protect you from machine gun fire if you're on the side of righteousness.

Yes - small hedges and furniture make great bullet protectors, especially sofas and round tables.

 

[kgkev]

In the US you people most people leave there cars unlocked and if the key isn't in the ignition its in the sun visor.

Seriously would anyone really leave there car keys in the car?

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Either the keys are in the sun visor or failing that, there are two wires located just under the dash (best found by simply reaching without looking) that, when connected, will start the car. Either the last person who hot-wired the car conveniently installed a switch for the next guy, or someone has to have a serious talk with the car manufacturers!