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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| Hanged? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 15 2006 07:39
Profile
Problem is that economic leverage is limited. Sanctions took decades to effect change in South Africa, and: I bet sanctions were only part of the cause of change; Iran sells mostly oil, which is a tough commodity to boycott; otherwise Iran's trade is mostly buying, and money is even tougher to boycott; and apartheid wasn't (quite?) a religion. Historically, I think the only sanctions that have had serious teeth have either quickly led to war, or had harsh effects on citizens that were comparable to those of war. It used to be that the United States could drop a big hammer by refusing to export oil to rogue nations. Those were the days, perhaps; then again, that was what provoked Pearl Harbor. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Hanged? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 15 2006 00:18
Profile
This is my take as well. There is in principle a mechanism. The Quran does not actually function directly as a body of law for societies very different from the Medina of the first decade AH. A lot of interpretation and appeal to analogy is needed in order to extract relevant legal consequences from the revealed text. This has essentially always been explicitly recognized by Muslim jurists. In the first few centuries of Islam, four independent schools of legal interpretation grew up, all equally based on the Quran, but with somewhat differing conclusions. All four continue to function in parallel today. At some point a few centuries ago now, however, the consensus emerged in the Islamic world that enough interpreting had been done. It is said that 'the gates of interpretation were closed'. It is not accepted in any mainstream Islamic group today that one could found a new school of interpretation. And after centuries of use, there is not much freedom of interpretation within the four schools. Okay, that much I believe is true, based on my reading of a few books. I have no idea how the parallel schools of interpretation work out in practice in modern states where Islamic law is state law. I understand that more flexibility to interpret exists in Shia Islam, where recognized imams have immense authority. Hence it might actually be easier to revise Islamic law in Iran than in Sunni countries. Also there is some variation of legal opinion even within the four formal schools. Any individual Muslim legal scholar can issue a 'fetwa', or legal opinion; and opinions do differ. Whether any state agencies will respect an opinion is another matter. In principle, though, there is no reason why Muslims collectively could not just decide to re-open the gates of interpretation. Quite a few have called for this. The principle that interpretation is needed is already established. The only Quranic principle that constrains new interpretations is the precept that the general consensus of Muslims is infallible. Since closing the gates was a consensus, it cannot be undone by any small group. But a new consensus could legitimately emerge. In principle. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Website in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 14:08
Profile
Nail your colors to the mast! -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 13:50
Profile
It's not so unreasonable to be vitally concerned over being slowed, since being slowed in front of a party of adventurers is usually quick death. And getting right out of slow into extra AP territory is also a laudable goal. But too many enemies overdo it, apparently shooting for infinite speed. In general a lot of enemies get carried away pursuing grudges, and will burn up their AP getting slowed down passing your lead elements, in pursuit of your rear echelon. A fast archer who stays behind a tank is very handy for pinging enemies so that they go for him at any cost. And a lot of enemies with ranged attacks will shoot you if you are in range and in their line of sight when they start their turn, but if you aren't, they rush to get as close to you as possible, instead of just advancing until they can shoot. This also makes bump-and-run unreasonably effective. On the other hand, the AI does at least try. Some enemies will try to circle around and come at you from another direction if their way to you is blocked by other enemies. This impressed and even worried me a bit, until I realized that those flanking enemies just weren't fast enough to reach me before the end of the battle, so in effect they were just running away. A4 does achieve quite a few interesting fights, but mainly by giving enemies some startling scripted abilities, and otherwise just by making them tough. None of the enemies, it seems to me, is actually at all clever. And many are downright dumb. Real AI is, uh, hard. And unfortunately, tactically smart NPCs in a turn-based CRPG is a serious AI task. So I don't think Jeff is going to be able to make his monsters brilliant any time soon. But he could probably retune a few of their common faults, and then continue compensating with good scripts. A scripted ambush is still an ambush, after all. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 13:28
Profile
Just as my annoyance was reaching threshold, I start to admire the persistence. *chills* -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| FEUD!!!! (CLOSED) in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 13:16
Profile
My boss is pretty cool. But then, me and him are me. That having been said, my boss is frequently an idiot who wastes my time on trivia, then forces me to work late into the night to finish important tasks. So the rotten boss problem is even harder to avoid than is commonly supposed. [ Tuesday, February 14, 2006 13:20: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Hanged? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 13:11
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quote:And I'm sure Iranian women are glad to have a legal system that will go to any length to protect them. Even execute them. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| problems with E.D.F: why? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 09:49
Profile
The dude claimed to be 13 years old. What's to explain? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 01:22
Profile
Hey, good point. All those boats should have heads. And why, if I can learn to make Drayks out of thin air, couldn't I have gotten a canister of Create Boat-creature, and sailed away from Sucia Island the easy way? Maybe you just can't make Boat-creatures that way? This reminds that I would really like to see Jeff clarify the relationship between creations that are born like serviles and some Drayks, creations that are grown in vats, creations that are made out of personal essence on the spot like the PC's, temporary creations like those that feature once or twice in G2 and G3, and shades. I can think of decent rationalizations of all this, which might even suggest some interesting plot points. But I don't mind much how it gets done; I'd just like to see it done somehow. [ Tuesday, February 14, 2006 01:24: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, February 13 2006 14:30
Profile
Well, Avernum is full of creepy little holes. Who knows what might be waiting, anywhere? -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Wetting myself... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, February 13 2006 11:02
Profile
Congratulations, and good luck. Perhaps this good Univeristy's English department will not bother too much about spelling :) . -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, February 13 2006 07:33
Profile
