Profile for Ash Lael

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keygens in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #18
quote:
Originally written by Exceptionally Masculine:

And Jeff isn't a person?
To be fair, it'd be easier to build a case for Jeff being sick and twisted than for anyone who hacks a shareware game.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #13
Football is the main sport of the SOUTHERN parts of Australia, Victoria in particular. Believe me, in can be tough being an AFL fan in Queensland.

And of course, there's cricket, which everyone likes, but generally not as passionately.

EDIT: Football, in Australia, is not soccer either.

Rugby bears a certain amount of resemblance to Gridiron, but is more free-flowing and the players aren't covered with padding and helmets.

[ Friday, June 24, 2005 21:54: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #7
Really? I thought it was longer ago than that.

In fact, I'm SURE that it was well before the 2000's, in Queensland at least.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #4
We used to have 1 and 2 cent coins. They were phased out when I was quite young... 14-15 years ago, I think.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #2
Well, yeah, it's a general sort of title for a general sort of subject. I just picked a few easy ones that I knew were different from the UK/USA to get started.

Edit: Fixed for you.

Edit 2: See, we've got an actual cultural difference already. The whole idea of having political leaders as heroes or even someone to be admired and/or respected is very odd to most Australians. Here in Canberra there's a couple of stands at the Manuka football oval named after past Prime Ministers, but that's because it's Canberra, not because anyone cares. And that's about as far as it goes.

[ Friday, June 24, 2005 21:07: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #0
We live in many varied places. Here, we discuss the little differences between them.

Let's start with money, since that's different just about everywhere. The largest note in Australian currency is the $100 bill, which is green. I've only ever seen a couple of these. You can't get them from Automatic Teller Machines, and they are hardly ever used. Much, much more common is the yellow $50 bill. $20 notes are red, $10 notes are blue, and $5 notes are pink. They are all plastic. We have "gold" $2 and $1 coins, the former of which has an aboriginal man's face on the 'tails' side, and the latter has kangaroos. We have a "silver" 50 cent coin, which is larger than either of the dollar coins, and polygonal rather than round. I think it's got 16 sides. Typically, it depicts a kangaroo and an emu with the Australian Coat of Arms, but both it and the $1 coin often get special images for one reason or another. The other coins get left alone. We have a 20 cent coin (no "quarter") with a platypus on it, a 10 cent coin with a picture of a lyrebird, and an echidna on our 5 cent coin. We do not call them "nickels" or "dimes", unlike Americans. All of them bear an image of Queen Elizabeth II on the 'heads' side.

Voting is compulsory. You can be fined if you don't vote. Elections happen every three years. Our two main political parties are the Labor party (centre-left) and the Liberal/National party coalition (centre-right). Currently, every state has a Labor government in power, and yet the coalition has been in government in Federal parliament for an extremely long time - 13 years or something like that. Basically, I can only vaguely remember a time when John Howard wasn't Prime Minister (we don't have term limits).

[ Friday, June 24, 2005 20:47: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Can anyone figure out this riddle? in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #5
But you only get one question. :P

EDIT: Wait, that's only the case if he's telling the truth... so just ask him which way, and after he tells you, ask another question. If he answers, pick the other road.

I win.

[ Friday, June 24, 2005 19:59: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Can anyone figure out this riddle? in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #3
"If I asked you how to get to Town A, which path would you point me down?"

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Avernum I: The Movie in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #18
E3 does, if you play as a Slith or Nephil. That raunchy Anaximander!

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Just In Time For the Elections: Political Compass! in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #18
Economic Left/Right: -1.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.56

Go me. I wish the questions were better, though.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Can anyone figure out this riddle? in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #1
"If you were the other kind of person, would you tell me that this path goes to Town A?"

(sorry to ruin it so quickly. :P )

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #57
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

Prisoner is sentenced to death in a state where judges have arbitrary power. Judge's sentence is as follows: "You will be executed at dawn on one of the seven days of next week, but you will not know which day until noon on the day before."

Prisoner sits in cell a couple of days before the fatal week begins, and reflects on the sentence. He notes that if he is so lucky as to survive through the first six dawns, he will then know at dawn on day 6 that day 7 will be his doom. But this would be contrary to the sentence, since he would know before noon. So the prisoner concludes that he cannot actually be executed on day 7.

Prisoner then concludes that day 6 is out as well, for with day 7 eliminated, the same reasoning as before would now apply to day 6. And so on: with each last day eliminated by the perverse wording of the sentence, all the days are eliminated in order. Prisoner concludes that he cannot be executed at all, because the judge's perverse sentence is actually self-contradictory. Yahoo!

At noon on day 3, the prisoner is informed that he will be executed at dawn on day 4. And so he is. The seemingly self-contradictory sentence was carried out flawlessly.

What was wrong with the prisoner's analysis?

His analysis (rightly or wrongly) led him to conclude that he couldn't be hanged at all, so he was obviously taken by suprise when they told him they were going to do it anyway. :)

EDIT: Beat. In reference to the one posted just above me, I just take the $100,000.

Another fun little paradox: Their are three erorrs in this sentence. Admittedly, just an extrapolation of "I am lying", but still.

[ Friday, June 24, 2005 19:50: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Avernum I: The Movie in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #12
I actually think an adaptation of Exile could work quite well. And by 'adaptation' I mean "keep basic premise and climax, chuck just about everything else."

But then, I never registered, so for all I know you'd have to throw out the ending as well.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
THE GREAT DEBATE, PART III in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #55
Bring Up More Posts.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #45
Just so long as we don't get into the whole 0.9999... = 1 thing. ;)

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #43
...

