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Originally written by Celtic Minstrel:

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Originally written by The Almighty Do-er of Stuff:

Top, left, bottom, right.

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As in, the Y coordinate of the top left space, followed by the X coordinate of the top left space, followed by the Y coordinate of the bottom right space, followed by the X coordinate of the bottom left space?

(It's a little confusing because a rectangle would normally be in the order left, top, right, bottom, but in Exile it isn't.)

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(7:43:49 PM) Zeeqon5: Hello.
(7:43:52 PM) terrorsmartyr: Yo.
(7:44:16 PM) Zeeqon5: I'm having with a node sequence in BoE that won't work the way I expect it to.
(7:44:20 PM) Zeeqon5: Or at all, for that matter.
(7:44:31 PM) Zeeqon5: Could you help?
(7:44:40 PM) terrorsmartyr: You're still working on BoE? Well, I should remember enough to be able to.
(7:44:51 PM) Zeeqon5: Okay, thanks.
(7:45:30 PM) Zeeqon5: There's three different terrain tiles in a row.
(7:45:55 PM) Zeeqon5: They each have the ability to lock into different terrains, or transform into different terrains.
(7:46:18 PM) Zeeqon5: There is an item sitting on the northernmost one.
(7:46:29 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay.
(7:47:33 PM) Zeeqon5: The one on the north end transforms into the same terrain it locks into. The same goes for the southernmost terrain, except it changes into a different one.
(7:48:05 PM) Zeeqon5: The northernmost one changes into a south-moving conveyor belt, and the southern one changes into a north-moving conveyor belt.
(7:48:33 PM) terrorsmartyr: So you want the party to lock/transform the northern one without locking/transforming the southern one, I take it?
(7:49:06 PM) Zeeqon5: No.
(7:49:32 PM) Zeeqon5: The middle one transforms into a north-moving conveyor belt and locks into a south-moving conveyor belt.
(7:50:08 PM) Zeeqon5: I've set up a Scenario Timer to go off every 10 moves.
(7:50:22 PM) terrorsmartyr: (Why not a Town Timer?)
(7:50:35 PM) Zeeqon5: It could be.
(7:50:40 PM) Zeeqon5: Would that make a difference?
(7:50:48 PM) Zeeqon5: I'm trying to pack a lot into this one town, you see.
(7:51:11 PM) Zeeqon5: It's a very short scenario. Two, three towns tops.
(7:51:14 PM) terrorsmartyr: Well, town timers can be set to be fired on any number of turns, not just multiples of 10.
(7:51:29 PM) Zeeqon5: It doesn't matter anyway. I don't want it to happen too often.
(7:51:35 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay.
(7:51:45 PM) Zeeqon5: I had a setup that worked earlier, but it happened too fast and looked stupid.
(7:52:33 PM) Zeeqon5: Anyway, the timer starts with an SDF check. It checks to see if (0,1) is set to at least 1 or less than 1.
(7:52:48 PM) Zeeqon5: Nothing has touched it yet, so it should be at 0.
(7:52:58 PM) Zeeqon5: If it's at least 1, the chain ends.
(7:53:27 PM) Zeeqon5: If it's less than 1, a Random Number node comes next.
(7:54:01 PM) Zeeqon5: If it's less than 21, it jumps to another Random Number node. If greater, chain ends.
(7:54:18 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay, so every 10 turns, there's a 1/5 chance of something happening.
(7:54:24 PM) Zeeqon5: Right.
(7:55:02 PM) Zeeqon5: The second random number node: If less than 51, it locks the strip of terrain with a Lock Rectangle node.
(7:55:54 PM) Zeeqon5: After it locks the terrain, it calls a General Timer, which goes off after 1 turn.
(7:56:56 PM) Zeeqon5: After the timer ends, it transforms the strip, which changes it back from the conveyor belts to the default lockable terrains. Then the chain ends.
(7:57:37 PM) Zeeqon5: If the second Random Number node comes up at least 51, it transforms the strip, then jumps to the same 1-move timer.
(7:57:59 PM) terrorsmartyr: So let me get this straight:
