Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

It's Probability Broken
September 15, 2005

My weekend D&D group has a different way of rolling attributes for characters, and it’s probability has been bothering me mathematically for a couple of weeks now. First, I should show how the regular rolls work for comparison.

Normally when you create a D&D character, you roll 3 six-sided dice (also known as 3d6) and add them up to get a total. You do this 6 times and apply each totaled value to one of six character attributes.

A higher character attribute is better. 10 is average, while 18 is the best you can roll. Anything below a 9 is below-average for a human, so a character with an intelligence of 6 isn’t so great.

The numbers in each attribute are used to determine attribute bonuses. Attribute bonuses are used inthe game to affect certain skills. For example, a character with an Intelligence rating of 18 receives a bonus of +4 to all skills related to intelligence. A character with a Strength of 18 receives a bonus of +4 to all melee attacks and to damage. This factors into the game significantly.

For every two points in an attribute, the bonus changes by one. A single bonus point is an effective 5% bump in chance to succeed. So a character with a Strength of 18 has a 5% better chance of hitting a creature than a character with a Strength of 16, and the stronger character also does at least one more point of damage when he hits.

Ok, so now I will describe our in-house rolling system, and you can see how horribly broken it is.

Does it still wave?
September 14, 2005

My country's national anthem was written on this day in 1812 by Francis Scott Key.  The anthem itself wasn't recognized as the US national anthem until over 100 years later, when ordered so by Congress in 1931.  The original 15-star flag that inspired Key to write the verses still exists, and is held in the Smithsonian.

Here's a fact about the Star Spangled Banner that I recently realized:  The first stanza of the song is the only part that you typically hear performed.  In the first stanza, there are more questions than real answers.  For example, the chorus:

Support in Flames
September 14, 2005

This is actually the first person I've encountered who was openly hostile about me providing help. You'll see a couple of the guys come out to defend me, but in the end, the guy ends up stewing in his own stupidity.

I probably shouldn't, but here's a link to the site of this fellow who starts name calling when he isn't bright enough to figure things out on his own. Some people should have their thought licenses revoked entirely. Or at least their license to modify the complicated source code of a popular blogging tool.  This includes Joe from Oxford.  Thanks, Joe!

Also, I thought I would mention this: "car" != "truck". Don't try hiding that you're a backwoods hick by calling your beat rusted-through truck a "car". That goes for the lot of you.

Here's the IRC chat log from earlier:

  • [09:46] mindamp: is it possible to change just the wp_users table location?
  • [09:46] mindamp: like i know i can change the prefix in wp-cofnig.php
  • [09:46] mindamp: but that does it for all tables...
  • [09:46] mindamp: can i edit just the prefix of the user table?
  • [09:48] mindamp: did anyone catch that or need i repeat myself?
  • [09:49] mindamp: argh
  • [09:49] mindamp: anyone?

The Ultimate Searchlist of Doom
September 14, 2005

In an effort to explain why I never get anything done and to eliminate that problem, here is a list of things that I'm constantly searching for on the web, and perhaps a few thoughts about each.

It's possible that this list will make no sense, and might even send certain people into seizure, but it's something that I need to nail down, and perhaps you - yes, you, dear reader - can help me figure out some of this stuff.

Then again, maybe I'm just too picky and will never be satisfied. Most people who know me would agree.

I should probably make this into a page rather than a post.  Oh well.  A list of stuff I'm constantly searching for on the internet follows: