Profile for Or else o'erleap.

Error message

Deprecated function: implode(): Passing glue string after array is deprecated. Swap the parameters in drupal_get_feeds() (line 394 of /var/www/pied-piper.ermarian.net/includes/common.inc).

Recent posts

Pages

AuthorRecent posts
It's like PMS, only with numbers. in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 23 2006 22:07 Profile Homepage #46
Why is it then okay to call something the second or third or nth empire, republic, or confederation of semi-autonomous political entities? Wouldn't it lower morale to know that it didn't work the first or second, or (n-1)th time?

Would it really help matters to call something the ast empire?

—Alorael, who is neither the alpha or the omega. He is, however, a fairly good omicron and a passable mu in a pinch.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Dinosaurs Are Alive in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 23 2006 16:57 Profile Homepage #95
By distilled water water I of course mean distilled and deonized water.

[Edit: Italic!]

—Alorael, who wonders what happened to the unionized water. Did Big Water crack down with the help of shibboleth sorting?

[ Wednesday, August 23, 2006 16:58: Message edited by: Intronforge ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
New Computer! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 23 2006 16:50 Profile Homepage #10
I got my PowerBook about a year ago. It's the last of the PowerBooks, actually, which makes it either a collector's item or obsolete, depending on how you look at it. I'd like to get myself a MacBook (Pro) but I really have absolutely no justification for spending the money.

—Alorael, who still marvels at having more than 450 Mhz. Vaulting into the world of 21st century computing feels so good!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Idea for realsing creations in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 23 2006 12:23 Profile Homepage #47
Essence is used to create instant creations and to keep them from melting into sludge. Unfortunately, absorbing them requires willingness, so when they go rogue they also abscond with your essence.

Permanent creations grown with vats and tubes and big crystals don't permanently tie up essence, sometimes breed, and are far more likely to develop egos that cause them to go rogue, start rebelling against their erstwhile overlords, and so on.

—Alorael, who is sure that the ornks are behind everything somehow.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Dinosaurs Are Alive in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, August 23 2006 09:46 Profile Homepage #92
Relative to air, you're still more likely to get a shock from a wool sweater than from electrical wires dropped in distilled water. As I said, common sense is technically wrong but functionally useful because we live in a world where most water is full of solutes that do ionize and conduct.

I think calling water an electrical conductor is misleading even if you don't say it's a good conductor. Water is an insulator.

—Alorael, who anyway thinks his point, which is that common sense in this case tells many people something about pure water that is untrue, stands. Common sense is for first approximations only!

[ Wednesday, August 23, 2006 09:48: Message edited by: Minor Minor Minor Minor ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Dinosaurs Are Alive in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, August 22 2006 23:00 Profile Homepage #90
Water is actually a pretty lousy conductor, so common sense is still wrong. We just live in a world full of water that is full of non-water solutes.

quote:
Originally written by Lowbacca[b:

Um, sry to say this, but you are very wrong.[/b]
You can either let my errors slide or you can point them out. I know I have been wrong many times and doubtless will be again, but I can't grow spiritually or intellectually unless I get something a little more specific to work with.

For what it's worth, yes, ketos was apparently used to describe any cetacean. And large fish. And seals. So we have established that Jonah was not eaten by, for example, a cane toad.

Fatman (2bit) has put forward an interesting reason for clean and proper English, but I have an alternate one] it's polite. Forcing readers to decipher poor writing, no matter how innocuous it is, is mildly rude to said readers.

—Alorael, who may be guilty of meandering and possibly malingering as well. To save himself, he'll turn to blasphemy. Is it just him, or is the story of Job is very disquieting, and not just because of gigantic seals. It suggests that the way to be safe is to be righteous but not too righteous so that one remains under the divine radar, so to speak.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Dinosaurs Are Alive in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, August 22 2006 12:44 Profile Homepage #78
Study linguistics. Actually, start by studying English. Please.

Also, to elucidate the Khoth's lovely subtlety, the Pharisees were Jews around Jerusalem, so they probably spoke Aramaic. The Romans were not Greeks, so while the educated may have known Greek, they would have been more likely to speak Latin.

Also, you seem to have completely missed what everyone else has been saying:

quote:
Originally written by Kel:

The word that Matthew uses is ketos, which Perseus defines as "any sea-monster or huge fish."
It was used to refer to whales, but it was used non-exclusively. Even if it did mean whale, neither Matthew nor Jonah is the direct word of God. The New Testament is just as likely to be wrong as the Old Testament, and the Book of Jonah was written closer to the events in question.

—Alorael, who imagines that inventing words for speeches is usually a bad idea. Speeches are intended to communicate, not baffle. Usually.

[ Tuesday, August 22, 2006 12:45: Message edited by: Minor Minor Minor Minor ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Anagrams in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, August 22 2006 08:19 Profile Homepage #34
"Lord Voldemort" gives you "Troll Mover Dod," but there's no G no matter how you pick your parts.

"Oh, Anagrams," reverent Lewis notes,
Bemusing baby girl A. Liddell,
"A hobby to them witty wags.
Hm? The motive? God, there's a riddle."

—Alorael, who is also fond of "Internet addiction" -> "Cannot end it. I tried."
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Dinosaurs Are Alive in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, August 22 2006 08:08 Profile Homepage #73
What is known about ancient Greek languages is enough to make sense of them. I'd trust Kel on it. On the other hand, I'm not sure why he is using Greek either, really, except that it's closer to the original than English.

Lowbacca, the KJV is not the best translation. It's the first.

