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Thread: xkcd

  1. - Top - End - #211
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: xkcd

    Quote Originally Posted by Rockphed View Post
    Which one tried to visit the red star and came back mostly dead as a result?
    F'lar was the one who always knew Thread was coming back and made a series of seemingly crazy moves on the basis of that faith. That's the first half of Dragonriders of Pern. F'lar's conviction that Thread was the greatest threat to the world, in the face of a society that had grown complacent about Thread, fits the xkcd comic to a tee.

    By contrast, F'nor was always driven by personal loyalties--to F'lar, and later to Brekke. F'nor's trip to the Red Star in Dragonquest occurs under significantly different circumstances: everyone knows Thread is a threat, and indeed the Lord Holders are pressuring the dragonriders to go fight Thread on the Red Star out of frustration and fear due to Thread deviating from its established patterns. F'nor, already at a personal low after what happened to Brekke, knowing that Lessa fears F'lar plans to go to the Red Star, anticipating an eventual ultimatum from the Lord Holders (especially after the meeting with Lord Meron), decides in the heat of a momentary discovery to go to the Red Star himself--a reckless act by a man too little concerned with his own survival, but not one born of Thread zealotry.

    I agree that of the pair, F'nor has the single flashiest action related to Thread, which is why he might be considered the bigger Thread zealot, but that doesn't mean he was.
    Last edited by Lethologica; 2017-09-24 at 12:49 AM.

  2. - Top - End - #212
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    Default Re: xkcd

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
    No, that was F'nor and Canth. It's what snapped Brekke out of her fugue after her "accident"
    I am terrible with names, it was certainly brown Canth and his rider, I'm confused about which rider is his, I suspect you're right, but I can't be certain.
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    Quote Originally Posted by halfeye View Post
    I am terrible with names, it was certainly brown Canth and his rider, I'm confused about which rider is his, I suspect you're right, but I can't be certain.
    Wikipedia says it was F'nor.

  4. - Top - End - #214
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    Default Re: xkcd

    This might be helpful on some strips: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

    I end up checking it every two or three weeks to make sure I understand one of the strips.
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  5. - Top - End - #215
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    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    This might be helpful on some strips: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

    I end up checking it every two or three weeks to make sure I understand one of the strips.
    Yes. That's were I found the link I just posted. I wasn't familiar with the Dragonriders of Pern books, so I used the Explain XKCD site to figure things out.

  6. - Top - End - #216
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    Default Re: xkcd

    FWIW, and I guess this was already known, but my position was that F'lar was the more appropriate reference even though F'nor went to the Red Star in Dragonquest.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    FWIW, and I guess this was already known, but my position was that F'lar was the more appropriate reference even though F'nor went to the Red Star in Dragonquest.
    It has been 12 - 15 years since I read any of those novels. I think Dragonquest was almost the last one I got around to reading, but I'm not really sure. I suppose I should have remembered that since F'lessan is a person in the later books that F'lar is the one who takes an active role in saving the world from the thread.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wardog View Post
    Rockphed said it well.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spojaz View Post
    A kill screen counts as victory. You Win!
    That game is great, especially with the mod that upgrades the AI.
    Man, I love(d) that game. It's a shame nobody picked it up or made a flash game or anything. But then, I honestly can't see me micro manage more than 256 planets so I don't quite see the problem with the bug.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kato View Post
    Man, I love(d) that game. It's a shame nobody picked it up or made a flash game or anything. But then, I honestly can't see me micro manage more than 256 planets so I don't quite see the problem with the bug.
    It got a re-release for iPhone a few years back, but that's it. Personally, I don't try to manage 250+ planets either, I pick like five good ones and let the AI auto-manage the rest for me. It loves anti-invasion turrets way too much, but isn't awful otherwise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    This might be helpful on some strips: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
    .

    Thanks for the link!

    I haven't been able to read any strips at xkcd.com on my phone for a month now (it just goes "Webpage not available").

    Having something that reprints them is great!
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2D8HP View Post
    Thanks for the link!

    I haven't been able to read any strips at xkcd.com on my phone for a month now (it just goes "Webpage not available").

    Having something that reprints them is great!
    I don't understand why, but it does the same thing on my ten-years-old iMac but not on my PC or others' PCs.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tetrimino View Post
    I've found that games designed in the 90's, or any others designed to be usable with a 16 bit operating system, are difficult to use on a 64 bit OS. I read somewhere that this is because you generally can't run programs more than one "bit level" behind your OS. So 16 bit programs won't work on a 64 bit OS, 8 bit programs won't work an a 32 bit OS, etc.
    That's not what I'm doing. I'm running games designed to work with a 16-bit OS with 32-bit extensions on an 16-bit OS with 32-bit extensions that's running on a 32-bit CPU that happens to exist only in a 64-bit machine's imagination.
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    Hey, compare that to a 64-bit extension to a 32-bit graphical extension to a 16 bit OS running on an 8 bit microprocessor that was itself an extension to a 4 bit processor, all done by a 2 bit company that can't stand one bit of competition.

    Sigh.

    Remember: Ibm went with the 8086 because it was cheap, because it only had 4 registers when a major proof had just recently shown that your compiler cannot use more than 3 registers without doing data flow analysis(*), which at the time was only done by high-end, expensive compilers (never mind that the Gnu compiler was doing data-flow for free next year). So Ibm figured that 3 general purpose registers, and one math register, was all you could do for cheap while supporting compiled languages.

    Oh yea -- they thought it was compatible with CP/M. They didn't understand that you had to re-assemble your CP/M programs with a new assembler on this new system. Which in turn required that the source code still exist, the company still exist, etc.

    (*): But, even that was mis-understood. Yes, you *could* get by with only 3 registers. Just like you can program the x86 with only one instruction (**). That does not mean that you might not be able to get a better program with more, even without a data-flow analysis. It's like HP saying that a 4 element RPN stack is more than sufficient for any math problem -- they're right, technically 3 is sufficient. But the way most people approach problems, you need at least 4, and a 5th would be nice.

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    1906
    This is pretty much me every day.
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    If you phrase it like this it does sound kinda cool.
    Like some freaky superpower.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tetrimino View Post
    1906
    This is pretty much me every day.
    Also: Jay-Z.








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    #1917

    I like how the title text says "I want to be friends at you"
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    Arise, my pet, and behold!

    https://xkcd.com/1922/

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    I always imagined beret person is a woman.
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    So, following xkcd's advice, I'm going to put solar panels on my underground supervillain lair.
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Campbell View Post
    So, following xkcd's advice, I'm going to put solar panels on my underground supervillain lair.
    Wait, your underground supervillain lair is sunlit?
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    Rockphed said it well.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rockphed View Post
    Wait, your underground supervillain lair is sunlit?
    Sunlit? That's not in the flowchart, so surely it can't be important?
    Yes, I am slightly egomaniac. Why didn't you ask?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cazero View Post
    Sunlit? That's not in the flowchart, so surely it can't be important?
    I think that violated the "empty space nearby where its easier to put them" rule actually. How does one even put something on the outside of an underground structure?
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    Isnt the outside of an underground structure synonymous with 'the surface'?

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Isnt the outside of an underground structure synonymous with 'the surface'?
    Or, in this context "the sunnyside of the volcano"
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cazero View Post
    Sunlit? That's not in the flowchart, so surely it can't be important?
    You're right. It is in the alt-text.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wardog View Post
    Rockphed said it well.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Starfall
    When your pants are full of crickets, you don't need mnemonics.
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  27. - Top - End - #237
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    Damn, Randall, you tear jerking bastard...
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    I will freely admit to tearing up just a little. Good for them.

  29. - Top - End - #239
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    Darn it Randall, leave my heartstrings alone!
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  30. - Top - End - #240
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    Still the most tear-jerking XKCD in my opinion:

    https://xkcd.com/104/
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