Profile for Student of Trinity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Student of Trinity |
| Member number | 3431 |
| Title | Electric Sheep One |
| Postcount | 3335 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| We spoiled Americans in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, June 9 2007 23:33
Profile
quote:Actually it is being repaid all the time: all those bond-holders collect their interest regularly, and eventually redeem their bonds, with no problem. In fact the investment works so well, and seems so secure, that they mostly turn right around and buy more US bonds. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Hello Everyone in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, June 9 2007 12:18
Profile
There were no elections. This is not a democracy. A couple of years ago the admins decided to respect the results of a vote, and appoint the elected candidate as a moderator. The elections caused enough bitterness that the precedent has not been followed. Subsequent mods have all been appointed without consultation or fanfare. I think the consensus is that this is good. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Emperor Tullegolar in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, June 9 2007 12:13
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I think Dikiyoba has a point. It's bad enough, though perhaps inevitable, to gossip about someone behind their back. But to do it on the subjects page seems to cross a line I'd rather we didn't. Could Ceylon perhaps edit the thread title? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| We spoiled Americans in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, June 9 2007 11:43
Profile
The big problem with getting all your public revenue from sales tax is that proportionally it hits poor people, who have to spend most of their income to live, harder than rich people, who can let much of their income pile up. In fact, it encourages rich people not to spend so much, which means fewer poor people get jobs making stuff for rich people to buy. Whereas with an income tax people pay in proportion to how much monetary benefit they get from things like law and order. And once you've paid your income taxes, you might as well keep your shoes brightly shone. I'm sure this is oversimplified, and I expect there are some good grounds for having widespread sales taxes, as most rich countries now do. (The US is unusual in this respect.) I suspect though that one of these grounds is simply that if you spread your taxes widely, people won't find a single target to complain about. Anyway, abolishing income tax in favor of sales tax doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Some of each is probably best. About government deficits: governments really aren't just like normal people, because governments can print money, nationalize industries, and send in the Marines. Much, if not most, of the US national debt is owed to American citizens, who have bought US treasury bonds. And even if foreign debtors started getting grumpy, it's not as though they can send guys around to break Uncle Sam's legs. That sort of thing never really works even with sovereign states that aren't military superpowers. Just ask Maximillian, Emperor of Mexico. A debtor country's ultimate resort is to repudiate its debts and refuse to pay. A creditor's only resort against a sovereign state is to refuse to lend more. That may sound as though the debtor has more power than the creditor, but it's really not so. Banks that lend to defaulting states may go bankrupt, but nobody dies when a company goes bust. Whereas a country cut off from loans may be unable to fund basic infrastructure. So some sort of compromise is practically always possible. It may be one that makes life harder for a lot of people. So huge national debts may be a problem. It's just that it's quite hard to say just how big a problem they really are. In a sense, the only time you can be sure a deficit is too big is when you try to make it bigger and fail, because no-one will lend you the money. [ Saturday, June 09, 2007 12:07: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Geneforge 5 idea in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, June 7 2007 11:49
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It might be easier to just start with a long string of zeroes, and edit them. After all, zeroes are open source. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Long Live the Fighters in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, June 7 2007 11:44
Profile
The main thing that picture tells me is that the real estate market in R'lyeh must be utterly outrageous. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Richard White? in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, June 7 2007 11:38
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Inventing the Illuminati was one of our best operations, I think. It sure turned out better than that US Navy fiasco, anyway. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Get in before it's gone in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, June 6 2007 05:08
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Maybe someone could comb through Aran's archives to put together a 'best of RWG Forum' page. I remember a few good things back in its earlier time as the 'Galactic Core Forum', too. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Simulacrum, and Charm too powerful! in Nethergate | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, June 5 2007 22:22
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In a late beta I simulacrummed the Ifrit. It was pretty cool, seeing those two big sprites square off. I complained to Jeff that this seemed too much, and I assumed he tightened up the high end on Simulacrum. Guess he didn't get everyone. Sylak simulacra are crazy! -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Get in before it's gone in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, June 4 2007 20:46
Profile
It seems that the Richard White Games forum will be eliminated soon. It should go out in a burst of dubious glory. So everyone who wants to be able to say, in after years, "I remember the old RWG forum, noob! I posted in it!", should head on down there and post something soon. Ancient peoples used to bury their dead with food. This is kind of the same idea. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Hall of the Lamp as Romans in Nethergate | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, June 4 2007 06:56
Profile
Yep. And the right-hand side is unavailable to Celts. The dungeons are separate but equal. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, June 4 2007 06:52
Profile
Even better would be an anti-chitrach area weapon: the Wand of Raid. This would explain why chitrachs are so much less common in A5. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, June 3 2007 23:39
Profile
Regarding the new traits available in A5, there is one word. Chitrach! -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| End of Days in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, June 3 2007 11:26
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I was going to say metastasized, but transcended is way better spun. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Simplest Path in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Sunday, June 3 2007 11:15
