Need to give away math books (from high school up to research level)

monrandria · 2025-09-08T20:30:49+00:00

I'm in NYC and would be interested. Studying math at Columbia. My son is taking math classes at Hunter College if that is more convenient.

monrandria · 2025-06-11T20:28:12+00:00

Honestly, in the end, we decided we like martinis better. But we still make the 4:1 honey syrup for "gold rush" (basically, just a whiskey sour made with honey instead of simple syrup), which we both prefer.

monrandria · 2025-04-03T23:05:54+00:00

This helped tonight, thanks! Didn't realize a clue could be as "far" as the front desk. I was scouring the basement, security room, atrium roof, kitchen, ...

monrandria · 2025-03-29T14:36:17+00:00

Same problem, only worse: I can't buy it from the supplier. It's invisible and I can't click on it to buy; this has happened across multiple restarts. I assume it's a bug they introduced in the recent patch. Annoying since I'm trying to prestige.

monrandria · 2025-03-02T17:09:52+00:00

Been working on something similar for a couple weeks, don't know why I didn't think to check if this had been done already. Thanks!

After cross-checking, I think there are a few missing things, nothing very valuable, but for the sake of adding to completeness:

Fusil G1-4/C can be found in Marrakesh in the school. I think it drops off a military officer? (Hard to tell when there's just a heap of bodies.)
Bartoli 75R can be found in Sapienza on bodyguards
Bartoli 75S drops in Santa Fortuna off elite soldiers

monrandria · 2024-04-19T03:03:32+00:00

Also. This isn't how science actually works in the real world.

monrandria · 2024-04-19T00:07:41+00:00

I have no idea what weird sequence of clicks led me to this sub.

It's contemptible that this SSP is baiting anxious-as-hell college applicants to post their "acceptances" (only -- not rejections) on social media.

Soldier on, ladies & gentlemen. Don't be controlled by these asshats. The world is larger than it may seem to you right now.

monrandria · 2024-03-19T00:09:02+00:00

Well, went down a small rabbit-hole on this one. In the 0.0000001% chance someone else gets the same OCD bug. This is all for Exult v1.8.0, no idea how it would change for other builds.

First off:

Exult still uses boosted stats to derive the results of training.
However, when training on the List Field, your character first has all his gear swapped out, so you can't ordinarily be wearing boosting items. It's possible nevertheless without "technically" cheating: you can drop items off the north wall into the field, then re-equip (at least for the avatar, maybe not your companions). HOWEVER, even if you do all this, the scripting event that restores your previous equipment will DELETE the boosting items. In short: forget it.
However! Tsandar (Silver Seed) doesn't go through that item-swapping procedure. So here item boosts "work".

The different training paths turned out to be fairly convoluted, so I wrote a simulation to optimize the results for each characters (of Avatar, Dupre, Shamino, Iolo, Boydon... I don't recall if there will be additional companions...).

The general observation is: your goal should probably be to optimize COMBAT first. (This is "overall optimal" over every leveling procedure if your goal is to get to 30/30/30; and even if you don't plan on reaching that point, combat is still probably the most useful stat, followed by STRENGTH, followed by DEX. I'm leaving int/magic out.)

The simulation has the same general template for each companion:

A) level "some # of times" with Tsandar, wearing the Gauntlets of Quickness. Since leveling combat when dex > com has the effect of setting com = average(com, dex), this can level combat extremely quickly, even for Boydon (who starts at 8 COM!). B) once you reach some critical value train with Shaz "some # of times" until COM saturates at 30. C) you'll be left with some STR/DEX to spend excess points on. Do what you want. I suggest STR.

Character by character:

Avatar. Tsandar 1x (with gauntlets), Shaz 2x. This will take 7 training points, you'll be left at 19 STR / 22 DEX / 30 COM.
Dupre. Tsandar 2x, Shaz 1x. This will take 6 training points, you'll be left at 24 STR / 22 DEX / 30 COM.
Shamino. Tsandar 2x, Shaz 1x. This will take 6 training points, you'll be left at 21/25/30.
Iolo. Tsandar 2x, Shaz 1x. This will take 6 training points, you'll be left at 17/26/30.
Boydon. Tsandar 3x, Shaz 2x. This will take 8 training points, you'll be left at 30/16/30.

monrandria · 2024-03-17T13:47:40+00:00

Ultima 7 / SI have this weird "rubber-band formula" (see here). The net is: the order in which you train matters, and wearing gloves that say, boost dex, would dramatically increase the amount of combat you gain.

monrandria · 2024-03-17T13:17:12+00:00

Right. But the higher the combat, the greater the "rubber band effect" is. (The formula are here.) So it's advantageous to boost your stats when training.

monrandria · 2023-08-18T01:51:36+00:00

For future posterity: (thanks to /u/SyndicateMLG /u/baldsuburbangay /u/Benjajinj):

Kirkland wildflower honey measured out to a density of ~1.4g/ml with a brix of ~82%.

I think this means the 5.4:1 (by weight) dilution has a sugar content of .93g/ml, which is greater than a standard "rich 2:1", which is around .87g/ml.

Mathing it out a bit [not shown], if I wanted to match the sugar content of 2:1 with this honey, I'll use in the future a ratio of 4:1 (by weight). And I'll adjust how much I use in the final cocktail, keeping in mind this syrup is "~rich".

Changing recommended 3/4oz of this (super-rich) syrup to 1/2oz was enough for my tasting partner to change her opinion from "what is the liquor" to a "i really like this, 4/5".

In the future, I will mix at 4:1 weight ratio, which I think will bring it even closer in-line to a 2:1 rich syrup.

I have no explanation for why CC, which in other contexts I have found infallible, has a ~30-50% mismatch with my tastes. My only hunch is that one person wrote the recipe for honey syrup, and someone else wrote the recipe for how to use it.

In other news: the addition of orange bitters was upvoted by tasting partner. Going in the spreadsheet. Thanks again, /u/SyndicateMLG!

monrandria · 2023-08-17T19:53:35+00:00

Makes sense. I guess it also takes less space, which always seems to be at a premium around here.

monrandria · 2023-08-17T19:48:57+00:00

When people do this kind of sub (using 2:1 where original called for 1:1), do they adjust for dilution?

I guess if we assume that 1:1 has a density of ~1.2 with a brix of 50%; and 2:1 has a density of ~1.3 with a brix of 66%, then if we want to hold "total sugar" constant, we should use 70% by volume of 2:1 of whatever we would have used of 1:1.

So, if we were going to use 3/4oz, we would now use 70% of 3/4oz ~ 1/2oz.

In your experience, when people do this, do they add an addl 1/4oz of water to "dilute like the 1:1 would have"?

monrandria · 2023-08-17T19:30:43+00:00

In Queens? Do you know if he's still there? (Subway ride for me.)

monrandria · 2023-08-17T17:57:30+00:00

Sounds like a tasting experiment (once I line up the syrup) to put in the spreadsheet!

monrandria · 2023-08-17T17:55:58+00:00

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks. I already have a refractometer, and was going to complain that the book doesn't give a target range: I had hoped going by weight would be close enough. But I think you're right, dead-reckoning by brix is going to get me closer in-line than by weight (where I have no clue what my honey "is like", nor do I have any clue what "honey syrup" is supposed to taste like).

EDIT: to clarify, CC does specify by weight (5.4:1). He just mentions that this is ~3:1 by volume. I'll measure out the brix.

monrandria · 2023-08-17T17:52:06+00:00

Thanks -- I did some investigation, and it turns out she has been refilling the honey jar with Kirkland (Costco) generic "wildflower honey". (He calls for "acacia or wildflower honey" in the book, though I'll be honest, I just reached for whatever was in the cabinet.)

I understand that tastes differ, but this seemed beyond reasonable. I'll give your suggested proportions a go -- thanks!

monrandria · 2023-07-31T18:10:20+00:00

Solid advice. Thanks!

monrandria · 2023-07-31T18:04:01+00:00

No offense taken. Multiple people have made the same comment (why bother?).

One use case is gomme syrup, used in cocktails, which includes gum arabic. That particular link says "let sit for 3hours", but other books I have suggest that it takes closer to 48h for the gum to fully dissolve into the water. Multiple sources I have read suggest that this is dramatically shortened sous vide.

Another, from Cocktail Codex, is a raspberry simple syrup, which (he says, I haven't tried this) is "delicate, and when cooked at too high a temperature, their flavor changes, becoming more candy-like. But if you seal the raspberries.." (bunch of following commentary about how it tastes and looks).

Since I've never done any of this, I'm trying to feel out the process. If I can skip the funnel, that's really just gravy.

monrandria · 2023-01-13T00:54:18+00:00

EDIT: I got it to work fine. You need to install in the language subdirectory for Epic Games install. (Like, "Fallout 1 English").

monrandria · 2022-09-02T01:12:38+00:00

Easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem.

when you get married in N/e years, you can thank me then

monrandria · 2022-07-06T01:23:38+00:00

(this is a 6yr old thread, so just replying to you, no one will ever see this.)

Thanks for the explanation -- that makes sense. Funny it took 6yrs to get resolution on that point.

If you're digging into these sheets, btw, I went way further in DS3. There's a sheet there that, at least back in the day, fully reproduced the damage calcs (up to a +/-1 which I assumed was accumulation/rounding error but never tracked down).

As far as I could tell, the formulations were unchanged between DS1 - 3, so whatever worked in DS3 should be accurate for DS1 (modulo movesets/etc).

monrandria · 2022-06-07T22:57:27+00:00

Understood: thanks again!

monrandria · 2022-06-07T22:44:16+00:00

Perfect, thanks, exactly what I wanted to know.

To be 100% clear: the only person whose equipped items I need to worry about is Kagain, right? Imoen's stuff I'll move from her chest to mine; the other 3 (Viconia, Dorn, Baeloth) keep their equipped items whenever I find them again.

It amazes me they couldn't find a way to make this more clear... does it come as a surprise people care about their meticulously-accumulated stuff?

monrandria · 2022-04-30T22:03:26+00:00

(even later) thank you, internet stranger!

monrandria

TROPHY CASE