—Alorael, who is not very familiar with the New Testament. He is, however, passably familiar with the Old Testament, and he's pretty sure that Leviathan is exclusively OT content. What does Jesus have to do with whales or lack thereof?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Riddle Me This, Batman! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, August 20 2006 22:42 Profile Homepage #95
quote:
Originally written by Garrison:

The ratio for the tie seems a little off to me, but the conclusion is nonetheless the same.
Those nice cases of 0 (or not), 1, and the infinite limit are the important ones anyway. The rest is just messy real-world details.

—Alorael, who wonders if rounded insignificant digits go to heaven. Or do they just end up in a hellish nightmare or puncuation, letters, and other oddments with nary a 3 in sight?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Riddle Me This, Batman! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, August 20 2006 19:17 Profile Homepage #91
In other news, I think I've figured out the odds for total majority:

There is a 50% chance of a male majority, a 3^n/4^n chance of a tie, and (obviously) a 1/2-3^n/4^n chance of female majority counting all the children of n families.

[Edit: Retraction removed and expression fixed.]

—Alorael, who knows that you end up with 0.0...01 after doing the arithmetic. It's a pity that the universe can't handle that many bits and rounds it to zero.

[ Sunday, August 20, 2006 19:18: Message edited by: Eyes Only ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Confession of Spam in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 19 2006 18:12 Profile Homepage #19
When you talk in the third person you can get away with things like that, I suppose.

—Alorael, who plans to drink skribbane alone in a dark room in honor of his next milestone. This will be followed by an evening of mostly non-reciprocal interaction with pedestrians. Glowering and grumbling are distinctly possible throughout.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Confession of Spam in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 19 2006 15:32 Profile Homepage #6
Well done, Kel! Signal and noise, needles and haystacks, diamonds in seas of zircons, &c.

—Alorael, who has already made milestone posts. They tend to come in powers of ten.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, August 19 2006 08:37 Profile Homepage #253
Not really. As long as you make the right decisions the first few times you encounter Rentar-Ihrno you can save just before the final fight with her and see all three easily.

—Alorael, who likes Starrus's response if you let Rentar live and go free as long as she goes somewhere else. Ah, vindictiveness.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 20:21 Profile Homepage #248
Her, and out of three possible choices you get two options where she lives.

—Alorael, who isn't sure whether one or both of them can become unavailable depending on choices made in dialogue. The bloodthirsty ending is always available, although "bloodthirsty" is a tricky word when your foe is technically a rock on a podium.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
It's like PMS, only with numbers. in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 20:19 Profile Homepage #25
It's very hard to be the only one posting more, though. You can't make a serious effort to increase your postcount without others doing the same unless you're spamming.

—Alorael, who hopes others will join in a concerted effort to increase the noise to signal ratio on Spiderweb. Because, if you will accept analogy, the flies in the soup become insignificant as long as you add enough extra soup.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Riddle Me This, Batman! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 15:14 Profile Homepage #79
Since it's really not much fun to try to write out math on forums (or with most word processors) I think hand-waving infinite to mean the limit as n approaches infinity works fine. Since we're playing the math close to our chests, apparently, it's all fuzzy anyway.

quote:
Originally written by Spidweb:

/agree Aloreal.
—Alorael, who has decided to exercise discretion in order to be valorous in this particular instance.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Idea for realsing creations in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 15:09 Profile Homepage #32
From what I remember, which admittedly isn't much, spawners weren't the major source of rogues in any game past GF1. They certainly aren't in GF4.

—Alorael, who actually hasn't been running into all that many rogues at all. It's the creations that have perfectly legitimate and organized reasons for wanting to eat you that you have to worry about now.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Idea for realsing creations in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 10:37 Profile Homepage #30
Not true. Or not always true. At least some creations are able to reproduce and are in fact encouraged to do so in order to save valuable shaper time and energy.

—Alorael, who thinks this may relate to creation type a bit. Nobody is horribly disturbed by, say, mating fyoras. Even artilas are probably okay as long as they aren't disturbing the peace. Vlishes, on the other hand...
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, August 18 2006 10:35 Profile Homepage #246
I can't imagine why there would be spoilers about A4 in a topic about A5. That's insanity!

—Alorael, who also can't believe anyone would be reading the topic without having played, say, A2, A3, or A4.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Riddle Me This, Batman! in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, August 17 2006 21:17 Profile Homepage #75
In terms of ratios, it tends to 1:1. The more families you have the closer it will be to 1:1.

In terms of majority, it turns out we don't agree. For any given single family the probabilities break down like this:

If families are capped at one child, there's an even chance of a boy or a girl and that's all. Both majorities are equally likely.

With any higher cap, there is a 50% chance of having one boy, which means the boy is the majority in the family. There is a 25% chance of having one girl and one boy, so neither is the majority. The remaining 25% is two or more girls, which leaves girls in the majority.

That's true for one family, which means it's true for any number of families. The more families you have the closer the observed ratio will be to 2 male majorities per female majority, but on average it will be 2:1. It will not come out even no matter how many or how few families you have.

—Alorael, who is glad that at least the particular details of the disagreement have been worked out.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
It's like PMS, only with numbers. in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, August 17 2006 21:03 Profile Homepage #14
Thuryl and Aran have both probably been in the top ten every time, but I didn't bother to go back and check.

—Alorael, who hardly thinks this past month counts. Perhaps the rankings should start at 20.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Brief Geneforge 4 Update in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, August 17 2006 21:01 Profile Homepage #26
I still think it wouldn't be much of handicap, but it might be if you had to play with a stick figure.

—Alorael, who thinks a real challenge would be a class that is okay at everything but not really good at anything. Or, for the truly masochistic, a class that is bad at everything!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

Pages