Aran

You could email him. But it's well established, I think, that "Nephilim" was essentially cribbed from religious texts (books of Moses, specifically, according to Wikipedia). Since biblical Nephilim are generally interpreted as giants or titans and there is no mention of cats at all, the name is apparently the only thing they have in common.

Edit: Whoops, Google sent me to some aggregated copy-pasta on Yahoo Answers containing the unsourced claim that

Jeff Vogel, designer and programmer of the games, has said that he invented the name for this race independently.

If you do email him and get an answer, please do post it to settle the matter.

"Help, I'm trapped in a PDN factory!"

(but I'm fairly sure you did that one.)

Part of it is that there is only a small number of people who are aware of the issue, have the political clout to make others aware, and want to make others aware of it. Obviously, most authorities (eg. law enforcement, national intelligence) don't want encryption to become too ubiquitous lest criminals become too hard to catch. (Actual criminals, even, not just dissidents.)

Even people mindful of their own privacy might fear that ubiquitous encryption could lead to a government crack-down. But I think that's bad reasoning. Everyone who has secrets to protect would profit from ubiquitous encryption, because their use of it will stand out less. And the more people use it, the more political resistance a government would face when trying to stamp it out.

I read about it. Pretty cool!

The best "good" news I read lately are actually part of something awful, but here we go:

About seven weeks ago, this girl in Pakistan got shot in the head for her political activism promoting education for girls. The good news is that she survived and is making a full recovery.

the first thing i thought of was a weird pony-liking 20yo spider filling out his online dating profile.

"Turn-ons: Ponies, webs, pedipalps.

Turn-offs: Getting head bitten off.

No arachnophobes."

 

The rpwiki could help, maybe.

I agree, but I have a theory that separating the OOC archival of roleplays from an IC perspective on the world (ie, traveler's reports, historical accounts, etc.) might avoid some of the pitfalls I've noticed on the EE.

Mmmh, those spreadsheets and bank statements are baring it all.

I can't help but feel nervous at some of these questions. I understand the intent, but it's the tech equivalent of: "Do you lock your doors at night?" "Where do you sleep?" "Do you keep a weapon by your bedside?"

So... Yes, No and No.

you guys all use computers of one sort or another

I don't, actually. I project my posts onto this forum by sheer force of will. But no worries; it's a common misconception.

I use passwords on all devices, of course, and I make an effort to use secure ones too. But I have no illusions that my data would be protected against someone who had physical access to my devices for more than ten minutes (two minutes if they're one of my CS classmates). I'm not even particularly good at this, and just yesterday I taught my dad how to reset his root password using an unprotected bootloader in under a minute.

You can't plan for security until you know what kind of attacks you expect and want to prevent. Physical access is just about the hardest to protect from, and the only thing that can protect against that is drive encryption. A far more likely threat is malware or a remote attack (particularly of your accounts on web services). Those are the passwords that matter.

I use this method for my passwords.

Plus one on collaborative world-building.

A framework and style should be agreed on before-hand, of course, because otherwise you might end up with snarls.

One popular choice for a framework is an in-universe compendium or encyclopedia. (See Santharia or, for that matter, EE - though it later became repurposed as a collection of mostly canon information rather than a creative effort).

As the local get-offa-my-lawn roleplayer, I need to point out we didn't put our settings up to vote back in my day, no sir. We wrote up the lead-in and posted it, and by goldang people played in the setting that they got and they ruddy well liked it! *shakes stick*

Of course, people do have some preferences. But my participation in the next RP won't be influenced by how magical the setting is or what the genre is. Original setting, Spiderweb game setting, hell, Myst/Doctor Who/Ermarian crossover setting (add dinosaurs and ponies to taste)*. If I have time, I'm in.

The mechanics question makes much more sense. I adore faction RPs. But the synchronization can become ridiculously complicated. At least individual characters act in real time. On the other hand, one of the best RPs we ever completed - and there was only a handful - was a faction/character mixed RP.

