Go links
We were talking about Go recently, and I realised I had a file sitting somewhere with some useful links in it - in particular I remembered igowin being good and useful for getting off the ground. So here it is again, back from 2005:
( Starting out with Go )
( Starting out with Go )The meaning of "knowledge"
Hypothetical:
In Town X, a burglary is reported to the police. They investigate, and their investigation leads to Bob, who has previous convictions for that sort of thing. They find the stolen goods at Bob's house, Bob is questioned, he confesses, it goes to trial, Bob pleads guilty, the jury is convinced by the evidence, and Bob is sentenced accordingly.
In fact, Bob had not committed the burglary. In fact, he had a provable alibi - he was out committing another burglary (of equivalent severity) elsewhere in town at the time. The original burglary was done by a friend of his, and he was just storing the goods at his house. Given that demonstrating his alibi wouldn't have saved him any prison time, and would have involved fingering his accomplices (which would have damaged his standing in the criminal underworld), he felt that the simplest thing to do was to take the rap for the original burglary.
This is all to illustrate a philosophical point about the word "know" (and "knowledge" etc). A poll:
(ETA Note that the previous convictions don't count when I'm asking whether the legal system knew Bob had committed burglary... I meant to ask "...committed burglary on that day" or something similar. This ETA is before anyone but me has answered this, so all the results reflect this ETA)
( poll under cut )
In Town X, a burglary is reported to the police. They investigate, and their investigation leads to Bob, who has previous convictions for that sort of thing. They find the stolen goods at Bob's house, Bob is questioned, he confesses, it goes to trial, Bob pleads guilty, the jury is convinced by the evidence, and Bob is sentenced accordingly.
In fact, Bob had not committed the burglary. In fact, he had a provable alibi - he was out committing another burglary (of equivalent severity) elsewhere in town at the time. The original burglary was done by a friend of his, and he was just storing the goods at his house. Given that demonstrating his alibi wouldn't have saved him any prison time, and would have involved fingering his accomplices (which would have damaged his standing in the criminal underworld), he felt that the simplest thing to do was to take the rap for the original burglary.
This is all to illustrate a philosophical point about the word "know" (and "knowledge" etc). A poll:
(ETA Note that the previous convictions don't count when I'm asking whether the legal system knew Bob had committed burglary... I meant to ask "...committed burglary on that day" or something similar. This ETA is before anyone but me has answered this, so all the results reflect this ETA)
( poll under cut )Chomsky was wrong!
There's a classic example sentence he has, "Colourless[1] green ideas sleep furiously", which he holds up as an example of grammatical gibberish, and the contrasting "furiously sleep ideas green colourless", which is an example of ungrammatical gibberish. The difference between nonsense and word salad, if you like.
However, I've realised that you can add punctuation, and get "Furiously sleep ideas green, Colourless!", which is grammatical, and you could even imaging a hypothetical scenario for it. That scenario would probably be an MMO, a bit like World of Warcraft. The interpretation goes as follows:
"sleep" has a transitive sense, meaning "to cast a sleep spell on". Once you know this it's obvious that the sentence is an imperative sentence, and everything else falls into place quite quickly. To sleep ideas green is presumably to repeatedly cast the sleep spell on the ideas (presumably mobs called "ideas" - stranger things exist in WoW) until they turn green - after all, you can shout yourself hoarse. Presumably this is best done in a furious manner. And, well, people can have all sorts of bonkers handles in MMOs, so Colourless is not nearly as crazy as some I've seen.
In fact this all feels less strained than coming up with a good scenario for the allegedly more grammatical reverse statement.
[1] This was probably actually "colorless", but whatever...
However, I've realised that you can add punctuation, and get "Furiously sleep ideas green, Colourless!", which is grammatical, and you could even imaging a hypothetical scenario for it. That scenario would probably be an MMO, a bit like World of Warcraft. The interpretation goes as follows:
"sleep" has a transitive sense, meaning "to cast a sleep spell on". Once you know this it's obvious that the sentence is an imperative sentence, and everything else falls into place quite quickly. To sleep ideas green is presumably to repeatedly cast the sleep spell on the ideas (presumably mobs called "ideas" - stranger things exist in WoW) until they turn green - after all, you can shout yourself hoarse. Presumably this is best done in a furious manner. And, well, people can have all sorts of bonkers handles in MMOs, so Colourless is not nearly as crazy as some I've seen.
