Rob Ford's Toronto

[Crazy]

They mentioned it when they had the journos from TS, G&M and The Nat at a speaker's panel in Nov.

Thanks, I didn't know that. Did they indicate who exactly was threatening them?

 

[Johnny Au]

You can do this yourself if you really want, just record the post number at the start of each month as he has done. Set a repeating calendar alert or something.

I question the value of this data to begin with but that's how I would do it. You can also get more granular data by writing a simple script to download the entire thread and tabulate each post date and time. Record the post author and you could even see who is most active in this thread. Get really fancy and figure out who is most often quoted, or which domain is linked to the most (bets on Star, anyone?).

I have partially automated the spreadsheet such that I only need to input the post number of the last post of each month (the formulae would cover everything else).

 

[eyewonder]

So do it?

Thanks?

 

[Gavin]

Johnny, have you mentioned before that you fall somewhere on the autism spectrum? Or am I mistaking you for someone else?

 

[euler]

I have partially automated the spreadsheet such that I only need to input the post number of the last post of each month (the formulae would cover everything else).

That's a very fancy way of saying you managed to learn how to make Excel do subtraction.

Go read this and do your own data mining instead of asking others to do it for you: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

Lots of great libraries for Python perfectly suited for this, and it's easy to learn.

 

[LowPolygon]

Wow, this battle of the newbs is getting extremely arcane.

 

[ParkdalePetunia]

This spreadsheet talk makes me curious:

How did everyone find out about this thread? I came here pretty much solely for MetroMan's updates, but have stayed because of the conversation. I can't imagine I'm alone. It's nice to find a little slice of the internet where I can discuss this stuff with mostly normal, mostly sane, rational people. It's easy to lose perspective in the real world.

Re: Lisi
He's been arrested a lot and has never once been convicted. Not a coincidence.

 

[kaboi]

You guys notice Giroux said today his mandate is to investigate criminality in the mayor's office. Makes it seem like he's after more than just issues in the mayor's personal life.

Didn't notice...til now. And now that you mention it, I wonder if the TPS investigated the Vice story about hiring a hacker? Journalists apparently couldn't get to Amin Massoudi's email from when he worked for Doug, but the TPS would have no problem.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/rob-fords-office-hired-a-hacker-to-destroy-the-crack-tape

 

[themarc]

@ParkdaleP - I do a lot of community advocacy projects and found the UT site while looking for local forums - I hadn't paid any attention to the Mayor's thread until the headlines started to pop up. Still my true guilty pleasures here are the "Lost Toronto" and "Then and Now" threads in the Media area...

 

[adma]

I'm surprised that nothing like this (with respect to a Star reporter) has come to light before now. You have to assume if you cross the Fords, you'd better start worrying about your teeth, legs, or even life.

Though the threats could just as well come from independent nutters (i.e. unhinged I Hate The War types) than from actual direct Ford-camp goons...

 

[euler]

This spreadsheet talk makes me curious:

How did everyone find out about this thread?

reddit, due to MetroMan's posts being quoted.

 

[sno man]

This spreadsheet talk makes me curious:

How did everyone find out about this thread? I came here pretty much solely for MetroMan's updates, but have stayed because of the conversation. I can't imagine I'm alone. It's nice to find a little slice of the internet where I can discuss this stuff with mostly normal, mostly sane, rational people. It's easy to lose perspective in the real world.

Re: Lisi
He's been arrested a lot and has never once been convicted. Not a coincidence.

wife was a lurker, via twitter... I didn't especially have a profile there either at the time...

 

[VTB]

This spreadsheet talk makes me curious:

How did everyone find out about this thread? I came here pretty much solely for MetroMan's updates, but have stayed because of the conversation. I can't imagine I'm alone. It's nice to find a little slice of the internet where I can discuss this stuff with mostly normal, mostly sane, rational people. It's easy to lose perspective in the real world.

Re: Lisi
He's been arrested a lot and has never once been convicted. Not a coincidence.

I first came for development news and the project forums, pre Ford. From there it was a short hop to the transportation threads and finally this and other threads in Toronto Issues.

I think I was reading this thread probably a couple of days after Metroman asked that fateful questions. But I also think none of us had any inkling of how it would turn into the fuckfest that it is now. Not even close! And we're not even close to done!!

 

[Johnny Au]

Johnny, have you mentioned before that you fall somewhere on the autism spectrum? Or am I mistaking you for someone else?

Yes, I have Asperger's Syndrome.

That's a very fancy way of saying you managed to learn how to make Excel do subtraction.

Go read this and do your own data mining instead of asking others to do it for you: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

Lots of great libraries for Python perfectly suited for this, and it's easy to learn.

I have studied Python and know how to use it. However, I prefer to add in only the last post of each month manually (and everything else is automated).

 

[DTGeek]

How did everyone find out about this thread? I came here pretty much solely for MetroMan's updates, but have stayed because of the conversation. I can't imagine I'm alone. It's nice to find a little slice of the internet where I can discuss this stuff with mostly normal, mostly sane, rational people. It's easy to lose perspective in the real world.

Dinosaur here. Been lurking on UT since close to the start, I think in 2002? I was just a student with a mild interest in skyscrapers, architecture, and urban issues and enjoyed the photo update threads. If one were to ask me separately I wouldn't have guessed that the digital camera or internet connections fast enough to handle pages of photos would have even been widespread it was that long ago.