prev <-> next
[2010-01-15 12:41:14] - hey, just checking so I can get a headcount, was there anyone else planning to come to my place tonight? -nina
[2010-01-15 12:19:19] - a: ahh the barren wasteland that is Cape Cod - aaron
[2010-01-15 11:59:34] - aaron: 42.06,-70.236 looks like a desert to me! ~a
[2010-01-15 10:36:43] - Xpovos: Yup, exactly. -nina
[2010-01-15 10:35:28] - nina: No, it was Federalists and Anti-Federalists and Whigs and Torries and Old Republicans and Old Democrats. Political parties change, but the system really hasn't much. There's pretty much been exactly two parties at all times, and at any given point one of them would be vehemently against DC voting, and the other less so. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-15 10:32:27] - Mig: I agree with you on the MA stuff. It is pretty sickening when you see a political party being so blatantly abusive. -nina
[2010-01-15 10:31:54] - Republicans and Democrats for centuries - nina
[2010-01-15 10:31:44] - Xpovos - yes, voting rights has been an issue for centuries, but we haven't had a two-party system of just
[2010-01-15 10:25:59] - nina: oh yeah, I totally agree on that the GOP certainly isn't any less guilty of shenanigans. But I did find the situation in Massachusetts situation to be a bit more egregious than anything I've ever read about before. - mig
[2010-01-15 10:24:49] - nina: Voting rights in DC is a centuries issue, not decades. The solution is simple, but the Democrats (and many residents of the state of Maryland and most of DC) hate it. Generally that means it's the optimal solution. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-15 10:18:15] - OK, both parties are guilty of being whiny when it comes to subverting the democratic process. Republicans have been kicking and screaming about not giving DC voting rights for decades. And, I've also seen the Republican controlled state legislature in FL work on re-districting to ensure their continued power. -nina
[2010-01-15 10:00:37] - Mig: I agree, it's pretty sickening how much the state Democratic party has twisted the system to benefit them. If there ever were a state where I would be pleased to see a Republican win, it's Massachusetts. - Stephen
[2010-01-15 09:59:03] - what I find extremely amusing is remembering how much the democrats were crying and screaming about the 2000 and 2004 elections about how the democratic process was subverted. But changing laws about filling senate seats (twice, in fact) in such a way that benefits the democratic party, that's A-OK with them. - mig
[2010-01-15 09:56:36] - Aaron: I know. I can't tell if it was a play on "just desserts" or an embarrassing mistake. - Stephen
[2010-01-15 09:47:37] - there are no deserts in massachusetts - aaron
[2010-01-15 09:46:22] - stephen: lol. "just deserts?" - aaron
[2010-01-15 09:46:08] - stephen: I'm willing to bet if Brown does win, democrats will come running and screaming that the results were "tainted" somehow. - mig
[2010-01-15 09:40:33] - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/01/just_deserts_in_massachusetts.html maybe if Massachusetts hadn't kept trying to change the rules, they'd be guaranteed to elect a Dem next week. - Stephen
[2010-01-15 07:38:51] - http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100114/D9D7MDGG0.html many obama pledges unkept - this article is more pro-obama than the title implies, it's probably largely redundant with politifact.com's obameter, but it just talks about some of his campaign promises and how he's doing on them - aaron
[2010-01-15 05:50:18] - I need more irony in my diet; it's delicious: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/01/joe-biden-update.html -- Xpovos
[2010-01-14 18:33:42] - yeah i'd come. ~a
[2010-01-14 16:34:12] - Stephen: Thanks for posting the roller derby info. It's gonna be so sweet. I'm positive this thing won't sell out, so anyone can buy tix at the door. -nina
[2010-01-14 16:33:06] - rumor has it that gurkie & paul aren't hosting poker tomorrow night. if i hosted a shin dig / game night at my place, would folks come? -nina
[2010-01-14 16:28:40] - aaron: don't ask - vinnie
[2010-01-14 16:06:36] - vinnie: how does the "conservation of flesh" principal account for pooping? - aaron
[2010-01-14 16:06:36] - a: Yeah, you can get them at the door, assuming they don't sell out. - Stephen
[2010-01-14 16:03:51] - stephen: tickets at the door? ~a
[2010-01-14 15:58:08] - Gurkie: Adrian is right. And you should come, we can get food afterwards
- Stephen[2010-01-14 15:52:41] - gurkie: he specifically said you might be interested.