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We know, we know. It's all fun and games, until somebody loses an i. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Strategy in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, June 2 2007 00:33
Profile
Yes, that's a good example of what I think one could do. The ideal version is to give the enemy an agenda that they pursue aggressively, but which gets modified in response to the player's actions. In the early game you can get away with pretty minimal responses, on the assumption that the player isn't doing anything important yet. And in the end game, there won't be too many options left. But in the middle there is a snarl of branching possibilities. Realistically, you need a chapterized structure to cut down on the possibilities, by forcing the different plot possibilities down to just a few flags, at several points in the game. But that's not such a bad limitation: the best building blocks for a good story are always good smaller stories. On the other hand, with only 4 chapters and three conclusions to each, you 81 main storylines to consider, plus any branching you want to do within the chapters. Of course you can force some of these storylines to converge, but you can't do too much of that without eliminating the effect. I wonder, what is the minimal amount of branching you can have that will preserve the impression of a live adversary in a malleable world? [ Saturday, June 02, 2007 00:49: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Reccomend other RPGs in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, June 1 2007 22:54
Profile
Didn't you ever play past 21 points, go up a level, and gain the ability to shoot fireballs from your paddle? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Simplest Path in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, June 1 2007 14:13
Profile
Fritz Leiber had a story "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" which was about some similarly addictive pattern. Interestingly, the pattern could be realized in many media, as written text, spoken words, paint splatters, or even a sequence of chess moves. Fortunately, there was another pattern that served as an antidote to the first. EDIT: Hey, apparently there is an endorsement from Mr. Dawkins for earworms as memes. From Wikipedia: quote: [ Friday, June 01, 2007 14:21: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| What have you been reading lately? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, June 1 2007 11:33
Profile
As I recall, that bit was pretty cool, in fact: the Mafia guy blandly mentions that he's sure the pirates 'will listen to reason', which sounds ridiculously naive, before the reader knows anything about the weapon. Yeah, Snow Crash is one of the better Gibson clones. Better, I'd say, than some of Gibson's Gibson clones. But it's still pretty hard to beat Gibson's first three (in which I include the story collection Burning Chrome, and not Mona Lisa Overdrive, which was good but not quite classic). The first paragraph of Count Zero is still one of my favorite book openings. And it is now a minor life goal to find an appropriately meaningful occasion to quote, "Things aren't different, Case. Things are things." -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Jeff on programming in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, June 1 2007 05:06
Profile
It don't take no Deep Blue to march back and forth pissing dollars. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Simplest Path in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, June 1 2007 04:53
Profile
I don't think this is so clear. Any ancient texts that mention Jesus are available now only in much later copies, made by Christians. There is considerable reason to suspect, for example, that the famous description by Josephus has been significantly altered from the original. (Wikipedia gives a pretty good discussion here, I think. The strongest point seems to be that early Christian writers did not mention this passage by Josephus, even though they knew of his writings, and the Jesus reference as we now have it would have been very relevant to their discussions.) That having been said, it is a very far-fetched idea to suggest that Jesus never existed. Ancient critics of Christianity may not have offered any clear evidence for Jesus's existence, but they did all take it for granted. Several lone geniuses have founded durable religious movements, so there is nothing implausible about one more. A world religion launched in historical times around a fictitious founder is considerably less plausible. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| What have you been reading lately? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 22:47
Profile
Is 'Artillery is the final argument of kings' not a German aphorism? Or is it that 'ratio' is 'Begründung' (a reason, as in a supporting argument) but 'reason' (the abstraction) is 'Vernunft'? -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Simplest Path in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 22:31
Profile
Consider the 2-by-2 matrix 0 1 -1 0. I will name this matrix "i", to avoid having to write it all out again. Consider as well the two-by-two matrix 1 0 0 1. I will call this matrix '1' (one), because like the ordinary number 1, multiplying anything (that is, any 2-by-2 matrix) by the matrix 1 produces no change. Now notice that i*i, using matrix multiplication, equals -1. This pair of 2-by-2 matrices is actually very useful, because practical mathematics (such as physics) is full of two-component things. In particular it is very common to need 2-by-2 matrices that are arbitrary linear combinations of the matrices defined above: z = x + i*y, where z is a 2-by-2 matrix and x and y are ordinary real numbers. Complex arithmetic is nothing but using those two-by-two matrices, in a condensed notation where we don't have to keep writing out all the components all the time. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 10:43
Profile
Chitrachs in moderation are a cool monster. Their user-contributed graphic is very nice. They're not too hard to kill, but they do heavy damage, so they're a good mid-level fear factor. And they can come out of the ground suddenly, after only a few scritchy-scratchy noises. You have to respect that in a vile insectoid plague. Also, it is a well established feature of chitrachs that there are too many of them, so a certain amount of chitrach swarming is unavoidable now. But there should only be moderately too many of them. A few memorable chitrach swarm encounters, then cut them down to a dull roar. What I'd love is a series of pop-ups about how "You hear a faint scratching noise." Then about the third one says, "Actually, now you can hear that the chitrachs are emerging somewhere far away, and attacking some other poor beggars for a change, instead of you." -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The Simplest Path in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 08:17
Profile
Viral memes are the new engrams, eh? Well, memes shmemes. I'll just try to purge my mind of bad ideas, as everyone since before Socrates has advised. That ought to take care of all the viral memes that need taking care of. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |