[thelist] Re: foo and message etiquette

Carol Stein techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Wed Mar 19 14:39:38 CST 2003


Well, actually, "dummy coding" doesn't mean that at all, neither "you are a
dummy" nor "here is some code to help you out."

>> > we are sensitive today aren't we? "foo" is a generally accepted name
>> > for a variable in dummy code (not as in "you are a dummy", dummy as in
>> > "here is some code to help you out") check out this definition:
>>
>> How odd.  I always figured "foo" and "bar" were derivations of the
>> militariesque acronym "FUBAR" which stands for "F'd Up Beyond All
>> Recognition" I guess I learn something new every day.
>
>I think dummy code was a bad phrasing too (especially with the implication
>of foo == fool:) how about "illustrative code"

A statistician uses "dummy coded variables" to force a (general linear
model) equation to fit data that it wouldn't otherwise be able to handle.
For example, if we want to know whether there is an INTERACTION between
whether someone is male versus female and old versus young, we "dummy code"
a variable to represent the interaction: It takes on the value of either 1
(i.e., person is -- arbitrarily -- male plus young) or 0 (i.e., person is
not male AND young). Sometimes we even "dummy code" a variable with 3
values: -1, 0, and 1.

The point is that the variable is a constructed variable. This allows us to
use a linear (multiple regression, or you may prefer the expression
"econometrics") equation to determine that the interaction either does or
does not matter. The value of the coefficient is, of course, meaningless,
but at least we can say there is or is not an interaction between the
variables. This sort of thing comes up a lot when social scientists are
investigating, since unlike physicists, who have nice orthogonal variables
to work with, we have to work primarily with independent (exogenous)
variables which are collinear, or normally partially correlated. For
example, age and income are certainly very different conceptually, yet
income usually increases with age (and then starts decreasing again after a
certain age).

Finally, as a very old programmer myself (52), I can also assure you that
foo and bar are (were?) usually used to represent some *function* that
would be called or referenced within code, not a *variable*. 

>From: Kelly Hallman <khallman at wrack.org>
>To: thelist at lists.css-discuss.org
>Subject: 
>Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0303190743510.26874-100000 at clove.wrack.org>
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>Message: 26
>

>> > http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212139,00.html
>> 
>
>Also, I often don't add a salutation such as HTH, etc at the end of a
>message, figuring it is implicated by my response.  I realize that this
>has the possible side-effect of coming off a bit aloof, but that is a
>calculated risk.  It's all in how you (choose to) read things!
>
>-- 
>Kelly Hallman
>http://wrack.org/
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 10:02:06 -0600
>From: Debbe Watson <debbe1 at swbell.net>
>To: dsw at senecaconsult.com,
> "'thelist at lists.evolt.org.uk'" <thelist at lists.css-discuss.org>
>Subject: [thelist] telecommuting opportunities
>Message-ID: <002d01c2ee30$e3dda5b0$6401a8c0 at D4XJQN11>
>In-Reply-To: <002201c2ee28$e1074dd0$6401a8c0 at D4XJQN11>
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>	<thelist at lists.css-discuss.org>
>Message: 27
>
>
>
>Morning Everyone!
>
>I am looking for links to websites which offer telecommuting
>opportunities.  REAL opportunities!  Most I have found are a joke.
>Anyone have any suggestions. 
>
>Debbe
>
>
>
>-- 
>* * Please support the community that supports you.  * *

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>------------------------------
>
>Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 10:08:59 -0600
>From: "Stephanie C. Smith" <scsmith at medicine.tamu.edu>
>To: <thelist at lists.css-discuss.org>
>Subject: Re: [thelist] Delete all FP Code
>Message-ID: <se7841cd.016 at medicine.tamu.edu>
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>Message: 28
>
>For those of you who have Dreamweaver, see this article:
>
>http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/product_resources/migration_
kit.html
>
>The "clean up FrontPage" extensions might not catch absolutely
>everything, but they'll make a pretty good start.
>
>
>
>
>Stephanie Smith
>Web Communications Specialist
>Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
>http://www.tamushsc.edu/       
>scsmith at tamu.edu
>------------------------------
>
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