~a[2010-01-14 15:51:02] - Stephen: why didnt you invite me?~gurkie
[2010-01-14 15:50:27] - u guys are weird ~gurkie
[2010-01-14 15:47:18] - Nina: I posted this b/c I am really excited about going. This was Nina's idea, everyone! - Stephen
[2010-01-14 15:46:38] - So, Pierce, Nina, my college friend and I are definitely going to see some Roller Derby on Saturday http://www.dcrollergirls.com/. The doors open at 3pm, and games start at 4pm. It should be a lot of fun. It's at the DC Armory (accessible via Blue/Orange lines on Metro - Stadium-Armory Station). Tickets are $12. - Stephen
[2010-01-14 15:27:37] - The complicated parts, mathematically, are the digestive system, particularly the stomach and the mouth. Up until there the mass is just an easy transfer. But if you try to eat the stomach and contents you head for an infinite loop, while if you start on the other end and eat the mouth first you get a divide by zero error. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-14 15:12:40] - we call this principle conservation of flesh - vinnie
[2010-01-14 15:12:14] - title: isn't there some kind of in between? like maybe you eat your arm and the arm grows back instantly - vinnie
[2010-01-14 14:08:03] - wow, good titles recently. ~a
[2010-01-14 13:39:41] - F5,F5,F5,F5,F5. What is this, a woot-off? -- Xpovos
[2010-01-14 11:47:45] - a: Hardly. It just proves my addiction. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-14 11:46:28] - for some reason the ip changed twice last night. anyways, sorry. ~a
[2010-01-14 11:37:04] - The message board is back! Yay! -- Xpovos
[2010-01-14 10:40:15] - http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/14/is-obama-a-republican Seems like a relevant article considering all the talk about military spending from yesterday. -Paul
[2010-01-13 19:44:10] - And I found the answer to my computer age, too. 4+. Wow. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 19:43:44] - Ah, Crucial.com has all the tools I need. Nice and easy. 5GB here I come. Though until I upgrade to 7 it'll only recognize a fraction of that... -- Xpvos
[2010-01-13 18:56:34] - I'm going to upgrade the RAM in my desktop which I bought almost 4 years ago now. Actually, maybe more that 4. Hard to remember. Anyway, before I do want to make sure I get the right stuff. Installed right now are 2x 512MB DIMMs. Beyond that I don't know much. My MOBO can support 4GB, I think. I'd like to get a pair of 2GB DIMMS. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 17:00:57] - xpovos: interesting. This probably will get very entertaining if Brown does win then. - mig
[2010-01-13 16:56:25] - mig: Polls have the margin as wide as 15 points in favor of the Dem, to as much as +2-3 points for the Republican. The most accurate polls show a slight lead for the Dem, which is within the margin of error. So, yeah. I think they're frightened. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 16:49:23] - I do really wonder though if they are genuinely frightened that Brown might win, or if they're just leaving nothing to chance. - mig
[2010-01-13 16:18:46] - xpovos: actually the whole debacle regarding Kennedy's seat has been quite entertaining, but quite infuriating at the same time. I've seen some pretty heinous political manipulation before, but I don't recall it ever being so overt than with then the aftermath of Kennedy's death. - mig
[2010-01-13 16:00:24] - I find this entertaining. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/13/AR2010011302542.html -- xpovos
[2010-01-13 15:37:59] - gurkie: Yeah. Whenever a makes a change I always spend a few minutes tracking down the bits he's left to the design, but stuck in new places, or craftily hidden. I think having it under mb cleans up the view, but I check it frequently anyway. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 15:33:28] - a: i didnt realize it had moved to mb... That makes me happy for some reason... I guess cause I know I am not the only one incessantly checking the board with no updates. ~gurkie
[2010-01-13 13:26:48] - mig: see that would catch my attention if the article was centered around that. an 11% increase in military expenditure is interesting - aaron
[2010-01-13 12:12:22] - i might be misinterperting the #s on wikipedia, it seems based on the #s from last year that the increase is more around 11% if the request for this year is indeed $743 billion. - mig
[2010-01-13 11:53:58] - Also, the 3% increase wikipedia number for 2009-2010 YOY is borne out in those numbers, ignoring the new request. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 11:45:17] - 2009 is still an estimate because final numbers are still coming in. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 11:44:35] - aaron: Attempting to read through the source, I'm seeing that Defense outlays (not budget, but actual expenditures) in 2008 were $595B, 2009 is estimated at $665B and 2010 is estimated to be $685B. If Obama wants another $33B to increase efforts in Afghanistan, that then would appear to me to be a roughtly 5% increase over previous expenditures. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 11:32:23] - yeah, but still our GDP is freakin' huge. nearly half of the world military spending is us. ~a
[2010-01-13 11:32:12] - btw thanks to everyone who came out to our show yesterday. we had a lot of fun, hope you did too - vinnie
[2010-01-13 11:30:35] - a: I'm actually surprised there are countries that have higher percentages - vinnie
[2010-01-13 11:25:18] - not terribly surprising that most countries spend less than we do (% of GDP) on their military. ~a
[2010-01-13 11:13:47] - hmm sorry i guess i always want to link to URLs with wikipedia-style links. i think it's because dokuwiki lets me do it - aaron
[2010-01-13 11:12:58] - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States|wikipedia]] seems to think DOD spending went up 3% from 2009 to 2010, it cites a [[http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/|source]] but the source was kind of intimidating for me - aaron
[2010-01-13 11:06:42] - mig: right, so maybe last year's figure set a record, and it was $708B, and this year obama is bumping it up %5 to $741B, that's a good guess. bumping up spending by %5 is hardly news though - aaron
