This is PerlMonks "Mobile"

Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
"be consistent"
 
PerlMonks  

Vote on this poll

Bigfoot
[bar] 18/5%
Nessie
[bar] 11/3%
Perl 6
[bar] 87/25%
Aliens
[bar] 18/5%
Ghosts
[bar] 3/1%
True love
[bar] 51/15%
Reality
[bar] 34/10%
Nirvana
[bar] 9/3%
Free will
[bar] 48/14%
UFO cover up
[bar] 18/5%
Honest politician
[bar] 16/5%
Duke Nukem Forever
[bar] 34/10%
347 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Is it real?
by rdm (Hermit) on May 31, 2006 at 00:55 UTC
    True Love?
    You bet.
    19 years together, 10 years married. To the most perfect wife any geek could imagine! Witty, intellegent, creative, IT savvy, and a gamer! And she understands the hacker nature, possessing it (albeit as an artist) herself.

    http://leece.lympago.com
    -Reality might not get out of Beta today. (O.Timas, "Bot")
          19 years together, 10 years married.

      Pthfhtvht! :-P
      Gotcha beat. This past Sunday (5/28) just marked our 29th anniversary! And my wife (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is as non-geek non-techie as you can get. She still thinks high tech involves a #2 pencil and a yellow legal pad.


      "....any problems you are having dealing with reality are now strictly yours..."

      Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
      Peter -at- Berghold -dot- Net; AOL IM redcowdawg Yahoo IM: blue_cowdawg
      Well, I wouldn't say about others, but I experienced it! So, it exists :) (and I am grateful)
Re: Is it real?
by marto (Cardinal) on May 31, 2006 at 08:19 UTC

      Nice selection!

      Of course, I'd like to see Arc on that list. It's the ultimate vaporware: the significance of its eventual delivery is of truly mythic proportions by now to those who've heard of it, and it promises wonders well beyond those of any other vaporware of which I've heard. It also inspires a more fervent and fanatical faith in its most devoted followers than any other vaporware I recall.

      Plus, y'know, it's hip to be obscure. Or is that oblique? Oblong? Square, that was it. It's hip to be square.

      print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
      - apotheon
      CopyWrite Chad Perrin

      Haha.

      Yeah, wtf happened to: Harold & Kumar 2 (Amsterdam)

      :(
Re: Is it real?
by logan (Curate) on May 30, 2006 at 23:53 UTC
    Of course Nirvana is real. I have a stack of their albums, saw them play live, even met the band. RIP, Kurdt.

    -Logan
    "What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."

      Of course Nirvana is real. I have a stack of their albums, saw them play live, even met the band. RIP, Kurdt.

      No, no, that's all part of the conspiracy to cover it all up. They just want to make you *think* you saw them; it was all faked. Just like the trip to the moon...

        ..saw Buzz looking for you earlier...that crazy guy really believes he was there
Re: Is it real?
by pileofrogs (Priest) on May 31, 2006 at 00:38 UTC

    I'll take the self-referential answer: Reality

Re: Is it real?
by gam3 (Curate) on May 30, 2006 at 23:45 UTC
    How could you have included Nessy and left Champ off the list? I think it must be a Scottish Conspiracy.
    -- gam3
    A picture is worth a thousand words, but takes 200K.
      yeaaaaahhhhhh VT!

      It's not what you look like, when you're doin' what you’re doin'.
      It's what you’re doin' when you’re doin' what you look like you’re doin'!
           - Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Re: Is it real?
by sub_chick (Hermit) on May 31, 2006 at 00:50 UTC
    True Love. What's it all about, Alfie?


    Es gibt mehr im Leben als Bücher, weißt du. Aber nicht viel mehr. - (Die Smiths)"
Re: Is it real?
by Joost (Canon) on May 31, 2006 at 01:15 UTC
    I voted "free will" but it depends on your interpretation.

    I believe I have free will because I'm free to do whatever I physically can (even if there could be severe consequences). I do believe my choices are for a good part predictable given my previous experiences and probably my genetic make-up.

    edit: and how the hell did bigfoot reach a shared top postition in this poll?

      and how the hell did bigfoot reach a shared top postition in this poll?

      Maybe because there is proof? -> zentara's user image

      :-)

      But you do have to ask yourself.... am I for real? The biggest kept secret at the NSA, is that my posts are relayed from the dark side of the moon. ;-)


      I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh

      I like Smullyan's argument in one of his books where he explains how free will and predetermination can coexist.

Re: Is it real?
by japhy (Canon) on May 31, 2006 at 02:15 UTC
    I voted for free will, since I believe it encompasses the notion of true love. That is, if we can determine for ourselves our feelings towards one another, we can know that it is truly love that we feel for another person (and vice versa) and that is actually ourselves who are the masters of the emotion. My fianceé, Kristin, and I have set the date for our wedding: June 23, 2007. It'll have been over 7 years since our first date, and 2.5 years since I proposed to her.

    She has her masters in Medieval Studies, whereas I'm a Computer Scientist. Opposite poles of the educational globe, I'd say, and yet we get along wonderfully well.


    Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
    How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart
Re: Is it real?
by kwaping (Priest) on May 31, 2006 at 08:59 UTC
    I voted for ghosts because I've seen one!

    I was going to meet my friend's grandma for the first time. We got to her house and I went in first while she got something out of the car. I saw her grandma in the back room, sitting on a bed. I smiled at her and she smiled back. Just then, my friend came in. I told her I had met her grandma. She said I couldn't have - she was still at work... Whoever was there was nowhere to be seen.

    We went through a family photo album and I picked out a picture of the lady I'd seen. It was her aunt, who was deceased. There were no pictures of the aunt on display in the house, so I really don't think it was a psychological trick by my brain. (I described her in detail before we got out the photo album.)

    Weird, eh?

    ---
    It's all fine and dandy until someone has to look at the code.
Re: Is it real?
by jZed (Prior) on May 30, 2006 at 22:42 UTC
    The company that makes Helix music player. Yes.
Re: Is it real?
by jbrugger (Parson) on Jun 01, 2006 at 11:30 UTC
    It's so logic, proven and simple. Aliens are proven to exist:
    try in linux: (So the correct answer to 'is it real?' and you want to say yes, you say 'Aliens' )
    alien You must specify a file to convert. Usage: alien [options] file [...] file [...] Package file or files to convert. -d, --to-deb Generate a Debian deb package (default). Enables these options: --patch=<patch> Specify patch file to use instead of autom +atically looking for patch in /var/lib/alien. --nopatch Do not use patches. --anypatch Use even old version os patches. -s, --single Like --generate, but do not create .orig directory. --fixperms Munge/fix permissions and owners. --test Test generated packages with lintian. -r, --to-rpm Generate a Red Hat rpm package. --to-slp Generate a Stampede slp package. -l, --to-lsb Generate a LSB package. -t, --to-tgz Generate a Slackware tgz package. Enables these options: --description=<desc> Specify package description. --version=<version> Specify package version. -p, --to-pkg Generate a Solaris pkg package. -i, --install Install generated package. -g, --generate Generate build tree, but do not build pack +age. -c, --scripts Include scripts in package. -v, --verbose Display each command alien runs. --veryverbose Be verbose, and also display output of run + commands. -k, --keep-version Do not change version of generated package +. --bump=number Increment package version by this number. -h, --help Display this help message. -V, --version Display alien's version number.
    "We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise." - Larry Wall.
Re: Is it real?
by stonecolddevin (Parson) on May 31, 2006 at 04:53 UTC

    Duke Nukem Forever.

    I'm all about kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. Damn...I'm all out of bubble gum...

    meh.
Re: Is it real?
by swampyankee (Parson) on May 31, 2006 at 02:42 UTC

    I voted for "honest politician", mostly because the only way a group of people don't do politics is if no more than one is alive.

    Of course "honest" really means "honest enough"; politicians who aren't honest enough become professional lobbyists. Or pundits.

    emc

    e(π√−1) = −1

      Depends on what you mean by "honest". Where I come from, an "honest politician" is one who stays bought; he doesn't sell you out of someone later on bribes him, even if the new bribe is higher. He's got principles. Of course, where I come from, we also believe in ghosts - since dead people can vote here.

        Chicago or one of its suburbs?

        Voting could be very convenient, too. A friend's future mother-in-law went to vote (in one of the suburbs) and found out she already had!

        These small towns have such good services....

        When I was in college in Chicago (at IIT), the concensus was that every city job (except, possibly, the police) was a patronage job. This is why Chicago had 5 men (this may not have included the driver) on a garbage truck (I think NYC had 3). It had nothing to do with union work rules; it had to do with maximizing opportunities for patronage positions.

        emc

        e(π√−1) = −1
Re: Is it real?
by sarani (Sexton) on May 31, 2006 at 04:27 UTC
    Free Will. If it isn't, then what is? I voted for it becuase I think it is this that defines "reality".
Re: Is it real?
by jhourcle (Prior) on May 31, 2006 at 11:06 UTC

    Honest politicians?

    I'd take that as an insult, if I had actually won.

    (oh -- and I was misquoted -- I didn't say I 'would do everything in his power to help the newly elected commissioners', I said I would support them when it was good for the town, which is significantly different in my opinion.)

