@Bcyy

It's of course my choice to share my profession: I'm sure a little googling will find me without trouble. The idea is not so disturbing to me however. Don't waste time feeling guilty about your choice!

I'm on my phone so will just answer your questions quickly. The first is a deep problem known as the continuum hypothesis. It's the first of Hilbert's problems and is worth a million dollars. Unfortunately, it has been proven that a proof doesn't exist in a standard form of math.

Calculus of variations can handle your second problem, no worries: look up Lagrange multiplier.

Happy to answer any further questions, hope the above help.

C-Star
Fri Sep 14 15:35:48 2012
General Chat

Wow... I haven't the slightest clue what any of that meant :-o

bcyy
Fri Sep 14 14:13:11 2012
General Chat

@Glen:

Oh, and I nearly forgot, if I have an arbitrary functional F=F(t,g,dg/dt), where g=g(t), is there any way to analytically solve for g(t) such that F is maximized under the constraint that {g(t) integrated from 0 to 1} equals 1?

I know that once the constraint is removed, calculus of variations (Euler-Lagrange equation) gives the g(t) which would either maximize or minimize F, but I don't know if something similar could be done *with* the constraint.

By the way, these are just a few fun things I thought up, nothing to do with the progress of mankind, so no need to spend too much time on it if the answers are not intuitive to you.

Thanks again!

bcyy
Fri Sep 14 13:52:17 2012
General Chat

@Glen:

A mathematician? Great!

I've been having a bit of a disagreement with a few of my buddies over whether there could exist a cardinality larger than aleph 0 but smaller than aleph 1. I remember from one of my undergrad classes that it can be proven that no such cardinality exists, but couldn't find my notes. Could you help me out on this one? Thanks!

Being a mathematician used to be my dream in high school, but after a not-so-good score on my entrance exam, my undergrad institution informed me that I didn't qualify to be one. Sorry I can't tell you what I work on in reciprocation - if I did, I would have posted more than enough constraints for a dedicated googler to find out who I am.

@C-Star:

Good luck with your future rolls. I know how it feels - I only ever had to roll once, and it was a failed roll.

By the way, for both our sakes, let's hope it's a SKILL roll, not a LUCK one. LUCK decreases for every roll, and rarely gets replenished if you keep failing the rolls...

MB
Fri Sep 14 09:14:28 2012
General Chat

Hi! Thought I should write something here after checking this guestbook quite often for the last months. I've played some of the adventures and all praise to the authors who put down lot of time and effort.

I liked Grekgun a lot, very well-written adventure and I always like the feeling I get from these winter worlds with ice caves and stuff. Allibor's Tomb was fun, but maybe a little too difficult for my patience with all the instant death paragraphs that comes without any warning. Managed to beat it with some cheating though. Guess House of Horror or Curse of Drumer is up next for me since I liked House of Hell.

C-Star
Thu Sep 13 15:54:01 2012
General Chat

Yeah, I agree with that. There's a difference between messing around and straight out abuse! The tone of voice used and the current situation and context are important to help distinguish between the two. You certainly don't want to sound too angry or serious when you're not consciously trying to hurt anyone. Which you really never should be!

The complex workings of the human mind have always intrigued me. I doubt I'll ever understand it or have the patience to actually try, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

@Glen

Researcher in mathematics, eh? Sounds well paid :-D Doesn't exactly sound like an easy job to get either. What do you do for work?

Robert Douglas
Thu Sep 13 08:59:43 2012
General Chat

I think it's how it's said rather than what's been said. If someone (a stranger) in the public library sneers something like: 'Huh! Look at that 'im on that computer - is he a nerd or something?' and then you might have a bit of cheeky ribbing from a friend: 'Ah, so you're into computers, eh? Bit of a nerd, are you?'

It all depends on tone and context. Working in a factory one time, one of my colleagues said something and the other responded a bit sharply. The first then said: 'Oh well, if you're going to take offence...' then the second colleague replied: 'It's how you dish it out, mate!'

Often, I've had employees have a bit of a go because I'm a new starter. Often, it's their method in weighing people up: have a bit of a laugh but don't be too hasty to appease them, come back with something a bit witty but don't take offence too easily at a couple of friendly jibes. However, you still have to watch for those who tend to dominate the workplace, think they're in charge (when really they're not), and boss and bully their colleagues around, that kind of thing.

Still, it all makes for good material when writing. Some characters have a sense of balance when socializing, many can be prone to little tweaks of temper, others are emotional time-bombs. In TCOD

SPOILER

END SPOILER

Glen
Wed Sep 12 21:14:42 2012
General Chat

Just for the record, I'm a researcher in mathematics, around 30. I don't like labels like nerd or egghead or whatever, and although I love my job, I also have a family and love sport. I'm far from alone also. These labels can have lasting negative social impact; it is almost always better to use more precise descriptions (say: he likes math instead of he is a ners/geek/etc).