[2010-01-13 11:06:23] - there's no reference to how much was spent last year, only that it was less than $700 billion. - mig
[2010-01-13 11:04:53] - "President Barack Obama will ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of a record $708 billion for the Defense Department next year" - mig
[2010-01-13 11:04:33] - it seems to be not very clear, but I'm reading it as obama wanting $741 with the phrase
[2010-01-13 11:02:31] - all they say is 1. $708B is "a record" 2. obama wants $33B more than $708B 3. obama wants "a record". i don't understand why they phrase it so confusingly, it makes me think they're either stupid or are trying to mislead the readers. if obama wants a record $741B, then just say that - aaron
[2010-01-13 11:01:14] - aaron: The joys of a quality journalism degree. You get to write exceedingly clear hard-hitting news pieces like that. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 10:59:48] - a: they never say it's $33B more than they spent in 2009, they just say it's $33B more. you might be right, but the article is ambiguous. maybe they spent two dollars last year, and obama asked for $685B this year, and now he's asking for an additional $33B on top of that. or maybe they spent $708 billion last year, and now he's asking for $741 billion. - aaron
[2010-01-13 10:51:30] - aaron: they do. 33B more. from 708-33 to 708. that's 5% more hope than last year. 5% is actually kind of low considering inflation is often around 4%. ~a
[2010-01-13 10:48:03] - mig: tsk yeah remember when bush jr increased minimum wage to record levels? "record levels" is kind of a meaningless term, i'm suspicious they don't refer to last year's military spending in the article - aaron
[2010-01-13 10:34:51] - mig: No, no. This is the hope side. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-13 10:16:45] - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100113/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_obama_war_funding obama to increase military spending to record levels ... horray for change? - mig
[2010-01-13 07:32:10] - a: oh! i didn't know it was under "mb" either - aaron
[2010-01-12 23:13:28] - page views? you mean "hits"? it's still there under the "mb" heading. do you want to see it on the main page? or maybe you'd prefer simple or old? ~a
[2010-01-12 18:41:44] - a: I miss the info on page views... how is colorado ~gurkie
[2010-01-12 18:41:08] - mig: thats insane... how can they do a reboot when they are in the middle of it... Tobey Maguire's IMDB page shows him as being planned for Spidey 5 too... oops there goes those projects. ~gurkie
[2010-01-12 16:54:26] - mig: yeah i was baffled by the spiderman reboot. what's next, are they going to reboot avatar - aaron
[2010-01-12 16:51:35] - spiderman franchise isn't really even that old either. - mig
[2010-01-12 16:51:12] - http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/urgent-spider-man-4-scrapped-as-is-raimi-and-cast-out-franchise-reboot-planned/ the recent trend of reboots over the past years or so is rather disturbing. - mig
[2010-01-12 15:40:01] - Aaron: Sure! -- England
[2010-01-12 15:25:31] - oh sorry that was meant for xpovos - aaron
[2010-01-12 15:25:24] - delicacy: hey how about a DMZ in the channel!!
- aaron[2010-01-12 15:21:51] - Paul: That might be it. it was in fact an abject disaster. Shorter blonde guy was Russia and taller dark-haired guy was France. France suggested a DMZ in the Channel, which made perfect sense to me as I prepared to attack Germany. Fall of 1901 was probably my last significant move as I became a Russio-Franco delicacy. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-12 14:51:08] - Xpovos: Sadly, I do not. Was it an abject disaster? I have vague recollections of a totally impotent England during one game I played a while ago. -Paul
[2010-01-12 14:38:11] - Paul: Do you remember my last game as England? It was in college with the Diplomacy club. I know you were there, and maybe Miguel was too? You were probably Austria or Turkey. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-12 14:26:03] - Xpovos: Heh, nicely put, although I think the story is a little more generic than even just a copy of Pocahontas. Still, I want to be clear, I loved the movie and didn't really have a problem with the cliches. -Paul
[2010-01-12 11:44:08] - paul: aah that's fantastic - aaron
[2010-01-12 11:20:19] - On the debate regarding Avatar's originality: http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/epic-fail-avatar-plot-fail.jpg -- Xpovos
[2010-01-12 09:56:41] - aaron: heh, how weird that Portugal is only bordered by two territories. I didn't realize there were any territories like that - vinnie
[2010-01-12 09:42:34] - http://autocompleteme.com/ Some amusing things turn up on google's autocomplete. -Paul
[2010-01-11 20:17:45] - Hmm, that's right. My first guess would've been North Africa, but Portugal is better. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 19:07:54] - it was pointed out to me through some article that no retreats can be made from Portugal , though i probably wouldn't have realized it. - mig
[2010-01-11 18:54:07] - i don't know if that will end up being practical, but i wanted to try using wave for something non-trivial so i could decide if it sucks or not - aaron
[2010-01-11 18:53:25] - also for those of you in the new diplomacy game who are also on google wave; i've created a wave so we can talk about it all there rather than cluttering up the board here - aaron
[2010-01-11 18:13:38] - heh! did anybody ever realize that there's a territory in diplomacy, which it's impossible to retreat from? - aaronon
[2010-01-11 17:21:02] - Daniel: Yeah, and I think that worked in your favor. Because you didn't side with Aaron earlier, it helped me convince myself that maybe you weren't going to turn on me later. -Paul
[2010-01-11 17:16:37] - pauI: I didn't side with Aaron to start our game even though he tried. My brief alliance with Miguel was borne only out of convience and necessity. -Daniel.
[2010-01-11 17:12:57] - Mig: Excellent point. You had to spend one turn to defend Marseilles against Aaron NOT moving into it this game while I had to suffer through a long and brutal backstabbing by Aaron last game and a joined-at-the-hip-all-game conspiracy by you two against me in the first game.
