Profile for Or else o'erleap.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Or else o'erleap. |
| Member number | 335 |
| Title | Law Bringer |
| Postcount | 14579 |
| Homepage | http://www.polarisboard.net |
| Registered | Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Serenity the Movie in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, October 28 2005 17:23
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Given the movie's poor ticket sales, a sequel is unlikely. —Alorael, who wonders what kind of cult following is required to turn a failed television series turned failed movie into a sequel. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Riddles & Brain Teasers in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, October 28 2005 14:08
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It can't be skipped. This is mathematically an inductive proof. You have to prove it's true for n = 1 and for n + 1 if it is true for n, from which you can conclude that it is true for all n >= 1. The entire series depends on the n = 1 case. It seems weird and I can't get my brain to accept it intuitively, but it's true mathematically. [Edit: But wait! Suppose all the monks come together one day, see each other monk, and learn about the curse, then start living together. None die even though they all know that there are some red eyes and learn it at the same time (assuming more than one monk has red eyes), they all know that they know it (assuming more than two monks with red eyes), they all know that they know that they know it (assuming more than three monks)...] —Alorael, whose mind hurts now. [ Friday, October 28, 2005 14:12: Message edited by: Apologenesis ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| ATTN ALL CULTISTS in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, October 28 2005 11:02
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I just googled "Angband screenshot" and got a surprise. What exactly is Geneforge doing on the first page? —Alorael, who suspects that this is the work of R*. Whether it is W or B remains to be determined. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Mac v/s Pc in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, October 28 2005 11:00
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There are a lot of arguments over whether Macs are virus-free because they are too uncommon to be worth targetting with viruses or because they are better protected. I think it's probably both. Macs are harder to infect with something fun, and there are fewer of them anyway, so Windows is the target of choice. I've found that academic settings tend towards Macs except when necessary software requires Windows (especially software for attached hardware, e.g. 96 well plate reader), when a senior person with clout demands Windows, or, like the first example, when something is run on an ancient system that is whatever was used years ago because nobody wants to replace it. Mac OS 7 and Windows 3.11 aren't all that uncommon. Then again, my sampling of academic settings is relatively limited, and I imagine this varies significantly from region to region and country to country. —Alorael, who jumped on the G4 Cube bandwagon. He only got a newer computer about four months ago, and he only installed OS X on his Cube two months ago. It just isn't the same now. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Creative Writing in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, October 28 2005 10:46
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Guy by the Canal is no longer accessible! Saunders, help! —Alorael, whose quarternary goal in life is to write a novel that will become mandatory curriculum for all students of the English language. Thousands of hapless children will be forced to read, dissect, and detest the work! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Mac v/s Pc in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, October 27 2005 19:10
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Computers do what computers do, so Windows and Mac really handle the same general categories in more or less the same ways. It's the specifics where they differ, and those specifics cause anger, bitterness, hatred, and occasional holy wars. Macs create text files like PCs do. There's a basic application included with Mac OS (TeachText, SimpleText, or TextEdit, depending on the version of Mac OS), and a variety of word processors are available. Appleworks is the software suite closest to Microsoft Office, but it hasn't been updated for several years. Microsoft also makes Office for Macs, and many Mac users use it. The exact differences are impossible to catalogue without taking up way too much space or causing flame wars. Look them up elsewhere. —Alorael, who won't lock this topic only because he has no reason to besides endless, endless precedent. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Rhetorical Survey in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, October 27 2005 08:55
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h/2? = knife? —Alorael, who is not in the proper subset. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Creative Writing in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, October 27 2005 08:46
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Many literary critics (I'd guess most, but I can't back it up) are not themselves producers of literature. That doesn't make them hypocrites or poor judges. Creating and judging are, after all, different skills. —Alorael, who is not terribly practiced at either. He's more of a lover of prose, and neither a critic nor a (good) writer. And there are limericks, of course, but they hardly count as poetry at all. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Riddles & Brain Teasers in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 18:18
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That's the best I can come up with, although I'm not sure it's absolutely the best. —Alorael, who isn't even sure that he calculated a 25% chance of getting the highest tile that way correctly. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Explore Mars now in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 17:51
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Oxygen isn't flammable, although it is a necessary component of many combustion reactions. (If Oxygen were flammable, Earth's atmosphere would catch fire and disappear rather quickly.) The presence of a great deal of oxygen can make combustion more rapid and more explosive, but not more spontaneous or widespread. And, as Thuryl poined out and TM pointed out that Thuryl pointed out, pure oxygen doesn't mean pure, concentrated oxygen. —Alorael, who can't condone the creation of an oxygen atmosphere for the purpose of exploding Mars now. It would be slow and not very effective anyway. No, the only real option is to nuke Mars tomorrow! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Riddles & Brain Teasers in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 14:18
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If there were a pattern to the numbers, you could figure out which number would be highest in the pattern and keep flipping tiles until you found it. They're all random. In fact, I can't think of any reason why they have to be integers, or even rational. —Alorael, who still knows what to do after flipping over e, 2.998 x 10^8, ?, the Boltzmann constant, 42, -7 Planck time, and the square root of Avogadro's number. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| What the... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 14:06
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Even if Arabs drink beer but in a cultural atmosphere that renders it very different from Western beer guzzling, I can see why localization would change it. [Edit: Yes, the Great Leap Forward was in China. Communist mandatory farmwork brings it to mind.] —Alorael, who thinks Zeviz has brought up the fine but critical line between localization and self-parody, which is easily crossed by attempts to slip in cultural programming. If Russia were still Soviet, Harry Potter might well have had some farmwork, and it would be unintentionally funny or at best unhelpful. That's the downside to localizing (and to Great Leaps Forward). [ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 14:07: Message edited by: Explode Alorael Now ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Serenity the Movie in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 14:01