Arancaytar is putting the final touches on his bloody thesis which is due on Monday.

After that, he may resurface in the RP, and is interested in joining the plot-planning.

(RP CONSPIRACEY! It'll be just like old times.)

"Mon français est très mauvais" is correct, I think.

My French is very purple?

... oh!

Google Translate is your less-than-cherished and only marginally trustworthy acquaintance, but it beats a Hungarian phrasebook.

我的气垫船的鳗鱼。我是不会买这个纪录被划伤。

Related news: The European Union's resolution regarding the International Telecommunications Union, and also EU MP Amelia Andersdotter's

Also, regarding matters of good and evil:

Keep in mind that the UN is a vast and chaotic collection of bureaucracies, and this issue concerns particular ones like the ITU and the WIPO. To have an evil world government agenda (or a good agenda for world peace and sunshine and rainbows), the UN would first need to have an agenda at all.

Something similar goes for Google. Google is interested in making a profit. If this goal is served by defending the internet against regulations that would harm both Google and us, all the better. If it is served by fighting regulations that would protect our privacy from companies like Google, less so. That's neither good nor evil. We just have some enemies in common. Oppressive network regulation is one of them.

Lots of arguments for all trilogies, but castable Quickfire is what makes the Exile series the unsurpassed champion.

Seriously, who cares about a battle for second? We all know exile is best party.

 

Avatar, then divine thud and firestorm. Plus 6 > 4

Avatar x6, Divine Thud x6. End combat.

Nobody expects the Anama Inquisition.

אראנכאיתאר hops on the right-to-left bandwagon.

(But I cobbled the transliteration together with Wikipedia and Google, so I'm not sure if that makes any sense.)

All assembled are reminded to keep it family-friendly in every language.

argh

too many tyrans

RUN

 

Arizona didn't finish the congressional races for days due to provisional ballots that require verification that the voter is properly registered and early ballots that weren't counted. I think they are still counting, but have called the results pending a final tally.

... it's been two weeks. ;_;

How does the provisional thing work, anyway? Do the provisional ballots remain sealed until verification?

One thing that amazes me is how much noise is involved in the campaigns and the election. It's practically a four-year cycle of "OMG the world will end if our guy loses", "OMG WE WON!!!"/"OMG AMERICA IS DOOMED" and "OMG VOTER FRAUD".

Stereotypes and all, but election days here are so quiet and orderly you can barely tell. The polls open Sunday morning at 8:00; the wait is negligible. Our last federal election had a record-low turnout of 70%, among 62 million eligible voters. The only technology the polling places use is a telephone. The polls close at 18:00; a preliminary result is usually in within an hour, the final one before midnight.

Obviously this stuff is more complicated when you have individual states organizing their own elections, across four timezones. But seriously, how is what happened in Florida even possible in a developed country?

everytime someone mentions that we are all imban i think of this episode:

Funnily enough, the meme started August 2004, before the new series even started - let alone End of Time (2009).

RTD obviously ripped off that idea from Spiderweb.

Come now, Aran. If Alorael is a member of a class of things which are all Imban, it does not necessarily follow that all things that are Imban are also Alorael. Your fancy notation does not change the transitive property of equality's applicability, or lack thereof.

So you're considering Imban a monadic property rather than a member. Imbanity?

In that case, rather than all of us being Imban, we are all Imbane.

'Lenny, Imban and Tyran used to swap accounts

Imban was only spiritually involved in that transaction by virtue of both being him.

This is my only account as far as you need to know.

 

—Alorael, who is simultaneously a sock puppet account of Imban and Arancaytar. No man can serve two masters but a construct of code and lies can.

Since Alorael is Imban, and we are all Imban, by ∀x∀y∀z((x=y∧y=z)→x=z), we are all Alorael.

I think I have at least three. Some of them may have been purged for inactivity. This one is the oldest account, though.