-Paul[2010-01-11 16:53:24] - mig: heh yeah, you did move into marseilles! and after i came up with that whole ruse - aaron
[2010-01-11 16:22:17] - aaron: well considering that I did not trust you in Fall 02 when you were in piedmont, I think we can put the we're coworkers so we're going to be best buddies thing to bed. - mig
[2010-01-11 15:52:08] - sorry guys, Im further behind than you may realize... I have a bit of a grasp on what happens just based on hearing you all discuss things but I dont know how turns go really or even the rule structure on what moves are allowed. I think I saw a diplomacy rules set on the diplomacy.ca site I will read those, then look at all the useful openings once I finish. ~Gurkie
[2010-01-11 14:34:35] - gurkie: http://www.diplom.org/~diparch/god.htm i thought this was a pretty interesting resource for learning openings and relationships between powers. It was written back in the 70s, but a lot of it is still pretty relevant. - mig
[2010-01-11 14:07:18] - http://q2l.org/ - A 6th - 12th Grade experimental school in NYC that uses video games to teach kids. I really think their curriculum and learning model is awesome. Wish I had a school like that. Would've been useful. -nina
[2010-01-11 13:11:17] - This is very impressive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqTSl4Jme0Y -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 13:07:27] - xpovos: i tried to use google to solve for x too
- aaron[2010-01-11 13:03:06] - aaron: Cool. I tried to use google to solve for x, but I didn't think to use it to check the answer. *sigh*.
-- Xpovos[2010-01-11 12:54:53] - xpovos: yea seems about right - aaron
[2010-01-11 12:47:10] - It's been too long since my last math class. All my skills are rusty. Can someone check me? (107/108)^x = 0.05; x =~ 322. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 12:46:09] - gurkie: you're going to hear a lot of advice in 1901, wikibooks has a book on Diplomacy which is probably your best unbiased source. just look up whatever country you end up playing, and read the introduction as far as how that country's relations usually go - aaron
[2010-01-11 12:08:45] - paul: so now you have to teach me how to win this game... I dont quite know all the rules, just that everyone who plays is obsessed. ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 11:49:13] - Aaron: You could work on your anti-France game while you're waiting for my Austrian units to get out of the way. It shouldn't take too long. -Paul
[2010-01-11 11:45:01] - paul: and i'm working an my anti-russian game but all of your pesky austrian units are in the way - aaron
[2010-01-11 11:44:14] - paul -
yeah, i had strategic reasons for not attacking italy last game and i had strategic reasons for not attacking marseilles this game. i don't think anybody genuinely believes otherwise - aaron[2010-01-11 11:42:34] - gurkie: you need a forum account. - aaron
[2010-01-11 11:42:15] - Gurkie: Register at www.diplomacy.ca - Stephen
[2010-01-11 11:41:37] - Aaron: Yeah your relationship with Miguel and Daniel has been discussed, don't worry. - Stephen
[2010-01-11 11:39:22] - Aaron: And I'm also well aware that you and Miguel are in unbreakable alliances every game, I just don't know what I can do about it.
-Paul[2010-01-11 11:38:51] - Aaron: Heh, well, I've definitely been aware of the Aaron/Miguel/Daniel connection with regards to you and Miguel being able to constantly bombard Daniel about how evil I am while he hasn't met anybody else but you two. -Paul
[2010-01-11 11:37:10] - aaron: I am pretty sure I have heard it brought up before... ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 11:36:26] - soooo, what do I have to do? ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 11:36:15] - i mean i do think it's sheer coincedence that i didn't attack miguel in both of our games, but i'm surprised nobody ever brought it up. because, i mean, under different circumstances it would definitely be suspicious - aaron
[2010-01-11 11:35:30] - paul: frankly i'm surprised nobody's brought up the whole miguel/daniel/aaron thing, i mean it's not like france/italy/russia often go after eachother anyways but, i think being coworkers makes it easier for us to work together - aaron
[2010-01-11 11:30:48] - Gurkie: Yeah, I was just thinking that if we ended up bordering each other, it seems more likely we would fight than be allies. -Paul
[2010-01-11 11:29:38] - Paul: its actually odd, I think of our couple friends we might be the most competetive with each other and least likely to not attach each other cause of our relationship. We tend to like fighting with each other... ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 11:26:26] - Stephen: Sounds like we have seven then
-Paul[2010-01-11 11:22:15] - Paul: I would fully expect gurkie to attempt to beat you up in game like she does out of game. - Stephen
[2010-01-11 11:20:47] - Gurkie: True enough.
-paul[2010-01-11 11:19:53] - I doubt people would give you that much credit... ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 11:17:16] - Yeah, I would be fine with being in the same game as Gurkie. I figure other people might have more of an objection since they might see us as an unbreakable alliance. -Paul
[2010-01-11 11:14:46] - Having slept there, I can say it's better than a couch. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 10:52:36] - stupid double post! Also Paul might be wary of stabbing me since I know where he sleeps... And there is a guest room one of us could be relocated to... ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 10:51:41] - Xpovos: Well luckily I would have about a million (or 5) people warning me that Paul was about to backstab me... Although I imagine they would be saying that regardless. Miguel lives there so I think he would warn me unless he was in on it, Stephen and Aaron would probably also offer me advice... I dont know I will think about it ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 10:51:34] - Xpovos: Well luckily I would have about a million (or 5) people warning me that Paul was about to backstab me... Although I imagine they would be saying that regardless. Miguel lives there so I think he would warn me unless he was in on it, Stephen and Aaron would probably also offer me advice... I dont know I will think about it ~gurkie
[2010-01-11 10:47:46] - I'm not interested, sorry - vinnie
[2010-01-11 10:47:40] - Paul: Vinnie said no. Bryan and Adrian didn't reply. I figured Dewey would read this board, and I don't know how to email Sam. - Stephen
[2010-01-11 10:43:57] - Stephen: I'm guessing you already emailed people like Vinnie, Bryan, Sam, Dewey and Adrian? -Paul
[2010-01-11 10:19:47] - Which is hard to do if you're the one about to stab her. Got it. Um... nope, drawing a blank. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 10:08:13] - Xpovos: I would be ok with it, but I don't think Gurkie would like it. Also, she's never played before, so the theory was that I would help her out if she played (give her ideas for potential moves, standard openings, possible betrayals, etc). -Paul
[2010-01-11 09:50:42] - What about Paul & Gurkie? Or is that too much of a threat to a harmonious household? -- Xpovos
[2010-01-11 09:41:09] - Paul: Nobody responded to their emails, so we're stuck at six players. Miguel, Aaron, Andrew, you or Gurkie, Daniel, and me, - Stephen
[2010-01-11 09:26:33] - Stephen: Just out of curiosity, what happened with the second Diplomacy game that you were talking about? I only ask because the game I'm in is about to be over for me.
-Paul[2010-01-10 18:36:33] - Ah, thats a fun game. Only played it once though. -Daniel
[2010-01-09 12:06:48] - daniel: ticket to ride
[2010-01-08 23:23:34] - TTR? -Daniel
[2010-01-08 16:19:32] - Aaron: I am always nervous when you are playing TTR with me. - Stephen
[2010-01-08 15:59:56] - mig: Looking at the game, to me, the more interesting relationship is France/Italy, even though they lost. I doubt Austria could ever trust Italy here, but if they could, Italy could turn on France and Austria on Russia in 1908 or 1909 and deal some crippling blows. But Austria's position is the weakest. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 15:51:42] - have definitely done a stab at some point regardless of whether it would have worked or not. - mig
[2010-01-08 15:51:12] - xpovos: If I was austria I definitely would have at some point. I wouldn't trust anyone to not take a solo in that situation, no matter who they were. Even if it had failed horribly I don't see much difference between 2nd place and losing. It's win or bust for me. I'd have to look at the movements to see when an opportunity would have presented itself, but I would ...
[2010-01-08 15:48:41] - Oh, sorry. I'm actually talking about a different game I got sidetracked into watching after looking at that game. -Paul
[2010-01-08 15:43:27] - If I were Russia I'd probably play the same way in that case--offer and accept the two way draw. Austria helped win the game very clearly, and Russia would not have been anywhere near as successful without him, or if they had stabbed at each other. Now, the real question is: should Austria have stabbed (probably) and when? -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 15:40:03] - I like games where Russia wins. Maybe I'm biased though. -Daniel
[2010-01-08 15:37:07] - Italy and Germany certainly had a bold plan for taking out France in that game. I like it.
-Paul[2010-01-08 15:27:15] - vinnie: hmm, actually i change my mind - i don't think every game is like that, but it's difficult for me to draw a generalization as to which games are like that and which games are not - aaron
[2010-01-08 15:24:13] - vinnie: yeah almost every game is like that; i'm sure people play TTR different when I'm playing. and i know i have to play "Ingenious!" more defensively with you than with other people - aaron
[2010-01-08 14:53:26] - actually I guess diplomacy isn't unique. there are other games like that, where you get an advantage by taking someone's play style into account - vinnie
[2010-01-08 14:52:45] - the interesting thing about diplomacy is that it's affected by real life, to some extent. if you're playing with random people, not so much, but when you play with people you know in real life, it is. making an unbreakable alliance in a real life game definitely means I would trust that person as an early ally more next game. so that's some sort of benefit - vinnie
[2010-01-08 14:33:55] - mig: here's the EOG statement, it sounds like basically russia was grateful to austria for helping him get to 17 units so shared the victory out of gratitude, even though he could obviously solo without trouble - aaron
[2010-01-08 14:28:19] - mig: I'm not sure I really have much of a problem with that. My guess is that Russia is a strong believer in keeping alliances and didn't want to betray his ally and felt like it was more important than getting a solo win. -Paul
[2010-01-08 14:24:05] - mig: tsk if you were one of the other surviving countries you should have voted down the draw - aaron
[2010-01-08 14:08:20] - This would be the type of thing that would kind of make me mad if I was one of the other surviving countries. - mig
[2010-01-08 14:06:45] - So does this result make any sense to anyone? Maybe it speaks more to the problem of "unbreakable" alliances we had on here earlier. - mig
[2010-01-08 14:05:28] - now, Russia in the spring and fall turn in positioned to get well over 18 centers and solo, but for whatever reason, he goes for the 2-way draw, and I'm at a total loss as to why. - mig
[2010-01-08 14:03:05] - so as another diplomacy philosphy related discussion: in the game on the diplomacy.ca site (2009-2) there was an instance of a 2-way draw with Austria and Russia where Russia ballooned to 17 centers with the help of Austria who while only having 10 centers was included in a 2-way draw ...
[2010-01-08 11:55:08] - aaron: They were researching it for Parkinson's cures. I guess if you're genetically predisposed to Parkinson's, you recombinate with your children's genes for potential future therapy? It seems less likely to get a successful treatment like that off by waiting until the disease shows up. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 11:50:48] - xpovos: well yeah, presumably you'd genetically engineer your kids if you wanted to control them like a remote controlled car - aaron
[2010-01-08 11:10:11] - aaron: That is nifty/weird. It's important to note that the rat has been genetically modified. This wouldn't work without the implantation of the plant genes into the rat. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 10:55:52] - ah i found the article i was looking for the other day, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics/all/1 it's about using light to monitor and control brain activity, really weird stuff - aaron
[2010-01-08 09:40:41] - xpovos: let me know if you're up for a game some time this weekend, i'm curious to try out this port - aaron
[2010-01-08 09:34:18] - xpovos: it's probably pretty close, the biggest difference i remember in the ports was movement speed (catching the wampus was really big in the NES port) - aaron
[2010-01-08 09:25:59] - aaron: I'm impressed. Also, by the site. I'll have to sign up. I havn't played a good game of M.U.L.E. in ages. Though I think I'm permanantly warped in M.U.L.E. thinking because I played it on the NES port. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 09:21:16] - xpovos: Eurogame what do you know it is! - aaron
[2010-01-08 09:16:53] - aaron: Eurogame? Is that wikipediable? -- Xpovos
[2010-01-08 07:58:28] - http://www.planetmule.com/ apparently M.U.L.E is back... M.U.L.E is an old school "eurogame" style video game, where four players buy land and trade goods to try and have the most money at the end... i guess it's a little like settlers but really it's hard for me to think of a eurogame which it closely maps too - aaron
[2010-01-07 21:08:36] - http://www.baconorbeercan.com/ (needs sound) - aaron
[2010-01-07 17:33:59] - paul: the closest analogy for shakespeare's time would have been horses or something, but that would have made the scene really... disturbing - aaron
[2010-01-07 17:33:30] - paul: heh yeah, he changed the gun to a sword, and bowling became "nine-pins" but he still had the car? i guess that scene doesn't work that great with anything other than a car - aaron
[2010-01-07 16:53:59] - Vinnie: I love how sometimes it sounds straight out of a Shakespeare play, and other times it's like they kinda gave up, "Yea, well, that be, forsooth, thy opinion, sir."
-Paul[2010-01-07 12:10:31] - WALTER Didst thou attend the Knave’s tragic history, Sir Donald? DONALD Nay, good Sir Walter, I was a-bowling. WALTER Thou attend’st not; and so thou hast no frame of reference. - vinnie
[2010-01-07 11:53:36] - vinnie: wow that's pretty good! - aaron
[2010-01-07 11:34:50] - http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/ lebowski as a shakespearean play - vinnie
[2010-01-07 09:21:38] - Vinnie: You should give Diplomacy another try. Maybe you'll luck out and not border me next time so you'll have longer to backstab your ally.
-Paul[2010-01-07 09:20:54] - Stephen: I would be willing to help Gurkie out if she were interested in a game (ie, teach her the rules, tell her some common moves, warn her not to trust Aaron) or, if she would rather not play with the wiley folks, I would be interested in playing. -Paul
[2010-01-06 21:14:50] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI Star Wars: The phantom menace review. This is 70 minutes but it's really really funny - aaron
[2010-01-06 18:44:47] - gurkie: I don't think I can answer that. I guess there are two ways to find out. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-06 17:58:11] - oh! my beautiful link
- aaron[2010-01-06 17:57:39] - did anyone else know about this <a href="about:robots">firefox 3 easter egg</a>? i thought it was cute (the link will only work in firefox 3) - aaron
[2010-01-06 17:44:52] - xpovos: but you are honest about your attacks right? when I say care bear I dont mean never attack people, I dont even necessarily mean never back stab people just ... less tricksy about it or something
maybe less devious minded? Am I insulting you or complimenting you I cant tell... ~gurkie[2010-01-06 17:18:51] - I think mig will attest that I'm not a care-bear, but I think he and aaron will conspire and agree that if I backstab you, you're probably going to survive. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-06 16:54:53] - I don't think I'm a care bear, I will backstab people, but I think I'm also too trusting in diplomacy and get backstabbed before I get the chance to backstab back - vinnie
[2010-01-06 16:28:07] - people I currently decisively consider not care bears - Paul, Aaron, and Miguel... Sorry boys... I dont trust you... I can see Vinnie being a dangerous opponent cause he is good at gathering trust... And he is also wiley! ~gurkie
[2010-01-06 16:25:08] - like Paul said I would be interested if it were a group of care bears, cause I have no clue how to play really... Just what I hear you all talking about... but if there is a big old group without me then thats fine too cause I dont get much free time on travel and dont know how long I will be on travel. ~gurkie