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Serenity is good, perhaps even very good, but not great. One can live one's life without seeing it and still die happily. Actually, I think this is true of all movies, but I think even the serious film lovers would agree on this one. —Alorael, who still recommends it. Think Star Wars with less cringe-worthy dialogue and more cynicism. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Rhetorical Survey in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 13:58
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Havoc actually comes up quite often (well, relatively often) without any wreaking, but wreak never goes with anything but havoc, vengeance, devastation, destruction, and so on. Overweaning is occasionally used with words besides pride and arrogance, but not often. In fact, I'd say that more than half of the other uses are actually errors in which the writer really should be using overwhelming. —Alorael, who is overweaningly aware of the literary havoc so evident in the internet. He is pained by the masses who wreak corruption upon the innocent and unoffending English language. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| First Kiss in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 13:17
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Yes. Then the next person to read it would revert to the old version. Wikifitti isn't nearly as much of a problem as people who slip subtle falsehood or opinions into the page. Those can stick around for a while. —Alorael, whose particular peeve is the people who correct properly spelled words to improperly spelled words, or those who change grammar from right to wrong. "Its" to "it's" is the most common mis-fix, and it drives him crazy. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| This is getting old. in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 13:13
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That's not unusual. —Alorael, who can understand people who read before deciding to post. He can't understand registering before deciding to read. An interesting but difficult experiment would be testing the difference between how many people would be zero-post lurkers if they could post as a guest without registering. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| ATTN ALL CULTISTS in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 08:31
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The scroll could be a mimic, but it wasn't supposed to be. It should have been a character that doesn't appear in Angband (delta), but it didn't show up and I didn't notice. Now there is a nice ø to go with the scroll. —Alorael, who would run to the stairs. He'd run to the old Angband comic about U and &, but the comic is now lost to the internet graveyard. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| What the... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 08:26
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Alcohol is forbidden by Islam, and doughnuts have a certain something that no other sweet, fat-filled food can have. —Alorael, who is fine with localization as long as it doesn't make meaning and humor get excessively lost in translation. In this case, only the Arabs can judge. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Riddles & Brain Teasers in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 08:06
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Doesn't inhalation of exhaust fumes kill by anoxia from CO? In any case, while a corpse doesn't breathe can won't show any sign of CO inhalation, I'm not sure how "immediately" the police can test it. An electric car is a good answer, though. So is walking into the garage by a side door, not by opening the garage itself, and not falling unconscious or dying. The key to Khoth's problem is that the first prisoner has no information and is a 50% loss anyway. No other prisoner can convey information, because each answer is dependent on the known hat. That means that the first prisoner has to have a way to tell everyone else what their hats are. If the first prisoner counts the number of black hats he sees and says "black" if it's even and "white" if it's odd, each subsequent prisoner can count the number of black hats in front of him and knows how many went before. If he knows the other hats add up to an odd number of blacks and the first prisoner said even, his hat must be black. If the first said odd, his hat must be white. —Alorael, who has another question. If someone lays out a 10 by 10 grid of tiles with random numbers written on them, then lets you flip over as many tiles as you'd like in any order that you'd like, what is your chance of revealing the highest tile last (assuming you're trying to do so)? Why do these brain teasers on Spiderweb always end up mathematical? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| e3: Where can I buy a boat in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 26 2005 07:42
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There are a number of minor hidden things that I can remember, and some not-so-minor ones in A3. Silverlocke is the only one I can think of that requires wall bashing in a boat. —Alorael, who will consider locating scripted gaps in rocks the same as wall bashing even though you don't actually have to move onto the rocks to find the passage. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| e3: Where can I buy a boat in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, October 25 2005 17:47
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So there is. I'd completely stopped thinking of Silverlocke as a secret! —Alorael, who wonders if Silverlocke has ties to the Monastery of Madness. She had to learn how to make those Knowledge Brews somewhere... Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Civilization IV in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, October 25 2005 17:45
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I agree. I borrowed Civ 3 to try it out, but it was just less fun than Civ 2. I never bothered to buy it. I'll take a look at Civ 4, probably, but I'm still happy with 2. —Alorael, who isn't actually good at Civ. The added complexity of Civ 3 only made him worse. He can't keep up with the learning curve anymore. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, October 25 2005 12:42
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That thread makes it sound like it can, in fact, be done by pressing the Windows key. —Alorael, who doesn't understand why the Avernum games were much easier to switch out of, hide, or otherwise temporarily remove from the forefront in OS 9 (or in Classic) than in OS X on a Mac. It seems like unnecessary regression. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| ATTN ALL CULTISTS in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, October 25 2005 09:57
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[Edit: This post builds character.] —Alorael, who would like to know which you'd attack first or whether you'd just run for the stairs. [ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 08:26: Message edited by: Just Visiting ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| e3: Where can I buy a boat in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, October 25 2005 09:46
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You can't buy any boats on the surface. There may be a few boats locally available in this or that town, but you can never take to the rivers and oceans of Valorim. —Alorael, who can't think of any secret passages straight off the river in Upper Exile. There may be some if you disembark first, but the boat is mainly useful for entering the side of Ghikra and for exploring some of the inaccessible shores of the river. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |