https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839581
inception :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=743860
Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
21–30 of 163 posts
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#22Contrary to Snopes' last-updated, this is at least 10 years old. Summary/spoiler: It was to ensure the contract was read thoroughly.
The website is running on ASP Classic (.asp)
The .asp extension actually tells you nothing other than that the .asp extension was used. On the balance of probabilities, it's likely the case that the site runs on ASP classic on a Windows server, but it could as easily have been moved to, say, the LAMP stack configured (using httpd.conf or .htaccess) to invoke PHP when files bearing the .asp extension are requested. It's not a common thing to do, but it can be the easiest way to solve the link rot problem.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#23I’ve heard similar stories regarding developers and IT Services
Where the devs weren’t allowed access to the Production environment so would have to leave written instructions on how to deploy the software they’ve written. And convinced that IT Services weren’t reading their instructions they would write something really offensive in there and see if they complained
Possibly just a myth, but amusing all the same
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#24An episode of the TRC podcast covered this, and came to a different conclusion than snopes. http://www.trcpodcast.com/trc-219-can-men-and-women-be-frien...
What was the conclusion, for those of us who can't listen?
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The website is running on ASP Classic (.asp)
The .asp extension actually tells you nothing other than that the .asp extension was used. On the balance of probabilities, it's likely the case that the site runs on ASP classic on a Windows server, but it could as easily have been moved to, say, the LAMP stack configured (using httpd.conf or .htaccess) to invoke PHP when files bearing the .asp extension are requested. It's not a common thing to do, but it can be th…
According to the headers it returns it seems to be IIS 5 - which is quite impressively old (Windows 2000 era).
Of course, they could be faking that - but not sure why anyone would try.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The website is running on ASP Classic (.asp)
The .asp extension actually tells you nothing other than that the .asp extension was used. On the balance of probabilities, it's likely the case that the site runs on ASP classic on a Windows server, but it could as easily have been moved to, say, the LAMP stack configured (using httpd.conf or .htaccess) to invoke PHP when files bearing the .asp extension are requested. It's not a common thing to do, but it can be th…
A buddy once had a client that decided their site needed to be in a different technology, "for browser compatibility". A quick remap later and the client was satisfied.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#27An episode of the TRC podcast covered this, and came to a different conclusion than snopes. http://www.trcpodcast.com/trc-219-can-men-and-women-be-frien...
What was the conclusion, for those of us who can't listen?
Technical requests are usually handled by different people than catering and hospitality requests.
The people in charge catering and hospitality would not be expected to read the technical requests to do with electronic and sound systems, and vice versa.
The guy at the TRC podcast actually searched out their contracts, and the brown M&M clause isn't in the middle of technical requirements, but is in the hospitality section among requests of meals, beverages and dressing room requirements, and there's no mention that the concert would be cancelled if brown M&Ms were found.
So seems unlikely to be true, and just be the guy from Van Halen telling a fun story.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#28Maybe a mathematician can explain whether this "trick" works or not? Intuitively, I can't see that knowing whether the M&M demand was filled makes it more probable that the other demands are filled.
Say you have a pile with five black or white marbles. You want them all to be black. So you check that the first marble in the pile is black (ie no brown m&m:s). Is it now more probable that the other four marbles also are black?
Because you are just checking one specific marble instead of sampling a number of randomly chosen marbles (which of course would increase the probability), I don't see how it can work.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#29This seems like a good opportunity to post RMS' rider again: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developer... Fabulous stuff. I wonder how often he has/gets to hang out with random parrots since this document became widely known. In my mind he is surrounded constantly by sandal-wearing acolytes wielding exotic birds of every variety.
"A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I
really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar,
any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we
use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar.
If I am quite sleepy, I would like two cans or small bottles of non-diet Pepsi. (I dislike the taste of coke, and of all diet soda; also, there is an international boycott of the Coca Cola company for killing union organizers in Colombia and Guatemala; see killercoke.org.) However, if I am not very sleepy, I won't want Pepsi, because it is better if I don't drink so much sugar."
Eccentric.
Re: Why Van Halen's tour contract had a "no brown M&M's" clause
#30This seems like a good opportunity to post RMS' rider again: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developer... Fabulous stuff. I wonder how often he has/gets to hang out with random parrots since this document became widely known. In my mind he is surrounded constantly by sandal-wearing acolytes wielding exotic birds of every variety.
This is a fantastic read! If you have previously done streaming using some streaming service and you can't immediately name the format it uses, chances are it is unacceptable and I won't let you use it for my speech. ..This might seem unfair--if a ticket is lost, it could be my fault. But my income is not large, and I cannot afford to assume this risk myself if the event offers me no income. The frustration I feel wh…
You know, I just read this again. I first read it in a ridiculing context (“Parrots? Really?”) and didn’t think much to put it out of that context, but looking at it now I have to say my view on it has changed.
I think it’s pretty alright, actually.
Some of his demands have to do with his strong ethical views on software, and while I don’t agree completely with him on this, I certainly can respect him for being uncompromising on that.
He frequently emphasises the need to communicate. Decisions that affect both him and the host have to be decided together. He also shows quite some willingness to find alternate solutions if his preferred solution is somehow not possible, but emphasises the need to communicate about those changes.
All the rest may be slightly quirky, but it’s all not especially hard to do with some care and attention. Hey, he doesn’t even want super-accomodating hospitality.
(Also, hotel internet is the worst. Good on him for insisting that be properly checked. He needs it to work, after all.)