[2010-01-06 15:52:32] - daniel: it reminded me of that simpsons when bart steals the foreman's megaphone, and he's ordering the construction workers around: "you! spin around in circles. you! dump cement on that porta potty" - aaron
[2010-01-06 15:51:20] - daniel: ah, you're referring to the legendary British opening of F Edi -> Nth, F Lon -> Nth, A Lvp -> Edi? - aaron
[2010-01-06 15:27:50] - a: only two, with one of those two being several new people who are experimenting to learn the rules. -Daniel
[2010-01-06 15:25:09] - a: no -Daniel
[2010-01-06 15:20:46] - daniel: aren't you already in like eight games? - aaron
[2010-01-06 15:15:01] - I could be in for another game. Not sure if I count as a care bear or if yall have 7 of the regular peeps interested but thought I would throw my name out there. Diplomacy is fun. -Daniel
[2010-01-06 14:59:54] - I see. Alright, then pencil me in as interested. I've had my break. -- Xpovos
[2010-01-06 14:55:10] - Xpovos: No, we just felt like starting another game. - Stephen
[2010-01-06 14:55:02] - stephen: yeah cmon i've been a good bear this game, i didn't even leave my cave until 1904, and that was just to visit my bear buddies in greece - aaron
[2010-01-06 14:54:48] - Stephen: Did a I miss a draw proposal? -- Xpovos
[2010-01-06 14:53:47] - paul: hmm, maybe because BMP is a windows proprietary format or something? obviously if there was a format specific to one OS, it would be annoying if browsers supported it since it inherently make web windows-centric - aaron
[2010-01-06 14:51:47] - Paul: Aarie Bear will be playing. He cares a lot! - Stephen
[2010-01-06 14:50:30] - Stephen: Depending on who the other players are, I know Gurkie was interested in trying out the game with a group of care bears. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:49:55] - Aaron: That's true, you're right, complaining to get a company to make their product more convenient is worthwhile. I'm just not sure how allowing bitmaps to be displayed (which was the original argument) is inconvenient. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:44:53] - Anyone up for starting another Diplomacy game? We've got a couple interested right now. - Stephen
[2010-01-06 14:42:26] - a: Like computer manufacturers or movie producers? I think that's a perfect illustration of my point. Somehow the computer and movie industry survives without a ton of chaos despite there not being a clear market leader. Standards don't need to be forced upon companies from above, they should be able to develop mostly naturally. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:40:34] - Aaron: "microsoft/apple/sun/whomever declares all sorts of standards all the time" Right, and I think that generally works out. I just can't quite understand where standards come from EXCEPT for companies (or the government). -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:36:37] - paul: and like pierce pointed out, if the clear market leader decides to do something inconvenient, it's not silly to complain. it drove microsoft towards a more standards compliant browser in IE8, and that's a good thing - aaron
[2010-01-06 14:35:05] - what do we do if there is no clear market leader? ~a
[2010-01-06 14:34:47] - paul: well as far as "standards should come naturally", that's pretty much how it is, microsoft/apple/sun/whomever declares all sorts of standards all the time, people just ignore them
- aaron[2010-01-06 14:21:27] - Basically, it seems silly to me to complain that the clear market leader isn't follow the "standards". It would be like some random group complaining that smartphones shouldn't support applications because developers have to program them in different languages. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:18:08] - Aaron: If Microsoft thinks that web browsers should be able to display bitmaps and they have 64% of the market share, then I think that's more of a "standard" than if the w3c (with basically 0% of the marketshare) says web browsers shouldn't display bitmaps. -paul
[2010-01-06 14:16:02] - Aaron: My point is that standards should come naturally and shouldn't be handed down by some group that doesn't have any real power in the industry. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:13:58] - Aaron: Besides, the analogy between different versions of HDMI should be applied to different versions of IE and I think the analogy is fairly accurate. If a webpage works in one version of IE, then it's a good bet that it will mostly work on another version of IE although it may have small problems. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:11:59] - Aaron: I'm not sure of the specifics, but I know I ran into an issue once where audio wasn't being transmitted over an HDMI cable because of some kind of specification difference. -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:05:59] - a: Fair enough, but isn't it also likely a sign that the internet won't end if companies don't listen to groups like the w3c? -Paul
[2010-01-06 14:01:40] - all, i'm off to the rockies. see you guys at the jammin java music club and cafe assuming i haven't broken anything. ~a
[2010-01-06 13:53:13] - title: "a player with a spoon is disqualified if another player recognizes and announces his or her use of a spoon." urbandictionary
~a[2010-01-06 13:51:18] - back in the 00s? you mean, like, one week ago?
