380 strips to go, 443 pages

[Zmeoaice]

According to this twitter post (https://twitter.com/RichBurlew/status/435632537323335680), we're 71.34502% done with the story. There have been 1104.25 online pages, and we still have 1547 pages, which leaves ~443 pages left.

We still have 2 more books to go, and it means that they will be an average of 190 strips each, or 222 strips, which seems pretty reasonable. The books would (page wise) be smaller than WXP, DSTP, and definitely the newest book, but larger than DCF and NCFPB.

EDIT: I re-checked and there appears to be 1107.25 strips, meaning that the numbers of strips left would be ~444.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

According to this twitter post (https://twitter.com/RichBurlew/status/435632537323335680), we're 71.34502% done with the story. There have been 1104.25 online pages, and we still have 1547 pages, which leaves 443 pages left.

We still have 2 more books to go, and it means that they will be an average of 190 strips each, or 222 strips, which seems pretty reasonable. The books would (page wise) be smaller than WXP, DSTP, and definitely the newest book, but larger than DCF and NCFPB.
Nice numbers. However, I don't really think the Giant has planned out exactly how many strips are left, and probably was saying that we have seen 5 books out of 7 (71.4285%, very close to the number he gave), reaffirming what we already knew.

Of course, your numbers make for pretty good ballpark estimates. Nice job. :smallsmile:

[NerdyKris]

He got the number by dividing 5 books by 7 total.

It's a little silly to take that to mean a specific number of pages, as


Book 5 is double the size of other books anyways
He's stated that Book 7 might be "telephone book sized if needed", meaning he has no idea how many pages would be in it.


Especially since he doesn't have the story plotted out by page.

[Rakoa]

He did mention that 7 books would be the course of the story. He also mentioned that he would ensure this is so, even if the final book is the size of a phone book.

[orrion]

If he knew exactly how many strips would be left there would be no need for the current hiatus to work out the specifics and start the dialogue for the next book.

[Fan67]

I think it is plot estimation rather than strip count.
It is hard to imagine this epic story to wrap up in 3 hundred strips.

[Sunken Valley]

But if we take a 15% "Burlew Tax" and add it to the total 1326 strips we get 1525 strips in total. A more realistic estimate.

[orrion]

But if we take a 15% "Burlew Tax" and add it to the total 1326 strips we get 1525 strips in total. A more realistic estimate.

Or everyone could just realize the Giant was giving a non-answer by just dividing 5 by 7, and that all this manipulation of the percentage answer is completely worthless.

[Porthos]

Or everyone could just realize the Giant was giving a non-answer by just dividing 5 by 7, and that all this manipulation of the percentage answer is completely worthless.

Where's the fun in that? :smalltongue:

[Sharoth]

I say that we just divide everything by zero.

[Porthos]

I say that we just divide everything by zero.

:roach:: How do you think the Snarl was really created?

[DeliaP]

Or everyone could just realize the Giant was giving a non-answer by just dividing 5 by 7, and that all this manipulation of the percentage answer is completely worthless.

Sorry, I just think the Giant is a much better writer than that. :smallwink:

[Porthos]

Sorry, I just think the Giant is a much better writer than that. :smallwink:

What you did there, I see.
/Yoda

:smallwink:

[Venedlor]

How do we know that the Giant did not throw a pair of percentage dice and read off the number??:confused:

[zimmerwald1915]

How do we know that the Giant did not throw a pair of percentage dice and read off the number??:confused:
d100s don't give non-natural-number results.

[DeliaP]

d100s don't give non-natural-number results.

Yours don't??? :smallwink:

[Dracon1us]

I say that we just divide everything by zero.

I second that

[Copperdragon]

I second that

Yes, but the sad thing is... you can't.

[orrion]

How do we know that the Giant did not throw a pair of percentage dice and read off the number??:confused:

Since the point is that it was a non-answer and rolling percentage dice that came up the same number and then saying that would also be a non-answer it really doesn't matter.

[littlebum2002]

Think about it this way:

After J.K. Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she cold have completely told the truth and said that you had already read 42.86% of the story. But considering how much larger the last books were, that would have told you effectively nothing useful.

[FrankLuke]

:roach:: How do you think the Snarl was really created?

It's obvious. The Dean stuck his fingers in Ponder's experiment. Or maybe when Hex tried to divide by cucumber.

Wait, wrong universe.

[breathandpaper]

It's obvious. The Dean stuck his fingers in Ponder's experiment. Or maybe when Hex tried to divide by cucumber.

Wait, wrong universe.

Is that... Is that DISCWORLD? C=

The fandoms intersect, at last.:smallsmile: OotS and discworld have so much in common!

[Sylthia]

I thought that percentage seemed oddly precise.

[R. Malcovitch]

Yes, but the sad thing is... you can't.

But what would happen if we did?

Looking at my Computer Architecture notes, a simple way of handling binary division is to use two registers: remainder, which doubles as dividend, and divisor, which is going to be zero here. For the dividend, we'll use eleven, aka 1011. This is four bit division, so R will be an 8 bit register and the algorithim will iterate 4 times.


R: 0000 1011
D: 0000 First step: shift R left one bit.

R: 0001 0110Subtract D from the left half of R. Store that into the left half of R.
1 - 0 = 1
R: 0001 0110Test R for >= 0. >, so shift R left and set it's new bit to 1.
R: 0010 1101 Repeat for a total of 4 goes around. goes = 1.

Shift R left, and subtract D from left half. The latter is an irrelevant step in dividing by zero.
R: 0101 1010 Left half positive, so SLL and ++.
R: 1011 0101 Goes = 2.

Shift R left.
0110 1010 R >= 0, so SLL,++
1101 0101 Goes: 3
Shift R left
1101 0100 Leading bit is 1, so R < 0. Now, we negate the subtraction we ignored by adding D to R, but once again since D is 0 that can be ignored too. SLL R, but this time don't add 1.
1010 1000 Goes = 4

Finished with loop. Shift the left half of R right one bit.
0101 1000
We're done. The right half of R is the quotient, the left half is the remainder. Thus, a hypothetical 11/0 = 8 remainder 5.

[Jay R]

Where's the fun in that? :smalltongue:

Learning the truth has a fun nothing else can match.

[Quild]

The estimated number of strips left is is a terrible new that I was trying to forget.

In 2013, there were 70 strips. Which may be over average in part due to the KS reward.

So, if everything goes smoothly and we have let say 50-60 strips a year, we may have only 7 years of comics left.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

[brionl]

The estimated number of strips left is is a terrible new that I was trying to forget.

In 2013, there were 70 strips. Which may be over average in part due to the KS reward.


There were only 70 because of the extended convalescence after his hand injury. 946 Strips over ten years is just over 90 per year.

[orrion]

The estimated number of strips left is is a terrible new that I was trying to forget.

In 2013, there were 70 strips. Which may be over average in part due to the KS reward.

So, if everything goes smoothly and we have let say 50-60 strips a year, we may have only 7 years of comics left.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

You meant under average due to the KS rewards, right? I mean, the fact that because of the Giant's injury the other things he needed to attend to piled up. Not to mention that the injury kept him from producing comics at a regular pace for a very long while, even if he did manage the 9 strip run that was a Kickstarter promise.

[David Argall]

The estimated number of strips left is is a terrible new that I was trying to forget.

In 2013, there were 70 strips. Which may be over average in part due to the KS reward.

So, if everything goes smoothly and we have let say 50-60 strips a year, we may have only 7 years of comics left.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Don't panic yet. Soon after the strip acquired a plot, it was estimated it would last 5 years. Now 10 years later, we still have 5 years to go.

[Jay R]

d100s don't give non-natural-number results.

That's because you're only rolling them a finite number of times. You can roll pi, or the square root of three; it just takes longer.

[Targ Collective]

I would gently point out that discussion of strip regularity is strictly forbidden here, and would advise caution.

[orrion]

I would gently point out that discussion of strip regularity is strictly forbidden here, and would advise caution.

If the thread wasn't locked in the month that it existed before the forums were updated then I'd hazard the guess that the thread isn't crossing any huge lines. It's not really discussing "strip regularity," anyway. It's trying to guesstimate how many strips are left until the end. An exercise in futility, sure, but nothing more.


Also, since when did "guesstimate" become a word that no longer gets flagged as a misspelling?

[zimmerwald1915]

Also, since when did "guesstimate" become a word that no longer gets flagged as a misspelling?
When a fan of the word started working at the company that made your word processor/browser/mobile browser/whatever vehicle you're using to write your posts.