Damn you.

I should steer away from maths. It toys with my emotions. One moment you feel invulnerable, the next you're scared and confused and wondering what's real in the world.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #41
But there's a 50% chance in the Millionaire situation... so sometimes you're still stuck with a 50/50, but sometimes you get a 75% chance... right?

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #37
quote:
Originally written by Evil Autocrat:

You increase your chance to 1/2 instead of 1/4, but unless the lifeline works exactly like the doors (you pick, then two of the choices you didn't pick are eliminated) it's not as good as the door trick. That one relies on the non-randomness of the information you get. If you could pick one answer and then reveal two of the three others as false, you'd have a 3/4 chance of getting the question right by switching.
Say you mentally pick one option randomly, then use the 50/50. There is a 50% chance that the one you picked won't get eliminated. In that event, you have a 75% chance of being right if you switch to the other one. If the one you picked is eliminated, you're back to 50/50. So the 3 door trick will increase your chances, marginally. :)

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #25
Look at it this way. As a contestant, you don't know if the 50K is the double or the half. There's a 50% chance of either.

So let's do the 100 people simulation again. Half go into the 50K - 100K game, half go into the 25K - 50K game. What do the maths work out to now?

50 get the 50K, 25 get 100K, 25 get 25K. Now they all swap... total money given away is still the same. But the 50K bunch are better off.

If you ARE the top limit, obviously there's no point swapping. If you DON'T KNOW if you're the upper or lower limit, it's in your favour to swap.

Or something. I dunno, this is confusing.

EDIT:
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

Okay, new analysis.

Suppose there are 200 players. 100 decide to adopt an "always switch" strategy (let's call them switchers or group S), 100 decide to adopt a "never switch" strategy (let's call them non-switchers or group NS). 50 S and 50 NS are randomly assigned to a group where the envelopes contain $25000 and $50000 -- let's call them S-A and NS-A respectively. 50 S and 50 NS are randomly assigned to a group where the envelopes contain $50000 and $100000 -- let's call them S-B and NS-B respectively.

The first round of handing out envelopes occurs.

25 S-A get $25000, 25 NS-A get $25000, 25 S-A get $50000, 25 NS-B get $50000.

25 S-B get $50000, 25 NS-B get $50000, 25 S-B get $100000, 25 NS-B get $100000.

Obviously, after switching, the switchers as a group are not any better off -- the switchers who got the smaller amount have simply exchanged places with the ones who got the larger amount, meaning that they're in exactly the same situation as the non-switchers. It seems obvious that switching is not really a better strategy than non-switching.

Oh, damn.

EDIT 2:
quote:
Originally written by Manhood Typing Kelandon:

Wait, how did the no-switchers get anything but $50,000? You start out by knowing that you got 50K. If you don't switch, you should invariably get 50K.
Yay!

My poor brain.

[ Thursday, June 23, 2005 17:30: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #21
quote:
Originally written by Manhood Typing Kelandon:

The reason is that we don't know how much money is at stake. Stareye's analysis lets the dollar values be $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000. Thuryl's lets the dollar values only be $25,000 or $50,000.
Ah, I get it now. Still pretty cool.

And I'd swap, since the maths has proved it right. ;)

EDIT: Hey, could you theoretically use the three doors trick to give yourself a slight advantage in Who Wants To Be a Millionaire with the 50/50 lifeline?

[ Thursday, June 23, 2005 17:16: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Two envelopes paradox in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #18
My brain just exploded. That's awesome.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Are stereotype's "bad"? in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #1
Stereotype is shorthand. You don't need to spend time setting up all the details of the character. You simply give a couple of big, clear signifiers and audiences/players instantly recognise the character from all the millions of other places they've seen him/her.

It's bad for major characters, I think, but can be useful for minor ones.

School teacher, thin, middle aged, her hair in a bun, spectacles, doesn't smile. All that can be conveyed in a single picture, and you already can tell she's strict. No need to spend scenes setting it up, move on with the actual story. She puts our hero in detention for some trifling misdemeanor... where he meets the girl of his dreams.

Another way stereotypes can be used is for humour, or an unexpected twist. The minimal, immediate information you're given paints the picture of one sort of character... then the suprise, which may spark a shock or a laugh, depending on context.

In Brett Bixler's BoE scenario Quintessence, you encounter a massive snow monster called Grind. You expect him to be a dangerous threat or at best a lovable oaf... and he opens his mouth and you discover he is articulate, well-spoken, and very polite.

Or the other way around. The amiable bumbling Englishman turns out to be a spy.

Commercials use stereotypes constantly... they have 30 seconds, and can't waste time! So they give you characters you already know.

So long as you're using stereotypes as a tool and not a crutch, it's all good.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #30
I'm still a gamer... I'm just a gamer who isn't playing games at the moment. ;)

Seriously, I really do mean to get a computer and play all these scenarios that have been made since I moved, and maybe even make a scenario of my own. I just don't care about Jeff's games any more.

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #28
Blades has spoiled me. I don't think I'll even bother playing the A4 demo.

If I had a wishlist, it would be something like:

1) Actual characters.
2) Storylines that are complex without being complicated.
3) Combat that is vaguely challenging/interesting.

But I don't really care.

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SupaNik: Aran, you're not big enough to threaten Ash. Dammit, even JV had to think twice.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
The Official Electioneering Topic in General
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #66
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

Just posting to say that Ash Lael/The Creator and his Zani party registered candidacy after the deadline had passed.
Oh well. The joke would have worn thin pretty quick anyway.

As an aside, I am astounded to see how many people are taking this whole thing at all seriously.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00

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