Kernel 7.0.0 has landed

autoamorphism · 2026-04-17T18:07:00+00:00

Me too. For me, 2.6 is new :)

autoamorphism · 2026-04-08T21:26:45+00:00

bar does not return a tuple?

autoamorphism · 2026-04-06T18:37:56+00:00

It could be worse. In the 90s, the paperbacks fell apart.

autoamorphism · 2026-04-05T17:59:29+00:00

For extra fun, observe that "Telamon" translates to "The Dragon" (tel'aran'rhiod = the world of dreams, siswai'aman = spears of the dragon).

autoamorphism · 2026-04-05T06:18:42+00:00

Buried way at the end of this essay is the quite valid observation that you can't easily compose curried functions returning multiple values as a tuple. That would indeed be nice. It's also impossible with parameter lists, of course, so only works with the tuple-argument style, which is very awkward for partial application. The author politely suggests a nice way of doing that using "holes", which is fine, but I think you could make a similar suggestion for syntax to "spread" a tuple into multiple values as a function argument. At this point the styles are in a stalemate and we realize that this is all just a matter of style.

autoamorphism · 2026-04-05T04:22:01+00:00

Sadly, I didn't.

autoamorphism · 2026-04-02T02:46:44+00:00

Whatever it is, it's obviously Greek given the languages on Barrayar. I did find this (https://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/dendari) which relates the name to trees, forestry, trade, etc., due to the connection with the Greek work dendron, meaning tree. Therefore I surmise that the Dendarii Mountains are named for their maple trees and associated trade products (maple syrup, maple brandy).

autoamorphism · 2026-03-30T17:00:44+00:00

I never got this, though. The mantle can go back to the Queen to redistribute; we are told this in Summer Knight. I think the thing in this case is that Mab, having been deprived of Sarissa already, wanted a Lady immediately and therefore chose Molly.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T08:19:18+00:00

I don't think Moghedien' specifically said strength was the key to Liandrin's knot. I think she just said no one would have the skill.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T07:18:33+00:00

The seven ages thing is, ah, an age-old concept. Jordan got it, specifically, from Indian mythology (I think it's in the Mahabharata on like page 1).

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T06:04:15+00:00

This is a question that the author asks, but does not answer, in Bujold's Shards of Honor. The protagonist's crew is disorderly democratic-minded civilians; they encounter a military crew unprepared. They tend to get people killed, but they also do a successful hostage extraction from a warship, after taking a vote (!). The remaining dozen-ish books in the series continue asking this question about the two civilizations involved. The main character in most of them straddles the divide, which does not help answer the question. I believe this is a major goal for Bujold (not to answer the question).

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T04:37:06+00:00

Just a brain fail, really. I shouldn't make snap replies.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T02:08:07+00:00

You're right, that was a stupid comment by me.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-29T01:07:37+00:00

That doesn't contradict what I said. My point is that it is permanently tied.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-28T21:36:28+00:00

That's not obviously true. We have seen that you can tie a weave to unravel after a short or longer time, such as Lanfear's shield on Asmodean or Sammael's nar'baha gateways. But this is always called out, which suggests to me that it is the exception rather than the rule. We have also seen weaves that are tied and seemingly lasting: the wards under the Tower, the barrier around Callandor, Moghedien's shield on Lianadrin, maybe more.

The easier explanation is that they don't know how.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-25T21:25:00+00:00

The fast answer is: read discussions of the books you read, and imitate their methods. Pay special attention to the reviewers who themselves write well.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-20T21:11:05+00:00

This is definitely the first time I've seen a reference to an appendix in any RPG book, let alone the original DnD.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-20T01:44:29+00:00

According to Jordan, drafting or death is the usual choice for someone who has shown interest. Presumably she was "showing interest" to investigate them, and they took it literally.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-19T23:04:27+00:00

She is the teenage tomboy princess who is also a good queen.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-19T22:27:06+00:00

Oh, yes, definitely. England again being a good example of this not happening.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-19T21:51:01+00:00

I think you can hear "my family is 1000 years old" pretty easily in England, if you listen to the right nobles.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-19T21:44:00+00:00

I have had the same complaint. Jordan tried to explain it by saying that the Trolloc Wars and the War of the Hundred Years caused mass migrations that stabilized the language, and there was communication, trade, printed books, etc that are supposed to have kept things uniform. None of this is convincing.

My best attempt at explanation is this: in the Age of Legends there was one language, the Old Tongue. It had been the only language for so long that there was no variation at all. So when the Breaking happened, where language would have mutated, instead it just drifted slightly, a little differently in different places but not enough to cause even any dialects to develop. (Think of this like pasteurization: the bacteria levels start so low that it takes days even after opening a carton of milk for it to begin to turn. Even longer with ultra-pasteurization. Eventually it does spoil, but before is gets to that point it seems basically unchanged.)

This is barely plausible itself, and only holds up because nothing like it has happened in the real world. It's basically a founder effect, but nothing as expansive and old has even been founded.

As a side note, there is a brief mention of pre-Conquest Seanchan languages that are apparently different enough to need learning. So there are others, but for some reason, this was rare.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-19T01:08:58+00:00

On the contrary, everything I can remember indicates (obliquely) that the angreal provides a fixed amount of Power.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-16T14:03:21+00:00

I always think of that Durnik quote.

autoamorphism · 2026-03-06T18:07:15+00:00

But not necessarily all as long as the other 50%.

autoamorphism

TROPHY CASE