C-Star
Wed Sep 12 19:21:55 2012
General Chat

Yeah but at least there's no trolling on this guestbook! Silver lining guys :-D

While Final Fantasy is a bit of a factor in this site's anonymity (no offense to the poor webmaster! It's a good site, a hidden gem if you will.) But I can't imagine people who aren't already Fighting Fantasy fans visiting this website. I'd imagine most of said fans would have been kids during Fighting Fantasy's genesis back in the 80's. I think Steve Jackson (or was it Ian Livingstone, I Can't quite remember) put it really good himself when talking about the Blood of The Zombies launch. I don't have the exact quote, but he said he was expecting it to be full of 34 year olds saying it's for their kids. Most of the old fans of my generation grew out of it and replaced chasing warlocks and fighting demons with chasing girls and fighting away other lads! Me... well lets just say I failed *a lot* of LUCK rolls...

And btw, I'm not too offended by the words nerd or egghead etc.. I know I probably should be, but there's a lot worse names to be called.

bcyy
Wed Sep 12 02:38:14 2012
General Chat

@Robert Douglas:

I'm afraid I don't know. I've never been called an 'egghead' before, and am consequently unfamiliar with this urban jargon, especially any subtle differences it may have in comparison to other similar expressions.

@C-star:

Sorry, didn't see your post earlier.

I agree that this website is a bit quiet. Perhaps this is partly because any search for "FF" is usually drowned out by Final Fantasy.

Robert Douglas
Tue Sep 11 23:09:21 2012
Windhammer Competition

I can't believe there's TWENTY TWO entries for this year's Windhammer - BHFIRE! I thought it would only be about ten... But I'm not complaining, more the merrier as the say. It's going to take a lot of time reading through all of them.

Robert Douglas
Tue Sep 11 22:59:17 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

@ bcyy,

Glad you enjoyed TCOD (that abbreviation sounds a bit weird!) and I hope you find the second weapon (refer to the spoiler note I left for Haoie if you're still getting stuck). BTW, what do you think to the term 'egghead'?

@ C-Star,

Yes, as I said,

SPOILER

END SPOILER

C-Star
Tue Sep 11 16:35:11 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

I'm assuming that you found Hreinleika. If you need a hint... (ah the beauty of the spoiler tag)

SPOILER

END SPOILER

Be aware that this is purely from memory. I did this a while ago so I might have gotten details hazy.

bcyy
Tue Sep 11 03:45:22 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

@Robert Douglas:

PS I really enjoyed TCOD.

Don't worry about the difficulty - I completed it two times out of three so far, taking a slightly different path each time. Perhaps it was due to my cheating (I always refresh until I get a character with a perfect SKILL and LUCK), but IMHO you had to have really unlucky dice rolls to die 6 times out of 8. Still didn't find the second weapon, though - maybe I'll give it a try after I get over my current wave of work deadlines.

bcyy
Tue Sep 11 03:36:24 2012
General Chat

@Robert Douglas:

Thanks for the insightful background on BotZ.

Sorry if you don't like the term "nerd". I am one, and am most definitely proud to be one. :-)

Since you were so nice as to tell everybody your age, I feel obliged to do the same. I'm in my twenties.

Sorry I couldn't tell you more about myself. If I did, I would be compromising my true identity.

C-Star
Mon Sep 10 20:41:39 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

Yeah the final boss against the fire demons in particular was absolute hell (pardon the pun) :-D

Robert Douglas
Mon Sep 10 19:32:40 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

Out of interest, I had a go at doing TCOD myself, just to see how difficult it might be. After about four attempts I managed to complete it - and only then with a few Stamina points remaining! I'd since been killed three more times before completing it a second time.

C-Star
Sun Sep 9 17:02:44 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

Yeah the story behind the weapon was more interesting imo. I also liked the scenario with the werewolves, even if i did die a ridiculous amount of times for a skill 12 character.

Robert Douglas
Sun Sep 9 15:45:21 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

I thought it quite amusing to have two magic weapons in TCOD: one of Christian roots, another that is wholly pagan - but both get the job done. Bit like angels in the window and a decorated tree at xmas time!

Robert Douglas
Sun Sep 9 15:42:10 2012
The Curse Of Drumer

@ C-Star,

Glad that you found the second weapon. What did you think to the idea behind it? Sorry you got caught out by the spiked pit but

SPOILER

END SPOILER

@ Haoie,

No, the silver dagger wasn't the second weapon - although it may come in useful if you fail a test roll later on against a particular enemy.

SPOILER

END SPOILER

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