The Guardian for this meeting was Bruce Mowbray. The comments are by Bruce Mowbray.

Bruce Mowbray: 's current display-name is "Bruce".
Qt Core: Hi Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Thought you were Boxy!
Qt Core: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: (I have my labels turned off.)
Bruce Mowbray: and this raises a question.....
Bruce Mowbray: Could I make any object into an avatar?
Qt Core: probably, i think this avi has a script that make my "human form a contortionist then i wear a cube positioned around it

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: Ahhhh! So you're inside of the box.
Qt Core: that is way i have to wear it while in a script enabled area
Bruce Mowbray: hmmmm.
Qt Core: or i end up having distorted black leg dangling below the cube
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.
Bruce Mowbray wonders if his avi has a contortionist mode.....
Qt Core: bought it (for free as all of my outfit) to demonstrate how i consider sl a overcompensated chat room
Qt Core: (with respect and admiration for some of the beautiful things people build) but that is my approach
Bruce Mowbray ponders "over-complicated chat room"
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, it is indeed a sort of chat room.
Qt Core: after all i got in sl by some friends (no more here) when the chat rooms we used closed
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh. I understand.
Bruce Mowbray: An advantage of SL is that one could use voice for chatting, perhaps,.
Bruce Mowbray: Cheaper than a phone call, maybe.
Qt Core: that's depend on how horrible your accent is ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: although lacking in privacy. . .
Bruce Mowbray: Accents are all relative, I guess.
Bruce Mowbray: The accent in the region where I live (in RL) is so strong that I couldn't understand my neighbors when they talked. . . but 47 years later, I understand them perfectly.
Qt Core: i rarely use/rely on voice, i don't even remember where i put mi mic
Bruce Mowbray: I use voice on a regular basis -- but mostly to listen, not to talk.
Bruce Mowbray: We're having a snowstorm right now.
Bruce Mowbray: been going on all day.
Qt Core: !
Bruce Mowbray: Very pretty.
Bruce Mowbray: I will make a drone video of it when it stops.
Bruce Mowbray: First real snow of the winter.
Qt Core: no snow (if not on the mountains) around here, strangely a few day of good old traditional fog, something rarely seen in past years
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm. Yeppers, weather patterns are changing, for sure.
Bruce Mowbray: I watched an excellent program on sea level rise last night. . . featuring Miami.
Qt Core: if i'm not driving i love fog)
Bruce Mowbray: The program said that Miami is the most vulnerable city in the world to damage (monetarily speaking) from sea level rise.
Bruce Mowbray: Billions of dollars will be lost.
Bruce Mowbray: I would have said Venice, myself.
Qt Core: and i was thinking it would have been Venezia, but maybe Miami surpasses it just for size
Bruce Mowbray: Venezia! Yes!
Bruce Mowbray: I've seen lots of photos of the flooded plaza in Venice.
Bruce Mowbray: piaza?
Qt Core: piazza
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh, piazza.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes.
Bruce Mowbray: THAT one.
Bruce Mowbray: St Marks.
Qt Core: Piazza San Marco
Bruce Mowbray: Yep.
Bruce Mowbray: and the Duomo.

--BELL--

Qt Core: technically a cathedral
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, but the city government was located there also, no?
Qt Core: quite ignorant about Venezia, been there just a couple half day for some museum exhibit many many years ago
Bruce Mowbray: Me too, actually. I was there for a day in 1966.
Qt Core: statistically yes, in the same place of main church
Bruce Mowbray: and intentionally got lost by wandering through the paths and over bridges.
Qt Core: i think i went there in 1985 and 1988 plus or minus one yerar
Bruce Mowbray: (Needed to get away from my tour group.)
Bruce Mowbray: I was there as part of a Grand Tour of Europe - a graduate course in Renaissance History that I took.
Qt Core: high school trip to museums, i remember a beautiful exhibit about prehistoric skeletons, maybe even Lucy ?
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm. WOW!
Bruce Mowbray: Leaky's Lucy?
Qt Core: but not sure
Bruce Mowbray understands.
Bruce Mowbray loves natural history museums.
Qt Core: the other visit was memorable because the teacher, so engrossed in reading the map... descended a stair directly into a channel
Bruce Mowbray: OMG!
Bruce Mowbray: THAT would be memorable, for sure.
Qt Core: sadly there were a couple submerged step so i did stop before really falling down
Qt Core: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: Got his shoes wet, anyway.
Qt Core: yes and a laugh from us (pretty boring teacher)
Bruce Mowbray: I have nightmares about being a boring teacher... (me as the teacher)
Bruce Mowbray: I arrive in the class and am totally lost -- not knowing what I'm supposed to teach or even where i am.
Bruce Mowbray: I've had dozens of those since leaving teaching as a career.
Bruce Mowbray: I think they might be trying to tell me something.
Qt Core: since leaving ? not while teaching ?
Bruce Mowbray: No, never while teaching.
Bruce Mowbray: I think they might be telling me that I "DON'T HAVE TO TEACH ANYMORE!"
Bruce Mowbray: I cannot imagine trying to teach in the schools of today.
Bruce Mowbray: The last eight years of my teaching were in a state prison -- and I LOVED it.
Qt Core: i (rarely) have to teach programming related things, a little more in past months as i got new colleagues and was the one to learn a new instrument we use
Bruce Mowbray: I loved the teaching - but not the prison.
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh. You taught programming. . . What language?
Qt Core: well, i have at varying points. i taught C, Java, Javascript, php,sql,linux shell
Bruce Mowbray: I do JAVA programming (just for fun) in the winter....
Bruce Mowbray: My first project will be to write a sorting program and illustrate it....
Qt Core: a classic
Bruce Mowbray: something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg

--BELL--

Qt Core: even after decades some of those algorithms seems like some magic has to be involved ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: :) yes.
Bruce Mowbray: Writing programs is like doing puzzles for me. Just for fun.
Qt Core: yes, i can see that
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, simple programs but always with a learning edge....
Bruce Mowbray: always learning something new.
Bruce Mowbray: Winter is for JAVA and microscopy.
Qt Core: (that is why i love not being the one writing the accounting programs, not many puzzle there, just add/multiply/divide, read the laws..
Bruce Mowbray: Yes. . . and sorting programs are a bit like accounting. . . Lots of simple math.
Bruce Mowbray: although I've not yet written one.
Qt Core: if i remember it right there are pseudo code implementations in the Wikipedia page of every sorting algorithm
Bruce Mowbray: I might need to check some of those out when I write mine.
Bruce Mowbray: I'm guessing there will be lots of loops.
Qt Core: a thing to notice is that the most performance of them may be slower if a) there are only a few elements and b) they are almost already sorted
Qt Core: so sometimes one may use a dumber one to get better results
Bruce Mowbray: I noticed in the video that the programmer had broken large group down into smaller groups. . . then did the sorting in sequence....
Qt Core: then, with the speed of modern machines one can just use one for all cases until he really has millions/billions of elements.
Bruce Mowbray: Lots of different ways to do it.
Qt Core: (then one discovers that most systems/api/libraries already have sorting function and almost forgot how to do it "by hand")
Bruce Mowbray: :) Well, the "by hand" part is what challenges me.
Bruce Mowbray: I enjoy the challenge.
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, QT, I'm going to need to leave soon. I'm committed to another group and expected to be there..
Bruce Mowbray: I've enjoyed chatting with you.
Qt Core: ok
Qt Core: me too
Bruce Mowbray: bye for now, then.
Bruce Mowbray: Stay warm and well.
Qt Core: bye