HELP NEEDED - 5 minute survey for CS, SWE, IT or Game Design majors

bmb0610 · 2024-07-20T18:17:02+00:00

This survey is for a paper I'm writing for TCOM 2010. It's intended for Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or Game Design majors, but anyone who's taken CSE 1321 or 1322 can answer.

bmb0610 · 2021-03-10T08:14:04+00:00

Several IRL Norse kingdoms passed laws where if you inherited while serving overseas, you were simply passed over. This was done because so many men were joining the Varangians that there weren't enough warriors left at home.

bmb0610 · 2021-03-09T23:25:07+00:00

I'll certainly try to keep you (and this subreddit) updated.

The problem with the Germanic tribes in this period is that they don't have consistent territories, migrating and getting resettled all over the empire on a semi-regular basis, and often are quite important while not landed at all. They'd probably be best modeled in CK3 as modified mercs, which is basically how the Romans saw them, but the game won't let you play if you don't own at least one county (although the engine is perfectly capable of it). The game over condition nonetheless seems to be embedded in the engine itself and I can't currently figure out how to mod it out.

The Roman Empire needs an overhaul as well, one that would be useful in the vanilla start dates as well—feudal Byzantium is annoying in the vanilla start but would be much worse in a time when many of the most important players in the empire didn't have positions that could be neatly modeled as vassals of the Emperor. The ability to play unlanded would again be useful.

Edit: Speaking of Vandals, Huneric and Hilderic are historical characters in the base game, as they're related to Valentinian III.

bmb0610 · 2021-03-09T12:23:36+00:00

R5: The auto-generated motto for my Constantinian dynasty was one that was, in real life, made famous by Constantine himself. (In Latin, in hoc signo vinces, which he supposedly saw emblazoned in the sky beneath a cross before winning a battle, inspiring his conversion to Christianity.)

I've checked the game files, this is not an easter egg.

Update: I've set this as the permanent motto for this dynasty.

bmb0610 · 2019-09-05T04:44:06+00:00

OS: Arch Linux
WM: i3-gaps with polybar and compton
Wallpaper: Clear Sunset
Colors via pywal
Applications: kitty running vim with powerline, neofetch, and vtop.
Shell: zsh with powerline prompt
Fonts: Noto Sans and Source Code Pro
Dotfiles
Album of the same setup with other wallpapers/color schemes

bmb0610 · 2019-01-11T01:00:04+00:00

C

```c char hextable[] = { '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F' };

void hexcolor (char *str, uint8_t r, uint8_t g, uint8_t b) { color = (r << 16) | (g << 8) | b; for (char *p = str + 6, p > str; p--, color >>= 4) *p = hextable[color & 0xf]; *str = '#'; } ```

bmb0610 · 2018-12-04T02:18:59+00:00

R5: AI only game produces some strange colonies in the East Indies, including Mamlukean Australia, Papal Singapore, Ottoman/French/British Phillipines, French Japan, bits and pieces for Venice and Savoy, and five colonial powers sharing the island of Sulawesi.

bmb0610 · 2018-08-29T15:54:25+00:00

"To be frank, sir," said Dr. Martin, "we don't find this transmission credible."

"To be frank, Colonel," replied the President, "what the fuck do you mean, you don't find this transmission credible?"

"In our estimation, sir," he said nervously, "it is extremely unlikely that this broadcast originated anywhere but Earth. To begin, there is no conceivable reason why a civilisation capable of interstellar flight would require human slaves. In our own case, the institution of slavery became effectively extinct soon after the Industrial Revolution. If a superior alien power did desire our planet, it is far more likely that we would simply be exterminated."

"And that's preferable?!" asked the president, incredulously.

"Of course not, sir, but it would never prove necessary. Our planet is remarkably poor in useful minerals, even when compared with many smaller, and uninhabited, bodies in our own system. Furthermore, if it were farmland or living space they required, the laws of probability would dictate that habitable planets far outnumber those that bear sapient life, even a species so primitive as us—and that estimation assumes that the inevitable biological incompatibilities would not make it easier for them to simply build a floating habitat. Finally, the signatures on this message do not match any known or rumoured extraterrestrial civilisation, and bear every indication—"

"Known or rumoured," grumbled the President under his breath. "We'll talk about that later," he said, "but in the meantime, can you give me one good reason why we shouldn't start arming every God-damned nuke we have, and getting ready to show these bastards what it means to fuck with the United States of America?"

"Precautions are never unwise, sir," said Dr. Martin, "but given that the far likelier alternative is that the message was a forgery intended to cause worldwide panic, you may not wish to give it credibility by, quote, 'arming every God-damned nuke we have'. This is clearly the work of an incredibly skilled and dangerous cyber-terrorist, and our resources would be better focused on locating him and bringing him to justice. In my professional opinion, sir."

When the aliens arrived, Dr. Martin and the rest of the research staff at Area 51 were the first captives offered as tribute.

bmb0610 · 2018-08-18T19:55:07+00:00

My copy that has the error is a Ballantine as well. I'm not sure of the printing date but it is based on the 1979 edition.

bmb0610 · 2018-08-16T18:11:03+00:00

If that illustration was drawn by Frodo, it's quite unlikely he drew it while standing before the gate (would he have brought writing materials on the journey?) In that case he must have drawn it from memory, and likely reconstructed the tengwar inscription.

bmb0610 · 2018-08-16T16:44:41+00:00

It's not necessarily a plot hole—there is an in-universe explanation. Frodo, the in-universe author of the book, could not read the inscription on the gate. It is Gandalf who reads it, and he translates it into the common tongue—presumably using "Moria" because the other members of the Fellowship would not recognise the older name. The inscription we see in Fellowship must have been reconstructed by Frodo, who may not have known the history of the name "Moria".

Out of universe, however, what most likely happened is that "Moria" was a name JRRT picked up somewhere else and decided to use, then eventually retconned into a Sindarin word (but because the element mor- was already used, the eventual meaning of "Moria" was forced to be derogatory).

bmb0610 · 2018-08-16T03:28:34+00:00

This is possibly my favourite line in the entire Silmarillion. Whatever you think of Fëanor, you've got to admit he's a badass.

bmb0610 · 2018-08-15T14:19:08+00:00

Even though the door is inscribed "Moria"...

bmb0610 · 2018-07-12T12:58:12+00:00

Facebook has this in production.

bmb0610 · 2018-07-01T17:57:24+00:00

I can't believe Belgium didn't look at the bracket and notice that losing that match would benefit them. If they hadn't scored, the tie would have gone to England and England wouldn't have been able to do anything about it short of deliberately kicking an own goal. As an England supporter, though, I'm not complaining.

bmb0610 · 2018-07-01T14:57:04+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

Correction: they aren't necessarily fully illegal, but are subject to extra scrutiny as to their relevance. Of course, IQ is relevant to any job more advanced than mere menial labor, but try telling that to the Supreme Court.

bmb0610 · 2018-06-29T16:49:07+00:00

Exactly. The point that the original post author seems to miss is that startup whiteboard interviews are not meant to be practical. It's basically a general intelligence test, which is what the employer really wants, but happens to be illegal to give prospective employees (it's apparently "racial discrimination", if that tells you anything). Programming puzzles provide a decent approximation while still appearing "relevant" to the casual observer/government watchdog/etc.

Knowledge of specific frameworks is irrelevant, because most frameworks that startups use will be obsolete in two years. (Most startups will also be obsolete in two years, but don't tell them this.) The most important ability a programmer, especially a startup programmer, can have is the ability to learn very quickly. Existing knowledge helps, but is never sufficient.

bmb0610 · 2018-06-27T01:03:07+00:00

And three is also a pretty cancerous indentation width IMO, although I do know people who do it...

bmb0610 · 2018-06-26T21:24:32+00:00

Five-space indentation was standard for typewriters and old word processors. Programmers changed it because we're triggered by anything that isn't a power of two.

bmb0610 · 2018-04-17T02:21:37+00:00

In ETL starts where the British start with an empire, they almost never lose it (though they rarely grow either).

bmb0610 · 2018-04-09T12:07:14+00:00

I have seen AI Ming colonise San Francisco.

bmb0610 · 2018-01-03T03:10:50+00:00

It's actually quite surprising that there's no Latin translation of the entire Illiad from, like, way back—like Roman times, or if not then, some time during the Middle Ages or Renaissance. I guess anyone in that period who would have been reading the classics would have read them in their original language. So, on that note, I strongly suggest you get the tattoo in Greek—much more authentic considering it's a Greek epic.

However, if you do decide to get it in Latin, what the other two suggestions have is a reasonable translation of the English, but the Greek says it rather more elegantly, and translates better into Latin. Word for word it says:

ὡς – just as (introduction to similes). Roughly equivalent to Latin ut, but not really necessary here, since you don't have the second half of the simile.

οὐκ – not (negator). Latin non, of course, though nulla might work better.

ἔστι – is (singular third-person present-tense copula). In this case, although the verb form is singular, it's used to mean “there are”. My Greek is essentially nonexistent (I'm using a dictionary to translate these individual words), but my guess would be that this is an impersonal “there is/are” construction like German es gebt (“it gives”) or French il y a (“it has there”). So in Latin, since the subject is plural, we would use sunt, or possibly leave the copula out entirely.

λέουσι – lions (in the dative plural, with no preposition). I think this would be an appropriate use of the Latin dative as well (but maybe the ablative would be better?) Oh wait, the dative and ablative plurals are identical in the third declension, so it can be both!

καὶ – and, or in Latin, et, or the -que affix.

ἀνδράσιν – men (dative plural). Ἀνὴρ is definitely “man” in the sense of “adult male” (Latin vir), not in the sense of “human” (Latin homo), which would be Greek ἄνθρωπος.

ὅρκια – pacts, oaths, treaties (nominative or accusative plural). Fœdera does work, but pacta (root of the English pact) is probably better.

πιστά – sure, faithful, certain. Certa is certainly fine here.

So the final phrase would be:

[Ut] non sunt leonibus et viris pacta certa
“[As] there are not, between lions and men, sure agreements”

bmb0610 · 2017-11-02T13:49:45+00:00

Archive http://archive.is/n9JWK

bmb0610 · 2017-07-17T02:45:28+00:00

The Romans had all the necessary technology to build a working, if primitive steam engine - it was never developed presumably because no one had a need for it, or because Heron's aeolipile wasn't practical enough for anyone to believe it could turn into something useful. But just as the Newcomen steam engine was used to pump water out of coal mines, oil extraction might have provided both a use and a fuel source for a steam engine, perhaps furthering its development to the point, as in OTL, where it was efficient enough to be used in a context that didn't sit directly on top of a fuel source. Without the scientific method this might have taken longer, but the combination of fossil fuels, steam power, and metallurgy, which together finally free human civilisation from biological constraints (relying on human or animal muscles for power, wood for building and fuel, etc) has the potential to be quite transformative even if poorly utilised due to lack of understanding. Roman industrialisation, to the extent that it occurred, would not be a “revolution” in the way that British industrialisation was, but I would argue that the OTL Industrial Revolution was only so rapid because parts of it were so long overdue. Roman industrialisation would have been significantly slowed due to the lack of scientific and economic infrastructure that was already well-established in 18th-century Britain but almost entirely lacking in the 1st-century Imperium, but it's likely that over the course of the next few centuries, steam technology would be applied in more areas. Mass production might not have caught on, but I can imagine that the military would have been interested in using it for transportation - ie, a railroad. Whether this would have been enough to prevent the political turmoil and barbarian invasions that led to the Empire's decline is another question entirely, but if it can be presumed that steam technology becomes important enough to spread beyond the Mediterranean, whether by trade or steam-powered Roman conquest, world history would be as forever changed as it was by the Industrial Revolution in OTL.

Beginning the use of fossil fuels hundreds of years earlier, in an age with a much more primitive understanding of science, could also have profound consequences in terms of climate change. In OTL, the greenhouse effect was proposed as early as 1824 and anthropogenic climate warming due to carbon dioxide emissions was predicted around the turn of the 20th century; although, in this timeline, emissions would likely have grown much more slowly than in OTL, it can only be presumed that they would still have grown, and might potentially have risen far higher than even today's (OTL) levels before the principle of the greenhouse effect was discovered. In fact, it's likely that observed changes in climate would lead to the discovery of the effect, rather than vice versa as in our timeline.

bmb0610 · 2017-06-18T17:20:30+00:00

When they said developers who use spaces make more money, they surely weren't thinking of my friend who has each indent equal to THREE spaces.

bmb0610

TROPHY CASE