(7:58:46 PM) terrorsmartyr: When the terrains are locked, they look like this:
S
-
N
(7:58:57 PM) Zeeqon5: No.
(7:59:24 PM) Zeeqon5: When they're locked, they look like this:
S
S
N
(7:59:34 PM) Zeeqon5: And when they're transformed, they look like this:
(7:59:40 PM) Zeeqon5: S
N
N
(7:59:49 PM) Zeeqon5: Only lined up.
(8:00:00 PM) terrorsmartyr: Right, right.
(8:00:14 PM) Zeeqon5: By default, they're motionless, Clear terrain that are lockable and transformable.
(8:00:16 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay, so this item randomly gets shuffled from top to bottom.
(8:00:20 PM) Zeeqon5: Right.
(8:00:25 PM) Zeeqon5: Only it doesn't.
(8:00:29 PM) Zeeqon5: It doesn't move at all.
(8:00:48 PM) terrorsmartyr: Ahahahaha.
(8:00:53 PM) terrorsmartyr: We could've saved so much time!
(8:00:55 PM) Zeeqon5: It could be a quirk of the Random Number nodes, but I sat there holding 5 for a while.
(8:00:59 PM) terrorsmartyr: No, no, no.
(8:01:20 PM) terrorsmartyr: You need to have the conveyor terrains already placed in the town when the party enters it for any conveyor terrains you make in that town to work.
(8:01:32 PM) terrorsmartyr: Just stick the four conveyor belt types in a corner of town the party will never see.
(8:01:39 PM) Zeeqon5: I did that.
(8:01:45 PM) Zeeqon5: And it still won't move.
(8:01:56 PM) terrorsmartyr: Did you stick all of the conveyor types in?
(8:02:01 PM) Zeeqon5: Yes.
(8:02:06 PM) terrorsmartyr: That's odd.
(8:02:36 PM) Zeeqon5: Hmm...
(8:03:32 PM) terrorsmartyr: Do the conveyor belts not switch types, or do they not move things on them?
(8:03:58 PM) Zeeqon5: I don't know. They're inaccessible. I'll try making a path to them and see. Hold on.
(8:04:41 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay.
(8:05:09 PM) Zeeqon5: *pounds head on desk*
(8:05:35 PM) Zeeqon5: I'm thinking the fact that the conveyor belts are Clear, Blocked and not Clear like I thought could have something to do with it.
(8:06:04 PM) terrorsmartyr: It might. Fix it and see.
(8:09:00 PM) Zeeqon5: Nope, still won't move.
(8:09:01 PM) Zeeqon5: brb
(8:09:06 PM) terrorsmartyr: k
(8:11:29 PM) Zeeqon5: back
(8:12:31 PM) Zeeqon5: I'll try setting the first Random Number node to a high number and giving the conveyor terrains different graphics so I can see if they're changing.
(8:13:09 PM) terrorsmartyr: Okay.
(8:14:40 PM) Zeeqon5: Not changing at all.
(8:15:39 PM) terrorsmartyr: -_-
(8:16:35 PM) Zeeqon5: I'm using the original, unmodified Windows BoE, by the way.
(8:17:59 PM) terrorsmartyr: I don't think there are other versions.
(8:18:31 PM) Zeeqon5: Ormus ported it to XP.
(8:19:14 PM) terrorsmartyr: I see.
(8:19:22 PM) Zeeqon5: I used to use that because it didn't bluescreen my computer so much, but I (curse)ed it up trying to put the (original) editor in it. He ported the editor too, but I didn't want to risk making a scenario that didn't work.
(8:19:45 PM) terrorsmartyr: Whatever works.
(8:20:06 PM) Zeeqon5: Unfortunately, my conveyor belts don't work.
(8:20:27 PM) terrorsmartyr: Why do you need the conveyor belts so badly, anyway? Is it imperative to your scenario?
(8:20:56 PM) Zeeqon5: Strictly speaking, no, but I'm trying to make it look nice.
(8:21:07 PM) Zeeqon5: (spoiler removed)
(8:21:15 PM) Zeeqon5: (spoiler removed)
(8:21:48 PM) terrorsmartyr: . . .
(8:22:06 PM) terrorsmartyr: Frilly aesthetic (curse) should not be snagging you up so badly. Scrap it and come back to it later.
(8:22:11 PM) Zeeqon5: (spoiler removed)
(8:22:28 PM) Zeeqon5: I know, but I'm stubborn.
(8:22:45 PM) terrorsmartyr: This is stupidly stubborn. Stop.
(8:23:35 PM) Zeeqon5: I'll ask on Spidweb and move on for now.
(8:23:57 PM) Zeeqon5: Mind if I post this conversation so I don't have to type the whole problem up again?
(8:24:22 PM) terrorsmartyr: Yeah, sure.
(8:24:25 PM) Zeeqon5: Thanks.
(8:24:29 PM) Zeeqon5: Thanks for the help.
(8:24:44 PM) terrorsmartyr: No problem. But do focus on the rest of the scenario.
(8:24:50 PM) Zeeqon5: I will.