In fact this all feels less strained than coming up with a good scenario for the allegedly more grammatical reverse statement.
[1] This was probably actually "colorless", but whatever...
Books (well, book)
Newton and the Counterfeiter, Thomas Levenson
Some nice light historical reading, the nonfictional counterpart to Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle, but one sensible-sized paperback and not three bricks. The counterfeiter is William Chaloner, who seemed to have amazing amounts of chutzpah and persistence, and kept coming up with all sorts of crazy criminal schemes.
One interesting thing seems to be that hunting counterfeiters was something that Newton needed to be pushed into. His post as Warden of the Mint was a sinecure, and it was a bit of a surprise to all concerned when he actually applied himself to the problem of getting the mint to run at the capacity needed to recoin all the silver in circulation. However, during this someone pointed out that the Warden was meant to be in charge of investigating and prosecuting counterfeiters - this was something Newton didn't want to do, but his arm was twisted, and he turned out to be good at it.
Some nice light historical reading, the nonfictional counterpart to Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle, but one sensible-sized paperback and not three bricks. The counterfeiter is William Chaloner, who seemed to have amazing amounts of chutzpah and persistence, and kept coming up with all sorts of crazy criminal schemes.
One interesting thing seems to be that hunting counterfeiters was something that Newton needed to be pushed into. His post as Warden of the Mint was a sinecure, and it was a bit of a surprise to all concerned when he actually applied himself to the problem of getting the mint to run at the capacity needed to recoin all the silver in circulation. However, during this someone pointed out that the Warden was meant to be in charge of investigating and prosecuting counterfeiters - this was something Newton didn't want to do, but his arm was twisted, and he turned out to be good at it.
Headphone cable
I've got a nice set of expensive headphones, with a problem - the left headphone has gone very quiet. They're not cheap to replace, but they do have a detachable cable, so I suspect the problem might be with that. Before I go and buy one, does anyone have a headphone cable I could borrow for diagnostic purposes?
(no subject)
Units quiz
It's a BBC science quiz - I got 9/9, although some of those were intelligent (or lucky) guesses or deduction-by-elimination rather than by directly knowing the right answer.
It's a BBC science quiz - I got 9/9, although some of those were intelligent (or lucky) guesses or deduction-by-elimination rather than by directly knowing the right answer.
Dimensions in popular culture
No, not alternate realities, actual dimensions of things. A 2x4 is useful for hitting people with, and of course everyone should know the significance of 1x4x9. But surely there are others that I can't think of...
ETA: OK, there are lots of things which are kind of one dimensional. But how about things which are 2D or 3D like the examples above (or tim's example)?
ETA: OK, there are lots of things which are kind of one dimensional. But how about things which are 2D or 3D like the examples above (or tim's example)?
(no subject)
Poll #4686 Equality and Hierarchy
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19
A has authority over B. Can C interact with both A and B as equals?
View Answers
yes
7 (36.8%)
no
0 (0.0%)
sort of
1 (5.3%)
maybe
5 (26.3%)
under some circumstances
13 (68.4%)
other (please comment)
0 (0.0%)
I have some nifty maths about (in)equality which I will explain in a comment
0 (0.0%)
lowercase tickybox
0 (0.0%)
Imagine the scene...
...adrift at sea, nothing but ocean all the way to the horizon in every direction, no supplies, no hope of rescue, not even a proper lifeboat, just some driftwood lashed together, and only a distinctly taciturn Protoss for company.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you Stark Raft.
(or maybe not, actually writing the story would be too much like effort)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you Stark Raft.
(or maybe not, actually writing the story would be too much like effort)
(no subject)
Woman repels bear armed only with a courgette - you know you're a geek when you think "thank $DEITY the bear only had a courgette. If it was armed with a chainsaw there'd be real trouble"
(no subject)
Happy birthday ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emperor!
Which reminds me, equinox tomorrow. I looked it up, it's at 03:09 UTC, which I guess is when the sun checks into the southern hemisphere, somewhere to the east of Indonesia, I think. Or in less anthropomorphic, geocentric terms, when the equator crosses the line from the centre of the sun to the centre of the Earth, with the intersection being somewhere to the east of Indonesia.