For that, there's Battalion. It's not a very good game any more. Not just because standards have advanced: it runs too fast now. OK, it was only ever good in a sort of kooky way. But still. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Spiderweb Forums XML Feed in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, February 13 2006 05:09
Profile
I think I could use this. I'm really only making this reply in order to test it. Hmm. How often does it update? I'm not seeing any articles. [ Monday, February 13, 2006 05:19: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, February 13 2006 01:32
Profile
Yeh. Fraid I concur with DV. A spider creation wouldn't be unreasonable, since shaping of arthropods is well established. And although Glaahks are cool because they look more like Escher's rollbugs than any actual arthropod I've ever heard of, Clawbugs are pretty standard scorpion-like things. So I wouldn't necessarily object to spiders. One zone with some experimental creations that closely resembled GIFTs would be a fun easter egg. That's as far as it had better go, though. Somehow I actually don't like the idea of weather control magic. It doesn't fit the established themes of shaper magic; it doesn't feel like something shapers would do. It could be interesting as a new Sholai magic, I suppose. But maybe more just elemental-themed magic, with a sort of 'protection from missiles' spell that is supposed to involve a small personal wind shield. Actually controlling the zone-scale weather, as TM seems to have in mind, strikes me as too big an effect with too little practical consequence. Conjuring a rainstorm should take a lot more magical power than a Kill spell, but all it does is get the enemy wet. Maybe Call Lightning could be cool, but unless the game is ridiculously full of thunderstorms, it would be too rarely useful to be worthwhile as a spell. An item, or a scripted storyline where you clear an impregnable strongpoint by bringing about a lot of magically-assisted lightning strikes; these could be good. So while it would be cool for weather to have important effects at least a few times in the game, and possible to have some magical control over the weather feature in the story, I'd say skip the part about weather-controlling spells as such. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| math equation in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, February 11 2006 02:24
Profile
There is a one-parameter family of solutions; what you can solve for is the functional form of y(x). That's rather a lady doggie, since it's a transcendental equation. This means that the answer just isn't any standard, known function; it's itself, and that's all you can say. If you really need to know y for arbitrary x, go numerical. That mean's plug it into a computer. Or, if you just want any one solution, pick either x or y to be something very convenient, like 1, to make the solution for the other variable easy. (I presume these are Khoth's two solutions.) EDIT: Huh, I stand corrected by Maple. The answer does involve a standard, known function -- insofar as the LambertW function counts as standard and known. Sadly, applied math is full of hundreds of such obscure functions. Identifying one is really only helpful because (a) you may be able to look up some of its properties, because they were proven a hundred years ago by some obscure mathematician, and (b) modern software libraries know them by heart, and can plot them for you instantly. [ Saturday, February 11, 2006 02:28: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Return life in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, February 10 2006 00:31
Profile
Huh, cool. Two high-level priests and you can forget all your energy potions. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Geneforge wars? in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, February 9 2006 13:17
Profile
When the Vlish take over the earth, the last act they will demand of their pitiful human slaves will surely be the production of networked massively multiplayer real time Geneforge games. With controls adapted to Vlish tentacles. Which as we know taste bad, even when cooked. Until then, fuggedabowdit. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Great Art in Games in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, February 9 2006 13:10
Profile
If you walk upright on bare hilltops, alarmingly high. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| [ Topic closed ] in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, February 9 2006 04:50
Profile
Sadly, the main conclusion from this excellent article is that raw tentacles don't actually taste much of anything. That is a bit of a problem with raw seafood in general, actually. With tuna I don't seem to mind; I like the texture, and the subtle flavor is enough (and much nicer than the canned-tuna taste that you get if you cook it much). I have to confess that for me most other sashimi just goes along for the ride. And giant clam is just rubbery, bland, and expensive. So, I'll have my tentacles cooked, thanks. Hey, why does tentacle mean seafood? Terrestrial animals haven't evolved tentacles. I wonder why not. Maybe fingers are as close as it gets. So we are all tentacle monsters. Globber globber! -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| [ Topic closed ] in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, February 9 2006 01:03
Profile
Tentacles can be quite good: calamari, pulpo tapas, and I once got some great bits of octopus tentacle at an Italian wedding reception. Very tasty. Plus eating actual tentacles is a way of realizing you're really an adult that has far fewer concomitant complications than any of the more widely recognized rites of passage. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| ancient crypt in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 8 2006 14:42
Profile
All that nailbiting time defusing, and I could have just Unlocked? Zounds. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Stuck in-between Honeycomb! in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 8 2006 14:39
Profile
Welcome to the boards. Discovery of a bogglingly bizarre bug is an auspicious first post. You should do well here. Now that I know it's really possible to move between the walls, I finally understand where those wretched scratching chitrachs come from. And there's a squirrel or something in the roof just above me here. I better not think about this any more. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| THE ABOMINABLE PHOTO THREAD REVOLUTIONS in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 8 2006 14:30
Profile
quote:Some of us are old enough that yes, yes it just might. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 8 2006 01:43
Profile
Sounds good to me too. I really like the idea of a third faction being elusive - something I might not find the first time through the game. I think it would be nice to connect somehow with the Awakened. I thought it was already clear in G2 that the Awakened were not really going to be the pure good guys after all, since the dilemma of power was hitting them hard. Maybe this issue could be related to their elusiveness: they could be not so much hidden as tricky to bring into existence. It would be nice if weather included things like the 'damaging atmospheres' that are a GF tradition. It would be cool to have to walk through evil green fog while taking that acid damage, then see it clear away once I repaired the machines. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| THE ABOMINABLE PHOTO THREAD REVOLUTIONS in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, February 8 2006 01:16
Profile
Bah. After Photoshop there is no truth. Clearly all of these images have been retouched. TM's tentacles aren't actually nearly that long, for instance. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |