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Top 5 Forums?


Gone Airbourne

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I guess I'll start 

 

1.MLPForums its very very active here thats for sure.

 

2. Tulpa.info There are a lot of members there and if your into tulpas well there you go.

 

3. CGR Forums I just joined and it seems like a cool place.

 

Don't even mention 4 chan or reddit 

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1. MLP Forums - I've had a lot of bad and good experiences with this place, but I've really grown to care about it deeply and want the best for it. I care for it so much that I stuck around instead of moving on to greener pastures, a.k.a. #2.

 

2. World of Equestria - I dig the small community feel here quite a bit. Very welcoming place, in my experience. I had a strong rebellious phase with it initially, but I stuck around and grew to enjoy my time there immensely. Now just to be...y'know...*active* :please:

 

3. Civ Fanatics - Only recently joined this one. Already digging it, though :D

 

I guess that's all for now :please:

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http://www.skateboard-city.com/messageboard/ 

 

Skateboard-city.com is another forums I am apart of and its pretty active as well. 


 

 

World of Equestria - I dig the small community feel here quite a bit. Very welcoming place, in my experience. I had a strong rebellious phase with it initially, but I stuck around and grew to enjoy my time there immensely. Now just to be...y'know...*active*

 

I agree with you on this as well. 

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1. MLPF

 

I guess the rest are by default. MLPF is the only forum I actively participate in.

 

 

2. World of Warcraft official forums. You know, to see what everyone is complaining about these days.

3. Bioware Social Network, at least until they closed down the character fanclub threads after The Great Miranda Civil War of  2012. I hear the completely revamped the forums, but I haven't checked it out.
4. 4chan. I sometimes lurk there. Good for the lols on occasion. 

5. I can't think of a fifth. 

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1. MLP forums- I've been here for so long that my freinds are like my family now.

 

2. The Mystery Shack- a great Gravity Falls forum. Its a fun place with really nice users, I highly recommend fans of GF to take a look at it.

 

3. Warrior Cats forums- I love this forum because it has a high number of quality RPs, and a ton of awesome people. It's funny though, because I've never even read any of the Warrior Cats books... XD

 

4. Iwaku Role Play forums- an entire forum dedicated to RPs! I've made a ton of good friends there too.

 

5. Adventure Time forums- a fun forum with lots of cool users. Their set up is similar to the MLP forums, so any users on this forum would feel at home and familiar with it.

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This is going to be a boring look behind the curtain of who I am a bit. but screw it. 

 

1. MLP Forums - Not going to link this one obviously. I've already said ad nauseum why I love it here. 

 

Example of my general view of this place, some of its members, and most of its staff. 

 

c47.png

 

 

 


 

 

2. My Pants - Nerfighteria Forum (fans of John and Hank Green)

 

Typical post?

 

 

One of the benefits of an automated labor force is the more efficient use of resources. Since a better use of resources would lead to a lower opportunity cost (what you give up in order to get something), one could argue that humanity would still be better off. The problems associated with a 43% unemployment rate are not lost on me, but the equilibrium ratio between Capital and Labor would not be what it is now since the cost of Labor would decrease as the unemployment rate rises, meaning that the unemployment rate would not be 43% as a result of replacing Labor with Capital. However, since a rising unemployment rate would have a continually increasing effect upon industries not directly affected by the shift to automated Labor, i.e. retail stores, unemployment would theoretically go muchmuch higher than 43%.

 

This would once more decrease the cost of Labor, meaning more industries would shift back from automated to manual Labor or never shift to automated Labor. I think people's fear is that the world would become a Plutocracy where a few would have tremendous power to enforce their will upon others with technology that insurgents would have no hope whatsoever of countering. I prefer to think that humanity is a bit more responsible with its own future.

 

In a more optimistic vein, replacing menial labor with machines could lead to a cultural explosion. If societies adjust appropriately, their constituent members would be able to devote their entire lives to pursuits that they choose to pursue without regard to basic needs such as growing food, maintaining homes, going to work to pay bills. Think Star Trek.

 

 


 

 

3. Nightly.net - A General Interest board. Fairly small and been around for a while. 

 

Example of a typical post

 

A Post snippet regarding Individuals Making a difference and Nihilism. 

 

Pro "individuals can make a difference":  Tank guy in Tiananmen Square.  One man's non-violent act of protest stops a battalion of tanks and is broadcast worldwide.

 

Con "individuals can make a difference":  Tank guy in Tiananmen Square.  It really didn't matter.  China is still pseudo-Communist, the tanks eventually got to where they were going, nobody ever learned the name of Tank Guy, and today most young citizens of China don't even know about Tiananment Square due to censorship.  So while noble, he accomplished nothing in the end.

 

On the topic of nihilism, this is something I absolutely struggle with.  I don't believe there is any intrinsic meaning to life or to self.  The meaning of life is to simply live and die-- and it really doesn't matter if you do those two things quickly or slowly.  If you **** a bunch of people up, maybe karma will eventually get you, but it doesn't really matter.  If you're kind to a bunch of people, it really doesn't matter.  Everybody dies in the end, and to think that your pointless little slice of existence really amounts to anything in the grand scheme of things, you are very naive.

 

To your question of "why do I bother," the answer is simple.  It doesn't really matter if what you do is particularly meaningful or not.  Presumably it pays the bills, and presumably it is something that you tolerate (and perhaps even enjoy).  That is infinitely better than begrudging through something you hate.  While life is still ultimately meaningless, assuming that you opt to keep living it as opposed to dying early, one might as well live with a bit of hedonism.

 

 

 

 


 

4. AnandTech - Computer and Technology Forum

 

Typical post depends ... but here is one. 

 

 

 

Note: If anyone wants to discuss the effects that various versions of HotSpot are having on these test results in the programming forum, I'm more than willing to discuss that in the software/programming forum. I'd rather discuss results based on hardware platform here to the extent that the issues can be separated. Thanks!

Okay, so I put together a really simple test to see how fast some basic mathematical operations could be carried out under Java. 

Thanks to Maximilian, there is a GUI version of the not-a-benchmark available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/trnrpmc3ji...mark2.jar?dl=0

It requires JRE version 1.8 to run if you're interested.

A newer version (9/24) is available now which is much faster, though the reported times are sometimes out-of-whack, and the heap usage is higher. The .class files:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vuopff5wlv...class.zip?dl=0

If you want the code (in case you don't trust my .class files):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbhgmiqf5f...ource.zip?dl=0

The first revision of the code was as follows: 
package mathtest;import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;import java.util.concurrent.Executors;public class Mathtest{					public static void main(String[] args)	{		ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(48); 		long counter = 0;				counter = System.currentTimeMillis();		for (short i = 0; i < 48; i++)		{						executor.execute(new IntegerLoop());		}		executor.shutdown();		while (!executor.isTerminated())		{			try			{				Thread.sleep(1);			} 			catch (InterruptedException e)			{				//Do nothing							}		}		counter = System.currentTimeMillis() - counter;		System.out.println("It took " + counter + " milliseconds to complete the Integer loop.");				executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(48); 				counter = System.currentTimeMillis();				for (byte i = 0; i < 48; i++)		{			executor.execute(new FloatLoop());		}		executor.shutdown();		while (!executor.isTerminated())		{			try			{				Thread.sleep(1);			} 			catch (InterruptedException e)			{				//Do nothing							}		}		counter = System.currentTimeMillis() - counter;		System.out.println("It took " + counter + " milliseconds to complete the Float  loop.");			}}
package mathtest;public class IntegerLoop implements Runnable{	int primaryincrement = 0;	int int1 = 0;	int int2 = 0;	int int3 = 0;		public void run()	{		while (primaryincrement >= 0)		{						int3 += int1 + int2;			int3 += int1 * int2;			if (int2 != 0)			{				int3 += int1 / int2;			}			int1++;			int2++;			primaryincrement++;					}	}	}
package mathtest;public class FloatLoop implements Runnable{	int primaryincrement = 0;	float float1 = 0;	float float2 = 0;	float float3 = 0;	public void run()	{		while (primaryincrement >= 0)		{						float3 += float1 + float2;			float3 += float1 * float2;			if (float2 != 0)			{				float3 += float1 / float2;			}			float1++;			float2++;			primaryincrement++;		}	}	}

In summary, the code performs some basic functions:

It creates a thread pool of up to 48 threads
It launches 48 instances of the IntegerLoop class, calculates the time to complete the tasks,
and reports the time in milliseconds.
It launches 48 instances of the FloatLoop class, calculates the time to complete the tasks,
and reports the time in milliseconds.

Both IntegerLoop and FloatLoop do nothing more than an add + add, a multiplication + add, and then
a division + add. It repeats those operations 2147483649 times per instance. Each instance is (presumably) launched in its own thread. The incrementation operations are also included in the timing, so what you really get is:

IntegerLoop: integer add + add, integer mult + add, integer div + add, integer add, integer add, integer add
FloatLoop: float add + add, float mult + add, float div + add, float add, float add, integer add

Time is also spent on an integer comparison.

Anyway, I've tested the code on my Athlon II x2 220, unlocked to 3 cores + 6mb L3 and overclocked to 3.6 ghz("Stars chip"). I've also tested it on an E1-2500 @ 1.4 ghz("Jaguar chip"). Results:

Stars chip: 
IntegerLoop: 583406 ms
FloatLoop: 218687 ms

Jaguar chip:
IntegerLoop: 543615 ms
FloatLoop: 659535 ms

Both systems have 4 gigs of RAM. The Stars chip is under Ubuntu 14.04, while the Jaguar chip is under Win8.1. Both are running the Oracle JRE 1.8 (the Win8.1 installation is slightly newer). 

Interesting, don't you think? Anyone else care to take a crack at it?

edit: ran the same code on the x2 under Win7 64-bit, again using JRE 1.8.

Stars chip(Win7):
Integer: 584682
Float: 220593

. . . not much change there.

further edit:
I altered the code somewhat to remove the executor shutdown time from the reported final execution time. Doing so reduced execution time for IntegerLoop by ~700 ms. FloatLoop was actually slightly slower. In the end, the alteration did not significantly alter reported execution times, so I'm leaving the code as-is for now.

In deference to JoeRambo's complaint about the class names, I've renamed Integer to IntegerLoop and Float to FloatLoop. Forgot about those wrapper classes, woops! Thanks Joe!

Will look at Borealis7's thread join suggestion later.

Another edit:

I've tweaked the code to account for some of the issues raised in this thread. There are now four codepaths:

The original code (save that the timer no longer includes the executor.shutdown() operation)
The original code with division operations removed
The code rewritten to use a CountDownLatch instead of a while loop containing thread.sleep()
CountDownLatch version with division operations removed

I ran all four paths on both available test machines and got the following results:

Stars chip:

Original code:
IntegerLoop: 582682 ms
FloatLoop: 217536 ms

Original, no division:
IntegerLoop:56775 ms
FloatLoop: 95434 ms

Latch code:
IntegerLoop: 582138 ms
FloatLoop: 216541 ms

Latch code, no division:
IntegerLoop: 56677 ms
FloatLoop: 96114 ms

Jaguar chip:

Original code:
IntegerLoop: 531171 ms
FloatLoop: 655941 ms

Original, no division:
IntegerLoop: 327075 ms
FloatLoop: 308441 ms

Latch code:
IntegerLoop: 522423 ms
FloatLoop: 635689 ms

Latch code, no division:
IntegerLoop: 321423 ms
FloatLoop: 304188 ms

A few extra notes:

In the nodiv version of the code, the division operations are simply removed. Nothing replaces them.
I did try executor.awaitTermination(), but the results were inconclusive. Using a CountDownLatch seemed to work better. Haven't bothered with Futures yet but maybe later . . .

No GUI goodness here, but hey, I'm lazy.

 

 

 


 

5. StackOverflow - Programming board usually focused around Q&A (I'm counting this ... deal)

 

Typical post is this

 

 

I am trying to create a form that mails the name and email of the user (Inputted by the user in the form) and an array of chars that is held in the processingjs (.pde) built into the main html file.

the processing creates an array named answerArray.

the form in the html document is:

        <form action="between.php" method="post">            <input name="email" placeholder="Mail" type="text" class="text" />        </div>        <div>            <input name="name" placeholder="Full Name" type="text" class="text" />        </div>        <input type="submit" value="I solved it!" class="button">        </form> 

 need help sending the array (answerArray) together with the details of the user.

currently I am trying to implement this by sending the data to a php file that will provide the connecting platform for the data (between.php):

<?php $name = $_POST['name']; $email_address = $_POST['email']; js_sendPoints($name, $email_address);?><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">    function js_sendPoints() {        $.post( "save.php", {'name': name, 'email': email}, function( data ) {        $( "#status" ).html( data );        });    }</script>

and this will then send all the data to the final php file (save.php) which will email all the information:

<?php $myemail = '************@gmail.com';$answerArr = $_POST['answer'];$answerStr = implode(" ",$answerArr);      $name = $_POST['name']; $email_address = $_POST['email'];     $to = $myemail;     $email_subject = "Contact form submission: $name";    $email_body = "You have received a new message. ".    " Here are the details: Name: $name  Email: $email_address  answer: $answerStr";     mail("*************@gmail.com",$email_subject,$email_body);    header('Location: Confirmation.html');
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Dang it. I don't even remember half the forums I've been, and I've been in many, but even then I don't remember anything about them.

 

I guess MLP forums goes somewhere in the list. Though, for the likes of me, maybe this Forum would be either in the Top 15 or Top 20.

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1. MLP Forums - Pretty much my internet home these days. It's become like family for me, and I've made quite a number of friends. I haven't had any issues here with anyone, and...just love it here. :)

 

2. BayernZone & BayernForum - They are different boards, but I tend to link them together. They're basically my go-to forums for my favorite soccer/football club; Bayern Munich.

 

3. Fringes of Algo - A small community of dedicated Phantasy Star fans; especially fans of the classic series. I haven't been there as much as I should...definitely need to change that.

 

4. TrackForum - Pretty much the defacto IndyCar fanforum. I'm sort of on a hiatus from this site. I mean I like the forum, but the negativity that can permeate even simple discussions just kills my enthusiasm for the sport.

 

5. SpaceBattles.com - If you want Sci-Fi Discussion or VS. debates, this is a good place as any. I haven't logged in for quite a while, but it's still a nice place to browse. Special note, it was my first forum I ever joined, way back in 2000 or 2001, IIRC.

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1. mlpforums.com....here obviously

 

2. Smokestak.com- anything steam, this is the place to be!

 

3. mamodforums.co.uk- model steam forum. amazing ideas

 

4. iforgeiron.com- best blacksmithing forum around....

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1. MLPF

2. WOE

3. Reddit

4. Does KnowYourMeme count?

5. 4chan, I guess

Edited by Shift
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