Re: Is it real? (mu)
by tye (Sage) on Jun 01, 2006 at 05:01 UTC

    Interesting. I decided that this poll was written in "English as a second language". It appears that many have interpretted it as "Which is (the most) real?", though I'm not sure how they get that from "Is it real?". I quite liked the selection of mythical things, however.

    - tye        

      Agreed, so I took a vote each way for "true love" :-)

      --
      Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. -Basho

      I'd expect a programmer to understand how it is interpreted as roughly equivalent to "Which is (the most) real?" — just think of "it" as a variable! Sure, it doesn't start with a dollar sign, but not all variables are in Perl.

      it = "Bigfoot"; print "Is it real?";

      output:
      Is Bigfoot real?

      print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
      - apotheon
      CopyWrite Chad Perrin

        That would explain why voting for Bigfoot would be voting for "Is Bigfoot real?", but does not explain why such a vote would be interpretted as voting for "Bigfoot is real". If people appeared to be interpretting the poll as "I most like to question the reality of _", then I might buy your argument. As is, it looks like "logic as a second language". ;)

        - tye        

      It's a bad poll.

      It asks about the reality of something; without listing what that something refers to. Then it lists a bunch of things that some people believe are real, and others don't.

      What if I believe in everything on the list except two are real? I would probably vote for one of them -- but which one?

      What if I believe that nothing on the list except two are real? Again, I would probably vote for one of them -- and again, which one should I vote for?

      It's a bad poll. It doesn't present a set of mutually exclusive options with an opinion-based decision critera to choose among them; which is the whole point of a poll.

        You're taking this whole poll thing waaaay too seriously. Next, you'll complain it's not scientific.

        (For the record, I don't care for the polls, so I simply don't vote for them. That doesn't mean I whine about the things I don't like about 'em - I just change the channel and move on. Obviously, I read the replies once in a while, especially when I don't remember that the thread is a poll instead of a SoPW or Meditation.)

Re: Is it real?
by wolfger (Deacon) on May 31, 2006 at 13:58 UTC

    Free WillyWill. Without free will, true love cannot exist. Reality, as I have already noted, is subjective. Everything else on the list has been debunked, except maybe Perl 6. I'd hand that one to the MythBusters, but I don't think they'd take it on, since it doesn't really offer the opportunity to destroy things.

Re: Is it real?
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 02, 2006 at 13:25 UTC
    Bigfoot and Nessie were programming in Perl 6 when alien ghosts appeared and showed them that true love was a reality. They were in nirvana of their own free will. The UFO coverup sponsored by an honest politician prevented the world from finding out about it. His slogan: "Duke Nukem Forever".
Re: Is it real?
by tbone1 (Monsignor) on May 31, 2006 at 14:03 UTC
    Missing options:

    NASCAR quality (real racecars have no fenders)
    Formula 1 integrity
    Useful bureaucrat
    Soccer scoring
    Windows security
    Windows Longh^H^H^H^H^HVista

    --
    tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)
    And remember, if he succeeds, so what.
    - Chick McGee

Re: Is it real?
by OfficeLinebacker (Chaplain) on Jun 02, 2006 at 15:24 UTC
    Greetings, esteemed monks!

    Oh crap, how did I miss True Love? I voted for free will. I control my destiny. That's a fact, jack. Also real: Honest Politician.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    I like computer programming because it's like Legos for the mind.

Re: Is it real?
by Knom (Beadle) on Jun 05, 2006 at 06:48 UTC
    Of course reality is real, else how would it suck?
Re: Is it real?
by ambrus (Abbot) on Jun 01, 2006 at 09:04 UTC

    I voted for free will, but I like nirvana too.

Re: Is it real?
by TedPride (Priest) on Jun 03, 2006 at 05:46 UTC
    Hmm.

    - Reality (real by definition, but boring choice)
    - True love (real, but boring choice)
    - Free will (this is an interesting question. I think that from the viewpoint of our linear existence, we have free will)
    - Honest politician (I know Senator Todd Akin is, we're friends with his family)
    - Perl 6 (real, but I don't care)
    - Duke Nukem Forever (real, but I really don't care)
    - Nessie (probably real)

    This list basically boils down to a toss-up between free will and honest politician. For the sake of simplicity, I think i'm going with honest politician. We can sure use more of those.

      Well said!
      We suffer from a lack of honest politicians in the uk.
        We suffer from a lack of honest politicians in the uk

        Not so in Australia. All of our politicians are honest .... just ask them :-)

        Cheers,
        Rob
Re: Is it real?
by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Jun 05, 2006 at 18:09 UTC

    Honest politicians? New Jersey has the best politicians money can buy! :-D

Re: Is it real?
by johngg (Canon) on Jun 05, 2006 at 15:11 UTC
    True Love worked for Princess Buttercup so it gets my vote.

    Cheers,

    JohnGG

View List Of Past Polls