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Originally written by Najosz Thjsza Kjras:

1) The justice system does not exist to behave in a punitive fashion. While that's more or less what our current justice system amounts to, it's not appropriate and when it becomes politically feasible it will require EXTREME reform. The justice system exists for four interacting purposes:

a) Sequestration - keeping someone liable to commit a crime away from the general population. This is the basic function served by everything from drunk tanks to maximum security prisons - to keep dangerous people out of society. Until -
b) Rehabilitation - reducing criminal behavior and producing in an individual who has decided to engage in criminal deviance a meaningful engagement with society. This is what our prisons are worst at, and what they should be best at. All the modern American prison is designed for is violent sodomy, which is awful; the work programs are essentially regimentalized slavery with little rehabilitatory function (unlike chain-gangs, which often performed work that would at least be marginally transferrable to roving work in a rural community, modern prison work is largely stuff that is done by robots outside of the pen). Which is why, when it comes time to justify the massive prison-industrial complex, our politicians talk about
c) Deterrence. This function works well for some crimes, poorly for others, and not at all for most. But people - that is, people outside of sociology and statistics, who should be in charge of these things - believe in it, so a lot of criminal policy is designed around it. This includes three-strike programmes, which put juvenile delinquents in the damned pen for half of their adult life for stealing liquor one time too many. Only a belief in deterrence could produce such a perverse, draconian system - or support for it. Although, in the end, there is some recourse there to
d) Retribution. The dog's penal system. This is what dicks think about when they think about law: fascists, idiots, people living in the 2nd millennium BC. An eye for an eye is an improvement over absolute lex talonis war-of-all-against-all - just ask the Inuit, who have long spates of murderous feuding simmering for centuries instead of open warfare, and having committed murder is considered less shameful than stealing - but not by a whole lot. Retribution hinges on the pretense that somehow justice requires that human beings be deprived of certain things as a natural consequence of wrongdoing; it's contrary to basic modern theory on learning, social function, law, or justice, and appeals to retribution are usually how you get the jackals riled up - often enough, to constitute a lynch mob.

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Originally written by The Ratt:

I think Iffy took me seriously about the eight years on the boards....

Just so you know, the boards have only been around since 2001.

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Originally written by Ishad Nha:

Has anyone seen Akhronath? The reason that the port is unofficial is that all my attempts to contact him have been in vain.

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Originally written by Excalibur:

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Facebook and the Federal Government owns your identity...and you can't do jack about it. Why? You used facebook.

http://www.albumoftheday.com/facebook/

Just watch this short documentary. With information derived directly from facebook's "privacy" policy, it explains that facebook has proprietary rights not only to potentially sensitive information you volunteer them, but also to data they possess by tracking your internet surfing habits, IMing, and newspapers (good game beacon and pulse). ONCE YOU USE FACEBOOK, they have the right to gather information about you and then distribute or even DISPLAY it whenever, wherever, and to whomever -- and as often as -- they want, regardless of whether you're using their site. If it were technically possible, they could legally do this tracking for the rest of your life and you wouldn't be able to do jack about it in a court of law. Of course, supposing they're no longer tracking you, they still control a mountain of private personal information about you.

It gets better... facebook has financial and if not official, indirect, ties to corporations and individuals affiliated with the CIA and Office of Information (a D.O.D./DARPA intelligence operation.) If Uncle Sam were a real person, he could sit down by the fireside and read a file entitled "Joshua Lam" and know anything from my date of birth, WHERE I LIVE, who my friends and parents are, what my daily routine is, what I like to read, my political and religious beliefs, my clubs and hobbies, consumer habits, to the websites I go to and more. In fact, anyone who has dealings with facebook could find this stuff out about me EASILY.

So...it's not even a question of "Shut up, you chose to volunteer them the information and you're using their service in exchange," as some people have said. It's more like, "facebook can indiscriminately gather, own, and do almost whatever it wants with virtually any personal information they can and have digitally sniffed out about you." This translates to using it for their own purposes, which could mean anything up to putting your face and all your personal information (including websites you visit) on a highway bill-board (or more realistically, in a mass e-mail) OR sell to the highest bidder...including government agencies, political organizations, and all corporations. I'd say this goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAY frickin' beyond simple advertising schemes and runs straight to an Orwellian theme.

So what now? Well, the government doesn't want to see facebook change. And as long as facebook makes money, facebook doesn't want to see facebook change. Therefore, in order for this blatantly disrespectful, more than sketch "privacy" policy (or lack thereof) to change...facebook has to believe its users will stop using it. It needs to believe people will quit facebook over this. But we won't and the execs at facebook know this, so nothing will change. Nothing will change if we don't quit facebook and go elsewhere.

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Originally written by Arancaytar:

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Originally written by Excalibur:

Ron Paul's plan to decriminalize prostitution the only goal of his I oppose.

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Wait, is that illegal in the US? Everywhere, or just in some of the states?

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