Anyway, the rate at which the days (in the (shrinking regions of the) northern hemisphere (where they still have days)) will be getting shorter will start slowing down, so we have that to celebrate. Or if you like darkness, it's soon going to be the dark half of the year. Either way, it's good news.
emperor!Which reminds me, equinox tomorrow. I looked it up, it's at 03:09 UTC, which I guess is when the sun checks into the southern hemisphere, somewhere to the east of Indonesia, I think. Or in less anthropomorphic, geocentric terms, when the equator crosses the line from the centre of the sun to the centre of the Earth, with the intersection being somewhere to the east of Indonesia.
Anyway, the rate at which the days (in the (shrinking regions of the) northern hemisphere (where they still have days)) will be getting shorter will start slowing down, so we have that to celebrate. Or if you like darkness, it's soon going to be the dark half of the year. Either way, it's good news.
Le Sigh
BBC News: Pontiff in pontificating shock!
What gets me is the intellecutal level of the whole Nazi insinuation thing. Things like that are the kind of low-grade tedious nonsense you expect from Christian Unions[1] and debating societies[2], you would have thought that a big hitter like, you know, the Pope, especially one with a reputation for being a bit of a bookworm, would have some fresh and original way to insult us, but no. The Muslims get quotes carefully recovered from dusty old books by obscure Byzantine emperors[3], we get tired old Nazi jibes. Talk about a lack of respect.
Of course, this being the BBC News website, it is possible that the Pope had been grossly misrepresented and he actually did say something subtle and profound. But I doubt it somehow.
[1] I've heard this line myself when I was dragged along to a CICCU mission once, and I've heard other people report that when they went along to one years later.
[2] I'm making this up. I don't actually have that much experience of debating societies, I'm speaking from pure prejudice here.
[3] It suddenly occurs to me that I'm implying that this is "fresh and original".
What gets me is the intellecutal level of the whole Nazi insinuation thing. Things like that are the kind of low-grade tedious nonsense you expect from Christian Unions[1] and debating societies[2], you would have thought that a big hitter like, you know, the Pope, especially one with a reputation for being a bit of a bookworm, would have some fresh and original way to insult us, but no. The Muslims get quotes carefully recovered from dusty old books by obscure Byzantine emperors[3], we get tired old Nazi jibes. Talk about a lack of respect.
Of course, this being the BBC News website, it is possible that the Pope had been grossly misrepresented and he actually did say something subtle and profound. But I doubt it somehow.
[1] I've heard this line myself when I was dragged along to a CICCU mission once, and I've heard other people report that when they went along to one years later.
[2] I'm making this up. I don't actually have that much experience of debating societies, I'm speaking from pure prejudice here.
[3] It suddenly occurs to me that I'm implying that this is "fresh and original".
Nostalgia, yet not nostalgia
Co-operative Starcraft II, with friends. Just like the old days, but with shinier graphics, and some different units.
I'd been missing that for a long time.
I'd been missing that for a long time.
A startling comparison
From a BBC News story on book burning
On a personal level, we are forever being asked to name our favourite book, and the answer is considered a guide to someone's identity, as reliable as knowing their favourite colour or their star-sign. This might work if the answer is Mein Kampf or Lord of the Rings, but otherwise is pretty sketchy.
(no subject)
Cambridge (UK): Fine in summer, but miserably damp and cold in winter says the BBC.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16
Cambridge is:
View Answers
Fine in summer
11 (68.8%)
Miserably damp in winter
4 (25.0%)
Miserably cold in winter
7 (43.8%)
I wouldn't know, I don't live there
2 (12.5%)
None of the above
1 (6.2%)
Tickybox
4 (25.0%)
A poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13
When angry, it is better to:
A surprising comparison
I've been having some tooth woes lately, which I hope to solve finally with a tooth extraction on Tuesday. When talking about my woes, I've heard some surprising comparisons be made. So, a poll which very few of you can answer:
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2
For those that have experienced both, which is worse?
A cross-stich finish
My main project is taking a long time, so I thought I'd do a side project or two to remind myself what a finish feels like.
( Photo behind cut )
Hmmm, I guess the next thing is for me to design something.
( Photo behind cut )Hmmm, I guess the next thing is for me to design something.