~a[2010-01-06 13:48:35] - paul: i think most of us are just confused because it sounds like you're trying to argue a or b which are... like... provably false... that's why microsoft is migrating to crap like the ODF instead of its wacky proprietary stuff - aaron
[2010-01-06 13:46:16] - paul: and what's your point: that a. the internet would work better without standards or b. the internet would work the same without standards or c. the internet would work a little worse without standards? - aaron
[2010-01-06 13:45:30] - paul: and when do hdmi standards not work together? - aaron
[2010-01-06 13:44:55] - paul: http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx ? are you referring to hdmi 1.3 vs 1.3a and 1.3b? we're just talking about how you can hook a playstation up to a TV and set the playstation to "HDMI" and it works. back in the 90s/00s before the W3C standards, that wasn't true for browsers/web pages. even today adrian's had to switch banks (right?) cos of this - aaron
[2010-01-06 13:43:56] - paul: well as much as i hate to say this, things could be worse. microsoft potentially could say, instead of the <img> tag, we're going to call it the <image> tag. on the other hand, if microsoft followed the standards more than they do now, things would be MUCH easier for everyone and the web would be better for it. ~a
[2010-01-06 13:22:19] - a: If we did what? Consider IE6 and IE7 and Firefox and whatnot standards? I'm a little confused, are you saying we can't have Microsoft blatantly ignoring the w3c standards or else there will be chaos and nothing could get done? Because I thought Microsoft had already blatantly ignored the standards... -Paul
[2010-01-06 13:20:44] - Aaron: Sure, and there are also different HDMI standards as well. They mostly work together (just like IE) but sometimes they don't. -Paul
[2010-01-06 12:59:13] - does anybody remember reading an article about scientists controlling a mouse's brain by shining light on it? it was in the past year, it sounded really insane but i can't find the article anymore - aaron
[2010-01-06 11:33:15] - paul: yes, but if we did that, then we would have given up on interoperability. writing a webpage would become impossible. ~a
[2010-01-06 11:01:42] - paul: but i guess if you wanted you could say like, "IE 6.001 build 411" is a "standard" it's just not a very useful one - aaron
[2010-01-06 11:00:37] - paul: heh HDMI is a standard, IE6 isn't a "standard" because it changes in each edition of IE6
- aaron[2010-01-06 10:14:02] - Pierce: You could be right about the straw man, but does the w3c actually do anything other than make pronouncements about what internet standards should be (regardless of the reality of the matter)? It seems pretty ivory tower-ish to me. -Paul
[2010-01-06 10:07:51] - Pierce: I just think it's a little silly that, for all intents and purposes, there already existed a standard (IE had, and still has, a huge advantage in market share) and yet some group with presumably little to no power was trying to over-rule it. -Paul
[2010-01-06 10:05:36] - But I don't think that's definitively worse than having some group enforce a single new standard that was a more incremental improvement. -Paul
[2010-01-06 10:04:00] - Pierce: I guess it just depends on how much inconvenience we're personally willing to take on for the sake of advancement. Blu-ray and HD-DVD were two completely incompatible standards which screwed the people who chose to be early adopters who chose HD-DVD... -Paul
[2010-01-06 09:44:49] - a: Ok, so if HDMI and Component and everything else are standards, can't we just consider IE6 and IE7 and Firefox and Chrome standards? -Paul
[2010-01-06 02:35:00] - haha yeah go ahead. also, your maintenance skills from 11 are probably better than mine now. ~a
[2010-01-05 23:13:39] - a: i don't mind holding onto it. in fact if i get a spare moment and stop feeling crappy (i'm getting a cold or something) i may try to teach myself some cello. ^_^ if that's OK with you of course. i promise i've learned better cello maintenance skills since i was 11. -amy
[2010-01-05 20:18:13] - paul: much better would have been to come up with language solutions that were more conceptually and architecturally sound, designed around everyone's needs rather than just casual javascript developers. that's what a standards body is good at. - pierce
[2010-01-05 20:17:25] - paul: so microsoft's incentive to appeal to casual developers inspired them to add an ill-considered language element that resulted in many, many headaches as web applications became more advanced. the free market was good for IE and bad for almost everyone else in the long term. - pierce
[2010-01-05 20:14:42] - paul: look at IE's "document.all" collection, for example. amazingly useful for quickie scripts, which made IE an better browser for casual web developers. but its performance was terrible and it could lead to weird bugs because it was a one-dimensional view of a hierarchical document. - pierce
[2010-01-05 20:08:42] - paul: but where they have the advantage over free market solutions is that their organizational imperative is to come up with robust, extensible solutions rather than solving a specific short-term need of some particular company's users. - pierce
[2010-01-05 20:04:48] - paul: I think you set up a bit of a straw man with your "ivory tower" comment. sure, some things have been developed when the market really didn't have a place for it (I'm looking at you, VRML) but for the most part standards groups -- including the W3C -- try to develop the standards based on real needs that become apparent from real-world use. - pierce
[2010-01-05 20:01:30] - paul: it's not unlike biological evolution. offspring that break the "standard" (their genotype) too dramatically end up with developmental defects and are unable to reproduce. offspring with "compatible" beneficial mutations, on the other hand, end up influencing the "standard" but would not be viable without it. - pierce
[2010-01-05 19:56:37] - paul: "forcing conformity isn't an ideal? I don't see why it's a 'problem' that things progress and change..." it's a problem because without a baseline standard enforced by some mechanism (even if that mechanism is only peer pressure) we end up with varying incompatible implementations and more work and less reward for everyone. - pierce
[2010-01-05 19:18:27] - realistically though, like paul said earlier - nobody cares about "does this page match the standard", it's just "does this page work in browser X". that's why god created acid tests - aaron
[2010-01-05 19:17:11] - it's always firefox, and then sometimes they want IE too... i think miguel can probably share some heartache about trying to make a non-standards compliant browser play by the rules, but i've never been involved in that - aaron
[2010-01-05 19:15:07] - gurkie: i've never done commercial web page work, but the government always dictates which browsers we need to be compatible with and we just check against those - aaron
prev <-> next